Given that I saw this at the cinema way back in September and it’s just been released on DVD I thought it was probably about time to put my review of it up on my blog.
This film is Stallone’s love letter to 80s action movies. It comes with the prerequisite thin plot (team of mercenaries are hired to go into a South American country and kill the dictator in charge. Two mercs do a recce, find out it’s not for them and leave but because a female contact there decides to stay despite being given a chance to leave which plays on the conscience of the hero, he leads his team back in to rescue her and take down the baddies), has some ropey acting, some small attempts at characters and has a cast normally seen on the sleeves of straight to video movies. What it also has is lots of action.
I find it very hard to fault this film which really does wear its retro-heart on its sleeve. It’s not very long (90 minutes without the end credits) and things are kept moving along at a brisk pace. There’s some comedy moments mixed in, a wonderful little scene where Mickey Rourke gives an acting master class to his co-stars and some proper ‘boo-hiss’ villains led by Eric Roberts and a gigantic looking Steven Austin (not the Six Million Dollar Man but ex-wrestler ‘Stone Cold Steve Austin’) who plays the baddie henchman so well that his surely has set the standard now.
With its well publicised ‘dream action cast’ there are some who are lost in the mix. Jet Li doesn’t have a huge amount to do although his fight with Dolph Lundgren is pretty fun, neither really does Terry Crews or Randy Couture. Dolph Lundgren has a ball with a fairly small part but this film is really Stallone and The Stath’s (that’s Jason Statham in case you all forgot) party and they are a very watchable double act. Oh yeah and there’s a small scene with some guy who wore a vest once and a Governor who may be an android killing machine from the future….
As with any action film ultimately it doesn’t matter if the plot is a bit wanky, or if the acting is not of Oscar winning standard. Nor does it matter if the dialogue is full of cheese. We don’t care as long as we get lots of bang for our bucks. Well for me this has it in spades. Following on from Stallone’s ‘goreathon massacre-fest’ which was Rambo, he’s dialled back the blood and guts (although there’s still a hefty amount) and crafted a fun, lots of big men shooting and beating each other up sort of action fest. He’s also a dab hand at extended climatic action scenes as this one cranks things up for a frantic 20 minute shoot ‘em up where everyone gets involved. The Stath and Li take on British martial artist Gary Daniels in a fast and brutal fight, Terry Crews has a VERY, VERY loud gun which cuts people in half and Stallone and Austin engage in one of the best punch ups I’ve ever seen on the big screen, it’s no surprise that Sly had his neck broken while filming this bit, it shows.
This is just big dumb fun at its most entertaining. I loved it and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I could watch this over and over again. I just really, really hope Stallone can talk Jean-Claude Van Damme and the rumoured Chuck Norris into turning up for Expendables 2.
Tuesday 14 December 2010
Tuesday 8 June 2010
Revenge Tragedy
He is a little taster of the film script I’ve been working on for the last few months, a revenge tragedy that I have been itching to write for years.
Please be aware that this is not particularly pleasant and there will be swearing, and yes the c word is used.
I won’t be putting anymore on my blog as it gets nastier and swearier and I’d have to hit the adult content button but I think with this I can just about get away with it.
Would love to hear any comments or thoughts on this, which is the opening scene of the film.
“BLACK SCREEN
Man (voice over)
I never wanted kids. In fact I hated them, they made my skin fucking crawl. All that crying and whining drove me mad, I hated being trapped on a train with them. Couldn’t understand why their parents would do that. (pause) Then my wife got pregnant.
CUT TO:
A close up of a monitor showing a scan of a baby in the womb. A mouse cursor is tracing the outline of the head and body. A nurse (off screen) is telling us that this is a head and a body.
CUT TO:
A close up of the man’s face, watching the screen, his face lit from the image he is watching. His eyes are welling up with tears as he gazes at his son/daughter for the first time. He is Daddy. A woman’s voice (Mummy) is heard
Mummy (o.s.)
You okay?
Daddy
Yeah I’m fine (wipes eye)
CUT TO:
Maternity ward, a birthing suite. Mummy is on the bed, legs in stirrups, two midwives are between her legs as Daddy holds her hand. She is drenched in sweat as she is giving birth, pushing with all her might, screaming
Daddy
Come on baby another push, come on you’re so close now, you’re so close
Daddy (v.o.)
As soon as he was born you start to worry
The baby is born and there is much crying. Daddy drops back into a chair staring at his son, covered in blood on his wife’s chest. He bursts into tears, deep wracking tears which he can not stop.
He stands up and reaches his hand out, touching the baby for the first time
Daddy
Hello son, I’m your Daddy
CUT TO:
Daddy.
He’s sitting on a chair somewhere, we can’t see it properly yet. He looks different to the last scene. His face isn’t as plump, he’s thinner, his cheeks sunken, the bags under his eyes are HUGE and he’s smoking.
Daddy
Every waking moment at the back of your mind you worry. Will he catch anything? What if he dies in his cot? What if he stops breathing? What do I do if? (pause, drag on the smoke) Silly things, things you really don’t need to worry about. (pause) But you worry all the same (forces a smile).
CUT TO:
Daddy and Mummy walking the son in a pram in the park. It is a beautifully sunny day. This is at another time. Daddy’s face is back to plump and happy. No bags under the eyes. We are obviously flitting between the past and the present. His voice continues over what we see.
Daddy (v.o.)
I think about every moment now. The walks in the park
CUT TO:
Daddy feeding his son with a bottle
Daddy (v.o.)
Feeding him
CUT TO:
Mummy changing son’s nappy while Daddy helps
Daddy (v.o.)
Every nappy change
CUT TO:
Son rolling over for the first time. An ecstatic Mum and Dad clap and cheer
Daddy (v.o.)
I remember all the firsts as well. The first time he rolled over…
CUT TO:
Son taking his first tentative steps
Daddy (v.o)
…the first time he walked….
