OK so just for a change its time for a review on a classic TV show, so I've opted for The Day Today, the critically acclaimed pardoy of news and current affairs programmes, starring Chris Morris as Christopher Morris (no time wasted for a made up name) who is the newsreader of the programme. The cast also play multiple roles in the show, as the cast features Steve Coogan, Patrick Marber, Doon Mackichan, David Scheider and Rebecca Front. So while its not really possible to do a plot synopsis of the show I can give it a rough general overview, so let's look at it.
Well the show's format is of course six 30 minute episodes, in which the news is brought to you by Chris Morris and his team. Morris's delivery is akin to that of Jeremy Paxman as he is quite aggressive and confrontational with the people he interviews. One of my many favourite scenes from the show features in the first episode where he interviews a woman who is organising a jam festival, and she so far has only raised £1,500. Morris then responds in disgust "£1,500???! That's a pathetic amount of money! You could raise more money by auctioning dogs! How dare you come on my show, I think you've only done this to make yourself look important. You could make more money begging on the street, looking twice as ugly as you are, which is very ugly indeed!". Morris also even goes as far as to start a war between Hong Kong and Australia as two of their countries representatives are on his show and he disagrees with them both, and urges their nations to go to war. Morris also bullies and coerces his news team as well, such as the inept Peter O'Hanraha-harahan (Patrick Marber) and one of their funniests scene come when Peter let's a man he is interviewing escape, just when he has uncovered a scandal, and Morris yells "Peter, you've lost the news!".
Morris also starts the show with the headlines and follows them up with them with phrases such as "these are the headlines, happy now?" and "now fact me till I fart!" and "these are the headlines, dear God I wish they weren't!" and "this is the news!" and my personal fav "Hello, sir!". And also worthy of note regarding Morris in the show, is the final scene of each episode when the credits roll and the lights dim on the studio floor, each week we see Morris do something bizarre such as lie on the foor in a crucifix type position, take off a wig to reveal he has long blonde hair, and also injecting heroin into his arm!
The show's other characters are also very funny and most notably it features Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) as a sports news reader, who Morris starts off bullying and by the end of the last episode he gives him a kiss! Partridge is pretty inept in his job, and his commentary on sports is priceless, especially in the first episode when he commentates on football "That was a goal! Shit! The man must have a foot like a traction engine!". Also when he is at horse races you see Alan comment on some of the things going around outside, such as watching kids playing about "ahh some kids playing around, let's hope that tomfoolery doesn't turn into bling ugly violence!". The scene where he goes into the shower room and he interviews a femal horsejumper who get's undressed, and he grows increasingly comfortable as she does, he finishes the interview by looking at the camera awkwardly and says "Patricia Barfits, a lady".
The other characters also feature Collaterlie Sisters, played Doon MacKichan, whom Morris appears to have an open hatred for, as after he introduces her on one occassion you hear him say "take her off my screen I don't want to see her face!". Collaterlie presents the business news, and talks in jargon, when talking about the currency markets and the stock exchange, and show uses terms such as "the financial arse" and "the currency cat" and "currency kidney". Peter O'Hanraha-harahan is funny as he is a very inept economics correspondent, and in one scene he claims to have had a conversation with a German minister over a economic deal, in German, and he keeps saying how the minister claims "he's not too happy, but he had to go along with it". Morris quickly exposes that Peter has no knowledge of the language and proceeds to humiliate him and says "Peter you are lying in a news grave. What does it say on your tombstone?" and Peter feebly replies "News!".
Then there is Barbara Wintergreen (Rebecca Front) as the American news correspondent, who reports on a couple of stories such as a mass murderer, Chapman Baxter (played by Marber) who wishes to die like Elvis, going on an electrocuted toilet, eating hamburgers and after reaching a certain weight, he will be fried. Barbara after signing off always give sultry looks at the camera, and uses puns throughout her broadcasts. Sylvester Stuart (Schneider) is the weatherman, who we only see his head as a graphic, which moves over the weatherboard, and he uses strange metaphors when delivering his report such as describing gloomy weather as "a bit like waking up next to a corpse". And one of my favourite characters is Ted Maul (played by Morris) who is a middle aged reporter who covers the more hard hitting stories, and he speaks in an exaggerated manner, and his funniest scene is where he reports on horses that stampede the London underground, and how "in 1970 in came the crackers, a team of men sent down into the tunnels who killed the horses with hammers!". And finally another amusing character who appears briefly in the show is Jacques Liverot, a pretentious French philosopher, who makes silly statements such as "an old man stands naked in front of a mirror eating soup. He is a fool" and "What is a gay?" and my favourite is "a man driving sees God in his car, he crashes".
Of some of the many hilarious new items on the show, here are some of my favourites, starting with the terrorist dogs in London, who are packed with explosives, and cause chaos on the streets. In the report Eugene Fraxby (great name, also played by Morris) states how a policeman killed a dog in the ensuing chaos and some pedestrians who got in the way, "three people and one dog dead from guns, being old they would have died soon anyway, but the dog was cut to ribbons in its prime". Another one is the psuedo documentary show "Its your blood" where Morris gives supposed real life accounts of near disasters that were narrowly avoided, and the story features Morris (with a great hairdo!) reporting with a helcopter in the background. Morris says "helicopters with great blades that cut the air, air that's easy to slice, like human beings!". Another news item is one that takes place at a local swimming pool, where the middle aged security guards talks about the safety of the pool over the years, "in 1976 no one died, 1977 no one died, 1978 no one edied, 1979 no one died, in 1980 someone died, in 1981 no one died... I mean could go on!".
There is also an MTV parody station called RokTV, with Morris dressed up as a female presenter called Susie Bapswent (and he passes more than a resemblance to Sandra Bernhard in that one!) and talks about the latest that's going in the music world. The funniest story on RokTV is on the American rapper, Fur-Q, who executes people live during his stage shows, but he insists "you can't kill everybody, because then there would be no one left to respect". Yet another funny item is "Attitudes" which is a BBC2 documentary which examines the changing attitudes of British television over the years, starting from the 50s onward, in which we see the last televised British hanging. Also we see during the 60s, a British television presenter who is being given oral sex by a "groupie" and afterwards he says "he had an intense feeling of joy, which has now been replaced with a sense of disappointment and dispair". Also in this item it talks about bad language on TV and one of the first shows to use it which is a soap opera, a la Coronation Street, with a man and one exchanging words "tarra you great big hairy cock!" and the man says "tarra ya shitter!".
The Day Today also features a funny weekly segment called "Speak your brains" where Morris goes onto the streets and interviews people, and one person he interviews is a man, who he asks about soul reversal and has he experienced it and the men says yes, and Morris asks how does it feel, to which the man replies "not very nice!". Morris also interviews another man on the street where he tries to get him to unwittingily plug the Day Today, and eventually get's him to say "I can't think of any day that wouldn't involve the day today!". In another vox pop street interview Morris get's a member of the public to read from a piece of paper which reads "do this our I will run it up your fugde tunnels!" and another one where he asks the man to repeat the words "mudda fakkas" and just once more for the camera "mudda fakkas!". The voice overs in the show are also quite funny and nonsensical, and feature daft slogans such as "news felch!" or "news from telly to belly" or "swinging the wasps off the apple of truth" and "news, because fact into doubt won't go!".
Perhaps for me the less successful part of the show is the inclusion of its in-show soap opera "The Bureau" which takes place at a currency exchange office, where the workers all argue with one another and their boss (Coogan) bullies one of them, played by Marber, because he's gay, and its suggested he's having a romance with another (played by Front). It feels to me like it was tacked onto the show and it does kind of take away from the otherwise great flow it has.
But apart from that the Day Today was a great satire and a terrific television series, which brought Chris Morris into the limelight, as well as his co-stars such as Steve Coogan, as well establishing its producer and co-wrtier Armando Iannucci as one of the great comedy minds in the UK. Its format would later on be similarly revised into a pseudo docuemntary series by Morris in Brass Eye, which was far more controversial, but it all started here with The Day Today, which remains one of the freshest and funniest television satires of its time.
And on that note I will see goodbye for now!
Sunday 31 March 2013
Sunday 24 March 2013
DmC: Dante returns
OK just for a change I'm going to do a review of a video game, so I've gone for the revamp of one of my favourite series of games, Devil May Cry, the reboot of the series is called DmC Devil May Cry, which features the demon hunter, Dante, as a younger man, who in the past has always spouted that goth like white hairdo, but this time round he's got dark hair (funny eh). Anyway let's get on with it....
So a bit about the plot (don't worry this won't be that long!) as the story is set in Limbo city, a modern day city which is secretly controlled by powerful demons, where the demons live in a parallel version called Limbo. Dante lives in the city, but he's not the demon hunter we know him to be at this stage, but at this point he leads a sleazy life, having picked up two girls in nightclub the night before and taking them back to his trailer to have sex with them. The next morning Dante is awoken by a knock on his trailer door, and he opens it to find a girl, Kat, who is a psychic who warns him that the "demon hunter" is after him. With Kat's help, who puts into Dante limbo, through her psychic powers, Dante retrieves his guns and his sword and defeats the Hunter. After this Kat takes Dante to meet her boss, a man named Vergil, who runs a rouge group called "The Order". Vergil tells Dante that he is very important to them and with his help he can bring down the demons. Vergil then takes Dante to an old abandoned mansion where he says he will learn of his family, and Dante discovers his repressed memories (as the demons have brainwashed Dante the other population of Limbo city) of his father, Sparda, and his mother, Eva, and it is revealed that Vergil is Dante's brother. Dante also learns that his father was a demon, and his two children could eventually grow up to destroy the demon king, Mundus. Mundus afraid of this reality attacks Sparda's family, killing Eva, and banishing Sparda. After learning these truths Dante agrees to help Vergil in bringing down Mundus and ending his regime, and this is where the real fun begins....
DmC Devil May Cry is a great reboot of the series, and it sees Dante as younger man, who is still cocky in nature, and starts off the game leading his sleazy drinking and womanising lifestyle, but as the game progresses he grows and matures as a man, and accepting his responsibilities. Dante also has dark brown hair instead of famous goth like white hair that we have seen in the previous games, and there is a funny moment in the game early on when he fights the demon hunter in Limbo, a white wig lands on his head, and he looks and smiles saying "not in a million years!" throwing the wig off.
But if Devil May Cry has always been about one thing, and that is the gameplay, which is top notch here, and the control system is great and very ease to use. In the usual standard of the game, Dante starts off with a set level of skills and health, and weapons, his sword and his two guns, Ebony and Ivory, but as the game progress he picks new guns and swords. In addition to this Dante can also learn new combos and moves for his weapons and there is a large variety of them, as Dante picks up points for pulling off different combos, and as he does he gains more upgrades to unlock new moves.
Also Dante has a new feature in his combat system as he has a Demon and Angel aspect, and he picks up different weapons, which can be attributed to either the demon and angel settings, this also corresponds to some of the baddies in the game, as some of them can be attacked by one or the other, whereas others are impervious to one and not the other. In the demon and angel states, Dante can also use them to navigate platforms, as in angel mode, he can use a whip to pull himself towards ledges and blocks, whereas with the demon mode he can use his whip to pull enemies toward to pull attacks. And of course there is the old demon trigger, which allows Dante to go into demon state, where he can pull off more powerful attacks on the demons, and he can also regenerate his health bar in doing so. Difficulty wise, DmC is actually not too bad, as it has just about the right level of difficulty, its easier than Devil May Cry 3 for sure, which was ridiculously tough, but here you could say it ranges from easy to medium level, and Dante will die a few times during combat, but the game is very managable to complete.
Graphics wise in keeping with the terrific visuals from the previous games, DmC looks superb here with some stunning environments, and a rather creative colour scheme for the Limbo world. Perhaps at times the colour scheme can get a bit too frantic in its movement, especially in the level where Dante fights against Lilith, Munud's mistress, and we see bright orange to dark blue, with weird sine wave patterns fluctuating wildly in the background, as well the boss scene where he fights the news demon broadcaster BoB Barbas. The character models are also superb, with Dante almost at times looking lifelike in certain moments of the game, and the demons are all really quite imaginitively bizzare in design. Voice acting wise the game is also excellent as the actors, although I don't know who any of them are all put in fine performances.
In terms of the game's flaws, it doesn't have too many, but there are one or two niggles, firstly Dante's demon trigger state is quite annoying, as when he goes into the demon mode, enemies fly up into the air, which makes it difficult for him to attack them as he has to keep jumping into the air to do it, and it limits the amount strikes that Dante can manage. The demon trigger also could last a bit longer than it does, as again with the limited time he has, he can't successfully pulled that many hits. Also visually while the game looks amazing, the background visuals as I already mentioned, can get a bit flashy and distracting and they aren't for anyone with photosensitive epilepsy for sure. However they aren't too bad and they are nowhere near as bad as Max Payne 3 was far worse for flash and blurry graphics. Also on the odd occassion the camera angles can get a little annoying but thankfully not too often, but every now and the camera angle forces you to move Dante in another direction, rather than freely keeping moving forward with camera going straight ahead. I also had a niggle about the amount of demon souls Dante obtains when he kills baddies or completes secret missions as they seem a bit too small, and it can take a long time for you to pick up enough to buy new items.
And this brings me onto another flaw which is aimed at the series in general, and that is the inflation factor in the cost of buying new items, as when say you buy one large vital star (to restore Dante's health) the price goes up automatically for when you buy it again next time. It just seems unfair that it happens, as you could use 800 points for one devil trigger recharge, and about 1500 to buy it the next time! And one final point is the profanity in the game, while not excessive, sees the continuing trend in modern games, where they feel they have to add in more swearing to make the games that bit more gritty and realistic, but as its a fantasy based series, then it feels like its not too necessary, as its only within the last 5-10 years they have started doing this, so while the b or the s word is fine, the f word all the time seems just a bit unecessary (or perhaps I'm just being old fashioned! ;-)).
However putting that all aside DmC is a really good and entertaining game, which sees the series brought back in style, and there is alot to commend it, with its varied combat system, upgrades and stunning visuals. And if you are a fan of hack and slash games or the previous installments, then this is well worth checking out.
And with that I shall leave it there.
So a bit about the plot (don't worry this won't be that long!) as the story is set in Limbo city, a modern day city which is secretly controlled by powerful demons, where the demons live in a parallel version called Limbo. Dante lives in the city, but he's not the demon hunter we know him to be at this stage, but at this point he leads a sleazy life, having picked up two girls in nightclub the night before and taking them back to his trailer to have sex with them. The next morning Dante is awoken by a knock on his trailer door, and he opens it to find a girl, Kat, who is a psychic who warns him that the "demon hunter" is after him. With Kat's help, who puts into Dante limbo, through her psychic powers, Dante retrieves his guns and his sword and defeats the Hunter. After this Kat takes Dante to meet her boss, a man named Vergil, who runs a rouge group called "The Order". Vergil tells Dante that he is very important to them and with his help he can bring down the demons. Vergil then takes Dante to an old abandoned mansion where he says he will learn of his family, and Dante discovers his repressed memories (as the demons have brainwashed Dante the other population of Limbo city) of his father, Sparda, and his mother, Eva, and it is revealed that Vergil is Dante's brother. Dante also learns that his father was a demon, and his two children could eventually grow up to destroy the demon king, Mundus. Mundus afraid of this reality attacks Sparda's family, killing Eva, and banishing Sparda. After learning these truths Dante agrees to help Vergil in bringing down Mundus and ending his regime, and this is where the real fun begins....
DmC Devil May Cry is a great reboot of the series, and it sees Dante as younger man, who is still cocky in nature, and starts off the game leading his sleazy drinking and womanising lifestyle, but as the game progresses he grows and matures as a man, and accepting his responsibilities. Dante also has dark brown hair instead of famous goth like white hair that we have seen in the previous games, and there is a funny moment in the game early on when he fights the demon hunter in Limbo, a white wig lands on his head, and he looks and smiles saying "not in a million years!" throwing the wig off.
But if Devil May Cry has always been about one thing, and that is the gameplay, which is top notch here, and the control system is great and very ease to use. In the usual standard of the game, Dante starts off with a set level of skills and health, and weapons, his sword and his two guns, Ebony and Ivory, but as the game progress he picks new guns and swords. In addition to this Dante can also learn new combos and moves for his weapons and there is a large variety of them, as Dante picks up points for pulling off different combos, and as he does he gains more upgrades to unlock new moves.
