Altered Carbon (Season 1)

There comes a point with a prison sentence that adding more years does nothing.  The longest life spans tend to be just past 100 years.  Being given a sentence of 250 years might as well be a million years.  Takeshi Kovacs lives in a future where that’s not a problem.  He finds himself at Alcatraz after serving those 250 years.

In this future, people have cortical stacks.  These stacks can store consciousness and memories, so that if one body, called a sleeve, dies, those memories and consciousness can be put into a new sleeve.  Some people have the body they were born with.  Others have the body someone else was born with.  Those that are rich can get clones of their original body.  There are even synthetic bodies, if you‘re in to that sort of stuff.

Takeshi is being released to solve the murder of Laurens Bancroft.  If Takeshi can find the man’s murderer, he gets a full pardon and more money than one could reasonably fathom.  Who’s hiring him?  Laurens Bancroft, of course.  You see, normally, a murder victim could tell you who the killer was. However, Bancroft’s stack was destroyed, meaning that his backup had to be used for the current clone.  It looks like a suicide, but Bancroft is convinced someone else did it.  The gun used was kept in a safe that only he or his wife could open, but someone else using one of their clones isn’t out of the question.

The future presented in Altered Carbon is one where the gap in wealth has gotten much wider.  Those that have money have everything they could want.  Those that don’t are condemned to live on the ground in squalor.  If you have money, you fear nothing.  You probably have at least one police officer on the payroll.  You can engage in almost any illegal activity you want.  You have enough clones that death means nothing.  Life is one long party.

The idea of transferring consciousness bothers me a little.  How do you know it’s really going to be you?  The idea that several characters have copies of themselves complicates the question.  Also, what does it mean to have missing memories?  These questions are dealt with, even if it’s tangentially.  Having a copy of yourself, called double sleeving, is illegal.  Bancroft’s memory loss is a problem for Takeshi and others, for several reasons.

I will say that there’s a lot of sex, nudity and violence in the series.  Most of the main characters appear naked at some point.  It’s excessive to the point of gratuity. (Not that I’m complaining.)  This is not a series for children.  Also, it appears that language isn’t as much of an issue in the future as it is now.  You’re going to have to pay attention to the subtitles occasionally.  On the plus side, you may pick up a few curse words in Spanish or German.

The series seems a little drawn out.  It’s a murder mystery over 10 episodes, each being about an hour.  It’s kind of like 24 in that regard.  The difference is that here, we’re not limited to a single day.  Almost a full episode is dedicated to Kovacs’s life in his original body.  We also get flashbacks to Kovacs’s previous life.  Parts of that previous life have come back to haunt him, which is where the extended story comes in.

I will say that Netflix has been producing some great original content.  I don’t know that it’s necessarily fair to compare the series to other TV shows or movies.  It does have a unique feel to it.  It is somewhat dark and could easily be viewed as dystopian, which is not unusual.  I’d say that it’s better to come into this series not expecting something else.  This isn’t Blade Runner.  It may be similar, but it’s not the same.

Right now, your only option for viewing the series, at least legally, is to have access to Netflix.  If you do decide to go for the free trial, this might be one of the series you look at.  You could easily watch it in a weekend.  The episodes don’t rely on cliffhangers, so it’s easier to break it up if you’re not into binge watching.   It’s a shame that I will probably have to wait a year for more episodes.  Given that the murder investigation is wrapped up, I’m curious to see how a second season plays out.


IMDb page

L.A. Confidential (1997)

In the Star Trek universe, we have the Cardassian race.  In a Deep Space Nine episode, Garak and Bashir were talking about Cardassian Enigma tales.  Bashir’s main complaint was that all of the suspects were guilty of something.  Garak points out that the fun of the stories was to figure out who was guilty of what.  L.A. Confidential is a bit like that.  It seems that all of the main characters (and many of the suspects) are guilty of something.  If they haven’t done something yet, they will.

