Strange Mix

Movie Review: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
Hmmm, what to say about this movie. It fits into that horrific little niche of movies like Caligula, the Passion, and Schindler's List that are so realistic and scary that I only need to see them once. Salo is about 4 noblemen in Fascist Italy who decide to live out the Marquis De Sade's last book in a private villa before the Allies kill them. A group of young men and women are kidnapped and turned into slaves for their sickest desires. What follows are scenes of rape, torture, and degradement as I've never seen before. It was tough to watch but is certainly an important movie that shows how unbridled power leads to corruption. If you don't think you can handle people being forced to eat each other's excrement then this isn't the movie for you. I don't find it all that surprising that the film's director, Pier Paolo Pasolini, was murdered shortly after he completed the film. 8/10

Movie Review: Backdraft (1991)
I saw this years ago but recently re-watched it with a class at my school. This is Ron Howard's action piece about firefighters and the fires they fight. 2 brothers work in the same firefighting brigade in Chicago. The younger brother struggles to prove that he is as good as his fearless and heroic brother. A deadly arsonist is also on the loose. The story is pretty mediocre, as is the lead performance by William Baldwin. I'm certainly glad that he got his in the South Park movie. The other actors are very impressive though, Kurt Russell, Robert DeNiro and Donald Sutherland are especially good. The best character in the film, the one that really steals the show, is the fire itself. Perhaps this is why the Universal Studios Japan attraction based on the movie doesn't feature any human actors, just the fire itself. I thought the ending was also a lit rushed and weak. The movie was entitled 'Backdraft' because an arsonist is preparing elaborate traps, called backdrafts, to kill certain people. However, when the arsonist is first seen in the movie he has suddenly changed his M.O. This sudden and unexplained shift in tactics leads to the arsonist's identification. Within the logic of the story it didn't really make sense. 6/10

Movie Review: Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
It's 1989, and a devoted Socialist in East Berlin suffers a stroke and subsequent coma. When she awakens 10 months later her entire world has changed. The Berlin Wall is no more, the two Germanies are once again reunited. Fearing that any undue stress will cause another heart attack and kill her, her son attempts to manipulate people and events so that she never learns the truth. This is all the more difficult because the world around them is literally changing. Advertisements for Coca-Cola and McDonalds are popping up everywhere, her favourite communist brands of food are no longer available, and there is a sudden flood of immigrants. Somewhat like the movie 'Life is Beautiful', this a is a fun movie about deception in the name of love. 8/10

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice 3: The Hidden Past - Jude Watson
A rather forgettable tale of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan as they battle oppression and punitive amnesia on an alien world.