The Thing (Movie Review)

1982 was a significant year for science fiction movies. It was the year that gave us such classics like Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Steven Spielberg's E.T, two of the greatest science fiction movies of all time. But under their shadow, a different kind of classic lurked. That movie was John Carpenter's The Thing, a cult classic in every sense of the word.

The Thing opens with a scene depicting a dog being hunted down across the winter wastelands of Antarctica. It is chased to an American research facility, but following a string of mishaps, its hunters are killed, while the dog manages to escape into the custody of the American scientists. It is soon discovered that the hunters had been members of a Norwegian research facility, and a trip to their camp (to report the accident) reveals the place to be in ruins, following what appeared to be an explosion. Apparently, there are no survivors.

Later that night, the dog is placed in a kennel, only for it to mutate and consume the other dogs being kept there. It is quickly incinerated, and after an autopsy, confirmed to be an alien capable of absorbing other life forms, after which it takes on their physical appearance, effectively becoming indistinguishable from its victim. The problem is it can just as easily take on the likeness of another human being, and might have done that already.

And therein lies the appeal of this movie: that fear of your fellow man. That knowledge that you can trust no one but yourself. Throughout the movie, there is that sense of paranoia, as each subsequent iteration of "the thing" is revealed to be the least likely candidate. The movie also boasts some truly memorable scares and the right kind of special effects to enhance those moments.

Even though I had been really looking forward to the 2011 prequel, I was not particularly pleased with its execution. While that movie did what it could to flesh out the background of this 1982 movie, it didn't do enough to stand on its own. But I guess that's a further testament to the lasting appeal of John Carpenter's The Thing.

Shutter Island (Movie Review)

Martin Scorsese is possibly one of the most accomplished directors of our time. Over the years, he has given us several critically-acclaimed films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, and most recently, the incredible 3D masterpiece, Hugo. But of all his films till date, one of the most haunting was the 2010 psychological thriller, Shutter Island.

In Shutter Island, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Edward "Teddy" Daniels, a U.S. Marshal sent to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane. He is accompanied by his partner, Chuck (Mark Rufallo), and they arrive on the titular island where the hospital is located, only to be stranded there following a severe hurricane.

This doesn't dampen their resolve though, and both men decide to carry out their investigation as planned. But they find the hospital staff reluctant to help out, and soon come to the conclusion that they must be hiding something. They soon stumble upon a trail, suggesting a massive government conspiracy, and must work hard to get to the bottom of it. But nothing could have prepared us (the viewers) for what was awaiting them at the end of that trail.

I had to watch Shutter Island two times back to back. That's how much the revelation at the ending left me blindsided. I saw it a third time for good measure too, but couldn't find the plot holes and inconsistencies I thought must be there. This is a testament to both a well-thought-out story and Scorsese's eye for detail.

There are several other aspects I loved about this movie, like the atmosphere and superb acting. But at the end, it was that final revelation that took it from being just another enjoyable Scorsese flick to something truly memorable.

The Road (Movie Review)

I don't know where it came from, but I've always had this love of all things post-apocalyptic. I guess it's really a fascination with the world coming to an end, at least the world as we know it, a concept that has been explored times without number both in the realm of literature and motion pictures. We've dreamt up every scenario possible, from a nuclear holocaust to our planet's collision with a massive celestial body. What we rarely put into consideration is just how gradual our planet's end may very well turn out to be.

The Road tells the story of a father (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as they journey south for the winter through a post-apocalyptic rural America. In this particular vision of our future, all animal life have already become extinct due to a global cataclysm, with plants following suit at a much slower pace. This has left the vast majority of humanity no choice but to resort to scavenging and cannibalism. What brought about these conditions is never revealed, but we are made to understand that it is only a matter of time before the entire planet becomes inhospitable.

Through a series of flashbacks, we learn more and more about the man and his late wife (Charlize Theron). They were lucky enough to be secluded in a cabin home during the outset of the disaster, and it was there that she gave birth to their only son. Over the years, she becomes convinced that there is little hope of any kind of a future, and practically begs her husband to kill her and her son before they fall prey to cannibals. But he refuses, insisting that they must keep hope alive no matter what.

The Road paints a bleak yet beautiful portrait of a world standing on its last legs. But the focus here isn't as much on that portrait as it is on its inhabitants, namely father and son. One of the man's most valued possessions is a gun with only two bullets left in it. He has reserved those two bullets for his son and himself, should the world prove to be as hopeless and irredeemable as his wife had thought.
If you haven't guessed it already, I feel quite passionate about this movie. Very few movies connect with me on both a visual and emotional level. This is one of those few.

Quantum of Solace (Movie Review)

I was one of those who'd laughed themselves almost to the point of hysteria when they'd learnt Pierce Brosnan would be handing over the mantle of agent 007 to a blond, hard-faced actor called Daniel Craig. But following the tremendous success of Casino Royale in 2006, we'd all come to acknowledge our shortsightedness and taken back our snide remarks, only for similar remarks to resurface following the release of the 2008 sequel.

