The first good film *about* postmodernism - funny as hell, and cleverer than 'Foucault's Pendulum'.

Rating: Null/10 (7 May 2004)

There are 2 kinds of people who'll understand this film.
1-) Sane, unpretentious people with real lives who understand that most people go to the cinema *to be amused*. The kind of person who enjoys early Jackie Chan films.
If you're one of these people you can stop reading now, just go and watch Van Helsing - it's like 2 hours of watching early bugs bunny cartoons, it's fun and it's a damn sight smarter than anything you can read in a college text book.
2-) Really, really pretentious people like me who have seen all the old films this references, and have read the extraordinary league of gentlemen, and borges, and various bluffer's guides to beaudrillard (post matrix, obviously).
The only people who *won't* like this film are wannabe-intellectuals who HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOUR.
Attacking this film for its vacuity is exactly the same as attacking 'Airplane' for being unrealistic. It's a silly thing to say.
Despite the fact that every second of this film involves a blatant pastiche, it is not simply some lame 'Scream' stylee postmodern film - *it is a postmodern film ABOUT postmodernism*. And a very, very witty and erudite one: frankenstein's creature QUOTES NIETZSCHE to the slayer-hero for heaven's sake {it should be obvious which famous quote he says... See? it's funny AND smart}
The use of Mr Hyde, stolen straight from 'the league'?
Well, that's not the real trope being referenced in that scene.
The real reference is to Alan Moore's trope of overt misappropriation of tropes (in this case Hyde is the hunchback of notre dame, in the same way that in extraordinary league volume 2 Dr Moreau kills the Martians).
The whole film is a set of arch references to the very idea of arch referencing, which is, from a pretentious theory point of view, a lot more interesting than the usual arch references to other arch references.
This film is a master piece. There's a conversation in it that goes something like this:
"How did your father try to find Dracula's lair?"
"He spent years staring and staring at the map..."
That would be Borges' map they're talking about.
If you do not like this film, you are wrong, and not as smart as you think you are.