Why did I watch it?
I saw a few scenes from this film a while back on TV and found them light hearted and amusing so asked to borrow it on DVD from a friend.
What's it all about?
Son of Rambow tells the story of two young boys growing up in the 80's, William and Lee, who become firm friends while making a Rambo-inspired home movie full of self-performed stunts and childish violence. The boys are polar opposites at first, William's family belong to a strict and traditional religious brethren, so strict that William is not even allowed to watch TV for documentaries at school, while Lee is the school's worst behaved child. Despite their differences, the pair become friends by chance and both appreciate each others company, Lee's renegade behaviour gives William experiences outside of the brethren (perhaps none more so than watching Rambo: First Blood) while Lee finds a kindred spirit to overcome his loneliness at home.
Should you watch it?
Creating a film about a pair of schoolchildren's recreation of Rambo certainly scores points for originality. As I mentioned before, the light hearted and amusing in places and would be suitable for adults and children alike. The young actors Bill Milner and Will Poulter are excellent and are supported well by a small cast.
The writers take inspiration from a range of films, not just Rambo, with the scarecrow in the field and French exchange student Didier coolly lighting his cigarette in church coming to mind. As a throwback to the 80's the film is excellent, catchphrases, clothes and music are all spot on. Just like J.J Abrams recent Super 8, hopefully Rambow will inspire a generation of young filmmakers.
Son of Rambow is a quirky and original British comedy-drama, which suffers from being a little too sweet in places towards the end but more than makes up for it with great acting and humorous moments.
Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner is an adaptation of Hollywood favourite Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Set in a futuristic 2019 Los Angeles, the humans remaining on Earth populate a poisoned planet. Scott and his special effects team created a sprawling, multi-cultural, dark and dystopian metropolis dense with towering skyscrapers in between which flying police cars patrol. The setting of the film is visionary and Dick and Scott deserve all the praise they have received for it.
The soundtrack is provided by Vangelis (Chariots of Fire) and provides the perfect backdrop to the gloomy futuristic landscape Scott creates.
Technology has allowed the fictional Tyrell Corporation to develop organic androids, known as replicants, for use as slaves in off-world colonies. Outlawed on Earth, Harrison Ford plays Deckard, a retired replicant hunter (known as a blade runner) tasked with tracking and 'retiring' a group of rogue replicants who have returned to Earth. The replicants are lead by Rutger Hauer's intelligent and villainous Roy Barry, with the intent of forcing Tyrell to modify the replicants and extended their lifespan.
Ford plays the burnt out, gritty drunkard Deckard with the grumpiness of Han Solo but thankfully with none of the sarcasm or cheesy lines. Hauer is excellent as he becomes scarily unhinged and seemingly indestructible towards the film's climax. Sean Young plays an experimental female replicant, designed with memories with the belief that she is actually human, with whom Deckard falls for.
I must be honest that with this being the first time I have watched the film, I completely missed the plot suggestions that Deckard himself may be a replicant so maybe I need to re-watch the film from this point of view.
Following on from the successful Forbrydelsen (adapted as The Killing in the US), Danish TV produced another well-received (2012 BAFTA for Best International Series) series in the form of Borgen. Set in the home of the Danish government, the ten parter follows new Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg through her first year in office from election to the opening of parliament.
The series follow three main characters, Prime Minister Nyborg, her spin doctor Kasper Juul and his ex-girlfriend and political news anchor Katrine Fonsmark. The writing is sincere and each episode covers a crisis of some sorts for Nyborg's infant government be it CIA landings on Danish territory, morally complicated extraditions or ministerial scandals. The political drama takes place alongside the drama of each character's home life, in particular Nyborgs. This helps to ground all the characters and is equally as enjoyable as the politics.
I haven't seen The West Wing so I can't compare the two but good acting and strong writing make this series a success and I am sceptical at the news that a US adaptation may be in the works. I'm not sure that the story is transferable to a two-party system but we'll see. I look forward to watching the next series.
