Friday Night Double: The Mist/Planet Terror

One half of Grindhouse, plus one Stephen King novella adaptation, equals a great creepy science fiction combination. Beers are optional; popcorn is mandatory.

Planet Terror

You know how it goes - it's Friday night, it's another weekend where you don't get to go out, so you decide on a few beers and a night in front of the telly. You decide on a loose theme: something creepy, something fairly recent - but something unconventional, a bit different from the recent glut of lame horror remakes. Using that criteria, what do you choose?

Celebrating a return to prosthetics and mechanical effects, the two films suggested here recall the spirit of earlier 80s science fiction horror. Both movies premiered back in '07 but failed to find their target audience, which is a shame - both enjoy an eclectic cast who play with our expectations of genre stereotypes; both feature great set-piece moments and twisty endings.

  The Mist

So, start out with The Mist (evoking the spirit of those 50s 'science-gone-bad' movies), then end with Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez's celebration of early 80s video shockers. Cleverly referencing the early works of John Carpenter or the zombie films of Lucio Fulci, Rodriguez has perfectly preserved those drive-in/early VHS days. What better way to spend a Friday night?

The Mist (2007)

 

Frank Darabont follows his successful Stephen King adaptations of Shawshank and Green Mile with this outright horror movie on a much smaller budget. Great source material - the original novella was always deemed unfilmable due to the scope of the nasty things that come out of the mist; now we have CGI to make them real.

Part monster movie, part survivalist nightmare, this has the feel of the creepiest Twilight Zone episodes - key scenes are set in confined locations, yet we get a sense of a world suddenly thrown seriously awry...

The Mist realises the monstrosities creeping out of the fog with varying degrees of success - the best examples are things only slightly seen. And a controversial ending guarantees a slap awake before the next movie.

Planet Terror (2007)

 

This celebration of 70s exploitation movies was a failed experiment; originally, Planet Terror was part of a double-bill (coupled with Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof), complete with fake ads and trailers. It's all here - damaged filmstock, paper-thin characters and lurid violence, even a whole reel missing from the film, but it's done with such knowing panache, you can't help but be won over by it's charms.

The double bill was a box office disaster and was pulled from general release within a week or two of launch. Subsequently, much of the charm of the concept has been lost (besides the 20 minutes or so featuring Kurt Russell, Death Proof really isn't worth watching on it's own).

The great news for DVD viewers is that Planet Terror retains the spoof trailer for Machete - a loving, hilarious homage to exploitation movies, setting the tone for the main feature. Once the title sequence kicks in, we get Rose McGowan doing a pole-dance as the filmstock blisters and bulges, the screen burning with pumped-up primaries. Did I say it was Friday night?

This piece of the Grindhouse makes for lively, goofy, gory fun, but won't demand too much in return.

Alien (1979) - Classic Movie Review

What Makes Ridley Scott's Seminal Sci-Fi Movie So Enduring?

Ridley Scott's 1979 masterpiece has rightfully assured it's place as not only a genre classic, but also as a key movie in cinema history.

A film that rewards on countless viewings, Alien stands apart from many SF movies thanks to careful, meticulous set-design and improv-based performances by the seven principals. Unlike other SF releases of the time, Alien looks like it could've been shot in any post-60s decade.

Sure, this is deep space in a distant future where a now insignificant 'earth' is spelled in lower-case, but the banter we hear between the crew of deep-space tug the Nostromo concerns the drudgery of everyday life, thankless toil, the divide between the white and the blue collars.

Sigourney Weaver's Breakthrough Role

Gender roles are blurred; a then-unknown Sigourney Weaver plays the iconic Ripley, a character who will go on to be something of a feminist icon, but for now is Warrant Officer for the nameless corporation employing the crew, stuck amidst alpha-male posturing between the ships captain (Tom Skerritt), Chief Engineer (Yaphet Kotto), Science Officer (Ian Holm) and Navigator (John Hurt). Added to the mix are Veronica Cartwright and Harry Dean Stanton as lower-rung employees, ducking from quarrels but quietly bemoaning their lot when given an opportunity.

