Pentuple Bill Mini (and Cine) Musings: Thor, Billy, Romans, Gangsters, and Randy Teens...

Thor 3D:
First off the bat - the 3D is pointless. Each time I see a movie in 3D now, I become even less bothered about the whole thing, and I wasn't particularly fussed beforehand. The last time 3D was any real fun was Jackass 3D, and that revolved around poking stuff into the lens. Even Drive Angry 3D wasn't all that in 3D. Indeed, despite knowing of it, and somewhat noticing it on other 3D flicks, the 'dimming factor' of 3D glasses was very evident with Thor. Particularly during night scenes and anytime we're in Thor's home realm, the image was ridiculously dulled.

The movie itself is basically thus - it's no Iron Man, that's for sure, but it's much better paced than Iron Man 2, however I'm much more looking forward to Captain America. There's a decent amount of humour splashed throughout, Natalie Portman is likeable as ever, Hemsworth does a solid job playing the hammer-flinger himself, and it's a generally impressive movie visually. However, I wasn't especially looking forward to this movie - hardly in fact - and while I did enjoy it, it wasn't particularly memorable for me. Good, but not great. One final thing though - it's possibly the loudest (and bassiest) movie of the year.


Billy Madison:
I've never understood why some people like these particular Adam Sandler movies so much. The scripting is rarely polished, never mind vaguely tight or organised, and Sandler seems to do the same schtick from one to the other. He was really good in Funny People, but I just don't get why some people dig these Adam Sandler comedies from the 1990s so much. Like with Happy Gilmore, which I saw for the first time a little while ago, there was only a few chuckles to be had. It's just a random load of old nonsense cobbled together.


Centurion:
I loved Dog Soldiers, The Descent was terrifyingly claustrophobic, and Doomsday was a gleeful mash-up of 1980s genre cinema. I dig them all and own them all on DVD. However, Centurion never struck me with much interest and so, long after its cinematic release, I come to it on Sky Movies. It's okay - a Roman army find themselves at the mercy of the Scottish Picts in 117AD Britain, and one-by-one the survivors of a bloody encounter are picked off as they make their way home to the nearest Roman outpost. The main battles are bloody, but there are few characters to really root for, as pretty much everyone is a bloodthirsty bastard or part of a vicious empire. The scenery is fantastic, but it doesn't elevate the movie to any lasting status for me.


Once Upon A Time In America:
When I originally saw Once Upon A Time In The West, I didn't like it. However, that was several years ago, and a recent second viewing changed my opinion entirely. This time around, it's another Sergio Leone epic - this time about the rise and fall of a group of gangsters in New York, following them through the streets of early 20th century life, Prohibition, and the dying days of the 1960s. It's epic, to say the least, although I preferred the first half of the movie to the second. Perhaps a second viewing would improve my response to the movie - which was a bit cold and distanced - like what happened with Once Upon A Time In The West. Or then again, maybe it wouldn't. Perhaps I prefer Leone's westerns. America was certainly grand and sumptuous, but I wonder why the first half interested me much more than the second half.


National Lampoon's Barely Legal:
Two years before the superior (obviously) The Girl Next Door (which was essentially Risky Business for the 2000s), came this - an unfocused, only slightly amusing, American Pie wannabe about three randy virgins who decide to make a porno. There's some cheekiness throughout, but few chuckles, and the script in particular is a let down. I know for a fact I could have written something better (and I say this not from a position of arrogance) - indeed I have written better things than this - so it's grating to see such a half-assed job get made when I spend so much time focusing on character, motivation, and banter-style humour. Then again, if you've got the connections, and someone is willing to stump up cash for the project - in this case an American Pie-a-like - then you're set. So it's doubly grating as someone struggling to get into the business.

I look at a script like this and think "I could have done so much more with this idea, I could have really gone for the meat and served up some actual yucks" - I can do gross-out comedy, I can do comedy/drama, and right now I'm in the midst of doing a drama/mystery. If only I could get a paid gig, even on something like a cash-in comedy such as this, I would bloody well make it worthwhile seeing ... or at the very least give it some bloody good chuckles, like Miss March, another American Pie-a-like which wasn't great, but it sure had some bloody good laughs and a bit of style.

This, on the other hand, was cheap and mostly dull, and never delivered on the comedic promise of the central premise. National Lampoon has fallen a long way since the likes of Animal House, Christmas Vacation, and even Loaded Weapon.

Flavours of the Month: April 2011...

LOOKS:

Hot Tub Time Machine - still a bloody good laugh. "Great White Buffalo ... Great White Buffalo ... Great White Buffalo."

Event Horizon - I hadn't seen this for years, so it was a nostalgia trip as I used to watch this all the time when I was in high school (when it originally came out). Me and my mates loved it, and the fact that it featured "Funky Shit" by The Prodigy made it all the more appealing to us. I tell you what as well, it's a damn sight better than Pandorum, that's for sure.

