Movie Review

Movie reviews

9 Sep 2011

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Repeaters

Note: If you are looking for the song played at the end of Repeaters, check this post – Breakneck Speed, the song at the end of Repeaters

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Repeaters aka Groundhog Day Redux

A gritty mind-bending thriller about three twenty-somethings who find themselves in an impossible time labyrinth, where each day they awaken to the same terrifying day as the preceding one.

Director: Carl Bessai

Writers: Arne Olsen (creator, screenplay)

Stars: Dustin Milligan, Amanda Crew and Richard de Klerk

The other day, I sat down and watched this movie, Repeaters. I hadn’t previously heard of it, but saw that it was recommended here and there as a new sci-fi-ish movie that was worth a look. All-in-all…it was an okay movie. Just okay. I mean, your mileage may vary, but it’s a decent watch.

I suppose it’s impossible to talk about this movie without first talking about Groundhog Day. And I KNOW you’ve seen Groundhog Day. If you haven’t, then you should immediately get a copy however you choose and watch it before reading anymore of this article. Go ahead…I’ll wait.

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Now, if you’ve seen Groundhog Day, you probably walked away from it thinking something like: “If that was me, I would’ve (insert heinous/criminal act)” – Well, Repeaters is sorta like that. But instead of Bill Murray, it’s three twenty-something-year-old recovering addicts…in rehab. Yes…hilarity ensues.

Well, not really. This is a very serious and dark movie. There are scenes and situations that will make the darker-hearted of us laugh…but they might make some of you cringe as well. Is it a very good movie? I wouldn’t say so. But it’s adequate.

The Characters in Repeaters

It’s a Canadian flick which I didn’t know until after watching it. It stars a few faces you may remember like Dustin Milligan, Amanada Crew (both were in Final Destination 3) and Richard de Klerk. All three of these actors have spent a lot of time doing television (US and Canadian), so they’re not exactly newbies to the screen.

The script called for a few scenes that were supposed to make you feel something for these people, but in the end, I didn’t really care. The actors performed within the confines of the lines given them, but none of them transcended their roles in any way. Well, Richard de Klerk gave it a good try. I think this may be one of those movies where the script is better than the final product.

Ultimately, I think this movie is asking us what would we do if we knew each new day started with a clean slate, no matter what you may have done the day before. I’m sure there are also a few metaphors involving addicts and how, to them, each day is just like any other when your sole raison d’etre is chasing that next fix.

I don’t know. But the Canadians certainly loved it. I found it an entertaining escape and well worth a watch. Maybe with a friend or two and some smoke in the air. There’s enough tension and action to keep your eyes on the screen. There’s also enough to drive some deep philosophical and intellectual discussion…if you’re into that sorta thing.

I think this movie would have been so, so much better…if Groundhog Day didn’t exist.

Where to Find More Information on Repeaters

There’s an official website as well as a Facebook Page

For more info and discussions, you can check IMDB

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By: Silencio Barnes Movie Review, Reviews Tags: Amanda Crew, Arne Olsen, arne-olsen-repeaters, Bill Murray, Canadian, carl bessai, Dustin Milligan, ending-song-in-the-movie-repeaters, ending-song-repeaters, final destination, final destination 3, Groundhog Day, IMDB, movie, Repeaters, repeaters-canadian-movies, repeaters-ending-theme, repeaters-movie-review, Richard de Klerk, sci-fi, Thriller

18 Apr 2010

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James Cameron and Avatar

Now that all the hype has died down…relatively speaking, I guess it would be okay for me to say a few words about Avatar (no, not the Last Airbender:)).

James Cameron proved, once again, that he could make and hype a movie towards box office gold. If for some reason you do not know who James Cameron is, well, then you’ve been living in a hole for the last two decades. Alternatively, if you have been watching any movies at all over the last two decades, then you have probably seen a James Cameron film. The man has written and directed a plethora of hits. Some of them are favorites of mines. Some of them are favorites of yours as well. Terminator 1 and 2, True Lies, Aliens and of course, Titanic, just to name a few. Not bad for a foul tempered Canadian eh?

I found Avatar to be lite fare. Other than the technology used to create it, it didn’t break any new ground as far as storytelling is concerned. You have heard this tale before, maybe you read the book or seen the movie (dances with wolves?), but it’s an old story. That’s not to say that it isn’t told well. Most stories are rehashes of old ones…well, technically, ALL stories are rehashes of old ones.

This is the story of what happens when Corporate Greed and Manifest Destiny arrive on the shores of a foreign land. They find the natives are sitting on top of the mother load of something that they want. We have plenty of real world examples of what that means. This is also the story of a crippled white soldier “going native”…yea, you’ve seen the “going native” story before as well.

Other than that, I don’t need to get into too many story details. Either you’ve seen it already or plan to get the DVD/Blu-ray. One of the points I am making here is, if you never see it, rest assured that you are not missing anything as far as stories go. You already know this one.

However, outside of the story, Avatar shines as imaginative eye candy. Cameron waited until the technology was just right to create the CG characters and gorgeous, gorgeous backdrops. The world of the Na’vi is rich, verdant, and beautiful. I’m not sure how all this will translate to the small screen, but on the big screen it’s awe inspiring.

Now when the visuals and story are put together, ahhhhh, now you got something. I know I may have sounded a bit disparaging about the plots lack of originality, but despite this, the visuals are what bring it to life. The visuals are what make you want to sit through that story. To see it acted out in meticulously crafted detail.

Of course, true to form, Cameron managed to fit a love story into Avatar as well. It serves to move the plot forward despite it being between a disabled former marine and a nine-foot tall blue alien. All in all, I think of Avatar like a fine Disney cartoon movie (with swearing and no one breaking out into song), and that’s not a negative remark in any sense of the word. It operates on the same level as some of Disney’s finest animated films. Action, adventure, humor, a love story, a moral lesson or two and maybe even something to think about.

You can probably even still find it in theaters…they are certainly milking it for all it’s worth. And I think, it’s worth quite a bit. See it, if you haven’t already.

Read the Avatar Screenplay / Script

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Avatar.html

https://silenciobarnes.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/JamesCameronAVATAR-1.pdf

https://silenciobarnes.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/JamesCameronAVATAR.pdf

The subject of this post was suggested to me. See this post for more details.

Purchase Avatar on DVD or Blu-ray from Amazon

Avatar on IMDB
@officialavatar
The Official Avatar Website: http://www.avatarmovie.com/
The Official Avatar YouTube Page
The Avatar Wikipedia Page

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For General Reviews by Silencio Barnes

By: Silencio Barnes Movie Review, Reviews Tags: audio-book-avatar-james-cameron-free-download-and-streaming, Avatar, Avatar screenplay, Avatar script, avatar-cameron-free-english-game-audio, avatar-movies-james-caneron-sound-track-free-download, avatar-streaming-james-cam, cinema, Dances with Wolves, download-james-cameron-avatar-book, film, James Cameron, james-cameron-audiobook, Last Airbender, movie review, movie trailers, movies, Na'vi, Review, sci-fi, science fiction, script included, trailer, vid included

alice_in_wonderland_by_sanguisgelidus-d4zglom

23 Jul 2009

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Alice In Wonderland

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad.
You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

This post was originally for Tim Burton’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland movie. Since then, that movie has come and gone, and even spawned a sequel. And while I was excited about this one…I was ultimately disappointed by it. But that’s me. Below you will find a lot more information on Alice in Wonderland in general. Enjoy.

Alice In Wonderland (Live-Action)

Tumble down the rabbit hole with Alice for a fantastical adventure from Walt Disney Pictures and Tim Burton. Inviting and magical, ALICE IN WONDERLAND is an imaginative new twist on one of the most beloved stories of all time. Alice (Mia Wasikowska), now 19 years old, returns to the whimsical wor…

…Who is this Alice Character?

If, for some reason, you don’t know what Alice in Wonderland is, or is about…then, well, I don’t know. Where did your childhood go? It’s basically a tale of fantasy and whimsy that has influenced the world and the people in it for over a century now. If you’re really unsure, just try the Wikipedia link. It will tell you everything you need to know, and then some.

For writer’s and other artistic types, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a treasure trove of ideas and inspiration, no matter what medium you create in. It’s also highly quotable and equally misquoted.

