Bad Asses (2014)

31 Saturday May 2014

Tags

Action, Andrew Divoff, Comedy, Craig Moss, Danny Glover, Danny Trejo, Drugs, Fanny pack, Frank Vega, Ice pick, Review, Vigilante pensioner

aka Bad Ass 2: Bad Asses

D: Craig Moss / 91m

Cast: Danny Trejo, Danny Glover, Andrew Divoff, Jacqueline Obradors, Ignacio Serricchio, Melany Ochoa, Patrick Fabian, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Jonathan Lipnicki, Leon Thomas III

Three years on from the events of Bad Ass (2012), Frank Vega (Trejo) is mentoring young boxers at a community centre. One of his young proteges, Manny Parkes (Valdez), is poised to turn professional but has gotten mixed up with a drug dealer called Adolfo (Serricchio). Manny steals from Adolfo and is killed in retaliation. At first Frank leaves it to the police to investigate Manny’s murder, but when Manny’s mother, Rosaria (Obradors) asks him to look into it the obligation he feels convinces him. Suspecting another of the young boxers at his gym must know something, he trails them to an apartment block where the young boxer, Tucson (Thomas III), collects a packet of drugs from one of the rooms. Frank busts down the door, beats up the muscle, and burns the drugs.

Frank lives next door to a convenience store run by Bernie Pope (Glover), a grumpy old man with a serious liver problem that has left him with around six months to live. When Frank is ambushed by some of Adolfo’s goons, Bernie comes to his aid. Frank tortures one of the goons and learns about Adolfo’s involvement; hearing about Manny, Bernie offers to help. Despite warnings from Officer Malark (Fabian), Frank and Bernie track down a lead that takes them to a frat house and another of Adolfo’s street dealers, Hammer (Lipnicki). Hammer, encouraged by having a fan pressed against a tender part of his anatomy, tells Frank where Adolfo lives. Frank goes there and confronts Adolfo who ends up with an ice pick in his right eye; he also tells Frank that it was his father, an Argentinian diplomat called Leandro (Divoff) who ordered the hit on Manny. Frank and Bernie carry out a citizen’s arrest on Leandro but his diplomatic immunity means he’s released the same day.

Following Leandro’s release, Frank and Bernie trail him to a meat packing plant where they find out how the drugs are being smuggled into the country. They are captured, and Leandro tells Frank that he’s going to retaliate for Adolfo’s losing an eye by taking Rosario and her daughter, Julia (Ochoa), away from him. Frank and Bernie escape but are too late to stop Adolfo from kidnapping Rosario…

As a low budget follow-up to an equally low budget original, Bad Asses retains the first movie’s sense of its own absurdity and refuses to take itself seriously, eliciting groans throughout and an equal measure of affection. Both movies are cut from the same template, with an Eighties action vibe that is reflected in the fight sequences and the way in which the script connects scenes with only the merest nod to logical continuity. It’s easy to criticise a movie like Bad Asses but it’s mostly a pastiche of the kinds of movies that starred Chuck Norris or Michael Dudikoff, unrepentant in its paper-thin characterisations and their flimsy motivations, the meagre plotting, the dreadful picture car filming, the perfunctory nod to a romantic angle for the main character, and a villain who is both suave and slimy at the same time. And all wrapped up with a knowing, almost winking at the camera kind of humour that offsets the predictable nature of the script and stops the movie from being completely ridiculous.

Thanks to returning director Moss and his star, Bad Asses works for the most part and is genuinely entertaining. Watching Trejo and Glover riffing off each other is great fun, and even if they are “too old for this shit” their obvious enjoyment at working together boosts the movie immeasurably. The retooling of the plot of Lethal Weapon 2 isn’t as off-putting as it might seem, and while some moments seem misguided or out of place – Bernie chatting up a young girl who’s only wearing her underwear, Adolfo surviving having the ice pick go through his eye and into his brain, Frank taking out a helicopter with a grenade flung from a moving car – the good will the rest of the movie engenders allows these moments the equivalent of a free pass. (Even so, it’s inevitable the movie will have its naysayers but they won’t be picking up on the clear love of the genre the filmmakers have, and the necessity of embracing its faults as well as its good points.)

Rating: 6/10 – with Bad Ass 3 already in the can (and reuniting Moss, Trejo and Glover), Bad Asses is an unexpectedly enjoyable second outing for the vigilante pensioner; funny, derivative, good-natured, improbable, knowing, problematic – the movie is all these and more, and proof that some movies can be all the better for being uneven… but only when that was the intention.

Dr. Jekyll and His Women (1981)

30 Friday May 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Chemical bath, Dinner party, Dr Jekyll, Giant phallus, Howard Vernon, Marina Pierro, Miss Osbourne, Mr Hyde, Patrick Magee, Review, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sadism, Sex, Udo Kier, Walerian Borowczyk

Original title: Docteur Jekyll et les femmes

aka: Bloodbath of Doctor Jekyll; The Blood of Dr. Jekyll; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne

D: Walerian Borowczyk / 92m

Cast: Udo Kier, Marina Pierro, Patrick Magee, Gérard Zalcberg, Howard Vernon, Clément Harari, Gisèle Préville

A rarely seen outing from late in Borwoczyk’s oeuvre, Dr. Jekyll and His Women, an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, is in many ways a typical Borowczyk movie, heavy on the production design and shot using an array of filters, with a loud soundtrack punctuated throughout by repetitive shouts and screams, and brief forays into the kind of erotica that now looks merely quaint instead of shocking.

Centred around a dinner party to announce the engagement of Henry Jekyll (Kier) to Fanny Osbourne (Pierro), the various guests – including a general (Magee) and his daughter, a doctor, Lanyon (Vernon), and the reverend Regan (Harari) – and staff, find themselves at the mercy of a sadistic maniac who calls himself Edward Hyde (Zalcberg). Hyde is the result of Jekyll’s immersion in a chemical bath; this allows the mild-mannered doctor to express the darker, more rapacious side of his nature. With the guests being attacked and/or abused by Hyde – in one scene he bends the general’s daughter over a gramophone and rapes her, displaying one of Borowczyk’s trademark large phalluses – a state of siege is soon in place, with Dr Lanyon attempting to take charge. When Hyde sodomises another guest, a young man, it becomes clear he really has no qualms about his behaviour, and the remaining guests redouble their efforts to stop him.

Of course, Jekyll is absent throughout all this, but when the effects of the chemical bath wear off, he returns to his guests to find one of the staff has been killed etc., but instead of helping he returns to his laboratory to immerse himself yet again in the chemical bath. However, Fanny, who has been looking for him, sees Henry transform into Hyde. She tries to convince Henry that he can overcome his baser instincts, but Hyde shoots her with an arrow, wounding her. Hyde kills the general and his daughter before being held at gunpoint by Dr Lanyon. Hyde avoids being killed by convincing the doctor to give him a medicine called Sokilor. He takes the medicine and reverts back to Henry Jekyll. When Henry gets back to the laboratory he finds the wounded Fanny. She attempts to get into the chemical bath but Henry is too weak to stop her, despite her injury. Revitalised, she entreats Henry to join her in casting off their inhibitions once and for all.

Borowczyk would only make three more movies after this one – including the execrable Emmanuelle V (1987), which he disowned – but this is generally regarded as the last flourish of a director whose ability to create a dreamlike world not so far removed from our own was a testament to his ingenuity as a director and his beginnings as a painter. No matter what else you might say about Borowczyk’s movies, they always looked good, and Dr. Jekyll and His Women is no exception, its darkened rooms and authentic-looking Victorian set design adding to the tense atmosphere created by Hyde’s attacks. When Jekyll’s alter ego vents his anger on inanimate objects, often smashing them repeatedly, Borowczyk keeps the camera on the objects for longer than necessary, highlighting the mundane and the banal ephemera of Jekyll’s life, and showing Hyde’s disdain for it all. It’s another form of transformation, and entirely in keeping with Hyde’s hatred of the world he finds himself in.

Focusing the events of Stevenson’s novella into a period of one night obviously means that much is overlooked in the adaptation, but there’s enough here to lay claim to a greater fidelity than some other cinematic versions of the story. The idea of the chemical bath is neither a plus or a minus in terms of the rest of the movie (and watching Kier and Pierro writhe around in the water is more amusing than chilling), but Hyde’s murderous impulses are effectively portrayed by the eyebrow-less Zalcberg, making Borowczyk’s decision to cast separate actors in the two main roles an inspired one. Kier brings a nervous intensity to the role of Jekyll, while Pierro, a Borowczyk regular, gives one of her best performances. Sadly, Magee looks drunk throughout, though b-movie veteran Vernon is as capable as ever, lending his customary commitment to the kind of role that has ‘generic’ written all over it.

Borowczyk exploits the vagaries of his own script – Jekyll’s house seems impossibly huge, Jekyll’s mother (Préville) is forced to play the piano by Hyde but continues to do so after he’s left the room – to add to the sense of increasing dread, and he’s aided by a formidable score by Bernard Parmeggiani that effortlessly complements the horror that’s unfolding. However, the movie isn’t as carefully assembled as it should be, and Khadicha Bariha’s editing often stifles the flow of a scene, leaving the viewer adrift in a sea of disconnected images and shots, and undermining the sterling work of cinematographer Noël Véry. And the so-called sleaze – so tame now by today’s standards – is a minor distraction at best, although the sight of the general flogging his daughter’s bare behind is still unsettling on so many levels.

Rating: 7/10 – much better than it appears to be on face value, Dr. Jekyll and His Women is a hybrid horror/romantic drama with occasional sexual and comedic overtones; that it works so well is due to Borowczyk’s unique style and a commitment to the material that makes for an invigorating, often jarring version of Stevenson’s classic tale.

Wicked Blood (2014)

28 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Abigail Breslin, Alexa Vega, Chess, Crime, Delivering drugs, Down South, Drama, Drugs, Jake Busey, James Purefoy, Lew Temple, Mark H. Young, Review, Sean Bean

aka Bad Blood

D: Mark H. Young / 92m

Cast: Abigail Breslin, Sean Bean, James Purefoy, Alexa Vega, Lew Temple, Jake Busey, Jody Quigley

Hannah Lee Baker (Breslin) and her sister Amber (Vega) live in a small Southern town. Both their parents are dead and they live with their uncle Donny (Temple). Hannah is something of a chess prodigy and views the world around her in terms of a tournament match, with the pieces on the board representing the people she interacts with. The king is her uncle Frank (Bean), the local crime boss. After receiving a threatening visit from the FBI about Frank, she hatches a plan to leave town and take her sister and Donny with her. She approaches Frank and asks for a job making drug deliveries at $20 a time. He agrees to the job but gives her only $10 a time. Picking up the drugs from the trailer where Donny cooks it, her first delivery is to biker Bill Owens (Purefoy), a meth dealer who acts as Frank’s distributor; unknown to Hannah, Bill has begun seeing Amber.

When some of the drugs Bill has been distributing prove to be cut with vitamins, he tells Frank about it and asks for compensation. When Frank refuses to pay, an argument breaks out between Bill’s buddy Jackson (Quigley) and Frank’s brother Bobby (Busey). Bobby is keen to hit back at Bill and Jackson for their being disrespectful but Frank needs Bill to continue distributing his meth. Nevertheless, Bobby kills Jackson and another of Bill’s associates, but Bill doesn’t retaliate. He tells Hannah (who he’s now befriended) that he doesn’t want a war. He’s also fallen in love with Amber and doesn’t want to jeopardise his relationship with her. Meanwhile, Hannah is trying to convince Donny to leave with her and Amber but he’s too afraid of what Frank will do if he does; he’s also addicted to the product he makes.

Things are brought to a head when Bobby, who has a crush on Amber, sees her with Bill. One night he goes to collect her at Frank’s request but she refuses to go. When he grabs her she fights back but Bobby overpowers her and beats her half to death before dumping her body outside town. When she wakes up in the hospital, Bobby pays her a visit and threatens to hurt Hannah if Amber says anything. But Hannah guesses the truth and seeks Bill’s help. He refuses to help, leaving Hannah to seek revenge on her own, and set in motion a series of events that will either see her plan come to fruition, or find her dead at the hands of her uncle Frank.

From its low-key opening, with Hannah playing chess against a little boy, to its downbeat ending at the trailer, Wicked Blood is a crime drama that aspires to be something more than just another tale of one person’s determination to break free from hometown ties. Hannah’s need to escape is highlighted by her seriousness: she finds it difficult to find any amusement in life, brushing off the attentions of a skateboarder with undisguised disdain, and being told by Donny that she doesn’t smile anymore. She relies on her plan, adapting it when necessary, refusing to let go of it, or come up with another one. The allusion to chess, that it’s not just a game, the same as Life, is firmly made, and Hannah’s focus is unwavering. It all adds up to a character who is entirely believable, despite her teenage years, and Hannah is ably brought to life by Breslin. It’s a strong performance, utterly credible and a clear indication that Breslin isn’t going to be one of those child actors that doesn’t make the transition to adult roles.

With such a strong central character it would be natural to expect a slight drop-off in the quality of the remaining individuals the movie is concerned with. But thanks to the quality of the script, courtesy of director Young, this isn’t the case. Frank is presented more as a businessman than a crime boss (though these days the two roles aren’t so dissimilar); for most of the movie he sits in a darkened office poring over balance sheets. It’s a given that he’s a hard man, but it’s a subtler performance from Bean that might be expected, and even when the expected outburst of violence occurs towards the movie’s end, it’s a tribute to Young’s script – and Bean as well – that Frank doesn’t just become a psycho with a gun. Equally memorable is Temple’s performance as drug-addled Donny, a man who recognises the dead end his life has become, and who clings to Hannah’s offer of a new life with a mixture of childish hope and diminished longing.

