Review for 'Four Lions'

Release Date Out Now

Director Chris Morris

Starring Kayvan Novak, Riz Ahmed, Nigel Lindsay

Can someone go too far in the name of comedy? Is there a line or is the line blurred these days. When I heard that Chris Morris (a king of satire) was directing his feature debut film Four Lions, about a group of idiotic terrorists I was ecstatic. Morris’ previously has come from TV work with shows such The Day Today and Brass Eye which was about work news at the time before being cancelled because of it controversy. So with his previous work I thought that Four Lion’s would be a laugh out loud romp.

However I was surly disappointed but before you think that I disliked Four Lions I want to make it clear I didn’t. In fact I enjoyed it for all the wrong reasons. The clever satirical humour that surprised me because these days with comedy being a quick giggle it was hard to appreciate a comedy with substance.

The film centres on a terrorist group living in a small town north of England who dreams about plotting a martyr on civilians in an attempt to get into there Heaven. The cell’s leader Omar explains to his moronic best friend Waj as it being likes “jumping the que on Alton Towers” (now you can see where the humour is coming form). Accompanying them is Faisal who spends time blowing up crows and covering his beard in an attempt to appear as a woman and Barry a touchy but somewhat psychotic converted-Islamic who explains his car breaking down because “It’s the parts! They’re Jewish!” in a feeble attempt to prove he is a devoted Islamic. It is only Omar who appears to be the most capable but as they get closer and closer to their final plot we begin to see how becoming a terrorist isn’t as easy as people might think.

The characters stupidity along with Omar’s occasional blunders does become almost cartoonish as if they have dropped out of a modern Looney Toons.

Even though I enjoyed it I constantly felt as if it was missing something. The film suffered the same thing that Night Mare on Elm Street did with how there wasn’t any protagonist to relate to. Omar is the main protagonist but it’s hard to sympathise and relate to someone who plots to murder British civilians for him religion. Also I felt Morris had a number of plot holes, like for example I believe he should have included a scene with Omar’s wife and son not wanting him to follow through with the plan because they seem to be fin with the idea of him killing himself.

If you go expecting a feel good comedy you might be disappointed but the clever satirical and at times cartoonish humour does entertain but with few laughs and for the wrong reasons.

Anticipation - 3
Enjoyment - 2

In Retrospect – 2

In the Cinemas Friday, on DVD Monday.

So Phillip Ridley’s new film Heartless (released Friday 21st May) staring my personal new favourite (along with Son Kang-ho) Eddie Marsan, was released in cinemas but it will also be coming out on DVD on Monday.

When I heard this I was fascinated because I have never seen anything like this (not that it hasn’t happened already). Why I think this is so interesting for several reasons but to explain I’ll start from the beginning.

I was catching by with the BBC Radio 5 Live Film Review with the good Dr and Simon Mayo and they had Phillip Ridley in to interview him about his new horror/thriller (now you can see why I was listening) but my ears really pricked up when I heard that the film was being release within a week on one another.

I began to question where this was a good idea or a really bad one. And ten minutes last I decided it was.

Whilst listening to the interview I searched the web to try find where the movie was and hopefully still is playing but with no luck. This is either because I wasn’t looking hard enough or because the distribution hasn’t given it a wide release. However because of this I only need wait a couple of days and I could watch it at home. Free from those cursed adverts!

This to me sounds like a good idea because how many people have seen a movie at your local art house cinema, walked out and said “I’m buying that on DVD”. If I walked out of The Disappearance of Alice Creed and had the choice to buy it, I definitely would. Not that DVD sales are bad because they do better the cinema sales however would it increase because of this?

However I see why they didn’t do it with films such as Avatar. The distributors of the DVD’s wait six months for people pre order and go crazy waiting for the films.

I think I’m going to be getting Heartless on DVD but I would still love to see it in a cinema. I’ve seen Evil Dead 2 a dozen times but I would still see it in the cinema. But is it a good thing that the DVD comes out at the same time of the cinematic release? Will it hurt the cinema ticket sales? What do you think?

