jeffpk Reviews

Leap of Faith (1992)

An honest but in the end surprisingly sympathetic look at revival tent religion

[8/10 · 27 September 2019]

The chataqua tent revival meeting has a long standing history in religion in the US. Despite the addition of modern production techniques, the fundamentals remain mostly the same.

This is a gentle, good natured movie that shows all the ugliness behind the scenes and yet still leaves us sympathetic to the characters and their issues.

Probably the best movie i have ever seen for understanding the phenomenon of the revival tent meeting.

Agency of Vengeance: Dark Rising (2011 Video)

So bad its good....

[5/10 · 11 August 2016]

I really couldn't give this movie more then a 5.

The writing is stilted, the characters two-dimensional (if that) and the lead actress's primary qualities are...well... her primary qualities. She looks fantastic standing still with her mouth shut. Unfortunately her acting is awful and her stage fighting looks like a 10 year old playing "batman."

The makeup is amateurish, but the animation is okay and the CG frankly is surprisingly good, mostly demonstrating just how cheap and easy basic CG has become.

Over all it plays like a film written by high-school students, acted by first year college students and a porn star, with sfx done by mildly talented upper class college students. Despite all that, or maybe because of it, it has a genuine charm and appeal on the pure camp level. Sort of like the 60s Batman TV show.

If you enjoy camp, then go for it. But otherwise give it a wide miss.

Lost River (2014)

Much sound and fury....

[4/10 · 25 July 2016]

This is really a mess of a movie. It has a few interesting ideas, and some interesting but not always consistent imagery, but in the end fails to deliver on any of the questions it sets up. Like the "shows within the show" the movie seems most of the time to just do things for shock value and no other narrative purpose.

If David Lynch had a totally incoherent dream (for David Lynch), this might be it. Lynch at least teases us with a feeling of connectedness and gives us some kind of ending. This movie fails to do either.

The cinematographer should get credit for his sometimes striking visuals, but that's about all there is to this film.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

A sweet movie of the kind that shouldn't be made

[8/10 · 30 November 2015]

A wise man once stated "Never make movies about Hollywood, because no body but industry insiders give a crap."

Its not always true, but it is more then it isn't.

Birdman is such a movie. A love song to actors and the acting profession that encapsulates all of how screwed up most of it is. All the main characters are damaged and desperate for validation.

I don't know why IMDb calls this a comedy. Its a drama, and maybe even a bittersweet tragedy. But it IS brilliantly and lovingly made and acted. Sadly, it is still all but incomprehensible to the mass audience.

Star Trek Continues: Pilgrim of Eternity (2013) Season 1, Episode 1

High end fan production

[7/10 · 17 November 2014]

A sequel to "who morns for Adonis?" with the original actor who played Apollo, Micahel Forest, back as a "prematurely aged" Apollo.

The set, sfx and visual style are all very well done and very much in keeping with the original. The cinematographer has a real good grasp of the original style.

The guy playing Kirk who is also listed as director and co-producer is trying a bit too... hard... to... be William Shatner, and the guy playing Spock is a bit wooden.

The actor playing McCoy is okay but I get no feeling of DeForest Kelley at all. Particularly missing is the southern charm McCoy had.

Scotty is the best of the bunch, but he actually is James Doohan's son, and has done Scotty in the past for an animated trek.

The young lady playing Uhura isn't too bad either... she at least has a "feel" like Nichelle Nichols, especially in a singing sequence in the rec room.

The best actor of course is Michael Forest as Apollo who carries the episode on his shoulder, but he's an old stage and screen hand and arguably the only seasoned professional of the bunch.

The writing was also surprisingly good, very much in keeping with the old series. The moral of the story was a bit heavy handed, but Star trek often could be.

All in all, it was fun for an original Trekker to watch the "kids" doing "our thing."

Now You See Me (I) (2013)

Movies about magicians keep getting better

[10/10 · 3 March 2014]

We've come a long way from the unbelievable, magician-insulting crap that was the Prestige.

Where the Prestige got just about everything about magic and magicians wrong, this gets it right., There are one or two minor flights of fancy (I don't think the bubble levitation is workable, but I could be wrong.) but by and large it is very true to both the art and the ethic of the magician,

Magicians since the time of Houdini at least have been very aware that our dark cousin is the con man, and we hate them and seek to expose them wherever we can. In this day and age, the con men wear suits and run corporations and banks, and in spirit there is no netter group of people to challenge them then magicians.

