Review #816: 'Sin City: A Dame to Kill for' (2014)

Taking an alarming nine years to reach the screen following it's successful predecessor, Sin City (2005), Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller bring back the filth-ridden, black-and-white mean streets of Basin City. The first film was a modest success both critically and commercially, but A Dame to Kill For underwhelmed at the box-office, and despite boasting another stellar cast, it's not difficult to see why. The likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Brolin, and, most notably, Eva Green, have been brought in to freshen things up, but the film treads very similar grounds to what came years earlier, and the drama seems emptier now than it did before.

Like last time, the film tells various intertwining stories. Marv (Mickey Rourke) wakes up in a car wreck surrounded by the dead bodies of frat boys. Unable to remember how he got there, he begins to re-trace his steps. A cocky young gambler, Johnny (Gordon-Levitt) arrives in town and immediately starts fleecing a joint of all it's money. Insisting that he is allowed into the high stakes game with his good luck charm Marcie (Julia Garner), Johnny finds himself pitted against the corrupt Senator Rourke (Powers Boothe), who he wipes the floor with. He is warned to leave town quickly lest he feel the Senator's wrath, but the arrogant young man decides to treat Marcie to a night on the town instead.

Years before he had his face operated on to become Clive Owen in the first film, Dwight (now played by Josh Brolin) is a private investigator who we first meet spying on businessman Joey (Ray Liotta) and his young lover Sally (Juno Temple). He is called on by his old flame Ava Lord (Green) who claims she is being abused by her husband (Marton Csokas) and his bodyguard Manute (Dennis Haysbert, replacing the late Michael Clarke Duncan). Dwight cannot get her out of his head and employs Marv to help him on his rescue mission. Meanwhile, distraught at the suicide of John Hartigan (Bruce Willis), stripper Nancy (Jessica Alba) is drinking heavily and seeks revenge on the man who drove her former lover to kill himself, Senator Rourke.

Nine years ago, Sin City was, visually, a jaw-dropping exercise in using real actors against a green screen background. Nowadays, this effect is used commonly, even in TV shows, so it's a testament to Rodriguez (working as cinematographer) that the film still looks absolutely splendid. Beneath the beauty of it's exterior lies something all the more hollow, as the actors - the men and women - compete for the crown of being the hardest bastard with the graveliest voice. With such deliberately blunt dialogue, the film is basically made up of scenes of people acting tough to one another, usually resulting in machine-gun fire or somebody being punched through a window.

The cast all deliver though, and although it's nice to see Powers Booth get the screen-time he deserves (his Cy Tolliver in HBO's Deadwood is still one of the my all-time favourite TV villains), Eva Green walks away with the movie. Embodying all the traits of the great screen femme fatales, she is allowed to go further than the stars that came before for her and be that more sexier, revealing all to Rodriguez's obviously admiring camera. She seduces every man she comes across, including Christopher Meloni's lovestruck cop, who fall at her knees, and it's not hard to see why. Green single-handedly saves this film from becoming a nihilistic and empty exercise in violence, which was fun and fresh the first time around, but with nine years of preparation, you would expect more.


Directed by: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, Powers Boothe, Dennis Haysbert, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis
Country: Cyprus/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #815: '2 Fast 2 Furious' (2003)

With Vin Diesel establishing himself as a star following roles in the excellent Pitch Black (2000) and the first The Fast and the Furious (2001) movie, Diesel chose not to star in 2 Fast 2 Furious, a sequel that amps up the action and car-porn but notably lacks the charisma and easy-going goofiness that made the first entry such an easy watch. Diesel bailed to make that hugely-memorable action film A Man Apart (anyone?), and is replaced by Tyrese Gibson, who certainly has the energy but lacks the star quality of the man whose void he is charged with filling. The amusingly-titled 2 Fast 2 Furious has no brains at all, and barely enough balls or originality to back it up.

After allowing wanted criminal Dominic Toretto (Diesel) to evade capture at the climax of the first film, Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) has been discharged from the L.A.P.D. and finds himself on the run. With no income, he pays his way by participating in high-speed drag races, organised and refereed by Tej (Ludacris). After winning a race and fleeing the scene with the arrival of the cops, Brian is captured when his car is disabled by a ESD grappling hook. His former boss, FBI agent Bilkins (Thom Barry) throws him an offer - if he assists with a joint FBI-Customs sting to bring down violent drug-lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser), his record will be wiped clean. Brian accepts on one condition - he chooses his own partner. Enter old friend and ex-jailbird Roman Pearce (Gibson).

For fans of the franchise, the first sequel in a series that has now reached seven offers everything you would expect - bromance, pimped-out auto-mobiles, mild violence, and Eva Mendes in a white bikini. What it doesn't offer is a plot, credibility or anything remotely resembling a decent script. Walker, who commands top bill for a second time, is perfectly likeable but lacks charisma or star quality. He and Gibson share a little chemistry, but they say little to each other apart from calling each other 'brah' a lot and talking to each other in their separate cars when they cannot hear each other. Hauser is unconvincing as a Colombian drug lord and his character is wafer-thin, and the way he goes about his business borders on the plain stupid. Hardly a trial to watch, but is offensively brainless at times.


