The Matrix part 3: What's it gonna be, Merv???

OK so now I'm onto my last part of the Matrix posts, with the final film in the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions, which wraps up the whole story of Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, Smith and the fate of Zio as well.  So without further to-do let's have a look at the plot....

So the film begins with Neo lying unconscious in the medical bay onboard one of the hovercraft, the Hammer, and next to him lies, Bane, one of the survivor's from one of the destroyed ships. Bane however at this point has been mentally taken over by Smith, who assimilated his avatar inside the Matrix, but Bane remains unconscious at this point.  While he is in his unconscious state, Neo's mind is trapped inside a nether zone between the Matrix and the Machine city, which takes the form of a train station.  In the station Neo talks with an Indian family, a husband and wife, who have a young daughter called Sati.  The father tells Neo that the train station was created by a program called the Trainman (Bruce Spence), who is actually holding Neo hostage for the Merovingian, who eventually arrives, allowing the family onboard the train, but he stops Neo from getting on, and overpowers him, the Trainman then leaves with the family on the train, with Neo stranded.  Meanwhile the Oracle's bodyguard, Seraph (Collin Chou) contacts Trinity (Carrie-Ann, lovely!) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) who asks them to meet with the Oracle.  On meeting the Oracle (Mary Alice) we see the Oracle has physically changed her appearance from before, and she tells them that Merovingian is holding Neo hostage.  Morpheus, Trinity and Seraph then go to Merv's club (called Club Hel, which is filled with goths!) where they confront him, and Trinity points a gun to his head, demanding that he let go Neo or she will kill everyone in the room.  In the next scene, at the train station, a train arrives and Trinity gets off, embracing Neo, they escape the station.

After this Neo visits the Oracle to ask her some questions about the Matrix, Smith and where he was in the train station.  The Oracle explains that the station was transition point between the Matrix the Machine world, and that Smith is intent on destroying all life within the Matrix and in the real world.  On leaving the Matrix, Neo asks for time to think over what he has been told before he can act on what he has to do.  Meanwhile in the Matrix, the Oracle recevies a visit from Smith and his clones, who assimilates her as well as Seraph and the young girl Sati (who was set free by the Trainman from her family).  Back in the real world, Neo after some time tells Morpheus and Trinity that he knows what he must do, and that is to take one of the ship's to the machine city, as that is the only way he can end the war.  Niobe, although she doesn't believe in the Oracle's prophecy, has faith in Neo, and let's him have her ship, the Logos.  Trinity goes along with Neo on the Logos, however before they can get off, they encounter a now conscious, and psychotic Bane (Ian Bliss) who by this time has killed one of the medics on the Hummer, and stowed away onboard the Logos.  Bane, speaks like Smith from the Matrix, and fights with Neo, blinding him in the process, with a power cable.  Although he doesn't realise at first, it dawns on Neo that Bane is now Smith in human form, but as Bane moves in to kill Neo, Neo stops him, telling Bane that he can see him, despite his blindness, he kills Bane.  With Neo blind however, Trinity now pilots the Logos to the Machine city, however as they fall under attack from a swarm of sentinels, the ship crashes, and Trinity is killed on impact, in her dying words she professes her love, and tells Neo to not be afraid before she dies.

Meanwhile Zion falls under attack from a hoard of sentinels, and the humans make their stand to try and hold them back, with their military personnel, who use strap-in robots with arm loaded machine guns to destroy the sentinels, but they suffer heavy casualties in their battle.  Morpheus and Niobe in the meantime pilot the Hummer to try and leads the Sentinals through the tunnels into Zion, when they arrive, they blow the EMP to knock out the sentinels.  Despite this success, they await yet another attack from the sentinels, which is inevitable.  Neo arrives at the Machine city, where he speaks with the Dues ex Machine like machine leader, and warns it that Smith is growing beyond their control and is intent on destroying the Matrix and the real world, but he insists that he can stop him.  Neo also says he wants peace if he suceeds in defeating Smith, the machines allow him to plug into the Matrix, where he confronts Smith, who by now has turned the Matrix into a rain drenched, dark world, populated with Smiths as far as the eye can see.  And its here where the two men face each other in the ultimate showdown to decide the fate of the Matrix and Zion.

The Matrix Revolutions, for all its flaws still remains an entertaining action fest and is a fairly statisfying conclusion to the series.  And it also partly suceeds in getting you involved in the people of Zion for a change, as they battle against the machines, you want to see them overcome the mechanic evil bastards. ;-)  And where it does score better than Reloaded does is that it doesn't feel as padded out, and it keeps the action and dialogue scenes on a fairly quick pace, whereas Reloaded had that rather tedious opening 30 minutes intro to Zion.

Action wise things are just as good as ever, and there are plenty of good moments, such as where Morpheus and Trinity storm the Merovingian's club, as well as the very intense and length sentinel attack on Zion, with the humans fighting against them.  And one of the highlights of the film comes from the scene where Neo and Trinity are confronted by the deranged crewmember, Bane, who has been taken over by Smith, and he reveals to Neo who he is.  Its also helped along by the actor, Ian Bliss, who delivers a good performance as Bane, and he apparently was chosen for the past because the Wachowski's thought he did a good impersonation of Hugo Weaving's Smith, and it isn't bad.

