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#694 – Vivarium (2019)
Vivarium (2019)
Film review #694
Director: Lorcan Finnegan
SYNOPSIS: A Young couple view a house to buy in a strange suburbia, but when they try to leave, find they cannot. Eventually a box arrives with a newborn baby in it, and a note saying to raise it and be released. The couple have to put up with the rapidly growing child ads they try to adjust to life in this surreal, empty neighbourhood.
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Vivarium is a 2019 film. A young couple, Gemma and Tom, are looking for a house to buy and are shown a house in a suburban district by real estate agent Martin. While viewing the house, they find that Martin is gone, and when they try to leave the suburbs, they are unable to do so, always returning back to the house. After many days of trying to escape, they awaken one morning to a box with a newborn child, and a note that says they will be released if they raise the child. The child quickly grows up, causing friction between the couple as it imitates them and acts in an inhuman way. The plot mixes surrealism with a downbeat atmosphere whose message seems to be the cruel repetition of life and how we all repeat the same mistakes and are easily replaceable. Yes, it’s all a bit miserable and futile to be honest. I think the main issue with the film that is often pointed out is that it is simply too long: the whole film could have been easily condensed into twenty or thirty minutes and have been better for it. Stretching it out to ninety minutes adds in so much empty space, and also undermines the theme of repetition by not bringing the whole story back around quickly enough. So much of the film is padding out that throws the characters around every which way, making them, and fails to allow them to develop a coherent response to their situation.
There really feels like very little to break up the misery and futility in this film, which I suppose reflects the theme of the film, but I also feel like as a comment on life it needs a little something to counterbalance the drudgery. There’s one scene where the couple’s car starts working again and they dance to the music to give them a brief moment of joy, but that’s it. It doesn’t really add anything or provide the characters with anything. Again, so much of the film feels like padding. The surrealist aspect of the film also is vastly underutilised; it comes into play near the end when Gemma chases the grown-up Martin through the various instances of the suburb, along with different couples all experiencing the same sort of situation. It does, however, feel like a missed opportunity to explore this with more depth, as so much of the film is just very plain by comparison. It’s never really explained what the whole suburb and child raising element is composed of: whether they’re all aliens or something, and I don’t think that really matters. The whole film is not especially bad; it obviously has a message and theme, but it’s very nihilistic and empty. As mentioned, this could have been a much better short film that had a tight loop and made it’s point more effectively. As it is, Vivarium is far too lose with it’s story and characters, and fails to really lean into the more interesting parts to make it worthwhile.
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#693 – Slay Belles (2018)
Slay Belles (2018)
Film review #694
Director: Dan Walker
SYNOPSIS: Three women sneak into an abandoned Christmas-based theme park to film a video for their blog. however, they do not expect to find the real Santa Claus hiding there, and a vicious demon intent on destroying Christmas…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Slay Belles is a 2018 Christmas film. Three women who create online videos where they explore abandoned places head to a rural town to explore a Santa-based theme park. There, they run into the real Santa Claus, and they have to team up to stop the demon Krampus, who is kidnapping residents of the town. The premise and idea is interesting enough, and presents us with some likable characters, but the execution is often so dull and flat you can’t help but feel like it’s not taking advantage of what it has. The film takes way too long to get into the meat of it, and even with so much padding with constant cutbacks to the police station, the film barely lasts over a hour not including the credits.
The film is intended to be tongue-in-cheek and cheesy, but in order to do this, it needs to be over-the-top, gory, silly…anything. It just doesn’t hit any of that. there’s too much standing around talking and barely any action. Poor camerawork and lighting also obscure anything that does happen. There was definitely potential in here to deliver a bit of silly, gory Christmas fun, but the execution and absence of any substance to bring the ideas to life make this a film of missed opportunities, even given the low budget production. All it really needed to do was just make it fun, and it simply doesn’t.
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#692 – The Arrival II (1998)
Arrival II (The Second Arrival) (1998)
Film review #692
Director: Kevin Tenney
SYNOPSIS: Two years after an alien invasion was thwarted by Astronomer Zane Zaminsky, his half-brother Jack receives news of his death. Jack receives the information that his Brother had gathered on the alien invasion, but is sceptical until he meets like-minded individuals who are working to uncover the aliens plans. With the aliens hot on his tail, Jack goes on the run with reporter Bridget Riordan to expose the secret plans of the invaders…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Arrival II (also known as The Second Arrival) is a 1998 sci-fi film and a direct-to-video sequel to the 1996 film The Arrival. The film opens up with a brief recap of the events of the first film, as computer programmer Jack Addison receives news that Zane Zaminsky, his half-brother, has died in a remote Inuit colony in Alaska. Immediately, we can see the tropes of direct-to-video films come out: main character killed off-screen and replaced by a family member (played by a much cheaper actor), the original film’s ending of the alien’s plans being exposed amount to nothing, as no one seems to have believed him. Thus, not only does this film not have any of the characters from the first one, it also undoes the accomplishments of the first and renders the hero’s actions null and void. Again, just like a classic direct-to-video sequel.
