Triple Bill Mini Musings: February/March 2011...

Repo Men:
Set in a future that is, visually, heavily indebted to Blade Runner and Minority Report, you can buy new organs and bodily enhancements - but for an extortionate price, and if you can't pay your bills on time, your fancy new organ or implant gets repossessed. So it's a high concept action thriller, but similar to Daybreakers, the potential for a real exploration of a potentially fascinating future society (be it vampires have taken over the world and are running out of blood, or people are upgrading their innards for a vast price) is presented strongly at first, only to be kind of forgotten about soon thereafter.

However, Repo Men falters further and presents us with protagonists who aren't that interesting. It's a nice concept, but instead of focussing on the interesting specifics of this future society, we're treated more to a series of not-that-exciting action sequences and some scenes that are just odd (such as one towards the end behind "the pink door"). This all said, there is a sting in the tail at the end, which elevates (and somewhat rescues) the flick from being a relative meh-fest.

A nice idea to start with, but it's a missed opportunity.


Paradise Lost:
Following in the wake of Hostel, with its 'Americans in a foreign land succumbing to the evil locals' schtick, Paradise Lost - with it's glossy visuals, and sexy young cast - paints a better paced picture of similar intent. While Hostel required further instruction (through extra features and, notably, the very informative commentary tracks) to really get to grips with the background subtleties of the plot and story, Paradise Lost requires no such instruction.

A group of back packing sexy young things from America go traipsing through Brazil in search of adventure, but end up in a bus crash which leads them to a seemingly picture perfect water-side bar where they drink copiously and become quite merry. The following morning all is not well and they find themselves to have been robbed - they are most definitely in trouble now, and something untoward is afoot.

Turns out that something untoward relates to a gang of organ harvesters (whose motives are neatly outlined in a later sequence), and so I think you can figure out the basics of the rest of the movie.

It turned out to be a nice little surprise, with an enjoyable cast of vibrant 20/30-somethings, and despite some slightly dumb moments (to make sure our cast end up in serious trouble come the final act of the movie), it's a solid horror flick - with a rather nifty, and tense, underwater chase sequence in the final act ... and, for the gore hounds, the crimson grue is quite realistic and skillfully utilised.

I have come to appreciate Hostel (and its sequel), with the help of several viewings and the extra features, for something deeper and better than it initially appears to be, but Paradise Lost is immediately much more accessible and has a better overall pace, managing to easily sidestep the "torture porn" lashing that Eli Roth's euro-horror suffered.


The Prestige:
Sometimes it's the case that you've seen basically all of a director's feature films, but there ends up being one that you missed during it's original run and never got around to seeing. With David Fincher's catalogue it was The Game (which I finally saw years later and rather enjoyed), and in this case - Christopher Nolan - it was his rival magicians movie The Prestige.

Now, I had already seen the twist of the movie a couple of years prior, which I basically recalled, so the twist ending was mostly spoiled for me, however despite that I found it to be just as well crafted and just as interesting to watch as the rest of Nolan's flicks. Strong performances, beautifully realised cinematography, assured direction, and a smartly woven script all add up to a quality viewing experience.

The Men Who Stare At Goats...

I've not got a lot to say about this flick, but I will say that it was good fun. It wasn't riotously funny, or exceptional, and I won't be pre-ordering the DVD (it's the kind of flick I'd, personally, pick up somewhere down the line) - but it was enjoyable throughout and it's definitely worth seeing.

It's an odd little comedy based on real life events, more of which really did happen than we'd believe - according to the opening text on screen at the beginning of the movie. It also has some real spikes on the laugh meter too, with some brilliantly dead-pan one liners hitting you from left field.

Clooney, Bridges, and McGregor are all thoroughly entertaining from the offset, and summed up, it's a good flick. So check it out. Some haven't taken kindly to it, but I don't understand why, because it's certainly worth a watch.

