50 Years of Pod People

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Returning from a trip, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) slowly begins to realize that something strange is going on in his small hometown. There appears to be an outbreak of mass hysteria which causes people to become suspicious of their friends and loved ones. After discovering a number of "blank" human bodies and large leafy pods, however, it becomes clear to Dr. Bennell that the problem lies with the "normal" people in town and not those who seem to be losing their minds. This, the first film adaptation of Jack Finney's classic novel The Body Snatchers, touches on a lot of rather cool and somewhat groundbreaking concepts for it's time. I honestly haven't seen a lot of science fiction films from the era during which this one was produed, but from what I have seen it's probably the most successful. As is not uncommon with a lot of older films, however, the stiff acting and weak dialogue manage to ruin a lot of the mood and tension that the story attempts to set up. The plot unravels at a good pace, dropping hints toward the eventual revelation of the mystery at regular intervals, and though I wasn't overly impressed with any part of the film, the only sequence that left a truly sour taste in my mouth was the ending. It felt more like a opening to me than a climax, which made me want to see what happened next rather than leave the characters behind. Regardless, the 1956 version of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is certainly worth watching, if for no other reason than for comparison to the ways that the more modern interpretations of the story are handled


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
The first remake of the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers film is rather similar to it's predecessor in many ways. A solitary man, this time a health inspector named Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), begins to realize that large groups of people around him are changing in bizarre ways. Eventually, as the majority of the population of the city of San Francisco (one significant change from the small town of the original movie) appears to have been affected, Bennell and a small group of friends try to escape the city, but are foiled in their attempts at every turn. Before they know it, Bennell and his small crew begin to slowly fall victim to the plague that is enveloping their community and it seems as though all hope may be lost. The lack of a proper mood that I mentioned in my review of the 1956 version of this movie is long since gone, and in this, the 1978 version, an effective feeling of dread and hopelessness plagues much of the film's running time. Joining Sutherland in the key cast are Jeff Goldblum as a psychiatrist who refuses to acknowledge the supernatural aspects of the strange occurrences taking place around him, Veronica Cartwright as the hysterical proprietor of a small spa, and Brooke Adams as the love interest for Sutherland's Bennell. There are significantly improved special effects in this telling of the story, including stop motion and reverse animated vines which bind and creep into the orifices of the body snatchers' prey and rather disgusting models and puppets resembling the main characters in various stages of being cloned by their enemies. A first for the 1978 Body Snatchers film is that the cloned individuals point and emit inhuman screams when they spot a human, which has proved to be one of the most recognizable and memorable aspects of any of the adaptations of the source material. Everything taken into account, I didn't feel that this version of Invastion of the Body Snatchers was a perfect film, but it's probably the most universally respected, and certainly a must-see for sci-fi, horror, and monster movie fans.


Body Snatchers (1993)
Taking a bit of a different approach to the material than the first two incarnations of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the 1993 version of the film follows a teenage girl named Marti (Gabrielle Anwar) who is moved into a temporary home on a military base when her father (Terry Kinney), a scientist, is called upon to help identify the strange pods that have been growing in a nearby swamp. Before long, just as in the previous film versions of the story, our hero begins to notice a change in the people around her and makes an attempt to escape. Despite the fact that director Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers feels almost like a low budget made for TV movie, it's probably my favorite version of the story that I've seen thus far. The pace moves a bit quicker than the 1978 version and the fact that the story takes place amidst a strong military presence adds a new level to the goings-on. Instead of a regular community of people being transformed into alien zombies, this time there are heavily armed military personnel not only turning into monsters, but also fighting back against them in some cases. This scenario adds for a bit more action than the previous two versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which isn't necessary, but makes for a bit more of a unique experience. Also, making the main character a rebellious teenage girl rather than a respectable older man added something to the experience for me. None of the main characters in these films have ever had an easy time convincing anyone that aliens are invading their world, but things seemed just a little more hopeless and exciting for a young girl trying to save her little brother and escape with a guy from the neighborhood whom she likes. I'm in an odd position concerning the Invasion films in that I recognize that the 1978 version of the story is the best of the lot, but I still manage to get more enjoyment out of this one.


The Invasion (2007)
This time around, though the general plot and progression of events are essentially the same as all three of the previous incarnations of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers story, the invaders in question don't use leafy pods to clone their victims, but instead infect people with tiny spores which turn the original hosts themselves into alien beings. In this way, The Invasion feels as though it deals with a viral plague rather than an invasion, but infected individuals still become emotionless creatures almost indiscernible from normal humans, so there is a tangible enemy for our heroes to rebel against once again. In The Invasion, Nicole Kidman plays a psychiatrist by the name of Carol Bernell whose son (Jackson Bond) may hold the cure for the epidemic which runs rampant after debris from a space ship lands on Earth with a strange substance on it. After you are infected by the spores contained in the alien substance you will remain human until you fall asleep, at which point the disease transforms you into an emotionless creature. This film isn't perfect, but it actually took a lot of (what I consider to be) positive steps away from the stereotypical trappings of the Invasion series. More than ever, the fear of falling asleep took precedence as the main source of suspense, which I quite liked. Simply waking up with slime on your face is admittedly less interesting to the sci-fi-lover in me than creepy plants crawling up your nose, but I did like the outcome of the switch inasmuch as sleep became the enemy rather than a giant pea pod. The ending of The Invasion was less than perfect, but I have to give the filmmakers credit for going with something significantly different from the outcomes of the previous three incarnations of this film. In the end, The Invasion didn't satisfy my urge for a truly great version of the Body Snatchers story like I hoped it would, but if things continue the way they've been going for the past 50 years or so, it shouldn't be too long before another adaptation of the tale comes along to try for the gold.

