Friday 26 November 2010

Unstoppable Review

The case for and against Unstoppable. Let’s hear the prosecution make the case against.

Zero character/character development.

Direlogue.

The usual clichés (Everyman saves the day, the suits in charge care only about the money etc etc etc)

Zero story.

Logic be damned. (“Inspired by true events” apparently and I would imagine the key word there is “inspired.”)

And the defence.

A one million tonne runaway train. Let me repeat that. A one million tonne runaway train.

Large popcorn and coke. (I’d love to tell you I was hungry or I needed it, I’d even love to tell you it was comfort food. It was none of the above. This film required, nae DEMANDED a large popcorn and a large coke.)

Denzel Washington running across the top of the train manually slamming on the brakes carriage by carriage. Let me repeat that. Denzel Washington running across the top of the train manually slamming on the brakes carriage by carriage.

The “Stanton Curve.” (“It’s going too fast!!! It’s gonna fly off the tracks!!!”)

90 minute running time.

The defence rests.

And indeed, the defence wins. Every fibre in my being is screaming at me that this film is rubbish but damn it if I wasn’t on the edge of my seat falling for it hook, line and sinker. It’s 2012 all over again except that this one wraps itself up in 90 minutes. This is Tony Scott’s most fun film in years, which in reality isn’t saying much, but it’s loud, silly, exciting, doesn’t outstay its welcome and ends up being a lot of fun. One particular shot contains two trains, two helicopters, a fleet of cars and a guy hanging in mid air! It's vehicular porn of the most gratuitous kind and you'll never watch the film again but it really is a blast. What's also nice is that the train has weight and feels "real" with CGI apparently used sparingly and to enhance rather than create from scratch. Denzel and Chris Pine rise above their backstories and trite characters and the final moment of the film is brilliantly bad.

Maybe I was just in the mood or looking forward to the weekend… Or maybe sometimes all you need is a runaway train.

7/10

Thursday 25 November 2010

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 Review

Deathly dull.

It’s 2 ½ hours of exposition and wandering around forests. Voldemort as played by Ralph Feinnes continues to impress, the sets are amazing, the cast a who’s who of British talent but it’s scene after interminable scene of expository “And it was Clarence Wigglebump who gave the Menageriegoop to Felicity Witherbottom” type dialogue. In forests. For 2 ½ hours.

Breaking into the Ministry Of Magic and an animated story within the story near the end are probably the high points of the film, Harry’s dance with Hermione the low point. Clearly there is respect for the world and characters JK Rowling has created but this is in part the problem for me; slavishly adapting the books results in incredibly sluggish films, and, for all the talk of doom and gloom and sense of foreboding in the tone of the film, there is remarkably little urgency to the proceedings. I really didn’t feel any threat whatsoever and the sub-Lord Of The Rings style attempt to make the horcrux physically impact upon Harry, Hermione and Ron is very unconvincing and leads to a laughably bad moment where, for no reason I could discern other than it was a moment of contrived, cheap drama, Ron fights with Harry and disappears for a while. Only to re-appear a little while later and then just carry on.

I so wish I cared about Harry Potter. It’s clearly the most significant moment in pop culture in a very long time. If you think about it, it’s difficult to remember life without Hogwarts and Dumbledore and Voldemort and the other weird and wonderful creations in Rowling’s universe. But these films are 2 hours of nothing with a flurry of activity at the end and Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the most dull of all.

Still, the knitwear is good though.

3.5/10

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Let Me In Review

It’s such a strange thing. Let Me In arrives as the American remake of Let The Right One In, barely two years after the original film was released. Director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) clearly has great respect for the original version but that respect results in him following the original almost to the letter and so his remake struggles to assert its own identity or justify its own existence in any meaningful way. So far so predictable. But Let Me In turns out to be a very good film, way better than expected, and what’s interesting is that, those moments where Reeves dares to be different, to add his own touches or moments, the film really flies. This makes you wonder what might the film have been if he had had the courage to go his own way even further.

If you’ve seen Let The Right One In then story wise you’re in for no surprises. Owen (The Road’s Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a lonely outsider, bullied at school, harbouring revenge fantasies against his bullies, and living with his recently separated (and, in this version, highly religious) Mother. Into his apartment block moves Abby (Hit Girl herself, Chloe Grace Moretz) and her apparent Father (the always excellent Richard Jenkins). Chloe is, of course, a vampire and Jenkins is her helper, going out at night to kill for blood to keep her alive. The story progresses, sometimes scene for scene, as the original film and we watch Owen experience his first love, the relationship between he and Abby being the focus of the film and that which drives it towards its fantastic last act.

