The Good Dinosaur is the latest Pixar production and takes place in a world where the Dinosaurs were not wiped out and a young dinosaur named Arlo must face his fears and find his way back home after he gets lost in a storm, along the way he meets a young native boy named Spot and the two become friends on a great adventure home.
This movie sadly is further proof that Pixar has lost its way, the trend began with Cars 2 in 2011 and continued with 2012's Brave and 2013's Monsters University but while this year's Inside Out saw the group return to its former glory this film sees them go right back down the wrong path and there are two key reasons for this:
- The first of these is that the storytelling, the one ingredient Pixar prides itself on when making their films falls very very far from the mark, so much of this film feels like a series of shorts the type of which they traditionally show before their feature productions strung together as if on a bulletin board during the storyboard phase to try and make this a coherent storyline that you can follow but all I felt was bored throughout and it just also got more and more predictable in terms of what was going to happen as large chunks of it feel ripped off from the Lion King.
- The second key reason is that Arlo himself was very unlikeable and at times very very annoying with his high pitched voice and constant screaming and endless scenes of him being scared and running away all the time and this again is another signature of Pixar: Compelling and Colourful Characters that we come to care about.
Think of the Toys in the Toy Story trilogy, the Rat in Ratatouille, the Emotions in Inside Out, Dory in Finding Nemo, Frozone and the Incredibles and even Lightning McQueen in the first Cars film and Finn McMissile in Cars 2 which was probably the only thing I liked from that film whereas here with the exception of Spot I didn't care all that much about the characters and coming from this studio you have to say that it stings a little bit that they fumbled the ball in this way.
And that was the one thing I just kept thinking about when I walked out of the cinema after it ended, the fact that Pixar who have prided themselves on doing the following:
- Colourful and Compelling Characters
- An Emotional Core that makes People Want to Cry
- Strong Storytelling where Nothing is left to Chance
- Bold Story Concepts that make us Interested in seeing the Movie
And bringing all 4 of those elements together in a way that both the kids and the adults can enjoy and indeed in their golden run of 1999-2011 they did just that, they set the standard for this genre after Disney lost their way and Dreamworks struggled to get off the ground post Shrek and they raised for the bar for their competitors so high none of them came within cooee of reaching it, to see them stumble so badly like this it should make every film fan let Sadness take the controls for a couple of moments.
And so that was the Good Dinosaur to wrap up 2015 at the movies and sadly it ends on a bit of a downer but don't worry 2016 is a coming round the corner and with it APOCALYPSE AHHHHHHHHHH but that aside skip this film as it's not very good, 1 out of 5.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Film Review - Joy (2015)
Joy is directed by David O Russell and stars Jennifer Lawrence as Joy a woman who is in debt with 2 young children and a divorce (Edgar Ramirez) whilst looking after her father (Robert De Niro) at the same time but one day whilst out with her father's partner (Isabella Rossellini) she cuts herself whilst mopping up the mess so she comes on an idea for what would become the Miracle Mop.
Joy is very good and I mean really very good so much so that I wish I had seen it before finalising my favorites of the year as this would easily have knocked Minions from the list (which I also loved despite its straight forward nature) as for the first time in what seems like months I actually got to go to the cinema and feel like an adult movie goer again.
The films story was very well told despite bordering on being serious as well as funny (the film has a very strange and off the wall sense of humour that will be hard for some to connect to) but I liked the melding of the two tones and feel that O Russell did a good job handling the transitions between them, he also has a very good cast in Ramirez who I just refuse to buy as Bodhi in the new Point Break but is pretty good here as is De Niro, Rossellini and Bradley Cooper who makes a very welcome return to form after his poor work in Aloha.
But this movie rests on the shoulders of Lawrence and she makes the most of every scene she shares, so good is she in this film that you don't notice the 2 hours going by, she is confident, she is vulnerable and I thought to myself when this was over "Is there anything she can't do" I'm sure that there is but I don't know if I've seen that happen just yet.
And so that was Joy which has to be one of my favorite films of 2015 and I very highly recommend you go and see it, 4 out of 5.
Joy is very good and I mean really very good so much so that I wish I had seen it before finalising my favorites of the year as this would easily have knocked Minions from the list (which I also loved despite its straight forward nature) as for the first time in what seems like months I actually got to go to the cinema and feel like an adult movie goer again.
The films story was very well told despite bordering on being serious as well as funny (the film has a very strange and off the wall sense of humour that will be hard for some to connect to) but I liked the melding of the two tones and feel that O Russell did a good job handling the transitions between them, he also has a very good cast in Ramirez who I just refuse to buy as Bodhi in the new Point Break but is pretty good here as is De Niro, Rossellini and Bradley Cooper who makes a very welcome return to form after his poor work in Aloha.
But this movie rests on the shoulders of Lawrence and she makes the most of every scene she shares, so good is she in this film that you don't notice the 2 hours going by, she is confident, she is vulnerable and I thought to myself when this was over "Is there anything she can't do" I'm sure that there is but I don't know if I've seen that happen just yet.
And so that was Joy which has to be one of my favorite films of 2015 and I very highly recommend you go and see it, 4 out of 5.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Film Review - Star Wars the Force Awakens (2015)
Star Wars the Force Awakens is the newest Star Wars film with JJ Abrams taking the helm instead of George Lucas, it has some new characters like Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) as well as bringing back the classic characters like Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher.)
It is fair to say that of all the movies released this year this was the one I was the most nervous about because while I love and adore the original Star Wars movies (I hold them up as not only my personal favorite movies but as 3 of the greatest movies of all time) I hated the most recent prequel trilogy but the previews for this new movie as well as JJ taking over who has not made a genuine stinker of a film gave me hope again.
But despite that hope that one most fundamental question remained in my mind: How do you follow up 3 of the greatest movies of all time which broke so much new ground, something that even their own creator failed to do?
Sadly it seems it just cannot be done as this movie for me was disappointing and I say this with a pretty heavy heart (when I walked out of it yesterday I just couldn't say anything to anyone as I didn't want to tell them how I felt as it would ruin it for them) but before I delve into that in greater detail I want to talk about what I did like and that is Ridley and Boyega, they are great together in terms of their action, their dialogue and their chemistry it makes me want to see more of them in future movies.
Plus I did enjoy some of the visual and story references throughout the film they did make me smile at times.
But like I said the film for me was a disappointment and the main reason I feel this way is due to the storytelling presented here (I will not reveal much I promise you this) quite frankly I thought it was weak and really just nothing more than everything we've seen before in a Star Wars film (there's the lightsabers, the fighters, the bases, the officers) and given everything that we saw for me all of that just got tiresome after a while.
And the reason I feel that way is that it just feels like another one of those and they were done much better in the original 3 films where it felt wonderful and magical and real whereas here I just didn't feel those senses of magic and wonder after a while I began to see that digital feel to a lot of the film and a lot of its sections at times play out like remakes of the original Star Wars and Return of the Jedi.
But maybe all of this isn't the film itself but just me as I turned to the man sitting in the same row as me had tears in his eyes and when I saw that I thought to myself "This movie is not for me and I feel this is for that generation of fans that grew up with Star Wars in the late 70s to early 90s when they would've watched them either in the cinemas and/or on the CBS/Fox Video Collection."
But another feeling I had was that maybe that impact of seeing Star Wars for the first time again (I was 11 when I saw the original 3 films in 1997) is a feeling I've already had with the X-Men movies Bryan Singer has directed, the Hunger Games series and the Cornetto trilogy that Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg created so perhaps as a result I wasn't as susceptible to that feeling in the way others have but at least I can look forward to returning to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters next year or indeed enjoy the return of Frieza from Dragon Ball Z so it's not a total loss.
And so that was my full review of Star Wars the Force Awakens, 2 out of 5.
It is fair to say that of all the movies released this year this was the one I was the most nervous about because while I love and adore the original Star Wars movies (I hold them up as not only my personal favorite movies but as 3 of the greatest movies of all time) I hated the most recent prequel trilogy but the previews for this new movie as well as JJ taking over who has not made a genuine stinker of a film gave me hope again.
But despite that hope that one most fundamental question remained in my mind: How do you follow up 3 of the greatest movies of all time which broke so much new ground, something that even their own creator failed to do?
Sadly it seems it just cannot be done as this movie for me was disappointing and I say this with a pretty heavy heart (when I walked out of it yesterday I just couldn't say anything to anyone as I didn't want to tell them how I felt as it would ruin it for them) but before I delve into that in greater detail I want to talk about what I did like and that is Ridley and Boyega, they are great together in terms of their action, their dialogue and their chemistry it makes me want to see more of them in future movies.
Plus I did enjoy some of the visual and story references throughout the film they did make me smile at times.
But like I said the film for me was a disappointment and the main reason I feel this way is due to the storytelling presented here (I will not reveal much I promise you this) quite frankly I thought it was weak and really just nothing more than everything we've seen before in a Star Wars film (there's the lightsabers, the fighters, the bases, the officers) and given everything that we saw for me all of that just got tiresome after a while.
And the reason I feel that way is that it just feels like another one of those and they were done much better in the original 3 films where it felt wonderful and magical and real whereas here I just didn't feel those senses of magic and wonder after a while I began to see that digital feel to a lot of the film and a lot of its sections at times play out like remakes of the original Star Wars and Return of the Jedi.
But maybe all of this isn't the film itself but just me as I turned to the man sitting in the same row as me had tears in his eyes and when I saw that I thought to myself "This movie is not for me and I feel this is for that generation of fans that grew up with Star Wars in the late 70s to early 90s when they would've watched them either in the cinemas and/or on the CBS/Fox Video Collection."
But another feeling I had was that maybe that impact of seeing Star Wars for the first time again (I was 11 when I saw the original 3 films in 1997) is a feeling I've already had with the X-Men movies Bryan Singer has directed, the Hunger Games series and the Cornetto trilogy that Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg created so perhaps as a result I wasn't as susceptible to that feeling in the way others have but at least I can look forward to returning to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters next year or indeed enjoy the return of Frieza from Dragon Ball Z so it's not a total loss.
And so that was my full review of Star Wars the Force Awakens, 2 out of 5.
Film Review - Creed (2015)
Creed is the newest Rocky spinoff which focuses on Adonis (Michael B Jordan) who is the son of fighter Apollo Creed and like his dad has a desire to fight in the ring and prove himself but to do that he will need the help of Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to be ready for the ring.
Creed is a well made film but I would also say it ranks in the bottom half of my listings in the Rocky series (2, 4 and Balboa would be my favorites) but in no way does that make it a bad movie not at all as director Ryan Coogler does a really nice job with this movie in terms of bringing his own voice to the proceedings as well as capturing the beats and flavour of what you expect from a Rocky film, I particularly liked one scene he did of the characters walking up some stairs as it felt very real to me.
But what really anchors this movie are the 2 strong performances at its centre, Jordan is simply great here as not only do you believe he could be Carl Weathers's son but the tone and demeanour of his performance also made me think "Yeah I would feel this way if I made Fantastic 4" and much like Stallone in the Rocky movies you buy into his character's drive and determination to make it as a fighter, Stallone meanwhile is also great I would really love to see him Oscar nominated as you feel with his performance the weight of his life bearing down on him but like the driven fighter of his young years he still can't quite bring himself to give up just yet.
Unfortunately the film has 2 weaknesses going for it the first is the villain Ricky Conlan he's quite frankly not that interesting he just comes across as a British ripoff of Clubber Lang from Rocky 3 and I didn't like him that much plus the film runs a little bit too long its a bit over 2 hours and it could've lost I think 10-15 minutes off its running time.
And so that was Creed it has some faults but the 2 central performances anchor it effortlessly, 3 out of 5.
Creed is a well made film but I would also say it ranks in the bottom half of my listings in the Rocky series (2, 4 and Balboa would be my favorites) but in no way does that make it a bad movie not at all as director Ryan Coogler does a really nice job with this movie in terms of bringing his own voice to the proceedings as well as capturing the beats and flavour of what you expect from a Rocky film, I particularly liked one scene he did of the characters walking up some stairs as it felt very real to me.
But what really anchors this movie are the 2 strong performances at its centre, Jordan is simply great here as not only do you believe he could be Carl Weathers's son but the tone and demeanour of his performance also made me think "Yeah I would feel this way if I made Fantastic 4" and much like Stallone in the Rocky movies you buy into his character's drive and determination to make it as a fighter, Stallone meanwhile is also great I would really love to see him Oscar nominated as you feel with his performance the weight of his life bearing down on him but like the driven fighter of his young years he still can't quite bring himself to give up just yet.
Unfortunately the film has 2 weaknesses going for it the first is the villain Ricky Conlan he's quite frankly not that interesting he just comes across as a British ripoff of Clubber Lang from Rocky 3 and I didn't like him that much plus the film runs a little bit too long its a bit over 2 hours and it could've lost I think 10-15 minutes off its running time.
And so that was Creed it has some faults but the 2 central performances anchor it effortlessly, 3 out of 5.
Friday, December 11, 2015
Cometh the Apocalypse
At long last it has finally come, the one teaser it feels like I've been waiting weeks for and that is the first teaser trailer for next year's X-Men Apocalypse.
And I have to say it looks really really good, surpassing even my own fairly high hopes for this film for three reasons:
- First off I love the feeling of Apocalypse himself, now that the Viz FX work required for this character to really come to life in a way he never really could from the Comic Con coverage the film got earlier this year is starting to come together, he looks to be a very imposing and memorable villain much like he was in the 1990s Animated Series.
It also helps to have one of the best actors working today in Oscar Isaac playing the role, time and time again I have seen this man give a great performance and another strength of this teaser is that they are wisely hiding him as much as possible in terms of not showing you too much (this movie is still 5 and a half months away and there will be plenty of Viz FX and Post Production work still to be completed in that time I'm sure.)
- The second is that the film really feels like it has the feeling of the early 1980s (the film takes place specifically in 1983) and the horror tone that permeates throughout a lot of this teaser absolutely fits in with the wave of Horror films that came out at that time as does the brief glimpse of the disaster film esque shots as that wave of the genre was coming to its end around that time as well.
The Apocalypse storyline is also a nice fit for this decade because we were genuinely frightened of a real life Age of Apocalypse started by a Nuclear War between the United States and the Soviet Union (in fact in April of 1983 the French were doing Nuclear Testing in the South Pacific) plus this was also the year Nicholas Meyer's film the Day After was released which described a Nuclear Incident so there is a way to do the Apocalypse character I feel in a way that fits with the 1980s.
But I also have to talk about the hair and the costume work for this movie quite frankly it looks beautiful whether it be Charles's big bushy hair or the mullet style that Alex Summers/Havok has or indeed the Cyndi Lauper esque hair Jennifer Lawrence has in the film not to mention the Richard Gere esque look Nicholas Hoult sports as Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast.
But it's not just them there's also the wonderful denim costumes some of the characters wear (some of the set photos that leaked earlier this year also had Nightcrawler wearing a Thriller-esque jacket which looked really cool) or Jubilee really rocking the bright colors she wears, I could go on further but I am just in love with the hair and costuming I've seen for this film so far.
- And lastly it seems like Singer finally has the confidence to do the big action scenes I feel he's wanted to do and showed some early signs of doing in Days of Future Past but maybe felt he either didn't have the advancements in Visual Effects to do it (he stated on the Rogue Cut disc for DOFP that he did not have this level of Visual Effects available to him when he made X-Men 1 and 2) or the Story and Character reasons (Bryan has been very good I feel at balancing the action with the story and character motivations) or indeed the backing of the Studio which he has not always had.
Now it seems it like all 3 have come together for him in his favor and if the disaster film esque shot of New York we see in the teaser as well as the post credits scene in Days of Future Past is any indication this will definitely feel like a film to see on the big screen and even in 3D (Singer is shooting the film in 3D instead of doing a post production conversion as can happen often with 3D film releases) and I cannot wait to see this on a proper big screen and sound next May.
But lastly I feel like with this and Captain America Civil War that these look like great movies with good stories, something at the core to think about as well as ignite my imagination, good action scenes and heroes and villains, I really hope both of these films deliver on this promise unlike what I feel with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice which was ruined for me with its latest preview as it made it look like it all culminates in a fight with a big CGI Monster which has very very rarely worked but as in all things movie wise we wait and we see.
And that was my column on the X-Men Apocalypse teaser trailer.
And I have to say it looks really really good, surpassing even my own fairly high hopes for this film for three reasons:
- First off I love the feeling of Apocalypse himself, now that the Viz FX work required for this character to really come to life in a way he never really could from the Comic Con coverage the film got earlier this year is starting to come together, he looks to be a very imposing and memorable villain much like he was in the 1990s Animated Series.
It also helps to have one of the best actors working today in Oscar Isaac playing the role, time and time again I have seen this man give a great performance and another strength of this teaser is that they are wisely hiding him as much as possible in terms of not showing you too much (this movie is still 5 and a half months away and there will be plenty of Viz FX and Post Production work still to be completed in that time I'm sure.)
- The second is that the film really feels like it has the feeling of the early 1980s (the film takes place specifically in 1983) and the horror tone that permeates throughout a lot of this teaser absolutely fits in with the wave of Horror films that came out at that time as does the brief glimpse of the disaster film esque shots as that wave of the genre was coming to its end around that time as well.
The Apocalypse storyline is also a nice fit for this decade because we were genuinely frightened of a real life Age of Apocalypse started by a Nuclear War between the United States and the Soviet Union (in fact in April of 1983 the French were doing Nuclear Testing in the South Pacific) plus this was also the year Nicholas Meyer's film the Day After was released which described a Nuclear Incident so there is a way to do the Apocalypse character I feel in a way that fits with the 1980s.
