I have watched a few films since my last post, and for some reason haven't got around to blogging. I always blog and write 'has blogged' on Facebook at 1am when no-one's online to read and end up posting it again in the morning making me look arrogant, when, in fact, I just enjoy people reading ma shit.
Ghost Town (2008).
Interestingly, Ghost Town was the first film that Ricky Gervais decided to take a starring role in since his meteoric rise to fame. He's cameo'd in a few films, such as Stardust and For Your Consideration, but never taken the lead role because he'd never found a part worthy enough. The role of Bertram Pincus appealed to him, somehow, probably because it was just HIM.
I get annoyed at Ricky Gervais being called a King Of Comedy because he is not adaptable, but then I think to myself...which other famous television comedians have gone far by adapting the role that they rose to fame being? And I think of none. The very few that spring to mind have always stayed in 'comfortable' roles based on their original act. Lee Evans stayed the same. As did John Cleese. And how often do Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell act as anything other than manchildren?
Ghost Town is about Pincus, a dentist, who undergoes a routine operation but momentarily dies, giving him the ability to see ghosts. Greg Kinnear pesters Pincus into helping him separate his widow (he's a ghost, you see) from marrying a new man, with an agreement that he will stop all other ghosts from annoying Pincus. Pincus ends up falling for the widow and it carries on from their. I must say, this film is good. Thoroughly enjoyable. It has a good handful of incredibly laughable moments that easily make the film worth watching. It has physical comedy, and the comic timing of Gervais mixed with drama. I wouldn't really call this film a comedy. Despite not being Marxist, about the working classes, or realistic as it has ghosts, this film contains some of the most socially realistic scenes I've ever scene. Gervais' knack of being himself has paid of incredibly well in this movie, in the way that the conversations he has on screen seem so real and improvised (which I feel may have happened, Gervais is a genius, apparently) that you feel strongly for the characters and their ups and downs.
It may not be the best film I've watched recently, but it's certainly funny and emotional and a brilliant christmas present for a mother or older sister for you people who haven't bought presents yet. I'm not saying it's girly, but two of my closest female companions both admitted to shedding tears behind their boyfriend's (one of them being me) backs
Passengers. (2008)
You won't have heard of this, and neither did I. Thanks to Anne Hathaway's Oscar buzz from "Rachel Getting Married", this film was kept on the hush hush and not promoted. Mainly due to it being shit.
Passengers is a 2008 'thriller' about a therapist helping survivors of a plane crash come to terms with the trauma. After mysterious circumstances cause some of the survivors to disappear, Hathway gets into a web of deceit that only takes her further into the cover up surrounding the crash.
No matter how much I play it up, this film is shit. The plot is sub-par, the acting is particulary terrible (leaving me with dashed hopes for Patrick Wilson as Daniel Dreiberg. He's good in Lakeview Terrace, but crap in this). I feel incredibly sorry for the people who put their hard work into this film only for it to be shunned by Sony because of Hathaway's potential Oscar nod. But then again, I don't because they made a shit film. And did I mention this film was shit?
The thriller elements of the movie are APPALLING. They let the 'twist' go far far FAR too early in a most obvious way, so even Helen Keller could guess the end. The tense scenes are about as tense as watching a grape about to roll off the edge of a table, and so flat it's unbelievable.
I'm not going to say anything more about this film because it's not going to get a major release, you aren't going to see it, and you shouldn't because IT'S SHIT.
Mirrormask (2005)
Visual spectacle, pointless story.
Mirrormask is a 2005 film directed by artist Dave McKean, written by himself and Neil Gaiman (Stardust, Princess Mononoke [he wrote the English translation]).
It's the third of the staple 'Alice in Wonderland' films I've watched recently (which I should call Wizard of Oz's but that'd be bigging them up because that film's AWESOME and the others are just good). It's about a girl, Helena, who's parents (Rob Brydon and Gina 'Mary Cox from Our Friends in the North' McKee) run a circus in Brighton. She desires running away and wishes her mother dead, and subsequently dreams a crazy dream after he mother becomes ill.
Her dream reflects the future of her real life, but all the while her real life continues on the other side of mirrors in her dream. An evil princess from, I'll call it, the mirror world has stolen her life using a mirrormask and sucked Helena into the mirror world. The mirror world is made up of Helena's doodles (mostly McKeans art) and she starts to recognise her own work and fathoms a way out of the world, and back into her own.