Blue Velvet - there's a certain tone and vibe to a David Lynch project that makes them stand out from the crowd, and Blue Velvet is one of his strongest films. I'm rather looking forward to the Blu-Ray release, now that a whole load of deleted content has been recently discovered.

Jackass - I had another skim through the Jackass flicks, being that the third one recently came out on home video, for old times' sake. Now roll on whenever Jackass 3.5 comes out.

Mulholland Drive - I'd not seen it until this month, but the Blu-Ray was released not too long ago, and coming hot on the heels of another viewing of Blue Velvet, it felt like the right time. It looks nothing short of seductive on Blu-Ray, and the extra features (which are mostly in French, somewhat curiously) are intriguing - particularly the one that uses Lynch's own list of 10 clues to decipher what the movie is (most likely) about. I loved it.

MacGruber - I'm totally unfamiliar with the SNL sketch on which this is based, but we laughed hard at the cinema when we went to see it, and I certainly enjoyed it a second time around. "KFBR 392, KFBR 392, KFBR 392."

Iron Man 2 - it was about a year ago that we saw this in the cinema, and we were insanely psyched to see it. It's a shame then that it just didn't live up to the excellent trailer, nor the very enjoyable and well paced first movie. The sequel's pace is too uneven, the final battle with Vanko is bizarrely short, and it gets a bit distracted by establishing the wider Avengers franchise. There's still some cool action, but here's hoping that the third movie - apparently under the tutelage of Shane Black - re-asserts the quality factor of the first flick.

SOUNDS:

CKY "An Answer Can Be Found" - I was a little bet let down by this album back in 2005, but it's definitely better than I remembered it as being. However, Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild, and Carver City, were both superior albums in my view.

The Prodigy "Invaders Must Die" - I think it was the use of "Run With The Wolves" in the trailer for Paul that inspired me to give this a few more spins.

Angelo Badalamenti & BlueBob - there's something about the vibe, that music produced for David Lynch projects, gives off that helps get my mind into a certain place that helps me write.

Foo Fighters "Wasting Light" - after being a little bit underwhelmed by their last two albums (although I still enjoyed them, just not as much as their 2nd, 3rd and 4th outings), this is a return to form in my view. A stripped back sound with catchy songs. Make sure you check out the 'Live at 606' version of the album on the band's official YouTube channel.

Scream 2 - I gave the soundtrack CD, which I bought back in 1999, another spin after seeing Scream 4 in the cinema. It's a rather mixed album - the good comes in the form of "Eyes of Sand" (Tonic), "Dear Lover" (Foo Fighters), "Red Right Hand" (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds), "I Think I Love You" (Less Than Jake) and "She Said" (Collective Soul) ... but the bad comes in the form of the absolutely dreadful opener "Scream" (Master P), and a series of mediocre offerings filling out the rest.

White Zombie "Astro-Creep:2000", and "La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. 1" - the former is definitely my favourite White Zombie outing. Every now and then I swing by these albums in my collection and give them another spin.

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Brownies & Apple Juice - a recurring snack choice for this month.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 - it's been a while since it was released, but I got around to it for the PC. It's good fun with some pretty cool levels and a nice sense of scale. Plus, naturally, the sound design is superb, and how could you not enjoy blowing holes in buildings and then rinsing the military occupants with bullets?

Hobo With A Shotgun - trailer contests, trailers, featurettes, music, there's been a decided Hobo vibe to this month.

Allen Bridge - having broken the back of the central idea (which originated in June 2010), I finally got into writing it, and as you'll have noticed here on the blog, I've been doing a series of posts specifically about it. Inspiration has come in the form of Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks, and the music connected to those flicks, but that's not to say that this drama mystery of mine is particularly Lynchian. Those just happened to be the influences that got my mind into a particular space that allowed me to head off into my own directions and generally set a sort of tone ... if that makes sense. Continue to follow my progress with this script here on the blog.

Red Dead Redemption - replaying the story missions, ahead of L.A. Noire out later in May, I really enjoyed heading back to the dying days of the wild west with John Marston. It's possibly the best thing that Rockstar have thus far produced, even if certain elements feel very familiar from the likes of GTA.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - I've seen Blade Runner numerous times over the years, but I've never read the book. Now though I'm into the second half and I'm really enjoying it - especially as it's decidedly different to the film, so it's pretty cool to see how Blade Runner developed out of Philip K. Dick's android hunting paranoid vision.

Quiz Cocktail Supreme - it's that time of year when spring is slowly morphing into summer, and that means cider and pub quizzes. Teaming up with some chums of mine, with a name inspired by a Jackass 3D skit, we've been doing better than we thought we might.

