Mary and Max (2009)

Today's entry grows weirder by the description. An Australian animated film (I don't recall Australia ever making any animation...) about the pen-friendship between a little Aussie girl and a middle aged fat New York.
Both are desperately lonely in their world and struggle to get along and make sense of it. Together, they become co-conspirators and find solace in the others letters.
Writer and director, Adam Elliot likes skirting very close to very uncomfortable comedy; like every 2mins something almost heartbreaking almost happens but he reigns it in before it does and that's his skill. Mary and Max is consistently on the verge of something tragic happening but it continues to be warm and funny. As well as Elliot writing, this film has life breathed into it by narration by Barry Humphries and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, playing Max. Hoffman Max is caught perfectly between Moe the Bartender and James Gandolfini.

Jour De Fete (1953)

Since the animated comic melancholia that was The Illusionist in February, I've been meaning to delve further into the work of French funster (his words...) Jacques Tati.
As much as I love comedy, i'm pretty ignorant to the ways of silent comedy but I'm prepared to start with Tati. If only because you should start with Keaton or Chaplin and I have to be different.
I don't know what it is that makes him appeal to me... Maybe its the sense that he only made 4 or 5films and spent so long developing them, as in years - which breeds the sense that they were made to the best of his ability and obviously, others percieved his talent to be peerless so...

Violent Cop (1989)

"Her brother's coming... and since you saw fit to rape his sister, you're all going to back me up... We're all going to kill one another... "
Some of the final lines in Kitano's directorial debut, Violent Cop. I guess outta context must seem overblown and pompous but when you're such a thorough and poetic filmmaker, you earn that sort of hyperbole.
As I'm writing this, I'm struggling about what else I can say about Beat Takeshi, that I haven't already said, despite the fact that I really enjoyed his films- Violent Cop is very similar to Hana Bi, the film of his is watched in January. It's about a detached policeman with problems at home and a bad habit of excessive violence in the workplace. It's also persistently funny in that desperately deadpan Kitano way. He sorta like an Asian Shane Black in that way except he doesn't have to rely on a Clapton/Kamen soundtrack of the emotional moments and violence in Kitano's movies is deadly serious and solemn. I don't know why but it never feels gratuitous. I think because it's almost like a release from the tension. Yeah, Kitano uses comedy and violence as a breather after the obstensively moody and tense double crossings and police corruption.
I mean,  in American fare, as the protagonist detached further from society and submitted to his dark predilection for violence, he would be finally given redemption and called a hero. Takeshi has no interest in that- he loves let the main men he plays for wild and maim but redemption is not on anyone's docket. The best they can hope for is the peace in death...

Le Mepris (1964)

Things haven't been particularly pretentious around for a while, so I gotta go Godard. Le Mepris was the product of Godard's producer, seeing that Brigitte Barford was becoming close friends with him and that would be his best chance to make some money for once, since she was the most famous woman in the world at the time. In a way it worked- it was also Godard's most successful film upon release.
But this not only has to do with Bardot, it's Godard's best photographed film but it's still pretty aimless in story and narrative. No bad thing but you need to be a cinematic icon to land that sort of thing.
The crux of the piece is that this Hollywood producer wants this writer to draft him a movie version of The Odyssey and it makes his wife (Bardot) treat him with Le Mepris (trans.- CONTEMPT!)
Godard must love listening to people converse more than any other filmmaker. His films are 90% that.
What was strange for me while watching this movie was I had, unconsciously, turned on the English version of the film as well as the English subtitles (I watch most films at home with subtitles given the choice) but after 5mins of watching the film, i realised that the subtitles were not matching up with what was being said on screen...
Then I started thinking 'Ohhh. Godard is subverting the use of subtitles to use as a tool for showing what these characters are thinking as opposed to what they are thinking. *Referential clap* I look forward to the extras where this practice is explained...'
And after the film has finished and i'm navigating through the extras, there's nothing regarding the subtitles. I check Wikipedia-nothing. Relevant BluRay Review-nothings. Which makes it even more curious...

I watched Les Mepris (1964) on BluRay, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Violent Cop (1989)...

Winter's Bone (2009)

Let me be frank- Winter's Bone? Not for me.
Did I think it was a colossal waste of celluloid? Not at all, but i am struggling to see what caught everyones imagination. It must be the epitome of that cosmic truth, where if you are amongst the first people to see something unique, it'll stay special for you forever but if you're last to see it, then you wonder what all the guff was about? Sister to that cosmic truth is the one that says 'something classic is good whether you're first or last to see or hear it'. At the end of the film, i found it kinda maddening (not totally) that it had been so celebrated across the board. I guess people like a grim tale of want and desolation with a super-happy ending. (I'm not spoiling anything by saying that-trust me).
Like you don't already know, the story is that a teenage girl, who's already struggling to care for her mother, brother and sister, who has to find her sketchy father before the house he put up for bond, will be repossessed but either he doesn't want to be found or these yokel gangsters don't what him to be found...
I'm playing LA Noire at the moment and the protocol of both are very similar-interrogate successfully and you move further. Mis-step and you're back to the start. Apart from that, it like jug-whistle Dickens. It's basically a kidnapping investigation procedural with Hillbillies. It's like Tintin set in meth houses in the Appalachian Mountains.
Predominantly, I just don't get why Jennifer Lawrence got any of that (operative word) hype. She's by no means awful and she carries the film well but it didn't seem particularly awe-inspiring to me. She does a good job but i didn't feel like she was transcending the limits of acting or anything.
Legitimately amazing is John Hawkes as the shady Uncle with the hair-trigger temper. I've liked the guy in stuff for years. He's kinda like a Southern Steve Buscemi but he's almost unrecognisable in this film with his lean figure and meth'ed-out face. It's a significant transformation; add to that, he never has really played someone somewhere mean. It's pleasantly surprising to see and enjoy.
So Winter's Bone - not boring and fairly interesting and entertaining but to me... a big smelly hot bubble of hype...
I watched Winter's Bone (2009) on DVD, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Violent Cop (1989)...

The Hangover: Part 2 (2011)

Demand equals Supply divided by Cost.
I'm just messing with you but seriously, that's the subtext here. And the 'sequel' in general.
And most Hollywood fare.
So The Hangover: Part 2, eh? It seems like just yesterday that we saw the first one. If I percieved the feeling or mood right... Most people loved it and even if you didn't love it, you'd put put your hands up and say, 'M'yeah it was pretty good...'.  What I do know is that I saw it at least twice at the cinema and i would struggle to name many films i've seen twice in a cinema. We're talking Inception and The Matrix here. And I didn't even think it would was the greatest comedy of that year (Funny People) but it was good enough to see a second time. Of course now, the 3 stars -Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis are major stars... well maybe not Ed Helms but Bradley Cooper is a major actor now and Galifianakis is at that level in comedy where he's up there with Sandler and Ferrell. Ed Helms didn't jump the TV ship quick enough. But it's not to late for him because now we have The Hangover: Part 2, a film that, at least in this country has come out less than 2years after the original. But it's not surprising since the original was a short-gamble as comedies are inexpensive (in comparison to other genre movies) and the hard 'R' rated comedy was, as it still is, popular with audiences stemming back to Knocked Up in 2007. It's been said before but it bears repeating- comedies are what makes studios money. If you thinking back to films of the 1920's, you're thinking Chaplin or Keaton. So I'm not saying that action blockbusters don't make money but the average one will cost 300mil after prints and advertising, and maybe make 500-600mil back. The first 'Hangover' probably cost 30-40mil and still brought in that 500-600mil.
I'm sorry-i got carried away... the thing that's going for this movie is that it unashamedly is prepared to follow the blueprint of the original. It's bigger and on location in Bangkok but it's certainly business as usual- all the favorites are back, they're retracing their steps to 'hilarious' consequences, they even do the photo bit at the end as you'd expect they might.
So obviously, my beef is with the lukewarm script. It's a shame but the original writers were seemingly not involved and it's credited to director Todd Phillips and his usual writer, Scot Armstrong and rent-a-hack, Craig Mazin. To me, the situation reeks of Warner Bros asking Mazin to knock up a script, quick-as and they just punched it up on the way. There's no sense of building on what came before- only a distinct feeling of repeating the original against a different backdrop. That's not to say there's no laughs in Part 2, but not near as many as the first. But then that's what you have to expect from a rush job. I don't want to come off too harsh because it's not terrible and i know I'll see films i like less in the next week but it's hard not to be cynical about a film that was so cynically made...

