Movie Watch: The Last Broadcast

Some people brought The Last Broadcast to my attention after the Paranormal Activity review, and for good reason. The Last Broadcast is essentially a Blair Witch Project prototype, though it is unclear how much influence or inspiration BWP actually got from Broadcast, which was released one year earlier.

It follows a very similar vein as the other movies - low budget, documentary and self-documentary style story telling, more hints at horror than the actual thing. It's not quite as successful - the overall composition feels less tight and there is a lot of relatively boring detail dragged into the background of the murders central to the plot. Occasionally the low budget aspect shows itself in unwanted ways - but these are really just details to be forewarned about before pressing play. The movie is worth watching if not for the place it holds alongside similar films. After watching it, it feels odd if Blair Witch didn't lift from the Broadcast as some many elements are the same - a trip into the woods, a supernatural presence, characters videotaping each other, etc., etc. Oddly the real difference is that Broadcast insists on a more traditional framework in some of the plot in some places ... but I'll leave that intentionally vague as to avoid spoilers.

Basically - if this kind of horror film has interested you in the past, you owe it to yourself to check The Last Broadcast out, even if only as a historical curiosity ... but also because for what it is, it manages to be pretty entertaining.

If, however, you thought BWP was overhyped boring nonsense ... I would probably avoid it.

Movie Watch: Drag Me To Hell

Sam and Ivan Raimi's Drag Me To Hell almost went into the pile of movies I watch while traveling, until the first five minutes made me nostalgic of the Evil Dead series and I realized, yeah The Girl will want to watch this one too...

Drag Me To Hell is the movie Evil Dead fans have been wanting even if it doesn't feature Bruce Campbell's impressive jawline (for that, see My Name Is Bruce). It takes the same tricks used in the trilogy (more the first two movies than Army of Darkness) and implants them into a new storyline, this one featuring Alison Lohman as a loan officer cursed by a rather disgusting gypsy woman.

There are a few stumbles along the way - like Justin Long's rather deadpan rendition of a doting boyfriend, and a bit of predictability down the plot (especially for fans of the genre) - but the bottom line is that this great old school horror, and extremely refreshing in the days where Saw and Hostel benchmark the modern horror movie.

It's a lot of fun, and highly recommended.

I Heart Freebies

If you haven't heard, the FTC recently enacted a rule that amatuer netizens must disclose products they receive for free or face up to $11,000 in fines.

For the sake of this argument, let me disclose - I've gotten a handful of free games from a few companies. My favorites so far being Bad Company, Godfather II and to an extent Pure as they weren't entirely on my radar before emailing back and forth with PR people and quite enjoyed playing them. It should also be noted that I've gotten several games which, for one reason or another, I've gone ahead and bought anyway and allowed someone else to play the free version (which generally gets added as feedback for review). This includes Dead Space and Spore.

The biggest impact, I think, is that I've written a few paragraphs on games I normally would not have written about. Games don't get a free ride here. The attention the game gets is in merit with the game itself - I found Dead Space an interesting game from many angles, and it got a lot of attention (and I didn't technically get it for free). Pure is a fun racing game with a couple twists - and it got a few paragraphs.

The FTC's logic is that consumers have a different relationship of trust between small amateur blogs like this one than "traditional media". I'm that guy on the street, and G4 is apparently Ted Koppel. The summary from the FTC themselves goes:

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

-- FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials [FTC.gov]

Course, the problem the FTC is delineating between "word-of-mouth" marketing and traditional marketing. What's the distinction between here and Joystiq? Or here and a PR guy like Major Nelson? Or the official Sony blog? Let's ignore the fact the anachronistic concept that any of this is actually "word of mouth" at this point (if Cathode has ever increased any sales, trust me - it is "by way of Google" not by "word of mouth") - my biggest problem is that the leap form "material connection" to "paid endorsement".

So let me be clear - I'm completely willing to admit to having "material connections", despite them being rare, small and frequently in the wrong format. I am most certainly not saying anything on this site has ever, ever, even approached "paid endorsement" and I think the FTC is tossing a lot darts to hit a very narrow point on the board.

I agree with the FTC here in spirit, and think that doing something like seeding community sites to gather support is a fairly vile use of the 'net. I'm just not sure including bloggers who get a review copy merit being tossed into that bunch. I know I don't really appreciate it.

