Saturday, April 21, 2012
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself
This one has that nice flow on from the first film, pick right up where the first left off. I love it when films do that.
More cameo spotting. Even more ridiculous plot. Everything has to be bigger in the sequel I guess. They try and give Kumar a romance in this one and it doesn't really work but I guess it's the only thing keeping the film moving forward.
But I'm glad that if you watch through the credits Neil Patrick Harris doesn't die. He is lovely.
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself
Never really looked like my kind of movie but after watching American Reunion I figured I should go back and see these through, just for fun. They are an easy watch.
I'd seen a lot of this one before but I must have left before they actually got to White Castle. While they dial back the cartoonish insanity of Dude, Where's My Car? things still get pretty outrageous. Most of my time watching was spent cameo spotting.
The crass stoner humor does nothing for me but this passed the time nicely while I got some work done.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Iron Sky
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself
Space Nazis!
I remember first seeing the concept trailer in 2008. So I guess I've been waiting for this one just as long as The Avengers. This is the unlikely movie that made it from dream to fake trailer to fan funded film reality and now here it is about to be unleashed on cinemas everywhere. That alone is cause for celebration. The fact that it has Space Nazis is an added bonus.
Just about every other for of exploitation cinema has received a revival over the last few years so why not Nazisploitation? And they have a great sci-fi bend in their set up. But aside from the ridiculously fun premise what can this low budget crowd funded fan film offer?
Well it certainly has impressive effects. They did a lot with a little and this is yet another example of where people who are fx savvy are able to get far more bang for their buck and produce blockbuster style movies for whatever money they could raise. Sure it's not ILM but the the work done here holds up nicely on the big screen and probably the most entertaining segment of the film for me was the climactic space battle. When the film gave itself over to pure action and spectacle it was wholly engaging and I loved it.
Where the movie really showed its budget for me was the music. But I have a very low threshold for synthesised orchestral music so it ma not be a problem for others. The cinematography with the Red One camera and all the production design was certainly great.
As for the rest of the film it was tonally all over the map. Farcical, serious, funny, political, parody, poignant, satire, it never finds a good balance for me. There's a lot of love for Dr. Strangelove in the film and you can see them trying to recreate that satirical political edge, with thinly veiled parody of Sarah Palin, were she elected president, and the squabbling U.N. sitting in as the war room.
Most of the time I found myself conflicted for loving the idea of a gag but just not entirely fond of the execution. I don't want to spoil some of the surprises the film has in store but the journey of the campaign manager (who is introduced by doing a shot for shot recreation of the infamous "Hitler loosing it" scene from Downfall that has been usurped and re-subtitled by the youtube community) is utterly hilarious and really works as satire but the writing and acting just never do it justice. And this is true of many other interesting ideas the film offers but fumbles the delivery of.
And Udo Kier was kinda wasted.
To be clear, there are other hilarious ideas equally ridiculous to Space Nazis not least of which is what happens to the hapless astronaut who discovers the secret nazi base and there are plenty of jokes that work.
That is a fine line though, and it's going to be different for everyone. It's obvious that for everybody working on it from Finland, Germany and Australia and wherever else, this film is a labor of love. It's also obviously made by fellow cinephiles with so many references to classic war films. The effort is impressive, the action is great, the effects are wonderful but I just wanted to have a bit more fun with it. Huge tone shift in the last moments of the film that I don't quite know how I feel about yet. I'll be interested to see it with a bigger crowd and see if a lively audience gives it that boost it needs.
And like The Avengers, be sure to stay through the credits, not just to see the list of fans who donated to help make this film a reality, but also for a fun little tag that might hint at a possible sequel.
New York, New York
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself
Biggest surprise was finding out this is originally where that New York, New York song Frank Sinatra made famous actually came from first. And that it's actually called "Theme from New York, New York" because of course "New York, New York" is already a song from the musical On The Town that is also pretty catchy but nevertheless sounds completely different.
But that's not the only song here, there are quite a few numbers. In fact in the 155 minute version that I watched with the big musical number added back in, basically the last 40 minutes is just Liza Minnelli singing her heart out. You get fatigued after a while but there's usually something nice to look at production value wise.