But I also have to talk about the hair and the costume work for this movie quite frankly it looks beautiful whether it be Charles's big bushy hair or the mullet style that Alex Summers/Havok has or indeed the Cyndi Lauper esque hair Jennifer Lawrence has in the film not to mention the Richard Gere esque look Nicholas Hoult sports as Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast.
But it's not just them there's also the wonderful denim costumes some of the characters wear (some of the set photos that leaked earlier this year also had Nightcrawler wearing a Thriller-esque jacket which looked really cool) or Jubilee really rocking the bright colors she wears, I could go on further but I am just in love with the hair and costuming I've seen for this film so far.
- And lastly it seems like Singer finally has the confidence to do the big action scenes I feel he's wanted to do and showed some early signs of doing in Days of Future Past but maybe felt he either didn't have the advancements in Visual Effects to do it (he stated on the Rogue Cut disc for DOFP that he did not have this level of Visual Effects available to him when he made X-Men 1 and 2) or the Story and Character reasons (Bryan has been very good I feel at balancing the action with the story and character motivations) or indeed the backing of the Studio which he has not always had.
Now it seems it like all 3 have come together for him in his favor and if the disaster film esque shot of New York we see in the teaser as well as the post credits scene in Days of Future Past is any indication this will definitely feel like a film to see on the big screen and even in 3D (Singer is shooting the film in 3D instead of doing a post production conversion as can happen often with 3D film releases) and I cannot wait to see this on a proper big screen and sound next May.
But lastly I feel like with this and Captain America Civil War that these look like great movies with good stories, something at the core to think about as well as ignite my imagination, good action scenes and heroes and villains, I really hope both of these films deliver on this promise unlike what I feel with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice which was ruined for me with its latest preview as it made it look like it all culminates in a fight with a big CGI Monster which has very very rarely worked but as in all things movie wise we wait and we see.
And that was my column on the X-Men Apocalypse teaser trailer.
Monday, December 7, 2015
On the Air Season 2 Finale - For Whom the Bells Toll
Well folks here we are again,
The last batch of Radio shows for 2015 and some big films were discussed as well as the best and worst of the year.
The November episode was actually a very special one as it was recorded in the ABC Studio itself which was a very very exciting experience and in that episode I covered:
- The final Hunger Games
- SPECTRE
- The Dressmaker
The Link to that episode is here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2015/12/friday-flicks-november-2015.html?site=southeastsa&program=south_east_mornings
As for the December episode where I talk about my favorites of the year along with the worst you can listen to that episode here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2015/12/friday-flicks-december-2015.html?site=southeastsa&program=south_east_mornings
As always you can right click and save to your computer or listen to the streaming option.
The last batch of Radio shows for 2015 and some big films were discussed as well as the best and worst of the year.
The November episode was actually a very special one as it was recorded in the ABC Studio itself which was a very very exciting experience and in that episode I covered:
- The final Hunger Games
- SPECTRE
- The Dressmaker
The Link to that episode is here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2015/12/friday-flicks-november-2015.html?site=southeastsa&program=south_east_mornings
As for the December episode where I talk about my favorites of the year along with the worst you can listen to that episode here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2015/12/friday-flicks-december-2015.html?site=southeastsa&program=south_east_mornings
As always you can right click and save to your computer or listen to the streaming option.
Saturday, December 5, 2015
2015 in Film Part 3: The Best and Worst of Ourselves
And so we come to the main lists we all write up each and every year, the best and the worst of 2015.
Though I prefer to say my favorites of the year instead of best but before that list I have to talk about the worst of the year, the ones that took 2 hours out of life and 15-21 dollars of our money neither of which we will ever get back.
5. Aloha: Cameron Crowe made another film this year with Aloha a comedy drama with Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Bill Murray and Rachel McAdams now with all of that talent you'd think "hey this could be good" right?
WRONG! This movie was awful to sit through and once again the script is to blame as quite frankly it feels 2 separate movies (one being the space mission the other being the return to Hawaii and meeting your ex again) spliced together into one incoherent mess that was also full of bad stereotypes when it came to the characters who by the way were also boring and unlikeable to watch as well as wasting most of that talent.
And I wanted to like this one I really did but Crowe dropped the ball here and to think he once made Almost Famous which is a great film but this was just garbage and the gall of it to use the 1977 20th Century Fox logo just makes me even angrier frankly as all it makes me want to do is watch the original Star Wars again.
4. Pan: Ah Pan, it was based off the legend of Peter Pan and it starred Hugh Jackman who I will pretty much watch in anything he stars in and Rooney Mara who was fantastic as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Boy oh boy was this just AWFUL to watch whether it was the dull as all hell visuals, the much too dark action scenes, the drab storyline and the blatant attempt by Warner Brothers to try and turn this into the next Harry Potter series (they even say in the fucking previews for this film "From the Studio that Brought you Harry Potter."
Seriously guys don't say that as your just asking for trouble as well as making film fans feel very uncomfortable and this could've been bright and fun and exciting to watch much like the Walt Disney Peter Pan movie is but here nothing works and I didn't care about any of it and you wasted Hugh who I love, how the fuck could you do this then again it's the same producer as that Green Lantern film even its own star wants to forget about making in 2011 and like that film this one has no idea who its even for so it just tries to throw every dart it has on the table and they all missed.
3. Man Up: This one starred Simon Pegg as a man looking for love and Lake Bell as a single girl not wanting to but meeting Pegg's character by accident.
Of all the entries here this one hurts the most to talk about as I love Mr Pegg from the bottom of my heart (he, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright have earnt a permanent gold pass from me in terms of their films and me seeing them) but instead this just has Pegg and Bell who do have genuine chemistry fight and argue and bicker in every scene they share plus there was not one time (not one) where I felt like genuinely laughing like I do when I watch the Castle or the Dish.
Plus the character Rory Kinnear played just insulted me whenever he was on screen in the way he would treat Bell's character, I mean how the fuck do we even try to change the way men treat women when our pop culture space does this to us, hopefully Mr Pegg can return to form soon as he deeply deeply failed me here.
2. Chappie: Chappie looked promising, a return to the tone of District 9, a more family friendly type of film in the style of Short Circuit and Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver playing the villains.
Boy was I wrong as this was just another example of Neill Blomkamp pissing away what promise he held with District 9 (he also did it with 2013's pathetic Elysium with Matt Damon) as the main leads were hardened drug criminals that I didn't care about, didn't like as characters and just wanted to die a horrible horrible death in the first 10 minutes plus they weren't even proper fucking actors just some bloody hip hop group Blomkamp hired because he liked them, for fucks sake.
And as for Jackman well he just phones it in here and Weaver is only here so Neill can ask her to play Ripley again in his planned Alien sequel which Fox seems to have scrapped (and rightly so I might add) and the story is just a retread of Paul Verhoeven's classic Robocop from 1987.
But in all seriousness how does this happen how do filmmakers who show great promise out of the gate stumble and lose their way like this and not just Blomkamp or Crowe or indeed Michael Mann with his Blackhat movie earlier this year which was also crap but not crap enough to make this list does anyone honestly think or feel that filmgoers like me enjoy saying that cause I sure as hell fucking don't.
But before I get to number 1 all 4 of these have a common flaw that cripples all of them and that is who were these movies for, what story or vision did you have in mind when you decided to make these movies and how could you take people I personally love watching especially 2 of them and just serve them up this utter garbage, we have to do better than this for we deserve so much better than this.
But those are nothing compared to my number 1 worst film of 2015:
1. 50 Shades of Grey: Remember this movie boys and girls, based off of EL James's bestselling novel and starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan plus it was written and directed by women.
And yet this was the most uncomfortable I've been sitting in a cinema since watching Kick Ass 2 back in 2013 primarily because the sight of Dakota Johnson being tied up naked and beaten by this psychopath in Christian Grey even if she consented to it or not just left me feeling sick and very nearly breaking my 1 rule of cinema going and that is getting up and walking out.
And look all of the traditional negatives about this movie aside (the pathetic dialogue, the zero chemistry and the boring storyline we've seen before back in the 80s and 90s with films like 9 and a half Weeks) the main reason this makes me so angry is because of the global conversation we've been having this year about the treatment of women in both the movies as well as the industry they work in.
Not to mention the discussion about broader Violence Against Women at the hands of the Men (more like Mutts if you ask me) who swore to love and cherish them forever only to become obsessive and paranoid because heaven forfend they might actually have some life of their own outside of their Man/Mutt.
And this is where our pop culture space I feel must take some sort of responsibility when it comes to changing to conversation about the treatment of women by men in our society today as this sort of Smeg where the women fall for the big strong man with the big muscles and the chain around their necks or the handsome charismatic man who looks good in a suit and both probably know how to rock the casbah in the Bedroom and could also have lots of money and turn on the charm and tell them want they want to hear has to stop.
And you only have to look at the success of the Hunger Games series to see that it can be done and done well but given the fanboy age in which we live I fear that it could be a fair while before we see any meaningful change on this front but I hope sincerely that I am wrong and that change positive change does come much sooner.
But those are the worst of the year out of the way let's get onto my favorites of the year.
4. Minions: Only 4 selections here but these were the 4 I genuinely loved watching at the cinema and that I went to see again and that I wanted to own on Blu-Ray and watch over and over and here in 4th place is Minions.
I know this film got sniffy treatment by critics for the most part but I don't care as I had so much fun watching this film and it did give me what I wanted from a Minions movie which is to be bright and fun and full of good laughs plus it has Bob who was just adorable to watch.
But on top of that the film along with another pick tapped into my love of a good villain and Scarlet Overkill was exactly that she wasn't Gru in a dress that I felt she might be from the ads she was a proper villain and the way her and Kevin the main Minion were handled in the story really impressed me plus there are great sight gags and 60s songs and references plus the Minionese which always impresses me when I hear it given its born from our own languages here on Earth.
3. Dragon Ball Z Resurrection F: A very surprising choice here and one I definitely didn't think would be here before I saw it.
Seeing this movie in the cinema was an incredible experience, a proper big screen, packed full of fans and everyone having a good time as Freeza came back from the dead for Revenge against Goku and watching those 2 go at it again like in the TV series was far more entertaining to me than the Superhero offerings served up this year.
As well as the great action the film is also a nice tribute to Freeza himself (Chris Ayres is far superior here to Linda Young who did the role originally in 1999/2000) and it has some really good comedy moments, there are some key character omissions that bother me and the ending is horrible when it could've been strong but still I enjoyed the hell out of this film.
2. Kingsman the Secret Service: Coming in at number 2 is still my favorite action film of the year despite many challengers that came forth and tried their best to run the gauntlet.
The reason I feel this way is that it has one of my favorite filmmakers working today Matthew Vaughn in his stride crafting not only a loving tribute to the Spy genre but also bringing his own hard edged style to the proceedings and I just ate it all up and Colin Firth makes for a very cool action hero, gentlemanly, polite but also deadly with his assortment of Gadgets.
But this movie also had Michael Caine, Sam Jackson (who played a terrific villain), Mark Strong and even MARK. HAMILL. that's right Luke Skywalker himself plus a promising young actor in Taron Egerton who you will see much more of soon.
But now the time has come to reveal my number 1 film of 2015:
A Most Violent Year: Every film fan has that feeling they have, the feeling that they know they are watching what could be their favorite film of that particular year.
And this movie gave me that feeling for me, it was impeccably put together in terms of its look, it had fantastic performances across the board and it really reminded me of the kind of films that came from the early 80s which is an era that I deeply love movie wise.
And so that was my look back at movies in 2015, hard to believe it's come and gone so quickly and yet we are almost at 2016 where we'll do all of this all over again at the end of that year but.
But in 2016 it will be here at long LONG LAST!!!!!!! I am of course referring to Bryan Singer's X-Men Apocalypse which from everything I have seen so far looks amazing and another home run for him in the series, in AFL terms he has certainly pulled off the fabled 3peat that Hawthorn pulled off but whether he can match Collingwood's long standing record of 4 in a row that remains to be seen but one thing's for sure I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS MOVIE AHHHHH!!!!!!!
Though I prefer to say my favorites of the year instead of best but before that list I have to talk about the worst of the year, the ones that took 2 hours out of life and 15-21 dollars of our money neither of which we will ever get back.
5. Aloha: Cameron Crowe made another film this year with Aloha a comedy drama with Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Bill Murray and Rachel McAdams now with all of that talent you'd think "hey this could be good" right?
WRONG! This movie was awful to sit through and once again the script is to blame as quite frankly it feels 2 separate movies (one being the space mission the other being the return to Hawaii and meeting your ex again) spliced together into one incoherent mess that was also full of bad stereotypes when it came to the characters who by the way were also boring and unlikeable to watch as well as wasting most of that talent.
And I wanted to like this one I really did but Crowe dropped the ball here and to think he once made Almost Famous which is a great film but this was just garbage and the gall of it to use the 1977 20th Century Fox logo just makes me even angrier frankly as all it makes me want to do is watch the original Star Wars again.
4. Pan: Ah Pan, it was based off the legend of Peter Pan and it starred Hugh Jackman who I will pretty much watch in anything he stars in and Rooney Mara who was fantastic as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Boy oh boy was this just AWFUL to watch whether it was the dull as all hell visuals, the much too dark action scenes, the drab storyline and the blatant attempt by Warner Brothers to try and turn this into the next Harry Potter series (they even say in the fucking previews for this film "From the Studio that Brought you Harry Potter."
Seriously guys don't say that as your just asking for trouble as well as making film fans feel very uncomfortable and this could've been bright and fun and exciting to watch much like the Walt Disney Peter Pan movie is but here nothing works and I didn't care about any of it and you wasted Hugh who I love, how the fuck could you do this then again it's the same producer as that Green Lantern film even its own star wants to forget about making in 2011 and like that film this one has no idea who its even for so it just tries to throw every dart it has on the table and they all missed.
3. Man Up: This one starred Simon Pegg as a man looking for love and Lake Bell as a single girl not wanting to but meeting Pegg's character by accident.
Of all the entries here this one hurts the most to talk about as I love Mr Pegg from the bottom of my heart (he, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright have earnt a permanent gold pass from me in terms of their films and me seeing them) but instead this just has Pegg and Bell who do have genuine chemistry fight and argue and bicker in every scene they share plus there was not one time (not one) where I felt like genuinely laughing like I do when I watch the Castle or the Dish.
Plus the character Rory Kinnear played just insulted me whenever he was on screen in the way he would treat Bell's character, I mean how the fuck do we even try to change the way men treat women when our pop culture space does this to us, hopefully Mr Pegg can return to form soon as he deeply deeply failed me here.
2. Chappie: Chappie looked promising, a return to the tone of District 9, a more family friendly type of film in the style of Short Circuit and Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver playing the villains.
Boy was I wrong as this was just another example of Neill Blomkamp pissing away what promise he held with District 9 (he also did it with 2013's pathetic Elysium with Matt Damon) as the main leads were hardened drug criminals that I didn't care about, didn't like as characters and just wanted to die a horrible horrible death in the first 10 minutes plus they weren't even proper fucking actors just some bloody hip hop group Blomkamp hired because he liked them, for fucks sake.
And as for Jackman well he just phones it in here and Weaver is only here so Neill can ask her to play Ripley again in his planned Alien sequel which Fox seems to have scrapped (and rightly so I might add) and the story is just a retread of Paul Verhoeven's classic Robocop from 1987.
But in all seriousness how does this happen how do filmmakers who show great promise out of the gate stumble and lose their way like this and not just Blomkamp or Crowe or indeed Michael Mann with his Blackhat movie earlier this year which was also crap but not crap enough to make this list does anyone honestly think or feel that filmgoers like me enjoy saying that cause I sure as hell fucking don't.
But before I get to number 1 all 4 of these have a common flaw that cripples all of them and that is who were these movies for, what story or vision did you have in mind when you decided to make these movies and how could you take people I personally love watching especially 2 of them and just serve them up this utter garbage, we have to do better than this for we deserve so much better than this.
But those are nothing compared to my number 1 worst film of 2015:
1. 50 Shades of Grey: Remember this movie boys and girls, based off of EL James's bestselling novel and starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan plus it was written and directed by women.
And yet this was the most uncomfortable I've been sitting in a cinema since watching Kick Ass 2 back in 2013 primarily because the sight of Dakota Johnson being tied up naked and beaten by this psychopath in Christian Grey even if she consented to it or not just left me feeling sick and very nearly breaking my 1 rule of cinema going and that is getting up and walking out.
And look all of the traditional negatives about this movie aside (the pathetic dialogue, the zero chemistry and the boring storyline we've seen before back in the 80s and 90s with films like 9 and a half Weeks) the main reason this makes me so angry is because of the global conversation we've been having this year about the treatment of women in both the movies as well as the industry they work in.
Not to mention the discussion about broader Violence Against Women at the hands of the Men (more like Mutts if you ask me) who swore to love and cherish them forever only to become obsessive and paranoid because heaven forfend they might actually have some life of their own outside of their Man/Mutt.
And this is where our pop culture space I feel must take some sort of responsibility when it comes to changing to conversation about the treatment of women by men in our society today as this sort of Smeg where the women fall for the big strong man with the big muscles and the chain around their necks or the handsome charismatic man who looks good in a suit and both probably know how to rock the casbah in the Bedroom and could also have lots of money and turn on the charm and tell them want they want to hear has to stop.
And you only have to look at the success of the Hunger Games series to see that it can be done and done well but given the fanboy age in which we live I fear that it could be a fair while before we see any meaningful change on this front but I hope sincerely that I am wrong and that change positive change does come much sooner.
But those are the worst of the year out of the way let's get onto my favorites of the year.