In summary? I love freebies. Mostly because I love the fact that there are PR people out there pushing games. It means I get a chance to engage people (and it has been more than PR peeps - like this interview with a SWAT 4 dev ... remember PR is the gateway) about games before they come out. I don't really care if it's a big label, indie title or some guy's homebrew ... if the project looks interesting, I like to have the conversation.

And if you want send me a version of your game to review - I'm likely to review it. If the fact that I got it free actually factors into my opinion of the game, I'm thinking that can't be a very good game. I'm thinking it would fall under "this would have been a waste of my time, were it not for the price" category.

Which avid readers would know I make note of when reviewing anyway.

Movie Watch: The Wrestler

Honestly, about the only nice thing I can say about this movie is that Marisa Tomei is a very attractive fortysomething.

This is now the second Aronofsky film I didn't finish. First was Requiem For A Dream which I found so profoundly depressing that I could feel enjoyment sucked out of the room. Jennifer Connelly became wildly unattractive to me during the movie - a clear crime against nature. While The Wrestler doesn't share quite the same level of surrealistic masochism as Requiem, there's certainly enough pain and loathing to go around.

I can't find anything particularly interesting about the singular focus on a man's tragedy which is just so droning and unrelenting. Rourke does an amazing job (hey, two nice things), for sure, but there isn't a scene with any respite for the character. Even when he plays Nintendo with a fellow trailer park kid - the kid has to rub it into his face that Call of Duty 4 is out and he's stuck with an NES.

In summary: His day job sucks, his night job is killing him, the closest thing he has to a girlfriend is a stripper, his daughter hates him for being a dick, he abuses drugs, and the people who adore him either want to staple gun his face for amusement or have no idea who he really is as a person.

What's awful about The Wrestler is that it isn't even terribly unique. We've seen this kind of character before - but without the snuff film edge to it.

Obviously not recommended.

Movie Watch: Southland Tales

As a rather big Donnie Darko fan, I was pretty interested in Southland Tales when I first heard about it, but then it fell off my radar. We got around to it this weekend, and the end result is almost sadly what I would have expected.

For the unfamiliar, Donnie Darko is the story about a high school kid who mysteriously survives the destruction of his house through a rift in time. Or at least that would be one interpretation of the plot. The wildly surreal movie never quite puts its finger on what is going on (although the new director's cut adds more context), but that is part of the movie's charm. Darko works for me because while the plot is woven around this really odd premise - the core is still about one kid's conflict with the rest of the world, fitting in school, dealing with his family and pretty much a lot of human stuff we to which we can all relate.

Southland Tales uses a lot of the same concepts but transports it to a national level and paints a surrealistic version of a biblical apocalypse onto southern California. It is basically Donnie Darko with a bigger budget and larger scale. And while, like Darko, it isn't for everyone, there is actually a lot of culture commentary and Lynch-esque sequences to entertain your eyes and brain for a decent portion of the movie.

But with its size and dept, Tales finds it harder to shrug off the feeling of being overwrought and slightly pretentious. Fans of a Mulholland Drive kind of thing should probably give it a try - but in a lot of ways the movie is a pretty hard sell. I recommend it, because I think its fun and unique, but even I felt the two and a half hour length droned on a bit too long without giving much satisfaction in the end.

Watch Darko first, and if you like it - rent Tales for an afternoon viewing sometime.

Movie Watch: Mummy 3, Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor

Oh. Dear. God.

Seriously?

There are times when it should be clear to those involved that a project is going to come out so bad that it should just be halted. Mummy 3 is such a movie. Rachel Weisz turned down the offer to return as Evie, presumably because the script was simply not up to snuff.

Kudos to Weisz for reading the script. In her place, the producers give us Maria Bello, and even insert a rather snarky joke in the movie to point out this fact. It should be noted to the filmmakers that when you have a girl from Pennsylvania doing a bad Rachel Weisz impersonation for the entire movie - you probably should not point out this fact. It's not a knock against Bello, I loved her in Payback and loved her more in A History Of Violence, but the writers would have been better off simply writing the character out than including a bad breathy English accent through the the movie.

