Review: "Fast & Furious 6"

Over on the official MovieBoozer Facebook page, a question was posed to readers: When does a film cross the line from stupid-fun to just plain stupid? This being the season for big and loud Hollywood blockbusters, it's a perfect time to provide an answer. So many sequels, so much potential money to be made, so much money to burn - and so many fine examples.

What is a "plain stupid" movie? There are many components that are considered; plot, logic, character behavior, etc. But, for me, none of those necessarily equal "plain stupid" by themselves or even together. Movies like The Room and Birdemic may be incompetent technically, and laughter usually ensues from this, but they remain fun to watch. Why? Aside from laughing at the incorrect skills and unusual moments of the film, there is sometimes a genuine effort going on that shines through the screen. Sure, the cast and crew were over their heads, but they at least tried. That's admirable.

"Plain stupid", for me, is when there is no joy or redeemable quality to be had from a film. No effort to attempt to elevate the material from stupid to fun, just a paycheck and a job to do.

The Fast and the Furious franchise didn't start on the right side of the line, but it eventually crossed over.


Fast & Furious 6 finds the team in exile from their last job. But they are soon brought back into action when they are offered a new job - working for Interpol to capture a high level criminal, who has ties to an old friend of theirs. Cars crash, bodies fly and explosions explode. Nothing else matters.

Seriously.

Justin Lin took over the series with Tokyo Drift, and has done every movie since. While I have not seen those movies, there must be a reason as to why he was given the director's chair all those times. In watching 6, I understood. Lin understands how to present stupid without being stupid. In other words, he is capable of elevating the material given, without alienating the target audience. A perfect director, actually.

Now, don't get me wrong; this is a dumb movie. There are moments when the logic within the story is broken, and characters don't notice. Like when the team is hired. They are brought to a makeshift headquarters to take down this international criminal because, I assume, Interpol has tried and failed too many times. Then, in the next scene, the team is watching as Interpol performs a raid on the bad guys location. If you were going to do a raid with a freaking army, WHY DID YOU NEED TO HIRE THIS SMALL TEAM?

But there were two deeper points being made at that moment: 1. It was to establish the cunning and dangerous nature of the bad guy and 2. The logic doesn't matter. In the scene after, we get a roughly ten minute car chase, featuring multiple crashes. The cinematography and editing was spot on, making me understand and feel what was at stake for the characters, without the premise of the situation even making much sense. Impressive. If the action is done well, you'll be saying "Awesome!" instead of "Boo!"

Lin also understands that we need to care, at least a little, about the characters and what they are going through. Without that, why should we invest in the action? Vin Diesel has a wonderful nighttime stand off with the villain. Both men banter about family, honor and code in a very tense manner. There eyes rarely unlock from one another. If you know nothing about the previous Lin Furious films, you'll learn all you need from that one scene. And, for something big and dumb, all we need is that one scene.

"Stupid-fun", for me, is dumb material that is understood and elevated by the people involved. They are not stupid and are putting in all the effort they can. Out of that, can be something worth eating popcorn to. And don't be embarrassed about joining others on that side of the line - there's plenty of room.

3/5 *s
  

Review: "0s & 1s"

Cross posted from InvadeNOLA and MoviePass:

When I was making the transition from elementary to middle school, my family had just gotten AOL - which, at the time, was a major IP. Before this, we had only used the computer as a video game system and word processor. Now, we can chat with users in other countries!  Incredible!

Almost two decades later, the technology has improved; from dial up to DSL, from by the minute to by the month, from chat room to social network, and from computer to phone/tablet/tv. Everyone is now reachable at just the click of a button. Any button.

But, almost two decades later, has the technology improved or worsened our social skills? Is so much access overkill?

James Pongo is about to learn something about himself. He enjoys a wired lifestyle that allows him to stay connected to old friends and keep enough physical distance from the ones he dislikes. But, when his laptop goes missing, James is forced to *gasp* confront people in an effort to get back his all important tool.

