Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Mist

When talking with others about Steven King's The Mist, i'm always surprised at how much people hate this movie. I thought it got great reviews but I think there are 2 reasons someone may really despise The Mist:

1) It's technically a monster movie with giant bugs and octopi. It's hard for many people to take a movie with giant bugs and octopi for what it is even if it is Steven King. Therefore, they blow this off as just another lame monster movie that ripped off of every previous one.

2) The downer ending. Most American movies let the audience leave satisfied. Infact they had to change the ending of The Descent just to release it in America. However, The Mist has an extremely unsatisfying ending too. The type of ending that makes you angry and sad. I too, was pretty unsatisfied with the ending. But I can also appreciate something different every now and then.

So thank you, The Mist, for biting the bullet and risking being a hated movie for a more shocking and thought-provoking ending.

The only thing that would have made The Mist better in my mind was if we learned the fate of every character, because I really could NOT f*cking stand that Norton character and i'd sleep much better if I knew for a fact he died in this movie (well, i'm being dramatic). I'd rather deal with the acidic web-spewing spiders than deal with a stuck-up, stubborn old man like Norton any day. I picked up racist vibes from this character and he was too annoying with his irrational defensiveness. But I do like that he acted this way because of the disaster situation.

Stubborn doubt was a strong theme in The Mist. Every time someone would say something about the mist or what was out there, nobody would believe a damn thing. You as the viewer just want to slap nearly everyone in there. For one thing, this movie definitely can bring out emotion for the characters whether it be good or bad. I wasn't really rooting for anyone except maybe the funny old lady who was throwing cans of peas and the dude from Battlestar Galactica.


Here's the spoilerific rundown of the characters, the key events, the victims and the survivors!


Meet the hero:
David Drayton. He's a commercial artist who works on movie posters (I love that he had a movie poster of The Thing hanging in his studio). David lives by the lake with his wife, Stephanie, and his 5 year old son, Billy. A large storm knocks out the power and a fallen tree damages David's house. David, Billy and his neighbor Mr. Norton drive together to the local Food House grocery store to pick up some supplies. While shopping, a foggy mist engulfs the grocery store parking lot and the panic begins.





Fellow Shoppers: Amanda Dumfries, Mrs Carmady, Myron and Jim (left) who are friends and likely coworkers, and many others.


Food House employees: Bud the manager (right), Norm the bag boy, Ollie, Sally and Joe




Event 1:
David, Ollie, Jim, Myron and Norm the bag boy go back to investigate. They decide to send Norm outside to clear whatever might be in the way of the garage door. David figured this would be a fatal mistake and he was right.

Victim: Norm the bag-boy (left). While he's not technically the first victim of the movie he's the first slightly-significant character to go. He gets grabbed by some spiny tentacles from outside the loading garage door.





Event 2:
Mr. Norton and "his people" don't believe there is anything to fear with the mist. They don't believe that Norm is dead, nor that any of the others who walked out into the mist and yelped a horrifying scream were really dead either. So Mr. Norton and his people leave the grocery store.


Victim: The Biker (right). It's cool that this actor was in the other two Steven King movies made by the same director. He's the only guy not given a name who made this list. He gets ripped in half when he walks out into the mist with a rope tied around his waist so the others could see how far he didn't make it.



Victim: Mr Norton (left). The most obnoxious character in the movie IMO. Disaster situations can really bring out the worst in people but this guy topped the crazy cake. Everything people were telling him about the mist he did not believe. He rode his high horse right out into the mist and presumably was killed with a bunch of "his people" (we can only hope).





Event 3:
The survivors barricade the front glass wall of the store with stacks of dog food bags. At night, the lights inside the store attract a bunch of football-sized mosquito-looking creatures, which then attract some much larger pterodactyl-like creatures, which wind up breaking through the glass.

Victim: Tom (right). During the night attack he was swatting at giant mosquitoes left and right, but he was no match for a pterodactyl-like creature that ripped open his neck.



Victim: Sally the clerk (left). Sally was sweet, innocent and you could tell she was loved by the community. During the night attack she got bit by a giant mosquito. The bite caused massive swelling of her neck and face; to the point of death.



Victim: Hattie (right). This older Jamie Lee Curtis lookalike basically played the role of Billy's baby-sitter up until her death. The situation with the creatures and the guns and such were too much for her so she committed suicide by overdosing on pills after the attack subsided.




