As I've previously said no doubt at some point, I've been on a bit of a Bogart bender of late - heck, even an old school movie bender in itself. I'd not seen it before, and it is puzzling that the title-holding landscape barely factors into the movie, but as is par for Bogart's course (when his career was in its strongest waters), he's electric on screen. A must-see Bogart movie.
Mind you, what with all these old school movies I've been watching recently, I've noticed a trend - it's all to do with marriage.
I've heard it all too often of late, that marriage is entered into lightly and without much thought - and indeed I think it is. But if the movies of the 1930s and 40s are any reflection, they didn't think much about it back then either. The protagonist comes up against (not literally, you dirty buggers) his love interest and within a matter of days he's fitting her up for a diamond ring. I just found it rather funny, and it really began to stick out, glaringly so by the time I got round to popping in the tape of High Sierra.
Regardless, it's still a quality film ... and for those interested enough, I've now moved on to Murder Inc. - another Bogart classic - I think I've seen it before, it's ringing bells with me, but I can't be sure, so why not watch it again eh? Who knows, maybe I'll even get that African Queen DVD off the shelf that I got on a 4-for-£30 offer years ago and finally watch it!
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Life On Mars...
I've only just gotten into this, it's taken me ages to get around to it. However, we had the series one boxset sitting there so I took a couple of days and just barged through it all, and it was bloody great so it was. I'll be checking out the second series sometime soon, and then I'll be interested to see the follow up that was Ashes To Ashes.
Good writing, good acting, good directing, good cinematography - it's just rather bloody good, is what it is.
Good writing, good acting, good directing, good cinematography - it's just rather bloody good, is what it is.
Monday, 16 June 2008
It's A Wonderful Life...
I get into stints like this, where I'll dig out a bunch of movies from my collection of dozens upon dozens of videotapes, hundreds even, and either revisit flicks I've only seen once many years ago, or recorded off TV years ago but never got around to.
And so the latter is the case for It's A Wonderful Life, one of those movies you constantly find on 100 Best lists and so on, and indeed it is bloody good. Mind you, the talking stars/galaxies at the beginning was somewhat WTF in nature, and the sheer volume of cinema-rule-bothering jump cuts in the second half was astonishing.
But bloody good it is nonetheless, and who couldn't love Jimmy Stewart as the forever giving George Bailey, for whom life always gets in the way of his personal dreams of international travel and skyscrapers. Also, it's nowhere near as depressing as I was expecting it to be, it's all pretty cheery stuff until the last half hour when it all truly goes tits up for George, and while as we all know his problems are resolved joyously, I was left hanging to see that grumpy old bastard and nemesis of common decency, Potter, get his dues - but clearly it was never going to fit in to the last half hour...still though, it's a cheering and enduring classic.
So what next on my plough through my old videotapes to watch movies I've still not seen? High Sierra probably, then either Murder Inc. or a documentary on Bogart himself - although the latter two I might have seen back when I recorded them, but for the life of me I can't remember whether I did or didn't for both of them. So aye, High Sierra methinks.
Mind you, I've got the boxset of Series 1 through 3 of Bo Selecta! coming soon (cheap-as-chips it was too), so after having had a run through the entire back catalogue of Red Dwarf episodes, as well as season 5 of The A-Team, in recent lunch-times and empty evenings, I'll have hours of rubber-faced rudeness to chuckle heartily too. It's certainly been a long while since I watched it though, and while it will no doubt retain it's power to make me cackle with laughter, I wonder if it'll be as funny as it was back in the day ... especially when many of the skits were 'of their time'.
...
And just to put your minds to rest, I'm not just lazing about, the editing for that sexual education DVD is well underway ... in fact there'll be some filming to do for that in the next couple of weeks. We've got to get all the necessary talking head stuff before the students go off on their summer holidays, throughout which they'll probably do what most 16 to 18 year olds do ... drink plenty of cheap booze and cider, toke and lie around. They might as well enjoy it now, because immediately after the real world comes along and teabags you into a perpetual state of furious anger at the blithering idiots in Number 10.
What was I on about again? Oh yeah ... It's A Wonderful Life ... well, some of the time anyway.
And so the latter is the case for It's A Wonderful Life, one of those movies you constantly find on 100 Best lists and so on, and indeed it is bloody good. Mind you, the talking stars/galaxies at the beginning was somewhat WTF in nature, and the sheer volume of cinema-rule-bothering jump cuts in the second half was astonishing.