One of the best things in the original film was the performances and Moretz and Smit-McPhee are both excellent in the remake. There is a palpable sadness in both children, both for very different reasons of course, and this lingers over the whole film. Reeves makes the choice to remove some elements and, for the most part, they are not missed. The now infamous “cat scene” is mercifully gone. What might just be the most famous shot from the first film is also missing. You’ll know it when you don’t see it. Owen’s Mother always appears out of focus or out of frame and it’s a visually interesting touch that underscores the nature of that relationship. The most successful changes are small moments that deserve to be seen without being spoiled beforehand, though I will say that a failed attempt by Richard Jenkins to capture a victim for Abby to feed on results in a sequence arguably more tense than anything in the original. Not all the changes work, CGI Abby being the worst offender, and its similarity to the original means the whole “what’s the point” question looms large over its entire running time. Most of the last act is completely intact, including the most famous scene, and the impact is diminished by virtue of it being so similar.

Ultimately Let Me In is a good film, atmospheric, deliberately paced, well acted and well written and directed and, as such, deserves to be seen. Would it have been like that without the first film? Even though both are based on a book, you still get the feeling that the original film was the bigger influence on Reeves’ remake and so therefore the answer is no. At the end of the day you should see Let The Right One In. But if you simply don’t do subtitles, then Let Me In is a more than adequate substitute.

7/10

Friday 5 November 2010

Frightfest Halloween Special

Last Saturday I went to the Frightfest Halloween all night horror movie marathon at the Empire Leicester Square. It started at 6.00pm Saturday evening and the last film of the night was scheduled to start at 6.00am Sunday morning. We were in it for the long haul! As it happened technical difficulties prevented two of the films from being shown and they moved the last film of the night up to fifth place. Which was absolutely fine by my flatmate and I because by this time we were flagging and the last film, the Finnish film Rare Exports, was the main reason for wanting to go. In the end we skipped an earlier film to get some food so we ended up seeing four films, all of which are apparently going to be released in the New Year, so here’s a quick rundown of the night.

CONFESSIONS.

First up was a Japanese film called Confessions. A teacher, whose daughter died, comes into her class and announces that the verdict of accidental death was incorrect and that her daughter’s death was in fact murder. Not only that but the killers are two of her pupils. This was all I knew going in to the film and I thought that was a cracking premise. What ends up happening is that the film becomes a series of confessions, first the teacher, then one of the boys, then a friend etc etc. It’s a tough film to describe as it sounds like a variation of the Rashoman type, “multiple perspectives on the truth” type of film which isn’t really the case. Each of the person’s stories reveals a little more of the main plot and one or two concern themselves with subplots. In the end the film is less a horror film and more of a revenge thriller as the teacher exacts punishment on those responsible for her daughter’s death.

Confessions wasn’t terrible, it was very well made, stylishly shot and edited, but it didn’t really amount to very much for me. There are good moments, funny moments too, and, as with much of Japanese cinema, you never really trust the tone to remain consistent. The actual revenge as it plays out is quite convoluted and at well over two hours, my patience ended up being stretched. It was an okay start to the night as I was up for whatever was to come and it certainly got us in the mood for the remaining screenings As a film in itself it’s just about worth a look but I certainly won’t return to it.

ALTITUDE

Fucking hell…

The guys running the night introduced it by saying there would be a mixture of light and dark. Altitude was meant to represent the light and I assume its inclusion in the programme was tongue in cheek. The problem was that, while there were a few “so bad it’s genius” moments, they were too few to push the film as a whole into that territory. Also, dreadful acting aside, those moments mainly occurred in the last half hour making the first fifty minutes (the film was mercifully short) pretty much interminable.

A group of teeth-wrenchingly grating American kids (the jock, the sensitive one blah blah blah) charter a plane to fly to a rock concert. The pilot doesn’t look old enough to drive a car never mind fly a plane, but assuming she is of legal age to command a plane, I wouldn’t trust her to choose my McDonalds let alone fly me anywhere. Anyway our vacuous heroes take off and hit rough weather. Weather that is so rough in fact that, in one truly hilarious sequence, it necessitates one of the group being tied to a rope and hung outside the plane so as to manually fix the wing, or some shit. Seeing a young man hung from the back of a moving plane at 15,000 feet is pretty amazing. Anyway it’s during this sequence that they catch their first glimpse of the monster in the sky. That’s right folks, the monster in the sky. Shall I just tell you where this is all going? Yeah what the hell, skip if you’re afraid of spoilers. But really don’t be afraid of spoilers.

