Hendecuple Bill Mini Musings: Catching Up...

Dial M For Murder:
A Hitchcock classic I'd heard about for a long time, for which I found the opening twenty minutes crushingly dull (I feared it was going to be another Marnie, which I found dreadfully dull to be honest) until the main thrust of the film gets underway - then it became a tense and tricksy affair to remember.

Audition:
I've had it hanging around for literally years and I finally got around to watching it. A "sedate pace" is an understatement ... and while the melodrama of 'widower looking for love' was surprisingly interesting, it does go on for far too long, and the infamous torture scene is relatively brief, but inventive and memorable. When the melodrama subsides and the creeping sense of 'something isn't quite right about this girl and her past' begins to ratchet up, Miike does a great job in drawing out the suspense and quiet air of intimidation. The lengthy melodrama stuff does go beyond 'arty' and into 'get on with it already' territory though - twenty minutes less of that and the film would have felt better balanced.

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs:
Simon Pegg and three insanely cute baby T-Rexes steal the whole show. Straight forward family fare that really looks the part and actually looks very nice in 2D, even though it was clearly designed with its 3D theatrical release in mind.

Bronson:
Violent theatricality writ large within and about the mind of Britain's most violent and notorious prison inmate. At times it feels like a modern spin on A Clockwork Orange, and other times it feels a bit uncomfortable to watch - like it's glorifying rather than examining this figure - but however you take it, Hardy is absolutely on top form as the titular criminal - no wonder he ended up in this year's Inception.

Midnight Run:
These days the action would be ballsier and the comedy would be far less subtle, but The Adam and Joe Show had it right when they sang "proving he could swear a lot, but also make you smile" in their song Bobby DeNiro. A proper slab of 80s action comedy.

Run! Bitch Run!
Properly low budget indie rape & revenger which homages/rips off (depending on your outlook) The Last House on the Left and, most of all, I Spit On Your Grave - both of which are much better movies, but this stab at grindhouse grot has a bizarre charm to it. It's bad, but the good kind of bad - and you have to respect a genre flick with such a great trailer.

The House of the Devil:
Not an awful lot happens for the majority of the movie, but it's the careful camerawork, style and generally '80s horror flick' vibe that pulls you through - plus Noonan plays 'pleasantly creepy' better than anyone else. It would have been nice if the final act ordeal had been more drawn out though - I thought back to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre when Sally Hardesty was trapped inside the cannibal's house - the ordeal just went on and on and we really began to empathise with the character. However, in House of the Devil, that portion is over too soon for us to really get sucked into it all ... but even still, I really enjoyed this flick. You've got to be in the right mindset for a slow burn 80s style devil worshipping movie, but it is a nice reminder of how horror can also be done. Much has been made of it being "the anti-Saw-or-Hostel", but I've never liked such a dismissive stance taken to such movies. I like Hostel (1 and 2) for what they are, and there's a time and a place for them ... same goes for the Saw series, or specifically the first and third movies (two is a bit naff, while four and five are the same-old-schtick but with an impenetrable script ... and I haven't seen part six yet).

There's a time and a place for every kind of horror, and The House of the Devil is a great slice of retro suspense.

Raw Deal:
Cheesy, a bit naff, kind of rough around the edges, and with a plot rendered pointless by some decent action set pieces, it's a movie that I can now say I've seen ... but I won't be seeing it again.

A Bug's Life:
I'm a big fan of Pixar, but I'd never seen this one - so, twelve years after it was released, I had a look. Quite fun and still quite good looking, I've seen it and that's probably enough for me - just like how I've seen Cars, and Ratatouille, but wouldn't be fussed about seeing them again. For me it's just not in the same league as the brilliant WALL.E or the superb Toy Story series (still yet to see the third one, mind).

The Ipcress File:
Classic Caine. It's a bit softcore by today's standards, but the true feel of a British film with its memorable score and quality cinematography was a nice treat. A note to BBC2 (and other such channels) - stop cropping 2.35:1 movies to 16x9 - if Sky Movies can show films in their proper, true and intended aspect ratios, then so can you - stop treating people like morons, and stop pandering to morons who are angered by black bars on their telly screens. Show the whole picture for goodness sake!