The movie is set in Los Angeles in the 1950s.  Ed Exley is a by-the-book sergeant who wants work his way up the ranks.  Captain Dudley Smith asks him if he’d be willing to bend the rules; since the answer is no, Ed probably won’t make it far as a detective.  Bud White is more of what Smith would consider a good officer.  He’s someone who is willing to beat the crap out of a suspect if it means that a guilty person goes to jail.  Then, there’s Sergeant Jack Vincennes, who’s not above taking some money.  He works with Sid Hudgens, who publishes a tabloid.  Vincennes also works as a consultant on a Dragnet-type show.  If money is changing hands, one of those hands probably belongs to Vincennes.

Early in the movie, several prisoners find themselves in a jailhouse fight with several police officers, including Vincennes and White.  Exley witnesses it, but is powerless to stop it.  Since Exley testifies, he’s given a promotion, but is not well liked by his fellow police officers.  Still, life goes on for White, Vincennes and Exley.

As detective lieutenant, Exley responds to a call involving several murders, including that of a former police officer.  This leads to finding three suspects who appear to be guilty of the crimes.  Exley is considered a hero for solving the crime.  He’s not convinced that this is all there is to it.  Vincennes agrees to help Exley look into it, which opens up a can of worms neither of them expected.

There’s that famous line, “It’s not what it looks like.”  In all of the television and movie that I’ve watched, this is probably the one time that the line was uttered where it was true.  The movie is complicated.  If you miss a detail, you may not understand the rest of the movie.  There are certain aspects of the movie that aren’t what you might assume.

Everyone likes to think that they’re a good guy and there are some good guys in all of this.  However, all of the main characters eventually do something that’s less than good.  That seems to be the distinguishing characteristic between the main characters.  Exley is the one that is most willing to follow the rules.  He does make a few mistakes, but he likes to think he tries.  The trick is figuring out what, exactly, everyone is guilty of.

IMDb page

Things to Come (1936)

It’s difficult to judge a great movie.  Some are able to prove themselves relevant decades after their release while others have a social impact around the time release only to fade off into obscurity months or years later.  The movies my parents or grandparents liked or thought were great may seem quaint by the time the next generation comes of age.

Movies predicting technological or social advances tend to be problematic for this reason.  Sure, computers will get faster and smaller and will probably be much more useful in ten years.  It’s nearly impossible to predict their exact form.  For everything that Star Trek predicted, there are still things that haven’t come to pass or went in another direction altogether.  We have VR headsets rather than holodecks.  3D printing is sort of like a replicator, but I’m still waiting on something that can dispense something edible.

Things to Come was based on a story by H.G. Wells.  It stars in a place called Everytown on Christmas Day, 1940.  The threat of war looms, making it difficult for John Cabal to enjoy himself.  One friend, Harding, agrees.  Another friend, Pippa Passworthy, doesn’t.  Even if war does come to pass, it can’t help but stimulate the economy.

Well, war does come to pass that night, leading to decades of fighting with an unnamed adversary.  The Walking Plague kills half of humanity, leaving the rest in ruins.  Society degrades to the point where little, if any, technology still exists.  On May Day, 1970, an airplane lands outside the ruins of Everytown.  The pilot, none other than John Cabal, announces that the few remaining people with technical skill have banded together to reestablish society.  They’ve outlawed independent nations and have ended war.  Their new society is called Wings Over the World.

The Chief of Everytown wants none of that.  He’s not going to give up power so easily.  Wings Over the World is able to liberate John and the town, thus bringing them into the fold.  A series of images shows technology progressing and a new Everytown being built, this time underground.  Humans can produce their own air and sunlight as needed.  Everyone seems to live in peace.

Trouble doesn’t begin to stir until plans for a launch to the moon.  One segment of society doesn’t like the unending progress that humanity has made, instead preferring to maybe give it a rest for a while.  A space launch is dangerous, with lunar landings having proven fatal.  Why not hold off for a while?

