Panic Room!

Rrrrrrrrrright guess what?  Time for another review?  If that's your question you guessed right (OK enough of that).  So this one is going to be on David Fincher's thriller film, Panic Room, which was released back in 2002, starring Jodie Foster.  And with that let's do the usual and give the plot a look....

The story is set in New York City, where Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her daughter Sarah (Kirsten Stewart) who have bought an expansive four story house in the upper west side.  The previous occupant of the house was a millionaire reclusive who had a secure room built to prevent intruders from breaking in, which is called a "panic room".  The "panic room" also has several surveillance cameras as well a thick steel door, concrete walls, and a PA communications system and a separate phone line.  During their first night in the house, it is broken into by Junior (Jared Leto) who is the grandson of the previous owner, who is joined by Burnham (Forrest Whittaker) an employee of the residence's security company, and also by Raoul (Dwight Yoakman) a gunman who conceals his face by wearing a ski mask.  Junior soon realises that from the unpacked boxes that the Altmans have moved in and he manages to persuade Burnham to carry on with the job, as they intend to break into the panic room where there are 3 million dollars in bearer bonds locked in the vault.

However on having a sleepless night, Meg enters the panic room to shut the lights off and notices the three men on the surveillance cameras, and she wakes up Sarah and takes her into the panic room just before the men can get there.  With no way into the panic room, Burnham comes up with an idea to get them out by using propane gas which he pumps through the vents.  However Meg looking through the supplies in the room, finds a fire safety blanket as well as a lighter which she uses to ignite the gas, which in turn destroys the propane gas tank Burnham used, which also leaves Junior injured by the fire.  Meg in attempt to call for help finally manages to tap into the main telephone line and calls her ex-husband Stephen Altman (Patrick Bauchau) but Raoul cuts off the connection down in the basement before Meg can finish talking to him.  After this Junior gives up on trying to find a way into the panic and room and decides to leave, but he let's slip that there is actually more money in the vault than he had let on.  As a result of this Raoul shoots Junior dead and he forces Bunrham to help them get into the room, and not long after Stephen arrives, whom Raoul viciously beats up in an effort to force Meg out of the panic room.  And this soon leads into the film's tense and dramatic climax where Meg must try and survive the ordeal and save Sarah and Stephen from the burglars...

Panic room is an almost classic suspense film and it is really well put together by its director David Fincher, and its the old tale of cat and mouse with the criminals breaking and entering into the house, a la a more dramatic and adult version of Home Alone (just a whole lot better really!) or even Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs.  Throughout the film there is a tense atmosphere and Fincher does an excellent job in building on the suspense slowly as the film progresses, starting from the burglars breaking into the house up until Meg's final showdown with them.  And the film also of course builds on the strong vulnerable female character who is put in a dangerous situation where she must protect her daughter.  And with the burglars you get the juxtaposition of the three different characters, the young naive cocky upstart in Junior, the decent but troubled family man in Burnham, and the icy sociopath in Raoul.  And the characters are well catered for in screenwriter David Koepp's screenplay which is well written and at times even witty.

In the film Fincher also uses a couple of recurring themes that he has used in his previous films, such as the reclusive millionaire, who was a "shut-in" which was one of the aspects of the plot in Seven and Fight Club of people who live in seclusion.  Also in Koepp's screenplay he pokes fun at popular culture and how they can be ignorant of references to literature, as in Seven where Brad Pitt says reads the "Marqis De Sade" and says "Sade" as the name of the modern day singer.  And in Panic Room the estate agent doesn't understand Meg's reference to the author Edgar Allan Poe as she says "have you ever read any Poe?" and the estate agent bluffs it by saying "no, but I loved her last album!".   

Which brings me onto the performances which are all great, beginning with Jodie Foster who is great as the strong and vulnerable single mother, a recent divorcee who finds herself in a crisis where she must take charge and find a way to fight against the robbers.  Foster actually arrived on the production, replacing Nicole Kidman who was originally cast in the role but had to pull out due to an injury, but filming had to be delayed further again as Jodie Foster was pregnant at the time and they didn't resume filming until after she gave birth.  Foster has several highlights in the film, where Meg uses the fire blanket to cover herself when she tries to ignite a fire in the vents to stop the robbers from the breaking in.  Also the scene where Meg has to try and talk her way out of letting two patrolling cops enter her house while the crisis in ongoing.  Foster in that scene has some good lines of dialogue where one of the cops asks what she said on the phone to her husband before she was cut off and Meg replies "If you insist on knowing the end of the line, I was going to say there are three things I would do right now for you if you would jump into bed with me!".  And to this the other cop replies "Look you wanna go, or do you want her to tell what three things!".

Forrest Whittaker is also excellent in his role as Burnham, who is a essentially a decent family man with financial troubles of his own and he reluctantly takes on his role in breaking into the panic room, and he later plays a key part in saving Meg and Sarah.  Whittaker also has some good lines in the film especially in his arguments with Junior and Raoul, and in their first scene when Burnham insists that "that I don't want any help from Joe Pesci over there!" as he refers to Raoul and his ski mask.  Also later on when Junior tries to communicate with Meg and Sarah in the panic room by writing on sheets of paper, he fails in his attempts and Burnham sarcastically replies "What? They're not coming down?!".

Jared Leto for the most part steals the film as the not so bright and hotheaded Junior, who is the "mastermind" behind the panic room robbery, but in his plan he failed to take into account that the Altmans would move in early!  Leto has plenty of fine moments in the film and funny lines of dialogue, especially in a scene where the three men argue loudly outside the panic room and Junior shouts "shut the fuck up there are people trying to sleep over there!".  Also in the scene where Burnham gets some tools from the garden shed and he walks past Junior asking him if he is just going to stand there, and Junior says "Why? What have you got, MacGuyver!".  I also like his insistance in trying to communicate with Meg and Sarah over a one-way PA comms system, where he speaks to her but they can't hear him, and Burnham "its a PA system, not an intercom" and Junior replies "I know.  I'm just scaring her!" as if that makes any difference!

Dwight Yoakam is also quite creepy in his role as the wiry, soft spoken sociopath Raoul, who provides the film with a surprise twist when he suddenly turns around kills Junior with his gun.  Yoakam also get's some fine lines, particularly in the scene where he argues with Junior over the money and he says to Junior "don't take that tone with me, jerkwad, or I'll shove it up your ass and snap it off!" and later "say that shit about the money again, baby cakes!".  Also in the scene where he is introduced by Junior to Burnham, Raoul shows his gun to Burnham who looks at him with disgust and says "Who are you?!" and he Raoul calmly replies "I'm Raoul".  Yoakam also has an amusing moment where they first try to run upstairs to get into the panic room, as Meg and Sarah shut the door just time, and Junior goes bananas battering the door, and he smashes the glass mirror on another door, which Raoul looks on and says to Junior "that's seven years bad luck".  

In other performances Kirsten Stewart is really good as Meg's diabetic daughter Sarah, who is quite a feisty character and at the start of the film she rides her scooter all over the house when they are shown it by the estate agents.  Stewart is provided with some funny smart-ass dialogue for the precocious character she plays, especially in the opening scene where she rides on her scooter on the pavement while Meg talks to the estate agent, and Meg asks "Sarah do you have to ride that here?" and Sarah says "Mom, we're in the street!".  Stewart has another great line where she lies in the panic room, with Burnham and Raoul who finally get in at this point and Burnham says "Nice house you guys have got. Mom's rich?" and Sarah weakly replies "Dad's rich.  Mom's just mad!".  And lastly I'll mention Stephen Bauchau who is somewhat underused in the film as Meg's ex-husband, but he does a decent enough job with his role, although he is mainly in it to be used just as a punching bag for Raoul!

Direction wise, David Fincher does a fine job here and he paces the film well as it slowly builds into its dramatic climax.  Fincher also makes great use of CGI to make it look like the camera runs continuously through the house in one fluid action, and this put to great use in the scene when the burglars arrive at the house, and the camera zooms through the door lock as one of them tries to open it and the camera zooms out again.  Fincher also again employed the use of digital colour correction like he did with Fight Club, which gives the film its green tint (also like in The Matrix).  The film also has another fine music score by Howard Shore, who once again provides the soundtrack for Fincher (as he did before for his previous films Seven and The Game) and Shore creates plenty of suspenseful dramatic passages of music, as well as a very ambient and atmospheric title theme.

As for the flaws???  Well yes Panic Room isn't quite perfect.  The main problem is to do with the film's climax in that it becomes pretty over the top in the end and all the credibility starts to fly out the window.  For starters why would Meg bother even trying to use her husband, Stephen, who at this point can barely move, as Raoul had beaten him up so much, to try and hold a gun in waiting for when Raoul and Burnham will come back downstairs.  As no doubt Stephen could be easily disarmed as he can hardly move at that point in the film at all, and Meg even has to use a table lamp to prop his arms up enough to use the gun.  The idea of the cops at the door while it remains one of the film's most amusing scenes its also one of the daftest as well.  This is because the cop's character (played by Paul Schulze) is basically spelling out to the audience while talking to Meg "give us a sign that something is not quite right in there!" in such a not-so-sutble way by saying stupid things like "if there is something you wan't to tell us, but you don't want to say, you could try blinking your eyes.  That might be something you could do safely".  I mean come on!  Talk about patronising the audience or what????!

Anyway all that aside Panic Room still remains a thoroughly entertaining and suspensful thriller film, which is worth a watch if you haven't already seen it.

