The Expendables 3 (2014)

The Expendables 3 (2014)

Director: Patrick Hughes 

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, Arnold Schwarzennegger, Harrison Ford, Jason Statham, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li

So this is the third film in a franchise which up to this point had been going strong, unfortunately, thanks to piracy, this third outing lost a lot of millions at the box office because who’s going to see a movie that’s been out on dvd for weeks before it’s hit theaters right? Sadly this was the case with The Expendables 3, piracy killed its chances at the box office, a similar thing happened with X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), everyone had already seen it by the time it hit theaters. But to be honest, you weren’t going to be missing much if you’d gone to see The Expendables 3 in theaters. This movie might have its fun moments, but it’s also the worst in the series. I had fun with some of the inside jokes, but overall, it felt very uneven, like they were just going through the motions. Stallone, Arnold, et al all seem bored by the whole thing. In my opinion, it felt as if they weren’t even trying to do a good movie. Yes my friends, we’re talking about a potential “franchise killer” here; we talking about the movie that kills the franchise’s chances to continue. What exactly went wrong here? A lot of things! If you want to know more, read on my friends!

This time around the Expendables are after an international arms dealer called Stone Banks, played by Mel Gibson. I’m not even going to try and go into story because there isn’t any; it’s all filler between action scenes. By this I mean that they try and give the movie some “drama” but it comes off as forced and clichéd, as if they were giving these characters fake problems simply to fill the movie with running time, it doesn’t feel genuine. But then again, melodrama isn’t something I’m looking for in these types of films, they should’ve just kept the action going, because when these guys try and get melodramatic, it just doesn’t work. So anyhow, at most, what the filler surmounts to is Stallone getting rid of the old guys and gathering a new team to help him catch an old enemy. That’s about it. And here’s the big problem with the movie for me, we came to see The Expendables because we want to see our favorite action stars from the 80’s and 90’s doing what they do best, blowing shit up. I wanted to see more of Wesley Snipes, I wanted more of Arnold and Stallone, I wanted more of everybody! Hell, Jet Li doesn’t even fight in this movie! What a joke, why even bother bringing him in if he’s going to do next to nothing in the film? 

Unfortunately, on this entry they decided to get rid of the old guys we came to see and replaced them for a huge chunk of the movie with a new, younger team. Now I normally wouldn’t have a problem with it, but the guys they chose say nothing to me. They needed to bring in the new wave of action stars. I would’ve included The Rock in there, I would’ve included I don’t know, somebody who represents today’s action stars. Which brings to mind a question: just who are the action heroes of today? Truth is there are not many, which is probably why they brought in all these guys nobody’s ever heard of. Kind of like what they want to do with the new Ghostbusters film. The plan with the new Ghostbusters film is to bring in a new batch of Ghostbusters for the new  generation, and that’s fine and dandy, go ahead and do it, but you know they better bring in some funny guys to replace the originals, or else it’s just not gonna work! Same principal applies with these new Expendables they brought in for this new movie, Sadly, these new guys…well, they just don’t do it for me. Save for Antonio Banderas who steals the show in my book. He was the only saving grace in the film.

What else went wrong, well, they toned down the violence. What the hell where they thinking? I mean, these films are supposed to be a homage to the violent, blood drenched films of the 80’s and suddenly you’re anything but that. Suddenly you’re all about CGI helicopters and CGI explosions? I want to feel the heat in my freaking face! I want explosions like the ones I used to see in films like Action Jackson (1988)! Where you could practically smell the napalm! But no, sadly, I felt detachment. So much of this film is computer generated you won’t feel like your right there in the action. They should have kept the action real and in your face, because that’s what us old action fans crave, that’s what we miss. We want the adrenaline rush of seeing Stallone fight against real freaking helicopters, like the ones we saw in Rambo III (1988). Remember that one? Rambo goes up against freaking choppers on that one! Where’s that type of action? Sad part is that Stallone, who starred in so many of these awesome action films of the 80’s (like Cobra for example) should’ve know better. He should know what we want to see and feel in an action movie that’s supposed to be paying homage to a bygone era of action films. Sadly, The Expendables 3 turned into just another detached, modern action film, which means, its crap. Modern action films simply don’t compare to the glory days of action films from the 80’s. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch The Expendables 3, then follow it by watching Cobra (1986), or Lethal Weapon (1987), you’ll feel a shift in tone immediately. From bullshit to, shit just got real.