"0s & 1s" is the story not only of a generation, but of where we are at right now. There is a relatable anxiety going on here. I'll admit that it's easier for me to send an email or a tweet than to meet the actual person in a real world setting. There is something now uncomfortable and almost unfamiliar about communicating face to face. Whenever I leave the house, I hook my phone on my holster (yes, a holster). When I get home, I check my inbox, my facebook newsfeed and my twitter stream. I keep my browser up for days on end. I'm so attentive to all of this, I even get annoyed when an email isn't responded to quickly enough. Social etiquette? Is that a thing?

The film doesn't just express this problem through the story itself, but through the visuals as well. When the movie begins, and James wakes, a computer boots up, and a desktop appears. His real life is then represented by various digital components - chat room conversations, social network profiles, video games, DVR platforms, texting, viruses, etc. Screens and windows are everywhere. It's so oversaturated, but oh so familiar and comfortable. This IS where we are at.

During Hurricane Isaac, we lost power for two days. I used up my macbook and mp3 player battery power pretty fast. I was almost lost without my online self. But, at my low point, I reached up and picked a book. Then, I opened it, and read a few chapters. I may have lost one connection, but I still had another one; a more important one. But man, was I glad when the lights on my router came back on.

5/5 *'s

>>>> This film will be making its New Orleans debut on Sept. 27th at The Alamo Underground... but only if we can secure at least 10 tickets. Go to Local Screen right now and make this happen!

"...and it SUCKED!"

Image via Wikipedia

OogieRah and I had been talking about making a movie together for years. Many a late night phone call would involve scenes with the intent of shocking/pissing off an audience, and how fun it would be to get away with it. Around mid September, word started to spread on Facebook and Twitter of a Super 8 film contest in New Orleans; one 3 minute reel of film, in camera edits, see the film for the 1st time with everybody else - very dangerous, very cool. Opportunity given, we signed up.

Now, the original idea for our short was a bit more our liking; a guy makes a sandwich, walks upstairs, opens a bedroom door to reveal a female's foot tied to the bed. The End. No explanation, no resolution. Not being able to cast a foot model in time, we went with a more lighthearted idea; me, setting up a movie screening at a college campus, alone. Not bad, as I had done this very task several times before. And so, without permission to shoot on SLU campus property, we went ahead with production on "Screen This!". It only took a few hours to shoot. Next door to a heavily occupied student government meeting, we risked getting kicked out, but it's not like we were doing anything REALLY wrong.

About a week or so later, we made our way to New Orleans. The film had already been dropped off, and supposedly developed without incident. Along with his girlfriend, we arrived on time, for what was called The Yeah Brah & Woah Dee Festival, The NOLA Underground Super 8 Film Festival, and The One Reel Super 8 Contest. Without a clear name, I turned to my friend and said, "I hate this already".

After a short assemblage of local shorts, we were treated to an obnoxiously long parade of DJ music, rap, and the stylings of MC Chris Lane. Not to say that the musicians were horrible - far from it. But excuse me for expecting FILMS at a FILM FESTIVAL (to be fair, the musical performances were announced in advance, but who knew they would last so long?). The three of us sat on our bench, uncomfortably, for several hours, waiting...

Finally, it was time for the screening we were waiting for. The super 8 shorts were shown on what I'm guessing was a DVD, and for the most part, were pretty clever. But one short in particular caught our attention; announced as Lori Tipton's. It was black. 3 minutes of black. A rough image here and there, but nothing distinguishable. Pure blackness. Part of what made the contest interesting was that if the filmmakers messed up, there was no going back; it would be shown, no matter what. Clearly, something didn't go right for this person. "Sorry, but that last film was not by Lori Tipton, but by Bill Arceneaux and Patrick Simmons. And IT SUCKED! IT SUCKED!"

We were shocked. Was that really our film? Sure we only spent a few hours making it, but it was ours. Nah. Maybe they made a mistake. We stayed until the last short of the screening to make sure - but it was, indeed, our film. Our mistake. We tried to figure out what happened; Did we load it in wrong? Did we remove the film incorrectly? Was it improperly developed? One of the festival promoters was just as surprised as we were. We left One Eyed Jacks not as entertained film enthusiasts or as trophy holders, but as self disappointed amateurs. I picked up a Mountain Dew Voltage, and they got some McDonalds afterwards. "We could always say we intended it to be all black. You know, to mess with people". That made us smile.

