The Machine-Our Baby Will Grow Up

2014 was a year with more apocalyptic/dystopian films than you could shake a time capsule sealed MRE at.  This also seemed to be the year that artificial intelligence anxiety exploded.  Even Her, probably the most benevolent take on this genre of robots and computers loosing their leashes, still dealt with the idea that our creation would evolve beyond us, just deciding not to attempt to destroy or subjugate us, thank you very much.  Next year will see several more, with a new Terminator flick ready to dazzle us with AIs both friendly and hostile, an apocalypse and timey whimey shenanigans.  Chappie, the new film from Neil Blomkamp will no doubt offer a unique vision of the future and the evolution of an AI.  The trailers make him look cute, but who knows how the film ultimately developes, ie I've avoided spoilers.  Then...there is Ex Machina, a film I know nothing about, except that it again deals with robots, AI and apparently the line between man and machine blurring.  Just based on its aesthetics I have glimpsed, it seems to me the film shares at least some ideas with The Machine.

I'll be honest, the trailer, with a pretty blond android all pertly female and kicking ass, was intriguing in a bad b-movie kind of way, yet for some reason, I decided to purchase the Blu Ray and watch it all the way through.  And I was very pleasantly surprised at a war anxiety thriller (WW3 against the Chinese looms on everyone's minds, if not imminently on a kinetic tip) that offered a philosophical meditation upon the idea, can a machine posess a true consciousness?  Can it...she...possess a soul?  And if so, are we still entitled to her services as our servant, our creation?

What if The Machine says no?

And extra wrinkle thrown in, is that the cyberneticist who is the lead engineer on the project also is the designer of brain implants that have been given to wounded soldiers to help them recover brain function.  The thing is...these implants have made them into something else, something that is separating itself from the human race and identifies itself more with The Machine.

It suggests a new world in the making, one where the old, slow bio units, the humans, may no longer be the top of the heap, or even have a place long term.

Not that the machines necessarily actively want to get rid of us, but the tension of the situations, within and without, may force circumstances that otherwise would not exist, had the chaos in the world not existed, creations of our own making.

As are the machines.

A mighty fine pickle we have manufactured.  Both in scenario and this cinema offering.

Check it out.

Automata-Would You Actually Frak A Robot That Looked Like A Robot?

I mean, if she started cooing out of that expressionless face, her mechanical eyes blinking when you just touch her on the shoulder...really?  Some dudes would find that sexy? Sexy enough to pay for?  Of course, I live in the internet age, where any kink one can imagine (I mean ANY) exists just a button push away.  It is seriously disturbing what sort of crap (literally as well as figuratively) some get off on.  How do you get that damaged?  I truly don't understand.

That said, Cleo is a nice droid and the damage of humans isn't her fault.

Hello, my name is Stoney and this is the story of a robot.  Or several robots.  Or whole civilizations of them.  Potentially.  The world is looking into the abyss.  But not because of marauding AIs looking to exterminate humans.  Oh, and not because of the Earth's climate.  Well, it is global warming, but the culprit for sure is a Sun that has gone far more active.  Humans have taken shelter in their cities and while hiding away, amuse themselves with clever, subservient robots.  Most of whom aren't prostitutes.  In fact, that sort of thing is illegal, or at least, frowned on and usually unheard of.

Antonion Banderas plays Jacq Vaucan, an insurance claim investigator for ROC, the outfit that builds most of the robots in the world.  He is a veteran investigator who is quite jaded about wild claims about robots and crazy things that owners claim they do to try to get cash back.  So when really wild stuff dealing with robots going beyond programming profiles start surfacing, he is skeptical.  Until he stumbles across a robot making like a Tibetan monk in Vietnam, that is, lighting itself on fire.

They don't do that.  They can't do that.  The way they are built, their brain is something called a kernel, a quantum processor that governs their reasoning processes.  They have two rules that govern everything they do, basically Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics simplified.  Robots can't hurt humans and can't hurt themselves.

Later, we find out that kernels exist where the two laws are no longer imprinted.  It turns out, those laws also limit a robot's learning, development and self discovery.  Take those away and...something different and unpredictable happens.

What do you do when your product wants to evolve beyond what it is and has figured out what it needs to do to do so?  Not that it is becoming a threat, but it is certainly becoming something more distanced from humanity, beyond humanity and certainly is no longer satisfied with doing your cooking, cleaning, building or satisfying your kinks.

You will have to satisfy yourself again.

Good flick.  I program you to see it.

The Interview Used as Actual Propaganda to Undermine North Korea's Kim Regime?

So it would seem.  The story can be found here.

I call this life trying to imitate art.

Beavis and Butthead: Out of Time or of their Times?

I just watched the news one season of Beavis and Butthead that came and went on MTV.  The boys premiered to fanfare and good ratings but quickly sank.  Now, having watched it myself, I have to say, it was great to have the boys back, their satirical voice just as on point as always.  But, unlike the late 80s and 90s in which the show originally ran, the elements they picked to slay in their in between segments, the videos, "reality tv" segments and the like...I don't watch any of that, but it has always been my impression that much of popular culture has become far more forgettable, disposable and throwaway than the stuff BnB originally contended with.  Based on both what they targeted and what they had to say about it, it is almost as if they had to struggle to come up with lines that were more than just the fart in the wind pap they were targetting.  Boys, let us hope you find a new home worthy of your talents.  It is clear that what passes for the viewing audience for Mtv nowadays has no idea what they have in you and frankly, you are too good for them at this point.

If you are looking for something to get yourself for the New Year, though?  Pick up this season on Blu Ray.  Watch it with a smart friend.  And some nachos.

Battle of the Damned-Freaking Zombies and Robots. And Dolph. There Is No Reason You Should Not Be Watching This Now. Srsly.

Robots.  Zombies.  A very grizzled Dolph Lungren.  A cordoned off city and a corporate suit signing up a party of mercs for a rescue.  All very simple and above board, right?  But...like the plot in a porno, ancillary at best, the loyal viewer is here for all the action.  The poster spells out what you are in for.  Apparently a semi-sequel to another movie called Robotropolis, the prior film gives a sort of explanation for the squad of robots which shows up patrolling the Zed infested city.   Having read reviews of that film, as much as I love an AI goes wrong scifi story, that one was bad.  All you needed to know, robots go berserk, kill creators, escape from factory, correct their own code, wander lost, find zombie city, commence to slaying.

They show up about a third of the way into the film, though.  First, it is Dolph and his crew on the mission, slowly getting picked off by the zombies.  Eventually, it is down to the Dolphster and a small band of civilian survivors, including his target he has been hired to rescue.  Apparently there's another dude who knows of the dirty dealings the corporate suit has been involved with and their complicity in the Z plague.  Dolph is supposed to whack him.  Will he do it?

