I say what Bill Hicks would have said: PIECE-OF-SHIT. This is really a garbage movie and the only reason I write this review is to explain why. The story is simple. A nerdy WoW-player lives an abandoned life on a planet invaded by zombies. This is our story teller. Few humans have survived. One of them is a tough-guy loner who is crazy about a certain brand of fast food. Two sisters, young and pretty, naturally, have also survived. The four of them team up and this is basically what the movie is about.

There are many things that make this movie a really shitty one. The soundtrack theme, Metallica's classic For Whom the Bell Tolls, is completely out of place. The casting and storyline is boring. We've seen at least a hundred zombie films, some actually worth watching, but this one is generic to the point where it gets ridiculous. To make this up, the directors have played "smart" and turned the zombie killing into an ironic video game with "rules" to follow. It doesn't work.

Yet, we all know Hollywood produces at least twenty of these useless flicks every year, so why does this particular movie bother me so much? Martin has kind of laid the groundwork for my commentary already. The main character is no longer a masculine super hero, or even a bad imitation of one. It's a nerd. A loser. Someone who spends his life avoiding family by playing WoW, eating shit food, pissing in a jar, and walking on pink clouds as soon as a girl comes over. He's not just a nobody, he's a perfect example of someone who is wasting his life.

This is supposed to be the character we all sympathize with. Are young guys in their 20s watching this movie and really connecting with this character? The loneliness? The desperation? The nerdiness? The weakness? If this is the best we can do 2010, we're screwed already. Only a minority of guys should recognize themselves in this character. Yet I have a strange feeling this is a universal, Westernized persona. And of course, the nerd smartens up in the end, beats down a zombie, and gets the good-looking chick in the end for it. Is that realistic? Of course not. He's still a loser. In other words, feminists must be cheering by now. They've already domesticated us on screen.

But in the eyes of WoW-players who no longer feel responsible for their families--for the people who actually pay money to go and see this shit--he's more than they could ever dream of. The fact that it receives higher IMDb rating than Dellamorte Dellamore and equal rating to Dawn of the Dead, proves my point. Never before has a movie about "hope" made me so turned off.

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Antidote: we're coming to take back what's ours.

The world's a playground. You know that when you are a kid, but somewhere along the way everyone forgets it.

I do want to take guitar lessons. I do want to learn how to fly. Yes, I would like to learn Korean.

Jim Carrey plays a banker who says yes to life; this means according to a personal development guru that he must say yes to every opportunity that presents itself.

I consider this movie a fun and funny must watch before making your New Year's resolutions. If you've ever liked Jim Carrey's style, you must watch him in this.

Life is limited. I don't know about you but I feel my tenuous mortality and the encroaching passage of time. Nevermind the unambiguous prospect of death: I can feel the prospects of responsibility, duty, family, growing and tying me down in ways I won't predict and ways I already feel. We need to live every moment, have stories to tell.

You need to make every moment matter. And what matters is what matters to you. Living a good life, a constructive life, one where you grow, one where you've experienced as much as you can, learned different things or became an undisputed master of a field.

You could live life like you'll live to a 100. A responsible, future-oriented and community conscious human being. You could live life like you'll never see tomorrow. Spreading joy, having fun and repenting now. These two attitudes aren't mutually exclusive. They have something in common: make every moment matter by not wasting it.

Don't waste. Don't 'kill' time. Time is too precious to kill whether it's your last moment or a foundation for your future. Don't waste it on ill-health, on hurting yourself and others, on cheap experiences, on doing nothing. Quality. If you're going to try a smoke, make it worth it. Smoke a top class blend, not the cheapest cigarette.

If you're drowning in boredom and ennui, if every movement seems hardly worth it, if you're not feeling purpose running through your arteries? You're doing it wrong.

Inertia and fear shouldn't hold you back. Fill your life with activity, philanthropy, friends, learning, work and experiences. Summon the energy and quiet the insiduous voice of antisocial laziness. Savour the silent moments all the more for their rarity.

Embrace being human.

It's what I tell myself to get me out of bed. It's what I'm telling you. It's what Alex has said too.

Embrace living.

Yes Man on Amazon and Amazon UK.

Source of emo:
Emo Boyfriend

Some people may accuse 2012 of being unrealistic and banal, and therefore unworthy of praise, but those people probably have learning disabilities and should be thrown out of the room before they spoil the movie for everyone else. Happily, my brother isn't differently abled and we watched this film in constant admiration of its audacity; for this film truly is ambitious. It may seem like standard Hollywood fare, but I suspect that in reality it is a playful attempt to wrap as many film industry clichés around a retardedly overblown chase-scene as is cosmically possible, whilst also trying to conceal the exercise from people innocent enough not to realise it.

The film is thus: a handful of generic characters must run, fly, drive and sail away from various natural disasters caused by an end of world scenario that threatens to put mankind into extinction. This accounts for probably 85% of the film.

