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tbiegalski
Reviews
Star Trek (2009)
Felt more like Star Wars than Star Trek
As an action space opera, the new Star Trek is great. As Star Trek, it is lacking. It is an action filled shoot-em-up with wonderful effects, competent acting, and an exciting story. However, it lacks intelligence, which it tries to desperately make up for with style and wit. It felt more like Star Wars than Star Trek. There was no message (unlike previous Star Trek, so much of which was modern morality tales and intelligent sci-fi fables) - unless you count the typical Disney bs of believing in yourself, or the importance of teamwork. It is just what you would expect from the commercials. We can only hope that the money which this will make will lead to more intelligent ventures into the franchise. Makes me miss Bill Shatner.
Eye of God (1997)
Beautiful and elegiac
This is a wonderful study of the face of evil and its impact upon the lives of its characters. The narrative is nonlinear and may be confusing at first if one is not warned, but once a viewer is aware of this he/she should have no difficulty understanding the film. The storyline is initially split and follows two seemingly unrelated characters, which are somehow (at first we don't know) linked through a third subplot involving a small-town sheriff and some crime which has yet to be revealed. One storyline involves a teenage boy who has experienced the worst type of loss and is now emotionally alone in the world. And there is a small-town waitress who has established a relationship with an ex-con over years in a pen-pal program. The waitress has a glass-eye which is a symbolic reference to the movie's title. This glass-eye exists in the world of the inanimate, and the scenes of human despair and sorrow are reflected in and across it without judgment, action, or recourse, as the Eye of God viewing this world exists totally separated of its theater. At the film's end we are reminded of the story of Abraham and Isaac and that the actions of any Judeo-Christian god are very seldom held up to the same standards to which he holds his people. This movie took my breath away and haunted me for days after I initially saw it. It's memory still haunts me.
Land of the Dead (2005)
Romero's comment on class stratification. A Masterpiece.
Romero has created his masterpiece. This is, by far, the most intelligent movie of the "Dead" series. Romero is constantly making subtle comments about the climate of class relationships in the world today. Just as "Dawn of the Dead" was a statement on consumerism (to me, the ultimate series of scenes in Dawn occur during the closing credits, where the archetypal mall/elevator music soundtrack is playing and the zombies are aimlessly roaming through the mall to which they have, because of "some kind of instinct," returned), "The Land of the Dead" is a direct statement upon "The Land of the Free." Kaufman is wonderful as the leader of the social elite who believes that zombies "have no right" to invade the world of privilege which he has created. He does not "negotiate with terrorists" who are trying to use their connection with him to climb up the ladder into his elite (just as the middle classes are always attempting to move into the upper class). Leguzamo's character's relationship to Kaufman is a statement on the politics of today, wherein politicians, "playing to the masses," present the facade of social mobility.
Most all of the movies relationships have overtones into themes of social stratification. Its basic thematic structure is analogous to the social structure: while those inside Fiddler's Green are the Upper class, and those in the city below are the middle class, the undead represent the lower classes. Herein we see a direct metaphor between social distance and actual distance. The movie is replete with subtle touches: the zombie leader of the undead army is a gas pumper, and it is this ability that he uses to eventually overcome his ultimate obstacle (**please note that I am avoiding a spoiler here**); the primary means used by the mercenaries (i.e. the middle classes who work directly for the elite) to prevent the zombies from acting are fireworks, at which the zombies faces stare with a hypnotized intensity, no doubt closely resembling many Americans in front of their TV watching reality shows (almost all of which present some possibility of riches to a member of the middle class); and the zombies using the tools of their labor to break down the obstacles which stand in their way (a meat cleaver is used by a zombie, once a butcher, to break through a makeshift wooden fence; a jackhammer, albeit after it is turned off, is used to break through a Plexiglas window).
And then there is the inevitable subtext. If the mercenaries (the entertainment industry in this context) use fireworks (i.e. popular entertainment) to keep the zombies docile, then what does that make Romero? To what degree does Romero identify with his main character, as the mercenary who does not want to be a social climber, but simply wants to get out of the rat-race? And are we the undead simply watching another fireworks display?
Furthermoe, throughout this intelligent zombie allegory, we are presented with relentless action and a myriad of comic touches. The acting is wonderful, and the effects are even better. While I was initially put off by the 'R' rating as I was afraid that the movie might have been toned down, (as all previous films in the series have been unrated), I ultimately discovered that the film does have an acceptable gore-quotient. While many of the gory scenes do not contain the same lingering shots of, for example, zombies eating intestines that were present in the previous films, we are still shown the intestine feast, just for a slightly briefer period. And there is a great deal of imagination at work in the presentation of the zombies. Just watch for the scene when one of the soldiers gets bitten in a car. For a zombie, this is the perfect defense mechanism.
Romero has created his masterpiece. This is certainly one of the greatest films of recent years, and if the Academy were truly unbiased, then this movie would undoubtedly win Best Picture in this year's Oscars (however, as we all know, horror films are excluded from the running).
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
Night of the Living Dead with more plausibility as an action movie
I wonder if anyone has noticed that this is a reworking of Night of The Living Dead? The African-American hero. The gang members who never talk. Trapped in the precinct. Even the attempt to get the car. This is not surprising when one considers the movies John Carpenter went on to do. The biggest difference is the ending, which is, as many have noted, somewhat anticlimactic. In this version of the story our heroes live, whereas in Night everyone dies.
All in all, though, a fairly good movie. The scene involving the little girl and the ice cream man truly takes one by surprise. It's as if, up to that point, one is unsure of the degree to which this movie will take things. But once that scene explodes over its viewers, all doubt is expelled and we realize that no niceties will be seen and no realities will be spared (However, I do not mean to suggest that any level of gore exists within this movie. Just unrelenting action sequences.).