Read the Original Story for Free

The story has been around for so long that it entered the public domain. That means the story is free to the public. You can even make works of your own based on this property without the need to get permission or pay anybody.

You can find the original story and many of its iterations for free – There are even comic book, TV, manga, and porn versions. Here’s a wikipedia article that gives you an idea of just how many iterations are out there.

You can download a free pdf copy of the first edition of the book with its sequels for free
- https://silenciobarnes.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Carroll__Alice_1st.pdf
Read or Download an HTML version here
- https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/alice-table.html

Honestly, you can find the story everywhere online free of charge. You can still purchase various different types of copies of it at book stores – and that’s just the book.

We didn’t even talk about Disney’s now classic animated version, which is the version most familiar to people currently alive.

Alice in Wonderland

Celebrate a very merry un-anniversary in the whimsical, fun-filled world of Walt Disney’s masterwork of animation, music and fantasy — ALICE IN WONDERLAND SPECIAL UN-ANNIVERSARY EDITION, a 2-disc set complete with never-before-seen bonus features. Follow Alice as she chases the White Rabbit on a…

Also, special mention must go to the excellent SyFy mini-series Alice. I highly recommend it.

Alice

Abandoned by her father as a child, the independent twenty-one-year-old Alice is accustomed to men being unpredictable, but Jack Chase is something else. Just moments after surprising her with a rare family ring, heas suddenly kidnapped by two thugs and driven into darkness. It is then that Alice…

This is Only Just the Beginning

None of this really scratches the surface of what Alice and her adventures in Wonderland has done for the imaginations and enjoyment of people around the planet. Explore some of these resources and see what it’s all about. This article doesn’t really do the subject justice as it’s just my attempt to transform an old article to keep it relevant. So if you’re a purist, please forgive me.

By: Silencio Barnes Book Review, Movie Review Tags: Alice, Alice in Wonderland, alice-in-the-wonderland, alice-in-the-wonderland-character, alice-in-wonderland-characters-tim-burton, aliceandwonderlandcharacters2009issue, aliceandwonderlandtrailers, aliceinwonderland2009, aliceinwonderlandandphilosophytrailer, aliceinwonderlandcharacters, aliceinwonderlandcharacterstimburton, aliceinwonderlandofficialwebsite, aliceinwonderlandtimburtonallcharacterpictures, aliceinwonderlandtreshercat, books, classic literature, Disney, Lewis Carroll, Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, movie trailers, movies, public-domain-alice-in-wonderland-music, SyFy Alice, vid included

24 Jan 2009

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My Bloody Valentine 3D

My Bloody Valentine 3D (Two-disc special edition)
Amazon.com: My Bloody Valentine 3D (Two-disc special edition) : Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Patrick Lussier: Movies & TV

It had dawned on me just the other day that I had never seen a 3D movie in the theatres before. I was still under the impression that 3D movies rendered everything a shade of red and blue and were pointless to see. I told a friend about this, and the next day she suggested that we go see My Bloody Valentine 3D.

I had no intention of ever seeing this movie as it looked like, from the previews, so much junk. My friend told me the people at her job were saying the movie wasn’t “all that” but the 3-D effects were good and worth the price of admission.

Off to the Theatre to See My Bloody Valentine 3D

My Bloody Valentine 3D is a remake of the original My Bloody Valentine, which was a 1981 Canadian slasher flick with a large cult following. Mostly the names and overall storyline are kept intact with only a few differences.

The movie opened on January 16, 2009, and I went to see it with a friend on January 23. I was surprised to see that the line for this movie was literally out the door. The theatre was packed with couples and teenagers. Even before we got in, there were several young teenagers attempting to get me to buy tickets for them, which I tried to do, before I learned the ticket prices were 2.5 dollars extra for 3D movies (the poor kids didn’t give me enough money). This upset me, but I paid anyway then it was off to stand in another long line to get into the movie. There was another couple of teens that asked me if they were checking ID, and if they were, could I say they were with me. I agreed to this and off we went.

Our showing was packed, just about every seat filled. The previews weren’t much to talk about except some new action flick that I forget the name of and my first look at the preview of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, which I did not know was even in production. But all right, let’s talk about this here movie.

