What's it about?
Quentin Tarantino's eighth film (second western) in which a disparate array of ne'er do wells find themselves trapped together in a lonesome cabin in the middle of a blizzard. Someone isn't who they say they are, and with thousands of dollars worth of bounty at stake, tensions soon run high.
Who would I recognise in it?
Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, James Parks, Zoe Bell, Channing Tatum.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Taking a few cues from John Carpenter's seminal 1982 film "The Thing", QT's western is at times, more like a horror movie. Utilising deftly-chosen cuts from Ennio Morricone's score for that film, numerous scenes are afforded an unrelenting sense of tension and menace. As QT said himself, it is as if the blizzard is the monster swirling around outside, trapping the characters together inside. Indeed, Morricone provides QT's first custom-fit score - a sumptuous aural feast - while the tone of Carpenter's film bubbles under the surface. Both films feature a strong cast of characters, whose egos and suspicions clash ferociously. Here, each character is afforded much to work with, everyone standing out in their own regard. That said, Jackson, Russell, Goggins, and Leigh shine out in particular - the latter of whom sinks her teeth into the role with such relish that you can't help but be reminded of John Travolta's savouring of Pulp Fiction. Hopefully we'll see a grand revival for Jennifer Jason Leigh worthy of her impressive showing here...
Click "READ MORE" below to continue the review...
Showing posts with label western. Show all posts
Showing posts with label western. Show all posts
Sunday, 5 June 2016
Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Double Bill Mini Musings: Awards Bait Edition...
Django Unchained:
What's it about?
Quentin Tarantino's 'southern' adventure set in 1858 in which a German bounty hunter frees the titular slave, and takes him under his wing as they go in search of Django's wife Broomhilda, encounter gunfights and flamboyant slave owners along the way.
Who would I recognise in it?
Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, James Remar, Michael Parks, and Don Johnson, Jonah Hill.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Surprisingly, for a film that's the best part of 3 hours long, Django Unchained rarely seems to drag. As good as Inglourious Basterds was, there were several scenes where I knew what was coming and I was just waiting for it to happen (e.g. the tense encounter at the bar) - Django Unchained, on the other hand, felt more unpredictable, and featured a more balanced sense of pace (helped too, by following the same main characters for the entire movie, not just parts of it like in Inglourious Basterds). The traditional Tarantino dialogue is there - especially for Christoph Waltz, who once again gives a (rightfully) Award-winning performance - but there's enough nerve-shredding encounters and all-out gunfights (with gleefully gloopy geysers of gore) to keep things fresh and exciting.
Click "READ MORE" below for more Django, and a dose of Argo...
What's it about?
Quentin Tarantino's 'southern' adventure set in 1858 in which a German bounty hunter frees the titular slave, and takes him under his wing as they go in search of Django's wife Broomhilda, encounter gunfights and flamboyant slave owners along the way.
Who would I recognise in it?
Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, James Remar, Michael Parks, and Don Johnson, Jonah Hill.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Surprisingly, for a film that's the best part of 3 hours long, Django Unchained rarely seems to drag. As good as Inglourious Basterds was, there were several scenes where I knew what was coming and I was just waiting for it to happen (e.g. the tense encounter at the bar) - Django Unchained, on the other hand, felt more unpredictable, and featured a more balanced sense of pace (helped too, by following the same main characters for the entire movie, not just parts of it like in Inglourious Basterds). The traditional Tarantino dialogue is there - especially for Christoph Waltz, who once again gives a (rightfully) Award-winning performance - but there's enough nerve-shredding encounters and all-out gunfights (with gleefully gloopy geysers of gore) to keep things fresh and exciting.
Click "READ MORE" below for more Django, and a dose of Argo...
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Double Bill Mini-Cine Musings: True Fighter...
The Fighter:
Like a new Rocky for the new millennium, The Fighter shares the same sense of an underdog from a tough, blue collar neighbourhood trying to overcome that which keeps him down, and punch above his weight in the process. Actors Wahlberg, Bale, Leo, and Adams all give inhabited performances, particularly Bale who once again transforms himself into his chosen role.
