odd thomas

odd thomas is a supernatural adventure film based on a series of books i haven't read and directed by stephen sommers, who made the mummy films.

the film is about this guy called odd who can see dead people and helps them find whoever killed them or whatever. he can also see these weird cgi monster things that apparently show up at the scene of an impending disaster. so when he starts seeing dozens of these things in his home town he realises something big is going down and decides to do something about it.

i struggled with this film at first. while it's refreshing not to have to sit through another origin story, odd thomas throws you right into the middle of a story that makes you feel like you should've read the books. there are all these characters who aren't really set up properly, they just turn up and we accept everything is cool, like the fact that the cops know he can see dead people and are fine with it. most of this is done through voiceover, and every time odd is presented with a challenge he says something like, 'but of course i trained myself to be super awesome at fighting' or whatever and gets out of it. that started to bug me after a while.

speaking of things that bugged me, the way women are leered over by the camera in this film was full on michael bay territory. none of the women wear much and there was even a moment where a tall blond runs towards the camera in slow-motion with her breasts bouncing up and down. seriously, fuck off.

and speaking of women, odd also has this impossibly hot, intelligent and courageous girlfriend who feels like the masturbation fantasy of a teenage dean koontz fan. they have this perfect relationship where they are never anything but 100% in love and odd spends a lot of time telling us how amazing she is, although we don't see all that much of it other than her being hot. the thing about this is, in the voiceover he keeps saying he's never been normal as if he's some kind of freak but actually he has kind of a perfect life - he has a purpose, he has a perfect girlfriend, he even seems to enjoy his day job. it feels like there's no challenge to him, like he's too good at everything and doesn't have anything to gain.

but he does have everything to lose, and that, ultimately, is how the film won me over. i don't want to spoil anything, but i was practically in tears at the end.

at it's heart, this isn't a film about ghosts and solving supernatural crimes, it's a film about life and it's a love story. on this level it really works and i was happy i stuck with it. the performances are excellent, particularly anton yelchin in the lead who really sells odd as a realistic and sympathetic character, despite the unreal nature of what he's doing.  there's good support from willem dafoe and addison timlin is great as his girlfriend, i just wish she was wearing more clothes.

overall, i think it's a flawed film but there's enough heart here to make it worth your time and on an emotionally level it really works.

bizarre states

bizarre states is a paranormal podcast on the nerdist network hosted by jessica chobot and andrew bowser. each week they talk about paranormal news and share fucked up stories and videos, usually with a guest (and the guests are pretty awesome - they've had stuart gordon and barbara crampton on in past episodes!)

i've been listening since episode one and it's a pretty awesome podcast. i love paranormal stuff but when i've tried to listen to other podcasts that cover this area i usually find they take it too seriously or make it really boring. chobot and bowser get the balance right between talking about genuinely spooky shit and having some fun with it at the same time.

i got so into this podcast that i decided to send in a story. the problem is, even though i've been interested in this stuff since forever, i've never actually seen a ghost or experienced anything even vaguely paranormal. the closest i have is something that happened to me when i was a kid that my cousin and i used to say was an encounter with a ghost, but ... well, i'll let you hear the story. they read it out on their latest episode when they were in the middle of a vigil at meltdown comics. it's a cool video but if you don't want to watch the whole thing my story is at around 07:38.

yeah, it wasn't that great a story and in hindsight i maybe shouldn't have sent it in, but the thing is when i was writing the e-mail i remembered it happening and really creeped myself out. i should've added a part at the end where i turned round and there was no one there, but that would have been a lie.

still, if you're interested in paranormal stuff go subscribe to bizarre states or check it out on the nerdist website.

sophie's fortune

last month i reviewed a short film called moments, directed by chris cronin and produced by phil meachem. sophie's fortune is another short from the same team, and though it's hugely different in terms of ambition and story it's similar in that it's another attempt at emulating hollywood on a fraction of the budget.

