Triple Bill Mini Musings: Nostalgia, Punching, and Bureaucracy...

American Pie Reunion:
What's it about?
Third official sequel to the 1999 teen sex comedy smash-hit in which four graduating high school seniors sought to lose their virginity after their Prom. Now in their early thirties, the gang - the full gang this time (nevermind the missing faces of American Wedding) - reunite for their high school reunion.
Who would I recognise in it?
Everyone from the original movies plus Katrina '30 Rock' Bowden's arse.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
When such an extended ensemble cast are involved - and with nostalgia reigning supreme - the traditional focus of the three act structure gets somewhat lost between the "hey, remember me?!" reunion scenes, not to mention the sheer amount of spinning plates which, fortunately, do a solid enough job of keeping everything in-check. There are some nice bittersweet touches thrown in that keep the evolving yarns of these teens-no-more fresh - they're fully-fledged adults with their own separate lives, so they have to come to terms with being usurped by another group of breast-obsessed lads. Furthermore, Stifler has failed to really move on since college, so his pining for the old days leaves a tinge of melancholly that fits right in with the overall tone of nostalgia. Even the infamous "MILF Guys" are given deeper recesses to explore (relatively speaking). There's the requisite amount of raunch thrown in (more-so in the slightly longer "unrated" cut), and while many characters can get a bit side-lined (the primary focus was always Jim and his closest male buddies), it packs in enough variety to keep the surprisingly long running time (1 hour 54 minutes) ticking along nicely. The effect might be lost on new-comers, and those who caught-up on these flicks years later, but these movies hit my year-group at just the right time - a couple of years on either side of my graduating year is where American Pie always hit hardest, and its no different here. Thoroughly enjoyable - and it's nice to see they didn't give away all the good bits in the trailer - good.

Click "READ MORE" below for the low-down on gut-punching tower block action, and a beautiful Orwellian nightmare...

The Raid:
What's it about?
Indonesian/American co-production from writer/director Gareth Evans featuring 20 Elite Cops taking on 30 Floors of Hell, as the tagline proudly states. A gun-toting SWAT team, many of them rookies, advance on a tower block - long-since deemed a no-go area for cops - to take down the big bad at the heart of its crumbling facade. Shedloads of bullet-shredding, knife-slicing, gut-punching, and high-kicking action ensues.
Who would I recognise in it?
Nobody probably, unless you're into your Indonesian cinema.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
There's sparse plot to be had here, so misguided seekers of character drama will be decidedly let down, but then again it's not supposed to be about such things. The Raid is all about arse-kicking, and lots of it in abundance. Inventive and brutal is the order of the day here when it comes to taking down innumerable bad guys, offering the viewer multiple "bloody nora!" moments of disbelief. The pacing is pretty solid too, with moments of rest rewarded with an escalating series of bone-cracking set pieces. If you like your action movies laced with impressive doses of fantastically choreographed violence, then you've come to the right place. Roll on The Raid 2, which is said to take the battle onto the streets for even more mayhem. Great.


Brazil:
What's it about?
Terry Gilliam's bulging-eyed, retro-futurist, Orwellian nightmare sci-fi set 'somewhere in the 20th Century' about a bureaucrat whose search for the woman of his dreams leads him deeper and deeper into the dead heart of a disturbingly possible state of government.
Who would I recognise in it?
Jonathan Pryce, Michael Palin, Robert De Niro, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
To say that this film is a grand dystopian epic would be putting it mildly. The sheer volume of design renders a world so intricate and real (yet disquieting in its alien features) that makes it effortless for the viewer to become as consumed by Gilliam's barmy world as Pryce's Sam Lowry is by the unruly air conditioning system in his flat. This is a world populated and controlled by bureaucrats - every decision requires stamped and signed paperwork - it is a world where the possibilities of the future are strangled by the dead hand of the state, represented by an ever-intruding tentacled network of pipework and ducts. Everything designed to make your life simpler (or wrest control from your own hands, depending on your outlook) is just a little bit broken, and everyone is forced to accept it by a system that can be utterly confused by a literal bug in the works when an order for the detention of a man by the name of "Tuttle" is accidentally changed to "Buttle" after a dead insect falls into the machinery of state-sponsored torture, inspiring a series of events that at first invade Lowry's dreams, but then seek to choke him completely in the real world too.

The nightmarish satire comes thick and frenzied - towering bureaucracy is envisaged as a giant Shogun warrior, the drones that enable the bureaucracy are horrific rat-like, doll-faced creatures, government workers prefer to shirk their duties when the boss isn't looking by watching the likes of Casablanca that are sourced from unknown corners of their all-encompassing gaze - and all-the-while the rich, privileged, connected ones ignore random acts of terrorist violence around them as they continue to discuss their latest cosmetic surgery. The poor recognise the misfortune of living in their society, but have no power, while the rich and contented see no trouble in ignoring the problems birthed by the society they created.

Gilliam's worldview has always been overwhelming, and this can certainly be said of Brazil - a world that is terrifyingly and preposterously possible (and in some ways, has already been here for years) - but in this case, that is one of its strongest hands to play. It could be said that this is Gilliam's true epic, his grandest vision, and his barmiest tale all-in-one. Truly great.