But Evie is hardly the movie's real problem. The script suffers from not only all the normal Hollywood flaws, but manages to create a few new ones on the way. There's the odd references to the war and espionage that has apparently made our character fantastically rich and famous. There's the fact that their kid has suddenly turned college aged, mysteriously become another Indiana Jones clone without all the other Indiana Jones clones figuring it out. There's the rather awkward slamming of what feels like a draft for someone else's kung fu movie into Mummy 2. And that's not even accounting for the numerous plot holes and rather impressive suspensions of disbelief required from the viewers.

And going to jump into some spoilers here - because this is one of those movies I really think should be spoiled. Firstly, Jet Li (who heads a woefully underused Asian portion of the cast, including the generally excellent Russell Wong) spends most of his time in a mocap suit grunting and pointing. The Dragon Emperor himself is one of those "insanely powerful and yet conveniently not" kind of villians (I think he may make a cameo on the next season of Heroes). By the end of the movie, the big bad can transform into any manner of beast, including a massive three headed dragon ... and yet still prefers to get his ass kicked in human form quite a bit.

And all of this hooplah is to stop ... wait for it ... wait.... for it...

His terrible, horrible terra cotta army. Surely, you say, they are supernatural soldiers who can't be stopped by mere bullets? Because that would be really something, right? No, no, pretty much one bullet and they go down like a clay pot.

Know why? Because they are clay freaking pots, people. The movie would have been more effective threatening the world with shrubbery, because at least that would have been hilarious.

This is an outright avoid type of title, unless you're under the influence of drugs and can get it for free.

And oh by the way, if you need more proof that Ebert is hack, he considered this "the best in the series", apparently accepting the "it's so bad it's good" philosophy to the extreme.

Maybe Ebert has a taste for movies that are so good, they're good. This one, dear Roger, is just plain bad.

Movie Watch: Iron Man

The pun is too easy. Iron Man is easily one of the most solid summer blockbusters put to the screen. I'll refrain from making any repulsor lift jokes though, let's just settle on the fact that the movie manages a near brilliant tempo which avoids the non-stop special effects ride which is so easy for a studio to churn out, skips over the needless changes from the source material and doesn't fall headlong into overwrought romance.

It's quite easily the best comic book ever made.

One of the most impressive things about the script and the directing is that someone remembered that a hero story is sometimes the inverse of a horror story. A lot of good horror stories build the picture of the monster/killer/spooky doll very slowly. In this move, Iron Man is that spooky doll and it makes the payoff of the explosions to follow that much sweeter. Downey's peformance as Stark might not be too far removed from his core, but he plays the billionaire playboy with a heart of iron probably better than anyone else could.

There's a whole other layer being draped on top of this movie - I won't go into too much detail for fear of being spoilerific, but it certainly sounds like Marvel Studios is starting to try and ferry their franchises into a network of movies rather than a series of one-off money makers. It should be pretty interesting to watch.

Highly recommend (as action movies go).

DVD Watch: Superman: Doomsday

Just a quick note on this as I was something of a minor fan of the recent Justice League cartoons - this movie is just honestly not very good. The animation is what you would expect, and the voice acting is generally abov par - but the story and the dialogue is just unbearable. It's based on the death of Superman from the normal DCverse, but naturally truncated and slightly pureed. It plays way too much on the already quite ridiculous concept of Superman's alter ego (Lois apparently shagging the guy but still not quite being able to recognize him without his glasses. Just allow your head to explode, it will be simpler). It occasionally bounces into the painfully obvious (Lex creating a cure of MD to cash in while Superman at the exact same moment is trying to cure cancer) and then just rolls into camp (that spaceship! it might be alien!).

Avoid it. There's better animation out there.

DVD Watch: Shoot Em Up

Shoot Em Up isn't the most ridiculous movie you'll ever see .. in fact it doesn't even come close. But that's part of the genius of this over-the-top action comedy. It doesn't go to the absurd route - instead it rides this amazingly fine line of being just slightly more ridiculous than every other action movie out there. Because of this you get pulled in and at times feel like you can't be sure what to take seriously and what not ...

... and then someone gets killed by a carrot. Again.

Clive Owen was a brilliant choice to lead this farce. Highly recommend.

