Chinese Whispers - Method To The Madness - Part One

Recently on the website Empire.com, movie legends from behind and in front of the camera have been describing their most influential and favourite films.  There have been some obvious choices (The Godfather, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Jaws) and some downright bizarre ones (Revenge of the Sith? Oh no, Kevin Smith, really?!)

This got me thinking about my own journey and the personal connection that I feel towards the art of cinema. What got it started?  Was my fragile, little mind warped by the first violent film I watched, or just awakened to cinema's true capabilities?  Has it had a positive or negative effect on my life?  To quote Rob Gordon from Nick Hornby's seminal work High Fidelity...

"What came first?  The music or the misery?"  

(...even though this article is about films, not music... and happiness, not misery... Hmm, I kinda just wanted to use that quote... You'll see why later on...)

Regardless, I searched through my torrid history with film and came across a few milestones in my life that I'd like to share with you and give you some insight into why I love cinema as much as I do. So let's begin, shall we?

STAR WARS

The film that started it all, for both summer blockbusters and this fresh-faced six year old. Imagine me, sitting down one Easter Sunday and watching a strange film about space knights, giant walking carpets and the scariest tall man draped in black I had seen since The Demon Headmaster.  I was transfixed.  The TV only usually showed cartoons or quite short shows on CBBC, but this was something new, exciting and fresh.  I loved it!  It was relatively taking up hours of time that I could be running, jumping or climbing trees.  But I didn't mind.  I was completely lost in another world.

A world full of blaster guns, space ships and freaky-looking aliens.  And my God, the lightsabers.  Not only the coolest weapon in the world, but they could only be stopped by another lightsaber!  How bad-ass is that?  Any game I would play with friends or with my toys, the hero would instantly be made cooler with a lightsaber, regardless of the situation. I don't think I'm alone in saying this, but with his debonair attitude and roguish ways, Han Solo instantly became my idol for most of my childhood.   The guy isn't even the protagonist, yet he gets the best lines, awesome fight scenes and he gets the girl in the end!  Who am I kidding?  Han Solo is still my idol.

Since it's release, it has become the quintessential example of Joseph Campbell's monomyth, or The Hero's Journey and it was a great introduction into how the basic film storyline is created.   A hero is called to his destiny, meets a mystical helpful figure, experiences trials and troubles, but ultimately fights the villain despite being at his lowest point and emerges victorious.  The film is almost the easiest to follow in terms of good and evil, which definitely aided my development as a youngster.

The film and it's sequels truly opened my mind to what experiences were possible from films and I'm sure I wasn't the only one when they were a youngster.  Pretty much every birthday among my friends in 1997 was spent at the cinema watching the re-released A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi, often ending in us running around an empty auditorium, pretending we were X-Wing spaceships.  Although in hindsight, that could have been the massive buckets of sugary drinks...

JURASSIC PARK

Ahh, I can hear the music now.  Mainly because there isn't a month, or more honestly, a week that goes by without this film being watched in our flat.  Is there a more iconic arrival than the helicopter arriving among the lush vegetation of Isla Nublar and the kindly grandfather figure of John Hammond looking around, proud of his creation?  A scarier movie-monster than the terrifying, kitchen-stalking, door-opening, scarily intelligent velociraptor?  A more breathtaking introduction than when the amazing John Williams score begins to build and you, alongside Grant and Ellie, look upon that gigantic brachiosaurus grazing on the tall tree branches?

If Star Wars showed me that films could transport me to other worlds, Jurassic Park showed me that other-worldly creations could be placed right within my own.   Extinct dinosaurs could be brought back to life and seemingly interact with people again. Films could make the truly impossible, possible.  Whilst Darth Vader was a very intimidating presence, pre-teen Mike had never been as terrified as he was when it came to those damn velociraptors. They were my first truly horrifying encounter with films and for years after my first viewing, I couldn't bring myself to watch the kitchen scene with Tim and Lex. It was filled with such suspense, tension and ungodly terror that pre-teen Mike couldn't handle it, hiding behind the cushions and losing countless hours of sleep just from the noises.  No movie had affected me like this before.  Films were capable of such wonderful, and equally horrible things.  

