Pompeii (2014)

2014-05-17

Twitter Plot Summary: Mount Vesuvius is about to blow its top, whilst in nearby Pompeii Kiefer Sutherland acts like Dick Dastardly.

Five Point Summary:

1. Obligatory flashback to early years of tortured hero.
2. Jon Snow: Horse Whisperer.
3. Gladiatorial fightings.
4. Vesuvius blows its top.
5. MORE CGI! MORE LAVA! MORE DEATH!

If history was never your strong point then you may be surprised to know that Mount Vesuvius does indeed cover Pompeii (and nearby Herculaneum, lest we forget) in a torrent of lava, rocks, ash and sea water before the end credits roll in this historical adventure directed by Paul WS Anderson – you know, that guy who can apparently never write a proper ending to any of his films. Luckily here he wasn’t on scripting duties, otherwise you could guarantee there would be room left for a sequel somewhere down the line.

Pompeii seems to take its inspiration from a number of far better films. Walking into the arena for the first time is reminiscent of the same moment in Gladiator, only with literally half the impact of that scene. That scene in Gladiator was also a revolution in special effects, whereas the one in Pompeii feels like a step back. You would think that in 2014 CGI wouldn’t look as bad as it does, but alas – if you had concerns then your fears are entirely justified. There are too many inspirations on show and not enough originality, it ends up trying to be too many different stories at once. Is it about the gladiators? Is it about the love story between Milo and Cassia? Is it about the volcano destroying the town? Is it… well, it’s all three and more besides. It’s easy enough to follow it all, but it’s a touch too bloated in terms of narrative and would have benefited from having a couple of sub-plots cut.

"That man criticised my accent. Kill him! KILL HIM NOW!" — “That man criticised my accent. Kill him! KILL HIM NOW!”

On the plus side the 3D isn’t too bad, although that isn’t much of a selling point. If you’re a fan of 3D dust particles then you’re well served, but otherwise there isn’t much to recommend in that department. Expanding further on the subject of special effects, the explosive action when Vesuvius does finally blow – and just to emphasise the point we keep getting regular cutaways to the lava bubbling away – isn’t too bad all things considered, but you still definitely get the feeling that the cast are stood on a green screen set for the majority of the time.

Kit Harington gets his first starring role following his break-out performance in Game of Thrones, although he doesn’t get a huge amount to do here beyond playing a slightly muted version of his GoT character Jon Snow, with added pectoral muscles. Emily Browning sits in the atypical female role of not having much to do, as does Carrie Ann Moss as her mother – also disappointing given her role as Trinity in The Matrix, subconsciously you expect her to have much more to do. The most fun comes from Kiefer Sutherland and his outrageous accent – he’s practically verging on pantomime villain territory from start to finish. It’s not going to be a contender at any awards ceremonies outside of the Razzies, but Pompeii does at least maintain a reasonable facade of being entertaining nonsense. Best advice would be to check your brain at the door, expect it to be terrible and you’ll get much more out of it.

Score: 2/5

Woyzeck (1979)

Simon Prior

2014-05-16

His career as an amateur dentist was off to a shaky start.

Twitter Plot Summary: Woyzeck, a simple man in a simple army, who simply goes off on one when he finally snaps.

Five Point Summary:

1. He’s clearly got a screw loose.
2. His wife is playing away from home.
3. Throwing a cat out of a window.
4. Embarrassed in the tavern.
5. And then he snaps.

The team-up of Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski struck gold again with Woyzeck, a film that explores the concept of being alone despite being surrounded by people most of the time, and the notion of piling pressure after pressure and humiliation on a person until they eventually snap and go off the rails. Shot in Herzog’s traditional documentary style with some long naturalistic takes, the locations are kept to a minimum which draws greater emphasis on the characters. To be fair, the standout performance is from Kinski himself as Woyzeck, although Eva Mattes is a close second as Marie, his long suffering wife.

