Thursday 28 June 2012

Review: Rock of Ages (2012, Dir. Adam Shankman)












I wanted to review Batman Returns for you today however due to the fact I have no Blu-Ray player currently its going to have to wait until next week when I'm able to pick up my PS3. In the meantime I thought I would do a brisk review of a film I saw last night which I really hated with a passion.

Due to being a big fan of Tom Cruise (yes really) I was eager to see Rock of Ages despite the dodgy looking trailers and the fact that I'm generally not a big fan of musicals. However, I went into the cinema with a mild expectation that I might on some level be entertained on some level. Unfortunately these expectations were far FAR from met.

Rock of Ages is a mess of a film at every stage of its existence. I may as well start with the story, or more to the point, the lack thereof. Even with the amount of characters vying for screen time one would imagine that in 123 (agonizing) minutes the majority of them would have some sort of character development right? Wrong. If you went onto Wikipedia right now and read the character synopsis' you would probably be able to learn all there is to know about them. Don't get me wrong they've all got character arcs for example Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand's characters discover they're both secretly in love with each other, but the reasoning behind this turn of events is completely unexplained leading up to the point they kiss save for one tiny shot of them looking into each other's eyes. Then, once they have their scene of romance about 3/4 of the way through the film its then completely ignored for the other 1/4 of the film. Each and every character has similar unexplained and unmotivated plots and it soon turned me to a state of utter nonchalance towards any of them.

Then there's the matter of the music. The film is obsessed with its nostalgic love for "rock n roll", but anybody who lived in the 80's or has so much as a fleeting interested in rock music will see very plainly that this is an extremely watered down representation of the rock n roll lifestyle. Yes I understand the need for the film to appeal to a wide an audience as possible, however I wonder have to wonder what demographic the film was aiming for at all. If it wants to attract rock and roll fans then go for an all out sex, drugs and rock n roll film which gives an accurately nostalgic look at the era, otherwise don't bother as far as I'm concerned. The "sex" scene between Tom Cruise and Malin Akerman is frankly pathetic and tops even the levels of cringe produced by her Watchmen sex scene. Drugs are not so much as mentioned in the film, instead all the characters drink bourbon whisky. Every one of them. It seems so instant on this act being edgy and rock n roll that it made my toes curl up every time somebody glugged a bottle of the stuff. And as for the rock music well, it's rock it it the tamest of manners. Sure they've assembled a host of great bands to pick music from, but they've just the most well known, chart topping, poppiest numbers from them. I guess that's fair enough, I wasn't expecting rare B-sides galore, but it's rarely not helped that all the renditions of the songs are utterly terrible - stripped of all passion and meaning, and chosen for each scene maybe because of one relevant line.

Upon my sigh of relief at the films ending I wondered to myself just who would actually enjoy this film. As I turned to my girlfriend however she told me that she thought it was good harmless fun and that she'd be getting it on DVD when its released. I like to imagine however that she's one of the few as the rest of the audiences reactions seemed more in line with mine than hers and thankfully the film doesn't seem to be doing anything Earth shattering at the Box Office. Its a shame to see such a great cast and concept wasted, but suffice to say I'll be more than happy to see this film sink into the obscurity it deserves.

Monday 25 June 2012

Films I Love: This is England (2006, Dir.Shane Meadows)












I first saw This is England about a year after its release having initially been uninterested in it , but subsequently watching it after it being repeatedly recommended to me by family and friends. What I imagined to be another boring British thug film was in fact probably one of the most affecting and realistic interpretations of English culture and politics I've seen on film.

For those who haven't seen the film its the story of a young boy, Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) living in the poverty stricken lower classes of Thatcher era Britain. He's facing a tough time at home struggling to come to terms with his fathers death in the Falkland War, and he's being bullied at school over his naff flairs he has to wear for non uniform day. He finds solace in the local skinhead fraternity all of whom are older than him, but accept him as one of their own regardless. Shaun's new found happiness is short lived however as the equilibrium of the group is shattered by the return of Combo (Stephen Graham), an older violent, racist skinhead who has recently finished a stretch in prison.