"Come on Arnie, let's get this thing over with, the quicker the better.."

So yeah, shame on Stallone for not getting this one right because out of all the people out there, he should’ve known better. He freaking lived through the eighties and was one of the prime representatives of what action films, real action films, were all about. My advice next time would be to get a decent director who understands what these movies are supposed to be about and not some rookie who’s only done one other obscure film. News flash Italian Stallion: the guy behind the camera matters! Also, give us what we want, we want to see our favorite action stars from the 80’s during the entire film, we don’t want to see them for twenty minutes in the opening and twenty minutes in the ending of the film, we want to see an entire film with these guys. And if you’re going to put in new members, at least make them matter! Don’t give us wannabe action stars, give us actual ones. As it is, The Expendables 3was a slap in the face to its target audience; it’s the complete opposite of what it should have been. You might have a laugh or two; mainly when you hear Arnold scream “Get to the Choppa!”, but for the most part this Expendables film is actually extremely expendable. Next!

Rating: 2 out of 5

Death and Androids: Explorig the Themes of Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner, like so many of Ridley Scott’s films, is an immersive experience. The world of Blade Runner is constructed in such an intricate and layered manner that you can’t help but get lost in the film. Aesthetically speaking, it’s one of my favorite films because it’s just beautiful to look at, those scenes with flying cars over a futuristic skyline filled with metal pyramids? Count me in! A lot has been said about Blade Runner as the quintessential cyber punk film because it’s about androids and because it’s set in a bleak future, like so many of William Gibson’s cyberpunk novels. Who is William Gibson you ask? Well, he’s the father of cyber punk that’s who; Gibson’s the guy who practically invented what we now know as cyber punk through a trilogy of novels, the first of which is the seminal ‘Neuromancer’. If you want to truly find out what cyber punk is all about, I recommend starting there. But Blade Runner is based on Phillip K. Dicks ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’; a novel with its fair share of cyber punk elements, some of which bled onto the film. Side note: the book and the film are two different things all together, so you might want to try and read the novel, it’s an entirely different experience. Actually, you might end up being surprised just how different book and film are! How different is the book from the film? Well, the books main theme is religion! The film has nothing to do with religion! The book explores a whole different set of themes, it’s excellent, I highly recommend it!  

For the longest time, I would just watch Blade Runner because I loved that world, the look, the feel. And you have to admit, the film is lush from a production value point of view, it’s not a cheap looking film. But it wasn’t until adulthood that I started to appreciate the film from a whole other angle, I started to realize that there was a lot more to Blade Runner than flying cars and murderous androids. What was Blade Runner really about? What was it commenting on? The films central theme is mans own disillusionment with our short time on this earth. We come and go in the blink of an eye and when you really stop and think about it, it’s a really sad thing how short our lives are. I mean, our lives can be so rich, filled with so many memories and experiences, but as Roy Batty muses in the climax of the film, all of it just fades away when we die. When Roy Batty goes up to Tyrell, his creator to ask him for more life, Tyrell tells him it’s not possible, but not without offering a glimmer of hope to Batty’s preoccupations about death. Tyrell tells Batty “The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long, and you have burned so very, very brightly Roy!” In this sense, the films offers us the only glimmer of hope when it comes to death, we have to live an amazing life, try and leave our mark in the world, to make what little time we were given matter.   Unless you lived an outstanding life and shined so brightly that your mark will be indelible for time immemorial, chances are, no one will even remember you were 100 years from now. So let’s make that time count my friends!

Now, taking all that in consideration, what would you do if you could go up to your god and ask him or her for more life? What if you could have a conversation with your creator, what would you say? I’d ask him why he allows decease, dictatorships and death. I’d ask him why he is so silent and apparently not even here. In Blade Runner, the Nexus 6 androids or ‘Replicants’  to use the term that they went with for the film get to actually talk to their creator, the “God of bio-mechanics” as Roy Batty calls him. They question him about why they die so soon, they want more life, they want for the god of bio-mechanics to let them into "heaven" so to speak. Problem is that the engineers who made the Nexus 6 androids gave them a four year life span. Why? Because if given any more than that, they get too smart, revolt and kill their masters. When given more than four years to live, the Nexus 6 would get too independent, volatile and unpredictable and that’s not what the powers that be want with a serving class; nope, they want the working class dumb and controllable. Here the film also offers us an interesting allusion to class issues. Should we take our given place in society? Or should we aim for more? The androids in Blade Runner want just that, they want to be like their creators. So, in order to keep the androids from rebelling or getting smarter, as a failsafe device, the Tyrell Corporation gave the Nexus 6 replicants only four years to live, after which they expire and die. In other words, the Nexus 6 are conscious of their mortality and they will fight it to the bitter end. 