The Setup and the Plot of My Bloody Valentine 3D

It’s a slasher film, are you really worried about the plot? I know that I am, I need a plot, something, anything…and this movie did have one. It wasn’t even a bad one…that is, until the movie’s “twist” ending, which throws the whole plot out of the window and into the garbage. A sleepy mining town is struck by tragedy when a mining accident results in a cave-in, killing several mine workers. Oddly enough, it’s found that the miners were not killed in the cave-in, but by what looked to be a pickaxe to their heads. Harry Warden is blamed for the murders, but he’s in a coma. The mine owner’s son, Tom Hanniger, is blamed for the cave-in.

A year later Harry wakes from his coma and heads directly back to the mine, where there is a teenage mine party going on…you should be able to guess what happens next.

The bulk of the movie takes place ten years after that event when everybody thinks it’s all over and just a messed up memory. Of course, we know that ain’t true. There is more going on, but unless you plan to actually see the film, you shouldn’t even wonder about it.

The Characters of My Bloody Valentine 3D

The characters in this movie are not as shallow as you would think, but they’re still a bit one-dimensional. They are given mediocre dialogue but play their roles well within the confines of the script they were given…I guess. Here is the main character list, taken from Wikipedia:

Jensen Ackles (of Supernatural fame) as Tom Hanniger
Jaime King as Sarah Palmer
Kerr Smith as Axel Palmer
Edi Gathegi as Deputy Martin
Tom Atkins as Burke
Betsy Rue as Irene
Kevin Tighe as Ben Foley
Marc Macaulay as Riggs
Megan Boone as Megan
Richard John Walters as Harry Warden

Jensen does a good job as Tom, somewhat dark and brooding. Jaime does a good job as Sarah, a little confused about her feelings but sure of her convictions. Kerr plays a good Axel. These are the three that stand out (and why not, they are the main characters), but their performances are still “blah”. And so is everybody else’s. For all the politically correct folk out there, there is one black character, played by the serious looking Edi Gathegi, and no, he doesn’t die. The performances are just making it in this film, but most people don’t attend a slasher film for star-studded quality acting anyway.

The 3-D aspects of the film were a lot better than I thought they would be going in. As an avid movie watcher, I am usually unmoved by shock moments and scary, atmospheric scores. I’m also unmoved by most of the blood and gore in most movies. The added 3D elements did make quite a few people in the crowded theatre jump. And a lot of the stylized, bloody, horrific violence did make some people cringe and gasp. For me, it was just more of the same stuff we’ve been seeing in these types of films for the last decade. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it made the film seem as if it lacked substance.

The 3D is achieved through a technology called Real D. I could immediately see practical uses for it the moment I put on my glasses. A note about the glasses, they hurt. They hurt my eyes, they hurt my ears and they hurt my pride (they were dorky looking). This movie could have done without them, but then, it probably wouldn’t have gotten as many seats filled.

Overall, the movie was terrible, the acting was bad, the story was somewhat entertaining until the end when it became stupid (yes, whatever writer was involved in that mess should be slapped). However, with that being said, the movie is still engaging, in the way that bad B-movies are. So go ahead, if you got nothing better to do and somebody to go with, then by all means, pay your ticket price, pick up your 3D glasses and have a look.

My Bloody Valentine 3D on IMDB and Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Bloody_Valentine_3D
Link to the Trailer

Bonus – B-Roll – Behind the Scene Footage
http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/my-bloody-valentine-3-d/b-roll-i
http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/my-bloody-valentine-3-d/b-roll-ii

Here’s a link to the script: https://silenciobarnes.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/My_Bloody_Valentine.pdf

Here’s a link to the official production notes: https://silenciobarnes.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/pro_notes_30.doc

More Movie Reviews by S. Barnes

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By: Silencio Barnes Movie Review, Reviews Tags: 3-D, 3-D film, Axel Palmer, Ben Foley, Coraline, film, films, Harry Warden, horror, Jaime King, Jensen Ackles, Kerr Smith, Megan Boone, movie, movies, My Bloody Valentine, My Bloody Valentine (film), My Bloody Valentine 3D, My Bloody Valentine 3D script, my bloody valentine production notes, My Bloody Valentine screenplay, My Bloody Valentine Script, Neil Gaiman, Review, Richard John Walters, Sarah Palmer, screenplay, script included, Slasher film, slasher flick, sleepy mining town, Tom Atkins, Tom Hanniger

