No.184 : The Decline (2020)

The Decline at the IMDb

Like our previous film ‘The Objective’ this film also has a group of people who are gradually whittled down by a relentless killer, but that’s where the similarities end, as this one was quite good.

Made by Netflix, the film is French/Canadian and the version I watched had dubbing that would make a porno blush. I think you can watch it in the original French and view the subtitles if your O'level language skills are lacking, and that would present the film at its best. I watched it dubbed with sub-titles and it was strange that barely a line of dialogue matched the words spelled out below.

Anyway, we open with people looking over a dead body wrapped in a bloody sheet and we wonder how we got here - well you’ll need to wait 34 minutes before you catch up. We meet Antoine who, in Chas Tenenbaum style, rouses his family in the night and evacuates them from the city. We learn that it was just a drill and that the next time his daughter’s turtle is getting left behind. Antoine worries about social decay and feels that things will kick off soon. He preps his family by watching Youtube videos of a Ray Mears style outdoorsman who gives handy tips on preserving rice and bush craft.

Things get moving when Antoine is invited to a survival camp hosted in the wilderness, by his hero. Things start off OK, with some rabbit skinning and dish washing, but we start to wonder the agenda when the arts and crafts lesson turns to pipe bomb manufacturing and the conversation to immigrants with machetes. Clearly our man is a nutter, but before the visitors can make their excuses and leave, one of them is blown up and killed by a home made bomb.

Our previously counter culture visitors agree that they should really be calling the cops, but the survival nut host, Alain, says no and  starts to burn the body. Protests from the group see one shot in the leg and another three, flee into the woods where we know plenty of traps lie in wait. Alain teams up with return guest and fellow mentalist David, and the hunt is on.

Who will survive? Will it be family man Antoine whom we have invested in or maybe the military woman whom we know is good at wrestling moves? Surely not the shot woman tied to the table?

Despite the poor dubbing I really liked this film and it kept a heady pace throughout. It’s hard to comment on the acting, as the dubbing took so much away from the performances, but it was likeable and believable group of characters. I liked how they all started out as survivalists fearing ‘the man’ only to have to re-examine their positions once things went out of their comfort zone.

It was good that it was quickly whittled down to a two versus two scenario and there were a few surprises to keep you guessing. The deaths were all visceral with plenty of blood being splattered across the fresh snow. Of course, you will have seen a survival horror along these lines before, but there were enough fresh elements and twists here to keep me engaged.

I’m not sure why it was called ‘The Decline’ - a decline in society? Declining numbers of survivors? Probably lost in translation. At only 85 minutes this is a quick thrill and definitely one to spend some of your Nexflix time on.

THE Tag Line : Survive This!  75%

No.82 : The Arrow (1997)

The Arrow at the IMDb

Sorry fans of verdant archers this one is about the development of a Canadian plane, but hang about there maybe some bow work later (there won’t).

This film was originally a 4 part mini-series and one of the most watched TV shows in Canadian TV history - presumably ‘Moose Hunting Hour’ was cancelled that week. The version I saw was a pared down 90 minutes and although it was passable, I was in no way inclined to seek out the 4 hour cut.

The film concerns the ‘Avro Arrow’ a fighter plane developed in Canada in the 1950’s. The plane is the veritable bee’s knees but every engineering triumph is offset by bungling bosses, conniving politicians and Dan Aykroyd’s love of the bottle.

The cut I saw bypassed much of the initial development and largely focused on the testing and attempted selling of the jet, whose manufacturer at the time was the third biggest employer in Canada; behind the hockey stick and lumberjack industries.

The characters are largely based on real people, who are profiled at the end, as well as some composite characters made up to represent some of the contributions from minority groups such as ‘all the women’. The first drama concerns the go-getting pilot who is usurped from the inaugural flights by a ‘celebrity’ flyboy whose endorsement will sell the plane. The initial numbers are good but Elwood Blues is keen to hold back until his own engine is online, less the glory goes to the American engine maker he’s currently using.

This turns out to the first of many missteps from the Blues Brother as other vested interests such as the dad out of ‘The Sound of Music’ and the always great Michael Ironside start to spread gossip about our favourite plane. With terrible timing Dan’s wife does a bunk and the bevvied bluesman soon starts to make a tit of himself with the Canadian Prime Minister, no less.

Pretty soon, despite breaking all the records, the axe falls on the Arrow and we have to worry if some made up stuff will save the Arrow from the scrap yard as the film veers from docu-drama to fantasy at MACH 3.

‘The Arrow’ was an OK effort but it’s agenda was plain to see and the bad guys were thinly painted as moustache twirling idiots while the airmen were all solid square jaw types. The attempts to show the American aviation industry as villains for pushing their own agenda was ridiculous as was the actions of Aykroyd and the Canadian PM who couldn’t have been more broadly drawn if they’d resurrected Laurel & Hardy for the roles.

The film also displayed a lack of budget and indeed imagination as archive news footage was intercut with shot film on a totally different stock, that obviously didn’t match up. The vital flight shots were also poor with some obvious model work and again old footage showing the ill-fated fighter in the air This is understandable given the fate of the planes, but it certainly takes you out of the fantasy when you are trying to see the strings.

The acting was ropey throughout with Aykroyd’s dipsomaniac draughtsman the worst, although he had some awful dialogue to contend with. The tacked on ‘will they, won’t they’ romance was totally without chemistry and the weasely politicians might as well had had Hitler moustaches given their depth and downright evil self-interest.

Overall I quite like the dreamy aspirations of ‘The Arrow’ but as a real world tale it didn’t take off for me and its simplistic view of economics and politics made this one for an early ditching at sea.

THE Tag Line : Plane Game Pain Gives Viewer Lame Brain
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