WIBW @ The Movies: IRON MAN

The Plot: Billionaire playboy and weaponry designer/developer Tony Stark is kidnapped by a group of terrorists while showing off one of his new products in Afghanistan. In order to escape from his captors and save his own life, Stark secretly builds a metal exoskeleton equipped with powerful armaments for himself to wear. Upon returning safely to America, he opts to stop producing weapons, as he has now seen the kinds of trouble they cause firsthand, and vows to only work to better mankind. His first goal is to create an improved version of his exoskeleton with which he can fight back against those who do harm to others. Unfortunately, when the secrets of his "Iron Man" technology fall into the hands of his enemies, Stark realizes that his armored suit may in fact cause more problems than it can solve.

The Review: I've never disliked Iron Man, but the character and the comic books about him have also never really had a place among my list of favorite stories. Regardless, ever since the beginning of the recent superhero movie boom of the past decade began, I've always named this title as one that I'd really like to see brought to the big screen. The idea of a man building a futuristic suit of armor packed with weapons just seemed more suited for a film to me than a hammer-wielding god of thunder or a scientist who can run faster than the speed of sound because he accidentally spilled some chemicals on himself in his lab. I'm sure that those properties to which I'm referring could make equally entertaining movies, but something about Tony Stark suiting up in a repulsor ray-equipped mechanical exoskeleton to fight crime, while not necessarily my favorite concept on the page, has always very much appealed to me as the potential subject of a feature film. So, what are my feelings on the topic now that it has finally come to pass?

I loved Iron Man. As far as comic book/superhero-related films are concerned, this film has found a place right near the top of my personal "best of" list along with Spiderman 2 and X-Men 2. Now for the why's...

Although I hadn't personally considered Robert Downey Jr. for the role of Tony Stark before the official casting announcement was made during the preproduction on Iron Man, as soon as I heard his name linked to the project I couldn't imagine anyone else donning the red and gold armor. Just as I anticipated, Downey Jr. was the perfect choice for the role and served as the perfect set of shoulders upon which the entirety of the just over two hour film could rest. His comedic timing is perfect and his portrayal of Stark, while not taken verbatim from the original source material, was 100% satisfactory in my mind. A casting choice which didn't seem so obvious to me upon it's announcement was that of Jeff Bridges in the role of Obadiah Stane. No matter how many of Bridges' films I see, the first of his roles that will always come to mind when I hear his name will be "the dude" from The Big Lebowski, which is a character who is about as far removed from Stane as you can get. I'm going to have to carve out a little room in the back of my memory bank for Bridges as Tony Stark's despicable mentor and former friend now, though, because he was great in the role. There is a particular moment during the film when Stane angrily confronts a scientist in his employ which all but gave me goosebumps when I realized how threatening he could be. Rounding out the key cast were Terence Howard as (the eventual War Machine) Jim Rhodes and Stark's personal assistant Pepper Potts as played by Gwenyth Paltrow. Howard has never been a favorite actor of mine (though I did think that he was particularly good in Hustle & Flow), but while I didn't find him overly impressive in Iron Man, he honestly didn't have a whole of screen time to get on my good side. As for Paltrow, while she didn't necessarily wow me in this role, I've got no complaints about her performance whatsoever.

As far as the story and direction are concerned, I found very few problems with the film, and any that I did find were all rather minor. It is true that there is a lot of time spent on build-up before the Iron Man armor (Mach 1 or otherwise) finally makes it's appearance onscreen, but this didn't bother me at all. There were more than enough humorous moments and interesting story points to keep me focused on Stark even when he wasn't suited up. Speaking of which, even after the exoskeletons make their debut, they don't necessarily tie up the remainder of the running time, but that was fine with me as well. I wouldn't have complained if we'd gotten a few more action scenes here and there, but as far as I'm concerned the plot and pacing are perfect as is. Having only seen the directorial efforts of Jon Favreau in the forms of Made (which I enjoyed, but wasn't very visually exceptional) and Elf (which I didn't really like at all), I was honestly incredibly impressed with his ability to handle the material. If I hadn't known beforehand that Iron Man was directed by Favreau, I'd have probably assumed that it was helmed by someone with a more action-centric catalogue of films. The action (for the most part) was clear and didn't rely on a lot of quick cuts and shaky cam shots like so many other modern visual effects-driven extravaganzas (*cough*Transformers*cough*), which was quite refreshing. The effects themselves were top-notch and nearly without any noticeable flaws, and the comedy, drama, and action all meshed perfectly at all times.

The Verdict: As I previously stated above, after one viewing I already hold Iron Man in the same regard as both Spiderman 2 and X-Men 2, which should essentially state my overall feelings on it rather clearly. The humor was great, the action was top-notch, the acting was spot-on, and the writing and directing was on par with the best examples of the superhero movie genre. In my opinion, as far as comic book films, superhero films, or action films in general are concerned, it doesn't get a whole lot better than Iron Man.

