Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Empty Theatre

Lockout

3 stars

Starring Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan and Peter Storemare

When entering a film produced by Luc Besson, you can be assured of two things: 1) It’ll probably be completely unoriginal and full of clichés and 2) Number 1 won’t really matter because it’ll be a hell of a lot of fun.

Guy Pearce is one of those actors that never really popped like he should have, but fortunately never really faded into obscurity. I caught both L.A. Confidential and Memento right around the same time, and was instantly a fan of Pearce and anticipated big things for him. His first big budget lead role in the 2002 remake of The Time Machine was a dud, but he’s been maintaining a solid presence in art-fare, including 2010’s Best Picture winner The King’s Speech. He seems to have a lot of fun with his role as ex-CIA agent Snow in Lockout, and he takes the audience along for the ride. He’s definitely channeling some Kurt Russell for this.

Peter Stormare is engaging as always, this time as an assholish head of Secret Service, and I always get a kick out of seeing Lennie James on-screen (when’s he coming back to The Walking Dead?). Maggie Grace has made a career of playing the damsel in distress, and pretty soon they’re gonna run out of actors who can save her.

Major credit to both Vincent Regan and Joseph Gilgun for playing to great villains who would, given a better film, go down as some of the better cinematic villains of the past 10 years.

The biggest problem of the film is definitely the production design. The graphics and CGI are laughably bad in the opening chase sequence. Besson and his team created such an amazing world 15 years ago with The Fifth Element, it’s almost shocking that they couldn’t replicate that look for Lockout.

But I will give it to writer/directors James Mather & Stephen St. Ledger for taking what they gave themselves and making it work, barely. I was never able to fully suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride, but when I did… damn what a fun ride it was.

It’s great 80s B-Movie fun, think Escape from New York in space, but with modern filmmaking notions, and a weak plot. It’s fun… but never fully realizes it’s potential, which is disappointing. I say wait till DVD.

The Cabin in the Woods

5 stars

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins

When I first saw a trailer for this one I though, “Seriously? Now they’re just getting lazy with the titles.” Then I saw that it was from Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, who’s written for both Whedon (on Buffy and Angel) and J.J. Abrams (on Alias and Lost), so my next thought was “HOLY SHIT THIS IS GOING TO BE AMAZING!”

It was every bit as amazing as you could hope for for a horror film from these two. As I discussed in this entry here, the Scream franchise is essentially the perfect set of horror films. It dissects, parodies and satirizes the genre, yet still exists entirely within the confines of the genre. It’s the best of both worth worlds, and (at least the first one, there were diminishing returns on the sequels, which is super-meta, I suppose) it’s perfect. The Cabin in the Woods takes it a step further. It turns everything that has become trite and unoriginal in the genre and turns it on its head, making it so all that is trite and unoriginal is entirely the point. They even get jabs in at international horror films, particularly Japanese.

Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins are hilarious and perfectly eerie as the men in charge of the scares, controlling everything every step of the way. It really does bring new light as to why scary shit always happens at dark, secluded cabins. I was positively giddy every time the action cut to these two.

The best part is that with the intermingled action, you really do get caught up with the 5 college kids out for a weekend getaway. Instead of playing “Who’s gonna die next?” you’re actually rooting for them to make it out alive. They’re all fantastic, and while this won’t make any of them stars (Hemsworth filmed this way back in ’09, pre-Thor), it certainly isn’t a blemish on their filmographies like Jennifer Aniston in Leprechaun or George Clooney in Return to Horror High.

Fret not, faithful reader, I won’t spoil the ending for you, but I will say that it is fucking amazing, and if you’re a fan of Whedon at all, you’ll love it as much as I did. Definitely get to the theatre and see this one.

The Raid: Redemption

3.5 stars

Starring Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian and Joe Taslim

I jumped at the chance to catch this Indonesian action flick in theatres because I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Indonesian film of any genre. I gotta say, it was damn good. But it wasn’t all quite… there.

The action was mind-blowing. From start to finish, just wall to wall (literally) martial arts that will please any action fan. It played out like a video game. Our hero, Rama, works his way up the apartment complex, fighting the underlings along the way, then the underboss, then a showdown with the uber-boss. It’s a video game, but so fascinating to watch.

The reason it wasn’t all quite there, is the plot. I know I’ll probably hear “It’s an action film, who needs plot?!” Well… I do. The overall plot was these were cops going into a complex ruled over by a crime lord to take his empire down. Pretty standard, easy to work with kinda action flick. And that kept the show running through most of the film. And I was OK with all of that. But there were nuances to the story that the didn’t even address till the third act, and by that time, they just had to rush through it to get it all resolved.

I liken the film to an underwhelming firework. It wasn’t a dud that had no spark in the finale. There was just a lot of build up and it just ended. Maybe they’ll hash somethings out in the sequel due out next year, and I’m hoping they do.

If you’re really into action films, I do highly recommend it, as on the action front, it more than delivers. Read fast, though, they kind of zip through the subtitles. If you were on the fence about seeing this one in theatres, you could probably wait for the DVD and be just fine.

