Permanently Weird

Wild at Heart

2012-02-14T17:00:00.000-08:00

Year: 1990
Director: David Lynch
Screenplay: David Lynch, based on the novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula by Barry Gifford
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Willem Dafoe, Harry Dean Stanton, J.E. Freeman, Isabella Rossellini
Running Time: 120 minutes
Genre: Road movie, drama, comedy, romance

This startling film plays like a surreal homage to The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Elvis Presley. Sailor Ripley (Cage) and Lula Pace Fortune (Dern) are a young couple deeply in love. However Lula's deranged mother, Marietta (Ladd), is determined to keep them apart. After Sailor is released following a prison sentence for killing a man in self-defense, he and Lula decide to run off to California. However, Marietta is determined to get Lula back and sends her private detective boyfriend, Johnnie Farrgut (Stanton), to track the couple down. To make sure that Sailor is kept away permanently, Marietta contacts her other boyfriend, the murderous gangster Marcello Santos (Freeman), to send a hitman after the couple. Meanwhile, Sailor and Lula find themselves trapped in a dangerous and very strange world, as they travel through a twisted, nightmarish version of the southern US.

The film opens with a match striking and then billowing clouds of flame filling the screen, and it doesn't let up from there. There is never a dull moment in this hilarious, romantic, shockingly violent and deeply weird movie. One of director David Lynch's trademarks is his mixing of extreme violence, disturbing surrealism, with often genuinely touching sentiment. Lynch described this film as being "about finding love in Hell". A long time fan of The Wizard of Oz, Lynch made the film one of the touchstones for the Wild at Heart script, and the film's sense of hope comes from Sailor and Lula's conviction that there is something better over the rainbow and at the end of the yellow brick road. Lynch also saw Sailor as an Elvis Presley figure and Lula as Marilyn Monroe, and Nicolas Cage does perform two Elvis songs in the film. Nicolas Cage turns in a superb perfomance as the snakeskin jacket clad Sailor (which in the film he claims "represents a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom"), and is perfectly complemented by Laura Dern as the tough and sexy Lula. The love story between the two is genuinely affecting. They make love, dance and have long rambling conversations about pretty much anything that happens to cross their minds. Laura Dern's real-life mother Diane Ladd is memorable as the insane Marietta, for which she was Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

The film is very different from Barry Gifford's mostly dialogue driven novel. Although the film is far more graphically violent than the book, the book is in it's own way darker, with quite a bleak conclusion. Despite winning the Palme d'Or for Best Film at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, the movie was heavily criticised on it's release for the violence and weirdness, but in my opinion, the fact that this tender love story is set amongst all this horror, darkness and violence makes it shine all the more brighter. Personally I love this film, it's sexy, romantic, violent, tender, funny and bizarre, and is probably David Lynch's most thoroughly entertaining movie. The film's ultimate message appears to be that in an insane, twisted, nightmare world, the only hope for survival is love.

"This whole world's wild at heart and weird on top."
- It's hard to disagree with Lula (Laura Dern)

Laura Dern and Nicolas Cage hit the road in Wild at Heart

Demons 2

2012-02-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

Year: 1987
Director: Lamberto Bava
Screenplay: Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava and Franco Ferrini, from a story by Dardano Sacchetti
Starring: David Edwin Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Asia Argento
Running Time: 91 minutes
Genre: Horror, supernatural, zombies

In the original Demons film, the audience at a preview screening of a horror movie are attacked by toothy monsters. This time round, the events are set largely within the confines of a luxury high-rise apartment complex in an unnamed German city over the course of a single night. As the residents prepare for their various evening activities, a horror movie plays on TV, apparently set in the aftermath of the original film, about a group of dim-witted teenagers investigating a walled off section of the city for remnants of "demons" (kind of zombie-like creatures), and accidentally reanimate one. The reanimated creature then literally emerges from the TV set of spolit rich birthday girl Sally (Cataldi-Tassoni), and attacks her. Of course anyone who is injured by a demon in any way, sooner or later becomes one themselves. Sally turns all of her party guests into blood-crazed zombies, and they soon turn their attention to killing or infecting the rest of the building's population.

The film was co-written and produced by horror legend Dario Argento and features his then ten year old daughter, Asia Argento (who has since gone on to become an acclaimed actress and director), in her film debut. The movie starts off well, but falls apart once the demons are really on the rampage, when it basically becomes a typical zombie monster mash full of increasingly shoddy special effects. The film within a film provides an interesting dimension but it's not really explored, and becomes one of a number of sub-plots which are raised only to be completely forgotten.  The acting is pretty dire (although this is an Italian film, and it is fairly obvious at least in the version that I saw, that most of the dialogue was dubbed - badly - into English) throughout and the film lacks any real conclusion, it is also full of plot holes large enough for you to throw a flesh eating zombie demon through. Also the zombies with their green faces, bad teeth, long fingernails and wildly bulging, glowing eyes (who can not only run but turn somersaults) are more funny than anything, and when a more conventional demonic creature bursts out of someone's chest, it looks more like the puppet monster sidekick from a kid's TV show.

However the film does have it's plus points. There are plenty of creepy moments, when the characters are picking their way through the deserted, ruined apartments, and the opening, with it's slow character development is strong. The soundtrack, which features mainly British New Wave bands such as The Smiths and The Cult, is good (although sometimes the pounding music coupled with the frequent billowing smoke and backlighting makes the film look like a music video). Also the sequence where the demon initially emerges from the television set, which seems to be a homage to the David Cronenberg film Videodrome (1983), is very effective with some good special effects. Speaking of David Cronenberg, the film with it's high-rise setting is reminiscent of Cronenberg's Shivers (1976).

Full of unintentional humour and buckets of gloopy gore there is some fun to be had with this film, but there is plenty of better stuff out there. It's probably best viewed late at night, when you've got your friends around, and you're all drunk and fancy a bad, gruesome movie to laugh at.

Revealed: What TV show hosts look like without their make-up in Demons 2

Eraserhead

2012-02-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

Year: 1977
Director: David Lynch
Screenplay: David Lynch
Starring: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Jeanne Bates, Allen Joseph
Running Time: 89 minutes
Genre: Surreal, horror, science-fiction

This film, which was produced over a period of five years, marked the feature debut of director David Lynch, and is now an acknowledged cult classic due to it finding an audience on the midnight movie circuit int he late 70s and 80s. It's difficult to describe the film's plot, because there really isn't much of one, and that which there is doesn't really make a lot of sense. Set largely in a run-down, industrial area of a nameless city, the film reolves around Henry Spencer (Nance), a quiet young man with very big hair, who is invited out to dinner at the home of his girlfriend, Mary X (Stewart), and her parents. During the nightmarish evening, Henry is informed that Mary has given birth to a child ("Mom! They're not even sure that it's a baby!" Mary wails). The baby is a bizarre creature with no limbs, a long pencil-thin neck, and a head shaped like a embryonic sheep's head. It's body is perpetually swathed in bandages and it cries constantly, refusing to feed. With the small unhappy family lving in Henry's tiny, one-room apartment, Mary is driven to destraction by the baby's crying. Eventually she storms out and returns to her parent's, claiming she just needs one good night's sleep. Left with the baby, Henry experiences a variety of surreal events which may or may not be really happening. Among other things he dreams that his head is being turned into pencil erasers, and he becomes fascinated by a female singer, with huge cheeks, performing on a stage behind his radiator. Meanwhile, on a desolate planet, a badly scarred man wrestles with heavy levers.

Lynch had a grant from the American Film Institute to make the film, howeve the grant was not enough to complete the project and so Lynch worked on the movie intermittently using whatever money he could scrape together from various odd jobs and family and friends (including actress Sissy Spacek whose husband, Jack Fisk, was a childhood friend of Lynch's and appeared in the film as "The Man in the Planet"). The film is beautifully shot in black-and-white, and really has not dated at all partly because it seems to take place in a weird "no-time" and "no-space". The sound design is also striking, with strange rumbling sounds constantly being heard in the background as well as strains of fairground style organ music (by Fats Waller).

I have to say that I love Eraserhead, and I have seen it many times before. I think it is one of the most startling films ever made and there are images from it that will haunt you for the rest of your life. However, as many people hate it as love it, and I can very easily understand that. The film is so bizarre, with no real storyline to it, and no explanation for any of the events that occur. It is also very slow-moving, and as such alienates many audiences and critics. A friend of mine once told me that he fell asleep once with the TV on and when he woke up Eraserhead was playing, and he thought that he was still asleep and dreaming. That is the perfect recommendation for me for the film. It is one of the closest that cinema has ever got to recreating a genuine nightmare. Nightmare in it's truest sense of those strange inexplicable images that flicker through the brain in the dead watches of the night, like broken transmissions broadcast from another planet.

You might love it. You might hate it. You will never forget it.

"We've got chicken tonight. Strangest damn things. They're man-made. Little damn things, smaller than my fist - but they're new!"
- Bleeding, moving roast chicken, it's what's for dinner at the X house.

Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) has a hair-raising experience in Eraserhead

Colossus: The Forbin Project

2012-02-11T05:28:00.000-08:00

Year: 1969
Director: Joseph Sargent
Screenplay: James Bridges, based on the novel Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones
Starring: Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent, William Schallert
Running Time: 100 minutes
Genre: Drama, thriller, science-fiction

This film is an adaptation of a 1966 techno-thriller novel called Colossus by Dennis Felthan Jones. The story revolves around Doctor Charles Forbin (Braeden) who creates a giant super-computer, named "Colossus", in a fortified bunker beneath the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The purpose of Colossus is to take complete control of the entire United States defence network, ostensibly to eliminate the possibility of human error, but seemingly it's because it's just too much darn hassle for the President (Pinsent). You don't need me to tell you that it all goes horribly wrong. As soon as it's switched on, Colossus detects a similar computer in the Soviet Union, and they start communicating. Before long, Colossus develops so much that it achieves independent thought, and decides that the best thing for humanity would be to accept it as the complete and unquestioned master of the world. Or else.

This is a strong, slow-burning thriller which has a memorably bleak and ambiguous ending. It's notable for films of it's time in showing the United States and the Soviet Union co-operating as equals (remember this was the period of the Cold War). Obviously the film hasn't aged well in some aspects, but that is inevitable. In many respects this is representative of the paranoid conspiracy thriller style that was so popular at the time, as the humans race around trying desperately to outwit the omniscient computer. There are also some moments of humour. The whole thing is played admirably straight and the film benefits enormously from a measured low-key style.

Thje special effects are effective, and the production design is good (the futuristic exterior of the Colossus control centre was in reality the Lawrence Hall of Science Museum at the University of California, Berkeley). As with a lot of computer centred movies of the period there is a lot of whirring reel-to-reel tape players, flashing lights, clattering ticker-tape and glowing circuit boards, which all looks a lot more dramatic than a modern laptop.

This is a fun movie that provides plenty of thrills and some genuine chills. Well worth checking out and a definite cut above the usual computer on the rampage movie.

"I bring you peace. It may be the Peace of Plenty and Content or the Peace of Unburied Death."
- The fine art of diplomacy according to Colossus

Eric Braeden and Susan Clark in Colossus: The Forbin Project

The Social Network

2012-02-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

Year: 2010
Director: David Fincher
Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
Starring: Jesse Eiseberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones, Rooney Mara
Running Time: 121 minutes
Genre: Drama

This film charts the rise of the social networking site Facebook. At Harvard University in 2003, student Mark Zuckerberg (Eisenberg) is dumped by his girlfirend Erica Albright (Mara). Drunk, depressed and bitter, Zuckerberg takes revenge by bad-mouthing Erica on his blog and setting up a site called Facemash, for which he steals the photographs of female undergraduates from the university's "facebooks" (on-line directories of the students photographs and details) and allows users to vote on which girl they think is the hottest. The site is so instantly popular that it crashes Harvard's servers and makes Zuckerberg notorious on campus, while doing nothing to improve his popularity with the femalle students. The site brings him to the attention of identical twin rowing champions Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (Armie Hammer and Armie Hammer) and their friend and business partner Divya Narender (Minghella) who are planning to set up a social networking site called "The Harvard Connection". Zuckerberg does not think much of either the Winkelvoss twins and Narender or their site, but he is intrigued by the idea of a social network and so he and his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Garfield) set up their own site called "The Facebook" which soon becomes a Harvard sensation. However as the site goes from strength to strength, friendships and partnerships go sour and implode and Zuckerberg finds himself mired in litigation.

At first glance a movie about a guy who sets up a web site may seem like the most boring idea for a movie ever. Who really wants to see a guy typing on a computer for two hours? (Coming Soon: Permanently Weird: The Movie. Five hours long, in black and white). However the film is fascinating because it is not really a film about Facebook but about the people who developed it. It's about how, despite all the money and fame, the success of the site left a legacy of destroyed friendships and lawsuits. Mark Zuckerberg does not come across as a particularly likeable character at all however, it is to the credit of the film-makers and Eisenberg's performance in particular, that Zuckerberg is never entirely unsympathetic. He treats people really badly in the movie, but he often doesn't seem to realise how what he's doing affects people, and seems genuinely bewildered when people react badly to his scheming and ruthlessness.

The film is full of great performances from Eisenberg onwards, with Armie Hammer being particularly notable in the dual role of the Winklevoss twins, and also singer Justin Timberlake who ironically is cast as Sean Parker, the founder of free music sharing site Napster. The film is elegantly made, from the stately dimly lit corridors of Harvard to the cold, bright law firm offices, and the script is compelling and shot through with plenty of unexpected humour.

There are many opinions about Facebook and similar sites, some people love them while others hate everything about them. Personally I think that the internet has changed human social interaction for the better. The importance of sites like Facebook is huge and, I think, only being glimpsed. Whether you love or hate Facebook, or even if you don't know the first thing about it, this is a fascinating and powerful film. However it is important to remember, as with all films that are "based on a true story", this is just a work of fiction. It is a drama, intended to entertain, based on someone's idea of what happened, and not a historical document.

"You have part of my attention, you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook where my colleagues and I are doing things that no-one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capapable of doing. Did I adequately answer your condescending question?"
- Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) shows how not to win friends in court.

Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) and Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) in The Social Network

A History of Violence

2012-02-05T11:34:00.000-08:00

Year: 2005
Director: David Cronenberg
Screenplay: Josh Olsen, based on the graphic novel A History of Violence by John Wagner and Vince Locke
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Ashton Holmes, Peter MacNeill
Running Time: 96 minutes
Genre: Crime, action, drama, gangsters

Canadian director David Cronenberg is probably most familiar to audiences as the "King of Venereal Horror" with films such as Shivers (1975), Rabid (1976), The Brood (1979), Scanners (1980), Videodrome (1982), The Fly (1986), Dead Ringers (1988) and the hugely controversial Crash (1996). Here he makes his first entry into the crime thriller genre, with largely successful results.

In the small town of Millbrook, Indiana, Tom Stall (Mortnesen) owns the local restaurant and is a well-liked family man. After he is forced to kill two gunmen in self-defense, when they attempt to rob his reatuarant, Tom is hailed as a national hero. However, before long he is is visited by a group of mobsters led by the sinister Fogarty (Harris), who threaten him and his family. Fogarty insists that Stall is not who he claims to be, and Tom is forced to confront his own dark history of violence.

On one level this is a gripping crime thriller, full of action and suspense, and on another level it is a meditation on how violence affects those who commit it, and the way it both attracts and repels, frequently at the same time. Maria Bello puts in a strong performance as Tom's initially loving wife, who is terrified by the changes in her husband, but is at the same time aroused by the previously latent savagery that she glimpses in him, while their bullied son (Ashton Holmes) shows that his father's potential for violence is also within him enabling him to strike back against his high school tormentors.

The film is well made effectively depicted cluttered small town domesticity, and the cast give strong perfomances throughout, with Viggo Mortnesen being a particular stand out in the lead. As fun as the gangster thriller scenes are, the film is strongest when it deals with the Stall family. The climax is too abrupt but the film ends with a powerful and ambiguous scene.

As you might expect from the title and the plot there is a fair amount of violence here and Cronenberg has never been known to back away from the depiction of violence, but as usual in his films, the violence is not glamorised or particularly dwelt upon.

Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello confront A History of Violence

Brighton Rock (2010)

2012-02-04T15:49:00.000-08:00

Year: 2010
Director: Rowan Joffe
Screenplay: Rowan Joffe, based on the novel Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
Starring: Sam Riley, Andrea Riseborough, Helen Mirren, John Hurt, Andy Serkis
Running Time: 111 minutes
Genre: Crime, drama, gangsters

This film is an adaptation of a novel by Graham Greene, which was previously made into a critically acclaimed film in 1947, directed by John Boulting and starring Richard Attenborough. In this film the setting is updated from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Brighton, England, 1964. Violent gangs of warring Mods and Rockers are tearing up the coastal town of Britain, and young gangster Pinkie Brown (Riley) murders rival Fred Hale (Sean Harris) against the express wishes of his gang. Brown hastily seduces and marries young waitress Rose (Riseborough), who is the only person who can tie him to the murder. However Rose's boss, Ida (Mirren), was a close friend of Hale's and suspects that Rose can tie Pinkie to the crime and is determined to make her testify. With the threat of the police, and powerful and wealthy local crime boss Colleoni (Serkis), as well as his own gang increasingly turning against him, the already psychotic Pinkie becomes increasingly unhinged and it is only a matter of time before he decides to silence Rose permanently.

This is a powerful and intriguing gangster movie, which plays more like a doom-laden tragedy. The main focus of the film is the corruption of the innocent waitress Rose by the sadistic gangster Pinkie. Despite a memorable riot scene between the Mods and the Rockers, it is difficult to see what difference it made, updating the story to the 1960s. Also the film suffers at times from being too heavily symbolic, with Catholic symbolism (well, it is an adaptation of a Graham Greene novel) and at times almost apocalyptic portents of doom being layered on with a trowel.

However, despite the flaws, the film looks good and is stylishly made. It memorably depicts a bleak and savage world where there is little light or hope. In the process, it manages to make the seaside town of Brighton make Dante's Inferno look like an ideal holiday destination. Sam Riley, who previously made an impression as Joy Divison frontman Ian Curtis in musical misery-fest Control (2007), gives a great perfomance as the monsterous Pinkie Brown, and Andrea Riseborough gives a star-making perfomance as the tortured Rose.

This is a slow-burning but endlessly fascinating film, which provides enough thrills and suspense to keep fans of gangster movies happy, but adds a bracing layer of darkness and grit to the genre.

Oh, they do like to be beside the seaside: Sam Riley and Andrea Riseborough in Brighton Rock

The H-Man

2012-02-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

Year: 1958
Director: Ishiro Honda
Screenplay: Takeshi Kimura, from a story by Hideo Unugami
Starring: Yumi Shirakawa, Kenji Sahara, Akihiro Hirata, Koreya Senda, Makoto Sato
Running Time: 87 minutes, cut to 79 minutes in the US version.
Genre: Science-fiction, crime, horror, gangster

This film is from the same team behind the legendary Godzilla (1954), here abandoning the "kaiju" (giant monster) genre for a new type of screen monster. The result is a bizarre blend of film noir style gangster movie and science-fiction.

In Tokyo, a police investigation of a gang-land drug deal takes a strange turn when one of the gangsters, Misake (Hisaya Itou), apparently vanishes in the middle of a street, leaving all his clothes and posessions behind. The police, Misake's gang, who believe he has betrayed them, and a rival gang, who believe Misake's gang has betrayed them, all target his girlfriend, nightclub singer Chikako Arai (Shirakawa), who they all believe is hiding Misake or at least knows where he is. Only assistant University professor Masada (Sahara) knows the truth, radioactive fallout from hydrogen bomb tests is causing people to dissolve into living slime, anyone who the slime creatures (or "H-Men") touch similarly melt into living slime.

Mostly the film doesn't work. Neither the science-fiction or the gangster elements are really developed well, and they don't really mix well. The creature effects are mostly slow-moving slime, with the dissolving effects mainly being achieved by what appear to be deflating body-shaped balloons covered in gunk and bubbles, and the occasional appearance of blurry, green, out of focus figures who don't do anything except stand around. Also the amount of characters being covered in slime is way too reminiscent of those kid's TV shows where the losers end up being dunked in brightly coloured gunge. The film deserves some points for at least trying something new, and if you're in the right frame of mind you can have fun with it, because there is quite a lot of unintentional humour.

As with many Japanese science-fiction films of the period, this has a strong anti-nuclear bomb message, which is understandable given that it was only thirteen years since the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Kenji Sahara and Yuki Shirakawa investigate The H-Man.

The Thing (1982)

2012-02-01T13:43:00.000-08:00

Year: 1982
Director: John Carpenter
Screenplay: Bill Lancaster, based on the novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Starring: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Donald Moffat, Richard Masur, David Clennon, Charles Hallahan, Joel Polis
Running Time: 109 minutes
Genre: Horror, science-fiction, action

The crew of an American research base in Antarctica rescue a huskey from being shot by a Norwegian helicopter. However they quickly discover that the huskey is not the cute dog it looks, instead it is a shape-shifting alien life-form which can infect and perfectly imitate any other organism which it comes into contact with. Soon the rapidly dwindling crew are forced to fight against an enemy which could literally be any of them.

This is probably one of the great horror movies of the 1980s. It is pretty much a streamlined fear machine, empty of any non-essentials, dedicated to scaring the audience witless. It is most famous for it's (at the time) ground-breaking special effects, which are only slightly showing their age, and are more convincing and effective than the average computer generated effects used in the recent prequel.

