Back Seat Producers

A school teacher named Sean Fentress wakes from a disturbing sleep on board a train.  He’s sitting across from his friend an attractive woman named Christina Warren.  Christina’s engaging Sean in some banter, but he’s hugely disoriented.  He believes himself to be an Air Force Captain named Colter Stevens and with immediate memories of being in combat.  He scurries about the train, trying to figure out why he’s there, all to Christina’s amusement.  Then, within moments, the train explodes.

This same man then awakens within some sort of capsule.  He’s being addressed as Captain Colter Stevens by an officer on the other end of a communications station named Collen Goodwin.  Goodwin is asking Stevens about his mission and whether he’s found the bomb that is onboard this train.  Stevens is just as confused about his situation now as he was moments ago.  He’s being informed that he’s about to be sent back to the train and as it was previously, he only has eight minutes to find out what he can.

That’s the opening sequences in the newest movie from director Duncan Jones called Source Code. Previously, Duncan Jones made the excellent low budget science fiction film Moon with a tour-de-force performance from actor Sam Rockwell.  With Source Code, Jones shows us that lightning does indeed strike twice.  This is the best movie I’ve seen this year thus far.

Though my description of the opening is vague about all that’s really happening, Jones and writer Ben Ripley, do indeed reveal all as this unfolds.  They do it in such a way that only little bits and pieces are revealed as the movie moves along, always keeping their audience on their toes.  This is a hard science fiction movie that never talks down to it’s audience right up to it’s very surprising ending.

I’d expect that the budget for Source Code is quite a bit more than it was for Moon though still significantly smaller than other Hollywood movies.  Regardless of that, this looks terrific.  It’s very well shot and it’s pace is extremely brisk.  The action is all punctuated with a terrific score from composer Chris Bacon who right from the start almost seems to be channeling the late great Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Herrmann.  This score makes this feel like Source Code would be the sort of science fiction movie that Alfred Hitchcock would make, if he made science fiction films.

That’s high praise indeed, and I think Jones and his crew deserve every little bit they can get.

When he made Moon it offered actor Sam Rockwell a chance to really put his skills to work.  Jones has a bigger cast with Source Code and while they don’t necessarily get the same chance that Rockwell had with Moon they’re still excellent here.

Jake Gyllenhaal leads the cast as Colter Stevens and he’s fantastic.  Stevens is smart and charismatic and we want him to win the day.  That’s all to Gyllenhaal’s credit.  Michelle Monaghan plays Christina and the way she plays her, it’s obvious from the start why Colter Stevens would be attracted and want to do all he can for her.  Vera Farmiga plays Goodwin and I’ve been a big fan of her’s for awhile now, ever since seeing her with Paul Walker in Running Scared. She does not disappoint her playing an obviously disciplined officer who still becomes wrapped up in Stevens’ plight.  Jeffrey Wright plays Dr. Rutledge, the creator of the Source Code system. Wright handles the part with cool confidence.  One nice little extra in the casting is Scott Bakula as the voice of Stevens’ father during a brief phone conversation.  As what’s really happening to Stevens becomes revealed, this little bit of casting is a nice nod to fans of Bakula’s old television series, Quantum Leap.

I absolutely loved Source Code and look forward to seeing it again down the road.  Source Code is smart and engaging science fiction with surprises at every turn and terrific performances from four actors at their prime.  I can’t wait to see what Duncan Jones does next.  Don’t miss this…

(Note: The following review was ungraciously swiped from Tee Morris’ blog at www.teemorris.com.  This review is not printed by permission, but is instead published under the Fair-Use doctrine of copyright law. Specifically the ‘Triple-Dog Dare you’ portion of the law.)

Director and Writer Zack Snyder can really make a beautiful movie. Snyder set his own style with films like 300 andWatchmen, but has also come under fire for making movies that lack depth or are very “comic book” in their almost balletic approach to graphic violence. When you consider his last two films were pulling from (wait for it!) graphic novels, it makes you want to bitch slap critics. Perhaps this is why critics (and perhaps, some moviegoers) have been overly critical of Snyder’s latest film, Sucker Punch.

On reading some of these reviews, though, I have to ask “Did you see the same film as I did?” I not only loved Sucker Punch, I am here to tell you that missing this on the big screen would be a crime. It is original. It is surprising. It is intelligent.

What is isn’t is what the critics are making it out to be: Geekboy Titillation.

Now there’s no denying it: Snyder covers all of the bases in this flick. Sucker Punch offer up zombies, steampunk, dragons,  WWII bombers, and katana swordfights. And yes, all of the gunfire and swordplay is happening with women who all just happen to be hot.