The regular cast are all on the same form as usual, and while Keanu Reeves has never been the best actor, he put's in a good last hurray as Neo, as a man who finally realises what he must do, and he also finally get's a good line, after he has been blinded by Bane, he says to Trinity "I'm OK, Trin, but I think you better drive!".  Carrie-Anne Moss, who is easily always been better than Reeves in the acting stakes, also puts in a good final performance as Trinity, and she too get's a cool line, probably the best in the film where she holds a gun to the Merovingian's head delivering her ultimatum to free neo, she says "Time's up.  What's it gonna be, Merv??".  And Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus does as well as he can ever do in his role, however in a way I feel he is sidelined quite a bit in Revolutions, and is appears to revolve (no pun!) around Neo, Smith and Trin more than him (a ryhyme!).

But again the best performance in the film comes from Hugo Weaving as Smith, who by now has fully relished in playing the evil bastard, as he literally consumes the Matrix, by cloning and copying everyone in it!  Smith also by now has developed a dry sense of humour, and he makes quite a few quips in the film, with my fav probably being when Neo goes back into the Matrix for their final confrontation, and he says "Welcome back, Mr Anderson, we missed you! Do you like what I've done with the place??".  The scene where he goes to the Oracle and copies her is also a rather chilling moment where you realise after he assimilates that he has gained her precognitive powers, and he laughs maniacally, relishing the fact, leaving the other Smiths to back away fearfully.  Another one of my favourite lines come from that scene where the Oracle looks at Smith with disgust and says "you are a bastard" and he says "well you would know, Mom!".

Of the supporting cast there again is some enjoyable performances, again from Lambert Wilson who plays the Merovingian, who demands Morpheus and Trinity to get the eyes of the Oracle in order to set Neo free, to which Trin replies "I haven't got time for this shit!".  And Mary Alice, who replaces Gloria Foster, who sadly passed away between the production of the two films, does a good job as the Oracle, although she isn't quite as good at the part, but she does well enough.  And the Australian actor, Bruce Spence (from Mad Max 2), also puts in an enjoyably quirky performance as the Trainman, and he has a funny moment where he is being chased by Morpheus and Trinity, and he goes to check the time and he has a dozen watches on his arm!  Jada Pinkett is also good again as Niobe, and she get's a bit more screen time in Revolutions, which is a good thing as she plays Niobe as being pretty feisty, and it helps add a bit more character to the proceedings. 

The film however of course isn't without its flaws, the main one for me was the big climactic battle between Smith and Neo is a bit too long, and it is rather more an anti-climax than anything else.  The end of the film might also leave some people a bit confounded by what its all about, and I for one was a bit perplexed by it at first.  But as far as I can see and THIS IS A SPOILER!!! that when Neo allows Smith to assimilate him in the Matrix, Smith's task in the Matrix has been complete, and by assimilating Neo he cancelled himself out, as the Oracle said to Neo that Smith "is his negative image", and as we know two negatives cancel themselves out.  At least I think that's what went on, and with Smith being destroyed (and presumably finally returning to the source as a used program does!) the Matrix is rebooted.  However of course, Neo in the process of doing this, himself is sacrificed, as the machines lay his body to rest once the battle is over with.

But anywayyyyyyy overall the Matrix Revolutions is an entertaining, and at times pretty intense finale to the trilogy, and it may confound you at times, but it rounds off the series very well.

So on that, I will finish right there!  

The Matrix Part 2: He's doing his Superman thing again....

Right well onto part 2 of my critique on the Matrix trilogy, which funnily covers the second film in the trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded, which was released four years after the original film in 2003.  While it was not exactly as well received as the original was, Reloaded nevertheless had plenty more action in it to keep the audiences entertained. So in usual tradition, I'll start with a look at the plot. 

So the film begins roughly 6 months after the events of the first Matrix film, with Neo (Keanu Reeves) now firmly having established his full powers in the Matrix and his function as "the one" who is still a crew member on Morpheus's ship, and he is now in love with Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss) and they are a couple.  Neo however is troubled with nightmares of Trinity falling to her death after engaging in battle with an agent.  Meanwhile however Morpheus receives a message from one of the human resistance group's spaceships, lead by Captain Niobe (Jada Pinkett) who organises a full meeting of the other ships to meet in the Matrix.  At the meeting it is revealed that one of the ship's last messages before it was destroyed was there will be an army of sentinels (the machines from the first film that attacked Morpheus's ship at the end) that will breach Zion within 72 hours, intent on destroying the city and its people.  After the meeting Neo encounters a few agents, defeating them, he flies to find the Oracle, who is nowhere to be seen in her apartment.  Later on Morpheus and his crew arrive back in Zion, and at a large meeting later on Morpheus tells the people that the machines are coming to the city, but they should not fear as they will stand their ground and fight, after this a party (or rave if you like!) ensues.  After the party is over, Neo receives a message from the Oracle asking that he meet with her, as he goes to, he first has to fight her bodyguard Seraph (Collin Chou) to prove he is "the one" to him.  The oracle at their meeting explains that she is part of the Matrix, and in order for the one to save Zion, he must reach the source, but in order to do that, Neo will need to find another program called the Keymaker, who can open the hidden portals to the source, but he is held by another program called the Merovingian.  After their meeting is over, Neo is confronted by a familiar figure, agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) who explains he is now unplugged from the system and a rouge program, who was supposed to return to the source but refused to.  Smith also reveals that he is capable of cloning himself in the Matrix and all of a sudden Neo is surrouned by many clones of Smith, who attack him as Smith tries to assimilate Neo into another clone, but Neo manages to fight him and his many clones off, before escaping.