The Royal Wedding - while I wasn't all super-psyched about it, or especially looking forward to it, I remain in favour of the Royal Family for numerous reasons (which I've gotten into elsewhere, so I won't get into it here). I ended up watching the whole thing and actually quite enjoyed it, particularly for the sheer military precision and organisation of the entire event. Besides, it's not often that an event like this happens, and we Brits are reserved in our patriotism - saving it up for grand gestures and events, such as this, every once in a while - and we really show a global audience (estimated at two billion) just how to pull off pageantry properly.

Hextuple Bill Mini (and Cine) Musings: Speed, Money, Sand, Aliens, Action, and Gore...

Fast Five:
The original movie was a pretty decent flick. I never bothered with the second or third movies, the fourth movie left me cold when the action wasn't punching, and the fifth ... well, it's actually bloody good fun. Realism is out the window in favour of big cars, big guys, and bigger action. Set in Rio, this fifth instalment brings practically every familiar face from the franchise into one huge spectacular - so characterisation, which was never a big issue in the franchise, is naturally surface-deep pretty much all the way through.

What does keep the movie bashing along at a bloody good whack though, is the action. Justin Lin clearly knows how to deliver plenty of bang for your buck, and in a movie where everything is ridiculously massive (including franchise newbie Dwayne Johnson who resembles a gun-toting mountain driving around in a glacier-sized uber 4x4) things get crazy in a big bad way. Seemingly inspired in-part by the Rio-set levels in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (a ballsy action extravaganza of a videogame), it's insanity from beginning to end with genuinely spiffing action which makes up for any drawbacks. Big, dumb fun defined.


Arthur:
The remake is upon us, weirdly at a time of financial restraint in the era of Deficit Reduction, so naturally the original with Dudley Moore was going to be trotted out. If it wasn't for Moore, who is a charmingly useless multi-multi-multi-millionaire-to-be old soak, it wouldn't be particularly interesting.


Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time:
In need of another Pirates of the Carribean (even though a fourth is on its way, no doubt ready to inspire two more sequels in-turn), Bruckheimer & Co make a big budget videogame adaptation starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a Persian Prince from the streets who gets mixed up with Gemma Arterton and a special dagger from the Gods which can turn back time. Clash of the Titans (2010) was complete and utter bollocks, a dreary old mess, but fortunately Sands of Time has decent action and a fairly decent script - notably in some nice banter between the two leads in the first half. It's no Pirates in terms of rogue charm and romp-factor, but it's not a total slouch either.


Dreamcatcher:
I do enjoy a Stephen King adaptation, even if the quality varies wildly, however this tale of four telepathic buddies getting mixed up in some alien invasion - that involves butt-born worms that inspire plenty of gas in their hosts - quickly rolls downhill from intriguing, to poorly realised. It feels off-kilter with a decidedly uneven tone and some underwhelming performances. I recall hearing pretty mixed reviews of it back when it originally came out, and now I know why. The Mist was far, far, far better.


Tango & Cash:
I'd never seen this slab of late-80s action until just the other day, and I don't know what's taken me so long. Aside from a couple of moments that are either too-comical or too-cheesy (cross-dressing, and a hokey bullet-proof van), it's a bloody good laugh - the humour and acerbic banter between Stallone and Russell being the key to the flick's charm. The style, fun, and good helping of explosive action help the movie sidestep any flaws along the way.


Saw VI:
The increasingly convoluted, nonsensical, and grusomely violent 'torture porn' (how I dislike that term) franchise hasn't been any good since part 3, but part 6 - which I've only just gotten around to - is easily the best out of parts 4, 5 and 6. There's a solid premise at the heart of the plot - revolving around the company that provided (and redacted) Jigsaw's health insurance. The opening is, however, weak - and a handful of side characters are annoyingly underwritten/just plain stupid - but it moves with a swift old pace and is, mercifully, not as pointless and incomprehensible as the previous two entries ... but it's still far removed from the low budget shocker that established an increasingly cliched and repetitive franchise. The first movie was actually bloody good, so it's a shame that this factory-line approach to the sequels has sullied the quality and importance of the original.

Triple Bill Mini (and Cine) Musings: Screamin', Journeyin' and Rollin'...

Scream 4:
The original Scream came out when I was around about 12 or 13, so I saw it on rental VHS, and at first I really enjoyed it - indeed, I was fairly new to the horror genre (although the Scream franchise has always been more thrillers than horrors) - but then I came to resent the franchise after the sequel (which I also enjoyed initially). However, I was actually resenting the fallout from Scream - the dreadful copycats and how there were no horror movies anymore, only gory thrillers. Then Scream 3 came out and it had descended into self-parody and it didn't have anything to say anymore and indeed it had quickly become old hat.

Now, more than a decade later, we have Scream 4 - and the good news is that the Scream franchise finally has something worthwhile saying again. Inspired by an endless succession of remakes, reboots, and the derisively-termed "torture porn" movement, Scream 4 still isn't all that scary - it's still more a murder mystery thriller than anything else - but it takes its trademark meta-smarts to entirely new levels, best summed-up by the opening pre-title sequence.

