Tuesday, February 19, 2008

SENSE SNATCHER


Even though it got lousy reviews, when I watched the latest version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, geniusly titled Invasion (2007), I was hopeful for many reasons...

 1) Jack Finney, author of the original source material, a1955 book "The Body Snatchers”,  also wrote one of my favorites, the time travel romance novel “Time And Again” (1970). Surprisingly that book hasn't been made into a movie yet (Redford was attached at one point), instead it’s been ripped off a number of times, Somewhere in Time (1980) etc.

 2) I’m a big fan of Don Siegel’s original film version, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956).

 3) I'm an even bigger fan of Philip Kaufman’s 1978 remake. I think that version starring Donald Sutherland, is pretty much a perfect thriller. 

 4) I went and saw Abel Ferrara’s 1993 version Body Snatchers, though I vaguely recall not being very impressed. I’m now curious to go back and rewatch it. 

 5) Finney's Pod-people ideas have been used dozens of times from Ira Levin’s cult novel and it’s film version, The Stepford Wives (1975) to more recent junk like  Disturbing Behavior (1998) and The Faculty (1998).

 6) This new version is directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel who made the incredible claustrophobic last days of Hitler flick Downfall, was maybe my favorite film of 2005. Apparently he was fired from Invasion at some point and replaced by James McTeigue director of one of my other favorites from 2005, V for Vendetta

 7) Even though Nicole Kidman seems to have terrible taste in material, I still think she can be a captivating actress (To Die For, last year's Margot At The Wedding) and yeah, she has sometimes can suck as well (Cold Mountain). I still feel she has the potential with each performance to do something interesting (and she is very good in this).

 8) I’m not one of those anti-remake types. Some films can be improved on with an updated take, like the '78 Invasion Of The Body Snatchers did. Some remakes might not be better then the original but I’m glad they exist, for instance I... (this is gonna  be sacrilegious to some of my fellow movie nerds...) l really dug the the 2004 Dawn Of The Dead remake. And hey, as much as I admire Wages Of Fear (Clouzot 1953), I like it’s remake Sorcerer (Friedkin 1977) much more.  

Typically of most modern remakes, the 'new take' that this Invasion offers, is more action, more violence and lotsa car chases and even more car crashes. Instead of an oddball food critic, Donald Sutherland and his weird friends. We have a  Soccer-mom who manages to become Mad Max in a ‘deathproof’ auto.

 

Why do I feel obligated to explain why I watched this mediocre film? 

After all Invasion’s completely forgettable. It’s biggest sin is brainless mediocrity.

I only started this writing because I wanted to ask: Did anyone else who might of  sat through this Invasion, noticed the giant plot holes, I did? I mean, I was jarred awake by what a mess this is, I even rewound to see if I missed something.


SPOILER’S AHEAD:  

For those of you with a life, who won’t waste your time watching this, I’ll fill you in, this versions new ‘twist’ at the end.,,,,  

A happy ending! Hooray! It’s just a curable virus. And you can come back from being a pod person! 

The great actor Jeffrey Wright wasted here playing the ‘explainer’ of all things scientific, wraps it all up nicely for us, with a... scientific explanation!  (Check him out, great in the Shaft remake (2000) double-teaming against the title-hero with super creep Christian Bale


MY BIG QUESTION:  Follow along...

a) Okay, one of the first scenes with Kidman, her kid has a nightmare, she gets in bed with him. 

b) The next morning (Halloween) out of nowhere Kidman’s poddish husband calls, surprising her by announcing he wants the son to visit him, 

c) That night while the kids are trick-or-treating Kidman tells her friend, that her son has been having nightmare for the last three nights, ever since he found out, that he had to go visit his dad.  

BUT, they just found out that morning. The dad just got podized that night before!

Am I right? Anyone? Anyone?

RANTS (from my late night soapbox):  

Maybe I’m making a mountain out of a mountain, but it was one of many questions I had. This just reeked of a messy edit. 

-  Like that jump cutting scene where all of a sudden Daniel Craig went from pitching woo to Kidman to racing around in a cop car with her. Where did that come from? 

-  How did the ex’s neighbor kid end up on the train with her?

-  Why cast Jeremy Northam as the pod-god ex-husband?  The guy’s a really charismatic actor, (see An Ideal Husband  (1999),  Gosford Park or Enigma, both 2001. Etc.). He is not used to his strength here, playing ‘robot’. Though he did remind me a little of charisma-free pod-guy Mitt Romney.

-  Speaking of which: The guy claiming to be a census interviewer, who tries to break in Kidman's door, looked just like crackerjack-ace Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward

-  I generally hate kid actors. And generally find adult movies about “rescuing a kid” annoying.  And I hated this kid.

