Reviews

Whatever talent the director has, limited though it is to long takes, is completed wasted on this ponderous glorification of violence, abuse, and sexual exploitation. The movie plods through one unimaginative scene of motiveless brutality after another. There is no point to anything that is shown. There is no plot, there is no character development. Worst of all, there is no point to it, unless the director delivering sadism to an audience craving voyeurism for cruelty is the point. Other movies portray violence with honesty (Relentless, The Nightingale, and The Painted Bird spring to mind) but they had substance beyond the portrayal of violence. Kmen is a disgusting disgrace with no redemption for its one-dimensional characters or itself.

Yes, the acting, direction, cinematography, continuity, and special effects (did I leave anything out?) are very amateurish. It does look like most of it was edited on an Amiga, amended with random clip art, with many shots in equally random order. Nevertheless, there is something preferable to this version of the classic novel over the Hollywood versions.

In today's movies, the primary measure of whether it is "good" or not is whether it has bigger, louder special effects and actions scenes than last month's action movie. Most Hollywood action movies have just as many continuity errors as this one and while they have thrown more money at CGI, they too frequently defy all logic and laws of physics. Today's action movies are geared to please puerile testosterone-laden teenage boys with little thought to character or plot; as long as the teens can fist pump each other over the latest explosion it's fine.

A major message of Wells's novel was the naive complacency of a humanity so sure of their superiority. It was not an uncommon theme in that era of the new "science fiction" and is not an uncommon theme today. But today's movies tell us we will always be saved by our heroes and our technology (testosterone reigns supreme). This film does capture Well's human naiveté as people go about their business confident the army will take care of things, then it captures the lostness and despair when things aren't taken care of. This film doesn't go for hero worship. Nor does not go for the typical maudlin, cheap theatrics (except for that shot of a woman being crushed by the foot of a Martian tripod), macho posturing, or cheap laughs. Extremely rare in any films, we get, in this amateur effort, a glimpse of humanity.

That this film used amateur actors actually makes the film more realistic--not that it makes up for the other completely unrealistic elements. Hollywood's endless parade of overly manicured male and female The lead actor, Anthony Piana, actually turned in a better performance than many "actors" in big budget movies. Most viewers probably never made it that far, but the extended scene late in the film with our protagonist in the ruined house hit by a Martian cylinder was well-paced and well shot and quite credible.

A side note: the musical score was probably the highest quality aspect of the film.

Second side note: yeah, snide reviewers, the film has a lot of scenes of walking. Guess what, geniuses, our protagonists in the middle of complete chaos kind of had to walk. It's not realistic in the Hollywood blockbusters that a truck or helicopter always magically arrives at exactly the right moment to whisk away the protagonist to safety.

The quality is bad, but at least this film has a soul. At least this film fried to tell a story, rather than simply wow a teenage audience with flash and noise. It's kind of sad that people want the bland pabulum of today's movies, preferring shiny, empty fakery, giving high reviews to that dren while taking pot shots at this flawed, but honest effort.

The Muppets have always struggled to overcome the deep-seated notion that puppets are for children. So, despite yet another product out of Jim Henson studios that is more intelligent and inventive than most television fare, too many people are passing it by.

To Brian Henson's great credit, he has managed to recreate the 1970s The Muppet Show for the vastly different entertainment landscape of the 2010s without pandering to the more puerile elements of "reality television." Henson has moved the concept from vaudeville theatre to the contemporary action game show genre. Like the original, the scenes switch between on-stage and backstage actions and the real life celebrity game show guests are on equal footing with the backstage Muppets and their everyday problems. Henson wisely does not use any previous Muppet characters, creating a new batch of personalities, mostly human rather than animals, unlike most Muppets. Through it all, the show gently skewers the cult of celebrity and the absurdity of television today. Some of the skits and bits are inspired, like Sausisong and Paddlestar Galactica. Not all of it works but that is to be expected from a new show. The first few episodes of The Muppet Show were not that good either but it grow into one of the great series in television history.

I hope viewers and the BBC give the show a chance and a second series to grow. It is doubtful it will ever top its inspiration but it sure is better than yet another retread of the pabulum genres of almost every other "entertainment" show on television today.

This film is a vanity project from a young man. He obviously saw "What the Bleep Do We Know?" a few years ago and wanted to duplicate that sense of wonder about the mysteries of existence. So there is a large tossed salad of "repurposed" footage and photos of body parts and outer space and how amazing it all is. The production values can't rival what "What the Bleep" which is forgivable given budget limits but the earlier film had a substantial message which, even if you disagreed with its pseudo-mystical aspirations (think "The Secret" and the Law of Attraction), was easily understood. Unfortunately, Ontologica promises to tell us about everything but ends up saying little about anything other than try to wow us with a sensory overload of quick-cut editing. Apparently, Ontologica tells us the universe is cool and even better experienced under the influence of drugs, but beyond that there isn't much for a philosophical mind to chew over. The pseudo-mystic aspirations are there but this movie will disappoint anyone looking for a mind-expanding experience.

The "spaghetti western in space" motif would work if the characters were compelling and the production sharp. Firefly doesn't work because the characters are unlikeable and the plots, directing, and editing are a mess. Every person on the show is two-dimensional cliché from either 50's TV or 70s Italian westerns. Captain Mal is a cheap imitation of Charles Bronson's stock western persona and is surrounded by all of the usual suspects: the trusty sidekick, the hooker with a heart of gold, the young chipper girl, the hot head, the preacher, and the fashionable handsome pacifist doctor. Joss Whedon desperately wants to be Sergio Leone in this series but has neither the budget or time to pull it off. The level of production is reminiscent of bad 70s television series with multiple continuity errors, jarring transitions, and little sense of pacing or atmosphere. Maybe he doesn't know what to do with anyone but teenagers and vampires. If one compared Firefly to other science fiction series it is not horrible, maybe even average, but then Firefly really isn't science fiction. There isn't a single plot element in any episode that isn't straight out of an earth-bound spaghetti western. Spaceships and planets are mentioned, but are superfluous because Whedon is more interested in playing with his cowboys with their horses and guns. I won't be totally mean and give it one star, but it certainly doesn't deserve more than two. Yes, Fox unfairly screwed with the series by showing episodes out of order, but they probably knew this stinker would tank no matter what they did.