Hulu has a surprising mix of movies and television shows. Some of them are clearly old films that don't have a valuable copyright. See, for example, The People that Time Forgot. However, some are rather strong movies that are still available on DVD, and that are still making money for studios. The decision to distribute Sideways for free on the internet is a strange one. Then there are things like Species III, all alone without Species or Species II. On the good side of things, there is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Requiem for a Dream, and Lost in Translation. I have been watching some of these movies on Hulu, and I will be writing them up as I watch them. Today, I watched 28 Days Later.
In 28 Days Later, England is destroyed by a highly contagious virus unknowingly unleashed from a government laboratory by animal rights activists trying to save the chimpanzees in which it originated. Within a few seconds of infection, and victim becomes highly aggressive and attacks anyone nearby. That is merely the premise, however, as the action follows Jim (Cillian Murphy), a man who has been in a coma for the titular four weeks. He wakes up in a hospital and wanders a desolate London before being attacked by the infected, and saved by hardened zombie-fighter Selena (Naomie Harris).
Selena and Jim eventually meet up with Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his daughter Hannah (Megan Burns). The four travel together to Manchester following a weak radio signal promising salvation from the infection. The supposed salvation comes in the form of a squad of soldiers trying to reestablish society within the walls of a fortified manor house. Led by a Major played by Christopher Eccleston, the soldiers offer sanctuary to the survivors, but, of course, they are not as safe as they think.
28 Days Later opened in 2002 to strong critical reviews, but I have largely avoided it because of it's a zombie movie. I can handle some zombie movies, but its one of those premises that can get tired after a while. I have no idea why people are still telling vampire stories. I find that 28 Days Later deserves the praise it has received.
It is very well shot. This clearly isn't a B movie or a second rate production in any noticeable way. The filmmakers have made excellent use of the English countryside in their story about the collapse of civilization. The place of nature is a repeated theme throughout the film. From the beginning where animal rights activists accidentally trigger the worst human tragedy, to the loving shots of England's green fields as the four survivors escape London, to a debate among the soldiers at the manor house. One soldier maintains that given the shortness of human history, if the infection were to wipe humans from the earth, that would be a return to normal. Another maintains that since human history is filled with people killing people, the situation they find themselves in is normal.
Not everything is perfect--Selena the hardened zombie fighter is a little too hardened, but of course she softens up through the course of the movie. Harris's performance is probably the biggest weakness in the movie. Gleeson is an excellent character actor who is great in everything, and should be put to work as much as possible. Cillian Murphy is another fairly strong actor, and he keeps turning up in movies that I really like such as Batman Begins and Sunshine. Eccleston is fun to watch as well. The former Dr. Who star doesn't have to do anything special in the role, but he still gives a strong performance.
Overall, the movie is well made and tightly plotted. It pays homage to other zombie movies in subtle ways such as the apartment block in which Frank and Hannah are surviving which echoes The Omega Man and a night attack by the infected on the manor house which alludes to the classic Night of the Living Dead. After establishing the premise, the film shines in the second and third acts where it takes on some deeper themes.
This isn't a perfect film, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do, and I would reccomend it.
"And while I'm alive, I'll make tiny changes to earth." -- Frightened Rabbit, 'Head Rolls Off'
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
New TV!
The TV season is starting again, and that means new TV! Last night Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles season opened with a a pretty decent episode. A decent episode for explicitly bad television. This is a show that I like in spite of itself. Somehow they make mindless fun work. This is what Knight Rider will try to do but will completely fail to accomplish.
This season opens with the aftermath of Cameron's car bomb and the FBI assault on Chromartie's apartment. As the last season closed, Sarah, John, and Cameron were trying to retrieve the Turk, a chess computer that will eventually develop into SkyNet. The man who has the Turk put a bomb in Sarah's Jeep in order to kill her but ended up hitting Cameron instead. Cameron is damaged and reverts to her standard terminator programming: Kill John Connnor. This provides most of the action for the episode as Cameron chases John and Sarah across the city.
At the end of the last season, the FBI had tracked down Chromartie and broke into his apartment only to be slaughtered. The FBI agent (I'll really have to try to remember his name) is left alive and spends the rest of the episode lying to his superiors about what happened. Meanwhile EMT Guy (also don't recall his name) and the guy from 90210 meet up to try to chase down Sarah and John. The biggest development, though, was Shirley Manson as a T-1000 who is running a company that is developing technology that will become the terminators.
