獅子的標志

19 十九

致命錄像帶：超越

　　通過一部偽紀錄片《未解之謎》五個故事娓娓道來：警察進入古宅尋找孩子遭遇神秘生物；一群印度狗仔隊發現寶萊塢女星并非鏡頭般光鮮亮麗；幾個朋友必須在遭遇外星人入侵之后與客機相撞的高空跳傘中幸存；動物權利組織闖進痛失愛犬的女士住宅后將經歷至暗時刻；以及一位沙漠中的母親調查莫哈韋沙漠幽浮飛船后成為飛船偷渡者……

九十九首歌

　　99 Songs is a musician’s quest to understand his purpose and passion. It is a journey of heartbreak and redemption, of loss and faith; an ode to the timeless power of love and music. 99 Songs is co-written by A.R Rahman. He also composed the original score and songs.

偽叛國者

　　1942年，生活在斯德哥爾摩的瑞典籍美國石油商人埃里克?埃里克森突然發現自己上了美國的納粹合作者黑名單，急于辨白。而這一切是盟軍情報機關的安排，意在逼迫埃里克成為間諜，因為他可以方便地進出德國。無奈的埃里克只得就范，他開始公開表現親近納粹，甚至不惜傷害最親密的猶太人朋友坎普爾。朋友和親人們都疏遠了他，但只有坎普爾暗中相信埃里克這樣做必有難言的原因。　　很快，埃里克就和德國人拉上了關系，并將德國石油業巨頭格哈德?奧倫道夫爵士、石油商人奧托?豪茲拉下水，組成一個間諜小組，他的代號為“萊德”。　　同時，埃里克與篤信宗教的德國地下抵抗組織成員瑪麗亞娜取得聯絡，喬裝成情人幽會，騙過監視的蓋世太保，不斷將她提供的情報記憶下來后帶回瑞典。埃里克與瑪麗亞娜為了事業均是家庭不幸，兩個人傾心相戀。埃里克雖是諜海新兵，但他沉著堅毅，多次避過危險。　　在奧倫道夫的努力下，埃里克獲準在瑞典為德國“建設”煉油廠，于是得到了參觀德國石油工廠的機會，一次，埃里克與奧倫道夫目睹納粹絞死罷工工人的場面，被深深觸動，開始由被迫工作轉向自覺行動。他們的情報使盟軍得以準確轟炸，令德國損失慘重。　　一段時間后，奧托因病去世，由于密信可能泄露，盟軍情報機關決定停止埃里克小組的活動。但埃里克惦念瑪麗亞娜，同時也為了取回至關重要的納粹航空燃料生產情報，他毅然再次前往德國。埃里克一到柏林就被關進蓋世太保監獄，并親眼看到因身份暴露被捕的瑪麗亞娜殉難。但他強忍悲痛，咬定自己只是瑪麗亞娜的情人，蓋世太保沒有證據只好放人。　　埃里克從格哈德處拿到情報，又前往漢堡銷毀奧托的密信，不料被跟隨的蓋世太保察覺。埃里克機智逃脫，并與漢堡的盟國諜報網取得聯系，在地下組織和丹麥百姓的幫助下，埃里克越過邊境，經哥本哈根渡過海峽，安全返回瑞典。

草迷宮恐怖殺人事件

　　一處廢棄草叢，發生一系列詭異的殺人魔連環殺人事件，讓警探阿邦（瓊姆芭絲康飾演）展開調查。某夜，他們遇到喬伊絲（吉蓮維琴西奧飾演）與她的一群朋友，揚言要在這片草叢中上哀悼慘遭殺害的親友，實際上她們也是為了調查這一連串真相，而來到了這片草叢。兩邊人馬開始在草叢中搜尋，竟意外發現殺人魔可能并非人類，更像是神秘的超自然力量；而另一位神秘人物史蒂芬（克里斯多夫加西亞飾演），則掌握著這個超自然殺手魔的關鍵真相…。

遇見惡魔

　　曾經的約翰（盧克·威爾遜 Luke Wilson 飾）是一名風光無限的商人，偌大的豪宅，漂亮的妻子，可愛的女兒，當金融危機爆發之時，約翰所擁有的這令人羨慕的一切都在轉瞬間成為了巨大的負擔，他和妻子之間原本美滿的感情也產生了裂痕。　　經歷了糟糕的一天后，約翰拖著疲憊的身軀回到家，這時，一個名叫里奇（塞繆爾·杰克遜 Samuel L. Jackson 飾）的陌生人攔住了約翰，希望得到他的幫助。讓約翰沒有想到的是，里奇竟然是一名殺手，可是，里奇卻并沒有殺死約翰，正相反，在莫名其妙之中，約翰和里奇一同踏上了一段充滿了鮮血和殺戮的恐怖旅程。隨著時間的推移，約翰漸漸開始懷疑，他和里奇之間的相遇究竟是偶然還是必然。

等待方舟

　　Set in an underground dungeon inhabited by bundled, ragged human beings, after the nuclear holocaust. The story follows the wanderings of a hero through the situations of survival. People wait for the Ark to arrive and rescue them while their habitat falls apart.　　Delving deep into the dusty and long abandonded vaults of b-cinema in search of lost gems always leaves me with a bittersweet taste. On one hand the discovery of unexpected gems where no one would think them possible is a rewarding experience. On the other hand though it makes one wonder how many of these remarkable low-budget oddities, personal love affairs of directors never quite famous and now all but forgotten, have almost forever slipped from memory?　　n any case what we have here is a little post-apocalyptic gem from Poland that is really better than it has any right to. The dystopian near future of O-BI, O-BA finds a group of survivors of the nuclear war that ravaged the Earth inhabiting an underworld concrete bunker and biding their time as they wait for the mysterious Ark, an air ship of some kind that will come and save them. The Ark proves to be an elaborate hoax, carefully designed to give hope to the malnourished and desperate denizens of the bunker, while in the meantime the dome that separates their miserable existence from the nuclear winter outside is slowly caving in.　　What first striked me about the movie is the design of the bunker and the depiction of the survivors. The survivors are gaunt, filthy and terrible-looking penitents, dressed in rags and aimlessly wandering the neon-lit halls of the bunker like automatons. The bunker is a rundown, seedy place, with bright neon lights peering from all sides like the eyes of malignant beasts.　　On one hand it is a slightly 80's depiction of the dystopian future but the movie never stoops down to MAD MAX cheese. Instead it combines biting political satire with the bleak outlook of a world with no future, black comedy with barbs on apathy, religion and power. The survivors, for example, are fed some kind of flour dropping from a tube that hovers in the air - later on we discover the food supervisor uses books and the Bible itself as filler for this meagre meal. There are many such short symbolic touches, perhaps not life-changing or faith-restoring, yet playful, clever and inspired.　　One thing is for sure; O-BI, O-BA is not your run-of-the-mill sci-fi schlock. It overcomes its modest budget with creativity and has genuine artistic aspirations both from a writing and directing perspective. My opinion is that it should have been filmed in black and white instead of colour though. The director uses atmospheric light and shadow to great effect and it would have registered even better in stark black and white. The blue-green neon on the other hand outstays its welcome after a while. Just a minor gripe in an otherwise solid b-movie with its heart set in all the right places.　　Imagine a less bleak THE ROAD (Cormac McCarthy) being injected with the satire and humour of DR.STRANGELOVE and you're getting there. See it if you can find it.