After the success of The Thick of It and the American cross-over film In the Loop, Armando Iannucci delivers what is an all-American take on his razor sharp political satire in Veep.
Set in the Vice-President Selina Myers' office, the series deals with her struggles to make her mark on the administration from what is a position of power in name only, similar to Nick Clegg being Deputy Prime Minister. The show features all the incompetent bumbling characters you would expect and has a fantastic script to match.
Some might call the acerbic put-downs and head-butting crude and maybe its just my sense of humour but when somebody says "that this bill is a f*cking disgrace and I'm going to see to it personally that it gets chewed up like a dead prostitute in a wood chipper" I laugh. Sue me. There are some fantastic lines in the script, often from the Veep herself.
It's not just all swearing and school ground teasing though, the episode plots are credible and well thought through and give ample opportunity for the Veep and her staff to screw up at every single turn. That said some episodes are stronger than others. All the characters are well played and the acting is excellent.
Overall, a really strong first season and I'm pleased to see it renewed for another.
After enjoying the adaptations of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men and The Road I decided I would give some of the source material a try. Blood Meridian is considered one of the Great American contemporary novels and tells the story of an anonymous teenager referred to only as 'the kid'.
Set in the mid 19th century on the US-Mexican border, the story really begins after the kid joins a gang of undesirable bounty hunters as they sweep through Mexico hunting Native American Indians, paid by Mexican officials per scalp they take. The story is unflinchingly violent throughout as the gang of scalp hunters begin to stray from their objective and commit terrible atrocities in the pursuit of money or pleasure. This includes killing peaceful Indians and Mexicans alike, scalping children, drowning dogs, running a cattle train off a cliff and culminating in the violent commandeering of a ferry crossing at Yuma for financial gain. Wanted by officials on both side of the border, their behaviour eventually catches up with them.
Although part of the gang, the kid is one of the more likeable members, he never appears to scalp anyone and seems to be part of the gang not through choice but simply because that's where he ended up. This is more obvious when you consider the motivations of the gangs leaders, Glanton and Judge Holden. Out for profit or the lust of war, these two are responsible for the gangs moral compass completely falling apart.
Judge Holden is one of the most fascinating characters I have come across in literature. He is described as a giant, almost seven feet tall, with not a hair on his body. He is clearly the most intelligent character in the story and carries around a book in which he documents all manner of wildlife and nature encountered on travels stating to one man that 'that which exists without my knowledge exists without my consent'. Despite being an educated man, the judge has extremely violent beliefs, something he tries to explain to his lesser gang members on several occasions. This confliction of size, science and violence captured my intrigue from the offset. The judge's relationship with the kid is a key theme of the story. The judge appears to almost want to make the kid a protege, however late on realises that the kid is not of the same mindset as him, stating that 'some bears dance and some bears don't'. The book's ending is ambiguous and allows the reader some imagination in considering the judges actions in the final act.
McCarthy's illustration of the great lawless American west is fantastic. He provides vivid depictions of the barren landscape, types of vegetation and ghost towns. Overall I think I enjoyed the story and characters more than the actual reading of the book, if that makes sense, largely due to McCarthy's writing style.
So after Iron Man, Hulk and Thor, last but not least it was Captain America's turn to make his big screen début as part of the Avengers development.
The First Avenger spends the first half the film covering the origin story of the Captain, which from an previously uninformed point of view was something I greatly appreciated.
With almost the majority of the action set during WWII, the film is similar to a war movie, especially once the Captain recruits his band of soldiers who then spend their time destroying Nazi science labs at ease. Think of Inglorious Bastards meets Band of Brothers but without the Tarantino violence and humour and the epicness and sincerity of the mini-series. The score also sounds familiar when heard in a war setting.
Chris Evans is successful as Captain America and holds up to the pressures of a leading man. He plays the superhero with the right amount of patriotism and conscience without being overbearing. However, Hugo Weaving's Red Skull was a disappointment.
