This movie is pure cheesy horror movie fun. The story is preposterous, the acting is way over the top, the effects are crazier than a crowd at a Sarah Palin rally, and it's got Salma Hayek in a cameo in it as well, what more could you want? It's seriously good fun if you like monsters from outer space taking over the planet movies, which I do. I like them almost as much as I do a good zombie movie.The only things bad about this movie are Josh Harnett's hair cut, it's modified on the poster so as not to scare off potential viewers, and Jon Stewart's entire performance. Yes, I know I just slammed Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, which I love, but believe me in this movie he sucks giant ass. While most of the movie is laughable in a good way, Stewart's performance is laughable in a bad way. He sucks when he tries to be a nebbish teacher and he sucks when he tries to be a hard ass alien. Don't let his bad acting get in the way of your watching this movie however, I wish it hadn't taken me so long to discover this little gem.
Speaking of movies it took me a long time to discover, I finally saw Das Boot, which came out in the early '80's, this past weekend. Over all this is a fine film and it tells a side of the World War 2 story you hardly ever hear, a story told from the German perspective. The film shows a snippet, well actually this version is quite a loooooong snippet because the director's cut version goes on for about 3 and half days, oh sorry, I meant hours, of the lives of a German submarine crew. You see the men for who they are, pawns caught up in a geo-political struggle for which degree of fascism is going to win the war between the Axis powers and the Allied powers. Yes, some of the soldiers on the sub are committed Nazi's who believe in the message of Hitler, but most are just men who were asked to serve their country and who did so because they loved their country but not necessarily the government that ran it.Jurgen Prochnow is outstanding in the role of the Captain of the submarine. He's become familiar to audiences outside of Germany for portraying mostly bad guys and villains, so it was nice to see him in a heroic role that required him to use all his many and varied acting skills.
I highly recommend this film but I'm warning you, if you see the version I did, the unrated director's cut, then be prepared for one long as hell movie.
7 comments:
I love a good submarine movie. The Hunt for Red October was one of my favorites (pinnnnnnnng!).
There is something about navigating in such a hostile environment with such little in the way of the usual navigation aids that really challenges the intellect.
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I was so hoping The Faculty would be a good B-movie, but Josh Hartnett? Are you kidding me? Hair aside, his incredibly high Duh factor makes me wonder why he keeps getting movie roles.
I remember the really cool thing about Das Boot was by the time the movie was over I felt as claustrophobic and ready for shore leave as the dudes on the sub
Two great movies! The Faculty is awesome, trashy stoopid b-movie fun. I liked Das Boot, too, but I've never seen the director's cut.
Love them both! The Faculty was filmed here in Austin (at this place: http://www.tsd.state.tx.us/, and possibly others) so it has an extra cool factor. I only saw Das Boot maybe last year too.
I remember watching the Academy Awards the year Das Boot came out, and my sister and I kept saying "What the heck is Das Boot!?" every time they were nominated for yet another award.
my hubby loves Das Boot. He is a big navel history freak though, especially of WWII. so guess what, I've watched that film a few times even if I didn't really want to. :)
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