10 Action Movies That Ripped Off Die Hard

10 Action Movies That Ripped Off Die Hard

Writers Workshop of Science Fiction & Fantasy Available!

Writers Workshop of Science Fiction & Fantasy Available!

Shaolin Soccer And 5 Other Completely Bonkers Martial Art Movies

Shaolin Soccer And 5 Other Completely Bonkers Martial Art Movies

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Michael Smith

Perception is a Wonderful Thing.

My daughter just showed me a very amusing trailer on YouTube. Someone had re-done a trailer for the comedy Mrs Doubtfire. With a little editing magic and by changing the music for the trailer, they had turned a comedy trailer into a trailer for a thriller/horror film. It was very funny and, I thought, quite clever. But it did make me think.

It is all a matter of perception. That they were able to re-cut the original trailer, add a bit of creepy sounding music and change it into a very creepy trailer instead of a comic one is interesting. It made me think of Jimmy Stewart explaining about how important the editing process was. "If the camera shows me looking at something and smiling, then cuts in a picture of a baby, I look like a kindly grandfather figure. Change the cut to a girl in a bikini and I look like a dirty old man."

But it is not just film that can be changed by a matter of perception, Life doesn't allow  us to re-edit. It does allow us to see things differently, either by a matter of angle or timing of when we see something. I'll explain.

When I lived in southern California, I drove through very bad section of town daily on my way to work. One day I saw a small boy being chased by a very large angry man. It struck me as funny and I started laughing. I pulled up to a stop light and while waiting for it to turn green a policeman came up and tapped on my window. I rolled it down, it was up because it was a smog alert day, shut off the engine and started to reach for my drivers license.

The policeman asked if I had just arrived in the area. I said yes and asked why. Ignoring my question, he asked one of his own. Had I seen a young boy being chased by a man along side the road? I said, "Why yes. I just passed them, They were heading in the opposite direction. It was very funny looking." He then thanked me for the information and turned to leave. I asked what was going on.

He paused for the briefest of moments and then said, "That kid just beat the fuck out of an old lady to steal her handbag. The man chasing him is a shop owner who saw it happen. He tried to stop the kid and he just climbed over the guy. He lost the purse though." He then turned away and went back to his car.

Suddenly the scene I had witnessed was not so comic. I realised that by just a matter of seconds I had missed the events leading up to the chase. My perception of the scenario was completely wrong. So I learned that perception is a wonderful thing, it can also be wrong.

28 Days Later (2002): Don't Get Mad

I will admit to becoming an instant fan-boy of director Danny Boyle after just one viewing of Shallow Grave (1994) and became a devout follower after watching (three times) Trainspotting (1996). So when I saw a trailer for 28 Days Later...  I could not wait to see the film. I knew Boyle would do a brilliant job in the Horror genre. The baby scene in Trainspotting so freaked me out that even after watching it three times, I had to cover my eyes half-way through. Unfortunately, I had to wait.

I had to because I worked nights, delivering newspapers. Six nights a week. So on my only day off, rather than see films at the cinema, I slept. All day. So  I had to wait for the video/DVD to come out and rent it. Even on the 'small' screen the film delivered. So much so that I bought the special edition DVD the minute it came on the market.

Boyle has taken the Zombie genre and shifted it slightly to the left. Because the zombies in 28 days Later...are not. They are mindless, they are going to eat you if they catch you, but, they are not dead.

28 Days later opens with multiple scenes of crowd violence and rioting in numerous countries. The camera moves back from the violence and we see a wall full of monitors all showing different forms of crowd violence. Strapped to a table in front of the monitors is a chimpanzee. The chimp has electrodes attached to it's head. Three Animal Rights Activists break into the  animal testing centre where chimpanzees are  undergoing, what appears to be horrific tests.  The activists  are there to record for posterity the abuse the animals are receiving and to let the poor things go free. A lab technician tries to stop the activists explaining that they are all infected and highly contagious. The technician explains that all the chimps have been injected with an inhibitor called Rage. He also explains that it can be spread through saliva and blood.  The activist's ignore his warning, and threaten him. The first poor creature they let loose  immediately attacks them. The activists are infected instantly.

28 days later bicycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up in a hospital bed. He gets up and finds the hospital deserted. Leaving the hospital, he finds all of London is deserted.

So begins the film. 28 Days Later boasts a small cast. For a lot of the film we follow Jim, Selena (Naomie Harris), Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and Megan (Megan Burns) as they flee London and head for an Army safe haven they have heard about on the radio. Constantly on the look out for infected people and ready to run at a moments notice. It seems that Rage was very contagious, with most of the population either suffering from it or getting killed from the infected.  While the four are travelling cross country we bond with them just as they bond with each other. When they reach what looks like their destination, it appears deserted. The Army vehicles are empty, the outposts are deserted and civilian vehicles litter the motorway. Frank makes everyone stay put and he starts searching for people who are not infected.

He walks up to a pylon where a crow is pecking at a dead soldier. A drop of blood falls from the infected body and hits Frank in the eye. The change is immediate. He has gotten the Rage virus. As he moves to attack the remaining three people in his party, an shot rings out. The cavalry arrives in the form of a small rag-tag group of soldiers. They are lead by Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston) who after dispatching Frank gives the survivors a lift to where the rest of the soldiers are bivouacked.

The small group of Army men are using a deserted mansion that the soldiers have fortified against the infected.  When the small group arrive at the mansion the Major takes them on a tour of the house. They all begin to feel uneasy when, as part of the tour, the Major shows them one of his men who has been infected. They have chained him up behind the house for "observation."  This "observation" seems to be the soldiers taunting their infected mate and beating him when he comes near. The uneasiness that the three feel is for a good reason. Unfortunately The soldiers have not saved all three of the group at all.  It is revealed that the only way the Major West could get the soldiers to stay was to promise them women. Jim is taken out to be executed and Selena and Hannah, who is only about thirteen, are taken upstairs to get 'presentable' as a prelude to gang rape.

Jim escapes his executioners and makes his way back to the mansion. Once there he lets the infected soldier loose. While the infected is rushing through the mansion to kill his former colleagues, Jim goes to rescue the two girls.

This film was an adrenaline pumping, heart stopping film. The music in the film helped to set the mood. Especially the use of In the House, In the Heart which has been used at least twice more in other films. The music makes us the audience feel sad, lost and, as I've said in another blog, slightly melancholy. The film was very low budget, but it doesn't feel like a low budget feature. The actors all give brilliant performances and really help to sell the story.

If you were to make a list of Films that just have to be seen, 28 Days later ...would be at the top of the list.