Hoo, hoo, hoo, hah, hah, hah!

Note: The title was actually meant to be my rendition of a monkey call, my apologies to those who thought I was off my rocker.

What has happened has happened and cannot be reversed... right?

I am possibly gonna cop some flack for this, but in my eyes, '12 Monkeys' really is one of the best time travel movies made. I really haven't seen any other films that can compare to Terry Gilliam's take on such a novel concept. While this movie isn't an original idea (it is actually a full-length, moving remake of  'La Jette') Gilliam and co offer up something truly unique when it comes to making a psychologically dark science fiction that could, the more fantastical elements aside, actually happen. Humans are wonderful creatures, but at the same time, they can be the absolute worst. We are a diverse species with diverse beliefs, though there are some out there who are unwilling to accept this and resort to extreme actions to enfroce their own. In the case of  '12 Monkeys', some yahoos released a deadly virus in the world resulting in mass human extinction, with survivors being forced to live underground as animals and vegetation (immune to the virus) reclaim the world again. Humanity has been attempting to find out about the virus by sending so-called 'volunteers' (also known as convicts) up to the surface to collect samples day by day. However, this changes when time travel is made possible, thus, 'volunteers' are sent back through time in hopes of preventing the apocalypse. The proces isn't easy and most of the time, quite fatal, as Cole (Bruce Willis) finds. He is catapulted back and forth through time, his mind barely able to sustain it's sanity, and that is where one of the crucial elements of the movie comes into play- sanity and insanity is relative and when human beings are exposed to extraordinary circumstances, all bets truly are off.

                                                                  The hapless traveller

I think one of the main reasons why I love '12 Monkeys' is because it is a very human-driven story as opposed to simply relying on visual effects and fastastical situations to tell a science fiction tale. What would you or I do in such a situation that poor Cole is exposed to? How would we cope? What would happen if we could not? '12 Monkeys' poses these questions throughout the twisting narrative all the while remaining enthralling as what could be considered as a 'genre film'. Another reason why it's stuck with me is that it showed me how skilled an actor such as Bruce Willis can be when he is saddled with such material. Gilliam made a 'Bruce Willis Movie Cliche' list  to ensure he got a down-to-earth performance out of Willis and it shows- no 'hero' poses, no mordant one-liners and no 'steely blue eyes' look and wonders of wonders, Willis was completely willing to follow these paramters and the movie benefits.
Other than Willis's wonderful performance, this must be said...

This guy ROCKED.

I want to make this clear- I never have been of those women who ever thought Brad Pitt was gorgeous, I don't know why- I can see why women would consider him attractive, but not me. But it was also his manic performance as Geoff Goines, leader of a terrorism cell known as The 12 Monkeys who may or may not be responsible for the end of the world, that convinced me the man can be a phenomenal actor. Pitt really lets go in this role, but despite all of his bombasticisms, he stays true to the type of personality his character has- he doesn't just think outside the box, he rips the box apart and turns it into insane origami. His performance is such a stark contrast from Willis's, but he still plays it for real. Pitt actually booked into a psych ward in preparation for this role and he drew upon everything he saw there and translated it on screen for us to see. That's committment, people.

Nuts and loving it

While this could very well be bias toward this movie, I never found anything particularly wrong with it. It was paced well, there really was never a dull moment and all of the actors were competant with the material. Madeline Stowe in particular, while her performance may not be as talked about as Willis's and Pitt's, acts as a balance. Her character counsels Cole, even when she is in doubt of his sanity, which makes it a small reprieve from seeing Cole suffer. I wouldn't call this relationship love, but it could have been if matters  and mind sets were different. One of my favourite sequences between Stowe and Willis was when their characters were driving down a street at night, and a song Cole remembers comes on the radio. He wants nothing more than to lean out of the window and feel the night air as he listens to this song, as he knows this will be his only opportunity to experience this sensation.

I feel this is a tremendously important film for not just science fiction, but as a social statement. We must remember that we live in a temporary world with temporary lives, and there is only so much our human minds can comprehend. If we are struck by a devastating event, it changes us all profoundly. In the end, we must pay attention to not just the world but each other because what happens to one happens to all, it's just a matter of time, something we do not always have.

Rake and Virtue

I am a very vanilla person once you get to know me. I'm soft as a powder puff and twice as gentle (thanks for the line Miss Kitty :D). If I have money to spare, I give it to charities, if I see person overloaded with bags I'll help them to their car, if you ever held a gun to a kitten's head I would beg you to spare it... before I'd give you a self-righteous knuckle-sandwich. At the end of the day, I'd rather be in a good relationship rather than a bad one, but there are films, shows and stories out there that don't show a good relationship between a man and a woman, and it is those things I have a massive interest in. Case in point...

Based on the 17th century novel by Samuel Richardson, Richard Bierman's re-telling of this Georgian melodrama focuses not on the tender courting of it's lead characters, rather the fact they are virtually incompatible but they have a dangerous dynamic. The pure and virtuous Clarissa Harlowe (Saskia Wickham) is heir to a sizeable fortune due to her good and generous nature, something she does not want. She is content to live a modest life as long as she has her letters, books and independance. Despite this, her devious siblings feel that Clarissa should be put in her place and they coerce their father to entrap Clarissa in an engagement with an odious man she does not want and take away what few pleasures she has. Enter the debonair rake, Robert Lovelace (Sean Bean). A morally bankrupt man who is as notorious for his aberrant personality as he is for his conquests who sets Clarissa in his sights- he wishes to possess Clarissa, body, mind and soul. To achieve that, in his opinion, would be an act of God. And given Lovelace's opinion of himself, he is just the man for the job...

Dear Diary- I am a prick.

You'd be quite correct in assuming this lavish BBC adaptation is a melodrama because that is precisely what it is. Placing a naieve ingenue in a series of perils that threaten her being was a token staple of books of this period and it's done justice in this miniseries. Now, while this melodrama is being played right down the line, it really is the acting that gives this production it's boost. Were it not for Wickham's steely interpretation of the lovely Clarissa, the character would have been obnoxious and boring. For all of her piety and gentility, Wickham imbues Clarissa also with a wisdom that makes her a formidable combatant against Bean's Lovelace. While she may have the wool pulled over her eyes, Wickham's Clarissa is able to rely on her intelligence and wit to see her through each of Lovelace's advances.

In saying that, Bean's scheming villain Lovelace is a real piece of work. When he isn't being overt toward Clarissa, he is gleefully subversive. This is a man who enjoys the reputation he has because he knows he has the power, or at least feels he does. The more he spars with Clarissa, the more he begins to lose this control and he begins to develop feelings for her. Once again, this character may have been mustache-twirling quality on paper or in the hands of a lesser actor, but Bean gives Lovelace many layers to work with, at times he can be an absolute snake, others he can be a gentleman, but never sacrificing his agenda.

What a couple

While I have absolutely no gripes towards the rest of the capable cast, this really is Wickham and Bean's show. The relationship between their characters is dangerous as it is complicated, but not without some note of sexiness. Mind you, while Lovelace is still an ugly character, his desire for Clarissa to be his is pretty infectious, at least to me. Does he really want to simply ruin her or does he actually want to have a future with her? It's this sort of relationship that I personally love to watch, because while I value my ultimate desire to be safe, seeing something like this is a whole lot more interesting. Given I also have an interest in the Georgian period, when relationships between people appeared a lot more formal, underneath was a completely different story. In 'Clarissa' this vindicitive side of life is shown in well-recognized detail. Special props must be given to how the dialogue was scripted- given Richardson's prose was obviously not suited for television and actors, the writers must be given special credit for adapting this dialogue and making it a lot easier to follow. You can also feel the conviction of this work when the actors deliver their lines that you can actually understand what they saying and that it doesn't feel forced.

I don't truly have any issues with the series itself- given it's source material, I'm not going to accuse of being something that it makes itself out to be anyway. Perhaps it is also due to my bias toward content of this nature, but while I wouldn't say this is the best novel adaptation EVER, it would be a crime of fans of this genre and content to miss this. If you don't dig Austen, give Richardson's tale a go. For all of it's properness on the outside, there is delicious malice on the inside, and that, my friends, is what will win your heart.

Do You Read Sutter Cain?

'In The Mouth of Madness' is a film by John Carpenter that has a special place in my heart, not because it was panned badly upon it's release (WHY?!) but because it shows Carpenter at his best when he has control of his project with minimal interference by high-faloutin' studios. It is not necessarily a scary movie (at least not to me), but it has a brilliant unsettling atmosphere to it, why, one could almost say this movie is what would have happened if Carpenter and H.P Lovecraft met...

Because it IS! :-D

In 2003, John Carpenter wrote a introduction to a comic book that told a fictional account of Lovecraft's life, saying- "Most people who have watched my movies will notice my recognition of [those footprints of Howard Phillips Lovecraft]. From Innsmouth references in 'The Fog', to the general premise of 'In The Mouth of Madness', I have used the tools of cinema to put my own spin on the Lovecraftian mythos." This being such an obvious statement aside, his sonnet to Lovecraft in this movie is certainly fit to be considered Lovecraftian because it does stay true to Lovecraft's unique brand of terror all the while keeping Carpenter in his horror element.

John Trent (Sam Neill) works for a book publishing firm (with none other than Charleton Heston as his manager in an inspired cameo), and when one of their most distinguished and popular clients, Sutter Cain, goes missing, complete with his manuscripts, Trent and a fellow collegue Styles, (Julie Carmen) track Cain's last known whereabouts to Hobb's End, a sleepy little town that does not show up on any map. Once there, they look for the elusive Cain, but find many other things in his stead, strange things... frightening things.

 Item A

Item B

I'm not going to say any more than that plot-wise, but trust me, this movie deserves a better reputation than what it already has. While fellow director Stuart Gordon is the go-to guy when it comes to modernizing Lovecraft for today's audiences, Carpenter's passion for the writer's work is evident. Some of you may be familiar with Carpenter's Apocalpyse Trilogy which involves 'The Thing', 'Prince of Darkness' and this film, all of which deal with the end of the human race due to means we cannot and perhaps wouldn't want to understand. In this case, the apocalypse is brought around by a work of fiction that is so powerful that it ends up turning the world and the people who live in it upside down. In this case, it is Cain's wild tales of monsters, dimensional travel and age-old cosmic beings that bring forth the twilight of humanity. A belief that I have is that all of Carpenter's films have some sly satirical edge (excluding the obvious context of 'They Live!'), in 'Madness's case, it is a commentary on religion and how fundamentalist mass belief can bring about destruction. When you consider a religious work such as The Bible, what is, at least from an academic point of view, a fairy tale book, despite it's fantastical tales, people out there believe this book to be the truth, or at least parts of it. The result of such a blind belief has been countless wars, unresolved disputes, double standards on top of countless other atrocities, all because of folks who take an idea and twist it to suit their means, never taking into consideration the needs of others. On a lesser (but still, in my opinion, destructive :P) scale, the 'Twilight' phenomenon has taken the world by storm, and there are girls (and older women) out there who want their very own Edward Cullen, on the real. How scary is that?!

Terrifying...

Waxing philosophical aside (and really, I could go on and on about the discrepencies about the interpretation of religion and faith), this is a fine horror film with likeable performances, trippy visual effects and a compelling narrative. You may not piss your pants and you may sleep just fine after you see it, but this is one of Carpenter's best films of the 90's that still rings loud and clear today. If you are a horror fan, do yourself a favour and see it. You will be rewarded. To those critics who panned this movie due to your narrow-mindedness and likewise sense of perspective, I ask you...

Do you read Sutter Cain? >:-D