The film is filled with such iconic images and quotes that it has become an instant classic within my generation.  Especially omni-scientist Jeff Goldblum.  Thinking about it, maybe I have to retract what I said about Han Solo...

Scientist.

TOY STORY

Like many children back in 1995, this film blew my tiny, little mind.  Whilst Jurassic Park had shown me that computers could do wondrous things, this was something else.  Especially since it felt like it was created just for me. That's what set Pixar aside from the other studios back in the 1990s; they seemed to be speaking directly to kids, their target audience, and perfectly designing films to suit their mindsets.  What child hasn't imagined their toys still lived their lives when they had left the room?  I admit that after watching the film, I often ran back to my room to 'catch' the toys off-guard. Needless to say, they were always too quick for me...

However, the main nerve that Toy Story struck for me was the truly magical world that Pixar had created.  It was recognisable and yet so alien.  It inspired so much joy and laughter in the auditorium that the entire trip (one of my first ever) was utterly fantastic and I demanded to be taken back to see Toy Story at least three more times.  

I'm pretty sure this is when I fell in love with cinemas; the building solely dedicated to transporting me to these other worlds.  I simply wanted to continue watching as many films as possible, so that when I grew up, I could create films like Toy Story.  I honestly wanted to work for Pixar from the age of 7 years old and part of me still does.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS

This was a big one.  Not just in terms of movie accomplishments, ground-breaking CGI or New Zealand tourism, but this changed everything I thought I knew about cinema.  It rattled my brain around in a way I hadn't felt since I first set eyes on that first Star Destroyer in Star Wars.  

Many people recount when they first saw Ben-Hur's breathtaking chariot race in the cinema, Charlton Heston's Moses part the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments or when Lawrence of Arabia's grand cinema-scope allowed David Lean to defy cinema conventions.  They were blown away by the majesty and spectacle that lay before them.  The Lord of the Rings was my moment.

The possibilities of cinema were finally shown to me in all their magnificent splendour with awe-inspiring, sweeping shots of Middle-Earth, nail-biting fight sequences featuring all manner of monsters and one of the most touching friendships in all of fiction.  After the fellowship truly breaks, Sam and Frodo spot Mordor on the horizon and begin their perilous journey.  The lights faded, the credits rolled and I felt truly disappointed.  Not by the film, but in the fact that it was ending.  I had sat in a cinema auditorium for around three hours and I still wanted more.  This new experience seemed unthinkable at the time but I was so wrapped up in Middle-Earth that I simply wanted more.

This continued through The Two Towers and culminated with The Return of the King, which I still hold to this day as one of the greatest films ever made.  The Battle Of Minas Tirith still gives me goosebumps every time I watch it, mainly due how the entire film builds to such an epic battle between good and evil.  Peter Jackson got everything right in my eyes, managing to overcome the odds and finally bring such an 'un-filmable' trilogy to the screen.

CLERKS.

I'm not sure if Clerks. was the first 18 certificate film I watched but it was certainly one of the first.  Along with films such as South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, Leon and Dogma (also directed by Kevin Smith film), Clerks. truly led the pack in terms of introducing me to a much larger world of film that I had not yet experienced.  Hell, the opening ten minutes of Clerks. had more swearing than pretty much any film I had seen until that point!

What really drew me in, however, was Smith's sassy, witty, sharp-tongued humour.  He managed to make his slacker protagonists profound in some aspects, yet incredibly petulant in others.  His characters spoke in such vulgar terms, but about such meaningful topics, especially in the religious satire Dogma, another of my personal favourites.  Clerks. seemed to be filled with such weird contradictions to the conventional film but I didn't care.  It was fresh and exciting, plus I was laughing so hard, my sides were literally hurting me.