Random Rapid Fire Reviews - January '08

The Invisible
After a high school student named Nick (Justin Chatwin) is beaten to near-death by a gang of his peers led by the rebellious Annie (Margarita Levieva), he's left for dead in a storm drain in the forest where his unconscious body lies for days. During this time, Nick's soul (at least I guess it's his soul) wanders around trying desperately to communicate with the living in hopes that he'll be able to lead someone to his body so that he may be resuscitated before his heart fails. Unfortunately, the only person who can seem to hear Nick's ghostly voice is the very girl responsible for putting his life in jeopardy. I'm always interested in seeing unique new sci-fi/supernatural stories brought to the screen and had hopes that The Invisible would be one of those sleeper hits that wows me despite it's lackluster performance in theaters. Unfortunately it didn't quite deliver on those expectations, but it was interesting (both visually and plot-wise) enough to keep me entertained as I watched it. There are unmistakable similarities between The Invisible and the Patrick Swayze vehicle Ghost, but they aren't so alike that it becomes distracting. My least favorite aspects of this film were it's stereotypically hip visual style and unbelievable, yet somehow played out character archetypes. I'm tired of films about troubled youth in wealthy neighborhoods that seem to be riddled with dream homes that the filmmakers only included in their movie to live out some kind of fantasy onscreen. Don't expect anything ground-breaking here, but catching The Invisible is a decent way to spend a few hours when you've got nothing better to do.


The Quick and the Dead
Director Sam Raimi has made films in just about every genre, including horror (Evil Dead), comedy (Crimewave), sports drama (For Love of the Game), thriller (A Simple Plan), supernatural thriller (The Gift), superhero (Spiderman), and in the case of The Quick and the Dead, western. In a small town run by a royal asshole named John Herod (Gene Hackman), the annual gun duel competition is about to take place when a mysterious female competitor (Sharon Stone) shows up to compete. Among the other competitors are a gunman turned preacher (Russell Crowe) and a young boy called The Kid (Leonardo DiCaprio). For most, the goal is to earn the cash reward by winning the contest, but for some the ultimate goal is to rid the town of Herod's dictator-like reign. In addition to those I've already named, the cast of The Quick and the Dead also includes the likes of Keith David, Lance Henriksen, and Gary Sinise among others. With all of these huge names I could hardly resist checking out this film, not to mention the fact that Raimi, who I'm a fan of, helmed the project. The story is simple and the twist ending rather predictable, but moreso than the intrigue behind the plot, the real reasons to watch The Quick and the Dead are the interaction between the members of it's star-studded cast and to see how Raimi's unique visual style is applied to the western genre. This film is by no means a classic or a must-see, but it is a wholly original addition to the genre and one that I would personally recommend to anyone interested in cowboys and/or the wild west.


Speed
My guess would be that even those who have never seen Speed know the film's premise, but for anyone unaware, I'll sum up the plot as painlessly as possible. When a mad bomber (Dennis Hopper) places a bomb on a bus that will detonate if the vehicle drops below 50 miles per hour, a lone police officer (Keanu Reeves) and a civilian woman (sandra Bullock) must desperately attempt to not only keep the bus moving, but also save it's numerous passengers. The premise is ludicrous, the acting is over the top, and the action is even more over the top than the acting, but for what it is, Speed is a great film. There are times when one feels the need to watch a film with substance and technical worth, but when you're just in the mood for a fun, balls to the wall action film it doesn't get much better than Speed. Dennis Hopper makes a genuinely despicable and memorable villain, Jeff Daniels' character provides both humor and heart, and Keanu leads the cast well as the hero who will stop at nothing to uphold the law. The only member of the core cast that I've never been crazy about is Sandra Bullock. She serves her purpose in Speed just fine, but I've never been a big fan of hers in general. Leave your critical opinions at the door and pick up a suspension of disbelief card on your way in and you're in for one hell of an entertaining and wild ride with Speed.


Rush Hour 3
Detective Carter (Chris Tucker) and Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) are back for a third go 'round in Rush Hour 3. In the first film Lee was a fish out of water in America, in the second film the roles reversed as Carter visited China, and on this outing both of our heroes are out of place as they venture to France to stop the triad from killing a woman who holds all of their secrets. As you can see by reading my reviews of the previous Rush Hour films, I quite liked the first installment of the series, but was rather let down by it's first sequel. Compared to this film though, Rush Hour 2 is best picture material. By this point in time the jokes in these films have been running for just shy of a decade and are growing extremely thin. Chan and Tucker still have great chemistry and are good for a chuckle or two, but everything about this film felt as though I'd seen it before, which is probably about the worst thing that could be said about a Jackie Chan movie. It is true that Chan is in his early fifties, but if he was able to pull of the kinds of moves he did in New Police Story a mere three years before this movie, there's no excuse for the lack of quality action scene fodder in Rush Hour 3. All of the fight scenes in this movie essentially consist of Jackie blocking attacks with chairs and other objects and running away from opponents comedically. When you get right down to it, there is just nothing special about Rush Hour 3. This is a prime example of a sequel that was made for monetary gain as opposed to a desire to further explore the artistic merits of the series, and it's obvious during every flat, uninspired moment of the film.


The Kingdom
When a bombing in the Middle East takes out an American facility, a team of United States government agents including Chris Cooper, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman is sent overseas to investigate. When they arrive they are treated with little respect by the locals who don't seem to want to allow them to do their job properly. Over time they grow a decent working relationship with their hosts, but when one of their team is taken hostage by a terrorist cell the remaining agents must cease their investigation in exchange for a rescue mission. Having recently seen Michael Mann's Miami Vice film and being not only unimpressed, but also rather annoyed by it's visual style, The Kingdom, which looked visually similar and was produced by Mann, didn't hold much interest for me. The one thing that really drew me into this movie was the inclusion of Jason Bateman in the cast, who I had only previously seen in comedic roles (a la Michael Bluth on Arrested Development). While it was interesting to see Bateman in The Kingdom, all I kept thinking during the majority of the film is that it should have been called CSI: Saudi Arabia. Most of the running time once the team arrives onsite is devoted to a step by step process via which they slowly learn who the perpetrators of the bombing were, which I found to be rather dull. The only truly entertaining portion of the film comes at it's climax when Garner and Foxx infiltrate a dilapidated apartment building to rescue the kidnapped Jason Bateman with guns blazing. There was a lot of intensity in this scene which alone served to add probably another whole star to my rating of the film. Unless you have a particular interest in the plot of The Kingdom I would suggest that you skip it, because it doesn't make for very good casual viewing fare.


