Its been a while since I have given out one of these recommendations to you out there on the internets so if you follow this with any regularity I apologize, although I kinda doubt it. Summer movie season is in full swing and we have had hits and misses so far. Thor was good but gets worse the more I think about it, The Hangover 2 and Pirates 4 were disappointing and the less said about Priest the better. The best movie of summer so far and possibly one of the best films of the year is X-Men First Class which over time could prove to be my favorite X-Men movie overall (yes I think it may even be better than X2).
My main problem with the previous X-Men films has been the decision to focus on Wolverine as the main character. I don’t want to get too nerdy but in the comics Wolverine is just as cool as Hugh Jackman is in the films but he is part of an ensemble and not the main focus. As a result the previous films have sidelined characters like Cyclops, Storm and Professor X. The problem with the Wolverine character is that he is a bit of a bastard so its quite hard to find an emotional attachment to the films when they focus on such a character. They soften him up somewhat in his relationships towards the female X-Men but even there he is rubbing another mutants rhubarb so to speak with his desire for Jean Grey. Matthew Vaughan’s funky retro prequel focuses on the friendship between James McAvoy’s Charles Xavier aka Professor X, Michael Fassbender’s Erik Lensherr aka Magneto and most movingly Jennifer Lawrence’s Raven Darkholme aka Mystique. These three characters rarely got anything approaching an arc in the previous movies but here they get a full two plus hours for their stories to play out as relationships are formed, bonds are forged and then tragically broken. The plot basically revolves around Charles Xavier and Raven being recruited by the CIA as agent Moira McTaggart (Rose Byrne) has discovered that the Russians are in league with a team of mutants lead by Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) named the Hellfire Club. This brings them in contact with Erik Lensherr who is after the mutant Shaw because he killed his mother. Xavier brings Lensherr into the fold as he is barely in control of his powers and so filled with rage that he is not reaching his full potential.
McAvoy and Fassbender are brilliant as the two men with common ground but separate ideologies which ultimately doom their friendship. McAvoy wisely doesn't mimic Patrick Stewart except for a couple of moments of vocal inflection and gives the character something of a swinging sixties British charm which makes you root for him from the beginning. Fassbender is all intensity and grandstanding speeches as Erik Lensherr, he also does not mimic Ian McKellan and brings a physicality to the character missing from previous incarnations. During Fassbender’s early scenes of Nazi hunting in Europe you cannot help but think of Bond and Fassbender may prove to be a worthy successor should Daniel Craig decide to hand in his license to kill. Jennifer Lawrence proves that Winters Bone was no fluke but instead here plays a character that is both vulnerable and damaged instead of headstrong and determined. It makes me convinced once and for all that she was the best choice for lead in The Hunger Games.
The rest of the cast are also up to the challenge set by the main players. Kevin Bacon is all sixties bond villain menace and does a lot with the role that proves to be pivotal in the development of the three main characters, Sebastian Shaw’s goal is nothing less than the annihilation of mankind which gives the plot a sense of urgency. January Jones is an actress I’m not terribly familiar with but certainly looks the part as Emma Frost in her sexy outfits even though she is given little else to do but be the dangerous femme fatale. Nicholas Hoult is not an actor that has impressed me greatly in the past but shines as Hank McCoy and then later Beast in particular which feels like a dead-on interpretation of that character. The rest of the mutants are all given their little moment to shine with some quality mutant power based battles which feel more epic than anything in the previous movies. It was certainly a thrill to watch characters with the ability to fly actually use that in a fight combined with characters who can teleport and fire death beams then you have some awesome scenes.
The script was re-worked from a Magneto based prequel movie and something else that was going to focus on a younger team of X-Men and as a result has about 6 credited screenwriters. It could have been a disaster but Matthew Vaughan and Jane Goldman have reworked the film into a smooth and thrilling ride which ties into real world events perfectly and makes everything feel more believable. The film moves at a fast pace and you never feel like you have been sitting there for its 132 minute run time. Although they nod towards the continuity portrayed in the first three X-Men movies this feels like a new beginning. It would be a shame if this was a one off and they didn’t get another film showing what took place in the mutant universe of the seventies. They probably can’t introduce characters such as Cyclops and Wolverine due to the timelines and continuity already in place but there are literally hundreds of mutants in the Marvel universe who can be brought in.