In comparison, Purefoy has the harder task of making Owens’ passivity credible, and it’s not until he makes an unexpected confession to Hannah that his reluctance to engage with Frank is fully understood. It’s a difficult role, and one of the few areas where the script doesn’t entirely convince, but Purefoy is such a good actor that he never quite loses the credibility the character needs. Amber is a secondary character, a little naive but with a good heart even if she and Hannah are at loggerheads like most sisters, and Vega brings a confidence to the role that makes Amber both level-headed and hopelessly romantic at the same time. As Bobby, Busey has the most generic role, that of slow-thinking muscle to Frank’s brains, but imbues the character with a kind of nervous puppy energy that makes Bobby scarily unpredictable.

The small-town milieu is well represented by a handful of recurring locations, and there’s an emotive score courtesy of Elia Cmiral. Young shows a liking for low-level camerawork which allows for several shots to stand out in terms of space and composition, and the violence, when it comes, is almost casually brutal yet effective. All in all, Wicked Blood is a well-paced drama whose only drawbacks are its predictability and its repeated use of chess as a metaphor for life, but thanks to Young’s assured handling of the material as a whole, it remains absorbing and potent throughout.

Rating: 7/10 – a well-worn idea given a spirited interpretation by Young, and bolstered by strong turns from its cast, Wicked Blood has a quiet, slow burn intensity that works well; easy to overlook considering how many other low-key crime dramas are out there, but definitely worth a look, and a rewarding one at that.

Knights of Badassdom (2013)

28 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Comedy, Demons, Fantasy, Gore effects, Horror, Joe Lynch, LARPing, Live action role playing, Peter Dinklage, Review, Ryan Kwanten, Steve Zahn, Summer Glau

D: Joe Lynch / 86m

Cast: Steve Zahn, Ryan Kwanten, Summer Glau, Peter Dinklage, Margarita Levieva, Jimmie Simpson, Brett Gipson, Danny Pudi

When heavy metal loving Joe (Kwanten) is dumped by his girlfriend, Beth (Levieva), his best friends Eric (Zahn) and Hung (Dinklage) try to cheer him up by taking him on a larping weekend. Larping is short for Live Action Role Playing, the province of fantasy game players who want to act out their roles for “real” as well as doing so online. Eric is an enchanter, and has obtained a copy of a rare book said to have been written by Dr John Dee as an attempt to conjure angels but which was subsequently hidden when Dee found he was conjuring demons instead (though Eric thinks it’s just a prop he got off the Internet). Challenged by games organiser Ronny (Simpson) to come up with a casting spell that will allow Eric, Joe and Hung – accompanied by Lando (Pudi), Gwen (Glau) and Gunther (Gipson) – to progress to the games’ next level, they use an incantation from Dee’s book.

Unaware at first that in doing so they’ve raised a succubus – and that it’s taken on the form of Joe’s ex-girlfriend – the three friends and their new companions continue with the games. As the succubus begins killing stray larpers, it’s only when Hung, Ronny and Lando encounter her later that night that anyone becomes aware of what’s happening. She kills Hung and Lando but Ronny runs away; while he tries to find his way back to where the gamers are camped overnight, Joe and Gwen find Hung’s body and are joined by Eric and Gunther. They too try to get back to the campground but they run into the succubus; Eric recites another incantation to try and send it back to hell and the succubus runs off, apparently hurt. When Ronny sees the book he recognises it straight away and is horrified to learn what’s happened, and lambasts Eric for his stupidity, telling him that if he spoke Enochian (the book’s language) he would have known that the incantation wasn’t for sending the succubus back to hell, but for transforming it. Now the succubus is a demon, Abominog, and it’s down to the remaining group to stop it from feeding on the souls of anyone it encounters, and to destroy it.

Originally filmed in 2010, Knights of Badassdom has had a chequered history. A cut of the movie was shown at 2011’s Comic-Con but was held back from distribution by producers IndieVest Pictures (IVP). Rumours that IVP were cutting the movie without Lynch’s involvement were rife, and it seemed that the movie might end up being released in a bowdlerised version, one that didn’t match Lynch’s vision. Eventually a cut of the movie was screened in March 2013 and it was picked up by distributors Entertainment One. How the movie would have turned out without all that having happened we’ll probably never know, but even if Lynch did have a different approach to the one we’re presented with, it’s unlikely it would have saved the movie from being so bad.

The problem, mainly, is the movie’s tone. It wants to be a hip, clever horror comedy in the vein of Evil Dead II (1987), but where that movie was successful in its combination of extravagant, gory horror with laugh-out-loud sardonic humour, Knights of Badassdom is a crude misfire in comparison, providing lame jokes, gags that are shouted for emphasis by its cast, and which relies on Zahn’s intimidated baby face reactions to criticism as a humorous device. There’s also an over-reliance on having the cast speak in mock-Shakespearean English before relapsing back into modern-day slang or swearing; what the movie’s makers have failed to realise is that it’s not even funny once, let alone the numerous times it’s trotted out over eighty-six laborious minutes.

There’s a woeful lack of characterisation as well, with Joe turning out to be one of the blandest heroes to reach our screens, and the rest of the characters are given little to do but run around and shout a lot. Zahn does a watered-down version of his usual comedy schtick, Glau looks pretty but loses out to Levieva as the woman to watch (she gets far more to do as the bloodthirsty succubus), and Kwanten defaults to looking perplexed throughout (as well he might be). Only Dinklage makes an impression, embracing the intrinsic absurdity of getting dressed up and running around in the woods playing fantasy games, and having as much fun as possible; when his character is killed off, his presence is sorely missed.

With an emphasis on the gore that overwhelms the comedy (such as it is), Knights of Badassdom further demonstrates its inability to strike a balance between the two, leaving the viewer to wonder if Kevin Dreyfuss and Matt Wall’s screenplay really was this artless to begin with, or if the rumoured tampering is to blame. Either way, the movie fails on so many levels that by the time Abominog is despatched in a blaze of ill-conceived coloured lighting, the viewer can only heave a sigh of relief that it’s finally over (and for once there’s no hint of a possible sequel).

Rating: 3/10 – pleasingly old school gore effects aside, Knights of Badassdom has so little to recommend it that the viewer could well end up rooting for Abominog in its efforts to feast on the characters; dreadful and dire in equal measure and a warning to anyone trying to make a modern-day horror comedy.

Sabotage (2014)

28 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Action, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Crime, David Ayer, DEA agents, Drugs cartel, Murder, Olivia Williams, Review, Robbery, Sam Worthington, Stolen money

D: David Ayer / 109m

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Olivia Williams, Terrence Howard, Mireille Enos, Joe Manganiello, Harold Perrineau, Josh Holloway, Max Martini, Kevin Vance, Martin Donovan

When a DEA task force led by veteran John “Breacher” Wharton takes down a house used by a Mexican drugs cartel, it becomes clear they have a more primary mission their superiors know nothing about: to steal $10 million of the cartel’s money. Hiding the money in the sewers to be collected later, “Breacher” and his team – “Monster” (Worthington), “Grinder” (Manganiello), “Sugar” (Howard), “Neck” (Holloway), “Pyro” (Martini), “Tripod” (Vance), and Lizzy (Enos) – are soon under investigation by Internal Affairs on suspicion of stealing the money, but when they go to collect it, they find it’s gone. Six months later, and with IA having found no evidence to prove they took the money, “Breacher” and his team are reinstated.

Shortly after, one of the team is killed when his trailer is hit by a train (it was moved onto the tracks while he was unconscious). The death is investigated by Detective Caroline Brentwood (Williams) and her partner Darius Jackson (Perrineau). Attempting to interview the team proves fruitless, and Brentwood enlists “Breacher”‘s help in talking to them. They visit one of the team, only to find he’s been killed as well, and in a way that suggests the Mexican drugs cartel is targeting them in retaliation for stealing the money. They find a third member of the team murdered also, along with clear evidence that he was killed by the cartel, one of whom they find dead nearby. Jackson traces the dead man’s mobile phone to an apartment block; he and Brentwood take a squad there to arrest them but “Breacher” and the remainder of his team get there first and kill the men they find there, only to discover they aren’t the cartel’s hit squad. When the bodies of the cartel hit squad are found a short time after, and it becomes clear they couldn’t have committed the first two murders, “Breacher” realises it’s one of his team that is picking them off one by one.

Things quickly unravel. One of the team tells Brentwood about the money, and is subsequently murdered while talking to her and “Breacher”. With no other possibilities as to the murderer’s identity, “Breacher” agrees to a meeting with them. In the ensuing showdown, the whereabouts of the money is revealed and the motive for its theft becomes clear.

Aiming for the kind of contemporary, gritty, urgent, down and dirty feel achieved in two of Ayer’s other outings as a writer – Training Day (2001) and End of Watch (2012) – Sabotage starts promisingly enough with a well-staged assault on the cartel house but then stumbles badly with its decision to delay the ensuing action for six months. It doesn’t make sense that the cartel would wait that long to make their reprisals, nor that the killer within the team – especially when their motive is revealed – would also wait so long to target their teammates. There’s also the matter of the back story involving “Breacher” that is revealed halfway through, which, once out in the open, muddies the waters even further. With three separate ways of approaching the murders, and the reasons for them, Ayer’s script does its best to keep things as straightforward as possible, but there are too many times when narrative complexity is abandoned for moving the story along quickly to the next action sequence. This leads to some lapses in logic that also weaken proceedings, such as Brentwood jumping into bed with “Breacher” at the drop of a hat, and “Breacher” allowing one of his team to have a drug problem, and there’s an air of convenience throughout.

Continuing his return to the big screen, Schwarzenegger puts in a grizzled performance that still relies on his trademark squint and square-jawed impassivity. He’s the rock that anchors the movie but he doesn’t bring anything new to the table, and coasts on his physical presence, leaving the emoting to the rest of the cast (it’s still good to have him back though). The casting of Williams is an interesting choice but she’s hampered by having to provide “Breacher” with a potential love interest, as well as trying to be a bad-ass detective. From the team, Worthington and Enos fare best, while Holloway, whose career post-Lost seems to consist of uninspiring cameo turns, is forgettable in a role that appears written as one-dimensional. Howard is sidelined for much of the movie, and Perrineau is the kind of peppy partner who’s so annoying you wonder why Brentwood hasn’t already shot him for the peace and quiet.

What hampers the movie most, though, is the curiously flat feel it has. Everything happens at the same pitch, with little or no attempt to make even the action scenes tense or exciting, and the drama is disappointing for being so casually handled. With Ayer’s direction largely AWOL, his and Skip Woods’ script is left to fend for itself, and its limitations are cruelly highlighted as a result. By the time we get to the movie’s epilogue – a long time coming in and of itself – the viewer is left wondering what was the point.

Rating: 5/10 – not quite as terrible as it looks, Sabotage is nevertheless a serious letdown given the talent involved; one for fans of Ah-nold, and best viewed as an undemanding Saturday night/beer and a takeaway movie.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Beast, Bolivar Trask, Bryan Singer, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Magneto, Marvel, Michael Fassbender, Mutants, Patrick Stewart, Professor X, Quicksilver, Review, Sci-fi, Sentinels, Time travel, Wolverine

D: Bryan Singer / 131m

Cast: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Halle Berry, Shawn Ashmore, Evan Peters, Omar Sy, Josh Helman, Mark Camacho

With X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) leaving a sour taste in the mouth after the glories of the first two X-Men movies, and with two subsequent Wolverine adventures proving that even a massive fan favourite doesn’t mean an automatically good movie, the future of the X-Men franchise was looking a little doubtful. With both Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen “getting on a bit”, the decision to revisit Charles Xavier and Eric Lehnsherr in their younger days in X-Men: First Class (2011) was a positive boon for the franchise and one that revitalised what was otherwise a moribund series. Now, with the equivalent of a spring in its step, we have a movie that both acknowledges its predecessors and forges a whole new path for its mutant protagonists.

Opening in the near future, with mutants and mankind alike being targeted for extinction by Sentinels, the world is a wasteland. With the Sentinels able to assimilate whatever mutant powers are pitched against them, a band of mutants including Kitty Pryde (Page), Bishop (Sy) and Iceman (Ashmore) fight a rearguard action against them that sees Professor X’s pupils evade certain death through Kitty’s ability to send a person’s consciousness back in time; this allows the remaining mutants to anticipate a Sentinel attack and flee before it can happen, thus erasing that particular timeline. With the arrival of Professor X (Stewart), Magneto (McKellen), Logan aka Wolverine (Jackman) and Storm (Berry), a last, desperate decision is made to send Wolverine’s consciousness back into his body in 1973, the year the Sentinels were created by industrialist Bolivar Trask (Dinklage). Back then, Trask was assassinated by Raven aka Mystique (Lawrence), which led to her capture and the advancement of the Sentinel programme using her DNA (this enables the Sentinels to assimilate other mutants’ powers). Logan’s mission: to unite the estranged Charles and Erik, track down Raven, and stop her from killing Trask.

Of course, it’s not easy. Since the events of X-Men: First Class, Charles has taken to wallowing in self-pity at the loss of Raven, and has lost his powers thanks to a serum created by Hank McCoy aka Beast (Hoult) that allows him to walk. He agrees to help for Mystique’s sake, though he is unhappy about needing Erik’s help. With the aid of Quicksilver (Peters), they free Erik from a cell beneath the Pentagon and travel to Paris (where Raven is due to kill Trask at a conference). Imitating a Vietnamese officer, Raven infiltrates the conference room where Trask plans to sell his Sentinel technology to the highest bidder. He reveals a hand-held mutant detector that is triggered by Raven’s presence. Hastily despatching the other attendees – including a young William Stryker (Helman) – Raven is stopped from shooting Trask by the arrival of Logan et al. Erik disarms her and then turns the gun on her; aware that her DNA will make the Sentinels an unstoppable force he believes it is better for her to die than to let them become so strong. Raven makes her escape but is wounded in the attempt. Erik tries to follow her but is stopped by Hank who has morphed into his Beast persona. All three are caught on film and the “mutant menace” espoused by Trask is taken up by President Nixon (Camacho) who gives the go ahead to the Sentinel programme.