The rest of the film fleshes out the prosaic characters in thirty mercifully brief seconds and the introduction gives us a threadbare reason for the world ending in the first place. Mayans, neutrinos, planetary alignment, something like that. A thickly-accented Indian guy tells us this at the start. He lifts up a lid in a coal mine and some water is bubbling. Apparently, he says, the water isn't normally bubbling. He isn't heard of for the next two hours, and then suddenly we see him on the phone to another character before he dies in a flood five seconds later. Literally everything is arbitrary.

Then comes the best bit: the relentless fleeing. It's both absurd and sublime as it grows increasingly ridiculous. When the eighteenth escape scene finally finishes you're thinking "that truly was ridiculous that time, they can't possibly top tha- OH MY GOD DID HE JUST FLY A SUBMARINE OVER A VOLCANO?! HOW CAN HE PILOT THAT MILITARY JET THROUGH A COLLAPSING SKYCRAPER WHEN HE HAS ONLY HAD TWO BIPLANE LESSONS WITH A MIDGET FOR A CO-PILOT?!"

With disaster looming fast there is a hasty decision at the end of the film about whether or not to let a few hundred stragglers onto a spacious boat that was reserved for the best of the population - that is to say the richest, and those who were specifically chosen for their supposedly good genetics. You're suddenly aware that this development may actually constitute an ethical subtext, before remembering that the film has been nonchalantly killing off humanity in a variety of inventive ways non-stop for the past two hours, and the post-apocalyptic inclusion of a few hundred serfs must really be quite negligible for the species anyway.

People who look down on other people for eating at McDonalds and listening to bouncy rock music probably won't like this film. The great thing about those people is that you can ignore their opinions and nobody will care. In fact, you will probably be rewarded for it. Which works out just fine; they won't be in the room whilst you and others marvel over and over again at this deliberately ham-fisted Hollywood schlockbuster.

I'm gonna pull the whole thing down. I'm gonna bring the whole fuckin' diseased, corrupt temple down on your head. It's gonna be biblical.

Clyde as a hero* appeals on so many levels. A civilised man betrayed by the promises of civilisation. He's forced to become a vigilante to attain justice. He is the dad doing anything for his family. Sickly self-righteous; the monster that is birthed by monstrosity, with its heart a black vortex birthed from the abyss it has too long gazed upon.

* (well, meant to be the villain of the piece but I'll call him a hero because that's how I see him in a twisted way)

The problem with this movie was not that it didn't go far, but that it did not go far enough. I'm surprising myself saying this. Even though there was destruction and violence, there wasn't enough. Well, not quite. The system itself did not pay nor did it change. It did not get enough scrutiny or involvement. I'm not sure whose fault it is, where in the chain of Hollywood production things weren't adequately addressed. The system is impersonal, yet this movie personalised and focused on the personal interactions. We did not see the corrupt temple collapsing in and on itself. We did see hints of the corruption of complacent bureaucracy; obsessing with targets and creating enough rules that you'll find one to suit you if you find one that suits your agenda.

The personal interactions themselves left something to be desired in terms of substance, rather than style. The style itself was brilliant. Our hero was by turns insolent and tragic. He taught his lessons in perfect time with instances of hypocrisy and negligence; giving a way out if the lesson was learned although he did not expect it to be learned either.

Yet: Our vigilante father did not face much of an adversary. We didn't know anything about his thoughts or his background. In order for his opponent to remotely measure up, Clyde had to commit an error that was grossly out of character. What chessplayer doesn't watch their king?

This movie was a tragedy in so many ways. So many suffered for an end that simply was in teaching a man a lesson that is learned too late. Even this change is an optimism that is confined to the realms of Hollywood and an optimism we didn't see realised in the contexts of the actual film; we didn't actually see the change ensuing from the hero's terrible actions played out on screen.

It did strike me that Clydes of the world exist. They are losing their families everyday:

They[mothers] will continue to run off with the kids and there will be nothing the children’s fathers can do about it.
[...]
In fact, if there is anything men should have learned from the lessons of the past half-century or so, it is that in the absence of vigilance and stern oversight, government and politicians can only be counted on to betray us.

Noone is doing anything about it. Noone is seeing it as the same thing, not even the dads themselves (and that's where they're different from our hero.) Noone will. Noone even knows how.

Deal with the human being in front of you, not their ID number. Know the rules, then resolve to break them when it matters. Retain your humanity; it's not only a duty to yourself but it protects the humanity of every other human being around you.

This important film chronicles the struggles and complex relationships of a group of dedicated artists working in the field of music. It is set during a critical time in their band's career, with the release and promotion of a new album plus a major tour of the US. Mixing documentary footage, interviews and performances from decades past, this is an unflinching look into the souls of true artists.

The myriad problems faced by the band, from corporate censorship of their album cover and the tragic deaths of their many drummers to power struggles among management, can be heartbreaking. Like the dedicated artists they are, however, our heroes unflinchingly persevere for the sake of their art.

As with all true-to-life films, "This Is Spinal Tap" can get depressing as the band seems to constantly and intensely struggle against the forces that would hold them down. However, the ending is truly uplifting and inspirational, and you cannot come away from it without feeling a renewed faith not only in musicians but in the entire arts community.