4. Minions: Only 4 selections here but these were the 4 I genuinely loved watching at the cinema and that I went to see again and that I wanted to own on Blu-Ray and watch over and over and here in 4th place is Minions.
I know this film got sniffy treatment by critics for the most part but I don't care as I had so much fun watching this film and it did give me what I wanted from a Minions movie which is to be bright and fun and full of good laughs plus it has Bob who was just adorable to watch.
But on top of that the film along with another pick tapped into my love of a good villain and Scarlet Overkill was exactly that she wasn't Gru in a dress that I felt she might be from the ads she was a proper villain and the way her and Kevin the main Minion were handled in the story really impressed me plus there are great sight gags and 60s songs and references plus the Minionese which always impresses me when I hear it given its born from our own languages here on Earth.
3. Dragon Ball Z Resurrection F: A very surprising choice here and one I definitely didn't think would be here before I saw it.
Seeing this movie in the cinema was an incredible experience, a proper big screen, packed full of fans and everyone having a good time as Freeza came back from the dead for Revenge against Goku and watching those 2 go at it again like in the TV series was far more entertaining to me than the Superhero offerings served up this year.
As well as the great action the film is also a nice tribute to Freeza himself (Chris Ayres is far superior here to Linda Young who did the role originally in 1999/2000) and it has some really good comedy moments, there are some key character omissions that bother me and the ending is horrible when it could've been strong but still I enjoyed the hell out of this film.
2. Kingsman the Secret Service: Coming in at number 2 is still my favorite action film of the year despite many challengers that came forth and tried their best to run the gauntlet.
The reason I feel this way is that it has one of my favorite filmmakers working today Matthew Vaughn in his stride crafting not only a loving tribute to the Spy genre but also bringing his own hard edged style to the proceedings and I just ate it all up and Colin Firth makes for a very cool action hero, gentlemanly, polite but also deadly with his assortment of Gadgets.
But this movie also had Michael Caine, Sam Jackson (who played a terrific villain), Mark Strong and even MARK. HAMILL. that's right Luke Skywalker himself plus a promising young actor in Taron Egerton who you will see much more of soon.
But now the time has come to reveal my number 1 film of 2015:
A Most Violent Year: Every film fan has that feeling they have, the feeling that they know they are watching what could be their favorite film of that particular year.
And this movie gave me that feeling for me, it was impeccably put together in terms of its look, it had fantastic performances across the board and it really reminded me of the kind of films that came from the early 80s which is an era that I deeply love movie wise.
And so that was my look back at movies in 2015, hard to believe it's come and gone so quickly and yet we are almost at 2016 where we'll do all of this all over again at the end of that year but.
But in 2016 it will be here at long LONG LAST!!!!!!! I am of course referring to Bryan Singer's X-Men Apocalypse which from everything I have seen so far looks amazing and another home run for him in the series, in AFL terms he has certainly pulled off the fabled 3peat that Hawthorn pulled off but whether he can match Collingwood's long standing record of 4 in a row that remains to be seen but one thing's for sure I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS MOVIE AHHHHH!!!!!!!
2015 in Film Part 2: I Came, I Saw and Yeah ... That
With the overall year look out of the way its time to delve into what I consider to be the great disappointments of 2015 you know the ones we got all excited about, we counted down the days until they were out in the cinemas or on disc and then we finally got to see them and they just ... hmmmmm (and there were a fair few of those.)
Well just 4 big ones mainly:
4. The Walk: The Walk was Robert Zemeckis's dramatic re-creation of Frenchman Phillipe Petit's 1974 walk across the Twin Towers and it's a great story from life because after all this is the world we're living in, out of the dreams of Ordinary Men.
But sadly this was a big big disappointment for one key reason: The Script, frankly this script was terrible at telling Petit's story to the audience, it is hamstrung by an awful narration that has to explain every single little emotion just in case the people in the back weren't paying attention and when you do get to the famous Walk you just do not feel any tension or suspense and when it ends you just think "Okay so what."
And so what is right as I just didn't care that much and again this is out of the Dreams of Ordinary Men (a great song by the Aussie Rock Band Dragon) and you ought to have an endless fascination for the web it weaves for us but instead I just felt deceived.
3. Fantastic Four: Now I was one of the few looking forward to this movie after all 20th Century Fox has done a good job with X-Men Days of Future Past (purely because Bryan Singer came back), it has a gifted young cast playing Marvel's first family and a promising young director in Josh Trank whose Chronicle was the origin of Darth Vader film we should have gotten instead of those pissy prequels.
And yet this movie was a complete disaster, everything we read about coming up to this movie in terms of fights with Fox or reshoots months before release or just general studio micro managing was all up there on the screen, the first hour is dull as all hell, the characters are boring, the finale is a joke (I firmly believe that Matthew Vaughn directed that climax instead of Trank as his name is on the Producer's roll in the end credits and it bares the tone of X-Men First Class.) and it all just goes off a cliff and to a horrible horrible death.
And all it did was just give Marvel supporters a great big club to whack Fox over the head with as a fair few of them feel that they shouldn't have F4 or the X-Men and it also made me think "Have they done this to Bryan Singer on Apocalypse" but I consoled myself on that point by saying "Bryan has done the 3peat Simon, he knows what he's doing" but whether he can match Collingwood's 4 in a row record well that's up to the Movie Gods.
And when I walked out of this film I just thought to myself "I'm not angry but I am just very very very very disappointed in all of you responsible for this mess" and I still feel that way, no one gets out of this clean and if Fox had any brains they would do a deal with Marvel and let it go back in return for the rights to make X-Men Merchandise.
2. Dark Places: This was one I was very keen as I really loved Gone Girl from 2014 by David Fincher and this was based off of another Gillian Flynn book so could lighting strike twice?
Nope it did not as this was nowhere near as good as Gone Girl as it did not have a coherent script, a compelling mystery, likeable characters or strong performances, on all 4 of these fronts this film dropped the ball completely and when the mystery does play out your not surprised or shocked like you were in Gone Girl but instead just going "see I knew that would happen."
Then again from what I was told by my ever so fabulous Radio Producer Ms Selina the book itself was also much weaker than Gone Girl so maybe this is simply a case of not being able to polish a turd but still I was left very disappointed with this 1.
But all three of those were minor compared to my number 1 disappointment of 2015.
The Avengers - Age of Ultron: Boy was I excited for this movie, the previews were terrific in promising a much darker tone than the first film, a compelling threat for Earth's mightiest heroes and for it all to play in a way that leaves the world numb from Ultron's rule as well as the heroes bitterly divided, sounds great right?
Wrong this was just more of the same from the first film:
- More of the same quips
- More of the same CGI Armies
- More of the same endless references
- More of the same PG-13 child friendly action
And like Captain America the Winter Soldier from 2014 a darker tone that was promised to me was once again snatched away in favor of something light and colorful because kids go to these movies and well we can't have them walking out of this movie all upset now can we.
Seriously I mean for fucks sake kids in 1980 handled the Empire Strikes Back okay didn't they surely they could've handled a darker Avengers sequel couldn't they but no I guess it's just easier to do something more family friendly instead.
And another element I was keen to see which was how Marvel Studios would handle mutant characters in Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch was also disappointing especially when you consider how well Quicksilver was done in Days of Future Past in 2014 and indeed I did think to myself watching this film "This is how Marvel Studios would do the X-Men if they got the rights back."
As a result of this I am now more skeptical about 2016's Captain America Civil War but the recent preview for that film did indeed looked promising but I've been here twice before and Marvel failed me hopefully they won't do it again and that they'll show us the Dark Side this time around.
And so that was the disappointments of 2015, some more personal ones this year than in recent years but these things happen.
Well just 4 big ones mainly:
4. The Walk: The Walk was Robert Zemeckis's dramatic re-creation of Frenchman Phillipe Petit's 1974 walk across the Twin Towers and it's a great story from life because after all this is the world we're living in, out of the dreams of Ordinary Men.
But sadly this was a big big disappointment for one key reason: The Script, frankly this script was terrible at telling Petit's story to the audience, it is hamstrung by an awful narration that has to explain every single little emotion just in case the people in the back weren't paying attention and when you do get to the famous Walk you just do not feel any tension or suspense and when it ends you just think "Okay so what."
And so what is right as I just didn't care that much and again this is out of the Dreams of Ordinary Men (a great song by the Aussie Rock Band Dragon) and you ought to have an endless fascination for the web it weaves for us but instead I just felt deceived.
3. Fantastic Four: Now I was one of the few looking forward to this movie after all 20th Century Fox has done a good job with X-Men Days of Future Past (purely because Bryan Singer came back), it has a gifted young cast playing Marvel's first family and a promising young director in Josh Trank whose Chronicle was the origin of Darth Vader film we should have gotten instead of those pissy prequels.
And yet this movie was a complete disaster, everything we read about coming up to this movie in terms of fights with Fox or reshoots months before release or just general studio micro managing was all up there on the screen, the first hour is dull as all hell, the characters are boring, the finale is a joke (I firmly believe that Matthew Vaughn directed that climax instead of Trank as his name is on the Producer's roll in the end credits and it bares the tone of X-Men First Class.) and it all just goes off a cliff and to a horrible horrible death.
And all it did was just give Marvel supporters a great big club to whack Fox over the head with as a fair few of them feel that they shouldn't have F4 or the X-Men and it also made me think "Have they done this to Bryan Singer on Apocalypse" but I consoled myself on that point by saying "Bryan has done the 3peat Simon, he knows what he's doing" but whether he can match Collingwood's 4 in a row record well that's up to the Movie Gods.
And when I walked out of this film I just thought to myself "I'm not angry but I am just very very very very disappointed in all of you responsible for this mess" and I still feel that way, no one gets out of this clean and if Fox had any brains they would do a deal with Marvel and let it go back in return for the rights to make X-Men Merchandise.
2. Dark Places: This was one I was very keen as I really loved Gone Girl from 2014 by David Fincher and this was based off of another Gillian Flynn book so could lighting strike twice?
Nope it did not as this was nowhere near as good as Gone Girl as it did not have a coherent script, a compelling mystery, likeable characters or strong performances, on all 4 of these fronts this film dropped the ball completely and when the mystery does play out your not surprised or shocked like you were in Gone Girl but instead just going "see I knew that would happen."
Then again from what I was told by my ever so fabulous Radio Producer Ms Selina the book itself was also much weaker than Gone Girl so maybe this is simply a case of not being able to polish a turd but still I was left very disappointed with this 1.
But all three of those were minor compared to my number 1 disappointment of 2015.
The Avengers - Age of Ultron: Boy was I excited for this movie, the previews were terrific in promising a much darker tone than the first film, a compelling threat for Earth's mightiest heroes and for it all to play in a way that leaves the world numb from Ultron's rule as well as the heroes bitterly divided, sounds great right?
Wrong this was just more of the same from the first film:
- More of the same quips
- More of the same CGI Armies
- More of the same endless references
- More of the same PG-13 child friendly action
And like Captain America the Winter Soldier from 2014 a darker tone that was promised to me was once again snatched away in favor of something light and colorful because kids go to these movies and well we can't have them walking out of this movie all upset now can we.
Seriously I mean for fucks sake kids in 1980 handled the Empire Strikes Back okay didn't they surely they could've handled a darker Avengers sequel couldn't they but no I guess it's just easier to do something more family friendly instead.
And another element I was keen to see which was how Marvel Studios would handle mutant characters in Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch was also disappointing especially when you consider how well Quicksilver was done in Days of Future Past in 2014 and indeed I did think to myself watching this film "This is how Marvel Studios would do the X-Men if they got the rights back."
As a result of this I am now more skeptical about 2016's Captain America Civil War but the recent preview for that film did indeed looked promising but I've been here twice before and Marvel failed me hopefully they won't do it again and that they'll show us the Dark Side this time around.
And so that was the disappointments of 2015, some more personal ones this year than in recent years but these things happen.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Film Review - In the Heart of the Sea (2015)
In the Heart of the Sea stars Chris Hemsworth as Owen Chase who becomes the first officer of a whaling ship that becomes a wreck and leaves a survivor (Brendan Gleeson) who agrees to tell his story to a young author named Herman Melville (Ben Wishaw) in the hope that it will inspire his next book.
I was looking forward to this movie mainly because I love the story of Moby Dick which this is said to be the inspiration for plus I recently got the chance to go on a small sailing ship which was a fabulous experience and hopefully it could've delivered the goods.
Well it does and it doesn't I'm afraid, there is a lot that I like about this film, the sequences on the ship are well done as are the ones involving the whales which have a very nice mix of editing, sound and musical score, the white whale looks terrific here and there's a storm sequence that's also very good.
Plus Hemsworth delivers a very charismatic performance here and one that reminded me of the sort of performances Mel Gibson used to give us (hell he did a sailing film himself in the Bounty in 1984), Wishaw is always good value as is Gleeson and Cillian Murphy and Tom Holland also do good work here.
And yet the script at times tends to trip on its own shoelaces by undercutting a lot of its more tension filled moments with the back and forth of Melville and the boat, at times the cross cutting between the 2 muddies the storytelling water and as a result you don't get that feeling of hopelessness that you should have some of and it's also something that Howard's own Apollo 13 film didn't do, even though you knew the outcome you were still on the edge of your seat.
And so that was In the Heart of the Sea, a fine film but lacks the tension and storytelling precision that made Apollo 13 work so well, 2 and a half out of 5.
I was looking forward to this movie mainly because I love the story of Moby Dick which this is said to be the inspiration for plus I recently got the chance to go on a small sailing ship which was a fabulous experience and hopefully it could've delivered the goods.
Well it does and it doesn't I'm afraid, there is a lot that I like about this film, the sequences on the ship are well done as are the ones involving the whales which have a very nice mix of editing, sound and musical score, the white whale looks terrific here and there's a storm sequence that's also very good.
Plus Hemsworth delivers a very charismatic performance here and one that reminded me of the sort of performances Mel Gibson used to give us (hell he did a sailing film himself in the Bounty in 1984), Wishaw is always good value as is Gleeson and Cillian Murphy and Tom Holland also do good work here.
And yet the script at times tends to trip on its own shoelaces by undercutting a lot of its more tension filled moments with the back and forth of Melville and the boat, at times the cross cutting between the 2 muddies the storytelling water and as a result you don't get that feeling of hopelessness that you should have some of and it's also something that Howard's own Apollo 13 film didn't do, even though you knew the outcome you were still on the edge of your seat.
And so that was In the Heart of the Sea, a fine film but lacks the tension and storytelling precision that made Apollo 13 work so well, 2 and a half out of 5.
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Can the Mockingjay Rise Twice?
And so it was on a slightly muggy day in November (the 19th) I believe that the final Hunger Games film Part 2 of Mockingjay was finally released in cinemas across both Australia and the wider world.
And personally I loved it for its dark and uncompromising tone, its willingness to not let its heroes walk away from the big battle as if it was just a dustup at the local pub and as well as being able to explore the nature of politics and war and how what we think we're doing in the name of a righteous cause can just be a lie.
But whilst I've seen Part 2 3 times in the cinema now I am starting to feel that perhaps we were best served if Mockingjay had been done as 1 big 180 to 210 minute film instead of the 2 separate ones whilst fine literally play as 1 big film that's had a yearlong intermission in between them.
Here are 3 areas I feel where Mockingjay would've been best served as that one big film I describe above:
- First of all it would've been the proper finale we all deserved and expected from this series instead of the slightly limp one that some fans are loving while others are not, of no doubt this feeling is due to the split of Mockingjay the book into the 2 films and the sense that audiences by and large had kind of put this final film on the back burner for the most part cause after all there's a new James Bond and Star Wars movie coming god dammit.
But in all seriousness that 3 to 3 and a half hour length film could've given us all of the themes and ideas in regards to revolution, the making and marketing of that revolution, the nature of propaganda, the trauma of the survivors of the Games and the Capitol, the nature of Warfare etc and combined that into 1 punchy film that also gives you the resolution of the story and the characters.
Not to mention allowing for that proper emotional impact that Part 2 strives for but just cannot pull off because it doesn't have that 90 minutes to 2 hours that Part 1 represents and uses in that time to build up the themes, the ideas, the conflicts and the characters.
- Secondly the shifting of that focus from 2 separate films into that 1 big film would've given Francis Lawrence more time and energy to work on a proper adaptation of Mockingjay that does what a good adaptation should which is honor the spirit and intentions of the book whilst also turning it into a film.
As it stands right now you have 2 separate films that in Part 1 and Part 2 do kind of both, Part 1 has that feeling of doing its own thing whilst honoring the spirit of Suzanne Collins's book and because of that I felt it worked as a film with a beginning, a middle and an end whereas Part 2 takes much more of its story cues from the book and as a result is reflecting a lot of the criticisms in terms of rushing the key story and character beats as well as not quite delivering on the promise of a strong finale much like the final Harry Potter book/films did.
This would've also allowed I feel for the film to take on like Part 2 attempts to do the story structure of the first 2 Hunger Games films which have the characters moments and the story play out in the first two thirds before devoting their entire 3rd act to the Games, Mockingjay Part 2 like I said attempts to go back to that style but once more without that buildup of Part 1 it doesn't quite work in the way that it should have.
Now I don't believe for one moment that the split has anything to do with Francis or his writing team as they have done the very best they can but rather the blame must be shifted onto the producers Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik who had from their comments on the making of doco for Part 1 which is on that films Blu-Ray decided to split it into 2 films right from the start.
Of no doubt they did this because they saw the fiscal rewards Harry Potter reaped from going down this path as would the Twilight series but as they had to have learned by now that trick could only work for so long before audiences began to feel cheated, after all look at the reception the Hobbit series got from doing 3 films from that 1 small book.
