Pretty much following a day on the job for Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) this has the eponymous Judge tasked with evaluating rookie Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) as a training day to see if she’s got what it takes to be a street judge. Anderson is also a psychic, one of the reasons the Chief Judge wants to see how she’ll cope ‘in the field’. Dredd takes the rookie out and tells her to choose where they are going. Anderson picks an incident at the megablok Peach Trees, three skinned bodies have been thrown from one of the 200 floors and landed in the main ground floor planade. This is to start a series of events which will see the two Judges locked into the megablok and facing a war against hundreds of criminals tasked with killing them by the ruthless crime lord, Ma-Ma (Lena Headley).
The last time Judge Dredd was ‘attempted’ for a film version we got the beyond terrible Sylvester Stallone version back in 1995. They totally got the character wrong on nearly every level and possibly the most important one is that Dredd’s face is never seen, one of the main points is that he is the ‘faceless’ face of Justice in the futuristic city, Mega City One. Stallone took the helmet off after the first ten minutes and things got progressively worse from there. Joel Schumacher didn’t f**k up Batman as much as Stallone f**Ked up Dredd. Let us never mention that film again.
So fast forward to 2012 and we get a new version, written by lifelong Dredd fan Alex Garland. Thankfully the years have been kind and we have been served up THE Dredd movie. Yes you can quibble about that fact that Mega City One is totally different to its depiction in the comic books. It’s not a massively over the top, giant buildings crowding around each other metropolis, it looks more like a giant city of today with some giant buildings spread out across it. The costumes that the Judges wear are very different to the comic book depiction. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is the film’s budget was $45 million, which for a film of this ilk is really, really low budget. The other is down to the fact that nowadays, especially after the success of Batman Begins and Iron Man it seems setting these comic book movies in a ‘realistic’ world are a bit of the in thing. To be fair this actually works in the movie’s favour, making this world much more accessible to the casual Dredd fan such as myself and the non-Dredd fan that has yet to delve into this world of Judges etc. Oh and the new Judge costume’s kick arse.
Sticking to a very lean and mean plot line this steamrollers along at a terrific pace, building up on elements of this world as we go. The violence is very bloody and nasty, there are people getting shot to bits, blown up and skinned alive. The characters are pretty much spot on as far as I can tell. Thirlby as Anderson is the films heart and soul. She is the rookie Judge who still can feel compassion and regret and is the perfect foil for Urban. Taking away his eyes, for Dredd never, NEVER EVER, takes that helmet off means that his performance relies on the rest of his body. The way he moves, talks, the type of voice he has. And he is Dredd. Totally and unequivocally focused on the letter of the law. He is a near immoveable object. When told that Anderson only just failed and they feel there is a question over whether she should be given another chance Dredd’s response is a terse “She failed”. Despite the fact that you could call Dredd a ‘fascist b*stard’ or even a ‘total c*nt’ which to be fair he kind of is, he’s still a riveting character and the film is never quite as good when he’s off-screen.
This was my first 3D movie since Avatar and I have to say I was really impressed. Okay it’s not 3D fantastic like Avatar but the scenes where the 3D really do improve this movie and make it something special are the scenes involving people taking a new narcotic know as ‘Slo-Mo’. This drug makes the world move at about 1% of its normal speed, allowing for some awesome shots of a person splashing in the bath or in one jaw dropping scene, watching Dredd and Anderson take down a ‘Slo-Mo’ drug den with bullets tearing bodies apart and showering blood in all directions. In slow motion. In 3D. Love it.
I really hope that this film does well so that we can get more movies made. Not only is it pretty much an Independent British film but Urban’s performance as Dredd is so good I just want to see him play this role again and from the sounds of it the film makers plans for sequels sound too good to not see. I would gladly go and see this film again and again at the cinema, not something I’ve thought of doing for quite some years now. It’s not a date movie and it sure is very violent, and gorily violent at that, but for me, this is by far the best comic book adaption since 300.
Friday, 14 September 2012
Thursday, 30 August 2012
THE EXPENDABLES 2 - film review
Coerced into doing a job for Mr Church (Bruce Willis) after the previous job (see The Expendables) went a bit sour, Barney Ross’s (Sylvester Stallone) Expendables find themselves on the wrong side of dastardly Jean Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Hector (Scott Adkins), leaders of a team of mercenaries who are after stock piled nuclear weapons. Following the death of one of the Expendables Ross’s plan is simple, “Find ‘em, Track ‘em, Kill ‘em”. You know it’s gonna get noisy when you hear lines like that.
Finally being able to get out to the cinema after over a year was a joyous occasion and what better movie to share it with than this, the follow up to one of the most fun actioners of recent years and this time Stallone has worked his magic and got not only Jean-Claude Van Damme (JCVD) and Chuck Norris in, he’s also got Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis to play much larger roles than the one scene in the first movie. Be warned what follows may contain so teeny tiny spoilers but nothing I think that would spoil anyone’s enjoyment of the movie.
Let’s start with the bad. A similar problem from the first film is carried over, sadly. There are rather too many guys in the mix. Jet Li sadly gets lost again, only appearing in the opening action scene before he departs, hopefully to make a come back in movie number 3. Couture and Crews again suffer from a dearth of screen time but thankfully Dolph Lundgren is on good form, as is JCVD who is obviously having a ball playing the villain of the piece. Both Stallone and The Stath (Jason Statham) are on top form too, but more on that later. The storyline is pretty thin, possibly thinner than the first film, although that also is kind of a strength. Less time on plot means more time on blowing things up. There’s also a couple of bits with some not quite brilliant CGI, lets just say Motorbike Vs helicopter and Plane Vs Bridge and you’ll see what I mean. However in the films defence this film cost $100 million which in today’s Big Blockbuster Movie club is pretty cheap and when you think some of the guys in this usually command near $20 million for their fee alone I think I can live with a bit of not Avatar quality CGI in a couple of bits if it means they can get this cast on the screen.
There’s a very different feel to this movie. The tone is not as serious as the first movie. There are a lot more jokes and in-jokes about the cast and it all feels a bit more of a romp at times than a serious action pic. I quite liked the feel of it and it in no way detracts from the action bits (patience I’m getting there) although I would say I hope come the next film that they won’t make it quite so jokey and get a bit more serious.
Right we’ve got the boring bits out of the way. Let’s get on to the main reason you want to see a film like this. The action. Just like the first movie this doesn’t disappoint. The opening of the film has a nice big action scene with lots of explosions and shooting and Jet Li having a fantastic fight scene, better than anything he was allowed to do in the first movie. Sadly for us that’s it for him in this movie as he departs soon after although it’s nice to see Dolph’s character looking genuinely heartbroken when Li says he may not be back. A nice turnaround for these two characters after what happened with them in the first movie. Things slow down a little after that but pick up once JCVD and his henchman Hector played by rather superb British martial artist Scott Adkins arrive. Watching Adkins’ character punk out and make The Stath his bitch is quite superb to see, especially as Stath was pretty much the manliest of men in the first film. You so know when these two meet again it’s going to be pretty special (and OOOOOOH it is, knife versus knuckle dusters is all I’m saying). Bringing in Chuck Norris for a couple of bits is great fun, especially as Norris comes out with a blooming Chuck Norris fact. Brilliant. It’s also rather good to have Arnie back in the mix. Watching him get to shoot some baddies and shout “I’m back” is a cheer worthy moment, indeed a few people in the screening did cheer. Stallone and JCVD make perfect adversaries to one another and their fight, albeit a tad on the short side is pretty darn good. Great to see JCVD in a cinema film again (fingers crossed the new Universal Soldier movie which also has Scott Adkins and Dolph Lundgren in gets a cinema release) and he revels in every second, his villain is perfect old school Bond baddie.
This isn’t a perfect film but if you want an action film that is just totally and unashamedly fun then this is truly Fifty Shades of F**king Awesome. Roll on The Expendables 3 which apparently already has the existing cast signed up as well as newbies Nic Cage and potentially Clint Eastwood and maybe, finally Steven Seagal. Bring. It. On.
Finally being able to get out to the cinema after over a year was a joyous occasion and what better movie to share it with than this, the follow up to one of the most fun actioners of recent years and this time Stallone has worked his magic and got not only Jean-Claude Van Damme (JCVD) and Chuck Norris in, he’s also got Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis to play much larger roles than the one scene in the first movie. Be warned what follows may contain so teeny tiny spoilers but nothing I think that would spoil anyone’s enjoyment of the movie.
Let’s start with the bad. A similar problem from the first film is carried over, sadly. There are rather too many guys in the mix. Jet Li sadly gets lost again, only appearing in the opening action scene before he departs, hopefully to make a come back in movie number 3. Couture and Crews again suffer from a dearth of screen time but thankfully Dolph Lundgren is on good form, as is JCVD who is obviously having a ball playing the villain of the piece. Both Stallone and The Stath (Jason Statham) are on top form too, but more on that later. The storyline is pretty thin, possibly thinner than the first film, although that also is kind of a strength. Less time on plot means more time on blowing things up. There’s also a couple of bits with some not quite brilliant CGI, lets just say Motorbike Vs helicopter and Plane Vs Bridge and you’ll see what I mean. However in the films defence this film cost $100 million which in today’s Big Blockbuster Movie club is pretty cheap and when you think some of the guys in this usually command near $20 million for their fee alone I think I can live with a bit of not Avatar quality CGI in a couple of bits if it means they can get this cast on the screen.
There’s a very different feel to this movie. The tone is not as serious as the first movie. There are a lot more jokes and in-jokes about the cast and it all feels a bit more of a romp at times than a serious action pic. I quite liked the feel of it and it in no way detracts from the action bits (patience I’m getting there) although I would say I hope come the next film that they won’t make it quite so jokey and get a bit more serious.
Right we’ve got the boring bits out of the way. Let’s get on to the main reason you want to see a film like this. The action. Just like the first movie this doesn’t disappoint. The opening of the film has a nice big action scene with lots of explosions and shooting and Jet Li having a fantastic fight scene, better than anything he was allowed to do in the first movie. Sadly for us that’s it for him in this movie as he departs soon after although it’s nice to see Dolph’s character looking genuinely heartbroken when Li says he may not be back. A nice turnaround for these two characters after what happened with them in the first movie. Things slow down a little after that but pick up once JCVD and his henchman Hector played by rather superb British martial artist Scott Adkins arrive. Watching Adkins’ character punk out and make The Stath his bitch is quite superb to see, especially as Stath was pretty much the manliest of men in the first film. You so know when these two meet again it’s going to be pretty special (and OOOOOOH it is, knife versus knuckle dusters is all I’m saying). Bringing in Chuck Norris for a couple of bits is great fun, especially as Norris comes out with a blooming Chuck Norris fact. Brilliant. It’s also rather good to have Arnie back in the mix. Watching him get to shoot some baddies and shout “I’m back” is a cheer worthy moment, indeed a few people in the screening did cheer. Stallone and JCVD make perfect adversaries to one another and their fight, albeit a tad on the short side is pretty darn good. Great to see JCVD in a cinema film again (fingers crossed the new Universal Soldier movie which also has Scott Adkins and Dolph Lundgren in gets a cinema release) and he revels in every second, his villain is perfect old school Bond baddie.
This isn’t a perfect film but if you want an action film that is just totally and unashamedly fun then this is truly Fifty Shades of F**king Awesome. Roll on The Expendables 3 which apparently already has the existing cast signed up as well as newbies Nic Cage and potentially Clint Eastwood and maybe, finally Steven Seagal. Bring. It. On.
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Quentin tarantino & Me - A Love Story
My ongoing love-hate relationship with Quentin Tarantino is well documented amongst my friends.
You only have to ask the cast of my school production of Once in a Lifetime when I portrayed a mad German film director to know that there was a time when I obsessed about QT.
Pulp Fiction still stands the test of time as a terrific film but also holds a special place in my heart because it opened my eyes to films that were all about the dialogue. Way before I got into Elmore Leonard books, a writer who so obviously informed QT’s dialogue style no end, this was the one that made me go WOW. There’s not a massive plot, there’s not much ‘action’ but there is a hell of a lot of talking and damn doesn’t it just sound so cool. I was at school and was getting into writing stage scripts. QT really got me into writing, and mainly trying to get some great dialogue. Not necessarily in the same style but good dialogue, maybe even ‘cool’ dialogue. I devoured Reservoir Dogs when it eventually emerged onto VHS (this was in the day when it was pretty much banned on video), Jackie Brown I really enjoyed but it wasn’t quite as good as Pulp Fiction (though it did have the coolest actor on the planet Samuel L Jackson in it) but then things got tricky when Kill Bill came out.
I should be a bit more precise, Kill Bill Volume 1. On paper this sounded like a great idea. Tarantino was going to make a throw back to the exploitation revenge movies that he grew up loving, with Uma Thurman as a kick ass female assassin going after the men who tried to kill her, all leading up to the big man, Bill. This sounded great. Then came the news that the film was soooooooo long they were going to split it into two films. Okay that didn’t sound brilliant. Most exploitation revenge movies were short and sweet, nearer 90 minutes than 240 but hey it’s Tarantino. What could go wrong?
Quite a f**king lot in my opinion.
Kill Bill was a huge damp squib. Within minutes of the film beginning alarm bells were ringing in my head. Did he really just have a bleep over one of the characters talking? A name bleeped out? That’s a bit pants. As the film went on the idea that this was fast paced action film of the two (as all the pre-publicity kept droning on and on about) became more and more bullsh*t. The film is pedestrian paced, only really coming alive for the final slaughter-a-thon at the end, which admittedly is pretty superb. I left the cinema feeling very let down. Apart from a couple of bits it wasn’t really very good.
I bypassed Volume 2 at the cinema and watched it on dvd. It’s better but still beset by problems. The ‘death list 5’ which is so prevalent in the first film isn’t mentioned, the complete change to more of a western style is quite jarring and it’s just overall a bit ‘meeh’. Again there are some great moments. Uma Thurman’s fight with Daryl Hannah is fantastic and the final, downbeat finale with Bill is quite nicely played. It’s just not great.
I was distraught, here was my idol who’d made three terrific films and now for his fourth it was, well ordinary. After this I joked that any future film would be his ongoing apology for Kill Bill.
Up pops Death Proof. After hunting down the script online (I say hunting down, it was more a case of put it in google search and there it is) I had a read. This was much, much better than Kill Bill but although there was some great dialogue the films plot was a bit weak.