The Colour of Money:
Not as ballsy (excuse the pun) as typical Scorsese flicks, it is more of a character piece with Newman picking up where he left off with The Hustler (a great film that I first saw years and years ago in high school). The script is a bit annoying when it comes to Cruise's young up-and-comer - he seemingly learns nothing from Fast Eddie as a matter of routine, which really does inspire your eyes to roll, but all the fancy pool playing and Newman's portrayal of past-his-prime Fast Eddie makes it an interesting watch. Although I must admit I got twenty minutes into it several years ago and just gave up, but I stuck with it this time.

Flavours of the Month: July 2010...

July has been a generally muggy month interspersed with spells of fresh cool, and power cuts. It has also been a month of - By Any Means 2: Sydney to Tokyo - which I gave a second viewing on DVD, and which was a good step up from the slightly disappointing first By Any Means.

A few weeks back I got into the ruddy thrilling first season of Prison Break, and I've now caught up on the other three seasons. Season Two was a strong follow-up, even if it did tail off a smidge in the last episodes, Season Three was the weakest (clearly affected by the Writer's Strike at the time) and often drew out small events to fill entire episodes, and finally Season Four, was back to the usual thrilling form ... but once again it tailed off a bit in the final third once there was yet another double-cross and things took yet another detour to drag everything out again ... and while the ending is a smidge unsatisfying in more than one respect, it was still an affecting finish to a bloody good and rather enjoyable show.

I finally caught up on the latest Splinter Cell game ("Conviction"), which seemed to encourage you to not be able to sneak around and just get you into a firefight, and while I wasn't always following the plot, I always enjoy a bit of Sam Fisher shadowy goings on. At least the "Deniable Ops" portion allowed for classic stealth gameplay in "Hunter Mode".

I've also been thoroughly getting into The Walking Dead, in anticipation of the October premiere of the TV adaptation. I've done the first three "Volumes" (or "Trades") and while Volume Two was a bit hit and miss, Volumes One and especially Three have been tip top zombie fun ... but the dialogue could use some improvement at this stage to rid itself of too much exposition and on-the-nose bluntness. Good lord though, with all the snippets of info coming out regarding the TV adaptation (including a leaked trailer from Comic-Con), it's been an absolute zed-head nerdgasm!

Musically it's been a bit of everything, but a late entry would have to be the Alan Wake soundtrack - specifically the licensed tracks featured in the game (the full orchestral soundtrack comes out in August). Particular tracks would be "Young Men Dead" by The Black Angels, "Up Jumped The Devil" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, "Haunted" by Poe, "War" by Poets of the Fall" and "In Dreams" by Roy Orbison. Alan Wake is such a well crafted game and as such the music chosen to play throughout is inspired and really supports and extends the overall tone and feel of the game.

I've also been having a Blade Runner kick with a return to the 5-disc DVD. It's one of those films that you like more, and think higher of, each time you watch it.

Finally, I've been cracking on with final touches to Summer Road. I'm looking forward to getting it finished and sent off to the BBC Writersroom. I've been working on this for seemingly ages now. Actual writing has taken place over three months in spare time, and before that I was slowly piecing everything together in the form of notes.

I'm really looking forward to getting onto Allen Bridge as well, for which I've got some considerable notes mapped out including entire scenes, and being that it's a totally different vibe (and genre) to Summer Road, it will come as a welcome change of pace for my writing - that said, I'm really quite proud of Summer Road ... I've invested a lot of time and self into it, and I think that is reflected in the almost-final (at the time of writing) product.