I truly think most of my current sense of humour was directly inspired by the films of Kevin Smith, starting with Clerks.  He managed to create relatable and entertaining films, filled with pop-culture references, larger-than-life characters and always speaking from a very Generation-X man-boy perspective.  

That's probably what spoke to me most, as I was leaving high school and starting my college education when I first stumbled upon the 'View-Askew Universe' (the collective name for Smith's main films).  I was afraid to mature and wanted to remain care-free and Smith's films were a way to delay, and then assist my transition.  I began focussing on the crude humour, only slightly understanding the topics being discussed.  But over time, the focus on the vulgarity of the situations and speech faded, replaced with the respect for the hidden and serious undertones that are abundant in Smith's films.


I think I'll stop there for now, so I can focus on the next five films in their own article.  Don't want to overload you guys with my life history.  Although I hope it gave a little more insight into my love affair with film.  Next time, the college films and beyond!

Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed what you read and you'd like to be kept more up to date with my posts, I can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Dunn-Reviews and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeDunnReviews - if you want to help the site grow, give them a 'Like' or a 'Share'!

Succinct Sunday - A Whole Lot Of Whispers

So since I've been travelling the Asian continent, the hotels that I have been staying in usually have one thing in common: loud-ass hipster douches movie channels!  Regardless of the country that I am staying in, the hotels always seem to carry HBO Movies or Fox Movies and if I don't feel like experiencing the local night-life, I know that there is always a TV channel ready to broadcast films, both good and bad.  Since I travelled over here in February, I have seen a hell of a lot of new films, so I thought that I'd share my thoughts about them.  Don't worry, it's Succinct Sunday, so they won't take long...

THE VOW

Let's start with this charming little romance film, based on a true story. Rachel McAdams loses the last five years of her memory in a car crash, resulting in forgetting her life with her husband Channing Tatum.  Whilst McAdams has always impressed me in her recent roles, I am slowly becoming a fan of Tatum.  He doesn't take himself too seriously in his performances and he is on the up and up.  Back to the film, the emotions do get to you, the performances are impressive and the story-line is genuinely intriguing, especially since it happened to a real life couple.  Highly recommended.

EPIC

Let me paint a picture... Imagine there are magical tiny people in the forest that often defend nature from an approaching destructive force.  Yep, FernGully: The Last Rainforest... I mean, Epic never really captures the imagination in the same vein as the original Ice Age, instead choosing the disappointing path to follow in the footsteps of the other Blue Sky Animations, Rio, Robots and Horton Hears A Who.  Often boring, too childish to be taken seriously and never truly engaging, Epic truly fails to live up to it's name.  On a side note, who the hell thought that Colin Farrell's miscast voice fitted his character design?!  Ridiculous.

INSIDE MAN
Spike Lee directs Denzel Washington in a cop-crime thriller as he tries to solve Clive Owen's supposed 'perfect robbery'.  Whilst it is nice to see Chiwetel Ejiofor in another Hollywood film, I feel like this film's hype preceded it and I never really got caught up in the action.  I just always could tell I was watching a film, from Clive Owen's fourth-wall breaking opening monologue, noticing the pointlessness of Jodie Foster's character, and not mentioning the rapid changes in timeframe.  Despite the always impressive Christopher Plummer and the personal favourite Clive Owen, I never lost myself in the world and I feel like it suffered because of that. I can see why some people enjoy Inside Man, I was just not one of them.

THE CROODS

Good Lord, this is nearly shown daily so I can pretty much quote it to you verbatim. A unique premise, The Croods tells the story of a family of cavemen who must venture out from their cave-dwelling lives to escape clashing continents, where they meet the creative inventor Guy, voiced by Ryan Reynolds.  Funny throughout with a recognisable family dynamic at the heart, The Croods displays an interesting father-daughter core, fleshed out with humorous set-pieces and references for both kids and adults.  However, the locations are sometimes jarring, the characters are sometimes unlikeable and the main threat of the local carnivores are just confusing. I feel like if they just stuck to normality, it would have been improved but that's a tiny flaw.

