A Couch Potato’s Review of The Anomaly (2014)

A Couch Potato’s Review of The Anomaly (2014)

When it came to this particular movie, I heard nothing about it. No previews, no reviews, nothing in the newspapers, not even word of mouth from friends or Usenetters into Science Fiction. And if it’s enough to pique my interest to pick it up, it usually means it’s some sort of bomb that would make even the most casual and easily entertained of movie-goers groan in horror and eye-roll themselves into an epileptic seizure. Think movies like Battle Beyond the Stars, or Starcrash, or even Mutant Chronicles bad.

What can I say? One of the habits I picked up from my step-father is the ability to home in on the worst possible movies to watch while I idle away a few hours between the various other virtues (and vices) I have. The only difference between my step-father and I is I don’t try to entice others by saying things like “…I heard this was a good movie…” and hope they’re going to come along for the ride. No, these stinkers are only for me as I only subject myself to these sort of celluloid nightmares.

Surprisingly though, this wasn’t quite a stinker as I was expecting. Quite the opposite really. It was good. It was entertaining. While there were some glitches with the story telling, they were minor enough for me to ignore as I continued to figure out what was going on with the story

The story opens up with Ryan (played by Noel Clarke) as he finds himself unconscious on the floor in the back of an armoured car and wondering where he was and what was going on. In the back of this armoured car is also a young boy, chained up against the wall with his head covered with some sort of fabric bag. Ryan looks at his watch and realizes that he’s lost time, he’s not where he’s supposed to be and the boy’s name is Alex (played by Art Parkinson). The two of them escape from the armoured car and after a chase end up in a cemetery where Alex twists his ankle, the two of them hide from their captors. The driver of the truck catches up with them and after a surprising fight (to the audience as it’s not entirely leaked that Ryan’s ex-military), Noel beats his captor to the ground and returns to Alex hiding behind a tombstone. The boy explains that he had been abducted from his mother (who had been killed) by men in red masks and didn’t know where he was going. While Noel and Alex are trying to sort out what happened and why they were there to each of them, another of the accomplices (played by Ian Somerhalder) shows up near to them and dialing a mobile phone (this movie is clearly in the future as the phone looks like a simple piece of clear plastic), calls Noel and asks him where he is. After hanging up and putting the phone away, he begins picking through his coat pockets, first pulling out a pistol from one side, and then a red mask from the other. Alex realizes that he’s talking to one of his abductors and begins screaming blue murder. Noel begins pressing against the area just behind the ears and he (through the use of special effects) blacks out.

The story pretty much goes like this from beginning to end. You learn that Ryan is ex-military — which clearly explains his fighting prowess in certain scenes. You learn that he was being treated for PTSD for some reason (that unfolds later on in the movie). You learn that this movie is in some undisclosed future based on the buildings, the Blade Runner-esque billboard advertising floating up in the story along with the general technology used by the characters. You learn that there the villains are a father (played by Brian Cox) and son (Somerhalder) team. You learn that Ryan gets help from one of the unlikeliest places (although typical of Hollywood and only moderately typical of UK Production Companies) — a prostitute that he rescues during his “lucid” moments named Dana (played by Alexis Knapp). Finally you learn how he overcomes these black-outs which ties the story up rather nicely. And Ryan does this all within the 10 minutes each time he recovers his personality.

It’s pretty amazing all the things he learns within those 10 minutes and how much of it he remembers again when he regains lucidity. It’s also pretty amazing in the time between these moments, he finds himself in various places in the world: London, New York City, even Shanghai I think, some unspecified building with its windows boarded up, a secret lab, a secret location where he confronts who’s causing him these problems, out in the middle of a field in what feels like the middle of nowhere, a brothel with peep windows, and on and on. Even finding himself in an interrogation room on an airplane. It’s the sort of scenery choosing that lends an air of confusion when the protagonist is suddenly recovering his memory.

A sort of downside I found watching this is that while it’s good that there’s compressed time through editing, the impact of how much time that passes between these lucid moments is pretty much lessened by everything else going on. It took me a second run through of the movie for me to put together the amount of days and weeks that passed between the first occurrence and the last. There were even times you didn’t know when it was. While this isn’t too much of a detractor, it’s enough for me to pause a few moments to put it together in my head for without that timeline, it felt like a jumble between time and location.

The fight choreography in this movie is certainly better than its Hollywood counterparts (this movie was produced in the UK). None of this shaky-cam or CGI nonsense covering up the movements of the actors. And though I understand how such fight choreography works in the Western World — I really got the impression that the blows exchanged by the actors were connecting a lot harder than they actually were. There were a couple of scenes where the camera moved to odd angles in order to cover up the choreography (to maintain the illusion of realism), these change of camera angles weren’t bad enough to detract from the enjoyment of certain people getting the snot beaten out of them for being the assorted minor villains in the story (like the pimp Sergio (played by Michael Bisping) or his henchmen).

