The Missus had to work a twelve hour shift yesterday, so I took advantage of a day off to snag some movies from Redbox that I knew she wouldn't be down with watching. (We do this- she grabs rom-coms and girly movies when I'm at work from time to time, so I decided to grab a trio of science fiction movies that I've been jonesing to watch for awhile now.)
First up: JOHN CARTER
Infamous as one of the more epic box office bombs of the last year, I actually really enjoyed this movie. I kept trying to figure out just what had gone wrong with this movie and why it had bombed so badly but I couldn't for the life of me see what it was. Maybe it was the fact that we know so much about Mars now, the idea of a civilization flourishing there seems too unbelievable. Or maybe it was the fact that people expect Mars to be red and Mars in this movie looked more beige than anything else. And maybe a little like Arizona.
But even that didn't bother me. Granted I doubt Taylor Kitsch (playing John Carter) is going to win any Oscars any time soon but the rest of the cast held up well- from Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) to Tars Tarkas (Willam Dafoe). I think it was maybe an expectations game that doomed this movie. People hadn't read the books (Edgar Rice Burroughs is more known for Tarzan than his Chronicles of Barsoom in popular culture) and this entire movie was a classic science fiction movie start to finish and a remarkably faithful adaptation of the book. Kind of made me wish I would have seen it in theaters and this is a movie I'd happily own. Going on the Amazon Wish List right now, in fact.
Next up: DREDD
I should have gone to see this in the theaters. In 3D. In 3D this would have been even more awesome than it already is. Karl Urban takes the reins as the titular Judge Dredd, who acts as Judge, Jury and Executioner in the dystopian future world of Mega City One. Saddled with a rookie for the day (Olivia Thirlby) Dredd plays FTO as the two of them go up against drug lord Ma and her clan (the always awesome Lena Headey). Explosions, death, the usual shenanigans ensue. The ultimate dystopian science fiction cop movie, Dredd rocked my face off for a number of reasons- namely AWESOME FUTURISTIC SCI-FI DISPATCHERS! AND THEY USE TEN CODES TOO! It cheered me up to no end that if I managed to survive the nuclear holocaust and/or wasteland and make it to Mega City One I might actually have some useful job skills. Winning!
This one is TOTALLY on my Amazon Wish List. And I picked the 3D/DVD/Blu-Ray Combo just in case we find ourselves with a 3D at some point in the future.
Finally: TOTAL RECALL
I was dubious when I heard about this remake and I remain dubious having watched most of it. Colin Farrell takes over Ah-nold's role as Douglas Quaid with Kate Beckinsale picking up the nicely villainous role originally played by Sharon Stone. Even Jessica Biel carries her weight here as Quaid's spy partner/femme fatale. The plot sort of mirrors the original film- Quaid is a regular joe wanting a little more and pays a visit to Rekall which promises to give him memories of something fun- in his case, being a secret agent. From there, things go crazy and the line between what's real and what's not blurs and one heck of a ride ensues.
I'm honestly not sure how to feel about this. Yes, there is a triple breasted woman in here. But no little mutant dude? No 'get your ass to Mars?' No Mars? No eyeballs bulging and exploding with awesome bad effects? You can't remake a classic like the original Total Recall without Mars. I'm sorry, you just can't- and this felt a little too much like Minority Report with a shitload of lens flares more than anything else. Don't get me wrong- this is worth a rental and a watch. It was entertaining- but I'm going to get my ass to a $5 bin at Wal-Mart and wait for the original to show up. It might feel dated and schlocky now but a classic is a classic. This one doesn't make the Amazon Wish List- but hey, two out of three ain't bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment