"The Strain" Pilot: What the hell, Guillermo?

I was pretty excited for Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan's The Strain novel when it first came out. Blade 2 is one of my all-time favorite vampire/superhero films, and the premise of an ancient vampiric virus being unleashed onto Manhattan following a mysterious plane arrival at JFK sounded promising. Ultimately though, what could have been a Del Toro homerun, combining his imaginative storytelling with icky organic science, turned out to be an uneven careening mess. I made it through the second book, but never felt the need to finish the trilogy. Still, when the show was announced, I was reminded of all the cool visual moments the books contain and told myself that a good show could actually be extracted from the source material, especially since GDT is a visual storyteller first and foremost. Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to be the case and, if anything, the show's pilot is even weaker the novel itself.

Though it boasts a quality cast on paper ( Corey Stoll and David Bradley should make for compelling leads going forward), the secondary actors are cringe-worthy across the board. There are several points during the pilot, and it starts right from the get-go with the laughably bad worried flight attendants, that only manage to distract rather than immerse us into the story. It's also concerning that some of the bad acting -- from the unconvincing gang bangers or Corey Stoll's partner for example -- will ostensibly be recurring problems going forward. Yes, this is television and they don't have an exhaustive budget, but they quite simply should have done a better job casting some of these roles.

But not all the blame can be laid at the actors' or casting's feet. The dialogue is stilted and clichéd, and the direction itself is generally lackluster and unimaginative. Sure, the effects are quite good and there's always GDT's signature gold/blue contrasted look with reds that really pop, but the jump scares and story beats feel completely phoned in. The pilot isn't particularly spry or suspenseful, and what sounded visceral and cool on page now only looks good. Tighter direction and editing are desperately needed here.

Considering how much time the creators have had to handle the source material, it's sad to see they could only expose its flaws rather than enhance it. Yes, this is a potentially cool vampire story on an epic scale, but just like with Pacific Rim we should expect and demand much better from Guillermo Del Toro.



 


  

"The Raid 2" (14) - Gareth Evans

"Inception" (10) - Christopher Nolan

"Extant" Pilot: A good enough start that doesn't leave you wanting much more.

The pilot begins with Halle Berry's astronaut character, Molly, returning to earth and her family after spending 13 months in space on a solo mission -- a time during which she's somehow managed to get herself pregnant. Because the space agency's physician is a friend, Molly manages to keep that little bit of news under wraps while she figures out what exactly she should do about that thing growing in her tummy. It's a bit of a stretch considering the implications -- pop culture alone should convince the doctor that it's a giant no no to let Molly walk around freely -- but fine, we'll run with it for the purposes of the story.

Fortunately for the viewer, this is isn't Lost. The show doesn't appear to be all that interested in indefinitely prolonging the suspense of Halle Berry's immaculate conception, and the writers clearly know where they're going with the central mystery. Already within this pilot episode, we're shown just by whom and when Molly probably came to be impregnated, and several big clues are dropped as to establish the various supporting characters motivations and intentions going forward.  

Yes, there appears to be a conspiracy surrounding Molly's mission, and, if there is a conspiracy, then there naturally has to be a nefarious corporation involved -- at least as far as Molly's health and family are concerned. The privatized space agency and its CEO, played by Helix's Hiroyuki Sanada, clearly already know about alien life-forms out there, and they very much intend to exploit the happenings of Molly's mission to their advantage.

But Molly's battles won't only be on the work front. At home, she has to contend with her estranged family that she up and left for more than a year. There's her husband, Goran Visjnic, that she keeps in the dark about the pregnancy, and his creation: their son, an android child played by that great creepy kid from Looper. The child, the first fully-realized version of its kind, is very much Spielberg going back to Kubrick's well that keeps on giving, and his side of the story plays like an A.I. prequel of sorts.  

While the evil corporation and android child aspects don't feel particularly fresh, there's a lot to like in Extant. The production values are top notch and miles above that other Spielberg produced show Falling Skies. The casting is solid across the board and worthy of a bigger screen, and there are plenty of sci-fi ideas and concepts being thrown around within a grounded, believable future. Unfortunately, there just doesn't seem to be all that much excitement to look forward to. 

The central mystery is intriguing enough, but, with the way it's being handled, it's difficult to see how it will have enough steam to push the show through an entire season. The end of the pilot doesn't really leave you with a strong urge for answers, and unless there are major twists and turns up ahead, so much already seems to have been revealed and laid out that the shows success will hinge more on flawless execution than anything else. Still, it's a commendable start for a hugely ambitious CBS show, and the talent involved alone will warrant sticking with the story for a little while at least.

"Eyes Wide Shut" (99) - Kubrick

I love masks...

Anders Thomas Jensen: The best writer/director you may have never heard of.

If Anders Thomas Jensen, a Danish writer/director, keeps things up the way he's been going, he may just have to be one day recognized as one of the most prolific auteurs ever. Seriously, his output, and its sheer brilliance, puts Woody Allen to shame. Don't believe me? This guy had no less than four movies out in 2005, and the number usually oscillates between two and three a year.