The film runs at about 100 minutes yet in that hour and a half it examines the lives of so many characters it would be dizzying were it not for having such a taught screenplay. The realistic nature of the film combined with this make it seem almost like a soap opera. Writing that just them reminds me of Dark Shadows which I reviewed a few weeks ago and had a similarly large cast of characters. That film buckled under the number of them due to an unrefined script which couldn't even be saved by some of the best acting talent in Hollywood. Yet here we have a cast of mostly young virtual unknown actors and actresses all giving powerhouse performances which combined with the sharp script and the keen eye of one of Britain's best working directors creates a piece of character driven period cinema which puts the likes Burton and Depp's latest effort to shame. Comparing it to Dark Shadows is cutting the film short though and perhaps not the fairest comparison, however the similarities are certainly there at the core style of the two films.

Shane Meadows' direction is incredibly diverse and always perfectly suited to the nature of the scene. Whether its artsy long takes or aggressive scenes of violence, the emotions and inner thoughts of the characters are always raw and plain to see on screen. Not just that, but it's clear he has a real affection of the grittier under developed architecture and environments of the more under developed areas of England, somehow managing to make even the most run down and drab scenery shine.

There are so many memorable scenes and characters throughout the film which I want to talk about but I'm really desperate not to give anything too much away as to not spoil it for those who haven't seen it. If you haven't I plead with you to find it and watch it preferably on Blu-Ray where Meadows eye for gorgeous backdrops and the soundtrack which is so integral to setting the scene for the film really do come into their own and represented as they should be. Whilst you're at it check out the two equally fantastic follow up TV series' This Is England '86 and '88. I promise you won't be disappointed by this poignant mediation on racism, the social class system and most importantly, growing up and very much the loss of innocence.

Saturday 23 June 2012

Top 5: Childhood Nightmare Fuel

In my last review I talked a bit about films I saw as a child which slipped through my parents strict censorship and gave me nightmares. Very few of these were horror films but they still managed to leave their scars. I understand that some people might bawk at a few of the following, but its just what scared me personally and I'm sure everybody has their own strange childhood nightmare fuel, so feel free to post yours in the comments as it's always something I'm very interested to listen to.

5) Beetlejuice (1998, Dir.Tim Burton)
Okey so this technically may be cheating because I never actually saw the film until I was much older, but as a child I was absolutely TERRIFIED by the VHS box alone. It used to face outwards of the video cabinet in my nans spare bedroom which I used to have to stay in at weekends and I can vividly remember the many many sleepless nights I spent facing the opposite wall sweating and uncomfortable, afraid to turn over and face the box even in the dark.






4) Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991, Dir. James Cameron)
It was a tight choice between two scenes from the Terminator series, but I only wanted to pick one. My Terminator 1 pick would've been the eye surgery scene, but I just had to go with the scene I loved the most from Terminator 2 as a kid. Even if it did make me wince, it was pure awesome. Just watch the video, I don't need to say anything more.








3) IT (1990, Dir. Tommy Lee Wallace)
Like many people I've always been a little afraid of clowns and I put that down to early exposure to Batman, IT and... Uncle Buck. This is the only horror film on the list and I actually haven't dared watch the film since and can barely remember what it's about. My mum was very strict on me not watching horror films, but my dad has always been a big fan. She would've never let me watch something like IT, but dad thought it was okey for me to sit up and watch it with him one night when I was feeling ill and mum was in bed. I like to think I had a pretty good upbringing, but this was definitely a faux pas.





2) Batman Returns (1992, Dir. Tim Burton)
I only want to briefly touch on this one as I'll be reviewing the film within the next couple of days, but whatever was scary about Batman '89 was amplified by 100 with Returns. Famously so dark it had it's McDonalds Happy Meal toyline cancelled, its hard to believe that two films back in the Batman movieverse you had the campy TV show adaptation and two films forward you had Batman and Robin. No child wants to see a nose being graphically chewed off by Danny DeVito.







1) The Mask (1994, Dir. Chuck Russell)
I don't mind blood and gore. I can deal with most monsters. But The Mask is just too much for me. Even now there's something about the film that just doesn't gel right with me. It has a real nightmarish, surreal quality to it which I don't quite know how to explain, but I'm not the first person I've heard of who has had similar feelings of fear regarding the film. There's no particular scene than stands out as being the scariest, but its just the character as a whole. I think from the ages of 4-8 I had a permanent fear that he was hiding just at the bottom of my bed waiting to get me as soon as I fell asleep. Even the thought now gives me shudders.





