Nosferatu (1922)
In an earlier post I made my decisions about my favourite films of each year and recognised that, when it comes to earlier decades, I've not really seen much. I was interested to check out Nosferatu because it's actually from as early as the twenties. Sadly I'm not inclined to view it as a classic. Rather like Metropolis, I found it extremely slow moving and dull and I'm inclined to suggest that I just don't get silent movies. Perhaps I'm just a philistine. However, unlike Metropolis, which I could quite appreciate and which did a reasonable job of holding my attention, I could barely keep my eyes open during Nosferatu. My biggest criticism of Werner Herzog's remake had been the rather overly giggly minion of Dracula, but he's portrayed no differently in the original. Meanwhile Herzog's reimagining is ten times more visually impressive and fifty times more engaging.
1/5
M (1931)
Of all the entries in my favourite movies of the year/decade, the two most irritating entries were UHF for 1989 (which appears to have been a bit of a bad year - and I really do love that movie, as daft as it may be) and King Kong for 1930s. While King Kong is certainly a classic, the dialogue is a little dodgy. So I am glad to say that it has now been quite thoroughly superceded by Fritz Lang's 1930s black and white classic "M". The central plot is that a child murderer is terrorising the area. The actual murderer is hammed up a bit too much, but nonsecateur points out that this was as the silent era was only just ending, so we shouldn't be so surprised to see performances a little over-emphasised. Certainly it's not really any more hammed up than Anthony Hopkins in Silence Of The Lambs really. Also the way the story develops is quite surprising, it's good fun and, unlike with King Kong, the dialogue isn't cringeworthy. An absolute classic that draws you in and regularly surprises.
5/5
Halloween (1978)
A long time ago a series of "spoof" horror movies was released known as "Scream", "Scream 2" and eventually also "Scream 3". I was given the impression that "Scream 2" was supposed to be funny, that it was funnier than the original in the series and that it wasn't really necessary to see the first one beforehand. I quickly discovered that this was a mistake when the first scene to the movie featured a girl being brutally stabbed to death several times before bleeding to death in front of a cinema audience. Yuck! I came to be told that "Scream" and "Scream 2" were meant to be spoofing the "slasher" genre whereby a murderer picks off people one-by-one. The slasher genre was exemplified by series such as "Friday The Thirteenth", "Nightmare On Elm Street" and "Halloween".
I'd seen Jason X (which, unlike the disgusting Scream 2, actually was funny - and featured a cameo from David Cronenberg lol!). Still I wasn't under the impression after all this time that I'd actually be interested in slasher movies. Still, in my endeavour to see every movie by John Carpenter, it seemed necessary to see Halloween at some stage. Oddly Halloween is supposed to be the movie which started off this genre in the first place. Watching it, I couldn't really see what Wes Anderson could have needed to make fun of which had not been done already. John Carpenter's original feature is quite playful, such as when mysterious noises down the phone turn out to be a friend chewing rather than the set-up for a brutal killing. Also an interesting feature is that we aren't expected to empathise with the killer. Michael is utterly dehumanised, making this essentially a monster movie with a masked human being taking the place of the monster. It must be admitted that there is the unfortunate cliche of the mid-twenties adults who are inexplicably still in high school and the dialogue is a bit dodgy in places, but there are some very nice touches nonetheless. Also, John Carpenter doesn't feel the need to make the murders overly gratuituous. The tension is in full force, but Michael only seems to require one fatal blow to take people out rather than the brutal stabbings again and again which I was treated to at the beginning of Scream 2.
All in all, it wasn't perfect. Some better dialogue amongst the "high school seniors" (yeah right) would have gone a long way. Also, while they had their moments, the characters could have been given a little more depth. Still, all in all it was pretty good fun.
