Tag Archives: 65

300 : Rise of an Empire  (2014)    65/100

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Rating :   65/100                                                                     102 Min        15

The sequel to 2006’s phenomenally successful ‘300’, this time with director Noam Murro replacing Zack Snyder (who acts as producer and writer here) and focusing on the Athenian’s story, in particular their leader Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton), during the Greco-Persian wars in ancient Greece, with events primarily unfolding both during those of ‘300’ as well as immediately afterward. The story is burdened somewhat by an untruth told in the first instalment where Leonidas is shown to be more or less acting of his own accord when he marches 300 Spartan hoplites (soldiers) to the ‘hot gates’ of Thermopylae. In reality, a confederation of Greek city states had selected Leonidas to lead the ground forces in defence against Xerxes’ invasion, and in unison with the army a Greek fleet (of which Athenian ships were to form the bulk of) would engage the vast Persian navy at the pass around the cape of Artemisium, preventing Leonidas’ troops from being flanked.

After the infamous deeds at Thermopylae and the battle of Artemisium, there was to be a third conflict around the isle of Salamis near the Isthmus of Corinth, which forms the climax of the movie and was to prove one of the most important battles in the history of western civilisation. Technically, Themistocles wasn’t actually in charge of the Greek navy – for diplomatic reasons a Spartan, Eurybiades, had been elected overall commander as Sparta had but a handful of ships and Corinth, another seafaring city, did not want to see her Athenian rivals in charge, but in reality Themistocles seems to have called all the shots.

The film misses the chance to put all of these events into the proper context, and instead we end up with a much more contemporary action orientated, attempted spectacle. Although a lot of the details do fit into the real story somewhere, just not necessarily in the order or way that they are presented to us. One of the most egregious inventions is when we are shown the battle of Marathon, 490BC (Thermopylae, Artemisium & Salamis took place in 480BC), which is where the Athenians triumphed against the odds to defeat the first attempted Persian incursion into Attica (and of course where our modern day Marathon run originates as Pheidippides supposedly ran from Marathon to Athens to tell the people of the victory {having just ran to Sparta and back}. Admittedly, he collapsed dead from exhaustion immediately afterwards) and we see Themistocles kill the Persian king Darius I, who was in fact not even present for the battle. It is, however, true that after this Darius planned a full scale invasion before an Egyptian revolt prevented it, and that his son Xerxes would fulfil his plans after his death due to ill health, whilst Themistocles would climb ever higher within the political structure of Athen’s greatest gift to the world, its democracy, to convince the people that the city needed a navy to better protect itself from the Persians he was sure would return. Interestingly, their democracy was a direct one, wherein the people did not elect representatives to vote on their behalf, but rather voted on each issue themselves – sadly the renaissance does not seem to have reinstated this virtue in the west.

A fascinating and exciting backdrop for the film then, but unfortunately its biggest problem is the fairly childish overuse of blood effects which splatter over the screen in ever increasing amounts, which is bad enough, but what they have used looks absolutely nothing like blood and more like some sort of purple, thick, goo that splurges out of bodies over the screen constantly, more akin to raspberry jam than someone’s insides. An element of this would be ok, and fitting with ‘300’, but its obvious some scenes have been orchestrated purely with this effect in mind, rather than any focus on tension or the audience’s suspension of disbelief.

The same cinematography and stylisation from its predecessor is used once again, and it mostly looks as good as before, although there are a number of scenes with ropey CGI soldiers milling about – some of the action is reasonably satisfying, but then other elements are far too over the top. ‘300’ was the perfect blend of stylised filmmaking with a story based on truth, but here there are a lot of moments where you can say with certainty that never in a million years would what we’re watching be feasible. Stapleton has a difficult job to do, following in the footsteps of Gerard Butler’s iconic turn as Leonidas, but he does quite well overall, though it is difficult to fully get behind him, partly due to the obvious character conflict with his Australian accent (much like Sam Worthington’s as Perseus in ‘Clash of the Titans’ 2010 and its sequel) and partly because unlike in 300, we never really see the protagonist not in ‘battle mode’ as he is effectively waging war from start to finish and, ultimately, it is a bit tiring to watch someone constantly trying to look stressed, shouting and giving rousing battle speeches. In terms of Greek history he is one of the most important characters, and more of a back story and characterisation would have been much better, perhaps focusing on his rise from the poor quarter to the heights of Athenian society.

