I was watching this Movie Connections program on Trainspotting earlier. It’s interesting to see various people talk about their involvement in the film, book and the Trainspotting play with Ewen Bremner as Renton (who becomes Spud in the film version). Certainly worth a watch if you’re into the film.

- the only embeddable version of this I could find was taped off a tv by someone watching it on their Xbox!

Jaws

This is of those films I can watch over and over. Of course I have to be in the right mood to start with, but if it’s on TV and I’m channel surfing, it doesn’t have to be one of the better scenes to coerce me into seeing it through and there are some excellent scenes. This made me laugh:

Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, where the movie was filmed, did experience an increase in tourists following the film’s release. However, other seaside resorts did not fare so well that year. Overall, the holiday industry suffered as a result.

OK, so the shark does look a bit rubbery, but it’s the atmosphere. That setup on theOrca (their boat) near the final act, the bonding between those men. Also, I’d say the scariest parts are never the actual shark attacks, but the build up to them. That tuba duuhh duuuuuh ditty (courtesy of Tommy Johnson, according to Articulate). Oh, the bit that made me jump the most? I’ll always remember it – that floating corpse. It scared the hell out of me!

Waterworld

I remember seeing this when I was little. I would’ve been 7 or 8 when it came out, so I wasn’t really thinking too much about reviews and took it on its own merits. Articulate (OK so that’s not the poster’s name, but it’s easier for me to write!) mentions:

Waterworld was nominated for worst picture, worst director, worst actor and worst supporting actor at the Razzies, with Dennis Hopper “triumphing” in the latter category.

Which is a shame, I’d say. I was taken by pissing in a contraption that’d make urine into a tasy drink just as I was taken by the floating town and the massive wrecked ship near the end. Seeing the submerged city was cool too. Also, what was so very wrong with Dennis Hopper?! I thought he was a perfectly suitable ott monster to be chasing the main characters. I wasn’t too taken by the protagonist and co, true enough, but given the situation they seemed quite fitting. So it’s not a groundbreaking film, but I do find parts inspirational even if all together the film seems a little flawed.

Tropic Thunder has a brilliant ensemble cast and features one of my favourite actors, Robert Downey Jr. It pays homage to films like Platoon and Apocalypse Now, and it is laugh-out-loud funny.

Tropic Thunder sees Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) filming his directorial debut a war movie and it going badly. When he enlists the help of the author of Tropic Thunder the book, Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), the grizzled nam-vetran suggests they take the sheltered actors to the jungle and rig up cameras to shoot a far grittier movie. At this point things get all too real and Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr) and Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) must fight their way through the jungle and its hostile inhabitants.

The cast are all good, but two of them really shone for me – Downey Jr and Tom Cruises’s unexpected cameo as Les Grossman. Downey plays an Australian method actor whose dedication has driven him to have a controversial skin pigmentation to turn him black. All of his jokes are delivered perfectly. Jack Black’s Jeff Portnoy, who is known as a comedy actor playing all the roles himself (Nutty Professor style) loses his drugs and spends much of the film in a cold sweat. At his most desperate when tied to a tree, he offers his services to his comrades if they release him – “I’ll cradle the balls, stroke the shaft, work the pipes, and swallow the gravy.” . Stiller’s character sees Tropic Thunder as a way to reboot his waning career after his last lukewarm performance in Scorcher 6 (shown in an amusing trailer at the beginning of the film) and doesn’t realise that fiction has suddenly become a battle for survival. Tom Cruise’s character Les Grossman is a complete maniac and constantly shouting, be it at colleagues, friends, or ransom-demanding Viet-Cong bad guys. In his more philosophical moments he dances to rap music and dishes out reassurances – “Speedman is a dying star. A white dwarf headed for a black hole. That’s physics. It’s inevitable.” It is a pleasant surprise to see Cruise in this role and he gets plenty of laughs.

