2009 | MARKED MOVIES

Archive for 2009

Public Enemies * *

Posted in Biography, Crime, Drama, thriller with tags 2009 on January 24, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Michael Mann.
Screenplay: Michael Mann, Ronan Bennett, Ann Biderman.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cottilard, Stephen Graham, Giovanni Ribisi, Channing Tatum, Stephen Dorff, Billy Crudup, James Russo, David Wenham, Carey Mulligan, Rory Cochrane, Casey Siemaszko, Lili Taylor, Shawn Hatosy, Stephen Lang, Leelee Sobieski, Emilie De Ravin, John Ortiz, Jason Clarke, Don Harvey, Matt Craven.

Director Michael Mann tackles the 1930’s gangster picture with the real life story of John Dillinger, famous bank robber and No: 1 on the F.B.I’s most wanted list.

Chicago, 1933: as John Dillinger’s (Johnny Depp) crime spree makes front-page news, the FBI sends its top man, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), to stop the brilliant bank robber. Dillinger, meanwhile, is waylaid by the adorable Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard)…

Mann’s attention to detail and intricate stories, involving numerous characters have worked a treat in the past (“Heat”, “The Insider”) but with this he delivers an absolute mess. Depp can play weird and wacky roles in his sleep but as hardened, charismatic gangster Dillinger, he is seriously miscast. Christian Bale also looks lost in a thankless role. Although the look and feel of the film are spot on, the script is all over the place with characters appearing, then disappearing, without explanation and too much time was spent on Dillingers relationship with his girlfriend Billie and not enough time spent on what made him tick.

With “Heat”, Michael Mann delivered one the best “cops & robbers” films of recent times and with “Public Enemies” and fedoras, gangsters and tommy-guns, I expected more of the same. Sadly, nobody delivers in this one.

Very disappointing.

Mark Walker

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Where The Wild Things Are * *

Posted in Adventure, Family, Fantasy with tags 2009 on January 24, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Spike Jonze.
Screenplay: Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers.
Starring: Max Records, Cathrine Keener, Mark Ruffalo.
Voices: James Gandolfini, Forest Whitaker, Paul Dano, Catherine O’Hara, Chris Cooper, Lauren Ambrose, Spike Jonze.

Spike Jonze is a very imaginative director and I enjoyed his previous films (“Being John Malkovich” & “Adaptation”) but he has bitten off more than he can chew with this one. “Where the Wild things are” is based on the childrens story by Maurice Sendak. I admittedly haven’t read it but apparently it’s very short and only several pages long. If this is true then it shows in the translation to film.

Max (Max Records) a young boy who is having problems at home and to escape these problems, he allows his imagination to run wild. He arrives upon a land that strange creatures inhabit. They are looking for guidance and young Max is only too happy to be their leader in his fantasy world, but soon realises that these creatures have the same problems and emotions as people in the real world.

Despite director Spike Jonze being very creative in his earlier films, he has absolutely nothing to hold your interest here. The fact that the childrens book was brief doesn’t help the flow of this, as the film really drags and shows that there wasn’t enough material to adapt in the first place. It’s too childish for adults and too frightening (at parts) for children. In the end, the film can’t really identify with an age group and just meanders.

It felt like telling a toddler – lagging behind – to hurry up. Really it should be re-titled “Where’s the script writers at?”

Mark Walker

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Crazy Heart * * * 1/2

Posted in Drama, Music, Romance with tags 2009 on January 23, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Scott Cooper.
Screenplay: Scott Cooper.
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Beth Grant, Tom Bower.

Jeff Bridges is one of cinema’s most underrated of actors (and one of my personal favourites). He had been nominated for an Oscar four times (“The Last Picture Show” in 1971; “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” in 1974; “Starman” in 1984 and “The Contender” in 2000). He finally won his elusive Award with this film and on this evidence, it was a thoroughly deserved win – he was subsequently nominated for “True Grit” a year after this triumph.

“Bad Blake” (Bridges) is a washed up country and western singer, down on his luck and reduced to playing small gigs to make ends meet. He has a bad attitude, an even worse drinking habit and has been on a self-destructive path for years, but while playing a gig in a small New Mexico town, he agrees to an interview with a young journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal). This leads to a romantic relationship and hope for Bad Blake to turn his life around.

Writer/director Scott Cooper has (in his first film) produced a slow moving character study, in which Bridges completely immerses himself. Unfortunately, the film as a whole doesn’t do Bridges justice. It descends into cliche and the integral romantic relationship between the two leads is unconvincing. The story had actually been covered a couple of years previously – with grittier and more realistic results – in “The Wrestler” with Mickey Rourke. That’s not to take away from Bridges’ gritty and realistic anchoring role though. He is marvellously empathetic and highly realistic in his portrayal of a character that has reached a real low point in his life.
It’s not a 5 star film – it has too many flaws for that – but it’s definitely a 5 star performance from the always reliable and under appreciated Jeff Bridges.

An actor of such calibre deserves recognition and although this doesn’t stand alone as his finest moment – there are too many for that – it at the very least gives him centre stage to display his talent. Bravo Bridges.

Mark Walker

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Avatar * * * *

Posted in Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction with tags 2009 on January 21, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: James Cameron.
Screenplay: James Cameron.
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Wes Studi, CCH Pounder, Joel David Moore, Laz Alonso.

Director James Cameron and science fiction have proved a good combination in the past (“The Terminator”, “Aliens”, “The Abyss”, Terminator 2″) and this is a fine addition to his earlier films.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a paraplegic marine, who finds a new lease of life and mobility while researching the planet of Pandora and the “Na’vi”, the indigenous tribe living there. Humans being the greedy and power hungry virus that we are, intend on destroying the Na’vi and exploiting their land. Jake meanwhile, has become accustomed to the Na’vi ways and must choose which side he is on pending a full blown attack on the planet.

Cameron has shot this film with specially designed 3-D cameras and took the first step in changing the way we will be viewing films from now on in. Directors such as Spielberg and Scorsese have now used the technique, and for that, Cameron has to be applauded.
The plot, however, isn’t the strongest thing about the film and quite frankly without the special effects and wonderful visuals, it would have had nothing going for it. Thankfully though, the special effects are something to behold and Cameron has created a stunningly visual treat. It is almost like watching animation or a beautiful canvas and for a change, it’s forgivable that the story becomes secondary in a film. I never seen this in 3-D as it was intended to be viewed but I wish I had. Oscar winner for Cinematography (Mauro Fiore), Art Direction, and Visual Effects.

This is an innovative piece of work and Cameron can now hold his head up again, after the disastrous “Titanic”.

Mark Walker

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District 9 * * * 1/2

Posted in Action, Science Fiction with tags 2009 on January 20, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Neill Blomkamp.
Screenplay: Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell.
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, David James, Vanessa Haywood, Mandla Gaduka, Kenneth Nkosi.

The Aliens have landed… not in the most popular city – as the Americans would have liked – but in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Alien ship appears over the city where their arrival is not greeted too kindly by us humans and they are segregated into a shanty town known as “District 9”, socially exluded as second class citizens and racially nicknamed “Prawns” due to the way they look. Wikes Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is the government agent in charge of the operation to evict the “Prawns” and put them into a new holding facility, but while operating in the field he is exposed to the biotechnology of the aliens and undergoes a genetic mutation. It is then that the aliens have a new hope of understanding and salvation.

Director Neill Blomkamp’s first film is shot in a documentary style which draws you in from the start and adds to the realism and believability, as does the the South African setting and allusions to apartheid with the social and racial exclusion of the Aliens. Unfortunately, the effective documentary style shifts half way through the film as it becomes more of an action movie and at this point the film loses something in the change to the pyrotechnical hail of bullets and explosions.

However, its still a highly original film with an excellent lead performance from Sharlto Copley as the weasely Govt agent.

Mark Walker

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Cell 211 * * * *

Posted in Crime, Drama, Foreign Language with tags 2009 on January 19, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Daniel Monzon.
Screenplay: Daniel Monzon, Jorge Guerricaechevarria.
Starring: Luis Tosar, Alberto Ammann, Antonio Resines, Manuel Moron, Carlos Bardem, Marta Etura, Luis Zahera, Fernado Soto, Vicente Romero, Manolo Soro, Patxi Bisquert, Miguel Martin.

