Reclaim your BrainThere seems to be quite a bit of Austrian buzz around this movie. When I was racing to get into line for midnight madness on Tuesday night I passed by a white limo with "Reclaim your Brain" scrawled in spray-paint across the side. You can tell how proud the producers were from the way the film flows as well, but I fear it's a local phenomena, and doesn't work well for me outside of Teutonia.
Not to damn it with faint praise, but it had a real Canadian feel: you know, the
we are very clever and against corporate culture thing. Not that that is bad, but it weighed down the film in the middle.
The movie starts well: the main character, Rainer, is quite an anti-hero, and prior to his transformation not much of a hero at all. He's actually quite an asshole. He's a trash TV producer in Germany, and makes many horrible low brow shows. For instance, the show that he is producing at the start is "Super Baby", which is a twist on the Dating Game. Three men compete for the opportunity to send 9 months in a luxury spa with the bachelorette. Why 9 months? Because the contest is a race: first sperm into the egg wins! Intercut with Rainer's coke fueled road rage it's a solid start to the movie.
Rainer's car is soon hit by a vengeful orphan of a man slandered by one of Rainer's shows. Her grandfather killed himself in shame and she finally gets her revenge against Rainer. This is the turning point in the movie, both for the main character, and also for the preachiness of the film. Rainer realizes to his horror that people really are as dumb as the ratings would imply, and goes about rigging the ratings system with a band of misfits to make Germans smart again!
The movie starts well and ends well, but it really kinda meanders in the middle. I have a feeling that if I spoke German than the dialogue may have made the middle bit more palatable. Based on reading the subtitles it landed up feeling preachy and forced. I would probably recommend the movie to German speaking film fans, but then again they have probably already heard of this film and have seen it.
Jar CityThis movie is basically
CSI: REYKJAVIK. It's a bleak and depressing murder mystery that takes place in Iceland. Erlendur, the detective who is the main character in the story is a humourless man who's daughter is a pregnant junkie and his life has long since left him. He is investigating the murder of a man that no one knows or likes, and eats the most horrible things you can imagine along the way.
Paula suggests an alternative title: 'Icelandic Culinary Horror'. If you have never seen a man eat a take-out stewed goats head, then take my suggestion:
CLOSE YOUR EYES, you can't unsee a man gouging out stewed eyes and eating them. Erlendur's younger partner asks about getting something that's not on a buffet and the owner says "We don't serve your Guacamole shit here" ... his request for a latte didn't go over well either :)
This is a very good movie. Well made, excellent tone and pacing. You really feel the hopelessness of life and death in the cold desolate areas that the movie takes place. There is a line early in the film that sums it up: after seeing the body of the murder victim Erlendur says "“typical Icelandic murder… messy and pointless.". I would recommend it to crime drama lovers who are not culinarily squeamish.
Rebellion: The Litvinenko CaseRussia is fucked up. While I was on a ferry in Argentina I read an amazing article in the New York Times Magazine about Putin's succession after four years in power, and how far into Monarchy the Russian system had fallen. This movie makes it pretty clear that the Russian government has been a dictatorship since at least 2000, and that Putin and his supporters are very very bad people.
The movie is built around the story of the director's friendship with Litvinenko, and retelling Litvinenko's life right to it's tragic end. Litvinenko was an FSB (previously the KGB) agent who came forward to call out the corruption within the FSB and Kremlin. He came out in 1998 to claim that the bombings of apartments in Moscow were not a terrorist attack but rather a cynical and callous act to start a war with
Chechnya. He further claims that Russian soldiers that were sent to the front were really being sold into slave labour, and they would be 'captured' and put to work by anyone who could pay the officers enough money.
While following Litvinenko's life right up to the point where he died of Polonium poisoning in London, the movie piles up years and years of horrible atrocities on the Putin government. It's one of those films that is hard, because it seems like it is only the word of the protesters against the government, and the level of inhumanity is so high that it defies plausibility of civilized people. Sadly, I fear that was has been said is true, and that the removal of communism really only removed the last barrier to a complete take over of a nuclear power by the forces of corruption and cruelty.
Flash PointHK action at it's best. Last year I did retro HK action with Election 1 & 2 back to back, this year I'm seeing the latest from the director who did SPL. An explosive way to finish the festival this year!! This movie showcases MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), with some amazing stunts and fight choreography. Fans of the UFC will see some of their favourite movies being used in some spectacular ways in this film.
Damn I love to watch martial arts films at Midnight Madness! There is a fairly generic plot line that works to introduce you to the under cover cops and the colourful gang of villains that they have infiltrated. Soon covers are blown and gang members are put on trail ... if the cops can stay alive that long ...
There is only one scene with wirework in it, and it was for a comic scene, otherwise the movie involves only physical action and excellent choreography. The director commented that he felt that martial arts films had developed into a give / take sort of fight design: punch, dodge, kick, hit, punch ... but in real life people don't take turns when hitting. This movie is a flurry of action. Punches, kicks, tables, chairs, bottles, guns, pretty much anything that could be thrown at a person is. Some fast and exciting chase scenes round off the action buffet.
Highly recommended. The audience was screaming and clapping all the way through. Go see this movie for some kick ass action.
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