Hollywood MAY be getting it

[daveblackeye15]

They'll probably try a few more dirty tricks to get more money before they put more effort in coming up with something orginal and put more heart into story telling. (as some have already said this)

[Amanda]

"This film is obviously a ripoff of Toho's "Matango"; Who wants to make a bet that the plot's almost the same, complete with the "twist ending"? (No, I haven't seen it... but I'm taking a bigger chance than any mainstream movie director/producer/executive has in ages, aside from copyright infringement)"

I've never seen 'Matango', however, yes, there was a god awful, completely predictible, blatantly obvious "twist ending" and it made me just want pummel something.  The whole thing, from beginning to end, was - laid out for you?  No guessing, no !surprises!.  But sadly, I did get some perverse enjoyment from it.

I have to admit, it's incredibly hard for me to dislike a movie UTTERLY.  I can usually find something, some small thing redeeming about it.  I prefer to think of it as optimism, my husband says I just have crap taste in movies.  I'm not saying there are no movies anywhere that I cannot stand, that I regret watching.....they're just far and few between.  

At the moment, I'm watching "Survival - Pinata Island".  I don't know why I'm watching it, but I am.....how it ever made it onto Fear Friday.....*sighs*

[Just Plain Horse]

Amanda wrote:

> "This film is obviously a ripoff of Toho's "Matango"; Who wants
> to make a bet that the plot's almost the same, complete with
> the "twist ending"? (No, I haven't seen it... but I'm taking a
> bigger chance than any mainstream movie
> director/producer/executive has in ages, aside from copyright
> infringement)"
>
> I've never seen 'Matango', however, yes, there was a god awful,
> completely predictible, blatantly obvious "twist ending" and it
> made me just want pummel something.  The whole thing, from
> beginning to end, was - laid out for you?  No guessing, no
> !surprises!.  But sadly, I did get some perverse enjoyment from
> it.

Since you haven't seen it, I'll give a quick (I hope) explaination of "Matango":

Basically, it's a film about human nature, and how the stress of basic survival can put a strain on "humanity" as we know it. When a group of humans- all of whom already have some small or moderate character flaws, are put into a serious situation, these flaws become magnified. This has been the template for god knows how many horror films.

All humans have a basically "primal" selfish desire to protect and futher their own life, which becomes paramount in a life-or-death situation; it was bred into each of us by the earliest humaniod beings that could be considered our ancestors... and is probably the reason many of them survived to procreate until we inherited the world they had to face-albeit on less harsher terms.

Many of "us" are unfamiliar with the challenges of having to constantly search for food at night, or fight for our own survival, or kill for a piece of food that may well make the difference between us living or dying; society has been-relatively speaking- good to us. The basic belief is that many of us today would find it difficult to cope with an aforementioned situation where those around us suddenly reverted to their basic instincts to survive... it would seem like they had become "monsters". Matango makes such a transformation literal by the end of the film... and I suspect "The Cave" does too. Based on this knoweledge- and the "preview" of the film- I'm guessing the monsters in the cave were once humans who metamorphosed to survive.

I don't bother seeing films that I can guess the plot of and the basic lines along which the story will follow. I can just wait until the edited and sterilized version comes out on tv... which will then be shown about 18 hundred times on basic cable.

[Amanda]

That's nearly dead on.....yeah, literal transformation, etc.  But reverting to basic instincts?  No....running around like scared chickens in the dark, yes.  *L*  Lots and lots of arguing over "but he's CHANGING...."  "He's my BROTHER!"  blah blah.  I was highly amused at the dialogue.  

I did know what to expect before seeing it.....I just prefer to see "horror movies" above anything else, and that was my only option that day.  *g*

I'll have to check out Matango, though.  Thanks.