Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Experiment 2010

The Experiment 2010

Two fantastic actors together in one small underground movie? With a supporting cast that includes Maggie Grace of Lost and the bad actor, pretty boy Cam Gigandet (Never Back Down)?  How could such a project not be good?  The rest is all bad news.  It was bad.  So bad that this review will be very short.  The Director was Paul Scheuring who worked on like 80 episodes of Prison Break and A Man Apart.  I can't fault the entire movie on him.  Technically it was an adequate, even if low budget, film.

Mostly the movie falls apart on the acting of Forest Whitaker.  Which is sad since I really loved him before this movie and the new Criminal Minds: Suspect BehaviorHis role in Platoon (1986) or possibly one of the best examples of modern acting in his portrayal of Ida Amin in The Last King of Scotland in 2006.  He was totally abysmal as a nice, quiet man corrupted by power in the 'experiment' about prisons.  His side kicks are equally bad, most notable being Cam Gigandet.  He was truly awful.  Adrien Brody (Splice, The Brothers Bloom, and The Pianist) does a good job portraying a character that seems designed to be totally moronic, but even the wonderfully talented Brody can't overcome the rest of the cast.

I rarely dislike movies as utterly as I did The Experiment.  This is not my usual rant about a few points on an otherwise good film.  I am totally surprised by how bad it was.  I would not recommend this film to anyone but a die-hard Adrien Brody fan.  Now that is a quick review!

Gamer 2009

Gamer 2009

Well, I have some interesting news for my friends. Well over a year ago when Gamer came out my friends all got together without me and watched it. Afterwords they told me about how much they liked it. I said that I wasn't sure I wanted to watch it after seeing the previews because the plot was entirely too obvious and it really seemed to offend them.  The mixed news is that I was wrong, and that I was also entirely right. It is a fun movie worth seeing if you like to shut your brain off and see some fast paced action making it much more entertaining than I predicted, but I did nail the plot almost exactly. The action comes at you non-stop throughout the film and the tricks used in the editing room that give this movie a choppy feel makes even the tender moments seem like they are flashing by at a high frame rate. This keeps the audience too drawn in to this thrill ride to see the glaring holes in the plot and the one dimensional caricatures that the majority of the cast portrays.

I also got into it with one of friends over Gerard Butler's acting talent. I still am not sold he is a good actor (The Bounty Hunter counts as serious evidence against his talents), but he did do well with the absolute pile of mule sized dookey that was the storyline and writing for Gamer. This is a story that has been done before in various ways from Death Race and its ilk to the 1994 flick No Escape (a popcorn show I always liked despite it having similar plot holes). It clearly draws a lot of storyline and ideas from the classic 1987 Arnie Sci-Fi action piece The Running Man. Just from the one preview I witnessed, many basic plot devices from The Running Man are clear and obvious. The grueling TV show and the modern arena where convicts fight for their freedom. The obviously 'good' protagonist being wrongly convicted and only joining the games because someone he cares about needs him. The inevitable escape and retribution against the creator of the games. The overblown social commentary. The only thing I got really wrong is that the 'player', Logan Lerman, that controls Butler's character Kable is not part of Kable's wholly foreseeable revenge pattern. In the only twist I didn't see, the smug teenage player turns out to be neither a particularly important part of the story nor an antagonist. 


Butler and Lerman were the only actors that got roles with real depth and they both created believable characters within a movie that actively tried to undermine their efforts. The campy, mono-dimensional characters played by the rest of the troop created a fun atmosphere that almost got me laughing at multiple parts, but the light hearted play (at one point a dance scene with Michael C. Hall and his 'puppets') runs contradictory to the jarring violence and moral weight of the scenes with Butler. The lack of seriousness throughout the supporting characters also made the dark atmosphere of a disturbing dystopian future into an oversimplified world similar to Idiocracy.  The cheesy cameo-fest includes some of the best current TV actors like Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), Alison Lohman (Pasadena), Maggie Lawson and James Roday (Psych), and Sam Witwer (Being Human US Version). A few great supporting actors show up also such as John Leguizamo (Empire, Ice Age) and Terry Crews (Expendables, Idiocracy) plays a villain.  Also the film drags in Ludacris to fill the rapper cameo quota. They were all fun to watch and picking out the duo from Psych got a genuine chuckle out of me, but the cameos seemed forced. I would guess that they were all told to ham it up by the director so I can't really fault the actors, but generally it was bad sitcom TV level acting.

Which brings me around to the directing. It was directed and written by the duo Neveldine and Taylor who worked together as writer-directors on the two Crank movies and wrote the script for the doomed graphic novel film Jonah Hex. Like both Crank films, they capture a lot of great action in short fight scenes and keep a thrilling pace going from the opening to the credits. There are great music choices that keep the excitement upbeat and rarely does the audience have wait between action scenes. They are good action directors, but outside the action shot the film falls short. Since much of the film takes place in an altered reality state they chose to have frequent glitches or frame drops which look good, but feels totally out of place in a technologically advanced future. It is much closer to glitchy internet games from five or more years ago than a cool technical trick from the near future. The purpose of these graphical twitches is to make the altered reality scenes obvious, but they remind me of The Ring (2002) more than Halo. Much of the gore in the film is so over the top it takes on a Romero-esque quality. The story and characters were poorly written and without Butler or a similar ultra-popular action star this movie would be relegated to a cheesy B action/Sci-Fi movie that would seem more at home in the early 1990s with Johnny Mnemonic (1995). With Butler the action scenes and crazy fun pace cover up most of the bad points listed above, but the film still came off too light-hearted for the subject matter.

