Friday 28 October 2011
BATTLEFIELD 3: THE RUSSIAN - BOOK REVIEW
Based on the computer game this is more of a side story than a straight novelisation of the game (so I have heard), which actually works to the advantage. This is mainly because pretty much every novelisation of a computer game I’ve ever read is pretty much an entertaining piece of rubbish. This breaks that mould somewhat by actually being a pretty decent thriller, even more so, despite being ‘co-authored’ this very much reads like an Andy McNab book so as a fan you are well catered for. The lead character of the novel is an ex-Spetsnaz soldier Dima Mayakovsky who ends up hunting down a suitcase WMD in the middle east, encountering a US marine Sergeant Henry Blackburn, the central character in the computer game, along his travels. Like all of McNab’s other novels this blast along with breakneck speed as bad situation is compounded by worse situations and just plain terrible ones. Being a fan of McNab’s Nick Stone thrillers I found this equally entertaining and it was nice to find the author writing about a Russian central character than the usual English or American, as we normally see in these sorts of books. Despite having the potential stigmata of being based on a game I think this book would stand up pretty well without the Battlefield 3 links as a good military thriller. There’s plenty of big action scenes and some great dialogue as well as a brilliant lead character in Mayakovsky and I would rate this alongside any of his Stone books. I have a slight niggle with part of the climax, which I can’t really go into as that would be a bit of a spoiler, but this didn’t annoy me enough to sully my enjoyment of the book. I would love to read more books about this character although I would expect this would be unlikely to happen. Not being a massive gamer I find myself actually wanting to give the game a go after reading this. I sincerely hope that the gamers’ out there will want to give the book a go after playing the game.
Tuesday 18 October 2011
13 ASSASSINS - film review
It’s not that often anymore when a film totally captures me and draws me in to the point where I can not stop thinking about it. 13 Assassins is one of those movies. Recently rented and now bought and watched again I still think it’s pretty darn terrific. There might be the odd spoiler in here, just so you’ve been warned.
The story is nice and straight forward; Set in 1844 when the Shogun’s younger brother, a sadist called Naritsugu, kills, rapes, tortures any who he desires to leaving ‘the people’ unable to seek justice due to Naritsugu’s untouchable position. Terrified what this evil man will do once he gains political power a senior government official hires a samurai named Shinzaemon to assassinate Naritsugu who is travelling back from Edo to the Akashi lands. Shinzaemon gets together a group of 12 samurai (later bolstered to 13) to help him kill Naritsugu and his 70 strong retinue by ambushing him in the town of Chigani, which is on the way. Buying the town outright from the people they turn it into one giant booby trap and wait for their enemy. While this has been happening Naritsugu’s lead samurai Hanbei, a former sparring partner of Shinzaemon, has suspicions that an ambush awaits them and when they arrive at Chigani their force is no longer 70 but 200. One hell of a battle is about to begin.
Within the opening fifteen minutes of the movie we are made to hate Naritsugu after witnessing some awful atrocities and are fully behind the samurai tasked with his assassination. The rest of the first hour and fifteen minutes is all the build up and planning. A lot of the warriors in this movie are given short shrift which is a shame as all of the actors appear to be very good but given the running time of the movie (2 hours) it would be impossible to satisfactorily flesh out these characters, so sadly some of them are introduced to us and promptly disappear until the climax. That said the ones who are given some screen time are pretty superb. The whole of the build up in this film is done so expertly that although there is very little ‘action’ in the early stages, it doesn’t matter as the whole situation and the planning is absolutely riveting, held together by the lead samurai played by Kōji Yakusho.
That’s not to say that the film is flawless. One of the characters has suffered from edits made to the version of the film released outside of Japan. The original Japanese release is some 15 minutes longer than the version brought out over here. The majority of the cuts are minor and have no real bearing on the movie, unfortunately the cuts to do with the character of Koyata Kiga are damaging. In the original version there are a few scenes which purport that the Kiga character may be an immortal, or a ‘friendly demon’. By all accounts these scenes were removed as it was felt western audiences would have found them confusing in what is otherwise a very ‘realistic’ sort of movie. Only a couple of subtle hints remain, which I think probably are more confusing than if they kept the original scenes in. This is a fairly minor niggle as it certainly doesn’t detract from your enjoyment of the rest of the movie, easily controversial, maybe even notorious, director Takashi Miike’s most commercial movie to date.