Visually, this film is AWESOME. It's a combination of collage art, mostly creating creatures, with sculpture, animation and sketch. If you're a McKean fan, seeing his art come to life must have been fantastic. The film was produced by the Jim Henson Co., who produced Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal in the 80's, and they were hoping to create another 'sleeper' such as them. Neither of those films did particularly well in cinemas, but video sales made them cult classics for years to come. With Mirrormask, the releases were limited to festivals and independent cinemas, hoping to create a 'word of mouth' effect making more people purchase the movie. As far as I'm aware, it failed, but Gaiman went on to gain success with Stardust, of which he wrote the novel, and McKean had already created conceptual art for The Prisoner of Azkaban, and his comics and art are well collected.
Mirrormask is a strange one, I'd say it was for fans of The Fall etc, but it's a different kettle of fish. It's an incredibly childing movie, and would be fantastic for young children's imaginations, but fans of art and cinematic art would also enjoy this film for the spectacle that it is. There's not much story to hold on to, and you really need to appreciate the visuals in order to desire to stay with this movie. I can imagine the story alone would bore someone as it's not deep, but the original plan of creating a movie in the same vein of Labyrinth did work, creating a world for both children and adults to enjoy, albeit in different manners.
It's good, and definately one to own if you have seen and enjoyed it.
All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is a 2006 slasher movie, directed by Jonathan Levine. It tells the story of Mandy Lane, a girl who 'got hot over the summer' being invited out to a ranch with the jock kids in order for them to try and have sex with her.
Sex? Teenagers? Sounds like a slasher movie to me. But, a surprising lack of sex and breasts are in this movie, especially considering the premise. I'm not saying there are no breasts, but it's not the breastfest that is, say, Rob Zombie's Halloween. This film is remarkably more mature than your average slasher, some lulls in dialogue but that was mainly due to the script being mostly improvised by unknown teenage actors, Van Sant style.
No punches are pulled in this movie, except for the ones that kill people. This film was made with a budget of $750,000, and is a fantasticly shot film for less than $1 million. A few cutaway shots when gore is expected are forgivable due to the independent nature of the movie. I'd rather imagine the gore than have some tomato ketchup smeared on a latex face. Most of the film is shot with a 70's orange glow, the youthful exuberance splattered against the corn fields hosts a good pallette of colour for to kill against.
This is a good film, peculiar in parts, but it's plot really refreshes the genre. If more people would make the effort to craft a film with less killing and more thought, rather than just straight up slashers (Prom Night, Halloween, etc) then I would be in my element.
Lakeview Terrace is a current cinema movie flick about racism. 'Reverse racism' actually. But you know what idiots think, 'the white people have it coming'
Lakeview Terrace has sparked a lot of controversy. It stars Samuel L Jackson as Abel Turner, an unruly LAPD cop, struggling to raise his two children single-handedly after his wife dies in a car crash. The crash, I might add, was caused by a white man. Therefore he hates white people. When a mixed race couple move in next door, he decides to channel his aggression and hatred away from his work and into his homelife.
The controversy caused is mostly among the white community. They are shocked to see racism 'the other way round'. The white guilt seems to cut so deep that when something so obvious and well-thought out comes along they are taken aback when they are the victims.
The film holds such a good concept, I'm not saying racism is a good concept, but the story could be deep and important, but LaBute's delivery in direction is rather appalling. SLJ is fantastic in this movie, he portrays an out and out villain excellently. There are moments when he attempts to twist and turn your allegiance, played very well, but it feels like LaBute spent too much time convincing SLJ to 'act racist', ignoring the rest of the cast. Patrick 'Nite Owl' Wilson seems to be generally un-offended by Turner's agressive bigotry, and only really seems to get angry when sexism or generally being a bad neighbour comes into play. Again, it could be deliberate on LaBute's part in order to exemplify the unimportance of racism, but it seems that it more exemplifies that it lacks impact, when, in fact, the world is still riddled with racism. I'm aware that at the time of writing, Barack Obama is still president, yes we can etc etc, but I have experienced racism in many parts of my life, mainly when around people from Yorkshire or Lancashire when they are actually full-on racist, and it doesn't feel like it's going away.
