My Feet Are Missing

Lately, my Saturdays typically involve watching two movies. Usually, I watch the biggest weekend release (Iron Man, Speed Racer, Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones) and then another one later that night, with no particular method of selection. Just get together with a few people (other film kids, usually) and watch something good.

Well, this last Saturday, there was no movie coming out that I was overly enthused about seeing in the theater, so I ended up watching two rented flicks, approximately ten hours apart. Both of them were (are) absolutely wonderful films, and for vastly different reasons--they're also slightly aged and little known, so I figured it would be good to get some fresh words out about both of them.

First of all, I want to say, quickly, that Water Horse is every bit as bad as you're afraid it will be when you watch the previews. I watched that one Friday night against my will. Luckily I had to ho home before it ended, an unexpected mercy. We were supposed to watch Equilibrium that night, but some of the people there were set on the former.

So Saturday morning rolled around and we finally got to sit down and watch Equilibrium. Christian Bale plays something called a Grammaton Cleric, which is basically a specially trained anti-resistance soldier who can do...well, pretty much anything with guns. The setting is post World War III, and the society that has been built up is sort of "1984"-esque, in that the leader of this particular distopia is referred to as "Father," and, oh yeah, people aren't supposed to feel anything. They are required to take a drug every day that inhibits passion of any kind in order to curb humanity's hate and fear (supposedly that which causes war), while also sacrificing love and true friendship. Those who refuse to take the drug are outcasts and form what is then referred to as the resistance.

There's the plot in summary. This is the kind of film that could have been really, really bad if it had been left to the wrong hands. But let me assure you, my dear reader, that they did it right. Christian Bale is phenomenal, and the action sequences are totally mind-blowing. The slow parts don't drag at all, and the drama is affecting beyond what you might expect. The film has it's flaws--I wouldn't call it perfect or even near unto it--but there are so many spectacularly brilliant scenes and sequences that more than make up for any weaknesses. It was so good that I had to exercise an enormous amount of self-control to not watch it again later that day.

It's rated R purely for violence, but the violence is very Matrix-y. In fact, I think The Matrix was bloodier, and as any Mormon Matrix fan will know, there was no legitimate reason for that film's rating.

This is a must see for any action-movie buff. And it's likely that you haven't seen it, because it came out right between the first two Matrix films, and I think had the same sort of flavor. But it's not a knock off, trust me, and in some ways, Christian Bale's hyper-action sci-fi flick is better. Don't get me wrong, I adore the first Neo film, but John Preston the Grammaton Cleric, First Class, is the real deal.