CUT TO:
Daddy and Son in the park alone, kicking a football back and forth between them
Daddy (v.o.)
…. Playing footba….(his voice breaks)
CUT TO:
A morgue. Daddy is standing over a slab. Tears are pouring down his face.
Daddy (v.o.)
And you took him
CUT TO:
Daddy.
Now, all thin and angry, his eyes with flames behind them
Daddy
You and those mother fuckers you call friends took my boy. (pause) Everything he was and everything he was going to be, you just fucking destroyed. (pause) I see him now. All the time. Even when I close my eyes he’s there.
CUT TO:
Black screen. Then a young six year old boy’s face comes into the shot and looks at the camera. Just as he starts to smile we…
CUT TO:
Daddy.
Daddy
Especially when I close my eyes. (pause) Your mate, the dopy looking cunt, Dick I think his name was. He told me your part.
We hear some muffled yells off camera
Daddy
He told me everything after I’d cut his feet off.
CUT TO:
Daddy stands up. He is in a room, a living room. There are two people tied and gagged to chairs in front of him, a man and a woman. To one side there are two teenagers, girls, hanging from the ceiling, upside down. Their throats cut and blood slowly drip, drip, dripping from the giant slashes. They have been dead for a little while. Daddy is in some overalls, he stubs the cigarette out and pockets the butt. He pulls on some plastic gloves and picks up a knife. He looks at the man.
Daddy
I’m going to skin your wife first.
CUT TO:
Cat Stevens’ song ‘Father and Son’ plays over the beginning credits.
While the beginning credits run we will see lots of ‘home movie’ style scenes of a young boy. Rolling over on the floor, eating his food and getting it all over his face, playing with some toys, crawling for the first time, his first steps, playing football, in a swimming pool, being taught how to dive etc…At one point in the footage the boy is given some crayons and paper. The boy, son, starts to scribble and draw.
The camera pans up and over him to see what he is drawing.
Looking down we see that he is drawing a picture of a man, then a woman and a little boy. They are all holding hands.
Above the picture of the man the son writes the word which is the title to our film
DADDY
We focus in on that as the song and opening credits come to an end and we fade to black.”
Please be aware that this is not particularly pleasant and there will be swearing, and yes the c word is used.
I won’t be putting anymore on my blog as it gets nastier and swearier and I’d have to hit the adult content button but I think with this I can just about get away with it.
Would love to hear any comments or thoughts on this, which is the opening scene of the film.
“BLACK SCREEN
Man (voice over)
I never wanted kids. In fact I hated them, they made my skin fucking crawl. All that crying and whining drove me mad, I hated being trapped on a train with them. Couldn’t understand why their parents would do that. (pause) Then my wife got pregnant.
CUT TO:
A close up of a monitor showing a scan of a baby in the womb. A mouse cursor is tracing the outline of the head and body. A nurse (off screen) is telling us that this is a head and a body.
CUT TO:
A close up of the man’s face, watching the screen, his face lit from the image he is watching. His eyes are welling up with tears as he gazes at his son/daughter for the first time. He is Daddy. A woman’s voice (Mummy) is heard
Mummy (o.s.)
You okay?
Daddy
Yeah I’m fine (wipes eye)
CUT TO:
Maternity ward, a birthing suite. Mummy is on the bed, legs in stirrups, two midwives are between her legs as Daddy holds her hand. She is drenched in sweat as she is giving birth, pushing with all her might, screaming
Daddy
Come on baby another push, come on you’re so close now, you’re so close
Daddy (v.o.)
As soon as he was born you start to worry
The baby is born and there is much crying. Daddy drops back into a chair staring at his son, covered in blood on his wife’s chest. He bursts into tears, deep wracking tears which he can not stop.
He stands up and reaches his hand out, touching the baby for the first time
Daddy
Hello son, I’m your Daddy
CUT TO:
Daddy.
He’s sitting on a chair somewhere, we can’t see it properly yet. He looks different to the last scene. His face isn’t as plump, he’s thinner, his cheeks sunken, the bags under his eyes are HUGE and he’s smoking.
Daddy
Every waking moment at the back of your mind you worry. Will he catch anything? What if he dies in his cot? What if he stops breathing? What do I do if? (pause, drag on the smoke) Silly things, things you really don’t need to worry about. (pause) But you worry all the same (forces a smile).
CUT TO:
Daddy and Mummy walking the son in a pram in the park. It is a beautifully sunny day. This is at another time. Daddy’s face is back to plump and happy. No bags under the eyes. We are obviously flitting between the past and the present. His voice continues over what we see.
Daddy (v.o.)
I think about every moment now. The walks in the park
CUT TO:
Daddy feeding his son with a bottle
Daddy (v.o.)
Feeding him
CUT TO:
Mummy changing son’s nappy while Daddy helps
Daddy (v.o.)
Every nappy change
CUT TO:
Son rolling over for the first time. An ecstatic Mum and Dad clap and cheer
Daddy (v.o.)
I remember all the firsts as well. The first time he rolled over…
CUT TO:
Son taking his first tentative steps
Daddy (v.o)
…the first time he walked….
CUT TO:
Daddy and Son in the park alone, kicking a football back and forth between them
Daddy (v.o.)
…. Playing footba….(his voice breaks)
CUT TO:
A morgue. Daddy is standing over a slab. Tears are pouring down his face.
Daddy (v.o.)
And you took him
CUT TO:
Daddy.
Now, all thin and angry, his eyes with flames behind them
Daddy
You and those mother fuckers you call friends took my boy. (pause) Everything he was and everything he was going to be, you just fucking destroyed. (pause) I see him now. All the time. Even when I close my eyes he’s there.
CUT TO:
Black screen. Then a young six year old boy’s face comes into the shot and looks at the camera. Just as he starts to smile we…
CUT TO:
Daddy.
Daddy
Especially when I close my eyes. (pause) Your mate, the dopy looking cunt, Dick I think his name was. He told me your part.
We hear some muffled yells off camera
Daddy
He told me everything after I’d cut his feet off.
CUT TO:
Daddy stands up. He is in a room, a living room. There are two people tied and gagged to chairs in front of him, a man and a woman. To one side there are two teenagers, girls, hanging from the ceiling, upside down. Their throats cut and blood slowly drip, drip, dripping from the giant slashes. They have been dead for a little while. Daddy is in some overalls, he stubs the cigarette out and pockets the butt. He pulls on some plastic gloves and picks up a knife. He looks at the man.
Daddy
I’m going to skin your wife first.
CUT TO:
Cat Stevens’ song ‘Father and Son’ plays over the beginning credits.
While the beginning credits run we will see lots of ‘home movie’ style scenes of a young boy. Rolling over on the floor, eating his food and getting it all over his face, playing with some toys, crawling for the first time, his first steps, playing football, in a swimming pool, being taught how to dive etc…At one point in the footage the boy is given some crayons and paper. The boy, son, starts to scribble and draw.
The camera pans up and over him to see what he is drawing.
Looking down we see that he is drawing a picture of a man, then a woman and a little boy. They are all holding hands.
Above the picture of the man the son writes the word which is the title to our film
DADDY
We focus in on that as the song and opening credits come to an end and we fade to black.”
Thursday 20 May 2010
IRON MAN 2 - FILM REVIEW
Beginning within moments of the previous film’s ending, this carries on the story of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) as he now must battle the US government who want the Iron Man armour, or ‘weapon’ as they refer to it for themselves, a rival arms manufacturer Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), deal with the Russian criminal Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) who has it in for him and deal with the fact that the Arc reactor in his chest is slowly killing him through blood poisoning and he can not find a replacement element to save him. Plus there is the continuing relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and a certain Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is keeping him in mind for The Avengers programme.
Iron Man on its release back in 2008 was a bit of a sleeper hit. It was a comic book movie staring a rehabilitated alcoholic and drug addict, who had always squandered his talents due to his love of drugs and trouble. It was based on a lesser known comic book character than say Superman, Batman, Spider-man etc and was directed by a guy who’d never really done a comic book ‘actioner’ before. Plus there was the small thing that it was coming out the same year as a certain movie called The Dark Knight. All in all for me this was probably the best, and certainly the most fun, comic book movie that was released that year.
Iron Man 2 pretty much follows the same style as the first. The film is far more character and plot based that a lot of other comic book movies which means that although, like the first, this is fair action-lite, the non-action scenes are just as entertaining. Mainly this is because of a truly tremendous cast with Downey Jr being his usual tour-de-force with able support from Rockwell, who is one of the most underrated actors currently on film, new addition Don Cheadle replacing the originals Trevor Howard as Stark’s military friend James Rhodes, and topping it all off with an awesome performance by Mickey Rourke, one of my favourite actors (and I still think he was robbed of his Oscar for The Wrestler, so there).
There are only two action scenes in this movie as opposed to three in the previous film but don’t let this fool you into thinking that this means we are being skimped and cheated out of our Iron Man action. We’re not. Yes there may only be two but for me these completely eclipsed the first films scenes. These are much bigger and bolder.
The first at a Monaco grand prix style race is terrific. Coming about 40 minutes into the film where by this stage we have seen Stark battling the US senate and although we know he is slowly dying and has therefore become reckless he seems untouchable. Mickey Rourke’s baddie has been building something but we don’t know what but surely some poor Russian criminal can’t do anything, can he? In a perfectly judged scene we get total carnage on the street circuit and the first of the new Iron Man suits, this one, quite literally a suitcase suit.
The second scene coming at the climax is just a big shoot ‘em up free for all which is much better than the first film’s climax, bringing the new and improved Iron Man armour up against a horde of metal baddies alongside the War Machine armour. I won’t spoil it but woo-hoo it’s a fun and entertaining climax.
Thankfully the rest of the story is so busy that you really don’t notice the ‘lack of action’. There are new characters, plus this film is also furthering the multi-movie plot line that started in Iron Man, was continued in The Incredible Hulk, carries on in this film and will be continued in Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger and coming to ahead in The Avengers. Plus you have two great actors (Downey Jr and Rourke) who are giving performances that are way above what you would normally expect in films of this ilk. Rourke invests his character with a lot of depth, crafting a man who we can in part feel some sympathy for and with much of his dialogue in Russian he is very convincing. Downey Jr is just awesome, never putting a foot wrong, if only all the comic book superhero movies could have a lead actor as strong and so far flawless as this.
There are a few downsides to this movie. Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrow struggle to get a look in, Don Cheadle as cool an actor as he is doesn’t really bring anything new to the role and Rourke is so immense that you do wish he’d been onscreen far longer than he actually is.
The film is handled so well by Favreau who has really proven himself as a big budget director that any negatives can be forgiven as the film is just so damn watchable and entertaining. This film is just great fun and as long as they don’t make any mis-steps with the other films inbetween Iron Man 3 will be even better and we could find this franchise lasting many more movies. I for one can’t wait.
Iron Man on its release back in 2008 was a bit of a sleeper hit. It was a comic book movie staring a rehabilitated alcoholic and drug addict, who had always squandered his talents due to his love of drugs and trouble. It was based on a lesser known comic book character than say Superman, Batman, Spider-man etc and was directed by a guy who’d never really done a comic book ‘actioner’ before. Plus there was the small thing that it was coming out the same year as a certain movie called The Dark Knight. All in all for me this was probably the best, and certainly the most fun, comic book movie that was released that year.