DVD Watch: Robotech - The Shadow Chronicles

I wanted this to be good, I really did. I've never had an overly romantic notion of just how good the original Robotech series was, being three completely separate narratives put through the blender in what can kindly be called the early days of American publish anime.

But still, Robotech was decent and gave a flood of anime to a base which had little hope of it before. And if Shadow Chronicles does one thing right - is that it makes a story which rides on top of all these conflicting narrations not feel quite so conflicted.

Sadly, it misfires most everywhere else. The voice acting is nearly as bad as some of the lines ("You don't think these Children of the Shadow had anything to do with ... The Shadow Technology?") and honestly even the artwork is a mishmash of good or bad, in both the 2D and 3D realm of art.

So while the overarching plot might not have you beating your head for watching it - getting from plot point to plot point might. Recommend only for the fanboy at heart.

DVD Watch: Battle Royale

Battle Royale is one of those things that is easier to just watch than have explained to you. Short version - it's a Japanese horror action flick with high school kids killing each other off in a three day struggle to be the last man standing and, hence, be allowed to leave the island.

OK, I guess it actually isn't that hard to explain. It's not like we're talking about Memento here or anything, it's pretty straightforward. What's hard to explain is why that's something you might actually want to watch. While it's certainly not Shakespeare, it's gritty and original with that dash of camp which makes so many of these movies more fun than you think they should rightfully have the right to hold.

I can recommend it, with the caveats that you walk in realizing that it's a bit odd and quite bloody.

Movie Watch: The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

We actually ending up renting this from iTunes as a kind of half experiment, half need for western. The movie is simply excellent, a kind of slow and thoughtful exercise on Jesse James and the genre in general. The movie relies on very little in terms of generic motifs or plot devices and instead has a hard focus on storytelling and character development. It's rather haunting in it's beauty and Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck pull off simply brilliant performances, though the latter feels more like a standout role.

iTunes worked pretty well. I don't think there's any way to view the movie while it is download, which is a bit of a downer, but the movie itself downloaded in about an hour or so and we were ready to roll. Image quality was good, but of course we are still in the SDTV world...

DVD Watch: Siam Sunset

Siam Sunset is a very odd little movie. It's actually pretty hard to determine if it is a solid recommendation or not because it isn't really one solid genre another. It doesn't have enough humor to be a comedy, the romance angle is actually paper thin and there really isn't much action to speak about.

It does have a lot of quirks that add up pretty convincingly to a pretty reasonable and creative plot. The main character designs paint colors and has a pretty idealistic life until bizarre accidents seem to follow him and eventually chase him to the more hellish sides of the Australian countryside.

We rather enjoyed it - but I acknowledge that the oddities are most of the charm. It would be a "give it a try but curb your expectations" type of film.

Movie Watch: Bee Movie

This was another one we saw on the flight back from Spain and honestly I should have warned you lot about it earlier. Honestly this movie is just not terribly good. It's hard to say it's outright bad - but ... ok it's just outright bad. It's not a lack of talented voice actors or the quality of animation is the problem here - it's just lousy writing. Maybe this kind of non sequitur, head-scratcher of a tangle works in kid's movie and sure, Bee Movie is something of a family film - but I was glad to have one of those tiny bottles of Jameson while getting through all of this one.

The plot just feels like it was written by three separate teams in different time zones and some poor schlub had the rather nasty task of assembling back together these various pieces into some sort of mutant frankenplot. Instead of rising, middle and falling actions - this movie has a plot structure more akin to a slightly retarded child doing windmills in the middle of the room.

Course, instead of writing something better the studio just decided to market the hell out of it. I've seen more coverage of Bee Movie than a political candidate. And sadly, some of the mini-skit-commercials Seinfeld did to pimp this whore of film were possibly better done than the film tiself.

Go rent that anime movie you've been wondering about instead.

Movie Watch: Juno

As movies go, Juno is pretty much the bomb.

Seriously - do you need another paragraph on how good this movie is? The only reason why you wouldn't see it is because a teen comedy on pregnancy morally offends you - and there's nothing I'll say to change that.

Movie Watch: The Golden Compass

Well, the set design is excellent.