In addition to getting the small stuff right, this movie gets it right in the large. Just when I was shaking my head and saying "this can't be done, the safeties aren't there and it depends too much on people doing the right things at the right time", the movie pulls out the ONLY solution that solves all those problems.

Like all great magic tricks, there is only one good solution, but the magician distracts from it to the point that we don't even realize its there.

Sadly, I think this movie suffered from the problem many really good movies about magic do... they are so faithful to the hidden art that no one but practitioners believe its real. Ironically, the more absurd a movie about magicians is, generally the easier it is for the audience to swallow. The more accurate, the less the common man believes it.

Which is probably why The Prestige did so well and this so poorly.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)

A love song to magic and magicians

[8/10 · 15 February 2014]

Many Hollywood types have a deep embarrassing secret-- they love magic.

Harry Anderson, Steve Martin, Woody Allan and so many more are members of the magic fraternity. (Here's a quick list of just some you might not know http://www.magictricks.com/celebrity-magicians.html)

Its not surprising, therefor, that periodically we get a movie that is really written and intended for the magic community. This movie is definitely one of them. Faithful in its depiction of magic and magicians, both the good and the bad, it is a delightful, funny and touching story about how we can lose our purpose in life and, if we are lucky enough, find it again.

A particular treat is Jim Carey doing a wonderful satire of Chris Angel, a man who is controversial in magic circles, to say the least. The casting of Carey borders on brilliant as he is one of the few comedians I can think of who can out over-the-top Angel.

This movie may not play to your tastes if you're not interested in the world of magicians. But if you are, it is an absolute delight.

Special (2006)

An interesting, thoughtful, small movie

[8/10 · 22 August 2013]

A solid movie of the kind Hollywood can't make. A small but excellent cast tell a small but engrossing story of a normal man who wants to be something else.

Rapport really steals/carries this, and his performance is flawless. The supporting cast are also all solid with Alexandra Holden doing a particularly stand-out job as the brilliantly understated love interest.

If there is an off note anywhere in the film, it is the ending which slightly strains credulity but, more to the point, is not really clear in what it is trying to say.

A film well worth watching, and talking about afterward.

The Wolverine (2013)

Holey Plots,Batman.

[6/10 · 1 August 2013]

This was better then the wretched "Origins" movie. But that is damning with feint praise.

On the positive side, it did move well. The pacing was good, the action well directed, and Hugh Jackman has the Logan character down pretty solidly.

On the other hand, this movie has a plot with more holes then a decent piece of swiss cheese. The motivations of most of the characters are murky and just seem off. Yashida-san senior's emotional motivations never seem clear. First, he is ready to commit seppuku, then he is over flowingly grateful to Logan for preventing that. THEN he is ready to steal from Logan powers Logan is unwilling to give. In an occidental character I could almost forgive such capriciousness and weakness but it was totally out of character from a highly traditional upper class Japanese man. Especially one with the strength of character to forge an empire.

Yashida-san Junior tells us his father bankrupted his company with his obsession with obtaining mutant powers... and yet is willing to murder his own daughter to obtain the inheritance of that company.

In one of the smallest but oddest inconsistencies, Logan refers to the silver samurai at the end as "bob", a name he gave Yashida senior during the war. Yet is somehow surprised when its head pops off and who is inside but Yashida senior? (Something which I would imagine surprised no one in the audience over the age of 8.)

The main mutant villain, the Viper, remains a mystery as to any of her motivations. About the only clues we see are a homicidal disdain for men and her self description as a "mutant, nihilist and capitalist." We can suppose her motivation was pay, but she seems awfully committed to the job for a hired hand employed by an icon of male economic power.

Mariko is basically the McGuffin. Everyones chasing after her for better or worse reasons. She herself is pretty much passive. But she too is strangely inconsistent. She tells Logan that she is marrying a man she despises because to not do so would "dishonor her father"... and then within 10 minutes is jumping into bed with Logan. Now, I am not an expert on Japanese culture by any means, but this doesn't seem to me to do much in the "honor" department for her.

Yukio is Logan's reliable right hand from beginning to end. A fairly amazing transition of loyalties for someone who tells us her entire life is owed to the Yashida clan. Yes, Junior is a bastard and acts like it to her, but her primary loyalties are to Yashida senior who has almost no interaction with her in the film at all.