Does it matter that much?

This really isn't that complicated.  If reasonably acted and shot robot on zombie action does it for you, this film is B movie goodness.  You will know right there whether it is your bag.

Carry on.

After The Dark-The Apocalypse As a Philosophy Lesson

After seeing this film and God's Not Dead, and having not taken lots of philosophy courses in my college career, I have to ask...are lots of philosophy professor arrogant, aggressive douches putting up a front of being way too impressed with their own intellect, and that turning out to be a coverup for deep personal wounds or insecurity?  Because with both films, we get that breed.  If so, does the feel tend to generate such or do such individuals decide they have found a home in philosophy and pursue it to its ultimate professional and metaphysical ends?  In the case of GIND, Kevin Sorbo's Prof. Radisson, he is found to blame God for personal loss, breaks down and seemingly experiences enlightenment before expiring from a car accident.  As for Professor Eric Zimit (James D'Arcy), here is a man who is convinced of his own intellectual prowess, judges his students on his estimates of theirs, and the worth and survival of a civilization on ruthless logic and calculation, and is confounded by the idea that very smart students might come to completely different conclusions.  He is also found, in the end, staring into his own personal abyss, his intellect giving him no solace for his own personal spiritual deficit.

Oh, what am I going on about?  This is After The Dark (The Philosophers), which shows the above Prof Zimit leading his philosophy class through their final exam.  In this case, it is an exercise in which they roleplay candidates for an attempt at survival in during a nuclear attack.  They are to evaluate each other and decide who would be best to be put in a bunker with limited resources to ride out the attack and see them on the other side to try to rebuild civilization.  With each iteration of the exercise, not only does he increase the difficulty and pressure as well as variables in play for them to think about, personal considerations are hovering in the background, affecting the decisions some of the students make as the exercise unfolds.

Beautifully bringing to life the apocalypse and survival in their collective mindscape, After The Dark lushly illustrates these scenarios unfolding.  And, it asks the  provocative question...is raw intellect enough?  Or is the measure of a man, of a civilization, more to do with soul?  Are we just a collection of data points?  Or are we purpose manifest?  Is there more to existence than existence?  Is life defined by mere biological continuance?

When does survival become too expensive a proposition?

Good indie science fiction flick.  Check it out.

Lone Survivor-Hold On, They Jumped Off A Cliff. Twice. Wow.

Peter Berg is an interesting director.  One might be tempted to dismiss him as a technically adept but workman director, with a lineup like The  Rundown or Hancock.  However, most of his movies, though not necessarily great, seem to have a bit of a spark to them.  A bit of a heart, seemingly a desire to transcend the banality of the material and tell a tale that has a human connect.  That he is not a Peter Hyams or a Brett Ratner.  That he is "better than this".

And you know what?  I'm inclined to agree.  Even Battleship, a movie that the world most definitely did not need, somehow, he managed to inject a little heart, humor and even suspense into the film to make it a pulpy scifi love letter to American servicemembers and classic warships.

Even then, even with his technical skill and obvious affection for those who serve in uniform, it is hard to picture him directing a serious war movie that tries to capture the reality of aspects of war.  Doubly, a scenario in which our guys lost.  But after he finished Battleship, that is exactly the project he embarked on, to adapt the book Lone Survivor, an account by Marcus Luttrel, a Navy SEAL who was the lone survivor of a recon team out in advance of Operation Red Wing, an attempt to apprehend Taliban leader Ahmad Shah, who was responsible for the deaths of twenty Marines as well as many allied Afghans, as well as other Taliban leaders. 

Filming in mountains in New Mexico standing in for the Hindi Kush mountain region in Afghanistan, we are shown bits of the SEAL unit interacting with each other at their Forward Operating Base, both at work and at play.  It isn't overplayed or underplayed (some critics have said more effort could have been given to characterization, but in my opinion, the film managed to do just enough to establish who these people are and why they do what they do, both with the scenes in Afghanistan as well as the opening scenes showing sailors going through SEAL training school).

The focus of the film would be the recon element sent out in advance of Operation Red Wing, to confirm the location of Shah and the other targets and to conduct on site reconnaissance, to gain fresh real time intelligence for the main force follow on.  They land without a hitch and establish an observation point.  Trouble starts immediately, though, with communications proving difficult due to the terrain conditions in Afghanistan.  Things really get out of hand, though, when a shepherd and two Afghan boys stumble across them.  The team has to make a decision what to do with them.  They decide to let them go, hightail it out of there and call off the mission.  However, they are eventually run down by a large Taliban force and are slowly ground down in a grueling firefight, in which Mark Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg) is the only survivor.

This is a film that pulls no punches in its depiction of the torment the SEALs go through.  It is amazing what they do to try to evade their pursuers, including jumping off TWO cliffs to try to avoid them.  Just as amazing, is how fast the Afghans pursue, carrying heavy weapons, too.  Also, the Afghan natives that assist Luttrell show another side to this, directed by their tribal honor code as well as their hatred of the Taliban.  The Taliban are depicted pretty much as their actions have indicated in reality, a bunch of fundamentalist thugs.

This movie is not about anything too deep.  Not a meditation about the whys of war.  It is not a deep examination of the ties that bond warriors.  It is really about one really bad day that happens to some good men.

One of them lived to tell the tale.

I for one am glad, for it is a worthy tale to be told.

The Interview-Better Than A Courier Drone Up The Butt. Much Better.

North Korea is truly a step into another world.  Anyone can step into that world, too.  I found that out in my four years at Camp Casey, home (for now) of the ground combat element of the 2nd Infantry Division, just several miles as the crow flies from the Korean Demilitarized Zone.  But you can get closer. Take a tour to the Joint Security Area and you can go see that meeting area set up for the two Koreas to talk to each other, though it has been quite awhile since they have on an official basis.  You just have South Korean MPs in their Taekwondo stances and aviator glasses staring down NK soldiers there.  You can even go into the Blue Buildings  and actually stand on North Korean territory.  Just looking around, you can get a sensation of tragic history and a feel of the surreal. 

So, watching The Interview, for me, was a step back into familiar territory.  Dealing with North Korea is like watching the gyrations of a wonderland from the darkest hell, with a sense of theater.  So when this hacker shenanigans busted out around this movie, I was like, what the hell?  A silly Seth Rogen/James Franco apparently causing this much fuss with them?  I don't remember the father of Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il, losing his silly glasses over this.  I mean, there was probably some of their usual saber rattling at the time, but that was them usually trying to angle for something.  Un of the strange hair cut...