Maybe because I’m barren and heir-less, I don’t relate to that maternal instinct (whereas I understood in Cloverfield why the kid wanted to go back and save the girl. I thought, yeah, she was so hot, I’d risk my life to get to bang her again, too).

-  Another good actor with nothing much to do here, Daniel Craig. I thought for the longest time his character was gay, and maybe the pods were gonna be an allegory for society denying gay people (hey that woulda been a better film).

Were the ‘twists’ toward the end with his character 'shocking'?  I saw both of his 'transformations' coming from a mile away.  

-  The original is often called an allegory about it’s time (the American ‘pod people’ who went along with and allowed McCarthyism and the phony cold-war paranoia). This new version seems to think it has something relevant to say about our world, but it’s doesn't bother going all the way. 

A background news reports: (when we become pod people) we finally withdraw from Iraq. To me, ironic, since the reason we got into Iraq in the first place was because we are pod-people. Hey, who needs creatures from outer space to control us? We already have greedy corporations, lazy media and pussy politicians! Most Americans are already too apathetic and useless to even bother voting).

-  Since, becoming a Pod-Person proves to be a curable curse, in the end, Kidman's fighting it was pointless. In retrospect she must be thinking, “Why did I bother, I should of just gone to sleep”. Right now at Two AM, that’s what I’m thinking,

-sweeneyrules

PAUL HAGGIS Returns to ROCKET VIDEO TONIGHT

Two time Oscar winning screenwriter and director PAUL HAGGIS (writer/ director of In The Valley Of Elah and Crash. Script credits include Letters From Iwo Jima, Casino Royale, Million Dollar Baby and the up coming Bond film Quantum of Solace) returns to ROCKET VIDEO!
TONIGHT Tuesday, Feb. 19th at 7 p.m. He'll be discussing and signing copies of his latest film In The Valley Of Elah.
Don't miss it!

Joe's Top 5's - Movies You Will Only Watch Because They Are on This List!

#1. The Ruling ClassPeter O’Toole sings and dances as Jesus… and Jack the Ripper! This musical makes Rocky Horror Picture Show look like a Disney film. Find out why we fled British rule. Probably the anti-Lawrence of Arabia.









#2. Ciao! Manhattan – Before there was Factory Girl, there was Ciao! Manhattan! Edie Sedgwick plays herself in this manic montage of heroin induced insanity. Try to keep up. Not even the actor’s have any idea what this movie is about, but it’s a fun ride.








#3. La bete humaine (The Human Beast)Jean Gabin learned how to drive a train and Jean Renoir almost killed his son making this movie! Simone Simon will make you want to jump on the screen and kill her husband for her! A love triangle between a man, a woman, and a train!








#4. Eternal ReturnJean Cocteau has several beautiful movies in his canon, but this plot is as beautiful as they get. Jean Marais will prove himself as one of the greatest leading men in romantic drama history. The best Tristan and Isolde version ever made.








#5. Andrei Rublev – If you’re going to watch a three hour Russian film, make it one by Andrei Tarkovsky. And if you have to watch Tarkovsky, watch this. And then go track down this guy’s paintings. They might actually make you buy into the whole Christianity thing. Some greater inspiration certainly guided his hand.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Joe's Top 5's - Max Ophuls

#1. The Earrings of Madame de…Ophuls showcases story in this delicate dance of formality. You have never seen a piece of jewelry mean so many things to so many people, let alone two pieces. Danielle Darrieux makes you wonder how any husband could be bored with those eyes. But Vittorio de Sica is quick to remind him how tempting they are. Watch the opening scene for the subtlety of Opulsian genius.






#2. Letter From an Unknown WomanJoan Fontaine shows why she is as talented as, if not more than, her more-well-known sister. She goes from an adoring teen rug cleaner to secret-keeping well-to-do aristocrat wife. And you will never doubt a second of it. Louis Jourdan incites the gamut of emotions as the object of her affections. Will he live up to the image she has fashioned for him?







#3. La Ronde – Watch the movie and you won’t need a translation of this title. It’s a small world all right! Find out in 95 minutes just how small. Simone Signoret would almost make me pay for sex. However, it’s the best argument for safe sex ever filmed. This should be shown to kids in high school in lieu of lesser sex-ed films. Oh, yeah, and it’s hysterical!








#4. Le plaisir (Pleasure) – Three stories of the things that drive us. Watch the ultimate use of one camera as we enter the dance hall. But just you wait for the brothel sequence! How did he do it? The man shows his talents thoroughly in this gem.