HONOURABLE MENTION:
It may not have frightened me, but this scene was certainly something my infant mind shouldn't have been shown.
Blimey.

Thursday 21 June 2012

Review: Batman (1989, Dir.Tim Burton)












Tim Burton's two Batman films are both pictures that I hold very dear to my heart. I grew up a huge Batman fan thanks mostly due to The Animated Series, and of a very bad TV recording of Batman '89 on VHS which was replayed to a skippy fuzzy mess. The thing that makes the films so important to me growing up though is that they sat in my collection alongside films such as the Terminator and Robocop films amongst others as being films with questionable content for an under 6, but which I were allowed to watch due to the ignorance of my mother, in part due to them being blockbusters and in part, the mindset that as there was such large amounts of merchandise from these franchises available such as figurines and colouring books and the likes, then surely they must be suitable for children. Okey so I know that Batman '89 is no Evil Dead by any stretch of the imagination, but make no qualms about it, seeing the Joker fry that guy with a shake of his hand was horrifying for a child afraid of clowns. Regardless, I now attribute my being able to watch these films as a child to my later life obsession with horror films, so kudos mum. Anyway, I digress, so on with the review.


Being one of the most high profile blockbuster films of all time its easy to talk about Batman '89 and quip that it's just an okey summer superhero movie with little depth and the second best Joker performance seen on the silver screen. I really think now that opinions like this come from people who haven't watched the movie perhaps since they were a child or at least since Batman Begins was released. Yes, it is of its time, however you have to remember that at the time there was a lot of talent working on this movie who were at the top of their game but in front and behind the camera. While we're on the subject of the Joker I personally think that Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the character is really great. Its easy to dismiss it on the basis of it being Jack Nicholson playing Jack Nicholson but where is the harm in that? Nicholson is a mesmerising, flamboyant and charismatic actor both in real life and on screen and the energy he puts into the role is absolutely perfectly suited to the tone of the film.I fully acknowledge how phenomenal Heath Ledger's turn in the role was in The Dark Knight and I'll talk about that in my review of the film in a couple of weeks time, but for now I'm just going to go on record as saying that I rate both performances equally and enjoy them both for individual reasons.

Elsewhere across the board the acting is stellar from the supporting cast, Michael Gough in particular as Alfred, right through to the top billing Michael Keaton and surprisingly Kim Basinger who gives a convincing performance as the fairly shallow Vicki Vale. Out of all the actors however the biggest surprises come from Michael Keaton who by some strange miracle makes a completely credible Batman once his barnet is covered up, and even weirder a quirky, complex yet somehow entirely believable Bruce Wayne. My absolute favourite scene in the whole film is at Vicki Vale's house when he confronts the Joker as Bruce Wayne and delivers the line "You wanna get nuts? Come on! Let's get nuts!" with the absolute craziest look in his eyes.

The thing that always keeps me coming back to the film time and time again is the overall tone the film creates thanks to its set design, beautiful matte backgrounds and Tim Burton's directing. At times the film has a noir look to it with lots of 40's looking gangsters running about the beautiful Deco buildings that make up Gotham City, whilst at other times such as at the bell tower or the batcave its full on gothic. It all pulls together to make the most complete and dense conceptualisation of the Batman mythos on film. There are at times a few instances where the vision deviates slightly, which I can only likely attribute to studio intervention, but these few scenes (and Prince songs) are forgiveable in the grand scheme of things (not just because I happen to love Prince).

It's not quite my favourite Batman film, but its the most balanced and perhaps the most enjoyable out of all of them, perfectly resting between the camp of the 60's and Schumacher films, the sinister tones of Returns, and the gritty seriousness of the Nolan trilogy.

Sunday 17 June 2012

Review: Batman: The Movie (1966, Dir: Leslie Martinson)












Wow, I'd seen this film years and years back when I was a youngster and I knew it was the ultra-campy oft forgotten black sheep of the Batman movie-verse, but damn I had NO idea just how crazy it would be until I watched it the other day.