Adam's Apples

Now, I must admit I haven't seen them all, and it's true that he's slowed down a bit since making the jump from Denmark. But those movies of his that I have gotten my hands on never fail to make an impression. Perhaps you've watched "In A Better World" ( Haevnen), "Brothers" (remade later with Jake Gylenhaal, Tobey Maguire, and Natalie Portman), or even "The Duchess"... but seriously, is this a guy on anyone's watchlist? How is it that I only hear about Lars Von trier, Nicolas Winding Refn, or even Thomas Vinterberg as far as Danish cinema is concerned?

If you're like me and struggle to come up with new things to watch now that you've "seen everything good there is to see", and if you aren't one of those hopeless subtitle-phobic people, then go ahead and dig up some of his older stuff. Though he's not afraid to switch around between genres, his twisted dark comedies are the best. Try "Adam's Apples" and "The Green Butchers" as your next double feature. Like a lot of his other movies, they both star Mads Mikkelsen and are pitch-perfect in execution.

Sorry ladies, Mikkelsen is not in sexy mode in "The Green Butchers"

Personally, I can't wait for the upcoming "The Salvation" -- which oddly includes soccer legend Eric Cantona among its stellar cast:

    

"Pusher" (96) - Nicolas Winding Refn

The Danish trilogy that started it all for Mads Mikkelsen
 and Nicolas Winding Refn

"Nightbreed" (90) - Clive Barker

Come to mama.

"Dream Home" (10) - The best Hong Kong horror film out there?

Ok, so it's not a great trailer, but this movie is awesome. It's dark, twisted, perversely humorous...and so damn wrong in all the right ways. If you're looking for some creative on-screen kills and gore with a bit of social commentary thrown-in, be sure to check this out. I'm shocked this hasn't been remade yet actually.

The fart cannon from "The Dark Knight Rises"

Was anyone remotely trying during the making of this film?

"In The Mouth Of Madness" (94) - John Carpenter

"Do you read Sutter Cane?"

"Blade 2" (02) - Guillermo del Toro

For my money this is still one of the best comic book movies ever.

Just so much fun.

"The Thing" (82) - John Carpenter

"Sorcerer" (77) - William Friedkin

"The Divide" (11): a fully satisfying low-budget pretend prequel to the "Fallout" game series.

A cataclysmic bomb of unknown origins drops on New York. Luckily for a handful of panicked tenants who hopelessly try to flee their building, they run into their super, Michael Biehn, who turns out to be a paranoid doomsday-prepper who has turned the building's basement into a fully-stocked fallout shelter. He just wasn't expecting any company.

So eight neighbors all of a sudden find themselves trapped in their building's basement. They've survived the attack, but they know they'll eventually run out of supplies. But maybe that's not the biggest issue.

A group of armed Asian soldiers in sci-fi hazmat suits barge into the shelter one day, kidnap the only child, and attempt to kill off the rest of the survivors. Though the group manages to make it out alive, this event not only turns some of them into killers, but it also exposes them to the deadly radiation.

Left for dead after the soldiers retreat and seal them off from the outside world for good, and with no information or ways to contact anyone, the remaining survivors slowly begin turning on each other as they fall sick and descend into madness and despair. Alphas emerge, tensions rise, the women become targets, and...

I'm assuming most of you haven't seen this so I won't go ahead and spoil too much of it. Though Xavier Gens' The Divide is not a great movie in the traditional sense, its oppressive atmosphere and portrayal of a rapidly declining society is gleefully hard to watch for horror fans who might be into that sort of thing. Biehn is great, as always, but it's Milo Ventimiglia and Michael Eklund who steal the show as they grow into feral psychopaths. This movie may actually just have you believing that they are great actors by the end of its runtime.

So if you love horror movies and Fallout, I strongly recommend you check this one out. Maybe you won't get where I'm coming from at first, but you definitely will by the time that bleak yet exciting -- in a what if way -- ending rolls around. It's too bad there'll probably never be a sequel, because I'm definitely down for more.

"Fight Club" (99) - David Fincher

On THE TRIP - A scatterbrained travel journal.

The Trip is my attempt at doing something semi productive whenever I have a few minutes to spare. It's a stream of thought, non-linear, verbal diarrhea experiment that I've been posting in small chunks with the aim of just getting some words on the monitor. I have no idea when it will be completed, and I have no idea if you'll remotely enjoy it -- if anyone's even reading it at all. In the meantime I will keep posting new "chapters" every so often and hope to find a method in the madness.

This doesn't have anything to do with anything. or does it?

"Kontroll" (03) - Nimrod Antal

Cool little Hungarian dark-humored flick with shades of Fight Club.
The entire movie takes place within Budapest's subway system.  

The Trip: Part 4

The forest campsite is closed for the season and the water was shut-off on the first of October apparently. Good thing we still have some left in our bottles. Temperatures drop below freezing at night. It's hard to motivate yourself to get out of the tent to take a piss, but when you gotta go, then you gotta go. Hopefully there aren't any bears lurking nearby. We've been hanging our panniers on tree branches since Idaho, and I sleep with my bear spray at the ready. The bottle only lasts a few seconds though, so you better not miss if you do need to use it.

