Directed by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott
Written by Joel Bakan; Harold Crooks, Mark Achbar (narration)
Hosted by Mikela J. Mikael
Starring Jane Arke, Ray Anderson, Noam Chomsky, Milton Friedman, Naomi Klein, Robert Monks, Michael Moore
Genre: Documentary / History
Country: Canada
Runtime: 145 minutes
MPAA Rating: No MPAA Rating

Evaluation: 9.5/10
by Greg Ferguson






At one point in my life, I worked at a Gap clothing store while heading my university's local branch of the Canada-wide international justice brigade known as WUSC. Colleagues at the latter did not understand how I could have a foot in each pool since Gap is a major retail corporation that flies in the face of our activist pursuits by allegedly encouraging the inexpensive exploitation of Third World labourers. Was this a fair criticism? Whether directly or indirectly, most of us cannot help but run into the monstrous capitalist giants known as corporations - which, according to an irrational aberration of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution that provided for the freedom of slaves, have been granted legal status as individuals. Sometimes we even need them, if for nothing else but to supply us with meagre jobs and income (and the occasional perquisites, such as my 50% discount on clothes). This is something the makers of The Corporation, a 140-minute exposition on the demerits of Big Business and their crippling effects on human dignity and rights, understand all too well. It's not necessarily individual people who are expressly accountable, though each of our choices and actions certainly have an impact, but the collective corporate entities who blindly and single-mindedly pursue the acquisition of wealth. In what amounts to an arguably infallible and urgently assembled slice of leftist agitprop, directors Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott are critical of the larger problem of capitalist greed and the fate they believe it portends for global wellbeing, supporting their concerns with a surplus of startling evidence in a manner that is consistently balanced and engrossing.

The central idea that propels "The Corporation" is that, based on symptomatic criteria outlined by the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), corporations, if they may rightly be regarded as legal people, are categorically psychopathic in nature, flagrantly disregarding ethical and moral considerations as they tromp on the safety and lives of actual people. It's a simultaneously humourous and alarming observation, amusing at first but increasingly more disturbing the longer Achbar and Abbott continue. Among some of the more provocative case studies they dig up, we learn about IBM's collaboration with Nazi Germany's Final Solution (they openly supplied the organizational materials used to tabulate and track the various categories of victims); Kathy Lee Gifford's infamous sweatshop scandal; the recent impetus on behalf of FOX News to cover up a story exposing the health hazards of Monsanto's bovine growth hormone; the violent protests over the privatization of water in Cochabamba, Bolivia; and finally, the movement toward patenting life itself. What's more is the directors tease us with brief mentions of other corporate crimes and sins before they delve full-force into one of the above examples. I'd have liked to discover more about such topics as nuclear waste and animal testing, which are flashed across the screen momentarily, but having come to expect the worst I'm sure the sad truth wouldn't surprise me.

As with all films of this sort, simply presenting us with information is only partly effective. Without solutions, viewers are likely to feel like the peak before them is too overwhelming to scale. For each of the horrors we bear witness to, Achbar and Abbott do little to galvanize viewers and imbue them with a sense of hope (something which Davis Guggenheim and Al Gore did exceedingly well in this year's similarly-themed documentary "An Inconvenient Truth"). The vague response put forth is that by availing ourselves of our democratic processes, we can demand injunctions and changes to policy that will turn things around for the better. Apart from a short profile of a quaint Californian town that has banned franchise stores from operating, as well as the violent resistance of citizens in Cochabamba, we're not entreated to any sort of workable or useful course of action for implementing needed changes. There is a sense that boycotting and voting with our dollars, even on an individual basis, can make a dent, but naturally with the looming crisis of Baby Boomer retirees and their lack of decent pensions (gone unmentioned in the film) threatening to deplete the workforce, dismantling capitalism outright would doubtlessly prove catastrophic to the economy beyond what is already grimly projected by analists for the next 25-50 years. Corporations and the lifestyles inherent with them, I'm afraid, are here to stay.

