Culture from the darker side

Zombies are in. First, there was last years “28 days later” by Danny Boyle, then there was a remake of “Dawn of the Dead” and of course the second part of the “Resident Evil” series.

So what is there left? I guess a comedy is in order and thus the british bring us “Shaun of the Dead” which apparantly is not a comedy with zombies but a love comedy that just happens to have some Zombies in it, at least that is what star and co author Simon Pegg claimed in a recent Now Interview.

May it as it be, “Shaun of the Dead” is remarkebly funny. Simon Pegg did not only star but also co-wrote the script with director Edgar Wright.

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What do you get when you combine the worlds most popular sport (soccer) with one of the staples of Asian Cinema (Kung-Fu)?

Well of course the answer is “Shaolin Soccer”.

And let me say right now that I am happy to say that the chances that Hollywood is going to rape the movie is pretty much zero. Afterall “Shaolin Football” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, nor can I imagine seeing Shaolin Fights with guys in body armor (maybe “Shaolin Rugby”?).

But for now, let’s concentrate on Shaoline Soccer and let’s kick some grass.

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” Since last year one book has remained on the bestseller list here in Canada: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

The story is a rather simple, yet complicated one: It’s all about the Holy Grail and about a murder.

Robert Langdon is in Paris for a conference and to his surprise is invited to meet the curator of the Louvre. Before they can meet though the curator is murdered and Robert Langdon finds himself the prime suspect of the detective investigating the case.

Paired up with the curator’s niece, Sophie Neveu, he tries to uncover who killed him and four other men and to proof his innocence.

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Once in a while there is a movie coming out that is just plain fun to watch.

Skycaptain and the world of tomorrow is one of these movies.

The story is set somewhere in the early 1940s in a city not unlike New York (we do see the Empire State building early on) but unlike in our own history there is no second world war.

After the first World War (the war to end all wars) the world was at peace, not in the least thanks to SkyCaptain (played by Jude Law)and his merry band of mercenaries on which the governments of the world could call if need be. At his side is his trusty sidekick Dex Dearborne (Giovanni Ribisi) as well as his ex girlfriend and now up and coming reporter (think Lois Lane of Superman fame) Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow).

As you can already imagine by the names the story is rather corny and in the best tradition of 1930s Hollywood Sunday afternoon entertainment. That meaning: The presentation is clearly 21st century. All of the backgrounds are computer generated and the acting happened all in front of a green screen.

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I have to admit I am a huge fan of the Resident Evil computer games series. I do still vividly remember how it felt to sit in a dark room playing the games and being “jumped” at on screen. Creepy noises all around me.

Unfortunatly over the years games that have been turned into movies usually didn’t fare this good (anyone remember “Super Mario Bros.” or the rather dreadful “Dungeons & Dragons”?). Back in 2002 “Resident Evil” hit the silver screen and although it failed in comparision with the original computer game it was a decent enough movie.

It was written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson who had quite a “hit and miss” relationships with his movies. His first feature film debut “Mortal Kombat”, was already a “knock off” of a rather successful video games series, but the fighting scenes and the overall movie was rather “wooden”. I quite liked his first original work “Event Horzion” the follow up “Soldier” I took in with indifference. Resident Evil fell somewhere in the middle. The fan of the games was disappointed at the obvious discrepancies between the first game and the movie, but overall it was decent enough.
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“Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers” could be seen as the movie version of “No Logo” by Naomi Klein.

Erik Gandini and Johan Söderberg create a one hour MTV style look into our modern consumer culture. They show us pictures from the G8 summit in Genova/Italy back in 2001, something that isn’t quite over yet. They bring us spoofs of an infomercial, they visit the makers of Realdoll, visit Cuba and show the “simple life”. They interview a guy in Sweden who came to a lot of money during the dot com aera and now tells us how “empty” he feels at times.

We visit third world countries and see how people work and live there. All of this is set around the narratation by John Zerzan who proposes that we all move back into the stone age, destroy our industries and live a simpler life and Kalle Lasn of Adbusters fame.

All of this is set to catchy music, fast cuts at times and the overall feel to be sitting in an infomercial… Although one that is trying to sell me the idea of buying into nothing.

At the end of the one hour though there wasn’t really anything new. Do I want to go back into the stone age? Do I want to move to Cuba where I can live the simple life? Do I want to go to the next protest? Or maybe throw in the window of a Starbucks or McDonald’s to sooth my aching soul?

Surplus, much like Naomi Kleins book do not show any answers, they are just trying to document something they consider a “desease”. The problem with both of them is that the people who watch / read this material already are “in the know”, people outside might stumble across it by accident, but at the majority who would need to see it never will.

Surplus, in the end is the movie version of the Adbuster magazine, something that has lost it’s way through it’s own success a while ago.

Rating: 4/5

Robert Asprin is a well accomplished fiction writer out of the UK.

I first stumpled across his work maybe 15 year ago when I was starting to read the “Myth” series. It is almost comical that a lot of people who love to read Pratchett haven’t read any of his works (at least when talking to friends in my circle who all devour Pratchett).

Over the past several years there wasn’t really much new coming out from him though. The Myth series was in hiatus and the only thing that came out was a re-issue of all the classic adventures, and then two years ago one “intermedieate” step, one he claimed he needed to get back in.

Besides the Myth series though he had also written a new series around the adventures of one “Willard Phule” who is anything but a fool, but rather the hire to the largest Munitions company (Phule proof ammunitions) in the known universe.

The series so far consists of four books:

Phule’s company

Phule’s paradise

A Phule and his money

Phule me twice

and now the newest one: “No Phule like an old Phule“.
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