The last twenty years has seen a renaissance in Hollywood of the comic book character. The main players – Batman, Spiderman, Superman are alive and well with imminent releases for all of them from the major studios both this summer and the next. Then there are the B-Listers, The Hulk, Ironman, Captain America, Judge Dredd to name a few. The C in C-Lister stands for Cult (glad I spelt that right) It involves DC and Marvel characters less known to mere mortals such as myself. However, to comic fans, they are probably better than the A-Listers!
As big names such as Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder have discovered, for an adaptation to survive amongst the diehard fans, the movie has to be meticulously true to the original. You must never mess with the characters (let alone change their names), the politics, the colours, the ubiquitous dark pervasive atmosphere, their costumes, their voices (like the gruff “I’m Batman!”) and a thousand and one other things. Fail in any one, plagiarise any other film/character, or ultimately ignore at your peril the anoraks expectations (as I discovered whilst watching Prometheus) and you may as well not have bothered. And worse, the film becomes a laughing stock for the remainder of its shelf life – forever an example of how not to do it (Who remembers Catwoman? Or, god forbid, Supergirl (1984))?. Consequentially, the films end up as darker and more serious than the light hearted superheroes of yesteryear – the difference between Burtons’ Batman to Nolan’s illustrates this point. It’s as if kids comics have become more for ‘grown-ups’!
Originally a comic creation by Alan Moore (creator of The Watchmen), V for Vendetta was put to screen by the Wachowski Brothers of Matrix fame. Presumably this is why they hired Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith in the Matrix films) to play V and Natalie “Phantom Menace” Portman as Evey. The film is set in a dystopian totalitarian Britain under the autocratic rule of High Chancellor Adam Sutler (originally Adam Susan in the comic). He addresses all his subjects through a big cinematic sized screen rather like Big Brother in Ninteen Eighty-Four. Presumably this is what inspired them to cast John Hurt who played Winston Smith in the 1984 film Ninteen Eighty-Four! Stephen Rea (The Crying Game) plays a police inspector disillusioned with the system who spends most of the film wandering around bewildered as though he’d just fallen in love with a woman who turned out to be a bloke! Stephen Fry appears in it too – god knows why!
Yet the film is compulsive viewing, despite the fact that it has been adapted for an American audience because someone in America thinks the Americans will only enjoy it if it is done a certain way if they know what’s good for them. Oh, the irony! If you remember being in London in 2005 you’ll remember that Parliament square was closed for the filming. Apparently the planned premiere in London on 4th November 2005 was postponed, perhaps wisely so given the then recent bombings. But since then I have noticed many protesters sporting the very same Guy Fawkes mask as worn by V (I had originally thought it was a cheap Tony Blair mask given the ear to ear grin) Not even Alan Moore has denied that it is the film that has spurred this unusual form of protest. I am pushed to think of another film that has spilled over into real life politics in quite the same degree. Actually, now I do think about it there was Brewster’s Millions “None of the Above” campaign. Oh well.
[rating=3]
In late April 1986, I was out camping with my Scout group. Everthing seemed normal, though at the time there was talk in the media that a cloud of radiation was heading towards England from the East. True story. Because at the same time, in the old USSR a nuclear reactor had gone into meltdown at Chernobyl releasing the aforementioned radiation cloud. And at the nearby industrial town of Pripyat, which housed most of the reactors workers and families, efforts were underway to evacuate the city at incredible speed. People had little time to salvage possessions and virtually overnight the place was abandoned. It remains so to this day. However, certain areas of the town have seen radiation levels drop low enough for “extreme tourists” to return and photograph the site. Look it up on Google! Pripyat. I kid you not, it exists! I first heard about the town three years ago and have been fascinated by it since. The most famous pics are the deserted fairground and the ferris wheel that are now overgrown by nature.
There is nothing more compelling to me than fiction based on fact and so I was very excited when I first saw the trailer for Chernobyl Diaries. Story by Oren Peli (
Paranormal Activity) and directorial debut by Brad Parker, the film began well leading us to this uniquely chilling, real-life town. However, it’s not long till night falls and then I guess we could have been anywhere! Dark corridors, flickery shadows and sudden noises are standard meal for any run-of-the-mill horror film. I expected more. Here we had the perfect zombie town that we all know and love, so do we really need to waste time with cliches such as building up the silence to a sudden scream? Much better to toy with our own paranoias, surely! They could have played more with the sublime nature of the town but instead ruined it by plunging most of it into darkness. Also there was too much handheld camera shots which often made it feel like there was a documentary film crew following them about. At one point they find someone’s videophone and, re-watching their “sticky demise”, it looked to me more like the person in question had accidently left their camera phone running in their pocket at a nightclub! Spooky it wasn’t! The whole thing ends up being nothing more than a Scooby-Doo chase away from the evil-doers and the fate of most of them is just as camp. As Eddie Izzard would say lackadaisically, “Oh…I’ve been captured!”
This classic from FilmFour is about a frustrated penniless writer who reluctantly takes a job as a croupier only to find his experiences at the casino helps him with his writers’ block. Heavily narrated throughout as if reading from a book, we follow our protaganist Jack Manfred (Clive Owen) as he expertly trips through the minefield of bouncers, hustlers, drug-dealers, violent punters and various women that the seedy life of the casino provides. But the narration becomes so heavy you are left wondering whether he is experiencing all this or just making it up. Mix this with the double-life lies and bluff that is required in a life of gambling and you are left with a potent, heady spin wondering what’s just happened or indeed what’s to come.