So even if you are not a fan of comic book movies but have a fondness for sixties spy flicks, get out there and see this movie. This is the kind of summer blockbuster that we should all support. Its intelligent, thrilling and finally moving and we need more of that in our summer.
by Chris Holt
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Family Jewels (aka Barry Munday): This is somewhat of a confusing movie. Somewhere in here there is a good movie trying to get out but its not quite sure what it wants to be. It starts off like a fairly amusing Shallow Hal esque comedy with Patrick Wilson giving a surprisingly comedic performance as wannabe ladies man Barry Munday. Together with his friend who is also a bit of a wannabe, he cruises bars and restaurants after work on a Friday looking for sex. Usually they end up in a strip club so you get the idea of how deluded they are. Then one day in a movie theatre Barry very nearly crosses the line from womanizer to full blown sex pest and gets a trumpet to the testacles for his trouble. He wakes up in hospital having had his two reasons for living removed and no memory of how this occurred. This is where the movie takes a turn into black comedy territory with all the situations that would occur previously that would make Barry behave a certain way having no effect on him and him having a lot more free time. Barry is then contacted by the lawyers of a partner from a one night stand a few months before advising him that he is the father of the woman’s unborn child. Having realized that this is now the only chance he has at ever having a child he contacts the woman and finds that Ginger (Judy Greer) is something of a disappointment. She berates him constantly and he tries and tries to be nice to her constantly all the while avoiding the attentions of her stripper sister Jennifer (Chloe Sevigny). Once the baby is born the film becomes something like a warm comedy along the lines of a Cameron Crowe film before becoming somewhat predictable and petering out. Its not that this is a bad film at all because it isn’t, just a little consistency in the tone would have gone a long way. Patrick Wilson is really good here, so far he has just played creepy guys and troubled family men. Getting to play the comedic lead in a film like this was a good step and is a good sign that he will have some longevity to his career. Judy Greer (vulnerable) and Chloe Sevigny (slutty) are also really solid as is the underrated Shea Whigham as Barry’s even more hopeless friend. There is some enjoyment to be had from this film but it really feels like it should have been better material. Its not a bad rental prospect if you are stuck on a weekend. Special mention to the soundtrack by Jude Christodal which is full of brilliant songs and that I cannot find on iTunes! **
Sharktopus: Y’know some days I think I need to be more discerning when it comes to my viewing choices. I love a low budget lark thats good on a few beers. One of my best experiences was watching The Toxic Avenger whilst drinking on Christmas Day in 1995. Its with this experience in mind that I decide whether or not to give low budget schlock a chance. Every now and then I get it right, Piranha 3D, The Tournament or Wrong Turn 2 spring to mind as being great whilst loaded.There again sometimes a clanger drops through my letterbox. This month it is Sharktopus, two words smashed together that should equal awesome but instead equal uninspired and lazy crap. This is produced by Roger Corman who has made some crap to be sure but is also capable of the low budget greatness that can lead to Battle Beyond The Stars so I thought I would give it a chance. I was hoping for something so bad it was great but its just so bad its bad. This film has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I’m of the opinion that if you have NO BUDGET then you don’t use CGI, use what you have and make good use of cheap practical effects and camera trickery. Sharktopus looks ridiculous, rendered on a Commodore Amiga and dropped into scenes where a cardboard cut out would be more menacing whilst an actor squirms comically as fake tentacles wrap round them. Now you are probably thinking that a film named Sharktopus isn't meant to be taken seriously and yes you are right. To that I would say, Is James Gunn's Slither supposed to be taken seriously? No but it has awesome practical effects and minimal