And that's what's really fascinating about this film. On the one hand, it's Scorsese and De Niro doing their gritty 70's improvised realism drama and on the other it's Minnelli doing a musical with heightened 40's inspired big studio sets, stylised costumes and an obvious artifice the old time musicals all had. These are very opposing styles and much like the characters in the film, they are big and they clash creating an unusual energy that is sometimes magic and sometimes a bit of a mess.
It's certainly a great showcase for both the stars. And Scorsese's love of those old musicals is blatantly obvious even though he's still straddling their style with his own. Ultimately it feels like an interesting and more often than not successful experiment.
The Avengers
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Michael
Well it's finally here, after 5 feature films of teasing since 2008. That's quite an elaborate set up. Equally exciting is seeing geek hero Joss Whedon not only finally getting a chance to play with the big boys, but with all of them in one film. This is a film obviously written by a fan and a real comic book geek. May as well have been called "Fan Service: The Movie"
Sure the plot is all of 5 minutes long, simple and obvious but it's the action and characters that are the focus. It's that awkward stage of treading water, where you've set up most of the characters already and you can't develop them too much because they need to keep something for possible future films. It really boils down to being a good time with characters we want to see more of. There's a lot of them and they all get their time to shine. Being a Whedon film you can be assured of a few things...
Firstly, it's going to be the funniest of all the Marvel films. It just is. Whedon writing dialogue for Tony Stark seems like a match made in heaven, but surprisingly the two biggest audience cheers/laughs come from non-verbals gags from the Hulk. That's right, Hulk is sure to be the unexpected audience favourite.
Secondly, the characters are all going to have a purpose. As I said, they each get their moment, they each have their own little problem and personality clashes and that's probably the most enjoyable part of the film for me. Hawkeye gets thrown out of the equation early on, but is really used more as an instigator and jumps back in at the end to help kick intergalactic butt, so I don't really count him, does anyone at this stage? Out of the rest of them Thor has brother issues but not much else with the group dynamic which is a bit of a shame as he's my favourite.
Thirdly, the females are gonna be badass. If this wasn't called The Avengers (or Fan Service: The Movie) it could easily be Black Widow's origin film. Everyone else has already had theirs and she was just thrown in to Iron Man 2 so learning a bit more about her and giving her some really awesome stuff to do is great.
Fourthly, a beloved audience favourite is going to die. With Whedon it is inevitable and while his choices are somewhat limited here due to contractual reasons and future film possibilities, sure enough not everyone makes it to the end credit sequence. Sad.
Lastly, there is going to be a long complicated one take shot at some stage in the film. And here it is during the big climactic battle and the most ridiculously awesome shot in the entire film.
Loki has changed slightly as the villain here. Obviously his experience at the end of Thor left him rather bitter. He comes back with an army of what appear to be the aliens from Battleship riding that giant worm thing from Transformers: Dark of the Moon. It is what it is, an arbitrary alien horde that provide appropriate 3rd act destruction. As for the speculation as to wether the Skrulls appear in the film, well I'll just say, the don't appear before the end credits...
A few side characters also pop up. Pepper Potts is in the film as is the scientist dude from Thor however Natalie Portman is only seen as a picture on a monitor. Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson has been made a Captain America fanboy and it is hilarious. Also makes sense too considering The Cap is the only hero that's been around for a while that hasn't had direct contact with him. I like that Paul Bettany is still around to voice Jarvis (and Lou Ferrigno is still around to voice Hulk). The usual Stan Lee cameo is right at the end and is a little too on the nose but always fun to find.
Unfortunately the cinema we saw the film is cropped a bit form the top and bottom. It's not a 2.35 ratio film so the few instances of subtitles were a little frustrating. The 3D post conversion is very good for the most part. There was one shot that stood out as being rather impossible to resolve to the point that it hurt, but it wasn't long and was the exception not the rule. There was actually some nice use of the depth, definitely not a film you want to see too close to the screen though. Best thing about the 3D? Being able to choose between Iron Man, Captain America, Thor or Hulk styled glasses. I got Thor because he's my favourite, but no doubt Iron Man will be the most popular, they certainly look the best. And no-one will choose poor old Hulk. (Except maybe after they see the film and he becomes everyone new favourite.)
