Good Lord, has it
really been over a month? I am so ashamed. I promised myself I
wouldn’t get back to these lazy ways of only updating every so
often. I wanted constant updates, news and reviews coming from this
website, which is what I will strive towards once again. Thank you
for sticking with me.
Now, since my last
review (The End is Nighy) I have been still watching my films,
although I have been attending weddings, crashing cars etc., so not
as many have been watched as I would like. So I will quickly run
through the Top Five films I have seen in August.
5) Now You See Me
Let me just start by
saying this crime-caper is only in my Top Five because I only managed
to watch five movies this month. It is here by default. This
shouldn't be in anyone’s Top Five Films, unless it’s the Top
Five Pale Imitations of Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige (where it
would sit pretty as #1).
Four wise-cracking,
obnoxious street magicians form a Las Vegas stage act after being
grouped together by a mysterious non-figure with fancy looking
blueprints and begin stealing money and distributing it to the
public. This attracts the attention of the FBI and Interpol as
mad-capped, magic-fuelled confusion unfolds between the hapless
police and the seemingly-omniscient magicians.
Magic is a difficult
thing to perform on film. With the special effects generated by
smarter-than-your-Dad computers, current filmmakers have no problem
with showing a woman sawn in half, a coin appearing behind a person’s
ear or a rabbit being pulled out of a hat. The secrets are all in
post-production editing, but when you see magic in person, there is
the temporary suspension of disbelief, which is what films used to
inspire in audiences.
The Prestige was such a
fantastic and innovative film because it analysed the art of magic
and the intricacies behind tricks and misdirection. The main spine
to the film was the ultimate dedication to your art, your desire and
your profession. Now You See Me may have a few fun special effects,
some witty one-liners and an impressive cast, but it is mainly a
sloppy mess of a film, too interested in confusing the audience and
appearing smarter than it is. It seems to have successfully
misdirected the public as it has made $317 million worldwide, despite
being The Prestige… For Idiots.
Rating – 3/10
4) A Field In
England
I came to A Field In
England with a complete blank slate, apart from what I could gather
from the title. There would be grass. There would be no need for
subtitles. And what followed was 90 minutes of beautiful
cinematography, cryptic subject matter and some chilling
performances, especially from Reece Shearsmith and Michael Smiley,
two actors very close to my television-loving heart.
Admittedly, Field is
not for everyone, with some friends of mine justifying their hatred
for it by saying that “…it was just five guys standing in a
field, digging a hole. It was boring; nothing happened!”
This is precisely why A
Field In England stood out for me. Whilst my friends were correct
in their description of the plot’s lack of explosions and car
chases, the action instead came within the tensions of the central
group of Civil War soldiers and the importance that they gave black
magic. It wasn’t a drama film dependent on bleak outlooks; a
comedy film that resorted to pratfalls; or a horror film that relied
on silence followed by loud noises. However the director Ben
Wheatley and writer Amy Jump managed to combine all three genres into
one unnerving black comedy that made me physically uncomfortable and
gripped to the screen ‘til the end.
Rating – 6/10
3) The Wolverine
Back in 2009, I was
very excited to see the newest adventure of the invincible Wolverine
in his X-Men: Origins prequel. However, since that disappointed the
hell out of me, as well as critics and audiences worldwide, I was a
little worried when I sat down in the theatre, preparing to watch
Hugh Jackman’s sixth outing as the adamantium-clawed member of the
X-Men. Bryan Singer managed to perfectly balance edge-of-your-seat
action with genuine character development in the first two X-Men
films, exploring prejudice and inequality issues currently in
America. Brett Ratner took all of that and threw it away with X-Men:
The Last Stand, preferring to end the trilogy with an
all-guns-blazing approach that left many audiences cold and Origins:
Wolverine didn’t do much to convince us that things were going to
change. The Wolverine, thankfully, manages to buck that trend.
The Wolverine takes
place after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand and Logan has become
a vagrant, pining for the loss of his love, Jean Grey. A powerful
dying businessman, who Logan saved during the Hiroshima bombing,
tracks Logan down to offer his thanks and repay him with the chance
of mortality.
Focussing more on
Logan’s time in Japan and his clash with a powerful
Samurai-descended family provides ample time for Jackman to sink his
claws into a more thought-provoking and interesting storyline, filled
with romantic entanglements, bullet-train fights and Wolverine
finally realising his inner-demons have led him to be a powerful, yet
leaderless warrior.
