Manhunter

A Dangerous Man

The Artist

J. Edgar

Breaking the Press

Shame

Stake Land

Haywire

Margin Call

Outpost

Eastern Europe.

A group of mercenaries, led by DC (Ray Stevenson), are hired by Hunt (Julian Wadham) to protect him as they enter no man’s land in search of minerals, or so the story goes. The mercenaries think it is going to be easy money, they were never so wrong.

It turns out their destination is an old abandoned WWII bunker.

The minerals just a story.

The easy job a lie.

DC has his men search and protect the bunker, While Hunt searches for the reason he is there.

They find a pile of bodies and one of them is still breathing.

They are attacked, one of them wounded. Yet they can’t find any evidence of their attackers. So it begins.

Hunt finds what he has been looking for; it is not minerals but a machine that the Nazis had been working on that allowed them to transport soldiers instantly over great distances. These weren’t just ordinary soldiers they were also unstoppable. Unfortunately for him the mercenaries also discover reels of film that show the experiments that had taken place in the bunker and among the faces they see in the film is that of their lone survivor.

Hunt tells them that the machine is worth a fortune and worth the risk; he tells them that he has called for back-up.

Other forces have other ideas.

The mercenaries start getting pick off one by one.

They realise there is no escape and this is now a battle for survival, but they don’t know what they are up against. Hunt has an idea and he tells them – somehow the people they are being attacked by are the soldiers who they saw in the films – they had been trapped by the machine. The knowledge isn’t a great help, it does mean that Hunt can at least come up with a plan to stop the supernatural Nazis.

DC agrees the plan and his men start to fight the dead Nazis in order to bring them to Hunt and the machine. Nice plan and it almost works. The machine is old and fails at the crucial moment.

They all die.

Next day and the relief team arrive, they start to secure the bunker and they find a survivor. We know what will be happening next.

I really enjoyed this movie. The bunker provides a claustrophobic and atmospheric set; this is added to by the muted, almost sepia, tones that the film is shot in. When there is violence it is quick, brutal and gory. The chill factor is well done – we know that the Nazis are going to appear behind people, but still a bit of a scare when they do. The script is intelligent and allows for thoughts about good and evil life and death. While it is not a character piece there is still room for them to display a little about them, they may be world weary they are not yet ready to give up the ghost.

All of it is helped by some very solid performances, especially from Ray Stevenson.

Director, Steve Barker, and writer, Rae Brunton, have served up a nice little treat.

An effective horror thriller.

IMDB gives it:5.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes gives it: no reviews by critics and 35% by the audience

Directed by Steve Baker, screenplay Rae Brunton

Length: 90 Minutes
Releases: 2008 16

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

buy it here or here

Thor: Tales of Asgard

In order to cash in on the release of 'Thor' the live action movie Marvel Animation studios did this workaday animated feature. Unlike DC comics, who seemed to have gotten their animated efforts just right, Marvel seem to be a little embarrassed by their works.

This is no work of art. It sets out to tell an entertaining tale and manages to do so.
It is a tale of Thor's youth. Thor is a callow youth who thinks he is much bettter warrior than he is, this is helped by the fact that everyone is happy to lose to him and butter him up, I guess that is what happens when you are the son of Odin, the All-Father.
All except Sif, who has a crush on Thor. She tells him like it is while beating him in a fight (you go girl).

Thor confronts Odin who tells him that yes he is being protected, yes people lose to him. The most important lesson is that a good king knows it is harder to keep the peace than to fight. This doesn't sit well with Thor.

Thor has an idea, he ropes Loki, his brother, into the scheme.
They will stowaway on the ship of the Warriors Three and then go look for the lost sword of Surtur.

The sword was lost in Jottenheim, the home of the Frost Giants. The problem for Thor and his companions is that to be in Jottenheim may break the fragile peace that holds between Asgard and the Frost Giants.
They find the sword.
That is when the trouble starts.

By the end of the film Thor has learnt his lesson.

It is an enjoyable romp that manages to add some background to the blockbusting movie, while successfully telling a rites of passage tale. It wouldn't surprise me if there were a few more animated young Thor adventures, or there should be.

The animation isn't fantastic. The story works well. The voice actors all channel their inner Kenneth Branagth.
It is a fun way to spend an hour or so.

Directed By:Sam Liu

Released: May 2011
Length: 77 Minutes

LionsGate Entertainment

Buy here and here

The Ambulance

Josh Baker (Eric Roberts) is a cocky comic book artist who is working with Stan Lee at

Marvel Comics, that would be enough for most peope but Josh also has his eyes on a mysterious women he sees everyday.

One day he decides enough is enough and he decides that enough is enough and he has to go to speak to her. He does so and Cheryl (Janine Turner) is less than keen on him. They walk and talk. Cheryl becomes weak and collapses - she is going into a diabetic coma. Josh gets an ambulance for her and tells her he will come and see her once he has finished work.

When he goes to check on her in the hospital he finds out she is not there.
Nor is she in the other hospital he goes to. The ones he phones can't help him either.

Thus begins his quest to find the missing Cheryl. It is a shame she is lost because she had a fine pair of legs.

What Josh doesn't know - but we do is that Cheryl has been kidnapped for medical tests. As the mad doctor (Eric Braeden - who although he only has a few scenes he does his bit to eat the scenery - he also later goes on to make over 1500 appearances in daytime soaps) says "Yes, I will eventually kill you, but I assure you you'll be in perfect health when you die."

Josh goes to the police but detective Spencer, gum chewing manically smiling James Earl Jones, isn't interested. Who can blame him Josh is all mullet, lip and open shirts.
Josh keeps looking, stumbles across Cheryl's diabetic flatmate (must make things so much easier). He is with her when she is kidnapped by the old fashioned ambulance.

At home he wakes up at his drawing board and discovers he is ill, there is something wrong. Going to his neighbour isn't a good idea as she calls for an ambulance. Josh is worried.
He wakes up in a real and propper hospital care of Spencer - who still doesn't believe him. The nurse doesn't like him either.
Elias Zachari (Red Buttons) is sharing the hospital room with Josh, overhears the story turns out he's an old school newspaper reporter. While Elias doesn't like Josh's story - not gory enough - he can still smell a scoop. The events later in the evening add to that as the ambulance drivers sneak into the hospital to capture Josh. Elias' quick thinking saves the day and they are off on the run to the newspaper offices to research and tell the story.
At the newspaper they see the ambulance, and in the tradition of these things do the sensible thing - go and look at it. Elias tries to take some photos but his camera doesn't work (it will do in a minute but he'll wish it didn't), Josh goes to phone Spencer, he gets put through to him and he explains what is going on and tells him to bring back up. Spencer laughs at this (and in a minute will wish he hadn't).
As Josh is on the phone Elias takes his, now working, camera back to the ambulance and takes a photo or two. That brings out the drivers. Elias is captured, but not before he has dropped the roll of film, that sly old fox.
Josh realises that the ambulance and Elias have gone - what will he tell Spencer when he arrives? Not to worry as Spencer sees the ambulance going in the opposite direction to him and gives chase. Does he call for back up? Of course not. Should he have done so? You betcha.
To say James Earl Jones makes the most of his death scene would be an understatement. A gum chewer to the last.

This brings Malloy (Megan Gallagher) more to the fore, she is a policewoman and she is going to help Josh . From here on in the pace picks up. Josh goes hunting for junkyards that may have supplied the old ambulance, that leads to him being beaten up by a gang - for no other reason other than they wanted to have a gang in the film. The ambulance comes and picks Josh up. Although it is day when they catch him it is night when he escapes out the back still tied to the guerney. Then there is a chase around the Central Park reservoir, Josh gets picked up by the police for a different crime.
Whooosh.
Malloy comes to his aid and he gives her a clue. She works out what it means and goes off in search. Again no back up and no telling people where she is going. Not to worry Malloy is packing and manages to prevent becoming a victim and Josh with the police arrive just in time.
Cheryl and Elias are rescued.
It is not a happy ending as Cheryl has a boyfriend and Josh has done all of this for nothing.

Lust is still in the air and Malloy and Josh head off home for a bit of hanky panky (he bounces back does this boy).
However as with all these tales there is still one shock to come and it is The Doctor at the wheel of the ambulance trying to kill Malloy and Josh. He gets Malloy, Josh escapes and then taunts The Doctor who drives at him and to his death.

Josh and Malloy are driven off in a real ambulance.
Film ends.
It is a campy dated fun.
Thrills and spills. Quips and overacting.
Not quite a cult classic but it is a film that all fans of thrillers and stalk and slash movies should check out. There is no real gore, the violene is comic book stuff. It wears its low budget status proudly and does a lot with it.

This is worth seeing just for Eric Roberts: the hair and the dress sense is so of its time - you are just glad we have moved on.
Worth searching out.
IMDB gives it a 5.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes give it 60% from the critics and 32% of people want to see it.

Directed By:Larry Cohen

Written By:Larry Cohen
Released: 1990
Length: 95 Minutes

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

You can buy it here but it is probably better to go and rent it from your local dvd shop.

 

House of the Rising Sun

Another wrestler turns actor - this time Dave 'The Animal' Batista has become Dave Bautista and plays Ray, a dirty cop who is an ex-con who is now a security guard for a mobbed up night club: 'House of the Rising Sun'.
One night he is working when a hold up takes place. He tries to keep everything calm but that doesn't happen and people get killed. Among the dead is the son of the club owner.
Ray quickly learns that he is being set-up and that everyone is out for him: the cops and the mob.
He is being set up by Tony (Dominic Purcell) who is second in command of the local mob and he wants to to take charge and he is going to use Ray to get there.
Ray has to prove he is not the traitor. It being the sort of film it is - he does.

Surprisingly for a film with an ex-WWE superstar the action is pretty low key, a few fights and a few quick gun battles. That makes it pretty standard fare which has to stand or fall on the strength of the story and acting. Bautista (as he is now known) isn't a bad actor but like everyone else in the film he isn't working with much.

This is standard fare.

It also has one of the lamest 'catch gun and fire' sequences ever.
I do have to say that I did rather enjoy the opening scenes in the club as the ladies who worked there were pretty tasty.

Not a film you would watch a second time.

IMDB gives is 4.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes has no score from critics and so far 67% of the potential audience say they want to see the movie.

Directed by: Brian A Miller
Written by: Brian A Miller (screenplay), Chuck Hustmyre (novel)
Released 2011
Length 90 minutes
Berkshire Axis Media

Buy it here - but I would wait until it is very very cheap.


Neither poster is any good.

Miracle

Miracle is a sport's film. I like most sport's films, perhaps I should qualify that by saying I like most American sports films. which is odd as aside from basketball and World Wrestling Entertainment I am not a fan of American sports. In the main they are all pretty much of a muchness player/coach/team overcomes great difficulties and from having no chance whatsoever wins (or comes so close to winning it makes no difference).
Sports films are mostly feelgood movies and there is nothing wrong with that.

Miracle is all about Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) an ice hockey coach who takes on the job of taking the USA team to the 1980 Winter Olympics and attempt to win the gold medal from the Russians.
Herb had been in the 1960 squad but had been cut from the team just before they went to play in the Olympic finals.

As with all coaches in these sort of films he has a plan, It is a plan that no one else understands or believes in. Firstly he want university players rather than professionals. He also wants them to play a hybrid of the North American style and the European style. Add to that he wants them to be super conditioned because he believes that one of the reasons the Russians have been so dominant is that are stronger in the last period than their opponents.

He also believes that the other reason they are so successful is that they play for the team and not for themselves.

With his team picked he goes to work on them. He gets them to introduce themselves by giving their name and who they play for, they always mention their university team.
His methods are seen as harsh. People doubt him.
His wife (Patricia Clarkson) doubts him.
(Doubt is a staple of these sorts of movie).

The team goes off to play Norway. The players seem more keen on discussing the Nordic beauties in the crowd than watching what is happening on the ice - well they are teenagers hormones running wild - why would they concentrate on a hockey game? They lose. Herb doesn't take kindly to this. He has them stay on the ice and practice and practice and practice some more. The players are wilting, some look like they are ready to give in. The team doctor says this enough. Herb ignores him and has them do more. The assistant coach (Noah Emmerich) says this is enough. Herb ignores him. It is only when one of the players shouts out his name and says he plays for the USA that the impromptu session is called a halt to.

From there on it is pretty much standard fare.
The team bond. He has to cut the last player to make the squad 20. He has to deal with injuries.

In the backgroud we have glimpses of the political climate of the time. The film touches on how the simple game of ice hockey was taking on a much bigger significance to the wider American population but it is never allowed to dominate the film. Herb himself seems oblivious to it and has to be reminded that right now this is more than just a hockey game.

The important game is them beating the Russians - winning the gold is almost treated as an afterthought by the film makers.

There are solid performances throughout the movie. It stands or falls on the work of Kurt Russell and the quality of the ice hockey action: both are good.

A very enjoyable film. There is nothing new here, it is all done very well.

IMDB gives it 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes gives it 80% from critics and 51% of the audience say they want to see it.

Directed By: Gavin O'Connor

Written By:Michael Rich, Eric Guggenheim
Released: 2004
Lengh: 135 Minutes

Buena Vista Pictures

Buy here (though i wouldn't because the price is madness) and here

or rent it from here

The Iron Lady

This is not an easy film to review, mostly because I come at it from an ideological point of view: I hate Margaret Thatcher.
In simple terms this is a biopic that is told in a series of flashbacks sparked by incidents that happen in her current life as a doddering retired old aged pensioner. When it is the flashbacks it is the greatest hits of Thatcher. When it is the present day it seems that not  only is Maggie a lot senile she also hallucinates her dead husband, Dennis.
It is this aspect of the movie that is the hardest to take. I can't believe I am agreeing with David Cameron when he says that this film is too soon.
Not that you couldn't have made a film about Thatcher - I just don't think you can do it with the elderly Thatcher.

Meryl Streep plays Thatcher and there is a feeling that this film has been created in order to show off her acting talents, rather than shed any light on the Thatcher legacy.
Jim Broadbent puts in a fine turn as Dennis Thatcher.
Pretty much everyone else is just there to make up the numbers.

The script isn't sparkling. The direction is perfunctory - it does what it has to do.

It is a film for Meryl fans - she shows what she can do, even though there are occasions when it veers a little into parody.
That said I have to say I came away feeling a little sorry for the elderly Thatcher.
There is a scene in the movie towards the end when Thatcher says it is up to the people to get rid of her. She was right there - and the fact that we never got to vote her out is probably one of the main reasons we still hate her.

IMDB gives it 5.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes gives it 57% from the critics and 63% from the audience.

Directed By: Phyllida Lloyd

Written By: Abi Morgan, Michael Hirst
Length: 105 minutes

Released: January 2012

The Weinstein Co.

Goon

The daddy of all ice hockey movies is 'Slap Shot' starring Paul Newman. 'Goon' starring Seann William Scott comes a very close second.

Doug Glatt comes from a brainy family, the problem is he isn't brainy. His talent lies in violence. His love of a brawl leads him to become involved with a local Ice Hockey team. He learns to skate but most of all he learns how to fight on the ice. He becomes a hit (in more ways than one).
Glatt is given a chance with a bigger and better side, his job to protect their star player who has all the moves but has lost his confidence since he took a hammering from Ross Rhea (played by (Liev Schreiber).
At first Glatt and LaFlamme, the star (played by Marc-André Grondin) do not hit it off.
From the start we can see that Glatt believes in the team - unlike the rest of his team, especially LaFlamme.
His first couple of games are not a success.
He meets Eva - falls for her. She confesses that she is hot for hockey players, the violence and the booze. She also admits she has a boyfriend, that she is a bad girlfriend because she likes to sleep around. (Don't worry folks - that bit all turns out ok by the end of the movie).
A change occurs in the team. They start winning. They are on for the play-offs but their last game means that Doug Glatt will have to face Ross Rhea and that is the fight everyone wants.
It is the fight they get.
Glatt wins. Movie ends.

The first half of the movie is the best it is where the humour and violence perfectly mesh. It is also when Kim Coates gets to give some of his best lines as the coach.
The fight scenes are good.
The comedy is broad and crude; more importantly it is very funny.
Glatt's character of the nice but sometimes dim is well done - he compensates for his stupidity not only with the violence but with a loyalty and honesty that eventually wins over his team mates. They may only think he is there to hurt people and to bleed for the team but he sees himself as a hockey player.
The change in LaFlamme is well done as well - normally these characters go from being nasty to nice without much cause, here there is a nice gradual change.

All in all this was a solid movie that made me laugh. It could have been stronger in the last third.

Worth going to see (and you don't even need to know much about hockey).

Has a great soundtrack.

IMDB gives it a 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes gives it 64% from critics and 65% from audience.

Directed By: Michael Dowse

Written By: Jay Baruchel  , Evan Goldberg (Screenplay)

Length: 92 minutes.

Released: January 2012

Magnolia Pictures

51

I seem to be watching a lot of films at the moment with numbers in the title.

51 is a low budget SF movie.
What happens when the military gives into pressure and allows reporters to visit the mysterios and highly secretive Area 51. The military has a plan - they are only going to show the reporters what it wants them to see - keeping the secrets safe.
Because there are secrets in Area 51: several long term alien 'guests', and some of them are not nice. Oh there is one nice alien J-Rod.
Because this is a low budget movie there are only two reporters and their aides.
As they are being shown around Patient Zero, a shape shifting alein escapes. As with all these things there is no real security beyond a guard and a computer screen - never any security cameras. So Patient Zero works his way through some guards and frees some of the other aliens.
The answer to the question what happens when you let the reporters in is: the shit hits the fan.
The reporters are trapped with a few soldiers. It quickly becomes a low budget stalk and slash - except you rarely get to see the aliens (it is a low budget after all).
There are a few killings both soldiers and aliens.
The self-destruct is set and the only one who can save them is J-Rod.
Of course in trying to do this he discovers that the humans are not his pals after all.
The chief of the base (Bruce Boxleitner) says he is sorry and J-Rod accepts his apology and together with the members of the press they work out a plan to spill all the secrets of Area 51.
When all the bad aliens have been defeated and the dust settled they go make a surprise appearence on TV,

As with all these very low budget movies there is an interesting idea at the heart of it, it is just that the money isn't there to realise the project fully.
So you have actors who are just going through the motions with a lacklustre script, so so direction and less that special SFX.
A special mention goes to Rachel Miner just because I quite liked her. I doubt if I will remember her if I see her again, though that is the nature of the low budget actor.

