6/10
In all honesty, when this remake was first announced, I really thought it would be much more of a train wreck than it actually is.
Granted, silliness wins over horror and Cruise is never anything less than punchable, but during this film there is genuine excitement at times.
Spoilers follow.
The initial reveal of the alien craft is well done (if a little too reminiscent of Independence Day) and the decision to bury the tripods benefits from never being explained; presumably the aliens awaited the rise of a species they could harvest for the weed's benefit, but there is no point on the family's journey where they would know this so we're not either.
There's also a, by now clichéd use of Morgan Freeman as the narrator at the start and end - laughing all the way to the bank since there's no reason it couldn't just use anyone - even Burton's voice from Jeff Wayne's musical version must be cheaper than an A-List Hollywood actor!
Spielberg always has a screwed up family if he can, and he's to be applauded here for following through with his premise and making Cruise's character an utterly atrocious father, selfish, dim, petty and impatient.
However, the film shortcuts on a couple of vital points.
First his son is clearly killed in a gigantic explosion and resurrected in time for an emotional ending without any explanation (not even a flashback of him hiding in a hole or something?) which reduces credibility from that thread of the tale.
Second, while this globe spanning conflict goes on, destroying cities, killing thousands, Cruise's wife and her parents just sit about at her mum and dads - apparently unmolested and with no structural damage caused to the building at all.
It's as if they all just sat about and had a cup of tea while waiting for the kids to arrive.
SO with these things undermining the film at the end, it's hard to be satisfied with the good things, like the panicky attempt to catch the ferry or the manic presence of Tim Robbins as a delusional ex cop (and his eventual fate is incredibly brave storytelling), leaving you remembering the films faults rather than its strengths. It's not a patch on the original - but that could be the motto of this blog, couldn't it?
'til next time, folks.
A
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Saturday, May 30, 2009
Movie Review: The Devil Wears Prada
5/10
Now, a little explanation as to what a straight man like myself was doing watching this through choice - it goes something like this.
I was on set recently with a young lady who, to my incredulity described this film as "(Her) Favourite Film" and further explained that it was more than just your typical run of the mill romantic comedy meets cheap knock off of Wall St.
Ah... let me explain that Wall St reference. In Wall Street a guy compromises his ideals in the hunt for success. After a while he realises the error of his ways and decides to be "true to himself".
Sadly, The Devil Wears Prada is a cheap knock off of the Wall St formula. Only without half its balls.
Take this as an example of how toothless this film is - supposedly the world of fashion is shallow, crass and cut throat. Our heroine (Perfectly fine performance by Anne Hathaway) is dragged into it and actually has one of those dream makeover sequences where she becomes a gorgeous fashionista. Rather than depict this as an, if you like, indoctrination, it's actually shown as life affirming and lovely.
This is later followed by some casual cheating on her boyfriend, being used as a slave for a bit, but in the end it's all been a wonderful experience and helps out her future as a serious journalist.
Gah! It's infuriating.
Supposedly the makers had trouble getting real fashion folk to take part in this film because it offended some high ups in the magazine trade - I really don't see how unless they're supremely thin skinned simpletons who... oh.
Thanks, woman on set - you wasted some of my life.
If I ever see her again, I'm telling her she HAS to see The Strangers. I'll do it, I'm THAT angry!
A
See the full post by clicking here...
Now, a little explanation as to what a straight man like myself was doing watching this through choice - it goes something like this.
I was on set recently with a young lady who, to my incredulity described this film as "(Her) Favourite Film" and further explained that it was more than just your typical run of the mill romantic comedy meets cheap knock off of Wall St.
Ah... let me explain that Wall St reference. In Wall Street a guy compromises his ideals in the hunt for success. After a while he realises the error of his ways and decides to be "true to himself".
Sadly, The Devil Wears Prada is a cheap knock off of the Wall St formula. Only without half its balls.
Take this as an example of how toothless this film is - supposedly the world of fashion is shallow, crass and cut throat. Our heroine (Perfectly fine performance by Anne Hathaway) is dragged into it and actually has one of those dream makeover sequences where she becomes a gorgeous fashionista. Rather than depict this as an, if you like, indoctrination, it's actually shown as life affirming and lovely.
This is later followed by some casual cheating on her boyfriend, being used as a slave for a bit, but in the end it's all been a wonderful experience and helps out her future as a serious journalist.
Gah! It's infuriating.
Supposedly the makers had trouble getting real fashion folk to take part in this film because it offended some high ups in the magazine trade - I really don't see how unless they're supremely thin skinned simpletons who... oh.
Thanks, woman on set - you wasted some of my life.
If I ever see her again, I'm telling her she HAS to see The Strangers. I'll do it, I'm THAT angry!
A
See the full post by clicking here...
Movie Review: Rashomon
8/10
Hello again faithful reader, today lets look at why Kurosawa's Rashomon got a worse mark than Seven Samurai.
Of course, it's a subject scary enough to scare any reviewer into a fortnight's procrastination - after all, there's no questioning that Rashomon is an extremely accomplished piece of work - sort of a prototype for all fractured narratives yet to come.
It tells the tale of a trial, held in the immediate past, of a bandit (played by the ever watchable Mifune) in which none of the witness testimonies agree and of two participants' disillusionment with the nature of truth and the honesty of humanity as a result.
I'll discuss my views below, but beware of spoilers, hence why I break here - follow the link for the full review.
