Return of the Living SB Movie Experiment: Pontypool

[Hulk With A Mustache]

Blade Runner

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Phew, I have FINALLY managed to track a subtitled version of Cobra Verde so look out for the review soon. I had only managed to find unsubtitled versions and while I do speak a little bit of German, it's not nearly enough for a whole movie without subs, to say nothing of the Portuguese parts.

[bob loves the Hurt Syndicate]

City Lights

[Mochi Lone Wolf]

Take as much time as you need man. That is quite a backlog.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Cobra Verde (a.k.a. Slave Coast)

Suggested by Drillbit Taylor


After many struggles to find a subtitled copy of the film and some time to actually sit down and watch it, I have finally seen it. This film tells the story of the titular Francisco Manoel da Silva, better known as Cobra Verde, a bandit living in Brazil back when it was a Portuguese colony. He is hired to oversee a plantation, but when he is fund to have slept with the owner's daughters, he is sent to Ghana to buy slaves in the secret hope that he would be killed there.

This is a rather odd movie as, even though it tackles the subject of slavery, it mostly focuses on Cobra Verde (obviously) and his mental breakdown due to his loneliness. It does criticize slavery of course, but is not the main theme of the film. This is actually something I rather like about the film, as while Cobra Verde does seem more tolerant and open-minded than most White people of his time, they didn't go the usual route of giving him the same moral standards as today. He still uses slaves and trades them and while he does treat slaves as human beings, I would be hard pressed to say he considers them as equals to White people. This makes him feel more realistic and much more complex than most characters in similar stories where they would conveniently not share a single objectionable opinion no matter how common they were in their days. Of course, what makes this doubly interesting is that, considering who Cobra Verde is, whatever he does is merely a mean to an end.

So make no mistake, despite the subject, this film is much more of a character study of Cobra Verde himself than a story about slavery. Or rather, if it is a story about slavery, it is a fairly factual one, letting the visuals speak for themselves without having the characters taking an explicit stance (until the very end at least).

It is a very interesting and very well made, very well acted film, but I must admit that it felt a bit like Ran t me as I can't find anything wrong with it but I didn't feel as involved as I feel I could have. Overall I did like it better than Ran, if only because I feel the character development was done much better, but I feel this kind of works are an acquired taste. Still, I did enjoy watching it and I must say it is an unusual and even thought-provoking take on such topics and as far as character studies go, it's probably one of the better ones.


Next time, we will go back to what I consider to be one of if not the best surprise since starting this thread with its sequel, it's Fubar II: Fubarder!.




Okay that's not actually the film's subtitle. But it should be!

[Drillbit Taylor]

I was wondering what your response would be to Cobra Verde as Herzog/Kinski films are in a unique genre unto themselves. And I agree that the main strong point of the film is the character study. Glad you enjoyed it.

[Deleted]

The Rules of Attraction

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

I also noticed another suggestion for a film I have already seen, so here's a quick look at...



The Room

Suggested by bob loves the Hurt Syndicate


One of the most infamous films in recent memory, The Room is a frankly baffling piece of work. The story is that of Lisa (or as Wiseau likes to call her "Leessah"), a housewife who is bored of her Gary Stu fiancé Johnny who everybody (but Lisa) agrees is the best at everything and starts having an affair with his perpetually oblivious "best friend" Mark (or as Wiseau likes to call him, "Mawk"). I mean seriously, I know us men can be pretty slow to catch hints that a woman is interested in us but I'm pretty sure if a woman started stripping to her underwear right in front of me after I have already had sex with her days earlier, I would in fact get the hint and have a stronger reaction than "wow, what are you doing?". Eventually, Johnny realizes that ev'rybody bethay him and he fed up with this wurl.

It's a really unbelievable film. People call it so-bad-it's-good but I'd argue that it transcends even that, becoming so-bad-it's-fascinating. I didn't really laugh watching it, I was just rendered speechless. How did something this incompetent actually become a thing? How is it physically possible that Wiseau is so detached from reality that he never realized how bad this film was? How IS it even possible for one man to get of every single step of film-making wrong yet still managed to film and release a complete movie. This film seems like it should not be. It's like an Eldritch Abomination. It does not obey any rule of common sense and should by all laws of reality have collapsed in on itself and yet here it is, not only made, but famous and making people millions (and according to The Disaster Artist, the book by Greg Sestero the guy who played Mark, which I whole-heartedly recommend, succeeding when he should by all logic fail is something shockingly common in Wiseau's life).