Even if you dislike heavy metal music (and what healthy, normal person doesn't?) there is much you can learn from this film about the nature of art, artists and humanity. Highly, highly recommended.

Buy this wonderful cinematic work at Amazon

Once banned in Norway (!), “Life of Brian” is probably Monty Python’s most beloved film. It depicts scenes from the life of a young Jewish man, named Brian, being of the same generation as Jesus Christ. At the time, Judea is, for better or for worse, part of the Roman Empire and is full to the brim with self-righteous rebels, but also quite a few would-be Messiahs. Brian takes part in one of many unsuccessful anti-Roman organisations, but in the end unwillingly becomes one of many Messiah characters.

As in all works of Monty Python, characters such as a lisping Roman official are just meant to be funny, but there are scenes that are quite obviously the result of some serious brainwork. As such, the movie is an absolute must-see because of some key scenes that are better than the whole, with stinging lines that are worth repeating over and over.

Inevitably, quite a few scenes are making fun of religion, exploring the issues of exegetics (as in the hilarious interpretations of the Eight Beatitudes, or the inane followers or Brian), hermit life, and the invented struggle against invented oppression.

But the Pythons give a kick in all directions: while the status quo may be a royal pain, and the number of annoying Messiahs seems endless, there is also a myriad of equally foolish revolutionary groups keen on bettering the world (or at least keen on being right) perhaps hating their competitors more than the common enemy, which, after all, may not be as bad as they want it to be.

In view of all this, John Cleese was probably most correct when he stated that the movie is “about people who cannot agree with each other.” Or with their inner selves for that matter. The source of hypocrisy is always within the walls of our skulls. As such, the movie works quite well as a satire on opinion as a whole.

"Life of Brian" at Amazon

NB: After seeing the movie, for the love of Brian, don’t miss the Monty Python vs. rabid priest debate and the following parody sketch of that debate made by Rowan Atkinson & c:o.

Chinatown (1974)
Roman Polanski

A yes or a no to any statement are like lids, sometimes known as contradictions, on top of a greater truth. Jake Gittes, a Californian private detective, gets to know this fact face to face during the interwar period, when he is drawn into a complex political tangle concerning the future of Los Angeles. Gittes was once a policeman in Chinatown, where corruption keeps the lid on, so although he is a pretty coarse detective, he is one of few people who really wants to know what’s actually going on.

In Los Angeles he discovers how corruption has completely drained all trustworthiness from even what seems to be the most respectable citizens. For a while, he feels he can trust Evelyn Mulwray, but his faith in her falters and his desperation in not knowing makes the palm of his hand do the talking. Because as a detective, Gittes is no genius in forming a whole out of many parts. He’s good at clutching to details, but otherwise he’s just as lost as the viewer in a world in which the truth is always just out of reach, as though we never get to "the thing in itself." Gittes accuses loads of people, but just as when most others try to formulate theories about how the world works, he is mostly wrong, quite unlike the perfect private detectives who figure everything out without a problem.

This is a pessimistic movie to say the least. You shouldn’t seek truth, you shouldn’t make a living in honest ways, you shouldn’t be benevolent – it always ends up badly. Everything reeks of dishonesty, the cops included, but the sad conclusion seems to be that people get used to it: "Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough." As the detective of life itself the thinker is by necessity striving for truth, but what happens if our fundamental worldview is corrupt?

"Chinatown" at Amazon

I'm a naturally very creative person, always coming up with ideas. The other day I came up with this brilliant movie concept. I'm planning on phoning up Mel Gibson to see if he would like to produce it. I haven't written a script yet, so please don't steal my idea! Do tell me what you think though.


Title
The Waiting Game

Taglines
"Six men enter. Only six will come out alive."
"When all you can do is wait, impatience can be deadly... boring."
"It's time for you to enter.... The Waiting Room!"
"Wait!"

Plot
As part of top-secret government military-industrial research into waiting techniques, the CIA commissions an experiment to find out just how long a man can wait before he's unwilling to wait any longer. Six socially diverse men sign up for the experiment: a token normal white guy, a gay guy, a guy who could either be Mexican or from the Middle East, a black guy who turns out to be the most intelligent one, and two guys in wheelchairs. They wait for about 90 minutes until they all decide to leave. In a final shocking twist, global warming forces people to vote Democrats in order to save the climate.

Themes
Waiting, waiting rooms, patience, stay, remain, hang around, linger, stop, kill time (informal), pass the time.

On its surface, the Paul Verhoeven film Total Recall is pure action, with tongue-in-cheek bits of futuristic pop culture making it little more than a nice conversation piece.
Taking a deeper look, and knowing that the film is loosely based on the Philip K. Dick short story, "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale", we know that this is a story of identity. This is something director Paul Verhoeven is known for, in other efforts such as Robocop and Basic Instinct.