Soon after Neo, Morpheus and Trinity meet with the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), a powerful program, who refuses to give up the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim).  However after their meeting, Merv's wife, Persephone (Monica Bellucci) betrays him by leading Neo to the Keymaker, which lead the Merovingian to send his men to attack Neo and others.  Neo manages to fight off Merv's men, who escapes before Neo can get to him, meanwhile Morpheus and Trinity flee into the city as they are chased by the Merovingian's bodyguards, the Twins, who are shape shifting programs that walk through solid matter.  Morpheus eventually manages to defeat the twins, but soon after is confronted by agents who are out to eliminate the Keymaker.  Just before Morpheus and the Keymaker are about to be killed by two agents who crash two big trucks into each other, Neo flies in and rescues them both (as one of his superhuman abilities is the power of flight).

As the clock is ticking down in the real world for Zion, Morpheus and Neo go into the Matrix with the Keymaker to reach the source.  The Keymaker leads them to a portal, but they are ambushed by a group of Smiths, who Neo and Morpheus fight off, but as the Keymaker opens the door that leads to the source, the Smiths open fire at the Keymaker, who closes the door just after Neo and Morpheus get into the room, riddling him with bullets.  With his dying words the Keymaker tells Neo which door leads to the source, and gives him the key to open the door, and other door will take Morpheus home.  Neo uses the key to open the door to the source, which is then flooded with bright shining light, in the room he meets with an old bearded man, wearing a white suit, who calls himself the Architect (Helmut Bakaitis), who reveals some rather shocking truths to Neo about the Matrix, which will have a devastating effect for Zion and the love of his life Trinity.

The Matrix Reloaded while it isn't as good as the original film, does at least succeed in expanding on the Matrix universe and it introduces Zion properly and the rest of the human resistance.  However you could say that most of the new characters aren't that interesting as they are mostly just as serious and one dimensional as the main trio in the film.  But then again they are living in desparate times, as the film reveals of course Zion is in danger of being destroyed by the sentinel machines, so there won't be much in the way of levity among the locals!

But where Reloaded scores big once again is the action scenes, which are every inch as good here as they were in the original.  With Neo now at the height of his powers as the One in the Matrix, he can now fight may foes simultaneously with great ease, and stop the path of bullets just with the wave of his hand.  And there are several highlights in terms of the action in the film, the one that stands out the most is of course the "burly brawl" where Neo is attacked by hundreds of Smiths, as he fends them off.  Its a very impressive visual sequence as we see hundreds of Hugo Weavings, dressed in  black suits and wearing dark shakes, attacking Neo over and over, although I wonder what Hugo made of it all, seeing so many of himself on screen!  Another highlight in the film is the big sequence that takes place on the freeway, where the Twins chase Morpheus, Trinity and the Keymaker, and Morpheus finally get's his own cool fight sequence as he takes on an agent.  

As for the new characters, well as I said they are mostly not that interesting, but there are one or two that do stand out well, the main one being the Merovingian, the powerful and corrupt program, that holds the Keymaker captive, who is played very well by Lambert Wilson.  The Merovingian also get's one of the film's funniest lines where he talks about his love of the French language, as he speaks with a French accent, he says "its like wiping your arse with silk!".  The Architect is also another interesting and somewhat confounding character, who is the creator of the Matrix, and talks in endless riddles to Neo, overusing words such as concordantly, vis-a-vis and apropos.  And the Architect has clearly pissed off Neo in their scene, who as he walks out the room says "If I were you, I would hope we don't meet again", to which the Architect replies "we won't!".  And of the human characters, the new operator of the Nebuchadnezzer, Link (Harrold Perrineau) provides some welcome moments of humour, and his best line is where Morpheus at one point asks where Neo is in the Matrix, and he says "He's doin his Superman thing again!" after which we see Neo flying through the clouds. And finally Jada Pinkett as Captain Niobe is pretty good, as she plays the captain of the ship, the Logos, and she was once romantically attached with Morpheus, which pre-empts a good line from Neo, after Trinity reveals that "Niobe was once with Morpehus, then she met the Oracle and everything changed" he replies "yeah, she can do that". 

However the star of the film is of course really Hugo Weaving as Smith, who by now has developed further in his megalomaniacal personality and is hellbent on cloning himself over and over within the Matrix.  Smith also is no longer an agent of the system in the film at this point, and is in fact a rouge program, that refuses to return to the source as a program is supposed when it is destroyed (as Neo destroyed Smith as an agent at the end of the first Matrix film).  Instead Smith reveals that a part of Neo was copied over onto him, which in a way reveals his own special abilities, which probably allows him to clone himself in the Matrix.  But Smith also exhibits more personality in the film, and one of my favourite lines in the film is where Smith assimilates one of the agents, who says "You!", as Smith clones him he replies "Yes, me! Me, me, me!".    

The film of course is not without its flaws, and yes one of them is the ridiculous rave sequence in Zion where we see the people of Zion celebrate, with some techno music as part of the film soundtrack playing in the background!  Its definitely a scene the film could have done without.  The first 30 or 40 minutes is also definitely a bit too slow, as it reveals Zion and the people of the city, and bogs the pace down.  There is also of course a new annoying character the Kid (Clayton Wilson) who is some young eager wannabe, who was freed from the Matrix, who desperately wants to be a part of Morpheus's crew, although I'm sure Neo probably wished they had re-inserted him back into the Matrix!  And as I said there are probably too many characters to introduce to the film, with so many human resistance crewmembers, you can't devote too much time to them and basically why bother, as you only have two hours to tell the story.  Also I have to say the opening title sequence with the burst of bright light and the matrix coding is pretty cheesey as well! 

