Monster Movie of the Week: Skyline (2010)

SKYLINE
Genre: Sci-fi/Survival
Directed by: The Brothers Strause


THE MOVIE

We are experiencing a mini-boom of alien invader stories: Battle Los Angeles, Cowboys & Aliens and Falling Skies and V on TV. We have yet to get a great one in this wave but Skyline is an interesting take on the genre from The Brothers Strause, who are best known for directing Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. Like the great Signs from M. Night Shyamalan, Skyline aims for a smaller scope than your average over-baked invasion movie. The movie limits the action to a small group of survivors in a residential high-rise in L.A and the immediate area.

Maybe the most remarkable thing about Skyline is the fact that it was produced for around ten million dollars, which is amazingly cheap considering the amount of high-quality effects work in the movie. Skyline went on to make about $80 million world-wide, so this is the kind of story that movie studios like to see and no doubt The Brothers Strause will get lots of work if only for their ability to bring in a good looking movie for very little cost.

The human story is more of an afterthought as they often are in these movies. I wish all of these James Cameron-wannabe filmmakers would go back and watch Terminator and Aliens. One thing Cameron did beautifully in those movies was make the relationships the backbone of his action/sci-fi movies and give us compelling characters that we care about. This is pretty much a lost art today. Skyline features a forgettable plot about a guy, Jared, and his wife visiting his friend who is a hotshot effects artist in L.A. (Donald Faison, who manages to be both douchey and nerdy). The invasion happens after they have a big party and there are several other ancillary characters who are pretty much interchangeable. In fact, most of the female characters were such ciphers that I had trouble telling them apart.

This all adds up to a movie that-while severely lacking in drama and characterization-has the loose feeling of a scrappy small production that is being produced out of love for the genre. There is something fun and pure about two brothers making a sci-fi movie on the cheap out of their condo. While not great or groudbreaking, Skyline delivers lots of action and thrills.

THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

Skyline is one of those movies in which the line between creature and vehicle is hard to discern. We first witness the aliens in the forms of their great and spindly ships. The technology of the aliens is very complex and spiky and lit by eerie blue lights. It's an aesthetic not unlike the Transformers movies.

We also see a lot of drones floating around and it is not clear whether these are purely mechanical or partly organic. They are a bit reminiscent of the Sentinels from the Matrix movies. More monstrous are the large, ogre-like creatures which prevent our protagonists from escaping the building. Like the other creatures, these guys feature a slimy, bio-mechanical look.

The last scene of the movie is an interesting coda that actually sets up a cooler story than anything before it. Throughout the movie, the aliens had been abducting people and in the final scene we see then ripping out brains and placing them into brutish bio-mechanical bodies, presumably to serve as their army. These guys are big and almost gorilla-like, with huge deadly claws.


MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT/MINORITY REPORT

Sadly, not a good one. Latino actor David Zayas, in addition to having to awkwardly mouth the word-salad that is the script, is not only given a cliche action movie line, but one that suddenly and unnecessarily calls ridiculous attention to his ethnicity, in the way that screenwriters like to call out their Hispanic characters by throwing a lil Spanish 101 into their English dialogue.



HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Widely available on DVD and Bluray.


TRAILER






Patrick Garone
Follow Me On Twitter
Author of City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl

Monster Movie of the Week: District 9 (2009)

DISTRICT 9
Directed by Neill Blomkamp
Genre: Science fiction/Body Horror/Action

THE MOVIE

A sleeper hit back in 2009, District 9 stands out as one of the best science fiction films of the naughts, with great special effects and performances as well as thought provoking themes that, like many of the greatest sci-fi films, feature a veiled social commentary. This movie was so well-received that it was even nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, which is a rare feat for a genre movie like this.

District 9 was produced by filmmaker Peter Jackson and helmed by first-time director Neill Blomkamp. The two had originally teamed up to make a movie adaptation of the popular video game Halo but after that project fell through, the commenced work on a project that Blomkamp had been thinking about for a while, a story set in an alien refugee camp in South Africa, which would be an expansion of his 2005 short film, Alive in Joburg.