I must warn you though. If you have seen more than one review of this film (and frankly probably even just one), you've pretty much seen the whole thing, or at least the more... crucial parts. As I watched the film, I was no longer shocked by the craziest moments like "What a story Mark", "Yo ah taehin me apaht Leessah" and other "Oh hai, doggy"-s. So yeah, if you intend to see it, you've probably seen all the craziest bits, but it's still worth watching for the experience of seeing it and being baffled that it's actually there, in front of you. By the end of it, all you can think is "HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!".

[Hulk With A Mustache]

Fight Club

[bob loves the Hurt Syndicate]

Ben-Hur (1959)

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Fubar II (a.k.a. Fubar: Balls to the Wall a.k.a. Fubar: Gods of Blunder)

Suggested by @supersweetbotch


Well, this film and the first one sure put me through an emotional roller-coaster. I thought the original would be a piece of shit and ended up loving it so of course I go into the sequel with high hopes and... well I don't think it's shit, but man is it a disappointment.

Alright, so the story is that 8 years after the first movie, a new documentary goes to meet Dean and Terry again, presumably to celebrate five years since his cancer has been completely gone. I say "presumably" because it then goes on to follow them as they go up North to get a job in an oil patch. Of course, things don't stay that simple, with the problems starting when Terry gets a girlfriend.

Okay. This film has many problems and the first is that they should have dropped the mockumentary gimmick. I know it would be weird to have the sequel to such a film be a traditional movie but here's the thing: the original felt like an actual documentary, which made the characters and emotions feel all the more real and relatable, to the point I had to remind myself on several occasions that it was fiction. This film on the other hand suffers from paranormalactivitis: it wants the gimmick but it's still written and shot like a conventional movie with multiple angles and stuff and there ain't no way half of the stuff on screen would actually get filmed.

I know there were moments in the original where it was questionable whether or not they would actually film or at least broadcast them, but at least it remained within the realm of the plausible. Here, there is no way in Hell they would get away with filming people committing crime, and I don't mean small stuff that might get you a small fine if the cop is in a bad mood like in the first film, I mean serious stuff that can get you years in the slammer like theft, drug trafficking, vandalism, fraud and freaking robbery. And no, they're not hiding while they film that stuff. They're right in front of the people doing it and nobody has a problem with them creating admissible evidence.

And don't give me that Dean and Terry would be dumb enough to be cool with it. I know they were never supposed to be very bright, but they're not moronic to the point of not understanding that documenting their own crimes is a bad idea. At least in the first film they weren't. And at the very least you'd think the documentary crew would want to cover their own ass because yeah, in several instances they could be considered accomplices.

But then there's the stuff that's legal but still wouldn't get filmed if only for matters of privacy or basic human decency. Terry and his girlfriend apparently have no problem getting filmed making out in a hot tub or having arguments, the boss of the oil patch has no problem with people filming them yelling at their employees or announcing them that they're getting laid off. There's also that time two of the characters make a suicide pact and they just stand there and film it, never trying to change their mind.

That's another thing about this movie. In the original, even though we rarely actually see them, the crew has an active role in the film which helps giving it credibility and immerse you in it. They interact with the characters, actually react to shocking moments and occasionally do appear on screen in the same way that actual documentaries sometimes show the crew sharing a moment with the people being filmed. Here it feels like they're ghosts. They almost never interact with the characters, give no reaction to anything ever, have no influence on the events and can apparently go wherever they want filming whatever they want without anyone ever objecting to it. Sure hope this footage doesn't come back to bite you in the ass when it's released with scenes of you intentionally breaking your own leg for worker's compensation or saying that you know for a fact your kid is another man's but you hope your significant other doesn't realize it. Whoops. This kind of stuff is why it actually took me by surprise when characters started talking to the camera and being interviewed, reminding me that oh yeah, this IS supposed to be a documentary, isn't it?

