October 31st, 2007
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John Trent may be an insurance investigator but he’s a kindred spirit to Philip Marlowe, a seen it all kind of guy who’s always ready with a snappy comeback. The thing is Marlowe never had to face the sort of reality warping high jinks that Trent does, although he might have if he’d been written by H.P. Lovecraft instead of Raymond Chandler.
In the Mouth of Madness is the film that gives me hope that Carpenter may still give us another classic, or a least a good film, before he calls it a day. I know it was made over ten years ago, but sandwiched as it is between two of his biggest disasters - Memoirs of an Invisible Man and Village of the Damned - it shows that even when you think all hope is lost he can still surprise you.
In the film Sutter Cane is an author of H.P. Lovecraft style horrors but with sales figures that Stephen King would sell his soul for. Cane’s books get inside the readers head, messing with reality or our perception of it and driving people nuts. Carpenter’s film does much the same thing, leaving the viewer unable to trust their eyes and putting them in the same boat as Trent. It’s the films sense of paranoia and madness that make it a horror gem, although Carpenter delivers plenty of jump out of your seat moments as well.
October 29th, 2007
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I’m sure had I seen Ninja Scroll for the first time fifteen years ago when it was made that I’d have thought it incredibly cool, just as I did with Akira when that was released. The film’s blend of sex, violence and gore is aimed at a young male audience and back then I’d have just about qualified (I was 28). But sadly I didn’t see it then and watching it for the first time as a 42 year old it doesn’t really impress.
The sex is lurid and a little juvenile, the violence incredibly stylised but excessively graphic. Only the plot’s machinations hold up for this somewhat jaded viewer, with characters displaying hidden depths and motivations and even the love story angle works.
The animation wasn’t state of the art when it was made and now looks incredibly dated. While I can see why some would rate this as one of the best anime films ever made it wouldn’t make my top ten but then, as the director says in an interview on the DVD, “teenagers are my target audience” and I haven’t been one of them for quite awhile.
October 28th, 2007
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After a radio show, a TV series and a book, maybe the Hitchhikers Guide idea has been done to death, that could be the reason this cinematic incarnation fails to work. Or it could be that the film is just crap.
Martin Freeman’s Arthur Dent is so unbearably dull that the destruction of the world would seem like a small price to pay to be rid of him. Dent is supposed to be a normal guy, Mr Average, but that shouldn’t equate to being a complete personality vacuum.
Worse still is Mos Def. Ford Prefect was my favourite character in the TV incarnation but here he’s a nonentity, even overshadowed by Freeman’s Dent. Mos Def is most definitely not Ford Prefect and if you were to look him up in the Hitchhikers Guide I doubt you’d find the word actor used to describe him.
Sam Rockwell is a great actor but for some reason he seems to be playing Zaphod Beeblebrox as John Travolta at his most over the top and with a Texas accent. It’s not totally unfunny but it comes close.
Even the two casting choices that seem inspired, Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman, fail to work. If you have to replace Peter Jones as the voice of The Book (and as Peter Jones sadly died five years before the film was made one can allow the filmmakers that necessity, had he been alive the thought of replacing him would be almost sacrilegious) then Stephen Fry is as good a choice as I can think of, but for some reason it doesn’t work. Poor writing? Jones so ingrained in the mind that no one could compete? Probably a little of both but whatever the reason, Fry is almost as disappointing as Freeman and Def.
October 27th, 2007
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Kirk Douglas is Brendan O’Malley, who arrives at the Mexican home of his ex-sweetheart (Dorothy Malone) and her husband (Joseph Cotten) on the run for murder. On his trail is Dana Stribling (Rock Hudson) whose brother-in-law O’Malley murdered.
If that all sounds a touch melodramatic that’s because it is, and things get worse when Cotten is murdered and Douglas and Hudson compete for Malone’s affections on a cattle drive from Mexico to Texas. Hudson has vowed to kill Douglas when they cross the border and it’s this confrontation that the film builds too. Unfortunately it seems to take an age getting there.
Douglas is the films biggest plus. He’s playing the sort of snappily dressed charmer we’ve seen him do often before but there is an undercurrent of violence too O’Malley that gives Douglas a little more to work with. Top billed Hudson’s character is too straight-laced to be really interesting but it’s a solid performance.
It’s a shame Joseph Cotten is dispatched so soon as his is by far the most interesting character, an alcoholic ex-Confederate officer with a shameful past. His first scene with Douglas is the best the film has to offer, with the two sparking off each other in a way that Hudson doesn’t even come close too.
October 27th, 2007
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Bruce Campbell’s feature debut as a director is a comedy that suffers from the worst thing a comedy can suffer from - it’s not funny.
Based on Campbell’s Dark Horse comic the film is about a rich American who undergoes experimental brain surgery that leaves him with two personalities, his own and that of the brain donor, a Bulgarian taxi driver. Both men were “murdered” by the same woman, as was Campbell’s wife, who finds her brain transplanted into the body of a dancing robot.
The original comic was set in L.A. but for the film it’s transplanted to Bulgaria for budget reasons and the production looks cheap (it was a Sci Fi Channel original movie). Still Bruce is used to working on micro budget films and money isn’t what makes this a dud, that’s down mainly to the script.
With the exception of the films star the performances aren’t up to much. Stacy Keach looks embarrassed as the mad scientist Dr Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov but far worse is Ted Raimi as his imbecile assistant, Pavel. Raimi clearly thinks he’s funny, and one has to assume Campbell does too, but he’s groan inducingly bad.