District 9 quickly establishes a faux-documentary style (which it abandons when convenient) and introduces its protagonist, the feckless bureaucrat Wikus van de Merwe, who comes across as an Afrikaner version of Michael Scott from The Office. The movie uses "archival footage" to show the aftermath of the arrival of a massive alien ship over Johannesburg and how humanity had cut its way into the vessel to find a population of starving insect-like beings, who were eventually relocated to District 9, which has become a squalid shanty town by the beginning of the movie.


Wikus is tasked by the giant multinational company that operates District 9 to obtain signatures so that there can be some semblance of legality when the aliens are forcibly relocated to District 10, a new, more prison-like settlement. The aliens, who are referred to as Prawns by the humans, are largely considered of sub-human intelligence (it is speculated by the humans that they were the ship's workers and subservient to another group of aliens, unseen in the movie) and are mostly uneducated and easily manipulated (they have a strange obsession with catfood). However, the movie soon introduces us to the alien known as Christopher Johnson and his young son. Christopher, unlike most of the other aliens, can read and reason and has been toiling away on a secret project involving a mysterious cylinder filled with an unknown substance.

When Wikus comes across this cylinder while doing his rounds, it sprays him in the face and initiates a transformation that recalls that of Jeff Goldblum in The Fly. Wikus' hand suddenly begins to change into something resembling one of the prawns and he soon finds himself on the run from the government and his former corporate employers. He turns to the only place where he can hide: District 9.

Arriving at the shack of Christopher Johnson, Wikus learns that the cylinder is the missing component of the long lost command capsule that will allow Johnson to return to the alien ship and escape from the Earth with his son. He also promises that, once on the ship, he will be able to treat Wikus and reverse his transformation.

Needless to say, things don't go as planned. District 9 really kicks up the action in its last act, almost jarringly so for those who had been previously invested in the movie's heavy themes and interesting characters. The ending is fairly open-ended, and there's plenty of room for a sequel or two. District 9 is a great movie, although there are some story things that don't make a whole lot of sense, like who being sprayed in the face with fuel would change one into a totally different species or the mysterious disappearance of the beings that were actually running the ship, conveniently leaving behind these "primitive" creatures or how the alien ship is not crawling with human technicians when Johnson arrives on it.

The movie takes what could have been a very heavy handed analogy-the Prawns as proxies for black South Africans during apartheid-and deftly creates a story that stands on its own but feels very rooted in our world. Like the fantastic Alfonso Cuaron movie, Children of Men or Duncan Jones' amazing Moon, District 9, takes the world that we live in, adds a sci-fi premise and extrapolates a believable future from it. Corporate exploitation, poverty, tribalism, these things are all fodder for District 9 and, even without the inconsistent documentary style, make it feel like something that could actually happen.

THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

Where the movie really shines is the realization of the prawns both in design and characterization. Despite the fact that he is a revolting bug moo-cap creature, I actually found myself deeply invested in Christopher and by the end of the movie I was very concerned about his fate. His relationship with his small son is quite touching and provides a nice emotional hook allowing the audience to empathize for the rather alien-looking prawns.



Designwise, the prawns are pretty good creatures and mostly avoid the "Cloverfield trap" of creature design, which is to make monsters into incomprehensible wasp-waisted hodgepodges of different scary animals. The prawns are a pretty coherent design and not overly complicated, so that you can take a quick look at them and understand how they work. They are bipedal insectoids, seemingly with a chitinous exoskeleton, and generally of human height or taller.

They possess a pair of large antennae on their heads which are covered in movable plate-like scales, which allow them a good amount of recognizable facial expression. Unlike most arthropods, they posses lensed eyes with a distinct pupil, a design decision that makes them easier to relate to than, say, more bug-like compound eyes. Instead of jaws or mandibles, they have a set of short tentacle-like organs that presumably hang in front of their mouths. The prawns do not speak English in the movie but in their own alien language of clicking sounds. Their dialogue is subtitled for the audience and understood by the human characters who are trained to interact with them.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

During the movie's climax, there is a harrowing sequence in which Christopher Johnson has to race to the crashed command capsule where his son is waiting for him. By this point, I was so invested in this relationship that I was practically cheering for him to get to his son in one piece. And I really hate bugs.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

District 9 is widely available on DVD and Bluray. The Bluray transfer is really nice and brings out a ton of detail, really showing this movie off in its squalid glory. The movie has also been available on-and-off for Netflix streaming.

