Finally got to knocking some more movies down - a pair of Richard Linklater 2006 flicks (let's see if you can guess which two!) - Fast Food Nation and A Scanner Darkly.

I was particularly interested in seeing Fast Food Nation because I read the book a few years ago, and moreso because the book is non-fiction - sort of an investigative look at the fast food industry, all the way up the supply chain, from the conditions at the restaurants themselves, to the meat packing plants, to the ranches that supply the cattle and poulty, and I was interested to see how Linklater, with collaboration, would turn that into an interesting fictional account.

The movie succeeded on the level of a political polemic - it succeeded in showing the evils of the fast food restaurants, but it was far less successful as entertainment, because pamphleteering was pretty much all it appeared to be.

There were three central storylines - one about Greg Kinnear as a marketing executive exploring claims of shit in the beef, and backing down from his willingness to challenge authority when he realizes his job might be at steak, one about some Mexican border crossers trying to make it working at a meat packing plant, and another about a high school girl working at a local "Mickey's" franchise, the fictional fast food restaurant concoted for the movie purposes. The high school girl plot pretty much involves her hearing various people tell her why fast food is bad. The most interesting plot is probably that of the immigrants, that has a real sort of tragic arc to it.

Anyway, if you're a receptive audience, you might at least like the information, and the idea is very interesting, but somewhere along the way it just doesn't quite work.

I'm going to start attempting to rate movies on a scale of 1-10 (with decimals) and I may have to adjust later when I get to tons of movies, but we'll try

6.0 for Fast Food Nation

Next, A Scanner Darkly. Based on a Philip K Dick story, A Scanner Darkly tells the convoluted story (in rotoscope animation, no less) of a man who as a cop goes undercover to try to dig up information on a dealer of a debilitating drug, "Substance D" that has overwhelmed the country. However, as the movie continues, the cop gets so addicted on the substance himself, that he separates the persona of himself as cop, wearing a "scramble suit" which doesn't allow even his own immediate superiors to realize who he is, and his persona as drug addict. It all slowly comes tumbling down as it turns out he was simply a pawn in a plan to make him a deadbeat addict enough that New Path, a company posing as rehab clinic, will take him to their fields where cops suspect Substance D is grown, and maybe that he will remember his training enough to bring back some of his sanity and find some evidence.

I found this to be a lot more interesting than the first - rotoscope actually works really well to create this sort of creepy paranoid environment where you're not quite sure what's real and what's not, and the movie, while not always making perfect sense, made enough to keep me from getting confused. In addition, a couple of scenes featuring the paranoid conversations between characters voiced by Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey Jr., and Keanu Reeves were great.

Rating: 7.3

Just saw "The Machinist" - very strange movie...I'll let people know right now they shouldn't read further if they're worried about anything being ruined, because I'm not sure what I'm going to say...


Anyway, Christain Bale plays a guy with some majorly paranoid delusions, who hasn't slept in a year and seems like he hasn't ate in about that time either, that seem to grow and grow - at first, for a short time, you think that everything you see is actually happening (since that's what normally goes on in movies) and then you slowly realize that more and more of it is in his head - and figuring out which parts exactly are in his head, and why because the crux. It joins the long line of movies which star a fictional character - which could be the subject of a list - everything from Bogus to Secret Window from a couple of years ago and many more likely more obvious ones I'm not thinking of right now.

They pretty much explain exactly what happened and why Christian Bale is going crazy in the last five minutes, which is semi-satisfying, but leaves a small amount desired of cloture - but, hey, at least he can sleep again, and maybe put back some of those lost pounds.

Alas, next on my queue - Fast Food Nation and A Scanner Darkly - we'll see how those turn out.

Okay, let's try to start blogging more - a gradual goal, as making this post, establishes blogging more.

Saw a couple of cult movies in the past week I had never seen before, The Warriors and Escape from New York. Both are really made by their premise - particularly Escape from New York - Manhattan is turned into a prison that runs itself, President trapped inside, former war vet-turned criminal has to rescue him to secure his own freedom. How can that be bad?

In addition, while Kurt Russell pretty much starts his ascent up the hollywood ladder (to the great heights of "Soldier" and "3000 Miles to Graceland," Escape from New York is populated by a bizarre assortment of stars from an earlier time. For example, Ernest Borgnine, who most people my age know as the guest dad in the Junior Campers episode of The Simpsons, played a crazy cabbie who drives Russell around town. Adrienne Barbeau, who was apparently married to John Carpenter from 1979-1984, leading to her roles in Escape from New York and The Fog, was best known for her part as Bea Arthur's divorced daughter in Maude. Barbeau plays the squeeze of Harry Dean Stanton, who was smack in the middle of his career as a character actor, and can now been seen as a 80-year old cult leader on HBO's Big Love. Lastly, Lee Van Cleef, "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"'s Bad, plays the police commissioner who injects Russell with some sort of chemical which means he must return within 22 hours to have it removed, or die.

Overall, a very solid movie. Solid '80s synth music in the background, a ludicrous chandelier car driving by Issac Hayes (I finally get an incredibly random "Duke of New York" reference in Aqua Teen Hunger Force) and coliseum combat involving a club with a spike on it. Moves along fairly quickly, Russell growls more than he actually talks, and it's essentially the basis for the Metal Gear Solid series.

The Warriors was also a movie made largely by the premise – New York in the future/past is dominated by gangs – when one gang leader tries to unite them all in the North Bronx, he is assassinated – the real assassins frame one gang, The Warriors, and the Warriors have to attempt to get to their home and safe ground in Coney Island, while clearing their name, while every other gang is out for them. The lead actor, Michael Beck is something of a two-movie wonder – his turn in this must have inspired the producers of Xanadu to pick him up as the lead, and his turn in Xanadu must have inspired producers everywhere to never place him in a lead again. David Patrick Kelly, who plays the sadistic true assassin, and beckons the title group with one of the movies two most famous line (“Warriors, come out and play,” with a huge emphasis and a bit of whining on the “play”), is something of a character actor who finds himself all over the place, recently, as President Truman, in the movie I saw immediately proceeding “The Warriors,” “Flags of Our Fathers.” James Remar, who plays a Warrior, but rival to Michael Beck’s Swan, is seen here and there as a villain, such as in “48 Hours” and now co-stars in Showtime’s “Dexter” a show I hear good things about and mean to get around to watching. Strangest in my mind was Lynn Thigpen as the radio DJ, best known for her role as the Chief in the kids game show “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?”

I enjoyed the warriors a good deal as well – there are some solid fights which some particularly strange gangs – most notably the Baseball Furies – a group of bat wielding nuts that wear face paint. While less gruff than Snake from “Escape from New York,” Swan is equally unemotional and is back and forth with the female lead, either getting with her, or calling her a whore.

Next out is The Machinist, where I look forward to seeing a deathly ill Christian Bale.