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At the risk of doing some great movies a bit of dissatisfaction, I am about to unload my entire list of pending reviews or I will never get myself caught up. Such is the beauty of Netflix Instant Play and the additive of a little extra time in my hands. The list is not shrinking any time soon so, in rapid fire fashion, here is a movie dump for you, and because I am short in time, I will be forced to do it in parts.

My name is Francisco Manzo and I approve this message.

Lost in Beijing
Director: Yu Li
Genre: Drama/Foreign
Year: 2007

Slightly chaotic, frenetic, ‘Bourne‘-style, hand held cinematography meets, ‘3-Iron‘ dramatics and the result is a slightly twisted but incredibly interesting movie about a man four people that end up forced into a binding contract with each other when a man rapes a woman (his employee), whose husband is determined to ‘get even’ by making some profit off the event. The fact that the victim woman, ends up pregnant only seems to add to the dilemma that the two couples find themselves in.

The solution seems simple, Boss pays for the pregnancy and adopts the child if it is his as well as giving the younger, victimized couple a share of money for their troubles. If, DNA on the other hand proves that the Boss is not the father, then, cash is taken for the crime committed against the employee and all the two couples go their separate ways. Contract is written, sealed in red ink with thumb prints and voila!

Problem is, things get complicated when money and human lives are at stake and this movie is no exception. With interesting twists and heart wrenching moments, this movie touches on the ugliness of humanity, the beauty…and the ironic too! It has subtitles, yes, but you can deal with that, this movie is very much worth it!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Notes: Nudity and sexuality push this into the R rating area, the moments of violence bump it up a little more and then you have the adult content. Safe to say you should not let your kids watch this movie, even if they do not speak Chinese…er…Mandarin, I should say.

Fido
Director: Andrew Currie
Genre: Horror/Comedy/Drama/Romance
Year: 2006

Crap happened, zombies broke out, war ensued, humanity was pushed to the edge of extinction but then lightning struck, humans pulled their collective heads out of their respective arses and in a stroke of genius not only defeated the zombie horde, but also happened to find a way to control them and enslave them and make them the ultimate pet. So now you can have your zombie fetch your newspaper, water your lawn, do your vacuuming and so forth and so on.

Set in the fifties this movie has a layer of cheese and ‘campiness’ of the sort you would expect from shows like ‘Leave it to Beaver‘ and ‘Lassie‘ (except I have no actual idea if those shows are from the fifties and no inclination to go find out). Add to it the comedic element that you get from making a zombie a pet, the not so comedic potential enslavement of what could be an arguably sentient being, the drama of family dynamics, the thrill of an accidental act of gruesome violence and a twist on the idea of a romantic movie and you pretty much have this strangely likable movie. While it  may break a lot of zombie rules, and while it may not hit the funny bone quite as well as Shaun of the Dead, this one is definitely worth watching, if only for the fact that it is bound to have something that most everybody will like (except for your children, unless rotting corpses is on their list of “fun things I like to bring to show and tell”), and give you something to meaty to chew on while you are at it (I would like to say the pun is not intended, but it is, I had to think about it really hard to get to it too, so give me some credit).

Rating: 4 out of 5
Notes: Lots of zombie, plenty of gore, adult situations and some sexual content. Not for kids. Or at least not for kids that you hope will grow up to be upstanding citizens of your community, anyway.
Quote: Bill Robinson: I’d say I’m a pretty darn good father. My father tried to eat me, I don’t remember trying to eat Timmy.
Helen Robinson: Bill, just because your father tried to eat you, does that mean we all have to be unhappy… forever?

Changeling
Director: Clint Eastwood
Genre: Crime/Drama/Mystery
Year: 2008

Clint Eastwood’s latest release and lets be frank here, for an old man Eastwood works incredibly hard; Grand Turino is already being pimped out there and this movie just barely released. But in any case, the movie is still generally a good one. It deals with the true story of a woman who loses her child (he gets kidnapped, actually) while she is at work. The incompetent police department, at being entirely unable to find the kid, manages to scrounge up another run away and try to pass him off as the woman’s child.

Hilarity ensues.

Not really, this one is actually a pretty depressing, dramatic film, as you can probably gather from the synopsis. Unfortunately it is also slightly drawn out, it runs too long, and feels a bit predictable. Of course, the argument against that is: What can you do, this is what actually happened! And then I have no argument in return to that other than please make the movie shorter so it does not feel so damned long.

It does however have its good moments, some very interesting concepts, particularly when dealing with insane asylums and the manipulated, forced, unfair throwing of women into insane asylums. More so than the actual account of the movie, I found this rather fascinating. Unfortunately that is not the main body of the movie. There is some pretty good acting peppered through out and it is very well directed, so you take the good with the bad and if the concept appeals to you, then I encourage you to watch it. If it does not…then you are probably better off watching Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, which are superior films.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Notes: Some language, disturbing situations, and some violence. Not a child friendly film.
Quote: Christine Collins: I used to tell Walter, “Never start a fight… but always finish it.” I didn’t start this fight… but by god I’m going to finish it.

Paranoia 1.0
Director: Jeff Renfroe and Marteinn Thorsson
Genre: Horror/Drama/Sci-Fi/Thriller
Year: 2004

This is sort of like the Matrix’s, underbudgeted, little brother and the still manage to pull of a rather impressive, twisted, but largely straight forward film. In fact, this movie is quite reminiscent of “A Detective Story“, directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and one of the animated shorts in The Animatrix, down to the stripped down, old school but somehow futuristic technology.

Essentially, a man receives an empty package and soon after his world begins to fall appart, things in his apartment building do not seem right and the packages keep coming, each time with nothing in them. It makes absolutely no sense to Simon, who is trying to come to grips with that as his life begins to spiral out of control in a way that he can not seem to help, making one wonder if the empty packages are truly empty.

Inventive in a twisted sort of way, this movie is up my alley but not most people. There is a certain noir to this and a bit of grittiness that I think will turn off a large chunk of the mainstream. Be prepared for a thriller that keeps you on the edge the same way the Matrix did, but do not count on the same visual effects. In fact most of the film relies  on very little C.G. making up for it with better acting on the part of Jeremy Sisto who plays the lead and some unique sets that will draw in the fans of movies like Delicatessen, Blade Runner and other movies in this particular vein. Though…let it be noted that the adult content has been bumped up quite a bit here.

Rating: 4 out of 5
Notes: Violence, language, disturbing imagery, nudity and a bit of S&M of sorts. Adults only for this one and open minded ones, at that.
Quote: Howard: The bad people can save you but they won’t. The good people wanna save you but they can’t.