Definitely not. It seems mostly like a rehash of the original, but now with shitty '90s CG.
Definitely not. It seems mostly like a rehash of the original, but now with shitty '90s CG.
This is RICH.
A movie from 1998, set in the far-flung future of 2013. The opening lays out the particular dystopian nightmare future we'll be enjoying: America believes in morality, and is willing to punish the guilty when they commit crimes. Americans are able to elect people whose values reflect their own, and those elected serve accordingly.
The horror.
But, this is supposed to be a bad future where everything is stupid and wrong like in real life, so we're also told that crime is out of control for some reason, and for some reason the response is a national police force, which for some reason uses conspicuously fascist aesthetics. For some reason, unnecessarily cruel policies are enacted to correct problems that probably have much simpler, easier solutions. It's such a bizarre inversion of reality. We're supposed to think that God-fearing "legacy Americans" from "flyover country" are less representative of what made America great than the goblinoid urbanites who make movies of this kind. But, such were tropes in the '90s: Crime is out of control, and the only solution is to totally ignore 13-do-50 and go straight to paramilitary forces and island prisons.
Kurt Russell, who I guess is in his 40s at this point, plays Snake Plissken. If you've played Metal Gear Solid, you know a bunch of the tropes and beats already: a laconic, growling, retired vet gets drafted by the American military into a covert operation. He's coerced into obedience with a virus with which he's already been surreptitiously infected.
The woman who played Ro Laren in Star Trek appears, and when asked about Snake Plissken's appearance, says "he just looks so retro", herself looking like the mom from a '90s sitcom.
We're shown a shockingly accurate depiction of a modern catlady, ranting about "a corrupt theocracy of lies and terror" which probably doesn't exist in this fictional universe any more than it does irl. (Cue the collage of women in their cars, shrieking into their smartphone cameras.) This woman is also a terrorist. She literally demands open borders— but in this context it's somewhat more reasonable, since the "border" she's referring to is literally the border to the los angeles prison island to which convicts are deported, and not mexico. It's nice when the villains are actually bad people.
Stacy Keach is wasted in a generic, humdrum role as the sort of overweight desk jockey who impresses no one.
"Snake. Call me Snake," says Snake, echoing for the second time something which I guess became a catchphrase after the first movie. Keach's character chuckles, as if to say "el-oh-el, you did the bit."
Ensign Laren gives utterance to yet more prescience: "After her sister committed suicide, Utopia1 [withdrew into] virtual reality. She'd punch up her own little world in cyberspace and stay in it for days at a time." Except that the technology that did society in wasn't VR; it was withdrawal into social media. We're shown imagery you might have found on /leftypol/ in 8chan's heyday: che guevara kissing a dove in front of a sunset. Except it isn't actually guevara, but someone contemporary to the fiction named huevo jones or some shit. They pulled the punch just a little bit. We're told he was "in the simulation with her", which is almost word for word "radicalized by internet nazis" except applied to the left whereas the modern media would never so impugn themselves.
It's kinda cute how it centers itself between muh ebul nadzees and snowflake-commie-karens.
Plissken is offered a pardon for every immoral act he's committed in the United States. Chekov's talmudry.
"Designer viruses, Plissken. Wave of the future." I wonder if they know all the bugs aren't worked out yet in 2019, much less 2013.
Snake suits up into an all-black leather getup, plus trenchcoat, and I suddenly realize this movie came out only a year before The Matrix.
Keach's character describes how the communist untermenschen have united all third world countries against America. "The cubans and brazilians are poised to invade miami."
Ensign Laren adds, "if the ugandans [?] and colombians make a run on the border we'll have a full-scale attack on the United States." Which is a cute notion, given that America already has a border wall with commiefornia dotted with sniper towers.
I'm only 20 goddamn minutes in. It's all just so fascinating.
[1] Yes, the terrorist catlady is named "Utopia".
This is RICH.
A movie from 1998, set in the far-flung future of 2013. The opening lays out the particular dystopian nightmare future we'll be enjoying: America believes in morality, and is willing to punish the guilty when they commit crimes. Americans are able to elect people whose values reflect their own, and those elected serve accordingly.
**The horror.**
But, this is supposed to be a *bad* future where everything is stupid and wrong like in real life, so we're also told that crime is out of control for some reason, and for some reason the response is a national police force, which for some reason uses conspicuously fascist aesthetics. For some reason, unnecessarily cruel policies are enacted to correct problems that probably have much simpler, easier solutions. It's such a bizarre inversion of reality. We're supposed to think that God-fearing "legacy Americans" from "flyover country" are less representative of what made America great than the goblinoid urbanites who make movies of this kind. But, such were tropes in the '90s: Crime is out of control, and the only solution is to totally ignore 13-do-50 and go straight to paramilitary forces and island prisons.
Kurt Russell, who I guess is in his 40s at this point, plays Snake Plissken. If you've played Metal Gear Solid, you know a bunch of the tropes and beats already: a laconic, growling, retired vet gets drafted by the American military into a covert operation. He's coerced into obedience with a virus with which he's already been surreptitiously infected.
The woman who played Ro Laren in Star Trek appears, and when asked about Snake Plissken's appearance, says "he just looks so retro", herself looking like the mom from a '90s sitcom.
We're shown a shockingly accurate depiction of a modern catlady, ranting about "a corrupt theocracy of lies and terror" which probably doesn't exist in this fictional universe any more than it does irl. (Cue the collage of women in their cars, shrieking into their smartphone cameras.) This woman is also a terrorist. She literally demands open borders— but in this context it's somewhat more reasonable, since the "border" she's referring to is literally the border to the los angeles prison island to which convicts are *deported*, and not mexico. It's nice when the villains are actually bad people.
Stacy Keach is wasted in a generic, humdrum role as the sort of overweight desk jockey who impresses no one.
"Snake. Call me Snake," says Snake, echoing for the second time something which I guess became a catchphrase after the first movie. Keach's character chuckles, as if to say "el-oh-el, you did the bit."
Ensign Laren gives utterance to yet more prescience: "After her sister committed suicide, Utopia^1 [withdrew into] virtual reality. She'd punch up her own little world in cyberspace and stay in it for days at a time." Except that the technology that did society in wasn't VR; it was withdrawal into social media. We're shown imagery you might have found on /leftypol/ in 8chan's heyday: che guevara kissing a dove in front of a sunset. Except it isn't actually guevara, but someone contemporary to the fiction named huevo jones or some shit. They pulled the punch just a little bit. We're told he was "in the simulation with her", which is almost word for word "radicalized by internet nazis" except applied to the left whereas the modern media would never so impugn themselves.
It's kinda cute how it centers itself between muh ebul nadzees and snowflake-commie-karens.
Plissken is offered a pardon for every immoral act he's committed *in the United States.* Chekov's talmudry.
"Designer viruses, Plissken. Wave of the future." I wonder if they know all the bugs aren't worked out yet in 2019, much less 2013.
Snake suits up into an all-black leather getup, plus trenchcoat, and I suddenly realize this movie came out only a year before The Matrix.
Keach's character describes how the communist untermenschen have united all third world countries against America. "The cubans and brazilians are poised to invade miami."
Ensign Laren adds, "if the ugandans [?] and colombians make a run on the border we'll have a full-scale attack on the United States." Which is a cute notion, given that America already has a border wall with commiefornia dotted with sniper towers.
I'm only 20 goddamn minutes in. It's all just so fascinating.
^[1] Yes, the terrorist catlady is named "Utopia".
(post is archived)