Red

Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired CIA asset, just trying to figure out how he's going to fill the rest of his life.  He's particularly fond of Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), a customer service representative at the agency responsible for sending him is pension checks, which "mysteriously disappear" forcing him to call.

Then, for some reason, a hired squad tries to kill him.  Unfazed, he heads to Sarah to pick her up, knowing those after him will get to her, too.  As the plot thickens, he enlists the help of his former associates, all retired, and all also on the same hit list.  Can the experience of age defeat the vigor of youth and get to the bottom of the conspiracy that goes to the top?

The film has a catchy feel - a modern action story without sacrificing dialog or character development.

Red
2010, 111 minutes, directed by Robert Schwentke

Skyfall

It's interesting to watch a reboot of the James Bond franchise without them actually replacing the main character.  I can picture a film 20 years from now, with this Moneypenny and Q interacting with a new Bond thrice removed.

Film-wise, the story does feel significantly less epic than the two prior installments.  The action comes closer to home as M is threatened, and Bond must go off the grid and off the rails to protect her.

Skyfall
2012, 143 minutes, directed by Sam Mendes

Looper

I skipped this during Fantastic Fest, preferring the world premiere of Bring Me the Head of Machine Gun Woman over what was billed as an action shooter.  For the rest of the week everyone was telling me how wrong I was (or rather, how misguided the advertisements were) because Looper was a true sci fi film.

So what makes a film sci fi instead of action or horror?  Just because there's a piece of undeveloped technology that enables the plot doesn't make something a science fiction film.  True sci fi has on-the-horizon or pie-in-the-sky technology, sure, but it's not used to enable a shoot-em-up or some sort of slasher film.  Instead, sci fi uses the technology to poke and prod at the human condition, to see how human interaction and feelings react to new stimuli.  It's all about the people.

In these ways, Looper truly is sci fi.  Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is an executioner, killing those sent back from the future who need to disappear.  When it's time for him to "close his loop" - killing his future self (Bruce Willis) - he hesitates and things go awry.  Much of what follows is action chase, sure, as Joe tries to fix his mistake while his older self hunts the future mob boss who sent him back for his death.  That the boss is a young boy is troubling, sure, but is this fate fixed or is there another way?  In the end, Joe just can't be sure, and has to take what can only be a leap of faith.  It is right here that the film cements itself as the best of 2012 sci fi.

Looper
2012, 119 minutes, directed by Rian Johnson

Encounter at Raven's Gate

Close encounters in the Australian outback, filmed and set in the 1980s amidst small-town drama.  It baffles me.

Encounter at Raven's Gate
1988, 94 minutes, directed by Rolf de Heer

Resident Evil: Retribution

OMG there's so much explanation to establish backstory and bring in the characters.  Alice used to be a genetically-engineered killing machine, one of Umbrella corporation's tools to combat the T-virus infestation that has destroyed the world.  Or maybe she was just another experiment as they perfected the virus, the world be damned anyway.  But then she lost her powers and was just a woman who can do mid-air somersaults while shooting weapons in both hands.

She's met a lot of people along the way, many of which she's cared for, a subset of which make appearances in this film (though some as clones, not the original people, which is a convenient way to bring back a few who died).   In this film, she'll meet a few more, deal with some former friends turned enemies, and dutifully advance the plot along to the next sequel.  It was very perfunctory, and in that, not interesting.  My only other notes on the film are:

• Undead Russians can't shoot, even at point blank range
• Stargrazing as an awesome name for a craft services company

And with that, I guess I'll wait for the next sequel to be churned out sometime in 2014.

Resident Evil: Retribution
2012, 95 minutes, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

Johnny Mnemonic

Here we are, a few weeks after the end of Fantastic Fest, and I'm finally able to stomach watching a movie again.  This week's Netflix special is Johnny Mnemonic, a not-so-futuristic look at data smuggling in the head of one serious and pissed Keanu Reeves.  Overloaded with a whole 320 gigabytes of data (oh my!), Johnny has to find the pass code and get it out before it leaks into his brain, bursting it.  Meanwhile the Yakuza and various local scum (including a cyborg street preacher) a trying to hunt him down to "retrieve" the information, guillotine-style.

It's funny watching old sci fi action films try to be futuristic, but still mess up so many key things.  The sad part about this one is that it didn't come out in the 80s when such things were forgivable - it came out the year I graduated high school.  They should have known better and I feel old.

Johnny Mnemonic
1995, 103 minutes, directed by Robert Longo

Antiviral

Well, here it is, the end of another film festival.  This is my 34th screening including shorts series; it's my 35th event including the awards ceremony.  With a last-minute change to my planned film, I'm walking in mostly blind to Antiviral.

This film focuses on the cult of celebrity.  We (as a culture, not me) follow every moment of their lives, good and bad, desperate to grab at shoestrings and remnants of their lives.  Is celebrity mania so strong that people would pay to get celebrity diseases?  Would you eat celebrity cell steaks?  It's an interesting topic, and one delved into whole-heartedly by this story.  I find it refreshingly different that the lead actor must act sick for the entire film, as he falls deeper into the underworld of society.

Antiviral
2012, 108 minutes, directed by Brandon Cronenberg