Review for 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'

Release Date May 7

Directed Samuel Bayer

Starring Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara

What’s there to say about the remake of the classic slasher that hasn’t already been said? It’s a high budget remake of a classic low budget horror which has been directed by someone no ones heard off (he aparently is a music video director) and produced by Satan himself Michael Bay in an attempted to not do it for the art for but simply for the money.

The story if you haven’t seen the original Wes Craven film (shame on you) follows the story of a group of teenagers who are haunted by a dream like boogie man. This mysterious figure torments them for several days before finally killing them off (no surprise there). They try to keep awake and alive before experiencing ‘micro naps’ and before long they find they are trapped in Freddy’s world.

Now I’m really in two frames of mind about this. Part of me hates it, and the other kinda liked it. Obviously it’s stupid and nothing like it’s counter part but I don’t feel like I wasted money seeing it.

One of the main problems which renders the whole films ridicules is that fact that they don’t all live on Elm Street. And if they do, it never mentions it. This is stupid because it’s called ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ not ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street and all the other teenage in the community.’ What links them together is that (*SPOILER TIME*) they went to the same pre-school where they where all , get this, raped by pre-school gardener Fred Kruger. He’s a pre-school gardener turned pedophile then murderer in the after life. And when the parents discover that he’s a paedophile they turn into backwards crazy villagers out for his blood just shy of pitch forks and fire. In some bizarre dream flashback one of the characters sees Fred Kruger being chassed into a warehouse and brutally set a light as the family listen to him burn alive. Who need a justice system or a fair trial? At least in the original he was a child murder which gives them more incentive to kill him.

All the teenage actors where pretty poor and boring and there was no characters we where suppose to cling on to. It jumps between the teenagers which just confuses the audience. So are we suppose to route for Freddy? Granted in the original you didn’t but through the series you began to like him and eventually by Craven’s New Nightmare we loved the beloved classic Robert Englund. But in the new film Freddy’s a paedophile so how could we as an audience possibly relate to him? So we end up not caring the teenagers are tearing them selves apart from not wanting to fall asleep but when they’re in Freddy’s world we don’t care if he kills them. That’s bad in a slasher movie. Jackie Earle Haley is clearly the best actor in the movie however he character doesn’t develop till the end. Jackie must have expected not to best Englund and I think it shows but they missed something about Freddy which is fundamental – his black comedy. Sure in the movie towards the end he says some funny words but at the beginning he’s not funny or intimidating.

The film also has no sense of pace. In the original they talked about this burnt man who haunted their dreams which build a lot of tension so when the audience eventually saw him seemed like a threat. In this he appears in the first five minutes and pops in a way to send the fans boys into joyful glee. This is not good horror movie making. This just shows your doing it for the money and fanboys. Then after that you see Freddy enough for him to not be scary by the end. So in the end he’s not scary or funny = not Freddy.

In the grand scheme of horror remakes, Nightmare on Elm Street falls between the two Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and prequel which where necessary because after the first they where terrible and also the Last House on the Left remake which I enjoyed and at the low end the Friday 13th remake. I’ve said it hundred of times before. Horror films do not need a remake unless you can do something for them, case and point The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But this falls flat with a incoherent script with bad characters and a stupid plot. Poor Jackie has to do another two movies as well. Let’s hope they turn out better then this. I think anyone who thinking about seeing it would have seen it already, but save you money and by the DVD classic.

Trailer

Anticipation - 3

Enjoyment - 2
In Retrospect – 2

Review for 'The Disappearance of Alice Creed'

Release April 30

Directed by J Blackson

Starring Eddie Marsan, Gemma Arterton, Martin Compston

The irony of The Disappearance of Alice Creed is that it will be seen by little to no one. After seeing the trailer I had to go on the official site to find where my local cinema was playing it. But that doesn’t mean it is a bad film, far from it. The Disappearance of Alice Creed I one of the best British films of the past decade.