However despite all that, the Wachoswki brothers, Andy and Larry done a fine job with Reloaded overall, as its good to see the return of the Matrix world, and they know how to shoot action scenes for sure!  The bullet time effects are again impressively done, especially during the burly brawl sequence, and the scenes where Trinity fights off the agents in the building near the end, and where Morpheus and the Keymaker are stuck between a rock and hard place, or more realistically two trucks on a collision being driven by two agents, which collide and cause a massive slow-mo explosion.  The soundtrack of the film again is hugely impressive, as the action scenes pulsate relentlessly, and they will give your surround system a great workout for sure!  Don Davis's score for Reloaded also keeps nicely in the same tone as the original one, and there a few well used tracks from some rock bands, one being Rage against the machine's "Calm like a bomb" used at the closing credits.

Soooooo that's it for the Matrix Reloaded, which is a very entertaining sequel, its that difficult second part, but as far as they go its still quite enjoyable, despite its flaws.

And so I will leave it there.  Part three to follow next!  

The Matrix Part 1: Whoa!

OK right well, its time for a bit of review-age, and yes this is becoming a review blog, but every now and then there will be one or two different posts thrown in, but for now I've decided to cover a trilogy of films, and this time I've gone for the Matrix Trilogy.  The general concensus of the Matrix films is that the first one is the best and the other two are pretty naff, however I like all three of them, although I would be hard pushed to say the last two are better than the first one.  But anyway this post will focus purely on the first film, or simply The Matrix, so here we go....

Righty starting with a ridiculously lengthy (well maybe) plot summary, the film starts with the main character Thomas Anderson  (Keanu Reeves) who is a computer hacker who is trying to understand cryptic messages he receives on his computer about the Matrix.  One night Anderson receives a message on his computer telling him to follow the white rabbit, when a group of punks take him to a club where he meets another hacker, Trinity (the gorgeous Carrie Ann-Moss) who calls him "Neo", and tells him he is in great danger, but a man that Anderson has been tracking can help him, the man is Morpheus.  Next day Anderson wakes up and goes to work where he receives a phone call, with a mysterious voice on the line, the caller indentifies himself as Morpheus, who offers Anderson his help, as a group of agents are enroute to capture him.  However before Anderson can do anything he is captured by the agents, and interrogated by the lead agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), but Anderson refuses to help them and therefore Smith then implants a bug into Anderson's body.  Waking up the next day in his bed as if he had awoke from a nightmare, Anderson receives another call from Morpheus who tells him to meet him under a bridge, where he meets Trinity again, who uses a device to remove the bug implanted in Anderson's chest.  Soon Anderson is taken to meet Morpheus who offers him the truth about the Matrix, where he gives him the choice of a blue pill or a red pill, the red one will tell him the truth of the Matrix, which Anderson takes.  Anderson soon awakes inside a liquid filled vessel to which he is wired up, as he looks around he sees he is in a vast cavern full of a vessels containing people inside who are wired up like to a big life support system.  Anderson is then rescued by Morpheus's people who take him onboard Morpehus's spaceship, the Nebuchadnezzar.

Soon after Anderson is taken onboard, his body, which was filled with tubes and plug holes for his life support system in the vessel, is rebuilt as his muscles have atrophied due to lack of use.  Anderson or as I might as well call him now "Neo" awakens after his surgical work has been done, and Morpheus explains to him about the Matrix, via the use of a virtual reality program, which involves Neo being strapped into a chair, with a plug that is inserted into the back of his neck (which has a plug hole) by the ship's operators.  Morpheus explains that the Matrix is in fact a system of control created by intelligent machines, who were created back in the 21st century, who have now dominated the Earth, and that they are now possibly in the year 2199, and not 1999 as Neo had been led to believe when wired into the Matrix.  The machines use the Matrix and keep the human population in the liquid filled vessels in order to harness their bioeletrical energy.  Neo refuses to accept this truth at first, but soon comes to  accept what Morpheus tells him, who says that they have since been releasing other humans from the Matrix in order to fight against the machines.  In doing so, Morpheus and his crew have been going into the Matrix, and have learned to use special skills within the system, that allow them superhuman abilities, which they use in order to fight against the machines.  However the programs inside the Matrix, the agents, are also very dangerous and have powerful abilities themselves, and Morpheus says every person that has fought them has died.  After this Neo undergoes training programs via a virtual reality console, that teach him various forms of martial arts in order that he can fight the agents and become "the one" as Morpheus prophises to Neo, that he will end the war between the machines and the humans.  Morpheus soon takes Neo to meet with the Oracle (Gloria Foster) who is a program within the Matrix, with clairvoyant powers, who tells Neo that he must choose between saving himself and Morpheus, but that he isn't the one.  

And after the meeting, its soon revealed that one of Morpheus's crew, Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) is a traitor who betrays Morpheus and his team to the agents, killing three other members of the crew, Apoc, Switch, who are still plugged into the Matrix, and using a plasma gun to kill the ship member Dozer.  As a result of this Morpheus is captured by Smith and his agents, who try to break his spirit in order to reveal the codes to the Zion mainframe (Zion being the last city on the real world).  Neo realises now that he must make the choice based on what the Oracle told him, and that he decides to save Morpheus's life from the agents.  Neo then goes back into the Matrix with Trinity and together they fight their way into a maximum security building where Morpheus is being held, after many bodies and bullets have been dispensed off, Neo rescues Morpheus.  At the exit point where they can all safely unplug from the Matrix (which is a phonebooth usually) Smith follows them, as Morpheus and Trinity escape, leaving Neo to face Smith.  But at this point rather than run, Neo turns to face Smith, now starting to believe in his power, the two of them have it out in a climactic showdown....

The Matrix was something of a landmark when it came out and it also popularised the "bullet time" effect where we see an event happen in slow motion while the camera moves around at normal pace.  This effect is most memorably used in the sequence where Neo tries to dodge the bullets that the agent fires at him, as bends over backwards to evade them, and we see the bullets flies past.  Visually the film is also very impressive and it lends a bit toward Alien with its designs especially within the "real" world in the future where we see the huge caverns filled with the human vessels wired up a massive power system.

