Quantum Of Solace Review

Something Of Boris



Last night I was lucky enough to wangle a ticket to the exclusive worldwide first screening of the new James Bond film, Quantum Of Solace. Regular readers may recall my current obsession with Ian Fleming and Bond, so to get to see the film before it's general release was a genuine thrill for me, and i'm obscenely grateful to the people who enabled this to happen, you know who you are.

Set literally minutes after Casino Royale ended, the movie opens with it's usual pre-credit action sequence, but for post-Casino Royale Bond there's no jolly jape sliding down the Millennium Dome for Daniel Craig, instead we have a hard as nails car chase, with some great stunts, so realistic and pacily edited , that you almost feel each scrape and bang as the cars rattle down a mountain at full pelt. We discover Bond has had the shady Mr White captive in the boot of his car for the whole chase and Bond dutifully delivers the beaten and bleeding baddie into the arms of M, played with prim authority (as usual) by Dame Judi Dench, who aims to extract information from their captive, by whatever means necessary. We are then treated to a damp squib, of the usually iconic, title sequence, which seems half baked and underdone, which is a shame following Casino Royales great playing card suit inspired effort.



Back into the film, we learn more of the shady Smersh/Spectre-esque organisation that White belongs to, Quantum. They have, as seen in the trailer "people everywhere" including the upper echelons of MI6, and said "people" appear to spring their trap and free White. A chase ensues through the streets of Italy, and up until then I had been fairly happy with what i'd seen so far (apart from the titles), but then we are treated to a Bourne-alike chase through the city streets and rooftops. I know Bournes stunt co-ordinator, Dan Bradley, was hired to bring bigger bangs and action set pieces to Bond, but the whole sequence, (and many more to come throughout the film) just seemed to be a Bourne pastiche. I know the Bourne franchise paved the way for the new gritty realistic Bond for the 21st century, but to ape the film series to such a shameless level (roof top chase? check, tough fist fights in small enclosed apartment? check, motorbikes chase? check, have we missed anything? oh yeah jumping from building to building via windows? check) that brings absolutely nothing new to our screens, seems a sad, desperate act, for a long lived, and much loved franchise like Bond. Bond films should have action sequences that bring something new to the screen, not just a reheating of a old idea.



The plot then whistles along at great pace, hardly taking the time to explain why Bond heads for Haiti, then Austria, then Italy then England, then Columbia, and god knows where else. With a great screen writer like Paul Haggis, you'd have expected something a little more coherent from the plotting and story, but half the time, you're left scratching your head, with important dialogue being muttered at a barely audible level, in a barely understandable accent. Bond visits MI6 for some reason or another, and for some reason, the makers have decided that 21st century MI6 needs futuristic touch screen video displays a la Minority Report, which comes across as a pointless special effects exercise, where a simple old fashioned film & photo would have done the trick. Maybe they should stick their video screens in the invisible car, and make it disappear?

That said, despite the unfathomable plot (something to do with a ambitious villain masquerading as an eco-lobbyist, a political coup in southern America and a water shortage?), Daniel Craig is convincing as the cold hearted killer spy, but the writers have made the mistake of having Bond learn to love, and forgive. Bond does conflicted well in the books, but it's much harder to translate onto the screen. Eon should take heed from Seinfelds mantra 'No Lessons, No Hugs'. It's just not Bond.



Mathieu Almaric, so great in The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, brings a sleazy and creepy presence to his character, eco-shyster Dominic Greene, but he feels underused, and he never comes across as a great Bond-Baddie. We want cruel heartless killers, but he never seems to do anything too cruel, he just... talks about them? He has a henchman with comedy hairpiece fresh from Jim Carreys Dumb and Dumber trailer, but again, he never really comes across as menacing, or even that tough. I'm no fan of Jaws, but at least he appeared slightly scary. The henchman here just comes across as comic relief, not the personal bodyguard of the mastermind of a criminal empire.





The Bond girls are good though. The stunning Olga Kurylenko plays a conflicted and damaged Camille, who is also after Greene but for different reasons, and she forms an alliance with Bond once she realises they are both after the same thing. She is gorgeous and a great choice for a Bond girl. The equally stunning Gemma Arterton plays Agent Fields, a low ranking member of the Secret Service dispatched to bring Bond in once he's turned rogue. But this being Bond, she doesn't get much further than the bedroom, before Bond dispatches her with suave charm. Its a shame that it's such a slender role, as she brings innocent spunk and charm to a potentially throwaway Bond girl.





Judi Dench is great as usual, and her scenes with Daniel Craig are great. Her stern school matron M, is the perfect counterpoint to Craigs cocky self assured loose cannon, and their encounters bristle with electricity. Mathis returns, and its a welcome return, although he doesn't last long before he is brutally dispatched. Like Greene says "everything that Bond touches has a habit of withering and dying'.

There are some nice nods to the Bond legacy. His business card reads Universal Imports (fans of the books will get that one). Felix Leiter gets embroiled in the plot somehow, but he feels a little shoe-horned in. In Haiti we get a truck of coffins go by referencing Live and Let Die. So some nice touches for Bond fans.

Some of the the action set pieces are great, especially the plane dog fight, even though its resolution is a slightly creaky implausible climax. The film builds up great momentum, but ultimately the films climax sort of comes and goes with a fizzle rather than a bang. The plot feels like its leading to some big reveal that never comes. The villains demise (without spoiling too much) is rather lame and dissatisfying. And Bond learns to forgive and forget. And thats about it.


So in conclusion...

Its a disappointment of a movie i'm afraid after the brave new grounds broken in Casino Royale. Not as good as Casino Royale or Goldeneye, but definitely better than later Brosnan efforts. I'd like to see them take Bond to somewhere new next time, it doesn't need to be a continuation, thats the beauty of the franchise. Pitch him against an uber-villain, mano e mano, like Goldfinger or Scaramanga, lets have a battle of wits, not Bourne-lite.

3/5

Back To School, Raindance, & Wispa

Back To School





So... after five long, hard, broke summer months i'm finally back to uni. The second year. The year where your grades get counted towards your final result. Scary stuff. But it's good to be back for sure. Good to see your coursemates, find out what they've been up to, good to find out about your modules, and what is expected, just nice to be back. So, as usual, we have four modules this semester which all finish after we get back from the Christmas break, so even now it seems like we're running out of time. We have two theory based snore-fest modules; "Cultural History Methods & Perspectives" and "Ethics In The Media" which appear to have very tenuous links to Film & Broadcast Production, but what the hell... they say we have to do them, so i'm damn well going to give them a good go. But they are both very boring to talk about so we'll just skim right by those, to talk about the other more practical modules.