The film basically consists of (spoilersspoilerspoilers) a group of girls meet up, go to a bar and talk. A lot. A creepy man sees them there, gets a lap dance off one of them then when the girls leave he crashes his car into them killing them all but survives himself because his car is a stunt car and he was protected by roll cage etc. Another group of girls meet up and talk, a lot. Creepy guy tries to kill them but the tables are turned and the girls chase him and eventually beat him to death. That is pretty much what happens.
So no great shakes storywise. I know neither was Pulp Fiction but it had more to it than this. Seeing the film however was completely different. Sure the story is the same but on screen it all works so much better.
But it still wasn’t great.
QT had gone up a fair few notches but hadn’t yet retained the pedestal I’d put him on in my teens. Which brings me to Inglourious Basterds, QT’s spaghetti western styled World War II movie. Again I hunted down the script online and gave it a read. I was a little disappointed. After being promised a ‘men on a mission’ movie ala The Dirty Dozen this was anything but. The ‘Basterds’ of the title are barely in the movie and the main chunk of the film is about a Jewish girl working in a cinema. There were a couple of great scenes but overall it was a bit of a ‘meh’ script when reading it. All the good work QT had done with Death Proof was about to be crushed.
Then I went to the cinema to see it. There are a few differences in the finished movie to the script but it just comes alive on screen, thanks mainly to two actors. Brad Pitt and one Christoph Waltz. Pitt looks like he is having a ball as Aldo Raine the leader of the ‘Basterds’ and as for Waltz, well his Hans Landa is one of the most fantastic creations imaginable. He is truly stunning. The film could do with being trimmed here and there in each scene in my opinion but it is as close to Pulp Fiction as QT has got. A lot of people have even labelled it his masterpiece but I think they were jumping the gun.
They haven’t seen Django Unchained yet.
To be fair neither have I. It’s not due out in the US until December and unlikely to open in the UK until January 2013. What I have done is read the script.
And it is good. It is really, really good.
It’s easily his best since Pulp Fiction. He’s created two superb characters in Django, a freed slave and Dr King Schultz, an ex-dentist turned Bounty Hunter and the footage that was screened in Cannes earlier this week has had a glowing reception. If the film is anyway near as good as the written script, and with Waltz taking the role of King Schultz and a certain Mr Leonardo Di Caprio making is QT bow as a villain this surely will be something to behold. Without wanting to jinx it, this could be his masterpiece.
So QT you’re back on the pedestal.
Maybe I don’t obsess or worship you like I did when I was a teen but you’re back to making some pretty damn good movies.
And I’ll salute you for that.
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.
Friday, 19 August 2011
THE IRON JACKAL - A Tale of the Ketty Jay - book review
You know you’re gonna have a real good time with a book when it opens with a chase, then has a robbery and then spends the rest of the story trying to ‘correct’ the aforementioned robbery. This is the third adventure featuring the rag tag crew from the Ketty Jay and this is by far the most enjoyable. So enjoyable that I literally didn’t want to put it down and really thought about pulling a ‘sickie’ just so I could keep reading it.
The second novel, The Black Lung Captain, was a more serious book I found and although terrific it’s wonderful having a much more ‘caper’ like adventure for the crew this time around. Having some darker more serious elements work well within this series but when it gets a bit too serious it never feels right to me. There are some fantastic action scenes littered throughout the novel, all bursting with excitement and plenty of bickering between the crew members, which is just what we’re after from a Ketty Jay novel afterall. Chris Wooding has been very careful throughout the novels in slowly revealing previous unknown elements of the characters pasts so over the serious we are gradually building more and more of a rounded picture of our favourites. Outside of all the action and adventure I must confess that this is one of my favourite elements in this series as it’s much more entertaining to slowly get to know a character over a period of stories then get to know everything about them in a paragraph, that would just be lazy and Wooding is in no way a lazy writer. In this novel it’s the character of Silo, the Murthian, who reveals more of his history than ever before, although small snippets were hinted at in the previous books, and he’s gone from being a strong silent type to someone much deeper.
Wooding is also really, really good at endings. Each of the Ketty Jay novels has ended perfectly and this is no exception. We get closure to this adventure but enough loose ends are there to be expanded on in further adventures with a few things possibly foreshadowing the next book yet at the same time being a perfect place to end the series if he so chose. Thankfully book four is due out in a couple of years, phew. Can’t imagine a world without the ‘Boyz (and girlz) from the Jay’ but bloody hell it’s gonna be a long f-ing wait.
But I do know one thing, it will be worth the wait.
The second novel, The Black Lung Captain, was a more serious book I found and although terrific it’s wonderful having a much more ‘caper’ like adventure for the crew this time around. Having some darker more serious elements work well within this series but when it gets a bit too serious it never feels right to me. There are some fantastic action scenes littered throughout the novel, all bursting with excitement and plenty of bickering between the crew members, which is just what we’re after from a Ketty Jay novel afterall. Chris Wooding has been very careful throughout the novels in slowly revealing previous unknown elements of the characters pasts so over the serious we are gradually building more and more of a rounded picture of our favourites. Outside of all the action and adventure I must confess that this is one of my favourite elements in this series as it’s much more entertaining to slowly get to know a character over a period of stories then get to know everything about them in a paragraph, that would just be lazy and Wooding is in no way a lazy writer. In this novel it’s the character of Silo, the Murthian, who reveals more of his history than ever before, although small snippets were hinted at in the previous books, and he’s gone from being a strong silent type to someone much deeper.
Wooding is also really, really good at endings. Each of the Ketty Jay novels has ended perfectly and this is no exception. We get closure to this adventure but enough loose ends are there to be expanded on in further adventures with a few things possibly foreshadowing the next book yet at the same time being a perfect place to end the series if he so chose. Thankfully book four is due out in a couple of years, phew. Can’t imagine a world without the ‘Boyz (and girlz) from the Jay’ but bloody hell it’s gonna be a long f-ing wait.
But I do know one thing, it will be worth the wait.
Thursday, 11 August 2011
IT'S OFFICIAL, I WATCH TOO MANY FILMS - A Plethora of Film Reviews
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve watched quite a few movies on DVD and seeing as how I enjoyed them quite a bit I thought I’d write a brief review of all of them. Brace yourselves
We’ll start with THE LINCOLN LAWYER. Adapted brilliantly from Michael Connelly’s huge bestseller this was a far better translation to screen than Blood Work. Although the fairly hefty story has been condensed down to 110 minutes they’ve done it very well so everything is all there and it makes perfect sense, as long as you pay attention. Matthew McConaughey, an actor I’ve never been that fond of is pitch perfect as Mick Haller (he’s called Mickey by most people in the book) who manages to make the character charming despite the fact he’s a defence attorney who makes his living getting guilty clients off charges. There’s able support by Marisa Tomei as his ex-wife and Ryan Phillippe as his current client and it’s all actually very exciting. The best advice, read the book, then watch the movie. Fingers crossed that this leads to future adaptations of Connelly novels.
Next up is a Korean revenge thriller called I SAW THE DEVIL which I heard about a while back on the Empire website. They popped up a red band trailer for this movie starring the actor Choi Min-Sik who I’d last seen in the immense film ‘Oldboy’. This time around he’s a serial killer who murders a young pregnant woman who turns out to be the daughter of a retired Police Chief. She was also engaged to a Secret Service operative who’s really rather unhappy at the love of his life being brutally killed. Once the ‘hero’ has tracked the killer down there then starts a brutal punishment game as the killer is repeatedly beaten and maimed and then released all for the ‘hero’ to do it again. Until things go wrong. This is a very dark and grim movie which does loose it for a little bit in the middle with a side story featuring a cannibal killer and you can certain say that the film is too long. That said it is pretty intense and some of the violence is wince inducing, especially a truly horribly graphic scene involving an Achilles tendon and a scalpel (I’m soooooo not joking about that) which is still giving me the willies even now. Despite being overlong this is still a very worthwhile watch, as long as you have a strong stomach, although I must confess it is not something I would want to watch again.
Changing the mood somewhat, ZOOLANDER is next. Yeah I know it came out 10 years ago and I only watched it on tv but I f**king love this movie. It’s totally silly and not really all that funny but it makes me chuckle everytime I watch it. Something about Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson as male models just has me laughing everytime. And speaking of decades old movies, Tim Burton’s PLANET OF THE APES deserves a retrospective look. Seeing as we’ve got the new movie ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ out this week which is a reboot I thought it was worth watching the last attempt, Burton’s much maligned ‘reimagining’. To be fair it’s not actually that bad. Yeah the plots no great shakes but having read the synopsis of ‘Rise’ on the net, that one doesn’t have a particularly awesome plot either yet that one is getting 4 star reviews. Still at least with that one it’s kind of a prequel rather than a remake of ‘reimagining’. Burton’s Planet is a fair straight forward action adventure chase movie that happens to have some of the best make up effects known to man. The film may be a bit ordinary but the look of the actors as the apes is anything but. Michael Clarke Duncan as a gorilla is amazing and to be totally honest how the hell did Tim Roth not win an Oscar for his evil warmongering chimp, Thade. Everything about him oozes menace and death, a triumph of actor and make up in perfect unison. The only one comparable for me is Ron Perlman as Hellboy. It’s a shame then that Mark Wahlberg is a bit of a wet blanket and don’t even get me started on the ‘twist’ ending. If only Burton had done some foreshadowing of this, perhaps we’d seen Thade finding a way out of his impregnable prison, maybe seen him going back to the site of Marky Mark’s crashing space ship, it would have all made a little more sense rather than just the ‘WTF’ moment in the finished film. Alternatively if Mr Wet Blanket had decided to stay on the planet and help forge a new Ape/Human society it would’ve worked and maybe we’d have had a sequel to that film instead of a 10 year wait for a total reboot/prequel to the original 60s/70s series. I don’t think it’s a bad film, it’s just a pretty ordinary film with a sh*t ending.
Onto a couple of classics now, the late, great Akira Kurosawa’s YOJIMBO and SANJURO both made in the 60s and both in black and white. They also both star the same main character, a seemingly nameless ronin played by the equally late, great Toshiro Mifune. I’m lumping these films together as they both compliment one another although they have very different feels. Yojimbo is in essence a bit of an action movie, featuring a ronin who comes to a town ruled by two warring gangs and decides, seemingly for fun, to destroy both sets by getting them to wipe each other out. Sound familiar? Well that’s because this is the film that A Fistful of Dollars and Last Man Standing are based on. It’s also a bit of an unofficial adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s brilliant novel Red Harvest. Full of fast and brief sword play and some black comedy this is a slow paced but wonderfully made movie that despite the Japanese setting feels every bit as much a Western as a John Wayne movie. Sanjuro is a far lighter affair. Much more obviously a comedy than it’s predecessor it’s a far more talky affair too, with Mifune’s character teaming up with 9 samurai who are fighting corruption in their town. That’s not to say there isn’t some sword play, there is but that’s not really the main focus of this film. These might be considered lesser films in Kurosawa’s resume compared to the likes of Seven Samurai or Ran but they are light years ahead of most other films of that time and I thoroughly recommend them.
Next up we have SUCKER PUNCH, Zack Snyder’s fantasy that he described as ‘Alice in Wonderland with guns’ or you could say it the first movie computer game. The shame with this film is that the fantasy action scenes are truly quite amazing. The first fantasy scene in feudal Japan with the lead character battling three giant Samurai demons is stunning and they get better from there. The highlight for me being a scene in a fantasy World War I with the heroine’s battling German Zombie’s powered by Steam and clockwork is just brilliant with gouts of escaping steam as substitutes for blood. The sad thing about this film is the framing plot is totally illogical and nonsense. A girl gets sent to a mental asylum by her abusive step father who is paying the head orderly to have her lobotomized in 5 days. The girl escapes into a fantasyland where she’s been dumped in a bordello and is going to have a man known as ‘The High Roller’ deflower her in 5 days. She plots escaping and then goes off into another fantasyland when she hunts down items she needs to escape. Are you still with me? It’s all just a bit confusing and not really that interesting. Why couldn’t she have been in a car accident and as she’s fighting for her life why didn’t she go off into a fantasyland where she has to do battle with creatures etc to come back to the real world? Maybe that’s my plot line for a Sucker Punch 2, better copyright that fast. It is a pity that the framework is so ‘meh’ and ‘huh?’ as there was potential here to make a really good fantasy film. It should also be mentioned that the film is a total ‘boys’ movie as the girls are all very pretty and wear skimpy outfits, in both fantasy worlds, as well as having totally objectifying names, Babydoll, Sweet Pea, Blondie, it’s all a little dirty old man trenchcoat fantasy really. Obviously I love this film.
Right we’re back off to Korean, well a Korean film that is with THE MAN FROM NOWHERE which bills itself as ‘Taken meets Oldboy’ when a better way of describing it would be ‘Taken with more plot’. I really enjoyed this film which is not as violent as you’re expecting and actually has some decent characters and a story. Following the same rough plot of Taken this has a little girl being taken by nasty men and her neighbour (a bit similar to Leon really) going out to save her. It’s during this that we discover that the neighbour who runs a pawnshop is actually ex-military intelligence and a dab hand at ‘goingtokickthef**kingsh*toutofyou-fu’. The action does take quite a while to arrive, mixed in with a plot involving the police running in conjunction with the main bit as well as flashbacks fleshing out the pawnshop man, but it’s well worth the wait. The final denouement is a blood soaked battle which climaxes in probably the best knife fight I’ve ever seen on film, eclipsing previous title holders ‘Under Siege’ and ‘The Hunted’. This will definitely be going on my ‘must buy list’
I told you I watch too many films.
Still with me though? Nearly finished, I promise. Just three more to go. Actually that’s a lie, there’s four, but I’m gonna deal with JONAH HEX really quickly. It’s not as sh*t as everyone says. It may only be 70 minutes long before the 8 minute end credits kick in but it’s a perfect beer and pizza movie. It moves fast, has plenty of explosions and Megan Fox doesn’t wear very much and looks stunning. There done.
Moving swiftly on, and I’m getting a bit bored now, plus there’s this thing called work and I’m meant to be doing it, I’ll deal with the next three very fast. MACHETE was really good fun. An expansion of the fake trailer from ‘Grindhouse’ and ‘Planet terror’ this is a gory exploitation kill fest with an A list cast who look like they’re having a ball. Danny Trejo is awesome as Machete and I do hope he gets to do more. The film would benefit from being a little shorter and perhaps a little less preachy/political but it’s still worth a watch. TRON LEGACY was a visual feast that makes the first one look decidedly prehistoric. The story is essentially the same and the second half isn’t quite as exciting as the first but it’s still a very entertaining action picture. Lastly and by no means least we have TRUE GRIT, the Coen Brothers version that is. This is an absolute work of art. Jeff Bridges is stunning as Rooster Cogburn, Matt Damon is wonderfully understated as LaBeouf and Hailee Steinfeld is terrific as the central character of Mattie. Wonderfully paced and a near perfect translation of the novel this is arguably the best western since Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven.
Right I’m done. Work time.
Not sure which movie I’ll watch tonight though, hhhhhhmmmmmmmm will have to think about that.
We’ll start with THE LINCOLN LAWYER. Adapted brilliantly from Michael Connelly’s huge bestseller this was a far better translation to screen than Blood Work. Although the fairly hefty story has been condensed down to 110 minutes they’ve done it very well so everything is all there and it makes perfect sense, as long as you pay attention. Matthew McConaughey, an actor I’ve never been that fond of is pitch perfect as Mick Haller (he’s called Mickey by most people in the book) who manages to make the character charming despite the fact he’s a defence attorney who makes his living getting guilty clients off charges. There’s able support by Marisa Tomei as his ex-wife and Ryan Phillippe as his current client and it’s all actually very exciting. The best advice, read the book, then watch the movie. Fingers crossed that this leads to future adaptations of Connelly novels.
Next up is a Korean revenge thriller called I SAW THE DEVIL which I heard about a while back on the Empire website. They popped up a red band trailer for this movie starring the actor Choi Min-Sik who I’d last seen in the immense film ‘Oldboy’. This time around he’s a serial killer who murders a young pregnant woman who turns out to be the daughter of a retired Police Chief. She was also engaged to a Secret Service operative who’s really rather unhappy at the love of his life being brutally killed. Once the ‘hero’ has tracked the killer down there then starts a brutal punishment game as the killer is repeatedly beaten and maimed and then released all for the ‘hero’ to do it again. Until things go wrong. This is a very dark and grim movie which does loose it for a little bit in the middle with a side story featuring a cannibal killer and you can certain say that the film is too long. That said it is pretty intense and some of the violence is wince inducing, especially a truly horribly graphic scene involving an Achilles tendon and a scalpel (I’m soooooo not joking about that) which is still giving me the willies even now. Despite being overlong this is still a very worthwhile watch, as long as you have a strong stomach, although I must confess it is not something I would want to watch again.
Changing the mood somewhat, ZOOLANDER is next. Yeah I know it came out 10 years ago and I only watched it on tv but I f**king love this movie. It’s totally silly and not really all that funny but it makes me chuckle everytime I watch it. Something about Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson as male models just has me laughing everytime. And speaking of decades old movies, Tim Burton’s PLANET OF THE APES deserves a retrospective look. Seeing as we’ve got the new movie ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ out this week which is a reboot I thought it was worth watching the last attempt, Burton’s much maligned ‘reimagining’. To be fair it’s not actually that bad. Yeah the plots no great shakes but having read the synopsis of ‘Rise’ on the net, that one doesn’t have a particularly awesome plot either yet that one is getting 4 star reviews. Still at least with that one it’s kind of a prequel rather than a remake of ‘reimagining’. Burton’s Planet is a fair straight forward action adventure chase movie that happens to have some of the best make up effects known to man. The film may be a bit ordinary but the look of the actors as the apes is anything but. Michael Clarke Duncan as a gorilla is amazing and to be totally honest how the hell did Tim Roth not win an Oscar for his evil warmongering chimp, Thade. Everything about him oozes menace and death, a triumph of actor and make up in perfect unison. The only one comparable for me is Ron Perlman as Hellboy. It’s a shame then that Mark Wahlberg is a bit of a wet blanket and don’t even get me started on the ‘twist’ ending. If only Burton had done some foreshadowing of this, perhaps we’d seen Thade finding a way out of his impregnable prison, maybe seen him going back to the site of Marky Mark’s crashing space ship, it would have all made a little more sense rather than just the ‘WTF’ moment in the finished film. Alternatively if Mr Wet Blanket had decided to stay on the planet and help forge a new Ape/Human society it would’ve worked and maybe we’d have had a sequel to that film instead of a 10 year wait for a total reboot/prequel to the original 60s/70s series. I don’t think it’s a bad film, it’s just a pretty ordinary film with a sh*t ending.
Onto a couple of classics now, the late, great Akira Kurosawa’s YOJIMBO and SANJURO both made in the 60s and both in black and white. They also both star the same main character, a seemingly nameless ronin played by the equally late, great Toshiro Mifune. I’m lumping these films together as they both compliment one another although they have very different feels. Yojimbo is in essence a bit of an action movie, featuring a ronin who comes to a town ruled by two warring gangs and decides, seemingly for fun, to destroy both sets by getting them to wipe each other out. Sound familiar? Well that’s because this is the film that A Fistful of Dollars and Last Man Standing are based on. It’s also a bit of an unofficial adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s brilliant novel Red Harvest. Full of fast and brief sword play and some black comedy this is a slow paced but wonderfully made movie that despite the Japanese setting feels every bit as much a Western as a John Wayne movie. Sanjuro is a far lighter affair. Much more obviously a comedy than it’s predecessor it’s a far more talky affair too, with Mifune’s character teaming up with 9 samurai who are fighting corruption in their town. That’s not to say there isn’t some sword play, there is but that’s not really the main focus of this film. These might be considered lesser films in Kurosawa’s resume compared to the likes of Seven Samurai or Ran but they are light years ahead of most other films of that time and I thoroughly recommend them.
Next up we have SUCKER PUNCH, Zack Snyder’s fantasy that he described as ‘Alice in Wonderland with guns’ or you could say it the first movie computer game. The shame with this film is that the fantasy action scenes are truly quite amazing. The first fantasy scene in feudal Japan with the lead character battling three giant Samurai demons is stunning and they get better from there. The highlight for me being a scene in a fantasy World War I with the heroine’s battling German Zombie’s powered by Steam and clockwork is just brilliant with gouts of escaping steam as substitutes for blood. The sad thing about this film is the framing plot is totally illogical and nonsense. A girl gets sent to a mental asylum by her abusive step father who is paying the head orderly to have her lobotomized in 5 days. The girl escapes into a fantasyland where she’s been dumped in a bordello and is going to have a man known as ‘The High Roller’ deflower her in 5 days. She plots escaping and then goes off into another fantasyland when she hunts down items she needs to escape. Are you still with me? It’s all just a bit confusing and not really that interesting. Why couldn’t she have been in a car accident and as she’s fighting for her life why didn’t she go off into a fantasyland where she has to do battle with creatures etc to come back to the real world? Maybe that’s my plot line for a Sucker Punch 2, better copyright that fast. It is a pity that the framework is so ‘meh’ and ‘huh?’ as there was potential here to make a really good fantasy film. It should also be mentioned that the film is a total ‘boys’ movie as the girls are all very pretty and wear skimpy outfits, in both fantasy worlds, as well as having totally objectifying names, Babydoll, Sweet Pea, Blondie, it’s all a little dirty old man trenchcoat fantasy really. Obviously I love this film.
Right we’re back off to Korean, well a Korean film that is with THE MAN FROM NOWHERE which bills itself as ‘Taken meets Oldboy’ when a better way of describing it would be ‘Taken with more plot’. I really enjoyed this film which is not as violent as you’re expecting and actually has some decent characters and a story. Following the same rough plot of Taken this has a little girl being taken by nasty men and her neighbour (a bit similar to Leon really) going out to save her. It’s during this that we discover that the neighbour who runs a pawnshop is actually ex-military intelligence and a dab hand at ‘goingtokickthef**kingsh*toutofyou-fu’. The action does take quite a while to arrive, mixed in with a plot involving the police running in conjunction with the main bit as well as flashbacks fleshing out the pawnshop man, but it’s well worth the wait. The final denouement is a blood soaked battle which climaxes in probably the best knife fight I’ve ever seen on film, eclipsing previous title holders ‘Under Siege’ and ‘The Hunted’. This will definitely be going on my ‘must buy list’
I told you I watch too many films.
Still with me though? Nearly finished, I promise. Just three more to go. Actually that’s a lie, there’s four, but I’m gonna deal with JONAH HEX really quickly. It’s not as sh*t as everyone says. It may only be 70 minutes long before the 8 minute end credits kick in but it’s a perfect beer and pizza movie. It moves fast, has plenty of explosions and Megan Fox doesn’t wear very much and looks stunning. There done.
Moving swiftly on, and I’m getting a bit bored now, plus there’s this thing called work and I’m meant to be doing it, I’ll deal with the next three very fast. MACHETE was really good fun. An expansion of the fake trailer from ‘Grindhouse’ and ‘Planet terror’ this is a gory exploitation kill fest with an A list cast who look like they’re having a ball. Danny Trejo is awesome as Machete and I do hope he gets to do more. The film would benefit from being a little shorter and perhaps a little less preachy/political but it’s still worth a watch. TRON LEGACY was a visual feast that makes the first one look decidedly prehistoric. The story is essentially the same and the second half isn’t quite as exciting as the first but it’s still a very entertaining action picture. Lastly and by no means least we have TRUE GRIT, the Coen Brothers version that is. This is an absolute work of art. Jeff Bridges is stunning as Rooster Cogburn, Matt Damon is wonderfully understated as LaBeouf and Hailee Steinfeld is terrific as the central character of Mattie. Wonderfully paced and a near perfect translation of the novel this is arguably the best western since Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven.
Right I’m done. Work time.
Not sure which movie I’ll watch tonight though, hhhhhhmmmmmmmm will have to think about that.
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