*Blog post started on December 21, 2020.
Regarded
as a horror classic by some, this is a mess of a picture, but to see
how they sweep it up is worth a view. Brooklyn PI Harold Angel is hired
by the aloof and religious Louis Cyphre to find a crooner who skipped
out on his fame and fortune arrangement just before WWII. Every time
Angel gets a clue, a brutal off camera murder follows. Why he would
introduce a 17 year-old Voodoo priestess to it is barely
comprehend-able, especially with “Fight Club” parallels.
Check out the visceral movie review for "Angel Heart" by visiting MainEventoftheDead.com.
From
13 days of work in a row to three days off this week (including
Sunday), I am still trying to get my bearings. Eva The Queen Kitty is
looking after me, which is the reason I give for why people say she has a
resting bitch face, so that leads me to think I am an emotional wreck.
If anything, I feel like I am on Zoloft. There are no worries, but no
motivation. Perhaps a trip to my folks on Christmas Eve will get me
excited. COVID had already ravaged the residence, so it should be safe.
I
wish I could complain about stuff, aside from my PA wanting me to do a
video conference for a physical exam (She could have responded to my
cancellation reasoning with, I will not just give you your diabetes
meds.). Anger would at least be an emotion. "Cyberpunk
2077" is fun enough, not too buggy on the PS4. If anything, I think the
story is too tight. It is very difficult to freely break the law. Thus,
the urge to go on a killing spree is hindered.
There
is definitely an under lying aggression to me, it just is not anger. I
think that is kind of zen when you think of all those kick ass Tibetan
monks from Shaw Bros. films and Mr. Miyagi teaching LaRusso you learn
how to fight so you do not need to fight. It definitely does not jive
with nihilism.
I
have just inspired myself to write a "Funny or Die" replacing Tyler
Durden and the Narrator with the protagonists from "The Karate Kid". An
improv team is what I need to sell my subtle art of talking too much.
I
guess it is now obvious that I am just spending too much time in my
head. This is the reason for revisiting "Angel Heart", a flick I watched
during the best times of 2004. My brain was a wreck then, and it seemed to
work out fine. The dilemma for Sunday became trying to find a
Redbox movie that was not a cheap psychological drama or horror.
Ironically, when I was going through my unwatched iTunes, David
Cronenberg's "eXistenZ" was among them. It just means that I trust those
ideas when it comes from Canada's Master of Horror.
eXistenZ (1999, 1:37)
Allegra
Geller is considered by most to be the best video game designer since
video games have become bio-technological. Her talent is so great, that
competitors to her company think it would best serve them to have her
eliminated. The first demonstration of her newest game, "eXistenZ" was
infiltrated by an assassin who wounds Allegra and kills the host of
the presentation just as people were being hooked up to the newest
biopod. Only marketing representative in training, Ted Pikul, is quick
to
act and whisk Allegra from the chaos.
Paranoid,
Allegra decides it is best to find friendly people of the grid to
protect her and Pikul. With no means of contacting her, she will have
the time to examine her game and see if the attack resulted in any
damage to it. The difficulty in doing this is that she needs a friend to
explore the game with. Pikul is the only person she can trust, but he
is a bit paranoid of games that tap directly into the nervous systems of
the players. He may also just be afraid of piercings since he does not
have the input slot installed into his spine.
The
conditions are less than ideal. Time is not on their side, and her
newbie is obviously going to have difficulty determining what is real
and only a game. But if the software is damaged, how will either of them
truly understand their existence be it reality or existence spelled
with a big X and Z.
Centered
around video game consoles with the same texture and color of sex toys,
"eXistenZ" must have been intended to be Cronenberg's spiritual
successor to "Videodrome".
Like the prior feature, it definitely feels like a product of its time,
but when you consider what video games have become, it still resonates
with today's audiences. This film is what every pre-Matrix internet film
wanted to be, aside from also being PG-13.
This
feature has some body horror elements, but not the make up effects that
audiences had grown accustomed to with Cronenberg's works like
"Videodrome", "Scanners", and "The Fly". There are plenty of revolting
images like the mutant reptiles and amphibians that Jude Law has to eat
in order to create a gun constructed of bone, but the true horror
revolves around needing to connect umbilical chords from the console to
the base of their spine. Can any video game be worth genuine trauma to
play? I will say yes, but with 28 years of combat sport experience and
clinical depression on top of that, I may be an exception.
