Garyswordz

Searing Republican Drama, 11 November 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

The Irish Troubles post 1970 has produced a number of fine films, Veronica Guerin, the Crying Game, The General ,and The Wind That Sweeps the Barley amongst them. Ireland seems to produce more than its fair share of talented dramatists and Steve McQueen, in this his debut feature, instantly establishes himself as a force to be reckoned with on the silver screen. Unashamedly a Republican film in sympathy and viewpoint, McQueen’s ability to tell a story produces a compelling, and visually stunning, piece of work. The work of Steven Bobbit, Director of Photography is integral to this success.

Critics may complain about the stereotypical portrayal of the Prison Guards and Margaret Thatcher. But this is not a history, and Michael Fassbender’s dramatisation of the last six weeks of the life of Bobby Sands does offer a valid perspective on arguably the darkest days of the Anglo-Irish conflict. Sands adult life was undoubtedly shaped by a childhood of discrimination and conflict. Prior to the hunger strike he had a formidable reputation as a hard-line terrorist / freedom fighter implicated in shootings and bombings. His sister was involved in a fire bombing that went wrong and subsequently married Michael McKevitt, the Provisional IRA Quartermaster who was implicated in the Omagh Bombing in which 29 townspeople died. What transformed an unremarkable ghetto youth into such brutality is not touched upon, which is a shame.

The story of his death has a lyrical feel to it and his ability to politicise this is a matter of fact. In dialogue with his Priest, the morality of a hunger strike, his suicide and his leadership of others is questioned.This 18 minute two hander is the films high water mark, dangling the possibility of compromise, with us nonetheless certain of the tragic finale. Fassbender captures wonderfully Sands messianic, charismatic qualities. The “Christ” like depiction of his demise is controversial, when others interpret his leadership as more akin to Charles Manson or David Koresh, as is the Pontius Pilate like hand washing by a brutalised Prison guard.

Sound, silence, and outbursts of brutality and violence intersperse events in a mesmerising kaleidoscope of colour, grey, emotion and nothingness. The dialogue itself is quite sparse, but when it does kick in it invariably “says something” the hallmark of theatrical rather than cinematic writing.

Whilst Republican in perspective, it does stop short of propaganda. The brutal execution of an off duty prison officer visiting his senile mother in an old peoples home is as callously portrayed as any of the Prison’s excesses. Although the physical abuse of the prisoners is difficult to watch, the inmates were not there for traffic violations, and the Prison Service itself was under enormous strain withstanding a vicious campaign of intimidation and murder.

A strangely beautiful, and certainly compelling picture of a dark period for Great Britain and Ireland. An object lesson in telling a story with pictures and images rather than words and action.

An Excellent Contemporary History, 7 November 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Director Oliver Stone is a very fine writer, producer and director with a formidable body of work behind him.Like many, I approached this film anticipating a cruel, forensic destruction of the subject, how wrong I was.Instead we get a light, sympathetic and largely objective snapshot of a President more ridiculed than most.

Wisely, Stone tells the story by vignette.On release, neither W’s Presidency, nor the Iraq war,were over.So we have the contemporary decision to invade Iraq playing against the story of his formative years.Brolin is superb as W, surpassed only by a truly sinister and hawkish Richard Dreyfuss as hawk Dick Cheney.The 126 minute running time both flies by, and scarcely scratches the surface of the full story, but succeeds nonetheless in its episodic form.

The sibling rivalry with his brother, and his ongoing efforts both to please his father and sustain the Bush dynasty are fairly represented. To outsiders, how W became President is a bit of a mystery . But here his Everyman qualities shine through in a pretty populist way.The film closes with an abject performance by him at a Press Conference, but do not be fooled.This is not about W the buffoon.It is about the chaos, craziness and tragedy of the Iraq war, achingly counterpointed by his visit to visit injured soldiers.His awkwardness, is our awkwardness.

Thandie Newton is a suitably sassy Condoleeza Rice (who will be delighted that she was played by someone 20 years her junior) and a fairly convincing body double.Ignore those dissatisfied by James Cromwells lack of physical similarity to Bush senior, this isn’t a fancy dress party. Cromwells reserved, dry, angular portrayal of a man from another era plays well.

The oval office cabinet meetings and W’s strolls in the outdoors with his team trying to keep up in his wake are the best scenes.The flaws are structural, the film”ends” when the story is incomplete, how W got re elected, or elected is ignored.Critics will say that Stone, as a peer of Bush has “gone native” in this portrayal of the man. I think Stone is saying something more subtle than that – “a country gets the man it deserves”. Before you mock the man look at yourselves first. In an era when film makers gorge on popcorn blockbusters and cops and robbers stories, Stone has made a film about “today”, and deserves credit for a fine effort.

Running on Empty, 1 November 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

As a huge fan of the genre, the series, and Daniel Craig,I approached this instalment hoping for the best – and was bitterly disappointed.Marc Forsters past directorial credentials did not identify him as an obvious Bond custodian,he does not rise to the challenge.