Exchanges between Downry Jr and Stiller concerning his “Simple Jack” character are both funny and at times immoral, but shouldn’t be taken to heart. Equally there are jokes concerning race, but these are never overbearing.

I would rank this near to the likes of Shaun of the Dead and Borat for laughs and for that bit more substance than your average insipid comedy – you know, the kind that have those DVD covers of puke-worthy pinks and whites with people’s faces all over them, it’s the same for books and music too…

Go see it! You will laugh. Oh, and I know what dude I am. I’m the dude playin’ the dude, disguised as another dude!

Enjoy.

I loved Ron Perlman as Hellboy and del Toro’s directing, not to mention his take on Mignola’s world of nutcase Nazis and and Lovecraftian monsters. From the trailer it was quite plain to see that Hellboy 2 would be bigger – at least visually and character-wise, but I was a little worried that the CGI-factor would swallow up everything else.

The story revolves around three pieces of a crown that are broken up in an impressive fairy-tale opening sequence and the pact between man and elf, who split the crown between each other and vow never to combine them and raise the Golden Army – an unstoppable, monstrous army of robots that were created to do very bad things. Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), the elf-king’s son, doesn’t agree with the truce, and after going into exile, returns in the present to reclaim the fragments of the crown and resurrect the Golden Army for himself.

Hellboy 2 is, as far as I’m concerned, a big success and a very enjoyable sequel to a well-rounded piece of cinema. It has fantastic visuals, great action sequences and cool characters. It has also retained the ability never to take itself too seriously, which is important for this type of film. Best of all, the humour is actually funny, so when you’re not being treated to cool fantasy sequences, you can have a giggle with the big red ape and his pals.

I’ve heard some negativity surrounding the drunken sing-song between Hellboy and Abe (Doug Jones). Personally I found this highly amusing and sadly felt I’d rather like to get drunk with the pair (yes, a big red demon and a blue aquatic psychic sometimes feel more accessible than peers). One-liners are as sharp as they were in the original, which helps (like the original) to lift the series above other, bog-standard comic book romps. Characters are built on from the previous adventure – Selma Blair’s character Liz has to deal with pregnancy, and a fiery relationship with Hellboy which they are both finding difficult. Even Abe has a new love interest in the form of Princess Nuala (Anna Walton).  Meanwhile Johann Krauss (Seth MacFarlane) appears on the scene in full, smoky glory to mix things up a little and to tread on Hellboy’s toes in some amusing scenes.

The Bureau’s gone a little bit Men In Black and the brother/sister/father thing (including the drying up skin-factor) is very Blade 2 (a previous del Toro effort, also with Luke Goss), but this can be forgiven as there are some nice, fresh ideas in the movie and some great set-pieces, for instance, the Golden Army themselves and the Elemental’s attack on the city.

If you enjoyed the first movie, I don’t see why you wouldn’t enjoy this, which is bigger, brighter, and a surprisingly welcome departure from the “Hellboy’s cursed destiny” vibe of the first film, which although present, seems to me to take a back seat. Go and see it!

It’s finally here, the edition that fans of the understated cult film Dark City have been waiting years for. I take a look at the film then and now, as I wait impatiently for the new edition, released in the UK August 8th, and July 29th in America. For the benefit of those who have not yet seen the film, I have tried to ensure the following is spoiler-free.

Dark City

In 1998, shortly before sleeper-hit movie The Matrix made it big and spawned two lackluster sequels, Alex Proyas’s Dark City was released. You may never have heard of it, but its cult success is soon to earn it a director’s cut in little over a week. Fans have been awaiting a special edition – more like the original theatrical release for nigh on a decade, and their wishes will be answered roughly around the time of the film’s tenth anniversary. What makes the film so special to those who have seen it? A good question… as a big fan myself I will try to answer. While The Matrix reused some of Dark City’s sets and the two films are often compared, they are, when you think about it, entirely different animals.
To list their similarities (and there are a few, but only rudimentary themes) may well reveal too much and spoil Dark City for the viewer. 