In the film, Douglas Quaid has unsettling but strangely attractive dreams of being on the planet Mars. He is married with a regular type of job. But one day, he tempts fate and visits a facility called "Rekall", which sells memory implants. Their specialty is called the fantasy package, creating the illusion that you once were a secret agent. Of course, Mr. Quaid orders the Mars Secret Agent package, and the doctors who perform the implant procedure discover a "memory cap" - implying that he was someone different and someone planted him in a false life. With a cast of misfits to guide him, Quaid finds his way to Mars to finish the mission he once started.

As much as the film is about identity, Ronny Cox's brilliant portrayal of villain Vilos Cohagen implies it's also about control. If you can control someone's identity, you can make them do just about whatever you want. At some point, this plan foils, because nature, for lack of a better term, ultimately breaks free, as people become who they are meant to be in the end. You may be successful with the first one hundred or first one hundred million minds or identities you try to control using artificial force, but part of the lesson here appears to be that eventually, a strong mind will break free and become something greater.

In the end, it's left up to the viewer as to whether or not Quaid becomes that hero, as reality is a relative term in this universe. The ideas in the movie are very dense, the layers profound, but Hollywood unfortunately did not have the patience to explore those - it was too tempted to turn it into a smash-mouth Arnold flick.

1. Only confess your sins right before you're about to do something really stupid.

2. You cannot outspit older women, because no one harvests mucus like them.

3. Priests are pussies, most of the time.

4. No pub night with your old buddies is complete without at least one joke about minorities.

5. If you're surrounded by armed gangsters, and you happen to be unarmed, keep slandering them as much as you can to stay cool.

6. Rifle. Every man should own one.

7. You don't join your newly moved in neighbor's BBQ party...unless you're out of beer.

8. Your barber is your shit can and your best friend.

9. The Korean War is not over, the Korean War is not over, the Korean war is not over...

10. Wiggers are trash alright, they just happen to be white.

11. Gook food. Have some now and then, because it's good.

12. The more you bully a boy, the more he'll be inclined to become a man.

13. Your property is your castle. If anyone trespasses, ask them kindly to leave, or else terminate them.

14. Repair at least one thing in the house when at a party.

15. Stuff your garage full of tools and learn to know them one by one as if each one was your favorite lover.

Read a short movie review of Gran Torino here.

Fight Club is, at first, a dark comedy about an individual lost in modern society. He lives in a condo, eats junk, and has an addiction to buying furniture - because what the hell else is he going to do with his money as a single, well-paid, obedient member of the middle class? He also develops insomnia and looks at the world through a very dark lens: flourescent lights in his office keeping everyone satiated like monkeys in a cage; constant caffeine and junk addiction with piles of trash all around; the false sheen of the world in the form of corporate offices and airports. There are some great one liners early on ("this is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time") and some very clever moves by director David Fincher to make this Chuck Palahniuk novel come to life on the screen. The little we learn of Jack's past seems to paint a picture of a generation, which makes for good metaphor and necessarily complicates Jack's character to make him more interesting.

The real fun, however, begins when our main character meets a fellow business traveler named Tyler Durden. Phase I of this mission of a film is to critique modern society lightly and playfully, while Jack (played wonderfully by Ed Norton) trudges through life and support groups he has no business going to, just so he can "cry and sleep". Phase II is the process of Tyler warming Jack up to the idea that there are more important things in life than lightly poking fun of society even while doing nothing about it, in classic hipster fashion, and asks Jack to do him one simple favor - "I want you to hit me as hard as you can." This blossoms into an underground movement of Jack-a-likes; business men who travel and deal with corporate nothingness all day who simply need to feel something real. Many of these followers, named "space monkeys" in hilarious fashion by Tyler, fall into line and do what they are told because they know that destroying modern society and following a strong leader for a worthy cause is much better than continuing to live with no goals and no leadership. As Tyler says - "we're the middle children of history, men - no purpose or place. We have no great war; no great depression..our great war's a spiritual war; our great depression, is our lives."

While entertaining in its own right, Fight Club ultimately fails to answer a question it can't help but pose to attentive viewers with its nihilistic attitude toward modern society: It's all well and good to destroy a society if people are so helpless that no other method will do (think the wonderful Ra's Al Ghul in Batman Begins) - but what then? The complete picture is outside the scope of the film and these questions are not answered, neither by Chuck Palahniuk (author of the novel), nor by David Fincher (director). It's too bad, because the film seems to almost get there but can't quite make the leap, focusing instead on the main character's ultimate decision to fix his own twisted mind instead of using the immense amount of energy he's built to help rebuild society. This film focuses entirely on the destruction of modern society while taking some fun jabs at it, and for those purposes, it's worth a watch - you'll find yourself rewatching it many times over the course of years, and thinking to yourself on what a society built by Jack and Tyler Durden would look like.

We've previously mentioned the liberal virus inherent in Hollywood culture, but what about the movies that are really worth seeing? First, don't miss this and this post. Second, tune in to the works of Clint Eastwood. Below is a list of what I find to be Clint Eastwood's very best - enjoy!

The Dollar Series: A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1964, 1965, 1966)

Italian director Sergio Leone watched the downfall of the American cowboy genre during the 60's and felt dismayed. His response was to combine the heritage of Italian cinematography with the growing American movie culture. The result became the Italo-Western spaghetti genre: highly explosive, thoughtful works of violent opera-on-screen, deeply rooted in American history.

