This week docweasel.com movie reviewer Peach reviews some movies she’s rented, bought, pirated off the net and gone to see in the theater.
Day of the Jackal (1973) starring Edward Fox
Made a while ago, before CGI and all that of course, so the focus of this movie is more-so about plot. I suppose this movie goes a bit slowly but… I guess I am fairly used to fast paced movies (Run Lola Run :-P); also my attention span is not the greatest I have to admit – I get bored a lot watching movies in the theatres because they can make movies SO LONG now. So long your ass falls asleep. Still, I liked this movie. It’s about a professional killer and his plan to assassinate the french president. You get to see a professional killer in action, how he plans his mission and what tools he needs, and so on.
This movie is very attentive to detail – you won’t be wondering how he did this or that, because it was already explained before and it just fits together perfectly in the end (if you’ve seen a show called Alias on TV… I saw a few episodes and on their missions sometimes the main character would just do things that were unreal with no real explanation, so you’re left there thinking WTF!! stupid show. Anyway, this movie is not like that).
There is a remake of this movie but I haven’t seen it. I saw this movie at my grandparents a long time ago and I thought to see it again. OH yeah, and I had to rent this on VHS so maybe it’s not on DVD, either that or the place just didn’t get this movie on DVD. It’s probably on DVD though, maybe in a boxed set with the remake I bet. BUY IT on Amazon
Equilibrium (2002) starring Dominic Purcell, Christian Bale and Sean Bean
Equilibrium has KEWL special effects, weapons, and action sequences. I like action movies because they’re just good fun. Although the fight scenes were unreal as in “How could he survive all that!?”. Meh, but this movie was kind of bad I thought. The thing that puts me off about this movie is how unoriginal it is! I’ll get to that later. So in this movie, a fascist/strict regime is implemented. Culture and feeling: BANNED!!1. Everyone has to take some pill that makes them not feel emotion. I guess it would be like making everyone take Prozac, harhar. The main character skips his pill one day and then chaos ensues.
And this movie is not original or anything because I saw a made for TV movie in 2000 or maybe 2001 with the exact same general idea that this movie has. Also I think I have seen some similar movies, but names just don’t come to mind. The made for TV movie was about America post World War III.
A strict regime was also implemented and crimes as petty as jay walking were punishable by death. There was an underground movement where people enjoyed the culture of yesteryear. Also they played chess and did other smarty pants things that they couldn’t normally do (everyone had to wear these headbands that made them stupid). In the end, the main character’s love interest was turned into a retard, and he went nuts and haxxored the TV stations and broadcasted various cultural and intelligent type things.
Then he killed himself on TV. Anyone know what made for TV movie I’m talking about? Bah I hope I didn’t dream this up :-P. The made for TV movie had such a stupid ending. There was a scene earlier in the movie where a committee that previews shows before they go on the air is shown. Someone from the committee commented that a certain scene from a show would get too much of an emotional reaction, and it was too thought provoking, so they had to cut that scene out.
Now the last scene of the movie the main character is pissed off at the world and pissed that his girlfriend got turned into a retard, so he kills himself on a talk show that he was invited to. Well whoopdeedo, what a big and widely seen statement THAT character would have made. Obviously the committee that reviews the shows before they go on air would edit that out. And I doubt the show was shown live because that probably would be considered too risky. But yet I felt that the show implied that this suicide was widely seen (they made this scene so it looked like you were watching the scene though a TV on the TV. sorry that’s a weird explanation and probably not very clear).
Just not an original movie… I was kind of reminded of the book 1984. Also some thoughts arose: Why marry if you can’t feel emotion? So these married couples procreate without emotion? Why even bother with sex at that point, I mean you could just clone. I think family units are created with love. I could nitpick more but I can’t be bothered. BUY IT on Amazon
Pink Panther Film Collection (1998) starring Peter Sellers
I’m not going to review each movie but… I think Peter Sellers was a goof (in that funny sort of way). He played inspector Clouseau, the most incompetent detective ever. Basically they’re slapstick movies – silly/strange events, play on words, physical mishaps, and so on. I like this series because it made me “L O L”!! I guess my favourite is the second one. I was not impressed with the last one. BUY IT on Amazon
Contact (1997) starring Jena Malone, David Morse and Jodie Foster
Contact is okay. I think the ending was fucking stupid. I won’t say what it is. The only reason I think this movie is okay is because I find the idea of making contact (with aliens) to be interesting. I think the worst thing about this movie is it brings things to metaphysics and moves away from scientific reasoning. Just really fucking dumb and reminded me of Signs and its stupid ending. It started out pretty good though. BUY IT on Amazon
Bubba Ho-tep (2002) starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis
I downloaded it and I think it’s great. I will buy it if I see it in a store. This movie didn’t really make it to theatres. I mean it was playing for one day in an older Vancouver theatre as far as I know, and only right before the dvd was released too. I guess it was a very limited release? Who knows.
This movie is about an Elvis impersonator who thinks he’s the real deal – the King of Rock and Roll. During a performance he breaks his hip and then he’s shipped off to a retirement home. Elvis befriends “JFK” he’s black but he claims he was “dyed [that] colour!” roofles.
Anyway, so an Egyptian entity decides to prey upon the retirement home where Elvis and JFK live, and it’s up to them to try and put a stop to that. This is also a movie about old age and dying, and the loneliness that goes along with it. BUY IT on Amazon