While there have been a flood of documentaries relating to food and its origins in the past few years, The Cove is undeniably one of the more recent films with a heavy politically charged agenda. It’s cause seems noble, and the interviewees and filmmakers seem passionate – yet, from the very start of the film, it is clear that there is more than just one motive for exposing the secrets of Taiji, Japan. There is no denying the action of capturing and killing whales and dolphins has been a constant political and emotional issue for decades now. Cultural and religious beliefs aside, the slaughter of these cute and intelligent sea mammals will no doubt stir up feelings of anger anger and emotion. Underneath the ‘covert filming’ and thriller like dramatic montages however, the hypocrisy and propaganda like style of the film really shines through, and in this sense this film thoroughly excels in fooling many viewers into producing an overly emotional response to Japan’s whale and dolphin industry.
The Cove centres on activist, Ric OBarry, and his undercover operation into the stoppage of dolphin hunts in Japan. A former world dolphin trainer, O’ Barry was moved to save the dolphins after having trained 5 dolphins for the tv show Flipper. Realizing that capturing and training these dolphins was wrong, Ric has maintained a determined stance on Japan’s self proclaimed age old tradition of killing and eating dolphins. Filmed in a guerrila style, undercover op- doco, The Cove is instantly dubious the minute O’ Barry begins describing the surveillance placed on him in Taiji, and the strong presence of cops following the team as they attempt to uncover the truth behind the dolphin hunts. To be fair, it is not the issue at hand which is most irritating, but the charisma and overbearingness of Ric O’ Barry. In fact, the term “eco-terrorist” may be used to describe such people involved in The Cove, because the hypocrisy and self righteousness overshadows all of the main points in the film.
Over emotional music and scenes of a baby dolphin bleeding in the water may invoke feelings of anger, or even tears, but are dolphins really held higher than other animals we eat on a daily basis? The most obvious question arising from this movie would be: “is killing whales not the same as killing cows or chickens?” In fact in most arguments involving animal cruelty, it seems most people are vastly ignorant about where their food comes from, or where it has been sourced from. In this case however, it seems hugely controversial that The Cove can produce such an invasive film with a deeply personal agenda, when there are similar issues relating to animal cruelty in our own backyards.
This does not withstand the fact that animal cruelty, no matter what species, is wrong. Sure, there may be the same scientific tests regarding the safety level of eating dolphin, but then again there are also the warnings of eating deep sea fish such as tuna, which contain higher levels of mercury. The simple fact is, The Cove is made in such a way which makes the viewer question how exactly dolphin killing is different to farmed animals, and how important tradition is versus the endangerment of a species.
It is a well known fact the sea is an important part of Japanese culture, and fishing is an age old tradition which extends through generations. While overfishing does not account for the fact that the world’s fish population is slowly diminishing, the procedures and measures with which dolphins are killed must also be taken into account when analyzing just how bad the dolphin killing really is in Japan. Ric O’ Barry has made clear his refusal to back down on the matter, but the reports of skewed editing and provocation of locals for the film only serve to highlight just how much of The Cove you can take with a grain of salt.
Vegetarians can argue that this take of the film only indicates a meat lovers’ self denial- rather an open minded approach should be taken when viewing films like these, and also the key fact that there is a strong emotional and seemingly guilt ridden attachment to the issue which O’Barry will probably never let go.
After 6 years….it has finally come down to this – May 23rd 2010. The day when Lost, the epic, crazy, fantastical, mind bending, confuzzling television series comes to a close!
Yeah, yeah, I know, this is a movie review blog…and here I am talking about a TV series. I absolutely have to blog about this though – because it is as epic as any movie!! Well…as epic as any movie I have seen recently anyway (and easily more epic than Iron Man 2….*shudder*). I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about seeing a tv series come to an end before. It’s sad…but then again at least the producers and writers know when to quit!
There has been so much hype around its series finale though, because it is going to be huge.
Huge as in….2.5 hours huge.
Huge as in….we will get answers to what happens to the characters! What happens to smokey! What happens to the alternate timeline! And what happens to the island!!!
Of course, there are way too many questions for the writers to answer them all…..I mean just view this hilarious song for a start:
Yeah, I thought it was genius too. If you haven’t kept up with Lost however, you may not get many of the jokes made in that clip. Which is sad for you, coz you are missing out!
For those that haven’t kept up with Lost for the past 6 seasons, here’s a short video to recap (it is confusing!):
…..though Hurley gives an even more hilarious recap of what has happened back in season 5 – all in 48 seconds!
See, here’s the thing about Lost. You either like the show…or you don’t. And if you don’t, I suggest you probably stop reading now because the rest of this post will just be me, viewing the show in retrospect and admiring just how clever and revolutionary it has been! Hell, Daniel Dae-Kim said it himself - “I don’t think you can talk about television in the 21st century without talking about Lost”. It really has been that influential, whether you like it or not!
This show started way back when I was 14, and I used to watch it avidly every week. The concept was different and the storytelling style plus the characters combined to form a rather compelling new drama series which left a cliffhanger every week – something which I really enjoy about how the show is presented.
