OK just for a change I thought I would do a post on something a little different, which is a gig I went to see last night up at the new SSE Hydro as Peter Gabriel played, and it was a great opportunity to see the new venue.
Starting with Peter Gabriel who was touring his widely acclaimed "So" album released back in 1986 (apparently this was a 25th anniversary tour but it has been going on for quite a while!) so it promised to be quite a show. Gabriel himself is now aged 63 so he is quite a different figure of the younger man that appeared on the front cover of the "So" album all those years ago, and when he took to the stage he looked more like Marlon Brandon in Apocalypse Now than anything else! (well OK except a bit slimmer!). However regardless of that his musical talent is still as strong as it has ever was back then, and as he walked rather casually onto stage and announced the plan for play for the night, by saying it will be in three parts, like a meal, with the starter (which featured three acoustic songs) then the main course, which featured some of Peter's best songs such as Secret world, Digging in the dirt, Shock the monkey and Solisbury hill. After this followed the dessert, which was of course the full "So" album, which was terrific and featured several highlights, particularly great versions of Red Rain, Sledgehammer (which had Peter do some cool moves!) Don't give up and Big Time. Although one of my favourites of the night from the "So" album was in fact Mercy Street, as it was a wonderful live version of one of Gabriel's best and most ambient and atmospheric tracks. The show also had an amazing light show and there are several tracks in which the lighting was put to great use, and there was even a big bizarre looking saucer that hovered down and lifting up Peter and revealed what looks like a big bean stalk, before he went sliding down it like some sort of shute!
Peter was also backed up by an excellent band, which featured the original recording musicians that played on the "So" album, which included the bass layer, Tony Levin (who uses drumsticks tapes his fingers while he plays the bass!) and the superb Manu Katche on the drums. Kate Bush is of course absent here, however Gabriel does utilise fine backing singers (who are both young and rather fine ;-)) one of who provides good vocals on "Don't give up". And overall Gabriel did an excellent job in representing the main cross section of his material on the night and played what easily a show over two hours.
As for the Hydro itself well it has to be said it quite simply is a stunning venue and while the SECC until its arrival was the biggest venue in the country (which seats a max capacity of 10,000) the Hyrdro now eclipses it with an impressive capacity of 13,000. But more importantly where the Hydro scores big is not only in its capacity but also in its incredible design as the inside of the arena is amazing as it soooooo big and the sheer scale of the venue is hugely impressive. Another great thing about the Hyrdro and one of its main draws is its sound, as the sound quality in the venue is terrific and to be frank it pisses all over the SECC, which has a muddied, muffled and frankly mediocre sound overall (the three Ms!). And that is where the Hydro's expansive dome shape also probably helps improve the acoustics of the sound in the venue as the sound resonate more cleanly, unlike in the SECC where it is a more flat probably also due to the lack of height and space in comparison.
Externally the Hydro also looks pretty impressive (although not necessarily too pretty!) and the translucent panel cushions that surround the outside also glow in the dark in shades of blue and green, which gives the effect of it being like a giant equaliser, in short its pretty nifty looking! So overall I was actually blown away by the scale of the venue and just how impressive a venue it is overall as it easily stands as the country's best. The venue will also be used next year for the 2014 Commonwealth Games Netball and Gymnastics events and just maybe in the future we might see some tennis action there too, with hopefully one day the Davis cup returning to Glasgow or the ATP World tour finals could scope it as a potential venue, it sure has the capacity to do so! (or perhaps that's just wishful thinking from an ardent tennis nut!).
The only downsides I would say to the Hydro however is with big acts playing it will also come down to a matter of cost with the tickets, as the biggest acts will demand more money. Although the Peter Gabriel tickets were quite reasonable (£35) and I'm later going to see Simple Minds next month (£39 for the cheaper ones and £55 for the more expensive ones, and I bought the former) but other acts such as Michael Buble will charge up to £200 a ticket! (sod that!). I also felt the insides of the venue overall lack a polished look as it looks almost like inside the venue is still under construction as what you get are concrete pillars and walls and there is nothing in the way of decor or anything. I also felt that as we were seated just over half way up towards the back of the arena, looking down on the stage we had a somewhat minute view of Peter Gabriel, and without the help of the large video screens it would have been difficult to make him out at times, although when he strutted the centre of the stage he was clear enough I guess.
Despite that though the interior design is still impressive and its all well laid out and you can even get eateries where you can buy a pizza or burger, as well as get a drink of course and you also get plenty of LCD TV screens all around which helps give it that modern look. The seating is also excellent as at last we have got comfortable seats (and about time!) and leg space is not too bad either. And its when you walk into the arena itself and go up the stairs to find your seat that's when it really hits you just how BIG the Hydro really is and that you really are in a venue that is purpose built for the big boys and girls in the world of showbiz to come and play.
Sooooo anyway that's it for this post and I have to say I enjoyed both the venue and also watching Peter Gabriel play for the first time, and if you fancy checking out the Hydro, please do go as you won't regret it and I myself cannot wait to go back there again soon.
And that's it for now!
Friday 25 October 2013
Tuesday 22 October 2013
Point Break: "We are the ex-presidents!"
OK thought I would be a bit more prolific this month with my posts so I've kept my word and this will be my 8th post of the month (which is pretty good going for me!) so this un is on the movie Point Break, starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. Right so let's get the surfing board out and break some waves... (well metaphorically speaking!).
Alrighty so the usual plottery to begin with (someday I might just change the format of my posts!) the film starts with rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah (Reeves) who is assigned along with his veteran partner, Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey) to investigate some bank robberies. The robbers themselves are dressed up wearing masks of four former presidents, Ronald Regan, Richard Nixon, Lindon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter and they call themselves the ex-presidents. Pappas has a theory that the ex-presidents are in fact surfers (due to video footage of one of them dropping their shorts to reveal a "tan line" across his ass, which would be associated with surfers!) and Utah decides to go with his theory and infiltrates a small surfing community. Utah however has no idea of surfing or how to and nearly drowns out at sea on his first day but he is rescued by a female surfer, Tyler (Lori Petty) whom he approaches again and persuades her to teach him (using her history as being an orphan to get an angle to do so, as he tells her his parents died in a car accident).
Johnny eventually manages to get the hang of surfing through Tyler's help and he soon meets a leader of a local surfing gang, Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) and when he reveals he was a former quarterback in football, Bodhi's crew accept Johnny, who begins to get drawn into their world. Utah also follows the lead of a clue which might lead them to the robbers as he and Pappas set up a raid on another gang of surfers, who turn out not to be the ex-presidents and it turns out they have accidentally ruined a DEA undercover operation in the process, which incurs the wrath of Utah and Pappa's superior, FBI Agent Harp (John C. McGinley). The next day however Johnny, who by now has become romantically involved with Tyler receives an early wake-up visit from Bodhi and they go out for surf, however as Utah walks along the beach he sees Bodhi and his crew out surfing, one of whom moons (i.e. drops his shorts!) in the same style as the bank robber did in one of the video tapes taken from a bank robbery. It then dawns on Utah that Bodhi's gang are the ex-presidents and he tells Pappas of his suspicions as he tailed Bodhi to find that he was scoping a bank.
The next day Utah and Pappas steak out outside the bank and right enough they see the ex-presidents leave the bank, with Utah and Pappas giving chase, Utah eventually chases the robber wearing the Reagan mask on foot through a neighbourhood. As Utah chases after the robber he accidentally slips down an acqueduct and injures his knee in the process, as the robber gains distance, Utah takes out his gun and aims at the robber but can't bring himself to pull the trigger and fires his gun into the air instead, yelling in frustration. Later that night Bodhi and his gang reveal that they are indeed the ex-presidents, but Bodhi's motivation was to rebel against the system and not to gain profit. With Bodhi's gang scared and wanting out, Bodhi refuses to back down and he insists that he knows what to do with Utah. Meanwhile Tyler discovers that Johnny is in fact an FBI agent as she finds his badge and gun in his apartment, furious with Utah for lying, Tyler runs out. The next morning Bodhi turns up at Utah's front door and insists he goes skydiving with his gang, which Utah reluctantly obliges, but in doing so get's a real kick out of it. After they land Bodhi takes Utah into a van and plays a tape showing Tyler tied up to a chair with one of Bodhi's gang, Rosie, holding a knife to her throat. Bodhi reveals that he knows that Utah is an FBI agent, and tells him that Tyler will be fine as long as he get's a certain place in time first, and he forces Utah to go along on their last robbery with them, which brings the film to its hectic climax....
To this day Point Break is still for me a very enjoyable action thriller and while it is at times somewhat cheesy in its depiction of the surfer community and of the robbers it nonetheless has plenty of high octaine action (pardon the cliche) that keeps an audience gripped. The relationship between Utah and Bodhi also helps drive the film's story pretty well as Utah is sucked into the world of surfing and he is drawn to Bodhi's charisma, and in the end even as Utah persues Bodhi so relentlessly, he at the end of the film still has alot of respect for him. And the film certainly says alot for adrenaline junkies and the rush and the need for it, and even shows how fanatical Bodhi's crew are as they even willing to die to find that ultimate rush (or killer rush being more like it!).
And at the time of the production, neither Reeves, Swayze or Petty hadn't any real surfing experience and they ended being taught by a surfing instructor over a two month period with Swayze and Reeves both being drawn towards surfing, and Reeves who continued to keep it up as a hobby afterwards. It was also later revealed that Swayze did his own aerial stunts during the skydiving scenes, as well as during the fight scenes and of course surfing, and Swayze himself felt that he had a strong kinship with Bodhi's character as the wild guy.
Moving onto the film's performances things are pretty good here, starting with Keanu Reeves, who while he is not the best actor in the world, does give a good account of himself here as the ambitious young FBI rookie who get's drawn into the world of surfing and makes a connection with Bodhi. Reeves has some good scenes especially in the action scenes where he raids another surfing gang's hideout (the gang features Red Hot Chili Peppers singer, Anthony Keidis) and also the scene where he chases Bodhi through a neighbourhood. Reeves also get's some good dialogue as he delivers plenty of glib one liners, and even takes the piss out of his character Ted, from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, when he scopes out surfers on a beach and tries to get a hair sample from one of them and pulls off a piece of hair by saying to the guy "Watch out, you've got a big sucker going right for your ear!" and tears off a piece of the guy's hair and says "saved your life, bro, close one!". Also after he get's chewed out by his superior, FBI Agent Harp who says "Now has any one of you got anything even remotely interesting to tell me???!" and Reeves sarcastically replies "I got my first tube this morning... sir!". Also another favourite line of mine from Reeves in the film is after he is forced to go on the ex-presidents last robbery and he angrily says to Bodhi who wants Utah to go into the bank with them "Bodhi this is your fucking wake up call, man! I'm am an F....B....I agent!!!".
Patrick Swazye is excellent as Bodhi, the charismatic gang leader who is more into the spiritual side of surfing and life in general! Swayze plays Bhodi pretty much as an almost spaced out guru, who get's his thrills out of adrenaline rushes such as robbing a bank, skydiving or surfing, but also develops special connection with Utah as the film progresses. Swayze as Bodhi get's some good lines, such as when he is about to a bank at the start of the film, wearing his Ronald Reagen mask he says "The little hand says its time to rock and roll!". Also in the first bank robbery scene he has some good lines such as "Hello helllo hello ladies and gentlemen we are the ex-presidents! We need just a few minutes of your time, and we've been screwing you for years for a few more minutes shouldn't matter, should it???!". And as they are about to leave the bank he turns to the customers and says "Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen and please don't forget to vote!!". But as Bohdi he also reveals his willingness to sacrifice his life to do what he loves the most in doing his surfing and he wishes to surf at Bells Beach in Australia, where an alleged 50 year storm is set to come around, which prompts a good from Bodhi when he says "If you want the ultimate, you've gotta pay the ultimate price. Its not tragic to die doing the thing you love." Another good line Bodhi has is after Utah follows him out of the plane doing a skydive he catches up with Bodhi who is doing his skydive and he grabs him and forces him to pull the cord of the parachute, and he hits just seconds before they hit the ground, and Bodhi struggles to his feet and says "Goddamn! You are one radical son of a bitch!".
Gary Busey is also really good as Utah's veteran FBI partner, Pappas, who comes up with the surfer theory for the ex-presidents. Busey who is no stranger to being manic (and let's face it in real life he does have more than one screw loose!) plays Pappas with a hyperactive quality (or at least a bloated agent who has had one coffee too many and a few doughnuts!) and he quickly develops a good rapport with Utah. Busey also get's plenty of good lines, such as when he argues with Utah who goads him by saying he is an "over the hill burnout" and he Pappas replies "Listen you snot nosed little shit! I was taking hits in Khe Sang, while you were still crapping in your hands and rubbing it in your face!". And also later when he says to Harp "Let me tell you something, Harp. I've been in this bureau while you were still popping zits on your funny face and jacking off to the lingerie section of the Sears catalogue!". And also in the scene where Utah tells Pappas about his theory of trying to get a hair sample from surfers to try and locate the beach where the ex-presidents might surf, and Utah asks him "are you buying this?" and Pappas says "No. But let's do it anyway! It will bug the shit out of Harp!". And also in the scene when he confronts Utah over not shooting Bodhi and he says "You are either scared or your getting too goddamn close to this guru buddy of yours! I don't believe your scared. Now go home and get some rest you look like hammered shit!" (one of my favs!).
Lori Petty also makes a good impression as Utah's love interest and she is quite defensive and obnoxious at first as she grudgingly saves Utah from drowning and she insults him and his crap surfboard and says "Look at this pigboard piece of shit! You've got no business out here whatsoever!" and Johnny calls after her saying "Hey my name's Johnny Utah!" and she says "Who cares???!" as she heads back out to surf. But as the film progress she soon becomes attracted to Utah and she has a good scene where she finds out he is an FBI agent and he tells her he lied about his parents and she says "Goddamn you to hell" and runs out. Petty has another really good scene where they are both at Bodhi's party and she says to Utah "You've got the kamikaze look, Johnny, I've seen it. And Bodhi can smell it a mile away. He'll take you to the edge and past it."
John C. McGinley is also great in his role as the arrogant FBI agent, Harp, who takes an instant dislike to Utah and he says to him at the start of the film "I see you're a real blue flame special, son. Young dumb and full of come, but what I don't know is how you got assigned out here. I mean hell, I guess we must just have ourselves an asshole shortage" and walks away with Utah relying quietly "Not so far". Also McGinley's best line in the film comes when he berates Utah and Pappas for their lack of progress in the case with Utah in undercover surfer gear and a big surfboard in Harp's office. And Harp says "Special agent Utah. This is not some job flipping burgers at the local drive in. Yes the surfboard bothers, yes you're whole goddamn approach to this case bothers me, and yes YOU BOTHER ME!! And over the last two weeks you have produced exactly SQUAT! SQUAT!!".
And finally in a smaller performances Tom Sizemore also gives a brief but good account of himself as an agent working for the DEA who's cover is blown when Utah and Pappas raid the wrong surfers. And Sizemore who is always good with explosive dialogue delives another bit of stern dialogue to Utah when he says "I've been working on these fuckers for THREE MONTHS!! THREE MONTHS!! Now I've got them playing the wheel of fortunte, so I can find out who their suppliers are and you fucking cowboys show up!". Sizemore once again also get's to wear a cool wig of big spikey hair and he even says "You think I like this hair, man??? You think I like wearing these clothes???!".
Getting onto the director Kathryn Bigelow (who also directed Strange Days, Near Dark and The Hurt Locker) who does an excellent job here, proving to be one of those rare things, a female director that has a good eye for directing action films (no chauvanism intended there, it is quite rare!). Bigelow also skillfully paces out the action and the bank robberies, car chases, sky diving and surfing scenes are all done really well and you do get a sense of the adrenaline rush the characters are getting. Bigelow also skillfully directs the big chase scene with Utah chasing Bodhi on foot through a neighbourhood as a hand held camera follows them, which for me is one of the best chase scenes seen in recent years on screen.
So moving onto the flaws section of the review, does Point Break have some??? Well yes it does, as while it is very entertaining it is also quite cheesy at times. And one scene that sticks in my mind that is really silly is when Bodhi and his gang playball American football with Utah, as it just seems a bit macho and naff. Bodhi as a character it has to be said is also up his own arse, as while he has the charisma to engage his gang and Utah, he is also somewhat delusional and lives in his own dreamworld. And Swayze's corniest line in the film comes when Bodhi says to his gang "We do this to show those slaves out there inching away in their metal coffins on a freeway that the human spirit is still alive!". The final sequence with Utah confront Bodhi is also pretty daft (well the whole film is really!) in which (PLOT SPOILER HERE!!) they have a climactic fight sequence and ultimately Utah let's Bodhi go to fulfill his dream to surf the biggest waves the planet has ever seen in Bells Beech in Australia (also one of the actors who plays an Australian cop, has the worst Aussie accent ever!). It also seems strange that such an inexperienced FBI agent as Utah would be put on to a high profile case in the first place, as he is just signed up with his older partner and off they go! But then again perhaps that's how it works down there! ;-). I also think its a bit silly how Utah and Pappas suss out that the ex-presidents are surfers purely from videotape footage of one of the robber's mooning their arse! So the case was in a way eventually unravelled thanks to an arse! (literally! Well that and a ponytail hair from one of the other robbers, so an arse and ponytail got it done!). So if it wasn't for that robber mooning his ass and for the surfers having ponytails they would have got it away with it scot free!!
Anyway despite all that Point Break still succeeds in being an all out adrenaline fuelled, action packed, exciting action thriller, and over 20 years later its still well worth a look.
And well I will leave it there, dude!
Alrighty so the usual plottery to begin with (someday I might just change the format of my posts!) the film starts with rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah (Reeves) who is assigned along with his veteran partner, Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey) to investigate some bank robberies. The robbers themselves are dressed up wearing masks of four former presidents, Ronald Regan, Richard Nixon, Lindon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter and they call themselves the ex-presidents. Pappas has a theory that the ex-presidents are in fact surfers (due to video footage of one of them dropping their shorts to reveal a "tan line" across his ass, which would be associated with surfers!) and Utah decides to go with his theory and infiltrates a small surfing community. Utah however has no idea of surfing or how to and nearly drowns out at sea on his first day but he is rescued by a female surfer, Tyler (Lori Petty) whom he approaches again and persuades her to teach him (using her history as being an orphan to get an angle to do so, as he tells her his parents died in a car accident).
Johnny eventually manages to get the hang of surfing through Tyler's help and he soon meets a leader of a local surfing gang, Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) and when he reveals he was a former quarterback in football, Bodhi's crew accept Johnny, who begins to get drawn into their world. Utah also follows the lead of a clue which might lead them to the robbers as he and Pappas set up a raid on another gang of surfers, who turn out not to be the ex-presidents and it turns out they have accidentally ruined a DEA undercover operation in the process, which incurs the wrath of Utah and Pappa's superior, FBI Agent Harp (John C. McGinley). The next day however Johnny, who by now has become romantically involved with Tyler receives an early wake-up visit from Bodhi and they go out for surf, however as Utah walks along the beach he sees Bodhi and his crew out surfing, one of whom moons (i.e. drops his shorts!) in the same style as the bank robber did in one of the video tapes taken from a bank robbery. It then dawns on Utah that Bodhi's gang are the ex-presidents and he tells Pappas of his suspicions as he tailed Bodhi to find that he was scoping a bank.
The next day Utah and Pappas steak out outside the bank and right enough they see the ex-presidents leave the bank, with Utah and Pappas giving chase, Utah eventually chases the robber wearing the Reagan mask on foot through a neighbourhood. As Utah chases after the robber he accidentally slips down an acqueduct and injures his knee in the process, as the robber gains distance, Utah takes out his gun and aims at the robber but can't bring himself to pull the trigger and fires his gun into the air instead, yelling in frustration. Later that night Bodhi and his gang reveal that they are indeed the ex-presidents, but Bodhi's motivation was to rebel against the system and not to gain profit. With Bodhi's gang scared and wanting out, Bodhi refuses to back down and he insists that he knows what to do with Utah. Meanwhile Tyler discovers that Johnny is in fact an FBI agent as she finds his badge and gun in his apartment, furious with Utah for lying, Tyler runs out. The next morning Bodhi turns up at Utah's front door and insists he goes skydiving with his gang, which Utah reluctantly obliges, but in doing so get's a real kick out of it. After they land Bodhi takes Utah into a van and plays a tape showing Tyler tied up to a chair with one of Bodhi's gang, Rosie, holding a knife to her throat. Bodhi reveals that he knows that Utah is an FBI agent, and tells him that Tyler will be fine as long as he get's a certain place in time first, and he forces Utah to go along on their last robbery with them, which brings the film to its hectic climax....