Note - please don't take this as a diss to the festival promoters TimeCode:NOLA. The comments made about the festival were just to describe how out of place we felt. When films were being shown, we had a blast (except for when ours was shown), and may show up again if another festival is planned for next year. Just leave Chris Lane at home.

A Movie For The #Hashtag Revolution

Moving closer towards the singularity, people have begun using the internet for things beyond shopping and porn. Social networking and blogging have not only given us a way to learn about global issues in real time, but also a means to protest in real time. The leaderless hacktivist collective Anonymous, as well as whistle blower site WikiLeaks, have inspired a new generation of protesters and organizers to not only take to the streets, but to their desktops and laptops. Is a company/government practicing unfair/illegal policies? Take them offline and tweet sensitive data. Want to be kept up to date on a protest that's not being covered by news outlets? Follow a hashtag and/or "like" a group. And, above all else, spread the word!
Image via Wikipedia
While I wholeheartedly agree with these organizations, I have to admit that I feel I haven't done enough to support them. I retweet, I share links (probably at the annoyance of friends and family), I use hashtags - but it doesn't feel like "enough". So, I'm about to use this blog entry to help out a bit more. To express an idea. An idea for a movie.

Hollywood, through V for Vendetta, can be partially thanked for providing modern protesters with the idea of wearing Guy Fawkes masks. I doubt, however, that most protesters would want their story told by a major studio. Sure, it would help bring attention to various issues, but it would not only be a conflict of interest (an anti-establishment film made by the establishment), but would probably become a mess. For this story to be properly told, we need a filmmaker who is young and independent of the system. More importantly, we need a filmmaker who understands the language that has helped coordinate and spread protests all over the world and is almost universal in understanding (except for the elderly). The language I'm talking about is that of the computer/internet. And the filmmaker that could pull off this movie is Eugene Kotlyarenko:

"The predominant screen of our time is the one you're looking at right now. We spend 1...2...4...10 hours a day on the computer; moving around windows, listening to music, processing hundreds of opinions, looking at others' adventures, discovering unknown worlds, making faraway friends, doing vanity searches, buying stuff, writing messages and entries and documents. This is our behavior. For better or worse, this is our life. All of it is now natural. No one gets confused as they sit in front of the computer and see and click and process everything, all at once. It becomes intuitive. It becomes a common language. Why not acknowledge that we are speaking this new language? Why not use this new language to tell a story? Why not tell the story on that other screen? That 20th century screen, the big silvery one, the one people go to and get their stories in one epic serving."

This director's statement, for his film "0s & 1s", is all you need to know that Eugene is the man for the job. He understands this generation and how we now process/deliver information. While I haven't yet viewed this film, I have seen his internet exclusive project "Skydiver". You would think that a movie, released in serial format, comprised of webcam chats via screen capture software, would be a tad boring. But, at no point did I feel like turning away and doing something else. Combining both the intimate photography provided by a computer monitor, as well as a clever move in tricking facebook users that this was a "real" diary series, "Skydiver" stands as one of the most memorable experiences I've had in streaming online content. No doubt, this is the kind of style needed for a film about modern online activism.

I imagine a film released for free (torrent, youtube, etc). This film could re-purpose news footage, political speeches and protest videos, and show them within an internet browser. It could feature a scene, with music, where a group of characters (visible only by their avatars), dialogue/emoticon with one another via tweet. Perhaps a sequence of computer hacking, followed by a news report regarding said hack. Webcam chats, featuring people with blurred out faces or donning Guy Fawkes masks (not all of them). And, of course, live streaming protest footage, shot using cell phones and tablets. 

This is what I can currently offer my generation of protesters and activists, besides my retweeting and sharing - an idea. An idea for a movie that captures this new movement. Until it gets made, I'll help spread the word - #OccupyWallStreet

 

Salo-Thon on Storify

Recently, Oogie Rah and I held a live tweetathon of one of the most controversial films of all time. Mostly observations and riffing, it has all been compiled using Storify. Enjoy: