Up first is the Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt science fiction film Edge Of Tomorrow. It's directed by Doug Limon and adapted from a Japanese Light Novel called All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. I hadn't heard of the name Light Novel until reading about it on the Wikipedia today. It's a short novel, sold at a fairly low price, marketed mostly to the young Japanese reader. We have the same thing here marketed as Young Adult Novels, I read a lot of them. The writer said he was influenced by video games and the reset feature when the player's character is killed and they start the level over again.
Tom is a military marketing guy who is sent by a General to cover the big assault of the invading aliens. He's to be embedded with a unit and Tom is surprised at this. He tries to turn down the assignment and then he resorts to blackmail when the General doesn't change his mind. He winds up arrested and knocked out, when he wakes up he's handcuffed at the Heathrow Airport staging area for the big push. They have one day to get ready to be dropped on a beach in France. Tom's killed on the beach and wakes up back in Heathrow. The day has reset, ala Groundhog Day, and he's got to do it all over again.
Eventually he meets up with Emily Blunt and she knows what's happening to him. They repeat the day until the world is saved. There's plenty of action, yelling and explosions. Like Bill Murray in GD Tom learns more each day. It takes a long time to get all the details that he needs to figure out what's going on and how he can use it to stop the aliens. Luckily for us there was enough story and humor that it made the 113 minutes move by fairly well for the most part. Not sure I cared for the happy ending and I usually like that sort of thing. I was interested in seeing it and didn't feel I wasted my time. Not something that I might need to buy now that I've seen it. If I wanted to see it again I can always NetFlix it.
Only Lovers Left Alive is a 2013 Jim Jarmusch film about some vampires. Tom Hiddleston, Tilda Swinton and John Hurt are the vampires. Tom lives in a big old rundown house on the edge of Detroit and Tilda lives in Tangier. John is Christopher Marlow and he lives in Tangier too. Tom and Tilda have been married for centuries and while they haven't seen each other in a while they communicate vie Skype. Tom is a musician, he has a Renfield, a local rock n roll guy, who does for him. The vampires don't feed on people for the most part, preferring to purchase blood from shady doctors.
Tilda sees that Tom is more down than normal and she comes to visit. They flop about the big delapidated house, and take late night drives, all to the tune of droney music by Jarmusch's band SQÜRL. Nothing much happens, it's not that bitey chompy sort of vampire movie, at least until Tilda's annoying sister arrives. She gobbles up a lot of their blood stash and then talks them into going out to a club. They return to the house and eventually Sis drains the Renfield. She's sorry but it's what she always does when she's hopped up on blood. Tom is still mad at her for Paris 87 years ago. That's the trouble with immortality, you can hold a grudge for a real long time.
They kick the sister out, dispose of the Renfield, and fearing exposure buy tickets to Tangier. They arrive to find sad news but Tilda buys Tom a lute and they see a band. They need some nourishment and there isn't any blood at John's, the French Doctor is no more, so they chomp down on a kissing couple. Fade to black.
If you've seen any Jim Jarmusch films you might know what to expect. It's a slow moving film that's 123 minutes long but I didn't find I was getting more than a bit bored at times. People seem to hate it or love it online. If you expect a more traditional vampire film you're probably going to be disappointed. It sure shows the problems with hanging out with a moody immortal. I was glad to see it and would watch it again but I doubt I would buy this one either.
Comments