At a press conference in the grounds of the White House set up to reveal the existence of the Sentinels and their purpose, Raven impersonates a Secret Service agent in order to get to Trask. Now on his own, Erik steals back the helmet that magnifies his powers and uses them to levitate a baseball stadium; he transports it to the press conference and drops it around the White House, effectively sealing it off from the police and everyone else. Charles is trapped under a piece of fallen scaffolding, while Logan and Hank do battle with one of the Sentinels (which are now under Erik’s control). In the future, the Sentinels attack the mutant hideout; casualties mount up as Professor X and Magneto wonder if Logan’s mission will be successful in time. As the future becomes ever bleaker, Erik castigates the President and his staff for their animosity towards mutants, and threatens them with a new world order, with mutants in control. With Logan and Hank unable to stop the Sentinel, and Raven still intent on killing Trask, and Erik about to dispose of Nixon and his staff, in the future the Sentinels breach the mutant hideout and target Magneto and Professor X…

Even at this late stage in the game there’s still more to the story than you’d expect. X-Men: Days of Future Past is a triumph for all concerned, an exciting, often unpredictable addition to the X-Men saga that more than lives up to expectations but also deepens and enriches the story begun in X-Men: First Class. With the stakes upped considerably, and the inclusion of more mutants than have been seen since The Last Stand, the movie seems, at first glance, to be overdoing it, adding too much to the mix for it to be as satisfying or rewarding as it should be (by necessity as much as expediency, some characters have more screen time than others). But thanks to Simon Kinberg’s measured script, the movie glides smoothly along, gaining momentum, adding layer upon layer of meaning, and providing an emotional depth that is missing from most – if not all – other superhero movies.

Largely this is due to the stellar cast, led by McAvoy and Fassbender, two actors who have made their roles their own. Their adversarial friendship is expanded upon here, both characters’ sense of having been betrayed by the other adding a dangerous edge to their scenes together, adding to the tension that develops as the world heads towards oblivion. Both actors give tremendous performances (McAvoy is superb in his opening scenes with Jackman), and the support they receive, notably from Hoult and Jackman, is equally impressive, while Dinklage (sporting a wig and a half) invests Trask with an eerie messianic quality that elevates the character from perfunctory villain to unwavering fear monger. And then there’s Lawrence, endowing Raven/Mystique with a mix of rage, sadness and longed-for redemption that makes her the most intriguing character of all, her dual nature at odds with itself even when fiercely determined to walk her own path. The real surprise, though, is the inclusion of Quicksilver. Peters turns in a funny, smart, freewheeling performance that is as charming as it is a real comedic shot in the arm. His sardonic smile and deadpan glances are perfectly pitched, and his appearance leaves you wanting more (which we’ll get in X-Men: Apocalypse).

Returning to the director’s chair following the departure of Matthew Vaughn, Singer shows a firm grasp of the material and an even firmer grasp on ensuring the human/mutant element isn’t lost amongst all the special effects and impressively mounted carnage. Even a small scene, such as the one between Professor X and Magneto towards the end of the movie, is more affecting than you might expect, and there are numerous occasions where Singer’s pleasure at being back in the director’s chair couldn’t be more evident if he’d stopped the movie mid-scene and held up a sign saying “I loved making this movie”. Singer is an expressive director, always willing to try something new, and his staging of the showdown at the White House shows a clear intention to avoid the usual action motifs, making the sequence that much more impressive (it’s also a clever move to reduce Logan’s involvement in the action, especially as he doesn’t have his adamantium skeleton for Erik to play around with).

The early Seventies are recreated with a fine eye for the details of the time, and there’s an astute tweaking on contemporary fashions (though it might have been fun to see Wolverine in bell bottoms), while the inclusion of footage shot as if it were news reports from the time is a clever conceit and works particularly well during Raven’s escape from the conference. The Sentinels are appropriately scary (and make Terminator 2’s T-1000 look like a skinny prototype), there’s the by-now obligatory post-credits sequence that sets up the next instalment, and there are a number of cameos that will have fans cheering in their seats (two cameos are very welcome indeed).

There are some stumbles. The opening ten to fifteen minutes, where the plot is established and some new characters introduced, is a bit clunky and muddled, and as mentioned before some of the cast don’t fare as well as others. Page does little more than sit with her fingers poised either side of Jackman’s temples for most of the movie, while McKellen gets to add the odd line here and there, but it’s Berry who’s almost completely sidelined, so much so that one of the cameo turns has more lines than her. (And on the subject of screen time, someone should give Anna Paquin’s agent a gold star; she appears for approximately ten dialogue-free seconds but is seventh billed; now that’s impressive.) Trask’s hand-held mutant detector is a clumsy contrivance that feels like it was added at the last minute, and the movie’s coda owes a little too much to another recent sci-fi franchise reboot (but it’s a welcome development nevertheless). All in all, though, the movie is too well constructed and executed for any of these (very minor) problems to spoil the overall presentation.

Rating: 8/10 – back on top as the best of the superhero movie franchises thanks to Singer’s return and an intelligent approach to the story (one of the comics’ most well-respected outings), X-Men: Days of Future Past is a treat for fans and non-fans alike; audacious, skilful, thought-provoking and often dazzling, the movie helps erase the debacle that was X-Men: The Last Stand, and is a better alternative universe for it.

Mini-Review: Closed Circuit (2013)

25 Sunday May 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Bombing, Cover up, Eric Bana, John Crowley, Lawyers, Rebecca Hall, Review, Steven Knight, Terrorism, Thriller

D: John Crowley / 96m

Cast: Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, Ciarán Hinds, Jim Broadbent, Riz Ahmed, Anne-Marie Duff, Julia Stiles, Kenneth Cranham, Denis Moschitto

When a bomb goes off at a London market, the investigation leads to the arrest of Farroukh Erdogan (Moschitto). Government evidence that might support his case must be deliberated in closed court before an open trial can be conducted. Following the death of Erdogan’s lawyer, Martin Rose (Bana) is asked by the Attorney General (Broadbent) to represent the suspect at the open trial, while Claudia Simmons-Howe (Hall) is chosen to represent Erdogan at the closed hearings. Neither can be in contact with each other once the government evidence is submitted, but as both become aware they’re being followed, they begin to realise there’s more to the case than meets the eye.

Martin discovers that Erdogan is an MI5 agent who was working within the terrorist cell that carried out the bombing. With Erdogan refusing to confirm or deny anything, it’s unclear if he has double-crossed MI5, or the cell has set him up instead. Meanwhile, Claudia learns that Farroukh’s family are more involved than anyone thought. Claudia and Martin choose to work together – in spite of the risk of being disbarred – and endeavour to find out if MI5 had any further, more damaging involvement in the bombing.

Closed Circuit wants to be topical and thought-provoking but is too predictable – and cynical – to be entirely effective. Government involvement in terrorist matters is hardly news, and the idea that a cover up might be taking place is clear from the outset. The cat-and-mouse game that follows ticks all the relevant boxes – murder made to look like suicide, an MI5 overseer (Ahmed) who makes veiled threats, the revelation of a colleague working against Martin and Claudia – and there’s a subplot around Martin and Claudia’s having had an affair in the past that is dramatically redundant, but on the whole, the movie is a well-crafted, if obvious thriller that never quite takes off. Bana and Hall don’t quite gel as a couple, Crowley’s direction is efficient if indistinctive, and the script by Steven Knight isn’t as sharp as it needs to be.

Rating: 6/10 – as a paranoid conspiracy thriller, Closed Circuit is neither exciting nor provocative enough to succeed fully; with its idea of a government cover up, it’s also thirty years too late to provide much of a surprise.

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

24 Saturday May 2014

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Angela Baker, Boating accident, Bullying, Camp Arawak, Felissa Rose, Gruesome murders, Horror, Review, Robert Hiltzik, Surprise ending

D: Robert Hiltzik / 88m

Cast: Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten, Karen Fields, Christopher Collet, Mike Kellin, Katherine Kamhi, Paul DeAngelo, Desiree Gould, Owen Hughes, Robert Earl Jones

Eight years after the death of her father and brother in a boating accident, Angela Baker (Rose) is heading off to Camp Arawak for the summer with her cousin Ricky (Tiersten). Angela is withdrawn, says hardly anything to anyone, rarely joins in the camp’s activities, and soon becomes the target of bully Judy (Fields), as well as some of the boys. She finds an ally in Ricky’s friend, Paul (Collet). He shows an interest in her, and they begin a tentative relationship. Meanwhile, a killer has struck twice, attempting the death of kitchen worker Artie (Hughes), and drowning one of the boys who tormented Angela earlier. Camp owner Mel (Kellin) refuses to close the camp, though, and as Angela continues to be bullied by Judy and camp counsellor Meg (Kamhi), the body count rises.

The Eighties were a tough time for some horror movies. The templates established by Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980) dictated a serial killer with supernatural abilities, not the least of which was the ability to suffer all manner of physical punishment and still keep on killing. To be noticed in this particular sub-genre there had to be something different about either the setting (The Funhouse, 1981), or the killer (Curse of the Cannibal Confederates, 1982 – actually zombies). By the time Sleepaway Camp appeared in 1983, there were already too many weird and wonderful slicers and dicers out there, and too many appearing against the backdrop of a very low budget (and even less imagination).

On face value, Sleepaway Camp had two things working against it from the start: the summer camp setting appropriated by the Friday the 13th series, and an eponymous mystery killer with a grudge against, well, pretty much everyone. But somehow, and despite some very obvious disadvantages – the acting, the $350,000 budget, the relative inexperience of both cast and crew – the movie struck a nerve with audiences (and went on to make a very tidy profit). The “shocking” twist ending had a lot to do with the movie’s success – it’s still one of the most unnerving final shots/close ups in horror movie history – but even without this, Sleepaway Camp has an unexpected, and goofy, charm that more than makes up for its faults.

The familiar location, the typical teenage bickering and peer pressure, the now-awful fashions (did men really wear shorts that short back then?), all these aspects add to the tremendous sense of goodwill the movie engenders, and it’s a measure of writer/director Hiltzik’s confidence in his own material that Sleepaway Camp works so well. With its slightly askew framing style, and scenes that often run just a beat or two longer than they need to, the movie has a disquieting feel about it from the start; it also throws in a few close ups when the audience least expects it, and this all adds to the disconcerting atmosphere the movie creates from its opening credits sequence showing the camp abandoned and in disrepair. It’s rare that a slasher movie is also creepy, but Sleepaway Camp is creepy without even having to try too hard.

The murders are carried out with gusto, although with an emphasis on not showing too much actual gore, that’s saved for the discovery of the body later on when the special make up effects come into their own (though it’s perhaps a good thing that the aftermath of one character’s death by hair straightener isn’t shown). There’s the usual moments when you wonder just how one killer could have apparently been in more than one place at a time, and the average viewer could be forgiven for thinking the killer must be on steroids, but this is one time where the logistics of a killing spree can be safely ignored; the escalation has a kooky inventiveness that just works (even though it shouldn’t). And the killer’s identity, when revealed, is still a moment of genius that has never been imitated since.

As mentioned before, the acting does hamper things, and some of the performances are practically raw (Fields doesn’t appear to be able to deliver a line without pouting at the same time), and some of the dialogue comes out sounding as if English isn’t the actor’s first language. There’s also the sense that the actors aren’t listening to each other so much as just waiting for each other to finish talking so they can get their own lines out. Again though, it all adds to the movie’s charm (though you have to see Gould’s performance to get a real idea of just how many “different” acting styles are on display here).

Rating: 7/10 – a superior slasher (and cult favourite) that still impresses over thirty years on; unintentionally funny to be sure (from the perspective of so many years having gone by, at least) but still an effective shocker with a killer twist ending that lodges itself in the memory and stays there.

Worst Movie Remakes…Ever!

24 Saturday May 2014

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Disturbia, Movie Remakes, Rear Window, Remake, Review, Shia LaBeouf

In the light of the recent, hugely disappointing remake of Godzilla, I’ve been thinking about other remakes that have been less than a) wonderful, b) acceptable, and c) wanted, remakes such as any of the recent horror mishaps – A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) etc. – or modern reworkings of classic oldies such as The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981). I’ve compiled a list of my Top 10 Worst Remakes…Ever!, but before I reveal them to the world, I wanted to find out which movies other people think are terrible remakes. So… I’ve set up a survey for people to vote for their favourite worst remakes (or even worst favourite remakes). No more than three choices, though (so I can more easily tally up the totals), and if you want to express your reasons for a movie’s inclusion, please feel free.

To give everyone an idea of where I’m coming from, here’s the movie that just missed out on my Top 10 and currently resides at No 11:

Disturbia (2007) – D: D.J. Caruso / 105m

Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Sarah Roemer, Carrie-Anne Moss, David Morse, Aaron Yoo, Viola Davis

A remake of Rear Window (1954) that did away with all the original’s subtlety, suspense and wit, and cast a sadly lacking LaBeouf in the James Stewart role. With no tension, and dubious attempts at making Morse’s character glamorous, the movie limps along like a bad graze looking for a plaster to make it feel better.

Happy Voting!

http://dullwood68.polldaddy.com/s/what-are-worst-movie-remakes-ever

Godzilla (2014)

20 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Gareth Edwards, Gojira, Japan, Ken Watanabe, Monsters, Muto, Nuclear fuel, Review, San Francisco, Sci-fi, Tsunami

D: Gareth Edwards / 123m

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Victor Rasuk, Carson Bolde, Juliette Binoche

Opening with a montage of grainy black and white footage from the Fifties that reveals the real reason for all those atomic bomb detonations in the Pacific – Bikini Atoll et al – the movie fast forwards to 1999 and the discovery in The Philippines of a massive skeleton and two egg sacs, one of which bears the signs of a recent hatching. At the same time, the Janjira nuclear plant in Japan is experiencing a series of seismic anomalies that has plant supervisor Joe Brody (Cranston) worried that these anomalies may cause damage to the plant. While his wife Sandra (Binoche) investigates below ground, there is a reactor breach and the plant is destroyed.