4/5
Christine (1983)
An adaptation of a Stephen King novel (which I haven't read). It takes its time setting things up and we begin in high school with, once again, a whole bunch of people who clearly shouldn't be in high school anymore. Still, the characters are well formed and the plot moves well. The protagonist is living with puritanical parents but in an act of rebellion he buys a clapped out old car and decides to fix her up. This gives him a sense of worth and he clearly goes through a change in character as a result, but it's not just his parents who think that his car isn't as good for him as we might initially have thought. There's some great moments when we see what the car Christine is capable of. However, unlike Christine herself, there's something unpolished about the movie. Great fun nonetheless.
4.5/5
The Hunt For Red October (1990)
I had heard that this was supposed to be good and I'm afraid it struck me as rather cliched. I'm sure people who were familiar with this when it came out will be inclined to say "so what did you expect", but I was actually expecting an old classic, not a worn out cheese fest. The suggestion that Sean Connery is supposed to be Russian (okay, Lithuanian, problem solved eh?) is particularly amusing, especially when Alec Baldwin does an impression of him (which is, of course, supposed to be an impression of the Lithuanian Sean Connery is playing, not of the well-known Scottish actor himself). While watching we couldn't help but start singing "America... Fuck Yeah!" (from the movie Team America). I couldn't help but feel that this was huge waste of talent (not just Sean Connery, but also Sam Neil and Tim Curry). Meh.
2/5
eXistenZ (1999)
David Cronenberg does a science fiction movie about video games. It starts off with some compelling ideas. In a future where computer games are all-immersive a good game designer can provide experiences which can border on spiritual. Game designers are superstars and adoring fans can consider their gaming experiences life-changing. However, there are also reactionary figures and in the first section of the movie a celebrity game designer is attacked by a gun made entirely out of flesh and bone which fires teeth. So perhaps it's not surprising that the anti-gaming group are using non-technological methods, except that this doesn't distinguish them from the gamers whose games machines are also organic like an animal. It's with this set-up that Cronenberg is able to make us understand playing a game as a much more natural biological experience and this sets "eXistenZ" apart from Mamoru Oshii's "Avalon". Sadly another way it is set apart is in its ridulously contrived plot and totally unappealing gaming experience (why are they working on a conveyor belt in a trout farm???). Despite some interesting ideas towards the beginning there's no real plot to speak of and it never really comes together. The whole movie becomes too much style over substance and, especially with this coming out during the same year as The Matrix, the theme of "do you really know what is real" felt particularly cliched.
2.5/5
Ghosts Of Mars (2001)
John Carpenter does aliens on Mars and unfortunately the biggest problem is that it's neither terribly exciting nor particularly intelligent. Apparently the society on Mars in the future is a matriarchy, though in the scheme of things this seems to make very little actual difference (though I suppose we should be grateful for this since apparently heterosexuality amongst women is also supposed to be quite rare in this future society *rolls eyes*).
Basically the bad guys are the reavers from Firefly. Yes, this came first, but in Firefly they are sensible enough not to make alien posession the explanation for the reavers' decision to self-mutilate and slaughter. The movie is fun enough if you think of it as popcorn fodder and don't let your expectations get too high. This is currently John Carpenter's latest movie to be released, so here's hoping that The Ward is an improvement when it comes out.
2/5
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Rewatching this one after all the hype and it still stands up just as well as before. Sure, people with any experience of working in the military have noted that it is utterly ludicrous, however Hurt Locker does for bomb disposal teams what Die Hard does for police officers. Sure it's not true to life, but that's why it's a movie. Meanwhile there's less of the us vs them condescension of local Iraqis such as can be found in even something as left-wing as Green Zone. The Hurt Locker features compelling characters, entertaining action, not to mention a decent soundtrack and some quite awesome cameos. Check it out!
5/5
Still Walking (2008)
Yet another blooming movie about a typical family meet-up where absolutely nothing happens. I had this already with Summer Hours. Yes, the acting is great. Yes, it's realistic. The problem is that the last thing I want from my movie-watching experience is a realistic experience of a typical family meet-up where they are all nice to one another but there's tensions under the surface. I watch movies to escape from this kind of thing. There's enough of it in real life thankyouohsoverymuch. Yeah sure, we don't have the situation in Summer Hours where someone is whining about things which blatantly don't matter and expecting us to do so too, however it's still never terribly obvious why we should care about what is happening and I just didn't.
