Film 138 | Force Majeure

Force Majeure

Ruben Östlund’s 2014 Swedish movie explores the aftermath of an avalanche in which Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) believes that her husband Tomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke) prioritised his own escape over that of his family.

I can recommend it but only to a point. In every technical aspect it’s quite brilliant and the performances excellent; but I got what it was trying to say after about a quarter of the run time and it did nothing to try and build on that. There were a few other oddities, for example a character who seems like she’s going to be a main support only to totally vanish after about thirty minutes after giving a monologue about the open relationship she shares with her husband for seemingly no reason whatsoever, then two other characters turn up (one of which is played by Game of Thrones star Kristofer Hivju) and everyone acts like they were there the whole time.

If I were teaching a film studies class I’d show some scenes and examples of the interesting juxtaposition of shots and the editing and the cinematography, but aside from that it’s a sixty minute one-off BBC drama with nice scenery; padded out to double the run-time.

Films 136 & 137 | We Are Marshall & The Hound of the Baskervilles

We Are Marshall

A historical biopic based on the aftermath of a 1970 plane crash which killed 75 people, including 37 players, 5 coaches and 2 trainers from the Marshall University Thundering Herd Football team. The film focuses on the efforts of the new head coach Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) and his staff to rebuild the football program.

We Are Marshall met with a poor to average critical response upon release in 2006, and while I think this is harsh I can see where the criticism comes from. We are Marshall is an entertaining enough watch, helped by a strong cast which also includes Matthew Fox, David Strathairn, Ian McShane, Anthony Mackie, Kate Mara and January Jones; but director McG and writer Jamie Linden never truly mine all the dramatic and emotional potential of the story. The result is a well acted piece which goes-by well enough but proves to be something of a missed opportunity.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

One of the most critically acclaimed Sherlock Holmes adaptations of all time – even if it does deviate from the source material in a few places – this 1959 Hammer Horror adaptation stars British acting legends Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as well as a supporting role for Dad’s Army’s John Le Mesurier and if that doesn’t make you want to watch it, nothing will.

A Quick update…

…as the deadline looms ever closer I’m watching more films then I have time to write up. There is a chance I’ll have films watched but not written up before the deadline, so I’m posting a list of films watched but not yet updated, partly to remind myself and partly for transparency.

We Are Marshall
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Force Majeure
Night of the Demon
Good Night and Good Luck
Uncle Buck
Wolfcop
Touch of Evil
Throne of Blood

Films 134 & 135 | Dr. No & Red Sun

Dr No

I watched Dr. No on a whim as I happened to turn the TV on just before it started, and later I watched Red Sun (I’d planned to watch it but hadn’t really paid any attention to the cast.) As it turned out I’d not only  inadvertently watched two Ursua Andress films on New Years Day (yes that’s a sign of how far behind I am in updating this blog) but it was only when I began to write these up did I realise that both films shared the same director too – the British director Terence Young.

First up, from 1962, was the start of the James Bond franchise (you might have heard of it) complete with the iconic scene of a bikini-clad Andress rising out of the Caribbean sea with a knife on her thigh. I must have seen Dr. No before but only in bits, never the whole way though at once and I only remembered that scene and the open with Bond playing cards in a casino and giving a woman the “Bond, James Bond” line as a playful jibe at how she’d introduced herself.

I enjoyed Dr. No. It’s a tightly packed and enjoyable ride without a second of wasted runtime and the Caribbean locale is beautiful. I was surprised at how little Joseph Wiseman’s titular villain is actually featured as well delivered as he is when he is actually there and while it may feature a lot of now worn genre tropes (wanting to take over the world, underground lair etc) it’s important to remember that they started here.

Red Sun

Afterwards came Red Sun, a 1971 western also starring Charles Bronson, Toshirõ Mifune (famous for roles in Kurosawa works like Rashomon, Throne of Blood and Seven Samurai) and French actor Alain Delon.

Bronson and Delon are outlaws who rob a train, unaware that one of the carriages carries a Japanese ambassador. Delon double-crosses Bronson, leaving him for dead, and steals a rare sword from the ambassador. Bronson reluctantly teams up with one of the ambassadors Samurai guards (Mifune) to retrieve the sword and kill Delon.