But bloody good it is nonetheless, and who couldn't love Jimmy Stewart as the forever giving George Bailey, for whom life always gets in the way of his personal dreams of international travel and skyscrapers. Also, it's nowhere near as depressing as I was expecting it to be, it's all pretty cheery stuff until the last half hour when it all truly goes tits up for George, and while as we all know his problems are resolved joyously, I was left hanging to see that grumpy old bastard and nemesis of common decency, Potter, get his dues - but clearly it was never going to fit in to the last half hour...still though, it's a cheering and enduring classic.
So what next on my plough through my old videotapes to watch movies I've still not seen? High Sierra probably, then either Murder Inc. or a documentary on Bogart himself - although the latter two I might have seen back when I recorded them, but for the life of me I can't remember whether I did or didn't for both of them. So aye, High Sierra methinks.
Mind you, I've got the boxset of Series 1 through 3 of Bo Selecta! coming soon (cheap-as-chips it was too), so after having had a run through the entire back catalogue of Red Dwarf episodes, as well as season 5 of The A-Team, in recent lunch-times and empty evenings, I'll have hours of rubber-faced rudeness to chuckle heartily too. It's certainly been a long while since I watched it though, and while it will no doubt retain it's power to make me cackle with laughter, I wonder if it'll be as funny as it was back in the day ... especially when many of the skits were 'of their time'.
...
And just to put your minds to rest, I'm not just lazing about, the editing for that sexual education DVD is well underway ... in fact there'll be some filming to do for that in the next couple of weeks. We've got to get all the necessary talking head stuff before the students go off on their summer holidays, throughout which they'll probably do what most 16 to 18 year olds do ... drink plenty of cheap booze and cider, toke and lie around. They might as well enjoy it now, because immediately after the real world comes along and teabags you into a perpetual state of furious anger at the blithering idiots in Number 10.
What was I on about again? Oh yeah ... It's A Wonderful Life ... well, some of the time anyway.
Friday, 13 June 2008
Yet more summertime movie musings...
In A Lonely Place:
I'm a fair bit of a fan of Bogart, and still consider The Maltese Falcon to be a fantastic slice of Film Noir (indeed, it was the first proper Film Noir I ever saw, back in my first semester at university).
So it was quite interesting to see him as a screenwriter with a violent streak. One minute he's charming, the next you think he might be a psychopathic murderer, the next he's charming, then he's beating up people, then he's desperate, then he's calm and so it goes. It's all rather spiffing ... although I was surprised to see the 180 degree rule broken at one point during a conversation scene. Although that's really only the sort of thing film type will see rather than the average punter, but still ... it surprised me a bit that nobody spotted that during shooting.
Regardless of that tiny technical error though, classic Bogart.
...
Be Kind Rewind:
I've not seen much of Michel Gondry's work to be honest, and I've only just got around to checking out Be Kind Rewind - the main attraction for me being the celebration of the VHS medium (heck, I've made two shorts related to the format). It's all rather quirky, and it's quite clear that a considerable chunk of his work comes from his dreams.
BKR champions the oddball and the out-there, the strange characters you might very well find in some run-down area like that which is in the film. Mind you, the length of time it took for one of the characters to figure out Danny Glover's writing (who must have gotten some ill-fitting veneers/false teeth lately), which was steamed onto a window, was in fact backwards ... for some reason that wound me right up, the sheer length of time it took the guy to figure it out just pissed me off ... odd.
Anyway, it's at times joyfully inventive (Jack Black's idea of camouflage is ingenious) and at least just a good slice of pretty darn original fun. Mind you, the 'little guys VS the big guys' message is occasionally strong-armed into the script, and is ultimately left dangling as the credits begin to roll.
Also, Jack Black continues to do no wrong, and Mos Def's insistent mumbling continues to grind on me (check out 16 Blocks, he pissed me off so much in that film ... but he's still rather good at this acting business when he finds the right role).
...
Aftermath: Population Zero:
Indeed, not a film, but a National Geographic 90 minute special that's almost identical to Life After People (which was by the Discovery Channel, if memory serves). Identical in execution (stock footage mixed with lower-budget CGI, and specially shot stuff), and identical in its flaws.