I watched The Hangover: Part 2 (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Violent Cop (1989)...

The Boys From Brazil (1978)

A bit of late 70's bio-thriller today, courtesy of Lew Grade. Grade was the man at popularising commercial television in this country, with his ITC but he just couldn't replicate that success into the movies. Sure, he had mid-level successes with On Golden Pond, Sophie's Choice and this film, The Boys From Brazil but they always just made their money back despite general positive critical feedback.
And to be fair, there's nothing particularly tv-movie about the film; it's filmed in many different countries, it's directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, who directed lots of blockbusters in the 60's and 70's like Planet of the Apes, Papillion and Patton and it stars the likes of stars like Larry Olivier, Jimmy Mason and Greg Peck. It also features briefly Steve Guttenberg and Prunella Scales but still Olivier and Gregory Peck and the latter playing Josef Mengele. He ain't Atticus Finch no more!
Also no slouch is the fact it was based on the novel by Ira Levin, author of Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives.
For those of you who don't know, the story is that Mengele comes out of hiding to with a plot to reinvigorate the Aryan race, administered by a secret Nazi organisation and an old Nazi hunter (played by Olivier) has to find out the plot and stop them before it too late.
What I love about this film apart from watching Peck, gleefully ham it up as a baddie after decades and decades of being true-blue on-screen, is how it gradually disseminates information to the audience and the gallows dark humour and pulpyness of it all.
Like obviously, we're talking about ethnic cleaning and the most evil men of the last 100years, who's atrocities still haunt us today but this film is kinda like weird  Bond movie, where the bad guy is diabolical and James Bond is a 80yo doddering Jewish guy. It's definitely kinda funky but that's why it's fun to watch like any exploitation movie. It's like a Dan Brown novel adapted for the screen by Rob Zombie. It's just well made pulpy adult entertainment and a lot of fun to watch. Exciting, well written, great acting. I mean it's totally lurid and ludicrous in its psudo-science but you don't care. Because Gregory Peck is wearing a moustache and talking in a weird stupid German accent and that means he's an evil prick. Yeah...

I watched The Boys From Brazil (1978) on BBC2.
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Hangover: Part 2 (2011)...

Cracks (2009)

I'll admit that this was added on the ol' LoveFilm list for less than wholesome reasons. The question is less, what is it about the idea of Eva Green as a nutso free-spirited boarding school mistress and Juno Temple and Imogen Plots as her young wards, that appeals to me but more what about that prospect doesn't!
I'm not proud of myself or my school-girl longings but we all have our kinks. We all fantasise about 'types'-I'm not on trial here!
Ahem.
The other curious thing about Cracks (after the horrible name/title...)  is that it was co-written and directed by Jordan Scott-daughter of Ridley and niece of Tony. I know. Who knew? But she has her own simple methodical style under like father and uncle's bombastic and shallow kineticism, which is to say it looks very similar to the way most British 1940's literary adaptations look- misty, dark green and beige. Which is not to take away from the hard work she's done- for a first film, she aquits herself really well and likely knew it would work in her favour to work in the distinct sub-genre of 'boarding school film'. Not to be disrespectful but if you've seen one.... well you've seen most of all of them- sure, each one subverts the vital parts- the children, the teacher, the tone but they all deal with making makeshift families, dealing with becoming adults and so on.
Cracks is no different. It's set in a girls school and focuses on Eva Green's inspirational teacher Miss G. and her girls who dote on her, headed by prefect Di Radfield, played by Temple. Things are all well, fine and good until a young Spanish aristocrat enters the school and enchants Mrs G. beyond the girls control and her own...
Eva Green seems to be channelling the style of wonky acting, that Johnny Depp does these days. Ehhhh... she's not telegraphing the craziness but i generally presuppose that European woman are nuts. I don't need to see them wacko-it up a notch. It won't surprise you that I thought Juno Temple excellent in this film. She has to be a nasty bitch and a sympathetic sensitive young woman and it's hard not to love those fiesty red puffed-out cheeks.
AhhhHem.
But seriously, Cracks is a nice bit of provocative Sunday-DVD viewing. Bit more emo than Dead Poets Society and a lot less ambitious than '...If' but light, fluffy, enjoyable and entertaining...

I watched Cracks (2009), on DVD via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Boys From Brazil (1974)...

Blitz (2011)

Okay... so my expectations weren't high going in to see Blitz. It was more an act of supporting British Crime cinema than supporting the act of British crimes of cinema and recent things I'd seen written about it were not horrible. What I'm trying to say is that I was convinced it would be mulch, I would have waited for the DVD. But even though it's 2011 and the idea of Statham, Paddy Considine, Aiden Gillen and David Morrissey all together isn't the exciting prospect, it would have been say... 5years ago- it's a strong team of British actors.
I guess the relatively good news is it's not bad enough to be offended by but it's not the British-Dirty Harry that it's trying hard to be, either. Basically, it politely meets your expectations for a drink, makes smalltalk, shakes your hand before you go your separate ways. The Stath does his Cockney SKULK-Smash thing, Considine does the reflective and measured cop-routine you may have seen in the Red Riding Trilogy and Gillen does the killer mentalist bit, you may have seen in John Cena-WWE Wrestling vehicle, 12 Rounds. I'm throwing around these contributions but they're playing to their strengths... we'll not Considine- i like him when he plays stupid or crazy too.
Like I say, this tale of a cat and mouse game played between cops and cop-killer is pretty by-the-numbers but it's not boring and it's certainly not convoluted. They've tried to make an 'R' rated police procedural, for and by the British and they've succeeded in taking the necessary elements from America and dressed South London locations and speech around them; you can tell it's written by a British not a Yank paraphrasing that accent.
What will say is that all these guys talk in soundbites and aforisms. I was in a fit of giggles when during a car chase, Considine says 'Head 'im off at the underpass...' (*bang* "I hate that cliche!!")
In fact, if you're in the mood to let kind of shit slide then go forth but otherwise it'll grate on you real quick. And maybe Gillen's cartoony human-monster is writ a bit too large but i liked it; he gets the balance of evil narcissist and panto villain, just right and my favourite concept about serial killers is the moment when they realise they become pop-icons and how they use that and Blitz plays a lil on that.
So Blitz is dumb and shallow and everyone involved should be using their time on better projects and in some cases, we've already seen these actors play these characters before but then, maybe that's why we bought the ticket... for a safe, undemanding 100mins.

