Return of the Living SB Movie Experiment: Pontypool

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

The Imposter

Suggested by @ricrocket


They say truth is stranger than fiction and this may be one of the most shining examples of that idea. This is a documentary with dramatized reenactments describing in great detail how and why Frédéric Bourdin a 23 year-old (at the time of the events) Frenchman ended up pretending to be a Texan family's 16-year-old boy who had been missing for three years and kept up the masquerade for several months, in large parts from his own mouth.

There isn't much I can say here without describing the entire documentary, but I will say that it's definitely a very gripping and fascinating look at something that, by all accounts, should not have ever been able to happen. And yet, because of a curious combination of cunning, coincidences, desperation and sheer dumb luck, it somehow did end up happening. This man did manage to fool two countries' police forces and justice system, an entire family and the media for almost five months. It's the kind of stories that, were you to write it in the script for a fiction, everyone watching it, myself included, would go "come on! Are we REALLY supposed to buy this?" and yet here it is and once you watch this film, it actually becomes more understandable how it could happen, but it remains incredible, especially seeing how this whole thing has more twists and turns than an M. Night Shyamalan marathon.

The only thing that kind of bothered me comes at the very end. The entire time, the documentary didn't really take sides and merely exposed the facts in a seemingly objective albeit dramatized manner but it abruptly ends up clearly condemning Bourdin. I mean, when your film concludes with the sister going "f*** him" followed by a cut to black, it's pretty obvious a side has been picked, especially when that is then followed by an epilogue that seems to be trying to villainize him as much as possible. And don't get me wrong, by all accounts, Bourdin IS a bad person who manipulated and used a lot of people, but it isn't a documentary's place to pass judgement and it actually hurts its credibility because sure, I went "f*** him" too but now it seems that's exactly what the film wanted to make me say so how do I know it's not manipulating me, especially when showing us a story where someone's word was just taken at face value.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a very good documentary on a fascinating case, and I'm sure it's mostly accurate, but it's hard not to ask yourselves questions with the way they ended it. I suppose that it IS fitting for something warning you about blindly trusting people, though, and I still recommend it, not to mention that while I did know about the case beforehand, I did learn a lot of new elements I had never heard about before, so it undeniably works as a legitimate source of information.


And on a more personal and uplifting note: 10th review AND first documentary! Yay!


Next on the list: Drunken Master 2

[Deleted]

Excellent review. I do have one question.

Did the movie begin with the phone call and end with the private investigator digging?

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Apr 1, 2014 19:10:48 GMT -5 @ricrocket said:

Excellent review. I do have one question.

Did the movie begin with the phone call and end with the private investigator digging?

Yup. Are there different versions around?

[Deleted]

Apr 1, 2014 19:18:19 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

Apr 1, 2014 19:10:48 GMT -5 @ricrocket said:

Excellent review. I do have one question.

Did the movie begin with the phone call and end with the private investigator digging?

Yup. Are there different versions around?

I believe so. I wanted to rewatch it since you were going to be reviewing it and I had a cut where the phone call is kinda pushed back a few scenes but everything else was the same. It changes the impact of some of the revelations but nothing too significant.

[Deleted]

And I'll suggest Bad Lieutenant.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Jui kuen II (Drunken Master II a.k.a. The Legend of Drunken Master)

Suggested by aka Cthulhu


Alright, second martial arts film I review and it's a classic. In the early XXth century (it looks like the 30s but I might be wrong), a young master of the Drunken Boxing style of kung-fu accidentally steals a precious artifact and ends up on the bad side of British businessmen and their goons who will stop at nothing to get it back, while also getting into trouble with his father, a doctor, by losing a ginseng root meant for an important client. Ah, who cares? We all know how these stories go: corrupt and greedy rich people want to exploit the hard-working people and are in need of some serious punching of their faces.