But what makes the Matrix stand out so well is its incredible action scenes, where after the first half of the film is mostly exposition we get into the nitty gritty of the good guys vs the bad guys.  The fight scenes are particularly great, and they were coreographed by the great Hong Kong action coreographer, Yuen Woo-Ping (now that's a name!).  The fight scenes that stand out particularly are the one where Morpheus and Neo fight each other in the virtual sparring program, and the showdown between Neo and Smith in the subway.  Then there is of course the cool lobby scene where Neo and Trinity fight their way past many armed security guards in order to get to the top of the building.

However while the Matrix is a highly entertaining film, it isn't without its flaws, and it one of its flaws for me is to an extent the plot itself, as at times the film get's itself bogged down in trying to explain the background of the machines and the humans.  But I guess being the first of the trilogy, there will always be questions that are left unanswered, but for me personally it took quite a while to realise about how the humans were all really kept alive in these tanks, plugged into what is basically a big computer program.  Call me stupid, but at the time I didn't quite understand the scene where it transitions from Neo being in the Matrix world to the real world, however I do know, but prior to that I just don't think that scene is very well explained for an audience. 

Other flaws in the film probably also boil down to characterisation, or maybe a lack of it, as the three principal characters are pretty one dimensional, Neo in particular is pretty dour, and one note, probably not helped along by Keanu Reeves mumbling performance.  Don't get me wrong, Keanu does a fine job at playing the part of Neo, which is mainly a phsyical job anyway as he doesn't have a vast amount of dialogue in the film.  Laurence Fishburne however does fair better as Morpheus, mainly because Larry is a fine actor and despite his character being somewhat pretentious, he lends an aura of respect to him.  Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity is also good, but her character is also pretty one note, as she is basically so seriously given to Morpheus's cause that there is not much room for development or humour, but she looks mighty fine in that leather suit! ;-)

The supporting cast however fair much better, especially Hugo Weaving as agent Smith who plays him with a cool calculating sense of evil, and he also manages to convey moments of very dry humour.  Also more interestingly Smith is a character who wants more out of the world than just being inside the Matrix, as in one scene he reveals to Morpheus that he despises the Matrix and that he wants to get out into the real world, so he can destroy Zion.  Joe Pantoliano who is always good in pretty much everything he does, doesn't disappoint here as he probably gives the best performance of the film, as the traitorous Cypher.  I quite like the scene where he meets with Smith where he gives his demands in order to give Morpheus over, as they sit in a restaurant, Cypher chews on a piece of steak and says "you know when I chew this I know this isn't real. But you know what I've learned in all this time? Ignorance is bliss!".  Gloria Foster as the Oracle also gives the film some much needed colour in terms of personality as she plays the Oracle, like she is everyone's favourite Aunt, baking cookies, yet making vital prophecies at the same time.

Visually however as I said the film looks spectacular and the Wachowski brothers, who wrote and directed the film, did a stellar job with the visuals on the film, with the sets of the futuristic barren Earth, the CGI effects of the machines and the ship, all looking great.  The photography is also really interesting as the Matrix world is tinted green, while the real world has more realistic tones (or more like blue!).  The film itself was shot in Sydney and they make great use of the city throughout for the Matrix sequences.  The Wachowski bros also back up the visuals with a good soundtrack, as they choose some fine tracks such as the Propellerheads "Spybreak", "Clubbed to death" by Rob D, and of course they round the film off nicely with Rage against the machine's "Wake up".  Ron Davis's original music score is not too bad either, even if it is a bit overly melodramatic sounding at times, but then it is a pretty melodramatic film! 

So The Matrix is a very entertaining film and a great start to the trilogy, and people must have known it would follow as it is left pretty open ended for another sequel.  And I will get onto them in a short while....

Till then that's it for part one.    

Treading the floorboards

Righty well as wee change I've got a bit of personal news, as I am soon going to return to the acting foray, after a year of inactivity (or if you like pure laziness) on that front, its about time that I got back into it.

So thankfully one of my good acting buds, Martin, is putting on a play based on one of the Terry Pratchett books, Wyrdd Sisters, which is basically a parody on Shakespeare's MacBeth, except it will be far more comical, so I'm beginning to look forward to it already.  And I've been cast in one of the parts, as the character Vitoller, who is the head of a troup of actors who are putting on a play, and is given the child of the king, who has been murdered by a Duke, who is seeking power (a la MacBeth style).  So it promises to be quite an interesting part, which I may end up playing in a Richard E.Grant style, as Vitoller is like a luvvy director, who has an arrogant swagger, etc.  Which way I will end up playing will of course be worked out later once I know what's going on with it more. 

So the play rehearsals should be starting in September in town, although the play itself will be performed out in Bathgate, and will also feature the Bathgate rep theatre cast, and it sounds pretty exciting to be a part of, and the play will run for two nights on 30 and 31 October.  And it will be good to get back into the old acting, and while I have found it to be nerve wracking at times in the past, its usually always been alot of fun to do.  The last thing I did was also just a scene from Measure for Measure for the STG's Shakespeare a la carte, which was fun, but it will be good to be part of a full play and ensemble cast. 

Another good thing is the part I will play hopefully shouldn't be too intensive (well I say that now!) so hopefully I won't be overburdened with so many lines to learn, as some of the parts such as the Duke (the equivalent of MacBeth) will be quite big and intense to learn.  I have enjoyed playing lead parts in the past, but I have also found them to be a bit stressful as well, and in the end I would rather be part of an ensemble cast, where all the pressure isn't directly on me to lead it.  Having said that I always don't want too miniscule a part either, so its just a matter of finding that even balance of stage time, but I will be happy to do my part as part of the cast and do my bit. 

