SF29 microreviews
In the order that they were shown, from noon Sunday to noon Monday...
The Matrix - Third time I've seen it, first time on the big screen. I like it except for the scenes where the heroes gun down (and then plow exploding helicopters into) innocent people without a second thought or the slightest remorse. I hissed at them very loudly when they do this. Fuckers. Stay on mission!
M and I confused D & K and probably some other people by having giggling fits at apparently random moments, because we were both remembering this. "You think that's air you're breathing now?" Hee hee hee.
The Giant Claw - A piece of schlock that didn't really push my "it's so bad it's good" buttons. The set-piece in this one is surely the stupidest movie-monster ever made, a giant goony bird puppet with visible strings. It's hilarious when it makes its first appearance, but then there's an hour of movie left... ugh. Much of it horrible SCREECH SCREECH sounds, and really, bad sound effects are rarely funny in the way bad visuals are. They just hurt.
Notable: the narrator's unmistakable Boston accent. The man-eating anti-matta buhd, and the terra and the horra it spread. (Shots of people looking into the sky with vague worry.)
The Dish - "Apollo 13" in the middle of an Australian sheep paddock. A fictionalized but very fun account of the blokes who manned the giant communications dish in a small down-under town, commissioned by NASA to track the Apollo 11 craft. Seen it once already, a few years ago. Loved it then, love it now. It went over very well, which I was happy to see, and not very surprised; if you love space travel, you can't help but be moved by this film. (Some cranks always complain when movies that aren't "strictly" SF, by various canonical definitions, are part of the marathon, but there's been one clear winner in this category for the three years I've attended. Last year it was "Groundhog Day", and this year it was "The Dish".)
Have Rocket Will Travel - A Three Stooges movie. We made a point of going out and having dinner through most of it. Returned in time for the big inevitable society pie-fight thing at the end. Sigh.
28 Days Later - Hadn't seen it before. Didn't go out of my way to catch it in theaters, despite (or maybe because of) the praise it won for successfully re-inventing the zombie flick. Not my usual fare, but was actually looking forward to seeing it here, with this crowd. So: while it often teetered right at the very brink of what I can stomach (especially through the first half), I resolved to keep my eyes open and sit very still and let it affect me as it would. And I found the whole experience very tasty and rewarding.
Impressed when people started hissing a certain character immediately upon introduction, and then stopped after I shouted "No spoilers, thanks". (The hissing resumed once the movie made clear why they were doing it in the first place.)
Really enjoyed the camerawork and small visual tricks, especially the strange, strobe-like effect used on the zombies. (Especially enjoyed one scene that showed a normal character and a zombie moving in-frame together, making the subtle effect really stand out.)
Previously unseen audience participation:
Krazy's Race Of Time - I thought this would be about the George Herriman character Krazy Kat, but it wasn't... it was a barely plotted piece of lunacy, perhaps not even five minutes long. Cute in places, and nice to see a well-preserved example of ancient (pre-Technicolor!) animation, but, erm.
Robot Stories - Greg Pak's highly celebrated, low-budget but very nice first feature film. People are gaga over this, both within and without SF circles. I think it's OK; the acting's a little rough at times, and I think one or two of the pieces go on a bit long, but it's most definitely an impressive work given its budget, and was looking forward to seeing it (for the second time) here, and indeed it was very well receieved. I wish it success, and hope that Pak gets enough funding to make the big-budget film he dreams about. (It's returning to the Brattle this month, I believe...)
Demonlover - This, unfortunately, is what I think SF29 will be remembered for. This movie really had absolutely no place here. It wasn't SF by anyone's definition (the closest straw one could grab was that a central plot point involved Internet porn... seriously, that was all), but did contain more than two hours' worth of the escapades of several intensely unlikable characters, capping repeatedly in brutal violence and miserable, antagonistic sex (often mixed with brutal violence; the film's arguable nadir involved two characters fucking, rather explicitly, and then one blows the other's brains out). My friends and I made an agreement to stop referring to the movie directly, but like all horrible things, we find that we just can't stop talking about it (see also Mystery Hunt 2004). M has taken to calling it "beeeep", which is very appropriate.
