Z

Low-budget immortal hippies

It's surprisingly easy to take this movie seriously, despite the hokey-ness of the sets and costumes. Most of the characters look like they came off a floral ballet. Demonstrations of mental powers involve making faces at each other, outstretched hands with wiggling fingers, or hiding under a paisley cheesecloth. It's got a surreal sense of humor as well, not just in the dialogue, but also in the situations. It's surprisingly easy to watch because the film flows from one event to the next without stalling for time, and some of the overacting is mesmerizing. Still, we're dealing with a low-budget cornfest, and that involves lots of plot holes and unanswered questions. It's fun to watch, one of the better 70's flicks so far.

***1/2 out of *****

Sci-fi sequel to Jumanji

For whatever reason, this film tanked in US theaters. Do you even remember seeing it come through? Perhaps it's because it wasn't advertised as a sequel. Perhaps those who did know it was a sequel had grown out of the original audience bracket and lost interest in the franchise. For whatever reason, if you missed it, you missed a fantastic film. The same basic concept from the first film, that kids embark on an unanticipated fantasy adventure via a board game, is maintained. This adventure, tho, happens to be sci-fi. And it includes everything from spaceships to asteroids to giant lizard monsters. It's never too threatening (rated PG), but maintains an undercurrent of comedy, hearking back to great family movies of the 80s and 90s. Wildly inventive and fantastic FX. The idea of travelling through space in a 1930's bungalow that has to stand up to laser fire and killer robots results in huge amounts of frivolous carnage. It takes a little too long to get started and is a tad sappy in the middle, but not so as to spoil anything too much. Highly entertaining. Watch the FX featurette in the extras for more coolness.

****1/2 out of *****

Classic, but modern samurai flick

I'm not often impressed by asian cinema. Usually, I either find it dull or too cultural for my tastes. However, I read Usagi Yojimbo with fervor and I'll be darned if this movie watches almost exactly like that comic book reads. Sure, it's different characters, but the storytelling is almost the same. Each scene is like its own vignette, so there's almost always something new to absorb. The action scenes are both restrained and unrestrained - restrained in that it's classical fighting where someone's killed in one or two swings instead of drawn-out clashes; it's unrestrained in that there's lots of blood, but it's done just cheesily CG'd enough that it's more Hollywood action than realistic. The music alternates between haunting and Stomp-like dance tracks, with a somewhat unsuitable but definitely uplifting full-cast dance number at the end. With all that, they still manage to make the film frequently humorous. An excellent, balanced action movie I might want to own.

****1/2 out of *****

Another school shooting dramatization

This film is a combination between Blair Witch and Elephant. The former because it's entirely filmed via videotape, mostly from the perspective of the students. The latter because it's a dramatization of the planning and realization of a Columbine-style school shooting. In fact, the film has many parallels to the weaker and more cruel rendition that Elephant presents. Zero Day is marvelously acted with great believeability. The first 2/3rds of the film are even creepily lighthearted, prompting a few chuckles. But, of course, it doesn't stay that way. The final third of the film is an ultra-realistic portrayal of violence that has to be seen to be believed. Very easy to pretend that it was not a movie. The unfortunate flaw of the film is that the reasoning for the behavior is tacked on as a momentary afterthought. The students don't give a particularly convincing explanation for their behavior and actually detriment the film's message without one. This is a well-done movie, but not a pleasant one.

**** out of *****