Films

The Chronicles of Riddick [2004]

Director: David Twohy
Actor: Vin Diesel, Judi Dench, Karl Urban, Thandie Newton

Pitch Black was a surprise success, attributed to, among other things, the edginess of the good/bad guy Riddick. It didn’t take long for the results from the focus groups to come in which basically all said; We Want More Riddick! Now!

In Pitch Black, Riddick seemed capable of doing almost everything. He was superhuman, superfast, supersmart and super-badass. But it wasn’t annoying because he was surrounded by people who were obviously his inferiors. In Pitch Black Riddick was an exceptional guy.

Enter Chronicles of Riddick, set five years after Pitch Black. Riddick, Jack, and the Imam got off the planet and made their way towards Helion Prime, where New Mecca was. The Imam would take care of young Jack and Riddick left them once they were at Helion Prime because as much as Riddick cared for the young girl Jack, he would always have bountyhunters after him. Five years later, Riddick is living on a frozen planet, alone, just the way he likes it, until a group of mercs come looking for the bounty on his head.

He, familiar with the lay of the land and anticipating a day like this, easily defeats the mercs and finds out who’s put the bounty on his head. It appears to be a certain Imam from Helion Prime. Devasted Riddick heads for Helion Prime to get some answers. He finds out that the Imam, together with a mysterious Elemental*, played by Judi Dench, a mysterious race of super-intelligent, psuedo-corporeal beings, are trying to figure out a way to stop the Necromongers, a war-like race, made up from different people from different worlds they conquered and destroyed, while searching for their promised land, a dimension called Underverse**. They pillage and scorch world after world, assimilating the survivors in their army, brainwashing them and having them swear allegiance to their dark God.

The Elemental is looking for the last of the Furians, a race of natural warriors, stubborn, war-like and according to the prophecy the only one to stop the Necromongers from killing off the entire universe in search of their Underverse. It is said, a young warrior once asked a visionary about his future. The visionary told him that a Furian would be his downfall, so the young warrior created an army to rival all armies and destroyed the entire Furian system, all planets, and all Furians, those who would not be assimilated were killed. Except for one, who had a nack of escaping; Riddick. This young warrior is the Lord Marshall, the supreme commander of the Necromongers.

At first, of course, Riddick is all like “This is not my fight,” and “Stay the hell away from me,” but it seems the Lord Marshall, as soon as he finds out he missed a Furian in his genocidal spree, wants Riddick dead. Riddick meanwhile is concerned only with one thing; Jack, now known as Kyra, who, eager to immitate her childhood hero Riddick, is a known, convicted killer, living on Crematoria, a prison planet where the the day time sees temperatures of over 700 degrees Celcius, and nighttime temperatures of minus 350.

Meanwhile there’s the story of Lord Vaako and his Dame, played by Karl Urban and Thandie Newton, who are plotting to have the Lord take over the Lord Marshall’s place. Lord Vaako has also been ordered by the Lord Marshall to find the Furian. Good stuff.

This film is not good. It’s not bad, but it’s not good, neither. You get the feeling of a tremendously rich, and well-thought out universe, but it never really shows, never really making this film shine. It’s a beautiful film, with a lot of really cool concepts and elements in it. It’s sort of like a cross between Warhammer 40,000, Stargate and the Fifth Element in the way it looks and feels and it even has a bit of Dune thrown in for good measure. I think I’m going to try and find the animation Chronicles of Riddick, The Dark Fury, which is piece to cover the gap between Pitch Black and the Chronicles of Riddick, and gives more insight into Riddick’s character. If only because I want to see more of that universe.

* Apparently, Vin Diesel being a D&D buff, he, Judi Dench and David Twohy played D&D while on the set, in order for Vin Diesel to explain Elementals to them. Judi Dench’s character is basically a play on the Air Elementals from the Monster’s Manual.

** The Underverse, I think, is like the land of the dead. The name “necromongers” sort of implies that they have a tight link to the dead, which is supported by the notion that while, being assimilated, it hurts until the process of assimilation is over, and then it hurts no more. Perhaps they are killed when assimilated, their pain being taken away in death.

The Butterfly Effect [2004]

Director: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber
Actor: Ashton Kutcher

I’m not going to spend my time writing a long review for this film, but I would like to mention that I saw it on the recommendation of my colleague Mark. I saw the trailer and looked like ass, and I fought him tooth and nail. I simply refused to believe that this could be a good film. In the end I let him convince me to go and see it, and I did, and I have to admit that it was a rather nice movie. It wasn’t particularly good, but it definitely had it’s moments, and a rather solid story-concept. I would’ve changed the ending, but overall it was a very entertaining movie.