And speaking of the crew, another problem with it is that the amount of people involved in the making of the documentary seems to randomly change from scene to scene. Again, in the original, you always felt like the number of people involved in the filming remained consistent at all times. Here in some scenes it seems there's only one guy with a camera but in others there are at least three cameramen (!) to film the same stuff (for the multiple angles, remember) plus a boom operator to keep the sound consistent. This leads to some really weird stuff like part of the crew following Dean as he goes to party with friends and another part following Terry with his girlfriend, with the two intercut, again making it look like a conventional movie. And when Dean & Co decide to go ruin Terry & his girlfriend's evening (keep in mind Terry and Dean had apparently burned their bridges at this point so why the documentary is even still going, I don't know), ending with Dean getting slashed, the crew of course just films it and lets it happen without reacting in any way.

So for all these reasons, they should have gone the [.REC] route and made it a traditional film. That alone would have improved it a lot as it would have been easier to make this film if they didn't have to bother with the documentary aspect and it would have been a lot less jarring that all this stuff is on screen because as it stands, the only reason why many parts of this film are actually being filmed and released is for the audience's benefit, and in fact I'm not even sure why the crew even follows them North when they were apparently only here for a "where are they now?" type of thing showing the celebration of Dean being cancer-free for five years.

However, that alone wouldn't have made the movie good because it still has a lot of problems, the biggest of them being the elephant in the room I have mentioned earlier but have been avoiding going into details until now: the main drama being that Terry is getting a girlfriend. Yup, the first film talked about cancer, friendship, what makes life worth living and all sorts of genuinely thought-provoking stuff, this one uses a device that is right up there with "teens go party, do drugs and have sex while being obnoxious before getting killed by a serial killer" on the list of asinine plots that needs to never be used ever again.

So yeah, while the first movie showed us relatable characters whose friendship wins out over all, this one shows us those same characters now bitching at each other for half of the film's runtime an being pretty unlikeable. Making it worse is that this whole thing doesn't even really get resolved. Dean and Terry just suddenly make up because... the script calls for it, I guess. Sure, Terry learns that at some point Dean caught cancer AGAIN and had to have his other testicle removed as well (by the way this is a plot point that lasts all of 5 minutes and is given little to no gravity, whereas it was the entire point of the film in the original so no, I'm not counting that as a spoiler) but I don't see how that is supposed to lead to immediate reconciliation (again, Dean & Co raided their house earlier and Dean ended up slashed). It feels less like an inspiring display of friendship through hard times and more like a cheap excuse to reunite the duo.

On top of that, the story has so many contrived elements to it. There are entirely too many moments where I told myself "well that sure is dramatically convenient", especially for what is supposed to be a documentary, like when the doctor from the first movie shows up after tests revealed that Dean has cancer again, so apparently he travelled all the way there because Dean was his patient when he got his first cancer and I guess a new doctor can't handle it and I suppose the good doctor has no other patient he needs to see during his trip.
Also, ghosts. Yeah, a ghost appears at the end to talk to Dean. Being portrayed by a character who is alive. Why? Because it's at Christmas so we need a Christmas Carol parody no matter how out of place and pointless it is. And they don't do it subtly either like having the ghost being someone who is only revealed afterwards by a family member to have died years earlier or something like that because subtlety is a thing of the past (i.e., the first film).

But I think what made the whole thing hurt even more is that every once in a while, the charm and originality of the first film does seep through, especially at the beginning, as if to say "please help me! I'm trapped and I want to get out!", making you realize that it did have the potential of being a good movie but unfortunately, for 90% of the time it's a contrived, awkward, annoying mess that's basically everything I feared the original would be but actually managed to avoid. So yeah, this is probably the longest review I've done so far and if I'm being objective, it is not even close to one of the worst films I've seen, even for this thread but as I have said many times before, the original was the best surprise I had since starting this and to see it fall from grace so bad really pissed me off. It must be how Star Wars fans felt when they saw the prequels and much like them, I just can't remain objective when I have such a passion for the original.


