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Princess Mononoke / Mononoke-hime  (1997)    75/100

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Rating :   75/100                       Treasure Chest                  134 Min        PG

‘The Last of the Mohicans’ meets ‘Star Wars’ meets ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ in this, the film that really put Studio Ghibli on the map internationally and was, upon its release in 1997, the most financially successful theatrical anime in Japan’s history, indeed becoming the highest grossing Japanese film of the year. It’s set centuries past in feudal Japan, and mixes strands of history with Japanese mythology in a tale of the perversive power of hatred, anger and fear, and the dangers of throwing nature out of balance. Princess Mononoke herself has a wonderful introduction, and indeed the entirety of her first major scene I would without hesitation enter into my list of all time favourite film moments, with her charging into an enemy fort quite determined to take on everyone in it single-handedly. One of The Red Dragon’s biggest criticisms of the film is simply that she does not feature enough. In fact, the main character is actually Ashitaka, who exists as our hero, advocating reason and diplomacy as he is abruptly sent on a quest to the heart of the forest, wherein he will encounter mankind mining the earth for iron, and in doing so waging war on the spirits of the forest – some of whom have raised Mononoke (whose name is actually a general term for spirit or monster in Japanese) since she was a mere baby.

Should you be thinking of showing this to your children, there is bloody violence, including decapitations, but it is of the sort more likely to have your kids thinking ‘cooool’ rather than being disturbed by it, worth bearing in mind nonetheless, otherwise this presents an exciting and memorable parable. It features another good score from the wonderful Joe Hisaishi, who does many of Ghibli’s films, though the colour scheme is a little less vibrant than elsewhere in their collection. Ghibli itself (pronounced Gee-Bow-Lee in Japanese, Jibly in the west) comes from the Arabic word for the Sirocco, a Mediterranean wind, with the idea being their work would come as a dramatic wind of change in the industry; which indeed has been borne out as true. Here we see perhaps the studio fully establishing their voice, and yet still retaining some traditions of Japanese anime – a young female still manages to get herself covered in writhing tentacles, for example, although here they represent subversion due to hatred, rather than sexual desire.

The hand drawn style of animation is very easy to love, and in many ways it is the product of the drive and doting attention of director and Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. In fact, he invested so much in this film he decided to retire once it was finished, although he couldn’t resist coming back to do ‘Spirited Away’ (and then several others) years later, whose success would eclipse even that of Mononoke. Due to time constraints this was the first film from the studio to introduce the partial use of computers, via the technique of ‘digital paint’, since then a practical balance was sought between traditional methods and new technology, that ultimately ended with a complete return to hand craft for all elements of animation (currently the only major studio to be doing so), beginning with ‘Ponyo’ in 2008. Also a signature imprint of Miyazaki are his strong, independent, loveable, and interesting female characters, from Mononoke to fort and iron works commander in chief Lady Eboshi, and the former prostitutes she has cheerfully working the bellows of her smelting forge. Reputedly, this stems from his seeing the animated film ‘Hakujaden’ (‘The Tale of the White Serpent’) in his youth and very much falling in love with the female protagonist.

Comparing the Japanese version with English subtitles, to the English language version with a host of big name actors doing the voice overs, the overall acting is better in the Japanese one (although Minnie Driver is great as Lady Eboshi in the other), however the audio translation (scripted by author Neil Gaiman) is better and makes more sense of the story, especially for non-Japanese audiences, than the subtitled translation, so that overall the English language version is to be recommended. It’s a little on the long side (when Harvey Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax, suggested it be abridged for release in the States, Miyazaki sent him a Katana blade with a note saying ‘No Cuts’, which simply underscores the awesomeness of Miyazaki) but this is animation with a real story and real point to make, one without any traditional ‘bad guy’, and some blood, the occasional ‘bitch’, and ex prostitutes aside, it aptly demonstrates how animation can be made to appeal to both young and old audiences alike.

Rec 2  (2009)    67/100

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Rating :   67/100                                                                       85 Min        18

The 2009 sequel to 07’s wonderful Spanish handheld horror film ‘Rec’ (which was given an American makeover in 2008 with ‘Quarantine’, which was also very good). The original featured a documentary crew embedding themselves in a Barcelona fire station and tagging along with the response to an emergency call. Little did they know they would be entombed within a building whose inhabitants were all turning into flesh eating zombies….

