As promised....
DVD Review: Crank (Neveldine/Taylor, 2006, USA)
Speed in a body. Four such brilliant words. An incredible premise. The best pure action film for a good few years.
Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) has been posioned with the "Beijing Cocktail"; if he doesn't keep his adrenaline up he will die. Before he dies, Chelios has to get revenge on the man who did it to him, Verona (Jose Pablo Casillo).
That's all you need to know. To say anything else would spoil some of the fun of this picture as you are never sure where it is headed next and the spontaenity is very much part of the appeal. Directing duo Neveldine/Taylor (surely previous music video directors) use many tricks in the book and stage some new ones to make this feel truly like an action movie for the 21st century. The eidting smacks of MTV school esque filmmaking but the sheer bravado and surreality of much of the film (the scene with the Japanes businessman seems to mimic Statham;'s Revolver weirdly enough) seem to suggest that these guys have more brains than most hack action directors (Ratner, I'm looking at you). The use of HD cameras is also evident and impressively so. Unlike some of the earlier digitally shot filmsreleased in cinemas, this film retains a very clean and sharp image and iit brings out the more iinventive uses of the camera very well.
The film also has a wicked streak of black humour running throughout it, and while very funny, is very much men's-only humour. It certainly struck a chord with me and my good friend Neil when we saw this at the cinema, and it lost none of its appeal
The film belongs to Statham, barely any characters get a look on and you do not care. Seeing him tear up the streets of LA is surely one of the most enthralling cinematic treats of 2006 and he pulls it off with aplomb. That being said, I found his girfriend played by Amy Smart less annoying than many reviewers seem to have thought.
That's about all I really want to say, I feel I may ruin your experience if I say much more. It's a shame this kind of died in cinemas and as I really do mean it when I say this is one of the best pure action films made in years. Also, if its tagline "Poision in his veins, vengeance in his heart" doesn't get you going, you can't call yourself an action fan lol.
Video: As said in the review the film itself is shot incredibly well with HD cameras. Assuming this is a digital-to-digital transfer as I think it is, it is pretty much the best picture quality you can hope for on DVD.
Audio: Slightly disapointing Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The front gets a lot of action but I didn't feel the rears were used half as much as they could have been. When it does kick in, its more a suprise than anything else. Very nice bass though.
Extras: Teaser trailers for two of my most anticipated films for the first half of 2006, Joe Carnahan's Smokin' Aces, and the follow up to Shaun of the Dead, Edgar Wright's "Hot Fuzz". Good stuff to have. Trailer for Crank which reflects the film's style rather well. And that is it.... Would have loved a commentary. Is it just me or are commentaries starting to die out? Real shame.
Great film, average DVD. I couldn't wait to buy it, but if you want, rent it for now and wait until its a fiver in a few months time.
Happy New Year everyone, I'm working at 8 tomorrow morning. Balls.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
DVD Review: Snakes On A Motherfucking Plane
Yep, I'm back, not with a review of the best action film of the year, but THE BEST FILM EVER MADE.
DVD Review: Snakes On A Plane (David R. Ellis, 2006, USA).
"Eddie Kim let a load of vemonous snakes onto the plane".
How's that for a synopsis?
I have quite a long reltionship with this film. Not as long as with Donna but... actually nearly as long. Thats kind of creepy... Anyway, last year I heard of this film on various internet sites. A film starring Samuel L Jackson, the coolest actor alive, starring in a film called Snakes On A Plane. That was before the whole internet got buzz of it (And I mean that, as lame as it sounds). But when it came to the cinema, I didn't see it. I wanted to ee it with a bunch of people, I even offered to pay for Donna's bus fare, ticket, popcorn and drink just so I could have someone there with me, but eventually I admitted defeat. I waited for the DVD. WHY DID I WAIT? I grabbed a few tinnies and stuck it on....
Sean (Nathan Phillips, who two minutes ago I recgonised as being the guy from Wolf Creek), an extreme sports addict, shown by um.. his riding a bike during the titles, witnesses a mob hit by gangster Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson, main villian in two scenes!) and has agent Flynn (Samuel L Jackson) to protect him on a flight to the trial for the murder Kim commited. Obivuously Kim doesn't want this to happen, and so after "exhausting all other option", decides to unleash a load of posioinous snakes on the plane to either a. kill Sean, or b. (and this is the kicker) make sure the plane crashes and no one survives. The plane, its crews, and passengers must band together to try and get out of the situation alive.
Where do I even begin? I can't be objective, I was prepared to be disapointed but god it blew me away, it is absolute pure cheese of the highest order. Very much as well as Crank but in a different way. The dialogue is terrible such as...
"Sir, Are you telling me that your only flight time is on a video game?"
