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Tim Burton: What the fuck happened?

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before when I started to get seriously into films there were a number of directors I became mildly obsessed with: Kevin Smith, Terry Gilliam, & Tim Burton. Much like the interest with Gilliam I mentioned last time, my appreciation of Tim Burton began before I even knew who Tim Burton was.

As a child I gravitated towards the outlandish, I’d watch pretty much anything with robots, aliens, superheroes or monsters, anything that wasn’t inside the normal realm. Which is why I loved Beetlejuice, a tale of ghosts & ghouls, and why I loved Batman. Like anyone my age or older, your first exposure to the caped crusader was through the 1960’s TV series with Adam West, of course since Burton’s Batman there have been numerous films and series featuring Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego. But when I was a kid Adam West was pretty much it, so when Burton unleashed his version of the dark knight it was a revelation, he was just that, a dark knight.

After that came the urban fairy-tale of Edward Scissorhands, and Burton’s first team up with Johnny Depp. Again very much drawn to it, still having no idea these films were all made by the same man.

Then came the only sequel he’s ever done, Batman Returns. I went to see this at the cinema with my Dad and his friend, feeling incredibly lucky to do so, as the film was a 12, and at the time I was only 11. Granted nowadays we have 12A, if you’re under 12 it is acceptable to watch a film of that certification if accompanied by an adult. But this was ten years before that classification existed, basically I’d seen Batman Returns when I shouldn’t have and that made me cool…in my head at least.

After Batman returns Burton served up Ed Wood, Mars Attacks, and Sleepy Hollow, as well as serving as producer on the phenomena that is A Nightmare Before Christmas, an animated feature based on his own story and directed by Henry Selick.

Then it started to go all a bit wrong, while many of his previous films had spawned from some sort of source material, Mars Attacks was created around images from a series of bubblegum cards, not since Batman had Burton tackled something so established as The Planet of The Apes. I’m sure I’ve mentioned in some previous post about my love of the original apes films, and I’ve already mentioned here my love of Burton, so when I first learned that the two were coming together I was somewhat excited, but ultimately disappointed. In attempting a remake, reboot, rehash, whichever word you care to use, any sense of character and charm the original films had was wiped clean.

The often forgotten Big Fish followed, and quickly after came another Burton reworking with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and although it stuck much closer to the book, and had the trademark Burton look, it had, like Planet of the Apes, also lost the magic of the original. Gene Wilder will always be Willy Wonka.

Things started to look up as Burton started to diversify, directing his first animated feature in The Corpse Bride, and his first musical in Sweeney Todd. But the improvement in output was temporary, yet again Burton molested the established, but rather than cry rape, Alice in Wonderland, grew up and went on a killing spree. It was the second highest earning film in America after the Oscar winning Toy Story 3. But after watching I was the one feeling abused.

Which leads us up nicely to Dark Shadows…

When I saw the trailer I’m not going to lie, I had no desire to see this movie, it looked shit, and Burton’s let me down so many times in recent years. The film’s based upon a gothic soap opera that ran in America in the late sixties/early seventies, which about six months in introduced ghosts to the mix. But it wasn’t until the arrival of Vampire Barnabas Collins, that the show really took off.

Johnny Depp plays Barnabas, in his 7^th film with Burton, a man who’s spurned lover casts a spell upon him, turning him into a vampire, and then leads the towns people against him, eventually burying him alive..ish. This first 20 minutes, given a bit of fleshing out could have made a good movie. Barnabas however is accidently dug up 200 years later, and after gorging on the unsuspecting construction workers sets about restoring his family to their former glory.

As I’ve said I didn’t want to see this movie, but the future Mrs Lazertooth likes Burton, likes horror, and loves Depp, so because she wanted to see it, we went. For the most part I was pleasantly surprised, the set up was good, and as it started to unfold it carried along the same lines. But the longer it went on the more I started to have issues with it. Burton was attempting to recreate the soap opera feel, adding more and more elements, each character having their own storylines. The problem with this method is nothing is explored, everything is rushed, if it had been made into a TV series it would have had the room to breathe, but having it crammed into two hours suffocates it.

Then we get to the climax of the movie, and what a fucking car crash that was. It seems like Burton saw how much money the Twilight films have made, and thought I can pull that shit off, however he also seems to be trying to make Alice in Wonderland. It’s like the fly. Twilight attempting a transportation experiment, while its not looking Alice in Wonderland flys into the chamber, the two fused together in some mutated monstrosity, better off dead and buried under the patio.

It is a real shame, the character of Barnabas is brilliant, and brilliantly played by Depp. If the film focused more on him, and less on the other shallow stories, like the thieving uncle, or the werewolf cousin, and focused more on Barnabas trying to fit into the modern world, or at least 1972, it would have worked.

Top Tim

Since I’m trashing him somewhat it’s only fair I mention a few of my favourite Burton productions:

1.       Beetlejuice (1988) – This was the film that helped to make his name. The tale of a recently deceased couple who hire fellow spook Beetlejuice to scare out the current residents from their beloved home, but end up wishing they’d left ‘the ghost with the most’ well alone.

2.       Batman (1989) – The Burton Breakthrough. After Beetlejuice had proven his talents, Burton was intrusted with what was hoped to be a lucrative franchise.

The Dark Knight may be a brilliant Batman movie, especially Heath Ledger’s Joker performance, but this is still my favourite Cinema outing of the caped crusader.

3.       Ed Wood (1994) – A Biographical film chronicling the early life of the man dubbed ‘worst director of all time’, from his first Hollywood steps to the premiere of his most famous work.

The use of black & white helps give it the feel of a 1950’s production, as well as giving the film a warmth, which in turn helps to highlight the enthusiasm and genuine caring of an extremely interesting individual.

