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macysboy78
Reviews
Southland Tales (2006)
Loved It
I should begin by saying that I am a HUGE fan of "Donnie Darko." The theatrical cut more-so than the director's cut, although I enjoy it either way. With that in mind, one can imagine how much I was anticipating this, Richard Kelly's first film in 6 years. When I began hearing all the negative press about "Southland Tales" coming out of Cannes last year, I will admit that my enthusiasm was dampened a bit. And the very bizarre casting had me on the fence to begin with. I mean, you wouldn't really expect to see a truly GOOD movie starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, and a host of SNL alums. But I could only hope that I would be pleasantly surprised, and when the trailer came out, I began to feel more optimistic that I might be. Not so surprisingly, the film's VERY limited theatrical run did not include any screenings anywhere near me, so I had to wait for the DVD, which luckily did not take very long.
So, I was both excited and worried as I put the movie on last night. And the first 10 minutes or so, explaining the events of the 3 graphic novels that preceded the movie, did begin to make me lean more towards being worried. However, there where still glimmers of hope, and after the introductions were through and the film got rolling, my concerns began to melt away. The plot primarily concerns an actor named Boxer Santarros (Johnson), who found himself in the Nevada desert with a case of amnesia. He got picked up by porn star Krysta Now (Gellar), and together they wrote a screenplay about the end of the world (which had gotten to be quite a mess by this point). As it turns out, their script was pretty much dead-on as to how things would turn out, and they find themselves wrapped up with the Republican-run USIdent, which monitors everyones every move and harshly punishes anyone that goes against it, and the Treer Corporation, makers of Liquid Karma, an alternative wireless energy source. And while all this is going on, Ronald Taverner (Scott) has been hired by radical Neo-Marxist rebels to help them use Boxer to take down USIdent. He too has been suffering from amnesia, but begins to remember some things, including the existence of his twin brother, Roland, who he sets out to find. And if all that sounds confusing, trust me, that's not even the half of it.
Many critics ripped the film apart, saying it is too convoluted and confusing, with way too many story lines and subplots. Alternatively, many of those that love the film insist it makes much more sense if you've read the graphic novels first. Well, I didn't read the books and I have to say, that even though it was mildly confusing at times, with only one viewing I feel I understood it pretty well. Perhaps there are more subtexts that I didn't pick up on as a result, but I don't think it really detracts from anything. In fact, while this movie didn't blow me away quite like "Donnie Darko" did, I pretty much loved it. The offbeat cast turned out to be perfect for the half-serious, half-satirical nature of the story. Visually the movie was often stunning, with an incredibly epic look and feel for it's reported $17,000,000 budget. And the music by Moby fit every scene perfectly. My only real complaints are that the summary of the books at the beginning didn't really feel necessary and wasn't especially well done, and Justin Timberlake's narration was maybe a little bit overused, as it times it didn't really feel necessary. Then again, seeing as so many people found the film confusing anyway, maybe some people out there really needed it. While this movie most definitely won't appeal to everyone, I found it very entertaining, find myself still thinking about it, and am now thinking I might have to track down the graphic novels, and then watch it again.
Borderland (2007)
Decent Flick
After how much I enjoyed the movies in the first After Dark Horrorfest, I was very excited to see the films in the 2'nd. Seeing as it didn't play in any theaters in my area I was relegated to waiting for the DVD releases, and this past Tuesday I promptly made my way to Wal-Mart and picked up all 8. For no particular reason I decided to watch them in alphabetical order, making "Borderland" my first flick. And it did get things off to a nice start.
The story revolves around 3 friends who decide to spend their last summer together before college taking a trip to Mexico. They stop in a small town near the U.S. border, meet some girls, and have a mushroom-related trip within a trip. Unfortunately, in the process they ran afoul of a gang of drug smugglers that also happens to be a murderous cult. After the first few rather visceral scenes, that make it seem as though this will be yet another "torture porn" fest, the movie slows down dramatically, taking its time to really introduce the characters. While this may be boring to some, I felt it really allowed me to get know and care about them, making everything that followed that much more upsetting. And once things pick up steam again, it really IS upsetting. While I can't say the movie offered up too many moments in which I actually felt scared, it was very engrossing, and frequently horrifying. The fact that much of what was shown was allegedly VERY close to real events only helped add to how discomfiting the movie was. Not the best horror movie I've ever seen, but I would easily recommend it.
Crazy Eights (2006)
Not totally awful, but really not good either...
Unfortunately, the next movie in my After Dark alphabetical lineup was not quite as good. With a cast that has had a somewhat undeserved amount of attention placed on it, "Crazy Eights" is a story of 6 friends, reunited by another friend's funeral, who in following out said friend's last wishes, find themselves trapped in an abandoned medical facility, that as it turns out, holds the key to an event they all shared, but had blocked out of their memories. Despite the somewhat promising premise, the film turns out to be about as well written as my last sentence (can anyone say "run-on"?). The dialogue is generally bad, the plot developments are easily figured out way in advance, and some events come off as just silly. When one character manages to severely break his leg, one can't help but wonder just how clumsy he is to have done all THAT in a little tumble. There are some scenes that seem a bit creepy, but they are all to often ruined by an obnoxious synth-string theme that keeps popping up and/or very sloppy editing. While not exactly awful, this film is not really recommendable. So far, I'm saying this is this year's equivalent of "The Gravedancers" in the first 'fest. And in case you're wondering, that's bad.
The Deaths of Ian Stone (2007)
Almost Brilliant
After sitting through "Crazy Eights" I was very pleasantly surprised by just how good this movie was. Ian Stone keeps dying and then waking up to find himself in another life. He begins remembering some of the things that happened in his previous existences and has to figure out how to put a stop to things. I don't want to give any more of the plot away as this one was actually not immediately predictable. The first half contained many genuinely scary sequences, and although the second portion of the movie seemed to get away from the horror genre a bit, it was still engrossing and exciting. The entire cast did excellent jobs, shots were beautifully set up, the score was used very effectively, and the special effects were almost all well done. Note I said "almost" however. The only reason this movie didn't get a 10 is because of 1 make-up effect towards the end. Without giving anything away, let's just say that one of the "good guys" winds up looking completely ridiculous for quite a few minutes. Like ridiculous enough to sort of take me out of the story. Other than that though, I loved this movie. One of the more original recent horror films.