Rec 2 picks up exactly where the first one ended, with the camera inside a vehicle taking a military Swat Team to the cordoned off infested building. They haven’t been fully briefed on exactly what they can expect to be confronted by, so the film does suffer a little from the inevitable, ‘What the fuck? What the fucking fuck? You mean they’re freaking zombies?! Like brain eating freaking fracking zombies?!’, ‘Yup’, ‘Fucking shit man!! Wait, what’s tha…Aaaaaargh!’, ‘Well now that was pointless explaining to you, wasn’t it.’

The story behind what’s going on is expanded upon a little, and the unholy nature of the zombification process, or rather the prospect that there may be a cure or reversal, genuinely makes some of the brutality a little difficult to watch. Not as taught as the original, but still pretty good and justifying the making of a third released in 2012, and the announcement of a fourth and concluding chapter, expected toward the end of this year. The original writing/directing team of Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza returned to helm the sequel, this time joined by Manu Díez for the screenplay instead of Luiso Berdejo.

The Closed Circuit / Uklad Zamkniety  (2013)    67/100

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Rating :   67/100                                                                                     100 Min

The story behind this really makes it work. It’s a Polish language dramatisation about the true tale of three friends who set up a successful multi-million Euro company in Poland, but were then hounded by serious bribery and corruption charges. It begins painfully slowly, with many imperfections and an all too grey blueish texture that never leaves the film, a common complaint for the Polish film industry, and it would be tempting to label it a remnant of the soviet era if it were not also commonly found in the mainstream cinema of the west. Despite these faults (the grammar used in the English subtitles could also use a bit of work) the events are compelling and the performances for the most part are pretty good. In fact, in many ways the drama is underplayed – what unfolds deserved to be much more tense and harrowing for the viewer than it is.

It would be interesting to know just how close to the bone the film runs – the director Ryszard Bugajski struggled for many years to have his 1982 film ‘Interrogation’ about Stalinist repression released, and was finally able to do so with the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc, seeing it nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1990 and Krystyna Janda take home the best actress award. Given that level of commitment to voicing the truth, The Red Dragon is hopeful that Uklad Zamkniety sticks largely to the facts.

The Odd life of Timothy Green  (2012)    59/100

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Rating :   59/100                                                                     105 Min        U

There is a wonderful heart to this film, in that it focuses on a young family who find out they will never be able to have children and so, in an evening of cathartic desperation, they decide to write out all the things they imagine their child would have been, kind, ‘honest to a fault’ etc. and then they bury the list in an old wooden box in the back garden. A mysterious rain falls and up springs Timothy Green, their fully fledged nine or so years old son from the back garden, replete with leaves genetically attached to his calves.

It’s a nice idea, and the film from there on deals with issues of early, and abrupt, parenthood, and family relations and expectations. Unfortunately, it does so in an all too breezy way, and for the most part the story doesn’t prove engaging. The final third does deliver more on the emotional side of things and it is a spirited performance from the family members – Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Garner as the parents, and CJ Adams as Green, with a host of other recognisable faces appearing throughout, including David Morse and Dianne Wiest. Overall a nice, simple film, if a little flimsy – fine for young family viewing.

Spring Breakers  (2012)    23/100

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Rating :   23/100                                                                       94 Min        18

The premise of this film seems to be the following; four dehumanised, sun blasted sluts decide they absolutely have to get to spring break in Florida to ‘find themselves’. They don’t have enough money to get there, so naturally they rob a local diner with a sledgehammer and a water pistol. Arriving at their would be nirvana, what they actually find are lots of soft and hard drugs, and lots of guns. For the most past they decide this qualifies as finding themselves and they get stuck in, with the exception of Selena Gomez who has her nice girl image to think about, and so backs out in tears after showing off her body for about forty five minutes, but before her character actually really does anything else. Not that any of the girls really have much character. James Franco makes a surprisingly good appearance as a local drug dealing gangster, who takes centre stage in one of the few decent scenes by playing the piano and singing Brittany Spears whilst the girls, sporting guns and pink balaclavas with unicorns on them, join in around him.

Style has been given the priority here, with everything feeling very dark and grimy, the music is consistent in tone from start to finish, telling us this is not going to be a happy film. It doesn’t particularly glorify the drugs or the violence, at least not overall, but it doesn’t exactly condemn them either. There are a million shots of bare breasts and the girls teasing one another suggestively in skimpy, often neon coloured, underwear, but it really isn’t sexy at all. I assume that was the idea, to present them as darker beings, stylised as a priority, but perhaps with analogies to the kind of desperate, and desperately naïve, young girls who may hedonistically put their priorities in the wrong place and delve a little too deeply into the dark places of the earth, on spring break. If it was supposed to be sexy, then a Presbyterian nun could have done a better job.

