Roland Emmirich and The End Of The World!

Welcome to the mind of Emmirch. The man behind, Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 and of coarse the least of the earth's worries, Stargate.

Emmirich seems to love the end of the world, so much that he's had it invaded by aliens and turned into a barren wasteland, he's introduced a massive lizard to America and he's created a global natural disaster - twice!

In Independence Day, we have the world being attacked by huge alien spaceships the size of cities, and with their unbelievably powerful death rays and impenetrable shields they seem pretty unstoppable. But with the help of the iconic duo, Bill Pullman, Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum and of coarse the less famous Randy Quaid, the human race will bring those alien bastards down, with a bit of American warfare (for those of you who haven't seen the alternate ending, your in for a treat).

I liked Independence Day. It had this certain adventure feel, which, if you've been keeping up with earlier blogs, is the kind of thing I like to enjoy. We have this epic disaster, which is sweeping across the world, yet the American characters we focus on all seem to find a funny side to the whole thing. The violent, and provocative fighting style of Will Smith as he battles the alien craft in the air ("you did not shoot that green shit at me!"), the witty bantering of Jeff Goldblum ("maybe if we screw the world up enough, they won't want it any more") and the crazy babbling of recovering drunk Randy Quaid (While in the hanger: F-18 computer "missile launch” Quaid "Oh crap!").

This crazy and unexpected style was first used in Stargate, which I won't dwell on as it ventures a little further from the point of Emmerich and the end of the world.

The next film after all of this was Godzilla, the monster movie that had the worst main character in the world.

I wouldn't say that Mathew Broderick is a bad actor, but rather this is not his type of film. The worn out style of funny vs. apocalypse starts to tear through this film like a sharpened bayonet. Broderick's lines are not funny and the character is not a gun happy hero who'll take on anything, rather is a small, computer nerd who only wants to work in a safe background. The film attempts to let him expand, so that we can see his character progression of computer nerd to hero on the streets of New York, but it doesn't work. I don't quite know what he wants out of the whole event and by the end of the film it would seem that he hasn't learned his lesson at all by going back to the girl that screwed him over twice, one of the occasions being in the last thirty minutes of the film.

The only characters in the film i particularly enjoy are Jean Reno and Hank Azaria. Jean Reno as the commercial hating, coffee loving, French secret service agent, here to secretly take out Frances biggest mistake and Hank Azaria as the New York-ian cameraman, who turns from zero to hero. These two characters eventually meet at the end of the film and immediately there is chemistry, in the sort that the mismatched pair have to deal with the main couple getting back together while they are left arguing with each other.

In spite of these two characters, which play a minor part in the whole film as an overall, the film doesn't stand the test of time. The effects are dated and the comedy is even more dated. The film seems to be a step back for Emmirich.

Godzilla was the last film he tried to mix comedy with Armageddon.

Post 9-11, The Day After Tomorrow, was brought to our screens. This was the dawn of a new type of apocalyptic film from Emmirich, and also one of his most successful. Somehow the genre was turned in a warning of global warming. The warming of the ice caps on our earth suddenly brought a sense or realism and seriousness to the genre that would prove successful to a more serious and sensible audience. Any of these types of films, created a crazy and eccentric way of ending the world, a horde of alien warships, an oversized reptile or intergalactic Egyptians. Now we had something that is actually a genuine, or so I think, threat to our world and the way we live our lives.

The film itself was also good, without the point of global warming, but the point did make the film have a perfect structure for the life and times we live in post 9-11.

2012 is the new feature that Emmirich has brought to our screens this winter, and it is nothing short of both spectacular and absolutely ridiculous. Whatever on Earth inspired him to make another global warming disaster to end the world is nothing short of ludicrous. The film stands up to the general interest of finding a new way to destroy cities and landscapes, in sinking Los Angeles, blowing up Yellowstone and of coarse lets not forget, submerging Washington DC.

But the film isn't on the same level as it's predecessor, and doesn't capture the interest and involvement as much it did in the past.

It could possibly be that the idea has worn off and it's taken too long to bring itself on to the screen, rather than wait a little while until the genre becomes a global hit again. 2012 hasn't really managed to stir any emotion in myself, while the film is very enjoyable in the fashion that it manages to create a world where anything goes, including cities, it doesn't have a good enough ideal that it would attract me to it.

Bird in the 80's

Bird On A Wire. Not much i can say about it. It truly is the best definition of an eighties film i can think of. Try and bring this film out nowadays, post 9-11, it would never happen. Films like this, died along with the style of the time. That tongue and cheek action film that only ever arrived in the eighties, has been lost, but their is potential for the franchise again.

Meanwhile, lets focus on this particular film.

Mel Gibson (When he was good) and Goldie Hawn star in this, romantic, action, adventure, crime, thriller, comedy. Oh yes, it is indeed all of these things. It may be cheesy but it's my kind of film, and this exactly the kind of film that's able to put a smile on any face, unless you really hate mel gibson.

The film is about mel gibsons character who has been under witness protection for fifteen years and is now outed by his enemies and is hunted down by both the police and the criminals due him being framed. That's not all, Goldie Hawn, plays the love interest, whom after fifteen years of thinking he is dead, is reunited with her past fiance.

The two go on the run in a mismatched adventure.

In this one film alone, there is two car chases, a bike chase through narrow ally ways and the likes, a plane chase and a climax in a zoo exhibit including, live tigers, lions and alligators.

The film jumps around, in slow motion sequences of everything exploding, to fast cut shots of a car narrowly missing a bus, with incredible stunts that would never happen in real life, (unless your 80's mel gibson, for him that shit happened every day).

Under all of this is a classic soundtrack, by Hanz Zimmer, in his fantastic, phase of electric drums, and sythesized guitars.

This truly is the film of the 80's and if i could think of a better one i wouldn't be writing this blog now would I?

Searching

The Searchers, is a fantastic story of a man seeking revenge. John Wayne plays, Ethan a man hellbent on killing the Native tribe that killed his entire family.

That's the jist of this fantastic drama adventure film, obviously born a western but the outcome produces so much more.

I don't think i'll speculate on the first opening minutes of the film, in fear of a mental breakdown, but after the inciting incident of Ethan's family being murdered, we have the beginnings of a long, hard journey, with our two characters Ethan and his nephew.

In my personal opinion, i think this film started off the mismatched adventure, with two contrast and clashing personalities on the same mission but with different goals, one to kill the tribe (Ethan), the other to find the tribe and save his cousin.

In an overall watch of the film it's easy to get a sense of a long and hard journey, after all is said and done it's hard to look back on what we originally had until the closing scene which almost mimics the opening. I think this scene is so familiar to the start of the film, to show just how long the journey has been and how much the two characters have been through. As an audience member i feel that i have participated in this adventure around south, living each season, in the cold, the heat and the dark night.

When watching films like these, I have a personal view, and the way i make my personal view is, while the film is wrapping up, i look back on the opening scenes and try to remember what the film was like, so long ago in before our incident. When doing this I get great sense that i have been taken on this long journey and i have been transported with the main characters all along the way and even so much that i lost point A for a while and was only concerned in getting to point B.

Films, like the searchers are able to drag you in and completely emerge in the world, the story and the needs of the characters. From my point of view, any good adventure film should be able to do that.