To this day Point Break is still for me a very enjoyable action thriller and while it is at times somewhat cheesy in its depiction of the surfer community and of the robbers it nonetheless has plenty of high octaine action (pardon the cliche) that keeps an audience gripped. The relationship between Utah and Bodhi also helps drive the film's story pretty well as Utah is sucked into the world of surfing and he is drawn to Bodhi's charisma, and in the end even as Utah persues Bodhi so relentlessly, he at the end of the film still has alot of respect for him. And the film certainly says alot for adrenaline junkies and the rush and the need for it, and even shows how fanatical Bodhi's crew are as they even willing to die to find that ultimate rush (or killer rush being more like it!).
And at the time of the production, neither Reeves, Swayze or Petty hadn't any real surfing experience and they ended being taught by a surfing instructor over a two month period with Swayze and Reeves both being drawn towards surfing, and Reeves who continued to keep it up as a hobby afterwards. It was also later revealed that Swayze did his own aerial stunts during the skydiving scenes, as well as during the fight scenes and of course surfing, and Swayze himself felt that he had a strong kinship with Bodhi's character as the wild guy.
Moving onto the film's performances things are pretty good here, starting with Keanu Reeves, who while he is not the best actor in the world, does give a good account of himself here as the ambitious young FBI rookie who get's drawn into the world of surfing and makes a connection with Bodhi. Reeves has some good scenes especially in the action scenes where he raids another surfing gang's hideout (the gang features Red Hot Chili Peppers singer, Anthony Keidis) and also the scene where he chases Bodhi through a neighbourhood. Reeves also get's some good dialogue as he delivers plenty of glib one liners, and even takes the piss out of his character Ted, from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, when he scopes out surfers on a beach and tries to get a hair sample from one of them and pulls off a piece of hair by saying to the guy "Watch out, you've got a big sucker going right for your ear!" and tears off a piece of the guy's hair and says "saved your life, bro, close one!". Also after he get's chewed out by his superior, FBI Agent Harp who says "Now has any one of you got anything even remotely interesting to tell me???!" and Reeves sarcastically replies "I got my first tube this morning... sir!". Also another favourite line of mine from Reeves in the film is after he is forced to go on the ex-presidents last robbery and he angrily says to Bodhi who wants Utah to go into the bank with them "Bodhi this is your fucking wake up call, man! I'm am an F....B....I agent!!!".
Patrick Swazye is excellent as Bodhi, the charismatic gang leader who is more into the spiritual side of surfing and life in general! Swayze plays Bhodi pretty much as an almost spaced out guru, who get's his thrills out of adrenaline rushes such as robbing a bank, skydiving or surfing, but also develops special connection with Utah as the film progresses. Swayze as Bodhi get's some good lines, such as when he is about to a bank at the start of the film, wearing his Ronald Reagen mask he says "The little hand says its time to rock and roll!". Also in the first bank robbery scene he has some good lines such as "Hello helllo hello ladies and gentlemen we are the ex-presidents! We need just a few minutes of your time, and we've been screwing you for years for a few more minutes shouldn't matter, should it???!". And as they are about to leave the bank he turns to the customers and says "Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen and please don't forget to vote!!". But as Bohdi he also reveals his willingness to sacrifice his life to do what he loves the most in doing his surfing and he wishes to surf at Bells Beach in Australia, where an alleged 50 year storm is set to come around, which prompts a good from Bodhi when he says "If you want the ultimate, you've gotta pay the ultimate price. Its not tragic to die doing the thing you love." Another good line Bodhi has is after Utah follows him out of the plane doing a skydive he catches up with Bodhi who is doing his skydive and he grabs him and forces him to pull the cord of the parachute, and he hits just seconds before they hit the ground, and Bodhi struggles to his feet and says "Goddamn! You are one radical son of a bitch!".
Gary Busey is also really good as Utah's veteran FBI partner, Pappas, who comes up with the surfer theory for the ex-presidents. Busey who is no stranger to being manic (and let's face it in real life he does have more than one screw loose!) plays Pappas with a hyperactive quality (or at least a bloated agent who has had one coffee too many and a few doughnuts!) and he quickly develops a good rapport with Utah. Busey also get's plenty of good lines, such as when he argues with Utah who goads him by saying he is an "over the hill burnout" and he Pappas replies "Listen you snot nosed little shit! I was taking hits in Khe Sang, while you were still crapping in your hands and rubbing it in your face!". And also later when he says to Harp "Let me tell you something, Harp. I've been in this bureau while you were still popping zits on your funny face and jacking off to the lingerie section of the Sears catalogue!". And also in the scene where Utah tells Pappas about his theory of trying to get a hair sample from surfers to try and locate the beach where the ex-presidents might surf, and Utah asks him "are you buying this?" and Pappas says "No. But let's do it anyway! It will bug the shit out of Harp!". And also in the scene when he confronts Utah over not shooting Bodhi and he says "You are either scared or your getting too goddamn close to this guru buddy of yours! I don't believe your scared. Now go home and get some rest you look like hammered shit!" (one of my favs!).
Lori Petty also makes a good impression as Utah's love interest and she is quite defensive and obnoxious at first as she grudgingly saves Utah from drowning and she insults him and his crap surfboard and says "Look at this pigboard piece of shit! You've got no business out here whatsoever!" and Johnny calls after her saying "Hey my name's Johnny Utah!" and she says "Who cares???!" as she heads back out to surf. But as the film progress she soon becomes attracted to Utah and she has a good scene where she finds out he is an FBI agent and he tells her he lied about his parents and she says "Goddamn you to hell" and runs out. Petty has another really good scene where they are both at Bodhi's party and she says to Utah "You've got the kamikaze look, Johnny, I've seen it. And Bodhi can smell it a mile away. He'll take you to the edge and past it."
John C. McGinley is also great in his role as the arrogant FBI agent, Harp, who takes an instant dislike to Utah and he says to him at the start of the film "I see you're a real blue flame special, son. Young dumb and full of come, but what I don't know is how you got assigned out here. I mean hell, I guess we must just have ourselves an asshole shortage" and walks away with Utah relying quietly "Not so far". Also McGinley's best line in the film comes when he berates Utah and Pappas for their lack of progress in the case with Utah in undercover surfer gear and a big surfboard in Harp's office. And Harp says "Special agent Utah. This is not some job flipping burgers at the local drive in. Yes the surfboard bothers, yes you're whole goddamn approach to this case bothers me, and yes YOU BOTHER ME!! And over the last two weeks you have produced exactly SQUAT! SQUAT!!".
And finally in a smaller performances Tom Sizemore also gives a brief but good account of himself as an agent working for the DEA who's cover is blown when Utah and Pappas raid the wrong surfers. And Sizemore who is always good with explosive dialogue delives another bit of stern dialogue to Utah when he says "I've been working on these fuckers for THREE MONTHS!! THREE MONTHS!! Now I've got them playing the wheel of fortunte, so I can find out who their suppliers are and you fucking cowboys show up!". Sizemore once again also get's to wear a cool wig of big spikey hair and he even says "You think I like this hair, man??? You think I like wearing these clothes???!".
Getting onto the director Kathryn Bigelow (who also directed Strange Days, Near Dark and The Hurt Locker) who does an excellent job here, proving to be one of those rare things, a female director that has a good eye for directing action films (no chauvanism intended there, it is quite rare!). Bigelow also skillfully paces out the action and the bank robberies, car chases, sky diving and surfing scenes are all done really well and you do get a sense of the adrenaline rush the characters are getting. Bigelow also skillfully directs the big chase scene with Utah chasing Bodhi on foot through a neighbourhood as a hand held camera follows them, which for me is one of the best chase scenes seen in recent years on screen.
So moving onto the flaws section of the review, does Point Break have some??? Well yes it does, as while it is very entertaining it is also quite cheesy at times. And one scene that sticks in my mind that is really silly is when Bodhi and his gang playball American football with Utah, as it just seems a bit macho and naff. Bodhi as a character it has to be said is also up his own arse, as while he has the charisma to engage his gang and Utah, he is also somewhat delusional and lives in his own dreamworld. And Swayze's corniest line in the film comes when Bodhi says to his gang "We do this to show those slaves out there inching away in their metal coffins on a freeway that the human spirit is still alive!". The final sequence with Utah confront Bodhi is also pretty daft (well the whole film is really!) in which (PLOT SPOILER HERE!!) they have a climactic fight sequence and ultimately Utah let's Bodhi go to fulfill his dream to surf the biggest waves the planet has ever seen in Bells Beech in Australia (also one of the actors who plays an Australian cop, has the worst Aussie accent ever!). It also seems strange that such an inexperienced FBI agent as Utah would be put on to a high profile case in the first place, as he is just signed up with his older partner and off they go! But then again perhaps that's how it works down there! ;-). I also think its a bit silly how Utah and Pappas suss out that the ex-presidents are surfers purely from videotape footage of one of the robber's mooning their arse! So the case was in a way eventually unravelled thanks to an arse! (literally! Well that and a ponytail hair from one of the other robbers, so an arse and ponytail got it done!). So if it wasn't for that robber mooning his ass and for the surfers having ponytails they would have got it away with it scot free!!
Anyway despite all that Point Break still succeeds in being an all out adrenaline fuelled, action packed, exciting action thriller, and over 20 years later its still well worth a look.
And well I will leave it there, dude!
Saturday 19 October 2013
Charlie don't surf!!!
OK, its October, its dark, its rainy?? How about a post that suits this time dreich time of year and is rather dark, well OK the film it covers certainly is, which will be Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola's epic war film, which is a surreal take on the Vietnam war, as a burnt out army Captain is set on a mission to kill a crazed Colonel. So let's have a look it in more detail......
The film is set in the middle of the Vietnam war, with the main character, Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) an army captain who has returned to Saigon, and is approached by military intelligence officers Lt General Corman (G.D. Spraldin) and Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford). The officers give Willard the task of locating a rogue special forces Colonel, Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brandon) and kill him (or "terminate the Colonel's command" as Lucas says). Kurtz apparently has gone insane and is practicsing unsound methods with his Montagnard soldiers inside neutral Cambodia and has apparently established a cult following. Willard takes the mission and travels on a navy patrol boat, lead by Chief (Albert Hall) and his crewmen, Lance (Sam Bottoms), Chef (Frederic Forrest) and "Mr Clean" (Laurence Fishburne). Willard and the crew are escorted through to the mouth of the Nung river by Lt Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) who leads a squadron of armed transport helicopters. Kilgore bonds with Lance as they are both keen surfers, and he finds a spot on the river where they can ride the waves, but before that they launch an assault on a VC village. Kilgore has some of his men, who are surfers hit the waves evern during enemy fire, but Kilgore soon orders a napalm strike, after which he says "some day this war is gonna end".
After this Willard and the patrol boat crew get back onboard the boat and continuing their travels up river, during which Willard looks at Kurtz's personal file which reveals he was a model officer with a very promising career. The crew arrive at a supply depot where they watch a show which features Playboy playmates, but the overenthusiastic soldiers get involved and the show goes awry, with the playmates eventually being choppered out of the depot. Afterwards back on the river, the crew encounter a Vietnamese boat, on which the Chief orders an inspection, during which Clean panics and guns down the civilians onboard. One of the civilians onboard, a woman, is still alive but badly injured, and despite the Chief's insistance to get her some treatment, Willard shoots her dead and tells them to go on. As Willard grows more distant in the eyes of the crew and they travel on, they soon come to an American outpost on the river, manned by American soldiers, but with no commanding officer, Willard decides to move on up river. However they are soon attacked by unseen enemies and during the firefight, Clean is killed, with the Chief growing even more hostile toward Willard, angered by the danger he has put them all in.
And things come to a head when they are attacked again by spears, thrown by Montagnard warriors, one of which hits the Chief in the chest, who in his dying moments tries to strangle Willard and push him down onto the end of the spear, but Willard stops him as the Chief dies. Willard finally tells Chef and Lance about his mission, and while Chef is angry he decides to go with Kurtz and travel up river until they reach Kurtz. Once they reach Kurtz's outpost it is filled with Montgnard warriors and there are dead bodies hanging and also headless corpses lying around. Willard meets an eccentric photographer (Dennis Hopper) who praises Kurtz for his twisted genius although he does admit Kurtz can go too far as well. Willard goes back to the boat and tells Chef that he will go into Kurtz's temple with Lance but if they don't come back he is to order an airstrike. And as Willard heads toward the entrance of the temple, Kurtz's warriors surround him and they tie him up and take him to finally face Kurtz.......
There is no doubt that Apocalypse Now is one of the most memorable war films ever made, which is more of a surreal experience than a realistic war film, as it certainly doesn't fall into that category (unlike Oliver Stone's Platoon which is a far more realistic depiction). The film itself was largely inspired by Joseph Conrad's short novel, Heart of Darkness, which was based on Conrad's real life experiences as steamboat paddleboat Captain. The two main characters in Conrad's novel, Kurtz and Marlow (Willard's equivalent) work for a trading company that exploits African workers, with Kurtz going insane and eventually gaining a tribal following. The film script was written by John Milius who was inspired to write a film about the Vietnam war conflict, and the story was written back in the late 60s, but it was several years before it was to be realised as a film, with Coppola eventually taking the helm.
Getting to the film's performances, which are easily one of the film's strengths, especially with Martin Sheen who is superb in the main role as Willard, a burnt out army Captain who is given little choice in going on the mission to kill Kurtz. Sheen delivers the film's narration with such a dry tone you get the feel of a man that is so broken down in his life that the mission is just about all he has left. The narration itself, written by American author Michael Herr is both morose and witty at the same time, with Sheen getting so many great lines of dialogue to deliver. A few examples include one in the opening scene where Kurtz lies silently in his bed and we hear his narration "I hardly said a word to my wife until I said "yes" to a divorce". Later on when Willard is on the river and studying Kurtz's files as it reveals Kurtz was to be charged with murdering Vietnamese locals, and he says "Oh man, charging a guy with murder out here is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500!" and "The bullshit piled up so high in Vietnam you had to have wings to stay above it!". Sheen also has some really effective moments that show his short fuse, such as when he suddenly grabs a smart ass member of staff at the supply depot and he says "Just get us some fuel!". Also another scene is where Willard shoots the Vietnamese civilian on the boat after Clean has gone trigger happy and taken out the rest of them, and the other men look in shocked silence as Willard looks to the Chief and says "I told you not to stop, now let's go". Another favourite line of mine from Sheen is where Kilgore has some of his men out surfing during enemy fire, and Willard angrily shouts to Kilgore "Goddamnit! Don't you think this is a little risky for R and R???!!". Sheen himself also went through some serious personal torment at the time of filming as he was in the middle of a divorce, and he was drinking and smoking heavily, combined with the stress of the role, which lead to Sheen suffereing a serious heart attack during production. And in the opening scene we clearly see the real life torment he went through as he smashes the mirror in his hotel room, drinking heavily and sobbing. Sheen thankfully however soon recovered from his heart attack and eventually continued with the production.
Albert Hall as the Chief is also really good, as the Chief is a pretty straight laced, no nonsense guy who is ultimately just looking out for his crew, and he ends up butting heads with Willard as their journey progresses. Frederic Forrest is great as well as the Chef, a highly strung guy who as Willard rightly describes as "being wrapped to tight for Vietnam, and probaby also wrapped to tight for New Orleans!" (where the Chef is from). Forrest's best scene is where he and Willard go out in the jungle looking for mangos, and they are suddenly confronted by a tiger, as they both panic and run back onboard the boat, the chief asks what happened and the Chef yells "Fucking tiger!!" and "All I wanted to do was fucking cook, man! I ain't built for this shit!". I also liked the scene where Chef looks around Kurtz compound and says "He's gone crazy!" and Dennis Hopper, who plays the photographer says "Wrong wrong! If you could only have heard the man the other day! And you are gonna call him crazy???" and the Chef replies "Fuckin' A!". Sam Bottoms provides the film's most unusual performance as the spaced out Lance, a young surfer from LA who spends most of his time dropping acid or smoking dope (as he did in real life at the time during filming!). And a very young Laurence Fishburne, makes a good impression as the young Mr Clean, and his most memorable moment is of course when he dances to the radio which plays the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction". Fishburne also provides a poignan t moment in his death scene as he is killed during the enemy firefight and he lies dead and a tape mailed from his mother plays in the background while the Chief sobs cradling Clean's body. Fishburne apparently lied about his age when he was cast in the role and he was actually only 14 at the time, although by the time the film was released he was the same age as his character, 17 years old.
Dennis Hopper is also great in his role as the eccentric unnamed photograher who is in awe of Kurtz but eventually ends up leaving as he grows tired of Kurt's mood swings. And this brings up Hopper's best line as he talks gibberish to Willard in Kurtz's temple who sits reading a book and in a sudden outburst throws some food at the photohgrapher, yelling "You mutt!" which prompts the photographer to say "You see this is the way of the fucking world, you see this fucking shit we're in man??!! And with a bang and a whimper, and with a whimper I'm fucking splitting, Jack!".
Getting onto the more heavyweight performances (or The Godfather crew if you like!) Robert Duvall is great as the crazy and reckless Kilgore who commands a squadron of armed choppers. And in the film's most memorable sequence we see over a dozen choppers fly in the skies and the sound of Wagner's "The Ride of Valkeries" play in the background as Kilgore says "We'll just come up over the rising sun and then we'll play the music! I use Wagner, it scares the hell out of the slopes!". Duvall also get's some other great lines, of which his most quoted one is of course when one of his men questions his decision to surf on a pretty heavy zone occupied by VC, and Kilgore says "Charlie don't surf!". Also in the scene where they lay down the napalm strike, Duvall also get's a terrific short monologue where he talks about effects of napalm. "You smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I remember one time we had a hail bomb and after we didn't find one stinking dink body. That smell that gasoline smell, it smelled like.... victory. Some day this war's gonna end."
And finally we get onto Marlon Brando who is unforgettable in his role as the enigmatic Kurtz, a highly decorated soldier who has gone totally insane now operates outside his superiors and has command of a warrior tribe who worship him. Brando was Coppola's first choice for the role, however Brando demanded a huge fee for his work and he was paid $3.5 million for a month's work. Due to Brando being overweight, Coppola mainly had Brando filmed in the dark shadows, which definitely helps add to the effectiveness of his character. Brando's performance is in itself an enigma and his monologues are almost indicipherable in their meaning at times, but they are nonetheless quite potent, and I think his most memorable line of all is of course "The horror! The horror!" in his last moments. But for me Brando's best line is when he asks Willard if he is an assassin and Willard says he's a soldier and Kurtz replies coldly "You're neither. You're an errand boy, send by grocery clerks to collect the bill!".
As for Coppola well there is no doubt that he had done a superb job with Apocalypse Now, and there is no doubt it was the toughest, most physically and emotionally challenging film of his entire career. However Coppola in directing Apocalpyse Now produced some amazing action sequences and set pieces, particularly the attack on the Vietcong village and the amazing napalm strike, which is an unbelievable visual and one of the most visceral scenes in any war film. He also creates some bizzare imagery aswell such as where we see a cow being hoisted out on a winch by a helicopter during Kilgore's first scene, while we see a priest and some soldiers gather praying. The scene with playboy playmate models is also quite a surreal sequence where the girls dance to the sounds of "Suiz Q" before the soldiers invade the stage to try and get a leer. And the scene at the last American outpost in the river is also quite bizarre as Willard tries to find a CO (commanding officer) but instead finds a bunch of spaced out soldiers. Coppola's own trials and triabulations of making film are of course well documented in the superb documentary about the film, Hearts of Darkness. The film was also of course re-released as a director's cut, which is known as the Redux version, which features 49 minutes of extra footage, however my personal preference is the original theatrical version, which feels more taut than the Redux edition, which is rather bloated in comparison, although it does show Willard in a slightly better light.