The set up is this, two men with untold backgrounds buy an apartment and strip it down only to build it back up again with soundproof walling and a pretty basic bed. Then get changed in silence into jumpsuits and prepare for something we are not told. As they sit in their unmarked van only one or two things are uttered before they step out. The next shot is of two doors opening and a screaming woman being thrown into the back of a van to which she is then driven to the apartments, stripped naked and rapped of dignity before being dressed up in a jugging outfit and handcuffed to the bed and then poor Alice Creed (Gemma Arterton) is left in the dark.

That is the twenty minute set up and I couldn’t say another word. If I did I would have to be executed because what develops from there has so many twists and turns it’s becomes a modern Hitchcock. For the first twenty minutes antagonist Vic (Eddie Marsan) and his partner Danny (Martin Compston) do not speak whilst they plan everything to a pin point. The films is carried by only three actors which brings to mind films like the Sleuth remake with Michael Cain and Jude Law.

For a writer/director J Blakeson it is a great movie to get people to notice you with. This is a fresh classic crime movie just like The Italian Job or Get Carter was in their days. The enjoyment with have you on the edge of your seat as the constant changing of plot keeps going through out. The audience are constantly asking themselves who they connect with and who they are rooting for because each character is believable and has their own goals.

A lot of films these days I see end up me staring at my watch for the time but this kept me glued through out. I only hope that the movie get’s found by a bigger distributor.

Anticipation - 3

Enjoyment - 4

In Retrospect – 4

Trailer

Coming soon to a PC near you...

I’m back from doing nothing and will start up doing blogs again. This is for two reasons. One I have a lot to say and two my Playstation 3 just broken so I’ll have some free time. I’ll be doing reviews and with set them out like the independents film magazine: Little White Lies which I highly recommend. So reviews with be short and snappy and hve a Anticipation score, a Enjoyment score and a In Retrospect score. If I’m creative enough I might even rename them.

This is a quick post before I go out to see Nightmare on my love for horror cinema- I mean Nightmare on Elm Street but when I come back with hopefully write and post my review for the tense The Disappearance of Alice Creed. Then pointlessly Iron Man 2 and so on. I might even do some reviews on old movies such as Park’s JSA, or Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and hopefully Bresson’s Director’s Cut of LEON. Also I will be reviewing some new DVDs the first probably being The Road (BLU-ray).

Let’s hope I can keep it going this time.

#53 Park Chan-Wook: my new favourite director

The first time I read (or to be precise saw) something on a Park Chan-Wook film was in the back of a film magazine; for his most recognised movie (excluding Thirst) Oldboy which came out in 2003. For some unknown reason when I saw Min-sik Cho as Dae-su Oh with half his face covered which his dark hair and the mysterious stranger behind him locking like someone from a Tarantino flick both staring me down I began to be interested. Apart from Oldboy the only Korean film I had seen at the time was The Host which I believe if better then Godzilla (the ‘98 outing not the brilliant ‘54) but who’s arguing. So I went I bought a copy and watched it. The first few times you watch Asian films and more importantly Korean films you need to watch them a couple times through because the’re style of film is more complex then the Weston approach because they tend to throw so much information you can get lost (this happened with me on Sympathy for Mrs Vengeance) but after you have seen enough of them you won’t even think about it. This could however all be just me but that’s how I felt.

Anyway, Park Chan-Wook is from South Korea and during his time at University his made a film club called the ‘Sogang Film Community’ and during that time wrote a number of articles on contempory cinema. At first Park wanted to be an Art critic but upon watching Hitchcock’s Virtigo he wanted to become a director. His first film was The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream however his earliest work I personally have seen was Judgment. Judgment is a great short film but can only be seen on the Cinema 16: World Short Films DVD but definitely worth checking out. Ok so here is his Filmography before I continue to ramble on-

The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream

Saminjo

Judgment

JSA: Joint Security Area

Sympathy for Mr Vengeance

If You Where Me

OldBoy

Three… Extremes

Sympathy for Mrs Vengeance

I’m A Cyborg but that’s Ok

Thirst

So with the exception of The Moon is… and Saminjo, I have seen everything of his (Three. Extremes is actually really extreme in content but what can you expect from Takashi Miike?). After seeing Thirst I just had to go back and watch all his other films and what a collection it is to come upon. Along with Park being one of my favorite directors, Song Kango-Ho is my new favorite actor (The Host, JSA, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Thirst) and the two have a Johnny Depp/Tim Burton relationship. Song is such a flexible actor and a good screen presence that everything he’s in is so interesting and different.