There’s no particular story here, just girls, guns and a creative overwhelming darkness that makes everything about the film unappealing, the Brittany moment aside. There is constant overuse of the sound of a gun reloading loudly between scenes too, which is incredibly grating, as is the similarly irritating repeated voiceover from Franco saying ‘Spring break, forever’. Unless you have a particular craving for the flesh of Franco, Gomez, or Vanessa Hudgens who is unrecognisable as one of the girls (the other two are played by Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine – wife of the film’s writer and director Harmony Korine), avoid this one like the plague.

All Things to All Men  (2013)    63/100

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Rating:   63/100                                                                        84 Min        15

A crime thriller set in London that is in many ways comprised of very basic ingredients, but all those ingredients are executed with enough panache to make it work . Features gangsters, thieves, corrupt police officers, drugs and diamonds all to the backdrop of a good scene-setting soundtrack, and a lot of nice scenic shots of the city. It’s one of those films where you don’t need to pay a great deal of attention to get the gist of what’s going on, but when you do stop to think about it some of the trusts put in certain characters may seem a little far fetched, though on the whole it is believable enough. There’s a distinct lack of the sort of endless gratuitous swearing which is normally ever present in British gangster films, courtesy of criminals with a bit more class led by Gabriel Byrne – looking a little like Christoph Waltz here for some reason. Also with, bizarrely, Julian Sands (‘A Room with a View’ 85), Toby Stephens, and a noteworthy turn from Rufus Sewell.

The drama, of course, surrounds a fairly extreme scenario, an insider heist worth millions of pounds, but it tries to briefly touch on real issues, suggesting some officers can only make arrests by themselves committing perjury, for example, though there is no discussion as to whether that is due to the system or individuals (there is a heavy suggestion of course given the nature of the film). Unfortunately, the important work the police in Britain do is all too often undermined by stories of corruption in the media, even on a large and endemic scale such as the recent Hillsborough probe that revealed endless false testimonies from officers and the botched Jimmy Savile investigations, where scores of witnesses were never taken seriously at the time.

They are not currently being helped, however, by the present Tory government who have decided to privatise parts of the force (as well as severely cutting it) together with welfare, two elements of society that should absolutely never ever be privatised. Despite being exposed in the media as being hopelessly unfit for purpose, the agencies used in the welfare scandal, many of which have already been kicked out of other countries such as Australia, are being paid public money to effectively force the poor to work as slaves in order to receive state benefits, the equivalent of two pounds something an hour, under threat of starvation and homelessness if they refuse, using companies that should be paying them at least minimum wage to do the same job. Interestingly, a few police officers in London are also facing corruption charges over lying about what a certain Tory minister may or may not have said to them after they told him to get off his bike and walk (click here for more details), though I think their hearts were in the right place in that instance….

These socio-political things find their way into cinema, often in understated terms. Even the recent release of ‘Identity Thief’ has Jason Bateman make the comment that the police in America don’t appear to be able to do anything unless they catch someone actually in the act of committing a crime due to the bureaucracy involved (interestingly, in that film they plan to secretly record conversations to use as evidence, a stalwart of crime films. There, the police are complicit, but in most law systems, including Scotland’s, evidence gained this way is unusable in court, and generally frowned upon unless obtained with a police warrant). For a few films based on true stories of corruption see ‘Midnight Express’, Sidney Lumet’s ‘Serpico’, and the recent Polish film ‘The Closed Circuit’ for a bit of a geographical spread.

‘All Things to All Men’, takes its title from the famous phrase in the New Testament of the Bible (First Corinthians – 9:22), and is written and directed by George Isaac – a double debut for him after previous roles as producer on Noel Clarke’s gritty ‘Kidulthood’ (06) and its sequel ‘Adulthood’ (08), and overall, here he has done a pretty decent job.

As an aside, the following is a very illustrative, and important, interview between the former head of A4E (one of the private welfare agencies), Emma Harrison, and Krishnan Guru-Murthy for Channel 4 News, some of the elements they touch upon are, I believe, simply the tip of the iceberg. Also, see the equally important clip afterward from the Guardian, who were approached by a DWP whistleblower…

Dark Skies  (2013)    30/100

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Rating :   30/100                                                                       97 Min        15

The new horror film from the makers of ‘Insidious’ and ‘Sinister’ (Blumhouse Productions), and bearing similarities to their ‘Paranormal Activity’ franchise which began before those two releases, sees many familiar motifs return and take on new cross-genre twists, actually leaving the film in danger of becoming a parody of itself. The culturally ubiquitous idea of ‘The Boogeyman’ is back, and right from the beginning we are informed this stalker of children’s nightmares will now appear in the guise of extraterrestrials. Some of the scares are decent enough, though most are exactly what we expect from previous material and the screenplay is dire to say the least, especially when it comes to the adults in the story. As per the norm the action concerns an average, struggling with bills, family of four that have mysteriously become the centre of attention of some otherworldly visitors.