My main problem here is that the stories are so incompatible that no reconciliation or indeed "eureka" moment is possible. It's not quite the parallel I need, but remember how wonderful it was in Usual Suspects when all the unanswered questions suddenly revealed themselves? How you realised where and when you ahd been tricked - only to watch again immediately and see that, yes, you were taken in but the evidence was there.#
The similar revelation dragged out of the witnesss at the end of this film has no such effect. No such answers are given. We know no more about events than we did - merely that the story the last witness told is a lie. We don't know who killed the samurai, or the true reaction of the wife.
In fact, we know precisely nothing about anything. Since none of the stories are compatible, they are useless to construct your own opinion, even a prejudiced one; surely the aim of the piece.
Not too much of a problem from the point of view of this film on its own, but I would have preffered something approaching an opinion in my head of what really happened.
This left me a little unsatisfied as a result.
Probably the greater problem is the lack of a single likable character in the whole tale. No matter what version of the tale is told, the woman is hateful, either manipulative and spiteful (understandably annoyed - I would be) or just plain strange.
The Bandit, played by Toshiro Mifune is irritating, arrogant and detestably garrolous (again, understandable since he's a rapist). I love Mifune, but here he's actually annoying, especially since his performance is frequently punctuated by a particularly false sounding pantomime laugh.
Even the samurai and the witnesses are self absorbed, selfish and cold.
These factors do not reduce the film's accomplishments in style and atmosphere, particularly in the medium's section where she conjures up the spirit of the samurai husband to testify (surely that would never stand up in court?) and manages to be utterly terrifying as well as sad and moving in parts.
SO the film is a success, but a qualified one, since unlike the later film its story failed to connect with me on a deep level. It was still quite a ride, though.
A
See the full post by clicking here...
Hello again faithful reader, today lets look at why Kurosawa's Rashomon got a worse mark than Seven Samurai.
Of course, it's a subject scary enough to scare any reviewer into a fortnight's procrastination - after all, there's no questioning that Rashomon is an extremely accomplished piece of work - sort of a prototype for all fractured narratives yet to come.
It tells the tale of a trial, held in the immediate past, of a bandit (played by the ever watchable Mifune) in which none of the witness testimonies agree and of two participants' disillusionment with the nature of truth and the honesty of humanity as a result.
I'll discuss my views below, but beware of spoilers, hence why I break here - follow the link for the full review.
My main problem here is that the stories are so incompatible that no reconciliation or indeed "eureka" moment is possible. It's not quite the parallel I need, but remember how wonderful it was in Usual Suspects when all the unanswered questions suddenly revealed themselves? How you realised where and when you ahd been tricked - only to watch again immediately and see that, yes, you were taken in but the evidence was there.#
The similar revelation dragged out of the witnesss at the end of this film has no such effect. No such answers are given. We know no more about events than we did - merely that the story the last witness told is a lie. We don't know who killed the samurai, or the true reaction of the wife.
In fact, we know precisely nothing about anything. Since none of the stories are compatible, they are useless to construct your own opinion, even a prejudiced one; surely the aim of the piece.
Not too much of a problem from the point of view of this film on its own, but I would have preffered something approaching an opinion in my head of what really happened.
This left me a little unsatisfied as a result.
Probably the greater problem is the lack of a single likable character in the whole tale. No matter what version of the tale is told, the woman is hateful, either manipulative and spiteful (understandably annoyed - I would be) or just plain strange.
The Bandit, played by Toshiro Mifune is irritating, arrogant and detestably garrolous (again, understandable since he's a rapist). I love Mifune, but here he's actually annoying, especially since his performance is frequently punctuated by a particularly false sounding pantomime laugh.
Even the samurai and the witnesses are self absorbed, selfish and cold.
These factors do not reduce the film's accomplishments in style and atmosphere, particularly in the medium's section where she conjures up the spirit of the samurai husband to testify (surely that would never stand up in court?) and manages to be utterly terrifying as well as sad and moving in parts.
SO the film is a success, but a qualified one, since unlike the later film its story failed to connect with me on a deep level. It was still quite a ride, though.
A
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Movie Review: Hound Of The Baskervilles (Hammer Version)
4/10
Ah, the wonderful Hammer studios, equally at home botching any form of film or any story.
I love my B-Movies, and in Hammer's Dracula series of movies I have occasionally escaped the pressures of watching stuff that's suposed to be good, and in some cases been pleasantly surprised by their quality (as in the excellent Scars Of Dracula) or horrified by their crazy decisions (The Kung Fu meets Dracula meet Van Helsing brainmelt of Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires).
But Hammer made lots of other stuff, seemingly without any desire to stick to the plots or characters depending on who they cast. Their first Dracula veers away from the original book almost immediately and this version of Sherlock Holmes' most famous case takes similar liberties with the material.
That's not always going to be a bad thing, but for anyone knowing this story so well, the decision to change Henry Baskerville (a man from the states) to Christopher Lee, whose Henry lives in Johannesburg presumably so that Lee doesn't have to do an accent, smacks of "hell, we've got to cast Chris in this!"
Of course, it also requires the audience to believe in Christopher Lee as a romantic lead - a task at which he fails utterly probably due to the half century of typecasting he has suffered as much as his inherently stiff acting style.