Towards the end of the episode, Cameron is squished between two trucks and she resets to normal--that is she decides not to kill John. And thus the season begins with our plucky group of robots, teenagers, freedom fighters from the future set to do battle with Shirley Manson.
Couple things:
The cold open was cool as hell. Has any show ever done anything like that before? It was a solid 3-4 minutes without dialogue. Just visual story telling with a sort of metal soundtrack. The photography wasn't amazing by any means, but it was effective, and it struck me as an innovative way to start the season. It also had a nice symmetry with the final scene from last season with the FBI going after Chromartie.
In Shirley Manson's first scene, it seemed like she was trying to do an American accent. It went away in the rest of her scenes, and it needs to stay gone. I don't think she has the acting skills necessary to do an accent consistently. So, letting her speak naturally will improve her performance and give her character a little more depth.
Buuut, she was playing a T-1000 that likes to hang out in mens' rooms disguised as a urinal. What? Yes. Couldn't she have been a trashcan? And if your staff is small and overworked, would you really want to kill one of them? These robots need to work on their personnel management skills. Step 1. Don't hide in the bathroom. Step 2. Don't kill your staff.
Also, she's a terminator who has come back in time to make sure that future terminators are built. This raises a TON of time travel contradictions, but the most glaring is that it proves that any attempt to stop the creation of terminators is futile since she couldn't come back in time if they weren't built eventually.
More importantly, I started to wonder if this development was at odds with the theme of the original movie. Although it's about killer robots from the future, it really was a movie of it's time. In the original movie (and the second one), it was the government's search for security from external threats and mutually assured destruction that lead to the creation of SkyNet and the end of the world. Without the Soviet Union, why is the government building SkyNet? And shouldn't government scientists be involved in this and not some shadowy private company?
Anyway, better forget all that before next Monday.
This season opens with the aftermath of Cameron's car bomb and the FBI assault on Chromartie's apartment. As the last season closed, Sarah, John, and Cameron were trying to retrieve the Turk, a chess computer that will eventually develop into SkyNet. The man who has the Turk put a bomb in Sarah's Jeep in order to kill her but ended up hitting Cameron instead. Cameron is damaged and reverts to her standard terminator programming: Kill John Connnor. This provides most of the action for the episode as Cameron chases John and Sarah across the city.
At the end of the last season, the FBI had tracked down Chromartie and broke into his apartment only to be slaughtered. The FBI agent (I'll really have to try to remember his name) is left alive and spends the rest of the episode lying to his superiors about what happened. Meanwhile EMT Guy (also don't recall his name) and the guy from 90210 meet up to try to chase down Sarah and John. The biggest development, though, was Shirley Manson as a T-1000 who is running a company that is developing technology that will become the terminators.
Towards the end of the episode, Cameron is squished between two trucks and she resets to normal--that is she decides not to kill John. And thus the season begins with our plucky group of robots, teenagers, freedom fighters from the future set to do battle with Shirley Manson.
Couple things:
The cold open was cool as hell. Has any show ever done anything like that before? It was a solid 3-4 minutes without dialogue. Just visual story telling with a sort of metal soundtrack. The photography wasn't amazing by any means, but it was effective, and it struck me as an innovative way to start the season. It also had a nice symmetry with the final scene from last season with the FBI going after Chromartie.
In Shirley Manson's first scene, it seemed like she was trying to do an American accent. It went away in the rest of her scenes, and it needs to stay gone. I don't think she has the acting skills necessary to do an accent consistently. So, letting her speak naturally will improve her performance and give her character a little more depth.
Buuut, she was playing a T-1000 that likes to hang out in mens' rooms disguised as a urinal. What? Yes. Couldn't she have been a trashcan? And if your staff is small and overworked, would you really want to kill one of them? These robots need to work on their personnel management skills. Step 1. Don't hide in the bathroom. Step 2. Don't kill your staff.
Also, she's a terminator who has come back in time to make sure that future terminators are built. This raises a TON of time travel contradictions, but the most glaring is that it proves that any attempt to stop the creation of terminators is futile since she couldn't come back in time if they weren't built eventually.
More importantly, I started to wonder if this development was at odds with the theme of the original movie. Although it's about killer robots from the future, it really was a movie of it's time. In the original movie (and the second one), it was the government's search for security from external threats and mutually assured destruction that lead to the creation of SkyNet and the end of the world. Without the Soviet Union, why is the government building SkyNet? And shouldn't government scientists be involved in this and not some shadowy private company?
Anyway, better forget all that before next Monday.