Movies Seen Recently: The Way Back, The Invasion, Blood: The Last Vampire

The Way Back (2010) – Inspired by (as opposed to “based on”) a true story, this movie follows a handful of men who broke out of a Siberian gulag in the early 1940s and made their way clear down to India (at least, some of them did).  I expected this to be “The Great Escape, but colder,” but the breakout happens in the first twenty minutes; the rest of the movie is the long hard slog — through frozen Siberia, yes, but then also through the Gobi desert.

I was impressed by the lack of Hollywoodification here.  Exhibit #A: The biggest-name star in the cast, Colin Farrell (as a Russian mobster), isn’t the focus of the story, and has abandoned the trek by the halfway point. Exhibit #B: Ed Harris, the second big-name star, is content to stay in the story’s second tier, and also content to look like hell when the second-degree sunburns in the Gobi start to peel. Exhibit #C: A solitary teenage girl joins their party after their escape; I tried immediately to peg which character would be the obligatory would-be rapist… but there was never any would-be rape. Well played!

The Invasion (2007) – Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig star in yet another version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers; this one really adds nothing to what the 1978 version did, with its brilliant substitution of the original’s “Communist/Anti-Communist paranoia” subtext with the social isolation of fragmented urban living.  Plus, there aren’t even pods in this, just a contagious cellular takeover! What’s the point of that? 

Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) – As is my habit, I watch live-action movies based on anime I’ve never seen. (Really haven’t seen much anime, actually.  The low frame-rate simply sets my teeth on edge.)  This one has an immortal half-vampire (stuck in her teens, naturally) used as the killing agent for a mysterious organization called “The Council,” which sets her loose on as many vampires as they can.  And because she can blend in physically with teenagers, she gets set up in a high school on a U.S. army base to track down the vampires there.

The production is pretty slick, with cinematography that mimics pretty well the sense of energy and motion in anime and manga.  (The CG work is pretty dreadful, though; the omnipresent blood sprays look lump, and the winged demon creatures that vampires transform into are just embarrassing.)  I’m sure the story makes more sense when presented in a series of full episodes, but I really don’t want to watch it to find out if I’m right.

Abandoned movies:

Bloody Mallory (2002) – I think this was a French attempt at doing something in the same ballpark as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It doesn’t work.

Shock-O-Rama (2005) – I’ve always been impressed technically with what indie director Brett Piper can accomplish in terms of FX, etc… but too many of his scripts are of the “unlikable people being belligerent” variety that leave me absolutely cold.