Iron Man 2 pretty much follows the same style as the first. The film is far more character and plot based that a lot of other comic book movies which means that although, like the first, this is fair action-lite, the non-action scenes are just as entertaining. Mainly this is because of a truly tremendous cast with Downey Jr being his usual tour-de-force with able support from Rockwell, who is one of the most underrated actors currently on film, new addition Don Cheadle replacing the originals Trevor Howard as Stark’s military friend James Rhodes, and topping it all off with an awesome performance by Mickey Rourke, one of my favourite actors (and I still think he was robbed of his Oscar for The Wrestler, so there).
There are only two action scenes in this movie as opposed to three in the previous film but don’t let this fool you into thinking that this means we are being skimped and cheated out of our Iron Man action. We’re not. Yes there may only be two but for me these completely eclipsed the first films scenes. These are much bigger and bolder.
The first at a Monaco grand prix style race is terrific. Coming about 40 minutes into the film where by this stage we have seen Stark battling the US senate and although we know he is slowly dying and has therefore become reckless he seems untouchable. Mickey Rourke’s baddie has been building something but we don’t know what but surely some poor Russian criminal can’t do anything, can he? In a perfectly judged scene we get total carnage on the street circuit and the first of the new Iron Man suits, this one, quite literally a suitcase suit.
The second scene coming at the climax is just a big shoot ‘em up free for all which is much better than the first film’s climax, bringing the new and improved Iron Man armour up against a horde of metal baddies alongside the War Machine armour. I won’t spoil it but woo-hoo it’s a fun and entertaining climax.
Thankfully the rest of the story is so busy that you really don’t notice the ‘lack of action’. There are new characters, plus this film is also furthering the multi-movie plot line that started in Iron Man, was continued in The Incredible Hulk, carries on in this film and will be continued in Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger and coming to ahead in The Avengers. Plus you have two great actors (Downey Jr and Rourke) who are giving performances that are way above what you would normally expect in films of this ilk. Rourke invests his character with a lot of depth, crafting a man who we can in part feel some sympathy for and with much of his dialogue in Russian he is very convincing. Downey Jr is just awesome, never putting a foot wrong, if only all the comic book superhero movies could have a lead actor as strong and so far flawless as this.
There are a few downsides to this movie. Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrow struggle to get a look in, Don Cheadle as cool an actor as he is doesn’t really bring anything new to the role and Rourke is so immense that you do wish he’d been onscreen far longer than he actually is.
The film is handled so well by Favreau who has really proven himself as a big budget director that any negatives can be forgiven as the film is just so damn watchable and entertaining. This film is just great fun and as long as they don’t make any mis-steps with the other films inbetween Iron Man 3 will be even better and we could find this franchise lasting many more movies. I for one can’t wait.
Wednesday 5 May 2010
SOLOMON KANE - Film review - Originally written 26th February 2010
Yes I know it’s been six months since you’ve had one of these from me but it has been six months since I’ve been to the flicks. What can I say, my son kinda put a bit of a stop to the film trips for a bit, and I know you’re probably all eagerly awaiting my verdict on Avatar (yes I am probably one of the only people in the country who’s not seen it yet) so don’t worry, I am getting to that one. But first there is this movie, one I have been eagerly anticipating since I heard it was being made.
For those not in the know, Solomon Kane is a character from the pen of one Robert E. Howard, better known as the creator of Conan the Barbarian. In this tale we first see Kane fighting in Africa and he is a brutal and sadistic killer revelling in murder and destruction, but after an encounter with the Devil’s Reaper who has come to claim his evil soul, the terrified Kane renounces violence and lives a secluded life in a monastery, carving religious scripture and symbols into his flesh to protect him from the forces of the Devil. After being cast out of the monastery due to the Abbots dreams Kane travels back to his ancestral home in Devon. He is taken in by a family travelling to the Americas to start a new life but they are attacked by a band of warriors who follow a sorcerer called Malachi and the young daughter is kidnapped. The girls dying father tells Solomon that his soul will be redeemed if he can save the girl from the clutches of Malachi. And so begins Solomon Kane’s quest to save his soul.
Lets get the negatives out of the way first.
Good, got that out of the way.
To be serious any negatives I have with the film are minor niggles. There are a couple of scenes where it looks as though they have been cut a little short. Kane is talking about what he was like before he renounced violence and before we’ve got into a discussion about his past we cut to the next scene and I got the feeling that there was probably a bit more to it but they left it on the cutting room floor for pacing reasons. It doesn’t really impact the story or the character development as that is all still there, it’s just perhaps not quite as deep as it could have been. There’re also a couple of stop-start moments in the second half of the film where it’s been rattling along and then suddenly seems to screech to a halt before getting back up to speed. To be fair this is a failing most action-adventure films have and I think it’s generally done so you aren’t piling big action scene after big action scene. So like I’ve said minor niggles.
Oh and yes the story is fairly straightforward and simple but then a simple story told well is far better than a complex story told badly. So there.
The positives far outweigh any negatives in this movie for me. For a start the film looks stunning even though for the majority of the film the skies are overcast and it’s either snowing or pouring with rain. Anyone seen Seven Samurai out there? Remember the rain-soaked final battle. Well that’s pretty much the look for large parts of the movie. And it looks great. What’s even better is there’s a decidedly ‘English’ feel to this. In no doubt is this aided by all the regional accents used by the predominantly British cast and with the lead character with a West Country accent the whole thing feels decidedly ‘un-Hollywood’, which makes a very pleasant change.
Apart from the aforementioned ‘stop-start’ moments the pacing of the film is generally very good. We open with a battle scene and then things slow down for about half an hour as we set things up then once Solomon’s quest begins he is fairly unrelenting and there is a nice mixture of reality and fantasy, much in the same way that Robert E. Howard wrote Solomon Kane short stories. This is England in the Seventeenth century but there are vampire-zombie things and black-eyed monsters haunting the land. The action is terrific having a nice hard edge and a fair amount of blood as the anti-hero literally cuts a swathe through the bad guys to save the girl. At the forefront of this is lead actor James Purefoy who has quite simply never been better and hopefully this marks the start of him as a proper leading man in movies. He’s a very good actor who also doesn’t look shabby in a swordfight and there are plenty of those to be had. Plus he’s 45 years old and looks superb for it.