Oswald Cabal and Maurice Passworthy are talking of sending another manned mission to the moon.  This time, it’s going to be a lunar orbit.  Their respective children make a case for going on the mission themselves.  A mob of angry people, not wanting the launch to proceed, force the launch ahead of schedule.  In the final scene, Cabal and Passworthy talk about the future of humanity.  What if we don’t progress?  What then?

I’m not sure how to judge Things to Come.  It has a strong anti-war message.  This makes sense in context.  At the time, war wasn’t far off.  This is something that the movie’s audience would have responded to.  Conflict is shown as destroying civilization whereas cooperation brings about progress.  However, progress isn’t perfect; unfettered progress can bring about conflict.

I’m not sure how much of an accurate prediction of the future the movie was supposed to be.  We have since landed on the moon, even doing a test orbit before putting someone on the lunar surface.  Some things were predicted with some degree of accuracy.  However, some things seem way off.  The final scenes take place in 2036.  I’m not sure we’ll be living underground in 20 years’ time.

I look at some of the predictions, like living underground, and wonder where they were going with this.  Underground cities might have some advantage, but it seems strange given the way that humanity actually went.  Predicting the end of civilization might seem a bit extreme, given that we’ve been able to survive two world wars.  However, World War II saw the destruction of cities and the deaths of millions of people.  The evens of this movie might not be that farfetched.

My biggest qualm with the movie is the quality.  From what I’ve read, several versions are still in existence and are of varying qualities.  I saw this movie as part of a nine-movie set; it contained the 97-minute version.  There were several parts that were of very poor audio and video quality.  I was able to make out most of the conversations, but I missed words here and there.  I wasn’t able to use captioning, which didn’t seem to come with the movie.

It’s also worth noting that the copyright lapsed in the United States, but has since been restored.  This may make finding the movie more difficult, as it’s no longer in the pubic domain.  I wouldn’t go out of your way to find it.  If you can see it on television or through Netflix, you can give it a shot, but I wouldn’t expect to make it the entire way through on the first try.

IMDb page

Grave of the Fireflies/Hotaru no haka (1988)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

There are some movies that seem to take on a life beyond what they were intended for. From what I understand, Grave of the Fireflies was originally written as a book by an author who needed to deal with some issues in his childhood. While I can’t really elaborate without ruining the story, I can say that the movie has become somewhat of an anti-war movie.

The movie takes place in Japan during the final months of World War II. Seita is a boy about high-school age. He works and goes to school, but both his school and place of employment are destroyed when Allied forces begin air raids on his home town. He’s told by his mother to look after his sister, Setsuko, and to make sure that they both get to the shelter safely. (Their father is in the Japanese Navy and is away at war.)

Both make it to safety, but are separated from their mother. After the raid, they find out that their mother didn’t fare well. She has to be taken to a hospital, but dies en route leaving the brother to look after his sister. Fortunately, there’s an aunt who can take them in, but she’s too strict for the siblings’ liking. Seita makes the decision to strike out on their own rather than live with the aunt.

This proves more difficult than he originally anticipated. While he can come across money and he and his sister get rations, enough food is scarce and they’re forced to live in an abandoned shelter. Money and food run out on occasion and Setsuko seems to be getting sick. Seita cares for his sister very much and hates to see her like this. He can go back to the aunt, and is urged to do so on several occasions, but is too prideful to honestly consider it.

I don’t want to say more than that for fear of spoiling the movie. I will say that you shouldn’t be fooled by the fact that this is anime. It’s a very adult movie and really shouldn’t be watched by small children. I don’t recall much death being shown on screen, but there is some gore and the effects of war aren’t something that many children would be able to understand.

There are also certain subtleties that many children may miss. For instance, the aunt may seem like an overbearing foster parent when in reality, she has hard choices to make. Seita doesn’t work and doesn’t seem to think there’s much for him. When he agrees to let his mother’s kimonos be sold off for rice, he thinks that he’ll be entitled to a better share than he and his sister actually get. The aunt points out that she and her husband contribute to the household and society whereas the two siblings don’t. As an adult, you can understand the aunt’s point of view.

