幻影

　　父親與少年關系生疏，兩人決定以一次狩獵之行緩釋心結，然而深藏在森林中的灰熊，卻早已為他們埋下了生存危機。

　　這部動作片講述了尼克 (Casper Van Dien) 和里克 (Sean Patrick Flanery) 這對昔日搭檔的故事。他們曾是無堅不摧的殺手，直到尼克睡了里克的女朋友。多年后，一位新犯罪頭目桑尼·吉爾 (Parmish Verma) 崛起，主宰了他們的犯罪世界。他們以前的老大說服他們放下恩怨，再次聯(lián)手完成一樁任務，酬金為 500 萬美元。盡管過去有嫌隙，為了拿到報酬，他們還是暫時擱置了分歧。然而，如果他們不想先死于內斗，就必須控制好自己的情緒。

富豪私人派對上，一對男女忘我炒熱氣氛，只要金主敢玩，他們十倍奉還。白天，兩人棲居小公寓照料幼子，她靠教舞維生，他則是潦倒音樂家。然而，手機里傳來的加沙煉獄景象使他們焦慮，周遭人們卻歡慶著血流成河，他們?yōu)榱藴仫?，繼續(xù)出賣靈魂。某夜，他收到酬勞可觀的邀約，卻必須將金主寫下的魔鬼詩篇譜成新國歌。為了五斗米，他決定深入國族的集體創(chuàng)傷，尋找主旋律。

　　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.