I like this music video because it doesn’t look like it cost much to make but, at the same time, it also communicates the idea that the world is on the verge of ending. This is the Ides of March, after all. If there’s ever been a day to appreciate apocalyptic art, this would be it.
Personally, I have my doubt as to whether or not Julius Caesar really appreciated art. Everything that I’ve read about him would seem to suggest that he was more into war and military history than into artistic representations of those same things. Cassius, however, probably had a god eye for art. He sounds like he was an intellectual. As for Brutus, I imagine that he always made sure to say that he liked everything that everyone else liked. Brutus was probably a lot like the character that Tatum O’Neal played in Basquiat.
Released in 2017, Cage Dive is the third installment in the Open Water franchise. Once again, a group of friends are floating out in the middle of the ocean. Once again, there are sharks. There’s interpersonal conflict. There’s death and chattering teeth and plenty of debate about who deserves the blame and whether or not it’s a good idea to try to swim after a passing boat. Again, it’s hard not to feel that the whole situation could have been avoided with just a little common sense.
However, there is one big difference. This time, the story is told through …. found footage!
That’s right! Not only are Jeff (Joel Hogan), his brother Josh (Josh Potthoff), and his girlfriend Megan (Megan Peta Hill) floating out in the middle of the ocean but Josh is determined to film the whole thing. “Turn off the camera!” Megan shouts. “Guys, we said we were going to film the whole thing!” Josh shouts back. Meanwhile, the sharks are amazed at just how easy their hunt has gotten lately.
Why is Josh filming? Josh is obsessed with getting on a reality show and he’s making an audition tape. In order to prove that the three of them are wild and fun enough to get on television, he comes up with the idea of flying to Australia and going on a cage dive. (A cage dive is when you get in an underwater cage and dare a bunch of sharks to eat you.) Unfortunately, a sudden tidal wave causes the boat to capsize and …. well, you can guess the rest.
Sharks aren’t the only problem that Jeff, Josh, and Megan have to deal with. First off, Jeff has a heart condition and he hasn’t been taking his medication. Secondly, Josh and Megan have been having an affair. How long can they float in the ocean before all the secrets come out?
Usually, I can’t stand found footage films and the first half of Open Water 3 features everything that drives me crazy about the genre. There’s way too many scenes of people saying, “Are you filming?” and “Are you getting this?” It’s hard not to notice that the camera somehow always seems to be in exactly the right location to catch Megan undressing or Jeff’s mother asking him if he’s remembered to take his medication. With the exception of one clever scene where Josh attempts to keep Jeff from seeing footage of Megan cheating on him, it all feels rather awkward and it seems like it takes forever to actually get them into the water….
However, once they actually get into the water, the film picks up. It’s not that Jeff, Josh, and Megan somehow become any more likable. However, director Gerald Rascionato makes good use of the shaky aesthetic of the found footage genre to keep us just as off-balance and confused as the people in the water. Like them, we find ourselves struggling to figure out where the sharks are coming from. The film ends with a nice homage to The Blair Witch Project, with the witch replaced by a shark. It works far better than you might expect.
Even the film’s biggest flaw becomes a strength. Yes, the three main characters may not be likable and they may not be very smart. From the minute you hear Josh telling Megan to be careful with a flare, you know that we’re eventually going to get an exploding life raft. But their stupidity is disturbingly relatable. I hope I’m never stranded at sea because I’d probably accidentally set off a flair as well. More importantly, you don’t really regret the fact that none of these people are probably going to survive. If anyone in the film was likable, Open Water 3 would be unbearably depressing. Since they’re not, you’re free to root for the sharks.
So, I just watched the latest trailer for Avengers: Endgame. Here are a few of my initial thoughts:
First off, people always make jokes about how, while Thor’s a God and Captain America is basically 100 years old but still looks like Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner pretty much only brings a bow and arrow to the fight. But you know what? I was really happy to see Renner return, even if he does have a questionable haircut. And I was even more happy to see that, after being underused in the previous Avengers film, it looks like Scarlett Johannson has got a decent role.