Also Dante has a new feature in his combat system as he has a Demon and Angel aspect, and he picks up different weapons, which can be attributed to either the demon and angel settings, this also corresponds to some of the baddies in the game, as some of them can be attacked by one or the other, whereas others are impervious to one and not the other. In the demon and angel states, Dante can also use them to navigate platforms, as in angel mode, he can use a whip to pull himself towards ledges and blocks, whereas with the demon mode he can use his whip to pull enemies toward to pull attacks. And of course there is the old demon trigger, which allows Dante to go into demon state, where he can pull off more powerful attacks on the demons, and he can also regenerate his health bar in doing so. Difficulty wise, DmC is actually not too bad, as it has just about the right level of difficulty, its easier than Devil May Cry 3 for sure, which was ridiculously tough, but here you could say it ranges from easy to medium level, and Dante will die a few times during combat, but the game is very managable to complete.
Graphics wise in keeping with the terrific visuals from the previous games, DmC looks superb here with some stunning environments, and a rather creative colour scheme for the Limbo world. Perhaps at times the colour scheme can get a bit too frantic in its movement, especially in the level where Dante fights against Lilith, Munud's mistress, and we see bright orange to dark blue, with weird sine wave patterns fluctuating wildly in the background, as well the boss scene where he fights the news demon broadcaster BoB Barbas. The character models are also superb, with Dante almost at times looking lifelike in certain moments of the game, and the demons are all really quite imaginitively bizzare in design. Voice acting wise the game is also excellent as the actors, although I don't know who any of them are all put in fine performances.
In terms of the game's flaws, it doesn't have too many, but there are one or two niggles, firstly Dante's demon trigger state is quite annoying, as when he goes into the demon mode, enemies fly up into the air, which makes it difficult for him to attack them as he has to keep jumping into the air to do it, and it limits the amount strikes that Dante can manage. The demon trigger also could last a bit longer than it does, as again with the limited time he has, he can't successfully pulled that many hits. Also visually while the game looks amazing, the background visuals as I already mentioned, can get a bit flashy and distracting and they aren't for anyone with photosensitive epilepsy for sure. However they aren't too bad and they are nowhere near as bad as Max Payne 3 was far worse for flash and blurry graphics. Also on the odd occassion the camera angles can get a little annoying but thankfully not too often, but every now and the camera angle forces you to move Dante in another direction, rather than freely keeping moving forward with camera going straight ahead. I also had a niggle about the amount of demon souls Dante obtains when he kills baddies or completes secret missions as they seem a bit too small, and it can take a long time for you to pick up enough to buy new items.
And this brings me onto another flaw which is aimed at the series in general, and that is the inflation factor in the cost of buying new items, as when say you buy one large vital star (to restore Dante's health) the price goes up automatically for when you buy it again next time. It just seems unfair that it happens, as you could use 800 points for one devil trigger recharge, and about 1500 to buy it the next time! And one final point is the profanity in the game, while not excessive, sees the continuing trend in modern games, where they feel they have to add in more swearing to make the games that bit more gritty and realistic, but as its a fantasy based series, then it feels like its not too necessary, as its only within the last 5-10 years they have started doing this, so while the b or the s word is fine, the f word all the time seems just a bit unecessary (or perhaps I'm just being old fashioned! ;-)).
However putting that all aside DmC is a really good and entertaining game, which sees the series brought back in style, and there is alot to commend it, with its varied combat system, upgrades and stunning visuals. And if you are a fan of hack and slash games or the previous installments, then this is well worth checking out.
And with that I shall leave it there.
Tuesday 19 March 2013
Superman Part 4: He returns....
So onto the final part of the Superman film anthology, which is for
Superman Returns, which saw the franchise after a near 20 year absence
make a reappearance, with a new cast (well it could hardly be the old
one!), and production crew. So here's a bit more about the plot.
Its starts with Superman having been missing for 5 years, returns to Earth, as he heard that Astronomers had found the location of Krypton, however on his return he found nothing of his planet of origin. Since Superman has been missing, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has become cynical of Superman and wrote an article "Why the world doesn't need Superman" which she won the Pulitzer Prize for. Superman goes back to his Clark Kent identity and gets his job back at the Daily Planet, due to one of the former employees passing away, and meets back up with Lois, chief editor Perry White (Frank Langella) and Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington). However bad things are afoot as Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) has been released from prison, and since then he married an aged widow, who on her deathbed, decrees her will over to him. Luthor then travels to the Fortress of Solitude where he steals some kryptonite crystals, which he uses in a scheme to create a new landmass in the Atlantic Ocean, which will result in the deaths of billions of people. Superman prior to this of course reannounces his presence to the world as he rescues a test flight space shuttle, which Lois is on, covering a story, and lands it in a baseball stadium. Superman soon carries on his good deeds, foiling robberies, criminals of all sorts, and he also speaks to Lois to explain his absence. However, Luthor's plan to create a landmass soon comes to fruition, and its up to Superman to stop him, as he soon confront the slapheaded madman.
I have to say that while it stands easily hand and shoulders over Superman IV, that Superman Returns, next to that, is my second least favourite film in the series. Bryan Singer definitely does deserve credit for bringing the superhero back to the big screen, but unfortunately the pace of the film is sluggish, and the tone is pretty dreary, and at 2 hours and 30 minutes, it is way overlong. Many scenes in the film definitely feel slow and lack pace, excitement or any sense of fun, and that's definitely what is missing here: fun. Singer, even in the titles, is clearly paying tribute to Richard Donner's original movie, but Donner, gave that film the perfect mix of drama and humour, but here its mainly 80% drama and 20% very dry humour. I can see that Singer definitely tries to keep the expectations of the kick start of the franchise alive, but here its definitely falls somewhat flat. And on a plot point, it seems very strange that no one seems to arouse suspicion around Clark Kent's disappearnce for 5 years also, but when he comes back, Superman arrives at the same time. Surely based on that they can put two and two together! But I guess Clark's timid nature makes him incosequential in everyone's eyes, unlike Superman, he isn't really missed.
However that's not to say the film doesn't have its good aspects, it certainly does have them, mainly the casting of Brandon Routh, which is actually inspired in a way, as Routh is really good as Superman, and he even bears a close resemblance to Christopher Reeve (particularly as Clark Kent!). However his part in a way largely minimised, especially in his dialogue as both Clark Kent and Superman, as he barely speaks in either role! And I think this was unfair on Brandon Routh, as clearly he is actually a good actor, and I definitely think the script lets him down and to say its underwritten is an understatement! Kevin Spacey however, gets his fair share of dialogue and is excellent as Lex Luthor, as he plays him with a far more twisted sense of menace than Gene Hackman's comic depiction. But Spacey is also let down by the rather insipid nature of the film, as with a better script and pacing, his role as Luthor could have been even better. The supporting cast are also quite good, as Kate Bosworth does well as Lois Lane, as she get's Lois' bossy, and sassy qualities to the forefront. Frank Langella, while I think was a bit miscast as Perry White, still does a fine job as editor and chief of the Daily Planet, and Parker Posey adds a bit of amusement to the film as Luthor's mistress and henchwoman, Kitti Kowalski.
The film however still does have some good moments in it such as the quriky one where Lois and her son are captured onboard Luthor's ship, Lois' son goes over to the piano and he plays a few notes, and the henchman watching them goes over and joins in and they play "Heart and soul" together. The scene also where Superman rescues the screeching Kitty from a car with no breaks is good, especially as she later slaps Luthor angrily and says "I thought you said we would make it look like we had no breaks, but I didn't expect you to actually CUT THEM!!". And the scene where Superman flies into the path of a criminal who has a massive minigun and the bullets bounces off him, he walks right up to the baddie, who runs out of ammo, and resorts to shooting Superman in the eye, but the bullet simply bounces off his eyeball and drops to the floor, leaving Superman grinning.
On the production front of course the film has some excellent special effects, and John Ottman (Bryan Singer's usual composer) does a fine rendition of John Williams original score as well as add new music. Although one thing I didn't like was Superman's custome, as its nowhere near as cool as Christopher Reeve's was. In fact it resembles in colour more like the bad Superman's costume in Superman III, as the colours are darker and more insipid looking, and the "S" crest is also a bit too small and crap looking. And another problem with the film is the look of the film as the photography is just a bit too soft and the muted colours also do precious little to add to the proceedings (actually the film was apparently shot using high def cameras).
So overall Superman Returns for me was a disappointment, it did well to bring the superhero back to the cinema, and Brandon Routh was an excellent choice as Supe. But I think the Brandon and the cast were handed a bum steer on this one and the film could easily have been much better than it is.
And on that note, that concludes my Supe analysis.
Its starts with Superman having been missing for 5 years, returns to Earth, as he heard that Astronomers had found the location of Krypton, however on his return he found nothing of his planet of origin. Since Superman has been missing, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has become cynical of Superman and wrote an article "Why the world doesn't need Superman" which she won the Pulitzer Prize for. Superman goes back to his Clark Kent identity and gets his job back at the Daily Planet, due to one of the former employees passing away, and meets back up with Lois, chief editor Perry White (Frank Langella) and Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington). However bad things are afoot as Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) has been released from prison, and since then he married an aged widow, who on her deathbed, decrees her will over to him. Luthor then travels to the Fortress of Solitude where he steals some kryptonite crystals, which he uses in a scheme to create a new landmass in the Atlantic Ocean, which will result in the deaths of billions of people. Superman prior to this of course reannounces his presence to the world as he rescues a test flight space shuttle, which Lois is on, covering a story, and lands it in a baseball stadium. Superman soon carries on his good deeds, foiling robberies, criminals of all sorts, and he also speaks to Lois to explain his absence. However, Luthor's plan to create a landmass soon comes to fruition, and its up to Superman to stop him, as he soon confront the slapheaded madman.
I have to say that while it stands easily hand and shoulders over Superman IV, that Superman Returns, next to that, is my second least favourite film in the series. Bryan Singer definitely does deserve credit for bringing the superhero back to the big screen, but unfortunately the pace of the film is sluggish, and the tone is pretty dreary, and at 2 hours and 30 minutes, it is way overlong. Many scenes in the film definitely feel slow and lack pace, excitement or any sense of fun, and that's definitely what is missing here: fun. Singer, even in the titles, is clearly paying tribute to Richard Donner's original movie, but Donner, gave that film the perfect mix of drama and humour, but here its mainly 80% drama and 20% very dry humour. I can see that Singer definitely tries to keep the expectations of the kick start of the franchise alive, but here its definitely falls somewhat flat. And on a plot point, it seems very strange that no one seems to arouse suspicion around Clark Kent's disappearnce for 5 years also, but when he comes back, Superman arrives at the same time. Surely based on that they can put two and two together! But I guess Clark's timid nature makes him incosequential in everyone's eyes, unlike Superman, he isn't really missed.
However that's not to say the film doesn't have its good aspects, it certainly does have them, mainly the casting of Brandon Routh, which is actually inspired in a way, as Routh is really good as Superman, and he even bears a close resemblance to Christopher Reeve (particularly as Clark Kent!). However his part in a way largely minimised, especially in his dialogue as both Clark Kent and Superman, as he barely speaks in either role! And I think this was unfair on Brandon Routh, as clearly he is actually a good actor, and I definitely think the script lets him down and to say its underwritten is an understatement! Kevin Spacey however, gets his fair share of dialogue and is excellent as Lex Luthor, as he plays him with a far more twisted sense of menace than Gene Hackman's comic depiction. But Spacey is also let down by the rather insipid nature of the film, as with a better script and pacing, his role as Luthor could have been even better. The supporting cast are also quite good, as Kate Bosworth does well as Lois Lane, as she get's Lois' bossy, and sassy qualities to the forefront. Frank Langella, while I think was a bit miscast as Perry White, still does a fine job as editor and chief of the Daily Planet, and Parker Posey adds a bit of amusement to the film as Luthor's mistress and henchwoman, Kitti Kowalski.
The film however still does have some good moments in it such as the quriky one where Lois and her son are captured onboard Luthor's ship, Lois' son goes over to the piano and he plays a few notes, and the henchman watching them goes over and joins in and they play "Heart and soul" together. The scene also where Superman rescues the screeching Kitty from a car with no breaks is good, especially as she later slaps Luthor angrily and says "I thought you said we would make it look like we had no breaks, but I didn't expect you to actually CUT THEM!!". And the scene where Superman flies into the path of a criminal who has a massive minigun and the bullets bounces off him, he walks right up to the baddie, who runs out of ammo, and resorts to shooting Superman in the eye, but the bullet simply bounces off his eyeball and drops to the floor, leaving Superman grinning.
On the production front of course the film has some excellent special effects, and John Ottman (Bryan Singer's usual composer) does a fine rendition of John Williams original score as well as add new music. Although one thing I didn't like was Superman's custome, as its nowhere near as cool as Christopher Reeve's was. In fact it resembles in colour more like the bad Superman's costume in Superman III, as the colours are darker and more insipid looking, and the "S" crest is also a bit too small and crap looking. And another problem with the film is the look of the film as the photography is just a bit too soft and the muted colours also do precious little to add to the proceedings (actually the film was apparently shot using high def cameras).
So overall Superman Returns for me was a disappointment, it did well to bring the superhero back to the cinema, and Brandon Routh was an excellent choice as Supe. But I think the Brandon and the cast were handed a bum steer on this one and the film could easily have been much better than it is.
And on that note, that concludes my Supe analysis.
Superman Part 3: You always wanted to fly, Kent, now's your chance!
So onto Part 3 of my critique of the Superman films, which is of
course all about Superman 3, which again was directed by Richard Lester, so
the comic tone that he added to Superman 2 is on full flight here, and
we also have the inclusion of Richard Pryor, to further the comedy
elements. But more on that soon, now onto the plot.
So Supe 3 starts with Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) an umemployed fella who is down on his luck when the social security cut off his money, who finds out he has a knack for computers, as he takes a job with the firm Webscoe and manages to embezzle $85000 in half cents from the organisation. After Gus unintentionally draws attention to himself by buying a fancy sports car with his money, the CEO Ross Webster (Robert Vaughan) brings him up and decides to use his talents for hacking for his own ends. Meanwhile Clark Kent (Reeve) gets permission from Perry White (Jackie Cooper) to do a story on his hometown school reunion in Smallville, where he returns and strikes up a friendship with his childhood friend Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole, lovely). Lana is now single and a divorcee with one young son Ricky, however she is still pestered by her ex-boyfriend from high school, Brad Wilson (Gavan O'Herlihy).
Back to Gus, Webster now manipulates Gus into doing his dirty as he makes him hack into one of Webscoe's small computer offices (in Smallville funnily enough!) where he contacts the Vulcan satelitte, which controls the weather, and makes it create a torando to destroy Colombia's coffee crop, as a result of the country refusing to do business with Webster. However Superman intervenes and stops the tornado and dries up the crops, which incenses Webster, who now wants to get rid of Superman. With his busty blonde nutrionist Lorelei (Pamela Stephenson) telling Webster that kryptonite is the only thing that can hurt Superman, Wesbter gets Gus to use the Vulcan satelitte to track the whereabouts of Krypton's former location in hopes to find a chunk of Kryptonite. The computer scans show up an unknown element in the kryptonite, which Gus substitutes as Tar (taken from his pack of cigarettes).
Superman on Ricky's birthday turns up, and the event is turned into a parade, where Gus and Webster's sister Vera (Annie Ross) drive up, dressed in an army uniform, Gus give a speech to the audience and hands Superman as a gift, the chunk of synthetic kryptonite, made up from the elements scanned by the Vulcan satelitte. However the kryptonite appears to have no effect on him, at first that is, but soon after, the kryptonite starts to make Superman behave strangely, as he becomes moody, apathetic, and commits some petty acts of vandalism, such as straightening the learning tower of Pisa and blowing out an olympic runner's torch just at the crucial moment of lighting the olympic flame. Webster also takes advantage of Superman's behaviour as he get Lorelei to lure Superman into helping them with their oil scam, as they get all the oil tankers to go to a certain destination, except one, which Superman flies to and punctures the hull, to bleed the oil out into the sea. This also causes chaos as Metropolis, doesn't get its oil supplies and the oil pumps dry up, which creates riots in the city. Superman's mood worsens, as his sinks into depression, which culiminates with him sitting in a bar getting drunk, smashes bottles of alcohol, simply by flicking peanuts at them! With Lana and Ricky arriving in Metropolis, they witness the drunken Superman walk out of the bar, growling at the spectators, he flies off, while Ricky calls out after him, with his words echoing in his head, Superman's torment reaches its limit, as he flies into a junkyard. In the junkyard Superman persona splits into two, as Clark Kent emerges from himself, as the two of them fight it out for their right to live, and after repeated attempts to kill off Clark, the bad Superman puts Clark in a car crusher, who burts out of it to strangle the bad Supe, who vanishes. At this point Clark opens his shirt, revealing his Superman suit, as he flies off and puts the damage he did to rights and goes off to find Webster.