Well that's pretty much that, as time goes on and as the play rehearsals get underway then I know a bit more about how it will all pan out, but it sounds like it will be fun to be a part of.

So that's the end of a rather short post, and I will end it there.

So there.

That's it.

Finished.

The end.

OK I'm done now. 

Chap with the wings there, five rounds rapid!

Right this is actually a bit of laziness as this post originally came from my other blog, but since it was deeply embedded in tennis posts, I decided to rescue it and post it over here to give this blog a few more posts.  So its a review of the Jon Pertwee Doctor who story, The Daemons, which is widely regarded as one of Pertwee's very best stories, so withoot further ado, here we go!

The story starts with one of the residents of Devil's End, a small village in Wiltshire, dying of fright from seeing something in the local graveyard.  The local village doctor says that the man simply died of a heart attack, but the local white witch Miss Hawthorne (Damaris Hayman) insists there is evil afoot.  The BBC are also at this time doing coverage of the excavation of the Devil's hump, an ancient burial ground.  Miss Hawthorne also interrupts the broadcast and warns the archaeologist, Professor Horner (Robin Wentworth) that if he opens the tomb then he will bring death and disaster upon the village.  The Doctor at this time having been watching the live coverage on TV, decides to go to the dig himself with Jo (Katy Manning, probably looking at her best in this story).  On arriving at the dig, the Doctor is too late to stop Horner from opening the tomb and there is a freak gust of snow and ice that blows out of the tomb, apparently killing the Doctor and Professor Horner.  The Doctor is soon dug out (or excavated) off the earth and snow and taken to the local pub, the Cloven Hoof, where he lies in a coma.

In the meantime however, a certain familiar looking figure who goes by the name of the Magister, dressed as a Reverend, has been holding ritual ceremonies to try and bring about the appearance of a demon called Azal (Stephen Thorne).  This is of course the Master (Roger Delgado) who has been at work trying to raise the demon Azal, who in actual fact is a creature from another world, who has been lying dormant but has been on Earth for over 100,000 years.  The Doctor soon recovers from his coma, after a freak heat wave hits the village, and he then explains his theory to the locals, and he is accompanied by Sergeant Benton (John Levine) and Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin).  The Doctor tells them that Azal is a daemon from the planet Damos, who came to Earth to try and advance the human race and pass on their knowledge as part of an experiment, however, man is in danger of being destroyed if Azal chooses to.  The Master also finally summons Azal and speaks with him, and he asks that Azal pass on his power to him in order to fulfil his desire to rule the Earth.  Azal considers this but says there is another one of the Master's race here, referring to the Doctor, he said he will speak with him also before making up his mind, and that he will appear once more, but he says he will either choose to pass on his power or to destroy the Earth.   

And another problem arising from these circumstances is that Azal's awakening causes a heat barrier to be place around the village, preventing anyone from leaving the village or from any one to enter it, as the UNIT commander Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) soon finds out when he tries to get to the village.  The Doctor contacts the Brigadier and tells him there might be a way for him to gain access to the village, but it will involve building heat exchanger energy machine that will help bypass the barrier, and the Doctor soon comes to the Brig (within resonable distance of the barrier) to help them build it.  As this is all going on the Master then through his hypnotic powers of persuasion gets quite a few of the village locals on his side, and to help him with this ritual ceremony in the cavern's of the church, in order to summon Azal once more and so he can control the daemon.  The Master soon successfully summons Azal for the last time, just as he does, Jo and Mike enter the cavern and witness Azal grow to huge size right infront of them.  The Doctor also manages to get into the cavern and past the Master's gargoyle and heavy Bok (Stanley Mason) whom he has been using throughout the story for his own evil ends.  The Doctor once in the cavern confronts the Master and Azal in deciding the fate of the planet.

The Daemons is without a doubt one of Jon Pertwee's best stories, made back in 1971, when the series made the crucial change in tone from the doomish Quatermass style that appeared in Pertwee's first season.  The story which was written under the psuedonym of Guy Leopold, was actually written by Barry Letts and Robert Sloman, and its a fine example of how good the scripts could be in the show.  Letts and Sloman make very clever use of the themes of witchcraft, demonism, religion, faith and duplicity, and I also like how they explain the background of the daemons helping man throughout the ages in advancing their knowledge.  You could almost say that the Daemons were babysitters for mankind and they helped instruct them in how to grow, although the Doctor at one point does state to Azal, that thanks to him now man can blow up the world and probably will, which is something Azal says that the planet smells of failure.  This ultimately points to man being his own downfall, and to Azal the Earth is just a failed experiment which he is in danger of destroying.

The characters in the show are all well catered for, especially the UNIT members, Benton and Yates, who are given more to do here than usual in a Doctor Who story.  Yates and Benton make their way to the village and get tangled up in the choas of what happens there, being beaten, abducted, and giving chase to the baddies.  Benton particularly is given plenty to do in helping out Miss Hawthorne, in the church where he beaten up telekinetically on a marked stone, and staving off an attacker in the pub, as well as finally giving in to having a dance with her at the end!  It also makes a nice change of pace to have the Brigadier separated from his team, as he goes off to a dinner at the start of the show, but later comes into the show when he is informed that his helicopter has been taken by Yates and Benton, and the heat keeps him apart from the Doctor and the others.

