The Week in Movies 13/6/11 - 19/6/11

Well last weeks post was quite fun so I thought I'd continue with the experiment. Part two coming up.



The Humphrey Bogart noir Dead Reckoning was first up and it seems like forever ago now. It's been a really long week. This was by no means a great film or anything like approaching one of Bogie's best but it was very watchable. It leads to the question "Why is classic Hollywood much more watchable at it's most average when even those films that are often considered quite good in modern cinema make me want to switch off and watch something else?" It's a long question. Actually this was enjoyable right up until the last 30 minutes, it has a fake ending and then keeps going for what feels like an age for Bogie to realise he's shacked up with the femme fatale after all. A tedious ending to an otherwise decent enough film.

Chris Marker's short film La Jetee (Jack.L actually reviewed it on his excellent blog back in January here if you missed it and if that wasn't enough the J.G. Ballard centred site Ballardian has a more in depth look at it) has been on my mind for some time and this week I got around to showing it to Leah. It was the basis of David Peoples script for Twelve Monkeys and if you haven't seen it I hope me explaining to you that he uses a series of still images and a voice over to tell what is a very similar story to Terry Gilliam's finished product won't spoil it. From a film history point of view it's invaluable, as a study in experimental film practices it needs to be seen and even just to experience it as a haunting story of post-apocalyptic humanity you won't be disappointed. From a Twelve Monkeys point of view it's quite amazing how much of Markers visual style ended up being incorporated in addition to the story.

And then came a truly odd piece of modern cinema, Take Me Home Tonight is a Topher Grace project, it is essentially an 80's set teen comedy about university graduates (not teens, I am aware of this) with an R rating in America. It's my understanding that an R rating means people don't get to see the film, am I incorrect in this basic assumption? So who did they think were going to spend money to see this at the cinema? Not the all important teen market that it's aimed at because they're not old enough. That aside, it had some funny moments but tragically the talents of Anna Farris, Dan Fogler and to a lesser extent Topher Grace were wasted thanks to an often (but not always) predictable script and some entirely unfunny set pieces. Topher Grace was quoted as saying that he wanted it to feel like it was made in the 80's not just a parody and maybe the fact that you don't really notice that it's the 80's means he's done a good job but I say go watch Hot Tub Time Machine instead. It's all round better and with less uncomfortable moments in which you are embarrassed for the film makers.

I wrote half a review of Dead Again already, it's here if you missed it. We followed it up with The Ghost Writer, which has had all kinds of good reviews but was incredibly obvious and made me yawn. Leah went to bed in a rage at how poor Ewan McGregor's accent was and left me sitting in stupefied silence as "the big reveal" happened. The way the dead writer hid the "awful secret" in his manuscript was shocking, as Leah pointed out when I later described it, it was a device used in the pre-tween tv shows she used to watch. Robert Harris is to blame for this clearly. I don't really have anything negative to say about the construction of Polanski but I don't really remember being impressed with much. The BMW product placement was pretty in your face.

I rewatched Machete this week. It's so much fun. Machete don't text. Makes me laugh just thinking of that piece of dialogue. Danny Trejo is absolutely perfect for the part. The silly gore is exactly that, it's not gratuitous in the way slasher porn films have been recently, it's just fun. I recently saw Hobo With a Shotgun, which initially felt like it was grabbing on to the coattails of Machete until it just went too far with it's needless gore and headed out in to territory that I'm not willing to follow. Machete is just about enough for this blogger.



A Saturday afternoon on the sofa found me online brainstorming with my film making partner in crime and he suggested some films as reference, Tucker & Dale vs Evil and Dylan Dog: Dead of the Night.

Tucker & Dale was so much fun, I may have to write a full post for it this week if I get a chance, but for now we should settle on the first 2 acts being so good and completely original that the slight fault of the third act can be easily ignored because you're going with the flow. For those not in the know, Alan Tudyk (Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball) and Tyler Labine (TV's lame sitcom Mad Love and that good idea gone bad Reaper) are good natured hillbillies fixing up their holiday cabin who find themselves under attack from some holiday making college kids. It's a fun take on a tired genre.

Dylan Dog on the other hand is something else entirely. It's a comic book movie starring Vegan bass player Brandon Routh as a Private Investigator of supernatural crimes. I really liked the idea and wouldn't mind checking out the comics but the translation just didn't work for some reason. The mood is right, Brandon Routh is cast very well as Dylan Dog and Sam Huntington is incredibly likable as his Zombie sidekick (turns out they were Superman and Jimmy Olsen together, I didn't know that cos I skipped Superman Returns,) there are some laughs and some OK action but the script lets it down. Some of the dialogue is clearly taken from the comics and whilst you can imagine it working and making you laugh in a comic book it just doesn't work as a moody voice over in a movie for example. There is a chase scene in somebody's house and the dialogue consisted of "through here...this way...come on...." I kid you not. And the final nails in it's coffin, sometimes your mind wanders and you think you're watching Buffy or Angel (the makeup budget is to blame I think) and the end reveal/fight scene/showdown just goes on and on and on, it's like 40 minutes of blah just roll the credits already.

I managed to finish everything I started this week. How about you guys? Did you turn anything off this week?

Dead Again (1991) and blahblahblahloves Emma Thompson

OK so i was going to review this movie because I anticipated loving it but sadly it falls short of that accolade so I thought I would give you half a review and talk about Emma Thompson a bit instead.

Dead Again was directed by famed thespian and Gilderoy Lockhart himself Kenneth Branagh directly after his big screen success with Henry V - that's Henry the Fifth to American readers not the fifth part of a trilogy. Only his second attempt at directing a film and writer Scott Frank's first full feature (he would later go on to write such quality work as Get Shorty, Out of Sight and The Lookout.)