There's a subtle sense of humour dotted around the flick too, which helps keep the overall feel of the movie as tough, but not joyless, and similar to the final chapter in the Rocky saga, the fight scenes are handled with the same pay-per-view TV immediacy. By the final fight I was damn near ready to leap to my feet and start cheering with my fist thrusting into the air.
True Grit:
Of the Coen's recent batch of films, I really dug No Country For Old Men, enjoyed the 'standard Coens' Burn After Reading, and respected their unapologeticly exclusive A Serious Man - but out of the three, No Country was the one that really stood out to me as the Coens at full speed. Similarly, True Grit has that same sense of the Coen brothers in full swing.
At the time of writing this I haven't seen the John Wayne version - but I plan to at some point - so I can only go on this 2010 version (more a re-telling of the book, than a re-making of the movie, according to the Coens), but in short I loved it.
Jeff Bridges does a fantastic job at portraying the gruff, almost belligerent Cogburn - the mix of the eye patch, the grumbling near-unintelligible drawl, and a sense that this is Cogburn makes for a potent package ... it's not Jeff Bridges, it's not The Dude, it is Cogburn, and he's a tough man you would hate upon first meeting until you had been through some trials side-by-side that would earn you his respect.
Matt Damon plays it much more straight-laced, with a few flourishes here and there (his cocky flashing of his lawman's badge), but it's Hailee Steinfeld who steals the entire show. Her performance is phenomenal, and all the more so as this is her first movie. For a 13 year old girl (at the time of filming) to be so in command of her scenes - and indeed in command of Bridges and Damon throughout the movie - is just superb. Quite frankly the Academy have done themselves a disservice by not putting her into the Leading Actress category for the Oscars (she was instead nominated for Supporting Actress - when she's unquestionably the only prominent Actress in the entire movie), but then it's not the first time that the Academy have made a daft decision (and not the first for this year's show either - after all, where is Christopher Nolan's Best Director nomination?!).
Roger Deakins cinematography is, of course, beautiful - albeit less adventurous than what he provided in 2007's luxurious, poetic, and meandering The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Rounding out the package even Jarlath Conroy turns up in the movie. "Who?" you might ask - well, if you're a fan of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead, then you'll know him as the hard-drinking Irish radio operator McDermott. So that was a nice little cherry on top of a decidedly well made Sundae.
Highly recommended.
Like a new Rocky for the new millennium, The Fighter shares the same sense of an underdog from a tough, blue collar neighbourhood trying to overcome that which keeps him down, and punch above his weight in the process. Actors Wahlberg, Bale, Leo, and Adams all give inhabited performances, particularly Bale who once again transforms himself into his chosen role.
There's a subtle sense of humour dotted around the flick too, which helps keep the overall feel of the movie as tough, but not joyless, and similar to the final chapter in the Rocky saga, the fight scenes are handled with the same pay-per-view TV immediacy. By the final fight I was damn near ready to leap to my feet and start cheering with my fist thrusting into the air.
True Grit:
Of the Coen's recent batch of films, I really dug No Country For Old Men, enjoyed the 'standard Coens' Burn After Reading, and respected their unapologeticly exclusive A Serious Man - but out of the three, No Country was the one that really stood out to me as the Coens at full speed. Similarly, True Grit has that same sense of the Coen brothers in full swing.
At the time of writing this I haven't seen the John Wayne version - but I plan to at some point - so I can only go on this 2010 version (more a re-telling of the book, than a re-making of the movie, according to the Coens), but in short I loved it.
Jeff Bridges does a fantastic job at portraying the gruff, almost belligerent Cogburn - the mix of the eye patch, the grumbling near-unintelligible drawl, and a sense that this is Cogburn makes for a potent package ... it's not Jeff Bridges, it's not The Dude, it is Cogburn, and he's a tough man you would hate upon first meeting until you had been through some trials side-by-side that would earn you his respect.
