下流工作

　　CW•布里格斯（伍迪•艾伦饰）是20世纪40年代美国纽约著名的北海岸保险公司的最出色的保险调查员，他的拿手绝活是能窥探犯人心中所想，从而轻而易举地破案。自从老板请来了“效率专家”贝蒂，这一切就改变了。贝蒂新官上任，带来新的策划新的管理方式，布里格斯成为被开刀的第一人。二人之间火药味甚浓。在同事乔治的生日会上，他俩被魔术师叫上台，在玉蝎子的魔力下，二人被催眠，醒来后对刚才发生的事一无所知。　　之后城内接二连三发生珠宝盗窃事件，而被窃珠宝的报警装置是布里格斯亲手设置的，没有他是不可能破开的。在调查案件中，肯辛顿家的尤物女儿（查理•塞隆饰）主动约他约会，他怀疑她的动机。而贝蒂请来侦探协助他调查让他更为不快。　　贝蒂是上司的情人，因为老板迟迟不肯跟妻子离婚而倍感伤心。神使鬼差走到了布里格斯家跟他倾诉，布里格斯怀疑是贝蒂泄漏了公司机密，随后贝蒂对他的示爱更令他加深怀疑。　　要在一系列欢笑嬉闹中，最后才想起一切缘自当初的那个玉蝎子的魔法，这些盗窃案最后还撮合了一对天作之合。

　　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.

在一场毁灭性的飓风中，一个沿海小镇正奋力对抗大自然的愤怒以及鲨鱼的袭击。在倾盆大雨、飞散的残骸和伸手不见五指的黑暗中，他们团结一心，勇敢面对致命的掠食者，努力在风暴中生存下来。

　　小有名气的惊悚小说作家苔丝·索恩（玛丽亚·贝罗 Maria Bello 饰）受邀去某地进行演讲，人生地不熟的她迷失方向，汽车还在某个根本没有手机信号的地方爆胎。当她手足无措的时候，孔武健壮的卡车司机（威尔·哈里斯 Will Harris 饰）出现答应帮她更换轮胎，然而这个暴徒见色起意，对苔丝进行了残酷的虐待，还把她丢在了一个浸泡着三四具女性尸体的坑道中。侥幸逃命的苔丝一路跌跌撞撞回到家中，她曾尝试报警，却最终三缄其口。在接下来的日子里，苔丝从混乱中理清头绪，她决定用自己的方式向那只禽兽展开报复……　　本片根据斯蒂芬·金的短篇小说改编。

　　Olivia and The Clouds explores love's complexities through a Rashomon effect. Olivia, haunted by a past love, hides it under her bed. She trades flowers with this ghost in exchange for comforting rain clouds.

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