The dollar series is an example of some of the best cinematic work ever done in this genre. Eastwood plays the classic lone wolf out to exploit other men's weaknesses and bring home both money and women at the same time. Greed, bounty hunts and gold become motivating factors in a landscape of violence and poverty, where Eastwood humorously but violently excels by recognizing these factors as means to living an interesting, dangerous life, not as ends in themselves. Those who don't follow, get killed.

Dirty Harry (1971)

When a sniper in San Francisco suddenly begins killing random people on the streets, Dirty Harry is called in to solve the problem. Naturally, he's not the kind of cop who follows legal procedure, but makes up his own laws against the criminals he sees as destructive to civil society. Here, Eastwood trademarks what is probably his most famous and appreciated role figure: the pragmatic, masculine, always single, sharp shooting cop who cleans out the streets in his own way and only later worries about consequences.

It's fair to say the Dirty Harry series is an entertainment gimmick, although it "ideologically" ties in with the vigilante genre on par with Charles Bronson's Death Wish series, where the lone civilian, circumventing the legal system to enact revenge on criminality in society, becomes a cultural ideal. And indeed, Dirty Harry has made a powerful, lasting impact on American popular culture; one that is worthy of respect in our times of bureaucratic haze. Dirty Harry is fucking cool, period.

High Plains Drifter (1973)

A peculiar cinematic output among the 70's Western classics, in which Eastwood plays a stranger suddenly arriving at the small village of Lago to help it fight back against three outlaws seeking revenge on its townfolk. The stranger quickly takes over the law and order in the community, often by violence, but soon enough it seems he's more closely tied to the history of its settlement than what was previously known.

This is simply one of those rare gems you can pick up for a few bucks at some video store, and be amazed when you experience its depth and mystery. There is some good action in here, the perfect old American settings, and a more dirty, raw and mysteriously awesome Clint Eastwood than in most of his other roles. If you get hold of this one, be sure to see it.

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

For fans of American history, The Outlaw Josey Wales combines classic Western action against the background of the American Revolutionary War. Finding his wife and son killed by Union soldiers, Eastwood as Josey Wales becomes an outlaw and joins the Confederate guerilla to wage a personal vendetta. Of course, he eventually fights alone against a whole army of soldiers, but thanks to his intelligence and courage, he makes more and more friends in the struggle for victory.

More affectionate than one expects, this movie taps straight into the heart of Clint Eastwood's career of Western roles where courage, pride, history and community play central roles in the struggle against adversity and the foul aspects of human nature. It's simply a well-directed, tight cinematic effort, with lots of Eastwood-humour along the way. As such it easily qualifies for this list as one of his finest acting efforts.

Pale Rider (1985)

Following the conflict between growingly powerful companies and the common man in the community, Clint Eastwood arrives at a small mining settlement as a pastor, but it doesn't take long before he starts doing other things than just preaching. Uniting the men in the settlement against the exploitation of a big mining industry, Eastwood eventually apologizes to God for having to dust off those guns again to kill some filthy scumbags and save the day.

As dramatic as this movie is, it's the fate behind the story that leaves an impact on us. It's a touching storyline, but it's also one of many Eastwood movies in the series in which American core values like independence, liberty and honor are explicit ideals driving the narrative forward. Pale Rider is a beautiful movie and probably ranks among the top Western movies made in the late 80's.

Unforgiven (1992)

The later roles played by Eastwood emphasize the independence of his earlier efforts, which culminates in Unforgiven, a really filthy, high-explosive gunshot flick full of the rawness you'd expect from a typical Eastwood appearance. This time he plays a retired gunslinger who seizes the opportunity to secure a livelihood for his children by tracking down a few last cowboys, who have upset and hurt some prostitutes.

Eastwood's character is a dark, mystic figure slowly emerging from of the intersection between myth and reality. With brilliant directing he blends the two to help create this powerful Western of epic proportions. You appreciate this movie for its direct impact, like a blow to the head, but also for the growing complexity behind Eastwood's strangely appealing acting style. If Sergio Leone's adventurous death tale cinematography ever came to life in a Western directed by someone else, it'd probably be Unforgiven.

Gran Torino (2008)

Yes, I rank this one as one of his very best. Let me explain. In Gran Torino, also directed by Clint Eastwood, he plays a mean old Korean veteran peacefully caring for his house and garden after his wife just has passed away. No one can or wants to go near him, including the priest and his own son. Next door, an Asian family moves in, but if this irritates Eastwood's character, it's nothing compared to what happens when a boy from the Asian family tries to steal his 1972 Gran Torino.

Some complain about the directing, and admittedly the acting in some of the roles here feels quite unrehearsed. Some feel offended by the racist conversations, but miss out on the bigger picture, which is a solidly humorous story, unfolding at first like a traditional American pluralist drama, until the spin comes and you realize this is a kind of modern summary of Clint Eastwood's entire philosophical career. While it deals with the clash between emotional past and present, the larger view is a Conservative worldview wonderfully depicted in all of its human tragedy and glory. Vastly underrated.

