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Reviews
The League of Gentlemen (1960)
Suspected inspiration for The Usual Suspects
I missed the beginning and end of this movie, but what I saw inbetween was quite interesting. The way in which the 'Hyde' character pitched his recruits was gripping, well scripted, well directed and well acted.
In fact, I can't help but relate that part of the story with how Pete Postlethwaite's character 'Kobayashi' pitches the 'suspects' in the movie 'The Usual Suspects'. I can only assume that Christopher McQuarrie (writer) or Bryan Singer (director) were inspired by 'The League of Gentleman' when they created 'The Usual Suspects'.
Both movies are great, and anybody fond of the current day Usual Suspects should see this movie.
Office Space (1999)
Watch late at nights, catch up sleep the next day at work
The BBC ran 'Office Space' at 2 a.m., as they usually do, but again and again, it's worth sacrificing some sleep.
It's been a long time since we've seen intelligence combined with humor combined with a farce against what certain philosophers would qualify as the 'technisist society'.
Add to that some contemporary rap music, well directed and edited dialogue, and you get something that in itself may not be a very realistic movie. But the sum of the parts are so well intertwined that it manages to produce a rich set of overtones.
A Stradivarius is said to have become the dominant violin brand with it's rich overtones because of the 'mini-ice-age' that influenced the quality of wood back when Stradivarius' were first produced.
Office Space is not necessarily a Stradivarius, but state of office management and culture have over the years allowed a movie like 'Office Space' to stand forth as a pleasant and ironic reflection of typical office situations.
Some of the dialogues were just brilliant. The interviews with employees conducted by the consultants were beautifully directed and well acted. Each individual character was appropriate. Elements of the story, such as the situations with the name 'Michael Bolton', are intelligently humorous. The use of rap music, slow motion filming, politically incorrect handling of foreign names, constrained overzealousness from office (or restaurant) management and employees, the list goes on and on. Funnily, all of this is neatly packed in an enjoyable movie, with no strong over-emphasis on any of the ingredients. Well balanced.
It's nice to see some of the elements of the movie becoming part of current day culture. I've heard TPS reports being used as an analogy for failing bureaucracy time and time again. Though a series such as the British 'The Office' is somewhat different, in my opinion it's no coincidence that a movie such as 'Office Space' and the serie 'The Office' are produced this day and age.
In the end, I can't say this movie has any real moral to the story. It's somewhat contemporary for the era it was produced in (pre y2k), but at the same time exhibits generic aspects of human beings working together under the reign of some 'distant' management that's (deliberately or not) completely out of touch with it's workers, and probably even out of touch with it's line of business. And it does so in a funny and enjoyable manner. Not every criticism of society or bureaucracy has to be another Kafka or as extreme as a movie like 'Brazil'. It's good that 'Office Space' allows us to laugh about something so sad.
Telepresence (1997)
Soldiers attack Windows 95 Directory Listing
Having glanced over this movie's casing at the videostore several times I finally decided to rent it. Who knows, it could be an undiscovered cult classic with a great story line despite not having any apparent budget to appeal to most moviegoers.
This movie started off interesting, and continued to address, albeit in an unconvincing style, some issues of altered cognition, issues that take place when our minds operate in an environment completely different from our earthly environment. The movie could appeal to certain individuals, to me it was a failure. The story elements could have been interesting, the overall end-result was badly directed, a little more harmony in the sequencing of scenes to better coincide with the viewing experience, combined with somewhat better lighting and photography could have positioned this movie in a much better category.
One of the most failed issues of this movie, which is noticeable from watching it, and distinguishable if you use the slow-motion on your VCR is the following: During an alien attack, the aliens are jamming communication signals and we see a representation of the jamming signal on one of the computer consoles. While watching the movie I thought hey, that alien jamming signal looks familiar. Let's rewind a bit and see a slow-motion replay and yes, my suspicion was correct. The jamming signal scrolls over the computer console and when you pay attention to the screen you can clearly see that the alien jamming signal is a directory listing of a Windows 95 installation. I clearly saw the Hyperterminal directory. Apparently someone just ran a 'dirtree' when they taped the scene of the alien jamming signal.
Two possible explanations for this come to mind:
1. The budget was so tight that nobody could afford the time or cost to write a one line program to spew random jibberish on the screen which could represent a 'jamming' signal.
2. This is a director's joke where (s)he represents anything alien that's jamming as Windows 95.
I suspect the latter motivation to be the reason behind this decision, but judging from the directing, it could easily have been the former.
Not entertaining, not informative, not really thought provoking, but the Windows 95 directory listing as an alien jamming signal will be remembered whenever anyone mentions Telepresence.
The Thing (1982)
Extra Terrestrial Nanotechnology
This movie is converged excellence!
The light in the movie is either blue (the cold antarctic), red (burning torches and fire) or just plain mat colors (in between the cold antarctic and the fire) which really 'highlights' the atmosphere from scene to scene.
The script allows for the classic 'a few humans cramped up in terror' setup and really separates the boys from the men during the course of the movie. The build up of suspense and character developments are well balanced. This is actually one of the last sci-fi horror movies that has true cinematic class without having to dwell on block-buster one-liners or cliches (at least not apparently).
The casting for the movie is excellent. The different personalities truly mimic a small society (in despair) with the 'rationals' battling the 'emotionals'.
The special effects are very realistic. The use of classical effects (as opposed to computer animations) give the movie a very natural 'dirty' look which blend in very well with the surroundings.
The only Thing that can be hard to grasp is the plausibility of the mechanics of the Thing. I saw the movie back in 1985 for the first time. At this time the way the Thing worked was imaginable but lacked a frame-of-reference.
Since this time the concept of nano-technology has become more and more common. So if you watch this movie nowadays and have previously read something about nano-technology then the concept of the Thing has true merits.
And the state-of-mind of the Thing, with more or less the same determination whether it's in a state of individual blood-cells or in a state of one of it's victims is excellent.
Better than the original. I'm glad the movie never had a sequel.