The whole film is riddled (ahem) with the most peculiar oddities that would seem odd in any film, let alone a Batman film. Right from the get go you're hit with an eye brow raising pre-title sequence disclaimer informing you that the film is dedicated to "lovers of adventure, lovers of pure escapism, lovers of unadulterated entertainment, lovers of the ridiculous and the bizarre--- To funlovers everywhere". Wow, sounds to me like a porno. But, it does in fact hit the nail on the head. If you're going to watch this film, leave your brain at the door because bizarre is absolutely the word of the day.

The budget is actually not too far distanced from that of the average porn film judging from the costuming and set design. My favourite show of budgetary constraints though has to be the utterly beat Batcopter. Not only is it a horribly converted everyday helicopter, its a horribly converted SECOND-HAND everyday helicopter. I guess old Wayne Enterprises wasn't having too great a time in the 60's. Or maybe Bruce had just spent all his money on creating other seemingly purposeless bat-gadgets such as a whole line of batshit oceanic repellent bat sprays.

The script in general is just filled with surreal eccentricities such as the shark repellent bat spray. Batman and Robin's detective skills seem to skew wildly from being completely blind to Catwoman's terrible disguise, to easily picking out the Penguin's much better disguise a few scenes later seemingly just for the sake of carrying the film forward in the direction the writer wants it to go. Indeed though, their detective prowess is never in question when it comes to solving the Riddler's absolutely jaw dropping "riddles". To say the answers to them are playing it loose on the scripting front is the understatement of the millennium.

The film is utterly crammed with nonsensical deus-ex machina scenarios such as these which just seem desperate to try and outdo the last set piece. And that's what the film is, from the exploding shark scene to the super molecular dust separator nail biting finale, its just one set piece after another, it never lets up. But ultimately the story plays second fiddle to these bizarre disconnected events and it all means nothing. Its just a weird and often hilarious curiosity of a film and for that I would say it's worth watching, but only ever once.

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Catching Up and Looking Ahead

I thought I would just do a quick post with some updates on a couple of my previous posts, as well as a little look ahead at some upcoming features and reviews I have planned for the blog.

Catching Up


The Exorcist TV show seemed to be a case of serious misunderstandings and half truths which were hyped by the media. The captainhowdy.com article here states pretty clearly that Morgan Creek do not hold the rights to the original The Exorcist story which means that the stories of it being a direct remake are thankfully false. I have no real issue with the more probable route the series will go, which seems to be continued stories about the characters from the film. Whether I would watch it or not is up in the air for now and dependant on the style, stories and calibre of acting on offer, but I'm now watching it more with a weary eye as opposed to a twitching bloodshot one.


I watched Breathless[1983] again a couple of days ago and absolutely loved it. It seemed a lot more fast paced the second time round and I've just completely fallen in love with the whole tone and over the top style of the film. Richard Gere's trousers are phenomenal and the ending is just the absolute perfect way to close the film out. I honestly cannot stop watching that final scene on Youtube. Everything from the way the completely contrasting Philip Glass score interweaves with the Jerry Lee Lewis track, to Richard Gere's obsessive and untameable Jesse Lujack whom at this point in the film is completely convincing despite the audacity of the character, and finally that pixel perfect freeze frame which suits the film so much better than the way it would have ended if it were a simple carbon copy of  À bout de souffle. I'm certain Breathless will become a film I'll watch time and time again now for years to come.

Looking Ahead


I, as well as everyone else I'm sure, am hugely excited for the upcoming final instalment in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises which is now just around the corner. I've been a Batman fan ever since I was a very small child watching the Saturday morning Batman The Animated Series and so to prepare for the event I will be watching and reviewing all the previous live action Batman films leading up to the release of TDKR. We're now about 5 weeks away so I'll be doing 1 or 2 reviews a week as well as the usual features and miscellanea, obviously concluding in my review of The Dark Knight Rises.

Thursday 7 June 2012

Top 5: Films I only liked the second time round













After waking up this morning and finding out that I had been given the day off from work my thoughts immediately turned to which film I would watch later in the afternoon. Although I have about 30 or so unwatched DVD's currently sitting in my collection I chose a film which had been buzzing around in my mind since I watched it for the first time just a fortnight ago. That film was An American Werewolf in London, the 1981 John Landis directed horror/comedy which is so often cited as one of, in not the greatest werewolf movie ever made. "Fair enough" you're probably thinking, "you enjoyed the film so you want to watch it again, big deal". The curious thing is however that I didn't really enjoy the film at all. Something about it just didn't gel well with me and dare I say at one point half way in I even fell asleep.