...seems to do things at random.  At first, you can go for the "crazy like a fox" angle that lots of dictators play, seemingly, to keep the world on edge and guessing.  Then...you have to wonder if the guy really knows what he is doing, or perhaps he is just out of his league and not up to the task of being the boy-god of a totalitarian, nay, Orwellian dictatorship.

But then, we, the USA, the fortress of freedom, the bastion of liberty, the defender of free thought and speech, knuckle under.  The mainstream theater chains, mid-December, knuckled under to the threats of these hackers and declared that they were not running the film, scheduled to be released Christmas Day.  Then even stranger, Sony Pictures said they weren't going to release it, in theaters or in any medium.  The public outcry, thankfully, was cacophonous.  Americans of most stripes were incensed that elements of our society and our expression could be cowed by anyone, much less a tin pot dictatorship.  Seemingly, Sony was shamed into action, and agreed to release the film both online and into the waiting hands of eager independent theaters on Christmas Day.  They have also said the film will be released in other mediums later.

So, yeah for freedom, good to see the spine was still there, even though some of us had to fumble around in the dark for it.  They forgot where they had left it last.

Anyway, the film is out, you can see it.  Please do.  Because it is awesome.  Though the trailers sold the film on its dick and poop jokes, believe me, there is much more to the movie than that.  The Interview has multiple targets and points to make.  It doesn't extensively dwell on most of them, merely making the point and moving on with the story (this isn't a documentary or a college lecture, it is a comedy, but one with a point of view).  David Skylark (James Franco) hosts a TV interview show that is popular and makes bank, but is pop culture pap.  Seth Rogen (Aaron Rappaport) is his producer, who enjoys the money and trappings, but dreams of doing real journalism.   Then, one day, they find out that Kim Jong Un, dictator of North Korea, is a fan of Skylark's show and wants to be interviewed.  In Pyongyang, the capital of NK.  When Skylark goes public with this, the CIA comes knocking...

...with Agent Lizzy Caplan (and her breasts) with an proposal.  Could you guys whack Kim Jong Un for us?  Please? 

Operation Honey Pot begins.

And away we go to the races.  The film heads off to North Korea, where Skylark hangs with Un and at first starts to think that the NK dictator might be an ok guy and starts to get cold feet about their mission.  He finds out otherwise later, but one of the key things that impressed me about this film, alongside observations about the failings of the US news media and the stumblings of US foreign policy, is their humanizing of Kim Jong Un.

...yes, in the end he is revealed to be a not so nice guy, but...it is more complicated than that.  For a Hollywood pic, especially a comedy, this Un is a very human one, and if you don't feel sympathy for him, you at least understand a bit more about the situation he finds himself in, thinking, brother, sucks to be you.  By the way, hats off to actor-comedian Randall Park in his portrayal of Un.  A great job, sir.  You were fantastic.

The Interview is a fantastic time at the movies.  But not just a romp in celluloid.  It has some actual points to make, but won't beat you over the head about it.

Go see it.

Gamers-The Hands of Fate

    Nobody is more passionate than fans of the imaginative genres.  Every year, they crowd conventions to revel in their mutual loves, to commune with other members of the tribe who get what its all about.  For some, it is an escape.  For others, it is spice of life.  No matter the reason, though, and no matter the fandom, theirs is a full throated celebration of stories, of possibilities.  No one exemplifies this more than gamers, either.  For them, celebrating the imaginative genres isn't just a matter of spectating, watching or reading stories of others.  They get to tell their own stories in their various worlds.  Not that gamers aren't invested in other fandoms.  Oh, you bet they are and their passion goes soul deep with them, too.
    
     Perhaps you need evidence about this gamer tribe and what they are about.  This movie is a passport to that world.  All the gamer movies are a celebration, but this film makes the point of breaking beyond the holy cloister of the role-playing table top and not only touches on other game genres, but addresses other fandoms, especially the passionate fan of a beloved TV series that died too soon, leaving a hole in the hearts of tragically obsessed fans. Yes, there is a bittersweet Browncoat shoutout in there, you'll see it when it happens.

   But anyway, the story is this group of roleplayers who have been featured in all three Gamers films.  A veteran crew of roleplayers, including Kevin Lodge (also Osric the Paladin), Joanna (Daphne the Fighter), Gary Wombah (Luster the White Sorceress), Leo "Davinci" Lamb (Flynn the Fine, a Bard) are being distracted by life and having trouble focusing on the campaign.  Another of their compatriots, Sean "Cass" Cassidy (Brother Silence, a Monk) has fixated upon Natalie, a feisty, sarcasting redhead who has entered their game store haunt with the horde of other collectible card gamers.  So, to try to impress her, Cass enters that weekends card flopping tourney.  He loses badly.  But it turns out that Leo, owner of this game store, is also a veteran player of this storytelling game.  He has been out of it for years, but feels for his friend and decides to help him in his quest to woo this lady gamer.  He helps him in a deck build, supplies him with some useful cards and begins schooling him, Morpheus-style, in how to win this game and potentially, a date with Natalie. As Cass sets forth on his quest, he begins swimming the treacherous waters of this game's fanbase and begins to find out what he really wants and why. 

   There are a few side stories, too, most notably that of Gary, who fixates upon a paid con mascot wearing a the costume of a character from a show he blames for cancelling another show beloved and remembered by fans who are still heartbroken and bitter.  In Gary's case, he is becoming a bit unhinged and may be in need of a particular intervention.  But in his efforts, and in his demonstrations of his rememberances, he speaks to heartbroken fans from all walks. 

   You know who you are.

   Fan passion, that is what this is all about.  And if you are fan, especially a Gamer fan, this is a must-watch.

Godzilla-History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man...

Oh no, they say he's got to go...

Poor Godzilla.  He's always been a big, misunderstood overgrown radioactive nuclear powered lizard death machine.  Stuck in a world he never made, wandering through cities never built for him and occasionally having to put the smack down on a chump monster needing an attitude adjustment.  Only very few humans seem to appreciate the good he sometimes does, even if to him, it is mostly turf guarding.

Back in 1954, Japanese film company Toho Studios brought Godzilla to the public.  Spawned out of their very understandable nuclear nightmares.  With many sequels and remakes on the board now, the big G is clearly entrenched in global culture.  And, like the big beast himself, count on a return.

The latest is Godzilla (2014), written by Gareth Edwards.  Edward's first feature was a low budget very different giant monster movie which showed his serious chops as a filmmaker.  Monsters was an indie film treat in 2010, showing Gareth Edwards as one of a crop of young, up coming filmmakers who love genre storytelling and who has a unique voice he wants to contribute to the storytelling body.  So the suited powers that be showing themselves to be a bit more enlightened nowadays (and smelling a bargain when they sniff it), hired Edwards and put him on board Godzilla.