Essentially Dark City starts out as a murder mystery/Neo-noir as we follow a man called John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) who has lost his memory and discovers that he is connected to a string of murders. While searching for the real killer, Murdoch is pursued by a grim-yet-endearing cop Frank Bumstead (William Hurt) the slightly loopy Doctor Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) and the creepy Strangers, who seem hell-bent on Murdoch’s destruction. While it does indeed incorporate elements of mystery, crime drama and noir, it is also a sci-fi film and it keeps you guessing about what exactly is happening from beginning to end. Helpfully, Murdoch is in the same position as the audience. Luckily, all (but one*) of the major plot questions are resolved and the film ends what I consider to be one of the most satisfying finales in cinematic history. 

The cast are notable actors and actresses, with Rufus Sewell (A Knight’s Tale, The Illusionist), Kiefer Sutherland (24) and William Hurt (The Village, A History of Violence) heading up proceedings. Richard O’Brien’s portrayal of the sinister Mr Hand is played with such unique mannerisms that the rest of the Strangers (pale-skinned, well-wrapped top hats) were told to imitate his performance. Other notable characters come in the form of Jennifer Conelly’s Emma Murdoch, who lends to the proceedings a little love and at times desperation. Also, Ian Richardson’s stone-cold Mr Book, who puts in some noteworthy appearances. Absorbing all the nuances of the plot could take some time, there’s foreshadowing of events that give you the “Ahhh” factor when you remember something earlier that slightly jarred. In piecing together the rich tapestry that is the plot, you will, if you are anything like me, want to go back and watch it again. 

Sets are subtle, sometimes twisted and in places breathtaking, e.g. the Shell Beach billboard scene and the great clock. Visual references to films like Metropolis (an inspiration for the film) and The City of Lost Children while present, do not detract from the film’s wholly unique look and feel. Pacing is fast with three-second cuts, and the score fits perfectly, slowing towards the end as the film winds up. The world the peopple of Dark City inhabit – a city of perpetual night as the film’s title suggests, is a melding of past and present architecture.

There have been one or two so called plot holes* which I would argue aren’t plot holes at all, but merely ambiguities and open for interpretation (to explain what these are, may prove spoilerish, but I am open for discussion). 

Dark City Director’s Cut

At its time of release, Dark City came and went without much recognition – an unsung hero of cinema. Many of those who did see it enjoyed it immensely, although they remarked that the theatrical cut was a richer treat than the DVD release**, with better special effects for the parasite creatures (so I’ve been told). Dark City’s relatively poor takings at the box office have been accredited mainly to a poor marketing scheme and misleading trailers - it is difficult to summarize a rich story in a trailer or a blurb so that it reflects the flavour of the story in question, and even more so with a highly intricate story like Dark City.

Donnie Darko came out at the wrong time – 2001 was a bad year for releasing movies concerning plane crashes and consequently it suffered from a sporadic cinema life. However, the DVD release made it a cult and mainstream success, and soon everyone was talking about it. Fans of Dark City may hope that it will do the same in its new extended form – wishful thinking perhaps, but we shall have to see. A cinema re-release would also be nice, but you can’t have everything! 

Director’s Cut: Features 

Boasting an extra 15 minutes of footage, an already highly acclaimed commentary by Roger Ebert and others, new special effects and a silent intro (without Shreber’s voice-over, which disappointed fans of the original cinematic release, but which I actually rather like). Take a look at the following link for disc extras on the Dark City Blu-Ray version. I plan on making a follow-up post with some Dark City Noir-ish posters I’ll put together and my thoughts on the new cut.
 
The Dark City Director’s cut will be released on 8th August in the UK and July 29th in America.

Links:

Dark City Blu-Ray
Amazon Listing
HMV Listing

 **All references to the original DVD refer to the region 2 copy, without the Shell Beach game and special features.