Mad Max Fury Road: It Made My Pants Pee THEIR Pants

I was extremely skeptical when I heard about Mad Max: Fury Road. For one thing, the last installment in the series was Max Mad Beyond Thunderdome, and even if I had thought that MMBT was good (I didn’t), I still would’ve seen this as yet another pathetic attempt to make money off of an extinct franchise. It didn’t take more than 30 minutes to show that my assumptions were completely incorrect – and I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed being wrong this much in my whole life.

This trailer is so damn good. I even love the "bwaaamp"-like horn blares.

Since we’re at the point where movies are being rebooted constantly (will the real Spider-man please stand up?) and studios seem desperate for any familiar name that will guarantee a certain number of tickets sold, I can’t blame myself for my response. My expectations rose a little when I heard that Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron would be the leads, but actors are no guarantee of a film’s ultimate quality, and those two names alone couldn’t totally mollify my skepticism. I do know, however, that I should’ve paid attention and noticed that it was being made by George Miller – the writer-director of all the prior Mad Max films.

Miller’s presence on the project was a virtual guarantee that this wasn’t just a cheap cash-grab, both because he’s so intimately familiar with the series, and because the man does good work. Not perfect work – but very distinct, very consistent in tone, and of very good overall quality even if the subject matter isn't appealing. The first film was a depressing “every man’s worst nightmare” experience – the worst-case scenario in which your best friends (the only lawkeepers in the area) are picked off one by one, and then your wife and infant are killed. The second film saw Max losing everything that he had left, and then wandering off to be by himself - which pissed me off, because he could have stuck with those people he rescued at least long enough to get e.g., a new car and a new dog.

So Thunderdome didn’t work for me because it was excessive in all the worst ways of 1980’s excess, and I didn’t like the subplot with the children. When that film ended with Max completely losing what little he had, totally screwed and wandering off into the desert once again, I just decided that I had had enough. None of that meant, however, that Miller didn’t have a dedication to telling a story well, and filling it with good characterization. Some of my opinions boiled down to some stylistic choices, and how old I was when I watched these pictures.

Mad Max: Fury Road, however, is nothing less than a stellar achievement, one all the more laudable for feeling of a piece with a series that began in 1979 and last appeared in 1985. Numerous elements call back to prior entries - the intimations of Max's murdered family hearken back to the first movie, towns dedicated to creating one precious resource was the crux of Beyond Thunderdome, while the second and the third appear in the form of the cold open (The Road Warrior especially), as well as the truck vs. convoy battles, which now dominate the endings of all three sequels. And the title character remains the same: damaged, self-concerned and yet incapable of truly abandoning people in need, always pushing forward to survive...

MRQ XVII: Great Directors Edition

Well, by now, you should k kw what an MRQ is - and my struggles to keep these entries pretty concise. This time out, if I go on too long, just know that I think I chose the right films to go on about. And all of these, save Aronofsky's Black Swan are available to stream, so you can watch them as soon as you please.

This time out, we're taking a quick stroll through: Black Swan, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Grifters, The Verdict, The French Connection, The Brothers Grimm, and The Wolf of Wall Street. Enjoy, if you please...

Black Swan

It's... somewhat impossible for me to review this movie properly, because I'm not really sure how to approach it in the first place. Since I'm unable to assess the story (e.g., how much of this is hallucination? Does that even matter?), I have to confine myself to its content.

Black Swan was filmed as effectively as anything before it. Seldom have I seen a camera move in a way that really reflects what it's like when you're dancing or running. Everything looks beautiful - the tracking shots in the old-style NYC apartment, the ballet scenes... And the sheer extent of the careful editing, much less the way it's utilized, sets Aronofsky on a special pedestal; I have to think other editors felt like they'd never see such fine work ever again.

The performances are all excellent, from Hershey's work, which is like a toned-down version of Piper Laurie's part in Carrie, to Cassell, who hits the perfect balance of privilege, faux sophistication, and salaciousness. Kunis is so good that I almost wonder if the script does all the heavy lifting. I doubted Portman repeatedly because she resorted to her "small voice" so often, but she really does establish her part, and the unraveling that occurs to her. God, is it even an unraveling, or is it more like a collision between herself and the oppositional elements in her subconscious?