John Carpenter has referred to the movie as being the first part of his "Apocalypse Trilogy" (the other two being Prince of Darkness (1987) and In the Mouth of Madness (1995)) due to the fact that, although the three films are completely unrelated to each other, they each present a potentially apocalyptic scenario. The film is nominally a remake of the 1951 Christian Nyby-directed The Thing from Another World, which was produced by the legendary Howard Hawks. However, Carpenter forgoes the 1951 Cold War invasion by carrots from outer space (in that film the Thing is a plant creature and not a shape-shifter) and returns to the 1938 novella "Who Goes There?" which the 1951 movie was based on, and the original premise of the Thing being a shape-shifter which could be posing as any of the team. This is where the 1982 film really works, aside from the stomach-churning special effects which feature a cavalcade of grotesque creatures which to my knowledge have never been equalled let alone bettered. The whole idea of a small number of people being trapped together in a situation which they can't get away from (here it's winter in Antarctica and they are completely cut off from any hope of rescue or escape until spring) and anyone of your companions potentially turning against you and trying to kill you. In fact, the humans in the film are as dangerous to each other as the creature.

The film is unusual in having a completely male cast, which Carpenter thought would make it "more intense", and right from the start you have the pressure-cooker atmosphere of guys stuck together in a hostile environment, and there are hints of tension bubbling away long before the creature presents itself.

The cast are effective and bounce off each other well, especially Kurt Russell as the whiskey-giuzzling leader of the group, MacReady, and bears a striking resemblance to late period Jim Morrison. Mostly the dialogue isn't particularly memorable, but there are a few great lines. Another important element to the film is Ennio Morricone's pulsating score, which resonates in the brain for a long time afterwards.

The film was not a success on it's original release, Carpenter and co blaming that on the fact that E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) with it's far more benign vision of an alien encounter was released two weeks earlier, and the movie-going public preferred their aliens sweet rather than sour. Also many reviewers were put off by the levels of gore (influential critic Roger Ebert described it as "a great barf-bag movie"). However The Thing went on to find a strong cult audience on video and has since been re-evaluated as a key horror work.

From the moments the opening title burns itself on to the screen to the memorably bleak and ambiguous ending, the film is a perfectly orchestrated ghost-train ride with tension so powerful you could shatter your teeth on it.

The film was followed by a prequel, also called The Thing, which was released in 2011.

It's tough work defrosting the fridge: Kurt Russell in The Thing.

"A Game of Thrones" by George R. R. Martin

2012-01-28T19:08:00.000-08:00

Year of Publication: 1996
Number of Pages: 837 pages
Genre: Epic fantasy

This book is the first in the successful fantasy series "A Song of Fire and Ice" (the others being A Clash of Kings (1998), A Storm of Swords (2000), A Feast for Crows (2005) and A Dance with Dragons (2011) with two more volumes planned). The novel is set in a medieval world on the continent of Westeros where seasons can last for decades. When Lord Eddard Stark, master of the northern stronghold of Winterfell, is offered the post of Hand of the King he is deeply suspicious but reluctantly accepts. The King is Stark's oldest friend, but the queen is a member of the Lannister clan, Stark's oldest and bitterest enemies. Arriving at court, Stark and his family discover that treachery is rife. The previous Hand dies under very suspicious circumstances, and Stark is determined to find out what happened and to avoid a similar fate. However with enemies and intrigues on all sides, he soon finds himself playing a deadly game. Meanwhile, far across the sea, the son and daughter of the previous king, and rightful heirs to the throne, are raising a large and fierce army to reclaim their birthright.

The book is a really exciting fantasy novel. Despite references to dragons and other monsters, magic and fantastic beasts are notable by their absence. It also takes away much of the romance and glamour from the fantasy genre. In this world, life is tough, violent and frequently short. It is very violent and quite sexual, although there is very little of romantic chivalry here. The book is well written and, despite it's prodigious length it always keeps the attention. It follows a very large cast of characters and is written in a series of short chapters (about 10 to 20 pages) each focussing on a particular character's storyline. It is a fantastically complex and intricate novel mixing action, adventure and intrigue in an impressively well-developed imaginary world, peopled with some memorable characters.

The book has recently been adapted as a TV series for HBO.

The Ox-Bow Incident

2012-01-24T12:50:00.000-08:00

Year: 1943
Director: William A. Wellman
Screenplay: Lamar Trotti, based on the novel The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Starring: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn
Running Time: 75 minutes
Genre: Western, drama

This film takes the traditional Western movie and turns it into a bleak morality tale, which savagely condemns mob rule and vigilante violence. Set in Nevada, 1885, the film opens with cowboy Gil Carter (Fonda) and his friend Art Croft (Harry Morgan) returning to the small town of Bridger's Wells. The town has been suffering due to large numbers of cattle-rustling incidents, and the inhabitants are resentful and angry. News reaches the town that a popular rancher has been murdered and his herd stolen. Despite the protestations of Carter, preacher Sparks (Leigh Whipper) and elderly store-keeper Davies (Harry Davenport) a posse is soon formed to go after the killers. Carter, Sparks and Davies are worried that the posse will turn into a lynch-mob, and execute any suspects themselves without any trial or due process of law. The three protestors join the posse in the hope of talking them out of any violent action, but it may already be too late.

The studio insisted that this film was shot cheaply on studio sets rather than on location, and this actually benefits the film, because the small studio space makes the film more intimate and claustrophobic than it might have been on an expansive location. There is also very little of the traditional Western action, the film mostly being driven by character and dialogue. Even the setting is different from the traditional oat opera, being mostly set at night, with repeated references to the bitter cold. The characters are well drawn and even minor characters are developed with believable reasons for their actions (or inactions). A haunted looking Fonda gives a great performance as a character who at first appears to be a mindless saloon-brawler but turns out to be one of the voices of conscience.

Packing a lot into it's brief run time, this depicts a shockingly bleak and cynical view of human nature, and marks a turning point for the American Western genre, when it began to grow and develop and turn from romanticised adventure stories into a mature and valid genre which was capable of dealing straight on with mature, adult themes.

It's judgement day in The Ox-Bow Incident

The Ward

2012-01-22T10:58:00.000-08:00

Year: 2010
Director: John Carpenter
Screenplay: Michael Rasmussen and Shawn Rasmussen
Starring: Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Laura-Leigh, Lyndsy Fonseca, Mika Boorem, Jared Harris
Running Time: 90 minutes
Genre: Horror, psychological

This is a fairly average, low to mid budget horror film. In the year 1966, in North Bend, Oregon, Kristen (Heard) is arrested after setting fire to a remote farmhouse. She is taken to a psychiatric hospital and placed on a secure ward which she shares with four other young women: friendly and artistic Iris (Fonseca), vain and arrogant Sarah (Panabaker), tough Emily (Gummer) and timid and childlike Zoey (Laura-Leigh). On the ward they are treated by the sinister Doctor Stringer (Harris) who is using a range of experimental techniques. Kristen soon discovers that the ward hides some very dark secrets when she learns that a large number of patients have mysteriously gone missing and never been seen again. She also finds herself haunted by a hideous female figure.

This was John Carpenter's first feature film since 2001's Ghosts of Mars, and while it fails to rise to the levels of his best work, such as Halloween (1978), it remains watchable enough. Set almost entirely in the claustrophobic confines of the hospital, with engaging performances from the cast, Carpenter opens his box of tricks and provides plenty of slick shocks and scares. The problem is that everything feels very much by the numbers, with nothing that fans will not have seen countless times before. A twist before the end is initially interesting but ultimately unsatisfying.

It's not really a bad film at all, it's just bland. Carpenter is a great horror director and has a legacy of some truly spectacular work, but here it just feels like he is merely going through the motions. It's far from being the worse of his output but then it is nowhere near his best. Fans will have seen it all before, but there is still enough to make it an entertaining enough diversion.

Amber Heard is about to be sent to The Ward

J. Edgar

2012-01-21T13:04:00.000-08:00

Year: 2011
Director: Clint Eastwood
Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black
Starring: Leonadro DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench, Damon Herriman, Ed Westwick, Jeffrey Donovan
Running Time: 137 minutes
Genre: Drama, biography

This film tells the true life story of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. In the 1960s, Hoover (DiCaprio) dictates the story of his rise to power to a succession of young agents. In 1919, a 24 year old Hoover makes a mark by targeting alleged Communists after a series of letter bombs are delivered to prominent politicians and public figures in Washingotn D.C. After being appointed Director of the Bureau of Investigation, Hoover's scientific methods of criminal investigation are brought to bear in the high-profile Lindbergh baby kidnapping case. However, in the 1930s, when the FBI declares war on the "public enemies" (famous gangsters and bank robbers such as Al Capone and John Dillinger), Hoover becomes a household name. However as time passes Hoover becomes increasingly paranoid and obsessed with surveillance, building up bulky covert files on countless American citizens (both guilty and innocent). At the same time he is troubled by his repressed homosexuality, and desire for his best friend, Clyde Tolson (Hammer).

This is a film which is easier to admire than like. It boasts a strong central performance from DiCaprio who has the difficult task of portraying a complex man from his mid-twenties to late seventies, it is well shot with immaculate production design and period detail. Visually the film employs a palette which seems to bleed all the colour from a scene making it look virtually black-and-white. For a film that mostly takes place in gloomy, cavernous offices, it gives it an appropriately somber look. However, the film suffers trying to pack in seven decades of American history into about two and a quarter hours, which means that many important and interesting elements are either skipped over or ignored entirely (most notably Hoover's relationship with Melvin Purvis, who was at one time the FBI's number one agent and became famous for shooting John Dillinger. However, allegedly jealous at Purvis' fame, Hoover turned on him). Another problem that the film has is the prosthetic make-up for when the actors play their older characters, DiCaprio's is fine, but Hammer's just looks comical, like a rubber mask. Also the film is very slow at times. Hoover promoted an image of the sharp-suited, square-jawed, clean-cut, gun-toting FBI "G-Man", but he himself was a man who spent his career behind a desk, and much of the film is basically people talking in offices. Action is kept to a minimum, and that which there is strongly hinted to be a product of Hoover's own self-mythologising.

For a man who was preoccupied with the private lives of others, and was always hungry for fame and publicity, Hoover kept his own private life a closely guarded secret. The film makes it pretty clear that Hoover was gay but very deep in the closet. In one chilling scene, Hoover tries to explain to his mother (Judi Dench) that he is not interested in women and his mother harshly responds that "I would rather have a dead son than a daffodil for a son." One of the most famous rumours about J. Edgar Hoover was that he was a transvestite, although this has since been discredited. It's not even mentioned in the film.

A film that is so focussed on it's central character means that the other characters rarely have much of a chance to make an impression. Armie Hammer is impressive as Hoover's close friend, Clyde Tolson, which the film depicts as having along term almost-romance with Hoover, Naomi Watts is underused as Helen Gandy, Hoover's long-serving secretary and Judi Dench gives a good perfomance as Hoover's sour, deeply religious mother. DiCaprio plays Hoover with sympathy and sensitivity, no matter how unpleasant the things he does. Hoover comes across as a bully and a power-hungry manipulator, who would do everything and anything to get what he wanted. However, it is a testament to DiCaprio's skill and the film's script that Hoover emerges as a sympathetic, if not likeable, character.

This is an interesting enough movie, and makes a good attempt to explain an extremely complex man. In fact, it is good enough that it is really frustrating that it is not better.

Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar

Yojimbo

2012-01-18T13:48:00.000-08:00

Year: 1961
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Screenplay: Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto, Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Eijiro Tono, Suuzo Yamda, Seizaburo Kawazu, Isuzu Yamada
Running Time: 106 minutes
Genre: Action, period, drama

In around 1860, a masterless samurai (or "ronin") (Mifune) arrives by chance in a small village which is being torn apart by a vicious, long-running war between rival criminal gangs. When he learns of the situation, the samurai decides to hire himself out as a bodyguard (or "yojimbo") to one of the gangs. However, he very quickly realises that the gangs are each as loathsome as each other, and so he decides to play both sides, setting them against each other and in the process increasing his fee.

The film was the second production from Kurosawa's own production company. The first film, The Bad Sleep Well (1960) in which Kurosawa sought to expose the corruption of the modern world by setting the plot of Shakespeare's Hamlet in the context of a modern Japanese corporation, had somehow failed to pull in the popcorn guzzlers of the world en masse, and had lost a lot of money. For the company's second production, Kurosawa returned to the jidai-geki (period films) with which he had had his greatest successes. Influenced by the 1928 Dashiell Hammet novel Red Harvest and the American Westerns which Kurosawa loved, Yojimbo proved to be a massive worldwide hit.

The film is a classic action movie mixing tension and dark humour with sudden bursts of kinetic violent action. The film is visually striking with artfully composed widescreen images (it really has to be seen in widescreen on the biggest screen possible to work at it's best). The violence is expertly choreographed into almost a ballet of action. It also features Kurosawa's penchant for memorable action sequences set in the pouring rain (he was one of the few directors who really made effective use of the weather in his films). One of the main reasons behind the success of this work is the lead actor Toshiro Mifune who creates an iconic presence as the sardonic taciturn samurai who regards the world with a wry smile and remains nameless throughout (in one scene he is asked his name while gazing out of the window at a field of mulberry bushes and answers to the effect of "mulberry field... thirty... That's good enough. I am nobody"). Mifune's character is smart, orchestrating the gangs against each other and watching the fun from a lookout tower, like a referee. He also behaves in his own way with conscience and honour. While he is not averse to killing for money, he also helps weaker or victimised people for no personal gain. He also has a sense of humour, such as in the scene where, while spying on his enemies he puts his finger to his lips and sticks his tongue out when he learns how they plan to kill him. He arrives in the village purely by chance and stays for no particular reason other than to make some money and because he apparently thinks it would be fun to give the gangsters a richly deserved ass kicking. The character is almost a superhero, Kurosawa himself dubbed him "a samurai of the imagination".

The film has numerous blackly comic scenes, such as the image of the dog wandering around with a severed human hand in it's mouth, and is hugely entertaining for anyone who enjoys action and suspense.

The film was popular enough to warrant a sequel, Sanjuro (1962), which was also directed by Kurosawa. It was also famously remade as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and less famously as Last Man Standing (1996).

Toshiro Mifune in Yojimbo

The Artist

2012-01-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

Year: 2011
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Screenplay: Michel Hazanavicius
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, James Cromwell, John Goodman, Missi Pyle, Penelope Ann Miller, Malcolm McDowell
Genre: Silent, drama, comedy, romance
Running Time: 100 minutes

The middle of January is obviously way too early to be talking about the greatest film of the year, but if it manages to produce anything to top The Artist than 2012 will go down as one of the greatest years in movie history. I'm not even joking. A black and white, French, silent film with no stars, might sound like box-office poison, at least outside of the art-house circuit and Film Festivals. However this film has been met with rapturous critical reception and large audiences. It is immediately obvious why when you see it because it is absolutely fantastic.

The film opens in Hollywood in 1927. The biggest star of the day is matinee idol George Valentin (Dujardin) who has been hugely successful in a string of comic adventure films with his adorable little performing dog, Jack (Uggie the dog). One night after a premiere he literally bumps into a young aspiring actress, Peppy Miller (Bejo), whom he helps to get her first big break. However, Valentin's position at the top of the tree is threatened by the latest technological innovation: sound cinema (aka "the talkies"). Initially dismissing sound as a passing fad, Valentin finds himself unable to adapt to this new style, and soon finds himself on a relentless downward spiral, while Peppy goes from strength to strength fast becoming the biggest star in Hollywood.

This charming and endlessly stylish film perfectly recreates the world of silent film, featuring such out-dated techniques as irises, wipes and intertitles. The two lead actors give superb performances, with Jean Dujardin expertly playing the charismatic leading man, and also allowing the audience to see his darker side in the later parts of the film. Berneice Bejo is effortlessly engaging as Peppy, and the two handle the physical sielnt comedy perfectly. The score is brilliant, although it's inclusion of Bernard Herrmann's love theme from the movie Vertigo (1958) has proven controversial due to the hostile reaction it provoked from the actress Kim Novak, who starred in Vertigo.

Despite being very much a tribute to the cinema of the past, this is still accessible for modern audiences. Those who worship at the shrines of Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin will doubtless love it but it will also entertain those who seem to think that cinema started with Star Wars (1977). If nothing else it will introduce the magical world of silent cinema to a whole new audience and that is enough in itself to make it an unqualified success.

Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo are all smiles in The Artist

Vampyr

2012-01-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Screenplay: Christen Jul and Carl Theodor Dreyer, based on the short story collection In a Glass Darkly by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Starring: Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel, Jan Hieronimko, Sybille Schmitz, Henriette Gerard
Genre: Horror, vampire
Running Time: 75 minutes

This interesting movie is less of a conventional horror movie and more of a surrealistic art film. The film concerns student and occultist Allan Gray (West) who travels to a remote, rural inn where he encounters an elderly man (Schutz) who, along with his two daughters Gisele (Mandel) and Leone (Schmitz), is being preyed upon by an evil vampire.

For the most part the film doesn't really make much sense, being a succession of dream-like or nightmarish images, such as inexplicable shadows, ghostly figures, and a weird fuzzy looking picture (which was apparently due to a light accidentally "fogging" one of the takes. Dreyer liked the effect and decided to use it throughout the film). Interestingly the film focuses almost entirely on the victims of the vampire, with the creature itself being notable mainly by it's absence for most of the film. This was Dreyer's first sound film and was recorded in three languages. Due to this Dreyer uses hardly any dialogue, and the version I saw was, in fact, a silent version with a score by Steven Severin (founder member of Siouxsie and the Banshees).

Many viewers today may find the film frustrating. It is slow, and a lot of what happens in the film doesn't make much sense and there isn't much in the way of conventional thrills or frights. However, for those who go along with it and get themselves drawn into the movies hallucinatory world, may find themselves rewarded with a truly unforgettable experience.

A typically creepy image from Vampyr

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

2012-01-08T12:15:00.000-08:00

Year: 2011
Director: Guy Ritchie
Screenplay: Kieran Mulroney and Michelle Mulroney, based on characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Jared Harris, Stephen Fry, Kelly Reilly, Rachel McAdams
Running Time: 129 minutes
Genre: Mystery, crime, adventure, period

This film is the sequel to the blockbuster 2009 film Sherlock Holmes. The film is very loosely based on the legendary detective stories created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, most particularly the 1893 story The Final Problem. However the plot of the film is by and large original. In 1891, consulting detective Sherlock Holmes (Downey, Jr.) becomes convinced that a series of bombings in France and Germany are the work of criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty (Harris). However, the difficulty is that there is no evidence to connect the respected professor to any wrongdoing. After enlisting the aid of his recently engaged best friend, Doctor John Watson (Law), Holmes soon realises that he has put Watson, and his bride to be (Reilly), at risk of lethal retaliation from Moriarty's men. With the help of Holmes' well-connected brother, Mycroft (Fry), and a tough gypsy woman, Simza (Rapace), whose brother is working with Moriarty, Holmes and Watson set off on a journey across Europe, on the trail of one of the world's most powerful and dangerous criminals.

This is a hugely entertaining mix of globe-trotting adventure, explosive action and humour. Robert Downey, Jr. is perfectly cast as Holmes and Jude Law makes for an engaging Doctor Watson, and there is great banter and chemistry between the two leads, with Watson refreshingly being portrayed as more than a match for Holmes in many places. It will doubtless infuriate Conan Doyle purists, but for anyone else it is a fun period adventure. The action scenes are well handled and the film provides more than enough spectacle. As Moriarty, Jared Harris makes for a great, slippery villain, and he shares a number of great scenes with Robert Downey, Jr.. Stephen Fry is entertainingly arch as Mycroft Holmes (the scene where he turns up in the nude and happily chats away to Kelly Reilly, oblivious to her shock, is a comedy highlight). Noomi Rapace is also impressive, lending gravitas to a fairly underwritten role. The movie lacks any real surprises, the suspense in the film coming not so much from discovering who the villain is, because it is made clear right from the outset, but instead from how Holmes and Watson will unravel the criminal plot in time. It also tends to meander at times, but mostly succeeds in being an entertaining, light-hearted, adventure romp, which will doubtless please fans of the original.

Robert Downey, Jr., Noomi Rapace and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

"Little Star" by John Ajvide Lindqvist

2012-01-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

Year of Publication: 2011
Number of Pages: 533 pages
Genre: Horror, thriller

This is the fourth novel from Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, who is probably best known for his debut novel Let the Right One In (2004) which has already become something of a modern classic of vampire literature. This book differs from his previous three in that it is not really a supernatural horror novel. The only vaguely supernatural element in the book is Theres, a girl who is found abandoned in the woods as a baby, and has a unique talent for singing pitch-perfect notes. Found by a once successful singer-songwriter, who sees in Theres the opportunity for raising the perfect musical machine. She eventually finds a soulmate however, in unhappy teenage poet Teresa. What follows is heartbreaking, shocking and deeply disturbing.

At times coming across like an even darker take on the 1994 movie Heavenly Creatures this is also a savagely satirical take on the music industry, reality television, internet forums and the cult of fame. Lindqvist is a powerful writer and has a gift for creating characters that the reader cannot help but sympathise with no matter how unpleasant their actions might be. He tends to be at his best when he is concetrating on a small number of central characters, and here the book focusses primarily on the two girls. The storyline is gripping and full of suspense. This is probably Lindqvist's best book to date, and is one of the best horror novels that I have come across in a very long time. Full of memorable characters, and some shockingly violent set-pieces, this is one that will be devoured in great, hungry chunks.

Definitely check this one out, although The X-Factor and Abba will never be the same to you again.

