Colin Parton's Blog

Alive

Alive - Frank Marshall

This is the story of a Uruguayan Rugby team whose plane crashes in the Andes and their ordeal to survive. They spend months in the mountains before 16 of them are rescued.

The film is ok but it would be better if it wasn’t framed on ‘Based on a True Story’. That in itself is generally enough to turn me off but the film opens with John Malkovich, playing one of the people who survived, talking directly to the camera about the ordeal.

The reason this framing is such a bad idea is it means we know that at least some of them survive. 

While I cannot remember whether they told us who John was playing, that doesn’t matter. The tension is greatly reduced.

If they had said: ‘Based on a True Story’ the tension would still have been there. So we know they survive.

The central question of the film now is either: ‘How do they survive?’, or ‘Who survives’. The how question is a much easier story to tell because it doesn’t require the audience to become invested in one of the characters over another. 

They dabble in both but the story ultimately focuses on how they survive. To start off with there is the normal rationing of food and making sure they get seen by any rescuers.

It becomes clear that this is going to be very hard but they work together to achieve group goals.

I am really glad that they didn’t go with a person or group that was unreasonable. There was one crazy guy but very reasonable given the situation they were in.

A lot of this appears to come from the camaraderie as a team. But when the news comes that the search has been called off new leaders step forward.

They now have to get out themselves. They need to survive long enough for them to be able to do that.

An argument for cannibalism is put forward and accepted by many. They need energy to climb out of the mountains.

It is this step that has made this story famous. But it makes complete sense logically. And it works. Two of them walk out of the mountains and return with help from the others.

The film is good, not great. Surprisingly I found the special effects, especially the plane crash, held up well today.

The story of how far would you go to survive is a little perverse in this light but totally understandable. The things that these people go through are extraordinary.

It is interesting to see the negotiation with themselves and others about the terrible things that they are doing to survive but not much to see beyond that.

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The Dragon Prince

The Dragon Prince - Aaron Ehasz & Justin Richmond Season Six

This fantastic show continues with the good guys deciding to destroy the Avaros’ prison. Rayla and Callum head to the Sky Spear.

This decision is really interesting because we know that there are two very important things there. The three gems to release Rayla’s family who are currently trapped in the coins she carries.

The second, and perhaps more important, is the blade that can kill Avaros. 

However, it is questionable at this point whether or not this will kill him or just kill him until he can return when his stars align again.

Their journey is long a treaturous and has some great moments. When they finally kissed again I was cheering.

We have been waiting for that kiss for way too long.

We also get a great reveal of Viren’s back story and how he turned down this dark path to save Soren’s life. He never reveals this to his children and he dies having kept this vital knowledge to himself.

While he dies in Ignomy in both Soren and Claudia’s eyes – albeit for different reasons – he does sacrifice himself to save the people of Katolis.

The decision not to be open about his reason for turning to dark magic leaves Soren wondering why he changed in the end – but he still doesn’t forgive his father.

More importantly, it is his decision to say very little to Claudia that could be argued, pushes her to release Aravos – as a new father figure.

The horrible civil war of the Sun Kingdom is finally resolved with the defeat of the religious zealot, the younger brother of the Queen. The death of Sol Regem was too long coming as well.

Now that Avaros has returned, we are set up for the end of the story. The Queen of the Sky Dragons is sick but healing, so it will be up to our heroes and the friends they have made along the way to defeat Avaros in the final battle of the last season.

I cannot speak highly enough of this series. It is for kids but treats them as adults – with concepts appropriate for their age. It deals with very complex subject matter.

This season, we are delving deeper into the scars that secrets can cause families. We look at the cost of dark decisions made for the noblest of choices. All of this is handled with the subtlety it deserves.

The relationships of love are fantastic. Callum finally admits he has been a fool and is honest and upfront about it to Rayla. Excellent role modelling in communication. Love it!

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Neo Yokio

Neo Yokio - Ezra Koenig Season One

Set in a futuristic world as if New York was a city-state, but with demons.

It has a strong focus on ‘society’ and everything that entails from the balls to the gowns. But it’s all a piss-take of the ridiculousness of this lifestyle.

The main character, Kaz Kaan is voiced by Jayden Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness, The Day The Earth Stood Still). Kaz is vapid and has completely bought into these ideals.

He is a self-centred wanker. I found this very problematic given the show itself is making fun of these ideals.

As the season progresses, he does begin to question them, but it doesn’t really ring true, as the rest of his life and friends remain unchanged.

The entire show is also completely ridiculously over the top. All with a straight face. There is a Grand Prix race that goes through the Guggenheim?!?

If you like dry situational humour, you will love this show. It just isn’t my cup of tea.

