acronin-2 Reviews

Altered States (1980)

Interesting farcical take on boomer generation obsession

[7/10 · 20 July 2010]

Altered States was not a film I wanted to watch. It seemed built on the post 70's gov't sci-fi paranoia of the early 80's (see The Dead Zone or Scanners or Firestarter for further info). One day my girlfriend finally sat me down and made me watch it, "if you pay attention you'll be surprised", she said. She was right.

Altered States has nothing to do with the government. Sure there are some early references to it in the beginning of the film but they are dropped fairly early. This movie is a satirical look at the "mind expansion though drugs movement" of the late 1960's. A scientist, Eddie Jessup, played by William Hurt is attempting to push the boundaries of sensory deprivation and what it can do to the human mind. It's the late 70's and he's looked at some kind of over the hill quack by his contemporaries as most have moved beyond the LSD induced 60's to respected careers. But when he stumbles upon a mysterious combination of drugs and tank time he's swept to the dawn of humans. The line between dream experience and reality become blurred however as Jessup spends more and more time in the tank and eventually the wall comes crashing down.

This is not a straight line narrative film. It jumps from time to time. The plot is secondary however, to the message the movie is trying to send. The human mind is a merely a collection of experiences and data, a bank if you will that has been storing information since monkeys first decided to stand on two legs. The information is so vast however that to compensate our mind locks most of it away to keep us sane but our most base instincts are still there, we just choose to satisfy them in a different way than our ancestors, today buying a huge TV with a nice sound system is the substitute for downing a huge antelope on the plains. The movie's main point though is what's the point? What could possibly be gained from this knowledge? That's where the farce comes in, this might be the first movie to poke fun at boomers. The big revelation of LSD induced hyper-awareness is a regression to our simian forms. Thanks for the hard work fellas.

I'm neglecting the movie itself however. Technically it's quite an achievement for the time and the music, sound and cinematography really set the mood. I'm sure upon its release Altered States was taken seriously as art and a cautionary tale for science going too far but looking back its an enjoyable farce of the boomer generation and its obsession with the "why?" of the Universe.

Saw VI (2009)

Puts the train back on the rails.

[8/10 · 22 October 2009]

I am going to say it up front. The Saw series is a guilty pleasure of mine. That being said the last couple have not really engaged me all that much. After this one though, consider me back in the fold. Longtime series editor turned first time director Kevin Greutert has recharged the series and injected something these films have lacked since the beginning: humor.

Saw VI starts with a bang. You know right off the bat that this isn't the same dead serious almost somber type of Saw film you're used to. I'm going to give Greutert and company the benefit of the doubt here and assume that this is by design. You know when Jigsaw is putting people in traps for smoking too much that your tongue should be firmly planted in cheek. This film is also much more open and colorful than previous films. After the claustrophobic Saw V that seemed to take place in only three different rooms this is a welcome change of pace. Also the traps here are much more inventive than V and maybe even IV (nothing will best III in my mind for sheer over the top-ness). The amount of twists and surprises is also plentiful and really do help bring the game full circle. This is definitely not the transition film that the last one was and it really left me to wonder where exactly they can go from here. The twists and turns of the plot are not something I want to give away as its part of the fun but suffice to say if you've stuck with the series up until now you won't feel gipped as you walk out of the theater. The film follows Hoffman as he tries to stay one step ahead of the FBI while conducting a game involving John Kramer's insurance broker William who is put through a series of tests involving his co-workers. The film moves at a breakneck pace cutting back and forth between the two main plot threads while also throwing in the now famous Saw flashbacks to fill in the gaps of all the past movies. I was never bored and special mention has to be given to Greutert for really keeping this thing from getting bogged down in the procedural aspects that really plagued the last few films. This is balls to the wall entertainment and it delivers while also winking and nodding along the way. Saw also gets extremely topical here for the first time and the main thrust and theme of this film will hit home to anyone who even has a passing knowledge of current affairs in this country.

The only negatives I can really point out in the film is some of the suspect acting but again this might be done on purpose through the director's eyes to inject some humor without resorting to having Jigsaw or Hoffman crack jokes Freddy Krueger style while they dispense moral justice. We haven't gotten there yet, maybe Saw X. The other problem I had was that some of the back story really pushed the suspension of disbelief but I guess I shouldn't nit-pick because that has been a problem as far back as Saw II and is needed to stretch out this far anyway.

All in all this is easily the best Saw since the 2nd one and I am glad to see the series get back on track after the CSI elements of the last two films. This is Saw how I like it: down and dirty and over the top. Bring on Saw VII!