I could go on, but you get the idea. The characters in this movie are so shallowly drawn as to be indecipherable and motivated so poorly as to be totally uninteresting.

The sad fact, is I found the hint of what the NEXT movie will be about after the credits to be the most interesting part. But I always did like the Sentinels. (Note however that this creates a serious continuity error in the original XMen movie series, where we see them fighting a undersized Sentinel in a danger room exercise.)

Cloud Atlas (2012)

A fine piece of philosophical science fiction

[9/10 · 25 July 2013]

This is not a highly accessible film, but few great films are and this may certainly qualify as one.

It redeemed the Wachowskis in my eyes. The Matrix itself was a fun, well made, if in the end a lot more shallow then its pretensions, sci fi comic book actioner. The middle movie was philosophically interesting but suffered from middle-movie syndrome. The last wasn't even up to comic book standards and ruined the whole series with a denouement I could hear every Sunday in church if I wished to.

I predict Matrix fans will hate Cloud Atlas. Complex and sophisticated in its story telling, and deeply philosophical, this also makes it hard to describe. You really have to not just see this movie, but truly experience it, and even then it leaves a great many open questions.

I am not surprised that those who didn't get the movie also by and large call the future- dialect "unintelligible." In both cases, its a sign of ears that are deaf to anything new or that asks the audience for some effort.

The Great Magician (2011)

A delightful gem from China!

[9/10 · 24 July 2013]

Part historical drama, part love story, and a LARGE part tongue in cheek social satire, this movie was a sheer delight from beginning to end.

To all that, add the fact that the magic presented is by and large correct and true to the art (unlike the totally incorrect mess that was The Prestige) and this is a movie for a magician to love.

But even without a background in magic, the clever twistyness of the plot, the humor of the dialog and the amazing acrobatics will carry almost anyone with some child in their heart through to the end with a smile on their face.

Truly a gem of a kind Hollywood hasn't made for a long time.

Dredd (2012)

If Uve Boll tried to make Die Hard...

[1/10 · 23 July 2013]

This is what would have happened

Total and utter crap.

The so called "writers" of this piece of garbage took a brilliant British satire on 20th century society and turned into a hack, plot less, third rate, gore filled Die Hard.

Even the dystopic mega city, as presented, is boring.

If you like low budget shoot em ups with little plot and less dialog, then you just might enjoy this.

If you are a Judge Dredd fan, just put it down and walk away.

The Stallone Judge Dredd was closer in substance to the comics then this garbage, and thats saying a lot.

Pacific Rim (2013)

A loving tribute to anime and kaiju

[8/10 · 20 July 2013]

Pacific Rim is a live action mashup of giant robot anime and classic rubber-suit kaiju movies (eg Godzilla).

Being a Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) movie, it has a strong, bold and lavish sense of visual style. It is clear that Del Toro both knows and loves both of the movie traditions he is drawing on but also suffuses the movie with a Hollywood sensibility, all without an obvious clash or discord.

The plot is not deep, in fact as anime it would be on the markedly shallow side. There is none of the philosophical musings or mythological literacy that underlies good anime. It is, in the end, about as deep as a Godzilla film. The characters are shallowly drawn with obvious motivations. The plot is pretty minimal with most of the movie being spent on action sequences.

In the end, my review is much like my review of Avatar. Its a B action movie. But what a B action movie!

I saw it in IMAX 3D and, if you can, its definitely worth the extra few bucks. The movie is visually stunning, exciting in its action sequences, and in the end just a whole lot of fun for anyone else who loves the source genres.

Which certainly includes me.

Catwoman (2004)

Not nearly as bad as it was made out to be

[7/10 · 15 June 2013]

This is not your dad's catwoman. And I say that because I am probably as old as your dad.

Its the myth recast. As the nemesis and eventual love interest of Batman, catwoman was a bit player, a minor part in the story. In this version, she is the star. And the story itself becomes an allegory for women's liberation.

The effect are very impressive, if a bit over the top at times, I am SURE that some of the action scenes were CG but I couldn't tell where it was Berry and where it was computer generated.

Of the three recent screen catwomen, I think this is by far the most interesting,

Love (I) (2011)

Very ambitious, mostly successful, not for the avg viewer

[9/10 · 22 January 2013]

This is a deeply philosophical movie. Science fiction of the old school and far from the most accessible movie ever made. It is most like the ending sequence of 2001 made into a full length movie, and that confused people too.