"Radio Production" is fairly self-explanatory, for our assessment we have to create a five-minute radio news feature based around a topical subject. My groups project is based around recapping the year 2008 in terms of cinema, and how it has performed, can it be classed as a vintage year? The piece has to include 5 separate recorded interviews with notable sources, and the better the source, the better the grade. So I took it upon myself to aim fairly high, and email BBC Radio 1's resident film critic James King, to see if he would participate in an interview for us. And he said yes! Which is a great boost to the project overall, and I hope we can gain a few more decent interviews for the project. As with a lot of modules, this particular one involves group work, which the mere mention of is enough to give anyone who has ever had to do group work in a university environment, an instant headache and nightmare simultaneously. There are advantages in some cases because you get to chose your group if you're lucky, and therefore can expect particular standards of work from everyone, plus you may get to work with someone you've always wanted to work with. On the flipside, if you don't know enough people in your particular class group, you can pick a nucleus of reliable friends, but you always get lumbered with someone, who for their own reasons don't have a group to work with (they were late, a newcomer to the course, they don't know anyone, they're just weird and everyone has avoided them, or worse...all of the above). And guess what, its happened to us again, after last years crazy Brazillian girl incident (text messages about nosebleeds, incomprehensible stories about penguins, regular no-shows and general crazy weirdness) I didn't think things could get much worse, but they have, but I won't be naming and shaming here, let's just say I don't expect much from our late newcomer. The problem with group work, is you all have to work together and pull in the same direction to get anything cohesive and worthy done, so when one member doesn't think on the same wavelength, or doesn't pull their weight, you have to put in extra effort, all with the annoying and frustrating knowledge that they will get the same result as you, which won't realistically reflect their input. Grrrrr annoying.

"Fiction Production" is the other practical module, and again does pretty much exactly what is says on the tin. We have to produce a five minute short film on an original idea/script, which is very exciting, as we've never worked with actors before in a real sense, on a proper project. It's also exciting, because despite being a group work module again, this time, our group is a team of film-makers in which we all get on, we all want to work with each other, and we're all genuinely excited about the project itself. Its a short comedy piece about two rival housemates who are competing with each other to get out of the house on time for work, and who will go to increasingly ridiculous lengths to out do the other (If anyone wants to read the script, let me know & i'll email it). So we are developing this as we speak, rewriting the script, scouting for locations, researching music and looking for actors. All very exciting stuff. I'll keep a tabs on this project as it moves along. It's called Pistols At Dawn, and we hope to have it finished by the end of the year.


Raindance Film Festival



As Rotten Tomatoes was a sponsor of Raindance (A UK film festival for independent films), I was very gratefully given a festival pass, giving me access to all the screenings for nothing. Unluckily I wasn't able to use it to it's full potential, but I was able to get to a couple of events. On the Saturday night I went to an evening event with Corey Feldman doing a Q&A session with clips from a few of his films. This was really good, and Corey Feldman comes across as a genuinely nice guy, possibly a little disco-damaged from his hedonistic heyday, but still a nice guy (even if he does dye his hair). He was a chatty guest offering up funny anecdotes about Gremlins, The Goonies, Lost Boys, Stand By Me etc, so I was pleased that I managed to go. A little disappointed that I didn't pluck up the courage for a photograph, or to get my DVD signed, but still a good night. Later on that evening I got to see the film that Corey was in for the festival, called The Birthday. Which to be kind, is a strange little, spanish made, but english language curio of a film. Its not had a major release, and only been seen at a spanish film festival before, and probably for a good reason. It has some nice ideas, and the last ten minutes are pretty spectacular, but its incoherent, incomprehensible and down right weird (but not in a good way) for the rest of the time. That said, I met the director Eugenio Mira, who was a lovely guy, so I won't slate the film, let's just say the guy has potential for the future.





For the closing gala night there was a screening of a new British movie called Hush. Having little prior knowledge before the film started was quite a nice experience, and the movie itself, although riddled with plot-holes, and lacking in the plausability stakes, is an effective little British thriller. Not giving too much away, the story centres on the main character, who driving along a motorway late at night with his girlfriend, spots a captive woman tied up in the back of a lorry, as it cuts them up on a turn off. A cat and mouse pursuit then ensues, and the film is beautifully shot, with decent acting turns from most involved. Its worth checking out when it hits the big screen, and marks the director Mark Tonderai as a name for the future.


Wispa Bars



Just as a small side note, in case you hadn't noticed, the classic Cadburys chocolate bar Wispa is back. Why they ever stopped making these is beyond me, and I have been totally addicted, probably having one every day for the last two weeks. A friend of mine insists that the Aero is a superior chocolate bar because of it's bigger bubbles. I put it to you that this is wrong. They ROCK.

Bring back Wispa gold next please Mr. Cadburys.



'Til Next Time....

Pineapple Express and James Bond

Pineapple Express




Being a student, it means I have been fairly broke over the summer, meaning my trips to the cinema have been limited, firstly by having zero money, secondly, by not having the time to go either, what with working every hour god sends in order to dig myself out of crippling poverty. But now, term time looms, and with that comes the student loan, which means I can begin live once more! That begins with shopping, and trips to the cinema. That began yesterday with a trip to see Pineapple Express.

The main reason I wanted to go was because of Seth Rogens recent run of good movies, Superbad (which he also co-wrote with Pineapple Express co-scribe Evan Goldberg), and Knocked Up, which, in my opinion, are two of the funniest movies i've seen in a long time. Probably the best comedies since Borat if you ask me. Having seen the trailer, and read all the reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, it had definitely made it a must see for me.

Seth Rogen plays stoner Dale Denton, whose daily routine consists of smoking joints, listening to talk radio and visiting his girlfriend at high school, whilst he's not serving subpoenas, in his daytime job. James Franco plays Dales dopey dope dealer Saul Silver, who has just had a delivery of the finest weed in all smokedom, the titular, Pineapple Express. When Dale witnesses a murder whilst delivering a subpoena, a ditched roach end, links Dale and Saul to scene of the crime and the pair go on the run from the murdering drug-baron, and his bent cop female accomplice.



The movie itself is a mixed bag really. Anyone expecting the laugh a minute gags that gave Superbad or Knocked Up its charm, may be a little disappointed. Sure its has its moments, but for me, I felt it was lacking something somewhere in the laughs department. Rogen and Franco are in fine form though, Rogen channelling the spirit of Bungle/Fozzy bear as he does so well, and Franco showing a different side to his usual brooding manner, in his zapped/pyjama wearing/idealist dealer Saul. They both clearly had a blast making this film, and the scenes of male bonding between two people who really only have a buyer/dealer relationship previous to the movie, is done really gently, and without being too sentimental. Third man in the caper is relative newcomer Danny McBride (who I recently saw in Drillbit Taylor where he plays a scheming malicious hobo, totally different to this), who plays middleman Red. Mcbride is clearly a star in the making, and his performance in this, is truly brilliant. My favourite line of his is...

"I used to carry this gun when I was a prostitute"

As the movie goes on, the plot develops, and becomes a lot more action orientated, but this works ok for me. It reminded me of a lot of '80s action flicks like Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop. And for me, this movie works better as an action flick than as an out and out comedy, but then it never really is truly either, as I said, its a mixed bag, but all in all it works.

So in conclusion...

Not the funniest comedy i've seen, but has a few belly laughs, but as a Shane Black-esque crime action caper its great.

3/5


The names Bond...