sophie's fortune is about a young father desperate to prove himself to his daughter, the sophie of the title. he finds the opportunity to do so at a childrens' party where the dads are challenged to a treasure hunt. sophie's dad must do whatever it takes to win the treasure hunt and bring the prize back to his daughter.

from the moment the film opens it's clear that the filmmakers have really done an amazing job with the production value of the piece. the music, the look of the film, the camera movement all suggest a project with much higher aspirations than your usual festival-fodder short. this is a film made by film fans who want to replicate the experience of a big budget hollywood blockbuster as closely as possible, and they really succeed. it looks and feels better than most straight to dvd/vod genre films i've seen and would even compete with a few big screen blockbusters. i don't know what the budget was but i'm sure it wasn't hundreds of thousands and this film could easily pass for having cost that much.

but it's not just how good the film looks, on top of that the actors really sell the story and the whole thing is genuinely exciting. i should explain that from the moment the treasure hunt starts the film enters a fantasy world where the dads are essentially action heroes in a full-on indiana jones style adventure, complete with a double-crossing villain, an army of henchmen and numerous traps and pitfalls along the way. there are some great gags in there as well and it's nice that despite how serious the filmmakers must have taken the process to achieve this level of quality they aren't above making the odd joke here and there too.

there are a couple of problems, perhaps the biggest being the length. the central idea is perfectly suited to a short film and would have worked fine in a ten minute running time, but at nearly half an hour sophie's fortune does begin to outstay its welcome in places. i was also a bit put out by the fact that the mums weren't included in the treasure hunt and feel it reinforces a dangerous stereotype of dads as big, violent kids that i personally could do without. lastly, the tone is a bit off and for what felt like it should be for kids was way too violent in places. then again, my dad showed me the original robocop when i was 7 and i loved it, so what do i know.

overall, the issues i had with the film didn't get in the way of my enjoyment and i did get a real kick out of watching it. it's free to watch online at www.sophiesfortune.com and i'll also post it below. if you like old school adventure movies and have wondered what a british indiana jones would look like i seriously recommend checking this one out.

birdman

i saw birdman.

it was good. really good actually. i found i enjoyed it more than i thought i would, which surprised me as it was quite arty. i feel a bit guilty as i only really wanted to see it because of michael keaton (my favourite batman even though those movies are like really old). the similarities are quite obvious between him having played batman, and his character having once played birdman. as keaton tries to set up his new credible career on stage, the film tears apart what we class as "good" and "worthwhile" film and theatre, making you feel guilty about liking certain types of films or shows. however by the end it comes back around, settling on an idea that as long as you're making SOMETHING. that's all that counts. at least that what i think it meant, it all goes a bit meta in the middle. especially as you realise the only reason your're watching the film is because michael keaton was batman. if it was, say jeff goldblum in the lead, it would have been a completely different experience. i'd still probably go though, jeff joldblum rocks.

also it has an awesome jazzy drum soundtrack that sets the manic tone perfectly.

batman: arkham origins

i don't usually like to review games until i've finished them, but something happened while i was playing arkham origins last night that really summed up the experience for me.

i've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this game. i loved the first two games so i was really looking forward to this one, and it had that amazing teaser trailer showing bruce wayne growing up into batman that really made it feel like some thing really special was on the way. this one -

but when i first played it, the whole thing felt a bit like an afterthought. the map is almost exactly the same as the last game, there are no surprises in the gameplay and the gimmick of this being batman's first encounter with famous villains isn't really played out. it felt like filler, like the developers were rushing out a game using the same graphics and mechanics before they had to redevelop it for the next generation of consoles. how many times can you beat up a bunch of dudes with your cape before it gets repetitive? how many times can you fight bane before the fact that it's simply a case of jumping out of the way when he charges at you starts to seem old? how many times can they reinvent the joker?