The worse crime is the alteration of Stapleton from the odd but friendly butterfly collector of the original text into a surly poacher and his "wife" into his daughter, presumably to titillate the audience with someone young enough to recall the young ladies from the horror movies.
This changes the whole relationship of the characters to Stapleton and his daughter and unlike in the original story suspicion immediately falls on the rude angry poacher and his smoking hot daughter since they're acting so strangely.
Cushing's Holmes is a bit more interesting, best described as "chippy", impatient and grumpy with all the obfuscation on the part of the inhabitants of the hall and its surrounds. But his period spent away from the action is explained in sudden bursts of speech after he reappears ("ah yes, Seldon said...") which does not really solve the central problem of this story, which is that it is not particularly celluloid friendly when your hero sods off for the middle third and then has to explain everything that happened while he was away.
Rather than do this in flashback they rely on the worse approach of having Holmes explain how he knew about things after it no longer matters, taking the audience's participation out of the equation since they are not party to enough information to judge who is guilty (except the fact the culprit is depicted as scum from the first time you meet them).
Well, this is one the weaker versions of one of the weaker Holmes tales, and can be avoided without any major effects.
A
See the full post by clicking here...
Ah, the wonderful Hammer studios, equally at home botching any form of film or any story.
I love my B-Movies, and in Hammer's Dracula series of movies I have occasionally escaped the pressures of watching stuff that's suposed to be good, and in some cases been pleasantly surprised by their quality (as in the excellent Scars Of Dracula) or horrified by their crazy decisions (The Kung Fu meets Dracula meet Van Helsing brainmelt of Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires).
But Hammer made lots of other stuff, seemingly without any desire to stick to the plots or characters depending on who they cast. Their first Dracula veers away from the original book almost immediately and this version of Sherlock Holmes' most famous case takes similar liberties with the material.
That's not always going to be a bad thing, but for anyone knowing this story so well, the decision to change Henry Baskerville (a man from the states) to Christopher Lee, whose Henry lives in Johannesburg presumably so that Lee doesn't have to do an accent, smacks of "hell, we've got to cast Chris in this!"
Of course, it also requires the audience to believe in Christopher Lee as a romantic lead - a task at which he fails utterly probably due to the half century of typecasting he has suffered as much as his inherently stiff acting style.
The worse crime is the alteration of Stapleton from the odd but friendly butterfly collector of the original text into a surly poacher and his "wife" into his daughter, presumably to titillate the audience with someone young enough to recall the young ladies from the horror movies.
This changes the whole relationship of the characters to Stapleton and his daughter and unlike in the original story suspicion immediately falls on the rude angry poacher and his smoking hot daughter since they're acting so strangely.
Cushing's Holmes is a bit more interesting, best described as "chippy", impatient and grumpy with all the obfuscation on the part of the inhabitants of the hall and its surrounds. But his period spent away from the action is explained in sudden bursts of speech after he reappears ("ah yes, Seldon said...") which does not really solve the central problem of this story, which is that it is not particularly celluloid friendly when your hero sods off for the middle third and then has to explain everything that happened while he was away.
Rather than do this in flashback they rely on the worse approach of having Holmes explain how he knew about things after it no longer matters, taking the audience's participation out of the equation since they are not party to enough information to judge who is guilty (except the fact the culprit is depicted as scum from the first time you meet them).
Well, this is one the weaker versions of one of the weaker Holmes tales, and can be avoided without any major effects.
A
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Saturday, May 16, 2009
Movie Review: Flight Of The Phoenix (2004)
5/10
I must admit, I've not seen the original movie on which this is based, but I can't help wondering if it was really this slight.
The crew of a failed Oil Rig are picked up in a plane to be demobbed; they include a suspiciously well balanced cross section of humanity. A bolshy woman (Miranda Otto) a hispanic guy, african americans, a middle eastern guy and even an Englishman (Hugh Laurie doing his best stuffed shirt impression).
In fact, the only general grouping not represented fully are those from the "far east", a strange fact since they're in the Mongolian part of the Gobi desert and later just inside the Chinese border. Weird.
Oh, and the two leads are Dennis Quaid doing his best Kevin Costner impression as well as Giovanni Ribisi transcending the pedestrian material as he always does.
It's tough to describe a film that has the ending described in its title, and its story being so simple to be described as "they build a plane".
In fact, since the plot is so slight, the makers insist on creating false tension, be it through making folk behave entirely irrationally and walking off into the desert alone, or by introducing a troupe of nomads, who wait until the most ridiculous moment to charge the heroes and hence provide little more than a moment of confusion at that crucial stage.
Now, supposedly the story then becomes about the interactions between the characters, but these are reduced to little more than forced sections of camaraderie (complete with terrorist fist bumps galore) and people arguing about what to do, when their position is so desperate as to force the only possible option, one that incidentally almost no crash victims get.
So it was a reasonably amusing way to spend some time - not clever, not exciting and with more than a little half hearted manipulation (ooh someone we don't give a crap about just died) and some extremely irritating editing.
A
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I must admit, I've not seen the original movie on which this is based, but I can't help wondering if it was really this slight.
The crew of a failed Oil Rig are picked up in a plane to be demobbed; they include a suspiciously well balanced cross section of humanity. A bolshy woman (Miranda Otto) a hispanic guy, african americans, a middle eastern guy and even an Englishman (Hugh Laurie doing his best stuffed shirt impression).