Like “Let the Right One In” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” this is another European film that has unashamedly been set up for an American remake already (Paul Haggis being the man involved). Seldom are remakes anywhere near as good and yet again, this will prove a hard one to match.

Juan (Alberto Ammann) is about to start work as a prison guard and is taking a tour of a maximum security area when he is injured slightly in an accident and left behind as a riot breaks out. Juan convinces Malamadre (Luis Tosar), the convicts’ leader, that he is a new inmate who has been beaten up by guards, and the two men become close as the crisis escalates.

The film opens with the look of a low budget television film and at first I began to think I shouldn’t have listened to the plaudits I’d read of this. Not before long though, it really kicks into gear and cranks up the tension and excitement. Within minutes I was hooked. I’m an avid fan of prison drama’s, with their high level of suspense and on edge atmosphere and sense of danger. This is no different and wastes no time in exposing you to the violence and brutality of the inmates. Helped no end by two excellent central performances, particulary Luis Tosar as the snarling dominant ring leader. Director Daniel Monzon keeps the story briskly moving with several moments of unbearable and skillfully handled suspense and the fact that it avoids the usual genre conventions with many unexpected plot developments, helps in keeping you captivated and wondering what direction it will go in. European cinema seems to be reaching a bigger audience these days and this is another worthy of attention.
Fans of the 2009 French film “A Prophet”, or any prison drama for that matter, should find plenty to enjoy here.

An excellent well crafted film that delivers tension in spades.

Mark Walker

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Looking For Eric * * *

Posted in Comedy, Drama with tags 2009 on January 18, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Ken Loach.
Screenplay: Paul Laverty.
Starring: Steve Evets, Eric Cantona, Stephanie Bishop, Gerard Kearns, Stefan Gumbs, Lucy-Jo Hudson, Matthew McNulty, John Henshaw.

The master of British working class cinema Ken Loach, offers up a more light-hearted little film in the wake of his hard hitting Irish revolutionary film “The Wind that Shakes the Barley”.

Eric Bishop (Steve Evets) is a 50 something postman who’s life has taken a serious downturn. He is plagued with regrets of his past, in abandoning his first wife and newborn baby and now struggling to manage his teenage sons from his second marriage. One of his outlets for fun is following his beloved football team Manchester Utd and it’s from the past years of this succesful team that he is given some life coaching and guidance from none other than Eric Cantona, the French footballing sensation who is also famous for his philosophical ramblings.

A far more uplifting film from Loach than his usual depictions of the british working class. This still has the gritty realism of his previous work but he’s concentrated more on the humorous aspect of his and writer Paul Laverty’s talents. This is all helped perfectly by an excellent lead performance by Evets as the downtrodden, angst riddled father and despite Cantona being no thespian, he manages to add a surprisng amount of humour to the film. An enjoyable way to spend an hour or so but I think I still prefer my Loach films, less poached and more hard-boiled.

Mark Walker

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The Hurt Locker * * 1/2

Posted in Action, thriller, War with tags 2009 on January 17, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Kathryn Bigelow.
Screenplay: Mark Boal.
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, David Morse, Ralph Fiennes, Evangeline Lilly.

And the Academy award for best picture goes to…”The Hurt Locker.” Eh?…What? I must have missed something. I actually like Kathryn Bigelow’s action films “Point Break” and “Strange Days” and in a genre which is dominated by male directors she can certainly compete. However, this was a bit lacklustre compared to her earlier films and yet it was far better received – especially in terms of awards.

Sgt. Will James (Jeremy Renner) is a bomb disposal expert while on a tour of duty in Iraq. He is good at what he does and definitely has big enough cohones. Problem is…his cohones are too big. In fact, he’s an adrenaline junkie which continually puts him and his comrades in grave danger.

