Hardcore Henry (2016)

Hardcore Henry (2016)

Director: Ilya Naishuller

Cast: Sharlto Copley

Hardcore Henry is an amazing movie in many ways; first off, let’s start this out by saying that this film was partially funded by an Indiegogo campaign, Indiegogo is a crowd funding website. For those of you who don’t know what crowd funding is, well, basically these are websites in which you can promote your project. You post a target amount that you want to reach and if people like it, they will give you their money in order for you to complete your dream project. Once you reach your desired budget, the site keeps a small percent, and you keep the rest to complete your project. A lot of films have been funded this way. The nazi zombie movie Iron Sky (2012) and Rob Zombies 31 (2016) come to mind. Well, Hardcore Henry was the dream project of Ilya Naishuller, the film’s director. Before this, he’d only directed music videos for his band ‘Biting Elbows’, which were shot in a similar fashion. So impressively enough; this is Naishuller’s first feature film. It’s groundbreaking in some ways, while repetitive in others, either way you won’t be able to stop watching it.

This is the story of Henry, a guy who wakes up with no memory of who he might have been. All he knows is that someone is always chasing him and trying to kill him and that these same people have stolen his wife away, so he has to save her. The innovative element of the film is that it’s all told from the first person perspective. Sure other films have had first person view segments, but this film is entirely told this way, so basically, we are Henry, we are running and jumping and shooting. If you’re a fan of first person shooters, you will absolutely love this movie. If on the other hand you’re the kind of person who gets dizzy or nauseous watching this type of point of view, don’t bother, because it goes on for the whole film. But, if you can take this sort of thing, you’re in for a trip!

Hardcore Henry reminded me of Robocop (1987)because it’s about a cyborg trying to remember who he used to be, who he loved, so it’s a film in which the main character has an identity crisis. In terms of pacing, it reminded me also of the frenetic nonstop pace of Crank (2006) and Crank 2: High Voltage (2009), if you haven’t seen either of these films, well, basically they are nonstop action fests in which something crazy happens every five seconds in which reality doesn’t really apply. It’s exaggerated action, like that of a comic book or sci-fi film. Hardcore Henry is this type of film, it’s none stop insanity on top of insanity. The cool thing is that when crazy shit happens, you feel it’s happening to you. I dug this element of it, which is what I personally love about first person shooters; you feel things more intensely then on third person games, or watching a regular movie.

Sharlto Copley steals the show on this one because even though Henry is the main character, we never see him, we ARE him. Who we do see most of the time is Sharlto Copley who plays this crazy scientist who clones himself, so we see different versions of him pop up all throughout the film, each one crazier than the next! This one’s a giant coke head, that one smokes weed, that one is a homeless person and so on. It’s pretty amusing, so it’s basically Sharlto Copley’s show here. But aside from Copley, the real star of the film is the style in which it was made. The movie just keeps blowing you away with the way things were shot. I kept asking myself how the hell they shot some of the scenes! Actually, there’s this one moment in the film, which to me was the apex of the whole thing where I just had to clap, I almost stood up and screamed in movie buff delight at this amazing sequence. It’s towards the finale; you’ll know it when you see it because you’ll be blown away. Does it have any flaws? Well, in this type of film I’m not exactly looking for depth or anything, for the kind of film it is, we get exactly what we’re supposed to get. You never get bored, you get cool effects, none stop action and effects. My only gripe was maybe that there’s so much shooting going on that at one point it feels repetitive. But that quickly dissipates when we go to the next awesome shot. Final word is, I recommend Hardcore Henry. It’s groundbreaking stuff because no film has ever been done entirely in first person, and not only that, the filmmakers truly exploited this angle of the film. They really put Henry in some crazy situations where you get the most out of the whole first person thing. Hardcore Henry is worth going to the movies to see, it was a real adrenaline infused surprise.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Chappie (2015)

Chappie (2015)

Director: Neil Blomkamp

Cast: Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Sharlto Copley, Ninja, Yo-landi Visser, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver

When you see Chappie, you immediately know it’s a Neil Blomkamp movie. It has his signature all over it. Let’s see, it was shot in Africa (like his previous two films) it stars Sharlto Copley and it has robots engraved into the story, all elements we've seen in his previous films. What I like about Blomkamp’s films is that they always have something to say. His films are very socially conscious; they are never just empty spectacles. For example District 9 (2009) spoke of racism, Elysium (2013) spoke of classism and now here we have Chappie, Blomkamp’s third film. What does this talented director have to talk about this time?

