Memories Of Murder (8)

21 (8)

I felt I was "due" a good film and at last, here it was! This story of geeks, gambling and double crossing hit many of the right notes; 8 - I really enjoyed it.

A maths teacher at MIT recognises a brilliant student and invites him to join a small team of similarly bright students to count cards, to win at black jack in Vegas. Their winnings are going well and they start to enter the rich lifestyle of big time gamblers, but they are also under watch by the guys who prevent card counting... usually by a beating. And when the student starts gambling instead of being smart, he loses everything - his graduation from MIT, the money he was saving he enter Harvard and he is out of the team. He convinces them all for one last big win.

This film has so many good elements in it, including good lighting (like the standing at the window silhouette) and filming (great close ups and fast speed motion in the casinos). I even liked the Fight Club style narration and the slightly over-the-top-retro look of Slevin, but maybe that is just Vegas. One big thing I really liked about was Kevin Spacey who I think is brilliant; he is opposite to me of the uselessness of Jack Back. Even the music was just right. And Laurence Fishburne as the casino thug was good as the older guy struggling to keep job his while being over taken by technology.

The double cross while not entirely predictable, was not really a surprise either, and the time twisting was a little weak but it was still enjoyable. And most of the other characters were just window dressing, even the students best friends. Anyway, this film still delighted the inner, and the outer, geek of me.

Be Kind Rewind (1)

Oh my god, I thought that this going to be a light comedy but instead it is idiotic rubbish - I can see better home made stuff on youtube! 1 - I almost gave up watching it.

One of the idiots becomes magnetised (how?!) while attempting to sabotage a substation, but he then demagnetises all the videos in his friend's video store. His friend was only looking after the store while the boss is away, who they don't want to get into trouble with. So they start filming themselves and remaking each of the movies that customers request. They make Ghost Busters, Rush Hour2... and that was as far as I could bare it for the moment.

Luckily, a young woman joins the team who has some sense and surprisingly the films are popular, the customers want more and more. But I didn't want any more; I gave up.

I guess this was born from the youtube genre of re-enacting films with home made effects and props and usually, funny acting. Except it was entirely missing any entertainment, or cuteness, or even just plain fun that I have seen on some of the youtube "sweded". It was typical Jack Black junk and if I had known he was in it, I would never have even started watching it - I can't think of a single film or character, or even line from him that I even remotely liked. The plot is beyond silly, it is just plain dumb, the acting doesn't even get up to primary school play level but the worst of it is that it has Jack Black in it! Be kind, don't watch this film, and if you can, erase this film from any archives.

Forbidden Planet (3)

I was looking forward to this 1956 B-grade sci-fi. Too bad that it turned out to Z-grade and I almost gave up watching it. 3 - don't watch this unless you really have to or are masochistic.

A crew in arrive at the planet Altair-4 to relieve the prospecting party of scientists. But the reception by Dr Morbius is very frosty, "Keep away!". Dr Morbius and is his daughter Altaira, who was born on the planet, are living in comfort but they are the only survivors. All the others were killed by some strange force. Over night, the ships klystron monitor is mysteriously sabotaged and now they can not contact earth for further instructions. A long dead super advanced civilisation called the Krell that used to live on Altair-4 had built a massive machine based on consciousness that can also create and manipulate matter. Including creating monsters from the subconsciousness of Dr Morbius when things are not going his way!

If the story sounds like it is a bit confused, that is because it is. The mission of the crew is either a rescue or relief, the naive Altaira who suddenly starts calling the captain darling is weird, and the mad Dr Morbius who wants to dispense kknowledge but keep it all to himself is just as wacky as the story. The animation special effects of monster and blaster guns, is dire and only just one step above Steam Boat Willie, and then there's also the awful actor interaction. Plus the continuous warbling music and sound effects! The only thing I liked about was the kitschness and the laughably obvious parallels to early Star Trek. Actually, the story has some potential for a much better remake. Probably this film was amazing for its time.

It was a little strange to see Leslie Nielsen as the serious caption, as well as seeing the agent for The Six Million Dollar Man showing Uhura how it's done, including the classic command to "boost the signal". Only watch this is you are into Z grade sci-fi, or want to discover the origins of Robbie The Robot. Actually, I'll tell you so that you don't have watch it, he built by Dr Morbius using Krell technology and has some staggering tech, including matter replication.

First Blood Part 2 (7)

This is the film which from some many cliches were born, and this is film that I remember from my dim youth of Rambo. For both these I actually rather enjoyed it and I am glad that I have watched this again after all these years - 7, its a classic worth watching again.