Black Swan was incredible. It did a hell of a lot, not the least of which was crafting a thriller/body horror film out of a ballet story. I also joked to my friend that maybe this movie should've been called Birdman - and it may have actually been an apt comment, as those two pictures have a lot in common. Bonus points go to the director for using the Black Swan for a laugh right near the climax, when a fine bit of humor would have a great impact.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Tomas "Let the Right One In" Alfredson may not qualify as a great director, given the others on this list. Yet I have to think this movie is a sign that he might get there, some day soon. TTSS is an incredibly slow, long drama that gets you engaged with the story at the same time that it undermines the importance of the events therein.

The Machine

The Machine is an excellent English sci-fi film that popped up on Netflix Streaming near the end of last year, sadly without a theatrical release. I enjoyed writer/director Caradog W. James’ focused and thoughtful thriller, which took $1.5M and turned James’ story into a beautiful-looking, atmospheric tale about medical experimentation, the connections people form with each other, and the development of artificial intelligence. It’s not a perfect film at all, but it does everything it does well, and displays true artistry in its performances and writing. I also think it’s 1000 times more of a sci-fi film than Ex Machina will ever be, but I’ll leave that discussion for my upcoming EM review.

In the near future, Vincent McCarthy (Toby Stephens) is unhappy, but hopeful, despite England’s tenuous cold war with China. This scientific genius has a well-funded, well-intended project with Thompson (Denis Lawson), a Ministry of Defense bigwig: a plan to help injured soldiers recover use of their limbs and brains with computerized implants. As the film’s start conveys, that’s a difficult, painful process.

Flash forward a bit and Vincent is putting three computers through the Turing Test, which determines whether a machine can respond well enough to convince a human that it's a human, too. None of the computers pass, but he sees great potential in the device developed by Ava (Caity Lotz). McCarthy then convinces Ava to join him by offering unlimited financial support. The idea is that, together, they can jointly complete his new project: an android run by a true AI that is bolstered by scans of a person’s brain.

Unfortunately, Ava is more than a little into civil disobedience, which doesn’t go over well at MoD research bases. While a crippled soldier demonstrates his new super-strong arms, he whispers to her that he’s being mistreated. Ava investigates, Thompson decides she has to go, and Vincent gets roughed up in the same attack that kills his newest assistant. The UK’s equivalent of OSHA must f--king hate this base.

Wolfcop and Space Milkshake - B-Movies are the Best

Space Milkshake - is a B-sci-fi/horror movie that knows what it is and revels in its genre conventions. I mean, really, everyone who’s seen a sci-fi film that involves a mutating rubber duck, raise your hand. Oh, it’s just me? Then, everyone who wants to see a sci-fi film that involves a mutating rubber duck, raise your hand.

Okay, good, we’re all on the same page here.

Space Milkshake is about a futuristic spaceship full of garbage-men and –women whose job it is destroy debris that might interfere with space-traffic around Earth. Captain Anton Balvenie is a self-centered sometimes-jerk who’s mired in the petty/unhappy phase of a relationship with his frustrated, fed-up first officer, Valentina. The young technician Tilda mostly just works and keeps to herself, which frustrates their newest arrival – Jimmy, a talkative guy whose first time in space is being ruined by the attitude problem of his new coworkers.

It’s bad enough that Jimmy is greeted by his new boss curtly ordering him to fix a half-dozen different machines, but Tilda won’t even speak to him. It’s pretty clear that Jimmy won’t be able to glamorize life on a space station that uses lasers and spacepods to clear the paths of interplanetary travel. But then an unexpected cargo craft arrives, and Anton goes out on a salvage mission – and suddenly, there’s no radio communications from Earth. Hell, there isn’t even any trash orbiting Earth!

I’m not nostalgic for the 80’s and 90’s, but I have had many conversations lately about the fact that good or entertaining b-movies seem few and far between now. I feel a pang deep inside of me when I browse the horror and sci-fi offerings of Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Youtube’s free film selection. Most of them are CGI fests with bad writing and/or acting, and they don’t have an enjoyable sense of tone, and they don’t do anything new.