Directed by: John Singleton
Starring: Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, Eva Mendes, Cole Hauser, Ludacris, Thom Barry
Country: USA/Germany

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #814: 'Nebraska' (2013)

After 2011's slow-moving but well-acted The Descendants, writer/director Alexander Payne (here only on directorial duties) returns to the road-movie formula that served him so well in his greatest film, 2004's Sideways. When we first meet Nebraska's grizzled and hunched hero, Woody Grant (Bruce Dern), he is plodding along a snow-laden road, wandering without any sense of direction. He is picked up by the police and taken back to his iron-fisted wife Kate (June Squibb), who longs to put this 80-plus year old man, teetering dangerously on the cusp of dementia, in a home.

His son, David (Will Forte), is a passive young man who is unhappy in his salesman job and has recently separated from his girlfriend. He learns from his mother that his father was on his way to Lincoln, Nebraska (Woody lives in Montana) to pick up a million dollars he believes he has won in a junk mail sales scam. Where most people would throw it away without thinking twice, this grey-haired old coot believes that they can't say it if it isn't true. In his stubbornness, Woody convinces David to drive him to Lincoln, and David, having lived most of his life in the shadow of his small-town news anchor brother Ross (Bob Odenkirk), sees a chance to spend some time with the father he doesn't really know.

Like most Payne efforts, Nebraska is low on plot but high on humanity. After a long career playing eccentrics and loons, Dern gives a highly understated performance, which is without a doubt the best work he has ever done. More than just a poor old man to feel sorry for, Dern brings a history to the eyes of his character, a man who has seen his life come and go without really realising it. In one extremely touching scene, David questions his father about why he and his mother got married. Woody says "I figured, what the hell," and when David asks him if he was ever sorry he married her, he replies "all the time." It's a desperately sad and honest portrayal of a man helpless in his regret.

Yet, like most of Payne's films, Nebraska is also very funny. As Woody becomes a local celebrity in Lincoln, his home town, when knowledge of his 'wealth' spreads, Woody finds old friends (such as Stacy Keach's Ed) and half-forgotten family coming out of the woodwork looking for a handout or what they believe is owed to them. This is when Kate turns up, a small but feisty woman, prone to telling her sons about how she was the subject of many a groping hand in her youth, much to David and Ross's disgust. Squibb is magnificent, and injects energy into the film when it starts to need it. Nebraska is Payne's most mature film to date, gorgeously filmed, expertly performed, and surely now one of the definitive films about reaching the end of your path.


Directed by: Alexander Payne
Starring: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Stacy Keach
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #813: 'The Fast and the Furious' (2001)

Never in a million years would I, sitting in the cinema (with my mum and stepfather, oddly enough) back in 2001, think that the auto-porn I had just witnessed would kick-start a hugely successful franchise due it's seventh instalment next year in 2015. Not that I didn't enjoy the 90 minutes of homoerotic machismo, endless gear-stick changes, scantily-clad gyrators and a cameo by Ja Rule - I actually found it highly entertaining in a Point Break (1991) sort-of-way - it's just that how much of an audience can a film about cars draw? Lots, it would seem.

Undercover L.A.P.D. officer Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) is assigned to infiltrate a gang of street-racers led by the notorious Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) after a series of high-speed truck hijackings using pimped-out Honda Civics. A highly competent driver himself, Brian uses his skills to befriend Dominic, while falling for his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster). After saving Dominic from the police, Brian earns his respect but not that of his crew, and when Dominic proves himself generous and loyal to those who offer him the same, Brian must choose between protecting his new friend and arresting the criminal he has been assigned to bring down.

The Fast and the Furious' script is often bad enough to make your ears bleed. This is a film where words of wisdom are offered in the form of "it's not how you stand by your car, it's how you race your car,". But it's delivers on what the title promises, and the action scenes are well-staged and it's nice to see real metal bend and break in an increasingly CGI-reliant marketplace. It's loud and often crude, but the two leads of obvious limited acting range prove likeable and actually generate some chemistry. It's difficult to say where the franchise will go after the sad death of Paul Walker last year, but this first instalment was a fun, if brainless, start.


Directed by: Rob Cohen
Starring: Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Ted Levine
Country: USA/Germany

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #812: 'The Curse of Frankenstein' (1957)

26 years after Universal Studios and James Whale hit gold with both critics and audiences alike with their interpretation of Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein, another production studio was about to reinvigorate the horror genre with a vastly different take on the same book. Hammer Studios seemed to know something no-one else did - that audiences had a thirst for blood. The critics may not have appreciated it at the time (though they certainly do now), but the paying audiences lapped up The Curse of Frankenstein's amped-up levels of gore and gothic atmosphere.

The film begins with Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) in a jail cell awaiting his execution for an unknown crime. He calls for a priest who he tells his story to. Victor was only a child where he became a baron and inherited his family's estate, and employed his teacher, Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart), to teach him everything there is to know about the science of anatomy. Years later, Victor and Paul manage to bring a puppy back to life, much to their delight. While Paul is thrilled with their achievement, Victor is unsatisfied and longs to create a human life of his own.

Anyone hoping for a faithful re-telling of Mary Shelley's novel will be sorely disappointed. Director Terence Fisher and writer Jimmy Sangster (director of Hammer's Fear in the Night (1972)) makes the film more about Frankenstein than his creation. While the novel focused more on the tragic nature of the Creature's creation and treatment, the film portrays Victor not only as a flawed and arguably misguided visionary, but a stone-cold murderer, pushing a scientific genius to his death in order to have his superior brain for his creation. The brain is damaged in an alteration between Victor and Paul, so the creature is of low intelligence anyway.

For all the 're-imaginings' of Frankenstein, this is certainly the best I've seen. The diversions from the source material make it a different experience entirely, and one simply to be enjoyed rather than to ponder it's deeper meanings. Cushing's performance is incredible, adding a gravitas to his character even when the movie dips into camp. Christopher Lee, playing the Creature and in his first of many appearances for Hammer, puts in an impressive physical performance and manages to invite sympathy with no dialogue at all. Hazel Court also appears as Victor's cousin Elizabeth, in what is little more than the obligatory female role. A fantastic kick-start to what would be one of the greatest movements in horror.


Directed by: Terence Fisher
Starring: Peter Cushing, Robert Urquhart, Hazel Court, Christopher Lee
Country: UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #811: 'An Education' (2009)

An Education's protagonist Jenny, expertly played by an Oscar-nominated Carey Mulligan, is the best reason to the see the film. Set in 1961, Jenny is one half middle-class good girl, the other half a rebellious and potentially wild 16 year old child with a thirst for all things French. Studying hard to be accepted into Oxford, Jenny really longs for the wonders of Paris, and in her spare time indulges in the free-spiritedness of the music and the New Wave movies of the time. Her parents, played by Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour, are proud but pushy. Her father especially longs to see his daughter succeed and his own social standing bumped up a couple of notches. That is until she meets the much-older David (Peter Sarsgaard).

David is a smooth-talking charmer who seduces Jenny by taking her out to opera's and expensive dinners with his flash friend Danny (Dominic Cooper) and his girlfriend Helen (Rosamund Pike). He charms her parents too, and convinces them to allow him to take Jenny to see his friends in Oxford, where she will stay with famous author C.S. Lewis. He also takes her to Paris and asks for her hand in marriage, and Jenny laps it up with a naive curiosity. But David is a philandering con-man, and when the truth is uncovered, Jenny is faced with important decisions about her own fate.

An Education is a perfectly nice and dainty British production that ultimately fails in it's attempts to tackle the big themes. The build-up is well paced, as Mulligan is exquisite, competently backed-up by a Colin Firth-channelling Sarsgaard. It looks and feels like 1961, and Nick Hornby's Oscar-nominated script sensitively handles the topic of a young girl and a much older man. But it's in the second half, when David is unravelled, that things become predictable and plodding, and Cooper and Pike's talents are wasted. The final moments try and wrap up every single aspect of Jenny's life and character in a few sentences, betraying the careful approach to Jenny's complex nature which came before. Nice enough, but hardly memorable.


Directed by: Lone Scherfig
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour, Olivia Williams, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Emma Thompson
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #810: 'Maniac Cop' (1988)

William Lustig's Maniac Cop plays like a B-movie fan's wet dream. It has Lustig - director of the wonderfully grim Maniac (1980) - at the helm, and Larry Cohen, legendary writer/director of such gems as It's Alive (1974), Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) and The Stuff (1985), on scriptwriting duties. In front of the camera it has Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, William Smith, Richard Roundtree and Robert Z'Dar - all together in the same movie! I almost feel like I should complain that Michael Moriarty wasn't invited to join the cast. Due to the stellar talent involved, I feel like Maniac Cop is almost a let-down. Contrivances and bad writing can usually be forgiven in movies like this, but it's difficult not to expect that little bit more. Still, this doesn't stop the film from being a great deal of fun.

When a man dressed as a police officer breaks the neck of a woman fleeing from rapists, investigating police lieutenant McCrae (Atkins) is told to keep eye-witness accounts of a cop committing the act hush-hush. This prompts McCrae to leak the information to a journalist, only for a media frenzy to cause the public to turn on genuine police officers trying to uphold the law. A woman suspects her husband Jack Forrest (Campbell) to be the killer, and when she is murdered moments after witnessing him in bed with another woman, Jack is arrested as the prime suspect. McCrae, however, believes Jack to be innocent and digs deeper into the story of a hero cop long believed to be dead.

Too much just doesn't add up in Maniac Cop. Like Jason in the Friday the 13th franchise, the Maniac Cop has superhuman strength and a sense of invincibility. Where Jason can be chalked down to some sort of supernatural influence, no explanation is giving here, failing to fit in with the back-story provided for the killer. The scenes of police procedural - something Cohen is normally very accomplished at writing - are muddled, with Jack still being held even after McCrae and Jack's lover and fellow cop Theresa (Laurene Landon) are attacked by the Maniac Cop while Jack is held in custody, and any real female police officers will no doubt be offended to Theresa's wailing reaction while being threatened.

I could carry on bashing the film, but I won't, as I actually had a pretty good time watching it. Like most movies with Cohen involved, Maniac Cop is very funny. Campbell is effortlessly hilarious, even in a relatively straight role, and the script is witty when it's not taking liberties with the plot. Lustig, who went on to direct two sequels, also provides some decently staged action scenes. The film is also surprisingly brutal in it's violence and gore, so gore-hounds will not doubt finish the film feeling satisfied. And it's due to these positives that I cannot be too harsh on Maniac Cop, as even though it's little more than a decent slasher flick, I certainly kept me entertained.


Directed by: William Lustig
Starring: Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree, William Smith, Robert Z'Dar
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #809: 'Collateral' (2004)

With Collateral, Michael Mann - a director who was still working at the top of his game back in 2004 - combines his favourite and familiar traits - an ice-cool soundtrack, buckets of visual style, and a conversational showdown as important as the physical one that inevitably follows. It follows one night in the life of Los Angeles cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx), who after accepting a multi-stop fare from the slick-looking Vincent (Tom Cruise), has his life turned upside down. Vincent looks and sounds like a businessman looking to close multiple deals in the course of a few hours, but when a dead body lands on the top of his cab at the first stop, it becomes clear to Max that Vincent is a hired killer.

The two verbally poke and prod each other - Max at Vincent's complete detachment from real-life and the emotional abuse and/or neglect he must have surely suffered to lead him on such a dark path; and Vincent at Max's tendency to procrastinate at every aspect of his life. Max frequently flicks down his sun-visor and stairs at a picture of a desert island, waxing lyrical about his grand plan to set up his own limousine company. At the start of the film, Max drives Justice Department prosecutor Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith) and the two share a spark. He should ask her for her number but he doesn't. Luckily she takes the initiative and gives it to him anyway. Vincent may be a remorseless psychopath, but at least he grabs life by the balls.

Such an engaging character study and a film so packed with marvellously shot set-pieces should lead to an equally great climax, but like Heat (1995), Mann's other L.A.-based crime noir, the film ends on a weak note. Vincent just may be the worst hit-man in cinema history. He's physically capable of taking down multiple foes with fists and weaponry, but his decision-making is laughable at times, and in the end he is forced into a rather bland chase after his prey through a subway. But for the most part, Collateral is thrilling and fun; at it's best when its two leads are simply sitting in the cab and conversing, wonderfully performed by Foxx and Cruise.


Directed by: Michael Mann
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #808: 'Richard III' (1955)

Very few actors and director's have the skill to bring William Shakespeare's work to life. The transition from stage to screen can prove difficult, especially when wrestling with the Bard's complex word-play and trying to make a movie that feels like a movie and not simply a filmed stage performance. No-one has succeeded as well as Laurence Olivier, here trimming one of Shakespeare's most wickedly entertaining plays to it's bare necessities, and delivering a fascinating performance to boot. Despite his high esteem, I've always found Olivier's acting to be somewhat hammy. But his hunchbacked, sneering monster is the definitive Richard III, combining his character's heinous acts with a devilish smirk.

A lot has been written about Olivier the actor, but clearly not enough about Olivier the director. Though his Shakespeare adaptations can often feel stagy, he wasn't afraid of taking narrative risks. His magnificent Henry V (1944) began with actors preparing to perform the play in front of a theatre audience, before go into full-movie mode. Richard III begins with Olivier breaking the fourth wall and delivering his gleefully atrocious plans to camera, boasting of his strategy to usurp his brother King Edward IV (Cedric Hardwicke), but not before ridding himself of his other sibling George (John Gielgud). He seduces the widow of the man he slew during the War of the Roses, Lady Anne (Claire Bloom), and conspires with his cousin the Duke of Buckingham (the astonishing Ralph Richardson).

Shot in wonderful Technicolor and opting for minimalist set design, Richard III is a treat for the eyes. But the true delight is the cast - a smorgasbord of British thespian talent - who deliver Shakespeare's poetic prose as if they talk it in their sleep. This is a tale of greed, paranoia and blood, told with a jet-black sense of humour, and Richard is one of Shakespeare's greatest creations. Disgruntled at being born lame and deformed without being compensated for his sufferings - you just have to sit back and marvel as he tricks and murders his way to the throne, turning to regicide and infanticide with a smile on his face. Olivier is clearly having a ball, and this is truly his show. I never realised Shakespeare could be so much fun.