Event 4:
During the night attack, Joe was severly burned and now on his death bed. He was in need of some medical supplies. So David, Ollie, Mike, Bobby, Irene, Dan and Jessup venture out to the neighboring pharmacy to stock up.


Victim: Mike (left). During the quest to the pharmacy, Mike got webbed and swarmed by killer spiders.






Victim: Bobby (right). Bobby almost escaped the pharmacy with the meds for his burned brother back at the Food House, but the spiders sliced open his leg and killed him on the way out.



Victim: Joe (left) He accidentally set himself on fire during the night attack. Despite the somewhat success of the pharmacy quest, Joe doesn't survive the night.






Event 5:
A large theme of The Mist is the religious undercurrent of the stranded Survivors in the Food House. It all stems from one very religious character, Mrs. Carmady. She sees the mist as a form of God's punishment onto humanity. By three-quarters of the way through the movie she has spread her gospel to the majority of the other survivors. As a strong group they are against David and his smaller group of people who now want to leave the grocery store. Mrs. Carmady and her followers do not want anyone else to leave, but instead they'd rather sacrifice those who are not believers in the eyes of God.

Victims: Morales & Donaldson (right) These two soldiers knew exactly what the mist was but they never told anyone. They hanged themselves in the storage room to escape their inevitable fates.





Victim: Private Jessup (left). The others got news that the soldiers knew about the mist and that it was partly their fault. By this point everyone is a little crazy and religious (sorry for the redundancy). The majority of Mrs Carmody's followers believe that if they sacrifice the last remaining soldier then God will reward them by pulling back the creatures (or something of this nature). They stab Jessup and throw him out into the parking lot where a giant mantis-like creature nabs him.



Victim: Mrs Carmody (right). The break-out star of The Mist. Marcia Gay Harden does a superb job playing the unstable "vessel of Christ." She riled up most of the survivors in the super market and got them all believing that the mist was Gods punishment and that they could escape the disaster by giving into prayer and following Mrs Carmady's lead. And like with most religious groups of people, this led to violence and war in the form of a knife fight. Unfortunately for Mrs Carmady, the sole gun of the group was in the hands of a non-believer (Ollie) and Mrs Carmody gets shot twice and killed.



Event 6:
After Mrs. Carmady's death, the rest of her followers resist David and his group attempting to leave the grocery store. So David and his group (his son Billy, Amanda, Ollie, Dan, Irene, Myron, Cornell, and store manager Bud) flee out into the mist towards his truck.

Victim: Ollie (left). This guy worked at the Food House. He quickly teams up with the lead character, David, and also got ahold of the only gun among the group. He sticks with David, Amanda and his boss, Bud. During their final escape to David's truck, he gets sliced in half by a giant crab-like creature.






Victim: Myron (right). Myron and Jim are two of the maintenance/janitorial workers at the Food House. During the final escape, Myron gets killed by a giant spider that jumps on top of him.




Victim: Mr Cornell (left) joins David, Amanda, Myron, Bud, Billy, Irene, Dan and Ollie on their final attempt to escape the mist. But Mr Cornell does not make it.






Event 7:
David, his son Billy, Amanda, Dan and Irene make it to his truck. They drive back to David's house only to see that his wife, Stephanie is dead. They then drive until the truck runs out of gas. The only things they saw on their trip were more creatures and less hope.


Victims: Amanda, Billy, Dan and Irene (below). With 4 bullets left in their only gun, they decide to end their lives. David volunteers to be the odd man out and leave his fate up to the creatures. After shooting the four including his son, David then discovers that the world is not over and he just killed his son in vain. Oops. [/tragic ending]

Survivors: David, Bud, Jim (pictured up top) and many others without names.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Dawn of the Dead

I'm usually well aware of all current Survivor movies that have been made. If I can't make it to the theater to see them I'm pretty good at keeping them on the list in my head of "must see" movies once they hit dvd (checking the list now...I see Pandorum, A Perfect Getaway, Quarantine...check). However, I completely missed the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead. I can blame it on being very busy with college but I probably forgot about it because it was just another zombie movie. I've never been a huge fan of zombie films because 10 times out of 10 they fall into the Jaws category (or so I thought), and there are at least 10 made a year so I don't care very much to see every single one. I've seen a couple that I vaguely remember like maybe House of 1,000 Corpses? or House of the Dead? I do remember watching 28 Days Later and 30 Days of Night with Josh Hartnett because those were awesome. But still, zombie movies blend together in my opinion.