But it is at times visually stunning, deep in its musings, and ultimately very satisfying for those who have the patience and intellectual curiosity to really dig into it.

It definitely violates the rule of 3, in some cases even the one time it says something it is a gentle whisper in your ear. But those whispers are fascinating.

Prometheus (I) (2012)

Deeper then it appears

[8/10 · 12 November 2012]

On the surface, Prometheus is a reasonable back-story to the movie Alien. if you are at all paying attention, it adequately explains who and what the giant pilot in the spaceship was and why the Alien eggs were on board. The adventure/horror story is fairly run of the mill. At times its a bit predictable and at other times its a bit silly (sometimes both at once.) As a space adventure movie it stands up reasonably well, if not being nearly as taught and tight as Alien was.

If you focus exclusively on this however, you will miss the real depth of this movie. What is of real interest here is not so much the enigmatic aliens and what they are up to, as much as the humans in the story and their motivations and reactions. I'm going to break that down below, so fair warning, it comes with spoilers.

The quest of the Prometheus is repeatedly stated by multiple characters as one to "meet our makers." What this means to the different characters is evidenced in their reactions to events and is the core question of this movie-- why do we seek divinity and what do we expect from it? For a science fiction film, this is actually a deeply theological piece.

The first scientist,Charlie Holloway, is supremely depressed when they initially think all the "engineers" are dead. He reveals that his big goal was to talk to one. To stand on an equal footing with his creator and show him how far we had come. To him, this is a chance to prove us, and by extension himself, as the mature equals of those we might consider gods. Although one might accuse Charlie of hubris, I prefer to see this as an urge to "come of age" as a species.

Peter Wayland, the enigmatic founder of Wayland corporation and the sponsor of the mission, seeks the answer to mortality. To confront it and to defeat it. To that end he built a humanoid replica of himself in the Android David, but just creating something that mimics himself that could live forever wasn't enough. He wants to defeat death for himself.

What is death and how can we overcome it is a common reason humanity looks to divinity and religions have answered that same question in many different ways over the course of human civilization.

They key to understanding Elizaberth Shaw, the second scientist, is the revelation through the movie that she lost both of her parents at comparatively young ages and she herself is wrestling with her own infertility. She is looking to her makers for meaning. Why do bad things happen. What is the purpose? Do we do something to deserve it? Again, a common theological question. She ends the movie still seeking the answer to that question from her makers.

The last, and in some ways most interesting character, is the character of David. In part he is the Greek chorus. He stands outside of human questions and desires. In his comment "sometimes one must destroy in order to create", he dares to suggest the most unpalatable answer of all-- that our makers care no more about us one way or the other then we might about the bacteria in a petri dish. Something to be grown, examined, and then thrown away to make way for the next experiment.

The only thing driving his actions for most of the movie are the orders of his own creator. His only true wish, we discover in the end, is to be free of them. The quest for autonomy from our creators is embodied in him.

In the end, this is a very interesting film dwelling in the place where psychology and theology meet. Just as an action film, its probably a 6.5. As i mentioned above it is certainly not as tight as Alien was. But it is also far more ambitious in content. Add in the deeper meaning and musings and I think it deserves an 8.

Godspell (1973)

I love this movie

[9/10 · 2 July 2012]

I come back to this movie every decade or so of my life, and I always walk away in love with it again.

While in content it might diverge a bit from standard canon, in its soul i have always felt it was the BEST and truest to the essence telling of the Christ story ever made.

Jesus after all, WAS a peace-loving, communal-living, drug-sharing hippie. (What drugs you ask? I remind you that the drug of choice in the time and place was alcohol, and refer you to a certain marriage scene in Cana.) Just like the hippies of the 60s, he violated the social and moral conventions of his day in order to say that there was a better way to live.

JC Superstar is a far more impressive literary work. But Godspell to me says it all without the confusion and pretension that has crept in in the past 2000 years.

Deja Vu (2006)

Uneven but engrossing

[7/10 · 31 May 2011]

This is an interesting pair of movies.

I say that because it really *feels* like two movies. 2/3 of the movie takes place in the "present" spying on the past. That plot line is a tight investigative thriller with a very clever spin on the genre-standard car chase. It fully resolves with the catching of the terrorist.