Oh and according to ‘other’ reviews in magazines the end demon baddie is ‘slightly ropey CGI’. Not sure what film they were watching, maybe The Mummy Returns as it is not ‘slightly ropey’ at all. In fact I thought it was actually pretty damn good.
All in all this has set up a world that I really hope we are given the opportunity to come back to. The director, lead actor and producers have all mentioned that they would like this to be the first in a trilogy and I sincerely hope that they get the chance to make that as this is an awesome beginning. A tremendously entertaining movie with plenty of good action that keeps things moving at a fair pace and with terrific lead performance. This goes right to the top of my DVDs to buy pile.
For those not in the know, Solomon Kane is a character from the pen of one Robert E. Howard, better known as the creator of Conan the Barbarian. In this tale we first see Kane fighting in Africa and he is a brutal and sadistic killer revelling in murder and destruction, but after an encounter with the Devil’s Reaper who has come to claim his evil soul, the terrified Kane renounces violence and lives a secluded life in a monastery, carving religious scripture and symbols into his flesh to protect him from the forces of the Devil. After being cast out of the monastery due to the Abbots dreams Kane travels back to his ancestral home in Devon. He is taken in by a family travelling to the Americas to start a new life but they are attacked by a band of warriors who follow a sorcerer called Malachi and the young daughter is kidnapped. The girls dying father tells Solomon that his soul will be redeemed if he can save the girl from the clutches of Malachi. And so begins Solomon Kane’s quest to save his soul.
Lets get the negatives out of the way first.
Good, got that out of the way.
To be serious any negatives I have with the film are minor niggles. There are a couple of scenes where it looks as though they have been cut a little short. Kane is talking about what he was like before he renounced violence and before we’ve got into a discussion about his past we cut to the next scene and I got the feeling that there was probably a bit more to it but they left it on the cutting room floor for pacing reasons. It doesn’t really impact the story or the character development as that is all still there, it’s just perhaps not quite as deep as it could have been. There’re also a couple of stop-start moments in the second half of the film where it’s been rattling along and then suddenly seems to screech to a halt before getting back up to speed. To be fair this is a failing most action-adventure films have and I think it’s generally done so you aren’t piling big action scene after big action scene. So like I’ve said minor niggles.
Oh and yes the story is fairly straightforward and simple but then a simple story told well is far better than a complex story told badly. So there.
The positives far outweigh any negatives in this movie for me. For a start the film looks stunning even though for the majority of the film the skies are overcast and it’s either snowing or pouring with rain. Anyone seen Seven Samurai out there? Remember the rain-soaked final battle. Well that’s pretty much the look for large parts of the movie. And it looks great. What’s even better is there’s a decidedly ‘English’ feel to this. In no doubt is this aided by all the regional accents used by the predominantly British cast and with the lead character with a West Country accent the whole thing feels decidedly ‘un-Hollywood’, which makes a very pleasant change.
Apart from the aforementioned ‘stop-start’ moments the pacing of the film is generally very good. We open with a battle scene and then things slow down for about half an hour as we set things up then once Solomon’s quest begins he is fairly unrelenting and there is a nice mixture of reality and fantasy, much in the same way that Robert E. Howard wrote Solomon Kane short stories. This is England in the Seventeenth century but there are vampire-zombie things and black-eyed monsters haunting the land. The action is terrific having a nice hard edge and a fair amount of blood as the anti-hero literally cuts a swathe through the bad guys to save the girl. At the forefront of this is lead actor James Purefoy who has quite simply never been better and hopefully this marks the start of him as a proper leading man in movies. He’s a very good actor who also doesn’t look shabby in a swordfight and there are plenty of those to be had. Plus he’s 45 years old and looks superb for it.
Oh and according to ‘other’ reviews in magazines the end demon baddie is ‘slightly ropey CGI’. Not sure what film they were watching, maybe The Mummy Returns as it is not ‘slightly ropey’ at all. In fact I thought it was actually pretty damn good.
All in all this has set up a world that I really hope we are given the opportunity to come back to. The director, lead actor and producers have all mentioned that they would like this to be the first in a trilogy and I sincerely hope that they get the chance to make that as this is an awesome beginning. A tremendously entertaining movie with plenty of good action that keeps things moving at a fair pace and with terrific lead performance. This goes right to the top of my DVDs to buy pile.
LEGION - Film review - Originally written 9th March 2010
A bleeding and battered man falls out of the sky, in silhouette we see he has giant wings which he proceeds to cut from his body. He breaks into a store, steals clothes, sews up his wounds and then gathers an arsenal of guns before leaving. He is stopped by two policemen, he disarms one but the other starts convulsing, shaking until his eyes turn black and his teeth have turned into razor sharp “shark’s teeth” talks to the man as if he knows him, telling ‘Michael’ that he shouldn’t have disobeyed his orders. And so begins a battle for humanities survival.
Legion is a pure B movie that has a tremendous beginning and very entertaining ending but sadly has a pretty dull middle section. The initial opening and then change to the café in the middle of nowhere, where appropriately the battle for humanity is to take place with a ragtag bunch of stereotypes is really good. The craziness of the situation is really well played and it’s all quite exciting. However, sadly after this initial burst of excitement things stagnate for a while.
Characters talk and talk, and talk some more about their lives and their regrets etc which just slows the movie down way to much, plus everyone is taking themselves far too seriously. I’m not saying that the cast should have ‘camped’ it up at all but they shouldn’t be looking like they’re in Ben-Hur, they’re in a nice and trashy action picture. Have fun with it. If only Bruce Campbell had been in this he’d have shown them how to do it.
