The Babadook (2014)

The Babadook (2014)

Director: Jennifer Kent

Cast: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Barbara West

I don’t get why excellent horror films like The Babadook get a limited theatrical release while terrible horror films like Ouija (2014), a poor excuse for a horror film so nauseating with its blandness that I didn’t even bother writing a review for it, get a wide release. It makes no sense to me! The Babadook is an obviously superior horror film! So well crafted! On the other hand, Ouija is a nonstop avalanche of clichés and cheap scares, yet itsOuija that gets the wide release. But whatever, we all know Hollywood embraces formulas and runs away from originality. So it’s up to us, the film lovers, to discover fine films like The Babadook and tell the world of their awesomeness. For those not in the know, The Babadook is an independent Australian horror movie made by first time film director Jennifer Kent and it’s all about a single mother protecting her son from a boogeyman. While The Babadook didn’t get the wide theatrical release that it deserved, it is finding its audience in the home video front. Like many films of its kind do, it’s steadily building its cult audience with reviewers raving about its spookiness.

The Babadook tells the tale of Amelia and Samuel, a single mom and her child. Samuel is displaying signs of odd and antisocial behavior at school. It’s becoming a problem to the school, his family and even his own mother who desperately screams at him “why can’t you be normal!” Still, Amelia loves her son, warts and all, even though everyone else seems to reject him, even his aunts and cousins who can’t stand being around him. One night, Samuel asks his mom to read him a story before going to bed, so she looks through Samuel’s story books and finds a book called ‘Mister Babadook’. She doesn’t know where the book came from, but she starts to read it. As she turns the pages and reads, she realizes this book is far too creepy for kids, so much so that he ends up crying after reading only a few pages! Soon after Samuel starts seeing Mister Babadook all over the place. Is it all in his mind? Or is Mister Babadook really stalking Samuel and Amelia?

The Babadook is an effective horror movie because it has all the right influences coming from all the right places, and pretty strong ones too. For example, as I watched this movie all I kept thinking was how much it reminded me of Roman Polanski’s Repulsion (1965), my personal favorite Polanski film about a young ladies descent into madness. It also reminded me a bit of the crazy father figure in Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) and the crazy religious mom in Carrie (1976). The director also showed appreciation for Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath (1963), by showing a clip from it during a particularly creepy scene in the film. Other shots show love and appreciation for William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973), who by the way had this to say about The Babadook after having seen it: “I’ve never seen a more terrifying film than The Babadook, it will scare the hell out of you as it did me” Now that’s a lot to say, specially coming from the guy who made The Exorcist (1973)! There’s even hints of the German Expressionism aesthetic here and there. So as you can see, this movie is an amalgamation of lots of great horror films, yet also displays lots of originality. Question is, is The Babadook actually that scary? Which of our fears does it play with?

Above, a scene from The Babadook (2014), below, a scene from The Exorcist (1973)

I think the root of the films effectiveness comes from the fact that it plays with our fears of being a parent, of thinking our kids are weird somehow because of their particular child like behavior. Ever seen your kid grinding their teeth at night? Scary, but only because we don’t see ourselves doing it when we sleep. Children’s fear of imaginary monsters makes us think our kids are schizophrenic, truth is all kids are scared of imaginary things. The filmmakers effectively use these fears against us, so in many ways, a parent will enjoy this horror film a whole lot more then someone who’s never had a child of their own. Why is Samuel so apparently disturbed? Is his behavior justified? Or is just weird and screwed up? Amelia, the mother in The Babadookis dealing with these issues all on her own, while at the same time dealing with her husband’s death. So we have the fear of being alone, the fear of losing a loved one, which is to say, the fear of death.  All these fears are embodied in the form of the terrifying ‘Mister Babadook’, a character that looks like a mix between Lon Chaney in London After Midnight (1927) and Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs (1928). Like I said, the inspiration for this film comes from all the right places.