So it is with some desperation that Roy Batty and his gang of androids manage to find Tyrell himself in order to ask for more life. Sadly Tyrell tells them that it’s not possible, essentially denying Roy and his crew of life. The frustration is so huge that Roy kills Tyrell, his creator, but not before telling him “I want more life fucker!”  To me this is the most pivotal scene in the whole film because it lets us know exactly what the film is about: our frustrations with death. At the same time, this scene offers some of the films most shocking and daring ideas. On this scene, Tyrell plays the role of God, the creator, while Roy Batty plays the role of the human, close to his death bed, asking god for a few more years. Again, what would you ask God if you were ever face to face with him? Well, Roy asked for more life and when he was denied it, he killed his creator, a shocking idea if you ask me, that of killing God. It’s not just any movie that will deliver the idea of anger and hatred towards God, but this one has the guts to do so. The films characters show certain contempt towards God for not having given us longer life. In this film God has created imperfect creatures with the ultimate decease: death! Not so different from the world we live in if you ask me! But, was Roy Batty justified to do what he did? Did his plea have any weight to it?

Well, if you ask me, Roy Batty may be the villain, but it feels to me like his plea is genuine, it has validity. To Batty, death just isn’t fair. He has seen and lived so much; he is frustrated that it’s all going to fade away “like tears in the rain” as he so eloquently puts it in the last moments of the film; which reminds me just how beautiful and poetic the ending of the film is. I mean, to be honest, I completely get the villain of the film, he may be a bit ‘batty’  as his last name implies, but you have to admit, his anger and frustrations are very real, it’s a cry out to life and death. Roy Batty is a desperate individual, but you have to understand, the guys body is freezing up! He can’t feel his fingers! His skin is turning white! He has to penetrate his fingers with rusty nails in order to make himself feel alive.  I compare this to those moments we’ll eventually get to in our life when we start feeling the aches and pains of old age and we start doing everything we can to battle it. We go to the gym, we eat better, we go to the doctor, doing whatever we can to fight what’s inevitably going to come. Yup, there comes a time in everyone's life when we simply won't run as well, when our resistance will be less, and we'll get tired faster. At some point in our lives, our energies will no longer be what they used to be. Our bodies will sooner or later start to show signs of wear and tear and we'll see death rearing its ugly head.  I find those last scenes in Blade Runner when Roy Batty is reminiscing about the beauty of life, when he starts remembering about that “he has seen things that you wouldn’t believe” just beautiful, like an old man remembering all those experiences he once lived and enjoyed; in many ways, Roy Batty has a lust for life, which is why death deeply saddens him. I have to admit, that scene always gets to me.

"All those moments will be lost in time...like tears in the rain"  

As an artist, Ridley Scott is obviously terribly concerned with death, which let’s face it, is kind of one of the big mysteries of life. What happens when we die? Where do we go? Do we truly just vanish? This is why inquisitive characters have always been a part of Ridley Scott’s films, so they can ask the big questions. Most recently in Prometheus (2012) he revisits the exact same themes as he played with in Blade Runner, but with a slightly more existential twist to them because in Prometheus characters aren’t just asking for life, they want the answers to the big mysteries of the universe, they want to know where we all came from as well. Prometheus is less subtle with its themes; it asks its questions louder. It proposes that our creators not only don’t like us, they also want to wipe us out like some failed experiment that has to be started over again. Hell, even Ridley Scott’s brother, director Tony Scott was obsessed with this theme of death as well; I guess it runs in the family? For example, Tony Scott’s The Hunger (1983) has David Bowie playing a half vampire who is searching for a scientific solution to old age and death. Again the idea is visited on that film, can life be expanded? Can’t we live just a little more? But going back to Blade Runner, this is a film that is extremely consistent with its death theme, for example, when Deckard is confronted by one of the androids in a fight and the android tells Deckard “Wake Up! Time to Die!” we are reminded that it’s not only old age that can kill us. And then again, in the ending of the film, when Gaff, who knows that Deckard has fallen in love with an android, tells him: “Too bad she won’t live. But then again, who does? “  And I think that ultimately, that is the films final message, that we should live our lives as passionately and as intensely as we can, because death will be a part of it, eventually.