"This plane will go down faster than a Thai hooker"
Two particular favourites. The effects are fucking terrible, I mean really very bad, it looks unfinished, much of the acting is shocking and the titliation in the film is absurd. But it seems to know this. Everyone plays it straight but there are signs. The shitty effects seem to be done so purposefully to illicit laughs, one thing which springs to mind is when a guy gets hit by a nsake smacks his head on a wall and seems to start bleeding through the sheer mild force of the hit to the head. Of the film was being played straight, it could not have got past spec stage without lines such as those above being cut. The actors seem to have been given the instruction to play the thing straight but with a sense of knowing behind the perfomances. Samuel L Jackson is clearly having the time of his life and that comes across in every frame he is in. My favourite part of the film? Sounds odd out of context but some lights come on and you hear a random passenger shout "Snakes!" Love it. That's all I can say. I think many people may very much hate this film, it is rubbish really but rubbish which hits my buttons dead on.
This was a rental copy, I'll have my opinions on the other aspects of the DVD when I buy the retail copy.
DVD Review: Snakes On A Plane (David R. Ellis, 2006, USA).
"Eddie Kim let a load of vemonous snakes onto the plane".
How's that for a synopsis?
I have quite a long reltionship with this film. Not as long as with Donna but... actually nearly as long. Thats kind of creepy... Anyway, last year I heard of this film on various internet sites. A film starring Samuel L Jackson, the coolest actor alive, starring in a film called Snakes On A Plane. That was before the whole internet got buzz of it (And I mean that, as lame as it sounds). But when it came to the cinema, I didn't see it. I wanted to ee it with a bunch of people, I even offered to pay for Donna's bus fare, ticket, popcorn and drink just so I could have someone there with me, but eventually I admitted defeat. I waited for the DVD. WHY DID I WAIT? I grabbed a few tinnies and stuck it on....
Sean (Nathan Phillips, who two minutes ago I recgonised as being the guy from Wolf Creek), an extreme sports addict, shown by um.. his riding a bike during the titles, witnesses a mob hit by gangster Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson, main villian in two scenes!) and has agent Flynn (Samuel L Jackson) to protect him on a flight to the trial for the murder Kim commited. Obivuously Kim doesn't want this to happen, and so after "exhausting all other option", decides to unleash a load of posioinous snakes on the plane to either a. kill Sean, or b. (and this is the kicker) make sure the plane crashes and no one survives. The plane, its crews, and passengers must band together to try and get out of the situation alive.
Where do I even begin? I can't be objective, I was prepared to be disapointed but god it blew me away, it is absolute pure cheese of the highest order. Very much as well as Crank but in a different way. The dialogue is terrible such as...
"Sir, Are you telling me that your only flight time is on a video game?"
"This plane will go down faster than a Thai hooker"
Two particular favourites. The effects are fucking terrible, I mean really very bad, it looks unfinished, much of the acting is shocking and the titliation in the film is absurd. But it seems to know this. Everyone plays it straight but there are signs. The shitty effects seem to be done so purposefully to illicit laughs, one thing which springs to mind is when a guy gets hit by a nsake smacks his head on a wall and seems to start bleeding through the sheer mild force of the hit to the head. Of the film was being played straight, it could not have got past spec stage without lines such as those above being cut. The actors seem to have been given the instruction to play the thing straight but with a sense of knowing behind the perfomances. Samuel L Jackson is clearly having the time of his life and that comes across in every frame he is in. My favourite part of the film? Sounds odd out of context but some lights come on and you hear a random passenger shout "Snakes!" Love it. That's all I can say. I think many people may very much hate this film, it is rubbish really but rubbish which hits my buttons dead on.
This was a rental copy, I'll have my opinions on the other aspects of the DVD when I buy the retail copy.
Friday, December 22, 2006
What up, yo
Sorry about the lack of posts this weeks folks, been a hectic one, got a promotion at work and christmas there is hectic so I haven't had a lot of time to watch new stuff that i really want to review. I will say this thought, Poseidon... just a nothing movie really, was going to review it but I didn't what to say. Bought Predator today, looking forward to listening to the DTS soundtrack, droolworthy I bet. Anyway, I'll be back after christmas with a review of what I'm hoping I get for christmas, and the best action film of 2006, Crank. Happy Christmas everyone, don't party too hard, next weekend is gonna be large to!
Friday, December 15, 2006
DVD Review: Monster House
DVD Review: Monster House (Gil Keenan, 2006, USA).
Interesting one this, I've got to say. Saw a trailer for it an age ago maybe Summer 2005, then forgot about it. Then it came out and the reviews were pretty fucking great. Thought I would wait for the DVD to come out before seeing it, and I really wish I saw it in the cinema. Being raised on 80's kids films, The Goonies, ET, Tron all that stuff. As soon as the Amblin logo (Spielberg's other production company, pretty much attached to ever good kid's film of the 80's), I knew this would be something special. It's both special, 80's but sitting on the cutting edge.
A motion-capture film following on from the frankly disturbing The Polar Express, this film deals with TJ (Mitch Musso) a kid who after a particularly tense encounter with the child-hating owner of the house Mr Nebercrakker (Steve Buscemi), which results in Nebbercrakker being collapsing, finds himself being haunted by the Monster House of the title. He along with his best friend Chowder (Sam Lerner) and new girl in the neighbourhood Jenny (Spencer Locke) must try nto uncover the House's secret before it eats all the children in the neighbourhood on Halloween.
This film pratically drips of the 1980's. Not only is it set in the 80's, it has the nature of kids banding together to try and deal with something extraordinary, and quite possibly life-threatening, like many of the kid's films of the 1980's had. This sense of real adventure seems to have been lost in many of the kid's films of the recent past, instead opting for either endless direct-to-video sequels to Disney classics or well High School cocking Musical. God bless Gil Keenan and the writers, whose names escape me at this point, for bringing back this 1980's feel for todays kids, and big kids like myself.
The motion capture aspect of the film is interesting. Gil Keenan explains that if this film was shot as live action, he would not have been able to attain the sylisitic tone that he wanted to set and indeed the finsihed result is interesting, best described as hyper-real I suppose. The characters look real but something is just a little off with them, certain features are exxagerated. I would also argue that by making this an animated film, the more intense scenes have been lessesened in impact and this could surely have had an effect on its success. It is scary in places, for kids anyway, but it never gets truly to intense for most children, I would think. The film looks superb though. Taking a less photo realistic route than The Polar Express was a great idea as I do not think the computer images can quite pull it off yet (Although Rober Zemickis' upcoming adaption of Beowulf should prove very interesting for this effect). It is certainly very impressive animation.
The voice acting and script is also nigh-on perfect. The film has got some pretty big names in it, Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder, Maggie Gyllenhall (who incidentally is fucking incredible in real life), Jason Lee and Steve Buscemi to name just a few, but the film is not overhwlemed by them and this is the kids story, every one of whom does a stand up job of pulling off the fine line walked by all kids between childish playing and the prospect of growing up and getting into the opposite sex (as such).
Overall, if this film doesn;t get some recognition at the Oscar's for the best animated feature category, it really would be a crime. Much better than the frankly mediocre Cars, which will no doubt be nominated also, and also just a great film for all ages, this one is a definite purchase for myself. Anyone not into 1980's nostalgia may just want to rent but you should certainly enter this house!
Video: Digital-to-digital transfer, so no real issues. The film looks great but god I can't help but think of what the Blu-Ray version looks like. I imagine I would drool.
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Pretty involving, you get some rear speaker action when you would expect it, and the bass is ever present also, soemthing I find lacking in many modern titles. A truly involving track but maybe a little to involving along with the images for smaller children. An audio descriptive track is also avaliable and that is a great thing to see and a very commendable extra.
Extras: Commentary by Gil Keenan which I have not listened to but will update when I have. Some really great featurettes which can be viewed a whole documentary. Facinating seeing all the actors doing the motion capture themselves and you can see that Gil Keenan's ideas really were very definite at the start. Worth the price of the DVD alone to see Kathleen Turner doing motion capture as the house, one of the most bizarre things you will see in a long time.
Great film, best animated one of the year which I've seen and one I can't wait to show my kids (Well obviously I can wait but... you get the picture).
Back hopefully tomorrow, have a good Friday all!
Interesting one this, I've got to say. Saw a trailer for it an age ago maybe Summer 2005, then forgot about it. Then it came out and the reviews were pretty fucking great. Thought I would wait for the DVD to come out before seeing it, and I really wish I saw it in the cinema. Being raised on 80's kids films, The Goonies, ET, Tron all that stuff. As soon as the Amblin logo (Spielberg's other production company, pretty much attached to ever good kid's film of the 80's), I knew this would be something special. It's both special, 80's but sitting on the cutting edge.
A motion-capture film following on from the frankly disturbing The Polar Express, this film deals with TJ (Mitch Musso) a kid who after a particularly tense encounter with the child-hating owner of the house Mr Nebercrakker (Steve Buscemi), which results in Nebbercrakker being collapsing, finds himself being haunted by the Monster House of the title. He along with his best friend Chowder (Sam Lerner) and new girl in the neighbourhood Jenny (Spencer Locke) must try nto uncover the House's secret before it eats all the children in the neighbourhood on Halloween.
This film pratically drips of the 1980's. Not only is it set in the 80's, it has the nature of kids banding together to try and deal with something extraordinary, and quite possibly life-threatening, like many of the kid's films of the 1980's had. This sense of real adventure seems to have been lost in many of the kid's films of the recent past, instead opting for either endless direct-to-video sequels to Disney classics or well High School cocking Musical. God bless Gil Keenan and the writers, whose names escape me at this point, for bringing back this 1980's feel for todays kids, and big kids like myself.
The motion capture aspect of the film is interesting. Gil Keenan explains that if this film was shot as live action, he would not have been able to attain the sylisitic tone that he wanted to set and indeed the finsihed result is interesting, best described as hyper-real I suppose. The characters look real but something is just a little off with them, certain features are exxagerated. I would also argue that by making this an animated film, the more intense scenes have been lessesened in impact and this could surely have had an effect on its success. It is scary in places, for kids anyway, but it never gets truly to intense for most children, I would think. The film looks superb though. Taking a less photo realistic route than The Polar Express was a great idea as I do not think the computer images can quite pull it off yet (Although Rober Zemickis' upcoming adaption of Beowulf should prove very interesting for this effect). It is certainly very impressive animation.