1.5/5
Public Enemies (2009)
I was never terribly sure why this had received such bad reviews. Plenty of people had seemed rather non-plussed by it. Anyway, my parents had recorded it off the tv and we checked out the beginning, only to discover that it starts very well indeed. John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) breaks out of prison (that happens early enough that I think it's fair enough to reveal it) and it's a very exciting set-up. Meanwhile Christian Bale is quickly introduced as the ruthless lawman who is planning to take Dillinger down. Still, as the movie goes on things are a little lacking in tension or surprises and, perhaps most importantly, the ending fails to tie things together in a particularly satisfying way. I must admit I found myself wondering later on whether I had actually seen it to the end, because I never got the impression that the movie had properly ended. It wasn't a bad movie. There was no lack of decent acting or events to keep things interesting. Unfortunately the movie as a whole was somehow rather less than satisfying.
4/5
Green Zone (2010)
Saw this at the cinema quite a while ago and didn't really feel able to judge back then. Basically I wanted it to be good and it actually starts out really well. The problem is firstly that the twist is rather covoluted (which, to be fair, was never too much of a problem in the Bourne movies), but secondly that the final chase scene (which happens on foot) is too long, boring and ends with a rather stupid anti-climax. It's fun enough and probably worth watching, but there's significant flaws - particularly in the second half.
3.5/5
Television Reviews:
Margaret Thatcher: The Long WalkTo Finchley (2008)
A very playful and silly imagining of Thatcher's rise to power in the face of a party which wasn't terribly interested in giving positions to female ministers and was in a habit of giving preference to war veterans. I'm sure I missed a lot of references, since many little bits are foreshadowing Maggie's later life as prime minister. Still it was really good fun and did a good job of keeping the audience interested. Quite incredible is the performance of Andrea Riseborough in the title role, which makes me wonder what she might have been like if she had stayed in role of Annie in "Being Human" rather than being replaced by Lenora Crichlow.
5/5
Margaret (2009)
Brought out around the same time as TLWTF, but instead being a little more serious when tackling Margaret Thatcher's fall from power. Maggie is unsurprisingly played brilliantly by the legendary Lindsey Duncan. Sadly it's all a little too inevitable. Some flashbacks to Maggie's initial entry into the role of prime minister help to keep things interesting and the portrayal of a very devious John Major is simply superb, but in the end this doesn't really do much more than recount events rather than telling us anything terribly important about Margaret Thatcher herself. I've come out of both tv dramas about Margaret Thatcher without really feeling like I know what made her such a controversial figure. Still, I do feel like I know a lot more about her character and while this wasn't quite as fun as TLWTF, there's no doubting that it was superbly executed.
4.5/5
Going Postal (2010)
The third of the live-action Discworld adaptations so far promises the return of Andrew Sachs (who many will remember from his days as Manuel in Fawlty Towers) and the return of Jeff from Coupling (Richard Coyle) in the starring role. Charles Dance is called upon to play the diplomatically malevolent, democratically selected dictator of Ankh-Morpork - the Patrician (there's one man and one vote, so the Patrician's got the vote because he's the man). This certainly has all the charm of its predecessors and Terry Pratchett pulls off yet another neat little cameo. There is one unfortunate scene where it appears that the ex-conman in the central role should be somehow more guilt-ridden over leading someone to start smoking than for causing a man to lose his livelihood with fears that his family may starve. Still, the film comes together well and it always strikes me as remarkable how effortlessly these features have made it appear to bring such a bizarre universe as that of the Discworld novels to life. (Certainly the cartoons seemed to have limited success, with the adaptation of the hilarious Wyrd Sisters seeming distinctly humourless.) I must say that I don't think they've yet managed to surpass the triumph of Hogfather, but that set the bar very high indeed.
5/5