The film works with the notion that the less we see, the more it will scare us. Truth be told, you don’t see Mister Babadook that often, but when he is in the room, you will feel it. I suggest turning up the sound on this one, the director effectively mixes sounds with visuals.  Another asset is that this film looks amazing in the sense that director Jennifer Kent pays close attention to atmosphere, ambiance and horror movie lighting. This means everything on screen is carefully constructed to look and feel spooky, dark and scary. Rooms are dimly lit, skies are gloomy, trees are dead, leaves are falling, the wind is blowing and shadows move in the dark. The film is perfectly creepy this way. Like some of the best horror films, The Babadook shows you just enough to creep you out and then lets your mind do the rest of the work. This film is an impressive debut for director Jennifer Kent, who by the way was an actress before she was a filmmaker, which probably explains why the performances from everyone in this film are excellent. Final words are that this movie is a special type of horror movie, don’t let the Baba-dook-dook-dook escape you, turn down the lights and watch this one in the dark.

Rating: 5 out of  5    

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001)

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001)

Director: Shinichiro Watanabe, Hiroyuki Okiura, Tensai Okamura

My exploration of anime films continues and this time I tackle Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, an anime film that always pops up as the ones that “you gotta see” so I decided to finally give it a spin. The trailers for this film called it “Today’s hottest kind of cool” and a “gritty futuristic thrill ride that definitely delivers the goods” so of course my curiosity was sparked. My only concern was that I had never seen the series that the film is based on, so I was sort of going into this movie naked, not knowing anything about what the world of Cowboy Bebop was all about. But then I learned that the film was designed so that newbies like me and fans of the show could enjoy the film alike. I’m sure I’ll enjoy this film a bit more after I’ve seen the entire show, but I like watching anime films perse, so I decided to watch it even though I have not seen the show. Still, just in case you’re interested, this film takes place between episodes 22 and 23 of the show. So, how was my first dip into the world of Cowboy Bebop?

The story for this film is fairly simple, a terrorist named Vincent wants to destroy the world via a virus he wants to set lose upon the world on Halloween Night. The government puts a hefty bounty on the head of the terrorist, so of course, Spike and his crew of bounty hunters decide to go after the guy, so they can cash in all those millions. Problem is that Vincent has gone into hiding, and Halloween night just keeps getting ever so close! How will they stop the terrorist attack from ever happening? As you can see, the story is nothing complex, a weakness of this film in my opinion, I was expecting a bit more. Thankfully, the visuals are top notch as is the animation. 

Now taking in consideration that I knew nothing of the concept behind Cowboy Bebop save for the fact that it was a beloved series, I’d say that I grasped the concept behind the whole thing pretty quickly. The idea is that these are a group of Bounty Hunters who are always looking for new bounties in order to make money, the idea being that they are only in it for the money. They aren’t cops or detectives or anything of the sort, they just do these missions for the money, hence the tag line for the film “They are going to save the world, but not for free!” Spike Spiegel is the leader, he’s you’re a-typical “cool dude” always posing, saying cool things, smoking his cigs. Oh and he’s good at martial arts at well! Then we have Jet Black, the aged tough guy/father figure who owns the spaceship they fly called ‘The Bebop’. Faye Valentine, the sexy chick who used to be a bounty but now forms part of the group, Ed who is a computer whiz and is always getting them all the info they need during their missions and finally, Ein a dog with human intelligence who’s also a genius at chess. 

But of course, me being a Cowboy Bebop rookie, some elements of the story flew right by me, for example, I didn’t exactly grasp the idea that the whole film takes place in Mars because humanity had to flee from earth. Humanity has spread itself throughout different planets because of this. The year wasn’t clear either. In fact, to me the movie simply takes place in a strange amalgamation between New York City, France and the Middle East. So of course, not having seen the show will put you at a small disadvantage, but not enough of a disadvantage that you won’t be able to enjoy the film. The whole film starts like you are walking into the middle of a film already in progress; I actually liked the fact that the film wasn’t spelling things out for the viewers. You have to sort of figure things out on your own and get on the bandwagon and I liked that about this film. From what I hear the show is structured in the same way. So the film doesn’t treet its viewers like idiots, a cool thing. Also, this is an animated film that’s rated ‘R’, so it has profanity, nudity, guns, violence, the works. So cool, an anime film entirely directed towards adults.