By this time Gus has ideas to build a supercomputer, which he has written out blueprints for, the computer is essentially an invincible machine that can counter attack and wipe out its enemies. Intruiged by the possibilities of what the computer can do for him, Webster agrees to have the computer built. The supercomputer once fully built, is ready in time for Superman arriving, which attacks the caped dude with missiles. Superman survives the attacks and then goes in to confront Webster in the climactic sequence. (Sheesh what a long plot summary!).
Despite the mixed reviews that Superman III got at the time, I have to say I really did enjoy it as a film, and despite the overly comic tones in certain scenes it has alot going for it. One of the things that really works in the film is Clark's development as a character, as he no longer is as bumbling and awkward as he was before, now he is more confident and sure of himself. His scenes with Lana are also nicely played, especially the way they keep talking at cross purposes, as an example Clark helps Lana clean up after the school reunion party, and she talks about her ex-husband while sorting out the potato salad, "You know what the problem is???" and Clark says "Eehhh, too much mayonaisse??" "What?? No my husband loved mayonaise!". And also the scene where they picnic out in the fields, and Lana says to Clark "Clark, can I tell you something. My oil pan is leaking!".
And another highlight of Superman III is of course the casting of Richard Pryor, who plays the neurotic Gus Gorman with a wonderful sense of comic neurosis, a computer genius, who starts off being a little naughty by embezzling Webster's company, only to find himself out of his depth with the overly ambitious millionaire forcing to be involved in his dastardly schemes. Gus of course at no point really comes across as the bad guy, he's just an ordinary joe, who gets caught up in some bad events with some bad people. And toward the end Gus realises just how maniacal Webster is, when Superman is nearly killed by one of the supercomputer's ray beams (harnessing kryptonite rays) he tries to turn off the computer, and smashes up the kryptonite ray beam that is hurting Superman. Its also in a way a neat touch, that the computer at that point becomes self aware and turns itself back on, feeding off the powerlines of Metropolis, but in the end Superman manages to save the day. And there is a nice symmetrical touch to Gus's character, as Gus at the end of the movie ends up right back where he started, having gone from rags to riches, and back again, starting off the film as being unemployed, and ending it as the same! There was also a bit of criticism levelled at the film because it appeared to be more like a comedy vehicle for Richard Pryor than an actual Superman film, and to an extent maybe you could say that, but overall I don't think Pryor overshadows Christopher Reeve in it too much.
There are of course quite a few highlights in the film, and without a doubt of the film's best scene is Superman's dual with himself in the junkyard, as the evil Superman and good Clark Kent fight it out for survival. Christopher Reeve always wanted to play the part of the evil Superman, and he was reported as having really enjoyed it, and its something he does really well in the film. And in a way the dark cape, also neatly lends to his darkening personality in the film, its also perhaps the single best aspect of the film in fact, as it helps lend a bit of much needed dramatic weight to offset much of its comedic tone. Another highlight scene is of course, when the good Superman flies off to confront Webster, who attacks him with the supercomputer's defence system, firing missiles galore at him, its a scene that always stuck in my mind as I remember seeing it as a clip on TV as a kid when it first came out back in 1983 (yup I'm old!). I also like the scene with Richard Pryor sitting getting drunk with Brad Wilson in the Webscoe office, wearing the ridiculously big cowboy hat!
But if there are any weaknesses in the film then yes it is the overly comedic slapstick tone set by Richard Lester, the opening scene with the busty Lorelei, getting the attention of an onlooker who bumps into a mime, sets off a chain reaction of accidents. Its well staged, but it just looks silly, and it no longer looks like we are in Metropolis, it might as well be an village idiot's convention. Another silly scene is where Gus goes to Smallville and hacks into the computers and wreaks havoc with computer systems controlling the ATM machines, the traffic, and especially with the green and red traffic men signs fighting with one another. Its just silly and naff. The terse relationship between Lorelei and Vera is also enteratining but it is also a bit too farcical as well, although I do like their exchange when they argue infront of Webster, and Lorelei shouts about Vera "She's a big pig!".
On the music front Ken Thorne once again provides the score, again he delivers much of John Williams score from the first film, but he also adds some nice passages of music himself. Lester often used Ken Thorne as his regular composer, although if one criticism can be levelled at the score, it still does sound like TV film music, and not something that really belongs to a film on the big screen.
So overall for me Superman III is an underrated sequel, and yeah ok, there a few criticisms that can be levelled at it for its overtly comic tone, but I feel it doesn't really deserve or deserved the stick it got from the critics or the public. And without a doubt it stands head and shoulders above the fairly abysmal Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
But I will give Superman IV its due and dedicate a couple of smallish paragraphs towards it although let's face that it is no more than a second rate TV movie, which is poorly made, directed and not that well acted by its cast, despite the fact that Margot Kidder and Gene Hackman came back, they are hardly well catered for here. Its also a great shame that Christopher Reeve bowed out of the Superman films, in such a poor way with Superman IV, as he and the character deserved so much better than that. Although in retrospect it does have a strange appeal to it, despite it being so bad its bad, and you can still see that Reeve is still strongly dedicated to the role, despite the awful dialogue he gets, especially when addresses the public on the subway "I would just like to say that our subway transportation system is still the safest in the world, thank you!". But clearly there was not enough money thrown at it as the special effects are pretty awful (particularly in Superman's flying scenes, especially in the subway scene near the start where he rescues Lois). The plot is of course also totally ludicrous, even by the series standards, with Superman ridding the planet of nuclear weapons (I'm sure the army might still have a secret stash somewhere!) and fighting Lex Luthor's new fearsome baddie, Nuclear man (played by Mark Pillow) which easily ranks as the worst villain in any of the films.
Also as a quick note, despite its many shortcomings, there are some hidden pleasures on the DVD extras for the film, where there is a hilarious deleted scene, which shows the prototype baddie Lex Luthor came up with before he created Neutron man. And the baddie was actually played by the British actor, Clive Merill (who's acting credits include Casualty and Alien3) who puts in a hilarious performance as Luthor's incompetent baddie, and Superman's fight scene with him outside the back of a nightclub is priceless! But unfortunately for the most part, yup Supeman IV is pretty much a lorra mince, but nonetheless if you are curious to see it by all means, give it a go, and whince during and afterwards.
So cue part 4 with Supe Returns.......
So Supe 3 starts with Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) an umemployed fella who is down on his luck when the social security cut off his money, who finds out he has a knack for computers, as he takes a job with the firm Webscoe and manages to embezzle $85000 in half cents from the organisation. After Gus unintentionally draws attention to himself by buying a fancy sports car with his money, the CEO Ross Webster (Robert Vaughan) brings him up and decides to use his talents for hacking for his own ends. Meanwhile Clark Kent (Reeve) gets permission from Perry White (Jackie Cooper) to do a story on his hometown school reunion in Smallville, where he returns and strikes up a friendship with his childhood friend Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole, lovely). Lana is now single and a divorcee with one young son Ricky, however she is still pestered by her ex-boyfriend from high school, Brad Wilson (Gavan O'Herlihy).
Back to Gus, Webster now manipulates Gus into doing his dirty as he makes him hack into one of Webscoe's small computer offices (in Smallville funnily enough!) where he contacts the Vulcan satelitte, which controls the weather, and makes it create a torando to destroy Colombia's coffee crop, as a result of the country refusing to do business with Webster. However Superman intervenes and stops the tornado and dries up the crops, which incenses Webster, who now wants to get rid of Superman. With his busty blonde nutrionist Lorelei (Pamela Stephenson) telling Webster that kryptonite is the only thing that can hurt Superman, Wesbter gets Gus to use the Vulcan satelitte to track the whereabouts of Krypton's former location in hopes to find a chunk of Kryptonite. The computer scans show up an unknown element in the kryptonite, which Gus substitutes as Tar (taken from his pack of cigarettes).
Superman on Ricky's birthday turns up, and the event is turned into a parade, where Gus and Webster's sister Vera (Annie Ross) drive up, dressed in an army uniform, Gus give a speech to the audience and hands Superman as a gift, the chunk of synthetic kryptonite, made up from the elements scanned by the Vulcan satelitte. However the kryptonite appears to have no effect on him, at first that is, but soon after, the kryptonite starts to make Superman behave strangely, as he becomes moody, apathetic, and commits some petty acts of vandalism, such as straightening the learning tower of Pisa and blowing out an olympic runner's torch just at the crucial moment of lighting the olympic flame. Webster also takes advantage of Superman's behaviour as he get Lorelei to lure Superman into helping them with their oil scam, as they get all the oil tankers to go to a certain destination, except one, which Superman flies to and punctures the hull, to bleed the oil out into the sea. This also causes chaos as Metropolis, doesn't get its oil supplies and the oil pumps dry up, which creates riots in the city. Superman's mood worsens, as his sinks into depression, which culiminates with him sitting in a bar getting drunk, smashes bottles of alcohol, simply by flicking peanuts at them! With Lana and Ricky arriving in Metropolis, they witness the drunken Superman walk out of the bar, growling at the spectators, he flies off, while Ricky calls out after him, with his words echoing in his head, Superman's torment reaches its limit, as he flies into a junkyard. In the junkyard Superman persona splits into two, as Clark Kent emerges from himself, as the two of them fight it out for their right to live, and after repeated attempts to kill off Clark, the bad Superman puts Clark in a car crusher, who burts out of it to strangle the bad Supe, who vanishes. At this point Clark opens his shirt, revealing his Superman suit, as he flies off and puts the damage he did to rights and goes off to find Webster.
By this time Gus has ideas to build a supercomputer, which he has written out blueprints for, the computer is essentially an invincible machine that can counter attack and wipe out its enemies. Intruiged by the possibilities of what the computer can do for him, Webster agrees to have the computer built. The supercomputer once fully built, is ready in time for Superman arriving, which attacks the caped dude with missiles. Superman survives the attacks and then goes in to confront Webster in the climactic sequence. (Sheesh what a long plot summary!).
Despite the mixed reviews that Superman III got at the time, I have to say I really did enjoy it as a film, and despite the overly comic tones in certain scenes it has alot going for it. One of the things that really works in the film is Clark's development as a character, as he no longer is as bumbling and awkward as he was before, now he is more confident and sure of himself. His scenes with Lana are also nicely played, especially the way they keep talking at cross purposes, as an example Clark helps Lana clean up after the school reunion party, and she talks about her ex-husband while sorting out the potato salad, "You know what the problem is???" and Clark says "Eehhh, too much mayonaisse??" "What?? No my husband loved mayonaise!". And also the scene where they picnic out in the fields, and Lana says to Clark "Clark, can I tell you something. My oil pan is leaking!".
And another highlight of Superman III is of course the casting of Richard Pryor, who plays the neurotic Gus Gorman with a wonderful sense of comic neurosis, a computer genius, who starts off being a little naughty by embezzling Webster's company, only to find himself out of his depth with the overly ambitious millionaire forcing to be involved in his dastardly schemes. Gus of course at no point really comes across as the bad guy, he's just an ordinary joe, who gets caught up in some bad events with some bad people. And toward the end Gus realises just how maniacal Webster is, when Superman is nearly killed by one of the supercomputer's ray beams (harnessing kryptonite rays) he tries to turn off the computer, and smashes up the kryptonite ray beam that is hurting Superman. Its also in a way a neat touch, that the computer at that point becomes self aware and turns itself back on, feeding off the powerlines of Metropolis, but in the end Superman manages to save the day. And there is a nice symmetrical touch to Gus's character, as Gus at the end of the movie ends up right back where he started, having gone from rags to riches, and back again, starting off the film as being unemployed, and ending it as the same! There was also a bit of criticism levelled at the film because it appeared to be more like a comedy vehicle for Richard Pryor than an actual Superman film, and to an extent maybe you could say that, but overall I don't think Pryor overshadows Christopher Reeve in it too much.
There are of course quite a few highlights in the film, and without a doubt of the film's best scene is Superman's dual with himself in the junkyard, as the evil Superman and good Clark Kent fight it out for survival. Christopher Reeve always wanted to play the part of the evil Superman, and he was reported as having really enjoyed it, and its something he does really well in the film. And in a way the dark cape, also neatly lends to his darkening personality in the film, its also perhaps the single best aspect of the film in fact, as it helps lend a bit of much needed dramatic weight to offset much of its comedic tone. Another highlight scene is of course, when the good Superman flies off to confront Webster, who attacks him with the supercomputer's defence system, firing missiles galore at him, its a scene that always stuck in my mind as I remember seeing it as a clip on TV as a kid when it first came out back in 1983 (yup I'm old!). I also like the scene with Richard Pryor sitting getting drunk with Brad Wilson in the Webscoe office, wearing the ridiculously big cowboy hat!
But if there are any weaknesses in the film then yes it is the overly comedic slapstick tone set by Richard Lester, the opening scene with the busty Lorelei, getting the attention of an onlooker who bumps into a mime, sets off a chain reaction of accidents. Its well staged, but it just looks silly, and it no longer looks like we are in Metropolis, it might as well be an village idiot's convention. Another silly scene is where Gus goes to Smallville and hacks into the computers and wreaks havoc with computer systems controlling the ATM machines, the traffic, and especially with the green and red traffic men signs fighting with one another. Its just silly and naff. The terse relationship between Lorelei and Vera is also enteratining but it is also a bit too farcical as well, although I do like their exchange when they argue infront of Webster, and Lorelei shouts about Vera "She's a big pig!".
On the music front Ken Thorne once again provides the score, again he delivers much of John Williams score from the first film, but he also adds some nice passages of music himself. Lester often used Ken Thorne as his regular composer, although if one criticism can be levelled at the score, it still does sound like TV film music, and not something that really belongs to a film on the big screen.
So overall for me Superman III is an underrated sequel, and yeah ok, there a few criticisms that can be levelled at it for its overtly comic tone, but I feel it doesn't really deserve or deserved the stick it got from the critics or the public. And without a doubt it stands head and shoulders above the fairly abysmal Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
But I will give Superman IV its due and dedicate a couple of smallish paragraphs towards it although let's face that it is no more than a second rate TV movie, which is poorly made, directed and not that well acted by its cast, despite the fact that Margot Kidder and Gene Hackman came back, they are hardly well catered for here. Its also a great shame that Christopher Reeve bowed out of the Superman films, in such a poor way with Superman IV, as he and the character deserved so much better than that. Although in retrospect it does have a strange appeal to it, despite it being so bad its bad, and you can still see that Reeve is still strongly dedicated to the role, despite the awful dialogue he gets, especially when addresses the public on the subway "I would just like to say that our subway transportation system is still the safest in the world, thank you!". But clearly there was not enough money thrown at it as the special effects are pretty awful (particularly in Superman's flying scenes, especially in the subway scene near the start where he rescues Lois). The plot is of course also totally ludicrous, even by the series standards, with Superman ridding the planet of nuclear weapons (I'm sure the army might still have a secret stash somewhere!) and fighting Lex Luthor's new fearsome baddie, Nuclear man (played by Mark Pillow) which easily ranks as the worst villain in any of the films.
Also as a quick note, despite its many shortcomings, there are some hidden pleasures on the DVD extras for the film, where there is a hilarious deleted scene, which shows the prototype baddie Lex Luthor came up with before he created Neutron man. And the baddie was actually played by the British actor, Clive Merill (who's acting credits include Casualty and Alien3) who puts in a hilarious performance as Luthor's incompetent baddie, and Superman's fight scene with him outside the back of a nightclub is priceless! But unfortunately for the most part, yup Supeman IV is pretty much a lorra mince, but nonetheless if you are curious to see it by all means, give it a go, and whince during and afterwards.
So cue part 4 with Supe Returns.......
Superman Part 2: These humans are beginning to bore me!
So now I move onto Part 2, which is the aptly named Superman II, which was a
highly successful sequel to the original, which was a bit controversial
during its production as Richard Donner was fired during filming and
replaced with Richard Lester. And it certainly shows its change in tone
with the director of The Beatles films Help and A Hard Day's Night at
the helm, as we get more slapsticky and comedic stuff than the down to
earth quality that Donner provided. But enough of that for now, let's
investigate the plot... (PLENTY OF SPOILERS AHEAD!!).
