A trio of movies at once for your reading pleasure.
Masked and Anonymous
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
28 Weeks Later
Masked and Anonymous is a dreamlike entree into an alternate, or future North America which has more than a passing resemblance to a third world nation, or perhaps a Central or South American nation. Extreme variances in wealth between rich and power, one-party politics, armed rebellion...its an even darker future than current political life today.
In front of this backdrop comes Bob Dylan's "Jack Fate", a character much like himself, a singer of ballads which, as it so happens, all are Bob Dylan songs. His manager (John Goodman) springs Fate from prison for a benefit concert, and a variety of characters weave in an out of a often allegorical, dream like narrative.
It's really a movie for the opportunity to see Bob Dylan perform more than any real narrative or story.
Directed and starring Branagh as the titular character, this version of the classic tale does take more from the novel than most adaptations. However, very poor cinematography, not least restricted to a full frame presentation of a widescreen movie made the action difficult to follow. When it wasn't difficult to follow, the talents of Branagh, De Niro (as the creature), and Helena Bonham Carter (as Frankenstein's lover) are horribly wasted. The actors don't bring their A game to the picture, and I was never sold on their motivations or actions. Branagh, too, has done far better as a director than in this movie.
This movie has a far more political bent, where the US Army starts the recolonization of Britain 7 months after the events of the first movie. The country is depopulated of humans, save for an enclave in the "Green Zone" in the Isle of Dogs in London.
A fateful and illegal excursion out of the green zone by two young residents brings them in contact with a survivor, their mother, who while not showing symptoms of the "zombie virus", is a carrier for it. And when she gives the virus to her husband, who had abandoned her months before, the stage is set for another outbreak and those caught in the maelstrom.
In addition to the Green Zone, we get indiscriminate use of weapons on targets, friendly fire, paranoid reactions, and other subtexts. And on top of all that, we get a pretty good zombie movie. The zombies of the "twenty eight" movies are fast, and deadly, and there are a number of good evocations of their terror in this movie.
And the end of the movie, no spoiler, leaves things open for a third movie. I'd watch it.
Posted by Jvstin at November 2, 2007 10:04 PM