So with all these cool things going for it, why did I end up feeling underwhelmed? Not saying that it’s a bad film, it has some great things about it, and actually, I feel that I need to watch it a few more times to truly grasp the thing, but at first glance I felt the film was in need of a bit more action. As it is, the film has some cool action scenes, like for example the one that takes place on a train, which was awesome. There’s also a climactic spaceship chase sequence that I enjoyed, but in my opinion it needed a bit more than that. I think the big draw of the film is more the chemistry between the characters, but for a show with emphasis on gun play and fights, the film might have needed a bit more of that, or maybe editing a bit of the melodrama to make the pacing a little quicker. But I will say that when the action starts, it’s pretty cool. The animation, the angles chosen by the director and animators, I loved all that stuff because that’s what I love seeing in animation, things that aren’t done often in live action films. I was kind of saddened to hear that the show has a lot more space adventure in it, because sadly characters do not go into space on this film. I love sci-fi films that take place in space, so that would have added a whole other level of cool, but alas, that never came to be, a missed opportunity in my book. Still, we do get cool spaceships and I always enjoy those, even if they aren’t flying around in space. Actually, Spike has this whole scene that’s a chase as he drives this cool little spaceship (called The Swordfish II) which was pretty cool stuff, love the design work on this film.

Hollywood has shown interest in making a Cowboy Bebop live action film but its taking a while to lift off.  Shinichiro Watanabe, the creator of Cowboy Bebop assures us that its happening, but that it’s all very secret and hush-hush. At one point Keanu Reeves was going to play the role of Spike, sadly the project has been in development hell for so long that Keanu now feels that he is “too old” to play Spike, so he turned down the project. While it’s true that Keanu at one point would’ve been perfect for it, he actually looks a bit like Spike, I agree, too much time has elapsed and maybe the film would benefit from having a younger actor play the role of Spike. Keanu also stated that the film would cost a fortune to make, so maybe that's holding it back a bit as well, similar to how the live action Akira film is being held back for the same reason. But one thing’s for sure, I would love to see a live action Cowboy Bebop movie. In the meanwhile, you got the show (which I hear is better than the actual film) and this film to quench your thirst for Cowboy Bebops special brand of “Jazzy” action, just remember that its manufactured for fans of the show, newbies might feel just a little bit lost, still there’s fun to be had if you decide to take the plunge.

Rating:  3 out of 5 

     

Behind the Scenes Awesomeness! Jurassic Park Franchise Edition!

Now this is filmmaking! 

Stan Winston, the main man behind the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park

Spielberg, a master at directing children

Jurassic World (2015)

Jurassic World (2015)

Director: Colin Trevorrow

Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Irrfan Khan

The concept of an amusement park filled with dinosaurs is an attractive one because, let's be honest, who wouldn’t kill to see living breathing dinosaurs? In the Jurassic Park franchise genetic manipulation and biological tinkering have made it possible for us to see ancient creatures that were once extinct, same as if you were visiting a zoo. Unfortunately, as the last three films have taught us, giant meat eating dinosaurs are not that easy to keep in captivity. This is the fourth film in the beloved Jurassic Park franchise, and it’s only now, after four films and three failed test runs, that the park finally opens its doors to the public. Only now it’s called Jurassic World. Why would anyone want to visit a park where many people have died at the hands of genetically mutated dinosaurs is beyond me, but I guess the idea behind Jurassic World is that people have gotten over the events that occurred in Jurassic Park (1993), The Lost World (1997) and Jurassic Park III (2001). I guess the curiosity of seeing real live dinosaurs is just too much, people just don’t care, they’re going anyway. Chalk it up to confidence in human superiority. Our conquest over the natural world, we’re the kings of the planet and all that. I guess its similar to how people still go on roller coasters rides, even though people have died riding them. Just google the words “roller coaster tragedy” and you’ll see what I mean.  The premise for Jurassic World is that the park has been up and running for some time now, and that seeing a T-Rex or a Velociraptor is now commonplace. What can park owners do to keep the masses entertained?  And how long before the shit hits the fan?