And so I will leave it there!  

Sheriff of Cop Land

OK its about time for another one of those reviews which finds it way onto this blog, and this one is on the film crime drama film Cop Land, starring Sylvester Stallone in one of his most acclaimed performances.  So let's give it a look and get on with it....

The story is set in the town of Garrison, New Jersey, which is located across the Hudson river from New York city where most of the residents are NYPD officers.  During one night at a party in New York, one of the cops, Murray "Superboy" Babitch (Michael Rapaport) having had a drink or two leaves the party and as he drives of the George Washington Bridge two black teenagers crash their car recklessly into the side of Babitch's.  Babitch tells them to pull over and one of the teenager pulls out what appears to be a weapon (but turns out to be a steering wheel lock) which prompts Babitch to open fire on them, and they are killed as a result.  On arriving at the scene, Babitch's uncle Lt Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel) decides to fake Babitch's death as a suicide, claiming that Babitch jumped off the bridge, in order to avoid a possible racial incident.  One of Donlan's men and corrupt cop Jack Rucker (Robert Patrick) is caught trying to plant a gun inside the dead teenager's car to make it look like a justifiable shooting.

Among the residents of Garrison, the town sherrif Freddy Heflin (Sylvester Stallone) maintains good relations with the other cops.  Freddy however is deaf in one ear as the result of saving his childhood friend Liz (Annabella Sciorra) with whom Freddy is secretly in love with, and Liz is now married to one of the NYPD officers, Joey Randone (Peter Berg) and with his ear he is unable to become an NYPD officer.  As a result of the incident with Babitch, Internal affairs investigator Lt Moe Tildon (Robert De Niro) pays a visit to Freddy and asks him to find out information on Ray and the other cops in the town, but Freddy out of loyalty to them refuses to betray them.  Babitch however in reality is still alive is kept undercover, despite promises for the Patrol Defense Association (PDA for short) setting up a new life for him, its president Vincent Lassaro (Frank Vincent) is concerned that the case will not hold up tio scrutiny unless they find a body in the river and he insists that Babitch needs to be killed, and the case will be suspended.  Babitch however receives a handwritten note from his Aunt and Donlan's wife, Rose (Cathy Moriarty) who overheard Ray conversation with Lassaro, and Babitch survives an attempt on his life by Ray, Rucker and fellow corrupt cop Frank Lagonda (Arthur Nascarella) who flees.

Babitch turns up at Freddy's apartment and asks for his help, but he runs away when he sees Freddy's friend and fellow NYPD officer, Gary "Figgs" Figgis (Ray Liotta).  Freddy realising his mistake travels to IA department in New York and speaks to Tilden, who by this time has had his investigation shut down.  Freddy tries to plead with Tilden to help him re-open the case and try find Babitch but Tilden angrily tells him that he had a chance but he blew it.  On leaving, Freddy steals some of the Garrison files and looks through them to try and do a bit of his own investigating and realises the extent of his fellow police officers corruption.  After this Freddy sets about trying to find Babitch and bring him into IA to expose the town's corruption, but Freddy soon finds its not that easy....

As far as crime dramas goes, Cop Land is very solid and effective one which features a terrific cast and also one of Sylvester Stallone's finest performances as the slow witted but well meaning sheriff Freddy Heflin.  Stallone himself gained quite a fair bit of weight for the role and he plays the part in a nicely understated way, as a man who rarely raises his voice and is almost naive in the faith and trust in which he puts into his fellow cops.  Stallone has several great moments in the film and he also has a touching friendship with the character Liz Randone (Annabella Sciorra) who he is in love with, and in one scene she turns up at his door after she has a row with her abusive husband Joey Randone (Peter Berg).  In the scene Liz asks Freddy why he never got married and he quietly responds "all the best girls were taken" which really does echo a truism in life about missed opportunities.

Harvey Keitel is also great as the corrupt cop Ray Donlan, who is forced to put his nephew into hiding and later he attempts to murder him in order to ensure the case holds water (no pun intended as they try to drown Babtich).  Keitel also get's some good lines of dialogue as he often puts down Freddy's lack of activity and importance in the town, when he turns up at his wife's house and he sees Freddy speak to Rose about garbage bags that have been dumped outside their house and Ray asks what he is doing there and Freddy tells him and Ray sarcastically replies "Ah a felony!".  Later on Keitel has a terrific scene where Freddy confronts Ray and asks him to go into IA together with Babitch to try and work things out, which leaves Ray less than impressed by Freddy's naivety.  And Ray says "You're plan is the plan of a boy!  You made it up on the back of matchbook without thinking!  Without looking at the cards!".  Keitel also shares a brief scene with De Niro early in the film when Tilden bumps into Donlan in a coffee shop, and they quickly say hello and Tilden leaves, with Donlan looking on in contempt, angrily says "fucking rat!". 

In other performances Ray Liotta is terrific as the burnt out cop Figgs who is addicted to coke and also tries to help out Freddy in how to deal with Donlan.  Liotta also get's plenty of good dialouge in the film, such as in his first scene where a drunken Freddy opens a parking meter to try and get some more coins so he can play a pinball game in the bar, and Ray says "there are two kinds of people in this world, Freddy.  Video game people and pinball people.  You are definietly pinball people, Freddy!".  Liotta's best scene in the film comes in his argument with Donlan as he confronts him over the death of his former partner and he says "don't shut me out, Ray!".  Robert Patrick also delivers an excellent performance as the corrupt wise cracking cop, Rucker, who keeps making sleazy put downs at his fellow cops.  Patrick also get's some great lines, in one scene Freddy stops Donlan's car for speeding and Freddy's deputy, Cindy (Jeanne Garofalo) asks them for ID, Rucker says "We are heading towards the hills.  I'm John Mcenroe and this is Jimmy Connors!".  Also later when Freddy asks Rucker if he had anything to do with the bombing of Ray's place, Rucker replies "I had nothing to do with it.  That would be retribution, and that I would leave to God almighty.  I'm Ghandi!".  Peter Berg also puts in a good performance as Joey Randone, one of the fellow cops who refuses to help out Donlan with killing Babitch, and is also having an affair with his wife Rose.  Berg also has a funny line when Figgs winds him up about making a bet on a baseball game and Figgs says his inner child made that bet, and Joey says "tell you what, Figsy.  Why don't you open my fly and take out my inner child and give it a bite, bite it hard and bite it thick!".   

And finally Robert De Niro does a fine job as the hotheaded IA investigator Moe Tilden, who approaches Freddy and asks him in his best scene in the film to find out some information on Ray and the other cops.  And De Niro get's one of the film's best lines when he says to Freddy "And aprt from the cats and the trees and all that other bullshit there isn't much here for you to do.  And I look at you and I see a man waiting for something to do.  And here I stand, Sheriff, saying "Sherrif, I've got something for you to do!".  Tilden's short temper allows for De Niro to have some great moments, one of which is when Tilden hears that the Garrison case has been closed, he yells at his men "Go to lunch! GO TO LUNCH!!  Everybody get the fuck out of here!  The case is FUCKING CLOSED!!".  Also in his scene later with Freddy who approaches Tilden after the case has been closed is another great moment, when Tilden angrily responds "listen you deaf fuck, I gave you chance when we could have done something about it, and you BLEW IT!!!".

So getting onto the film's niggles (or flaws if you like) well for me I kind of felt that Freddy's character showed incredible naivety as he operates in the open, and he even goes to tell Ray the events of what happened, such as Babtich coming to see him and also that he wants to bring Babitch with Ray together.  I just don't buy that Freddy would be so naive as to expose what he is doing in trying to find Babitch so much to the corrupt cops who are trying to kill him anyway!  So for me I just think Freddy's character has too much blind faith in their town and his fellow police officers, although I guess the whole point of it as he says later "everybody just keeps their eyes closed and their mouth shut like me!" when he realises what they are like.  But even at this point Freddy still thinks he can reason with these men when we know for a fact that can't, however I guess that's Hollywood for you.

As for the direction and writing, James Mangold despite those niggles has done a terrific job with the film as his script is terrific and his direction is pretty taut and he keeps the mood of the film dark and rather unsettling at times.  And while the action in the film is quite sparse its is well staged and Mangold does a solid job in cranking up the suspense in the climactic scene where Freddy confronts his fellow police officers, armed with a shotgun, and defeaned by a gunshot (fired by Rucker when they grabbed Babitch from him).  And finally I can't finish without mentioning the music score by Howard Shore which is excellent, as its morose tone suits the film perfectly, although it is somewhat repetitive, but it does show again that Shore still is one of the best film composers in the business today.

So that's it for my look at Cop Land which as far as crime dramas go its definitely one to watch.

And well I shall leave it right there. 

Partidge... Alan Partridge

Right ok time for another review (which is the whole point of this blog after all!) and this is one on Alpha Papa, the Alan Partridge film based on the TV series character, starring Steve Coogan, which has been recently released in the pics, which I went to see earlier this week.  So let's have a look at it....

