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charlielafferty1
Reviews
Series 7: The Contenders (2001)
Hunger Games before the Hunger Games
Series 7 is what I'd like to call a "thrilledy" or a comedy/thriller. It's a movie about a fictional reality television show called "The Contenders" that takes six people and forces them to fight to the death. Five of the contenders are newly, randomly chosen people who are pulled from a "lottery." They are handed a gun as a way of welcoming them into the show. The sixth contender is the winner from the previous season of the show.
It is the Hunger Games before the Hunger Games even existed. Although the contenders aren't necessarily children, young people are not ruled out of the lottery. For instance, one of the contenders in the show is a 17 year old girl. The movie goes from being darkly hilarious to just plain dark as the show's contests show no mercy in killing the other one, no matter who they are.
Shot mockumentary style, the movie is very fun and constantly keeps the audience on the edge of their seat; there's no telling what's going to happen next, who's going to die, or who's going to eventually come out on top. Although the ending is a little lackluster, overall the movie is very worthwhile. There's also a cameo by Will Arnett before he was Will Arnett! (And all I really mean by this is before he was famous). Hilarious and dark, Series 7 is not only a great movie, but its also a very interesting look at human beings and what we call entertainment.
Brick (2005)
A new precedent for modern noir films
I'll avoid going into any strong details as there are already plenty of good reviews on here for that. What I will document is the overall theme and why this film has stood the test of time now for 10 years as of this writing.
One of the things that stands out so much in this movie is the dialogue. The high schoolers all speaking like adults and self aware. That somehow grounds the whole ordeal into more accessible and believable world for us to digest and prevents it from becoming a 'teen movie'.
The detective story kicks off in prompt fashion, and it's both creepy and slow (in a good way). It then adds layers of mystery upon mystery and keeps the viewer immersed in this world that writer/director Rian Johnson created. Joseph Gordon Levitt is in peak form here, already an industry veteran at the time of filming, evoking a clever teen who refuses to stop investigating the death of the girl.
Modern detective films are hard to come by these days, especially good ones, so I'm glad this one is around as an always wonderful 'go-to' choice when in the mood for neo noir.