The Bechdel Test is a way to assess the presence of active female characters in film through the following criteria: the movie has to have at least two women in it who talk to each other about something besides a man. This test is a fairly damning judgment of film in that many movies fail, and some barely pass. Which leads me to Sucker Punch, a videogame/music video/action film with a largely female cast marketed to young males who don't go to the movies anymore. Plot: Barely characterized, under-dressed imprisoned females living under constant threats of murder and rape become "hookers with hearts of gold" and try to survive by ripping off The Matrix and Call Of Duty while uninteresting rock and roll covers blare and serve as narrative. Was it entertaining? Yes, much like a shiny object momentarily grabs your attention. Was it thought provoking? Again, yes, but probably not in the way the film-makers intended. Is this some sort of misguided feminist statement? Maybe, but a fairly dodgy one. Could this be some sort of camp "women in prison" cult classic sometime in the future? Doubtful, considering how derivative it is. This movie raises a lot of questions, and may be argued about for some time. It has its moments, but the cons outweigh the pros. I watched it on Pay-Per-View. Here's a trailer:
"Sucker Punch" was absolutely the worst movie that I saw in all the time between it and "Inception" and that's saying something. I hadn't been so bored since I tried downloading four Linux operating systems at the same time and used so much bandwidth up that I couldn't get near my computer for a week. Christ, that movie lived up to its name. :(
ReplyDeleteI wanted to like it more, but couldn't. I enjoyed the train/bomb sequence, and was initially impressed by the long take. Then I realized it was a rip-off of the lobby scene from the Matrix and that made me sad. That happened a lot.
ReplyDeleteHaven't found anyone who truly liked this yet - I haven't seen it but it seemed so grand before I read the reviews.
ReplyDeleteI didn't feel ripped off by a pay-per-view price of $5. If I paid more in the theater I would have been mad.
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