In terms of the performances, the regular cast are on fine form here, Jon Pertwee had wonderfully grown into his part of the Doctor by then and plays him as well in this story as he ever has, and his relationship with Jo has blossomed very nicely by the end of the season.  And by then the Doctor and Jo really have formed their partnership well, and Katy Manning, who looks rather fetching in this story (with her outfit, which apparently she didn't like!) over the space of that one season has matured nicely from the young lassie who first stepped into UNIT office, where the Doctor patronisingly said to her "no tea today, thank you!".  If there is however on aspect of their relationship that seems a bit off then that is the Doctor's way in which he puts down Jo or puts her in her place quite a bit, like a father telling off their child.  This is conveyed in the scene where the Doctor tells the Brigadier how stupid it would be to organise an aerial assault on the barrier surrounding the village, and Jo agrees with the Doctor afterward who says "Jo, the Brigadier is doing his best cope with an almost impossible situation and seeing that he is your superior officer, you should try and show him a little respect."  Its like Jo is trying to win over the Doctor's respect but he just rebuffs her and tells her off rather than agrees. 

John Levine and Richard Frankling are also both very good in their respective roles of Sergeant Benton and Captain Yates, as they too have comfortably grown into their roles, and they share a nice bit of banter with each other, especially in the scene where Benton moans while watching the TV that his football team lost in the first episode, and he flicks a coin he lost in a bet to Yates.  And Roger Delgado as the Master is great as ever in his role as the charming, suave and incredibly evil character, who has a hold over the village and poses as the local reverend, although by then in the 8th season, he had appeared in every single story, so it was no longer much of a surprise when he showed up.  Perhaps at the time of the show there was a bit of controversy over the user of the incantations used to raise Azal as they might appear to be a temptation for children to copy (well maybe there wasn't!), but amusingly enough Delgado only really used the nursery rhyme "Mary had a little lamb" backwards, and at one point he even says Damaris Hayman's name backwards when he wards off Azal. 

As for the supporting cast Damaris Hayman does fine with her character of Miss Hawthorne, the headstrong and stubborn white witch who forecasts doom and disaster on the village, although her performance is a bit cheesy overall.  Stephen Thorne as Azal is quite impressive although his appearance is rather brief as you only really see him in the last episode, but the effects and make-up for his character are actually very good, and yes those are tights he is wearing in the scenes where you see his hooves!  The only really silly addition in the cast is Stanley Mason as Bok, the Master's gargoyle, which he uses to bump off the villagers that oppose him, as prances around in the white lycra suit, and the face make-up for Bok appears to have his tounge sticking out for some strange reason!

The story itself has plenty of enjoyable scenes including the scene where the Master tries to persuade the villagers to his way of thinking, the scene where Benton fights of a thug in the cavern and is attack invisibly by an unknown force when he lands on a paving stone.  I also quite like the scene where the Doctor is tied up and about to burned alive by the locals for being a "witch" and Miss Hawthorne pretends he is a great magician, and she uses Benton to make it look like the Doctor can use his magic to shatter a street lamp or shoot the weathercock.  And there is of course the final confrontation between the Doctor, the Master and Azal, which is well performed.  The heatwave barrier effect is also quite well done, and nicely directed, as we see a milkman in his van, jump out as the thunderish noise crashes in and we see his van go up in flames, and later the Brigadier throwing bits of rock or wood at the barrier and it disintegrates.  And one of the story's most memorable pieces of dialogue in the story comes from the Brigadier who once he has gotten into the village addresses on one of his soldiers to shoot Bok, "Jenkins, chap with the wings there, five rounds rapid!".

My only slight niggle about the story however is the end where (SPOILER ONCE AGAIN) Azal cannot understand Jo's decision to save the Doctor from being killed by him, by offering herself as a sacrifice instead.  The decision seems to totally baffle Azal and send him into self destruct mode, but I suppose that Azal is a creature that only deals in absolutes and can't handle the notion of such an intervention of selfless-ness.  But you can't help but think, wait a minute, in order to defeat this guy all we had to do is just confuse him?????  And that's it????  Surely we should have thought of that sooner!  The resolution of ridding the world of Azal seems just a bit pat and convenient that all it takes is one action to confuse him and that's him taken care of.

As for the DVD extras, there is a very good new documentary, which covers the making of the story, and its revealed the pub, The Cloven Hoof, which in reality was called something else, still have the sign that was outside the pub, which the owners proudly have kept behind the bar.  There is also a really funny bit in the documentary where Katy Manning refers to the scene with the Brigadier and Mike Yates, where Mike asks the Brig for a dance who says "I'd rather have a pint", and she said that Nick Courtney at the time said "Well that's settles it, the Brigadier is an alcoholic and Mike Yates is gay!".  The DVD commentary of the story itself is also quite enjoyable as some of the cast Katy Manning, Richard Franklin and Damaris Hayman all reminisce of their time making the story.   

So the Damons remains a classic Doctor Who story which rightfully remains one of the most fondly remembered from the classic series.  And it also reflected the time where the UNIT family was at its peak and one of Jon Pertwee's finest.

And that's it. (ahhh all that typing was so tough this time round, chortle chortle!). ;-)

Here'ssssssssss Johhnnyyy!!!!

Ok back to the reviewing hat, right its another movie, and I've decided to go with a horror classic, the Shining, directed by the master of masters, Stanely Kubrick, so let's pick up the axe, and have good old look at this beast....