Rambo's old commander offers Rambo a "get out jail free card" (his exploits in the previous First Blood landed him jail) to go and find prisoners of war in Korea. He goes and finds some, but with one rescued he is abandoned and not picked up a helicopters. It transpires that another commander who is running the command center and controlling the mission did not want to find any prisoners because of the political problems it would cause. Rambo is caught and tortured by the Koreans and Russians but he has only only thing on his mind, revenge on the commander. That is, of course, after he has escaped and killed all the Russians, Koreans and rescued all the prisoners too. This is done in now stereotypical Rambo mode of massive weapons and endless bullets.

Things such as the red bandanna, the staggered speech and the gratuitous used of oversized weaponary (like carrying around the helicopter machine gun) are all now cliches copied (Terminator) or parodied (Hot Shots). And you knew that just as soon as he said "yes" to the woman to take back to America, that she was doomed to die. But it was good to see all this - the original before they became common and cliched.

One thing that is particularly obvious compared to the first film First Blood, is that this is a much bigger budget with bigger and better action - the helicopter fight was impressive from the very start of taking control of it, to destroying the prison camp to the dog fight in the sky. Unlike the first there is no moral message at all; this is pure action and explosive fun.

First Blood (5)

Was this the first of the Rambo series? I think it was; Stallone looks so young he is what, 10? This film rates half that, 5 - watchable after all.

Rambo is a Vietnam vet travelling looking for an old war buddy when a local cop begins harassing him. He runs from them and so they decide to hunt him down. However, in the nearby forest all his army skills are put to use and he quickly "disables" the small team. But of them dies in an accidental fall which further infuriates the cops. They call out the national guard and a big hunt begins. Rambo's old commander is brought in to try and talk him into stopping, but Rambo is trained to survive and kill. By skill and luck Rambo evades all of them begins to hunt the sheriff for himself.

I had never seen this film before but I knew of the myth of Rambo from later films as a one man super army. Some of that is seen here but also shown is that he is a pretty screwed up veteran who no longer fits into normal society. This is not the action packed war mayhem of the latest Rambo, there is weak action, but where it is better is the touches of his madness and struggle with the world outside the war. The film quality is a bit poor but satisfyingly, the story isn't too bad and it all makes a reasonable film.

And before you say it, I know he's not 10!

X The Unknown (3)

One thing that X The Unknown makes me think about is Y... why watch it? Huge amounts of forgiveness could be given for this 1956 film but honestly, it didn't hold my attention at all. It scores a meagre 3 on the geiger counter.

Dr Royston is studying radioactivity in Scotland which is very handy since the army has found something "strange" in a bog just near by. People are being mysteriously burned by radiation, and when radioactive material is being stolen in even stranger ways, Royston postulates an even stranger explanation. His speech about evolution is way off the weirdness scale, and yet the parents of the dead boy who complain that the is a creator of death were much more eloquent. Eventually they all believe him - that a radioactive mud monster is eating radiation. The army blow up and concrete over the the bog but when you're fighting a mud monster, that is not enough and you need science! Dr Royston to the rescue! He invents a dangerous anti-radiation scanner and makes a trap to kill the mud monster.

This is similar to The Colditz Story where I just can't believe that people behaved and spoke that way. This is meant to be a serious a scary horror but all the time I'm just cringing and am gobsmaked at the characters. Probably it's an image of idealised life, complete with the token Scott in the army called Haggis, and everyone else with plum English who I at first thought were calling him Aggis. Probably they're all just hamming it, probably the science was fine for it time but very little of it was fine for me. Instead of this, watch the much better The Quatermass Xperiment.

The bits I did like were the classic "see people dying from the monsters point of view because the special effects are too hard", and the monster itself - that was good. And there were ashtrays in the hospital.

Kung Fu Panda (4)

This animation is strictly for kids, there are no in-jokes or plots for adults so unless you have kids and must endure this, give it a miss. A poor 4.

Set in China, a panda (I didn't take notice of the characters names because... well, it was a bit too painful) dreams of becoming a kung-fu master. But he is a clumsy fat unfit stumbling fool so it is a surprise when then the current master selects him as the dragon master. At first, the kung-fu trainer and other students make life hard for the panda in the hope that he will give up. Ultimately, when their enemy, a tiger, has escaped prison and it is discovered that the panda can be motivated and trained with food, they team together to fight the tiger. When the tiger has defeated all but the panda, the panda steps up with his unorthodox kung-fu to beat the tiger.

The first few minutes I enjoyed - it was over the top narrative and old-school flat animation instead of today's 3D computer stuff. I thought "Hey, this is going to be a laugh", but it was just a dream. Then it went into the story proper and it became a nightmare. The story is so simple that the writers stumbling attempt at getting some moral messages weaved in was a mess. Unlike better animations that parents can enjoy along with their children, this would only appeal to five year olds, and only to boys because of all the fighting and action. So if you must endure it with your kids, make sure you take along a book for you read.

I have since been corrected, young girls do like this film - there are strong lead female characters that are not the standard whimpering "save me" type.