The
thing that would deter me from wanting to be essentially feeding my
life force to a PlayStation is that the game "eXistenZ" leaves it users
grounded to its rules. Pikul and Geller have to follow the dialogue
trees to progress and the decisions are never as challenging as we hope.
I would love to know how many hours of gaming the then 57 year-old director
had to put in to know exactly how they work. It turns out as an
anti-gaming theme because it shows some of us are so desperate to escape
reality, that we will anchor ourselves to not needing to make tough
decisions just to be somebody else.
The
cast plays all there parts brilliantly, and with the exception of Jude
Law's flat tone (at least he did not try to go full on American accent),
every quirk is justified by the conclusion that is very reminiscent of
the "Twilight Zone". It is almost a shame that Cronenberg has only
written one other film since this feature.
If
anything else is lacking, it might be action. This is a video game
after all. I guess you can say that it emulates those from the horror
genre before Capcom and Paul W.S. Anderson screwed up the "Resident
Evil" franchise. You get to be disturbed, but the narrative lacks
intensity for our characters. But, again, this is not really much of a
stretch from where video games have ended up today, so you have to
appreciate Cronenberg having his finger on the pulse.
With
the lack of "Fangoria" worthy imagery, "eXistenZ" does not seem like
your standard Cronenberg, but it still delivers a story that is right up
his fans' alley. Add in a "Twilight Zone" vibe, it is surprisingly
accessible. Society would probably benefit from a reissue of this
feature just to stop and think about the technological escapism and
where it may lead...limited dialogue selection.
Денис Бернхардт - Pinterest
The original "Westworld" was 88 minutes. Because a sequel is meant to build upon the world of the previous feature, I can overlook this feature's extra 16 minutes.
Futureworld - The Standard for an Ill-Advised Sequel
Steven
Spielberg did not direct "Jaws 2". From a film "expert" standpoint, it
easy to assume why. A good sequel does not change the original formula.
Thus, it should essentially be the same movie, only better. How do you
top "Jaws"?
A
bad idea for a sequel comes when the formula is changed. It is
forgivable to tweak the original's premise to further adapt beloved
characters from the first film, but the feature still needs to be a copy
of the original. Luke running from the Empire must be constant. So in
"Jurassic Park" the dinosaurs going nuts need some build up.
It
is easy to see why Spielberg took on "The Lost World: Jurassic Park"
because dinosaurs are already nuts. This gave him a new idea to play
with. Unfortunately, Spielberg must have failed to remember the sequel
to Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park" prototype, "Westworld's" "Futureworld".
With
so much money invested into the Delos resort, it would be foolish not
to reopen the facility because of a singular robotic revolution that started in
Westworld. The company swears nothing can go wrong, but they need some
great publicity to assure those who can afford $12,000 a day that the
attraction is safe.
Along
with high-ranking Soviet and Japanese officials, Delos has invited
America's premier TV personality, Tracy Ballard (Blythe Danner), and an investigative reporter, Chuck Browning (Peter Fonda), to prove
that nothing negative will occur with their relaunch. Everything seems
kosher, since they removed the human technicians with robots, but it all
seems too perfect. There must be something sinister a foot. Can our
journalists discover it, or will decadence or Delos consume them?
"Futureworld"
lacks the charm of its predecessor. It is a B-movie about journalists
like "The Manchurian Candidate" instead of a tale about a perfect world
crumbling. There a a few interactions between our characters and the
environment, and because humans and robots mingling together is what
sold the first film, why would we return for a sequel where this is lacking?
We
hardly get five minutes in any of the theme parks. If you have seen
"Westworld", it is kind of a downer that our protagonists choose to have
sex with each other rather than a robot.
I
saw this feature in 2010, so I could not have known that Jonathan Nolan
and Lisa Joy were such fans of the franchise that they would
successfully figure out how to manifest everything from this feature to
work in the "Westworld" HBO series.
"Westworld"
was a tacky premise, but was delivered and produced as a great sci-fi film (The
1970's may have been the golden era when you take "Silent Runnings" and "Logan's Run" into account.). Everything
in the sequel, with the exception of brilliant CG, is incredibly tacky
from sets to dialogue. Honestly, "Futureworld" is not bad for low-budget
70's fare, but it is a sequel to a classic which makes the Yul Brynner
"Man in Black" dance dream the most redeeming thing about it.
"Futureworld"
is a fine example of how not to make a sequel. Movies are not fan
fiction. We do not want them to serve only as a setting for a story. If
the original environments or characters that drew us to the first film
are lacking, then you are better off writing a reboot for you own sake.
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