Plus, for at least some of the film, Scarlett’s a redhead again!
I loved the trailer’s use of black-and-white. It added a sense of tragic grandeur to the whole thing.
I’m still traumatized by the end of the Infinity Wars. Yeah, I know that everyone will probably be resurrected and that there’s no way they’d ever kill off Spider-Man for real but seriously, that was hella depressing! “Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good….” AGCK!
Captain Marvel shows up at the end and gets Thor’s seal of approval. One wonder if they waited to see this weekend’s box office numbers before deciding to include that scene at the end.
Speaking of which — where’s my review of Captain Marvel? I saw it earlier this week. I’ll be posting it soon.
It’s hard not to notice that Thanos wasn’t in this trailer. Of course, we did see him in the previous teaser.
Finally, I love the fact that Avengers: Endgame and Degrassi share the same tag line. “Whatever it takes!”
This is a song that really gets stuck in your head!
The song, of course, is about cars. Myself, I’ve always associated this song with Dazed and Confused. I’ve also always liked that line about the low rider getting a little higher because it’s such a 70s line. It’s like the parents think it’s about the car and the kids know it’s about the driver.
As for the video, my favorite part comes at the end:
The 2006 film, Open Water 2: Adrift, is a film about a group of people who are literally too stupid to live.
Now, that may sound like a harsh judgment but just consider what this film is about. A group of shallow friends get together for a birthday party on a yacht. They head out to the middle of the ocean. One-by-one, they all get into the water. One of the friends has been terrified of the water ever since her father drowned in front of her. She doesn’t want to get in the water so, of course, the owner of the boat picks her up and jumps overboard with her. With the exception of a sleeping infant, everyone is now in the water.
Oh! And guess what!
It didn’t occur to anyone to lower the ladder before getting in the ocean. That means there’s no way to get back on the boat! And now, everyone’s stuck in the water where they’ll presumably eventually die of either hypothermia or just general stupidity. They’ll also end up yelling at each other and arguing about whose fault it is. They’ll all discuss issues of wealth, religion, and envy. There’s nothing like a weighty theological discussion being conducted by a bunch of idiots floating in the ocean.
Of course, they do make a few attempts to get back on the boat. One guy tries to use a knife to climb back up the side of the boat but he just ends up getting stabbed instead. An attempt to grab hold of an American flag just leads to desecrated symbol of patriotism. One girl decides to pray, just to be reprimanded by the group atheist. At one point, everyone takes off their swimsuits and they attempt to tie them into a makeshift rope. It doesn’t work but now everyone’s naked. This movie knows what it’s doing.
We get a lot of shots of people floating listlessly in the ocean. In order to pad out the run time, there’s a lot of pointless slow motion. Amy (Susan May Pratt), the hydrophobe, has a flashback to her father’s death and it’s amazing how little sympathy the film manages to generate for someone who watched helplessly while a parent drowned. Because Amy’s supposed to be scared of the water, she spends most of the movie floating around with this dumbass look on her face. I’m a hydrophobe too. If I found myself in this situation, I’d probably scream until I exhausted myself and drowned. But I wouldn’t float around with this stupid beatific look on my face.
This film was sold as being a sequel to Open Water, though it actually went into production before Open Water was released. After Open Water was a surprise box office success, the film’s title was changed from Adrift to Open Water 2: Adrift. There are obvious similarities between the two films but the major difference is that the couple in Open Water ended up stranded through no fault of their own. On the other hand, the folks in Open Water 2 were just too dumb to lower a ladder.
Open Water was effective but depressing. Open Water 2 is just kind of stupid.
So, who wants to spend 80 minutes watching two people slowly die?
That’s the question that’s posed by the 2003 film, Open Water. Apparently, quite a few people had a positive response to that question because Open Water, which was made for about $120,000, went on to gross over 55 million dollars. It also inspired two sequels and it continues to be something of a mainstay on the SyFy channel, where it usually airs during Shark Week.