"Damned" by Chuck Palahniuk

2011-12-30T17:18:00.000-08:00

Year of Publication: 2011
Number of Pages: 247 pages
Genre: Comedy, horror

This is the story of thirteen year old Madison Spencer, the daughter of a world famous movie star and a billionaire, who dies and finds herself condemned to Hell, a place where the newly dead are locked into filthy cages, there are mountians of toenail clippings and used razor blades, along with lakes consisting of insects and seas of various bodily fluids. Grotesque demons munch on damned souls, the only currency is candy and the only jobs are internet porn or telemarketing. Also the only entertainment on offer are endless showings of The English Patient. However, Madison is not sure why she is there and so she, along with some new friends that she meets along the way, travels towards the centre of Hell in order to find her answers.

This book basically mixes the Dante Alighieri's Inferno with The Breakfast Club and Judy Blume novels. It's told in the first person by Madison and moves between her adventures in Hell with her life on Earth. Frequently very funny, it is highly readable and very imaginative. It might not rank as one of the best of Palahniuk's works, but it is entertaining, and his familiar style is very much in evidence. The book pokes fun at the lifestyles of the super rich and famous, as well as teenage fiction and Hell itself. The lead character of Madison Spencer is engaging and likeable, even if few of the secondary characters really register. Even if you are not a Palahniuk fan, this is enjoyable enough to make it worth checking out.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

2011-12-29T13:06:00.000-08:00

Year: 2011
Director: David Fincher
Screenplay: Steven Zaillian, based on the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick van Wageningen, Joley Richardson
Running Time: 158 minutes
Genre: Thriller, crime, drama, mystery

This is the English language film adaptation of the best-selling novel by Steig Larsson, which was first published in 2005, and was already the subject of a 2009 Swedish film.

Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) is hired by Henrik Vanger (Plummer) the wealthy, elderly patriarch of a large and powerful family, ostensibly to write his biography, but in reality to investigate the murder of his beloved neice, who disappeared almost forty years previously. Vanger is convinced that one of the family killed her. As he investigates, Blomkvist enlists the help of troubled computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Mara). Together the two begin to discover some shocking secrets about the Vanger family. Secrets that some would kill to keep hidden.

This is a very faithful adaptation of the novel. Visually it is very impressive, with the bleak, wintery landscapes giving the film an almost dreamlike atmosphere. The cast are uniformly brilliant, with Rooney Mara exceptional in the difficult role of Lisbeth Salander, who is already one of the most memorable characters in modern popular fiction. The film also manages to condense a complex and long novel into a coherent film. The film retains the Swedish setting of the original novel, but all the dialogue is English language, with the cast basically speaking in Swedish accents, which seems slightly bizarre. Also the film moves at a fairly sedate pace, although there are sudden bursts of violence, a couple of which are genuinely shocking and disturbing.

However, it is a fierce and powerful piece of work, with a superb visual sense and would be worth watching just for Rooney Mara's performance alone.

Rooney Mara is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

2011-12-29T12:31:00.000-08:00

Year: 2011
Director: Brad Bird
Screenplay: Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum, based on the television series Mission: Impossible created by Bruce Geller
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton
Running Time: 133 minutes
Genre: Spy, thriller, action

After escaping from a Russian prison, secret agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise), a member of the top secret Impossible Mission Force, finds himself pitted against a ruthless terrorist (Michale Nyqvist) who has stolen the codes to launch Russian nuclear missiles and plans to use them to start an all out nuclear war. However Hunt has the aid of Jane Carter (Patton) who has her own personal reasons for targeting the terrorist group, computer specialist Benji Dunn (Pegg), and IMF chief analyst William Brandt (Renner). However Hunt and his team have been set up to take the blame for an attack on the Kremlin, and the US Government have instituted a "Ghost Protocol", which effectively means that they have disavowed all knowledge of Hunt and his team's existence.

This film is the fourth movie to be spun off from the popular Mission: Impossible TV series which ran from 1966 to 1973, and is best enjoyed as a ride. Shown in the IMAX format it is a delirious range of spectacular action set pieces, however it does get bogged down in the dialogue scenes. It's full of narrow escapes and miraculous survival, however while the film is running it's too entertaining to really bother with plot details. The movie is like a James Bond film. It sets out to give the audience an entertaining ride with plenty of action and stunts and special effects and it succeeds in that. The cast are engaging enough, especially Simon Pegg who injects warmth and humour into his part as newly minted agent Benji Dunn. The main problem is that the storyline plays a little too much like a video game, and the villains never really make much of an impression.
It's an entertaining, enjoyable movie and it's a lot of fun.

Tom Cruise wishes he had taken the stairs in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.

"The Cut" by George Pelecanos

2011-12-16T18:49:00.000-08:00

Year of Publication: 2011
Number of Pages: 292 pages
Genre: Crime, thriller

Since his debut in 1992, American novelist George Pelecanos has carved out a niche for himself chronicling the dark side of life in Washington D.C., as well as writing for such acclaimed television series as The Wire (2002-2008) and Treme (2010 - ongoing).

The Cut tells the story of Spero Lucas, who has recently returned to his hometown of Washington D.C. after serving a tour of duty as a Marine in Iraq, and now works as a private investigator for a defence attorney. Lucas' speciality is recovering stolen property, no questions asked, for which he receives a fee ("the cut" of the title) of forty percent of the property's value. Hearing of his speciality, Lucas is contacted by a high profile crime boss in prison who wants Lucas to find out who is stealing valuable packages of drugs from his operation. Despite his qualms about working for the man, the fee is too great for Lucas to resist. However, Lucas is soon pitted against a group whose ruthlessness and taste for violence leave him shocked and he soon realises that his investigation could have deadly consequences.

This is the first of a proposed new series, but it is very much in the vein of Pelecanos' previous work. His work benefits enormously from his extensive local knowledge of Washington D.C., and is enriched by the frequent references to soul music, food, movies, as well as Greek-American culture (all of which are typical Pelecanos trademarks). His books are well written and his stories are well plotted, exciting and engaging. Driven more by dialogue than action, Pelecanos builds a number of interesting character here, most notably the flawed but consistently likeable Spero Lucas, even if the main villain of the novel does not seem to have much depth. There are certain themes in the novel about the problems faced by returning soldiers, violent crime, drugs, race, family and the difficulty of doing the right thing in a dangerous and complex world, which often aren't really developed, but don't really interfere with the story.

There is plenty here to appeal to fans of Pelecanos and it's an entertaining, exciting and quick read. George Pelecanos is a talented and distinctive crime writer and well worth checking out.

It's a Wonderful Life

2011-12-10T12:25:00.001-08:00

Year: 1946
Director: Frank Capra
Screenplay: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Jo Swerling and Farank Capra, based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" by Philip Van Doren Stern
Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers
Running Time: 130 minutes
Genre: Fantasy

Christmas time again: The decorations go up, enough food is bought to feed a small army, parents fight with other desperate hollow eyed shoppers for the chance to get their hands on the latest must-have toy, Cliff Richard and Slade dominate the radio for weeks on end, forgotten comedy shows wheel out special extended episodes, office workers jeapordise their careers in drunken rampages after the work parties, and It's a Wonderful Life makes it's annual appearance.

The film revolves around George Bailey (Stewart), who lives in the small town of Bedford Falls, and has dreams of becoming a famous architect and travelling the world. However, because of his innate drive to help his family and friends he stays to take over the family Buildings and Loan association, eventually giving up on his dreams entirely to stay in town and marry girl next door Mary Hatch (Reed). As he comes into conflict with the wealthy and evil Henry Potter (Barrymore), George's life begins to unravel. Eventually, on Christmas Eve he decides to commit suicide and a strange angel, Clarence (Travers), is sent to help him, by showing him what the world would be like if he had never existed.

This film has a reputation for being the very epitome of schmaltzy, feel-good sentiment. However there is more to it than that. The film, for the most part at least, is actually very dark. Don't forget, it is about a man who is driven to the very brink of suicidal despair. However, in a way the darkness makes the light shine more brightly. It features some superb performances, especially from James Stewart, who plays the everyman role that he was so famous for, and yet provides layers of self-doubt, despair and rage balanced against the essential decency of George's personality.

Not a great success on it's original release, the film became an acknowledged classic through being a staple of Christmas TV schedules. The film is occasionally a little too pious, but not too much. It is essentially a fable. Ultimately though the title comes across as being somewhat ironic. How wonderful is George Bailey's life, really? And, more importantly, how wonderful will it remain? The film itself has developed a life of it's own and hangs in the movie firmanent somewhere beyond criticism. It's very easy to be cynical about it, but it still packs a powerful punch and is probably the best Christmas movie of all time and is likely to be still viewed for as long as the holidays are celebrated.

It's a Wonderful Life for Donna Reed and James Stewart

The Exterminating Angel

2011-12-06T13:31:00.001-08:00

Year: 1962
Director: Luis Bunuel
Screenplay: Luis Bunuel
Starring: Silvia Pinal, Enrique Rambal, Claudio Brook
Running Time: 93 minutes
Genre: Drama, comedy, surrealism

Have you ever been at a party where all you want to do is leave, but for whatever reason, you have to stay? If so, then spare a thought for the characters in this classic surrealist satire from Spanish director Luis Bunuel.

Following a night at the theatre, a group of wealthy friends return to the palatial mansion of Edmundo Nobile (Rambal) for a dinner party. The servants have all made their excises and left for reasons, even they can't properly explain. During dinner, sheep and a bear run around the hallways of the mansion. Eventually all the guests find themselves inexplicably trapped in the mansion's music room. There is nothing physically stopping them from leaving, and it's not that they don't want to leave, it's just that for some reason they can't. Days drag on, food and water become increasingly scarce, the group become increasingly hostile amongst themselves and irrational. Slowly they begin to suffer from hysteria, disease and hallucinations. Rescue attempts from the outside world fail due to the same strange phenomenon that is preventing the guests from leaving the music room is apparently preventing anyone from getting into the house. There is nothing physically stopping the rescuers and they want to get in, but for some reason they just can't.

This bizarre movie does not offer any explanations, and is filled with strange and disturbing imagery. It is however unforgettable. Here Bunuel attacks his favourite targets of the wealthy middle and upper classes and organised religion. However he also broadens his satiricial scope to take in the ritualised nature of modern life. As always with Bunuel the darkness is alleviated somewhat by comedy, albeit very black comedy, and some sympathy with his characters, even if they are not particularly likeable. Shot in Mexico, on a very low budget this is still a very stylishly made film. The idea of the film being largely set in one room, might seem dull and uncinematic but Bunuel and his cast and crew milk every drop of tension and humour from the nightmarish scenario.

There's a direct reference to this film in the 2011 Woody Allen movie Midnight in Paris in a scene where the time-travelling writer (played by Owen Wilson) describes the idea of the film to a bemused Luis Bunuel (played by Adrien de Van) who resonds: "But why can't they leave? I don't understand."

Still powerful, still troubling and still relevant, this will make the next party you go to seem not quite as bad. In a weird way, the movie does end up making some kind of weird sense once you've seen it. Even the sheep and crawling hand.

The partying never stops in The Exterminating Angel

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

2011-12-04T11:04:00.001-08:00

Year: 1998
Director: Terry Gilliam
Screenplay: Terry Gilliam, Tony Grisoni, Alex Cox and Tod Davies, based on the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Starring: Johnny Depp, Benicio del Toro
Running Time: 119 minutes
Genre: Drama, comedy,

This film is a screen adaptation of the cult 1971 book by Hunter S. Thompson. In 1971, journalist Raoul Duke (Depp) and his friend and attorney Doctor Gonzo (del Toro) travel from Los Angeles to Las Vegas because Duke has an assignment to cover a prestigious motorcycle race, however they have equipped themselves with an astonishing arsenal of alcohol and illegal drugs, and manage to turn a simple sportswriting assignment into a prolonged binge of drug and alcohol fueled madness, as they tear Las Vegas apart and glimpse the dark side of the American Dream.

The film uses a barrage of visual and auditory techniques to recreate the experiences of Duke and Gonzo. Director Terry Gilliam has a strong visual sense and the frequent use of TV screens showing footage from the Vietnam war and the anti-war protests give a sense of the wider world at the time.

The development of the film was protracted and troubled. Both Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone at various times tried and failed to get film versions of the book off the ground, and Ralph Bakshi at one time tried to do it as an animated film. Eventually British director Alex Cox was hired as a director for the film, until he fell out with Thompson and was dropped, although he is still credited as co-writer on the film.

The film features impressive performances. Benicio del Toro put on 45 pounds in nine weeks for his role and extensively researched the life of the real life attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta (upon whom the character of Doctor Gonzo was based) and Johnny Depp lived in Hunter Thompson's home for four months and formed a strong friendship with the writer which lasted until Thompson's death in 2005. Raoul Duke is pretty obviously Hunter Thompson (at one point the name Raoul Duke is referred to as an assumed name, and in another scene he recieves a telegram addressed to "Thompson"). There are also a number of well-known actors in small roles, including Tobey Maguire, Cameron Diaz, Christina Ricci, Ellen Barkin and Gary Busey.

The tone of the film veers from wild comedy to genuinely disturbing sequences and creates a powerful and memorable viewing experience.

Benicio del Toro and Johnny Depp take a trip in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The Thing (2011)

2011-12-03T13:17:00.001-08:00

Year: 2011
Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
Screenplay: Eric Heisserer, based on the novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Eric Christian Olsen, Trond Espen Seim
Running Time: 102 minutes
Genre: Horror, science-fiction, action

Okay, first things first, despite it's title this is not a remake of the 1982 John Carpenter film The Thing which itself was inspired by the 1951 movie The Thing from Another World, which were both adapted from the 1938 story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell. Instead this is a prequel to the 1982 film.

Antarctica, 1982, a Norwegian research expedition discovers an alien spacecraft frozen for thousands of years in the ice and, a short distance away, the frozen body of it's occupant. A young American paleontologist, Kate Lloyd (Winstead), is sent in to help analyse the frozen body, which is sealed in a solid block of ice. However, when the officious lead scientist (Thomsen) orders a tissue sample taken from the creature, aganst Kate's advice, the Thing begins to reawaken. Before long it has burst out of the ice and is on the loose around the station, attacking the occupants until it is burned to death. However, that is only the beginning, because Kate soon realises that the shape-shifting alien has the ability to infect it's victims at the cellular level, and to transform their cells into it's cells, and thusly perfectly imitate any life form, hiding unitl it is ready to attack. She soon discovers that any one of the expedition may be The Thing.

This is a fun, tense blend of science-fiction and horror, which creates a strong sense of claustrophobia and suspense. It also deserves points for not being a remake. The problem is that we have been here before. It doesn't offer much that was not there in it's predecessor. There are plenty of the nightmarish transformations and flesh tearing mutations that were such a hallmark of the 1982 version, but this time round they have kind of lost their shock value. Certainly there is nothing to compare with the legendary stomach suddenly growing teeth or the severed head scuttling around on spider legs in the earlier film, although both of them are referenced. It also has several nods to the 1951 film most notably in the alien defrosting from ice and also from the depiction of sinister and/or cowardly scientists who need to be kept in line by tough, pragmatic macho men, the exception being tough, pragmatic scientist Kate, whose character bears a very strong resemblance to Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in the Alien movies. The film does well, though in the depiction of the paranoia and claustrophobia of the characters, who if anyhtng are even more distrustful of each other than in the earlier film. In the 1982 version a kind of blood test was used to check who was human and who wasn't, in this movie the only thing they can do is check people's fillings (which the alien cannot absorb and so spits out). Which is bad news for anyone with clean teeth or porcelain fillings.

This is a fun suspenseful action film which comes nowhere close to eclipsing it's predecessor, but does at least complement it.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead warms up in The Thing

Moonraker

2011-10-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

Year: 1979
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Screenplay: Christopher Wood, based on the novel Moonraker by Ian Fleming
Starring: Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel
Running Time: 126 minutes
Genre: Thriller, action, science-fiction

This is the film where James Bond goes into space. Aside from the title and a couple of character names, the film abandons pretty much everything from Ian Fleming's excellent novel, in favour of an overblown attempt to tie-in with the science-fiction boom after the success of Star Wars (1977).

When a new space shuttle named "Moonraker" is stolen in mid-air, British secret agent James Bond (Moore) is ordered to find out what happened to it. Following the trail to California and the home of the shuttle's sinister manufacturer, billionaire Hugo Drax (Lonsdale), Bond makes the acquaintence of alluring scientist Dr. Holly Goodhead (Chiles), as well as his old enemy, hulking killer Jaws (Kiel), who has stainless steel teeth. As Bond travels from California to Venice, to Rio de Janeiro, to outer space, he begins to realise that there is something far more dangerous than a missing shuttle at work.

For my money, this is probably the worst of the James Bond movies. The plot is virtually non-existant, and what there is is impossible to take seriously because it is all played for campy laughs (for example the scene where the giant Jaws falls in love with a diminutive blonde girl while the soundtrack plays "Love is a Many Splendoured Thing", and the scene where Bond drives an inflatable gondola through the streets of Venice). The special effects range from the serviceable to the terrible. Roger Moore appears on autopilot throughout the whole movie, smirking his way through the endless quips and fights and Michael Lonsdale as Drax makes for a very flat villain. However the sets are impressive, and even the very worst Bond films still have their share of entertaining moments. The quip at the end is genuinely funny and some of the action scenes are exciting.

Lois Chiles and Roger Moore investigate Moonraker

We Need to Talk about Kevin

2011-10-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

Year: 2011
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Screenplay: Lynne Ramsay and Rory Stewart Kinnear, based on the novel We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Starring: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Jasper Newell, Rocky Duer, Ashley Gerasimovich
Running Time: 112 minutes
Genre: Drama, crime, family

Lionel Shriver's best-selling novel We Need to Talk about Kevin has been a mainstay of book groups and commuters on buses and trains throughout the world since it's first publication in 2003, and this film adaptation has been in development since 2005.

The story deals with a Columbine style high school massacre from the perspective of the mother of the perpetrator. Eva Katchadourian (Swinton) is a successful New York based travel writer and photographer until she is forced into domesticity in a bland New England town when she falls pregnant. The film moves back and forth through time from the aftermath of the massacre, where the shattered, isolated Eva has become the town hate figure, to her tortured relationship with teenage son Kevin (Miller), who she resents right from the get-go, and who regards her with little more than open contempt and hatred. All the time her amiable husband, Franklin (Reilly), doesn't see anything wrong with Kevin and can't understand why his wife is seemingly unable to bond with her child.

The film opens with Eva as one of a writhing mass of bodies at the Spanish La Tomatina festival in which participants hurl tomatoes at each other for fun. The colour red becomes an important element in the film, from the mass of people covered in pulped tomatoes at La Tomatina to the vivid splashes of red paint that her neighbours throw at her house after the massacre and the red and glow of the police car and ambulance lights. The tomato festival serves as a reminder of the free, exciting lifestyle which Eva loses when she falls pregnant. In a key later scene Eva hides from the mother of one of her son's victims, by hiding behind a wall of cans of tomato soup.

The film features a superb performance by Tilda Swinton in the lead role, her face a mask of savage, barely restrained emotion, and in the scenes set after the massacre, she becomes haggard, dead-eyed and almost ghost-like. Ezra Miller is also impressive as the sociopathic Kevin, full of sneering contempt and hatred. The movie poses the question of how much Eva herself is responsible for her son's actions. However Kevin would probably test the patience of even the most loving, easy-going mother. However, the film suggests that Eva and Kevin are not that dissimilar, they even look a lot like each other, to the extent of wearing very similar shirts.

Kevin remains an enigma throughout the film. It's never revealed why he does what he does, and it is one of the film's strengths that it does not provide answers where there are none. This is a striking, dark and powerful film boasting great perfomances and a powerful visual style from acclaimed Scottish director Lynne Ramsay. Although it's probably not the best pick for family movie night.

Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly in We Need to Talk about Kevin

Paranormal Activity 3

2011-10-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

Year: 2010
Directors: Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost
Screenplay: Christopher D. Landon
Starring: Lauren Bittner, Christopher Nicholas Smith, Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown, Katie Featherston, Sprague Grayden
Running Time: 84 minutes
Genre: Horror, supernatural, mockumentary

This movie has already broken records. It holds records for the highest ever midnight opening for a film ($8 million), the best opening day for a horror movie in the United States ($26.2 million) and the highest opening for any film in October.

Essentially it is a prequel to the two previous Paranormal Activity films. It opens in 2005 with the discovery of a box of videotapes. The rest of the movie consists, allegedly, of the footage on the tapes. In 1988, Dennis (Smith) decides to set up video cameras to record the strange events occuring in the house he shares with his girlfriend, Julie (Bittner) and Julie's two young daughters, Katie (Csengery) and Kristie (Brown). The events appear to centre on the two girls, in particular Kristie who holds long conversations with her invisible friend "Tony". Over the subsequent nights the severity of the events quickly escalate and Dennis comes to realise that he and his family are in serious danger.

The set up of the scares in the Paranormal Activity movies mostly consist of long periods of silence and inactivity as the cameras record the characters sleeping, and then a sudden SHOCK as a door SLAMS SHUT or something FALLS or is THROWN. It is very simple, but it is quite effective, because it is startling to have a sudden loud noise after a long period of total silence. This is of course a trick that horror film-makers have known for years. The cameras are set up in a way to give the widest possible field of vision, so I found myself scanning the image constantly on edge for something to happen. it is the fact that you are constantly expecting something. The horror events when they do come are quite subtle, for example a figure draped in a white sheet appears behind the babysitter late at night. You might think it's one of the two girls. Suddenly the sheet falls to the floor, as if whatever was inside it has vanished into thin air.