The script is similarly ham-fisted and relies on often boring and uninspired writing - you'll constantly hear sentences begin with, for example, "After two-hundred-thirty years..." (yes, no "and" between the 200 and the 30 ... that annoyed me, ha!). The CGI shots are used over and over again, often just relying on two angles for one sequence - such as the Eifel Tower collapsing - so you'll cut back and forth between two shots and get thoroughly bored.
This also brings me to the issue of how America-focussed this, and Life After People, were ... but at least LAP ventured to Chernobyl and Pripyat to look at a real-life example of what was being talked about. Globally speaking, there's not much to the world beyond the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben by the looks of things, you'll maybe get a glimpse at the Pyramids or the North Pole, but otherwise it's all focussed on America ... which is a bit cheeky, lazy and isolationist. It's not like these aren't being shown outside of America, heck, Life After People was just on Channel 4 a couple of weeks ago.
So indeed, it's all the usual stuff. Amidst the overtly dramatic, deep-voiced narration (which is a stone's throw from a movie trailer, replete with glutinous use of "in a world where..." type talk), you get battered over the head with idiot-friendly obviousness.
Really, untreated metal structures, concrete and tarmac will all crumble and collapse over time?! My God, I never knew! Really, animals can live even without mankind around?! Shocking stuff indeed ... but in reality, my sarcasm allowance for the day had swiftly gone way over the top.
Also, they seem to think that all cars are automatics ... so, when the earth's population (well, America, London, Paris and Egypt by the looks of things) literally vanishes, all the cars just keep running. Well, unlike the lazy Americans who made this 90 minute long mankind guilt-trip, who obviously drive nothing but automatics to burn as few calories as possible, there are a considerable amount of manual transmission vehicles out there. Their engines would cut out without people to control the clutch ... it was just something that annoyed me while watching.
So it's all rather grim, according to Population Zero, the entire power supply of the entire planet will conk out within hours (something I don't recall Life After People discussing, or at least not to this level of immediacy), and mankind are a bunch of bastards arrogantly holding back nature, whose existence will be wiped out almost entirely within 1000 years of our disappearance.
Like I said, a guilt-trip ... with a silly, dumb-dumb narration ... and reused CGI shots ... quite.
And yet shockingly, despite my rather negative summary of it, it's still worth seeing - much like Life After People - as long as you can trudge through all the dumbing-down, economy CGI use, and guilt-tripping, it can be quite interesting.
...
Batman Begins:
After watching Tim Burton's 1989 movie, I simply had to dig out Christopher Nolan's 2005 fantastic franchise life-saver. It's still bloody brilliant, gripping and even goes to great lengths to justify Batman's life. How he got so buff and good at fighting, how he ended up with all that fancy gear, how his lair under Wayne Mannor came about. Everybody involved was doing a damn fine job, and by the time it gets to the end and Batman turns over a playing card to reveal The Joker, you've got such a massive, anticipation-fuelled grin all over your face.
The Dark Knight can't come soon enough!
I'm a fair bit of a fan of Bogart, and still consider The Maltese Falcon to be a fantastic slice of Film Noir (indeed, it was the first proper Film Noir I ever saw, back in my first semester at university).
So it was quite interesting to see him as a screenwriter with a violent streak. One minute he's charming, the next you think he might be a psychopathic murderer, the next he's charming, then he's beating up people, then he's desperate, then he's calm and so it goes. It's all rather spiffing ... although I was surprised to see the 180 degree rule broken at one point during a conversation scene. Although that's really only the sort of thing film type will see rather than the average punter, but still ... it surprised me a bit that nobody spotted that during shooting.
Regardless of that tiny technical error though, classic Bogart.
...
Be Kind Rewind:
I've not seen much of Michel Gondry's work to be honest, and I've only just got around to checking out Be Kind Rewind - the main attraction for me being the celebration of the VHS medium (heck, I've made two shorts related to the format). It's all rather quirky, and it's quite clear that a considerable chunk of his work comes from his dreams.
BKR champions the oddball and the out-there, the strange characters you might very well find in some run-down area like that which is in the film. Mind you, the length of time it took for one of the characters to figure out Danny Glover's writing (who must have gotten some ill-fitting veneers/false teeth lately), which was steamed onto a window, was in fact backwards ... for some reason that wound me right up, the sheer length of time it took the guy to figure it out just pissed me off ... odd.