Good Will Hunting [1997]

Director: Gus Van Sant
Actor: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, Stellan Skarsgård, Minnie Driver, Casey Affleck

No matter how often I see this film, I can’t help but feel absolutely devastated afterwards. A beautiful film about a young guy who has to deal with two problems; 1) being an almost unequaled genius, and 2) being an orphan who was severely abused by his foster-father when he was younger which developed into a serious fear of abandonment and attachment disorder. Both Damon, Affleck, Driver and Robins play the stars from the heaven (Dutchism), and I recommend this film to one and all.

Fahrenheit 9/11 [2004]

Director: Michael Moore
Actor: Michael Moore

A lot of differing opinions have been given on Michael Moore’s latest documentary, but say what you want about this piece, if it doesn’t make you at least question what happened, then you’re walking with blinders on. Sure, there hasn’t been such a good propagandist since Leny Riefenstahl, but Moore’s incredibly sloppy and everyone who simply believes he’s speaking truth, or sees fact in what he offers are walking with those same blinders on.

Everything he offers is entirely suggestive while there’s very little actual proof. He asks you to think about all these facts that, when put together, paint a tremendously bleak picture of George W. Bush’s presidential administration and the hypocracy of a few very powerful corporations and government contractors.

Personally, I think that perhaps some of it is true, some of it isn’t, but there’s just so much questionable stuff that happened that the law of large numbers suggests, as Moore does, that at least some of it is true. While there’s no proof of what, at least it offers a little insight in that it happens. Whether it happened less under Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan, Carter, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, and whoever else I left out tracing that far back is not to be concluded. I think that everyone’s opinions are going to be strengthened, no matter what they are. Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, socialist, communist, everyone will say “See!” So in that the movie doesn’t achieve what it clearly set out to achieve; “Anyone but Bush.”

One thing I would like to remark is that with such a growing anti-American sentiment around the world, this movie plays into the hands of those people, too. It’s not just American bias and views that are strengthened (dare I say confirmed), but it’s foreign bias and views as well.

Walking Tall [2004]

Director: Kevin Bray
Actor: The Rock, Johnny Knoxville

This is a story inspired by the exploits of Sherrif Bufford Pusser who was the inspiration for the 70s show, also called Walking Tall.

Rock, an ex-special forces seargent, comes back from service to the town where he grew up, and finds that the mill that used to bring most of the money, work and trade into town has been closed town by his old high-school friend Hamilton and that Hamilton now runs a casino. He hooks up with all of his old friends for a “friendly” game of football and afterwards accepts an invitation by Hamilton – who now owns the current largest supplier of work and trade, a casino – to come and enjoy himself with his friends at his new establishment. While there he is confronted with what he’s suspected all along; that home is no longer the home he knew, and that the town is rotten to the core, with drug use and corruption running rampant. When he discovers one of his friends is getting cheated out of his money by one of the croupiers at the craps table he gets into a fight with the casino’s security guards who not only decide to “teach him a lesson” but also, upon finding out he’s former special forces, decide to give him “special treatment,” by carving him up. They leave him for dead. The Rock wouldn’t be the Rock if he didn’t survive beyond all expectations and he comes to a relatively full recovery.

When his nephew OD’s on crystal meth, sold to him and his friends by some of the casino security guards he decides to take a two-by-four and pay a visit to the casino. There he beats the snot out of all the casino security personel, leaving them as broken and battered as some of the slot machines he decides to tear up on his way out. He gets arrested and tried in court. When given the chance to explain himself, and show the scars running all up and down his torso, curtesy of the “special treatment” he got, he is acquitted and cleared of all charges. He decides to run for the office of sherrif, seeing as how the old sherrif is on Hamilton’s payroll. Public support is big and he gets elected and promptly makes his best friend, an ex-rock-star-wannabe-recovering-addict played by Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame, a deputy. Together the two of them decide to clean up the town.

I thought this was a good, though simple film. There were a couple of things that pleasantly surprised me. For instance, the camera work, though overal nothing special, really managed to deliver some relatively unique shots. One of them worth mentioning is when Rock falls out of a first floor window. Another thing that I thought was cool is the fact that the Rock isn’t made to be entirely super-human, which was nice. And then there was the world’s inept shoot-out between a wounded Johnny Knoxville and one of the casino’s thugs. Hilarious!