This is pretty much the gist of the story with a surprising amount of nothing inbetween. I’ll give credit where it’s due though as when the tension mounts it’s done masterfully by Bigelow and some scenes are genuinely thrilling and edge of your seat, with an excellent and edgy lead performance by Renner. However, there are very few of these moments and the film starts so well that it leaves it harder for the rest of the film to keep up. Despite Bigelow wisely taking little to no political stance on the war in Iraq I can only assume that all the Awards recognition this film recieved were in some way a form of western propaganda. I must admit about half way through it, I noticed a loud ticking noise. Turns out it wasn’t the bombs needing defused, but me clock watching.

Sporadically impressive but otherwise highly over-rated and quite dull.

Mark Walker

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Up In The Air * * *

Posted in Drama, Romance with tags 2009 on January 17, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Jason Reitman.
Screenplay: Jason Reitman.
Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmons, Sam Elliott, Zach Galifianakis, Danny McBride, Melanie Lynskey, Amy Morton.

Director Jason Reitman’s follow-up to his award winning “Juno” is yet another commentary on modern life. This time, instead of teenage pregnancy, it’s corporate America.

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) loves his job. Unfortunately for other people, they lose their’s while he’s doing his. He’s a hatchet man and his duties consist of firing people from their employment and flying all over America to do so. His personal achievement being the collection of a vast amount of frequent flyer miles as he goes. He’s a man with very little attachments in life and no real connections with people. That is, until he meets the woman of his dreams (Vera Farmiga) on his travels just as his company decides to downsize and ground him. Forcing him to assess his life and himself.

This film starts brilliantly with a great introduction to Clooney’s character and lifestyle but once the dust settles and Farmiga’s character is introduced, it becomes essentially a romantic comedy. I hoped for something more and despite some fabulous dialogue and performances, the film doesn’t really manage to break free from it’s romantic tendencies. All-be-it that it does things a little differently from the formula, I was still left dissapointed having heard such great things beforehand.

Mark Walker

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Watchmen * * * * 1/2

Posted in Action, Mystery, Science Fiction with tags 2009 on January 15, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Zack Snyder.
Screenplay: David Hayter, Alex Tse.
Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Malin Akerman, Stephen McHattie, Matt Frewer.

It takes a hell of a lot for me to suspend my disbelief when it comes to people running around in spandex, with existential angst and desperately trying to be taken seriously. Put simply, I’m not a massive fan of crime fighting alter-ego’s but director Zack Snyder may well have cured me of all these ills, with this wonderful adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel.

Set in an alternate 1985 America, where president Richard Nixon has been re-elected for a fifth presidential term. Superhero’s have been outlawed and the whole country is heading toward ruin with the over-hanging threat of a nuclear attack from the Russians. Following the murder of one of their sidekicks, the outlawed former crime fighters begin to re-surface, leading an investigation into the past and present unsavoury activities of the masked avengers.

Being a massive fan of Alan Moore’s comic, I was very interested and excited in whether Zack Snyder could achieve the “unfilmable”. Thankfully and impressively, he has. I tend to be quite critical of adaptations from books but Snyder has done a fantastic job here. Alan Moore’s story (and artwork from Dave Gibbons) has been miraculously recreated onto the screen. Everything looks and feels the way it did on the page with similiar dialogue and perfect casting. Some things have been dropped and wisely the story within a story “Tales of the Black Freighter” was released separately as a short. Snyder also includes brilliantly effective slow-motion action scenes, retaining the violent nature of the comic and perfect use of 60’s/70’s music throughout – particularly Bob Dylan songs. The director showed promise with his earlier films “Dawn of the Dead” and “300”, but here he has outdone himself and achieved exceptionally in a very difficult adaptation which the talented likes of Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass failed to do before him.

It all works on a believable level with convincing characters (except one, none of them has any form of super human powers) who inhabit a bleak and convincing, alternate modern world, making it probably the best comic book adaptation I’ve seen so far.

Mark Walker

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A Serious Man * * * *

Posted in Comedy, Drama with tags 2009 on January 13, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen.
Screenplay: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen.
Starring: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff, Jessica McManus, George Wyner, Adam Arkin, Michael Lerner.

