With deadlines looming and work building my reviewing has taken a break, but my cinema going hasn’t. Hopefully I’ll be able to expand upon a few of these into full reviews but here a short critiques of the films I’ve been to see in the a last 2 months.
4,3,2,1 (Noel Clark and Mark Davis, 2010)
The next project from the writer of the fantastic Kidulthood and director of the fairly good Adulthood appears to be Tarantino meets Sex and the City. It concerns four girls who unwittingly become involved in a diamond heist. The film is divided into four with each part following one of the girls and as the film continues the stories begin to tie together. It begins awfully with a conversation in a coffee shop in which Clark has attempted to write a script in which four girls gossip and bitch. This is the stuff of male fantasy as they talk about sex, sex and umm sex toys; it is appallingly stereotypical dross not that far away from Sex and the City 2 (review coming soon). When the main narrative kicks in however, it is fairly entertaining.
The first story lacks drive, but the others include lesbians stuck in a panic room, the singer/rapper Eve coming to the rescue of a middleclass girl who is being pursued in Manhattan and a commendably tense hold up in a convenience store. It is ludicrously plotted, but frequently funny and for a British film it feels unique. Noel Clark is certainly a strong presence within our nation’s cinema and I hope to see much more of him before he sells out and inevitably makes his millions in Hollywood.
***
[Rec] 2 (Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza, 2009)
Oh Spain, after so many great Horror efforts like Pans Labyrinth, the Devil’s Backbone and the original [Rec] you go so Hollywood with this sequel. The original [Rec] was a short, intense and at times terrifying experience as a handheld camera documented the break out of a virus which turned the innocent habitants within an Apartment building in Barcelona into Zombies (this word is never used, as in 28 days/weeks later, but they clearly are of the Z-Word type).
The original never gave much context for the attack adding to the horror, but this sequel explains the events using a preposterous story mixing the Exorcist with a Vatican conspiracy. It also takes all the scary elements from the original such as the handheld camera work, the screaming infected, the frantic shouting, the night vision and recycles them again and again till they become tired clichés. It opens promisingly but by the messy end is a huge disappointment.
**
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (Werner Herzog, 2009)
Despite the awful title, this is a fa
ntastic film and earns itself my second five star award of the year. Despite sharing the same name, and (loosely) narrative of Abel Ferrara’s hard boiled original, it is a unique, bizarre and thoroughly entertaining film. Nicholas Cage is a very bad Lieutenanct indeed, playing the drug addicted Terence McDonagh who is called in to investigate the murder of a family in a post-hurricane Katrina New Orleans. Herzog, one of the most interesting directors currently working makes a number of fantastic choices within this film. The first is the setting. Shot almost entirely on location he captures the awful state New Orleans has been left in after the Hurricane in 2005. Highlighting the abandonment the town has faced is a good move politically and also creates a distorted location for the twisted narrative to take place.The film begins that like a straight forward cop thriller, but as McDonagh’s drug addiction, along with his gambling addiction and lust for women takes over his life, the film along with The Lieutenant forgets the original narrative all together and it becomes a dark and frequently hilarious character study. In what other Hollywood film would you see a dead alligator killed on the highway, from the eyes of another alligator on, followed shortly by a scene where Cage hallucinates presence iguanas in a stake out room. Wonderfully Amoral, with an incredible satisfying finale, it is a startling film worth seeing alone for Cage’s incredible performance.
*****
Four Lions (Christopher Morris, 2010)
Controversial satirist Christopher Morris’s debut film is a brave and daring comedy concerning the attempts of four Muslim extremists to commit an act of terrorism. What could have been an offensive misstep (See Uwe Boll’s 9/11 ‘comedy’ Postal) is an insightful, moving and at times extremely funny film. Instead of making fun of the act of terrorism, he brings to light the naivety and misguided nature of the group.
They have no set cause to commit an act of terrorism and instead blame it on an amalgamation of ‘Jews’ ‘Slags’ and (in the film’s best line) ‘Mini-Babybells’. Its documentary filming style helps the film appear scarily credible. Despite an over reliance on slapstick humour it is the best British film of the year. It is a comedy, but as the film draws to its inevitable conclusion the tone changes to one of sadness and tragedy, without ever being sentimental. I didn’t laugh within the last twenty minutes, and commend the film for that.
****
Robin Hood (Ridley Scott, 2010)
A satisfying summer film, but not a ‘Robin Hood’ film. This is more of a prequel, the ‘Batman Begins’ of a potential series of films, which while being enjoyable and an afternoon matinee sort of way is nothing revolutionary. Ridley Scott has not made a strong film since Gladiator, and unavoidably this film compares unfavourable to that. You will have heard about Russell Crowe’s accent, and yes it is terrible, but he tends to speak in low droll utterances so it is rarely noticeable. More noticeable is the complete lack of chemistry between Robin and Maid Marion played by Cate Blanchett who has shown much stronger performances that she displays here.
There are no memorable characters, speeches, or standout moments, but by the end you will have lapped up enough action sequences and medieval banter to leave fulfilled. That being said, its misguided pretences of being a historical accurate narrative (based, ironically on a highly fabricated myth) means that it lacks the fun spark that would elevate it into a strong contender for best summer blockbuster.
***
Nightmare on Elm Street (Samuel Bayer, 2010)
Realising his film isn’t at all scary; Director Samuel Bayer seems to have taken the cheap shock approach to his horror remake. As a huge fan of the franchise I was eagerly awaiting this film; however Bayer has taken all the best bits of the original, badly recycled them and then padded it out with a lot of rubbish. Freddy Kruger is the greatest horror character of all time, a monster that you can’t run or hide from as he is in your dreams; he knows your fears .
The original film series took delight in finding inventive ways of killing of his victims. The films were a great mixture of teen slasher and fantasy horror, something which has been lacking in horror cinema since the series ended. This remake relies on loud bangs as Kruger pops up to kill his next victim in their sleep while the audience themselves struggle to stay awake. There is also a misguided sub-plot involving Kruger’s child molestering days which belongs in a film with much more substance that this one can give it.
*1/2
Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010)
The first ‘big’ film of the year is the sequel to the underrated Iron Man. If you liked the first one, you’ll like the sequel. It is certainly no better but despite some major issues it retains most of the original’s charms. Robert Downey Jr is fantastic once again as Tony Stark, the playboy millionaire/superhero and has a whale of a time playing the biggest ego in Marvel history. It gets a great balance of action and comedy; there are some spectacular actions sequences and sight gags usually at the same time. It does however, a tad convoluted.
Having realised this is their biggest franchise now Spiderman has taken a rest; the studio has crammed in several characters such as Samuel L. Jackson’s Nicky Fury and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow in order to set up their future films. The connections between these characters and the films plot are largely arbitrary and lead the film to be 20 minutes too long. I don’t know how the Russians will feel about Mickey Rourke’s character Ivan Vanko, the biggest Russian stereotype since the James Bond Franchise became influenced by the Cold War. For a mad scientist hell bent on revenge he sure gets through a lot of vodka.
***1/2
The Disappearance of Alice Creed (J Blakeson, 2009)
This is an impressive directorial debut; a crime thriller containing just three actors throughout its running time. Gemma Arterton is Alice Creed a young party girl who is kidnapped by two men determined to get rich off her ransom money. The meticulous Vic, played brilliantly by Eddie Marsan believes he has created the perfect crime and has everything perfectly planned out. However, his accomplice Danny has a few ticks up his sleeve and a threeway game of cat and mouse soon beings. The film takes a minimalistic approach using only a handful of settings, sparse music and a simple premise. This creates an unbearable tense film with some sweat inducing sequences. It has one or two twists too many, but to its credit the film always remains balanced, exciting and taught.
****
Centurion (Neil Marshall, 2010)
Brutal British director Neil Marshall, following up from his fantastic Chicks vs. Cave monsters horror ‘The Descent’ and the 1980s film Mash up Dooms day presents an ambitious roman epic Centurion. It continues his flair for stylish, gory action but has a overblown and essential one dimensional plot and zero characterisation. The fights are edited so quickly that is hard to tell what is going on, removing what should be the films saving grace. Michael Fassbender does make a very credible action hero however as the Centurion in question.
**1/2
Repo Men (Miguel Sapochnik, 2010)
Jude Law and Forrest Whitaker are ‘Repo Men,’ but instead of taking your couches and big screen TV’s they steal your internal organs. Set in the future, and stealing unapologetically from superior sci-fi films such as Blade Runner and Total Recall, it concerns the careers of repo men who work for a company that manufactures organs and sets up unrealistic payback schemes that often, due to those pesky repo men, result in the death of their customers. Like many ‘post-modern’ films, the production a simple case of style over substance.
It has a flashy soundtrack, gore filled set pieces and an aspiration to satirise our capitalist, credit crunchy society. It is a load of rubbish, until the final 30 minutes which is so crazy, it forced me to give in and enjoy it. Highlights include a cramped corridor fight (another film theft ,this time from Chan-Wook Park’s ‘Old Boy’) and a bizarre sex scene which includes a couple cutting each other open and scanning the bar codes of their internal organs. It then ruins this with a twist so preposterous; it reminds the audience that the film was crap all along.
**