Storytelling was solid and flowed from scene to scene making it believable enough to keep me entertained without breaking the suspension of disbelief needed to make this story believable, Although I did find myself surfacing (back to reality) toward the end when I realized that the diabolical plan launched by the father and son team was a little too far-fetched for just one person to control the world in the way that they were proposing, at least the plot didn’t get far enough along for this aspect to detract from the story. I remembered when I started questioning my ability to suspend my disbelief it’s not as though the science for this diabolical plan hadn’t been introduced in the past — I remember stories dating back to the 60s that introduced something similar, so that didn’t completely distract me from the entertainment value of this film.

Looking at the credits and information on IMDB, I realized I caught that one of the piece of trivia: the picture of Ryan and his wife (shown later in the film) were of Clarke and Freema Agyeman which was used as a prop in an episode of Doctor Who where his character from that series was married to her character in an alternative timeline. No doubt Mr. Clarke was given that as a gift for the work he had done in Doctor Who and contributed it to this movie.

Bottom Line: Seeing that it had been released to US theaters, this had to have been a sleeper. One that I highly recommend to watch if you’re into science fiction and world-engulfing conspiracies. It’s entertaining, albeit a bit trite in some places (like the ending), but at least it’s not the typical insipid nonsense Hollywood grinds out ad nausea. And leaves the audience wondering, “What would you do if you were in the protagonist’s place?”

A New Chapter in my Life

Entry 03/08/2014 12:27:28 PM – Mentat 690

Going into my third week out of the Valley, I’m finding the need for sitting down to write almost overpowering, and while I feel I will get farther with each failed attempt, I find it frustrating because it’s taking longer to un-knot the residual anger I have there…

Yes, I’ve moved out of the Valley and away from the two douche-bags that have worked me up to a furious frenzy.

Yes, I’ve only moved 3 blocks east of where I was living for a significant amount less monthly rent than the shit-hole that I was living in. And the kicker is, that while I lost 1 room (3 instead of 4), it’s still significantly warmer than the shit-hole I was in — even with a drafty door and 3 drafty out-dated windows currently installed. Of course, it’s about 200 feet from the door of my mother’s place. Not entirely a bad thing particularly given what happened with her (below).

Yes, I have a metric fuck-ton of improvements that need to do be done to the apartment in order to make it appear someplace I live and not simply the holding pattern of someone else’s attempts at making an apartment livable. Yes, there’s pictures of this on my G+ account but I’m too lazy at the moment to link it within my blogs…

I find myself at the moment in better spirits when dealing with practically everyone in the world at large. Partly because I’m not dealing with liars, thieves and users.. Mostly though because in spite of the occasional noise of party-goers leaving Tammany Hall at closing time — this is a surprisingly quiet neighborhood: even with the the fire department heading up the street to the old folks home at the corner of Atwells Ave and the off-ramp/service road parallel to I-95. Not as much police sirens (like running Valley Street), no construction, and no one 20-something bored and making noise as they head to friends or head home.

But there’s still a long way for me to go to being more like the person I was prior to moving into the Valley. Something that I know is going to require not only my ability to sit down and write in my journal more, but to also seek out professional help as well. More of that to come in the near future…

So, what’s been happening between my last journal entry and this entry right now? Quite a lot actually…

When faced with eviction because of the routine non-payment of getting the douche-bag slum-lord of a landlord to work on the properties, at the very moment of fighting and showing him to being the douche that he was, I decided on taking the option out and make an agreement to leave… quietly. On the plus side, I didn’t have to worry about court costs, outstanding rent and what was left to the non-existent and completely used up by the douche-bag security deposit. That left the slum-lord landlord having to foot all of the outstanding costs (somewhere in the vicinity of 2 months rent at $600, remaining security deposit of $100 and some odd, and $1500 for the court and lawyer costs… (Sure it’s not all that much, given the lawyer was a friend of his)…. On the down side… I was left with a lot of pent up and unresolved anger.

Within a week of the court date, and during one of the coldest and mostly frozen parts of the month, while my mother was walking Jack she slipped and fell and broke her hip. So for the next month, my mother spent her time at the hospital and a nursing & rehabilitation home getting used to having to keep her feet up when she’s not relaxing — hobbling about with walker. During the month she was at the hospital and rehab home, I was here watching Jack — her Chocolate Labrador. Fun times with that dog, as he’s more stubborn than I am and in spite of trying to train him with a bit more discipline — continues to have a mind of his own.

My mother got home just over a week ago, hobbling up the stairs as best she can and getting better at it each day. In fact, today (like Wednesday) she went out with her husband to get a haircut and do a bit of shopping in Attleboro. Not sure when she’ll get home, but I’m sure that I’ll be walking the dog before then.

I did the move the third week of the month. Took two days and six trips between the old and new apartments. It went surprisingly well, in spite of the fact that it took me almost three days to get over the aches and pains of the move.