#5. Caught James Mason fights Robert Ryan for Barbara Bel Geddes! Who will make her theirs? Who will raise the child? Who has any right to own this woman? Why did Jimmy Stewart leave this woman for Kim Novak in Vertigo? The look on Barbara’s face at the dubious ending of this melodrama will haunt you.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Joe's Top 5's - French Movies (other than Breathless)


#1. Rules of the Game (La regle du jeu)Jean Renoir shows just how to live up to your famous name… Make your own undeniable work of art. Everything that Altman attempts to do, and fails to accomplish, in Gosford Park, Renoir perfects. Everyone is the star of the ensemble drama that sets the bar. Renoir even turns in a comic performance that steals the show.





#2. Contempt (Le mepris)Godard. Bardot. ‘Nuff said. Except that it also has Jack Palance as what can only be described as the George W. Bush of movie producers. Or is that redundant? And Fritz Lang playing Fritz Lang. Oh, yeah, did I mention Brigitte Bardot?








#3. Children of Paradise (Les enfants du paradis)Marcel Carne directs the French Gone With the Wind. Although it’s in two parts, be prepared to scramble to put the second part in your DVD player as soon as the first ends. This movie was not filmed in black and white. It’s filmed in black and silver. And it was shot during the German occupation during World War II, literally underground. Remember this when watching the scenes with hundreds of extras. You will never notice that some of them are wearing paper costumes.



#4. Happiness (Le bonheur)Agnes Varda changed the way film was processed in this movie. It’s almost like watching a movie filmed on stained glass. The family in the film is played by an actual real-life family. Oh, yeah and the plot’s not too shabby either.








#5. Girl on the Bridge (La fille sur le pont)Vanessa Paradis. There’s a reason Johnny Depp lives in France. And it’s not the fries. Filmed in black and white, this fantastic story of two kindred souls finding the truth in themselves while surviving the world of traveling circus knife throwers.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

DON'T TOSS YOUR VCR YET - Eyes On The Prize

(Continually we will spotlight films that are only available on VHS and of course are available at Rocket Video)

Maybe the most important videos in Rocket are the 10 VHS tapes that make up the monumental PBS documentary six-hour series Eyes On The Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965 (1987) and the four-hour follow up Eyes On The Prize IIAmerica At The Racial Crossroads 1965-1985 (1990), both directed by Henry Hampton.
For years  Eyes On The Prize had been out of print due to legal issues over the rights to the footage, and Rocket was about the only place you could find it. Recently those thorny issues have apparently been been settled somewhat. Now PBS has been cleared to rebroadcast the epic and sell the videos for educational purposes.
This is a must. It’s a candy shop for anyone who loves historical documentaries. The footage and the recollections from the participants are perfectly placed. And it digs deep. It doesn’t just ‘hero worship’ or mythize it also reveals the in fighting and complicated legal and political shell games played between such titans as MLK, JFK and LBJ

And what a ‘fight the power’ all-star cast... 

Julian Bond, James Bevel, John Lewis, James Meredith, Diane Nash, Rosa Parks, Ralph AbernathyAngela Davis and Medgar Evers. 

With special apearences by Malcolm X, Huey Newtonn and Bobby Seale 

and introducing Police Commissioner Bull Connor as "The Dickhead".

 • Episode 1: Awakenings (1954-1956)

 • Episode 2: Fighting Back (1957-1962)

 • Episode 3: Ain't Scared of Your Jails (1960-1961)

 • Episode 4: No Easy Walk (1961-1963)

 • Episode 5: Mississippi: Is This America? (1962-1964)

 • Episode 6: Bridge To Freedom (1965)

 • Episode 7 - The Time Has Come (1964-1966)

 • Episode 8 - Two Societies (1965-1968)

 • Episode 9 - Power! (1966-1968)

 • Episode 10 - The Promised Land (1967-1968)

 • Episode 11 - Ain't Gonna Shuffle No More (1964-1972)

 • Episode 12 - A Nation of Law? (1968-1971)

 • Episode 13 - The Keys to the Kingdom (1974-1980)

 • Episode 14 - Back to the Movement (1979-mid 1980's)

ALSO OF INTEREST: currently playing on PBS I happened across a documentary on John Lewis called Come Walk In My Shoes (2008). As one of the original students taking part in the Nashville lunch-counter boycotts and later a Freedom Rider, where he was famously almost beaten to death by asshole Alabama state troopers during the march across the bridge outside Selma much of his story is covered in Eyes on the Prize) also told beautifully in David Halberstam’s brilliant book “The Children”).. But this moving one-hour doc updates Lewis’s story, he later was elected to the US congress, and annually takes his fellow politicians on a tour of the freedom march he and others gave their nearly gave their lives for...

-sweeneyrules