And so, Jack Addison proceeds to essentially re-enact the plot of the first film, wit him being on the run from the aliens as he tries to expose their plan once again of warming up the planet via artificial climate change to make it habitable for their species. Unfortunately, it lacks any of the mystery and intrigue of the first one because, obviously, it’s already been done. We get a bunch of mediocre chase scenes and find information we already knew and that’s about it: there was no reason for this film to be made. It doesn’t evolve or expand the premise in any way, it negates the accomplishments of the original, and it is just a boring and lifeless affair. The first film was not incredible, but it had a decent amount of suspense and action. It did, however, get completely eclipsed by Independence Day, which came out a month after it’s release. This sequel feels like it was made to cash in on the hype of alien invasion films that overshadowed its predecessor. There really is so little to say on the subject of the film itself: it’s a poor rehash of the first one, consisting of poorly-paced chase sequence after chase sequence. The acting is dire, the characters have no personality, and a lot of the finale is just running about in front of very obvious greenscreens. Even if you were a fan of the original, there’s nothing to really offer in this sequel, as either a continuation of the story, or as a decent, entertaining film. There was a 1997 video game based on the franchise that was also released, so maybe that will provide something more of interest. It can’t be much worse.
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#691 – The Titan (2018)
The Titan (2018)
Film review #692
Director: Lennart Ruff
SYNOPSIS: With the earth suffering ecological collapse, a secret project at a military base aims to transform selected soldiers to adapt them to life on Titan, with the eventual goal of resettling humanity there. One such recruit, Rick Janssen moves onto the military base with his family, and when he begins to change due to the experiments, his Wife becomes increasingly concerned that they are changing him a bit too much…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: The Titan is 2018 sci-fi film. Set in a near future where Earth is suffering ecological collapse thanks to overpopulation and pollution…all the usual stuff. With this mind, a special project has been devised to adapt a select group of people to life on Saturn’s moon Titan, with the eventual goal of moving people to live there. Rick Janssen is one of the recruits who moves onto the military base with his family where the experiments are being conducted. The film operates on two different levels: One, it follows the story of the recruits as they undergo their training and experiments, and two, following Rick and his family, and how these experiments impact him on a personal level alongside his family. The problem is that neither of these two arcs are significantly developed to give enough of a backbone for the film. With regards to the former, the backdrop of the film of the world’s seeming collapse isn’t really shown outside of quickfire news reports and slideshows, and despite this, there doesn’t really seem to be any sense of urgency, at least in what we are shown. I could understand this if the focus was more on a personal family drama, but as mentioned, that doesn’t work either. With the film setting up the goal of eventually reaching Titan, the film actually doesn’t achieve that, other than a small scene at the end showing Rick there. Given that everyone else died during the experiments it doesn’t seem that great that only one person made it by completely changing their physiology. Again, given that the Earth is ecologically failing, this doesn’t really seem to bode well for the future of humanity, which is what this whole project was based on. I get that it’s only a first step, but for the film to give us nothing more on this front leaves a lot to be desired.
Secondly, with regards to the family drama and how the experiments affect his personal life, there’s just not enough emotional depth, and it’s constantly distracted by all the other stuff going on. We get to see some of the other recruits and their families and how they are reacting to the whole situation, but the supporting characters aren’t really given enough screen time to define them as significant characters. One of the other big problems is that Rick’s Wife becomes suspicious about the injections and experiments and that they’re producing strange side effects and changing him, which she seems surprised about. The trouble with this is…she should have expected it to some degree? The whole project is literally adapting a human to survive on the surface of a moon on the other end of the solar system; of course they’re body is going to have to change dramatically. She is also established as a biologist or scientist of some form, so she obviously must have some idea about these things, but the fact that she seems so shocked about what the experiments entail just seems very confusing. maybe she didn’t expect them to be so severe, but that just isn’t made clear. I’ve had a lot of negative things to say about this thus far, but honestly it’s not terrible; it just lacks a lot of focus and depth. The trailer is cut to make it seem like more of an action film, which is also very misleading. The other aspects of the production are fine, not much else to say about them. The Titan is short on the details and the drama: starting off well but falling apart later on when it has no idea what it wants to do with the premise.
