Director: Kevin Costner
Starring: Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Annette Benning
Year made: 2003
As a genre, the western is nearly as forgotten as the time it depicts; yet its influence is enduring. Even Eastwood’s dark ‘revisionist’ western Unforgiven couldn’t help but play up to the romantic notion of the lone anti-hero gunslinger...
Kevin Costner’s Open Range finds its feet in this cinematic tradition. Many moviegoers and critics alike are quick to make their assumptions of Costner. Films like Waterworld and The Postman left his reputation badly damaged and box-office standing in tatters. But despite his tendency to be overindulgent, Costner is still a fine filmmaker whose star pedigree ranks right up there with the best, and if there is one genre he knows, it’s the western. Open Range does much to redress the balance.
Free-grazers are cattlemen with no ranch, simply drifting through the Open Range plains with their herd at a time when barbed-wire fences did not exist and no man had a claim on the land. Times are changing though, and old school Boss (Robert Duvall) and his right-hand man Charley (Costner) find themselves in a deadly conflict with Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon), a local rancher with the law in his pocket.
The film takes its beats from High Noon, building slowly to a final shootout, introducing us to the town’s characters along the way and exploring the moralistic issues involved in Boss and Charley’s plight. Duvall does not play the cowboy of old, he embraces and absorbs him. His character is the centrepiece of Open Range.
Costner’s gunhand with a dubious past is intriguing, and subtly performed with glances and body language rather than words. When he does speak it’s short and to the point: “Men are gonna get killed here today, Sue, and I’m gonna kill them.” Of the film’s flaws the most obvious is the romantic subplot between Charley and Sue (Annette Bening). It is an unnecessary addition to the story and doesn’t feel natural, despite being acted well.
If the film alone isn’t enought, this two-disc DVD is more than worthy of your pennies. Costner’s commentary is a fine example of a single-person chattrack. With no introduction he immediately delves into a discussion about the landscapes, so important to the genre, and expands into a detailed explanation of his quest for authenticity, happily justifying his various decisions and admitting his mistakes.
Well above par are the director’s journal featurettes in ‘Beyond Open Range’. There are eight segments, totalling 65 minutes. ‘Beginnings’ offers a bright introduction as Costner talks openly about his anger at being messed about by a particular moneyman. The featurettes reveal many of the trials and tribulations everyone (especially Costner) went through getting the film made, finding locations and the fact the director’s appendix started leaking halfway into the shoot, leading to him having it removed during post-production.
‘America’s Open Range’ lowers the standard somewhat. It is a dryly narrated historical look at frontier history – the kind of documentary that would have sent you to sleep during your history lessons at school. Rounding things up are 12 decent deleted scenes with optional introductions by Costner and a nice featurette ‘Storyboarding: Open Range’, which draws comparisons between David Negron’s artwork and the actual shots used in the movie.
As for the film’s climactic showdown, well, it is a technically brilliant, well-crafted sequence deserving of being considered right up there with the best. If you thought Tombstone’s shootout was good, just wait till the guns start blazing in Open Range.
Ultimately this is an impressive if flawed effort from the Costner.
Special features:
• Audio commentary by director/star Costner
• ‘America’s Open Range’ featurette (13 mins)
• ‘Beyond Open Range’ 8 director’s journal featurettes: ‘Beginnings’ (3 mins), ‘Preproduction Challenges’ (11 mins), ‘On Location’ (9 mins), ‘First Day!’ (5 mins), ‘Weathering The Elements’ (16 mins), ‘Wardrobe And Stars’ (5 mins), ‘The Realism Of A Gunfight’ (7 mins), ‘A Film Is Finished’ (9 mins)
• ‘Storyboarding: Open Range’ featurette (7 mins)
• 12 Deleted scenes with an optional director introduction
• Music video montage
If you like this why not try…
Unforgiven: Special Edition
A timeless revision of the western by its greatest custodian.
Open Range trailer:
This review first appeared in DVD Review issue #62
Thursday, February 19, 2009
DVD: Open Range
DVD: 25th Hour
Director: Spike Lee
Starring: Edward Norton, Barry Pepper, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Year made: 2002
For whom the bell tolls.
The New Yawker film is an American institution born of a city where legendary directors seem to grow on the very trees of Central Park. For the past two years, every filmmaker has acted like nothing’s changed. But this is a city in denial and it has taken one of New York’s favourite children to gently massage the gaping scar in the sky…
In 25th Hour, Spike Lee is back to his best, tackling a delicate but hugely important aspect of American life. The helmer has carefully set his film in a post-9/11 New York, therapy and providence at the same time, reminding three million people to Do The Right Thing because it might just be your last chance.
Monty Brogan (Norton) is going to jail for seven years and has one last day to put all his affairs in order, mend broken relationships and say goodbye to the people he loves. The subplots concerning Monty’s two best friends and his girlfriend are woven with delightful subtlety by Lee, and set up superb performances from all involved. A special tip of the hat must also go to Barry Pepper’s brilliant turn as cynical Wall Street broker, Francis Slaughtery.
Director of photography Rodrigo Preito’s (Amores Perros) cinematography is stunning, as is the accompanying score from Terence Blanchard (Summer Of Sam), and both honour the DVD format with their skilful eloquence.
The accompanying extras are more than mere filler and make for absorbing viewing. The deleted scenes offer extra little insights into certain characters and benefit your understanding of the movie. Lee’s commentary, which is as heartfelt as it is passionate, is an essential listen. It is packed with information about the shoot, filming techniques and his thoughts about the film. Writer David Benioff’s track is also well worth checking out.
‘Ground Zero – A Tribute’ is simply a short sobering montage of footage of the devastated site Spike took during filming. The disc’s second featurette is far better value. With contributions from directing greats such as Martin Scorsese, Sidney Lumet and a host of actors and actresses discovered by Lee, it is a comprehensive summation of his work to date.
25th Hour is as moving and unforgettable as it is brilliant.
Special Features:
• Audio commentary by director Lee
• Audio commentary by screenwriter/author David Benioff
• Deleted scenes
• ‘The Evolution Of An American Filmmaker’ featurette (22 mins)
• ‘Ground Zero – A Tribute’ featurette (5 mins)
If you like this why not try…
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Beautifully touching, devastatingly brutal, there’s no experience like watching Shawshank for the first time.
This review first appeared in DVD Review #61
DVD: Intolerable Cruelty
Director: Joel Coen
Starring: George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Bob Thornton
Year made: 2003
A strange turn this from the Coens, a turn that isn’t necessarily going to be to the liking of fans of the brothers’ ‘traditional’ fare. Intolerably Cruelty represents a move towards something a little more mainstream and – dare we say it? – normal…
Sure, it’s got George Clooney in it and, yes, it’s a love story, but it has just enough Coen kookiness streaking through it to maintain an edge. The most notable absence is that intangible, unexplainable oddness that leaves you happily shrugging your shoulders at the end of their movies. In its place is a coherent script and rounded story that even your granny could follow.
Clooney is a living reincarnation of Cary Grant with a twist of Everett McGill (his character in the Coens’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?) as divorce lawyer Miles Massey. But for all his victories, Massey is still missing something from his life – love. When he finally meets his match in Marilyn Rexroth (Zeta-Jones) Massey is “fascinated” to the point of obsession. Zeta- Jones plays her character with relish, thriving on the media imposed role of golddigging deceptress. Along the road the brothers flirt with their usual rainbow arc of vibrant sideshow players and a good dose of clean-cut (for the most part) screwball comedy.
