DANGEROUS DAYS

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Any reader of this site more than likely knows that my love of Ron Moore's "Battlestar Galactica" is rivaled only by my complete disdain for how the show ended its, up until then, nearly flawless run. For hardcore fans that were as disappointed with the finale as I was, "The Plan" was our last great hope for a decent send-off for the show. Unfortunately, nothing short of a flawless masterpiece of modern cinema could wash away that bad taste left by the sloppily thrown togehter ending and a flawless masterpiece "The Plan" is not.

That's not to say it's total garbage because there is a lot to enjoy about the story. There are some great dramatic scenes, a bunch of cool post-apocalyptic imagery, a whole heaping helping of nudity as well as interesting footnotes to previous seasons presented. However, the film itself ends up feeling more like a hodgepodge of deleted scenes rather than a complete, cohesive story. The plot jumps around the timeline, spanning from the original miniseries up until the end of Season 2, using footage from the show to provide context for the new additions. It's difficult to find a sensible story running through the patchwork of scenes and as a result the film acts more like a 2-hour "previously on Battlestar Galactica" bump than a true standalone movie like "Razor".

The one thing that holds "The Plan" together enough to be decently enjoyable is Dean Stockwell's excellent performance as Number One a.k.a. Brother John Cavil. I wasn't quite happy with the Season 4.5 turn his character made, essentially casting him as the villain in a series that up until that point had primarily been about the relative nature of good and evil, but as usual, when you flesh an idea out it becomes less black and white and that was definitely the case here. His actions and his character's psyche are the main draw of the film, which aside from that, merely retreads a lot of things that were always pretty solidly hinted at throughout the series, even if never expressly stated. Anyone who paid attention during the first two seasons of the show will already have known what the Cylon plan was and this movie does very little to shed more light on it. Actually, it makes it a little fuzzier by not dealing with or even acknowledging the Cylon's desire to reproduce naturally, which seemed to be a big part of their plan in the first few seasons.

Final verdict - for hardcore fans only.

Give this some time if you're into: Battlestar Galactica, boobs, ass, penis

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We're big fans of FX's biker crime drama "Sons of Anarchy" here at Dangerous Days, so it's good news to hear that the show is finally finding an audience. This week, the series came out on top of the Tuesday night ratings pool - above Jay Leno and everything else in it's time slot - a rarity for a scripted drama on cable television.

In a post on his personal blog, "SoA" creator and former "The Shield" writer, Kurt Sutter, waxes philosophical about the problems major networks are facing with their programming formulas:

The reason most network scripted dramas suck is because of the process. For the most part, you have a collection of young, half-bright development executives who wouldn’t know a good story idea if it set itself on fire and fucked their mothers while singing “Cheyenne Anthem” from Leftoverture. So they do what most chimpanzees do -- they ape and throw shit. Developing shows based on what they think people want to see. Churning out clones of semi-successful shows. Looking for a “hook” to market. It’s never about the story or characters. That would demand talent, patience and an open mind.

That's exactly what I've been saying, Kurt...exactly! I gotta love a man after my own heart. Read the rest of Sutter's rant here.

"Sons of Anarchy" airs on the FX Network Tuesday nights at 10pm. Watch it!

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"Antichrist" is the latest in a long line of bleak emotional gut wrenchers that pit a solitary female lead against a wealth of horribly scarring situations from arthouse superstar Lars von Trier. The Danish director has received a whole slew of criticisms against the perceived misogyny and shock value of "Antichrist", which only serve to illuminate just how little most people actually pay attention during movies. Is this film misogynistic? Uh, noooooo. Does it deal with misogyny as one of it's themes? Like a motherfucker it does! A subtlety that most movie-goers can't seem to pick up on.