"Deadlands 2: Trapped" coming to Blu-Ray...

http://fangoria.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1588%3Azombie-flick-deadlands-2-attacks-dvd-and-blu-ray&catid=1%3Alatest-news&Itemid=167

And here's the extra features list:

• Audio commentary by Ugarek

• “Weapons and Tactics” featurette

• “Indie Film School” featurette

• Introduction by star Jim Krut

• Introduction by Helena, Hussy of Horror

• Soundtrack excerpts

• Trailers

The Blu-ray will include all these, plus:

• I AM ZOMBIE MAN short film series with intro by UK filmmaker Nick Thomson

• DEADLANDS: THE RISING work print with alternate ending

• Additional exclusive trailers

...

Yes indeedy, kick arse! Gary has always been very helpful to, and supportive of, properly-indie filmmakers, and has been a fan of the I Am Zombie Man shorts since the first one in 2006. Two thumbs up to Gary!

Inception...

I was really looking forward to this flick, thanks in part to the spine-tingling trailer (which annoyingly shows too many of the awesome bits, as I was to find out), but I didn't have the same "omfg!" reaction to it whilst watching that I did with The Dark Knight.

Then again, expectation will do that, and if you add in a healthy dose of "must pay close attention" then it can prove to be a challenging watch ... but it's entirely worthwhile, and will easily be in my Top Ten of 2010. However, it is most definitely the sort of movie that you simply must watch at least twice, and possibly more. It is a bit of a tricky one on the old noggin, but it's great to see an intelligent blockbuster up there on the screen.

I do enjoy some dumb fun, don't get me wrong, but there's too much of it these days and it's just lovely to see something with a strong idea that gets you thinking pulling in the punters during the summer season. Well done indeed to Nolan & Co for continuing to create wonderfully crafted, memorable films that boast brains as well as brawn.

Finally, kudos to DiCaprio and Levitt who are really proving themselves of late (although I never understood why some people hate DiCaprio so much, the dude's a ruddy good actor). Inception is a right old thinker, and while my expectations perhaps did me a slight disservice, it was still a high quality and totally worthwhile viewing experience, and I look forward to seeing it again.

Predators...

Predator is a classic, nuff said. Predator 2 is actually pretty decent, and it had an awful lot to live up to, nuff said. Aliens VS Predator (both of them) were pish ... nuff said.

And so along comes Predators, and thankfully it's pretty good. It was never going to beat the original and best, but it's easily sat there alongside Predator 2. Indeed, Predators and Predator 2 each do things better and worse than each other, so in the end they sit equally in my mind.

Adrien Brody does a surprisingly good job - I wasn't entirely sure about him being cast in the flick, but he really rose to the challenge, especially in the final punch-up, and what's more his character was actually interesting and strong. His sense of survival instinct based in the harsh realities of various war zones made for a nice twist into the mix of characters, and made the 'hunter versus prey' aspect feel more real. The realities of an injured person slowing you down to the point where you'll probably get killed came to the fore.

The previous films were of course about a Predator going on a hunt, but this film really takes the "hunt" angle and runs flat-out with it. The game preserve planet idea works better than expected (even if it still looks like earth most of the time), and the whole escalation of the Predator lore made for interesting viewing. The Predators adapt after every 'season' with new tactics and weapons, and the idea that they even hunt their own is chillingly cool.

The film does many things right. The soundtrack strikes a nice balance between reference to the original (some tracks are directly lifted with great effect) and newly recorded tracks that manage to maintain a consistency with the existing score. The homages were for the most part handled well, and I never found them to be obtrusive - it was enjoyable to catch the odd nod or wink throughout, with even a couple of quite subtle references tossed into the mix for the real franchise fanboys. Plus the action, violence and gore made for a good thrill ride.

The film isn't without fault, of course. Topher Grace doesn't stand out as well as the other actors in the ensemble (much like how he didn't leave much of a dent on Spider-Man 3), but then again I've never been fussed about him as an actor anyway. Laurence Fishburne, however, often makes a big impression, and he made a decent impression here ... it's just a shame that his appearance was almost entirely pointless. He crops up for five minutes, talks like a nutter, and sods off. It was also a shame that Danny Trejo didn't get an awful lot of screen time, and that there was a noticeable dip towards the end of the second act, but even still it was a thoroughly enjoyable time.

At last - a good movie with Predators in it!