The naval battles are once again a mixture of real tactics thought to have been used on both sides (not always the correct ones though) and pure invention. Estimates for the forces involved put the Persians setting sail with 1200 ships versus the Greek navy of about one third of that, and the scale in itself is fascinating, with the film exhibiting both great artistic detail and yet tactical execution that is at once enthralling but also dubious. One of the best aspects, which the film actually gets correct, is that the Persian fleet was commanded by a female, somewhat ironically named Artemisia, the Queen of Halicarnassus. Played onscreen by the wonderful Eva Green, she was held in high esteem by Xerxes and by generals on both sides, indeed the film sees her challenge the other commanders under her to impress her and in real life the legend is that during Salamis she was being chased down by a Greek vessel and so hoisted the Greek flag and rammed into one of her own general’s ships (one she had recently disagreed with) shaking off her pursuer having convinced him she was a defector, and apparently watching from above Xerxes and his generals were equally convinced that she had just sunk an enemy ship causing the ‘god king’ to infamously comment “My men have become women, and my women men”.

The movie plays with the rivalry between Themistocles and Artemisia turning it into sexual tension – perhaps not so unmerited given the Greeks had put a high price on her head for a live capture, ostensibly, history argues, because they were so offended at being outmatched by a female, but in reality what could possibly make a greater prize and conquest for a male general? Sadly, she is treated with perhaps the greatest historical disdain with what occurs at the climatic battle.

Returning to reprise her role as Gorgo, queen of Sparta, is Lena Headey, who incredibly looks EVEN BETTER than she did in the first one, and she sizzles onscreen with a reinforced confidence that success with ‘Game of Thrones’ has no doubt brought her. Another strong and wonderful character from antiquity, she delivers lines like the one below with such relish that it is impossible not to love her.

Overall, it is a little disappointing but still reasonably fun, and it does inspire interest in the subject matter, perhaps even more so than the already well known story displayed in ‘300’. If you don’t mind much of it being ruined to some extent by self indulgent and silly effects then it might still be worth a look in, and the story is yet to be completed with the events of the following year, 479 BC, required to conclude everything. They will need a better team to helm the project if they take it that far though.

Quotes

“Themistocles. You’ve come a long way to stroke your cock whilst watching real men train.”   Lena Headey/Queen Gorgo

“Artemisia whispered the seed of madness that would consume him … He surrendered himself completely, to power so evil and perverse, that as he emerged no part of a human man survived… Artemisia watched her flawless manipulation take shape.”   Lena Headey/Queen Gorgo

“Only the gods can defeat the Greeks. You will be a god king.”   Eva Green/Artemisia

“Today we will dance across the backs of dead Greeks.”   Eva Green/Artemisia

“SEIZE YOUR GLORY!”   Sullivan Stapleton/Themistocles

“Let it be shown, that we chose to die on our feet rather than live on our knees!”   Sullivan Stapleton/Themistocles

Interviews with the leading ladies …

Dallas Buyers Club  (2013)    65/100

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Rating :   65/100                                                                     117 Min        15

Despite the very, very worthy story being told here, I found it difficult to properly engage with the gritty way in which it is delivered to the audience. The mostly true story of AIDS victim Ron Woodroof who finds he cannot afford the drugs which is believed would keep him alive (he is given approximately four weeks to live) and who ends up in Mexico trying desperately to get a hold of this life extending elixir. Whilst there, fate introduces him to a doctor who explains what he has been told about this miracle drug simply isn’t true, and instead he prescribes him several much simpler and much healthier substances, all of which were legal in the United States although not FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved. Seeing not only a way to help his own health and that of others, but also a nice way to make a lot of money, he heads back up north to set up the eponymous Dallas Buyers Club.