I have to admit that, largely because I have a huge phobia about drowning, I didn’t see Open Water until three years after it was initially released. I watched it with my cousin Paulie. At the end of the film, he exclaimed, “Oh, nice fucking movie, Lisa Marie!,” and I understand where he was coming from. There’s not much hope or positivity to be found in Open Water. It’s not a happy film. Instead, it’s a movie about a couple who end up getting stranded in the middle of the ocean. Eventually, one of them gets eaten by sharks while the other one drowns.
That may sound like a spoiler but really, it’s not. From the minute we first see Daniel (Daniel Travis) and Susan (Blanchard Ryan), we know there’s no way they’re getting out of the movie alive. They’re both so happy about taking a vacation and finally getting to spend some quality time together that it’s obvious that there’s no way things aren’t going to end in tragedy. Their vacation takes them to the Caribbean, where they hope to go scuba diving. Unfortunately, their scuba diving group leaves without realizing that Daniel and Susan are still underwater. When the two of them resurface, they discover that they’re stranded out in the middle of the ocean.
At first, they assume that someone will notice them missing and come back to rescue them. They make jokes about how this is a story that they’ll be able to tell for the rest of their lives. They laugh. They joke. They briefly argue. Daniel gets frustrated and spends a while screaming with splashing water. Eventually, the jelly fish arrive and they both get stung. Then. the sharks show up….
It’s all very dark and depressing and the film certainly did not help me with my fear of swimming. Imagine Jaws if the whole film was just an hour and a half of Chrissie Watkins getting eaten by the Great White and you kind of have an idea of what Open Water was like. As a result of the film’s low-budget, Open Water has an effectively rough, documentary-like feel to it. Daniel Travis and Blanchard Ryan seem like any ordinary couple that you might run into while on vacation. They’re easy enough to relate to that you certainly don’t want to see them die.
Unfortunately, after Daniel and Susan get stranded out in the ocean, the film gets stranded along with them. At that point, all you can do is watch as they two of them get eaten by undersea life. It gets a bit tedious. One imagines that Werner Herzog could probably make this material compelling and, whenever I watch Open Water, I like to imagine the sound of Herzog saying, “I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility, and murder.” However, as it is, Open Water is one of those well-made films that leave you with no desire to ever watch it again.
Sorry, everyone! I’m running a bit behind today (or is it tonight? Daylight Savings Time makes everything confusing!) so I don’t really have much prepared to say about this video, beyond the fact that I like it and I like the song. That I like both shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. In general, I like anything that involves Daft Punk.
Since it’s currently Spring Break, I figured that I would spend the next two weeks reviewing films about people on vacation. Some of the films will be about good vacations. Some of the films will be about bad vacations. But, in the end, they’ll all be about celebrating those moments that make us yearn for the chance to get away from it all.
Take Midnight Express, for instance. This 1978 film (which was nominated for six Oscars and won two) tells the story of what happens when a carefree college student named Billy Hayes decides to spend his holiday in Turkey.
When the film begins, Billy Hayes (played by Brad Davis), is at an airport in Turkey. He’s preparing to return home to the United States. His girlfriend, Susan (Irene Miracle), informs him that Janis Joplin has just died. When Billy responds by making a joke, Susan accuses him of not taking anything seriously. What Susan doesn’t realize is that Billy actually has a lot on his mind. For one thing, he’s got several bricks of hashish taped around his waist. He purchased it from a cab driver and he’s planning on selling it to his friends back in the United States. Unfortunately, Billy’s not quite as clever as he thinks he is. Because of recent terrorist bombings, the Turkish police are searching everyone before they board their plane. Billy finds himself standing out in the middle of the runway with his hands up in the air, surrounded by gun-wielding Turkish policemen.
Billy finds himself stranded in a country that he doesn’t understand, being interrogated by men whose language he cannot speak. An enigmatic American (Bo Hopkins) shows up and assures Billy that he’ll be safe, as long as he identifies the taxi driver who sold him to the drugs. Billy does so but then makes the mistake of trying to flee from the police. In the end, it’s the American who captures him and, holding a gun to Billy’s head, tells him not to make another move.