It's pouring in the morning. We tie plastic bags on our feet and head off. Within minutes, our hands are freezing. It's going to be a shitty riding day. At the next stop, I purchase a pair of yellow kitchen gloves. Dan thinks they look ridiculous, but at least the other pairs will stay dry -- all four layers of them. It's snowing by the time we reach our destination. I'm looking forward to those hot springs.

People keep asking us what's the craziest thing that's happened to us. It's hard to pick a single experience, but let me finally tell you all about Jeffrey Dahmer city. No, that is not it's real name, but rather the name some people used when asking us if we were biking through a certain part of Wyoming. And no, it's most definitely not a city.

What it is, is an official ghost town. There's a bar, an abandoned uranium mine, and a few stragglers who mostly seem to live out of old, decrepit RVs. When we reach it, we find two very drunk men standing on a roof, tossing empty beer cans into a trash-filled fire. Below them is where our map is telling us to stay: a broken down pottery shop. It's seen much better days. The men stumble down from the roof, confirm that we can sleep in the shop, and proceed to inform us that they plan on getting wasted later in the evening. It's unclear whether they live there or are just squatting. Dan and I exchange looks.

As we enter the bar for dinner -- it's clear that we stick out like a sore thumb -- there are three things to note. A/ The place is packed with the town's entire population -- 20 people or so, down from thousands just a few years ago, B/  There is a baby in a playpen and little kids running around the place, C/ There's an AR15 behind the counter. Upon ordering, we're told that most the items on the menu are unavailable, but we still manage to score a couple burgers. Fifteen minutes later, a few hunters come in and are denied a chance at a meal. I'm glad we got a chance to change out of our cycling clothes.

At night, we sleep in the pottery shop, behind the broken storefront window. The ground is filthy, littered with debris, and there are empty handles of cheap liquor everywhere. Nearby, our hosts carry on drinking through the nigh while haggling over cigarettes. At some point I wake up to a man staring at me from the other side of the window. He doesn't say anything. I close my eyes and pretend to fall back asleep. It's all so eerie.  

"In The Mood For Love" (00) - Kar Wai Wong

"The Leftovers": Pilot Review

I know!

I wasn’t particularly excited for The Leftovers' arrival and I had several nagging questions going into the show: Would it prove to be a worthy placeholder for Game of Thrones and the other great shows currently on hiatus? Was Lindelof once again going to wing it, like he did on Lost and Prometheus, or did he actually have a plan this time around? And, most importantly, was anyone going to eat those?

The answer to all these questions appears to be a yes. I think.

The pilot’s tone is glum, the pacing deliberate, and there is little in terms of rousing action. Still, the minimalist way in which the out of thin air disappearance of two percent of the world’s population is visualized, effectively sets the stage for the mysterious new status quo. Three years later, when our main plot takes place, everything’s the same and yet everything’s completely different. People still go about their day-to-day business, civilization still functions, but there is this inescapable sense that most everyone’s on autopilot, zombie-like, still in denial, while those that aren't are finding it harder and harder to cope.

This malaise permeates this first episode and creates a sense of unease. There were several points during which I was fully braced for something bad to happen, like when the daughter chokes the guy at the party. Am I being paranoid, or is it worrying that she came out of that room alone? 

Within this tense atmosphere, factions are forming and our charaters' little town is slowly but surely fragmenting. Whether they are organized or not at this point, there are the religious and the non-religious, the cultists and the civilians who fear them, the truth-seekers and… in the middle of all this we have our Police Chief played by Justin Theroux, who single-handedly seems to carry the self-imposed burden of keeping his small-town’s society from collapsing on itself. Like his daughter’s friend tells him, he is doing his best.

But will that be enough?

If his own estranged imploding family is any indication, it certainly won’t be. Sure enough, during the town’s first Heroes Day commemoration of those who were taken, the GR cult members -- I already forgot what those initials stand for -- descend en mass and set off an all-out brawl with the townies. And, to make matters worse, there appears to be something very wrong with the dogs when they ravenously attack a deer…

Just like Lost, there are far too many questions left unanswered in this pilot, and we are left wanting much much more. Though I ultimately gave up on that island show sometime during season 5, never to watch another episode, the good news here is that The Leftovers is based on a book with an actual ending – or so I hope. If Lindelof gets to just focus on the mystery and slow burn aspects while knowing full well where it's all headed then this could be a home run.  For that reason alone, I think I'm going to let myself be taken on this ride.

      

Sidenotes:

• The music selection was particularly strong I thought, but I felt there was something off about that one song that accompanies the GR leaving their house for Heroes Day. Maybe it was intentional, but there seemed to be a disconnect between the music and the proceedings. 
• They are not our dogs. They’re not.” It’s interesting to note that our hero goes from trying to save a dog –  a classic hero trait – to killing a whole pack at the end. He has his reasons, but still. 
• Crazy Wayne sure loves Asians girls.
• Who takes off their clothes to choke someone?