20 | May | 2021 | Movie Reviews 101

Oxygen – Claustrophobic Nightmare

Director: Alexandre Aja

Writer: Christie LeBlanc (Screenplay)

Starring: Melanie Laurent, Malik Zidi, Laura Boujenah, Eric Herson-Macarel, Anie Balestra, Marc Saez, Cathy Cerda

Plot: A woman wakes in a cryogenic chamber with no recollection of how she got there. As she’s running out of oxygen, she must rebuild her memory to find a way out of her nightmare.

Tagline – No escape. No memory. 90 minutes to live.

Runtime: 1 Hour 40 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Oxygen starts when a woman wakes up in a cryogenic chamber, she must figure out why nobody has opened the chamber and more importantly, who she is. The computer operations system M.I.L.O trying to keep her calm, the woman learns that she is Elizabeth Hansen, a woman who worked in the cryogenic fields.

Elizabeth has only 90 minutes of oxygen to try and figure out how to escape the chamber or why she is even in the chamber in the first place, trying to piece together her life to escape.

Thoughts on Oxygen

Characters & Performances – Elizabeth Hansen is the woman who wakes up in a cryogenic chamber, she learns she only has 90 minutes of oxygen and must figure out how to survive the situation before it is too late. She must remain calm and figure out how to make it out of this position, using her limited memories to figure out who she is and why she is in this position. Melanie Laurent is own leading lady here, being the main focus of the performance, with her abilities needed to make this story unfold, she is incredible in her role that takes us on the journey. Any other character we meet are usually only by voices or flashbacks, which help Liz try to figure out the problem she is facing.

Story – The story follows a woman that wakes up in a cryogenic chamber and must race against time to figure out how to survive knowing she only has 90-minutes of oxygen and learn about who she is. This is a story that will see one person contained with little chance of escape in the similar style as Buried, only with the sci-fi twist to everything going on within the film. The memory loss side of the film does show how technology has created a chance for people to try and figure out what has happened too. The story does have the twists along the way, even if the final reveal does become clear early on in the film.

Themes – Oxygen is a sci-fi film that is filled with the horrors of being trapped in a cryogenic chamber, it gives us the race against time, with the real time feeling to everything going on, while using the technology that shows that certain factors could be taken away from the human factor. The special effects are amazing in the film, with the chamber having different reveals to what we get to see in the film.

Oxygen is a wonderful claustrophobic sci-fi horror, which is filled with tension throughout the film.

Director: Sion Sono

Writer: Sion Sono (Screenplay) Santa Inoue (Manga)

Starring: Ryohei Suzuki, Young Dais, Nana Seino, Shunsuke Daito, Takuya Ishida

Plot: In an alternate Japan, territorial street gangs form opposing factions collectively known as the Tokyo Tribes. Merra, leader of the Wu-Ronz tribe of Bukuro crosses the line to conquer all of Tokyo. The war begins.

Tagline – Let Sion Sono take you on a tour of Tokyo’s underbelly for a night of turf wars & rap battles.

Runtime: 1 Hour 56 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Way Too Busy

Story: Tokyo Tribe starts as we meet the different Tokyo Tribes around the city, each doesn’t cross into the other’s territory until Mera (Suzuki) looks to make a play on a rival territory, this is the beginning of the one night war between the tribes.

As the war starts, people who have been victims of the gangs in the past look to get their revenge, as chaos is unleashed between the tribes.

Thoughts on Tokyo Tribe

Story – The story takes us to an alternative Tokyo where tribes run different corners of the city in their own vicious style, when one steps out of place a war between them all starts, leading to a war which will bring them into complete chaos as they look to own the streets. This is one story that is incredibly busy, it has so much going on, it is ridiculous, say that, it does make it difficult to keep up on everything going on through the film, this is one you could watch a couple of times before you get every clever cross over between the scenes involved.

Action/Musical – The action is great to watch, we get plenty of fights, blood shed added too, though the music is mostly hip hop and rap, which isn’t going to be for everyone.

Settings – The sets in the film are incredibly designed, from the run down looking streets, to the unique look to each tribes main location, right down to the private rooms, with their unique look to make them standout more than anyone thing else in the movie.

Scene of the Movie – The sets look amazing, is the highlight of the film, they add so much to each scene, even if not much takes place in some.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – While we do have strong female characters, most other women are just pieces of meat.

Final Thoughts – This is such an ambitious movie that it could go a little too far with bringing a massive gang war to life, not giving everyone enough time to make an impact in the story.

Overall: Massively Ambitious.