What the film doesn’t swipe from its predecessors, it takes very obviously from other sci-fi sources; mention of the truth being out there and wanting to believe immediately bring the wonderful ‘X-Files’ to mind, the title is shared by another nineties sci-fi tv series about alien invasion, scenes are lifted directly from both Spielberg’s ‘E.T.’ and ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, and at one point we witness scores of birds flying kamikaze style into windows and walls, identical to scenes in ‘Red Lights’. The introduction of alien expert and victim Edwin Pollard, played by J.K.Simmons, brings a bit more interest to the piece, and also a little more sympathy for the family, but it’s nothing more than a brief glimmer of what could have been with the application of more invention and originality. If done in the right way, this could have spawned a franchise in its own right, ‘Dark Skies’ the tv series was good until it lost its way toward the end, and long before that there was ‘The Invaders’ (and the bit more camp ‘V’), a fantastic series that highlighted the potential for ‘they are amongst us’ stories to engross and fascinate skeptics and believers alike.

This is a dilution of the genuinely quite scary ‘Insidious’ (10), and then the nowhere near as good ‘Sinister’ (12). Look forward to the next logical step from Jason Blum and co where the aliens discard their used human experiments at Fukushima, wherein they become zombies that all look like the girl from ‘Ringu’ and can only be properly seen by the naked eye via surveillance cameras, forcing the army to get involved, who originally blame immigrant Korean workers until the evidence becomes overwhelming, although the Japanese emperor still refuses to acknowledge what’s going on, until his wife turns into a zombie and eats him.

The Host  (2013)    59/100

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Rating :   59/100                                                                     125 Min        12A

Based on ‘Twilight’ author Stephenie Meyer’s non twilight sci-fi novel, although one could possibly guess the connection by the premise and advertising poster shown above. Where ‘Twilight’ featured a horny and irresponsible young girl at the centre of a love triangle that managed to get most of the inhabitants of her town killed, here we have a teenage love quadrangle with one female INSIDE THE BODY of another. It takes Bella’s indecision over Jacob or Edward to a whole new level.

The premise is that Earth has largely been taken over by peace loving aliens who nevertheless use human bodies as hosts, dominating them completely. The main female character Melanie, played by Saoirse Ronan, is implanted but she is strong enough for her own identity to survive and communicate with her parasitic intruder. The alien shares the memories of Melanie and recalls a romantic affair with a young male in the human resistance. Driven mad with cock lust, the extraterrestrial agrees to help Melanie but, naturally, finds she gets hot flushes from someone else, cue lots of (self) bitch slapping all round.

Ronan does a really good job given her difficult task, and she really suits the bright blue contacts which denotes alien control. Similarly, William Hurt as the autocratic leader of the resistance cell is likeable, and if you get past the fact the film is trashy crap, it is not without a certain visual appeal. The brief appearance of Emily Browning towards the end suggests the possibility of a sequel, but this may be wishful thinking on the part of the producers (there are currently no other books, but since Meyer stated as far back as 2009 she sees the story as a trilogy, it seems very likely she decided to wait and see how this film performed. She could probably churn out the other two over breakfast anyway). The film is written and directed by Andrew Nicol which, following on from his atrocious ‘In Time’ (2011), quite possibly sounds the death knell on his career, and for acting support has Jake Abel (‘Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief’ 2010), Jeremy Irons’ son Max irons (‘Red Riding Hood’ 2011), and Diane Kruger as another alien hottie.