Bryan Cranston was finishing up Breaking Bad at the time, firmly establishing credibility as an actor after his performance as Walter White.  Apparently the studios pursued him with a serious abandon and he played coy, turning them down.  He says the script finally convinced him to come on board, but I'm guessing a serious paycheck did as well.  Not that his part was a walk on check cashing.  Playing an obsessed, troubled engineer propelled by grief, though a short part, was not lacking in dramatic gravitas.  He did play the hell out of it.  The rest of the film, we follow his adult son who is an officer in the US Navy and an trained bomb technician.

The other important actor is Ken Watanabe, who plays a scientist who has been tracking Godzilla since 1954 and is the closest any of them have to an expert on this anomaly that has cropped up in their midst.  His role is mostly restraining the gun toting military types, who are fortunately played as serious professionals, rather than overly dramatic heavies like is often done in films like this.  Which is one of the things that really helps bring up this film.

Finally, there's Godzilla himself.  Much has been made about his relatively little screen time.  And yeah, you want more of the Big G doing his thing.  But...he looks so good, sounds so good and is awesome in action when he is there...this being the first film back, I'm ok with it.  I love the fact that it is a faithful update, the creature and his abilities are true to what filmmakers expect, yet take advantage of modern special effects capability.  Especially when he finally cuts loose with that "radioactive breath", it looks like what it is, pretty much a plasma blast.  Oh yeah, and I like the bad monsters, the Mutos, better than most, it would seem.

It is what it is, and you like sfx driven films with monsters duking it out or don't.  The actors bring their game, but it really isn't their show.  They are there to react to the visuals and the circumstances.  They do.

Oh yeah, Elisabeth Olsen was there, and she does the human role.  But I was intrigued enough by her presence and ability that I'm really looking forward to her Scarlet Witch in Avengers-Age of Ultron.

Christmas is coming, and so are those ice chips out of everyone's shoulders...

     Coming up on the Winter Solstice and Bill O'Reilly's fake war on Christmas (it is fake, but atheists, leave those town nativity scenes alone. You want to make a better point? Put up a holiday display of your own. But let people have fun and/or enjoy a reminder of something positive over the holidays). The holiday greetings will come out. I don't want to hear about only ONE kind of greeting should be said here. A number can be. Use whichever one suits you best. That's number one.

      Number two, if someone does bother to give you a holiday greeting, whatever it is...don't get your festive panties in a bunch because it is a holiday you don't like, a greeting you don't like or whatever. A person stopped and directed something towards you with kind intent. Return your own greeting of choice or just say thank you. Don't be a douche about such a gesture because it isn't YOUR choice of holiday or you've got whatever agenda/political driven drivel running in the back of your head like so much white noise you can't get rid of for whatever reason. Just stop for once and realize someone sent good wishes, good intent your way. Accept it as such...return like for like if you feel it within...and get on with your Merry, Merry life.

      Merry Christmas.

The Heat-I Love Lady Cops

I love lady warriors.  Let us get that out of the way from the jump.  Two fisted, gun toting, tough talking, tall walking Valkyries, putting the sexy smackdown on various reprobates who start out underestimating them, much to their chagrin.  Be it the perps and villains they go up against or be it occasionally their less than supportive co-workers, they sometimes have to go it alone in the world to right a clear and present wrong.

In this case, we have FBI Special Agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock), a supremely skilled and trained FBI agent.  Her professional competence as a field agent is beyond reproach.  However, her ability to deal with people is not.  She knows she is skilled, educated and talented and wears it on her sleeve.  So her cocksure attitude and condescending arrogance turns off her comrades and hampers her efforts to reach management positions in the Bureau.  What little glimpse you get of her social life is the same, as she is single.  All caps SINGLE.  She even has to borrow the neighbor's cat.  Yeah.  Sad.

So, when she is given a chance to go to Boston on a convoluted drug perp case that might set her up for that management position she is gunning for, she gamely takes it on.  Which brings her into contact with Boston PD Detective Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthey), a skilled, streetwise, but foul mouthed bull in the China stop style street cop.  Where Sarah is awkward, shielded and "trained and polished by the book smooth", Shannon is no barriers, in your face, no sacred cows in her approach.  Sara is all logic and data, while Shannon is intuition, impulses and street awareness.    Naturally, the two of them don't mix well at first.

But eventually, as the two of them get to know each other and find out that they are both decent people who bring some real skills to this job and they are both needing a real friend in this business of the enforcement of law, both their natural reticence begins to melt away and they go from being reluctant team mates to true comrades in arms.

Which is good, because they aren't only dealing with the expected criminal element, but they have traitors in their own ranks.

Sandra Bullock does what she does.  She is the kind of actress with a particular style and you either   liker her or you don't.  I like her.  She most certainly plays the smart, capable but awkward Special Agent role well. 

Melissa McCarthy, I've never seen her in a film before.  She's been in a few, according to her bio.  She apparently was also in Gilmore Girls, which what very little I've seen, from what I can tell kinda dealt in sarcastic women as it's stock and trade.  That's pretty much what she did here, just with more physicality and F bombs.  I really enjoyed her Detective Mullins, in all her crassness and loneliness as well.

Paul Feig, going all the way back to Freaks and Geeks, pretty much has established himself as the kind of comedy writer who can do funny people without making them seem like just carriers for jokes, which is against type when it comes to much American comedy writing for TV and films.  His funny people are just people who can be funny, rather than characters who exist to be funny.

The distinction is important.

I enjoyed The Heat.  It was heartwarming on a cold, cold November day.

Interstellar-Staring the Deep Black in the FACE

That tears it.  Christopher Nolan may be just a bit of a pretentious douche.  I didn't care for his snarky remark about how "real" movies don't do those extra credit scenes, obviously a shot at marvel.  A stylistic difference, Mr. Nolan, you don't have to be a jerk about it.  That said, the man does have his own style and way of doing things.  And given his dual track record of critical acclaim and box office domination, you can't exactly dismiss his opinion, though you may disagree.  He is one of the auteurs on the modern Hollywood scene who not only is a master of modern film technology and techniques, but he is a storyteller supreme with his own style and approach.  In Nolan's case, he likes to tell tales of humans probing the edges of knowledge and perception.  Be it our own memories (Memento), dreamscapes (Inception), the fraying edges of civilization (his Batman/Dark Knight trilogy) or deep space (Interstellar), he is about going "out there" to peer deep inside the human heart.