Fifteen years on, the site of the Janjira plant is still a quarantine area. Joe’s son Ford (Taylor-Johnson), now living in San Francisco with wife Elle (Olsen) and young son Sam (Bolde), receives a call telling him that Joe has been arrested for trespassing in the quarantined area. Ford travels to Japan to find out what his father is up to. They go back to the Janjira plant and are promptly arrested. They are taken to a secret facility within the plant where a chrysalis containing the creature that destroyed the plant is being studied by scientists Ishiro Serizawa (Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Hawkins). The chrysalis hatches, releasing a massive winged monster that devastates the facility before flying off. Ford, Serizawa and Graham join an American-led mission to track the monster, which is heading for Hawaii.

In Hawaii, the creature – known as a MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) – is discovered feeding on the reactor of a Russian submarine. The military attack the MUTO but it proves too much for them. Godzilla arrives to battle the MUTO but it flees. Serizawa sees the creature is headed toward the US and realises it’s trying to reach its mate, the inhabitant of the other egg sac from The Philippines, and which has been housed in a secure nuclear waste repository in Nevada. This MUTO, the female, hatches and begins heading towards the coast (but not before laying waste to Las Vegas). Serizawa is afraid the two MUTOs are making their way to each other with the intention of breeding… and if his calculations are correct, they’ll meet in San Francisco.

The military comes up with a plan to destroy the MUTOs using a more-powerful-than-usual nuclear weapon (basically two nuclear warheads strapped together). Ford goes along with the team assigned to getting it offshore far enough that it will destroy the creatures but cause minimal damage to the coastal region, but the female MUTO wrecks the train it’s being transported on and eats one of the warheads. The other is saved and flown to San Francisco. The two MUTOs meet there and capture the remaining warhead, which the female uses to build a nest for her offspring. Godzilla arrives to battle the MUTOs. While they’re distracted, Ford destroys the nest and regains the warhead, but it’s damaged and he can’t disarm it. He gets it to a boat and heads out to sea in the hope of getting far enough before it explodes. Meanwhile, Godzilla battles the MUTOs…

One of the most eagerly awaited movies of 2014, Godzilla arrives trailing a ton of hype and pre-release fervour, but sad to say this is a major disappointment. The story is nonsensical and at almost every turn throws up a WTF? moment. There are inconsistencies galore, some of the worst dialogue so far this year, a sad waste of a more than capable cast, an incredible lack of tension or threat throughout, and the usual reliance on mass destruction to provide any thrills. Here are just ten reasons why Godzilla doesn’t work:

1 – The characters are paper-thin and serve no purpose other than to mouth expository dialogue of the “This must mean…” variety.

2 – The cast are required to do little more than gawp and gasp at the destruction going on around them. Seriously, why employ actors such as Juliette Binoche (who had to be persuaded to take part), Sally Hawkins and David Strathairn if you’re going to give them so little to do?

3 – Inconsistency No. 1: Godzilla’s arrival in Hawaii causes a tsunami, but not when he arrives in San Francisco (perhaps the budget didn’t stretch to two such sequences).

4 – Ford has a son who isn’t put in jeopardy once; instead the writers have Ford save some random Asian-American kid when the train they’re on is attacked by one of the MUTOs (plus having Ford save his own son would have added some much needed emotional resonance to the drama).

5 – Elle is seen escaping from the destruction of San Francisco, but at no point is she in any peril; in fact she survives unscathed. What was the point of showing this (other than to give Elizabeth Olsen something more to do than make phone calls and look worried a lot)?

6 – Ford is introduced as an adult as an explosive ordnance disposal officer (and a lieutenant at that), but this skill is never utilised (it’s his relationship with his dad and his dad’s data that keeps him along for the ride).

7 – The MUTOs, even though they are supposed to be MASSIVE, seem able to appear and disappear at will.

8 – The MUTOs are attracted by nuclear radiation but the male MUTO, the one that hatches at Janjira, doesn’t stop to munch on the rest of Japan’s nuclear plants (there’s nearly fifty of them). Is MUTO love really that strong a call?

9 – How many times do the same buildings have to be destroyed in San Francisco before anyone is supposed to notice?

10 – Inconsistency No. 2: Why, if the MUTOs are supposed to have migrated towards the earth’s core for their radiation fix, is one found so close to the surface in The Philippines (and what has sustained the egg sacs)?

11 – And why was the Russian nuclear submarine found perched in the trees (on a mountainside) in Hawaii when it was earlier reported as missing at sea?

Yes, that was eleven reasons instead of ten but that just goes to show how lazy the screenwriters – all five of them! – were in assembling this narrative mess. It’s sad when a project that’s been in development for as long as this one has, falls at the first hurdle because the filmmakers couldn’t spot the problems inherent in the script (though with five writers having worked on it, maybe they did). And while this is a Godzilla movie, and what we’re looking for is some outstanding monster-on-monster action, does the rest of the movie have to be so bad? Well, the answer seems to be yes. And because the filmmakers have opted for a slow-build, let’s-keep-Godzilla-hidden approach, the effect of all this underwhelming drama is that the audience are soon praying for things to hurry up so they can get to the big showdown without lapsing into complete slack-jawed lethargy.

Once all three monsters reach San Francisco the movie does pick up, and the battle between them goes a long way toward redeeming things, though there’s still far too much cutting away to see what the human characters are up to (as if we care by now). There’s also a slightly corny moment where Ford and Godzilla share a look, but it’s the one misstep in a section where the filmmakers do get it right. And we get to witness Godzilla’s famous nuclear breath, something that will have fans cheering in their seats.

So, it’s not all bad, and the visuals (as expected) are often stunning to behold. The much-touted HALO drop is still eerily effective despite the long-term exposure given it in the trailers and the movie’s print ads, and the scenes of devastation are effectively rendered (as expected). The MUTOs have a realistic-looking solidity about them (even if they look like second cousins to the kaiju from Pacific Rim), and Godzilla himself is a leaner, meaner looking version of himself (though the problem of scale is still an issue – he’s taller in some scenes and shorter in others depending on the background). Monster-wrangling for the second time, director Gareth Edwards shows his obvious empathy for the material and despite its limitations, rescues large chunks of it from the mangler. He has a visual style and flair that is reminiscent of early Spielberg, and he has a firm grasp on how to stage the final showdown, paying special attention to the framing and using the most effective camera angles. There’s a kinetic energy to these scenes that is lacking in the rest of the movie, but it does add up to a more satisfying conclusion.

Rating: 4/10 – woeful for the most part, and just plain horrible to sit through at others, Godzilla lurches on to the big screen like the big, lumbering beast he was in the Fifties and Sixties (though minus the saggy underbelly); embarrassing to watch at times, and with no clear idea of what to do for the first ninety minutes, the movie is only slightly better than Roland Emmerich’s 1998 version, and is saved by the panache of its final showdown.

We 3 (2011)

19 Monday May 2014

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Brazil, Gabriel Godoy, Juliana Schalch, Nando Olival, Reality TV, Review, Romantic triangle, Sao Paolo, Sponsorship, Students, Victor Mendes

Original title: Os 3

D: Nando Olival / 80m

Cast: Juliana Schalch, Victor Mendes, Gabriel Godoy, Sophia Reis, Rafael Maia, Alceu Nunes, Henrique Taubaté, Cecília Homem de Mello

Three university students – Camila (Schalch), Rafael (Mendes), and Cazé (Godoy) – all meet at a party shortly after arriving in Sao Paulo to begin their studies. Both Rafael and Cazé are attracted to Camila, and she in turn is attracted to them. When they agree to move in together at Cazé’s apartment, Camila insists that they be friends only, and that neither Rafael nor Cazé should try to sleep with her. Rafael abides by the rule, but it soon becomes apparent that Camila and Cazé are sleeping together. When he realises this, Rafael wants to leave but he persuades himself to stay, his feelings for Camila keeping him there despite the pain of seeing her with Cazé.

Time passes and the three friends complete a university project together, a proposal for a TV show where the actors and actresses use featured products that can be bought via a website connected to the show. The trio are approached by marketing executive Guilherme (Maia). He wants to make their idea a reality by creating a show exactly as they describe, but with them as the “stars”. When they ask how they should behave, Guilherme tells them to be themselves. They agree, and cameras are installed in the apartment.

The show gets off to a disastrous start, with the trio’s activities failing to win viewers (and more importantly, consumers). To combat this, the trio decide to highlight their lives more effectively by playing on the notion of their living in a ménage à trois. Creating scenarios to keep the viewers guessing and intrigued, they become increasingly adept at convincing themselves that what they’re doing isn’t having an effect on their relationships away from the cameras. As Rafael finds it more and more difficult to carry on with the deception, the introduction of Barbara (Reis), Camila’s cousin, threatens to break the trio’s friendship, and cause Camila to reassess her feelings for Rafael and Cazé.

A low-key production with an air of improvisation around some of its scenes, We 3 is an unpretentious look at the ways in which love, passion, lust and friendship (words highlighted at the movie’s beginning) can affect people who try to manipulate those feelings without seeing the potential consequences. There’s a sense of denial about the characters and the way they behave toward each other, as if the lives they’ve chosen to lead, and with each other, were more a matter of expediency than desire (though it does appear initially that Cazé has got what he’s wanted from the start). As the show becomes more and more popular, and the trio come up with ever more revelatory exploits, denial gives way to understated desperation in their attempts to maintain the fiction of their own lives, both on camera and behind the scenes. It’s this duality that gives the movie its bite, as the viewer attempts to work out if the three friends are playing to the audience or themselves.

Olival’s script, co-written with Thiago Dottori, has plenty of intriguing things to say about modern day consumerism, but it’s the façade that Camila, Rafael and Cazé commit to that commands the most attention. Despite all the technical trappings of the show, it’s the human element that holds the attention and thanks to some clever cutting between “reality” footage and what’s “really” happening, Olival is able to highlight the increasing distance the show is creating between the three friends. That the three of them have managed to live together for four years without the arrangement imploding is a little credulous, and Cazé comes across as too emotionally insecure to be Camila’s choice of partner, but these are minor quibbles, and the movie’s heaping of pretence on top of pretence to protect an already fragile pretence is absorbing enough to offset any reservations the viewer might pick up along the way.

The cast are uniformly excellent, and the three young leads display a maturity in their approach to the characters that augurs well for future performances. Schalch in particular is a captivating presence, and there’s fine support from Reis as the annoying, always aspiring Barbara. The apartment is a great physical space that is used to good effect, its various sections adding to the definition of the trio’s inter-relationship. The cinematography by Ricardo Della Rosa is adroit and purposeful, while the movie is cleverly constructed by editor Daniel Rezende.

Rating: 8/10 – with good location work and the sense of a larger world waiting for the trio to discover outside the confines of the apartment, We 3 is an understated gem of a movie with a real emotional core; heartfelt if occasionally hard on its lead characters, the movie is a welcome addition to South American cinema.

In a World… (2013)

18 Sunday May 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Comedy, Don LaFontaine, Father/daughter rivalry, Fred Melamed, Lake Bell, Marital break-up, Movie trailers, Review, Rob Corddry, Romance, The Amazon Games, Voice over

D: Lake Bell / 93m

Cast: Lake Bell, Fred Melamed, Rob Corddry, Michaela Watkins, Alexandra Holden, Ken Marino, Demetri Martin, Nick Offerman, Tig Notaro, Stephanie Allynne, Geena Davis, Jason O’Mara

When King of the Voice Overs, Don LaFontaine dies, he leaves a vacuum within the voice over industry, one that veteran Sam Sotto (Melamed) would like to fill but he’s too aware of his own limitations to do so, and decides to support up and coming Gustav Warren (Marino) instead. His daughter, Carol (Bell) works as a dialect coach, and while she would like to break into voice over work, the industry’s male-dominated nature – as well as Sam’s dismissal of her chances to succeed – keeps her from trying. One day, while she’s teaching Eva Longoria to speak with a Cockney accent, Carol is asked by Heners (Offerman) to provide the voice over for the trailer for a children’s movie, one that Gustav was meant to do but which he hasn’t shown up for. Helped by Louis (Martin), a sound engineer at the studio, Carol nails the voice over and begins to gain further trailer work on other children’s movies.

Gustav is upset by this, but Sam regards this development as a flash in the pan (neither of them know it’s Carol at this point). When Gustav hosts a party for everyone in the industry, Carol attends with her father and sister, Dani (Watkins). Gustav seduces Carol, much to the disgust and disappointment of Louis who has a crush on her, and the bemusement of her co-workers at the sound mixing studio. When Carol is picked to voice the trailer for the upcoming futuristic fantasy movie The Amazon Games, and they plan to use the iconic phrase “in a world…” to begin the voice over, the news is greeted less than warmly by Sam. He forces the issue with the movie’s producers, making them commit to an audition process. Now facing competition from her father and Gustav, Carol almost throws in the towel, but Louis convinces her to go ahead with her audition tape. At the Golden Trailer Awards, where Sam is to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, the trailer’s first showing will reveal the producers’ choice.

Riffing off the death of LaFontaine, a real-life voice over artist, In a World… at first appears uncomfortably opportunistic, but thanks to Bell’s sure hand on the tiller, this feeling is soon dispensed with. Writing as well as directing, Bell brings the audience into a world just as narcissistic and competitive as any other, but imbues it with enough good-natured characters and charm to offset the rampant ambition and casual backstabbing (Sam drops Gustav as soon as he knows Carol’s got the Amazon Games gig). Indeed it’s only Sam who’s truly horrible, and Bell handles Carol’s scenes with him with understated simplicity, painting a portrait of a fractured relationship that shows no sign of ever being repaired. Carol’s frustration with her father’s outdated sexist approach, as well as his lack of support for her and her career, are convincingly highlighted, and the way in which she deals with them completely plausible (it helps that Carol doesn’t have all the answers to the problems that beset her).

