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Carlos (2010)
Excellent in new and unique ways!
This film is one of the few that inspired me to write a review. The film excelled for several reasons, the first for providing me with a quality educational experience and second for the quality of the film making that had goodies within goodies to offer.
Carlos the Jackal was active during my youth, I grew up reading about him in the newspaper but this film put all of the knowledge together in one place and really made that knowledge relevant and understandable.
The film itself was well made, the actors, the director, the crew, and the writer did a great job but the challenge the film makers had was to maintain quality while telling the dismal story that had become Carlos' life.
Carlos the Jackal started his career as SPECTRE's James Bond. He was handsome, a lady killer, moneyed and fast with a gun but as life wore on, each new mission or event added a new dent that took him down a notch. The film documented the range of gradual failings and although there is a temptation to make humor from this absurdity, the style of the film is always serious. The film makers had a big job to show this quantity and quality of failure. You can literally make a check mark for each new insult every ten minutes.
This film is about demise and the cluelessness of those involved.
The Outer Limits (1963)
This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System
I have a good idea why The Outer Limits was so memorable and it had to do with the original series' mimicking the test of The Emergency Broadcast System and taking things one step beyond.
The scariest thing on TV in those days was "This is a test, this is only a test". That always got your attention. It was rude and serious and broke into regularly scheduled broadcasting. It was the weekly abrupt reminder that you were a minute away from a range of life ending terrors and unimaginable destruction. And what did TOL's Control Voice sound like? Thats right, it sounded exactly like "This is a test". We rarely got past "This is a test" but for the next sixty seconds you indulged into thoughts of h*ll on earth and then h*ll beyond earth.
TOL is what happened when events were real and you got to "This is an actual emergency". TOL showed you while on the comfort of your sofa real events that warrant EBS activation.
That was clever of the writers and producers to tap into thoughts that way. I understand writers must recognize contemporary world to make relevant material but these folks knew more, they knew secrets.
After that, the Indian Head test pattern meant you were abandoned and left unprotected by your TV company and left alone with the night time things in your basement and attic.
Le salaire de la peur (1953)
One of the ten best films ever made.
This film was a wonderful experience for me. A real work in every sense with low budget everything. A B&W camera, respondent actors and a tight script. A great fiber treatment for film lovers. The fat was cut at every turn. The actors are slobs that you've never seen before and have never seen again yet they capture you. Exotic people in an exotic place yet you can relate. 1953 is a year before all of the actors transmuted into 22 year old yuppies with great hair. Suspense hooks dropped with and without you knowing and then recalled with great deftness. If you insist of foisting foreign art films on your friends, be confident that that this film will win them over.
The Killing Jar (2010)
The Actors Studio!
Grabastic - I'm a channel flipper and I stopped flipping for this little gem. The movie was all about acting, it reminded me of 12 Angry Men or Night Of The Living Dead as it took place in a small space and was packed with tension and personalities. Bloody movie if you want street cred. You really didn't know who would be shot next or how or why. Micheal Madsen filled his type cast as a deranged thug and the rest of the cast played through acting school chops. Madsen got to ham it up and his experience showed. The writing was well done and tightly edited. Jake Busey as always bought the air of chaos and wildness along and fleshed his character out well. You could really imagine the actors walking around the green room with a script and talking to themselves.
John Carter (2012)
The Dejah Thoris Experience gets an Oscar
The Dejah Thoris experience should get an Oscar. Somewhere along the line someone crafted a gem and that ought to be rewarded. Ms. Collins produced like her acting teacher taught her, as the director directed, she sat still while the wonderfully crafted body paint, hairstyle and costumes were applied and and she didn't seem to mess any of it even under so much pressure. I think its called all cylinders firing. Its been a long while since we've been presented with a Sci Fi goddess and the delivery was excellent. Dejah Thoris sits along side Ripley, Princess Leah and Raquel Welch.
She carried the film and that effort, along with the help from the staff, deserve an Oscar nomination.
The Outer Limits: Production and Decay of Strange Particles (1964)
The most science fiction-y of them all!
This post is less a review and more of a discourse of why I thought this ep was so...awesome...
"The Production and Decay of Strange Particles" borrowed heavily from physics and lent the idea that life or at least consciousnesses could come from atomic particles. Man, that's awesome! The ep really introduced infinity and the possibilities that infinity could provide.
The lead was played George Macready and Mr. Macready was easily the most dignified actor on the American screen. If you needed a diplomat, scientist, pope or executive, Macready always delivered.
The plot was weak; a new life form arrived somehow, possessed humans and caused a big explosion. Macready had to understand and counter act the the events and with inspiration from his wife he ...."used his brain!".
There was plenty of stock footage used and in fact went over the line into classic stock but I forgave all of that just to hear all of the chemical compound names and even more.... chemical compound names plus isotopes! The over the top nerdiness was much more rewarding than the morality lectures of the Bellero Shield et all. Even a nuke explosion and then a another nuke explosion to put everything back! Dude!
TOS was scary because the intro parroted civil defense drills, every Outer Limits episode was a nuclear attack warning and this ep took you right to the fission.
I'm more experienced in life now and more critical but this ep's thrill is not gone. I don't visit the quality of the ep any longer, I visit the quality of the experience.