Though they may not be the sort of people we would care to associate with, in the interest of inclusion we must work at living with corporations and learning from them. They can be rehabilitated, adapt, and improve, and raising public awareness about the numerous corruptions and crimes they commit is a good place to start, which is essentially what "The Corporation" aims for and succeeds at spectacularly. Perhaps now my employment with Gap can be reconciled with my support for WUSC, either as a necessary evil required to propel me in the right direction (an entirely cynical point of view), or an informed investment and affirmation of my faith that a corporation with its share of good qualities can do good without devious ulterior motives, provided conscientious people work there.

(The Corporation is available on DVD and may be rented from Spin It Video located at 15 Lewis St., Moncton.)

Directed by Michael Hurst
Written by Michael Hurst, Mark A. Altman
Starring Christine Taylor, Shane Brolly, Jerry O'Connell
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Country: USA
Runtime: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: No MPAA Rating

Evaluation: 3.5/10
by Greg Ferguson








Room 6 was recommended to me on the premise that if I liked the film Jacob's Ladder then I would be sure to like this. Not having seen it yet, I wasn't aware of the hidden premise behind this charitable act: that I enjoy seeing the same movies over and over again, but with different settings and actors. I don't, although that seems to be the popular trend these days amongst many moviegoers. Of course, I don't mean to disparage all remakes and updates, discounting them outright; only when they are misbegotten clunkers or lazily-executed cash-ins does my critical skin toughen and every impulse of mine recoil in disdain. Writer/director Michael Hurst's bastardization of Jacob's Ladder, a film much-beloved by me, triggered my "Oh no he did-un't" alarm. Removed of its socio-political underpinnings and urgent metaphysical rigeur, Adrian Lyne's classic has been interpolated as a limp paranormal abduction thriller involving demons with no purpose and redemption with no cause.

In a bold and shocking move, the protagonist this time has been changed from a male to a female (gasp!). Her name is Amy (Christine Taylor) and she's an unwed elementary school teacher who lives with her boyfriend, Nick (Shane Brolly). They've been dating for ages and he figures it's time to propose, and when he does it is so spectacularly half-baked and unflattering that the poor girl can't bring herself to accept. Naturally, this singular act of desperate self-preservation, more than the opening dream sequence of her paralytically splayed on a hospital gurney awaiting unwanted surgery, immediately signals that Something Bad is going to happen that will make her wish she had said "yes" instead. Indeed, as the ensuing series of events cascades like overflowing water from a neglected faucet, Amy and Nick are involved in a calamitous intersection car accident with a young man named Lucas (Jerry O'Connell) and his sister after Nick stupidly takes his eyes off the road to argue with her face-to-face (what a winner....). Fortune smiles on Amy (my sentiment) when paramedics arrive on the scene and whisk Nick off to an unspecified hospital in what basically amounts to a kidnapping, but unfortunately she doesn't share my feelings about her newfound opportunity to be rid of him and instead decides to partner up with Lucas to find him. What's more is Amy has a peculiar student (Chloe Moretz) who's been drawing some very provocative artwork that suggests she has a connection to Nick's captors and Amy's bad dreams. That this kid knows so much and is in a position to help is more silly than eerie or prescient, although I take some solace in the fact that she a) did not vomit pea soup (The Exorcist), b) perform random acts of martial arts and prattle on about pancakes (Cabin Fever), or c) was not replaced by the insufferable Cameron Bright. I suppose it was too much to ask that she didn't see dead people.

As a horror film, Room 6 is so tepid and obvious that none of its tactics are scary or jumpy. Everything that was disturbing, wrenching, and poignant about Jacob's Ladder has been excised and deemed unnecessary, inexplicably. With a missing boyfriend who's too much of a dolt to care about seeing rescued and so many typical horror/thriller contrivances exploited without style, flair, or vision, Michael Hurst and co-writer Mark A. Altman have bowdlerized a superior film for... what end? Really, for what other reason was this film made but to shallowly make money? Conversely, it follows that there is no reason to bother seeing this film unless you feel like giving your money away.

(Room 6 is available on DVD.)