Quite a difficult one to get a handle on from the Coens, especially when you’re not familiar with the book of Job from the Old Testament, of which this is an allegory of. They can always produce something tense, then effortlessly switch to something hilarious and then…well…and then they craft something like this, that’s hard to pigeonhole. God bless those pesky brothers.

Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a physics professor. He leads a God fearing Jewish life in the suburbs with his wife and two children. When he comes home from work, after an attempt at bribery from one of his students to get a better grade, he is informed by his wife that she wants a divorce. She has fallen in love with their neighbour and wants Larry to move out. Meanwhile, his son is approaching his Bar Mitzvah but has got himself mixed up in drugs and spiraling financial debts in Larry’s name and his daughter is determined to get a nose job, while his brother who sleeps on the couch, can’t cope with the world and relies heavily on Larry’s support. Things are not going well for Larry and he finds himself in need of some serious guidance and turns to his local but elusive Rabbi to seek advice in his life.

A unique and informative insight into Jewish religion and culture from the Coens. It’s very different from anything they have done before and wasn’t what I was expecting at all. The theme of the uncertainty of religious guidance in our lives is perfect to support the choatic events that are inexplicably bestowed upon Larry and how religion doesn’t have all the answers. If anything it asks more frustrating unanswered questions for our protaganist and with some hilarious results. The cast of unknowns are uniformly excellent (especially Stuhlbarg) and add to the believable Jewish community that the brothers have created and Roger Deakins’ cinematography is as always, beautifully rich in capturing the 1960’s era in which it’s set.
It didn’t share the tension of “No Country for Old Men”, the complex hilarity of “The Big Lebowski” or even the surreal imagery of “Barton Fink” but this is still a very subtle treat from the brothers Coen and one which I will no doubt be visiting again, looking for answers, just like Larry Gopnik.

Mark Walker

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Sherlock Holmes * * * 1/2

Posted in Action, Mystery with tags 2009 on January 13, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Guy Ritchie.
Screenplay: Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham, Simon Kinberg.
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly, Robert Maillet, Geraldine James, Hans Matheson, William Hope, James Fox.

Guy Ritchie knows a thing or two about the up’s and down’s and in’s and out’s of London, so who better to give us a revamp of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s super deducer “Sherlock Holmes” than “Snatch”s cockney geezer? Getting involved, more surprisingly though is Robert Downey, Jr. as the Holmes boy himself.

Supernatural plans are afoot for Holmes and Watson this time around as the very sinister Lord Blackwood has been meddling in occult affairs and sacrificing innocent young women to further his gains. Once brought to justice, Blackwood is hanged for his crimes but this is only the beginning of Holmes’ problems. Blackwood then seemingly rises from the dead with even greater powers and a stronger influence on the people of the city.
Ritchie’s period look of 19th century London is brilliantly realised and he uses his gritty, grainy and almost sepia hue to perfect effect here. What he also brings to the table is his penchant for violence, with some impressive slow-motion action scenes. His vision of Holmes is more of a fighter and less of a thinker. It’s quite an odd choice but Downey Jr is perfect in the role. He injects a lot of humour into the character and plays him as a drug and alcohol induced extrovert, with a glazed madness over his eyes and nice comic touches. Jude Law also lends excellent support as his trusted sidekick Dr. Watson, who is as tough as he is educated. They make a good double act in what is essentially a buddy-buddy movie with them both playing off one another. However, the story itself is a little disappointing and hard to suspend your disbelief with the villianous Mark Strong absent for quite a lot of the film. Not to mention, a thankless role for Rachel McAdams who is reduced to nothing more than a token love interest. Make no mistake, this is the Holmes and Watson show and nobody else really gets a look in.

There’s plenty of fun to be had but let’s hope they tighten it up a little for the sequel.

Mark Walker

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Duplicity * * *

Posted in Romance, thriller with tags 2009 on January 13, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Tony Gilroy.
Screenplay: Tony Gilroy.
Starring: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Paul Giamatti, Tom Wilkinson, Denis O’Hare, Tom McCarthy, Wayne Duvall.