Barely propping up the DVD are two short featurettes and a collection of outtakes. This particular collection of on-set balls-ups is particularly tiresome and more irritating than funny, unless you like to hear some guy prattle on about ‘berry spoon’ repeatedly 20-odd times in a row.
‘A Look Inside Intolerable Cruelty’ is a disappointing back-slapping exercise by everyone involved – “Oh, George is so great to work with,” and “Aren’t the Coen brothers so admirable?” and so forth. Descriptions of characters are so shallow that you learn more watching the film for five minutes than you do in these 12. For us to squander any breath on a featurette about the wardrobe just wastes time that would be better spent asking the question: why won’t two of the most talented filmmakers out there share a little more with the fans who have put them where they are?
Has its moments, but never fires on all cylinders.
Film: 3 stars
Extras: 2 stars
Special features:
• ‘A Look Inside Intolerable Cruelty’ featurette
(10 mins)
• ‘The Wardrobe’ featurette (5 mins)
• Outtakes
If you like this whey not try…
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
A brilliantly fun movie by the Coens about three convicts with musical talent.
This review first appeared in DVD Review issue #61
DVD: The Italian Job (2003)
Director: F Gary Gray
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton
Year made: 2003
Putting prejudice to one side when it comes to a remake of such a culturally iconic film as The Italian Job is not easy. Michael Caine’s 1969 original was not without its flaws, but its status was secured by an enduring charm. No matter how competently F Gary Gray’s
version has been put together, its blandness is its failing...
Standing next to any number of Hollywood action fests this mini adventure ticks all the necessary boxes for decent returns, only to then skip those that ask for a great leading man, characters you care about and scripted spice that makes a film special. In short, The Italian Job is a film blissfully happy in its mediocrity. Then again, film isn’t much about art that much of the time, all too often it is little more than a business that knows what it needs to do to turn a profit. If that means lifting ideas, like a Mini Cooper-led heist for gold bullion with the odd twist and turn here and there, so be it.
Mark Wahlberg is the man in Caine’s driving seat as Charlie Croker. Unfortunately, it’s like swapping Jackie Stewart for David Coulthard, he’s never going to bring home the big one and will probably bore us to death trying, such is the extent of Wahlberg's woeful performance.
The rest of the cast rally around making up for their lead’s lacking, but it is Gary Gray’s directing that saves the day. Should this man get the chance at a great script with better players then he may achieve something above the rest of the blockbuster fodder. His composition of shots lifts The Italian Job’s thrills out of the gutter in an impressively stylistic manner against its tasty soundtrack. This creates the illusion of a much slicker flick than it actually is.
This indifference is reflected in The Italian Job’s disc. No commentary to speak of, just five featurettes, which seem to spend an awful lot of their time defending and fighting against the ‘remake’ label.
In ‘Pedal To The Metal’ everyone’s touchy feelyness about the subject is quite evident. On one hand you have executive producer Tim Bevan categorically saying it’s not a remake, then everyone else saying it’s not exactly a remake, just “inspired by” the original. The rest of the featurette is made up of pretty average cast interviews
featuring their best soundbites.
Surprise surprise, everyone got on like a house on fire and director Gary Gray was great. Leave it to Wahlberg though to hit the biggest cliché out of the park, explaining why he took on the film: “I saw the script [dramatic pause] and just fell in love with it.”
Notable only by his absence from the featurette is Ed Norton, who plays Steve (the bad guy), contractually obliged by the studio to appear in the film. He wasn’t happy about it either.
Everything else is stocking filler; even the stunts featurette managed to send us to sleep. The Italian Job represents the worst kind of garden-variety film: average and proud of it.
Mini mayhem and not in a good way.
Film: 2 stars
Extras: 2 stars
Special features:
• ‘Pedal To The Metal: The Making Of The Italian Job’ featurette (18 mins)
• ‘Putting The Words On The Page For The Italian Job’ featurette (5 mins)
• ‘The Italian Job Driving School’ featurette (6 mins)
• ‘The Mighty Minis Of The Italian Job’ featurette (6 mins)
• ‘High Octane: Stunts From The Italian Job’ featurette (8 mins)
• Six deleted scenes
• Gag reel – Easter egg
If you likes this why not try:
The Italian Job (1969)
Who needs American imitations when you can buy British.
This review first appeared in DVD Review issue #62
DVD: Something's Gotta Give
Director: Nancy Meyers
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves
Year made: 2003
Breaking news: people surprisingly retain romantic inclinations beyond the age of 60. Nancy Meyers seems to have only just stumbled across the concept and is keen to share the revelation...
As a romantic comedy, Something’s Gotta Give is at the very least enthusiastic, but suffers from Meyers’ naivety at every critical juncture; what could be an enlightening story about mature lovers is undermined by her determination to reduce it to what’s essentially a clumsy game of playground kiss chase.
Jack Nicholson is to all intents and purposes playing a parody of his own persona, refined by a decade lacking in diverse roles for the once great and daring actor. He has his moments, which will force a smile on your face, but it is always tinged with the feeling that you’ve seen it before.
How on earth Diane Keaton was nominated by the Academy for Best Actress is quite beyond us, but not half as much as the fact she beat out Scarlett Johansson to the Golden Globe. It is a shallow, unimpressive display that is utterly reliant on her
twinkling smile and eyes.
Neither, though, are helped by a woefully predictable script that ticks all the genre boxes in such unashamed fashion that it will leave you cringing every step of the way. This is only heightened by the fact that Meyers’ criminally shit film goes on and on and on for over two hours, sucking your will to live in the process.
At first glance, the collection of extras appears respectable. Closer inspection reveals them to be in perfect keeping with the wishy-washy nature of the main feature. Meyers proves to be astonishingly dull in both commentaries and is completely out of her depth next to the charm and wit of Nicholson, who doggedly attempts to bring a little fun to proceedings, happily chirping away sharing little anecdotes and pearls of wisdom.
One deleted scene in this case is not nearly enough and if they had made the film with DVD in mind they could have beefed this extra up by at least 30 minutes. As for the one featurette, the less said the better quite frankly.
Sorry to say but this package is utterly derivative and wholly unfunny.
Film: 1 star
Extras: 2 stars
Special features:
• Audio commentary by writer/director Meyers, star Keaton and producer Bruce A Block
• Audio commentary by writer/director Meyers and star Nicholson
• 'Harry Sings Karaoke To Erica' deleted scene
• 'Hamptons House Set Tour With Amanda Peet' featurette (3 mins)
• Cast and crew filmographies
If you like this why not try...
As Good As It Gets
A funnier, more satisfying turn from Nicholson.
This review first appeared in DVD Review issue #64
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Film review: The International
Director: Tom Tykwer
Cast: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl
Country: USA/Germany
What better time for a paranoid thriller with international banking as the root of great evil and the perpetrator of Very Bad Things? The International has a captive audience primed for just such a cathartic cinematic experience; unfortunately this globetrotting credit crunch therapy session is no more compelling than its grey colour scheme and just as cold.
Clive Owen plays Interpol agent Louis Salinger, an idealistic and dishevelled former Scotland Yard detective whose life has been on hold for years while he tracked the nefarious dealings of the International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC), never managing to prove his case and losing countless witnesses along the way. Like all good conspiracies the case is impossible to prove and even harder to explain, try as they might, with liberal doses of exposition. But with this many bodies you trust that someone somewhere is up to no good.
