I saw this movie last night at the cinema and boy was it awful. It's basically a cross between Haneke's Funny Games and Peter Jackson's Dead Alive. You'd think that would make the quality of this film a no-brainer, but Save The Green Planet has no sense of irony or intelligence whatsoever.
A young man named Lee abducts the CEO of a chemical company thinking the businessman's leading an alien invasion. This would have been a great premise, except over 2/3's of the film is simply interested in figuring out whether Lee is right or just insane. Trust me, he's nuts and frankly, who cares? I was expecting a no-holds barred sci-fi blow-out but instead I got a tired hostage-drama that runs out of ideas before the opening credits even roll.
The 'shock-twist' at the conclusion of the film is pointless because it should have set up the film's SECOND ACT!! (Duh!)
The movie is salvaged by pretty good performances and the camera work is competent and sometimes inventive. Some of the production design is pretty great too, but you know the story's trash when you find yourself admiring a chair.
I also have a very serious problem with the use of real-death footage in the film's last reel. This includes actual scenes of concentration camp victims and race riots. This type of material was also used at the beginning of a very interesting Spanish horror film called "Who Could Kill A Child?" but was cut from most prints for obvious reasons. I feel that's a shame though, because in the context of WCKAC, it provides a sincere subtext to the story and the particular time it takes place. In STGP the death footage seems to be used for shock value and despite the film's super heavy-handed message about the nature of evil, I found it ridiculous and highly offensive.
It's amazing that the animal slaughter footage from Cannibal Holocaust draws so much ire even today, whereas this film, which flippantly displays vintage footage of concentration camp victims being bulldozed into a mass graves is a-OK! What nonsense! Maybe we are so desensitized to this kind of material that we don't even pay attention to it anymore. Or maybe we've gotten so soft as a society we can't even imagine relating to this kind of terrible suffering.
Sad.
A young man named Lee abducts the CEO of a chemical company thinking the businessman's leading an alien invasion. This would have been a great premise, except over 2/3's of the film is simply interested in figuring out whether Lee is right or just insane. Trust me, he's nuts and frankly, who cares? I was expecting a no-holds barred sci-fi blow-out but instead I got a tired hostage-drama that runs out of ideas before the opening credits even roll.
The 'shock-twist' at the conclusion of the film is pointless because it should have set up the film's SECOND ACT!! (Duh!)
The movie is salvaged by pretty good performances and the camera work is competent and sometimes inventive. Some of the production design is pretty great too, but you know the story's trash when you find yourself admiring a chair.
I also have a very serious problem with the use of real-death footage in the film's last reel. This includes actual scenes of concentration camp victims and race riots. This type of material was also used at the beginning of a very interesting Spanish horror film called "Who Could Kill A Child?" but was cut from most prints for obvious reasons. I feel that's a shame though, because in the context of WCKAC, it provides a sincere subtext to the story and the particular time it takes place. In STGP the death footage seems to be used for shock value and despite the film's super heavy-handed message about the nature of evil, I found it ridiculous and highly offensive.
It's amazing that the animal slaughter footage from Cannibal Holocaust draws so much ire even today, whereas this film, which flippantly displays vintage footage of concentration camp victims being bulldozed into a mass graves is a-OK! What nonsense! Maybe we are so desensitized to this kind of material that we don't even pay attention to it anymore. Or maybe we've gotten so soft as a society we can't even imagine relating to this kind of terrible suffering.
Sad.