19 Feb 2008

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Movies That Deserve To Be Seen

Note: This is an unfinished list of movies I think should be seen, at least once. It’s from 2008 and I’ll probably never finish it. There are just too many to list, and I’m much, much too lazy. But, I leave it here for completeness sake. Enjoy

You need to see these movies! If you haven’t seen at least 50% of the movies on this list then you are an uncultured savage!

Some of these movies are just guilty pleasures of mine (e.g., Bill and Ted), and some are movies that move my mind in ways I can’t quite describe (e.g., Children of Men).

All these movies deserve to be seen at least once…just because. I mean, there are so many movies now that one person cannot see them all in a lifetime. So, here is a list you can use to find something entertaining on a whim.

Here is the list in no particular order:

Movies You Need to See At Least Once

I started, but didn’t finish, putting these into categories. The rest of the list will start after the categories

Fantasy Movies

Mirrormask – A pure piece of fantasy – Neil Gaiman
Pan’s Labyrinth – Dark fantasy – Alice in a not so wonderful land
The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring – If you read it you should see it!
The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers – If you read it you should see it!
The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King – If you read it you should see it!

Anime and Animation Movies | Computer Animation

Beauty and the Beast – Truly a Broadway musical, yet animated
Ninja Scroll – Some classic anime – very, very good stuff
The Incredibles – Pixar doing what it does! And yes, this is a movie for the WHOLE family to enjoy.
Blood – The Last Vampire
Ghost in the Shell
Mezzo Forte
Kite
Princess Mononoke
South Park – Bigger, Longer & Uncut

Science Fiction Movies | Science Fantasy Movies | Science Fiction Comedy

The Fifth Element – Watch for the Diva
Gattaca – Very good science fiction – Near future
Children of Men – Probably an accurate assessment of how we’d behave in such a situation – Near future
Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Serenity

Horror | Horror Comedy

Jeepers Creepers – Unorthodox horror
Jeepers Creepers 2 – More from the Creeper
Shaun of the Dead – A must see for all fans of zombie movies
28 Days Later – The zombie movie redefined
The Evil Dead
Evil Dead II

Comedy | Stand Up Comedy

Eddie Murphy Raw – A little dated but still hilarious
Eddie Murphy – Delirious – Even more dated – Watch before watching Raw
Chris Rock – Bigger and Blacker
Chris Rock – Never Scared
Half Baked

Unsorted List

The Man in the Iron Mask – The later tale of the Three Musketeers
Blown Away – A guilty pleasure of my youth – The Two Coreys
Pulp Fiction – More quotable lines than a bible with the words of Jesus in red
Memento – Short term memory and reverse ordered scenes…but in a good way
The Prestige – Magic!
Street Thief – It almost seems like a real, live documentary of a thief
Faster Pussycat Kill!..kill! – If you want to see where Tarantino gets it from
Batman Begins – The guy that gave us Memento gave us this. Nolan
O Brother, Where Art Thou? – A retelling of the Odyssey – Man of Constant Sorrows
Little Shop of Horrors – Music by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman before Disney
Malcolm X – Based on Alex Haley’s novel (as told by Malcolm) – Denzel at 100%
American History X – All things being equal in American race relations
Clerks – Dante: My girlfriend’s sucked 37 dicks! Customer: In a row?
Clerks II – More pop culture from Kevin Smith
Mallrats – Yup more Kevin Smith goodness…the guy just does good work *shrugs*
Kill Bill, Volume 1 – Tarantino doing what he does best, entertaining us! A mashup of over the top action and kung fu tropes.
Kill Bill, Volume 2 – Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey. A continuation to Volume 1 – both should be taken as one long movie.
Hustle & Flow – It’s hard out here for a pimp!!! Three 6 Mafia got an Oscar for Christ’s sake!!!!! …Three 6 Mafia…An Oscar…
Wild Things – Neve Campbell and Denise Richards…kissing…also, a very good mystery movie too.
Unbreakable
Mystic River
Reservoir Dogs
The Matrix
El Mariachi
Desperado
From Dusk Till Dawn
Swordfish
Thirteen
King of the Ants
Coming to America
Casino
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Kids
American Beauty
12 Monkeys
Knocked Up
Superbad
The Godfather
The Godfather, Part II
7 Grand Masters
Chasing Amy
Big Fish
The Butterfly Effect
Final Destination
Man on Fire
Ong-Bak – The Thai Warrior
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Saw
Saw II
King of New York
Chicago
The Transporter
The Blues Brothers
Crash