I seem to have recently developed a James Bond obsession, which began with the Sunday Times and The Times giving away the first five James Bond novels (Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, Diamonds are Forever, From Russia With Love). I read them in quick succession within a few weeks, then I got Dr No from the library. Dr No is my favourite so far, and if you have only ever seen the movies, and not tried the books, then I would highly recommend you seek them out. Bond is a much different character than the eyebrow raising, quip delivering, womaniser that he is portrayed as in the films. He is a much more human character in the books, with very human foibles such as insecurities, and genuine love and emotion for his friends, and the women he seeks out. He is also a cruel killing machine, but one who rues every death he has to cause with his own bare hands. His love for the finer things in life is taken to a near American Pyscho level obsession (If you've not read American Psycho, then seek that out too. Patrick Batemans narcissistic obsession with labels, clothes, fancy restaurants really is pyschotic) The plots vary wildly from the eventual movies, but they have a lo-fi charm to them that is irresistable. I've just ordered the whole set of Ian Fleming books for £14.99 from here, which at £14.99 for 14 books is an unbeatable offer.

I also went to see For Your Eyes Only, the Ian Fleming exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. It costs £8 or something to go, and to be honest, unless you're a fan of Ian Fleming, and not just of the Bond films, I wouldn't recommend it. But for me, it was fascinating, and the level of detail into Flemings life that the exhibition goes to should be applauded. It is ram packed with bits and pieces related to Fleming, like the typewriter and desk he wrote all the Bond Novels from, the original artwork and manuscripts for the books and also props from the films. Its not a big exhibition, and if you're only there for the James Bond stuff, it might be a disappointment. But I really enjoyed it. I even bought the poster for On Her Majesty's Secret Service from the gift shop, because I think its one of the most underrated Bond films, poor George Lazenbys only one, and because the poster is brilliant, so of the year it was made (1969). Check out Lazenbys nonchalant pose as he's flying through the air on skis. Brilliant.



Whilst we're talking about Bond I must just mention Quantum of Solace (I like the name now, it's grown on me). The new trailer is out, and it looks great, I can't wait.



Also the theme song has been played all over the radio. It's called Another Way to Die, and it's by Jack White and Alicia Keys. I really like it, it's definitely a step up from the last one by Chris Cornell, but I still feel they are missing the point with the theme thing. I'd love to have heard the Amy Winehouse/Mark Ronson offering, but hey ho.



Or alternatively, if you want to hear a version where they actually rhyme Quantum of Solace, check out Joe Cornish's version from the BBC 6 Music Adam & Joe show here...



Anyway, til next time folks....

Death Race Review

Death Race



Set in a dystopian near future, where the worlds economy has collapsed, unemployment is rife, prisons are overcrowded, and entertainment networks rule the airwaves with increasingly violent bloodsports, culminating with the eponymous Death Race, which takes place in an island prison called the Terminal, with inmates competing for the promise of a pardon and release upon their fourth race victory. Jason Statham stars as Jensen Ames, a disgraced former professional racing driver, who gets framed for the murder of his wife and child. Once incarcerated he gets enlisted by the warden Hennessy (Joan Allen) to take part in the next race under the disguise of current ratings favourite Frankenstein, who died during the last race, but whose demise is secret to the public. Death Race needs Frankenstein to keep the ratings high. Ames agrees, and aided by his pit team, with Coach (Lovejoys Ian Mcshane) in charge, he lines up on the racing line to take on a host of other racers including Frankensteins sworn enemy Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson) in a three stage race to the death, in seriously tooled up and tricked out monster cars.

Now, to be fair, i wasn't expecting much from the movie, and from the start i got what i was expecting. Starting off slowly in the world of the future, with Ames losing his job, rioting at the heavy duty plant where he works, then going home to his loving wife, where lo & behold, she gets murdered, and he gets framed. So far, so cliche. When he gets to prison we are treating to prison scenes straight out of the "How to do Hollywood Prisons For Dummies" manual, new guy gets evil eyed by the inmates, cons pumping iron, a dusty exercise yard, yadda yadda yadda, then the new guy pisses off the prison tough guys, (neo nazis obviously), obligatory fight in the canteen, and thats how he gets strong armed into the racing. We meet the tough warden Hennessy, played with icy vissitude by Joan Allen, and then introduced to the Frankenstein pit team, with the most pathetically uninspired nicknames so prevalent in tough guy action films. We have the coach of the team called Coach, the cars armorer named Gunner, and a nerdy slightly autistic technician, obsessed with facts and figures, called, wait for it, Lists.



The film really comes to life during the races themselves, and director Paul WS Anderson should be applauded for his insistence on real life special effects here, because the races and crashes are so brutal, and vivid that the film really soars during the race scenes. Its bloody, its violent, its overblown, its great. The cars look amazing, with huge armour plating, gattling guns and gadgets to put Wacky Races to shame. But then the races stop, and the plot gets dragged out again. Andersons directing is well suited to the action scenes, its flashy, quick and razor sharp, but his ear for dialogue isn't as astute, maybe he should just stick to directing?



Statham is perfectly suited to this sort of role, in this sort of movie, as he clearly puts a lot into the films themselves, without ever taking himself too seriously. It would be nice to see him get his acting chops around something a bit more cerebral and mainstream though, i think he deserves the break. The other performances are reasonable considering the walking cliches they are portraying. Joan Allen, normally appearing in serious roles, really adds ice to the warden character, and she gets the best line in the film...

"Okay cocksucker. Fuck with me, and we'll see who shits on the sidewalk."

Which got a huge laugh in the screening, for all the wrong reasons.

In comparison to the original, they really only have a few things in common other than the title, and a few character names, but the sense of stupid over the top violence for violence sakes remains. The ending is silly, the female navigator role is a bit superfluous (you need a navigator when you only race on one track?), the acting is a bit hammy in places, the characters are as 2D as the film poster, but the action is great, and worth seeing if you want to disengage from reality for a short time.

So in conclusion...

So the movie isn't aint great, but its worth seeing if your drunk, or if you just fancy switching your brain off off for 2 hours.

2.5/5

Deathrace, Jason Statham and Damien Hirst

Death Race

For those of you that don't know, there is a new movie coming out on 26th of September called Death Race, directed by much maligned director Paul WS Anderson (Alien Vs Predator, Resident Evil), and starring Jason Statham (Crank, The Transporter, Lock Stock). Its a remake of a 1970s Roger Corman exploitation movie Death Race 2000. I was asked to attend the press junket for Death Race on behalf of Rotten Tomatoes to interview Anderson and Statham, which to me, was a really cool privilege. Now there is an embargo on reviews until the 19th of September, so will publish my review then when i can, a week before its release. But just to give you a flavour of the preparation and so on that goes into a press junket, i'll just write about a few of the surrounding things first. First i watched Death Race 2000 as homework.

Death Race 2000

The movie Death Race 2000 came out in 1975, and is set in a dystopian future which sees the United States governed by a shady government, headed by The President, who rules from abroad, and where the biggest form of public entertainment is the gladiatorial Death Race. A race which sees five racers hurtling across the States in a brutal road race, in cars tricked out with machine guns and razor teeth on the front. Think Wacky Races meets Running Man. The racers gain points from killing pedestrians, and the other racers, and as you can imagine, the movie itself is crammed with ridiculous cartoon-esque violence, and unnecessary nudity, so naturally it has a huge cult following. It stars a pre-Rocky Sylvester Stallone hilariously hamming it up as Machine Gun Joe, and his main rival is a mysterious racer known as Frankenstein, as he has been patched up so many times from previous races, played by David Carradine (Bill from Kill Bill). The film itself is ridiculous, with a few moments of political satire thrown in to lend it a certain amount of gravitas, but its the cartoon violence, hilarious acting and script. that give it a certain guilty pleasure that makes it instantly watchable. 