"Antichrist" reminded me a lot of Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of "The Shining". It's a very artsy take on the horror genre, relying more on psychological fear than killer-jumping-out-of-the-closet scares. It features a lead character that is a writer who loses her goddamn mind and turns violent in a secluded mountainy forest setting. Creepy, surreal imagery is abound. The husband/wife/child dynamic is explored and Charlotte Gainsbourg happens to look a lot like Shelley Duvall. The big difference is that "Antichrist" is way more overtly political in it's themes of gender roles and oppression.

It's easy to look at a film that features such an extreme female character doing such extreme things (uh, total understatement, btw...some of this is not for the faint of heart) as being sexist or misogynistic, as many critics obviously have, but doing so completely disregards the intent of depicting those things in the first place (and also half of the other content of the film). Was "American History X" a racist movie because it depicted racism? There's a huge difference between that and, say, the two racist-ass cultural stereotypes portrayed so obliviously in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". Von Trier has a habit of putting his female leads through the ringer, but not necessarily out of some boner-inducing desire to see women suffer, but rather to illustrate just how much women do suffer in our male dominated world and how profound that suffering can be. Most importantly, he seeks to show that one, male or female, need not even be conscious of the oppression to actively participate in and contribute to it.

Give this some time if you're into: freaky shit, artsy-fartsy cinema, genital mutilation, gender identity, severe depression

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Chan-Wook Park, the director of "Oldboy", "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and "Lady Vengeance" directing a vampire movie? I'm fucking there!

"Thirst" is the story of a middle-aged Catholic priest who contracts vampirism during a blood transfusion and then struggles with the effects it has on his life, his faith and his view of humanity as a whole. It's got everything you expect from Park - lush visuals, heavy psychological drama, surrealism, a dark bend, sex, violence...you know, all the reasons you watch movies. The only thing it's lacking from Park's usual repertoire is an amazing score, which does hinder the movie a bit. But aside from that, it's pretty great! A lot of the subtleties of "Thirst" will probably be lost on most viewers, however. There seem to be a lot of cultural things that don't really make sense to non-Koreans, but it doesn't necessarily make it any less interesting, just makes you scratch your head and wonder "WTF was that all about" at times.

This is yet another genre film that calls into focus just how lame we Americans have become in recent years. While we're churning out angsty-emo-kid bloodsuckers a la "Twilight"** and glorified romance-novel, Elvis-meets-Fabio style vamps in "True Blood"**, the rest of the world is coming up with unique takes on the mythology like this one, "Let the Right One In" (Sweden) and hell, even "Blood: The Last Vampire" (Japan). And, as usual, the general American public doesn't even seem to give a fuck. Maybe they don't know what they're missing...or maybe they just truly like overwrought crap.**

Give this some time if you're into: dark Korean movies, all things Chan-wook Park, vampires, religious crises, twisted acts.

**Sorry friends...I know some of you actually love this shit, but come on...you have to admit it's crap on more levels than not.

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Were you watching "Sons of Anarchy" last season? Probably not...most people weren't. But no thanks to your ass, the awesome biker show is returning for it's second season on September 8th and this time you should be a little less of a square and check it out.

Why, you ask? Well...why the hell not? It's about an outlaw biker gang - that's awesome. It's got a great cast of actors including, but not limited to Ron Perlman (Hellboy, City of Lost Children), Katey Sagal (Futurama, Married With Children), Charlie Hunnam (Undeclared, Queer As Folk), Mitch Pileggi (X-Files) and Dayton Callie (Deadwood) - that's cool, right? It was created by one of the head writers for "The Shield" - we all love Vic Mackey, don't we? So what the hell's your excuse?

Check out Season 1 on DVD and get ready for some methed out madness, some warm beer and cold women and some serious biker badness. Check the promo for Season 2 below:

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The Starz Network has never been known for their original programming, but they're hoping to throw their hat into the ring with "Spartacus: Blood and Sand". The obvious comparison to make here is to Zack Snyder's "300" adaptation and I'm not going to go out of my way to avoid that parallel. It looks an awful lot like "300", no doubt, but that might be pretty cool if done right.