The film was directed by Jason Connery. I wasn't aware that he directed movies so I have no idea if this is an improvement on his work in the past. I am never really sure how much the director really does - after all if the story and script stink to high heaven there is little a director can do with it.

Anyway this is a movie to watch only if you have nothing else to watch and that includes paint drying.

IMDB gives this a 3.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes has no score for it but 82% of people who know about it want to see it (the fools).
(Confusingly Rotten Tomatoes credits Oren Peli as being the director of this movie - Peli is better known as the director of 'Paranormal Activity' and was involved with 'Insidious'. IMDB has Peli in post-production with a movie called 'Area 51' which is about a group of reporters going to a place that houses extra-terrestials. Now where have we heard that before? Ooooops. Still it can't be worse than '51').

Directed By: Jason Connery

Written By: Kenny Yakkel
Length: 90 Minutes
Released: February 2011

After Dark Films

Armored

Ty (Columbus Short) is a probabtionary armoured car security guard. He is back from the war in Iraq, Both his parents have died in the previous year, his younger brother is a tagger and truant. to add to his problems the bank want to foreclose on his house.
His pal Mike (Matt Dillon) tells him he is looking out for him.
Mike also has a plan to rob the security vans, it is a plan that Mike has worked out with the rest of the crew (including Jean Reno and Laurence Fishbourne). The only fly in the ointment is Ty.
On the way home Mike offers him a place on the job. Ty says no. Mike says think about it and if you are in be at the bus stop in the morning.
Now we know Ty is honest, as he has been up in his brother's face about stealing, we know he is hard-working because he has tried to get extra shifts. We know he is a good guy.
When he gets home family services are at the house and they are talking about taking his brother away. The straw that broke the camel's back (though I am not sure how this would work as it would just mean they get to keep the house, doesn't mean the brother will go to school).
Mike gets to bus stop. No Ty.
Mike gets to work. The rest of the crew are upset that Ty, is not with them, They've been spending that money before they had it (hey don't we all do that).
Ty turns up. Says he is in, but only if no one gets hurt. Who is going to get hurt, they are all in it together.
After their first call in to base they pull into a deserted factory. That is where they will stash the money and that is where the plan falls down.
A hobo is there. He sess it all. Gets killed and Ty decides he can't go on with the plan and locks himself in one of the vans.

From there the movie plays out a little like a minor 'Die Hard' but in a security truck.

A copper turns up (played by MiloVentimiglia - who entertained so much in 'Heroes'), gets shot, gets rescued, makes it to the end of the film.
Mike and co. get Ty's brother. Ty does the business. Ty saves the day.
Even better he isn't implicated and might get a reward. Result.

It isn't a bad film. It isn't a good film. It just ticks over. Jean and Laurence must feel like there should be better things out there for them (you suspect that these are the movies that fund their more serious cinema efforts).

IMDB give it a 5.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes gives it 42% from the critics and 34% from the audience.

Directed By:Nimród Antal

Written By:James V. Simpson, Chris Parker
Length 98 minutes

Released : January 2010

Sony/Screen

16 Blocks

This is one of those Bruce Willis movies that falls in the above average bracket.
It is true that I am a sucker for Bruce, so there is a chance that I am not really in a position fairly judge his work. In fact very few of his films have left me going 'oh dear why have I bothered watching this' and that is a good thing.
I know very little about Bruce, I am sure his politics are somewhat further right than mine are. I try not to know anything about my heroes and just like them for what I like them for.

In '16 Blocks' Bruce plays Jack Mosley, a run down detective with a limp, a drink problem and who doesn't really care about life any more. He gets given the job of getting a witness, Eddie Bunker, to the grand jury by 10am (later in his career Bruce will do something similiar in Die Hard 4.0).
It turns out that the witness has evidence against some cops and they are not too keen on him making it to the courthouse. This leave Jack in a pickle. The bad cops led by Frank Nugent (played by David Morse - who looks like someone you see all the time in movies but has only been in a few that I have seen) want to see Eddie dead.
Jack can't let that happen. He shoots one of the cops and he and Eddie escape.
Thus begins a chase across the city.
Which includes a hostage situation on a bus - where Jack engineers an escape for Eddie, only to see Eddie return to the bus in order to stop Jack from being killed.
They escape this.
With help from Jack's sister (who we all thought was his ex-wife - from earlier clues) they arrive at the courthouse. Where Jack informs Eddie that he was one of the cops that he was going to inform on, but not to worry because Jack isn't going to do anything bad he is going to testify and Eddie can go get on with his life.
The film ends with Jack out of prison receiving a birthday cake baked by Eddie.