The sober performance of Clive Owen is perfect for keeping us grounded throughout the film and his cool headed James Bond swagger wins us over straight away. This was the first film I’ve seen him in, one of his earliest, and I was impressed by the performance though at times I did feel he had turned his character on just before the cameras rolled. The ever watchable Kate Hardie’s character was fun if a little underused. And worthy of a mention was Alex Kingston whose layered character was not overdone. Gina McKee’s character, Jack’s girlfriend, though not supposed to be, ended up being more of an enigma than he! Also for a couple who were hard up and penniless, they seemed to enjoy an incredibly comfortable middle-class lifestyle.
Charlie Chaplin plays two parts in this film. The first is Hitler spoof Adenoid Hynkle, dictator of Tomania. We see his tyrannical rule fed with all the megalomania, infallibility and extreme vanity one would expect of someone who lives in their own small world. Meanwhile on the outside a Jewish barber (also played by Chaplin and strikingly similar to his ‘Little Tramp’ silent movie persona) is on the receiving end of the brutish anti-semetic barbarism of Hynkle’s stormtroopers. He is eventually imprisoned but escapes only to be mistaken for Hynkel. Taken to a rally he is forced to make a speech, which he does reluctantly at first, but the speech is inspired, utopian and ends the film terrifically. Not funny, nor tragic but heartfelt, sober, real and relevant even today!
Despite the release of “talkies”, Charlie Chaplin continued to produce and excel in silent films. But then in 1940 he wrote, produced and starred in this film. It was his first talking picture and was to become his most commercially successful film. They say the secret of comedy is timing. How appropriate then that a significant factor in this film is specifically the year it was released. It became a major propaganda weapon of its time stirring anti-nazi feeling in the States, who had yet to join the war. Its release in Britain in 1941 wouldn’t have happened two years earlier due to Chamberlains appeasement policy to Nazi Germany. However, Britain was now at war with Germany and for the box-office it was a hit!
As I was leaving the Imax after watching a midnight showing of Prometheus last night, there was lively, nay angry chatter from some of the audience members. One chap even exclaimed at the top of his voice that the experience had been worse than Star Wars – The Phantom Menace. I was instantly reminded of two very powerful images. The first was Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons “Worst Alien prequel in the world, evuuuuurrrr!”. The second, rather more apt, was a scene in Aliens when Sigourney Weaver slowly realised she was stood in the middle of a nest of Alien eggs – though in this instance it was me realising that I was surrounded by anorak Aliens fans. For them this prequel had been anticipated more than the Rapture. However it appeared to have gone down like a french kiss at a family reunion! They were not happy.
I know little about Greek mythology or indeed the history of the Alien franchise to get into a debate about whether or not it was a worthy prequel. I’ll leave that to the anoraks. However, it did occur to me during the film that the experience of watching it in Imax and 3d would be hard to pirate! As I type, piracy is highly controversial and it’s claimed to be costing the industry billions. However, what’s not discussed is that many films, especially the hand held fast-edit ones I was mentioning earlier, are better viewed on a small screen. And, thanks to streaming services, viewing films at home is much cheaper than a trip to the cinema (including snacks!) If distributors are too complacent home-streaming will kill off cinemas in the same way VHS did in the 80’s. This was an experience that I could only have had at the cinema (alas, my house is too small for an Imax screen) and was worth the extra expense! With sustained, sensible pricing and more films of this medium, cinema may well rediscover it has something fresh and unique to offer!
Sacha Baron-Cohen first premiered his most famous character Ali G on a UK Television show called “The 11’oclock Show” (sharing the spotlight with another aspiring comedian called Ricky Gervais). The show also featured minor creations of his – a Khazakstani reporter called Borat and a eurotrash fashion reporter called Bruno. All have gone on to have their own films and all have enjoyed mainstream success, although in my opinion Borat and Bruno were a much better effort.
His publicity for the film has been typically Baron-Cohen, releasing his fictional character amongst an unsuspecting real life public. This time round included dumping an urn of Kim Jong-Il’s ashes on a very unimpressed 
will be released on 11th June 2012
Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) mans a secret safe house/interrogation chamber for the CIA. His life both professionally and personally is about as buoyant as an anchor dragging along the sea bed. One day, the notorious bad egg Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) is brought to the safe house for interrogation and water boarding. Some “terrorists” arrive, trashing the Safe House and Weston flees for his life taking the cool Frost as his prisoner. Inevitably the two grow a “Stockholm Syndrome” love-hate bond founded on wits, nerve, agility and experience.
The film is ok but other aspects let it down. Weston is a character whose journey through movie sees him grow from boy to man. Reynolds seemed an odd choice to play the character, possibly too old to be believably naive. He seemed more like a Ryan Gosling understudy. Also I found Washingtons character, aptly named Frost, to be just a little too cool. As a result, his character was quite plain and lacked depth. I realise he was meant to be an enigma but even enigmas can enjoy, for example, a sense of menace. His expressionless face just made him dull to watch.
This new adaptation of the chiller differs occasionally from Hill’s original story. For example, Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is a widower caring for his young son. He never attends the funeral of Alice Drablow (one of the most iconic sightings of the Woman in Black) and the ending is completely different too, though no spoilers there! But WiB fans don’t fear! There is still an Eel Marsh House out on the Nine Lives Causeway which, if not computer generated, must have been a nightmare for the location manager. And the nearby village, Crythin Gifford, is aptly rustic and yokel if a little over eager to be so. And quite hilly for what is supposed to be the east coast of England, but that’s remote for you!
Despite numerous parts on stage and screen, it was never going to be easy to shake the cloak of Potter, but Radcliffe appears to have chosen wisely with this film. Fans of the actor have not had to re-invent him too much in their minds-eye whilst the film itself does well to showcase his abilities without a wand and specs. One would like to think that he owes this unique level of shrewdness for a man of his age to years of experience as Potter. I imagine it’s probably got more to do with the advice he’s heeded from the wealth of many highly experienced contacts he’s made! Whatever it is, I think it’s worked!