If you think that animation is for children, this is a great movie to break you of that belief. Grave of the Fireflies is not only great animation, it’s a great movie. I’d say it’s even top-10 material. I’d give it five stars.

IMDb page

Er ist wieder da/Look Who's Back (2015)

It would be interesting to see how various historical figures would react to today’s world.  Would Johannes Gutenberg be impressed by how easily words are printed?  How would Jonas Salk react to the anti-vaccine movement?  There’s a Doctor Who episode that has Vincent Van Gogh looking at an exhibition of his work.  Plenty of common people have been pulled out of time in movies.  Just ask Bill and Ted.  Look Who’s Back wonders what would happen if Adolf Hitler suddenly showed up in modern Germany.

It starts with Hitler on the ground wondering what happened.  Where are his trusted advisors?  How did he end up in a park?  Not to far away, Fabian Sawatzki filming some kids for a project he’s working on.  His boss, Christoph Sensebrink, doesn’t like it.  In fact, Sensebrink fires Sawatzki.  It isn’t until later that Sawatzki realizes that he has Hitler on tape.

Sawatzki is able to find Hitler, knowing that he has something that might get him his job back.  He assumes, along with everyone else, that what he has is actually some sort of actor performing satire.  It's like how we all know Borat is really Sacha Baron Cohen.  Hitler obviously must be someone trying to make a point, however distastefully he might be doing it.  Sawatzki has no problem becoming his unwitting accomplice, filming Hitler around the country.  (They decide to make a political documentary.)

It’s a sensitive topic for Germany and the rest of Europe, so there is an inherent danger in doing this.  (Various movies have had problems filming Nazis, as they couldn’t show symbols of Nazi Germany.)  One person even approaches Sawatzki and Hitler to tell them how horrible they are for doing this.  This makes it all the more unnerving that Hitler never breaks character.  Then again, why would he?  He’s Hitler and he’s intent on getting back his former glory.

The movie does take a few liberties.  It is correct that Hitler didn’t do too well as an artist.  However, the movie shows him drawing poorly, whereas Hitler seems to have focused more on painting.  Also, Hitler is said to have possible suffered from Parkinson’s late in his life, with there being reports of his hand shaking.  In the movie, he seemed to be in relatively good health.  Hitler also seemed surprised in the movie that Germany had lost World War II.  He knew that things weren’t going well for Germany.  He eventually shot himself and his wife, Eva Braun, took a cyanide pill.

One statement that had me take to Google was where Hitler says that he was elected, implying that it’s the electorate’s fault.  I’ve heard that he wasn’t really elected, but this may stem from the fact that elections in Germany at the time weren’t what Americans would think of as an election.  His first few public offices seem to have been appointed.  He does seem to have gained office through elections, but it seems that in those instances, it had to do with the fact that his party had the most seats in the Reichstag.  Whichever party got a plurality/majority generally had their leader appointed chancellor.  (If someone can clarify, please leave a comment.)

This is not a movie for children due to the topic.  I’m not even sure it’s a movie for most adults.  This is one of those movies where context will carry a lot of weight and this is reflected in the movie.  In the movie, many Germans are shown interacting with Hitler, some of them saying that they might vote for him.  (I’m not sure if these are actors or actual people hoping to make the final cut.)  In one scene, an elderly Jewish woman recognizes Hitler and yells at him, as she knows exactly who he is and what he‘s done.

That, to me, is the irony of the movie.  There is a level of discomfort watching it.  Writers for a talk show are tasked with making racist jokes.  We feel uncomfortable as the writers go through a few of them.  We’re aware of the historical context, but someone who lived through it knows the context and will have an entirely different reaction.  It would be interesting to watch the movie with someone who lived through that era just to see what they thought of the movie.  (Again, I’d welcome comments.  I’m sure that a few things in the movie went over my head.)