The story begins with Alan (Coogan) a radio DJ at Norwich Norfolk Digital, and the radio station is being bought over by a multinational coporation and will rebranded as "Shape" with the staff facing redundancies.  Alan is not concerned by the changes but his fellow DJ Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney) is worried that he will lose his job and he asks Alan to gatecrash a board meeting.  However Alan soon finds out that it will be either him or Pat that will get the sack, so Alan decides to betray Pat and writes up on a flipchart "JUST SACK PAT", and as a result Pat is let go.  Later that night the station host a party of the launch of "Shape" and Alan attends with his assistant Lynne (Felicity Montagu) but later on Pat arrives with a shotgun and holds the staff hostage.  Alan manages to run out the station before Pat can get to him, and Alan reports the incident at the local police station.  The police then want Alan to go back into the radio station to negotiate with Part, wearing a bullet proof vest.  And from here Alan is put in a difficult situation of trying to reason with old DJ friend and try and end the hostage seige.

In taking Alan Partridge to the big screen, Alpha Papa does succeed fairly well in making the transition and character wise Alan is pretty much the same arrogant, egocentric, pompous man that he was in the TVseries.  The only problem however is in making the transition that the film is quite padded at times, and that was why it worked best as TV series with six tight half hour shows as opposed to one 90 minute film.  Alan Partridge despite the fact he is supposed to be 55 years of age, looks closer in age to Steve Coogan (who is currently 48) and dress wise it looks like Alan is trying to be far younger than his character (perhaps it is just another midlife crisis??) as he wears a leather jacket and jeans for the party  Also in the TV format of the show things worked better than here, as Alan would encounter rather trivial but very amusing moments with the characters, whereas with Alpha Papa it focuses more on making a melodrama of the situation and Alan's betrayal of Pat and the ensuing hostage crisis.  And for the sake of its big screen Partridge debut, it has to turn up the drama stakes somewhat and it also at times guilty of being a bit sentimental, with Alan and Pat reminiscing over their halcyon days on the radio together.  So in this regard for me its always a problem with a cinematic version of TV characters, its almost like you need to have a Richard Curtis moment in there a la Notting Hill or Four Weddings to try and tug the heart strings and warm to the public, and with Alan Partridge it doesn't quite work.  

However despite that Alpha Papa has plenty of funny moments in it and the cast are all excellent, especially Steve Coogan as Alan, who once again plays Alan to perfection.  Coogan has many highlights and funny lines, one of my favourite is after playing a Neil Diamond track on the radio he says "You can keep Jesus Christ.  That was Neil Diamond, truly the king of the jews!".  Alan's other funny moments include the scene at the start where one of the young upcoming DJs at the station play Roachford's 80s hit single "Cuddly toy" and Alan grooves away to it in his car!  Also the scene where Alan walks outside the radio station while on the phone to Lynn, realising he should be back inside, he tries to creep in through an open top window, but he get's his trousers caught in it and he ends up having them pulled them off along with his underpants, and then a policeman turns, telling Alan to get his hands up, and he tucks his genitals in before he does so, with a cameraman peering over a wall right behind him!  And in another funny scene during the seige Pat beats up the station manager Jason Cresswell (played by Nigel Lindsay) after he discovers that he has deleted his jingles, and Alan who fills in for him during a live broadcast puts on the theme from "Ski Sunday" while the staff shout and scream in panic in the background behind them.   

Colm Meaney delivers a nice performance as the downtrodden Pat who mourns the loss of his wife and also his job, who puts himself in a dangerous situation by taking the radio staff hostage.  Meaney has a funny scene where he demands the staff create him a new jingle for his show, which the staff and Alan record, which is a hilarious jingle that speaks out on Pat's anger on being screwed over, and Meaney replies "Its beautiful!".  Simon Greenhall is again hilarious as Michael, Alan's dimwitted friend, who is now a doorman at the station, and he has quite a few funny moments in the film, especially during the crisis they find him locked in a cupboard and he admits to have taken a shit in his lunchbox!  Felicity Montagu is also great again as Lynne, Alan's aide who is forever at his beckon call and she has a funny scene where a TV journalist asks her to be interviewed on TV and offers her make-up, and we see Lynn all done up, which is priceless in itself!

So believe it or not that's it for my look at Alpha Papa, which is a very funny and entertaining big screen transition of one of British comedy's funniest characters.  It may feel a bit padded out at times and the depiction of Alan isn't exactly keeping with the style we had seen of him in the TV show, as it looks more like Steve Coogan just doing Alan Partidge as opposed to being Alan Partridge (i.e. make-up wise).  However if you can forgive that there is much to enjoy in the film.

And on that note, I shall leave you there. A-haaaaa!!! 

Hannibal Lecter Part 3: I have no pity!

OK its time for my final post of the Hannibal Lecter Anthony Hopkins trilogy which is of course on Red Dragon, Hopkins last outing as the infamous fictional serial killer, which shares alot of similarities to Michael Mann's film Manhunter, but both films are based on Thomas Harris's novel of the same name.  And with that let's to it and look at the plot for starters as usual....

So the story starts back in Baltimore in 1980 where psychiatrist Dr Lecter (Hopkins) hosts a dinner party at his home and afterwards he receives a visit from an FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton).  Graham who has a talent for investigating and solving murder cases, consults Lecter over a profile he has put together of a serial killer on the loose at that time.  Graham hypothesizes that the serial killer has been removing edible body parts from their victims, which suggests to Graham that the killer is in fact a cannibal.  During their meeting, Graham discovers a book which implicates Lecter's involvement in the killings, when all of a sudden Lecter attacks Graham by stabbing him in his side, however Graham manages to fight back and he shoots Lecter.  Lecter is then sentence to life imprisonment in a hospital for the criminally insane but Graham retires as a result of the incident.

Years later, another serial killer is on the loose who goes by the nickname of the "tooth fairy" who kills their victims during sequential full moons.  Graham is approached by special agent Jack Crawford (Harvey Keitel) of the FBI who asks Will for his help who reclutantly agrees and decides he must seek Lecter's help in order to try and catch the killer.  On visiting Lecter, Graham is initially taunted by Lecter who eventually decides to look at the case file of the tooth fairy and gives him some suggestions and clues as to the killer's methods.  The serial killer is in fact a psychotic man named Frances Dollarhyde (Ralph Fiennes) who kills at the behest of an alternate personality called "The Great Red Dragon" which he believes with each victim he kills or "changes" as he puts it, will bring him closer to the dragon.  Dollarhyde himself was a victim of severe child abuse at the hands of his sadistic grandmother (voiced by Ellen Burstein).

Meanwhile Graham in an effort to lure out Dollarhyde uses tabloid journalist Lounds (Philip Seymour-Hoffman) to print a story which publicly disparages the killer as a "sexually perverted failure".  The lure to an extent works as Dollarhyde kidnaps Lounds and takes to his home where he glues to an old wheelchair and shows him his body has a full size tattoo of a William Blake painting on his back of the red dragon.  Dollarhyde forces Lounds to recant his allegations after this he bites out Lounds tongue and sets him on fire outside the newspaper building Lounds works for.  In the meantime Dollarhyde at a photo lab where he works, meets Reba McClane (Emily Watson) a blind woman who he falls in love with.  After they share the night together at his home however, his dragon personality forces him to want to kill Reba but he resists.  As a result Dollarhyde decides to go on a trip to Brooklyn Museum where he eats the original Blake painting in an effort to stop the dragon from taking him over entirely.  However it is soon ultimately short lived as he returns home to find that Reba is with a fellow employee, Ralph Mandy (Kevin Whaley), which enrages Dollarhyde who later kills Mandy and goes in and kidnaps Reba and takes her to his house where the film reaches it firey climax...

While it is not really a remake of Manhunter, Red Dragon naturally bears a strong resemblance to it as it is based on the same material.  Although it has to be said that Red Dragon is actually more faithful to book than Manhunter initally was and also there is a larger inclusion of scenes that include Lecter.  And in that respect Red Dragon actually succeeds in being a better film than Manhunter did, as the choices that Mann made saw the end differ with Graham having the showdown at Dolarhyde's home rather than at Graham's as it is in the film and the book.  But again similar to Silence of the lambs that centre of the story is the relationship between the agent and the criminal, as Lecter and Graham both share a similar gift in that they can put themselves into the mind of a killer and workout and see their methodologies.  The tooth fairy is again akin to Buffalo Bill in that he is a complex not to mention deeply disturbed antagonist who was the victim of years of abuse.  And in the story Dolarhyde's relationship with Reba is one of his most intelligent sub-plots as he is attracted to the fact that she is different as she is blind and as she is blind he doesn't see her in the same way as sees his victims or anyone else for that matter.

As for the cast, well this is easily Red Dragon's greatest strength as it would be hard to put together a stronger one than here.  Edward Norton does a fine job as the FBI profiler, Will Graham, an agent that can put himself in the place of a killer and understand how they carried out ther crimes, and he remains traumatised by the events of Lecter's capture, but despite that he is brave enough to go back and face him to ask for his assistance in catching the tooth fairy.  Norton's scenes with Hopkins are easily his best and some of the highlights of the film, particularly in their meeting years later at Lecter's cell where Will meets with Lecter and he taunts him for having the "stink of fear" on seeing him again.  Also the scene at the end where he confronts Dolarhyde at his own beach home is quite gripping and well played as Will clevely plays mind games with him to prevent him from killing his son and spitting back the obscenities that Dolarhyde's grandmother once did "I'm a dirty little beast! Say it! I'm a freak!".  Norton's best line probably comes when he goes to meet with Lecter in the prison and Doctor Chilton asks him how did he capture Lecter and Will replies "I let him kill me".  