Of note, Saoirse Ronan is also rumoured to have been cast as Mary Queen of Scots in an upcoming biopic…

G.I. Joe : Retaliation  (2013)    25/100

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Rating :   25/100                                                                     110 Min        12A

So tedious I wanted to cry. I think I even caught Bruce Willis grimacing at the hammy acting at one point. This is the sequel to 2009’s disaster that was the original ‘G.I.Joe : The Rise of Cobra’, and wisely Sienna Miller has decided not to return for the sequel – or did her character die in the first one? I really can’t remember, I don’t think it was important either way. The story feels so devoid of attention that it would be more at home as an eight page comic sold with one of the action figures that the wannabe film franchise is based on, and the director, Jon M. Chu (‘Step Up’ & ‘Step Up 3D’), thinks sticking a camera in front of actors and shaking it frantically adds to the visual experience – and that cutting to a fourth rate title sequence by interrupting the phrase “Mother-” in their aimed at younger kids film is perfectly ok.

One can easily imagine the writers researching the film by shooting at defenceless woodland creatures with bazookas. It even manages to put a narrative event which can normally save a dire film from the trash can into a blink and you’ll miss it non-event, not to mention (spoiler alert, but it is in the trailer + you shouldn’t see this film anyway) having the whole of London nuked, and then never mentioning the event again. It was as if it didn’t happen…

Hasbro make the toys, and also run the Transformers line, and here they have used some of the same sound effects from Michael Bay’s films, and seem to have even remixed some of the same music and made the main bad guy sound eerily reminiscent of Megatron. I sincerely hope this doesn’t mean they are planning to do a joint ‘Avengers Assemble’ style team-up. Presumably the Autobots will not be visiting the irradiated dead zone of the United Kingdom if they do.

To be fair, there is a reasonably good action sequence that takes place on a cliff face, with decent vertical shots that actually show where 3D can be effective, and the story does get slightly more interesting toward the end, with Jonathan Pryce gleefully playing with the nuclear launch buttons. Also with Channing Tatum, Dwayne ‘not The Rock anymore but still is’ Johnson, more swipes at politically sensitive Pakistan and North Korea (see ‘Red Dawn‘) and with Willis playing the eponymous G.I. Joe himself.

Trance  (2013)    70/100

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Rating :   70/100                                                                     101 Min        15

The first film from director Danny Boyle since his success with the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, although principal photography actually wrapped before the games took place. It’s a somewhat low key affair compared to the grandeur and spectacle of the ceremony – a taught psychological mystery revolving around James McAvoy trying to remember where he hid an extremely valuable piece of art, having received an unplanned blow to the head whilst stealing it. Something his partners in crime, Vincent Cassel amongst them (and if you’ve seen him as the titular criminal in ‘Mesrine: Killer Instinct’, this is certainly cause for concern), are none too happy about, thus they enlist the services of hypnotherapist Elizabeth, played by Rosario Dawson.

Boyle uses a lot of his trademark stylistics to just pull this film off, including apt use of techno music from Underworld’s Rick Smith (a long time collaborator of Boyle’s), off level camera angles, and a warm and somewhat unique orange hue to the cinematography, with some modern day industry standard blues thrown in there too. This artificial edginess, together with good acting, does keep it interesting, and there are enough clues along the way as to what’s going on to hold interest without completely spoiling the ending. The film also highlights a peculiarity in British and American cinema. The performance from Dawson is very committed, featuring as it does a moment of brazen full frontal nudity, which is immediately followed by a nude McAvoy sitting on a bed awaiting the libidinous attentions of Dawson’s character, and yet he has his hand covering his manhood. By comparison it seems a little ridiculous, not to mention somewhat unfair on Dawson, and, perhaps, female viewers. Surely one either has to show a similar state of vulnerability, or simply cut to the sex scene or afterwards?

With this in mind it occurred to The Red Dragon just how rare it is to see male genitalia on film outside of the arthouse realm, notwithstanding Michael Fassbender who breaks the rules by being so well endowed it is actually visible from behind in ‘Shame’. Indeed, the only incidences which come to mind at present are the very memorable scene with Harvey Keitel in the original ‘Bad Lieutenant’ and Sacha Baron Cohen in ‘Bruno’, although in that instance it was more like a covert penile assault on the audience. If female actors are going to have to do so many sex scenes, with arguably most offering nothing to the story other than visual appeal, who also have more bits per capita to want to keep private anyway, then surely more men should ‘man up’ and put it out there for public consumption too? I’m sure all the poor women who have had their private photos hacked into and then blasted over the internet, or have had a zillion cameras pointed at their legs as they get out of cars all literally hoping for the money shot, would appreciate a little more solidarity and support from their industry. Although, it would mean potentially featuring in a dire song from Seth MacFarlane at the Oscars. Ironically, both Fassbender and Scarlett Johansson (recent victim of phone hacking) were actually considered for roles in this film, with the former being offered and accepting one, but having to pull out due to scheduling conflicts.