K-Pax

            Ridding on the Kevin Spacey hype train I came upon his 2001 film K-Pax where he stars as Prot who is either Manhattan’s most convincing psychiatric patient or an alien investigator. Spacey’s costar is Jeff Bridges, Dr.  tasked with evaluating and treating the man who claims to have ridden light to see Earth.

The relationship between Pax and Dr. Powell, Bridge’s character, quickly becomes a noticeably unique situation. Powell is a master of his work. He has the respect of his colleagues, he essentially runs the facility, and he seems unfazed by all his other cases and they don’t require much effort on his part. He’s seen it all before. And then there is Prot. Powell’s interviews begin with him and he throws drugs at it and expects the same result he usually gets. But Prots body is immune to these drugs. Powell becomes interested. He follows up with more interviews but Prot continually displays incredible intelligence. Powell brings Prot in front of a team of scientists exploring and working to try to explain the workings of the universe and Prot is able to give calculations and formulas explaining details about his “home” planet that these scientists had had yet to figure out themselves. Powell becomes emotionally invested.

He cares for Prot, and he is determined to help him but his effort to solve the mystery behind Prot is not just a selfless one. Powell is driven to find an earthly answer to maintain his own sanity as well. Powell’s struggle to find the answer is the audience’s struggle as well and it’s an intriguing one. Prot has befriended the audience as well. He is the hero that brightens the ward, giving the patients new energy and hope. He is friendly, intelligent, and genuine who’s entire impact is positive. The film has few points where my eyes aren’t glued to the screen, watching everything, hoping to find another hint that will take me closer to knowing for sure where Prot is from.

My only real issue is a small one. The man who has seen everything, and who looks to be as about experienced as it gets when it comes to his field breaks his toughest case yet by using hypnosis. The only time I felt the movie wasn’t drawing me in closer when the introduction of hypnosis. Here we have this big time physiatrist and an impossible client and the doctor’s ace in the hole is waving a watch and talking calmly. I think the movie and Prot deserved a more well thought out answer than that.

But my concerns were buried by the ending I wanted. With still no answer by the end of the movie, it invites speculation and imagination. After the confusion of weighing all the evidence were left remembering the impact that Prot had. The way it should have ended.

3 out of 5

RoboCop Review

Yesterday I scrolled through the Netflix database for a new movie to watch.  I was in the mood for a sci-fi film with plenty of action. After a 4 minute search, I chose to watch RoboCop. Having already seen the original RoboCop, that was released in 1987, I thought it would be interesting to see how director Jose Padiha would reinvent this hero.

I'll start off by naming some of the positives I noticed in Padiha's film.  The first thing that stuck out to me was the societal questions the film posed. Questions such as; Is technology taking away human expression? Can robots combat crime more effectively than humans, without any biases?  Can humans and robots co-exist?  These questions are important to think about, not only because it makes the movie interesting, but also because of the pace that our society is evolving.  Pretty soon robots might be patrolling our streets.

In the movie, Padiha robots are created by a money hungry corporation, OmniCorp, that wants to start using robots as police officers.  OmniCorp has a tough time convincing the public that this would be a good idea, in part because of situations where the human element might need to be activated.  As we all know, robots can't activate this element.  OmniCorp president (Michael Keaton) comes up with an idea of combining a man and a robot to appeal to the public.  The human always being in control of any life or death decision.  OmniCorp starts looking for disabled officers that would qualify for their test of a RoboCop.  They find Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnamen), a detective who almost died in an attempted murder car explosion.  Murphy lost most of his limbs and was in critical condition when he was submitted to the hospital.  OmniCorp president Raymond Sellars introduced the idea to Murphy's wife, offering her to sign a consent form, in order to save Murphey.  She signs.  One of the most powerful scenes in the movie is when Murphy is dismembered of his robot limbs, in order to face the reality that he is just a head, with a brain, and a torso, with a heart.  This image  paints, and asks, the question if humans and robots can co-exist, and if so who is in control?

Padiha does an awesome job creating the action scenes in the movie.  The RoboCop suit looks ways better than in the original 1987 movie.  It is a sleek black, almost batman like, suit that reacts just like normal body reacts to.  What makes the suit special is the data, and information that it can hold.  Murphy can search through his database to target certain individuals who are violating the law.  Also, since the suit is controlled by a human it makes the decision making a little slower than the other robots that OmniCorp creates.  I think the action scenes in this movie kept me engaged.  The acting on the other hand did not.

Now the negatives.  As a big fan of Samual Jackson I found his role in this movie to be annoying.  Jackson plays a news channel host who is in favor of having robots as police officers.  I found him to be just as annoying as real news anchors like Wolf Blitzer, and Nancy Grace.  The acting was more comical than dramatic when Jackson stood in front of the character.  This didn't work for the movie, to me.  Also, Michael Keaton had the same problem.  Their acting was unbelievable, and I don't mean that as a compliment.  His role as the villain in the movie is to cliche.  There is nothing fresh, and new about his role in the movie.   Besides these two characters, I think the rest of the cast does a good job in portraying their role.

Overall, I enjoyed RoboCop.  It is worth watching simply for the questions that it raises on how we interact with technology.  Also, because the future that Padiha creates is not too far away.  If you enjoy future Sci-Fi films with action, that challenge your thinking in where our society is heading, then this movie is a good watch.

 3 out of 5 stars   RoboCop Trailer

Welcome to Our Blog!

Hello!

And welcome to our blog, Explorations of Genre on the Big Screen.  Join us each week as Serxhio, Patrick and Andrew discuss movies both good and bad from each major genre as we closely examine what exactly makes these films either such a hit or a miss.

Tentative Schedule:
Week 1 - Science Fiction
Week 2 - Western
Week 3 - Comedy
Week 4 - Action
Week 5 - Horror

Who are we?

Right now we are all just students at Saint Louis University studying under the English-Education major.  That said, we are also all film-lovers.  After all, who doesn't love a good movie?