I know, I know, the original quote is “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” I’m enough of a Heinlein buff to remember that. But I’m also aware of the fact that posting stuff on here requires an investment of time, and for most people, time is money. Just like money buys information, information is power, power is corrupting, and corruption (according to some) is just a matter of time. See what I did there? It’s circular.
Anyway.
More than once I have been told “You should get paid to do this.” It’s a sentiment I really appreciate, and Polymancer Studios will indeed be paying me, but not for my Netflix posts. I’ll be following up with them after I wrap up this little update, which includes an expansion of my site.
That little link you might have overlooked? Look again. IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! now has its own page.
I have a little bio page up as well, but that’s beside the point. One of the things that brings people here and keeps them interested definitely deserves to be featured on its own apart from my daily dribbling about writing, gaming, kittens and generally being a dull, uninteresting nerd. It includes a list of ICFN! posts, how I got started doing them and how readers like you can contribute to keep it going even longer.
I have no idea how this is going to turn out. My inbox for suggestions/donations might just sit around collecting dust and cobwebs or I might get a flood of requests for movies I’d normally have zero interest in watching. I guess we’ll just have to see once I get all of this posted.
Like any entertainer worth their salt, I’m doing my best to be aware of what my audience wants. Maybe someone out there wants me reviewing more comedies and less sci-fi. Perhaps there’s a gem of an old fantasy movie that so far has gone unnoticed and unreviewed. It’s likely that a person reading this is thinking of a favorite film that they believe will become a favorite of mine as well.
I’ll make you no promises save this: I’m willing to watch just about anything. I can’t promise I’ll like it, and if I don’t I’ll make damn sure you know it. I try to act like something resembling a professional in this space, which is why I do my utmost to post every day. I know I’ll get some stick for doing that, since in reality I’m about as Peter Pan as someone can get without donning pointy shoes and a fetching green hat, but dammit, I can pretend.
If there’s a song that better encapsulates both the plot and mood of a film, I’ve yet to hear it. Flash Gordon is based upon two things: a science fiction comic strip, and the 1930’s adventure film serial starring Buster Crabbe. Long before the likes of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and RDM’s Battlestar Galactica came along as pioneers in the realm of ‘darker and edgier’ science fiction stories, a trend that Flash would himself follow, the use of older material like this was more about a homage than a revision. However, Flash Gordon comes to us with one intention in mind, one that lies at the root of the reason why we see movies in the first place: to have some fun.
Evil: It’s A Growth Industry!
Flash Gordon‘s story begins with a simple question: “What do despotic galactic overlords do when they get bored?” If you’re Ming the Merciless (Max van Sydow), you toy with the eco-system of a planet that can’t fight back. In this case, Ming picks on Earth. NASA informs the public that the phenomena making Mother Earth scream obscenities are perfectly natural and nothing to worry about, but mad scientist Hans Zarkov (Topol) is the only man sane enough to recognize this abusive weather as an attack from outer space. At gunpoint, he brings two people who happened into his lab along on his journey to halt the attacks: journalist Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) and football superstar Flash Gordon (Sam J Jones). In short order, the Earthlings find themselves among the planets of Mongo, and when Flash realizes who this despot is and what he’s about, he sets his sights on kicking this guy square in his Merciless Mings.
Flash! And the most impractical sword in the universe!
Forget the grayish browns and brownish grays that predominate most modern science fiction story. Flash Gordon is bursting at the seams with bright colors, shimmering costumes and characters that have some memorable features right down to the bit players. In addition to being a treat for the eyeballs, the whole affair has a campiness to it. The only thing terribly serious about the film is how much its tongue is stuck in its cheek. But it’s not taking the piss out of science fiction in a mean-spirited way. It feels like a send-up rather than a parody, a loving callback to the things people love about reading the strips in the newspaper – remember newspapers? – and seeing Buster run around in those short pants of his. I think the most important thing about Flash Gordon, though, is that everybody seems to be having fun. From Max van Sydow’s deliciously malevolent Ming to Timothy Dalton’s swashbuckling sylvan prince, the whole cast seems to be going along with the ridiculous nature of the film’s premise because it’s the most fun they’ve had since they decided to make a living pretending to be other people. I mean, they gave Brian Blessed wings and a large blunt weapon – how can you not have fun in that get-up?