Quantum of Solace kicks off right where Casino Royale left us, with Bond on a trail to exact his vengeance for the death of Jesper, a woman he'd fallen in love with. Following a truly spectacular car chase, the terrorist liaison called Mr. White is interrogated by both Mr. Bond and M, and we learn that he works for a group named Quantum. But Mr. White manages to escape when M's bodyguard, Mitchell, proves to be a double agent and attacks M. Mitchell is eventually put to sleep for his troubles, in arguably the best action scene in the entire movie.

Bond later pokes around the dead bodyguard's apartment where he discovers a new trail to follow. And in keeping with the standard set by previous entries in the series, that trail takes him to various exotic locations, which would eventually culminate in the discovery of the leading member of Quantum, Dominic Greene, and his plan to control the freshwater supply of Bolivia.

It was always going to be tough following in the footsteps of the ground-breaking Casino Royale. Sadly, many seem to consider Quantum of Solace a rather large misstep, even though I feel it is still a step in the right direction. Hopefully though, Skyfall (the next Bond movie coming out later this year) will prove to be the return to form everyone expects it to be.

Pan's Labyrinth (Movie Review)

I don't know if you know this, but I am a writer of speculative fiction. I started out in 1998, and self-published three of my stories on Amazon in December 2011 [points to tacky animated book widget thingy in sidebar]. One of the greatest influences on my stories so far has been the works of Guillermo Del Toro. And of all those works, the finest one, and indeed greatest influence on my work-in-progress coming out later this year, is Pan's Labyrinth, a dark fantasy.

Set in 1944, five years after the Spanish Civil War, the film tells the story of a young girl named Ofelia. It opens with Ofelia travelling with her pregnant mother, Carmen, to meet and move in with her stepfather, a soldier stationed at a mill in a rural countryside. The film wastes little time in establishing the fact that Ofelia's stepfather, Captain Vidal, is the main villain. He is the man in charge of weeding out the Spanish Marquis (a group of rebels opposed to the Spanish fascist regime) in the region and he hunts them down mercilessly.

Needless to say, Ofelia doesn't like him very much. The main reason for their friction is Ofelia's love of books and fairy tales, something Captain Vidal sees as trivial and inappropriate for a girl on the verge of becoming a woman. But Ofelia's active imagination proves to be her only respite from the harshness of reality.

After following a dragonfly (of which she is convinced must be a fairy) in true Alice in Wonderland fashion, she discovers an abandoned maze where she finds an ancient faunlike creature. It tells her that she is really a fairy-tale princess from an alternate reality, and she must now complete three tasks for her to reclaim her heritage.

Throughout the movie, we're constantly left wondering whether or not Ofelia's fantasy world is real or make believe. And by the heart-pounding climax, where she is asked to make an ultimate sacrifice in order to proceed, we finally learn that answer for ourselves, but also discover that there is indeed more than meets the eye.

Pan's Labyrinth is yet another filmmaking triumph, and one of the most visually-striking films I have ever seen. I simply cannot stress how awe-inspiring the titular faun looks. Only a genius mind like Del Toro's could craft something so sinister, yet ultimately beautiful beyond words.

The Other Guys (Movie Review)

Growing up in the late 80s/early 90s, one of my favorite movie genres was the buddy cop action comedy. I remember I used to (and still) love films like Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon and Men in Black. And of course more recent variations on the formula like Taxi (2004), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) and Sherlock Holmes (2009). But of all the recent movies in the genre, one of the most hilarious is 2010's The Other Guys.

Detectives Allen Gamble (Will Ferrel) and Terry Holtz (Mark Walburg) are the butt of all the jokes in their police department. They are "the other guys," both relegated to desk jobs and forced to live under the shadow of two superstar detectives, Christopher Danson (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) and PK Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson). But when both hotshots meet an unexpected end, Terry sees it as their opportunity to step into the spotlight. The trouble is there is a second pair of detectives (played by Damon Wayans, Jr and Rob Riggie) who wish to claim the spotlight for themselves by undermining both Terry and Allen.

This is one laugh-out-loud movie that falls just shy of slapstick. With numerous pop culture references covering implausible concepts like a Chechnyan version of Dora the Explorer, this movie could be considered the definitive parody of the buddy cop genre.

---signed, Dirty Mike and the Boys

Ninja Assassin (Movie Review)

Having just reviewed The Matrix over the weekend, a movie produced by Joel Silver and directed by The Wachowski Brothers, it seems somewhat coincidental that I pick another film where they all share production credits, though one on the opposite end of the critical acclaim spectrum.

Ninja Assassin tells the story of, you guessed it, a ninja, who just so happens to be an assassin (What ninja isn't?). This one is named Raizo (played by South Korean pop musician, Rain), and he is a lethal killing machine, just like the title suggests. But things take an unexpected turn when he decides to turn against his ninja kin, having also decided against killing for material gain alone. Now, Raizo must fend off wave after wave of fellow (ninja) assassins sent out to do him in, and at the same time come to terms with his decision to go renegade.

Never (in recent memory) have I come across a movie that greatly resembles the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games like this one. The only things missing here are health bars. Just think super-stylized fight scenes filled with bucketloads of blood and you'll get an idea of what to expect. These ninjas are quite clearly in the wrong line of work; they could easily make a fortune selling their blood as blood donors. But that wouldn't make for a compelling story now, would it?