Anyway, it's at times joyfully inventive (Jack Black's idea of camouflage is ingenious) and at least just a good slice of pretty darn original fun. Mind you, the 'little guys VS the big guys' message is occasionally strong-armed into the script, and is ultimately left dangling as the credits begin to roll.
Also, Jack Black continues to do no wrong, and Mos Def's insistent mumbling continues to grind on me (check out 16 Blocks, he pissed me off so much in that film ... but he's still rather good at this acting business when he finds the right role).
...
Aftermath: Population Zero:
Indeed, not a film, but a National Geographic 90 minute special that's almost identical to Life After People (which was by the Discovery Channel, if memory serves). Identical in execution (stock footage mixed with lower-budget CGI, and specially shot stuff), and identical in its flaws.
The script is similarly ham-fisted and relies on often boring and uninspired writing - you'll constantly hear sentences begin with, for example, "After two-hundred-thirty years..." (yes, no "and" between the 200 and the 30 ... that annoyed me, ha!). The CGI shots are used over and over again, often just relying on two angles for one sequence - such as the Eifel Tower collapsing - so you'll cut back and forth between two shots and get thoroughly bored.
This also brings me to the issue of how America-focussed this, and Life After People, were ... but at least LAP ventured to Chernobyl and Pripyat to look at a real-life example of what was being talked about. Globally speaking, there's not much to the world beyond the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben by the looks of things, you'll maybe get a glimpse at the Pyramids or the North Pole, but otherwise it's all focussed on America ... which is a bit cheeky, lazy and isolationist. It's not like these aren't being shown outside of America, heck, Life After People was just on Channel 4 a couple of weeks ago.
So indeed, it's all the usual stuff. Amidst the overtly dramatic, deep-voiced narration (which is a stone's throw from a movie trailer, replete with glutinous use of "in a world where..." type talk), you get battered over the head with idiot-friendly obviousness.
Really, untreated metal structures, concrete and tarmac will all crumble and collapse over time?! My God, I never knew! Really, animals can live even without mankind around?! Shocking stuff indeed ... but in reality, my sarcasm allowance for the day had swiftly gone way over the top.
Also, they seem to think that all cars are automatics ... so, when the earth's population (well, America, London, Paris and Egypt by the looks of things) literally vanishes, all the cars just keep running. Well, unlike the lazy Americans who made this 90 minute long mankind guilt-trip, who obviously drive nothing but automatics to burn as few calories as possible, there are a considerable amount of manual transmission vehicles out there. Their engines would cut out without people to control the clutch ... it was just something that annoyed me while watching.
So it's all rather grim, according to Population Zero, the entire power supply of the entire planet will conk out within hours (something I don't recall Life After People discussing, or at least not to this level of immediacy), and mankind are a bunch of bastards arrogantly holding back nature, whose existence will be wiped out almost entirely within 1000 years of our disappearance.
Like I said, a guilt-trip ... with a silly, dumb-dumb narration ... and reused CGI shots ... quite.
And yet shockingly, despite my rather negative summary of it, it's still worth seeing - much like Life After People - as long as you can trudge through all the dumbing-down, economy CGI use, and guilt-tripping, it can be quite interesting.
...
Batman Begins:
After watching Tim Burton's 1989 movie, I simply had to dig out Christopher Nolan's 2005 fantastic franchise life-saver. It's still bloody brilliant, gripping and even goes to great lengths to justify Batman's life. How he got so buff and good at fighting, how he ended up with all that fancy gear, how his lair under Wayne Mannor came about. Everybody involved was doing a damn fine job, and by the time it gets to the end and Batman turns over a playing card to reveal The Joker, you've got such a massive, anticipation-fuelled grin all over your face.
The Dark Knight can't come soon enough!
More summertime movie musings...
Batman:
Aye, the original 1989 box-office-bothering Tim Burton flick. I'd only seen it once before and what with The Dark Knight approaching, I figured I'd go back to the first Burton movie (the fact it was on sale for a fiver had a hand in this too).
Great stuff indeed, Nicholson is fucking great in no uncertain terms. With that fresh in my mind, it's going to be even more interesting to see the late Ledger's performance in the same role. While Nicholson was demented and fairly dark, he was also wickedly over the top and ... well, a real joker.
