Wednesday Double Feature – Cyberpunk Revisited

by on September 11, 2019 at 8:51 pm
Posted In: Test

Recently, I was re-reading William Gibson’s collection of short stories, burning from. Burning Chrome introduces Gibson sprawl setting period the setting that provides the background for such box as new romancer period it also provides a source material for one of the disaster is a science fiction film, Johnny Mnemonic period while I was reading burning chrome, I found out that Johnny Mnemonic wasn’t the only short story from the collection that was made into a film period so I went to scrape the barrel and see if there were any other good cyberpunk films that I had not seen yet.  

Wednesday Double Feature - Cyberpunk Revisited - New Rose Hotel

The film adaptation was New Rose Hotel. This tells the story of Fox and X played by Christopher Walken and William Dafoe to “extraction experts” and specialize in relocating scientists from corporations. Their current target is a scientist named Rosie. To do this they recruit the beautiful sandy to use as a Honey trap period but in the meantime X falls for her as well period 

This was an adequate adaption plot-wise period unlike a lot of sun cyberpunk films, it focuses on the drama rather than the action period there is absolutely no effort made in the setting itself. The only attempt at making anything looking look futuristic is them waiting period for the most part, the only reason to watch this film is defer when walking in the same film period 

Wednesday Double Feature - Cyberpunk Revisited - Hardware

The next film on my list, Hardware , Tells us of a rundown city after an apocalypse period I’ll scavenger fines remains of a killer robot in the desert period he gives it to be scope to girlfriend and of course it comes back to life and reeks havoc period 

Basewomen Judge Dredd shored, this story is probably better than some of the other attendance with bigger budgets period for what that’s worth.  I’ve even heard it as being described as Mega-City one without the judges. Other than that in the tone, though. It’s pretty much just another monster movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr9M7_UGmho
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Wednesday Double Feature – The Adult Cartoon of Ralph Bakshi

by on September 4, 2019 at 9:00 am
Posted In: Test

Recently occurred to me that despite having watched Wizards, Lord of the Rings, Cool World, and the Mighty Mouse cartoon show, I have never watched any of the animated films that Ralph Baksh built his reputation on… You know… Adult cartoons. 

Over the years, my opinion of adult cartoons has changed. While it’s something I would have leaped at in adolescence, after a while it seems that sex and violence in films for their own sake is the slightly more grown-up version of all the ice cream you can eat. That’s not adult, that’s juvenile! So, I thought I’d try and get past all of that and look at Bakshi’s art.

Wednesday Double Feature - The Adult Cartoon of Ralph Bakshi - Fritz The Cat

The first film on our list is Bakshi’s adoption of Robert Crumb’s Fritz The Cat. In the 1960s New York, Fritz is a student, poets, and idealist. In reality, he just a poser who uses his political philosophy as a way to pick up chicks, stumbling through one disaster after another. 

Once you get past the shock value, this film was… Okay. I like Crumb’s original designs with a stark pallet of dark primary colors. The backgrounds are done in a pen and ink colored in watercolor, giving the film, as a whole, a wonderfully unique look. 

I have mixed feelings about the narrative. The plot was all over the place, to the point it’s easier to look at it as the sum as a collection of scenes, with some scenes being much better than others.  All in all, while I’m glad this was done, I just don’t believe the experiment was a success.

Still, it led the way to better things.

Wednesday Double Feature - The Adult Cartoon of Ralph Bakshi - Heavy Traffic

The next film on my list, Heavy Traffic, tells the story of Cartoonists Michael and his girlfriend Carole as they try to survive life in the big city. Like Fritz, this felt like it was all over the place and once again felt like a collection of shorts that couldn’t decide whether they were being brutally realistic or over the top surrealism. These vignettes tied together to create its own story. At the same time, this is very much felt as if it was Bakshi’s personal vision with his own designs and his own look for the film. My favorite being Carole herself who dominates every scene she’s in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tEpd9qMEjc
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Wednesday Double Feature – Old vs New – Dog Day Afternoon

by on August 28, 2019 at 8:59 pm
Posted In: Test

I was watching a documentary on Network whitch pointed me towards Sydney Lumet’s other classic, Dog Day Afternoon. While looking for an appropriate companion, film, I found out there was a remake of it. So I decided to watch them both and do it all versus new.

Dog Day Afternoon tells us the true story of a bank heist in New York City. Sonny Wortzik’s (Al Pachino) plan was simple. All he had to do was hit the bank right after they received a fresh delivery of cash. Then it would be a quick in and out, 10 minutes tops. 