Anthony Hopkins again is great as Lecter, and he has several highlights in the film, and his opening with Will is excellent where Will reveals that Lecter is the killer he is looking for.  Also the scene where they meet for the first time in the state prison and Lecter confronts Will by saying "you stink of fear.  You fear me yet you came here.  You fear this shy boy (i.e. Dolarhyde) yet you seek him out.  Don't you see, Will.  You caught me because we are very much alike".  Hopkins also get's some great dialogue and one of my favourite lines is when he refers to Doctor Chilton (once again played by Anthony Heald) as being "gruesome isn't he?  He fumbles at your head like a freshman would a panty girdle!".  Also in another scene with Will he says "So I wonder if you want to have more of these little chit-chats" to which Will replies he might not have the time and Lecter says "I have!  I've got oodles!".  Also in the scene where Will bargains with Lecter for info that will help with the case he gives him back all his old privileges, which he lost (due to giving away Will's home address to Dolarhyde during a phone call that was supposed to be with his lawyer) Lecter insists that he asks for something in return "oh not much, shall we say dinner and a show!". 

Emily Watson is very good as Reba, the blind woman whom Dolarhyde falls in love with although one thing that struck me about her performance is for someone who is blind is just how precise she was with some of her movements.  This is especially in the scene where she invites Dolarhyde into her home and she precisely cuts a piece of raspberry tart, with the help of a toothpick placed in the centre and she lifts a slice off and places it perfectly on a plate as if she could see!  Perhaps though blind people do develop a good sensory perception of where everything is in their home after a time.  Philip Seymour-Hoffman is great in his small role as the sleazy tabloid reporter Lounds, who suffers the wrath of Dolarhyde as he is glued to an old wheelchair, has his tounge bitten out and then he is set on fire.  Nice way to go!  Harvey Keitel also does a good job as Jack Crawford although ultimately he just serves a perfunctory role acting as a superior agent who keeps Will updated on the events.  Anthony Heald reprises his role as Dr Chilton, the obnoxious jailor who has it in for Lecter, and he has an amusing scene where he has all Lecter's personal things removed from his cell and he says "I think we will remove Dr Lecter's toilet seat as well!" after Lecter says he unwittingly opened one of Chilton's pieces of mail.  And lastly Mary Louise Parker who is criminally underused in this film as she is a terrific actress, but she does well with the small role she has in playing Will's wife, Molly, who at the end of the film plays her part in ending the Dolarhyde threat.  

But the film's best performance belongs to Ralph Fiennes as Frances Dolarhyde and his portrayal of the serial killer is both creepy and pitiful at the same time.  Fiennes has several highlights in the film and his best scenes include where he kidnaps Lounds and he shows him the tattoo on his back where he announces "I am the dragon and you privy to a great becoming!".  His introduction as the "tooth fairy" is also rather creepy as he finishes a workout in his home, and he wears a mask over his face, and he goes to a cupboard where he takes out a pair of false teeth and inserts them into his mouth.  And one of the best scenes in the film is where he goes to the museum and eats the Blake painting in an effort to stop the "dragon" from having Reba, which was the reason apparently why the director, Brett Ratner, wanted to do the film in the first place.  Fiennes best line in the film comes when he first meets Reba who turns down a lift from an employee Ralph Mandy (Kevin Whaley) who has a thing for her and she says "If there's anything I hate more than pity, its fake pity from a walking hard-on like Ralpy Mandy." and Dolarhyde says "I have no pity".  Fiennes also suceeds in making Dolarhyde a pitiful villain simply because we see that he has been the victim of years of abuse from his childhood and the conflict he has when he tries to fight off his "dragon" personality.

Brett Ratner who was a surprising choice for director, actually does a fine job here and he keeps the atmosphere tense throughout, although he doesn't quite bring the suspense to the film that Jonathan Demme did in Silence.  Ted Tally who wrote the script for Silence makes a return here and his script is top notch and is very well written.  On the production side also worthy of note is the cinemaphotography by Dante Spinotti which is superb and he brings some great colour tones to the film, especially blue tones in the scenes with Lecter, particularly when Will walks with Lecter around a hall in the prison while he is chained up. 

So onto the second last part of the review... flaws???  Yes ok Red Dragon isn't perfect, again the intensity and suspense isn't quite as up to speed as it should be and while there is the odd jump moment in there (the scene where Dolarhyde attacks Lounds and bites out his tounge being a good one) it doesn't fill you with any great dread.  Anthony Hopkins portayal of Lecter while is still excellent it does start to show signs of self parody and he seems to overdo the menacing looks and grins which serves to undercut his character that bit more and at this point Lecter is becoming a far more hammy villain than anything else, regardless he's still mighty good!  Another problem I have with the film is Danny Elfman's score which is very loud and overbearing and it has zero in the way of subtlety, so much for let it creep up on you its just BOOOOOOMMM!!  In your face!  And its not to take away from Elfman as he is an excellent composer, but I just felt he wasn't the right choice for the film.  Also in the scene where Lecter makes his phone call its funny how no one even stayed to listen in on it or even monitor the call, as we clearly saw Chilton record Lecter's conversations with Starling in Silence, but here Lecter is unsupervised and he is free to find out Will's address.  Also perhaps the reason behind Dolarhyde's pathology is a bit pat as it boils down to just an abusive grandmother, it is more akin to Pyscho with Norman Bates's demanding late mother.  She would have to been quite a horror to push Dolarhyde as far as that!  

Anyway that's it for my look at Red Dragon and at the Anthony Hopkins Lecter trilogy, and Red Dragon is a fine thriller and a good remake of the original Thomas Harris which to an extent remains more faithful to nove than Michael Mann's version did.

And with that I shall bid you farewell. (gnash gnash!!).            

Hannibal Lecter Part 2: I'm giving very serious thought to eating your wife!

Right so time to get on to part 2 of my trilogy of looking at the Anthony Hopkins Hannibal Lecter films, and this post is on Hannibal, the follow up to Silence of the lambs, which was directed by Ridley Scott.  So let's the get the wine, the figs, and fava beans out have a look....

The film is set 10 years later after the events of Silence and Agent Clarice Starling (Julienne Moore) is involved in a drug raid that goes badly wrong for which she get's the unjustly put on her.  In the meantime, a former patient of Lecter and the only surviving victim of Lecter's mascinations, Mason Verger (Gary Oldman) a wealthy child molester, who was left horribly disfigured and paralyzed by Lecter, uses his wealth and power to get Clarice reassigned to the Lecter case.  Verge intends on drawing Lecter out of hiding so he can capture him so he can take revenge on him for what he has done to him.  Lecter (Hopkins) meanwhile lives incognito in Florence where he has taken over as the caretaker of a library, of which the curator has gone missing.  The missing curator is being investigated by police chief inspector Rinaldo Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini) who meets with Lecter who is posing under the guise of Dr Fell.  Lecter also sends a letter to Clarice after he hears about her public disgrace, and on receiving the letter Clarice tries to track down where it came from, as while there is no address on the letter there is a fragrance in the letter.  Clarice finds out from a perfume expert that that is a skin cream of which there are only a handful of stores in the world that do such a cream.  Clarice then contacts the police departments of the cities in the world where the perfume is sold, requesting surveillance tapes.

Pazzi meanwhile recognises Lecter from the surveillance tapes they have of him in the perfume store, which Clarice had requested.  Pazzi access the the ViCAP database (the FBI database which keeps records of serious violent crimes) of wanted fugitive where he finds Lecter and Verger's $3 million reward to anyone that who will turn him in, rather than to the FBI.  Pazzi then decides to try and turn in Lecter to Verger and claim the money, but as part of the process he must gain a fingerprint from Lecter, for which Pazzi uses a pickpocket to obtain a fingerprint from Lecter, but Lecter fatally stabs the pickpocket in the process, but despite that he manges to get the print Pazzi needs.  Pazzi then on the evening of one of Lecter's lectures in the library (a nice ryhming sound to that one!) is poised to apprehend him, but Lecter later on captures Pazzi and hangs him from the library, having disembowelled the policeman as well.  After this Lecter escapes back to the US where he intends to face Clarice, but he must also try and avoid the authorities as well as try and survive Verger's wrath.

While it isn't quite as gripping and engrossing as Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal still has alot going for it, and Ridley Scott does a fine job in bringing Thomas Harris's macabre book to the screen.  The shift in time to 10 years later also allows us to see how Clarice's career has progressed and we see that she has been publicly disgraced in her job after a bungled drug bust and her career becomes the victim of the system, especially at the hands of corrupt justice department official, Paul Krendler (played by Ray Liotta).  Lecter also remains a fascinating character especially as he now lives in the disguise of another man (well he would have to wouldn't he!) but as the film progresses and he learns of Clarice's disgrace it intruiges him into as he puts it "coming out of retirement".  The book however is far more gruesome and macabre then the film is and when Ridley Scott came on board he insisted on making certain changes to the story, particularly toward the end where in the book (PLOT SPOILER) Lecter and Clarice fest on Krendler's brain and they run off together as a couple.  And in the context of the film I think Ridley made the right choices as he decided to not have Clarice and Lecter as a couple, or to have Clarice indulge in cannibalism, which in itself seems pretty daft and illogical.