Chappie is all about these armor plated attack robots that are used by the South African police force to pacify and protect the country. These robot cops have proven effective in reducing crime in the country. Deon Wilson, the robots designer, has invented a chip that can make the robots sentient. In other words, he can make these robots think and feel on their own. Problem is that his ideas sound too radical for his superiors, so they deny him the permission to move forward with his sentient chip. In a desperate move to “shape life and not let life shape you” he decides to steal a robot that was meant to be scrapped and installs the chip on it in this way jump starting the first sentient form of artificial intelligence. Unfortunately when the robot becomes conscious, it has the intelligence of a child. It learns fast, but it is very naïve. What happens when Chappie ends up with the wrong crowd?

Blomkamp infused Chappie with elements from many films that he grew up watching. For example, the first idea that popped into my head while watching Chappie was that Neil Blomkamp should have been the director for the Robocop (2014) reboot. Here’s a guy who really, truly understands the themes that a film like Robocop plays with. In fact, one look at Chappie and it’s obvious that Blomkamp’s a huge fan of Paul Verhoeven’s original Robocop (1987), especially those scenes where we see the robot police force at work. When Chappie’s taking the world in, like a little baby, it reminded me of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit (1986), especially in those scenes in which Chappie is learning all about life and death. All I could think about was Johnny 5 saying “Johnny 5 is ALIVE!” Those scenes in which Chappie is taken advantage of by a bunch of hoodlums to do questionable things reminded me of those scenes in Edward Scissorhands (1990) when Edward is dooped into committing a felony without even knowing it because he is so naive. Those scenes where Chappie goes up against a huge clunky robot brought to mind the climactic confrontation in Robocop 2 (1990), where Robocop destroys the city as he fights against a bigger Robocop. In fact, if we’re to go even deeper into Chappie’s influences, we discover that it plays with the ideas of transferring consciousness into an artificial body, a theme we saw played out in Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell (1995), hell, Chappie even has a little bit of Appleseed in its design, I’m speaking of Chappie's rabbit ears of course.  As you can see, Chappie has elements from many films that deal with similar subject matter. 

Okay, so Chappie is influenced by a gazillion movies (what movie isn’t these days?), but what is it about? As it turns out Chappie talks about some very important themes, it speaks about the importance of who brings up a child. One of the theories of human learning says that Humans learn by imitation, we copy others behavior. This is true with children who repeat everything we say and do everything they see us do. Some of us get decent role models, but some of us get terrible parents who are terrible role models. The question Chappie asks is what happens when our role models are violent people with no morals? What if our role models believe stealing and killing is okay? Will we grow up to become robbers and killers? Chances are we will. The film stresses the importance of good parenting, good education and good role models in our lives. The movie goes into deeper territory when Chappie’s knowledge grows and he starts to ask ‘the big questions’. Why must we die? Why make us with an expiration date? It’s no coincidence that Chappie’s creator is called Deon, which sounds like Deus, which is Latin for God. So we have the creation asking its creator for more life. Like the androids in Blade Runner (1982), Chappie also wants more life. So yeah, Chappie has its themes. It’s not an empty shell.

The cast is an eclectic bunch. We have the participation of Die Antwoord the African rap/rave band, who by the way also supply the music for the film, not the best performances in the film, but also not terrible. Dev Patel does good as Chappie’s creator. We have Hugh Jackman as a ‘villain’ which is a first for Jackman who never plays villains. Sigourney Weaver is on board as the head of the corporation that builds the robots. She has a small role, which lately is all she’s been getting, but that’s okay with me because due to her small part in Chappie, she’s just started working with Blomkamp on the next installment of the alien franchise, which I’m all kinds of excited about. Every alien movie is different, because there’s always a different director behind the cameras. I’m looking forward to Blomkamp’s take on the alien universe, I’m sure robots will be involved somehow.  As far as Chappie goes, it was an enjoyable entertaining ride with something relevant to say. The effects work was fantastic, I loved the way Chappie looks, it’s a cool design. Chappie looks very similar to the robots on Blomkamp’s early short film Tetra Vaal (2004); which by the way served as the basis for Chappie. So far, Blomkamp hasn’t let me down as a director, looking forward to his future films. It’s fantastic to count with a director who so far has totally devoted himself to the science fiction genre, haven’t had one of those in quite some time.  

