Watched "Equilibrium" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238380) this week.
The basic plot: In the future, after world war III, people have decided that emotions, especially strong emotions, are the root of everyone's problem, so the combination of the development of a drug to supress extreme emotion, and the ceation of a special police force to track down art and 'sense offenders' who don't take the drug ,make the future a rather boring place to be.
The story is of one of the special police, a Cleric (played very well by Christian Bale), starts to have strong emotions...and wants even more.
This movie is very rich looking in production value, surprsingly so for it's budget. The acting was good. Of special note, there were several martial arts fight scenes involving swords, hands, and guns, that, while silly you think through the logic, were well choroegraphed and very cool to watch.
The story had some logical holes in it, but just ignore them and go along for the ride. It *does* take a while to get going, though. So be prepared for a lot of 'staring at sunsets, staring at self in mirror' kinds of scenes
Post Edited (01-03-05 22:12)
Sounds like a good one Fearless Freep. I checked out the link and I'm going to put it on my list. Thanks. I enjoy futuristic type films.
Ive been meaning to see this one but I know it got lost in the matrix hype a couple of years ago.
You can’t give it, you can’t even buy it, and you just don’t get it!-Aeon Flux
The title sounds appropriate towards the idea of the film.
Post Edited (01-03-05 22:14)
Rich, yeah, it definately has that influence (at least in some of the look). Plot wise it's closer to a "1984", "Logan's Run" type
It has some logicall fallacies in the setup but it works well
If you like action, especially psuedo-martial arts stuff, the fight scenes and the 'gunkata' look really cool
What was the budget for that one?
This was a real surprise package for me: I rented it along with some other films a while ago without any actual knowledge about the film and I really enjoyed it. I especially like the first 'fight' scene with the cleric: it was a simple way of doing a shootout like that and I really liked the look of it. [just still shots really quickly cut together to look like action, or at least that's how I thought it came out]
Someone later described the movie to me as Gattaca with more action.
Overall I really enjoyed this film and was surprised that I hadn't heard about it before. Christian Bale was good in this movie, but then again he is pretty good at playing unemotional, cold characters so I guess it's no big departure; in order to see how Batman will be played, watch this movie [not that this is a bad thing of course!]
I highly reccommend this film, one of the surprise rentals of last year for me.
What was the budget for that one?
Estimated about $20M
Someone later described the movie to me as Gattaca with more action.
A *lot* more, but yeah I see the simularity, both in story and in look
Christian Bale was good in this movie, but then again he is pretty good at playing unemotional, cold characters so I guess it's no big departure
A Keenu Reeves/Neo joke is fighting to get out
Now, I found the GATTICA story interesting , but what I didn't like was the darkness of the look or style of the film. DARK CITY is another one that had that dark look.
This is not nearly as dark as Dark City...a lot of neutral greys, though
I'll still check it out. The film sounds interesting.
Post Edited (01-03-05 22:40)
I rented this one the day it came out last year. I had been looking forward to seeing it for quite some time, but Dimension did a crappy job when it came to releasing it at the theater.
I absolutely loved it. It's a fantastic story ala "1984" with some of the better fight scenes in a film like this. I was originally worried about Taye Diggs being in the flick, cause I didn't think he'd hold up very well in a film of this nature, but I was completely wrong. He did a fantastic job as Bale's nemesis.
The one thing to immediatly pull me into the film was the shootout in the room without lights in the beginning of the film. It was amazing!
Fantastic film.
I, too, love this film. I have heard and read quite a few different opinions stating how it sucked and was a "Matrix wannabe" film. The fight scenes in this movie are nothing short of awesome. Guns, swords...the clerics use these weapons in an almost Jedi like way. As Skaboi mentioned, the shootout in the room with no lights and only the flash from his gun was fantastic. There is another scene where he takes on some guys with just the butt of his pistols. Is the movie completely realistic? Not in the least. Is it fun to watch? Sure it is. I even liked the way they took Bale from the un-emotional cleric that did his job to the individual that he became at the end of the movie which to me doesn't belong in an action movie but was handled excellently in this case.
I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes futuristic/action movies.
I'm thinking about a EQUILIBRIUM and SPACE MARINES futuristic double feature right now.