Dystopian Films

The Place: Japan. The Time: The not-so-distant-future. Faced with the prospect of losing control over the nation's young people, a totalitarian government decides upon a ruthless demonstration of power. The Battle Royale Act annually sends a randomly-selected class of high school students to an uninhabited island where they are compelled to kill each other until only one of their number survives.

The reasoning behind this bizarre piece of legislation is perhaps the weakest part of the plot - but the Director deftly causes us to suspend disbelief by drawing us surely and touchingly into the feelings of the young cast. Unlike many western movies which trot out a body count of simplistic characters who are only there to die horribly for our entertainment, Battle Royale somehow manages to rapidly introduce us to the story's potential victims and make us care about them.

You will read reviews that describe this film as excessively violent. I believe that this is a gross overstatement. Though there are many deaths and not a little blood, the main emphasis is upon simple human values - issues such as trust, friendship, love and hate - which the competition tests to their very limits. Children who have little genuine experience of living are forced to evaluate their relationships with each other if they want to stay alive. Alliances are formed and broken; long suppressed crushes and barely buried antagonisms influence their decisions.

There are no easy or mindless deaths in Battle Royale. The violent scenes make the point that violence and death are not cool or funny. This is not Kill Bill; every character in Battle Royale has value as a living, breathing human being. It may sound corny to say that the movie is an emotional roller-coaster ride, but it truly is - having dared to give us three dimensional people who bleed when they are cut, the Director sometimes further dares to cruelly follow scenes of tragedy with jarring moments of biting, dark and sarcastic wit.

If this was an American movie, the class would be played by people in their twenties and thirties. Two or three of the students would be given a lot of screen time and the rest would be faceless cannon fodder. Five seconds after the opening titles, you would know who was going to survive. Despite its odd premise, Battle Royale seems closer to reality because its teenagers really are teenagers and it allows no comforting certainties about who lives or dies.

The true genius of Battle Royale lies in the talented playing of the entire cast. Although young, not one of them strikes a dud note and the script gives almost all of the students a chance to shine at some point. The fight scenes are not staged in the style of 'Enter The Dragon' - the kids are not weapons experts or Karate champions. We see them kill each other but we are not invited to hate them - they are, after all, children and they are scared and desperate. Even a student who takes to killing with apparent relish deserves our sympathy.

Some reviewers have criticized aspects of the dialogue as unrealistic. There are certainly times when the script seems stagy - but it is important to remember that these Japanese children are products of a national culture which often finds the expression of passionate emotions problematical. If anything, the formal phrasing and awkwardness of their most heartfelt expressions only serves to make them more meaningful.

The Special Edition ends (quite literally) with a question. You will find yourself going back to this movie time and time again to answer it. Each viewing is rewarded with details that you probably missed previously - the depth of characterization and the layers of hidden-in-plain-sight clues continually allow you to understand the story from fresh perspectives.

Good Movie. But the only thing I hate was the slow motion. Those damn Wachowski brothers and there slow motion

Das Leben der Anderen (2006) (The Lives of Others) was brilliantly written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. The film is a taut thriller. It's also a dramatization of what happened in East Germany--and could happen here--if we allow the government access to every aspect of our lives. Ulrich Mühe stars as Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler of the Stasi--the dreaded secret police. The Captain is so talented in interrogation that he gives lectures on interrogation techniques to Stasi cadets.

For complex reasons, Wiesler is investigating a prominent couple-- Christa-Maria Sieland, a beautiful and talented actor (Martina Gedeck), and Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) an accomplished author and playwright.

Artists in East Germany were strictly controlled by the state. Some of them played an intricate cat-and-mouse game with the Stasi--going just far enough to attract notice, but not so far as to bring about arrest. The problem with the cat-and-mouse game was that the cats had very sharp teeth, which they didn't hesitate to use. Blacklisting was just one of the state's weapons--a single word from a high official and you never acted again, or your plays or music were never performed. Although both Christa-Maria and Georg have been careful and discrete, they haven't been careful and discrete enough to escape the Stasi's interest.

The movie, although in color, looks as if it were shot in black and white. The mood and the locations are drab and muted. Obviously, the color reflects the political and social situation of the time. The camerawork and editing were outstanding. Every other aspect of the film is equally excellent, particularly the work of the supporting actors.

Not only does this film represent a riveting thriller, but it provides a powerful political message. After you've seen The Lives of Others, you won't keep quiet when someone tells you "I don't care if the government taps my phone; I've got nothing to hide."

This is an extraordinary film--well acted and directed, with a compelling plot and message. Das Leben der Anderen is the finest movie I've seen this year. It's definitely worth seeking out.