   

The Mosquito Coast (1986)

Title: The Mosquito Coast (1986)

Director: Peter Weir

Cast: Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, River Phoenix, Martha Plimpton

Review:

The Mosquito Coast is a film about a guy who has had it with the American way of life as it is. He packs up his bags, wrangles up his family and takes off. He loves the American principles of free enterprise, but hates how everything seems to be made in Japan or China. He looks upon the American landscape as “a toilet”. He is constantly spewing hatred towards the way things are, criticizing things whenever he can. Problem is you can’t really say the guy is wrong. The world is one big messed up place, with many things wrong in it.

If they were going to make a film like The Mosquito Coast today, where the main character points a finger at society, the main character would criticize how people are growing further apart thanks to technology, IPods and the internet. He would complain about billboards reaching as far as the eye can see, trying to sell you something every second of your life. He would lambast fast food joints that are selling bad food that is killing people. He’d mention how car exhaust contaminates the atmosphere and our lungs every second of our lives and he would definitely comment on how toxic waste is being dumped into our oceans and rivers. He’d say a thing our two about despotic governments that are on the rise every day, stomping on their people. He’d certainly mention how children are used in slave labor in some parts of the world, all the while religion has everybody thinking that God is going to come down one day and make it all better. Speaking of religion, it plays a big part on this movie, but more on that later.

So basically, what we got here is another film that criticizes the status quo of humanity circa mid eighties. Some of the complaints and fears the film addresses are still relevant to this day, while others are distinctive fears that arouse from the particular day and time in which the film was made. For example, the fear of nuclear holocaust was a big thing in the mid-eighties. I remember because I lived through it. People were afraid the Russians and the Americans were going to blow each other out of existence. This is one of the main fears that the main character, Allie Fox has in this film. Can’t say I blame him for wanting to get away from society to start his own. Allie Fox wants to create a society that would make some sense to him,  a society that would try to improve and evolve in a positive way, for everyone’s benefit.

Leaving society as it is behind, going up stream, against the current

And I I tell ya, there is a part in The Mosquito Coast when Harrison Ford’s character Allie Fox finally gets to start his new society somewhere in the Jungles of Central America and you feel like the guy finally achieved his goal, you feel like he did it. His dream of a better, simpler life for him and his family have finally worked. He manages to build a beautiful little community, complete with their own food and their own peaceful way of life. Where people build their own homes, make their own furniture and grow their own food. They live happily, disconnected from the chaos happening in the outside world. Unfortunately, happiness doesn’t last long. As is the case in many films like this one, paradise will always become contaminated with the dark side of human nature. In that sense, The Mosquito Coast has some similarities with Danny Boyle’s The Beach (2000) because it is also about a group of people who look to get away from modern society by building their own in some distant, isolated location, far away from the ‘modern world’.

Allie constructs his own society, somewhere in the middle of Central America

But same as in The Beach, this isolated happiness doesn’t last long. In The Mosquito Coast darkness begins to descend into Allie Fox’s paradise in the form of a trio of thugs who invade their little paradise. But this isn’t the only problem that arises in their new society. Once things start to fall apart, Allie himself begins to get increasingly more violent, his behavior less focused and more erratic. He seemed to me like a misunderstood soul, desperately trying to run away from the way the world is. Like a scared animal running away from its predator. Some will look at Harrison Ford’s Allie Fox as a certified nut job who dragged his whole family down into madness and poverty. But in my opinion, you have to see past that. You have to see what the movie is trying to say with a character like Allie Fox. The film isn’t telling you to run away with your family to the jungle, of course not. Its all a metaphor. Its simply using this tale to make a point. To try and tell us something.

Allie Fox is an intelligent individual, he isn’t stupid. He knows how to build and invent, he is after all a scientist. His intelligence has led him to realize that things in the world are not moving along to improve society, but to enslave it, dumb it down. Humans are here to contaminate, destroy the world instead of making it a better place. In one scene he says “It’s an absolute sin to accept the decadence of obsolescence. Why do things get worse and worse? They don’t have to. They could get better and better” This is the reason why Allie turns his back on the way things are, he knows humans have the capacity to make things better in this world. Can you really say you blame him for wanting to get away from it all? For wanting something better for himself and for his family? I bet many of you out there have at some point in your lives stopped during the day and wished you could just go away to some far away land and just sit in the beach, bask in the sun and live on coconuts and fish. True or not? I know its happened to me, I live right smack in the middle of the city, and trust me, the noise, the crowds and the car exhaust can get to you after a while. Sometimes, I do wish I lived a life that was more in contact with nature. Would your lives be better without your computers, your television, your X-Box or your IPod? What would you do with your time then? Have we become useless human beings because of the way society has evolved?