Seriously, one of the most rewarding experiences as a film goer is getting to see good actors that you know star in low-budget ventures that make a strong effort to tell a good story – when you add the tone and mood of B-movies (think Black Dynamite, From Dusk Til Dawn), you create a possibility to have ungodly amounts of fun. And that’s exactly what you get with SM.

Valentina unloads on a truly unappreciative boyfriend.

Two Days, One Night Review

In Two Days, One Night, the Dardenne brothers have a story that any audience will find compelling: a woman in Belgium must get coworkers to vote for her job or their €1000 bonus. Even if the economy didn't resemble a dystopian nightmare, we can all put ourselves in her shoes, and it's terrifying.

So we follow our lead, Sandra (Marion Cotillard), as she uses her weekend to sway nine of the people who already voted in favor of the bonus. She has to track down her fellow employees to ask for their support, and she has no idea if she can influence any of them. But she also has two kids, a husband who works as a cook, and a mortgage that can't be paid without her salary.

Cotillard is an impeccable actress. She has a mastery over her expressions and her voice. Everything she does, every feeling she emotes, seems genuine. And, in Sandra, she gets a chance to show what she can do. Her work in Two Days is brilliant, and her Best Actress Oscar nomination was well-deserved.

As the film progresses, we get context for Sandra's problems and the pills we see her take now and then: the poor woman is just returning from sick leave for depression. This is the worst possible time for her to experience something as scary and emotionally crushing as the loss of a job.

Reviewing with Others, Pt. 78: Candlestick

I was going to post a Recommendation for FX's show, Justified, but I won't be able to put up my thoughts today, when its sixth and final season comes to a close. Why? Because this day is the only day I can post my review for an independent drama/suspense film, Candlestick.

If you're of a mind to watch a modern-day callback to the works of Alfred Hitchcock, you should check this picture out. Christopher Presswell's second feature film is a pretty strong, if flawed, effort. You can read my thoughts about it here, at Man, I Love Films.

My thoughts on Graham Yost's adaptation of Elmore Leonard will have to wait a day or so, and I think I'll continue to alternate between movie and TV entries leading up to this site's 6th anniversary in 9 days. Whiplash, Ex Machina, Selma, Birdman, and more are coming up...

Only Lovers Left Alive - Tilda Swinton gets WHITER?

Adam (Tom Hiddleston) is a moody artist with a reclusive life in Detroit, recently intent on committing suicide. Eve (Tilda Swinton) is his wife; she reads a lot and hangs out with an old friend (John Hurt, as Christopher Marlowe) in Tangier. An unexpected call from his spouse leads to a reunion between this pair - people who are utterly intimate, despite living apart. So what happens when this couple, equal in depthless knowledge and passion, reunites? Only Lovers Left Alive tells the story of one such reunion that's at least 100 years overdue - because Tom and Tilda play vampires.

Jim Jarmusch loves character study stories about people in peculiar moral quandaries. In Dead Man, a fairly-average chap is transformed into a hunted outlaw, something which he does not bring upon himself at all. In Ghost Dog, a hitman follows the samurai code that requires him to do the right thing even when everyone - including his master - does the wrong things for the very worst reasons.

And for all the similarities between his earlier work and his latest, the biggest difference is that this effort doesn't really have much of a story to it at all. In fact, the first 40 minutes of this movie feel like a lot of hyper-brief vignettes. Rather than take all this as damning criticism, it's an observation that means I'm all the more impressed by how good this picture is.

Usually, a cinematic story needs things like, e.g., a storyline that plays throughout the movie, an arc for the lead character, and/or a series of minor plots that do or don't play in to the overall story. One exception to that general narrative scheme is the "character study." There, it's not so important that the major event that kicks off the movie is connected to the major event that closes the movie. And, although they can have an arc for their lead role(s), these pictures are not required to have those, either.

For a viewer, "character study" basically means "watch X role go through X stuff." You are won over (or not) by experiencing the hopefully-interesting things that the character does, or by witnessing what the film has to say about the role's nature as a human being or people as a whole.

Reviewing with Others, Pt. 77: The Twisted Death of a Lonely Madman

My last several off-site reviews have all been movies that were sent to me - with the exception of Coherence, which I actively sought out, I was in a slightly more passive position of having people explain to me why I might want to check out a movie about Ai Weiwei, Greenwich Village's role in folk music history, or particle accelerators.

