enemy mine

enemy mine takes place in a war-torn future in which a human fighter pilot crash lands on an alien world where his only companion is the enemy pilot he shot down. initially hostile, the two men are forced to rely on each other for survival when they realise the biggest threat to their existence is actually their new found home.

as a narrative enemy mine is hugely impressive in scale if perhaps a little too ambitious at times. while the initial set-up of two warriors on opposite sides of a galactic war finding themselves stranded together is a good one, the premise is dealt with fairly quickly. the two men actually come to terms with their predicament within the first twenty minutes and the film then relies on unearned sentimentality to carry us through a rushed first half. then again, it kind of has to in order to leave room for the craziness of the second half, and that's really where the issue lies. this is two stories. one is straightforward; it's hell in pacific in space, mixed with a little robinson crusoe, or even robinson crusoe on mars. the other is a little more complicated and aims to use to this small story of two enemies who become friends as a route to solving the problem of the galactic war itself. while i would have preferred to spend more time on the first story, the second half is certainly unexpected and allows us to see much more of the world than we first expect to see.

what really stands out in enemy mine is the production design. the alien world resembles every fantasy/sci-fi inspired seventies album cover ever, with brightly coloured skies, bizarre plant life and strange rock formations in every wide shot. the hostile nature of the environment is also effectively established, with regular meteor showers and snowstorms making it feel like nowhere is safe. then there is the local wildlife which consists of small, turtle-like creatures and large predators that hide in the dirt and seek out their prey with spiked tentacles. while the creature effects themselves are a bit dated the design work is great and it's always fantastic to see a good old practical creature effect at work.

the best effect work however is on the make-up for louis gosset jr.s character, jeriba. as well as the suitably alien design, parts of jeriba's head seem to breath independently giving the flesh a living quality and making it seem much less like a guy in a mask. speaking of that guy, gosset jr.s performance is incredible considering the discomfort the appliance must have caused. he makes jeriba seem warm and gives him a humanity at odds with his appearance. the combination of gosset jr.s performance and the incredible make-up effects make jeriba one of the most compelling alien characters ever seen on film.

as jeriba's human companion a young dennis quiad puts in a nice performance too, although often has to compete for screen time with a beard that is probably the least convincing effect in the whole film. that said, his relationship with jeriba feels genuine, particularly in the more tender moments when the film isn't afraid to become more like a love-story than a war drama. this is certainly something the filmmakers embrace with jeriba taking on more feminine traits (including, spolier, becoming pregnant) as their relationship develops.

another highlight is brion james turning up to play that character he always used to play in movies, the one that's always brion james. you know, this guy.

despite it's contrivances and overlong running time, there is something really interesting about enemy mine, both in the progressive nature of the relationship it presents and the use of a vast new world to tell a relatively small story. like the best science-fiction movies it focuses on ideas rather than plot, similar to films like silent running, solaris or more recently, moon. if you haven't seen it in a while it's worth revisiting, especially on blu-ray where the bright colour palette really stands out, and if you haven't seen it then it's a great alternative to the epic space operas that are currently coming back into style.

enemy mine is available now on blu-ray from eureka entertainment

hungerford

hungerford is a found-footage sci-fi/horror film written and directed by 19-year-old drew casson. who also did the visual effects. and plays the main character. and it’s rather good.

the films follows film student cowen rosewell as he films his friends adam, kip and phillipa as part of a college media project. however, there’s something wrong with the town of hungerford and cowen soon realises he is capturing the end of the world on video.

it would be lazy of me to compare this film to things like shaun of the dead and the world’s end (despite the obvious influences and the fact that the former is referenced in the film). sure, it’s a group of friends dealing with an apocalypse in a small town so the similarities seem obvious, but there’s actually a lot more going on here. in terms of influences i actually saw more of a direct parallel with 50s sci-fi movies like them! and invasion of the body snatchers. the alien parasites in hungerford also attach themselves to the back of their host’s neck in a way that reminded me of invaders from mars, or robert a. heinlein's novel the puppet masters (which was also turned into a film. hungerford is much better than that film).

but enough about influences, hungerford is very much it’s own thing. there are two really interesting themes at play here. early on, the friends are on the way to a party when they see two men assaulting a third man. at this stage the alien parasite plot is yet to be introduced and even then it's unclear if this incident has anything to do with it. the important thing is that the friends do not intervene; they leave the victim to his fate because they want to get to their party. this is a film about youth, and about how at a certain age we are so preoccupied with our own lives and our own dramas that we don’t even see the end of the world when it’s happening right in front of us. i could really relate to that.

