"The Car" is a 1977 horror/thriller film, playing on the myth of "the devils rider", which has popped up before in various forms of storytelling since the middle ages.
Set in a backwater town named "Santa Ynez" in Utah, the films plot revolves around the sudden appearance of a mysterious black car which kills several people by running them over.
Local policeman Captain Wade Parent ( James Brolin ) tries to solve the mystery, which at first the police put down to the work of a maniac, however as the film pans out, it turns out to be a much more sinister threat than a simple psycho murderer. The film also stars a very young looking Ronny Cox as a bible thumping deputy who struggles with alcoholism, as well as a whole host of other people who I've never heard of.
The film itself was poorly received by critics on first release, citing bad acting, poor scripting and dodgy effects (even though there arent many effects on show in this film, and even then the quality of them isnt bad compared to some films of the time with much larger budgets ).
Over time though, this film has gathered a bit of a cult following, and I have yet to see many examples of other films like it, save for the awful "Maximum Overdrive", which is a shame really because its a really good basic idea for a storyline.
On a side note, the Car featured in the film was a prop created especially for this film by famed Hollywood car mod guru George Barris, and when you first see it it really does look menacing, although the film uses the old 50's B movie cliche of keeping the audience from seeing the bad guy/monster in full until half way through the story.
Nonetheless, despite its original critics moaning about crap acting and campiness, "The Car" is a pretty good no brainer watch, although I'd hardly refer to it as a "horror" film now, but still its a good way of spending 90 minutes watching some good, old fashioned honest entertainment without any hidden subtexts etc.
I give it 3 skid marks out of 5
Showing posts with label satan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label satan. Show all posts
Thursday, 26 December 2013
Thursday, 18 July 2013
God Only Knows!:- The "Left Behind" Trilogy (2000 - 2005)
Why am I sullying my eyes with this??....*sighs*...oh well, lets get on with it....
The Left Behind trilogy of films is a series of Christian action movies (yes, you read that right....whoda thunk it?, mind you, at least it makes a change from the usual "supernatural horror" fayre), based on the first two of the bestselling (seriously) series of books written by evangelical christian authors Tim Lalley and Jerry Jenkins (theres 16 books in all, written betwixt 1995 and 2007, guess there must be a big demand for this sort of thing).
Made by Canadian production company "Cloud 10 Productions", a film company specialising in christian movies, the first film enjoyed a cinematic release, although the sequels only managed direct to DVD releases.
The films were all given scathing reviews on their release, described in such terms as "a shambling mess" and "..being full of ridiculous dialogue and hammy acting" and "bargain basement special effects", they even attracted criticism from Christians, as the films, as well as the books they are based on, lean towards anti Catholicism, xenophobia and in some cases, outright racism due to them being presented from the viewpoint that all other religions and alldenominations of Christianity apart from protestant dispensationalist evangelism are inherently evil.
There was also widespread condemnation of the films due to their staunchly US/Israel centric political message, as well as pandering to "illuminati-esque/New World Order" conspiracy theorists.
Evangelical christian apologist Kirk Cameron stars as Cameron "Buck" Williams, an intrepid reporter who earned the nickname "Buck" due to his tendency to "buck the conventions" of reporters keeping themselves out of harms way. Over the course of the films, Buck goes from being agnostic/atheist to becoming a born again christian after witnessing the "rapture" event and the beginning of the "tribulation". He later becomes a founding member of the "Tribulation Force", a group of christian preachers determined to convert as many people to christianity in order for their souls to be allowed into heaven after the final battle between Jesus and the antichrist.
Plot Synopsies:
Left Behind: The Movie (2000)
"Buck" Cameron is filming a story in Israel when a ridiculously massive ground and air attack force launches an all out attack on Jerusalem from across the Syrian border. As he rushes out into the maelstrom with his camera to film a live report, all the attacking enemy aircraft begin exploding and falling from the sky, despite the Israeli defence forces being completely taken by surprise and unable to make any kind of counter attack.