Finally, I get back to a reviewing with others entry about something I've been eager for: Will' Terran's second film, The Twisted Death of a Lonely Madman. I provided several updates here about the film's progress, and I've had the DVD on hand since around Halloween, but my schedule has only just now allowed me to complete my review. If you'd like to read it, please go here, to Man, I Love Films...

Blue Ruin Review: Is Revenge a Dish Best Served at Room Temperature?

This time of year, seeing (and increasingly, hearing) all the top ten lists fills me with a sense of inadequacy. All these people who have seen a ton more movies than I have! The year started out well for me cinematically speaking, making more trips to the movie theater than at any time since my kids were born. However, as the year wore on, getting to the theater got harder and harder. Thaddeus has alluded to the trials we went through to see Snowpiercer on a big screen, and I was thwarted in my attempts to get to the theater for a couple of personal must-sees--Interstellar in IMAX and Guardians of the Galaxy, at all.

One thing that struck me while listening to the Slashfilmcast's Top 10 movies of the year episode is that a few of 2014's must-see movies have already made it to Netflix streaming. Since I wasn't quite in the mood for an experience as "opaque" as Under the Skin, and had a little trepidation about metaphysical relationship drama The One I Love, I decided to catch up with the indie revenge flick, Blue Ruin.

 

When Dwight Evans (Macon Blair) hears that Wade Clelland is getting out of jail, he has cause to seek revenge. What he lacks, in the words of Liam Neeson’s memorable monologue from Taken, is a “very particular set of skills.” Dwight, who when we first meet him is a vagrant haunting a Delaware beach community, has some survival skills—he forages through dumpsters for food pretty well, and he has strategies for finding a place to bathe when he needs one—but for the most part he's a regular guy with little of the attitude or aptitude required for a revenge mission.

Cinema used to have a healthy preoccupation with the plight of the normal guy forced into a world of violence. The original Death Wish was about a peacenik architect learning the ways of violence after his family is victimized. Straw Dogs had nebbishy Dustin Hoffman defending his home against a lynch mob in rural England. Eventually, as the Death Wish sequels piled up—along with the corpses of Paul Kersey’s raped and murdered relatives, friends, and employees--the curiosity about amateur revenge-seeking gave way to thrill seeking. By the end, Charles Bronson’s protagonist was just another action hardass, spouting one-liners and bringing increasingly powerful ordinance to bear against an endless army of punks.

Under the Skin Review: Accents & Plots Indecipherable

"Taxicab Confessions Goes to Scotland, Turns into Species by way of Upstream Color"

That was the impression that I got about 15 minutes into this movie. What's amazing is that Under the Skin is very multi-faceted, despite being rather opaque.

We open with a deeply-unnerving score - a shrill screeching noise of rapidly-played violins that raises tension effortlessly. And the first scene proceeds without words: a guy on a motorcycle stops somewhere, walks away from the camera toward a beach, then comes back with a woman slung over one shoulder. The biker puts the woman into a van, and next we see her on the floor of a creepy, 2001-style all-white room. The silent, immobile woman is played by Scarlett Johansson.

Then another Scarlett Johansson comes into the frame, standing over the one on the floor. This doppleganger removes all the clothes from the prone body before slipping them onto her own form. When the last bit of clothing is gone, we see the victim leak a single tear out of one eye.

From there, Dopple-Scarlett travels the roads of Scotland in the van. She slows down and pulls over every time she sees a man by himself. She asks for directions. She offers to give the men a lift. And, after some banter, she invites them back to her home. Although I think I know what's going on, it won't be clear to every viewer. What is clear is that the events in the film are unsettling and horrifying.

The Babadook Review - Fine, Suspenseful, Women-Centric

The Babadook is a simple film that builds suspense and tension with ease. It's hard... While I don't want to spoil the story, but I also want to encourage you to see it.  In an effort to achieve both at the same time, I'm going to review the movie this way:

In September, one of my roommates, a film student and horror fan, made a point of telling me that the movie was great, used highly-effective suspense to generate most of its scares. And damned if she wasn't dead right on that score. The Babadook is very scary, but it doesn't use gore to achieve that goal. It grounds the growing sense of dread and fear in the characters and the situations around them.