For once Kinski’s character is inept, a man who is up against the world and doesn’t realise that they’re all laughing at him, often to his face. Even his wife, who finds herself growing ever more distant from her disinterested husband – who is absent both physically and mentally – and ends up sleeping with a dashing soldier who sweeps her off her feet. Woyzeck is another tragic figure in the same vein as Kinski’s own take on Nosferatu, and is clearly a man suffering from mental issues. Most of the time he’s almost in a trance, and for the rest of it he hears voices. Why and how this man came to be in the army is never made clear, but clearly they have quite loose policies when it comes to signing off potential candidates, especially those that clearly have mental health issues.

The doctor couldn't tell if Woyzeck's recent Nosferatu virus had worn off. — The doctor couldn’t tell if Woyzeck’s recent Nosferatu virus had worn off.

Woyzeck is surprisingly short for a Herzog film, clocking in at around the 80 minute mark, but had it run for any longer then it would have likely lost its way and introduced completely unnecessary story elements. For most of the running time Woyzeck the man is put upon, put down and downright insulted by everybody just because he appears simple and generally unaware of the majority of the world around him. Slowly but surely his defences are worn down until in the final act, he snaps. You know full well that the moment is coming, just because it’s Klaus Kinski in the central role, but it also stretches out from the behaviour of the character as well. How far do you let things go before you snap? It’s an interesting question that is raised, particularly when everyone around Woyzeck appears to be selfishly following their own agenda.

This is shown clearly in two of those who Woyzeck meets, notably the local doctor who sees Woyzeck as a perfect test specimen and wants to use him as a human test subject, and the local captain who is constantly babbling on about his own mortality and wanting to ensure he is remembered as a good man when his time finally comes. Yet despite his desires in this respect, he never seems to do anything to warrant deserving that outcome. It’s powerful stuff once again, carried by Kinski’s own underlying madness, and a slow build to its finale without compromising on character development or the occasional need to throw a cat out of a first floor window.

Score: 4/5

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Simon Prior

2014-05-15

Twitter Plot Summary: Frodo Baggins goes off on an epic quest with three fellow hobbits to destroy the One Ring. He’s joined by a fellowship.

Five Point Summary:

1. Hobbits in Hobbiton. Who’d have thought?
2. The Fellowship is formed.
3. They have a cave troll!
4. “YOU. SHALL NOT. PASS!”
5. Sean Bean makes a stand.

For many years, the Lord of the Rings was often considered to be one of the all time “unfilmable” projects, such was its scope and epic scale. Of course, we then reached a point whereby computer generated imagery came into its own and became a useful film making tool, and thereafter no project was deemed to be off limits for better or for worse. Peter Jackson, the man eventually chosen to bring Middle Earth to the big screen, was previously known for his splatter horrors, mining the horror comedy sub-genre for all its worth. Is this the man who was going to translate these very well respected books into a film trilogy? Well the answer is yes, of course. Not only that, but he did a very fine job of it too.

All of the constituent elements of Middle Earth are established promptly – the history of the Ring, the races who inhabit Middle Earth, the tranquil existence of Hobbiton, and so on, everything infused with a sense of epic scale that only builds as the trilogy goes on. But for now let’s just consider Fellowship on its own merits. As part of the quest to destroy the One Ring – an all powerful ring created by Sauron, now a malevolent giant eye, in order to enslave all of Middle Earth – a party of all the main races in Middle Earth unite to form the titular Fellowship. Amongst their number are four Hobbits, an elf, a dwarf, two Men and a wizard – Gandalf. In every respect each of these characters are examples of spot-on casting choices. Sean Bean is in typical form as Boromir, whilst Orlando Bloom is in no risk of stretching his acting skills as the mostly emotionless Legolas. John Rhys-Davies as dwarf Gimli is an amusing prospect given that he’s over 6 foot tall in real life. Viggo Mortensen, a latecomer to the set as Aragorn, provides a generally understated yet equally as powerful performance. The Hobbit actors (Wood, Monaghan, Astin and Boyd), although they start to come into their own in the subsequent films. Finally there’s Ian McKellen who is understandably very good (this is an understatement) as Gandalf.