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#690 – Badlanders (AKA Prison Planet)
Badlanders (AKA Prison Planet) (1992)
Film review #690
Director: Armand Gazarian
SYNOPSIS: Blaine is tasked with finding the exiled King that is believed to be on the notorious Prison Planet. He heads there to find a wasteland populated by barbarians and violent gangs that prove to be problematic in his quest…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Badlanders (also known as Prison Planet) is a 1992 sci-fi film. The film opens with scrolling text which provides the backdrop of the story (Just like Star Wars), about a planet named Anakin (Just like Star Wars) whose King named Himshaw mysteriously disappeared, and his brother Akira took the throne and became a bit of a tyrant. None of this factors into the story. We see Blaine, a freedom fighter, gets himself arrested and sent into the wastelands of the prison planet. There, he sets a group of women free from slavery, which angers the local warlord that they were for, and seeks to hunt him down. This film is essentially a whole lot of nothing: just wandering about the desert with cheap fight scenes interspersed with some shouting. Despite the lore dump at the beginning of the film that sets up a bunch of stuff, it no way translates to the film proper, which is just another Mad Max derivative in a genre saturated with them. Eventually Blaine finds Himshaw, who is a budget Obi Wan Kenobi (Just like Star Wars), but it still adds nothing to the plot and the whole issue of him being a King or something is never addressed.
The acting is all awful and has no direction or expertise, making the characters lifeless. The only thing which stands out of the warlord Goah, whose acting is so over-the-top it is hilarious, and a wig and moustache which is distractingly bad. It’s impossible to take him seriously. In a world full of Mad Max rip-offs, Badlanders is one of the worst: it’s just some fumbling around a desert, with poorly choreographed fight scenes, directionless story and atrocious wigs. There is nothing else of substance to comment on.
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#689 – Pulse (2006)
Pulse (2006)
Film review #689
Director: Jim Sonzero
SYNOPSIS: A group of college students are trying to come to terms with why their friend Josh ended his own life, when they start getting messages from him from beyond the grave. They learn he was working on some sort of project that seems to have unleashed horrors that are draining people of their will to live, and must find a way to stop the epidemic.
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Pulse is a 2006 sci-fi horror film and a remake of the 2001 Japanese film of the same name. The film sees people drained of their will to live by weird creatures that live in computers, and one such person is Josh, a college student who ends his own life. His girlfriend Mattie and their friends try to understand why he did it, when they start receiving messages from his computer. Mattie learns that his landlady sold the computer to a man named Dex, who discovers on the computer that Josh was working on a project that has drawn the attention of mysterious being, that seem to be draining people of their will to live. While there’s something interesting about a wireless signal that brings with it strange entities, the script is a mess and fails to really get a grasp of the concept. I’ve not seen the original 2001 film this is based off (yet) but it has to be better than this. The whole idea of “hacking into frequencies we didn’t even know about” is just a really silly premise, and while the film obviously isn’t focused on the sci-fi element, it still needs some sort of backbone for the horrors to abide by, and the rules just aren’t made clear. There’s an element of the plot that people who have encountered these monsters are appearing on some webcam footage on people’s computers or something, but it never plays a part in the story or is dealt with in any way; it just seems to be of consequence. There’s just so much in this film which doesn’t matter.
As a horror film, the film presents very few actual scares, and doesn’t really create any kind of atmosphere as Mattie is wandering about all over the place, interacting with characters which are ill-defined and serve no real purpose. they learn that some sort of red tape helps keep the monsters keeps the monsters out; assumingly it blocks radio signals or something, but it’s never explained. An encounter with the beings also gives people some sort of infectious disease which causes them to turn to dust or something alongside sapping their will to live, which is again just confusing and a bit silly. The film moves to a finale in which society breaks down, planes fall from the sky etc. and Mattie and Dex have to upload a virus at the computer centre, which surprisingly doesn’t work, making that whole plot a bit meaningless. They escape to an area with no mobile phone signal so they can rest, only for Mattie to realise that she has her mobile phone with her and that they can get through the phone? Shouldn’t that have been obvious? Why would she still have her phone with her? For a psychological horror film, going the whole post-apocalypse route for the finale really feels out of place, and overshadows any of the more nuanced elements of the film (not that there were many). The rather plain effects are obscured behind grainy webcam footage mostly, and the creatures themselves are a bit plain. The most annoying part of the production is that there’s a blue colour filter over almost the entire film, which is massively distracting and wholly unnecessary. Pulse fails to engage on any level at all: the script is weak, the horror element is limited to a few jumpscares, the characters are bland, and the pivot to a different tone in the finale leaves very little impression by the end. I can only help the original is better.