I would say that those involved in the movie did well.   The political element wasn’t forced, but was used to show that Hitler could regain power.  If there’s one thing I’ve constantly heard about him is that he knew how to manipulate.  He came into power not by promising to kill people, but rather by promising a better life for people.  His tactics might be different, given that he didn’t have Google and YouTube in 1945, but his ambition would be the same.

IMDb page

Hitler's Children review

The Omega Man (1971)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

What would you do if you were the last man on Earth? Colonel Robert Neville is a man who is put in that situation. The movie doesn’t go into great detail about what happened, but the world suffered from some sort of disease. Neville just happened to have access to a vaccine that worked, making him the only human left, so far as he knows. The rest of humanity, or at least what he’s seen of it, has been turned into zombies that roam the night and don’t seem to like technology.

Those affected call themselves The Family and are led by Matthias. At night, they come out and attack Neville, who’s the only remaining threat to their continued happiness. Neville spends his days trying to find out where they hide during the day so that he might get rid of them once and for all, thus ensuring his continued safety. He goes through stores for food, clothing and cars, pretty much taking what he wants. He sometimes even pretends that he’s actually talking to someone.

His days are lonely. He uses a tape recorder to take notes, but I can only assume that’s for later reference. He’s been alone for two years, so he can’t honestly expect to find someone else, especially after a methodical search of the city. One day, while looking for some new clothes, he finds someone else that looks human, but he finds out that not everyone was affected by the plague immediately. There are still a few people that haven’t gone over yet, meaning that there is some hope for humanity.

This is actually the second movie based on “I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson. The first was Last Man on Earth, which I recently had a chance to watch. I don’t know why, but I like this version better. I think that in part, it’s because the transfer to DVD was better. A larger part is probably that those that went over (The Family, in this case) were better developed.

In Last Man On Earth, those that were affected were no more than zombies. Here, they have a well-organized society of sorts, as violent as that may be. Mostly, The Family wants to be left alone, especially by Neville, who they see as the devil. They hate science, so who better than a medical doctor (especially one who has a cure) to hate?

Because of this, humanity’s destructive nature comes into play more. Let’s face it: we’re getting to the point where something like this could happen. Granted, it’s extremely improbable that everyone would be affected. With six billion people, a few have to have immunity. Still…

Loneliness also plays big. As I said, Neville has had two years to himself. When he finally sees someone else, it’s a big moment. On that note, though, I found it odd that there was no real mention of other cities other than the fact that the disease was worldwide. It was never mentioned if Neville tried to go outside the city limits or call family members. You think that there’d be some mention of something like that. He also never thought to simply leave. Instead of getting out of Dodge, Neville decided to stay and fight Matthias.

I’d give this movie four stars. It’s probably not for children, partly because of some violence, but mostly due to the way that the disease affected people. I think that this movie could make for an interesting TV series. If you’re looking for an interesting movie to watch, I’d recommend this one.

IMDb page

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

After watching a lot of one- and two-star movies, I figured I’d try something different.  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time looked interesting, so I ordered it from Netflix.  The movie is about Makoto Konno.  Her day starts off normally.  She wakes up late, rushes out the door to school, doesn’t do well on a pop quiz, and nearly starts a fire while cooking.  To make matters worse, she nearly gets hit by a train.  The only thing that keeps the train from actually hitting her is that she’s developed the ability to jump back in time.

She finds herself having gone back a few minutes.  When she realizes what happened and that she has control over it, she begins to use it for several trivial jumps.  She now knows the answers to the pop quiz, which means that she can ace it.  She knows not to take a certain station in the cooking class.  Instead of being limited to an hour of fun, she can repeat the session over and over again.  Upset that her little sister ate Makoto’s pudding, she goes back to eat it herself.

She has no sense of the consequences or the possibilities.  (Other people don’t always like the outcome of her changes.)   She could date someone that she likes and if it doesn’t work out, she could literally go back to the way it was, as if nothing had happened.   She comes to realize that she has a limited number of jumps and she doesn’t have many left.  At this point, she does try to make things better, but there’s always that loose end.  It seems like there’s always one more thing she has to fix.

I hate to say it, but for many people, like my mother, anime tends to be a strike against a movie.  Any sort of sci-fi or fantasy tends to be another strike.  I happen to like both, so I don’t mind watching a movie like this, but it’s not really fair to a movie to not like it based on the style of presentation.  Also, the science-fiction aspect isn’t really that heavy.  You don’t get a lot of technical talk about how time travel is possible nor does the movie spend to much time on altered time lines and the butterfly effect.

Instead, it’s about Makoto and her learning to deal with the consequences of her actions.  She starts out with no real direction in life.  Many of her friends have some idea of what they want to do.  She has no sense at all of what she wants to do when she grows up.  I don’t know that she does when the movie ends, but she does have a slightly clearer sense of purpose.

This was one of those movies that I really enjoyed.  (Judging by the other reviews, I’m not alone.)  I really felt for Makoto.  Unfortunately, she was the only character that had any real development and she did seem to get the most screen time, but that did make for an engaging movie.  As you might expect with a time-travel movie, there were some repeated scenes.  (The time-jump animation got a lot of use, but not to the point where it was distracting.)

The movie has a PG-13 rating in the U.S., which I would think is for some mild language.  (Masturbation is mentioned once in the movie.  Beyond that, it’s nothing worse than damn and hell.)  It’s the kind of movie that anyone could enjoy assuming that they don’t mind that.

I’d definitely recommend the movie to anyone.  Runtime was 98 minutes, which was a good length.  I didn’t feel like it dragged at all, nor did I feel that the movie was missing anything.  I don’t know that there will be a sequel.  It’s one of those movies that’s probably better left open. 

Odd Thomas (2013)

I have a lot of movies in my Netflix queue.  As in 446, not including those that aren’t available on DVD at the moment.  Some of them, I’m saving because they are or were available for streaming.  I’m not sure about the rest.  As I was going through the titles in my queue, I came across Odd Thomas.  It had been there for a few months.  I’m not sure how I found it, but it looked like one of the better selections.

The movie is based on a series of books by Dean Koontz.  It’s about a man actually named Odd Thomas.  He can see dead people and he is of the mind that he should do something about it.  The movie starts with Odd helping a recently deceased woman get her killer arrested.  He happens to be friends with Police Chief Wyatt Porter.  Helping Odd is Stormy Llewellyn, who manages an ice cream shop at the mall.

Odd knows that something big is coming.  He’s tipped off by the presence of bodachs, which are ghostly beings that seem to come around when someone important is about to die.  Not every death attracts one, but the presence of several dozen gets Odd’s attention.  He’s never seen that many at once.  (By the way, he’s the only one that can see them.)  Odd doesn’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but he‘s given clues in the forms of dreams and hallucinations.

Fortunately, I didn’t seen much in the Netflix reviews comparing the movie with other media, not that I read a lot of reviews before watching a movie.  There’s always that temptation to compare the movie to something else.  (“If you liked the Dead Zone…”)  Yes, there is a reference to The Sixth Sense, but it’s not really harped upon.

Yes, this is a scary movie.  Netflix has it listed as NR, but IMDb has a self-applied PG-13 for the movie.  I don’t think this is a movie for children, mainly because of the bodachs.  This could give a young child nightmares, as they’re basically very scary.  They’re seen following people and occasionally possessing someone.

I think most adults will be able to handle the movie and even enjoy it.  I know my parents are often turned off by anything paranormal at first, even though they’ve enjoyed similar movies.  I’d be interested in reading the books.  This isn’t to see how closely the movie follows them, but rather to see more of the story.  I’m surprised that I haven’t seen more about the movie or the books.  Granted, I haven’t been watching movies in the theater much lately, but I’d think with a name like Koontz, someone would have mentioned this to me.