Total Recall (2012)

I have sufficient problems on my head these days, so I've found myself thinking on what sense does it have to keep this blog running, especially since I don't know how much time will I have for movies soon. Anyway, I managed to catch the 2012 version of "Total Recall", especially since for a while the SciFi became sort of a rarity at the big screen level (I'm not counting the superhero stuff that's pretty much the same story with a different mask every time). The opinions I heard before were not very good. My opinion after .. let's say it's divided.

I don't know if it has sense to tell something about the movie subject, since we're talking about a remake after something that we can call a genre classic that being the '90s version directed by Verhoeven and starring Schwarzenegger. I'm going to do something else, with the risk of losing the attention due to the writing volume, that being a resume of the P.K. Dick short-story-ului which is the base of the movie. In the story, Douglas Quail (with an "l" at the end and not a "d") is a minor clerk (not a worker building his muscles in a factory or on a construction yard) living a pretty dull life, and being married with a sort of hag as a wife named Kirsten (so not Lori and far from being so tender in the first phase as the movie version). The man decides one day to achieve his life dream, that being to travel on Mars, but since he does not have the necessary money for this tries to solve it with a visit to Rekal Incorporated, firm that handles memory implants according to the slogan "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" (the title of the novel). Without more details, our man chooses a packet that will guarantee him the experience of having "lived" two weeks on the red planet as an Interplan agent (a sort of intergalactic CIA). Service payed, subject taken by the operator, execution problem .. the memory is already there, but was deleted after Mr. Quail assasinated an important person. Therefore, the client half asleep is sent home where is taken by the Interplan agents with the purpose to eliminate him from the current planet. The reasoning - you know too much and if we erase your brain again, you'll go again to Rekal to "leave" to Mars. Well, here comes "the movie" = for something like half a page in the book Doug uses his fists and runs desperately. After which he gets an idea about a compromise - and here starts the spoiler for the book :) : he will surrender in the terms of replacing his Mars memory and "tendances" by something more powerful that will erase his subconscious travel desire. Done: Rekal Inc., meanwhile recruited by the government, finds in the mind of the subject a powerful childhood fantasy in which he sees himself as the saviour of the Earth from an extraterestrial invasion. And like this, the new memory package is created with the perfect memory to eliminate his Mars travel dreams: more exactly, the invading race impressed by the innocence and compasion of the little Quail decides to embark in the flying saucers and leave as long he will be alive on the blue planet. Service payed (by the government), subject taken by the operator, execution problem .. guess what ;)

This is pretty much what I remember from what I've read not long ago, and which is the basis for the two movies. Why did I spent my time with writing so much text instead giving a summary for the 2012 version. Well, because like in the 1990 one, the movie goes way further than the short story. In the same time, compared to the '90 film we have major differences = Doug does not get to Mars, Lori = the wife becomes the principal evil character, we do not have Quato anymore, etc. And these are the main reasons (more or less conscious/obvious) for which the movie is bashed. And this is wrong ... Because after all the visual "original" diverges a lot from the written original, as it can be seen from the story above. And in this years' film we do not have a total remake after all, we have an adaptation of the remake. Which adaptation gains exactly from having an original script (and it is quite original) and for that deserves appreciation, and not the contrary, since the book was anyway already far before the movie came up. Talking about which script or story is better, I think this is subjective here. As story (and movie overall) I think I like more the one from 1990. As a script on the other hand the new one seems more close in a few points (not many) to P.K. Dick as general atmosphere (the piano scene for instance). AS general, because as I said the original novel is quite far and quite simplistic after all in the literary universe it belongs to + is filled with a fine sarcastic humor characteristic to the author that is lost almost completely in the movies. To end my plea about the wrong comparison done between the productions one should take in account also the time when these were released. We have more than 20 years as a difference. And to be more clear where I'm going with this, I always had a feeling (possibly a wrong one) that the '90s "Total Recall" got a bit influenced by the politics of the time. More exactly, I don't know why but every time I'm seeing it I'm involuntary thinking on South Africa and Apartheid. Starting with the evil leader = Kohaagen - Dutch name (that doesn't show up in the book) up to the oppresive situation against the mutant population on the Mars colony (that again has nothing to do with the book). Probably it already starts to sound weird :) so I'll stop my rambling here. Conclusine: it's a movie to be seen ;) ..

Rating: 4 out of 5

.. PS: at least for Kate Beckinsale & Jessica Biel it deserves this :D I've almost forgotten :P

The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

I'm back. Not in a very good shape unfortunately. But sufficiently to maintain this blog on a survival line (I hope). And since I'm talking about survival + like I said last time, I come back with something that really deserves attention, despite a title, trailer and a first impression that do not suggest more than an average horror: "The Cabin in the Woods" :D .

My initial expectancies were like said before, and the movie was somewhere at the bottom of my "to see" queue. I had the luck though to stumble upon it in the closing evening of a festival where I didn't have the time to catch much else. This one however filled the space. What's it all about after all ... Well, the movie starts pretty much like a "typical teen horror where people wander in the wild & get slashed" but trust me on this .. it's much more original than whatever I've seen up 'til now in this category. I'm gonna try to limit the spoilers. We have two action plans: 1 - two guys + two girls who can be placed (well, probably) in the "hot" section + another guy who is a combination between Screech from "Saved by the Bell" (yeah I know, I'm old) and a joint loving hippie get into a summer trip somewhere to an isolated cabin ; 2 - something that looks like a secret branch of the US army with an underground HQ has the cabin under control and triggers an operation coordinated by two cynical guys targeting the "cheerful" group above. I'm gonna say just that the operation starts by attracting them in a cellar filled with objects like a sphere similar to the keys in "Hellraiser", a journal of a psycho family, etc. What's coming next you can see in the movie.

