My wife got Food, Inc. through NetFlix this past week and it is an eye opening documentary. Ever wonder where our food comes from? This film answers that question. Wonder why we seem to keep having outbreaks of e coli and salmonella that cause massive recalls on food? This film shows some possible reasons for it. Food, Inc. goes inside major food producing companies and shows what exactly goes into the mass producing of ground beef and chicken. Comparisons to Upton Sinclair would not be out of order, showing images that would give the most hardened Saw fan pause as cattle and poultry are packed into areas like sardines, unable to move and standing in their own filth until butchered. Most disturbing for me is the man who proudly shows the paste his company makes that is used as filler in most fast food burgers. Now I’m not some Peta radical calling for a boycott of all meat, but I think everyone should see this film so that you can make an informed decision on what kind of food you put in your own body.
Archive for Reviews
Not Quite Hollywood is an hilarious, entertaining and informative look at the history of Australian exploitation film making from the late sixties through the eighties. From the sex comedy knock off of Alfie, titled Alvin, to the Jaws knock off Razorback, director Mark Hartley examines the flip side of the industry that gave us Remains of the Day and Breaker Morant. The industry, best known for the Mad Max trilogy, put out an amazing amount of sex comedies, action and horror films that horrified and disgusted the critics while becoming extremely popular in Australia and eventually many countries overseas.
The film makers interview many of the directors and actors who worked regularly in the industry who have nothing but happy memories of those days, countered by Australian film critics who have nothing but complaints about how bad the films are. Mixed in are interviews with American actors like Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis and Gregory Harrison who worked briefly in Australia to help give the films appeal over here in the States. The best of these stories is from former James Bond, Australian born George Lazenby, detailing how he was actually set on fire for a climactic fight in The Man From Hong Kong.
Overseeing it all is an exuberant Quentin Tarantino who pops up through out the film to gush affectionately about specific films and, canny film fan that he is, delve into some interesting subtexts inherent in the films, like the almost fetish filming of cars in many of the action films from the seventies, like Deathcheaters, or how many horror films are really about man’s destroying of the environment, like The Long Weekend.
If there is any disappointment with the film it is that Mel Gibson does not appear to talk about his time playing Mad Max. Whether he was not approached or wasn’t interested is not said. On the other hand we do have Steve Railsback cursing up a storm over his not so fond memories of making Turkey Shoot. All in all a highly recommended film to those who are interested in film history.
Any child of the eighties probably remembers fondly G.I. Joe either as a kid friendly cartoon show or a harder edge comic book from Marvel. I know I do. So of course I forwent sleep on Thursday to go to the Midnight showing of the new movie G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. It is agood popcorn movie, enjoyable while you are watching it, but afterwards you start thinking about all of the plot holes and in the story.
The plot focuses on Army Captain Duke (Channing Tatum) and his buddy Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) who are escorting a new weapon, a warhead full of nanites that eat metal, when they are attacked by unnamed terrorists who try to steal the weapon. After the terrorists are driven off by a super secret anti terrorist organization called G.I. Joe, Duke and Ripcord are recruited to help track down this new threat, mainly due to the leader of the attack was Duke’s former fiancee, which leads to a bunch of back story about Duke, and another attack where the terrorists succeed in retrieving the weapon which leads to more back story, before the terrorists attack Paris, but that just turns out to be red herring to distract from what they are really after.
As an action film it is killer bee (as Kinky Freidman would say). As long as you turn your brain off and just watch, it is a lot of fun with an exciting attack on the Joe base, a chase through the streets of Paris and an underwater battle at Cobra’s base, all full of explosions, raging gun battles and ninja fights. The plot is a by the numbers cliche riddled story we’ve seen before. It seems half the bad guys have a past history with one of the good guys.
The acting is all pretty decent, Marlon Wayons is appropriately humorous as the side kick, Tatum is tough but angst ridden. Denis Quad as Joe leader General Hawk is stern but compassionate. Of course everyone is blown of the screen by Christopher Eccelston (most successful post Doctor Who actor of the bunch) as evil munitions seller McCullen who becomes Destro at the end. With a dead on Scottish accent thick enough to smash bricks with, he smugly struts, gloats and
pontificates his way through the film, chewing up scenery like he hasn’t eaten in a month. If you aren’t into mindless action scenes, you should see the movie just for his performance, it alone is well worth the price of a ticket.