The film does sometimes
lose it way with pointless sub-plots and assassination attempts, and
where some X-Men films seem to overdo the number of mutants
on-screen, there is a certain lack of superpowers displayed in The
Wolverine. However the lack of Logan's invincibility is a nice
change of pace. When Logan decides to relinquish his power of
regeneration, he is finally put into mortal danger and the audience
can actually worry about his safety, a rare treat. Emotional
investment means that The Wolverine is a big step in the right
direction. Plus, thanks to a mid-credits scene, I ended up squealing
like a young teenage girl at a No Direction gig. I really cannot
wait for X-Men: Days of Future Past!
Rating - 6.5/10
2) Elysium
Back in 2009, South
African director Neill Blomkamp wrote and directed District 9, a film
that centred around the tensions between humans and a refugee alien
race that landed in 1980s Johannesburg. The film did a fantastic, if
sometimes heavy-handed, job of mirroring the real-life tensions
between the two main ethnicities of modern South Africa.
Cut to summer 2013 and
Blomkamp's second feature film Elysium, just like all good sci-fi
films, focusses on other prevalent issues in today's society; namely
immigration, health care and class.
The premise is that in
the future, society's wealthiest live on the floating space station
known as Elysium which is overrun by Jodie Foster and the inhabitants
enjoy all of life's pleasures. Meanwhile the rest of humanity live
back on the overpopulated Earth and get by as best they can. Often
they try and sneak onto Elysium just to access the cure-all medicine
tubes but most are arrested or killed trying. After an accident
leaves him with less than a week to live, Matt Damon decides to storm
Elysium to save his life, making Foster resort to using her secret
weapon, a psychotic mercenary known as Kruger.
Let me start by saying
that Elysium looks incredible. It is obvious that Blomkamp has an
eye for iconic images, as both District 9 and Elysium are filled with
them. However, unlike District 9, the storyline tires pretty quickly
and the arrival on Elysium doesn't really seem like such an important
goal to the audience, but just to Damon's character. Foster is
wasted in her role, painting her and the rest of the wealthy as
two-dimensional, stuck-up snobs who don't care for the lower classes.
Whilst District 9
mainly dealt with the satirical alien discrimination, the film really
picked up when the action was introduced, but it is only reserved for
the final third and thankfully, Blomkamp doesn't follow the same
routine in Elysium. The action is there right from the start, and it
is directly in your face. This is mostly due to the
previously-mentioned mercenary Kruger, played with such enjoyment by
District 9's Sharlto Copley. Copley’s menacing presence instantly
lights up the screen and he is a truly detestable screen-villain, if
used a bit too sparingly to properly utilise him.
Overall a fantastic
thrill-ride with a memorable villain that is a much better example of
true science-fiction than the year’s earlier Oblivion and After
Earth.
Rating - 7.5/10
1) Alan Partridge:
Alpha Papa
AHA! We come to the
best film of the past few weeks, and it’s the long-awaited screen
debut of Steve Coogan’s beloved character, Alan Partridge. Set
after the mini-series, Mid-Morning Matters, Alan is still a radio DJ,
working at North Norfolk Digital as it is being bought out by a
corporate mogul, Shape. In the streamlining process, Shape sack
Alan’s fellow DJ Pat Farrell, who takes his revenge by holding the
employees hostage until his demands are met. Who does he request for
a negotiator? The one and only, Alan Partridge.
What follows is 90
minutes of sheer hilarious comedy and a very successful television
show adaptation, which is harder than you may think. For every
fantastic TV-to-film adaptation such as In The Loop and The
Inbetweeners Movie, you get the failures such as Ali G Indahouse,
Kevin & Perry Go Large and the abysmal Keith Lemon: The Movie,
and this thankfully slots in the former. Fans of the show will love
the attention to detail that the writers Coogan, Iannucci and Baynham
have included in the script, as well as how home-grown it feels
despite including some inevitable Hollywood tropes. Whilst John
McClane is blowing up skyscrapers in Die Hard, Partridge is diving
through drywall and creating anti-corporate radio jingles under
duress. The story remains in Partridge’s Norfolk roots and his
relationships with his ever-present PA Lynn and best friend Michael
The Geordie.
Even if you aren’t a
fan of Coogan, or ever watched I’m Alan Partridge, the quick-fire
comedy and genuine heart at the centre of this film will soon convert
you to be screaming “A-HA!” every time you hear Abba’s Knowing
Me, Knowing You. I whole-heartedly recommend this film, you won’t
regret it.
Rating – 9/10
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