JSA: Joint Security Area is a story about soldiers from North Korea befriending soldiers from South Korea on the connection bridge between the tow apposing countries before turning sour and follows the story of a lady trying to uncover who shot who and who shot first. The two Sympathy for- films along with OldBoy are part of Park’s Vengeance Trilogy and are just brilliant and twisted tales of revenge. I’m A Cyborg- is probably his weakest of films but like all his movies has something init that I really like (especially the scene with Cha Young-Goon walking around shooting everything). And last film I’m going to mention is Thirst. And I’m going to go out on a limb and say Thirst was definitely my favorite Vampire film of last year (remember Let the Right on In was s big hit in my books) and I believe that Thirst was the best vampire film. I just find the decent Song’s character endures excellent. At the beginning he’s a pure virginal priest who turns into a sex maniac blood drinker. I have only seen Let the Right one in once and that was when it was released so I should go back and watch that but I think my opinion will not change.

I definitely recommend all of Park’s work to any proper movie goer and especially if you like world cinema. OldBoy is apparently being remade wit Will Smith and Steven Spielberg which just disgusts me to no end but before you see that (if it’s ever made) please check out these films. He writes and directs all of his work and the creativity and beautiful locations just make every outing of his something to watch out for. oh and lastly OldBoy has my favorite fight scene in any movie, take that Matrix.

Oliver Hunt

#52 - New Year and new post

Happy New Year everyone! First post on the new year and after a moth break! So pretty much I’ll just talk about movie news and post some links to some cool videos.

First off I hope everyone with a YouTube account subscribes to this guy because even if his movie taste can be horrific at times, he’s good for the latest news and trailers, ect.

Movie Buzz

On Total Film site they did a comparison between world cinema (classics) and the Hollywood remakes (not to classic): Solaris anyone? Still an interesting list which will grow in the next ten years with films like Let Me In (=Let The Right One In, catchy isn’t it). Really I do get pissed at Hollywood remaking films from around the world especially J-Horrors which are really translated well for American audiences. And when I hear things like Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy is being remade by Steven Spielberg and Will Smith I just ask myself is American’s are illiterate and can’t red subtitles?

Hollywood vs World Cinema

Now the point where people (my people or other horror fans) will look down on me. This year we can expect a hole rush of horror remakes and whilst I don’t agree with them I shamefully liked some of last years: The Uninvited (is A Tale of Two Twins), Last House on the Left whilst hating others: Halloween Part 2. Anyways going back on track this year several films are being remade such as Nightmare on Elm Street however one film has caught my attention, and I know it shouldn’t. George A. Romero’s old pre-Martin, pre-Dawn of the Dead film The Crazies is being remade by Brek Eisner and set for release the end of February. I have watched the trailer several times and I think it looks pretty good. Te original was rough as hell around the edges and I think this has a chance of something really quiet good (note I said has a chance).

The Crazies Trailer

The Los Angele’s times held a round the table discussion between James Cameron (Avatar), Jason Reitman (Up In The Air), Kathryn Bigelow (Hurt Locker), Lee Daniels (Precious) and Quentin Tarantino (Inglorious Bastards). There are about four or five videos about different aspects they had to face with their latest films. If you’re a fan or enjoyed any of these films it’s worth watching.

Envelope Roundtable Series

And lastly the 2010 Screen Actors Guild Awards are tonight and the nominations are in the link below. I guess for us English folk we’ll have to check in Sunday to find the winners but I know who I wan to win. In other Award season news, Acadamy Awards nominations announced 2^nd Feb, The Independent Spirit Awards are on the 3^rd March and lastly Sundance started on the 21^st!

Screen Actors Guild Awards

Sundance Film Festival

And that is it for now. I hope you enjoyed this odd ball post and maybe I’ll get around to doing more posts.

Oliver Hunt