Getting onto technical aspects of the film I cannot forget to mention the cinemaphotography by Vittorio Storaro which is absolutely stunning and features some amazing and gorgeous visuals, as Storaro employs great use of vivid colour (my favourite is when Willard first arrives at Kurtz's outpost and sees a soldier sent to kill Kurtz who turned over to his army, and there are some amazing bright orange colours in the background). Storaro also provides some incredible imagery as well including the devastating napalm strike and also the unforgettable image of Willard wearing camoflague rising out of the water and he heads to kill Kurtz. And finally another striking aspect of the film is its score which was written by Coppola and his father Carmine Coppola, which is mostly electronic and synthesizer based but it has plenty of atmospheric passages in it. Coppola also makes great use of The Door's "The End" at the start of the film as Willard meanders in his hotel room. Also the film's soundtrack for its time was quite remarkable and to this day with its incredible war scenes and moody atmospherics, Apocalpyse Now still remains a strong favourite for home cinema surround sound.
Soooooooooo after that very exhaustive post that its for my critique of Apocalypse Now which still to this day remains an incredible and surreal experience (you could almost say its the 2001 of Vietnam war films!) and if you haven't seen it and are partial to war films, please give it a go.
And I shall.... leave... it.... there. The horror.....
Bye!
The film is set in the middle of the Vietnam war, with the main character, Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) an army captain who has returned to Saigon, and is approached by military intelligence officers Lt General Corman (G.D. Spraldin) and Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford). The officers give Willard the task of locating a rogue special forces Colonel, Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brandon) and kill him (or "terminate the Colonel's command" as Lucas says). Kurtz apparently has gone insane and is practicsing unsound methods with his Montagnard soldiers inside neutral Cambodia and has apparently established a cult following. Willard takes the mission and travels on a navy patrol boat, lead by Chief (Albert Hall) and his crewmen, Lance (Sam Bottoms), Chef (Frederic Forrest) and "Mr Clean" (Laurence Fishburne). Willard and the crew are escorted through to the mouth of the Nung river by Lt Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) who leads a squadron of armed transport helicopters. Kilgore bonds with Lance as they are both keen surfers, and he finds a spot on the river where they can ride the waves, but before that they launch an assault on a VC village. Kilgore has some of his men, who are surfers hit the waves evern during enemy fire, but Kilgore soon orders a napalm strike, after which he says "some day this war is gonna end".
After this Willard and the patrol boat crew get back onboard the boat and continuing their travels up river, during which Willard looks at Kurtz's personal file which reveals he was a model officer with a very promising career. The crew arrive at a supply depot where they watch a show which features Playboy playmates, but the overenthusiastic soldiers get involved and the show goes awry, with the playmates eventually being choppered out of the depot. Afterwards back on the river, the crew encounter a Vietnamese boat, on which the Chief orders an inspection, during which Clean panics and guns down the civilians onboard. One of the civilians onboard, a woman, is still alive but badly injured, and despite the Chief's insistance to get her some treatment, Willard shoots her dead and tells them to go on. As Willard grows more distant in the eyes of the crew and they travel on, they soon come to an American outpost on the river, manned by American soldiers, but with no commanding officer, Willard decides to move on up river. However they are soon attacked by unseen enemies and during the firefight, Clean is killed, with the Chief growing even more hostile toward Willard, angered by the danger he has put them all in.
And things come to a head when they are attacked again by spears, thrown by Montagnard warriors, one of which hits the Chief in the chest, who in his dying moments tries to strangle Willard and push him down onto the end of the spear, but Willard stops him as the Chief dies. Willard finally tells Chef and Lance about his mission, and while Chef is angry he decides to go with Kurtz and travel up river until they reach Kurtz. Once they reach Kurtz's outpost it is filled with Montgnard warriors and there are dead bodies hanging and also headless corpses lying around. Willard meets an eccentric photographer (Dennis Hopper) who praises Kurtz for his twisted genius although he does admit Kurtz can go too far as well. Willard goes back to the boat and tells Chef that he will go into Kurtz's temple with Lance but if they don't come back he is to order an airstrike. And as Willard heads toward the entrance of the temple, Kurtz's warriors surround him and they tie him up and take him to finally face Kurtz.......
There is no doubt that Apocalypse Now is one of the most memorable war films ever made, which is more of a surreal experience than a realistic war film, as it certainly doesn't fall into that category (unlike Oliver Stone's Platoon which is a far more realistic depiction). The film itself was largely inspired by Joseph Conrad's short novel, Heart of Darkness, which was based on Conrad's real life experiences as steamboat paddleboat Captain. The two main characters in Conrad's novel, Kurtz and Marlow (Willard's equivalent) work for a trading company that exploits African workers, with Kurtz going insane and eventually gaining a tribal following. The film script was written by John Milius who was inspired to write a film about the Vietnam war conflict, and the story was written back in the late 60s, but it was several years before it was to be realised as a film, with Coppola eventually taking the helm.
Getting to the film's performances, which are easily one of the film's strengths, especially with Martin Sheen who is superb in the main role as Willard, a burnt out army Captain who is given little choice in going on the mission to kill Kurtz. Sheen delivers the film's narration with such a dry tone you get the feel of a man that is so broken down in his life that the mission is just about all he has left. The narration itself, written by American author Michael Herr is both morose and witty at the same time, with Sheen getting so many great lines of dialogue to deliver. A few examples include one in the opening scene where Kurtz lies silently in his bed and we hear his narration "I hardly said a word to my wife until I said "yes" to a divorce". Later on when Willard is on the river and studying Kurtz's files as it reveals Kurtz was to be charged with murdering Vietnamese locals, and he says "Oh man, charging a guy with murder out here is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500!" and "The bullshit piled up so high in Vietnam you had to have wings to stay above it!". Sheen also has some really effective moments that show his short fuse, such as when he suddenly grabs a smart ass member of staff at the supply depot and he says "Just get us some fuel!". Also another scene is where Willard shoots the Vietnamese civilian on the boat after Clean has gone trigger happy and taken out the rest of them, and the other men look in shocked silence as Willard looks to the Chief and says "I told you not to stop, now let's go". Another favourite line of mine from Sheen is where Kilgore has some of his men out surfing during enemy fire, and Willard angrily shouts to Kilgore "Goddamnit! Don't you think this is a little risky for R and R???!!". Sheen himself also went through some serious personal torment at the time of filming as he was in the middle of a divorce, and he was drinking and smoking heavily, combined with the stress of the role, which lead to Sheen suffereing a serious heart attack during production. And in the opening scene we clearly see the real life torment he went through as he smashes the mirror in his hotel room, drinking heavily and sobbing. Sheen thankfully however soon recovered from his heart attack and eventually continued with the production.
Albert Hall as the Chief is also really good, as the Chief is a pretty straight laced, no nonsense guy who is ultimately just looking out for his crew, and he ends up butting heads with Willard as their journey progresses. Frederic Forrest is great as well as the Chef, a highly strung guy who as Willard rightly describes as "being wrapped to tight for Vietnam, and probaby also wrapped to tight for New Orleans!" (where the Chef is from). Forrest's best scene is where he and Willard go out in the jungle looking for mangos, and they are suddenly confronted by a tiger, as they both panic and run back onboard the boat, the chief asks what happened and the Chef yells "Fucking tiger!!" and "All I wanted to do was fucking cook, man! I ain't built for this shit!". I also liked the scene where Chef looks around Kurtz compound and says "He's gone crazy!" and Dennis Hopper, who plays the photographer says "Wrong wrong! If you could only have heard the man the other day! And you are gonna call him crazy???" and the Chef replies "Fuckin' A!". Sam Bottoms provides the film's most unusual performance as the spaced out Lance, a young surfer from LA who spends most of his time dropping acid or smoking dope (as he did in real life at the time during filming!). And a very young Laurence Fishburne, makes a good impression as the young Mr Clean, and his most memorable moment is of course when he dances to the radio which plays the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction". Fishburne also provides a poignan t moment in his death scene as he is killed during the enemy firefight and he lies dead and a tape mailed from his mother plays in the background while the Chief sobs cradling Clean's body. Fishburne apparently lied about his age when he was cast in the role and he was actually only 14 at the time, although by the time the film was released he was the same age as his character, 17 years old.
Dennis Hopper is also great in his role as the eccentric unnamed photograher who is in awe of Kurtz but eventually ends up leaving as he grows tired of Kurt's mood swings. And this brings up Hopper's best line as he talks gibberish to Willard in Kurtz's temple who sits reading a book and in a sudden outburst throws some food at the photohgrapher, yelling "You mutt!" which prompts the photographer to say "You see this is the way of the fucking world, you see this fucking shit we're in man??!! And with a bang and a whimper, and with a whimper I'm fucking splitting, Jack!".
Getting onto the more heavyweight performances (or The Godfather crew if you like!) Robert Duvall is great as the crazy and reckless Kilgore who commands a squadron of armed choppers. And in the film's most memorable sequence we see over a dozen choppers fly in the skies and the sound of Wagner's "The Ride of Valkeries" play in the background as Kilgore says "We'll just come up over the rising sun and then we'll play the music! I use Wagner, it scares the hell out of the slopes!". Duvall also get's some other great lines, of which his most quoted one is of course when one of his men questions his decision to surf on a pretty heavy zone occupied by VC, and Kilgore says "Charlie don't surf!". Also in the scene where they lay down the napalm strike, Duvall also get's a terrific short monologue where he talks about effects of napalm. "You smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I remember one time we had a hail bomb and after we didn't find one stinking dink body. That smell that gasoline smell, it smelled like.... victory. Some day this war's gonna end."
And finally we get onto Marlon Brando who is unforgettable in his role as the enigmatic Kurtz, a highly decorated soldier who has gone totally insane now operates outside his superiors and has command of a warrior tribe who worship him. Brando was Coppola's first choice for the role, however Brando demanded a huge fee for his work and he was paid $3.5 million for a month's work. Due to Brando being overweight, Coppola mainly had Brando filmed in the dark shadows, which definitely helps add to the effectiveness of his character. Brando's performance is in itself an enigma and his monologues are almost indicipherable in their meaning at times, but they are nonetheless quite potent, and I think his most memorable line of all is of course "The horror! The horror!" in his last moments. But for me Brando's best line is when he asks Willard if he is an assassin and Willard says he's a soldier and Kurtz replies coldly "You're neither. You're an errand boy, send by grocery clerks to collect the bill!".
As for Coppola well there is no doubt that he had done a superb job with Apocalypse Now, and there is no doubt it was the toughest, most physically and emotionally challenging film of his entire career. However Coppola in directing Apocalpyse Now produced some amazing action sequences and set pieces, particularly the attack on the Vietcong village and the amazing napalm strike, which is an unbelievable visual and one of the most visceral scenes in any war film. He also creates some bizzare imagery aswell such as where we see a cow being hoisted out on a winch by a helicopter during Kilgore's first scene, while we see a priest and some soldiers gather praying. The scene with playboy playmate models is also quite a surreal sequence where the girls dance to the sounds of "Suiz Q" before the soldiers invade the stage to try and get a leer. And the scene at the last American outpost in the river is also quite bizarre as Willard tries to find a CO (commanding officer) but instead finds a bunch of spaced out soldiers. Coppola's own trials and triabulations of making film are of course well documented in the superb documentary about the film, Hearts of Darkness. The film was also of course re-released as a director's cut, which is known as the Redux version, which features 49 minutes of extra footage, however my personal preference is the original theatrical version, which feels more taut than the Redux edition, which is rather bloated in comparison, although it does show Willard in a slightly better light.
Getting onto technical aspects of the film I cannot forget to mention the cinemaphotography by Vittorio Storaro which is absolutely stunning and features some amazing and gorgeous visuals, as Storaro employs great use of vivid colour (my favourite is when Willard first arrives at Kurtz's outpost and sees a soldier sent to kill Kurtz who turned over to his army, and there are some amazing bright orange colours in the background). Storaro also provides some incredible imagery as well including the devastating napalm strike and also the unforgettable image of Willard wearing camoflague rising out of the water and he heads to kill Kurtz. And finally another striking aspect of the film is its score which was written by Coppola and his father Carmine Coppola, which is mostly electronic and synthesizer based but it has plenty of atmospheric passages in it. Coppola also makes great use of The Door's "The End" at the start of the film as Willard meanders in his hotel room. Also the film's soundtrack for its time was quite remarkable and to this day with its incredible war scenes and moody atmospherics, Apocalpyse Now still remains a strong favourite for home cinema surround sound.
Soooooooooo after that very exhaustive post that its for my critique of Apocalypse Now which still to this day remains an incredible and surreal experience (you could almost say its the 2001 of Vietnam war films!) and if you haven't seen it and are partial to war films, please give it a go.
And I shall.... leave... it.... there. The horror.....
Bye!
Wednesday 16 October 2013
Dragon: "I'm no bastard, I'm Bruce Lee!"
So I thought I would do another post tonight as I watched a film I haven't seen in quite a while on Netflix, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, which is semi-biographical story on the life of martial artist and film star Bruce Lee. And with that let's give the film a look.....
So the film begins in Hong Kong, where Bruce Lee's father, Lee Hoi-Chen (Ric Young) has a nightmare about his son being killed by a phantom in black samurai armour that haunts Bruce Lee as a child. The film in its opening sequence shows Bruce being taught martial arts as a child and follows his progression into being a teenager. Years later as a young man, Bruce (played Jason Scott Lee) get's involved in a fight during a ballroom dance with some British sailors, and as he faces serious trouble with the police (as one of the sailors he attacked in the son of a police officer high up in the Kowloon police force) Bruce's father insists he leave Hong Kong. Bruce's father also tells him that he had a brother who died in childbirth, and he fears for his son's life that he is being persued by a demon, that preys on inner fear and if Bruce doesn't conquer those fears he may one day die. Bruce's father then decides that he should go to America as his son was born in San Francisco and as he has a US birth certificate he should be accepted as a citizen, and he asks that Bruce make name for himself over there.
As Bruce arrives in America, he get's a job as a dishwasher at a local Chinese restaurant where he get's involved in a fight with some of the staff (as he slept with one of waitresses who was one of the staff's girlfriends). As a result of the fight, the owner (Nancy Kwan) fires Bruce and gives him severance pay and some extra money as an all purpose loan, and she suggests that he invest in an education rather than throw it away. At a university he encounters some racism from the students there and get's involved in a fight, but some of the onlooking students are impressed by Bruce's skill and ask if he will teach them, which he does. As Bruce starts giving classes on campus he meets Linda Emery (Lauren Holly) and they begin dating, and they soon marry, despite Linda's disapproving mother's racist opinion of Bruce. Bruce decides to open a kung fu school, open to everyone and not just Chinese students, which causes annoyance among the other Chinese martial art schools, who insist that Bruce stop teaching to non-Chinese students as they see it as forbidden. As Bruce refuses to do so they insist he must settle this dispute in combat, where Bruce has to fight Johnny Sun (John Cheung) who Bruce manages to defeat, but San attacks Bruce from behind by kicking him in the back, which leaves Bruce seriously injured and immobolised.
In hospital while Bruce is immobilised and placed in traction, he angrily tells Linda to go away and leave him alone, but she insists that he fight back with his mind and use his recovery time to think how to fix the weaknesses of his combat technique. During this time Linda takes notes from Bruce which is later compiled into his book, based on his philosophy called Jeet Kune Do. As Bruce recovers, Linda has their first baby, Brandon, and she soon reconciles her differences with her mother when she meets them again as sees their baby. Burce some time later after his recovery makes an impressive demonstration of his Jeet Kune Do at a martial arts tournament, as he defeats Johnny Sun once again. After the match Bruce meets American producer, Bill Krieger (Robert Vaughan) who hires him to appear in the American TV show, The Green Hornet. However the TV series is soon cancelled and while Bruce and Bill come up with the idea for a show named Kung Fu, Bruce is ultimately passed over in the role and David Carradine is cast instead.
After Bruce's father dies and he attends the funeral on his way home from Hong Kong he is approached by a film producer Philip Tan (Kay Tong Lim) who tells that The Green Hornet has a following in China and that it is known as the Kato show. Tan then offers Bruce the lead part in a film, which soon turns out to be The Big Boss, although during filming, Bruce is confronted by the brother of Johnny Sun, who wants revenge and the two engage in an intense with Bruce finally winning it. On its permiere night, The Big Boss turns out to be a big success in China and Bruce soon makes more films where he works as an actor, director and writer. However this causes tensions between Bruce and Linda as she wants to return home to America, where Bruce feels angry at how he was treated in America and doesn't want to go back to that. Soon after Bruce is approached by Bill Krieger again who tells him that he has another project for him called Enter the Dragon, which would be set to make him a big star, which Bruce agrees to do. However as filming progresses Bruce soon has to face his inner demons, which could cost him dearly in the future if he doesn't confront them.
As a biopic film, Dragon is undoubtedly very entertaining and somewhat cheesy as well it has to be said, but overall it does a fine job in telling the life story of one of China's most iconic figures. And while the film is of course guilty of take cinematic licence with the real life facts of Lee's life, it balances out the events of his life pretty well and you get the gist of what he had to encounter in his time in the US, such as the racism and disapproval of his teaching methods to non-chinese students. It also shows Bruce's determination in trying to make a name for himself in the US as well as gaining the respect of the Chinese back in his home soil, as well as the struggles in his family life. And early on in production the star role was initially offered to Brandon Lee, who turned it down, and he himself sadly later was killed during the filming of The Crow, as he was fataly wounded in an accidental shooting, and the film is dedicated to his memory.
Getting onto the performances paragraph, Jason Scott Lee does an excellent job as Bruce Lee, and he plays the part with alot of warmth, charisma, compassion as well as some indignant anger at how he was treated in the US. Lee himself trained under the tuition of a former student of Bruce Lee's, Jerry Poteet, who studied Lee's Jeet Kune Do method and he does incredibly well in the physically demanding and impressively staged fight scenes. Admittedly there are moments in Lee's performance where he is a bit cheesy and he almost goes from being like an over enthusiastic puppy dog to a spoilt brat, but by large Lee does a fine job with his character role. Lee's best scenes generally come in the fight scenes, particularly in the back alley of the restaurant where he fights with the staff, as well his fight Johnny Sun and later Sun's brother, both which are really well choreographed. Lee also has a nice onscreen chemistry with Lauren Holly and they make their relationship endearing to audiences and you get that they do justice (well enough) to Bruce and Linda's real life relationship. Lee also get's some good lines, especially in the scene where he confronts some university students at the gym, as he fights one of them, and before he does he says to one of them "Don't touch me or I'll touch you back!". And when they fight and he outmanoevers the student who get's angry and says "I'll kill you, you bastard!" Lee replies "I'm no bastard, I'm Bruce Lee!".
Which brings me onto Lauren Holly who delivers a fine performance as Linda, and Bruce's partner in crime, as she plays the all American girl, who falls in love with Lee, and defies the racism around them as well as her mother's own disapproval to marry him and have a family. Holly's best scenes naturally come in her moments with Bruce where they row, particularly when Lee is in hospital recovering from his back injury, and she says to him "You are always telling me about the beauties of your culture, well let me tell you about the beauties of our culture! We love big trouble!!!". And her best scene is the next one where after they argue and she runs out the hospital distraught, she later comes back in and tells Lee to fight back and fix what is wrong with his combat technique by saying "You know everything that needs to be fixed, so fix it. Stop whining and start fighting back, fight back with your mind". Although Holly is guilty of delivering the film's worst line by far when she changes in the back seat of her friend's car to go on her first date with Bruce and she says "Well pass me the bongos, daddy'o!" in sarcastic reponse to her friend's objection to dating Lee. God.
Robert Wagner is also pretty good in his relatively brief role as Bill Krieger, who Bruce works with on The Green Hornet and later on with Enter the Dragon. Wagner has a good line where he walks in on Bruce who is doing some weird training with a typewriter with electrodes attached to his chest, and Bruce says to Bill "Its like doing 200 push ups. Do you wan't to try?" and Bill says "Nah you would just turn it up and try to electrocute me!". Nancy Kwan also does really well with her role as the restaurant owner who temporarily hires Bruce. And she shares a good scene with Lee when she pays off Bruce and gives him money for a loan and offers him two options to spend it all on the waitress he slept with named April or on an education, "Personally I hope you go with April, as I could always use a good dishwasher!".
Rob Cohen (who directed The Fast and the Furious) does a fine job here and he directs and stages the film's fight sequences really well and he also manages to keep the story and the relationship of Bruce and Linda believable and charming for an audience. The film's score is also worthy of note as it was composed by Randy Edelman and it features some pleasant and dramatic tracks, although it does sound a bit dated to its period of the early 90s, but its love theme for Bruce and Linda is regularly used in film trailers to this day so in that regard it is somewhat memorable.