These "fake documentary" films really divide audiences, because a lot of people find them terrifying, whereas a lot of others don't find them scary at all. I think if they are done well they can be very effective. Personally I quite enjoyed Paranormal Activity 3, and there were a couple of really effective scares. One sequence in particular drew a lot of gasps and screams from the audience I saw it with, which very rarely happens with horror movies. However, it does suffer from a few long patches of dullness. Also there is not much of a story here and what there is is hardly original. However, there are just enough jolts to make it worthwhile checking out.

Sleepless nights in Paranormal Activity 3

"Planet of the Apes" by Pierre Boulle

2011-10-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

Year of Publication: 1963
Number of Pages: 200 pages
Genre: Science-fiction

This French novel has become a modern classic of science-fiction. In the year 2500, journalist Ulysse Merou joins two scientists on a voyage from Earth to the star Betelgeuse. Due to the effects of time dilation, the journey takes only two years for the travellers, but approximately 800 years pass in "real time". Arriving at their destination, the astronauts set down on an Earth-type planet which they dub "Soror". They also discover human inhabitants, however here the humans are savage and animalistic, lacking even the most rudimentary intelligence. Instead the apes are the dominant species (namely gorillas, chimpanzees and ourang-outans) and posess an advanced, technological civilization. What's more, they see humans as little more than a dangerous, if occasionally useful, species to be hunted down for sport and to be experimented upon. Trapped in a research facility, Ulysse desperately attempts to prove his intelligence to the ape scientists. However, there is a very real danger that if he is successful the apes will view him as even more of a threat. A threat to be studied and destroyed.

This is an enjoyable science-fiction adventure story, but also serves as a witty and thought-provoking satire. The ape civilization is roughly equivalent to human civilization in the early sixties, with the same level of technology. The book deals with the relationship between humans and animals, for example the humans are at the same level of development as apes are on Earth, and the experiments which strike Ulysse as so barbaric are really no different from the experiments that were carried out on ape subjects at the time the book was written. It also examines science, society and evolution and the way intelligence can either be developed or degraded. Boulle was involved with the French Resistance during the Second World War, and there are themes dealing with surrender and collaboration in the novel. Despite some heavy thematic material, the book is always fast-paced, frequently exciting and often very funny.

The novel was adapted to a hugely successful movie in 1968, starring Charlton Heston (much to the surprise of Boulle himself who regarded the novel as unfilmable). The 1968 film spawned five sequels, comics, books and a short-lived television series. In 2001 the book was filmed again, this time with Tim Burton directing, and with much less success. The 2011 film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, serves as a prequel to the story. The films are only very loosely based on the novel. In the novel the apes are much more technologically advance than they are in the films. Also the satire is toned down quite considerably in favour of science-fiction action thrills. Another difference, is that in the novel Ulysse, initially at least, tries to be accepted by the ape society, while in the 1968 movie Charlton Heston introduces himself to his primate friends by famously yelling: "Get your stinking paws off me, you damn, dirty apes!"

Horror Movie Marathon

2011-10-16T18:30:00.000-07:00

Last night I was at an All-Night Horror Movie Marathon in a local movie theatre. With these events the experience itself is nearly as important as the movies themselves and so I decided to do a post encompassing all four of the films on offer. It kicked off at about 11:30PM with

BLUE SUNSHINE

Year: 1978

Director: Jeff Lieberman

Screenplay: Jeff Lieberman

Starring: Zalman King, Deborah Winters

This movie blends horror and action thriller elements. "Blue Sunshine" is a lethal strain of homemade LSD which was popular among Stranford college students in the late 1960s. However, it has an unexpected side-effect in that ten years later, users lose all their hair and go on a murderous rampage killing anyone in sight.

The film is pretty badly made and loaded with unintentional humour (for example one bald maniac is subdued by 1970s disco music which does briefly cause him to try to bust a move Travolta-style and a key clue is provided by a pet parrot). Zalman King (who bears an uncanny resemblance to a young Sean Penn) gives an earnest performance in the lead role. There is an interesting subtext here about respectable yuppies finding their youthful indiscretions catching up with them, but it's not really developed. The production values are fairly strong and some of the action scenes are well-handled.

At 1:30AM it was time for:

HALLOWEEN

Year: 1978

Director: John Carpenter

Screenplay: John Carpenter and Debra Hill

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasance, P.J. Soles, Nancy Loomis

This film is one of the most influential horror movies ever made as well as being one of the most profitable independent films of all time. In 1963, in the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, six year old Michael Myers (Will Sandin) brutally stabs his teenage sister to death on Halloween night. Fifteen years later, Myers (now played by Nick Castle), escapes from the asylum and returns home to Haddonfield for some more Halloween fun. Myers' doctor, Loomis (Pleasance), who has come to believe that Myers is pure evil incarnate follows him to Haddonfield determined to stop him by any means necessary. Meanwhile Myers takes to stalking a group of teenage babysitters, including Laurie Strode (Curtis).

Even if you would sooner have your eyes gouged out (by a maniac in a mask, natch) than sit down and watch a "stalk and slash" movie, Halloween is still worth checking out. Here, gore and violence are kept to the bare minimum while suspense is tuned up to the max. Billed as "The Shape" in the credits, Michael Myers with his blank white mask (in reality a painted Star Trek Captain Kirk mask) became a horror icon. Pleasance adds class and dignity to proceedings as the terrified but determined doctor, and Curtis makes a strong and affecting heroine. Interestingly, the film works much better at the cinema than it does on TV, due to Carpenter electing to shoot in widescreen, creating plenty of empty spaces around his characters for evil to lurk. In the early part of the film, before things really kick off, Myers appears as a half glimpsed figure standing watching in the distance or driving cars and trucks, making it feel like he could literally be anywhere.

Another important element to the film's success is it's creepy, memorable score which was composed by Carpenter.

At 3:30AM everything went to

PIECES

Year: 1981

Director: Juan Piquer Simon

Screenplay: Joe D'Amato and Dick Randall

Starring: Christopher George, Edmund Purdom, Lynda Day George, Frank Brana, Paul L. Smith

In Boston, 1942, a young boy messily dismembers his domineering mother when she tries to throw out his pornographic jigsaw puzzle. Forty years later, a Boston college campus is plagued by a spate of gruesome murders in which female students are found cut to pieces with portions of the body missing. The police officer in charge of the investigation, Lieutenant Bracken (George), decides to send in a female police officer, Mary Riggs (Lynda Day George), undercover in the college to catch the killer.
This film, which has become something of a cult classic now, is basically "Z" Grade trash which if it was better made, would be shockingly offensive on just about every level in the end it is impossible to take seriously. The movie is extremely gruesome with limbs being lopped off left, right and centre and it is loaded with unintentional laughs. Watched on it's own, and judged soberly on it's own merits this is pretty much unwatchable, but seen in the early hours of morning in a cinema packed with braying horror fans it becomes unmissable.

To be honest I probably laughed more at Pieces than I have at any other movie I have seen in theatres this year, with the possible exception of The Inbetweeners Movie.

Finally, at 5:30AM we came to

THE EVIL DEAD

Year: 1983

Director: Sam Raimi

Screenplay: Sam Raimi

Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Betsy Baker, Hal Delrich, Sarah York

This is one of the all-time classic cult movies. When Ash (Campbell) and his four friends decide to take a vacation in an isolated cabin in the middle of the woods, they discover a copy of the legendary Sumerian Book of the Dead along with tapes of various incantations from the book. When the kids play the tapes they inadvertently summon demonic forces lurking in the woods, which proceed to violently attack and possess the visitors, changing them into giggling, gruesome, murderous ghouls.

On it’s original release, the film was heavily criticised for it’s violence and gore. In Britain it fell afoul of the “Video Nasties” witch-hunt of the early 1980s. Seen today, the violence and gore are still extreme but also played for laughs. This has it’s severed tongue lodged firmly in it’s rotting cheek, although the film’s two sequels played the material more directly for laughs. Here, the square-jawed Bruce Campbell plays the role that would make him a cult movie icon and director Raimi works wonders with a low-budget. The film is loaded with energy and Raimi displays the talent that would go into his more mainstream work such as Spider-Man (2002) and it’s sequels.

It is a must-see for all horror fans.

Somewhere

2011-10-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

Year: 2010
Director: Sofia Coppola
Screenplay: Sofia Coppola
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Michelle Monaghan, Chris Pontius, Simona Ventura
Running Time: 98 minutes
Genre:  Drama, comedy, Hollywood

This film is a slow moving but engrossing character piece. Johnny Marco (Dorff) is a Hollywood actor who has recently become famous and now lives at the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles, drinking too much and indulging in random sexual encounters with various women. He is also getting a series of abusive anonymous text messages. One morning his estranged, eleven year old daughter, Cleo (Fanning), turns up for an unexpected, extended stay. With Cleo around, Johnny is forced to rexamine his feckless, empty life.

As with all of Sofia Coppola's previous films, this movie deals with lonely, wealthy people. However while her previous films (The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Transtlation (2003) and Marie Antoinette (2006)) deal with these subjects from a largely female perspective, this one deals with her usual themes from a male point of view. Stephen Dorff gives a good perfomance as the outwardly successful but deeply unhappy Marco, and manages to make a potentially unsympathetic character engaging. Elle Fanning is also striking as the intelligent, grounded daughter. Sofia Coppola is the daughter of acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola and she has said that some apsects of the film, notably the sequence where Cleo accompanies Marco to a film festival in Italy and awards ceremonies, were partially inspired by her own childhood, although she has denied that the film is autobiographical. It's obvious that Sofia Coppola knows the Hollywood lifestyle, and she herself has stayed at the Chateau Marmont, and the film critiques the lifestyle while also understanding it's appeal. The character of Johnny Marco is treated sympathetically.  Often shot in a way that emphasises his isolation, his unhappiness is obvious on his face. he knows that his life is empty and that he is in many ways just going through the motions, but he is trapped in a sense. Cleo understands the pitfalls of her father's lifestyle and while she obviously adores and worships him, she is not blind to his faults and frequently finds herself taking care of him instead of the other way around. She makes his breakfast and so on. For his part, as much as he loves her, Marco cannot be the father that Cleo needs and he knows it. At times the film feels a little bit like a Bret Easton Ellis story, although there is much less sex and violence and much more warmth and heart than you would find in Ellis' work.

A lot of the humour in the film comes from the depiction of the show-biz world. This is not a behind the scenes drama. Instead it follows Marco on the publicity trail as he tries to promote his latest movie doing photo-shoots with an actress (Michelle Monaghan) who clearly hates him, answering inane questions at press conferences and interviews and sitting in a make-up chair with his head and face completely plastered in gunk having clearly been forgotten about.

As with Sofia Coppola's other films, some people, particularly these days, may find it kind of difficult to be sympathetic to the self-examination of wealthy people trying to find meaning in a small, enclosed world. The thing is that she is depicting the world that she knows about and lives in. She grow up in a family that was practically Hollywood royalty, so the lives she depicts are ones that she knows about, even her one period film, Marie Antoinette, is still very much a Sofia Coppola film. The thing is that there is a genuine warmth and heart to the film, as there is in all her work. Ultimately the search for meaning, fulfillment and happiness is a key human concern that we can all relate to.

Elle Fanning and Stephen Dorff in Somewhere

The Man with the Golden Gun

2011-10-14T18:59:00.000-07:00

Year: 1974
Director: Guy Hamilton
Screenplay: Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz, based on the novel The Man with the Golden Gun by Ian Fleming
Starring: Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Herve Villechaize, Richard Loo, Soon-Tek Oh
Running Time: 125 minutes
Genre: Action, thriller, spy

This film is the ninth in the official series based on the "James Bond" novels by Ian Fleming, and the second to star Roger Moore as the British super-spy. In this entry, Bond receives information that he is the latest target of legendary hit-man Francisco Scaramanga (Lee), who charges a million dollars a kill and always uses a trademark golden gun. Bond decides to kill Scaramanga first, and so sets off on a hunt through Beirut, Hong Kong and Bangkok only to discover that Scarmanga's real plot threatens far more than just him.

This film is not the best in the series by any reach and is pretty much average for a 1970s James Bond film. I have to say I have always enjoyed a James Bond film. They are pretty much the cinematic equivalent of , not really a Big Mac and fries, something more British than that, fish and chips wrapped in newspaper. Fun at the time, not particularly nutritious at all and you couldn't really sit through too much at one time, but enjoyable, even if there's not much to trouble the memory after you've seen it. Although, more recently with Daniel Craig in the lead role, the films have been taking on a more complex, darker and contemporary quality.

This film features the usual Bond film mixture of glamour, guns, girls and gags, with some wonderful exotic picture postcard locations. It's very much a product of it's time with the 1973 energy crisis being a major theme in the plot, as well as using several elements from the martial arts films that were hugely popular at the time. 1970s daredevil Evel Knievel even gets a namecheck at one point when Bond jumps a river in a car, a sequence which is ruined by a ludicrously comical sound effect. As with many of the 1970s Bond films the humour doesn't really gel very well with ther action. One of the problems was that Roger Moore was better at the comedy than he was at being an action man.

Christopher Lee, who was a stepcousin to Ian Fleming and knew him fairly well, steals the film as the urbane villain Scaramanga and Herve Villechaize, as Scaramanga's diminutive assistant Nick Nack, also makes an impression. One of the film's main problems is the female characters. Britt Ekland appears as the main "Bond Girl" who is portrayed as the stereotypical "dumb blonde" and is there mainly to get kidnapped, cause chaos and look good in a bikini. She is also the target of what is probably the most sexist scene in the whole of the James Bond series, and if you know the Bond films then you'll know that is really saying something, when she is angry at Bond's liaison with femme fatale Maud Adams and Bond cheerfully replies "Don't worry, darling, your turn will come." Probably to most people that line would come across as a slightly coded request for a smack in the mouth, but surprisingly she doesn't hit him. The film also features an irritating racist redneck stereotype sheriff (Clifton James) who appeared in the previous Bond film Live and Let Die (1973). Intended to be comedic, he serves no purpose here except to be annoying. The theme song, perfomed by Lulu, marks one of the low points for the Bond theme songs. The lyrics are just so full of innuendo it becomes quite funny.

The film is too long, and the storyline could have done with tightening up, but then the important thing with Bond movies is not their stories. This is watchable enough for fans though, and when the film tries to be serious and deliver a few thrills it can be quite good, and a couple of the set-pieces are genuinely impressive. It also features at least one genuinely great line from Bond' boss "M" (Bernard Lee). Whne Bond asks who could possibly want to kill him, "M" snaps back: "Jealous husbands, humiliated chefs, outraged tailors. The list is endless."

Christopher Lee and Roger Moore in The Man with the Golden Gun

"Rosemary's Baby" by Ira Levin

2011-10-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

Year of Publication: 1967
Number of Pages: 229 pages
Genre: Horror

This book is an interesting and entertaining slice of urban horror. Rosemary Woodhouse and her actor husband, Guy, move into a New York apartment building with a long and sinister history. Before long, however, they have settled in and befriended the nice elderly couple next door, Minnie and Roman Castevet. Rosemary is ecstatic when she falls pregnant. However her pregnancy is a particularly difficult one, as she finds herself crippled with agonising pains and also noticing that her husband is acting very strangely, and her neighbours are taking a very strong interest in her and her baby. Rosemary quickly comes to suspect that she is at the centre of a bizarre and powerful occult conspiracy.

With this book, Satanic horror and the occult moved out of English mansions and mouldering castles and moved into modern day Manhattan. The fantasy elements take place among an immediately recognisable contemporary backdrop. The book was written and set in the mid-sixties and there are numerous references to the culture and events of the time. This was very new at the time, before authors such as Stephen King anchored their ghostly imaginings with pop culture references and brand names. The novel was a major best-seller in it's day, in no doubt helped by it's modern day references. However, reading it now nearly 45 years later, it feels quite dated. The book is very much a product of it's time, and some of the attitudes and language are quite un-PC by modern standards.

The book is well written and well paced. The horror elements are mostly downplayed for the majority of the book, with hints and insinuations cropping up here and there. It's a novel of urban paranoia, pretty early on the reader comes to believe that pretty much everyone is against Rosemary, and nine times out of ten they are. Here you have every reason to be suspicious of your neighbours, your husband and your friendly neighbourhood doctor, who comes so highly recommended. One of the central set-pieces in the book is a memorable and skillfully written sequence where Rosemary believes that she is dreaming about being raped by the Devil (or is she dreaming), which collides with other dreams and memories to create a powerfully disturbing sequence. There is also a lot of humour in the book, a lot of which does read like a weird kind of Woody Allen style New York comedy. There's not a million miles between humour and horror, and both are very difficult to pull off well, and even more difficult to blend as well as the book does. Another major theme in the book is religion. Guy describes himself as an atheist and Rosemary describes herself as an agnostic, but the novel makes it clear that deep down she is a good small town Catholic girl. There are a couple of references to the "God is Dead" controversy that was going on in the late sixties. That may be so, the book says, but his opposite number is just getting started.

Many people will know Rosemary's Baby best from the acclaimed 1968 movie version, directed by Roman Polanski and starring Mia Farrow as Rosemary and John Cassevetes as Guy. The movie is remarkably faithful to the book, and fans of the movie will probably enjoy the novel and vice versa. Ira Levin once stated that at one point in the book Guy makes a reference to buying a shirt after seeing it advertised in The New Yorker magazine and Polanski rang him up and asked Levin what issue of the magazine the shirt had been advertised in, and Levin had to admit that he had just made it up.

Ira Levin published a sequel, Son of Rosemary, in 1997.

Midnight in Paris

2011-10-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

Year: 2011
Director: Woody Allen
Screenplay: Woody Allen
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Carla Bruni, Adrien Brody, Michael Sheen
Running Time: 100 minutes
Genre: Comedy, fantasy, romance, time-travel

Have you ever wished that you could escape from the present day and live in an earlier time? This is the question dealt with in writer/director Woody Allen's 41st film. Hollywood screenwriter and aspiring novelist Gil Pender (Wilson) takes a holiday to Paris with his fiancee Inez (McAdams). Gil falls in love with Paris while Inez is much more resistant to it's charms. In particular Gil imagines what the city would have been like in the Golden Age of the 1920s. While Inez is distracted by her friend Paul (Sheen), a pedantic pseudo-intellectual who she idolizes, Gil takes to wandering the city streets at night, until one night, at the stroke of midnight, he is picked up by a vintage car and finds himself whisked back to the Paris of the 1920s. Soon Gil is spending every night partying with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston and Allison Pill), Gertrude Stein (Bates), Salvador Dali (Brody), Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), Cole Porter (Yves Heck), Luis Bunuel (Adrien de Van) and Pablo Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo). He quickly finds himself becoming increasingly disenchanted with both the 21st Century and Inez, especially when he meets the alluring Adriana (Cotillard). However Adriana herself is in love with the idea of her own Golden Age: Paris in the 19th century Belle Epoque.

This is Woody Allen's best movie in recent years and probably one of the best movies that he is made. An engaging and effortlessly charming film, which is genuinely funny and directed with a light touch. The performances are uniformly brilliant and there is a genuine sense of magic . Despite a brief, half-hearted discussion of contemporary politics (Inez's father (Kurt Fuller) is a fervent Republican and not a fan of the French) this is timeless. It both celebrates and critiques the yearning for some nostalgic, long departed Golden Age. Woody Allen's earlier films are often seen as being love letters to his native New York, and this is an unashamed love letter to Paris and is more affecting and beautiful than any of his earlier New York celebrations. There is a sense here also of Woody Allen rediscovering the magic of cinema itself.

Entertaining and funny, this is a perfect romantic movie and will appeal to more than just Woody Allen fans. This film is going to do wonders for the Parisian tourist industry.

Marion Cotillard and Owen Wilson spend Midnight in Paris

Melancholia

2011-10-05T14:20:00.000-07:00

Year: 2011
Director: Lars von Trier
Screenplay: Lars von Trier
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgard, Keifer Sutherland, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Udo Kier
Running Time: 135 minutes
Genre: Drama, science-fiction, apocalyptic

It's the end of the world as we know it in the latest laugh filled romp from controversial Danish director Lars von Trier. Justine (Dunst) and her new husband Michael (Alexander Skarsgard) turn up two hours late to their own wedding reception, held at the lavish country house owned by Justine's sister Claire (Gainsbourg) and her wealthy astronomer husband John (Sutherland). At the reception, Justine, who suffers from manic depression, alienates her friends, family and her employer with her increasingly erratic behaviour. In addition, a large rogue planet called Melancholia, which had been hidden behind the Sun is scheduled to pass by (or more likely to collide with) Earth in fve days time.

The film is told in two parts, the first, "Justine", deals with the disasterous wedding reception and plays like a savage dark comedy, while the second, "Claire", deals with the characters preparing for the approach of Melancholia and is an intense chamber drama. It's fair to say, that while the film belongs squarely in the field of apocalyptic science-fiction and the main plot of an object about to collide with and destroy the Earth has been done many times before, this is very far removed from the action-adventure thrills of conventional science-fiction cinema. This slow-moving, somber movie even pulls the rug out from the audience by denying us even the suspense of wondering whether or not the planet is going to collide with Earth. It opens with a series of surreally beautiful slow-motion images depicting Earth's destruction by Melancholia (von Trier said that he did not want the audience in suspense for the wrong reasons)

Lars von Trier is one of the most controversial directors working today and tends to strongly polarise his audience. In the press conference for Melancholia at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival he managed to alienate almost everyone by saying that he admired Hitler and the Nazis. However he later apologised and claimed that he didn't mean it and it was just a joke. Aside from his idiotic comments at the press conference, it's harder to ignore the fact that in Lars von Trier films the women, his lead characters are usually women, tend to have misery upon misery heaped upon them until they achieve some kind of transcendence at the end. However, he is a talented film-maker and this movie is probably the most stunning and visually impressive of his career. There is more than a hint here of the influence of the great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky who did his own apocalypse film with The Sacrifice (1986).