The Brothers Solomon
After their father (Lee Majors) falls into a coma, a doctor relays to John (Will Arnett) and Dean (Will Forte) Solomon that before slipping into unconsciousness he said that he'd like to have a grandson before he dies. In hopes that they will be able to revive their ailing father if one of them supplies him with the proper offspring, John and Dean both set out on a mission to attempt to have a child. Unfortunately, having been segregated from normal interaction with society since childhood, the act of courting prospective mothers proves to be more difficult than they'd first imagined. A few things drew me to The Brothers Solomon. First of all, the film is directed by Bob Odenkirk who I've loved since I first saw Mr. Show, which he co-hosted with David Cross on HBO. Second, Will Arnett is another talent that I have been following closely since catching up with the incredible show Arrested Development, which he was a cast-member of. Third, for no real reason I also really like Chi McBride, who plays a part in this film. Finally, all three of the reasons that I just listed are the same reasons why I watched another recent film by the name of Let's Go To Prison, and they all combined to make me quite enjoy that film, so I figured that it was within reason that the same could be said for The Brothers Solomon. In short, I was right. There is some aspect of both this film and Let's Go To Prison which I can't quite seem to put my finger on that sets them apart from the big, popular comedies of late such as Superbad and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, but it gives them a unique tone that I find both awkward and hilarious. Will Forte and Will Arnett play incredibly well off of one another, and while there are certainly tried and true comedy stereotypes at play during different parts of The Brothers Solomon, it throws enough truly weird curve balls at the audience to create a ridiculous, fresh, and overall enjoyable viewing experience.


Sunshine
"Another thriller from the team that brought us 28 Days Later, only this time leaning more toward science fiction than horror? Count me in." That's essentially the state of mind that I held when I first heard about Sunshine, and having seen it I can confidently say that if you have a similar outlook on sci-fi and cinema to mine and haven't seen this film yet, that's exactly the state of mind you should be in. Approximately fifty years in the future the Earth's sun is dying and a team of astronauts is sent into space to attempt to re-ignite it with a massive bomb before it burns out and all life on our planet is snuffed out. Yes, the premise is far-fetched (to say the least), but if you're a true fan of science fiction that won't matter to you. A story like this one is all about the fantastical journey that a premise allows for the audience to embark upon along with it's characters, not the premise itself. As far as the premise of Sunshine is concerned though, it immediately brings to mind one of my all-time favorite Ray Bradbury stories entitled The Golden Apples of the Sun. Just as with Bradbury's tale (which is smilar to Sunshine, but with a much more romantic theme to say the least), Sunshine is certainly not for everyone. The suspension of disbelief required to accept the events of this film's plot is sure to cause a lot of hang-ups in viewers, but for me I was simply so enthralled by the film's concept that I couldn't wait, from moment to moment, to see how the crew of it's ship was going to achieve it's goals. To quote Bradbury himself, "You can not part the Red Sea with a gesture or walk into a lion's den, like Daniel, and lie down with beasts, or see a wheel in a wheel, way in the middle of the air. But if you write about it in just the proper way people will believe that an incredible vehicle, one day in the future, took some astronauts to borrow a cup of Sun." That being said, despite how outrageous the events of Sunshine were, I basked in the glory of every wacky moment of it's sci-fi style. My own personal problems with the film arise from it's creation, not it's contents. Director Danny Boyle obviously had a daunting task on his hands in showing his audience some of the most inconceivable and outstanding visuals ever brought to the screen, but in my opinion he indulged himself a bit too much while creating them. I completely understand what he was trying to achieve with all of the intense optical effects he injected into the movie, but it is rather hard not to be turned off by some of the visual style presented to us, particularly during the film's already obtuse climax. Sunshine is surely a film that will continue to polarize the opinions of viewers for years to come, and it is certainly not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I had a blast watching it and attempting to absorb it's wholly unique content.


Eastern Promises
A young girl with no identification dies during childbirth in a London hospital leaving behind only a newborn baby girl and a diary written in Russian. In hopes that she'll be able to locate the mystery girl's family, a nurse named Anna (Naomi Watts) brings the diary home for her stepfather to translate. What they discover within the diary gets Anna involved in a troublesome relationship with some Russian gangsters and she must now go to great lengths to try to save the orphaned infant from her mother's enemies. I honestly had no real interest in Eastern Promises outside of the fact that it was directed by David Cronenberg whose early work in the science fiction and horror genres I greatly enjoy. Cronenberg's other recent dramatic film A History Of Violence didn't particularly impress me, which led me to believe that Eastern Promises held the same fate for me, but luckily I was quite wrong to think so. Eastern Promises is at times a very reserved personal story and at other times an in your face exploration of violence and crime. I found the film captivating for the entirety of the running time and was only really let down by a few plot points near the ending. In particular, I wasn't a big fan of the revelation that one of the movie's characters isn't who you're led to believe he/she is. Despite these (what I consider) minor flaws, the plot is expertly crafted and the film as a whole is carried out very well. Of particular interest is a fight scene for which the film has become somewhat infamous during which Viggo Mortensen's character battles two knife-wielding men in the nude. This sequence is both shocking and incredibly impressive, and may very well be one of my all time favorite onscreen fight scenes.