The prolonged ending to the movie is its weakness. From the moment of the bus hosage situation onwards it feels as if it is being padded.

I can't say I am too keen on Mos Def who played Eddie - it is his voice- very annoying.

At the start of the movie when Jack is first driving Eddie across town he parks the car in order to go and get a drink, while he is gone one of the bad cops is going to shoot Eddie. He doesn't get a chance to as he is blown away by Jack. The director, Richard Donner, does a nice 360 around bruce which transforms him from the careworn cop into the heroic cop. Very nicely done.

It has a few great lines in it the best being an exchange where frank says to jack "you can't be lucky all the time." only for Eddie to sneak up behind him to say "but you can be smart every day."

All in all an enjoyable movie. Well made and reasonably well paced. The writer Richard Wenk turns in a decent script/story. The principal actors are all good. The action is well done.
It is worth a look.

IMDB give it 6.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes gives is 55% from critics and 60% from audience.
It deserves a little better than that.

Directed By: Richard Donner

Written By: Richard Wenk
Length 101 Minutes

Released: April 2006

Warner Bros.

13th Warrior

I watched 'The 13th Warrior' tonight.
It is based on the Michael Crichton novel 'Eater of the Dead'. I have never read a Crichton novel, I have seen several of the movies based on his works. This isn't one of the best, nor is it the worst.

Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan (Antonio Banderas) is an Arabic diplomat who is sent to the west where he stumbles across a group of Vikings. While establishing contact with them he is drawn into a quest, as the 13th Warrior. The quest involves the group of Vikings and Ahmed saving another Viking King from the Wendol, cannibals who dress like bears (yeah I know it sounds silly, it does look better in the movie). This they do at much cost to the group.

Directed by John McTiernan, who also directed, among others Die Hard which is one of the greatest of all action films and is probably my favourite movie of all time (sadly this didn't stop McTiernan from directing 'Rollerball' (2002) which is pretty awful especially when you consider just how good the original is).

The film was not a great success at the cinema - losing $100 million.
It is hard to know why it lost so much as it is full of decent set pieces and it goes at a pretty reasonable pace. It may be a little shy on character development - but it is an action film and that is what people want. That said it is interesting to see an Arab character as a hero, mind you the days of that sort of distrust were still a few years off.

There is a section where Ahmed learns the language of the Norsemen - by listening to them, as he does this we watch them talk and slowly we pick up on them using English and lo and behold we understand them and Ahmed can now speak with them.
It is a clever way of doing it.
Similiar to the technique used in 'The Hunt For Red October', also directed by McTiernan.

Apparently the actual process of making the movie was fraught with difficulties. This doesn't really show in the film itself.

I am still not tempted to read any of Crichton's books.

IMDB scores it as 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes as 33% from critics and 66% from the audience.

Directed By:John McTiernan    

Written By:William Wisher, Warren Lewis
Length 103 minutes

Released: September, 1999

Buena Vista Pictures

 

Red State

I am not a big fan of Kevin Smith. I have only really liked 'Dogma', though I was quite taken with 'Jersery Girl'. One of the reasons I am not all that much of a fan is he is another of those director/writer/actors who believes the hype and this comes through in his films.
(I won't speak of his comic work as who really cares - he is one of those writers who swans into comics when he hasn't got a movie planned and then takes forever to get his work done).

Anyway back to 'Red State'. Aside from the end which seems to just be tacked on because there was no other way to finish the story, I enjoyed the movie. Although it is supposed to be an action movie, most of it is taken up with talk. Not a problem as the talking allows you to get a sense of the characters and gives some air to some of the complex issues on display.