Later, as he flies to London, the Rapture event takes place and one third of the earths adult population (mostly nice, white protestant christians by the way) and all of the worlds children simply vanish, causing much concern and calamity worldwide.
In the Chaos, a Romainian politician, Nicolae Carpathia (oh yeah cos like thats not a reference to Dracula right?) is elected to the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations, and, building on his previous efforts to unite Europe under one flag, he proceeds to do the same with the rest of the world.
Meanwhile, Buck has learned of a secret multi national plan to rebuild the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, the completion of which would mark the second coming of Jesus, because as it turns out, everything that has happened thus far is in fact a sign of the end times, as foretold in the bible.
Upon learning this, and learning that Mr. Carpathia is in fact the antichrist, who has come to bring about seven years of tribulation upon those not deemed worthy of entry to heaven, Buck becomes a born again christian, and alongside his love interest and a few other people, including a formerly faithless preacher, forms the "Tribulation Force", A group of militant evangelical preachers who are determined to save those who were not deemed worthy to enter heaven by God during the rapture by converting them to christianity.
Left Behind 2: Tribulation Force (2002)
One week has passed since the rapture event, and the world has descended into chaos.
Most of the US is under martial law due to wide scale rioting and looting, and the suicide rate has increased dramatically.
Over the course of this film, Buck manages to infiltrate the antichrists organisation using his position as a well respected journalist to work his way into Carpathias confidence, where he learns more about his plans for world domination.
The "Trib Force" works in secret to promote christian worship amongst the remaining peoples of earth by distributing bibles and giving sermons telling the truth about Carpathia, their cause is given a boost through the assistance of a Jewish holy man named Ben-Judah.
The film climaxes with both Carpathia and Ben-Judah giving sermons to the world at Temple mount in Israel, however as Carpathia tries to interfere with Ben-Judahs sermon, Buck stops him by damaging his jamming equipment.
Left Behind 3: World at War (2005)
18 months have passed since Ben-Judahs sermon on the mount, and Carpathia has consolidated his power and created the "Global Community" as a successor to the United Nations, with himself as "Supreme Potentate".
The Trib force has continued working in secret to oppose his rule, but they are powerless to prevent the start of world war 3, which had been engineered by the Antichrist in order to cleanse the world of any remaining threats to his power.
To try and put a stop to this, the Trib force attempts to assassinate Nicolae Carpathia, however his position as Antichrist prevents any of their attempts to kill him from succeeding.
The film ends with the GC building lying in ruins, and Carpathia walking away from it completely unharmed.
As "Action films", the Left Behind trilogy is pretty bad, mostly hampered by low budget effects, but as films in general, the whole trilogy is an unholy triumvirate of horrible acting, plot holes, convenient events and many, many cringe worthy scenes, mostly involving peoples conversions to christianity, especially Bucks conversion, which takes place in a toilet as he sits on the floor sobbing and begins begging for divine guidance, which he gets simply by looking in a mirror.
I cant say i recommend these films in any way, shape or form, and thats not me talking as an atheist, thats me talking as someone who likes to actually be entertained by media, as opposed to actually feeling physical pain induced by having faeces forcefully rammed into my eyes and ears.
The worst thing about these films is that quite literally the entire plot development simply revolves around random events that the main protagonists react to, and then credit it to God in their self righteous smug manner.
You can also tell that Kirk Cameron felt a lot more comfortable in his role after his characters toilet conversion, as it allowed him to extrude his normal air of smugness like what he usually does whenever he and his chum Ray comfort appear on TV together to preach the good word and make bizarre and highly dubious claims about bananas.
I must say though, that actor Gordon Currie's portrayal of the Antichrist is a real pleasure to watch, as he makes the character really feel like the supremely evil Machiavellian villain that he is supposed to be , albeit one with supernatural powers.
