Evil Computer Tycoons, Transvestite Spies, Vampire Acrobats and lots more…
Antitrust
Average techno thriller enlivened by Tim Robbins as Bill Gates Gary Winstone. Bill’s Gary’s company has a new communications system in development and due to launch very soon and he will do anything to meet his deadline. Ryan Phillippe is the new techno wiz he hires who soon realises that everything may not be as it seems.
There are few real surprises, although the plot takes a couple of twists towards the end. The performances with the exception of Robbins are adequate though uninspired as is the direction by Peter Howitt. However, Robbins makes it worth a watch for his Bill Gates impression, although of course he can’t be based on Gates because the film mentions him as one of Gary Winstone’s competitors. At least that must have been the filmmaker’s escape clause if Gates tried to sue. Anti-Trust [2001]
All the Queen’s Men
World War II set comedy starring Matt Le Blanc and Eddie Izzard. Who wins in this transatlantic battle of the comedians? Not the viewer that’s for sure.
The film deals with a secret mission to steal an Enigma coding machine by a team of cross-dressing allied agents. This may sound like the plot of a Carry On film but there are less laughs you’d usually find there. In fact, I can’t remember laughing once.
Let Him Have It
True story starring Christopher Eccleston as Derek Bentley who was hanged for murder in 1953. While the story is a worthy one, concerning a miscarriage of justice that saw Bentley sentenced to death for a murder he didn’t commit, it’s not stunning cinema.
Peter Medak’s direction is flat and uninspired, he may be trying for a documentary feel but ends up with a film that’s just dull to look at. One can only imagine what first choice Alex Cox would have done but based on his other films it certainly wouldn’t have been dull. Ecclestone does well in the sort of role an actor loves (Bentley had a mental age of 11 and suffered from epilepsy) and the acting overall is very good but sadly not enough to make this anything special.
Along For the Ride
Three Hollywood stars, Melanie Griffith, Patrick Swayze and Penelope Ann Miller, all past their prime and a plot that sounds like a TV Movie of the Week.
Griffith plays Lulu, an escaped mental patient, who fifteen years before had a child with Swayze. Thing is he doesn’t know about the kid because they broke up and she never told him she was pregnant. He is now married to Miller, who’s a psychiatrist (very handy when you’re ex is a nutcase.) Griffith tells Swayze about the kid, they head off on a road trip across country to see him, and Miller follows.
You see what I mean about the plot. The performances are pretty good (particularly Miller) but when you’re saddled with such a ridiculous premise even a great performance wouldn’t be enough. Along for the Ride
Buena Vista Social Club
Some nice music, I just wish Wim Wenders wouldn’t keep cutting away to interviews during the songs. It’s not that these incredible Cuban musicians aren’t interesting but it gets a little annoying when you keep getting torn away from concert footage or studio recordings for interviews that could have been put in after the songs finished.
Twins of Evil
Peter Cushing had the amazing ability to be good in even the most unworthy films. When given a really juicy role, as he is here, he could be magnificent. He plays Gustav Weil a puritanical zealot who is not adverse to a spot of witch burning. Into his care come his orphaned twin nieces, played by the lovely Collinson twins. When one of them becomes enamoured of the local Count, who happens to be a vampire (are there any Counts who aren’t vampires?) the trouble really starts.
Cushing gives real depth to Weil, a man who believes what he is doing is for the good of the people; he’s not evil just misguided. It’s possibly his best Hammer role of the 70’s and one of his best ever.
Vampire Circus
The central idea of a circus that’s run by vampires is actually quite a good one, but this early 70’s Hammer horror fails to make the most of it.
After villagers kill off the Count Mitterhouse his lover escapes, only to return years later with the circus to exact revenge and resurrect the dead Count.
This was only director Robert Young’s second film and he seems out of his depth. The film is badly structured with characters appearing and disappearing with out reason or explanation although this could have more to do with problems during production than a fault of the director. Key scenes were apparently never filmed when the project went over schedule, and that would explain the narrative lapses.
What the film really lacks is a strong central performance, a Cushing or Lee, who could make even a substandard film watchable.
25th Hour
Spike Lee’s film about a drug dealer’s last day on the outside before doing a seven-year prison term. Edward Norton is Monty Brogan, the man facing time and he plays the complex character to perfection. He’s a drug dealer who makes money from other peoples addiction but, as we see at the start of the film, he’ll put himself out to help an abandoned dog.
It is his journey through his last day of freedom that the film revolves around. Along the way we meat his friends Jacob Elinsky (Philip Seymour Hoffman) a teacher who lusts after one of his students (Anna Paquin) and Frank Slaughtery (Barry Pepper) a stockbroker whose known Monty since they were kids. Both are excellent as is Brian Cox as his father. In fact you can’t fault any of the performances.
If anything lets the film down its Lee’s directorial flourishes, his repetition of certain shots from different angels jars you out of the film when you should be pulled in. Certain scenes are also a little choppy in the editing, they look like two takes have been edited together and it breaks up the flow of the scene. These are minor problems though and don’t lessen the films impact. Its a moving, shocking, powerful piece of cinema. 25th Hour
Agent Cody Banks
If this junior James Bond movie had been made in the eighties with a Back to the Future era Michael J Fox as Banks it would have been a lot of fun. But it was made in 2003 and we get the incredibly annoying Frankie Muniz instead. And of course Hilary Duff who doesn’t really have much to do apart from look pretty.
The adult actors make things slightly more bearable. Keith David’s C.I.A. boss is a poor man’s Sam Jackson from XXX but at least he can act. Ian McShane is the evil mastermind and it’s a pity they’ve never used him in a real Bond film as his talents are wasted here. Arnold Vosloo plays McShane’s henchman and does a good job even though he’s hampered by a really stupid haircut.
This was a missed opportunity for a fun family action movie. Hopefully the recent similarly themed Stormbreaker will do a better job. Agent Cody Banks [2003]
The Haunted Palace
Roger Corman wanted a break from Edgar Allan Poe and found it in H.P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. American International wanted another Poe film so they tagged a title and a few lines from a Poe poem onto the film.
Vincent Price gets to play dual roles as Charles Dexter Ward and his evil ancestor Joseph Curwen. Curwen was burned by villagers (Twins of Evil’s Gustav Weil would have felt right at home there) for his evil ways and vowed to have his revenge on the townsfolk and their descendants. Lon Chaney Jr plays his creepy partner in crime and Corman makes the most of him, on several occasions his hulking frame appears out of the shadows to great edffect.
It’s not a classic but Price and Chaney are always fun to watch. The Haunted Palace / The Tower of London
