The Raid: Redemption
The Raid: Redemption
aka Serbuan maut
2011
Written and directed by Gareth Evans
One man, one building, hundreds of potential opponents. A police raid gone wrong, way wrong, sets up The Raid: Redemption, as the cops are wasted, leaving only a few stragglers to be slowly picked off. There will be no rescue, no backup, thanks to layers of corruption so thick they have to make the sequel about them. But no one counted on Rama being the best fighter in the universe.
The Raid was hyped as the most actiony action film that ever actioned, and then it actions some more. Well, I don’t know about all that, but it was pretty actiony. The fighting is intense and hardhanded, and quickly devolves to hand to hand combat. As the surviving cops’ numbers shrink and they are slowly hunted, the tension mounts up, keeping pace with the action.
The biggest problem with The Raid is the lack of good character development. The rudimentary structures are there, but aside from falling into some templates, the characters aren’t that rounded out. Rama is the good cop and son because he just is. Andi says he was a disappointment and is better at being a criminal…because he says so. If anything, only Mad Dog and the corrupt Wahyu have any sort of build beyond their templates. And while we don’t really need everyone to be fully nuanced, it’s nice to have some depth occasionally.
But still, the fighting is furious, the action is intense, and The Raid is one martial arts film you will watch again.
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This Petition Can Kiss My Jurassic!
WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Require Jurassic Park 4 to film with practical effects and animatronic dinosaurs
America was built on determination and imagination and dreams. We innovate, we create opportunity, we inspire. But our country has fallin into a pit of darkness. Depression and acceptance, day after day after day. We have learned the truth about despair. Hope. But we cannot climb to the light on our own. Like shipwrecked men turning to seawater from uncontrollable thirst, many have died trying.In 2014 we will be given Jurassic Park 4, and unless strict action is taken, we will see more of the same, cgi dinosaurs. We cannot let this pass, not again. We need a reminder of what genuine hard work can accomplish. We need to give our children the same gift we were given twenty years ago – what it means to be an American. We mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger darling
Yeesh! I don’t know what’s worse, the ignorance that there was CGI in the original Jurassic Park, the dumb “official” language the paragraphs use to sound important, or the insinuation that CGI artists are lazy. Bleh.
But then again, maybe we can get a cool response like this one!!!:
OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE TO
Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.
This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For
By Paul ShawcrossThe Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:
* The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
* The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
* Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
However, look carefully (here’s how) and you’ll notice something already floating in the sky — that’s no Moon, it’s a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that’s helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts — American, Russian, and Canadian — living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We’ve also got two robot science labs — one wielding a laser — roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.
I do demand a Jurassic Park 4 that is the Weaponized Dinosaurs. Make it happen, Hollywood.
image via Dino Storm, an actual game you can play.
Birdemic 2: The Resurrection hits trailer and has zombies
Birdemic 2: The Resurrection dumps an extra long trailer on the internet. Don’t worry, it looks like half the film is callbacks to the original. Whitney Moore and Alan Bagh return, the birds return in a slightly updated form, the songs return, the getting tons of money returns. And zombies return even though they weren’t in the original. How’s that for Resurrection?
The trailer is an IMDB exclusive atm, so you have to click this link to watch it.
I hope Birdemic 3 is about bats and the bats make people into vampires. That is my wish, make is so, James Nguyen!
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Beasts of the Southern Wild
2012
Written by Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
Directed by Benh Zeitlin
It may not be the best film of the year (though close!), but Beasts of the Southern Wild is one of those films that makes loving cinema great. An epic quest set against a backdrop of a unique and dying culture that exists outside but alongside our modern world, Beasts evokes wonder, tragedy, poverty, desperate struggle, and hope.
Beasts builds a believable world, sets up a culture of people and a believable lifestyle. The Cajun bayou living off the land is a way people do live in remote Gulf areas. Heck, some of them even have reality shows like Swamp’d! The denizens of the Bathtub live in an area full of life. Living things are all around them, the swamp is full of critters and plants, everyone has animals (dogs, chickens, pigs…) and there is always a harvest of shrimp or crab or fish freshly caught just a few seconds ago.
But the Bathtub exists with the Sword of Damocles dangling overhead. The whole area is below sea level, and on the other side of a huge levee built to keep out the water. The constant reminder is the ice caps are starting to melt, and eventually the Bathtub will be underwater. Part of why the residents are so carefree and celebratory is the spirit that the world may soon be gone. But the other reason is they have little else to do but get drunk and party. The houses are all run down and crumbling away, the clothes are all raggedy, and most people speak with slurred speech while clutching a bottle. As we see things as Hushpuppy sees them, we see her joy and her fun and the firecrackers, we hear the music and it makes us feel free and fun. But you also see the grit behind the shine. The joy in the music helps give things a lighter air, the songs lifting things up, they are as full of life as the film, as the Bathtub.
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Take a ride with end of the world road trip flick Best Friends Forever
Harriet, a comic book artist with a secret, and her reckless BFF, Reba, take their ’76 AMC Pacer on the open road and their friendship gets a wild ride towards an impending nuclear apocalypse.
BEST FRIENDS FOREVER is a clever dark comedy and heartfelt road trip buddy film wrapped in an apocalyptic disaster story, with two badass girls. Harriet, a perpetually optimistic comic-book artist, dreams of escaping her past in Los Angeles and hits the road for a new life in Austin, Texas. She drags Reba, her seemingly devil-may-care BFF, along for the ride. In the hush period following mysterious nuclear explosions, the girls are forced to ask: When faced with the end of the world – what is most important to you?