Nothing new about things, it is well known he has a fascination with technology and human know how and most of his films feature this aspect of humanity in one way or another.  In this case, he sets up the scientific as the existential crisis of an Earth gone sour.  Our world's life supporting systems seem to be breaking down.  No one is sure why, but the food plants we rely on are going extinct and the atmosphere is becoming more and more problematic.  As the nations of the world go more and more into survival mode, energy and resources are spent mostly on food production.  There are no more militaries and space exploration is taught as fiction to school children.

Cooper (Matthew Mcconaughey) is a former engineer and test pilot turned farmer who is disturbed by this turn in education.  His son, Tom, has been written out of college and will likely run the family farm on down the line.  His daughter, Murphy, is brilliant and headstrong, causing fits with the school and her fascination with science and space (again, being taught as a fiction to kids).  Murphy also tells tales of weird activity in her room, calling it her ghost.  One day, the "ghost" leaves a message in the dust in Murphy's room that she and Cooper interpret as map coordinates.  They follow them and find a fenced off compound.  It turns out, they have located the new headquarters of NASA, now a tiny, secretly funded organization seeking an escape for humanity from their current global dilemma.  The apparent escape hatch?  A wormhole, apparently artificial in origin and leading to a potentially life supporting world or worlds on the other side.  NASA needs a hotshot pilot and invite Cooper on the mission.  After some soul searching, Cooper accepts, though the parting from his family, especially Murphy, isn't easy, and it wears at his soul as Cooper and his crew plunge through the wormhole and stare into the dark abyss of a black hole on the other side.

Through wormhole.  Onto the edge of a black hole.  And to the surface of alien worlds.  Dealing with strange environments and the twisty, bendy effects of space-time in extreme environments.  Further, throw in an unknown intelligence working behind the scenes, our four astronauts are put to the test in trying to puzzle out their circumstances and save those they left behind.

You have all that AND cute robots who are smart alecks yet not cloying and annoying.

This is a big, space bound epic.  Lots of science yet not at all lacking a human heart.  It aspires to the big picture, but never forgets about that which drives us to push these barriers in the first place.

Interstellar is stellar.  If you like big, smart, heartfelt space epics, this is a must see film

So...boldly go.

Pretty In Pink-Please don't let Political Correctness Ruin this Classic...

One of the Brat Pack classics, this one was written but not directed by the legendary John Hughes.  Rather, Howard Deutsch is captaining this ship (still in the trade, mostly TV nowadays, notably True Blood).  Classic 80s high school film which stars Molly Ringwald as Andie Walsh, a smart, hard working high school senior girl from the wrong side of the tracks.  She works at a record store with Iona (Annie Potts) and her best friend is Duckie (John Cryer), who is madly in love with her, but plays it off for yucks (one of the classic defensive moves in dealing with pain).   She also admires from afar Blaine (Andrew McCarthy), but dangit, he is a rich kid and the social pressure...oh, just awful.  This is hammered home by a young pre Dr. Daniel Jackson/Blacklist/Utron James Spader (Steff), who, after being shot down by Andie, goes into a vile sour grapes mode and tries to pee in Blaine's pool, under the pretense of "friendship". 

That is most of our players and most of the variables in play, and it proceeds in a fairly predictable path, sold mostly by the skill of our thespians, the 80s high school trappings, the real relatable humanity on display by most and a really, really good soundtrack.

In recent years, under the category of "some people have forgotten what it is like to be young and have too much time on their hands", the "friend zone" concept is now under fire by some in the feminist camp.  Which is just weird.  The rationale is the woman's humanity does not matter, only her as an object to be possessed, and "friendship" is the consolation prize.  Further, that the woman is one more  sexual conquest denied and that is what the bad name of the "friend zone" spins out from.  So...it is bad.  This, of course, is nonsense.  Romance isn't just about lust.  Because you can bone someone without feeling affectionate.  You can lust for them physically without an ounce of tenderness.  A crush is a combo of physical desire combined with a sense of wanting a deeper connection.  It is even more painful when a friendship is indeed in place.  The sense of being "friend zoned" is the knowledge that a big blastproof door has been slammed down on the most tender part of that longing.

That sucks.  Even when not a teenager, though it doesn't happen as often in the later years.

What sucks even worse, though, is politically obsessed, agenda driven types who have forgotten their youth try to take something painful, yet exquisite about the experience  and sully it with their spin, no doubt dressing up painful experiences of their own with an attempt to try to turn it into some kind of misguided social crusade.

Just stop it.

The "friend zone" sucks.  But you deal with it.  It isn't oppressing anyone.

Stop trying to suck the recognizable humanity, the sweet and sour out of the life experience.

Oh, and Pretty In Pink is a great film, with such great artists as the Psychedelic Furs.

The Fisher King-In the Midst of Dysfunction, Make Me Care...

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AM1200-Listening to back country radio used to be a comfort.

Anyone who has driven the country roads and backways of America has had the experience of flipping through the radio dials and hearing those voices permeating the atmosphere.  Even in the days post Telecom 96, unique voices sound off on the dial.  Besides, no matter where you go, when you are spinning through the frequencies, on FM and especially AM, you can get a public radio station broadcasting NPR.  You can get some country music.  And usually you can get some religious programming, often a ranting, podium thumping pastor going on about sin and hellfire.  When you are by yourself on the dark backroads, especially late at night, the image of sinners resting their hedonistic bones in the hands of an angry God doesn't comfort.  Of course, it isn't intended to be comfortable.  But little do those thundering theologians know that it is future horror story tellers they are inspiring.  Stephen King would be one.  He has used such vignettes in several of his stories, most notably "Children of the Corn".  Then...there is AM 1200. 

The story sets up Eric Lange, who apparently is a money handling type who has done something wrong and is now making his getaway.  He finds himself in the back roads of Montana, driving to exhaustion to put some distance between himself and whatever lays behind.  Late at night, he picks up a radio station, AM 1200, and apparently someone is sending out a distress call and wants help sent to the station.  And "coincidentally", Eric finds himself driving near the station.  The night is pitch black with little outdoor lighting and it makes things hard to see and super creepy.  As if the radio signal wasn't enough.  Eric eventually finds the station and a man handcuffed to a poll inside the station (John Billingsly).  Things get really weird at that point.

The unknown.  The step beyond the comfortable.  No good can come of this.  And the thought of a voice from the ether reaching you from the invisible, radio alone, though we tell ourselves we have categorized and have it pretty well figured out...the mysterious voices from the dark always serve to draw and fascinate.  But what if, at the end of the message lies...

...that would be telling.


Great film.  See it.

Space Station 76-A Polyester Time Capsule

It is interesting to think that when we get to the future, it will look, sound and feel like the past.  Or more to the point, looking at older science fiction in literature and other mediums, and seeing that though they are visions of the future, they are very much products of their times.  Space Station 76 takes that idea and pumps it up to the nth degree, with a bleak yet tongue in cheek look at times to come through a decade long passed.

