Thursday, July 27, 2006

Funky Movies

Ok, so from some comments in another thread I thought I'd post this.

Two movies, if you want somewhat unique experiences this year, you should see are:

A Scanner Darkly
Lady in the Water

A Scanner Darkly is like watching an acid trip, and it is meant to be that way. Apparently they filmed the movie and then went back over it and sorta cartoonized the entire thing. It is REALLY hard to describe. It does have some of the best conversations since Pulp Fiction in it though, particularly the one about the 18-speed bike. Pure gold. Here are a couple of choice paragraphs from a review that I think do a better job of summing it up that I do:

"A Scanner Darkly changes everything. Even though Phillip K. Dick wrote it, Richard adapted the screenplay perfectly. I found that the film ran like a combination of Tarantinoesque chronology(Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs) and a Nolanesque confusion(Memento)."

"If you enjoy a good "mind-bender" of a film that doesn't stop resonating in your head until days after you have seen it, then A Scanner Darkly is for you. If you go to the theater simply for spoon-fed entertainment, see this film anyway and hopefully you will wake up and have an original thought some time soon."

Click on the Watch the Trailer link here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405296/


The second movie, Lady in the Water, is M. Night Shyamalan's new movie. You need to go in expecting the right sort of thing to enjoy this movie. Basically, as he explains it, it started as a bedtime story he used to tell his kids that just got longer and scarier until he decided to turn it into a movie. The movie itself has a lot of the components of a good bedtime story. Scary evil things, mystical good things, and the hero having to find companions to save the princess. The setting is in the back of a hotel. The entire movie takes place there. How cool is that?

There are a couple of parts that will scare the crap out of you. Shyamalan really builds tension well and he did it in a few places in this one as well. There is no twist like 6th Sense and Unbreakable had, instead it is just a bunch of smaller twists like Unbreakable and Signs was. All in all it was a very enjoyable movie. Good times.

4 comments:

Reel Fanatic said...

I can't wait to see A Scanner Darkly, but it's not playing in my little corner of the world, so I guess I'll have to wait for DVD .. I guess an acid trip experience just doesn't fit in in small-town Georgia, but we did get Al Gore's movie for one week!

CMS said...

That Lady in the Water was recommended to me by the theater teacher here. So, I'll chance it. Nothing like wasting another $8. :-) Not sure I'm up to seeing that one by myself though. Then again, if I jump, wince, or scream, maybe the embarrassment level wouldn't be so high. I noticed that a guy from "Sideways" was in this. How was he ?

Here's a thought... do you think they'll make a porno knock off of this. Ya know.. B#*ch in the Pool? I have to start marketing this stuff....

Did I mention I teach preschoolers? Just joking folks.

Ryan said...

Reel,

What did you think about Gore's movie, assuming you saw it?


CMS,

There are a couple of parts that'll make you jump. They happen pretty close together somewhat towards the begining. Then it turns into a cool fairy tale sorta thing.

The guy from Sideways was really good in this. And M. Knight himself actually has a pretty important role. In his other movies he always would show up in them but briefly, like Steven King does in his. In this one, he is one of the more important side characters.

Ryan said...

Signs...I thought Signs started well and was pretty good up until the actual full invasion. The part when they were watching the TV and all the alien ships showing up sticks with me. Also the part with the kids in the school catching the alien walking between two buildings. But once the invasion started it kinda went down hill and the way it ended was CRAP! What the hell was he thinking.

That said, M Night is a great story teller and Lady in the Lake is a good story.