So Superman II kicks off with Superman flying off to Paris to save the city from terrorists who are threatening to detonate a hydrogen bomb in Eiffel tower, and Lois Lane is already been sent to investigate the story. However as Lois clambers underneath the underside of the lift, the terrorists detonate the bomb, with Lois being violently hurdled toward the ground, when Superman flies up and stops the lift, letting Lois out, Supe then flies the lift deep into space where it explodes safely. However as a result of the explosion, the three villains from the first film (during the opening trial scene) are released from the phantom zone, and to make matters worse, because they are Kryptonians aswell they have the same powers as Superman. And its not long before General Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and Non (Jack O'Halloran) arrive on Earth and wreak absolute havoc, destroying anyone and anything in their way, with their super powers. However while this is going on, Clark Kent/Superman is oblivious as he is on an assignment with Lois Lane and they are sent by the Daily Planet to Niagra Falls to investigate honeymoon hotel scams. During their trip, Lois grows suspicious of Clark's behaviour as he conveniently disappears when a young boy falls into the Niagra Falls, only to have Superman fly out seconds later to save him. Initially Clark manages to bluff Lois, but later on in their suite, Clark trips and his hands fall into a log fire, checking Clark's hands, Lois is amazed to find he isn't burned. Clark finally relents, takes off his glasses and reveals himself to be Superman to Lois, they fly off to the Fortress of Solitude, where Superman explains his real background to Lois. Clearly Superman and Lois are in love with each other, and Superman talks with the image of his mother (a holographic image the same as in the first film) and declares his love for Lois, but his mother warns him if he choses Lois he must become human. Superman agrees and steps into a molecule chamber, which removes his powers, on leaving the chamber, Clark and Lois go off and to quote Alan Partridge, make sweet love.
While this is all going on by now, Zod, Ursa and Non have invaded the Whitehouse and forced the President to surrender his power over to them. Meanwhile Clark and Lois go off to a diner (driving by car this time!), and Clark soon finds out when he stands up to a thuggish customer, that he is indeed vulnerable, as the customer beats him up. At this point, Clark sees Zod on the TV with the President who declares he has given his power over to Zod. Clark then realises, having made a terrible mistake in giving up his powers, that he must go back, but the process of losing his powers is irreversible. Regardless Clark goes back to the fortress, and appeals to his father, but receives no response, about to leave though he spots the green crystal, which created the fortress. Meanwhile Lex Luthor, having escaped prison, makes an uneasy alliance with Zod, who flies to the Daily Planet to take Lois hostage to force Superman out in the open. And pretty soon the caped wonder flies back on the scene and challenges Zod and his two underlings to "step outside" and the rest is history.
Superman II clearly is something of a split film, as you can see the change in tone between the scenes that were clearly directed by Richards Donner and Lester. Donner provides the scenes with more weight, and down to earth humour, while Lester provides the more slapstick approach. Regardless of the outcome of the conflicting styles, Superman II really works well as a film and a sequel to the first film. The characters continue to be developed and we start to see Clark Kent become a little bit less awkward, although he is still quite bumbling. But its Lois we get to see develop more than anyone else, as she professes her love for Superman, and her scene with Clark near the very end when she knows his real identity and how it tears her up to not tell anyone, is really nicely played by Margot Kidder. Perhaps though in that scene (Another SPOILER) after it being played so well by both Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder, its a bit convenient and pat that they decided to have Superman erase Lois's memory of their relationship with one kiss!
And while the two leads are excellent as usual, the supporting cast also deserve credit as well, particularly Terence Stamp as General Zod, who plays him as cold, callous and calculating, not to mention just a tad maniacal. He is also responsible for one of the best lines in the film and the line which is the title of my entry "these humans are beginning to bore me!". Gene Hackman once again is great as Lex Luthor, although he does keep referring to himself just a bit too much "Me??? Lex Luthor??? The greatest criminal mind of our age???" "Me???? Lex Luthor???? Extinguish the greatest flame of our age???". Although I do find it slightly peculiar he would still keep in touch with Miss Tessmacher, who rescues him from prison, after she betrayed him in the first film, by letting Superman go.
The film has many enteratining scenes, one of the highlights of course is Superman's battle with Zod, Ursa and Non, as after so much bad-ass dominance its a great moment in the film when Supe finally shows up and asks the General to "step outside". The scene where Lois is convinced that Clark is really Superman and she throws herself into the Niagra falls is funny as well, as Clark has to subtly save Lois without unveiling his identity. Another great scene is where Clark returns to the Fortress of Soltitude and asks for his parents help, and screams "FATHER!!" to no avail, its one of the best moments of Chris's performance in the film. And last but not least the scene at the end where Clark returns to the diner to get revenge on the thuggish customer Rocky (Pepper Martin) who beat him up earlier. I also love that while Superman/Clark Kent is a real good guy of great moral courage and everything, he still wants revenge over someone who has wronged him, so he's not oh so goody goody that he doesn't take pleasure in getting his own back.
Onto a quick word about Richard Lester's direction, which while it certainly shifted the tone of the film, it hardly destroys the film's credibility. And yeah ok admittedly it could have done without that hugely slapsticky scene near the end where Zod, Ursa and Non use their super powers to blow away everyone who tries to get at them, and we see a guy in the telephone booth flying along the ground, and he's clinging talking and laughing as he dragged with it. But he does add some nice moments in the film, particularly the scenes between Clark and Lois, when Clark reveals his identity, their chat at the beginning in the Daily Planet office (where Lois tries to make a glass of fresh orange using about a dozen oranges!) and the end where Lois doesn't know how to deal with knowing Clark's dual identity.
Also finally a little note on Ken Thorne's music score, which is mostly an adaptation and variation on John Williams main score from the original film. Admittedly Ken Thorne's score isn't in the same league as John Williams, in fact there are at times you think you are listening to the score from a TV movie. But overall he doesn't do a bad job at orchestrating the music for the film, and he adds in a couple of good passages of music himself (the scene where Lois ascends the Eiffel is one).
So overall Superman II, while it doesn't quite fully live up to the expectations of the first film, it does succeed in being a worthy and very enteratining sequel, with plenty to commend it.
And on that note, that's it for Supe II, time for III......
So Superman II kicks off with Superman flying off to Paris to save the city from terrorists who are threatening to detonate a hydrogen bomb in Eiffel tower, and Lois Lane is already been sent to investigate the story. However as Lois clambers underneath the underside of the lift, the terrorists detonate the bomb, with Lois being violently hurdled toward the ground, when Superman flies up and stops the lift, letting Lois out, Supe then flies the lift deep into space where it explodes safely. However as a result of the explosion, the three villains from the first film (during the opening trial scene) are released from the phantom zone, and to make matters worse, because they are Kryptonians aswell they have the same powers as Superman. And its not long before General Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and Non (Jack O'Halloran) arrive on Earth and wreak absolute havoc, destroying anyone and anything in their way, with their super powers. However while this is going on, Clark Kent/Superman is oblivious as he is on an assignment with Lois Lane and they are sent by the Daily Planet to Niagra Falls to investigate honeymoon hotel scams. During their trip, Lois grows suspicious of Clark's behaviour as he conveniently disappears when a young boy falls into the Niagra Falls, only to have Superman fly out seconds later to save him. Initially Clark manages to bluff Lois, but later on in their suite, Clark trips and his hands fall into a log fire, checking Clark's hands, Lois is amazed to find he isn't burned. Clark finally relents, takes off his glasses and reveals himself to be Superman to Lois, they fly off to the Fortress of Solitude, where Superman explains his real background to Lois. Clearly Superman and Lois are in love with each other, and Superman talks with the image of his mother (a holographic image the same as in the first film) and declares his love for Lois, but his mother warns him if he choses Lois he must become human. Superman agrees and steps into a molecule chamber, which removes his powers, on leaving the chamber, Clark and Lois go off and to quote Alan Partridge, make sweet love.
While this is all going on by now, Zod, Ursa and Non have invaded the Whitehouse and forced the President to surrender his power over to them. Meanwhile Clark and Lois go off to a diner (driving by car this time!), and Clark soon finds out when he stands up to a thuggish customer, that he is indeed vulnerable, as the customer beats him up. At this point, Clark sees Zod on the TV with the President who declares he has given his power over to Zod. Clark then realises, having made a terrible mistake in giving up his powers, that he must go back, but the process of losing his powers is irreversible. Regardless Clark goes back to the fortress, and appeals to his father, but receives no response, about to leave though he spots the green crystal, which created the fortress. Meanwhile Lex Luthor, having escaped prison, makes an uneasy alliance with Zod, who flies to the Daily Planet to take Lois hostage to force Superman out in the open. And pretty soon the caped wonder flies back on the scene and challenges Zod and his two underlings to "step outside" and the rest is history.
Superman II clearly is something of a split film, as you can see the change in tone between the scenes that were clearly directed by Richards Donner and Lester. Donner provides the scenes with more weight, and down to earth humour, while Lester provides the more slapstick approach. Regardless of the outcome of the conflicting styles, Superman II really works well as a film and a sequel to the first film. The characters continue to be developed and we start to see Clark Kent become a little bit less awkward, although he is still quite bumbling. But its Lois we get to see develop more than anyone else, as she professes her love for Superman, and her scene with Clark near the very end when she knows his real identity and how it tears her up to not tell anyone, is really nicely played by Margot Kidder. Perhaps though in that scene (Another SPOILER) after it being played so well by both Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder, its a bit convenient and pat that they decided to have Superman erase Lois's memory of their relationship with one kiss!
And while the two leads are excellent as usual, the supporting cast also deserve credit as well, particularly Terence Stamp as General Zod, who plays him as cold, callous and calculating, not to mention just a tad maniacal. He is also responsible for one of the best lines in the film and the line which is the title of my entry "these humans are beginning to bore me!". Gene Hackman once again is great as Lex Luthor, although he does keep referring to himself just a bit too much "Me??? Lex Luthor??? The greatest criminal mind of our age???" "Me???? Lex Luthor???? Extinguish the greatest flame of our age???". Although I do find it slightly peculiar he would still keep in touch with Miss Tessmacher, who rescues him from prison, after she betrayed him in the first film, by letting Superman go.
The film has many enteratining scenes, one of the highlights of course is Superman's battle with Zod, Ursa and Non, as after so much bad-ass dominance its a great moment in the film when Supe finally shows up and asks the General to "step outside". The scene where Lois is convinced that Clark is really Superman and she throws herself into the Niagra falls is funny as well, as Clark has to subtly save Lois without unveiling his identity. Another great scene is where Clark returns to the Fortress of Soltitude and asks for his parents help, and screams "FATHER!!" to no avail, its one of the best moments of Chris's performance in the film. And last but not least the scene at the end where Clark returns to the diner to get revenge on the thuggish customer Rocky (Pepper Martin) who beat him up earlier. I also love that while Superman/Clark Kent is a real good guy of great moral courage and everything, he still wants revenge over someone who has wronged him, so he's not oh so goody goody that he doesn't take pleasure in getting his own back.
Onto a quick word about Richard Lester's direction, which while it certainly shifted the tone of the film, it hardly destroys the film's credibility. And yeah ok admittedly it could have done without that hugely slapsticky scene near the end where Zod, Ursa and Non use their super powers to blow away everyone who tries to get at them, and we see a guy in the telephone booth flying along the ground, and he's clinging talking and laughing as he dragged with it. But he does add some nice moments in the film, particularly the scenes between Clark and Lois, when Clark reveals his identity, their chat at the beginning in the Daily Planet office (where Lois tries to make a glass of fresh orange using about a dozen oranges!) and the end where Lois doesn't know how to deal with knowing Clark's dual identity.
Also finally a little note on Ken Thorne's music score, which is mostly an adaptation and variation on John Williams main score from the original film. Admittedly Ken Thorne's score isn't in the same league as John Williams, in fact there are at times you think you are listening to the score from a TV movie. But overall he doesn't do a bad job at orchestrating the music for the film, and he adds in a couple of good passages of music himself (the scene where Lois ascends the Eiffel is one).
So overall Superman II, while it doesn't quite fully live up to the expectations of the first film, it does succeed in being a worthy and very enteratining sequel, with plenty to commend it.
And on that note, that's it for Supe II, time for III......
Superman Part 1: Say Jim! That's a bad outfit!
OK in order to stuff this blog up that bit more I've decided to do a bit more blog robbery from my tennis blog. So the next four posts will be on the Superman films, starring Christopher Reeve and the latterly Brandon Routh. The
first film in the Supe cannon is generally regarded the best and I have
to agree, as Richard Donner brilliantly brought the superhero to our
screens, and found the perfect mix of seriousness and humour. So here's
a bit about the plot.
The film starts on the planet Krypton where Jor-El (Marlon Brando), one of the esteemed scientists of their civilisation, states that the planet will explode within a short space of time (30 days or less), however the high council of Krypton refuse to believe him and insist he keep quiet on his findings. Regardless of this though, Jor-El is proved to be right as the planet does indeed start to destroy itself, but before doing so, Jor-El arranges for his son to be evacuated in a spaceship. The baby Kal-El (Superman of course as a wee yin) travels in the spaceship for three years before it gets to Earth. On crash landing on Earth, in a small mining town Smallville, a middle aged couple, Johnathan (Glenn Ford) and Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter), come across the young Kal-El and adopt him as their own son, and he later is named as Clark Kent. As a teenager however, Clark's father Jonathan dies from a heart attack, after this happens, Clark is awoken one night and goes into the house barn and he finds a glowing green crystal. On finding this, Clark decides to leave Smallville and head North where he throws the crystal into the icy waters, and it soons causes the creation of the Frotress of Solitutde. On entering the Fortress, Clark finds a crystal which allows him to talk to a holographic projection of his father, who tells him who he really is and informs of his powers. 12 years later, Clark leaves the Fortress for Metropolis (New York City in real life) where he gets a job as a reporter, and befriends Lois Lane, an esteemed reporter with the Daily Planet.
However after their first night of work, Lois who is scheduled to do an interview, sets out to make the trip in a helicopter, however there is an accident, which causes the helicopter to crash land on the edge of the Daily planet roof. Clark emerges from the building and looks up, and then decides this as his moment to unveil his identity (although at this point he's not named as Superman), as he changes into Superman and rescues Lois. Later that night Superman makes his presence known in Metropolis as he does a number of good deeds, such as foil robberies, prevent a plane from crashing, and of course helping a cat stuck up a tree. Soon after he is made public, the newspapers and television go wild, and soon enough Lois gets an exclusive interview with Superman, whereafter she names him in the press as "Superman". But as things get going for Superman, the villanous Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), schemes to destroy him, as he locates a piece of debris from Krypton. Luthor lures Superman with the threat of killing the popluation of Metropolis with poisonous gas, which turns out to be just a trick. However Luthor's real aim is to destroy California by having changed the trajectory of newly launched test missiles, and use the barren lands he has bought as the new West Coast which he will own. From here Superman is deceived into opening a lead box (he can't see through lead of course) holding the kryptonite, which Lex puts on Superman, and throws him in his swimming pool leaving him to die. However Lex's girlfriend Eve Tessmacher (Valerie Perrine) out of guilt rescues Superman, who then proceeds to try and thwart Luthor's plan and stop the rockets from hitting their targets.
Superman: The Movie, is without a doubt something of a landmark in Superhero films, as the film itself was a massive undertaking, with an incredible budget (55 million dollars) and covering alot of ground in Superman's background, civilian life and being a superhero. And one of the film's main triumphs is of course the casting of Christopher Reeve as Superman, who makes the character so believable. Reeve also beautifully balances Superman's heroic righteouness and Clark Kent's bumbling awkwardness, and it would be hard to find an actor who could have played the part better. The other cast members are perfect in their roles as well, particularly Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, as she plays Lois as being feisty, headstrong as well as being head over heels in love with Superman. Gene Hackman, who up to that point in time was a serious actor, made a wonderul transition into comedy in this film as Lex Luthor, as he plays him so brilliantly, with just the right amount of malice, egotism and intelligence.
Marlon Brando of course also makes a firm impression as Jor-El, Superman's father, who is a respected scientist and member of the Krypton council, and he plays him with an almost English tint in his accent. Brando however did later sue Warner Brothers and Salkind for 50 million dollars, as he felt cheated out of his share of the box office profits (let's not say he didn't have a penny or two after that!). Other roles are nicely filled such as Jackie Cooper as Perry White, Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen, Valerie Perrine as Eve Tessmacher (nicely filled out too!) and Ned Beatty as Otis, Lex Luthor's incompetent henchman.
