Bring Me The Bone Saw | ELYSIUM

Neill Blomkamp made the best sci-fi movie of 2009. A year not wanting for sci-fi fare. AVATAR, STAR TREK, MOON, and THE BOX, having all made waves in one way or another.  But, for me, DISTRICT 9 gave us a new face, and model in science-fiction. So, it was with much anticipation I looked forward to the new movie starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, and Sharlto Copley.

Overall, I definitely feel Elysium is a lesser movie than District 9. There was a rawness, and an acceptance to using their limited resources to the absolute limit. And the one thing that makes it stand above Elysium is the fact that it’s set in a “real world,” where characters aren’t predetermined to be heroes.

DISTRICT 9 is the Summer movie, all other Summer movies wish they could be

Usually, we get a movie that’s slightly dystopic, and a bit of a downer, more in the fall or closer to the end of the year. (See the soon to be released THE ROAD, and in previous years THE FOUNTAIN and CHILDREN OF MEN.) Especially when it’s a medium-range budgeted movie, by unknown directors and containing zero stars. Most of the Summer fare are licensed properties – or sequels thereof – that are made for hundreds of millions of dollars with the hopes of earning back hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. But, here in the middle of August, in the declining weeks of the summer of 2009, we get a blockbuster delivered to us – made for a measly $30 million dollars (that was probably spent just on one of “The Devastator’s testicles in TRANSFORMERS 2) – and it puts every other action-adventure, sci-fi genre, big-budget blockbuster to shame. And that’s DISTRICT 9, the new movie produced by Peter Jackson, written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, co-written by Terri Tatchell and if there are any higher beings out there; this movie will earn more than any other movie as well.

The story – based off an original short film that Blomkamp made in 2005 called, ALIVE IN JOBURG – is about Johannesburg, South Africa, where 20+ years ago a giant space ship floated over the city and stopped. It sat there for a couple of weeks when the government, or maybe the UN, decided to cut their way in to see what was going on with it. Inside they found thousands of sickly, insect-like aliens. Trying to do the humanitarian thing, they shepherd the aliens off the ship and into internment camps, to help the sick and nourish the hungry. Of course, over the years this effort turns to scorn as the aliens show no real initiative in integrating themselves – and eventually are shunned from the possibility – and seem mostly to be simple minded creatures who have no real mind of their own. The area that they’ve been given to stay in turns into a slum shantytown. They enjoy destroying things, for their own pleasure; seem to have no sense of boundaries or regard of property (meaning, they don’t understand being on someone else’s land, or that material items have to be bought – sounds kind of familiar, actually.). It’s discovered that cat food is considered a delicacy, or having some kind of psycho-tropic effect on the “prawns” as the aliens come to be known.

So, when our story picks up, we’re following an MNU operative named Wikus Van De Merwe – who is put in charge of an operation of moving the aliens from District 9 (the camp the aliens live in) to a new camp hundreds of Kilometers from Johannesburg. Wikus, who heads out to personally get the aliens to sign papers stating they understand they’re being evicted from their homes – signature meaning that if they touch the paper, they’ve signed it – is escorted along with armed guards who seem much happier to just shoot the aliens than be diplomatic. And I have to say that Wikus is really only a step above them in his relation to the aliens.

The movie is really a roller coaster ride in the sense that we totally don’t know where the movie’s going – or even when it does go in a direction that seems like a normal action movie would, it builds up tension to make you believe that something else is going to happen. There’s also humor, mostly derived from Wikus’ never-ending way he seems to see everything from the eyes of a bureaucrat. In one moment, he finds a very large, stash of alien hardware and all he can say is, “this is very illegal. Definitely, a big fine.” The action, in it’s violence – which is quick and dirty and messy – is not built up to show the “awesomeness” of seeing things blow-up, although it is shocking and creates that feeling of needing to laugh or cheer. But, it never revels in it, and certainly – and especially from the viewpoint of Wikus – never says that violence is the best way. Although, sometimes, someone just needs to be blown to pieces.

