“Snowpiercer” – We Move Forward.

Good news, this movie will be in theaters somewhere on June 11…though I’m not sure where. I can’t remember how I came across it, probably some IMDB list of “Movies of 2014 you need to see!!!!!!” or something, and being a fan of Chris Evans I gave it a go. Not a bad flick actually, and probably the closest thing to a real life anime film you’ll ever see. So there’s that.

“Snowpiercer” tackles the apocalyptic thought of how we’d survive by placing the remainder of earth’s humans on a self-sustaining train that rides a track built over the entire world. Yeah. As I’m sure Americans would be the first to do, the train is split up by the wealthy and the poor, with the poor being placed in crummy conditions in the “tail” section, while the wealthy get to live it up in the front. Curtis (Chris Evans) is a tail member who just doesn’t want to take it anymore. Everyday they are ruled over by a military force put together by the front and forced to eat “protein” bars; basically black Jell-O that I wouldn’t touch if I were dying. So Curtis and Edgar (Jamie Bell) plan and execute a takeover attempt (not really a spoiler, kind of what the entire movie is about) and it’s essentially a rollercoaster ride of results. Or in this case a train ride. Because it’s a movie about a train.

Now I mentioned that it was the equivalent to a real life anime, and I’m pretty sure that’s spot on. There are fight scenes with axes, torches, guns, dodging, Tilda Swinton, and just all out anarchy. There’s this great scene where everyone is throwin’ ‘bows in a train car when a conductorish guy comes out and blows a whistle, gets everyone’s attention, counts down from three and then wishes all a happy new year. You don’t see stuff like that in your everyday movie, so it added a nice level of humor to what was going on. As for the cast, a lot of recognizable faces in very odd roles that ultimately pull the whole thing together. Obviously Chris Evans is Captain America without the shield or shower, and his language is a bit more colorful but he runs the show. Jamie Bell as his number two, and John Hurt as his number one, the man who looks as if he’s run some rebellions in his time. Personally I’m surprised this guy is still acting (and doing a great job at it), as he looked about 50 in “Alien”. Alison Pill makes an outstanding “Teacher”, completely in love with the “benevolent “creator of the train and brainwashing her kids with stories of the years spent riding around the world. Last but not least is Tilda Swinton, who I had to double check to make sure it was actually her. Basically the voice of the train’s upper class she serves to keep the tail section in line both before and during their revolution. She’s got an excellent set of upper teeth and coke bottle glasses that give her character the most ridiculous sounding voice and look ever, and I loved it. She’s so creepily stern, especially when during the rebellion she stands in front of the attackers and says, “Precisely 74% of you will die.” Eerie. Plus it’s Tilda Swinton, so she’s got that going for her.

Welcome to the weirdest fight scene you’ve ever watched.

All in all this is a pretty decent movie. If anything it’s a new take on how to handle the apocalypse via the DC metro system. Director Joon-ho Bong really tackled a series of graphic novels with this film, and in my opinion did a much better job with this than his previous, “The Host” (not the Twilight piece of crap). So don’t see that. See “Snowpiercer”.

DIRECTOR’S CUT: See this. Don’t see “The Host”. And if the apocalypse is soon, I’d opt for the non-train version.

FLICKCHART RATING: 1611/2142 (Let’s just take a moment and point out that I’ve seen 2,142 movies)

“Source Code” – Make every second count.

If you read my last post you know that I have a very large queue of movies lined up to watch. With the exception of two or three of these, I’ve never seen any of them, hence why they’re in a queue. When I got home from New Jersey yesterday I was exhausted. I had to unpack and get some things done around my room so I decided to put a movie on to help facilitate things. While it would have been smart to play one I’d seen before, therefore allowing me to pay very little attention to it, I did my random selection and wound up on “Source Code”. Being a fan of “Moon” (same director, Duncan Jones…and son of David Bowie!) I decided to pay closer attention while I unpacked my backpack and hooked up my computers. End result, I found myself sitting in my armchair for the majority of the film, being quite engrossed in the story. Let me tell you about it.

One of the first lessons I was taught in college was that once you take a film class you’ll never be able to watch a movie the same way again. This is completely true. Now I find myself looking in the corners for boom mic’s, reflections of the crew in passing cars, and of course trying to figure out the twist before it’s revealed. Therefore I truly enjoy when scripts go outside the box and come up with a twist that you can’t really guess, mainly because they’ve created the world in which you’re trapped for 90 minutes or so, so you play by their rules. This makes the game so much more interesting.

We open right in the middle of it with Jake Gyllenhaal waking up on a train, seemingly confused about his surroundings. Michelle Monaghan is sitting across from him talking to him and establishing the fact that they, or at least she, clearly know each other. This does not appear to be true to Jake. As he freaks out and starts claiming that he’s Colter Stevens of the United States Army and has no idea how he arrived on this train, he’s cut short by the entire thing exploding, which will put a real damper on anyone’s day. So as a viewer you’re now going, “Uh…okay?” Jake wakes up again, but this time in his army uniform and inside of a small pod with a screen. On that screen is Vera Farmiga, also decked out in military gear and talking to him as if they’ve been working together for awhile now. Through broken and short sentences we discover that Jake is part of a military secret called “Source Code” (go figure), a machine that allows a subject of perfect build and mind to inherit the being of someone else during a small window of time in the past; in this case it’s eight minutes aboard a train in Chicago. According to Farmiga the train was bombed earlier that day and everyone on board was killed, but they have the ability to send Jake back to the last eight minutes so that he can figure out who the bomber is, therefore giving the military the chance to stop the bomber before he blows up his second target of the day. In the words of the great Doc Emmett Brown, “Great Scott!”

Naturally over the course of film Jake has to go back to those eight minutes several times in order to figure out exactly who planted the bomb, but in doing so his desire to save everyone on board grows. Unfortunately all of those people are already dead as this event has already happened…or has it? This is one of the many questions that get answered as you race to figure it out for yourself. Allow me to save you the time and tell you that you won’t be able to, so don’t hurt yourself. Let this one wash over you and intrigue you.

Without giving away plot points or ruining anything that would make you not want to see it, I do feel that it’s fair to deliver the one issue I had with this film. It actually comes from another lesson learned from a college film class, and that is that American’s cannot handle sad endings. I’m sure a lot of you are reading this going, “What? I saw “The Notebook”, of course I can.” and technically that’s true. So allow me to rephrase; American box offices cannot handle sad endings. Movies with depressing endings tend to not do as well in American theaters because when we were children we were taught that everything always ends happily. For example, “Dodgeball” originally had Vince Vaughn’s team losing, and that was it. How much would that have sucked? I apologize, I’m getting away from the point here. There is a moment in “Source Code” where I thought it had ended, and to be honest with you it wasn’t the “happy” ending I had thought was coming, but I was okay with that. What I thought I was seeing was perfect as it wrapped up the story, didn’t leave any questions to be asked, and it just…fit. But a couple seconds later I sat back down in my chair as it continued, and kind of went a different way than expected. Don’t take this as a reason not to see the movie, you should definitely give it a watch because there aren’t enough “smart” movies like this anymore. When you get to the end try to remember what I just said and see if you agree with me. Are you more like the majority of Americans or can you point out a truly good ending when you see one?

DIRECTOR’S CUT: Jake Gyllenhaal has always been an extremely talented actor in all veins, and “Source Code” doesn’t miss the mark. Try to keep up as it’s fast, but I guarantee you won’t be let down by the credits.