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uberreinigerAnd I feel like talking about them. Which is progress because I haven't felt like talking about much of anything on LJ this entire week.
The Libertine - This costume period piece stars Johnny Depp as John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, and John Malkovich as King Charles II whom Wilmot lives to annoy with his naughty poetry and ribald plays. You might remember this movie from a few years ago when it starred Geoffrey Rush and was called Quills. Actually that's not fair. They're very different movies, but are similar in that they both take a self-centered jackass of a spoiled brat and try to hold him up as icon of righteous resistance against an unfair, oppressive society. Wilmot, whose habitual mockery of the English monarchy has gotten him sent into exile, is invited back to London and given one last chance by Charles II, but Wilmot just can't avoid shooting his mouth off, and when he starts trying to juggle work and a girlfriend (Samantha Morton) things get complicated.
This movie is very much The Johnny Depp Show Starring Johnny Depp. He dominates every scene he's in and brings out the humanity of the quintessentially unlikeable Wilmot. But then again this is Johnny Depp. He could read zoning laws for two hours and it would be amazing. Malkovich, whom I normally love, on the other hand, disappointed me a little bit. He seems to just be dialing it in, as they say. Which is odd given that his efforts were largely responsible for getting the movie made. Anyway, the destructive gravitational pull these two characters exert on each other drives the film. Sadly, most of the other characters are window dressing. Even Depp's Pirates of the Carribean co-stars Tom Hollander and Jack Davenport can't spice things up. Samantha Morton gives a very moving performance, but her and Wilmot's relationship seems too sudden for its life-changing effects on the Earl to be believed. MILF Francessca Annis gets a brief turn as Wilton's puritanical mother, but is two-dimensional in her stodginess.
The Libertine is very attractive visually. Filmed with handheld cameras and by actual reflected candlelight, it has a very nice warm look to it. The makeup, however...Oy. Hey Malkovich! The Wicked Witch of the West called, she wants her prosthetic nose back! And slapping white powder over a layer of spirit gum then rubbing the actor's face with a cheese grater does not a case of syphillis make.
Don't get me wrong, The Libertine was fun. I mean, it had a bondage midget riding a giant dildo for crying out loud and hot lesbian action in the middle of a London fog. How can that not be fun? But it's definately a movie to rent rather than to own.
Pulse and Kairo - Kairo is a Japanese film about technology inadvertantly creating a means for the dead to enter the land of the living and Pulse is its American remake. And they are both really damn good. Kairo isn't so much a horror movie as a parable of loneliness amid technocratic dystopia. It is very suspenseful and there are some extremely tense moments, but it's more depressing than brutally scary. And it's depressing because it makes you think. Pulse, penned by Wes Craven and starring prime-time TV's Kirsten Bell and Ian Somerhalder is more of an American shocker film, but despite many departures from the original script and more exposition on the nature of the ghostly threat, I was impressed at how much of the original themes and tone were left intact.
These two movies beg the question of what if the world ends not with a bang, but with a whimper? Buildings and dwellings rot while computers and cell phones are shiny and new. People claim close bonds of friendship, but only notice one of their number is missing when days have passed. Kairo and Pulse are two of the most dystopian films I've ever seen. They're not gory, either. It's easy to film a shocking death. Filming a death that's actually sad, on the other hand, that takes some doing. Kairo does it a bit better than its twin because it invests more in character development, but what we do get in Pulse is done fairly well. And these ghosts aren't just killing a few teens. They're killing the entire world. And no one cares. For you Exalted players, I recommend both these films if you want an idea of Oblivion.
As I said, Pulse deviates more from Kairo's fragile concept, and by the end we're in full Night of the Living Dead/Resident Evil zombie apocalypse mode. Pulse is a ghost invasion as Stephen King might write it. Kairo is the same story as written by Franz Kafka. I recommend them both, even if you don't like horror movies, and I recommend watching the original first.
The Libertine - This costume period piece stars Johnny Depp as John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, and John Malkovich as King Charles II whom Wilmot lives to annoy with his naughty poetry and ribald plays. You might remember this movie from a few years ago when it starred Geoffrey Rush and was called Quills. Actually that's not fair. They're very different movies, but are similar in that they both take a self-centered jackass of a spoiled brat and try to hold him up as icon of righteous resistance against an unfair, oppressive society. Wilmot, whose habitual mockery of the English monarchy has gotten him sent into exile, is invited back to London and given one last chance by Charles II, but Wilmot just can't avoid shooting his mouth off, and when he starts trying to juggle work and a girlfriend (Samantha Morton) things get complicated.
This movie is very much The Johnny Depp Show Starring Johnny Depp. He dominates every scene he's in and brings out the humanity of the quintessentially unlikeable Wilmot. But then again this is Johnny Depp. He could read zoning laws for two hours and it would be amazing. Malkovich, whom I normally love, on the other hand, disappointed me a little bit. He seems to just be dialing it in, as they say. Which is odd given that his efforts were largely responsible for getting the movie made. Anyway, the destructive gravitational pull these two characters exert on each other drives the film. Sadly, most of the other characters are window dressing. Even Depp's Pirates of the Carribean co-stars Tom Hollander and Jack Davenport can't spice things up. Samantha Morton gives a very moving performance, but her and Wilmot's relationship seems too sudden for its life-changing effects on the Earl to be believed. MILF Francessca Annis gets a brief turn as Wilton's puritanical mother, but is two-dimensional in her stodginess.
The Libertine is very attractive visually. Filmed with handheld cameras and by actual reflected candlelight, it has a very nice warm look to it. The makeup, however...Oy. Hey Malkovich! The Wicked Witch of the West called, she wants her prosthetic nose back! And slapping white powder over a layer of spirit gum then rubbing the actor's face with a cheese grater does not a case of syphillis make.
Don't get me wrong, The Libertine was fun. I mean, it had a bondage midget riding a giant dildo for crying out loud and hot lesbian action in the middle of a London fog. How can that not be fun? But it's definately a movie to rent rather than to own.
Pulse and Kairo - Kairo is a Japanese film about technology inadvertantly creating a means for the dead to enter the land of the living and Pulse is its American remake. And they are both really damn good. Kairo isn't so much a horror movie as a parable of loneliness amid technocratic dystopia. It is very suspenseful and there are some extremely tense moments, but it's more depressing than brutally scary. And it's depressing because it makes you think. Pulse, penned by Wes Craven and starring prime-time TV's Kirsten Bell and Ian Somerhalder is more of an American shocker film, but despite many departures from the original script and more exposition on the nature of the ghostly threat, I was impressed at how much of the original themes and tone were left intact.
These two movies beg the question of what if the world ends not with a bang, but with a whimper? Buildings and dwellings rot while computers and cell phones are shiny and new. People claim close bonds of friendship, but only notice one of their number is missing when days have passed. Kairo and Pulse are two of the most dystopian films I've ever seen. They're not gory, either. It's easy to film a shocking death. Filming a death that's actually sad, on the other hand, that takes some doing. Kairo does it a bit better than its twin because it invests more in character development, but what we do get in Pulse is done fairly well. And these ghosts aren't just killing a few teens. They're killing the entire world. And no one cares. For you Exalted players, I recommend both these films if you want an idea of Oblivion.
As I said, Pulse deviates more from Kairo's fragile concept, and by the end we're in full Night of the Living Dead/Resident Evil zombie apocalypse mode. Pulse is a ghost invasion as Stephen King might write it. Kairo is the same story as written by Franz Kafka. I recommend them both, even if you don't like horror movies, and I recommend watching the original first.