Anyway getting onto the performance section of the review, the cast are all mostly excellent, although to be honest I felt the weak link in the chain actually was Julianne Moore as Clarice Starling.  Moore's take on Clarice is a rather wooden one as her rather bland southern accent doesn't really lend well to the character and despite being a terrific actress, Moore's portrayal is nowhere near as good as Jodie Foster's was.  The other cast members however are impressive, particularly Gary Oldman as Mason Verger, the twisted and wealthy child molester, who was once a patient of Lecter and he was left horribly disfigured after Lecter persuaded (under the influence of a popper drug) him to peel off his face with a shard of broken glass and feed it to the dogs.  Oldman has some great lines and one in particular is to the scene where he reflects on the incident where he cut his face up and he says "it seemed like a good idea at the time".  Oldman's scene with Lecter while brief is also great as Verger enters the room in his wheelchair and he describes the teeth of a wild boar and in graphic detail how he intends to have Lecter eaten, and he says "I'd imagine you wish you had now fed me to the dogs!" and Lecter calmly says "No, Mason.  I much prefer you the way you are now."  Oldman himself decided that he wanted to be left unbilled on the cast list and his superbly grotesque make-up (created by make-up artist, Greg Cannom) allowed him to be unrecognisible to an audience.

In other parts Giancarlo Giannini is really good in his role as Chief inspector Pazzi, who learns of Lecter's real identity and tries to capture him himself and grab Verger's reward money, only to end up a victim of Lecter himself.  Ray Liotta is also excellent as the sleazy and corrupt justice department official, Paul Krendler with whom its implied that he had a past relationship or a fling with Starling.  Ray's best scenes come when he speaks with Clarice at the FBI office where he says to her abotut their past involvement that "don't flatter yourself, why would you think I'd hold that against you?  Besides there is plenty of cornpone country pussy in this town!".  Liotta also plays his part in the film's most gruesome sequence where Lecter performs a little surgery on Krendler by removing the top of his skull and cutting out a piece of his brain and feeding to him!  Which prompts an amsuing line after Krendler eats the piece of his own brain he says "it doesn't taste very good, buddy!".  Frankie Faison also puts in a neat performance in a brief reprise of his role as Barney, one of the orderlies at Lecter's former prison in Baltimore, who says he managed to survive all those years with Dr Lecter purely by being nice to him.

But the best performance of the film of course belongs to Anthony Hopkins once again Lecter, and once again he plays him with a sense of evil glee, although this time he isn't quite as chilling as he was in Silence and in a way the effectiveness of his character is a litte diluted once Lecter is out in the open.  Regardless of that Hopkins get's the film's best dialogue and he delivers it brilliantly throughout, with one of his classic lines being when he says to Pazzi "I'm giving serious thought... to eating your wife".  And also slightly later when he stands by Pazzi whom he has tied up and strapped to a manual lifting device with a knife in his hand, he says "What's it to be?  Bowels in or bowerls out? Like Judas!".  And his final scene on the plane where a young boy enquiries about what Lecter has in his lunchbox and he looks at what is leftovers of Krendler's brain, the boys asks for some and Lecter says "well its is important as my mother use to say to me, to try new things!".  His most effective scene in the film is however when Pazzi visits Lecter's apartment and Pazzi, having sussed out who he is eager to try and get a fingerprint, that Lecter slowly and menacingly approaches Pazzi and says I too don't always say what I'm thinking" before he goes to get his suitcases as he packs to leave (with Lecter putting on gloves before he picks them up) but it suggests that he could attack Pazzi there and then.  The scene where Lecter opens Krendler's skull remains the most gruesome in the film but in its own sick way it is strangely amusing especially after Krendler having eaten a piece of his own brain, starts to mentally regress fast and he starts muttering and Lecter says "now now Paul, if you can't be nice to our guest, then you'll have to sit at the kiddies table!".  And the moment where he rescues Clarice from being eaten by wild boards (another PLOT SPOILER HERE!) he has a line as Verger arrives in the pen where the boars are, he angrily demands his assistant, Cordell, shoot Lecter, and Lecter says "hey Cordell, why don't you push him in.  You can always say it was me!".

As for Ridley Scott as director, he does a solid job here with Hannibal and while he doesn't quite succeed in ratching up the intensity and suspense that Jonathan Demme brought to Silence of the lambs, he still keeps the action moving along well, and he makes a sensible decision with the climax of the story unlike the over the top conclusion for Harris's novel.  Getting quickly onto Hans Zimmer's score which is quite good although its not one of his best ones, although I did like his musically askew version of the Blue danube in the scene where Verger meets with Lecter to tell him about how he will be the main course later for the boars.  

So flaws, does Hannibal have any????  Well yes its fair to say it does as again one of the problems I have with the film is it lacks overall intensity and dread that Silence had.  Hannibal Lecter's character is also no longer quite as menacing as he once was, as mentioned, now that he is out and about living as citizen in public he has to live incognito.  Hopkins portrayal while always great to watch in this film, is also at times that bit more hammy as Lecter he keeps saying things like "okay dokey", "goody goody" and "ta ta!" which undercuts the creepiness and chilling effectiveness of his character.  Also in regards to Lecter's fleeing from Florence back to America, once again you have to wonder just how did he manage to get back to the country so fast without being detected or arrested by the authorities????  Lecter again must have had to use another form of transport as you can hardly imagine him flying back and getting through customs, a known wanted serial killer!  But again these are always questions that remain unanswered and you only have to imagine how he managed to get back.

Anyways that's it for my look at Hannibal, which is an entertaining thriller, and while it isn't quite as effective or as good as SOTL its still worth a watch.

And with that I shall leave it there for now and cue Part 3.....   

Hannibal Lecter part 1: Fava beans and a nice chianti!

Right ok for a change of tone in the movie reviews I've gone for a rather edgy choice as this time I will cover what is essentially the Anthony Hopkins Hannibal Lecter trilogy, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Red Dragon.  So as this is the first part I thought I will start with Silence of the lambs.

OK so the story begins with Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) a rookie FBI agent, who is pulled from her training by Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) from the FBI's behavioural science unit.  Crawford gives Clarice the task of interviewing the infamous cannibal serial killer, Dr Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) who was a former psychiatrist.  Crawford thinks that Lecter may be useful and have insight into aiding the FBI to find a serial killer nicknamed "Buffalo Bill" (Ted Levine) who skins his victims.  Clarice visits the Baltimore State hospital where Clarice meets with the smarmy Dr Chilton (Anthony Heald) who takes her down to the cells where Lecter is held.  At first Lecter is pleasant toward Clarice but he soon grows tired of her attempts to try and get him to fill in a questionnaire, and he ends up rebuffing.  Just as Clarice is about to leave however, one of the prison inmates, on the verge of climaxing from masturbation throws semen at her, which prompts Lecter to call her back, disgusted by the act, where he gives her some clues as to Bill's whereabouts by giving her the name of one of his former patients.  Clarice on Lecter's information locates an old garage where inside she find a severed head.  On returning to Lecter, he offers Clarice a chance to create a profile of Buffalo Bill, but in return he wants to be transferred away from Doctor Chilton, whom he depises.

Buffalo Bill next up kidnaps the daughter of a US senator, Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith) and Crawford has Clarice offer a fake deal to Lecter in exchange for the information about Buffalo Bill.  Lecter however plays a game of quid-pro-quo (Latin for this-for-that if you need to know!) with Clarice telling her that he will tell her the information in exchange of personal information of her own past.  Chilton however secretly records the meeting and goes on to reveal the deal to be a sham to Lecter and tells him he will offer a deal of his own for Lecter's transfer, which Lecter agrees to on some of his own conditions.  Lecter is then flown to Memphis where he meets with the senator and tells him personal information on Buffalo Bill.  Lecter is then transferred to a special cell in Tennessee courthouse, where Clarice visits him and pleads with him to tell her Bill's real name, but he instead insists on asking Clarice about her past, and she tells him that years ago as a child, she was raised by relatives at a farm in Montana, where she encountered a slaughterhouse and she tried to save a lamb, but failed.  After this their conversation is interrupted by Chilton who has Clarice escorted out the building.

Later on that night Hannibal manages to uncuff himself from his handcuffs placed on by two guards, whom he kills, and he escapes the cell, by dressing up as one of the guards and being wheeled into an amublance, apparently unconscious he rises up, and reveals he is wearing one of the guard's faces, which he pulls off, and makes his escape by killing the paramedics and taking the ambulance (which we don't see).  On hearing this Clarice realises that even though Lecter has escaped that she knows he wont come after her, and they continue on with the manhunt for Buffalo Bill, in which Clarice soon uses the information and clues that Lecter gave her to try and track down Bill and rescue the senator's daughter.

There is no doubt that Silence of the lambs remains a very powerful and intense thriller, based on the novel written by Thomas Harris, it was a huge success on its release and it saw the lead actors, Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins both receive oscars for their work as did Jonathan Demme the director.  And there is no doubt that Lecter remains one of the most iconic villains in any film as well as one of the most memorable antagonists in modern cinema.  And Clarice Starling remains a strong yet vulnerable foil to his psychopathic personality as she refuses to back down when he confronts her, and in the end they both end with a strange respect for one another.  And there is no doubt that the film has an intense and brooding atmosphere throughout and for the most part it is played pretty straight by its cast, but it is Lecter that offers moments of black humour throughout that at times offsets the film's grim tone.

Which brings me onto the cast who are all in top form in the film, starting with Jodie Foster who is great in her role of Clarice Starling, the strong but vulnerable rooke FBI agent who thrown into the dark world of tracking down Buffalo Bill and meeting with Lecter.  Foster's scenes with Hopkins are engrossing and intense throughout as the two of them share some great moments, especially in the scene where Lecter insists that Clarice tell him about her past and the lambs.  Scott Glenn is also really good in his part of the straight laced Jack Crawford who recruits Clarice to interview Lecter as was impressed with her record, and Lecter later teases Clarice that maybe she was picked because Crawford fancied her!