I, despite knocking the community that are appalled by this film, still struggle whilst thinking of things to write to avoid bringing up the fact that this film portays racism aimed towards white people. I can admit it isn't something I have seen very often, not outside of comedy and even then, it's not the black Jim Davidson talking, it's intelligent comedians who understand that their fans will not see it as racism. In most cases it isn't, it's observational comedy that just happens to be about the white community, again, not the black Jim Davidson.
Anyway, back to the film. It's opening enthralled me, I was itching to watch the last hour, but it falls at the fence it should break down. Rather than becoming either a superb thriller or drama, it runs towards a hurried ending, by which point you're not sure if you care about the characters anymore. The most important elements of the films plot all occur in the last 15 minutes, and are pushed back by scenes that could be from 'America's Worst Neighbours! A Jerry Springer special' than an intelligent piece about racism.
I'd still say that this movie should be scene, if not just for it's inclusion of 'Shimmy Shimmy Ya', and for the few moments of genuine tension.
It seems no-one can make an original "action" movie anymore, not since Bourne. Good old Greengrass created a monster.
Anyway, Quantum of Solace is the 'sequel' to Casino Royale. I use inverted commas because I'm not happy about calling it that, it's the 23rd Bond film, but the 2nd in this story, and I don't like continuity in Bond movies.
Quantum straight up rips off Bourne. Casino Royale was an already established bond story, and wasn't terribly like Bourne, but had it's moments. This takes that film, shoves it in it's gob, chew it up, and spits it back out. There is a roof chase, almost identical to Bourne; a car chase, almost identical to Bourne and almost identical to Casino Royale. I respect Marc Forster, I love Stranger than Fiction and Monster's Ball, but it seems he went 'lets have the opening chase ending in a construction yard' completely forgetting that happened in CR. I'm starting to realise, unless one is an auteur, director's mean jack when it comes to a film. Directors of Photography and Art Directors have more effect on my personal viewing of a film than a director, unless the director works on arts himself, such as Burton, or Tarantino, or they have a certain way of staging film, such as the Coens, or Tarantino. A director controls the action, the way the actors play it, but I don't really care about that, and if it's good, it's not the director's doing, it's the actors.
Anyway, I'm getting off topic and ranting. This film has some amazing shots. The freefall scene with Bond and Montes is tremendous, as is the fall-off-the-balcony-through-some-glass-onto-some-scaffolding sequence in Sienna (one of my favourite cities in the world, I might add). But the film didn't do it for me. I lost attention because I was watching the same film as CR or the Bournes. It did nothing new with the Bond genre that wasn't established as new in CR, other than having the sexiest and best acting Bond girls I've seen in a very long time. Casting struck a good balance between looks and ability, as the previous few efforts have seemed to say 'What's acting? Do you look good wet?'. Eva Green can't act, sorry, but she does look good wet.
Again with the ranting. This is good if you loved CR. And it's a must see as it, in a way, does carry on the story, albeit more with Bond's struggle to obey than recurring characters. It's a good action film, but I've said it before and I'll say it again, Bourne is better at it.
p.s. MATT DAMON
I won't say much about this film other than I kinda enjoyed it, but instead I'd have rather:
Played Portal
Watched North By Northwest
Watched Enemy of the State
Played Metal Gear Solid/4 (Albeit badly, but still, it's the thought that counts, or lack thereof on the writes of Eagle Eye's parts)
Basically, this is nothing new, trying to disguise itself by nothing new. Most people who watched Eagle Eye won't have played Portal, or Metal Gear Solid, and unless they love the movie or Will Smith, they won't have seen Enemy of the State in 5/10 years like most people. This way, the writers of Eagle Eye, and art department, have got away with a rather good spot of plagiarism.
The film is about two 'activated citizens' controlled by an omniscient female who contacts them through electronic devices using a monotonous voice (Hmm, I wonder if SHE'S electronic?), and these contacts tell them what to do to the exact inch of manoeuvre (Think Morpheus controlling Neo in his office building at the start of the Matrix), and using blackmail to make them obey. They are then, due to her actions, classified 'enemies of the state' COUGH COUGH or "terrorists" as they call them now-a-days and are persued by every defense force in the USA.
