MicShazam

Great movie. The chicken scene may scar you for life.

The Batlord

It was as silly as it was messed up tbh so it wasn't too bad for me.

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Justthefacts

Who knew Leigh Whannell had it in him? Axel from The Matrix Reloaded? The guy from the first Saw film? The guy whose first directorial debut was Insidious: Chapter 3 a few years ago? Yes, that Leigh Whannell. That was the first thought I had after watching Upgrade. The aussie whose buddy buddy with another fellow aussie director, James Wan. With Upgrade, Whannell takes this Blade Runner-esque story and injects his exploitation tendencies I also didn't know he harbored inside him. I was thoroughly floored by this neo-futuristic grindhouse flick. If you took the classy, old-school feel of Blade Runner and ripped out it's fucking brains, you might scratch the surface of Upgrade. The budget for this film was 3-5 million dollars. Whannell stretches that budget to it's outer reaches because it looks like it was made for at least 20-30 million. It somehow maintains a low-budget vibe but this has to be one of the best examples of a high-concept sci-fi film made for almost nothing (relatively speaking).

Upgrade is a film about revenge. Nothing more, nothing less. Old school story of a man out to avenge his wife that was brutally murdered right in front of him. The story gets no points for originality, what surrounds the story is what gets points. Grey, played by a pretty excellent Logan Marshall Green, becomes paralyzed in the scuffle that leaves his wife dead. Ready not to start his new life, but to "turn the off switch on", a man comes to him with a micro-chip called STEM that will give him the opportunity to walk again, Grey becomes a little skeptical. After the police have no leads of the men who murdered his lady, he takes the offer and tries to take vengeance into his own hands. What he didn't know after the operation, is that STEM is what controls his body, not himself. He's given strength he's never had before, he's given a voice in his head that tells him what to say once the police start questioning him, and he's agreed to keep the world under the impression that he's still supposed to be paralyzed to a wheelchair. Shit starts to get out of hand, bodies start appearing in various disreputable locations, and the sanity of this man depletes the more he crunches bodies in half and nearly rips people's faces off.

Upgrade is the greatest exploitation film I've seen since Hobo With A Shotgun. The only thing that separates this kind of film from Hobo or Planet Terror or Machete or other contemporary exploitation flicks is it's high-concept design. Yes, heads explode. Faces get nearly ripped, but it looks like the year 2101. The production design in that respect is spot on. Like I previously said, Logan Marshall Green's performance is great. The amount of praise he received in "The Invitation" and the amount of praise that film received in general was way overrated. I'm glad he bounced back from that with Upgrade. Also, the cinematography is hands down some of the best I've seen this year. It's not beautiful landscapes or Oscars fare, but the way Whannell utilizes the camera during fight scenes has to be some of the greatest looking fight scenes ever put to screen. The Raid, or a movie to that effect have incredible choreography, which this does in spades, but what separates this from those films are the way the cameras are used to create these sequences. It's utterly jaw-dropping. I've never seen shots so incredibly accurate during a fight scene in my life. The way the camera moves to the punches being thrown and to every movement each person makes is really something that's never been done before.

Upgrade was a huge surprise. It could've been the feel-bad flop of the Summer. What we get is easily the greatest achievement Leigh Whannell's ever been apart of, and a bright future behind the camera for this guy. We need more smart, well made bloodbaths like this more often. I highly recommend this and if it's still anywhere in theaters near you, I recommend catching this on the biggest screen you can get. B+

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Justthefacts

2001: A Space Odyssey. Stanley Kubrick's unbridled, defining film. Changed the course of Sci-Fi and the better part of film completely. Basically took the idea of French art-house films of the early 60's and turned it into one of the greatest spectacle achievements ever put to celluloid. Kubrick made his fair share of masterpieces, more than enough any filmmaker can hope to achieve, and yet 2001 feels more than just a masterpiece. It's a towering monolith of creative forces pushing and pulling together, shoving to the side any conventional aspects of normal filmmaking. It's the light peaking above Clavius from the sun. It's the moment the ape smashes the bones to György Ligeti's "Requiem For Soprano". It's when HAL takes matters in his own hands and kills every member while in cryo-sleep. It's the moment Dr. Poole goes spiraling into the vast sea of stars along with the pod he was in. It's pure, unadulterated creations of movement. It's Kubrick unhinged. It's one of the best artistic creations in any medium.

I'm baffled at how this got made. Not baffled by how producers decided to green-light it (which also baffles me), but baffled at how Kubrick actually fucking made this film. Some of the different frames and camera angles and shots still puzzle even the most ardent filmmakers and cinematographers to this day. For good reason as well. How could he have positioned the camera in certain ways. It's jaw-dropping material, literally dragging my jaw across the aisle at how beautiful this film looks. The atmosphere as well sets the tone right from the beginning. The first 2 minutes are of a black screen with ominous, sort of disturbing string music playing. Then the MGM logo appears. Right from the start, it takes you to a place that might not end well, and this is before the movie even starts. Before even the first shot begins. It's creepy, unnerving stuff. On the other hand, music as triumphant as the last song when giant fetus baby hovers over Earth is smile-inducing. Everything works for this film. The performances, the writing, the music, the visuals, the special effects. There isn't a single flaw to be seen throughout this film.