Quite hot.

Smoking hot, as a matter of fact.

But the titillation critics rant on and on about just isn’t there. I didn’t find anything really “stimulating” about Sucker Punch unless you count the alternate realities where our femme fatales are kicking surrealistic asses in a variety of ways. Snyder’s signature “artistic action” sequences could hardly be described as “erotic” in their video game brutality. (And the more I think about that, the more I come to understand why Snyder’s fantasy sequences are so epic. You have to see the movie to catch it.) An episode of Sailor Moon or Bubblegum Crisis has more titillation than Sucker Punch. What shouldbe titillating — Baby Doll’s hypnotic dance that segues into her own imagination — we never see. All we see is the reaction to it, and that is really intriguing.

Before any of my female readers comment with “If this isn’t geekboy pr0n, why then are Sucker Punch’s insanely attractive women so scantily clad in the action sequences? I mean, where’s the realism? What’s with the high heels in the giant samurai sequence?” I would like to present a few visual aids to end this debate.

History tell us that this is Sparta:

Frank Miller and Zack Snyder, on the other hand, tells us that

THIS — IS — SPARTA:

This just in from Zack Snyder: “You’re welcome, ladies.”

Critics have also been making references that the principle players as “happy hookers” and “sensitive strippers.” Both of these assessments are completely and utterly wrong, and ruin the subtext running through this film. While these girls are carrying stripper names like “Rocket,” “Sweet Pea,” and “Baby Doll” (the lead), and while they are exotic dancers performing extravagant burlesque productions, they are not hookers nor are they strippers. And they’re not “happy” by a longshot. They’re sex slaves.

Let me say that again: These girls are sex slaves.

When you accept that uncomfortable fact, the whole mood of Sucker Punch changes; but from the opening — a very bleak, powerful opening telling the backstory of Baby Doll’s arrival to the insane asylum — this movie makes it clear that this is not a fun ride we are undertaking. This is the kind of darkness that makes Synder’s Watchmen look like an episode of Super Friends (the first season with Marv and Wendy…who were those kids anyway?!), and adds a sense of desperation for the girls daring to escape. Calling them “hookers/strippers with hearts of gold” really could not be farther from these characters’ dismal collected truth.

And when you consider the reality that Baby Doll is truly escaping, this tale takes an even darker spin.

That’s where I nurture a growing respect for Sucker Punch: it’s amazing layer-like quality and intelligence. Sucker Punch keeps you guessing as to where the lines of reality reside. Perhaps this is another reason why critics are coming out hard against this movie: Snyder made a geeky action movie that you have to pay attention to when watching it. This is a tale of redemption, and the lines of what is real and what isn’t are blurred just enough that when you walk out of the film, you are trying to piece together what was real and what wasn’t. Giving away any details right now would be spoilerific so I will simply say the ending completely caught me off-guard. How things play in the finale, which you discover isn’t the finale you were expecting, are a complete and utter surprise.

Perhaps this is why critics are so “angry” about Sucker Punch: They didn’t see this coming. But isn’t that the title right there? I was waiting for this movie to jump the rails. Pip was, too. It’s the morning after and I’m still waiting! Sucker Punch was not even close to what I was expecting, and I loved experiencing it on the IMAX big screen.

And concerning Sucker Punch’s soundtrack, I rank it right up there with the music from Scott Pilgrim Versus The World. Sweet crapbuckets, did this soundtrack ever rock! Props to Snyder, Tyler Bates, and producers for coming up with some fantastic covers and a Queen mash-up that gave me goosebumps!

In the age of reboots, remakes, and comic book movies, Sucker Punch is a breath of fresh air and originality, along the same lines as Inception and Black Swan. Dismiss the critics on this one, and go see it. If you can catch it on IMAX, do so as the bigger screen just makes Snyder’s composition — even the ones based in reality — breathtaking. You may be pleasantly surprised. You might walk out wondering what the hell you’ve seen, but you will be talking about it. Consider the tagline: “You will be unprepared.”

I was. Delightfully so.

As this movie begins, we see the 20-year old girl who becomes known as Baby Doll on a theatrical stage, which immediately shifts over to her “real” life in presentation.  She’s frightened because her mother is at death’s door and she and her little sister are looking at spending their lives with their wicked stepfather.  Baby Doll’s fears are realized and her stepfather is livid over the idea that the girls stand to take everything from their mother’s inheritance.  He lashes out and intends to inflict sexual harm on the girls, but Baby Doll fights back, inadvertently killing her little sister in the process.  With the police on his side, the stepfather has Baby Doll committed to an asylum where he has signed papers to have her lobotomized.  With five days remaining to her before the procedure, Baby Doll attempts to escape using the power of her imagination.