Dark Shadows Trailer

Ed Wood Trailer

A Voice of Ink and Rage

I first became aware of the author and acclaimed journalist Hunter S. Thompson while at college, it was during my time there studying media that my film addiction truly took hold; I couldn’t go a day without watching at least one. I used to spend a substantial amount of my weekly wage buying second hand videos from Cash Converters, a plastic bag of tapes to fuel my dependence. I would read up about directors, actors, anything to increase the buzz. I had encountered the trip that was Terry Gilliam after stumbling upon my parent’s video collection, viewing the likes of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Time Bandits, but it was Gilliam’s second and more intense time travel head fuck 12 Monkeys that this particular addiction strand was formed. Scouring the streets for another fix the drug ravaged lunacy of Thompson was unveiled to me with Gilliam’s adaptation of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.

“Those of us who’d been up all night weren’t in the mood for coffee and doughnuts”

The creator of gonzo journalism, a style of reporting in which the reporter involves themselves in the action to such an extent they become the central character in the very story they’re trying to tell. With many of Hunter’s stories involving his epic substance abuse.

It was during the making of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, a gonzo account of an assignment to the city of neon and shame, Thompson struck up a friendship with Johnny Depp. The pair spent much time together, Depp trying to capture the mannerisms and character of Thompson in order to portray him on screen, and it was during this time that Thompson first showed Depp his unpublished manuscript for The Rum Diary, one of Hunter’s few works of fiction.

I say fiction, The Rum Diary, while being a fabrication is heavily influenced by Thompson’s own time in Puerto Rico as a journalist, and anyone who watches it can see its semi-autobiographical nature. Hunter worked for a Puerto Rican newspaper in his early days, the building he describes in the now published book is the very one he worked in. It’s also quite clear that the protagonist is a version of Thompson, a writer who hasn’t yet found is own voice, and probably why Depp portrays him as a young Raoul Duke, who for those unfamiliar with Fear & Loathing is the name Thompson gives himself in the book.

The alliance of Depp & Thompson spent many years, from that first reveal to Hunter’s grand exit attempting to get the book to screen. Eventually, after various people had been linked to the production, including Depp’s Fear & Loathing co-star Benicio Del Toro, Bruce Robinson was convinced to abandon his directorial retirement, and film the shit out of it, but we’ll get to that later.

Depp, while starring, also served as producer, and righty insisted that along with his name printed chair, there was also one for Thompson. The chair was set out every day, at every location, so that the spirit of Thompson would always be present. Upon the chair would sit Hunter’s favourite drink, and everyday Depp and Robinson would dab some behind their ears like cologne, essence of depravity.

Sadly Thompson never even saw the project reach pre-production. At the age of 67, Thompson, who suffered from various health problems, committed suicide, four years before Robinson started the screenplay. At his request he was cremated and his ashes fired from a canon.

“Don’t fuck with me now, I am Ahab”

Bruce Robinson is a man of many talents, screenwriter, director, actor, novelist, with his most notable work being his semi-autobiographical film Withnail & I. A farcical tale of two out of work actors, and their destructive, yet functional friendship.

He would then go on to direct the surreal How to get a Head in Advertising, and the underrated thriller Jenifer 8, before taking a little break from directing, some seventeen years to be precise. Maybe it was the obvious correlation between the novel and his early life that brought Robinson out of retirement to create the adaptation.

While attempting to write the screenplay for The Rum Diary he suffered from writer’s block. In order to combat the problem, Robinson, who had been sober for six years, began to drink every day until the screenplay was completed, quitting once again thereafter. Clearly it helped get him in the right mind set.  

“Holy Jesus, What are these goddamn animals”

Anybody who is looking for some kind of Fear & Loathing sequel will be disappointed; The Rum Diary is as different from Fear & Loathing as that was from Where the Buffalo’s Roam, the 1980 film starring Bill Murray as Thompson. Fear & Loathing could only ever have been made by the twisted imagination of Terry Gilliam, whereas The Rum Diary could have been made by anyone, but I don’t think just anyone could have done the job as well as Robinson. The film has a similar feel to Robinson’s first work, less bleak and British, more sun drenched and Puerto Rican, but just as dysfunctional, just as many misadventures and trouble with the locals. Whether it was worth Robinson’s day release from his self-imposed directorial exile is up for debate, but he certainly writes like Thompson.

It’s not the greatest film Robinson has made, he’ll be hard pressed to ever better his debut, and Gilliam’s effort will forever be the Thompson benchmark, it is however clear this was a labour of love for all involved, which I don’t think would have seen the light of day if Depp hadn’t done the pirates movies, his name is so big right now filmmakers can probably make their money back just from the audience percentage attending simply because it’s ‘the new Johnny Depp movie’ without actually knowing anything about the plot. In fact you could probably make a tidy sum just filming him pissing about in the costume department…in 3D.

If this were a superhero movie, it would be the origin story, where the young photographers bitten by the radioactive spider, where the little richboy sees his parents slain and turns vigilante, where the heavy drinking writer finds his voice and blazes the trail for the verbally unhinged.

The Rum Diary Trailer

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas Trailer

Withnail & I Trailer

Assembly Required

Brace yourself!! This is the longest blog so far, there’s just so much to talk about, like why it’s called The Avengers in America and Avengers Assemble, which is a good title, but a title for the inevitable sequel. Apparently it’s because the Americans think we’re retarded, somewhat bottle & kettle I think, as the  upper crust pipe smokers and cockney chimney sweeps we are, we British are either to inbreed or illiterate to distinguish between a group of superheroes fighting the forces of evil, and a camp sixties secret agent television series, or its subsequent big screen re-hash.

So to help prevent any of your brains exploding from the concept that Uma Thurman isn’t in this one, I’ve split the usual ramblings into easy to manage sections, so if it all gets a little much you can have a nap halfway, and not get lost on your way back.