In fact, the only general grouping not represented fully are those from the "far east", a strange fact since they're in the Mongolian part of the Gobi desert and later just inside the Chinese border. Weird.
Oh, and the two leads are Dennis Quaid doing his best Kevin Costner impression as well as Giovanni Ribisi transcending the pedestrian material as he always does.
It's tough to describe a film that has the ending described in its title, and its story being so simple to be described as "they build a plane".
In fact, since the plot is so slight, the makers insist on creating false tension, be it through making folk behave entirely irrationally and walking off into the desert alone, or by introducing a troupe of nomads, who wait until the most ridiculous moment to charge the heroes and hence provide little more than a moment of confusion at that crucial stage.
Now, supposedly the story then becomes about the interactions between the characters, but these are reduced to little more than forced sections of camaraderie (complete with terrorist fist bumps galore) and people arguing about what to do, when their position is so desperate as to force the only possible option, one that incidentally almost no crash victims get.
So it was a reasonably amusing way to spend some time - not clever, not exciting and with more than a little half hearted manipulation (ooh someone we don't give a crap about just died) and some extremely irritating editing.
A
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Quick Movie Review: The Day The World Ended
3/10
Lame.
Clea Duvall is about the only terrible thing missing from this diabolically scripted, acted and directed waste of time.
I think it may well be from the same stable as the truly atrocious How To Make A Monster, as it is a remake of an old B-Movie.
My concerns about the point of remaking B-Movies has not changed; I don't think there is one. Certainly not if they lack imagination, ideas and decent casts as this one does.
It concerns the events following the arrival of a big city psychologist in a small town (sigh) where she discovers a young boy who has a certain dark past and believes his father is an alien who imbued him with psychic powers.
That's really as good as it gets.
The psychologist is played by Natassya Kinski, acting in the style of a woman who has all her lines written on the co-stars' foreheads, constantly wearing a peering expression of confusion akin to a dog whose food has been taken away mid meal. She is barely supported at all by Randy Quaid, Stephen Toblowsky (for whom quality control is a myth) and that guy who played the mayor in season two of Buffy - all of whom bear the expressions and give the performances of those who are purely cheque fetching.
Fair enough, but for goodness sakes don't waste your time on this one. I mean it.
A
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Lame.
Clea Duvall is about the only terrible thing missing from this diabolically scripted, acted and directed waste of time.
I think it may well be from the same stable as the truly atrocious How To Make A Monster, as it is a remake of an old B-Movie.
My concerns about the point of remaking B-Movies has not changed; I don't think there is one. Certainly not if they lack imagination, ideas and decent casts as this one does.
It concerns the events following the arrival of a big city psychologist in a small town (sigh) where she discovers a young boy who has a certain dark past and believes his father is an alien who imbued him with psychic powers.
That's really as good as it gets.
The psychologist is played by Natassya Kinski, acting in the style of a woman who has all her lines written on the co-stars' foreheads, constantly wearing a peering expression of confusion akin to a dog whose food has been taken away mid meal. She is barely supported at all by Randy Quaid, Stephen Toblowsky (for whom quality control is a myth) and that guy who played the mayor in season two of Buffy - all of whom bear the expressions and give the performances of those who are purely cheque fetching.
Fair enough, but for goodness sakes don't waste your time on this one. I mean it.
A
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Quick Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code
5/10
So, when a film elicits little response other than "ho hum" you know there's something wrong.
The Dan Brown book on which this is based is a reasonably entertaining conspiracy story in which multiple characters talk on and on about the central idea - the alternative identity of the holy grail, a theory previously posited by the writers of "The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail".
Thing is, I don't know what's in this movie for anyone.
Fans of the book will be disappointed because of the lack of depth and the pace at which things are quickly passed over.
People who haven't read the book will be bored because the story, as in the book, consists mostly of people sitting about having a chat, and the occasional bursts of action are punctuated frequently with crammed in dialogue - notably in their flight from Teabing's mansion when they continue their conversation even while being chased - running for their lives.
Silly.
The book must be cheaper than the DvD, so get that if you're interested (and aren't one of the millions of folks who already read it) - don't waste your time on this one.
A
See the full post by clicking here...
So, when a film elicits little response other than "ho hum" you know there's something wrong.
The Dan Brown book on which this is based is a reasonably entertaining conspiracy story in which multiple characters talk on and on about the central idea - the alternative identity of the holy grail, a theory previously posited by the writers of "The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail".
Thing is, I don't know what's in this movie for anyone.
Fans of the book will be disappointed because of the lack of depth and the pace at which things are quickly passed over.
People who haven't read the book will be bored because the story, as in the book, consists mostly of people sitting about having a chat, and the occasional bursts of action are punctuated frequently with crammed in dialogue - notably in their flight from Teabing's mansion when they continue their conversation even while being chased - running for their lives.
Silly.
The book must be cheaper than the DvD, so get that if you're interested (and aren't one of the millions of folks who already read it) - don't waste your time on this one.
A
See the full post by clicking here...
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Movie Review: Star Trek
7/10
It is traditional that every review of this film starts with the writer's history with Star Trek, so here's mine.
I've always been a Trek fan, though nowhere near the obsessive level - many of the original episodes are exercises in kitsch - saying more about the sixties than they do about the future, and the later series, while technically superior were always slightly more political than exciting and verged on camp excess at the best of times.
