Category: Film Review

The Library Wars (2013) Toshokan sensô 

IMDb is a runtime of 2h and 8m, rated 5.9 by 1,001 cinematizens.

Genre: SyFy.

DNA: Japan.

Verdict: More, please! (And less.)  

Tagline: Ripped from today’s headlines! 

In the near future of 2019 (!) the book burners are masked, armed, and dangerous. Welcome to Florida!  

Why?

Villains read books.  (Do they?) To eliminate villains, eliminate books, because it is too hard to eliminate villains.  Blaming books for what readers do is an old, sad song we are hearing again today.  (It is only a matter of time before this logic leads to eliminating authors, as one character observes.)

Over-reach soon follows as the masked thugs enjoy creating mayhem, and in response a political compromise emerges that makes public libraries an asylum for all books.  Bookstores on the other hand are not protected and they become the battleground of the thugees.  The line between bookstores and libraries is blurred by both sides, and to ensure that exception libraries recruit a defence force. The  inevitable happens when boys play with guns: innocent bystanders get killed, and each side blames the other. Check the headlines today for proof.

By the way an abridged version of the statement on intellectual freedom figures in the story. For the complete text click here: https://www.ifla.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/assets/faife/statements/jlastat.pdf 

This statement forbidden in much of the world.  

In this maelstrom we have a candy-coating of a romantic comedy.  Believe it or not, Mortimer. The players are charming, the situations far-fetched and yet…well, watch the television news tonight.  Maybe not that far fetched.

One of the web sites that guides my viewing, completely missed the point on this film. This blogger devoted most of his comments to the unlikely proposition that municipal libraries would have the funds to create an armed force or that the national government would permit it. ‘Hello! It is fiction.’  But even short of that realm, political compromises are often contradictory.  The National Guard may confront local police forces. It has happened before, and now it is again in the offing.   

This film has spawned sequels which I may pursue.   But this one was attenuated with way too much shoot ‘em up.  Way too much. So less of that, please, and more about the books, and why they are important. 

Though there were many nice touches salted away.  I liked the comment that the Book Burners wanted to censor the history of censorship to conceal it. But there were also loose ends, like who was the murderer influenced by reading and what was in the archive that had to be rescued.  Maybe I blinked.

Of course I thought of Fahrenheit 451 and also the more obscure short but powerful Phoenix – A Science Fiction Short Film (2014) from Warnuts Entertainment, 19 August 2016 on You Tube.  I commented on the latter elsewhere on this blog. Click on.

Space Sweepers (2012) Seunriho

IMDb meta-data is a long runtime of 2h 16m, rated 6.5 by 30,001 cinematizens 

Genre: Sy Fy

DNA: Japan.

Verdict: High octane.

Tagline: Slam, bam, wham. Reset. Repeat. Redo. 

In 2092 rocket powered bin divers stumble onto a treasure in the debris and try to profit from it, but they encounter a clone Elon Musk – vacuous, soulless, mindless, destructive, and solipsistic. There is the usual corporate corruption, the usual political connivance, and the usual general stupidity.  All the lazy scriptwriters’ crutches.   

One chase after another follows, each loud and colourful, but the pace is slowed by too many back stories.  It seems everyone has one, except the villain-in-chief and his endless robotic minions.

The multi-lingual international characters are cartoon cardboard. About one hour too long for the story.

What did W. C. Fields say about working with children? Don’t! 

I opted for peace and quiet and turned it off.  

Much similarity to Cosmic Rescue (2003) reviewed earlier.

En terrains connus (2011) Familiar Ground

IMDb meta-data is a runtime of 1h and 30m, rated 6.6 by 553 cinematizens.

Genre: Sy Fy; drama.

DNA; Québécois.

Verdict: Odd. 

Tagline: Another ‘film without a gun’ from Stéphane Lafleur.*

She is trapped in a loveless marriage while her brother cannot grow up. The inertia in their lives is manifested in a backhoe à vendre sitting on the snow-covered lawn.  We never do learn how they came to possess this totem.  

An accident at the paper factory where she works jars her from somnambulance, while her drifting brother is likewise disturbed by a brief conversation with a man who claims to come from the future. Both are freed, perhaps only briefly, from the inertia that has governed them. Together sister and brother embark on a road trip into the eternal north of Québec and change the future.  

It is that man who claims to be from the future that triggers the label Sy Fy, and that claim is never developed, but it stimulates the brother to action. Though he might as well have had a premonition, and stirred himself to act on it.  

All in all it is laconic in a genre of Québec films that focus on the working stiffs, usually absent from Hollywood, and combines that with a soupçon of wintry magic realism. The cinematography of winter tells a good part of the story of these hibernating people. 

