Review CLIX - Paris, Texas

Review 159
Paris, Texas (1984)

Welcome to the month of March! Guys, we're three months into 2017 - that's insane. I remember rolling in the new year, and now we're approaching spring (though the cold temperatures here seem to contradict that). Since it's a Friday evening and I worked today, I figured I'd snuggle up with some nice tea, listen to a poppy rock track, and write a review. The film is Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas starring Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell, Aurore Clément, Nastassja Kinski, and Hunter Carson. I remember trying to watch Der Himmel über Berlin, or Wings of Desire in English, by Wim Wenders, and I couldn't get into it, but since that film had gotten such high praise, I never forgot the name. I feel like Solaris has prepared for any super long, winding films... Enough of this tangent, let's continue with this review!

Travis Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton) is found wandering through the desert, refusing to speak a word to the doctor who finds him. His brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell), is quickly contacted and picks him up after thinking he was dead over his disappearance four years prior. Returning to Walt's house, Travis is re-united with his son, Hunter, who is now seven years old. However, his wife, who also vanished, leaving Hunter in the care of Walt and his wife (Aurore Clément), is Travis' one desire. With a hint to go by, Travis heads out to find his ex-wife, and Hunter, the mother who left him.

Paris, Texas hits hard - I'm warning you now - but it's pretty grand, at least toward the end. But let's start small. I'll try not to ruin too much of the film, but I can't guarantee I won't give some stuff away, so if you want to go in with a clean slate, read this review later.

Our protagonist, Travis, is a lost soul. At first, I gotta say, I wasn't digging him at all. The whole "not talking" thing got old pretty quickly to me, and I was worried we'd have to deal with a whole film of silence from this guy, but thankfully, Walt gets him to talk maybe twenty minutes in. Then we slowly get a development in his character, which turns out to be pretty depressing. His relationship with his son is strained - obviously - but thankfully, through a heartfelt scene of walking, the two come to an understanding and bond. And it only gets stronger from there. As for other characters, well, Walt does his job - can't say I got much attachment from him. And his wife, Anne, was so touchy-feely with Travis that I was sure Hunter was going to be the illegitimate son of Anne and Travis; however, my boyfriend would only comment that she was "freeeench". That leaves us Jane, but I don't want to talk about her too much since she's at the end. Suffice to say, her character is equally as depressing as Travis.

As for Hunter, well, here I have some beef. There are little scenes which are very endearing, but Wim Wenders liked to project through this character a bit. It's something you find pretty often in films. One example would be Clerks which had Dante and Randolf speaking monologues so cut and paste and unnatural between two people, it was insane. Otherwise, I didn't finish the film, but Vanilla Sky seems to suffer this with Penélope Cruz's character as well, speaking very intellectually to the point it just sounds unnatural. Now, kids are observant and all, but when he would discuss Travis with Anne, claiming all this "ceci n'est pas une pipe", it just sounded too heavy-handed, especially from a seven-year-old. It's too much of a "what's that? Is that the script?" moment. It just ruins the film for me, even if it's proving a good message through it. It makes it seem more like a lecture than a movie, you know?

However, I still liked the movie. One reason is because of its message on multiculturalism and American pride. I seem to be on a roll with these movies, eh? Anyway, just pay attention to the narrative about Paris, Texas (yes, it's a place), and Travis speaking of how his father wanted to make his mom a big "star" from France. It's not shoving it down, but it nonetheless shows how you should be proud of where you come from, regardless of its fanciness, or lack thereof. The other reason is that "final" monologue and beautiful cinematography which just ties everything together. When Wim Wenders does it right, he does it very right.

I guess that's all I have to say about Paris, Texas. It's a bit slow at the beginning, it starts improving in the middle, and it comes full-throttle at the end. I'd give it a watch, but be ready for some pretty depressing moments, especially at the end. Happ- err, sad viewing?

Review LXXXIX - Alien

Review LXXXIX
Alien (1979)

As like everyone, my horror film interest spiked in my teenage years. Probably one of the first horror films I watched was Halloween, which I hated. After that, I made it my mission to watch as many classic slasher-horror films as possible to see if the other classics were as bad as Halloween. I stopped after Friday the 13th, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. While I really enjoyed A Nightmare on Elm Street, screw every other film. They were annoying, badly written, and just out to jump scare me. I don't completely condemn jump scares, but really, if that's all I get, along with characters I hate, I have nothing. After watching some sequel to Hellraiser (watch the original - Clive Baker totally had it!), I realised I liked the gore aspect more than anything, which brought me to zombie movies. I moved away from anything not zombie, catching Silent Hill and other generic shit every so often and, consequently, completely regretting it. This led to me feeling wary every time someone brought up Ridley Scott's Alien. "But Alex, you must see the scene from the alien pops out of the guy's stomach!" I saw the bit in Spaceballs - good enough for me. Until, of course, I was dragged into watching it. I erred and ummed, but when my boyfriend said he liked Aliens, the flippin' sequel to Alien, I had to check it out. I was reluctant, but maybe I was really missing out on a goldmine...