The single greatest moment in this entire film is when Dave is floating to the satellite to presumably change the battery in it. It's a simple task. Float over to the satellite, replace the battery thingiemadoo, but the way he floats over to the satellite in his red space suit is the single greatest shot I've ever seen in a theater experience, much less an IMAX experience.

2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the greatest achievements in the history of man. It stands high above any Sci-fi film made before or after, and the benchmark will never be topped. 2001 is in a league of it's own and if you have the absolute chance to catch it in 70mm IMAX, you'd be the biggest fool in the world to miss out on such an experience. I walked away a changed man. I've seen it a few times before, but to see it on such an immaculate screen was very life-changing in fact. If there was a score better than an A+, I would happily give it that. A+

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Oriphiel

Watch Ninja Scroll already, you hussy.

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[MERIT]

I downloaded the torrent for "Upgrade". Now I can't wait to download and watch it!

Justthefacts

Its fucking sweet broseph. Thoroughly watchable with incredible action set pieces.

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Justthefacts

William Friedkin's one of those old Hollywood anomalies. For every lackluster film he directed, he seems to put out a classic. The Exorcist clearly being his pièce de résistance. He straddles that line between sexuality and violence probably the best. Killer Joe being a killer example of just that. Even the Exorcist with a young possessed Linda Blair stabbing herself in the you-know-what with a cross. It's very offensive stuff, but for a man like Friedkin, it's almost just a slap on the wrist. Maybe because the way he films such scenes come off disturbingly watchable. There's a grittiness that permeates throughout some of his best films. Cruising is a great example of controversy overload. Exposing the world to late night gay bars in seedy 1980's New York where lubing up your arms to fist men spread eagle all the while still trying to be a by-the-books investigation film didn't sit well with many. It sure sat well with me I can tell you that. But William Friedkin's M.O is to punish you. His M.O is to make you never forget the films he makes. His M.O is to be controversial for controversy's sake. I think he nails that with Bug. Bug tells a convincing story of white trash locals stuck in a Podunk town they can't seem to get out of and the main protagonist Ashley Judd reeling with an abusive husband who just got out of jail she most likely sent him too in the first place. The film starts off with a shot of a dead guy on the floor in a bathroom. The film later on explains the context but to simply begin the film with that shot is completely attributed to Friedkin. He wraps you up in this small, claustrophobic hotel room immediately and sets the tone for what you aren't going to expect. As the film progresses, Ashley Judd's character meets a shy, tall timid man in the form of Michael Shannon (who puts on his most manic performance and a performance I've not seen in a loooong time) who with his knowledge of bugs and trivial things sweeps Judd off her feet and into the bed. Perhaps through this sexual contact, a bug (or is there even a bug at all?) is transmitted from Shannon to Judd and now together they start to undergo extreme body lacerations and bruises and something that's eating them from the inside. I don't want to delve into too many details because I implore anyone whose a fan of Friedkin and films in general to go see it as soon as you can.

Given the small scale of this film, it doesn't surprise me that it was adapted from a play who Shannon also starred in before filming this movie. It's a low-budget, grimly disgusting film and I think the smallness of it actually makes it more terrifying. It never feels like these characters can escape from what's eating them from the inside and that's in no small part due to the claustrophobia of this tiny hotel room they're trapped in. The supporting characters all make there mark as well. Harry Connick Jr. playing his best I-Don't-Give-A-Shit abusive ex-husband role to the Tee. Lynn Collins is fine as Judd's sorta lesbian lover, but the focus of this film is between Judd and Shannon. They bring this bloody, sticky chemistry I don't think any two other actors would've been able to pull off. Not that Friedkin is used to making huge grandiose "Lawrence Of Arabia" scope films but to see him scale it back a bit and film inside one location is hugely rewarding. Bug doesn't go for silly jump scares or torture porn that was prevalent throughout the 00's, he goes for something deeper. More psychological in nature. Deep rooted terror that no matter what can be done and is done, it won't stop until these characters are completely lost within their own minds. To bring it back to The Exorcist for a sec, that film was psychologically terrifying as well but the underlying tone of it was rooted in religion. So to compare these two films just because they share that same type of horror is like apples and oranges. The one thing this film has over The Exorcist is the paranoia. Paranoia drives this film until it all goes up in flames. The dialogue between Judd and Shannon in the final act is complete made up mumbo jumbo. Something about the Government out conspiring against Shannon's character and implanting him with bugs and nano-machines. It's wild stuff, and basically dialogue that would only be said from someone suffering from a severe debilitating personality disorder. I would imagine that's what Friedkin's trying to convey with this film, but to try and describe the way these characters bodies are becoming bruised and deteriorated from this microscopic bug is what's truly terrifying. This takes us to the end of the film now. This third is completely devoid of any logical sense, especially the dialogue. It's the paranoia that makes it watchable. To try to understand such nonsense that is being said is a chore, but a chore you eventually give up on and just let ride out. The final shot happens with not even the slightest of climactic clarity. It just happens. There you go. Credits roll. Have a great rest of the day. It's powerful stuff especially for a horror film.

All In All, Bug is a great later career effort from Friedkin who still has brilliant ideas stored inside him. To go from this to Killer Joe just a few years later only goes to show that as long as William Friedkin is alive and making films, he won't stop haunting all of us. B+

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Oriphiel

Ninja Scroll when?

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Justthefacts

I'll add it to the queue how about that?

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