"My friend, you suffer from the misplaced optimism of the doomed."
My dad just left after visiting us for the weekend. Mostly his visit was an excuse to go for walks, eat Cherry Hill ice cream, and watch movies.
The first of the new-to-me movies we watched was Snowpiercer (2013), which is available to rent on Amazon Prime for $6.99. It's just your usual post-apocalyptic train story about class struggles, you know? ;) It has a Korean director (Joon-ho Bong), some Korean actors (Kang-ho Song, Ah-sung Ko), and lots of English-speaking actors (Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, etc). Evans plays Curtis, a grimy dude from the tail end of the train, who leads a revolution to get to the front of the train/the engine and then... well, he'll figure that out when he gets there.
I seem to be the only one in my house who enjoyed this one, unfortunately. Matt found it heavy-handed, and my dad found it just weird (which is not surprising to me; he tends not to like anything but very standard story structures). I agree with the heavy-handedness, especially regarding Curtis' background. It's also a wildly implausible story, even for SFF, which deals in the implausible. Where the hell does this train get fuel? How does it manage to keep running for eighteen years straight without a single stop?
I guess... I didn't care about those facets? I thought it was visually stunning, for one, even when it's making frankly odd decisions (partiers in mink coats! random egg deliveries!) I loved the quest elements of the story, the wondrous things that were revealed as the revolution makes its way, car by car, to the front of the train. I loved the world-building--how, for example, everyone stops to yell "Happy New Year!" as the train goes over Yekaterina Bridge. (Though maybe we can thank the author of the original French graphic novel for that).
In short, it's weird and uncanny and beautiful, and that's just the sort of thing I like.
We also watched Layer Cake (2004), free on Prime, which I managed to follow despite my lack of West London gangster cred. I think what I found most amusing about this was the James Bond meta jokes about Daniel Craig as the main character--although I'm not sure he was Bond yet when this was made?
The first of the new-to-me movies we watched was Snowpiercer (2013), which is available to rent on Amazon Prime for $6.99. It's just your usual post-apocalyptic train story about class struggles, you know? ;) It has a Korean director (Joon-ho Bong), some Korean actors (Kang-ho Song, Ah-sung Ko), and lots of English-speaking actors (Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, etc). Evans plays Curtis, a grimy dude from the tail end of the train, who leads a revolution to get to the front of the train/the engine and then... well, he'll figure that out when he gets there.
I seem to be the only one in my house who enjoyed this one, unfortunately. Matt found it heavy-handed, and my dad found it just weird (which is not surprising to me; he tends not to like anything but very standard story structures). I agree with the heavy-handedness, especially regarding Curtis' background. It's also a wildly implausible story, even for SFF, which deals in the implausible. Where the hell does this train get fuel? How does it manage to keep running for eighteen years straight without a single stop?
I guess... I didn't care about those facets? I thought it was visually stunning, for one, even when it's making frankly odd decisions (partiers in mink coats! random egg deliveries!) I loved the quest elements of the story, the wondrous things that were revealed as the revolution makes its way, car by car, to the front of the train. I loved the world-building--how, for example, everyone stops to yell "Happy New Year!" as the train goes over Yekaterina Bridge. (Though maybe we can thank the author of the original French graphic novel for that).
In short, it's weird and uncanny and beautiful, and that's just the sort of thing I like.
We also watched Layer Cake (2004), free on Prime, which I managed to follow despite my lack of West London gangster cred. I think what I found most amusing about this was the James Bond meta jokes about Daniel Craig as the main character--although I'm not sure he was Bond yet when this was made?