I picked up Dawn of the Dead for like 3.99, and it turned out to be 4 bucks well spent. The movie starts with about 5 people teaming up against a world gone zombie. They break into a mall for safety and meet up with 3 security guards. Later, they are joined by several other refugees and it becomes a battle for survival against the zombies. Each character we meet has a name and a bit of a story. It's a very roundabout cast of characters which lends itself well to being a better Survivor movie.


The zombie rules here are similar to most zombie films: don't get bitten! The zombie disease or whatever is blood-borne. I like that they just stick to the usual, expected rules for zombies, rather than try to make a more unique story. I'm aware this is a remake so thankfully they were restricted to follow these rules.



*SPOILERS* Below is the cast of characters in order of Survival *SPOILERS*

1. Ana (Sarah Polley) is a nurse and the lead character in Dawn of the Dead. Before boarding up in the mall with the others, Sarah witnesses her husband being bitten and turned into a zombie. She becomes sympathetic with those who are bitten and does not believe they should be killed (until they are actually zombies). Ana sort of falls in love with the lead male character, Michael, in a horror-movie kind of way (ya know, where the lead male and female are practically obligated to fall in love but it's never fully developed or all that believable). SURVIVAL STATUS: Survivor?
2. Kenneth (Ving Rhames) is a cop. He helps the group numerous times throughout the movie with his shooting skills, brute strength and heroism. He's tough but has a respectable demeanor. He befriends Andy, the guy stranded on top of a neighboring building. SURVIVAL STATUS: Survivor?
3. Terry (Kevin Zegers) is a mall security guard in training. He's one of three mall cops that Ana, Michael, Kenneth, Andre and Luda run into when they flee to the mall. Bart and CJ are the other two security guards. Terry is the "good cop" while CJ is the "bad cop." He crushes on Nicole and is determined to save her whenever she's in danger. He's also a bit of a perv as he likes to spy on the women through the security cameras. SURVIVAL STATUS: Survivor?
4. Nicole (Lindy Booth) has lost her mother and both her brothers to the zombie virus. She arrives at the mall with her father, Frank, aboard Norma's truck. She's emotionally a wreck at first and then has to deal with her father dying too. She cuddles up with Terry, and even becomes unrationally attached to the dog the group finds wandering the parking garage. Chips, the dog, is basically the last thing she has left in her world. SURVIVAL STATUS: Survivor?
5. Michael (Jake Weber) is one of the lead male characters. When we meet him he was travelling with a group of 7 others including Andre and Luda, and the other 5 are already dead. We're also told he was a father and his son is presumably also dead. Michael is unsympathetic regarding the bitten. Anyone bitten must be shot before they can turn into a zombie. This may make him seem like a villain but he's more of a rational leader than anything. He's the final casualty of the movie (that we witness) as he reveals to the others that he is bitten and must stay behind as the final 4 sail off towards a [hopeful] zombie-free island. It fits his character well that he sacrifices himself for the others because he wished the same on others when they were bitten. SURVIVAL STATUS: Dead Zombie
6. CJ (Michael Kelly) is the lead security guard at the mall. He, Bart and Terry have sanctioned off a floor of the mall and do not want any others to invade their territory. When the others insist on entering their safe haven CJ becomes hostile and threatens to kill people who will not obey his orders. He's mostly concerned that outsiders may carry the zombie virus into the clean group of people around him. By the end of the movie, he transforms from selfish to selfless as he sacrifices himself by detonating an exposive gas tank killing many zombies. SURVIVAL STATUS: Dead
7. Steve (Ty Burrell) is the local anchorman. He was picked up by Norma in her truck. Steve is the smart ass of the bunch. We don't know if he has sex with Monica because they are an item, or if they're celebrating their last days on earth together. He forshadows his own death when he tells Ana "If I ever turn into one of those things you have my permission to kill me." After the bus he's on crashes and he escapes, a zombie bites him. A few minutes later Ana shoots him in the head. SURVIVAL STATUS: Dead Zombie