Like Dr. No it’s tightly paced; the script is sharp and the performances good: even if the odd-couple double-act has been done a thousand times Bronson and Mifune’s team-up doesn’t feel out-dated or second-rate. It’s not a home-run by any means, but if this interests it’s worth a watch.

Films 132 & 133 | Kingsman: The Secret Service & John Wick

Kingsman: The Secret Service

There is a lesson to be learned here about the importance of a good trailer. The trailers left me with zero desire to see Kingsman as they gave the impression of a film with toothless, mindless story filled with forced humour possibly hugely annoying main character. Impressive cast be-damned it appeared to be a project Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Mark Strong and Samuel L. Jackson only undertook to stay busy and in the public eye.
It took the constant badgering of a a friend whose opinion of films I largely trust to talk me into giving it a go and even then only when he leant me a DVD copy. And I’m glad he did. Kingsman is terrific fun. It’s a knowing throwback to the days when spy movies were meant to be silly, over-the-top nonsense (and it is nonsense) rather than super-serious Bourne clones. Director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class) actually does a very clever job of ratcheting up the tension and making the pulse quicken, despite the increasing silly set-pieces (people’s heads exploding into fountains of fireworks for example). The key was in not allowing the over-the-top antics to take over the storytelling and the screenplay Vaughn co-wrote with Jane Goldman (adapted from Mark Millar’s comic) actually stays logical and focused on character despite all the daftness. And Taron Egerton doesn’t play an annoying lead character at all, he’s played with heart and respect. And humour.

Egerton is “Eggsy” an intelligent but aimless chav who gets a chance to train to become a Kingsman, a secret spy organisation independent from the constraints of politics. Jackson is the rich, eccentric billionaire megalomaniac who needs to be stopped.

John Wick

At Fake-Geeks we produce an annual film of the year list, and I’ve been trying to catch up on some of the films I missed out on seeing at the cinema before submitting my final list. After The Kingsman it was the turn of this Keanu Reeves action thriller.

The plot is achingly simple: Reeves is John Wick, a retired hitman who relieves a dog as a gift from his dying wife. The son of a Russian crime-lord kills the dog and steals Wick’s vintage car. Wick kills a lot of Russians.

John Wick is a truly old school action thriller and full of dark humour. It’s a perfect vehicle for Reeves, whose occasional wooden delivery comes across as distanced and relentlessly focused in this kind of film. In fact the casting is pretty perfect with excellent showings from Willem Dafoe, John Leguizamo and Ian McShane. Michael Nyqvist, excellent in the original Swedish version of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is terrific – and clearly having loads of fun slightly hamming it up – as the crime-lord Viggo.

It’s also brilliantly directed by Chad Stahelski who really captures the adrenaline pumping, visceral feel of the fights. Its a throw-back to an older sort of B-Movie, is entirely uncomplicated and with weaker direction and casting could have been utterly forgettable; but as it is John Wick is utterly fun.

Film 131 | Howl’s Moving Castle

Howls Moving Castle

On the whole I was a little underwhelmed by this 2004 Hayao Miyazaki film which sees a young woman, Sophie, transformed into an old woman by the Witch of the Waste after her chance encounter with the powerful wizard Howl. Unable to tell anyone about her curse she finds Howl’s Moving Castle and gains work as his cleaner, making friends with Howl’s young apprentice, a fire demon who provides heat for the house and a living scarecrow. I loved the intricate storytelling of the establishing first hour which introduces everyone’s relationships and goals (just about everyone is cursed in one way or another) and visually it’s just as rich and detailed a work as Spirited Away. But in the last hour the plot becomes muddled and almost forgotten, lost in a series of set-pieces that don’t go anywhere, there is an underdeveloped story about two countries being at war and the ending is a rushed cop-out.
It did leave me wanting to read Diana Wynne Jones’ book on which the film was based which apparently has some substantial differences. Even if I didn’t love Howls Moving Castle on the whole, it’s still an example of the fertile and rich imagination of Hayao Miyazaki and another showcase of hugely impressive animation work.