One of the group is a comic book nerd. He has a comic with him that is all about… are you ready… A MONSTER IN THE SKY!!!!!! HOLY SHIT!!!!!! What is happening is that his fears manifest in the real world and he uses comics for inspiration as to what form they should take. It’s creature from the Id stuff but really terrible. He is in love with the pilot but she doesn’t love him and he’s afraid of… well, that I think. The climax comes when everyone else is dead and it’s just the two of them in the plane and they figure all this out. The clouds are jet black, they haven’t seen the ground in hours, there’s a MONSTER IN THE SKY!!! And then she leans over and kisses him! And the clouds vanish and the monster disappears because he’s not afraid anymore!!! Genius. But then, he realises that… SHE DIDN’T MEAN THE KISS!!!!! And the sky blackens and the clouds return and, oh my God, there’s the MONSTER IN THE SKY!!!! This time the monster reaches out one of its tentacles and pulls the pilot out of the plane!! But she manages to grab the window and hang on for dear life. Now, clinging to the front of a plane, with A 500 foot tentacle wrapped around her, she proceeds to deliver a speech about how he can’t be afraid anymore and how he must face his fears if he is to have a life!!! It’s absolutely inspired in all kinds of ways and almost, almost, makes the film worth watching. But not quite. There’s also some rubbish about a childhood incident that comes back on itself…YAAAAAWN.

Altitude is rubbish. Even with a MONSTER IN THE SKY!!!

THE SILENT HOUSE

This was one of the films I was really looking forward to seeing. It went down really well at Cannes, a fortune was spent on acquiring it and it’s set to receive a large distribution next year. It’s a haunted house movie from Uruguay but its main selling point is that it was shot in one continuous take on a digital camera. At 79 minutes long, this is an incredible feat and it adds massive amounts of tension as it becomes a real time film and you feel completely trapped with the protagonist in this creepy as hell abandoned house.

I SO want to give the film a glowing review. This is everything I love in horror films, things happening off camera, sounds from elsewhere in the house, psychological scares, little girl ghosts… it’s all there! When the film is good it’s absolutely brilliant, incredibly effective, tense, creepy and downright scary. But it frustratingly drops the ball in a way I won’t reveal so as not to influence expectations. It’s such a shame because this could have been one of the great horror films and at points it is. But as much if not more than the horror, I remember the disappointments. Interestingly, the crowd didn’t really seem into it. And I overheard many people walk out saying they had seen it all before and it was nothing new. With a film like this though, it’s less about originality necessarily and more about the execution and the one take approach, far from being a gimmick, adds a level of horror that is really palpable. From a technical perspective it is also incredibly impressive but that never overshadows the atmosphere and tone. Also, there are many genuinely creepy and unnerving moments outside of the one take approach hat linger in the memory. It’s a massive, massive shame that it just can’t sustain the level it often reaches for its whole running time.

RARE EXPORTS

What a weird little film! This was one that really could have gone either way judging from the trailer. But I’m really happy to report that it’s a lot of fun. An entrepreneur uses an excavation crew to blast a hole in a Finnish mountain in search of Santa Claus. Yep, Santa. But this isn’t our benevolent, Coca Cola Santa. This is weird, creepy Santa who kidnaps children and puts them in a giant sack for God knows what kinds of nefarious purposes.

I’m actually not going to say too much about Rare Exports because it really is well worth seeing as fresh as possible. The script takes the concept and pushes it to create many great little moments. The setting is fantastic, the acting excellent and perhaps most importantly, the tone of the film is absolutely spot on. It could have completely trivialised its concept but instead manages to be fun, funny, warm and take the idea seriously enough so that we laugh with it rather than at it and are genuinely affected by its unnerving, creepy moments. It’s never downright scary as such, creepy and unnerving are the best words to use. Though those moments of that old man glaring at our little protagonist really do unsettle. This is a genuine original and, like the other films screened, will apparently receive a general release so do go see it.

And that was Frightfest! A lot of fun and a couple of good films thrown in for good measure.

MONSTER IN THE SKY!!!!!!