Ted Levine also deserves alot of credit for his performance as Buffalo Bill, as he delivers a disturbing and complex performance of a man twisted from years of abuse.  The scene where he feigns struggling to get a sofa into his car and the senator's daughter, Catherine Martin tries to help him remains of the most chilling in the film.  Also the scene where after he has kidnapped Catherine and he places her down in a well, as he get's her to rub lotion on her body, she puts the lotion back into a bucket which he lifts up, and Catherine looks up she noticed a broken fingernail embedded in the wall, and she screams over and over, which remains the film's most disturbing moment.  This also raises the suggestions that the fingernail belonged to one of Bill's previous victims who tried to climb out of the hole.  Chilling stuff indeed.  Anthony Heald on the other hand provides a little levity to the film as Doctor Chilton, the smarmy doctor who tries to charm Clarice at first and remains Lecter's nemesis for most of the film (but that changes!).   

But the film belongs to Anthony Hopkins who's potrayal of Hannibal Lecter remains of the crowning achievements in his career.  Hopkins plays Lecter with about as much relish as one actor can possibly be allowed on their plate with asking for seconds.  Hopkins's Lecter is brilliant, amusing and above all chilling as an intellectual psychopath who is kept under guard and toward's he effects his incredible and terrifying escape.  Hopkins pretty much get's all the film's best dialogue, and one of my favourite scenes is when he meets with the US Senator and he asks "tell me senator, did you breast feed your daughter?  Toughens the nipples doesn't it?".  Then there is of course the infamous scene where he first meets with Clarice and he tells her that "a census taker once tried to test me.  I ate his live with some fava beans and a nice chianti!".  Also in the same scene where he is disgusted by the cellmate, Miggs, who lobs his jism at Clarice, and he says "go now, i don't think Miggs can manage, quite so soon, even though he is crazy enough!  GO NOW!!".  One of the Hopkins best scenes of course is his escape from his prison cell, and the guard goes to uncuff Lecter who sudddenly puts one of the cuffs onto the guard and he proceeds to bite his face and beat him with his truncheon.  Later on course in the ambulance when Lecter rises up from his stretcher, dressed in the guards uniform he takes off his oxygen mask and pulls off the face that he cut off one of the guards, this remains one of the film's most memorable moments.

Moving onto the direction, Jonathan Demme seldom puts a foot wrong here as he keeps the suspense and intensity of the film high throughout, and he builds on the tension as the film reaches its dramatic climax.  Also worthy of note is of course Howard Shore's score, which is very dramatic and has many fine passages, particularly in the scene where Lecter escapes.

Flaw wise the film doesn't have too many although one thing that did strike me about the film during Lecter's escape that the body the police find in the lift shaft, which lies inert is clearly dead, as one of the policemen shoots it in the leg and it does not move.  As the police assume it is Lecter when they shoot the body the fact that he doesn't scream out clearly revels it is a dead body, unless Lecter has tremendous pain suppression, which he may well do, but it seems pretty silly and unlikely that would be the case.  Lecter's escape is also a bit ridiculous in that how would be able to escape the country without being detected, especially if he were to fly out of the country, with the whole FBI and police force out to get him!  He certainly couldn't fly his way out, unless he travelled by another method such as by boat, but by conventional travel he would sure to be found!

Anyway despite that Silence of the lambs remains a distrubing, intense and at times exciting thriller that remains memorable to this day, and if you haven't seen it before, well where have you been and if haven't you won't forget it in a hurry.

So on that note I will leave it there. (Gnashes teeth!!).   

Good Will Hunting: its not your fault

OK back to the movie reviews and this one is on the drama film Good Will Hunting starring Matt Damon, which he co-wrote with Ben Affleck, and was a critical success at the time of release back in 1997.  So let's flick the pages super quick and have a look at this drama..

Right plot: the film starts with a young man, Will Hunting (Matt Damon) who works as a janitor at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT for short) and he has a genius level intellect as well as a photographic memory.  Will himself lives in South Boston and spends his spare with his friends, Chuckie (Ben Affleck), Billy (Cole Hauser) and Morgan (Casey Affleck, Ben's younger brother) and Will himself is an orphan who grew up in a rough neighbourhood and was a victim of domestic abuse as a child.  Will also has a history of prior convictions of assault and theft, and he ends up running into trouble with the police as he assaulted a man who bullied him as a kid, and is faced with incarceration.  At MIT Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgaard) sets a complex mathematical theory for his class to solve, and one night while working on his duties, Will solves the theory.  Lambeau the next day is stunned to find the solution is correct and eventually comes across Will solving another problem which Lambeau had posted on a blackboard, but Will quickly walks away embarrassed as Lambeau calls on him.  Later on Will out with his friends meets an English student, Skylar (Minnie Driver) at a bar who is studying at Harvard, as Will impresses her with his intellect as he puts an arrogant student who shows off his knowledge infront of Chuckie, and soon after they start dating. 

In the meantime Lambeau sets about finding who Will is and meets with him offering a chance to forgo his potential prison time so he can work with him on mathematic theory and also see a therapist, which Will reluctantly agrees to.  Will impresses Lambeau with his incredible ability to solve complex theorems but he proves to be quite defensive towards the therapists, which he treats with contempt and they refuse to work with him.  Lambeau then decides to call on his old college roommate, Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) who now teaches psychology and he himself was a former counsellor, to help him with Will, Sean himself also is from South Boston just like Will.  On their first meeting Will again proves difficult and evasive with Sean and Will makes an off colour remark about Sean "married the wrong woman" which angers Sean, but he still agrees to continue working with Will.  On their next meeting Sean puts Will in his place as he tells him, that despite his incredible genius that he is just a kid with no real experience of the outside world and that he afraid to let himself open up.  Will eventually after a couple of meetings does open up and he shares with Sean how he is dating Skylar and Sean speaks of the memories of his wife who died of cancer.  Will continues dating Skylar and things go well but he refuses to let her in and he lies to her about his past and that he is an orphan.  Later on Skylar has a row with Will as she asks him to go to California with her, but Will who is afraid of making such a big chance in his life becomes panicked and defensive and when Skylar challenges him about his past, Will angrily tells her the truth of his past and that he doesn't love her and he walks out.

Meanwhile Lambeau insists on setting up job interviews for Will so that he can put his mathematical talents to work, but Sean feels that Will is not ready for that yet.  Will himself refuses to turn up for the arranged job interviews and on one occassion even sends Chuckie to an interview, and he also angrily walks out on Lambeau as he feels the math they work on is a waste of time.  Sean during one of their sessions gets annoyed with Will as he points out that he continues to keep seeing the negatives to every possibility and that he is afraid to move on with life and he asks him what he wants to do with his life, but Will refuses to give an honest answer, so Sean tells him to leave.  As the film leads to its end Will has to face making a decisions about his future while trying to reconcile his troubled past.

Good Will Hunting was a commercial and critical success on its release and its easy to see why as it remains a very entertaining, dramatic and poignant drama about a young man trying to come to terms with his talent and his past.  The screenplay was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, which later won an Oscar for been original screenplay, and the story was actually originally supposed to be a thriller, where Will was targetted by the FBI to become a G-man, however this idea was dropped in favour of the relationship between Will and his therapist.  And its this relationship which is at the heart of the film as both Will and Sean are from the same neighbourhood and they were both victims of abuse as children, and together they both learn from one another, as Sean confronts Will about his defensive behaviour and Will confronts Sean about how he has not moved on after his wife's death.

And what makes the film work so well is of course its performances which are great, starting with Matt Damon as Will, and while Will's character is somewhat obnoxious and cocky at first, Matt does a great job in taking the petulant Will and turning him into a young guy who is ready to face his demons.  Damon as Will also has some great lines of dialogue especially as Will likes to rattle off facts and recite from books word for word.  One of Will's best lines comes from when he is meeting with one of therapists and he says "do you find it hard to hide the fact that your gay???" to which the bemused therapist asks "What??" and Will says "Hey I don't have a problem with it, I don't care if you put from the rough!".  One of Will's most memorable scenes is of course the scene where he sits in at an interview for a job with the NSA and they ask why should he work for them and he launches into a long spiel as to why he won't, which cuts to him reciting the spiel to Sean during a session.  Also after the scene where he puts down a cocky Harvard student and he gets Skylar's phone number he finds the student at a local cafe chatting to other students, and he knocks the window and says "Do you like apples??" he slams a napkin with Skylar's number on it to the window "well I got her number!  How do you like them apples?!".  Damon's two best dramatic scenes in the film also come when Skylar confronts him over lying about his past, and also when Sean finally get's Will to face and deal with the abuse he suffered in the past, and he breaks down sobbing and embraces Sean.