Still, as a fun way to spend an hour as a child I loved it - starting with The Next Generation, which I watched in its entirety, and the later spin off Deep Space Nine which upped the politics at the expense of space battles. And there were always the original episodes repeated occasionally.
So you could say I know my subject to some extent, having a casual fan's experience, and after the hideous examples made by the most recent movies under the old "canon" (like Star Trek: Insurrection)the idea of a reboot (a very popular move since Batman Begins) came as a pleasant surprise.
Oh and for the true die hard fans, my favourite Star Trek Movie is VI: The Undiscovered Country, in case you're wanting to know. And it still is.
Maybe, for those not poisoned by the Trek bug, I should explain the word "canon" here, because we'll be talking about it later. It's simply the word used to cover the "official" timeline of events through all the shows and movies, adhered to reasonably well and protected by legions of fans who will scream at any new material violating the precious central throughlines (preventing, say, Kirk being a twin or something).
Sometimes in movie franchises (I'm looking at you, George Lucas) this can get a little confused and is subject to what is known as "retrospective continuity"; like Han Solo shooting first, or all the different versions of Bruce Wayne's family getting killed. These are done retrospectively to serve the new, updated, purposes of the filmmakers.
When done badly it really grates with folk - my personal favourite gripe is with Lucas' rejigging of Return Of The Jedi, so the Anakin we see is Hayden Christiansen rather than the old guy originally seen. The problem with that being that Hayden Christiansen is the same age he was in Episode III, raising more questions than we supposedly answered.
Anyhow, suffice to say that any Trek movie that alters the "canon" would be viewed very badly in the eyes of the series' fans. In fact, the fan effect could poison all the other pre-existing franchises if done really badly (those Trekkies/Trekkers can bite!)
Now, onto the order of the day - the new movie. It is directed by one J.J. Abrams, the world ruling creator of LOST, a series that is now onto its umptweenth mind bending season and the producer/brains behind Cloverfield - the neo monster movie from a coupla years back.
It concerns the early years at Starfleet for James T. Kirk, Spock and all the rest as they fly their very first mission aboard the new flagship Enterprise.
So the first thing that hits you when you see such a thing announced is the casting - Zachary Quinto as Spock is perfect, hitting the right note of barely concealed emotion while equally having a cocky, aloof bearing caused by his perceived superiority over the more emotional species.
Uhura is less so, being a little two dimensional despite the obvious burden of being the only meaningful female character present. Suffering, no doubt, from the fallout of the strange blind spot Trek has when it comes to the equality of gender. I will paraphrase my good friend Dave here, since he puts it well - while the federation is supposed to stand for equality amongst all race, creeds and species, it still forces its female officers to wear minidresses (especially the nurses uniforms!) and reduces them to little more than set dressing for Kirk to gawk at.
Ah yes, Kirk. Now, The Shat (that's William Shatner) is not an acting giant. In fact, his range is roughly the same of a water pistol filled with golden syrup, but he has something you cannot buy - that's charisma. My jury is very much out on his replacement, Chris Pine, who is reminiscent of nothing so much as the frat boy who thinks drinking is the pinnacle of civilisation - even after he's cleaned up a bit.
In fact, while Scotty's presence is a godsend and while he is played by one of my favourite comedy actors (the great Simon Pegg) the really great bit of castingis that of McCoy, for whom Karl Urban - Eomer in Lord Of The Rings and a massive Trek fan - really gets to show off an impression.
But the film isn't, and shouldn't be all about recreating the original series in mind numbing detail. What this film is about, is totally restarting everything from scratch - and it does so in a more impressive and final way than you could ever imagine, unless like me you take great pleasure in imagining the plots that could most upset the true obsessives. And this one is a fine example of that!
Now, that's a little unfair perhaps, since noone is trying to upset anyone here, but the destruction of a certain, shall we say crucial, planet is such a bold move it had to be applauded and drives home the very important message;
We are starting with a blank slate.
With this in mind, from the very first moment of the movie it is clear that history is being rewritten, and in such a way that the new canon fits the old one fine. This timeline can coexist with the pre-existing ones without either taking damage.
An audacious and successful move!
OK, so far so good, but is the experience any fun? Well, yes, frankly. In the past few weeks, those funny chaps at the Onion released THIS little gem on their site. It's a funny fake news story, but the central theme holds true - this film is "fun (and) watchable".
The CGI is excellently done and battles are exhilarating and played out in believable fashion. It helps that The Enterprise herself is a gorgeous design concept, still managing to look modern despite the passing of time since its design. What they are up against is very unfavourable odds, given where (and when) their opposition originated and I liked the way they had to avoid confrontation as much as possible.
Technobabble, always a curse of the series, has been reduced to a minimum except that required for the occasional joke or major plot development - Star Trek has always been the industry leader in Deus Ex Machina plot devices and this is no different.
In-jokes i am less comfortable with since they are in the "pandering to fans" bracket, but I had a chuckle at the arrival of a "redshirt" and his inevitable fate - I smiled at "I'm a doctor, not a physicist" and "I'm giving all she's got Captain" with the rest of 'em.
I just found myself wishing, screaming, for a single female character. Uhura being just an object (come on, there's extended scenes of her undressing, for god's sake!) in this one and being crowbarred into a bizarre out of nowhere relationship which for the sake of obsessive Trek fan and occasionally disturbing twitterer "Mrs Picard" I will describe in these terms: U/S WTF OMG!!!