Then the movie goes on to suddenly turn into a time travel movie, and this part is not as tight or as satisfying. After being told that the mass of an object determines the power requirements to send it back in time, and establishing that sending a piece of paper back in time in the first 2/3 practically blacks out New Orleans, they somehow send all of a not small Denzel Washington back in time without a lot more impact. Odd to say the least.

The only idiot-plot moment of the film also occurs in this last 1/3 when Claire, on spotting the terrorist returning to the ferry, does NOT go tell the police right behind her, as she was instructed and who undoubtedly have radios to warn the police on the ferry, but instead decides to chase him. How she even gets ON the boat is a bit of a mystery since we see the terrorist JUST make it on before the gates are closed before she even starts running for it.

All in all, this last 1/3 is so sloppy compared to the first 2/3 it makes one wonder if it wasn't tacked on by a studio demand for a "happy ending."

Still its an entertaining film and the last 1/3, if a bit weak, maintains a good pace and carries you to the end.

Edit: It recently occurred to me that the first 2/3 of the film can also be viewed as an interesting allegory for the "imaginary" relationships we have in the modern world. His falling in love with, and in a real sense constructing an imaginary relationship, with this woman he by definition cannot interact with but only observe parallels our modern day obsession with media figures and "internet friends."

Franklyn (2008)

A thought provoking film but not in the way some people think

[9/10 · 15 March 2011]

I am frankly surprised almost to the point of shock that so many people have such a hard time following this movie. It is very straight forward in its story telling. The only reason i can imagine anyone *not* following it is either (a) confusion by the mislabeling of this film as a science fiction film (its not, its a psycho-drama) OR (b) geekish yearnings to make the sci fi setting 'real'.

The ironic thing about (b) is that those people who do twist the world in such a way are, in fact, illustrating what this movie is all about-- which is the human ability to divorce ones perceptions from reality.

The main characters exist in a spectrum of dissociation.

(1) David/Jonathan Priest is a recently returned war veteran who is dealing with the trauma of the senseless death of his baby sister. Of all the characters, he is the most disassociated from reality-- to the point where he has created an entirely divergent internally-consistent reality for himself. We would call such a person "dissociative" or "psychotic" normally, but this movie shows him not as unique but merely as an extreme in a continuum of human behavior.

(2) Milo created a fantasy friend. "Sally", as a child to cope with the death of his father. To him, Sally is part of his reality, a part that again is only part of his own perceptions. When his life hits a crisis of loneliness in the loss of his fiancée, he brings Sally back into his world. Again, we would view this as a lesser form of disassociation/psychotic break by our normal yardsticks. But there are even more shades here.

(3) Emelia has also created a break with reality because of trauma, in this case her childhood abuse (sexual is suggested but never totally stated) by her father. Choosing to forget that and remember it as stories, not reality, she has substituted a desperate longing for a father that she thinks she lost, though chances are he never really existed as she remembers him. Rather then blame herself for the sexual abuse (as victims commonly do) she has substituted a blame of her mother for "taking her father away." She acts out her inner turmoil and attacks her mother through staged "art" suicides. It could be argued that these are also her attempts on some level to punish herself, but thats never developed in the movie. Nonetheless it generally takes either severe depression or severe guilt to bring one to the brink of suicide.

(4) David's father has the same trauma that David has-- the traffic accident death of his daughter, David's little sister, In his case, he is clinging to a hard line religious explanation. That it was God's will and God's actions. This gives a senseless and horrible death, a little girl struck down by a car, meaning and allows him to deal with it. It can be argued however that this TOO is a disassociation from the reality that random horrible things happen without purpose or reason. That is a reality that many people we would consider "normal" to flee from and make up stories to hide behind instead.

And in the end thats what this movie is about, as explained in the "story" that "Sally" tells Milo about the story teller who built a perfect world, but in the end walked away from it because it wasn't real.

And the real and only question this movie leaves is that: what stories do WE live in rather then dealing with reality, and which is really better? Is believing in a cold, uncaring, random world more healthy just because it is "real"? or do we as human beings by our very nature live in worlds of fantasy in order to function?

As for the final shot of the bucket and mob without the janitor by it, that is open for debate, but I see it as a "tease".. daring US to interpret the janitor's part in the film not as just one more random element in a random world, but as something with deeper and perhaps mystical meaning. The author leaves that for us, the viewers, to weave fantasies about.

