Memento, Best Movie of 2001?

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I have to admit that I neither saw “Memento” in theaters nor waited in excitement for it to come out on DVD. I might have never saw the movie if it wasn’t for a recommendation from Michael Summers. He suggested that I go out and buy the movie, saying that it was the sort of movie that I’d “dig”. He was right.

Memento has since climbed up my top ten list of movies and currently resides at the top.

Memento follows Leonard Shelby, an ex-insurance investigator trying to track down, and kill, the men who raped and murdered his wife. The one catch is that during the attack Leonard, or Lenny as he hates to be called, suffered a brain injury that caused him to be unable to form any new memories. He can remember everything before the injury just fine but he can’t remember what he ate for breakfast this morning. He can’t even remember if he ate breakfast this morning.

Leonard keeps track of his life through a series of notes, Polaroid’s, and tattoos. The notes tell him of evidence that he’s uncovered about the crime. The Polaroid’s help him in his daily life showing him the sort of thing like which car is his (as in a photo of a car with a hand written note underneath saying “This is your car”) and who his “friends” are. The tattoos covering his body are confirmed evidence about the crime. He knows that the killer’s first name is either “John” or “James” and has these names tattooed on his arm.

In an interesting editing turn for the movie, Memento plays last scene to first, a sort of stopwatch counting down from end to beginning. Memento begins with Leonard killing the murderer of his wife. We then follow Leonard scene by scene as he uncovers the evidence piece by piece leading him to this man. Turn by stunning turn Leonard is used by his “friends” as they abuse his “condition”. You can slap Leonard across the face and call him an “asshole” but in a few minutes Leonard would have forgotten the whole incident. In a few minutes Leonard wouldn’t even remember who you are.

To truly appreciate the movie, one really has to see it several times. I have seen it four times, and counting, and catch new bits of information that I had missed the first time around. Is Leonard’s wife really dead? Did Leonard really kill the right man? Who keeps calling Leonard on the phone? See the movie and find out for yourself.

I cannot recommend this movie enough. If you haven’t seen it you really should. If you’ve only seen it once then you’d better see it again.?

Run You Chicken, Run…

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CHICKEN RUN summed up in one word: GO SEE THIS FRICKEN’ MOVIE! all right, that’s five words, but I’m sure you get the picture. CHICKEN RUN is one of the best movies that has been released this year and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s one of those rare films that both kids and adults will love, for entirely different reasons.

At it’s essence, CHICKEN RUN is a World War 2 prison camp drama, except that the allied soldiers have been replaced with chickens and the Nazi guards are the farmer Mr. Tweedy, his wife, Mrs. Tweedy, and their two dogs.

The chickens, lead by the total optimist Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawalha) spend their days eating and laying eggs. The chickens do have one major price to pay for their seemingly good life: they are killed and turned into food when they can no longer deliver on eggs.

Ginger spends her days coming up with different escape plans, but spends her nights locked away when the escape plans are discovered by Mr. Tweedy or his dogs. The chickens are on the brink of giving up and accepting their lot in life when Rocky (voiced by Mel Gibson) seemingly flies in from the dark agreeing to teach the chickens how to fly, and thereby escaping the farm, in trade for them hiding him from a circus owner looking for his main attraction: Rocky the Flying Chicken.

What ensues is Rocky trying to teach the Ginger and the chickens how to fly and the chickens developing a sense of “hope”. Hope that they will escape from the farm and go someplace better. Unfortunately for the chickens, Mrs. Tweedy (voiced by Miranda Richardson) has decided to switch the farm from producing eggs into producing chicken pies. Unless the chickens can figure a way to escape, all will be turned into pies.

Even though the basic story of CHICKEN RUN is one that has been around for awhile (the dark stranger comes into town promising something that he can’t really deliver on, but somehow pulls it off in the end) I really liked how director Nick Park handled the whole story. Don’t expect the typical Disney movie here, a chicken dies by getting it’s head chopped off, abet off screen, at the start of the movie and there are many references to death and sex.

Right from the start, I was drawn in by the movie. My attention never wavered from the screen as the story unfolded before me. I never thought that the movie was running too long or that scenes should be cut. The best parts of the movie were the multiple homage’s to other movies. From Rocky and Ginger escaping from the chicken pie machine mimicking the beginning of INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC to Rocky’s jump across the prison camp wire that was a lot like Steve McQueen’s more famous motorcycle jump in THE GREAT ESCAPE, the homage’s were numerous and usually funny.

Go see this movie and I’m sure you’ll like it as much as I did. Even if X-MEN is a horrible movie later this summer, the summer of 2000 won’t be a wash out: I saw CHICKEN RUN and I loved it.

If I had to rate this movie, I’d give it a ten out of ten. I wasn’t expecting much going into the theater but sure took a lot out when I left. I can’t wait for this movie to come out on DVD, so that I can watch it again, and again and again…

Dream of the Big, Huge Turtle

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by Michael Summers

For nearly two decades, I was obsessed with a late 70s made-for-TV movie about a giant turtle and a girl with glowing green eyes. If you asked me to tell you more, I wouldn’t be able to. There was a big white house on a cliff by the sea, a childhood romance and a coral (I think) necklace. That’s all I remember. And for years, the only one who could corroborate that I had indeed seen this movie was my sister.

