Crosswords (Movie Challenge S-V)

 

We're nearly at the finish. Before that, though, is the penultimate episode of the movie challenge. If you want to know what on earth I'm talking about, you can click here for the introduction to the latest challenge. Once you've refreshed yourself, go on the journey to discover which movies I've seen so far: part 1; part 2; and part 3.

 Well, this segment was not as difficult as part 3, but maybe not as satisfying. Read on to find out why...

 

 S) Spy (2015)

 

The film that I settled on for the letter S was Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy as Susan. Susan works for the CIA, as a non-field operative. That is until, super spy Bradley Fine (Jude Law) is killed. This causes Susan to enter the field, even though she has never gone further than her desk job. What follows is a series of funny hijinks, as Susan tries to navigate her new life as an international spy, all while trying to catch the main villain, Rayna (Rose Byrne).

I've heard a lot of things about this movie before I watched it, mainly positive comments. I highly enjoyed the on-screen chemistry between Melissa McCarthy and Rose Byrne, their banter between one another was really engaging and funny. Overall, I'm not sure what I thought of this film. I liked some elements of it and it was an easy watch when wanting to switch your mind off from serious matters. However, it's not that different to any other Melissa McCarthy comedy out there. Certainly, I am wondering why I chose to view this film over any classic film starting with S, that I have never seen before. I will say that it was nice to see an unconventional character as the main protaganist, rather than having the suave good looking man taking charge as usual, which the film highlights and perfectly parodies. If you want to take your mind off the world, I do recommend this film, however in my opinion, it's not that memorable.

T) The Thing (1982)

 

For the choice of the letter T, I decided on the classic The Thing. The film takes place in Antartica, following an American research team who are holed up in a base in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly, their lives are disrupted by a Norwegian helicopter hunting down a sled dog, which results in the hunter accidentally blowing himself up (as you do). This launches the research team into looking what possessed the Norwegian to go to such lengths to try to destroy a sled dog. While they ponder this, the dog handler Clark puts the hunted sled dog in the kennel with the other dogs. Unfortunately for them, there was a reason why this dog was hunted, turns out it was actually an alien species that can clone any organism. Part of the team destroys the dog-thing with a flamethrower and the scientists of the group study the remians. They conclude that it can imitate anything so successfully, which if not contained, can spread across the world in around 27000 hours. Once this has been realised, paranoia runs through the group where each man doesn't know if the other has been infected. What follows is a tense ride, where the characters, and the audience, try to figure who will be infected next.

I loved the paranoia concept of this film, it created the tension that is felt throughout. I also liked the fact that they didn't go with a typical Hollywood ending and left the audience guessing what could possibly happen. The effects were really great, especially in that era where CGI was not heavily relied upon. The only thing that was pretty glaring is the lack of female characters. Come on guys, it's the 1980s, women did exist back then and it would have been nice to see them playing a pivotal role. Alas, you can't have everything and it is a film where all characters are male. All in all, a film that successfully creates tension throughout, leading to edge-of-the-seat moments.

U) Underground (1995)

 

Underground was my choice for the letter U, and what a choice it was. The film chronicles the history of Yugoslavia, mainly focusing on Serbia and uses the events of the world war and the cold war as the allegory of the conflicts between the nations of Serbia and Bosnia. Part one follows the world war and features the characters of Marko and Petar 'Blacky', two friends who are communist activists against the Nazi invasion of their country. As Blacky kidnaps his mistress, Natalija, and shoots the German officer who was infatuated with her, he soon goes into hiding along with his people. The film then cuts to part two in 1961, during the cold war. Marko has convinced his people in hiding that the war is still in progress and that only 15 years had passed, when in reality it has been 20 years. The filming of Marko's memoirs is in production in the real-world, which has managed to find doubles of each character involved. Blacky finally emerges from the underground cellar and walks straight into the film of Marko's life. Thinking the war is still on, he ends up killing some of the actors involved. Part three takes place in 1992, where Marko is captured by militants, and along with Natalija, is ordered to be killed by the head of the militants, Blacky. Blacky moves his people back to the cellar, but falls to his death when he sees an image of his son in a well.

Think that synopsis was confusing? That's nothing to actually watching the film transpire. This was a choice close to my heart, as having relatives from Serbia and having met the director of this film, I felt compelled to watch. It definitely felt unlike any film I had seen before and yet had a strange familiarity to it as well. I actually enjoyed the humorous parts of the film, even though at times it was hard to follow. Underground is a film that requires all of your attention, as it is quite easy to get lost. There were times when I found myself wondering what on earth was going on and yet I still felt drawn and compelled to keep watching. Unlike other films on this list, you cannot really have a lack of attention to get through the plot. Even though the running time was long (2 hours and 50 minutes), it was still fascinating to see the film as a take on a history guide to Yugoslavia.

V) Vice (2018)

 

For the final choice of this segment, I went with a very timely film: Vice. The film features the vice-president of America, under George W Bush (2000-2008; to clarify that's how long he was vice-preseident for, and not how long he lived his life). Christian Bale stars as Dick Cheney and the film covers his  career, from when he started in politics with President Nixon in charge, to the present day. The film is very much a satire, using such concepts as a fake-out ending (an alternate reality where Cheney didn't become vice-president due to wanting to protect his daughter, an LGBT member) and a voice-over narration provided by the person whose heart was given to Cheney after one of the vice-president's many heart attacks. Even though the film played these moments with a tongue-in-cheek style humour, the political events including 9/11 and the war, were played with seriousness and respect. This highlighted a stressful time in the western world, especially the events leading to the second Gulf War. The film's serious topics contrasted nicely with the parody scenes and helped to bring a dark humour ambience throughout. The film cleverly ends with a scene of a focus group questioning if Vice had political bias.

When you hear the name Christian Bale, you instantly think: intense, high drama, and more recently, action roles. I doubt anybody had Bale in mind while thinking of Cheney. And yet, as Bale is an actor who thoroughly immerses himself into a role, he very much successfully convinces the viewer that they aren't watching Christian Bale, movie star, but instead the vice-president from 2000-2008. Amy Adams plays Cheney's wife Lynne, and is so great in becoming the person who was responsible for Cheney entering politics (as she usually is) that she actually made me dislike her. I'm still not that convinced Sam Rockwell as George W Bush. I'm a big fan of Rockwell's acting but he was not the first person to come to mind to take on such a well-known role. He of course does his usual greatness but there were times where I was wondering why Cheney was talking with Sam Rockwell. A film that resonated, especially due to current events, it was nice to see the film portraying some of the real-life absurdities.

 

After completing this segment, I think I came away with feeling dissatisfied with only the one choice. Since some of these films weren't my original choices, I feel more satisified with having watched them than if I went with what I had intended. As that concludes this segment, stay tuned for the final part of my challenge!

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