Film 130 | I Believe in Miracles

I Believe in Miracles

In 1974 Brian Clough was sacked as manager of Leeds United after just 44 days in charge (a reign which was the subject of the infamous book and film The Damned United). Looking to rebuild his career as a football manager – which had previously included leading the middle-of-the-road Derby County to the English League Title – Clough took over as manager of Nottingham Forest in January 1975. Forest were a team from a provincial city with long tradition but had never been league champions and were floundering in the middle of England’s second division. In 1977, and now joined by his long-term friend and assistant Peter Taylor, he lead them to promotion back to England’s top division. In their very first season back in the top flight, they were crowned Champions of England. The season after they beat the best completion in Europe to win the European Cup and the season after that they retained their European crown.

Coming packed full of archive footage of 70’s Britain, a super sound-track and interviews with Clough’s players of the time, I Believe in Miracles is the story of that remarkable and surely unrepeatable series of achievements.

A word now to avoid potential disappointment: This is not a biopic of Clough and you’d have to watch a few of the films and television specials on him to get a rounded portrait of the man and his achievements. Like other media available on him, I Believe in Miracles narrows its focus to just those early years of his reign as Forest manager. It also tells you what Clough did without telling you how he did it, ultimately boiling down to a ‘then we won this match, then we won that one,’ narrative and a lot of Clough’s famous quotes aren’t present (though Mohammed Ali challenging him on television makes the cut) but there are several lesser known stories told by his players. A more adventurous film-maker might have probed deeper into Clough’s methods or character or tried to use the Forest story as a lens to explore Britain at the time but Johnny Owen’s sights are trained squarely at entertaining nostalgia and he hits his target dead centre.

While it lacks in-depth analysis, I Believe in Miracles should interest any football fan, the new fan looking to learn a little about Clough or anyone wanting a nostalgic snapshot of Britain in a day gone by: an era when professional footballers trained by going jogging for a bit then eating chip butties.

Film 129 | Die Hard

Die Hard

To quote a popular internet meme; there are those who believe Die Hard is a Christmas movie and those who are wrong. I intended to watch this on Christmas Eve but ran out of time, so it became Christmas day viewing instead.

I feel like anything I say in praise of Die Hard would just be repeating countless similar sentiments online and in print from countless sources. It’s the film that turned the unfancied television actor Bruce Willis into a worldwide box-office action superstar and established Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber as one of cinemas most iconic villains.

And simply it’s just damn entertaining pure adrenaline action from start to finish and is just as much so after multiple holiday season viewings as it was the very first time.

Film 128 | Star Trek: First Contact

If you judge what someone’s favourite film is solely on how often they have watched a particular film then this is my all-time favourite film and I watched it again on Christmas Eve. I’ve mentioned in a couple of other posts about how much of a Star Trek fan I was when I was younger and this would have come out when I was nine or ten years old and at the height of my Trek fandom.

A couple of years ago I rewatched and reviewed all ten ‘original’ Star Trek films for a website and here is a repost of my entry for First Contact. It is written to be a little more fanboyish then anything else I’ve posted so far; and it does presuppose some existing knowledge of the Next Generation era of Trek but I’ve tried to amend these parts as much as possible.

Star Trek First Contact (1996)
Dir: Jonathan Frakes
Starring: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, James Cromwell, Alfre Woodard, Alice Krige, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Neal McDonough, Michael Horton
Run-Time: 111 Mins

It was bound to happen sooner or later wasn’t it? Having to review a film that I’m completely incapable of discussing with even a modicum of objectivity.

I can’t hand-on-heart claim that Star Trek: First Contact belongs near a discussion of the best films of all time, but it is my favourite. I’ve watched it more times that I’ve watched any other, and the only thing close to disappointment I feel when I re-watch it again is that it feels too short! I want the space battle scenes to last longer, I want more of Riker, LaForge and Cochran, I want more interactions between Data and the Borg Queen. I suppose that this is evidence that director (and star) Jonathan Frakes has got it just right; First Contact leaves you wanting more while not feeling in the slightest bit short changed.

My raging fanboysim aside, this is the only true contender with Wrath of Khan for the title of best Star Trek film. The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Country are worthy candidates, the 2009 reboot gets a mention, but these two stand ahead of the rest of the field.

