2003-02-06

They just opened up a Yan Can Cook restaurant, so I went with some friends tonight. Yan was actually there. At first I thought it was an impersonator, but he was signing 8x10 glossies and hamming it up.

We then went and discussed politics and other weighty topics over latt�s at Starbucks. Well, not really. It was more a heckling of people and all. It just sounded better to say politics. The evening broke up, and I went to the dollar theatre nearby to see Equilibrium, which actually turned out to be a much better movie than I thought it would be. It had Emily Watson in it. And Christian Bale. Plus Boramir and Tye Diggs. I suppose helping Stella get her groove back brought him to this. I imagine that this film cost about 5 mil to make, and despite its low production values it actually worked. I�m surprised that the Weinsteins let it through. It was released through Dimension however, and the grips of power are not nearly so strong over there. I never saw any advertising for the film, I saw it because it was starting and I was there. The premise is that after a devastating WWIII human emotions are outlawed. Anyone caught �feeling� would be quickly executed. By a clergy of sorts, called clerics who are kind of like gun toting samurai. It was very Fahrenheit 451, but with a more Orwellian twist. Inevitable comparisons to the Matrix will no doubt be made, but I liked it. Christian Bale is the best of the Clerics, but he of course starts to question the society that he is protecting after missing a dose. Everyone takes a dose of a drug called Librium in order to squelch their emotions, and children watch the parents like in 1984. He has a spotted past, his own wife was executed for feeling. He catches his partner reading a book of Yeats� poems, and kills him. This is what sows the seeds of his doubt, and leads him to search out the underground. The script flows nicely, the acting is credible, and though obviously inexpensive, the computerized graphics that make up for the special effects are not terribly jarring. I was entertained the entire time. There is a scene involving the guy who plays John Doe trying to protect the Mona Lisa (contraband because it evokes feelings) that was funny, only because it was John Doe. Sanctimonious prick. Oh, sorry about that.

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