SEE ALSO

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) is another tale of man's relationship to a mistreated, non-human "other" which also features amazing mo-cap/CGI characters that are far more compelling than the humans in the movie.

THE TRAILER




Patrick Garone
Follow Me On Twitter
Author of City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl

Monster Movie of the Week: Alien Resurrection (1997)

ALIEN RESURRECTION (1997)

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Genre: Action/Survival Horror/Body Horror

Country: USA

NOTES

1992’s Alien 3 is unloved here in the US but it was well appreciated and financially successful overseas and kindled talk of a fourth Alien movie. However, as many of you know, the ending of Alien 3 was, shall we say, final. It was designed as a way to close out the trilogy and to conclude the Ripley story arc in a dramatic and cathartic way. So what is a studio to do? Since your protagonist is dead, will you venture out and take the series in a new direction with brand new characters? Or will you find some cheap half-assed way to bring a dead character back?

Alien Resurrection features a clone of Ellen Ripley. And as cop-outs go, it is not quite, “It was all a dream” but it is still fairly lame. And I can’t help but feeling that it is a major diss to Alien 3, a movie that is badly flawed but has a lot more integrity than its successor. I think that the decision to do a retread movie and bring Ripley back as opposed to developing new characters and scenarios is one of the reasons that the series fizzled out and was ultimately replaced with the AVP movies and the upcoming prequel/spin-off/nothing-to-do-with-the-Alien-franchise Ridley Scott movie, Prometheus.

"Where's your precious Beetlejuice now?"

THE MOVIE

All of that being said, Alien Resurrection is not a terrible movie. In an attempt to keep the series fresh and in keeping with the franchises history of being a showcase for talented directors, the producers brought in French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, famous for his surrealist movies such as a City of Lost Children and Delicatessen. French directors were very hot back in the 1990’s with the films of Jeunet, Christopher Gans and Luc Besson finding audiences here in the states. Besson’s movies The Professional and The Fifth Element gave fresh Euro spins to well-worn American genres. No doubt the producers of the last Alien film were hoping for Jeunet to give the film a similar feel and he gives Resurrection a Gallic style and quirkiness that sometimes works but often doesn’t. Jeunet’s direction also frequently butts heads with the film’s other major raison d’etre: to recapture the ass-kicking action feel of James Cameron’s Aliens.

Alien Resurrection picks up 200 years after Alien 3 (so, The Future + 200 years) in which military scientists on a remote space station use blood samples from Ellen Ripley to clone her and the alien queen she was carrying at the end of the last movie. Um, okay. That’s same shaky science but okay. It turns out that there is some DNA crossover and this new Ripley has some alien characteristics and vice versa. The film also tries way too hard to make the Ripley clone into a badass: she fights, she shoots hoops, she says “fuck” a lot. This is one of the movies inept attempts to pander to what the producers think is the type of fan that really liked Aliens.

Alien Resurrection is rated R for frequent caressing.

Meanwhile the scientists have arranged to purchase abducted human beings in hypersleep from a group of smugglers that include a mysterious young woman named Call. This macabre storyline is the best part of the movie and makes for some cool imagery and recalls the many great Dark Horse Aliens comics of the time. The idea of these twisted scientists smuggling comatose human beings to breed aliens is dark and cool and it makes you wonder what Joss Whedon’s original Ripley-free script was like.

The smugglers dock with the station and encounter Ripley. Call sneaks into Ripley’s cell and tries to kill her revealing that she has come to prevent the aliens from being bred but is too late. Ultimately the aliens escape and Ripley must lead the dwindling group of military survivors and smugglers off the station. She is kidnapped by the Aliens and taken back to their nest (after apparently making out with one of them!?) where we learn that something is very wrong with these Aliens (this dysfunctional nest and the “mad scientist” type character seems to be a reference to the wonderful “Aliens: Labyrinth” comic). Ripley’s human DNA has infected the hive and the Queen lays prone and gives birth to a live Hybrid creature. After some additional caressing (what is up with the French?) the Ripley clone attempts to escape the doomed ship.