The plot doesn't deviate from Dan O'Bannon's initial screenplay, tentatively entitled 'Star Beast', first intended as a cheapo exploitation flick. A distress beacon wakes the crew from hyper-sleep, interrupting the journey home. Company directives dictate investigation; a fossilised wreck on a hostile planetoid surface is explored, where a nest of alien eggs is discovered. A crewman is attacked by a parasitic organism, attaching to his face, inducing a coma-like state.

When the exploration party return, the crew learn the distress signal was really a warning to avoid the crash site. The casualty is taken to sickbay; in no time, the parasite dies and falls off, leaving the victim in (apparently) good health. Not for long.

The Beast is Born

In perhaps the most famous scene, the embryo - embedded in the crewman's stomach - violently emerges, killing him in the process. The thing flees and the chase is on as the remaining crew search for the intruder, now a rapidly evolving monstrosity. One by one, they fall prey to it's insatiable appetite. A clever twist (it has acid for blood) means it can't be shot, or the hull will be compromised, leaving a tiger-by-the-tail scenario. As the crew dwindles, the odds stack up against the survivors...

Much has been written about HR Giger's hugely influential alien design - a heady mix of organic, phallic imagery, creating something uniquely, psychologically disturbing. Less is said about Ron Cobb's stunning set designs for the ship interiors - a complex, grubby environment that is utterly credible, providing a jarring contrast to the sleek curves of the derelict ship containing those creepy eggs.

Ridley Scott's masterful direction pulls these elements together, adding many layers of subtext: the parental tones of the ship's computer (tellingly called Mother) wakes the crew from incubated sleep, dressed in diapers; it forbids access to information that could save their lives, then is the target of Weaver's petulant outbursts as she rebels against it. Themes of suffocation and abandonment further reinforce some deeply Freudian concepts, making for a wholly unnerving experience.

Many sequels followed, best of which is Aliens (1986). None come close to the original in terms of sheer terror. It's telling that, thirty years on, Alien holds up against any other in the genre.

"Obey, Consume, Marry and Reproduce": They Live

They Live (1988) Dir: John Carpenter

If you haven’t seen it, They Live concerns a conspiracy whereby aliens have infiltrated our lives, only regular people have no idea - the invaders have a clever cloaking device that means we just see them as normal folk.

But then the central character discovers that by wearing special glasses, he sees the world for how it really is (well, in black-and-white), unmasking the creepy freaks (clearly inspired by the Topps Mars Attacks! cards, predating Tim Burton’s movie).

 Especially fun is the printed matter found in everyday life; through the lenses, you read what’s really written (Click the image above for a full-sized version and spot how many things are littered with the subliminal messages).

Carpenter was never very subtle with social commentary, but this isn’t a subtle movie - it’s great, comic-book action with clever ideas. The only director coming close to this kind of movie these days is Robert Rodriguez.

BONUS: Geek Trivia - The immortal line “I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I’m all out of bubble gum” was not in the script; star and former pro-wrestler Roddy Piper ad-libbed it on the day.

New Moon, through an outsider's eyes

New Moon (2009) Dir: Chris Weitz

It seems pretty much all the females I know have succumbed to this Twilight thing, regardless of age. Menfolk seem curiously silent about it all.

I've somehow managed to avoid seeing either movie so far, or reading any of the books, even though both types of Twilight media exist in my home. (Books are easier to ignore, but films have a habit of being on even if you don't want them to be.)

But last night, New Moon hit the DVD player - and I decided to watch. I thought it might make for interesting viewing, going in blind to what is a sequel, or at least part of a continuing cycle. The way I saw it, any film should stand on it's own merits; the skill of the film-makers (as I see it) is to ask 'just how much back-story do we give?'

Pretty much none in this case, it turns out. This movie was made for the fans. If you don't get what's going on, that's your tough luck. You're expected to know.