Salinger is teamed up with New York Assistant DA Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) – we don’t quite know why other than the film could use a female foil for Owen. This shows in Watts’ performance, which sees her struggle with more than just the New Yawker accent, failing to really pinpoint her purpose as the pair are whisked from Germany to France, to Italy, the US and Turkey. Director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) certainly owes more to the Bourne franchise than the classic conspiracy films of the ’70s. The old tropes it does trot out belong more to ’90s popcorn paranoid fare than the dark complexities of early Alan J Pakula (The Parallax View).
Tykwer and his frequent cinematographer collaborator Frank Griebe have an eye for some spectacular views of bleak monotone corporate buildings within the stunning European cities they present to us. Symbolically our heroes always appear miniscule against the monolithic and anonymous enemies they are faced with, and it this creates much of the tension The International is able to muster.
First time scribe Eric Singer shoulders much of the responsibility for the dramatic shortcomings and dreary predictability, his script filled with hyperbole and fortune cookie philosophy (“truth means responsibility, that’s why we dread it”). Owen, to his credit, is earnest in pursuit of his character despite very little depth beyond cliché to work with; the film is at its strongest when he seems to be doing proper detective work. But with too many convenient jumps in logic or luck it is hard to invest completely in the film’s outcome, which ultimately fails to follow through its convictions in any meaningful way.
There will be much talk of The International’s centrepiece action sequence, a vertiginous shootout at NYC’s Guggenheim Museum, its lavish appearance rebuilt on a German soundstage and looking truly stunning. However, having waited two-thirds of the movie for the big set-piece, it is sad it would prove as amateurish as the hit squad sent after Salinger. The shootout goes on forever leaving you wondering if the police will ever turn up to this massive gun battle in Downtown Manhattan. No doubt Tykwer has a visual flair, but any nuances in the camera work are sullied by the utter mediocrity of the men and their machine guns trying to get to Salinger and his witness, who is probably the easiest hit man in the world to find thanks a new variation on the one-armed man clause.
“The difference between truth and fiction is fiction has to make sense,” proselytises one character in The International, a sentiment Tykwer et al. would have done well to follow.
The International opens Australia-wide February 19
This review first appeared in 3D World issue #947
DVD: American Splendor
Directors: Robert Pulcini, Shari Springer-Berman
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davies,Harvey Pekar
Year made: 2003
From the second the credits scroll and pan across the screen you know you’re in for something quite different. This does not do American Splendor justice; as films go it is actually a bit special...
“Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff,” says Harvey Pekar, whose life is just about as everyday as you get. He works his 9-5 as a file clerk in the dilapidated city of Cleveland. In his spare time he collects comic books and records, which he feels the need to negotiate down from 25 cents at a garage sale. In a bizarre twist of fate Pekar is also the hero of his own underground comic book, American Splendor. Now he’s a movie star too.
Directors Pulcini and Berman blow the world of the normal apart with a postmodern detonation of originality and filmic innovation. This is joyfully daring stuff as the lines between real, comic and film existence are blurred. Giamatti puts in a career-best performance as Pekar, the grumpy eccentric bumbling his way to fame without fortune. He receives more than a helping hand, the fine supporting players portraying the equally unique characters in Pekar’s quirky life.
Toby Radloff, a genuine nerd and borderline autistic, is one such oddity. It is an appropriately leftfield touch that sees him MC the commentary track, which features the directors, Giamatti, Pekar and his family, all of whom are on top form. Some details behind the film are revealed but this chat-track is all about entertainment and could just as easily have formed part of the film itself.
The ‘Road To Splendor’ featurette doesn’t even scratch the surface but is good if only to see the real Pekar in action. No time has been given over to the artists of American Splendor and their inclusion would have been an appropriate one. It’s a great shame this is the extent of the disc’s supplemental material. Still, easily worth it if only for the film.
Film: 4 Stars
Extras: 2 stars
Special features:
• Audio commentary by directors Pulcini and Springer-Berman and stars Giamatti,
Davies and Pekar
• ‘Road To Splendor’ featurette (6 mins)
• Harvey Pekar’s ‘My Movie Year’ comic book insert
If you like this why not try:
Ghost World
Terry Zwigoff’s offbeat comic book adaptation about two girls coming to terms with a phoney, lonely world. Brilliant.
This review first appeared in DVD Review #63
DVD: Stir Of Echoes: SE
Director: David Koepp
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas
Year made: 1999
At the time of its release in 1999 Stir Of Echoes suffered heavily in the aftermath of M Night Shyamalan’s juggernaut sleeper hit The Sixth Sense – there just wasn’t enough room at theatres for two movies with stars seeing dead people...
Kevin Bacon plays Tom Witzky, an average Joe American blue-collar worker, nothing unique about his life; has a wife and a kid and is relatively happy but not quite satisfied. When his wife’s sister hypnotises him at a party she unlocks an ability in Tom to act as a ‘Receiver’. This is when Tom’s life gets disturbing as a ghost that is residing in his family home starts to haunt him.
Director Koepp navigates his second film (although he has been a screenwriter on many more) with deft skill – the scares are truly hair-raising moments as he jump-cuts with effective dramatic impact. And although the story loses its way slightly towards the ending, it is held together by Bacon’s superb acting and a helpful dose of eerie tension supplied by Koepp.
The director is on hand to take us through the film in his highly engaging chat-track. Koepp is a good-natured sort who honestly mentions how frustrating it was when ‘the other film’ came out before his. He also happily discusses the inspiration behind the film, advice he received from other directors on certain shots and a variety of on-set anecdotes.
‘Making Of: Behind The Echoes’ proves to be the best of the featurettes and includes good quality soundbite interviews with Koepp, the film’s producers and the main cast members. It covers all the main aspects of making the movie from adapting the screenplay, producing, casting and shooting. ‘The Mind’s Eye’ and ‘Sight Of Spirits’ are both around 10 minutes of psychological babble behind the hypnosis and paranormal happenings featured in the film. There is very little to be gleaned from these weird, weird people.
Worth mentioning, finally, is the superb DTS-ES audio mix. If you have the equipment be sure to turn the volume up, turn the lights off and prepare to be frightened.
An overlooked film worth checking out.
Film: 4 stars
Extra: 3 stars
Special features:
• Audio commentary by director Koepp
• ‘Making Of Stir Of Echoes: Behind The Echoes’ documentary (30 mins)
• ‘The Mind’s Eye: Beneath The Trance’ featurette (10 mins)
• ‘Sight Of The Spirits: Channelling The Paranormal’ featurette (11 mins)
• ‘Special Effects’ featurette (4 mins)
• ‘Production Design’ featurette (4 mins)
• Screen test clips: Samantha ghost look tests (4 mins); Tom dirt look tests (2 mins); Maggie look tests (1 min)
• Four behind-the-scenes/final shot comparisons (12 mins)
• Three deleted scenes
• ‘Breathe’ music video by Moist (4 mins)
• Subtitles in Spanish and English
If you like this why not try…
The Sixth Sense: CE
Just pipped Stir Of Echoes to the punch on supernatural ghost thrillers.
This review first appeared in DVD Review #71
DVD: Runaway Jury
Director: Gary Fleder
Starring: Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, John Cusack
Year made: 2003
Courtroom dramas are notorious hit and miss affairs. As time has gone on, more elaborate attempts have been made by directors to put a spin on top of their twist. In principle, Runaway Jury has a good take on it – unfortunately, it is more spin than the filmmakers can handle.