effective CGI and as a result is a blast. Sharktopus’s story is that Eric Roberts plays some kind of contracted government bozo who creates the perfect killing machine by cross breeding a shark and an octopus. He and his cute nerdy daughter control it through some kind of brain implant harness type of gizmo, which predictably comes off and Sharktopus goes on the rampage picking off hard bodied hotties along the beach in admittedly amusing fashion. The Military get the hump, charge Roberts with recapturing the creature and he in turn employs some meat head who has the hots for his daughter to go get it so that he can spend the rest of the film drinking scotch and thinking ‘this isn’t how Christopher Nolan would do it, I wonder why he hasn’t called…’. After that set up the film becomes tedious with scene after scene of Sharktopus walking on land and bad actors screaming at a bunch of pixels that aren't there. Even if someone drunkenly suggest watching this one evening, Don’t. Instead go to a strip club and get fish and chips on the way home. Sure you’ll feel guilty and kind of sick but; same effect, more fun. *
The Man From Nowhere: Wow, despite being a film who’s plot is cribbed together from elements of Leon, Man On Fire, Kill Bill and many others; The Man from Nowhere is the best action film for a while and again an example of South Korea’s general mastery of the cinematic art form. The plot concerns a mysterious man who runs a pawn shop and forms a weird friendship with the put upon abused moppet next door. Said moppets mother is a bit of a tart and a stripper and somehow gets involved in a police sting gone wrong and with her pimp/boyfriend they make off with a load of cocaine that belongs to some gangsters. The woman is murdered, the child kidnapped and mystery man is framed with her body in the trunk of a car he is driving. Its not long before he breaks out of jail and goes on a roaring rampage of revenge to find the missing child and bring down the mob. See the man has a dark past involving secret intelligence styled brutality. Its Man on Fire without the cameraman having an epileptic fit and thats what's so damn refreshing about this movie. The camera stays still and the fight scenes and car chases are still exciting as hell. There are so many moments that will make you gasp at how cool it all is, including a scene where the cameraman is seemingly behind the main character as he runs down a corridor and dives out a window with the camera following him out the window and all the way down to the ground its very clever and looks phenomenal. There are also about six or so awesome knife fights including one in a toilet cubicle which was brutal and the final fight scene against about six knife welding punks. The whole thing could have been corny and awful but its just fantastic and a great piece of Friday night entertainment. Keep an eye on director Jeong Beom Lee, he could be the next John Woo and also the star Bin Won, who is without doubt gifted with the art of stillness making him a cool leading man in the vein of Chow Yun Fat. ****
Tekken: Under no circumstances ever see this movie. This is without doubt one of the worst pieces of shit in cinematic history. Everything about it is hopelessly inept, the choreography, the script, the music…Its like someone took one of the worst straight to video films from the early 90’s and gave it an early noughties remake with a nu-metal soundtrack and some frankly ridiculous cyberpunk backdrops which would have been dated in 1995. John Foo or whoever who plays our protagonist is one of the worst actors I’ve ever seen in a lead role, sounding as if he is reading off cue cards the entire time. When the lead actor is out performed by Gary Daniels, one of the straight to video ‘stars’ of the 90’s then you know you are in trouble. The female lead Kelly Overton gives a soft-core porn level performance and every outfit she wears is designed to accentuate her ass crack (I'm not making this up) The main plot is basically the video game with some half assed government conspiracy malarkey around it. It even looks like the video game just with live action actors but they have crafted a ‘story’ around it so you may as well play the game. Even Luke Goss is slumming it here. Avoid – no stars
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
“ Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster….” – Friedrich Nietzsche.