This is the prologue sequence - a (relatively) complex narrative rather spoiled by Edward crashing in, replete with tittersome sartorial elegance and  half a tub of modelling gel in his hair.
(Question: how does he do that, given he can't see himself in a mirror?)

Regardless, I kind of got what was going on, but the thing that took my by surprise was just how irrelevant plot was to proceedings. There's very little sense of peril; in fact, the supernatural elements (vampirism/lycanthropy) are almost subtext to what is chiefly an examination of teen angst and nihilism.

There's some surprising directorial choices, especially when we're given a raven-eye view of events. Passages of time are shown with clever, tricksy montages and tracking shots.

I found it all strangely engaging, up to a point. I didn't care that I didn't know the characters wheeled out, and I turned off all the questions that started to fire in my mind (things like 'where is Bella's Mum?', which I'm sure would be answered if I'd seen the first movie).

 This is one of several dream sequences in the movie. It might also be the worst.

There's a keen ear in the script for teen heartache and confusion. This is also the maddening element - the push/pull, will-she/won't-she that constitutes tease on a massive scale.  Nothing is ever properly resolved; there's just longing then curiously cold-hearted rebuttals as Bella is left by one suitor, then the other, because they would be 'bad for her' (read: will disfigure her, or destroy her soul, or something).

Even those conversations aren't properly resolved later.  Instead, we get dialogue like this:

Bella: Yes... I needed you to see me once. You had to know that I was alive. You didn't need to feel guilty about it. I can let you go now.
Edward: I could never let go of you. I just couldn't live in a world where you didn't exist.
Bella:  [ puzzled] But you said...
Edward: I lied. I had to lie, and you believed me so easily.
Bella: : [ Starts crying] Because it doesn't make sense for you to love me. I'm nothing... Human. Nothing.
Edward: Bella, you're everything to me. Everything.


And so on.

I'm not the target audience for this stuff. I know that. But I happily sat through it without getting cross at it, which means I tolerated it more than Shutter Island for example. This is interesting to me. Because Shutter Island came with high expectations, perhaps? And with New Moon, I admit I'd set the bar very low.

But once we got down to the last 40 minutes or so, I did start to get a bit angry at it. We're packed off to Italy or somewhere, there's a lot of mumbled, hurried exposition, Michael Sheen supremely irritates as a pantomime Vamp (possibly the worst performance in the movie, so camp and theatrical), nothing makes any sense, then there's the hilarious Edward 'suicide' moment. There's a few 'suicide moments' in the film, all not what they seem, it's a cry for attention from the characters and the film-makers.

When Edward gets his turn, it's to be a Grand Reveal, showing the throng of mortals outside who he really is.  Somehow he only manages to muster the attentions of a young girl, even as Bella dashes like a lunatic in his direction. Everyone else ignores him, just like one of those emo kids you see at the shopping mall.

Plot and script seem to take second place to how the film looks. The males, significantly, are fetish objects, shot like they're in a perfume advert. Bella spends longer looking at Jacob's impressive rack than she does his face. 'When did you get so buff?' she asks.  She's a rather shallow girl like that, and tends to overthink things, I decided.  I felt sorry for her Dad.  She's quite a worry, howling at night then vanishing for days.

As I say, it was all a strange experience (and admittedly, rather beguiling at first). A bit like a teen crush.

I'll give it two (non-penetrative) lovebites out of five.

Outlander (2008) - I'm being kind about it

Outlander (2008) Dir: Howard McCain

It doesn't get much more high concept than this - a crashed spaceship strands alien starman in Iron Age Viking territory, slap-bang between two warring tribes. He's a Destroyer of Worlds, but is plagued with flashbacks of fiery desolation, caused by a dragonlike creature.

Thanks to a handy (but painful) device salvaged from the ship, said alien learns the viking ways in about five seconds. Which is a good thing, because he's captured shortly after. They think he's butchered a rival village - but the cosmic man sees the damage and knows that somehow the dragon-thing exists in this world also.