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#688 – The Arrival (1996)
The Arrival (1996)
Film review #688
Director: David Twohy
SYNOPSIS: Zane Zaminsky, a radio astronomer at SETI, discovers a signal originating from a distant star, but when he reports his discovery to his superior, he quietly buries it and takes Zane off his job. Suspecting there is more to this than meets the eye, he continues to investigate on his own, unearthing a shocking discovery…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: The Arrival is a 1996 sci-fi film. Zane Zaminsky (Charlie Sheen) is a radio astronomer working for SETI who discovers a radio signal originating from the Wolf 366 star fourteen light years away from earth. he takes the signal to his superior, who later destroys the tape and tells Zane he no longer has a job due to budget cuts. Zane however, doesn’t give up, and builds his own satellite array to record the signal, with the help of a neighbourhood boy. As he continues to be impeded at every turn, he begins to suspect that there is a wider conspiracy at large, and he continues to pursue the truth. The plot of the film is fairly interesting, and while nothing overly special, does have a bit of mystery and suspense to keep things moving along. A couple of twists round out the film to change things up a little, but the finale is a bit lacklustre that doesn’t resolve anything in any significant way. The first half of the film builds up some interesting mystery, but the second half of the film revealing the aliens and their plan is a bit underwhelming: this is common occurrence in thrillers though, where the mystery is more interesting than the reveal. Also, a lot of the issues that Zane faces could have been resolved if he had backed up his evidence on more than more tape.
A big issue is that any character that isn’t Charlie Sheen’s barely has a character arc and goes in and out of the story for long periods of time so that they aren’t involved for good portions of it. Sheen is perhaps not the most convincing of scientists, but is right at home in 1996 with the spiky hair and facial hair. Looking back on it, this film came out a month before Independence Day, and a year before Contact, based on Sagan’s novel. between the two films, the former being a blockbuster experience, the other being a smart slice of speculative fiction, there isn’t much room for The Arrival to stand out nowadays. The CG aliens are okay, but nothing special, and again, Independence Day really surpassed anything this film did in terms of effects. This is a decent thriller that keeps itself going and provides a few interesting twists, but lack of a real conclusion and wasted character potential makes it stumble on the way.
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#687 – Gamer (2009)
Gamer (2009)
Film review #687
Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
SYNOPSIS: In the near-future, prisoners take part in a deathmatch where they are controlled by gamers. Once such prisoner is close to reaching the thirty win-streak needed to secure a full pardon and release, but the billionaire creator of the technology used to control people has designs to expand it’s use, and a resistance group that aims to stop him attempt to co-opt Kable to help them…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Gamer is a 2009 sci-fi film. Set in the near0-future, where billionaire Ken Castle has invented a nanotechnology that allows people to become controllable by others, making them avatars in a real-life video game. Of course, this technology is eventually (inevitably) used for prisoners, where gamers can control death-row inmates in a deathmatch scenario, making them fight for their freedom. One such prisoner, Kable, only a few wins away from the thirty he needs to be released. However, he is dragged into a conflict with Castle and the hacker group who are trying to stop him from expanding his nanotechnology to have full control over every human that has the nanotechnology installed in their brain. The film’s premise is very simple: it’s a remix of films like The Running Man with all the cheesy characters and silliness you would expect. The film opens up trying to explain the mechanics of the whole nanotechnology and how gamers use it to control other people as avatars, but it quickly gets overwhelming fast, and it feels unnecessary for the most part: Gamer works as a mindless entertainment film full of explosions, shoot-outs and silly characters; the moment it tries to say something deeper, it is immediately lost amid the loud noises, visuals and quick-cuts that stop anything connecting substantially.
There’s a lot of characters and different angles in the film that makes it difficult for any one of them to stand or develop into anything more significant. Gerard Butler is…Gerard Butler as Kable; he’s the same as in every film he is in. he has a wife and child he is trying to reunite with after he is released, but also teams up with the hacker group to take down castle, and it is all a bit much. The action scenes have plenty of shooting and explosions, but as mentioned the constant camera-switching and not holding a shot for longer than two seconds means that everything is just so fleeting and nothing sticks, thus you’ll be hard-pressed to remember anything of substance once the credits roll. It’s got some recognisable faces including Ludacris and Terry Crews, but beyond that nothing special about the cast. It’s difficult to say if the film is meant to have a particular message, I think it tries to comment on corporate-sponsored violence and giving billionaires control of your bodies is probably a bad thing, but again anything of depth is lost as the film zips about haphazardly. It’s also difficult to have a message against corporate violence when violence is the only solution to anything in this film. Overall, I would say that Gamer delivers some decent action, but is way too poorly structured and haphazard in its attempt to do anything else. It doesn’t do anything that other films do much better.
