Alive but alone and with no way to get out of the car or to signal anyone, we watch the progression of his suffering until after some hallucinatory moments, the memory of the events leading up to the crash slowly and painfully start returning to him.

I don’t know if i liked it or not, but it sure kept my attention. In fact, I think I did like it. It was an interesting, odd and engrossing film… though I have a hard time imagining someone deciding to give it a theatrical run.

Finally getting around to viewing Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, an engaging story of an Australian who finds himself in his forties, overweight and in overly medicated ill-health. He decides to go on a 60 day juice fast. Which he heads to the USA to do, spending the first half in new york and the second half driving Around the country with his juicing supplies in the back of his suv, offering juice and his story to any who will listen. Along the way, we get to watch his health improve dramatically, and we enxounter a couple of people who take his message seriously and begin juice fasts themselves. There is one particularly relevant moment whee he talks to a man who seems unconcerned with how old he gets (55, 65 if he’s lucky), while sitting at a table with his own father and his young son. Basically, it is an entertaining film reminding us, yet again, that diet is the key to helth and the fresh foods and whole grains lead to good helth and that animal products and processed foods lead to bad health. There is also good follow up in the movies of the stories of some of the people who are involved in this juice-fast thing.

Then we also watched forks over knives, which is a similar topic and spirit, but a much different movie. In Forks Over Knives, we follow two scientists who, in the 50′s and 60′s started studying nutrition in a highly scientific way. Using the results from many exhaustive tests and case subjects, they also come to the conclusion that most of our most dangerous health ailments: heart disease, cancer, diabetes… Can be prevented by eating whole foods, plant-based diets. At this point, I assume that everyone knows this though. Movie after movie, study after study. But, you knows… It is hard to get the inclination to eat that way when most aspects of our society are designed to get you to eat, well, the other way. Oh well.

After this movie and the family going off to bed, I followed it up with Spiderhole. A British horror film about four young folks who set of to find a house to take over with Squatters rights (gah, can people really still do that?). They find a good house but, of course, contrary to appearances, the house that they break into isn’t as abandoned as it appears. As one might expected they become the prey of some ruthless and mysterious figure! Bad things happen to these kids, in reasonably grisly ways that are nicely done. Not too corny nor overbearing. And they do a good job of keeping the antagonist somewhat unknown and maintaining a good maze-like feel to the set. Not in the really dumb way made popular by Saw, but it a reasonable way… Sometimes it reminded me a bit of the original Texas Chainsaw house… But with a richer color palette. All in all, I thought it was pretty good, enough to keep me interested not so underdone that I would be embarrassed and bored by watching it.

Well, when James Brolin goes on a wild west vacation with his pal (and Delos newbie) Richard Benjamin, they are ready for some good old drinking, whoring, gunfighting and general wild west fun. Soon after they arrive they start to get a taste of the old west, with a tough gunslinger insulting Benjamin in the saloon. After killing this rude interloper, they continue to go about their free-for-all Wild West life! Oddly enough though, that gunfighter returns and they have to take him out again.

It seems like as bad sign, as Delos is supposed to have a strong feeling of reality, when the gunsligner returns yet again, still intent of getting rid of them… But this is the first of many signs that something is going awry at Delos.

Westworld is one of my favorites from my youth. A commentary on the shallow state of human desires and also a warning against the impending pervasive reliance on technology, Westworld covers its entertainment bases by having scenes of decadence in three enticing milieus, in case the market might not have been interested in only one of these historical genres. And their is plenty of TV-style violence to keep any fan awake

First up was Valhalla Rising, a dark grim Viking film. A silent one-eyed man is a captive of a clan, he manages to escape and kill most of them then heads off across the beautiful, yet forbidding, Scottish landscape. He ends up joining up with a young boy who starts following him and encounters a group of heretics (or whatever you call Viking-folk who have converted to Christianity) who are headed to the holy land to help protect the land of their lord and savior. As one-eye doesn’t speak we are left a bit high and dry about his motives but he comes along anyway.


They sail off in their little book for a trip pretty much bereft of any fun what-so-ever. These Christians have no faith in one-eye and tension, conflict and lengthy moments of stoic standing and staring are the order of the day as they end up sailing to an unknown land and proceed to fall apart. It come with that richly-washed, drab-color palette that one can expect these days… but I actually found in fairly nice to watch. I liked the colors and the landscape and I like just about anything that shows a vikingish side (non-lighthearted, at least), and I appreciated the grim seriousness of it. Even if, at times, it felt too grim and serious to really have much depth of character or storyline.



Also, I watched Monsters, which I enjoyed quite a bit. Featuring really great aliens (they light up and have lots of tentacles!) who came to earth a number of years back and who have since been corralled into a large and heavily defended area comprising the borderlands of the USA and Mexico. Into this area (called the Infected Zone) come two Americans (a photographer and his bosses daughter) who get to the port at the Mexico side, hoping to get her on a ferry back to the USA. Trouble is, they get there the day before the port shuts down for six months. To top that off, the photographer goes off on a big drunk, which ends up meaning that she can’t take the ferry.


With no other options at hand, they set off by land and riverboat through the infected Zone. Now, for a low budget film, this could turn out pretty crappy. But not in Monsters! It is not crappy at all! Not only are the characters, and actors pretty good (most of the movie involves them, rather than any sci-fi or alien scenes) but the scenery and the alien-occupied backdrop are just really well done. I thought that it came across with a very genuine feeling. It was suspenseful without being overbearing and completely involving, both in terms of the character arcs and the Alien storyline. In the end, it is an engaging adventure that leaves you with some questions about the nature of “human versus visiting alien” relationships.

Trying to piece things together, and realizing that their supplies won’t last even near long enough to make the 2+ years it would take for a rescue attempt to arrive, three of them head out to investigate a strange radar image a few hours walk away. Which is unfortunate, as the scenes of the surface of Mars are probably the low point of this movie, with hardly any attempt made to make it appear that they might be on an different world. But wait! That’s not the only bad part. They talk as they wander about and, while I thought the script was okay at first, just marred by bad readings, as the movie wore on I lost faith in the script also… Though it still wasn’t as bad as the readings. Maria Lidon (also the director?) and Danal Aser deliver every one of their respective lines terribly, without the slightest level of convincingness. That coupled with how cheaply this movie seems to have been made, causes me to wonder about the rest of the cast. What are: Vincent Gallo, Maria de Medeiros and Joaquim de Almeifa doing here? Three actors who, while maybe not great, are certainly of a higher caliber and reputation than the rest. I can’t imagine why they are in this unless it was as a favor for a friend or something.

Lidon also delivers some narration that, while unnecessary as narration usually is, is also painfully delivered. All in all, Stranded is generally boring, badly acted, with terrible effects and “sets” and a story that might have had some potential, but it ends up being not all that. The movie does finally start to try to get interesting and pick up steam about an hour in, but at that point, I didn’t really care.