Triskaidekafiles is a love letter to cheesy cinema from the 80s and 90s, with the occasional dip into other eras. if you're a fan of MST3K, Elvira, Joe Bob Briggs, or just bad horror movies in general, Trisk is the place for you.
I am a sucker for stories about temporal mechanics (I can't really call this movie a time travel flick), so grabbing this movie starring Danielle Panabker was a no-brainer for me.
So, is the movie any good, or should I send myself a message yesterday to avoid this?
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Happy New Year!
I kicked off 2013, with one of the movies I wanted to see most in 2012, but just could not manage to do so, Looper.
Sadly, and it may have been my high expectations for what looked like an amazing and creative time travel movie, but it just did not grab me.
The movie WAS creative, and did some interesting things with what their idea of time travel was, and how changing the you of now would affect you of the future if he was in the present. Fun, fun stuff, and damned creepy too.
The acting was solid, and while I never buy into JGL being a young Bruce Willis, they're both great to watch on screen, and he captures enough of Bruce's mannerisms and quirks that it's good enough. Heck, movies ask us to belive people are related all the time, and we go with that, so this is fine.
I think where the movie stumbled was that it just didn't feel like it needed time travel. It really is a pretty simple storyline, and all the time travel does is make the storytelling tricks become increasingly complex, when they don't really need to be. The movie almost outthinks itself in this way.
But there's enough here to like, for many people, it just didn't grab me. And that may well be my wanting to see it so bad, and waiting so long. It may also be a matter of my mind being in 'critic mode' the first time I watched it, like it often is. I can tell there's good in there, and this movie has a high probability to grow on me over time.
If you want a unique take on time travel theories, told inventively, then you really should see this movie. I'm just not sure what else the movie is beyond clever narratives.
It certainly isn't a BAD movie, it just didn't click with me today, but maybe it will tomorrow. Definitely give it a chance!
Or maybe it will yesterday. ;)
J
Before the new Triskanalysis goes up, I wanted to squeeze in another movie, and I picked this one up on a whim, because the story tickled my interests.
Shuffle is the story of Lovell Milo, a man out of time, who is living his life out of order. The first thing he remembers is waking up in bed as an old man of 92, and when he falls back asleep almost immediately, he awakens at another age in his life. Every time he goes to sleep, he wakes up on another, different day of his life.
The mystery of why this is happening, and what he needs to do, is reminiscent of some of my favourite stories. Shutter is a little bit Slaughterhouse Five, a little bit Memento, and a bit of Quantum Leap.
It stars TJ Thyne from "Bones" as Lovell, and he brings a few of his Bones castmates along with him for small, if important roles. Although, they do get a bit distracting, having the chunk of a cast from another show.
But even with that distraction, I really loved this movie. The story is laid out well, the time jumps are clear, and having the component of sleep being the go-between for points in Milo's life, really make it clear when it happens. There's no surprise shifts in time, outside of what age he'll be.
The story moves along at a brisk pace, the acting is decent enough for a low budget movie, and they are smart enough to not get too bogged down in being clever with their premise. The time travel never gets in the way of the narrative, which flows strangely naturally. Having Lovell still be experiencing this in a linear fashion, and having it all building up to a crescendo, and most of it mattering, it really feels like a story, and not just slices of a person's life.
My biggest complaint is the camera work and lighting. The director likes to make things washed out, and while it gives the world a dreamlike quality to it, it just made the entire movie fuzzy and feeling out of focus. It's not bad, but it did distract me a few times.
There is one line in the movie, midway through, that completely blows the plot out of the water and gives away the game. I wish they'd not laid that card on the table so soon, before they actually reveal what's going on, since you kinda are waiting for the characters to catch up with you for the next 10-20 minutes. But there's fortunately more to the plot beyond that, as Lovell needed these events to occur in his life, and there is at least a reason behind the reason.
Shutter is heartwarming, heartbreaking, gut wrenching, and uplifting all at once. A truly touching, interesting, almost unique movie. A very high recommendation from me.
J