All of the above brings us rather neatly to the climax of the movie. The Battle. The 35 minute Battle. Yep you read that right, the battle at the climax of this movie lasts for 35 minutes, from first death to last and it is absolutely breathtaking. If this scene hadn’t been great it would have meant the tremendous build up early on was never built upon. You would have liked the film but not loved it. Thankfully that does not happen and we are treated to one of the best sustained action sequences I’ve seen for a long time. As soon as the assassins draw their swords you are in for an absolute treat, to say much more, and believe me I want to tell you all blow for blow what happens, would spoil it too much for you. I’m jealous now of anyone who is about to embark on their first viewing of this film. I remember how much I enjoyed it, so much so that within a week I’d gone to HMV and bought myself a copy and fear not, the film is still just a wicked the second time around and I fully expect it to be pretty bloody good the third time around too. A terrific movie which I thoroughly recommend to anyone.
The story is nice and straight forward; Set in 1844 when the Shogun’s younger brother, a sadist called Naritsugu, kills, rapes, tortures any who he desires to leaving ‘the people’ unable to seek justice due to Naritsugu’s untouchable position. Terrified what this evil man will do once he gains political power a senior government official hires a samurai named Shinzaemon to assassinate Naritsugu who is travelling back from Edo to the Akashi lands. Shinzaemon gets together a group of 12 samurai (later bolstered to 13) to help him kill Naritsugu and his 70 strong retinue by ambushing him in the town of Chigani, which is on the way. Buying the town outright from the people they turn it into one giant booby trap and wait for their enemy. While this has been happening Naritsugu’s lead samurai Hanbei, a former sparring partner of Shinzaemon, has suspicions that an ambush awaits them and when they arrive at Chigani their force is no longer 70 but 200. One hell of a battle is about to begin.
Within the opening fifteen minutes of the movie we are made to hate Naritsugu after witnessing some awful atrocities and are fully behind the samurai tasked with his assassination. The rest of the first hour and fifteen minutes is all the build up and planning. A lot of the warriors in this movie are given short shrift which is a shame as all of the actors appear to be very good but given the running time of the movie (2 hours) it would be impossible to satisfactorily flesh out these characters, so sadly some of them are introduced to us and promptly disappear until the climax. That said the ones who are given some screen time are pretty superb. The whole of the build up in this film is done so expertly that although there is very little ‘action’ in the early stages, it doesn’t matter as the whole situation and the planning is absolutely riveting, held together by the lead samurai played by Kōji Yakusho.
That’s not to say that the film is flawless. One of the characters has suffered from edits made to the version of the film released outside of Japan. The original Japanese release is some 15 minutes longer than the version brought out over here. The majority of the cuts are minor and have no real bearing on the movie, unfortunately the cuts to do with the character of Koyata Kiga are damaging. In the original version there are a few scenes which purport that the Kiga character may be an immortal, or a ‘friendly demon’. By all accounts these scenes were removed as it was felt western audiences would have found them confusing in what is otherwise a very ‘realistic’ sort of movie. Only a couple of subtle hints remain, which I think probably are more confusing than if they kept the original scenes in. This is a fairly minor niggle as it certainly doesn’t detract from your enjoyment of the rest of the movie, easily controversial, maybe even notorious, director Takashi Miike’s most commercial movie to date.
All of the above brings us rather neatly to the climax of the movie. The Battle. The 35 minute Battle. Yep you read that right, the battle at the climax of this movie lasts for 35 minutes, from first death to last and it is absolutely breathtaking. If this scene hadn’t been great it would have meant the tremendous build up early on was never built upon. You would have liked the film but not loved it. Thankfully that does not happen and we are treated to one of the best sustained action sequences I’ve seen for a long time. As soon as the assassins draw their swords you are in for an absolute treat, to say much more, and believe me I want to tell you all blow for blow what happens, would spoil it too much for you. I’m jealous now of anyone who is about to embark on their first viewing of this film. I remember how much I enjoyed it, so much so that within a week I’d gone to HMV and bought myself a copy and fear not, the film is still just a wicked the second time around and I fully expect it to be pretty bloody good the third time around too. A terrific movie which I thoroughly recommend to anyone.
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