I’ve never started a review with a quote before but whilst watching this film, the above quote by everyone’s favorite nihilist Mr. Nietzsche kept repeating in my head so it seemed appropriate to include it here. Cinema today is in a transitional period, when historians look back on the beginning of this decade I have no doubt that it will be remembered as a period of massive upheaval not just in cinema but in media in general. I don’t know about you but I still prefer to have an experience in a darkened room in front of a big screen, the fact is there will probably be a generation soon who saw their favorite movie for the first time on a small handheld screen. Arguably cinema remains the most powerful medium in the world and very few directors seem to understand that. Gaspar Noe gets it and with Enter the Void he pushed the limits of the medium to create something that was technically stunning but didn’t work as a narrative feature, it was an experience nonetheless. It seems that the whole of the South Korean film industry gets it as well, whilst the British film industry struggles and releases movies that constantly riff on past successes, South Korea’s output over the last ten years has been the best cinema in the world, constantly defying expectations and pushing the limits of what is acceptable on screen. Recent examples of this are Chan Wook Park’s movies, Bedevilled, Mother, The Man From Nowhere and The Good, The Bad, The Weird director Jee Woon Kim’s latest film I Saw The Devil. Due to the transitional phase we now live in, which seems to be less of a format war (ala DVD vs. Blu-Ray) and more about accessibility this has been denied a UK cinema release despite having a penciled in release date of 29th April. The rise in on demand entertainment has meant that in the USA many smaller films get a limited cinema release at the same time as appearing on demand via iTunes or cable. In the UK we have not adopted this model yet because we are a smaller country and much of the stuff that ten years ago would have packed the arthouse circuit now goes straight to DVD. I Saw The Devil is a film that was crying out for a cinema release, its challenging in a way that all great films are and truthfully and without hyperbole, it really is the best serial killer movie since Seven.
The film begins with a young pregnant lady having broken down in her car on the outskirts of Seoul. The snow is coming down and she is understandably nervous about being stuck out alone in the countryside. Kyung-chul (Choi Min Sik) turns up in his school bus offering to help but his help is politely declined, the only problem is Kyung Chul is a remorseless serial murderer and the woman is his latest victim. Her dismembered corpse shows up some days later and her fiancé Kim Soo-Hyeon (Lee Byung-Hun) a secret service agent, vows revenge on the killer and uses all the intelligence and skills at his disposal to track down Kyung-chul. Kim eventually catches up with Kyung-Chul but instead of just killing him decides to drag out the revenge process to make his suffering unbearable. The cat and mouse game escalates and escalates, dragging other innocent victims into Kim’s anger and quest for vengeance.
First thing you should know about this is what you have heard is true, I Saw the Devil is brutal. Even in this version that was trimmed by the Korean censors by ninety seconds to get a release, the film is almost relentless in its portrayal of violence. the film mercifully cuts away during many of the scenes where limbs are severed but like the aforementioned Seven or Reservoir Dogs this is a film that has violence seeping from its pores. At some point in the second hour I just wanted it to stop and felt queasy, unsure if another bashed in skull on screen was going to make me throw up my chicken korma. The excess is kind of the point though and the film is darkly funny as Kim Soo-Hyeon catches up with Kyung Chul every time he is about to take another victim and denies him his fix by beating him senseless and then making sure he is is given medical attention to get better so that the process can begin again. Make no mistake though this is no comedy, what you are watching on screen is the erosion of a man soul as he becomes that what he hunts and lets revenge take over his life. The final few frames will stay with you for weeks afterwards and leave you shaken.
Choi Min Sik has not been in a film since Lady Vengeance back in 2005 due to some kind of political protest over screens in South Korea, which is odd because after the success of Oldboy he surely was set for international stardom. Here he plays a character more damaged than anyone I have ever seen on screen, Kyung-Chul is one of the all time great monsters, he is evil incarnate and Choi plays him as such; never giving him a moment of humanity until the very end. Lee Byung-Hun is an actor who has been in a few great movies now and is probably the better known actor at this point, he played Storm Shadow in the GI Joe movie and ‘The Bad’ in The Good, The Bad, The Weird. In I Saw The Devil he plays the silent heroic type, never really emoting and just driven to accomplish his mission. Only in the final few minutes of the film does he allow emotion to creep up with the toll of the brutality finally overwhelming him. Jee Woon Kim is a master at creating tension and excitement as he proved with The Good, The Bad, The Weird which in my opinion is the best action movie of the last ten years. With I Saw The Devil he proves again he is great at creating a set piece and working from a brilliant script by Hoon-Jung Park he structures the film like every frame matters despite its two hour and a bit running time.
I Saw The Devil is as challenging a piece of cinema as you are ever likely to see. Sadly the fact that its subtitled as well as the period in time it finds itself with regards to release patterns means its likely to remain unseen by most of the world. If you like great storytelling, horror and unconventional approaches to story then you should check out this film.
by Chris Holt
I need followers on twitter: www.twitter.com/reformedaddict2
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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