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metalunar
Reviews
Dredd (2012)
Rare company
Near Perfect. I'm that kind of reviewer that grew up on Science Fiction scarier than hell Like Invaders from Mars and things like The 400 Blows on Channel 9 in Chicago. There are few high water marks within the Genre of S.F. Forbidden Planet, Caltiki, It the terror from beyond space, Aliens, Bladerunner before Ripley destroyed it in his Director's Cut , and Avatar, and then crossing over to Animation of visual novels-Sin City, Watchmen,and very little else -the first Matrix film.Pitch Black. Pieces of Babylon A.D., Avalon, Demonlover. Tough sledding post the recent gun violence and I would give up all of it in a brainwipe if I could bring the dead back to life. This was near perfect. The Blackmass Casting of Sarah Connor as a more efficient killer was the stuff of Jim Thompson or Don Winslow. Great sets , plot development a bit linear -get David Fincher next time and you will go to 10 or beyond.A major cliff hanger-no Real reading by Anderson of Dredd at the end. But It Dovetails perfectly with his giving her an unknown or unwanted pass. Surprisingly good music. Gary Numan, Tangerine Dream vibes.It isn't The Wages of Fear or La Strada or Nights in Cambria if you wan't your inhumanity straight with no chaser, but hey we just retired Clint Eastwood for a man with mirrorshades beyond Cool Hand Luke. Riveting.
Prometheus (2012)
The Dictator's Cut
I was there at the beginning, watching It! The terror from Beyond Space when I was about 10 late at night on TV home alone.Only Invaders From Mars was scarier. So I saw Alien when it came out in the theater and I loved it. The Grunge of it , the pettiness of money, Ripley, Ash, but most of all the Paradigm Shift it represented.In IT! Marshall Thompson et al speculate that IT is a degenerate form of the once high Martian Civilization. It sees us as nothing but food much like Hawk's original The Thing from another World. Alien changed the game. Humanity is just a vessel for instar changes of a Superior Insect much like the wasp or the wasp relatives the ants in Them! So at this point humanity becomes disposable to a Corporation interested in better weapons. Ridley did a good job an Alien , but Cameron blew him out of the water with Aliens and Ripley blossomed. Alien3 sucked. It felt like German Prison Sex which it was. Alien 4 had great potential-human/hybrid Ripley the more ultimate weapon alright. And then Cameron gives her Godhood in Avatar. What's a RS to do? Well his Director's Cut of Bladerunner superimposed his Unicorn Vision and turned Harrison Ford into a replicant.Too bad for PKD who after all wrote DADOES? So when Prometheus came calling I was all ears and the trailers looked good. But it is an empty husk at best and more like black mass at worst.AVP 1 was better than this. If this is an answer to Avatar it is a joke. Cameron has done the same film ever since his student days. Aliens and The Abyss are all Moby Dick elsewhere. Loyalty, mania, danger. Ridley knows the ground. Blackhawk Down is as unrelenting as Aliens. So what is Prometheus about? My only guess is that God is a Deceiver. But the joke is the same for The Director. And so you are telling us to treat you as food or organic rental, but in reality no it's Building Better Worlds all over again with a synthetic on board . Is he a replicant? I'm shocked, but almost convinced that something has curdled in that mind's eye that burned so bright like Blake.
Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
Amazing this film is so neglected in the U.S.
I'm lucky to live very close to a wonderful video store which has an incredible stock of VHS films. I read a description of the film here at the data base and put it on my list. It blew me away from the very first moment. Sadly , I've been unable to show it to many people since it seems to exist on DVD only in a PAL version although it has made its way to Divx recently . I can only compare it to Casablanca and The Desert Fox in terms of plot and the quality of the writing and acting. It was a pleasure to watch this actor Tone who was a complete novelty for me walk the tightrope that this story truly is. His history seems to suggest he lived life as he wanted to without much regard for fame .For once I'm glad not to see Cary Grant in a film (I never thought I would say that!).
This Property Is Condemned (1966)
An alternate universe
I saw this film only last year and enjoyed it a great deal . In many respects it shows that Williams plays have a lot of internal consistency. There is a bit of Cat on a Hot Tin roof and The Glass Menagerie to be seen here . It also reminds me of Days of Heaven in terms of the fatalism of the world view. The level of acting is very fine . In some ways it improved my opinion of Redford's ability to play against his usual type.It is remarkable to see Natalie Wood so young and she does a great job as the nexus of the entire town. The ending seems abrupt to me and made me wonder if it was altered from the original play which I think I will hunt up and read.
I pianeti contro di noi (1962)
Camp
There is a bit of " Being There" in this flick as the people around our visitor make many assumptions about him. It is well worth watching just for the old Alpha and the Euro-style shades , but also consider it for a double -bill with the first Terminator or Without Warning.Or if you want to consider other Italian Science Fiction films and see how much can be done with a low-budget try watching Planet of the Vampires which has some of the best futuristic spaceship interiors I've ever seen despite the fact that they look like they were all done out of plywood. Or consider that it could have been picked for the prototype of Alphaville had history been a little different.