Sad Skeletor.

THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

This movie features the usual suspects. The alien drone is slightly redesigned (nothing revolutionary) in light of its newfound ability to swim. Again the color scheme is browner and more roach-like than the first two movies. The Queen is featured…well only her head actually. Unfortunately we don’t get any good Queen action in this movie and she gets bitch slapped to death, which is sad.

The “star” creature is the Hybrid, which leaves a lot to be desired, with its pasty skin, sad eyes, potbelly and nasal nub. I’ve heard rumors that the creature was originally designed with a penis (or vagina or some combination thereof) that was digitally removed in post-production. Call me a perv, but I want to see this.

The effects in this movie are somewhat marred by some shoddy CGI, which is too bad because this marks the first use of digital effects on these creatures. Unfortunately the aliens end up looking like Playstation characters in these scenes. This is especially sad because of the high special effects bar raised by the previous movies in the series.

C'est tres francais.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The Ripley clone discovers the meaning of the number “8” tattooed on her arm when she stumbles across the horrific previous seven attempts to clone her. That’s good body horror right there!

SEQUELS

Sadly, no. Although the story is continued in some comic books from Dark Horse. This movie marks the chronological end of the Alien series, although it does continue in the form of the AVP prequels and whatever Prometheus turns out to be (seriously, what is the deal with that movie?).

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

On its own or in the mammoth Alien Legacy DVD set. Or in the even more mammoth AVP set. The extras are nothing great and the extended version adds very little to the movie.

The movie was unceremoniously kicked out of the series for the “Alien Trilogy” DVD set that you can find around. What a burn. I guess that means that Alien 3 has been officially replaced as the redheaded stepchild of the series.

On Bluray, it is found in the wonderful Alien Anthology set, which, like the Legacy DVD set, features a slightly longer cut of the movie.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water...where no one can hear you scream.

MINORITY REPORT

A Latino almost survives the movie. Almost. Although the weird handicapped guy does survive.

TRIVIA

Believe it or not, Alien Resurrection is the most commercially successful of series in terms of global box office.

TRAILER





Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
twitter.com/patrickgarone
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Monster Movie of the Week: GIANT EFFING ROBOT EDITION: Transformers (2007)

TRANSFORMERS (2007)

Director: Michael Bay

Genre: Sci-Fi/Action

THE MOVIE

The next best thing to giant monster movies is giant robot movies. Especially when the giant robots can physically change themselves into various vehicles and hardware. Michael Bay’s Transformers, of course, is based on the 1980’s line of robot toys and it’s accompanying cartoons and comics in which two factions of giant alien robots land on earth and assume alternate shapes based on common earth forms to hide themselves hence the tagline “Robots in disguise.”

In this reimagining of the original Generation 1 story, the Decepticon faction is already on earth as the movie begins and searching for information regarding their missing leader Megatron, who apparently disappeared here in search of the Allspark, a cube that grants sentient life to machines. The heroic Autobots attempt to head them off. The Autobot Bumblebee assumes the form of an old Camaro and arranges to be sold to young Sam Witwicky, who is unknowingly in possession of an item that will locate the Allspark (and trying to sell it on eBay.) Bumblebee befriends Sam and introduces him to the other Autobots before both are captured by agents from a mysterious government agency called Sector Seven which is in charge of monitoring Transformer activity on earth and are actually holding both the Allspark and Megatron’s frozen body in a secure location. Meanwhile the other Decepticons learn the location and both they and the Autobots converge there for a final battle.

Why does a robot need to have teeth?

As someone who knew and loved the original Transformers cartoon as a child I have to say I was very nervous about this movie. The robot designs I had seen were decidedly different from the simple cartoon designs and liberties are taken with some of the characters and there are many omissions of classic characters (like Soundwave) in favor of original or redesigned secondary characters. That being said, having seen the movie, I am very satisfied with the result. Michael Bay’s Transformers is a kinetic action packed reimagining of the “Transformers” I know and love.

