RAVENOUS
I (munch munch) loved this (smacks lips) movie
Yeah, baby! I don't know how this one got sold to the guys at Fox, but I'm glad it did. I mean, a black comedy about cannibalism set in a remote, wintry locale in 1847? Doesn't sound like a hit to me, but I'm glad somebody out there took a gamble on this one.
A soldier in the Mexican-American war is promoted to captain for his bravery, but when it becomes apparent that said bravery was really just a forced consequence of cowardice, he's sent to a remote outpost in the Sierra Nevadas in the dead of winter. The people there all seem like they're a few fries short of a happy meal already - one guy's always drunk, another is always stoned, one's a chest-thumping blonde gorilla, and it's all that the poor Colonel in charge can do to keep these guys from going completely batshit. But soon, what passes for their tranquil is smashed by the arrival of the lone survivor of an ill-fated expedition that ended in murder and cannibalism.
Ravenous had a weird, very 90's ad campaign with lots of one-liners and techno music, which seemed very much at odds with the film that seemed to be getting promoted. It was almost enough to make me wait until this got to the dollar theaters, but I'm glad that I've seen it already.
You know a movie's gonna be pretty wonky when the title screen, prominently featuring the word (duh) "Ravenous", is accompanied by a closeup of a man vomiting. The sense of humor in this movie is a lot like that - sick, but not crude. Elegant, in its own weird way. Contrary to the trailers, it's not a movie about one-liners, let alone techno music (one of the main musical motifs features a 13-note riff that I couldn't get a handle on at all until near the end). To put it in a nutshell, the ads are aimed at teens; the movie is aimed at adults.
Guy Pearce - who looks like he's going to make a career for himself playing heroes without much personality - plays the lead here. He's the focal point of the film, and probably the only big problem I had with it. There's just not much interesting about this guy in and of himself - it's the situation he's in that's interesting. Far more successful is the supporting cast - Robert Carlyle as the cannibal arrival (I had to be told after the show that it was the same guy from The Full Monty), and especially Jeffrey Jones as the weary Colonel. That guy hasn't had a really good role in about five years, and it's great to see him doing something worthwhile. Also of note is Neal McDonough as the appropriately named Reich, who looks about as Aryan as Aryan can get. I wasn't sure where I'd seen him and his scary, huge blue eyes before, but now I remember - the rumor-has-it-this-guy-was-supposed-to-be-gay Lt. Hawk in Star Trek: First Contact.
There's a lot of blood in this movie - well, a lot for a Hollywood theatrical release - and it's rarely looked so icky. I dunno, we all see alot of blood in a lot of other movies, but here for some reason it all seems almost tangible, whereas elsewhere it splashes around mostly unnoticed. After this movie, I wanted to wash my hair.
Some moments are intense, many are very funny, and some just kind of unpleasant. But Ravenous never once bored me and at almost two hours felt like it was over way too soon. Best movie of 1999 so far - yeah, I know,we're only three months in, and we've got that little Star Wars thing coming up in a couple of months that I've been looking forward to for sixteen years. Still, nothing too shabby - this time last year, the honor lay with Dark City.
Filmed in the Czech Republic amidst, presumably, professional tumult (the original director was fired after a couple of weeks and replaced with Antonia Bird). Worth seeing for the scenery alone - thankfully there's a lot more here. This is probably going to really bomb at the box office, but I'll bet it builds up a pretty good reputation over the years. See it on the big screen while you still can.