Marvel

Don’t go for that nap yet, here’s the history lesson. Founded in 1939 under the name Timely Comics the giant of panels and speech bubbles was born. By the 1950’s it had taken its first alter ego in Atlas Comics, fighting crime and fleecing children everywhere of their pocket money. It wasn’t until the early 60’s the identity of Marvel Comics was assumed, named after Timely’s first publication. It was here the publisher put on its cape and big boy pants, and became the legend we all know and love.

Coincidently this was also the time a man named Stan came to Marvel town, and with his friends Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko created a collection of superheroes. A roster unlike any other, although DC Comics would give it a bloody good go, a roster that includes: Spider Man, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor and X-Men.

Marvel has always regaled us with the adventures of its heroes through the medium of comics, but from early on they ventured into the realm of the moving image. In the late 60’s they licenced out its characters resulting in animated productions of Spiderman, Thor, Iron Man, and their pre-Marvel creations Captain America and Sub-Mariner.

During the 1980’s Marvel also had its own production company, Marvel Productions, who with collaboration are responsible for some of the most popular animated series of the decade, including: Transformers, My Little Pony & G.I.Joe (or Action Force as it was known on these shores)

In 1990 we received a Captain America movie, but anyone who’s seen it will understand why it took so long for the current comic book explosion. DC Comics had had some success with the Superman movies in the late 70’s & early 80’s, and then again with Batman in the late 80’s & early 90’s, however it wasn’t until Bryan Singer gave us X-Men that comic movies took off, now every summer is littered with superhero films.

The build up

Comic books are a fairly standard source for movies nowadays, but as I’ve mentioned it wasn’t until the success of X-men that the world of comics became so acceptable. Since then we’ve not only had a slew of super hero movies, but comics, and graphic novels have been used as source material for a number of other films, such as: From Hell, 300, V for Vendetta & Sin City.

Marvel had already put out a couple of films based on their most well-known characters in conjunction with other studios, but it wasn’t until Iron Man that they made a live action movie all by themselves. This is also where the first seeds of The Avengers movie were sown. After the credits, something that would become a trend, Tony Stark is approached by Nick Fury about the Avenger initiative.

The Incredible Hulk was released the same year, a lose sequel to the 2003 Ang Lee film Hulk. After re-acquiring the films rights from Universal Marvel were able to tie the series into the grand scheme. The post credit sequence shows Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) approaching Bruce Banner about the Avengers. Edward Norton, who plays Banner in The Incredible Hulk, was originally going to reprise the role in Avengers Assemble, but was later replaced by Mark Ruffalo.

In 2010 we get an Iron man sequel which takes place several months after the events of the first film, and directly before Marvels next film Thor. The post credit sequence shows Agent Coulson in the desert, following up the discovery of Thor’s hammer. Iron Man 2 also introduces us to Scarlett Johansson’s character Black Widow.

2011 brings us the last of the run up films, Thor and Captain America. Thor as well as revolving around the Asgardian, introduces us to Hawkeye. The final two films also lay a lot of the ground work for Avengers Assemble, but you don’t need to see them to enjoy the film, everything is made pretty clear.

Joss Whedon

if you don’t know who Joss Whedon is you can’t call yourself a geek, he’s the man behind some of the greatest Sci-fi & Fantasy series of the last twenty years. The creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off series Angel, Firefly, which may have been short lived, but also spawned the excellent film Serenity, and most recently Dollhouse.

As well as writing and directing countless episodes of the aforementioned series, he wrote the scripts for the original Buffy movie and Alien Resurrection, and co-wrote Toy Story.

He’s also not unfamiliar with the world of comics, being a fan himself he’s made numerous comic references within Buffy, for example when the character Xander loses an eye and starts wearing an eye patch, he likens himself to Nick Fury. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the Nick Fury character outside the recent marvel films, before the introduction of the Ultimate Avengers comics Fury was a white man who had fought in Vietnam. It was in the ultimate avengers, an updated retelling of the Avengers adventures, Fury became black, who at one point is described as Samuel L. Jackson with an eye patch, which is why it was so cool that Jackson was signed up to play Fury in the new films.

Okay went a little off track there, back to Whedon’s comic book credentials. As well as writing for spin-offs of his own productions, he has also written for the X-men comics, so he’s certainly familiar with the world of superheroes and the world of marvel. So not only does he know his comics, he’s also well versed in high concept production, he’s a skilled writer and an accomplished director.

Avengers assemble

This is the greatest comic book movie ever made, and will take some beating, though it has competition on its way later this year from Spiderman reboot, The Amazing Spiderman, and the final part of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy, Dark Knight Rises.

A film which technically has taken a decade of build-up, and six other movies to get there. A movie I’ve been creaming over since Iron man, and every instalment up to this point. A movie that was every fanboys wet dream, a movie that was worth the wait, and a movie rarer than a unicorn pimped out in leprechaun gold, a movie I would actually pay to see again.

It’s got all the things any fan wants to see from a movie of this nature, smack downs between the various heroes, Iron Man vs. Thor and Thor vs. Hulk. As well as an epic, city wide scrap between The Avengers, Loki & the alien Hordes.

One thing I can say for certain is Hulk steals the show, big green gives us the two funniest moments of the film. Moments where, and I’ve never experienced this before, even when seeing a comedy, everyone in the theatre was laughing, and not just a little, but a lot. Laughing so hard and long, I was starting to wish to myself that they’d all shut up so I could hear the film, wishing while hypocritically laughing myself.

Animated

Marvel have made a number of animated movies based upon their characters, including two Avengers movies. The best of these films are:

·         The Next Avengers – The original Avengers are dead, at least most of them. One of the survivors Tony Stark a.k.a. Ironman has spent the last 13 years in hiding, as protector of the next generation, the child of the Avengers.

·         Thor: Tales of Asgard – The first major adventure of Thor, Loki, Sif & The Warriors Three

·         Planet Hulk – After being exiled from earth, Hulk finds himself on an alien world where he is forced to take part in gladiatorial battles.