Sadly everything else is an abridged and abrupt adaptation (hey, alliteration!) of an otherwise solid novel. The movie never stops to breath or enjoy itself and while it manages not to trip over itself too much (especially if you don't pay too much attention), it never fully delivers. A seriously lost opportunity on what could have been a great franchise. Somewhat enjoyable, sure, but in the end simply Hollywood average.

DVD Watch: Kaosu / Chaos

Chaos (or Kaosu ... there's a wealth of movies named Chaos out there it seems) is a Korean crime thriller packed with twists, non-linear storytelling and suspense. Definately falls into the "leaves you guessing" column of movies. In some ways it reminds me of the director's earlier Dark Water (which we saw over here remade with Jennifer Connelly) despite not having the same supernatural elements to it. Not really a must see, but I would recommend it if it happens your way.

DVD Watch: Pulse

Pulse is an odd bit of film. It's visually compelling in parts and surprisingly creepy at points, but the entire plot seems to wait until the last act to even start putting itself together. Up until that point, you get a mishmash of scenes thrown at you in an attempt to make some kind of spooky collage. Almost as if the filmmakers couldn't decide on any one creepy theme for more than twenty minutes at a time. By the end, the scope of the plot feels somewhat bold for the general Asian-to-American horror films (which are swiftly starting to outstay their welcome, sadly) - but also feels oddly out of place by the time you get there.

And sure, Kristen Bell is always a joy - but there are times when you think you're watching the zombie season of Veronica Mars.

Movie Watch: Cloverfield

Cloverfield is hands down one of the most inventive monster movie ever made, if not the most inventive one ever made. Now, granted, it's not a genre with a lot of stiff competition in that field and even Cloverfield is still mostly drawing within the lines, so to speak.

And let's also get out of the way what Cloverfield is not. It's not the best horror movie ever or the scariest movie in ten years or anything like that. What the film has going for it is the unique perspective - and honestly that goes a lot farther than the "Blair Witch" shaky-cam style shooting. There's a depth of digital editing and set design here which we've seen creeping into movies (see Zodiac's blue screens at work for instance) which is genuinely used to create a setting for the viewer.

Unfortunately that setting is scarier than even Cloverfield's much guarded monster, which isn't bad by any Godzilla standard, but the devastation of New York is simply that much more effective. If Cloverfield has any fault, it's that once you've settled into this backdrop, the movie starts to feel even more commonplace. The premise simply runs out of shock value about two third through the plot.

The plot, however, is good enough that you'll be debating for hours after the film whether you would or would not have shared in the character's footsteps. And simply seeing all this action unfold at the street level is done so tightly, that the rather boilerplate plot feels new and fresh.

Cloverfield breaks away from movies like 2000's Godzilla by taking the destruction and dram seriously, unlike that movie's near mon rom com standing (monster romantic comedy for the non zom rom com fans). It also breaks away from Blair Witch as Cloverfield will withstand the hype so much better as its use of scenery actually immerses the viewer into the action, rather than assuming suspension of disbelief from the beginning (Blair Witch is much more frightening when one is tricked into thinking it really was recovered footage first).

Definately recommended.

DVD Watch: Venus

Venus is a movie for people who love Peter O' Toole. Course, I don't understand the rationale behind anyone not loving Peter O' Toole - so except for those few people who probably don't need to see a movie about a lecherous old man and his complicated relationship with a young girl ... it's a movie for everyone.

OK, so maybe that's just skirting the real issue. The problem with Venus is that the subject material sounds so taboo - a man lusting after a girl who could well be his granddaughter in age - that it feels hard to justify. But when you're in the middle of the movie, it feels so easy to justify. Not just because O'Toole is brilliant but also because the movie manages to deal so earnestly with life and death that at times you forget it resembles a love story. Venus is hardly a tale of erotic fiction - this is not some kind of softcore fantasy. O' Toole's character has more screen time by about a hundredfold which in some way contemplates his advanced age and the ravages it has left on his life than misty images of a nubile girl.

For the most part, the movie is morbid and thoughtful. While O'Toole's emotions for the girl are childish, niave and slightly creepy - the emotions the movie as a whole sells to the viewer are realistic and mature. Venus is a vignette into the world of what it means to have lived and then to simply not be able to live much any more.