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#686 – Glasshouse (2021)
Glasshouse (2021)
Film review #686
Director: Kelsey Egan
SYNOPSIS: As a airborne disease known as The Shred has permeated Earth’s atmosphere and wiped people’s memories, a small family have taken refuge in a glass house. Their ritualistic existence is interrupted when a stranger arrives and is brought into the house…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Glasshouse is a 2016 South African sci-fi film. It is set in a world where an airborne disease known only as The Shred causes people to lose their memories. In a glass house protected from the outside a family of women with, but their somewhat idyllic existence is shattered when an injured man is brought into the home, and their lives begin to unravel. The premise is simple enough to get, but it is extremely slow going: the plot unfolds at a snail’s pace as the new arrival starts to upset the balance between the residents. There’s some intrigue, mystery and drama here, but my main issue is that this is one of those films I just don’t like: where one person shows up and just gaslights and manipulates everyone else and we can only look on as everyone falls for it. You can certainly make these kinds of films work, but the way Glasshouse goes about it leaves a lot to be desired: it uses a lot of very typical beats to drive things forward, including just using sex as a manipulative tool, which honestly just feels like it has been done so many times before, and there’s nothing else to really make it stand out.
The plot revolves a lot around memory and remembering, but this evolves to such a point that the characters can no longer trust their memory, or if they have been exposed to The Shred. This invites a host of inconsistencies that are never really addressed; it eventually becomes a case of dismissing these plot holes and questions as just a case of bad memory, and this carries on into the conclusion that offers very little. The characters are fairly well defined and play their roles well, but the character of Luca (the man who is brought into the house) just remains an inscrutable mystery regarding his motives. It seems because he is immune to The Shred that he turns up to the house from time to time when no one remembers who he is to just manipulate everyone and continue the cycle of causing trauma and making them forget. The film tries to tie it up at the end, but it just doesn’t work: any time there’s an attempt to tie things up or be poetic, it just falls a bit flat. With all that said, the film does linger a bit after watching it with all the mystery it raises; it’s just that it thinking about it never leads anywhere. I’m sure Glasshouse has an audience for it’s drama and ambiguity, but the slow pacing, tired plot devices, and gaping plot holes combined with an inability to construct any depth means that the whole experience is a struggle.
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#685 – Go Goa Gone (2013)
Go Goa Gone (2013)
Film review #685
Director: Raj and D.K.
SYNOPSIS: Three guys take a break to Goa, and get invited to a rave party on a secluded island, hosted by the Russian mafia. Unfortunately, a drug distributed at the party turns everyone into a zombie, and the few people that didn’t take it must find their way off the island…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Go Goa Gone is a 2013 zombie film. Yes, you’ve probably seen a million different zombie films, but have you seen one from India yet? The film centres around two guys, Luv and Hardik, who join their friend Bunny on a trip to the resort in Goa. They are invited to a private party on a secluded island organised by the Russian mafia, who distribute a new experimental drug to the partygoers. The morning after, they boys wake up to see that everyone that took the drug is know a mindless zombie, and must find a way to get off the island alongside Luna, Hardik’s love interest, and Boris, a member of the Russian Mafia who is actually from India.
Go Goa Gone has a fairly standard setup for zombie films, with the survivors fighting to escape the zombie hordes. The film goes for a blend of action and comedy that is high energy, slick, and funny in equal measure; typically, it is able to pull of a stylish and entertaining experience throughout the film so that you’ll remain engrossed until the end credits. Each of the characters brings a little something different, and the action is over-the-top and silly. While the film is well paced so there’s always something interesting, it does run out of steam plot-wise around the half way mark, as the gang just wait for a boat to drift back to shore so they can escape, thus leaving them to go around in circles a bit without any real development in the story. It’s not to much of an issue though, it’s still at least entertaining.
While the effects are not incredible, they do at least get the job done, and the quick editing means you’re not lingering on the CG long enough to really criticise it. The humour is fairly sharp, and produces a good few funny moments to laugh at. There’s a fair amount of little things which add up to make Go Goa Gore at least a fun and entertaining film to sit through. It struggles to do anything more significant or complex, but there’s definitely far, far worse zombie films out there.
