Actuarial Science Movie Reviews
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Inspired by Chris Marker's acclaimed short film La Jetée, 12 Monkeys combines intricate, intelligent storytelling with the uniquely imaginative vision of director Terry Gilliam. The story opens in the wintry wasteland of the year 2035, where a virulent plague has forced humans to live in a squalid, oppressively regimented underground. Bruce Willis plays a societal outcast who is given the opportunity to erase his criminal record by "volunteering" to time-travel into the past to obtain a pure sample of the deadly virus that will help future scientists to develop a cure. But in bouncing from 1918 to the early and mid-1990s, he undergoes an ordeal that forces him to question his own perceptions of reality. Caught between the dangers of the past and the devastation of the future, he encounters a psychiatrist (Madeleine Stowe) who is initially convinced he's insane, and a wacky mental patient (Brad Pitt in a twitchy Oscar-nominated role) with links to a radical group that may have unleashed the deadly virus. Equal parts mystery, tragedy, psychological thriller, and apocalyptic drama, 12 Monkeys ranks as one of the best science fiction films of the '90s, boosted by Gilliam's visual ingenuity and one of the finest performances of Willis's career. --Jeff Shannon
The Thing (1982)
Director John Carpenter and special makeup effects master Rob Bottin teamed up for this 1982 remake of the 1951 science fiction classic The Thing from Another World, and the result is a mixed blessing. It's got moments of highly effective terror and spine-tingling suspense, but it's mostly a showcase for some of the goriest and most horrifically grotesque makeup effects ever created for a movie. With such highlights as a dog that splits open and blossoms into something indescribably gruesome, this is the kind of movie for die-hard horror fans and anyone who slows down to stare at fatal traffic accidents. On those terms, however, it's hard not to be impressed by the movie's wild and wacky freak show. It all begins when scientists at an arctic research station discover an alien spacecraft under the thick ice, and thaw out the alien body found aboard. What they don't know is that the alien can assume any human form, and before long the scientists can't tell who's real and who's a deadly alien threat. Kurt Russell leads the battle against the terrifying intruder, and the supporting cast includes Richard Masur, Richard Dysart, Donald Moffat, and Wilford Brimley. They're all playing standard characters who are neglected by the mechanistic screenplay (based on the classic sci-fi story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell), but Carpenter's emphasis is clearly on the gross-out effects and escalating tension. If you've got the stomach for it (and let's face it, there's a big audience for eerie gore), this is a thrill ride you won't want to miss. --Jeff Shannon
12 Monkeys 4 stars / Thing 2 stars
Mediocre
Orion's Key
Plant Monsters, Bee Girls, And A Lizard-Man!
"Jack-in" ... if you're "game" !Oshii Mamoru, the guy who gave us the innovative anime, "Ghost In The Shell: Koukaku Kidoutai," has translated that vision to a "live action" production, filmed entirely in Poland and in the Polish language.
The story revolves around an "illegal" Virtual Reality war game which attracts the disheartened and disfranchised young people in a drab, depressing, uninspiring 'monochrome' world.
The game, called "Avalon," offers its players a brief escape from the harsh realities of their world. (For some-- those who are particularly skilled and experienced at it --the game has also become a means to earning a living.)
But is it possible that there is another world 'beyond' the one they know and experience everyday-- a world 'within' Avalon --that is more desirable and more "real" than the one in which they exist? That is exactly what Kusanagi Motoko... uh... I mean "Ash" hopes to find out.
Motoko... umm... sorry... I meant "Ash" is a solo player who formerly belonged to a team of raiders which called itself "Wizard." Their team was the best of the best, considered 'invincible' amongst other players of the game, until something goes wrong during one of their VR campaigns which would later result in the group being disbanded and the decision of several of the former members to go solo.
Going solo exposed the player to greater and more difficult challenges, but the rewards reaped through greater experience points, etc., not only proved an attractive lure but also advanced the player closer to the game's ultimate goal much quicker. Motok... "Ash" decides to use her experience to advance through the levels until she reaches the point to where the former leader of "Wizard" became trapped in a permanent vegetative state. Oh, yeah... that's the part that got left out -- SOME of the players who advance through to the highest levels never 'snap out of it' ... a condition described as "unreturned." And Mot... "Ash" wants to know what her former teammate experienced there and what's keeping him there. But in order to do that she's going to need the help of someone she's been observing closely in the game ... the same 'someone' who has likewise been observing her very closely.
The film opens with a scene taken right out of "Ghost In The Shell," carries us through a landscape & mood similar to a cross between a 'Big Brotherless' "1984" and "The Thirteenth Floor" on Ritalin, culminating in an ending which will surely inspire yet another philosophical discussion about "real" and "virtual" existences.
No real or easy answers are given at the end of the film, and perhaps that's just as well. Sometimes maybe we do need to just take what's presented to us and write our own ending, as it were. I can just see the tag line already:
''AVALON''.... WE DISTORT, YOU DECIDE.
Frogs just want to have fun (and they do!)Roddy did a much better job in "They Live."
This is a combination of "John Goldfarb Please Come Home" and "Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1988)" ASIN: 6305078599
VERY GOOD TEAM
A five - if you're watching for Christopher Walken..........
Very Little Blood Here...
Noah's Ark Principle
Action, lots of action, violence and a taste for spiders. This is more intricate than the mindless "Die Hard" series. You have a solid plot and a rather good mystery. Add that to a little time travel and a deadly virus and you have a decent movie.
Bruce Willis is tasked to travel back from 2035 to today (1996) to brig back a pure strain of virus that was released into the world. The are the "what ifs" of time and if you look close you may see your self. He gets more than he bargained for and so do we (a movie that will hold your attention.)
The Thing
Yep we are confronted by a dog-splitting being from the great beyond. Being isolated we must evaluate track and kill this most obviously menacing ?Thing?. But what, who, and where is it?
In an attempt at graphic surprises we have sacrificed character and mood of the book ("Who Goes There" by John W. Campbell Jr.), and the original movie ("The Thing From Another World.}". Ah you say what if you do not compare? Still it is a sticky blob story that has no personality of its own.
This movie is fun to watch and say ?don?t look there? but it is far from extraordinary.