jeriendhal | Quickie Reviews

Waking Life

Unnamed Dude: Hey, I'm in the big city, I hitched a ride in a boatcar, and then I got run over after stopping in the middle of a crosswalk.

Random Unidentified Person: Rants on about philosophy, life, dreams and/or government conspiracies.

Dude: [stares blankly]

The Very Pretty Couple from "Before Sunrise": Let's repeat some dialog from our first movie, implying that part of life may be a just a long dream we have during the moments of unconciousness before we die.

Dude: I think I'm in a dream but I'm not sure.

Dude's Friend: Y'know, if you want to know if you're really in a dream, try flicking the light switch and see if it works.

Dude: [flicks light switch. Nothing happens.] I'm fragged.

[He flies up into the sky and dissapears]

As you may have noticed, this isn't so much a movie as a long series semi-deep philosophical discussions of the sort I imagine Californians having all the time. Which could have been horribly, horribly boring, except all of the film was taped on cheap video cameras and then rotoscoped ala Ralph Bakshi. Except in this case it actually succeeds in making the film more interesting instead of just cheap and badly animated. Note: It wasn't that interesting to start with, but all the wierd animation styles and occasional visual gag makes it watchable.

Thunderbirds

Gahhhhh, as

norabombay is wont to say, this is Lord King Bad Vid. Former pudgy First Officer Jonathan Frakes directs this live-action adaptation of a forty year old puppet show. The first ten minutes were so annoying that I switched on Frakes' director commentary in order to make it more watchable. This didn't help much, since Frakes was apparently bored to tears working on the movie. In between expressing his annoyance at having to slip in so many Ford Motor Co. product placements (alas, Lady Penelope has been reduced from driving a Rolls to a commoner's vehicle. The horror!) Frakes provides bland praise for the cast, including the kids who fell over from heatstroke filming in the Seychelles, and Ben Kingsley, who appeared in this picture so he wouldn't have to actually concentrate on acting for once.

Oh, the plot? Young tweener Alan Tracy is annoyed that his dad won't let him work for the family business, International Rescue, which flies from a secret island in the Pacific to perform heroic rescues around the world in several primary colored vehicles. Naturall he gets his chance to prove himself as international supervillian The Hood takes over Tracy Island after his family is trapped onboard the family space station.

It's about as stupid as it sounds. Uninteresting and too complicated for kids not familiar with the old Gerry Anderson show, and insulting to the parents who do remember it as the story concentrates on Alan and his two friends (Tintin and Pascal, son of IR's superscientist, Brains) instead of the older Tracys. Oh, and there's also a severe lack of rescuing going on this film, despite the name of the group.

Bah!