Basically a small fundamentalist christian church in middle America has been busy trying to spread its message by protesting funerals, while also kidnapping and killing undesirables.
The church lures three unsuspecting teenage boys with promise of sex, drugs them and are about to kill them when the police arrive and from there it all goes to hell.
One of the teens escapes, fires off a gun, alerts the copper, the copper gets killed just after he has sent a message to base. The sherrif is still trying to talk to the copper when Abin Cooper (the brimstone preacher - a bravura performance by Michael Parks, who seems to have done a lot but is probably always in the backgroud) lets the sherrif know that he knows that the sherrif enjoys the occasional midnight gay liason and will spill the beans if the sherffif tries to do anything. Sherffif is about to commit suicide (because that can be the only answer) when he notices a circular from one of the law enforcement agencies. He calls them in. They are there within a few hours led by Joseph Keenan, played by John Goodman - who looks as if he has trouble walking but still has a great actors face and voice. Keenan wants to get control of the situation, but that is denied him by one of the hostages (remember them) running out from the church with a gun. The sherrif kills him (well once you have contemplated suicide you may as well just shoot anyone). The the shooting really starts, at which point Keenan is given an order to make sure none of them survive. A few cold blooded kills later and the sound of a roaring trumpet the fundamentalists leave the compound and come out to surrender. Keenan doesn't kill them. Cooper says they have come out because of the trumpet sound means the revelation is here.
Then the end which is Keenan in front of a disciplinary board that basically promotes him while telling him that the surviving members of the church will be imprisoned indefinitely as terrorists with no trial or media coverage. Keenan wonders why the kills order? The answer seems to be 'fuck people like that.' Keenan gets to tell a story about two dogs he used to know who seemingly turned on each other when a chicken leg was thrown to them and that lead to him saying that people do the strangest things when they believe they are entitled but they do even stranger things when they just plain believe. It is one of those 'tales' so beloved of writers like Smith (Tarantino being another) that sounds profound but isn't.
The trumpet sounds? While in the movie the sounds are supposed to be so loud and powerful that they fell a number of the police - it is revealed that they were from an old siren that was being used by some eco-kids (to quote the film) in order to get back at Cooper and his church.

The best line in the movie is delivered by Goodman just when the raid goes south 'Simple has just shit itself'.

The action is done well - much better than Guy Ritchie managed in 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'.
Most of the time the dialogue is believable.
While you are not supposed to root for Cooper and his church - it is also hard for you to like anyone else in the film - this is deliberate and allows for a much more realistic film. Even Keenan does what he is told even if it means the death/ murdering of innocents.

On IMDB the film rated a 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes gives it 57% from critics and 58% from viewers

Directed By:Kevin Smith

Length 98 minutes

In Theaters: Sep 30, 2011

SModcast Pictures

Margaret

Today was another day that hasn't gone as planned. Which is not good.
I have managed to see two movies.

At home i watched 'Maximum Risk' a Jean Claude Van Damme actioner directed by Ringo Lam. Once again he plays a twin, only this time one of them has died at the start of the movie. The twin that is alive happens to be a French copper, who didn't know he had a twin. The murderers of the dead twin didn't know he had a twin. Cue identity confusion.
At the heart of the movie is the story of FBI corruption and them working with the russian mafia.
As befits this sort of film it is a tad silly but competently made. The action is of a decent standard.
It is not one of JCVD's best, but nor is it one of his worst.
I feel a little bit for JCVD because he isn't a bad actor, but very few action stars can move from that genre into mainstream work. So action it is for JCVD.

The movie I saw at the cinema was 'Margaret' starring Anna Paquin. I have no idea why it is called 'Margaret' - none of the characters are called Margaret, at least not that I can remember or can see from IMDB. Paquin's character, Lisa Cohen,  is a precocious, and frankly, quite unlikeable teenager (while she may look too old for the role it is time she stopped playing teens - but she gets to wear short skirts so I am not complaining) who inadvertenlty causes a bus to run over and kill a pedestrian.
When questioned by the police she, and the driver, lie.
The story spins off from there.
Lisa's attempt to find redemption, or admit her guilt, spirals outward affecting many of the people she knows and gets to know.
It is an odd film in that in her quest to have the driver punished she has either had to tell the whole truth (which implicates her) or she has told a half-truth (which just blames the driver) - we are never really sure of just how much she has told to all the other people.
It is a character driven film and all the main cast get a chance to shine, though Paquin does a fine turn, she is matched by J. Smith-Cameron, who plays her mother.
it is well worth seeing.

(And the 'Margaret' in question seems to be a character from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins).

While writing at the computer this evening I have listened to Jon Lord's 'Windows' - not as impressive as I remember it when I first bought it as an lp years and years ago from Selanby. It still has its moments and besides I am a sucker for concept lps and anything that verges on prog.
That was followed by Rick Wakeman's 'Past Present and Future' - I listened to the past disc. This is Wakeman doing solo piano, It is nice and melodic. None of the prog pomp that was the hallmark of Wakeman.

Eagle Eye

Tonight is a DVD night. No cinema.

So I am watching 'Eagle Eye' starring Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan,  Rosario Dawson and Billy Bob Thornton. It is a not so bad action techno thriller that lacks a certain amount of the gravitas that Tony Scott gave to 'Enemy Of The State'.

It is directed by D.J. Caruso - this is one of three of his films I have seen. They have all been slick if nothing else.

There are four writing credits to the movie (one of those getting credited for the story), it is hard to see why it took quite so many people to write it. I suppose a couple of them were doing polishing duties - tightening up the dialogue to make it witty and snappy.

