Excerpts from Electric Degeneration, Degenerate Press' semi-weekly e-zine, free and ad-free. A full episode contains sections for music reviews, upcoming events, blasphemy, classifieds, and anything else we feel like saying. If you'd like to subscribe just contact us.
You can surf the entire archive.
10/5/2005
FILM FLAM
SW and I caught a preview screening of A History of Violence last week. David
Cronenberg can direct sex and/or violence scenes well, but everything else in
this film D R A G S. I understand the concept of letting a scene go a bit long
to give it more weight, even when there's no dialogue and nothing happening on
screen, but when EVERY scene goes a bit too long it makes it feel like someone
needs a better editor. Viggo Mortensen plays Tom, a passive diner owner who
turns hero when the joint gets held up, killing the would-be murderers. With the
media coverage comes the attention of the mafia, who think he is Joey Cusac,
former heavy. The plot is a bit predictable but the action is handled well and
there are some surprisingly humorous moments somehow woven into the violence and
sex.
Maria Bello plays Tom/Joey's wife, Edie, and does a good job with the role, but
I felt like Viggo displayed almost no emotion whatsoever. Ed Harris does a fine
job as a thug. There are some great moments in the film, but overall I found it
slow and tedious. I also don't agree with SW's interpretation of the message of
the film. She argues it shows what can happen when you let violence into your
life. However, in the end the only solution to the problems is yet more violence
and the main character doesn't suffer any consequences as a result of any of it,
aside from a few injuries sustained in combat. The film could have been very
moving if he'd lost a family member and had to deal with the guilt. (Then Viggo
would've actually had to show some emotion on screen as well.)
Rent it if you must, then fast forward through the last 5 seconds of the slow
scenes.
Despite SG abandoning the weekly Drive Invasion vote after Labor Day, degenerate
CD and myself encouraged others last week, the last official weekly Invasion, to
join us this week and perhaps keep up the Tuesday night outing for another few
weeks. A few folks said they would but I didn't expect anyone to actually show
up.
My expectations were dead on.
However, degenerate CD and myself relaxed under the stars in the cool, but not
yet cold, fall evening at Starlight Drive In with a few beers for what may be
the most anachronistic flick of the year - Roll Bounce, a movie about roller
disco. I couldn't resist the allure of a retro movie at what is essentially a
retro movie-going experience, the drive in, so I opened up the suicide doors on
my '69 Thunderbird and tapped my feet along to the soundtrack, kicking off with
some funk classics from the mid-70's.
Roll Bounce tells the story Xavier, AKA "X", a young teenager in a black middle
class neighborhood, and his friends who have to go uptown to skate when their
local rink closes. Unfortunately, the funky ghetto roller rink is closed a few
minutes into the film and the uptown skating rink plays more disco and schlocky
70's soft rock. The other unfortunate aspect of the film is a dreary family
drama about X and his father coming to terms with the death of X's mother.
There's a good 20 minutes in the middle of the film where I was envious of
degenerate CD needing to visit the restroom. He should've stopped for popcorn
too. The skating scenes in the opening of the film and in the closing skate-off
are fun and should've been the entire focus of the film, a la Breakin'. Instead,
they reach for a Saturday Night Fever format and the drama falls on it's ass.
But there are a few non-skate-related moments that add to the fun factor.
There's a water balloon attack that spoofs the drive-by shooting scenes from any
of the dozens of New Jack City flicks, comlete with uneccesary slo-mo and the
lead character yelling "Nooooooooooooooo..." for seemingly a full minute. There
are many scenes that approach slapstick satire and if they had been brave enough
to go all in for such a flick we would've had a much better film.
Somehow the film ended up as PG-13 despite the lack of cursing or nudity or
violence. You can feel the self-censorship in the dialogue with phrases that
sound like they were edited for TV. Somehow I doubt there's a person alive who's
ever uttered the term "mother sucker" with a straight face, much less in anger.
Overall, I'd say it's 65% good, 35% dull. Good for the drive in, but probably
not for much else.
 |
Take
me to Degenerate Press' home page! All content on this site is owned by Degenerate Press and cannot be used without our permission. We have lawyers for friends with nothing better to do than cause trouble (no kidding), so play nice. Copyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved |