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Kam
01-11-2006, 07:19 AM
The Jacket (2005 - us/germany)- - with adrien brody and keira knightly. i had only seen a handful of previews of this movie back when it came out, and it totally miscategorized the film. it portrayed as this straight up horror movie akin to Jacob's Ladder. Very much so along the lines of those misguided trailers (like the shining spoof trailer i posted). it is NOT a horror movie. yeah it has some horror elements, but it is more of a dramatic thriller than anything else, and defn nowhere near as horror-type scary as jacob's ladder was. it's an incredibly intriguing story with a few WTF? elements up there. but more in a donnie darko type of WTF? than a david lynch type of WTF?.

the story follows a gulf war veteran who, after being shot in kuwait, returns to the us with amnesia. he hitches a ride with a stranger and witnesses the stranger kill a cop. the stranger wipes his print and leaves the gun by brody. brody is found not guilty by reason of insanity and put in a mental hospital. there... he undergoes a strange, unauthorized, unorthodox treatment by Kris Kristofferson that allows him to travel into the future... or does it? is it his mind just having a hallucination? is it really him? is he crazy?

there's also a great cameo by one of my current fav actors who, if you didnt know he was in it, might not even recognize him. he is truly truly truly a chameleon and nails another performance. it took me a few mins to realize who it was and i knew he was in the movie.

anyway, highly reccomended as another not-the-norm great movie. also has a great ending that is ripe for debate as to what really happenned, so if anyone has seen it or does see it, i'd be very interested to hear your take on the ending.

Alive (2002 japan)- another strange offering from japanese cinema and the director of Versus (the really strange zombie, gangster japanese horror/action movie i reviewed a while back). A prisoner, who killed his own girlfriend, is sentenced to death. the prisoner strangely survives his own execution (by electrocution, in a strangely interesting explanation by the prison warden). he is given a choice.... either A) really get executed this time and die (for real) or choice B) go down that door. He is told there is an experiment being conducted, that as far as the world knows, he is dead, he has nothing, and he can either truly die, or be subject to that experiment, whatever it may be. the prisoner jumps to take it but the warden warns him, there are things worse than death. (this is not a grindhouse-horror movie so you know its not heading in that direction, but it defn gives you the apprehension that it will). the prisoner takes his chances and heads towards the experiment.

he is knocked out and wakes up in a room, fairly well equipped, where he is told that he can have anything he wants (within reason and supervision) he just has to remain in this room. he is also joined by another convicted murderer who also survived his execution. its a very interesting pyschological experiment that goes nuts in only a way japanese cinema can go. haha. another fun, enjoyable, entertaining movie. might as well watch the original before it gets remade over here and destroyed.

peace
k2

eisforelectronic
01-15-2006, 03:33 PM
i did enjoy the Jacket, Alive sounds pretty interesting

Kam
01-17-2006, 10:27 AM
i did enjoy the Jacket, Alive sounds pretty interesting

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so E, did you think at the end... was brody able to fully transport himself away from the "current" time and live in the future of 2007 with keira knightly? and that's why everyone at the hospital was so vague about his death, because no one ever saw the body?

also, since he went back and 'changed' the future by getting that letter to keira's mom and saved her life - when, at the very end, keira stops and picks him up to take him to the hospital, is that the first time that SHE is seeing him (since the other meetings then never took place for her since time had been changed)? am saying this because while she seemed like she was meeting him for the first time, her one comment in the car, as the camera pans to the sunset/sunrise(?) in the back, made it seem like it could be taken another way, that she knows about his time travel and that he's here to stay this time and won't go back.

bobsticks
01-17-2006, 05:40 PM
Kam,
Was the cameo appearance made, perhaps, by Fish?

Kam
01-17-2006, 07:46 PM
Kam,
Was the cameo appearance made, perhaps, by Fish?

it's the new mr. bond. again, totally a chameleon in his role here.

eisforelectronic
01-17-2006, 08:27 PM
SPOILERS
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so E, did you think at the end... was brody able to fully transport himself away from the "current" time and live in the future of 2007 with keira knightly? and that's why everyone at the hospital was so vague about his death, because no one ever saw the body?

also, since he went back and 'changed' the future by getting that letter to keira's mom and saved her life - when, at the very end, keira stops and picks him up to take him to the hospital, is that the first time that SHE is seeing him (since the other meetings then never took place for her since time had been changed)? am saying this because while she seemed like she was meeting him for the first time, her one comment in the car, as the camera pans to the sunset/sunrise(?) in the back, made it seem like it could be taken another way, that she knows about his time travel and that he's here to stay this time and won't go back.

I took it as her not actually having any memory of the events, but there being a definite familiarity. latent memories perhaps.