Enemy
Denis Valle’s Prisoners
was one of my favorite (or maybe my favorite) movie that came out last
year. He managed to pull off what so
many other filmmakers futilely attempt, a classic whodunit thriller with
excellent build up and an ending that actually didn’t make me slap my forehead. While that picture was straight forward Enemy is pretty abstract, at least in
concept. I mean what’s with the spiders? Or anything for that matter?
The plot sounds interesting on paper, a mild mannered guy (Jake
Gyllenhaal (Bubble Boy)) sees his perfect
double in a movie and decides to track him down, but the execution is languid. Everything takes a long time to happen and
then when the two finally meet it’s very anticlimactic.
I feel like there might not be anything to this one, that it
might be weird for weird’s sake. I
dunno. I don’t get it.
Nomads
The whole thing can probably best be summed up as “why?”
because I asked myself that an awful lot during and after the movie. Why is the anthropologist French? Why do the nomads target the
anthropologist? Why does the doctor get
infected with the anthropologist’s spirit and not the anthropologist’s wife? Why is the doctor and her side of the story
in this movie at all? And there are a
million more.
The thing is all of these questions have to do with the
script and not really anything else. And
that’s why this movie being sorta bad stings a little extra, because McTirenan
wrote the damn thing. Wisely he never
wrote anything else.
It’s kinda strange that this is what got him the Predator gig. Nomads
is shot fairly well and has a quick moving plot but doesn’t hint at how
masterful of a filmmaker he would become.
Yet, someone saw something in it and in John boy. I sure am glad.
Ministry of Vengeance
Man is this movie full of surprises. Just look at the supporting cast: Ned Beatty
(The Unholy), James Tolkan (Principal
Strickland from Back to the Future),
George Kennedy (Creepshow 2), Yaphet
Kotto (The Running Man) and Apollonia
(Prince protégé). Jeez Louise. They’re all fun to watch too, especially
Tolkan as the tough as nails drill sergeant/mentor. He’s right at home in this type of role.
As for the rest of it, it was alright. Usually with these low budget 80’s B action
films they’re either very entertaining or very boring. There isn’t much that lands in the
middle. A lot of A pictures are just ok
because there’s some competency involved but not all of the pieces come
together. With B movies either its
unintentionally funny or actually well done.
Ministry of Vengeance is a
rare B middle grounder though. It’s all
put together just fine and the pacing is quite good, but a bunch of the acting
and some of the plot elements aren’t great.
I still liked it though.
It makes sense surprisingly. A
priest really is out to serve up some vengeance to the terrorist that murdered
his wife and daughter. He’s a Vietnam
vet, so that explains how he knows how to use a gun and his connection to
friends that help him along the way. He’s
also conflicted about his faith which is a very important aspect to have here
because it makes the lead a stronger and deeper character.
This one isn’t anything special but I had fun.
On a side note this was a long time coming. Many many years ago (over ten at this point)
my buds and I picked up a VHS copy of Ministry
of Vengeance because it looked like it would be a good time. We never saw it, but at least I finished what
we (never actually) started back then.
Ferris Bueller Fight Club Theory
A friend told me this theory floating around on the internet
about Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The idea is that Cameron and Ferris are the
same person. Ferris is the alter ego of
Cameron like how Tyler Durden is Ed Norton’s (we never learn his character’s
name) alternate personality in Fight Club. Cameron becomes everything he isn’t though
Ferris, outgoing, clever, brash, confident, etc.
It’s a very interesting way to look at the characters and
the film as a whole. I don’t buy it
personally though and don’t believe for a second that this was John Hughes’
intention. The more you think about it
the more the theory falls apart. One of
the biggest problem is that Sloane addresses both Cameron and Ferris separately
throughout the movie. But even if she’s
in Cameron’s head too there’s Ed Rooney and the entire school believing that
Ferris is a real person with a sister and parents and a house and all that.
So this one doesn’t really hold water. It’s a fun thing to think about though.
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