There are some aspects to point out. Firstly, "the hippie Screech" played in a brilliant manner by an unknown (at least for me) Fran Kranz, has an incredible well written part of the script. And considering that the script is generally way above than the usual horror average, the result already demands to be watched. The movie has a very good dose of black humor. So if you like the genre you should definitely not skip it. I laughed a lot, which doesn't happen very often. The idea itself is also something quite original, and even the end is a bit surprising on top of this (just a bit). I'd like to say that you also have something more deep in there, but after all the main line start-to-finish is just the fun = the perfect summer movie to see when you need something relaxing. There is blood in there (it's a horror after all), but again it's not exactly how it seems to be at the first sight. I've written already too much to give more info, but to do an overall characterization, as a feeling is a mix of light '90s horrors like "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" with a scent of "The Cube" trilogy. As a feeling .. about the rest, check it out ;)

Rating: 4 out of 5



( & remember, don't trust much the trailer :) what you need to get from there are the captions "You think you know the story ..." ;) )

.. Blog Vacation ..

... or more exactly an interruption caused by the traveling that I have scheduled in the following period :) I unfortunately I didn't manage to find out yet how to dilate the time (it's on the list, don't worry :P ); but I promise that I'll return with something that deserves watching ;) unfortunately I don't have time to write about it at this hour, but as usually, after 29 July, "I'll be back" :D ( & I'll try my best to make the waiting worth ;) .. well .. in case there will be somebody "waiting" :)) )

The Grey (2011)

I'm caught again by the end of the week without many options for the blog, so I must deal with it by writing about something that's not actually very good. However, since the IMDb rating for "The Grey" seems decent (actually above what I would give) I said that maybe it fits as an option for today ...

The movie is somewhere in the survival adventure/thriller genre on a close subject line with "Jaws", "Anaconda", etc. This, if you read the synopsis. After you see it from start to finish though, it's hard to put it near the mentioned. The reasons are many and diverse ... But, let's start with the story: we have a plane transporting several workers from an oil platform in Alaska to the inner part of the continent in the middle of the winter. The plane crashes and the the result is seven survivors struggling to find somebody in order not to get frozen to death. The problem of the cold though, gets quickly secondary, after the men find themselves aggressively harassed by a wolf pack. As usual, I won't get further than the context, but anyway ... there is not much left to be told.

I didn't check but I assume that "The Grey" is rated R. Besides the fact that the movie is quite hard to watch, I guess that "restricted" fits here also more particularly to other situations in which watching the movie won't probably be a very pleasant experience: from being an animal lover (especially of dogs) up to having a flight scheduled nearly + others. Anyway, leaving this aside, I could say that the hard part of the movie is also the good part. And the one making the difference as least commercially than others - "Anaconda" again as a negative example here. And this happens due to the cinematography and especially editing that contributes to the atmosphere a lot. Unlike other titles, the movie does not follow the idea of making a score at the box-office from the abundance of bloody scenes (although the present ones get quite rough). After all this is probably the reason why it cannot be regarded as a horror (although it's not very far). But if the cinematography and editing are the good parts .. and I think I started in other direction, maybe it would be the case to come back to the original idea ...

Maybe it's me, but lately it seems I very often have the same problem .. again I think we have something that takes itself too seriously ... Leaving apart the fact that the wolf pack behavior seems a bit unrealistic, although I'm not an expert in wildlife, my major problem is with the script. After the first ten minutes you already know that what you have in front is not the usual "Piranha 3D" stuff. But after this the situation slowly changes .. You get more & more melodramatic background stories of the characters, classic crisis speeches, the usual "one by one .. who dies next" horror theme. To conclude, it slowly gets too Hollywoodish, and the bad part is that it tries to hide that .. = in the end I was left with the editing as the "something else" factor. Even the soundtrack that was nice, and a bit known, I confirmed myself after that is partially reused from "Ink". Therefore ...

Rating: 3 out of 5

Iron Sky (2012)

Sorry for the delay, but I wasn't able to post my entry last week, although I had it in my head. So I'll be back with the following too soon. For the moment "Iron Sky" or adapted freely "How to launch an extraterrestrial invasion with a smartphone" is a sci-fi satire/parody, with a budget a bit bigger than the usual indie. Partially supported through crowd funding, the movie is a German-Finnish-Australian production. The subject: The return of the nazi .. from outer space .. or more exactly from the dark side of the Moon :)

I guess I've already summarized the story above, and since I'm delayed already I won't get any longer. The movie is .. to compare to something having an element in common, as credible as "Inglorious Basterds" (keeping the proportions). There are holes in the script, and other issues. But ... again, unlike for instance "Prometheus" from last week, in this case we have something not taking itself much into serious. On the good side, we have also some other stuff like the score that varies from blues pieces to an arrangement foe Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", starting with a arrangementcazul de fata avem ceva ce nu se ia prea in serios. In plus, avem cateva puncte de remarcat incepand cu partea de coloana sonora care merge de la cateva blues-uri pana la un aranjament pentru Ride of the Valkyries de Wagner, excellent synced with the movie scenes. The FX have a couple of glitches but overall are to be appreciated given the movie budget (altogether with the production design and the other related stuff). The actors, although I didn't know anybody besides Udo Kier, surprised me in a very pleasant way. And finally .. the parody scenes .. which might have been more, but what's striking is the well-known Hitler scene from "Untergang" (the clip heavily used with alternate subtitles on YouTube).

In the end I have to admit that the movie looks more like a B series one, but it's on top on its category :) It might not be much, but deserves the time, it's fun, witty, and ... subjectively speaking I've placed Julia Dietze on the list to watch for in the future ;)

Rating: 3 out of 5