Next time, we will hassle the Hoff with one of the so-bad-it's-good classics, Starcrash.

[Deleted]

I always figured the point of the second movie was a satire of the problems of the Oil Patch way. That you could be the biggest idiots like Dean and Terry and end up being crazy rich but become a petty criminal. Even with all the problems that happen up North like the drugs, parties, the cheating gold digging girlfriend, and emotions running high to the point of petty and serious crime. Hell I loved the fact that Tron from the first movie was a nice friendly clean friend of theirs but got consumed by Fort Mac and caught some of the troubles it brings that he is now more reckless then both of them and his life is a mess.

Then that film does the 180 of Terry and Dean maturing and surviving and adapting to Fort Mac while Tron gets eaten alive fails the drug test. It is also worth nothing the characters of Fubar where created by the actors after working camp in the pipelines in BC. I figured the second one might be a film that is bit too regional and I might of been right. Hell the actors who play Fubar are actually heroes in the province of Alberta that they are constantly hosting strip clubs, bars, and filming commercials while in their characters. I actually have a friend who claimed in he went to a dive bar once and the actors in Fubar character where just partying and there was no official event going.

But once again great review. I agree it would of been better if the movie was shot as a conventional movie with some cameos of the film crew checking on how they were doing

[J is Justice]

Jurassic Park 3.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Apr 29, 2014 7:34:52 GMT -5 @supersweetbotch said:

I always figured the point of the second movie was a satire of the problems of the Oil Patch way. That you could be the biggest idiots like Dean and Terry and end up being crazy rich but become a petty criminal. Even with all the problems that happen up North like the drugs, parties, the cheating gold digging girlfriend, and emotions running high to the point of petty and serious crime. Hell I loved the fact that Tron from the first movie was a nice friendly clean friend of theirs but got consumed by Fort Mac and caught some of the troubles it brings that he is now more reckless then both of them and his life is a mess.

See I thought this is were it was going but it's barely addressed. I mean, put together, the scenes in the actual patch must total to... what, 15 minutes? And it has very little effect on the plot or the characters other than an occasional reference. Really the main story is the "Terry has a girlfriend" plot, which is wholy inappropriate for a film like that and has no real pay-off. Even the fact that she's a gold-digger just kind of stops and she suddenly becomes a decent person. There's no real arc, no growth, things just suddenly change out of the blue whereas again, the characters' growth was what I loved about the original.





And what was the deal with the ghost, seriously?!!

[Red Impact]

oh boy, time for the space opera from people who don't know how space works!

[Deleted]

Apr 29, 2014 8:42:42 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

Apr 29, 2014 7:34:52 GMT -5 @supersweetbotch said:

I always figured the point of the second movie was a satire of the problems of the Oil Patch way. That you could be the biggest idiots like Dean and Terry and end up being crazy rich but become a petty criminal. Even with all the problems that happen up North like the drugs, parties, the cheating gold digging girlfriend, and emotions running high to the point of petty and serious crime. Hell I loved the fact that Tron from the first movie was a nice friendly clean friend of theirs but got consumed by Fort Mac and caught some of the troubles it brings that he is now more reckless then both of them and his life is a mess.

See I thought this is were it was going but it's barely addressed. I mean, put together, the scenes in the actual patch must total to... what, 15 minutes? And it has very little effect on the plot or the characters other than an occasional reference. Really the main story is the "Terry has a girlfriend" plot, which is wholy inappropriate for a film like that and has no real pay-off. Even the fact that she's a gold-digger just kind of stops and she suddenly becomes a decent person. There's no real arc, no growth, things just suddenly change out of the blue whereas again, the characters' growth was what I loved about the original.





And what was the deal with the ghost, seriously?!!

Dammit Ssnakebite now I have to revisit Fubar movies to continue the discussion with you since it's been too long

[Deleted]

Fame (1980).

[Deleted]

Apr 30, 2014 4:44:21 GMT -5 @ricrocket said:

Fame (1980).

And in the fashion of music movies...Footloose (2011)

[Deleted]

21 Jump Street

[bob loves the Hurt Syndicate]

The Big Lebowski