Filming in his native New Zealand was an obvious choice for Peter Jackson in hindsight – not only does it have the calmer aspects of the British countryside that are appropriate for Hobbiton, but it also has numerous mountains and forests that are seemingly perfect representations of Middle Earth. It all adds a distinct air of realism to the place that perhaps wouldn’t be felt if they’d chosen to film elsewhere.

Obligatory "strike a heroic pose, ready to take on a cave troll" photo. — Obligatory “strike a heroic pose, ready to take on a cave troll” photo.

Ignoring the fact that it’s basically a series of films where people walk from one side of their world to the other, the quest itself is riddled with moments of peril and uncertainty. The main set piece takes place in the mines of Moria, now riddled with orcs, cave trolls (“They have a cave troll!”) and a fiery Balrog, all of whom are intent on stopping the Fellowship from escaping and continuing their quest. Other highlights come in the form of the Ring Wraiths, shadowy cloaked figures sent out as emissaries of Sauron to seek the One Ring and kill those who possess it. The Ring Wraiths are Sauron’s evil made real, which is a necessary move given how limited the Evil One’s movement is now that he’s just a giant eye atop a tower.

Of course, it’s not a like for like adaptation of the source material, although of course it is quite close in many respects. There’s much more action here for starters, in a bid to keep the audience entertained rather than make them sit through three hours of people talking and walking from A to B. In the right circumstances that might be acceptable, but it wouldn’t exactly do big box office. There have been attempts at balancing the gender issues that plague, for want of a better term, Tolkien’s original trilogy. Liv Tyler’s Arwen is given a much meatier role than in the books, although her involvement is generally all too brief and in hindsight does little to genuinely balance the gender divide. Still, at least Jackson and his co-writers Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh were at least aware that the film needed more female input, however brief it may be.

It does suffer from a few other niggling little problems too. Much of the forced perspective techniques work brilliantly, however there are several moments where characters have to be seen in scale with one another and it’s clear that the tiny actors standing in for Elijah Wood et al are evidently not Elijah Wood et al. Similarly whilst the special effects from Weta Workshop are generally impressive, there are a few moments where the characters are clearly computer generated as they run with that telltale gait of a CGI model.

Still, overall these are indeed minor complaints, as the rest of the production is sharp and the story gets the balance between action and quieter moments right. The quest to destroy the One Ring gets off to a strong start and ends at an appropriate point without that feeling of suddenness that often plagues the first and second parts of a movie trilogy.

Score: 4/5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIgkpEgCV-I

Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Simon Prior

2014-05-14

The operation to replace his male sexual organs with a gramophone were a success.

Twitter Plot Summary: Opera obsessed Fitzcarraldo sets off on an expedition to tap the last unclaimed source of rubber in the Amazon rainforest.

Five Point Summary:

1. Kung Fu Parrot!
2. Umbrella!
3. That’s a lot of boats.
4. Getting a ship up a mountain. No easy task.
5. The natives are up to something…

In what is perhaps a spiritual companion to their earlier collaboration in Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski reunited again for this journey down the Amazon river. This time it’s in much more civilised times as Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, aka Fitzcarraldo (Kinski) plans to build an opera house in the middle of the jungle, but first he needs funds. The only way he can achieve this in a short space of time is to join the rubber industry and there’s only one patch of land in the jungle that hasn’t been claimed – one on a tributary that is surrounded by river rapids. Given a strict deadline by which to complete his project, Fitzcarraldo sets off on a steam boat with a crew of workers, the ship’s captain, cook and engineer. Matters are complicated, again in Aguirre style, by the presence of the indigenous people living in that section of the jungle.

