By the way, Carl, the movie was made in ’85 it’s not part of the title.<\/p>\n
Anyhoo, I was put on to this film by a young lady with Mike Tyson’s taste in tattoos.\u00a0 However, she seems to know good movie.<\/p>\n
The film has an interesting production history.\u00a0 It was Terry Gilliam’s directorial follow up to Time Bandits<\/em> (kind of weird how I hadn’t seen it now that I think about it).\u00a0 Gilliam’s original cut was 142 minutes long and Universal (the US distributor) was concerned about the length and the dark ending.\u00a0 The Universal chairman wanted large recuts and a happier, more consumer friendly ending.\u00a0 Gilliam refused, and as release was delayed. Gilliam took out a full page ad in Variety<\/em> urging the release of the original version.\u00a0 He also conducted private screenings without the studio’s approval which resulted in a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for best picture.\u00a0 This resulted in the film’s release in 1985.\u00a0 You following me Carl?<\/p>\n The film is part dystopian 1984<\/em>ish future part darker Secret Life of Walter Mitty<\/em>.\u00a0 Dash of Monty Python.\u00a0 Note: I have not seen the Walter Mitty film, I refer to the short story.\u00a0 Jonathan Pryce plays a low level bureaucrat in a society that is seemingly run by incompetent bureaucratic automation.\u00a0 He doesn’t really give a shit about anything and his free time is spent fantasizing about flying around the countryside and a rather specific looking blonde.<\/p>\n In other parts of the sprawl (read William Gibson fuckface) massively overarmed police seize a man suspected of terrorism.\u00a0 He dies under torture.\u00a0 But it wasn’t the right man.\u00a0 Somebody somewhere misspelled his name.\u00a0 So the G took and killed the wrong man.\u00a0 This causes something of a headache as the system can’t admit to a mistake but they have to refund the money they charged the family for the arrest (common practice, arrests cost money).\u00a0 When Pryce decides to deliver the money in person to solve the problem he sees a real version of the woman from his dreams.\u00a0 While trying to help her he inadvertently becomes a terror suspect.\u00a0 Abject chaos ensues.<\/p>\n The film has the tone of a comedy except when it doesn’t.\u00a0 The times it doesn’t will catch you off guard.\u00a0 I happened to be eating when I watched this and I had to quit early on when Pryce was speaking to his mother while she was getting cosmetic surgery.\u00a0 Robert De Niro pops up as a guerrilla handyman.\u00a0 When Central Services (repair bureaucracy) fucks up Pryce’s AC, De Niro pops up to fix it.\u00a0 It seems like he’s some sort of freedom fighter but he just wants to fix what’s broken.\u00a0 It was him the cops were looking for when they killed the wrong man thus setting this whole thing in motion.<\/p>\n This is a must watch.\u00a0 Just don’t eat during it.\u00a0 Great ending.\u00a0 Also, now that I’ve seen this I understand better what Sucker Punch<\/em> was going for.\u00a0 Failed at it but I understand the ambition better now.\u00a0 But yeah, Ox signs off.\u00a0 Give it a download.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By the way, Carl, the movie was made in ’85 it’s not part of the title. Anyhoo, I was put on to this film by a young lady with Mike Tyson’s taste in tattoos.\u00a0 However, she seems to know good … Continue reading