Other than her we've just got the Spock's mum, played by Winona Ryder - perfectly servicable character but hardly the sort of "strong female" we really require here. Plus her aging appearsto have been done wth a CGI algorithym that constantly shifts about, causing wrinkles and lines to both appear and disappear as her face moves - a most distracting state of affairs.
Oh, and I must mention Captain Pike - played here by Bruce Greenwood. He is the original captain of The Enterprise and a cult figure amonst Trek fans (he was really in just one episode - the unaired pilot or the later one using footage from it) so it was great to see him here and with such a fine actor in place to play him.
I think this film is going to do what it set out to. The series will be rebooted successfully (and a sequel is already in pre-production) and they have probably won many new fans who have never seen any Star Trek or given it a moments thought before.
That being said, I don't think people who have tried Trek out and disliked it will be converted - while it adds several new ideas and tears up many old ones it is still Star Trek, and as such will still leave many cold. Fair play, not every movie is for everyone.
For me, I really enjoyed it - though it suffers undoubtedly from "first in a series" syndrome, and the Kirk driving a car as a kid bit was appallingly trite. Other problems include the usual plot shortcuts in all Sci-Fi (chiefly why did they drop Kirk off at exactly the most useful planet) and some very much "trying too hard" moralising from the bad guy, who incidentally could be any villain from any film ever, so dull is he.
Still, I think it's worth seeing, and has enough spectacle and backstory for the new, while scratching the itches of many old fans, me included.
Worth seeing then, is all.
A
See the full post by clicking here...
It is traditional that every review of this film starts with the writer's history with Star Trek, so here's mine.
I've always been a Trek fan, though nowhere near the obsessive level - many of the original episodes are exercises in kitsch - saying more about the sixties than they do about the future, and the later series, while technically superior were always slightly more political than exciting and verged on camp excess at the best of times.
Still, as a fun way to spend an hour as a child I loved it - starting with The Next Generation, which I watched in its entirety, and the later spin off Deep Space Nine which upped the politics at the expense of space battles. And there were always the original episodes repeated occasionally.
So you could say I know my subject to some extent, having a casual fan's experience, and after the hideous examples made by the most recent movies under the old "canon" (like Star Trek: Insurrection)the idea of a reboot (a very popular move since Batman Begins) came as a pleasant surprise.
Oh and for the true die hard fans, my favourite Star Trek Movie is VI: The Undiscovered Country, in case you're wanting to know. And it still is.
Maybe, for those not poisoned by the Trek bug, I should explain the word "canon" here, because we'll be talking about it later. It's simply the word used to cover the "official" timeline of events through all the shows and movies, adhered to reasonably well and protected by legions of fans who will scream at any new material violating the precious central throughlines (preventing, say, Kirk being a twin or something).
Sometimes in movie franchises (I'm looking at you, George Lucas) this can get a little confused and is subject to what is known as "retrospective continuity"; like Han Solo shooting first, or all the different versions of Bruce Wayne's family getting killed. These are done retrospectively to serve the new, updated, purposes of the filmmakers.
When done badly it really grates with folk - my personal favourite gripe is with Lucas' rejigging of Return Of The Jedi, so the Anakin we see is Hayden Christiansen rather than the old guy originally seen. The problem with that being that Hayden Christiansen is the same age he was in Episode III, raising more questions than we supposedly answered.
Anyhow, suffice to say that any Trek movie that alters the "canon" would be viewed very badly in the eyes of the series' fans. In fact, the fan effect could poison all the other pre-existing franchises if done really badly (those Trekkies/Trekkers can bite!)
Now, onto the order of the day - the new movie. It is directed by one J.J. Abrams, the world ruling creator of LOST, a series that is now onto its umptweenth mind bending season and the producer/brains behind Cloverfield - the neo monster movie from a coupla years back.
It concerns the early years at Starfleet for James T. Kirk, Spock and all the rest as they fly their very first mission aboard the new flagship Enterprise.
So the first thing that hits you when you see such a thing announced is the casting - Zachary Quinto as Spock is perfect, hitting the right note of barely concealed emotion while equally having a cocky, aloof bearing caused by his perceived superiority over the more emotional species.
Uhura is less so, being a little two dimensional despite the obvious burden of being the only meaningful female character present. Suffering, no doubt, from the fallout of the strange blind spot Trek has when it comes to the equality of gender. I will paraphrase my good friend Dave here, since he puts it well - while the federation is supposed to stand for equality amongst all race, creeds and species, it still forces its female officers to wear minidresses (especially the nurses uniforms!) and reduces them to little more than set dressing for Kirk to gawk at.
Ah yes, Kirk. Now, The Shat (that's William Shatner) is not an acting giant. In fact, his range is roughly the same of a water pistol filled with golden syrup, but he has something you cannot buy - that's charisma. My jury is very much out on his replacement, Chris Pine, who is reminiscent of nothing so much as the frat boy who thinks drinking is the pinnacle of civilisation - even after he's cleaned up a bit.
In fact, while Scotty's presence is a godsend and while he is played by one of my favourite comedy actors (the great Simon Pegg) the really great bit of castingis that of McCoy, for whom Karl Urban - Eomer in Lord Of The Rings and a massive Trek fan - really gets to show off an impression.