There's perhaps too many characters thrown into the mix - the original trilogy survivors, the new kids on the block, a succession of new cops, and a handful of side roles - but even still, the sense of re-invigoration permeates each successive act of the script. On the down side though, I had a little trouble with the final act reveal - for me, there needed to be not only more exploration of motive, but a certain key player couldn't quite sell their character's about-turn. Furthermore some of the red herrings are a little undercooked and/or overplayed, and some of the smaller roles lack enough screen time to really make an impact that's anything beyond fleeting.

However, there are plenty of knowing, self-aware gags along the way - yet amazingly, it doesn't become eye-rollingly dull or predictable - it's an entertaining ride and it really benefits from the nostalgia factor, and more than a decade of development in the horror genre, upon which it could structure its motivations.

Is a fifth, and even sixth, movie necessary however? I really don't know ... it might be best to leave the franchise on a high note, rather than end up closing a second trilogy with another Scream 3, you know?


The Darjeeling Limited:
Quite recently I'd never seen a Wes Anderson movie before - now I've seen four of his flicks - and they've all been wonderfully quirky and idiosyncratic works that have satisfied me from start-to-finish. This spiritual journey of three disconnected brothers through India retains all of Anderson's charm and unique outlook, focusing almost entirely on the three leads played by Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman. They're a believable band of brothers whose journey attempts to take them from a position of distance and distrust, to one of the close bond that seems to have escaped them over the years, especially with the death of their father and the desertion of their transient mother. A most satisfying viewing experience.


Whip It!:
If this was the 90s, the poster for this flick would be covered with slogans relating to "girl power!", because it is indeed a movie about the Hurl Scouts - a roller derby team of gals (Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore and Zoe Bell among them) who recruit fresh meat in the form of Ellen Page's 17 year-old high schooler who is seeking out her own identity. Alienated by her mother's old school fascination with beauty pageants, she is awed by the world of Texas roller derby in nearby Austin - a huge gear change from her small rural home town.

The material feels fresh, with a script and direction that is full of just the sort of vibrancy and excitement that the world of roller derby must elicit for those involved. It really hooked me in, and I could easily see myself watching it again sometime soon.

Pentuple Bill Mini Musings: Nerds, Dates, and the Summer of '73...

Revenge of the Nerds II, III and IV:
In "Nerds In Paradise" the gang are back (although not so much from Gilbert as Anthony Edwards is the does a 'one day of filming' appearance) and they're off to Florida to represent Lambda Lambda Lambda at a gathering of various fraternities. Cue the Alpha Betas seeking revenge for being booted off the Greek Council at the end of the first movie and silliness ensues. The comedy in this series never came thick & fast ... it didn't have the machine gun yuks of Airplane, and it wasn't in the era of gross-out gags of which American Pie is the most representative. Basically - Nerds in Florida, Alpha Beta's seek revenge, wins & losses occur, the Nerds win.

"The Next Generation" sees a fresh batch of geeks arrive at Adams College (from the first movie), which is now run by the nerds, but an old Alpha Beta alumni isn't happy, so he recruits Ted McGinley from the first movie and makes him Dean in order to cause trouble for all Nerd kind. Wins and losses occur, Louis has to rediscover his identity, and the Nerds win ... although part of the final act was missing for some strange reason after the DVR decided to skip 5 minutes.

"Nerds In Love" finds Booger getting married to the chick from that episode of Friends where Joey couldn't have sex, so he was repeatedly "there for her" (due to a paid fertility study). Hot chicks seem to have entirely come around to the idea that "once you go Nerd, you never go back", so the geeks are fighting off the ladies with sticks. A baby is on the way, a soon-to-be-father-in-law and his son-in-law attempt to sabotage the wedding for the sake of the 'blue blood' family tree, wins & losses occur - Nerds conquer, and everybody lives happily ever after.

At least the second had some of the edge of the first, because unfortunately the third and fourth were PG-rated TV-Movies.


Date Night:
Steve Carrell and Tina Fey are a "boring married couple from New Jersey", and somehow they find themselves chased by the mob in the Big Apple. Silliness ensues, with a few good gags and a likableness from the two leads. Comedy cannon fodder for a brain-off night.


Cemetery Junction:
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's coming-of-age comedy drama is a skilled balance of romanticism and realism set during the summer of 1973 in Reading, a place the 'Swinging Sixties' seemingly passed-by. Filled with well-observed slices of period history (e.g. social attitudes to sex, race and class), it's well worth having a look at. Thoughtful, enjoyable, but also real, the characters are grounded and satisfyingly complex and the plot moves with a considered and controlled sense of pace. Definitely worthwhile seeing.