赤裸搏击

　　地球征服をたくらむ宇宙海賊・ザノンが次々と送り込む怪獣を、平和星M38から派遣された3人の宇宙人が、ガメラを呼んで撃退する。“ガメラ“シリーズ全7作から、ガメラと怪獣たちの戦闘シーンをピック・アップしたアンソロジー。

　　德高望重的亚历山大（让·雷诺 Jean Reno 饰）多年来一直是米其林餐厅的三星主厨，但是近来他的境遇却屡现危机。当下的法国料理界正是”分子料理”风靡，传统料理日渐衰落的时代，亚历山大所坚持的传统料理很有可能会在即将到来的星级评审中落败，餐厅的小开更是翘首以盼可以就此炒了他。正当亚历山大焦头烂额之时，一名名不见经传的小厨师杰克（迈克尔·扬 Michaël Youn 饰）出现了，杰克是亚历山大食谱的忠实追随者，却因对料理的狂热固执屡次失业，只好在养老院找了份油漆工作。一个偶然的机会，亚历山大让杰克到他的餐厅实习，杰克与生俱来的料理天分和另辟蹊径的烹调创意令亚历山大大为赏识，很快成为其左右手。星级评审越来越近，两位传统烹饪大师的合作能否在挑剔的”分子料理”派面前力挽狂澜呢？

　　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.

　　A hardened New Orleans cop, Dave Robicheaux, finally tosses in the badge and settles into life on the bayou with his wife. But a bizarre plane crash draws him back into the fray when his family is viciously threatened.