And that’s me done.

Avengers Assemble Trailer

Next Avengers Trailer

Tennant’s Two Voices

I am a geek. I’m a big geek, I have a comic book collection, I have ‘action figures’ still in the packet, I’ve even been inside a Games Workshop, although I do draw the line at war gaming and dressing like elves. As a child I’d watch anything that involved aliens, monsters, robots, or monster alien robots, and so I am a fan of Dr.Who.

I didn’t become a fan while the original series was still being made, I was around eight or nine when that was still in production, I remember watching it as a family, but only vaguely. I did have a Sylvester McCoy action figure and a couple of Daleks, which I bought at Longleat, back when they had the Exhibition. However it wasn’t until I was in my early teens that actually got into it.

I had a couple of friends, still do, who on numerous occasions would talk about characters and storylines, they had like me grown up with the programme, they were fans. It was after hearing many a Who related conversation which I couldn’t remotely follow, I decided to borrow a video of the programme, see what all the yapping was about, I don’t remember which one it was now, wish I did, it would be cool to pinpoint where my obsession began. So anyway I borrowed a video, and then another, and another, and the rest is history.

Now part of fandom involves taking an interest in other projects involving major players and cast members connected to your obsession. Not religiously watching something just because Christopher Eccleston is in it, but it is the reason I have seen episodes of both Secret Diary of a Call Girl, and Law & Order UK, as well as the horrendous Syfy version of Sherlock Holmes.

It’s this passing interest that first brought my attention to the Fright Night remake, starring doctor number ten, David Tennant, who displays marvellously within the film one of his two voices. His first voice is his natural voice, the one framed in a Scottish accent; the second is his English voice. The voice of the Doctor.

The original Fright Night, like a lot of eighties movies, has somewhat of a cult status, and given my love of eighties movies I was surprised I’d never seen it until recently, picking up a copy just after the remake was released.

I was looking forward to seeing the potential eighties gem, unfortunately I was somewhat disappointed. The premise was good, but the characters were either quite bland or incredibly annoying, a prime example of this is main character of bland Charlie and his best friend, the most irritating character since the bellhop in The Hudsucker Proxy. Okay technically Fright Night was made first, but remember the number one rule; this blog is all about my movie year and the order in which I experience films.

For me the only cool part about the film was the character of Peter Vincent, the only character you don’t despise or instantly forget about. The cool thing about Peter Vincent, and here’s where we get some fanboy symmetry, is played by David Tennant in the remake, and Roddy McDowell in the original. Being a big fan of the Planet of the Apes films it was cool to see McDowell play something other than a chimpanzee. The same character being played by two key players in two franchises which I love.

Basically the original, excuse the pun, sucks, but then such a pun only works if you know the film is about a vampire moving in next door, which is also something I have neglected to mention until now. Just assume I had laid out the facts, and groan accordingly.

Before I move on to the remake I must appease the fact gods with a knowledge sacrifice. The original Fright Night was written and directed by Tom Hollander. Hollander’s other major success was that of writer and director of fellow eighties cult horror Child’s Play. He is also the uncle of Offspring frontman Dexter Hollander. The gods are smiling.

Either Mr Hollander wasn’t happy with his original, and subsequent sequel, or he thought to himself ‘if anyone’s going to fuck it up its going to be me’, taking an active part in the remake’s story. But without being able to ask him I can’t say whether he’s happy with them or not, I can however say nothing was fucked, its been greatly improved upon. Obviously all the credit isn’t down to him; there was a new director, an excellent new cast featuring Toni Collette, Anton Yelchin, Collin Farrell and the previously ejaculated over Tennant. Hollander, along with screenwriter Marti Noxon, have greatly improved the script, rearranging elements of the story, offering much better dialogue and far more rounded characters, but then Hollander has had the best part of twenty years to mull it over.

Going back to the title of this rambling word vomit, Tennant’s two Voices. There is nothing wrong with his acting, or the accent he uses, it’s the previous association that voice has. When we first meet his character, Peter Vincent is dressed as his stage persona, long black wig, stick on beard and wash away tattoos, and before he removes all these things the voice is fine, he looks nothing like the tenth doctor. But when he does the voice is a little disconcerting, while he sits there rubbing his leather clad crouch and telling people to fuck off. Once you’ve made the mental adjustment everything works out fine.

It looks like this ramble may actually be approaching something close to real writing, having a beginning, middle and an end. A sense of continuity. Let’s not ruin it and keep talking.

Fright Night (2011) Trailer

Fright Night (1985) Trailer

In need of a clever title.

I’ve recently watched a number of films that were new to me, some old, some new, but rather than go in depth into each one, and bore you with numerous posts, I’m just going to talk about each one in the order in which I saw them, and if I feel like expanding on any of them I’ll bore you there and then. Deal.

Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

Based on the only successful escape attempt from the inescapable prison, starring Clint Eastwood. Like The Shawshank Redemption with less gang rape and Morgan Freeman voiceovers.

 A Fist Full of Dollars (1964)

Part of Sergio Leone’s celebrated man with no name trilogy, it was shit.

 The Way (2010)

Written and directed by Emilio Estevez and starring his father Martin Sheen. Sheen plays Thomas Avery who travels to France in order to collect the body of his son, who had died while traveling the length of the Camino de Santiago, a route from southern France through Spain, ending at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela where it's believed the remains of Apostle St. James are buried. Once there Avery decides to have his son cremated and rather than take him home, decides to walk the Camino, to complete the challenge his son had embarked upon and scatter his ashes along the way.

The film was inspired by a trip that Sheen and his grandson, Estevez’s son, had taken, driving the length of the Comino. Sheen had suggested the idea of a low budget documentary about the pilgrimage route, but his son was thinking a little bigger. Estevez went off and wrote a script with his father in mind for the lead role, and apart from the primary roles all the other people in the film are actual pilgrims, and people who live along the route, including the group of Romanov gypsies.

