Gas Detection Movie Reviews

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Family movie reviews for "Gas Detection" sorted by average review score:
Gas Food Lodging
Released in DVD by Columbia Tri-Star (23 September, 2003)
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Director: Allison Anders
Starring: Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, and Fairuza Balk
American independent director Allison Anders made her name with this keenly observed tale of a single mother and her two daughters stuck in the truck-stop town of Laramie, New Mexico, barely a fly speck on the never-ending desert horizon. Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk star as sisters Trudi and Shade, who couldn't be more different. Trudi rebels against her mother and her soul-numbing life through sex and develops a reputation among the boys for being easy. Shade is the "good girl" who escapes through the overripe Mexican melodramas in the town's largely vacant theater. Brooke Adams, a loving mother hardened by rejection and a demanding job as a truck-stop waitress, tries to hide her loneliness and disappointment and set Trudi on a better path, but as with so many relationships in this film, conflict brings out the worst in them. Anders, a single mother herself, drew on her own experiences to enrich her adaptation of Richard Peck's novel Don't Look and It Won't Hurt, and she brings a haggard understanding to the strained relations between mother and daughter and the bleak desolation to the lives of three women trapped by circumstance, economics, and landscape, but she also reaches deep into the characters to expose their yearnings and steel their resolve. No knight in shining armor for these women, but Anders allows them to make their way through the emotional landscape with pluck and determination. --Sean Axmaker
Average review score:

I'm glad I was dragged into this "chick-flick".
Normally, I have to be tied to a chair to watch this sort of movie. But my girlfriend at the time made me watch it and it really got to me.

Unlike the sappy drivel you find Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts starring in, this movie is very depressing (in a good way) and painfully realistic. There is no hunky guy to sweep the heroine off her feet at the end. These girls and their mother have a hard time throughout and the bleak landscape of New Mexico only adds to the sadness. Bergman would have a hard time making such a melancholy film. The best man AVAILABLE (at the end, you'll know why I emphasized that word) in the movie is a nerdy satellite TV installer. The others are deadbeats, drunks, lechers. When Shade finds a boyfriend from the other side of the tracks, you can't blame her since the boys and men from her part of town are such lowlifes.

The language and emotions in this movie are VERY raw and no punches are pulled.

A few scenes stand out from all the sadness. When Shade (Fairuza Balk) is with her new boyfriend, it seems so sweet and innocent. First love is usually the cruelest, but this time it's the one really good thing to happen. The mother's courtship by the satellite guy is also a break from the bleak scenery.

Most of all, it's two scenes with Trudi (Ione Skye) that stand out. In one there is no dialogue, just the sound of a guitar being strummed. Trudi is waiting and longing for her boyfriend to come back for her. She is holding a fluorescent rock he gave her. Her face is lit by the afternoon sun as a train passes by in the background. This scene is a reflection of love and anticipation, since she is obviously thinking of him. However, it is also sad because you get the feeling he may never come back.

The other scene takes place in a cave lined with fluorescent rocks. Trudi and her geologist boyfriend drive out to look for some sort of rare rock. In the cave the two grow closer and in an almost psychedelic sequence, Trudi bares her breasts in a way that "offers" them to her lover. He seems hesitant at first but then makes love to her. The scene is primeval, almost Adam and Eve-like, as though they are the first man and woman on Earth. It is also very erotic! Ione Skye never looked more beautiful and the weird bluish light reflected in her face and on her breasts from the cave wall is hauntingly beautiful and dreamlike. Afterward, she tells him a painful personal secret. It's amazing how many emotions are conveyed in such a short scene.

So much of the movie reflects sorrow, regret, longing and anger that these scenes stand out all the more.

Allison Anders is a true artist.

Watch both the widescreen and pan-and-scan versions.
There is quite a bit of artistry here for such a low-budget film. Both the widescreen and pan-and-scan versions have their faults as well as their good points.