The acting, as usual with von Trier films, is spectacular with Kirsten Dunst giving a career best perfomance as the unhappy Justine, a character who is never particularly likeable but is never entirely unsympathetic and she gets good support from Charlotte Gainsbourg as the stressed, but level-headed, Claire. Also the unrelenting misery is leavened by a streak of welcome dark humour.

Fans of slow and depressing science-fiction drama won't want to miss it.

Kirsten Dunst is electric in Melancholia

The Double Life of Veronique

2011-10-04T17:43:00.000-07:00

Year: 1991
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Screenplay: Krzysztof Piesiewicz and Krzysztof Kieslowski
Starring: Irene Jacob, Philippe Volter, Jerzy Gudjeko, Halina Gryglaszewska
Running Time: 98 minutes
Genre: Drama

This fascinating film from acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski tells the story of two physically identical young women: Weronika (Jacob) lives in Poland and Veronique (Jacob again) lives in France. Despite the difference in their backgrounds, the two women despite having no knowledge of each other, lead remarkably similar lives. They share similar personalities, the same likes and dislikes, the same strengths and weaknesses, as well as the same great talent for music. If one feels ill, the other shares her pain, and if one makes mistakes, the other seems to know not to make the same mistake.

It's almost impossible to really narrate the plot of this film, and there isn't really much point in doing so, because the story isn't important. This film is strange, mysterious and enigmatic. It offers many possibilities but gives no conclusions. It tackles themes such as free will, predestination and the role that chance plays in human lives. There is a strong supernatural element in the film (the story echoes the old superstition of the doppleganger - a person's exact double which, according to the legend, foretells death or at least dire misfortune for anyone unlucky enough to encounter their own doppleganger). However the supernatural element is never explained or even discussed.

Visually, the movie is staggeringly beautiful. Kieslowski bathes his images in green, red and yellow light, and every frame of the film is expertly composed. The film uses fluid camera movements, and features many scenes shot through windows, mirrors, and distorting glass, creating many bizarre and surreal images. The reflections also work for the film's themes of duality. The look of the film, and the haunting, memorable score by Zbigniew Preisner, which is also an important element in the film's plot, create an ethereal atmosphere of heart-breaking beauty.

Key to the success of the film is the performance of Irene Jacob who is on screen almost constantly throughout the film. She does great work with a difficult double role, Kieslowski's camera seems almost infatuated with her classical and almost fragile beauty, constantly shot in almost luminous light and framed to accentuate her features.

This is a mesmerising, powerful movie, although it's virtually plotless nature, lack of explanations and constant mysterious and enigmatic nature will likely turn off many viewers. However if you give it a chance, and go with it's rhythms, you'll find it haunting you for days afterwards.

Irene Jacob reflects on The Double Life of Veronique

Red State

2011-10-03T12:12:00.001-07:00

Year: 2011
Director: Kevin Smith
Screenplay: Kevin Smith
Starring: Michael Parks, John Goodman, Michael Angarano, Melissa Leo, Kyle Gallner, Nicholas Braun
Running Time: 88 minutes
Genre: Horror, action

This film is a real departure from writer/director Kevin Smith who has made his name with foul-mouthed, but ultimately warm hearted, slacker comedies such as Clerks. (1994), Chasing Amy (1997) and Dogma (1999).

This film is pretty much a straight out action/horror movie. Three high school students: Travis (Angarano), Jared (Gallner) and Billy Ray (Braun) respond to an on-line advert from Sarah (Leo) promising no-strings attached sex. Travelling to the remote town of Cooper's Dell, the three teens meet Sarah, but find themselves drugged and imprisoned by the fundamentalist Five Points Church headed by the merciless pastor Albin Cooper (Parks), who has moved from picketing the funerals of gay people to killing them, and plans to murder the three teenagers. Meanwhile a heavily-armed division of the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), headed by Agent Joseph Keenan (Goodman), moves in towards the Five Points Church compound with direct orders to break in to the place and leave no-one alive; guilty or innocent.

While featuring a number of funny lines ("Come out and you will not be harmed. Repeat. You will not be harmed" "I think it's the use of the word 'repeat' there that makes this work every time") this is most definitely not a comedy. Inspired by Fred Phelps and his controversial Westboro Baptist Church, and echoing the infamous seige of the Branch Davidian compund in Waco, Texas in 1993, this is a bleak, hard-edged and violent movie featuring very few sympathetic characters. Probbaly the most likeable character, and at least one of the few who is not completely self-serving, is Cheyenne (Kerry Bishe) a young church member who tries to persuade the Government men to arrest them rather than just kill them so that the children in the church will have a chance to survive.

One of the consistent criticisms of Kevin Smith is that he is not a good visual director. Here he proves the critics wrong with some teeth-grindingly intense action scenes. While it may disappoint some of those looking for a more traditional Kevin Smith comedy, this does deliver one of the most diturbing and brutal action movies of recent years. Full of suspense and genuinely exciting action and drenched with genuinely disturbing darkness this is probably Kevin Smith's most impressive work since Chasing Amy.

Kerry Bishe in Red State

Wake Wood

2011-10-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

Year: 2009
Director: David Keating
Screenplay: David Keating and Brendan McCarthy, from a story by Brendan McCarthy
Starring: Aidan Gillen, Eva Birthistle, Timothy Spall, Ella Connolly, Peggy O'Shea
Running Time: 90 minutes
Genre: Horror, supernatural

This movie has the distinction of being the first home-grown feature film from legendary horror studio Hammer in thirty years since they, as in most of their best known films, rose from the grave.
Set in Ireland, the story revolves around grieving couple, Patrick (Gillen) and Louise (Birthistle), who move to the small town of Wakewood to get over the tragic death of their young daughter Alice (Connolly), who was killed by a dog. While Patrick works as the local vet and Louise gets a job in the village pharmacy, they learn about a pagan ritual performed in the village that could bring Alice back from the dead. However, if they agree to the ritual none of them will ever be able to leave the village, and Alice will only be resurrected for three days. You don't need me to tell you that it all goes badly and gruesomely wrong.

This is often a genuinely disturbing and eerie horror movie. The basic theme is disturbing enough, but the film also creates a powerful sense of disquiet through the sombre and sedate pace. It also features many evocative and beautifully shot images of the Irish countryside which really put the movie into the sub-genre that Mark Gatiss referred to as "folk horror", in which the horror arises from the British (or, in this case, Irish) countryside and the old traditions of the inhabitants. The movie deals with some very heavy themes of love, loss and death.

However the film doesn't neglect the gore fans and pretty much ladels on the blood and guts, particularly in the final half where it moves from a dark exploration of love and grief into full-blown supernatural gross-out horror. It also suffers from the irritating but seemingly inevitable horror movie habit of referencing other movies (in particular Pet Sematary (1989), The Wicker Man (1973) and Don't Look Now (1973)).

The film features some great performances especially from Aidan Gillen (who is probably best known as sleazy politician Carcetti in The Wire (2002-2008)) and Eva Birthistle as the tormented couple. They get good support from the always reliable Timothy Spall as the creepy head of the village.

While some might be put off by the unrelentingly bleak tone and gore, this is a powerful and atmospheric horror movie which, while it doesn't really deliver any big scares, is creepy and atmospheric enough and lingers in the mind after the credits have rolled.

Although, to be honest, how many variations on the "creepy small town with a dark secret" theme can horror movie makers and writers come up with?

Eva Birthistle, Ella Connolly, Aidan Gillen in Wake Wood

Demo by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan

2011-10-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

Year of Publication: 2008
Number of Pages: 364 pages
Publisher: Vertigo

A girl stops taking the medication she needs to keep her devestating mental abilities under control. A unhappy girl can make anyone do whatever she wants. A brother and sister discover a shocking family secret. A man with superhuman strength finds himself torn between his family and his friends. A young woman appears to everyone as who they most want her to be until someone sees her for the first time as she truly is. A newly married man returns to the quiet suburban neighbourhood where as a child he dealt out violent revenge. You'll meet all these and more in Demo a graphic novel collection of twelve short stories written by Brian Wood and illustrated by Becky Cloonan.

Originally published as twelve monthly comic-books, the stories deal with young people (ranging from teenagers to people in their twenties or thirties) faced with a life altering decision to make. Many, but not all, of the subjects of the stories have superpowers but none of them are superheroes, and their powers are rarely much of a help to them (in most cases quite the reverse).
The characters are alienated, unhappy people faced with recognisable problems, trying to find some kind of place in the world. The strength of the book is that it is a collection of stories about people who, superpowers or no, are searching for what we all want: happiness, acceptance and, ultimately, love.
The stories are well-told and evocative and accompanied by stunning black-and-white artwork in a range of styles. Coming across like a quiet but striking indie film, or that one song that comes across the radio late at night that breaks your heart, this is a book that will stay with you for a long time.

If you've read any of Demo before then you know what I'm talking about. If not, then cognratulations. You've just found your new favourite comic.

"The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman

2011-08-29T15:43:00.001-07:00

Year of Publication: 2008
Number of Pages: 312 pages
Genre: Fantasy, horror

Summary: While his family are murdered by a mysterious man named Jack, a baby crawls into a nearby graveyard where he is adopted by the ghosts that dwell there and named Nobody Owens ("Bod" for short).
Living among the ghosts in the graveyard, and guided by his mysterious guardian Silas, who belongs neither to the worlds of the living or the dead, Bod learns the ways and the secrets of the graveyard. He discovers the gateway to the nightmare desert city of the ghouls, and encounters the Sleer a powerful and dangerous spirit, guarding ancient treasure.
However the real dangers lurk in the world outside, for Jack is still out there, still hunting for Bod and will stop at nothing to finish what he started.

Opinions: As with the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, this multi-award winning, international bestselling novel has appealed to both children and adults alike. This is a genuinely magical and enchanting modern fairy-tale, which moves at a great pace. Packed with invention and imagination, this is a pretty dark book and there is a lot of scary stuff in it, but there is a lot of warmth and tenderness in there as well. I absolutely loved reading the book and found it one of the most striking and enjoyable reading experiences I have had in a very long time.
Neil Gaiman is one of the most acclaimed and successful of modern fantasy writers and has penned short stories, comic-books, scripts for film and television as well as bestselling novels for both adults and children. He has a unique touch, which is hard to pin down, both contemporary and timeless, and it is very much in evidence here. His fans, both young and old, will find plenty to enjoy here.
This novel deserves to become a classic of both children's and fantasy literature, and is bound to become a much-loved addition to countless bookshelves worldwide for many years to come.

"Our Kind of Traitor" by John le Carre

2011-08-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

Year of Publication: 2010
Number of Pages: 306 pages
Genre: Thriller, espionage, crime

Summary: Young English couple Perry Makepiece and Gail Perkins are taking an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua, where they intend to spend their time relaxing and playing tennis. They meet an eccentric, wealthy Russian man named Dima and his large family. Dima challenges Perry to a game of tennis, and the couple end up becoming unwillingly attached to the family.
It turns out that Dima is a reknowned money launderer and is very high up in the Russian underworld. He is part of an extensive and complex multi-national criminal plot, but has become disillusioned following the suspicious death of his closest friend and associate. Knowing that time is running out for him, Dima plans to defect to Britain using his knowledge of the criminal syndicate and their plot as leverage. He wants Perry to broker the deal for him with the British intelligence services. Soon Perry and Gail find themselves drawn into a deadly game played between ruthless spies and a vast and murderous crime empire.

Opinions: British thriller author John le Carre first made his name with powerful and intelligent depictions of Cold War espionage such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1962) and Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (1974) in which the realism was in part due to the fact that le Carre himself was a spy for several years. More recently he has turned his gaze to more topical global problems and, with this novel, he focuses in on the banking and financial crisis.
There is plenty of anger here and, as usual, great sympathy towards the unfortunate individuals left twisting in the wind, at the mercy of ruthless and brutal powers on both sides.
The story moves well and there is plenty of suspense and action. Le Carre also has a natural ear for dialogue and a gift for characterisation, as well as a strong eye for detail. Powerful, disturbing and thrilling, this is a must read for thriller fans.

Near Dark

2011-08-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

Year: 1987
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Screenplay: Eric Red and Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Janette Goldstein, Tim Thomerson, Joshua Miller, Marcie Leeds
Running Time: 95 minutes
Genre: Horror, action, supernatural

Summary: Oklahoma: One night Caleb Cotton (Pasdar) meets Mae (Wright), an attractive young drifter. There is a real attraction between them and, after some flirting, he tries to kiss her, but instead she bites his neck and runs off. Caleb starts to feel severely sick, and the sun causes his flesh to smoke and burn. As he heads home to his vetinerian father, Loy (Thomerson) and young sister Sarah (Leeds), Caleb is abducted by Mae's "family" who turn out to be a nomadic band of vampires who travel around in stolen cars and mobile homes searching for blood and trying desperately to stay one step ahead of the law and the daylight. The group is led by the charismatic Jessie Hooker (Henriksen) and his "wife" Diamondback (Goldstein), and is also made up of the callous psychopath Severen (Paxton), and Homer (Miller), who is forver trapped in the body of a child, at odds with his adult mind and drives.
Caleb tries to fit in with the group, who give him a week to prove that he deserves to be among them, or they will kill him, while Loy and Sarah travel the South in a desperate bid to rescue him.

Opinions: This film is a very effective blend of action and vampire horror. The film was originally intended by Bigelow to be a revisionist Western, but she found it diffcult to get financing for a Western movie (at that time the genre, unlike vampires, was calmly resting in peace), however, mixing it with a more commerical genre made it a far more palatable prospect for investors.
The movie, however, was a commercial failure. It was released in summer 1987 at the same time as the more comedy oriented The Lost Boys, which was far more successful and has a very similar plot.
However, reviews were strong, and this has grown into quite a major cult film. The film is beautifully shot with some impressive panoramas of the desert landscapes and glittering night-time images that evoke the romance of the vampire lifestyle. The vampires themselves are well handled. Far from the glamorous, sexy vampires that have always been so popular, these ones are grimy, dirty and perpetual outsiders. Despite some of the horrible things that they do, the vampires become weirdly likeable and almost sympathetic. Their murderous ways are more or less enforced on them by their condition, and they also genuinely care about each other. Ultimately the film is about family, the conflict between the "bad" family (the vampires) and the "good" family (Caleb's sister and father) for Caleb's soul.
Kathryn Bigelow is a brilliant action movie director and she handles the action sequences here expertly, giving them a genuine sense of excitement. The film is also well-paced. It moves fast and is empty of all unessentials. Exciting, tense and, at times, genuinely scary, this is one of the best vampire movies of the 1980s.
In one scene Caleb walks past a cinema marquee advertising Aliens (1986). Lance Henriksen, Janette Goldstein and Bill Paxton all appeared in Aliens and Kathryn Bigelow was later married to the film's director James Cameron.

"Howdy. I'm gonna seperate your head from your shoulders. Hope you don't mind none."
- Severen (Bill Paxton) makes new friends in Near Dark

Bill Paxton and Adrian Pasdar stop for a drink in Near Dark

Quatermass 2

2011-08-14T09:28:00.001-07:00

Year: 1957
Director: Val Guest
Screenplay: Nigel Kneale and Val Guest, from a story by Nigel Kneale
Starring: Brian Donlevy, John Longden, Sydney James, Bryan Forbes, William Frankly, Vera Day
Running Time: 85 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, horror

Summary: Professor Bernard Quatermass (Donlevy), head of the British Rocket Group, is frustrated that the Government are threatening to shut down his project to send manned spacecraft to the Moon in order to build a lunar colony. They believe that Quatermass' experimental rocket is too dangerous.
However, Quatermass is distracted by reports of large numbers strange, symmetrically shaped meteorites landing in a small remote area of the country. Heading off to investigate, Quatermass, and his assistant Marsh (Forbes), are shocked to find a mysterious refinery facility which seems to be designed exactly like Quatermass' lunar colony, they are also disturbed by the secretive and violent nature of the guards surrounding the plant.
Examining the meteorites, it turns out that they are hollow and filled with ammonia gas and an alien parasite which infects and controls the mind of the nearest human host.
Quatermass discovers that the plant is ostensibly making processed foodstuff, but he suspects a more sinister purpose and as he tries to uncover the truth, discovers a sinister alien conspiracy that reaches to the top levels of Government.

Opinions: Following the huge success of their film of The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), Hammer Films were keen to adapt the second of Nigel Kneale's highly popular and hugely influential Quatermass TV serials, and bought the rights before the series had even begun transmission.
Kneale was unhappy with The Quatermass Xperiment film, partly due to the changes made to his original television script. With this one he made sure that he had much greater input and wrote the first draft of the script himself, but director Val Guest, much to Kneale's displeasure, rewrote it to shorten it and make it more cinematic.
The finished film is pretty faithful to the Quatermass II TV serial, although heavily condensed (the original six part TV serial is about twice the length of the film). It tells an interesting and involving story of alien possession, and paranoid conspiracy. It utilises an almost documentary style feel and gets a lot of milage from the pipes, domes and canister's of it's refinery setting.
Hollywood actor Brian Donlevy, reprising his role from The Quatermass Xperiment film, makes an effective Quatermass, giving the role a hard-boiled film noir quality, although his perfomance was heavily criticised by Kneale, and future Carry On star Sydney James appears as an alcoholic reporter.
It is an effective and entertaining piece of work and, if not exactly a classic, is an above average slice of 1950s British science-fiction. It was released in the USA as Enemy From Space.

Sydney James, Brian Donlevy and John Longden in Quatermass 2

"Harbour" by John Ajvide Lindqvist

2011-08-13T16:08:00.001-07:00

Year of Publication: 2008
Number of Pages: 650 pages
Genre: Horror, supernatural, drama

Summary: Every year Anders and his wife Cecilia and six year old daughter Maja go on holiday to the island of Dommaro off the coast of Sweden, where Anders and Cecilia spent summers as children. However tragedy strikes when Maja vanishes in plain sight and in broad daylight. No trace of her is found and there is nowhere she could have fallen or hidden, it is simply as if she disappeared.
Two years later, Anders' life has fallen apart. Divorced from his wife and drinking heavily, he is lost in guilt and self-pity. Finally realising that he has hit rock bottom, he returns to Dommaro where his grandfather Simon, a one-time magician, still lives.
Returning to his old holiday home, Anders attempts to find out once and for all what happened to his daughter. However, he quickly comes to believe that Maja's still there and trying to communicate with him. However, Dommaro, which has a long and disturbing history of strange occurances and disappearances, is plagued by bizarre happenings as malevolent ghostly figures cruise around on mopeds, mysterious acts of arson flare up all over the island, and the residents begin to act in increasingly strange and violent ways.
Anders and Simon soon find themselves pitted against a powerful and ancient force lurking in the waters around the island. A force which demands sacrifice.

Summary: This is the third novel by Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist to be translated into English following Let the Right One In (2004) and Handling the Undead (2006). After dealing with vampires and zombies in his previous works, Lindqvist here deals with old superstitions and traditions dealing with the sea, as well as ghosts and spirits.
The main narrative of the book covers a number of weeks but is full of flashbacks, and digressions. It has a pretty epic scope and covers a large number of events and characters. The main flaw with the novel is that not all of the digressions and sub plots work and some of it take away from the pace of the novel. Mostly however it works well and the novel is a tense and at times genuinely chilling piece of work. Many of Lindqvist's characters and events are pretty memorable, with the ghosts riding mopeds and talking in quotes from The Smiths being a special standout (Lindqvist himself is a huge Morrissey fan).
Lindqvist has been described as "the Swedish Stephen King" which isn't really very fair, because his style and plots are very much his own. What he does share with King though is a real feel for the rhythms of daily life and an understanding of character.
Delivering traditional gothic horror thrills, with a uniquely contemporary Scandinavian flavour, Lindqvist is one of the most important new writers to emerge in the field of horror in the past decade and is well worth checking out, if you haven't already.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

2011-08-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

Year: 2011
Director: David Yates
Screenplay: Steve Kloves, based on the novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon,
Running Time: 130 minutes
Genre: fantasy, adventure

Summary: Teenage wizard Harry Potter (Radcliffe) and his friends Ron Weasley (Grint) and Hermione Granger (Watson) continue their quest to find and destroy the powerful "Horcruxes", which each contain part of the fragmented soul of the evil Lord Voldemort (Fiennes).
However, the sinister Severus Snape (Rickman) is now the headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As the school comes under seige from the evil "Death-Eaters", Harry finds that his situation is far more complex than he thought as he is forced to make a terrible sacrifice.

Opinions: This film adapts the second half of the seventh and, to date, final Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 was released in November 2010. As a result, for newcomers to the series, this is not the best place to satrt. However, for fans, it gives the series the spectacular and emotional conclusion which it richly deserves.
The Harry Potter series is almost unique in the impact that it has had in such a short space of time. The first book was published in 1997 and the first film was released in 2001 and they were very much aimed at a children's audience, however each subsequent story has built upon and expanded what has gone before becoming a dark and compex fantasy saga. As the series has grown up along with it's audience so have the three main leads, Dabiel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, who have come to perfectly inhabit their roles.
As with the other entries in the series, this is a pretty faithful adaptation of the novel and features spectaular special effects as well as impressive performances from a cast of celebrated British actors with Alan Rickman being a particular stand-out as the ambiguous Snape.
The film is well made with spectacular action set-pieces in impressive 3D but also packing a genuinely powerful emotional punch without being either melodramatic or overly sentimental.
If you enjoyed the Harry Potter seires you will not be disappointed.