I watched Blitz (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Cracks (2009)...

Black Narcissus (1947)

This is going to be a strange one. Right off the bat, i must be said - this is another brilliant film from Powell and Pressburger and might be unique in the sense, it might be equally remembered or more so by its cinematographer, Jack Cardiff than the writer/directors themselves - Cardiff was truly an artist in the broad sense.
But all the way through Black Narcissus, i strangely felt like it would make for a great high-school play.
It's all about love-unrequited and requited, isolation, chastity and devotion. There's fun parts to play, it's theatrical and colourful. I was no drama-kid but that would have been interesting and ambitious... especially in Welsh.
It's about a group of nuns who travel from Calcutta to the Himalayas, to set up a place of education and worship; as i say that, it seems like colonialism but their actions seem more education-based and less in based in Christian-teaching. As they get there, they find their local guide to be the strapping Mr Dean and their building to be a former harem.
They're lead by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), a relatively young, devout servant of God with her own issues of pain and regret and as you might imagine she finds this Mr Dean, quite boorish if charming. But her problems include a young general wanting to study in this place of women and children as well as an troubled earthy young woman called Kanchi, played by Jean Simmons. Later on, she will have to fight with Sister Ruth, who herself is troubled by the trappings of her vocation.
I may be naive but I'd like to think teenage girls would be all about this sort of thing and it's certainly a great feminist story, where they are strong and complex; who earn their own respect and most them don't have their self-respect dictated by men.
You fall in love with these characters like Clodagh and Kanchi, especially Sister Ruth.
Clodagh is, like a lot of strong women, struggling with little support as gracefully as she can while dealing with inner and outer turmoil and trying to make her sisterhood a success; Kanchi is the definition of a nubile young woman- she's affectionate and mischievous, sensual yet naive. She's just a delight to watch and not over played, something you might worry about since she's played by white woman Simmons. But most of all, I love the character of Sister Ruth, played gleefully arch by Kathleen Byron. If there's a villain of the piece, she's closest as she becomes this demonic unbeliever but you can completely understand her struggle with her vows and unrequited love for this Mr Dean. Maybe I just have a soft spot for the crazy ones...
But as i said at the start, the real star of this film is the superlative work of Jack Cardiff and this film is masterclass of colour and light on film. I mean, this was 3years after WW2, so you know there's no way they went to the Himalayas to shoot this film but there are moments you forget and the film has not aged at all...

I watched Black Narcissus (1947), on tv on FilmFour.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Blitz (2011)...

Win Win (2011)

Just the simple act of describing the plot of Win Win sounds like a good solid way of spending your movie time- Paul Giamatti is a high-school wrestling coach and lawyer, who takes a teenage boy runaway under his wing, who happens to be a wrestling savant. If anything it's definitely sounds like a Paul Giamatti movie - you can just imagine what it'll be like in your head. Few laughs, few dramatic emotional moments and Bob's your brother's cousin. My main and only issue with the flick is that it's just not especially funny. In fact, it's very similar to Fox's other Sundance aquesition, Cedar Rapids- in that they gave away all the funniest bits in the trailer. But if you're less picky, unlike me, then there's a lot to like. I'm pretty happy to watch anything with Jeffrey Tambor and Bobby Carnivalle and they are great as the assistant coaches and Amy Ryan gets to practice her 'Nuy-Jousey' accent but it's definitely Giamatti's movie doing that introspective vaugely-dodgy nice-guy schtick, he does. The 2kids playing the young wrestler Kyle and his friend, Stemler- Alex Schafer and David Thomson, respectively are brilliant and act like old hands.
And the story/plot is fairly well-done. All the characters are identifiable and likeable; even the characters of Kyle's mother and her lawyer played by accomplished comedy actresses Melanie Lyndsky and Margo Martindale who are the antagonists, are pretty understandable and maybe even forgivable in spite of their choices and their actions are just a lil less ethical than the rest. So you have to give actor/writer/director Tom MaCarthy for making such a light, even-handed yarn but it doesn't really stretch any further than that really but if it turned up from LoveFilm or you caught it at 9.35pm on a Sunday on BBC2 in a few years, it wouldn't be pretty okay...
I watched Win Win (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Black Narcissus (1947)....

Enter The Void (2009)

When I say i've never a Gaspar Noé film before it feels like a guilty admission despite the fact, he's only made 3 films including this one and no one saw the first one outside of France. As have gathered, i'm uncomfortable with 'extreme' filmmakers like Noé and Miike but i got the feeling Enter The Void would be different than Irreversible so far as that film was about violence and this film is about death and reincarnation. I knew it would still be hard edged and viceral but then hopefully less hard going then his previous film and i surmise it is but probably not by much...
This film has titles sequence so intense I was worried it would make me epileptic. I'm not joking. I actually looked away and it's a fast-track introduction to Noé's concept of photography, where things are either shot in thumping strobe lights or dank underlit spaces, places I'd imagine were the hardest things to photograph like a nightclub. Nightclubs never look accurate on screen cos they're always overlit and I can only imagine how hard it was to do the lighting in this film so well to the extent that even I am talking about lighting.
But there's much more to Noé's etherial masterpiece than that. I think the highest complement, i want to give it is that it's extreme and intense without being repulsive (even though some of it is and only in very small doses). Enter The Void is like a (fantasy) Human Biology rollercoaster. In seriousness, easily-travelsick people should bring a sick bag since it takes place in the first-person and gets bumpy.
I'm not giving anything away when i say the main character dies. The way he does and since we're in this guy's body in an isolated space is completely claustrophobic and I felt like I was going to die to, and i'm not prone to claustrophobia or illusions of dying, even in my dreams.
So thanks for that, Gaspar Noé... i guess.
So as you may or may not know, this guy floats over the people he knows and has flashbacks to his life regarding his sister, his friends and parents, which sounds simple but his sister is a stripper in a gangster's bar, his friends are junkies or worse, artists and his parents died in a car crash. The protagonist is a drug dealer/user and as he's dying and looking back there's a remarkably achieved sense of watching cognisant hindsight and guilt; the most effective example for me being when he and his sister are being separated into care and she is pleading with him that he promised, they wouldn't be split but he's helpless; he is/was a child. As they grew up, his sister might not even remembered this or in that way but it's the feeling that it's never left that's rings so true for me. There's even repetition of these memories and i don't think a lot of films could get away with that, but 90% of the scenes or shots in this film are so dynamic you'd happily watch them again though I would say if you've seen the 160min-director's cut once, you've seen it twice. I can't say it's not too long, my perennial bug-bare, but it's only by a little and it has so much to say, so ambitious and successful in portraying things that are only cognisant in the mind- that it deserved more than the standard 100mins...

I watched Enter The Void (2009) on DVD, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Win Win (2011)...

Rubber (2010)

Do you want to see a film by Mr Oizo?, the mastermind behind those Levi jeans adverts with the Flat Eric puppet that we all loved in... *checks notes*.... 1999! Feels like yesterday. Well, maybe the day before yesterday.
Anyway, the deal is this, he's made a movie about a Satanic tyre.
Stay with me- the tyre has psychokinetic power to blow stuff up and and likes generally killing as many people as possible. It's not an puppet or CGI- it's a rubber tyre.
No, obviously it doesn't talk.
I think this not-everyday story of a murderous tyre would be enough but we get these additional points, where an 'audience' with binoculars are watching the proceding for reasons unknown...
Me, i have a soft spot for most forms of 4th wall demolition.
There's this great preface to the start of the film delivered by one character, about the causality of films and fiction in general - "why was ET brown? Why were the lovers in Love Story attracted to each other?-No reason."
Now if you decided to commit to watch a film about a killer tyre... i don't think you need a warning about logic or the lack therein and as much as i really like the 'audience' concept (something that incidentally makes less sense than if they'd said nothing), i suspect that it has more to do with Mr Oizo (aka Quentin Dupieux) have not much to say about a killer tyre. Other than it's a tyre and... well you get the picture.

I watched Rubber (2010) on BluRay, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Enter The Void (2009)...

Faces (1968)

You'll have to excuse my condescending pretentious candour but Faces, looks like Cassavetes saw Fellini's 8 1/2 and thought "I want to make films like that, I want make 'that' film, I could make that.... " Which is not to say that he's ripping it off wholesale but they're very similar films with similar astetics. Except it's the birth of the Cassavetes-born style of filmmaking - over written/improvised but beautifully photographed all the same. There's someway he and the camerapeople he uses make halls and living rooms look like glossy pages from a 50's American equivalent of Town and County.

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)

Love it or hate it, you have to admire-no, not admire- marvel at the force of character in a man who is prepared to have his own son pretend to lose his virginity to a prostitute for a film. Not if you're the BBFC and stringently obscured most of that, from the film (as you should-no one needs to see that) but that's quite a conviction to have about your art.
And that's just the opening credits...
Over the years, we've probably forgotten how much way-paving Sweetback's did in 1971. Completely independently-financed by a black short-film maker and playwright was certainly fighting against a massive tide. That it made any money back is remarkable, that it became one of the most profitable films ever made is a miracle.
It gave birth to Blaxploitation and enforced that not only did Black filmmakers have something to say but that they could have their own sense of intrinsic arty-ness AND that people wanted to see it.
Watching it now, it has aged terribly and the obtuse theatricality of the characters and story seem overwrought but there's definitely something about it. It's like watching a work-in-progress- the outlines are there but it's not well defined or ready or finished yet.
Like, it's about a guy on the run being wrongly hounded by the police and he's charismatic and physical and there's a great score by Earth, Wind and Fire but then he's a sex-worker, he doesn't say anything and 85% of the film is him running somewhere with no actual inclination of where he's going or what he'll do when he gets there...

Chico and Rita (2010)

I guess what you'd call Chico and Rita is an animated adult love story but there's a lot going on in that description. I get kinda wary when i see 'adult' next to the word 'animated'. I guess for me, animation is still the vestige of kids television for the most part but then again, if this was a live action film- I'm certain it would have escaped my interest and though, animation is not the format at the forefront of of your thinking when you think of love-stories, i for one rhinoceros it looks more beautiful than any live action film could look.
As far as the story, it couldn't be more pat; boy finds girl, girl plays hard-to-get, they get together, boy loses girl and so on and so forth but that's the only real set-back of the film; the animation just pops and the kind of 'digital-painted' process they use is just sumptuous to watch. Any frame could be a hi-def modern-day impressionist painting and springing for the BluRay in this case, to watch the film is certainly worth it.
And since the film is about a piano-player and a singer in Cuba, the way they marry visually the jazzy/big band music to these wonderful visuals is nigh-on-perfect.
Getting back to the 'adult' stuff, it is just a prolonged scene of sexualised female nudity and frankly, i don't see why it's really necessary. It only seems to limit the reach of the films audience further and doesn't add anything to the love story but the love story for all it's premeditation is quite effective and works very well within the film. Chico and Rita is entertaining because it's continuously feeding your eyes hearty meals of colour and expression and it's as emotive as it is delightful.

I watched Chico and Rita (2010) on BluRay, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)...

Dobermann (1997)

As long as I've been watching Vincent Cassel movies, I've always been curious about Dobermann. There was something about it that always stuck in my mind, like as if i remember it being set-apart in the media that it caused any uproar but i don't think that happened. The other weird thing for me is I was convinced this came out in 1993-94, when it was definitely 1997. There is a crucial difference of being inspirational and being inspired by, in the case of this film.
Now I like it; it's kinetic, brash, cinematic and entertaining. It's an ambitious feature debut from a visionary action director.
BUT... it would have been so much more remarkable if Jan Kounen had made it 4years before he did. Because now it just looks like a rip-off of an early Rodriguez or Álex de la Iglesia movie in French. Maybe this is unfair baggage to put on the film.
It all started in my mind, when i was watching it and watching Tchéky Karyo do his french Bad Lieutenant bit and the thought occurred to me that Michael Bay must have seen it at put him in Bad Boys(1) because of how great he is as this sick, corrupt cop. But Bad Boys was '94. So now it's like lets put Tchéky in this because he was coming off Bad Boys. So there's that but as the film continues there's things like that the music and style of the film. There's only one licenced song in the film and that's The Prodigy's Voodoo People and everyone is dressed in what looks like Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture.  The film has that day-goofy filter effect pervading everything. There's even explicitly put-up posters for Trainspotting and The Usual Suspects!
Look, i'm a Tarantino apologist-I'm into wearing your influences on your sleeve but reference a whole year's culture 4years later! I'm sad to say but it just looks like you were late to marketplace. Also one of the sets looks like it was borrowed from Barb Wire. Argh. Ignore me, these things probably bother no-one else or give it a second thoughts but i can't help it. It would be like if i brought a book out in 2014, about a shy magical orphan vampire with glasses who falls in love with a pale white girl tattooed hacker in upstate Washington, who's mutual best friend was ginger... and a Transformer. Even if it was well-made, which this is, it would still seem completely derivative.
Anyway Cassel is awesome as always, Monica Bellucci is at her height of oozing sexual sexy sex and Tchéky Karyo is good value in this and Kounen is a great director and i noticed that he never made a similar film to this but I really want to see more of this films, they all look really facinating for different reasons.

I watched Dobermann (1997) on DVD, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Chico and Rita (2010)...

Jar City (2006)

I'm about vaguely literate. Not actively reading books and literature is one of the great failings of my life but I know that Moreover crime fiction is massive at the moment, especially the Millennium Trilogy ('The Girl... ' books) and despite being similar to Katie Price in the sense, i write more than I read; i did actually read that whole trilogy within a month when as i say it usually takes me a 3months to read one book. It does make me wonder about society when these dark detective stories of child abuse, police corruption, drugs, incest, snow and... oh yeah, murders, are so popular. I still don't understand the appeal. Either way, coming from Iceland- Jar City must have been one of the first of the recent slew in the early 2000's before they made it into a film in 2006.
I guess the main difference between the Norse boys and 'Girl' and more homegrown or North American fare, is these investigators are far more troubled than the sort of people their investigating. The detective in Jar City is smokes like a chimney, eats sheep heads and his daughter is a junky when she not prostituting (or is that the other way around?). The story is that they're trying to find the murderer and trace the family of a lone trucker killed from a blow to the head by an ashtray. Cue family revelations and violent deaths.
I guess what's good about the detective character is he is gruff and grumpy but but not shouty or physical.  He's opinionated but practical.

A Woman Under The Influence (1974)

Today concerns John Cassavetes most famous film, A Woman Under The Influence. Cassavetes was a real American renagade independent filmmaker but he was didn't make low-fi films. He would actually in other people's work to pay for his own films. He rarely popped up in his own films and populated them with friends like Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara and family-usually his wife Gena Rowlands.
I don't know if i should have started with what's likely to be his greatest film but...
What's clear from the outset is that the man is a striking auteur. He likes intense visuals but not in the sense of vibrant colours, more whites and greys but in a mixture of exterior wide shots and interior extreme close-ups. Like I say, when you hear about Cassavetes, the great independent film icon, you imagine that it'll very hand-held and 'verite' but it's the most pleasant surprise to find most the film is beautifully photographed. (I later found out Phedon Papamichael and Caleb Deschanel, 2 of the most sought after DoP's working today, were involved in this film.)
The film its self concerns a wife and mother who has lost her thread on her sanity (Rowlands) and how she and her family including her husband (Peter Falk) deal with it.
I'm sure Rowlands was a prolific actress before John and I'm sure that they have a great relationship outside of work but her part in this film must be the best present, he's ever given her (outside of her children... who are in this film... playing her children!). It's a part any actress would give up her first born for; it's a complex, intense 64oz steak of a role and she's colossal in it. There were points that it seemed to me that her crazyness seemed a bit too broad but then she's always got this look like she's is lost in the abyss of her mind and I have to suppose that Mrs Rowlands didn't actually suffer from mental illness in 1974 and this must be intense acting.
Falk, as always, is brilliant as this man who is as desperately in love with his wife as he desperately wishes she could be and act normal.
The great hook about the story in this film is that most of the adults on the family especially Falk are completely ill-equipped emotionally to deal with this woman and spend half the film in denial about how serious her condition is.
My solitary beef with the film, as always, is that its too long to the point, it verges on repetition but, it's never boring. So I've learned Cassavetes, the actor - bad... Cassavetes, the director- Great!

I watched A Woman Under The Influence (1974) on DVD, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Jar City (2006)...

Attack The Block (2011)

I'm sure that a few of the things I've written about some films, must seem very disjointed; e.g.  'i liked it but it was horrible. You should see it for yourself...' Attack The Block may suffer worse from this than any other posts i've written.
I was disappointed by it but it's incredibly well directed by Joe Cornish. I guess the crux of my problem is that i thought it would be really funny cos it's Joe from Adam & Joe.
Don't get me wrong - there are jokes, lots of jokes but the tone of the film is so hard-edged that the brief moments of broad respite don't really cover that.
On paper, it's a great idea - teenage boys on a council estate start a war with aliens and i've been excited to see it since I heard Cornish was making it. But I think there's an innate problem there, before you start- what does it mean if teenage gang members are killing aliens? I mean if it's just thugs beating up aliens, who do you root for? and this something the film never quite makes peace with.
Now obviously, the boys are plastic gangsters essentially and their intention is to be fairly heroic but they start off the film mugging the female lead character, played by Jodie Whittaker and though they become more likeable as they become more heroic in their actions, they still don't come across as nice people to be around, even if you were in the gang.
Maybe I feel uncomfortable with the fact, that though most of the dialogue is written in South London patios and I'm sure credible to how kids today talk, and it's probably inverted racism on my part but i couldn't get passed the fact this is written by a white guy in his late 30's (at least) from Cornwall or Devon or thereabouts. That just niggled away at me, i guess. That said, Cornish does include a severely middle class character called Bruce,  played by Luke Treadaway, who embraces black culture but knows full-well he'll never be embraced back.
So this means that Cornish is aware but persists with these messages of 'it's just these mischievous young men acting ' followed by 'Irresponsible actions have consequences' which confuse because then how much do these boys need to do to redeem themselves? Or is it not even that big a deal, how abrasive the guys are- they're a product of their environment and this is acceptable behaviour there?
Like I say, this could just be my perception and maybe it's just me but then there's this side plot where the local gangster wants to seek retaliation towards these boy for messing up his car- i don't understand what the point of that whole part of the story was meant to signify.
But I still say Joe Cornish is a major asset to British film and deserves to be supported and allowed to experiment with fun in this way. Maybe just another surehand on the writing prehaps?...

(This blog was only late because Blogger's server was and not because I started at 11pm)

I watched Attack The Block (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with A Woman Under The Influence (1974)...

Mikey and Nicky (1976)

I totally made a mistake in picking this film.
I thought this was going to be a John Cassavetes movie, because it stars him and Peter Falk but it's actually written and directed by Elaine May. It's way too soon after Ishtar to watch an another Elaine May movie. As I said, before May was one of the most famous female comedy writers America ever produced. She was in a comedy team with Mike Nichols, who went on to an iconic and successful film director in his own right-and they were part of a new wave of American comedians in the 50's, with people like Woody Allen, Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce.
So it makes you wonder what she was doing making this very blokey Cassavetes-esque drama...
May directing has had one all round success of the 4 she's directed- her second film, The (original) Heartbreak Kid, a light comedy married with low-fi astetical filming. So it's strange to wonder why she would make this sorta thing;maybe it was 'de rigueur' at the time or she just wanted to experiment working in drama as successful comedy makers are wont to do. Whatever it is, it's made for strange mis-shape of a film.
Mikey & Nicky is the story of 2 hoods, one of whom is in fear for his life and the other, who is the only managed he can trust to help him out of this trouble. Over the course of the film they cross town, eat, visit a cemetery and so on, gabbing away about all and nothing at the same time.
Falk is certainly a charismatic performer, despite his famous Columbo understatement. Cassavetes, i'm less convinced by; he seems like a man never in control of his emotions while acting- he's either acting towards the cheap seats or way too slight. I'm not giving up on him and i will be watching some actual Cassavetes movies soon but the guy so far seems a bit ineffectual at acting.
As far as I understand, this film was made largely by humungus improv sessions and leaving the camera running - this makes for varying results as is to be expected but there doesn't seem to be much in the way discernable story going on but the idea that the one guy you go to depend on,  maybe not having your best interests at heart is an interesting one and it's the only thing that keeps you watching and it does start make a semblance of progression towards a satisfactory end but it fails on that in the end because there's so much chatting going on, 95% of which is completely unsalient to the story, that it gets muddied and lost.
So nice idea and there are moments but unfortunately, it's executed poorly.

I watched Mikey and Nicky (1976) on DVD, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Attack The Block (2011)...

Hanna (2011)

Where can I start? 2hrs of brilliance. This is why we go to the cinema. A hyperbolic statement maybe... certainly but i think we don't necessarily expect everything we see to be a life-affirming masterpiece (and I'm not saying Hanna is) but simply to be taken on a journey using story and personality and visuals that are in tune with each other and it's rare when films pull that off, it's rare when everything in a film feels in-sync and it's a small miracle because films are made by a group not just one person. I hope I'm not disappearing up my own arse and i don't know why this film has provoked this flowery-talk but i get a high from good films or films that i like and when you get high, sometimes your focus lets you see the woods from the trees. Hanna is not the greatest film I seen this year or will see but... pretty excellent.
Because...  everyone involved is excellent. Soinare Roisin is brilliant at being a teenage girl killing machine, completely void of much emotion. Bana is on auto-pilot and Blanchett's Wicked-Witch routine may be a little too rich but by the same token, the campy asexual German hitman that Tom Hollander plays might call into the same category for some but I thought he was delightful! I squealed with joy everytime he came back on screen with his white Sergio Tachinni tracksuit and bleach blond hair. BEST VILLAIN EVER.
And there's a family made up of Olivia Williams, Jason Fleyming, dfghjjk and a cute little boy who are a delight too, as this grossly middle-class family travelling Europe in their camper, that Hanna stumbles on. Firstly, fhhjjkls sushi is a brilliant young actress and every thing she says is either completely hilarious or heart-breakingly loving; i remembered afterwards that she was in Tamara Drewe and stole that film as well. She's going to be a joy to watch grow as an actress. And secondly, it's so nice to see Jason Fleyming in a decent part in a good film! He seems like such a nice guy and genuine but never quite... hit his stride as a film actor, do you know what I mean?
So that's nice.
It probably almost goes without saying that Hanna is the product of a masterful orchestration by Joe Wright. I'd written Joe Wright off I ashamed to say before this- I thought he wanted to be Ang Lee or Minghella based on his 1st 3films- Sense & Sensibility, Atonement and The Pianist and i'll admit I'd only see Atonement, which is also superbly directed-it's just the other 2 were such retreads. Now I think Wright is Right! Hanna is such a breath of fresh air in his career, it's practically a debut and i think time will remember Wright more fondly then Sam Mendes. Who sucks. Not a fan.
Wright is showing off directing muscles we didn't know he had...  like cutting parts of the film like to Chemical Brothers video-because it's original Chemical Brothers music! It's one of the few times I've wanted to listen to a film score afterwards.
Also kudos to Seth Lochhead and David Farr, relative newcomers to screenwriting and are smart enough to not bog the script down and keep it as sparse as possible.
I fear Hanna is as close as we will get to an 'Inception' this summer-the classy, Smart action film but some summers, you don't even get that...

I watched Hanna (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Nicky and Mikey (1974)....

Les Diaboliques (1954)

Classy film time. And it's French, which makes it doubly classy. Les Diaboliques is the signature film of Henri-Georges Clouzot, the French Hitchcock. It's the story of the wife and mistress of a real bastard (I believe his name was Jean-Luc Bastardo) who plot to kill him and thereby do the world a favour. It's no hyperbole- this is man who runs a private school and serves the kids rotten food and leaves everyone else wanting while he wants for nothing as well as subjecting these 2 women to mental and physical abuse. The one he's married to- he's using her for her money and the 'other' woman will always be just that.
I knew nothing about Clouzot before this film but this film is completely Hitchcock-ian, to the point that i knew he would be dubbed the 'French Hitchcock'. The guy is playing every note of the Hitchcock songbook- duplicitous leading characters, characters with percieved mental illness, comic background characters, red herrings and more.
So it's for this reason, that Les Diaboliques can't resonate with me the way it would have done had I seen it 50years ago. Unfortunately, it's another casualty of 'me seeing the things that were inspired by it' in the meantime and so the ending was telegraphed to me from about 5mins in.
Which is not to say that the rest of the 2hrs was insufferable but it wasn't as if you could appreciate in a Columbo-way either.
What is good is that, the film spends less time concentrated on the run-up to the murder; that's over after the first 40mins but more on the aftermath of the act and trying to continue without arousing suspicion and I really appreciated that when the obligatory police/investigator starts asking questions it's so light and uninvasive, that he might as well have not bothered at all; i love that sort of subversion on the genre.
But though it's well acted and quite funny in parts, in that Hitchcock-style of dark humour- I must insist that these sorts of things do depend heavily, almost unfairly so on the ending and since i'd seen this ending, in admittedly lesser endeavours like ITV dramas and episodes of... well basically anything featuring a police person or a mystery, it severely reduced the impact of this French crime classic for me but it's not to blame either. It's a Force majeure of sorts...

I watched Les Diaboliques (1954) on BluRay, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Hanna (2011) ...

Ishtar (1987)

Yesterday, i lightly touched on the matter of directors being relieved of their films by their paternal studio benefactors; Ishtar is also one of the most infamous examples of that but more so for costs spiralling outta control and the movie flopping like the love-child of Marlon Brando and Greg Louganis. (Greg Louganis jokes in 2011. This is why you love me.)
Ishtar became short-hand for a film failure. It will forever be a study in how there are no-sure things in the moviemaking. It facinates and bewilders people how a film starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman and written & directed by Elaine May, one of the most respected female comedy writers of all time, could screw the pooch on such a biblical level...
It's rare, when attributing blame, to point the finger at everyone involved but i have to. Maybe Elaine May more than the others but everyone's culpable.
Really, Columbia Pictures shoudn't have let May, no stranger to studio interference or her films flopping, such a long leash to make this film. They let her go half way around the world, despite her track record, to make this film. And they probably greenlit the film without reading the script based on Hoffman and Beatty, who also probably didn't read it either. I'm sure May, Beatty and Hoffman are long friends and there's a trust element but it's failed here. Part of you wants to blame the faceless studio for mangling May's writing but from plot and story to dialogue, it's ALL pretty half baked. It's goofy and not the cute Disney character sense but more - what the hell IS a Goofy???...
The idea of 2 songwriters becoming embroiled in a cold war of sorts in North Africa is pretty nutso; the idea of these middle aged men becoming jobbing pop songwriters/performers borders on literal insanity. It's cringemaking only Sacha Baron Cohen could salute. I know that May tried to make a broad satire of the CIA's involvement in US Foreign Diplomacy and that's admirable and a suitable target of her talent but she used this inane vehicle to send the message; she can't go forward without going backwards. It's maddening to watch these 2 guys do this bad cabaret schtick and unless you have no idea who Warren Beatty is (A fair possibility, if you were born after 1990) - there's no way you will ever buy him playing a geeky worry-wart with no charisma. You might as well be asking me to believe that Hugh Hefner is playing an unpaid intern for Camille Paglia.
Elaine May never really recovered her confidence to make another film and that's a severe shame and though I get no satisfaction outta seeing greats get knocked on their ass but i have to say that, it's fully justified. There must have been a real air of 'it'll work out in the end'-style denial in the making of this film. It cost people financially and emotionally but these people deserved to be metaphorically poisoned because everthing about this film is undercooked...

I watched Ishtar (1987) on DVD, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Les Diaboliques (1962)...