Alex recently reviewed a batch of Hollywood movies for their liberalist qualities. He made a passing mention to American History X, of which I would like to speak further.

The movie has some good points and some bad points. The good points are that it shows racists to mainly be a bunch of low-brow numb nuts, and that the extent of their political activism is to hilariously segregate themselves and their ideas; in reality this is quite accurate. The main bad point is that its honourable attempt at critiquing racist mindsets is terribly done.

The protagonist, who impliedly inherited his racistness from his father, seems to have a little more smarts about him and uses these to organise a skinhead movement around him. They go around shouting "took our jobs!," smashing up grocery stores and then managing to beat black people at basketball, at which point the whole illusion becomes dangerously fragile.

The main white guy gets sent to jail for something or other. Then he gets raped in the showers by some white racists and afterwards makes a non-threatening black mate. He stops being racist after this. So does his younger brother, but he gets shot by a black boy at school, which must have been a little annoying after all of his progress. Maybe he should have worn a SHARP badge or something.

So the moral of the film (I think) is that we need to parachute drop non-threatening blacks into white neighbourhoods to teach the nervous locals that ethnic people are cool too! Then we get some white guys to go around raping to show people that white people can be complete shits sometimes.

Yes, It wouldn't help to note that interaction with different people aids understanding, but when the basic premise of this film, and every other anti-racist film from Hollywood, is to try and tackle the huge and multi-faceted problem of racial tension with the lesson "make an ethnic mate" or "blame white bigotry" without even skimming the surface of ideas or different contexts, the message becomes predictably banal.

Liberalism is one of the slipperiest ideologies you can think of, because its appearance fools us about its consequences. You always hear liberal people talk about equality and individual rights, but when you ask them how they're going to achieve that, their response is a government-sanctioned program. They assure us we should trust the authorities to make us all one and the same. Something's not right here.

Liberals want the government to force us to conform to their nutty equal rights ideals, which not only have proven to increase race and class conflicts, but also bring us bureaucratic tyranny, a robbed middle class, relativist indoctrination at schools, civilization exhaustion, and chaotic multicultural suburbs. To understand the psychology behind liberalism, tune into any random Blockbuster. Here's a handful of their propaganda arsenal:

Strange Days (1995)

James Cameron's sci-fi-millenium drama, involving a rough black police woman, her pathetic white male friend selling human experiences in digital form on the underground market, and his white male friend who turns out to be a psychopath raping and killing women to, in the end, steal his friend's whory rockstar ex-girlfriend. Is that even an actual plot? I don't know, but the movie's pretty entertaining and may at face value seem to carry some depth.

That is, until you realize it's the same liberal fodder suggesting society is in chaos because of an oppressive, white police force set out to execute a famous black rapper who wants to start an equal rights riot. But hey, if you feel discriminated against and belong to a minority, rioting is always the liberal way to go. If you happen to kill someone, blame it on childhood abuse or oppressive power structures in society. Strange Days is liberalism marketed in a slick, appealing form, touching our emotional radar like ice cream stimulates our taste buds.

Crash (2004)

If you thought American History X smelled liberal, wait until your sensitive new girlfriend or closet liberal friend forces you to watch this one. Crash intertwines the fate of several racially charged situations where people of different colors are forced to confront each other. I know this sounds emotional right there, but what's hilarious about this movie is that it eventually becomes something of a comedy. Black people run over Asians, stop the car, notice the "accident;" pull rap jokes, and continue driving. That's the "black crime" in this movie.

The white people, of course, are the real racists here, distrusting their Hispanic locksmith simply because he's foreign. Oh my god! To avoid hitting too much on the whitie, they include a pretty funny confrontation between an Arab and a Hispanic. The problem is that we're having a hard time taking this stupid garbage seriously. In the end, the black woman in the burning car gets rescued by the oh-so-previously-racist white cop. Tear, tear. My old high school still uses this movie as education material about racism. I am not kidding.

Titanic (1997)

Yes, I just had to include it, but why? Isn't it pretty lovely to see Leonardo DiCaprio pick up beautiful Kate Winslet on a steam boat? Don't the soft nude scene and the awesome effects at least deserve some credit? I agree, but if we take a closer look, we see that this movie is nothing but another liberal love story. Let's see: bored out rich girl meets artsy and playful but poor guy, girl and guy fall in love with each other despite class differences, and uptight rich parents are upset.

What next? The boat sinks and of course all the rich people act like selfish monsters, while the poor have to sacrifice themselves, since they are embodied with the glowing spiritual light of Goodness. I can't say all of this crap makes up for the two mentioned positive things about the movie. It's another liberal con job that subtly suggests you're heartless and boring if you've got a lot of money, while you're eternally innocent and full of artistic passion if you're constantly broke. Yawn.

