Is this the end of UK Cinema?

Forget Michael Bay making Transformers 3. Forget Johnny Derp (I mean Depp) making Pirates whatever. The UK Film Council is being abolished by having it’s funding cut by the government. And why I hear you ask –

“The UK Film Council is to be axed as part of a cost-cutting drive by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), it has been announced.” – BBC News

For those that don’t know the UK Film Council (UKFC) was made in 2000 and was given £15m to invest in UK,  talent. This is (as you can imagine) really bad news because it is hard enough for young talent to get a film funded and a lot of brilliant British films had been funded by the UKFC. Films such as Jane Campion’s 'Bright Star'; Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrea Arnold's second feature 'Fish Tank'; Armando Iannucci's 'In The Loop'; and Sam Taylor Wood's 'Nowhere Boy', written by Matt Greenhalgh where all funded and possibly wouldn’t of been made without the help of the UKFC.

"People will rightly look back on today's announcement and say it was a big mistake, driven by short-term thinking and political expediency," – Time Bevan (UK Film Council chairman)

What does this mean for the future of British Cinema? Who knows? In the recent Little White Lies (#30, on sale now) there was an article about the future of cinema and with this news surfacing today it will have a great knock on the industry. Will something pop up which is similar? Will other investors like Film4 be swamped with people trying to get their films funded? It is truly bad news for film makers and fans.

Sources

UK Film Council to be abolished

UK Film Council Official Site

UK Film Council Wiki

Review for 'INCEPTION'

Directed by – Christopher Nolan

Cast – Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy

Release date: Out Now

After the roaring (and I mean roaring) success of The Dark Knight which made billions for Warner Brothers, the studio said to Nolan he could do anything he wanted and what he did was something beyond brilliant.

To review this movie, it’s hard because the best bit about Inception is to know nothing about it. Don’t bother even watching the trailers. If you want to know the bare basics they go like this - the film centres around Cobb played by DiCaprio as he delves into your dreams and steals you secrets. After a job goes sour Cobb has to assemble a crack team to help him achieve Inception whilst battling his own daemons in an attempt for redemption. The tag line for the film is – Your mind is the scene of the crime, and that’s the best way to explain it. That’s all I’m going to say.

Christopher Nolan has become such as brilliant director that he has acceded his previous work it in every way. Inception is a brain child Nolan has been forming for more then ten years and he did the right move by waiting till he had the right sources and tools. His first film Momento is just the icing on his very creative cake and if he continues to be allowed this sort of freedom will do wonders for Hollywood. Hollywood has some thought that audiences only care about brain numbing explosions whilst Nolan has clearly shown that audiences want to have a challenging narrative.

The acting is brilliant as DiCaprio once again shows this year that he is a Tour de Force of an actor (he opened this year with Shutter Island which I personally really liked). With a great co-starring cast of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy who we last saw as Bronson. Both the script and the cast have to be nominated at the Academy Awards because Nolan has found a great mixture of actors, script and visual style. Whilst the beginning of the movie seems rushed and confusing it all works out. Ellen Page mentions at one point “so who’s subconscious are we in” and whilst that is directed at the audience it shows that both the audience and the characters are lost in this crazy labyrinth and that it is good that you feel lost and confused. There are enough great acting, gunfights, set pieces in the movie to keep anyone hooked.

I plan on seeing the movie a second time because after learning all the rules you want to submerge yourself back into the world and decipher anything you didn’t manage to get.

This film will be hard to beat and it going in top of my list of films of the year. It could even go into my personal favourite film list. Everyone needs to see this, in IMAX or in a multiplex and the best thing about it is it’s not in 3D. Bat-three will be incredible.

Anticipation - 4

Enjoyment - 5

Retrospect - 5

Review for 'Predators'

Directors - Nimrod Antal

Starring – Adrian Brody, Topher Grace, Laurence Fishburne

Release Date – Out Now

I’m going to start this review by going out on a limb: I liked Predators. At least I liked it as much as you could like a film like Predators. Now I know people will stop reading this and mock me as a Predator fan-boy but if you think about the movie well enough you see some interesting comparisons to other highly acclaimed films which you wouldn’t expects.

The movie opens with Adrian Brody (yes him from The Pianist and The Darjeeling Limited) waking up whilst in free fall. As soon as he lands he meets the motley crew different people who have also been dropped in to this mysterious jungle. Before long we are introduced with the most stupid generic people you will meet such as the black tribal person, the feisty Mexican chick, the crazy rapist, the Russian, the mysterious nice guy, the Japanese sword wielding Yakuza and Danny Trejo. It is only Adrian Brody’s character (and admittedly Danny Trejo’s) that I actually cared about which could be down to me loving him as an actor. Whilst they are fairly bland they begin to discover that they aren’t alone in the jungle and that this jungle isn’t on our home planet but rather a twisted game reserve. Around half way through Laurence Fishburne arrives and almost steals the show from Brody as this twisted survivor who knows what’s going on and what then need to do to survive. The thing with the story is even though it has some interesting bits on a whole it’s everything we’ve seen before.

