Sunday, August 23, 2009

drunken double feature

Oddly(1) hesitant to speak too strongly, I suggest that if you don't like District 9, you are not my sort of person. A blend of Alien Nation and Day of the Dead and the Office, it's a thrilling blend of genre craftsmanship and decent politics.

G.I. Joe continues the stupefying career arc of Steven Sommers. With his usual blend of wholly forgettable villains, blankfaced skinny betitted chicks (unfortunately always given far too much to do) and an obsession with racial stereotyping, he shoehorns in all your favorite figures of action: ninja, bland guy, black dude with big guns, shuffling minstrel--along with backstory and characterization lifted straight from Star Wars.

It's probably as good a G.I. Joe movie as could have been made by anyone at all. There's a stretch in the second reel where nothing blows up for a preposterously long time, but that's mostly offset by a stunningly hot sequence later where a brutal beating is intercut with a flashback sex scene.

Under no circumstance should anybody involved with this movie profit by their involvement. Other than that, mildly recommended as a scene-by-scene exploration of the reasons why Team America: World Police was a parody.

(1) An expensive town, Santa Destroy seems incapable of supporting an adequate beer theatre. Thus I have taken one of my primary loves off the menu, and essentially no longer allow myself to go to the movies.

There are, however, exceptions.

Of late have I taken to bottling up, hitting the theatre and sneaking into a second feature. In this way I can basically afford to indulge in this activity that has defined my entire life.

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