In her private life, Carol succumbs a little too easily to Gustav’s attentions, but there’s a lovely moment later when Louis declares his “liking” for her, and while this aspect of the script is less than persuasive, by the time it arrives the movie has built up so much good will it doesn’t matter. There’s a subplot involving Dani and a guest at the hotel where she works, and whether or not she cheats on husband Moe (Corddry), and while it provides some much needed drama, it’s easily and neatly resolved, as are pretty much all the conflicts Bell’s script creates for her characters. The movie relies on Carol’s placid nature throughout, and though there are plenty of laughs to be had, these are largely due to the activities and actions of the supporting cast – Notaro as deadpan lesbian Cher, Allynne as predatory receptionist Nancy, Offerman and Corddry. Bell is an appealing presence as Carol, and proves an unselfish actor in scene after scene. She draws good performances from her cast (Watkins and Corddry shine), and directs with an ease that some veteran directors never attain. If the movie suffers from anything, it’s a lightness of touch that could have been fatal in the hands of someone less committed to the material.

Rating: 7/10 – satisfying for the most part, In a World… is a treat, but one that might not bear repeated viewings; it’s a great “debut” for Bell to be sure, but a little too lightweight in its execution to be truly memorable.

Snowpiercer (2013)

17 Saturday May 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Chris Evans, CW7, Ed Harris, Ice Age, Jamie Bell, John Hurt, Joon-ho Bong, Kang-ho Song, Le Transperceneige, Protein meal, Review, Sacred engine, Tilda Swinton, Train

D: Joon-ho Bong / 126m

Cast: Chris Evans, Kang-ho Song, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Ah-sung Ko, Octavia Spencer, Alison Pill, Ed Harris, Luke Pasqualino, Ewen Bremner, Vlad Ivanov, Clark Middleton, Emma Levie

In 2014 global warming has reached such a level it threatens the entire human race with extinction. To combat this, scientists release a reversing agent, CW7, into the atmosphere. To the world’s horror, CW7 destroys all life on the planet and returns it to the ice age. The only survivors are those on a train that circumnavigates the globe without ever stopping, the brain child of reclusive Mr Wilford (Harris). But even on the train there is a class system: those at the tail end exist in cramped, overcrowded conditions, while those at the front of the train live a life of conspicuous luxury. Seventeen years later, the people at the tail are guided by Gilliam (Hurt), but place their trust for a planned revolution in the hands of Curtis Everett (Evans). Aided by Edgar (Bell), Curtis is planning to reach the front of the train and take control of the “sacred engine”, thus allowing him control over the whole train (he is also receiving cryptic messages written on red paper from a mystery source).

When two of the tail people’s children are taken by the armed guards that oversee the tail section, the agony experienced by the mother of one, Tanya (Spencer), and the father of the other, Andrew (Bremner), prompts Curtis to seize his chance to move forward through the train earlier than planned. At the first section, the de facto jail, they free Namgoong Minsu (Song), a security expert whose knowledge of the train and its systems will help them get through each door they come to; they also free his daughter, Yona (Ko). As the tail people make their way from one car to the next, they discover all manner of disturbing facts about life on the train, and are hindered continually in their progress by Miss Mason (Swinton), Mr Wilford’s representative on the train.

Despite overwhelming odds, Curtis reaches the front of the train sections of the train and the gap between the people there and at the tail is thrown into sharp relief. At a classroom run by Teacher (Pill), he learns more about Mr Wilford and his plan for the train, as well as learning that the person who is sending him the messages is part of the hierarchy he seeks to overthrow. With Mr Wilford’s guards, as well as the citizens of the front sections, determined to stop him from reaching the “sacred engine”, Curtis is forced to make some difficult decisions to achieve his aim, but when he does he’s faced with an even more difficult, unexpected decision to make, one that threatens to overturn everything he’s ever believed about the train, and himself.

Snowpiercer is an odd movie, a mix of high concept filmmaking supported by cod-literate meditations on the nature of existence and the need for balance in a world that’s a microcosm of the world we still live in. It’s a long, uneven movie as a result, with an expected emphasis on bone-crunching action while it attempts to say something about a range of subjects, from rampant consumerism to notions of self-sacrifice to carefully monitored euthanasia to the morality of keeping one set of passengers in what amounts to a rigorously controlled ghetto. Some of these aspects are handled adroitly (the euthanasia), others less so (the ghetto), but the movie is largely thought-provoking in its approach, and while some of the twists and turns can be seen a snow-covered mountain away, there’s still enough here to surprise the average viewer.

What stops the movie dead in its tracks sometimes (no pun intended), are the moments when something is revealed that immediately makes no logical sense. One of the biggest of these moments occurs when Curtis and his companions reach the abattoir car, and there are row upon row of chicken carcasses on display – after seventeen years, really? Another is why, considering the lethal sub-zero temperatures outside the train, none of the rails have ever split or buckled? And the biggest flaw concerns the train itself and its route: was Mr Wilford so prescient he knew CW7 wasn’t going to work even before it was conceived, because the movie makes it seem as if everything was in place from the moment the reagent was launched. (There are other moments that give pause for credulity but then the whole idea is inherently nonsensical; criticising it further would be like taking a blind man to task for failing to pin the tail on a donkey… that isn’t there.)

These lapses aside, there is still much to admire in Bong’s adaptation of the graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette (Rochette also supplies the artwork seen in the tail end of the train). As Curtis makes his way to the “sacred engine”, discovering more and more unpalatable truths about the workings of the train, there is a marked sense that he is becoming physically more restricted than he was at the tail, despite the increase in space in which to move. Bong makes being at the front just as bad as being at the end, if not worse, and Evans gives a performance that sees his character become more and more insular and compacted than he was at the beginning (he also gets to deliver an emotionally charged, yet chilling, speech towards the end that resonates even more when he reaches the “sacred engine”). Evans is one of those actors who can easily subvert his handsome looks, and here his grimy appearance is offset by a physical, tightly coiled performance that fits the mood perfectly. He’s ably supported by Swinton as the tombstone-dentured Mason (and in another, blink-and-you’ll-miss-her smaller role), Spencer as the mother obsessed with retrieving her child, and Song as the drug-addled security expert. Bell, however, has little chance to make anything of Curtis’s young follower, while Hurt lends the necessary gravitas to a role that is as close to underwritten as you’d expect.

The depiction of a new ice age is effectively maintained throughout, and the cities the train passes through are thankfully anonymous. The functions of the various train cars are imaginatively handled (the woman knitting in the garden car is a particular favourite), while the special effects are, for the most part, seamlessly integrated into the physical action. Bong directs with a visual flair that suits the movie’s mise-en-scene, and despite filming in English for the first time, doesn’t miss a nuance or moment of subtle shading. He’s ably supported by Kyung-pyo Hong’s often striking photography, and the tremendous production design by Ondrej Nekvasil, continually supporting the notion of people living in one place for so long and often surprising in its details as a result. There’s also an impressive score by Marco Beltrami that skilfully avoids the musical clichés that usually clog up dystopian flavoured movies such as this.

Rating: 7/10 – not the sci-fi masterpiece some may have been expecting (the hype surrounding proposed cuts of twenty minutes for the US release hasn’t helped), Snowpiercer is an often thought-provoking movie that tries its best to add political and social content to its storyline without skimping on the action; sometimes awkward in its execution, this still has more going on than most sci-fi movies out there these days, and is well worth seeking out.

The Lucky One (2012)

16 Friday May 2014

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Blythe Danner, Dead brother, Ex-husband, Green Kennels, Iraq, Louisiana, Nicholas Sparks, Photograph, Review, Romantic drama, Scott Hicks, Taylor Schilling, Zac Efron

D: Scott Hicks / 101m

Cast: Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling, Blythe Danner, Jay R. Ferguson, Riley Thomas Stewart, Adam LeFevre, Robert Hayes, Joe Chrest, Ann McKenzie, Kendal Tuttle

Adapted from the novel by Nicholas Sparks, The Lucky One opens in Iraq and a night mission where Logan (Efron) and his platoon run into Aces (Tuttle) and his platoon. There is a firefight with some Iraqis and Aces is killed. The next morning, Logan spies a picture of a woman in the rubble. He picks it up just seconds before an incendiary device goes off, killing several of his comrades. Logan survives, and for the rest of the tour he keeps the photo with him and it acts as a talisman, warding off harm and keeping him safe. He also tries to find out if anyone knows who the picture belongs to, but no one recognises it.

Back home, Logan traces the location where the picture was taken, and with his dog, Zeus, heads off on foot across country from Colorado to Louisiana, and the small town of Hamden, where after asking around, he discovers the woman’s name is Beth Green (Schilling) and she runs a kennels on the outskirts of town. When Logan goes there to tell her about the picture he finds he doesn’t know how to, and the situation is further complicated by Beth’s assumption that he’s there to apply for a job. Accepting the job, but with Beth having reservations about someone who walks so far just to work at a kennels, Logan makes himself useful doing repairs and general chores.

Beth’s grandmother, Ellie (Danner) takes to Logan from the start, as does Beth’s seven year old son, Ben (Stewart). The one person who doesn’t is Beth’s ex-husband, Keith (Ferguson), a deputy sheriff whose jealousy and violent temper have him believing that Logan is trying to usurp his position as Beth and Ben’s protector. With Keith making it difficult for Beth to move on with her life, Logan becomes increasingly close to her, and soon they are looking at each other with more than curiosity. They begin a hesitant romance, but Logan still finds it impossible to tell Beth about the photo, even when it becomes clear that Aces was her brother.

When Keith finds out that Logan was showing Beth’s picture around town he wastes no time in telling Beth (he also has the picture, stolen from Logan’s home). Beth confronts Logan and she asks him to leave. Keith makes an attempt to reconcile once more with Beth but when she rejects him, he threatens to take Ben there and then. Ben runs away, but in doing so, puts his life in danger…

With its typical stranger-with-a-secret-comes-to-town storyline, The Lucky One doesn’t bring anything new to the romantic drama genre, but in many ways that’s its strength. Its reliance on minor soap opera clichés to reinforce both the romantic and the dramatic aspects helps establish the movie as a straightforward telling of a familiar story, and one that the audience can take a great deal of comfort from. As Logan and Beth circle each other, there’s never any doubt as to how their romance will proceed, and the familiarity of the situation is aided greatly by the performances of Efron and Schilling, his brooding reticence complimenting her fragile beauty.

Beautifully set (and shot) in Louisiana, the movie moves easily from one reassuring plot development to the next, almost casually hitting its emotional high points, and thanks to Will Fetters’ astute screenplay, never trying to subvert or over-complicate matters. Hicks, who shot to fame with the altogether weightier Shine (1992), directs with a confidence that is reflected in the ease with which the cast inhabit their characters, and the credibility of their interaction. Efron plays the strong, silent type effortlessly but for long stretches Logan is almost a secondary character, as the movie sets up the family dynamic around Beth, Ben, Keith and Ellie. Once the romance kicks in, Efron gets to show just why he’s become one of the most sought after actors working today, showing a vulnerability the likes of Channing Tatum and Josh Duhamel (both male leads in other Sparks’ adaptations) would struggle to portray. It’s a low-key performance and one that befits the character of an ex-Marine trying to rebuild his life one step at a time.

Schilling also impresses as the put upon single mother putting a brave face on being divorced and bereaved at the same time, as well as looking for some way to rebuild her own life. Beth and Logan are kindred spirits in that sense, and when they begin their romance, their need for each other ignites a coming together that breathes new fire into both their lives (surprisingly, their love scenes are quite steamy for a PG-13 movie, but that’s not a bad thing). As Keith, Ferguson (mostly known for his TV work) makes more of the dastardly ex-husband role than appears to have been a part of the script, and the scene where his armour cracks during a recital given by his son is both unexpected and affecting in equal measure. Danner outshines them all, of course, but then if she hadn’t then something would have really been wrong.

The movie does have some faults, however. Logan’s PTSD is clumsily dealt with and is forgotten once he’s met Beth, and there’s a few too many occasions where the central conceit struggles to fend off its own implausibility, and Ben behaves a little too much like the semi-adult he clearly isn’t at seven years old, but these are minor complaints. All in all, The Lucky One is a rewarding experience, cleverly presented, and if things are a little too predictable at times – fans of this type of movie will be to spot the outcome from a mile off – as noted above, the filmmakers’ determination to embrace the customary elements of such a storyline is a benefit and not a detraction.

Rating: 7/10 – a solid if unspectacular production, The Lucky One will please fans of the genre for its straight on approach and for treating its main characters with sympathy and respect; bolstered by often beautiful location photography and blessed with a score by Mark Isham that avoids all the usual emotional cues.

(for Roxanne xx)

3 Days to Kill (2014)

15 Thursday May 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Amber Heard, Cancer, CIA, Connie Nielsen, Experimental drug, Hailee Steinfeld, Kevin Costner, McG, Paris, Review, The Albino, The Wolf

D: McG / 123m

Cast: Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, Connie Nielsen, Tómas Lemarquis, Richard Sammel, Marc Andréoni, Bruno Ricci, Jonas Bloquet, Eriq Ebouaney

Veteran CIA agent Ethan Renner (Costner) is part of a mission to capture international terrorist The Wolf (Sammel). Acting on intelligence that his associate The Albino (Lemarquis) is selling a dirty bomb at a hotel in Belgrade, Ethan and his team attempt to capture him but the mission goes wrong when The Albino recognises one of Ethan’s team. The Albino makes his escape in the ensuing shootout; Ethan chases him but finds himself short of breath, and he collapses. Despite being wounded, The Albino gets away. Ethan blacks out. Later, in a local hospital, a doctor tells him he has cancer, and at best, has 3-5 months to live.

Having been pensioned off from the CIA, Ethan moves to Paris where his estranged wife, Tina (Nielsen), and daughter Zooey (Steinfeld) live. He tries to reestablish his relationship with Zooey but his first attempts are clumsy and backfire on him. When Tina has to go to London for a few days, Ethan persuades her that he can look after Zooey, and he moves into their apartment. That same day, Ethan is approached by Vivi Delay (Heard), a senior CIA agent who wants him to continue looking for The Wolf, and offers him an experimental drug that will stave off the effects of his cancer enough to extend his life by a few more months. Ethan accepts the job. He begins targeting known associates of The Wolf and The Albino, until he learns that The Albino will be in Paris in a few days’ time.