Jurassic Park are a series of films with strong foundations on Michael Crichton’s book about genetic manipulation being conducted in secret islands, unbeknownst to the rest of the world. I remember reading Jurassic Park eons ago, it had an essay that talked all about how these genetic experiments are actually conducted with sheep, we just don’t know it. This gave the whole novel and subsequent film a scary legitimacy; a plausibility that might not have been there otherwise. Suddenly the story had foundations in the real world. Mix that idea with an amusement park gone berserk and you have a winner. Genetic engineering has always been a scary sort of concept; it makes humans seem like gods, playing with life, this is the reason why it’s always been a controversial matter in the real world. To this day, Crichton continues exploring this theme in his post Jurassic Park work, like for example, his 2006 novel entitled ‘Next’, a novel in which he continues to explore genetic research and corporate greed.  Jurassic World explores these ideas via these scientists that splice DNA from different dinosaurs to create entirely new species of dinosaurs. This is how we come about the main baddie in this film, the new dino created solely for Jurassic World, the ‘Indominous Rex’, a mix between a Velociraptor and a bunch of other dinosaurs. 

  

The concept of an amusement park in chaos is nothing new to Crichton, who explored this premise in the film Westworld (1973), a film Crichton himself directed about an amusement park that reproduced the old west, down to having cowboys walking down the streets, cantinas you could visit and horses you could ride. Tourists could come in and live in the old west for a couple of days. Things get crazy when robot cowboys malfunction and start shooting the tourists. As you can see, Crichton has been toying around with these ideas since the 70’s. In fact, Hollywood has used this concept before in films like Jaws 3-D (1983), were a vengeful shark runs amok inside of a Sea World, eating the people on the water rides. So to the seasoned movie buff, this concept is nothing new. What does Jurassic World have to offer that we haven’t seen before? A whole lot as it turns out because we’d never seen this concept played out with dinosaurs! These films strive on that one moment when it’s all about the chaos and the thousands of park goers running for their lives! There’s an awesome moment where Pterodactyls break loose and start snatching up tourists! Chaos indeed!

Of course comparisons to Jurassic Park (1993) are inevitable, so let’s get them out of the way. True there are nods to the original film, which fans will immediately spot. We revisit places from the first film, we see certain recognizable props and vehicles from Spielberg’s original. Some scenes in Jurassic World pay homage to Spielberg’s film, but that’s just director Colin Trevorrow respectfully acknowledging Spielberg’s genius. Thankfully the films offers us original elements as well, it’s not all one big homage like some reviewers are making it out to seem. In terms of the way it was made, well, Spielberg’s Jurassic Park is special in the sense that it mixed practical, physical effects with digital ones. Back in ’93, when Jurassic Park was made, it was the first film that showed the world how far digital effects could go when done right. I remember the first time I saw Jurassic Park in theaters! I was blown away, and yes, why not, I’ll admit it, when the T-Rex first roared, I got goose bumps. It looked so real. A lot of it had to do with the use of amazing puppets built for the film. If you go back and see Jurassic Park(1993) you’ll see, most of the time, the T-Rex is not computer animated, most of the time; it was all done through giant, life size puppets. Fast forward 22 years into the future and filmmaking has drastically changed, today computer animation has completely taken over movie making and so, we don’t see many puppets on this film. Most of the time, the dinosaurs are entirely computer generated. That’s just the way cinema is nowadays, so I guess we just have to accept it and enjoy those few moments when an adventurous filmmaker decides to make things the old fashioned way. Yet, when computer effects are done right they can blow us away and Jurassic World has good computer animation, so in that area, you won’t feel let down. We get top notch computer animation here.   We also get to see dinosaurs we haven’t seen before, like the giant whale dino.  