"How dare you stand where he stood!"
- Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Captain America: The First Avenger

2011-08-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

Year: 2011
Director: Joe Johnston
Screenplay: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, based on the comic book Capatin America created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Starring: Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Neil McDonough, Derek Lake, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones
Running Time: 124 minutes
Genre: Superhero, action, fantasy, war

Summary: In the present day a team of researchers in the Arctic discover a strange craft buried in the ice. Investigating it they discover a circular metal object with a distinctive red, white and blue insignia.
New York, 1942: Steven Rogers (Evans) is a frail, sickly young man who is nonetheless desperate to sign up for the Army and fight in World War II, like his friend Bucky Barnes (Stan). Unable to back away from a fight, which results in him frequently being beaten up, Rogers persists on trying to join up, even though he constantly fails the medical. His perserverance and strong code of honour attracts the attention of Doctor Abraham Erskine (Tucci) who allows Steven to join up as part of an experiment run by the US Military's Special Scientific Reserve to create a "super soldier". The operation is being run by Colonel Chester Phillips (Jones) and British agent Peggy Carter (Atwell). Steven's bravery marks him out as the right person for the procedure, which consists of him being injected with a special serum and doused with "vita-rays". The experiment leaves Steven with superhuman strength, agility and speed.
Steven becomes a public hero after catching a murderous spy. As a publicity stunt for the war effort, Steven is sent to tour the US in the guise of costumed super-patriot "Captain America". The Captain America character is an instant hit and he soon becomes the star of movies and comic-books.
However, Steven Rogers was not the first person to try the "super-soldier serum". Johann Schmidt (Weaving), head of the sinister HYDRA organisation, underwent an imperfect, experimental version of the serum and suffered horrific side-effects which earned him the sobriquet of "Red Skull". Schmidt is searching for a mysterious tesseracht which is rumoured to contain vast supernatural powers.
Soon Steven Rogers is forced to become Captain America for real in order to save the world.

Opinions: This is an entertaining blend of superhero action and war movie. The World War II setting not only works for the character, who was originally created in 1941 and usually pitted against the Axis powers of World War II, but helps to set it apart from many of the current superhero movies. The film really goes back to basics with a storyline which harkens back to the early days of comic books and their roots in pulp fiction, and provides plenty of action.
In many ways this is a companion piece to Thor (2011), Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010) and The Incredible Hulk (2008), for example Dominic Cooper plays Howard Stark (father of Iron Man Tony Stark) and the object which the Red Skull seeks in this film references Thor. All the films also feature appearances by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Fury is scheduled to unite Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and Iron Man in The Avengers which is due for release in May 2012.
The Summer of 2011 has featured so many superhero movies that there is real danger of overkill. However, this one is still worth checking out. The film features some great performances from a very strong cast and the whole thing is played seriously enough to be dramatic while still maintaining a sense of playfulness and humour. It also features some spectacular action scenes.
The film suffers from being fairly predictable, and the contemporary bookends, while understandable from a narrative sense, feel slightly redundant.
By the way, stick around until the end of the closing credits for an additional scene and a trailer for The Avengers.

"Why someone weak? Because a weak man knows the value of strength, the value of power..."
Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) explains his choices in Captain America: The First Avenger

Chris Evans is Captain America: The First Avenger

Harold and Maude

2011-07-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

Year: 1971
Director: Hal Ashby
Screenplay: Colin Higgins
Starring: Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack, Charles Tyner
Running Time: 91 minutes
Genre: Comedy, romance

Screenplay: 20 year old Harold Chasen (Cort) lives with his very wealthy but overbearing mother (Pickles). Harold is obsessed with death, drives a hearse and his favourite pastimes are staging elaborate faked suicides and going to funerals, even those of complete strangers. At one of these funerals he meets 79 year old Maude Chardin (Gordon) who shares his hobby of attending funerals. Maude however is a fun-loving free spirit who is dedicated to living life to it's fullest and always strives to "try something new every day".
Under pressure from his mother to visit a psychiatrist (G. Wood), join the Army or get married, to which end she sets Harold up with a succession of blind dates, Harold develops a strong bond with Maude which quickly blossoms into romance.

Opinions: Originally conceived by screenwriter Colin Higgins as a twenty minute student film, this film was not particularly successful on it's initial release, but has more recently become regarded as a cult classic. In a way it's a movie ahead of it's time, and is kind of a forerunner of the hip, offbeat indie comedies of Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne and Jason Reitman. However, it is very much a product of it's time, contrasting the nihilism of the Vietnam Genration with the hard-won optimism of those who had lived through the horrors of World War II (Maude is a concentration camp survivor).
The film is well performed with Bud Cort impressive as the morbid Harold and Ruth Gordon walking away with the whole movie as the eccentric Maude. Vivian Pickles is hilarious as Harold's super-snob mother. Charles Tyner also provides a memorable appearance as Harold's gung-ho military uncle.
This is a genuinely warm-hearted and tender film which, for all it's eccentricities, celebrates human nature with all it's flaws and virtues. It is also very funny with numerous laugh out loud sequences, although a lot of the humour is of a very dark variety. It also features a great soundtrack from Cat Stevens.

"A lot of people enjoy being dead. But they are not dead, really. They're just backing away from life. Reach out. Take a chance. Get hurt even. But play as well as you can."
- Maude (Ruth Gordon) in Harold and Maude

Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon are Harold and Maude

Signs

2011-07-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

Year: 2002
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Screenplay: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, Cherry Jones, M. Night Shyamalan
Genre: Science-fiction, thriller, drama
Running Time: 107 minutes

Summary: Former preacher Graham Hess (Gibson) lost his faith when his wife died in a car accident, and now works as a farmer a few miles outside Pittsburgh with his younger brother, former minor league baseball player Merrill (Phoenix), and Graham's two young children Morgan (Culkin) and Bo (Breslin).
Waking after a night disturbed by strange noises, the Hess family are shocked to find a large crop circle design in their corn field. Initially putting it down to local pranksters, the family soon discover that there have been reports flooding in from around the world of an unusually high number of crop circles appearing in a brief space of time.
Speculation is rife as to what caused the crop circles, some believing it to be an elaborate publicity stunt, some claiming it is a widespread hoax and others claiming that it marks the end of the world.
Morgan becomes fascinated with a book he buys about UFOs and extra terrestrials. The news reports on the television and radio become increasingly disturbing as strange lights are seen in the sky near the circles and video footage of briefly glimpsed strange creatures surface on the news. It soon becomes apparent that a full-scale alien invasion is under way, and the Hess family are among their targets.

Opinions: M. Night Shyamalan has had an interesting, if very uneaven career. From the highly successful and critically adored The Sixth Sense (1999) to the critically panned The Last Airbender (2010). Shyamalan is at his best when he is dealing with regular people pitted against otherworldly events. This film really has him doing what he does best, and provides an imaginative ground zero view of an alien invasion.
Unlike most films of this type there are no flashy spaceship effects or spectacular battles, or even ray-guns zapping everything in sight. The spaceships are seen briefly in TV news footage and then are basically lights in the sky. The aliens are barely glimpsed throughout the whole movie, and are usually depicted as just noises in the house.
The film features an impressively subdued turn from Mel Gibson as a tormented former preacher who is still stricken with grief and bitterness over the untimely death of his wife. Joaquin Phoenix is also good as the younger brother, who seems to be treated more like an employee than a family member. As the two kids, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin both provide powerful and affecting performances.
The movie does have it's problems, most notably a ludicrous final revelation about the aliens, although that really comes too late in the day to spoil anything. Also the elements of family drama and alien invasion movie, as well as the film's surprising religious overtones, don't always gel. At times it comes across as a fusion of Ingmar Bergman and Steven Spielberg.
However, this is an intriguing and fascinating film and a cut above most alien invasion movies.

"See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Do you believe that there are no conicidences?"
- Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) philosophises in Signs.

Rory Culkin, Joaquin Phoenix, Mel Gibson and Abigail Breslin watch for Signs

Creature from the Black Lagoon

2011-07-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

Year: 1954
Director: Jack Arnold
Screenplay: Harry Essex and Arthur A. Ross, from a story by Maurice Zimm
Starring: Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno
Running Time: 79 minutes
Genre: Horror, science-fiction, monster movie

Summary: A geology expedition in the Amazon rainforest discover a fossilized humanoid hand with webbed fingers. The expedition leader, Doctor Carl Maia (Moreno), believes that hand represents a hitherto undiscovered link in the development of sea animals to land animals and contacts his friend, Doctor David Reed (Carlson), an icthyologist working for a marine biology institute, to join him on an expedition into the Amazon to find the remainder of the skeleton.
Reed persuades the institute's publicity hungry financial backer, Doctor Mark Williams (Denning), to fund the expedition. Travelling on a ramshackle tramp steamer called the Rita, captained by the crusty Lucas (Nestor Paiva), the expedition heads down the Amazon. In addition to Maia, Reed and Williams, the expedition consists of Reed's girlfriend Kay Lawrence (Adams) and another scientist, Doctor Thompson (Whit Bissell).
Arriving at Maia's expedition's camp, they find that the members of his team have been savagely killed. Lucas suggests that a jaguar was responsible, however the others are unsure. After an unsuccessful excavation of the site where the fossilised hand was discovered, Maia suggests that the skeleton may have been washed downriver. Lucas tells them about a secluded lagoon, known as the "Black Lagoon", which is described as a paradise on Earth, although no-one has ever returned from it.
They travel to the lagoon, where they soon discover that one of the species that the fossilised hand came from is still very much alive, an amphibious humanoid "Gill-man", which has no intention of allowing the expedition to return alive.

Opinions: This was one of the last of the classic "Universal Monsters" movies, and one of the few which was not based on a classic novel or story. In fact the origin of the film is reputed to go back to when producer and actor William Alland attended a dinner party at Orson Welles' house in 1941 while he was shooting Citizen Kane, in which Alland had an acting role, and a fellow guest told him about a legendary race of half-fish, half-human creatures dwelling in the Amazon.
The creature of the title, the "Gill-man" (who was played by Ben Chapman on land, and by Ricou Browning in the underwater scenes), has become a horror movie icon and despite being very obviously a man in a suit, the design is still striking. Unusually, the creature is largely sympathetic. It rarely attacks unless provoked and of course the humans are invading it's territory, not the other way around.
The film's production design is impressive, and the action moves at a brisk pace. The film features a sequence which has become iconic, where Julia Adams is swimming in the lagoon and below her, the Gill-man swims, mirroring her movements, in a sequence which is almost like a seduction, and is really about as suggestive as movies got in 1954. Even today, the scene has a kind of eerie sexyness.
The acting is kind of bland and the characters tend to be stock figures, also the story-line is a fairly conventional monster movie, however the pluses far outweigh the minuses and this is a classic of it's genre.
The film was originally released in 3D and was followed by two sequels: Revenge of the Creature (1955), which is only notable for featuring Clint Eastwood in his first screen role, and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956).
The inevitable remake has been planned and rumoured since the early 1980s and is currently planned to swim onto our screens in 2013.

"I can tell you something about this place. The boys around here call it "The Black Lagoon"; a paradise. Only they say nobody has ever come back to prove it."
- Lucas (Nestor Paiva) in Creature from the Black Lagoon

The Gill-man surfaces in Creature from the Black Lagoon

The Day the Earth Stood Still

2011-07-24T16:16:00.001-07:00

Year: 1951
Director: Robert Wise
Screenplay: Edmund H. North, based on the short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates
Starring: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Billy Gray, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Frances Bavier
Running Time: 92 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction

Summary: An alien spacecraft lands in the middle of Washington D.C. It's occupants are the humanoid Klaatu (Rennie) and large robot Gort (Lock Martin). Upon producing a strange looking device, Klaatu is shot and wounded by a nervous soldier. It turns out that the device was not a weapon but an interstellar communicator, intended as a gift for the President.
In hospital Klaatu tries to impress upon his official visitors that he has an urgent message to deliver to all the people of the Earth. However, they refuse to listen to him. Klaatu escapes, hoping to familiarise himself with Earth's people and customs. He moves into a small boarding house where he befriends widow Helen Benson (Neal) and her young son Bobby (Gray).
While Gort and the spacecraft stand immobile, resistant to any attempts at destruction or study, Klaatu finds himself the subject of a nationwide manhunt and desperate to find a way to make the people of the Earth listen to his urgent warning before the human race suffers complete annhiliation.

Opinions: This film is one of the classic science-fiction films and is one of the most influential of it's type ever made. Released during the Cold War period, this film is notable for it's fierce denunciation of militarism and paranoia. In this film the alien is not hostile, but benevolent, however he is treated with nothing but aggression from humanity.
The acting is impressive by all concerned, with Rennie in particular striking as the noble Klaatu.
A powerful and serious-minded film this has stood the test of time much better than many of other films of the period, and in many ways is still as pertinent now as it was when it was released. Many of the images and lines of the film have passed into cinema folklore.
The film has quite strong religious symbolism, which at times is hammered home a little too strongly.
This is essential viewing not just for science-fiction fans but for anyone seriously interested in cinema.
The film was remade in 2008.

"Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"
-Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) in The Day the Earth Stood Still

Lock Martin, Patricia Neal and Michael Rennie in The Day the Earth Stood Still

Fire in the Sky

2011-07-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

Year: 1993
Director: Robert Lieberman
Screenplay: Tracy Torme, based on the book The Walton Experience by Travis Walton
Starring: D. B. Sweeney, Robert Patrick, James Garner, Craig Sheffer, Peter Berg, Henry Thomas
Running Time: 109 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, mystery, drama

Summary: In 1975, a group of loggers are working in the White Mountains area of Arizona, near the small town of Snowflake. As they make their way home the men notice a strange large, glowing object, floating beside the road. One of the group, Travis Walton (Sweeney) leaves the truck to investigate, and is struck and knocked out by a beam of light. The other drive off in a panic, believing Walton to be dead. When the group's leader, and Walton's best friend, Mike Rogers (Patrick) returns to the site to find him, he discovers that Walton has vanished.
Naturally, no-one believes their story and the general opinion is that the group murdered Walton, and suspicious Lieutenant Frank Watters (Garner), in particular, is keen to see the men behind bars, especially Allan Dallis (Sheffer) a drifter with a violent criminal record who was working with the group and was known to dislike Walton.
As the pressure on the group mounts from both the police and the community the story becomes a media sensation. A sensation which only intensifies when a deeply traumatised Walton turns up after five days, naked and with apparently no memory of what happened to him while he was missing.

Opinions: This film is based on the true story of Travis Walton who was allegedly abducted by a UFO in 1975. The Walton case is one of the most famous in the annals of ufology, mainly due to the fact that the abduction itself had several witnesses and that Walton was missing for several days.
The film is interesting in the fact that the UFO and alien scenes are mostly downplayed with much of the running time focusing on the impact of the events on Walton's friends and family and the police and media investigations. The most notable aspect of the film are the nightmarish sequences aboard the alien spacecraft, which differ wildly from Walton's account (Tracy Torme, the film's screenwriter, claimed that the studio executives found Walton's account boring and insisted on the changes). The spacecraft sequences are genuinely imaginative and disturbing and have made the film something of a cult movie among science-fiction fans.
The film is well cast with familiar, solid character actors. The film would probably have been more successful if it had been released a couple of years later to tie in with the increased interest in alien phenomenon caused by the success of the TV series The X-Files (1993-2002).
Whether you believe Travis Walton's account or not, or even believe in alien abduction or not, the blend of science-fiction and police procedural should help the film appeal to more than science-fiction fans.

"They took him."
- Mike Rogers (Robert Patrick) explains the situation in Fire in the Sky

Travis Walton (D.B. Sweeney) in Fire in the Sky

Whatever Works

2011-07-22T12:12:00.001-07:00

Year: 2009
Director: Woody Allen
Screenplay: Woody Allen
Starring: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Henry Cavill, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr., Michael McKean
Running Time: 92 minutes
Genre: Comedy, romance

Summary: New York City: Boris Yelnikoff (David) is a misanthropic, hypochondriac chess teacher and one time professor of quantum physics. Hating the universe and pretty much everything in it, Boris has little regard for human weakness, but regards himself as a towering genius, frequently pointing out that he was almost nominated for a Nobel Prize. He avoids human contact as much as possible and his rudeness and constant criticisms manage to alienate everyone he comes into contact with. He is also given to long, angry rants about anyhting and everything, which he delivers to anyone who will listen (including the audience).
One night he comes across Melodie St. Anne Celestine (Wood), a 21 year old runaway from Mississipi, who is friendly, unfailingly cheerful and positive, and not particularly bright. Grudgingly, Boris allows her to stay in his flat, and as his attitude towards her gradually begins to thaw, the two fall for each other and eventually get married.
One year later, Marietta (Clarkson), Melodie's devoutly religious and strongly traditional mother, arrives and she and Boris hate each other instantly. Before too long the situation becomes more complex.

Opinions: This film marks Allen's return to New York City after shooting four films in Europe, and also marks a return to the type of comedy that made his name. Allen originally wrote the film in the late 1970s for Zero Mostel to star in, but shelved it after the actor's death. Allen claimed that the only changes he made to the script were to update the topical references.
In the lead role is Larry David, best known as the co-creator of smash hit sitcom Seinfeld (1992 - 1998) and as the writer and star of semi-improvised cult sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000 - ongoing). Here he plays the typical Woody Allen-esque leading man: Neurotic, wisecracking, New York intellectual. It is a perfect match for Larry David's own comedy persona. Evan Rachel Wood complements him well as the adorable, ditzy Melodie. Even though it is kind of diffuclt to see exactly what she sees in the patronising and rude grumpy old man.
The movie is very typical Allen, and will probably please his fans, and is funny and engaging enough to appeal to non-fans as well. The film starts slowly, and the film does feel padded in places, also some of the situations feel quite contrived, but it is entertaining. It features a running joke where Boris addresses the audience directly, much to the puzzlement of the other characters who apparently can't see the audience and believe that Boris is talking to himself.

"Love, despite what they tell you, does not conquer all, nor does it even usually last. In the end, the romantic aspirations of our youth are reduced to, whatever works."
-Boris Yelnikoff (Larry David) in Whatever Works

Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood in Whatever Works

The Amityville Horror

2011-07-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

Year: 1979
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Screenplay: Sandor Stern, based on the book The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson
Starring: James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud, Murray Hamilton
Running Time: 117 minutes
Genre: Horror, supernatural

Summary: Amityville, Long Island, 1974: A young man brutally kills his parents and his siblings in a large house by the river.
A year later, George Lutz (Brolin) and his new wife Kathy (Kidder) buy the house, attracted by the low price. They move in with Kathy's three children and start trying to settle down, however they soon become plagued by a variety of bizarre occurances: An upstairs room is infested with flies, black goo oozes out of the toilets, objects mysteriously go missing, certain people become nauseous or overcome with fear in the house or even when they get near it, the family dog is forever scratching at a certain patch of wall in the basement, glowing eyes are seen from the windows in the middle of the night, the youngest daughter (Natasha Ryan) makes an imaginary friend who may be real, and George starts to undergo disturbing changes in personality.
After a disturbing experience in the house, the Lutz family priest Father Delaney (Steiger), becomes convinced that there are demonic forces at work in the house.

Opinions: This film was based on a best-selling horror novel by Jay Anson which detailed the allegedly real-life experiences of a family living in a haunted house. The book's claims to be factual made it very controversial in it's day, and the debate is still ongoing.
Whether or not the film is based on real events isn't really the issue, however. The movie is a fairly turgid spook house ride which goes through all the motions of a traditional haunted house story. The film is badly paced and full of stretches where nothing really happens. In the last half hour or so there is some tension generated, but it's all gone by the frankly ridiculous ending. It never really strikes to life and never manages to generate either scares or any real excitement. On the plus side James Brolin and Margot Kidder both turn in very good performances and when the film does work it is generally down to them. Rod Steiger carbes out massive slices of ham for himself overacting so wildly as the family priest that you can almost see the teethmarks in the scenery.
Possibly the most interesting aspect of the film is the emphasis on the financial consequences of the ghostly goings-on. Stephen King, who discusses the film at length in his 1982 non-fiction book Danse Macabre suggests that part of the reason for the enormous success of the film was the way it tapped into very real economic concerns of the time. I certainly think that he has a point with that. The characters frequently discuss money and business, and in one scene Kathy's brother, who looks all of about 15, is getting married and they lose a large sum of money which they need to pay the caterer's and George practically goes beserk trying to find it, practically tearing the room apart and screaming. As he puts it early in the film "this house'll nickel-and-dime us to death".
At it's core though it is a very traditional haunted house story which could, with very few changes to the plot, be a campfire ghost story, and the Amityville hauntings have already entered modern American folklore. Whatever the reason, for all it's flaws, the film was one of the biggest box office hits of 1979 and spawned to dateseven sequels, and itself was remade in 2005.