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

I know, I've praised this movie before, and will continue to do so, because it's simply a masterpiece. So what's wrong with it? Anything reducing complex reality to a simple format, which satires by nature do, runs the risk of being used for different purposes than intended. Dr. Strangelove is a hilarious portrayal of how nutty top executives within administrations can cause more conflicts than solve them, and we better heed that wisdom knowing how the Bush Administration became so pragmatic that it circumvented the Western belief in the rule of law.

But we all know that's not how this movie will be interpreted. It'll be seen as yet another liberal shot at right-wing Reaganism. Look at what happens when Conservatives try to establish diplomacy with foreign governments! If we just cuddled and hugged with Gorbachev, Soviet Russia would eventually admire our freedom and join a happy ending. Not. But at least, Hollywood liberals argue, we can dream of it and pretend it's real, and if someone says that's insane, we point to movies like these and claim you're intolerant and bigoted.

Enemy of the State (1998)

Government surveillance paranoia, political murder, underground technology complexes and a black family rescued from all of this thanks to a retired white expert in...government surveillance and underground technology? Pinch me, or am I watching a liberal movie? What's funny about this Will Smith-Gene Hackman Blockbuster is that it not only nails the classic Black/Hispanic/Mexican-White team meme, but also conveys a rather confused view of the government.

Liberals love government intervention for anything and everything unjust, we know that for sure, so why are they making a movie like this? Because the liberals only approve government strength when it's babysitting our kids or collecting taxes, never when it defends itself against terrorism or cleans up violent suburbs. This paranoid worldview suggests we're all victims of an oppressive power structure not to be trusted, unless it's committed to liberal purposes. So as long as we have impotent bureaucracies, government is good, but when it flexes its muscles, it's tyranny. No wonder we're losing the wars in the Middle East.

I received a lot of good feedback on my first article about movies criticizing modern society. This time I would like to present a list of movies where the downfall of society is portrayed, whether it is in the form of too many stupid people, pollution, technological fascism, or hippie revolutions.

The most important question here is how to overcome the dangers people face in these movies. Can we learn from the often pretty silly and stupid characters in movies? I believe that we can, at least if we use our mind (may be news to some, I don't know). Let's get right to it.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Mastermind Stanley Kubrick's insane satire on American foreign policy during the Cold War. US Air Force General Jack Ripper suspects the Soviets are conspiring to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of the American people. Motivated by this madness, he orders a bomber wing to nuke U.S.S.R. Not good. The Soviet ambassador informs the American President that unless the attack is avoided, the Soviets will release their Doomsday Machine, extinguishing all plant and animal life on the planet.

This has got to be one of the finest black comedies ever transferred to cinema. Essentially this movie reveals how the conflict between two empires can be abused by crazy people in power, who fail to predict the consequences of their nutty ideas. America's current relationship to Iran couldn't be a more accurate example, but Kubrick is also a realist. In the end, destruction and death triumph, comically and elegantly. Are we laughing yet? If not, we haven't properly learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

La Notte ("The Night") (1961)

I included this for all intellectuals reading this site who, perhaps wisely, refuse to watch anything produced in Hollywood. And because Michelangelo Antonioni was a modern genius, but that's a different story. La Notte is the tale of an upper middle class couple in Italy. Bored with their whole existence that reeks of empty indulgences, Giovanni and Lydia Pontano attend a party for rich tycoons. Both of them flirt with other people, until the morning breaks in and they realize they can no longer be together.

There are only two modes of watching this movie: Either you cannot take your eyes from it, or you immediately fall asleep. If you're not into slow, progressive movies that build up artistry and plot dimension, this is not your pick. To the rest of you: This is one of the finest pieces of cinema ever made, quoted by Ingmar Bergman as being one of Antonioni's masterpieces. Antonioni offers a Marxist analysis of the shallow upper class, who pursues empty pleasures but end up feeling lost and lonely inside. A lingering, passionate stroke of art that I would not want to be without.

The Last House on the Left (1972)

This is not a family movie, so keep your younger children away when you watch it. Most people are only familiar with the endless stream of shitty "Scream" flicks that have been coming out regularly. Sad, because Craven actually produced at least one interesting movie before he sold out, and this is possibly the one. It's about the teenage girl Mari and her friend Phyllis, who go out to smoke some dope before a concert. Of course they end up in big trouble together with a gang of criminals. What follows is a family variant of vigilante horror. This would make Charles Bronson shake his legs.

Let's get this straight: Craven was at this point not technically very impressive, and the actors sometimes embarrass the viewer. What is interesting here is that Craven completely disconnects with the 70's hippie culture at the time. In this movie, the hippies face the brutal reality in society, and suddenly all talk about peace, love and drugs is not so fun anymore. Every movie where hippies get killed scores big points in my book, and this is one of the most penetrating attacks on those values in modern cinema. Here is a lot to learn for some leftists and liberal progressives alike.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Jack Nicholson completely dominates this movie. He plays McMurphy, a somewhat of an oddball but psychologically sharp individual, who thinks he can escape work in prison by pretending he's crazy. Not surprisingly, McMurphy decides to nicely fit in with the other patients, but when he influences them to progress, the head nurse tries to stop him. Something McMurphy is not going to be too happy about.

