Slashdot Mirror
Equilibrium
The_Hiro writes ""Farenheit 451 - meets - Brave New World - meets - Matrix" (minus the overdone wire work). Created on a limited budget, Equilibrium combines the best of sci-fi with the action genre. Unfortunately, the marketing droids at Dimension have neglected to promote the film (release date: Dec. 6th). Chud.com has a glowing review of the film and some pretty pictures. Check out the trailer also."
...on trying to promote a sci-fi film anyways? just let the folks at slashdot know about it! instantaniously all your advertising to your target group is done for you
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
That certanly looks cool :P. Visualy stunning to say the least. The only real problem I see is that so much of what was done (and was new) in the matrix has become cliche. I mean I remember seeing the trailers for the new matrix films and thinkng "I've seen all this before..."
Definetly a flick I'll have to check out.
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
When i first read about it, i thought it was just another matrix/minority-report/apocolypic-genre rip-off film.
Now, after having seen the trailer and read the article, i can't say that i've change my mind much, but i'm probably more likely to see the film now.
It almost makes a person wonder -- how much of an influence does the internet have on the film industry? Does it make it easier to get crappy ideas on film, because there's an easier access now? If so, i've got this great idea for a horror flick or two....
Support FSF: Stop thinking with your wallet, and think with your imagination. (cc/non-commercial)
Considering how long ago and under what circumstances the classics of totalitarain sci-fi (1984, Brave new World, Animal Farm) were written, it can be seen that fears of the all-powerful state are in fact a product of the Fascist (1930s-1940s)and Cold War (1946-1992) eras.
With the fall of communism, fears of totalitarian states have eased, and at present, the most immediate threat in people's minds is of course terrorism. As President Bush's "National Security Strategy Of the United States" puts it: "(our biggest threat) is less from conquering states than from failing ones". Evidence that Americans, and hence the movie-going public, agrees with this assessment can be seen in the widespread acceptance of the PATRIOT act's intrusive extension of law-enforcement's powers. It seems Americans want more government, not less.
My point, however, is not a political one. Whatever one might think of present attitudes toward government, the fact remains that marketing is an objective science, and marketers need to react to present attitudes as they exist. Therefore, given today's pro-government climate of public opinion, it was a rational decision not to spend too much money promoting a movie that is at odds with present attitiudes.
Neo, are you there? I want to rat out an unbeliever. An unbeliever in our midst. One who will never comprehend the Matrix, the question that haunts the believers.
;-) The religious theme went right on by him, but left the important question of existence (which i identify with existentialism -- existence precedes essense, and in the Matrix even existence was debatable).
Out of pretense, and in blasphemous contempt of The One, this unbeliever goes by the name "Nine." Please, thou who art The One, smite this heathen at your earliest opportunity. Disconnect the phone of NineNine first to prevent escape. Then grind the sucker up into that nutritious, gelatinous fluid that we all still need to consume since Liberation because we have absolutely no other source of food, having laid waste to Earth over a century ago in a bizarre Pyrrhic effort to "win."
(Anyone else notice this? If humans were powered by humans, and their heat powered the machines, wouldn't you run out of calories in a jiffy? Humans don't run on solar or nuclear power. Well, I suppose the machines could be doing some sort of protein synthesis, but if they had the energy to do that why not skip the whole "power plant" thing? And another thing...)
*
I do have a point! Movies like these normally require a healthy suspension of disbelief, and Matrix was remarkable because it really caused disbelief. It had certain plot and continuity problems, but not glaring enough to ruin the fun, and the sense of being transferred to a world with screwed-up tint control. It's pretty easy to pick apart, but there's a fine line between being insightful and irritating.
The philosophy was not new, but the packaging was. I had a little fun with my atheist friend who liked the movie by pointing out, "You realize that Neo was Christ, didn't you?"
The acting -- I thought everyone did fine, except for Reeves, who had mercifully few lines and mostly stood looking around stunned, until he become a gun-toting sunglass-wearing matrix rebel.
And the effects were great. We're getting tired of them now because of all the imitations and parodies (even Shrek!). But the Matrix set a new standard for viewer immersion. And the sum of its parts made it a good movie, one of my top ten futuristic movies along with Bladerunner and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
I can only hope this one is as good. Trailers are tough to read. FWIW I think Bradbury was better at coming up with ideas than writing about them. The script would have to be quite creative to make it work on the screen.
Isn't this an episode of the TV show "Sliders" writ large? I haven't seen that show for a while, but I seem to recall there was one episode when they went to an Earth where everyone was on gov't approved drugs all the time, and one guy preached against against it so people could "experience life" or something like that...
Except he wasn't a cop...
is it me or has this theme recently been done in minority report... an enforcer of a allknowing allpowerfull org. finds that the system is "flawed" when it turnes on him.... seems to be a mishmash of themes from mr, 1984... not sure about if the matrix comparison makes alot of sense.... but hey maybe i should see the movei first
Other then that the main character is in law enforcement, and it takes place in 'the future' I don't see much similarity at all. I guess you could say they were both fathers, but one still has his kids and the other does not. You could say they were both on drugs, but in MR drugs are looked down oppon, while in this they are required. They are hugely diffrent movies.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
hardboiled has 3 of the best action sequences ever filmed. The opening teahouse scene, ending when chowyun slides through flower and blows a guy away pointblank is incredible. The warehouse scene is fast and furious. The ending hospital shootout is a masterpiece as well which took 35 days to film.
A few facts: over 100K rounds were fired during filming.
Over 300 people die in the movie, one of if not the highest movie bodycounts.
Very good movie...John Woo's first westernstyle film really. The Killer, as mentioned is a much better film plot wise.
Karel Capek, an Czech author from the 20's and 30's, wrote several stories about man being stripped of his human essence in order to change him into an efficient and manageable working machine. The word robot was first coined in his best-known novel, "Rossum's Universal Robots", which was about this very same subject:
"Young Rossum invented a worker with the minimum amount of requirements. He had to simplify him. He rejected everything that did not contribute directly to the progress of work. He rejected everything that makes man more expensive. In fact, he rejected man and made the Robot. My dear Miss Glory, the Robots are not people. Mechanically they are more perfect than we are, they have an enormously developed intelligence, but they have no soul. Have you ever seen what a Robot looks like inside?" (from R.U.R., 1920, trans. by Paul Selver)
Before this, he wrote a humorous short story about a crafty businessman who rounds up all of society's undesirables, purges them of all emotion through lack of artistic and sensual stimulation, and turns them into a phenomenal working force. But his design is put in ruins when the keepers inadvertently leave the light on during a working man's monthly conjugal encounter. That man is so inspired by her beauty that he breaks out in song during work, and the domino effect continues as within days the men have organized debating societies, newspapers, amateur theater troupes and the like. Before the week is out, the men rebel against their oppression and lay the entire operation to waste.