Directed by: Laurence Olivier
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Claire Bloom, Cedric Hardwicke, John Gielgud
Country: UK

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #807: 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' (2014)

Very few expected 2011's reboot of a franchise - so clinically killed off by Tim Burton and his failure to grasp the idea of narrative sense - to be any good at all. Yet Rupert Wyatt's Rise of the Planet of the Apes was not only excellent as a thrilling action movie, but also carefully laid-out and thoughtful in it's scientific approach to the disease that ultimately led to apes conquering Earth and replacing humans as the planet's alpha species. Such a surprising success naturally leads to sequels, and when a director so acclaimed in his delivery of the first instalment fails to re-sign on, disaster is expected. But the apes have done it again, and not only does Dawn stay faithful to it's predecessor's code of story over cheap thrills, but it surpasses it in quality, gradually evolving into a serious study of war.

Ten years after the events of the first film, most of humanity has been wiped out by ALZ-113 virus. The escaped apes from the first movie, namely chimpanzee Caesar (Andy Serkis), bonobo Koba (Toby Kebbell, replacing Christopher Gordon), and orangutan Maurice (Karin Konoval), are living peacefully in the woods believing the human race to be extinct. They communicate using sign language, though a few of them have learnt some words, and exist peacefully as a multi-ethical community. Caesar has two sons by Cornelia (Judy Greer) - Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston) and a newborn - and is the alpha with the facially and emotionally scarred Koba as his second-in-command.

Unbeknownst to the apes, a small group of humans still dwell in the city, running out of the power supply that is keeping them alive. Led by Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) and Malcolm (Jason Clarke), the pack is living together in a huge building amongst the decaying city outside. A small expedition into the woods leads to trigger-happy member Carver (Oz's Kirk Acevedo) shooting an ape in the head in fear. Caesar and his extended army confront them, but Caesar's sympathetic view of humans leads to him allowing them to return to the city, demanding they leave in human speech. Malcolm is astonished at the ape's intelligence and charisma, and returns with his girlfriend (Keri Russell) and son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) to treat with him.

The cinematography and set design are astonishing, The movie doesn't just give us a plastic apocalyptic world full of CGI-laden establishing shots, but a world that feels real and lived-in. And interacting in this world are some of the greatest special effects in the history of cinema. WETA have outdone themselves here, not only managing to blend motion-capture in an exterior environment seamlessly, but also allowing the actors behind the effects to act. A lot has been written about Serkis's portrayal of Caesar, and it is the actor's best performance to date, but Kebbell too manages to bring emotion and devastation to Koba's face, bringing an astonishing complexity to what could have been a stock antagonist. When the two interact, it feels real. You tend not to gasp at the effects because it simply feels like there aren't any.

When the inevitable smack-down ensues, it's after some spellbinding drama. There's no cut-and-dry good and bad guys, just the inevitable roll towards blood-shed. There's blame on both sides in equal measure, and it comments heavily on both species' natural inclination to go to war. They live peacefully apart, but once they discover each other things start to fall apart out of desire, greed and most of all, fear. The action is utterly thrilling, and although it offers such treats as the sight of an ape firing two machine gun's whilst riding a horse, it's mainly because we are so engrossed in the character's stories. Serkis and Kebbell deserve Oscar recognition, but probably won't get it. Tim Burton's ghastly 2001 effort has been near-enough wiped from memory, and this new franchise will surely go from strength to strength.


Directed by: Matt Reeves
Starring: Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Toby Kebbell, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #806: 'Cold in July' (2014)

Cold in July is a film all about mood. Continuing the recent trend of all things 80's, the film harks back to the splurge of American neo-noir popular in the late 80's and early 1990's, where, usually, a simple man is caught up in crime, corruption or a dangerous woman (or all three) and ends up way out of his depth. Usually set in America's Southern states, these films explored what it is to be a man. Based on author John R. Lansdale's novel, Cold in July delves into similar themes, but often gets so caught up in drenching the film in atmosphere that it loses track of it's own story.

It starts out relatively simply as Michael C. Hall's protective father Richard wakes up in the middle of the night as an intruder breaks into his home. Shaky and nervous, Richard shoots the young man dead and is congratulated by detective Ray (co-writer Nick Damici), who reassures him that sometimes the good guy wins. At the intruder's funeral, Richard is approached by the father Russel (Sam Shepard), fresh out of prison, who makes a passive threat to Richard's wife and child. Russel begins a tirade of threats and intimidation, eventually being arrested and left for dead by the police on a train track. Puzzled at the cops' eagerness to be rid of Russel, Richard saves him and delves deeper into the case, and the two find out they have more in common than initially thought.