Ever-charismatic Gene Hackman plays Rankin Fitch, an amoral jury consultant brought in to secure a verdict for a big bucks gun manufacturer, who is being sued by the widow of an office worker, gunned down with one of its firearms. Prosecuting her case is Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman), an honest southern lawyer bound to his own code of justice and integrity. But then there’s Nick Easter (John Cusack), a jury member with an agenda. His girlfriend Marlee (Rachel Weisz) opens a bidding game with Fitch and Rohr for the verdict, while he plays the jury like a piano.
As the trial and the auction run their course everything gets a little breezy. There is very little development of the jury’s internal dynamics, the interaction between Hoffman and Hackman is completely underused and the ending is given away by the film’s pantomime tone.
As a disc, things are woven together much better, offering a very respectable collection of bonus features. Fleder’s commentary is a passionate one – here is a guy who clearly loves what he is doing. The selected scene commentaries from Hoffman and Hackman are pretty pointless, looking at the washroom and bar scenes respectively. By far and away the best features are ‘Exploring The Scene’ and ‘Off The Cuff’. The first of these focuses on Hoffman and Hackman’s one scene together, complete with some excellent behind-the-scenes footage. ‘Off The Cuff’ is an entertaining segment with the pair talking about their history, having been friends since the Fifties. They clearly share a great repartee and have something of The Odd Couple about them.
Five other featurettes prove to be merely filler on what is little more than a mediocre release. Verdict: guilt as charged.
Film: 2 stars
Extras: 3 stars
Special features:
• Audio commentary by director Fleder
• Selected scene commentary by stars Hackman and Hoffman
• Two deleted scenes with optional director commentary
• ‘Exploring The Scene: Hackman And Hoffman Together’ featurette (14 mins)
• ‘Off The Cuff: Hackman And Hoffman’ featurette (9 mins)
• ‘The Ensemble: Acting’ featurette (4 mins)
• ‘The Making Of Runaway Jury’ featurette (12 mins)
• ‘Shadow And Light: Cinematography’ featurette (6 mins)
• ‘A Vision Of New Orleans: Production Design’ featurette (5 mins)
• ‘Rhythm: The Craft Of Editing’ featurette (5 mins)
If you like this why not try...
12 Angry Men
One man stands alone against the prejudices of 11. Greatest trial film ever made.
This review first appeared in DVD Review issue #24
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
To see the MOST RECENT FILM REVIEWS on Dark Habits CLICK HERE.
Or to read the most recent DVD reviews click here.
Alternative take a look through the following complete alphabetical list of film reviews by Scott Henderson (there are many more to come as I continue to upload my old work for DVD Review):
(NB: some reviews link to external sites)
21 Grams – DVD (6/4/04)
25th Hour – DVD (16/1/04)
American Splendor – DVD (11/03/04)
Angels & Demons (20/05/09)
Appaloosa – Shotgun Critic (14/03/09)
As Good As It Gets – DVD (6/4/04)
A Time To Kill (Channel4, 2005)
Balibo (15/08/09)
Black Ice (21/01/09)
Bottle Shock (27/03/09)
Bronson (15/08/09)
Brood, The (Channel 4, 2005)
Buffalo Soliders – DVD (11/3/04)
Burma VJ (2008)
Cedar Boys (15/08/09)
Chicago (Kamera.co.uk – 2003)
Combination, The (23/03/09)
Dark Crystal, The – DVD (12/03/04)
Duplicity (18/03/09)
Elegy (3D World, 05/04/09)
Fast & Furious (20/04/2009)
Friday The 13th (2009) (10/04/09)
Frozen River (17/02/09)
Gomorrah (20/05/09)
Last Ride (24/05/09)
Inglourious Basterds (15/08/09)
I Love You, Man (21/04/09)
In America – DVD (11/3/04)
International, The (18/02/09)
Intolerable Cruelty – DVD (15/1/04)
Italian Job, The (2003) – DVD (2/13/04)
Labyrinth – DVD (12/3/04)
Mary And Max (10/04/09)
My Bloody Valentine (17/02/09)
Open Range – DVD (2/13/04)
Ran – DVD (07/04/04)
Reader, The (19/02/09)
Runaway Jury – DVD (11/03/04)
Shallow Ground (Channel4, 2005)
Spirited Away – DVD (11/3/04)
Stir Of Echoes – DVD (22/10/04)
Stuck On You – DVD (06/04/04)
Synecdoche, New York (20/05/09)
Tenderness (20/05/09)
Terminator Salvation (2009)
There's Something About Mary – DVD (06/04/04)
Tricks (Sztuczki) (16/02/09)
Two Fists One Heart (17/03/09)
Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans (27/01/09)
Uninvited, The (27/03/09)
Watchmen (01/03/09)
Wendy And Lucy (03/04/09)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (28/04/09)
Film review: Frozen River
Director: Courtney Hunt
Cast: Melissa Leo, Misty Upham
Country: USA
In the small town of Massena in upstate New York, snow and desperation decorate the harsh landscape of Mohawk territory. Ray Eddy is tired, and the few tears that escape from her inner turmoil as she contemplates a future in which her husband has left, taking with him their savings for a new home, betray her wrinkled and hard complexion. With 15 and 5-year-old boys waiting back inside their trailer abode, the newly made single mum Ray has only a cigarette to mourn her lot in life...
Frozen River is a film founded in the real world: bleak, bitter and hanging to hope by the thinnest of threads. Having first told the story as a short film, director Courtney Hunt has produced an impressive feature debut that just manages to skate on the right side of earnest without sliding onto the thin ice of contrivance. It is thanks in no small part to the character of Ray and her brilliant realisation by long-time character actress Melissa Leo (Homicide: Life On The Street fans will remember her as Kay Howard).
With her gambling-addicted husband having done a runner just a few days before Christmas, Ray is left with the prospect of supporting her two kids on her part-time dollar store wage and finding the four grand needed to pay for their new home before losing the entire deposit. Considering her kids are living on popcorn and the TV is about to be repossessed, things aren’t looking too good.
Circumstance and a dose of conspiratorial fate throw Ray into the mix with Lila (Misty Upham) a local Mohawk woman involved with smuggling racket bring illegal immigrants across the Canadian-US border, through the Mohawk Indian reservation. The money is good and the risks are high. Forgetting for a moment the penalty for getting caught by Johnny-Law or the scumbags Ray must deal with, the smuggling is predicated on a drive across a river, frozen in the winter months, that splits the Mohawk territory. While the river crossing might be a slap-in-the-face symbol of just how desperate these women are; it is also an effective narrative tool to keep the audience on the edge of its seat throughout, with the prospect of catastrophe never more than a patch of black ice away.
Ray and Lila predictably form a sort of reluctant partnership forged out of the commonality of their respective situations. Lila too is a single mother whose child has been taken from her by family and that might be too manipulative of our affections but for performances of Leo and Upham, which are so strong that they drive the narrative forward regardless, compelling our attention and empathy.
Not enough can be said of Leo’s portrait of as a mother desperately trying to protect her cubs – Ray isn’t the most likeable person as she demonstrates little concern for the lives they’re transporting across the river, holding at least a hint of bigotry. That we never emotionally disconnect from Leo is the film’s greatest strength. Leo is up against some extremely tough competition for the Best Actress Oscar gong, that she is nominated at all in such company is deserving enough and of Streep, Hathaway and Jolie, it is Leo who might have the best chance of causing an upset to Kate Winlet.
This is a powerful debut from Hunt and an emotionally compelling tale. Make no mistake though, Frozen River is one of those films that hinges on a remarkable performance and the realisation of a fictional character so completely into the real world.
Frozen River is on limited Australian release from February 19.