SPIDER-MAN 3

I hadn't watched this since I paid for a cinema ticket back in 2007.  Now I remember why.  So much fantastic action and character development went into the first two Spider-Man films, all for it to go to waste in the concluding instalment.  The Sandman really killed Uncle Ben?!  James Franco gets amnesia?!  Peter Parker gets an emo fringe?!  MAKE IT STOP!  Those of you who have seen it will probably remember two scenes in particular: Parker strutting down the street (to music, presumably in his head), thinking he's the shit with his emo fringe; and then him dancing in a nightclub, right before he hits Mary Jane in the face.  Some of the worst scenes ever included in a super-hero film. Those of you who haven't seen this film, I've just given you two good reasons not to watch this film.  Too many villains, too many pointless action sequences, too many scenes with goddamn emo Peter Parker.

PSYCHO (1998 REMAKE)
I had only heard rumours of a shot-by-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic, but now I have seen the travesty. Absolutely pointless.  Vince Vaughn has never been more miscast, and that's saying something. Just stick with the original.  Please.

JUST GO WITH IT
To sleep with a pretty lady, Adam Sandler pretends he's married and getting divorced from Jennifer Aniston.  No this isn't one of Awesome-O 3000's movie ideas (hee hee, South Park reference) but the real plot of his rom-com from 2011. Whilst the film does have the occasional funny moment, usually due to Jennifer Aniston, there are far too few for another Adam Sandler 'comedy'.  What happened to the guy who was so fantastic in Punch-Drunk Love and The Wedding Singer?  Not the Jack & Jill / Grown Ups version we are getting today.  Remember who you were, Adam.


2-HEADED SHARK ATTACK
Yes, I'm reviewing this tripe.  From the same vein of Sharknado (the tornado made of sharks), comes this floundering turd of a film. So yeah, teens on a boat (including Hulk Hogan's daughter Brooke) captained by Carmen Electra (yeah, she still exists) get targeted by a really bad piece of CGI.  The result?  The Sy-Fy Channel loses another viewer.

JACK REACHER
Tom Cruise plays an ex-Army police officer, tasked with investigating the actions of a supposed mass-murderer.  In a change of pace, Reacher is a semi-vigilante cop that doesn't play by the rules...

*cough* Jack Bauer *cough*,
*cough* John McClane *cough*,
*cough* McBain *cough*

Plus in the books he's apparently around 7ft tall. Ideal casting for Cruise then... Despite the inspired casting of Werner Herzog and his magnificent voice as the overall villain, the film just criminally lacks originality or suspense.  Also, Hollywood?  Please stop casting Jai Courtenay in films.  He's just another Sam Worthington or Kellan Lutz. Stop bringing these talent-vacuums to the centre stage.  Sincerely, Movie-Lovers Worldwide.

TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES

I remember liking this film.  Upon re-watching it... I cannot remember why.  An insult to the originals.

And that's enough for now.  I'll probably post another next Sunday, but until then, thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed what you read and you'd like to be kept more up to date with my posts, I can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Dunn-Reviews and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeDunnReviews - if you want to help the site grow, give them a 'Like' or a 'Share'!

Chinese Whispers - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

WINTER IS COMING

I wasn't the biggest fan of the first Captain America film that was released back in 2011.  At all.  The First Avenger told the origins of Steve Rogers, a weedy, yet earnest young man who was deemed unsuitable for the American army during the Second World War.  He came across as a lovable loser-turned-superhero, but the film on a whole just rubbed me the wrong way.

