The Caucasian Report - "Contagion" (2011)

~Mutating Viruses and Moldering Corpses~
It was a Tuesday night at dinner, and two of my friends and I were discussing what we could do to avoid homework. That’s when one of them said that she had to see “Contagion” for a class, as she was supposed to report on five inaccuracies in the film. So, we decided, what better time than the present? We were looking for an excuse to get away from our studies anyway. So, a few hours later, we were headed to the theatre. I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the movie, but the fact that there were at least five inaccuracies did not help me form a positive impression. But hey, at least we accomplished the goal of evading our homework for the evening. That is, two of us did.

As the title describes, the movie is about the spread of disease. It starts off by depicting the story of the first victim of a new virus, Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow). She is on her trip back home when she starts to feel ill. By the time she gets home, she is so sick that there is nothing doctors can do for her. Her husband, Mitch Emhoff (Matt Damon), receives the news of his wife’s passing in a fit of denial and rage. Soon, people in the area start dying at an alarming rate, but Mitch finds himself immune. At this point the CDC starts to get concerned, and we meet Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet), an epidemiologist. She starts tracing the source of the disease by researching how victims are related and travels the country to set up clinics. Despite the efforts of the CDC to contain the disease, the epidemic becomes so serious that millions die in a matter of weeks. People desperately try to find home remedies for the disease, as the development of a vaccine turns out to be trickier than anticipated. The rest of the film follows Mitch, Dr. Mears, and the CDC in the race to stop the devastating virus.

This movie is very pretty to watch. What do I mean by that? I mean that it gets an A+ for cinematography, specifically with camera angles and movement. The movie was able to tell a story just with the filming technique employed. Most movies just film people, and therefore rely on people to tell the story. However, this film relied on people and places to tell the story along with seamless transitions and unique shots of inanimate objects. This technique worked very well with the theme of the movie, as we all know how important inanimate objects are in the story of the spread of disease. The parts where this technique is the most salient is at the beginning and the end of the film.

Storytelling is all well and good, but you must be dying to know what the five inaccuracies were. We actually found six! The first inaccuracy is the film explains that half of your immune system comes from your mother, and the other half comes from your father. This is not true, as genetics have nothing to do with immunity. Your immune system develops by coming into contact with foreign things, such as viruses, and creating antibodies to be employed in future defenses. The second inaccuracy is that the movie leads you to believe that a vaccine will work almost instantly, where in reality it takes about 26 days to incubate in your system before you acquire immunity. The third inaccuracy is that doctors tell Mitch he is immune to the virus before they knew what the virus really was. Therefore, they really had no way of testing for the presence of antibodies against the virus in his system. Fourthly, the incubation time for the virus was 24 hours in the film (to make it more threatening) which is a little too short. It usually takes 7-21 days for a virus to incubate and that’s why viruses are so difficult to detect. People can carry the virus without symptoms for awhile and unintentionally infect others. Fifth, the CDC said that the virus mutated and no one mentioned the need to develop another vaccine against the new strain of the virus. The last inaccuracy was the film employed the term pleomorphic to describe the virus, which is a little strange because this term is usually used to describe bigger cells, such as cells belonging to bacteria.

Now that the inaccuracies are out of the way, and that your inner nerd is satisfied, I have one more thing to give you a heads up about: you will wash your hands excessively for a few days after watching this movie, and will probably slightly panic if you sneeze or get a sore throat. This movie is like watching the journey of a tiny spec of paint as it grows and transforms into an unbelievable masterpiece.


By WhiteChick

The Minority Report - "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" (2009)

This is Heath Ledgers final film. Well, his final half of a film as he died in the middle of production. “Then how was this movie completed,” you may ask. Well, simple you see! When Tony (Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell) enters the imaginarium, he becomes a different actor, same person though. Tony, outside of the imaginarium (a mirror essentially that transports the visitor to a magical land of their imagination), is Heath Ledger, but as soon as he enters the mirror, he becomes another actor. This was a way of avoiding reshooting the entire movie and works for the most part. But I am not going to knock the film for its lack of continuity. I will knock it for other things, though. I will also give it praise.