Luckily Bruce is on hand and displays his gift for physical comedy. The restaurant scene and the bar room fight may not rank alongside the possessed hand in Evil Dead 2 but they’re the films finest moments.
October 25th, 2007
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We first encounter Inspector Chan as a drunk who collapses in a back alley before learning via flashback what brought him to that sad state. No, it wasn’t the thought of making a third Rush Hour film with Chris Tucker, Chan lost his entire team after being outwitted by a group of master criminals and unable to deal with his failure he took solace in the bottle. With the help of a new partner he pulls himself back together and goes in search of the men (and woman) who murdered his friends.
The film is going for a grittier feel than the previous Police Story films but it doesn’t quite work. Chan isn’t a great character actor, his stumbling drunk isn’t very convincing and owes more to his hero Buster Keaton than it does to the method acting school. When the film settles for action though, Chan is in his element; even at 50 he’s still doing things that others wouldn’t even try.
The film lacks the fun that’s always been inherent in the series, although it’s not completely without humour. It’s the uneven tone that really lets it down - if you want to see an action packed Jackie Chan film you’re better of with the original Police Story, if it’s something more down to earth then Crime Story fits the bill. New Police Story wants to have its cake and eat it too and that makes it far less satisfying than it could have been.
October 23rd, 2007
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This is epic anime - big SF ideas and big action sequences. The film deals with alien technology hidden on Earth and a secret organisation designed to keep mankind safe from it, there’s also a healthy dose of James Bond and Indiana Jones in the mix.
The film has a high WOW factor but falls down when it comes to character. Only Yu Ominae, the lead Spriggan agent, gets any real depth but when you have a film this action packed something has to give and in this case it’s character. While it may lack real emotional depth it does have an overtly political subtext, with the American villains’ codenamed Fatman and Little Boy (for those who don’t know they were the codenames of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
The ending sets the film up for a sequel but almost 10 years on there’s no sign of one. Perhaps the lack of an emotional connection to the characters in favour of none stop action ultimately backfired, with the film worth seeing for the spectacle but ultimately vacuous.
October 21st, 2007
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A body hopping alien with a taste for loud music, fast cars and gratuitous violence - it must be the ‘80s!
The film is a buddy cop movie with only one half of the duo human, a bit like Alien Nation only good. Director Jack Sholder wastes no time getting things moving, in the first ten minutes we get a bank robbery and a superb car chase that sets the tone for the rest of the film.
There are some brilliantly staged action set pieces, excellent gross out effects and great performances from the two leads and from the people “possessed” by the alien, in particular William Boyett and Claudia Christian.
To me there has always been something a little odd about Kyle MacLachlan, he’s not an actor I’d find convincing in overtly emotional parts but here, and to a lesser extent in Twin Peaks, that works in his favour. As the alien half of the team he’s not completely emotionless, there is an inherent sadness in the character, but it’s subdued and MacLachlan plays it perfectly.
Michael Nouri gets the more traditional cop role, tough guy at work but a loving family man at home. He does a good job but it’s really MacLachlan and the alien villain’s film.
October 21st, 2007
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Tomas Milian stars as a Mexican vagabond in search of a hidden cache of gold in this superior spaghetti western from director Sergio Sollima.
Milian’s Cuchillo has a talent with a knife but prefers to make his living as a small time thief. After helping a revolutionary poet escape prison he finds himself in search of hidden treasure to aid the revolution when the poet is murdered by bandits. He’s not alone, an American ex-lawman, Mexican bandits, French mercenaries and even a Salvation Army woman are in on the hunt.
While there’s the usual spaghetti western violence the film also has a softer, more comical side. Cuchillo is no Eastwood style superman, he’s a scruffy little tramp but one with a heart of gold. He provides the film with its sense of fun while Donald O’Brien has the more traditional role of the former lawman turned treasure hunter. While he’s no Clint, he does a fair job as the gunman who ends up working alongside Cuchillo.
The film has plenty of action, with the snowbound chase scene particularly memorable. Sollima’s finest moment though comes at the film’s climax, with a The Good, the Bad and the Ugly style showdown given a twist in that Millian uses a knife rather than a gun.
At two hours it’s a little overlong, much of the Texas town sequence could have been excised, but it’s a good film nonetheless. Veteran spaghetti western composer Ennio Morricone’s score isn’t as original as the ones he did for Leone but it’s still memorable with a suitably rousing main theme.
October 19th, 2007
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For this weeks Friday horror flick we have some late seventies sleaze starring the one and only Cameron Mitchell. Most people when they pop down to B&Q have a little DIY on there minds but our Cam has other plans for a Black and Decker power drill than putting up a few shelves.
What we have here are generous helpings (at least in the first half of the film) of bloody violence (no big effects shots though, the budget wouldn’t stretch to that) nudity (the bath scene is like a soft core porn film) and naff ‘70s country music. In fact, given that his victims are all listening to the kind of country music that’s so saccharine it could rot your teeth, one has to feel a little sympathy for Cameron; surely this is a case of justifiable homicide?
The film slows down in the second half after Cameron kidnaps a teenager to act as a surrogate for his dead daughter. In fact, until the over the top climax where we find that Mitchell isn’t the only barmy bugger in the family, it’s a tad dull. Luckily the climax is worth the wait and must surely have been an influence on Scream.
This is trashy fun in the way that only bad films can be, Cameron is suitably demented but it’s Tim Donnelly (brother of the films director, Dennis) who makes the biggest impression (for the wrong reasons) in the scene where he’s hitting on the kidnapped girls mother.