This film was not popular at the box office for various reasons. One of them being that it blatantly criticizes the status quo. Same as Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down (1993), the main character is there to tell us what is wrong with the world we are living in. He isn’t a person who hates America, he questions himself how things have gotten like this, same as Michael Douglas’s character “D-fense” in Falling Down, Allie Fox hates what America has become. He hates that its not what its supposed to be. And let’s face it, who likes to be told their way of life is wrong? Who likes to be told things like “We eat when we are not hungry, drink when were not thirsty, we buy what we don’t need and throw away everything that is useful. Why sell a man what he wants? Sell him what he doesn’t need! Pretend he’s got eight legs, two stomachs and money to burn! It’s wrong, wrong, wrong!” “Look around you, how did America get this way? Land of promise. Land of opportunity. Have a Coke. Watch T.V. Go on Welfare. Get free money. Turn to crime, crime pays in this country!” Not many people like for their way of life to be criticized this way, so the movie got lambasted by critics.

Another reason it got shafted by the masses was because it openly criticizes religion and makes their leaders look like business men looking to expand their franchise. In the film, Allie and his family meet a preacher who goes by the name of Reverend Spellgood, he lives and runs a church in a nearby town. When he hears that Allie is building a new community nearby, he goes visit them to try and spread “the word of God” to them. Allies response is: “I didn’t know the lord was franchising in this area!” In the film, Allie criticizes religion every chance he gets. For example in one scene Reverend Spellgood gives one of Allies kids a bible as a present and Allie says “Look kids, exactly what I’ve been warning you about!”, then returns the bible to the reverend. The film constantly makes Reverend Spellgood look like a villain who brainwashes people. Allie obviously sees religion as something negative. Since the film takes this stance against religion, of course it got the shaft at the box office. Religion and its teachings have been so successfully implanted into the minds of the masses, that anything that attacks it is shot down immediately and seen as evil.

River Phoenix played Allie Fox's son in the film.

Now when a movie like this comes along, it always divides. Those who feel the film attacks them write it off as garbage, as boring, as pretentious and preachy. Those who agree with the films views will devour it and love it. I loved it. I agree with the films points of views and its critiques on modern life. Its true, we are messing up the world. Bigger, better decisions can be made by the powers that be to make the world a decent place to live in, but greed doesn’t allow them to. They way I see it, life could be so much better for everyone if leaders really got together to organize the masses in a more positive way instead of feeding off the masses like leaches, and using them to their own personal benefit. The governments of the world seem only interested in lying to the people and taking their money. They ignore the things that really matter and let greed decide what they are going to do next. Who doesn’t want to turn their backs on that? Another thing thats worthy of mentioning is that the film isnt one sided with its themes. Even Allies own family turns against him because they see his way of thinking as troublesome and different, they'd rather leave him behind. Life is too unstalble for a man like Allie, their is no place in this world where he can settle down, every where he goes is contaminated with society. But at the same time, his own family doesnt want to be completely cut off from society. His kids want that hamburger, they want their television. But they also enjoyed life in Allies society before it was destroyed, so the film seems to say that what we need is a common ground between the two. 

Harrison Ford got a lot of heat for making The Mosquito Coast. It is one of the few movies he made that didn’t make its money back. He made it even against his agents wishes. Yet in spite of all the heat he received for making this movie, he constantly defends it and says that of all his films, it’s still his favorite. “I’m still glad I did it. If there was a fault with the film, it was that it didn’t fully enough embrace the language of the book by Paul Theroux. But I think it’s full of powerful emotions” I agree with him, it’s a film with a heart and with something to say. Sadly, this world is so upside down that when something says the truth, something is made to wake the masses up from their complacency, it is considered bad, wrong, or crazy. If Allie turned into a nut job, it was because the crazy world we live him made him that way. When you really look at the world, and really look at the way things are moving along in our society, it really is a grim social landscape. There's lots of evil out there. Tons of it! What I enjoy the most about films such as The Mosquito Coast, is that they make you think about what you can do to change things, make things better. This film is recommended for those who like their films with a relevant message that is all the more necessary in the increasingly crazy world we are living in today.

Rating: 5 out of 5