Moe’s doing surprisingly well within the new environment. Other than the usual of him trying to find the smallest place to secrete himself into — underneath the stove around/near the Broiler — he tends to stick around the bed whenever he hears any noises other than me within the house. And of course, the instant he determines that noise isn’t me — under the covers he goes. Heh, such a scaredy cat. And unlike the apartment in the Valley he gets up onto everything… Table, counter-top (where the sink is), pantry cabinet shelf (at least one of them), all the windows and of course he has complete access to the top of the Fridge from one of the windows and the table. Unlike at the apartment in the Valley (where he loved knocking things off of the top), all he seems to like doing when he gets up there is to feel like king of all that he surveys… Funny thing is that everything on the top of the fridge is practically the same between the two apartments… So I can only assume it’s because there’s windows and more light near the fridge.

In the month we’ve had warm enough to have the windows open to colder than a witch’s tit in a brass bra… We’ve had snow, slush, sleet and of course a hell of a lot of ice — mostly melted now. Sure there’s still some ice in many places within the neighborhood, but it’s not quite as bad as the first week of February which was when my mother fell down and broke her hip. I think I remember a time afterward that it had been worse; particularly when it came to the amount of sleet/slush that turned to ice.

I also remember for a couple of weeks after the accident that it was truly hellish getting from my mother’s house to my old apartment… Sure, it was only a 10 minute walk but it felt like the longest 10 minutes I’ve ever experienced.

The apartment itself? What a nightmare of a DIY project. The walls are riddled with nail holes, a poor use of stick up hooks that have done more damage to the walls than they should have. The walls are the worst example of sponge painting for walls I have ever seen in my life… The kitchen is blue-white… the office (used to be the den) green-white, the bedroom orange-white… And the bathroom? Brown-white… The worst example of brown too: as it looks shit brown. Not the color one should paint for a bathroom at all… There’s not tile around the bathtub, and instead it would appear that linoleum floor tiles… poor choice for the wall protection given that they did not use any additional glue/sealant for them.

The actual ceramic tiles used around the sink in the kitchen for example don’t have the proper grout between the tiles to make it watertight, making the tiles around the front of the sink to lose cohesion and are pretty much falling off… Hell, the counter-top needs to be fixed, replaced as well.

Three of the windows in the apartment (two in the bedroom, one in the office) need to definitely be replaced as I’ve said before. They’re the really old windows with the side locks on them… Single-paned and no screens or storm windows on the outside either. And rotted out and drafty looking… Along with the door to the apartment itself. Surprisingly even with them looking drafty as they are, the apartment is surprisingly warm even with the heater running at low temperatures..

And I haven’t a clue what happened to any of the 5 blinds that had been in the windows. The slats on the blinds were destroyed in places they shouldn’t have been even for the previous dweller owning a cat. The tilt wands were gone and many of the hooks for the controls gone… The covers for the installation brackets were missing and the only thing holding the blinds themselves in were small screws.. Finally many of the bottom rails were split in two. They were useless even in their state so I had to have them removed. Now I have more then enough curtains for the windows, save one: and that window’s near the sink. Sure I won’t be able to walk to the sink naked (because the neighbor’s across the street will be able to see me… But until such time as I can get blinds, I don’t need to be heading to the sink naked.

Surprisingly, in spite of the mess for the floors being painted and paint-splattered from the walls (and ceilings) being done they’re a lot cleaner than expected. A quick sweeping/vacuuming and a quick mopping and I find my feet to being cleaner than the old apartment in the valley. Sure, they look pretty crappy — but it’s just cosmetic.

Oh yeah, the heater… Smaller space heater than the gas-on-gas portion of the stove at the old apartment and yet at setting 3 on the thermostat for the heater, I can keep the apartment above 66 F (18.8 C). And the best part of it is the fact that the space heater has a thermostat control, which means that the heat doesn’t have to stay on all the time — making it run only when the temperature drops enough to need to re-run. Definitely cheaper than the old gas-on-gas that came with only two settings: On and off.

As for me personally, well I’m not playing as many games as I used to but instead am back to binging on television shows. Sure there’s many of the shows I’ve already seen from beginning to end (Stargate SG-1, Torchwood), and a couple of new ones/continuations… Elementary, Primeval, Ultraman in many of the different versions over the last 40 years… and of course all the movies that have come out since. Some of them good, some of them questionable.. And some? Incredibly bad. The kind of bad that you wish you could get the time spent on them back. Yeah, there were a couple like that. I don’t remember all the movies that I’ve seen in the last three months.. But at least they were entertaining.

Oh and there have been the webseries that I’ve stumbled across. Some I’ve mentioned before (not sure here though): G&T, Husbands…

Well, that’s about it for the time being. I think it’s almost time for dinner here and then it’s a little gaming, trying to watch a little television before I pass out in no time flat. Seems that for the moment my staying up ’til late has flown out the window and barely last until 10 PM.. Put on a little television (albeit YouTube channels) and I’m out by 9’ish max. I’m sure I’ll be able to sleep less come the summer, but until then… I think I’m making up for lost sleep the last 3 months. Off I go.. Until the next time.