Seriously. Look at that man’s grin.
This is a film that, by today’s standards, would not work as a legitimate science fiction adventure. I think we’ve become a bit too used to the sort of gritty pseudo-realism present in Avatar or District 9. Even the Star Wars films, once known for high adventure among the stars for better and for worse, became darker as they wore on in recent years, along with becoming less coherent. Now, I don’t mind science fiction staying tethered somewhat to the realm of the possible, but the fact that Flash Gordon zooms directly towards the border of the ridiculous and crosses it without nary a backward glance makes it surprisingly refreshing. This story has no deep message, no philosophical bent, not even that much of a plot. But unlike the works of Lucas, this feeling is intentional, and while it’s been said you can’t do camp on purpose, Flash Gordon camps things up so much, it’s hard to imagine the filmmakers not knowing how outlandish the end product would be.
Do I even have to mention Princess Aura? Define “hubba-hubba”.
Entertainment, especially in escapist forms like movies and video games, is about having fun. It’s about losing oneself in the experience provided by the medium. Sometimes you can lose yourself in a deep and touching story, but there are also times when you as an audience member just want to sit back and enjoy the show. Flash Gordon doesn’t punish you for trying to think during the movie the way other badly made films might – rather, it elbows you in the ribs and tells you we’re here to have fun, not to wonder how Flash can survive on a rocket cycle in space with no enclosure or exactly how the physics of Mongo work. Yeah, the plot is thinner than a thread-bare shoestring and the special effects might seem laughably produced in comparison to modern robust CGI suites, but you know what? In this case, none of that matters. Flash Gordon is all about having fun, and that’s why we watch movies. If you’ve forgotten that, gentle reader, put this on your Netflix queue right away. If nothing else, you have an excuse for playing Queen’s music at high volume, and if you don’t think that’s fun, check your pulse. You’re probably dead. And only Flash can save you now.
Josh Loomis can’t always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it’s unclear if this week’s film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain… IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.
Alfred Hitchcock once said that there’s a big difference between surprise and suspense. I hope he won’t mind if I paraphrase a little. If I were sitting here talking about movies, and my desk were to explode because someone planted a bomb here, that’d be a surprise. Now, if you as the audience knew there was a bomb under my desk, and I sat here for the next six minutes or so blathering on about a movie, only to get up and walk away without the bomb going off, that’s suspense. And we wouldn’t necessarily need jump-cut shots to a ticking timer or dramatic music playing. No, just an establishing shot of the bomb being placed, then me coming in and sitting down to do another one of these recordings, without any other trappings or clever gimmicks. That’s good storytelling, right? Right. The makers of The Hurt Locker know suspense from surprise, and have created one of the most suspenseful movies I have ever seen in my life. It stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Evangeline Lilly, David Morse, Ralph Finnes and Guy Pearce.
“…Oh boy.”
The Hurt Locker follows the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit Bravo Company during the summer of 2004 in Iraq. Staff Sergeant Will James (Renner) is a soldier who defuses bombs. He’s one of the best, even if his methods can seem a trifle cavalier or even reckless to others, especially Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Mackie), who is charged with James’ safety during his operations. Yet this seeming bravado is just the first impression of a brilliant professional who understands his role in the grand scheme of modern warfare and also carries a great deal of compassion for those around him despite his outward appearances and behavior. As Bravo Company embarks on one potentially deadly mission after another, we are drawn into their lives and shown the environment in which these men toil, from the desolate wastes of the desert to the equally deadly streets of Baghdad.
There are some movies that, when a war is mentioned, I think of almost instantly. World War 2 brings Saving Private Ryan to mind. Discussions of Vietnam trigger memories of Full Metal Jacket. I spend just as much time remembering Jarhead as I do my own childhood experiences when the first Gulf War is mentioned. The current conflict in the Middle East remains a muddy, ill-defined struggle, but The Hurt Locker brings the lives of the participants into sharp relief. This film is every bit as intimate as it is intense. It never becomes political or preachy, focusing entirely on these men and the situations into which they put themselves day after day. Like the other films I’ve mentioned, we see these soldiers not so much as swaggering macho heroes but more as flawed, driven human beings who are all the more heroic because of their shortcomings.
