Movie Monday? and spoiler-free reviews for Fido & Eastern Promises
First off, on Monday night the lovely xhollydayx and I will be seeing 3:10 to Yuma. We're going to go to Valley View at 8:05pm, and you are more than welcome to join us.
--
We caught Fido on Thursday. A brief educational short opens the film by telling how a massive cloud of radiation from outer space swept over the planet and brought the dead to life, triggering the Zombie War. Cities and towns were fenced in, with the zombies confined to the wild lands outside the fence. In a nice twist, anyone who dies becomes a zombie, even if they weren't bit. This leads to slogans like "never trust anyone over 65" and the use of former prisons as nursing homes. The Zomcon Corporation developed collars for the zombies that made them controllable. Zombie servants are a popular and lucrative business, to the point that it is illegal to have a funeral without a license because your reanimated corpse belongs to Zomcon unless you've paid for a funeral license in advance.
Timmy and his parents live in a classic 1950's neighborhood. Think Donna Reed on crack, or Pleasantville. Timmy's dad hates zombies, but his mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) buys one anyway because she's embarrassed that they are the only family on the block without one. Timmy soon starts treating the zombie almost like a real person, and even names it Fido, but all sorts of problems ensue when Fido's collar malfunctions and he kills Mrs. Henderson from across the street. Soon a minor zombie outbreak is occurring in their town, and Timmy has to fight to keep Fido.
Fido is an original and highly entertaining entry into the zombie canon. There is gore, but it is more funny than disgusting. I highly recommend this one to zombie lovers everywhere.
There's also a small amount of gore in David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, which the two of us saw tonight. Most of it occurs during one exceptionally brutal fight scene, in which two men with razors ambush a third man. The rest of the movie is a tight psychological drama whose main storyline involves a midwife (Naomi Watts) asking questions about the death of a prostitute. Serious complications ensue when she inadvertently reveals to a Russian Mafioso godfather that there is evidence his son committed various crimes. She soon has to deal with a mafioso (played by Viggo Mortenson), who is said son's bodyguard and crony and has been assigned to clean up some dangling loose ends. Of course, he also has an agenda of his own, as he doesn't want to be a crony all his life.
I think Eastern Promises is a very good movie with two excellent performances (Mortenson and Oscar nominee Armin Mueller-Stahl as the godfather) and several good ones. It has a consistently and distinctively dark and rainy feel to the cinematography which makes London seem like a miserable place where miserable deeds are committed. Despite these advantages, it is not quite able to move from very good to great. I found the repeated voice over to be somewhat irritating, although given the exposition it provided I'm frankly somewhat relieved that they didn't just show it. The big twist was very, very telegraphed, which never helps. I figured it out about 15 minutes in, to the point where when it was revealed I wasn't at all surprised, and I thought the ending was perhaps a little too CSI. However, bitching that a good movie isn't a great movie is probably being overly critical. It is still definitely worth seeing, especially if you like movies featuring organized crime, or if you have a strong desire to see Viggo Mortenson naked.
--
We caught Fido on Thursday. A brief educational short opens the film by telling how a massive cloud of radiation from outer space swept over the planet and brought the dead to life, triggering the Zombie War. Cities and towns were fenced in, with the zombies confined to the wild lands outside the fence. In a nice twist, anyone who dies becomes a zombie, even if they weren't bit. This leads to slogans like "never trust anyone over 65" and the use of former prisons as nursing homes. The Zomcon Corporation developed collars for the zombies that made them controllable. Zombie servants are a popular and lucrative business, to the point that it is illegal to have a funeral without a license because your reanimated corpse belongs to Zomcon unless you've paid for a funeral license in advance.
Timmy and his parents live in a classic 1950's neighborhood. Think Donna Reed on crack, or Pleasantville. Timmy's dad hates zombies, but his mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) buys one anyway because she's embarrassed that they are the only family on the block without one. Timmy soon starts treating the zombie almost like a real person, and even names it Fido, but all sorts of problems ensue when Fido's collar malfunctions and he kills Mrs. Henderson from across the street. Soon a minor zombie outbreak is occurring in their town, and Timmy has to fight to keep Fido.
Fido is an original and highly entertaining entry into the zombie canon. There is gore, but it is more funny than disgusting. I highly recommend this one to zombie lovers everywhere.
There's also a small amount of gore in David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, which the two of us saw tonight. Most of it occurs during one exceptionally brutal fight scene, in which two men with razors ambush a third man. The rest of the movie is a tight psychological drama whose main storyline involves a midwife (Naomi Watts) asking questions about the death of a prostitute. Serious complications ensue when she inadvertently reveals to a Russian Mafioso godfather that there is evidence his son committed various crimes. She soon has to deal with a mafioso (played by Viggo Mortenson), who is said son's bodyguard and crony and has been assigned to clean up some dangling loose ends. Of course, he also has an agenda of his own, as he doesn't want to be a crony all his life.
I think Eastern Promises is a very good movie with two excellent performances (Mortenson and Oscar nominee Armin Mueller-Stahl as the godfather) and several good ones. It has a consistently and distinctively dark and rainy feel to the cinematography which makes London seem like a miserable place where miserable deeds are committed. Despite these advantages, it is not quite able to move from very good to great. I found the repeated voice over to be somewhat irritating, although given the exposition it provided I'm frankly somewhat relieved that they didn't just show it. The big twist was very, very telegraphed, which never helps. I figured it out about 15 minutes in, to the point where when it was revealed I wasn't at all surprised, and I thought the ending was perhaps a little too CSI. However, bitching that a good movie isn't a great movie is probably being overly critical. It is still definitely worth seeing, especially if you like movies featuring organized crime, or if you have a strong desire to see Viggo Mortenson naked.