Shia The Beef and Michelle Monaghan are the 'innocent' civilians and are bland and ignorable, with clichéd sentiments and backstories. Billy Bob Thornton and Rosario Dawson, on the other hand, play conflicting and abusive officers of the FBI and Air Force respectively, and become the only things worth watching.
This film is nothing new, and won't be the last of this story. It's done well, The Beef is moulding himself into the Jewish action hero that shouldn't be, and it's all Spielbergs fault. Bring back Even Stevens, I say (mainly for the sister). Rent it, at most.
Last night and tonight I watched two British movies. One was good, one was bad.
Donkey Punch is a 2008 thriller involving the accidental death of a young girl during an orgy on a yacht. Sound good? ISN'T! The film falls flat on it's face, much like the young girl does after dying when punched on the neck whilst 'doing it doggy style' (A donkey punch).
The film begins with three Leeds girls on holiday in Mallorca to get over Tammi, one of the girls, break-up. They meet a bunch of off-duty naval crew and decide to go party on a yacht. There begins the disaster. The film tries to evoke movies such as Dead Calm, and the typical American slasher, but it's more Dead Crap. After taking ecstasy and smoking crack (yes, kids, CRACK) they decide to have an orgy. Due to my limited experience of crack, as in NONE, I can imagine it is hard to maintain an erection whilst on a drug that drives you into euphoria but then a depression so harsh that the only thing that cures it is sweet, sweet crack. This little blip aside, the sex festival misdemeanour that causes the death suddenly becomes so incredibly bad that they have to come up with a plausible cause of death. I thought of one in a second. They are on a yacht, with three floors, and the corpse has a broken neck. Maybe, just maybe, she fell from one of the massive decks to another, possibly breaking her neck on the fall. Instead, they decide to dump the body and try to kill each other.
This film completely lacks tension, and when the characters die you are cheering as their placid little faces will no longer have to ruin my movie watching time. It doesn't help that the boys are Old Glory wearing Raa's that I feel should die in the first place.
Don't bother with it, unless you're 13 and need to wank over something that doesn't look like porn but has tits and shagging in it.
The other film I watched was The Bank Job. Now before I get e-shouted down, I know this is a film with Jason Statham in, and I know he isn't one for creating films beyond violence and drugs, but this film is really quite good.
It's the story of the Baker Street Bank Robbery, apparently a robbery so famous that I'd never heard of it. I've heard of the Great Train Robbery, but never this, and apparently this had a higher collateral. Anyway, the gist of the story is Michael X, a black liberationist in the UK, has incriminating photos of a royal princess engaged in sex acts with girls. He uses these photos as blackmail in order to get away with crimes in the UK, but MI5 devise a plan to recover them from the safety deposit box in a bank vault by channeling a robbery to inexperienced criminals. It all goes tits up, and too much is taken from the vault, and the criminals realise they've been had.
The casting of the film is excellent, with every character having the persona of a wheeler-dealer well out of their depth. The few experienced criminals don't feature enough for you to care about them. One way of putting this is...Jason Statham doesn't punch someone until the last scene. He acts! And is pretty good at it. The strange view of the 70's containing sexy females only also means that the female cast is stunning. None of them can act their way our of a paper bag, but they're sexy, and my misogynistic view of the fairer sex means I was happy with their sexy input.
Roger Donaldson, the director, has a weird mix of films under his belt, with Cuban Missile Crisis movies, and Dante's Peak. He even directed Species. So he's reasonably well versed in different cinematic styles, and has shot this rather well. It does look like a long episode of Life on Mars, but that is not a bad thing. Quiffs and sideburns all round. A few anachronistic mistakes are to be forgiven, also. The 'true story' itself has been spiced up, a character here and a plot twist there, but it's all for the best.
The Bank Job is a good film, easy to watch, and interesting. It's story is really deep, so much that I'm surprised a film took this long.
I, rather mumbly and under my breath, watched The House Bunny yesterday. Problem is, I laughed.
I absolutely adore Bad Santa. I first saw it at the cinema during it's release, and I found it hilarious. I watched it again last night and it was just as funny. I thought the retard jokes might not make me laugh anymore, then I remembered In Bruges.
Twilight.