In discussions about what to do with the follow-up to Generations, Producer Rick Berman wanted to do a time-travel story, while writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore wanted to utilise the Borg (cybernetic zombies in space). They simply combined ideas.
The Borg send a ship back in time to a weaker point in human history and assimilate humanity into their collective.
The Enterprise follows the Borg ship and realises that they are trying to prevent First Contact, an historic event when the humanity meets an alien race for the first time after Zefram Cochrane’s (Cromwell) first ever Warp Drive flight (an early draft had the Borg taking over a renaissance era castle instead.)
While Riker, LaForge and Troi (Frakes, Burton & Sirtis) help ensure that Cochrane’s flight goes ahead, the rest of the Enterprise crew deal with a Borg invasion of the ship, and the kidnapping of Data (Spiner) by the Borg Queen (Krige.)

The script deserves the highest praise, mixing horror, action and some humour, but mostly due to the dialogue. First Contact is the most quoteable Trek film since Khan and one of the most quoteable films in the science-fiction genre. There are any number of bad-ass one liners, memorable replies and well crafted exchanges (an argument between Stewart’s Picard and Dorn’s Worf contains two of the most quoted lines in Trekdom back-to-back) but it also pays attention to character. For a movie criticised for being too action focused and not giving casual audiences enough of a reason to care about any character outside of Picard, Cochrane and Data (and possibly in the grander scheme of things there is something of a point here), the script gives numerous smaller strokes of character; although admittedly these are probably better appreciated by existing fans. Look for example, at the reactions of LaForge and Barclay (The A-Team’s Dwight Schultz) to their hero Cochrane when Geordi is explaining where Cochrane’s statue sits in the 24th Century, or to Worf’s unique solution to his space-suit getting a tear in it.
Better still, in a perfectly neat, lean piece of writing, the eight-year relationship between Riker and Worf is established for the first-time viewer in a mere four words: Worf’s warship, the Defiant is adrift in space and the Enterprise comes to the rescue. Riker, with a grin: “Tough little ship,” Worf’s growled, almost barked response: “Little!?”
And then there’s Patrick Stewart, really getting the chance to sink his teeth into the dialogue, especially in the show-stealing scene, a Moby Dick referencing argument with Cochrane’s assistant, Lily (Woodard) where she questions just how far he is letting personal revenge cloud his decision-making (“Jean-Luc, Blow up the DAMN ship!!!”) Getting into the full-weight and gusto of his Shakespearean background, Stewart’s performance prompted one contemporary reviewer to remark, “here is real acting! In a Star Trek film!”

The ‘guest-cast’ are all good; Alfre Woodard gives a spirited effort, James Cromwell nails the flawed, cynical genius of Cochrane (meeting your heroes is never quite what you expect) while Alice Krige’s simmering, provocative, confident appearance as the Borg Queen is another highlight.

First Contact doesn’t give the whole ensemble cast things to do. This is basically a Picard and Data story, with Riker and Worf supporting along with Geordi to an extent. Crusher gets naff-all to do, Troi barely more.

Director Frakes keeps things moving along at a brisk pace (possibly a little too quick), and he certainly has a handle on action scenes; and not just action scenes of a similar type either as he demonstrates he handles with aplomb space battles, phaser fights, a nightmare-to-shoot upside-down space-walk and a finale where never before has a single torpedo shot meant so much.

The Verdict: This is just kick-ass sci-fi action with tinges of horror and humour. Frantic, relentless fun, strong themes, stronger action and so many quotes…

Actual Rating: 4.5/5
Mike Rating: 10,000,000/5

Film 127 | Snoopy & Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie

Snoopy & Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie

I love A Charlie Brown Christmas – I’d like to say I have done so from being a child but I was in my early twenties when I first saw it – it’s staple viewing around Christmas; so I was quite looking forward to this. The plots are simple: Charlie Brown falls for the mysterious red-headed new girl at school and decides he has to change to impress her and Snoopy imagines himself as a flying ace trying to rescue his love from the Red Baron. Simple they may be but the film really captures the charm and spirit of the original materials and there are several references to classic daily strip gags and to that seminal Christmas special. The Peanuts Movie is gentle, pleasant, charming and I completely loved it.