Soon, Billy is an inmate at Sağmalcılar Prison. He’s beaten when he first arrives and it’s only days later that he’s able to walk and think clearly. He befriends some of the other prisoners, including a heroin addict named Max (John Hurt) and an idiot named Jimmy (Randy Quaid). Billy watches as the prisoners are tortured by the fearsome head guard (Paul L. Smith) and listens to the screams of inmates being raped behind closed doors. After being told that his original four-year sentence has been lengthened to a 30-year sentence, Billy starts to degenerate. When Susan visits, Billy end up pathetically masturbating in front of her. When another prisoner taunts Billy, Billy bites out the man’s tongue, an act that we see in both close up and slow motion. If Billy has any hope of regaining his humanity, he has to escape. He has to catch what Jimmy calls the “midnight express…..”
Midnight Express is a brutal and rather crude film. Though it may have been directed by a mainstream director (Alan Parker) and written by a future Oscar-winner (Oliver Stone), Midnight Express is a pure grindhouse film at heart. There’s not a subtle moment to be found in the film. The camera lingers over every act of sadism while Giorgio Moroder’s synth-based score pulsates in the background. When Billy grows more and more feral and brutal in his behavior, it’s hard not to be reminded of Lon Chaney, Jr. turning into The Wolf Man. The film may be incredibly heavy-handed but it’s nightmarishly effective, playing out with the intensity of a fever dream.
As for the cast, Brad Davis wasn’t particularly likable or sympathetic as Billy. On the one hand, he’s a victim of an unjust system, betrayed by his own country and tortured by another. On the other hand, Billy was an idiot who apparently thought no one would notice all that hash wrapped around his chest. That said, Davis’s unlikable screen presence actually worked to the film’s advantage. If you actually liked Billy, the film would be unbearable to watch. Before Davis was cast, Dennis Quaid and Mark Hamill were both considered for the role. If either of those actors has been cast, Midnight Express would be too intense and disturbing to watch. For instance, it would be depressing to watch Dennis Quaid rip a man’s tongue out of his mouth. You would be like, “No, Mr. Quaid, you’ll never recover your humanity!” But when Brad Davis does it, you’re just like, “Eh. It was bound to happen sometime.”
For more effective are John Hurt and Bo Hopkins. Hurt and Hopkins both have small roles but they both make a big impression, if just because they’re the only two characters in the film who aren’t either yelling or crying all of the time. While everyone else is constantly cursing their imprisonment, Hurt is quietly sardonic. As for Hopkins, we’re supposed to dislike him because he’s with the CIA and he sold out Billy. But honestly, no one made Billy tape all that hash to his chest. Finally, you’ve got Randy Quaid and Paul L. Smith, who both glower their way through the film. Smith is wonderfully evil while Randy Quaid is …. well, he’s Randy Quaid, the loudest American in Turkey.
Midnight Express was such a success at the box office that it caused an international incident. There’s not a single positive Turkish character to be found in the entire film and it’s impossible not to feel that the film is not only condemning Turkey’s drug policies but that it’s also condemning the entire country as well. The Turkish prisoners are portrayed as being just as bad as the guards and even Billy’s defense attorney comes across as being greedy and untrustworthy. Watching the film today can be an awkward experience. It’s undeniably effective but it’s impossible not to cringe at the way anyone who isn’t from the west is portrayed. In recent years, everyone from director Alan Parker to screenwriter Oliver Stone to the real-life Billy Hayes has apologized for the way that the Turkish people were portrayed in the film.
Despite the controversy, Midnight Express was a huge box office success and it was nominated for best picture. It lost to another controversial film about people imprisoned in Asia, The Deer Hunter.
Unfortunately, the official video for this song keeps getting yanked off of YouTube. I assume that’s due to the fact that the video features like 4 seconds of nudity and God knows, we can’t have that on the internet.
Anyway, since that video keeps getting yanked, here’s another video of Jake Bugg performing There’s A Beast and We All Feed It. This performance comes from the 2014 Reading Festival and it features Jake at his best. As for the song …. well, it’s an attack on all of us. And you know what? We probably deserve it.