Tron: Legacy (2010)

Pretty but ultimately unexciting

[6/10 · 24 December 2010]

In this move, TRON stands for Tropes Recent Or New. What plot there is, is so derivative as to be a check list of elements from recent popular science fiction films, classic (some might say hackneyed) general tropes, and bits from the original TRON.

The graphics while pretty and updated nicely to a 2010 look, are ultimately exactly what you would expect from a TRON done today with today's equipment. No less, but sadly also no more. 3D animation holds the power to show us things we've never imagined before. Be it Avatar, or Speed racer, those movies had fresh new looks that excited me as a viewer and took me someplace new. The world of TRON:Legacy however is a familiar one to anyone who knows the original TRON. Watching this was sort of like playing the "updated" version of a classic game. Yes the detail is much better, but there really isn't much "new" here to excite you.

As for the patchwork thing we might loosely call a "plot", it too has lots of the familiar to it. Much of it seemed lifted from The Matrix series, which the film-makers have already admitted they studied. The "Zen in an artificial world" thing was very present, and the female lead was what you would get if you slammed the female lead of the original TRON against Trinity in the Matrix. (Although I ultimately found trinity a much more interesting character.)

The car she drives when we meet here is pretty much a "digital bat mobile" with much of the same look and abilities as seen in the second recent batman movie. Again however, I found the original more interesting.

The character of Zeus again seemed lifted with only minor changes from The Merovingian in the matrix. Dressed in all white, he is effeminate where as the Merovingian was french-- not much difference to most Americans. The are both served by pale white servants-- the merovingian by the albinos and Zeus by Nordic blonde. And they both are trying to play both sides against the middle, albeit again the Merovingian does it in a much more interesting manner.

The bad guy, CLU, a reflection of the senior Flynn's vanity literally born from a Digital mirror, is a product of creator hubris-- a plot element so old we can trace this trope back to the Greeks. TOld to create a "perfect digital world" he becomes fascist dictator with all the expected nods to Hitler and the Nazis.

The rest of the plot is by the numbers predictable, mostly skipping the "first time" in the "tell it three times" rule and just handing us really obvious visual clues of what was soon to be "revealed".

Totally missing from the film is the explanation of how "Tron" turns "bad". Near the end of the movie Flynn senior Asks rhetorically, "Tron what happened to you". At that moment I thought "Yeah I've been wondering the same thing for an hour..." Its never answered.

Finally, the writers missed an excellent opportunity to add 3 words to the movie that by themselves could have deepened the film significantly. In the end CLU, asks his creator, "Didn't i do what you told me to?" and then asks "Why would you destroy all this for him?" Referring to Flynn junior. To which the Senior Flynn responds, "He is my son."

The next words SHOULD have been from CLU's mouth -- "What am I?"

Alas, they weren't.

The Man from Earth (2007)

An interesting "Small movie"

[8/10 · 24 December 2010]

With about a half dozen actors/actresses and all shot inside and outside a little cottage, this is an interesting and thoughtful movie.

If "science fiction" to you means spaceship dogfights and laser-swords (which is more properly "science fantasy") then you won't get this film. This is a film about ideas, one main one, and the impact that discovering something that breaks all your deepest held beliefs has on people. We the audience, just like the characters in the film, are caught in the grip of a tale that seems too challenging to be true.. and too wonderful to *not* be real.

The writing and acting is top notch and makes this movie, which could have easily been a stage play, gripping throughout. It has a small twist to its ending... just enough to surprise and delight the viewer and put a nice "cap" on this very thoughtful musing.

I should add that this film was well researched, including many current historical theories and melding them together into one compelling narrative.

If you get bored in movies without fast cuts and things blowing up, again, this movie isn't for you. But if you like to play with ideas and are a student of human behavior, don't miss a chance to see it.

Afterword: In an ironic twist to a movie about what happens when people's cherished or well held belies are challenged, reading many of the negative reviews here will show you exactly what the movie is exploring in real life.

Eden Log (2007)

Moody, serious science fiction

[8/10 · 15 November 2010]

The first thing that must be said is that this is science fiction, not science fantasy. If you are looking for light and easy escapist fair, give this a big miss.

This is not an easily accessible movie, its a movie where you, like the protagonist, are constantly trying to put fragmentary pieces together into a coherent story. Your struggle in your seat to understand what you are seeing parallels his struggles both to understand and to escape. This makes it a very powerful movie but not an easy movie to watch.