Rating: 4 out of 5 

Elysium (2013)

Title: Elysium (2013)

Director: Neil Blomkamp

Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, William Fichtner, Alice Braga, Sharlto Copley, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura

Elysium comes to us from director Neil Blomkamp, the guy behind the critically acclaimed box office hit District 9 (2009), a fantastic film in my book because it speaks about racial differences and the need for different races to show empathy towards one another. In that film, aliens arrive on earth and are initially welcomed by humanity, but after a few years, that welcome wears off and transforms to xenophobia. It isn’t long before the aliens are segregated and end up living in these refugee camps that have turned into ghettos. The main character of the film is a human immigration officer named Wikus, a man who has been appointed the task of giving the aliens eviction notices that let them know they are now being relocated. One thing leads to another and Wikus ends up turning into an alien. He quickly learns what it means to be persecuted, he feels the unfair treatment; he gets to understand what being on the other side is all about. Blomkamp figures that the best way to know what racism feels like is by experiencing it yourself, which is what is so brilliant about District 9, you feel racism first hand, you feel it’s happening to you. Racism is something humanity has yet to outgrow; Blomkamp knows it and wants you to experience it. On Disctrict 9 the main character is part of an oppressing force in society, but then he becomes the oppressed, he becomes the one that’s persecuted, he suddenly knows what it means to be on the other side of the equation. And that was just Blomkamp’s first film! District 9 made such an impact that the film was nominated for four academy awards including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, something of a rarity for science fiction films. So of course he was going to move up in the film world, of course we were going to see another film by him. So here comes Elysium, Blomkamp’s sophomore effort, his second film. How was it?

On Elysium the world as we know it has gone to shit, essentially, earth is one giant dumpster, the poor live down here on earth, while the rich and privileged live on a gigantic spaceship hovering close to earth called ‘Elysium’. The story revolves around Max, a blue collar worker who ends up having a horrible work related accident and is suddenly faced with the fact that he only has five days to live! What can he do in order to survive? Well, if you were rich and lived on Elysium you’d simply get inside something called a ‘Med-Pod’ and cure yourself, but that’s only if you live in Elysium, if not, then you die because you are not one of the privileged, you my friend are scum. But what if there was a way to make these machines available to everyone? What if someone could infiltrate Elysium, reboot the whole system so that everyone can benefit from these Med-pod’s? This becomes Max’s mission, for he is not about to die any time soon!

First thing I noticed right away was how similar Elysium is to District 9 in terms of themes. This film is also about one group of people being neglected and oppressed by others. The whole thing with the rebels trying to get into Elysium felt a heck of a lot like Mexicans trying to cross the American border, so in that sense, it is also felt like it was addressing racial issues. The difference between both films is that while District 9 presented us with themes of xenophobia and racism, Elysium focuses more on themes of classism. But then again, class issues and racial issues function in the same ways, so yeah, the films are very similar in this way. We’re basically talking about one group of humans thinking they are superior to another which is kind of disgusting because we’re all humans on this spaceship called earth, so what’s the point? Why do some humans feel the need to bring others down? I personally find the idea repulsive and nauseating, as should every one of you out there my friends. We should aim to help each other, not exploit each other. So I immediately found the themes in Elysium fascinating because they speak of the world we live in today. After the success of Elysium, Blomkamp said that he’s been asked about how he sees the future, how he thinks the world will be and his answer was that the film isn’t so much about the future, that it’s about the world as it is NOW, which is a fantastic reply. This lets us know that Elysium is the best kind of sci-fi, it’s the kind that reflects society, it holds a mirror to it.