4/5

Watch this when drunk. In fact make a drinking game which involves a shot with every death or nipple on show, and i will go down a storm.

Then i watched Crank, which according to the editor of Rotten Tomatoes, is the best of Statham's film, and which there is an imminent sequel in post-production.

Crank

This is the best all out action film i have seen in a long time. It won't be to everyones tastes though. The story centres on Jason Stathams character, hitman Chev Chelios, who wakes up one morning feeling woozy. He finds a dvd with "Fuck You" written on it. When he plays it, he discovers that a rival gang member has injected him with a slow acting poison which will kill him within the hour. Chelios soon discovers though, that by keeping his adrenaline levels high, he can keep the poison at bay. So he then proceeds to go on a full on high speed rampage on a mission to hunt down his enemy. The action is unbelievable, and the pace and direction is so urgent, that you can't help but get carried along with the film as it lurches from one ridiculous moment to another. The beauty is that its a knowing film, that never has any delusion of grandeur, never aims to be anything more than a balls to the wall action thriller, which it delivers in spades. Granted, the characters and plot is a bit cliched, but when you can see the actors and directors know that, and they play up to that, it gives the film so much charm, you can't help but laugh, and grin manically as the action is cranked up with every scene. Personally i can't wait for Crank 2, which Statham says takes the action to further crazy parts, outstripping the first film for pure entertainment value.

4/5

A brilliant, if slightly guilty, pleasure.

So i attended the junket today which was a slightly surreal experience. It was held in the Haymarket Hotel near Trafalgar Square, which is one of the most beautiful hotels i've ever been in. I was expecting a filmed interview, but it turned out to be a press interview instead, so i felt slightly underprepared, but met, and chatted with Paul W S Anderson for eight minutes. He's a lovely, chatty bloke, who invests a lot of care into his movies, but who has a bad reputation, for his many computer game adaptations, but i liked him. I liked Event Horizon, and Death Race, and i think we should be praising the guy as a Brit who has made in mainstream Hollywood. Us bloddy brits are so bloddy snobby about these things. Unless they are making arty Brit films like Shane Meadows, then we look down our noses at them. When people talk about great British filmmakers, they never mention people like Chris Nolan, or Anderson. Its as if we think they've sold out if they go to Hollywood. But come on... it's the pinnacle of modern cinema, where else would they go?

Jason Statham was an equally nice guy, full of charm, spirit, and enthusiasm for his work. He is clearly a mans man who enjoys his job. He's like a coiled spring ready to burst off. A really genuine nice guy, who has got where he is through good solid work in films like Lock Stock, Snatch, The Transporter, Crank, and also a small cameo in one of my favourite movies of the last few years Collateral. He gave me loads of insight into his forthcoming films, and it should appear on Rotten Tomatoes in the next few weeks. Good on you Jason, keep up the good work.

Damien Hirst - Beautiful Inside My Head Forever @ Sothebys

Modern art is not something i profess to know a massive amount about, but we've all heard of Damien Hirst, be it his pickled sharks and cows, or the spotted painted or the diamond encrusted skull, we all know who he is. He purported to have made $1Billion, which is phenomenal for a living artist. His latest way of subverting the art world is by creating a new collection of work, and sending it straight to the auction house for sale. Usually art is sold through galleries and dealers, before reaching the auction house, normally when they become five years old on the market. Hirst has turned this on its head by creating 223 new pieces and auctioning them straight off. Its expected to make over £65million over two days of auctions. The best part is, its all on public display at Sothebys to view, every day for the next two weeks, for free. I went for an hour today, and the collection is truly staggering. That one man could have so much output is incredible. Go down for yourself, before you miss out. There'll probably never be a better chance to see so much of Hirsts work in one place ever. The collection is full of many things, butterflies feature highly, with pieces made from butterfly specimens, even one in homage to Lincoln Cathedrals famous rose window. There are also many of the 'animal in formaldehyde' pieces he's famous for, my favourite being the unicorns decapitated head with a hacksaw in the case with it, or the flying piglet. He's really embraced bling too, with many cabinets being gold plated, and diamonds incorporated into many of the pieces. You should go check it out, it's well worth the zero entry fee!

So thats all for now. Next week read the full Death Race review here.

Til next time folks.

The Wedding...

Again, it's been too long since my last blog, but been plenty busy so just haven't had time really. 

This weekend just gone was my eldest sister Abigails wedding to Marc, after 12 years of being together. I was asked to be best man, so obviously it entailed a speech, which you can read in it's entirety here...

"Thanks to Marc for his kind words there. You should know that, now you’re a married man that’ll probably be the last time you’ll ever be able to speak for three minutes without being interrupted, so hope you enjoyed it.

So, I’m a bit nervous about the speech. I’ve always thought the best man speech to be the highlight of all the weddings I’ve been to, so I wanted mine to be funny and memorable. But I am fairly confident because I have rehearsed in front of a crowd before today, and they all wet themselves. It was in an old peoples home though so…

 Right… to business…For those that don’t know me, but I’m fairly sure you do, I’m Tom, Abi’s brother, and Marcs Best Man. Now weddings are a bit of a mystery to me, so I’ve had to do a bit of research into what exactly my duties as the best man are. I’ve always thought it was just about giving a funny speech, where I get to make fun of the groom, and tell some painful stories about him, embarrass him a bit… But come on…we all know that once he’s had a drink and he hits the dancefloor,  he won’t need me to embarrass him... I remember a couple of years back, going into town with my mates around Christmas time, we ended up in LN2. Just having a drink, we spotted this guy on the dance floor dancing around, making a nuisance of himself, looking like he was having some sort of attack, we all had a good laugh at his expense until some one points out to me “Isn’t that your sisters boyfriend?”… Yep… I remembered he’d gone out on his works Christmas party, so I went over to speak to him. Leathered he was. So I asked who he was there with, he looked around… no one. He was there on his own. Probably scared all his mates off with his dancing. So keep an eye out for him later, if he looks like he’s having a fit, don’t panic, that’s perfectly normal.

 So what are the best mans duties?

 Tradition dictates that as best man, its my duty to speak on behalf of the bridesmaids and ushers, so first of all, I’d like to propose a toast to our beautiful bridesmaids…. Hayley, Ellie, Lucie and Lilly….

 and secondly to our ushers… Danny and Jamie…

 I think you’ll agree that the bridesmaids look great and behaved impeccably. And the ushers…well at least they didn’t turn up drunk.

 My other duties are to make sure Marc is ready for the day, in the right places at the right times and so on. This isn’t just tradition, this is on a checklist handed to me by Abi yesterday. I’ll read you out a few points.

 1. Make sure Marc gets a good nights sleep.

 

Well I can confirm he slept like a baby. He wet the bed twice and woke up calling out for his mummy.