Getting onto the film's flaws??? Yep there are few here, for starters the film is undeniably quite corny in places, and while it is very entertaining, some scenes do make you cringe a bit. An example is where Bruce fights the sailors and he does an amazing somersault and lands on a table full of food, and he picks up a bit of cheese cake and nibbles on it! Also during the fight scenes there is heavy use of ridiculously exaggerated sound effects, such as when Bruce prepares for his fight with Johnny Sun, he cracks his knuckles and cricks his neck, and also does push ups. Also as I mentioned it takes cinematic licence with the facts of Lee's life as an example Lee did fight for his right to teach kung fu to non chinese students in reality, although Sun was a fictional character (Lee fought martial artist Wong Jack Man in real life) but Jack did not kick Lee in the back, and Lee actually injured his back while lifting weights, so obviously the following scenes with Sun fighting Lee again and his brother seeking revenge were fictional. Another big difference is Bruce Lee's book "Tao of Jeet Kune Do" was not published until after his death, but it is depicted in the film as being published shortly after Bruce has been released from hospital. And in reality Bruce took his first American student in 1959 (named Jesse Glover) before he had even met Linda, as depicted in the film he meets Jerome Sprout (played in the film by Sterling Macer Jr, and a fictional composite character) after he and Linda have become a couple and opened their first school together.
The whole concept of Bruce's inner demons is also a bit melodramatic in the film and it seems pretty daft that Bruce's death was the result of his failure to conquer his own spiritual demons. The film at the end with Linda's narration says that "Bruce fell into a mysterious coma and died" suggesting the cause of his death was unknown. However it was well documentated that Bruce was diagnosed with cerebral edema (which is the excessive accumulation of fluid in the brain) two months before his death, which later occurred on the day of his death. So again the film strays from the facts of Bruce's death just for the sake of the whole inner demon concept, which obviously the writers went with for dramatic effect. And in reality Bruce never took up kung fu to ward off inner demons, he took up kung fu for self defence after losing a fight to bullies. (thanks to Wikipedia for all this background info!).
Anyway despite all that Dragon The Bruce Lee Story is a still a very enjoyable biopic film, and while it isn't perfect and takes certain liberties with Bruce Lee's real life story, its still worth checking out.
So with that I shall lie you there....waahhhhhhh!!
So the film begins in Hong Kong, where Bruce Lee's father, Lee Hoi-Chen (Ric Young) has a nightmare about his son being killed by a phantom in black samurai armour that haunts Bruce Lee as a child. The film in its opening sequence shows Bruce being taught martial arts as a child and follows his progression into being a teenager. Years later as a young man, Bruce (played Jason Scott Lee) get's involved in a fight during a ballroom dance with some British sailors, and as he faces serious trouble with the police (as one of the sailors he attacked in the son of a police officer high up in the Kowloon police force) Bruce's father insists he leave Hong Kong. Bruce's father also tells him that he had a brother who died in childbirth, and he fears for his son's life that he is being persued by a demon, that preys on inner fear and if Bruce doesn't conquer those fears he may one day die. Bruce's father then decides that he should go to America as his son was born in San Francisco and as he has a US birth certificate he should be accepted as a citizen, and he asks that Bruce make name for himself over there.
As Bruce arrives in America, he get's a job as a dishwasher at a local Chinese restaurant where he get's involved in a fight with some of the staff (as he slept with one of waitresses who was one of the staff's girlfriends). As a result of the fight, the owner (Nancy Kwan) fires Bruce and gives him severance pay and some extra money as an all purpose loan, and she suggests that he invest in an education rather than throw it away. At a university he encounters some racism from the students there and get's involved in a fight, but some of the onlooking students are impressed by Bruce's skill and ask if he will teach them, which he does. As Bruce starts giving classes on campus he meets Linda Emery (Lauren Holly) and they begin dating, and they soon marry, despite Linda's disapproving mother's racist opinion of Bruce. Bruce decides to open a kung fu school, open to everyone and not just Chinese students, which causes annoyance among the other Chinese martial art schools, who insist that Bruce stop teaching to non-Chinese students as they see it as forbidden. As Bruce refuses to do so they insist he must settle this dispute in combat, where Bruce has to fight Johnny Sun (John Cheung) who Bruce manages to defeat, but San attacks Bruce from behind by kicking him in the back, which leaves Bruce seriously injured and immobolised.
In hospital while Bruce is immobilised and placed in traction, he angrily tells Linda to go away and leave him alone, but she insists that he fight back with his mind and use his recovery time to think how to fix the weaknesses of his combat technique. During this time Linda takes notes from Bruce which is later compiled into his book, based on his philosophy called Jeet Kune Do. As Bruce recovers, Linda has their first baby, Brandon, and she soon reconciles her differences with her mother when she meets them again as sees their baby. Burce some time later after his recovery makes an impressive demonstration of his Jeet Kune Do at a martial arts tournament, as he defeats Johnny Sun once again. After the match Bruce meets American producer, Bill Krieger (Robert Vaughan) who hires him to appear in the American TV show, The Green Hornet. However the TV series is soon cancelled and while Bruce and Bill come up with the idea for a show named Kung Fu, Bruce is ultimately passed over in the role and David Carradine is cast instead.
After Bruce's father dies and he attends the funeral on his way home from Hong Kong he is approached by a film producer Philip Tan (Kay Tong Lim) who tells that The Green Hornet has a following in China and that it is known as the Kato show. Tan then offers Bruce the lead part in a film, which soon turns out to be The Big Boss, although during filming, Bruce is confronted by the brother of Johnny Sun, who wants revenge and the two engage in an intense with Bruce finally winning it. On its permiere night, The Big Boss turns out to be a big success in China and Bruce soon makes more films where he works as an actor, director and writer. However this causes tensions between Bruce and Linda as she wants to return home to America, where Bruce feels angry at how he was treated in America and doesn't want to go back to that. Soon after Bruce is approached by Bill Krieger again who tells him that he has another project for him called Enter the Dragon, which would be set to make him a big star, which Bruce agrees to do. However as filming progresses Bruce soon has to face his inner demons, which could cost him dearly in the future if he doesn't confront them.
As a biopic film, Dragon is undoubtedly very entertaining and somewhat cheesy as well it has to be said, but overall it does a fine job in telling the life story of one of China's most iconic figures. And while the film is of course guilty of take cinematic licence with the real life facts of Lee's life, it balances out the events of his life pretty well and you get the gist of what he had to encounter in his time in the US, such as the racism and disapproval of his teaching methods to non-chinese students. It also shows Bruce's determination in trying to make a name for himself in the US as well as gaining the respect of the Chinese back in his home soil, as well as the struggles in his family life. And early on in production the star role was initially offered to Brandon Lee, who turned it down, and he himself sadly later was killed during the filming of The Crow, as he was fataly wounded in an accidental shooting, and the film is dedicated to his memory.
Getting onto the performances paragraph, Jason Scott Lee does an excellent job as Bruce Lee, and he plays the part with alot of warmth, charisma, compassion as well as some indignant anger at how he was treated in the US. Lee himself trained under the tuition of a former student of Bruce Lee's, Jerry Poteet, who studied Lee's Jeet Kune Do method and he does incredibly well in the physically demanding and impressively staged fight scenes. Admittedly there are moments in Lee's performance where he is a bit cheesy and he almost goes from being like an over enthusiastic puppy dog to a spoilt brat, but by large Lee does a fine job with his character role. Lee's best scenes generally come in the fight scenes, particularly in the back alley of the restaurant where he fights with the staff, as well his fight Johnny Sun and later Sun's brother, both which are really well choreographed. Lee also has a nice onscreen chemistry with Lauren Holly and they make their relationship endearing to audiences and you get that they do justice (well enough) to Bruce and Linda's real life relationship. Lee also get's some good lines, especially in the scene where he confronts some university students at the gym, as he fights one of them, and before he does he says to one of them "Don't touch me or I'll touch you back!". And when they fight and he outmanoevers the student who get's angry and says "I'll kill you, you bastard!" Lee replies "I'm no bastard, I'm Bruce Lee!".
Which brings me onto Lauren Holly who delivers a fine performance as Linda, and Bruce's partner in crime, as she plays the all American girl, who falls in love with Lee, and defies the racism around them as well as her mother's own disapproval to marry him and have a family. Holly's best scenes naturally come in her moments with Bruce where they row, particularly when Lee is in hospital recovering from his back injury, and she says to him "You are always telling me about the beauties of your culture, well let me tell you about the beauties of our culture! We love big trouble!!!". And her best scene is the next one where after they argue and she runs out the hospital distraught, she later comes back in and tells Lee to fight back and fix what is wrong with his combat technique by saying "You know everything that needs to be fixed, so fix it. Stop whining and start fighting back, fight back with your mind". Although Holly is guilty of delivering the film's worst line by far when she changes in the back seat of her friend's car to go on her first date with Bruce and she says "Well pass me the bongos, daddy'o!" in sarcastic reponse to her friend's objection to dating Lee. God.
Robert Wagner is also pretty good in his relatively brief role as Bill Krieger, who Bruce works with on The Green Hornet and later on with Enter the Dragon. Wagner has a good line where he walks in on Bruce who is doing some weird training with a typewriter with electrodes attached to his chest, and Bruce says to Bill "Its like doing 200 push ups. Do you wan't to try?" and Bill says "Nah you would just turn it up and try to electrocute me!". Nancy Kwan also does really well with her role as the restaurant owner who temporarily hires Bruce. And she shares a good scene with Lee when she pays off Bruce and gives him money for a loan and offers him two options to spend it all on the waitress he slept with named April or on an education, "Personally I hope you go with April, as I could always use a good dishwasher!".
Rob Cohen (who directed The Fast and the Furious) does a fine job here and he directs and stages the film's fight sequences really well and he also manages to keep the story and the relationship of Bruce and Linda believable and charming for an audience. The film's score is also worthy of note as it was composed by Randy Edelman and it features some pleasant and dramatic tracks, although it does sound a bit dated to its period of the early 90s, but its love theme for Bruce and Linda is regularly used in film trailers to this day so in that regard it is somewhat memorable.
Getting onto the film's flaws??? Yep there are few here, for starters the film is undeniably quite corny in places, and while it is very entertaining, some scenes do make you cringe a bit. An example is where Bruce fights the sailors and he does an amazing somersault and lands on a table full of food, and he picks up a bit of cheese cake and nibbles on it! Also during the fight scenes there is heavy use of ridiculously exaggerated sound effects, such as when Bruce prepares for his fight with Johnny Sun, he cracks his knuckles and cricks his neck, and also does push ups. Also as I mentioned it takes cinematic licence with the facts of Lee's life as an example Lee did fight for his right to teach kung fu to non chinese students in reality, although Sun was a fictional character (Lee fought martial artist Wong Jack Man in real life) but Jack did not kick Lee in the back, and Lee actually injured his back while lifting weights, so obviously the following scenes with Sun fighting Lee again and his brother seeking revenge were fictional. Another big difference is Bruce Lee's book "Tao of Jeet Kune Do" was not published until after his death, but it is depicted in the film as being published shortly after Bruce has been released from hospital. And in reality Bruce took his first American student in 1959 (named Jesse Glover) before he had even met Linda, as depicted in the film he meets Jerome Sprout (played in the film by Sterling Macer Jr, and a fictional composite character) after he and Linda have become a couple and opened their first school together.
The whole concept of Bruce's inner demons is also a bit melodramatic in the film and it seems pretty daft that Bruce's death was the result of his failure to conquer his own spiritual demons. The film at the end with Linda's narration says that "Bruce fell into a mysterious coma and died" suggesting the cause of his death was unknown. However it was well documentated that Bruce was diagnosed with cerebral edema (which is the excessive accumulation of fluid in the brain) two months before his death, which later occurred on the day of his death. So again the film strays from the facts of Bruce's death just for the sake of the whole inner demon concept, which obviously the writers went with for dramatic effect. And in reality Bruce never took up kung fu to ward off inner demons, he took up kung fu for self defence after losing a fight to bullies. (thanks to Wikipedia for all this background info!).
Anyway despite all that Dragon The Bruce Lee Story is a still a very enjoyable biopic film, and while it isn't perfect and takes certain liberties with Bruce Lee's real life story, its still worth checking out.
So with that I shall lie you there....waahhhhhhh!!
Tuesday 15 October 2013
My Cousin Vinny: "What's a yewt???"
Well its mid October, the nights are drawing, its getting darker and colder out there, its a scary thought (well not really but I thought I would start with a silly and faintly dramatic sounding opening sentence!). So in an effort to keep the the gloomy dark nights at bay I thought I would do a review on a comedy, so I've opted for My Cousin Vinny, starring Joe Pesci, which was released back in 1992. So seat up, take your place in the juror box and let's have a look at this court room comedy....
So starting with the usual startings, the film begins with two college students , Billy Gambini (Ralph Macchio) and Stanley Rothenstein (Mitchell Whitfield) while heading through Beechum country in Alabama, accidentally forget to pay for a can of tuna after leaving a convenience store. However minutes after they leave the store the store owner is murdered and the police pull over Bill and Stan and detain them as they are treated as two suspects for the murder. At the station due to miscommunications and the two boys believing they have been arrested for shoplifting, Bill unwittingly and mistakenly admits to the crime (of shoplifting but asks "I shot the clerk?" which Sherriff Farley (Bruce McGill mistakes for a confession!) and as result he is booked on a charge of murder, and Stan as an accessorie to murder. In need of legal assistance, Billy speaks to mother on the phone whom tells them they have an attorney in the family, Billy's cousin, Vincent LaGuardio "Vinny" Gambini (Joe Pesci). Vinny agrees to take the case and travels up to Alabama along with fiancee Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei). However Vinny has no real experience as a lawyer and he has only recently passed the bar exam (after six attempts) and only deals in personal injur, and therefore has no trial experience whatsoever.
And to make matters worse Vinny despite convincing the courthouse judge, Chamberlain Haller (Fred Gwynne) he has the experience to take on the case, his lack of understanding of basic court procedures and somewhat abrasive nature get's him into trouble with Haller, who at the arraignment holds Vinny in contempt of court. As the case proceeds Vinny continues to infuriate Haller who puts in contempt of court again as he is put in jail overnight and is bailed out by Lisa. Vinny also eventually meets up with the prosecution lawyer and DA, Jim Trotter (Lane Smith) for a hunting trip, whom he manages to get his files for the case, without realising that he is fully entitled to, due to the procedure of full disclosure, which Lisa later on reveals to him after reading the state procedural law book that Haller gave Vinny. As the trial is set to begin, Stan decides to fire Vinny and go with the public defender (Austin Pendleton) but Vinny manages to convince Billy from not doing the same and to give him one more chance to question the first witness.
On the first day of the trial, Vinny shows up in a secondhand tuxedo (due to a mishap with it landing a muddy field) and get's in trouble with Haller again who holds him in contempt again! As the trial begins however, the public defender proves to be next to useless as he suffers from a bad stammer and fails to make an impression on the jurors. Vinny on the other hand finally shows his worth as he questions the first witness and discredits their testimony, which leads Stan to fire the public defender and go with Vinny. After this Vinny starts to become more adept in the law process as he adapts his style of questioning and learns quickly on procedure as he makes impressive progress with the remaning witnesses. However Trotter turns up with a surprise witness, a FBI analyst who provides a report that shows evidence that the tyre track marks left by the vehicle that left the scene of the crime are identical to those on Billy and Stan's car. Vinny frustrated with this information and seemingly with no way to win the case, Vinny during lunch has a row with Lisa who storms out. But back in the court house, Vinny finds a photo that holds the key to the trial which shows the tyre marks of the car could not be made by Billy's 1964 Buick Skylark, but by a different car. But in order to win the trial he will need to rely on getting Lisa back in time to take the stand and give testimony which will hold the case in the balance for Billy and Stan.
As far as amiable comedies go My Cousin Vinny certainly has plenty going for it and it was a success on its initial release both commercially and critically. The film also received plaudits from lawyers who said it was quite accurate in its potrayal of courtroom procedures and that in itself was something the director Jonathan Lynn was keen to get over, as he himself said how he hated films where they get the procedures of the law wrong. The film's comedy also works well as it simply draws on a comedy of errors, or as the tagline "a comedy of trial and error" and miscommunications of which there are plenty in the film, also combined with Vinny's amusing ignorance in the face of the law and how his argumentative nature while it get's him into alot of trouble it ultimately helps him towards his goal.
Which brings me onto the performances starting with Joe Pesci who is great in his role as Vinny, as he plays him as a good natured, intelligent, well meaning yet stubborn and argumentative guy, who bluffs his way through most of the court procedure until he begins to find his feet towards the end. Pesci has plenty of great moments in the film and plenty of good lines, and the first one that springs to mind is when he falls asleep in the court during Trotter's opening statement and then Billy wakes him up, and Vinny goes over to the jury and says "Everything that guy just said is bullshit! Thank you". And some of Vinny's funniest moments include when he first meets with Billy and Stan, and as Billy lies asleep in their cell, Vinny get's off on the wrong foot with Stan, as Stan thinks Vinny wants something else, as they talk at cross purposes, and Vinny saying "I did not just come down here to get jerked off" and "Look its me or them, you're gonna get fucked one way or another!". Also his scene out in Trotter's cabin (who Trotter lends to Vinny for the weekend) where Vinny fails to get to sleep for so many nights in a row, he is woken up by an owl, and he runs out side firing Trotter's magnum at open air, only to hear the owl squawk again. The scene where Vinny shows up in court for the day of the trial is also hilarious as he walks into the court wearing a cheesy looking tuxedo, and he explains to Haller why he is wearing it and he says to the judge "So its either wear the leather jacket, which I know you hate or this. So I wore this riduclous thing for you!". Pesci also has some fun in the courtroom scenes also, particularly in one moment where he questions an old lady who wears thick lens glasses, and he asks her to make an ID of how many fingers he holds up from 50 feet away, and Haller interrupts his questioning, and Vinny says "Right, Mrs Reilly, and this time ONLY Mrs Reilly!". And Pesci's exchanges with Fred Gwynne also prove to be some of the real highlights in the film, and in one scene where Haller asks Vinny "Now didn't I tell last time you were to dress appropraitely?" Vinny replies "You were serious about that??" and finds himself going to slammer for contempt on the bus with Billy and Stan!
Getting onto other performances, Marisa Tomei is also great in her role as Vinny's long suffering girlfriend, who has worked as a mechanic in her father's garage and has extensive automotive knowledge. Whether or not Marisa's performance warrants on Oscar or not is up for debate but there is no doubt she brings a great mixture of being sassy, sexy and above all very intelligent, and when it comes to holding an argument she is Vinny's equal. Tomei has a few standout moments in the film, which include "biological clock" scene where she complains to Vinny about how she thinks they will never get married. And also there is the scene where she get's her best line in the whole film when Vinny says to her that he is going out hunting with Trotter and she disagrees with him and storms out the room. And when Vinny asks her about what she thinks about the pants he is wearing (or trousers to us Brits and Scots!) she comes out and says "Imagine you are a dear, you spot a brook and put your little lips to the soft water. BAM!! A fucking bullet rips part of your head off, and your brains are lying on the ground in little bloody pieces! Now I ask you, would you give a fuck what kind of pants the son of a bitch who shot you was wearing??!!!". Tomei's main highlight of course would have to be her courtroom scene where she (unwillingly) gives testimony for Vinny and at first when Haller asks her to answer Vinny's questions she says "No, I hate him!" and Vinny asks if he can treat her as a hostile witness and Lisa relies "You think I'm hostile just now, wait till you see me tonight!".
In other performances Fred Gwynne is terrific in his role as the cranky old judge, Haller, who takes an instant disliking towards Vinny and his cavalier attitude to the law. This was also sadly Gwynne's final performance on film before his death the following year in 1993. Gwynne's exchanges with Pesci are clearly some of the film's funniest moments, especially in the scene with the arraignment where he pulls up Vinny for just about everything, from his appearance to his lack of knowledge on proper procedure and he says "It appears to me you want to skip the arraignment, skip trial and ask for a dismissal!" and "The next words I want to hear out of you are either guilty or not guilty. It don't wanna hear commentary or argument. I don't even wan't to hear you clear your throat!". And in the moment where Vinny questions the first witness and he says "Is it possible that the two youths..." and cause of his accent Haller has to ask Vinny what he ssaid, "Did you say a yewt What's a yewt?" and Vinny sarcastically replies "Oh I'm sorry your honor. Two youths!". Also later in the scene where Lisa takes the stands and he asks if Vinny and Lisa know each other and Vinny says "Yeah she is my fiancee!" and Haller smiles and says "Well that certainly explains the hostility!".