Jackie Chan is the one in charge of said face-punching and of course, this being one of his movies, it is glorious. This movie (as well as the original Drunken Master of course) popularized the titular martial arts style and it's not hard to see why as the fight scenes are amazing, with incredible timing, carefully choreographed yet still fluid and feeling natural despite frequently requiring several dozens of people, to the point you end up wondering if the whole town knows kung-fu (whoa). In fact, something I found to be a pleasant surprise is that there's even a fair amount of female fighters who get to show off their skills as well and as Spike Spiegel would say, I love a woman who can kick my ass. So yeah, great movie and even though I still prefer Kung Fu Hustle for its absurd atmosphere, this is definitely one I'll recommend.

Also, this film gives us the opportunity to see Lei Wulong fight Liu Kang, so that's nice.


Next on the list, is another Asian film (you guys suggested four in a row! Did you team up or what?) and one I have heard quite a bit about if only because of its demented special effects artist, Yoshihiro Nishimura: The Machine Girl

[Glitch]

I'm in anticipation for The Machine Girl review. ^.^

[Joker]

Time for a new suggestion from me:

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.

[J is Justice]

Return to Oz.

[bob]

I Spit on Your Grave (1978)

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Apr 4, 2014 16:56:42 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

Jui kuen II (Drunken Master II a.k.a. The Legend of Drunken Master)

Suggested by aka Cthulhu


Alright, second martial arts film I review and it's a classic. In the early XXth century (it looks like the 30s but I might be wrong), a young master of the Drunken Boxing style of kung-fu accidentally steals a precious artifact and ends up on the bad side of British businessmen and their goons who will stop at nothing to get it back, while also getting into trouble with his father, a doctor, by losing a ginseng root meant for an important client. Ah, who cares? We all know how these stories go: corrupt and greedy rich people want to exploit the hard-working people and are in need of some serious punching of their faces.

Jackie Chan is the one in charge of said face-punching and of course, this being one of his movies, it is glorious. This movie (as well as the original Drunken Master of course) popularized the titular martial arts style and it's not hard to see why as the fight scenes are amazing, with incredible timing, carefully choreographed yet still fluid and feeling natural despite frequently requiring several dozens of people, to the point you end up wondering if the whole town knows kung-fu (whoa). In fact, something I found to be a pleasant surprise is that there's even a fair amount of female fighters who get to show off their skills as well and as Spike Spiegel would say, I love a woman who can kick my ass. So yeah, great movie and even though I still prefer Kung Fu Hustle for its absurd atmosphere, this is definitely one I'll recommend.

Also, this film gives us the opportunity to see Lei Wulong fight Liu Kang, so that's nice.

Original version, or US version? What was the final scene, and did they show the 'outtakes' during the credits?

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Apr 4, 2014 23:17:48 GMT -5 El Pollo Guerrera said:

Original version, or US version? What was the final scene, and did they show the 'outtakes' during the credits?

Huh, not sure. It ended with a picture of Fei-Hung's family with some military guy being taken.

[The Pixel]

you didnt get round to my first one yet, but its been a while so I wanna drop this in too

Attack the block www.imdb.com/title/tt1478964/

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Apr 5, 2014 3:54:12 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

Apr 4, 2014 23:17:48 GMT -5 El Pollo Guerrera said:

Original version, or US version? What was the final scene, and did they show the 'outtakes' during the credits?

Huh, not sure. It ended with a picture of Fei-Hung's family with some military guy being taken.

Sounds like the US version. I was lucky enough to find a copy of the original on VHS. The movie ended with Jackie crippled and blinded by the alcohol from the final fight, and it's played as a joke. Then there's the outtakes with the credits, which are always incredible. A lot of the music was changed as well.

PS - the old military guy (fought Jackie under the train, he and Jackie fought the Axe Gang in the bar, y'know) was the director Lau Kar-Leung, who also did the classic "36th Chamber of Shaolin".