The movie is shot – and pretty unnoticeably – in both a documentary-like style and a more filmic way. There are little titles and things that continue to pop-up throughout the movie, which reminds you how this whole story is being watched. We also get a lot of inter-cutting of news footage, and the movie is book-ended with “interviews” with people who seemingly have studied this situation. It makes for a very enjoyable experience, and some of the language of the interviews, kind of hints at where the movie might go. The parts that are more like an actual feature – which is pretty much the second half of the movie, or the few times we actually leave the humans to see what some of the aliens are up to – and is presented fantastically. The special effects in this movie are fantastic. The giant mother-ship, that floats over the city is almost always kept in a distant haze, to show that it’s unreachable. The “Prawns”, are beautifully designed and while being completely alien, are imbued with a humanity and empathy, that most of the human characters don’t even get.

Speaking of the human actors, Sharlto Copley who plays Wikus, is amazing. He has the smarm and ineptitude of a Michael Scotts from THE OFFICE; and he’s still a seemingly likable guy, if a bit naive on what his job and company mean. It’s as the story goes along, and we continually see that Wikus is mostly out for himself, that it’s in Sharlto’s performance that we can still root for him. His main antagonist is Koobus Venter, played by David James, who is the leader of the mercenary squad sent in to enforce the decree of the alien’s eviction. Koobus, would seemingly rather see the aliens dead than moved – and even early on in the movie, seems to show a disliking of Wikus. James is here to play the villain’s role – and be badder than the rest of the humans who aren’t really shown to be any good – and he does a great job. The last two real characters in the movie are two of the aliens that we get to know as the movie goes on. Sort of in the vein of BUCKAROO BANZAI and ALIEN NATION, the aliens are given more human sounding names – although here they tend to at least make sense – and the main alien is named Christopher Johnson. He’s the only alien, really, we get to see on his own without any human interaction, and he is sort of the real hero of the piece, even if we don’t know what his intentions are at the beginning of the movie. He also has a son (who, I’m only calling a son, because that’s what he’s called in the movie, but I have to admit to not knowing whether the baby alien is a boy or a girl, just as I’m not sure, besides the sort of gender specific name, whether Christopher Johnson is a male or female of the species.), who seems very interested in learning about their home-plant and seems to take a liking to Wikus when he finds his way into their house. The aliens are given total alien, if only insect-like, features and yet are completely sympathetic in their emoting and posture. Which, embues the movie with an emotional connection that has been lacking in nearly every other movie this Summer.

Then there’s the fact that this movie is an actual, honest to goodness, R-Rated feature, meant for grown up audiences! There is a plethora of “F-bombs” dropped. People, aliens and other various creatures and items explode into bloody and messy goop. This movie revels in the fact that it’s the under-dog; and it shows the big dogs that it’s got bite. DISTRICT 9 covers territory presented in most of the other big movies from this summer; the giant robots of TRANSFORMERS 2, the war/battle scenes of GI JOE and man versus oppressors in WOLVERINE. It’s got technology better than STAR TREK, and a human/inhuman story more effective than TERMINATOR: SALVATION. And DISTRICT 9 puts them all to shame. I wanted to turn around and watch it again, as soon as I stood up from my seat. Can I claim that this is the best movie of the year? No. But, it just might be my favorite.

Go see it, then go see it again.

The new hot place to make your movies

With DISTRICT 9 set to hit theaters on August 14  – and I cannot wait – there’s a continued trend I’m noticing recently (well, technically there are two involved with District – the other would be naming the movie something with the number nine in it. Including the animated movie 9, produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov; NINE, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, a multitude of amazing women and directed by Rob Marshall (CHICAGO); and then the 2007 movie starring Ryan Reynolds, THE NINES.) with movies being filmed in – and about – South Africa.

Philip Noyce has had a history of political or ideological thrillers. Whether it’s his “couple sailing are tormented by a castaway they pick up” thrillers of DEAD CALM; or the foray into the espionage thrillers with Jack Ryan, PATRIOT GAMES and A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER and then there’s the more recent movies like THE QUIET AMERICAN about America’s early mis-adventures in Vietnam. But, it’s this Australian’s movie about South African, Aparteid-era terrorism and racial prejudices, CATCH A FIRE, that I’m going to talk about tonight.

The movie stars Derek Luke (an American actor, born in New Jersey) playing a South African man, named Patrick Chamusso, struggling to keep a job at a local factory. When said factory is one day attacked, a local government agent is brought in and questions Luke’s character. After being tortured and having his wife and family put through the same rigors, Patrick eventually says that he will confess to a crime he didn’t do. While this might make the agent, played here by Tim Robbins, happy; eventually Patrick is released. The downside is, this leads him directly to signing up for a terrorist organization. There’s eventually a showdown that does lead to Chamusso, being captured and arrested. It might seem improper to give away a part of the ending like that; but the thing is, this story is true.