This review first appeared in 3D World issue 947.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Film review: Tricks (Sztuczki)
Dir: Andrzej Jakimowski
Cast: Damian Ul, Ewelina Walendziak, Rafal Guzniczak
Country: Poland
Every once in a while I get to walk into the cinema knowing next to nothing about the film I’m about to see. It isn’t very often and the results are largely unpredictable. So much about choosing a film is about mood, or for critics who are watching film every day not matter what, it is instead about mood preparation...
When I walked into Tricks it might have been with the sense of trepidation armed only with the knowledge that I was about to watch a small, award-winning Polish drama “told from a six-year old’s perspective.” Not much to go on to be sure, though the child, Polish and award-winning elements might have seeded subconscious expectations of the grim-realism variety. Rarely have I been more wrong, Tricks is one of the most unanticipated, charming and enjoyable cinematic experiences informed by a streak of magical realism that I’ve had since Amélie or perhaps when I saw my first film by Hayao Miyazaki.
Director Andrzej Jakimowski has taken a big idea and explored oh so elegantly in a small film, with small contexts and an even smaller lead. Ten-year old Damian Ul carries the majority of the film on his little shoulders as Stefek; a young, fatherless boy whose working class village makes for his own personal sandpit. Stefek leads quite the solitary life outside of his relationship with sister Elka (Ewelina Walendziak) and her boyfriend Jerzy (Rafal Guzniczak); never playing with other children and interacting more out of a sense of curiosity than anything else with the colourful collection of character that inhabit his (and the film’s) world.
One of these characters (though far from the most colourful) is a somewhat non-descript man who routinely catches the same train each morning on his way to work. Stefek loiters at the train station everyday to watch this man whom he believes is his father based on an old defaced picture he carries around. Elka warns Stefek to stay away from the man. It is here that the film’s title Tricks comes into play.
The big idea Jakimowski explores is our ability to nudge, lure and generally manipulate fate to our own ends. Elka and Stefek play games to see how they can bend fate and while Stefek tries to force events to take a certain course Elka merely bribes them in a way that parodies Aesop’s fable of The North Wind And The Sun. As a result of what Elka teaches him, Stefek sets about orchestrating an elaborate and slightly ingenious scheme to steer his estranged father home.
This film’s riches go far beyond its central plot and the playful toying with concepts of fate and luck. The canvas on which Jakimowski paints his main concerns is filled with vignettes of life in Stefek’s sandpit, whether that be a trio of old-timers who sit around smoking, drinking and shooting the breeze; river bank swimming trips; Italian classes at the local community centre; street gatherings and gypsy music; or the loneliness of a man just trying to sell some apples. It is these elements that give Tricks such an authentic flavour captured by the wonderful cinematography of Adam Bajerski whose close-up work is as confident as it is striking. Director Jakimowski is able to paint a portrait of not only the village’s inhabitants and their way of life, but also the village itself as Bajerski studies the streets and buildings with a mixture of wide and tracking shots. This might be a slightly dilapidated, working class corner of old Europe, but does he ever bring those bleached tones and rough edges to life filling the screen with a tangible richness.
And yet it is the performances of the three young actors Damian Ul, Ewelina Walendziak and Rafal Guzniczak that stick at the forefront of my mind. Not only are the relationships they share with one another genuine, they are each just so thoroughly likeable that you forget that you are used to contrivances in film to draw conflict between the protagonists. The characters of Stefek, Elka and Jerzy all have the kind of quirks you might expect of a real person, and it is without judgment or prejudice that we observe their behaviour, rather events and circumstances just play out with them inside. Of course this is in part also thanks to Jakimowski’s elegant and playful script that is never afraid to take a back set to the action and settings he creates.
Tricks will be missed by most, and what a shame that is. Director Jakimowski reminds us that cinema need not always be cynical in its pursuit of real life, that a touch of magical realism can go a long way, and that no matter how hard or gently we might try to influence fate, free will is ultimately an unpredictable entity.
Tricks is playing as part of Windows On Europe Film Festival in Sydney February 14-22 at Dendy Cinema Opera Quays.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Film review: My Bloody Valentine 3D
Director: Patrick Lussier
Cast: Jaime King, Jensen Ackles, Kerr Smith
Country: USA
Sometimes a movie comes along that is so slippery, it’s hardly worth slinging any critical mud. For all its flaws, and there are many, it’s impossible to deny My Bloody Valentine’s quality as a wonderful carnival ride of slash and dash horror generously drenched in gallons of gore – and it’s in 3D too.
As a subgenre in horror it turns out slashers have much in common with the seemingly superhuman killers that inhabit quiet American townships like MBV’s Harmony, stalking the same old stupid, fornicating kids – just when you think they’re dead and buried, the relentless buggers come back for one more slice ‘n’ dice. And the fact of the matter is, we love it. We love the predictability of the formula, the macabre gags, the shit acting too, but mostly what we love is the killing. When it comes to slashers we’re all voyeurs and not just for the inevitable gratuitous flashing of boobs… even in 3D and all its glorious gimmickry.
After being in a coma for a year after a cave-in at the local mine, sole survivor Harry Warden wakes on Valentine’s Day and embarks on a killing spree, smashing and slaughtering 22 men, women and children. Ten years later the killing starts all over again and while presumed dead, Harry Warden is Harmony’s prime pickaxe-wielding suspect.
Back in town as the mayhem gets going is Tom Hanniger (Jensen Ackles), son of the mine owner, back to sell his dead father’s business. While back he runs into high-school sweetheart Sarah (Jaime King) who is now married to town sheriff Axel (Kerr Smith) who is as much of an asshole as his name suggests. Survivors of the last rampage, Tom, Sarah and Axel all form cogs in MBV’s kitchen sink approach to the film’s plot.
Not satisfied with merely fulfilling the conventions of a straight slasher, director Patrick Lussier incorporates elements of whodunit, twisting turning suspense and some love triangle drama for good measure. Whenever the film gets caught up in these elements it stalls, thanks mainly due to some truly horrible acting from Ackles and Smith who huff and puff with all the bluster of an emphysema sufferer. Thankfully these moments are mostly momentary as the pace increase back to helter skelter with yet another memorable death-by-pickaxe bloodletting.
And I would be amiss not to lavish praise on the 3D experience of MBV. There hasn’t been a horror film that has ever taken advantage of this technology like this in my memory. Blood drips onto the floor of the cinema, axes, flames and body parts fly out the screen, and the depth perception all enhance the physical and emotion experience of every frame. Lussier basks in the fun to be had with 3D’s goregasmic FX.
Yes there’s a lot that is pretty B-grade tosh about My Bloody Valentine 3D, but if you can’t have fun watching the naked, hot local tramp chase her one-stop trucker lover and toting a gun, or a midget impaled on the ceiling, well, you’re just not much fun at all.
Happy Valentines Day people.
My Bloody Valentine 3D is on general release in Australia from February 12.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Interview: Mike Relm
My interview with Mike Relm for 3D World.
Mike Relm might be one of the hardest working and most creative DJs in the business today. Scott Henderson finds out how boredom, robot rock and a dose of tech obsession have inspired the turntablist to create a show that no one anywhere else is doing.
San Francisco: spiritual home to hippy throwbacks and geek chic. Actual home to Pixar, Google, Apple, YouTube, Wikipedia and one Mike Relm. Compulsively clad in red sneakers, black suit and his trademark thick, black-rimmed specs, Relm is the very picture definition of geek cool. This Steve Jobs of the DJ world might not seem it to look at, but in an art dominated by the likes of Mix Master Mike and DJ Shadow, Relm is one person pushing the creative boundaries of turntablism and forging a path that’s inventing its own curve.