We bear witness to the legal ramifications of his club and those like it, whilst the pharmaceutical companies still ram their product down the throats of the medical professionals and the lives of many thousands of patients are put into the balance. Some liberties have been taken with the personal story of Woodroof and his personality, there is no mention of his daughter in the film, for example, and two central characters, fellow AIDS sufferer and transsexual Rayon (Jared Leto – pictured above on the left) and romantic interest/doc with a conscience Eve (Jennifer Garner), are entirely fictional. Matthew McConaughey gives a very committed performance as Woodroof, initially a homophobic, drug abusing electrician/rodeo cowboy and general scallywag and both he and Leto are not only up for Academy Awards this season but also lost an unhealthy amount of weight for their roles.

In a way this highlights both the eerie quality of the film and yet some of its strength – when we see these two actors who do very much appear that they are not far from death’s door, there is a part of you that is shocked and forced to consider that reality for people with the disease not just then but now too, despite the improvement in our medical understanding, and yet we are simultaneously aware in the back of our minds that these two people do not have AIDS and have in fact done this to themselves. There is a sickening quality to the deed, and we have to ask – was it necessary? When Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier starred together in ‘Marathon Man’ (76) they were preparing for a scene when Hoffman declared that he was off for a run – responding to the quizzical look from his co-worker he explained that his character had been on a run just before the scene and so he had better go for one too, to which Olivier’s response was ‘There’s a reason they call it acting’. In the scenario of this film he certainly has a point, especially in the age of computers when some weight for the naked torso scenes could probably be digitally removed. Tom Hanks last year attributed his current Diabetes condition to gaining and losing weight for some of his roles in the past and one wonders if that’s true and if so just how much he regrets doing it. McConaughey has gone from strength to strength over recent years and so it’s great to see him nominated at the Oscars and it is deserved (as is Leto’s nod) but, should the industry really be encouraging this kind of thing? How long before someone goes too far and ends up seriously ill or worse, all for the sake of a film role?

I’ve posted the clip below a few times before but it’s worth repeating here due to its relevance and also to show just how much corruptive power drugs companies still wield in today’s world, with not only the medical profession but also large parts of the sports/recreation/therapy industries being driven by chants of ‘Sell, Sell, Sell’.

Grudge Match  (2013)    65/100

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Rating :   65/100                                                                     113 Min        12A

This starts off really badly, as we are introduced to Henry ‘Razor’ Sharp (Sylvester Stallone) and Billy ‘The Kid’ McDonnen (Robert De Niro), two men who once competed professionally against each other in the boxing ring and each won one match apiece, with Razor denying any chance of a deciding bout over personal reasons – leaving unresolved issues that neither man has ever managed to put behind them, until fate intervenes to spark up their old rivalry once more. Initially it’s all a little humdrum with flat jokes and predictable character development, and scenes generally lacking any pizazz. More or less half way through it does pick up though, the story gains a little momentum, the use of music gets better, the characters come to life a bit more, the training montages go up a gear – all leading to quite a satisfying finale.

The two leads of course are famous for playing boxing roles previously; real life boxing legend Jake La Motta in ‘Raging Bull’ (1980) in the case of De Niro (best actor and editing at the Oscars), and Rocky Balboa for Stallone in his Rocky franchise (The first of which won best film at the Oscars for 1976, as well as best director and best editing) and the expected allusions are there. Alan Arkin takes on the role of the sarcastic trainer for Razor, whilst Jon Bernthal has a strong turn as The Kid’s estranged son B.J. and Kim Basinger appears as Razor’s ex-girlfriend, who is more than familiar with their thirty year grudge …

The Railway Man  (2013)    65/100

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Rating :   65/100                                                                     116 Min        15

This is based on the true story of Eric Lomax, a Scottish soldier who, after his unit were captured by the Japanese when they took Singapore (one of the biggest military defeats the British ever suffered, who were in charge of the eighty thousand or so allied troops seized that day – many of whom would perish at the hands of their captors), was forced to work on the Burma railway by the Japanese, wherein he experienced severe torture to the point that it all but ruined the rest of his life, one day compelling him to return to Japan with the aim of murdering one of his still living tormentors (this is a major departure from Lomax’s book, where he returned to Japan in order to face his demons and try and find peace, rather than setting out for cold blooded vengeance). Colin Firth plays Eric in his middle age, with Jeremy Irvine doing a good job of portraying him in the flashbacks of his youth (the picture above features Irvine on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, truly one of the few cities on the world where you can get a picture like that without the need for any digital alteration, as it looks just as historic, and just as beautiful, today).