Steven Spielberg produced this movie and his influence can be felt in the touching relationship between Sam and Bumblebee, which has shades of E.T. Sam himself is actually fun to watch and is one of the most realistic depictions of a teenager I have seen on screen (he would make a perfect Peter Parker/Spiderman.) Optimus Prime (Voiced by Peter Cullen who provided his voice in the G1 cartoon) and the other Autobots are beautifully brought to life and their transformations are very cool to watch often complete with the trademark sound effect you may remember from the cartoons. And, of course, the movie is filled with balls-against-the-wall action like a James Cameron Terminator movie on steroids.

MONSTERS/EFFECTS:

There are about twelve different Transformers in this movie. They are all much more alien and intricate then the classic designs and are composed of thousands of small moving parts. Their faces are composed of small metal flaps and lids that move to read emotions. For example, their eyes are colored bulbs (blue for Autobots and red for Decepticons) and they have little metal lids above and below the eyes that move in a particular way to convey different emotions. It’s all fodder for slow motion BluRay viewing.

While the Autobots are well realized in the movie and are all given lines and plenty of screentime, the Decepticons do not fare as well and this is my only real gripe with the movie and probably comes from being overly familiar with the characters in the cartoon. Of the Decepticons, most of the screentime goes to Blackout (the kick-ass giant military helicopter,) Scorponok, Frenzy (the small gremlin-like robot that can turn into a boombox,) Barricade (the police car,) and towards the end, Megatron. Starscream, Bonecrusher and Brawl show up later and are relegated to cameo roles. You never really get a sense of who the Decepticons are and how they work as a group. This is a particular loss when it comes to Starscream who was always a genuinely interesting character on the cartoon because of his constant Shakespearean power struggles with Megatron. This would have been a good and very obvious opportunity to make the Decepticons more than just hulking brutes. On the side, as a purely fanboy complaint, I wish they had gotten someone to do Starscream’s voice who sounded like the late great Chris Latta who had one of the most recognizable voices from the cartoon. His raspy high pitched voice was the essence of Starscream.

The most radically redesigned character in the movie is probably Megatron, who no longer changes into a gun to be wielded by others (thank God) and has a purely Cybertronian design as he does not assume an earth form during the course of the movie (his alternate form is a Cybertronian jet.) When he was first leaked on the net I hated his design because it is very pointy and alien and weird but I’ve grown used to it and now I quite like it (although it looks like crap in profile.) Megatron is voiced by Hugo Weaving in the movie but his voice is so electronically processed and deepened that I couldn’t even recognize him but that’s good because he is appropriately big and scary in this movie.

The effects through out the movie are eye-popping and hyper realistic. Bay is a big fan of using practical on set effects and explosions whenever possible and it gives Transformers a sense of realism that is missing from a lot of purely studio shot CGI effects films.

MONSTERS FEATURED

Optimus Prime - Semi truck

Bumblebee – A ’74 Camaro then a 2009 Camaro.

Jazz- Pontiac Soltice

Rachet-some sort of hummer ambulance (WTF?)

Ironhide-GMC Topkick

Megatron-Cybertronian jet

Starscream-F22 Raptor more or less like his G1 appearance

Barricade-some sort of Mustang derived police car (yeah, that’s low profile.)

Blackout-a big military helicopter

Brawn-a tank (kind of superfluous to the movie.)

Scorponok –a mechanical scorpion with no robot form

Frenzy-transforms into various small electronics

Bonecrusher-a clawed minesweeping military vehicle

There are some other “accidental transformers” as well as a pissed off Nokia phone.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Widely available in both DVD and BluRay.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

I loved Optimus Prime’s highway fight with Bonecrusher. So good and so like every Godzilla movie should be.

SEQUELS

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen 2009, which is about as hot a mess as you are likely to see in a big Hollywood movie.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

SEE ALSO:

Transformers: The Movie 1987

TRIVIA:

The Soundwave problem:

Blackout, Barricade and Frenzy were originally going to be called Soundwave at different times in a nod to the original iconic Decepticon who turned from a giant robot to a tiny cassette player. Barricade and Blackout both “eject” smaller Decepticons much like Soundwave (the Barricade action figure actually features a small Frenzy figure that can be removed from his chest a la the original cassette figures) but fan reaction to such a great departure was so intense that they changed the names (and presumably the heads.) Frenzy changes into a boombox but is only about seven feet tall and very different in character from Soundwave, so the filmmakers decided to name him after one of the robot cassette figures.