However, since that viewing the film has remained in the back of my mind and for some reason my brain had started to tell me that I did in fact really like the film. Now in may just be because I can't for the life of me stop listening to Blue Moon by Bobby Vinton, but I think the real reason is because the film was just different from the image I had conjured of the film in my head from reading countless articles about it. This has previously been the case for me on numerous occasions when watching highly regarded films for the first time, so here are my Top 5 Films I Only Liked The Second Time Round.

5) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006, Dir.Larry Charles)
I usually "get" comedy films the first time round, but the first time I saw this on DVD having heard everyone I know rave about the film since its cinema release I was stunned by just how unfunny it was. I laughed once throughout the whole film and completely did not understand why everyone else was in stitches at so many of the purile gags. I immediately deemed the film as being simplistic trash, but the fact that so many film critics were so enamoured with the film at the time gave me reason enough to doubt myself and rewatch the film not long after only to find myself appreciating Sacha Baron Cohen's subtle character nuances which I hadn't noticed the first time round and enjoyed the film far more. It may not be regarded as highly as the other films on this list, but I've seen Borat well over 10 times now since 2006 and find myself laughing louder and harder each time, now to the point of tears streaming down my face.

4) Raging Bull (1980, Dir.Martin Scorsese)
The first time I watched this was at the height of my Rocky obsession and this bleak slow burning film just didn't pull me in. I fell asleep half way through (I work a lot okey!) and then never went back to finish it off. That was until about a year ago when I decided to give it another shot having enjoyed The Fighter and yearning for more boxing on film. By the time I was halfway in I was fully convinced of the films masterpiece status and never looked back again.






3) American Psycho (2000, Dir.Mary Harron)
In all honesty, saying I didn't like this film the first time would be a lie. I enjoyed it a lot, but it was purely down to Christian Bale's phenomenal performance. As with every teenage male who watches this film its pretty hard not to be captivated by the uber-suave, sophisticated but unhinged character of Patrick Bateman, but the story just kind of got lost on me and the ending in particular left a sour taste in my mouth. Second time through though I started to delve beyond the superficial elements of the film and the ending now makes sense to me as the best way to tie up the characters story. Admittedly I do tend to still just watch the film for that tour-de-force performance, but at least now I can talk about the films socio-analytical satire I feel less guilty about it.

2) Blade Runner (1982, Dir.Ridley Scott)
Okey, the last 2 films on this list are biggies. Real biggies. The first time I watched Blade Runner I expected for whatever reason that I was about to watch Ridley Scott's version of Star Wars. Boy was I shocked. A true case of "not what I was expecting". I thought it was a boring simplistic story tarted up with a few pretentious scenes. It was the fact that I was persistently hounded by its cult fan base at every corner I turned on the internet that finally made me give it a second chance. It upon second viewing that I fell absolutely utterly and completely in love with the gorgeous set and costume design, lighting, and futuristic deco architecture. Then finally on the third viewing the story just clicked. It's now my third favourite film ever thanks to its dense mise-en-scène and complex thematics which make each viewing a unique and always challenging experience.


1) The Exorcist (1973, Dir.William Friedkin)
Yep, that's right, the first time I watched The Exorcist, my now favourite film of all time I closed it with a resounding "meh". After years of hearing of all the uproar the film caused back in '73 and having lived under a roof where my mother wouldn't allow the film's cassette in her house in fear that it would invite Satan himself onto our doorstep, I was thoroughly prepared to become an insomniac for the next month after watching it.
"The scariest movie of all time" the DVD proudly had emblazoned upon the bottom of its sleeve.
Sitting there in the dark all alone though what I instead watched was a film that at the time I thought was an alright little horror film with a few creepy bits, but "it was no The Thing!" I proclaimed.
A fact Friedkin himself is always keen to emphasize though is that The Exorcist isn't really a horror film in the typical sense. Its a detective story driven by a cast of pitch perfectly acted, realistic and different characters all thrown together to face their own personal fears manifested through the possession of the young Regan MacNeil and the true horror courses from their and affects you on a far more personal level than horrifying make up and jump scares ever could.