The voice acting and script is also nigh-on perfect. The film has got some pretty big names in it, Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder, Maggie Gyllenhall (who incidentally is fucking incredible in real life), Jason Lee and Steve Buscemi to name just a few, but the film is not overhwlemed by them and this is the kids story, every one of whom does a stand up job of pulling off the fine line walked by all kids between childish playing and the prospect of growing up and getting into the opposite sex (as such).
Overall, if this film doesn;t get some recognition at the Oscar's for the best animated feature category, it really would be a crime. Much better than the frankly mediocre Cars, which will no doubt be nominated also, and also just a great film for all ages, this one is a definite purchase for myself. Anyone not into 1980's nostalgia may just want to rent but you should certainly enter this house!
Video: Digital-to-digital transfer, so no real issues. The film looks great but god I can't help but think of what the Blu-Ray version looks like. I imagine I would drool.
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Pretty involving, you get some rear speaker action when you would expect it, and the bass is ever present also, soemthing I find lacking in many modern titles. A truly involving track but maybe a little to involving along with the images for smaller children. An audio descriptive track is also avaliable and that is a great thing to see and a very commendable extra.
Extras: Commentary by Gil Keenan which I have not listened to but will update when I have. Some really great featurettes which can be viewed a whole documentary. Facinating seeing all the actors doing the motion capture themselves and you can see that Gil Keenan's ideas really were very definite at the start. Worth the price of the DVD alone to see Kathleen Turner doing motion capture as the house, one of the most bizarre things you will see in a long time.
Great film, best animated one of the year which I've seen and one I can't wait to show my kids (Well obviously I can wait but... you get the picture).
Back hopefully tomorrow, have a good Friday all!
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Review: Magic (Richard Attenborough, 1978, USA)
This is a film I had been meaning to see for a while now. Mentioned in passing in magazines, never really seen on any show talking about horro and yet the combination of factirs intrigued me. Anthony Hopkins... An evil puppet... Directed by an Attenborough... How could I not want to see this. Only after hearing the trailer discussed on the rather great podcast Filmspotting (look for it on itunes or www.filmspotting.net), did I get the motivation to rent it. And how is it? As weird as it sounds.
Corky (Anthony Hopkins) is a failed magician who suddenly hits it big with a ventriloquist act featuring a dummy called Fats (Voiced by Anthony Hopkins). After getting scared of the level of his success, he goes to his home town where he tries to start a relationship with an old unrequited love, Peggy-Ann (Ann-Margaret), who happens to be married. While doing so, Fats (Or is it Corky's other side), grows increasingly impatient with events. After a tense encounter with Corky's agent Ben (Burgess Meredith), things start to spiral out of control and Fats shows his true self.
This film is hard to find, barely ever on TV and released on a label knon for releasing obscure horror, Anchor Bay. And yet, this is a cracking little thriller which is also really chilling to boot. The whole question of how much of Corky is in Fat's and vice versa is handled brillaintly by Hopkins, Attenborough and the writer William Goldman, adapting his own novel. We are never able to get a true handle on Corky, he is likeable and yet he seems to be psyhotic. You really care about him and it does hurt by the end of the film when you have seen what he has gone through to try and have a happy life. His perfomance during the "five minutes" scene is amazingly subtle; this could have been easily hammed up but in Hopkins hands, he pulls it off with real panache.
The other actors are really orking in Hopkins shadow. Ann-Maraget has a thankless role and acts more like a plot device than anything else, she truly sets off the events of the story but she doesn't really bing anything else to the film. Burgess Meredith brings a touch of showbiz to the film and yet again, where he could have been portrayed as a greedy slimeball but instead seems to really care about Corky. And then there is the puppet... Hopkins makes a chilling alter-ego for Corky in Fats and he really does stay with you after the film ends. As does what could be seen as a "twist" in the end which to be honest, freaked the living shit out of me. The films is wholly ambiguous and whereas sometimes you can see that Corky is obviously one thing, the next scene can contradict that. Thing is, I really don't want to watch it again, as it really did shit me up. And for a film to do that to me these days, is quite a thing. Fucking puppets man.
Corky (Anthony Hopkins) is a failed magician who suddenly hits it big with a ventriloquist act featuring a dummy called Fats (Voiced by Anthony Hopkins). After getting scared of the level of his success, he goes to his home town where he tries to start a relationship with an old unrequited love, Peggy-Ann (Ann-Margaret), who happens to be married. While doing so, Fats (Or is it Corky's other side), grows increasingly impatient with events. After a tense encounter with Corky's agent Ben (Burgess Meredith), things start to spiral out of control and Fats shows his true self.
