Out of all the comics I read without fail when I was a lad, Captain America was the last that they hadn’t adapted into a movie (I’m not including the wretched 1990 effort) . I’ve always thought that the best way to do it would be to make it a period piece set during world war 2 and it seems that the producers and writers agreed with me. This version of Captain America is a wonderfully retro, action packed and inspiring romp that is the best looking of all the Marvel studios efforts so far and over time could well prove to be my favorite film of theirs. The decision to bring in Joe Johnston was a smart choice, anyone who has seen The Rocketeer knows he can do retro, the 1991 film was hampered by budget restrictions though that held it back from greatness. Bringing in Johnston really paid off once he was given the budget to fully deliver on his vision.
The story is the origin of Captain America that comic book readers know inside and out except slightly tweaked to make the most out of the cheesier elements and make them work for modern audiences. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a slight Brooklyn kid in the early forties just as America is joining the war effort in Europe. Rogers wants nothing more than to fight for his country like his friends but his physical limitations hold him back and the army refuse to allow him to sign up. On his fifth attempt to forge records and become enlisted, Rogers is spotted by scientist Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) a defector from Germany working on a formula to create an army of super soldiers. Rogers manages to pass the physical with Erskine’s help and joins a crew of trainees and potential candidates to become a super being trained by the gruff Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and British agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Against all odds and showing the kind of courage and self sacrifice that a hero should, Rogers is picked to be the first candidate and physically transformed into a perfect being of maximum strength and agility. This brings him to the attention of the villainous Nazi agent of Hydra Johann Smit aka The Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) who has a few secrets of his own and has harnessed a cosmic power which will give the Nazi’s the advantage when it comes to weapons technology. The scene is set for a showdown of epic proportions.
There is a lot to squeeze into Captain America’s origin story and the screenwriters could have easily been overwhelmed trying to fit it all in. The core of the story is the Indiana Jones meets Hellboy action epic with brilliant stunts and effects but the writers also find time to squeeze in the Howling Commandos, James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, the romance with Peggy Carter, Howard Stark (Tony’s dad) and of course the introduction of the ‘man out of time’ scenario which will no doubt play out in The Avengers. Its a credit to writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely that the screenplay never feels weighted down or incoherent. It flows brilliantly, is funny in all the right places and the action kicks ass. Unlike Iron Man 2 and Thor, SHIELD are not shoe horned in at every opportunity, so the film is very much its own thing and not just a trailer for The Avengers. It also looks phenomenal, shot by DP Shelly Johnson with the same kind of affection and love that Bryan Singer showed with Superman Returns. Every frame has a warm nostalgic glow and despite some obvious green screen which really showed up in the 3D version, the effects are pretty seamless. The trailers brought about much snickering because of Chris Evan’s normal sized head on a weedy body. In the finished film the effect is flawless and believable and I can’t wait for the special features on the DVD to see how they did it. Evans was a smart choice in the casting for this role, he is believable as a truly selfless being and is never seen spouting the sort of jingoistic balls that Cap occasionally spouts in the comics. They portray Rogers as a man with a heart of gold and balls of steel but also a vulnerable soul. Its smart and could well be the most likeable character of all The Avengers seen on screen, how they are going to bring him into the modern world to make him become the ultimate leader of a band of superbeings is going to be interesting to watch. Hayley Atwell is an actress I’m not familiar with but now I am in love with her I will be watching what she does next with great interest. Atwell plays Peggy Carter as a powerful mold breaking woman with gumption and smarts in a world that doesn’t see females as having anything of value to add except window dressing. There is a scene where she walks into a British pub with a red dress on that is simply breath taking. Carter and Roger’s unspoken romance is handled well and never gets sugary until the right moment where it is that much more effecting. The supporting cast are also all really brilliant in their parts. Tommy Lee Jones is his normal reliable old self bringing weight and gravitas to a comic book blockbuster. Hugo Weaving essays a great villain essentially playing an insane deformed Nazi who has some back story essential to the plot but never slips into pantomime baddie mode. Stanley Tucci and Toby Jones are also great in their support/plot mechanic roles as are whoever played the Howling Commando’s.
I have a bit of a weird fetish for retro action films and paranormal Nazi science, I seem to be one of the only people who enjoyed Sky Captain and The World Of Tomorrow. Seriously though folks, in what has been a disappointing summer that seemed full of promise, Captain America delivers the goods with style and flair and is a genuine crowd pleaser. It never goes trumpet blaring and chest beating for the USA but still manages to inspire one to be all you can be. Its very rare to see a film without cynicism that doesn’t get syrupy and has a wide eyed wonder and sense of adventure that works in these jaded times. Captain America IS that film, its the best summer blockbuster of 2011 hands down.
by Chris Holt
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David Michod’s searing crime drama got some deserved acclaim last year and even garnered an Oscar nod earlier in 2011. It took a while to come out over here, but now its out on DVD and Blu-ray a larger audience can check it out. This may very well be the best crime drama since The Departed. Animal Kingdom also marks the latest in a resurgence for the Australian film industry which has recently enjoyed acclaim for films such as Wolf Creek, The Loved Ones and The Square. It seems the days of Paul Hogan and drag queens on buses in the desert are long behind us and the country is bringing some real talent to the fore like Nash Edgerton (The Square) Spencer Susser (Hesher) and now David Michod.
Animal Kingdom takes place in Melbourne and begins with introverted teen Joshua Cody or J (James Frecheville) sitting next to the dead body of his mother who has just overdosed on heroin. At a loss for what to do once the body has been taken away he calls his Grandmother Janine or ‘Smurf’ (Oscar nommed Jackie Weaver) who agrees to take him in. Its at the new household where we meet the rest of the Cody clan, all up to their neck in crime of one form or another but mainly living through armed robbery. Baz (Joel Edgerton) is the leader and the calm family man centre. Darren (Luke Ford) is the youngest and most mellow of them all constantly smoking weed. Craig (Sullivan Stapleton) is a drug addict and a twitchy drug dealer with ties to the corrupt police force. Finally Pope (Ben Mendelsohn) is a volatile psychopath who constantly threatens to bring police attention down on them with his recklessness. When J is reunited with his family he learns that the family are lying low and Pope is in hiding as their recent actions have brought greater police attention than ever. J is happy at first but more and more finds the family intimidating and prefers to stay with his girlfriend and her family. Then a sudden unexpected death occurs and the fall out means that the family finds themselves in free fall with nobody to look out for them. This leads to double crossing and suspicion as Craig and Pope both bring the police net closer and closer through their actions. Sergeant Nathan Leckie (Guy Pearce) recognizes that J does not belong and approaches him to bring him in as a police witness before it is too late.
This is the kind of film that lives and dies on its performances and luckily Animal Kingdom delivers some crackers. Joel Edgerton is brilliant in this movie, based on his work in the Star Wars prequels you wouldn’t have thought he would have anywhere to go but he is fast proving to be an extremely versatile performer. I only realized this week that he played the dense Russian minion in Smokin Aces. His performance here is great and along with the rest of the cast feels completely natural. Essentially he is playing a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, a man who despite extreme stress remains a devout family man with a moral code. He is the centre of the movie in the first half and really puts across the idea that without this man the family would be truly lost. Ben Mendelsohn as the psychotic Pope is also solid, delivering a truly heinous villainous performance that is unpredictable and scary. Whilst I was watching this I kept thinking that James Frecheville as our main character was wooden and seemed to be a bit of a cipher. After watching the film I’ve realized that this works for the story and the character, as J is truly an outsider, unsure of his place in the world and intimidated by the family he had forgotten but is suddenly reunited with. When J gets to show some emotion towards the end of the film it has that much more of an impact so ultimately its a pretty well judged performance and a good decision from Michod. Guy Pearce is his usual dependable self giving depth to a minor character who has two sides; happily family man and no nonsense police officer. Ultimately Jackie Weaver walks away with the film and was thoroughly deserving of that Oscar nod. Her Grandma/Matriarch character is perhaps the most scary performance of the lot. She has affection for her children which sometimes borders on incest and when she has to protect her pride she does it with a smile and the affectation of a kindly grandma. Despite being a coil of menace the character also has our sympathies, we are seeing a woman driven to extremes to protect the family life that is falling down around her ears. Its definitely one for the books.
David Michod has a style very reminiscent of early Christopher Nolan. The film visually looks very similar to Memento but with added slow motion scenes and an interesting use of light which makes the whole thing come across as a hazy summer memory. The film is told in flashback with a voiceover, so this was a smart decision and adds to the feel of the whole piece. Animal Kingdom is never less than a thrilling piece of cinema, its deliberately paced and takes time to unfold its story but stick with it and you will be rewarded. Thanks to the acclaim this film received Michod should go on to make some great films now, I just hope that he doesn’t completely abandon the low budget independent realm when the results are this masterful.
by Chris Holt
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I Come With The Rain: This is a very strange and haunting movie which has more ideas in two hours than most films released this summer have between them. It’s also one of those frustrating films that is less than the sum of its parts, so bursting with ideas that none of them quite gel into a satisfying whole. There are at least three separate films worth of material here that are shoehorned into one narrative. Having said that this is Josh Hartnett’s best ever performance and I say that as a big fan of The Faculty and 30 Days of Night. Somehow he has done his best work with a foreign director and the results have gone straight to DVD, which is a shame for the actor as he probably needs some theatrical acclaim. I heard about this film some time ago and it has sat on a shelf somewhere for a while and now appeared straight on DVD through a distribution label I have never heard of. Director Anh Hung Tran has had some acclaim recently with the film Norwegian Wood which may be why this has now limped on to rental shelves as some kind arty cash in. Hartnett plays Kline a broken former Los Angeles detective whose last case tracking down a vicious twisted serial killer leaves him a broken man. He takes a job from a mysterious wealthy man who wants him to track down his son Shitao who is missing in Hong Kong. Kline sets out for the city and meets up with his friend Meng Zi a HK police officer. They question various criminal elements and lean on the local scumbags including a mob boss Su Dongpo (played by Lee Byung Hun from I saw the devil) to try and track the missing man. Meanwhile in the shanty towns on the outskirts of Hong Kong a mysterious man uses healing powers to help the sick and wounded. These seemingly unrelated strands end up coming together in occasionally surprising ways. This is a film that is very much a ‘mood piece’. The closest comparison I can make is probably Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, but don’t go in thinking its anywhere near as good as that because its not as accomplished a vision and is at least twenty minutes too long. The film looks tremendous, shot by Juan Ruiz Anchia who has a similar visual style to Michael Mann and adding to the mood; Radiohead provide much of the soundtrack. The problem is the film is so weighed down with different ideas and is such a schizophrenic piece that it fails to really work as a narrative. Take for instance the serial killer plotline, Elias Koteas plays the killer in flashback and is a scary bastard, what he does with his victims is also very disturbing.He twists and turns their corpses into grotesques pieces of art similar to the work of Gunter Von Hagen but more perverse. This alone would have made a good storyline but shoehorned into this film it doesn’t quite gel with the redemption and religious subtext that become apparent in the finale. The mid section sags a little and it really could have done with some more judicious editing. If anything this is an interesting failure that you should see and probably discuss with someone what it all means. Sometimes that is just enough. ***1/2
Dead Hooker in a Trunk: The twin Soska sisters Sylvia and Jen are clearly insane and have surprised me that Canadian’s were capable this kind of thing, this is long way from the films of Guy Maddin. Dead Hooker in a Trunk is their directorial debut and is a low budget romp featuring the aforementioned crazy twins who with their friends end up with a dead woman in the trunk of their car. This leads to run ins with the type of scum not seen since Troma’s heyday and lots of consequence free violence against corrupt cops, pimps, serial killers, triads and members of the public. The lead sister and most violent of the two Sylvia plays a character named ‘The Cunt’ so you get a good idea of the kind of tone they are going for here. Despite very clearly being low budget and probably in need of better camera and sound people, the Soska’s debut has a tremendous energy to it and its quite possible with a bigger budget and professional actors these two babes could hit it out the park next time around. I can’t recall the specifics of the plot apart from when the hooker is discovered in the trunk everyone suddenly wants a piece, suffice to say it was never dull and must have been a blast to make which filters through to the viewer. Recently Vancouver was plagued by riots which were blamed on the fact they lost the Stanley Cup, I suspect the Soska sisters were involved somehow probably shooting their latest movie. ***