The film was described to me as being like The Straight Story, the 1999 David Lynch film, based on the true story of Alvin Straight who took his own pilgrimage, travelling from Iowa to Wisconsin on a lawnmower to visit his estranged and sickly brother. A description which I think is quite fitting, they’re both films about men past their prime travelling great distances in an unconventional fashion in the name of family, they’re both films where nothing major actually happens, just about the people they meet along the way, the trials of the traveller, and what they come to learn about themselves, and there both films that are completely engrossing.

I loved this film so much that after watching it I went straight on Amazon and bought the book its partially based upon, I just had to know more, but then The Way not only makes you want to read up on the pilgrims challenge, it also makes you want to go and do it yourself. I would say that’s the definition of an inspiring film.

 

 The Soloist (2009)

After the completion of his career resurrection with Iron Man, and the farcical comedy Tropic Thunder which followed, Robert Downey Jr. clearly decided to stretch his serious acting muscles. The Soloist follows the true story of a newspaper columnist who befriends a schizophrenic homeless man, who in his youth was a musical prodigy.
somewhere between The Fisher King and Shine, while not being quite as good as either.

Nick & Norah’s infinite Playlist (2008)

A tale of love for the cool kids, the ones that used to smoke behind the bike sheds, and love bands with a passion when they’ve all got day jobs and no one’s heard of them, and despises them as sell-outs as soon as they taste success. Starring Kat Denning (Thor, The House Bunny), and crown prince of geeky awkwardness Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, TV’s Arrested Development)

Warrior (2011)

The MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) Rocky. Warrior is tale of two estranged brothers who take part in the first MMA world championships, featuring some brilliant performances from Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom, Star Wars episode II & III), Tom Hardy (Bronson, Inception) and Nick Nolte.

I really enjoyed this, not that I knew anything about MMA beforehand, but then I didn’t know anything about boxing the first time I saw Rocky 4. One of the things I particularly liked was the way the story of Edgerton’s brother was there from the start, you knew what his motivation was right from the beginning, what he had at stake, and the contrast with Hardy’s brother, who you know nothing about, the answers being filled in one at a time like a crossword as the film progesses.

Mission impossible III (2006)

Another slice of Hollywood midget Tom Cruise’s action franchise, this time directed by JJ Abrams (Super 8, Star Trek) entertaining enough, but ultimately as forgettable as the previous two. However it was good seeing Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a villain.

Ink (2009)

Imagine someone who’s just graduated from film school, read too many Neil Gaiman books, and watched too many Chris Cunningham videos, and then you’ve got Ink. I wanted to like this more than I actually did, it had some good ideas, some pretty good effects, especially since it clearly had no budget, and the Incubi are brilliantly creepy. Unfortunately it could do with some higher quality acting, not to say it’s bad, it’s just not always great, clearly the film student went next door and picked up some drama students.

The fight scenes are just a blur of rapid cuts, one to make the sequence seem exciting and two to cover up the fact none of the actors obviously have any previous stage fight experience; however it doesn’t accomplish either, just confusion and a possible seizure.

But it’s not just the fight scenes which are confusing, so are other chunks of the film. Ultimately two words can some this film up, Confusing & Pretentious.

And now to watch Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy

The Way Trailer

Warrior trailer

The Future of Animation?

I’ve always been a fan of animation, of course growing up I watched cartoons like any other kid, but I was rarely interested in any programme or film for that matter that wasn’t animated. I’d watch the same series over and over again, never getting bored. Certainly there were those which I didn’t like that much, but if there wasn’t anything else I’d still watch them anyway. You may say I had somewhat of a misspent youth, and you might be right, but then is any time truly misspent if it’s spent doing the things you enjoy. But then Gary Glitter likes molesting children, maybe he could spend his time more constructively.

Just as Glitter leaves children alone once they’ve grown up, so to do most children leave behind animation, which would beg the question did I ever grow up because I still like watching cartoons . Granted  there’s a lot of things I used to enjoy as a child that having seen them again in adulthood don’t stand up anymore, but then there are others that still do, generally it’s the programmes that had higher production values or more adult themes, like Transformers, Thundercats or Ulysses 31. If something is genuinely good to start with, it will always be so, even if it may seem dated by today’s standards.

As I’ve gotten older my taste for animation has developed as enjoying the world of anime, not that I would call myself a true anime fan, in my experience the true believes seem to like anything that falls under that banner, but given that the Japanese don’t really separate animation from live action, with a good third of their entire television and film output is animated, covering all subject matter and age certification, saying you like anime is like saying you like the BBC.

So we’ve established I like animation, but since this is a film blog, I should try and steer this rudderless boat down the right river. I tend to watch most animated film, be they from Disney or DreamWorks, Pixar to Studio Ghilbi. The thing all the major producers have is their own style, when you watch a Disney movie you know your watching a Disney movie, a fact which makes any new kids on the block tend to stand out, even more so when their a one off, made by an already established filmmaker, like Wes Anderson with Fantastic Mr Fox or Gore Verbinski with Rango.

Gore Verbinski’s biggest films to date have been the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but these films nor anything else from his back catalogue point towards animation, the closest is maybe the cartoon like family comedy Mouse Hunt, but that was live action.

It is perhaps this lack of experience in the field that lead Verbinski to make the film in a very different way to your average studio animation. That’s not to say it didn’t have studio backing, it did, just not from the usual big hitters. The studio in question, Nickelodeon, who have produced animations in the past, mainly big screen versions of their TV channel mainstays, such as Rugrats and SpongeBob. They've also produced a number of family friendly live action movies like The Spiderwick Chronicles and Nacho Libre. But last year they brought out the big guns, the now Oscar winning Rango and The Adventures of TinTin: Secret of the Unicorn, which won the Golden Globe for best animated film, the first non-Pixar film to do so since the category was introduced. Basically if 2011 is anything to go by Pixar have some non-DreamWorks competition, but then Pixar’s 2011 contribution was Cars 2, one of the worst films they’ve ever made.