Oh, and no, I can’t explain the title. Let me know if you got it. 

*You either get it or you don’t.  There is no explanation here. 

Cosmic Rescue: The Moonlight Generations (2003) (コスミック・レスキュー ザ・ムーンライト・ジェネレーションズ)

IMDb meta-data is a runtime of 1h and 24m, rated 5.7 by 25 cinematizens. 

DNA: Japan.

Genre: SyFy.

Verdict: Stop the music!

Tagline:  Non-stop. 

The boring routine and madcap adventures of a 2053 NRMA space road rescue patrol number 89.  It is composed of three mop-tops who read comics, chew gum, spend hours on a coiffure while sweeping up debris.  They cannot even rescue themselves from boredom, and then…!    

Another corporate conspiracy is at work, but all’s well that…, well, ends.  

It moves so fast, there is no time to count the plot holes and character contradictions.   

It has inspired me to try to find the director’s The Library Wars to get an update on Florida’s war on knowledge where library proscriptions will soon be enforced by masked, armed thugs recruited from jails.      

Arctic Convoy (2023) Konvoi

Internet Movie Data base meta-data is a runtime of 1h 48m rated 6.5 by 4,400 cinemazitens. 

Genre: War.

DNA: Norsk.

Verdict: Makes its point.

Tagline: Waiting is hard.

After mid-1941 much of the Battle of the Atlantic was fought in the far north, including the Arctic Ocean. That latter was the lifeline for the Soviet Union. This is the story of one lone Norwegian cargo vessel bound for Murmansk.   

‘Norwegian?’  Yes, Mortimer (he’s back!).  In April 1940 Norway had the fourth largest merchant marine and many of them had the most modern equipment (cranes, elevators, radar, and radios). The Norwegian Government in exile with King Hakkon directed its ships to make for British ports, and nearly one thousand did so. By fiat this government declared their crews ‘war sailors,’ conscripted for the duration of the war. They numbered about 30,000. The ships and men were incorporated as Nortraship which became the largest mercantile shipping company at the time.  

I said 30,000 men above, but let it be note that more than 200 women were included on the ships, radio operators, doctors, or navigators. The presence of a woman in the crew in this film has driven a few opinionators ballistic on the IMDb reviews, but it is true to life as five minutes of internet investigation revealed.  (The tired Hollywood trope of men fighting over her is completely absent. Fear does dampen the libido.)

The tankers of the Norwegian fleet had earlier fuelled the Spitfires during the Battle of Britain as they crossed the North Atlantic with Texas oil.  Later its ships stood off Normandy with supplies and evacuated wounded and prisoners.

The price was high: More than 10% of the sailors died, i.e., 3,700 including 25 women.  When an oil tanker blows up, everyone dies.  

In this story a series of mishaps (faulty intelligence, disrupted communication, equipment failure) heighten the latent personality conflicts within the crew of one ship.  The ‘Convoy’ of the title is scattered and we follow one crew of about twenty. When the British escort is withdrawn (in anticipation of attacking German surface ships that in fact did not materialise) tension among the crew increases and increases, because they are now even more vulnerable to German U-Boats and aircraft.   

The Captain is determined to complete the mission to help win the war, while the first officer (and the engineer) would like to retreat against the impossible odds they will now face alone. Dissension follows.  No one ever says the obvious, even if the ship reverses course to Iceland, the Germans may still attack.  

An air attack follows and damages the ship and wounds the captain, the weather worsens which is good (keeps the German planes down and the ice floes deter submarines) and is bad (ice threatens the ship). One crewman is killed in an attack, and another dies avoiding floating mines.  

None of the characters is Hollywood cardboard.  Each has reasons that make some sense, as even the Captain admits at the end.  

The outstanding performance is by the bug-eyed Swede (the only volunteer in the crew) as the gunner on the lone anti-aircraft weapon on the ship.  But the fear and trepidation among the crew is palpable, and, indeed, hard to watch.  

IMDb is a runtime of 17m, rated by 0.

Genre: SyFy.

DNA: Italy.

Verdict: Lost in space.

Tagline:  [ … ]

IMDb summary: ‘After thousands of years since the extinction of the human race on Earth, an astronaut named Gladia lands on the now uninhabited Third Rock. Gladia comes from a distant planet where the last terrestrial settlers found refuge, before forgetting their planet of origin forever. She finds one inhabitant, a robot that has inherited all of human knowledge has evolved and developed a consciousness. The two will fight each other first but then they will realise that they are more similar than they thought.’

Gladia makes a crash-landing that destroys her vehicle so she calls for road service only to be told that there is none from the low-bid contractor.  Ergo, no rescue but over the hologram communication Gladia is thanked for the service.  A typical corporate dismissal.  She is now abandoned by the company. Full marks for realism.