The real Chamusso was arrested and sentenced to 24 years in prison. He is released early because of the abolition of Apartheid and the eventual election of Nelson Mandela as President. Chamusso, who gets remarried, started an orphanage that houses over 80 kids.

There is a great commentary by Noyce, who tells some of the story about how this kind of mis-treatment of citizens, would – and still does lead to released prisoners to join the same militias that they’ve been accused of being a part of. The movie is very touching, for it’s true story and how this man saw the error of his ways and saw that he could only redeem himself by forgiving his captors – a philosophy, that seemingly was pushed by Mandela.

Second is a movie, that is fictional except for the message behind it, of the world’s acceptance and exploitation of the diamonds mined in Africa. The movie, as well as these jewels are known as a BLOOD DIAMOND. The movie, directed by Edward Zwick, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly, as a trio that are trying to save a family; while also trying to find such a diamond.

The movie starts with Hounsou, telling his son that he needs to go to school and showing us that Hounsou’s character, Solomon Vandy. Vandy, who after a raid by an attack by a local militia is taken prisoner and to a river, where he is forced to mine for diamonds. He happens upon a large diamond right at the same time when the militia is attacked by the government. He manages to hide the diamond – while soon being caught by the leader, named Captain Poison. Everyone is taken to jail, where Captain Poison then screams to everyone that Vandy has a diamond and that he’ll pay to get it from him. Just so happens that along with all of these men is another, a man who was caught smuggling diamonds into Sierra Leone (where the movie takes place, even though it was filmed in South Africa – see how it fits into what I’m talking about?). This man, Danny Archer (DiCaprio), is a former member of a military group led by Arnold Vosloo’s Colonel Coetzee. HE also overhears the yelling about Solomon having a diamond, and upon his release has it set up for Vandy to also be let out of jail.

Where Connelly comes in, is as a journalist, who is trying to get a story from the perspective of the mercenaries who keep the blood diamond trade flowing. So, she continues to prod Archer, who when she learns about Vandy’s story, they set off all using one of the other to get what they want. She helps Vandy find his family; in exchange for then telling Archer where the giant pink diamond are and Archer then telling Connelly’s character – Maddy Bowen – everything he knows.

Zwick creates a wonderful and action packed story, with a conclusion that sadly only really comes in the movies. we then get a denouement that tells us about the real conflict diamond trade. Also, this is the movie that DiCaprio was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for in 2007.

Last, is the movie by actual South African filmmaker, Gavin Hood – who recently directed the not as great Summer movie, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE – about a young thug who steals a car one day only to then find that there is a baby in the back seat. TSOTSI, the name of the movie and of the boy – played wonderfully by Presley Chweneyagae – is a tense tale of a young man who gets in over his head with gangs, a baby and of interpersonal relationships. Tsotsi is a runaway, and after spending time growing up in large concrete construction pipes, he uses some of his friends to form a small gang, that pull robberies and in one case leads to a man being murdered.

One night while out, he shoots a woman and takes her car. The woman survives and with the help of the police get word out about the baby. Quickly realizing that he’s not personally up to the task of taking care of this infant – and yet not wanting to give it up – he forces a woman from his neighborhood to help feed the baby; since she has one of her own, she must know how to do it. Eventually Tsotsi’s friends have to pull another job, and wind up back at the same house that he had shot the woman in front of. Once inside, they tie up the husband to the woman (and father of the baby) and loot the place – with Tsotsi grabbing things to help take care of the baby.

The performances are all pretty great in the movie, mostly featuring unknown actors, including the star, Presley Chweneyagae. But, also features African entertainer Zola, and actor Ian Roberts. It was also nominated for an Academy Award, for best Foreign Language Film – and won! – and led to the writer/director to more high-profile (if not more successful, see previously mentioned Summer movie) gigs, along with the “War on Terror”-themed movie, RENDITION, starring Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal.

DISTRICT 9, a movie by writer/director Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter (LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy) Jackson, is about a group of alien refugees whose ship arrives floating over Johannesburg, South Africa. The aliens are then corralled into a ghetto of sorts – called District 9 – is sort of an allegory for Apartheid-era of the country. It’s based off a short that Blomkamp had made, previously.

I can’t wait to see it.