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Dude, "The Island" is awesome. This is the
most hilarious, most ridiculous, most cheesy
film to come out in over a decade. There are
two kinds of laughs in "The Island," intentional
and unintentional. The intentional jokes are
hilarious because they totally do not work within
the context of the film and ruin the tone and
the momentum of piece in nearly fatal ways.
And the unintentional jokes are so fucking hilarious
because they are just that - unintentional -
at least, seemingly unintentional. Filmmaker
Michael Bay and lead actors Ewan McGregor and
Scarlett Johansson may just have realized that
they had a real stinker on their hands and decided
to just make the film so stupid that there is
no other choice but to laugh at it.
The film is a Sci-Fi genre piece about
clones who lives in a isolated sterile environment
until they are needed for organ harvesting.
But because these are living, sentient beings,
their disappearances are covered by an elaborate
plot that has the community believing that they
are winning a lottery and going to a tropical
island. The look of the film is cool, ultra-futuristic
modernism that pays homage to classic 70's Sci-Fi
films like "Logan's Run" and "Sleeper" and the
TV show "Space 1999."
The first clue that the film is going to
be a campy, cheesy masterpiece comes early in
the film when McGregor, playing the first clone
to question his existence, asks his doctor,
"And why are all the clothes here white? Do
you know how hard it is to stay clean." If you
don't bust out laughing and choke on your popcorn
after that line, you have no sense of humor.
Other stupidity follows. Steve Buscemi's
appearance as a scruffy scientist/proletarian
worker cannot save this film though the tried-and-true
indie actor busts his ass to give the film some
cred. Even his magical talents can not save
this tripe. Eventually Buscemi gives up as well
and wallows in the absurdity like his co-stars.
We can really ask him to do no more.
There are several cool chase scenes and
action sequences which help to keep the film
interesting and help to keep the forward momentum
going. A scene where McGregor and Johansson
roll giant iron wheels off a moving 18-wheeler
at vehicles chasing them is particularly interesting.
But overall it is the ridiculous humor, usually
provided by McGregor, who indeed has the cheesiest
smile in Hollywood at the moment, that keeps
the film interesting and fun.
"The Island" is the first bad film I've
seen in quite a while that made me want to own
the DVD so I could have it for parties. Nothing
is going to be more fun on college campuses
over the next few years than getting a keg and
popping this disc in the DVD player. The laughter,
unintentional or not, that comes from seeing
this movie will be much louder than the dull
thud it made at the box office when it came
out in the worst summer for movies since the
writer's strike of 1999.
Notes:
Also with Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Michael
Clarke Duncan, Ethan Phillips, and Shawnee Smith.
Filmed partially in Detroit which, coupled
with some CGI effects, doubled for a futuristic
L.A.
A 45 minute preview of the film was shown
at Cannes in May 2005, two months before the
film opened.
Johansson actual modeling and acting in
commercials were used in the film.
The producers of the film blamed Johansson
and McGregor's acting and lack of appeal for
its dismal box office results after the film
had been in release for about two weeks.
Bay claimed to have had started the film
when it was greenlit without a script yet having
a solid release date of July 22nd, 2005. He
felt if he had had more time to work on the
film it would have been better.
At least the 14th film to have this title.
Viewed in Austin in August of 2005.
Report Card
Script: F
Acting: F
Cinematography\Lighting: B+
Special Effects\Make Up: A-
Music: C-
Final Grade: F
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