Some Obvious Things Are Missing

This list is incredibly subjective and tuned to my personal tastes. Some things the majority considers as classic or must-see, I might not care for or think you should check out. For example, some people may have noticed I didn’t include Scarface or any of the Star Wars.

Remember, this list isn’t done yet. And probably never will be. If you have some suggestions, let me know!

Hot Fuzz

(NOTE: A lot of people have found this article while looking for the Hot Fuzz movie script – I have found links to the regular screenplay, but it seems the interactive screenplay is no longer around.

Hot Fuzz Screenplay source 1

Hot Fuzz Screenplay source 2

If these links die, let me know.)

Hot Fuzz is a police parody movie from the same people who brought us the zombie parody Shaun of the Dead. Those same people being Edgar Wright, who co-wrote and directed with Simon Pegg, who co-wrote and starred. Since I’m such a big fan of both Shaun of the Dead and of Simon Pegg (who also starred in a good but short-lived sitcom called Spaced) I came to this movie expecting it to be extremely entertaining. I expected it to contain slapstick as well as sophisticated humor. And generally, I expected it not to suck.

I wasn’t disappointed. This movie is highly enjoyable. The humor is a fine mix of sophisticated and slapstick (as only the British can do) and it most definitely didn’t suck. But don’t get me wrong, there were some things about this movie that could have been and should have been taken care of before it left the cutting room floor.

The plot. The story centers around a London policeman…excuse me, police officer Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg). Angel is the overachieving, excels at everything in his chosen profession, obsessed with his work type. And his work is being a police officer. He gets a promotion to sergeant but also a reassignment from the city of London to the country. Once there, our hero learns that this place is not the peaceful hamlet it seems to be when several seemingly gruesome “accidents” start to take place. So far so good. The plot is a cliché but as this movie is a parody of police action films, that’s all right, it’s to be expected. But after the first hour and a half of this, the plot degenerates into something ridiculous just to drive the last half hour of the film which brings me to…

The pace. This whole movie is one long build-up to the final twenty-minute John Woo style action fest. The problem with this is that the payoff isn’t as entertaining as this movies’ creators obviously thought it would be. It also means that the first hour and a half of the movie seems excessively long. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very entertaining. I can guarantee that you’ll find yourself laughing out loud even if you don’t want to. You may even find yourself flinching from some of the overly gruesome killing methods displayed in this film. But despite all that, I found myself becoming anxious to see the part of the movie that was advertised, the action. But when I finally got it, it wasn’t at all what I expected. Oh, it was entertaining and very, very over-the-top, but it seemed like too much too late in the film.

Since I actually want people to see this film, I left out a lot to keep from spoiling any of it. I have a few gripes but overall this is a good movie. I suggest you see it the best way you know how.

All in all, excellent setup; shoddy, but no less engaging, execution.

More Info From Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Fuzz

See How Others Rated it on IMDB – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425112/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425112

Hot Fuzz is available cheap on both DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RJO578?ie=UTF8&tag=wofrhofrjo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000RJO578

more movie reviews by S. Barnes

other media reviews by S. Barnes

By: Silencio Barnes Movie Review, Reviews Tags: action, action comedy, action films, audio-clip-of-hello-there, city of london, comedy, Edgar Wright, edgar-wright-parody, hello-there-hot-fuzz, Hot, Hot Fuzz, hot fuzz screenplay, hot-fuzz-hello-there, hot-fuzz-hello-there-sound-clip, hot-fuzz-how-it-was-advertised, how-hot-fuzz-was-advertised, John Woo, London, movies, Nicholas Angel, parody, police action, police officer, screenplay, Shaun of the Dead, Simon Pegg, Spaced, trailer, vid included

28 Apr 2007

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A Scanner Darkly

A Scanner Darkly

A Scanner Darkly is a movie based on the novel of the same name, by Philip K. Dick. I have never read the novel (or anything by Philip for that matter), but being a fan of science fiction and fantasy, I know that this author’s name rings bells in the science fiction community (think Asimov, Bear, Clark, etc.).