But the film isn't, and shouldn't be all about recreating the original series in mind numbing detail. What this film is about, is totally restarting everything from scratch - and it does so in a more impressive and final way than you could ever imagine, unless like me you take great pleasure in imagining the plots that could most upset the true obsessives. And this one is a fine example of that!
Now, that's a little unfair perhaps, since noone is trying to upset anyone here, but the destruction of a certain, shall we say crucial, planet is such a bold move it had to be applauded and drives home the very important message;
We are starting with a blank slate.
With this in mind, from the very first moment of the movie it is clear that history is being rewritten, and in such a way that the new canon fits the old one fine. This timeline can coexist with the pre-existing ones without either taking damage.
An audacious and successful move!
OK, so far so good, but is the experience any fun? Well, yes, frankly. In the past few weeks, those funny chaps at the Onion released THIS little gem on their site. It's a funny fake news story, but the central theme holds true - this film is "fun (and) watchable".
The CGI is excellently done and battles are exhilarating and played out in believable fashion. It helps that The Enterprise herself is a gorgeous design concept, still managing to look modern despite the passing of time since its design. What they are up against is very unfavourable odds, given where (and when) their opposition originated and I liked the way they had to avoid confrontation as much as possible.
Technobabble, always a curse of the series, has been reduced to a minimum except that required for the occasional joke or major plot development - Star Trek has always been the industry leader in Deus Ex Machina plot devices and this is no different.
In-jokes i am less comfortable with since they are in the "pandering to fans" bracket, but I had a chuckle at the arrival of a "redshirt" and his inevitable fate - I smiled at "I'm a doctor, not a physicist" and "I'm giving all she's got Captain" with the rest of 'em.
I just found myself wishing, screaming, for a single female character. Uhura being just an object (come on, there's extended scenes of her undressing, for god's sake!) in this one and being crowbarred into a bizarre out of nowhere relationship which for the sake of obsessive Trek fan and occasionally disturbing twitterer "Mrs Picard" I will describe in these terms: U/S WTF OMG!!!
Other than her we've just got the Spock's mum, played by Winona Ryder - perfectly servicable character but hardly the sort of "strong female" we really require here. Plus her aging appearsto have been done wth a CGI algorithym that constantly shifts about, causing wrinkles and lines to both appear and disappear as her face moves - a most distracting state of affairs.
Oh, and I must mention Captain Pike - played here by Bruce Greenwood. He is the original captain of The Enterprise and a cult figure amonst Trek fans (he was really in just one episode - the unaired pilot or the later one using footage from it) so it was great to see him here and with such a fine actor in place to play him.
I think this film is going to do what it set out to. The series will be rebooted successfully (and a sequel is already in pre-production) and they have probably won many new fans who have never seen any Star Trek or given it a moments thought before.
That being said, I don't think people who have tried Trek out and disliked it will be converted - while it adds several new ideas and tears up many old ones it is still Star Trek, and as such will still leave many cold. Fair play, not every movie is for everyone.
For me, I really enjoyed it - though it suffers undoubtedly from "first in a series" syndrome, and the Kirk driving a car as a kid bit was appallingly trite. Other problems include the usual plot shortcuts in all Sci-Fi (chiefly why did they drop Kirk off at exactly the most useful planet) and some very much "trying too hard" moralising from the bad guy, who incidentally could be any villain from any film ever, so dull is he.
Still, I think it's worth seeing, and has enough spectacle and backstory for the new, while scratching the itches of many old fans, me included.
Worth seeing then, is all.
A
See the full post by clicking here...
Movie Review: Appaloosa
6/10
This is a not at all revisionist western directed by its star, Ed Harris (of all people).
It follows the tale of two peace marshals played by Harris and the ever enjoyable Viggo Mortensen who are hired by a small town (the titular Appaloosa) to overcome the local rent-a-baddie who has been causing no end of trouble in a sort of predictable outlaw fashion, mainly disrespecting the law etc.
Our villain is played by Jeremy Irons, who from his accent appears to be from everywhere. We are intrduced to him as he shoots dead a marshal and his men in cold blood.
In fact, all of Appaloosa is populated by people of no fixed accent - notably the ever present town elders, including a notably mercurial vocal styling from Timothy Spall. It's the most jarring part of the movie, as all these noted and finer actors wrestle with their casting and in the case of the town elders, appear to be from a totally different film, a broad comedy perhaps, in which the gritty scenes are punctuated by pratfalls and song and dance numbers.
Appaloosa is not that film - it's a very much sub Unforgiven effort, where no cliche is left unturned - the outlaws holding someone hostage, the woman who breaks a hero's heart, the unspoken vaguely homoerotic relationship between male leads as well as a couple of gunfights.
There's plenty to enjoy, though, since with familiarity comes a certain warm sense of appreciation for the few moments we genuinely transcend the tired clichés of the genre - a gunfight that is over so quick one of theparticipants is himself surprised; at least one relationship that's genuinely affectionate and satisfyingly little depressing soul searching from the, for the most part, very quiet and almost monosyllabic leads.
While Harris looks like he's played this character many times before and doubtless has, he brings an easy charm and almost feline calm to his experienced and tired Virgil Cole.
Mortensen, seems to be viewing this tale as a competition in silence with Harris, almost apologetically interrupting the silence at times seems to be a major loss for their team. But as with all Mortensen performances he is never less than compelling, and easily, as in their previous outing together (History Of Violence, since you ask), Harris' equal if not his better.
