A quiet week
Tower of London
Vincent Price stars in Roger Corman’s entertaining version of Richard III. The finished film is not really the one he wanted to make (it was originally planed to be shot in colour and the final The Battle of Bosworth was cut at the last minute and replaced with footage from the 1939 Tower of London) but it’s still entertaining, with Price having a ball as Richard.
It’s a much better film than it deserves to be given the production problems though it’s not a patch on most of the Corman/Price Poe films.
After The Sunset
Brett Ratner’s affectionate tribute to classic heist movies like The Thomas Crown Affair and To Catch a Thief is a harmless, undemanding piece of fluff. He has a good cast but none of them are taxed to anywhere near the limit of their ability.
The story concerns a retired jewel thief (Brosnan) tempted into one last job by FBI man Woody Harrelson. There are the usual twists and turns you always find in this sort of thing but no real surprises. The best thing about the film is Salma Hayak but that has more to do with her wearing very little than her acting ability.
Batman Begins
A film that owes as much to the classic 70’s Denny O’Neil/Neil Adams work on the character as it does the more modern take of people like Frank Miller.
It’s nice to have a Batman film that concentrates on him more than the villains for a change and Nolan’s film certainly does that. Bruce Wayne’s parents dieing from an act of random violence works much better than Tim Burton’s too tidy version did but sadly, the scriptwriters cannot resist the urge to tie it tenuously to Ra’s Al Ghul in the end.
Bale is great as both Wayne and Batman and the film is full of first class performances. Watched for a second time even those members of the cast who seemed out of place the first time round now seem to fit (Michael Caine’s Alfred in particular) although Katie Holmes is still weak.
Hopefully things will get even better with the sequel…
Nosferatu
I have to admit I’ve never really ‘got’ the films of Werner Herzog, they just don’t do much for me. His take on the classic vampire film is visually engaging and the acting is of a high caliber but it seems cold.
The film fails when it comes to scares as well; only the finale with Kinski’s Dracula feasting on Isabella Adjani raises a chill. In fact, Kinski is the best thing about the film and is the perfect choice to step into Max Schreck’s shoes. It’s just a pity the rest of the film wasn’t worthy of his performance.
Woyzeck
A film version of Georg Büchner’s play about a soldier (Kinski) tortured both physically and mentally to the point of mental breakdown.
I found this too absurd to have any real emotional impact. We are supposed to feel sympathy for Woyzeck but the ridiculousness of the story prevented me from caring what happens. Even the ’shocking’ ending fail to elicit any emotion.
Once again, Herzog leaves me cold.