I mean, wouldn’t it be better if those that achieved success and wealth in the world used that power for the good of all humanity as opposed to propelling a society that is built on the idea of exploiting those less fortunate? This is what happens in the world today, and it’s just another form of slavery if you ask me. We don’t have people putting literal chains on others, but there’s symbolic chains, you know what I mean? The way society is constructed benefits the wealthy and ignores the poor. One of example of this are the roads in my country of Puerto Rico. You go into a rich neighborhood and you see the streets paved, the street lights illuminating every street corner, the garbage picked up, but if you go into a poor neighborhood you see streets filled with gigantic holes (because the government doesn’t pave them) you see dark streets because light posts are shut off and the streets filled with garbage because the government doesn’t bother picking up the garbage on a regular basis. So yeah, there’s a difference in the way classes are treated. Wouldn’t it be better if everyone was treated fairly? I’m talking about my country here, but I’m sure this is the same in many countries; the poor side is ignored and treated unfairly, this is why ghetto’s exist. It’s a place to dump the poor so they don’t have to live next to you.  Sad part is all those poor people pay taxes as well; their money should pay for the cleaning up of their town as well. It should be enough to light all the streets and avoid dark areas that breed criminal activity. But alas, this is the world we live in and these are the lives were living.

And so, the same can be said of medical attention, which is a major issue in Elysium. On the film the Med-Pods are these miracle machines that can cure any decease, hell, they can even bring you back to life! According to the film, you can live forever if you are a citizen of Elysium! This part of the film talks about expensive medical plans that many people cannot afford to pay and the ridiculously high priced medicines. Ever had to take a pill that costs more than 70 dollars? I know people who have. Many can’t even afford paying a medical plan; they live life frightened of getting sick or needing major medical attention. Shouldn’t medical plans be more affordable? So the situations depicted in Elysium aren’t farfetched at all, only the wealthy get the best medical attention, the poor get the worst or none at all. The poor get sick and die faster. Why are things this way? Maybe this is the kind of situation that the powerful want? For poor people to die faster? Things to think about, and so, this is the main theme of Elysium, making quality medical attention affordable to everyone! How hard can it be? The same can be applied to education which is also kept expensive so only a certain group of people can get quality higher education, this is a vicious circle from which only the wealthy can benefit from .

Visually speaking the film is impressive, I mean, Elysium itself is a wonderful creation. It’s this gigantic spaceship/city hovering in space. By the way, this idea of a giant spaceship that harbors livable space inside of it reminded me a lot of Arthur C. Clarke’s amazing novel Rendezvous with Rama.  Anybody read that one? It’s one of my favorites of Clarke’s and basically, it’s about this gigantic spaceship that one day parks itself next to earth. The government then organizes a search party to enter it. They discover that inside of the ship there is a habitat, including a city, an ocean, artificial sunlight and plants…basically the same idea we see in Elysium. I’m thinking Blomkamp maybe read Randezvouz with Rama and was a bit inspired by it. Though the idea of spaceships with habitats inside of them is nothing new, I mean, this premise was also explored in Disney’s The Black Hole (1979), only in a far cheesier fashion. These similarities with Clarke’s novel got me thinking that Blomkamp would be the perfect director for a Rendezvous with Rama adaptation. By the way, Elysium also has elements from George Orwell’s 1984, and George Lucas’s THX-1138 (1971), especially when it comes to the whole thing with Max working in a robot factory, and the whole thing with the robotic police force. It also shares similarities with Johnny Mnemonic (1995).

An amazing cast brings this one to life, Matt Damon is great as Max, he pumped up for the part and looks like a tank for it. Jodie Foster is effectively icy as Delacourt, the person in charge of running Elysium. She's a nice lady to her rich costumers, the people of Elysium, but an icy cold bitch to those who want to try and enter into her special private little kingdom, kind of like the governments of the world who only cater to the wealthy. Sharlto Copley, the actor who played Wikus on District 9 reunites with Blomkamp once again. He plays Kruger, a killer/mercenary that the government hires to execute Max, interesting how the film alludes to the idea that governments sometimes rely on the help of criminals to achieve their goals. Copley really gives it his all here, dare I say he actually kind of outshines every other actor in the film.  I was also glad to see Diego Luna on this show, though he has a small part. So anyways, I’ve gone on long enough about Elysium, it’s a fantastic sci-fi film, the best kind, the kind that talks about the world we live in through its fiction. The success of the film has probably assured Blomkamp’s next film which will be called Chappie, looking forward to it. I’m happy that Blomkamp has rejected working on established science fiction properties like Star Trek or Star Wars (yup he’s gone down saying that) in order to stick to his more original stuff. What a fantastic concept, a director aiming to do something new and original, how about that?

Rating:  5 out of 5