“This one, I’m gonna disarm with the sheer power of my massive balls.”
This film is almost entirely without a musical score. The scenes involving the defusing of explosive devices and stalking an enemy sniper are possessed of a chilling stillness, which builds the tension with each passing, quiet moment. The shots are not cut short to try and jar us into a tense feeling artificially, but are left long on the faces and fingers of the protagonists, ensuring we understand who is doing what at which point in time and thus becoming more invested in the outcome of the scene. And in an odd yet telling juxtaposition, one of the film’s closing scenes that takes place in a suburban supermarket, far from the front or anything resembling danger, has an extremely similar stillness about it.
A lesser team of storytellers might pack a film like this with explosions from end to end. But considering this is a story about soldiers tasked with disarming ordnance, rather than setting it off, one of the many factors of The Hurt Locker that works so well is the fact that we are aware of the fact that any of the bombs we see might go off. Hitchcock would be proud, as writer Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow build layer upon layer in every scene to mount the tension to an explosive potential not unlike that possessed by the bombs themselves. It’s also established very early in the film that these are not the sort of explosions that our heroes can have much hope of outrunning. There are no rushing fireballs chasing our heroes down corridors here, no shiny CGI to make these explosions look larger than life. They don’t have to be larger than life: they are awesome, deadly and downright ugly just as they are. You don’t want to be anywhere near them, yet the men and women whose daily lives inspired the story of Bravo Company choose to get right next to them every single day.
“I popped that smoke myself. Why? Because covering fire is for pussies.”
This is one of those movies I’m sorry I missed in the theater. Not because I think it would be more impressive on a big screen, since it held me in rapt attention from start to finish on my television just as it would in a cinema. No, I would have liked to given these artists more monetary support. The talent on display in The Hurt Locker, from Jeremy Renner’s star-making performance to Katheryn Bigelow’s near-perfect direction to Mark Boal’s captivating screenplay, is a wonder to behold in a cinematic environment where gimmick is king and stories are often sacrificed on the altar of CGI and cheap adaptations. Whatever your feelings might be about the conflict in Iraq, the United States military or a movie that didn’t do all that well at the box office, you owe it to yourself to see this movie. I think it’s a strong contender for Best Picture at the Oscars, provided James Cameron doesn’t buy the committee five-star dinners and oral sex with his massive box office returns.
The bombs in the film are designed to blow up human targets. If you’re anything like me, you will agree The Hurt Locker is designed to blow your mind.
Josh Loomis can’t always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it’s unclear if this week’s film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain… IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.
Today’s update is going to be quick and dirty, folks. Let’s just dive right into my thought processes about how I’m wasting spending my free time.
Last week I tried to put together a video supplement for my preview of Star Trek Online. Since Flash is the ‘new media’ platform with which I’m most familiar, I figured that the least time-consuming method for achieving my goal would be to use that platform. Sadly, I was mistaken, and I ended up burning a lot more time on the project than I probably should have. And the end result wasn’t even in a video format easily disseminated to other formats or venues.
With some measure of disgust, I filed that project away and got back to work. I have a day job, after all, no real time for dilly-dallying or rumination upon how to improve upon something that, to me, didn’t turn out very well at all. But as time went on and I thought more about the various tools at my disposal and efforts I’ve made in the past to branch out beyond static text, I thought back to Powerless.
Remember that? Powerless, my attempt to break into the high-profile world of the Escapist’s video elite? The concept of talking about things gamers can do to amuse themselves without relying entirely on electricity still strikes me as solid, I think my effort got bogged down with trying to add a story element to what is essentially a vlog. That’s “video blog” for those not up on the lingo.
Anyway, Powerless was assembled using Adobe AfterEffects. For some reason, I had filed that program away as something to only be used when actually recorded video is involved. But, au contraire! A video is images matched with sounds along a timeline, right? And my Star Trek Online preview is – anyone? anyone? – images matched with sound along a timeline. So why not use AfterEffects, reassemble the video portion of the preview, and plop it on YouTube as per my original thought?
