A Few English Flicks...

Planet Terror

Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror - the second of the 2 films that make up GrindHouse - takes its intentions of paying homage to the GrindHouse films a lot more seriously than Death Proof. Tarantino's Death Proof, apart from the 60's/70's look and feel, could be seen as a straight thriller with its scary villain and some nice stunts. But Planet Terror cannot be seen as anything other than an attempt to recreate a B-grade, 70s flick. Its packed with an outrageous story(which essentially boils down to people fighting against an army of zombies created from a chemical leak), over-the-top action(like McGowan shooting down zombies with a machine gun that also acts as a replacement leg!), pitch black humor(the film's biggest laugh comes when a legless McGowan tries to get into a running truck!) and gross-out gore(with everything from chopped-off heads to squashed... you gotta see this one for yourself!). The DVD includes the fake trailer for Machete, that was included with the original double feature. But since the Death Proof DVD has none of the other trailers, I'm not sure where to find them (the trailer for Thanksgiving - a take-off on Halloween - is supposed to be hilarious).

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The Lives of Others

A slow but fascinating film set in East Germany in the 1980s. It revolves around a playwright and his girlfriend, who are spied on by the Government under suspicion that the playwright is working against them. From a drama with political undertones about the role of the Government and the violation of its citizens' privacy, it surprisingly develops into a slow-burn thriller as the Government closes in on the playwright. The screenplay is full of twists and completely unpredictable until the end. The tension in a couple of sequences towards the end is is wonderfully built up. The climax is fantastic and the last line is unforgettable.

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Sky High

This is an older movie that I just caught up with last week. While recent movies about comic-book superheroes have been disappointing, this film about some fake - as in, not from comic-books - superheroes managed deliver a perfect package of action, drama and humor. It is mostly set in a school for kids with superpowers and so there are some very funny parallels with the goings-on in regular high schools. The romance is sweet and there is a moral(even if a bit cliched) in there. And this one has a fantastic last line too.

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Shrek The Third

This one follows the tradition of most third parts(threequels?!) of a series - the freshness is no longer there, the jokes have grown old and the story is stretched real thin. This time Shrek goes on a voyage to find Arthur, the other heir to the throne of Far Far Away while back home, a pregnant Fiona has to protect the kingdom from Prince Charming and his cohorts. Things that were funny the first and second times - the digs at popular Disney characters, the clever parallels to real life - no longer make us laugh as hard. Even Eddie Murphy seems to have lost his charm though Antonio Banderas makes up for that somewhat with an enthusiastic turn as Puss-in-Boots.