(no subject)
I never use this journal for anything much so I will use it now to recommend a movie that hasn't gotten much mainstream press. It's called Straight-Jacket, it's about a 50's-era movie star who is forced by his agent to marry to camouflage his not-too-secretr homosexuality, and while it's definitely aimed at a gay audience there's enough cheekiness for everyone to enjoy. Contains the line "I had no idea that was marijuana, or I never would have sold it to those kids!"
Also here's another review I wrote awhile back and never posted:
"Battle Royale" isn't exactly a horror film, but I don't think I could have picked anything more appropriate to watch on Halloween, as it contains buckets of gore, suspense, and lots of bizarre costumes (well, school uniforms actually but close enough.)
The plot is simple and obviously lifted from "The Most Dangerous Game." A class of forty ninth graders is taken unawares to a deserted jungle island and set loose with the instructions that they have three days to kill each other. The last one left alive will be declared the winner; if there is no winner then they all forfeit their lives. They are each monitored by indestructible metal collars, which can be triggered to explode if they do not comply with the rules of the game. The movie's prologue explains how the government has instituted this game in an attempt to control its increasingly violent and rebellious adolescent citizens, but really, with a setup like that, does anyone really care about the logic behind it?
The movie keeps a steady pace throughout, rarely giving anyone a moment to catch their breath. As soon as the students are sent out (one at a time) into the jungle, the bloodshed begins. It's fascinating to watch the different ways they cope with their situation. Some try to work together with varying degress of success, some try desperately to find a way off the island, some take their own lives out of despair, and some grimly accept the situation and start to hone their skills as assassins. As they all come to terms with the reality of the game, all of their petty grudges, unrequited crushes and crazy adolescent emotions become matters of life and death. Forty characters is a bit many for any movie to develop, so only a handful of the students turn into fully developed characters, but even the smallest roles are well played and memorable.
If "Battle Royale" were just two hours of pointless bloody mayhem, it would still be entertaining to watch (albeit in a slightly twisted way), but hardly a great movie. What makes it so terrific is the fact that it's all a dark satire that addresses some of my favorite themes ever: the way that adults lie to children, the way that at some level we are all competing with each other. It reminded me strongly of the novel "Ender's Game" which also features children forced into battle situations by all-powerful adults. The adult world in "Battle Royale" is represented by the students' old teacher Katana. He is powerful and brutal, able to kill any of them at any time, but also strangely helpless and filled with an impotent rage and desire to be liked. In one scene, he appears in the middle of a rain-soaked bloodbath between the students and hands one young girl an umbrella. "Don't catch cold," he tells her cryptically.
Also here's another review I wrote awhile back and never posted:
"Battle Royale" isn't exactly a horror film, but I don't think I could have picked anything more appropriate to watch on Halloween, as it contains buckets of gore, suspense, and lots of bizarre costumes (well, school uniforms actually but close enough.)
The plot is simple and obviously lifted from "The Most Dangerous Game." A class of forty ninth graders is taken unawares to a deserted jungle island and set loose with the instructions that they have three days to kill each other. The last one left alive will be declared the winner; if there is no winner then they all forfeit their lives. They are each monitored by indestructible metal collars, which can be triggered to explode if they do not comply with the rules of the game. The movie's prologue explains how the government has instituted this game in an attempt to control its increasingly violent and rebellious adolescent citizens, but really, with a setup like that, does anyone really care about the logic behind it?
The movie keeps a steady pace throughout, rarely giving anyone a moment to catch their breath. As soon as the students are sent out (one at a time) into the jungle, the bloodshed begins. It's fascinating to watch the different ways they cope with their situation. Some try to work together with varying degress of success, some try desperately to find a way off the island, some take their own lives out of despair, and some grimly accept the situation and start to hone their skills as assassins. As they all come to terms with the reality of the game, all of their petty grudges, unrequited crushes and crazy adolescent emotions become matters of life and death. Forty characters is a bit many for any movie to develop, so only a handful of the students turn into fully developed characters, but even the smallest roles are well played and memorable.
If "Battle Royale" were just two hours of pointless bloody mayhem, it would still be entertaining to watch (albeit in a slightly twisted way), but hardly a great movie. What makes it so terrific is the fact that it's all a dark satire that addresses some of my favorite themes ever: the way that adults lie to children, the way that at some level we are all competing with each other. It reminded me strongly of the novel "Ender's Game" which also features children forced into battle situations by all-powerful adults. The adult world in "Battle Royale" is represented by the students' old teacher Katana. He is powerful and brutal, able to kill any of them at any time, but also strangely helpless and filled with an impotent rage and desire to be liked. In one scene, he appears in the middle of a rain-soaked bloodbath between the students and hands one young girl an umbrella. "Don't catch cold," he tells her cryptically.