Ralph Macchio also does fine with his role as the innocent college kid, Billy, who ends up on trial for his life, and Ralph despite being 31 or 32 at the time, with his everlasting youthful looks manages to continue playing teenagers or youngsters in their early 20s! Macchio get's a nice scene where he tells Vinny he is thinking of going with the public defender instead and Vinny convinces him to give him one more chance. Mitchell Whitfield also does well in his role as Stan, Billy's college buddy, who is something of a neurotic guy who has an amusing line when they are arrested and Stan calls his mother and Stan interrupts their call saying "They're all inbred here, they sleep with their sisters!" which get's some disproving looks from the police station staff and Stan looks awkwardly and says "well some of them do!". Lane Smith also puts in a fine performance as the DA, Jim Trotter, and he provides an unusual quirkiness to his role in his delivery, such as the scene where the FBI anaylst reveals the tyre marks of the accused's car to be identical to the marks of the tyres found after the killer's made their getaway and he says "I----dentical!" as he smacks his hands in between the "I" and "identical" which displays Smith's unique qualities as an actor.
Austin Pendelton also gives a funny performance as the nervy public defender who suffers from a bad stammer and he get's a bad case of nerves in front of the jury on the first day of the trial as he tries to address them "Ladies and gentlmen of the jjjjjjjjjjjj...jury!" and later to one of the witnesses "could you make a positive iiiiiiiiiiiiiii-identification?". And after his nervy display and after he fails to impress Stan by nervously questioning the first witness, the defender sits down and says "Boy he's a tough one!" and Stan complains to him, and the defender says "I get a little nervous. I'm getting better!". And lastly Bruce McGill who is (and I hate this word!) a stalwart actor also provides a fine performance as Sherrif Farley, who has an amusing scene where he questions Billy near the start of the film, where he asks "At what point did you shoot the clerk?" and Billy looks stumped and says "I shot the clerk?!". And Farley mistakes this for a confession and he is called away from the room and he says "I'm in the middle of a damn confession here!".
As for Jonathan Lynn as the director he does a fine job, as he is no stranger to comedy, having previously been behind Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister as well as directing Nuns on the run (with Robbie Coltrane and Eric Idle). Lynn keeps the film's tone nice and light hearted and only in one or two scenes does he highlight the danger the two young college lads are in, such as the scene where Billy and Stan see the lights dim in their cell as the electric chair is used elsewhere in the prison. But for the most part Lynn get's the tone of the comedy just right and he keeps the film moving at a nice pace which only occassionally lags.
So flaws??? Does My Cousin Vinny have any??? Well no film is perfect (well almost no film! ;-) and perhaps if you want to be really picky you could get argue there are some moments where the film's logic and timeframe is a bit muddled. For starters in the last scene where Lisa reveals that she called Vinny's old friend, Judge Molloy, she put in a good word for Vinny as he gave his nickname as a lawyer as "Jimmy Callo" correcting Jimmy Gallo, who had died. But had Vinny actually at any time in the film tell her that he changed his fake name from Gallo to Callo?? Its not really that relevant and perhaps Vinny could have told her that anytime, but it always struck me as odd that she knew the difference. Also in the scene where Vinny and Lisa argue over a dripping tap and if Lisa turned the tap firmly enough to fully shut it off, she goes through a whole spiel of how the engineers who installed the taps made sure it was "dead on balls accurate" for turning on and off or for "torquage". But instead of arguing about it, why didn't Vinny just get out of bed and go over twist the tap to see if it would stop dripping or not, rather than make a song and dance about it! The film also does feel a bit padded length wise aswell and it does take its time before we finally get to the courtroom scenes and to the nitty gritty of the film, with some inconsequential moments in the film such as Vinny arguing with a town local who owes Lisa money for a game of pool, which he comes to a few times before Vinny finally pounces on him and takes the money, which is admittedly quite funny.
But all that aside My Cousin Vinny is still a very enjoyable and light hearted comedy which stilll stands up well 21 years after it was made and if you fancy a laugh its certainly worth checking out.
So that's it for now.
So starting with the usual startings, the film begins with two college students , Billy Gambini (Ralph Macchio) and Stanley Rothenstein (Mitchell Whitfield) while heading through Beechum country in Alabama, accidentally forget to pay for a can of tuna after leaving a convenience store. However minutes after they leave the store the store owner is murdered and the police pull over Bill and Stan and detain them as they are treated as two suspects for the murder. At the station due to miscommunications and the two boys believing they have been arrested for shoplifting, Bill unwittingly and mistakenly admits to the crime (of shoplifting but asks "I shot the clerk?" which Sherriff Farley (Bruce McGill mistakes for a confession!) and as result he is booked on a charge of murder, and Stan as an accessorie to murder. In need of legal assistance, Billy speaks to mother on the phone whom tells them they have an attorney in the family, Billy's cousin, Vincent LaGuardio "Vinny" Gambini (Joe Pesci). Vinny agrees to take the case and travels up to Alabama along with fiancee Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei). However Vinny has no real experience as a lawyer and he has only recently passed the bar exam (after six attempts) and only deals in personal injur, and therefore has no trial experience whatsoever.
And to make matters worse Vinny despite convincing the courthouse judge, Chamberlain Haller (Fred Gwynne) he has the experience to take on the case, his lack of understanding of basic court procedures and somewhat abrasive nature get's him into trouble with Haller, who at the arraignment holds Vinny in contempt of court. As the case proceeds Vinny continues to infuriate Haller who puts in contempt of court again as he is put in jail overnight and is bailed out by Lisa. Vinny also eventually meets up with the prosecution lawyer and DA, Jim Trotter (Lane Smith) for a hunting trip, whom he manages to get his files for the case, without realising that he is fully entitled to, due to the procedure of full disclosure, which Lisa later on reveals to him after reading the state procedural law book that Haller gave Vinny. As the trial is set to begin, Stan decides to fire Vinny and go with the public defender (Austin Pendleton) but Vinny manages to convince Billy from not doing the same and to give him one more chance to question the first witness.
On the first day of the trial, Vinny shows up in a secondhand tuxedo (due to a mishap with it landing a muddy field) and get's in trouble with Haller again who holds him in contempt again! As the trial begins however, the public defender proves to be next to useless as he suffers from a bad stammer and fails to make an impression on the jurors. Vinny on the other hand finally shows his worth as he questions the first witness and discredits their testimony, which leads Stan to fire the public defender and go with Vinny. After this Vinny starts to become more adept in the law process as he adapts his style of questioning and learns quickly on procedure as he makes impressive progress with the remaning witnesses. However Trotter turns up with a surprise witness, a FBI analyst who provides a report that shows evidence that the tyre track marks left by the vehicle that left the scene of the crime are identical to those on Billy and Stan's car. Vinny frustrated with this information and seemingly with no way to win the case, Vinny during lunch has a row with Lisa who storms out. But back in the court house, Vinny finds a photo that holds the key to the trial which shows the tyre marks of the car could not be made by Billy's 1964 Buick Skylark, but by a different car. But in order to win the trial he will need to rely on getting Lisa back in time to take the stand and give testimony which will hold the case in the balance for Billy and Stan.
As far as amiable comedies go My Cousin Vinny certainly has plenty going for it and it was a success on its initial release both commercially and critically. The film also received plaudits from lawyers who said it was quite accurate in its potrayal of courtroom procedures and that in itself was something the director Jonathan Lynn was keen to get over, as he himself said how he hated films where they get the procedures of the law wrong. The film's comedy also works well as it simply draws on a comedy of errors, or as the tagline "a comedy of trial and error" and miscommunications of which there are plenty in the film, also combined with Vinny's amusing ignorance in the face of the law and how his argumentative nature while it get's him into alot of trouble it ultimately helps him towards his goal.
Which brings me onto the performances starting with Joe Pesci who is great in his role as Vinny, as he plays him as a good natured, intelligent, well meaning yet stubborn and argumentative guy, who bluffs his way through most of the court procedure until he begins to find his feet towards the end. Pesci has plenty of great moments in the film and plenty of good lines, and the first one that springs to mind is when he falls asleep in the court during Trotter's opening statement and then Billy wakes him up, and Vinny goes over to the jury and says "Everything that guy just said is bullshit! Thank you". And some of Vinny's funniest moments include when he first meets with Billy and Stan, and as Billy lies asleep in their cell, Vinny get's off on the wrong foot with Stan, as Stan thinks Vinny wants something else, as they talk at cross purposes, and Vinny saying "I did not just come down here to get jerked off" and "Look its me or them, you're gonna get fucked one way or another!". Also his scene out in Trotter's cabin (who Trotter lends to Vinny for the weekend) where Vinny fails to get to sleep for so many nights in a row, he is woken up by an owl, and he runs out side firing Trotter's magnum at open air, only to hear the owl squawk again. The scene where Vinny shows up in court for the day of the trial is also hilarious as he walks into the court wearing a cheesy looking tuxedo, and he explains to Haller why he is wearing it and he says to the judge "So its either wear the leather jacket, which I know you hate or this. So I wore this riduclous thing for you!". Pesci also has some fun in the courtroom scenes also, particularly in one moment where he questions an old lady who wears thick lens glasses, and he asks her to make an ID of how many fingers he holds up from 50 feet away, and Haller interrupts his questioning, and Vinny says "Right, Mrs Reilly, and this time ONLY Mrs Reilly!". And Pesci's exchanges with Fred Gwynne also prove to be some of the real highlights in the film, and in one scene where Haller asks Vinny "Now didn't I tell last time you were to dress appropraitely?" Vinny replies "You were serious about that??" and finds himself going to slammer for contempt on the bus with Billy and Stan!
Getting onto other performances, Marisa Tomei is also great in her role as Vinny's long suffering girlfriend, who has worked as a mechanic in her father's garage and has extensive automotive knowledge. Whether or not Marisa's performance warrants on Oscar or not is up for debate but there is no doubt she brings a great mixture of being sassy, sexy and above all very intelligent, and when it comes to holding an argument she is Vinny's equal. Tomei has a few standout moments in the film, which include "biological clock" scene where she complains to Vinny about how she thinks they will never get married. And also there is the scene where she get's her best line in the whole film when Vinny says to her that he is going out hunting with Trotter and she disagrees with him and storms out the room. And when Vinny asks her about what she thinks about the pants he is wearing (or trousers to us Brits and Scots!) she comes out and says "Imagine you are a dear, you spot a brook and put your little lips to the soft water. BAM!! A fucking bullet rips part of your head off, and your brains are lying on the ground in little bloody pieces! Now I ask you, would you give a fuck what kind of pants the son of a bitch who shot you was wearing??!!!". Tomei's main highlight of course would have to be her courtroom scene where she (unwillingly) gives testimony for Vinny and at first when Haller asks her to answer Vinny's questions she says "No, I hate him!" and Vinny asks if he can treat her as a hostile witness and Lisa relies "You think I'm hostile just now, wait till you see me tonight!".
In other performances Fred Gwynne is terrific in his role as the cranky old judge, Haller, who takes an instant disliking towards Vinny and his cavalier attitude to the law. This was also sadly Gwynne's final performance on film before his death the following year in 1993. Gwynne's exchanges with Pesci are clearly some of the film's funniest moments, especially in the scene with the arraignment where he pulls up Vinny for just about everything, from his appearance to his lack of knowledge on proper procedure and he says "It appears to me you want to skip the arraignment, skip trial and ask for a dismissal!" and "The next words I want to hear out of you are either guilty or not guilty. It don't wanna hear commentary or argument. I don't even wan't to hear you clear your throat!". And in the moment where Vinny questions the first witness and he says "Is it possible that the two youths..." and cause of his accent Haller has to ask Vinny what he ssaid, "Did you say a yewt What's a yewt?" and Vinny sarcastically replies "Oh I'm sorry your honor. Two youths!". Also later in the scene where Lisa takes the stands and he asks if Vinny and Lisa know each other and Vinny says "Yeah she is my fiancee!" and Haller smiles and says "Well that certainly explains the hostility!".
Ralph Macchio also does fine with his role as the innocent college kid, Billy, who ends up on trial for his life, and Ralph despite being 31 or 32 at the time, with his everlasting youthful looks manages to continue playing teenagers or youngsters in their early 20s! Macchio get's a nice scene where he tells Vinny he is thinking of going with the public defender instead and Vinny convinces him to give him one more chance. Mitchell Whitfield also does well in his role as Stan, Billy's college buddy, who is something of a neurotic guy who has an amusing line when they are arrested and Stan calls his mother and Stan interrupts their call saying "They're all inbred here, they sleep with their sisters!" which get's some disproving looks from the police station staff and Stan looks awkwardly and says "well some of them do!". Lane Smith also puts in a fine performance as the DA, Jim Trotter, and he provides an unusual quirkiness to his role in his delivery, such as the scene where the FBI anaylst reveals the tyre marks of the accused's car to be identical to the marks of the tyres found after the killer's made their getaway and he says "I----dentical!" as he smacks his hands in between the "I" and "identical" which displays Smith's unique qualities as an actor.
Austin Pendelton also gives a funny performance as the nervy public defender who suffers from a bad stammer and he get's a bad case of nerves in front of the jury on the first day of the trial as he tries to address them "Ladies and gentlmen of the jjjjjjjjjjjj...jury!" and later to one of the witnesses "could you make a positive iiiiiiiiiiiiiii-identification?". And after his nervy display and after he fails to impress Stan by nervously questioning the first witness, the defender sits down and says "Boy he's a tough one!" and Stan complains to him, and the defender says "I get a little nervous. I'm getting better!". And lastly Bruce McGill who is (and I hate this word!) a stalwart actor also provides a fine performance as Sherrif Farley, who has an amusing scene where he questions Billy near the start of the film, where he asks "At what point did you shoot the clerk?" and Billy looks stumped and says "I shot the clerk?!". And Farley mistakes this for a confession and he is called away from the room and he says "I'm in the middle of a damn confession here!".
As for Jonathan Lynn as the director he does a fine job, as he is no stranger to comedy, having previously been behind Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister as well as directing Nuns on the run (with Robbie Coltrane and Eric Idle). Lynn keeps the film's tone nice and light hearted and only in one or two scenes does he highlight the danger the two young college lads are in, such as the scene where Billy and Stan see the lights dim in their cell as the electric chair is used elsewhere in the prison. But for the most part Lynn get's the tone of the comedy just right and he keeps the film moving at a nice pace which only occassionally lags.
So flaws??? Does My Cousin Vinny have any??? Well no film is perfect (well almost no film! ;-) and perhaps if you want to be really picky you could get argue there are some moments where the film's logic and timeframe is a bit muddled. For starters in the last scene where Lisa reveals that she called Vinny's old friend, Judge Molloy, she put in a good word for Vinny as he gave his nickname as a lawyer as "Jimmy Callo" correcting Jimmy Gallo, who had died. But had Vinny actually at any time in the film tell her that he changed his fake name from Gallo to Callo?? Its not really that relevant and perhaps Vinny could have told her that anytime, but it always struck me as odd that she knew the difference. Also in the scene where Vinny and Lisa argue over a dripping tap and if Lisa turned the tap firmly enough to fully shut it off, she goes through a whole spiel of how the engineers who installed the taps made sure it was "dead on balls accurate" for turning on and off or for "torquage". But instead of arguing about it, why didn't Vinny just get out of bed and go over twist the tap to see if it would stop dripping or not, rather than make a song and dance about it! The film also does feel a bit padded length wise aswell and it does take its time before we finally get to the courtroom scenes and to the nitty gritty of the film, with some inconsequential moments in the film such as Vinny arguing with a town local who owes Lisa money for a game of pool, which he comes to a few times before Vinny finally pounces on him and takes the money, which is admittedly quite funny.
But all that aside My Cousin Vinny is still a very enjoyable and light hearted comedy which stilll stands up well 21 years after it was made and if you fancy a laugh its certainly worth checking out.
So that's it for now.
Thursday 10 October 2013
Minority report: precognition
Righy ok decided to do a few reviews in a row to make up for some lost time (not all in one night of course as it takes me about half a night to do these believe it or not!). Anyway so I thought I would go for a sci-fi thriller, and this one is Minority Report starring Tom Cruise and directed by Steven Spielberg. So let's gie it a look....
OK so the film is set in the future in the year 2054 in Washington D.C. and its main character, John Anderon (Tom Cruise) is the chief of a police force known as pre-crime. Pre-crime is given its name as they use three genetically mutated humans who have precognitive abilities, and with them the force are able to prevent crimes before they happen as the "precogs" can see them prior to them taking place. Anderton is well respected in his department however unknown to them he is outside his work addicted to a psychoactive drug called clarity, which has been taking since the disappearance of his son six years ago. With the success of pre-crime in Washington, it is is set to go nationwide, as there hasn't been a recorded murder there for six years. Before this though the system is audited by a member of the United States Justice Department, Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) who is concerned by flaws in the system, even though Anderton insists it is perfect. Shortly after Witwer's depature, the precogs predict that Anderton will murder a man named Leo Crowe in 36 years, on which Anderton flees the building, believing that he was set up by Witwer.
After eluding his men and Witwer, Anderton goes to visit Dr Iris Hineman (Lois Smith) the lead researcher for pre-crime technology. Hineman reveals to Anderton that sometimes the three precogs can actually see different versions of the future, on which two sets of the data are used to reach an agreement, and the other vision is discarded as a "minority" report, which could see the predicted killer actually carry out different actions in the future. Anderton asks which precog would see this minority report and Hineman says it would be in Agatha (Samantha Morton) the most talented of the three. After this Anderton decides to undergo eye replacement surgery so he won't be detected by the city's optical recognition system and then gains entry to the precrime police department where he kidnaps Agatha. Anderton takes Agatha to a hacker, who wires her up to see if she has a minority report for him, but she doesn't however she suddenly receives an image of the murder of a woman named Anne Lively, which Agatha previously showed to Anderton the day before he was incriminated.
Anderon heads with Agatha to the apartment where he is supposed to kill Crow, and on entering the room Anderton finds hundreds of pictures of children, one of which is Andeton's son, Sean. Anderton then soon accepts that he is supposed to murder Crow, who suddenly enters room, and Anderton holds him at gunpoint but decides to let him live. Crow however then tells Anderton that he is supposed to kill him and if he doesn't his family won't receive a bif payoff. Anderton refuses to kill Crow, but Crow instead grabs the gun and shoots himself, falling out the window, bringing the vision to light. Anderton then flees with Agatha and goes to his ex-wife for help (Kathryn Morris) where he learns from Agatha that the image of Anne Lively that was actually another murder, and that Lively was Agatha's drug addicted mother. However at this point the police catch up with Anderton, who arrest him and take Agatha back and place her back into the system. Witwer however is not convinced that Anderton could have killed Crow and also examines the footage of Anne Lively's murder, realising that the ripples of the water are flowing in the wrong way in the footage (as Anne was drowned) it suggests, the killing took place at a different time, and what appears to have happened is the recording would have been wiped as an "echo" so the system wouldn't have caught it. Witwer than deduces that someone high up with access would have done this, and as he approaches the director of precrime, Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow) with this information, Lamar kills Witwer, revealing that he was the one that committed the Anne Lively murder, and he framed Anderton with Crow's murder. And from here its up to Anderton to try and find a way to free himself and put an end to Lamar's scheme to use precrime for his own ends and to expose his corruption.
Based on the short novel by science fiction writer, Philip K.Dick, Minority Report is an excellent sci-fi thriller, and it easily stands as one of Steven Spielberg's best films in recent years, after spending some time having made some decidedly average films since making the powerful holocaust drama, Schindler's List. The plot itself is pretty convoluted but it does tell an interesting story and the concept of precrime is quite original in itself. And again the film's theme of alternate existances and choices is what also helps make Minority Report an intruiging film in that there is that slight chance of one person that is arrested and tried might not necessarily be guilty of murder and who's actions might not have gone according to the precog's visions. And at one point Anderton recognises this as he says to Dr Hineman that he might have "haloed" (a headset used to incapacitate criminals and later they are sent into a sleep state in a prison encasing) people with an alternate future. And its to Spielberg's credit that he was able to take Dick's novel and turn it into an effective and suspenseful film.
Which brings me onto the film's performances and to begin with Tom Cruise, who is pretty good in the lead role as John Anderton. Cruise play's Anderon in a pretty straight laced way and who is mostly a serious character with a sad past, and while he is well respected in his job he mourns for the loss of his son Sean, who disappeared six years previously. Cruise does have some good scenes of course, and he has one or two good lines also, my favourite is probably in the scene where he tells the black market surgeon (played by Peter Stromare) who operates on his eyes, that he wants to keep his orignal eyes and the surgeon asks why and Anderton replies "because my mother gave them to me!". Cruise for the most part does alot of running, and he does actually have one or two entertaining chase scenes, especially where he tries to flee from the precrime police force just after he learns of the precog vision of his murdering Crow. And when his own police team mates corner him, they say he doesn't have to run and Anderton says "everybody runs". Cruise also has some amusing moments in the film such as after his eye operation, he has to wear bandages for 12 hours or he will go blind if he doesn't, and the surgeon tells him he left a sandwich and some milk for him, but as he is unable to set through the bandages, Anderton blindly opens the fridge and picks up a moldy green sandwich and takes a bit instead, spitting it out, he grabs a sour green bottle of milk, which he drinks and spits that out! Another good moment in Cruise's performance is when he confronts Crow over his son's disappearance and he has to hold himself back from killing him, and in the end he decides to read Crow his rights, before the precog vision sort of comes true.
Max von Sydow is excellent in his role as the corrupt director of precrime, Lamar Burgess, who on the surface acts as Anderton's benefactor, but he ends up framing him to take the fall for Crow's murder and for the murder of Agatha's mother, Ann Lively. Sydow's best scene is where Witwer tells him what he has discovered about the Crow crime scene and Anne Lively's murder, and Lamar says "Do you hear that sound? Nothing. No sound of boots, no clickety click sound of little spyders (robotic creatures used for IDing suspects), because right now the precogs they can't see a thing" and he proceeds to shoot Witwer in the chest. Colin Farrell who was just starting to make a name for himself back then also puts in a good turn as the ambitious young justice department member Danny Witwer, who in the end turns out to be clever for his own good. Farrell also effects a pretty decent American accent in the film, although he makes a rather strange reference to Witwer's father having being killed on the steps of his home church in Dublin, which suggests Witwer's character is of Irish heritage although perhaps they just added that in for Farrell given that his is Irish!
As for the other performances, Samantha Morton is very good as the precog Agatha, who spends most of her time in a docile state until she sees the vision of her mother Anne Lively and grabs Anderton to show hiim, after this she is in a state of panic when Anderton kidnaps here. Morton's performance is also quite poignant as she reveals in one scene how she is "tired of the future" and she recalls the memories of her mother before she was killed. Agatha's ability to predict future events also proves to be quite amusing in the mall scene where Anderton and Agatha try to evade the police, and while they walk through the mall she suddenly stops a woman and says "don't go home, he knows!" and he get's Anderton to drop a tramp some change as the police chase after them, as the tramp leans over to pick it up, he unwittingly trips up one of the cops! Kathryn Morris also does well with her role as Lara, Anderton's ex-wife, and she ends up helping Anderton, and she has a good scene with Colin Farrell when Witwer visits her and asks about the disappearance of their son and how Anderton dealt with it and she says "well if you lose a six year old son, let's see how well you deal with it!". And lastly I will mention Peter Stormare as the dodgy doctor, Eddie Solomon who performs Anderton's eye operations, and he tells him he will leave the sandwich in the fridge with some milk, and he shows him a plastic with Anderton's removed eyes "along with your leftovers!". Stormare also makes an impression in his first scene in the film as he sneezes violently producing a very unpleasant amount of snot in the process and he says "Aghh! This cold is killing me!". Its a typical yucky moment from Spielberg of course!
Which brings me onto Steven Spielberg who does a great job with Minority Report as he takes the film's complex storyline and turns it into an engaging and exciting thriller. Spielberg who has never been a stranger to action, stages the action scenes in the film very well, and he opens up the film nicely with its tense opening sequence where we see Anderton and his team work toward preventing a suburban murder, when a man catches his wife cheating on him. Spielberg also throws in some amusing touches in the film as well, which is typical in alot of his films such as the scene where the police set their electronic spyder devices to eye scan everyone in the apartment block where they suspect Anderton might be. And the spyders move right through the building, IDing a couple who are in the middle of a row, who wait to be checked by the spyders and who simply go back to having their row! Moving onto the film's score, which was composed by John Williams which is really good as you would expect, and Williams provides a great balance of suspense and drama in his music, which sees his partnership with Spielberg as strong and unwavering as before.
So as for Minority Report's flaws, any at all???? Nope its perfect. Actually no not quite, I don't have too many problems with it however, perhaps one that springs to mind is that the film's ending feels out of tone with the rest of what has went before, as it is almost a "they live happily ever" after moment (or as close as the story will allow). And Spielberg with the ending is a bit guilty of using sentimentality as he often does in his films at times, which does kind of undermine the effectiveness of what went before consdering the rest of the film is very good. Spielberg also does allow for some rather silly moments in the film as well, one such moment is in the scene where Anderton is chased by the police, who are wearing jetpacks and he grabs one of the police officers and piggybacks on them and using their jetpack booster to blast through the ceiling of one of the apartment flats, barging in on a family having their dinner! Also the film's photography doesn't really lend aesthetically well to the proceedings as it has a rather hideously disaturated look, and the cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (who also did Saving Private Ryan which had the same sort of bleak visual look) overdoes the colour grading technique employed here.
But that aside Minortiy Report is a very entertaining sci-fi thriller which is well worth checking out.
So on that note I will bid you farewellie!
OK so the film is set in the future in the year 2054 in Washington D.C. and its main character, John Anderon (Tom Cruise) is the chief of a police force known as pre-crime. Pre-crime is given its name as they use three genetically mutated humans who have precognitive abilities, and with them the force are able to prevent crimes before they happen as the "precogs" can see them prior to them taking place. Anderton is well respected in his department however unknown to them he is outside his work addicted to a psychoactive drug called clarity, which has been taking since the disappearance of his son six years ago. With the success of pre-crime in Washington, it is is set to go nationwide, as there hasn't been a recorded murder there for six years. Before this though the system is audited by a member of the United States Justice Department, Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) who is concerned by flaws in the system, even though Anderton insists it is perfect. Shortly after Witwer's depature, the precogs predict that Anderton will murder a man named Leo Crowe in 36 years, on which Anderton flees the building, believing that he was set up by Witwer.
After eluding his men and Witwer, Anderton goes to visit Dr Iris Hineman (Lois Smith) the lead researcher for pre-crime technology. Hineman reveals to Anderton that sometimes the three precogs can actually see different versions of the future, on which two sets of the data are used to reach an agreement, and the other vision is discarded as a "minority" report, which could see the predicted killer actually carry out different actions in the future. Anderton asks which precog would see this minority report and Hineman says it would be in Agatha (Samantha Morton) the most talented of the three. After this Anderton decides to undergo eye replacement surgery so he won't be detected by the city's optical recognition system and then gains entry to the precrime police department where he kidnaps Agatha. Anderton takes Agatha to a hacker, who wires her up to see if she has a minority report for him, but she doesn't however she suddenly receives an image of the murder of a woman named Anne Lively, which Agatha previously showed to Anderton the day before he was incriminated.
Anderon heads with Agatha to the apartment where he is supposed to kill Crow, and on entering the room Anderton finds hundreds of pictures of children, one of which is Andeton's son, Sean. Anderton then soon accepts that he is supposed to murder Crow, who suddenly enters room, and Anderton holds him at gunpoint but decides to let him live. Crow however then tells Anderton that he is supposed to kill him and if he doesn't his family won't receive a bif payoff. Anderton refuses to kill Crow, but Crow instead grabs the gun and shoots himself, falling out the window, bringing the vision to light. Anderton then flees with Agatha and goes to his ex-wife for help (Kathryn Morris) where he learns from Agatha that the image of Anne Lively that was actually another murder, and that Lively was Agatha's drug addicted mother. However at this point the police catch up with Anderton, who arrest him and take Agatha back and place her back into the system. Witwer however is not convinced that Anderton could have killed Crow and also examines the footage of Anne Lively's murder, realising that the ripples of the water are flowing in the wrong way in the footage (as Anne was drowned) it suggests, the killing took place at a different time, and what appears to have happened is the recording would have been wiped as an "echo" so the system wouldn't have caught it. Witwer than deduces that someone high up with access would have done this, and as he approaches the director of precrime, Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow) with this information, Lamar kills Witwer, revealing that he was the one that committed the Anne Lively murder, and he framed Anderton with Crow's murder. And from here its up to Anderton to try and find a way to free himself and put an end to Lamar's scheme to use precrime for his own ends and to expose his corruption.
Based on the short novel by science fiction writer, Philip K.Dick, Minority Report is an excellent sci-fi thriller, and it easily stands as one of Steven Spielberg's best films in recent years, after spending some time having made some decidedly average films since making the powerful holocaust drama, Schindler's List. The plot itself is pretty convoluted but it does tell an interesting story and the concept of precrime is quite original in itself. And again the film's theme of alternate existances and choices is what also helps make Minority Report an intruiging film in that there is that slight chance of one person that is arrested and tried might not necessarily be guilty of murder and who's actions might not have gone according to the precog's visions. And at one point Anderton recognises this as he says to Dr Hineman that he might have "haloed" (a headset used to incapacitate criminals and later they are sent into a sleep state in a prison encasing) people with an alternate future. And its to Spielberg's credit that he was able to take Dick's novel and turn it into an effective and suspenseful film.
Which brings me onto the film's performances and to begin with Tom Cruise, who is pretty good in the lead role as John Anderton. Cruise play's Anderon in a pretty straight laced way and who is mostly a serious character with a sad past, and while he is well respected in his job he mourns for the loss of his son Sean, who disappeared six years previously. Cruise does have some good scenes of course, and he has one or two good lines also, my favourite is probably in the scene where he tells the black market surgeon (played by Peter Stromare) who operates on his eyes, that he wants to keep his orignal eyes and the surgeon asks why and Anderton replies "because my mother gave them to me!". Cruise for the most part does alot of running, and he does actually have one or two entertaining chase scenes, especially where he tries to flee from the precrime police force just after he learns of the precog vision of his murdering Crow. And when his own police team mates corner him, they say he doesn't have to run and Anderton says "everybody runs". Cruise also has some amusing moments in the film such as after his eye operation, he has to wear bandages for 12 hours or he will go blind if he doesn't, and the surgeon tells him he left a sandwich and some milk for him, but as he is unable to set through the bandages, Anderton blindly opens the fridge and picks up a moldy green sandwich and takes a bit instead, spitting it out, he grabs a sour green bottle of milk, which he drinks and spits that out! Another good moment in Cruise's performance is when he confronts Crow over his son's disappearance and he has to hold himself back from killing him, and in the end he decides to read Crow his rights, before the precog vision sort of comes true.
Max von Sydow is excellent in his role as the corrupt director of precrime, Lamar Burgess, who on the surface acts as Anderton's benefactor, but he ends up framing him to take the fall for Crow's murder and for the murder of Agatha's mother, Ann Lively. Sydow's best scene is where Witwer tells him what he has discovered about the Crow crime scene and Anne Lively's murder, and Lamar says "Do you hear that sound? Nothing. No sound of boots, no clickety click sound of little spyders (robotic creatures used for IDing suspects), because right now the precogs they can't see a thing" and he proceeds to shoot Witwer in the chest. Colin Farrell who was just starting to make a name for himself back then also puts in a good turn as the ambitious young justice department member Danny Witwer, who in the end turns out to be clever for his own good. Farrell also effects a pretty decent American accent in the film, although he makes a rather strange reference to Witwer's father having being killed on the steps of his home church in Dublin, which suggests Witwer's character is of Irish heritage although perhaps they just added that in for Farrell given that his is Irish!
As for the other performances, Samantha Morton is very good as the precog Agatha, who spends most of her time in a docile state until she sees the vision of her mother Anne Lively and grabs Anderton to show hiim, after this she is in a state of panic when Anderton kidnaps here. Morton's performance is also quite poignant as she reveals in one scene how she is "tired of the future" and she recalls the memories of her mother before she was killed. Agatha's ability to predict future events also proves to be quite amusing in the mall scene where Anderton and Agatha try to evade the police, and while they walk through the mall she suddenly stops a woman and says "don't go home, he knows!" and he get's Anderton to drop a tramp some change as the police chase after them, as the tramp leans over to pick it up, he unwittingly trips up one of the cops! Kathryn Morris also does well with her role as Lara, Anderton's ex-wife, and she ends up helping Anderton, and she has a good scene with Colin Farrell when Witwer visits her and asks about the disappearance of their son and how Anderton dealt with it and she says "well if you lose a six year old son, let's see how well you deal with it!". And lastly I will mention Peter Stormare as the dodgy doctor, Eddie Solomon who performs Anderton's eye operations, and he tells him he will leave the sandwich in the fridge with some milk, and he shows him a plastic with Anderton's removed eyes "along with your leftovers!". Stormare also makes an impression in his first scene in the film as he sneezes violently producing a very unpleasant amount of snot in the process and he says "Aghh! This cold is killing me!". Its a typical yucky moment from Spielberg of course!
Which brings me onto Steven Spielberg who does a great job with Minority Report as he takes the film's complex storyline and turns it into an engaging and exciting thriller. Spielberg who has never been a stranger to action, stages the action scenes in the film very well, and he opens up the film nicely with its tense opening sequence where we see Anderton and his team work toward preventing a suburban murder, when a man catches his wife cheating on him. Spielberg also throws in some amusing touches in the film as well, which is typical in alot of his films such as the scene where the police set their electronic spyder devices to eye scan everyone in the apartment block where they suspect Anderton might be. And the spyders move right through the building, IDing a couple who are in the middle of a row, who wait to be checked by the spyders and who simply go back to having their row! Moving onto the film's score, which was composed by John Williams which is really good as you would expect, and Williams provides a great balance of suspense and drama in his music, which sees his partnership with Spielberg as strong and unwavering as before.
So as for Minority Report's flaws, any at all???? Nope its perfect. Actually no not quite, I don't have too many problems with it however, perhaps one that springs to mind is that the film's ending feels out of tone with the rest of what has went before, as it is almost a "they live happily ever" after moment (or as close as the story will allow). And Spielberg with the ending is a bit guilty of using sentimentality as he often does in his films at times, which does kind of undermine the effectiveness of what went before consdering the rest of the film is very good. Spielberg also does allow for some rather silly moments in the film as well, one such moment is in the scene where Anderton is chased by the police, who are wearing jetpacks and he grabs one of the police officers and piggybacks on them and using their jetpack booster to blast through the ceiling of one of the apartment flats, barging in on a family having their dinner! Also the film's photography doesn't really lend aesthetically well to the proceedings as it has a rather hideously disaturated look, and the cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (who also did Saving Private Ryan which had the same sort of bleak visual look) overdoes the colour grading technique employed here.
But that aside Minortiy Report is a very entertaining sci-fi thriller which is well worth checking out.
So on that note I will bid you farewellie!
Tuesday 8 October 2013
Fatal attraction: bunny boiler
Okay dokey, its that time for yet another review on this blog, which sees me go back to the 1980s vault once more and I've gone for a classic thriller, Fatal Attraction, which was a huge commercial hit back when it was released in 1987. So there's alot to look at so might as well get to it...
Soooooo starting with the obligatory plot summary the film is set in New York city and begins with Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) an attorney, who is happy married and goes along to a business party with his wife Beth (Anne Archer). At the party Dan meets a woman named Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) who clearly they have an attraction for one another but they part ways shortly after. The next day while Beth and her and Dan's daughter Ellen (Ellen Latzen Hamilton) go away for the weekend, Dan ends up meeting Alex again at his work at a meeting. After the meeting the two of them have lunch together, they admit their attraction for one another and they return to Alex's apartment and have sex. The following day after spending the night at Alex's flat, Dan leaves early and goes back home and he receives a call from Alex who almost insists that they meet up again, which they do and share a good time together, have dinner together (and more sex!). However as Dan tries to explain that he sees what happened as nothing more than a fling, Alex refuses to let go and when he tries to leave she attempts suicide by cutting her wrists. Dan bandages up her wrists and gently reassures her will call her again and he heads back home.
And as Dan forgets about their affair, Alex continues to pester him by first of all showing up at his office, where she offers him a ticket to go and see an opera together, which Dan turns down. Alex then continually calls Dan's office after a while Dan tells his secertary to tell he's not there whenever she calls. Alex doesn't stop there either as she continues to phone Dan at his home (and she hangs up when Beth answers it) and Dan eventually agrees to meet with her. On their meeting Alex tells Dan that she is now pregnant and she insists that it is his baby, but Dan is not interested in this but Alex tells he must take responsibility. Alex next up shows up at their apartment, pretending to be a prospective buyer for their flat, meeting with Beth, who gives them their new phone number for their newly bought house out in Bedford (a town in Westchester county, New York) should she need to contact them. Later that night, a furious Dan turns up at Alex's apartment and confronts her over her actions, which ends up as a violent struggle with Dan threatening to kill Alex if she tells Beth about their affair.
Dan soon after with his family move to their new house in Bedford, but Alex is still determined as ever to get to Dan, as she sends him a tape full of verbal abuse, and she also pours acid on his car, while its in a parking lot. Alex also follows Dan back to his new home (while he listens to Alex's tape) and as he arrives and takes in a bunny rabbit as a gift for his daughter, Alex looks from afar into the window of their home as she sees Dan happily give the rabbit to his daughter, and family image makes Alex physically wretch. Alex's obssession continues to escalate as she sneaks into Dan's new home whilst they are out and kills the bunny and boils it in a pot. On finding the bunny, Dan finally admits to Beth of the affair he had with Alex and that she is pregnant, which enrages Beth who screams for him to get out, which Dan does so and goes to stay in a motel. Alex then picks up Ellen from school just before Beth arrives to get her, as the teachers tell that they thought Beth had already taken, Beth drives off in a blind panic trying to find her daughter and crashes her car and ends up in hospital with minor injuries. Dan later barges into Alex's apartment and violently struggles with her, as he nearly chokes the life out of her, he eventually let's go of her, only then to have Alex charge at him with a kitchen knife, however Dan manages to disarm her, and he quietly places the knife down on the kitchen worktop and leaves. Beth soon forgives Dan and he returns home to look after her, however at night as Beth prepares a bath, she sees a crazed Alex standing in the doorway with a familiar looking kitchen knife.....
There is no doubt that Fatal Attraction remains one of the most effective thrillers in modern cinema and it struck a powerful chord at the time with the public and it certainly did its part in warning about the dangers of involved in infedility. The film itself naturally was a big success at the time of its release and rightly so as it is a highly entertaining, suspenseful and at times very unsettling film. And the two lead characters are what drives the film, with Dan being the happily married man, who decides to indulge in the affair without thinking about the consequences, and Alex who is powerfully attracted to Dan, and refuses to let go of him and proceeds to turn his life upside down in an attempt to reach him. And as the film progresses it becomes more intense as events spiral wildly out of control.
And what makes Fatal Attraction work so well is the performances, which are all top drawer, particularly the two leads. Starting with Michael Douglas as Dan, who is great in his role as a married man, who has a passionate fling with Alex. Douglas plays Dan pretty much as an easy going charming guy, who makes the mistake of his life by having an affair with Alex. At first you could argue that Dan doesn't deserve much sympathy as he rather selfishly decides to have the fling and then try and ditch Alex without much thought for her. However as Dan's life is turned upside down by Alex, allegiances start to change as Dan starts to fear for the safety of himself and his family. Douglas has some great scenes in the film, especially in his confrontational scenes with Close, as Dan and Alex argue in her apartment, in the first scene he threatens to kill her and in the second scene her very nearly does kill her! Although arguably his most potent scene is where he quietly talks to his friend, Jimmy (Stuart Pankin), about how Alex is continually harrassing his family and he admits "I'm scared, Jimmy and I don't want to lose my family". Douglas also has some amusing moments aswell though, especially in the scene after Dan and Alex go out dancing they go back to her apartment and they have sex in the elevator, which Alex stops mid-way between floors and proceeds to perform oral sex on him. This is followed by the scene where Alex opens her apartment door and Dan drunkenly puts his hand out to reach after her as she goes in, which is one of the film's funny low key moments.