But then, one of his accomplices flakes out and leaves, then it turns out the delivery was actually a pickup and the bank barely had enough cash on hand for the rest of the day, and somebody called the cops. This leads to a 15–hour hostage situation with no air-conditioner on a dog day afternoon. 

This was an awesome and morally complex film, with great performances from everyone, dealing with issues like Stockholm and Lima syndrome, gender (handled remarkably well for the seventies) and media. Also, it showed how a situation can be blown out of proportion by miscommunication and media. Sonny becomes a cause celebrate not so much because people are supporting him, as they are bored and find it amusing to stick it to the man.

In  Nick Cassavetes‘s John Q the story is updated to the next millennium. Denzel Washington plays John Quincy Archibald whose son is dying from an enlarged heart. Having done everything he can to pay for the operation, he holds up the emergency room in desperation. 

John Q isn’t bad, and Denzel Washington’s performance is up to his usual standards. However, the story goes out of its way to make it clear that John Q is in the right, and ultimately everybody is eventually on his side. All the moral ambiguities of the original movies are cleaned away, leaving nothing but a vanilla criticism of the health industry.

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Wednesday Double Feature – Love and Artificial Intelligence

by on August 21, 2019 at 9:00 am
Posted In: Test

The problem with having a favorite genre is sooner than later you’ve seen all of the good stuff. When the biggest rule in your weekly double feature is to only watch films you’ve never seen before, you find yourself really scraping the bottom of the barrel. This is the case with science fiction for me. To keep things interesting you have to be creative. So I found myself mixing romance with artificial intelligence. 

Wednesday Double Feature - Love and Artificial Intelligence? - ex-machina

The first film on my list, Alex Garland’s Ex-Machina. Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) a coder for an alternate he version of Google. He wins a contest to spend a week at the home of the company’s reclusive founder, Nathan Bateman Oscar Isaac.) 

It turns out it’s not just a prize. He’s also been brought in to perform a Turing-test on Nathan’s lifelike android prototype, Ava (Alicia Vikander). Caleb is quickly smitten by the beautiful Ava and finds himself wanting to help her. Beside’s that it becomes increasingly unclear what Nathan’s motivations actually are (or Ava for that matter) and just who is being tested.

This was an interesting film, with solid performances with our two leads. I’ve seen it suggested that this film is a modern version of the Bluebeard story, and once this has been pointed out the comparisons are obvious and hard to shake off. To a certain level, I get a little tired of science fiction with sinister overtones where scientific progress is considered a bad thing but for the most part, I enjoyed how they handled the suspense. 

Wednesday Double Feature - Love and Artificial Inteligence? - her

The next film on the list, Spike Jonze’s Her tells the story of Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) a professional letter writer living in a not so distant future. Having recently divorced, he is lonely and spends most of his free time playing video games and participating in dating forums. One day he purchases a brrand new artificially intelligent operating system. The new operating system names herself Samantha(Scarlett Johansson) and she is helpful and personable. They quickly hit it off… from there, their relationship develops quickly.

This was a clever and with film with Phoenix and Johansson both giving an incredible performance (all the more impressive since Johansen is never on screen. It takes a wonderfull subtle look at a not too far away future. It’s also wonderfully sweet, especially Samantha accompanying herself on the ukelele. If I had any problem with it is I could identify with Theodore very easily, which I found quite depressing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzV6mXIOVl4
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Wednesday Double Feature – Hip-Hop Drama

by on August 7, 2019 at 8:54 am
Posted In: Test

This weeks selection I’ve watched dramatic films about hip-hop

Wednesday Double Feature - HipHop Drama - Straight Outa Compton

The first film on my list,  F. Gary Gray‘s Straight Outta Compton, tells the story of the rise and fall of the gangsta rap group N.W.A. In the process, it looks at race relations in the late eighties, the Rodney King riots, and the aids epidemic.

I had first heard of this film most of the things I’ve heard about it was the complement of the ensembles betrayal of NWA and this is indeed the case with the excellent cranial from the entire cast.

The biggest problem I have with biopics, in general, is the way they have to cram years into a couple of hours. I find they do better when they focus on certain key elements. In this case, the focus is the relation between the band and their manager Jerry Heller played by the wonderful Paul Giamatti.

All in all, my only real problem was an overuse of close-ups.

Wednesday Double Feature - Hip-Hop Drama - 8 mile

Next on my list was Curtis Hanson‘s 8 Mile which tells the story of white rapper B-Rabbit played by the real-life rapper Eminem as he struggles with his job, the life on the streets and terrible home life as he makes it to the underground rap battle. Loosely based on Eminem‘s early career (give or take a couple of embellishments), Eminem gives a surprisingly good performance and it is in his Intensity that holds the whole thing together

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