All in all, the Left Behind movies feel like little more than a series of low budget TV movies, if you're a bit of a masochist you could watch them, but don't be expecting to get much by way of enjoyment out of them.
I give them 3 out of 10 sacrificial lambs.
The Left Behind trilogy of films is a series of Christian action movies (yes, you read that right....whoda thunk it?, mind you, at least it makes a change from the usual "supernatural horror" fayre), based on the first two of the bestselling (seriously) series of books written by evangelical christian authors Tim Lalley and Jerry Jenkins (theres 16 books in all, written betwixt 1995 and 2007, guess there must be a big demand for this sort of thing).
Made by Canadian production company "Cloud 10 Productions", a film company specialising in christian movies, the first film enjoyed a cinematic release, although the sequels only managed direct to DVD releases.
The films were all given scathing reviews on their release, described in such terms as "a shambling mess" and "..being full of ridiculous dialogue and hammy acting" and "bargain basement special effects", they even attracted criticism from Christians, as the films, as well as the books they are based on, lean towards anti Catholicism, xenophobia and in some cases, outright racism due to them being presented from the viewpoint that all other religions and alldenominations of Christianity apart from protestant dispensationalist evangelism are inherently evil.
There was also widespread condemnation of the films due to their staunchly US/Israel centric political message, as well as pandering to "illuminati-esque/New World Order" conspiracy theorists.
Evangelical christian apologist Kirk Cameron stars as Cameron "Buck" Williams, an intrepid reporter who earned the nickname "Buck" due to his tendency to "buck the conventions" of reporters keeping themselves out of harms way. Over the course of the films, Buck goes from being agnostic/atheist to becoming a born again christian after witnessing the "rapture" event and the beginning of the "tribulation". He later becomes a founding member of the "Tribulation Force", a group of christian preachers determined to convert as many people to christianity in order for their souls to be allowed into heaven after the final battle between Jesus and the antichrist.
Plot Synopsies:
Left Behind: The Movie (2000)
"Buck" Cameron is filming a story in Israel when a ridiculously massive ground and air attack force launches an all out attack on Jerusalem from across the Syrian border. As he rushes out into the maelstrom with his camera to film a live report, all the attacking enemy aircraft begin exploding and falling from the sky, despite the Israeli defence forces being completely taken by surprise and unable to make any kind of counter attack.
Later, as he flies to London, the Rapture event takes place and one third of the earths adult population (mostly nice, white protestant christians by the way) and all of the worlds children simply vanish, causing much concern and calamity worldwide.
In the Chaos, a Romainian politician, Nicolae Carpathia (oh yeah cos like thats not a reference to Dracula right?) is elected to the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations, and, building on his previous efforts to unite Europe under one flag, he proceeds to do the same with the rest of the world.
Meanwhile, Buck has learned of a secret multi national plan to rebuild the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, the completion of which would mark the second coming of Jesus, because as it turns out, everything that has happened thus far is in fact a sign of the end times, as foretold in the bible.
Upon learning this, and learning that Mr. Carpathia is in fact the antichrist, who has come to bring about seven years of tribulation upon those not deemed worthy of entry to heaven, Buck becomes a born again christian, and alongside his love interest and a few other people, including a formerly faithless preacher, forms the "Tribulation Force", A group of militant evangelical preachers who are determined to save those who were not deemed worthy to enter heaven by God during the rapture by converting them to christianity.
Left Behind 2: Tribulation Force (2002)
One week has passed since the rapture event, and the world has descended into chaos.
Most of the US is under martial law due to wide scale rioting and looting, and the suicide rate has increased dramatically.
Over the course of this film, Buck manages to infiltrate the antichrists organisation using his position as a well respected journalist to work his way into Carpathias confidence, where he learns more about his plans for world domination.
The "Trib Force" works in secret to promote christian worship amongst the remaining peoples of earth by distributing bibles and giving sermons telling the truth about Carpathia, their cause is given a boost through the assistance of a Jewish holy man named Ben-Judah.