For anyone familiar with Mike Relm’s work this is nothing new per se, after all Relm has been a force in US DJ culture for the best part of a decade, really coming into his own these passed few years marked with the release of his mix cd Radio Fryer in 2005. But for the uninitiated, it is Relm’s live show incorporating a his own unique brand of real-time VJing into his scratching, juggling and mixing that is an experience that has to be seen to be appreciated. A cursory search on YouTube yields a ton of footage of Relm at work including some of his more famous mashups of films (Office Space), music (‘Imagine’) and YouTube favs (Charlie Bite My Finger).
When 3D World caught up with Relm, we find he’s indulging himself in a music trade show in southern California checking out all the new hardware on show, getting demos and looking for anything that could enhance his show. This time, Relm tell us, he’s on the lookout for new software, “gear-wise I’m pretty set for now. I’ve got some really cool toys.”
It’s all a far cry from his typical ignoble beginnings as a DJ in the mid-Nineties. At age 15 Relm bought his first pair of decks from a local DJ, turntables it turned out that were completely unsuitable for his purposes. Relm got himself a job and saved up for some technics, started playing parties for friends in high school before finding himself drawn to the turntablist scene. Back in the day when it was just two decks and a mixer playing records back-to-back the Relm says, “I felt guilt getting paid for that, it was crazy. There just had to be something more. That was when I discovered scratching and tricks and I was like, ‘okay, now this is cool’.”
It was the restless scratch pervert inside Relm inspired him to seek out new challenges in DJing and after watching endless videos of The X-Ecutioners, the Beatjunkies and practicing, Relm started to enter local battles then national ones, eventually winning the International Turntablist Federation's USA competition in 1999. By then though, Relm was getting bored again, “I could scratch and I could juggle, but had no idea what that meant.
“It was then that I incorporated those skills with what I’d learned from parties into making a show. In about 2004 I was getting bored again and started to incorporate video into my sets. I was already doing visuals of sorts, but there was not real connection between that and what I was doing with the music. Now there is Serato Scratch Live where you can control music and video with the turntables, which was right up my alley.”
The geneses of this all of course being the birth of the video turntable with software to support it. As opposed to many DJs who just saw it as an opportunity to play music videos (“why would you want to do that, what a waste of time”) while they DJ’d, Relm saw much more potential. Over the years he’s gotten a lot better at recognising what the audience react too and trying wherever possible to manipulate those responses. “I try not to rest too much,” he explains of his time on stage. “I’m there for an hour, maybe two, and you look at a band and the drummer is going nuts the whole time; that guy doesn’t get a break, why should I? I wanna earn it, especially being up there on stage.”
It pretty clear chatting with the ever-enthusiastic and talkative DJ that he’s geeky in all the right ways about his approach to DJ/VJing. Filmmakers like Darren Aronofsky and Quentin Tarantino, says Relm, have influenced the perspective from which he wants to use and present his clips, creating “more of a cinematic feel. It’s still fun though; I love making people laugh.” And when we stumble onto the subject of Daft Punk’s live show Relm, like the rest of us, is in complete awe – only with much greater appreciation of the accomplishments and having been one of the lucky few to see the legendary debut unveiling at Coachella in 2006.
“I was blown away, completely blown away,” Relm begins, struggling for words. “Man, where do you start? I wish I wore a helmet for my whole career. They’ve got that pyramid, and the lights are so… it’s just so dope. It’s like everything is synced, everybody who is doing something for that show is a band member, you know what I mean? If the lights are off by a second, forget it, I’m disconnected. For them though, it’s so locked it’s insane. They are proof that if you can lock it all up it’s just mind-blowing… It was like they had created a whole new world.”
Late last year saw the release of Relm’s debut album, Spectacle, as an original artist, something he has been “pretty juiced” about. It’s a natural progression for Relm, following in the footsteps of Shadow and Cut Chemist, as someone who restlessness has fed a completely innovative approach to turntablism as a form of expression. “What I do isn’t the regular DJ thing and it was tough at first because it was unheard of. Now I feel a certain amount of responsibility to keep taking things in a different direction. I see what others are doing and it’s cool, but if I don’t do things my way no-one will.”
Check out the music video Mike directed for his song 'Everytime':
Mike Relm plays Good Vibrations Sydney, Saturday 14 February
Interview: Animal Collective
My interview with Noah Lennox of Animal Collective for 3D World:
Animal Collective’s critically acclaimed latest album might just be happy accident according to Noah Lennox. Scott Henderson caught up with the songwriter and discussed the serendipitous harmony of the band’s ninth album…
Animal Collective have pulled a neat magic trick with their latest album, Merriweather Post Pavillion. Before you’ve even clicked play their record has you tripping out, starring at the cover art trying to make sense of the undulating sea of green, blue and pink, which endlessly strafes back and forth. Unconsciously you hit play, still starring in wonder at the cover as the sound of opening track ‘In The Flowers’ begins to fill the room, immersing you deeper until finally the rhythmic rolling drum strikes; you are Alice in Wonderland, except you’re never going to want to leave.
“We saw this optical illusion in a magazine article whilst waiting at the airport on our way down to Athens, Georgia where we were going to mix the record” says Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) calling 3D World from his home in Lisbon, Portugal, kissing his daughter goodnight as our interview gets underway. “I think it was a Scientific American and it was all about the neuroscience of optical illusions, and it was one among many – but this one stood out to us and became this iconic image of the music over the course of that week… It has this weird magical quality to it and I was hoping it would give the impression that there is some kind of a supernatural thing inside of it.”
It’s hard to know what is more interesting about this, the decision to use some obscure optical illusion by Japanese psychologist Akiyoshi Kitaoka or that someone in the band reads Scientific American. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise from the Animal Collective of Lennox, Brian Weitz (aka Geologist), David Portner (aka Avey Tare) and Josh Dibb (aka Deakin), who have never made for your everyday band.
Merriweather Post Pavillion represents the band’s ninth studio album in a history and a friendship that goes beyond their debut long player of 2000 right back to high school and a little indie rock band called Automine. When a band is as experimental as Animal Collective have been through the years, that perfect balance of all the elements needed to make a truly transcending album is not something that occurs easily. As Lennox recognises, it’s not exactly something that you can plan for either.
“I feel like the creative process has remained pretty much exactly the same throughout,” begins Lennox. “I think there is a cohesion to this one, but I don’t think that is a result of us being older or having done it a whole bunch of times. There were a lot of serendipitous things that kinda helped it come out that way. The fact that the songs I was writing and the songs Dave was writing at the time fit together in a really harmonious way. It was just the luck of the drawer more than anything.”
Then there was engineer Ben Allen who they had never worked with before but was chosen specifically because he knew how to record bass and low end through his experience with hip hop. Lennox had been listening to lots of dubstep in preparation for the new album having made the decision that in the absence of Josh Dibb and his touch with the guitar that the music would have a much greater focus on bass. “Working with Ben turned out to be this sort of immediately positive experience and I don’t think he’d worked on music like ours before. But he understood what we were going for immediately. I just feel like there’s a lot of little things like that that helped to make this album feel quite a bit more together than our others.”
Lyrically things have come together in Post Pavillion also, and while far from being more simplistic than on previous albums such as Here Comes The Indian, they have instead become more relatable to. Lennox says that they are made up of “reflections of things we have experienced directly.” They are the everyday experiences of love, relationships, growing up and curiosity. “Lyrically speaking we didn’t have a unified theme that we were going for, but in retrospect certain things come out – certainly the relationship between our lives as musicians who are traveling pretty much all the time; the relationship of that to this sort of home life we have all been growing, or have been over the past two years.”
