August 14, 2009, - 3:25 pm
Weekend Box Office: Interesting “District 9”, Decent Chick Flick “Traveler’s Wife”
This week presents an interesting juxtaposition between the sci-fi/alien invasion flick “District 9” (aimed at guys) and “The Traveler’s Wife” (a chick flick). Both were decent. I did not see “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” but will be seeing it this weekend and will add my review later.
* “District 9“: It’s rare that I enjoy a left-wing piece of pure propaganda. But I enjoyed District 9 because it’s well done, even if it has a nauseating, “Aliens are people, too” message. Sorry, they ain’t.
We’ve seen this before: Robots are people, too; Animals are people, too; etc. It’s not a new theme in the movies. And here it’s pimped in an equally heavy-handed manner. Still, to me, if you can watch the movie through a critical eye, you can enjoy it. It was entertaining and better than the usual crappy August release.
In this case, producer Peter Jackson says it’s supposed to be, by analogy, the telling of the story of how Blacks were treated under apartheid in South Africa. But, then, I guess he’s saying that Blacks were murderous, violent thugs who contributed nothing, because that’s what the aliens do in this movie. And if I were Black South Africans–or any Blacks–I’d be pretty miffed at the comparison, even if, now that Blacks do control South Africa, things are very violent there, and there’s a lot of Black-on-White violence and rape there.
The story: an alien spaceship hovers over urban South Africa for a long time, and finally authorities go up to the spaceship and rescue the dirty, slime covered aliens, cleaning ’em up and giving them a place to live–a camp called “District 9.” The aliens, who look like giant crustaceans are nicknamed “prawns.” No-one wants them there–except left-wing human rights advocates (typical). They are violent, they maim and kill people, and they are a drain on resources. Idiotic government bureaucrats–finally deciding, under civilian pressure, to get rid of them–come to District 9 to give the alien prawns eviction notices. The aliens laugh and mock them, violently attacking them. One bureaucrat, a happy-go-lucky, not-too-bright bureaucrat (who got his job through his father-in-law, who is in the South African government), gets infected with prawn blood and soon becomes very sympathetic to their cause, given what happens to him.
The movie, shot in documentary/news report style, wants us to feel sorry for the prawns. But I didn’t. I felt they should have dropped a giant bomb on “District 9” . . . sent me one of the “No Non-Human Loitering” signs as a souvenir (if you are reading this and are from the studio, please send me one).
Think the Palestinians. That’s what I did throughout the movie.
I viewed the alien prawns as Palestinians because they acted just like them (though Palestinians are far more scary). The aliens came from out of nowhere–the “Palestinian people” was invented out of nowhere (since they were basically Jordanians and other Arabs who wanted to get work and then land-squat). The good people of a Western country were nice to the aliens, and they took advantage. . . just like the Palestinians.
The aliens who were a few hundred had a ton of kids, spawning to a number in the hundreds of thousands . . .just like the Palestinians (who became millions). They were a drain on resources and lived and acted like animals . . . just like our friends from the Religion of Peace of the Palestinian persuasion. They were violent–killing and maiming innocent civilians . . . just like you know who. The Palestinians. Human rights activists and lefties were all over the news as apologists and sympathetic advocates for the violent prawns . . . just like they do for the Palestinians (and every other ilk of violent Muslim).
“District 9” was entertaining, so long as you don’t buy the message. Aliens aren’t people, too. They must be destroyed. They should have been. But I liked the movie anyway. It’s a great statement on how you lose control of your country, your culture, your safety, when you feel bad for those who want to kill you.
Violent, bloody, and full of swear-words, this is NOT for kids. It’s rated “R” for a reason.
TWO-AND-A-HALF REAGANS
* “The Time Traveler’s Wife“: As chick flicks go, this isn’t bad. In fact, it’s one of the better ones, since it also includes an element of science fiction: time travel. It reminded me of “The Twilight Zone” in many ways. Except . . . except that Rod Serling wouldn’t have included so much cloying, manipulative heart-string tugging, and there wouldn’t have been any melodrama, though thankfully, that was kept to a minimum here, which made the movie that much more enjoyable. Could have done without the negative comment about Republicans and hunters, though.
A woman meets up with and marries the man of here dreams, a time traveler, who appears and disappears throughout time, unpredictably beyond his control. She first meets as a little girl when he lands–in his time travel–in the meadow behind her family’s home. Thereafter, he appears and re-appears, and even appears to his younger or older self. Sometimes, the appearing, disappearing, and re-appearing feels a little herky-jerky, as does the sometimes out-of-sequence scenes. But you figure it out in the end.
To tell anymore would give it away. This was entertaining, but very sad. It’s a tear-jerker, with a bittersweet ending. Still, it’s one of the better chick flicks.
TWO REAGANS
Tags: Aliens, apartheid, Blacks, chick flicks, crustaceans, District 9, human rights activists, invasion, lefties, leftists, liberals, Movie Reviews, Palestinians, Peter Jackson, Prawns, sci-fi, South Africa, The Time Traveler's Wife, Weekend Box Office, Whites
I’m hoping to see District 9 soon. I really get into the viral marketing program with some of these movies. I looked for the “No Non-Human Loitering” signs on the site. All they had for a download was the alien target.
Speaking of the bleeding hearts, the producers made a site for the ones who believe in equality, fairness, etc.
http://www.mnuspreadslies.com
Enjoy.
cirrus1701 on August 14, 2009 at 6:40 pm