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Battleship Potemkin

Battleship Potemkin - Sergei Eisenstein

This is a propaganda film that starts with the crew of the battleship standing up for better food. This leads to a city standing with them and ultimately leads to the victory of the common man against their oppressors.

The terrible food is rotten meat that is made into borsch that the sailors refuse to eat. The officers of the ship decide to execute the crew in response.

There is a massive fight on board and the sailors win with the death of Vakulinchuk one of the key leaders of the uprising. 

They lay him to rest on the port in Odessa with a message of how he died on his body. The body becomes a shrine and the people unite against the tyranny and take supplies out the the ship.

The military turns on the town and massacres the civilians. Potemkin comes to their aid and lays waste on the political and upper-class buildings.

A fleet is sent against the Potemkin and the crew appeals to the crews of the other vessels to join them. They do and the film ends.

As a propaganda film, it stands the test of time pretty well. The narrative structure is fine and makes sense. 

It is very of its time and you can see that the film-makers are still learning their craft. It is very different from Western propaganda films in that the message isn’t over the top.

The message is clear and on the surface but it is what the story is about. This is what makes this so different from Western propaganda films. The massacre of Odessa is full-on.

Like many of the films of this period, there is a general issue of pacing. They often spend too long on a single scene.

The rotten meat at the start is a great example of this. We know the meat is rancid as soon as we see the maggots. We do not need to see it any further.

The best scenes are where the message of the film comes to the fore as a key part of the story. 

When the firing squad is about to shoot those who didn’t like the borsch Vakulinchuk speaks up and asks the soldiers who are they shooting at. There are also some very weird moments as well.

When Odessa is debating what to do about the poor treatment of the sailors a random bloke yells out “Smash the Jews”. He promptly gets smashed. It just felt very out of place—a great piece of history and interesting filmmaking but not a great film.

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Santa Clarita Diet

Santa Clarita Diet - Victor Fresco Season One

I could only watch three episodes before I gave this one the boot. This is what comedy horror might look like.

It is wrong. It’s so upbeat. The dialogue is almost cringe suburban happy but the content is gruesome – perhaps this is funny for some?

The gore was full on as well.

That’s this issue. The audience that would find the juxtaposition of the setting and dialogue hilarious is surely not the same audience that would see the gore funny with it. 

Drew Barrymore (Donnie Darko, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial) and Timothy Oliphant ( Fargo, Go) deliver exactly what they are asked to straight-faced cringe when they should be running for the hills.

I’m sorry if you love this. I don’t think we will ever agree on this one.

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Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein

This is an internal look at how a collective dictatorship remains in power through coercive control.

This story is told through the eyes of Ricco as he is trained to be a mobile infantryman for Earth.

Shortly after he joins war starts against the ‘Bugs’. We follow Ricco’s career as he moves through the ranks.

Do not be mistaken – this is not an action war novel.

The training and conflict are merely the canvas that Heinlein uses to describe the way human society is now controlled by the leaders.

But this is not a political story either. Ricco isn’t involved in politics inside or outside the military.

I would say that the key parts of the novel happen while Ricco is at training camp and then at officers’ training. There is a spattering of flashbacks to a civics-style class that is taught by veterans and is compulsory for every member of this society.

These settings allow Heilein to have his teachers give us/Ricco diatribes about the world and why it has to work in the way it does.

It shows how a society gives itself over to complete control of the ruling class without actually showing us any of that control.

We are simply told that the world is idyllic. There is little crime and little police. Punishments are severe but we only see them dealt out under military court-martials. 

Because we are only given the theory of the way this society may run we just have to take Heinlein’s word for it. Fights with alien races bookend these discussions.

We follow the war through the eyes of the trooper so we have no idea what is going on. Just one combat scenario to the next.

The only time we have any idea at all is in the last battle when Ricco is first Lieutenant. Because of his rank, we get more of the picture of the battle and the state of the war.

So this is a war story with very little war. It’s a commentary on the power and control of a populace, but the theory of this only.

The thought experiments that we go through are very interesting. Some of them are very believable and some are just incorrect. Like Heinlein’s take on the Marxist definition of value.

It must have been a nightmare to market this work because if you do it as a war and combat book that crowd will be bored.

I can see how we ended up with movies that are in no way faithful to the source material because there isn’t a story here. Most certainly not in any conventional sense.

Having said all of this I loved it. Heinlein has an incredible way with words and the lectures are fascinating. 

I would recommend but do not read this for its sci-fi war.

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Overcooked 2

Overcooked 2 - Ghost Town Games & Team17

This game is one of the best co-op games I have ever played. You have to work so well together to complete ever more complex dishes on ever more complex levels.

Communication is key to ensure that everything required for the dish is coming together at the same time. What makes for rip-roaring fun for me and my gaming group might have a very different outcome for yours.