Ledger's version feels far, far darker. While Nicholson's might have been the Elvis style incarnation of the cackling one, Ledger's - from the trailers that have been shown at least - feels like the Sid Vicious incarnation. There's still a sense of humour, but it's all pitch black and nigh-on terrifying ... demented to say the least. No doubt it will be a fitting end to Ledger's sadly too short career.
Anyway, Batman 1989 ... indeed ... a spiffing film, but bloody hell have blockbuster action super hero type movies changed a lot in the past 19 years. At times, during action sequences, the pace of Batman felt positively sedate ... then again, there wasn't much internet or Sky TV or YouTube around in 1989 with "the yoof" consuming multiple media sources simultaneously and at a far greater speed than ever before. As a result, blockbuster fare has followed this trend.
So while it's not exceptionally gripping anymore, it's still a bloody good watch. But then again I guess it's all subjective and changes from film to film. After all, I've said in the past that I was - and indeed still am - positively gripped by The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford...and that's the best part of three hours and generally sedate and poetic.
Anyway, Batman still garners two fresh thumbs from me.
...
Rambo:
I've already spoken about it, but I recently got the DVD from America.
First though, I was rather pissed off by the mixed and confusing information from the distributors regarding the content of the discs. I got the 1-disc thinking it had the extras on it - it doesn't, it has FUCK ALL on it. I avoided the 2-disc edition because I figured 'if the 1-disc has extras, why spend two more quid for a digital copy that I won't use and apparently doesn't work anyway' ... DVDTimes, a site that until now was entirely trust worthy in providing pre-release info, failed to notice than the 1-disc is devoid of any extras. So it's a bit of a kick in the nuts. It would have been nice to listen to Sly's commentary and see the featurettes about everything and everybody getting thoroughly shot to shit.
Oh well, can't win them all.
Back to Rambo itself though, it's still bloody awesome fun. The manliest slice of blokery since the Berlin Wall was sledge-hammered to smithereens.
...
Futurama: Bender's Big Score:
Again, I've already spoken about it, but I got the DVD in preparation of the second feature coming out later this month (on the same day as Diary of the Dead as well, I might add).
Still superb and still tons funnier than The Simpson's has been for the past 9 or 10 seasons. More please!
...
The A-Team: Season 5:
Yes, not a movie, but who cares it's still awesome and therefore shut up...
I'm still mid-way through this final season of the excellent boy's own adventure show, and it's still good. I even like the remix of the theme tune ... the original version still pwns everything aural, but the remix still gets me in the mood to take down mob bosses with a cigar hanging out of the corner of my mouth.
Quality fun for any child of the 1980s. Nuff said.
Aye, the original 1989 box-office-bothering Tim Burton flick. I'd only seen it once before and what with The Dark Knight approaching, I figured I'd go back to the first Burton movie (the fact it was on sale for a fiver had a hand in this too).
Great stuff indeed, Nicholson is fucking great in no uncertain terms. With that fresh in my mind, it's going to be even more interesting to see the late Ledger's performance in the same role. While Nicholson was demented and fairly dark, he was also wickedly over the top and ... well, a real joker.
Ledger's version feels far, far darker. While Nicholson's might have been the Elvis style incarnation of the cackling one, Ledger's - from the trailers that have been shown at least - feels like the Sid Vicious incarnation. There's still a sense of humour, but it's all pitch black and nigh-on terrifying ... demented to say the least. No doubt it will be a fitting end to Ledger's sadly too short career.
Anyway, Batman 1989 ... indeed ... a spiffing film, but bloody hell have blockbuster action super hero type movies changed a lot in the past 19 years. At times, during action sequences, the pace of Batman felt positively sedate ... then again, there wasn't much internet or Sky TV or YouTube around in 1989 with "the yoof" consuming multiple media sources simultaneously and at a far greater speed than ever before. As a result, blockbuster fare has followed this trend.
So while it's not exceptionally gripping anymore, it's still a bloody good watch. But then again I guess it's all subjective and changes from film to film. After all, I've said in the past that I was - and indeed still am - positively gripped by The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford...and that's the best part of three hours and generally sedate and poetic.
Anyway, Batman still garners two fresh thumbs from me.
...
Rambo:
I've already spoken about it, but I recently got the DVD from America.