- And lastly it might just might have allowed Phillip Seymour Hoffman to finish his filming for the films before his sad death in February 2014.
According to Francis Lawrence he had completed 80% of his filming before he died and had 8 days left to shoot on the Mockingjay movies. if you watch Part 1 and the scene where Effie (Elizabeth Banks) hands Katniss the black folder with Sinna's sketches for the Mockingjay costume this was one of the key scenes Phil had left to shoot before he died (and indeed he was due to film it the Friday before but bad weather in Atlanta had delayed the filming.)
There is also a key scene in Part 2 that Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) performs that was also meant to be a Plutarch scene and it is clear somewhat watching Part 2 that Phil's very very sad death had hurt this film to a certain degree and I can't help but wonder if the 1 film might just might have allowed for Phil to properly complete his filming on Mockingjay but I can't help but feel that that is something we will simply never know the answer to as things have played out in the way that they have and we have to accept the reality of it.
And so that was my column on Mockingjay and how it might have worked as the 1 big film instead of the 2 pretty good ones that we now have in our cinemas and in on our store shelves and indeed in our own shelves, I hope you all liked reading it as I certainly enjoyed writing it.
And personally I loved it for its dark and uncompromising tone, its willingness to not let its heroes walk away from the big battle as if it was just a dustup at the local pub and as well as being able to explore the nature of politics and war and how what we think we're doing in the name of a righteous cause can just be a lie.
But whilst I've seen Part 2 3 times in the cinema now I am starting to feel that perhaps we were best served if Mockingjay had been done as 1 big 180 to 210 minute film instead of the 2 separate ones whilst fine literally play as 1 big film that's had a yearlong intermission in between them.
Here are 3 areas I feel where Mockingjay would've been best served as that one big film I describe above:
- First of all it would've been the proper finale we all deserved and expected from this series instead of the slightly limp one that some fans are loving while others are not, of no doubt this feeling is due to the split of Mockingjay the book into the 2 films and the sense that audiences by and large had kind of put this final film on the back burner for the most part cause after all there's a new James Bond and Star Wars movie coming god dammit.
But in all seriousness that 3 to 3 and a half hour length film could've given us all of the themes and ideas in regards to revolution, the making and marketing of that revolution, the nature of propaganda, the trauma of the survivors of the Games and the Capitol, the nature of Warfare etc and combined that into 1 punchy film that also gives you the resolution of the story and the characters.
Not to mention allowing for that proper emotional impact that Part 2 strives for but just cannot pull off because it doesn't have that 90 minutes to 2 hours that Part 1 represents and uses in that time to build up the themes, the ideas, the conflicts and the characters.
- Secondly the shifting of that focus from 2 separate films into that 1 big film would've given Francis Lawrence more time and energy to work on a proper adaptation of Mockingjay that does what a good adaptation should which is honor the spirit and intentions of the book whilst also turning it into a film.
As it stands right now you have 2 separate films that in Part 1 and Part 2 do kind of both, Part 1 has that feeling of doing its own thing whilst honoring the spirit of Suzanne Collins's book and because of that I felt it worked as a film with a beginning, a middle and an end whereas Part 2 takes much more of its story cues from the book and as a result is reflecting a lot of the criticisms in terms of rushing the key story and character beats as well as not quite delivering on the promise of a strong finale much like the final Harry Potter book/films did.
This would've also allowed I feel for the film to take on like Part 2 attempts to do the story structure of the first 2 Hunger Games films which have the characters moments and the story play out in the first two thirds before devoting their entire 3rd act to the Games, Mockingjay Part 2 like I said attempts to go back to that style but once more without that buildup of Part 1 it doesn't quite work in the way that it should have.
Now I don't believe for one moment that the split has anything to do with Francis or his writing team as they have done the very best they can but rather the blame must be shifted onto the producers Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik who had from their comments on the making of doco for Part 1 which is on that films Blu-Ray decided to split it into 2 films right from the start.
Of no doubt they did this because they saw the fiscal rewards Harry Potter reaped from going down this path as would the Twilight series but as they had to have learned by now that trick could only work for so long before audiences began to feel cheated, after all look at the reception the Hobbit series got from doing 3 films from that 1 small book.
- And lastly it might just might have allowed Phillip Seymour Hoffman to finish his filming for the films before his sad death in February 2014.
According to Francis Lawrence he had completed 80% of his filming before he died and had 8 days left to shoot on the Mockingjay movies. if you watch Part 1 and the scene where Effie (Elizabeth Banks) hands Katniss the black folder with Sinna's sketches for the Mockingjay costume this was one of the key scenes Phil had left to shoot before he died (and indeed he was due to film it the Friday before but bad weather in Atlanta had delayed the filming.)
There is also a key scene in Part 2 that Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) performs that was also meant to be a Plutarch scene and it is clear somewhat watching Part 2 that Phil's very very sad death had hurt this film to a certain degree and I can't help but wonder if the 1 film might just might have allowed for Phil to properly complete his filming on Mockingjay but I can't help but feel that that is something we will simply never know the answer to as things have played out in the way that they have and we have to accept the reality of it.
And so that was my column on Mockingjay and how it might have worked as the 1 big film instead of the 2 pretty good ones that we now have in our cinemas and in on our store shelves and indeed in our own shelves, I hope you all liked reading it as I certainly enjoyed writing it.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
2015 in Film Part 1
And so here we are again, we put up our Christmas decorations, we race around for that perfect holiday gift (cinema vouchers are truly the sweetest gift of all, a gift for the true believers) as well as putting together our various lists of the favorites and worst of the year now that we've seen the vast majority of the films we wanted to see this year.
Before I delve into that I want to talk about how I felt about the year as a whole and I have to say it was a pretty good year all around, not a great year but one that was more of a 3 and a half out of 5 year and it was definitely full of surprises in terms of what I thought were goals going in turning out to be out on the full or behinds and stuff I didn't think would do it for me ended up absolutely doing so.
But the one part of the year I just cannot forgive is that last quarter which had virtually no MA15 movies for me instead it was just all of these soft hearted middle of the road kiddie fare like Oddball or the Walk or Blinky Bill or the Martian or Pan or the Intern just to name as a few examples and I don't mind those sort of pictures but I am also 29 years old and I would also like some movies to allow me to reflect that and the fact that I couldn't just infuriated me frankly and I really really really hope 2016 does not repeat this incompetence but given the start of that year will be dominated by Star Wars I fear it will come around again like the hands of the clock.
This leads me to the one regret I have about 2015 in film and that for all of the success I had in terms of getting to see the films I wanted to see and the success I've been having with the Radio Station (from every indication I got from them on my recent visit was that they were very happy for me to continue next year but I'm more cynical given the changes they'll go through) there was but one film I just couldn't get to despite trying my level best to do so:
Sicario: Yup director Denis Villenueve's third film following 2014's Enemy and 2013's Prisoners was Sicario a dark action thriller starring Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin and concerning the drug war in Mexico and the questionable boundaries that come as a result.
Now the preview I saw for this film looked great, Blunt and Brolin are two bright talents working today and Denis doesn't mince his cinematic meat on screen, you know where his vision is but unfortunately the films cinema release here in Australia was badly handled by Roadshow Distributors as not only did it have to contend with the School Holiday movies but also with the Martian and as a result despite good word of mouth it was slaughtered and later gone within 3 weeks.
And I also can't help but feel it or Legend with Tom Hardy or Black Mass or Crimson Peak might just might have done better in cinemas if they had different release dates maybe later in October or Early November but at the same time early November would've had it either of those up against SPECTRE and the final Hunger Games so perhaps it was just a case of just sending each of them out there to die knowing that they wouldn't have a hope of success.
But that is first up for my film watching in 2016 and hopefully it will deliver the goods but I will have to wait and see.
Before I delve into that I want to talk about how I felt about the year as a whole and I have to say it was a pretty good year all around, not a great year but one that was more of a 3 and a half out of 5 year and it was definitely full of surprises in terms of what I thought were goals going in turning out to be out on the full or behinds and stuff I didn't think would do it for me ended up absolutely doing so.
But the one part of the year I just cannot forgive is that last quarter which had virtually no MA15 movies for me instead it was just all of these soft hearted middle of the road kiddie fare like Oddball or the Walk or Blinky Bill or the Martian or Pan or the Intern just to name as a few examples and I don't mind those sort of pictures but I am also 29 years old and I would also like some movies to allow me to reflect that and the fact that I couldn't just infuriated me frankly and I really really really hope 2016 does not repeat this incompetence but given the start of that year will be dominated by Star Wars I fear it will come around again like the hands of the clock.
This leads me to the one regret I have about 2015 in film and that for all of the success I had in terms of getting to see the films I wanted to see and the success I've been having with the Radio Station (from every indication I got from them on my recent visit was that they were very happy for me to continue next year but I'm more cynical given the changes they'll go through) there was but one film I just couldn't get to despite trying my level best to do so:
Sicario: Yup director Denis Villenueve's third film following 2014's Enemy and 2013's Prisoners was Sicario a dark action thriller starring Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin and concerning the drug war in Mexico and the questionable boundaries that come as a result.
Now the preview I saw for this film looked great, Blunt and Brolin are two bright talents working today and Denis doesn't mince his cinematic meat on screen, you know where his vision is but unfortunately the films cinema release here in Australia was badly handled by Roadshow Distributors as not only did it have to contend with the School Holiday movies but also with the Martian and as a result despite good word of mouth it was slaughtered and later gone within 3 weeks.
And I also can't help but feel it or Legend with Tom Hardy or Black Mass or Crimson Peak might just might have done better in cinemas if they had different release dates maybe later in October or Early November but at the same time early November would've had it either of those up against SPECTRE and the final Hunger Games so perhaps it was just a case of just sending each of them out there to die knowing that they wouldn't have a hope of success.
But that is first up for my film watching in 2016 and hopefully it will deliver the goods but I will have to wait and see.
Film Review - San Andreas (2015)
San Andreas stars Dwayne Johnson as Ray Gaines a chief in the Los Angeles Fire Department who is also divorcing from his wife (Carla Gugino) but a giant Earthquake emerges from the San Andreas Fault and this could threaten everyone in California.
San Andreas is one of the better disaster films we've had in the last few years (certainly miles ahead of that ridiculous 2012 from 2009 which just went on and on sillily) and primarily it is because of the disaster of the fault one of the world's key fault lines plus Johnson plays a very real character that we can get behind and it nicely contrasts from his usual larger than life persona.
Sadly however outside of him and the films terrific visual effects (and they are good as they show off nicely the scope and scale of the film) I found it harder and harder to care all that much about the rest of the films characters (the douche lover, the young hot daughter, the daughter's love interest, the ex wife) the longer the film went on, if this had been 90 to 100 minutes of good time disaster popcorn entertainment I might have had more fun but instead it goes on for nearly 2 hours and the climax of this film just ran on too long.
And so that was San Andreas, fun for the most part but also too long, 2 out of 5.
San Andreas is one of the better disaster films we've had in the last few years (certainly miles ahead of that ridiculous 2012 from 2009 which just went on and on sillily) and primarily it is because of the disaster of the fault one of the world's key fault lines plus Johnson plays a very real character that we can get behind and it nicely contrasts from his usual larger than life persona.
Sadly however outside of him and the films terrific visual effects (and they are good as they show off nicely the scope and scale of the film) I found it harder and harder to care all that much about the rest of the films characters (the douche lover, the young hot daughter, the daughter's love interest, the ex wife) the longer the film went on, if this had been 90 to 100 minutes of good time disaster popcorn entertainment I might have had more fun but instead it goes on for nearly 2 hours and the climax of this film just ran on too long.
And so that was San Andreas, fun for the most part but also too long, 2 out of 5.
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Respect for the Mockingjay
As I write this the final Hunger Games film Mockingjay Part 2 is now out in cinemas (I loved it myself despite it being too long) and it has inspired me to write about this question I've had rattling around in my mind for a while now.
Why has this series not gotten more respect?
Now I know that this will be a very divisive response (which I can understand but its good to generate some well meaning debate) but that is really just how I feel in all honesty.
And there are 3 big reasons:
- First off as a vision of the future this series has been almost impeccable at executing it in a way that feels very believable for a modern day audience but also has its roots in the best versions of how we view a dark future be it Orwell's 1984 or be it our own human history which for much of the 20th century had such a thing in the Soviet Union (and more than once did we come close to Nuclear Armageddon between them and the USA much like the Capitol and District 13 did prior to Snow's rise to power.)
The other part of this is also the utterly brilliant way it depicts how we view both the games and its victors and in our own life it is not too similar to how we tend to idolize celebrities something that has become more and more prevalent in our society over the past 10 years with the advent of Social Media as well as more and more 24 hour news stations.
I mean how many times have we watched interviews with them or followed them on Social Media or had their picture on our wall or in our diary in our youth and in the Hunger Games series the Victors are very much treated in a similar fashion (look at the fangirl screaming over Finnick in Catching Fire that would remind you of any number of male heartthrobs) or the way the Capitol adores Katniss much like we adore Jennifer Lawrence in real life (one of her scenes in Catching Fire reminded me a lot of Lawrence's interviews.)
As for the Games itself well again there are real life parallels be it Ancient Rome and the way it used its Gladiator games to bring the masses in line or indeed how some view the Horse Racing and Greyhound Racing sports or Boxing or UFC cage fighting (these feeling best manifest themselves I think in the first Hunger Games film where they play the most important role.)
- The second is that this series has been willing and able to trust what I call the storytelling river and the instinctive decisions that it requires and what was required after the events of Catching Fire was war and the Mockingjay Book and Movies delivered on that promise at least in my own view.
And this became as the Mockingjay movies came along very refreshing for me as it felt like an antidote to so many of the big films be they the near endless parade of Marvel Studios movies or Jurassic World as these films and with them the series became more willing to go darker and darker and actually show the consequences that arise from its big action set pieces.
This has been something that has made me more and more fed up with the Superhero movies that we get so many of these days I mean look at Captain America the Winter Soldier a film that promised a darker tone in terms of its story and the character motivations and action scenes that would lead to a fundamental shake up of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but then just completely chickened out in the third act as if to say "Don't worry kids we didn't really mean to do that everything's going to be just fine."
And that wasn't the only time just this year Avengers: Age of Ultron made a very similar promise (a darker tone, a true threat to the Avengers and the World and the events playing out in such a way that would leave the world in ruins, its governments angry and the heroes bitterly divided) a perfect setup wouldn't you say for Captain America: Civil War right?
Wrong Age of Ultron just became more of the same jokes, childish action and well let's blow stuff up real good and real big but just don't show us the consequences okay this is a film kids want to go and see okay.
And don't get me started on Man of Steel although Dawn of Justice from what we've seen so far promises to rectify some of those criticisms though such promises have been made before and never kept so I will wait and see.
But with the Hunger Games the softness falls further and further away with each film and the latest gets very dark and very sombre which is the correct way to go and this film was not afraid to show how dark War gets and how we can suffer as a result.
- And lastly there is a wonderful heroine in Katniss Everdeen a hero I think worthy of sitting on the same shelf as Luke Skywalker, Connor MacLeod, the X-Men and the Z Fighters to use as examples I personally love.
Katniss is also someone who is very driven, determined but also someone who thinks things through and consistently assess each situation around her, she's not someone I think who shoots first and asks questions later she only kills when she has to and when she does she doesn't brush it off like other heroes do it stays in her mind and haunts her over the course of the series.
She's also someone who can be uneasy to like at times but again over the course of the series she earns the deep respect of both her friends and her enemies much like some political leaders do in our own world.
And lastly she is also a ground breaker for heroic female characters in film and I firmly feel now that the final film is now out for viewers to go and see that we live in a post Katniss world where the choice of gender in heroes can be safely made to be a woman if the filmmakers so desire as the groundwork has been laid, groundwork that George Miller then ran over at full speed with his Furiosa character in Mad Max Fury Road.
But yet with all of those strong positives why hasn't this series gotten more respect, the kind that the original Star Wars movies or the early Indiana Jones movies or the Back to the Future series got when they were released?
Sadly the reasons I feel are 2:
- The first is that we effectively live in the age of the fanboy and not just in the sense that those are the principal ticket buyers but also those are the people (Mr Kevin Feige would be one of them I feel) that are now helping to make these movies.
And traditionally those people that have embraced that geek culture (I like to believe that that has changed somewhat in the last few years) have normally been skinny, geeky looking and not that good at playing sport in other words not the kind of people who normally get the girls racing to their stead or indeed paying any kind of boyfriend/girlfriend attention in high school.
And now like I mentioned above those people are helping to make those films and I can't help but see that that sort of juvenile attitude towards girls and women (again I like to believe that this changes as people grow older) has become more and more reflected in the Superhero movies (how many times have we seen a demand for more female heroes in these films) and maybe it's that or maybe it's a reflection of the books not really having many female heroes or maybe it could be a little bit of both or indeed neither of those things.
At that same time though female heroes have been a rarity in those sort of films, James Cameron was one of the exceptions with his Sarah Connor character in his 2 Terminator films as well as how he used Ripley in Aliens and Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark was great and the new Star Wars films under Kathleen Kennedy's leadership of Lucasfilm are promising to make the brand more appealing to women which has rarely been the case over the years.
- And the second is that the more this series trusted its darker storytelling instincts along the river the more I feel the movie going audience has walked away (the very contentious split of the third book into 2 films could also have done this.)
In a way I feel like we're back in the 80s to a certain degree in that the majority of the big movies are inherently happy movies, they have a very soft feel to them, are very light and humorous in tone as well as being sort of fantastical.
The first 2 Hunger Games films had that fantastical tone as well as building towards the dark wartime ending of the last third and it's no surprise to me that those were the most successful of the series as it let the audience have its cake story wise and eat it too much like the Winter Soldier did.
And for me personally I have just gotten to the point where I'm like "I'm an Adult now and I want those sort of films which are more darker in tone as well as the happy stuff" and I suppose it's why Mockingjay Part 2 mainly because for at least 8 to 10 weeks straight I had to put up with nothing but soft happy movies like Pan, Oddball (I thought that films run would never end), Pixels, the Martian (which I really loved BTW), the Walk and Blinky Bill (which I also enjoyed) to name as examples.
And all during that time I just kept hankering, starving and CRAVING! A dark movie for grownups and they were out there (Sicario, Black Mass, Crimson Peak and Legend) but I just couldn't get to them no matter how hard I tried to do so and those sort of films just don't get made much anymore like they used to do and if they are made then they're effectively banished to the independent and art house markets and as someone who wants to feel like an adult at the movies sometimes this can get incredibly frustrating.
But I am now getting to the point of repeating myself with this column and I will leave it here but I hope that everyone enjoyed reading it and it got them thinking a little bit.
Why has this series not gotten more respect?
Now I know that this will be a very divisive response (which I can understand but its good to generate some well meaning debate) but that is really just how I feel in all honesty.
And there are 3 big reasons:
- First off as a vision of the future this series has been almost impeccable at executing it in a way that feels very believable for a modern day audience but also has its roots in the best versions of how we view a dark future be it Orwell's 1984 or be it our own human history which for much of the 20th century had such a thing in the Soviet Union (and more than once did we come close to Nuclear Armageddon between them and the USA much like the Capitol and District 13 did prior to Snow's rise to power.)
The other part of this is also the utterly brilliant way it depicts how we view both the games and its victors and in our own life it is not too similar to how we tend to idolize celebrities something that has become more and more prevalent in our society over the past 10 years with the advent of Social Media as well as more and more 24 hour news stations.
I mean how many times have we watched interviews with them or followed them on Social Media or had their picture on our wall or in our diary in our youth and in the Hunger Games series the Victors are very much treated in a similar fashion (look at the fangirl screaming over Finnick in Catching Fire that would remind you of any number of male heartthrobs) or the way the Capitol adores Katniss much like we adore Jennifer Lawrence in real life (one of her scenes in Catching Fire reminded me a lot of Lawrence's interviews.)
As for the Games itself well again there are real life parallels be it Ancient Rome and the way it used its Gladiator games to bring the masses in line or indeed how some view the Horse Racing and Greyhound Racing sports or Boxing or UFC cage fighting (these feeling best manifest themselves I think in the first Hunger Games film where they play the most important role.)
- The second is that this series has been willing and able to trust what I call the storytelling river and the instinctive decisions that it requires and what was required after the events of Catching Fire was war and the Mockingjay Book and Movies delivered on that promise at least in my own view.
And this became as the Mockingjay movies came along very refreshing for me as it felt like an antidote to so many of the big films be they the near endless parade of Marvel Studios movies or Jurassic World as these films and with them the series became more willing to go darker and darker and actually show the consequences that arise from its big action set pieces.
This has been something that has made me more and more fed up with the Superhero movies that we get so many of these days I mean look at Captain America the Winter Soldier a film that promised a darker tone in terms of its story and the character motivations and action scenes that would lead to a fundamental shake up of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but then just completely chickened out in the third act as if to say "Don't worry kids we didn't really mean to do that everything's going to be just fine."
And that wasn't the only time just this year Avengers: Age of Ultron made a very similar promise (a darker tone, a true threat to the Avengers and the World and the events playing out in such a way that would leave the world in ruins, its governments angry and the heroes bitterly divided) a perfect setup wouldn't you say for Captain America: Civil War right?
Wrong Age of Ultron just became more of the same jokes, childish action and well let's blow stuff up real good and real big but just don't show us the consequences okay this is a film kids want to go and see okay.
And don't get me started on Man of Steel although Dawn of Justice from what we've seen so far promises to rectify some of those criticisms though such promises have been made before and never kept so I will wait and see.
But with the Hunger Games the softness falls further and further away with each film and the latest gets very dark and very sombre which is the correct way to go and this film was not afraid to show how dark War gets and how we can suffer as a result.
- And lastly there is a wonderful heroine in Katniss Everdeen a hero I think worthy of sitting on the same shelf as Luke Skywalker, Connor MacLeod, the X-Men and the Z Fighters to use as examples I personally love.
Katniss is also someone who is very driven, determined but also someone who thinks things through and consistently assess each situation around her, she's not someone I think who shoots first and asks questions later she only kills when she has to and when she does she doesn't brush it off like other heroes do it stays in her mind and haunts her over the course of the series.
She's also someone who can be uneasy to like at times but again over the course of the series she earns the deep respect of both her friends and her enemies much like some political leaders do in our own world.
And lastly she is also a ground breaker for heroic female characters in film and I firmly feel now that the final film is now out for viewers to go and see that we live in a post Katniss world where the choice of gender in heroes can be safely made to be a woman if the filmmakers so desire as the groundwork has been laid, groundwork that George Miller then ran over at full speed with his Furiosa character in Mad Max Fury Road.
But yet with all of those strong positives why hasn't this series gotten more respect, the kind that the original Star Wars movies or the early Indiana Jones movies or the Back to the Future series got when they were released?
Sadly the reasons I feel are 2:
- The first is that we effectively live in the age of the fanboy and not just in the sense that those are the principal ticket buyers but also those are the people (Mr Kevin Feige would be one of them I feel) that are now helping to make these movies.
And traditionally those people that have embraced that geek culture (I like to believe that that has changed somewhat in the last few years) have normally been skinny, geeky looking and not that good at playing sport in other words not the kind of people who normally get the girls racing to their stead or indeed paying any kind of boyfriend/girlfriend attention in high school.
And now like I mentioned above those people are helping to make those films and I can't help but see that that sort of juvenile attitude towards girls and women (again I like to believe that this changes as people grow older) has become more and more reflected in the Superhero movies (how many times have we seen a demand for more female heroes in these films) and maybe it's that or maybe it's a reflection of the books not really having many female heroes or maybe it could be a little bit of both or indeed neither of those things.
At that same time though female heroes have been a rarity in those sort of films, James Cameron was one of the exceptions with his Sarah Connor character in his 2 Terminator films as well as how he used Ripley in Aliens and Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark was great and the new Star Wars films under Kathleen Kennedy's leadership of Lucasfilm are promising to make the brand more appealing to women which has rarely been the case over the years.
- And the second is that the more this series trusted its darker storytelling instincts along the river the more I feel the movie going audience has walked away (the very contentious split of the third book into 2 films could also have done this.)
In a way I feel like we're back in the 80s to a certain degree in that the majority of the big movies are inherently happy movies, they have a very soft feel to them, are very light and humorous in tone as well as being sort of fantastical.
The first 2 Hunger Games films had that fantastical tone as well as building towards the dark wartime ending of the last third and it's no surprise to me that those were the most successful of the series as it let the audience have its cake story wise and eat it too much like the Winter Soldier did.
And for me personally I have just gotten to the point where I'm like "I'm an Adult now and I want those sort of films which are more darker in tone as well as the happy stuff" and I suppose it's why Mockingjay Part 2 mainly because for at least 8 to 10 weeks straight I had to put up with nothing but soft happy movies like Pan, Oddball (I thought that films run would never end), Pixels, the Martian (which I really loved BTW), the Walk and Blinky Bill (which I also enjoyed) to name as examples.
And all during that time I just kept hankering, starving and CRAVING! A dark movie for grownups and they were out there (Sicario, Black Mass, Crimson Peak and Legend) but I just couldn't get to them no matter how hard I tried to do so and those sort of films just don't get made much anymore like they used to do and if they are made then they're effectively banished to the independent and art house markets and as someone who wants to feel like an adult at the movies sometimes this can get incredibly frustrating.
But I am now getting to the point of repeating myself with this column and I will leave it here but I hope that everyone enjoyed reading it and it got them thinking a little bit.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Film Review - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015)
Mockingjay Part 2 starts off where Part 1 left off with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) still in District 13 and having to deal with Peeta's brainwashing but Katniss has had it with Snow (Donald Sutherland) and decides that enough is enough it's time to go and put an arrow in his head and kill him once and for all.
Of all the films I've waited to see this year this has been at the top of the heap even ahead of the new Star Wars film mainly because I am a huge fan of this series, to my mind it has brought back what it felt like seeing Star Wars for the first time but also combining it with the more adult edge I like to see in films these days but could this last shot with the Arrow hit its mark or miss it completely.
Happily very happily this movie delivered the goods, Francis Lawrence did a great job directing this film and FINALLY there is a blockbuster franchise that is willing to go dark (and this movie is very dark and very sombre much like the Dark Knight was in 2008) as well as show the consequences of these big action set pieces that so many of the Superhero movies that dominate our cinema space so much these days just ignore completely because well we don't want to upset the poor little overprotected children now do we, UGH!
But not just that Jennifer Lawrence in this film is awesome, she is awesome all together I feel but here she just takes it to the next level and reminds you just how good she really is as an actress but she isn't the only one Sam Claflin (my ideal Yamcha from Dragon Ball), Jena Malone, the late great Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Forbes, Donald Sutherland and Natalie Dormer among others are all great TBH I can't think of a bad performance in this film everyone stepped up to the mark.
However there is one tiny complaint and that is the film is too long, it runs near to the 140 minute mark and there's probably a good 10 minutes that needed to be shaved from the running time especially given the split of this book into 2 films still angers a lot of film fans.
I am so pleased this film delivered and I can't wait to own it with the other movies and see it once more in the cinemas, 4 out of 5.
Of all the films I've waited to see this year this has been at the top of the heap even ahead of the new Star Wars film mainly because I am a huge fan of this series, to my mind it has brought back what it felt like seeing Star Wars for the first time but also combining it with the more adult edge I like to see in films these days but could this last shot with the Arrow hit its mark or miss it completely.
Happily very happily this movie delivered the goods, Francis Lawrence did a great job directing this film and FINALLY there is a blockbuster franchise that is willing to go dark (and this movie is very dark and very sombre much like the Dark Knight was in 2008) as well as show the consequences of these big action set pieces that so many of the Superhero movies that dominate our cinema space so much these days just ignore completely because well we don't want to upset the poor little overprotected children now do we, UGH!
But not just that Jennifer Lawrence in this film is awesome, she is awesome all together I feel but here she just takes it to the next level and reminds you just how good she really is as an actress but she isn't the only one Sam Claflin (my ideal Yamcha from Dragon Ball), Jena Malone, the late great Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Forbes, Donald Sutherland and Natalie Dormer among others are all great TBH I can't think of a bad performance in this film everyone stepped up to the mark.
However there is one tiny complaint and that is the film is too long, it runs near to the 140 minute mark and there's probably a good 10 minutes that needed to be shaved from the running time especially given the split of this book into 2 films still angers a lot of film fans.
I am so pleased this film delivered and I can't wait to own it with the other movies and see it once more in the cinemas, 4 out of 5.
Film Review - Man Up (2015)
Man Up stars Lake Bell as Nancy a single 34 year old woman living in England who goes to an engagement party mainly at the behest of her sister who wants her to get out there more and find a man, whilst heading to London one day she accidentally comes across Jack (Simon Pegg) and the two then hit it off.
I was keen for this film primarily because of Simon Pegg himself, ever since seeing Hot Fuzz in 2007 I have followed his work as much as I can ever since and he along with Nick Frost and Edgar Wright have pretty much earnt a free pass from me so could this new film with Pegg be good?
No it wasn't, this has to be the worst comedy I have seen all year worse than Vacation even which I loathed sitting through but at least had 2 moments in it that made me smile but this I just sat there cringing at the unfunny and really just weird humour and I hate saying this because I love Pegg and he and Lake Bell have a real chemistry but the script just has them both constantly fighting and arguing and bickering over and over and over again and after a couple of scenes I just got sick of it and wanted something more sincere.
But the biggest offence this film has is the character played by Rory Kinnear, he is a good actor but his character is just borderline repulsive in the way he goes about pining for Nancy and just treating her really really badly and I just thought to myself "YOU CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE, IT's JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!" and that was the point where I began to really hate this movie.
And so that was Man Up one of the worst films I've seen this year and I hate saying that being the fan of Simon Pegg that I am but I have to, if only he had rewritten this crummy script as he and Bell deserve so much better than this, 1 out of 5.
I was keen for this film primarily because of Simon Pegg himself, ever since seeing Hot Fuzz in 2007 I have followed his work as much as I can ever since and he along with Nick Frost and Edgar Wright have pretty much earnt a free pass from me so could this new film with Pegg be good?
No it wasn't, this has to be the worst comedy I have seen all year worse than Vacation even which I loathed sitting through but at least had 2 moments in it that made me smile but this I just sat there cringing at the unfunny and really just weird humour and I hate saying this because I love Pegg and he and Lake Bell have a real chemistry but the script just has them both constantly fighting and arguing and bickering over and over and over again and after a couple of scenes I just got sick of it and wanted something more sincere.
But the biggest offence this film has is the character played by Rory Kinnear, he is a good actor but his character is just borderline repulsive in the way he goes about pining for Nancy and just treating her really really badly and I just thought to myself "YOU CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE, IT's JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!" and that was the point where I began to really hate this movie.
And so that was Man Up one of the worst films I've seen this year and I hate saying that being the fan of Simon Pegg that I am but I have to, if only he had rewritten this crummy script as he and Bell deserve so much better than this, 1 out of 5.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Film Review - SPECTRE (2015)
SPECTRE is the latest James Bond film as Bond (Daniel Craig) faces a grounding following an incident in Mexico City but Bond later receives a cryptic message about a sinister organisation that could have deadly consequences for the world if it's not stopped.
Going into SPECTRE I was fairly down the middle about it hopes wise for while I've loved Daniel Craig as 007 I also feel that the films he's made so far haven't measured up for me primarily because all of them had fairly weak villains to deal with but with the fabled SPECTRE organisation finally coming back into the fold after so many years of legal battles could the tide finally turn?
Well it does and it doesn't for while I feel SPECTRE is a fun ride it also takes a big nosedive in its third act but before I talk about that in more detail I want to talk about the first two thirds of this film in more detail as during that period of the film it's a great ride, Craig is on fine form even if he feels a little tired of doing the role (more on that down below), Lea Seydoux a wonderful French actress does well as does Ralph Fiennes, Ben Wishaw (Paddington) and Dave Bautista aka Drax from last year's Guardians of the Galaxy.
Plus this first two thirds has some great humour and action sequences especially when Craig and Bautista fight it out first in an Italian high speed chase and later on a train where the two finally face off and watching that scene I thought "At last, a proper villain who can knock Bond off."
But like I mentioned above the films third act really doesn't work and watching this section of the film I was reminded of sitting through the new Fantastic Four film from earlier this year in that it felt like there was no one in charge of this segment of the film and it just went in every direction it could go in despite it being blindly obvious where to go and sadly Christoph Waltz while he does very well does not have the material he deserves to have given his casting is a great idea.
But before I wrap this up I want to now talk about where to go next as it is clear to me that Craig's days in the role are pretty well numbered much like Sean's was after Thunderball in 1965 and if he decides to say to Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson that he does not want to do the last film left on his deal then he should have that last part of his contract payed out and allow for a graceful exit from the role and the search for a replacement to begin.
And that replacement will have a tough time ahead of them as the series more broadly speaking needs to do 3 things going forward:
- The first is to embrace the growing calls for more diversity in our media these days whether that means casting Idris Elba as the new 007 or not the audience these days particularly people in their late 20s and early 30s want to see more women and people of colour in leading roles both in front of and behind the camera and that market has made its presence felt in the box office particularly with films like Straight Outta Compton becoming a huge hit in the US but whether Barbara and Michael will do this is a very tricky question.
- The second is that the series needs to craft more meaningful female characters in the style of someone like Tracy from On Her Majesty's Secret Service or Anya from the Spy Who Loved Me, the old days of Bond having his way with the women in the films I feel are over and given the global conversation about women in the industry and the huge challenges they are facing (just look at Jennifer Lawrence's recent essay about her pay deal for American Hustle) big film series like this one and Star Wars (which is taking those steps with the Force Awakens) need to lead the way because after all you don't see Paul Feig making Spy with Melissa McCarthy unless you sense that weakness in the spy film market.
- And lastly Bond has to leave Sony Pictures as their meddling with this film is all over the films third act and given the leaks from late last year Barbara and Michael who were rightly angry about their film getting caught up in them should consider Sony to be untrustworthy and find a new studio be it Warner Brothers or 20th Century Fox but given how Fox meddled with Fantastic Four in the way that they did perhaps WB could benefit from having 007 in their belt especially given how badly their Man from UNCLE did earlier this year.
And so that was SPECTRE one of the better 007 adventures but also has a bad third act as well as a sense of staleness to it and unless your a fan I cannot recommend you see it (what I can recommend though is Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman the Secret Service), 2 out of 5.
Going into SPECTRE I was fairly down the middle about it hopes wise for while I've loved Daniel Craig as 007 I also feel that the films he's made so far haven't measured up for me primarily because all of them had fairly weak villains to deal with but with the fabled SPECTRE organisation finally coming back into the fold after so many years of legal battles could the tide finally turn?
Well it does and it doesn't for while I feel SPECTRE is a fun ride it also takes a big nosedive in its third act but before I talk about that in more detail I want to talk about the first two thirds of this film in more detail as during that period of the film it's a great ride, Craig is on fine form even if he feels a little tired of doing the role (more on that down below), Lea Seydoux a wonderful French actress does well as does Ralph Fiennes, Ben Wishaw (Paddington) and Dave Bautista aka Drax from last year's Guardians of the Galaxy.