Soundwave appears in the sequel Revenge of the Fallen, in which he spends the entire movie in orbit making sweet love to a satellite.

TRAILER

Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
twitter.com/patrickgarone
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Monster Movie of the Week: Independence Day (1996)

INDEPENDENCE DAY (ID4) (1996)
Director: Roland Emmerich
Genre: Sci-Fi/Disaster


THE MOVIE

I learned a valuable lesson from Independence Day. It wasn't that people of all walks of life will come together to confront an insurmountable foe, with only their faith and patriotism to protect them. It wasn't that extraterrestrials have an overarching hatred for national monuments. It wasn't that alien computers are compatible with Mac OS 8 and susceptible to computer viruses.

It was that you should never, ever, trust a cool movie trailer.

I came into Independence Day with very high expectations due a very good trailer that should off some very cool visuals and ID4, promised to be a modern update of an old-school invasion stories like War of the Worlds. The story looked like it had shades of the great 1980's minseries V, which also featured a fleet of massive spaceships parked over Earth's cities.


But writer Dean Devlin and director Roland Emmerich-who were not well known at this point-give the movie a wide scope but almost no depth. Independence Day is not really about anything other than people fighting with spaceships. I like to compare this movie to M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, which is another invasion movie, but instead of being globally focused, Signs tells the story from the point of view of one family living in a rural house. There are only a handful of characters and you actually care about them. The characters of Independence Day are not really worthy of being cared about because they are simply two-dimensional avatars with simple relationships calculated to give the movie "heart," yet it has no heart. At best, the characters are archetypes (Cocky Fighter Pilot, Idealistic Young President, Good-Hearted Stripper) at worst, out and out stereotypes (Old New York Jewish Guy, Big Gay Mama's Boy).

The great visuals and set up are not supported by any ideas. There is no exploration of what it means that we are not alone in the universe. The aliens never reveal their intentions, they simply exist to be antagonists. This movie is science fiction in the most shallow sense. The sci-fi elements only exist to make the kind of big stupid disaster movies that the filmmakers seem to love so much. So Independence Day is a movie with neither heart nor brains.

It should be noted that this is one of Will Smith's breakout performance and the first of his many hit July 4th movies. It's really striking to see just how much he has grown as an actor since ID4. Thankfully, he no longer feels the need to constantly "work it" on camera like he does in this movie. Just look at the wonderfully somber and nuanced performance he gave in I Am Legend a few years back for comparison.



THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

The aliens of ID4 were designed by Patrick Tatopolous, who also worked on Devlin and Emmerich's hated Godzilla movie and are cool if derivative. The exoskeleton is biomechanical and looks a good deal like Giger's Alien, with the addition of a series of tentacles that come out of its back. This armor is apparently vulnerable to being punched in the face. Sadly, we see very little of these guys in the movie and we don't really see how they move around. Do they walk around on the tentacles like Doc Ock? These guys were briefly popular as toys in the '90's.


Inside the exo-suit are little guys that resemble the "grays" that are prevalent in UFO mythology (especially in the 1990's). They are given flared, manta-like heads and iridescent skin and eyes but are otherwise pretty typical aliens. They do resemble the alien from Devlin and Emmerich's previous movie, Stargate, giving some continuity in the Devlin/Emmerich cinematic universe (such as it is).




MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

I will say that there is an interesting detour midway through the movie where the main band of characters end up in Area 51. The movie has some fun working some contemporary UFO mythology into its story in an almost clever way. There is also a very fun cameo from Brent Spiner (Data in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series and movies) as a wild-eyed scientist who looks to have been locked in the facility since the 1960's. This is a great bit of sci-fi casting in what is otherwise an unimaginatively cast movie (Jeff Goldblum as a scientist? Where'd you think of that?)

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Available on DVD, Bluray, and currently streaming on Netflix.

MINORITY REPORT

Verdict: The gay guy dies first!

