For Humans Only

Over the weekend I got the chance to see “District 9” but what I can’t tell you is whether I enjoyed it?

This is technically a very good film, the CG work is outstanding and the plot is good. The film is shot like a documentary at the start, talking about various events like the arrival of the ship 20 years earlier, and how once we eventually got inside they found it filled with aliens. A camp is created, and the aliens are basically left there. Coming back to the present the camp is almost a prison, squalid and over run with crime.

Various groups are exploiting the aliens for their own ends and we are introduced to Wikus, a mostly useless middle manager for the company in charge of looking after the aliens. The style continues as we follow him around the camp doing the dirty work of the corporation.

Thoughts

This is a very good film, I would recommend you go and see it. Did I really enjoy it.. I don’t know, it was not bad. I can see how it could become an important film in this genre. It did manage the most important thing which is to make you think, and discuss what you have seen.

I will see it again, but I don’t feel the need to to go the cinema to do it.

It has a new look, but the same story

“Ghost in the Shell” is simply one of the most amazing films ever made! I don’t say that lightly, there are a lot of films out there, but very few come close to the depth and insight portrayed in GITS.

As far as Sci-fi or Anime films go, this is the bench mark. There are only a few other films that can match it (Akira, My neighbor Totoro, basically master peices). But for me it is the standard by which all of these types of films are measured.

When I saw “The Matrix” (over 10 years ago now) I was astounded like everyone else. But then you compare it to GITS are you start to see whole sequences where they just stole the concepts. It doesn’t detract from “The Matrix”, but shows just how strong GITS is.

Which is why I am so pleased they have gone back to the oringal 1995 film and “Renewed” it. (more…)

The other night I sat down and watched “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”.

Mini Review
Not a bad film, but not great. John C. Reilly is always funny, but Apatow takes the comedy too far. Would have been much better if they had stoped most jokes one line earlier.

This made me think. Most of my favourite films are either comedy, or have something funny at their core. But while they are playful, and sometimes hilarious they have a seriousness and a substance that I find mostly missing from current films. (more…)