"I am not some pink-cheeked seminarian who doesn't know the difference between the supernatural and a bad clam! I am a trained psychotherpaist! I wnet into that house and what I saw there was real, what I felt there was real and what I heard there was real! Now, gentlemen, I have a family in my parish that's at great risk! They're facing real danger."
- Father Delaney (Rod Steiger) staes his case in The Amityville Horror

James Brolin and Margot Kidder in The Amityville Horror

Wayne's World 2

2011-07-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

Year: 1993
Director: Stephen Surjik
Screenplay: Mike Myers, Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner
Starring: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Tia Carrere, Christopher Walken, Kim Basinger
Running Time: 95 minutes
Genre: Comedy

Summary: Aurora, Illinois: Wayne Campbell (Myers) hosts a local public-access TV show called Wayne's World with his best friend Garth Elgar (Carvey). Aside from his TV show, Wayne's main interests in life are his girlfriend Cassandra (Carrere) and heavy rock music. However he feels like his life lacks direction. One night, Wayne has a mystical dream where he encounters rock legend Jim Morrison (Michael A. Nickels) in the desert, who convinces Wayne to put on an open-air rock concert.
As the arrangements progress for the concert, which Wayne dubs "Waynestock" (after Woodstock), he discovers that Cassandra, who is the lead singer in a band, is being lured away to Los Angeles by her sleazy producer Bobby Cahn (Walken), who has a more than professional interest in her.
Meanwhile Garth meets an alluring woman (Basinger) who ropes him into a passionate relationship but is quickly revealed to have ulterior motives

Opinions: This movie is the sequel to the original Wayne's World (1992) which was in turn based on a series of short sketches on the comedy TV series Saturday Night Live. The movie uses the kind of scattershot comedy style where there are so many jokes thrown at the audience that even when some fall flat there are bound to be enough that stick enough to keep the laughs coming at a good rate. The frequent jokes about rock music from the sixties through to the eighties might go over the heads of some younger viewers, and also there are quite a few flat sections of the film, it is certainly not as consistently entertaining as the original. However, Wayne and Garth themselves are pretty much impossible to dislike and the movie is consistently engaging.
The cast all perform their parts well, and there is a lot of fun to be had from spotting the celebrity cameos, such as Drew Barrymore, Charlton Heston (as a "Good Actor") and the rock band Aerosmith.
While not as good as the original, this is still a fun film which provides plenty of laughs.

"Sleeping like this will add ten years to your life. I learned it from Keith Richards when I toured with the Stones. This may be the reason why Keith cannot be killed by conventional weapons."
- Roadie Del Preston (Ralph Brown) explains why he sleeps upside down in Wayne's World 2

Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in Wayne's World 2

Super

2011-07-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

Year: 2010
Director: James Gunn
Screenplay: James Gunn
Starring: Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Kevin Bacon, Liv Tyler, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion, Andre Royo
Running Time: 96 minutes
Genre: Superhero, action, comedy, drama

Summary: Diner cook Frank D'Arbo (Wilson) has had two perfect moments in his otherwise miserable life: One was marrying recovering addict Sarah (Tyler), and the other was pointing a policeman in the direction of a fleeing purse-snatcher. When Sarah leaves him for sleazy local drug pusher Jock (Bacon), Frank falls into despair. After becoming fascinated by a TV show about a religious superhero called The Holy Avenger (Fillion), Frank experiences a divine vision in which God touches his brain. Inspired by this Frank puts together a home-made costume and sets out to fight crime as The Crimson Bolt. His favourite method is to hit criminals on the head with a pipe wrench. However, as well as drug pushers and child molestors, he also attacks people who happen to push ahead of him at the movies. Frank's activities attract the attention of excitable comic-book store clerk Libby (Page) who becomes his sidekick, Boltie. However it turns out that she is even more violent than Frank is.

Opinions: Let's get the obvious thing out of the way first: With it's concept of an ordinary person becoming a superhero despite having no powers or real abilities is bound to be compared to Kick Ass (2010) which was released a year earlier and has a very similar theme. In fact in both plot and style the films are very different. Super is a darker film, and more ambiguous. Frank D'Arbo is pretty obviously unhinged right from the start, while Dave Lizewski (the protagonist of Kick Ass) is basically a guy who has read a few too many comic-books.
The film is basically a dark comedy but there are several genuinely disturbing violent scenes which pull the laughs up short. The scene where Frank almost beats together a guy and a girl for cutting in line at the movies is really disturbing because it is both funny and very shocking.
As the intense, deranged but starngely likeable oddball at the centre of the film Rainn Wilson does a brilliant job with a character who is not too far removed from his most famous role as Dwight Schrute in the US version of The Office. The scene where he breaks down into a self-hating rant is a superb performance. Ellen Page, however, comes close to stealing the film as the psychotic comic-book store clerk and superhero fan who sees in Frank the chance to live out her fantasies. She also has a genuinely creepy seduction scene. By the way, this movie convinced me that if they ever make a movie of the X23 comic-book Ellen Page would be perfect for the lead role.
This movie is bound to be a big cult movie in years to come. Some audiences will probably be put off by the uneasy tone, shifting from laugh out loud comedy to intense violence, and some may find the lead characters difficult to warm to, but for superhero fans looking for something edgier this is a must-see.
I enjoyed the hell out of it.

"Actually, the guys kinda got a point. I mean, I wonder all the time why no-one's never just stood up and become a real superhero."
- Libby (Ellen Page) in Super

"Shut up, crime!": Ellen Page and Rainn Wilson in Super

Winter Light

2011-07-05T13:45:00.001-07:00

Year: 1962
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Max von Sydow, Gunnel Lindblom
Running Time: 81 minutes
Genre: Drama

Summary: In a small Swedish town, Tomas Ericsson (Bjornstrand) is the local pastor. However, he has almost completely lost his faith, and merely goes through the motions of his profession. Atheist schoolteacher Marta (Thulin) loves him, however Tomas treats her with complete indifference or downright hostility. When one of his parishoners, fisherman Jonas (Sydow) comes to him for help due to his overwhelming fear of nuclear war, Tomas tries to help him, and offer some words of comfort. However, immediately after leaving him, Jonas kills himself, which causes Tomas to sink even further into existential depsair.

Opinons: This film (also sometimes known as The Communicants) is widely considered the middle part of director Ingmar Bergman's "Trilogy of Faith" which began with Through a Glass Darkly (1961) and concluded with The Silence (1963), which deal with spiritual matters, in particular the "silence of God" which was a recurring theme in Bergman's work. Bergman wrote "These three films deal with reduction. Through a Glass Darkly - conquered certainty. Winter Light - penetrated certainty. The Silence - God's silence - the negative imprint. Therefore, they constitute a trilogy."
This is one of Bergman's most autobiographical and personal films. He claimed that he "only realised who he really was" and came to terms with himself through the making of this film. Bergman's father was a pastor similar to the one in the film and Bergman struggled deeply with religious questions.
It tends to be one of Bergman's most overlooked films, which may be due to the film's frustratingly elliptical structure as well as the sheer bleakness and misery of it. Through a Glass Darkly offered a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel, but there is no such glimmer here.
The film is beautiful to look at, photographed in luminous monochrome by regular Bergman cinematographer Sven Nykvist, and features some startling performances from all concerned. Bjornstrand gives a haunted performance as a tormented man who has lost all belief and faith in his vocation, and is merley clocking in every day and going through the motions like a bored and disillusioned office worker, unfortunately his job is to console others at their lowest points, and there is nothing to console him. The one glimmer of hope offered to him, the love of Ingrid Thulin's Marta, he angrily rejects at every turn. Thulin turns in an intense perfomance and her heart-rending long monologue delivered staright to camera is genuinely uncomfortable to watch.
This is a bleak and merciless drama, which is definitely worth checking out, although definitely not if you're in the mood for some cheering up. You'll also probably want to stay away from sharp objects for an hour or two after you've seen it.

"Surely that must have been his greatest hardship? God's silence."
- Algot Frovik (Allan Edwall) in Winter Light

Gunnar Bjornstrand and Ingrid Thulin in Winter Light

Through a Glass Darkly

2011-07-05T13:24:00.001-07:00

Year: 1961
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman
Starring Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Max von Sydow, Lars Passgard
Running Time: 89 minutes
Genre: Drama

Summary: A family of four spend their summer vacation on a remote island. Karin (Andersson) suffers from schizophrenia and has recently come out of a mental hospital. Her loving husband, Martin (Sydow) is unable to understand what is happening to her. Her father, David (Bjornstrand), a second-rate but successful novelist, is more wrapped up in his own problems. Her emotional seventeen year old brother Minus (Passgard) is the only one Karin can confide in, and he is severely out of his depth.
Sneaking a look at her father's diary, Karin discovers that her condition is incurable and that David, while sympathetic, is interested in studying the effects of the illness on her as it worsens. Feeling isolated from bother her husband and her father, and racked with guilt about her increasingly disturnbing closeness to Minus, Karin's mental state quickly deteriorates and her hallucinations become increasingly severe, as her grip on reality begins to shatter.

Opinions: This is the first of Bergman's loose "Faith Trilogy" which continued with Winter Light (1962) and concluded with The Silence (1963). This bleak and austere drama helped to seal Bergman's reputation as the master of Scandinavian gloom. However there is humour there and also some of the frequently overlooked warmth that was often present in Bergman.
Shot on the Swedish island of Faro, this is beautifully photgraphed in crisp black and white by regular Bergman cinematographer Sven Nykvist and features some superb perfomances from it's small cast (there are only four characters in the entire film) most of whom were also Bergman regulars. Harriet Andersson especially delivers a stunning perfomance in the lead role.
The film's downbeat nature certainly won't appeal to all viewers, but it is a must see for Bergman fans and is worth seeing anyway as a major work from one of the masters of cinema. Also despite the gloom it concludes with a faint glimmer of optimism. it is fair to say that you probably won't have a lot of fun with this film, but then it is not intended as entertainment, it is a piece of art.
The title refers to a passage in the Bible (1 Corinthians 13) which states that while we are alive we see God and God's plans as "through a glass, darkly" but it will all become clear after we die.

"It's so horrible to see your own confusion and understand it."
- Karin (Harriet Andersson) in Through a Glass Darkly

Max von Sydow, Harriet Andersson and Gunnar Bjornstrand in Through a Glass Darkly

John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Gift

2011-07-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

Written by: Mike Carey, illustrated by Leonardo Manco and Frazer Irving
Year of Publication: 2007, originally published as John Constantine: Hellblazer issues 207 to 215 in 2005 and 2006
Number of Pages: 221 pages
Genre: Grpahic novel, horror, supernatural

Summary: Following a battle with his three demonic offspring, occultist John Constantine is left with most of his friends dead and his sister Cheryl murdered and her soul damned to Hell.
The only solution is for Constantine to make the perilous journey into Hell himself to rescue his sister. However, his only guide is the treacherous demon, Nergal, whose blood Constantine once accepted into his veins. Along the way, Constantine encounters enemies both old and new and quickly discovers that there is far more going on then he could have suspected. As Constantine is pitted against some of the oldest and darkest forces of Hell he is forced to relive painful moments from his past and cofnront the terrible price that must be paid for his powers.

Opinions: This graphic novel contains the final nine issues of Mike Carey's work on the monthly Hellblazer comic book. The book is a powerful piece of urban horror taking the charismatic, chain-smoking "urban mage" and con-man antihero John Constantine into some of his darkest places yet. It collects three linked stories from the series which all follow on from each other, the six part "Down in the Ground, Where the Dead Men Go", the one issue "The Gift", and the two part "R.S.V.P.".
Blending gritty urban reality with startling supernatural horror, this collection is an example of Hellblazer it's best.
This is a must read for fans telling a gripping and disturbing narrative with some powerfully evocative artwork, however it is not recommended for newcomers to the Hellblazer universe, due to it's multiple references to earlier stories and the fact that it is a direct continuation of the previous collection Reasons to be Cheerful.
It also contains probably the bleakest depictions of magic that you are ever likely to find.

"My talents for lying. For sticking the knife in when people least expect it. Then walking away with a smile and a wave before they realise they're bleeding."
- John Constnatine, Hellblazer: The Gift

Batman: The Cult

2011-06-30T16:47:00.000-07:00

Written by: Jim Starlin, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, Bill Wray and John Costanza
Year of Publication: 1991, originally published as Batman: The Cult issues 1 to 4 in 1988
Number of Pages: 208 pages
Genre: Grpahic novel, superhero, crime, horror

Summary: Batman is investigating a bizarre series of crimes targeted at the criminals of Gotham City, many of whom are mysteriously disappearing in violent circumstances. His investigation leads him to the mysterious and charismatic preacher Deacon Blackfire who has set up a base in the sewers of Gotham and is recruiting an army of the homeless and the disenfranchised.
However Blackfire captures Batman first. Held prisoner, Batman is starved, drugged and brutally tortured both physically and psychologically. Almost totally broken down he comes under Blackfire's malevolent influence.
As Blackfire's plans for Gotham become clearer, Batman has to face his worst fears and nightmares if he has any hope of saving the city.

Opinions: The 1980s were kind of a watershed for Batman. With the collapse of the Comic Code, which had heavily restricted the content of American comics since the 1950s, creators were able to write books for an adult audience and had greater freedom in their depiction of darker themes and violence. The Batman series took full advantage of this new freedom in such stories as Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Year One, Alan Moore's The Killing Joke and Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum, and this series The Cult, which often seems to be unjustly neglected.
Right from the opening this chilling psychologial drama, originally published as a four part mini-series in 1988, depicts Batman in his weakest state. Plagued by horrific nightmares and hallucinations and sadistically tortured the story explores some of darker areas of Batman's psyche. In a way, Blackfire's purge of the criminal element of Gotham isn't too different from the Dark Knight's own crusade, however unlike Batman, Blackfire is more than happy to kill. Of course, the impact is not just on Batman himself as the whole of Gotham City is brought to it's knees by Blackfire's brutal army. Robin features heavily in the story and here he really comes into his own, becoming more than just the side-kick, which he is often depicted as.
This was quite controversial on it's first publication due to it's depictions of violence. The level of violence is high for a Batman book but it is justified in terms of the story that is being told. The art is effectively dark and moody.
This is a must-read for Batman fans.

Stormhouse

2011-06-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Year: 2011
Director: Dan Turner
Screenplay: Jason Arnopp, from a story by Dan Turner and Jason Arnopp
Starring: Katherine Flynn, Grant Masters, Patrick Flynn, Grahame Fox, Munir Khairdin, Martin Delaney, James Capel
Running Time: 88 minutes
Genre: Horror, supernatural, military

Summary: Stormhouse Military Base, England. May 2002: The British Army invoke and imprison a supernatural entity. Several months later, New York psychic and "ghost whisperer" Hayley Sands (Katherine Flynn) is brought to Stormhouse to try to contact the entity. However she finds that the base is running at a skeleton staff and the pressures of controlling the entity are starting to show on the soldiers and scientists working there. Hayley soon discovers that the entity, though contained, is very active and extremely dangerous and will stop at nothing to free itself and take revenge against those who captured it. At the same time, hard-nosed Major Anthony Lester (Masters) has his own plans for the entity.

Opinions: This low-budget British horror movie opens with a title card claiming that it was "inspired by true events". According to the director, the film was inspired by the rumours and folklore surrounding the old military base where the film was shot. The film is set almost entirely in the dimly lit, claustrophobic environment of the base. The fact that the nature of the entity itself isn't explicitly revealed on-screen works pretty well since the characters are never sure exactly where the thing is or what it is doing, until it strikes out. The tensions of life on the base are well-depicted and the rigours of military life add to the claustrophobic tension. However the military characters aren't explored very much, and another problem is that the film is frequently shot so darkly that it can be difficult to make out what is going on in places.
The film has a slow, deliberate build-up and for the most part keeps itself fairly low-key, coming across initially as almost a military version of Paranormal Activity (2002), with the amount of quiet surveillance camera footage and sudden loud noises after long periods of silence. However the low-key approach is put aside in the blood-drenched climax.
It's worth checking out for horror fans. It plays with a straight face and provides plenty of shocks and tension.

Katherine Flynn enters Stormhouse

Kalevet

2011-06-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

Year: 2010
Directors: Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado
Screenwriter: Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado
Starring: Lior Ashkenazi, Danny Geva, Ania Bukstein, Menashe Noy, Yael Grobglas, Ran Danker
Running Time: 90 minutes
Genre: Horror, dark comedy

Summary: A brother and sister, Pini (played by Ofer Schechter) and Tali (Liat Harlev), run away from home into a densely wooded nature preserve where they fall into traps set by a psychotic killer (Yaron Motola). Pini escapes and desperately tries to search for a way to rescue his sister. Along the way a group of young tennis players, a forestry worker (Noy) and a sadistic cop (Geva) and his more restrained partner (Ashkenazi) become involved in a violent criss-cross of accident and murder, as the tensions between friends, enemies and strangers begin to flare violently out of control.

Opinions: This film (the title translates as Rabies) is the first slasher horror film ever to come out of Israel, and is probably one of the best, and most interesting, to have come around for some time. The film is very entertaining and packed with enough gruesome set pieces to satisfy horror fans and is frequently very suspenseful, it is one of those films where literally anyone can die at any time. The film's violence is handled very well and the more graphically explicit gore takes place off-screen there is also plenty of intentional humour.
The film-makers were obviously well aware of slasher movie cliches and seem to have had a lot of fun playing with them. For example almost the entire movie takes place in broad daylight and the psycho killer is pretty much a minor charcater with most of the violence being perpetrated on themselves by the typical "vicitms" or "heroes" of the horror film.
This is a real treat for fans and well-worth checking out.

Yael Grobglas, Ania Bukstein and Lior Ashkenazi in Kalevet

Comics Round-Up # 5

2011-06-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

JOHN CONSTANTINE: HELLBLAZER # 280

Written by Peter Milligan

Illustrated by Gael Bertrand, Trish Mulvihill and Sal Cipriano

Published by Vertigo

Phantom Pains, Part Four: Gemma's Story. Gemma Masters is traumatised since her beloved uncle, John Constantine, brutally assaulted her at his wedding. In fact, unknown to Gemma, it was not Constantine that attacked her but a vengeful demon that had taken his form. However Gemma is out for revenge and has summoned a demon of her own to destroy him. Luring Constantine to an abandoned warehouse Gemma unleashes the murderous demon, and comes to a revelation of her own.

In this bleak revenge story, John Constantine finally meets his match in his own neice, Gemma, who has previously been a fairly minor character in the Hellblazer universe. It hearkens back to the wedding issue of the comic that came out about five months ago which categorically shows that Gemma was not attacked by Constantine, and when he comes to, as he believes, rescue her, he has no idea why she has suddenly turned on him. Gemma herself is a complex character who, while feeling betrayed in the most horrific fashion and deeply traumatised, discovers her own avenues of power.

"Trying to turn myself into Gemma Constantine. Maybe tonight I've finally become Gemma Masters."

NORTHLANDERS # 41

Written by Brian Wood

Illustrated by Marian Churchland

Thor's Daughter. The Outer Hebrides, A.D. 990: Birna Thorsdotter is the fourteen year old daughter of a powerful man who pretty much owns the island and is paid by travellers for his advice and opinions. Birna's mother died some time earlier. After her father is murdered by some of his own men, Birna is left completely alone with no status and no protection. Despite her fear and grief, Birna realises that she has to step up and survive in a hostile world and reclaim her birthright.

Northlanders is an endlessly fascinating series. Despite being linked by a common backdrop (the Viking age, approximately the late 8th to 11th centuries in Northern Europe) each storyline is completely self contained with completely different characters and even different artists for each story. This issue contains a single issue story concerning the resourceful Birna Thorsdotter who has to avenge the death of her father and earn her birthright from her family's enemies. The story has the feel of an old folk tale and benefits immensely from beautiful and evocative artwork from Marian Churchland. Treasure this series while you can because apparently it has been canceled by Vertigo and is scheduled to finish in March 2012.

"I was born on these islands, not far from the stones. Sometimes it feels like magic. Sometimes like a prison."

CINDERELLA: FABLES ARE FOREVER # 5

Written by Chris Roberson

Illustrated by Shawn McManus

Published by Vertigo

Cinderella, Fabletown's premier spy, is hot on the trail of the murderous criminal mastermind Dorothy Gale, who is working for a sinister Shadow Fabletown. In an attempt to flush out her enemy, Cinderella decides to deliberately step into a trap that Dorothy has set for her. However, Dorothy has an ace up her sleeve.

This is the fifth installment of a six issue spin off from the popular comic Fables, which featured popular characters from fairy tales and folklore existing in a contemporary universe. This story recasts Cinderella as a secret agent, and Dorothy Gale (from The Wizard of Oz) as a villainous criminal mastermind, along with monsters, magical spoons, witches and wizards and a plot straight out of one of the James Bond books by Ian Fleming (the title is a reference to Fleming's book Diamonds Are Forever and subsequent film). The mix of styles works very well and the story is told with plenty of humour and there are plenty of enjoyable twists and turns along the way. Since this is the fifth of a six part story it's too late really for newcomers to the comic, but wait around a couple of months and check it out when it's released as a graphic novel.

"Don't worry, the fall won't hurt you. But stopping certainly will."

BATMAN # 711

Written by Tony S. Daniel

Illustrated by Steve Scott and Ryan Wynn

Published by DC

Pieces, Part Two. Harvey Dent (aka "Two Face") is shocked to discover that his beloved Gilda is alive after all, despite the fact that he thought he killed her. However Gilda is now with his enemy, mobster Mario Falcone, and is trying to kill him. Dent is then captured by Edward Nigma (aka "The Riddler") and his "daughter" Enigma. To his surprise, the Riddler offers to help him and informs him that Gilda is being held by Falcone against her will. With all the confusion, Dent is desperate to retrieve his "Two Face" coin (one side is clear but the other is badly scarred and Dent uses it to decide whether the Harvey Dent or Two Face part of his psyche should be in control). To complicate the situation for Batman, he has to watch out for Kitrina Falcone (aka "Catgirl") who has gotten in way over her head. The Caped Crusader has his work cut out for him.