His relationship with Zooey improves slowly, and is cemented when he saves her from being raped in a nightclub. As their time together becomes more and more important to Zooey, Ethan has to juggle the demands made on him as a father, and as an agent. Tina returns home and is pleased to see Ethan and Zooey getting on so well, and she and Ethan have a reconciliation. His mission to capture The Wolf comes to a head when Zooey’s boyfriend Hugh (Bloquet) invites them to a party at his parents’ home, and in one of those amazing moments of serendipity that exist only in the movies, it turns out that Hugh’s father is The Wolf’s Paris business partner, and he’s there as well.

Another low-concept idea from the mind of Luc Besson, 3 Days to Kill bears all the hallmarks of a hastily put together movie production and lurches from one badly thought out scene to another, trading on Costner’s innate gravitas as an actor (and then doing it’s best to undermine that gravitas with some ill-considered comedy beats), and complete with awful dialogue and weak characterisations. Not one of the relationships foisted on us by Besson and co-writer Adi Hasak is at all plausible, and Ethan himself is a bizarre combination of action hero, concerned absentee father, and comedic torturer. The movie is full of awkward moments that add nothing to the plot but do succeed in padding out the running time. There is a whole third-string storyline involving Ethan’s apartment and the family of squatters that have taken it over; unable to evict them, Ethan allows his anger at their being there to develop into a strange paternal devotion: when one of patriarch Jules’s (Ebouaney) daughters has a child in the apartment, Ethan is on hand to become a de facto godfather (and hold the baby).

Even more bizarre is the character of Vivi Delay, portrayed by Heard as a mixture of modern-day vamp and emotionally vacant dominatrix. The actress’ interpretation of the role is (hopefully) based on what direction there is in the script, but if it’s not then it’s a freakish performance and one that makes Heard look like an amateur trying to break free from regional theatre. Even the way she delivers her lines – arch, and laced with undisguised sarcasm – makes them sound like a first draft reading, and it’s a relief that she’s not on screen any more than she is. Steinfeld is equally guilty of putting in a sub-par performance, giving us a moody teenager that no one would believe in, and failing to make Zooey’s relationship with Ethan anything other perfunctory and/or glib (depending on a scene’s requirements). Nielsen has the thankless role of mother removed for the sake of the plot, while Costner (who has said he liked the character of Ethan, but didn’t like the movie) does his best with one of the most uneven roles of his career. (You know an actor’s in trouble when his character name is a combination of Ethan Hunt and Jeremy Renner from Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.) Looking uncomfortable throughout, and burdened with the daunting prospect of injecting some credibility into the proceedings, Costner does just enough to keep the audience from tuning out completely, and shows that it’s not only Liam Neeson who can still kick ass at an advanced age (Costner is 59).

Under the less than capable direction of McG, 3 Days to Kill is a mess of a movie that only moves up a notch with its action scenes, including a cleverly constructed kidnapping involving a bus, a bicycle, and a small claymore mine. The Paris locations are also worth mentioning, as is the somewhat bucolic score by Guillaume Roussel, and the often tightly-framed compositions of veteran cinematographer Thierry Arbogast. As a thrill ride, the movie is fitfully effective, but as an absorbing, entertaining piece it’s as lightweight as a feather, with too many narrative absurdities than it could ever overcome, including the experimental drug that only Vivi knows anything about (oh yeah?).

Rating: 4/10 – a second-hand script (replete with Besson’s recurring penchant for casual racism) masquerading as a polished action movie, 3 Days to Kill never lives up to its initial promise; with weak direction and the kind of cast that deserves more, the movie struggles to establish the same tone throughout, and boasts the kind of unlucky central performance from its star that, in the Nineties, would have doomed his career quicker than The Postman did.

Molly Maxwell (2013)

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

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Charlie Carrick, Growing pains, Indie movie, Krista Bridges, Lola Tash, Phoenix Progressive School, Photography, Review, Romantic drama, Sara St. Onge, Student/teacher relationship

D: Sara St. Onge / 90m

Cast: Lola Tash, Charlie Carrick, Krista Bridges, Rob Stewart, Richard Clarkin, Brooke Palsson, A.K. Shand, Nicholas Bode

Sixteen year old Molly Maxwell (the wonderfully named Tash) is a pupil at Phoenix Progressive School, where creative self-expression is encouraged amongst the pupils and where being ordinary (or settling for it) is not only discouraged, but viewed as abnormal. Molly has a genius IQ but doesn’t want to be singled out or regarded as special. When the head teacher, Raymond (Clarkin), pushes Molly to choose her ‘elect’ subject, she finds herself being guided towards photography by her handsome English teacher, Ben Carter (Carrick). Surprised by his interest in her, Molly insists that Ben be her supervisor on the ‘elect’ subject. Ben is initially hesitant but eventually agrees. As they work ever more closely together, Molly and Ben become increasingly intimate (though Ben resists the temptation to make it a physical relationship).

As the relationship develops, Molly finds herself lying to her friends Caitlin (Palsson) and Gala (Shand), and her parents, Marilyn (Bridges) and Evan (Stewart). She invents a boyfriend called Spencer who goes to another school to explain the time she spends with Ben, including a field trip that wouldn’t have been sanctioned by the school. Molly’s attitude becomes more confrontational, while her behaviour around Ben when they’re in school begins to attract the attention of Raymond. Things come to a head when the photos she took on the unofficial field trip are discovered at the school, and the seriousness of the situation – and its potential consequences – is brought to light.

There’s a moment in Molly Maxwell where Molly is outside Ben’s apartment. She has a gift for him, a framed photograph she knows he’ll like. In turn he has something for her, some books on photography. Molly flicks through one of them and shows no sign of moving from Ben’s doorstep. It’s an awkward moment, both for the characters and the audience, but it’s indicative of the problems the movie has in trying to approach its subject matter: forbidden love between a student and her teacher. Molly Maxwell is an indie movie through and through, with an indie movie’s sensibility, and it wants to be different in the way that all indie movies want to be different: it wants to be “about something”. (This might seem like an obvious thing to point out, but there are plenty of indie movies out there that strive to be different but come off as aloof or detached, with characters that operate in an emotional vacuum, apart from anything even remotely resembling reality.)

The “something” Molly Maxwell wants to be about is ostensibly growing pains, but there’s a deeper message hidden in the movie, and it’s not until Molly and Ben’s relationship is outed that it becomes clear. Arising from the ashes of the relationship’s predictable demise is the reaffirmation of Molly’s relationship with her mother, a once solid connection that seems irreparably damaged by Molly’s love for Ben and the strain it places on the family structure. Marilyn is a wonderfully complex creation, outwardly controlling in an overbearing, condescending way that most children would find hard to deal with anyway. But Molly rebels against her mother when she receives real support from Ben, and as she becomes more and more infatuated with her teacher, so her disillusionment with her mother increases. Marilyn clearly wants the best for Molly but has a tough time showing it appropriately. In their efforts to be understood, both Molly and Marilyn end up pushing each other away.

It’s this secondary storyline – and its resolution – that ultimately has the most impact, and while Molly’s burgeoning love affair with Ben takes up most of the screen time, it’s predictable nature isn’t as appealing in the long run. Molly’s naiveté gets in the way of making her attraction for Ben believable, while Ben’s motivation for pursuing the romance is murky at best, leaving the audience to wonder what exactly has brought them together. That said, Tash and Carrick deliver good performances despite the flaws in first-time director St. Onge’s script, and there is a definite chemistry between them that bolsters their scenes together. Tash is a good casting choice as Molly, and has a maturity that adds immeasurably to her reading of the character, while her scenes with Bridges are exhilarating for the depth that each actress brings.

Further on the plus side, St. Onge shows a keen eye for the absurdities of such a privileged milieu, while there’s a terrific indie soundtrack (keep an ear out for the perfect placement of Audrey & The Agents’ Hate Fuck). For a first feature it’s a decent enough attempt, and if some of the drama veers perilously close to highlighting its soap opera similarities, then St. Onge’s lack of experience can be excused thanks to the movie’s overall quality.

Rating: 7/10 – an absorbing (though emotionally redundant in places) debut feature that features good performances in support of a not quite fully realised script; at times charming, Molly Maxwell works best when looking at the small tragedies that can beset a mother/daughter relationship.

Pompeii (2014)

09 Friday May 2014

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Ancient Rome, Celts, Emily Browning, Eruption, Gladiator, Kiefer Sutherland, Kit Harington, Londinium, Molten lava, Paul W.S. Anderson, Review, Tidal wave, Volcano

D: Paul W.S. Anderson / 105m

Cast: Kit Harington, Emily Browning, Kiefer Sutherland, Carrie-Anne Moss, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jared Harris, Jessica Lucas, Joe Pingue, Currie Graham, Sasha Roiz

Beginning in AD62 with the sacking of a Celtic village by Roman soldiers led by Senator Corvus (Sutherland), Pompeii uses this back story to illustrate the determination to survive of young Milo (Dylan Schombing). Having witnessed the deaths of his parents, Milo hides amongst a pile of dead bodies; in doing so he escapes the Romans’ detection.

Seventeen years later, Milo (Harington) is now in Londinium, fighting in the gladiatorial arena and gaining a reputation for himself. His owner, Graecus (Pingue), sees the potential in taking Milo to Rome. On the journey, Milo and the rest of the gladiators travel with Princess Cassia (Browning) and her friend Ariadne (Lucas). One of the horses is injured and at Cassia’s bidding, Milo is allowed to put the animal out of its misery… and so, in these oddest of circumstances, their romance is born. Arriving in Pompeii, Cassia travels on to her family’s home on the lower slopes of Mount Vesuvius where she is welcomed by her parents, Severus (Harris) and Aurelia (Moss). Severus has a plan to rebuild large parts of Pompeii and bring greater wealth to the area; he’s also expecting the arrival of a representative of the new Emperor, Titus, to discuss the necessary investment the plan requires. Cassia is shocked to learn the representative is Senator Corvus; when she was in Rome he made clear his liking for her, though it isn’t reciprocated.

Meanwhile, Milo acquaints himself with the dungeons below the arena, where he meets Atticus (Akinnuoye-Agbaje), an African gladiator whose freedom is assured if he wins his next fight. After another slave attempts to kill Milo during a training session, and Atticus saves his life, the two men strike up an uneasy friendship. That evening, Milo and Atticus are taken to Cassia’s home where a celebration is taking place. Cassia’s horse, which has been missing since the morning, returns, clearly frightened by something and without the steward that was attending him. Milo calms the horse and he and Cassia ride off into the nearby hills to be alone. They are pursued by Corvus’ men. Corvus wants Milo killed but Cassia intervenes, and making herself beholden to the senator, saves the young Celt’s life.

In the arena the next day, Atticus and Milo are amongst a group of slaves that are pitted against superior forces in a recreation of the sacking of Milo’s village. He turns the tables on Corvus’s plan to have him meet his end in the fighting, but before Corvus can retaliate further, the mountain begins to erupt. Parts of the arena collapse, leaving Corvus and Cassia’s parents unconscious in the wreckage. Milo attempts to find Cassia who fled the arena just before the eruption; when Severus and Aurelia come to they try to kill Corvus but he survives, and he too goes after Cassia. While the city is destroyed around them, Milo, Corvus and Cassia try to avoid being killed before a final showdown becomes inevitable.

There’s a grim inevitability about the subject matter that makes Pompeii a hard movie to review. It’s a disaster movie, and while that’s as apt a description of things as you’re ever likely to get, the movie does have a compelling visual style, and Anderson, while not exactly the most subtle or dramatically creative of writer/directors, marshals the final third’s fireworks with an aggressive brio that suits the material perfectly. And therein lies the problem for any reviewer of a movie such as this one: ultimately, we’re only here to see the mountain do its worst and satisfy the devastation junkie within all of us.

But before all that, though, there’s the lead-up, an hour of uninteresting, derivative anti-dramatics that keep the characters busy until they have to start running and screaming and avoid being covered in molten lava. Milo and Cassia’s romance is lukewarm at best and is played with the same level of intensity by Harington and Browning as if they were choosing a mortgage provider. Sutherland makes a great villain but his accent is a weird mix of public school English and mid-American vowel mangling; it’s a mesmerising performance, and almost transcends the rest of the movie, as if the actor had the measure of the movie from the very beginning and chose to just have fun with it (if so, he more than succeeds). Harris and Moss are wasted in their secondary roles, Lucas’ role is one step up from the customary maid in waiting, and Akinnuoye-Agbaje does his best as the noble savage who’s naive enough to believe he can win his freedom in the arena, and is called upon to refer to the mountain in hushed tones whenever there’s even the slightest rumble or disturbance.

On the plot side of things, there’s too much lifted from Gladiator (2000) for Pompeii to be anything other than – for the first hour at least – a pale imitation of that movie and its easily more credible heroics (and Harington is definitely no Russell Crowe), and the whole idea of a plan to regenerate Pompeii before the mountain erupts is either a gloriously ironic move on the filmmakers’ part, or just incredibly crass – and it’s hard to tell which is the more likely. As mentioned before, Anderson is less than gifted in the subtlety stakes, and he piles contrivance atop uninspiring dialogue atop simplistic character motivations with the giddy abandon of someone who can’t believe he’s been given an estimated $100,000,000 to make a movie in the first place. (Yes, you read that right: $100,000,000. Where did it all go to?)

But when it comes, the destruction – what we’ve all been waiting for – is magnificent. Anderson doesn’t skimp on the pyrotechnics and the flaming rocks and the mini tsunami and the exploding buildings and the suddenly yawning chasms, and after the fallout from the initial eruption, gives us the truly impressive sight of Mount Vesuvius blowing its top and then some. Forget Volcano (1997) and Dante’s Peak (1997), hell, even Mount Yosemite going up in 2012 (2009) – Pompeii gives us the eruption to end all eruptions, a staggering special effect that will take some beating, and which is easily worth waiting for. It’s the one moment the movie had to get right, and it does so, spectacularly.