Alan Silvestri does a rousing score and provides a nice theme that I might have to listen to once again to get the finer points of but is pretty hummable. Sound is great, Visual FX are great. According to the credit role, every major FX company on the planet worked on the film so you'd hope so.
Speaking of credits, while there was a tag after the end title sequence, the reported scene that was shot this week to go right at the end of the credit role was not on the print we saw. Gives me an excuse to go see it again though I guess.
Ultimately this is an origin story for The Avengers as a team and it works as that. It's a massive crowd pleaser and very entertaining indeed. For many it's sure to be their favourite Marvel film. It's certainly the biggest action wise. Defiantly gives you great comic book geek cool moments with a lot of hilarity. Can't wait to see it again.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
The Wedding Date
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself
Never even heard of this one. I was talking Smash with some friends and this came up, probably because of Debra Messing and Jack Davenport. A romantic comedy from a time where Debra Messing was the star and Amy Adams was the sister. My, how things have changed.
This one is following the formula so rigidly it forgot to make it believable or fun. It's not even trying. The last minute change of heart beat was one of the few things that made me laugh. It was as simple as her dad sitting down next to her and saying "You made a mistake" and suddenly she's up and racing to the airport, with no regard for how she was feeling 2 seconds previously.
This film also features the WORST best friend sidekick comedy relief I've ever witnessed in a romantic comedy. Constantly referring to your vagina in British slang does not a comedy make.
Screenwriter Dana Fox also wrote What Happens in Vegas which I must admit is a real guilty pleasure of mine but this film is just as bland as they come. An easy watch, incredibly trashy story you've figured out every beat for 3 minutes after the opening sets it up and a whole album worth of Michael Bublé on the soundtrack. Yeah it's one of those films.
Ghost in the Shell
IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan
Madman are doing a daily top 20 anime countdown and this one was todays. It's been a long time since I've check out this influential classic and thought I would use the opportunity to look at the 2.0 version that's out on bluray.
While they give you the original version on the disc, it looks like it's just been upscaled from a vhs or something. It's not good. The new version looks great but even more so than George Lucas' tinkering with his Star Wars saga the changes and completely redone sequences in this film drove me nuts. For a film that was so far ahead of its time in terms of subject matter, visuals and computer graphics, to simply delete that and remake the beloved iconic scenes so it all to look like a final fantasy cut scene is infuriating. I don't think I'll be watching that version again anytime soon and hope they put out a better quality version of the original.
The other thing that struck me was I had forgotten how dry the material is. I can also blame terrible voice acting on the english dub for that. And despite the long philosophical conversations the story is far more simple than I remember too. Mamoru Oshii tends towards the slow paced, thought provoking and poetic. We get 4 minutes of story followed by 10 minutes of visual montage to reflect upon this. And that's repeated throughout.So it's a good thing there is so much to think about and also that the visuals are (or were...) so enigmatic and beautiful.
Now this was hardly the first work of fiction to deal intelligently with ideas of artificial intelligence and the existential and philosophical ramifications of it but it was certainly one of the first I saw. And at a time when the internet was still just a twinkle in the milkman's eye, it raised some concerns that are still relevant today. It's no wonder fans of this were calling films like The Matrix a rip off.
I hear Steven Spielberg has the remake rights although that was a while back and nothing has come of it. And he's already developing a different robot film. Still I would have loved to have seen his treatment, I'm sure character and pacing issues would have been cleaned up greatly.
This film is still as relevant and modern as ever. The only thing that really dates it are the hairstyles. A lot less mullets around today. Apart from that it's just as contemporary as what's being made now. I really was a good 15 to 20 years ahead of its time. It's always been a favourite of mine and next time I watch it I'll be sure to watch the original version rather than the bright and shiny redux.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
The Avengers
IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Mum
No, not the marvel comics one. Gotchya. This is that film version of the 60's British spy series made in 1998. Huge flop at the time and yet I still giggle watching it. I have absolutely no knowledge of the series it's based on apart from a few clips on youtube but the movie is absolutely ridiculous, very hammy but pretty fun.