Had the director decided to go for a longer build up (layer on the tension and paranoia a bit more) and then when everything was in place cut loose with unrelenting action right up until the end he might’ve made this a far better movie. Possibly evoking Assault on Precinct 13 a bit more which in some ways this film does resemble.
As it is though we do get a very entertaining climax with a quite freaky moment with a child and then we get Michael battling an Angel, which is pretty awesome. If the ultimate ending is a bit on the weak side then it’s only because there was no other ending we could have had. But we get Paul Bettany showing off his action chops and truth be told, he doesn’t look half bad.
It’s not a great film by any means but it’s certainly fun and will truly find it’s home on DVD where I can see this building a cult fan base over the years.
Legion is a pure B movie that has a tremendous beginning and very entertaining ending but sadly has a pretty dull middle section. The initial opening and then change to the café in the middle of nowhere, where appropriately the battle for humanity is to take place with a ragtag bunch of stereotypes is really good. The craziness of the situation is really well played and it’s all quite exciting. However, sadly after this initial burst of excitement things stagnate for a while.
Characters talk and talk, and talk some more about their lives and their regrets etc which just slows the movie down way to much, plus everyone is taking themselves far too seriously. I’m not saying that the cast should have ‘camped’ it up at all but they shouldn’t be looking like they’re in Ben-Hur, they’re in a nice and trashy action picture. Have fun with it. If only Bruce Campbell had been in this he’d have shown them how to do it.
Had the director decided to go for a longer build up (layer on the tension and paranoia a bit more) and then when everything was in place cut loose with unrelenting action right up until the end he might’ve made this a far better movie. Possibly evoking Assault on Precinct 13 a bit more which in some ways this film does resemble.
As it is though we do get a very entertaining climax with a quite freaky moment with a child and then we get Michael battling an Angel, which is pretty awesome. If the ultimate ending is a bit on the weak side then it’s only because there was no other ending we could have had. But we get Paul Bettany showing off his action chops and truth be told, he doesn’t look half bad.
It’s not a great film by any means but it’s certainly fun and will truly find it’s home on DVD where I can see this building a cult fan base over the years.
AVATAR - Film review - Originally written 9th March 2010
Yes I have finally got my butt in gear and been to see Avatar. Only 3 months after it was originally released.
This was a very interesting experience, my first 3D movie.
Most of you will have seen it (this may contain some spoilers) so I won’t bother to go into the plot, it’s basically a remake of Dances with Wolves (seriously, I am sooooo not kidding here), except it’s almost totally devoid of any characters. The film is hugely bloated and goes on for far, far too long and it is actually a bit of a clock watcher. If there were decent characters in the film then this wouldn’t have been as much of a problem but as the characters in this film are CGI smurfs it’s a very emotionally vacuous film. Once the humans start attacking and killing the Na’vi I just don’t care. They are cannon fodder and it all looks very pretty with them getting blown up (albeit bloodlessly) but I don’t know who they are nor have I been told who they are. Even with J.C. (James Cameron) seaguing into slow-mo does nothing to help his cause. Slow-mo in death scenes only works when you are watching a character you have grown to like or love being killed, the slow-mo drawing out their death agonies (see The Wild Bunch to how it should be done). In this it just looks wishy washy and rubbish.
The ecological/anit-war message about how humans are so evil is rammed down your throat so blatantly I’m amazed more people weren’t gagging and is actually quite embarrassing. And they never once try and expand on the fact that the hero is basically turning his back on his own race to side with the aliens. That’s never dealt with on screen and I was quite disappointed by this.
Oh and please tell me I wasn’t the only one thinking that as Giovanni Ribisi is being led away to get on a ship to take him offworld he wasn’t thinking “Let’s take off and nuke the entire site from orbit”.
It’s pretty much a 2 star movie and I think I’m being generous here.
Oh wait, the 3D.
The 3D is just f**king amazing. As anyone who has seen it will agree, words just can’t describe what a purely big screen experience this is. The scenes in the forest are stunning with trees and leaves and flys all buzzing around you, in 3D they look so unbelievable. The scenes at night when the forest lights up is magical. When you’re running with the na’vi in the giant trees hundreds, even thousands of feet up in the air and you look down there is a real sense of depth that just can’t be conveyed in a normal 2D movie. The whole alien-ness of Pandora is just so fantastically realised that the fact that the story and characters are cr*p are rendered fairly meaningless. I could sit and watch the scenes of flying and running in the forest forever. The end big action scene, the battle of the na’vi fighting with bows and arrows versus the humans with all their hardware, giant robot things and flying copters with the na’vi on their flying creatures really shows that 3D can handle the action as well as anything else. Visually the film is 10 stars. Out of 5. Yes, visually the film is THAT good.
However just imagine if the script and characters had been as good as the visuals. We would probably be looking at contender for ‘Greatest SF movie ever made’.
Also because the 3D is so good, I don’t think I ever want to see this on DVD, when it will be released in 2D. I just don’t wanna see it like that. I want it in 3D. I only want to see it in 3D, anything else is just less than what it should be and until we can replicate the 3D from the big screen perfectly on my home tv screen then I will never buy this film. I just hope they keep it on the big screen for a long time yet.
This was a very interesting experience, my first 3D movie.
Most of you will have seen it (this may contain some spoilers) so I won’t bother to go into the plot, it’s basically a remake of Dances with Wolves (seriously, I am sooooo not kidding here), except it’s almost totally devoid of any characters. The film is hugely bloated and goes on for far, far too long and it is actually a bit of a clock watcher. If there were decent characters in the film then this wouldn’t have been as much of a problem but as the characters in this film are CGI smurfs it’s a very emotionally vacuous film. Once the humans start attacking and killing the Na’vi I just don’t care. They are cannon fodder and it all looks very pretty with them getting blown up (albeit bloodlessly) but I don’t know who they are nor have I been told who they are. Even with J.C. (James Cameron) seaguing into slow-mo does nothing to help his cause. Slow-mo in death scenes only works when you are watching a character you have grown to like or love being killed, the slow-mo drawing out their death agonies (see The Wild Bunch to how it should be done). In this it just looks wishy washy and rubbish.