For Lennox, the responsibility of family and home has became the dominant factor in life. And while a song like ‘My Girls’, which is about wanting a house and apologising for seeing the world through materialistic eyes betrays the everyman, growing pains of life, it is also a reflection of changing values and of what is important. He speaks of it as his “safe zone” when he is not on tour or working. Lennox moved to Lisbon some four and a half years ago and says it is a perfect fit: “My life here is super mellow. The city and the people here are pretty tranquil; when I am home it is an isolated place, but in a good way.”
One thing that missing from Lennox’s life at the moment is his friend Josh Dibb, on an extended leave from the band for personal reasons. Lennox says he hopes that Dibb will return to the band in the near future, “Besides the musical side of things I just miss him on a personal level. Not being in the band means I see him a whole lot less otherwise. If only for that selfish reason I hope he is part of the next project. There are certain things that overlap in terms of what we get into or excited about, and depending upon who’s in the group, the influences and attitude of the music drastically changes.”
There is a quiet philosophical outlook on life that Lennox embodies in body and words, a forward-thinking and progressive view of the world encapsulated by Merriweather Post Pavillion. “The feeling of reaching for something that isn’t quite there in front of you is an expression that we’ve been interested in as a band ever since we started making music.” Life, after all, is not an optical illusion.
Music video for the song 'My Girls' from the new album:
Interview: Still Flyin'
Still Flyin’ know how to party and their fans love them for it. Scott Henderson caught up with lead singer Sean Rawls, discovered a new found respect for Swedish people and learned a new word: hammjamm…
Still Flyin’ were never supposed to be the band that made Rawls’ journeyman career. Nor for the original 15 members of the collective who showed up for the first practice back in 2004. And certainly none-one would have guessed that just a couple of years later the band would consist of some 25 ‘spiritual members’ around the world.
What had started as a joke reggae song Rawls’ wrote for his old band Je Suis France to play at the end of their shows in Athens, Georgia, became the genesis for a joke reggae band in San Francisco. It’s not much of a joke anymore, but the fun is definitely still there. This year Still Flyin’ released their first album Never Gonna Touch The Ground and are back for their second tour of Australia following another European flyby.
“I wanted to start this band just to play that song that everybody thought was funny,” says Rawls with an intonation that he still can’t quite believe it five years later the band has released its first album and toured the world a couple of times over. Still Flyin’ aren’t really a reggae band, more like indie kids having a really good time playing music that bares a passing resemblance of reggae. “From that one song we were tagged a reggae band which is kinda like bad news, it’s not really fashionable for white people to be have a reggae band. We’re cool with it though, we think it’s funny and hope other people do too.”
Rawls’ idea caught the imagination of his friends and everyone they’ve played for since, including 8,000 Swedes who wandered over to the next stage after watching headline act the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at a festival Still Flyin’ had blagged their way into. They hadn’t even released an EP in Scandinavia at this point. “That was weird,” says Rawls, “I don’t really know what happened there… Our last song has this sing-a-long part to it and these thousands of people were they chatting the chorus as we go off the stage and they don’t stop for like 30 minutes. It was pretty wild”
Gently self-deprecating through-out and with a skewed kaleidoscopic view of life, its easy to see where Still Flyin’ get their appeal. Live shows with Rawls leading a cacophony of chaotic hammjamming tunes from a 15-piece ensemble are the stuff of legend.
Still Flyin’ couldn’t bring everyone from the band to Australia this time round and so have a few local spiritual members joining them. “Maybe next year if we come back there will be 15 Americans ready to take over the country with awesomeness,” declares Rawls enthusiastically looking to the future. “So much awesomeness you won’t know what’s happened.”
Check out their 'Ghost Town' video here:
CLICK HERE TO READ FULL POST WITH COMMENTS...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Film review: Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans
Director: Patrick Tatopoulos
Cast: Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy, Rhona Mitra
Country: USA
Hot on the heels of last month’s teen-vamp juggernaut Twilight comes the third instalment of popcorn goth franchise Underworld, subtitled Rise Of The Lycans. If the timing didn’t already seem futile in the wake of those brooding pubescents, then imagine trying to sell Underworld minus its Kate Beckinsale.
Under the circumstances it hardly seems credible that there would be enough goodwill left for a series that had already run its course to return without its black-leather clad starlet. Nevertheless, here we are again: werewolves versus vampires; this time it’s history! Operating under the presumption that no franchise worth its salt should be without a prequel in today’s serialised cinema, producer Len Wiseman takes the Underworld mythos back a thousand years to the beginning of war between the two fanged frenimies.
If you missed the first two instalments that might not exactly be a bad thing because Rise Of The Lycans, whilst filling in the back-story of Underworld, effectively recycles the retelling of Romeo and Juliet from the 2003 release. Bill Nighy reprises his role as Viktor, leader of the aristocratic, immortal Vampire creed who have enslaved their Lycan cousins. The Lycans had been purely animal in form until the birth of Lucian (played once again by Michael Sheen), the first werewolf with they ability to interchange with human form.
Viktor’s got a soft spot for Lucian, who he sees as part protégé part pet complete with fido collar that prevents him and the other Lycans from transforming into werewolves and running amok. Viktor’s daughter Sonja (Beckinsale-alike Rhona Mitra) has got a soft spot for Lucian too, but not the kind that daddy would approve of.
Rather awkwardly, director Tatopoulos chooses to reveal their love in a fleshly sequence of interspecies relations that manages to be gratuitous to the point of distraction without showing anything more than two thronging bodies in the heat of passion. It’s not long before Lucian and Sonja’s secret is uncovered which leads to the necessary betrayal, rebellion and finally a good old-fashioned smackdown between vamps and wolves for the film to ticks all its boxes.
Tatopoulos' handling of the unholy romp becomes a reflection of most the elements in Rise Of The Lycans. Everything from Sheen’s Spartacus-evoking speeches, vampire dress chic, cockney-geezer guards and Shakespearean tragedy are laid on so thick it makes the original Underworld look the very example of subtle filmmaking.
But it is also in this regard that any of the fun from ROTL can be derived with Nighy finding his usual fine form, enunciating his way through every ham-fisted piece of dialogue. Despite starring roles it is Mitra and Sheen who provide the support as Nighy carries the franchise to the finish line amidst largely poor CGI, disguised only by the night settings of most the films major set pieces.
With the trilogy complete; sequel and prequel wrapped up nicely – all that’s left is for the fashionable series reboot. Perhaps the West Side Story version, Underworld 4.0: this time it’s musical.
Scott Henderson
Published in issue 944 of 3D World.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Film review: Black Ice
Director. Petra Kotwica
Country: Finland
Cast: Outi Mäenpää, Ria Kataja, Martti Suosalo
Revenge is rarely a simple matter, rarer still is an act of revenge that doesn’t come back to bite its perpetrator in the ass. It is with this in mind that Black Ice, whilst gamely accomplishing heightened states of tension, struggles to mask a sense of inevitability that veers closer to a frozen platter of predictability than a cool dish of genuinely dreadful vengeance.
Helsinki gynecologist Saara (Outi Mäenpää) is gracefully entering her middle age, still very much in love with her charming architect husband Leo (Martti Suosalo) and still habouring a dream of having children together. Finding a half-used pack of condoms (in his guitar case no less, the cad) on her birthday throws something of a spanner in the works. Leo's absurd denials lead Saara to turn detective and to the discovery that her husband is having an affair with one of his students, 20-something Tuuli (Ria Kataja).