Nominally carrying on from “Casino Royale” the threadbare plot quickly runs out of steam. Its modest 106 minute running time still had me, and others, checking our wrist watches as the stripped down style failed to engage.The “threat” is a baddie who wants to monopolise water production in Bolivia, and then hike the prices! Have the script writers not heard of Severn Trent? The pre- credit car chase is pretty superfluous and fails to match even Liam Neeson in the “Taken” chase sequence at the Albanians camp.

The set pieces have a curious stand alone quality, the gritty sections lack continuity, conviction and purpose.As a consequence, viewers are left yearning for a bit of glamour, and gadgetry not as nostalgia, but to compensate.perversely the “Live And Let Die” style finale where the enemy HQ is blown up is totally unnecessary, and cold.

Craig is fine again as Bond,Olga Kurylenko is an adequate female lead.But there is no glamour and when M relieves him of his duties it smacks of a desperate attempt to try to spice up a flagging script. A misfire.

Strangely Unsatisfying, 29 October 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The raw ingredients are here, a very good story, Spielberg,a big budget and a decent cast. Somewhere along the line though the total fails to represent the sum of the parts.As a brainless blockbuster/ thriller it is competent enough. I think that the frustration is that it should have been more.

The trailer, whilst engaging, does not do justice to the plot.In summary an “innocent” man and woman, both strangers to each other, find themselves hijacked by an omniscient and omnipresent security system and are forced to do its will. Briefly it touches on some interesting points.A surveillance society is open to abuse.Remote control warfare is fallible, and how do a State’s people deal with an Executive that is out of control? These cerebral issues are however subsumed by a barrage of explosions, chases, and techno mumbo jumbo which end up getting in the way.

There are some decent set piece action sequences.Yet less money spent on them, and more devoted to the nuances of the plot would have paid dividends.The almost 2 hour running time spends far too much time cuing up the next lavish “set” and too little time creating dramatic tension. “You want tension? Here’s another explosion!” The leads are pretty anodyne.Shia Laboeuf, as Jerry Shaw,plays the part with the looks, and commitment, of a male model not wanting to get his hair dirty.Whilst Michelle Monaghan,as Rachel Hollman,starts off looking stunned that she is caught up in this caper, then continues looking the same throughout.In the supporting roles however there are some Stirling performances which save the picture from disaster.

In summary, there is no excuse for this film not being better than it turned out.

Intelligent,Whimsical Comedy, 19 October 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

Firstly, I should make it clear that this review is 21 years after release. Consequently, it is possible to look at this in the context of a considerable body of work. Such a perspective serves this film well. The Coen brothers are good at narrative script,character and situation. All three are worked to the full here.

Sometimes you question quite how clever the Coen’s are, when you do, you realise the answer is “very”. What they do is put caricatures in absurd situations, then draw out everyday truth and humour from the story.The sets are frequently deliberately “staged”, the parents of a soon to be kidnapped child are sat on what appears to be a theatre stage, rather than a front room.The kidnappers trailer opens out into a vast condo set inside – and you don’t care.

The story itself is simple, a habitual convict marries a cop, she discovers she cannot conceive, so they kidnap one of a set of Quintuplets on the basis that the parents have more than they can handle.Some escaped cons who resolve that they have “taken all that prison has to offer” in turn kidnap the child for the reward money pursued by a Bounty hunter.

Visually the film veers from the surreal, the Bounty hunter is straight out of “Mad Max”, to the engaging,when Nicholas Cage, playing the recidivist convict kidnaps one of the Quins from their cot.Intriguingly this later scene is shot with a light humorous touch, echoing “Three Men and a Baby”.

The script resolutely refuses to follow any moral logic or sense of consequence, what it does instead is to relish and explore how the characters behave in bizarre, extraordinary situations.You either buy into it, or you don’t. I did.

An Intelligent. Quirky, Surreal Delight, 17 October 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

This film will not be to everyones taste, and I wholly understand the polarised responses.A star studded cast enjoy a knowing, wordy script, where dialogue counts, a Coen brothers trademark.However not very much happens, and the narrative is disjointed, so the pace of the story is very staccato.But once again the result is something very wide of the Hollywood mainstream and is all the more satisfying for it.

A 95 minute running time,, and several separate but interwoven plots, mean that screen time for individual actors is limited. Consequently each shines in their given roles, relishing the word play and eking the maximum out of each situation.No scene is dwelled upon, and the occasional bloody outburst of violence, or titillating appearance of a Sybian machine , is shown then moved on from before you have time to work out exactly what is going on.

The script is littered with double entendres, “running gags (pun intended)and lines aimed straight at the audience from the screen. No-one knows what is going on, or what has gone on, or what is going to happen, and is all the better for it.A mini-masterpiece

Big Budget Disaster movie, 16 October 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Rarely can so much money have been spent to so little effect, or for so few laughs.Like the recently released, “Step brothers”,a funny idea is stretched too thinly over too long a period, and snaps and destroys itself.Awash with in-jokes,visual references to other films and other “knowing” material which was probably quite funny in the set trailer park after a few beers, the humour does not survive the cold light of day.