The film climaxes with both Carpathia and Ben-Judah giving sermons to the world at Temple mount in Israel, however as Carpathia tries to interfere with Ben-Judahs sermon, Buck stops him by damaging his jamming equipment.
Left Behind 3: World at War (2005)
18 months have passed since Ben-Judahs sermon on the mount, and Carpathia has consolidated his power and created the "Global Community" as a successor to the United Nations, with himself as "Supreme Potentate".
The Trib force has continued working in secret to oppose his rule, but they are powerless to prevent the start of world war 3, which had been engineered by the Antichrist in order to cleanse the world of any remaining threats to his power.
To try and put a stop to this, the Trib force attempts to assassinate Nicolae Carpathia, however his position as Antichrist prevents any of their attempts to kill him from succeeding.
The film ends with the GC building lying in ruins, and Carpathia walking away from it completely unharmed.
As "Action films", the Left Behind trilogy is pretty bad, mostly hampered by low budget effects, but as films in general, the whole trilogy is an unholy triumvirate of horrible acting, plot holes, convenient events and many, many cringe worthy scenes, mostly involving peoples conversions to christianity, especially Bucks conversion, which takes place in a toilet as he sits on the floor sobbing and begins begging for divine guidance, which he gets simply by looking in a mirror.
I cant say i recommend these films in any way, shape or form, and thats not me talking as an atheist, thats me talking as someone who likes to actually be entertained by media, as opposed to actually feeling physical pain induced by having faeces forcefully rammed into my eyes and ears.
The worst thing about these films is that quite literally the entire plot development simply revolves around random events that the main protagonists react to, and then credit it to God in their self righteous smug manner.
You can also tell that Kirk Cameron felt a lot more comfortable in his role after his characters toilet conversion, as it allowed him to extrude his normal air of smugness like what he usually does whenever he and his chum Ray comfort appear on TV together to preach the good word and make bizarre and highly dubious claims about bananas.
I must say though, that actor Gordon Currie's portrayal of the Antichrist is a real pleasure to watch, as he makes the character really feel like the supremely evil Machiavellian villain that he is supposed to be , albeit one with supernatural powers.
All in all, the Left Behind movies feel like little more than a series of low budget TV movies, if you're a bit of a masochist you could watch them, but don't be expecting to get much by way of enjoyment out of them.
I give them 3 out of 10 sacrificial lambs.
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
God Only Knows!:- Constantine (2005)
Constantine is a 2005 supernatural horror flick based on the popular DC/Vertigo comic "Hellblazer".
Centred around the exploits of the demon hunter/exorcist John Constantine, the film tells the story of a plot by supernatural beings to bring about the end of the world or something along those lines (the story itself is actually based on a few different story arcs from the comic which have been amalgamated together to form a new but similar plot line).
Keanu Reeves, still basking in his post Matrix glory, stars as Constantine himself, bringing to the role his usual wooden performance style which oddly enough seems to fit this role somewhat well, being as that Constantine is a bit standoffish with anyone he meets and always operates according to his own agenda.
Shia LeBeouf provides some sidekick action in the form of Chas Kramer, and once again old Shia manages to play him in the exact same way he has played every other character he has ever been cast as, namely as a goofy pseudo-teenager with a bag full of wisecracks and over the top over reactions to things (but hey,the kids can relate to that!- KER-CHING!).
Tilda Swinton does her usual aloof performance in the role of Gabriel, an androgynous half demon/angel whose only real role in the plot is to basically be a complete asshole (and show the world her hideous bunions).
Rachel Weisz manages to cram in TWO roles in this film, firstly as Isabella, a devout catholic woman incarcerated in a mental hospital because she hears voices and sees things (SPOILER - she dies right at the beginning) and secondly as Angela, Isabelles twin sister and a hard nosed bible thumping cop who eventually ends up being both a love interest (That ones for the girls, cos you gots to make it a date movie) and a third leg in Constantines attempts to destroy all evil.
Yeah, its not sounding good thus far is it?, well, oddly enough, I do actually like this film, mainly because the story is quite entertaining once you get into it. There are other characters in the film, including a memorable and brilliantly acted appearance by Peter Stromare as Satan, but other than that all the secondary characters end up falling straight into the category of "exposition generators" or "cannon fodder" (mostly cannon fodder).
The plot itself is the usual "Good v Evil" type affair, but given the modern slant in which none of the characters fit into the usual "hero" or "villain" archetypes because as we all know, everyone has feels and wants to be hugged/get on better with their parents/wants to get laid etc...
Constantine spends the entire film trying to unravel a plot by a mysterious supernatural being who intends to bring about hell on earth by breaking "the rules" (an agreement set up between God and Satan which expressly forbid supernatural beings from direct interference in human affairs, you know, because he works in mysterious ways and all that shit) and directly influencing events which will lead to a doorway to hell being opened allowing the demon armies of hell to pour forth on to the earth and do horrid things to humans and so on.
Curiously enough, although Satan gets off his rotund red backside and makes an appearance in the plot, the almighty himself phones his contribution in (our God is an awesome God!...*sigh*, although apologists would probably say that as God is perfect, he refuses to break the rules of engagement, the theocractical arguments against that pertaining to this work of celluloid fiction are a discussion for another time).
So to sum up, Constantine is not very good on the first watch, as the intertwining plot lines can make for some difficulty in enjoyment, however on subsequent watches the film starts to grow on you, and not in a bad way because at heart is is nothing more than a simple but enjoyable enough action film with some religious elements thrown in to make the story more interesting and relatable.
One thing i will note of this film though, and this also applies to most films with religious overtones that are set in the modern age, is that they all seem to assume that Catholicism is the only interpretation of Christianity worth a damn...jus sayin' :)
I give it 7 out of 10 sacrificial lambs.
Centred around the exploits of the demon hunter/exorcist John Constantine, the film tells the story of a plot by supernatural beings to bring about the end of the world or something along those lines (the story itself is actually based on a few different story arcs from the comic which have been amalgamated together to form a new but similar plot line).
Keanu Reeves, still basking in his post Matrix glory, stars as Constantine himself, bringing to the role his usual wooden performance style which oddly enough seems to fit this role somewhat well, being as that Constantine is a bit standoffish with anyone he meets and always operates according to his own agenda.
Shia LeBeouf provides some sidekick action in the form of Chas Kramer, and once again old Shia manages to play him in the exact same way he has played every other character he has ever been cast as, namely as a goofy pseudo-teenager with a bag full of wisecracks and over the top over reactions to things (but hey,the kids can relate to that!- KER-CHING!).
Tilda Swinton does her usual aloof performance in the role of Gabriel, an androgynous half demon/angel whose only real role in the plot is to basically be a complete asshole (and show the world her hideous bunions).
Rachel Weisz manages to cram in TWO roles in this film, firstly as Isabella, a devout catholic woman incarcerated in a mental hospital because she hears voices and sees things (SPOILER - she dies right at the beginning) and secondly as Angela, Isabelles twin sister and a hard nosed bible thumping cop who eventually ends up being both a love interest (That ones for the girls, cos you gots to make it a date movie) and a third leg in Constantines attempts to destroy all evil.
Yeah, its not sounding good thus far is it?, well, oddly enough, I do actually like this film, mainly because the story is quite entertaining once you get into it. There are other characters in the film, including a memorable and brilliantly acted appearance by Peter Stromare as Satan, but other than that all the secondary characters end up falling straight into the category of "exposition generators" or "cannon fodder" (mostly cannon fodder).
The plot itself is the usual "Good v Evil" type affair, but given the modern slant in which none of the characters fit into the usual "hero" or "villain" archetypes because as we all know, everyone has feels and wants to be hugged/get on better with their parents/wants to get laid etc...
Constantine spends the entire film trying to unravel a plot by a mysterious supernatural being who intends to bring about hell on earth by breaking "the rules" (an agreement set up between God and Satan which expressly forbid supernatural beings from direct interference in human affairs, you know, because he works in mysterious ways and all that shit) and directly influencing events which will lead to a doorway to hell being opened allowing the demon armies of hell to pour forth on to the earth and do horrid things to humans and so on.
Curiously enough, although Satan gets off his rotund red backside and makes an appearance in the plot, the almighty himself phones his contribution in (our God is an awesome God!...*sigh*, although apologists would probably say that as God is perfect, he refuses to break the rules of engagement, the theocractical arguments against that pertaining to this work of celluloid fiction are a discussion for another time).
So to sum up, Constantine is not very good on the first watch, as the intertwining plot lines can make for some difficulty in enjoyment, however on subsequent watches the film starts to grow on you, and not in a bad way because at heart is is nothing more than a simple but enjoyable enough action film with some religious elements thrown in to make the story more interesting and relatable.
One thing i will note of this film though, and this also applies to most films with religious overtones that are set in the modern age, is that they all seem to assume that Catholicism is the only interpretation of Christianity worth a damn...jus sayin' :)
I give it 7 out of 10 sacrificial lambs.
Monday, 15 July 2013
God Only Knows!:- Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 film based off of the book of the same name which was published in 1967.
A Horror/Mystery film at heart (its surprising how most films with a religious theme tend to fall in to either mystery, horror , or a combination of the two catagories) , the story of an ordinary young married couple just starting out in life takes a few rather sinister twists as the plot advances, culminating in a rather disturbing and not terribly happy ending.
Mia Farrow stars as Rosemary Woodhouse, a pretty but somewhat naive young woman who alongside her husband, moves into an apartment block in downtown New York.
Rosemary's husband, Guy (played by John Cassavetes) is a struggling young actor who is waiting for his big break, and thus as a couple they don't really have much money between them, but, they decide to settle down and start a family nonetheless.
The other residents of the apartment block, mostly elderly couples, seem to take great delight in having the young couple living there, and busy themselves with "helping" the newlyweds out in any way they can, which annoys Rosemary as she sees their help as interference. Guy dismisses her concerns and says that the old folk are just being friendly, and points out that in all fairness, they could use the help.
Things take a strange turn when not long after Guy finally gets his break by securing a part in a big budget Broadway production. On the night that Guy and Rosemary attempt to conceive the baby that they had planned for, Rosemary has a vivid dream in which she finds herself being raped by a horrifying monster. She wakes up screaming but Guy manages to calm her down.
Not long after, Rosemary finds that she is pregnant, and once again, the elderly residents clamour round to provide assistance by giving her "vitamin drinks" and advice about coping with pregnancy, and, although she initially follows their advice, she begins to get worried when she starts feeling ill so on the advice of her doctor, she stops taking any of the vitamins etc that the elderly folk give her, although things suddenly begin to get more sinister when Rosemary's doctor dies in mysterious circumstances and is replaced by a doctor who advises her the exact opposite of the previous one.
Rosemary eventually gives birth but unfortunately for her, the baby is far from what she was expecting....
Mia Farrow delivers a brilliant performance as the young and naive Rosemary, and it is a pleasure to see her character rapidly learn the harsh truths of the world that surrounds her.
The other characters of the film, who are pretty much nothing but interchangeable support characters, John Cassavetes included, provide the much needed and numerous "prods" required to advance the story, although special mention has to go to the characters of Minnie and Roman Castavete, whose eccentric performances bely their sinister motives throughout the piece.
To sum up, Rosemary's Baby is a finely crafted piece of film which has often been imitated but rarely bettered, and although both the original book and this film did spawn sequels, none of them were as popular or as well liked as the original.
I give this film 9 sacrificial lambs out of 10
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