[The Sam]

Greed (1924)

[Next Level was WRONG]

Awesome thread. I'll suggest The Trouble With Harry.



www.imdb.com/title/tt0048750/

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

"Kataude mashin gâru" (The Machine Girl)

Suggested by Glitch


Oh Japan, you so crazy!

In a world where it seems 90% of the Japanese population have fallen victim to some disease turning them into assholes (at least that's how I explain the number of awful, awful people in this film), a high school girl named Ami finds her brother killed by bullies lead by the son of a Yakuza mob boss and since the police won't do anything about it and want to rule it as a suicide, she decides to take action and avenge her brother's death by herself. However, once she makes it to the yakuza, things go south and she loses her left arm. She manages to escape and makes to the house of the parents of another kid who was killed alongside her brother and they eventually build her a gatling gun she can attach to her arm, the better to get her revenge with.

Hm, I'm not sure what to make of this film. On the one hand, I appreciate the intentional ludicrousness of it, but on the other hand, I can't help but feel there are many much better options with this kind of films, especially from Japan. I also feel that with films like that, the constant over-the-top gore loses its novelty pretty quick if there's no real substance or style behind it and can actually become surprisingly boring. Now don't get me wrong, this movie does have a lot of cool moments and is very cathartic, but when you start with geysers of blood, you don't have much left to impress the crowd with.

This is not helped by the fact that the special effects, as creative as they are, aren't really well executed. Weapons that are supposedly made of solid steel are blatantly rubber, cardboard and other equally bendy materials, one character's wound can be seen visibly flapping while being sprayed with blood, there's bad CGI aplenty, etc and I am given the impression that the makers of this film followed the "it's a comedy so we don't need to actually put in the extra effort to make it look convincing" logic which I really don't like. In fact if anything, I feel a movie this over-the-top NEEDS to look convincing in order to work otherwise it pulls you out of the film and you can't really join in on the silly fun and since it plays almost entirely on its effects, well, said effects had better be good. And I might have given it a pass if it really were a no-budget movie but it looks to me like they could have afforded to make it look better, so its visual shortcomings come off to me as laziness rather than technical limitations. As a result, I frequently ended up telling myself "the idea of this is cool, but the execution is not".

I realize it sounds like I'm shitting on the movie, but I didn't find it terrible, I just kind of felt the entire time I was watching this that I could be watching other movies that did the same thing better. In fact, the special effects guy on this film made Tokyo Gore Police which I had a lot of the same problems with as this movie, but it had enough style and creativity for me to forget about them and enjoy the film for what it was, which is something The Machine Girl failed to do.


Coming up next is our third Asian movie in a row and is, according the the person suggesting it, a mix between King Lear and Japanese folklore. Again Japan, you so crazy!: Ran

[Glitch]

Apr 6, 2014 3:42:00 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

"Kataude mashin gâru" (The Machine Girl)

Suggested by Glitch


Oh Japan, you so crazy!

In a world where it seems 90% of the Japanese population have fallen victim to some disease turning them into assholes (at least that's how I explain the number of awful, awful people in this film), a high school girl named Ami finds her brother killed by bullies lead by the son of a Yakuza mob boss and since the police won't do anything about it and want to rule it as a suicide, she decides to take action and avenge her brother's death by herself. However, once she makes it to the yakuza, things go south and she loses her left arm. She manages to escape and makes to the house of the parents of another kid who was killed alongside her brother and they eventually build her a gatling gun she can attach to her arm, the better to get her revenge with.

Hm, I'm not sure what to make of this film. On the one hand, I appreciate the intentional ludicrousness of it, but on the other hand, I can't help but feel there are many much better options with this kind of films, especially from Japan. I also feel that with films like that, the constant over-the-top gore loses its novelty pretty quick if there's no real substance or style behind it and can actually become surprisingly boring. Now don't get me wrong, this movie does have a lot of cool moments and is very cathartic, but when you start with geysers of blood, you don't have much left to impress the crowd with.