What a bizarre cast. Uma Thurman seems out of place and Sean Connery as the maniacal villain also comes off as rather odd. But then again I've never understood the appeal of Sean Connery besides making fun of his accent. Eddie Izzard playing a heanchman again! At least this time he gets the films one allowance of swearing.
Pretty much all I remember about this film from when I saw it in 1998 was giant robotic bees. Still probably one of my favourite things in the film. But as it started the whole weather doomsday machine plot came back as well. I see a good deal of that trailer ain't in the finished film, apparently a good 40 minutes were cut out for the theatrical release and a directors cut has never been seen. I can't imagine many people clamouring for it. I don't know if anyone else even remembers this film? I'm sure Warner Bros would prefer you forget.
However badly it failed, there's still pleanty to enjoy here, in that trashy sort of way. It's obviously written for American audiences in mind and makes a lot of fun of the British stereotype. Plus it has a funky retro sci-fi design which I dig. And a cool score, thanks in large part to using the original theme song which is bound to make anything look 10% more awesome when put to it.
And Ralph Fiennes is just awesome too.
Diabolique
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself
Finally after many attempts over the years and a few disc problems tonight, I got to see all of Les diaboliques. And I loved it. Like The Bad Seed the film explicitly asks the audience not to be jerks and spoil the twist at the end for others. Hell, just watch that trailer...
Now, knowing there is a twist ending just makes you look harder for it. It doesn't take long to figure out something is amiss but there was always enough doubt that I was never completely sure until my suspicions were confirmed in those terrifying last few minutes. It's a hell of a slow burn to get there, probably too long for my tastes, but it makes the impact harder too.
About half way through the film I thought they might star wrapping up to the end but then a hitch in the plan happened and I realised there was still a whole half of the movie left. I probably shouldn't have started it so late but the surprise of having no idea where they were heading for a while there was nice.
I thought they could have gotten to those final stages a little quicker and milked the suspense there a bit more. But I guess that's a more modern way of doing it. There's always something to be said for classic slow burn. Still it does make whole sections in the middle ultimately irrelevant, like the whole trip to the mortuary.
Nevertheless I really loved watch this one, very satisfying, especially after having the disc so long, ready to go and numerous false starts. I see J. J. Abrams acts in the remake from 1996. Tee hee hee. There's no way it's gonna top this film but I'm curious now.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Angel Heart
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself
I have read about this film before and it's name came up again recently on a list of top 50 film twists as one of two that I hadn't seen. Already knowing there was some kind of twist really works against you, but the film is still effective and has an admirable tone.
Mickey Rourke gives a great performance as the titular Angel Heart, a noir-ish detective with a thing about chickens. Naturally the majority of the film is spent trying to throw as many chickens in front of him as possible. Can't fault it for that. Hilarious.
Despite the classic cataclysm of good and evil and the noir structure and period setting, the strange mixture of voodoo as well, this feels much more like a late 90's film than a late 80's. Maybe that's just because of when I grew up and loved similar kinds of films that came out around then.
Suffice to say, the story holds up well for me and Heart's decent is kept gradual and mysterious enough to keep one intrigued. I like the abstract flashes and dreamlike interludes. It's obvious something's up, even if you didn't already know there's a twist coming.
While it certainly doesn't go for much of a noir look, it keeps a creepy foreboding tone. It helps that they have a a little haunting melody that keeps re-occuring in amongst the New Orleans jazz scene. Trevor Jones does a good score too.
Well I'm glad I finally got around to watching this one. I'll have to check out the other film from that list I never saw too.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Transit
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself
Another bank robbery gone wrong scenario. This time an unsuspecting family of campers are used to smuggle the loot through police road blocks but when the criminals come back to retrieve it on the other side, surprise surprise, things don't go as planned.
I actually really like the set up. And overall it wasn't a completely horribly diversion of my time but it's not going to offer you anything more than what you would be expecting. There's something to be said for this kind of disposable junk food type movie and this fit that bill nicely, it's not badly made or terribly acted, it's no different than a good episode of some television series.
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