Burn After Reading...(musing catch up part two)

I was quite surprised that the Coen's struck back so quickly, after the bloody fantastic No Country For Old Men (I can't understand why some people abhor that film, I really can't). No wonder then, that its good - but nothing more - the Coen's overall talent sees them through to producing a solid (and sometimes surprisingly dark) comedy caper ... but the sense of under-cooking drops the film right there, on the better side of the middle lane.

The comedy is good, but not guffaw-worthy. The plot is good, but not gripping. It's the case with the whole film, but for a decent viewing time without investing too much effort, it really is worthwhile - particularly for Coen brothers fans.

The outright superb and the pretty much meh...

No Country For Old Men:

The Coens are most definitely back to their absolute best. NCFOM is a reserved, considered and intelligent film of nothing but pure talent. Chigurh is now one of cinema's most iconic bad guys, who walks through the measured tension of this thoughtful journey, much like the flashes of vibrant violence which pierce the story suddenly and sharply - with gripping intensity.

Brolin and Jones are nothing less than compelling. The execution of the cinematography and the editing leave nothing to be desired. It is quite simply a superb piece of filmmaking which deserves all the recognition it no doubt has coming to it. Nuff said.


Hitman:

Videogame to movie adaptations ... it's a surefire way to get a fairly ropey film most of the time, certainly if a particularly barmy German has anything to do with a chosen franchise. I'd have to say that Silent Hill is probably the best videogame to movie adap there has been, but it wasn't stellar. This brings me to Hitman - a franchise which I've actually played (unlike Silent Hill), paying particular attention to the last two games "Contracts" and "Blood Money" as my favourites - because I was expecting garbage (after short lived, initial excitement), the film isn't a complete travesty.

Olyphant doesn't look anywhere near as ridiculous as he did in the trailers, but I'm still not all that convinced by the choice to be honest. But if it was a toss up between him and Vin Diesel, I'd stick with who ended up on screen. The violence is at times quite entertaining, with some sufficiently gloopy blood gushers scattered as liberally around the film as the bullets are.

This of course brings me to that particular aspect - all guns blazing. So much for Agent 47's sub-title of "Silent Assassin", save for one scene (which feels ripped off from True Lies) which is just too daft. So in terms of assassinating, he's far from silent - and indeed in terms of chit-chat, he's not exactly shy. I'd dread to think how much waffle was in the script before Olyphant and the director pared it down, because Agent 47 doesn't half chat up a storm, which unfortunately makes the character far less threatening and indeed convincing.

The trailers initially made the inclusion of the token Russian boob flasher look more franchise savaging than it ultimately was, at least they kept 47's ding-ding locked up - and yet he still hangs around the boob flasher far too much, this shouldn't be a buddy road movie. Save for a pet budgie, 47 is a loner - and even then he's not bothered about snapping its neck to achieve silence (as in "Blood Money"). 47 doesn't have friendships or relationships, he cannot be seduced or softened ... and he doesn't buy women vineyards!

The plot is, of course, ridiculous and cobbled together as quickly as possible. It isn't a complete write-off, but it doesn't exactly keep you bothered enough to care, and once more, it undermines the eponymous anti-hero.

I've seen worse adaptations and I've seen worse movies, but it's a real shame considering the jumping off point of the videogames themselves.

Agent 47 is a lone wolf. He is contracted to kill tycoons, criminals, terrorists, kidnappers, dodgy dealers and the like. He is paid to keep it quiet, to make his work appear as an accident preferably. He doesn't tolerate taggers on, he is never caught and is - to all intents and purposes - a ghost. His methods of execution are improvisational, his guns silenced and his fibre wires employed as frequently as possible.

What we get in the film however, is one brief (and pointless) use of his trademark weapon, is for his guns to mostly be non-silenced and his methods to be far from devilishly improvised. This film could have worked well, brilliantly even, but the script lacks the franchise knowledge, intelligence and balls to roam free away from the inside of Hollywood's box. It's not complete gash and is passable to a point, but sadly (although not surprisingly) it's all a bit meh.