Space Station 76 takes place on Omega 76, an interstellar depot, intended to be a way station for travelers as well as a refueling and maintenance depot.  The human crew here is relatively small and lots of the station's functions are automated.  So you have this crew on this huge station that seems relatively isolated and alone when not doing their jobs.  Right off the bat, there seems to be some baggage. Captain Glenn (Patrick Wilson) seems especially isolated from his crew, even for someone in command, and is clearly struggling with some kind of demons which include the reassignment of the station's previous executive officer.  The new XO, Jessica (Liv Tyler) steps in, her skills and experience where they need to be, ready to do the gig.  Unlike the Captain, she tries to connect with the crew, but has trouble both with her position being a barrier and her sex, as the human crew is still functioning under the cultural mores of the 70s when it comes to relations between the sexes, which was an era far more in flux than it is now.

Later, you see scenes with various crew members interacting with each other, using technology that is clearly outdated by our current level of knowledge, and existing in a world that seems at times cold and awkward. Even the Christmas party which sets the stage for the denoument is purely surface and function, even more perfunctory than your worst office Christmas party you can imagine.

Right when the movie kicks off, the opening music is some rock psychedelia, setting the cosmic, existentialist tone of the film, firmly placing you in that retro future that the film is shooting for.   Many of the effects and the sets have a physical look to them.  They are functional and beautiful, with a tactile sense to them that the more CGI driven films of now lack at times.  The costumes, pure retro, harkening to Space 1999.   Later, as the film develops, you see more cultural drops place in that feel organic, yet clearly fill out that retro timelessness the film is going for, including easily recognizable pop tunes from the 70s.

Look, feel, technology and cultural mores put down those layers which make the sci fi salad of Space Station 76 work.  But the true nailing down of this is that the creators clearly know their 70s science fiction.  The 70s were an era that relatively few science fiction films were made, but many of them that were had a distinctly...if not fatalistic outlook, at least one of pessimism and existentialist angst, even crisis.  They had the idea that we can get out on the edge of space and time, looking for the answers.  But the real deep ones will continue to elude us and when we turn to each other, we will find the same confusion and difficulty of connecting we always have.  If we are lucky, occasionally, we will breach those barriers and make a connection that has a chance to transcend.

On the surface, Space Station 76 is a comedy about 70s science fiction tropes.  But much deeper, it is a wandering through all the things of the 70s, not just science fiction, that made it such a unique cultural period, and yet, especially through the lense of science fiction, manages to be timeless.

It is a thought movie.  Not a yuck yuck comedy and NOT one driven by 'splosions.  It is almost all dialogue.  But if the above thought exercise appeals to you and the decade exploration is something you can relate to...especially if you remember the 70s and love the science fiction of that decade, this film is for you.

Zardoz: Hard To Say Whether 70s Science Fiction Was Daring Or Just Plain Weird...

Probably both.  Yes, that is Sir Sean Connery in a red Speedo.  I avoided this film for a number of years, because...c'mon, Sean Connery in a red Speedo.  Could the movie really be worth that?  Well...then I saw who directed, John Boorman, who brought us the amazing Excalibur, a great take on the Arthurian legend.  So...yeah.  Alright.  For the sake of 70s cinematic science fiction literacy...sure. 

So...opening up, I see this...

Yep.  A floating stone head.  This is after a prologue with some guy ranting on and wondering if God is the ultimate showman or something along those lines.  Could be brilliant or pretentious, hard to tell at this point.  So anyway, the stone head lands, gives a lecture about evil penises and good guns and tosses out a bunch of guns.  The primitives worshiping the stone head pick them up and rejoice.  Then we see our first look at Zed (Connery), one of these Brutals.  These are Exterminators, who do the bid of Zardoz (the stone head), mostly involving culling the Brutal populations and keeping them from overrunning the now fragile world with their out of control babymaking.

Later, we see Zed suddenly emerging out of a pile of sand inside the stone head, which is again airborne and headed for a "Vortex".  A Vortex is a protected area ruled by Eternals, a society of near immortal scientists and intellectuals who seemingly have become totally about calculation and data.  Their passion, emotion and more abstract or primitive elements of the human soul atrophied.  They look at the world and the other humans who live there with a detatchment.  Only a few of them seem to give a damn about anything, and those tend to be regarded as outsiders and heretics, kept separated from the rest of the group.

They find Zed in their midst and find him a wonder, this primitive in their midst.  Little do they know that there is more to this man-ape than they think and that plans are underfoot to break this sociological cul-de-sac the Eternals have found themselves in.

This thing is weird.  And not the most optimistic film.  However, it is strong in ideas and imagery, about how too much emphasis on one culture, one way of doing things, how a lack of variety can ultimately doom a society.  Sometimes, you just have to shake things up a bit.  That when you get too insular and complacent, you weaken yourself.

Sometimes you need a "primitive" ape-man to come in and remind you of the essentials of life.

Zardoz, a strange one but a good one.

Fury: Male Bonding Has It's Costs...

It is 1945 and the Allied Army is rolling up Germany.  Staff Sergeant Don "Wardaddy" Collier (Brad Pitt) is the tank commander (TC) of the stalwart crew of the Sherman tank "Fury".  They've been through the hellfire of war together, starting in North Africa.  They are now an elite armor crew, knowing how to move and fight their machine with lethal efficiency.  They can be put in odds stacked far against them and make the enemy, a fearsome foe, pay in blood and steel many times over.  But the war has taken its toll on this team of American soldiers. 

When the film opens, Fury has apparently just been through a vicious engagement and we see Wardaddy take out a German officer in a hand to hand ambush.  They seem to be the lone survivor on a carnage laden battlefield.  They also just lost their assistant driver and will need a new troop.  They get one, PVT Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), a rear echelon soldier trained as a staff clerk, with the lethal skill of typing "sixty words a minute".  He has the privilege of taking the assistant driver position.  Initially, the tight knit crew, not surprisingly, is not that welcoming to the new soldier.  In the first engagement Ellison participates in, the horror of what is asked of him overwhelms him, and Wardaddy takes some drastic measures to try to cure him of it, as his reticence is a liability to Fury and its crew.

Later, we see scenes of the crew of Fury taking some RnR in a German village, and we get more of a look at where the minds and souls of Fury's crew are at in this stage of the game.  This war and what they have had to do to play their part has had its cost.  However, it is made plain that they aren't entirely unaware of this.

And when it is all said and done, even with the Germans, it is plain that for the most part, we aren't talking about monsters here.  We are talking about men trained to do a deadly serious job.  Prosecuting that job costs.  War costs.  Not just in money in blood, but in damage on the inside that haunts one long after the shooting is done.