Darkly photographed and set to a synthesised score, Cold in July certainly looks and feels like the movies and era it's paying homage to. We glimpse chunky early mobile phones, Michael C. Hall sports an unflattering mullet-and-moustache combo, and 80's favourite Don Johnson - enjoying a career revival of late - shows up as private investigator Jim Bob to grant the film some much needed energy and humour. While director Jim Mickle, who made the excellent and surprisingly brutal Stake Land (2010), is clearly enjoying tipping his hat to the era, plot strands fizzle out to the point where they are forgotten entirely and the camera is consistently restless. He has the actors and the story to tell, so simply point the camera and let things naturally fall into place.

But when it's good, it's absolutely riveting. Shepard is a terrorising yet stoic presence, and Hall shows that there is more to him than David Fisher and Dexter, proving a solid leading man despite an uncomplimentary appearance. The film is drenched in sleaze, and it's Texas setting is a bleak and beautiful place for a simple man to find his inner animal. But the film ultimately feels like it's going nowhere fast. The genre hardly calls for it so character development is virtually non-existent, but the plot leads to vastly different places so fast you'll wonder how you got there. I was constantly caught up in what I was watching, but by the end credits I was left hanging for a satisfaction that would never come.


Directed by: Jim Mickle
Starring: Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, Don Johnson, Wyatt Russell, Nick Damici
Country: USA/France

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #805: 'The Dead Zone' (1983)

Throughout the 1980's and 90's, there seemed to be a Stephen King adaptation released every other week. Although his output is undeniably prolific, I've always found King's work, for the most part, formulaic and lacking originality, and many of the big screen adaptations fair far worse. There are exceptions, of course, namely genre classics Carrie (1976) and The Shining (1980). The great directors Brian De Palma and Stanley Kubrick managed to turn King's often plodding narrative into a gripping visual spectacle. Canadian auteur David Cronenberg does something similar with The Dead Zone, and although it lacks the greatness of the aforementioned masterpieces, it is a wonderfully made and solidly-acted film.

It follows Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken), a happy schoolteacher who is madly in love with girlfriend Sarah (Brooke Adams). After suffering a headache on a rollercoaster, he declines Sarah's invitation to stay the night and drives home. On his way, he has a car accident which leaves him in a coma. When he wakes up, he discovers he's lost 5 years of his life and Sarah is now married with a child. After touching a nurse's hand, he sees her daughter trapped in a burning house and warns her. It turns out the coma has left Johnny with the ability to see people's past, present and future, and also the power to change the future with foresight. News of his new gift spreads, and his abilities are called upon by local sheriff Bannerman (Tom Skerritt), who asks Johnny to assist in solving a series of murders.

That is only half of the plot. Characters seem to come and go and eventually the film switches focus to corrupt Senatorial candidate Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen). Cronenberg and screenwriter Jeffrey Boam do their best to streamline King's sprawling plot, but without a focused narrative, the film can sometimes be as sketchy as King's novel. But Walken is great, helping create a character to really care about, and the supporting actors just as good. Rather than offer lazy jump-shocks, Cronenberg is patient and careful to drum up an atmosphere which makes the supernatural themes feel oddly naturalistic. It's far from the Canadian's best, but The Dead Zone is finely made and greatly entertaining.


Directed by: David Cronenberg
Starring: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Martin Sheen
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #804: 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' (1968)

To audiences young and old who grew up watching it, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang surely holds a warm, nostalgic place in their hearts. At the age of 29, this was my first viewing. I somehow knew all of the songs, knew everything that happens in the plot, and was certainly familiar with the notoriously creepy Child Catcher (Robert Helpmann). For me, watching the film was like eating a huge slice of cake. The first few bites are delicious and barely touch the sides, mid-way through you start to waver but you just can't seem to stop, but by the end your stomach is turning and you wish you'd never eaten the damn thing.

The brain-child of James Bond creator Ian Fleming, the movie was only loosely adapted from his novel by children's author Roald Dahl and director Ken Hughes. Chocked full of sweets and machinery, most of the film will have children eating out of it's sugar-coated palm. When skipping school one day, two mop-headed children come across Truly Scrumptious (Sally Ann Howes), a pretty but strict lady who takes the children straight to their father to report their truancy. The father, eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts (Dick van Dyke), supports their free-spiritedness, much to the horror of Truly.

While observing Potts' warehouse of barmy inventions, Truly comes across a sweet that can play like a flute. They takes it to Truly's father, Lord Scrumptious (James Robertson Justice), a successful confectionery manufacturer, who eventually throws Potts out when the place is overrun by dogs responding to the flute sweet. Eventually he saves up enough money to buy an old banger loved by his children and manages to fix it up, dubbing it 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' due to the clunking noise it makes. While off on a picnic one day, Potts and Truly start to fall for each other, and Potts tells his children the story of an evil pirate baron (Gert Frobe) who wants to steal the car for himself.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is carried along by some gorgeous Technicolor cinematography by Christopher Challis and an energetic performance from van Dyke, who puts in a highly physical one-man show and remains effortlessly likeable throughout. At two and a half hours, the film far outstays it's welcome. The majority of the songs are wonderful, but the film is slowed by mushy scenes, drab love songs and unnecessary sub-plots. It struggles with settling on a tone and ends up becomes a bloated mash-up. The first half of the movie I enjoyed as much as I did with the great's of the genre, until Grandpa Potts (the magnificent Lionel Jeffries) is whisked off to Vulgaria and it all becomes increasingly sickly.