I have to admit I did get a bit complacent for a while, and skipped a few episodes here and there during Seasons 2 and 3 – when thiings started to get really wacky and weird. And seemingly, a bunch of other people got bored of the concept as well because ratings dropped and pretty soon, the most talked about show was not cool anymore – it was simply too silly and nonsensical, plus TOO MANY FLASHBACKS. “They’re still on that damn island?! What the hell is that smoke monster?! And why is Jack so annoying?!” All these questions I asked myself while I was watching the first few episodes. I soon realized however, that to watch Lost is to either commit, or forget about it altogether.
Because really, you can’t watch Lost unless you watch at least 2 episodes back to back…preferably 4.
My friend lent me seasons 1-4 a few months ago for me to catch up on everything as I had fallen way behind in my watching of every episode, and then we had a huge Lost season 5 marathon in 1.5 days. It was epic. But it also made me realize just how amazing this show is, and how much it has contributed to pop culture and tv in the past few years alone. You really gotta hand it to the writers on this one – they really know how to create a few great characters, open up some very interesting story arcs and tie them all up further down the track.
On that same note, I also have to admit, I was spectacularly disappointed with Season 5’s opening episode. It really seemed to me like the writers were just pulling answers out of thin air – making up shit as they went along, trying to scramble to answer at least some of the more important, pressing questions such as what exactly the smoke monster was and why the characters were brought to the island. The two Lockes…the rather placid Ben Linus…the random temple dudes…the annoying stares between Kate, Jack and Sawyer…plus an alternate timeline now?! When is the craziness going to end?! Things did pick up though, and I think it really has gotten to the point where you just wonder whatever happens next!
I’m actually rather surprised how well the writers have managed to pull off the whole time travel and destiny thing with the show. On the outset, the concept seems so realistic and so natural – and yet, there’s just so much crazy stuff going on it’s extremely admirable that it is not unintentionally funny or off putting. The show makes use of so many fantastical elements and deus ex machinas, its incredibly fascinating how much thought and care has been put into the formation of the world and everything that has happened so far. I suppose in that respect, it really does separate the fans and non fans into two distinct groups. I mean really, it is the people who can suspend their disbelief for a while that Lost is aimed at. It entertains and yet there is also something deeper in its portrayal of its characters – I just love how the show is so unpredictable, and how it really makes people think about the how and why the characters are acting the way they are.
Just look at Lostpedia. You could spend literally hours on that site reading all the little details that have contributed to the overall story arc. And that is just the beginning! Lost fans are a different story altogether, and while I don’t consider myself a Lost junkie, I do love the show for what it is, and I absolutely can’t wait to find out what happens at the end!
Will Kate die?! Will the timelines ever meet up! (I would seriously laugh if it was all in Hurley’s head!) Will Jack be stuck on the island for the rest of his life?! Will they all die?! Will they all die on the island and so die in the alternate timeline too?! Will smokey find its way off the island?! What happened to Richard?! Why does the island heal people!? What’s up with pregnancy/island?! I’m sure there’s a lot more but I can’t really think of them right now – brain will explode.
I will probably most definitely review the finale after it airs – I have after all seen every episode so far and am extremely curious as to how things pan out. I seriously cannot wait for Sunday though – it’ll be epic!
I haven’t updated this in a while, I know, and I feel TERRIBLE.
I have to review Clash of the Titans and Kick-Ass, hopefully I will get at least one of those up by tomorrow night. I’ve just been busy with life and everything else and its just been a hectic couple of weeks….but I’ll definitely get on to this soon 
Bear with me!
…movies are so bad they’re good?!
So apart from visiting Gnomesville today (which was pretty awesome in itself!), I also sat through THREE movies in a row….like a movie marathon but BETTER. Funny thing is, I am actually going to a movie marathon on Sunday for the Easter holiday special thing…and the people I am going with somehow thought
was a completely better marathon than:
I MEAN SERIOUSLY. DOES MARATHON TWO NOT SOUND BETTER TO EVERYONE?! *sigh* First off….who hasn’t seen The Dark Knight (kind of overrated too imo), Sherlock Holmes was piss poor BORING and Clash of the Titans…..well I can already tell it’ll be CRAP by its movie poster and trailer, and how it is marketed in 3D. Ugh.
ANYWAY.
Tonight, the movie marathon was pretty good…..because we saw:
Pretty awesome series of movies right there…..but OH GOD. WHITEOUT. WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THIS FILM?!
Seriously, can anyone actually tell me what this is about because we all had NO EFFING IDEA by the end of the movie. Not only is the dialogue and scenes horribly written, the acting is so bad it’s laughable. In fact…it was so bad I am writing this right now to remind me to write a review about it later on. Honestly, if you’re bored and you want an entertaining Z-grade film to watch……SEE WHITEOUT. You won’t be disappointed.
Cube was also pretty interesting……..it’s like Saw but older and there are no serial killers….but there are traps and they are stuck in a series of cubes. Pretty cool movie – definitely want to see the other two!