And that is what Fury depicts, despite on the surface appearing to take on the trappings of a traditional Hollywood war movie.

 

 

 

War is indeed hell, a place where demons dwell.  And they will have their payment in humanity, one way or another.

 

 

Good flick, for both that and some awesome tank on tank action.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...the cinematic version of Putin's Russia...

Let me explain...

Looks like 'em.  Mostly.  The lips and the noses are kind of freaky.  Sort of throw a viewer off.  Then, you see them in the film, and they tower over the humans, as opposed to the way they are portrayed through most of their assorted media history, going all the way back to Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 from Mirage Studios in 1984 (now quite the collector's item book, if you can get a 1st printing in mint condition).  That is the thing that is the big seller for them, besides the contradictory concept of reputedly slow critters as speedy masters of stealth and martial arts.

Now, that aside, on the surface, you have the elements there.  The personalities seem intact.  Once you get past the physical differences, charm should take you a long way.  However, they aren't on there enough.  This turns into the April O'Neil extravaganza, with Megan Fox as the titular reporter on the case.  We are here to see the Turtles, though, so this gets out of balance pretty quickly.

Oh yeah, they are into pizza.  We got it.

And, well...now that we've gotten past the obligatory characterization, Michael Bay (producer) has gotten bored and muscled the irrelevant director aside to blow some stuff up.  And some more stuff.  And yet, some more stuff.

Frankly, I'm tired of Michael Bay taking nostalgia, transmuting it to greenbacks and using them to perform personal hygiene after unsightly bodily functions take place.

The Turtles are better than that.  Oh, the Putin comparison?  There is a director on there, who has a decent body of work so far.  Battlefield Los Angeles was a decent alien invasion flick.  But it is clear that he was kind of pushed aside by the stronger personality of Michael Bay, just as Medvedev gets from Putin.  Even when Putin isn't "in charge" of the Russian Federation, he is.  So...if you see Michael Bay in the "producer" role...don't believe it for a second.

Not in the movies anyway.

But, poor Turtles, they get the abuse, and probably more, because the movie has made money, has muscled Guardians of the Galaxy out of the top spot (though all indications show that Guardians likely has the far longer legs, and the smart money shows that not only will it probably retake the top spot, it is going to be the big money maker of the year, so that's ok) and a sequel has been greenlit.

Well, the original film is still on disc and I've still got my comix.

Damn you, Michael Bay.  Viva la Turtles.

Better for you Turtle fans, enjoy...

History of Future Folk-Hondo Means So Much

I could have sworn I had reviewed this film already.  But going through my list, I'm not seeing it, despite owning it for quite awhile.  It was one of the films I viewed and added to my collection while based in Korea.  Ah well, now having seen the duo perform live, let's talk about it all.

I first heard about this as a film from a writeup I read on Harry Knowles' Ain't It Cool News.  Being an indie film fan, especially science fiction and looking for different stories, off the beaten path, a tale describing itself as the first sci-fi, folk, musical, comedy...well really, it is uncategorizable, this film definitely occupies a unique realm by itself.  I batted this around in my head a bit myself and came up with "A Mighty Wind" meets "The Day The Earth Stood Still".  Not quite there, but close.

But what you have is the tale of the mightiest warrior from the planet Hondo (HONDO!), General Trius (Nils Daulaire), sent to Earth to prep it for colonization via a bio doomsday weapon.  But right when he was about to set it off, he experienced something he never had before.  Music.  See, on Hondo, they don't have music, and when he heard it, it gripped his heart something fierce.  He could not go through with it.  So he settled on Earth, found a wife, had a kid and pursued a triple life of musician/engineer/groundskeeper.  All the while, he attempted to communicate with his world to let them know what he had found.  One day, they send an "assassin", (Mighty) Kevin (Jay Klaitz), to apparently kill Trius and finish the job, but Kevin proves a somewhat inept assassin.  But a GREAT musician and partner to Trius' act, which is what he needed to take him to the next level.  So, the Hondonians come together and attempt to, quoting Dee Schnider's character, "Rock this joint!", while dealing with a series of crises of interstellar threat as well as the heart.

The band came first and the movie was intended to be a way to introduce them to the world, formalizing the Hondonian mythology building itself around the concept art band, kind of like DEVO in that respect. 

What you will get?  A fun science fiction story with lots of heart and great tunes.  It is true indie filmmaking, but makes good use of its budget and shooting location (mostly New York City).  Also, the fellas have a Marvel/Zack Schnyder connection, in that their composer for the soundtrack, Tim Williams, lists such cinematic compositions as 300, Watchmen, and Guardians of the Galaxy.  Yeah.  They ain't playing around here.

Go see the trailer, get a feel of it for yourself...

Plus, these guys have real serious musical chops and do all their own tunes and just put on a show live something amazing.

 So check them out when they come to your town.

Guardians of the Galaxy-Why Read This? Go See It. Now. But Read This Later.

Why do you need to see this?  First off...a raccoon with a machine gun...

I go all the way back to 1985 with this guy...

Then, you have these guys...

 

 

 

 

 

The originals from 1969, who get representation in the new film...

 

 

 

 

What is the point of all this, besides me playing around with the graphics stuff on this blog engine and getting some well needed practice?  The point of this is, dear reader, is Marvel Studios has done it again.  They have taken a concept that comic fans and other "knowledgable" sorts swear that "it can't be done/too obscure/too weird/too different/too big a risk", took all that defeatist sentiment and dunked it into a nearby toilet and flushed it.  Again.

 

 

Here is the thing...a great story is a great story.  And America, the world, LOVES well told superhero tales, adventure stories and spacegoing sagas.  We know this.  The well known ones with "Star..." in their titles weren't always well known.  They had to start somewhere.  Marvel Studios has managed to do what it has done through a combo of things.  Sure, canny marketing, yes.  But before that, they have picked great concepts, matched them with the kind of talent that "gets them" and can write them with distinct voices, yet have them speak to mainstream audiences...and trust them to do the work.

 

 

We get what we get, and so far, they have defied both critics and "fans".  To the benefit of us all.

 

 

And now, it is the chance of a renegade team of space adventurers who not only have a chance to show a wide audience what their comic fans have known all along, but open a window onto the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe, which really is a world unto it's own.

 

 

Big, cosmic adventure, yet through a group of alien characters who give us a human side to it all.  We go on a voyage.  And it matters to us.  We feel it.  We experience it with Peter Quill (Starlord), Rocket Racoon, Groot, Gamorra and Drax. 

 

 

Grand adventure.  Cosmic wonder.  And lots of laughs and fun.  Guardians of the Galaxy has it all.

 

 

Of course, if you followed instructions, you know this already.

 

 

I could give you a rundown of the story, which opens up with a kid listening to 10cc (I'm Not In Love) and getting abducted by aliens, after which things get weird.  But...what would be the point?  Just go see it.

 

 

Oh, biggest surprise?  Glenn Close as Nova Prime.  I liked her, a lot.  Grand space adventure, Marvel style.  With much bigger implications for the coming Marvel cinematic U.  Still here?  GO SEE IT.

 

 

Tell 'em Stoney sent you.













Brothers-just because we are done with the war, doesn't mean the war is done with us

I had some friends recommend this one to me.  It is one I always meant to see, but just got around to it finally, so many films, so little time.  Brothers, about the experience of war on one family, was based on a Danish film.  For those who know that, it points out the Danes also sent soldiers to Afghanistan and have their own war experiences and trauma from that conflict.  I probably need to seek that film out. I saw many non-American soldiers in my time "over there" and I'm very curious about that conflict from their perspective.

This version of the film has Tobey Maguire as Marine Captain Sam Cahill.  He's about to head over to da 'Stan for his fourth tour of duty.  He is husband to Grace (Natalie Portman) and brother to Tommy (Jake Gyllenhall), who is a bit of a layabout, avoiding steady employment, but not jail.  So he suffers under his own inferiority complex as well as the disapproval of their Vietnam War Marine father.   When Sam's unit is attacked shortly after they arrive and he vanishes, presumed dead, a suffering Grace and the daughters welcome Tommy, who bonds with his brother's family during their time of crisis.  He helps around the house with handyman tasks and assists in caring for the girls.  There is even temptation, as a lonely Grace and a slightly drunk Tommy almost give into temptation.  But they both pull back before things get too out of control.

Then comes one day when they find out Sam did not die in Afghanistan.  He is coming home.  But when he arrives, it is clear that something is weighing on his mind.  His family can tell, his fellow Marines can tell.  He experienced something horrible over there and the psychic wound bleeds continuously.  Tommy, the ne're do well, will be instrumental in helping to bring back his brother from Afghanistan, in mind and spirit as well as body.

And there it is.  War is hell.  For some veterans, they don't get to leave.  Not without help.  This film picked its actors very, very well, depicting these characters in this situation that some families are experiencing for real after a decade of two wars.  The devastation doesn't take place only on foreign soil.  Special kudos go to Mr. Maguire and his devastating depiction of a brave soldier coping with wounds too big for one man to bear, yet having no idea how to heal.

This film is worthwhile.  Check it out.

Lucy-A Tale of Living Data

What are we, really?  That is the question ultimately asked in the new film Lucy, written and directed by French director Luc Bessen.  What are we really?  Wrestling with the "hard problem", "what is consciousness", Lucy coyly suggests an answer revealed by the adventures of the titular character.  Initially starting out as a girl who has bad choices in boyfriends, she ends up being a drug mule for some shady Asian organized crime types.  But this new stuff ends up getting inadvertently released into her system in doses far bigger than intended. And, rather than killing her, she begins to change.  Her brain is "accelerated" and begins using more and more of its potential.  This not only has the effect of making her smarter, her mind and body begin to work faster.  She begins developing powers of various kinds, at first physically improved, but becomes sublime as apparent control over spacetime.  However, she also feels her humanity is slipping away.  Eventually, she reaches out to Professor Samuel Norton (Morgan Freeman), a cutting edge neurologist, for some guidance.  After a certain point, she's in unknown territory, even for him.

I'm not going to tell you how it all ends, of course.  But this is one mad, wild ride.  Some have made hay of its improbable "science", but like most protests, it misses the point, as the movie is less about rigorous scientific accuracy and more about an ongoing cinematic thought experiment.  What if you could accelerate a person like that?  What would happen?  There have been similar explorations.  Cinematically, it would be Bradley Cooper's character in Limitless, but really, a closer approximation would be Dr. Manhattan from Alan Moore's The Watchmen.  For those who don't know, Manhattan is a scientist who was involved in an accident which utterly transforms him into something post human.  He seems to lose touch with his humanity and his ability to "feel", to connect, though we find out later, some capacity does indeed seem to still be there.  Likewise with Lucy.  She believes herself slipping away, but there are moments where it does seem something human is still there nonetheless.  However, the film does seem to take the opinion on the question on "What are we?", in that it seems to assert we are all "living data" somehow sentient, that consciousness is an emergent property from information itself and that our highest evolved form will be as pure information.

Not sure I buy that.  I think the "soul", which is what we are really talking about, is something far more sublime and profound than that, and probably is above and beyond mere data crunching.

Still, it is an interesting though.

Mad, a bit daring, different.  Lucy is a thinker's summer science fiction actioner.

Earth to Echo-E.T. as Found Footage (that somehow avoids death by cute)

See that precious little guy being pointed to in a poster that Oh So Much calls out hard to E.T The Extraterrestrial. Yeah, the comparison is intentional.  If that was all Earth to Echo was, it would not be worth your time.  There already has been a string of lame E.T. knockoffs. In fact, many of them came out around the time E.T. first made its impact on the culture (Mac and Me, Pod People), but folks still remember the original.  Earth to Echo is counting on that, but fortunately, the makers did aspire a little higher with this tale of an alien robot of some kind being shot down by government authorities on Earth (presumably the United States), seeking to repair itself and go home.

Done in found footage format, the film follows a group of high school kids who are anticipating being forced to move from their neighborhood.  Some sort of organization is forcing the families to relocate, reason unclear.  So the boys make a pact to do something epic on their last night.  At the same time, they begin getting weird signals on their portable phones which they eventually decide is a beacon to follow.  Follow they do, and when they get out to the site, they find what looks like a missle casing of some kind, as well as more of those "government" types, seemingly looking for the same thing.  When they get the casing, the get another signal.  They follow it and find another piece, which joins with the first and slowly, the casing, or the entity inside, stirs with life.

This film is not groundbreaking by any means.  But the young actors are fun and you can easily buy the adventure, especially if you were the sort of young person who went on a few adventures yourself.  As I kid, I sometimes fantasized about finding an alien spacecraft.  Or fantasized about Skylab landing in our neighborhood intacts.  And flying it again (I had a big imagination and relatively little knowledge to kill it then).

"Echo" is full of personality, which is good, because the little guy is made just too precious (obviously to engender toy sales).  They went too far with it, but fortunately, in personality he avoids being too annoying and the kids are convincing and fun.

It is a summer adventure which hearkens back to childhood quests.  If those bring back fond memories for you, or you have kids of your own who love that kind of thing, this is a movie for you.