Saturday Is for Movies

I'm usually up and about early Saturday morning, headed to the beach for a little exercise/walk or cleaning around the apartment. But not this time. The rainy weather put a kibosh on any chance of a morning stroll which in turn made me less inclined to putter around with cleaning utensils. So I popped a DVD into the player.

Devil is a "locked room" mystery of sorts. Five strangers step onto an elevator which becomes stuck between floors. Then, they're picked off one by one, by someone or something unseen. The unknown turns out to be the Devil, and those random strangers aren't as innocent as they appeared to be. Each has a sordid past: Ponzi schemes, blackmail, a prison record, theft, hit-and-run. The movie turns into a guessing game as to which elevator rider is the Devil in disguise, thanks to some clever storytelling which constantly switches your sympathies for each character as more and more is revealed about their histories. Good acting, good story, and a well-crafted film.

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In the early evening after a few loads of laundry and a bit of Epic Mickey on the Wii, Caesar and I headed for Marina Pacifica to catch a showing of Sucker Punch.

After her mother dies, Baby Doll is locked away in an asylum, thanks to her money-hungry step-father. Once she learns that he has made arrangements so that she will never leave the asylum, she convinces a team of other girls also locked away to help her find five items that will free them from their captivity.

Visually, the film is stunning. The CGI fantasy/action sequences display the best of movie magic: from a battle between Baby Doll and three towering Samurai demons at a snow-bound temple to fighting hordes of WWI, steam-punked, living dead German soldiers to a "Lord of the Rings"-styled battle with a dragon. Set those to an amazing soundtrack filled with Björk's Army of Me, a mash up of I Want It All and We Will Rock You by Queen w/ Armageddon, and a slowed-down, electro-goth version of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by Emily Browning, and you have two-thirds of an amazing film.

The storyline is decent, but I have issues with which story to follow. The movie begins with Baby Doll entering the asylum and then switches suddenly to the same chain of events and characters, but now, they're all stuck inside a bordello run by a sadistic roaring-twenties styled pimp. Once that change is made, the initial part in the asylum is only fleetingly referenced then doesn't appear again until the last twenty or so minutes of the film. I feel as if the bookending with the asylum wasn't necessary, and made the film overly long and perhaps a little confusing.

Then there's the little matter of Baby Doll's dancing. Those scenes are used to segue into the better elements of the film -- the fantasy fights with zombies and dragons -- but watching her character prep for those transitions was uncomfortable to watch. The music begins, and Baby Doll sways back and forth with a constipated look on her face. Then queue the fantasy sequences. Once the fight's over and we're returned to her bordello reality, everyone's in awe of how Baby Doll dances, and we're left wondering what was so good about her dancing.

In spite of that, Sucker Punch is still a fun movie, and I plan on buying the soundtrack.

Image of Devil from Universal Pictures. Image of Sucker Punch from Warner Bros..