November 6, 2008

What I did in October: watched two straight to DVD sequels to classic movies, decided never to go to Mexico and wondered if we can ever really trust our government….

****SPOILER WARNING****

Cashback: Previously I have complained about the lack or originality in British film, well it seems finally somebody has made a unique and hard to describe Brit flick and nobody has noticed. Cashback is actually a feature length version of director Sean Ellis earlier award winning short film. The plot concerns art student Ben who splits up with his girlfriend and then gets insomnia. In order to fill the time wasted by not sleeping he takes a job working the night shift at the local sainsburys. Here he meets all manner of quirky characters, most of them employees and also starts to daydream about the female customers, naked. It sounds like a pretentious bore but its not, its actually incredibly funny and basically a romantic comedy with a heartwarming ending. Sean Ellis is going to be a director to watch, he has a style very similar to David Fincher and several scenes here are extremely beautiful. Also this is perhaps the best depiction on film of the naked female form I have ever scene. There is a flashback scene with a Swedish lodger that is maybe the hottest thing I have ever scene on film and yet there is no out and out graphic sex in the film. Highly recommended. ****

The Ruins: The Ruins is a horror film belonging to the same group that includes recent films The Mist and 30 days of night, harsh and unforgiving proper horror. Although its not quite as good as both of those its still one of the better horror films of recent times. I think the trick is here that the young leads are likeable unlike say the leads in All the boys love Mandy Lane. So when bad stuff starts happening its that much more effective. It starts off like The Beach in Mexico with a map given to a group of young people looking for adventure. They set off on their trek and come across a Mayan temple covered in vines, once they step on the ground surrounding it a bunch of natives show up armed with guns and bows and won't let them leave. They have no choice but to climb to the top of the temple and camp out and wait for an chance to make a run for it. This is where the tension begins as clearly there is something going on with the vines. Director Carter Smith got everything right here, he builds tension so well that you feel like crying just before something horrible happens. He also stages some great moments such as the revelation that the plant surrounding the temple is actually mimicking the sound of a mobile phone to lure its prey into a trap. This film also contains the most wince inducing and graphic amputation scene I have seen, ewww. If there is a complaint its that the ending is far too convenient and just feels a bit rushed after all the hopelessness and tension that has been built up. Worth a look though for fans of proper horror. ****

Death Note 2 - The Last Name: Last month I raved about the first Death Note movie and this month I got to see the sequel (how often can you say that?) and I am pleased to report its just as good as the original. After the teenage Light, owner of the Death Note narrowly escapes justice the first time round, he joins the investigative team lead by the mysterious L. Light also hooks up with a troubled pop star Misa Amane who owns a separate death note owned by another god of death. Light uses her to try and discover L's true name and get rid of him. There are twists and turns aplenty again as Light and L play a game of cat and mouse reminiscent of some scenes from The Departed. The best moment comes towards the end though where God of Death Ryuuk finally gets back at Light with one classic line. Sadly the effects with the CGI characters are still pretty poor which still holds this series back from classic status. I can't recommend these films enough though. See them now to get ahead in your knowledge of the mythology so we can all bitch about the US version in 2010. ****

Psycho Beach Party: Where the hell did this come from? Back in 2001 I heard about this movie and it sounded like my cup of tea. I waited for it to come out, and waited and waited. Then a couple of weeks back it appeared on DVD and although my enthusiasm had waned I rented it anyway. Psycho Beach Party is basically like an old teen flick from the 1950's with a similar plot to Grease where a plain jane falls in with a gang of handsome surfers and falls for the leader. Only problem here is this plain Jane actually has around 3 different schizoid personalities and somebody is killing off the teenagers in their small beach town. The local police chief is also a transsexual and two of the surfing hunks are in love with each other. Yes its ridiculous and the kind of movie that John Waters would hail as a classic but its actually incredibly good fun and laugh out loud funny. You can tell its based on a stage play though as the sets are kind of basic and it probably had a lower than low budget. It does have an early performance by the great Amy Adams though as a local bimbo. Don't rush out and rent it on my recommendation as its a bit of a love it or hate it affair, if you catch it come time on late night TV though you may just love it. ****