This film is hard to find, barely ever on TV and released on a label knon for releasing obscure horror, Anchor Bay. And yet, this is a cracking little thriller which is also really chilling to boot. The whole question of how much of Corky is in Fat's and vice versa is handled brillaintly by Hopkins, Attenborough and the writer William Goldman, adapting his own novel. We are never able to get a true handle on Corky, he is likeable and yet he seems to be psyhotic. You really care about him and it does hurt by the end of the film when you have seen what he has gone through to try and have a happy life. His perfomance during the "five minutes" scene is amazingly subtle; this could have been easily hammed up but in Hopkins hands, he pulls it off with real panache.
The other actors are really orking in Hopkins shadow. Ann-Maraget has a thankless role and acts more like a plot device than anything else, she truly sets off the events of the story but she doesn't really bing anything else to the film. Burgess Meredith brings a touch of showbiz to the film and yet again, where he could have been portrayed as a greedy slimeball but instead seems to really care about Corky. And then there is the puppet... Hopkins makes a chilling alter-ego for Corky in Fats and he really does stay with you after the film ends. As does what could be seen as a "twist" in the end which to be honest, freaked the living shit out of me. The films is wholly ambiguous and whereas sometimes you can see that Corky is obviously one thing, the next scene can contradict that. Thing is, I really don't want to watch it again, as it really did shit me up. And for a film to do that to me these days, is quite a thing. Fucking puppets man.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
DVD Review: Brick
This is an updated version of a review I posted on my previous blog, I'm watching it again at the moment so I thought why not.
DVD Review: Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005, USA).
The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, um Body Heat? Films featuring grizzled heros with fast mouths and even.... um faster women? All, well almost all, classics and in particular classics of the Film Noir genre.
The Breakfast Club, American Pie, She's All That; Films featuring high school kids getting lucky, getting embarrased and getting life experience.
Brick: A grizzled high school kid hero with a fast mouth, getting lucky with a fast woman and getting more experience in high school than I think I'll get in most of my life. When the money men got a hold of the script, their heads must have spun with all the mixing of genre and styles. Not to mention the dialogue... and yet it works staggeringly well.
The story of one high school kid, Brendon Fry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) trying to get to the heart of a mystery involving a whole load of words he doesn't initially understand and the death of his ex-girlfriend, Emily (Emilie De Ravin), Brick is an invloving watch from start to finish. But where to start? Play.com is currently selling Brick with a free glossary of the terms used in the film and indeed at early screenings, glossarys are also handed out. Yet how much of this is required? Noir films such as those mentioned earlier (maybe not so much Body Heat) have prided themselves on their involved, inclusive and maybe somewhat restricted world for years. While Brick may take this principle and run with it completely, I would not feel that a glossary is needed. Simply, you get what they are saying. If you don't get what they are saying, the visuals tell you all you need. Saying that, when I initially watched Brick in the cinema (at the simply awesome Watershed in Bristol), my housemate Jess' head was spinning. This may be becasue she wasn't expecting the dialogue style while I was, but if you are, I think my point remains valid.
Hard to believe Rian Johnson is a first time writer-director judging by this. I would imagine it would be hard to have the courage to pull off anything truly audacious with your first film and yet with the specific example of the chase with the man with the knife? He pulls it off. This specific scene is probably my favourite of the film, just for the fact that the only sound we hear are the sounds of footsteps. The purpose of this is revealed when (SPOILER) Brendon takes his shoes off to mask his footseps and make the crucial move. Suprising style mixed with a narrative purpose? I would say thats audacious and dare I say it original!
Just have to say the Score? I had the theme running in my head for weeks after the film and have it in my head right now.
Perfomances. Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes the character come alive. While he is a bit two-dimesional, a rare case of style over narrative (His history is frustratingly teased but never really explored), the style he has makes up for it in spades. Funny, touching and showing a surreal amount of strength (see any of the fights), Gordon-Levitt shows that with Mysterious Skin and now Brick, he is turning out to be a far more promising proposition than the boy who played Tommy in Third Rock From The Sun should have any right to be.
Nora Zethner as the Femme Fatale, Laura imbides her character with wit, charm, a bit of sluttiness and a sense of something wrong under the surface and does so with ease. Lukas Haas as the enigmatic Pin is just... pleasent really. You know he is dangerous, you get that feeling throughout but... he's just nice really. Emilie De Ravin playing the doomed Emily does her best with a nothing role, but by Christ, she don't look like a High School kid!
Right time to sum up, this has taken far to long and I apologise! Damn damn stylish with a plot which will have you guessing, well I was anyway, with a killer script and some pretty decent perfomances, if I were you I would believe the hype, because Brick deserves it.
Video: Shot on Digital tape, looks pretty great, no real block, bit of artificing every now and then but as it is such a new release it looks as good as it could get on DVD.
Audio: Interesting 5.1 track, only comes alive at specific bits, rears only come into play for music and some set pieces, the car ride with Tug and the foot chase spring to mind/
Extras:
Commentary with Rian Johnson: Good commentary, you can tell he really pired his heart into this, nice anecdotes to, reccomended.