The film-making here is just top-notch. Done in a muted almost black- and-white pallet it feels brooding and claustrophobic. All of the camera wok is hand-held, but don't worry if "Blair Witch" or "Cloverfield" made you ill, this is mostly steadicam work and thus much less shaky.

When the french do science fiction, it always has a strong sense of style and this film certainly qualifies. In this case the style is organic mixed with decaying technology. Sort of Alien-esque in the depths of the earth. The feeling of entombed-ness actually makes it more claustrophobic then Alien was.

As many others have commented, something about the film-making ends up "feeling" much like a video game, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing for a generation who has grown up on this kind of story-telling. While it may feel a touch unnatural to some of us older folks, I suspect it works well for its primary audience.

All in all, this is a fine movie with a bit of a relevant social allegory to it. You may not understand absolutely everything that you see, but if you are willing to work at it a bit, it will heavily engage you and leave you with things to think about.

American Beauty (1999)

An unusual gem from Hollywood

[9/10 · 9 July 2010]

Hollywood has its own language that doesn't exactly mean what you'd expect it to. A "High Concept" movie is a movie whose entire plot can be summarized on one 3x 5 card or a phrase like "Jaws meets Starwars!. Not exactly deep.

This movie is anything BUT high concept. A deeply philosophical movie, for most of the film you may wonder why you are watching it as it seems little more then the depressing portrait of a middle class man in a simultaneously poignant and boring midlife crisis. I didn't know why I was watching this movie until the last line of the film... where suddenly it all became clear.

And that it takes until then means it hits like a ton of bricks and leaves you really thinking.

Really a brilliant movie. How it got a green-light though, is beyond me.

Cube (1997)

Crucible meets torture-porn

[6/10 · 17 June 2010]

This movie is, really, a pretty basic and pedestrian crucible story. A bunch of characters are thrown into a situation that seems out of their control and have to try to work together to solve it.

In the process they are picked off one by one with gruesome death traps. That's the torture-porn part.

From such pedestrian beginnings however comes what is, at times, a surprisingly engrossing film. You find yourself caught up in the same questions facing the characters: why are they here? what is this place? why did someone spend a whole lot of money building something with essentially no purpose other then to confuse people and kill them horrifically?

Alas, the main characters never learn the answers to any of these questions and neither do we. We just get to watch them struggle and die in ways that are sometimes believable, sometimes not, and always over- the-top.

The film-making craft here is excellent and the director manages to make you believe an entire environment with just a single set that consists of 3 walls, some make-up and models, and a bit of CG. Visually, the movie is stunning in its elegant simplicity and that's its strongest point. Unfortunately, the death scenes, while dramatic, often strain believability. A good example is the first one, where someone is "diced" by what we can presume is a mono-filament wire grid. People, however,are not bricks of cheese that fall apart in cubes. We are much more akin to a tomato or a water balloon and the effect used thus, while visually appealing, makes no sense at all.

But, in general, sense is not this movie's strong point. Film- making,and to a lesser extent , acting, are. And there it shines as a brilliant example of doing film on a tight budget.

Highlander: The Source (2007 TV Movie)

The curse of the Highlander

[2/10 · 21 February 2010]

"There can be only one..."

Decent Highlander movie that is. When i saw this used for four bucks at my local second hand DVD shop I thought "what the hell. The TV show was reasonably silly fun. Maybe a movie based on the TV characters wont be as wretched as the other attempts at Highlander sequels." Well, the writing on the TV show was War and Peace compared to this claptrap.

The dialog wander the gamut between stupid and painful. At least the Kurgan had a reason for mouthing some modern slang-- he had actually lived through all time. But this "newly awakened ancient guardian" just sounds forced when he makes pop culture references. And the self- referential nonsense of singing a snatch of quoting one of the Queen songs from the original Highlander does nothing but remind everyone in the audience that this script was just too dumb for even its own writer to take it seriously.

The original Highlander still stands as a brilliant, best of breed B movie. This crud wouldn't even make the grade as a made for TV special.

Oh and the sudden shift at the end of the movie from location shooting to a set that would have made Chuck Jones proud didn't help any, either.

But the worst thing of all is, its a tease that never delivers. "The Source" and its connection to human history and the Immortals is never explained.

All in all, you'ld have more fun in the bath for 90 min then watching this movie.