Stardust
I've wanted to read Neil Gaiman's Stardust for quite some time now, but perhaps even more-so now that I've seen the film. Not because the film was great, but because I refuse to believe that the original text from which it is based is as bad as the movie that was made from it, and I'd like to satisfy my personal curiosity concerning the matter. Stardust is a fairy tale about a young man (Charlie Cox) who tells the love of his life that he would retrieve a fallen star for her and attempts to do so when he discovers that the star in question is in fact a beautiful young girl (Claire Danes). After locating the star the young man also discovers that she is being hunted by a trio of witches (led by Michelle Pfeiffer) whom he must protect her from in order to deliver her to his love as promised. Along the way he meets a cast of fantastical characters including a cross-dressing pirate named Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro). The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Princess Bride aside, I've never been a big fan of swords and sorcery films or franchises, which may have partially attributed to my dislike for Stardust, but I don't think that my lack of interest in fantasy is solely to blame for this movie's failure in my eyes. One of my biggest problems with the film was it's pace, which I thought felt very rushed. It was as though there were so many concepts and sequences that director Matthew Vaughn wanted to include in his film that he crammed as many of them as possible into the running time and didn't pay much attention to whether the plot flowed well or not. In addition to this problem, none of the characters were particularly likable, least of which Claire Danes, who was way too bitchy, and Charlie Cox, who was way too whiny. When your two main characters aren't worth rooting for, you know you've got a problem. All in all Stardust just didn't bring anything to the table that I particularly cared for. There were a few neat ideas that were surely held over from the book such as the candles that worked as teleportation devices when lit or some of the magic spells used during the final conflict of the movie, but they weren't nearly enough to save this train wreck of a film.


O Brother, Where Art Thou?
A loose adaptation of The Odyssey, O Brother, Where Art Thou? follows a trio of escaped 1930's convicts as they make their way toward a supposed hidden treasure, all the while pursued by the long arm of the law. In the wake of seeing No Country For Old Men in the theater last year and loving the hell out of it, I decided that it was about time I went back and tracked down the remaining Coen brothers films that I'd yet to see, even if it meant watching some movies with George Clooney, who I'm well known in my circle of friends and acquaintances as not being a fan of. Having not seen O Brother for so many years, primarily due to the inclusion of Clooney, it is perhaps the single movie that has come most highly recommended to me by the most people that I know. Having finally seen it, I can't for the life of me figure out why. Even despite Clooney's presence, I just didn't really see the draw behind the film. Sure, I enjoyed the musical number in the recording studio scene, and sure there were a few funny moments, but all in all I just don't see the draw. George Clooney certainly did his part in making me dislike O Brother, Where Art Thou? by poorly delivering plenty of his standard dry, cocky lines, but in general the film just felt stagnant to me. The plot was fairly thin, leading me to wonder exactly how close it stuck to the classic story from which it is supposedly adapted and whether or not having read said text is a prerequisite for being able to understand exactly what is going on at any given moment. In short, I wouldn't readily recommend this film to anyone, but I suppose you should take into account that just about all of my peers feel the exact opposite of me.


The Salton Sea
The Salton Sea is one of those movies that has so many different layers that it's tough not to give away spoilers since there are seemingly so many of them, but at the same time they're so ingrained within the spiraling mess of a plot that even if you let one slip it's most likely not going to pop out as something important. With that in mind...Val Kilmer plays a junkie with a heart of gold who works as a small-time informant for some asshole cops to keep himself out of prison. When he decides to deal with a big-time supplier who goes by the name of Pooh-Bear (Vincent D'Onofrio) and leave his cop "buddies" in the dark about it he runs a risk that he may not be as ready to handle as he thinks he is. Melodrama is a powerful device. It can be used for good or evil in the world of cinema and the melodrama in The Salton Sea walks a fine line between worthwhile character studies and cheap grabs at unearned emotions. I enjoyed the story behind this film, but the storytelling sometimes felt a little heavy-handed. It's tough to explain my feelings here without giving something away as I explained earlier. Suffice to say that it is certainly a good film, but takes a few turns later on in it's running time that I wasn't too big of a fan of. Val Kilmer is good as the main character, but the real acting treat here is D'Onofrio's drug lord character Pooh-Bear. It's roles like this one, which he reportedly gained 50 pounds to play in addition to spending a great deal of time working on a distinct set of speech patterns and other intricate character details, which have cemented him in history as a true actor's actor. If you like movies about drugs, criminals, or crime in general, you're sure to get something out of The Salton Sea, but I wouldn't say that you have to have a predisposed interest in those sorts of films to enjoy it.


Hannibal Rising
The one and only reason that I wanted to see this film is because I have seen all of the rest of the installments of the Hannibal Lecter series. Not the best reason to see a movie, I know, but what can I say? I'm a completist. Anyway, I (of course) love The Silence of the Lambs, thought that Brett Ratner's prequel Red Dragon was pretty good (mainly because I'm a big fan of it's star Edward Norton), and thought that Ridley Scott's Hannibal was pretty much terrible. Going into watching Hannibal Rising I was expecting to come out of the film feeling similarly about it as I felt about Hannibal, or perhaps in the best case scenario, maybe liking it as much as Red Dragon. Much to my surprise, I quite liked the film and was thoroughly impressed with it's level of quality and believability. Hannibal is one of those characters that I never really wanted to see the history of because I like how mysterious he is, and though I still somewhat feel that way I don't think that the events of Rising taint his character at all. The story behind how Hannibal came to enjoy the taste of human flesh is a little cheesy, but overall it works in the realm of the story. As it stands right now, surprisingly, Hannibal Rising is probably my second favorite film of the Hannibal Lecter franchise right behind the near unreachable zenith that is 1991's The Silence of the Lambs.


Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
I quite vocally despised the first film in the Fantastic Four series and have stated on numerous occasions that I would honestly more readily watch the unreleased Roger Corman produced Fantastic Four film if given the choice between the two. Rise of the Silver Surfer is no different. This movie is just plain bad. It has the complete packege: bad acting, bad story, bad directing, bad action, etc. Just as was the case with the previous Fantastic Four film, I'm baffled by how little action there is in these movies. Not only is there so little of it, but whenever there is an "action scene", it usually just consists of the team saving some civilians from a falling fire truck or carnival attraction. I don't know why Tim Story insists on making superhero movies with short, uninteresting fight sequences. Then again, I'm not sure why whoever hired him thought that he'd be the right person to direct an action movie or why they bothered to bring him back for a second attempt. You'll notice that I've yet to bring up the fact that Galactus is represented by a storm cloud, but that's because, while terrible, Galactus is far from the worst thing about this movie. I'll bet that if I were a young child I would enjoy the Fantastic Four films, but something tells me that even if I were a tyke I'd still wish there were more fighting. In a world where the Spiderman films exist, I can't picture myself ever watching Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer ever again. Ever.


Resident Evil: Extinction
After so many horribly bad feature film adaptations of video games, comic books, and other media in recent years I feel like I'm beating a dead horse when I ask this, but what the fuck is the entire population of Hollywood smoking and where can I get some? I'm convinced that the only way to enjoy a piece of garbage like this is to be up to your eyeballs in some kind of hallucinatory substance. In fact, the special edition DVD of Resident Evil: Extinction should come with a dose of heroin and a cyanide capsule so that you can either shoot up and try to enjoy the film that way or swallow the pill and kill yourself on the spot to avoid the hassle. There was really no hope for this film to be any good right off the bat considering that the series started off so horribly and managed not to resemble in the least the video game series it was based off of in the first place. Seriously...if a game is massively popular because of it's story, why the hell would you try your hardest to make the plot of the film unrecognizable to it's fans? By now the morons behind the Resident Evil film franchise have decided that what fans really want in addition to their heavy metal music, sterling silver laboratories, zombies, and dainty chicks pulling kung-fu wirework fight scenes against dogs out of their asses is an illegitimate bastard child of Road Warrior. In this film a gang of over-acting, overly beautiful, under-talented survivors are traversing the desert that was once the United States in search of gasoline and food when they decide, based upon a notebook filled with embarrassingly unoriginal scribbled notes, to attempt to find their way to Alaska where there may or may not be a safe place to hide from the zombie plague which has by now spread across the majority of the Earth. Milla Jovovich, whose character Alice has developed full-on superpowers by this point for some reason or another, happens upon this band of hapless fools and proceeds to spin kick everyone and everything that resembles a zombie. Uninspired directing, horrible acting, special effects that looked as though a film student made them on his laptop in 1998, a script that was phoned in by the mastermind of this heinous film franchise (Paul W.S. Anderson), and every modern stylistic stereotype that you can imagine plague every excruciating second of this sad excuse for ninety four minutes of entertainment. The one scene that came close to being worth anyone's time (an obvious homage to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds) wouldn't have been enough to convince me to recommend this film to anyone even if the special effects weren't laughably fake. Resident Evil: Extinction is the type of film that someone must hate as a prerequisite for me to respect them as a sound-minded human being.

WIBW @ The Movies: THE RUINS

The Plot: Two young couples on vacation in Mexico decide to accompany a young man in search of his brother on a day trip to an archeological dig somewhere in the nearby jungle. When they arrive at the site of the excavation they find themselves surrounded by locals armed with guns and bows who refuse to let them leave. Cut off from society and with little hope of rescue, the small group of twenty-somethings have to figure out how to survive, how to escape, and perhaps most importantly, why they're being detained.

The Review: Let me apologize in advance for the vagueness of this review. The Ruins is one of those films that, if you don't know what to expect, could be completely ruined for you by one slip-up from a careless reviewer. I always try to refrain from giving away spoilers, but I'll be taking extra care not to do so in the case of this film.

I read the novel of the same name upon which this movie is based not long before the film's release. The Ruins is the second book, and coincidentally the second screenplay, from writer Scott Smith, who also penned the text and screen versions of Sam Raimi's film A Simple Plan. These two stories are far removed from one another content-wise, but rather similar in tone which, if you've had the pleasure of seeing A Simple Plan, should clue you into how tense a thriller The Ruins is. As I mentioned above, I won't be giving away any spoilers, which means that I can't really talk about any of the events of the last hour or so of the film in any great detail. To compensate for this fact, I can only tell you that I absolutely loved the novel and that the film surprisingly lived up to the high expectations set by it.

For a science fiction/horror aficionado such as myself, The Ruins was a breath of fresh air among the standard horror films being released these days. I am, of course, speaking of what have been dubbed "torture porn" movies. In many ways, the characters in The Ruins are put through some rather torturous situations, but that and the beautiful young cast are about the only things that this film has in common with the rest of the horror fodder that has been coming out as of late. Speaking of which, though the cast is comprised of several attractive, up and coming young actors and actresses, they truly manage to come off as real people instead of the cookie-cutter hapless victims that the horror genre usually provides. This is a testament to the abilities of the stars of The Ruins, but also to the expert realistic character development skills of writer Scott Smith. One of the elements of this film which allows it to succeed so well is that each of the four main characters represents a different way of looking at every outrageous decision and situation that the group finds itself faced with. In this way, I can easily envision four different types of viewers each agreeing with and getting behind the opinions of a different character from the film, which isn't, in my opinion, something that can be said about a whole lot of movies.

