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Saturday, October 25, 2008

Saw V (Theatre) - Both

The yearly output of Saw is an interesting feat. Is it impressive? Not really, they aren’t great movies. Is it sad? Not really, people still enjoy the films. Is it necessary? Not really, I’m not sure anyone would care if they stop. I have a feeling that it is coming to an end with the much-hyped sixth edition that has a role cast by an MTV show. So the fact that the killer has been dead for three movies might actually finally kill the Halloween juggernaut.

This particular iteration brings us up to date with Jigsaw’s secret apprentice. Supposedly this man had been with Jigsaw after his second or third killing. But not wanting to simply rehash old set pieces there is a new batch of young actors to slaughter in inventive ways. The apprentice is simply carrying out Jigsaws dying wish, and Jigsaw reveals that the apprentice will not fully understand the implications of this particular action until later. I have a feeling this means the sixth movie will reveal some master plan of Jigsaws to eliminate the apprentice. We shall see.

Jennie and I are driven to these films by little more than tradition, and I think we stopped enjoying ourselves in the middle of the second film, but on we trudge. The reason this particular Saw outing was so disappointing was the ending montage.

As most Saw fans have come to expect the last ten minutes are a solid reveal orchestrated to some steady drum and base revealing that which we thought we knew, but were wrong about. The first Saw was the only one to truly do this with any lasting effect, and the fifth Saw does this with the least amount of surprise. They reveal everything we already knew, and nothing we didn’t, a subpar reveal at best.

The acting is straight-to-dvd as well as the directing. Any innovation has since fled the theatre in search for children’s fantasy (a booming genre right now). Maybe in a year or two we will have a horror film that redefines the genre and sends Hollywood running to make a quick buck, but for now Saw will have to do.

By now most have grown weary of this durable brand and are surprised by the yearly treatments. Maybe one day we will live in a land without Saw, but if they are released it looks like Jennie and I will be there. Reboot in 2010?

2 out of 10 - Barely watchable. Not even much to say about it. Beat that dead horse!



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Monday, October 20, 2008

The Fall (Dvd) - Ashleigh

The Fall is a gorgeous film that goes nowhere. The plot is a simple story within a story which is told by an injured stuntman to an injured girl, both of whom are recovering from unrelated falls in the depression era. The little girl is an immigrant who fell while picking oranges while the stuntman had an on the job accident which paralyzed him from the waist down.

This film came to my attention when I was perusing Spike Jonze’s latest films. How is it possible that he and David Fincher where involved in a film and I knew nothing of it. Compounding my interest was the actor who portrayed the injured stuntman, one Lee Pace of Pushing Daisies fame.

Oh, wait, Spike Jonze and David Fincher are only presenting this film. (Whatever the hell that means.) One thing I’m sure that means is that they had nothing to do with the production of this film. Shoot.

Lee Pace’s character Roy tells a grand story of five heroes who vow to kill a man named Odious for one reason or another. Roy’s story is told on an epic scale spanning, the back of the box says, 4 continents as these five men track Odious to his country. The back of the box also informs me that it took four years to craft this film. A fact which leads me to believe they should have spent some of that time on plot/character development.

Roy injects himself and the little girl into the story and will only continue the tale each day if the little girl retrieves medicine for him. Her repeated attempts to follow Roy’s orders quickly show that Roy wants the medicine for more than just pain relief. He is looking to kill himself.

The story Roy tells becomes increasingly dark as Roy’s depression sinks lower, but the relationship between Roy and the girl seems genuine and well constructed, and as the narration slips back to Roy’s hyper color hero tale the construction of character development falls apart.

These brief stints into the imagination of Roy’s tale are scene of great cinematic beauty. I truly believe they shot the film on four different continents, and as the camera angles arc and the focus blurs the line between art and film the eye is presented with a magnificent presentation of the filmmaker’s imagination. But while the scene are saturated eye popping wonders the plot is a dull knife serrating the film’s beauty.

Lee Pace’s skills are truly on display in this film and this is exciting. I feared, while watching Pushing Daisies, that his charm and impish idealism wasn’t true acting and maybe Pace was simply that optimistic. But the juxtaposition of Roy with the pie maker shows that Pace has true range – an exciting proposition for the actor’s future.

Ultimately the tale Pace weaves is the downfall of the entire film as it is not very interesting and often drags. I can’t help but think Tarsem Singh needs to find new writers to work with. His only other film, 2000’s The Cell, was similar to The Fall in that it was beautifully shot but the plot was horrible.

3 out of 10: superb visuals and quality acting are betrayed by the horribly slow and mind numbing plot.



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Saturday, October 4, 2008

Choke (Theatre) - Ashleigh

I would have loved this movie at the turn of the century. I was always in the mode for nihilistic mood altering cinema. I would have found a message to carry away with me. But, since we are no longer in the glory days of pre-millennial film where apocalyptic views were the norm I feel this film misses the mark. Is this because I no longer think that way? Or could it be because the landscape of cinema is so different now that this type of film can’t be given the budget or the creative time that it takes to truly sculpt the nuances of the plot?

I vote the latter.

While the only other attempt to repackage Chuck Palahniuk’s work gleamed in its perfected anarchic dogma, Choke seems to wallow in nothingness. Was there a message for me to take away from the film? I’m not sure. When I read the novel I seem to remember the same empty moral. So perhaps the film did succeed in giving me nothing.

Victor Mancini, played masterfully by one of my favorite actors Sam Rockwell, is a sex addict. And similarly to Palahniuk’s previous protagonist, Victor attends meetings in dingy churches and VFW halls to cauterize his psychological wounds with other similarly afflicted individuals.

Many of Victor’s psychological scars were inflicted by his mother who is willowing away her remaining years in a pysch-ward. As her time approaches Victor attempts to ferret out his true origins from his mother and through this process begins to believe that he is the illegitimate child of Jesus. After reflecting on his life as a devious man he is lead to a revelation of sorts that he can be saved.

Being saved is a major theme in this work as Victor’s other main source of income is from victims of his con. Victor fakes that he is choking in an expensive restaurant and finds a sap to save his life. This sap then is given an overinflated since of power and importance and in turn they send Victor money every month to refresh the act of saving a life in their mind.

Victor reflects after his revelation of his birthright that Jesus didn’t start his good works till he was thirty-three – so why can’t he turn it all around? Though, as the delusion comes crashing down and Victor discovers he was actually abducted from his true family by his now dying mother Victor faces the dilemma of change. He may not be the child of the Christ, but that doesn’t mean he can’t remain a decent human.

The plot seems rather tame as I write it out. And while Palahniuk’s signature oversaturated themes of sex and grit abound the plot does seem that simple. Was I looking for too much from Palahniuk? Was this simply a story of self redemption? Possibly. But I could do with more of Palahniuk’s work.

5 out of 10: Palahniuk’s story is told with marginal success. But it isn’t something I would rush out to see.



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