 2. Keep Marc off the booze.

 Well we’ve managed so far. I did catch him about to have a sip of beer earlier, but I stopped him in time, that was a close call. A whole sip Marc? Take it slowly for gods sake.

3. Make sure he’s dressed properly.

 Well I can confirm that he has got matching socks for once, matching cufflinks, and even matching bra and knickers too.

4. Keep him away from the bookies.

 Well he did want to go down this morning, to collect his winnings on a bet he placed in 1996 when they first met. The bet was “I bet I’ll never get married to HER”… and i’d have given good odds on that too when I first met him. But Marc has come along way from that long skinny haired light-weight gambler that he was all those years ago… Well… he’s had a haircut at least.

 No, in all serious now. I’m genuinely pleased that we got to this day, because I couldn’t be happier for the two of them. Marc, in my sister as a wife, you have gained someone who is a wonderful, loving, caring, and beautiful person. And Abi from today you’ve gained… erm… a nice dress?

 I’m honestly very happy for both of you, and Abi, with Marc you have a loving husband, who is generous, doting, caring and selfless.

 So just before we toast the bride and groom, I have a couple more best man duties. First of all I’d like to raise a toast to the parents of the bride and groom…

 David, Anne, Colin and Jenny…

 I also have a few cards to read from some people who couldn’t make it here today to read out.

 

To Abi and Marc,

 We’re sorry we couldn’t make it today, but we’re busy taking calls from all the broken hearts you’ve left behind. Also we know marriage can be tough at times so if you ever need us our number is 08457 90 90 90.

 Love the Samaritans

 

 To Abi,

 I can’t believe you’re doing this to me, I thought I’d always be your first love, why have you chosen a rake like Marc, when you could have had a hunk like me?

 Love Sylvester Stallone

 

To Marc,

 Congratulations on your big day, sorry I couldn’t make it today, only just heard about it when I got back into the country, and having to lie low for a bit.

 PS Can I get those videos back off you that I leant you before I went to Thailand?

 Love Gary Glitter

 

 So finally, I’ve just got to thank a few people.

 First i’d like to thank Abi and Marc on behalf of everyone here for inviting us all to share in your big day.

I’d also like to thank the staff here at the lawn, and the church for helping out today and making it so special for everyone

 And finally i’d like to thank Marc who said if I did a good job today, he’d let me be best man at his next wedding.

 

 So if you’ll all be upstanding in my toast.

 To the new Mr & Mrs Thorpe.

 Marc and Abi."

I had to adlib a few bits to make them sound right, but you get the idea. Not to blow my own trumpet, but it went down really well, and i got lots of people saying what a good speech it was afterwards, but i'm just glad i didn't fuck it up, and that it helped the day go smoothly. I was a bit worried that the Gary Glitter joke may have gone down like a lead balloon, but it got a big laugh out of everyone in the end.

So apart from the car crash after the reception (in the grounds of the lawn, nothing fatal) everything went well, and i'm very happy to for Marc & Abi, and just glad i could play a part on their big day. 

Other news...

At Rotten Tomatoes i've been able to start writing a weekly "UK Critics Consensus" article. It doesn't require much, just really summarising the critical response to the weeks big movies, but its definitely cool to get something published online anyway. Read last weeks here...

Back to uni end of this month, which i'm very excited about now. Got my financial notifications through, so hopefully will be able to stop working as much, and be able to concentrate on my studies, and also have some money to be able to do some stuff which i will inevitably be able to blog about. So keep your eyes peeled for more blogging as it happens.

Til next time....

New jobs, Batman Villains and other stuff...

New Jobs

Well it feels like ages since I last did this blog, nearly two week now, but that’s because I’ve been insanely busy working my nuts off in 3 (almost 4) jobs. So why is it that I’m still virtually broke? Oh well. Suppose that’s the price you pay for living in one of the priciest cities in the world (behind Tokyo and Moscow I think). So news on the job front…

 Basically I’ve landed the ultimate student job (well for me anyway) at www.rottentomatoes.com which is part of Fox Interactive Media. So basically my new MD is Rupert Murdoch (though I’ve not seen him in the office just yet, probably bump into him with wet hands coming out of the loo, you know how it is). I responded to an advert on www.gumtree.com whilst I was pinging CVs off left right and centre, in a mad scramble to get a job following the post-glasto economic black cloud that had gathered over me. I sent them a CV never thinking I’d get a response, but lo and behold, I did, so following a phone interview, and then a face to face interview, I’d got the gig. So for me, working on a movie review website with the kudos that RT has is just immense. I mean I don’t really get to review any movies myself, but it’s a cool office to work in, and a pearl for the CV. For anyone that doesn’t know, RT is a critics forum, where we compile all the reviews for that weeks movie releases, so you can get an overall picture of whether a movie is any good or not. If a reviewer thinks its good, it’s rated Fresh. Bad – Rotten. So the reviews and ratings are totted up, and the Tomatometer tells you how good the film is supposed to be. Have a look here for an example…

 http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_dark_knight/

 So you can see that Dark Knight has been universally praised giving it a tomatometer score of 94%. Certified Fresh!

 Here’s an example of a bad movie…

 http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008689-make_it_happen/

 So this has got a score of 17%. Certified Rotten!

 So my job is only one day a week, every Friday, and I compile and input all the reviews for all the movie releases, onto the site so you can see what’s fresh and what’s rotten. It’s data entry really, but is quite a laugh reading all the different reviews. Find out new ways of slagging things off from the bad reviews…

 “The Mummy franchise now really is dead, dead, dead. It is so dead, it could win gold at the Dead Olympics, establishing a new British and Commonwealth record in the 400m decomposition event.”

 Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, talking about The Mummy 3.

 But also reading reviews for movies that you might not have heard of. The best two movies, according to the reviews, from the last two weeks have been documentaries would you believe.

 http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/blindsight/

 and

 http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/man_on_wire/

 So looking forward to seeing both of those.

 Through RT I got to see a preview screening of the new Simon Pegg film “How To Lose Friends and Alienate People”, unfortunately, due to the nature of the business, I can’t actually talk about it in length just yet on here. Lets just say I liked it for now. Shame about the stupid ‘plasticman’ poster!

 So to my other job…

 I’ve just started working in a very very cheap (drinks and food) pub in East London. I enjoy the job, because its always busy, and I like the people I work with but…

 I am a bit conflicted about the nature of the pub. The prices are unbelievably low, probably the cheapest pub I’ve ever been in. You can get a pint of beer for £1.64 in there. It’s that cheap. Now anyone who may know me, knows I have a chequered history with the booze. I am a walking statistic after breaking my foot in a drunken haze last year, and I have a very close family member who struggles with a drinking problem. So it’s a love hate thing. I do enjoy a drink, sometimes too much for my own good, and probably should cut down in a alls honesty. It’s not always a good look for me. My mates and long suffering girlfriend can attest to that. So that’s where my problem lies. I think the drinks are too cheap. There are people who drink in there every day. Behaviour like that just isn’t healthy, and I’m sure the prices pay a part. If the drinks were pricier, they might cut down on drinking, but really they’re just drinking themselves to death. So I feel a bit hypocritical, but what can I do. It’s just a job really I suppose. But I really think this country as a deep ingrained drinking problem. Its widespread, and is damaging on so many levels. We need to have a better educated attitude towards drinking, and I think the government should do something about it. What that is I don’t know, but surely there should be a cap on the price of drinks for a start, and I don’t think raising the drinking to age to 21 would be a bad thing either.