Better known for his screenwriting duties on the “Bourne” series, Tony Gilroy can certainly concoct a spy tale or two and here he uses his talents again. After cutting his Directorial teeth on the tense and gripping “Michael Clayton”, Gilroy crafts another corporate espionage yarn but to lesser effects this time round.

Owen and Roberts play two British and American agents respectively. They specialise in playing people and retrieving very important information for their greedy fat-cat employers. Being so good at what they do and also sharing a close and intimate relationship they decide to team up and make a big play that will keep them financially secure for the rest of their lives. The problem is…can they trust each other?

Gilroy goes for a more gentler and slightly humorous and playful approach this time. The film looks wonderful, with lavish international locations and all basked in sunshine and champagne, setting the tone for the grand caper. He doesn’t go for the dark, atmospheric and dangerous tone that he used to magnificent effect in “Michael Clayton” and unfortunately employs the services of Miss Roberts with her big, teethy grin and lack of range. These are Gilroy’s first mistakes. Owen carries himself well, all-be-it his usual fare but it’s a role that would previously be better suited to Steve McQueen, Cary Grant or by today’s standards, George Clooney – who you get the impression this may have been intended for. Also, the casting of Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson as rival corporate businessmen at each others throats is potential genius. I say “potential” because this is one the films strongest points but doesn’t utilise it and has these two great actors distant from each other for most of the film, despite a brilliant slow motion brawl between them at the beginning of the movie. Speaking of which, the beginning of the film is so strong that the rest pales in comparison. The actors put in fine performances but it all becomes a little convoluted without any real delivery of satisfaction.

Surely an espionage film that has been running rings around the characters and the audience should end with a bang? This sadly dragged me into their games, promised so much, yet delivered so little.

Mark Walker

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The Box * * * 1/2

Posted in Mystery, Science Fiction, thriller with tags 2009 on January 12, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Richard Kelly.
Screenplay: Richard Kelly.
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Frank Langella, James Marsden, James Rebhorn, Holmes Osborne.

Based on the short story “Button, Button” by “I am Legend” writer Richard Matheson, this is a strange little film thats hard to pigeonhole due to some very strange and surreal happenings. Director Richard Kelly (“Donnie Darko”), refuses to stick to any particular formula and as a result leaves you a little unsure about what you’ve just seen.

Norma (Cameron Diaz) & Arthur Lewis (James Marsden) are a happily married couple who are having some financial difficulties. Out of the blue, they are contacted by a mysterious stranger named Arlington Steward (Frank Langella). Mr. Steward delivers a box to their house and makes them a bleak, but very tempting offer. They are given a choice to push the button on the box and receive $1 million, however, by doing so, somebody somewhere will die.

This film received quite a lot of criticism and wasn’t very successful upon it’s release, which is a shame really, as it does have several positive things going for it. First of all, it poses the type of moral question that everybody will find it hard to ignore and follows through with the consequences of making such a decision. Richard Kelly’s direction is refreshingly different also. He throws in all sorts of unconventional and unexpected ‘Lynchian’ touches like the main character missing part of her foot and another missing part of his face. Strange bell ringing Santa’s standing in the middle of the road, nose bleeding zombies and all this with the air of a NASA conspiracy hanging over it. All very strange indeed, with little to no explanation for some of it. The film also looks wonderful, brilliantly capturing the 1970’s era and style and the three lead performances are excellent. However, with all this unexplained strangeness you start to wonder whether Kelly is taking it all a bit too far and quite frankly, not really caring if we understand the whole thing. Which is a big ask, considering the film is just short of two hours and demands a level of commitment.

A very bizarre, (slight) misfire but interesting nonetheless and it definitely has a lasting effect due to some well structured creepiness.

Mark Walker

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Taking Woodstock * * 1/2

Posted in Comedy, Drama with tags 2009 on January 10, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Ang Lee.
Screenplay: James Schamus.
Starring: Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Eugene Levy, Imelda Staunton, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Liev Schreiber, Paul Dano, Richard Thomas, Dan Fogler, Edward Hibbert, Henry Goodman, Kevin Sussman.