Back to Rango, and how it could have changed the way animated films are made. At the early stages of development Verbinski assembled a group of artists and writers together, not all of whom are from the celluloid world, and tasked his collective with coming up with the story and the conceptual art for the characters. The four artists involved would go off and work on charters, come together, compare notes, steal ideas, go back to the drawing board, then convene again, repeating until each design was complete.

That was the first thing Verbinski did differently, the second was assemble his cast, which may not sound revolutionary, even sound pretty standard. But what happens usually in animation, the voice actors come in one by one, record their vocal track in a little booth all alone, then they go home, they may not even come into contact with the other cast members until the premiere, if at all. With Rango Verbinski took a different track. Johnny Depp (who voices Rango) had a couple of weeks where he was available to record, so Verbinski gathered together all the other actors, including Ned Beatty, Bill Nighy, Ray Winston & Isla Fisher together, and rather than record their dialogue alone, they played dress up (apparently to help them get into character) and acted out the scenes together, allowing them to react to each other as they would in any other film.

Thirdly Verbinski convinced ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) to animate the film, ILM who are a special effects house, and have never made an animated film before (that’s of course if you discount the Pixar connection, but if you want to know more about that find my blog entry entitled ‘Birthing the Giant’ where that connection has previously been explained, we’ll be here all day else)

All these elements together create a unique animated film, a classic western populated by desert creatures, a plot hijacked from Jack Nicholson classic Chinatown, and a stars wars style trench battle with bats.  It has a look and feel all of its own, it’s not full of bright colours like you’d find in something like Toy Story, nor child friendly cute and cuddly characters like Madagascar. It’s not a story of race cars rediscovering themselves (I think that sentence sums up how shit Cars is), nor is it a story about nomadic prehistoric creatures returning a child, or anything quite as innocent. It’s a story about a man (or Chameleon in this case) who has no identity of his own, a dreamer who becomes a hero to a town  being choked to death by corrupt officials and thugs, about the march of progress regardless of whoever stands in the way, it’s about community, it’s about hope.

Rango Trailer

I Aint Afraid Of No Ghost!!

Sunday was Mother’s Day and what with the weather being somewhat patchy, and being as a family we all like our movies, we went to the cinema.  Turns out there’s not a lot of choice on a Sunday afternoon,  there was John Carter which frankly doesn’t look good, We Bought A Zoo, the story of the man who saved Dartmoor zoo, which has been relocated to Southern California, and I’d already seen The Muppets, which left us with The Woman In Black.

The Woman In Black is a period horror film based on the 1983 book by Susan Hill, and stars Daniel Radcliffe in his first post Harry Potter project. Radcliffe is quite competent as the lead, Arthur Kipp, a widowed solicitor who is send to clear up the affairs of a recently deceased client, and ends up with more than he bargained for.

What we’re given is an atmospheric ghost story, a horror film which doesn’t really on mindless violence and shock tactics to keep the chills up, which is obviously why it got away with a low  certificate rating, that and the fact that millions of Harry Potter fans will want to see Radcliffe in his post wizard project. But that isn’t to say it’s been dumbed down.

The only problem is I spent the first twenty minutes or so seeing only Potter, despite Radcliffe doing is best to pull off the big boy pants, I was still wondering when he was going to get to Hogwarts.

The other noteworthy think about the film, besides Radcliffe, is that it’s made by Hammer, who since being bought up a couple of years ago have started to make their presents felt in the horror realm once again.  The Woman in Black is the fourth instalment of the new wave of Hammer Films, the first being Let Me In, an English language remake of the brilliant Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In. Let Me In was an adequate horror movie, but not a patch on its Swedish counterpart, losing a lot of the magic of the original, but that always happens, just look what happened with the trend of rehashing contemporary Japanese horror films a couple of years back, when Hollywood butchered the remakes of The Ring and The Grudge. The main problem with these recycled movies is, one they end up looking far too polished, and two, they get dumbed down, because Hollywood think we’re all idiots.

But it seems I’ve digressed somewhat, so to summarise,  and tie up any loose ends: English language remakes are rubbish, and I as yet do not have an exception to that rule, if you can think of one do let me know. Secondly as I think I’ve made fairly clear before, citing it as one of my movie year top five last year, Let the Right One In is superb, and you all should go rent/buy/stream/download/steal (delete where applicable) it right after you finish reading this marvel of literature.

It appears I may have digressed from my digression correction; it seems I’ve turned into a Billy Connelly routine.

An-y-way, time for the obligatory history lesson, I say obligatory, you could just skip over this bit, but DON’T, you might learn something, which although won’t help you in your day to day living, it could prove vital at the next pub quiz.

Hammer was founded in 1934, producing various types of film including Science fiction, thrillers, comedies and film noir, but it is for their output of horror films for which they are famous. Hammer pretty much dominated the genre from the mid-fifties until the early seventies, that is until two things happened. The first was a new lack of American funding, and secondly the market being saturated with the genre, with many other companies getting their fangs wet. The cheapest films to make have always been horror, often acting as a gateway for some of today’s directing cream, such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, and will no doubt help to produce some of tomorrow’s directorial greats. Hammer still produced numerous films during the horror glut, but had varying levels of success, and like most British film institutions were eventual forced to close their doors, finally stopping production in the mid-eighties. The company didn’t die, but hid from the world, regenerating in its coffin, eventually being bought up by a consortium in 2000, who announced their intention to resurrect production, but which ultimately came to nothing. In 2007 it was purchased by its current owners, who as I’ve already mentioned have started producing new material.

A couple of days after watching The Women in Black, I ended up watching another horror film by the name of Insidious, directed by James Wan, the man responsible for the Saw franchise, but don’t let that put you off, it’s nothing like that gorefest wank. The film starts of just like any other haunted house tale. However when the occupying family move home, they find the strange goings on keep going on, it appears it wasn’t the house that was haunted, but their oldest child, who is in an unexplained coma, in turn allowing him to become a vessel for lost spirits and demons.

Insidious is one of those films that starts of very routine, but as it progresses becomes more and more interesting, with the exploration of astral projection, something which I’d only come across before in X-Men, the comics rather than the films, where Professor Xavier battles the Shadow King.

It’s one of those films that if it had carried on as it was going wouldn’t have been terribly exciting or at all memorable, until the halfway mark I wasn’t that interested, but for the second half, I wasn’t necessarily on the edge of my seat, but I was definitely sitting forward.

So to conclude before we all get bored, I watched The Women in Black and Insidious, and I liked them both.

The Woman In Black Trailer

Insidious Trailer

Club 53

Most people have heard of the 27 club, a group of gifted musicians who all died at the age of 27, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse, there are a few others that qualify for this honour, but I don’t want to bore you with lists. Yeah most people have heard of the 27 Club, but I can guarantee nobodies heard of Club 53. A group of highly talented or influential individuals who passed on at the age of 53. Maybe nobodies heard of Club 53 because the 27’s were all at the top of their game, with so much more still to give the world before their time was tragically cut short, and the members of Club 53 had time to accomplish a great deal before they left this mortal plain, becoming part of the social conscientiousness, or it could be nobodies heard of Club 53 because I’ve just made it up. But that’s not to say the members of Club 53 are any less prolific. Since it’s my club, it’s my rules, you might have died at the qualifying age, but if I ain’t heard of you, you ain’t getting in. with that said here’s my list:

·         George Herman ‘Babe’ Ruth Jr. – The man who is to Baseball, what Hulk Hogan is to Wrestling or Pele is to Football.

·         Dian Fossey – An American zoologist who undertook an extensive study of gorillas over 18 years, before her tragic murder. Fossey’s story was told in the film Gorillas in the Mist staring Sigourney Weaver.

·         Vladimir Lenin – The Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist Politian who led the 1917 revolution, and the first leader of the Soviet Union.

·         Jim Henson – The creator of The Muppets

And it’s Mr. Henson and his accomplishments which I’m going to ramble on about, you may be thinking that introduction was somewhat over thought and unnecessary , but so’s your face.

Jim Henson started out with a series called Sam & Friends which he made whilst still at college and featured the prototype for his most famous character, Kermit the Frog. However it wasn’t until he started to make regular appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show that the Muppets really started to take form, and we where we first met muppet Rawlf the piano playing dog.

Then in 1969 Sesame Street was born, a programme designed to entertain and educate pre-schoolers, and which not only extensively featured Henson’s various puppet creations, but also several animated sequences produced by the puppeteer. But not wanting to be pigeon holed, he also during this time produced a number of sketches for the fledgling Saturday Night Live.

It was a combination of his experiences on both programmes that spawned his most famous and most enduring creatation, The Muppets. The Muppet show ran for five seasons form 1976-1981, and took the form of a variety show, with as much focus on the behind the scenes as the acts and parodies. Surprisingly for something which became so successful American networks didn’t want it, thinking it would only appeal to children. It was through an investor that the show was financed at all, being filmed in England, then sold to various networks around the world. Eventually becoming so successful it spawned a number of films.

The Muppet Movie (1979) – After a chance meeting with a talent agent in his swamp Kermit decides to head to Hollywood to become a star. Along the way he meets Fozzie, Gonzo and the rest of the Muppets, all of whom have Hollywood aspirations of their own.

The Great Muppet Caper (1981) – This time the Muppets are in London, and attempting to foil a jewel heist. Although this second instalment was as acclaimed and successful as their first movie outing, I really don’t think that much of it.

The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) – After graduating from drama school the Muppet’s decide to move to New York, with the aim of putting their show on Broadway, but it doesn’t go according to plan. Although it didn’t do quite as well financially as its predecessors, it’s in my opinion the best of the original run of Muppets films. It’s also the first film to be directed by Frank Oz, one of the main Muppet performers, voice of Yoda, and future director of Little Shop of Horrors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels & The Indian in the Cupboard.

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – After taking a little breather, The Muppets return with their interpretation of the Charles Dickens classic. Gonzo portraying Dickens himself, narrates the story of Ebenezer Scrooge (played by  the legend that is Michael Caine) and how the penny pinching miser learned the true spirit of Christmas. This has to me my favourite Christmas movie, and judging by the result of last year’s poll on this very blog, you’re all in agreement. It was also the first Muppet film to be made after Henson’s death, with the film being dedicated to both him and Richard Hunt, another of the original Muppet performers, who also died before the making of the film.

Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Following the huge success of Christmas Carol, The Henson Company opted for another adaptation of a literary classic, unfortunately they couldn’t strike gold twice. Despite a brilliant turn from Tim Curry, as Treasure Island Villain Long John Silver, it’s pretty shit. It’s definitely a toss-up between this and The Great Muppet Caper for worst Muppet movie.

Muppets From Space (1999) – In the last film in their second run of movies, The Muppets head out of the library and into the real world, as real as the Muppets get anyway. Plot in a Nutshell: Gonzo discovers he’s actually an alien.

This was one of the first DVDs I ever bought, back in the day when DVDs all cost between £20-£25, and W.H.Smiths had an offer on, 3 for £40. Now bearing in mind this was when my hourly rate was about £3.50 an hour, so £40 was still a lot of money. One of the other films I got was Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, which is easily in my all-time top five. I’m trying to remember what the other one was, but it escapes me, obviously it was shit, and has since been deleted from my consciousness, but I digress.

Muppets from space was the last of the second run, but we weren't left to shiver and sweat cold turkey, there have been regular doses of Muppet morphine around the corner, injections of TV specials such as Letters to Santa, The Wizard of Oz and even the freebasing of a new TV show, Muppets Tonight.

The Muppets (2012) – The film follows Walter, a kid who never fitted in, ending up finding solace in the Muppet Show, which is full of  ‘people’ he can identify with. Walter’s comfort becomes an obsession, until he makes a pilgrimage to the Muppet studios. The studios have seen better days and The Muppets have all gone their separate ways. Upon learning his holy land is to be torn down, Walter embarks on a mission to reunite The Muppets and raise the money to save the studio.

This is a worthy addition to the Muppet franchise, easily standing shoulder to shoulder with Muppets Take Manhattan and Muppet’s Christmas Carol, and honestly one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a long time. Henson would be proud.

The Muppets Trailer

Kevin Smith grew up

As a media student, later a full blown film student I like many gravitated towards certain film makers, John Woo, Martin Scorsese,  Sam Raimi, but for me it was John Hughes , Tim Burton and Kevin smith. Burton for his weird and wonderful creations, and Hughes for his farcical adventures and dialogue, and Smith for the same reason, that and his comic book & movie obsession.

In 1994, Kevin Smith brought us his feature film debut Clerks. Filmed in black & white over 21 days and costing a mere $27,575, a sum scrimped together by Smith, through numerous maxed-out credit cards, as well as selling a large portion of his comic book collection. Smith spent his days working at a convenience store, filming Clerks once the store was closed. This is the reason for Dante being unable to get the shutters open, because everything store related was filmed at night, the shutters would be down in the outside shots, while also making it appear darker within the store in the internal shots. Smith got around this by saying that someone had jammed gum in the locks, making Dante unable to bring the shutters up.

Once Smith had completed what may have been his one and only film, he took it to the Sundance Film Festival where it won  the Filmmaker’s Trophy and was picked up for distribution by Miramax, who at the time were great flag bearers for independent cinema. This was the beginning of great things for Smith, making a further nine films, having small acting roles in several others, such as the rubbish Daredevil, the rubbish Scream 3, and the considerably less rubbish 4,3,2,1. It also let Smith accomplish one of his other dreams, writing for various comic book titles including Batman, Spiderman & Daredevil.

There are a number of elements Smith’s movies are known for , mainly excessive dialogue and extreme toilet humour, for as Holden says in Smith’s third film Chasing Amy, ‘the big bucks are in dick and fart jokes’. But this was all set to change with his tenth film Red State.

Now usually I would ramble on about how wonderful/rubbish a film is, but with Red State, which I would currently call my film of the year so far, we’re gonna play it a little differently. I went into it blind, I didn’t have any idea what the film was about, let alone who was in it, or who made it. With that in mind I suggest also watching it blind, of course I want you to read my ramblings, but in this case I shall try to plant the seed of surprise. Watch the movie, then come back and agree with my opinion.

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Somewhere in the backwaters of middle America three typically horny teens travel to Cooper’s Dell  after responding to an older women’s online sex invitation. However their dirty little schoolboy fantasies are cut drastically short. The women they went to meet is part of a Christian extremist group, led by twisted preacher Abin Cooper, played brilliantly by Michael Parks. The group hold the boys captive in their compound, known locally as Five Points Church. Pastor Cooper and his congregation, who are all related to him either by marriage or blood, force them to witness the execution of an ‘Evil Homosexual’ before being prepared for their own demise. As if the situation wasn’t difficult enough, they then have to contend with the arrival of federal agent Joseph Keenan (John Goodman) and his team, armed and ready to take the preacher out. Problem is the Cooper family are just as ready and even more armed.

As you can see from that little synopsis, or from the film which you’ve just watched because you listen to everything I say, there are still signs of Smith everywhere, the dialogue, while being somewhat cleaner than usual is still golden. There’s still an open exploration of elements present in his previous works, themes of sex and homosexuality, something very much present in Chasing Amy, and Christianity, which was the main theme of Smith’s fourth film, Dogma.

The one thing that is missing, which is no slight on the film, is something that was heavily present in his earlier films, and one of the things that made me a fan of his particular brand of fiction. It’s not Jay & Silent Bob, the characters that featured in his first five efforts, though I do love them, it’s the interconnectivity of the characters, the way characters who appear in one film, are talked about by characters in another. Giving the films thier own reality, much like that of Marvel Comics.

Another regular occurrence in his movies was the reappearance, of actors, like Ben Affleck and Jason ‘My Name is Earl’ Lee, who had never acted before appearing in Smith’s second, Mallrats. As well as many of the still relatively unknowns, such as Brian O’Halloran.

But none of that shit matters, it’s all ghosts of Smith's past, and we’re here to talk about his future, not to be haunted by what went before. But the thing with Red State is, he’s not only changed the kind of films he makes, he’s also changed the way he makes them. Everything he’s made since Clerks has been financed and released by studios, with Red State Smith gathered his budget from a couple of investors, shot it over a couple of weeks, then took it to Sundance. Okay that does sound similar to the way he made Clerks, but this is where it gets interesting. Rather than auction off the distribution rights as he had originally intended, he decided to distribute it himself, taking the film from city to city, much like they didin the early days of cinema, before releasing it straight to DVD. But that’s not the best bit, none of the festival goers awaiting the auction knew this was the plan, but then neither did Smith, he only decided to tread this path after seeing the audience’s response to the film. He then let all the previously potential investors & distributors know his intentions with a brilliant bridge burning speech, all of which can be seen on YouTube if you’re so inclined.

To summarise, I used to like Kevin Smith, when he was puerile and wordy, wearing baggy trousers and a backwards cap, and now I like him in his grown up clothes.