I also know that many of his novels and/or short stories have gone on to make or inspire many popular movies such as Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report to name a few.

So I admit that I did enter into this movie with preconceived notions…I thought it was going to be good, like one of those overlooked movies that’s excellent but a lot of people haven’t seen, like Mirrormask (later I learned that this movie grossed about $5 million at the box office and won many film critics’ awards)

Well, I was wrong.

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Based on a popular novel (that by all accounts is simply excellent), written by a popular novelist (circa 1960s-70s, but now a legend), and starring the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder among others; you would think that this movie would be, if not excellent, at least palatable. But what do you get?

Boredom.

That’s right; this may have been one of the most boring movies I have ever watched. I’m not throwing stones at the original work, the novel, because I have never read it, and by all accounts, it is a must read for any fan of the genre; you know, a real piece of literature. I could even see myself really enjoying the novel after watching this movie, but the movie itself just doesn’t work for me.

Why? Well, I’ll tell you.

The visual style. Richard Linklater, who wrote the movie’s screenplay and directed it, is not a new name. He’s written and/or directed such movies as Before Sunset, Bad News Bears (2005), and the School of Rock just to name a few. Well, he decided to use animation and a technique called interpolated rotoscoping (which is animating over live action).

Now, you have probably seen rotoscoping before but didn’t know what you were looking at. It’s used in those old Superman Cartoons, Snow White, and even Monster House. There’s nothing wrong with this technique in and of itself. Even in the examples I named, it seems organic and natural. But, in A Scanner Darkly it looks hyper-artificial. Sort of like a video game from the PS2 age.

Sometimes you can even tell when it phases from pure animation to the rotoscoping animation and it’s a little hurtful to the eye. This movie would have worked better either fully animated or live action, this in-between thing they did just annoys the hell out of your eyes. This style of filmmaking would have worked if there was more action but it seems wasted on a bunch of junkies sitting around talking about nothing.

Which brings us to…

The plot. The plot revolves around a narcotics agent, Fred (Keanu Reeves) doing a sting on a group of supposed drug traffickers. He lives in the same house as them, trying to figure which one of these junkies is the real threat. What do they do? Well, they get high on Substance D (a psychedelic drug that does more to your brain over time than the usual constant exposure to chemical toxins), and they act like fiends (trust me, I know how fiends act). But the twist is that Fred and his counterpart that lives in the house, Bob, are actually one and the same and neither he nor anybody else seems to be aware of this fact.

So is our narcotics agent an addict himself? That’s the question you are expected to ask yourself while watching, or staring, at this movie. I would like to give more details but I expect some of you would like to see this film despite what I say, so I don’t want to give out any spoilers. Feel free to get it the best way you know how and form your own opinion, the critics loved it and many other people did too.

All in all, I realized several things while watching this film that makes me want to read the book. The themes (duality of our own realities and psychological profiles and drugs in America as an ongoing endemic even into the future) are here in the film but don’t really come off the right way. I expect it’s all there in the actual book. It’s definitely not all here in this movie.

The story itself, based on Philips own struggle with drugs, is considered by some to be his darkest tale. I wonder what he would have thought of the film if he was alive.

Philip K. Dick – RIP – 12/1928 to 03/1982

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick

https://bit.ly/PhilipKD

To Download the 1st Draft of the Movie Script written by Charlie Kaufman Click Here (pdf file) –

A Scanner Darkly (1st draft, 20 Dec, 1997)
This unproduced interpretation of the Philip K Dick novel was eventually vetoed, in favour of Richard Linklater’s own adaptation. Kaufman’s draft is very faithful to the source material.

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