Directed by: Ken Hughes
Starring: Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Gert Fröbe, Anna Quayle, Benny Hill, James Robertson Justice, Robert Helpmann
Country: UK

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #803: 'Mr. and Mrs. Kabal's Theatre' (1967)

This simply-drawn, nightmarish and often hilarious film was Polish director Walerian Borowczyk's first full-length feature and the last he would do using animation. It tells the simple story of a voyeuristic, diminutive husband and his iron-fisted wife, as they spend what appears to be a holiday in a desolate land filled with pesky butterflies and strange beasts. It is ultimately Borowczyk's idea of the mundaneness and repetitiveness of marriage, played out in a playful yet sometimes unnerving way.

Mrs. Kabal is a terrifying creation - well-endowed and dominant, speaking in a bizarre fashion that sounds like a human voice filtered through a blender. Mr. Kabal is the sympathetic one - running around like a headless chicken and obeying his wife's every need, even at one point entering her body to rid it of some unwanted butterflies. Every now and then he runs off to spy with his binoculars, always finding a semi-naked beauty much to the annoyance of an ever-present old man, who waves his fist in anger.

Not much is going on here in terms of narrative, and this causes the film to feel longer than it should be. There's only so many visual gags you can pull of with the omnipresent butterflies, who routinely fly into things and get on Mrs. Kabal's nerves. But for the most part, this is very funny stuff, and although the animation is crude, there is a surrealist quality to it all. Borowczyk would go on to make many highly-acclaimed and controversial live-action features after this, so this is a gentle introduction into the mind of the Polish auteur, and a cynical portrayal of the sanctity of marriage.


Directed by: Walerian Borowczyk
Voices: Louisette Rousseau, Pierre Collet
Country: France

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #802: '22 Jump Street' (2014)

"I want you to do exactly what you did last time!" bawls Captain Dickson (Ice Cube). No-one really expected 21 Jump Street (2012), a re-boot of a long-dead TV show, to be a hit. But it was, and a hit spells sequel in Hollywood. And so returning directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, fresh off the colossal success of The Lego Movie (2014), use 22 Jump Street as a canvas to riff-on the idea of sequels. Actually, to label it as a canvas is not doing it justice - Lord and Miller, two of the wackiest and most inventive directors of our time, stretch it out, beat it with a hammer, and make a strange yet loveable mess out of it.

Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) do exactly what their captain says and head to college, going undercover to bust yet another drug ring. The film embraces repetition wholeheartedly, all the with a winning wink to camera, so we have a Vietnamese Jesus (as opposed to Korean), a suspicious teacher, explosive action-movie car chases, homoerotic bonding, an accidental drug intake, and plenty of scantily-clad ladies. It's a formula that has worked once already - the first film was a hoot and Tatum truly excelled - so the director's laugh at their own willingness to bend to demand and their audience's willingness to lap it up, but never in an offensive way. Lord and Miller make sure you're in on the joke.

But simply acknowledging the cliché doesn't necessarily mean that it makes for entirely satisfying viewing. The jokes are clever, yes, but it still means that we have to sit through a very similar film as we did the first. This is where Lord and Miller's energy really becomes important, as the visual pizazz and the sheer momentum of the one-liners and zippy editing prove an easy distraction from what could have ultimately been a one-joke movie. In one inspired scene, Schmidt and Jenko trip on Why-Phy (the new drug), with Schmidt having a bummer and Jenko euphoric. They share a split screen, each in their own weird little world, as Schmidt tries to break the barrier into Jenko's more colourful trip. It's a crazy scene, especially for a widespread release, but delivered with such commitment that it proves a ballsy move.

It's a shame that the action scenes get in the way, offering plenty of gunshots and explosions but never really rise above the kind of thing we've been given before in the old action movies it's lampooning. Other aspects also don't quite work  - Schmidt's relationship with the gorgeous Maya (Amber Stevens) just feels unrealistic, Queen Latifah's appearance as Dickson's wife spawns a few jokes that simply don't work, and the whole thing feels over-long. But when it sticks with it's heroes, the film is consistently laugh-out-loud funny, and Tatum again delivers a performance that will leave many scratching their heads in disbelief at the idea that this is indeed the same person as the pouting, dead-eyed twat from Step Up (2006).


Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Amber Stevens, Jillian Bell
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #801: 'How to Train Your Dragon 2' (2014)

The Hollywood sequel is a fearsome thing. Most notably in recent years, we have seen an endless supply of re-hashes and cash-in's based on it's predecessor's success, commonly to disastrous effect. Animation especially - or even more so, Dreamworks animation - have churned out drivel with no heart; their only intentions being to offer something to parents that will keep their children busy for 90 minutes and to fill their own wallets. Take a bow, then, How To Train Your Dragon 2, which not only capitalises on the first film's charm, off-beat humour and dazzling dragon battles, but deepens it's mythology and expands it's world, while at the same time offering a visual spectacle to delight the kids and pose some extremely grown-up questions to the adults in the audience.