The year is 2XXX, and a space crew (consisting of Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt), Chief Engineer Parker (Yaphet Kotto), Engineering Technician Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), Navigator/Helmsman Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm), and Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)) is on their way home, frozen in stasis until they reach a reasonable distance from home. But they're woken up early. What could be the cause? A distress signal from - could it be - an alien? The crew sets off to find out more about this alien form. However, the signal turns out to be a warning, and soon Kane is infected and the crew is faced with a bigger problem than originally anticipated.

This movie, this movie... Okay, it was not as bad as Texas Chain Saw Massacre if only because the effects were cool and legit. But the plot. Oh god, the plot. Okay, okay, let me back up. Let's compliment it first. Alien, as mentioned, had some pretty cool effects. I mean, I wouldn't go and say it was the best I've seen, but given it was 1979, it was able to come across as not super cheesy even with the whole "in space" bit. I give it that. The shredded condoms, the sheep's stomach, the intestines used to make everything were worth it because it looked cool. The alien egg? Pretty nifty! The facehugger alien? I liked it. The chestburster? Hello phallusism! It went downhill. I didn't mind it, but I guess I found it looked cheesy at this point. When the thing ran across the table, I died. Oh man, I died. It was hilarious. But really, the whole exploding bit was cool. I liked it. I felt bad for John Hurt, but at the same time, didn't at all because he was a complet- no, not yet. Let's not rant yet. The final alien was also legit. It looked cool. Granted, the small, extendable mouth was a tad on the funny side when you see it extract out, but the idea was cool. The creativity and the ingenuity of making each stage of the alien was grand. I liked it. It was new, it was cool. The film totally deserved the academy award it got for effects. And the little relation to the Aztec space jockey, nice, nice. I can see all the interesting ideas that exist for the alien species. I've been told about it, and I've even read up on it myself (Weyland-Yutani, you're hilarious). I really can see all the effort put into this, and I think it paid off. I really do. I could totally watch this film again...

... But the movie made me rage. Everyone, and I do mean every human being, was an idiot. A complete IDIOT. Want me to break it down completely? I doubt you want to hear me complain for so long. But I'll give you little bits. NUMBER ONE. They get this mysterious signal coming from a nearby planet. "'Kay, must be a distress signal, lezz go." They send Dallas, Kane, and Lambert down. No problem. Except when Ripley finally asks Ash if she can check out the signal. Oh, look, binary! It's actually decipherable (albeit freakin' tedious), especially since Ripley is a master at the bare-bones of hardware. So what does Ripley find out? "Hey, this is actually a warning." Now, fine, I understand a certain excitement at finally finding an alien species. But SERIOUSLY. You LEFT the SHIP before even DECIPHERING the SIGNAL, ESPECIALLY since it takes Ripley FIVE minutes to figure it out. Screw it. This can be explained - spoilers a bit - given Ash's motives of deceiving the crew later on for reasons I won't explain. But I don't give a shit. There are how many kids besides Ash? Six. None of them questioned the fact that they didn't know why they were being sent out. Wait, no, the plot wields it! Okay, fine. Whatever.

Next issue. Kane, Dallas, and Lambert head off to check out this alien signal. They come across the Aztec space jockey (oh, pretty face and lights) and explore. Hmm... seems a bit unsafe, but what can you do? I mean, if anything were to happen, it's okay, they could totally fly awa- oh, wait, they can't. When they landed, their ship exploded or something. Anyway, it's being fixed by Brett and Parker. Well, it's fine. They'll be okay (ignore the warning signal bit here). They travel around until Kane sees an opening, a tunnel, leading downward. "Hey, guys, a tunnel! See yaz!" He heads down. Fine. They gotta explore. I mean, they come in, guns flashing. If they were to meet an innocent species - first contact, first impressions ("I don't believe in first impressions"), I might add - and blew their heads off, well, that might be kinda bad. Protocol seems... odd. But whatever. Anyway, Kane heads down. Apparently hot as a tropical forest. Then he spots eggs. Now, imagine you're in the Amazon. You spot eggs about the size of your torso. Would you, one, take your distance and/or run away, two, try and contact an expert of the forest or use the super computer just five minutes away to assess the situation, or three, go up to it, shine light on it, see it MOVING, and stick your face in the hole that opens up? If you choose three, congratulations! You have been chosen to work on the spaceship Nostromo! It's just... who would do this except a completely ignorant person? No one. Because seriously, you have a gun, but the gun is gone all of a sudden, and when you stick your face in the hole, your gun is of no use to you. And guess what happens to Kane? WELL, SHIT, HE GETS ATTACKED. What a FREAKIN' surprise. I could keep ranting, but you get the point. You get the point that, at every turn, at every corner, at every moment they could do something cautiously, carefully, they don't. "Quarantine those suckers!" Don't. "Stick together!" They immediately separate. Granted, some things can be explained given Ash's motives, as I mentioned, but sometimes, they were stupid. Sometimes you can say that, though one guy was maybe against something, there were still six other people to think rationally. But whatever. Just whatever.

My next issue is, well, a personal one. Probably most wouldn't care, but seriously, the growth rate of the alien? Ri-dic-ulous. The facehugger to chestburster? Fine. It was fast as shit, but fine. But chestburster to full on alien form? What? The thing shed some skin. It didn't shed enough. To get that big, the crew should have found a room full of old skin. That thing grew from phallus size to larger than a human in five minutes or less. An exaggeration, but seriously, I didn't like that part. It went too quickly. It should have been longer. My boyfriend argued, "No, it scares the audience because it shows that you never know what stage the alien will be at." That is true, but the human form was the largest. We got small, small, final form. Show it transform. Don't just show it as a final form. It was too meh. I was like, "Damn, the amount of energy that creature used up to get that huge." It's science fiction, but as I said, this was more personal. I was not accepting of this. I didn't like it. Point final.

Alien had some nice shots, the effects were legit, and the creativity behind it was cool. But the plot was stupid. Everyone was stupid. I can't say I'm that upset or surprised, but seriously, while I like Ripley Scott's idea of "manbirth" and showing rape on the man's side, if the plot had been given as much thought as the effects, it could have been awesome. I can see why people still watch it to this day - versus Friday the 13th which was horrendous - but seriously, that plot. I'm out.

Piratebay torrent

Review XVII - Escape from New York

Review XVII
Escape from New York (1981)

Two reviews in one day? Woah! I started babysitting a friend's little sister yesterday, and I'll be doing so for the next few weeks. She's ten, however, and so far I've not had to do much except sit around, do some dishes, and cook food. We've been watching movies together, but today I got there before she woke up, so I decided to watch another John Carpenter cult film, Escape from New York. Unlike Big Trouble in Little China, this one was commercially a success, but it has since been established as a cult hit. This film stars Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Harry Dean Stanton, Ernest Borgnine, Adrienne Barbeau, Donald Pleasence, and Isaac Hayes.

While the president (Donald Pleasence) of United States is on his way to an important summit in 1997, his plane is hijacked by a terrorist. He escapes through an escape pod, but lands in New York city, which, ten years previously, became a prison island where prisoners are sent for the rest of their days. The authorities try to get the president, but their results prove fruitless. Enter Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), an honourable special forces soldier turned robber who has been arrested. Hauk (Lee Van Cleef), an agent in the special forces, offers Snake a deal - rescue the president in 24 hours, and he's given a pardon. There's also a catch - microscopic explosives are implanted in his neck that will explode in 24 hours to ensure Snake goes along with the deal. While New York offers Snake companions to help him in his journey to find the president, the Duke (Isaac Hayes) and his gang are going to prove to be a big problem for Snake, Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine), Brain (Harry Dean Stanton), and Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau).

I loved this film. I'm not sure if Big Trouble in Little Trouble made me a science-fiction-John Carpenter-and-Kurt-Russell lover, but man, I thought the film was grand. Again, it's not a film you watch to think, but simply to be entertained with action and funny lines. It isn't as cheesy as Big Trouble, rather more serious in fact, but it's still a light-hearted film. I also thought the concept of the crime rate in the United States becoming so high that they dedicate a city to housing prisoners and letting them take care of each other interesting. I thought it was pretty amazing that the prisoners never escaped, even if the walls are huge. Manhattan Island is 87.5 square km, or 33.77 square miles, depending on the system you prefer. That's pretty huge! That would mean having people surrounding the whole barrier the whole time, and having a helicopter for at least every few kilometres to ensure no one is sneaking around. Still, that didn't bother me in the least; I just like nitpicking. I just watched the film to be entertained, and entertained I was. The film makes me want to re-watch The Thing (I didn't think it was all that good when watched it), and check out more John Carpenter science fiction films. Kurt Russell was an iconic badass (what did you expect?), and the other characters were well played. I also enjoyed the eighties' soundtrack which John Carpenter also contributed to. That's talent right there!

I'd give the film eight stars on ten. It deserves the cult status it has earned, and it's worth a watch from any action lover. Don't expect too much from it - simply watch it to be entertained.

Pirate Bay torrent

P.S. I rented the film, so I don't know if the quality for the torrent is any good... Sorry!