The catalyst for this need for confrontation comes in the form of his marriage to Patricia Wallace (Nicole Kidman), as well as the intervention of his friend Finlay (Stellan Skaarsgard), when she comes to realise with some shock the mental scars that the various assaults have left him with. In terms of the film’s treatment of the war and the attempts by the Japanese to link Bangkok to Rangoon via the railway, there are much better versions out there – most notably David Lean’s ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ which won several Oscars for 1957. The historical context is only part of the story though, with the focus on Eric’s mental torment and his final one on one dance with the devil, as he returns to the scene of the crimes to find one of his captors, played by Hiroyuki Sanada (who also appeared in ‘The Wolverine‘ and ‘47 Ronin‘), now running guided tours of the facilities for profit.

The acting from all the leads is good throughout, though the film was deliberately taken out of the awards race for 2013 due to the heavy saturation of key categories. It’s good to see a treatment of the long term effects of abuse but the dramatic changes they’ve made to the original true story just feel very lazy, and somewhat misguided.

Irresistible  (2006)    65/100

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Rating :   65/100                                                                     103 Min        15

A fairly intricate psychological drama but one that’s hindered by slightly odd editing choices, though it is still worth a look and features strong central performances from Susan Sarandon, Sam Neill and Emily Blunt – for whom this was her third feature film, billed just before her appearance in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ the same year, though you would never guess she was new to big-screen productions based on her onscreen confidence here. Blunt plays the ‘irresistible’ bait, the attractive young woman Sarandon’s husband, played by Neill, is working with who is seemingly obsessed with their relationship and seems to have taken to sneaking into their home and stealing items on a regular basis, but is this really the case – or is it just a series of strange coincidences, or indeed has the stress of the wife’s pressing artwork and the recent loss of her mother taken too much of a mental toll on her?

The sympathetic and involving performances certainly hold attention throughout, and ultimately it’s a decent film, it just lacks anything to elevate it beyond that, other than an abundance, or a parliament if you prefer, of owl related things which the central character has a thing for – in fact in a dream sequence a deck of owl themed playing cards can be seen. I WISH TO POSSESS THESE ARTEFACTS.

To date the most recent film to have been written and directed by Australian filmmaker Ann Turner.

Appointment in London / Raiders in the Sky  (1953)    65/100

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Rating :   65/100                                                                       96 Min        U

Predominantly set in a British RAF base of operations during World War II that sees the main characters continually fly sorties over German soil, and leaves us wondering who will make it back and also, due to the number of unlikely things going wrong together with certain lighting effects, who may be masquerading as someone they’re not. I decided to watch this when I realised the lead is played by Dirk Bogard and it occurred to me that I was not entirely certain I could immediately put his name to a face (he is pictured above, along with Dinah Sheridan – who actually just passed away only last year). The comedic ‘Doctor’ series immediately sprung to mind once it started of course (of which he starred in four of the seven films, with Leslie Phillips eventually replacing him) and he carries a definite kind of instant onscreen sympathy and likeability, certainly for his character here who has just achieved his 87th sortie – but will he make it to his final 90th?

The film is successful in putting us inside events on the ground, but less so when it introduces the female character, appropriately called Mrs Canyons, that two of the males will fight over, namely Bogarde’s Tim Mason and William Sylvester’s cocksure ‘Mac’ Baker (he comes across very much like an American 1950’s Clive Owen), and some of the tension in the aerial missions feels somewhat neutered with the way it’s been filmed. The title comes from a future appointment in the capital that some of the pilots hope to be alive to make it to – they do actually explain what the meeting is for, but sometimes I find when everyone is speaking with classic celluloid RAF accents they end up sounding a little like competing chipmunks, and The Red Dragon couldn’t quite make out the details… It doesn’t matter anyway as they all die.