Lost Boys 2- The Tribe: Some days, not often but some days you can be surprised by an item that has gone straight to DVD. The original Lost Boys I think you will agree is an 80's classic. It was a huge influence on me and especially my first completed screenplay as a writer which was a lot like Lost Boys in the UK at first draft stage. This straight to DVD sequel was roundly panned when it appeared so I didn't expect much from this but its actually not all that bad. Sure its badly acted and there is too much gore (how much was there in the original? not that much) and the vampires look nothing like the original.The director fails to build any tension or suspense by blowing his load with the first scene which features a fast becoming cliche cameo by Tom Savini. Despite all this its kind of fun on a Tuesday after work. Plus it has an appearance from Corey Feldman actually doing a pretty good job of playing a badass and he doesn't look like he has aged a year since 1987. There are some cool vampire moments though as well, like an exploding head by holy water balloon and a death by dear antlers. I am not saying go out and rent it now and anybody probably could have come up with a better sequel to the first one, but if you catch it on channel 5 in a year or so with lowered expectations you may have some fun. **

Burn After Reading: Less than a year after the Coens masterful No Country for Old Men they are back again with a film more in line with Big Lebowski and Raising Arizona, which is a good thing. Whilst its not as good as those films at least on first viewing, its certainly very funny and still better than Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers. The plot follows a whole host of characters in Washington DC starting with Oswald Cox who has just quit the CIA and decides to write his memoirs including some juicy dirt on the agency. His wife is about to start divorce proceedings against him and is instructed to get his financial data which she does on a disc which is then left at the local Hardbodies gym. This is then picked up by the dim Chad played by Brad Pitt who along with his fellow employee who is desperate for cash decides to blackmail Cox for money. This is where the fun starts, Pitt steals this film from everyone else in the cast, Chad is a hilarious creation who manages to add the word Shit into every exchange and description whilst bopping away on his I-pod. Second to Pitt is George Clooney who plays an absolute sleazebag who prowls the Internet dating world looking for easy sex. I think that this film will definitely grow on me with repeat viewing's and its good that it has made money, this means that the Coens are free to create some more great comedy films as well as the serious movies that win Oscars. ****

Starship Troopers 3 - Marauder: You know how there are some movies where it baffles you they never made a proper sequel? Starship Troopers is one of them and The Lost Boys was another until about two paragraphs back. They made the first straight to DVD sequel a few years back which due to the low budget was restricted to a body snatchers in space like plot and was pretty mediocre. This second sequel has a slightly larger budget and is directed by original screenwriter Ed Neumeier. Original star Casper Van Dien is also back as Johnny Rico. The surprise here is that this is actually a worthy sequel to the Verhoeven classic and has the swarms of bugs and gore that you would expect. The plot is set eight years after the first movie with the war against the bugs still raging across the galaxy. Religion is slowly creeping back into the fascist federation that wages war on the arachnids and those in charge are none too happy about it as we see in the humorous fednet broadcasts which have made a come back from the first movie. When a sky marshall who is also the worlds number one pop star is lost in a raid on a strategic stronghold for the humans Rico is blamed and sentenced to death. However later the same sky marshall is lost on an uncharted planet and Rico is given a reprieve and a new squad to go and rescue the marshall. So yeah it has the tone of the first movie and is all the better for it but its still not a hundred million dollar budgeted movie so some of the CGI is poorly rendered and we won't mention the acting. When you see things like the federation battle suits and a bug the size of a planet you will find yourself wishing they had a huge budget to do it justice. If you can just watch the movie and see it as looking far more realistic in your mind than it does on screen then there is much to enjoy here. Now we need a Starship Troopers first person shooter online game on the PS3 okay? *** 1/2

Eagle Eye: One of the best run trailer campaigns of recent times was for Eagle Eye. Remember the trailers? Just that one scene where Shia Lebouef is in a room in a police station and gets the mysterious call that tells him to duck as the crane crashes through the wall. It didn't give away anything else and intrigued people just enough so that they wanted to go see the movie. Due to the trailer not giving too much away it means that Eagle Eye is full of surprises and one of the best action movies of the year. Director DJ Caruso has been a bit hit and miss since The Salton Sea with the disappointing Taking Lives and Disturbia but here he proves he can deliver the goods with a large budget, staging some Michael Bay style mayhem with aplomb. There are some fantastic set pieces with a car chase early on that ends with a crane throwing police cars around being the standout as well as a missile drone flying through a traffic tunnel after its target. Lebouef and Michelle Monaghan are also both enormously likeable leads and the plot climaxes in a race against time to save the president which is the perfect ending to this fast paced thriller. If there is one complaint its that the ending is one of those made by committee jobs that should have ended five minutes earlier, but that's small beans really as this is great fun. ****