Past Programs
Internet - 2008
Untraceable
24/04/2008
Diane Lane is an FBI internet detective trying to find out who's behind a snuff website that streams live, where the more people log on to watch the victim squirm, the sooner the execution occurs. The killer is making a statement on our voyeuristic society, but it's the film's message that really had me concerned.
While I love rainy Portland as a rich noir backdrop and the pacing is excellent, the portrayal of the internet is alarmist hyperbole; a place of immoral chaos where snuff sites and pirated films are on the same slippery slope. Diane Lane and her folksy, dedicated FBI team are really Big Brother, watching us anonymously, sending in SWAT teams to knock down our doors. It's unquestioning and jingoistic -- a pity.
Meet The Spartans
28/02/2008
Meet The Spartans is a spoof on last year's historical action epic 300. It's a comedy for the YouTube generation -- sight gags, short skits and bodily fluids -- peppered with homosexual innuendo and soaked with pop culture references. Not all of it works, but I loved the take on the pit of death scene when King Leonidis (Sean Macguire) kicks not just the Persian emissaries down the hole but Britney Spears (with baby) and the judges from American Idol. If that doesn't sound like a laugh-out-loud moment for you, you've been warned.