8. Glen (R.D. Reid) is the random, forgettable old man that is part of the 8 or 9 group of people on Norma's truck. We never learn much about Glen but we do learn he might be a crossdresser as he's seen trying on women's high heels. We also don't see much of his death. He's on the second bus leaving the mall that flips over. After this accident we're told he is dead along with Monica. SURVIVAL STATUS: Dead
9. Monica (Kim Poirier) is the hot blonde that arrives with Steve, Nicole, Glen and several others on Norma's truck. We don't learn much about Monica except that she has a very naughty side as we see her trying on lingerie in a clothing boutique and having sex with Steve during the movie's down-time montage. Monica dies a gruesome death when the bus she's on crashes. The group was using chainsaws to knock zombies off the side of the buses, but during the crash, Glen falls over and by accident the chainsaw he's holding rips down into Monica's chest. SURVIVAL STATUS: Dead
10. Tucker (Boyd Banks) arrives with Norma and her truck full of survivors. We learn he has an ankle injury, which is suspected to be a zombie bite, but he insists it is not. Tucker tags along with a group of the guys who travel through the sewers beneath the mall to quietly escape and rescue Nicole. But during the return he's the last back into the sewer and the zombies swarm him. Upon request, CJ shoots him in the head. SURVIVAL STATUS: Dead
11. Andy (Bruce Bohne) is an owner of a gunshop that is across the street from the mall. Andy is seen stranded on the roof and he communicates with the main cast of characters via marker boards. He befriends Kenneth and the two play chess and playfully snipe zombies down on the ground. He runs out of food in his gunshop so the others load some onto the back of Chips the dog. But while Chips enters Andy's gunshop, some zombies also leak in and bite Andy. Andy then becomes a zombie and Kenneth is forced to kill him later when the group makes it over to his building. SURVIVAL STATUS: Dead Zombie
12. Norma (Jayne Eastwood) is the heroic old truck driver that rescued Glen and several others. She drives them to the mall where they meet up with the rest of the cast. She walks in on Andre and Luda in the children's clothing store where she sees that Luda has become a zombie. By instinct, Norma shoots Luda in the head. In return, Andre shoots and kills her too but not before she fires off a few rounds at him. SURVIVAL STATUS: Dead
13. Andre (Mekhi Phifer) is introduced traveling with Michael when they run into Kenneth and Ana. He is a father-to-be and he's very protective of his pregnant wife Luda and their child who is also with them. After Luda gets bitten by a zombie in the mall, he tries to hide the fact from the others because he doesn't want them to kill her. So he hides her in the children's clothing store bound to a bed in hopes of still delivering his child. Luda does eventually give birth but it's too late and the baby is already zombified. Andre is shot by Norma after Norma shoots Luda and he shoots Norma. The others then kill the baby upon discovery. SURVIVAL STATUS: Dead
14. Luda (Inna Korobkina) is Andre's pregnant Russian wife. After entering the mall she receives a tiny bite on her arm from one of the few zombies found there. At first, this is no big deal, but once the cast learns the after effects of a bite, Andre hides her so that nobody can see her turning into a zombie. When she does turn into one she is tied down to a bed or something so she can't bite anyone (while still pregnant). Norma runs into the couple and kills Luda out of fear. SURVIVAL STATUS: Dead Zombie
15. Bart (Michael Barry) is one of the 3 mall security guards. He is viewed as CJ's sidekick, AKA asshole junior. We don't learn much about Bart except that he likes fat chicks. He gets swarmed and killed by zombies when he, Michael, CJ and Kenneth adventure into the mall's parking garage for reasons I forget. SURVIVAL STATUS: Dead
16. Frank (Matt Frewer) is one of the two bitten survivors who arrive at the mall on Norma's truck. He is Nicole's father. The group soon learns the fate of all those who are bitten and Michael orders that Frank be killed because he's a threat to the rest. There's controversy over this decision, but ultimately Frank agrees. Kenneth waits for Frank to turn over before finally killing him. SURVIVAL STATUS: Dead Zombie
17. Bloated Woman. In addition to Frank, there is another bitten victim aboard Norma's truck. This unidentified, and grossly bloated, woman is much further along in the zombie transforming process. She becomes a zombie and is quickly killed by Ana. I guess we should count her as the first official victim of the core cast of characters in the mall, despite the very small part.