Movie Marathon Reviews-Day 1

Hi everybody! Yes, I do mean all five of you.

Daniel here. Brigitte is out of town on a shoot for a few days so I figured it would be a good chance to watch a bunch of movies that she has been hesitant to watch (or just not interested.) Since I just finished a big job, I have a little free time until I find the next gig.
I just finished watching Quarantine, which made me want to immediately write my thoughts down, so I figured I would review everything I watch while she's gone.

I will make this a completely "spoilerless" review because that's just how I think it should be done and I want you to be able to experience it the way I did. I’ll also try to keep the reviews brief for the same reason.

Let me also say that Brigitte is the eloquent one. I'm doing my best to "use my words" as my mom used to say to me (when I was much younger, I promise) but images are the currency I usually deal in so bear with me.

UNDERWORLD

It was fine.

OK, seriously, it felt like your typical supernatural/action movie. The story is good, the writing is OK. That being said, I had a fun time. I enjoyed it more than the Blade series (2 came close which, I'm guessing is due to Guillermo Del Toro's touch). Also, I would ALWAYS prefer to watch Kate Beckinsale over Wesley Snipes any day.

There's not much else to say about Underworld. Enjoyable but forgettable.


QUARANTINE

FLIPPING. AWESOME.

I’m not going to call it “original” for several reasons(o.k., two) – first, it is a remake of a Spanish film called REC (which I haven’t seen but REALLY want to now), second, it has the tone and feel of Alien, The Thing, Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Strangers… you get the idea. But I will say that it was entirely satisfying and told the story in it’s own, unique way.

I will also say it is one of the best examples of the “First Person Camera,” “Documentary-Style,” “POV Camera,” “Subjective Camera,” whatever you want to call it. I thought they did a great job justifying the camera. I hate it when the script calls for the actors to explain why the camera is still running (or why they have it in the first place) when in any normal circumstance, the camera would be off and thrown to the ground and left as the anchor that is. I won’t mention any names but you know who you are (COUGH!georgeromeroindiaryofthedead,COUGH! mattreevesincloverfieldCOUGH!) Sorry, something in my throat. This worked for me and I didn’t think about it once. The choreography of the camera was excellent also. To make it look like it was all caught in real time with as long as the shots were takes an AMAZING amount of time and rehearsal. This was not improvised or thrown together. This was a difficult one for the actors, I can tell you that. And they did an incredible job.

Which brings me to the writing. It feels like there wasn’t any writing – just a lot of running and screaming. But, thinking back, I completely know what I need to know about, and can differentiate between, all of the characters - and relate to them. And, as I said, it feels like there wasn’t any writing – so I guess the writers did their job. Well.

I also loved that the story was “shown, not told.” This type of shooting, and a lot of horror movies in general, tell you the back story and the setup much of the time. There is usually one character or a few of them that sem to be figuring out what is going on and tell the rest of the group (and the audience) what is going on. Not here. What we do discover is told in very small bits visually. I won’t tell you how much, or what, we find out – watch it.

It was also very simple-one location (basically), one idea. It’s the kind of film that makes me want to go make a movie right now.

One final thought – I love monster movies, zombie movies, slasher movies (I don’t know where to catagorize this one) – this made crawl up into the back of the couch and it made me jump a few times…

I never jump.

That makes me happy.

VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED

I found a Village of the Damned/Children of the Damned 2 pack at Big Lots for 6 bucks. What a value! This is the original black-and-white Children of the Damned (1960) not the 1995 remake by John Carpenter.

What fun! The DVD box listed it as “Horror Double Feature” but I would put it more under the category of Science-Fiction. It fits neatly into the same category as Invasion of the Body Snatchers and many other sci-fi films of the 50’s and 60’s that dealt with the world’s fears of communism – the “Group Mind” and a cold, emotionless enemy – in a way that the public could ingest, disguised as entertainment.

When I bought this I was surprised that I had never seen it before. It is such a part of pop-culture, the little blond kids and their creepy eyes. It’s been parodied many times, not the least of which on a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode. If you call yourself a fan of classic sci-fi (or horror) this is a “must-see.”

Well, that’s it for tonight. I’ll be back at it tomorrow night. I don’t know what I’ll watch yet. I’m just going where my mood takes me.

Cheers!