 That’s probably the only time I’ll be talking even vaguely politically on here, so make the most of it!!

 

Batman – Where next?

 If you recall, in my Dark Knight review, I lamented the underusage (is that a word?) of Two-Face in the new Batman film. I thought he would have made the ideal choice of villain for the inevitable third movie in the new franchise, and I asked where next? Well it seems all the big movie websites are asking the same thing, with varying suggestions, so I thought I’d chip in my two-penneth.

 

The Penguin

 The general consensus is that Philip Seymour Hoffman is a shoe in for this…

 http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/895/895689p1.html

 I love Hoffman, especially his work in Boogie Nights, Big Lebowski and Magnolia, and there is no doubt about his acting abilities, but is he right for The Penguin? I don’t think so. I also don’t think the Penguin would be that great for the third movie either. His umbrella based crime lord buffoonery just doesn’t sit right with me, and would seem out of place in Nolans Gotham. But if we were to see the Penguin, my shout would have to be…

 

Har Mar Superstar?

 

Really only because he totally looks the part, I don’t even know if he can or even wants to act. I just thing he would fit right in, in the sleazy, grimy and crime ridden Gotham of the new Batman franchise.

 

The Riddler

 The Riddler, although a fairly preposterous villain, has great movie potential, obviously with a bit of tweaking here and there. The reports are that Johhny Depp is being lined up for this. Again, Depp is one of my favourite actors, but honestly, I think his output since “Fear and Loathing…” has been weak, my favourite being “Finding Neverland”, and maybe the first Pirates movie. Just too many kooky Tim Burton movies for me. He’s become a cliché go-to guy for quirky roles, so for him to be linked with the Riddler, is fairly predictable. But can he pull off dangerous and threatening? I don’t think so. They might as well just have Jim Carrey back. So who would I like to see? I think it needs someone who can do nerdy/kooky/threatening and edgy all at once, so I’m going to suggest…

 

John Cusack?

 

or Sam Rockwell?

 

Both have the talents to pull it off, and would be good casting decisions in my book. If I had to root for one though it’d be Rockwell. He can do no wrong in my eyes.

The Catwoman

 I like the character of Catwoman in Batman. She’s edgy, dangerous, and a good romantic foil for Bruce Wayne and Batman. As a thief though, it’d be tricky to pin a whole movie on her, so as a secondary villain I think it would work. Empire is rooting for Emily Blunt, who I think is a good choice, but a bit too classically pretty for me. There is talk of Angelina Jolie, who probably has the looks, but I don’t think is right for it at this time in her career. I think a good choice would be Rosario Dawson, but she’s already done the hard hooker role in Sin City, so probably a bit obvious. So I’m rooting for…

 

Zooey Deschanel

 

She’s got the talent, and the looks, and think would make a good foil for Bales Batman.

 There is talk of other characters, and probably it’ll end up being someone else completely different, but for now there are my choices.

 

 Other stuff…

 Adam & Joe

 Loving Adam and Joe’s BBC6 music Saturday morning show as always. If you’ve not heard it, it’s brilliant, and now award winning too. Check it out next Saturday to hear if our Meatballs video gets a mention. You can listen online, on digital radio, or they offer ‘listen again’ all week on BBC iPlayer. There is a podcast too, but I’d recommend the whole show, because the music is so good too.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/adamandjoe/

 

The Olympics

 Does anyone actually care?

The Batvoice

It wasn't just me then!

 

Til next time folks…

PS No Batman talk next week...promise!

The Science Museum, Summer Heights High and other stuff I am loving right now!

Things I am loving right now…

 

Just before I get started, I just want to make it clear that I did love The Dark Knight, and highly recommend it as the best blockbuster of the summer 2008 so far (followed by Iron Man, in case you’re wondering!). It’s just I read it back once I’d posted it, and thought I may have been a bit too negative. It is an awesome action movie, just not the slice of perfection I’d got my hopes up for. See it for the Joker fo sho.

 So following the last blogs negativity, I was hoping to write this time about something positive, and because Sian (my lovely girlfriend) she won’t read the blog because “it’ll just be about movies”, I’m gonna write about some other stuff that I’m currently digging outside of movies.

The Science Museum

  

I’ve been to the Natural History Museum many a time, both as a child on school trips, and as an adult whilst living here in London. I love the natural history museum, mainly for the dinosaurs, but also for all the other stuff in there. The section on earthquakes is great, and all the stuff about evolution and ecosystems is fascinating, and the building that houses it is truly incredible too. It’s well laid out with loads of great displays, and interactive stuff to see and do. But go in the winter… on a week day, when it’s not heaving with tourists, and screaming kids. It’s just better that way, trust me! But the Science Museum? If I’ve ever been before, then I don’t remember. It didn’t have dinosaurs in, so as a child it probably didn’t interest me much if I did. So whilst in South Kensington with some time to spare, I just popped in. That’s the beauty of London, most of the big museums are free, it’s not like this in other European capitals, so make use of it people. So what is in the science museum? Well, loads of stuff really. I didn’t do a full exploration, only the ground floor, and some of the upper floors. but what I saw was enough to get me excited about it. There is a space exploration section, which as I’ve written about before, is something I’m absolutely fascinated by, and they have parts of rockets and instruments and all sorts. They have a lifesize reproduction of the Apollo 11 moon landing module which is just immense. The best thing though is found in the “Making the Modern World” section, where they have original machines that have been built throughout the ages. They have Stephensons Rocket, the steam train, they have all these old supercomputers and so on, but the thing that really blew my mind was the original Apollo 10 Command Module. I mean, this thing flew into space, around the moon, with men in it, and then came back, it went through re-entry carrying astronauts, and now it’s in the science museum where you can look at it for NOTHING!! This thing cost millions to build, it did incredible tasks, and there it is, in all its hard worn tiny glory. This thing looks cramped for three people I tell you. So I stood gawping for ages, I’ll probably be in about 50 tourists photos when they get home, stood there mouth agape while they pose in front of this magnificent flying machine.

 There’s also an original Formula One racing car in there, think it’s a Mclaren, driven and crashed, by Kimi Raikonnen. That’s pretty awesome, nowhere near as big as I expected. You’re not allowed to take photos of it though, so that’s a shame. The third and final cool thing I saw was an installation called the Listening Post. Its basically a curved wall of small LED displays, but its wired to the internet, and so it displays snippets of conversations from chat rooms all over the world, and the thing reads them out to you. That sounds a bit rubbish but trust me, it’s hypnotic, I could have stood there for another half an hour. Go check it out, along with the rest of the Science Museum, it’s actually quite cool. And more importantly it’s free.

 http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/galleries/listening_post.aspx

 

Summer Heights High

 

This has just been shown on BBC3 and my girlfriend introduced me to it. It’s an Australian comedy show, done in a mockumentary style a la The Office, and it’s based in an aussie school following the lives of three people in the school. Chris Lilley, the writer, also stars as each character. Firstly there is Mr G, the camp as hell drama teacher who loves being the centre of attention. Then there is Ja’mie, the stuck up 11^th year girl, who is on an exchange programme from her private school. Then there is Jonah, who is a troubled and havoc causing Polynesian 8^th year. He’s the best, you just got to see the programme to understand. Hopefully the BBC will repeat either on BBC3 or even 2 in the near future. It’s about the best new comedy show I’ve seen for a long time. It’s even better than Extras in my opinion. Mr G is genius, Ja’mie is excruciating to watch, and Jonah is just downright, laugh out loud, hilarious. Check it out.