Kinski is in typically unhinged territory, his hair an unkempt mess and once more looks liable to go completely off the rails at any moment. This should come as no surprise given that the natives featured in the film genuinely offered to kill Kinski for Herzog due to his abrasive behaviour whilst filming. Kinski is perfectly cast as Fitzcarraldo for exactly this reason – only somebody who isn’t all there would concoct such an audacious plan and not inform the crew as to his intentions. Roping the natives in to help, without asking them or making it absolutely clear what he intends to do, is also indicative of a legitimately mad plan.

"Now where did I leave my boat?" — “Now where did I leave my boat?”

The main sequence, and the most impressive, features the steam boat being hauled over the hill and down to the other side in order to start up his rubber business, all of which was purportedly completed with a bulldozer and no special effects. This was a task that was genuinely completed as part of the production, but gives the impression that Herzog would never be a director you would wish to work for if you wanted to come out of the filming schedule unscathed. The sequence on the rapids was also shot for real and it seems that three of the men who volunteered to be on the boat as it moved down the rapids were injured as a result. All things considered, you’d probably be better off politely refusing if Herzog ever offered you a part on his latest production. In circumstances such as this, it could be hard to determine who’s the most insane out of Herzog and Kinski, but however you look at it they often managed to get the best out of each other despite their antagonism.

Whilst the journey has its ups and downs, and it’s perhaps slightly too long, the narrative has a nice sense of coming full circle with the opera-obsessed Fitzcarraldo getting the last, triumphant word. Despite all the tensions on set and Kinski’s own behaviour, it is at least a fitting resolution for the character and a final joyous ending that seems to indicate that the journey down the Amazon was worth it after all.

Score: 4.5/5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F53yUsgVuL0

Def-Con 4 (1985)

Simon Prior

2014-05-13

It's the only way to travel after the apocalypse. By giant corkscrew. — It’s the only way to travel after the apocalypse. By giant corkscrew.

Twitter Plot Summary: After World War 3 takes place and the world is annihilated, three astronauts in space return to Earth.

Five Point Summary:

1. Def-Con 4 isn’t actually that high up the spectrum. Just saying.
2. They should’ve stayed up in space, it would’ve been much more entertaining.
3. When the main villain is this awful, you know the film’s going to struggle.
4. Jeff Pustil hasn’t aged a day in 30 years, apparently.
5. I still think they’re going to die from nuclear fallout either way.

There’s a certain expectation going into a post apocalyptic movie – death, destruction, and a return to a feudal system of days gone by. Def-Con 4 achieves this, however it also feels like there is a lot missing amidst the pulp sci-fi plotting. Overall it feels hastily directed and cobbled together without going back and shooting pickups or getting establishing shots to break up the rapid pace of the editing. In some cases quick edits can be a good thing, but here it acts as a detriment.

Directed by Paul Donovan, one of the Supreme Beans responsible for the Lexx TV series, Def-Con 4 is as low budget as post apocalypse gets. Everything looks grim and dingy, which is a plus point, but it also looks very cheap which does not help matters. The story follows a trio of astronauts sat inside a space station which holds an arsenal of nuclear weapons that are to be released should a third world war break out. It inevitably does, and the planet is annihilated. After their satellite returns to Earth, bringing an armed and ticking nuclear bomb with them, a number of setbacks take place and they have to escape from the blast radius before the bomb goes off in 60 hours.

This is what happens if the Canadians don't like you. — This is what happens if the Canadians don’t like you.

It’s a fun concept, but it fails in its execution and lacks a certain something that would elevate it to being an essential B-movie. Perhaps its the lack of logic to the story, the fact that so much is crammed in that it loses sight of what it should really be doing. On that note, the editing is far too fast paced, as if there wasn’t enough coverage shot so the story made sense. Instead it seems to jump from one scene to another seemingly without any purpose. Much time is spent with the astronauts in space, then before you know it they’re on their way back to Earth to a landscape that has very quickly devolved into insanity, a Middle Ages world mixed with WW2-era weaponry.

Character motivations are a little on the peculiar side. This extends out from our astronaut trio to the central villain, Gideon Hayes (played by Kevin King), who is a power crazed teenage warlord with delusions of grandeur. With that in mind, you might understand why his plans are so poor, and why he’s not a particularly effective villain. Still, Jeff Pustil gets to play amusingly evil as Gideon’s right hand man, and is clearly the best thing about the film.

What it really needs is what made Lexx such a fun show – elements of darkness mixed with a blackly comic edge. If not the dark sexiness that Lexx provided, then at least make it funny or deliberately bad. The opening sequence is actually quite impressive, it’s only when they get down to Earth that it all starts to unravel. Still, seeing a number of Lexx cast members a good 10 years before that show started airing is at least one good reason to try out Def-Con 4. That, and to see exactly what a Canadian’s idea of a post-apocalyptic wasteland would look like. It certainly ain’t pretty.

Score: 2/5

Tarzan (2014)

Simon Prior

2014-05-12

“Jane, meet my mother.”

Twitter Plot Summary: The Tarzan story gets a science fiction twist as he fights to protect his jungle and a powerful meteorite.

Five Point Summary:

1. Tarzan’s loincloth always remains in a discrete position. Always.
2. The fur on those monkeys looks very nice.
3. Rain also looks very nice. The humans, not so much.
4. Soldiers hired by evil conglomerates can often be defeated by 3 juvenile gorillas and have terrible security measures.
5. Big meteorites are able to hide in the jungle.

Whoever thought turning Tarzan into a science fiction infused story needs their head examined. In 2014’s Tarzan, we’re one small step away from the King of the Jungle jumping into a spaceship and exploring the galaxy. Thankfully it never comes to that, but it really is so close to doing so that you expect aliens to step in at any moment and demand their hunk of space rock back. Other than the standard “Me Tarzan, you Jane” story that we all know, this interpretation adds a giant meteorite that holds enough power to fuel society for decades, and the evil machinations of Greystoke Industries which are under the control of the slightly sinister guy who is now running the place after the death/loss of the much more pleasant Greystoke family during a jungle expedition. It is here that young “JJ”, as Tarzan was once known, finds himself in the hands of a desolate female gorilla, and the rest is history. Told in montage form, of course.

The list of problems is multitude. Other than the fact it’s all a bit too science fiction for a Tarzan tale, the voice acting lacks oomph and is mostly uninspired. Other than Kellan Lutz, who is best known for his work in the Twilight franchise, the remainder of the cast are mostly lesser known actors, which in a way is nice because that way you don’t spend half the film trying to guess who the voice actor is. On the other hand, it comes back to that point about being uninspired, so a game of “spot the celebrity” would have likely helped matters.

Something doesn’t look right about this picture…

It’s also a tad too dark for younger audiences, the recurring theme of death and violence keeps rearing its ugly head, in particular amongst the gorilla community storyline. Most of the narrative threads are tied up by the finale, but it feels a bit rushed when the big resolution takes place. There’s also very little definition to anybody other than Tarzan and Jane’s characters, but then that is to be half expected.

The animation at least looks superb, with the jungle and the animals living there well modelled against their real world counterparts. On a slightly more concerning note is the uncanny valley effect that the humans have on the audience. The human characters look almost – but not quite – real, to the point where it can be difficult to take them seriously. If they had been animated in a slightly more cartoonish style then there would be less of an issue.

It’s all a bit too much like Avatar to stand on its own merits, and narratively it’s so inconsistent that it often feels like half the story was cut out and the joins not pasted over. It comes to something when you feel that the best villain is the evil silverback gorilla, but at least he had a bit of chutzpah when compared to the humans. Maybe he should become the new head of Greystoke Industries? Now there’s a fun idea for a sequel…

Score: 2/5

Plastic (2014)

Simon Prior

2014-05-11

Twitter Plot Summary: A group of scammers scam the wrong guy, and are made to pay him £2 million or face a shallow grave.

Five Point Summary:

1. Posh kids scamming the rich. Yawn.
2. Let’s go to Miami. Why not.
3. Now’s exactly the right time to start thinking about making a break for it. Not.
4. Who scams the scammers?
5. Slow motion gunfights are still cool.

Plastic isn’t a good film, and the problems with it are manifold. First and foremost is the tone – it needs to be either a serious crime story with the odd dash of dark comedy, or be an Ocean’s Eleven style caper that’s light in tone. Plastic is both of these yet neither, never sure which one it wants to be and flipping between the two like someone experiencing a massive sugar rush after necking five litres of a popular fizzy drink. The odd moments of humour are genuinely funny – the quiet following a slow motion gun fight is perhaps unintentionally hilarious, but it’s the sort of thing the movie needed more of. That and more of Graham McTavish, who brings his comedic chops to the fore as the guy working for a jeweller’s the group have targeted, with him trying to impress his young, attractive secretary in the process of making a big sale. By comparison the main cast are bogged down with their crime caper plotting which never seems to get off the ground. Their plan itself is clearly scripted, but lacks urgency and pizazz.

It essentially boils down to a bunch of rich kids scamming people for vast amounts of money, and getting on the wrong side of a prominent gangster, played by Thomas Kretschmann, who demands £2 million from them to make up for their indiscretion. It’s either that or a shallow grave in the woods. Without further ado the group leave the UK for Miami to target some big spenders and pay off the debt they owe.

Will Poulter’s the best on display here, although he sadly doesn’t get much to do. Of the five core cast members he’s the one with the least developed role – Sam and Frankie have their little relationship will they/won’t they thing going on, whilst Yatesey and Rafa are thinking about branching off on their own and setting up their own enterprise, which could have ramifications for them all.

Emma Rigby looks like the title of the film – plastic. Whilst many will no doubt still find her attractive, the rather horrible plastic surgery she has put herself through has ruined her previous natural appearance. In terms of acting ability there’s a little more to go on, but the new looks have ruined any credibility she may have once had. Alfie Allen and Sebastian de Souza have a good rapport as the two more junior members of the troupe, but again they’re not given much room to breathe beyond having basic defining characteristics – Allen’s Yatesy is a ladies man whilst de Souza is a generally shy and quiet computer expert. No stereotyping there, obviously.

Plastic should have been far better than it ended up. If it had decided on which tone to take – comedy or serious crime thriller – then it stands to reason that it would have been a far more entertaining film. In the end it’s tonally disjointed and the script needs a huge amount of work to make you care for the characters, as it’s difficult to care if they make it out the other side or not.

Score: 2/5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6qJU5VtIVg

Transcendence (2014)

Simon Prior

2014-05-10

He'd been having a bad day, clearly. — He’d been having a bad day, clearly.

Twitter Plot Summary: Johnny Depp’s scientist chap has his consciousness transferred into a computer, and havoc ensues.

Five Point Summary:

1. Depp: bored.
2. Kidnapped by them, now he’s one of them.
3. Much time passes. Again.
4. He has an army of drones. Clever boy…
5. All is revealed.

Transcendence marks the directorial debut of Wally Pfister, formerly thick as thieves as Director of Photography on the films of Christopher Nolan. Not going down the obvious route and making a low key film, Pfister has jumped straight in at the deep end with a high concept science fiction tale. Opening and closing with Paul Bettany’s scientist Max (arguably the real central character and the best performance in the film), Transcendence is a cautionary tale about artificial intelligence and the potential mishaps that may occur if/when a human’s consciousness is placed into a computer.

Depp, as the scientist who is destined to shed his corporeal form in favour of something that has more RAM than a field of sheep (joke gleefully stolen from Red Dwarf), seems to be bored from start to finish, never raising his performance beyond a dull monotone. This was likely a performance choice he made, but it doesn’t help the film, nor does it aid in the audience caring about his character. If he showed a little bit of life before he gets turned into a supercomputer then that would have helped, instead it’s almost as if he’s reading off cue cards and isn’t entirely aware of where he is. Rebecca Hall gets most of the emotional legwork as Evelyn, the wife of the recently transferred Will, but she soon finds herself with little to do as time goes on. Which brings us nicely onto another point – time. There are a number of jumps in the narrative and years pass. Within that time Depp’s supercomputer steals a load of money, builds himself a massive facility in the desert, and amongst his many research projects starts amassing an army.

They thought, just for a second, that something interesting might be going on in the next room. Nope.

It does of course look fantastic, what with Pfister’s background in cinematography, but you’ll be disappointed if you’re expecting something with the same verve and feel for action as Christopher Nolan will leave disappointed – precious little takes place beyond several people looking a bit concerned and doing very little else. Ironic given the amount of time that passes off-screen – what have they been doing for all those years?

The final point to be made is perhaps the most pertinent – is it actually an evil, malevolent computer? All will be revealed by the end, of course, but it does raise the concern about presumption and taking things on face value without knowing all of the facts. It’s another aspect of the story that doesn’t get sufficient room to breathe, however.

There’s a lot of ideas buzzing around here, from the notion of the internet making the world smaller, to evil super computers to the morality and ethics of transferring a person’s consciousness into a computer, but it doesn’t quite hit the mark in terms of telling a coherent story. With a cast that has mostly been plucked from Christopher Nolan’s repertory of actors, it’s a shame that they’re not given more to work with. But then in a script that’s mostly about people stood around in rooms talking rather than big action routines, there’s only so much you can do. Everybody gives it their all, but it ends up being a confusing mess that doesn’t make its point efficiently enough. Still, at least Pfister gave it a try, and whilst this is an honourable failure with any luck his next stab at the director’s chair will be slightly more than a sub-par Nolan story.

Score: 2.5/5

Blue Ruin (2014)

Simon Prior

2014-05-09

Rule #1: Never look nervous when holding a gun.

Twitter Plot Summary: When eye for an eye vengeance goes slightly awry, amateur killer Dwight has to protect his family from slightly less amateur killers.

Five Point Summary:

1. If you’re homeless, you’ll always have an epic beard.
2. Just for once, stitching your own leg actually makes it worse.
3. Never mess with rednecks.
4. If you’re going to use a gun, at least but good at it.
5. Building a fort in a house is clearly the thing to do.

Sitting watching Blue Ruin is an experience, likely to be one where you find yourself glancing to see how far you’re into it after what seems like 20 minutes, only to discover that an hour has passed. This is usually indicative of a quality film, where time is irrelevant and 50 minutes feels like 5. Cleverly playing with the standard concepts of the traditional revenge thriller template, Blue Ruin’s protagonist, Dwight, is a homeless man who discovers that a man from his past has been released from prison, and Dwight takes it upon himself to seek vengeance for wrongs previously committed against his family. Over the course of the film the stakes escalate to the point where, through his own general incompetence, Dwight has put his estranged family – his sister and her kids – at risk of similar levels of redemptive eye for an eye style vengeance.

Dwight, played by Macon Blair, is completely the opposite of the figure we’d usually expect to meet in these circumstances. Under the mass of hair he’s a weedy man, coming across as nervous and skittish more often than not. His own inability to do anything properly also turns out to be the reason why he ends up as deep into it as transpires, inadvertently leading his attackers to his sister’s home, or his inability to shoot a target that is a few feet away from him being two key examples. That’s not to say that he doesn’t have at least a modicum of intelligence, just that he often lacks the practical skills to implement it.

The direction from Jeremy Saulnier deserves praise, displaying most efficiently the concept of “show don’t tell”. The opening 20 minutes are almost entirely wordless, yet the story doesn’t drag and you know exactly where the characters are, both physically and emotionally, from their actions and a clever use of scene setting. It’s easy to believe in the characters and the situation, with events developing organically as the stakes grow more urgent, and the fractured psyches of everyone involved becomes more apparent.

The pig had not gone quietly into the night.