This film does take on some serious social commentary buried within the 90 some odd minutes of heart pumping action. It is set in a future where a recluse billionaire can buy out the prison system to create a computer game with human avatars. In the world people also play a Second Life style simulation game to act out their fantasies. Neveldine and Taylor decide to cast gamers in a very unfavorable light. The gamers shown in the film are creepy looking old men, a morbidly obese man on a powerscooter, and a rich white teenager all obsessed with sex and violence. I suppose stereotypes do frequently have a kernel of truth, but the directors seem to have actively tried to alienate and insult gamers despite the film blatantly ripping off gamer culture. It also had a great advertising campaign targeting gamers before its launch. Did they intend to alienate and offend their target audience? That would be like making a children's movie where all you show is kids from the special education room blowing snot bubbles and billing it as a movie about genius children made for genius children by a pair of genius children. If Hollywood's concept of gamers is overweight losers they must really dislike one of their core demographics. As a gamer myself I try to disprove these stereotypes by being social and hygienic and it offends me to see these stereotypes reinforced for the sake of a few chuckles. Those chuckles also undermine the films credibility for the social commentary it is obviously desperate to make.

This is violent gory entertainment that is a warning about how the stupid public loves violent gory television which, like its portrayal of gamers, condescends to its own audience. While I find large portions of the core concepts, stereotypes and ideas to be completely offensive, the execution of this fast paced dystopian action flick did entertain. I enjoyed my time watching it and think that anyone who liked Crank, The Running Man, or movies like The Fast and the Furious will get a great kick out of the non-stop action just like I did. While I doubt I could highly recommend this film to anyone, I would recommend it to people looking for some fast paced fun on a Friday night, just remember to check your brain at the door.

P.S.  - I think I just pissed off half of my friends with this reviews... To again placate them I was entertained! *Giant Sad Panda Face*  

P.P.S - After ranting to my roommate about the plot holes in the film, I feel I must also add "Sweet, kind, odorous butt stench" to my list of ways to insult things.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Battle: Los Angeles 2011

Battle: Los Angeles 2011

I have to apologize about taking a few weeks off between reviews.  I went to visit my brother down in Arizona and despite watching movies before I left and while I was down there I never got around to writing.  So I have a couple of movies to review so the next few reviews should come quick, but they will probably be shorter.

The one I want to get to first is the biggest blockbuster hit, Battle: Los Angeles.  This movie had everything that gets me excited about Science Fiction.  It had the big budget special effects, a cast that isn't super famous (I find big named stars often distract in Sci-Fi and Fantasy films), was set in the near future, and had a gritty war movie feel.  Frequently this movie reminded me more of Black Hawk Down (2001) than Well's War of the Worlds with its up close look at a group of soldiers in an extreme situation.  The aliens were a great mix of unknowable yet familiar.  Their small squad tactics mimicked the tactics being used by the marines, but their armaments and bodies remained utterly foreign. The great antagonists combined with the gritty style made me forget at times that I was essentially watching special effects eye candy disguised as Apocalypse Now (1971).

Now to dig into a review before I get too long winded again.  The aliens were great, but so were the protagonists.  The main squad of soldiers were great despite some horrible dialogue writing.  Notables include everyone's favorite tough chick Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar, Resident Evil) doing her usual hard-ass hottie and the reliable Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight, Thank You For Smoking) overcoming some horrible writing to deliver a tough leader as Sergeant Nantz.  One actress could have phoned it in she was so bad.  This could also be a writing problem, but Bridget Moynahan was forgettable at best.

The technical aspects of the film shined really bright despite the B movie scripting and dialogue.  Overall the story was good, but not great and the dialogue was cheesier than another Mel Gibson war epic.  The special effects were spectacular despite the drama surrounding the films effects house Hydraulx (were sued because they made Skyline at the same time which is very similar film).  Music and foley were top notch. The director, of course with the backers and producers, really turned a B movie Sci-Fi script into a high budget war movie.  The camera work was good, but went for a deliberate hand held or documentary style that isn't original enough to stand out after movies like Cloverfield (2008).

Battle: Los Angeles has been a fairly successful movie, but critics tore it up.  It also wasn't the super box office smash that some early press expected when comparing it to other gritty Sci-Fi films like District 9.  The film doesn't really hold water to great war movies like Black Hawk Down or The Thin Red Line (1998) and isn't nearly as good as recent Science Fiction masterpieces like District 9 and Avatar, but it is a great popcorn action flick.  Overall the bad writing and deliberate camp detract from what is otherwise a serious action movie, but the fast paced action did keep me watching with enthusiasm.  I would recommend this movie only for Sci-Fi fans and those wanting a fun action movie with all the campy nature of an 80s film.