then the joker origin sequence happened. after you fight the joker there's a scene with him in prison being evaluated by a doctor who will become harley quinn. then you take control of the joker in this surreal sequence that takes place in his mind, fighting off hecklers in a nightclub and then navigating a nightmare landscape as the red hood. there are all these references to the killing joke that it doesn't really explain, it just throws them in. the whole sequence plays like something from an art film and it's amazing. this is followed by this really well-written speech where alfred is trying to stop batman going back out and batman explains to him why he has to do what he does. it's like the writers were suddenly allowed to do cool stuff halfway through the game.

so my review would be that it's nothing new but that there's cool stuff in there that makes it worth playing. that's not really anything to do with what happened last night.

my favourite moments in games are those where you as a player suddenly feel this synergy with the character, like you understand what it's like to be them and feel complete empathy with their situation. it's only happened a handful of times, but when it does it's better than anything any film or book or piece of music in the world. i had one of those moments.

in arkham origins there's this riddler sidequest where you have to collect these datapacks he's left all over the city. it's a tedious task and one i kept thinking i wouldn't bother with but then i'd collected so many of these things already i thought i may as well finish it off. earlier in the game there's a sequence where the joker takes over this huge hotel. he lines the hallways with bodies and bombs and stuff and he turns the ballroom into a funhouse. i was walking through the hotel looking for riddler datapacks and suddenly i started to feel really creeped out. in real life, i've always found large, empty spaces a bit creepy. like i was in brighton museum on my lunchbreak the other day and suddenly found myself alone in their ocean exhibtion. so there are stuffed birds everywhere and the sound of waves and it's empty. something about that emptiness in a space designed to be full of people really scares me.

that's what i started to feel whilst wandering the empty halls of this hotel. when i'd been there before it was full of joker henchmen trying to kill me. now the emptiness of this vast space was really creepy, especially with the bodies and the funhouse parts. i started to want to see a bad guy around the next corner or behind the next door, just to see someone; anyone. i preferred it when there were people in there trying to kill me, because at least there was life there. and it struck me that in that moment myself and the character were feeling the exact same way.

games are weird and interesting and mindblowing sometimes. i think they're the most interesting form of art and i think they have the potential to do incredible things with storytelling. i just wish there was a little less of the hitting and shooting people.

the thing (2011)

so i watched the remake/prequel of the thing and i didn't hate it.

although it's a remake in almost every aspect the film presents itself as a prequel, telling the story of the norwegian expedition that kurt russell and his mates find the remains of in the john carpenter version. i'm not going to do a plot rundown because if you haven't seen the john carpenter version of the thing you should really sort your fucking life out.

the prequel aspect actually worked quite well, in that the base looks really similar and some of the sets match like the room with the block of ice that the thing came from. the costumes and hair fit the period and i didn't notice any obvious inconsistencies, other than if you watched them back to back it would kind of be like watching the same film.

i thought the first half of the film was pretty cool. it was different enough to be interesting, and it actually harked back to the original howard hawks thing from another world in places (and yes, if you haven't seen the howard hawks version you still need to sort your fucking life out). but once the thing reveals itself it all goes a bit wrong. actually, wrong is probably not the right word, it's more that it felt like a missed opportunity, like they never quite captured the suspense and sense of mistrust that the original does so well.

but what makes this film work throughout is mary elizabeth winstead's performance and her character. much like the original, characterisation in this film is minimal so you never really find out where the characters come from or what makes them tick. i liked that, it was refreshing and it meant you never really knew any of the characters well enough to trust that they weren't actually an alien. but the one element that's played really well is winstead's paleontologist character being a woman in a man's world. there's a moment when the characters are discussing how to thaw out the creature and when she voices her opinion she's ignored, and then she's reprimanded for even having an opinion. this is balanced by the fact that there is another woman on the base so she's not the only woman in the world of the film. but the way she's treated fits the period and the environment and it really raises the stakes because she's the first to figure out what's going on but no one will listen to her.

