If you can believe Cerina Vincent is a park ranger, then the writers have won half the battle. Vincent plays the busty park ranger Danielle ala Russ Meyer, who is a whiney emo alcoholic mourning the loss of her friend, and seems like a well enough heroine forced to fight off a monster. Sure, she’s about as far-fetched as a park ranger as Denise Richards was a rocket scientist, but in the end I was willing to ignore the lapses in logic, and power on through. Cerina Vincent is gorgeous in a film that allows her to flaunt her curves while also playing the strong heroine battling a ferocious enigmatic beast from beyond. The concept for “It Waits” is simple. Busty park ranger fights monster in forest with her pet parrot. That’s the best way I can describe “It Waits” in one sentence.
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Ichi the Killer (Koroshiya 1) (2001)
If I could best sum up Miike’s film “Ichi the Killer” in only one sentence, I’d use the word: Havoc. Because Miike’s film about a sadistic mobster attempting to find a sadistic avenger is Miike’s all out masturbatory practice in sadism, torture, and sheer lunacy. If you thought the last half hour of “Audition” was utterly insane, try sitting through the entire 135 minute running time of “Ichi”. Told through many narratives almost like a darker “Pulp Fiction”, Miike’s entire film is a sheer test on his audience, a test of stomach turning, cringe-inducing sadism that he explores without pulling his punches.
Into the Blue (2005)
A group of barge sailors accidentally find buried treasure on the ocean floor and come across deadly pirates. Peter Benchley’s “The Deep”? No you fool, this parade of good looking people and much ridiculousness is called “Into the Blue”, yet another remake. Take the old time storytelling devices and implement the sentiment of today’s culture by juicing it up with a cast full of pretty people with no particular acting ability. If “Into the Blue” is any indicator, the producers were more compelled to flash us than provide a story that wasn’t contrived or incredibly far-fetched. Two young people who should be models are poor in a trailer and go deep sea diving for sunken barges for cash; a plane crashes, and they discover a butt load of cocaine but cross some fierce mobsters and pirates on the way to staking their claims.
I ♥ Huckabees (2004)
Very crafty of the little gray rabbit, or something to that effect. With films these days you have only black and white, heads or tails, films that are just dumb, and films that are thought provoking, hardly ever in a blue moon are we given a film that looks like entertainment but is really thought provoking brain candy. But David O. Russell is the crafty madman behind “I ♥ Huckabees”, a film that examines existentialism through a company conglomerate of department stores that are just a microcosm for life and the big picture. We never really see many Huckabees stores here, but that’s because the Huckabees presence is only that, a presence which serves as a link to connect all the characters here in this story. It’s the Nucleus for the story that serves as a source to connect the characters in an uneasy situation whether they like it or not.
In Good Company (2004)
“In Good Company” is a great comedy drama that is both a study of life, and relationships. Director Paul Weitz manages to create a bittersweet portrait of Dan Foreman, a salesman for magazine ads who basically has his life under control, but when a company conglomerate buys out Dan’s magazine, he finds himself extremely humbled and wounded when he discovers his boss is a man named Carter, who is more than twenty years his junior. Now he has to adjust against his own will and better judgment, but the film becomes more esoteric under Weitz’ direction in which the modern villain, the big corporation, only becomes a microcosm for the recurring and strong theme of change, and approaching change with immense uncertainty. Even as Dan’s wife is about to bear a child. That is the strong connection every character bears during the story, as Weitz succeeds in tackling what life is all about: doubt, and worry, even in the climax.
The Incredibles (2004)
While comic book movies are shooting to audiences in theaters at an almost rapid fire pace, very rarely does the film medium examine the person behind the superhero, the true human and “The Incredibles” does that. Few films such as the underrated “Unbreakable”, “Spider-Man 2” and “The Hulk” have taken the time to examine the psyche and basic mundane aspects of being a superhero and living with the persona as a human too. As a comic book geek since childhood I always relish the chance to catch my superheroes on the big screen despite the fact that rarely is the transference ever satisfying, but few films create their own heroes and then work from the ground up, and instead of focusing on the superhero aspect and then the human, films such as Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable” and this, work on focusing on the humanity and then the hero which is more secondary.
The I Inside (2004)
Granted, I’ve never been much of a fan of Ryan Phillipe and his movies, I was very skeptical on whether or not I’d enjoy this. Based on the play by Michael Cooney, and directed by Roland Suso Richter, “The I Inside” was created around the same time as “Butterfly Effect”, but then it was held back, and then dumped on cable television premiering on a channel not a lot of people have. If you’ve seen this movie yet, you’ll notice it’s not like a lot of cable movies. Great cast of great actors and an above par production quality. So why was this treated so badly upon its release?