The theatrical artwork is pretty awesome if you ask me. Really high quality work that kinda freaks you out a bit if you look at it too much. DVD cover on the other hand is merely OK. At first I didn't notice that it was simply both leads repeated in their different roles which is a nice touch however.

It really ratchets up the tension this trailer doesn't it. You think you know what this movie is about? Prepare to be surprised. The trailer is a bit misleading I would say.

A brief synopsis: Grace is a missing person who has lost her voice other than to scream during night terrors. Mike is a PI who is pressured in to helping her. Grace dreams about Roman and Margaret Strauss and the 1949 murder of Margaret. The Strauss couple looked exactly like Grace and Mike. They investigate the earlier murder to try to discover the truth about Grace.

I'd not heard about this movie until recently but it seems to have been at least a little popular at the time of it's release, tripling its budget with its US box office alone. I find it odd how films start off with high praise and just get forgotten about over time. If I was a multiplex owner with a digital projector I'd look in to screening classic movies for less money. If I owned the rights to all of these old films I'd look at this as a new revenue stream. The film and music industries are always so slow to investigate new revenue streams, only worried about whats happening to old revenue streams. Do not fear, I just bought Brief Encounter on Blu-ray, there's a demand for those things that are bought and paid for!

Anyway the film is enjoyable to a point, the idea is pretty good and as my friend Simon would be quick to point out, it's intricately plotted. Both lead actors and all supporting cast including Newman from Seinfeld are very good. I particularly love Emma Thompson but then I love Emma Thompson in everything. More to come late on my MILF crush. (That's so disrespectful but I have no other way of putting it in my head right now.)

Where this film falls down (and it is only minor points really) is with the theatrical staging of certain scenes and the score. Yes Ken Branagh is a stage actor/director so his theatrical leanings are bound to come out in his first real feature film but even so I think he needed somebody to say "hold on Ken baby you're playing this one as if it's on stage, how about some camera movement or more naturalised movement from the characters?" this is only occasionally mind you as generally it's very well done. The score on the other hand became a near constant source or amusement/irritation. It clearly served a dual purpose, 1) to remove the audience from the action by highlighting the filmic device of music accentuating action and 2) being absolutely silly to the point where there's a chase scene with a potential murder at the end of it and the music sounds like we're on a jolly old horse ride or something.

But it was mostly enjoyable and if you're stuck for a thriller/drama with some nice comedy moments and the charming Emma Thompson you should definitely check this film out. But as I said about Training Day recently, choose wisely. There are many films out there to watch so if you haven't seen The Usual Suspects or Seven yet watch those instead.

I should take this opportunity to mention that Marvel recently picked this stage director to make Thor. I haven't seen Thor but the idea of Kenneth Branagh directing it makes me want to see it even more now. I can't say why this is so but it must have something to do with Henry V. I have seen Sleuth recently and that was just like watching a stage production too and this is not something you would associate with a summer blockbuster superhero comic book film. Bring it on, to use the parlance of our times.

As mentioned at the top I don't have a huge amount to say about this film in the end and I've been looking for an excuse to write a little bit about Emma Thompson for a few weeks now. She came in to my shop with her family recently and I was amazed by the fact that she's really very beautiful in person without the makeup and dressed casually, I kinda expected it to be a movie thing you know. And on top of that she seemed like a really nice person. As did her acting husband (the one after Ken Branagh) and her daughter was extremely well spoken. Hurrah for manners.

So here's a brief rundown of some of my favourite Emma Thompson performances/movies.

1. Love Actually (2003) - Karen

So she's the Prime Minister's sister and married to Alan Rickman, whilst being a shoulder to cry on for the recently widowed Liam Neeson, largely ignored by two domineering men she still manages to be a kind yet forceful mother and friend. It's not a fully fleshed out character, like everybody in Love Actually, but she is rather wonderful, funny when needed (Emma Thompson went to university with Fry and Laurie don't you know) and really pulls off the broken hearted lover to perfection towards the end.

2. Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) - Professor Trelawney

I'm really bored with Harry Potter these days but going back to the third instalment the appearance of Emma Thompson as the scatterbrained, hippy-like Trelawney was pretty cool. I laughed a lot and she's really quite scary in a jump out of your seat kinda way. This is her Monster role. Make someone beautiful look ugly in a film and they win an Oscar right? Not in this case.



3. Last Chance Harvey (2008) - Kate

I really wanted to love this movie, the trailer looks like a great time, Dustin Hoffman is great in everything, Emma Thompson looks like she's her usual excellent self. And it is romantic and funny and both actors were very good but it just left me feeling like there was one ingredient missing, like they forgot to season with some salt whilst they were simmering or something. But it certainly pisses all over those Jennifer Aniston vehicles.

4. I Am Legend (2007) - Dr. Krippin

She's barely in it but she did bring the world to an end so that's a pretty big part. Other people may have been able to play this role but Emma Thompson just brings her natural sense of fun and class to the performance.



5. Stranger Than Fiction (2006) - Karen

I loved this film, a wonderful script, great casting which produced standout performances. Nobody ever thought Will Ferrell could act before this film. And Emma Thompson is perfect as the writer with writer's block. Delight in her dead pan sarcasm and playful way of narrating Harold Crick's life.

Yeah I ignored the fact that she won Oscars for period dramas. She can do that too by the way.

If you like the sound of the movie from my review and actually watch it, let me know. If you don't agree with me, let me know. What are your thoughts on Ms Thompson? Film is an art form and art is open to interpretation in any number of ways. The discussion of art and individual interpretation is encouraged around here. And if you enjoy the movie head down to your local independent movie store and buy it, it's only through us actually paying for films that these film makers will get to work again. At least in an ideal world that will be the case. I'm looking at you Uwe Boll.

Dead Again (1991) DivX - icefilms.info