As an origin story First Avenger is solid and the retro setting is hugely original for a superhero movie, however as a general action film, I felt that the plot, mainly the threat of the Red Skull, and the action sequences were not as strong as they could have been. America simply seems to clout everyone he meets with his shield before running onto the next, there is little variation in his tactics or in the challenges he faces.
To say Nicolas Cage is not my favourite actor would be an understatement. That said films like Con Air are a guilty pleasure of mine. Cage stars in Werner Herzog's 2009 film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. I haven't seen the 1992 film of the same name so I'm coming at this film from an original standpoint.
Cage is Terrence McDonaugh, a lieutenant in the New Orleans police department with an ailing back, earned saving a prisoner during the Katrina floods, that has lead to a growing drug and gambling addiction. The story revolves around a murder investigation, however, the police work is only ever a long second to McDonaugh's spiral out of control. To say the wheels fall off as the story progresses would suggest they were even on in the first place. Cage is fantastic as the reckless, dishevelled, bug-eyed and hunched over addict on the slope to despair. It is definitely by favourite performance by the guy.
Beating David Simon's Treme to the punch, post-Katrina New Orleans is an apt setting for the lawlessness and desperate nature of the film's main character.
Although McDonaugh is certainly a bad lieutenant, snorting coke in front of a teenage witness and pulling the oxygen tube out of an elderly lady's nose while interrogating and verbally abusing her, most of his meltdowns and law-breaking come in pursuit of the drugs he needs and his police work remains largely on point.
The film is maniacally amusing as McDonuagh loses control and coupled with Herzog's abstract direction and William Finkelstein's script, it almost becomes a black comedy. The stand out scene in Bad Lieutenant involves the camera cutting to two iguanas on a table (the iguanas being a hallucination of McDonaughs) where the camera stays watching McDonaugh (who stares back) and his team on a stakeout from the iguana point of view for over a minute with nothing but music playing. Surreal indeed.
The supporting cast is strong and includes Eva Mendes, Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire), Val Kilmer and X-Zibit but there is only one bad lieutenant.
An excellent film featuring a great performance from Nicholas Cage.
Robert Downey's Iron Man returns after his first film outing two years previous, with director Jon Favreau again at the helm. As with Iron Man, Favreau delivers another fun ride and allows Downey to steal the show as Tony Stark.
Downey's egotist, smarmy and arrogant but ultimately likeable Tony Stark is the film. Other characters are purely used for Downey to show off in front of, flirt with or talk over. In honesty, this becomes a little frustrating by the end of the film but it doesn't become a terminal problem because of the hidden weakness and humility Stark shows on occasions. Also, it makes a change for a superhero to be so public with his identity and arrogance.
Facing pressure from the US government on one side and the film's nemesis Whiplash on the other, Stark also struggles to cope with the ill effects of his power source and becomes isolated and irresponsible with his powers. The main antagonist is Whiplash, the son of a Russian inventor formerly employed by Stark Industries, who out of spite for the Stark family develops his own power source to rival Iron Man. The Russian factor brings about inevitably thin Cold War references but it is the idea that the US government sees Iron Man ans his technology as their property and does not wish to be dependent on Stark's alliance for protection that is the strongest plot string.
When given scenes without Downey present, the supporting characters are a mixed bunch. The introduction of Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow to the Marvel Universe is flat and the same can be said for Gywneth Paltrow, who is talked over by Downey for all of her lines. Don Cheadle plays Iron Man's sidekick James Rhodes (aka War Machine) complete with some Robin-esque cheesy lines ("Get a roof"). The positives come in the form of Mickey Rourke as Whiplash and Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer. Rockwell injects some brilliant humour to proceedings for when you've had your fill of Downey.
The action is evenly paced, although the action sequences towards the end of the film are a little robotic, literally, as Iron Man and War Machine take on Whiplash (in a similar suit) and his army of Iron Man suited drones.
Overall, perhaps not as fresh as the original but still a better than average entry to the Marvel catalogue.
Why did I watch it?
