future addenix adjustment "mio was away in the north"&tc . . .
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mio is away in the north (of japan) observing the intricate death rituals of a grandmother, so I have watched some films on the international illicit network called the internet. This is them in order of seeing, feel free to feed on my information on them :
cube and cube 2 : why is an interesting premise "spiced up" with serial killer stuff in the last half ? What is wrong with boobytraps in cubes and vague mathematics ?
alphaville : goddard sci fi film, it has a good computer voice, it is also a bit like james bond, with the fights usually happening off camera, perhaps for a reason. (the filmstock or whatever it is called perhaps, being too slow for the quick movement of avant-garde detective fights) ?
the invasion : newest invasion of the body snatchers remake. Manages OK until nicole kidman says "I'm getting my son back"
- everyone knows about the not sleeping thing in regards to being body snatched. So when miss kidman and her saved son hole up in a pharmacy, it is strange that she does not immediately look for the amphetamines, but instead prepares a syringe of adrenaline, for her son to inject her in the heart like in pulp fiction should she fall asleep. Later she gets a bunch of pills, some of which are clonazapam, an anti-psychotic, not known for its alertive properties. I finger anti-drugs hysteria. It is better to fall asleep and be body snatched in front of your son, than to fall prey to the drug menace that ruins lives and makes you a better dancer until the morning.
sunshine : the film about the sun and stuff, ruined by the old serial killer spice up again. Because a dying sun, a last ditch attempt to inject a massive nucelar device into it, and all the problems this poses, are somehow not enough.
28 weeks later: another film about moms and dads and their little ones, and some of them want to eat the others and so on.
general issues raised : films don't need - serial killers (unless film is about serial killer, and even then . .. ) ; sons needing rescued (unless it's all about getting a son, rather than an invasion of alien replicas via strange molecules)
. . . it is always clear why the above needless aspects are always included. The need for "connecting to a character" is the biggest culprit, with large dumb producer fingerprints all over. The 28 weeks zombie thing really goes all out with a father turned zombie out to kill his two children, hence he becomes a family focused serial killer, but for no purpose, except to suppose we are all emotional zombies and don't appreciate the excitement of zombie apocalypses unless it involves mummys and daddys to warm our chockles.
- watched a few minutes of howard the duck also, for nostalgia reasons. I used to have a howard the duck t shirt sourced from a shopping plaza in qatar. And i was saving up for an iron maiden one. Luckily, for my current self's sense of self worth, I was eight.
some films that were seen
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These reviews have made me want to watch Alphaville, for which I thank you.
ReplyDeleteIf you want a film needlessly ruined by serial killer injection, you could do much worse than "Hide And Seek" which was aired on Saturday night, Channel 4, UK, Yesterday. It was the most jarring lump of pap I've ever had the misfortune to tune into.
There is a very amusing comment on serial killer inclusion in Charlie Kaufman's "Adaption" - In which the main character's idiotic twin brother writes a screenplay called "The Three" about a serial killer with multiple personality disorder. The main character berates his brother along the line of "There's only one thing more clichéd than serial killers, and that's multiple personality disorder". The Three goes on to become a big success of course.
Hope you enjoy Alphaville. Try and get screengrabs of the funny detective fight in the car (you will know it when you see it)
ReplyDeleteI think it is still worth watching the first half of each cube film. It is a good premise. In my halycon youth I used to browse the horror books in the birkenhead whsmith and lots of the books had interesting frightening covers and premises (premi?) eg: "the house of doors" a never ending house of doors apparently,and there was another one set in a house, where an evil race of beings live in the walls. But I imagine the interesting bits were ruined by bad writing.
Is bad writing the equivalent of bad acting in a film, or an intrusive serial killer sub plot? A bit of both I would think.
there is a cube zero as well, which attempts to explain the whole thing, kind of undermines the premise of the first one...
ReplyDeletegot ghost in the shell 3.
it comes in a nice box... but otherwise is a little weak
saw cube 0 before the others. it was alright. boon-point: lack of serial killers if i recall correctly.
ReplyDeleteghost in shell seems to have been overkilled, and is now considered armed and fascist.
there even appear to be "novelisations".
I have seen 0 of those films you mention. So I am afraid I cannot comment. Though I love your succint review of Sunshine. Indeed, the destruction of the earth pales into insignificance when put up against the evil doings of a moustache-twisting-in-the-streetlight murderer.
ReplyDeleteI think apocalyptic situations are undermined by focus on human relationships. But because we are egotistical we feel we want to be "attached" to "characters". I say allow the situation to rule all else.
ReplyDeleteLost is interesting here - perhaps the reason it works is, it balances characters with things like "the numbers", "the black smoke" etc. Even the flashbacks, although concentrating on character, somehow end up undermining the character when they are "on island".
Twin Peaks has serial killer and multiple personality disorder! but the way its main focus (L P) is missing, the otherwise melodramatic characters and their reactions (the constant crying scenes) are heightened by this void, their confrontation as it touches them.
Says I !
the house that jack built is a good serial killer film, it is even very funny
ReplyDeletesays the future