This is a classic and I presume most of you have already seen it, one or five times. Yeah, it's worth watching again, because it is in fact that good. Forget the social commentary on how mental asylums are run, even that's interesting as well. This is the manual of how to overcome your own fears, because it is the irrational fears of these people that hinder them to become normal citizens. McMurphy points out that we need to stop babysitting people and instead force them to put pressure on themselves to participate with life again. And, of course, he's right.

Runaway Train (1985)

This is one of those movies you never hear people talk about, because it's a dead Blockbuster. Does that mean it's crap? Not necessarily, but wherever Eric Roberts is the star, you can expect a fair amount of cheese. Two convicts, the T-man Manny and the slightly meeker Buck, flee from prison after Manny finds out the prison administrator Renken plans to kill him. The two convicts hijack a train, only to later find out that their newly won freedom will inevitably lead to their own doom.

Undeniably, the director Andrei Konchalovsky has been reading his Nietzsche, because the movie is literally packed with Nietzschean references. And the extreme philosophy is what ultimately saves this movie from becoming just another cheap action production. It communicates a bad-ass attitude towards life that would make my friend Martin Regnen proud. Manny symbolizes the ideal of the overman dominating his surroundings. And man, what a powerful ending!

Soylent Green (1973)

If you're looking for an overpopulation action drama, look no further. In year 2022 the cities are overcrowded with people who demand food. Organic food like plants and meat have almost gone completely extinct. Instead, people live off of an industrial product called Soylent. A detective decides to investigate the production process behind Soylent, but soon finds out that the truth behind it is worse than he first thought.

Some people who have never seen this movie think it's an ultra-flashy sci-fi flick. It's not. In fact, the sets are pretty cheap and I'm not sure I’d credit any of the actors with fame. But where this movie sets apart from the rest is the concept. It depicts a very accurate, dystopian view of how an industrial society collapses when too many people require resources that just aren't there. The escape? Find out what's going on and then destroy the system. Alright, maybe a bit too revolutionary for most of us, but a hint at what really needs to be done.

Storm of the Century (1999)

Am I a Stephen King fan? I don't know, but what I like about King is his focus on the community. "Storm of the Century" is a TV mini-series about a small town which is about to face a terrible storm. During all the chaos surrounding the weather forecasts, the strange visitor Andre Linoge turns up and declares he's ready to destroy the whole community, unless it conforms to his wishes.

This is a great mini-series and really a sharp analysis of how a micro-society surrenders to internal fractions. Linoge is a modern-day troll; someone who exposes secret threats to society by provoking it into chaos. The whole plot reeks of Platonism, so it should be a treat for all philosophers, but it's also surprisingly effective as a horror movie alone. I highly recommend watching this, because a better way of describing why society is declining doesn't exist within the world of horror cinema.

The Conversation (1974)

Another Coppola masterpiece. The professional privacy intruder Harry Caul is able to overhear any conversation, anywhere, regardless of the difficulties. He's the expert in the business. But his work becomes problematic when he realizes the same methods can be used against him. What happens when a tech spy is being spied upon? Paranoia, confusion, and eventual self-defeat.

All fans of this movie are so busy throwing drama around about how the Big Brother is watching us, that they forget the essence of this story. The things we master can easily begin to master us. In this sense, Coppola nods to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, in that the technology we create may be starting to take over our lives. Who is serving whom? Brilliant actors and directing, and a thought-provoking journey for all progressives. See it.

The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter is my man, at least he would be, if he had continued to produce movies like these. The Thing is simply beyond horror brilliance, period. An American expedition in the Antarctica gets into trouble when they discover an abandoned Norwegian camp. Bringing back a poor dog, they soon discover that it's not really a dog, but a mutant monster that replicates by merging with humans and emulating them flawlessly. A virus, in other words, and a highly intelligent one at that. Stuff is going to blow up.

The atmosphere, plot development and directing here is almost flawless. And where it is flawed, it just becomes more interesting, because it only deepens the mystery of what is really going on. You can interpret this movie in a lot of ways, but essentially it's a play of group psychology. Whom do you trust in a situation where anyone might be a secret mutant? If you recognize the social parallels to this problem, you will no longer think it sounds silly. The Thing is simply one of the scariest and most intelligent horror-apocalypse movies out there.

They Live (1988)

Didn't I just imply that Carpenter basically went downhill after the early 80's? I did, but here's a rare exception. John Nada, a construction worker looking for a job in a new American city, finds a pair of special sunglasses. When he wears them, he discovers the whole city is populated by robots in business clothes and sees otherwise-invisible signs instructing all citizens to consume products and obey authority. Sound a lot like our modern society? It is.

Again, the concept is interesting, and there's a fair amount of action to keep you distracted from the main plot. I wouldn't say it's a story about Fascism, but a depiction of oppressive liberal democracy meeting corporate capitalism. In other words, America. Don't expect too much here, but basically any idiot who hasn't studied Plato could watch this tomorrow and be convinced all pro-democracy and pro-corporate people really are Fascist aliens trying to control humanity. That's a start.