COMACC Cage Match: Teeth

Which came first; the chicken or the egg, DNA or protein, the COMACC Cage Match or the initial reaction to a specific film? Well, at least one of those questions is easy to answer. Obviously you can’t have a cage match without first knowing your response to a film. That didn’t stop COMACC writers Dave and Ashleigh from trying. Which leads us to a new conundrum; how do you orchestrate a cage match if both combatants feel the same about the subject matter? Well, in order to rightfully followup COMACC’s groundbreaking and wildly influential inaugural cage match, we’ve decided to approach our latest topic, the horror/comedy Teeth, with a slightly different purpose. Rather than attempt to determine whether the film is good or bad (I think we can both agree it was severely flawed), we’ll be tackling the subject of gender roles in films and, somewhat foolishly, the concept of cinematic romance as a way of determining whether Teeth‘s intentions were worthwhile or not. So, in a way, this cage match isn’t so much a battle of egos, but a battle of sexes and I’m sad to say that the outcome will once and for all determine which is the greater sex (and no, the release of the Sex and the City movie cannot reverse the results).

The War on Terror Just Got a Bit More Terrifying

From the “better late than never” file, hey, we’re at war! We should make some films about it!

After years of workmanlike to middling to non-existent cinematic responses to the “war on terror” and the (entirely separate and mostly unrelated) war in Iraq, 2008 is finally seeing some more adventurous films on those subjects. There are, of course, some traditional films, including the soldiers’ stories of Stop Loss and Errol Morris’ Abu Ghraib documentary Standard Operating Procedure.

But there’s also Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, a stoner comedy that has been polarizing critics with its political (or apolitical?) message. Super Size Me director and star Morgan Spurlock, who has a knack for clever film names, has returned with Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? and intends to answer just that question. Bulletproof Salesman, a documentary, is entirely devoted to a war profiteer selling armored cars to international forces in Iraq.

Regardless of their formats or politics, none of these films could easily be dismissed as cookie cutter approaches to the United States’ overseas conflicts. But one of the most distinctive yet may still be The Objective. It deals with a small Special Forces group that heads into the Afghan mountains and find that there are more than just Taliban hooligans waiting for them. More, as in freaky supernatural goings-on.