Today, I was woke up by Father Geek and... well... He wanted to go see a movie. Shocking I know... This radically differentiates today from the other 365 days a year.... NOT.
As he brought in the film schedule, as is customary upon waking up we tried to decide what to see. We’d seen nearly everything of interest, and not much had opened... Sigh... It was looking like a stay home and watch DVDs and Video Tapes kinda day... Perhaps throw in a script to read.
Then he said, “What about THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR?”
DAMNIT. It was only a matter of time till he suggested that film. I didn’t really want to go see it. The reviews and letters I had gotten in weren’t all that great. And I had written the film off as a poor exercise in what MATRIX and TRON and DARK CITY and on and on had done so well.
At best I thought it would be an ‘OK’ Star Trek HOLODECK episode, but... Since Father Geek said it’s name... well Hell’s Bells, why the heck not.
So we loaded into our silver surfin’ Kirby-Mobile and trailed off for the Lincoln Theater here in Austin. Once one of the greatest theaters in Austin. It still has three mighty impressive screens, but the REGAL Cinemas crew seems to treat the ol dame (is that phrase relevant to an Eighties theater?) shabbily.
We buy our pair of tickets and pass the pile of fecal matter in the lobby, apparently it’s supposed to be a paper-mache Tarzan tree, but it looks closer to a heaping mound of dung and head straight on in.
The trailers were all comedic... Very odd for what I assumed would be a ‘straight’ sci-fi flick.
Saw the new trailer for AMERICAN PIE, which makes use of the list of films to see after STAR WARS this summer.. and as MR VOICE read through them, I was curious as to why he didn’t say out loud.... PRINCESS MONONOKE... Hmmm... Good trailer though.
Saw the same ol trailers for BOWFINGER and LAKE PLACID. I believe these two trailers are now attached to 99% of all prints being exhibited nationwide (or at least in Austin).
Then came that TERRIBLE horrendous REGAL CINEMAS allegedly thrilling rollercoaster along a thread of film thing. MY GOD THIS SUCKS! Anything that makes me want to see them damn cannibalistic GENERAL CINEMAS condoment thing should be burned! I loathe this bit of film. In fact, it almost keeps me away from their theaters all together.
Then the film started.
I really dug this movie. First off, don’t go in expecting MATRIX, this isn’t even the same genre. This is a mystery... A whodunit set within the trappings of a science fiction story.
In fact, what it most reminded me of was a Nickel Sci-Fi Pulp Story brought to life. Ok... Now I know a lot of you aren’t familiar with the old pulps, but as a kid (and still today) my father has a large collection (in the 1000s) of old Sci-Fi pulps. They populate barrister bookcases after bookcases in his bedroom. And as a kid, I always got in there and snuck a few to my room.
Thus I discovered the artistry of Virgil Finlay and the writings of a ton of writers.... From Frederick Pohl to Bradbury. From Burroughs to Robeson. Back in the day when writers were paid a penny a word, and actually prospered to a degree.
However, this isn’t a pulp story by the A-tier of writers, instead.... it’s by one of those off-brand Sci-Fi pulps. The ones that hired out of work mystery writers who couldn’t get published in the mystery pulps anymore, so they threw in a couple of science fiction gadgets and whatchamacallsits and presto chango they sold their story.
This is one of them. A dime store mystery spruced up to be a nickel plated piece of sci-fi. Sci-fi mind you, not SCIENCE FICTION. There’s a difference.
This is pulpy from the get go. They didn’t get A-list actors, instead they go folks like Vincent D’Onofrio, who is quickly becoming a modern day Lawerence Tierney (back when he worked for the likes of Robert Wise). I love D’Onofrio and in this, he’s playing a couple of different characters, but my fave kinda reminds me of Mike Mazursky from MURDER MY SWEET but made up nice a spit shine as a 30’s bartender.
The star of the film, looking a bit like Burt Lancaster from that CRISS CROSS or BRUTE FORCE era, but not nearly that energized, is Craig Bierko. Ya know... scratch that Lancaster bit, he’s more like Brian Donlevy in a mixture of his roles from IMPACT and THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT. He’s ruggedly handsome, a pinch or two of charisma and competent throughout.
Armin Mueller-Stahl strikes me as an adequate take on the old characters that Leo G Carroll used to play back in the fifties.
And Gretchen Mol? Well, she’s easy on the eyes and whiff of the stuff that makes ya st... Nevermind. Actually, I really dug her part. She is the mysterious dame in this film. What’s up with her? I don’t know but I like her.
It is an outright shame that this movie is out right now. It’ll be lost in the shuffle, named a poor man’s MATRIX, and it is.... If you were expecting an action-sci-fi film, but that ain’t what this movie is.
I would have enjoyed this movie solely on the basis of the effects work that Centropolis Effects did in realizing 1930’s Los Angeles. Man.... What a town. Ya know... when you think of the work that we’ve loved in ROCKETEER, CHINATOWN, LA CONFIDENTIAL in showcasing Los Angeles of yesteryear... well, I do believe this is the finest rendering of it yet.
I absolutely adore the color texture of the film stock when we are in this era, and the establishing shots of the various locales are absolutely breathtaking. I got the idea that they had some wonderful postcards from 30’s era LA, and them there digital artists set to work to realize them in perfect photorealism, down to the powder blue sky. Lovely. Their work brought me to the edge my seat and placing my heavy jowls upon the back of my entwined fingertips.
Whata gorgeous film. And that’s not all, I really dug the story. I got caught up in the whole whodoneit, and what’s a happening in this here universe.
HARRY, ALL IT IS, IS A STAR TREK HOLODECK EPISODE.
Well, that’s arguable. I really love that old Moriarty episode, and in this there is a lot of that, but ya know. There’s a lot of violent cop movies where the rogue cop is out to stop a corrupt police force or some drug cartel, and ya know.... I don’t push them up against a wall and say.... Ya know DIRTY HARRY did it better. Because ya know.... FRENCH CONNECTION is pretty good. And so is BULLITT and ya know.... I even like BRANNAGAN. Point is, I’ll give ya this isn’t a strikenly original film.
But I’ll be damned if it didn’t strike me as being put together damn well, and compelled me to come out of the theater feeling really good about the $8 bucks I spent.
I look forward to more work from this director, I think Josef Rusnak is a name to look out for. With even stronger material... I’m sure we can see some wonderful work, cause with this as his American debut.... He’s off to a pretty damn good start.