Look at the soundtrack: Very funny look at how a soundtrack can be created.
Video diary by Rian Johnson: Dissapointing four minute video journal, those his observations on the monotony of the press tour makes for some funny viewing.
Trailer: Love, love, love this trailer. Sums up the film perfectly and a little piece of art in itself.
While the film didn't have an effect on me as such efforts as Pi or Donnie Darko, it's still a very impressive debut and the extra features give real added value to the set. A great rental or a solid purchase.
DVD Review: Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005, USA).
The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, um Body Heat? Films featuring grizzled heros with fast mouths and even.... um faster women? All, well almost all, classics and in particular classics of the Film Noir genre.
The Breakfast Club, American Pie, She's All That; Films featuring high school kids getting lucky, getting embarrased and getting life experience.
Brick: A grizzled high school kid hero with a fast mouth, getting lucky with a fast woman and getting more experience in high school than I think I'll get in most of my life. When the money men got a hold of the script, their heads must have spun with all the mixing of genre and styles. Not to mention the dialogue... and yet it works staggeringly well.
The story of one high school kid, Brendon Fry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) trying to get to the heart of a mystery involving a whole load of words he doesn't initially understand and the death of his ex-girlfriend, Emily (Emilie De Ravin), Brick is an invloving watch from start to finish. But where to start? Play.com is currently selling Brick with a free glossary of the terms used in the film and indeed at early screenings, glossarys are also handed out. Yet how much of this is required? Noir films such as those mentioned earlier (maybe not so much Body Heat) have prided themselves on their involved, inclusive and maybe somewhat restricted world for years. While Brick may take this principle and run with it completely, I would not feel that a glossary is needed. Simply, you get what they are saying. If you don't get what they are saying, the visuals tell you all you need. Saying that, when I initially watched Brick in the cinema (at the simply awesome Watershed in Bristol), my housemate Jess' head was spinning. This may be becasue she wasn't expecting the dialogue style while I was, but if you are, I think my point remains valid.
Hard to believe Rian Johnson is a first time writer-director judging by this. I would imagine it would be hard to have the courage to pull off anything truly audacious with your first film and yet with the specific example of the chase with the man with the knife? He pulls it off. This specific scene is probably my favourite of the film, just for the fact that the only sound we hear are the sounds of footsteps. The purpose of this is revealed when (SPOILER) Brendon takes his shoes off to mask his footseps and make the crucial move. Suprising style mixed with a narrative purpose? I would say thats audacious and dare I say it original!
Just have to say the Score? I had the theme running in my head for weeks after the film and have it in my head right now.
Perfomances. Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes the character come alive. While he is a bit two-dimesional, a rare case of style over narrative (His history is frustratingly teased but never really explored), the style he has makes up for it in spades. Funny, touching and showing a surreal amount of strength (see any of the fights), Gordon-Levitt shows that with Mysterious Skin and now Brick, he is turning out to be a far more promising proposition than the boy who played Tommy in Third Rock From The Sun should have any right to be.
Nora Zethner as the Femme Fatale, Laura imbides her character with wit, charm, a bit of sluttiness and a sense of something wrong under the surface and does so with ease. Lukas Haas as the enigmatic Pin is just... pleasent really. You know he is dangerous, you get that feeling throughout but... he's just nice really. Emilie De Ravin playing the doomed Emily does her best with a nothing role, but by Christ, she don't look like a High School kid!
Right time to sum up, this has taken far to long and I apologise! Damn damn stylish with a plot which will have you guessing, well I was anyway, with a killer script and some pretty decent perfomances, if I were you I would believe the hype, because Brick deserves it.
Video: Shot on Digital tape, looks pretty great, no real block, bit of artificing every now and then but as it is such a new release it looks as good as it could get on DVD.
Audio: Interesting 5.1 track, only comes alive at specific bits, rears only come into play for music and some set pieces, the car ride with Tug and the foot chase spring to mind/
Extras:
Commentary with Rian Johnson: Good commentary, you can tell he really pired his heart into this, nice anecdotes to, reccomended.
Look at the soundtrack: Very funny look at how a soundtrack can be created.
Video diary by Rian Johnson: Dissapointing four minute video journal, those his observations on the monotony of the press tour makes for some funny viewing.
Trailer: Love, love, love this trailer. Sums up the film perfectly and a little piece of art in itself.
While the film didn't have an effect on me as such efforts as Pi or Donnie Darko, it's still a very impressive debut and the extra features give real added value to the set. A great rental or a solid purchase.
DVD Review: Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier (Region 1)
DVD Review: Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979, 2006, USA).
If anyone has been reading, sorry about the delay. I had a real hectic week at work last week and my PC's fucked so I am using my lovely girlfriend Donna's laptop. So... First film to watch totally with my new home cinema system (Samsung HT-Q20 if anyone is curious). hat better film to go with than the first film to use a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and arguably the best film of the 1970's, and in my opinion one of the best films ever made, Apocalypse Now.