Frankly, it's all as bonkers as it sounds. Not that this is a bad thing.  Quite how Jim Caviezel (he was Jesus in that Mel Gibson movie) ended up in the lead role is a mystery, but he's ably supported by John Hurt and Ron Perlman. Sophia Miles looks lovely in it and gets to pout a bit, as well as swing a sword around.

The creature is the usual overly-designed, assault-on-the-senses CGI, but is used sparingly. Encounters are brief and bloody, and it's in those moments that Outlander most resembles Predator. One of the film's strengths is how it mixes things up. The plot isn't completely predictable and there's some surprising action.

With it's theme of 'going native', this movie predated Avatar by a good year. Unfortunately for Outlander's producers, Cameron really did raise the bar with his film; comparing those two movies, you can see how Avatar excels, especially in the visual depiction of alien worlds.

And as attractive as the viking thing is to me - has there been a viking-based movie that actually made much money?  13th Warrior, Pathfinder and Raising Valhalla all tanked at the box office. It seems that it'll take more than throwing SF into the mix, or 'from the producers of Lord of the Rings' at the top of the DVD box.

But if this film had been around when I was 12 years old, I'd have said it was the best film EVER.

How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Dir: Dean DeBlois/Chris Sanders

How good was this?! It’s a pretty conventional story arc but the real treat is the visual design, both in terms of detail (the Norse textures and trappings are great) and scope.  No surprise then to see Roger Deakins credited as visual consultant - the Coen Bros. cinematographer was also used in the same capacity on Wall-E.

The relationship between the boy and his dragon is handled gently; the ‘training’ aspect occupies the middle section and is mostly dialogue-free. As the bond forms between them, the companionship develops - so when real peril comes in the final act, there’s a palpable tension with it.

(image via moviesmedia.ign.com)

Moon

“Sam, get some sleep. You’re very tired.”

Moon (2009) Dir: Duncan Jones

So many people missed out on this one! Sam Rockwell is so good in it… he’s probably the best part of Iron Man 2 (I know I’m in the minority about that movie but I didn’t rate it much) - seeing him there made me want to watch Moon all over again.

In it, he dares to dream bigger than his predicament, although the odds are massively stacked against him… I’m not known for getting something in my eye during movies but it hits me like nothing else besides Midnight Cowboy, maybe for the same reason.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) Dir: Shane Black

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is an under-appreciated gem: Shane Black is the master of Hollywood hard-boiled and this movie shows his love for the genre - a girl addicted to pulp crime stories, an unreliable narrator, verbose goons taking turns to beat up the anti-hero… even the chapter format employed uses Raymond Chandler book titles (The Lady in the Lake, The Simple Art of Murder, etc).

It marked the return of Robert Downey Jr, perfectly cast as a petty thief drawn into a typically labrynthine intrigue.  There’s so much to like, you can forgive its indulgencies (that beer commercial, or the brief cameo by Abraham Lincoln, anyone?).

The movie also taught me to keep my hands off the frame if someone’s about to slam the door in my face.  If you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean.

Oh, and there’s this killer title sequence…

Up (an appreciaton)

Up (2009) dir: Pete Docter/Bob Peterson

Up starts with an ending, a life in snapshot, which is poigniant and so deftly done (it packs an emotional wallop inside of ten minutes), you wonder how the film will recover. I didn’t get any wet on my face because I’m a tough guy (But I think my sinuses might have been playing up a bit).

The clever thing is how they introduce zany, Tex Avery-ish ideas once the film gets going, so we have a cartoon world grounded with a deeper meditation on loss, loneliness and the solace of companionship.

Mute - Duncan Jones' Mooted SF Project

Mute: Duncan Jones follows up his sensational debut, Moon, with another Sci-Fi flick. The image above is an early glimpse of the concept art.

Whereas Moon celebrated classic 70s space movies, Mute is clearly in Blade Runner territory; tantalisingly, Blade Runner is Jones’ favourite film, so we can expect great things from this!

Edit to add: Jones is now tied up with other projects and Mute has been put on hold.  Damn.