The script meanwhile is adept at subverting our expectations and the tropes of the revenge thriller drama – the police are kindly sorts rather than imposing authority figures, and an attempt at stitching a wound on your own leg, without medical assistance, just makes matters worse. You wouldn’t expect Rambo or John Matrix from Commando making such a pig’s ear of it. Even the finale plays with our expectations, building and building to what is apparently destined to be an epic showdown and instead ambles off in a different direction and chooses something much more low key yet equally as gripping. By it every nature, keeping things small scale and somewhat more intimate is what sets Blue Ruin apart from its revenge thriller brethren, and is what cements it as an essential film in the genre. The cast is kept to a bare minimum and everybody we meet in the story serves a purpose.

It’s frequently these lower budget movies that have the power to grip its audience, and Blue Ruin certainly does that from start to finish. Given its tortured route to the big screen, it’s likely gratifying to all involved that the end result is as polished and impressive as it is. Whilst it’s unlikely to recoup its money during its cinema run, with any luck it will find its audience when it receives its DVD/Blu-Ray release. Suffice to say, it will be much deserved.

Score: 4/5

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension (1984)

Simon Prior

2014-05-08

Somehow, Peter Weller manages to pull this look off.

Twitter Plot Summary: Buckaroo Banzai, all round smart guy, has to stop an alien invasion from the 8th dimension.

Five Point Summary:

1. Nice teeth, John Lithgow.
2. Peter Weller rocking a bow tie.
3. Kidnap!
4. They’re not all bad, apparently.
5. Prancing like a boss.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai is, for all intents and purposes, a modern take (well, modern as of 1984) of the B-movie features of the 1950s, but given a modern edge and a knowing nudge-nudge, wink-wink to its audience. Buckaroo Banzai (Weller) is a man with many talents – physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot and, of all things, a rock musician. In what is very much a pulp science fiction story, Banzai must stop an alien invasion whilst giving regular knowing nods to its audience and packing in a ridiculous amount of narrative that has the potential to make it nigh-on impossible to explain or possibly even understand. Suffice to say that if Banzai can’t stop the alien invasion World War 3 will break out. No pressure then.

It’s one of those old school adventure stories that you never seem to see anymore – the fabulous hero surrounded by a dedicated posse of supporters and followers (as seen in the end credits), and if it had been around in the 1930s it would surely have been released as a multi part serial with a cliffhanger ending at the end of every 15 minute episode. I doubt very much that a film like this would get made in our current climate, especially one as densely plotted as this. That may very well be the reason it didn’t perform so well at the time of its release, that and the general apathy the public have historically had with the science fiction genre.

Just a normal day at the office for John Lithgow.

The music is typical cheesy synths for the era, yet deceptively the tunes are excellent. Similarly the cast is chock full of big names – although admittedly they may not have been well known at the time. In many cases it’s clear that an association with science fiction is not detrimental to future career plans. It was nice seeing Peter Weller acting without being buried beneath a bulky Robocop suit, and he is a perfect fit for the look of Banzai, just the right amount of smarts mixed with the possibility that there’s much more to him below the surface.

Lithgow meanwhile is superb as the criminally insane Dr Lizardo, an absolutely insane character who’s mind is inhabited by Lord John Whorfin, the leader of the Red Lectroids who were imprisoned in the 8th dimension. After they make their escape into our reality, it’s up to Buckaroo Banzai and his band of assistants known as the Hong Kong Cavaliers – amongst their number are Clancy Brown and Jeff Goldblum, and the cast is rounded off by the likes of Christopher “Great Scott!” Lloyd and Dan Hedaya.

Sadly a proposed sequel never saw the light of day. It would have been fantastic to see a franchise spin out of this, but it was never to be. Perhaps one day somebody will unearth the concept for Buckaroo Banzai and give it the remake treatment. Stranger things have happened, both here and in the 8th dimension – including seeing Jeff Goldblum dressed up as a cowboy.

Score: 3.5/5

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