Netflix Instant Watch Review of "4 Life"

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you another installment of the Unfresh Feeling's ongoing series of Netflix Instant Queue reviews. For the newbies out there, these postings are a service I provide to you where I choose an obscure movie (often either foreign, independent or straight-to-DVD) and basically tell you how fucked up you would have to be to enjoy it.

This week's movie is called 4 Life, a gangsta flick set in Baltimore. The plot (a word used very generously in this case) is about a feud between the two shot callers of a drug gang (I assume they are involved with drug sales, but the movie doesn't actually show any drugs nor does it make any direct reference to the source of the gang's income) called Dogs 4 Life (some of the characters pronounce is 'Duggs' for Life, which is funny to me because I live in Baltimore, but probably just confused viewers outside the 410 area code).

The reason I decided to watch this movie, aside from the fact that it is set in my hometown, is because it stars several veterans of The Wire. (Aside from sharing several of the same actors, 4 Life features plenty of those obligatory wide angle, panning west to east, transitional shots of the inner harbor and downtown skyline that cut to gritty Westside street corners that David Simon's team perfected. In 4 Life they just look low rent.) Wood Harris, who, so adeptly, played Avon Barksdale in The Wire portrays Davon in 4 Life. Davon wants to get out of the game, but his incarcerated partner Ty, played by Page Kennedy (most famous from his role as U-Turn on Weeds), won't let him for reasons that are very unclear. When Ty makes a preemptive strike against Davon from prison, Davon enlists the help of J.D. Williams, Bodie from The Wire, to exact revenge.

Unfortunately, casting alone could not save this piece of crap. The plot makes no sense, the characters are flat and when they start dying it is unclear how the viewer should feel about it. The dialog is terrible, which is the most disappointing thing of all. Typically, in these "urban" genre movies you can at least count on some hilarious dialog. Think the "Pen Gun Scene" from Thicker Than Water or the "What Hand You Roll Up Wit' Scene" from State Property or pretty much any scene from the hood classic Choices. The only relatively funny line is when Ty vents to his cellmate about Davon, complaining that Davon "aint from the block, the nigga is from Randallstown!" which is funny to me, but probably not anyone who has never heard of Randallstown (which is pretty much everyone not from Maryland).

Final Verdict:
From just looking the cast, the synopsis and the picture of the movie shown on Netflix, choosing to watch this movie is a no-brainer. I would decided to watch it sober. Actually enjoying the movie once it starts is a whole other story. To enjoy 4 Life, you need something a little stronger than the normal chronic and alcohol combination I typically recommend. To make it through this movie, I suggest at least 30 mils of an opioid painkiller or like 2 or 3 Ambien.

Netflix Watch Instantly Column #1

This is the first installment of an ongoing column dedicated to reviewing and recommending the "Watch Instantly" movies on Netflix. Anyone with a Netflix subscription is familiar with the type of movies found in this category. They are typically older classics (Die Hard, Terminator, The Big Lebowski), low budget independent films, bizarre horror movies, foreign films, and genuine crap. I have Monday's off from work, so I usually spend most of the day sitting around waiting for other people to get home. To kill time I like to choose a movie from this Netflix Watch Instantly list. I will rate these movies using a scale that is based on two factors: how bored you would have to be to decide to watch the movie and how high you would have to be to actually enjoy the movie. Without further adieu, here is the first inaugural Neflix Watch Instantly Review.

Fetching Cody

I selected this particular film because it stars Jay Baruchel, an alumnus of Undeclared, one of my favorite TV shows. (Apparently Jay is a pretty recognizable star in Canada. Unfortunately, the only American movie I can remember him being in was Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, where he just had a bit part.)

Fetching Cody is essentially a love story about two drug addicted street kids on Vancouver's East Side. This setting plays a prominent role in the cinematography of the film. There are a lot of shots of abandoned buildings and gritty streetscapes. I had no idea that Canadian ghettos existed, but apparently they do. The film is a fairy-tale of sorts, so there is very little gratuitous sex, violence or drug use, despite repeated reference to all three.

The film opens with a shot of Art (Baruchel) and his girlfriend Cody riding his bike around the slums making small talk with the local homeless people, trannies and drug pushers. Soon the couple part ways as Cody hops into a passing truck, presumably to turn a trick. Later that evening, Art climbs through the window of Cody's one-room apartment and finds her in a coma with a syringe and a bent spoon laying next to her. This is where things begin to get bizarre.

Cody is taken to the hospital, where Art is informed that she is suffering from kidney failure. It is made clear that this failure is a result of years of abuse and not simply an overdose (a fairly important distinction later in the movie). Dazed and with nowhere to go, Art stumbles into a bar where he meets Harvey, an older homeless man. Harvey tells Art that he has a warm and dry place for him to stay the night in an abandoned warehouse or factory of some sort. Inside the place Art finds an old recliner, wrapped in Christmas lights. He soon discovers that this chair is a time machine and he is determined to use it to go back in time to keep Cody safe and healthy.

This film immediately brings to mind The Butterfly Effect. The similarities are countless. Much like Ashton Kutcher's character in Butterfly, Art discovers dark secrets about his lover and realizes that is impossible to change the past without completely altering the present. The writer/director of Fetching Cody claims that he started writing the story years before Butterfly was released, but who really cares? So what that the movies are similar?

While The Butterfly Effect attempts to explain and rationalize the time travel, Fetching Cody, to its credit, doesn't bother. The movie is a fairy tale (and its knows it) and as such does not insult the viewers intelligence by attempting to make the supernatural elements of the story realistic.

Without giving too much of the ending away, the point of the movie is to demonstrate the fact that sometimes in order to save the people you love, sometimes you have let them go (If you love something, set it free). I really enjoyed the movie on both an emotional and aesthetic level. While Baruchel is way too clean and well put together to be believable as a drug addled homeless person, he is extremely convincing as a guy who just wants his girl back. And after sitting at home alone all day long waiting for my girl to get home, I could relate.

Boredom Rating: Familiarity with star, plus plot based on drug use and time travel, equals a movie I would watch even if I wasn't bored.
Intoxication Rating: Half a joint. Not necessary, but certainly helpful.