Sunshine

Every time I watch "Sunshine", without fail, I am left utterly speechless and breathless, flailing for purchase in a reality that has been fundamentally altered. If this film doesn't affect you in some way, you must be a numb creature, and no friend of mine.

Lately, the treatment science fiction films recieve in the film industry is pretty apalling, and the way that "Sunshine" was treated was no exception. It's release date kept getting pushed back due to a "lack of interest" in science fiction, and finally lasted maybe a week in theaters with little promotion at all. It's a true shame because while it's true the sci-fi genre is pretty hit and miss, "Sunshine" is much more a psychological and philosophical journey than a straightforward sci-fi tale.

Set in 2057, we find the earth in a deep freeze due to the dying of the sun. The last hope for humanity is the crew of the Icarus II, a ship carrying a bomb that will

re-ignite the dying star. What really drives the film are the interactions of the crew, and they way that they deal with arising crises. Cillian Murphy is fantastic as usual, playing the role of the physicist who created the bomb and ultimately, the only one who can set it off. The mission starts out well enough, but the closer the ship gets to the sun, the closer everyone is brought to insanity. The amazing special effects help to convey the godlike qualities of the sun, qualities that have different effects on all the crew members, from violence to fear to worship. All sorts of philosophical questions are raised, reality is questioned, and sanity is just barely held onto with quaking fingers. When the mission becomes more and more jeopardized, you will find yourself literally on the edge of your seat, eyes glued to the screen until the credits roll. The last twenty minutes or so of the movie will blow you away.

To get the performances he wanted for the film, Boyle had the actors live together during the filming, and the sets were intentionally claustrophobic. The filming affected all the actors differently, and Cillian Murphy has claimed that the experience turned him from an agnostic to an atheist. Boyle himself has declared that he will not return to the sci-fi genre, calling the production a "spiritually exhausting experience". Boyle's most recent film, "Slumdog Millionaire", has just gotten a limited release, and already the positive reviews are pouring in. With a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, it's evident that the guy isn't going to slow down anytime soon.

Go and watch this movie now, and be prepared to be blinded by the sun...

Naked Lunch

David Cronenberg is one of my favorite directors. I have yet to be disappointed with any of his films, and as his last two films, "Eastern Promises" and "History of Violence" have both been nominated for several awards, it seems that the rest of the world is finally catching on to his genius.

My first Cronenberg film was "The Fly", and from the moment Jeff Goldblum's "Brundlefly" started crawling on the walls I was hopelessly hooked. He's a director who takes risks and will show you things you could never imagine in your wildest dreams and nightmares.

"Naked Lunch" is no exception, and is one that I hold near and dear to my heart not only because it is through and through Cronenberg insanity, but also because it is based on a novel by one of my favorite authors of the beat generation, William S. Burroughs. It's a dark tale of drugs, obsession, art, sex, and oh yes, we musn't forget the aliens. "Naked Lunch" is a semi-autobiographical tale of the strange happenings in Burroughs drug-infused life, set in a seamy noir landscape of femme fatales, talking typewriters, cigarette smoke, and hallucinations.

The acting on all parts is really what drives the film, especially Peter Weller's performance in the lead role as an exterminator/starving artist who ends up embroiled in a double-crossing network of intrigue. Cronenberg really has a way of getting amazing performances from his leading men. The film also features Cronenberg's signature special effects, with strange beings melding flesh and machine. Check this one out and expand your reality...

Sukiyaki Western Django

I knew going in that "Sukiyaki Western Django" was either going to be absolutely awful, or absolutely spectacular. That's usually the way that Takashi Miike's films are. He's one of Japan's most prolific directors, having made over seventy films, which range from the wildly surreal "Gozu" to the kids adventure film "The Great Yokai War". Some of his stuff is classic, and some of it is so awful it can hardly be sat through.

However, despite all this, I had pretty high hopes for "Sukiyaki" because it was partly produced by Quentin Tarantino, who also has a wildly hilarious role in the film, AND because it also stars Masanobu Ando, one of my favorite Japanese actors, who is best known for playing killer student Kazuo Kiriyama in "Battle Royale" and Yusuke Iseya, from the super insane "Casshern".