HBO's "Rome" and "Deadwood" have shown us that historical epics can work pretty damn well as TV shows, so this could actually be a big hit for Starz if they're able to pull it off in convincing fashion. Excessive decapitation and dismemberment, gratuitous raunchy sex, over-the-top CGI blood splatter, seedy political intrigue, Lucy "I'm ditching Battlestar Galactica to go make Footballer's Wives" Lawless...it certainly seems like they're on the right track. All the pieces are in place - now all that remains to be seen is if they can get it to air without making it totally suck in the process. Hopefully they'll do something really cool to make up for the complete lack of Kirk Douglas. This almost does it.

Peep the trailer:

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Motherfucking FOX...you never did know a good thing when you saw it. You fucked "Firefly", killed "M.A.N.T.I.S.", tried your hardest (and eventually succeeded) to sabotage "The X-Files" and now, you've worked your magic once again on Ron Moore's "Virtuality".

Like "Sucker Free City", this 2-hour pilot turned standalone movie suffers greatly from the fact that it was never given the chance to actually tell it's story, but had it been picked up as a series, it could have been one of the standouts of network television. The story follows a 12 person crew on a 10 year voyage to a nearby star system. In order to cope with the isolation and prevent people from flipping out and shooting the joint up, each crew member is given their own personal virtual reality device that allows them to create whatever world they want and escape there when not on duty. Sounds pretty straight forward except for one fact - this whole mission is being recorded, edited and broadcast as a reality TV show back on Earth, which in turn helps to fund the mission. When people's VR sets start going crazy and killing them in their dreams, we're never quite sure if it's a glitch in the system, one of the crew members fucking about or the network execs back on Earth trying to spice things up for ratings.

"Virtuality"'s blend of psychological space drama, virtual-reality fantasy and "Big Brother"-esque reality TV was a truly unique concept with endless possibilities, not only for weekly episodic content, but also for cross-media promotion to drive viewers to Fox's website. But who needs increased viewer loyalty and extra ad-revenue anyway? Especially when you can just churn out another few seasons of "American Idol" or "So You Think You Can Dance" and not have to pay anybody for their talent contributions.

But how many damn years was "Melrose Place" on again? They couldn't give this shit 1 season?

FAIL, FOX...FAIL!

Give this some time if you're into: Battlestar Galactica, 2001, Star Trek, heady sci-fi where a bunch of shit doesn't blow up with lasers, lamenting the possibilities.

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One of the lesser known Spike Lee joints, "Sucker Free City" was conceived as an original series for Showtime, but for whatever reason they sat on it for awhile and never bothered to greenlight the series. Eventually, it became clear that the show had no hope and so the 2-hour pilot was released as a standalone film.

Set in my home turf of San Francisco, California, "Sucker Free City" is the story of 3 men from different backgrounds, living in completely different worlds that coexist just miles apart from each other in relative seclusion. A black kid growing up in the crime-ridden ghetto of Hunter's Point, a Chinese kid raised in the gang-ruled Chinatown neighborhood and the son of 2 former white hippies being forced out of their home in the newly gentrified Mission district are our windows into the vastly disparate micro-climates of modern San Francisco. Each character has his own troubles and faces his own obstacles, but in the end they are all simply trying to make something of themselves in a world that cares little about them and even less about those aforementioned obstacles. The real focus of the story, however, is not how different these characters are, but how closely their actions resemble one another and how easily someone without the feeling of hope or purpose can wind up treading a path that only acts to continue the cycles of economic and social oppression.

For those used to seeing the shiny-happy, Rice-A-Roni depictions of "the city by the bay", Spike Lee's portrayal is a much needed reality check. The truth of the matter is San Francisco is one of the most culturally, racially and economically complex cities in the world and "SFC" is probably the first piece of popular media I've encountered that attempts to accurately show that diversity, warts and all. It's an incredibly rich tapestry of possibilities that ultimately will never have the chance to be explored because Showtime not only did this show dirty, they also did themselves dirty by passing on what could have possibly been their only answer to HBOs complete and utter domination of pay-cable programming.