Plot wise the film as I said does cover a lot of ground, and if you could aim a criticism at it, then it would that it does take its time to get going, but once it does its great to watch. In fact the changes in tone between the early scenes and later ones are quite seismic, from incredibly serious to quite comedic, it definitely feels like watching two different films. The early sequences on Krypton are quite lengthy, and it has to be said that the depiction of the destruction of planet Krypton is actually quite harrowing, as you see the planet collapse, and people screaming and falling to their deaths, heavy stuff. Later on with Clark Kent as a teenager, the film lightens a little in tone, and features a charming scene between Clark and his adopted father Jonathan, played nicely by Glenn Ford, who dies from a heart attack shortly after. And from there, the film really does fly (sorry about the pun) as Clark Kent goes to Metropolis and unveils himself as Superman. You could also argue that the high council of Krypton are also a bunch of idiots as they simply refuse to listen to Jor-El's theory on how Krypton will explode in 30 days. And instead of taking him at his word, especially given he is a respected scientist, they decide to ignore his theory or his warnings, and they don't even think to set a contingency plan in place to evacuate just in case he is right, but instead they just sit around until the place blows up!
Of course alot of credit in the film really does go to Richard Donner (who later on directed the Lethal Weapon films) as he had a massive task on his hands in bringing the film to the screen. Donner also later revealed that he had a fallout with the producer Alexander Salykynd, and during the filming of Superman II, was fired from the project, and then replaced with Richard Lester. This was an unfortunate decision as Donner had such a great rapport with the cast and crew, and if he had completed work on Superman II, it would have been very interesting to see how it would have turned out. Donner himself later issued his own director's cut of Supe II, but I'll say more about that in my next post.
Another highlight of the film undoubtedly is the music by John Williams, who did a terrific job in creating a highly memorable score for the movie. Donner himself was stunned at how Williams orchestrated the word "Superman" in the title theme as its almost as if the music is singing the word. Its definitely one to remember and no doubt as a kid it was one of my favourites too.
Technically the film is also quite superb as the model effects by Derek Meddings are quite stunning at times (even if you can tell a mile away that for example the houses at the end during the damn breaking are miniatures!). And above all the flying scenes are superbly realised, it also is helped by the fact that Christopher Reeve makes Superman in flight seem so real and believable. So you can easily forget that while he is held up by wires, you can also believe the man can fly!!
Soooo that's it for Part 1 and Supe 1 the Movie. Now onto Part 2......
The film starts on the planet Krypton where Jor-El (Marlon Brando), one of the esteemed scientists of their civilisation, states that the planet will explode within a short space of time (30 days or less), however the high council of Krypton refuse to believe him and insist he keep quiet on his findings. Regardless of this though, Jor-El is proved to be right as the planet does indeed start to destroy itself, but before doing so, Jor-El arranges for his son to be evacuated in a spaceship. The baby Kal-El (Superman of course as a wee yin) travels in the spaceship for three years before it gets to Earth. On crash landing on Earth, in a small mining town Smallville, a middle aged couple, Johnathan (Glenn Ford) and Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter), come across the young Kal-El and adopt him as their own son, and he later is named as Clark Kent. As a teenager however, Clark's father Jonathan dies from a heart attack, after this happens, Clark is awoken one night and goes into the house barn and he finds a glowing green crystal. On finding this, Clark decides to leave Smallville and head North where he throws the crystal into the icy waters, and it soons causes the creation of the Frotress of Solitutde. On entering the Fortress, Clark finds a crystal which allows him to talk to a holographic projection of his father, who tells him who he really is and informs of his powers. 12 years later, Clark leaves the Fortress for Metropolis (New York City in real life) where he gets a job as a reporter, and befriends Lois Lane, an esteemed reporter with the Daily Planet.
However after their first night of work, Lois who is scheduled to do an interview, sets out to make the trip in a helicopter, however there is an accident, which causes the helicopter to crash land on the edge of the Daily planet roof. Clark emerges from the building and looks up, and then decides this as his moment to unveil his identity (although at this point he's not named as Superman), as he changes into Superman and rescues Lois. Later that night Superman makes his presence known in Metropolis as he does a number of good deeds, such as foil robberies, prevent a plane from crashing, and of course helping a cat stuck up a tree. Soon after he is made public, the newspapers and television go wild, and soon enough Lois gets an exclusive interview with Superman, whereafter she names him in the press as "Superman". But as things get going for Superman, the villanous Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), schemes to destroy him, as he locates a piece of debris from Krypton. Luthor lures Superman with the threat of killing the popluation of Metropolis with poisonous gas, which turns out to be just a trick. However Luthor's real aim is to destroy California by having changed the trajectory of newly launched test missiles, and use the barren lands he has bought as the new West Coast which he will own. From here Superman is deceived into opening a lead box (he can't see through lead of course) holding the kryptonite, which Lex puts on Superman, and throws him in his swimming pool leaving him to die. However Lex's girlfriend Eve Tessmacher (Valerie Perrine) out of guilt rescues Superman, who then proceeds to try and thwart Luthor's plan and stop the rockets from hitting their targets.
Superman: The Movie, is without a doubt something of a landmark in Superhero films, as the film itself was a massive undertaking, with an incredible budget (55 million dollars) and covering alot of ground in Superman's background, civilian life and being a superhero. And one of the film's main triumphs is of course the casting of Christopher Reeve as Superman, who makes the character so believable. Reeve also beautifully balances Superman's heroic righteouness and Clark Kent's bumbling awkwardness, and it would be hard to find an actor who could have played the part better. The other cast members are perfect in their roles as well, particularly Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, as she plays Lois as being feisty, headstrong as well as being head over heels in love with Superman. Gene Hackman, who up to that point in time was a serious actor, made a wonderul transition into comedy in this film as Lex Luthor, as he plays him so brilliantly, with just the right amount of malice, egotism and intelligence.
Marlon Brando of course also makes a firm impression as Jor-El, Superman's father, who is a respected scientist and member of the Krypton council, and he plays him with an almost English tint in his accent. Brando however did later sue Warner Brothers and Salkind for 50 million dollars, as he felt cheated out of his share of the box office profits (let's not say he didn't have a penny or two after that!). Other roles are nicely filled such as Jackie Cooper as Perry White, Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen, Valerie Perrine as Eve Tessmacher (nicely filled out too!) and Ned Beatty as Otis, Lex Luthor's incompetent henchman.
Plot wise the film as I said does cover a lot of ground, and if you could aim a criticism at it, then it would that it does take its time to get going, but once it does its great to watch. In fact the changes in tone between the early scenes and later ones are quite seismic, from incredibly serious to quite comedic, it definitely feels like watching two different films. The early sequences on Krypton are quite lengthy, and it has to be said that the depiction of the destruction of planet Krypton is actually quite harrowing, as you see the planet collapse, and people screaming and falling to their deaths, heavy stuff. Later on with Clark Kent as a teenager, the film lightens a little in tone, and features a charming scene between Clark and his adopted father Jonathan, played nicely by Glenn Ford, who dies from a heart attack shortly after. And from there, the film really does fly (sorry about the pun) as Clark Kent goes to Metropolis and unveils himself as Superman. You could also argue that the high council of Krypton are also a bunch of idiots as they simply refuse to listen to Jor-El's theory on how Krypton will explode in 30 days. And instead of taking him at his word, especially given he is a respected scientist, they decide to ignore his theory or his warnings, and they don't even think to set a contingency plan in place to evacuate just in case he is right, but instead they just sit around until the place blows up!
Of course alot of credit in the film really does go to Richard Donner (who later on directed the Lethal Weapon films) as he had a massive task on his hands in bringing the film to the screen. Donner also later revealed that he had a fallout with the producer Alexander Salykynd, and during the filming of Superman II, was fired from the project, and then replaced with Richard Lester. This was an unfortunate decision as Donner had such a great rapport with the cast and crew, and if he had completed work on Superman II, it would have been very interesting to see how it would have turned out. Donner himself later issued his own director's cut of Supe II, but I'll say more about that in my next post.
Another highlight of the film undoubtedly is the music by John Williams, who did a terrific job in creating a highly memorable score for the movie. Donner himself was stunned at how Williams orchestrated the word "Superman" in the title theme as its almost as if the music is singing the word. Its definitely one to remember and no doubt as a kid it was one of my favourites too.
Technically the film is also quite superb as the model effects by Derek Meddings are quite stunning at times (even if you can tell a mile away that for example the houses at the end during the damn breaking are miniatures!). And above all the flying scenes are superbly realised, it also is helped by the fact that Christopher Reeve makes Superman in flight seem so real and believable. So you can easily forget that while he is held up by wires, you can also believe the man can fly!!
Soooo that's it for Part 1 and Supe 1 the Movie. Now onto Part 2......
Killin Bill
Right well I thought it was time that I robbed another post from my "other" blog, and this one is one of my favourite films, which is Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece, Kill Bill (Vol 1 and 2). So I will without any further interruptions get to it.
So onto the plot, which starts with the blood spattered "bride" (Uma Thurman) who lies on the floor of a church in El Paso Texas, after her groom to be and her friends have been ruthlessly gunned down, by her former lover Bill (David Carradine) and his team of assassins, the Deadly Viper squad (Lucy Lui, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah). Just before Bill puts a bullet in his bride's head, she tells him that she is pregnant with his baby. The bride however miraculously survives the bullet, as she lies in a coma for four years in a hospital where one night just after that, she finds a big redneck trucker straddling her. The bride instantly kills the trucker and then kills the hospital worker "Buck" who has been pimping her out during her comatose state to people he knows for money. The bride then travels to Okinawa to find the legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) and she asks that he make her a sword, which he eventually does after she drops Bill's name. After a month or so, Hanzo finishes the sword and the bride leaves with it, to start her bloody revenge against the Deadly Viper squad, starting with O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) who is by now the leader of the Tokyo yakuza. What ensues is a very bloody (not to mention very spurty!) fight sequence as the bride takes on O-Ren's bodyguards, her crazed 17 year associate Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama) and also the "crazy 88" who are O-Ren's hit squad, and ultimately O-Ren herself. So cue part two....
And the bride carries on in the second part of the film in her journey to kill bill, where she seeks out Bill's brother, Budd (Michael Madsen), who shoots her full of rock salt and buries her alive in a coffin. But of course with the luck of a handy straight razor tucked away in her boot, and her incredible punching skills she learned from her former master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu), the bride manages to break free of her coffin and crawl her way up out of the earth back up to the surface, ready for more revenge. After this Budd calls up one of his ex-viper squad members Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah, complete with cool eye patch) and asks if she would want to trade the bride's Hanzo sword for a million dollars. Elle comes along to Budd's cabin the next day and secretly stashes a black mamba snake in the suitcase of money, which kills of Budd. Then the bride, who by now, Elle has given away her real name as Beatrix Kiddo, confronts Elle in an intense fight, which Beatrix eventually wins by plucking out Elle's only remaining eye (the other one was plucked out by Pai Mei during her instruction). This now only leaves Bill and well you can imagine what goes on there........
For me Kill Bill has to be Quentin Tarantino's best film, as it is such a brilliant combination of different styles of film, from action to thriller, to western, to eastern to anime and so on. And at the centre of it is a terrific performance from its lead actress Uma Thurman, who plays the part of the Bride (or Beatrix) so brilliantly. In fact one of the interesting aspects of the film is how the character of the bride develops, as in the first volume, we see her as a remorseless killing machine, who is purely on a mission of revenge, but in the second film, we get to see her become more human as a person. And in a way if I had to pick a favourite part it would be volume 2, simply because it is more character driven, and it helps to humanise Beatrix as well as rationalise Bill as a person too (well perhaps not rationalise but we do get where he was coming from in his actions). But both volumes add up to the same film and overall it is some achievement from Quentin Tarantino.
On a technical level I don't think Tarantino has made a better film either, as his mix of skilfull camera work, and brilliant use of Japanese anime, and superb photography from Robert Richardson all add up to a visual treat for the viewer as well. And without a doubt, his choice of soundtrack is as ever terrific, especially in volume 1 where it opens up with Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang", the cheesy but highly effective use of the theme from "Quincy", and in volume 2 his effective use of Ennio Morricone's western music, and "About Her" by Malcolm McLaren which is used to great effect also. I also can't forget to mention the infuriatingly catchy 5, 6, 7, 8's "Woo-hoo" which is annoying but at the same time you can't help but listen to it. In general Tarantino has a like for 1970s funk music, and plenty of it permeates throughout the whole film, abd he uses it very well, especially tracks like Ray Fan Ray by Isaac Hayes in the anime scene with O-Ren killing one of her targets as an assassin. I also love the way Tarantino particularly in the scene where Beatrix receives the cruel instruction from her kung-fu master Pai Mei, how uses the typical camera zoom-ins like you get in the old martial arts films. Its a great touch.
The film also has several harrowing scenes which stick in the mind also, and while the over the top bloody scenes in Volume 1 are never disturbing, in fact they are quite silly if nothing else, its the scenes where we see Beatrix suffer so much herself. A couple of scenes in particular are firstly the one where she wakes up from her coma, she looks down at her stomach at a wound where presumably her aborted child was taken from, and she screams and sobs uncontrollably. Its a great moment in Uma's performance, and for that brief moment she has to deal with her grief all at once, before she is interrupted, by the scumbag hospital worker, who has used her inert body for sex. Which I have to say is one of the film's more disturbing aspects is the misogyny that it occassionally displays particularly in this scene, it reminds me of the scene from Pulp Fiction where Marcellus Wallace is being raped in a basement by hillbillies. Its almost like Quentin is going for the shock effect once again, just by making you think of the unthinkable. Another harrowing moment is when the bride, after she has been put in a coffin by Budd, we see her reaction from the inside as her coffin is trundled into the grave, and we hear the heavy sound of the dirt crash against the outer side of the coffin itself, with Beatrix panicking and crying each time she hears the dirt being shovelled on top. Its probably the film's most potent and distressing sequence, and it definitely captures that sense of intense claustrophobia too. One of Uma's best scenes though is when she enters Bill's house near the end of Volume 2, armed with a gun and she finds Bill, much to her amazement with their daughter, she almost falls to her knees, with shock, its a great moment in her performance.
But that's not to say that Kill Bill doesn't have any fun moments in it, of course it does, its a Tarantino film! The action sequences in particular a spectacular to watch, especially the bloody showdown at O-Ren's House of the dead leaves, with Beatrix/The Bride slicing and dicing her way through her enemies, and her fight with Elle in the second film is a particular highlight also. Another favourite for me is Beatrix's training under the cruel old Kung-fu master, Pai Mei, as he rides her hard in instructing her on the ways of kung-fu. There are some amusing characters along the way and plenty of enjoyable and crude dialogue, one of me favourite lines from the Bride is "As I sat in the back of Buck's truck, trying to will my limbs out of entrophy I could see the faces of cunts that did this to me and the dicks responsible!".
Performance wise there are plenty of good ones, David Carradine is especially good as Bill, the man himself, who has a world weary charm but also shows that he's a killer and a vicious bastard through and through. Michael Madsen puts in a decent performance also as Bill's younger brother Budd, who once a high paid assassin, is now subjected to working in a third rate strip bar as a bouncer. And Daryl Hannah also is very good as the evil and sly Elle Driver, and after seeing Daryl give some pretty so-so performances in films from the 1980s such as Roxanne, and Wall Street, what she does do really well in this film is ham it up, and shows that she is a capable actress. Lucy Liu is also great as the deadly and foxy O-Ren Ishii, and her best scene is where she stampedes down the table in her conference room and beheads one of her impertinent associates (complete with blood fountain spurting!) and calmly tells her people that if you have problem with her, tell her so, before she shouts "so if any of you sonsabitches has anything else to say NOW'S THE FUCKING TIME!!!". Sonny Chiba's cameo appearance is also very entertaining as Hattori Hanzo, once a great swordswith, who vowed never to make another sword again, and now spends his time as a Sushi chef, arguing with his suborindate employee ("lazy bastard, get your ass out here!").
Perhaps though the only poor scene in Kill Bill is the end credits with Robert Rodriguez's fairly annoying Mexican music playing in the background, and how it shows all the character's over the music and his final caption for Beatrix's charcater that says "Beatrix Kiddo, aka Black maba, aka the bride, aka Mommy". Its just a bit cheesy. But its just one scene out of the film, the rest is grand.
However Kill Bill is definitely one of my favourite films and one of the best films in recent times of modern cinema. Tarantino has definitely contributed a great deal to American cinema over the years and here he gave it his masterpiece.