The ecological/anit-war message about how humans are so evil is rammed down your throat so blatantly I’m amazed more people weren’t gagging and is actually quite embarrassing. And they never once try and expand on the fact that the hero is basically turning his back on his own race to side with the aliens. That’s never dealt with on screen and I was quite disappointed by this.
Oh and please tell me I wasn’t the only one thinking that as Giovanni Ribisi is being led away to get on a ship to take him offworld he wasn’t thinking “Let’s take off and nuke the entire site from orbit”.
It’s pretty much a 2 star movie and I think I’m being generous here.
Oh wait, the 3D.
The 3D is just f**king amazing. As anyone who has seen it will agree, words just can’t describe what a purely big screen experience this is. The scenes in the forest are stunning with trees and leaves and flys all buzzing around you, in 3D they look so unbelievable. The scenes at night when the forest lights up is magical. When you’re running with the na’vi in the giant trees hundreds, even thousands of feet up in the air and you look down there is a real sense of depth that just can’t be conveyed in a normal 2D movie. The whole alien-ness of Pandora is just so fantastically realised that the fact that the story and characters are cr*p are rendered fairly meaningless. I could sit and watch the scenes of flying and running in the forest forever. The end big action scene, the battle of the na’vi fighting with bows and arrows versus the humans with all their hardware, giant robot things and flying copters with the na’vi on their flying creatures really shows that 3D can handle the action as well as anything else. Visually the film is 10 stars. Out of 5. Yes, visually the film is THAT good.
However just imagine if the script and characters had been as good as the visuals. We would probably be looking at contender for ‘Greatest SF movie ever made’.
Also because the 3D is so good, I don’t think I ever want to see this on DVD, when it will be released in 2D. I just don’t wanna see it like that. I want it in 3D. I only want to see it in 3D, anything else is just less than what it should be and until we can replicate the 3D from the big screen perfectly on my home tv screen then I will never buy this film. I just hope they keep it on the big screen for a long time yet.
KICK A$$ - Film Review - Originally written 1st April 2010
Dave Lizewski is a teenage comic book geek. He has a crush on a girl called Katie and wonders why no one actually dresses up as a superhero and fights crime. So he gets himself a costume and wanders the streets and promptly gets beaten up, stabbed and hit by a car and nearly killed. After being patched up in hospital and with metal plates holding his body together and with nerve damage that means he can now take a hell of a beating he takes to the streets again…
Kick A$$ is yet another in the line of really good and pretty faithful adaptations of comic books that Hollywood seem to be getting right at the moment. Based on the first 8 issues of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr’s ultraviolent and foul mouthed series this is very much NOT a kids movie.
This is just a great piece of entertainment. It’s everything you want in a movie, it’s funny, it’s brutal, it’s violent, there’s a 12 year old girl using the ‘C’ word and it has Nic Cage, dress as a pseudo-Batman doing an Adam West impression. This was a film that had a great reaction from the audience in the cinema with me; there was even actual cheering and clapping as the film reached its rousing climax. You definitely come out of the film with a bit of a skip in your step, talking about all the best bits and not once do you think, “wouldn’t it be cool to dress up as a superhero”.
Aaron Johnson is great as Dave Lizekski. Just the right combination of geek and pretty boy, with some great comic timing and bewilderment at the world he is in, he is a great heart for the movie. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is good fun too. He has some great geeky scenes. Lyndsy Fonseca as Dave’s object of affection Katie is really good too. To be fair she doesn’t have a huge amount to do but she certainly ticks all the right boxes. Mark Strong as the baddie is terrific. He’s definitely carving out a niche as for himself as the ‘go to’ baddie as he’s now played the baddie in Sherlock Holmes, this film and soon to be seen in the new version of Robin Hood and he’s also landed the main villain role in the film version of Green Lantern. Nic Cage is pretty cool too, his scenes out of Big Daddy costume are funny but once he’s doing ‘that’ voice it’s just even funnier.
But the plaudits for this film have to go to Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl. She is absolutely AWESOME and anything I try and write about how good she is won’t do her justice. So I won’t bother. Every scene she is in is fantastic, whether it’s an action scene or not, but OMG she must be brought back if there’s a sequel to this. You could not have a Kick A$$ 2 without Hit Girl.
A terrifically entertaining film with lashing of violence, blood, swearing, lots of geeky references and above all it’s just very, very, very funny.
Kick A$$ is yet another in the line of really good and pretty faithful adaptations of comic books that Hollywood seem to be getting right at the moment. Based on the first 8 issues of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr’s ultraviolent and foul mouthed series this is very much NOT a kids movie.
This is just a great piece of entertainment. It’s everything you want in a movie, it’s funny, it’s brutal, it’s violent, there’s a 12 year old girl using the ‘C’ word and it has Nic Cage, dress as a pseudo-Batman doing an Adam West impression. This was a film that had a great reaction from the audience in the cinema with me; there was even actual cheering and clapping as the film reached its rousing climax. You definitely come out of the film with a bit of a skip in your step, talking about all the best bits and not once do you think, “wouldn’t it be cool to dress up as a superhero”.
Aaron Johnson is great as Dave Lizekski. Just the right combination of geek and pretty boy, with some great comic timing and bewilderment at the world he is in, he is a great heart for the movie. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is good fun too. He has some great geeky scenes. Lyndsy Fonseca as Dave’s object of affection Katie is really good too. To be fair she doesn’t have a huge amount to do but she certainly ticks all the right boxes. Mark Strong as the baddie is terrific. He’s definitely carving out a niche as for himself as the ‘go to’ baddie as he’s now played the baddie in Sherlock Holmes, this film and soon to be seen in the new version of Robin Hood and he’s also landed the main villain role in the film version of Green Lantern. Nic Cage is pretty cool too, his scenes out of Big Daddy costume are funny but once he’s doing ‘that’ voice it’s just even funnier.