Glenn Close however it has to be said gives the best performance of the film by far as the obssessively unhinged yet sympathetic Alex, who falls head over heels in love with Dan, and is devastated by his decision to end their affair, which sees her makes his life a living hell after doing so (and the film also popularly coined the phrase "bunny boiler" after the bunny boiling scene, well speaks for itself really!). Close has so many highlights in the film, and she is at times chilling and at other times quite pitiful. And one of her most unsettling moments actually comes early on in the film when she calls up Dan after he left the following morning after their first day together, and she says to him "Where were you? I woke up and you weren't here. I hate that". Its in this scene where the alarm bells start ringing and you realise there is definitely something amiss here with her. And one of Close's best scenes is where she meets with Dan at his office and offers him to go to the Madame Butterfly opera with her, but when he refuses and Dan hugs her goodbye, we see over his shoulder than Alex has a look of agony as she is clearly heartbroken, its a great moment in her performance. Also in her scene where Dan confronts Alex at her apartment (the first apartment confrontation scene that is) Dan insists this has to stop and Alex says "No its going to on and on until you face up to your responsibilities. I'm not just going to be ignored Dan!". And in their second confrontation at Alex's apartment, after their violent struggle, and the unforgettable image of Alex charging toward Dan, screaming with the kitchen knife in her hand, after Dan disarms her, Alex gives Dan a strange smile just as he leaves the apartment, which is another terrific moment from Close. Then there is the scene after Dan turns down Alex's offer to go to the opera, that we see Dan out happy with his family at a bowling alley juxtaposed with Alex sitting sadly at home, switching her lamp on and off. And lastly one of Alex's more amusing scenes is when she continually tries to dial Dan's home phone number, she tries the operator who tells her the number has been disconnected and changed, but the operator says he can't give out that information and she angrily yells "Well fuck you!" and the operator sarcastically replies "My place or yours?!".
In the supporting performances Ann Archer is fine (and rather fine also) in her role as Dan's loving wife, and she also get's some good moments, such as in the scene where she frantically tries to find her daughter Ellen and she ends up crashing her car. Also the scene where Dan tells her of the affair and she angrily screams at him to get out of the house "I want you out of here! What is the matter with you??!". But her best moment is when Dan calls up Alex and tells her that Beth now knows about the affair and he puts Beth onto her who says "This is Beth Gallagher, if you ever come near my family again I will kill you" and hangs up the phone. Stuart Pankin who plays Dan's friend and fellow lawyer, Jimmy, does not too badly in his small role and he provides one or two moments of amusement, especially where he takes the piss out of the Japanese business mogul who attended the company's party during a dinner party with Dan and Beth. He also amusingly in the first scene where we see Alex, draw daggers from her as he tries to turn on the charm and say "Hi". Ellen Hamilton Latzen is great as Dan and Beth's daughter, Ellen, who is basically just a sweet young girl who is a real delight throughout, and you feel for her in the scene where Beth yells at Dan to get out and she stands sobbing. Ellen also has a funny moment at the start of the film where Beth drops something on herself and says "Shit! Shit! Shit!" and Ellen copies what she says as she walks down the hall. And finally Fred Gwynne provides a neat little cameo as one of Dan's colleagues, Arthur, although he is clearly underused in the film.
Getting onto Adrian Lynne as the director, he does a splendid job here and he brilliantly racks up the tension as the film progresses, which reaches fever pitch as it progresses to its dramatic climax. Lynne also went on to direct the critically acclaimed thriller, Jacob's Ladder starring Tim Robbins, but there is no doubt this is where he firmly established himself as a filmmaker. Lynne also employes stylish shots in his films, such as shots where the camera is tilted to the side, which we see in the scenes where Dan attacks Alex at her apartment, and Beth runs up the stairs in her home in a panic to find her daughter Ellen. Also another memorable aspect of the film is Maurice Jarre's electronic score, which is quite creepy and unsettling at times, although it does sound a little cheesy and melodramatic in moments, as it is a purely synthesized score it also sounds dated to its time in the 80s. However for the most part it remains one of Jarre's most highly effective scores and it complements the film's tone really well.
As for the film's flaws? Yes well ok there are one or two, starting with the main one which would have to be why would Dan want to have an affair in the first place if his a happily married man? Especially as he is married to a beautiful woman such as Anne Archer then surely there is no necessity for him to go outside their marriage and have an extra-marital relationship. The film's subplot with Alex announcing her pregnancy also feels a bit slapped on and you never know if Alex really is pregnant or not or is she simply using it as a way to get his attention, as she later on says herself to him she won't be ignored, so maybe she was using this as a weapon against him to ensure he could never just walk away. Also given the threats of AIDS back in the 1980s at the time, if Dan was going to have an affair, then why didn't he practice in safe sex then???? Surely he should have worn protection to avoid any such thing happening if that is the case (but it is Hollywood after all so these eventualities never really are explained are they??).
There are also some silly illogical moments such as every time when Alex called Dan's apartment why didn't Beth when she answered it put two and two together, or even better use *69 to find out who called! (or maybe that feature wasn't in existance back then). There is also that same old issue in thrillers where the villain somehow manages to sneak into a house or apartment without being detected! As Alex somehow manages to break into their home, boil the bunny and also later on sneak in undetected at the end to creep upstairs to the bathroom where Beth is running her bath (although in that scene we see Dan lock the door before that event, which suggests she managed to sneak before the doors were locked). You could also say the film is slightly let down by its over the top climax with Alex finally showing up at Dan's new home complete with kitchen in her hand, as she fidgets away with her kitchen knife as it starts to cut into her dress and her skin and a big struggle ensues between her and Dan, but it nevertheless has one last effective jumpy moment before its all over.
But despite all that Fatal Attraction still to this day remains one of the most effective, suspenseful and memorable thrillers of the 1980s and its message is still relevant in how that all married men (or men in any relationship) should think twice before they let the little head do the talking! ;-)
And with that I shall leave yeee there.
Soooooo starting with the obligatory plot summary the film is set in New York city and begins with Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) an attorney, who is happy married and goes along to a business party with his wife Beth (Anne Archer). At the party Dan meets a woman named Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) who clearly they have an attraction for one another but they part ways shortly after. The next day while Beth and her and Dan's daughter Ellen (Ellen Latzen Hamilton) go away for the weekend, Dan ends up meeting Alex again at his work at a meeting. After the meeting the two of them have lunch together, they admit their attraction for one another and they return to Alex's apartment and have sex. The following day after spending the night at Alex's flat, Dan leaves early and goes back home and he receives a call from Alex who almost insists that they meet up again, which they do and share a good time together, have dinner together (and more sex!). However as Dan tries to explain that he sees what happened as nothing more than a fling, Alex refuses to let go and when he tries to leave she attempts suicide by cutting her wrists. Dan bandages up her wrists and gently reassures her will call her again and he heads back home.
And as Dan forgets about their affair, Alex continues to pester him by first of all showing up at his office, where she offers him a ticket to go and see an opera together, which Dan turns down. Alex then continually calls Dan's office after a while Dan tells his secertary to tell he's not there whenever she calls. Alex doesn't stop there either as she continues to phone Dan at his home (and she hangs up when Beth answers it) and Dan eventually agrees to meet with her. On their meeting Alex tells Dan that she is now pregnant and she insists that it is his baby, but Dan is not interested in this but Alex tells he must take responsibility. Alex next up shows up at their apartment, pretending to be a prospective buyer for their flat, meeting with Beth, who gives them their new phone number for their newly bought house out in Bedford (a town in Westchester county, New York) should she need to contact them. Later that night, a furious Dan turns up at Alex's apartment and confronts her over her actions, which ends up as a violent struggle with Dan threatening to kill Alex if she tells Beth about their affair.
Dan soon after with his family move to their new house in Bedford, but Alex is still determined as ever to get to Dan, as she sends him a tape full of verbal abuse, and she also pours acid on his car, while its in a parking lot. Alex also follows Dan back to his new home (while he listens to Alex's tape) and as he arrives and takes in a bunny rabbit as a gift for his daughter, Alex looks from afar into the window of their home as she sees Dan happily give the rabbit to his daughter, and family image makes Alex physically wretch. Alex's obssession continues to escalate as she sneaks into Dan's new home whilst they are out and kills the bunny and boils it in a pot. On finding the bunny, Dan finally admits to Beth of the affair he had with Alex and that she is pregnant, which enrages Beth who screams for him to get out, which Dan does so and goes to stay in a motel. Alex then picks up Ellen from school just before Beth arrives to get her, as the teachers tell that they thought Beth had already taken, Beth drives off in a blind panic trying to find her daughter and crashes her car and ends up in hospital with minor injuries. Dan later barges into Alex's apartment and violently struggles with her, as he nearly chokes the life out of her, he eventually let's go of her, only then to have Alex charge at him with a kitchen knife, however Dan manages to disarm her, and he quietly places the knife down on the kitchen worktop and leaves. Beth soon forgives Dan and he returns home to look after her, however at night as Beth prepares a bath, she sees a crazed Alex standing in the doorway with a familiar looking kitchen knife.....
There is no doubt that Fatal Attraction remains one of the most effective thrillers in modern cinema and it struck a powerful chord at the time with the public and it certainly did its part in warning about the dangers of involved in infedility. The film itself naturally was a big success at the time of its release and rightly so as it is a highly entertaining, suspenseful and at times very unsettling film. And the two lead characters are what drives the film, with Dan being the happily married man, who decides to indulge in the affair without thinking about the consequences, and Alex who is powerfully attracted to Dan, and refuses to let go of him and proceeds to turn his life upside down in an attempt to reach him. And as the film progresses it becomes more intense as events spiral wildly out of control.
And what makes Fatal Attraction work so well is the performances, which are all top drawer, particularly the two leads. Starting with Michael Douglas as Dan, who is great in his role as a married man, who has a passionate fling with Alex. Douglas plays Dan pretty much as an easy going charming guy, who makes the mistake of his life by having an affair with Alex. At first you could argue that Dan doesn't deserve much sympathy as he rather selfishly decides to have the fling and then try and ditch Alex without much thought for her. However as Dan's life is turned upside down by Alex, allegiances start to change as Dan starts to fear for the safety of himself and his family. Douglas has some great scenes in the film, especially in his confrontational scenes with Close, as Dan and Alex argue in her apartment, in the first scene he threatens to kill her and in the second scene her very nearly does kill her! Although arguably his most potent scene is where he quietly talks to his friend, Jimmy (Stuart Pankin), about how Alex is continually harrassing his family and he admits "I'm scared, Jimmy and I don't want to lose my family". Douglas also has some amusing moments aswell though, especially in the scene after Dan and Alex go out dancing they go back to her apartment and they have sex in the elevator, which Alex stops mid-way between floors and proceeds to perform oral sex on him. This is followed by the scene where Alex opens her apartment door and Dan drunkenly puts his hand out to reach after her as she goes in, which is one of the film's funny low key moments.
Glenn Close however it has to be said gives the best performance of the film by far as the obssessively unhinged yet sympathetic Alex, who falls head over heels in love with Dan, and is devastated by his decision to end their affair, which sees her makes his life a living hell after doing so (and the film also popularly coined the phrase "bunny boiler" after the bunny boiling scene, well speaks for itself really!). Close has so many highlights in the film, and she is at times chilling and at other times quite pitiful. And one of her most unsettling moments actually comes early on in the film when she calls up Dan after he left the following morning after their first day together, and she says to him "Where were you? I woke up and you weren't here. I hate that". Its in this scene where the alarm bells start ringing and you realise there is definitely something amiss here with her. And one of Close's best scenes is where she meets with Dan at his office and offers him to go to the Madame Butterfly opera with her, but when he refuses and Dan hugs her goodbye, we see over his shoulder than Alex has a look of agony as she is clearly heartbroken, its a great moment in her performance. Also in her scene where Dan confronts Alex at her apartment (the first apartment confrontation scene that is) Dan insists this has to stop and Alex says "No its going to on and on until you face up to your responsibilities. I'm not just going to be ignored Dan!". And in their second confrontation at Alex's apartment, after their violent struggle, and the unforgettable image of Alex charging toward Dan, screaming with the kitchen knife in her hand, after Dan disarms her, Alex gives Dan a strange smile just as he leaves the apartment, which is another terrific moment from Close. Then there is the scene after Dan turns down Alex's offer to go to the opera, that we see Dan out happy with his family at a bowling alley juxtaposed with Alex sitting sadly at home, switching her lamp on and off. And lastly one of Alex's more amusing scenes is when she continually tries to dial Dan's home phone number, she tries the operator who tells her the number has been disconnected and changed, but the operator says he can't give out that information and she angrily yells "Well fuck you!" and the operator sarcastically replies "My place or yours?!".
In the supporting performances Ann Archer is fine (and rather fine also) in her role as Dan's loving wife, and she also get's some good moments, such as in the scene where she frantically tries to find her daughter Ellen and she ends up crashing her car. Also the scene where Dan tells her of the affair and she angrily screams at him to get out of the house "I want you out of here! What is the matter with you??!". But her best moment is when Dan calls up Alex and tells her that Beth now knows about the affair and he puts Beth onto her who says "This is Beth Gallagher, if you ever come near my family again I will kill you" and hangs up the phone. Stuart Pankin who plays Dan's friend and fellow lawyer, Jimmy, does not too badly in his small role and he provides one or two moments of amusement, especially where he takes the piss out of the Japanese business mogul who attended the company's party during a dinner party with Dan and Beth. He also amusingly in the first scene where we see Alex, draw daggers from her as he tries to turn on the charm and say "Hi". Ellen Hamilton Latzen is great as Dan and Beth's daughter, Ellen, who is basically just a sweet young girl who is a real delight throughout, and you feel for her in the scene where Beth yells at Dan to get out and she stands sobbing. Ellen also has a funny moment at the start of the film where Beth drops something on herself and says "Shit! Shit! Shit!" and Ellen copies what she says as she walks down the hall. And finally Fred Gwynne provides a neat little cameo as one of Dan's colleagues, Arthur, although he is clearly underused in the film.
Getting onto Adrian Lynne as the director, he does a splendid job here and he brilliantly racks up the tension as the film progresses, which reaches fever pitch as it progresses to its dramatic climax. Lynne also went on to direct the critically acclaimed thriller, Jacob's Ladder starring Tim Robbins, but there is no doubt this is where he firmly established himself as a filmmaker. Lynne also employes stylish shots in his films, such as shots where the camera is tilted to the side, which we see in the scenes where Dan attacks Alex at her apartment, and Beth runs up the stairs in her home in a panic to find her daughter Ellen. Also another memorable aspect of the film is Maurice Jarre's electronic score, which is quite creepy and unsettling at times, although it does sound a little cheesy and melodramatic in moments, as it is a purely synthesized score it also sounds dated to its time in the 80s. However for the most part it remains one of Jarre's most highly effective scores and it complements the film's tone really well.
As for the film's flaws? Yes well ok there are one or two, starting with the main one which would have to be why would Dan want to have an affair in the first place if his a happily married man? Especially as he is married to a beautiful woman such as Anne Archer then surely there is no necessity for him to go outside their marriage and have an extra-marital relationship. The film's subplot with Alex announcing her pregnancy also feels a bit slapped on and you never know if Alex really is pregnant or not or is she simply using it as a way to get his attention, as she later on says herself to him she won't be ignored, so maybe she was using this as a weapon against him to ensure he could never just walk away. Also given the threats of AIDS back in the 1980s at the time, if Dan was going to have an affair, then why didn't he practice in safe sex then???? Surely he should have worn protection to avoid any such thing happening if that is the case (but it is Hollywood after all so these eventualities never really are explained are they??).
There are also some silly illogical moments such as every time when Alex called Dan's apartment why didn't Beth when she answered it put two and two together, or even better use *69 to find out who called! (or maybe that feature wasn't in existance back then). There is also that same old issue in thrillers where the villain somehow manages to sneak into a house or apartment without being detected! As Alex somehow manages to break into their home, boil the bunny and also later on sneak in undetected at the end to creep upstairs to the bathroom where Beth is running her bath (although in that scene we see Dan lock the door before that event, which suggests she managed to sneak before the doors were locked). You could also say the film is slightly let down by its over the top climax with Alex finally showing up at Dan's new home complete with kitchen in her hand, as she fidgets away with her kitchen knife as it starts to cut into her dress and her skin and a big struggle ensues between her and Dan, but it nevertheless has one last effective jumpy moment before its all over.
But despite all that Fatal Attraction still to this day remains one of the most effective, suspenseful and memorable thrillers of the 1980s and its message is still relevant in how that all married men (or men in any relationship) should think twice before they let the little head do the talking! ;-)
And with that I shall leave yeee there.
Monday 7 October 2013
Doctor Who: "The Skarasen will destroy you all!"
So just for a change I thought I would do a review on a classic Doctor Who story from the Tom Baker era, and so I've opted for Terror of the Zygons, which features the creepy pizza-esque aliens, the zygons (let's face there has been nothing since like them in the show). But let's not delay any further and have a look at the story....
Righty so the story is set in Scotland (of all places!) and it starts with the collapse of an oil rig as a high pitched beeping echoes throughout the rig and it breaks into the North sea. Meanwhile the Doctor (Tom Baker), Sarah (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry (Ian Marter) who have been summoned by the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney). They receive a lift from the Duke of Forgill (John Woodnutt) who is a local landowner, who drops them off a local inn, where the Brig has set up his operations and is accompanied by his squad and RSM Benton (John Levene). The Doctor is irked by the Brigadier summoning him as at first he doesn't seem concenred by the troubles at sea, but the Brig soon convinces him to help investigate. Harry investigates the medical files of the injuries of the men's crew while Sarah goes to talk with the local inn's landlord, Angus (Angus Lennie). Angus admits to Sarah that the Duke has not been the same since the oil companies have come as all his servants have gone to work for them. Sarah also notices a stag head in the inn, which Angus warns her not to touch as it was gift from the Duke.
Meanwhile Harry while driving enroute back to the inn spots a survivor of the wrecked rig stumble and collapse on the shore, where Harry goes over to help him. The survivor tells Harry they had no chance as the rig was smashed to pieces, then out of nowhere the man is shot dead, and Harry is shot also by the Caber (Robert Russell) one of the Duke's men. Back at the inn Sarah receives a call about Harry and Sarah goes to see him, and as Harry awakes he mutters about the rig, and the hospital head nurse, Sister Lamont (Lillias Walker) tells Sarah that Harry should rest. Sarah then goes to call the Doctor and she tells him that Harry is in stable condition, however at that point Sister Lamont transforms infront of Harry's eyes. Sarah while chatting to the Doctor on the phone is suddenly attacked by the transformed sister, who is revealed to be an orange alien biped, a zygon. The Doctor goes to the sick bay where Sister Lamont tells him that Sarah had gone and Harry's bed is empty. The Doctor looks around the sick bay and finds Sarah inside a decompression chamber, but before they can leave the door is locked by a Zygon, who removes the oxygen from the chamber. The Doctor then puts Sarah in a hypnotic trance so she does not need to breath and the Doctor does the same for himself.
Harry in the meantime is brought to the Zygon spaceship which is deep underwater and he speaks to their leader, Broton (also John Woodnutt) who tells Harry that their planet was destroyed centuries ago and they have been stranded on Earth ever since, but they intend to claim Earth for their themselves along with aid of a cyborg creature called the Skarasen, which is said to resemble the myth of the "Loch ness monster". Benton soon manages to find the Doctor and Sarah at the sick bay and opens the decompression chamber, where the Doctor comes around and tells Benton that he learned a trick from a Tibetan monk that helped them. Meanwhile the Brigadier and his men have been knocked out by nerve gas which has hit the village, but they soon revive, and the Doctor deduces that this must be a diversion so that something can make its way past them unseen. The zygons meanwhile use Harry by scanning his brain print in order for them to assume his human form, and one of the zygons disguised as Harry goes to the village and recovers a tracking device, used by the zygons, which the zygons takes from Sarah, who runs after him. Sarah follows the Zygon Harry into a nearby barn, and the zygon attacks Sarah with a pitchfork in the upper level of the barn, but the zygon falls off to its death and reverts back to its normal form. Broton then orders for the zygon to be disintegrated before it is found, which is gone by the time Sarah brings Benton to the barn. Broton decides to unleash the Skarasen and in doing so it activates the tracking device, which the Doctor takes and uses to divert the creature away, and the Brigadier eventually get's a signal on it as it originated from Loch Ness, meanwhile the Doctor barely survives an attack from the Skarasen, as Harry sabotages the Zygons control console onboard the ship just in time. And from here the Doctor decides to pay the Duke a visit at Forgill castle, where ultimaltey the story begins to unravel as the Doctor will soon encounter his foes and try and find a way to stop their plans of world domination.