When I started reading the critical response in November what stood out was how uniformly glowing the reviews were. And I swear that skimming through them didn't clue me in to what really made my jaw drop: researching for this review last week, I learned the film is by Jennifer Kent, a first-time writer-director.

Genuinely good horror films are a bit rare these days to begin with. Great debut entries aren't common in any genre, much less horror. But a foreign debut indie horror film written and directed by a woman? Rock the f--k on. Given my longtime support of indie film, horror, and women in the industry, I was bound to see this - and to tell everyone to see it, too.

Another point in this movie's favor: the story centers on a woman. And while it's not rare for the horror genre to feature a female lead, women in their early 40's are generally not represented enough in movies - even better, she's a single mother. I've seen a lot of articles over the last two years about women being underrepresented, in front of the camera and behind the scenes, so I'm thrilled to promote an excellent film that features both.

So what's the story? Amelia (Essie Davis) is a widow with a hyperactive 4-5 year-old son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman). Woken from a nightmare about her husband's death, Amelia carefully shows her son that there are, in fact, no monsters in any part of the house. Yet, from the beginning, we see that this loving home has a lot of underlying tension - when Sam leans in for a very tight hug, his mother stops him as if she feels offended, or threatened.

Reviewing with Others, pt 75: Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case

Hey, all! My final (or possibly, penultimate) Reviewing with Others entry is for Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case, a documentary about a famous Chinese artist. His work is extremely modern, and his struggle involves some serious brutality at the hands of the police in his country.

Pop on over to Man, I Love Films to check out my review. The one thing I left out of my coverage of the film is that I would have titled the doc "Wei So Serious?"

Snowpiercer Review - Nailed It

The story of my efforts to see this movie might make for a decent post, but I won't bother with that now. Suffice to say that I made something like 4 trips to the movie theater, and was shut out every time. The reasons varied, but the results were the same. It's taken a while to write this up, which I just revealed to be my "last" review here - mostly because I promised myself a break from blogging - but I think the post is ready for mass consumption.

Bong Joon-ho is a director I've been following since I first read an early AICN review of 2006's The Host. That movie was an excellent "monster in a city" horror film, and I was simply stunned by its tension, drama, and high caliber effects. And, while I missed his follow-up, 2009's Mother, I was even more stunned to learn his next film would have a mostly American/English cast: Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Ewen Bremner, Octavia Spencer, John Hurt... In fact, the only returning Korean figures were Song Kang-ho, the lead in Host, and Go Ah-sung, who has played his daughter in both that film and this one.

Well, no matter the cast or the setting, the quality of Bong's storytelling and filmmaking hasn't diminished one bit. If this writer/director isn't already there, then this latest pic should really place him on a list of people to look out for...

By way of a quick opening montage, we learn that efforts to defeat global warming backfired horribly. A brief opening scrawl tells that Earth in 2031 is a frozen wasteland, all life is dead, and humanity's survivors live aboard a train that circles the globe constantly. Curtis Everett (Chris Evans, playing a role with his own real-life initials) is one of the ill-treated folks at the very back of that train. Curtis keeps insisting that he's not a leader, although his best friends, Edgar (Bell) and Tanya (Spencer), constantly turn to him for orders and advice. Everett, however, keeps passing the buck on to his mentor - the wise, crippled Gilliam (Hurt).

The danger with a science fiction effort like this is that you often receive waves of clumsy exposition that feel unnatural and/or slow the movie down. Yet this movie barrels right into things after that opening montage: in 2031, the world is frozen and all life is dead, except for the people who've lived (or been born) on this train since 2014. And, with that said, Bong's film largely abandons backstory and focuses on providing a sense of what life is like for the unfortunate people in the tail section.

MRQ XVI: Random Netflix Viewing

Today's MRQ, which is also the 777th(!) entry on this site, tackles 6 films available for streaming on Netflix, as well as one film I saw via HBO Go. This time out, I'm offering a complete grab-bag of genres: Water's Edge, Valkyrie, Bernie, Man of Thai Chi, Bobby Fischer Against the World, The Collection, Hellraiser. Enjoy!