Matt Damon plays it much more straight-laced, with a few flourishes here and there (his cocky flashing of his lawman's badge), but it's Hailee Steinfeld who steals the entire show. Her performance is phenomenal, and all the more so as this is her first movie. For a 13 year old girl (at the time of filming) to be so in command of her scenes - and indeed in command of Bridges and Damon throughout the movie - is just superb. Quite frankly the Academy have done themselves a disservice by not putting her into the Leading Actress category for the Oscars (she was instead nominated for Supporting Actress - when she's unquestionably the only prominent Actress in the entire movie), but then it's not the first time that the Academy have made a daft decision (and not the first for this year's show either - after all, where is Christopher Nolan's Best Director nomination?!).
Roger Deakins cinematography is, of course, beautiful - albeit less adventurous than what he provided in 2007's luxurious, poetic, and meandering The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Rounding out the package even Jarlath Conroy turns up in the movie. "Who?" you might ask - well, if you're a fan of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead, then you'll know him as the hard-drinking Irish radio operator McDermott. So that was a nice little cherry on top of a decidedly well made Sundae.
Highly recommended.
Friday, 25 June 2010
Double Bill Mini Musings: Brits and South Koreans...
Outpost:
If only more horror movies had a similar vibe to this flick. It's not about big jumpy "BOO!" scares and loud crashing noises on the soundtrack. It's about a creeping sense of dread in an intimidating atmosphere, and while it's not going to freak out horror fiends such as myself, it was a far more convincing slice of genre fare than - for example - The Haunting In Conneticut, which was a case of loud noises and jumpy moments (incidentally that flick was decent for a viewing, but it tried too hard).
It's low budget, it's creepy, it's well pieced together and while the script isn't anything particularly special, the overall package is pleasing - after all, it's ghost/zombie Nazis in a dark, spooky Nazi bunker!
The Good, The Bad, and The Weird:
The last South Korean movie I recall watching was The Host (which also stars one of the same actors) - and I didn't care for it - however this love letter to Sergio Leone (specifically For A Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, and Once Upon A Time In The West) is a corker. Aside from some second act pacing dips, and a mildy confusing interplay of character groups, it has some brilliant action - a raid on a moving train, a market bullet ballet that ascends to the skies, and an all-out chase after the treasure map featuring multiple factions running and gunning like crazy set to Santa Esmeralda's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (a possible Tarantino nod?).
In short it is a beautiful-looking, beautifully crafted South Korean take on the Spaghetti Western. Your patience might be tested around the middle portion, but it's entirely worthwhile to stick around and enjoy the spectacle of it all.
If only more horror movies had a similar vibe to this flick. It's not about big jumpy "BOO!" scares and loud crashing noises on the soundtrack. It's about a creeping sense of dread in an intimidating atmosphere, and while it's not going to freak out horror fiends such as myself, it was a far more convincing slice of genre fare than - for example - The Haunting In Conneticut, which was a case of loud noises and jumpy moments (incidentally that flick was decent for a viewing, but it tried too hard).
It's low budget, it's creepy, it's well pieced together and while the script isn't anything particularly special, the overall package is pleasing - after all, it's ghost/zombie Nazis in a dark, spooky Nazi bunker!
The Good, The Bad, and The Weird:
The last South Korean movie I recall watching was The Host (which also stars one of the same actors) - and I didn't care for it - however this love letter to Sergio Leone (specifically For A Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, and Once Upon A Time In The West) is a corker. Aside from some second act pacing dips, and a mildy confusing interplay of character groups, it has some brilliant action - a raid on a moving train, a market bullet ballet that ascends to the skies, and an all-out chase after the treasure map featuring multiple factions running and gunning like crazy set to Santa Esmeralda's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (a possible Tarantino nod?).
In short it is a beautiful-looking, beautifully crafted South Korean take on the Spaghetti Western. Your patience might be tested around the middle portion, but it's entirely worthwhile to stick around and enjoy the spectacle of it all.
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