the second big theme of the film is to do with moving on. the other characters continuously tell cowen that he’s wasting his time in hungerford; that he needs to move away and get on with his life. what happens to hungerford could almost be seen as what happens to your life if you leave it too late to move ahead. the idea of parasites controlling your every move could easily be transposed to getting a dull job in your home town and being trapped there forever. the four friends are constantly risking their lives for each other, but ultimately because of this they are unable to escape and rather than this coming across as a message about the importance of friendship, i saw it as the risk of friends holding you back. maybe i’m reading too much of my own experiences into this, but for me when things really kicked off in the film i couldn’t help thinking ‘you should’ve left while you had the chance’.

when things do kick off they really kick off. there’s a moment early on where it appears as though the film could all take place in one flat, and given that i’m assuming the budget was fairly low i can see why this would be a tempting prospect. casson dismisses that idea about halfway through, taking us out into the town and ultimately into the heart of the alien lair itself. however much it cost, the production value on screen is huge, particularly in the later scenes in which cowen follows a team of soldiers through rooms strewn with cocooned bodies. that said, casson handles the smaller moments really well too and there are a couple of genuinely creepy scenes towards the end.

for all it's innovation there are moments in hungerford where the constraints of the budget and the limited experience of the cast and crew pulled me out of the story. the performances are a bit shaky in the more intense scenes and the dialogue is occasionally a bit over the top and on the nose. that said, what the actors occasionally lack in subtlety they make up for in likability. i enjoyed hanging out with these people and that counts for everything because when the aliens came i really cared about what was going to happen to these characters. it’s a small but fundamental element that most big budget films of the same genre forget, but it’s front and centre here.

you should watch this film, not because it was made for no money, or because it’s exactly the kind of thing the british film industry should be producing, or because it was made by an extraordinarily talented individual who deserves to be supported. you should watch it because it’s really good.

check out the hungerford website for more details.

automata

automata opens with a sequence that looks like it could have been a deleted scene from bladerunner - a cop (played by dylan mcdermott of american horror story, who recently appears to be referenced in everything i review) in a plastic raincoat searches out a robot in a decaying future city where huge holographic ads tower above him. the scene sets a gritty, hardboiled tone that the film thankfully abandons halfway through when it mutates into a surreal beckettian thesis on the persistence of evolution.

the hero of automata isn't mcdermott's cop, but a downtrodden insurance investigator played by antonio banderas. banderas isn't the first performer who comes to mind when you think 'downtrodden' but he plays it very well here. he manages to perform every scene like he's on the verge of quitting it all and putting a bullet in his head, and yet is likable enough for us to will him to continue. his character, Jacq Vaucan, is responsible for investigating robot-related insurance claims in a post-apocalyptic world where much of the earth has been destroyed. He dreams of a better life for his wife and their unborn child, and his key to obtaining that life comes in the form of a high profile new case. robots are starting to repair themselves, which in this world is a violation of their protocols. vaucan is charged with unravelling this mystery, and in pulling at that thread he actually comes closer to unravelling the entirety of human civilisation.

automata has a rather odd but ultimately endearing tone, and once it hits its stride feels less like i, robot and more like richard stanley's cult killer robot film hardware (guess who was in hardware? that's right, dylan mcdermott). there are also elements of 70s sci-fi, particularly movies like soylent green and silent running. what these comparisons say to me is that this is a film about ideas; big ideas. it's a film that is quite at home spending it's latter half with antonio banderas being pulled around a desolate desert landscape by four robots (which is where it all goes a bit beckett). it's a film we've probably seen before, but rarely has it been done with so much grace and sincerity.

there is a key line in automata that sums up exactly what the film is about. vaucan is having an argument with his wife over their decision to bring a child into a dying world. his wife tells him 'life always ends up finding a way', referring to the fact that their child will survive no matter where they escape to. this line comes to represent how the robots have evolved, but also suggests that the replacement of the human race by something artificial is inevitable. the film then asks, would this be an entirely bad thing?

what really sells the concept at the heart of the film is the robots themselves. with the exception of a couple of moments all the robots are puppets, so they're actually there in real life, not computer-generated. they look clunky and their movements are slow and laboured, but this works with the world of the story. with the exception of the robots, there are a number of instances of characters relying on outdated technology such as fax machines, pagers and old cars. the industrial nature of the robots fits into this world perfectly, and yet it never detracts from their humanity. by the end the two main robots feel as human as the human characters, possibly helped by the fact that their leader is voiced by javier bardem.

the film is a little too earnest at times and the middle section does drag a little compared to the fast-paced first act, but overall it's refreshing to see a movie with robots that actually tries to make you think about ideas and never resorts to the robots hitting each other to get our attention. this is an impressive attempt at making a small-scale sci-fi with huge ideas at its core and definitely worth checking out if you want to see something a bit different.

automata is released on demand 27th april & blu-ray and dvd 4th may