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« Movies: January 2006 | Main | Movies: June 2006 »

Movies

Fiction Come to Life or What I Saw This Weekend

It's not science fiction, but it's still freaky. Ever see Wag the Dog? It's about a presidential aide and a spin doctor hiring a Hollywood producer to fake a war in order to divert the media attention from a Presidential scandal 11 days before the election. While you're watching it, you'll start to get a feeling of surrealism as you have flashbacks of the run up to the Iraqi invasion. The way they manipulate the media to give the story they want. The discussions of how the production of a war is a "pageant". The statements about how nobody remembers the wars but everybody remembers the slogans. In particular, there's a scene where the CIA catches up with the spin doctor and aide to question them about these stories of a war going on when the CIA knows there's no such war.

Robert De Niro playing the spin doctor delivers this speech to the CIA agent (William H. Macy) holding them in custody:

Would you do it again...? Isn't that why you're here? I guess so. And if you go to war again, who is it going to be against? Your "ability to fight a Two-ocean War" against who? Sweden and Togo? Who you sitting here to Go To War Against? That time has passed. It's passed. It's over. The war of the future is nuclear terrorism. It is and it will be against a small group of dissidents who, unbeknownst, perhaps, to their own governments, have blah blah blah. And to go to that war, you've got to be prepared. You have to be alert, and the public has to be alert. Cause that is the war of the future, and if you're not gearing up, to fight that war, eventually the axe will fall. And you're gonna be out in the street. And you can call this a "drill," or you can call it "job security," or you can call it anything you like. But I got one for you: you said, "Go to war to protect your Way of Life," well, Chuck, this is your way of life. Isn't it? And if there ain't no war, you can punch out, go home, and take up oil painting. And there ain't no war but ours.

That's right. In order to maintain their job security, the CIA must forever maintain the appearance of a threat from "a small group of dissidents," foster fears of "nuclear terrorism". It's the "war" of the future. Otherwise, there's no need for the CIA to exist anymore.

It's a good movie. I think you should go see it if you haven't already. But some of it's eerie like that quote.

Next up is Twelve Angry Men which was a great movie. Gotta love that Henry Fonda. He's alway so upstanding. He starts off as the lone dissenting juror in a murder trial. The other 11 are convinced the accused is guilty and most of them just want to go home. As the story unfolds, Fonda starts winning over more jurors, explaining to them why he has a reasonable doubt. The way he convinces them is great. He handles the bullying and the insults quite well, never backing down but never resorting to jackass behaviour. What's also interesting is both the extraordinarily obvious racism compared with the more accepted "passive" racism exhibited by a few of the jurors. "Those people" and "them" are bandied about quite a few times.

So there's your second assignment. Watch Twelve Angry Men, too. It'll be good for your soul.


By min | May 17, 2006, 3:28 PM | Movies | Comments (5)| Link



Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter

A lot of people don't realize that we here at supermegamonkey are patrons of the fine arts. For example, the latest movie to be reviewed at Spored To Death Publishing was donated by us. And when i say donated, i mean, "we tried to watch this but it was so bad we had to turn it off, and we knew they were the only ones who would take it". And we didn't even make it to the luchador.


By fnord12 | May 15, 2006, 1:04 PM | Movies | Comments (3)| Link



He watches bad movies so you don't have to

Actually, i'm not sure if that's true. I think he just watches them cause he's twisted. Anyway, go read about all the bad movies you'll never have to watch at Spored To Death Publishing.


By fnord12 | May 8, 2006, 6:41 PM | Movies | Link



Mr. Post-Apocalyptic

A lot of people don't know this, but Keven Costner has actually been in three post-apocalyptic science fiction movies. The first is Waterworld, the second was the Postman, and the third was 3,000 Miles To Graceland. 3,000 Miles is much more subtle than the other two, but the clues are there. First of all, it co-stars Kurt Russell (star of post-apocalyptic movies Escape from NY, Escape from LA,and Soldier, ) and also features Ice-T (from post-apocalyptic movies Tank Girl, Johnny Mnemonic, and Leprechaun in the Hood). Secondly, it starts off with an animated sequence where two bio-mechanical scorpions are fighting each other in the desert. From there it gets pretty obvious. After the world has been destroyed by a plague of genetically engineered scorpions (designed by a US military that got out of control) the surviving population has turned away from Christianity to the cult of Elvis (there is also a smaller religion devoted to Frank Sinatra). The movie describes the struggle of a small group of heroes and villains who are trying to find and reach Graceland (AKA Mecca) where the world is rumored to still be pure. On their journey they learn the truth about their world, the truth about their religion, and the truth about themselves.

Frankly, i don't know why this isn't understood by most people. It's the only way the movie makes any sense.


By fnord12 | May 5, 2006, 8:53 AM | Movies | Link



Halle-frickin-lujah

The rumors (and i won't say where i heard them) are true: Soon we can get the original Star Wars movies, without Lucas's mucking about, on DVD. Of course you also have to buy the crappy edition along with it, but that's a small price to pay.

Credit where Credit is Due Department: Joshua gave me this link. But he's not the one who first told us about this. That person will remain anonymous. Or something.


By fnord12 | May 4, 2006, 10:59 AM | Movies & Star Wars | Comments (2)| Link



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