I continue to insist that I might not have hated it had I come across it in some other context -- flipping through HBO some night, for example. It has a lot of intriguing stuff, such as the sort of multilingualism that which one rarely sees in any movie, where some characters' dialog sections and sometimes whole scenes will switch from the film's native language (French, in this case) to something else (Japanese and English, here). But as an entry in a science fiction film festival it completely inappropriate along many axes, and a real embarrassment.
O the shouting, when the credits rolled. We booed the actors, the director, the hairstylist, everyone. Boo boo boo.
The experience might have been better if people started mocking it sooner; then it would have been more like The Terminal Man from SF27. ("Jump! Jump!")
Incubus - Yes, the famous all-Esperanto film starting pre-Star Trek William Shatner. It's actually a delightfully (and knowingly) strange little film, (though it does get a little silly around the edges) set on an unknown European island during an unclear time period. Many actors seemed to have trouble getting their mouths around the strange language, but Shatner handles it easily and charismatically... it's a sight to see.
Spontaneous audience participation:
The Amazing Transparent Man - Eh.
Mutiny in Outer Space - Eh.
Godzilla vs Megaguirus - Eh. So yes, there was a five-to-six-hour block of unimpressive gunk, here. This was unfortunate.
Alien Director's Cut - Lots of fun. I don't know how many times I've seen "Alien", but I'd not seen this new director's cut, nor had I ever seen the film in a movie theater. Was able to get into the same sort of mind that I achieved for "28 Days", even though I of course knew what was going to happen.
Space Patrol - An unexpected high point and excellent closer. A movie made by boiling down the seven episodes of a 1966 German Star Trek-like TV show, about a flippant, heavy-drinking, ladies-man starship captain and his loyal crew. Included a new soundtrack of what I'd guess you'd call power-lounge, which was entirely appropriate. I must obtain this on DVD.
The Matrix - Third time I've seen it, first time on the big screen. I like it except for the scenes where the heroes gun down (and then plow exploding helicopters into) innocent people without a second thought or the slightest remorse. I hissed at them very loudly when they do this. Fuckers. Stay on mission!
M and I confused D & K and probably some other people by having giggling fits at apparently random moments, because we were both remembering this. "You think that's air you're breathing now?" Hee hee hee.
The Giant Claw - A piece of schlock that didn't really push my "it's so bad it's good" buttons. The set-piece in this one is surely the stupidest movie-monster ever made, a giant goony bird puppet with visible strings. It's hilarious when it makes its first appearance, but then there's an hour of movie left... ugh. Much of it horrible SCREECH SCREECH sounds, and really, bad sound effects are rarely funny in the way bad visuals are. They just hurt.
Notable: the narrator's unmistakable Boston accent. The man-eating anti-matta buhd, and the terra and the horra it spread. (Shots of people looking into the sky with vague worry.)
The Dish - "Apollo 13" in the middle of an Australian sheep paddock. A fictionalized but very fun account of the blokes who manned the giant communications dish in a small down-under town, commissioned by NASA to track the Apollo 11 craft. Seen it once already, a few years ago. Loved it then, love it now. It went over very well, which I was happy to see, and not very surprised; if you love space travel, you can't help but be moved by this film. (Some cranks always complain when movies that aren't "strictly" SF, by various canonical definitions, are part of the marathon, but there's been one clear winner in this category for the three years I've attended. Last year it was "Groundhog Day", and this year it was "The Dish".)
Have Rocket Will Travel - A Three Stooges movie. We made a point of going out and having dinner through most of it. Returned in time for the big inevitable society pie-fight thing at the end. Sigh.
28 Days Later - Hadn't seen it before. Didn't go out of my way to catch it in theaters, despite (or maybe because of) the praise it won for successfully re-inventing the zombie flick. Not my usual fare, but was actually looking forward to seeing it here, with this crowd. So: while it often teetered right at the very brink of what I can stomach (especially through the first half), I resolved to keep my eyes open and sit very still and let it affect me as it would. And I found the whole experience very tasty and rewarding.
Impressed when people started hissing a certain character immediately upon introduction, and then stopped after I shouted "No spoilers, thanks". (The hissing resumed once the movie made clear why they were doing it in the first place.)
Really enjoyed the camerawork and small visual tricks, especially the strange, strobe-like effect used on the zombies. (Especially enjoyed one scene that showed a normal character and a zombie moving in-frame together, making the subtle effect really stand out.)
Previously unseen audience participation:
MAIN CHARACTER (wandering around a deserted city, confused): [Shouting] Hello?
AUDIENCE: Hello!
MAIN: Hello?
AUDIENCE: Hello!
Krazy's Race Of Time - I thought this would be about the George Herriman character Krazy Kat, but it wasn't... it was a barely plotted piece of lunacy, perhaps not even five minutes long. Cute in places, and nice to see a well-preserved example of ancient (pre-Technicolor!) animation, but, erm.
Robot Stories - Greg Pak's highly celebrated, low-budget but very nice first feature film. People are gaga over this, both within and without SF circles. I think it's OK; the acting's a little rough at times, and I think one or two of the pieces go on a bit long, but it's most definitely an impressive work given its budget, and was looking forward to seeing it (for the second time) here, and indeed it was very well receieved. I wish it success, and hope that Pak gets enough funding to make the big-budget film he dreams about. (It's returning to the Brattle this month, I believe...)
Demonlover - This, unfortunately, is what I think SF29 will be remembered for. This movie really had absolutely no place here. It wasn't SF by anyone's definition (the closest straw one could grab was that a central plot point involved Internet porn... seriously, that was all), but did contain more than two hours' worth of the escapades of several intensely unlikable characters, capping repeatedly in brutal violence and miserable, antagonistic sex (often mixed with brutal violence; the film's arguable nadir involved two characters fucking, rather explicitly, and then one blows the other's brains out). My friends and I made an agreement to stop referring to the movie directly, but like all horrible things, we find that we just can't stop talking about it (see also Mystery Hunt 2004). M has taken to calling it "beeeep", which is very appropriate.
I continue to insist that I might not have hated it had I come across it in some other context -- flipping through HBO some night, for example. It has a lot of intriguing stuff, such as the sort of multilingualism that which one rarely sees in any movie, where some characters' dialog sections and sometimes whole scenes will switch from the film's native language (French, in this case) to something else (Japanese and English, here). But as an entry in a science fiction film festival it completely inappropriate along many axes, and a real embarrassment.
O the shouting, when the credits rolled. We booed the actors, the director, the hairstylist, everyone. Boo boo boo.
The experience might have been better if people started mocking it sooner; then it would have been more like The Terminal Man from SF27. ("Jump! Jump!")
Incubus - Yes, the famous all-Esperanto film starting pre-Star Trek William Shatner. It's actually a delightfully (and knowingly) strange little film, (though it does get a little silly around the edges) set on an unknown European island during an unclear time period. Many actors seemed to have trouble getting their mouths around the strange language, but Shatner handles it easily and charismatically... it's a sight to see.
Spontaneous audience participation:
CHARACTER STUMBLING AROUND BLINDLY, SEEKING HER BROTHER, MARCO: [Shouting]Marco?
AUDIENCE: Polo!
CHARACTER: Marco?
AUDIENCE: Polo!
LATER, SIREN-LIKE VOICE CALLING OUT TO THE MAIN CHARACTER: Maaaaar-cooooo!
AUDIENCE: [In matching singsong, and falsetto as appropriate] Pooooo-looooo!
The Amazing Transparent Man - Eh.
Mutiny in Outer Space - Eh.
Godzilla vs Megaguirus - Eh. So yes, there was a five-to-six-hour block of unimpressive gunk, here. This was unfortunate.
Alien Director's Cut - Lots of fun. I don't know how many times I've seen "Alien", but I'd not seen this new director's cut, nor had I ever seen the film in a movie theater. Was able to get into the same sort of mind that I achieved for "28 Days", even though I of course knew what was going to happen.
Space Patrol - An unexpected high point and excellent closer. A movie made by boiling down the seven episodes of a 1966 German Star Trek-like TV show, about a flippant, heavy-drinking, ladies-man starship captain and his loyal crew. Included a new soundtrack of what I'd guess you'd call power-lounge, which was entirely appropriate. I must obtain this on DVD.