Which brings me onto Robin Williams who is excellent as Sean Maguire, the therapist who tries to succeed in getting through to Will, and Williams plays Sean simply as a decent man who in the past has also had his share of pain, as he lost his wife to cancer and also came from a violent upbringing in Boston.  Williams also used his own comedic skills to bring some additional humour to the role as he improvised some of the scenes in the film, which includes where he tells the story about how his wife used to fart when she was nervus and "one night it was so loud it woke the dog up!".  Williams best scenes in the film include when he meets with Will on the park bench and he puts Will in his place by saying "I can't read about you or learn about you from some fuckin book!  Unless you wan't to talk about you".  Also later on when Sean has a session with Will and he grows tired of his bullshit as he asks Will what he wants to do with his life, and Will flippantly replies "I wanna be a shepherd".  But Sean continues to push Will for a straight answer but for once he's at a loss for words, to which Sean looks at him and says "you and your bullshit, you've got a bullshit answer for everyone, but I ask you a simple question and you can't give me a straight answer, because you don't know".  Also in the scene where he makes the final breakthrough and he get's Will to accept and face the pain of his past by repeatedly saying "its not your fault" over and over, until Will breaks down in tears. 

Minnie Driver also gives a fine performance as Skylar, who for me is probably one of the most appealing female characters in any film, as Skylar comes across as being so fun, down to earth and likeable (as well as pretty nice!).  Minnie also get's a funny scene where she tells Will and his friends a dirty joke about an old Irish couple, whom the Irish wife gives her husband a blow job.  Her scene with Matt where Skylar and Will argue is also another highlight and is played really well by them both.  Ben Affleck also delivers a fine performance as Chuckie, Will's best friend, and he shares a good scene with Matt when Will and Chuckie are working at a construction site and Will intends to stay in Boston for the rest of his life, but Chuckie insists that Will is wasting his time hanging around.  Affleck also get's some good lines especially when he keeps putting down his younger brother Casey Affleck's character, Morgan, who asks for his cheesburger, and he says "well tell you what we'll establish a line of credit and we'll put your burger layaway!".  And later on he chastises Morgan to jerking off in his mum's room while watching pornos and he says "if you are in my mom's room again watching pornos I'm gonna give you a fuckin beating!".  

And finally I will mention Stellan Skarsgaard who is also excellent as Professor Lambeau who finds Will solve his complex theory and he takes him under his wing to develop his skills.  Stellan also has some good scenes with Williams as Sean and Lambeau argue with one another over how they should deal with Will, as Lambeau insists on pushing Will to utilise his intellect in mathematics rather than give him breathing room to let Will work out what he wants.  

As for the film's direction Gus Van Sant is at the helm and he does an excellent job with the film, as he provides a fine visual sense to the film and keeps the pace, the drama and the humour moving along nicely.  Damon and Affleck both suggested Van Sant as the director after other choices were passed on and even Kevin Smith, their friend (and director of Clerks et al) passed.  And lastly there is the music soundtrack scored by Danny Elfman which is really good and has quite a few poignant tracks which work really well, and the film also makes use of a few tracks of the late musician Elliott Smith,

Soooo that's it for my look at Good Will Hunting, which is well worth checking out if you like a bit of drama and comedy, or dramedy.

And finally I will leave it there!  

Hitman: blood money

Righty after a week's absence its time for another review, so after doing some gaming lately I thought I would do one on one of my favourite series of games, the Hitman series, and this review will be Hitman: Blood money.  Blood money was the fourth installment in the series so with that let's do the usual, look at the plot for starters, which I will only cover partly.

The game's story is centred as usual around the hitman, agent 47 (voiced by David Bateson) who is a genetically enhanced human clone, with a barcode on the back of his head.  47 at the beginning of the game is given an assignment by his handler, Diana to kill Joseph Clarence, an amusement park owner on which there were over 30 deaths on an accident on a ferris wheel in the park due to poor maintenance.  47 carries out the hit, and after receives a string of contract hits from Diana, from clients who are impressed by 47's work.  The story is also told in flashback with the events leading back from 2004 up until 2006 (the year the game was released)  in which a journalist discusses 47's hits during this time with former FBI director Alexander Cayne.  During their discussions they reveal that the Agency that 47 worked for had a rival contractor who used two clones to kill off the Agency's hitmen, which ultimately only leaves 47 and Diana, and it is soon revealed that Cayne was the one who founded the Franchise.  And as the game reaches its climax its down to 47 to try and bring down Cayne and save himself.

For me Blood Money is the best game in the Hitman series as it has the perfect mix of stealth and action, and once again the sandbox nature of the game leaves the gamer plenty of options in how to complete the missions.  In Blood Money there are several improvements over its predecessors and after the rather lacklustre Hitman Contracts, it really delivered on the gameplay and the quality of the missions.  To quickly mention some of my favourite missions in the game which include "Curtains down" where 47 infiltrates an opera house where he is to kill a famous opera singer, who has questionable taste in relationships.  "Flatline" is another where 47 is required to smuggle out another agent from a health facility, while he is also given the option to bump off another couple of guests at the facility.  "You better watch out" is another great one where 47 is required to kill off a bachelor who has a history of abusing women, while attending a Christmas party.  And "Till death do us part" is also another favourite in which 47 is to carry out a hit on the groom at a wedding set in the south in Mississipi.

Getting on to the gameplay itself which is great, as in Blood Money there are several improvements in 47's movement, combat and action.  For starters 47 can now climb in and out of windows and he can also jump from ledges and balconies, and he also has the option to perfor melee attacks by disarming characters in the game and even using them as a human shield.  47's stealth creep movement is also now faster as before in Hitman 2 it was woefully slow, but this was something that was addressed in Hitman contracts.  47 can also now dispose of unconscious or dead bodies in containers as opposed to in previous games where 47 had to try and conceal their bodies in a corner of a room (although the containers seem to get fewer as the levels carry on!).  As for 47's weaponary he has a great variety of weapons, both firearms and melee weapons, and a new feature in the game is that 47 can now upgrade his weapons, including ammo, add-ons, as well as body armour, and other devices such as lockpicks.

Similar to the previous games 47 will also have stealth metre, which measures the noise level he makes or when his behaviour becomes more violent or noticeable to other characters.  And in other improvements 47 now also has the option for non-lethal take downs, as before he used sedatives in chloroform form, which had a limited time before they wore off, but now 47 can use a sedative syringe to knock out someone, and they remain unconscious for the rest of the level (and you also sometimes hear some amusing groans from the characters as well!).  47 can also use syringes to kill his targets too as they can be injected with poison which will kill the character immediately, but usually you will find the fibrewire, is still 47's most trusty form of stealth kill.  Another addition to the game is that 47 can now when entering an elevator he can climb into the shaft and wait above for his target, which he can then use his fibre wire to garrot them from above (where we see that rather sick by nifty shot of the target's dangling feet being pulled up!).  And as usual of course 47 can change into a number of different outfits to disguise himself, which can be anything from a police officer to big bird! (which he dresses up as in the "Murder of the crows" mission).

Getting onto the game's graphics they are easily the most impressive in the series up to this point (until Absolution last year) and due to the variety of different missions the environments are all very impressive and varied.  One of the levels that stands out graphically is "Curtains down" at the opera house as we see a great level of detail in the design of the house.  Also another great scene that shows off the visuals is in the mission "Murder of the crows" in the scene during Mardis Gras when 47 walks out on a busy street filled with people as we see floats going by.  The character models are also quite impressive for their time as well and at last we get a 360 degree turn view of 47 as before the camera only turned 180 and we could only see the back of him.  Also another feature in the game is that 47 can also carry detachable sniper rifles in a special case, which he can carry around with him.  But what you can do for fun is unpack the rifle in a public place in full view of people and instantly 47's wanted level goes right up! (actually I do that just for a laugh more than anything else!).  However it does raise the fact the emphasis on action in the Hitman games is stealth as if you try to kill your targets head on you will be gunned down by cops, agents, guards or whoever else is in your way. 

Which brings me onto one of the game's strongest and best aspects which is its music score by Jesper Kyd, which is superb, and its features many wonderfully dramatic passages of music.  The score was performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and in addition to that there are several electronically scored tracks, which are terrific and very ambient and suspenseful.  This was unfortunately the last score Jesper Kyd did for the Hitman series, as he didn't score Hitman Absolution, but it is a real highlight of the game and it remains one of the best video game music scores in recent years.  Also quickly I can't forget to mention the voice acting which is as always excellent, and David Bateson once again does a great job was 47, as he has a very distinctive voice, and his somewhat calm and almost monontone delivery are what helps make the character work so well.

As for the game's flaws well there are the odd one or two, but the main one for me is that game save system, as it only allows you to permanently save the game after the end of each mission, so if you want to exit the game during a mission, it won't store the game saves you've made, which is a bit annoying, which means you need to start the mission all over again!  The game also suffers from the odd bit of glitchy AI but that's to be expected in these games as sometimes the characters might not behave in the way you would expect.

Anyway that's it for my look at Blood Money, which as I said is for me the best in the series and if you are a fan of stealth action games and haven't given this one a go then you will be sured to enjoy it.

So with that, that's that. 

Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedommmmmmmmmmmm!!!

Time for yet another review so this is one that easily stands as one of the most popular historical films in recent times, which is Braveheart, directed by Mel Gibson, who gives his account of the life of Scottish legend William Wallace who played his part in gaining Scotland's independence from England.  And with that let's do the usual.....

OK so the story begins in 1280 with King Longshanks (Patrick McGoohan) of England having invaded and conquered Scotland.  William Wallce as a young boy survives the deaths of his father and brother and witnesses Longshanks treachery as village leaders were found hanged.  Wallace is taken away by his Uncle Argyle (Brian Cox) to Rome where he will be educated.  Years later Wallace returns to Scotland as a man (Mel Gibson) to find that under Longshanks rule, he has permitted the Scottish noblemen lands and privileges, but also sexual rights to an English lord with a newly wed Scottish woman on their wedding night.  Wallace soon falls in love with his childhood sweetheart Murron (Catherin McCormack) whom he marries in secret to avoid the English lords claiming their sexual rights with her.  The day after however one of the English guards tries to rape Murron, but Wallace prevents it.  However Murron is captured then executed publicly in order to provoke Wallace, who then kills the English garrison along with the help of the local villagers.  Wallace also sends the garrison occupying Lanark back to England and warns them that Scotland's daughters as theirs no more.

