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jarnov
Reviews
Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell (2012)
The Daily Show of color
Totally Biased w/ W. Kamau Bell is amazingly refreshing. Where The Daily Show was once the most refreshing thing in the world to me, in being way more critical than the average news program, after a while it becomes rather painfully clear that TDS is very much part of white TV, so to speak. This is especially evident when compared side-to-side with Totally Biased, which has the politically critical attitude of TDS, but adds a "racially" critical dimension still very much needed in today's TV landscape. It holds a contentious position and I think its focus on "racial" issues makes it more prone to criticism than a show like TDS, which generally fits nicely into the white liberal paradigm, but it's difficult to overstate the importance of radical shows that truly question the status quo. What other show would have provided such scathing reviews of all-around praised white movies like Django and Lincoln,for instance? One point of criticism is that Totally Biased is still pretty much a dude show (if we talk about "white TV" we should also talk about how male-dominated TV is), but I don't think it is trying to be a feminist show, and I don't think it's fair to condemn a show that is already so radical in a different, equally important way for not going *all* the way. (NB: it spends a lot more attention on gender issues than TDS!) The 5.3 rating for Totally Biased is a travesty and only proves how hard it is for the (white) mainstream to deal with truly radical content. Totally Biased being canceled would be horrible, and I would go one step further and say it should be expanded. Let's have a "daily" counterbalance to TDS; let's have a regular news/cultural satire show that goes beyond white issues.
New York, I Love You (2008)
Shallow, pretentious advertisement
Urgh. Watched this courtesy of my significant other. It is a dull, insulting little collection of "star studded" advertisements for a big city in the United States. The dialog, characters and soundtrack are the pretentious, meaningless pulp an untalented filmmaker attempting to produce a "timeless classic" would come up with. It's a sort of silhouette of a good movie, devoid of depth and full of slow piano. The shallowness is exaggerated by the little time given to each story. Possibly interesting characters are given no time to develop. Possibly interesting stories are reduced to little gags. Movies like this are to actual cinema what prefab commercial music is to actual song. (Needless to say, my girlfriend loved it.)
Desperate Measures (1998)
Visually interesting, originally written take on a cheesy genre
The title of my review says it all, really. Shroeder and Klass took a type of movie that usually doesn't surpass the level of popcorn entertainment (which is fine), and delivered a movie that can still be enjoyed with some good popcorn, but at the same time subverts the genre script-wise and in terms of editing, by constantly confusing the viewer's sense of who to root for, and adds aesthetic depth in terms of very cool shots, situations and cuts. You'll hate this if you're the high falutin' critic type, but if you come prepared to see a popcorn action movie that happens to be shown through the eyes of Barbet f*cking Shroeder, you're in the right place.
Alien Resurrection (1997)
The Alien series comes full circle.
I won't write a start-to-finish review, as there are already plenty on here. What I *will* write, is about the experience this fan of the franchise had watching this movie for the second time in many years (shortly after the first three).
For me, this is just the perfect little ending to the Alien quadrilogy. Aside from being a perfectly badass sci-fi action movie on its own, with a ridiculous amount of referenced subplots like the relationships between the pirate crew members and their individual stories, the crazed scientist who is ultimately killed by the absolute peak of his life's work and the timid general forced by his corrupt superiors to deal with criminals, it takes every classic theme from the series and does something cool with it.
First, obviously, the aliens. Ripley, who died trying to exterminate them, is mercilessly resurrected, once again pregnant with a queen. The cloning process that in a way "revived" her, however, has fundamentally fused her physiology with that of the aliens. She has become that which has dominated her life for as long as she can remember. Ultimately, we learn that this has happened to her "child" as well, enabling it to give birth to a perfect cross between Ripley and the queen. In a truly moving homage to the end of the first Alien movie, Ripley ends the quadrilogy by once again blasting the final surviving alien into space, except this time the action is infinitely more profound, the alien being a confused child and Ripley being one of the mothers. Out of the blue, I literally wailed during that final moment. Never before have I seen the main antagonist in a series become so intertwined with the object of her struggle, literally *becoming* it, actually having given birth to it and personally destroying it. Weaver plays the role no less than perfectly.
The synthetic. We went from the malevolent, corporate, heel android working against Ripley in the first film to the empathic "good guy" android saving Ripley twice in the next two films to the oddly completely and utterly logical successor to these, a "second generation" (ie produced *by* androids) synthetic human initially intending to kill Ripley (in a really neat reversal of the Ripley/android story from Alien) but ultimately working with her and saving her life (by noticing her on Betty's monitor). Call is a tormented synthetic, much more so than Bishop, and Jeunet pays a great deal of attention to this all through the film, from Joner's incessant stigmatizing comments to Call's reluctance to go to the "dark place" that is the cyberspace part of her belongs to.
Finally, of course, the company. While Weyland-Yutani apparently doesn't exist anymore by the time this story takes place, everything the army and their scientists do is perfectly in line with the spirit of this evil corporation. More than in any previous film, human dignity is spat on completely, from the dozens of failed Ripley clones (including the one featured in one of the most haunting visuals of the film, the killing of which, incidentally, is also a neat precursor to Ripley's ultimate act of destruction) to the kidnapped "hosts" consciously being impregnated. In the most perfect ending I can imagine for "the company" (at least for the purposes of this quadrilogy-closer; I am excluding the AvP films from the story arc), the last host first beats Wren, the only surviving "company man" half to death in a fit of blind, superhuman rage, then holds him in front of his chest, just in time for the baby alien to burst through his brain (before the baby and its host are blasted to pieces).
How people defecate on this so vehemently, I fail to see. Continuity errors? Every movie has some. Unexplainable plot elements? It is sci-fi. You've already accepted that a spider crab can make love to someone's face, have a small creature grow in their chest, burst out of it and within hours transform into a huge slimy predator. I would think a clone with memories isn't such a gigantic leap.
The Box (2009)
Idiot filter
I had discarded this movie based on the banal poster, but reading the phrase "from the creator of Donnie Darko" somewhere completely flipped me around. Having seen it, I can say that this phrase is the only thing one needs to know before entering into this film. Much like the works of David Lynch, this movie is a great way to separate banal, linear moviegoers (of whom you can get a taste by reading the majority of reviews on IMDb) from those who appreciate an experience and don't mind some freedom. It would be an utter shame to say anything beyond this, but rest assured that if this review appeals to you and you appreciated Donnie Darko, you will revel in this work.
You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)
This is an Adam Sandler movie
You know the sad thing about some movie fans? They think that there is one single scale for rating films. Time and again, they force the same scale they apply on films like Apocalypse Now and Schindler's List on films like Ace Ventura and Happy Gilmore. Don't do this. It is ridiculous.
This movie is an Adam Sandler movie, and a darned good one. It was co-written by Robert Smigel, for crying out loud. If you've seen films like it before and enjoyed them, you will surely enjoy this. If you're a sourpuss who thinks Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider are Lucifer's offspring, please just stay away from it. Viewing it will only prompt you to log on to IMDb and post a masturbatorily pretentious critique, which would get no one anywhere.
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (2004)
Superb Holmes
While the main stars differ somewhat from the stereotypical Holmes and Watson, one hardly gets a chance to ponder this, as this little gem is fascinating from the start.
Excellent acting and a plot which is solid and built up in such a manner that the viewer is enticed to think along with Mr. Holmes make this BBC production quite a perfect installment in the series.
Everett and Hart show great chemistry and I wouldn't mind the BBC to carry on making more Holmes movies in this manner - if anyone over there happens to read this - keep 'em coming!
9/10 easily.