Sunday 3 June 2012

Review: Prometheus (2012, Dir.Ridley Scott)












If there's been one film I've been dying with anticipation to see this year it would easily be Prometheus, the pseudo-prequel to the 1979 claustrophobic space bound horror masterpiece Alien. This of course isn't the second entry into the franchise; we've already had 3 direct sequels of varying quality, and lest we not forget two dreadful but now thankfully retconned spin-off movies in the Alien Vs Predator franchise. However this is the first in the franchise to see the return of the original films director Ridley Scott, which makes me exceedingly happy and excited in equally large doses due to the fact that I consider Alien to be by far and beyond the best film in the franchise, and because I rate Ridley Scott amongst the greatest directors ever. A bold statement I know, but all I have to say to anybody who disagrees is "go watch Blade Runner, and if you've already seen it, watch it again".

So, after a day of priming myself for my long awaited trip to the cinema on a healthy diet of Blu Ray Alien - which coincidently is utterly stunning both visually and audibly - I finally got to see Prometheus.
Was it what I expected? Yes.
Did it go above and beyond in the way I had hoped after seeing the first trailer? No, for a variety of reasons.

First off I want to reiterate just how paramount my expectations were. In the back of my mind I was secretly thinking to myself it had the potential to be one of the all time great sci-fi movies. As I said, the finished product was as I expected- a sturdy, highly enjoyable science fiction film laced with blood and theology. The problem comes in that both feel restrained by its blockbuster status. The horror moments are fantastic and made the entire cinema jump on several occasions (though the scares never felt cheap) however they were just to few and far between. And the script is clearly desperate to evoke questioning and wonderment of the "bigger picture" but it drifts between being neither as visually thought provoking as say 2001:A Space Odyssey, nor as exhaustively wordy as Contact. Instead it just sadly comes off as being a Philosophy 101 class. I'd best compare it to how Inception was, for a Hollywood film, a real mind bender, but compared to say a David Lynch film, it seems relatively straight-forward. Still, Inception was great and a lot of people loved it and I have no doubt the general audience will embrace this similarly.

Now I've got that gripe off my chest I can get down to all the really good things about the film.
The acting was stellar all round from the top billed cast, Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender in particular really standing out. Just as great as Sigourney Weaver and Lance Henriksen in their respective comparative roles in previous franchise entries. The real aching disappointment for me from the casting side of things was Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland. After seeing the viral video of his TED speech (embedded below) I was really psyched to see how his role would play out in the film, but his screen time was small and altogether pretty boring, purely there to drive the story forward. A sad waste, but for people who haven't seen the viral video im sure its a non-existent issue.



The cinematography and set design as well are as you'd expect from a Ridley Scott film. Everything is meticulously crafted, and shot and lit with fully intended purpose. The Prometheus' interior is as you could imagine it would look given how our current technology is evolving. Lots of clean, clear, sterile environments with an Apple white gloss. It contrasts excellently with the ever stunning H.R.Giger interiors of the alien ship and in my mind helps the film seem like less of a clone of the original as it's so different to the dark dank look of the Nostromo. Another thing that really helps to set it apart from Alien is the much talked about orchestral score. Its a loud movie. Very loud. The music is sweeping, epic and fits every scene to a tee, much as Alien's minimalist score added so much to the constantly growing tension.

The film's ending is probably what left me with the sourest taste in my mouth though. At 2 hours in I was completely immersed in the universe Scott had created and suddenly, as my excitement reached fever pitch... it just bloody ended! Wide open for a sequel. Which I wouldn't mind were it not for the fact that with Scott's current schedule its unlikely we will see a sequel before 2015 which is just too damn long away. My fear is that the sequel will be passed on to another director as Aliens was, but I really feel that the sequel to Prometheus would not benefit in a shift of tone the way Aliens did. My hope is that should the film do sufficient at the Box Office a sequel will be fast tracked over Blade Runner 2, but I sadly doubt it. Still, on that note if Scott can do with his Blade Runner project what he has done here with Prometheus I would be more than happy. Overall, a fantastic film, but not a classic film.