Posts Tagged ‘Mad Max’
I’ve written a bit about the whole idea of streamlining my life and removing a lot of the hubris that I just don’t need at this point in my life. So far I’ve focused very much on books, DVDs and games but of course this philosophy extends itself further into other aspects such as clothing and stationery and a bunch of other stuff including collectibles.
Which is fine, I don’t need a …
I suspect that going into the film Salt it is probably a disadvantage watching the above trailer and forming the expectation that this might be like a Bourne film.
It’s not.
Salt stars Angelina Jolie and is about a CIA agent who goes on the run after a Russian defector names her as a Russian sleeper agent who is going to kill the Russian President on US soil.
Who is Salt? I know but I don't really care...
That trailer and the general description make Salt sound like a pretty cool movie but to be honest in the actual execution it’s a severely lacking film. First off the whole idea of Russians infiltrating America to assassinate presidents and take over nuclear bombs feels like it’s an idea that went out with the cold war. I found it really clichéd, like a poor man’s Bond villain routine. The plot loses its credibility as we dive head first into the “plunging the world into war” for Mother Russia and to wipe out the evil American capitalist swine storyline!
A huge problem is that we don’t have anyone to identify as the main villain of the piece, there’s no mastermind behind it all, well there is but he certainly doesn’t rate much of a mention, I might have felt different had he been stroking a white cat and actually had any real impact.
I will admit that there are at least one or two twists that are impressive enough that they elevate themselves above the mucky muck story but they’re not exactly Crying Game/Fight Club level revelations and they don’t save the movie.
The stunts and the action sequences seem mediocre at best and the acting seems bored. In fact Jolie (who I quite like normally) looks exhausted throughout, I just want her to eat a nice meal and have a nap.
At the end of the film I just don’t care about any of the characters, they’ve made no impression on me and I don’t honestly care if they live or die. If they make a sequel, which they certainly seem interested in I won’t bother seeing it outside of some sick curiosity to see if they have learnt from this underwhelming experience.
See it if you have nothing else to watch, it’s not effective enough to make you think it’s really bad.
Rating: 
Yesterday I talked about Manimal and my fear that if I were to go watch it that I would be disappointed and the childhood obsession with it would be crushed.
I admit I could be wrong, Manimal could be still pretty good if you can get past the 80s fashion and the dated special effects but I kinda doubt it. There is however another show from my youth that I’m pretty confident wouldn’t hold up and I think the credits below drive my fears home:
Automan (the “Automatic Man”) followed the adventures of a police officer and computer programmer named Walter Nebicher (Desi Arnaz, Jr.), who had created an artificially intelligent crime fighting program that generated a hologram (Chuck Wagner) able to leave the computer world and enter reality to help fight crime. source
It’s got a neat intro theme and like Manimal it’s from the master of 80s genre television Glen A. Larson. Unlike Manimal it made it to 13 episodes though one didn’t air. I know I watched pretty much everything that aired in Australia for this show because I loved it!
But no one else had ever heard of Automan years later and would look at me like I’m crazy as I recounted the hilarious running gag where the human passenger in the Automan car would be smacked up against the window whenever they made an impossibly tight turn.
But thanks to the internet I have proof the show existed!!
Of course that’s where I’m going to leave it.
From the brief glimpses in that opening and the photos I am reasonably certain that the show has absolutely no chance of matching my eight year old self’s expectations. Frankly it looks bloody awful and painfully acted.
And clearly there are similarities to Tron which interestingly enough was a commercial failure so I’m not sure what chance it had in the first place. But like I said I’m leaving this one well enough alone but it’s nice to remember it occasionally.