The only reason why movies like this work is because they never try to be anything they aren't. I went into Ninja Assassin expecting scene after scene of mindless action. And I got precisely what I paid for. But in the end, I feel we need to see the occasional guilty pleasure like this one, if only so we could better appreciate the real movie gems when we come across them.

The Matrix (Movie Review)

I still find it hard to believe that it's been 13 years since The Matrix was unleashed upon the world. I remember seeing a trailer for it in early 1999 and proclaiming that I had to see the movie at all cost (or possibly die trying). All that was based on getting a glimpse of the numerous ground-breaking action scenes. But nothing could have prepared me for the mind-bending story lurking underneath that shiny exterior.

Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) is a man living two lives. By day, he is a programmer who works for a reputable software company. By night, he assumes the alias of Neo, a well-known hacker in the digital underground. He is also a man searching for answers, answers to questions like "What is the matrix?" Following a meeting with a fellow hacker named Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), he is contacted by the very man that could provide all the answers, a hacker/rebel leader named Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne).

Neo is successfully jacked out of the matrix, a virtual reality simulation built to mirror the world as we knew it circa 1999. But what he finds in its place is a future where man is at war with machine. In that future, the entire human race has been enslaved and what little resistance remains forced underground. The skies had been scorched black by the humans in an effort to block out the machine's main energy source, the sun. But the machines proved most resourceful when they'd turned to an alternative energy source: human body heat.

Now, human beings are grown in vast fields where their body heat is harvested, while the matrix serves as a prison for their minds. Those who have broken out of that prison are ruthlessly hunted down by sentinels, specialized machines built solely to search and destroy. Forced to overcome the harshness of reality, Neo must either choose to embrace his destiny as the One (the hero destined to liberate the human race) or come to terms with a future with little or no hope of survival.

As far as science fiction movies go, The Matrix is a fine example of how to strike a balance between believability and over-the-top action. We are constantly treated to various gravity-defying stunts, but all within the context of the matrix (where rules like gravity can easily be broken by those who know how). It is also one of the most influential science fiction movies in recent years, helping popularize such current action movie staples like still motion, bullet time and wire fu.

Despite a disappointingly over-the-top sequel and an underwhelming conclusion to a series ripe with so much potential, The Matrix still retains its original level of pure awesomeness.

The Lord of the Rings (Movie Review)

"One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them. One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them."

Hands down, the Lord of the Rings is my favorite movie trilogy of all time. Nothing has come close to delivering the same level of spectacular visuals, and I doubt if anything would, except maybe Avatar. But unlike James Cameron's planned trilogy, the Lord of the Rings isn't all eye candy and special effects; at its heart lies a story of epic proportions.

In a place called Middle-Earth, the forces of good and evil are about to face off in an ultimate showdown. The story begins with a hobbit named Frodo (Elijah Wood), who has been entrusted with a magical artifact, a gold ring. Following a visit from the grey wizard, Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen), Frodo learns the significance of this ring and of the need to destroy it. The ring was forged by the dark lord, Sauron, to aid him in his quest to rule all of Middle-earth, but was lost following a great battle and a series of misfortunes. And now the dark lord wants it back at all costs.

Frodo embarks on a journey to destroy the ring with the Fellowship of the Ring, an unlikely company of nine comprised of men, hobbits, a dwarf and an elf. But the Fellowship is broken after they are attacked by the enemy. Now, Frodo and Sam (Sean Austin) must make the rest of the journey on their own, while those left prepare to face the forces of darkness and the possibility of a dark future, should the two hobbits fail in their quest to destroy the ring.

It took eight years to make the Lord of the Rings, including three years of back-to-back filming. And it shows. The final product is a trilogy that manages to stay faithful to its source material and at the same time offers added insight into the world of Middle-Earth.

The King's Speech (Movie Review)

Going into the 2010/2011 awards season, I was pretty sure that the two major contenders for the Academy Awards were Christopher Nolan's Inception and David Fincher's The Social Network. There were other potential favorites of course, like The Town and Black Swan. But I think no one really foresaw that the year's finest movie would be coming out mere days before the nominations for the Academy Awards were announced.

Originally intended as a stage play, The King's Speech tells the story of Prince Albert (Colin Firth) who must learn to overcome his speech impediment with the help of a speech therapist named Lionel (Geoffrey Rush), in order to better serve his country in its greatest moment of need. He was never really intended to be king; his older brother, Edward (Guy Pearce) rose to the throne following the death of their father, King George V (Michael Gambon). But following Edward's decision to abdicate the throne, Albert is left with no choice but to embrace his destiny and face his greatest fear: giving public speeches.

My expectations for The King's Speech were set very high, largely due to the level of critical acclaim it achieved following its January 2011 release. But the movie somehow managed to exceed those expectations. It is arguably one of the best acted movies I have seen. Ever. Not to mention it has tremendous production values, especially when weighed against its £8 million budget. It was a movie that I instantly fell in love with and I would highly recommend seeing it if you haven't already.