Take the everyman being tracked and chased by government agencies for something he has no idea about that was a feature of 'Enemy Of The State' add in a little paranoia of us in the goldfish bowl of a big brother society and top it off with a mad bad computer that has a life of its own and you have the basis of 'Eagle Eye'.

In the main the film deals with all of this well.

Shia is able to do the helpless and lost while also being able to spring into action when needed. Shia's big movies have been the 'Transformers' movies - films which when you consider that they are about big robots beating the crap out of each oher are surprisingly dull. In these Shia isn't really called upon to do much. He strikes me as an actor waiting for his moment to show he can act.

Michelle Monaghan has been in a lot, and I have seen her in several of her movies and she doesn't really leave much of an impression. Competent is the word that springs to mind, thoguh this might be because of the types of movies I prefer to see aren't really ones in which female characters get to shine.

Billy Bob does what Billy Bob does best talk smack and walk the walk as an FBI agent on the case.

Rosario Dawson is well Rosario and that is not a bad thing at all. She looks fantastic and I have decided more women should dress in black suits and white shirts - it is a great look.

The film is competent and fun.

It is worth checking out if you have nothing better to do.

It scores 6.6 on IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes has it at 26% when it comes to professional reviews and 72% when it comes to viewer reviews.

Directed By: D.J. Caruso
Written By: Dan McDermott, Travis Wright, John Glenn, Hillary Seitz
Time 1 hr. 58 min.
Released: Oct 2008
Paramount Studios

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Tonight I went to see 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'. This is the David Fincher remake.
I saw it in the same cinema I saw the original. It is hard to say which was the better, I would probably choose the original - if only because the remake didn't really add much, or anything to the original. The new one might have been better suited if they had relocated it to the USA.
It was a tad odd watching this made for English speaking/reading audiences - that was set in Sweden featuring Swedish characters. So lots of things written in Swedish - as you would expect. Except all the stuff that was important to the viewer to understand - all the main characters wrote/ typed in English. An amazing skill.

I love the cinema experience. It is always tempered by the nagging feeling that others in the audience do no share my love of what is going on and will spend too much of their time chatting or playing on their phones.
Throughout this the audience was prety quiet and concentrated on the story. So much so that I was quiet surprised at how many people there actually were in cinema 2.

I followed that up with a dose of 'Miss Congeinialiyt 2'. A film I quite enjoyed at the cinema and still liked. How can you not like two hot ladies getting all actioned up. Sandra Bullock is great if only because she doesn't take herself seriously and she does look pretty foxy in a black suit and white shirt. Regina King is no slouch either.

Currently listening to Night Ranger's 'Dawn Patrol'.

Introduction to what is going on here.

This is a new venture for me. Essentially I am planning on creating a list of all the cultural things I do this year.

From the movies I watch.

The music I listen to.

The books I read.

The galleries and art I will view.

 

Sometimes it will just be a listing of whatever it is.

Other times it will be a review of whatever it is.

The goal is to do something every day - even if all that entails is listening to a cd.

Where I can I will do a review.

 

Why am I doing this? Several reasons: it will force me to actually enjoy some of the books, music and movies I surround myself with. It will encourage me to go to the cinema, galleries and live events more often than I have been doing in the last couple of years. When it comes to writing about such things I am pretty poor in my attempts to convey such things - so this will, I hope, improve with me doing more reviews. Lastly it will serve as a record of what I have been upto - which I am sure will be of interest to no one other than me.

 

As 2012 starts I am in the process of reading Stephen King's "11.22.63", I have only just started it. To be honest it wasn't a book I wanted to read, but a friend gave it to me as a Christmas present. As with all King books - he is incredibly easy to read and he just drags you into the story. I am fully expecting to be disappointed by the ending, though i have learnt with King it isn't about the destination it is the journey that really counts.

 

I am also reading Faye Kellerman's 'Blindman's Bluff' - this is part of her Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus series, which is just a modern spin on the old tv series 'McMillan and Wife'. I have read one of these before, 'Hangman'. Wasn't overly impressed. Why am I reading this one then? They came as part of a cheap deal.

 

The other book i am reading is 'Chavs The Demonising of the Working Class' by Owen Jones. So far it has been interesting, but as with all these academic books I buy because I am interested I have not really concentrated on it. Maybe now I have to write about it I will.

 

Currently I am listening to The Osmonds 'The Plan' album - which isn't quite what I was expecting. It is good and I will now have to investigate more of their back catalogue.

 

The first film of 2012 was 'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocols'. More on that later.

 

Welcome to my cultural year, feel free to come along with or even better go your own way and we can share the views.