I came away with a moral dilemma of my own: though "The Counterfeiters" is excellent in places in others it is not.

The true story of Operation Bernhard and the printing of millions of pounds is a fascinating story. The direction, acting, and script are excellent. But my problem was one that for me was a real shock: I was not as moved by the film as I had hoped or wanted to be.

Dealing with the most singular piece of evil devised by man - genocide, especially in the concentration camps is never an easy subject, and perhaps the fact that it is not overplayed is a bonus - however, I came away admiring the film and its performances but left curiously unmoved by the overall tone of the piece.

Perhaps that's the point of the moral dichotomy (Make money, help the Nazis, don't make money, lose your lives but shorten the war) that is does not scream but rather affects us quietly.

Overall, definitely watchable. But misses greatness

Funny movie

So, I just got back from seeing this movie without any expectations. I saw it for the hell of it even when warned by friends. . . of course I end up going with the idiotic one.

I never read the book, but I assume the adaption is horrible(Hollywood always succeeds with that). Will Smith does the best he can in saving this movie, but it's so hard to do. The direction is bad(what's up with the video game style film-making?), the writing is bad - barely explains the virus, or the immune, and the CGI animals and vampire/zombie/monster things look ridiculously fake. I might have laughed a couple times to myself. Action scenes are choppy and predictable that you get no sense of fear or horror. He is of coursed saved in a outrageous manner by some random women who, mysteriously, happens to show up all the sudden at the perfect time to save Will. And don't forget she fought off ALL the "vampires," gets out of her truck and pulls Will Smith out of his SUV and drives away with no problems. Lets also not forget the grenade explosion near the end. Hahaha.

Overall, I recommend you skip this movie: save your money, time, and a crappy message about God.

The increasingly tired premise of a zombie - producing virus has been around for some years, having replaced the seductive living dead mystery of prior generations. I don't expect much of horror films, but I expected more than this. RE:E is just silly.

The cast is all here: evil corporation, out-of-control scientist, hapless minions who get locked in with the experiment gone wrong , multicultural gang of human fugitives strongly dressed in skimpy clothing and carrying military grade technology, etc. The story is advanced, but only in the direction of absurdity. Alice is still alive, but this time it would appear she's an android not only with super human agility and strength, but also with the ability to shut down satellites in space using her mind. She's always been one. And if that wasn't enough, she also psychic - with the ability to generate force fields around herself and her friends. Most of the zombies look alike this time, strangely clothed in identical gray jumpsuits. You can now kill them by cutting their throats, shooting them in the abdomen, or dropping them off a short building.

A few dozen overly loud bangs, crashes, and gunfights later and we get a showdown between Alice and the mutated evil doctor, carried out in a bad paste of unconnected rooms from previous films.

Close on a scene with the greedy corporate suits getting holographic warning of their impending doom from a snippy Alice, and you have a film designed to sell wholly on the game's reputation and not because it's sincerely engaging, scary, or even interesting.

Bored the shit out of me. I never liked the first one, so I don't even know what lead me to watch the second one. Maybe the hype or my horror obsessed friend? I don't know, but I was bored to death. I won't even attempt to watch it again.

Shyamalan has proved to us earlier that he can be as good as the best with masterpieces of cinema with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. Yet, since then, he has declined steadily. Signs and Village were good movies, but with Lady in the Water and now The Happening, he has touched a level of incompetence that could never have been expected of him.

The Happening is about a pandemic that is gripping north-eastern USA. It starts with a stunning sequence of events that show people succumb to an unspecified threat - the brilliance of this opening repeated only once more for a five-minute sequence towards the end of the movie. Unfortunately, Shyamalan's writing is a big let-down for the rest. As the focus moves from metropolitans to towns and from crowds to smaller groups, the sense of fear is lost - the biggest sin a horror movie can commit. In the oft repeated criticism for its director, this movie would have been best served as a half-hour episode of Twilight Zone to make it really work.

And to add woe, the actors do not do much to better the experience - Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel are grossly miscast as the protagonists. Any of his previous leading men (Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix and Paul Giamatti) can be imagined to have done a better job for the Science teacher that Wahlberg plays. The camera scrutinizes the performance to a degree that requires an actor with strength in emotions - Wahlberg instead brings a physical presence that the role does not need. Zooey, on the other hand, struts around like in a Disney movie, not for once threatened by the pandemonium.

This time, though Shyamalan humbles his vanity - you don't see him on screen. He now should swallow his pride and leave the writing to the writers. Armed with a better script, we can still expect Shyamalan to make his future movies worth waiting for. For now it is only the memory of the opening sequence, which can be proclaimed as mind-numbing greatness, which is really worth taking away from this movie.