White Noise 2: The Light

Now I would normally never watch something like this, even with someone like Nathan Fillion in the lead. It's a sequel to a crappy 2000's horror film, there is no way it can be decent right? What if it was essentially a completely different movie, with some kind of similar supernatural phenomena as the only ties? It basically distances itself as much from the awful original and becomes something definitely above average. With decent leads, a decent script, and a fairly original idea it definitely results in a watchable film, though it is dragged down somewhat by the style of film-making that was so popular in the mid 2000's, which is difficult to describe but is kind of annoying, something about the camera angles or colors or something.

It begins with the murder of the protagonist's wife and son by some guy for seemingly no reason, who then promptly shoots himself in the face. Another thing I like about the film is there is no real big twist or anything like that, Bruce Willis was not dead the whole time or anything, though there is a slow revelation about what exactly is happening. In the end it's not perfectly explained either, no scientific or voodoo explicit discussion, kind of similar to the Exorcist in that way. He sees dead people, and can also see people about to die, which would be an awful super power, there is a comment about it in the film, and it really would suck, knowing all these people are about to die, and being unable to prevent it.

It also has similarities to Dead Like Me, with the reapers. No one can save these people, it is the whole hourglass thing, once the sand runs down your time is up, and extra time does not end well for anyone, often resulting in the deaths of many more. Nathan makes a good tragic hero, in that you know it'll end badly, because there are so many similarities between him and the murderer of his wife and son that even though the film draws the comparison numerous times it is really unnecessary, one of the small problems with the film is that it ditches subtlety fairly early on, though there are still some cool background images of the anti-cross thing.

I can see why people like the film, because the whole idea behind is interesting, if kind of a mash up of the Sixth Sense and Dead Like Me, with some diner scenes that gave me some weird Pulp Fiction vibes, though without Samuel L. Jackson. Now I guess there are a few other minor complaints, like the romance between the two leads up there in the picture seems fairly forced, with her falling head over heels for him upon meeting him, in the position of her as his nurse. Also this thing is classed as a horror because it has a bunch of jump scares, all the same dead people jump out unexpectedly!  A little surprising the first time, though none of the like 10 times afterwards. Decent makeup on the dead guys though, so that looks fairly decent, as does all the CGI and few other practical effects in the film. It still has the weird blue tint that films love so much, but it is easily ignorable.

I enjoyed the film despite the little missteps, definitely very unexpected due to the nature of sequels. I suppose Nathan Fillian is in a lot of these smaller projects, and Joss Whedon's stuff, and he generally does decent work, so maybe it shouldn't be so surprising. The ending worked for what it was, and wasn't even that bitter sweet, even with the main character's death. In summation since this will just be a quickie, the film has good ideas, a good cast, and is in general a shitty horror, but a decent movie otherwise, with reminders of better films but enough good in it to stand on its own.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

The briefcase is unimportant, like Pulp Fiction

And all the king's knights couldn't put him back together. Falling Down is about a man who's life has got to the point that climbing up the stairs is simply not worth it anymore. It is also a film about dream-fulfillment, a fantasy lived out by the main character, who deals with all the annoyances of modern day life with a great deal of violence that we as people in a normal society never do because of the consequences. It's also a film about a cop who is one day from retirement, and everyone tells him that he should go home, because you know what happens to cops one day from retirement. Surprisingly he lives. Also this is directed by Joel Schumacher, the guy who did Batman Forever, and Batman and Robin, amazingly this film is actually good.

The film begins with a traffic jam, and the traditional frustration that occurs from it. Much horn honking and angry words exchanged but all to no avail. At a certain point our protagonist, Bill, decides that enough is enough, and leaves his car with nothing but his briefcase, which he guards religiously for the first half of the film. This is a problem for our other protagonist who comes in the form of a cop on the cusp of retirement, who just wants a quite day in his office. What actually happened was probably the most interesting day in both of their lives. This abandoning of the traffic jam is just the first in a number of incidents about wish fulfillment, I'm sure anyone who has waited in traffic for any significant amount of time has wanted to just walk away.

I'm not actually sure where  he was going at the beginning of the film, given that he had lost his job a month previous. I guess he was going elsewhere, as you sometimes need to do, but he got fed up with life. The first target of violence is when he goes to a store and discovers a coke costs 85 cents. That is far too much, so he takes a baseball bat to all the 'expensive' products in the store including aspirin which costs $4! Oh no, far too much. After his little attempt at anarchy he pays 50 cents for his soda and leaves to go use a payphone. First he decides to take a rest on some stairs. Unfortunately these stairs are in a gang's territory, and he is accosted by two Mexicans, who he subsequently beats with his bat, and steals their butterfly knife.

I think Bill's last line is perhaps his most telling, "I'm the bad guy?"  All he wanted to was to go home and see his family, unfortunately his ex-wife has a restraining order against him. He's not okay with this though, and seeks out some sort of solace in the casual destruction he creates. Throughout the film he shoots up a phone booth because someone complained about him taking too long, almost shoots up a fast food joint because they stopped serving breakfast, kills a racist homophobic sexist Nazi, and finally gives a heart attack to a rich golfer. He tries so hard to right the wrongs of the world in his own unique way, but does nothing but create needless destruction. The best intentions eh?

So is the ending happy? No, our protagonist dies and is not redeemed, even in death. No matter what he would be branded the bad guy, though he never meant to kill anybody, he just wanted to go home to his family. I suppose the question one must ask is is it a good film? Yes, I suppose it is. It's shot well, has some decent characters and you root for the protagonist in his desperate quest, and it's a decent fantasy film, imagining all the daily annoyances can just be blown away. Alas at the end all that happens is death, but that's alright, because though his life has fallen down (and that is what happens in his death) he still lives as he wanted, if only for a brief period of time.