The Ruins doesn't rely heavily on shock value to achieve it's mood, but rather on a constant sense of desperation and dread provided by the situation that it's characters have happened into. Tonally, as far as horror films are concerned, I would relate it to John Carpenter's The Thing, the original Alien film directed by Ridley Scott, or last year's Stephen King adaptation The Mist. Like all of those films The Ruins deals with a small group of people suddenly thrust into a situation that they are unfamiliar and, in many ways, unable to cope with. The drama that plays out between the characters is just as, if not more important than the events going on around them which are causing said drama. This is not to say that there aren't instances when the dire situation takes over and causes very real problems for the protagonists, but since there is such a heavy reliance on character development and relationships, when something directly puts them in danger, the impact is greater that it would be if the tension wasn't kept so high by the constant character-driven drama.

While I greatly enjoyed the experience of discovering the progression of events in the story of The Ruins while reading the book, I can't help but wonder how I would have viewed the movie if I'd seen it first. In fact, the few problems that I had with the film were probably all based upon my having read and become familiar with the story beforehand. For example, the ending, for reasons which I cannot/will not go into, left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Thinking about the story logically, the way that the film ends feels slightly flawed and less impacting than that of the novel. Also, the very beginning of the film felt a little cliche as though it was added in as an afterthought to make the film more approachable by everyday audiences. Aside from those few (what I would consider) errors in The Ruins, the rest of my qualms lie with the running time of the film. I have no preconceived opinions about how long any film should be, but while watching The Ruins I couldn't help but feel as though a few good opportunities for character development and/or otherwise unexplored plot points were missed out on. Again though, I probably would have felt differently about these matters had I not previously read the book upon which The Ruins was based.

The Verdict: While I do prefer Scott Smith's novel to this film in a few ways, The Ruins probably came about as close to equaling the quality of a widely praised book as is possible for a Hollywood adaptation. The characters were 100% believable, the tone of the film was perfect for the subject matter, and the story was engrossing in a way that that of few sci-fi/horror films are. If you're in the market for a blood and guts extravaganza you're better off looking elsewhere, but if you'd like to scare yourself with an intelligent concept that holds some weight, The Ruins is the movie for you.

Maxim's 300 Movies You MUST See Before You Die

I cancelled my subscription to Maxim Magazine some time ago, but have still been receiving copies in the mail for the last few months for whatever reason. I stopped subscribing to Maxim for the same reason that, in the past few years, I have also stopped subscribing to Wizard, Toyfare, PSM, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and AP Magazine. That reason being that I'd rather read my news online than in a stack of subscription card spewing periodicals which inevitably end up in unread piles around my room. When I picked up the latest Maxim (#125) to see who the babe on the cover was this month (Elisha Cuthbert, by the way), a headline caught my eye that I couldn't refuse: "The 300 Movies To See Before You Die".

Spend five minutes looking up movies on Google and you'll stumble upon dozens of lists just like this one which merely present the opinions of whoever crafted them. As a matter of fact, I've masterminded a few of them myself right here on this blog and will probably do so again before everything is said and done. There are no real reasons for these lists to exist other than to spark conversation and debate, but I tend to find them irresistible. After all, if you have a blog you must have opinions, and if you have opinions, you most likely take great enjoyment in observing those of other people and comparing them to your own. So here I present Maxim's list, much of which I disagree with, for all to see and critique.

Also, for shits and giggles, all of the films which appear in BLUE are those which I have personally seen as of the original date of this post (April 17, 2008). All films appearing in ORANGE are those which I have caught up with after the original date of this post. If anyone reading this feels like counting out how many of the films named here they've seen, let me know your count via the comments section at the bottom of this post. I'd love to see how others' viewing experiences stack up.

Without further ado, I present Maxim's 300 Movies You Must See Before You Die:

COMEDY:
Airplane!
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Animal House
American Pie
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Bachelor Party
Bananas
Beverly Hills Cop
The Big Lebowski
Blazing Saddles
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Caddyshack
The Cannonball Run
Clerks
Dazed and Confused
Duck Soup
Dumb & Dumber
Election
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Ghostbusters
Groundhog Day
Happy Gilmore
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
The Jerk
Kingpin
Modern Times
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Nutty Professor (1963)
Office Space
Old School
The Pink Panther Strikes Again
The Princess Bride
Raising Arizona
Sixteen Candles
Some Like It Hot
This Is Spinal Tap
Trading Places
Vacation
Wedding Crashers
Wet Hot American Summer
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Young Frankenstein

WAR:
Apocalypse Now
Black Hawk Down
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Deer Hunter
The Dirty Dozen
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Gallipoli
The Great Escape
M*A*S*H
Platoon
Saving Private Ryan

SO BAD THEY'RE GOOD:
Airport 1975
Barbarella
Battlefield Earth
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Death Race 2000
Glen or Glenda?
Phantom of the Paradise
Reefer Madness
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Showgirls
The Toxic Avenger

