AVP

After studying the Alien quadrilogy for Hollywood last term, I reckon it's a duty for me to watch Alien vs Predator .. only thing was I may have watched all of Alien but I didn't watch Predator - so as much as I delighted in picking out those references to Alien, I couldn't do the same for the Predator bits of the film. It's not a blatant amazing film, but it falls into the category of what I call a film-buff-must-watch-for-its-sake film. In many ways, Alien and Predator has taken on a classic dimension in the canon of hollywood film history - not to watch it would be like watching Godfather Part I and Part II, and not Part III (although I suspect many self-proclaimed die-hard Godfather fans have not watched the third).

(don't read on if you haven't watched it)

As a film student very wary of Hollywood sequels, I've got to reluctantly say I've got to hand it to Hollywood to create another form of sequels by merging different films together (recall: Freddy vs Jason and now this..) But I guess that's like the ultimate way of milking the maximum returns out of any Hollywood-created character. trust Americans to fully capitalise on everything. having said that, though, the self-referential nature of such films is what makes it work - much more than usual sequels. The joy derived from watching that film, on my part, was not so much delighting in watching the Predator and the Alien fight it out (although it was quite spectacular) but in picking out the moments in the film you can relate to - whether it was the black version of Ripley in the-only-female-left-surviving character in AVP, the familiar creatures, the baby alien that bursts through the chest, the mouth-within-the-mouth alien coming an inch close to Alexa aka black-Riply's face, or the convoluted pyramid mazes (cf. tunnels in Alien III)...
It was like almost like the process I enjoyed while watching Bertolucci's The Dreamers , which constantly made references to the French New Wave films. although, of course, the latter is obviously far superior.

Anyway, that aside, I just came across something thoroughly funny. I happened to see the trailer for Face last night before AVP, so this made sense when i read it, although i didn't notice any logos so it must only be for the dvd releases and not the prints..

An extract from Movieblog :

I have since struggled to watch my special edition DVD and noticed that "Face" - a major - help me out Bubba - Distributor? in Asia have become Idiots of the Highest Order and have completely raped a wonderful movie experience. How did they do it you ask? Oh Simple. By Being Egotistical Pricks. You see, if the Chinese language can't roll off your tongue like supermodel drool, you're in for a sphincter tickle. Why? No reason. Because they can. I'm sure being total f**k-nuts has something to do with it as well.

You see, the MORONS at Face have decided that every 5 minutes (give or take a few seconds) of viewing the subtitles, "Face" with slap their brilliant Blue and Red Company Logo in the top corner -- And not just flash it there.. but hold it there for a full half minute. CLICK HERE FOR A LARGE SCREENSHOT OF IT. Folks, I'm not bloody kidding -- In the middle of the ****ING MOVIE!!!! Then, just as you've gotten back into the film and forgotten about the nasty little corporate intruder: "Bing!" there it is again!! -- Absolutley Un-[insert expletive]-ing-believable. Who on earth thought up this absolutely destructive and intrusive way of... what... advertising?.. I can't even call it advertising.. it's only making me HATE them.

This post serves two reasons.. 1) to make the average Non-Chinese speaking sucker and Hero fan aware of this and 2) Since I so obviously deserve punishment because I can't speak Chinese, I can't read their website either - so I had no way of contacting them and reaming them out personally.

For flashing logos on my screen while I'm trying to watch my well paid for DVD, I would certainly stand and admit that next time, I will go out of my WAY to find a bootleg of the movie. Screw you guys. May the flesh eating disease land on the tip of your penis.


That last sentence had me laughing the biggest laugh i've had in ages...