This is not helped by the fact that the special effects, as creative as they are, aren't really well executed. Weapons that are supposedly made of solid steel are blatantly rubber, cardboard and other equally bendy materials, one character's wound can be seen visibly flapping while being sprayed with blood, there's bad CGI aplenty, etc and I am given the impression that the makers of this film followed the "it's a comedy so we don't need to actually put in the extra effort to make it look convincing" logic which I really don't like. In fact if anything, I feel a movie this over-the-top NEEDS to look convincing in order to work otherwise it pulls you out of the film and you can't really join in on the silly fun and since it plays almost entirely on its effects, well, said effects had better be good. And I might have given it a pass if it really were a no-budget movie but it looks to me like they could have afforded to make it look better, so its visual shortcomings come off to me as laziness rather than technical limitations. As a result, I frequently ended up telling myself "the idea of this is cool, but the execution is not".

I realize it sounds like I'm shitting on the movie, but I didn't find it terrible, I just kind of felt the entire time I was watching this that I could be watching other movies that did the same thing better. In fact, the special effects guy on this film made Tokyo Gore Police which I had a lot of the same problems with as this movie, but it had enough style and creativity for me to forget about them and enjoy the film for what it was, which is something The Machine Girl failed to do.


Coming up next is our third Asian movie in a row and is, according the the person suggesting it, a mix between King Lear and Japanese folklore. Again Japan, you so crazy!: Ran

...sounds about right. The bad cgi actually hurts this movie since the practical effects work better. The movie was very cheap because they filmed this in like two weeks.It was funded by the American importer of Japanese films, Media Blasters.

But I'm glad you didn't trounce on the acting in this film like so many people do just because it's a cheesy movie. The actors do their jobs well in their roles. The heroes we're likable and the villains hateble. They were only slightly above one dimensionalcharacters, but still interesting. I liked their portrayals. Especially when Miki holds the remains of her husband(that's a very good one, and actually stands out. lol).

I gotta disagree with you on Tokyo Gore Police. It had good costume designs,good camera direction, and creativity with gore, but it had boring characters with a very thin plot that should have not have been stretched out for that running time.I actually found myself bored sometimes with that movie.
When it comes to the duo of Yoshihiro Nishimura and Noboru Iguchi, Iguchi has the better talent for directing since that is his primary role(where as Nishimura is primarily the special fx guy).

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Alright. I'll be honest, I am just not in the mood to watch a 3-hours movie in one go so the review for Ran will have to wait. In the meantime, I spotted another suggestion for a movie I already saw so here goes:

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)

Suggested by Joker


One of the most famous Westerns of all times and one of my favourite movies period. It codified many tropes associated with the genre and, let's be honest, many of the ideas people have of the Old West, regardless of whether or not they are historically accurate. This is a masterpiece in every way. Sergio Leone absolutely perfected his techniques and signatures, Ennio Morricone gave us one of the most memorable soundtracks in film history, the cast is perfect with five-stars performances all around, especially the lead trio of Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach.

Everything about it incredibly enjoyable and it owes mostly to its atmosphere. Leone has this incredible talent that allows him to tell entire stories without a single word being spoken. I am still amazed by the scene in which Tuco visits and robs a gun shop. It must last almost 10 good minutes, with very few (if any) cuts, not a single word is spoken, and yet the tension could be cut with a knife. In fact, it's not hard to see why Leone chose to keep such scenes silent, as dialogue is unnecessary and would have only weighed them down.

So yeah, I love this film very much and can't get enough of it. In fact, I once saw an uncut version that lasted well over 3 hours* (so yes, I can watch a 3-hours film in one go when I'm in the mood ) and every second of it was worth it.



*The French dub version lasts 3 hours and 6 minutes, making this one of the few films worth watching dubbed for French speaking audiences, though most times it is shown on TV they actually do cut a few scenes for time.

[Joker]

I assume that French version is the recently released version with the deleted scenes ... Such as Tuco meeting his old gang.

On a side note Ran is an awesome film when you have 3 hours spare