REBELS:
Billy Jack
Cool Hand Luke
Dirty Harry
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry
Easy Rider
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Graduate
A History of Violence
The Hustler
The King of Comedy
Network
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Raging Bull
Risky Business
Sid & Nancy
Smokey and the Bandit
Taxi Driver
Three Days of the Condor
Trainspotting

CLASSICS:
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Ben-Hur
Casablanca
Double Indemnity
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Lawrence of Arabia
Metropolis (1927)
The Night of the Hunter
On the Waterfront
The Third Man
Touch of Evil
Vertigo
White Heat
The Wizard of Oz

SCI-FI/FANTASY:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Alien
Aliens
Back to the Future
Blade Runner
Children of Men
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
E.T.
King Kong (1933)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back
Starship Troopers
Terminator
Terminator II: Judgement Day

HORROR:
28 Days Later
Carrie
The Exorcist
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
The Fly
Halloween (1978)
Jaws
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Psycho (1960)
Rosemary's Baby
The Shining (1980)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

WESTERNS:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
High Noon
High Plains Drifter
Jeremiah Johnson
The Searchers
Tombstone
True Grit
Unforgiven
The Wild Bunch

BUDDY MOVIES:
American Graffiti
The Blues Brothers
Breaking Away
Deliverance
Glengarry Glen Ross
The Goonies
The Last Detail
Lethal Weapon
The Right Stuff
Saturday Night Fever
The Shawshank Redemption
Stand By Me
Stripes
Superbad
Swingers
Top Gun
The Warriors

ACTION:
Batman
Batman Begins
Battle Royale
The Bourne Identity
The Bournce Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum
Braveheart
Clash of the Titans
Die Hard
Enter the Dragon
Face/Off
First Blood
48 Hrs.
Gladiator
The Incredibles
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Kill Bill Vol. 2
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Matrix
Predator
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Road Warrior
Rocky
Rocky II
Rocky III
Rocky IV
Speed
Spiderman

NON-GRATUITOUS NUDITY!:
10
Angel Heart
Body Heat
Boogie Nights
Carnal Knowledge
Coffy
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Jackass: The Movie
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Mulholland Drive
Poison Ivy: The New Seduction
Revenge of the Nerds
Wild Things

ART HOUSE:
Annie Hall
Badlands
The Bicycle Thief
City of God
A Clockwork Orange
The Conversation
Do The Right Thing
Elephant Man
The Last Picture Show
Midnight Cowboy
Repo Man
Rushmore
Short Cuts
There Will Be Blood
Withnail and I

MINDBENDERS:
Akira
Beetlejuice
Blue Velvet
Brazil
Donnie Darko
Edward Scissorhands
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Fight Club
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Memento
Pink Floyd: The Wall
The Rocky Horror Picture Show

COPS:
Bad Lieutenant
Bullitt
Chinatown
The Departed
Donnie Brasco
Fargo
The French Connection
Hard Boiled
Robocop
Se7en
Shaft (1971)
The Silence of the Lambs
To Live and Die in L.A.
The Untouchables

CRIMINALS:
Atlantic City
Bad Boys (1983)
Bloody Mama
Bonnie and Clyde
The Boys From Brazil
Boyz N the Hood
Carlito's Way
Casino
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Dog Day Afternoon
The Getaway
Get Carter (1971)
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
Goodfellas
Heat
In Cold Blood
The Long Good Friday
Mean Streets
Midnight Express
Natural Born Killers
No Country For Old Men
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
River's Edge
Scarface
Sexy Beast
Sin City
Super Fly
True Romance

THE MASTER CLASS:
Breathless
Citizen Kane
La Dolce Vita
Seven Samurai
The 400 Blows
The Seventh Seal
Un Chien Andalou

SEQUELS THAT ARE BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL:
Bride of Frankenstein
Evil Dead II
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
Superman II

NON-BORING DOCUMENTARIES:
Brother's Keeper
Don't Look Back
Gimme Shelter
Hoop Dreams
Pumping Iron
Richard Pryor: Live in Concert
When We Were Kings

CONSPICUOUSLY GAY STRAIGHT MOVIES (BEYOND TOP GUN):
300
The Bear
Spartacus
X-Men

CONSPICUOUSLY GAY SWAYZE MOVIES:
Next of Kin
The Outsiders
Point Break
Red Dawn
Road House
Youngblood

ESSENTIAL JAMES BOND MOVIES:
Casion Royale
Goldfinger
Live and Let Die
The Spy Who Loved Me
You Only Live Twice

BEST MOVIES WITH PUPPETS:
Being John Malkovich
The Dark Crystal
The Muppet Movie
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
Team America
Weekend At Bernie's

MOVIES YOU NEED TO SEE ONCE, BUT ARE SO TRAUMATIC YOU NEVER NEED TO SEE AGAIN:
Leaving Las Vegas
Million Dollar Baby
Requiem For a Dream
Schindler's List
United 93

Number of Maxim's 300 movies that I have seen (as of April 17, 2008): 175

Number of Maxim's 300 movies that I have seen (as of August 23, 2009): 204

Number of Maxim's 300 movies that my mother has seen (as of April 17, 2008): 82

***Note: While it sounds nice to round down to 300, by my count there were in fact 317 titles on Maxim's list. However, six of these films were mentioned in more than one category, so I've omitted the doubles, leaving a total of 311 individual films recognized on the above list.

***Edit: As of May 27, 2008 it has been brought to my attention that I somehow neglected to include A Clockwork Orange on the above list. The list has been altered along with the final film count. In addition to this change, I have also begun marking the films which I've seen for the first time after the original post date (April 17, 2008) and keeping track of my current "watched" count near the bottom of the list, which I'll update whenever I think about it.