That’s a pretty simplistic overview of the set-up for Sucker Punch the latest movie from visionary director Zack Snyder.  Now I’m a big fan of Snyder’s, I’ve loved all of his previous films which include the re-make of Dawn of the Dead, and adaptations of Frank Miller’s 300, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen and Kathryn Lasky’s Guardians of Ga’Hoole adapted as Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. They’ve all been very entertaining rides extremely true to their sources and so for me, Snyder has been batting a thousand…

… and stee-rike one!  Well, to be fair, it isn’t a total loss, there’s a lot to recommend about Sucker Punch and good portions of it that I did find extremely entertaining and I expect for a certain audience range, they’ll think this is pretty special.  To some extent, they’re right to do so, though I expect that all depends on how much you want this to weigh with it’s narrative as opposed to it’s flash and style.

A popular thing to do with music these days is the mash-up, merging together two songs for something that will be effective.  Sucker Punch is the ultimate mash-up movie.  From the start, to me, it looks like Snyder is mashing together filmmaking styles like those of Jean Jeunet and Dario Argento.  This shifts over to a mash-up of genres from samurai movies, to fantasy movies to war movies to science fiction movies to anime to psychological drama.  In the big picture sense, it could be seen as a mash-up of a high-powered action movie with a musical thanks to it’s effective use of songs.  To a comic book fan, I’d describe this as Danger Girl creator J.Scott Campbell’s version of Shutter Island.

On this level, Sucker Punch succeeds wildly as sensory overload.  The action sequences occurring in Baby Doll’s mind are absolutely spectacular and one of them in particular involving Baby Doll and friends assaulting a train filled with killer robots is about as good as an action sequence gets.

Where this falls apart though is in it’s narrative, but again, that’s only if that’s going to be that big a deal to you.  it was for me simply because with a few more scenes, this could’ve been filled out to actually have that make sense in it’s own way.  Baby Doll, obviously a female, tries to find her escape through her imagination.  Only her imagination is that of a twenty-something male who plays a lot of video games and reads a lot of comics and fantasy fiction.  Now I know that may sound entirely sexist, but without any sort of set-up, that’s just how it comes off. Some sort of scene showing Baby Doll embracing these male fantasies near the start could’ve gone a long way to making this make sense, but as it is, it doesn’t.  At the same time, I don’t necessarily think that’s a major concern of Snyder’s either.

The end of the film, literally the sucker punch the title refers to basically comes at you from left field.  it’s really hard to go into this without spoiling it, and I don’t want to spoil it.  But again, a little more set-up into that could’ve gone a long way to making that a lot more effective.

Finally there’s Baby Doll and the other girls.  While in the asylum, Baby Doll builds a friendship with four other girls, Sweet Pea, Rocket, Blondie and Amber.  The actresses involved, Emily Browning as Baby Doll, Abbie Cornish as Sweet Pea, Jena Malone as Rocket, Vanessa Hudgens as Blondie and Jamie Chung as Amber all come off as very plastic.  They’re pretty good together in the action scenes, but scenes with them “bonding” just tended to make me snicker a bit.  On the other hand though, this characterization  and their look are true to some anime I’ve seen and so on that level, I guess it does work.

What works better for me are the brief appearances by Carla Gugino as Dr. Gorski, the doctor in charge of the girls and Jon Hamm as the doctor who’s scheduled to give Baby Doll her lobotomy.  Oscar Isaac plays the orderly who’s essentially the villain of the piece, and really he just wasn’t that threatening.  Scott Glenn plays an advisor of sorts in Baby Doll’s fantasies and he certainly lends some credibility to them.

In the end, as a sight and sound experience, Sucker Punch is indeed spectacular and is about as well technically made as it gets. I’d actually like to see this again, but on a second viewing, I’d like to see it with a Zack Snyder commentary just to get into his mind about what he was wanting to accomplish with this.  As a story, it’s all pretty shallow though it tries to give the impression that there’s a lot more depth to it.  With a few more scenes, that could’ve been resolved to some extent, but as it is, I really didn’t find a lot to give a damn about when it comes to the actual characters of the piece.  This isn’t for everybody by any means, it’s a love letter of sorts to all of the stuff that Snyder is a fan of which just happens to be a lot of the same stuff that fans of genre fiction, comics and video games share.  I’ve heard some refer to it as a love it or hate it movie.  Well, for me, I was in the middle, and so this gets a marginal recommendation.