The film moves at a great pace, it slowly introduces us into the whole world. We get to see how the park works, who runs it. It takes its time to set things up properly, which is something I liked. You feel like you’re watching a real movie as opposed to a movie that’s in a hurry to get to the “good stuff” without setting up things properly first. In my opinion it’s a very well structured film. In fact, if you ask me, I say that that this film is better than The Lost World (1997) in the sense that The Lost World, though entertaining, felt like it was an unnecessary sequel which ran on one simple premise alone, putting the dinosaurs within the context of the city landscape. The third one was also pointless to me. In contrast Jurassic World feels like a natural continuation of the original story line which had everything to do with opening the park to the public, which finally happens here. I loved the way they portrayed the fully functional park, you’ll wish that it existed! Another plus is of course Chris Pratt as Owen, playing the role of what can only be described as a ‘Raptor Whisperer’. Chris Pratt looks like Indiana Jones on this one, it wouldn’t surprise me if he actually ends up wearing the Fedora hat at some point in his career, especially now that he is working with Spielberg. So that’s it ladies and gents. What we got here is a film that doesn’t surpass the original but is better than all previous sequels. All in all, a fun time at the movies.

Rating: 4 out of 5  

Seventh Son (2014)

Seventh Son (2014)

Director: Sergey Bodrov

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore, Djimon Hounsou, Olivia Williams, Jason Scott Lee

Sometimes movies get the shaft at the box office because of a lot of crap that goes on behind the scenes, stuff sometimes we as an audience are completely unaware of. For example, Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989) was a huge box office bomb, not because it was a bad film, but because of a shift in administration at Columbia Pictures, and so the new head honchos treated the previous administrations films like crap, so Adventures of Baron Munchausen wasn’t promoted well, the result was an excellent film that died a quick death at the box office. Of course, now the film is considered one of Terry Gilliam’s best, but when it was first released a shift in administration at Columbia turned it into a 60 million dollar fiasco. A similar thing happened to Seventh Son, not that Seventh Son is anywhere near as awesome as Adventures of Baron Munchausen, but it is a film that deserved a better chance at the box office. For me, it’s a fun film that’s far from being terrible. The problem with Seventh Son was that it was produced by Legendary Pictures, who at one point were going to partner up with Warner Brothers to distribute the film (if you check the poster I've posted it actually has the WB logo!) but that partnership fell through and Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures parted ways. Then Legendary partnered up with Universal Pictures, but by then, the film’s release had lost momentum. The thing is that when movie buffs see constant delays and changes in release dates they get the feeling that the film isn’t going to be that good, because the studio is stalling its release. Film buffs can sniff a stinker from miles away! I myself felt the delay was because the film wasn’t going to be that good. What did I know about a shift in partnerships between studios? So the film was a box office bomb in the United States which at least made its budget back with its worldwide intake. Still, I feel American audiences could have given this one a better chance.

Seventh Son is all about a Master Gregory, a sorcerer who dedicates his life to killing monsters, demons and witches. He has an apprentice, but loses him in a battle with an evil witch called Mother Malkin; so since a sorcerer cannot be without an apprentice, now Master Gregory has to find a new apprentice, The Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. You see, supposedly, the seventh son of a seventh son makes perfect sorcerers’ apprentice. So Gregory is searching for that special young man. Once he finds him, they have to team up to go up against Mother Malkin, before she becomes all powerful and rules the land with her coven of witches.