Rating: 5/10 – yes it’s extremely silly in places, and yes it’s full of historical inaccuracies, but Pompeii brushes all that aside by piling on the destructive spectacle and providing plenty of “wow” moments; event cinema for the critically unconcerned and in some ways, all the better for it.

Hearts of Humanity (1932)

09 Friday May 2014

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Christy Cabanne, Claudia Dell, Drama, Immigrants, J. Farrell MacDonald, Jackie Searl, Jean Hersholt, New York, Orphan, Review, Shandy O'Hara, Stolen harp

D: Christy Cabanne / 65m

Cast: Jean Hersholt, Claudia Dell, Jackie Searl, Charles Delaney, J. Farrell MacDonald, Richard Wallace, Lucille La Verne, John Vosburgh, George Humbert, Tom McGuire, Betty Jane Graham

Based on the story by Olga Printzlau, Hearts of Humanity is set in a bustling neighbourhood in New York where one of the pillars of the community is genial Irish cop Tom O’Hara (MacDonald). O’Hara’s wife and young son are travelling by ship from Ireland to be with him, something he has been waiting for (it seems) for quite some time. O’Hara lives above a second hand shop owned by Sol Bloom (Hersholt), a kindly old widower whose son, Joey (Wallace) is always getting into trouble (though bunking school and stealing fruit from local merchant Tony (Humbert) seems to be the extent of his wilfulness). A few days before his wife and son’s arrival, O’Hara receives a telegram informing him that his wife has died during the voyage and been buried at sea. That night, Sol’s shop is broken into; when O’Hara attempts to apprehend the burglar he is shot and killed, but not before he extracts a promise from Sol that his son, Shandy (Searl) will be looked after.

Shandy is “adopted” by Sol (and calls himself Shandy O’Hara Bloom!), and the boy fits in well with the rest of the neighbourhood, including Ruth Sneider (Dell), whose mother (La Verne) runs a cleaning and dyeing store. Ruth is seeing local ne’er-do-well Dave Haller (Vosburgh), whose dapper fashion sense and expensive car have turned her head, despite the attentions of beat cop Tom Varney (Delaney) who is in love with her. When Shandy inadvertently uncovers the source of Haller’s “income” he brings the issue to a head; at the same time, his discovery that Joey has stolen a dollar from the till sets in motion a series of events that involve the threat of juvenile hall, a talent show, the theft of a violin that was given to Shandy by his mother, and a near-death inducing bout of pneumonia before everything is resolved satisfactorily.

With its melting pot background and portrait of an immigrant community coping with every day problems, Hearts of Humanity has a poignant approach – most typified by recurring shots of Hersholt smiling heavenward – that adds to the simplicity of the dramatic elements and elevates them appropriately. The various story elements gel together naturally and the sense of a community committed to providing support for all its members is well-handled (and with a minimum of undue pathos). It’s a tribute to the script by Edward T. Lowe Jr that these elements – already well on the way to becoming stereotypical – are moulded into such an entertaining whole, and that the characters, while instantly recognisable, are imbued with all-too understandable and relatable foibles and behaviours. The dialogue is refreshingly naturalistic, without any of the archness that was present in so many movies from the early Thirties, and there’s an equally refreshing lack of artifice or contrivance (a good example of this is the fact that O’Hara’s killer is never caught).

The cast – all seasoned professionals at this point (with the exception of Wallace, making only his second screen appearance) – inhabit their roles with an easy conviction, and each gets a chance to shine. Hersholt, already well established as an avuncular father figure following his success as a villain in the silent era (see von Stroheim’s Greed (1927) for a great example of this), comes close to being overly sentimental but manages to rein in the script’s occasional extravagance in this direction (though one scene with Wallace in particular might challenge a modern day audience’s view on the matter). Searl, a child actor who was known as “The Kid Everybody Wants to Spank”, struggles with an awkward Irish accent that lapses almost as much as it’s actually put into play, but impresses in his scenes with Hersholt, and more than holds his own with the rest of the cast. Dell, while given relatively little to do, invests Ruth with a steely vulnerability, and is complemented by Delaney’s dogged pursuit of her as the likeable Varney. But if this is anyone’s movie in particular, then it’s MacDonald’s. It’s a measure of the impact he has on the movie’s opening minutes that, when he’s killed, his presence is sorely missed from thereon. The scene where he receives the news of his wife’s death is beautifully played, and quietly haunting.

In the director’s chair, Cabanne shows a sure hand, balancing and judging the disparate dramatic and comedic elements with aplomb, and making the whole experience a pleasing one that lingers in the memory, despite the movie’s short running time. Ably supported by Charles J. Stumar in the cinematographer’s chair, Cabanne moves the camera around with surprising fluidity, and also has a keen eye for an effective close up. Usually quite a workmanlike director (and once described by Kevin Brownlow as “one of the dullest directors of the silent film era”), here Cabanne ups his game quite a bit, and the result is appealing and engrossing in equal measure. It’s no masterpiece, to be sure, but it is a lot of fun.

Rating: 7/10 – amusing and affecting in equal measure with confident performances throughout, Hearts of Humanity is a modest movie that, at the same time, has no intention of hiding its light under a bushel; in many ways a simple tale but told in such a persuasive style that the viewer can’t help but be absorbed by it.

Everywhen (2013)

06 Tuesday May 2014

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Alternate reality, Elin Synnøve Braathen, Harald Evjan Furuholmen, Hugo Herrman, Jarand Breian Herdal, Jens Peder Hertzberg, Microchips, Norway, Police, Review, Sci-fi, Special effects, Student project

D: Jarand Breian Herdal / 70m

Cast: Harald Evjan Furuholmen, Hugo Herrman, Elin Synnøve Braathen, Graeme Whittington, Hauk Phillip Bugge, Rune Dennis Tønnesen, Ruben Løfgren, Gjermund Gjesme, Joseph Whittington

Set some time in the future, Everywhen shows us a world where teleportation is in common everyday usage, and education exists in the form of microchips that can be inserted into a device in a person’s wrist. Otherwise it’s a fairly normal world, not too far removed from the world of today. We meet Ian (Furuholmen), a teenager who is looking after his much younger, adopted brother, Dylan (Bugge) while their parents are away. For reasons that are left unexplained, Dylan decides to take his own life one day while Ian heads off to work; he leaves a note in Ian’s pocket that he finds later on. Ian teleports back home but finds Dylan is missing.

What Ian does find is that the world has changed. The home he and Dylan share is different, less well cared for. Outside the streets are strangely empty. The police, led by Jane Scott (Braathen), are doing their best to find out what has happened to what started out as a few thousand people, but has now reached three billion. One of the police’s tech assistants discovers a correlation between the disappearances and eight a.m. when the majority of people are teleporting to get to work, but it still doesn’t solve the problem of where they’re disappearing to (or if they’ll ever come back).

Meanwhile, Ian is surprised by a teenager with a gun (Herrman). The teenager – never named but called The Helper in the credits – wants to know what Ian is doing in his home. After a fight in which neither can best the other, and as the nature of Ian’s predicament deepens (here Dylan is the Helper’s younger blood relative, and he’s also disappeared), they agree to work together to find a solution to the wider problem going on around them. This involves tracking down the creator of the teleportation system, Thomas Wilfred (Graeme Whittington). Wilfred tells them his teleportation system is the cause of the disappearances, as he has been a victim of it himself, and is now aware that the system is a way of connecting not only with the world, or reality, that it was created in, but a vast number of other worlds/realities as well. The drawback is that no one can travel back to their own world unless they use a particular chip…and the last two are kept in Wilfred’s office. Ian and the Helper must find and use the chips – and avoiding the police, who are on the same track – if they are to have any chance of getting back and saving Dylan.

Originally a school project, Everywhen is the brainchild of director Herdal (who also co-wrote the script with Elrik Moe) and editor/visual effects designer/sound mixer Jens Peder Hertzberg, and while certain allowances have to be made on account of their age and their experience when making the movie – they were both seventeen year old students – these don’t impair the movie too much, and it’s a refreshing take on a well-established sci-fi trope. With often impressive visuals, and a good feel for widescreen compositions, Herdal and Hetzberg have created a future world that is instantly recognisable but which also introduces significant differences to make the audience aware of just when everything is happening (a holographic touch-screen device outside a school giving opening times etc. is a clever idea). The added discrepancies between the “real” world and the world Ian finds himself in are also well thought out and often subtle enough to avoid detection on first viewing, and it’s a testament to the amount of time and consideration they’ve put into the project that these things are executed so effectively.

That said, one decision almost threatens to undermine the movie completely. Having taken the decision to use an amateur cast throughout – and it’s obvious this is the case – the further decision to shoot entirely in English for an international release hampers things tremendously. It’s difficult to work out exactly, but Graeme Whittington aside, there are times when it seems as if some of the dialogue is being delivered phonetically, and this can become frustrating at times, especially if the scene is largely expositional. But while some of the performances suffer as a result, the overall effect is one that adds, strangely, to the mix. Furuholmen and Herrman both make impressive debuts (even if Herrman does overplay the disaffected teenager once too often for comfort), and there’s strong support from Braathen and Tønnesen (as a policeman), though some of the smaller roles seem to have been filled by friends or co-students of the movie’s creators (nearly all of the police tech assistants look way too young to be working there).

With its themes surrounding what constitutes reality, and the use of highly dangerous technology as a social improvement, Everywhen isn’t the brainless, action-heavy sci-fi thriller you might expect from a couple of students who’ve obviously lifted elements from other sci-fi movies – The Matrix (1999) and Twelve Monkeys (1995) to name just a couple – but a mature, well-constructed movie that offers some thought-provoking ideas, as well as a strong emotional basis, for its storyline. The special effects are of a consistent and polished nature that put pretty much every SyFy release to shame, and the score by William Edward offers an often striking counterpoint to events occurring on screen, as well as adding to the tension of the action scenes.

Rating: 7/10 – a good first offering from Herdal and Hertzberg, Everywhen gives more than a hint of what these two guys could do with a decent budget and a professional cast; an intriguing idea presented in a surprisingly effective way and well worth seeking out.

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (1962)

04 Sunday May 2014

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Blind swordsman, Feudal Japan, Kan Shimozawa, Masseur, Otane, Review, Sasagawa, Shintarô Katsu, Yoshiro, Zatoichi

Original title: Zoku Zatôichi monogatari

D: Kazuo Mori / 72m

Cast: Shintarô Katsu, Yaeko Mizutani, Masayo Banri, Tomisaburô Wakayama, Yutaka Nakamura, Sonosuke Sawamura, Shôsaku Sugiyama, Mitsuemon Arashi, Yoshito Yamaji, Eijirô Yanagi

Made to capitalise on the unexpected success of The Tale of Zatoichi (1962), the imaginatively titled The Tale of Zatoichi Continues sees the blind masseur (Katsu) making his way back to Sasagawa, to honour the promise he made in the first movie, to make an annual pilgrimage to the grave of Master Hirate, the ailing samurai he fought and killed a year ago. An initial altercation with the men of Lord Kuroda leads to a further encounter that is interrupted (and dealt with) by a wandering samurai called Yoshiro (Wakayama – though credited as Kenzaburo Jo). At the next town, Zatoichi is hired to give a massage to the same Lord Kuroda, who it turns out, is a simpleton. Kuroda’s retainers, fearing that their Lord’s secret may be revealed by Zatoichi, aim to have him killed, and send their men to look for him.

At a nearby inn, three courtesans are bemoaning how quiet the evening is because of the search for Zatoichi. One of the three women, Setsu (Mizutani) reminds him of his lost love, Ochiyo. He asks to spend the evening with her, and she agrees. Just then, Yoshiro and his retainer, Sanzo (Nakamura) enter (Zatoichi hides in case they’re Kuroda’s men). It becomes clear that Yoshiro was also in love with a woman called Ochiyo, and Setsu bears an uncanny resemblance to her. He too wants to spend the evening with her but she refuses, and she leaves with Zatoichi. The next morning, Koruda’s men catch up with them, but Zatoichi bests them. This leads Kuroda’s retainers to employ the services and men of local yakuza boss, Kanbei (Sawamura). Kanbei’s men also fail to best Zatoichi but learn that he is making his way to the Joshoji Temple in Sasagawa; Kanbei aims to enlist the aid of that town’s yakuza boss, Sukegorô (Yanagi).

Yoshiro follows in Zatoichi’s wake and we discover he isn’t a wandering samurai but a wanted criminal. He seeks help from Sukegorô but is advised to leave the area. Meanwhile, news of Zatoichi’s return reaches Otane (Banri), the servant girl he left behind at the end of the previous movie. She learns of Sukegorô and Kanbei’s plan to ambush Zatoichi at the temple and goes to warn him. With Zatoichi able to repel both boss’s men, the fight is interrupted by the appearance of Yoshiro, and the two men duel to the death, during which the secret behind the story of Ochiyo is revealed.

Although you could be forgiven for thinking that The Tale of Zatoichi Continues is a bit of a cheap knock-off, a knee-jerk reaction to the success of the first movie, nothing could be further from the truth. True, the much shorter running time hints at that, but this is a worthy successor, and builds on the themes of betrayal and redemption that were introduced before. The way in which Minoru Inuzuka’s script brings everything full circle back to the bridge at Sasagawa where Zatoichi and Hirate fought, is cleverly done and resonates in a way that is completely unexpected. This is a sequel that could easily have been added to its predecessor for a much longer – and in some ways – more satisfying introduction to its wonderfully complex character.

