December 15th- December 21st
Red Dawn, Mad Max, I Am Legend – A trio of post-apocalyptic movies. I remember enjoying Red Dawn back in my youth. It seemed like an adventure. Like some grand game of extreme camping or something. Watching it now, one of the first things I thought was that this movie is aching for a RiffTrax treatment. Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. Charlie Sheen and C. Thomas Howell. And, of course Lea Thompson as some sort of psuedo-feral victim of Russian misdeeds (apparently having something to do with her ass…I can only imagine). In a way, this movie is a RiffTrax of itself. It’s that bad. Nevertheless, the film did manage to be prescient in a couple of ways. It seemed to predict both the disaster of 9/11 (those angry Afghanistanis!) as well as the insurgency in Iraq (those pesky Wolverines!). In a way, this movie managed to be both fiercely pro-American and a defense of the Taliban (one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist). I have no idea how the proposed remake will be able to dance around these conflicting motivations.
I think this may have been the first time I’ve even seen Mad Max. I’d long ago seen Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome. But, I didn’t remember any of this first installment. The first half was mostly incomprehensible. I was on the verge of giving up on it. But, finally, Max gets mad. And then the fun began, redeeming the movie with a barrage of chases and violence. Sadly, there are films today with 100 times the budget of this one that don’t get it as good as this one did.
Which brings us to I Am Legend. I honestly liked Will Smith’s performance. He can pull off the silly, isolated self-talk that on occasion approaches Charlton Heston’s turn as Robert Neville. And, I liked the dog. But, c’mon. How do you interject all this religious crap into this story? Prayer, angels sent by god, a savior. This isn’t the vampire story I want to see. I’ve actually never even read the original Richard Matheson novel. So, my complaints have nothing to do with the fidelity to the source material. It’s just that some things work, and some things don’t. Besides these Christian themes, the other thing that really didn’t work in this film was the CGI effects. The CGI was used effectively in making the city look desolate. But, elsewhere it was entirely ineffective. Starting with the herd of deer and the lions, you are exposed to the stark fakeness of CGI creatures. And, the monsters looked hideous–but in a good way. They looked like LOTR‘s Gollum on steroids. There was little sense that these creatures were infected humans. They looked otherworldy. And not scary at all. Deranged and severely sick humans are usually scarier than CGI creatures. Invest in a bunch of extras and a good make-up team instead of poorly executed CGI and you’ll end up with a better final product as well as cost savings.
Man on Wire – This documentary was inspirational and beautiful and absolutely jaw-droppingly amazing. You can not help but to me mesmerized as this story unfolds. This film will surely stand up as one of the greatest tributes to the World Trade Center that we’ll ever have. I certainly expect this one take home an Oscar early next year.
The Times of Harvey Milk – This documentary did take home the Oscar in 1985. That the tragic story of Harvey Milk can still provide so much hope and inspiration is what makes this documentary and Gus Van Sant’s Milk required viewings. Still, twenty-four years after this film was made (and 30 years after Milk’s death), things can certainly look a bit discouraging.