So this movie pretty prominently features the pioneering openly gay actor Harvey Firestein in a supporting role. While he never actually says that his character is gay, it not unreasonable to assume it based on his performance and the fact that the character has a stereotypically overbearing mother. So this character that a savvy audience will be lead to assume is "gay" is the first speaking character to die and doesn't get to party with Fresh Prince, Brundlefly, and Lone Starr at the end of the movie.

The message: Diversity is great! We just don't want you around when we rebuild civilization.

SEQUELS

None yet but then Will Smith's career hasn't hit the rocks.

TRAILER

Monster Movie of the Week: Signs (2002)

SIGNS (2002)

Genre: Sci-Fi/Suspense

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Country: USA

THE MOVIE

For the most part, the movies we’ve looked at in this column have featured Gratuitous Monster Action, which begs the question: How many minutes of monster action are required to make a monster movie? M. Night Shymalan’s Signs shows very little monster action, with the exception of a rather anti-climactic money-shot at the end of the movie. For the rest of the movie the presence of the monsters is felt without actually seeing them. And there are even a couple of very intense scenes in which we catch a frightening glimpse of a foot disappearing into a cornfield, or a shadow under a door or a very pixilated shape on a TV screen. So without actually showing much monster, Signs is far more scary and effective than your average monster movie. I guess the difference is like to that of erotica and full on porn (the monster equivalent of that would probably Godzilla: Final Wars.)

Signs is one of the most masterfully suspenseful movies ever made and is the work of a great director whose ego had not yet outweighed his talent. It is an interesting take on a genre we have seen many times before. What is Signs after all but a very scaled down version of Independence Day or War of the Worlds? It is the familiar alien invasion film but from the point of view of a rural family. There are no monuments to destroy, only one family and their home.

As good as the movie is, it does betray some of the flaws that have bogged down Shyamalan's subsequent movies. There is some clunky plotting and an attempt to make a faux twist-ending ("Swing Merril, Swing!") and attempts to shoehorn the story into the director's "vision" for the movie. For a movie that is called signs, and that featured crop circles prominently in its ad campaign, the movie really has little to do with them. Despite the director's contrivances the movie succeeds, and Signs is perhaps Shyamalan's most crowd-pleasing and enjoyable movie to date.

Maybe you should think about putting some damn clothes on.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

The monster is nothing really new or interesting. It is essentially a buffed up version of the typical grey/reptoid seen in movies and tv over the last forty years or so. It is actually quite reminiscent of the alien featured in the first X-Files movie. The main difference is that this one is able to camouflage itself.

This movie does feature some of the most hilariously unprepared aliens since War of the Worlds. You would think that if you have a dangerous aversion to water, that you would wear some kind of environment suit if you are coming to a planet that is 70% covered in the stuff. What would have happened if it had rained during their invasion?

In retrospect....

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

I think the pantry scene is brilliant. Mel Gibson’s character enters a kitchen having been told that an alien has been locked in the pantry. We can see that something is moving around in there. The character is terrified. The audience is terrified. We’re all torn between fear and curiosity. He spends a few moments trying to figure out what to do. Finally he grabs a knife and attempts to get a look under the door…

It’s one of the scariest scenes in any movie. So good.

SEQUELS

None.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Widely available on DVD.

TRAILER

MONSTER MOVIE OF THE WEEK-DAMN DIRTY APE EDITION-PLANET OF THE APES (1968)

PLANET OF THE APES (1968)
Director: Franklin Schaffner
Genre: Sci-Fi

THE MOVIE

Few movies have had the legacy and made the social impact of the classic 1968 science fiction movie, Planet of the Apes. Like another 1968 science fiction movie that featured ape creatures, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes was from those heady days when science fiction films were about Big Ideas and using the trappings of the genre to make a philosophical or socio-political commentary about the world. It was produced before a time when the genre became a playground for action and special effects. Compare it to its very inferior 2001 remake, which was about nothing and had nothing to say. Many essays and papers have been written about the movie and its subtext. In fact, an entire book has been written about the movie and its sequels and how they serve as a commentary on 1960’s America: Eric Green’s very interesting, Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture.