Fortunately, I wasn't disappointed, but I wasn't knocked out either. "Sukiyaki" is best enjoyed as two hours of craziness that makes only the least bit of sense, but looks incredibly awesome and will at different times have you laughing out loud and staring at the screen with your jaw on the floor. The whole thing is very stylized and surreal; a mix between spaghetti westerns, samurai films, punk rock, and pirate movies. The cinematography is one thing that truly stands out. The colors are all gorgeously saturated and the sets are stunning. The actors all speak English, which adds to the who surreality of the thing, as no one is able to really emote while struggling to speak a language they aren't familiar with. This is the second time Miike has made a film this way, the first was his entry for the Showtime series "Masters of Horror", called "Imprint", which was banned from air due to it's extreme violence. That episode happens to be, in my mind, one of the Miike's worst attempts, and the actors' stumbling doesn't help it, but in "Sukiyaki" it adds to the comical aspect of the film.

I definitely recommend this film for fans of Tarantino and Miike, and also for anyone looking for some crazy good fun. But don't expect a masterpiece folks, this is pulpy cult cinema at it's best, you're not gonna find much substance here...

Transsiberian

"Transsiberian" is directed by Brad Anderson, who directed one of my favorite films of all time, "Session 9", which is a FANTASTIC psychological thriller that should get Anderson huge props due to the fact that he actually manages to get a good performance out of David "Sunglasses and One-Liners = High Drama" Caruso . Anderson also directed "The Machinist", which, much like "Transsiberian", is totally awesome until the end, which is really my only issue with an otherwise taut suspense film.

The story follows an American couple, played by Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer, who board the famous Transsiberian line which travels from Beijing to Moscow. I absolutely love Harrelson in this role; he plays a bumbling, wide-eyed tourist with the innocence of a kid, to much hilarity. It's soon revealed that the two have some marital issues; she used to be a wild child who was tamed by church-loving Harrelson, and the taming isn't going as smoothly as either would like. When they meet their cabin mates, the Spanish sex machine Carlos and his gothy runaway girlfriend, Abby, the suspense gets thick. It turns out that Carlos and Abby are transporting drugs, and inevitably the American couple gets all embroiled in the mess, with much blood and violence ensuing.

It's a great film, up until the very very last ten minutes or so, where it seems as if Brad Anderson just had no more gas left and called it in. He did this with "The Machinist" as well, and as a fan of his work, I'm hoping he manages to work this issue out. "Transsiberian" is still a really great film, with fantastic performances from all actors involved, and I can't wait to see more from Anderson...definitely give this one a rental.

Death Note

I can't believe how incredibly long it took for Death Note to get a North American release. A year ago, I was in Tokyo, trying to tell myself that it was perfectly reasonable to buy the DVD of Death Note despite the fact that it was fifty bucks, didn't have subtitles, and was a region 2 DVD. But I was desperate. The movie had come out in 2006, it starred two of my favorite Japanese actors, and I knew the story was incredible after reading the manga. 5000 yen later, I was the proud owner of an incredibly awesome movie. However, since my Japanese is rudimentary, I could only pick out a few phrases here and there, and never really figured out what was happening on my screen, except for the fact that it was a whole bunch of crazy Japanese awesomeness.

FINALLY, Warner Bros. Japan has released Death Note for North America. It's packed with great extras, and yes, subtitles! After watching the film again I was only further convinced of it's greatness. Death Note is the first film of two in the series, and I just found out that Warner Bros. will be releasing the sequel very soon, with a short theatrical release in mid-October!

The story of the first film revolves around a college student named Light Yagami. Light is extremely gifted, but he has a coldness towards humanity. He's played perfectly by Tasuya Fujiwara, who was the lead character in my favorite Japanese film of all time, Battle Royale. Light is disgusted with the way society deals with criminals, and just as he's reaching his breaking point, he comes upon lone notebook that just appears on the ground. Light soon discovers that the notebook belongs to what the Japanses call "shinigami", who are demons that control death. He also learns that when you write someone's name in the Death Note, they die of a heart attack 40 seconds later. The possibilities and the power granted to Light cause him to slowly but surely lose his grip on reason, as he begins to administer his own form of justice, killing off criminals by the hundreds. Eventually he begins to believe that he is a new god, and will create a perfect world.