So onto the plot, which starts with the blood spattered "bride" (Uma Thurman) who lies on the floor of a church in El Paso Texas, after her groom to be and her friends have been ruthlessly gunned down, by her former lover Bill (David Carradine) and his team of assassins, the Deadly Viper squad (Lucy Lui, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah). Just before Bill puts a bullet in his bride's head, she tells him that she is pregnant with his baby. The bride however miraculously survives the bullet, as she lies in a coma for four years in a hospital where one night just after that, she finds a big redneck trucker straddling her. The bride instantly kills the trucker and then kills the hospital worker "Buck" who has been pimping her out during her comatose state to people he knows for money. The bride then travels to Okinawa to find the legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) and she asks that he make her a sword, which he eventually does after she drops Bill's name. After a month or so, Hanzo finishes the sword and the bride leaves with it, to start her bloody revenge against the Deadly Viper squad, starting with O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) who is by now the leader of the Tokyo yakuza. What ensues is a very bloody (not to mention very spurty!) fight sequence as the bride takes on O-Ren's bodyguards, her crazed 17 year associate Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama) and also the "crazy 88" who are O-Ren's hit squad, and ultimately O-Ren herself. So cue part two....
And the bride carries on in the second part of the film in her journey to kill bill, where she seeks out Bill's brother, Budd (Michael Madsen), who shoots her full of rock salt and buries her alive in a coffin. But of course with the luck of a handy straight razor tucked away in her boot, and her incredible punching skills she learned from her former master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu), the bride manages to break free of her coffin and crawl her way up out of the earth back up to the surface, ready for more revenge. After this Budd calls up one of his ex-viper squad members Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah, complete with cool eye patch) and asks if she would want to trade the bride's Hanzo sword for a million dollars. Elle comes along to Budd's cabin the next day and secretly stashes a black mamba snake in the suitcase of money, which kills of Budd. Then the bride, who by now, Elle has given away her real name as Beatrix Kiddo, confronts Elle in an intense fight, which Beatrix eventually wins by plucking out Elle's only remaining eye (the other one was plucked out by Pai Mei during her instruction). This now only leaves Bill and well you can imagine what goes on there........
For me Kill Bill has to be Quentin Tarantino's best film, as it is such a brilliant combination of different styles of film, from action to thriller, to western, to eastern to anime and so on. And at the centre of it is a terrific performance from its lead actress Uma Thurman, who plays the part of the Bride (or Beatrix) so brilliantly. In fact one of the interesting aspects of the film is how the character of the bride develops, as in the first volume, we see her as a remorseless killing machine, who is purely on a mission of revenge, but in the second film, we get to see her become more human as a person. And in a way if I had to pick a favourite part it would be volume 2, simply because it is more character driven, and it helps to humanise Beatrix as well as rationalise Bill as a person too (well perhaps not rationalise but we do get where he was coming from in his actions). But both volumes add up to the same film and overall it is some achievement from Quentin Tarantino.
On a technical level I don't think Tarantino has made a better film either, as his mix of skilfull camera work, and brilliant use of Japanese anime, and superb photography from Robert Richardson all add up to a visual treat for the viewer as well. And without a doubt, his choice of soundtrack is as ever terrific, especially in volume 1 where it opens up with Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang", the cheesy but highly effective use of the theme from "Quincy", and in volume 2 his effective use of Ennio Morricone's western music, and "About Her" by Malcolm McLaren which is used to great effect also. I also can't forget to mention the infuriatingly catchy 5, 6, 7, 8's "Woo-hoo" which is annoying but at the same time you can't help but listen to it. In general Tarantino has a like for 1970s funk music, and plenty of it permeates throughout the whole film, abd he uses it very well, especially tracks like Ray Fan Ray by Isaac Hayes in the anime scene with O-Ren killing one of her targets as an assassin. I also love the way Tarantino particularly in the scene where Beatrix receives the cruel instruction from her kung-fu master Pai Mei, how uses the typical camera zoom-ins like you get in the old martial arts films. Its a great touch.
The film also has several harrowing scenes which stick in the mind also, and while the over the top bloody scenes in Volume 1 are never disturbing, in fact they are quite silly if nothing else, its the scenes where we see Beatrix suffer so much herself. A couple of scenes in particular are firstly the one where she wakes up from her coma, she looks down at her stomach at a wound where presumably her aborted child was taken from, and she screams and sobs uncontrollably. Its a great moment in Uma's performance, and for that brief moment she has to deal with her grief all at once, before she is interrupted, by the scumbag hospital worker, who has used her inert body for sex. Which I have to say is one of the film's more disturbing aspects is the misogyny that it occassionally displays particularly in this scene, it reminds me of the scene from Pulp Fiction where Marcellus Wallace is being raped in a basement by hillbillies. Its almost like Quentin is going for the shock effect once again, just by making you think of the unthinkable. Another harrowing moment is when the bride, after she has been put in a coffin by Budd, we see her reaction from the inside as her coffin is trundled into the grave, and we hear the heavy sound of the dirt crash against the outer side of the coffin itself, with Beatrix panicking and crying each time she hears the dirt being shovelled on top. Its probably the film's most potent and distressing sequence, and it definitely captures that sense of intense claustrophobia too. One of Uma's best scenes though is when she enters Bill's house near the end of Volume 2, armed with a gun and she finds Bill, much to her amazement with their daughter, she almost falls to her knees, with shock, its a great moment in her performance.
But that's not to say that Kill Bill doesn't have any fun moments in it, of course it does, its a Tarantino film! The action sequences in particular a spectacular to watch, especially the bloody showdown at O-Ren's House of the dead leaves, with Beatrix/The Bride slicing and dicing her way through her enemies, and her fight with Elle in the second film is a particular highlight also. Another favourite for me is Beatrix's training under the cruel old Kung-fu master, Pai Mei, as he rides her hard in instructing her on the ways of kung-fu. There are some amusing characters along the way and plenty of enjoyable and crude dialogue, one of me favourite lines from the Bride is "As I sat in the back of Buck's truck, trying to will my limbs out of entrophy I could see the faces of cunts that did this to me and the dicks responsible!".
Performance wise there are plenty of good ones, David Carradine is especially good as Bill, the man himself, who has a world weary charm but also shows that he's a killer and a vicious bastard through and through. Michael Madsen puts in a decent performance also as Bill's younger brother Budd, who once a high paid assassin, is now subjected to working in a third rate strip bar as a bouncer. And Daryl Hannah also is very good as the evil and sly Elle Driver, and after seeing Daryl give some pretty so-so performances in films from the 1980s such as Roxanne, and Wall Street, what she does do really well in this film is ham it up, and shows that she is a capable actress. Lucy Liu is also great as the deadly and foxy O-Ren Ishii, and her best scene is where she stampedes down the table in her conference room and beheads one of her impertinent associates (complete with blood fountain spurting!) and calmly tells her people that if you have problem with her, tell her so, before she shouts "so if any of you sonsabitches has anything else to say NOW'S THE FUCKING TIME!!!". Sonny Chiba's cameo appearance is also very entertaining as Hattori Hanzo, once a great swordswith, who vowed never to make another sword again, and now spends his time as a Sushi chef, arguing with his suborindate employee ("lazy bastard, get your ass out here!").
Perhaps though the only poor scene in Kill Bill is the end credits with Robert Rodriguez's fairly annoying Mexican music playing in the background, and how it shows all the character's over the music and his final caption for Beatrix's charcater that says "Beatrix Kiddo, aka Black maba, aka the bride, aka Mommy". Its just a bit cheesy. But its just one scene out of the film, the rest is grand.
However Kill Bill is definitely one of my favourite films and one of the best films in recent times of modern cinema. Tarantino has definitely contributed a great deal to American cinema over the years and here he gave it his masterpiece.
Friday 15 March 2013
Viddy well, little brother, viddy well....
OK time to delve into the classics and go back in time for my next choice of film review, which is A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of the novel by Anthony Burgess, which remains to this day one of the most controversial films in modern cinema. So let's have a look at it....
Right, in an effort to try and keep the plot synopsis DOWN a little bit, I will try and condense the plot summary into three paragraphs (and not four!) so here goes:
So the film is based in the not too distant future in London (although when is not too sure) where the film's main character, Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is the leader of a gang, which he calls his "droogs" sit in a milkbar contemplating what to do with their evening. What ensues is a night of carnage and chaos, where first Alex and his gang beat up an old tramp, then they fight with a rival gang, and to top it off they steal a motor car and drive off to find a house so they can do a break-in. Alex stops the car outside a house, and pretends that he is in need of medical assistance in order to break into a couple's house (Alex and his gang also put on masks to conceal their faces). Once inside Alex beats the man, Alexander (Patrick McGee), who is a writer, and he rapes his wife (Adrienne Corri) while singing out "Singing in the rain". After his night of evil mischief, Alex and his droogs return to the milkbar, where Alex has a dispute with one of his gang, Dim (Warren Clarke), but they put it aside and head home.
The next day Alex is paid a visit by a probation officer, Mr Deltoid (Aubrey Morris) who is aware of Alex's violent nights out and he warns him not to slip up. For the rest of the day Alex plays truant from school and picks up two girls in a record store and takes them back home and has sex with them. Later on Alex meets up with his droogs again, but one of the gang, Georgie (James Marcus) show discontent over Alex's leadership and insists that Alex give them all fairer share of the money when they go out stealing. Alex decides to keep them in order by kicking Georgie into the water while they walk along the flatblock marina, as well as cutting Dim's hand to prove a point that he is the leader. Georgie then tells Alex of his idea to rob a health farm mansion, which is full of money, and later on they go there. Alex at first is unsuccessful in his attempt to get in, as the cat-woman (Miriam Karlin) refuses to let him in, but he soon climbs up through a window. The cat-woman is furious as she charges at him with a small statue of Beethoven, Alex picks up a large piece of phallic sculpture and he bludgeons her with it. On leaving the mansion, Georgie, Dim and Pete (the quiet one, played by Michael Tarn) wait outside and Dim smashes him in the face with a milk bottle, as they leave Alex flailing on the ground as the police arrive.
After Alex has been taken to the police station, Mr Deltoid visits him and tells Alex that the cat-woman he hit with the sculpture has died. Alex is soon sentenced to prison to serve a 14 year sentence. Two years into his sentence, Alex learns of a new treatment that the Government is set to introduce, called the Ludivico technique, which is an aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals. On a visit from the Minister of the Interior (Anthony Sharp) Alex seizes the chance to volunteer, and he soon undergoes the treatment. For his treatment, Alex is put in a straight jacket and forced to watch violent films, while he has special eye equipment clamped to his eyelids to keep them open. Alex soon starts to feel the effects of treatment as he feels sick when he watches the violence on screen. Two weeks later, Alex is put on display at a presentation held by the Minister, where they display that Alex is incapable of violence, as he is taunted by a stage actor, and tempted by a topless woman (Virginia Wetherell, great naps!) he feels sick when he feels the temptation of anger and desire. After this, Alex is released back into society this is when his problems really begin as he struggles with his condition and meets some old enemies....
(OK plot summary done, that was not too bad)
A Clockwork Orange to this day remains one of my favourite films, and there is no doubt that it is an uncomfortable film to watch, especially as the main character, Alex is so ruthlessly amoral for the first hour or so. Alex is very much like a gleefully violent urchin, who runs through the night, beating, raping and robbing people just as he sees fit. And it is one of the film and the book's most successful themes that despite his shocking behaviour as the film progress you come to like Alex and even pity him, especially as he is sent out back into society after having undergone the treatment. And Alex in the book makes that journey from a violent sociopath into a young man who by the end of the book realises it is time that he leave behind his violent life and try to grow up. However in Stanley Kubrick's film the last chapter of the book wasn't covered, as the American edition (which he had read) ommitted the final chapter.
The film also keeps close to the ideals of religion and it is one of the funnier aspects of the film where we see Alex in his bedroom near the start of the film where he plays Beethoven's 9th symphony on his record, and we see he has a statue of four naked Jesus's all holding hands. Kubrick also makes an amusing scene out of this as he shows different shots of the statues while Beethoven's 2nd movement plays along with it. However Alex later on in prison reads the bible and also fantasises of being involved in the fights back in the days of the Roman empire, while also having his every sexual whim being met by semi naked hand maidens (and there is plenty of nudity in the film that's for sure!). But the film's most important theme is of course choice, and how Alex is left with little choice once he has undergone the treatment, the acts of violence he has committed and seeing violence makes him feel sick and it ultimately pushes Alex nearly over the edge.
But getting onto the performances, overall they are excellent, and the best performance by far is of course from Malcolm McDowell as Alex. McDowell's Alex is a wide-eyed, carefree mischievous bastard, who tooks pleasure in beating people up and having random sex with women, even if its rape. But as the film progresses McDowell does succeed in making Alex more sympathetic, once he becomes a victim of the Government and a target for his old gang members. McDowell has many great highlights in the film, but one of the one's that stand out is of course his scene where he sings "Singin in the rain" while he beats up Alexander in his house and sexually assaults his wife. The scene itself is both really creative and very unsettling to watch, especially as he taunts Alexander by dropping his trousers and pants and kneeling into Alexander saying "viddy well, little brother, viddy well!".
McDowell's experience of making the film was far from easy of course, as he had to endure a number of ordeals, the main one being the scene where Alex undergoes the treatment, and the eye equipment used in the film left McDowell in great pain as both of his corneas were scratched. McDowell also had several members of the cast and crew spit on him in the scene where Deltoid spits in his face, and perhaps most dangerously of all in the scene where Alex is held under water and beaten by Georgie and Dim, McDowell was held down for over a minute, where he nearly suffocated. Regardless of that though for McDowell the film remains a real highlight of his career.
The film's use of Burgess's made-up dialogue, Nadsat spoken by Alex and his droogs, provides plenty of great lines of dialogue for Alex, such as when he breaks into the cat-woman's mansion and he says "Hi hi hi there. At last we meet, our brief govoreet through the letter hole was shall we say less satisfactory??? Yes?". This scene also features an improvised piece of dialogue from McDowell, when the cat-woman asks what the hell is doing there and he says "well, madam, I'm a student taking part in an international contest, to see who can get the most points for selling magazines!". McDowell also has plenty other great lines such as when he drives the stolen car at the beginning "the Durango 95 purred away real horrorshow, with a nice warm vibraty feeling all through your gutti-wuts". Another great line is when Alex confronts the rival gang leader at the start of the film, "well if it isn't fat Billy Goat, Billy Boy in poison! How are thou? Come and get one in the yarbels! If you have any yarbels, you great eunich jelly thou!". And also when he and his droogs return to the milkbar after their night of carnage at the beginning, Alex says "we were all feeling a bit shagged, fagged and fashed, it having been a night of no small energy expenditure, oh my brothers!".
Of the supporting cast, Warren Clarke is also excellent as the aptly named, Dim, who is basicaly an overweight giggling imbecile, who delights in dishing out the old "ultraviolence". Clarke also get's some great lines of Nadsat, especially when he argues with Alex near the beginning, after he blows a big raspberry in the milk bar, when one of the women sings a line of Ode to joy in German (from Beethoven's 9th symphony). Dim says to Alex "yarbels! Great big bolshie yarblockos to you! I'll meet with chain or nozh or britva anytime!". And later on in the film, Dim as a policeman drags Alex out to the woods with fellow ex-droog turned copper, Georgie, and beats him, and says "this is to make sure you stay cured!".
Anthony Sharp as the Minister also puts in a really good performance, playing the Minister as a pompous man with a large ego, who is determined to make the Ludivico technique a success in the public eye. Aubrey Morris also delivers a funny performance as Mr Deltoid, Alex's over zealous probation officer. Morris also delivers some great dialogue, especially in the scene where he warns Alex, "there was a bit of a nastiness last night yes???? Some very extreme nastiness yes????" and "I warn you little, Alex, being a good friend to you as always, the one man in this sick and sore community that wants to save you from yourself!". Also amusingly in that scene Morris is scene drinking a glass of milk which he fails to notice has some dentures in them until its too late! Michael Bates is also hilarious as the chief prison guard Barnes, who is like something out of Dad's army, as he is quite comical in some scenes. My favourite scene with him is where the inmates attend a church service, and they are about to sign a hymn and Barnes shouts "and lets all have a little reverance you bastards!".
And finally on the cast front I can't leave without mentioning Patrick MaGee who is great as Alexander, the tormented writer, who Alex leaves physically disabled and in a wheelchair after his attack. MaGee is particularly good when he starts to become really unhinged in the film, especially when he hears Alex later on, when he takes him into his house out of pity after he has been released into society, who lies in his bath singing "Singin in the rain", he starts to lose it big time. MaGee's best scene is of course when Alex sits in his dining room and eats spaghetti, Alexander realises who he is, and tries to contain his growing rage, and he yells "food all right?????!!!", and then "try the wine!!".