The movie is also a pop cultural landmark and even people who have never seen Planet of the Apes can be found referencing or quoting it. The movie starred the late Charlton Heston, who chewed out some memorable lines such as “Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!” and “It’s a mad house! A mad house!” The term “Planet of the Apes” has come to be a short hand for any kind of situation in which the expected social order has been reversed. Perhaps the movie is most famous for its shocking twist ending, which has since become one of the most iconic moments in the history of cinema.

Planet of the Apes is very loosely based on the French novel of the same name and written by Pierre Boule as a sort of Swiftian satire on human society. The book was adapted by Rod Serling of the beloved TV show, The Twilight Zone. As he often did with his show, Serling infused Planet of the Apes with subtextual social commentary, profound irony, and surprising plot twists. The other writer to have worked on the script for Planet of the Apes was Michael Wilson, who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy era and who no doubt added his bitterly anti-establishment sentiments in the depiction the ape society.

Apes was also one of the first movies to spin off into a real multimedia franchise. The movie was followed by four sequels and later both an animated and a live action TV series. Because of the series’ popularity with children, Planet of the Apes was one of the first movies to feature a line of action figures and other products, paving the way for the merchandising bonanza that followed the Star Wars movies.

Planet of the Apes is the tale of a misanthropic astronaut named Taylor, who is the leader of an expedition to a distant planet. The details of the expedition and its intent are a little murky but Taylor travels with three astronaut companions. It is implied that the four astronauts were to colonize a distant planet. However, while they are in hibernation, their ship crash lands on a mysterious planet where the Taylor and the two other survivors encounter a race of primitive, mute human beings. No sooner are Taylor and the others ready to divvy up the planet for themselves, when they are attacked by a hunting party of apes who talk and ride horses. Taylor is injured in the attack and he is captured and caged like an animal.

As stated above, Charlton Heston portrays Taylor in a bit of casting that is weird but perfect. At the time, Heston was a movie star well known for his heroic roles and was almost a symbol traditional blond-haired, blue-eyed American manhood. In Apes, he plays an edgy antisocial character who is literally stripped, beaten, and humiliated. I’ve often wondered why the famously conservative actor (he was the spokesperson for the NRA) was attracted to this script with its clearly left-wing subtext.

Taylor is befriended by a pair of chimpanzee scientists (Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowell) who discover that he has the ability to speak, which no human has demonstrated on the Planet of the Apes. We also learn that the ape society is stratified into three classes: the gorillas serve as the workers and the military, the chimps are the scientists and intellectuals, and the fair-haired orangutans are the political and religious leaders. It doesn’t seem that individual apes can break out of these social roles.

Taylor and his chimp friends are brought before an ape council lead by the shady Dr. Zaius. Taylor’s ability to speak and his demonstrated intelligence threaten the ape society and he is sentenced to castration and lobotomy before he escapes and explores the “Forbidden Zone” where the chimpanzees have discovered proof of an advanced pre-simian civilization. At the end of the movie, the true history of the Planet of the Apes is revealed.

THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

Sorry Mr. Heston, but the real star of Planet of the Apes is the incredibly expressive make-up created by John Chambers. Over forty years later, this make-up still holds up and manages to create the illusion of talking ape characters while still allowing the actor’s performance to be expressed naturally on camera and never once looking silly. Foam appliqués over the mouth and brow give the characteristic simian look to the face. The only drawback to this is that the ape teeth are actually built into the flexible foam mouthpiece and can move in an unnatural way during speech.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

“You maniacs! You blew it all to hell!”

DVD AVAILABILITY

The Apes movies have been fortunate to have received a lot of home video love over the years. Of course, Planet of the Apes is available on its own, but I suggest you take a look at the some of the boxed sets which are very nice. On DVD, the most recent one is the Legacy Collection. If you have a Bluray player, check out the 40th Anniversary Collection, which can frequently be bought on Amazon for fairly cheap. The video transfer is amazing considering the movie’s age and Planet of the Apes has never looked better. The set includes the great documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes, which is interactive on the Bluray. The Bluray set also includes a beautifully illustrated book about the series and the very rarely seen extended cut of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. It’s really a fantastic set and if you are a fan of these movies, you should definitely pick it up.


SEQUELS

This movie was immediately followed by the sub-par (no pun intended) Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) and the surprisingly good Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) and two others.

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...my all time favorite Simpsons moment