Confessions: Wow, just wow. I feel like I should be getting sick of Asian revenge sagas by now but each new one I watch offers me something fresh and exhilarating so bring it on. This is one hell of a good looking flick, each shot is a work of art and everything about it just screams class reminiscent of David Fincher’s best work. The plot concerns teacher Yuko who knows in her gut that one or two of her students were responsible for the death of her young daughter. The film begins with Yuko giving a final farewell speech to her class before making them feel sick and turn on the people she suspects of the murder. The film then continues afterwards telling the story from the point of view of each of the suspects and another girl in their class. There are twists and turns and revelations as the tension builds towards a gut punch finale where revenge is not only taken but lives are ruined forever. This movie feels dangerous, the teacher is trying to get savage psychological revenge on 13 year olds and with all the stories of students run amok in the press its easy to believe that the events here could actually happen. Most controversial of all is the fact that the opening scene has Yuko tell her students that the free cartons of milk she has just given out were infected with HIV. There again this film is Japanese and the culture there towards their kids seems to be completely different (Battle Royale?) The trick to the success of this film is that the characters are fully fleshed out and sympathetic and not just victims. Take Naoki the villain of the piece, we learn a lot about this character and that through circumstances beyond his control he has been twisted and molded into an evil little shit. Despite this come the climax you can’t help but feel sorry for the kid, Yuko uses the tragedies in his life against him, giving him false hope and ultimately devastating his very soul. Confessions is another successful example of an Asian revenge saga (if you read this blog you know the names of the others) that will stay with you for a long time and shows that envelope pushing can sometimes work in your favor. ****
Jackass 3.5: I watched this on a Friday and was thinking that Ryan Dunn was a actually the funniest of the crew and then he died the following Monday. I was bummed out as the guy is only a year older than me at this point. Jackass 3.5 is the straight to DVD 80 minute long movie made from outtakes from the recent 3D cinema release. Its almost impossible to review this in the traditional sense. If you are a fan then you will love this if you are a critic for the Evening Standard then don’t bother. Much of this movie involves skateboards, catapults, paintballs, radio controlled helicopters, wild animals and snowboards most of which are used to inflict pain and play pranks. You could do worse on a Friday night and I hope that Dunn’s death doesn’t prevent Johnny Knoxville and his crew returning to our screens soon. It feels like hanging with old friends who never grew up. ***
Mulberry Street: This was released in the UK in 2008 under the title ‘Zombie virus on Mulberry Street’. That title made me dismiss the film sight unseen but since Jim Mickle’s second movie Stakeland has made a splash recently I thought I would go back and check out his debut. Mulberry Street is very reminiscent of the REC films as well as 28 days later and The Signal. Some kind of viral infection that comes from rats starts to infect the residents of the lower east side of Manhattan and the infected become violent, dribbling lunatics and start to take on the characteristics of rodents. An ex Boxer, an immigrant woman, an elderly man and his carer are trapped in an apartment block whilst the boxer’s daughter travels home from military service abroad back to the quarantined section of the city. This is one of those great low budget movies that clearly had no money to realise fully the devastation they wished to convey but manages to do so just through clever use of locations and shooting at night, the budget was only $60k and you would never think so. The performances from the unknown cast are all very good and they are believable residents of New York, they nail the accent and the mannerism’s perfectly. The set pieces are all expertly staged here as well, you have the typical zombies dragging people through windows and breaking down doors scenes but they are done very well with handheld cameras that never give you motion sickness. There are no scenes of men with machine guns mowing down hordes of zombies just scenes of unarmed men and women trying their best to survive by using what they have and thats what makes this film so surprising. I really enjoyed this film, it was a genuine surprise that I enjoyed the hell out of. Don’t let the crappy UK title turn you off, Mulberry Street is a great little lo-fi shocker. ****
by Chris Holt
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Got a screener? A cool poster? in production on your own low budget gem? Contact us at thelostmovies@hotmail.co.uk
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