(2005, Peter Jackson)
A movie producer seeking an exotic island location discovers and captures a large ape which, when shipped to New York, escapes and has to be shot. Despite having a plot so pitifully thin, Jackson’s film spans no less than three mind-numbing hours of the viewer’s life. How is this unlikely feat achieved? Fight scenes: a ship’s crew fight tribespeople; the ape fights dinosaurs; dinosaurs fight each other; the ape fights the ship’s crew; the ship’s crew fight giant insects; the ape fights giant bats; the ship’s crew fight the ape (again); the ape fights the US military. All of which risible pointlessness is produced via extensive use of CGI—which, of course, means that hardly any of the objects on screen appear to be obeying the laws of physics. (In the old days of movie special effects, huge falling rocks were made from polystyrene. The problem was, they looked like they were made from polystyrene. Nowadays, huge falling rocks are made from computer graphics. The problem is, they look like they are made from polystyrene.) Kids will probably love it, and Empire readers will probably already own it in the form of some overpriced multi-disc ‘collector’s edition’ DVD package to be viewed on one of those vast plasma TVs which I can only assume are sold with free self-hypnosis kits (how else do people convince themselves the picture’s not shit?) Jack Black is wasted. Jackson should be ashamed of himself.
King Kong @ IMDb (UK)
11 July 2006
09 July 2006
Primer
(2004, Shane Carruth)
Two technological entrepeneurs, working out of a family garage, stumble across the discovery that the device they have been building acts as a time-machine, allowing objects placed inside it at the time it is deactivated to re-emerge at the time it was activated. They initiate a seemingly simple money-making scheme: turn on the machine in the morning, spend the day monitoring stock prices, enter the machine in the evening, power it down, and re-emerge in the morning forearmed with profit-making information. The possibilities of power opened up by the machine, however, prove to be too tempting for one of the pair, and events begin to spiral out of control in complex temporal loops of deception and manipulation.
Carruth’s debut is a subtle, low-key and intelligent sci-fi puzzler that concentrates on spinning a satisfyingly intruiging storyline out of dialogue rather than action. Admittedly, the sound quality is less than perfect (which isn’t surprising, given the film’s ultra-modest budget of $7,000) and this, in conjunction with the naturalistic style of acting (with characters conversing rapidly, sometimes mumbling, and often talking over the top of each other), makes it virtually impossible for the viewer to catch all the information needed to fully comprehend what’s going on. But this isn’t a film for those who like to be spoon-fed plots in easy to swallow, readily digestible chunks. It’s a film to be puzzled over (and, in this sense, is similar to the likes of Memento and The Usual Suspects). All the information is in there somewhere, and it’s down to the attentive viewer to extract it and piece it together. Viewers are offered this kind of responsibility all too rarely. It’s something to be valued.
Primer @ IMDb UK
Primer Official Site
Two technological entrepeneurs, working out of a family garage, stumble across the discovery that the device they have been building acts as a time-machine, allowing objects placed inside it at the time it is deactivated to re-emerge at the time it was activated. They initiate a seemingly simple money-making scheme: turn on the machine in the morning, spend the day monitoring stock prices, enter the machine in the evening, power it down, and re-emerge in the morning forearmed with profit-making information. The possibilities of power opened up by the machine, however, prove to be too tempting for one of the pair, and events begin to spiral out of control in complex temporal loops of deception and manipulation.
Carruth’s debut is a subtle, low-key and intelligent sci-fi puzzler that concentrates on spinning a satisfyingly intruiging storyline out of dialogue rather than action. Admittedly, the sound quality is less than perfect (which isn’t surprising, given the film’s ultra-modest budget of $7,000) and this, in conjunction with the naturalistic style of acting (with characters conversing rapidly, sometimes mumbling, and often talking over the top of each other), makes it virtually impossible for the viewer to catch all the information needed to fully comprehend what’s going on. But this isn’t a film for those who like to be spoon-fed plots in easy to swallow, readily digestible chunks. It’s a film to be puzzled over (and, in this sense, is similar to the likes of Memento and The Usual Suspects). All the information is in there somewhere, and it’s down to the attentive viewer to extract it and piece it together. Viewers are offered this kind of responsibility all too rarely. It’s something to be valued.
Primer @ IMDb UK
Primer Official Site
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