First though, I was rather pissed off by the mixed and confusing information from the distributors regarding the content of the discs. I got the 1-disc thinking it had the extras on it - it doesn't, it has FUCK ALL on it. I avoided the 2-disc edition because I figured 'if the 1-disc has extras, why spend two more quid for a digital copy that I won't use and apparently doesn't work anyway' ... DVDTimes, a site that until now was entirely trust worthy in providing pre-release info, failed to notice than the 1-disc is devoid of any extras. So it's a bit of a kick in the nuts. It would have been nice to listen to Sly's commentary and see the featurettes about everything and everybody getting thoroughly shot to shit.
Oh well, can't win them all.
Back to Rambo itself though, it's still bloody awesome fun. The manliest slice of blokery since the Berlin Wall was sledge-hammered to smithereens.
...
Futurama: Bender's Big Score:
Again, I've already spoken about it, but I got the DVD in preparation of the second feature coming out later this month (on the same day as Diary of the Dead as well, I might add).
Still superb and still tons funnier than The Simpson's has been for the past 9 or 10 seasons. More please!
...
The A-Team: Season 5:
Yes, not a movie, but who cares it's still awesome and therefore shut up...
I'm still mid-way through this final season of the excellent boy's own adventure show, and it's still good. I even like the remix of the theme tune ... the original version still pwns everything aural, but the remix still gets me in the mood to take down mob bosses with a cigar hanging out of the corner of my mouth.
Quality fun for any child of the 1980s. Nuff said.
Monday, 2 June 2008
Indiana Jones 4...
Another week and another trip to the cinema, it's certainly become something of an addiction of mine thus far into 2008, and with at least two other must see flicks in the next couple of months or so, it's most likely not about to stop.
So here we are, pretty much two decades since the last Indy movie, and as I was predicting it's suffering the same critical fate as Land of the Dead did. A loved, revered and established trilogy gets a new sibling 20 years after the last ... well, crusade.
Some people are decrying it as garbage, others are saying it's just the same as the other movies ... as for me, I'm somewhere in the middle. I never ever expected it to best either Raiders or Last Crusade, but figured it'd either beat or at the very least tie with Temple of Doom somewhere in the back of the pack.
My assumptions on my own opinion were indeed correct and this is where I stand. While it's a little bit too far fetched at a couple of junctures, twice in one set piece even, it never strides into territory where I'm still not entertained. In fact, the first truly far fetched sequence I absolutely had a blast during (aptly enough) ... it even tied into the quintessentially 1950s vibe of the film (while the predecessors were quintessentially 1930s, in that serial adventure vein in which the Jones films were forged).
Shia LaBeouf, as in Transformers and Disturbia, can do no wrong. The lad is consistently entertaining and talented, bringing a genuine warmth and humour to his roles which sit nicely with the audience. As for Ford, he certainly doesn't look too old for this film, not a jot - if Stallone can do Rambo aged 61, then Ford can do Indy 4 ... and pull it off he most certainly does.
It makes several nods to the previous films, but it never really obstructs proceedings too much, their inclusion feeling natural and necessary.
Mind you, it does get a bit wobbly half-way in before picking up ... at which point you're either with it till the end or you're lost for good. Indeed, what with it being the 1950s it is all a bit sci-fi ... but sci-fi in a jungle with blow pipes, monkies, copious cobwebbing and vines.
I say you're either with it by the end or not, and I stand by this. It does all get quite far fetched ... but then again Last Crusade featured a knight in a cave guarded by an invisible 'faith bridge' who'd been there for centuries guarding Jesus' dad's coffee cup. Raiders has the Ark of the Covenant, look at it and your face melts off ... and then there was Temple of Doom ... well, nuff said beyond monkey brains and that nutter tearing hearts out.
Needless to say Indy 4 will be the awkward sibling of the other three, tight-knit brothers. The new kid on the block will have to work to fit in with the rest of the franchise, but that was always going to be the case, so ignore that as much as possible - indeed, I purposefully didn't re-watch the first three prior to seeing the latest installment so that I could judge it purely on it's own.
I think one of the problems many of the film's detractors will have with it, is that they grew up watching Raiders, Temple and Crusade. There's a special place for them in their hearts and they don't look kindly upon shedding any negative light upon them. They don't like to seek out their flaws in order to cut the new kid on the block some slack ... indeed I can understand such a mindset.