Water's Edge

Oh, wow, it's been so long since I've seen a b-grade thriller that wasn't awful. This time out, I tuned in because the movie stars my spirit guide, Nathan Fillion. I reviewed Serenity, the Firefly film recently, and just discussed his turn in Much Ado About Nothing, so what better way to glean some insight than to see how this actor did back in 2003. Which brings us to Water's Edge.

The premise is simple: Robert (Fillion) and Molly (Chandra West) are devastated by the death of their child. Broke, they move into Robert's father's cabin while Robert tries to write a new novel. But soon, Robert spies a cop who's about to murder a young woman, Rae (Vaugier). Now, the couple must face local corruption while trying to learn why the beautiful female was nearly killed.

To be honest, I was surprised both by the cast that was assembled, as well as by how good everyone was. It's true that I always expect Fillion, Daniel Baldwin, and Emmanuelle Vaugier to be solid - and damn if Fillion isn't in good form here. But even the actors that I didn't know were just fine.

Similarly, the film puts careful, solid effort into slowly unspooling Robert and Molly's backstory, in addition to keeping the audience guessing about Rae and her motivation. Characters are introduced appropriately, with nice little callbacks and foreshadowing and surprises strewn throughout the picture.

Europa Report Review

When it comes to the way-tired genre of found footage films, there are pretty much two schools: fixed-camera story-telling, like Paranormal Activity (which I haven't seen), and mobile-camera stories like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield. The first big shock of Europa Report is how good it is. The second big shock of Europa Report is that it uses a third style: the multi-camera, time-shifting, after-the-fact documentary.

In essence, ER plays like a really good PBS documentary about the events aboard a manned, privately-owned spaceship that was sent to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. Splicing present-day interviews with footage from the far and near-past, this movie shows us the importance of such a project, the impact that mission failures had on the people back home, and the perils faced by the brave astronauts.

First, I should say that I meant to see this in a theater last year but lisses out - I was so glad Netflix picked it up for Streaming. The theater would've been better, tho: this picture is filmed brilliantly. It looks beautiful, the fx are great, and the cameras are used quite cleverly. For one thing, the astronauts use the cameras to observe each other as well as their environment. For another, this movie really knows when and how to use darkness well. Visually, Europa Report is nothing short of arresting.

Reviewing with Others, pt 71: The Rep

Good news, everyone! I broke 150,000 hits this week! I know it's a silly milestone - Blogger still doesn't display the site traffic for my first six months - but it felt worth pointing out. Anyway...

I just finished reviewing The Rep, a Canadian doc about three guys who open a repertory theater in Toronto. If you want to read my opinions on it, go to Man, I Love Films.

Reviewing with Others, pt 70: Red Obsession

Hi, all! I just finished watching and reviewing the award-winning documentary, Red Obsession. This fine Aussie film is narrated by Russell Crowe, and takes a deep look into the growing love of wine in China, and how its rising popularity in the Far East is having a big impact on wine prices as well as production.

I have a lot of things to say about the movie, but you should watch it even if you don't care much about those wonderful grapes - this picture is as much a crash sociology course on modern China as it is an exploration of some big changes in the world of wine. RO looks beautiful, it's only 74 minutes long, and it's now available via Netflix Streaming, so you have little excuse to not take a chance on it.

You can read my review here, at Man I Love Films.

Serenity and Iron Sky, Reviewed

In my last MRQ, I said that two intended entries would go instead to one multiple review post. Both films were fine enough to merit their own space and spotlight. The 60+ hour weeks I've been working slowed me down, but here we are with reviews of Joss Whedon's first feature film, 2005's Serenity, as well as the 2012 Finnish-German cult film, Iron Sky.

Serenity

When I was in grad school, an old college friend asked to crash at my Boston apartment. She was a huge Joss Whedon fan, and the East Coast had several advanced screenings for Serenity, the movie based on his short-lived sci-fi TV series, Firefly. I'm always happy to help a friend, so I told her I'd gladly host her for the night. And then she told me she had a second ticket.

My pal knew I'd never seen the series, but I didn't tell her why I hesitated when she invited me along. Basically, I tried to watch Firefly when it first aired, but I didn't especially like the pilot. Then, I saw the next episode and tuned in early enough to catch the theme song - which I thought was so awful that it had me laughing hysterically.