Like most people who have claimed to see things, we were subjected to a healthy amount of disbelief. We were also treated like idiots.

“Have you ever seen this movie about a giant turtle and a girl with glowing green eyes?”

 “Oh, yeah. That’s Gamera.”

We knew Gamera, and that wasn’t Gamera. A sort of validation did not come until a few years ago, when a late night talk about obscure movies with a group of friends revealed a kindred soul.

“Have you ever seen this late 70s made-for-tv movie about this giant turtle. . .”

“. . . and a GIRL WITH GLOWING GREEN EYES!”

We stared at each other in wonder and relief, like the characters in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS who discover that someone else shares this obsessive dream about Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Unfortunately, this revelation didn’t fill in any blanks. No title. No plot details. Just a name. Jenny. Who Jenny was and whether or not her eyes glowed was still a mystery. But we did agree that whoever had directed the video for TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART in the mid-80s was also haunted by this
flick.

It wasn’t until late 1998 that I discovered the title: THE BERMUDA DEPTHS, aka IT CAME UP FROM UNDER THE DEPTHS. And the girl with glowing green eyes was indeed named Jennie, not Jenny. It was Bert who found the title for me. I described the movie, he did maybe 10 minutes of research, and there it was. A 1978 made-for-TV movie starring Burl Ives, Carl Weathers, and Connie Selleca.

I thought that then it would just be a matter of time before a copy of the flick was in my grubby hands. A quick check at all the usual places came up with nothing. THE BERMUDA DEPTHS, aka IT CAME UP FROM UNDER THE DEPTHS, wasn’t available on video. I discovered that it had been aired at least twice, in August ’79 and in August ’80. I discovered it had been given a run on Polish television as late as Summer 1998. I discovered that it wasn’t totally, utterly impossible to find an old used copy of the movie — in French.

And on the Internet, where nothing is deemed too small and obscure to care about, I discovered a host of lost souls who were haunted by this movie about a giant turtle and a girl with glowing green eyes. People wondering if they were the only ones who had seen this movie. People willing to buy used copies probably taped on a Betamax. People wondering if the movie will ever be released to video again. . .

I doubt it will be. But I’ve made a vow. I will see THE BERMUDA DEPTHS again. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure it’s terrible. In fact, if it turns out to be any good, I’ll be surprised. But who knows? For people to remember that set of images for so long, and not much else about the movie they came from, is a pretty strong testament, especially for a made-for-TV-movie.

Lost and Not Found, Voyager

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As Voyager enters it’s fifth season trapped in the Delta Quadrant, I have to wonder why the story-line has yet to improve. Both DS9 and The Next Generation had their mandatory one year of crap season where the storyline wasn’t that great. However, both of these series improved over time and became interesting shows that were worthwhile to watch. Then came Voyager.

We all sat through the mandatory season of crap, waiting for the ‘better’ second season to arrive, Well, the second season arrived but the stories never got any better. We all hoped that the “next” season would improve, it never did. Quite suddenly, we’re in the fifth season of Voyager still waiting for the stories to improve. Perhaps they finally have.

The episode of the week of January 17th to the 23rd, was excellent. It featured the character of Tom Pairs being his alter ego “CAPTAIN PROTON” on the holodeck. The story was original and humorous. (Since I also like the whole 1930’s serial movie feel I really enjoyed the episode). Hopefully the rest of Voyager’e episodes will be this good. But what if they aren’t?

It’s been on for nearly five years and the stories are finally becoming good enough to watch? Other shows that were lacking quality would be “dead” in less than a season. But, since Voyager is the flagship series of UPN it had been given a stay of execution and was left to live on.

Since Voyager will spend it’s last two years of “life” as the only new Star Trek series on television, I guess I’ll have to start liking it. What I’m concerned about, though, is what about the next Trek series? Will the entire shows run be crap? Will it be the best one yet? Or, will it be the first Trek series to be canceled before it’s able to finish it’s run?

Troopers Turns One

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On November 7th, The movie “Starship Troopers” celebrates its first “release” birthday. Dubbed “The Biggest Summer Movie of the Fall”, Troopers has turned out to be one of the most interesting movies in Sci Fi history. The story follows Johnny Rico, a recent high school graduate looking to pledge his life to become a “Citizen”, a high status figure in society. His pledge requires that he join up with the Federal Network, and enlist with the Mobile Infantry. Unfortunately for Rico, War erupts with an alien race known as the Arachnids, a species of large hive-like insects. This in turn throws Rico and his whole platoon into the farthest reaches of the galaxy in order to protect the Earth from total destruction.

“Starship Troopers” opened with generally poor reviews. Roger Ebert only gave the movie two out of a possible four stars. Other viewers felt that the movie was a retelling of World War II, with the Mobile Infantry representing the NAZI SS troops used to slaughter millions of people. (Director Paul Verhoven later remarked that the whole movie was meant to be a form of satire, and not to be taken literally.)

Earlier this year, “Starship Troopers” was released on DVD, and later released on VHS in October. Both “Pan and Scan” and “Widescreen” formats are available.

Controversy and Dead Bugs, a Great Combination
Featuring interesting content and amazing design, the official “Starship Troopers” web site is a must visit. Navigation through the site is easy and will provide hours of enjoyment. What I found most interesting were the scenes from the movie were literally played out within the site. (Be sure to watch for the “Zegema Beach” banner on the web site.)