And I cannot finish up without mentioning Stanely Kubrick who with A Clockwork Orange made one of his very best and most inventive films. Kubrick employs his usual trademark camera work, with slow pans and symmetrically lined-up shots, great use of slow motion (particularly in the scene where Alex quells his gang's uprising by booting George and Dim into the water) as well as some great frantic camerawork in the scene where Alex is chased by the cat-woman round the room. Kubrick also provides an amazing opening shot in the film, where the camera starts on a close-up of Alex's face and slowly pans away to reveal his gang and the setting in the milkbar. And one of the film's highlights is the fight scene at the start when Alex and his gang take on Billy Boy's gang, and again it features some terrific camerawork. And quickly a special mention deserves to go out to John Alcott, the director of photography for the film, who does a brilliant job, particularly in that great shot where Alex and droogs emerge from the shadows in the abandoned cinema to face Billy Boy's gang.
And throughout Kubrick brilliantly captures the tone of Burgess's book set in a bleak dystopian future, although Burgess praised the film he was also uncomfortable about the level of violence in the film as well. Burgess was also concerned about how the film ommitted the final chapter of the book, as in Kubrick's film, Alex ends up right back where he's started, as a violent young lout, free to wreak havoc again, as the films ends up with Alex's cynical line "I was cured alright!". Regardless of that though I think the film ended on the perfect note, and while it was important to show that Alex's story did have an arc as it did in the book, Kubrick was right in a way to stop the film there before it was reached. Although it is debatable as to whether Kubrick was aware of the British version having that additonal chapter. Regardless of all that once again, the film remains one of Kubrick's very best.
Its also worthy of note that when the film was originally released back in 1971, there was a huge controversy over the level of violence in the film (although by today's standard its pretty tame). And the film apparently inspired copycat acts of violence from youngsters in Britain, which lead to Kubrick receiving death threats and protestors outside his home. Kubrick in 1973 requested Warner Brothers to withdraw the film from public viewing in the UK (although the film was still readily available in the US and Europe and later on pirate video) and it remained inobtainable to watch in the UK for a further 27 years, before it was re-released in the cinemas and released on the DVD market in 2000, a year after Kubrick died.
And finally I thought I would also mention the film's unique electronic score by Walter Carlos (who later had a sex change operation and renamed as Wendy Carlos) which is really good, as well as spooky, strange, and unsettling.
So that's it for another very lengthy review of a classic film, as A Clockwork Orange remains a great film, and one of Stanley Kubrick's finest works. And (as I usually say) if you haven't seen this film, you should definitely give it a watch.
And with that I shall viddy you all later!
Right, in an effort to try and keep the plot synopsis DOWN a little bit, I will try and condense the plot summary into three paragraphs (and not four!) so here goes:
So the film is based in the not too distant future in London (although when is not too sure) where the film's main character, Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is the leader of a gang, which he calls his "droogs" sit in a milkbar contemplating what to do with their evening. What ensues is a night of carnage and chaos, where first Alex and his gang beat up an old tramp, then they fight with a rival gang, and to top it off they steal a motor car and drive off to find a house so they can do a break-in. Alex stops the car outside a house, and pretends that he is in need of medical assistance in order to break into a couple's house (Alex and his gang also put on masks to conceal their faces). Once inside Alex beats the man, Alexander (Patrick McGee), who is a writer, and he rapes his wife (Adrienne Corri) while singing out "Singing in the rain". After his night of evil mischief, Alex and his droogs return to the milkbar, where Alex has a dispute with one of his gang, Dim (Warren Clarke), but they put it aside and head home.
The next day Alex is paid a visit by a probation officer, Mr Deltoid (Aubrey Morris) who is aware of Alex's violent nights out and he warns him not to slip up. For the rest of the day Alex plays truant from school and picks up two girls in a record store and takes them back home and has sex with them. Later on Alex meets up with his droogs again, but one of the gang, Georgie (James Marcus) show discontent over Alex's leadership and insists that Alex give them all fairer share of the money when they go out stealing. Alex decides to keep them in order by kicking Georgie into the water while they walk along the flatblock marina, as well as cutting Dim's hand to prove a point that he is the leader. Georgie then tells Alex of his idea to rob a health farm mansion, which is full of money, and later on they go there. Alex at first is unsuccessful in his attempt to get in, as the cat-woman (Miriam Karlin) refuses to let him in, but he soon climbs up through a window. The cat-woman is furious as she charges at him with a small statue of Beethoven, Alex picks up a large piece of phallic sculpture and he bludgeons her with it. On leaving the mansion, Georgie, Dim and Pete (the quiet one, played by Michael Tarn) wait outside and Dim smashes him in the face with a milk bottle, as they leave Alex flailing on the ground as the police arrive.
After Alex has been taken to the police station, Mr Deltoid visits him and tells Alex that the cat-woman he hit with the sculpture has died. Alex is soon sentenced to prison to serve a 14 year sentence. Two years into his sentence, Alex learns of a new treatment that the Government is set to introduce, called the Ludivico technique, which is an aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals. On a visit from the Minister of the Interior (Anthony Sharp) Alex seizes the chance to volunteer, and he soon undergoes the treatment. For his treatment, Alex is put in a straight jacket and forced to watch violent films, while he has special eye equipment clamped to his eyelids to keep them open. Alex soon starts to feel the effects of treatment as he feels sick when he watches the violence on screen. Two weeks later, Alex is put on display at a presentation held by the Minister, where they display that Alex is incapable of violence, as he is taunted by a stage actor, and tempted by a topless woman (Virginia Wetherell, great naps!) he feels sick when he feels the temptation of anger and desire. After this, Alex is released back into society this is when his problems really begin as he struggles with his condition and meets some old enemies....
(OK plot summary done, that was not too bad)
A Clockwork Orange to this day remains one of my favourite films, and there is no doubt that it is an uncomfortable film to watch, especially as the main character, Alex is so ruthlessly amoral for the first hour or so. Alex is very much like a gleefully violent urchin, who runs through the night, beating, raping and robbing people just as he sees fit. And it is one of the film and the book's most successful themes that despite his shocking behaviour as the film progress you come to like Alex and even pity him, especially as he is sent out back into society after having undergone the treatment. And Alex in the book makes that journey from a violent sociopath into a young man who by the end of the book realises it is time that he leave behind his violent life and try to grow up. However in Stanley Kubrick's film the last chapter of the book wasn't covered, as the American edition (which he had read) ommitted the final chapter.
The film also keeps close to the ideals of religion and it is one of the funnier aspects of the film where we see Alex in his bedroom near the start of the film where he plays Beethoven's 9th symphony on his record, and we see he has a statue of four naked Jesus's all holding hands. Kubrick also makes an amusing scene out of this as he shows different shots of the statues while Beethoven's 2nd movement plays along with it. However Alex later on in prison reads the bible and also fantasises of being involved in the fights back in the days of the Roman empire, while also having his every sexual whim being met by semi naked hand maidens (and there is plenty of nudity in the film that's for sure!). But the film's most important theme is of course choice, and how Alex is left with little choice once he has undergone the treatment, the acts of violence he has committed and seeing violence makes him feel sick and it ultimately pushes Alex nearly over the edge.
But getting onto the performances, overall they are excellent, and the best performance by far is of course from Malcolm McDowell as Alex. McDowell's Alex is a wide-eyed, carefree mischievous bastard, who tooks pleasure in beating people up and having random sex with women, even if its rape. But as the film progresses McDowell does succeed in making Alex more sympathetic, once he becomes a victim of the Government and a target for his old gang members. McDowell has many great highlights in the film, but one of the one's that stand out is of course his scene where he sings "Singin in the rain" while he beats up Alexander in his house and sexually assaults his wife. The scene itself is both really creative and very unsettling to watch, especially as he taunts Alexander by dropping his trousers and pants and kneeling into Alexander saying "viddy well, little brother, viddy well!".
McDowell's experience of making the film was far from easy of course, as he had to endure a number of ordeals, the main one being the scene where Alex undergoes the treatment, and the eye equipment used in the film left McDowell in great pain as both of his corneas were scratched. McDowell also had several members of the cast and crew spit on him in the scene where Deltoid spits in his face, and perhaps most dangerously of all in the scene where Alex is held under water and beaten by Georgie and Dim, McDowell was held down for over a minute, where he nearly suffocated. Regardless of that though for McDowell the film remains a real highlight of his career.
The film's use of Burgess's made-up dialogue, Nadsat spoken by Alex and his droogs, provides plenty of great lines of dialogue for Alex, such as when he breaks into the cat-woman's mansion and he says "Hi hi hi there. At last we meet, our brief govoreet through the letter hole was shall we say less satisfactory??? Yes?". This scene also features an improvised piece of dialogue from McDowell, when the cat-woman asks what the hell is doing there and he says "well, madam, I'm a student taking part in an international contest, to see who can get the most points for selling magazines!". McDowell also has plenty other great lines such as when he drives the stolen car at the beginning "the Durango 95 purred away real horrorshow, with a nice warm vibraty feeling all through your gutti-wuts". Another great line is when Alex confronts the rival gang leader at the start of the film, "well if it isn't fat Billy Goat, Billy Boy in poison! How are thou? Come and get one in the yarbels! If you have any yarbels, you great eunich jelly thou!". And also when he and his droogs return to the milkbar after their night of carnage at the beginning, Alex says "we were all feeling a bit shagged, fagged and fashed, it having been a night of no small energy expenditure, oh my brothers!".
Of the supporting cast, Warren Clarke is also excellent as the aptly named, Dim, who is basicaly an overweight giggling imbecile, who delights in dishing out the old "ultraviolence". Clarke also get's some great lines of Nadsat, especially when he argues with Alex near the beginning, after he blows a big raspberry in the milk bar, when one of the women sings a line of Ode to joy in German (from Beethoven's 9th symphony). Dim says to Alex "yarbels! Great big bolshie yarblockos to you! I'll meet with chain or nozh or britva anytime!". And later on in the film, Dim as a policeman drags Alex out to the woods with fellow ex-droog turned copper, Georgie, and beats him, and says "this is to make sure you stay cured!".
Anthony Sharp as the Minister also puts in a really good performance, playing the Minister as a pompous man with a large ego, who is determined to make the Ludivico technique a success in the public eye. Aubrey Morris also delivers a funny performance as Mr Deltoid, Alex's over zealous probation officer. Morris also delivers some great dialogue, especially in the scene where he warns Alex, "there was a bit of a nastiness last night yes???? Some very extreme nastiness yes????" and "I warn you little, Alex, being a good friend to you as always, the one man in this sick and sore community that wants to save you from yourself!". Also amusingly in that scene Morris is scene drinking a glass of milk which he fails to notice has some dentures in them until its too late! Michael Bates is also hilarious as the chief prison guard Barnes, who is like something out of Dad's army, as he is quite comical in some scenes. My favourite scene with him is where the inmates attend a church service, and they are about to sign a hymn and Barnes shouts "and lets all have a little reverance you bastards!".
And finally on the cast front I can't leave without mentioning Patrick MaGee who is great as Alexander, the tormented writer, who Alex leaves physically disabled and in a wheelchair after his attack. MaGee is particularly good when he starts to become really unhinged in the film, especially when he hears Alex later on, when he takes him into his house out of pity after he has been released into society, who lies in his bath singing "Singin in the rain", he starts to lose it big time. MaGee's best scene is of course when Alex sits in his dining room and eats spaghetti, Alexander realises who he is, and tries to contain his growing rage, and he yells "food all right?????!!!", and then "try the wine!!".
And I cannot finish up without mentioning Stanely Kubrick who with A Clockwork Orange made one of his very best and most inventive films. Kubrick employs his usual trademark camera work, with slow pans and symmetrically lined-up shots, great use of slow motion (particularly in the scene where Alex quells his gang's uprising by booting George and Dim into the water) as well as some great frantic camerawork in the scene where Alex is chased by the cat-woman round the room. Kubrick also provides an amazing opening shot in the film, where the camera starts on a close-up of Alex's face and slowly pans away to reveal his gang and the setting in the milkbar. And one of the film's highlights is the fight scene at the start when Alex and his gang take on Billy Boy's gang, and again it features some terrific camerawork. And quickly a special mention deserves to go out to John Alcott, the director of photography for the film, who does a brilliant job, particularly in that great shot where Alex and droogs emerge from the shadows in the abandoned cinema to face Billy Boy's gang.
And throughout Kubrick brilliantly captures the tone of Burgess's book set in a bleak dystopian future, although Burgess praised the film he was also uncomfortable about the level of violence in the film as well. Burgess was also concerned about how the film ommitted the final chapter of the book, as in Kubrick's film, Alex ends up right back where he's started, as a violent young lout, free to wreak havoc again, as the films ends up with Alex's cynical line "I was cured alright!". Regardless of that though I think the film ended on the perfect note, and while it was important to show that Alex's story did have an arc as it did in the book, Kubrick was right in a way to stop the film there before it was reached. Although it is debatable as to whether Kubrick was aware of the British version having that additonal chapter. Regardless of all that once again, the film remains one of Kubrick's very best.
Its also worthy of note that when the film was originally released back in 1971, there was a huge controversy over the level of violence in the film (although by today's standard its pretty tame). And the film apparently inspired copycat acts of violence from youngsters in Britain, which lead to Kubrick receiving death threats and protestors outside his home. Kubrick in 1973 requested Warner Brothers to withdraw the film from public viewing in the UK (although the film was still readily available in the US and Europe and later on pirate video) and it remained inobtainable to watch in the UK for a further 27 years, before it was re-released in the cinemas and released on the DVD market in 2000, a year after Kubrick died.
And finally I thought I would also mention the film's unique electronic score by Walter Carlos (who later had a sex change operation and renamed as Wendy Carlos) which is really good, as well as spooky, strange, and unsettling.
So that's it for another very lengthy review of a classic film, as A Clockwork Orange remains a great film, and one of Stanley Kubrick's finest works. And (as I usually say) if you haven't seen this film, you should definitely give it a watch.
And with that I shall viddy you all later!
Wednesday 13 March 2013
Increase the peace
Right back to the film reviews, as I haven't posted up a review on this blog for a wee while, so I thought I would do one on John Singleton's debut film, the critically acclaimed Boyz n the hood, which focuses on the lives of three young men in South Central Los Angeles. So let's have a look...
So starting with the plottery, the film starts in 1984 in South Central LA, where the main character Tre Styles (as a child played by Desi Arnez Hines II) a 10 year old boy get's into a fight in school, and he is sent home by his teacher. The teacher calls Tre's mother, Reva (Angela Bassett) who tells her that he is an intelligent boy, but lacks respect towards his classmates and has a bad temper. Reva tells the teacher that she plans on taking Tre to live with his father, Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne) to learn lessons on life and responsibility. The day Tre arrives at Furious's house, a burglar breaks in at night, but Furious scares him off by firing his gun.
The next day Tre meets up with his neighbourhood friends, Darrin "Doughboy" Baker and his half brother, Ricky. The three of them go with their friend, Little Chris for a walk, where they soon find a dead body in the grass. On finding the body a nearby gang approaches them, and one young aggressive gang member asks for Ricky's baseball (which was given to him by his father (now divorced from his mother) who reluctantly gives him the ball. Angry at his brother's gullable and naive nature, Doughboy demands the gang member give Ricky's ball back, but the young gangbanger punches and kicks him to the ground. Eventually one of the other gang members gives the ball back to Ricky, when he sees his sadness when the ball taken away. After returning home from a fishing trip with Furious, Tre sees Doughboy and Little Chris being lead away by police officers, as they were arrested for stealing from a local store.
The film then moves on to seven years later in 1991, where now a "welcome home" party is being held for Doughboy (Ice Cube, as an adult) by the Baker family. By this time, Doughboy has just being released from prison, and has lost alot of weight from when we see him as a child, and he plays dominos with his friends, Chris (Redge Green), now in a wheelchair, and Dookie (Dedrick D. Gorbet) and Monster. Ricky now 17 years old, plays baseball for his high school and does really well in his team, and he also has a girlfriend Shanice (Alysia Rodgers) as well as young baby son. Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr) also 17 years old at this time, has a girlfriend, Brandi (Tyra Ferrell) whom he has a rather tense relationship with. After the party, Tre takes home some food from the party for Tre, and on the way he is nearly accosted by a gang of Bloods, who point a shotgun at him, but they laugh at him as he stands his ground and drive off. After this life carries on in the neighbourhood.