then there's the fact that despite being one of two women, she's so outnumbered by the men and they're all so much bigger than her physically i couldn't help thinking there was a point to be made here. the carpenter version is a film about men mistrusting each other, and in many ways a closer modern remake would be something like tinker, tailor, soldier, spy. this film is about one woman mistrusting all the men.

let's take the alien out of the picture. let's say it's a film about a woman joining a team of men in an isolated area in the 1980s. would it play any differently? sure, there would be less flamethrowers and monsters and murders (probably) but would the tension and the mistrust be any different?

i don't know if it entirely works as a prequel, but i do believe there's more to this film than a carbon copy remake, plus it's cool to see a well-written female character be intelligent first and run around with a flamethrower second. for those reasons i think it's worth checking out.

husk

husk opens with a group of friends whose road trip is ruined when their car crashes next to a corn field with a spooky house in the middle of it (in the middle of the field, not the car). so far, so texas chainsaw massacre (i can't believe i just wrote that but i didn't delete it so i must be okay with it on some level). there are the usual archetypes - the chess team nerd (who actually uses chess to explain what's going on later in the story), the typical jock, his girlfriend, and a sketchy guy who is only sketchy so later on he can hotwire a car. and there's their other friend who runs off into the field immediately. based on that, it sounds like it should be awful, but it's not. it's actually kind of cool.

so what they soon realise is that if you're in the corn, something gets you. they end up stranded at the spooky house, surrounded by corn with no way to get back to the road. unless they can figure out what's going on.

what's going on is where the film get interesting, so if you're going to watch it you may not want to read this bit as it might get spoilerey. so the house was owned by a guy and his two kids. one of the kids went crazy and killed his brother. he hid the body by dressing him up as a scarecrow and stringing him up in the cornfield. the dead brother then came back from the dead and killed everyone. now what happens is that the dead brother kills whoever enters the field, possesses their bodies, makes the possessed body drive nails into their hands and sew their own scarecrow mask, then takes them into the field too. so the field is full of dead people dressed as scarecrows and this guy can possess any of them at any time. it's crazy and convoluted but it's actually kind of a cool idea.

part of the way we get to his idea is a bit dubious, with the nerdy guy randomly getting flashbacks to what happened in the house, but the other stuff is really interesting, particularly the dead bodies sewing their own masks. this happens three times and each time it's really creepy, especially when you don't know what's going on. of course, i've just told you what's going on so i've probably ruined it but i feel like you have to understand how messed up the idea is to get what makes this film work.

the other interesting thing is that the token girlfriend character is killed off in the first act. oh, spoiler, sorry. anyway, this means that the film follows the three guys. now as a feminist you'd think i'd be all like 'where are all the women?' but the thing is i know where all the women are, they're in all the other horror films. it's actually kind of refreshing to see a horror film that's just about these three guys. the filmmakers do still manage to adhere to the rules of the slasher film; they give all the characteristics of the final girl to the nerdy guy. so he's the one who's probably a virgin, he's kind of 'feminised', he's the only one with any sensible ideas but no one listens, he's the one who figures out what's going one and ultimately he's the only one left at the end, although i won't go into whether he survives or not.

the thing is, this is the second time i've seen this done recently, with see no evil 2 being the other example of a male character occupying the role of the 'final girl'. let's compare that to other recent slasher films, like you're next or no one lives. in those films the 'final girl' exhibits more behaviour typically associated with men than the men in the film do. i guess what i'm trying to say is the women in those films kick ass. i mean, the final girl has always kicked ass, that's what they do, but sharni vinson in you're next kicks ass from minute one.

so in the last five years there have been at least two films in which the 'final girl' is a man and two films in which the 'final girl' is more empowered and more physically capable. i don't know if this is representative of some kind of change or progress, or whether it's just a few isolated incidents that i'm trying to connect, but it has to be a good thing.

check out husk anyway, it's a neat 80 minute slasher film with some cool ideas.