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

The Magnificent Ambersons is the original film to be taken from a director and re-cut by the studio- something that every auteur fears and every cineasté protests. The thing is, it became apparent early on that we would never see Ambersons- the way Orson intended and frankly, everybody really liked the Magnificent Ambersons they saw anyway, though that would always be followed directly by 'It ain't no Citizen Kane though... '
I've gotten a lot more open to movies pre-colour (anything before the 60's) since I was younger but the idea of films in b&w was an anathema to me. They were so stale and boring! and obviously they're not as spectacular as present day fare but i was obviously watching the wrong movies. They couldn't depend on budgets the size of Papua New Guinea's gross national profit, so they had to depend writing!  Scripts so tight you could bounce a shiny penny on.
I'm trying to imply that Ambersons is well written but it's pretty visually striking consider the time too... It ain't no Citizen Kane though.
It's the story of a young man, who basically takes offense to the man who came close to marrying his mother. Which would be perfectly understandable, except this boy is a horrible curr and the old man is Joseph Cotton.
Think about Citizen Kane. Now think about Joseph Cotton. Yeah, he's pretty awesome isn't he. In this he's the epitome of charm and pleasantness, he's like a hangout George Clooney. How can you complete with that?
There's a particularly perfect taste of what's going come in this film at the start, when someone old crow assertains that this boy will be trouble because the parents don't really love each other and therefore, they'll focus their love on him and he'll become this spoilt monster. I love that sort of tenuous logic; it's such a strange thing to say!
As the film goes on, it reminds you that you can make a drama with light snappy dialogue. I bet Arron Sorkin bloody loves this film.
This film has all that quick-fire, cross talking stuff, they don't do anymore. At least, not on this standard and Welles had his Mercury rep company and he was on fire at this point.
So no- it's not as ambitious as Kane but it's a solid piece of work especially a sophomore effort. A great introduction to older movies for those who claim not to like them.

I watched The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) on BBC IPlayer.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Ishtar (1987)...

Cedar Rapids (2011)

Yeah, yeah- I'll respect the fact Ed Helms has paid his dues and is very good in The Hangover and perfected the Daily Show on-location interview, that they still use today BUT Clay Davis is one of the greatest fictional corrupt characters of ALL TIME! I'm ashamed to say I don't even know the name of the actor that played him and i'm usually very good at that; that said I love the guy and I'd watch anything with him in it. It's even better when he suprises you by popping up in something random like the mediocre Choke (a book, like most, basically unfilmable) and you squeal 'CLAYDAVIS!?!'
He's basically opposite of his 'Wire' character in this but for whatever reason, there's a running joke (as you may have seen in the trailer) concerning his character's love of Omar Little. I'm sure most people hate that kinda meta-self awareness but i LOVE that kinda thing. It's exactly what I love in pop culture.
Cedar Rapids, with it's basically unoriginal storyline and lack of ambition is fairly middling. It's good for more than a few laughs and easy to watch and entertaining but it kinda levels out after a while. The only thing that keeps the film ticking over is the solid comic acting from Helms, Clay Davis and John C. Reilly and anytime their on-screen together is good but they all make good alone as well. It's strange to say this because he's so brilliant in everything but Reilly is maybe at his zenith, playing a sleazy, coarse but loveable dick. Helms is basically called on to repeat what he did on The Hangover except more childish and more dramatic ACTING bits. Clay is just a big cute bear and i love him. It's basically these 3guys trying especially, Reilly and Helms trying to steal the film from one another; again I love that in films and tv too.
Matching guys when they can get screen time are Sigourney Weaver and Alia Shawkat. Weaver doing more comedy these days and in this gets to be a more empathetic 'Mrs Robinson'; she is not the nicest older lover but she's not malicious in trying to play with emotionally-retarded Helms and Shawkat is delightful as this small-town teen hotel prostitute; not the easiest part to play as you might imagine.
Cedar Rapids is just a very competent comedy- it's funny enough but it never tried to be something bigger than its self and in concluding, is a basic comedy about insurance salesmen and as curious as that sounds...

I watched Cedar Rapids (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Hanna (2011)...

Upside Down - The Creation Records Story (2010)

Of all the films that i adore, that I'm consistantly referring to on here, i'm surprised that i haven't proclaimed my love of 24hr Party People. It's my second favourite British film and my favourite 'music' film. It's hilarious, compelling, has an amazing cast, obviously the music is great but most of all, it captures the feel of the time (I assume) and moreover, captures the visceral excitement of new and live music. In considerable praise, i declare that Upside Down- The Creation Records Story is a worthy side-accompaniment, filmic cosmic brother/sister or documentary equivalent to that film.
Both films were practically cast from the same mold- both are true(ish) stories of wild and dynamic music moguls and facilitators, who fostered some of the greatest music this country has produced in the last 40years, lived every moment as well as they could and were relatively genial about understanding that it wasn't meant to last forever and fun while it lasted. As Tony Wilson says 'I am merely a narrator in my own story'; Wheel of Prometheus and all that.
There's even a hilarious moment in this film where Tony is interviewing Alan.
Where as 24hrPP is very much a Manchester story, Upside Down takes place on opposite sides - it begins in Glasgow and ends in London.
Alan Macgee, for a music promoter and publisher was metaphorically born with a silver spoon in his mouth, in Glasgow. He lucked into growing up with 2 of the most influential forces in recent British music, the Jesus and the Mary Chain and Bobby Gillespie, who began drumming for them before Primal Scream. After school, he got jobs where he could easily skive before moving to London. It was there, he began promoting gigs in pubs before deciding that was too much work and moving into recording these bands and starting the record label.  Gradually he builds up his stable with J&MC, then Primal Scream, then My Bloody Valentine and House of Love (who I'll whole-heartedly admit i'd never heard before this film and i still need to listen to Loveless) and Teenage Fanclub and Ride before the commercial highs of Oasis and the Furries.
At it's core, like any good story- the Creation Records Story is a good yarn, it moves quickly and if they miss your favourite bits... well, i'm sure they'll catch you on the DVD. Obviously I remember Macgee from being Oasis' svengali and indie-huckster during the mid-90's but i don't remember him being this enigmatic and entertaining, he's incredibly self-aware and a true delightful character.  Director Danny O'Connor made a reflection of exactly what this film was meant to look and feel like.
I was lucky enough to see a screening where Alan Macgee did a Q&A and he really is the guy from the film preceding, telling hilarious bizarre stories about the music biz. This is an ideal way for anyone to watch and a great journey to take vicariously. It's insightful and really funny. Perfect entertainment.

I watched Upside Down - The Creation Records Story (2010) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Cedar Rapids (2010)...

13 Assassins (2010)

In terms of Samurai movies, this is the real deal. Even though I'm no expert on the subject or Takeshi Miike, i can just sense it.  This is equal parts Magnificent Seven and Wild Bunch. It's the story of a retired warrior (gawd... Aren't they all!) tasked with removing a morally-void Duke/Prince deally. To fulfil this objective, he puts together 13 ASSASSINS.
Miike has made over 80 films but hasn't ever worked on this scale yet, he's made a no-fooling epic, channelling Lean and Peckenpah, without forgetting to bring in the stone-cold tangible uncomfortable rawness that he based his career on.
The villain, Lord Naritsugu Matsudaira is one of the most reprehensible people seen in a cinema, since the twot who put his feet up on the back of the seat next to mine. There's absolutely no redeemable features in the man, to the extent who have to enjoy him on a heightened level of catharsis. Gorô Inagaki plays him not sneering al-la Rickman but perpetually bored al-la killing and mutilating simply to see how people's expressions change.
It's impressive to see how the infamous Miike makes scenes of rape, death and mutilation moderately pallitible, at least enough for someone like me, with an aversion to body-horror. Which is not to say that he's not affective in showing us what a monster Matsudaira is, it's just well written to the extent we know what he's capable of.
Kôji Yakusho plays Shinzaemon Shimada, the old man in charge of taking the man down. Shinzaemon is a man duty and honour completely. He has survived a warrior life and restless until given this task. He treats it almost as a god given chance to end his life in the only way honourable-in battle. Not that this is glorified hari-kiri for him but it ignites him anew putting the team together, training them.
And when the time comes, the final set piece is just incredible. This is not a war movie obviously but it has one of the greatest full-scale battles ever. It like they built a town and over the course of 30mins or so, you want it get gradually obliterated-smashed, burnt, exploded and otherwise destroyed in this battle royals between 100's of soldiers and these 13 Samurai.
Miike has just made a masterpiece about stoic duty and sacrifice and honour. I keep using that word only because the film is just neck deep in it and the majesty of it.