This opens the door for other possible projects, as well. Perhaps some images to go along with the soundtracks for IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! or a revamped and more focused Powerless series solely about the tabletop games without any major trappings. Except maybe the bursts of static for transitions. I’m not sure. All I know for certain is that this can’t detract from The Project, my work for Polymancer or any other writing gigs that come my way. Or the day job either. Insert weary sigh here.
What do you all out there think? What would you like to see me vlog (if anything)?
In the early days of science fiction, the aim of its creators was not to impress the audience with bombastic explosions or cutting-edge computer graphics. While the overall goal was to entertain and engage and thus earn a living, they didn’t have the aforementioned crutches upon which to lean. They had to rely solely on the power of their vision, their skills as storytellers and the ability of their ideas to engage. Gattaca has no ray guns, no explosions, no exotic alien creatures, none of the trappings of what really make something stand out as ‘syfy’ fare – but when it comes to classic science fiction in theme, mood and execution, writer-director Andrew Niccol shows us how the likes of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne defined the genre. The film stars Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Alan Arkin, Tony Shaloub, Gore Vidal, Loren Dean, Xander Berkeley and Ernest Borgnine.
In the not-too-distant future, the study of genetics has grown to the point that children can be custom made through liberal eugenics, and that such children are favored over those conceived purely out of love. Vincent Freeman (Hawke) is one of the latter, and when his parents discover his 99% probability of death by heart failure around age 30 coupled with myopia which has all but been eradicated, they guarantee their next child will be more ‘perfect,’ or more ‘valid’. Valid is the term used for children created through the ‘proper’ eugenics, while those like Vincent are called ‘in-valid’. Despite this, however, Vincent is determined to achieve his goal of going into space. To do this he adopts the identity of recently crippled but brilliant Jerome Morrow (Law), and becomes employed by the space-exploring conglomerate called Gattaca. A year-long mission to Titan looms on the horizon, and Vincent’s first in line due to his fake genes and true desire, but the murder of the mission director could put an end to his dreams forever.
Taken on its own, Gattaca is a very smart drama. As a movie, it is well and tightly written with good performances from the actors. The art direction bears particular mention. The look and feel of the film is hauntingly postmodern, showing the use of electric cars and advanced gene scanning equipment against the backdrop of ‘brutalist’ architecture that was prevalent in the 1950s. It lends a familiarity to the story that draws the audience further into the nuanced and well-paced plot. But the virtues of Gattaca don’t stop there. This isn’t just a science fiction drama. It’s a science fiction drama about something.
The film is steeped in symbolism. It plays upon themes of discrimination, destiny, friendship, societal control and sibling rivalry. This is an examination of human nature, and the influences that define, drive and shape the human spirit. While the film is quite clear on the stance it takes with these issues, it never becomes completely overbearing in conveying its message. The story and themes are handled with elegance, downplaying most potential bombast with human emotions that feel real. This might make the film seem bland or lifeless to some viewers, but the plot, acting and thematic elements make Gattaca a taut, stunning dramatic thriller.
More than anything else, Gattaca reminds us that the only true obstacle an individual has to achieving their goals is themselves. It is far too easy for society or an employer or even one’s family to lay out boundaries for the individual, saying “This is where you belong, who you are and what we expect of you. Nice people do not deviate from their boundaries.” When politeness and conformity are the norm, an individual can feel compelled to swallow their dreams and follow procedure and protocol for the sake of avoiding confrontation. But the truth of the matter is that the dream of the individual is a precious thing, and as a society becomes more regimented and compartmentalized, those dreams are often casualties in the silent but deadly war for the human soul. We have to fight for our dreams, to keep them alive and bring them from our imaginations into reality, and there is going to be opposition every step of the way. Gattaca shows us that even the most imposing obstacles are surmountable, and as I have said on numerous occasions, we only truly fail in our struggle to be who we want to be if we quit and allow others to tell us who we are, rather than insisting on our right to exist, live and thrive on our own terms.
I apologize for the soapbox nature I just got into, but suffice it to say that Gattaca is more than just a good-looking science-fiction drama, and if you agree with any of the points I’ve just made, about storytelling or otherwise, it’s worth your time to watch this film. It’s available via Netflix’s instant queue, so even in this there’s truth to be found. In the end, the only thing truly stopping you… is you.
Josh Loomis can’t always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it’s unclear if this week’s film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain… IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.
