Vidocq (aka Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq) (2001)
Vidocq starts out with a detective chasing a man (known only as The Alchemist) with a mirror-like mask through an old foundry. He catches up to the mysterious, cloaked figure...and a visually stunning fight ensues. The detective is beaten towards a flaming pit and falls, just barely holding on.
He looks into his enemy's mask, and pleads: "If I am to die...I must know.” The masked figure removes his mask (revealing his identity to the detective, but not the audience), and the detective, with a shocked expression, loosens his grip and falls to a fiery demise. All this before the credits even roll.
We find out that the detective was the infamous Vidocq, a real historical criminal that notoriously became the chief of French police. We meet Vidocq's official biographer, a naive young man, and from here the story follows him as he investigates the death of Vidocq, in part to finish his book but also to avenge the death of his hero.
The plot gets pretty intense from there, so I won’t spoil anything.
If you're the type that doesn’t like subtitles this isn’t for you - keep in mind that it's a French film.
One thing that really struck me about the film was that it's one of the first films to be shot with digital backgrounds/sets, and they are done beautifully. Give the film a very unique look and feel; there were many times that I was so distracted by the effects (The sky in particular), I lost track of the dialogue. Some people might be turned off by the overuse of CGI, but this film really shows what the medium is capable of and it’s used to its fullest potential.
The actors all seem pretty good...cant be too certain as I’m not fluent enough to always understand what they're saying, but they all seem to be pretty good for what it's worth.
Finally, the ending...quite possibly my favourite part of the film. You won’t find any spoilers here, but man...what an awesome ending. It's absolutely friggin’ crazy, and that’s all that I'll say on the topic. Once again, I could see how it would possibly rub some people the wrong way, but I thought it was handled incredibly well. -
The Return
Village of the Damned (1960)
Wait Until Dark (1967)
Wild Zero (2000)
in a plotline similar to Plan 9 From Outer Space (aliens come to earth to resurrect the dead in an attempt to conquer our peaceful planet), Wild Zero manages to seamlessly blend the sci-fi, zombie, and rock n roll movie subgenres into one mind-numbingly entertaining film.
the story centers around Ace, a young man who idolizes trash rock band Guitar Wolf and often laments about how un-cool he is.
things seemingly turn around for Ace when he meets his idols backstage at one of their shows and becomes blood brothers with them after he proclaims that, "Rock 'n Roll is not over, baby! Rock 'n Roll never dies!!!"
his happiness is short-lived however because soon after that, aliens invade and zombies run amuck.
I won't mention any more of the plot than that, but suffice it to say, the "rock n roll never dies" line is a good example of the awesome-in-its-own-way dialogue that permeates the entire picture. if you are looking for a film that truly embodies rock n roll, I personally cannot think of a better one than Wild Zero (one of the special features is a drinking game where you drink every time a zombie's head explodes). the only thing that would make this film more rock n roll would be the inclusion of more boobies and perhaps more vomiting (though I'm sure this will be remedied when Guitar Wolf finally finds funding for Wild Zero 2). -
knife_fight
Witchfinder General (aka The Conqueror Worm) (1968)
