Disagreeing with movie-goers yet again

Have you seen "Lucy"? It's a sci-fi movie that came out in 2014 and it stars Scarlett Johansson as Lucy. Here's the rub: it got a 66% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. (Note that on the same page it says it got a 6.1 out of 10 rating, which doesn't translate to 66%. I'm just saying. RT is not a meeting place for smart people.) The rating isn't that bad, but I read a bunch of reviews when it came out and those people hated it. Well, they were wrong. It's totally fabulous. In fact, it's one of my favorite movies. I watched it three times in the last month.

It's the story of a woman who is forced to be a drug carrier, and I do mean forced. Five people are kidnapped, including Lucy, and a plastic baggie filled with a strange drug is inserted in their stomachs. They are then forced on planes to Paris, Rome, etc. to be met by drug couriers on the other end.

The drug isn't your typical dealer's favorite high. It's a wildly powerful substance that babies use to form their brains in the womb. But it's available only in tiny quantities. However, an enterprising criminal learned how to synthesize a relatively large quantity -- and that is what was placed into the victims' stomachs. Okay, that sets the scene.

Lucy, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) was in the custody of monstrous, women-hating thugs as she awaited transport on the plane. One of them tried to rape her and ended up kicking her in her stomach -- and perforating the bag. It's at this point that the movie really begins.

The drug has the effect of opening up the mind. The movie is built on the myth that says humans only utilize 10% of their brain-power. This is totally false but hey, it's only a movie. So as the drug courses through Lucy's system, she begins to evolve, quickly and madly.

The movie veers into fights, with Lucy able to lift people into the air with the power of her mind. She can do lots of other tricks, too. And all the while, her brain advances. At the climax of the movie, she reaches the point where she is utilizing 100% of her brain.

That's all I'll reveal, but I have to say I found the entire movie, and especially the conclusion, to be wildly wonderful and entertaining. The only reason some viewers gave it a low rating, I suspect, is that Lucy doesn't continue to fight people and blow things up for the entire movie. At a certain point, it becomes much more intellectual -- and that's the point at which you lose American viewers. Fight scenes and car chases? Love it. But intellectual stuff? Americans say "get me outa here!"

It's a fabulous movie. If you've seen it, chime in. As for me, I plan to watch it a few more times. You see, what Lucy discovers is in keeping with what I believe to be the true nature of reality. I won't say another word.

Only Lovers Left Alive

I watched "Only Lovers Left Alive" a few nights ago and I loved it so much, I cheered at the end. What an elegant retelling of the vampire tale.

Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton were marvelous as the leads. They are presented as aging vampires, trying to seek their place in a modern world. Though we're never given the inception information (i.e., how they became vampires), it seems they've been creatures of the night for many, many centuries.

At first I was a bit miffed at the movie's casual adoption of ideas from other vampire movies and novels. But they ran with it in such an entertaining way, I forgave them entirely.

Imagine living for a thousand years. One of the things brought out in the movie is that you'd know many things. These two vampires are experts in so many areas, it makes your head whirl. And they seem to have senses beyond ours, though these are not explained to us. They're just very perceptive and seem to know everything.

I won't ruin the movie by going any further into it. It's definitely worth watching if you're a fan of either horror or great movies. The music, the cinematography, the script -- all are engrossing and so damn stylish. This movie is art.

I suggest watching it with captions turned on. The script is that delicious, and you might miss a few words. Enjoy. PS: Here's the trailer.

I saw "Europa Report" yesterday

I think it's great that you can rent a movie before it hits the theaters. It seems iTunes makes you pay 6.99 for a pre-release rental, just a bit more than their typical price. Fine by me.

So, Keith, how was the movie? You know, I was disappointed while watching it. I wanted "more", whatever that might mean. But a day later, my reaction is kinder. It wasn't bad at all.

The best thing is that it seemed real. The scenes looked like something out of a real mission to Jupiter's coolest moon. Since the story is told through the ship's camera system, there are many split-screen images, which isn't a bad thing. In fact, it adds to the realism.

Europa, Jupiter's icy moon, looked terrific. I felt like I was there. And the story they laid out, while not great, is adequate. It paints in extraordinary detail what it might feel like to be so far from Earth -- and the possibility of help. I certainly wasn't bored.

On the other hand, the script and character development were a bit absent-minded. When you watch a movie like "Alien", you know those characters. That's not true of this movie. In fact, I hardly cared about the characters. And as for the script, there were things they should have skipped because they weren't essential to the plot.

But hey, it was a realistic-looking sci-fi movie -- and you don't see many of those anymore. Out of 5 stars, I'd give it about 3.4. Did you see the movie? What did you think?

Will wonders never cease?

Unbelievably, I saw two good movies on the Sci-Fi Channel, which thinks its name is the SyFy Channel and which we actually think of as the Siffy Channel. But yeah, the movies were great.

One is "Let Me In". It's a vampire tale told from an unusual angle, from the viewpoint of two children, one of whom is a vampire. The movie includes few adults yet I didn't even notice this because the kids were so fascinating. These two 12-year-olds are wonderful actors. Each scene involves at least one of them, and they are never boring. I won't say more. If you like vampire tales and good acting, rent it.