It's complex enough in stories when you have two sides being played off against each other, whereas here you have three sides being played against each other with Batman stuck in the middle. It is a dark and complex plot, full of twists and turns and double crosses The main problem being that Batman himself is kind of pushed to the background with all the other stuff going on around him. While this is probably not going to become one of the classic Batman stories it is a solid slice of Gotham City adventure, mixing both action and detection, which will please fans.

"From now on, I'm killing anyone who pops up."

X-MEN: PRELUDE TO SCHISM # 3

Written by Paul Jenkins

Illustrated by Will Conrad and Lee Loughridge

Published by Marvel

A terrible threat is approaching which has the potential to wipe out the entire mutant population. Faced with complete extinction, the X-Men gather at their island base Utopia. As tensions grow among the assembled X-Men, their leader Scott Summers (aka "Cyclops") reflects on his past and the development of his powers as he struggles to come to a decision whether they should stay and fight or whether they should flee.

This is the third of a four part story in which the X-Men prepare for a devestating cataclysm. Each issue has dealt with the soul searching of one of the X-Men leaders (the first issue it was Professor X and the second issue was the turn of Magneto). This is a curious, quiet series focussing primarily on the internal lives of the characters. It provides a lot of interesting backstory and character devlopment and gives a striking impression of an approaching devestating event.

"I'm the one who lost his first battle so convincingly and utterly. Who closed his eyes to all possibilities. Who was accused of closing his eyes to the future."

PICK OF THE WEEK:

NORTHLANDERS # 41

Oliver Sherman

2011-06-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

Year: 2010
Director: Ryan Redford
Screenplay: Ryan Redford, based on the short story "Veterans" by Rachel Ingalls
Starring: Garret Dillahunt, Donal Logue, Molly Parker, Kaelan Meunier
Running Time: 82 minutes
Genre: Drama

Summary: Lonely veteran Sherman Oliver (Dillahunt)travels to a small rural town to reconnect with his old Army friend Franklin Page (Logue). Seven years earlier Page saved Oliver's life in a war, an incident which left Oliver with shards of metal froma bullet still embedded in his head and Page missing part of a finger.
Page is now married to Irene (Parker), has a good job in a local mill and has a four year old son, Jacob (Meunier), and a baby girl, and seems toi have successfully put the war behind him. By contrast Oliver is a drifter and appears to have no family or permanent residence.
Page takes pity on him and allows Oliver to stay with him and his family. However Oliver's strange, taciturn mannerisms, rough way of speaking, heavy drinking and obsession with war and violence quickly begin to disturb Irene. On Oliver's part the difference in fortune between him and Page begins to cause resentment.

Opinions: This low-budget independent film from Canada is a powerful and bleak thriller, which deals with the themes of human compassion and also the cpapacity for violence. The film moves at a slow pace and focuses much more on character than incident. The acting is uniformly excellent form a largely little known cast. The basic storyline is not particularly original, but then it's not about the story, it is about mood and camera.
The film is well photographed and makes great use of the wintery landscapes, and strikingly composed images. The main problem with the film is that some of the dialogue sounds quite "stagey".
Despite the brief running time, the film does demand patience from the viewer due to the fact that not much really happens throughout the course of the film. However, the power of the film lies in the knowledge that at some point Oliver will snap.
This is a disturbing film which leaves a strong impression.

Donal Logue and Garret Dillahunt in Oliver Sherman

Fiend Without a Face

2011-06-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

Year: 1958
Director: Arthur Crabtree
Screenplay: Herbert J. Leder, based on the short story "The Thought Monster" by Amelia Reynold Long
Starring: Marshall Thompson, Kynaston Reeves, Michael Balfour, Kim Parker
Running Time: 73 minutes
Genre: Horror, science-fiction, monsters

Summary: A US Air Force base near a remote Canadian town is conducting secret experiments in using atomic power to boost radar signals. However, a number of local people have been mysteriously killed by some unseen force which removes their brains and spinal columns. The locals, who are already suspicious of the Air Force base, believe that the newcomers are ssomehow responsible for the killings.
Major Jeff Cummings (Thompson) tries to investigate the killings, with the help of Barbara Griselle (Parker), the sister of one of the murdered locals, and who also happens to work as the secretary for reclusive scientist Professor Walgate (Reeves), who has been working on the idea of telekinesis.

Opinions: On the surface this is a fairly average "B" grade horror/science-fiction film. Despite being set in Canada, this is a British production and was filmed entirely in England (the setting chosen because it was thought that a Canadian setting would appeal both to American audiences and British Commonwealth audiences and the producers thought that a Canadian landscape would be easy to replicate in the UK). The film moves at a fairly sedate pad, with the already brief running time padded out by long exposition scenes in offices, hospitals and living rooms, and also endless stock footage of jet planes and radar equipment.
However, the film comes into it's own in the final act when the previously invisible monsters are finally revealed as squishy disembodied brains, with spinal cord tails, tentacle-like nerves and protruding eyes on stalks. Filmed in jerky, stop-motion animation the creatures are genuinely bizarre and unsettling. The set-piece siege on the country house is a genuinely tense and memorable sequence, with an influence that can be felt in later films such as George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968). The monsters themselves can be seen as a forerunner of the infamous "facehuggers" in the Alien series.
The acting is mostly pretty strong from the leads although there are a few weak notes among the supporting cast.
This little-seen curio is well worth checking out if you get the chance. With the climax in particular sticking in the mind long after the film is over.

Launce Maraschal encounters a Fiend Without a Face

"Tell-All" by Chuck Palahniuk

2011-06-12T15:22:00.001-07:00

Year of Publication: 2010
Number of Pages: 179 pages
Genre: Satire, Hollywood, comedy

Summary: The story is narrated by Hazie Coogan who has devoted her life to fulfilling the every whim of her employer, Hollywood star Katherine "Miss Kathie" Kenton who at the height of her glittering career was one of the biggest stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and has subsequently survived numerous failed marriages, countless cosmetic surgeries, career setbacks and comebacks, as well as alcohol and drug addiction, and now lives in the serene retirement of a movie legend.
Until Katherine falls for a young suitor named Webster Carlton Westward III. Hazie immediately pegs him as a would-be writer who wants a few lurid personal detials for a "tell-all" celebrity biography which is just lacking a final chapter before it is sent off to the publisher.
Until it turns out that Westward's book already has a final chapter written, describing the exact circumstances in which Katherine will meet her violent end.
As always it is up to Hazie to protect Katherine, and Katherine's reputation, for posterity.

Opinions: In the course of his ten previous novels and two non-fiction books, Chuck Palahniuk has taken numerous bitterly funny and savagely satirical swipes at the nightmarish world of modern life. In this one he turns his attention to the world of movies and in particular the Hollywood "Golden Age", the period of Hollywood movies which lasted from roughly the end of the Silent Film era at the end of the 1920s to the early 1960s.
As usual with Palahniuk, the book utilises a number of stylistic tricks, for example the novel is written in the style of a screen treatment (the chapter headings are all numbered with "Act" and "Scene" such as "Act One, Scene One" and so on), all names are written in bold type, the narrative flits frequently between past and present and there are numerous lurid fantasy sequences (including frequent extracts from a Lillian Hellman penned screenplay which depict Hellman (in reality a well-known playwright) as a kind of superheroine.
The book is not one of Palahniuk's best and lacks some of the wild inventiveness of his best works and reading it I got the feeling that Palahniuk's heart wasn't really in it. The book will feel like very familiar territory to Palahniuk's fans. However, despite that, it is an entertaining, funny and disturbing work, which reads like a mash-up of the movies All About Eve (1950) and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Fans of old Hollywood movies will enjoy it, with it's repeated references to classic movie stars.

X-Men: First Class

2011-06-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

Year: 2011
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Screenplay: Ashley Edward Miller, Jack Stentz, Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, from a story by Sheldon Turner and Bryan Singer, based on characters created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Chris Claremont
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon
Running Time: 132 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, superhero, action

Summary: Poland, 1944: Young Eric Lensherr (Bill Milner) is put in a concentration camp and, being forcibly sperated from his mother, Eric's pain, rage and fear cause the metal gates to buckle and distend. The event is witnessed by Nazi scientist Dr. Schmidt who tries to force Eric to demonstrate his powers, however when Eric is unable to Schmidt forces him to watch as he kills his mother, which triggers a devestating display of Eric's power.
New York, 1944: Young Charles Xavier (Laurence Belcher) is fully comfortable with his telepathic abilities. One night he meets a young shapeshifter named Raven (Morgan Lily), who in her natural form is a blue-skinned girl with golden eyes, stealing food from the kitchens. Charles befriends her.
1962: Eric (Fassbender) travels the globe, using his power to manipulate metal objects in his search to find and kill Schmidt.
Charles (McAvoy), studying at Oxford University, achieves success with his thesis on mutation, while Raven (Lawrence), who is now his foster sister, is working as a waitress.
CIA agent Moira McTaggart (Byrne) discovers that Sebastian Shaw (Bacon) is the leader of a team of mutants and is playing both the USA and the USSR against each other in his plan for domination. She approaches Charles and Raven who join the CIA's covert mutant operation along with Eric who has discovered that Shaw is in fact Schmidt. Soon Eric and Charles are recruiting mutants for their own team to combat Shaw's. However, Eric becomes increasingly resentful of the fact that they are helping a world that both hates and fears them.

Opinions: This is the fifth feature film based on the X-Men comic books. It's a prequel to the other films and showcases how the X-Men came to be as well as the souring of the initial frienship between Charles Xavier (aka Professor X) and Eric Lensherr (aka Magneto). Magneto was always one of the most interesting "villains" in comics because it's hard not to feel sympathy for him and his motivations. A survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, he sees history repeating itself in humanity's attitudes towards mutants. Michael Fassbender gives a superb performance as the complex and tormented Lensherr.
As Charles Xavier, James McAvoy has a less interesting character to work with. He is perfectly comfortable and in control of his ability right from the start and his main character development is showing him turning from a feckless and egotistical student to become a more responsible, if still somewhat egotistical, leader.
The rest of the large cast doesn't really have much of a chance to shine, and the message of racial tolerence and prejudice is hammered home quite heavily, even though the film's only two black characters in one case is killed after about five minutes of screentime and is never mentioned again, and in the other case almost immediately swops sides to join the villains.
Despite this the film is hugely entertaining and benefits from a complex plotline that puts a fantasy spin on real world recent history. The special effects are spectacular and director Matthew Vaughn keeps the action moving along well despite the daunting two hour plus run time.
While falling short of being a great film, this is still a very good one and should provide plenty to interest and entertain non-comic fans. Also the fact that this film in the first in a proposed trilogy makes for a very enticing prospect.
Fans will probably notice Hugh Jackman appearing in a brief cameo as Wolverine.

Caleb Landry Jones, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne, Nicholas Hoult, James McAvoy and Lucas Till in X-Men: First Class

A Bay of Blood

2011-06-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

Year: 1971
Director: Mario Bava
Screenplay: Mario Bava, Giuseppe Zaccariello, Filippo Ottoni and Sergio Canevari, from a story by Dardano Sacchetti and Franco Barberi
Starring: Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Laura Betti
Running Time: 84 minutes
Genre: Horror, slasher, mystery

Summary: In her mansion beside a beautiful bay, the elderly Countess Federica (Isa Miranda) is murdered by her husband, Filippo Donati (Giovanni Nuvoletti), and arranged in a way to make it look as if she comitted suicide. However, no sooner is Donati finished arranging the crime scene when he is brutally stabbed to death by a mysterious assailant.
Believing that the Countess killed herself and her husband has disappeared, real estate developer Frank Ventura (Chris Avram) and his girlfriend Laura (Anna Maria Rosati) travel to the bay to get Donati to sign a series of legal documents which will enable them to take posession of the bay to devlop it as a holiday resort.
Also travelling to the bay is the Countess' daughter Renata (Auger) and her husband Albert (Pistilli) who are determined to get control of the bay by any means necessary.
Already at the bay are four teenagers ready to spend a weekend of drinking and partying at one of the abandoned bayside cabins.
However, the mysterious killer is still stalking the bay and the bodies are piling up in the water.

Opinions: This film is one of the classic Italian giallo films. "Giallo" is the Italian word for yellow and it came to refer to a series of cheap pulp fiction paperbacks which had distinctive yellow covers. The term came to refer to a series of horror and crime films which were notorious for lengthy and stylish scenes of extreme violence.
Mario Bava was a noted and well-respected film maker who specialised in horror movies, and this film got a very negative reaction from many critics due to the gruesome violence.
The movie proved to be very influential though and it's impact can be felt throughout the "slasher" and "splatter" horror film genre. The Friday the 13th films in particular with their killers stalking bucolic woodland locations are a direct descendent from this.
The storyline is fun and full of countless twists and turns. The impressive special effects were provided by Carlo Rambaldi, who went on to huge acclaim for the effects in E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982).
The acting is kind of bland, although it is hard to really judge due to the dubbed dialogue.
It is definitely worth watching for horror fans and giallo fans. Although it is worth remembering that it has been released under a wide variety of titles including Twitch of the Death Nerve, Blood Bath and Carnage.

Laura Betti and Leopoldo Trieste in A Bay of Blood

The Beyond

2011-06-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

Year: 1981
Director: Lucio Fulci
Screenplay: Giorgio Mariuzzo, Lucio Fulci and Dardano Sacchetti, from a story by Dardano Sacchetti
Starring: Catriona McColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale, Antoine Saint-John, Veronica Lazar
Running Time: 89 minutes
Genre: Horror, supernatural, zombie

Summary: Louisiana 1927: A lynch mob break into the Seven Doors Hotel and brutally murder a painter, Schweik (Saint-John), who is living there.
In 1981, New Yorker Liza Merril (McColl) inherits the run-down hotel from her uncle. The renovations are plagued by a series of increasingly severe and bizarre "accidents". A blind psychic girl, Emily (Monreale), informs Liza that the hotel was built above one of the seven gateways to Hell. Along with local doctor John McCabe (Warbeck), Liza finds herself pitted against nightmarish supernatural forces as the dead begin to rise and attack the living.

Opinions: This gruesome Italian horror film is often cited as the masterpiece of it's director Lucio Fulci who made his name with films such as Zombie (1979) and City of the Living Dead (1980). Certainly the film doesn't stint on gore and is full of blood and flesh tearing special effects.
The film doesn't really make a lot of sense, especially towards the end, but that isn't really important as the film works in a kind of dreamlike sense and is purely nightmarish. Aside from the zombies and flesh eating tarantulas, the film is full of dream like images, some of which are very powerful.
The special effects are effective and should provide plenty of moments to startle even jaded gore hounds. The dialogue is very obviously dubbed but that was common practice in Italian films and in any way it helps to make the film even more bizarrely surreal.
The symbol which appears prominently at various points of the film was taken from a tattoo which Fulci's fourteen year old daughter got.
Horror films and connoiseurs of cult cinema won't want to miss this one.
Incidentally, in some prints of the film which are currently available, the opening sequence is in black-and-white, when it was originally intended to be in sepia.

Catriona McColl and David Warbeck in The Beyond

Julia's Eyes

2011-05-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

Year: 2010
Director: Guillem Morales
Screenplay: Guillem Morales and Oriol Paulo
Starring: Belen Rueda, Lluis Homar, Pablo Derqui, Francesc Orella, Julia Guttierez Caba
Running Time: 112 minutes
Genre: Horror, thriller, psychological

Summary: After the apparent suicide of her blind sister Sara (Rueda), astronomer Julia (Rueda) becomes convinced that Sara did not kill herself, and is soon obsessed with finding the truth behind her death, with the reluctant help of her concerned husband, Isaac (Homar). Julia is suffereing from the same degenerative disease that Sara suffered and is already going blind. She knows that if an operation to save her sight fails, soon she too will be totally blind. As her investigation progresses, Julia begins to feel that she is being watched and followed from the shadows. As a spate of apparent suicide claims the lives of people involved in Sara's last days, it becomes apparent that someone will do anything to prevent her from uncovering their secret.

Opinions: This Spanish horror movie was produced by Mexican writer, producer and director Guillermo Del Toro (who also produced the 2008 horror hit The Orphanage). The horror here is centered around blindness and the fear of being chased by someone who can see you but you can't see them. There are also a few disturbing sequences featuring eyeballs. It starts off as an investigative mystery thriller before suddenly switching gears and becoming something totally different.
The acting is very good throughout, and the film provides plenty of chills and genuinely thrilling chases. The film works on a lot of very primal levels, and the tension is sustained throughout. It also provides some unexpected twists thoughout. The film is well-made with a number of inventive visuals. It manages to pull off the concept of the veiled, hidden threat very well. The influence of Alfred Hitchcock is felt very strongly in this work, and there are also of plenty of typically quirky Del Toro touches.
The only real flaw in the film is an unsatisfactory coda in the closing minutes.
The film is a must-see for horror fans, and also for general thriller fans, who are looking for something a little different.

Belen Rueda in Julia's Eyes.

Orphan

2011-05-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

Year: 2009
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Screenplay: David Leslie Johnson, from a story by Alex Mace
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett, Aryana Engineer
Running Time: 123 minutes
Genre: Horror, thriller, psychological

Summary: Recovering alcoholic Kate Coleman (Farmiga) and her husband John (Sarsgaard) find their already strained marriage stretched to breaking point after their third child is stillborn. They decide to adopt a nine year old Russian girl named Esther (Fuhrman) from a nearby orphanage. At first glance Esther, who is a talented painter, appears firendly and intelligent, if slightly strange.
At the Coleman household Esther is welcomed almost immediately by the Coleman's deaf-mute daughter Max (Engineer), but she is disliked by the older child, Daniel (Bennett), who immediately takes exception to Esther's mannerisms and eccentric taste in clothes.
Before long Esther begins to display increasingly violent and manipulative behaviour. However, as Kate becomes increasingly suspicious of her John refuses to believe that Esther is anything but misunderstood. As their relationship begins to disintegrate Kate becomes determined to uncover the secrets of Esther's past.

Opinions: This film belongs to the "evil child" sub-genre of horror (which includes The Bad Seed (1956), The Omen (1976) and The Good Son (1993) among many others) as well as the "cuckoo in the nest" sub-genre in which a family comes under attack from an enemy within.
The film is slow to get going and the final half hour gets ludicrously over the top, but mostly it is an impressively atmospheric slice of horror. Moving at a deliberate pace the film builds up it's characters and their relationships, allowing for a number of elements to be dealt with more subtly (such as John's infidelity and Kate's guilt over an accident involving Max). The film, which was shot near Montreal, also gets a lot of milage out of the wintery landscapes.
The performances all round are superb, with Isabelle Fuhrman delivering a standout performance as the murderous child, seemingly all sweetness and light, but with a cold, dead-eyed stare which makes The Omen's Damien look about as threatening as Dennis the Menace. Vera Farmiga also impresses as the increasingly suspicious mother.
It's a good and effective psychological chiller up until the last half hour or so when it all goes into slasher movie territory. Still, it is more than watchable and provides plenty of good chills, and is worth watching for the perfomances if nothing else.

Vera Farmiga and Isabelle Fuhrman in Orphan

Iron Man 2

2011-05-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

Year: 2010
Director: Jon Favreau
Screenplay: Justin Theroux, based on the comic-book series Iron Man by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck and Jack Kirby
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson
Running Time: 125 minutes
Genre: Superhero, action, science-fiction

Summary: Billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (Downey, Jr.) has publicly revealed himself as armoured superhero "Iron Man". With Iron Man helping to maintain world peace, Stark becomes a beloved national hero. However the US Government are deeply uncomfortable with allowing the technology and power of the Iron Man armour to remain in private hands and demands that Stark hands over his armour and equipment.
However Stark is more concerned about the fact that the equipment which he designed to save his life and power the Iron Man armour is slowly poisoning him and his behaviour becomes increasingly irrational and unstable much to the concern of his friends such as Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James "Dusty" Rhodes (Cheadle) and Pepper Potts (Paltrow), as well as mysterious new employee Natalie Rushman (Johansson).
Meanwhile Stark's arch-rival Justin Hammer (Rockwell) enlists the help of murderous Russina scientist Ivan Vanko (Rourke) to build an even more advanced version of the Iron Man armour in order to beat Stark. However, Vanko has an agenda all of his own.

Opinions: This movie is a fun sequel to Iron Man (2008) and is intended to be the middle part of a proposed trilogy. The special effects are spectacular and the movie includes some memorable set pieces, such as Mickey Rourke's interruption of the Monaco Grand Prix. The piece is anchored by some great performances from a very talented cast. Robert Downey, Jr. does brilliant work in the central role, making the character of Tony Stark, who could very easily come across as just obnoxious, arrogant and cocky, both likeable and sympathetic. Gwyneth Paltrow also does well as Stark's put upon friend and assistant.
The problem that the film has is that there are so many story lines running through it that they don't all have a chance to fully develop. Also, despite the set pieces, through most of the middle of the film there isn't really much of a sense of jepordy or danger.
However the script is witty and the film is well directed making of a great piece of action entertainment. It should appeal to people who aren't necessarily superhero fans, since it isn't as fantasy oriented as most superhero movies, and plays more as a techno thriller. It also doesn't hurt that the film includes Scarlett Johansson in a very fetching superhero costume.
Watch out for comic-book icon Stan Lee appearing in a brief cameo (where he is mistaken for Larry King). There is also a brief scene at the end of the closing credits which serves almost as a teaser for Thor (2011). Thor, Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America are due to meet up in The Avengers which is due for release in 2012.

Robert Downey, Jr. faces off in Iron Man 2