Judging "SFC" as a standalone movie is nearly impossible because watching makes it abundantly clear that we're only seeing a tiny fraction of something much, much bigger and in the end most of what is presented is never resolved. But if you watch it keeping in mind that it was meant to be so much more, you can at least appreciate the attempt to capture something on film that had never really been tackled before and is much too complex to cover in a mere 2 hours. Sorry "Sucker Free City"...if you hadn't been done so dirty, you could have been a real classic.

*Pours some out for the homie that never even had the chance to be here.


Give this some time if you're into: The Wire, Spike Lee's other joints, San Francisco, cultural ghettos of all shapes and sizes, racial politics...you know, standard Spike Lee shit.

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I don't have a whole lot to say about "Lost in Beijing" except that you need to see this motherfucker, stat! It's a very understated movie on the surface, but it packs a lot of unexpected turns into it's unassuming facade.

The story centers around two couples dealing with the fallout of a workplace rape, the unplanned pregnancy resulting from it and the attempted blackmail resulting from that. The handheld cinematography is top notch and the way the director captures the city and all it's many anonymous nooks and crannies on film really draws you into these characters' reality. It's a beautiful, but also incredibly engaging and entertaining film about naivety, hopelessness, desperation and the lengths people will go to for the sake of their own pride. Usually when people describe movies like that they sound wanky and overly emo, but "Lost in Beijing" manages to deal with some pretty angsty subject manner in a way that doesn't make it cheesy or heavyhanded.

Give this some time if you're into: Down to earth, sometimes unflatteringly honest filmmaking, Wong Kar Wai's films, movies that get banned in their own country, shaky cam

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"Factory Girl" is quite possibly the worst movie I've seen in a long time. There really isn't anything about it that works. The casting is terrible, the costumes (and wigs) are half-assed, the writing is pitifully bad, the direction is juvenile at best (constant music video-esque montages anyone?) and on top of all that it's just plain inaccurate. I honestly don't know how I made it to the end of this one. Every 3 or 4 minutes I had to exclaim out loud "Jesus, this is so fucking bad" and everytime I thought it couldn't sink any lower Hayden Christiansen would appear on screen with his horrendous portrayal of Bob Dylan or Guy Pierce with his equally embarrassing turn as Andy Warhol. Hell, even recalling it to memory evokes feelings of shame and self-hatred.

If you're interested in Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol or the Silver Factory check out "Andy Warhol's Factory People", a 3-part documentary series that covers most of what "Factory Girl" attempts to reproduce.

Give this some time if you're into: oggling Guy Pierce or Hayden Christiansen, terrible shit

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Mexico - the next hotbed for sci-fi filmmaking. Mark my words, folks. "De Día O De Noche" ("By Day or By Night") is an upcoming film from first time director Alejandro Molina. Society has been genetically engineered so that half the population lives by day and the other half by night in order to deal with overcrowding. The government keeps a tight leash on the population, who are expected to keep their emotions in check, avoid all physical contact and only live in their appointed shift. In other words, everything's gone to shit, but of course, the only reason to depict a society that's gone to shit in a movie is if you're going to have someone come along and rebel against it. Enter Aurora. She falls in love with some doctor that lives the night shift...and then there's some other older dude who also wants to live in both shifts...and then there's this little kid, I don't know what the hell her deal is, but she's important to the story somehow...

Obviously, not a whole lot of info has come out about this movie since Dangerous Days previewed it back in February via our column on Airlock Alpha, so we can't say too solidly what the story is about, but finally we've got a trailer! And a long one too! Looks like it's shaping up to be a slow, somber artistic meditation on a society that suppresses itself almost completely for the sake of order. Looks interesting, check it out!