Many have argued the 1970's was the most productive decade in American Cinema yet. Certainly the emphasise placed on the decade in my Film Studies course made me feel that this was the case to. The films of this decade are compelling evidence for this theory. George Lucas' debut THX-1138 was a haunting if not rather derivative science-fiction piece, Robert Altman's Mash was a biting satire dressed in the clothes of a fish out of water comedy which dared to take humour from places you could never expect before, Tobe Hooper took all of America's anxieites regarding Vietnam and the direction the country was taking and turned it into one of the most famous, and certainly most influential, horror films ever made The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Don't get me started on this film, I'll be talking for decades). However, none of these films can hope to even come close to the viscreal, shocking, moving and to be honest just plain fucking incredible visual and aural experience which is Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.
Based very loosely on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now sounds simple on paper. A hardedned soldier, Captain Willard is given a confidential assignment; to go up river through Vietnam and into Cambodia to "terminate... with extreme prejudice" Col. Kurtz, a once-brilliant soldier who has now go mad and made a society for himself. To make this film as it sounds, and how one of the original writers John Milius would have made it if he had his way, you could have old Arnie go up river, blow up some Vietnamese soldiers, rescue a hot American girl on the way, have an overblown final showdown with Kurtz and walk off into the sunset (or perhaps SURVIVE A FUCKING NUCLEAR EXPLOSION like he does in Predator). What does happen is quite different. Martin Sheen plays Willard a man who though burnt out, just wants to fight. When he gets his mission he believes he is getting his chance. However, as he becomes sucked in to the world of Kurtz through the evidence given to him by his superiors, the more he seems to be drawn in. hile this is happening, he and the crew of the PBR Streetgang the boat he is being escorted on encounter a series of bizarre situations happening all the way up the river. Perhaps the most iconic of these is the sequence early in the film featuring Kilgore, a surf loving General who only agrees to take Willard where he is going ecause one of Willard's crew members Lance, is a famous surfer and the place they need to get to has good surf. Kilgore is quite a character. To paraphrase Willard in the film, he seems to have a light around him which you know will let him survive the war. And yet, he sends his men surfing in the middle of warzones and commits multiple atrocities during the famous Ride of the Valkyries sequence. And oh my that sequence! Exciting and yet rather disturbing I would argue it is the perfect distillation of the excitement you get from seeing violence on screen, the purging of the build up to it, and the horrific nature which you only really realise after you have clapped all the way through the sequence. Robert Duvall is incredible in this sequence, he displays the authoritative aspect you ould expect a man in his position ould have and yet in his recklessness and love of surfing, you can see a little boy who is itching to break out and at some moments does. This is best shown in the Redux cut in a sequence in which he goes looking for a surfboard which Lance stole. As he is looking for it, he shouts through his megaphone, "It was a good board Lance!", this bit cracks me up beyond belief but I can't really say why!
Marlon Brando. Fat, tempermental, demanding. One of the best actors who ever lived. These conflicting aspects are best seen in Apocalypse Now. Sticking largely to improvisitional dialogue, doing what he wants, he truly makes Kurtz his own, and you can see hy illard and Colby before him would want to stay with him. While it is fairly easy to tell that his scenes are really a "best-of" of what Coppola managed to film of Brando. Can't say much more than that.
The whole film, the music, the acting (Martin Sheen has an intensity which will forever be hard to rival), the iconic images, the editing everything about this film is grade-A stuff which considering the nature of the whole production is quite a feat indeed.
A word on the Redux cut. I'll echo what most say, not as good, doesn't flow (the plantation sequence stops the film dead in its tracks) and is far to overblown. It's great as a curio but you will only want to watch it once. Stick to what you know in this case.
Video: Best you will ever see it especially as a Region 2 edition will be hard to come by as the two versions are distributed by different companies (Pathe for the original cut, Miramax for Redux). This print has been remastered, barely any scratches, colours are great, thats about it.
Audio: Fucking spectacular. Watching this film with the whole 5.1 experience is a whole new ball game. Directional effects go all over the place yet the dialogue remains clear. The opening sequence alone is reference material for any AV enthusiast.
Extras: Yet to watch the commentaries, I will post my thoughts when I get round to it. The featurettes are all interesting enough, the birth of 5.1 sound one particularly so but the whole glaring omission of the documentary Hearts of Darkness, renders this Complete Dossier, incomplete and inadequate. They may be rights issues involved, I do not know, but I have been lucky enough to see this and it is a comprehensive and yet funny and insightful look into this modern classic. If this had come ith the package, you would never need another copy of Apocalypse Now ever again, this would be it.
One of the best DVD's of the year, doubt it will ever be released over here but go to www.playusa.com and get it for around a tenner. Worth every penny. Thanks as always for your time.