Five years after the townsfolk of Berk were given a lesson in allegiance and acceptance by unlikely hero Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), the Viking village thrives with domesticated dragons. It's chieftain, Stoick (Gerard Butler), has named Hiccup his heir, but the one-legged adventurer is not ready for the responsibility and would much rather be exploring the surrounding areas on the back of his dragon, the Night Fury Toothless. His relationship with the feisty Astrid (America Ferrera) has developed into a romance, and his friends fight over the attention of Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig). While exploring one day, he comes across an island decorating in strange ice formations, and is attacked by dragon-catcher Eret (Game of Thrones' Kit Harington).

Eret tells them about the warlord Drago (Djimon Honsou), who is amassing a dragon army after learning how to bend the creatures to his will using violence and intimidation. Hiccup and Astrid escape and ride back to Berk to warn the others, and learn that Stoick knows Drago and that he is a madman not be reasoned with. Hiccup, however, feels different and rides off on Toothless to treat with Drago but instead comes upon another hidden island, where dragons live in harmony under the influence of a colossal Alpha dragon known as a bewilderbeast. Also living on the island is environmentalist Valka (Cate Blanchett), Hiccup's long-lost mother.

Cleverly written without heavy lessons on morality and impeccably voiced by a star cast, How To Train Your Dragon 2 stresses the importance of finding your own place in the world. The film could easily have been some kind of eco-crusade, but instead questions whether the human race reserves the right to bend it nature to our will, or if we are a mere significance who have a duty to preserve it, or even if nature is a tool which we can use to serve the greater good. This is startlingly darker than it's predecessor - humans and dragons die - and even questions whether war can be just. Drago is a psychopathic tyrant - can these men be bargained with, or should they simply be wiped out? Thrilling, emotional and extremely thoughtful, this beautiful-looking sequel is the possibly the biggest surprise of the year.


Directed by: Dean DeBlois
Voices: Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Kit Harington, Djimon Hounsou, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #800: 'The Bad Sleep Well' (1960)

Akira Kurosawa's lambasting of Japan's post-war corporate culture, The Bad Sleep Well, is one of many collaborations with actors Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura and one of several of his film's rooted in the work of William Shakespeare. It's been somewhat unfairly overshadowed by the brilliance of those other films, but given the near-perfection of those movies, many of which regularly make those awful, generic 'top 100 movies' lists created by various magazines and websites, it's hardly surprising. But The Bad Sleep Well is one of Kurosawa's most ingeniously paced, clinically filmed and potently pessimistic movies.

Beginning with one of the most exceptional opening sequences in cinema, a crowd of journalists gather at the wedding reception of Nishi (Mifune) and Yoshiko (Kyoko Kagawa) attended by a host of corporate high-flyers. Yoshiko is the daughter of Corporation Vice President Iwabuchi (Masyuki Mori), whose company is facing scrutiny over suspected bid rigging and corruption. The press have gathered to witness the awkward toasts given by the various sweaty workers, delivered on a podium reminiscent of a witness stand. As the speeches are given, the wedding cake is wheeled in and revealed to be in the form of the corporate office building, with a single red rose protruding from the window in which Assistant Chief Furaya committed suicide from years earlier.

As a couple of higher-ups are arrested, Nishi steps in to reveal his plan of revenge. He has donned the disguise of a eager hopeful looking to marry himself up the corporate ladder, but is actually Furaya's son and has uncovered the trail of greed and corruption that led to his forced suicide. And all roads lead to Iwabuchi. Loosely based on Hamlet, The Bad Sleep Well is less faithful to the source material than Kurosawa's other Shakespeare adaptations. Working for the first time with his own production company, Kurosawa instead took the chance to voice his disgust at Japan's post-war capitalist takeover, where underlings are expected to take their own lives to save their boss's skin and back-hand dealings are less suspected than expected.

The title suggest something noir-ish, a genre Kurosawa is not unfamiliar with. But this has only brief shades of noir, and the title only serves as a warning of the grim pessimism smeared on thick throughout. At over two hours, the film is perhaps too long, becoming muddled at the points in which it should be tight and thrilling. But this is certainly a display of the director's formidable talent. The aforementioned opening wedding section is an expert mixture of comedy, tense drama and mystery, and was almost certainly paid homage to in The Godfather (1972). Mifune too, delivers a powerhouse performance as Nishi, stepping out of the shadows to become the beast he seeks to destroy. The climax may be too overtly bleak for some, but for the most part this is beautifully filmed, riveting stuff.


Directed by: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kyôko Kagawa, Takashi Shimura
Country: Japan

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie