The Village

M. Night Shyamalan's latest film, The Village, has a lot in common with the rest of his films. A: I like it and B: There's an Outer Limits/Twilight Zone ending. Although all of Knight's movies have been "formulaic" so far, they all manage (and I haven't seen Signs) to have a unique enough story to keep the formula interesting.

The only problem with this formula, is I found myself wanting to watch this movie just because I wanted to solve the puzzle. I didn't go into viewing the Village like I would other movies. I saw it more as a puzzle to solve, so I spent the majority of my moviegoing experience trying to guess the who's, whens and whys of what was going on, and that sort of distracted me from watching a really good movie.

The Village is a small colonial town, located in a valley surrounded by woods on all sides. Beyond the woods is the unknown..."towns" where evil people lived, and the woods are populated with creatures who won't bother the villagers as long as they don't venture away from the village.

Nnight's use of language and subtle visual cues make this a very entertaining mystery. Before seeing the Village, I had an idea of what the "secret" was, and I was pretty on-target, so it was interesting to see how it all worked together and unfolded.

There's an even bigger twist than the ending in the film, where the central character shifts. It's a very abrupt scene, but lays the groundwork for the films resolution.

It would be nice to see Night break formula in the future, just to see what else he can do... or I'd like to go into one of his movies with a clean slate and let all the surprises and twist actually be "surprising."

If you liked Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, you'll probably like the Village as well.

THUMBS UP

Chinatown

This is one of those classics I've just never gotten around to seeing. Thanks to Netflix, I'm trying to catch up on years of great cinema neglect.

Chinatown, staring Jack Nicholson and directed by Roman Polanski, was pretty dern good. Jack plays a private investigator-specializing in extra-marital affairs-who stumbles upon something he probably shouldn't have, having to do with water shortages in LA in the late '30s and a who-dunnit? murder mystery.

It reminded me a lot of LA Confidentail...in style and subject matter. I suppose that would have been the other way around, had I seen Chinatown first. The mystery isn't too difficult to solve, but there are some big turns and twists, and an ending Hollywood just would not do today, that made it great.

THUMBS UP

Fubar: The Movie

What a disappointment. What I thought was going to be a REAL documentary on some mullet-clad alcoholics, and their daily antics, turned out to be a fake documentary...complete with tragic death and terminal illness.

While it was still funny to see actors shot-gunning beers relentlessly and trying to 'GIVE-'ER' at every turn, it pales in comparison to seeing the real thing.

I suppose if I had gone into it knowing it was fake, I'd probably feel different about it. As it stands though, I'm going to have to say...

THUMBS DOWN

Buba Ho-Tep

As a fan of both Bruce Campbell and B-Movies, I was highly anticipating something great out of Buba Ho-Tep. Not to forget that Mr. Campbell also plays Elvis Presley in a nursing home. Oh, and that JFK, dyed brown to hide his true identity, is also in on this Southern-Zomby/Egyptian-Mummy caper.

Things just never get going, really. A large chunk of the movie is devoted to Elvis, concerned about a puss-spurtin' growth on his manhood. Another chunk explains how Elvis went from the King to a worn-down old man in a nursing home under a false name.

The Buba Ho-Tep action doesn't kick in for a while, and when it does, it all seems so anti-climactic. There are some funny bits, no scary bits, and several B-Movie moments. Maybe I had built it up too much in my mind. Or maybe it just wasn't that good.

NEUTRAL THUMBS

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

When I was in highschool I was a big fan of manga and anime. I remembered when I was a kid, and I would see weird bible anime on Sundays and obscure kiddie anime on HBO that involved chipmunks. I don't remember where I first heard about Akira, but I sought it out in the small town of Alexandria, MN and it blew...me...away.

Then I was on the search for all Japanese animation. I went to France during my junior year in highschool, and I stayed with a family in Versailles–the son was my age, into rock music and manga. He introduced me to Kiki's Delivery Service and Dragon Ball. We went to comic shops in Paris and sought out XMen comics and manga. He gave me Video Girl A1 and Dragon Ball as parting gifts. When I got back home, I sent him Akira #1.

When the anime boom hit America shortly after that, I thought I was in heaven. Big eyes, talking cats, speed lines... that shit was everywhere. But then I also realized, that a majority of it was crap. I quickly stopped watching (right around the time Ninja Scroll & Ghost in the Shell came out). I've been pretty selective about the anime I'll even attempt to watch since then.

A common theme in anime, I've found, is to have a long and hard-to follow story, with parts I'll fall asleep during.



So, I've really liked Princess Mononoke & Spirited Away, and repeat watchings of Akira (I'm currently speed-reading through the collected comics). But I've pretty much ignored most other anime films. However, people keep talking about Cowboy Bebop (from one of my old co-workers to my sister in-law), I figured I'd give this film a chance.

While it didn't blow me away, It didn't put me to sleep either. Watching it, I cant' imagine why it has such a huge following. Top knotch animation, cool characters and a traditional world-domination plot makes this nothing special really. So, it's not a bad movie, but I can't really recommend it. There ya go.

NEUTRAL THUMBS