  

White Denim – Workout Holiday

 

Is it just me, or are all the best bands from the states at the moment? Other than the Arctic Monkeys, all the best stuff coming out at the moment is American. We’re producing bland bands like The Wombats, Scouting For Girls and The Pigeon Detectives (notice how the Brits can’t do good band names either), whereas this last year or so has seen blinding debut albums from New Yorks Vampire Weekend and MGMT, and now the yanks bring us White Denim. Hailing from Austin, Texas, this bluesy garage rock band are the dogs danglys. I have no knowledge of writing about music, but just trust me when I say you need to hear their debut album Workout Holiday. It rocks.

  

Other stuff that is cool…

 

My Drive Thru – Pharrell, Santo Gold and Julian Casablancas.

 This collaboration was done for Converse trainers funnily enough. A return to form for Pharrell, who’s recent productions have been a bit bland for my likings. I suppose working with two of the coolest acts in music can’t hurt either.

  

The Repetition Kills You – The Black Ghosts

 What is it with music acts nowadays? Their names either have to have black or kids in the title. The Black Kids, The Black Keys, The Black Ghosts, The Dead Kids etc etc. Anyways, this tune is cool, but it’s the video that does it for me. So simple, and yet so well done. Bravo.

 

 

Crawl – Kings Of Leon

 Kings Of Leon are pretty much my favourite current band out there bar none. Every new album raises the bar, and their sound is maturing with every new song. They totally rocked at Glastonbury, and were a major highlight for me. Roll on their new album out end of September. Anyway you can download this free track from the new album here…

 

www.kingsofleon.com

 

 

So there you go… some cool stuff for you to enjoy. Email me anytime if you want to add anything, or if you disagree!

 

tomb@falconseven.com

 

Til next time folks.

The Dark Knight Review

The Dark Knight – Review

 

Well, finally, the biggest movie of the summer so far has landed, and I was there, 10.30am at the dome with all the other saddoes desperate to see if The Dark Knight lived up to the hype that has surrounded this movie for such a long time now.

 The marketing campaign has been an absolute triumph, never before have I been as hyped to see movie than for this. I think I was as excited for the 24/7 as I would be for the 25/12! And the dividends have paid off for such a protracted and skilful campaign, as the movie has broken box-office records in the states, and will probably go on to be the highest grossing movie of 2008. But… is it any cop?

 Have a look at the posters and advert for this movie that have reviews on them, and you’ll see a plethora of 5/5s and glowing praise from every corner, so there was no doubts that when the lights went down in the cinema that I was going to be in for a treat, but would it live up to my expectations? I have been cruelly hurt this year by Indy 4, I had seen mixed reviews, and hold a great affection for Indy, so in my heart of hearts I just wanted to love it, and for it to be ace. It wasn’t. It sucked. It was like having a child, only to find out that they were an idiot and you just hated them, despite knowing that you should love them (that may be a bit strong, but you get the idea). So my expectations were set high with Dark Knight, I loved Batman Begins, and am a big Batman fan in general (not in a major geek way, I’ve read a lot of his graphic novels, but don’t subscribe to the comics, and couldn’t tell you every minor detail of his history but…still a fan), and when I read that The Dark Knight was the “Empire Strikes Back of comic book movies” my heart skipped a beat. So the lights went down, 153 minutes later they came back up and how did I feel?

 This film rocks, in many ways, but… it’s not up there with the greatest movies ever made as some reviewers may have you to believe. There’s a lot to love, but I just left the cinema with too many niggles, it just didn’t sit right with me.

 I’ll start with what’s to love.

The Joker. The Joker OWNS this movie, every time he appears he just tears the screen apart. He’s exactly how the clown prince of crime should be, a primeval force of evil nature, out to destroy and cause as much mayhem as is (in)humanly possible. The key thing is, is that they’ve avoided making it his origin movie, and this works so well. He’s a terrifying mystery. Who is this man? Why does he look so fucked up? What does he want? The best part is, in many movies, you follow the bad guy as he plots and schemes his dastardly deeds, as well as the good guy, who is out to thwart him, but not in the Dark Knight. He just pops up, causes havoc in every scene he’s in with growing brutality, then he disappears off the radar again, leaving you and Batman wondering when and where is he going to strike next, but more importantly what will he do next? This is down to the writing of his character, but more crucially down to Heath Ledger. If you ever saw Brokeback Mountain (I did, and I loved it, I think I’m man enough to admit that), then Ledgers nuanced performance as the tortured soul Ennis Del Mar would have proved to you what a terrific actor he was, but then you put that next to his portrayal as the Joker, and it just goes to show what a terrible waste of a life, his untimely demise has been. What would he have gone on to do in the future? To have seen him just reprise his role as the Joker one more time, would have been a cinematic event in itself, but is sadly something that we’ll never see. To bandy his name around for a posthumous Oscar, to me is a little bad taste, stinking of promotion for the movie at the expense of his memory, but his performance is truly awesome. You need to see it to understand how much he IS the Joker. It’s the one thing I know that will draw me back for repeat viewings of this movie for sure. I mean since when has anyone been Oscar nominated for a comic book film, come on, we all know the truth, it probably would have been unlikely, the Oscars just don’t do that sort of thing.

 What else rocks? The Bat-pod. Super badass bike for Batman, though looks impossible to drive to me. The action sequences are incredible too, better than the action from the other summer comic book films, so far, from this year (Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk), and why is that? Erm could it be a little thing called CGI, Batman uses it minimally, the other two were practically drawn by hand in a computer somewhere. Decent performances from all the actors involved. Aaron Eckhart staking his claim as leading man material, Michael Caine providing some light relief in places and Gary Oldman on form as usual. Some nice sequences and ideas in the story, the hobsons choice moment for Batman is a killer, as is the opening sequence which I can’t wait to see in Imax.

 So what sucked?

 The biggest problem I have with the Dark Knight is the plot. It’s overlong, over complicated and fairly muddled throughout. The Joker saves it from being a confusing mess. It seems like they had a lot of good ideas for what should go in, but then, just went and stuck it all in without being a bit more ruthless. There are whole sub-plots which seem never to strike the right cord, the story of Gordons team having a turncoat amongst them, keeps coming up, but in the end, you don’t really care enough about them to even be bothered. The other Gordon storyline, which comes around halfway through (I won’t spoil it for you here) is also confusing and very unrealistic. Would they tell his wife? (you’ll see).

 My other beef with the story is Harvey Dent. Two-Face is a great character with great potential as the movie villain. Dents fall from grace in this movie seems a little forced, and the tipping point comes out of nowhere. This also, in my opinion, stems from his relationship with Maggie Gyllenhaals character Rachel. This never feels real to me at any point, there doesn’t seem to be any chemistry and somehow her character comes across as underwritten. I never really cared whether she prefers Harvey or Bruce, so a few of the films key moments just struck a dull note with me. So Harvey (no surprise here) ends up being Two-Face. The special effects for which, are great, but to me, a little jarring, as from going from hardly any CGI, to CGI heavy was a little annoying. But then it seems like, the scriptwriter (Jonathan Nolan), didn’t know what to do with him next. Apparently in David Goyers script for Batman Begins, he originally outlined two sequels, with Two Face being the primary villain for the third film, which I think would have made more sense for two reasons. Firstly, they rush an ending in for Two Face, so he never really is the villain In Dark Knight, more an afterthought. But secondly, it would have made a great part 3. Seriously, where they going to go next (presuming they make one)? The Penguin would be a strange choice, he’s much more difficult to realise in this gritty realistic Gotham of Nolans Batman. Catwoman? A cat burgler as the main villain for the whole film? Mr Freeze? Not likely. Poison Ivy? Even less likely. Two Face was perfect material, but, (spoiler alert), he aint gonna make it to the sequel. They should have had the climax centre around the Joker, and have had Two-Face slink off into the shadows, ready to cause mayhem in the third movie.

 Other niggles were the mobile phone/sonar part of the story, bit too science fiction for my tastes. Going to Hong Kong? Not necessary. Rachel Dawes character has changed completely from serious earnest lawyer to flirty flighty minx in the space of one movie.

 What to say about Batman himself? His new suit is badass, he does some seriously badass stuff, and is not afraid to push the boundaries to get his results. He even does some detecting for once. More please! His scene with the Joker in the interrogation room is a personal highlight, just distilling what we should expect from Batman and the Joker into one violent little scene. One thing though… the Bat-Voice?? Bale…SORT IT OUT. It sounds silly. It sounded silly in Begins, even worse in this one. Get some strepsils or something.

 

So in conclusion…

 Go see this movie, you won’t see a better summer blockbuster this year. Forget everything I’ve said, I’m just nitpicking what is undoubtedly up there with the other great superhero movies, and go enjoy a supreme badass of a movie…

 Just don’t expect The Empire Strikes Back of superhero films! (See earlier blogs for the reasons!)

4.5/5

 

 PS A note on the trailers. Bit disappointed there was no Watchmen, but I can wait for the Imax. Hellboy 2 looks amazing, Del Toro really knows how to flick my switches when it comes to special effects. 

But the biggest turkey of the lot I saw, was the trailer that got the biggest laughs, which just goes to prove that 85% of people are idiots. The trailer for “Don’t Mess With The Zohan” which you can watch in all its pathetic glory here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28IUYMaCPZw

 

Til next time folks.

Sky Plus, German Movies and Idiots on the Tube

The Lives of Others

First of all I want to get off my chest how awesome Sky Plus is. Its one of those inventions that are just so perfect that they slot into your life with ease, and before you know it, you wonder how you ever managed without it. I’ve used Sky Plus before at other peoples houses so understood the concept, but the new place I live at has it installed, and having just had the movie package activated, I now UNDERSTAND its potential. And Sky Movie package isn’t like it used to be when we had way back when as a kid. There used to be two movie channels, and they would launch a new movie every week, and then rotate, so you could watch Sky Movies for a week, and you’d have seen every film they have to offer. Nowadays there are about 20 different movie channels, as well as another ten channels like E4 and More4 that show movies too. So what I’m getting at is, there is just such a massive array of movies you can see on a day to day basis, that you would physically never get to see every film you wanted that they show. So with Sky Plus, I can just give a quick scan through the movies of the day, pick which ones I want to see, and bingo, they record for me to watch at my leisure.

 Therein lies the real beauty. I’m an avid movie watcher, but watching movies has its limitations. I LOVE going to the cinema, the atmosphere, the trailers, the spectacle, the headaches from too many sugary sweets, the lot. But… it’s expensive, especially in London (my favourite cinema at the millennium dome is £6 even for students). So many many movies that I read about in reviews or Empire that interest me, simply slip through the net. I can’t afford it, or couldn’t be bothered to go at the time. So now the net tightens with Sky Plus, many movies I wouldn’t go to the cinema to see, or missed them or never got from the video shop, are now at my fingertips, all down to this little grey electronic box. Hallelujah. Sat on the Sky Plus memory as we speak are films as diverse as The Lives Of Others, Lady In The Water, The Hitcher (the remake) and Annie Hall. All movies I want to see, but not enough to hit the video store, or to stay up late at night to catch on TV.

 

So in getting to my point…The Lives Of Others. The German winner of the “Best Foreign Language Film” Oscar in 2007, is a worthy winner. The film is a tale of Espionage in East Germany in the 1980’s. It follows a surveillance agent for the government who is to spy on an eminent writer and his glamorous actress partner. The agent gains a conscience and begins to question the regimes motives and ethics, and gets drawn into a dangerous game. To say this is a debut directing and screenwriting effort from Florian Henckel Von Donnesmarck is astonishing. The screenplay is excellent, tautly paced with stunning twists and turns, which leave you on the edge of your seat throughout. The pace slows for the final ten minutes following the resolution of the story, but those last ten minutes are filled with tender moments which deserve to be shown, and which many other directors may have left out for the audience to ponder. But the director is obviously very fond of his characters and so gives them the denoument they deserve. The film is also beautifully lit, and gives a very somber tone to the film reflecting the mood of the overall piece. The acting is top class throughout as well, with star turns from Ulrich Muhe and Sebastien Koch being the highlights in a stunning ensemble piece.

 So In Conclusion…

 You should invest two hours in seeing this movie if you get the chance, obviously its subtitled, so may not be to everyones taste, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Something as expertly plotted as this makes you jealous that you couldn’t have written it yourself!

 5/5

 

 

On another note entirely…

 

A friend of mine has a theory that 85% of people, in general, are either rude, ignorant or downright simple. I happen to agree with this, and nowhere is this more obvious to me, than on public transport and on the tube even more so. It’s probably because it’s so cramped, that people’s glaring inadequacies and simpleton foibles are so clear to me. My personal pet hate on the tube is the buttons that say “Open” and indeed “Close” next to the door on the tube carriage. These buttons found on any other train in the country will clearly open and close the doors when needed. In London, on the tube, they don’t. The doors open automatically. They always have done, and will do everyday from 6am til 12.30am (or whenever the first and last tubes are).

 So… to the guy who barged me from behind, tutting, to press said “Open” button next to the door when the tube had pulled into Mile End station, and the doors didn’t open immediately….

 YOU’RE A STUPID PRICK

 We all want to get off the tube mate, it’s not comfy being packed in there, it’s certainly not an amenable temperature, but those buttons DO FUCK ALL. Anyone who has been on the tube more than once knows that.

 

Glad that’s off my chest anyway.

 

Anyway, back tomorrow with Dark Knight review.

 (just don’t barge me on the tube do press a pointless button or I may have to get my patented Bat-Idiot Repellant-Spray out and douse you)