Enter the police of Japan and a super-secret agent known only as "L". L, played by Ken'ichi Matsuyama, is another gifted youngster whose quirky habits and large brain make him mesmerizing on screen. Matsuyama plays him like Donnie Darko mixed with a little Crispin Glover. In fact, Matsuyama's portrayal of the character has gotten him an enormous following in Japan, and there has already been a movie spinoff of Death Note that centers entirely around L.

What ensues is a thrilling cat and mouse battle of the wits between Light and L, as the audience is left to choose what side of the battle they lie on. Light is using his power to kill criminals and create a better world, but he also doesn't hesitate to stop anyone who gets in his way. It's a gift of a moral quandry, wrapped up in a police thriller, with a supernatural bow on top.

The Last Winter

I had high hopes for The Last Winter. Ron Perlman stars in it, you all might know him as Hellboy. I know him as one of the men old enough to be my father who I crush on like a silly teenager. He's a great actor, I love everything he's ever done. Yes, even when he was the Beast in the 90s during the television series of Beauty and the Beast. Oh yeah, I was there. I won't deny it. I still love him after this film, but, in the end, I was disappointed.

The movie centers around a group of people who have been hired to begin tapping the last untouched part of the Alasakan wilderness for oil. A few members of the group are "greens", men hired by the oil companies to prove that they are trying to evaluate the impact they are making on the environment. The two sides clash, the oil drillers and the greens, but all of the bickering is quickly set aside when people start going crazy and turning up dead. It seems that the ice is melting, and what is released from the icy depths is none too pleased with the human race.

The film is a slow burn, focusing on the bleak and desolate settings and characters, until all hell breaks loose. However, I was slightly disappointed in the climax of the "monsters". The end of the film did bring everything together nicely and left me feeling scared for the planet and all of us who reside upon it. Still, I felt the movie would have been helped if it had more scares instead of the heavy-handed preaching. I get it, I am one of those liberals who believe the environmental issue is the most important issue facing us today. But still. Give me some blood and action with my political statements.

All in all, it's a good movie for the budget it was made on, and the acting on all parts is top-notch. Just don't put it on expecting scares at every turn. If you are up for a really slow burn of a psychological thriller, then you won't be disappointed.

DOOMED MOVIE MARATHON: Series 7 - The Contenders

Whether you love them or hate them, reality shows have become a huge, uncontrollable, monster in television during the last 10 years. It's gotten so everyone from dog groomers to professional airheads has their own reality show. Former contestants of reality shows have their own reality shows. It's a mind-bending, never-ending cycle of depravity and despair. I am not alone in wondering what they could possibly come up with next.

Series 7: The Contenders answers that question with a fatal gunshot to the head. Filmed as a mock reality show, the movie takes place in a very near, very scary future, where people are randomly selected by their social security numbers for a game show called The Contenders. These people are given weapons and must kill each other off until only one remains standing. The winner has to complete three rounds killing a total of fifteen other contestants to earn their freedom. These people have no choice in the matter, it seems this reality show has been given the ultimate power in society.

Our hero is Dawn, a woman eight months pregnant who only has five more people to kill to win the game. It seems the producers decided to give the show an extra twist by placing this season in Dawn's hometown, and choosing her high school sweetheart as one of the other contestants. Will Dawn be able to kill the only person she's ever truly loved in order to save her baby? Or will one of the other able-bodied contestants finally put down the champion? Among her competition is an 18-year-old girl who is a deadly perfectionist, and a 56-year-old zealously religious nurse who isn't afraid to use a syringe. Look at you. You know you want to watch this TV show already.

It's a low-budget film, but one that has a message that rings loud and clear. Where will we draw the line as a society when reality TV becomes more real than ever?