Maybe because I'm a die-hard British patriot and I didn't care for the typical American view of the Second World War being all but fruitless without the saviour coming from across the pond.  Either way, when The Avengers (Avengers Assemble to us Brits) was released a year later, I was very excited to see how Iron Man, Thor and Hulk coped but was drastically less interested in the Captain.  Yeah, his shield reflects things, he's strong and fast... and ... he's a good war strategist... I guess?  But other than that, I had no idea why he was on this team of misfit heroes.  It was nothing against Chris Evans, the man portraying Steve Rogers.  He's a fantastic actor who played the role very earnestly and gives 110% in all of his roles (particularly Scott Pilgrim vs. The World).  Something was just lacking in this one Avengers prequel.

Three years later and it's sequel time! We've seen Iron Man Three, Thor: The Dark World and it looks like Ant-Man will be released before Mark Ruffalo Hulk's gets his own film.  So, that again leaves the Captain.  Taking place two years after The Avengers' Battle of New York, Rogers is still working for Nick Fury and the S.H.I.E.L.D. spy agency, all whilst adjusting to contemporary society.  However after investigating into some of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s shadier operations, Rogers, Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) are branded as enemies of the state and must fight their own colleagues to stay alive.

Shrouded in political mystery, The Winter Soldier manages to outdo nearly all of the previous Marvel films in it's quality by finally making the transition from simple comic-book fare to an all-out conspiracy thriller.  More impressively, for the first time, the film made me sympathise with Steve Rogers as a man-out-of-time who just wants to transfer the camaraderie of his army days into today's secular "Don't Trust Anyone" society.  The characters of Black Widow and Nick Fury are just as preposterous as ever, but their so-far secretive back stories are finally touched upon and partially revealed to finally give them a bit more fleshing out, rather than "They're just super-spies...".  The funny thing about this film is that the titular Winter Soldier barely features in the film, and yet you are more-than-adequately served a healthy dose of narrative, filled with suspense and intrigue throughout.  No one is truly what they seem and it gives the film a fantastic edge, similar to the Mandarin-twist of Iron Man Three.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things wrong with some of the plot contrivances, (Nick Fury cutting himself out of a car whilst it's upside-down is one such example) but you forgive the film for still being the disbelief-suspending film it is at heart.  Despite it's standard of ratcheting up the action, the action scenes are incredibly choreographed whilst the pacing is constant, yet not overwhelming.  Whilst Fury, Black Widow and the new character of The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) are fleshed out appropriately, there are other characters that don't get their due, such as the undercover Agent 13 (Emily VanCamp) and S.H.I.E.L.D. director Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford).  I imagine these roles will be increased in future Captain America films but it just gives a tiny feeling of dissatisfaction.  However, this is a tiny gripe.

One major gripe I had with the film however was the complete lack of mentioning Agent Phil Coulson!  Two years have passed since the events of The Avengers, you'd think that they could have given a passing mention that he is still walking around, heading up the current Marvel TV spin-off Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  It would have counted as a nice little nod to the audience and also another sign of the impressive Marvel continuity that is running through these films.  However despite this, there are several other little hints at new and interesting upcoming characters for the Marvel geeks in the audience, such as myself, to point to the screen .

In any case, bravo Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  You managed to turn this Captain America doubter into a full supporter.  Now that the flag-waving, Nazi-puncher has been replaced with a genuinely interesting and troubled character (which still cannot be said of Superman), the only weak link in the Marvel chain has been fixed.  I highly recommend this film to those of you out there who aren't just looking for a superhero film, but an interesting commentary on today's paranoid society.  Also to those haters of The First Avenger.  It might just surprise you, as it did me.  I just hope they carry this into the rather 'out-there' Guardians Of The Galaxy, out during summer.

P.S. Stay for the scene at the end of the credits!  Sounds redundant to tell you this, but there were so many people who just left the auditorium after my viewing.

Rating: 9/10

Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed what you read and you'd like to be kept more up to date with my posts, I can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Dunn-Reviews and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeDunnReviews - if you want to help the site grow, give them a 'Like' or a 'Share'!