From Dusk til Dawn was a whole other story…I had seen it before years ago but rewatched it again tonight and it was pretty fucking hilarious. Like, the first half hour you kind of get the feeling it’ll go off on a Natural Born Killers tangent where everyone will just DIE but then vampires suddenly appear out of NOWHERE and all the funny breaks loose. God I love Tarantino. And Robert Rodriguez. ;D I actually cannot wait til Machete comes out now….because seeing Danny Trejo in that movie just totally reminded me of Machete and how awesome it’ll be.
It takes a certain amount of science, a whole lot of violence, a kick ass female protagonist, guns (of course) and show stopping action to produce a crime thriller that both draws the viewer into the plot and steers through an epic course of unexpected danger. Millions have read Steig Larsson’s Millenium trilogy, and now the first book in the series “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” has been made into feature length movie, underscoring just how popular and influential the books are worldwide. With the other two books already filmed and on their way to theatres in the near future, the popularity of this series indicates the easy translation from words to action, and how much support there is for the trilogy.
The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, released in 2009, is directed by Niels Arden Oplev and is entirely in Swedish. While there are talks of a Hollywood english remake (no surprises there), the Swedish movie has proven to be a hit success, drawing thousands to its release around the world. Several highlights do distinguish the movie from previous crime thrillers, however the overlong sequences, clichés and glossed over details make the entire movie quite tiresome to watch.
In a relatively derivative start to the film, investigative journalist Michael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is hired to uncover the whereabouts of Henrik Vanger’s (Sven-Bertil Taube) great niece, Harriet (Ewa Fröling). Through a turn of events, professional hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) manages to uncover more evidence through her skills, and forming a rather odd team they both race to discover just what happened to Harriet and who was responsible for her disappearance.
While the pairing of Lisbeth and Michael forms a dynamic but formulaic feature of the classic detective/investigative drama, it is the little details in The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo that really holds this film back. One of the most obvious and outstanding ones is the fact that Lisbeth, and seemingly all the other people in the film use Apple MACs. There’s really nothing wrong with macs at all, but in this film the product placement is so clear and so absurd that it is at times extremely hard to get fully immersed into the story when you can see Lisbeth “hacking” Blomkvist’s own macbook using generic and completely implausible code. In fact, the film makes hacking look so EASY, it seems all you need to know to be a professional hacker is to type in “access Blomkivsts’ laptop” into a generic linux-esque program, and voila! – she is now freely able to surf the contents of said laptop. Well done, Lisbeth.
Not only this, the use of iPhoto to alter the contrast and brightness of the photos key in uncovering the mystery of Harriet’s disappearance really brings this film down into a whole new level of amateurishness. This was certainly not the professional and crafty duo portrayed in Larsson’s novel! Perhaps it is just the aversion to Apple products in general that makes the film so hard to understand how exactly they came about the conclusion of the events. In this way, it is probably just as well the novels work and describe what happens so much better than in the movie!
The ease at which they seem to come together in deciphering the case is a huge let down in terms of audience participation as well. In a rather convoluted mish mash string of events, the pacing of their discoveries alongside the total ease at which they find significant points relating to the case really draws the movie out unnecessarily. Tiring ever so fast, it is any wonder people can even be bothered attempting to figure out what actually happened! Michael Nyqvist is thoroughly disinteresting as Blomkvist, and gives a rather dire and uninspired portrayal contrastive against the wonderfully acted Lisbeth.
Despite the poor pacing and attention to detail, one of the revelations of the movie is without a doubt the lead actress, Noomi Rapace. If attaining all the facial piercings for the role isn’t enough to show how committed she is to the series, her acting as a strong hardcore, angsty woman translates to the screen with a tenacity that seems to attract all attention on her disregarding the woeful script. While the character does call for generic emo/hardcore subgenre-esque clothes, hair and customary black makeup and pants, Rapace seems to have a knack for portraying the strength and determination of Lisbeth, which really works well against the grain of the other typical archetypes in the movie.
In a rape scene that is disturbing as well as added shock value, Rapace pulls off the scene extremely well, particularly exemplifying the emotion and helplessness in her situation. It is in fact, Rapace in particular that saves this movie from total disaster – too bad the script wasn’t any better in portraying the strength of Larsson’s work!
For cinematic lovers of crime drama and thrillers, Girl with a Dragon Tattoo is a must watch – if only because it is based on one of the best crime trilogies in literary fiction, and it does contain a strong female protagonist which is often hard to come by. Despite these features however, the screenplay and lack of chemistry between Blomkvist and Lisbeth really brings the film down, and it is definitely the little details that prevent audiences from fully suspending their disbelief for two hours. For a film in its genre, it is no doubt one that compared to other crime thrillers such as Tell No One, a critically accalaimed French film by Guillaume Canet. Girl with a Dragon Tattoo isn’t a total disaster – just one which could do with several major improvements. With the next two films in the series wrapping up post production, it is any wonder if the interest will be there to continue watching, or to just go back to reading the books!
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