We begin to realise Gladia is being watched, and Gladia then becomes aware of it.  

I have nothing more to add.  If there is more, I missed it. Nor did I notice much stargazing, literal minded as I am. The titular ‘Blue Dot’ brings to mind Carl Sagan and that must have had a purpose.  But what it is I cannot say.

Will Earth be repopulated by Gladia and the Robot?  That should be interesting!  But we’ll never know.  

PS I wondered if that ‘all knowledge’ included the locale of all the missing socks from laundry.   

IMDb meta-data is a runtime 1h and 34m, rated 5.4 by 184 cineastes. 

Genre: SyFY; Species: Shaggy Dog.  

DNA: TarHeels (NZ Sons)

Verdict: Homage to Paul (2011).

Tagline: ‘Yes, Ma’am…Sheriff!’

Four women in their early twenties have a girls’ night out that turns out to be (inter)stellar when Dave crashes to Earth. Oops! 

Budget zero and imagination galore combine in a diverting 90 minutes.  Followed by Zombie Repellent (2025), runtime 1h 17m, rated 4.7 by 258 spoilsports. George Romero move over. It’s a cackle! 

Fullt hús (2024) Grand Finale

IMDb meta-data is a runtime of 1h and 24m, rated 6.5 by 177 cineastes.  

Genre: Comedy.

DNA: Iceland.

Verdict: Four hoots and one holler!

Tagline: Yin and Yang.

Reykjavík’s only chamber orchestra is going down the fiscal drain.  Its last diehard six members often outnumber the paying customers in the decaying concert hall it owns.  In addition to the musicians there is a stage manager cum electrician-handyman and a makeup artist who also does the tea and sweeps up. These eight depend on an Arts Council grant to keep up the façade of the theatre and the orchestra, but….  Yes the budget cutters are at it again. Around the world they have learned that cutting education and arts is easy and has little political blowback.  

The orchestra’s leader does not take no for an answer but that is still the answer.  No more Icy krónas are coming from the 400,000 taxlings who prefer rugby.  Accordingly, it is almost too good to be true when the one and only world-famous cellist born of Iceland announces in Tokyo that he is leaving the world stage to return home. Instantly Leader makes full frontal contact and they agree to a gala return performance.    

Yep, if it seems almost too good to be true, then in cinema it surely and certainly is. This cellist’s music is yang but he is yin: He makes beautiful music and is a scumbag.  Oh well, the show must go on, and the locals grin and bare it, literally in some cases.  All of that was predictable, but then….the unpredictable starts happening and goes on.  Delicious irony ensues when the puppeteer arrives with her staple gun. See it to believe it. Laughter follows. Much.

Not sure what to make of the implicit message though.  Does the music critic labour under cultural cringe so that nothing local can be good?  If an audience expects beautiful music then is that what it hears? Was the orchestra that good all along? Or did the challenge of working with a totemic figure bring out the best in them, and unite them (in crime)?  Also unresolved was the raised eyebrow of the chief of police.  

P.S. Stay in your seat for the coda!  

***

We saw it at the Scandinavian film festival aptly called ‘Go North’ in Leichhardt at the very comfortable Palace cinema. It started on time, the preliminary adverts were not nearly as numbing as they usually are at the Dendy Newtown nor were there any Hollywood kapow previews, and it ended without a fuss.  These facts contrast with the experience to the Czech and Slovak film Festival screening we attended a few months ago at the Dendy that started very late, featured the worst of Val Morgan advertising (!) followed by trailers galore, and had a long tail-end.  On the other hand the Czech and Slovak session seemed more a community event while the Scandinavian one felt like an advertising campaign.

Sto let tomu vperyod (2024) Guest from the Future 

IMDb meta-data is a runtime of 2h and 21m, rated 6.0 by 1,300 cineastes.  

Genre: Sy Fy.

DNA: Russia.

Verdict: Meh. 

Tagline: CGIs UFC it out.  

Whatever the original idea was it is buried under the CGI slugfest.  The players are appealing in different ways, but, of course, and once again, Alexander Petrov steals the show as a drooling madman. 

Big budget cinematography and CGI gets attention which then wanes as the story dissipates.  Though many will find a welcome confirmation that the high school physics teacher of infamy was an alien all along! I know I did.  

Worm Radio (2020)  

IMDb mea-data is 15m rated 6.7 by 11 cineastes.

Genre: SyFy; Species: DUST.

DNA: USA.

Verdict: Atta girl. 

Tagline: She won’t quit. 

A charming short in which a very determined tweenager makes it happen.  

An object lesson in making something out of nothing. One writer/director and one player plus an ramshackle station wagon and a barn make the magic happen.