The events of the first movie are given due reference, and allow Zatoichi’s skills as a swordsman to be used to good advantage, alternately hastening and delaying the expected swordplay, and allowing for a variety of encounters that are expertly choreographed (with the necessary exception of the final duel between Zatoichi and Yoshiro; it shows the blind swordsman isn’t as superhuman as his enemies might think, and the movie is all the better for it). Returning characters Otane and Sukegorô (both played by the same actors as before), though given less to do, are both welcome elements, and their involvement lends an added depth to the final third of the movie, while the newer characters are played to perfection by a cast that are entirely credible throughout (as the brooding Yoshiro, Wakayama is a stand out). As with the first movie, the cast don’t put a foot wrong, but it’s still very much Katsu’s movie, another superb performance given added depth with the revelation of his having a lost love: when he describes how she left him – and for the very man she professed to hate – the expression of pain and longing on Katsu’s face is truly moving.

There is an added layer of humour this time round, as well as a more compelling female relationship for Zatoichi to deal with, and a hint of how the series is likely to develop, further enriching what is already a rewarding viewing experience. Shot again in glorious black and white, the movie is often beautiful to watch – witness the scene where Zatoichi muses at the edge of a lake – and director Mori, while not adopting completely the style and look of the first movie, does show a willingness to experiment with unexpected shots and compositions (several scenes are shot from above, while one fight scene is filmed from such a distance it would be jarring if it weren’t also such a pleasant surprise).

Rating: 9/10 – a wonderful follow-up to The Tale of Zatoichi and confirmation if any were needed that the character’s development for cinema was no flash in the pan; intelligent, robust filmmaking that satisfies and rewards in so many ways it’s like a banquet.

I, Frankenstein (2014)

03 Saturday May 2014

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Aaron Eckhart, Action, Adam, Angels, Bill Nighy, Demons, Frankenstein, Gargoyles, Mary Shelley, Miranda Otto, Monster, Review, Victor Frankenstein

D: Stuart Beattie / 92m

Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, Miranda Otto, Yvonne Strahovski, Jai Courtney, Socratis Otto, Aden Young, Caitlin Stasey, Mahesh Jadu, Nicholas Bell

Dispensing with Mary Shelley’s novel in the first five minutes, I, Frankenstein – the title doesn’t mean anything until the very end – takes the basic template established by the Underworld movies but to avoid accusations of complete plagiarism, swaps vampires and werewolves for angels (in the form of gargoyles) and demons, and allows Kate Beckinsale a well earned rest from all the leather-clad slaying she had to do. Now it’s Aaron Eckhart’s turn to shoulder the hopes of a would-be franchise opener.

Sadly, he’s hamstrung from the start. Victor Frankenstein (Young) – having perished in the northern wastes searching for his creation (Eckhart) – is about to be buried in his family cemetery by said creature when a band of demons attack the monster. Nearby, gargoyles watch the scene with interest, but before Frankenstein’s creation can be captured – and Frankenstein’s journal detailing his experiments – the gargoyles intervene and the demons are “descended” – sent back to Hell from whence they can never return. Brought back to their hideout, the creature learns that the gargoyles are, in fact, angels, sworn to defend mankind from the threat of Naberius (Nighy) and his demons. Their Queen, Leonore (Otto), names the creature Adam, and seeks his aid in defeating the demons but he chooses to leave and go his own way; Frankenstein’s journal stays with the gargoyles.

Over the next two hundred years, Adam devotes his time to tracking down and killing demons wherever he can find them. In the present day, an encounter leads to the death of a human. Outraged by this, the gargoyles capture Adam and plan to keep him that way to avoid any further human casualties. Leonore’s second-in-command, Gideon (Courtney) is all for destroying Adam, but she refuses; however an assault on the gargoyles’ base by a horde of demons led by Zuriel (Socratis Otto) makes it all a moot point as Adam is released to defend himself and aid the gargoyles. In the melee, Leonore is captured. An exchange is set up: the journal for Leonore’s safe return, but Adam intervenes, saving the Queen but letting Zuriel escape with the journal.

The journal’s importance becomes clear as we learn of Naberius’ plan to reanimate thousands upon thousands of corpses using Frankenstein’s work. He employs Terra (Strahovski) to solve the problem of reanimation but she has no idea of his true motives. Adam infiltrates the demons’ hideout and discovers (quite easily) what’s going on. He escapes (with the journal), and later coerces Terra into helping him. Naberius forges ahead with his plan, forcing Terra’s colleague Carl (Bell) to finish the process. Adam leads the gargoyles to the demons’ hideout for one last ditch effort to stop the corpses being reanimated and inhabited by fallen demons (and by extension, save mankind etc. etc.).

Based on the comic book by Kevin Grevioux (who also has a small role and was responsible for the Underworld series), I, Frankenstein conforms to that series’ visual styling, with thick greys and steely blues dominating the palette throughout with only the bursts of flame that signify a demon’s descending to alleviate the gloom. There’s the usual over-reliance on wanton destruction and well-choreographed if now slightly generic action beats, a plot that puts a stranglehold on logic and common sense, character motivations that often change from scene to scene, emotive outbursts that come and go without acknowledgement, twists and turns that you can see coming from a century away, acting that veers from unintentionally hilarious to po-faced in its attempts to be serious, direction that makes the action sequences feel flat and uninvolving (as well as confusing), dialogue that even the most dedicated actors – and Eckhart, Nighy and Otto in particular are no slouches – could ever add credibility to, and a stubborn refusal to be anything other than a mess of half-realised intentions and sub-par dramatics.

The problem with I, Frankenstein (and pretty much all the other action fantasy movies that clog up our screens) is its inability to give even its target audience something new to enjoy. Any fan of this particular genre will be disappointed by the lack of invention here, and while no one’s expecting Shakespeare, would it really have hurt the process to provide some depth to things, some gravitas? The story of Frankenstein’s creation is a tragedy, but here the character is reduced to the kind of hate-filled killing machine that wouldn’t look out of place in a vigilante movie; it’s a one-note characterisation that undermines both the character’s legacy and its iconic status. (In the end credits, Mary Shelley receives Special Thanks, but it’s hard to tell if the filmmakers are being ironic or genuine.)

Movies like this will always be green-lit by studios or find investors because they generally make their money back through ancillary sales – and hey, bad movies get made every day anyway – but what galls this particular reviewer is that nobody seems to want to make a movie that isn’t so derivative of every other movie like it. There’s something to be said for giving the audience what they want, but as the box office returns for I, Frankenstein have proved, too much of a (relatively) good thing can be off-putting. At this stage a sequel is probably inevitable and if it is, let’s hope whoever takes up the reins decides to take a little more care with the material and its presentation, and maybe tries something a little bit more interesting and/or different (though I’m betting they won’t).

Rating: 3/10 – a bad movie through and through with some dreadful performances (Courtney, Strahovski) married to a dreadful script and direction (both courtesy of Beattie), and a dreadful misappropriation of a classic literary character; I, Frankenstein should be avoided at all costs, and doesn’t even rate as a guilty pleasure.

Mini-Review: Baggage Claim (2013)

02 Friday May 2014

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Adam Brody, Air stewardess, David E. Talbert, Derek Luke, Djimon Hounsou, Engagement, Ex-boyfriends, Jill Scott, Paula Patton, Review, Romantic comedy

D: David E. Talbert / 96m

Cast: Paula Patton, Derek Luke, Taye Diggs, Adam Brody, Jill Scott, Jenifer Lewis, Boris Kodjoe, Tremaine Neverson, Djimon Hounsou, Lauren London, Christina Milian, Ned Beatty

Adapted from his own novel, writer/director Talbert’s ode to the apparent perils of being female, thirty and unmarried, Baggage Claim is a low-key attempt to add something a little bit different to the usual slew of rom-coms hitting our screens these days. Focusing on air stewardess Montana (Patton), the movie opens with her receiving a romantic invitation to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Graham (Kodjoe). When Montana finds out that Graham is married (and with a pregnant wife), she all but gives up on finding Mr Right. To make matters worse, her younger sister Sheree (London) announces she’s getting married – and she’s still in college. Consoled by colleagues Gail (Scott) and Sam (Brody), Montana is encouraged to look up her old boyfriends to see if any of them might still be interested in her. With the airline they work for being used as a means of locating these men, Montana “accidentally” bumps into them on flights they make across the country. The outcomes of these meetings vary, and by the time of her sister’s rehearsal dinner – when she’s promised to attend with the “new man” in her life – Montana is on the verge of having to make a potentially life-changing decision, but one that won’t involve getting married.

Baggage Claim‘s main strength is that it’s not trying to compete with the Bridesmaids or Bachelorette’s of this world, and is rather an old-fashioned kind of rom-com, with a sympathetic lead character, a traditional romantic hurdle to overcome, and most of the really funny moments provided courtesy of the supporting characters (Scott is hilarious as the boulder-bosomed Gail). Montana’s Mr Right will come as no surprise to anyone, and the road to true love is littered with the usual obstacles and pitfalls. If it all sounds entirely predictable, then you’d be right, but Baggage Claim has a light-hearted sureness of touch that makes it a small-scale winner, and with pleasing performances from Patton, Luke, Diggs and Brody (amongst others), this is one rom-com that doesn’t disappoint on its way to the airport.

Rating: 7/10 – amusing and rewarding throughout, Baggage Claim is a rom-com with lo-cal sweetness; the only question is how come so many men passed over Montana in the first place…when she looks like Paula Patton?

The Last Days on Mars (2013)

01 Thursday May 2014

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Bacteria, Elias Koteas, Irish Film Board, Jordan, Liev Schreiber, Mars, Review, Romola Garai, Ruairi Robinson, Sci-fi

D: Ruairi Robinson / 98m

Cast: Liev Schreiber, Elias Koteas, Romola Garai, Olivia Williams, Johnny Harris, Goran Kostic, Tom Cullen, Yusra Warsama

With less than twenty hours to go before their time on Mars is to end, a team of scientists winding up their six month stay as part of the Aurora 2 mission are thrown into peril when one of the team, Marko Petrovic (Kostic), with colleague Richard Harrington (Cullen), goes to check on a broken sensor rather than attend a last briefing. Marko has an ulterior motive for going, one that the rest of the team find out about while he journeys away from their command centre. It appears there is life on Mars, at a microbial level, but just as Marko discovers this the ground beneath him gives way and he plunges into a cavern. Harrington is unable to save or rescue him, but he does notify the rest of the team. Headed by senior officer Charles Brunel (Koteas), a rescue team consisting of Brunel, systems specialist Vincent Campbell (Schreiber), and scientist Kim Aldrich (Williams) attempts to rescue Marko’s body, and discover the whereabouts of medic Lauren Dalby (Warsama) who was left to watch over the site while rescue apparatus was obtained from the command centre.

However, Marko’s body and Dalby have disappeared, but Campbell sees the microbial organism (though he can’t describe it properly). As the rescue team heads back, two figures appear on the scanners, heading for the command centre. Harrington lets the first of them in, and it proves to be Marko… or at least, what remains of Marko. Affected by the microbial organism, Marko attacks Harrington and the remainder of the team before being joined by an equally altered Dalby. The rescue team returns and they and the rest of the (unaffected) crew trap Marko and Dalby in part of the command centre, but not before Brunel has been badly wounded. With their communications to Aurora base compromised, Campbell tries to reboot the system, but has to do so by himself, leaving the rest of the team to fend off Marko and Dalby’s attempts to get to them. When things go from bad to worse, Campbell, and scientists Rebecca Lane (Garai) and Robert Irwin (Harris), head for the Aurora rendezvous point in the hope that they can alert Aurora base and stop any of the infected team from being picked up.

With Jordan standing in for Mars, the movie’s exteriors look suitably other-worldly, and the Martian Rovers the team uses to get around in are quite impressive, leaving the look and feel of the movie well-grounded and believable. For a relatively low-budget production, this UK/Irish co-production looks ten times better than it should – hats off to production designer Jon Henson – and the special effects are uniformly excellent.

But – and yes, this is a very predictable ‘but’ – the storyline doesn’t match the quality of the look of the movie. Adapted from the short story, The Animators, by Sydney J. Bounds, Clive Dawson’s script has its scientific team behave in ways that make you want to slap your forehead and cry, Really? From Marko’s initial lying about going to check on the sensor, to Harrington’s letting Marko in without any attempt at decontamination (shown quite clearly as protocol before then), to Irwin’s sudden decision to betray a teammate, while these things obviously advance the storyline, they make a nonsense of these people being (hopefully) highly trained and motivated, not to mention well chosen for the mission. And none of them spot that the microbial organism craves water – though why it should turn the crew into homicidal maniacs is another question entirely – and none of them think to arm themselves at any time despite the obvious threat.

There’s also some scientific anomalies that rankle as well, like the EVA suits that have a limitless supply of oxygen, and the likelihood of the microbial organism behaving as if it has a hive mind. There’s an attempt to kill it using antibiotics but this serves only to highlight the resemblances to both The Thing (1982) – testing the antibiotics on a restrained Brunel – and Alien (1979) – the last remaining threat to Campbell’s escape from Mars being expelled from an airlock. These moments only add to the disappointment that accrues as the movie progresses, and while Robinson maintains a good pace throughout and keeps a firm hand on proceedings, the movie often stumbles with the weight of its contrivances. The cast do their best – Schreiber and Koteas put in their usual committed performances – but are hampered by having to behave in such unconvincing ways.

Rating: 5/10 – hamstrung by playing to too many stock situations and character development, The Last Days on Mars starts off well but goes downhill quicker than Marko down a crater; great visuals compensate for the poor plot and storyline, but there’s still the small fact that the movie should more accurately be called The Last Hours on Mars.

thedullwoodexperiment

~ Viewing movies in a different light

Monthly Archives: May 2014

Bad Asses (2014)

Dr. Jekyll and His Women (1981)

Wicked Blood (2014)

Knights of Badassdom (2013)

Sabotage (2014)

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Mini-Review: Closed Circuit (2013)

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Worst Movie Remakes…Ever!

Godzilla (2014)

We 3 (2011)

In a World… (2013)

Snowpiercer (2013)

The Lucky One (2012)

3 Days to Kill (2014)

Molly Maxwell (2013)

Pompeii (2014)

Hearts of Humanity (1932)

Everywhen (2013)

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (1962)

I, Frankenstein (2014)

Mini-Review: Baggage Claim (2013)

The Last Days on Mars (2013)

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