But the plaudits for this film have to go to Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl. She is absolutely AWESOME and anything I try and write about how good she is won’t do her justice. So I won’t bother. Every scene she is in is fantastic, whether it’s an action scene or not, but OMG she must be brought back if there’s a sequel to this. You could not have a Kick A$$ 2 without Hit Girl.
A terrifically entertaining film with lashing of violence, blood, swearing, lots of geeky references and above all it’s just very, very, very funny.
The Killer Inside Me - Film Review
The Killer inside Me, based on Jim Thompson’s 1952 novel of the same name, is about Lou Ford, a Deputy Sheriff, of a small Texas town. He’s young, good looking, has a slightly slow and laconic manner that some people take for him being ‘slow’. What they do not realise is that he is also a psychopath.
Director Michael Winterbottom’s film is beautifully shot. Full of wide open spaces and deep blue skies. The people and look of the 1950s town are right out of a book for ‘apple pie’ America. Mixed in with some terrific and surprisingly upbeat music, this creates a very real and well realised world. At the heart of this is Casey Affleck’s powerful central performance as Lou Ford. A psychopath hiding being the mask of normality. He has a beautiful girlfriend played by a dark haired Kate Hudson and he is also having a sexual relationship with a local prostitute played by Jessica Alba which at times is quite sadomasochistic.
Infact this is the starting point for the story, although not the beginning of Lou Ford’s ‘sickness’. The first glimpse we see of the monster that hides behind the Deputy Sheriff manifests itself within the opening scenes of the film. We can see the change coming on through Affleck’s face and eyes which has a very strong impact. Removing his mask if you will. It is a very tense scene as we are just not quite sure at this stage what he is going to do. What he is capable of. As we see later in the film Affleck’s character is capable of some horrendously vicious and brutal violence, in particular towards women. His violence towards women is infact a major part of both his character and the story.
Two particularly strong scenes of male on female violence have become major talking points around the Festival circuit for this film, not due a UK release until 4th June, and although the scenes, especially the first, are very strong and deeply unpleasant it is a shame that it is becoming a de rigueur for people to comment only on these scenes at the detriment to the rest of this very well made film. It should also be noted that in the case of the first scene of male on female violence the filmmakers have very cleverly made us think we have seen more than we actually have, although we still see a hell of a lot and it is certainly one of the most uncomfortable scenes I’ve had to sit through, probably since the film Irreversible. There are also some scenes of child abuse which are more implied than graphic but they are still quite unpleasant to watch.
The slow pacing of the film suits the story very well as Affleck’s character gradually finds his world falling apart as more and more people come to look at him in a different way, but he always seems to have words that shoot down his accusers to the point that we are never sure whether he is going to get away with his crimes or if he has a comeuppance due to him. This is another part of the tension building that filters through the film building into a convincing character study of a psychopathic serial killer. Anyone expecting a fast and pacy thriller will be very disappointed as things develop at a very gentle and steady pace over the length of the film.
This is not a film for everyone, it is certainly not what you would call a ‘date movie’, but anyone who likes their films dark and grim, loves 50s noir novels, of which this is a very faithful adaptation and wants to see a terrific performance by a lead actor then as long as you can stomach some of the violence then I thoroughly recommend it.
Director Michael Winterbottom’s film is beautifully shot. Full of wide open spaces and deep blue skies. The people and look of the 1950s town are right out of a book for ‘apple pie’ America. Mixed in with some terrific and surprisingly upbeat music, this creates a very real and well realised world. At the heart of this is Casey Affleck’s powerful central performance as Lou Ford. A psychopath hiding being the mask of normality. He has a beautiful girlfriend played by a dark haired Kate Hudson and he is also having a sexual relationship with a local prostitute played by Jessica Alba which at times is quite sadomasochistic.
Infact this is the starting point for the story, although not the beginning of Lou Ford’s ‘sickness’. The first glimpse we see of the monster that hides behind the Deputy Sheriff manifests itself within the opening scenes of the film. We can see the change coming on through Affleck’s face and eyes which has a very strong impact. Removing his mask if you will. It is a very tense scene as we are just not quite sure at this stage what he is going to do. What he is capable of. As we see later in the film Affleck’s character is capable of some horrendously vicious and brutal violence, in particular towards women. His violence towards women is infact a major part of both his character and the story.
Two particularly strong scenes of male on female violence have become major talking points around the Festival circuit for this film, not due a UK release until 4th June, and although the scenes, especially the first, are very strong and deeply unpleasant it is a shame that it is becoming a de rigueur for people to comment only on these scenes at the detriment to the rest of this very well made film. It should also be noted that in the case of the first scene of male on female violence the filmmakers have very cleverly made us think we have seen more than we actually have, although we still see a hell of a lot and it is certainly one of the most uncomfortable scenes I’ve had to sit through, probably since the film Irreversible. There are also some scenes of child abuse which are more implied than graphic but they are still quite unpleasant to watch.
The slow pacing of the film suits the story very well as Affleck’s character gradually finds his world falling apart as more and more people come to look at him in a different way, but he always seems to have words that shoot down his accusers to the point that we are never sure whether he is going to get away with his crimes or if he has a comeuppance due to him. This is another part of the tension building that filters through the film building into a convincing character study of a psychopathic serial killer. Anyone expecting a fast and pacy thriller will be very disappointed as things develop at a very gentle and steady pace over the length of the film.
This is not a film for everyone, it is certainly not what you would call a ‘date movie’, but anyone who likes their films dark and grim, loves 50s noir novels, of which this is a very faithful adaptation and wants to see a terrific performance by a lead actor then as long as you can stomach some of the violence then I thoroughly recommend it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