Stiller, who writes, directs and stars in the film (always dangerous territory) implodes with the self indulgence of it all, and his sister Amy, listed as script supervisor appears to have been absent for the gig.In De Palma’s magnificent “Carlitos Way”, Sean Penn plays a part so removed from the norm that it is possible to forget that he was in it, whilst revelling in his character’s performance.Here, Tom Cruise is virtually slapped across your face before the final “reveal”.

I smiled a few times, but didn’t laugh once, no-one did at the screening i attended.Which is a shame, because the idea of a war film that turns real does have some decent comic and dramatic possibilities. Few are explore though, as the stellar cast of actors amuse themselves by having a good time – amongst themselves.

Lees money, a smaller cast, shorter running time and a better script were the solution.Avoid

Deeply Disappointing Horror Homage, 10 October 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Director Alexandre Aja is a member of the so-called new wave “Splat pack” of horror directors, and a self confessed disciple of the genre.Despite a good basis for a story, a credible cast, and a very generous budget this film fails to deliver.It is a long time since I went to a Horror Movie and found myself looking at the time DURING the action sequences.

Whilst the cinematography and locations are fine,a preposterous script makes the cinema goer cringe with embarrassment rather than with fear.Convincing horror depends upon the viewer being convinced that the extraordinary can come from the ordinary, this test is failed in spades. Frustratingly the ingredients are not bad.Kiefer Sutherland plays a solid, Ben Foster, a Cop suspended from duty for shooting dead a fellow officer.However the mental anguish of the event is eschewed in favour of the demons that apparently haunt the backs of the mirrors in a dilapidated fire ravaged building for which he is a Night Watchman.

When the action is largely confined to the fire damaged department store, an interesting, if routine level is found.Once the action goes outside all plot credibility disintegrates.Afficiandos of the genre will be pleased to know that there is the obligatory nude/ bare breasts/ girl in the bath scene acted by Amy Smart playing fosters sister.We even have a wet t shirt scene acted by Paula Patton playing Fosters sister.But just when the rationale and logic of the malevolent ghosts in the mirrors is “cracking up” it gets worse.Foster identifies the root cause of the problem, a cured schizophrenic Nun whom he kidnaps at gunpoint from a Nunnery without challenge or consequence and persuades her to happily give up her own life in favour of Fosters anonymous family.

The coda “plot twist” is a mere device, clever but shallow.Less money, but more characterisation,less gore and more threat are required next time round for Aja.

Exciting, Overblown Action, 8 October 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This film has much going for it. Liam Neeson is a credible leading man as Bryan, the retired Special Forces Agent who is trying to rebuild his relationship with his daughter Kim, after his wife remarried.The action is exciting, relentless,and well-staged.Largely set in Paris, the locations are a welcome change from standard Hollywood fare and are well handled by Director Morel, and Writer Besson, both native Frenchmen.The big budget gives plenty of bangs for your buck -or Euro, and the 90 odd minute running time flys by with a convincing story steeped in the “revenge” genre so often played out in Westerns.

But there is also much wrong with it, which, considering the acting talent and budget, could have been put right.The language issue is horribly fudged.Sometimes French and Albanian is sub titled, sometimes it is not. Sometimes French characters speak in English, sometimes they do not. Most comic is a scene in which Neeson impersonates a French Police Officer to Albanians, in broad American English!

This unwillingness to immerse in the French culture creates other problems.Bryan has apparent close connections with the French Authorities which helps him through the plot no end, but it seriously detracts from the “stranger in a strange land” dynamic which helps a tale like this.Equally, the girls, once “taken” hardly appear again. I would gladly have lost the unnecessary 4×4 chase, shoot-out and explosions at the Albanians camp for a view of “the other side”.

Equally, the shoot outs both at the “Auction” Hotel and the Sheikhs boat are preposterous and needlessly over the top, the story would have been more effective for a bit of restraint, not less.Finally, the racial stereotyping is lazy.The Americans are good and wholesome, the French corrupt, Albanians, swarthy and evil, Arab Sheikhs, fat with exotic sexual demands. Although mainly set in Paris, rarely is there a french ambiance to proceedings or sense of “place”, in sharp contrast to the recently released “In Bruges”. No reference at all is made to the fate that befalls his daughters travelling companion.

So, an exciting enough film, enjoyable enough in its own right which should have been a lot better.

A Collection of Short Stories, 6 October 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

A quirky, and very British, collection of nine ten minute short stories all set on the London underground.There is no obvious central theme, and no message. Just a celebration of the diversity of everyday goings on in our subterranean transport system.

You don’t have to, and are probably not intended to, like all the stories. There is no “eureka” moment.What you do get is idiosyncratic story telling by a distinguished cast. The dialogue is often sparse, placing great importance on acting, and space, which the film delivers in spades.

In an era of increasingly formulaic and homogeneous film making this dares to be different, and rewards the viewer accordingly.Perversely the fact that the tales are no longer than ten minutes makes the overall running time seem longer, as you mentally “rewind” after each short. And if one is losing your interest? Well you are only a few minutes away from your next one