Rather than confront Leo’s young mistress, Saara somehow finds herself enrolled in the marital arts class that Tuuli teaches and begins a masquerade that takes Black Ice down a slippery road of mild farce and tenuous melodrama. Assuming a new identity Saara sets about befriending Tuuli, to what end is never quite clear to anyone involved, but her motivation becomes increasingly conflicted as her relationship with her rival deepens.
It is on these psychological strings that Black Ice pulls in its vague single white female dalliance. Thriller elements are all there and ably magnified by the cold, dark and bleak Finnish landscape, but they struggle to carry the weight of disbelief requiring suspension over the calamities of circumstance that slowly build throughout the film. And with that in mind it is in the third act that writer-director Petra Kotwica’s script finds itself skating on the proverbial thin stuff as the squirms and cringes induced are less resulting from frayed nerves, but rather the sort afforded an episode of The Office.
Kotwica’s second outing behind the camera is, nevertheless, an assured work with two solid and one strong performances from the actors caught in the film’s central love triangle. It is in the exploration of intimacy, frailty and insecurity that Black Ice is at its observational best – probing human relations with a curious sense of cruelty. Ria Kataja, for her part, becomes the film’s greatest asset completely occupying Tuuli as Kotwica struggles to manage the melodrama. The young actress exudes not only the energy and confidence required of her superficial role as scarlet woman, but also the naivety of a young woman love-struck and led astray.
However, whilst Kotwica’s characters are all well-rounded and believable ones their contrived march toward the improbable inevitable becomes a full blown force against the credibility the film strives for. By the time events have culminated in film’s coup de grâce, the most disturbing pregnancy test in recent memory, there’s nothing left that could surprise you.
Scott Henderson
Published in issue 943 of 3D World.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Don't call it a comeback
Dark Habits is returning soon after a six-month hiatus of snowboarding, veggie picking, and other such adventures
CLICK HERE TO READ FULL POST WITH COMMENTS...Monday, May 12, 2008
The Unwatched: The List
I have 50 unwatched boxed movies in my collection and I'm going to watch them all and blog about it here...
After seven years working as a film journalist I've amassed a fairly hefty collection of unwatched DVDs. For the last few years I've hauled a great number of these around with me as I've moved from place to place, all the while maintaining their presence in my collection without succumbing to the possibilities of Ebay (well, not entirely anyway). Whilst it's bad enough having films you have never seen in your collection, it's even worse when these aren't screeners, but rather physical boxed copies taking up space in my life. It seemed a reasonable move to separate them from the rest of my boxed DVDs, doing so I found that I had 50 as yet unwatched movies. When you look down the list you'll consider it quite scandalous, but trust me, the job of a film journalist doesn't involve sitting around doing nothing but eating popcorn and watching movies – that's only half the job some of the time.
This page will remain standing throughout the blogothon and I might recommend that any other film blogger might want to make their own list and start knocking off the films in their collections they haven't got round to watching yet. As I review each film I'll make sure the entry on this linked up so you can see what I've had to say about the film. Hope you enjoy the ride:
[ed note: As I buggered off to New Zealand snowboarding for 3 months, followed by 3 months in the bush, I haven't been able to write about these movies. I have seen some, and those have been struck through]
13 (Tzameti) (Géla Babluani, 2005)A Fistful Of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964)Audition (Takashi Miike, 1999)
Basqueball (Julio Medem, 2003)
Battleship Potemkin, The (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925)
Belle Noiseuse, La (Jacques Rivette, 1991)Casualties Of War (Brian De Palma, 1989)
Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)
Coffee And Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch, 2003)
Cold Fever (Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, 2003)
Dark Days (Marc Singer, 2001)
Dawn Of The Dead (George A. Romero, 1978)
Day Of The Dead (George A. Romero, 1985)Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (Carl Reiner, 1982)Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003)
Easy Riders Raging Bulls (Kenneth Bowser, 2003)Elephant Man, The (David Lynch, 1980)Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)
Gozu (Takashi Miike, 2003)Great Expectations (David Lean, 1946)Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (Stanley Kramer, 1967)
Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai, 1997)High And Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
Hired Hand, The (Peter Fonda, 1971)
I Live In Fear (Akira Kurosawa, 1955)In The Mood For Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)
Last Tango In Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972)Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp, The (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
M (Fitz Lang, 1931)
Man From Laramie, The (Anthony Mann, 1955)
Man Who Knew Too Much, The (Alfred Hitchcock, 1934)Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The (John Ford, 1962)
Metropolois, Osamu Tezuka’s (Rintaro, 2001)
Miracle Of Bern, The (Sönke Wortmann, 2003)
My Architect (Nathaniel Kahn, 2003)
Ong-bak (Prachya Pinkaew, 2003)
Orwell Rolls In His Grave (Robert Kane Pappas, 2003)
Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood, 1985)
Play Misty For Me (Clint Eastwood, 1971)Professionals, The (Richard Brooks, 1966)Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard, 1990)
Saddest Music In The World, The (Guy Maddin, 2003)
Saraband (Ingmar Bergman, 2003)
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter…and Spring (Kim Ki-duk, 2003)
Subway (Luc Besson, 1985)Taxi 2 (Gérard Krawczyk, 2000)
This Is Not A Love Song (Bille Eltringham, 2002)
What’s That Knocking At My Door (Martin Scorsese, 1967)
WMD Weapons Of Mass Deception (Danny Schechter, 2004)Year Of The Dragon (Michael Cimino, 1985)
Hiatus over: Sydney Film Festival 2008
April was a busy month and I'm sorry that this burgeoning blog got put on a temporary backburner. I'm back now and come baring news. I've been asked to take over the running of the Sydney Film Festival website from now until the end of the festival. It's a huge honour and a big responsibility, but I'm excited about the challenge and looking forward to the films that are in the program. I will also be hosting a video podcast during the festival along with another team so I strongly encourage you all to log into the site and check it out.
If you're feeling generous with your support I'd also appreciate it if you could join the 55th Sydney Film Festival on Facebook and add it as a friend on Myspace, and help us expand the groups by getting your friends to check out what's going on. The festival kicks off 4 June with Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky and concludes on 22 June with the Oscar-nominated Best Animated Feature Film Persepolis, which is certainly on of the list films I'm most looking forward too.
Mathieu Ravier has written some more comprehensive previews over at Last Night With Raviera, which are worth checking out. To tell you something of the festival though I should mention that it is one of the 10 oldest film festivals in the world, a fact that certainly surprised me. This year's festival includes some 300 films, with 16 World Premieres, 135 Australian Premieres, and 12 features in the inaugural SFF Official International Competiton for 'new directions in film', with the prestige and cash prize of $60,000 that comes with it. The films in competition are:
- Happy-Go-Lucky | Mike Leigh, United Kingdom
- Three Blind Mice | Matthew Newton, Australia
- Tokyo Sonata | Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan
- Hunger | Steve McQueen, United Kingdom
- In Bruges | Martin McDonagh, United Kingdom
- Silent Light | Carlos Reygadas, France / Mexico / Germany
- Lake Tahoe | Fernando Eimbcke, Mexico
- My Winnipeg | Guy Maddin, Canada
- Quiet Chaos | Antonello Grimaldi, Italy
- Rain Of The Children | Vincent Ward, New Zealand
- Stop-Loss | Kimberly Peirce, USA
- The Square | Nash Edgerton, Australia
Comments after the bump...
Type rest of the post here CLICK HERE TO READ FULL POST WITH COMMENTS...