The X- Files

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny

I know, I know… “DUH! You don’t have to tell me to watch that. I already saw it back when it first aired!” So did I. I grew up on the show, as did many nerds of my generation. But I don’t think I’ve watched a single episode since it went off the air back in 2002. Not that I’ve been avoiding it, and I may have caught a random episode here or there over the years in the wee small hours the morning during local programming. But I’ve yet to fully revisit one of my all time favourite shows. And that’s what I’m in the process of doing right now (as well as another personally formative show I’ll discuss next week).

I’m a little over halfway through the first season (I only recently started this endeavour), the exploratory season. You can definitely tell that Chris Carter, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are finding their footing on this groundbreaking series. It was a unique program to join the line-up of the then 6-year-old FOX Network, which was still trying to stake a claim in prime-time, and had already found some success with Married… With Children, 21 Jump Street, Beverly Hills 90210 and, of course, The Simpsons. But that’s always been the fascinating thing about FOX, they’ve always been just a step ahead, and quite bold with their programming choices. A prime-time animated sitcom which led to a whole block of animated program. Roseanne got the glory, but Married… with Children beat it to the punch on blue-collar dysfunction. Even into the 2000s, if it wasn’t for both The X-Files and later 24, we probably wouldn’t have seen Lost. But I digress, back to The X-Files…

As long as there’s been TV, there’s been cop shows, Dragnet started all the way back in 1951. The X-Files took that long tradition of solving cases and threw aliens, ghosts, monsters and demons at it, but rarely strayed into the truly ridiculous. OK… there were a few episodes (mostly in the admittedly uneven 1st season) that got a little off topic, but once you push through the muck and WTF moments, the show really hits its stride.

What always kept my interest was the balance between “Monster-Of-The-Week” episodes, the stand alone stories, and the ones that fell under the purview of the running narrative arc – Mulder’s quest for the truth, specifically as it pertains to his sister’s disappearance, and the alien cover up conspiracy. The addition of the fantastic Mitch Pileggi in the second season gave Mulder and Scully an authority figure to both clash and commiserate with. Skinner was both friend and foe, but not out of inconsistent writing, but out of the intricacies of the character. His arrival was when the show really started to pick up, and just a year after that, Vince Gilligan joined the writing staff, and he would go on to create Breaking Bad, one of the best TV shows of the past decade.

Say what you will about the first season, and there’s a lot to be said about it, but it’s a landmark show and I’m thoroughly enjoying the trip down memory lane. All 9 seasons are available for streaming on Netflix by clicking here. Run through the whole series, or just catch up on your favourite episodes.

Warehouse 13

Saul Rubinek, Joanne Kelly and Eddie McClintock

I spent a lot of time talking about The X-Files, so I promise to keep the next two relatively short. I was first introduced to Warehouse 13 by my dear friend Joel. I believe his exact words were “Dude, you gotta check out Warehouse 13.” It had just started, so the first few episodes were there for my viewing pleasure on Hulu. I marathoned them all and became an instant fan. I remember discussing the show a few days later and referring to it as “X-Files: The Next Generation.” Federal agents in a sci-fi show tracking down the weird and unexplained… I think it’s an apt description. It’s a little heavier on the comedy than The X-Files was, but it works.

I was attracted to this show because of its pop culture references. Not pop culture references the way Community and Psych (both great shows, Psych is on Netflix, Community is on HuluPlus) make Star Wars jokes. Pop culture references like… Victorian era authors. Centuries old world leaders. The show really hit the ground running, and I think benefits from the shortened seasons of cable. It’s definitely worth a watch, with seasons 1 & 2 on Netflix which you can watch here, season 3 will be released soon, and season 4 starts this summer. Also worth a watch: their sister show, Eureka, which is coming back this summer for its 5th and final season. All 4 seasons are on Netflix.

Supernatural

Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki

Admittedly, I initially dismissed this show as “Great… another Buffy retread featuring guys who are way too good-looking, and it’s on the CW, so whatevs. GIRL SHOW!” But then I started hearing really positive things about it. From people whose opinions I trusted, and I wouldn’t have normally pegged to have enjoyed my perception of what kind of show Supernatural was. Then the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon kicked into high gear, and I started seeing it recommended on Netflix, on Hulu, I saw it mentioned a lot on Reddit, Facebook and Twitter, it even showed up in Fark. So I said, “FINE! I’ll give it a shot!”

Holy shit! I totally should have been watching this from the beginning. It’s a damn good sci-fi/fantasy/horror show that very much follows the mold of The X-Files in that it does the aforementioned “Monster-Of-The-Week,” but also balances it with an overall arc. Since I’m watching this one in tandem with The X-Files, I’m still only on the first season with this one, as well. Though there are a few later season episodes I’m looking forward to, including the S5 finale set in Stull, KS, which as any good Kansan (like myself) will tell you, is allegedly one of the gates to hell. And there’s a S6 episode that gets really meta, which I’m looking forward to watching.

Mostly I’m disappointed I ignored this one for so long. It’s a really good show and if you aren’t watching it, catch all 6 seasons on Netflix here, and it’s currently in its 7th.

Tag: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Reviews: Lockout, The Cabin in the Woods, The Raid: Redemption