Shawn's Underrated Films: Equilibrium

Shawn here. Yeah, I know. I don't write often enough. As you stammer through this write up, you'll see why.

While we blast away at all things dark and scary for the month of October, I thought I'd inject a little "un horror" just to be different.

MOST horror movies are underrated anyways. So grab yourself a blanky and popcorn and scare yourself silly. Between then, I'll put up reviews of some of my FAVOuRITE, underrated flicks. So let me begin.

Equilibrium:  A 2002 dystopian science fiction film written and directed by Kurt Wimmer. It stars Christian Bale, Emily Watson and Taye Diggs. Here's what IMDB had to say about it:

"In a Fascist future where all forms of feeling are illegal, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system".

Here's what I have to say.

In a cleansed future where there are: no books (yay), no paintings, no art, no beauty of any kind that isn't gov't approved, there are also no feelings. (that aren't gov't approved) In fact, you are able to take a pill once a day that ratifies those pesky emotions. Emotions that nearly caused the extinction of man, through hatred, greed, love and all kinds of other emotions. Vulcan would be proud.

This movie seemed to pass under the radar and under the weight of The Matrix explosion. Too bad. People that loved The Matrix for its conspiracy blend would -- and likely do -- love Equilibrium for the same, secret reasons...haha. But if you haven't seen it, or heard of it, then YOU need to see it.

This movie is the epitome of why Jason and I do this. Spread the word. Keeping movies that aren't remakes, sequels and found footage from feeding our starving need for "original".

It also has what is called "The Gun kata." An action movies' nerdy scientific explanation for a set of moves that...well hang on...from the movie:  Vice-Counsel DuPont (Angus Macfadyen) describes the gun kata in the film:

"Through analysis of thousands of recorded gunfights, the Cleric has determined that the geometric distribution of antagonists in any gun battle is a statistically-predictable element. The Gun Kata treats the gun as a total weapon, each fluid position representing a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents, while keeping the defender clear of the statistically-traditional trajectories of return fire. By the rote mastery of this art, your firing efficiency will rise by no less than 120%. The difference of a 63% increased lethal proficiency makes the master of the Gun Katas an adversary not to be taken lightly."

What the heck does that even mean?  For those that don't know, this:

Yeah, bad ass.  Just like the rest of the movie.

Underrated and MOST excellent.

I'll try to attempt one of these every few days or so.  Hope you enjoyed this instalment.