That previous statement is inaccurate. A decent war drama that unfortunately had a few drawbacks preventing it from ever really entering into the hallowed halls of classic British war films, but definitely worth a look in for fans of the genre. Raiders in the Sky is the U.S. version of the title, and interestingly the character of Mason seems to have been based on the ‘Dambusters’ leader Guy Gibson whom co-screenwriter John Wooldridge had served under in the No. 106 Squadron RAF. Wooldridge himself not only successfully completed over ninety sorties, but also set a new record time for crossing the Atlantic, from Labrador to London, of circa 5hrs 46 mins in 1944. He also conducted and scored the music for this film as part of a successful career as a film composer, before tragically being killed in a car accident in 1958 when he was only thirty nine.

The Great Beauty / La Grande Bellezza  (2013)    65/100

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Rating :   65/100                                                                     142 Min        15

From writer/director Paolo Sorrentino (‘The Consequences of Love’ 04, ‘This Must be the Place’ 11) and seemingly owing a lot to Fellini’s seminal ‘La Dolce Vita’ (60), with a similar raft of the well to do social intelligentsia going through existential crises, this Italian film follows main character Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo), a writer and one time novelist living in Rome (with a flat overlooking the Colosseum, incidentally) whom we learn never penned a second book as he was searching for ‘The Great Beauty’ of existence. A strong vein of comedy permeates this semi-surrealist consideration of the human experience, but it’s never really, to use a bit of a juxtaposition, LOL worthy despite the good intent. The undeniable sophistication of the conceptual artwork of the film is grand, but I can’t help but feel there exists a depressing smugness to not just the movie, but also many of the characters – garish in their almost nihilistic narcissism.

The avant-garde direction is at its most successful when capturing the frenetic and hedonistic atmosphere of the several florid and somewhat debauched parties that the main characters like to throw for one another, like a sort of extended cerebral series of art house Carlsberg ads (although here the product placement is very obviously for Peroni, whose ads have of course also alluded to ‘La Dolce Vita’ and Anita Ekberg’s classic scene in the Trevi Fountain). Someone I spoke to after the screening concluded that they had no idea what this film was about, but they were certain they liked it, and would probably go and see it again. I’m not sure it merits a second viewing (says I, going to see the not quite so high brow R.I.P.D again), but giving it the once over is certainly justified, and there are some nice touches – like the end credits playing over the top of footage of the Tiber in Rome, for example.

‘Baby, it’s You’ by The Shirelles, a version of which featured in the Peroni ad, followed by the original fountain scene from ‘La Dolce Vita’

Kick-Ass 2  (2013)    65/100

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Rating :   65/100                                                                     103 Min        15

The sequel to ‘Kick-Ass’, one of the most popular films of 2010, sees a return of the cast, but not director Matthew Vaughn, who instead personally selected the relatively inexperienced Jeff Wadlow to step behind the cameras and also write the screenplay. Oddly, the change in director isn’t particularly noticeable, a testimony to Wadlow and his adherence to both the previous film and the comic book source material, from Scottish writer Mark Miller.

For the series Miller has openly stated that the story is autobiographical, primarily in that when he was young, he and his pals decided to actually train to become superheroes. Eventually, reality kicked in and they changed their minds, but when writing the comics his desire to play with this concept together with his founding love of the genre produced a curious, violent, blend – central character ‘Kick-Ass’ with no powers whatsoever, trying to fight crime and often being brutalised in the process, and other characters like ‘Hit-Girl’, a schoolgirl with deadly fighting skills and an unparalleled eloquence for one-liners, who is for all intents and purposes a real superhero. Therein lies the founding problem with the series on the big screen – it’s a fun blend, but one constantly compromised by the need to get the balance spot on, an all but impossible task that sucks the heart out of the story, leaving the supporting characters, like Hit-Girl, a lot more interesting than the fraudulently motivated central one.

‘Kick-Ass 2’ sees a raft of people don capes and spandex and take to the streets to fight crime, all after being inspired by the exploits in the first movie, and Kick-Ass finds himself in a sort of very low-key Avengers style gang. Here, the aforementioned balance is constantly rattled around, with severe and dire consequences applied via a layer of gloss. A scene involving the killing of a dog was removed from the film, as was a rape scene – although the footage left in the film suggests the only reason the rape doesn’t happen is because the villain can’t get it up at the time. It’s all a little too much – sensible deletions for the sake of trying to focus on a fun, comedy comic book film, and yet it leaves the feeling of something sinister that isn’t quite being given the serious treatment it needs.

Jim Carrey has a fantastic cameo (much like he did in ‘The Incredible Burt Wonderstone’) as Colonel Stars and Stripes, but has since distanced himself from the film in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings. This is the statement he released;

“I did Kick-Ass a month before Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence. My apologies to others involved with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart.”

And the response from Chloë Grace Moretz (who plays Hit-Girl);

“It’s a movie. If you are going to believe and be affected by an action film, you shouldn’t go to see ‘Pocahontas’ because you are going to think you are a Disney princess. If you are that easily swayed, you might see ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ and think you are a serial killer. It’s a movie and it’s fake, and I’ve known that since I was a kid… I don’t want to run around trying to kill people and cuss. If anything, these movies teach you what not to do. Each to their own. I respect [Carrey’s] decision.”                Source : Huffington Post

Interestingly, the penciller for the comics, John Romita Jr, has talked about the violence he has to depict, saying he morally never thought he would be drawing the stuff, but he frankly loves the characters and the fact that it has become a movie – it’s now a guilty pleasure for him. That sort of encapsulates the difficult duality of the thing. Personally I love Hit-Girl arriving and dicing the bad guys (this film is just as gory as the first one) but there’s a definite conceit, an uneasiness to everything. Kick-Ass decides to go back to crime fighting simply because he’s bored, for example, which is a little too convenient after the events of the first film, and here the police seem a little too relaxed about allowing several teams of costumed vigilantes roam the streets – not to mention the fact real superheroes regardless of their costume would make every effort not to be noticed by the public, not withstanding the likes of Iron Man.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson returns as the titular hero, with Christopher Mintz-Plasse, as was hinted at the end of part one, becoming the bad guy – ‘The Motherfucker’. There’s a host of other bad guys who aren’t given enough screen time and barely get one line each, and indeed the climax is nowhere near as good as in its predescessor. Ultimately, it’s wayward but enjoyable, and it still left me in the mood to watch Batman again, which is no bad thing. Part three is being written as the finale. I suspect there will not be much of a happy ending.

Despicable Me 2  (2013)    65/100

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Rating :   65/100                                                                       98 Min        U

A reasonable sequel to 2010’s ‘Despicable Me’, featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig and Steve Coogan. From Illumination Entertainment (who’s other films to date are ‘Hop’ in 2011 and 2012’s ‘The Lorax’, with a release planned for next year based entirely on the Minions from this series… ) it’s easy to watch and just as easy to forget, but should be fine for families and for fans of the original. Also introduces a love story arc for main character Gru. Not very despicable.

Stolen  (2012)    65/100

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Rating :   65/100                                                                       96 Min        12A

The latest film from Nicolas Cage in a very familiar action role, reuniting with ‘Con Air’ director Simon West, who also directed last year’s ‘Expendables 2’ and the remake of ‘The Mechanic’ the year before that. This is one of Cage’s better films of late – better than the likes of ‘Drive Angry’, ‘Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance’ and ‘Bangkok Dangerous’, but not in the same league as ‘Face-Off’, nor ‘Con Air’ for that matter. Our sympathies lie with his very traditional thief with a moral code, as he tries to evade the attentions of Danny Huston’s FBI agent. It’s quite good fun, and although they have made no effort to disguise its similarities to a certain Liam Neeson flick, and it does run out of steam toward the end, it doesn’t take itself too seriously either. There are a few nods to other films as well, most noticeably ‘Con Air’, but also the likes of Ang Lee’s ‘Hulk’ (a massively underrated film) as the camera switches from a balloon of the superhero in the New Orleans Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) celebrations to Josh Lucas’ character, who played the villain in Lee’s film. Also with the ever delectable Malin Akerman, pictured above, in support.