拉拉木兰

　　晴朗的一天，三年前痛失男友的珍娜（丝柯·泰勒-考普顿 Scout Taylor-Compton 饰）与好友瑞妮（克里斯蒂娜·尤罗尔 Christina Ulloa 饰）、迈克（迈克尔·科彭 Michael Copon 饰）以及新结识的帅气青年伊安（特拉维斯·范·文克 Travis Van Winkle 饰）前往某个乡村，参加当地举行的五月节。湖畔小屋，笑语欢歌，青年男女们纵情欢乐，只有珍娜强颜欢笑，似乎久久无法从三年前的惨剧中走出。随着夜幕降临，四人走入桑拿室，体会无上的蒸汽享受，而危机也正一步步向他们迫近。在此期间，迈克和瑞妮突然爆发争吵，前者夺门而出，大发雷霆，而瑞妮和珍娜、伊安稍后却发现，他们三人却被意外锁在桑拿室中。　　温度逐渐升高，而死神的脚步越来越近……

　　23世纪中叶，地球已进入全面崩溃的阶段，战争和传染病让这颗原本美丽的蓝色星球破烂不堪，人类被迫离开赖以生存的家园，远赴外太空寻找新的栖息地。凭借TSA先进的技术，木卫五成为充满希望的新兴乐土。在此之后，大批地球人乘坐飞船前往木卫五，地球逐渐被人遗忘。　　然而就在此时，不断有人起来反抗，声称要推翻TSA利用机器对人类的麻醉和统治，并据此不断向空间站发起恐怖袭击。美丽的劳拉·波特曼博士（Anna-Katharina Schwabroh 饰）随一艘货船前去空间站看望亲人。在长达4个月的旅途中，大部分人需进入睡眠状态。劳拉担任了值班的任务，然而在这静寂的飞船里，似乎有其他人在暗中窥视着她。一桩桩阴谋渐渐浮出水面……

　　The bizarre and mysterious suicide of the Wendolyn’s patriarch brings the dysfunctional, pharma family back together. While the family members squabble over their dwindling inheritance, an ancient curse preys on their greed and arrogance. The Wendolyn’s made billions on painkillers, but no drug can kill the pain that they’ll soon endure.

　　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.