Meanwhile Longshanks is furious on hearing the news and insists that his son and heir, Prince Edward (Peter Hanley) do everything he can to stop Wallace, however the Prince is weak minded and inexperienced.  Edward is married to Isabella of France (Sophie Marceau) but he is also involved in a homosexual relationship with his military counsel Phillip (Stephen Billington).  Wallace's rebellion in the meantime grows as he gains more Scottish followers and he soon leads his army to victory at the battle of Stirling against the English.  Wallace also goes on to invade the English on their home soil at York, where Longshank's nephew is beheaded and his head is sent back to Longshanks, who then decides to send Isabella to negotiate with her.  Wallace meets with Isabella but refuses to accept any bribes from Longshanks, but Isabella begins to develop feelings for Wallace, as she inspired by his passion for his country.

On returning to Longshanks Isabella discovers that Longshanks has set an army in place to invade Scotland, and she secretly dispatches her aide to warn Wallace.  Wallace then meets with the Scottish nobleman and insists they stand together and fight against the English, but the noblemen are reluctant to do so.  However one of the noblemen, Robert the Bruce (Angus MacFadyen) who is a contender for the throne is intruiged by Wallace and gives his consent to unite the clans and the other nobleman.  At the battle of Falkirk however the nobleman Lochlan and Mornay betray Wallace on the battlefield, and the Scottish lose the war, and Wallace as he charges on a horse toward Longshanks, he is stopped by one of the king's lancers, who turns out to be Robert the Bruce, but Bruce soon helps save Wallace from the English capturing him.  After the battle Wallace begins to wage his own war against the English and he also fights his own fight with the Scottish nobleman as he continues to try and achieve the dream of having a country of their own.

Braveheart is no doubt a very entertaining historical drama and it tells an important story in history about Scotland's battle for independence from the tyranny of the English.  The film is of course somewhat guilty of historical inaccuracies in the storytelling and I will get to some of them in a bit, but what Mel Gibson does depict in the film is of course done for cinematic and drama effect.  But with Braveheart, Gibson does show he has an aptitude for creating historical epics on a big budget and he manages to make the film very accessible to audiences.  The film itself was shot on location in Scotland, but the battle scenes were in fact filmed in Ireland, with Gibson also using nearly 2,000  extras who were Irish army reserve.

Getting onto the performances (the usual structure as always) they are all excellent with Mel Gibson giving a fine portrayal of the heroic Wallace, who also remains somewhat tormented by his past, and the deaths of his father, brother and his beloved Murron, but is willing to fight and die for his country.  He also portrays Wallace as an educated man who also can speak different languages.   Gibson has several highlights in the film, the main one that comes to mind is when he rides the battlefield at Stirling prior to engaging with the English, and he delivers his stirring speech to the Scottish locals who have turned up.  This scene also features an amusing line when one of the Scotsmen says "William Wallace is supposed to be seven feet tall!" and Wallace replies "yes so I've heard.  Kills men by the hundred, and if he were he would consume the English with fire from his eyes and lightning bolts from his arse!".  Also there is memorable line "would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance to come back and tell our enemies that they can take our lives, but they will never take our FREEDOM!!!".  His scene near the beginning when he playfully plays a game of rock throwing against his childhood friend Hamish, is funny as Hamish throws a big boulder past him and Wallace stands still, and then Wallace takes a pebble and hits Hamish right in the forehand with it, as Hamish dazed falls to the ground.  Gibson also has a great scene where the Scottish nobleman all squabble with one another after Wallace is knighted, and he says "you think the people of this country exist to provide you with position.  I think that position exists to provide those people with freedom.  And I go to make sure that they have it."

The supporting cast is also very good starting with Patrick McGoohan as the cruel king Edward Longshanks, who has several highlights in the film, and his clipped delivery and commanding tone makes for an intimidating figure.  McGoohan has some good lines such as near the start when during a military meeting he says "the trouble with Scotland is that its full of Scots!".  Also later on when he is on the battlefield at Falkirk and his army have defeated the Scottish, he says "bring me Wallace, dead? Alive?  Just as good!".  Sophie Marceau is also quite good (and fine!) in her role as Isabella, although in the end she just serves more a romantic subplot for Wallace as the two of them become involved with one another.  Brendan Gleeson is excellent in his role as Hamish (and ironically is an Irish actor!) who is Wallace's childhood friend, and becomes one of his key allies in fighting the English.  And Catherine McCormack (who is actually English!) is not bad in her part as Wallace's Scottish bride, who falls foul of the wrath of the English, although she just serves her part as one of Wallace's romantic subplots. 

Angus MacFayden however is probably the weak link in the cast as his potrayal of Robert the Bruce is far from commanding and he comes across more a meek figure, and even at the end of the film where he is about to lead his army on the field at Bannockburn he still doesn't make for a strong figurehead for a king.  Nevertheless MacFayden has a couple of excellent scenes as Bruce with his father, Robert the elder (played superbly by Ian Bannen) as the two of them argue over their position on Wallace and the Scottish noblemen.  And despite the fact it is a wildly inaccurate scene in history it is still quite an effective moment when Wallace attacks the Lancer only to find it is Robert the Bruce who has betrayed him at Falkirk.  David O'Hara is also really good in his role as Stephen the demented Irishman, who provides some funny moments (again the irony here is that O'Hara is Scottish yet he plays an Irishman!).  O'Hara as Stephen has quite a few good lines especially when he first meets Wallace and he laughs and says "This can't be William Wallace.  I'm prettier than this man!" and later on the battlefield at Striling O'Hara turns to Wallace as they shield themselve from an arrow volley attack and he says "the good Lord thinks he can get me out of this, but he's pretty sure you're fucked!".  O'Hara also just after he meets Wallace saves him from being killed by a new Scottish recruit, and he says to Wallace after "are you not sure the almighty sent me to watch your back? I never liked him anyway, he wasn't right in the head!".  

Mel Gibson also does a fine job with the action of the film although it has to be said he does overdo the slow motion sequences during the battle scene at Stirling and also the moment where Wallace is about to attack the English garrison on horseback in his village.  But his visual sense and staging of the action scenes are quite spectacular (also thanks mainly to John Alcott's stunning cinemaphotography) and the bloody violent battles are impressive, which include plenty of hacking, slashing, stabbing, as well as decapitating (well it is a war film after all!).  The film's score by James Horner is also quite good, but it is somewhat guilty of being overly romantic and sentimental at times, and Horner uses the uilleann Irisih pipes as opposed to the traditional Scottish bagpipes, which suggests the film has bigger Irish heritage than a Scottish one, but overall it is still a good effort.

Now getting onto the film's flaws and niggles, well there are naturally quite a few historical inaccuracies in the film.  Starting with Wallace's relationship with Isabella of France, which in reality never happened as that time Isabella was only three years old and lived in France.  Robert Bruce is also shown to have betrayed Wallace on the battlefield of Falkirk in the film, but according to history there was no record that Bruce had betrayed Wallace directly, even if he did switch allegiances between both sides in the early years of the war for independence.  Prince Philip who was potrayed as a weak and ineffectual gay man, but in reality the Prince was in actual fact a married man with children, although it was rumoured that he did have relationships with other men, and he also married Isabella at a time when he was already crowned as King Edward II.  This was also an accussation aimed at Gibson in this potrayal of the prince as it was deemed as being homophobic by the media, although Gibson himself claimed it wasn't, and that Longshanks was purely a psychopathic personality who took some pleasure in tormenting his son, also seen in the scene where Longshanks throws Philip's military counsel out a window.  Longshanks was also to been rather tight fisted with money, as he seems to grudge Isabella for giving the bribe money for Wallace to the poor.  Although this was also another historical inaccuracy as Longshanks was reputed in reality to have been a generous man who gave to charity, who in fact died during a campaign rather than in bed from fever as depicted in the film.

There were also criticisms levelled at the film for being somewhat anglophobic (fear and hatred of English people) especially in its depiction of Longshanks as such a loathsome king, and also for having strong Anti-English senitments.  And its difficult to try and level these criticisms when the film itself deals with the English and how they dominated the Scottish at that time, and it was all about the fight for independence, its difficult to potray the English in such a positive light in that regard.  

So all these inaccuracies are bound to show up in one way or another and in the end Gibson had to create a film that was accessible to an audience and when you try make a film to please the masses its maybe tough to keep it true and accurate.   Plus the Scottish war for independence was a long and complex battle and it would also be difficult to condense down into a three hour film.  Also the screenwriter Randal Wallace said that the screenplay was inspired by an epic poem written by Blind Billy, a minstrel, who wrote the poem based on Wallace's life, but the poem itself also has various historical inaccuracies, so that in itself may account for alot of the historical discrepancies in the film.
 
But despite all that Braveheart still remains a very entertaining and at times enthralling movie, which while it is not perfect it still engages an audience, and that's what Gibson ultimately set out to do here.

So that's it for my look at Braveheart, and I will leave it there for nooooowww.