Music is pretty important to me, and Whedon's new series lost me from the get-go. Even more, between the setting and the song, I suddenly got very predictive about the show, (accurately) guessing that there would be a space cotillion, a space saloon fight, a space train robbery, and a space whorehouse. What I couldn't predict was that I would realize I was horribly wrong in my judgment. Firefly was terribly well-written and -acted.

I couldn't find the opening credits video, but it's lots of pictures of the cast, and the final shot is a ship flying over a herd of running horses.

MRQ XV: Pleasant Surprises Edition

[11:25PM UPDATE: I owe 19 people an apology - an earlier draft posted by accident. I fixed it, and some typos, with the big changes going to the reviews for Dredd, Immortals, MI: Ghost Protocol, and Solomon Kane. I warn readers this can happen, and I couldn't leave work early to correct it all. I was happy I could make any fixes before the day was over.]

I said there would be no reviews for a spell, but I've been working on this entry for a while. All of the pix reviewed today were far better than I had anticipated, and I watched all of them via Netflix Streaming. Yet today's MRQ is a little different - I'm only covering 6 movies today, not the usual 7: The Numbers Station, Dredd, Immortals, Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Hunger Games, and Solomon Kane.

The reason for the change is that I'm going to do a Multiple Review soon to tackle 2 films that were going to be reviewed here - Joss Whedon's Serenity and the German cult hit, Iron Sky; I wanted to give that pair some breathing room...

The Numbers Station

Jon Cusack and Malin Akerman make a very nice show for themselves in this nifty, slender picture that is wrapped around one main premise: that there have been random radio stations broadcasting codes, in the form of sets of numbers, since WW2.

tNS gives us the idea that these numbers are all signals meant to be received and interpreted by spies around the world. The numbers, as well as the locations from which they are broadcast, are given multiple layers of security to prevent anyone from understanding them, much less tampering with any part of the system.

What results is a low-key thriller that punches above its class in a lot of ways. The sets are great visuals that also create a great sense of confinement and claustrophobia. The narrative is told in a nifty, disjointed fashion that I found to be quite pleasing and creative.

Perhaps best of all, the movie is full of solid character work. In addition to sketching out the players vividly and quickly, each of them receive an arc - which is not seen as often as it should be even in pictures with larger budgets and higher-profile names attached. The picture leans too much on Cusack's Grosse Point Blank character, but it's still just fine.

And I have to love the fact that we arrive at several moments where the roles are forced to confront each other, their own choices, and the lives that they are leading. tNS is such a small movie that you'd never expect it to espouse some genuine existentialist themes and ideas - and yet it does. Whether or not it looks like it was filmed in the course of one week, the people behind this picture, especially director Kasper Barfoed, deserve a lot of praise.

Id-iology Director's Next to Preview in London, 12/19

First in July, then in September, I have promoted Will' Terran's forthcoming film, The Twisted Death of a Lonely Madman. And with good reason - I really enjoyed Mr. Terran's first film, Id-iology, even though it was a very difficult movie. While some critics would be inclined to dismiss the work - because it dealt with some ugly topics and was smarter than they were, is my guess - I embraced it.

So I am very happy today to say that Terran's next film is complete and there will be a preview of it in London next week. If I were going to be anywhere in Europe this month, I would be all over this, so please go in my stead.

And how can I not be intrigued when I go to the movie's official site and read this synopsis:

Adam hasn’t left his flat in six months for fear of being attacked. Creating conversational videos of his favourite movie star Starlet Maddinson has kept him just about the right side of sane over that time. Just about. One day a straightforward encounter causes Adam’s worst fears to come true when a malevolent psycho begins a campaign of intimidation and intrusion into Adam’s home. As the world shrinks around him and the company of Starlet Maddinson’s image turns on him, reality blurs with nightmare to tear Adam’s world apart.

The London Preview for tTDoaLM is taking place Thursday, the 19th of December, 8pm at the Roxy Bar and Screen. The movie is 82 minutes long. The director (Mr. Terran) and lead actor (Stewart O'Reilly) will be joined by other members of the production for a post-screening Q&A. Check out the Facebook event page for the preview:

Please go, gentle readers, and let me know what you think...