The rest of the cast is less good - Lance Henriksen plays a blinder as a rival gunslinger but as the villain Jeremy Irons has too little authority or menace to impress. Renee Zellwegger too, never one of my favourite screen companions, has a slightly interesting part considering the history of women in Westerns, but again just doesn't convince as someone to utterly and immediately fall in love with, to the point of rethinking your whole life - and her chemistry with Harris is non existent.
That the film is still enjoyable is entirely thanks to the efforts of the lead duo of Harris and Mortensen, and I reckon if you're a fan of Westerns this will do you nicely. It's not Unforgiven, but it isn't Back To The Future III either.
A decent effort.
A
See the full post by clicking here...
This is a not at all revisionist western directed by its star, Ed Harris (of all people).
It follows the tale of two peace marshals played by Harris and the ever enjoyable Viggo Mortensen who are hired by a small town (the titular Appaloosa) to overcome the local rent-a-baddie who has been causing no end of trouble in a sort of predictable outlaw fashion, mainly disrespecting the law etc.
Our villain is played by Jeremy Irons, who from his accent appears to be from everywhere. We are intrduced to him as he shoots dead a marshal and his men in cold blood.
In fact, all of Appaloosa is populated by people of no fixed accent - notably the ever present town elders, including a notably mercurial vocal styling from Timothy Spall. It's the most jarring part of the movie, as all these noted and finer actors wrestle with their casting and in the case of the town elders, appear to be from a totally different film, a broad comedy perhaps, in which the gritty scenes are punctuated by pratfalls and song and dance numbers.
Appaloosa is not that film - it's a very much sub Unforgiven effort, where no cliche is left unturned - the outlaws holding someone hostage, the woman who breaks a hero's heart, the unspoken vaguely homoerotic relationship between male leads as well as a couple of gunfights.
There's plenty to enjoy, though, since with familiarity comes a certain warm sense of appreciation for the few moments we genuinely transcend the tired clichés of the genre - a gunfight that is over so quick one of theparticipants is himself surprised; at least one relationship that's genuinely affectionate and satisfyingly little depressing soul searching from the, for the most part, very quiet and almost monosyllabic leads.
While Harris looks like he's played this character many times before and doubtless has, he brings an easy charm and almost feline calm to his experienced and tired Virgil Cole.
Mortensen, seems to be viewing this tale as a competition in silence with Harris, almost apologetically interrupting the silence at times seems to be a major loss for their team. But as with all Mortensen performances he is never less than compelling, and easily, as in their previous outing together (History Of Violence, since you ask), Harris' equal if not his better.
The rest of the cast is less good - Lance Henriksen plays a blinder as a rival gunslinger but as the villain Jeremy Irons has too little authority or menace to impress. Renee Zellwegger too, never one of my favourite screen companions, has a slightly interesting part considering the history of women in Westerns, but again just doesn't convince as someone to utterly and immediately fall in love with, to the point of rethinking your whole life - and her chemistry with Harris is non existent.
That the film is still enjoyable is entirely thanks to the efforts of the lead duo of Harris and Mortensen, and I reckon if you're a fan of Westerns this will do you nicely. It's not Unforgiven, but it isn't Back To The Future III either.
A decent effort.
A
See the full post by clicking here...
Friday, May 8, 2009
A short apology
For those who are familiar with me, it may be surprising that it has been two weeks or more since my last movie review was posted here, or anything at the sister site, Wall Scratchings, where I now intend to post all non-movie related material so folks don't have to wade through things they might not want.
Well, frankly I must simply say, "Sorry".
Allow me to explain.
Over the past nine weeks myself and my lovely wife have been fostering a family of cats (Mum, big sister and three kittens, all boys).
What with learning on the go, as it were, as well as the pre-existing problems of job seeking and home maintenance (as well as occasionally getting a day's work on sets over London) I simply haven't had time - not only to post here, but to watch movies at all.
In fact , the most recent movie I saw was Ed Harris' fairly derivative western, Appaloosa; the review of which will be up in the next 24 hours. But that was two weeks ago.
But do not despair!
On Sunday I will be making a rare, remortgaged trip to the cinema to view what is either a Canon destroying horror show, or a much needed reboot for, Star Trek, so for once you'll get a review of something new, probably on Sunday evening, since I have an advert to lurk in the background of on Monday.
Let's hope I get back into it soon - sorry to keep you waiting.
A
See the full post by clicking here...
Well, frankly I must simply say, "Sorry".
Allow me to explain.
Over the past nine weeks myself and my lovely wife have been fostering a family of cats (Mum, big sister and three kittens, all boys).
What with learning on the go, as it were, as well as the pre-existing problems of job seeking and home maintenance (as well as occasionally getting a day's work on sets over London) I simply haven't had time - not only to post here, but to watch movies at all.
In fact , the most recent movie I saw was Ed Harris' fairly derivative western, Appaloosa; the review of which will be up in the next 24 hours. But that was two weeks ago.
But do not despair!
On Sunday I will be making a rare, remortgaged trip to the cinema to view what is either a Canon destroying horror show, or a much needed reboot for, Star Trek, so for once you'll get a review of something new, probably on Sunday evening, since I have an advert to lurk in the background of on Monday.
Let's hope I get back into it soon - sorry to keep you waiting.
A
See the full post by clicking here...
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