Plus this first two thirds has some great humour and action sequences especially when Craig and Bautista fight it out first in an Italian high speed chase and later on a train where the two finally face off and watching that scene I thought "At last, a proper villain who can knock Bond off."
But like I mentioned above the films third act really doesn't work and watching this section of the film I was reminded of sitting through the new Fantastic Four film from earlier this year in that it felt like there was no one in charge of this segment of the film and it just went in every direction it could go in despite it being blindly obvious where to go and sadly Christoph Waltz while he does very well does not have the material he deserves to have given his casting is a great idea.
But before I wrap this up I want to now talk about where to go next as it is clear to me that Craig's days in the role are pretty well numbered much like Sean's was after Thunderball in 1965 and if he decides to say to Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson that he does not want to do the last film left on his deal then he should have that last part of his contract payed out and allow for a graceful exit from the role and the search for a replacement to begin.
And that replacement will have a tough time ahead of them as the series more broadly speaking needs to do 3 things going forward:
- The first is to embrace the growing calls for more diversity in our media these days whether that means casting Idris Elba as the new 007 or not the audience these days particularly people in their late 20s and early 30s want to see more women and people of colour in leading roles both in front of and behind the camera and that market has made its presence felt in the box office particularly with films like Straight Outta Compton becoming a huge hit in the US but whether Barbara and Michael will do this is a very tricky question.
- The second is that the series needs to craft more meaningful female characters in the style of someone like Tracy from On Her Majesty's Secret Service or Anya from the Spy Who Loved Me, the old days of Bond having his way with the women in the films I feel are over and given the global conversation about women in the industry and the huge challenges they are facing (just look at Jennifer Lawrence's recent essay about her pay deal for American Hustle) big film series like this one and Star Wars (which is taking those steps with the Force Awakens) need to lead the way because after all you don't see Paul Feig making Spy with Melissa McCarthy unless you sense that weakness in the spy film market.
- And lastly Bond has to leave Sony Pictures as their meddling with this film is all over the films third act and given the leaks from late last year Barbara and Michael who were rightly angry about their film getting caught up in them should consider Sony to be untrustworthy and find a new studio be it Warner Brothers or 20th Century Fox but given how Fox meddled with Fantastic Four in the way that they did perhaps WB could benefit from having 007 in their belt especially given how badly their Man from UNCLE did earlier this year.
And so that was SPECTRE one of the better 007 adventures but also has a bad third act as well as a sense of staleness to it and unless your a fan I cannot recommend you see it (what I can recommend though is Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman the Secret Service), 2 out of 5.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Through Seven Magic Balls, The World Will Change
Back in September I got to see Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F on the big screen and it was a wonderful experience to have as not only was I seeing Goku and Freeza going at each other on the big screen with the fans who were having a great time as well but it was also the real deal in terms of it was done in the style of the TV series but also the original voices for the most part (save for Chris Ayres voicing Freeza who I wish had done the role from the start in 1999/2000.)
There are a couple of reasons I bring this up and the first of those was that I was a huge fan of the TV series when it was on in 2000/2001 (it also played in 2002/2003 but a very large chunk of its fan base had dropped off by that point) and I very nearly became inspired to study Martial Arts as a result of loving the show (I didn't though and in retrospect part of me feels this might have been a mistake but then again hindsight is such a wonderful thing.)
But there is another more fundamental reason I wanted to talk about this and that is about just how much the world has changed since the TV series was on air and the release of this new movie back in August of this year (I saw when my main cinema picked it up for a limited showing in September.)
This was the state of the world back in 2000 when Dragon Ball Z premiered in Australia:
- People were still using VHS players to watch movies as well as record their shows (which was not an easy task)
- The DVD format was still in its infancy and the players were still at a very high cost beyond the range of most consumers
- The Internet was still in its infancy and was still only on dial up speeds (remember the noise that came the DEEEEE BBBBBBEEEEEE DOOOOOO DOOOOOO)
- The notion of social media was nothing more than a pipe dream as was a 24 hour news cycle (though you did have Sky News but only on the subscription TV services like Foxtel or Austar or Optus)
- The notion of a global marketplace in terms of shopping for goods and services was also in its infancy and the idea of streaming services like Netflix as well as being able to Download shows from overseas was a pipe dream.
- John Howard was into his 2nd term as Prime Minister and his GST came into effect on July 1st of that year.
- 35mm film projection was still very widely in use at the cinema (though that damned yellow slide saying THIS FILM IS YET TO BE CLASSIFIED used to drive me NUTS! since you saw it so damned often)
- The world was also a relatively peaceful place (little did we know what would transpire a year later)
Quite a different world that sounds like isn't it and for some it will be hard to remember that sort of the world given what would transpire and also for some born after 2001 or in that year itself it sounds more like a dream world where there was peace in our time and all of the dramas and conflicts felt like they were someone else (hell even I think back to that time and wish I could see it more but not as a kid but as an adult like I am now.)
But that is merely just wishful thinking and will probably happen (and even if it did there's a more than fair chance it would probably doom all of humanity to extinction cause if the movies have taught us anything its not to change the future unless it's absolutely essential.)
But I'm getting off topic and the main point I wanted to make was to highlight the huge changes the world has gone through between then and now and it is certainly the case when it comes to films as well as how we choose to watch them.
Now with the advent of digital technology fully in stride there is now much more freedom to access content no matter what it might be whereas back in the day DBZ again as an example would only be on Cartoon Network at 8.30am and 5.30pm and if you missed it at either of those times without taping it well stiff shit.
Now you can pretty much get an entire season of a show either in a boxset and do a binge watch of a show be it that one or House of Cards or Game of Thrones or the Walking Dead to name as examples.
Indeed part of me wishes I had such an infrastructure when I was watching DBZ back then (as I show above it was there but was in its early gestation stages yet to bloom) as I would've taken advantage of it as best as I could and even looking up the original manga for it and Dragon Ball which was the preceding series I felt like I learned more now in terms of some of the back story and the character histories and the differences between it and the anime version now when I'm not watching the show than when I was actually watching it.
But also the nature of theatrical releases has changed fundamentally as well again coming out of the hatching of the digital age and the infrastructure that's been built out of it instead of waiting at times months for a film as was the case (the average back in the 80s used to be 6 months to a year) most of the big films come out within either a month of each other or day and date worldwide plus with the rise of online stores like Amazon consumers here in Australia can buy titles legally and watch them before/concurrent or after a cinema release (my favorite film of the year A Most Violent Year was seen this way by me.)
Although it is near impossible to talk about any of these changes without discussing the issue of piracy (a touchy issue I know) and it is an issue I think that has helped to accelerate so much of this change whether we want to admit it or not as it's rise and popularity with many consumers had forced the industry albeit probably through gritted teeth to make changes even though they don't really want to admit it.
However there has also been one more very positive change that has come about and that is the removal of the curtain in regards to global cinema and our being more aware of the fact that some of the things we love in films and sometimes the broader pop culture space come from all corners of the world:
- Dragon Ball (Japan)
- James Bond (UK)
- Mad Max (Australia)
- Minions (France)
- Tintin (Belgium)
And so on and so forth and this for me is a terrific thing as it makes you think outside of the box a little bit in terms of entertainment and how we consume it as well as thinking a little bit more about where it comes from and the culture that helped to inspire it.
This column got a little rambly and long winded so I will end it here in the hope that I made the point that I wanted to make in a way people can understand.
There are a couple of reasons I bring this up and the first of those was that I was a huge fan of the TV series when it was on in 2000/2001 (it also played in 2002/2003 but a very large chunk of its fan base had dropped off by that point) and I very nearly became inspired to study Martial Arts as a result of loving the show (I didn't though and in retrospect part of me feels this might have been a mistake but then again hindsight is such a wonderful thing.)
But there is another more fundamental reason I wanted to talk about this and that is about just how much the world has changed since the TV series was on air and the release of this new movie back in August of this year (I saw when my main cinema picked it up for a limited showing in September.)
This was the state of the world back in 2000 when Dragon Ball Z premiered in Australia:
- People were still using VHS players to watch movies as well as record their shows (which was not an easy task)
- The DVD format was still in its infancy and the players were still at a very high cost beyond the range of most consumers
- The Internet was still in its infancy and was still only on dial up speeds (remember the noise that came the DEEEEE BBBBBBEEEEEE DOOOOOO DOOOOOO)
- The notion of social media was nothing more than a pipe dream as was a 24 hour news cycle (though you did have Sky News but only on the subscription TV services like Foxtel or Austar or Optus)
- The notion of a global marketplace in terms of shopping for goods and services was also in its infancy and the idea of streaming services like Netflix as well as being able to Download shows from overseas was a pipe dream.
- John Howard was into his 2nd term as Prime Minister and his GST came into effect on July 1st of that year.
- 35mm film projection was still very widely in use at the cinema (though that damned yellow slide saying THIS FILM IS YET TO BE CLASSIFIED used to drive me NUTS! since you saw it so damned often)
- The world was also a relatively peaceful place (little did we know what would transpire a year later)
Quite a different world that sounds like isn't it and for some it will be hard to remember that sort of the world given what would transpire and also for some born after 2001 or in that year itself it sounds more like a dream world where there was peace in our time and all of the dramas and conflicts felt like they were someone else (hell even I think back to that time and wish I could see it more but not as a kid but as an adult like I am now.)
But that is merely just wishful thinking and will probably happen (and even if it did there's a more than fair chance it would probably doom all of humanity to extinction cause if the movies have taught us anything its not to change the future unless it's absolutely essential.)
But I'm getting off topic and the main point I wanted to make was to highlight the huge changes the world has gone through between then and now and it is certainly the case when it comes to films as well as how we choose to watch them.
Now with the advent of digital technology fully in stride there is now much more freedom to access content no matter what it might be whereas back in the day DBZ again as an example would only be on Cartoon Network at 8.30am and 5.30pm and if you missed it at either of those times without taping it well stiff shit.
Now you can pretty much get an entire season of a show either in a boxset and do a binge watch of a show be it that one or House of Cards or Game of Thrones or the Walking Dead to name as examples.
Indeed part of me wishes I had such an infrastructure when I was watching DBZ back then (as I show above it was there but was in its early gestation stages yet to bloom) as I would've taken advantage of it as best as I could and even looking up the original manga for it and Dragon Ball which was the preceding series I felt like I learned more now in terms of some of the back story and the character histories and the differences between it and the anime version now when I'm not watching the show than when I was actually watching it.
But also the nature of theatrical releases has changed fundamentally as well again coming out of the hatching of the digital age and the infrastructure that's been built out of it instead of waiting at times months for a film as was the case (the average back in the 80s used to be 6 months to a year) most of the big films come out within either a month of each other or day and date worldwide plus with the rise of online stores like Amazon consumers here in Australia can buy titles legally and watch them before/concurrent or after a cinema release (my favorite film of the year A Most Violent Year was seen this way by me.)
Although it is near impossible to talk about any of these changes without discussing the issue of piracy (a touchy issue I know) and it is an issue I think that has helped to accelerate so much of this change whether we want to admit it or not as it's rise and popularity with many consumers had forced the industry albeit probably through gritted teeth to make changes even though they don't really want to admit it.
However there has also been one more very positive change that has come about and that is the removal of the curtain in regards to global cinema and our being more aware of the fact that some of the things we love in films and sometimes the broader pop culture space come from all corners of the world:
- Dragon Ball (Japan)
- James Bond (UK)
- Mad Max (Australia)
- Minions (France)
- Tintin (Belgium)
And so on and so forth and this for me is a terrific thing as it makes you think outside of the box a little bit in terms of entertainment and how we consume it as well as thinking a little bit more about where it comes from and the culture that helped to inspire it.
This column got a little rambly and long winded so I will end it here in the hope that I made the point that I wanted to make in a way people can understand.
Monday, November 9, 2015
On the Air Season 2 Episode 10: Following the Spaceship, the Spaceship, the Spaceship
Well here we are again,
My 3rd last radio show for the year talks about some big titles:
- Blinky Bill
- Pan
- The Martian
- The Intern
- Miss You Already
As always you can click on the streaming options in your browser and/or right click and save them to your computer.
Link to the shows is here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2015/11/friday-flicks-october-2015.html
My 3rd last radio show for the year talks about some big titles:
- Blinky Bill
- Pan
- The Martian
- The Intern
- Miss You Already
As always you can click on the streaming options in your browser and/or right click and save them to your computer.
Link to the shows is here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2015/11/friday-flicks-october-2015.html
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Film Review - The Dressmaker (2015)
The Dressmaker is written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (who also made the 1991 Australian film Proof with Hugo Weaving and Russell Crowe) and is based off of a book, the story here concerns Tilley (Kate Winslet) returning to her country hometown after being sent away as a child and it is that troubled childhood that she is determined to address whilst home again.
The Dressmaker is a fun watch I felt but not without some pretty big problems but before I delve into those I want to talk about what I do like about this movie and that is predominantly the first 2 thirds of the running time which were fun, quirky and anchored by a strong storyline worth following, Winslet is also superb in her role and not just because she did well with the Aussie accent but I also loved that her character was very strong but also feminine and it is a real pleasure to watch her here.
But it's not just her that's good, Shane Jacobson, Shane Bourne, Hugo Weaving and Liam Hemsworth are also pretty good as well, Liam in particular was surprisingly effective and it reminded me of when his brother Chris played James Hunt in Ron Howard's Rush 2 years ago in that he became more than just another hunk but also a good actor, I hope he does more roles like this one in the future.
However much like Baz Lurhmann's Great Gatsby film also from 2013 the third act of this film is very problematic and again much like that film the key problem for me is that it tries to strive for a more emotionally resonant tone that the film as it played out before me which was more of this dark quriky comedy mystery doesn't really earn all that much and it was during this part of the film that I began to get bored with it.
Which leads into my other major problem with this film and that is it's simply too long, the film plays out in a way where you are led towards a natural conclusion an endpoint and you begin to think "well this was fun but it's time to go home" but then the film starts up again with this really pointless subplot and I just kept thinking to myself "What does this have to do with the film I'm seeing" and that was when I just lost my patience with this film despite for most of its running time I was enjoying myself.
And so that was the Dressmaker, for its first 2 thirds its good fun but its last act brings the whole show crashing down like someone pulling the plug on a real life fashion show, 2 out of 5.
The Dressmaker is a fun watch I felt but not without some pretty big problems but before I delve into those I want to talk about what I do like about this movie and that is predominantly the first 2 thirds of the running time which were fun, quirky and anchored by a strong storyline worth following, Winslet is also superb in her role and not just because she did well with the Aussie accent but I also loved that her character was very strong but also feminine and it is a real pleasure to watch her here.
But it's not just her that's good, Shane Jacobson, Shane Bourne, Hugo Weaving and Liam Hemsworth are also pretty good as well, Liam in particular was surprisingly effective and it reminded me of when his brother Chris played James Hunt in Ron Howard's Rush 2 years ago in that he became more than just another hunk but also a good actor, I hope he does more roles like this one in the future.
However much like Baz Lurhmann's Great Gatsby film also from 2013 the third act of this film is very problematic and again much like that film the key problem for me is that it tries to strive for a more emotionally resonant tone that the film as it played out before me which was more of this dark quriky comedy mystery doesn't really earn all that much and it was during this part of the film that I began to get bored with it.
Which leads into my other major problem with this film and that is it's simply too long, the film plays out in a way where you are led towards a natural conclusion an endpoint and you begin to think "well this was fun but it's time to go home" but then the film starts up again with this really pointless subplot and I just kept thinking to myself "What does this have to do with the film I'm seeing" and that was when I just lost my patience with this film despite for most of its running time I was enjoying myself.
And so that was the Dressmaker, for its first 2 thirds its good fun but its last act brings the whole show crashing down like someone pulling the plug on a real life fashion show, 2 out of 5.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Film Review - Amy (2015)
Amy is the newest documentary by Asif Kapadia who made the outstanding 2011 documentary on Ayrton Senna but this time his subject is the late Amy Winehouse who started out as a Jazz musician but then with Back in Black became a huge star but this came at a very tragic price.
Before watching it I was pretty nervous mainly because Senna was a real game changer for me in terms of documentary films being more than just talking heads and footage but something that could have the feeling of seeing a film in terms of it being exciting, emotional and larger than life but could Amy which is a very different tale than Senna be a worthy follow up?
Absolutely it is but for entirely different reasons and those reasons are:
- Firstly the doco is beautifully structured with almost all of the first half of the story being from her days as a Jazz singer and the film has this very bright and optimistic kind of feel to it even though you know the storm of her last few years is coming like a thunderstorm on the horizon but even still when that storm does hit you are still unprepared for the emotional impact it will leave (there were a couple of times where I felt tears in my eyes) and I remember a lot of that press coverage of her from the time and still I felt very emotional.
- The second is that the doco expertly paints a picture of our celebrity culture which from a young age we are almost pre programmed to love and/or worship these sort of celebrity figures be they singers/songwriters, actors, athletes or directors just to name 4 examples and it is fuelled to some extent even just by looking at a picture of them or watching/listening to some of their work and over the last 10 years I feel it has seeped deeply into so much of our news.
And I mean this in both how it is reported as well as how we receive it be it in politics or sport or daily information or even variety shows and websites we read and watch during our day and what this doco did so well was that how this culture becomes like a storm to go back to that analogy in that it can be destructive as well as causing misery and pain for almost everyone involved.
The doco also has its suspects as to what caused all of this but I think that one is also free to be able to make up their own mind on this but I must also say that perhaps all of us must also share some responsibility in what happened given our love of celebrity culture which I explained above.
Watching Amy is very very emotional and delivered the goods, highly recommend especially if you loved Senna but this is a very different doco than that one and should not be judged in comparison but all I will say is that Kapadia is 2 for 2, 4 out of 5.
Before watching it I was pretty nervous mainly because Senna was a real game changer for me in terms of documentary films being more than just talking heads and footage but something that could have the feeling of seeing a film in terms of it being exciting, emotional and larger than life but could Amy which is a very different tale than Senna be a worthy follow up?
Absolutely it is but for entirely different reasons and those reasons are:
- Firstly the doco is beautifully structured with almost all of the first half of the story being from her days as a Jazz singer and the film has this very bright and optimistic kind of feel to it even though you know the storm of her last few years is coming like a thunderstorm on the horizon but even still when that storm does hit you are still unprepared for the emotional impact it will leave (there were a couple of times where I felt tears in my eyes) and I remember a lot of that press coverage of her from the time and still I felt very emotional.
- The second is that the doco expertly paints a picture of our celebrity culture which from a young age we are almost pre programmed to love and/or worship these sort of celebrity figures be they singers/songwriters, actors, athletes or directors just to name 4 examples and it is fuelled to some extent even just by looking at a picture of them or watching/listening to some of their work and over the last 10 years I feel it has seeped deeply into so much of our news.
And I mean this in both how it is reported as well as how we receive it be it in politics or sport or daily information or even variety shows and websites we read and watch during our day and what this doco did so well was that how this culture becomes like a storm to go back to that analogy in that it can be destructive as well as causing misery and pain for almost everyone involved.
The doco also has its suspects as to what caused all of this but I think that one is also free to be able to make up their own mind on this but I must also say that perhaps all of us must also share some responsibility in what happened given our love of celebrity culture which I explained above.
Watching Amy is very very emotional and delivered the goods, highly recommend especially if you loved Senna but this is a very different doco than that one and should not be judged in comparison but all I will say is that Kapadia is 2 for 2, 4 out of 5.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
The Dalton Defense
As I write the new 007 movie SPECTRE is fast approaching and in the UK has been met with a mostly positive reception and I myself am looking forward to it despite my not being as enthusiastic about the other Daniel Craig Bond films up to this point (all of them have lacked a really strong and memorable villain.)
But as much as I like Craig and Sean Connery in the role of Bond I have a big soft spot for one other actor who took on the part: Timothy Dalton.
But why is that you say? He only lasted 2 movies and the 2nd one was met with a very mixed reception in 1989?
Well let me answer the ways:
- The first reason is that I feel he really did try to bring the series back down to Earth following the increasing silliness of the Roger Moore era where the jokes and the gadgets and the need to pretty much shag any woman who so much as had the tiniest of roles in his films which as his tenure went on got a bit much and by the time of 1985's A View to a Kill downright embarrassing.
But the other part of this equation was that Moore never felt comfortable doing the action scenes (Pierce Brosnan who succeeded Dalton in the role fared little better as his were slightly unconvincing as well even with Martin Campbell cracking the whip on Goldeneye) whereas Dalton threw himself into them and with Licence to Kill and the Living Daylights his physical presence and grace in those scenes became a real highlight.
- The second reason was the women, part of this I'm sure was due to the fear of the AIDS virus at the time but the women in both of his films aren't there just to be shagged or stripped or ignored there was a real attempt (at least in my eyes) to make them into characters we and Bond could come to care about in a romantic sense (The Living Daylights at times feels like a genuine love story) even if the actresses cast in those roles weren't quite up to the material handed to them.
- And the third is the plots, no longer would they outlandish plots about world domination no sir this was to go right back down to Earth similar to the tone and style of the early Connery films which I have to say are the films that people regards as the classics as they transcend just being a Bond film (Dalton himself said that this was his goal when taking on the part, to bring people back to believing this character, to bring his reality to it.)
His intentions (which were fully supported by Cubby Broccoli) are one thing, the execution of that became something else entirely as audiences were reluctant to warm to Dalton's take on the character but why was that well allow me to explain why.
- The first reason is that the public had become so use to Moore's take on 007 where he was a very jovial and almost kid friendly type of character that this harder edge which was at the core of Ian Fleming's James Bond books was very jarring at that time and as a result you could make the case that the movie going public for the most part from that time period simply weren't ready for it.
This sort of feeling is hard to explain or put into a column like this one because it's more of a feeling in the air a collective breath in the public to put it in those terms they know it and they follow that instinct for the most part.
- The second reason which follows on from the first was also the products that cinema goers in the late 80s were paying to see be it at Hoyts or Greater Union or Village or any number of Independent cinemas:
-- The Rambo films with Sylvester Stallone
-- The output from Steven Spielberg/Robert Zemeckis/John Hughes
-- The Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer films
-- The Arnold Schwarzenegger Action films
-- The Indiana Jones series with Harrison Ford (which was inspired by Spielberg's desire to direct a Bond film)
And so on and so on plus in the same year that the Living Daylights came out you had the first Lethal Weapon film released and in 1988 the year in between Dalton's 2 pictures as Bond you had the first Die Hard film blitz cinemas plus in 89 you had the three titans of Lethal Weapon 2, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the first Batman film from Tim Burton.
And when you put all of that together you have a situation where the rivals of James Bond in terms of action pictures caught up to 007 and in some cases surpassed him and as a result Dalton's tenure came to an end which the early 90's legal fights with MGM helped to accelerate and Brosnan who was THE favorite to replace Roger when he retired finally got his chance to take on the role and audiences were more embracing of him.
But all was not lost for all of this helped I think to plant the seeds for Daniel Craig's tenure as Bond and this time audiences are now ready for that harder edge take on the character as it fit with the post 9/11 world as compared to the more optimistic period of the late 80s.
But also like the late 80s we could be seeing a repeat of the Bond rivals catching up and potentially surpassing him again I mean just this year alone we've had Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Secret Service (which was inspired by the early films), Spy with Melissa McCarthy and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation where Tom Cruise pretty much went one step short of playing chicken with the Grim Reaper and in those cases they're either taking on Bond or addressing some of his shortcomings particularly when it comes to the female characters which could become a very big problem for the Bond series going forward.
But coming back to Dalton (as well as bringing this column full circle) I can't help but wonder from time to time if audiences might just might have warmed to him more had A View to a Kill been his first film in the role instead of the Living Daylights, he would have had 3 films under his belt instead of 2 prior to the early 90s legal battles plus the action in that film might have had much more suspense and impact with Dalton and the hard edge give it your all approach he took to the action scenes in his films.
Plus having him there might have helped to ease the transition back towards a Connery/Fleming type character as it would have been juxtaposed with the high class world of horse racing as it was presented in that film not to mention breathing new life into the script as well as making the scenes with the women a lot more believable especially in terms of Ms Mayday (Her vs. Dalton's Bond would've been very cool) as compared to Moore but alas Sir Roger just simply did not know when to leave and as a result everything played out in the way it did.
And so that was my defense of Tim Dalton as James Bond and I hereby rest my case.
But as much as I like Craig and Sean Connery in the role of Bond I have a big soft spot for one other actor who took on the part: Timothy Dalton.
But why is that you say? He only lasted 2 movies and the 2nd one was met with a very mixed reception in 1989?
Well let me answer the ways:
- The first reason is that I feel he really did try to bring the series back down to Earth following the increasing silliness of the Roger Moore era where the jokes and the gadgets and the need to pretty much shag any woman who so much as had the tiniest of roles in his films which as his tenure went on got a bit much and by the time of 1985's A View to a Kill downright embarrassing.
But the other part of this equation was that Moore never felt comfortable doing the action scenes (Pierce Brosnan who succeeded Dalton in the role fared little better as his were slightly unconvincing as well even with Martin Campbell cracking the whip on Goldeneye) whereas Dalton threw himself into them and with Licence to Kill and the Living Daylights his physical presence and grace in those scenes became a real highlight.
- The second reason was the women, part of this I'm sure was due to the fear of the AIDS virus at the time but the women in both of his films aren't there just to be shagged or stripped or ignored there was a real attempt (at least in my eyes) to make them into characters we and Bond could come to care about in a romantic sense (The Living Daylights at times feels like a genuine love story) even if the actresses cast in those roles weren't quite up to the material handed to them.
- And the third is the plots, no longer would they outlandish plots about world domination no sir this was to go right back down to Earth similar to the tone and style of the early Connery films which I have to say are the films that people regards as the classics as they transcend just being a Bond film (Dalton himself said that this was his goal when taking on the part, to bring people back to believing this character, to bring his reality to it.)
His intentions (which were fully supported by Cubby Broccoli) are one thing, the execution of that became something else entirely as audiences were reluctant to warm to Dalton's take on the character but why was that well allow me to explain why.
- The first reason is that the public had become so use to Moore's take on 007 where he was a very jovial and almost kid friendly type of character that this harder edge which was at the core of Ian Fleming's James Bond books was very jarring at that time and as a result you could make the case that the movie going public for the most part from that time period simply weren't ready for it.
This sort of feeling is hard to explain or put into a column like this one because it's more of a feeling in the air a collective breath in the public to put it in those terms they know it and they follow that instinct for the most part.
- The second reason which follows on from the first was also the products that cinema goers in the late 80s were paying to see be it at Hoyts or Greater Union or Village or any number of Independent cinemas:
-- The Rambo films with Sylvester Stallone
-- The output from Steven Spielberg/Robert Zemeckis/John Hughes
-- The Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer films
-- The Arnold Schwarzenegger Action films
-- The Indiana Jones series with Harrison Ford (which was inspired by Spielberg's desire to direct a Bond film)
And so on and so on plus in the same year that the Living Daylights came out you had the first Lethal Weapon film released and in 1988 the year in between Dalton's 2 pictures as Bond you had the first Die Hard film blitz cinemas plus in 89 you had the three titans of Lethal Weapon 2, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the first Batman film from Tim Burton.
And when you put all of that together you have a situation where the rivals of James Bond in terms of action pictures caught up to 007 and in some cases surpassed him and as a result Dalton's tenure came to an end which the early 90's legal fights with MGM helped to accelerate and Brosnan who was THE favorite to replace Roger when he retired finally got his chance to take on the role and audiences were more embracing of him.
But all was not lost for all of this helped I think to plant the seeds for Daniel Craig's tenure as Bond and this time audiences are now ready for that harder edge take on the character as it fit with the post 9/11 world as compared to the more optimistic period of the late 80s.
But also like the late 80s we could be seeing a repeat of the Bond rivals catching up and potentially surpassing him again I mean just this year alone we've had Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Secret Service (which was inspired by the early films), Spy with Melissa McCarthy and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation where Tom Cruise pretty much went one step short of playing chicken with the Grim Reaper and in those cases they're either taking on Bond or addressing some of his shortcomings particularly when it comes to the female characters which could become a very big problem for the Bond series going forward.
But coming back to Dalton (as well as bringing this column full circle) I can't help but wonder from time to time if audiences might just might have warmed to him more had A View to a Kill been his first film in the role instead of the Living Daylights, he would have had 3 films under his belt instead of 2 prior to the early 90s legal battles plus the action in that film might have had much more suspense and impact with Dalton and the hard edge give it your all approach he took to the action scenes in his films.
Plus having him there might have helped to ease the transition back towards a Connery/Fleming type character as it would have been juxtaposed with the high class world of horse racing as it was presented in that film not to mention breathing new life into the script as well as making the scenes with the women a lot more believable especially in terms of Ms Mayday (Her vs. Dalton's Bond would've been very cool) as compared to Moore but alas Sir Roger just simply did not know when to leave and as a result everything played out in the way it did.
And so that was my defense of Tim Dalton as James Bond and I hereby rest my case.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Film Review - Willow (1988)
Willow is produced by George Lucas and directed by Ron Howard and tells of the tale of the infant Elora who is foretold to one day grow up and overthrow the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) but the baby is safely hidden from her Empire and is found by the Elwyn farmer Willow (Warwick Davis) who is then sent on a quest to help the good people overthrow the evil Queen.
Hmmmmm, I got to be honest and say that this movie has not held up very well since its original release in 1988 (December 15th 1988 in Australian Cinemas to be precise) and the main reason I feel this way is that the story and the characters are not that interesting but before I delve into those points with more detail I want to talk about what I did like and that is the overall look of the film.
Visually the film looks great with real sets, locations and practical effects and makeup not once do you feel bored whilst just looking at the film in a purely visual sense and there is also a nice musical score by the late James Horner which helps to pump up some of the action scenes and Howard's direction in those battles is also nice.
But in the end as I pointed out the story and the characters are not interesting to watch nor do you feel any compelling reason to care about any of it and the blame for those failures falls on one man and one man alone: George Lucas despite having a screenwriter and a director to do his bidding this time.
And re-watching this film I felt that there is a very compelling case as to this movie being the planting of the seeds from which his Star Wars prequels grew:
- The chosen one prophecy
- The muddled storytelling
- The overreliance on battle sequences and special effects
- The bland and boring characters
- The signs of a great man losing his way
And like I said he had a screenwriter (Bob Dolman) and a director (Howard) this time around but in the end it makes no real difference to the overall quality of this movie and nor do I believe that it would have made any difference on the Prequels as Lucas would have most likely pulled rank on his hired director and screenwriter given he had all the power at the point in his career (there has to be a reason Lawrence Kasdan chose not to return for the Prequels.)
But coming back to this movie Willow himself is boring to watch and that was never the case with Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars movies (heck Mark Hamill has pretty much become a role model to an entire generation of film fans at this point), Mad Martigan is Indy 2.0, the Brownies are the Droids, the Queen is the Emperor, The Wizard in Willow's Village is Master Yoda (he even sounds like him) and General Kael is a poor man's Lord Darth Vader.
And wait there's more the Elwyn's are effectively the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi (if you confuse the 2 I don't blame you as I've done the same) and the use of Magic in this movie just doesn't have the impact that A) it ought to have had and B) doesn't compare with the use of the Force in the original Star Wars movies where it did feel like a crucial element of the story in that trilogy.
And again to elaborate on that comparison those 3 films (I know this review is running a little long so I'll be as quick as they can) whilst they had the groundbreaking visual effects and the advances in terms of sound design and editing (Jedi was edited on the EditDroid which was an early version of a digital editing system and the sound design was done with the TAP system which would later become the THX system) they also had characters that we came to love like family and a myth that we wanted to learn in and of ourselves in the Force.
Willow by comparison doesn't have any of those elements and as a result whilst it looks great the absence of the human heart and imaginative myth brings it down in a big way that includes all the reasons I stated above in this review, I cannot recommend this film for either a first watch or a revisit, 1 out of 5.
Hmmmmm, I got to be honest and say that this movie has not held up very well since its original release in 1988 (December 15th 1988 in Australian Cinemas to be precise) and the main reason I feel this way is that the story and the characters are not that interesting but before I delve into those points with more detail I want to talk about what I did like and that is the overall look of the film.
Visually the film looks great with real sets, locations and practical effects and makeup not once do you feel bored whilst just looking at the film in a purely visual sense and there is also a nice musical score by the late James Horner which helps to pump up some of the action scenes and Howard's direction in those battles is also nice.
But in the end as I pointed out the story and the characters are not interesting to watch nor do you feel any compelling reason to care about any of it and the blame for those failures falls on one man and one man alone: George Lucas despite having a screenwriter and a director to do his bidding this time.
And re-watching this film I felt that there is a very compelling case as to this movie being the planting of the seeds from which his Star Wars prequels grew:
- The chosen one prophecy
- The muddled storytelling
- The overreliance on battle sequences and special effects
- The bland and boring characters
- The signs of a great man losing his way
And like I said he had a screenwriter (Bob Dolman) and a director (Howard) this time around but in the end it makes no real difference to the overall quality of this movie and nor do I believe that it would have made any difference on the Prequels as Lucas would have most likely pulled rank on his hired director and screenwriter given he had all the power at the point in his career (there has to be a reason Lawrence Kasdan chose not to return for the Prequels.)
But coming back to this movie Willow himself is boring to watch and that was never the case with Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars movies (heck Mark Hamill has pretty much become a role model to an entire generation of film fans at this point), Mad Martigan is Indy 2.0, the Brownies are the Droids, the Queen is the Emperor, The Wizard in Willow's Village is Master Yoda (he even sounds like him) and General Kael is a poor man's Lord Darth Vader.
And wait there's more the Elwyn's are effectively the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi (if you confuse the 2 I don't blame you as I've done the same) and the use of Magic in this movie just doesn't have the impact that A) it ought to have had and B) doesn't compare with the use of the Force in the original Star Wars movies where it did feel like a crucial element of the story in that trilogy.
And again to elaborate on that comparison those 3 films (I know this review is running a little long so I'll be as quick as they can) whilst they had the groundbreaking visual effects and the advances in terms of sound design and editing (Jedi was edited on the EditDroid which was an early version of a digital editing system and the sound design was done with the TAP system which would later become the THX system) they also had characters that we came to love like family and a myth that we wanted to learn in and of ourselves in the Force.
Willow by comparison doesn't have any of those elements and as a result whilst it looks great the absence of the human heart and imaginative myth brings it down in a big way that includes all the reasons I stated above in this review, I cannot recommend this film for either a first watch or a revisit, 1 out of 5.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Film Review - Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (2014)
Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods is the precursor film to this year's Resurrection F which brought back Frieza but this story concerns Lord Beerus the God of Destruction who awakens from his slumber and learns of how Goku defeated Frieza so Beerus decides to fight him and once more the fate of the Earth is at stake.
Battle of Gods I'm sorry to say did very little for me as a film despite being the enormous DBZ fan I was as a teenager (I very nearly took up Martial Arts as a result of this) as well as really enjoying Resurrection F earlier this year but whereas that film succeeded because of Frieza coming back Beerus here seems more like a comic threat than a real one and I feel that the reason the Frieza storyline holds up the most is because you feel that pathos with Frieza.
Here like I mentioned above I never felt that sense that Beerus must be stopped like I do with Frieza and this is just another example I'm sorry to say of where Dragon Ball went after him just conjuring up more and more threats that began to make less and less sense story wise and were only written frankly to keep the book in circulation in Japan (and indeed this was the case as Akira Toryiama had originally wanted to end DBZ after the Frieza storyline.)
And so that was Battle of Gods which despite some nice animation just left me bored throughout, best to wait for Resurrection F as that was a much better film as it felt more action oriented and had a much better use of the characters as well as retaining the comedy of this film, 2 out of 5.
Battle of Gods I'm sorry to say did very little for me as a film despite being the enormous DBZ fan I was as a teenager (I very nearly took up Martial Arts as a result of this) as well as really enjoying Resurrection F earlier this year but whereas that film succeeded because of Frieza coming back Beerus here seems more like a comic threat than a real one and I feel that the reason the Frieza storyline holds up the most is because you feel that pathos with Frieza.
Here like I mentioned above I never felt that sense that Beerus must be stopped like I do with Frieza and this is just another example I'm sorry to say of where Dragon Ball went after him just conjuring up more and more threats that began to make less and less sense story wise and were only written frankly to keep the book in circulation in Japan (and indeed this was the case as Akira Toryiama had originally wanted to end DBZ after the Frieza storyline.)
And so that was Battle of Gods which despite some nice animation just left me bored throughout, best to wait for Resurrection F as that was a much better film as it felt more action oriented and had a much better use of the characters as well as retaining the comedy of this film, 2 out of 5.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Film Review - Bridge of Spies (2015)
Bridge of Spies is directed by Steven Spielberg and has a script by the Coen Brothers and the story here takes place in 1957 during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union and Insurance Lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks) is asked to defend Soviet Spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) but this case will not an easy one to solve.
Bridge of Spies is a serviceable thriller that is held together I think by its script and performances, Spielberg brings a very detailed eye to his direction this time and there isn't a lot of the overly sweet sentimentality that tends to plague a lot of his films after ET from 1982 became such a massive hit for him though he does at times let the film run a little too long.
The real stars here however are the Coens and what makes their script so interesting (it feels like a good novel put on screen) is that it combines the two strands of the career to date: The serious side with films like Blood Simple and the silly side which was shown with Raising Arizona and some scenes in this film are vintage Coens in terms of how they read and how they're performed.
As for the performances, Hanks is his usual likeable self and he anchors the film very well, Rylance is also good here as the suspected spy but those are the two main performances in the film and look the rest of it is fine (the scenes in Berlin are beautifully photographed by Januz Kaminski) but when I walked out of the cinema after the film ended it didn't really stick with me all that much.
And so that was Bridge of Spies, it has a good script and good performances but is on the whole a fairly middle of the road thriller, worth a matinee ticket if you get the chance, 3 out of 5.
Bridge of Spies is a serviceable thriller that is held together I think by its script and performances, Spielberg brings a very detailed eye to his direction this time and there isn't a lot of the overly sweet sentimentality that tends to plague a lot of his films after ET from 1982 became such a massive hit for him though he does at times let the film run a little too long.
The real stars here however are the Coens and what makes their script so interesting (it feels like a good novel put on screen) is that it combines the two strands of the career to date: The serious side with films like Blood Simple and the silly side which was shown with Raising Arizona and some scenes in this film are vintage Coens in terms of how they read and how they're performed.
As for the performances, Hanks is his usual likeable self and he anchors the film very well, Rylance is also good here as the suspected spy but those are the two main performances in the film and look the rest of it is fine (the scenes in Berlin are beautifully photographed by Januz Kaminski) but when I walked out of the cinema after the film ended it didn't really stick with me all that much.
And so that was Bridge of Spies, it has a good script and good performances but is on the whole a fairly middle of the road thriller, worth a matinee ticket if you get the chance, 3 out of 5.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Film Review - Dark Places (2015)
Dark Places is based off of the novel by Gillian Flynn (she also wrote Gone Girl) and Charlize Theron stars as Libby Day who saw her mother (Christina Hendricks) and her 2 sisters murdered one night in 1985, one day a man named Lyle (Nicholas Hoult) offers her a chance to redo the case right with a new investigation but some Dark Places of the past are never easy to explore when you live through them as a child.
Now I was very much looking forward to this film primarily because I really loved Gone Girl from last year which Flynn herself scripted and David Fincher directed plus it has a terrific cast with Theron, Hoult, Hendrinks, Chloe Moretz from Kick Ass and Tye Sheridan the new Scott Summers/Cyclops among others but with Gilles Paquet-Brenner on Script and Director duties this time could this film deliver the goods?
Sadly it did not and I have to say with a fairly heavy heart that this movie is a major disappointment possibly the biggest I've had all year which would see it beat out Avengers: Age of Ultron but why do I feel this way well there are 3 reasons why:
- The first is the script itself and frankly it's a mess, scenes don't play out in a way that feels like it's part of a 3 act narrative nor do they contain any sense of cohesion within the story that Brenner is trying to adapt into a film now I haven't read Flynn's book and maybe that was how it played out in the book but here as a written screenplay like I said it's a mess.
And really when you think back to Gone Girl it didn't have that problem it had some similarities to be sure but there Flynn and Fincher crafted a coherent narrative that you care about and the scenes flow logically into the next one but I guess you're bound to expect that when you have a master filmmaker and the original author on board instead of someone else doing those 2 jobs.
- The second reason is the characters themselves and all of them are boring to watch and you don't care about what's happening to them in the film, Libby just feels like another lost soul haunted by childhood trauma and unable to move on, Lyle feels like a weird man even if he has good intentions in his heart and soul and the Day family are the stereotypical low income family that just feels miserable all the time.
And again going back to Gone Girl (and here is where the comparisons between the 2 films will stop) the Dunne's Nick and Amy were compelling characters that had a drive, a purpose and a motivation to do what they do in that film whereas here that doesn't happen.
- And lastly the cast is pretty much wasted in their roles, I love Theron but here she just looks miserable on screen and was probably wishing she was playing Furiosa again, Sheridan and Hoult try their level best to make their limited characters work but this isn't their fault so I'll give them a pass, Moretz just mopes the entire time she's on screen and has that look on her face as if all she wants to do is cry and in the meantime Hendricks one of the most beautiful women in the world today is totally unbelievable as a down and out farm mother.
And so that was Dark Places, probably the biggest disappointment I've had all year at the movies, I wish I could recommend it I really do but instead just rewatch Gone Girl as that is a far better use of your time and your money, 1.5 out of 5.
Now I was very much looking forward to this film primarily because I really loved Gone Girl from last year which Flynn herself scripted and David Fincher directed plus it has a terrific cast with Theron, Hoult, Hendrinks, Chloe Moretz from Kick Ass and Tye Sheridan the new Scott Summers/Cyclops among others but with Gilles Paquet-Brenner on Script and Director duties this time could this film deliver the goods?
Sadly it did not and I have to say with a fairly heavy heart that this movie is a major disappointment possibly the biggest I've had all year which would see it beat out Avengers: Age of Ultron but why do I feel this way well there are 3 reasons why:
- The first is the script itself and frankly it's a mess, scenes don't play out in a way that feels like it's part of a 3 act narrative nor do they contain any sense of cohesion within the story that Brenner is trying to adapt into a film now I haven't read Flynn's book and maybe that was how it played out in the book but here as a written screenplay like I said it's a mess.
And really when you think back to Gone Girl it didn't have that problem it had some similarities to be sure but there Flynn and Fincher crafted a coherent narrative that you care about and the scenes flow logically into the next one but I guess you're bound to expect that when you have a master filmmaker and the original author on board instead of someone else doing those 2 jobs.
- The second reason is the characters themselves and all of them are boring to watch and you don't care about what's happening to them in the film, Libby just feels like another lost soul haunted by childhood trauma and unable to move on, Lyle feels like a weird man even if he has good intentions in his heart and soul and the Day family are the stereotypical low income family that just feels miserable all the time.
And again going back to Gone Girl (and here is where the comparisons between the 2 films will stop) the Dunne's Nick and Amy were compelling characters that had a drive, a purpose and a motivation to do what they do in that film whereas here that doesn't happen.
- And lastly the cast is pretty much wasted in their roles, I love Theron but here she just looks miserable on screen and was probably wishing she was playing Furiosa again, Sheridan and Hoult try their level best to make their limited characters work but this isn't their fault so I'll give them a pass, Moretz just mopes the entire time she's on screen and has that look on her face as if all she wants to do is cry and in the meantime Hendricks one of the most beautiful women in the world today is totally unbelievable as a down and out farm mother.
And so that was Dark Places, probably the biggest disappointment I've had all year at the movies, I wish I could recommend it I really do but instead just rewatch Gone Girl as that is a far better use of your time and your money, 1.5 out of 5.
Friday, October 16, 2015
Film Review - The Walk (2015)
The Walk is directed by Robert Zemeckis (Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forrest Gump among others) and is based off of the true story of French High Wire Walker Philippe Petit and his daring wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Centre in August 1974 (ironically the same time that Richard Nixon resigned as US President.)
Its sad that a film about a remarkable story by a remarkable man as well as being in the world he was living in and dreamt up a dream from an ordinary man this is a very disappointing movie to sit through.
And the big reason for this is due to the script which undercuts a lot of its tension with a near pointless narration by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who plays Philippe in the film and he does it so much that part of you starts to get bored with the film the more it rolls on towards its inevitable climax.
Speaking of that climax, the Walk itself between the Twin Towers is very well done but when it was over I have to say that it didn't stick in my mind it was just like "Well that was that, what's next" and given the importance of this to the film I left the cinema feeling very disappointed overall.
And finally as for the performances well the moment I heard JGL's French accent I just started laughing because it was every inch as cringe inducing as it was in the previews for the film, Charlotte Le Bon is fine here is the typical pixie mannered partner while Ben Kingsley is thankfully not as laughably bad as he was in Exodus Gods and Kings and is only in the film for a short time but he does okay with what he has here.
And so that was the Walk, a disappointing film about a remarkable event, best to rent the 2008 Oscar Winning doco Man on Wire instead and listen to the Dragon song Dreams of Ordinary Men which I did think of when I left the cinema along with my disappointment overall, 2 out of 5.
Its sad that a film about a remarkable story by a remarkable man as well as being in the world he was living in and dreamt up a dream from an ordinary man this is a very disappointing movie to sit through.
And the big reason for this is due to the script which undercuts a lot of its tension with a near pointless narration by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who plays Philippe in the film and he does it so much that part of you starts to get bored with the film the more it rolls on towards its inevitable climax.
Speaking of that climax, the Walk itself between the Twin Towers is very well done but when it was over I have to say that it didn't stick in my mind it was just like "Well that was that, what's next" and given the importance of this to the film I left the cinema feeling very disappointed overall.
And finally as for the performances well the moment I heard JGL's French accent I just started laughing because it was every inch as cringe inducing as it was in the previews for the film, Charlotte Le Bon is fine here is the typical pixie mannered partner while Ben Kingsley is thankfully not as laughably bad as he was in Exodus Gods and Kings and is only in the film for a short time but he does okay with what he has here.
And so that was the Walk, a disappointing film about a remarkable event, best to rent the 2008 Oscar Winning doco Man on Wire instead and listen to the Dragon song Dreams of Ordinary Men which I did think of when I left the cinema along with my disappointment overall, 2 out of 5.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Blade Runner and the Martian: 2 Sides of the Same Future
Yesterday (well October the 10th 2015 to be technical) I finally got to see Ridley Scott's the Martian and it definitely did not disappoint as not only is it one of my very favorite films of the year but also I feel deserves to be on the same shelf as Ridley's dystopian Sci-Fi classic from 1982 Blade Runner with Harrison Ford.
But thinking about both of these films and why I feel that way has also made me think of this point: That these are 2 sides of the very same future we face here on Earth.
I know I know this sounds like a very silly comparison to make given how different the two films are in many ways but given that Sir Ridley directed both films they do have a similarity to them which I allude to above in terms of the 2 sides of the futuristic coin.
And this is why I would love to see them in a double bill one day (and its definitely one I intend to do when the Blu-Ray of the Martian comes out in 2016) as they represent Darkness and Light, Fantasy and Fact and Fear and Hope.
Please allow me to expand on each of those points:
- In Blade Runner we see a dark dystopian vision of the future, a vision that was quite common in the 1980s Sci-Fi film (see also Escape From New York, Mad Max 1 and 2 and the film version of 1984 amongst others) as we as a populace of humans once again sat on the brink of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union (this was also when Ronald Reagan was President.)
And Blade Runner played on this somewhat with its endless rain and grungy streets that were overpopulated with millions of people whilst others (most likely the well off in society) had a new life on the Off World Colonies free of the rain and filth of Earth, looking at the film now you could say this is the result of our industrial prowess scarring our natural environment and the endless rain being a result of this.
The Martian meanwhile presents a very optimistic vision of the future which paints a stark contrast to Blade Runner, the best and brightest are here on Earth and all pulling their resources together to get one of their own Home again both on Earth and in Outer Space and there seems to be the sense that if we can do THIS then imagine what we could do in terms of our environment, our need to produce and manufacture things and our sense of adventure, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
- Onto the second point now and Blade Runner is also very fantastical in terms of it has flying cars and replicant people as tangible objects inside its world that are very common to its inhabitants (Captain Bryant refers to them as just "skinjobs" in an early scene of the film) and you even see some of the people that helped form these replicants in terms of Mr Shaw and JF Sebastian.
The Martian meanwhile is not based in Science Fiction in a traditional sense but Science Fact, the scientists in the film use their various skills be it engineering or botany or calculations to solve the problem and to feed back into the positive elements of the future it presents in the film there's no bad person or sinister motives or race to get there first with any of it, everyone goes through the data debates it and comes to a common ground from which to work.
- And lastly Blade Runner in terms of the visual look Ridley created for the film (and here is where I will delve more into the technical filmmaking aesthetics of both pictures) is very dark and cold and blue, a lot of cool colors you could say make up a lot of the palette of the film look wise and it really works rarely do you see a bright or bold color in that world and if you do it feels very muted in terms of its impact.
The Martian meanwhile has a lot of Red's and White's and Magenta's and mainly drier looking colors for its palette, there are some cooler color's there (blue's and purple's) but like the drier color's in Blade Runner they're used to match the overall aesthetic of the film.
Look I know this is probably a silly column to do but it was something that I couldn't get out of my head so I wanted to do this, I hope people enjoyed it but one can never tell with these things I'm afraid.
But thinking about both of these films and why I feel that way has also made me think of this point: That these are 2 sides of the very same future we face here on Earth.
I know I know this sounds like a very silly comparison to make given how different the two films are in many ways but given that Sir Ridley directed both films they do have a similarity to them which I allude to above in terms of the 2 sides of the futuristic coin.
And this is why I would love to see them in a double bill one day (and its definitely one I intend to do when the Blu-Ray of the Martian comes out in 2016) as they represent Darkness and Light, Fantasy and Fact and Fear and Hope.
Please allow me to expand on each of those points:
- In Blade Runner we see a dark dystopian vision of the future, a vision that was quite common in the 1980s Sci-Fi film (see also Escape From New York, Mad Max 1 and 2 and the film version of 1984 amongst others) as we as a populace of humans once again sat on the brink of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union (this was also when Ronald Reagan was President.)
And Blade Runner played on this somewhat with its endless rain and grungy streets that were overpopulated with millions of people whilst others (most likely the well off in society) had a new life on the Off World Colonies free of the rain and filth of Earth, looking at the film now you could say this is the result of our industrial prowess scarring our natural environment and the endless rain being a result of this.
The Martian meanwhile presents a very optimistic vision of the future which paints a stark contrast to Blade Runner, the best and brightest are here on Earth and all pulling their resources together to get one of their own Home again both on Earth and in Outer Space and there seems to be the sense that if we can do THIS then imagine what we could do in terms of our environment, our need to produce and manufacture things and our sense of adventure, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
- Onto the second point now and Blade Runner is also very fantastical in terms of it has flying cars and replicant people as tangible objects inside its world that are very common to its inhabitants (Captain Bryant refers to them as just "skinjobs" in an early scene of the film) and you even see some of the people that helped form these replicants in terms of Mr Shaw and JF Sebastian.
The Martian meanwhile is not based in Science Fiction in a traditional sense but Science Fact, the scientists in the film use their various skills be it engineering or botany or calculations to solve the problem and to feed back into the positive elements of the future it presents in the film there's no bad person or sinister motives or race to get there first with any of it, everyone goes through the data debates it and comes to a common ground from which to work.
- And lastly Blade Runner in terms of the visual look Ridley created for the film (and here is where I will delve more into the technical filmmaking aesthetics of both pictures) is very dark and cold and blue, a lot of cool colors you could say make up a lot of the palette of the film look wise and it really works rarely do you see a bright or bold color in that world and if you do it feels very muted in terms of its impact.
The Martian meanwhile has a lot of Red's and White's and Magenta's and mainly drier looking colors for its palette, there are some cooler color's there (blue's and purple's) but like the drier color's in Blade Runner they're used to match the overall aesthetic of the film.
Look I know this is probably a silly column to do but it was something that I couldn't get out of my head so I wanted to do this, I hope people enjoyed it but one can never tell with these things I'm afraid.
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