One night Ricky is paid a visit by a man from USC (University of Southern California) as he hopes to gain a scholarship to get into the University, but he must take an SAT test and score 700 or over in order to be eligible. On the day of the SAT test, Tre and Ricky pay a visit to Furious at his work, where he takes them on a drive out to Compton and gives them a talk on "gentrification" and how outside companies want to bring the property value of the area down, and in the hope of the poor residents will be forced to leave their property, where after the property value will go up and companies can make a profit. Tre also talks of why there is a liquor store and a gunstore on every corner in their communities, and its because they want us to kill ourselves, and of the young locals that gather around Furious asks them "to think about their future".
After this Tre and Ricky catch up with Doughboy and the others at a street race gathering on Crenshaw, where Ricky is provoked by the Blood gang leader, Ferris (Raymond Turner). Doughboy steps in and defends Ricky, showing him his gun, the Blood gang back down, but soon Ferris scares them off by firing his uzi, as people flee. Tre and Ricky are soon pulled over by two police officers and one of them, is the cop earlier in the film, who pulls a gun on Tre to scare him, but let's him go. Tre goes back to Brandi's house and breaks down in tears, frustrated at his situation, but Brandi comforts him and they have sex for the first time. The next day however things take place in the hood for Tre, Doughboy, Furious and Ricky that will have a drastic change on their lives.....
(PLOT STUFF OVER!)
Boyz n the hood was similar in tone to Spike Lee's Do the right thing, although that was more about racial tension between ethnic races in New York City, this film was far more an examination on how peoples lives were affected by the crime and gang life in South Central LA. And John Singleton perfectly captures that dramatic tone of what life must have been like in LA at that time in those neighbourhoods where danger lurked anywhere nearby, and any person could end up being shot by a gang member for no reason or even as simple a one as a single insult. Clearly also this was a very personal film for Singleton and growing up in those neighbourhood's his emotions and feelings are made quite clear, particularly in the scene where you see Tre break down in tears in sheer anger and frustration at all the crime, the gangs and shit in the neighbourhood, and how he was so desparate to escape it all.
Performance wise the film is universally strong (to coin a phrase) with Cuba Gooding Jr giving an excellent performance as Tre Styles, who through his father, becomes a responsible and good natured young guy, despite his somewhat petty games he plays with his girlfriend Brandi. Ice Cube is also great as Doughboy, and he get's pretty much all the best lines in the film where he spouts out his own crude and profane philosophies on life, especially in the scene where he says to his friends "if God was a bitch, there would be no bombs, no guns, no war, because these things aren't in a bitch's nature!". I also love the line where he says to Tre about how he can't believe how young Ricky has become a father "this motherfucker has got babies, in-house pussy, and all that!". And also the line at his homecoming party where all the guys butt in ahead of the girls when the food is served and he says "lady the ladies eat first, hos gotta eat too!". But Ice Cube not only get's to deliver some sassy crass lines, he also does deliver a great dramatic performance as well, particularly in the scene where he kills Ferris, gaining revenge for Ricky's death, you would expect him to be suddenly very righteous but instead his expressions changes from rage to a look of loss, in that moment realising while he had to kill him, its changed his whole life but not made anything better. And Ice Cube reflects this as Doughboy in the line where he says to Tre "I don't know how I feel about it either, man. This shit just keeps goin on and on".
Laurence Fishburne is terrific as Furious as well, and he pretty much steals the film in the scenes he features in. His scene where he confronts Tre about trying to get revenge for Ricky's death by taking his gun is a real highlight, where he convinces Tre to give him the gun, who breaks down crying and he hugs him saying "you're my only son and I'm not going to lose you to any bullshit, you hear?". Fishburne plays Furious as a responsible and honoruable man, and he is also probably about the only decent true father in his neighbourhood, and he does his part to turn Tre into a man. Fishburne other main highlight scene is when he takes Tre and Ricky to Comptom and talks to them about gentrification on how they need to think about their future. He also has a great moment in the film where he gives a look of contempt to the black police officer who taunted him for not killing the burglar, and the police man says "something wrong???", and Furious replies "something wrong??? Yeah! Its just too bad you don't know what it is..... brother!".
Of the supporting cast Morris Chesnut also gives a fine performance as the young, naive and trusting Ricky, who is a promising young baseball high school star on the rise, with a bright future ahead of him, only to have it all taken away from him in the blink of an eye. Angela Bassett also gives an excellent performance as Reva, Tre's mother, and she has a funny scene with him Tre when she calls him up, and Tre is on the lines to his girlfriend Brandi, but he thinks he is still talking to Brandi and says "so you gonna let me give you the skins or what???" and Reva says sharply "Tre, this is your mother!". Bassett's scene with Fishburne is also very good and its clear they had a really good on screen chemistry, which pretty much influenced their casting in the Tina Turner biopic, What's love got to do with it? Tyra Ferrell is also good as Tre's girlfriend, Brandi, and she get's to share a great moment with Tre in the scene where he breaks down in tears, and he says "I never thought I would be crying in front of a female" and she says quitely "you can cry infront of me" which for me ranks as one of modern cinema's most quietly sexy and intimate moments (no really!).
Regina King, who went on to do quite well for herself in movies after this (notably in Jerry Maguire, Enemy of the States to name a couple) makes a notable impression here as well, and she provides some funny moments, as Shalika, Doughboy's girlfriend. King has a funny scene with Ice Cube when he says to her "Hos gotta eat too" and she says "wait a minute, nigga, I ain't no ho" and he says "oh, I'm sorry bitch!". And finally Dedrick D Gobert as Dookie, despite the fact he wasn't an actor, also gives an amusing performance, one of Doughboy's doped up gang members. Gobert in real life was later killed in 1994 as a result of an argument during a drag race where he defended his girlfriend and he was shot dead. Gobert also provides some of the film's amusing moments especially during the homecoming party scene where he is duped into thinking that he can get AIDS from having oral sex, and he says "can you really catch that shit from letting them suck on your dick???" and Doughboy replies "mark!" (meaning he is basically a sucker, or an easy target for wind ups).
Flaw wise the film doesn't really have many, the only things that kind of niggled me a little bit were some of the cheesy early 90s pop songs and synth tracks they use in the background in some shots, particularly when Ricky puts on the video of his baseball game. But for me the biggest niggle or flaw, if you want to call it that is in Furious's age, as he says he went to fight in the Vietnam war, however if you look at how old he is in the film, in 1984 he is 27, and of course he's 34 in 1991. Now given his age from that, he would have been born in 1957, and the Vietnam war ended in 1975, which would have meant he would have probably been or was about to turn 18 when it ended. But apparently the age a person could join the military at to go to Vietnam at that point was generally 18 years of age. So for me I think that Furious wouldn't have been old enough to have been in the Vietnam war, and that Singleton might have gotten the timeline wrong for Furious's age. But then again what do I know???? But its just a thought I've always had about the film.
Singleton direction wise does a superb job here and he keeps the pace of the film moving at a nice pace, and he also more importantly provides some really powerful dramatic moments in the film. He also even makes a small cameo appearance in the film toward the end, as the postman who delivers Ricky's SAT score results. And last but not least I thought I would mention the film's excellent score by Stanley Clarke, which provides a great deal of atmosphere to the setting of the film.
So that's it for my very exhaustive review of Boyz n the hood, which to this day remains as relevant as ever, and a very powerful, dramatic and moving film, which if you haven't already seen then you should definitely give it a go.
And so I will leave it there!
So starting with the plottery, the film starts in 1984 in South Central LA, where the main character Tre Styles (as a child played by Desi Arnez Hines II) a 10 year old boy get's into a fight in school, and he is sent home by his teacher. The teacher calls Tre's mother, Reva (Angela Bassett) who tells her that he is an intelligent boy, but lacks respect towards his classmates and has a bad temper. Reva tells the teacher that she plans on taking Tre to live with his father, Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne) to learn lessons on life and responsibility. The day Tre arrives at Furious's house, a burglar breaks in at night, but Furious scares him off by firing his gun.
The next day Tre meets up with his neighbourhood friends, Darrin "Doughboy" Baker and his half brother, Ricky. The three of them go with their friend, Little Chris for a walk, where they soon find a dead body in the grass. On finding the body a nearby gang approaches them, and one young aggressive gang member asks for Ricky's baseball (which was given to him by his father (now divorced from his mother) who reluctantly gives him the ball. Angry at his brother's gullable and naive nature, Doughboy demands the gang member give Ricky's ball back, but the young gangbanger punches and kicks him to the ground. Eventually one of the other gang members gives the ball back to Ricky, when he sees his sadness when the ball taken away. After returning home from a fishing trip with Furious, Tre sees Doughboy and Little Chris being lead away by police officers, as they were arrested for stealing from a local store.
The film then moves on to seven years later in 1991, where now a "welcome home" party is being held for Doughboy (Ice Cube, as an adult) by the Baker family. By this time, Doughboy has just being released from prison, and has lost alot of weight from when we see him as a child, and he plays dominos with his friends, Chris (Redge Green), now in a wheelchair, and Dookie (Dedrick D. Gorbet) and Monster. Ricky now 17 years old, plays baseball for his high school and does really well in his team, and he also has a girlfriend Shanice (Alysia Rodgers) as well as young baby son. Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr) also 17 years old at this time, has a girlfriend, Brandi (Tyra Ferrell) whom he has a rather tense relationship with. After the party, Tre takes home some food from the party for Tre, and on the way he is nearly accosted by a gang of Bloods, who point a shotgun at him, but they laugh at him as he stands his ground and drive off. After this life carries on in the neighbourhood.
One night Ricky is paid a visit by a man from USC (University of Southern California) as he hopes to gain a scholarship to get into the University, but he must take an SAT test and score 700 or over in order to be eligible. On the day of the SAT test, Tre and Ricky pay a visit to Furious at his work, where he takes them on a drive out to Compton and gives them a talk on "gentrification" and how outside companies want to bring the property value of the area down, and in the hope of the poor residents will be forced to leave their property, where after the property value will go up and companies can make a profit. Tre also talks of why there is a liquor store and a gunstore on every corner in their communities, and its because they want us to kill ourselves, and of the young locals that gather around Furious asks them "to think about their future".
After this Tre and Ricky catch up with Doughboy and the others at a street race gathering on Crenshaw, where Ricky is provoked by the Blood gang leader, Ferris (Raymond Turner). Doughboy steps in and defends Ricky, showing him his gun, the Blood gang back down, but soon Ferris scares them off by firing his uzi, as people flee. Tre and Ricky are soon pulled over by two police officers and one of them, is the cop earlier in the film, who pulls a gun on Tre to scare him, but let's him go. Tre goes back to Brandi's house and breaks down in tears, frustrated at his situation, but Brandi comforts him and they have sex for the first time. The next day however things take place in the hood for Tre, Doughboy, Furious and Ricky that will have a drastic change on their lives.....
(PLOT STUFF OVER!)
Boyz n the hood was similar in tone to Spike Lee's Do the right thing, although that was more about racial tension between ethnic races in New York City, this film was far more an examination on how peoples lives were affected by the crime and gang life in South Central LA. And John Singleton perfectly captures that dramatic tone of what life must have been like in LA at that time in those neighbourhoods where danger lurked anywhere nearby, and any person could end up being shot by a gang member for no reason or even as simple a one as a single insult. Clearly also this was a very personal film for Singleton and growing up in those neighbourhood's his emotions and feelings are made quite clear, particularly in the scene where you see Tre break down in tears in sheer anger and frustration at all the crime, the gangs and shit in the neighbourhood, and how he was so desparate to escape it all.
Performance wise the film is universally strong (to coin a phrase) with Cuba Gooding Jr giving an excellent performance as Tre Styles, who through his father, becomes a responsible and good natured young guy, despite his somewhat petty games he plays with his girlfriend Brandi. Ice Cube is also great as Doughboy, and he get's pretty much all the best lines in the film where he spouts out his own crude and profane philosophies on life, especially in the scene where he says to his friends "if God was a bitch, there would be no bombs, no guns, no war, because these things aren't in a bitch's nature!". I also love the line where he says to Tre about how he can't believe how young Ricky has become a father "this motherfucker has got babies, in-house pussy, and all that!". And also the line at his homecoming party where all the guys butt in ahead of the girls when the food is served and he says "lady the ladies eat first, hos gotta eat too!". But Ice Cube not only get's to deliver some sassy crass lines, he also does deliver a great dramatic performance as well, particularly in the scene where he kills Ferris, gaining revenge for Ricky's death, you would expect him to be suddenly very righteous but instead his expressions changes from rage to a look of loss, in that moment realising while he had to kill him, its changed his whole life but not made anything better. And Ice Cube reflects this as Doughboy in the line where he says to Tre "I don't know how I feel about it either, man. This shit just keeps goin on and on".
Laurence Fishburne is terrific as Furious as well, and he pretty much steals the film in the scenes he features in. His scene where he confronts Tre about trying to get revenge for Ricky's death by taking his gun is a real highlight, where he convinces Tre to give him the gun, who breaks down crying and he hugs him saying "you're my only son and I'm not going to lose you to any bullshit, you hear?". Fishburne plays Furious as a responsible and honoruable man, and he is also probably about the only decent true father in his neighbourhood, and he does his part to turn Tre into a man. Fishburne other main highlight scene is when he takes Tre and Ricky to Comptom and talks to them about gentrification on how they need to think about their future. He also has a great moment in the film where he gives a look of contempt to the black police officer who taunted him for not killing the burglar, and the police man says "something wrong???", and Furious replies "something wrong??? Yeah! Its just too bad you don't know what it is..... brother!".
Of the supporting cast Morris Chesnut also gives a fine performance as the young, naive and trusting Ricky, who is a promising young baseball high school star on the rise, with a bright future ahead of him, only to have it all taken away from him in the blink of an eye. Angela Bassett also gives an excellent performance as Reva, Tre's mother, and she has a funny scene with him Tre when she calls him up, and Tre is on the lines to his girlfriend Brandi, but he thinks he is still talking to Brandi and says "so you gonna let me give you the skins or what???" and Reva says sharply "Tre, this is your mother!". Bassett's scene with Fishburne is also very good and its clear they had a really good on screen chemistry, which pretty much influenced their casting in the Tina Turner biopic, What's love got to do with it? Tyra Ferrell is also good as Tre's girlfriend, Brandi, and she get's to share a great moment with Tre in the scene where he breaks down in tears, and he says "I never thought I would be crying in front of a female" and she says quitely "you can cry infront of me" which for me ranks as one of modern cinema's most quietly sexy and intimate moments (no really!).
Regina King, who went on to do quite well for herself in movies after this (notably in Jerry Maguire, Enemy of the States to name a couple) makes a notable impression here as well, and she provides some funny moments, as Shalika, Doughboy's girlfriend. King has a funny scene with Ice Cube when he says to her "Hos gotta eat too" and she says "wait a minute, nigga, I ain't no ho" and he says "oh, I'm sorry bitch!". And finally Dedrick D Gobert as Dookie, despite the fact he wasn't an actor, also gives an amusing performance, one of Doughboy's doped up gang members. Gobert in real life was later killed in 1994 as a result of an argument during a drag race where he defended his girlfriend and he was shot dead. Gobert also provides some of the film's amusing moments especially during the homecoming party scene where he is duped into thinking that he can get AIDS from having oral sex, and he says "can you really catch that shit from letting them suck on your dick???" and Doughboy replies "mark!" (meaning he is basically a sucker, or an easy target for wind ups).
Flaw wise the film doesn't really have many, the only things that kind of niggled me a little bit were some of the cheesy early 90s pop songs and synth tracks they use in the background in some shots, particularly when Ricky puts on the video of his baseball game. But for me the biggest niggle or flaw, if you want to call it that is in Furious's age, as he says he went to fight in the Vietnam war, however if you look at how old he is in the film, in 1984 he is 27, and of course he's 34 in 1991. Now given his age from that, he would have been born in 1957, and the Vietnam war ended in 1975, which would have meant he would have probably been or was about to turn 18 when it ended. But apparently the age a person could join the military at to go to Vietnam at that point was generally 18 years of age. So for me I think that Furious wouldn't have been old enough to have been in the Vietnam war, and that Singleton might have gotten the timeline wrong for Furious's age. But then again what do I know???? But its just a thought I've always had about the film.
Singleton direction wise does a superb job here and he keeps the pace of the film moving at a nice pace, and he also more importantly provides some really powerful dramatic moments in the film. He also even makes a small cameo appearance in the film toward the end, as the postman who delivers Ricky's SAT score results. And last but not least I thought I would mention the film's excellent score by Stanley Clarke, which provides a great deal of atmosphere to the setting of the film.
So that's it for my very exhaustive review of Boyz n the hood, which to this day remains as relevant as ever, and a very powerful, dramatic and moving film, which if you haven't already seen then you should definitely give it a go.
And so I will leave it there!
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