Jason Statham straps himself back into his overly clean Audi and does some more delivering. You know what to expect by now. I enjoyed the first two Transporter films, silly and yet well made slices of action film fun. How disappointing that this film was put together by a Frenchman with a yen for jump-cutting. In the middle of an action scene. Yes, you read correctly. Jump cutting, a practice popularised by Jean-Luc Godard wherein a film is not edited in the conventional style instead it ‘jumps’ from one point to another – often a completely separate scene. The point of this? Well, it is initially disorientating but allows for a much greater freedom in the storytelling, it shatters the restraints of continuity editing. All well and good if you are making a self-conscious, self-involved piece of cinema like Á Bout de Souffle. Absolutely bloody useless in the middle of a complex fight scene, but you try telling that to the ridiculously named Megaton – he must think he is following in some pretty great trend when all he succeeds in doing is confusing the viewer and eventually boring them. What a bloody waste. Not to mention messing with the main character so he is no longer the coolly detached driver on a mission – now he is just Johnny Action with badly written dolly bird and a comedy sidekick. Shit. Stupid and shit. Fittingly, a bit like this lazy review.
Released to scathing reviews this is Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess’ attempt to return to the landscape of his breakthrough success after the disappointingly received Nacho Libre. It seems that the critics were not prepared to accept another kitsch and quirky comedy the way they took to Jon Heder’s tight fro’d dancer. This is probably because Gentlemen Broncos onlyoccasionally manages to tap into that bizarre vein of humour to good effect.
Benjamin attends a writers camp for a long weekend and enters his suitably bizarre novel into a competition judged by the ‘legendary’ sci-fi writer Ronald Chevalier. Unfortunately Chevalier is on the skids and decides to appropriate Benjamin’s work as his own, altering only minor details.
There really isn’t much to this film, it is pretty flimsy stuff. Nothing happens, the pacing is way out – specifically the final act which lasts all of two minutes whilst the story is dragged out for far too long earlier in the film. Too often the humour misses, and not by a small amount. That isn’t to say that it doesn’t have charm though. In it’s playful jibes at the state of science-fiction writing the film hits some pretty solid jokes and Jermain Clement is excellent as the pompous and desperate Chevalier. Sam Rockwell gets to steal the film though, appearing at various points in the film as the hero of the stolen book and undergoing significant changes depending on who owns the manuscript – the sight of him astride a rocket propelled stag crazily firing missiles left and right is something that I won’t forget in a hurry. The opening credits are pretty damn cool too. But then, that is really just damning with faint praise.
Brian Bosworth can’t act. He has all the charisma and screen presence of ham. Ham with a mullet and a weird wry grin. Despite this someone decided that after his NFL career collapsed with a plague of injuries that he should be in movies. Action movies to be precise. Stone Cold is the result. Bosworth (to be referred to as ‘The Boz’) is Joe Huff, a cop who plays by his own rules, a maverick, a renegade, the kind of guy who gets the job done by cracking heads and admiring his immaculate mullet. He has to infiltrate a biker gang who are getting out of control and even assassinating local politicians who threaten them. The Boz goes undercover in ‘The Brotherhood’, led by Lance Henrikson – who is without any shadow of a doubt the best actor in this. It is nice to see William Forsythe playing a sweaty psycho too, something he’d perfected in 1991 judging by his other appearance on this website. Anyway The Boz gets in with the gang, people get beaten up and shit explodes. Shit really does blow up. By the time a motorbike, helicopter and police car are involved in a faintly ridiculous series of explosions lots of people have been shot and Lance Henrikson is dressed as a preacher with an Uzi. If you like 80s action movies watch this, it really is that simple. I’ll be on the lookout for The Boz’ 1996 follow up One Tough Bastard.
If nothing else, watch this incredible trailer. Bloody brilliant.
Note: Stone Cold is listed in the Neon book 1000 Essential Movies on Video under ‘Straight to Video Movies’
That title link takes you to the memorable quotes page from IMDB because this film has some full time brilliant insults in it. Razor sharp dialogue laced with real vitriol wends its way through every aspect of In the Loop, Armando Ianucci’s successful transfer of his TV series The Thick of It to the big screen. The same actors are all present but most find themselves in shuffled roles from the TV incarnation. Aside, that is, from the glorious, magnificent black hole of spite that is Peter Capaldi’s Malcolm Tucker. Sheer fury accompanies his every move, bile in every sentence and of course the glorious swearing. A near constant barrage of curious and inventive curses are fired from Malcolm Tucker as he plays the master of the dark arts, the mover and shaker, the power behind the throne. Lets face it, he’s basically playing a exaggerated version of Alastair Campbell. I say exaggerated because I don’t really believe that any human is like Malcolm Tucker, or at least I hope not. In the Loop is excellent and I can’t recommend it highly enough. For a little bit extra have a look at this interview between Alastair Campbell and Mark Kermode from The Culture Show.
Mike Judge is an acquired taste and Extract follows in the footsteps of Office Space and Idiocracy in the way he continues to look at Americans and their lives. This is much closer to Office Space though, he is looking at the workplace once again – only this time from the point of view of someone a little older and in charge of their own company.
It’s sharp, well observed and most importantly it’s funny. Judge has a good eye for character and a great choice of actors, supporting player like JK Simmons make a film like this. And though he may always be the filthy Nazi swine, Schillinger, from prison series Oz he is a cracking actor. Jason Bateman is Joel, he runs a company that produces flavouring extract, one that he invented. His workforce is made up of borderline idiots and into his life drift a con-artist and gigolo who complicate his fairly straightforward existence. It’s not explosively funny but it is a return to the kind of work that Judge does best, and there isn’t anyone else telling these stories.
Last year I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of Nicholas Winding Refn’s Bronson, every aspect of the film was a success. In the same year Winding Refn chose to make this very different beast. Whilst it is still about men and violence it is a markedly different approach, this is set in 1000AD somewhere in the highlands of Scotland. Where Bronson was all about the magnetic central performance of Tom Hardy here we have the silent, haunted figure of One-eye – played with genuine intensity by Mads Mikkelsen. He is a fighter, chained to a post by his clan and forced to kill any challengers, which he does with devastating efficiency. When he escapes these shackles he teams up with a motley group of Christians on a mission to the Holy Land. Their mission is doomed, where they end up looks like North America but it might as well be hell for these boys.
Winding Refn uses symbolism pretty heavily in Bronson but in Valhalla Rising he takes the use to another level. There really isn’t much story here, there is very little dialogue – the first 15 minutes containing about three lines. Instead there is the stunning photography from Winding Refn’s Danish cinematographer Morten Søborg which fills the screen with vista after stunning vista of vibrant lush scenery that looks almost other-worldly. Placed in this frame are the symbols that recur throughout the film, the Christian crucifix used as a marker a territorial stamp, the dirt of the savages, the pagan markings, the oppressive mist. This isn’t an academic essay, I’m not going into what they all mean but they are they for you to think about. So despite the way it was advertised this is no easy watch about a highland gladiator. This is arthouse violence, brutal, disturbing and remorseless but in its own way, beautiful.
Last year I reviewed The Shock Doctrine, a documentary I found fascinating and moving as well as extremely saddening in parts. It is now available legally on Youtube. I recommend it unconditionally to anyone and everone. Watch it with an open and critical mind, decide for yourself if you agree. It is a brilliant thesis or a dreadful misappropriation of the truth depending on your point of view. I may lean to the former but I implore you to look for yourself and see if you agree.
A remake of the little known George A. Romero film from the early 70s, this is a pretty entertaining slice of small-town America gone awry. Ogden Marsh is the town in question and it is, all of a sudden, subject to some very strange goings on. People are starting to act very in very strange, violent and dangerous ways and it is up to the town Sheriff to see if he can figure it out. That would ordinarily be the set up and resolution for a film of this kind but credit where it is due because this film moves at breakneck speed. There’s no bedding in period for this small town, you get all the information within five minutes and there is a simple and highly effective scene on the local baseball field which kicks off the action. Everything proceeds with some hast from that point on and that’s what allows the film to take several turns I wasn’t expecting. I won’t spoil it but after about half an hour the film has rattled through the story that a regular small town horror film would take for its duration. The Crazies doesn’t do much wrong, but it doesn’t really do anything spectacular it is just a really solid piece of entertainment that is well filmed and well worth 90 minutes of your Friday night. Special mention to English actor Joe Anderson as the deputy, upstaging his American counterparts with a damn good performance.
Someone put me on to the short films of up and coming film director and all round top chap Jason Reitman. You might better know him as the director of Thank You for Smoking, Juno and Up in the Air – three excellent films. But a quick dig around the internet reveals three of his early efforts are available to watch, and because I’m a diamond geezer I’ve stuck them up here for you.
First up is In God We Trust. A cracking short film about karma and the actions of your life being totted up to see whether you get heaven or hell. Our hero spies a chance to skew the result and goes on a last ditch mission to get to the pearly gates. Smart, sharp, fast and funny have a watch (thanks to Leon Hurley from Official Playstation Magazine for the tip on this).
Gulp is more of a tech demo, showcasing some of the creative film-making techniques at Reitman’s disposal. There’s nothing major to it really but there are some definite hints about the style that would later emerge in his feature career.
Finally there is the extended comedy sketch of Consent. That’s all it really is but it is funny and manages to push the joke as far as it should go without overdoing it. It’s also nice to see Reitman being loyal to his Jeff Witzke and giving him roles in all three of these short films as well as his features.
The first thing most people see or hear about Black Dynamite is the superb trailers that did the rounds on the internet back in 2008/2009. So if you haven’t heard about it before I suggest you watch this trailer and get down with your bad self.
This is Michael Jai White’s passion project and he’s put together a really solid comedy. Yes it is only really one joke, a parody of 70s blaxploitation pics, but it is a good one. Taken to an extreme and then pushed even further this is clearly a film made with affection and some pretty sharp knowledge of the era it mimics. Crash zooms, visible boom mics, low grade film, lionising kung fu – it’s all here. Treat yourself and get this smooth, smooooth piece of action watched.
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