The thing about Seventh Son is that it was actually entertaining. I was ready to rip it a new one, because honestly, I was expecting a terrible film. The fact that the studio held this one back for so long made me raise a red flag. Usually when a studio gets cold feet with the release of a movie, it’s because the movie is bad and they are looking for just the right moment in which to release it so it won’t have much competition at the box office.  Also, who the hell was this director? I knew nothing of Sergey Bodrov’s body of work, I didn’t know what to expect. I had no basis of comparison. Thankfully the film turned my expectations around. Almost immediately Jeff Bridges portrayal of Master Gregory got me to like the film, I mean, here’s Jeff Bridges breathing life into this character, he gave it a real unique persona, I liked that about it. Bridges infused the character with just the right amount of comedy and charisma. So much so that some reviews say that it’s Bridges Master Gregory that saves the film. I have to say that it certainly is one of the films high points, but the film has other good things going for it as well.

You see, this is a fantasy film along the lines of let’s say, Willow (1988), Legend (1985) or Krull (1983); films in which our heroes exist in a magical land filled with monsters, magic and witches. On these types of films, the main character goes from zero to hero, sometimes in a matter of seconds and obviously, always going through a quick training montage with their ‘master’. In this sense, Seventh Son is not original at all, which is one of the reasons it doesn’t get a perfect score from me. You see, this film goes through all the cliché’s of a heroes journey, finding his magical sword in a magical cave…being trained by his master and finally, seeing  the main character put what his learned to good use in his first adventure. But it’s all cool, because it surprised me that Seventh Son actually took some of those clichés and turned them around. For example, there’s a moment in which the apprentice, Tom Ward, finds a magical sword and grabs it from the hands of a corpse, a scene that reminded me of identical scenes in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Legend (1985), then the film surprises me and has the spirit of the former owner of the sword actually fight with Tom for his sword! So while Seventh Son isn’t completely original, it still has the ability to surprise you at certain points. It's well aware of fantasy movie cliche's so it tries its best to turn them around. The dialog is quick and witty because the filmmakers know that we're savvy, so the dialog gets to the point rather quickly, it doesn't stall.

Films like Seventh Son are essentially monster films; they exist to wow us with their monsters. Remember the two headed dragon in Willow (1988)? Or Meg Mucklebones, the water witch from Legend (1985)? How about the army of Skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts (1963)? All show stopping monsters! Well,Seventh Son is this kind of film, filled to the brim with monsters at every turn. I enjoyed the creatures on this one, in fact this film felt like a homage to all those old Ray Harryhausen fantasy films like Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) or Clash of the Titans (1981). Actually, one of the creatures that they fight in Seventh Son feels like a total update of the Kali Statue that Sinbad fights in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973). So at least the filmmakers behind Seventh Son knew exactly the kind of film they were making. They made sure the monsters were awesome to behold. Modern “monster films” sometimes offer us generic monsters that we can’t really take a good look at, in Seventh Sonthe monsters are a showcase and I have to admit I loved that about it. Not only that, I found them to be well animated. The only time I like computer generated images is when they are done right, and on this show they got the monsters right. The only negative thing I can say about the effects is that they decided to use morphing effects, which I think are out dated. Sadly they use them on Seventh Son all the time, which was a huge let down. So the computer effects go from freaking awesome, to not so freaking awesome and in that sense the film is a bit uneven. But I will say that in terms of effects, the good out weights the bad.

Above, a creature from Seventh Son (2014), below The Kali Statue from The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)

So what we got here ladies and gentlemen is not a classic or a masterpiece, but a damn fun fantasy film with cool monsters and a cool character thanks to Jeff Bridges Master Gregory, who infuses enough comedy and charisma into the proceedings to keep us entertained. The monsters are cool, and the film harkens back to the old Harryhausen fantasy classics, where monsters mattered! And speaking of the monsters and the effects on this movie, the visual effects were produced by John Dykstra, the visual effects genius who's worked in films like Star Wars (1977), Lifoforce (1985) and Spiderman (2002) among many other effects heavy films, so this is probably the reason why the monsters on this film are so cool. Plus it has an excellent cast. We even get a The Big Lebowski (1998) reunion with Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore working together again. The only thing that brings it down is that it isn’t all that original, and the CGI is sometimes off. But otherwise, we have a fun film you should give a chance to if you like fantasy and monster films.

Rating: 4 out of 5