Terror of the Zygons easily stands as one of the best of Tom Baker's early stories and it also proved to be the last full proper UNIT story of the original series run until Battlefield in the Sylvester McCoy era (Android Invasion did follow later in the same season but it didn't feature UNIT as much only Benton). And in that regard it really did signal the end of the UNIT era as the new producer at that time, Philip Hinchcliffe decided that it was time to move the show on from that era and see the Doctor return fully to his time travels. However as the last hurra for UNIT there is no doubt that it was an excellent one and the story itself written by Robert Banks Stewart is great, as it nicely uses the whole Loch Ness monster theme very well. The zygons themselves remain one of the most creepy and unique villains in the original show's run and their bizarre design and appearance is something you won't forget quickly.
Performance wise Terror of the zygons is pretty strong also, Tom Baker who has grown well into playing the Doctor at this point provides another fine performance, and his potrayal of the Doctor starts to show signs of him becoming a bit darker in tone, yet he still allows for some levity as well, and this tone would continue to be developed in the same season of the time (the show's 13th season). Tom has plenty of fine lines in the story, some of which I will mention, and to start with there is a good one when the character Huckle, one of Hibernian oil's representatives says about the oil rigs "these babies are meant to be unsinkable!" and the Doctor replies "Yes and so was the Bismarc and we all know that story!". Also the scene where the Doctor is in the hypnotic trance in the decompression chamber and Benton finds him and Sarah inside, the Doctor whispers "It worked Mr Benton!" and Benton whispers back "What worked?" and the Doctor whispers "Why are you whispering?". Tom also brings some wonderfully dramatic moments to his performance as well, and his ability to deliver lines seriously with real conviction has always been one of his strengths as an actor, especially where Huckle says to him when the rig was attacked "the sea was calm and empty" and the Doctor replies "it may be calm, but its never empty". I also like his line later on when he is captured by the zygons, while being held in one of their cells, he examines what appears to be a speaker and let's it go as Broton enters, the Doctor grins and says "social call??".
John Woodnutt is great also in his dual role as the Duke of Forgill and Broton, the Zygon's warlord and leader, who has plans of world domination. Woodnutt's Forgill is wonderfully snooty and he also even delivers a fine Scottish accent and he also has some good lines of dialogue, particularly when the Doctor says to him how aliens have been causing the trouble at sea, and Forgill replies "You're all utterly unhinged! Aliens with wireless sets?!". I also like the line at the start of the story where he drops off the Doctor, Sarah and Harry at the local inn, and he has a cross word with Mr Huckle, the rep from Hibernian oil, and he says "My family has served this land for seven centuries, but that doesn't seem to count for much these days!". Also at the end of the story where the Duke (the real one at this point) and the Brigadier watch the TARDIS dematerialise and the Duke quips "You should taken your return tickets and got a refund, I thought you were a Scotsman!". Woodnutt as Broton is also suitably creepy and his raspy and at times whispering voice (treated by some sort of electronic device no doubt courtesy of sound effects man, Dick Mills) really adds to the character, and in his climactic scene as Broton he provides some wonderfully over the top screeching as he attacks the Brig's men! And as Broton, Woodnutt get's a good exit line just before he dies he says "The Skarasen will destroy you all!".
In the other performances, starting with Nicolas Courtney, he also does a fine job here with his last outing as Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart for another eight years until the Peter Davison era (in Mawdryn Undead and then The Five Doctors). Nick get's quite a few good lines as you would expect, especially in the scene where after he and his soldiers have been knocked, the Brigadier comes around in time for the Doctor to arrive at the inn, and he says what happened and the Doctor says "you've been asleep, Brigadier" and the Brig replies "What are you talking about? You know there are times where you talk absolute nonsense, Doctor. Excuse me!". Also in his first scene (where we see the Brig wear a kilt!) at the inn, we hear the landlord Angus play his bagpipes loudly in the background, and the Brigadier quietly says to Benton "You get on well with the landlord don't you?" and Benton says "Well yes, sir, I guess I do" and the Brig says "Well try to use your influence to get him to play the pipes when we're out would you?".
As for the Doctor's regular companions, Liz Sladen does another fine job as Sarah Jane and she has some nice moments in the story, especially the moment where she says to the Doctor at the inn, when we hear the landlord play his bagpipes, Sarah says "Well you can forget about security in Tulloch, the landlord here's got second sight!" and the pipes all of a sudden stop! Followed by Liz's funny line when she answers the phone in a heavily exaggerated Scottish accent "Hello, Fox Inn!". Ian Marter, in his last regular appearance in the show (followed by his last one in Android Invasion) also does really well, although he is slightly sidelined in the story, but his performance is really good, particularly early on after he has been shot and lies restlessly in bed in the sick bay, and his reaction to the sister transforming into the zygon is great.
Which brings me onto Lillias Walker who is quite creepy in her dual role as Sister Lamont (with a beside manner equivalent to Nurse Ratchett) and one of the zygons, who is quite clipped and icy in her delivery. And in one of the story's most effective scenes where the Sister wanders the woods (really a zygon in disguise), and a UNIT soldier finds her with her arm badly injured, the soldier looks to examine it and she knocks him out with a rock and she looks around coldly for anyone watching before she moves off. And lastly I will mention Angus Lennie (who was well known for his role in The Great Escape) as the landlord of the Fox Inn, who gives a good turn as the slightly eccentric local, who plays his bagpipes loudly and later falls victim to one of the zygons, as he tries to remove a bug planted by the zygons in the stag head he has in his inn.
Getting onto the show's direction, well it would be hard to argue with its director, the late great Douglas Camfield, who was widely acclaimed as one of the very best directors of the show. And here Camfield does a terrific job as he paces the action nicely, and builds up some suspense and his reveal of the zygons is particularly effective at the end of the first episode when the zygon at the sick bay attacks Sarah. Camfield who was also ex-army was said to have been by reputation good to work for but he directed and ran his shows like a military operation as well, which given it is a UNIT story is quite appropriate here! The music score is also worthy note, as it was written for by Geoffrey Burgon, and it is very good and a nice change from the show's regular composer Dudley Simpson (whom Camfield had a falling out with years ago, which is why they never worked together again, and Camfield always used different composers afterward). Dick Mills sound effects are also worthy note here and he makes great use of his effects, particularly in the scenes where the zygons transform their appearance, and also the deep atmopsheric rumbles of their spaceship. And special mention finally has to go to the set designer Nigel Curzon who did a great job with creating the truly strange and original design for the zygon spaceship, which looks like you are stepping into a giant Mozzrella pizza!
So getting on Terror of the Zygon's flaw, does it have any at all??? Well yep it does, to start with it has to be said that the story's biggest letdown is of course the Skarasen itself, as a monster it just isn't convincing as it looks like some that belongs out of Ray Harryhausen film. And in its last scene with the Doctor throwing the signal device into the ocean for it to go after, the close up of it rising over London is just ridiculous, but I guess given the show's limited budget of the time its to be expected. I also felt the story has one or two silly moments in it, such as Broton's final confrontation with the Doctor as it attacks him and Sarah and UNIT soldiers (PLOT SPOILER HERE AGAIN!!!) when they shoot Broton and he collapses and dies, we can see the join in the top and bottom half of his alien suit! Also in a rather silly and amusing moment after the real Duke is rescued from the zygon spaceship by the Doctor, Sarah tells the Doctor that the Duke is the president of the Scottish energy commission which will allow them entrance to an important conference in London, and all of sudden the Duke says "That's right I am!" like he had forgotten all about his position, like "Oh I had forgotten all about that!". But the show is of course guilty of silly moments like that now and then so I suppose you can forgive that. It also has to be said that while the flangered whispy effect used for the zygons voices is undeniably effective and rather creepy, it is also makes their voices quite indistinct at times when you are trying to make out what they are saying, particularly when Broton goes on a rant and talks quite fast, which he does quite often.
Anyway regardless of that Terror of the Zygons still remains a really strong story of the Tom Baker era with one of the show's most unique villains, as well as being a great last hurra for UNIT for quite some time.
And with that I shall leave you there the noooow.
Righty so the story is set in Scotland (of all places!) and it starts with the collapse of an oil rig as a high pitched beeping echoes throughout the rig and it breaks into the North sea. Meanwhile the Doctor (Tom Baker), Sarah (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry (Ian Marter) who have been summoned by the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney). They receive a lift from the Duke of Forgill (John Woodnutt) who is a local landowner, who drops them off a local inn, where the Brig has set up his operations and is accompanied by his squad and RSM Benton (John Levene). The Doctor is irked by the Brigadier summoning him as at first he doesn't seem concenred by the troubles at sea, but the Brig soon convinces him to help investigate. Harry investigates the medical files of the injuries of the men's crew while Sarah goes to talk with the local inn's landlord, Angus (Angus Lennie). Angus admits to Sarah that the Duke has not been the same since the oil companies have come as all his servants have gone to work for them. Sarah also notices a stag head in the inn, which Angus warns her not to touch as it was gift from the Duke.
Meanwhile Harry while driving enroute back to the inn spots a survivor of the wrecked rig stumble and collapse on the shore, where Harry goes over to help him. The survivor tells Harry they had no chance as the rig was smashed to pieces, then out of nowhere the man is shot dead, and Harry is shot also by the Caber (Robert Russell) one of the Duke's men. Back at the inn Sarah receives a call about Harry and Sarah goes to see him, and as Harry awakes he mutters about the rig, and the hospital head nurse, Sister Lamont (Lillias Walker) tells Sarah that Harry should rest. Sarah then goes to call the Doctor and she tells him that Harry is in stable condition, however at that point Sister Lamont transforms infront of Harry's eyes. Sarah while chatting to the Doctor on the phone is suddenly attacked by the transformed sister, who is revealed to be an orange alien biped, a zygon. The Doctor goes to the sick bay where Sister Lamont tells him that Sarah had gone and Harry's bed is empty. The Doctor looks around the sick bay and finds Sarah inside a decompression chamber, but before they can leave the door is locked by a Zygon, who removes the oxygen from the chamber. The Doctor then puts Sarah in a hypnotic trance so she does not need to breath and the Doctor does the same for himself.
Harry in the meantime is brought to the Zygon spaceship which is deep underwater and he speaks to their leader, Broton (also John Woodnutt) who tells Harry that their planet was destroyed centuries ago and they have been stranded on Earth ever since, but they intend to claim Earth for their themselves along with aid of a cyborg creature called the Skarasen, which is said to resemble the myth of the "Loch ness monster". Benton soon manages to find the Doctor and Sarah at the sick bay and opens the decompression chamber, where the Doctor comes around and tells Benton that he learned a trick from a Tibetan monk that helped them. Meanwhile the Brigadier and his men have been knocked out by nerve gas which has hit the village, but they soon revive, and the Doctor deduces that this must be a diversion so that something can make its way past them unseen. The zygons meanwhile use Harry by scanning his brain print in order for them to assume his human form, and one of the zygons disguised as Harry goes to the village and recovers a tracking device, used by the zygons, which the zygons takes from Sarah, who runs after him. Sarah follows the Zygon Harry into a nearby barn, and the zygon attacks Sarah with a pitchfork in the upper level of the barn, but the zygon falls off to its death and reverts back to its normal form. Broton then orders for the zygon to be disintegrated before it is found, which is gone by the time Sarah brings Benton to the barn. Broton decides to unleash the Skarasen and in doing so it activates the tracking device, which the Doctor takes and uses to divert the creature away, and the Brigadier eventually get's a signal on it as it originated from Loch Ness, meanwhile the Doctor barely survives an attack from the Skarasen, as Harry sabotages the Zygons control console onboard the ship just in time. And from here the Doctor decides to pay the Duke a visit at Forgill castle, where ultimaltey the story begins to unravel as the Doctor will soon encounter his foes and try and find a way to stop their plans of world domination.
Terror of the Zygons easily stands as one of the best of Tom Baker's early stories and it also proved to be the last full proper UNIT story of the original series run until Battlefield in the Sylvester McCoy era (Android Invasion did follow later in the same season but it didn't feature UNIT as much only Benton). And in that regard it really did signal the end of the UNIT era as the new producer at that time, Philip Hinchcliffe decided that it was time to move the show on from that era and see the Doctor return fully to his time travels. However as the last hurra for UNIT there is no doubt that it was an excellent one and the story itself written by Robert Banks Stewart is great, as it nicely uses the whole Loch Ness monster theme very well. The zygons themselves remain one of the most creepy and unique villains in the original show's run and their bizarre design and appearance is something you won't forget quickly.
Performance wise Terror of the zygons is pretty strong also, Tom Baker who has grown well into playing the Doctor at this point provides another fine performance, and his potrayal of the Doctor starts to show signs of him becoming a bit darker in tone, yet he still allows for some levity as well, and this tone would continue to be developed in the same season of the time (the show's 13th season). Tom has plenty of fine lines in the story, some of which I will mention, and to start with there is a good one when the character Huckle, one of Hibernian oil's representatives says about the oil rigs "these babies are meant to be unsinkable!" and the Doctor replies "Yes and so was the Bismarc and we all know that story!". Also the scene where the Doctor is in the hypnotic trance in the decompression chamber and Benton finds him and Sarah inside, the Doctor whispers "It worked Mr Benton!" and Benton whispers back "What worked?" and the Doctor whispers "Why are you whispering?". Tom also brings some wonderfully dramatic moments to his performance as well, and his ability to deliver lines seriously with real conviction has always been one of his strengths as an actor, especially where Huckle says to him when the rig was attacked "the sea was calm and empty" and the Doctor replies "it may be calm, but its never empty". I also like his line later on when he is captured by the zygons, while being held in one of their cells, he examines what appears to be a speaker and let's it go as Broton enters, the Doctor grins and says "social call??".
John Woodnutt is great also in his dual role as the Duke of Forgill and Broton, the Zygon's warlord and leader, who has plans of world domination. Woodnutt's Forgill is wonderfully snooty and he also even delivers a fine Scottish accent and he also has some good lines of dialogue, particularly when the Doctor says to him how aliens have been causing the trouble at sea, and Forgill replies "You're all utterly unhinged! Aliens with wireless sets?!". I also like the line at the start of the story where he drops off the Doctor, Sarah and Harry at the local inn, and he has a cross word with Mr Huckle, the rep from Hibernian oil, and he says "My family has served this land for seven centuries, but that doesn't seem to count for much these days!". Also at the end of the story where the Duke (the real one at this point) and the Brigadier watch the TARDIS dematerialise and the Duke quips "You should taken your return tickets and got a refund, I thought you were a Scotsman!". Woodnutt as Broton is also suitably creepy and his raspy and at times whispering voice (treated by some sort of electronic device no doubt courtesy of sound effects man, Dick Mills) really adds to the character, and in his climactic scene as Broton he provides some wonderfully over the top screeching as he attacks the Brig's men! And as Broton, Woodnutt get's a good exit line just before he dies he says "The Skarasen will destroy you all!".
In the other performances, starting with Nicolas Courtney, he also does a fine job here with his last outing as Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart for another eight years until the Peter Davison era (in Mawdryn Undead and then The Five Doctors). Nick get's quite a few good lines as you would expect, especially in the scene where after he and his soldiers have been knocked, the Brigadier comes around in time for the Doctor to arrive at the inn, and he says what happened and the Doctor says "you've been asleep, Brigadier" and the Brig replies "What are you talking about? You know there are times where you talk absolute nonsense, Doctor. Excuse me!". Also in his first scene (where we see the Brig wear a kilt!) at the inn, we hear the landlord Angus play his bagpipes loudly in the background, and the Brigadier quietly says to Benton "You get on well with the landlord don't you?" and Benton says "Well yes, sir, I guess I do" and the Brig says "Well try to use your influence to get him to play the pipes when we're out would you?".
As for the Doctor's regular companions, Liz Sladen does another fine job as Sarah Jane and she has some nice moments in the story, especially the moment where she says to the Doctor at the inn, when we hear the landlord play his bagpipes, Sarah says "Well you can forget about security in Tulloch, the landlord here's got second sight!" and the pipes all of a sudden stop! Followed by Liz's funny line when she answers the phone in a heavily exaggerated Scottish accent "Hello, Fox Inn!". Ian Marter, in his last regular appearance in the show (followed by his last one in Android Invasion) also does really well, although he is slightly sidelined in the story, but his performance is really good, particularly early on after he has been shot and lies restlessly in bed in the sick bay, and his reaction to the sister transforming into the zygon is great.
Which brings me onto Lillias Walker who is quite creepy in her dual role as Sister Lamont (with a beside manner equivalent to Nurse Ratchett) and one of the zygons, who is quite clipped and icy in her delivery. And in one of the story's most effective scenes where the Sister wanders the woods (really a zygon in disguise), and a UNIT soldier finds her with her arm badly injured, the soldier looks to examine it and she knocks him out with a rock and she looks around coldly for anyone watching before she moves off. And lastly I will mention Angus Lennie (who was well known for his role in The Great Escape) as the landlord of the Fox Inn, who gives a good turn as the slightly eccentric local, who plays his bagpipes loudly and later falls victim to one of the zygons, as he tries to remove a bug planted by the zygons in the stag head he has in his inn.
Getting onto the show's direction, well it would be hard to argue with its director, the late great Douglas Camfield, who was widely acclaimed as one of the very best directors of the show. And here Camfield does a terrific job as he paces the action nicely, and builds up some suspense and his reveal of the zygons is particularly effective at the end of the first episode when the zygon at the sick bay attacks Sarah. Camfield who was also ex-army was said to have been by reputation good to work for but he directed and ran his shows like a military operation as well, which given it is a UNIT story is quite appropriate here! The music score is also worthy note, as it was written for by Geoffrey Burgon, and it is very good and a nice change from the show's regular composer Dudley Simpson (whom Camfield had a falling out with years ago, which is why they never worked together again, and Camfield always used different composers afterward). Dick Mills sound effects are also worthy note here and he makes great use of his effects, particularly in the scenes where the zygons transform their appearance, and also the deep atmopsheric rumbles of their spaceship. And special mention finally has to go to the set designer Nigel Curzon who did a great job with creating the truly strange and original design for the zygon spaceship, which looks like you are stepping into a giant Mozzrella pizza!
So getting on Terror of the Zygon's flaw, does it have any at all??? Well yep it does, to start with it has to be said that the story's biggest letdown is of course the Skarasen itself, as a monster it just isn't convincing as it looks like some that belongs out of Ray Harryhausen film. And in its last scene with the Doctor throwing the signal device into the ocean for it to go after, the close up of it rising over London is just ridiculous, but I guess given the show's limited budget of the time its to be expected. I also felt the story has one or two silly moments in it, such as Broton's final confrontation with the Doctor as it attacks him and Sarah and UNIT soldiers (PLOT SPOILER HERE AGAIN!!!) when they shoot Broton and he collapses and dies, we can see the join in the top and bottom half of his alien suit! Also in a rather silly and amusing moment after the real Duke is rescued from the zygon spaceship by the Doctor, Sarah tells the Doctor that the Duke is the president of the Scottish energy commission which will allow them entrance to an important conference in London, and all of sudden the Duke says "That's right I am!" like he had forgotten all about his position, like "Oh I had forgotten all about that!". But the show is of course guilty of silly moments like that now and then so I suppose you can forgive that. It also has to be said that while the flangered whispy effect used for the zygons voices is undeniably effective and rather creepy, it is also makes their voices quite indistinct at times when you are trying to make out what they are saying, particularly when Broton goes on a rant and talks quite fast, which he does quite often.
Anyway regardless of that Terror of the Zygons still remains a really strong story of the Tom Baker era with one of the show's most unique villains, as well as being a great last hurra for UNIT for quite some time.
And with that I shall leave you there the noooow.
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