If anyone has been reading, sorry about the delay. I had a real hectic week at work last week and my PC's fucked so I am using my lovely girlfriend Donna's laptop. So... First film to watch totally with my new home cinema system (Samsung HT-Q20 if anyone is curious). hat better film to go with than the first film to use a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and arguably the best film of the 1970's, and in my opinion one of the best films ever made, Apocalypse Now.
Many have argued the 1970's was the most productive decade in American Cinema yet. Certainly the emphasise placed on the decade in my Film Studies course made me feel that this was the case to. The films of this decade are compelling evidence for this theory. George Lucas' debut THX-1138 was a haunting if not rather derivative science-fiction piece, Robert Altman's Mash was a biting satire dressed in the clothes of a fish out of water comedy which dared to take humour from places you could never expect before, Tobe Hooper took all of America's anxieites regarding Vietnam and the direction the country was taking and turned it into one of the most famous, and certainly most influential, horror films ever made The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Don't get me started on this film, I'll be talking for decades). However, none of these films can hope to even come close to the viscreal, shocking, moving and to be honest just plain fucking incredible visual and aural experience which is Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.
Based very loosely on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now sounds simple on paper. A hardedned soldier, Captain Willard is given a confidential assignment; to go up river through Vietnam and into Cambodia to "terminate... with extreme prejudice" Col. Kurtz, a once-brilliant soldier who has now go mad and made a society for himself. To make this film as it sounds, and how one of the original writers John Milius would have made it if he had his way, you could have old Arnie go up river, blow up some Vietnamese soldiers, rescue a hot American girl on the way, have an overblown final showdown with Kurtz and walk off into the sunset (or perhaps SURVIVE A FUCKING NUCLEAR EXPLOSION like he does in Predator). What does happen is quite different. Martin Sheen plays Willard a man who though burnt out, just wants to fight. When he gets his mission he believes he is getting his chance. However, as he becomes sucked in to the world of Kurtz through the evidence given to him by his superiors, the more he seems to be drawn in. hile this is happening, he and the crew of the PBR Streetgang the boat he is being escorted on encounter a series of bizarre situations happening all the way up the river. Perhaps the most iconic of these is the sequence early in the film featuring Kilgore, a surf loving General who only agrees to take Willard where he is going ecause one of Willard's crew members Lance, is a famous surfer and the place they need to get to has good surf. Kilgore is quite a character. To paraphrase Willard in the film, he seems to have a light around him which you know will let him survive the war. And yet, he sends his men surfing in the middle of warzones and commits multiple atrocities during the famous Ride of the Valkyries sequence. And oh my that sequence! Exciting and yet rather disturbing I would argue it is the perfect distillation of the excitement you get from seeing violence on screen, the purging of the build up to it, and the horrific nature which you only really realise after you have clapped all the way through the sequence. Robert Duvall is incredible in this sequence, he displays the authoritative aspect you ould expect a man in his position ould have and yet in his recklessness and love of surfing, you can see a little boy who is itching to break out and at some moments does. This is best shown in the Redux cut in a sequence in which he goes looking for a surfboard which Lance stole. As he is looking for it, he shouts through his megaphone, "It was a good board Lance!", this bit cracks me up beyond belief but I can't really say why!
Marlon Brando. Fat, tempermental, demanding. One of the best actors who ever lived. These conflicting aspects are best seen in Apocalypse Now. Sticking largely to improvisitional dialogue, doing what he wants, he truly makes Kurtz his own, and you can see hy illard and Colby before him would want to stay with him. While it is fairly easy to tell that his scenes are really a "best-of" of what Coppola managed to film of Brando. Can't say much more than that.
The whole film, the music, the acting (Martin Sheen has an intensity which will forever be hard to rival), the iconic images, the editing everything about this film is grade-A stuff which considering the nature of the whole production is quite a feat indeed.
A word on the Redux cut. I'll echo what most say, not as good, doesn't flow (the plantation sequence stops the film dead in its tracks) and is far to overblown. It's great as a curio but you will only want to watch it once. Stick to what you know in this case.
Video: Best you will ever see it especially as a Region 2 edition will be hard to come by as the two versions are distributed by different companies (Pathe for the original cut, Miramax for Redux). This print has been remastered, barely any scratches, colours are great, thats about it.
Audio: Fucking spectacular. Watching this film with the whole 5.1 experience is a whole new ball game. Directional effects go all over the place yet the dialogue remains clear. The opening sequence alone is reference material for any AV enthusiast.
Extras: Yet to watch the commentaries, I will post my thoughts when I get round to it. The featurettes are all interesting enough, the birth of 5.1 sound one particularly so but the whole glaring omission of the documentary Hearts of Darkness, renders this Complete Dossier, incomplete and inadequate. They may be rights issues involved, I do not know, but I have been lucky enough to see this and it is a comprehensive and yet funny and insightful look into this modern classic. If this had come ith the package, you would never need another copy of Apocalypse Now ever again, this would be it.
One of the best DVD's of the year, doubt it will ever be released over here but go to www.playusa.com and get it for around a tenner. Worth every penny. Thanks as always for your time.
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