In classic slasher style each character begins to be knocked off one by one with some very throw away kills which was disappointing. Robert Rodriguez who produced the film had a clear check list he wanted to hit which included: traps, referencing the first movie, a spear death, someone having their spine and skull pulled out and so on. Rodriguez has even gone on record as saying he wanted all the best bits from all the Predator movies and the two awful AVP movies.

So the comparisons which give the film some flavour. Let’s begin with the title: Predators. The title is obviously meant to mimic Aliens by James Cameron. A lot of people said Aliens was better then the original (I don’t agree because the first was brilliant) so I believe they wanted the same success with this instalment. Adrian Brody’s character is the renegade badass and I think the producers didn’t want him to be regarded as an Arnie rip off (as the good Dr Kermode mentioned in his review) but ends up being a total Riddick rip off from Pitch Black. Even story elements are the same, they wake up on a strange planet, they try to get off it and are being hunted by monsters. Later on in the movie the quiet Yakuza member has a showdown with a Predator as they battle swords. The scene is complete fan fiction however I was reminded of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and more importantly Seiji Miyaguchi character Kyûzô who in Seven Samurai was this quiet warrior. If you’ve seen Seven Samurai and know how influential of a film it has been over the years you’ll see the comparison. However the best comparison which I must admit I did not notice was with the Laurence Fishburne’s character. Basically his character has gone mad from war and being alone with the pressure and where have we seen this before? The answer is with Apocalypse Now and the Marlon Brando character. But the fact that Laurence Fishburne got his big break from Apocalypse Now was something I found fascinatingly interesting. Was it intentional? I highly doubt it but would love to think it was.

When you go to see Predators you know exactly what you are going to get. It’s not going to set the world on fire but you’ll see a lot worse this weekend. I recommend people seeing it because it will entertain but if you go thinking with will be on par with Aliens you’ll be disappointed. What you get instead is this generic movie which references bigger movies and adds a fan boy touch to the movie meaning the final product is only something to watch before Nolan’s INCEPTION next week (I’m glad I’ve booked my ticket.).

Anticipation 3

Enjoyment 3

Retrospect 2

We’ve got to send you back… to the 80’s!

What is the fascination with the 80s? I know the 80’s gave us great movies such as Ghostbusters, Back to the Future and The Breakfast Club but recently it is as if we’ve all gone in the Delorean and gone back in time.

Evidence 1

The recent comedy Hot Tub Time Machine which has little laughs but mainly revolves around three forty something men trying to imitate the Super Bad teenagers as they literally go back in time in this time machine. Now this isn’t a review for the film and whilst it has flaws it is actually enjoyable filled with pop culture from our present time and the 80’s with lines such as “What colours Michael Jackson?”.

Evidence 2

The remakes and reboots. Let’s start off with probably the worst four offenders. To start with the A-Team has come out with a new cast such as Liam Nelson and UFC fighter Rampage Jackson (please don’t say UFC is the new WWE) which looks like it’s all about high explosions and racking up a body count.

Then you have Karate Kid which looks dreadful as Jacky Chan teaches Jadan Smith to kick ass kung fu style, replacing “Wax on, wax off” for “Jacket on, Jacket off” among other silly gags to entertain the adults seeing the movie because the kids won’t get it. Now I haven’t seen the new Karate Kid and with its grand score of 5.8/10 on IMDB I doubt I’ll be seeing it anytime soon.

And then we come to Predators which I have to admit looks great. Obviously it’s not going to beat Arnie’s “Get to da’ choppa” but it will beat the crappy Danny Glover sequel. With Robert Rodriguez producing an the cast consisting of Danny Trejo, Laurence Fishburne and one of my personal favourites Adrian Brody (I hopefully with be seeing it with in the next few day so review with soon crop up) as they try to survive on a Predator game reserve. Now weather it will be any good or something to be swept under the carpet it is obviously suppose to be the Aliens of the Predator series.

And finally we come to MacGruber which I have little time to talk about. Made by the people form Saturday Night Live it is based of the ‘Hit 80’s TV Show’ MacGyver. The film looks atrocious and even though it is only a parody it still is guilty of bringing back past memories for some people.

Verdict - Guilty as charged.

I wasn’t born in the 80’s, so I can’t play the “I remember it the first time round” card but they’ve done it for the 90’s so I can start to understand. For some people they might enjoy all this 80’s madness as it reminds them what it was like to be young but I’m sure lots of people hate the thought of it all.

For anyone reading who was born in the 80’s I ask; do you like these remakes and reboots or does it get on your nerves?