This is the type of film that I hate to review. At moments it is a fantastic film that I must applaud for its pure creativity and all out madness. Yet, at other moments, I had to hang my head in sheer disappointment either from disappointing acting, an unraveling story that began so intriguing, or some spotty special effects. The premise for the film is an interesting one that spans out from the absurd, and pivots upon the ideals of making a deal with the devil. Doctor Parnassus makes multiple deals with the devil, and now it is time to pay. For this, he uses his powers (which he obtained ages ago) to transform a simple mirror into a gateway into one’s imagination. From there, they must conquer their vices and, if not, their soul becomes damned and claimed by Satan himself. What Doctor Parnassus does is try to present choices so that the world can “rule itself.” He tries to achieve this goal by making a traveling theater company which grabs members of the audience and makes them pass into the mirror. Once somebody enters the imaginarium, the pallet of the real world goes from dark and bleak into a burst of color and transforms the screen into a psychedelic adventure. At times in the imaginarium it is a fantastic whimsical land, but it can be spotty and sometimes easily dismissed. The story is also a very slow burning candle that has very little effort to help entertain the audience and get them to where they need to go and yet still manages to lose them at times.

This movie was an interesting thrill presented by the man who brought us Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It is a slight disappointment for it to be Heath Ledgers last moment on film. Overall, the movie is a very interesting story and presentation that may lose some audience on how it is approached. This movie is like paint drying on an M. C. Escher painting on acid.

By V-Dawg

The Minority Report - "Repo Men" (2009)

What can be said about Repo Men? One could say that it is the movie adaptation of the novel The Repossession Mambo, which was penned by Eric Garcia who also wrote “Matchstick Men.” One could also write this movie off as a simple rip off of the fairly unknown, yet inventive, “Repo! The Genetic Opera” One could also take the movie at face value as an action movie staring Jude Law in an interesting, futuristic world that will surprise you with its gritty feel. One thing for sure is that this movie did hold my attention either through its atmosphere, intense gore, or white knuckle action for the full hour and fifty minute running time.

Repo Men is set in a futuristic world where organ failure is a spreading epidemic. Thank goodness that “The Union” exists. This company will loan out artificial organs at ludicrous prices that people must pay, or else hired “Repo Men,” will go out and reclaim the loaned out organ. The story focuses on one “Repo Man,” named Remy (Jude Law) who is the best of the best, until a fateful accident leaves him with a loaned out Union heart. As the story continues Remy cannot afford the payments and is left to run from the company he once worked for, which includes his best friend, Jake (Forest Whitaker). The story begins to take a turn after this point, and it takes some time getting to it, though I find it nice to explore this interesting world and delve into these would be, two dimensional characters.

Even though this movie is definitely not the best ever made I still found it entertaining in a “one-night thrill” sort of way. It will make for a good evening on the couch when you are craving some gritty, no holds, action. This is not for the weak of stomach as some of the scenes are very gory and the amount of blood is copious. I actually enjoyed the use of blood in this movie as it was realistic, not excessive, or too little (well until the end, but that is purposeful).

As far as the story goes I really did enjoy the first half of the movie. It does not happen very often, but this truly is a movie of halves. There is the first half, where the story, action, and dialogue are very tight and realistic; and, the final half, where aforementioned things begin to lose much of what made them good (which may be the intention, or not…I don’t know). The first half was the set up for the story and characters which was actually very entertaining, while the second was more about the action which was not that great, especially after the reveal of the ending, which will leave some with a sour taste in their mouth.

All in all, this entire movie was a strange mixture of cool atmosphere and Jude Law just kicking some ass. Take it for what it is worth. If you are looking for a good movie to quench your thirst for action and need a fresh story and environment this is your fix. For the others, avoid this film. This movie is like watching paint dry, but the paint is from a unique pallet and there are some drops of blood splattered across the canvas.

By V-Dawg