I’m starting to lose count on the amount of times director Ang Lee has tackled a new genre. He’s done martial arts; comic-book; thriller; romance; family drama; westerns and literary adaptation. Now? Well now, he’s tackles the story of how the legendary music festival “Woodstock” came to be.

Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) discovers that a music festival near his family’s motel has lost its licence. Trying to save his parents’ business, he calls Woodstock Ventures and offers to help them stage the gig at a farm in White Lake. What happens after that, has now went down in history as a legendary free-spirited musical weekend.

Anyone trying to craft a film worthy of the magic of Woodstock would have their work cut out for them, so wisely Ang Lee focuses on the outskirts of the infamous hippie festival of the 60’s. Instead of focusing on the bands or what was happening on stage, we experience the effect this time had on the people off stage, through several characters – mainly Elliot and his right of passage. It’s a light-hearted little film that is very slow to get going and definitely overlong. The talky first half is all about the organisation and chance encounter with promotors. This threatens to kill this whole film but when the festival gets underway, the second half is a lot stronger as the characters begin to loosen up. It sheds a bit of light on the effect this time and place had, but really there isn’t a lot else happening. Maybe it would have been better had the focus been on stage. What I found most interesting was the depiction of Elliot when high on acid. Speaking from personal experience, it’s the most realistic depiction of hallucinating I’ve seen on screen. It’s not overdone but shows more the vibrancy of colours as they move and bleed into one another and the almost ocean like movement of a large crowd of people when dancing together.

You would think with this depicting a defining moment in the whole 60’s ‘movement’, it would have something more than a very lesuirely pace. However, when the drugs and music start to flow, the film flows with them.

Disappointing but it has it’s moments.

Mark Walker

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Inglorious Basterds * * * *

Posted in War with tags 2009 on January 9, 2012 by Mark Walker

Director: Quentin Tarantino.
Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Melanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl, Eli Roth, Til Schweiger, Julie Dreyfus, Bo Svenson, Rod Taylor, Mike Myers.

Quentin Tarantino’s long awaited crack at World War II is a sumptuous and ambitious film. Yes, he rewrites history but he rewrites it with such audacity and injects it with such fun that it’s hard to resist his flamboyant take on it.

Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) has a reputation during the war and throughout France that has earned him the unofficial title “The Jew Hunter” deriving from his ruthless eradication and extermination. Meanwhile, the allies have their very own ruthless “Nazi killing” appointee in Lt. Aldo “The Apache” Raine (Brad Pitt) who has assembled a team of killers known as “The Basterds” and who’s mission is to brutally kill and deliver “Nazi scalps”. Both men find themselves closing in on each other through the news that there is to be a German propaganda film to show at a local French cinema run by Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), a young lady who’s family were killed at the hands of Col. Landa and who also has a plot of her own in place.

Tarantino’s characters all intertwine with his usual visual flair and ear for wonderful dialogue. Yet again, he has crafted a film to lose yourself in and enjoy the interaction of his brilliantly written characters. Pitt is gleefully entertaining and Waltz thoroughly deserved his Oscar win. Til Schweiger is also a standout as the former German soldier Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz, who takes great enjoyment from killing his own countrymen and as much as Eli Roth’s acting is disasterous, his character Sgt. Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz is wonderful and all this is done with welcome narration by Samuel L. Jackson. The film mainly consists of just a handful of scenes – or chapters – which are actually quite long and dialogue oriented but all done masterfully. Particularly the Sergio Leone-esque opening scene, “Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied France…”, complete with Ennio Morricone style music and the unbelievably tense basement bar scene where Michael Fassbender’s British Lt. Archie Hicox is exposed as a German imposter. These two scenes in particular are some of Tarantino’s finest work and the intoduction of “The Bear Jew” who likes to bash German soldiers with a baseball bat is classic Quentin. Where Tarantino falters though, is in the final act, where the film descends more into humour and becomes slightly rediculous and unconvincing. It’s fabulously done and thoroughly entertaining but the tone is different from what went before and each character becomes more of a caricature, leaving the film with an uncertain conclusion.

A welcome change of direction for Tarantino, while still retaining his idiosyncratic style. I await his next venture with even more anticipation.

Mark Walker