The widescreen version shows much more of the brilliant cinematography. The dreary desert, the railroad station, even the trailer park really come alive here. On the other hand, during the famous sex scene in the acid-trip cavern, the picture is cropped right above Ione Skye's breasts, whereas in the pan-and-scan, there is a full view.

This has led me to wonder if this is a "false" widescreen -i.e., the film was shot with standard, @16:9 cameras and cropped to make it look widescreen even if it never was, as Disney did with Peter Pan. It would be nice if standardized and accurate information about aspect ratio was printed clearly on all DVDs.

By the way, the MOVIE is one of the best tearjerkers I've ever seen. The performances are perfect, as is the script. The picture is beautiful. Of course if I actually had to live in a desert trailer park, I don't think I'd be so impressed with the scenery.

My Fav movie
I am so excited this is coming on DVD!!This has been one of my fav movies for years. I have seen it like a 100 times. I remember stumbling on this video when I was 17 and thought independent movies were the best. This movie dealt with real life teenage issues, unlike the new teenage wave of movies. Ione Skye is so good in this film, as well as Faruza Bulk. They face the hidden pain, of not having a father, in their own ways. One acts out for attention of boys, and the other searches for a mate for their mother while on the sly looking for their real father.
Allison Anders is such a unique filmaker, I thank her for making this film. People think its a little depressing but I think it's the opposite. The mother may always look bleak but she is a struggling single mother, how is she suppose to look? I think its refreshing and very familiar to many young people with dreams. Like Shade she loves Spanish movies and dreams of so many things. I think most people can relate to her when they were that age.

Attack the Gas Station
Released in DVD by Tai Seng Entertainme (25 June, 2002)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Director: Sang-Jin Kim
Average review score:

Don't get the Region 1 version!
I think that Attack the Gas Station is one of the greatest Korean films ever made. However, the Region 1 (American) DVD version released by Tai-Seng is terrible! The sound and video quality is absolutely dismal. The DVD seems to be a widescreen version but it is a pan and scan version with the top and bottom cut off! There are no extras and the worst part about the film is that it doesn't even include the original Korean audio track! You can only listen to the film dubbed in Mandarin or Cantonese. Tai-seng's releases generally range from awful to mediocre at best and this DVD doesn't do anything to change that.

Kinetic energy with brains!
Wacked hard-fisted action with chunks of laughs as four Korean youths take over a gas station holding the manager and his staff hostage, then give customers more gas than they ask for and take the money for it. Things escalate when the four guys don't pay for a whole lot of Chinese food they order, and when they beat up some low-level gang flunkies of a local mob.

What raises this very far above a dupey film is the ultra-smart script. The four guys' pasts are revealed; each has had great disappointment in his past resulting in his current urge to rant and destroy. Music, self-esteem, and parents are the causes.

The ending sequence of mobsters, delivery boys, the youths, the gas station staff, and the cops all converging has to be seen to be believed. Along the way there is enough humor to keep things moving fast and furious. It's great that this film is very far off from taking itself seriously like most dumb American action movies do. This is a superior action film for those who love fast-moving flicks that give you a one-two punch where it counts--in whatever connects your head to your adrenalin and also your laugh muscles.

Way cool.

One of the most amazing action-comedies I have ever seen.
I initially saw this film as an import DVD and I have to say that it is one of the coolest films I have ever seen. The film alone really shows that Korea has taken over the role Hong Kong used to have for making the best comedy and action films in Asia. The film is about four Korean punks that hold up a gas station for kicks. Finding out that there is no cash, the four decide to hold the employees hostage and take their places, pumping gas and then pocketing the money (as gas is expensive in Asia). If anyone gives them a problem, they are taken hostage as well. By the end of the film, the four punks have taken over ten hostages and are about to get into a giant rumble with local gangsters, the police and the delivery boys union (as they ordered chinese food and never pay for it). The film has great characters, great music, and a hillarious and unpredictable plot. A truly crazy and entertaining film.

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