It can become very tense in the kitchen, leading to emotional outbursts. There is a reason that you cannot communicate within the game apart from some very generic actions.

If you play with people you don’t get on well with, or cannot control your outbursts, this may not be the game for you. Otherwise, I highly recommend!!!

Overcooked 2: Carnival of Chaos

This DLC builds on the brilliance of the base game. You have new and sometimes more complex dishes. The level traversal now includes firing your chef as a human cannonball.

The training wheels are well and truly off with many levels needing perfect execution to get the four stars.

Once again I would highly recommend this expansion but only play with people you don’t know OR have a great relationship with.

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Gladiator

Gladiator - Rowdy Herrington

The absolute ridiculousness of this film begins immediately when we are asked to believe James Marshall (Twin Peaks, A Few Good Men) and Cuba Gooding Jr. (Zoolander, Men of Honor) are supposed to be in high school.

 Marshall is 25 at the time of release and Gooding Junior is 24. Completely unbelievable.

Then they join an underground boxing circuit.

The circuit is full-on, playing to packed-out halls and thousands of dollars are changing hands. Adults are betting on school kids boxing AND none of the adults appears at all concerned.

The plot that allows this to occur with James’ father being away for work fits well. Instead of this being an awesome story of child exploitation and destruction of a terrible enforced fighting ring it becomes a tale about our boxer heroes making the right choice when it comes to stopping before you get brain damage.

This weird crossover between the child and adult world continues throughout. James gets a girlfriend and is juggling an afternoon job at the dinner where she works and school. 

Both of them have such agency and there are some big steps here regarding their relationship and the impact boxing may have.

Also teenage sex. Both James and Cuba make excellent choices towards the close of the film as they are forced to fight when Cuba is told that if he takes another hit to the head he will likely be paralysed.

Then the leader of the underground ring backhands Cuba out of the ring so we assume he is done for. Then he and James fight. Horn, the villain is played by Brian Dennehy (Romeo & Juliet, The Blacklist) who was 54. The fight looks as ridiculous as it sounds.

The whole film misses the mark. If they wanted to make a film about these destitute families forced into boxing they should have made that film.

Placing it at the age they are at school ruins that story. The child exploitation story isn’t even touched on. It’s like everyone forgot that they were at school.

Very disappointing. Stay Away.

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The Racket

The Racket - Lewis Milestone

All of the main story beats are missing. The reason for this is that there is no hero. The main character, Captain Quiggly (Thomas Meighan – The Land Of Promise, Eve’s Daughter), has no or little agency.

There is no Catalyst. The story takes place entirely in the ordinary world meaning at any time Quiggly could return to where he was at the start and there would be no ramifications.

The Crisis is affected by Quiggly’s actions: he makes the mob boss mad. As the DA is in the mob’s pocket Quiggly is shipped out to the sticks.

The Climax is the same. The mob boss confesses to the murder and is then killed because the DA won’t protect him. In response, he says he is going to tell the cops everything. 

So they kill him. Quiggly is nowhere to be seen. There are a few saving graces for the film.

There is so much detail and complexity to the relationships. This is primarily because the film is silent and this forces so much more to happen because the action carries the plot.

The party scene for the mob boss’s nephew is fantastic as it shows the power that women are seen to have in society at this point. We get to see this through one of the performers.

There isn’t much more to say apart from the fact that this poor excuse for a film got nominated for best picture.

I wouldn’t bother with this old classic there are plenty of others that are good.

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Of Mice And Men

Of Mice And Men - Lewis Milestone

Of course, this story is great: it’s Steinbeck. That might be why we do an adaptation every few years.

This is the 1939 version. I only watched it because it was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture.

For those unfamiliar with the story: it follows two men George and Lenny during the great depression. The story is coloured by the depression but it isn’t about it per se.

They always are in want of work and the need for it influences the power structures and attitudes of those in the story.

The film follows the book fairly closely and it is a great book to adapt as it is very visual. The story follows George and Lenny as they start a new job.

There is trouble brewing from the moment they arrive. George can see that this is going to be bad because of Lenny.

Lenny is slow. He has a childlike mind coupled with the strength of two men.

George is hard-pressed to keep him in check at the best of times but when trouble is coming there is not much anyone can do.

This film rests on the performances of the two leads. Lenny is very full but the character is a tough one to portray well.

George is hard but for different reasons. He is a complex character but is nuanced and quiet compared to his friend.

The performances of both are good. Lenny is great, more ‘stupid’ than some adaptations I’ve seen but it is well done.

George and Lenny will forever be John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.

There isn’t much more to say. It’s a good adaptation, true to the source material. It just isn’t the best adaptation of this book that we have.

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