Displacement Via Movies


This was a tough week, as you know if you’ve been over at End O’ The World. I’ve been trying to hide from my illness and from some of the draining hard work I’m facing to resurrect my professional life in some functional fashion. Although I must admit, looking back on it now, that displacing via writing worked pretty damn well through the acutely painful darkness of the worst of the treatment. I wrote and published two articles in international-level journals, both opinion pieces on global sustainability. So I got that goin’ for me.


Anyway. This week I didn’t write (much). I watched movies late at night.


First up: Predators. This is the one released a year or so ago, about the group of earthly hard-asses kidnapped and airdropped into the Most Dangerous Game style hunting preserve on the alien planet. Where the predators (same ones as in the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Glover Predator 1 and 2 respectively, also the entertaining Aliens vs. Predators about the Antarctic predator hunting theme park, and the somewhat more strained A vs. P 2 about the small town in Colorado finding itself a battle ground between alien species). Anyway. In Predators, you got your World War 2 multiethnic infantry squad, in this case represented by a Hispanic guy from the Mexican drug cartels, an African killer for hire, a Russian special forces guy from Chechnya, a Yakuza assassin, etc. Except for the American mercenary and U.N. shock troop lady, they’re all cannon fodder. Suffice to say the plot is credible, requiring not too much suspension of disbelief, the photography is great, dialog at least marginally acceptable. Very good of its kind—Definitely Worth a Look.


Next, Battle Los Angeles. I’ve seen dismal reviews of this on the web. I’m not sure what the griping is about. Shot mostly from a first-person shooter perspective, with lots of shaky camera realism in the style of Generation Kill and Restrepo, it’s got surprisingly strong character study wrapped up in a very well paced shoot-em-up space opera. No Household Should Be Without. 


Then there’s self-consciously gory B movie Bitch Slap. Really, for a low-budget cult-audience targeted late night cable rerun bound film, it’s pretty effective. Pretends to be a repository of sex, drugs, and violence. In reality, the sex is low key and clothed, the drug use is minimal, and the violence, which is fairly extreme, is sufficiently cartoonish to blunt disgust. Got a nice bit of plot twist at the end. Not for all of you. Well, really, not for most of you. Well, in fact, for a small minority of you. Hell, realistically, for Lance. But for Lance, and maybe Eric, it Holds Up Pretty Well.


Finally, and only in theaters at the moment, there’s Cowboys and Aliens. Colin, Jesse and I saw a matinee today. This one definitely delivers. Even Harrison Ford, as one of several villains-who-learn-their-lesson, does a credible job. Plot is more than adequate, visuals are great. And the sound track is absolutely killer. I gotta find a copy. This movie is Highly Recommended—No Household Should Be Without.


Fresh material up across the weblog empire. Please surf on over to http://endoftheworldpartdeux.blogspot.com/ for a cancer melodrama update, http://docviper.livejournal.com/ for a festive seafood dinner, and http://sustainablebiospheredotnet.blogspot.com/ for a new essay on Armed Conflict and the Environment. Most of all, remember I love you all, and I’m grateful that you’re taking the time to read this stuff. Thanks!