104. THEM! (1954) and 103. Revolutionary Road (2008)

To start my list I figured I’d go with the classic 1950’s B Film THEM! Them! (1954) is about ants that have mutated, as a result of nuclear testing in the early 40’s, to 12 feet length. Not only are they now giant ants, they are also cannibalistic with an insatiable craving for humans and sugar.

The movie was far better than I thought it would be going into it. However that is the case the majority of the time you watch a film and expect it to pretty much suck. It wasn’t that bad though. I was entertained, into the story line, and was waiting to see how it would all turn out. Obviously the special effects leave a little to be desired as it was a 50’s B film but they weren’t as terrible as one might expect. The ants are very limited in their movements, which little ones they had.

One thought I had was of how the fact it was shot in the 50’s, in black and white, and with cameras that weren’t of the highest qualities helps this film. If it were in HD and in color it would look completely ridiculous. On the whole I was impressed. In the end they had the typical Aesop’s Fable-esque line. This one was something to the extent of, “We may have entered the atomic age but we still may have many surprises left ahead of us”. This was said in response to one of the soldiers asking about if there are other mutations out there as a result of the atomic testing.

It was solid cheese the whole way through and I loved it! However I now have a head ache because throughout the film whenever the ants are coming on screen there is this really loud, high pitched tone that blasts through the speakers. It reminded me of a more audible dog’s whistle cranked to a 100 on the volume scale. My ears might be bleeding. Anyway, if you’re in the mood for an entertaining, cheesy, classic sci-fi film then this is definitely one that deserves a look.


103. Revolutionary Road

Next on my list was Revolutionary Road. It is a fairly new movie and definitely not a classic. However it had director Sam Mendes, one of my favorites, and possibly the best actor and actress on the planet in Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. On paper this is already amazing; which is where I might have gone wrong. Whereas with Them! I was expecting a completely awful film, with Road I was expecting something pretty amazing. It was not.

In this film by Sam Mendes [American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Away We Go (Yeah he’s good)] Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April Wheeler (Kate WInslet) are a city couple who move to the suburbs to ‘settle down.’ However from the beginning of the film we learn that these two are not happy together. The film is about them trying to find a solution to their problem. April decides the solution is for them to move to Paris, France where she will work and DiCaprio will stay at home with the kids. Outside of the location on which they move, the actual Revolutionary Road, the road which they want to leave is actually what is revolutionary.

Road deals mainly with this couple trying to be part of the norm for their time but at the same time trying to find a way to be happy and be themselves. The most interesting character in the story was John Givings (Michael Shannon), the son of the Wheeler’s realtor, Helen Givings (Kathy Bates). John was considered mentally unstable and had spent time in a mental ward. His lack of social skills seems to warrant some concern but his ideals, which were birthed as a result of the over conservativeness of his mother, are what make him intriguing. His ‘lunacy’ is far saner than the ‘normalcy’ of everyone else. John realizes what it takes to be yourself and that being yourself is what is most important. It is far saner than trying to be someone you’re not and living your life as a lie to be ‘normal.’

The rest of the movie, which unfortunately was about 95% of it, lacked what John’s character brought to it. Rather it was mainly the Wheelers screaming at one another with a little social interaction and infidelity thrown in for the better part of the film. It made me feel pretty uncomfortable and that was not for me. However if that was the goal of Mendes then it did succeed admirably. The final scene of the film in which we see the ‘normal’ family of Givings (Bates and Richard Easton) is a bit of a saving grace for the film and made me like it more than I thought I would up to that point. In it (spoiler alert) Mrs. Givings is thrilled about the new couple who had moved into the house that had been the Wheeler’s. She is thrilled about how ‘perfect’ they are. Mr. Givings comments on how he thought the Wheelers weren’t all that bad only to have Mrs. Givings go into a rant of all the ways in which they were. At this point Mr. Givings simply turns down his ear piece to tune her out. It seemed as if Mendes was trying to say as we look back on the suburbs in the 1950’s, which is usually shown as this perfect time and place, that even back then they had troubles, there wasn’t constant marital bliss, and even then people wanted to be themselves and not have to live the life predetermined for them by society. In that note I felt the film got its point across very well, it was just the majority of the film in between that didn’t seem to get me going.