Having re-watched many of my childhood favourites on DVD, I've rekindled my love for them and gone back in time to when I first viewed them. I recaptured that magic and wonder, but equally - perhaps this is exclusively down to my film school background though - I've also spotted the flaws, the audience-acknowledging smug bits, the lesser quality sequels and so forth ... but I still love them just as much, certainly not less.
With this in mind, I've cut Indy 4 some slack, but I do wonder if Lucas, Spielberg and Co's venture to recapture the magic and fun they had on set didn't fully translate to the film ... or at least the script, which is where any of the film's flaws originate.
Regardless, it's a fun romp and good to see Ford back in the Fedora. Certainly not the best - but it never was going to be - so it's at least as good as Temple of Doom, and frankly that's as much as could ever have been realistically expected ... so just enjoy it.
At least they didn't do a Die Hard 4.0 and water it all down and mutate the formula.
So here we are, pretty much two decades since the last Indy movie, and as I was predicting it's suffering the same critical fate as Land of the Dead did. A loved, revered and established trilogy gets a new sibling 20 years after the last ... well, crusade.
Some people are decrying it as garbage, others are saying it's just the same as the other movies ... as for me, I'm somewhere in the middle. I never ever expected it to best either Raiders or Last Crusade, but figured it'd either beat or at the very least tie with Temple of Doom somewhere in the back of the pack.
My assumptions on my own opinion were indeed correct and this is where I stand. While it's a little bit too far fetched at a couple of junctures, twice in one set piece even, it never strides into territory where I'm still not entertained. In fact, the first truly far fetched sequence I absolutely had a blast during (aptly enough) ... it even tied into the quintessentially 1950s vibe of the film (while the predecessors were quintessentially 1930s, in that serial adventure vein in which the Jones films were forged).
Shia LaBeouf, as in Transformers and Disturbia, can do no wrong. The lad is consistently entertaining and talented, bringing a genuine warmth and humour to his roles which sit nicely with the audience. As for Ford, he certainly doesn't look too old for this film, not a jot - if Stallone can do Rambo aged 61, then Ford can do Indy 4 ... and pull it off he most certainly does.
It makes several nods to the previous films, but it never really obstructs proceedings too much, their inclusion feeling natural and necessary.
Mind you, it does get a bit wobbly half-way in before picking up ... at which point you're either with it till the end or you're lost for good. Indeed, what with it being the 1950s it is all a bit sci-fi ... but sci-fi in a jungle with blow pipes, monkies, copious cobwebbing and vines.
I say you're either with it by the end or not, and I stand by this. It does all get quite far fetched ... but then again Last Crusade featured a knight in a cave guarded by an invisible 'faith bridge' who'd been there for centuries guarding Jesus' dad's coffee cup. Raiders has the Ark of the Covenant, look at it and your face melts off ... and then there was Temple of Doom ... well, nuff said beyond monkey brains and that nutter tearing hearts out.
Needless to say Indy 4 will be the awkward sibling of the other three, tight-knit brothers. The new kid on the block will have to work to fit in with the rest of the franchise, but that was always going to be the case, so ignore that as much as possible - indeed, I purposefully didn't re-watch the first three prior to seeing the latest installment so that I could judge it purely on it's own.
I think one of the problems many of the film's detractors will have with it, is that they grew up watching Raiders, Temple and Crusade. There's a special place for them in their hearts and they don't look kindly upon shedding any negative light upon them. They don't like to seek out their flaws in order to cut the new kid on the block some slack ... indeed I can understand such a mindset.
Having re-watched many of my childhood favourites on DVD, I've rekindled my love for them and gone back in time to when I first viewed them. I recaptured that magic and wonder, but equally - perhaps this is exclusively down to my film school background though - I've also spotted the flaws, the audience-acknowledging smug bits, the lesser quality sequels and so forth ... but I still love them just as much, certainly not less.
With this in mind, I've cut Indy 4 some slack, but I do wonder if Lucas, Spielberg and Co's venture to recapture the magic and fun they had on set didn't fully translate to the film ... or at least the script, which is where any of the film's flaws originate.
Regardless, it's a fun romp and good to see Ford back in the Fedora. Certainly not the best - but it never was going to be - so it's at least as good as Temple of Doom, and frankly that's as much as could ever have been realistically expected ... so just enjoy it.
At least they didn't do a Die Hard 4.0 and water it all down and mutate the formula.
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