Game of Death (2011)

If you're wondering why I'm watching, Game Of Death- a Wesley Snipes vehicle- Yeah- it's a Wesley Snipes vehicle. 'Game Of Death' could be anything couldn't it? any number of films are called that. Maddening.
Anyway, if you're wondering why I'm watching Game Of Death, it's not any masochistic need to watch DTV tut or curiosity about what Snipes does to pay a tax bill these days. (Is he/was he in jail?... certainly a jail marked 'Self-Loathing, Emotional Limbo and Creative Unfulfillment' no doubt or Blade 3 - ZING!)
No, my main draw to this film was Zoe Bell, the super-woman/stunt icon, most famous for playing herself in Tarantino's Death Proof.  She has such a magnetic personality; this was apparent in the documentary on female stuntwomen, Double Dare but i suppose Hollywood isn't THAT liberal and isn't ready for a total ass-kicking femme like Bell. So she has to make tut like this.
I wasn't expecting to be blown away- I don't usually watch these sort DTV Seagal/Lundgren/Van Rammed sorta fare but i thought it would have moments of vicariously enjoyment. I know these are low budget efforts but shouldn't that make you want to build on more creative/ idiosyncratic elements like writing and visuals?
Well more fool me, for wanting to give a Wesley Snipes film a shot. This was boring. BORING. Action films by their very nature have to be exciting, engaging and/or thrilling. This film never gets out of 1st year and actually, it's more like someone having a anxiety attack in the driveway.
I'd love to tell you what the story of this film is, but I couldn't tell you there's a doublecross thing where everybody in Snipes team have turned on him or something. It is ACTUALLY confusing because his team are meant to conduct assassinations but the rogue people keep threatening to kill the bad-guy from License To Kill, and you think 'wait-don't you want him dead? Why doesn't Wesley just egg them on?'
It's mostly set in a hospital, people are running around with guns like it's a work team-building paintball day, and they get shot a bit-hang on, I just read that back and i'm making it sound relatively exciting - Don't.. It's not.
There comes the point where Ernie Hudson pops in and you think, 'great, the guy from Ghostbusters'- he's not around for long.
I'll say that Zoe gets to be bad and she's watchable; that's alright but that's the only polite diplomatic thing I can tell you.
It's not even 'stupid or kisch' bad. It's like 90mins of Wesley Snipes creeping around a ward, like dosed inmate who's stolen a doctor's coat.
AGAIN i'm making it sound vaguely interesting.  I'd suggest you please stay away but, you already know better to try didn't you...

I watched Game Of Death (2010) on BluRay, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with 13 Assassins (2010)...

On Tour (2010)

I'm sure I would probably what anything with Mathieu Amalric in it. Admittedly I was only introduced to him in Quantum Of Solace and part 2 of Mesrine but he seems like a great actor capable of great work.
In, On Tour- Amalric is star, co-writer and director of the story about a disgraced producer returning back to this mother France, with a touring show of Burlesque dancers; a fictional backstage look at a man struggling to deal with headstrong women and all the other pressures in a life of juggled priorities.
Amalric is particularly well endowed in playing these great 'small' men. The sort of man who barks orders, loves complaining when things go wrong and taking credit when they go right. His character, Joaquin Dix has paid for these women and one guy to come out to tour their 'Burley' acts in this show but he's not got all the venues booked up or knows thing one about the art of burlesque; though he's more than happy to give notes on how they could improve the show. Obviously since these are accomplished women; women who know their act and audiences better than the cost of sequins and stockings and this any of this loser's opinions are rightfully ignored.
At the same time, we gradually learn that Dix was a disgraced tv presenter or producer and in the middle of this tour, he'll have to deal with having his kids foisted back on him.
On Tour is based on insecure ground but navigates its way through well. It's kinda like the Burlesque troupe are playing themselves and everyone else is acting characters. Amalric seems to have cherry-picked the stars of modern-burlesque and their personalities are allowed breath not be different characters in a script. I guess I don't know if 'Julie Atlas Muz' is a mischievous costume stealing mind but it seems like after seeing this. Only 'Mimi Le Meaux' has much in the way of plot-points to meet; Amalric and a few other actors deal with story and exposition. So On Tour is in no way a documentary of that lifestyle but a window into life on the road.

I watched On Tour (2010) on DVD, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Game Of Death (2010)...

Tooth Fairy (2010)

No, Thomas Harris hasn't written a barrel-scrapping origin story of another of his human-recycling serial killers, the only one scrapping barrels is me. And The Rock. And Steve Merchant. And Julie-look everyone involved was probably well-recompensated except me.
What horrified me most was that it wasn't as offensive as i thought it would be...
I don't know why action stars do this sort of family-movie type tut. They're ostrisizing the exact people that made them -males, 18-30. I guess they might insinuate that, they're trying to broaden their acting 'range' but if that was the case, do tv. It'll be a pay cut but at least it'll be well written. Don't get me wrong, I like Dwayne Johnson; i think he's a great comedy actor with a strong sense of self-awareness but why Rock, why!?  That peaked my curiosity as well as the inclusion of Stephen Merchant. They must have offered him so much money he had to accept or enough money to think it had to be worth going for. Same with Julie Andrews.
The story is identikit to most of its predecessors; grumpy dink has to change his ways via a silly fantasy macguffin or he'll lose his family and he learns life lessons along the way and right at the end, he has to make a choice between money and running to a school to see some cute kid do something pertaining to aforementioned cuteness.
BUT as i say amazing this film wasn't the disproportionate abortionate confection I suspected it might be. It's no Citizen Kane but no Martin Lawrence movie either. The Rock is good at some of the comedy stuff, not so hot on the mandatory melancholic /heart-warming moments though his part is wholly forgettable, which is serves both him and the audience. Merchant is obviously solid on the comedy and equally good at acting the melancholic moments, which is an unexpected surprise and he and Johnson make for a good double act. But Julie Andrews should know better. It's seriously disconcerting to see someone of her stature peeing her credibility away but then she's Julie freakin Andrews- she's got more credibility stored then she could ever spend. Billy Crystal pops in for a few also. I didn't realise Billy Crystal was the sort of comedic elder statesman who could just walk in and out of films willie-nillie like he was Steve Martin or Cleese. Billy Crystal, i respect you but what have you done for me lately? Ashley Judd comes thru to play 'age-appropriate love interest'. There was a time (late 90's), where she was neo-Con totty, like an M&S by which i mean, S&M Sandra Bullock but now she looks pregnant constipated all the time. She looks like she stumbled on the wrong set from a NCIS guest spot, in a Milupa stupor.
I shouldn't be doing movies like this on the blog but i haven't watched a movie just to pick on for ages and it's fun!
This movie is the equivalent of bad white wine- I'll politely drink and then be bemoaning it cos I'm drunk but wasn't that the point in the first place?

I watched Tooth Fairy (2010) on the missus's swanky Sky Movies Premiere.
My 2011 in Movies will return with On Tour (2010)...