Right well starting with the usual plot stuff, the film begins with Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), who has an interview for the position of the caretaker of the Overlook hotel, over the winter months when the hotel staff are away for the season.  The hotel manager Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson) who is impressed with Jack at the interview, however is obligated to warn Jack that there was an incident in the past involving a previous caretaker, Delbert Grady (Philip Stone) who after time at the hotel, went insane and killed his family and himself.  Jack however is not deterred and insists that he would love the job and the soltitude so that he can get on with his writing project.  Once Jack arrives with his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and his son Danny (Danny Lloyd) they are shown around the hotel by Ullman, who also tells them that the hotel was built on an ancident Indian burial ground and that hotel can be heavily snowed in during the winters (as it is based up in Denver).  During the tour of the hotel, Danny meets the head chef, Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) who actually shares something in common with Danny, a gift he calls "shining" which basically means they are both telepathic, as they talk, Danny asks if something bad happened at the hotel, and he reads Hallorann's mind, and asks about a hotel room "237", which Hallorann responds angrily to stay out of the room.

As the days pass, Jack and his family grow accustomed to staying in the massive hotel, but its not long before the effects of isolation to start set in on Jack, as he becomes more restless and his writing project goes nowhere.  Jack soon becomes more angry, distant and slowly but surely starts to lose his marbles, while in the meantime Danny is haunted by visions of the unpleasant events that happened at the hotel, with images of a river of blood flooding the corridors, and Grady's two dead daughters who ask Danny to play with them "for ever and ever and ever!".  Danny also one day becomes eager to find out what is in room 237 and he finds the door ajar and enters, while this happens Jack awakens from a terrifying nightmare in which he killed Wendy and Danny, which he sobbingly confesses to Wendy.  Danny enters the room in a state of shock, with a wound on his neck, and sucking his thumb, Wendy accuses Jack of hurting him, who denies it.  Later Jack goes into the main ballroom and sits at the bar and is welcomed by the ghost of a bartender, Lloyd (Joe Turkel) who pours him a drink, and Jack confesses while he never touched Danny, he did once hurt him a while ago, and that he is also a former alcoholic.  Wendy enters in a panic urgently asking Jack to check out Room 237, in which she claims Danny saw a woman in the bathtub, who tried to strangle him.  Jack goes to check out the room and finds a beautiful young naked woman in the bathtub, they embrace, but then the woman turns into an old hag with rotting skin, Jack terrified backs out of the room and locks it.

On returning to Wendy he says that he didn't see anything and the two of them argue about taking Danny back home, which leads Jack back to the gold ballroom, where he meets Lloyd again.  This time Jack also bumps into a waiter, who spills drinks over him, on going to the bathroom, the waiter reveals himself to be Delbert Grady.  Jack challenges Grady on what happened to his family, but Grady denies any knowledge, but insists that he deal with his son and his wife, as he tells him Danny is trying to contact Hallorann telepahtically, to come to the hotel.  By now Jack's madness has overtaken him and he gives into Grady's advice, as he confronts Wendy and threatens to bash her brains in, but Wendy knocks Jack unconscious with a baseball bat.  Wendy locks Jack up in the kitchen store room, who pleads with Wendy to let him go, but then says that he has got a surprise for her as he has sabotaged the radio and the snowcat, so they cannot escape.  By now Wendy is alone with Danny, who is still in a catatonic state, and his imaginary friend, Tony, has taken over his personality, as he uses lipstick to write the word "REDRUM" on the door in lipstick, which he repeats.  Danny yells the word until Wendy wakes up, who looks in the mirror and reads the word "MURDER", at this point Jack has managed to escape the store room, and starts to chop down the door with a fire axe, as Wendy and Danny try to flee for their lives, Danny escapes outside, but Wendy is left trapped in the bathroom.  Jack having smashed the bedroom door in, goes up to the bathroom door and "he huffs and puffs and blows the house in!", as he chops down the wood to get through the door, he leers through a gap in the door and grins evilly at wife delivering that immortal line "Here's Johnny!!!.  Wendy however manages to hold off Jack, by slicing his hand with a knife, and at this point, Hallorann arrives in the snowcat outside, and on entering the hotel, Jack kills him with the axe.  What ensues is a chase as Wendy and Danny both try to escape a demented Jack who limps after them with the axe, which sees Jack chase Danny into the hotel's big garden maze for the film's climax. 

The Shining must easily rank as one of the best horror films in recent years, based on the Stephen King novel, Stanely Kubrick brilliantly adapted the film for the screen here.  Although apparently King himself wasn't too happy with Kubrick's interpretation of his book and he himself preferred the TV mini series version remade about 15 years later, which frankly is nowhere near as good as this.  King's main criticism was of course in he depiction of Jack as he felt that Kubrick had strayed from the original character in the book, and potrayed him in a less sympathetic light.  As in the mini TV series, Jack is depicted as a more well meaning man who was troubled by his alcoholic past, but only started to go mad once the supernatural forces of the hotel overcame him, and in Kubrick's film, Jack is instantly far more cynical and weary of his family.  Also a key difference is that Jack in the book helps his family escape as he sets the hotel on fire and stays behind, whereas in the film Jack doesn't help his family escape.  But I think Kubrick's take on Jack makes for him being more sinister and effective than in the TV mini series version, and he and Diane Johnson, who co-wrote the screenplay did a great job here.  I also love the use of how Kubrick uses captions to show the days go by such as "MONDAY" and "WEDNESDAY" in that they are showing the passage of time it takes for someone to go mad.

And here Kubrick uses all his skills to create a cinematic masterclass in how to make a horror film, and his signature shots and visual sense are as brilliant as ever here.  As noted in quite a few of Kubrick's films, here we get his usual brilliant use of symmetrical shots (which he usually uses in scenes involving walking in long corridors), long slow pan outs, and also worthy of note is the steadycam shots of young Danny pedalling on his trike, which were filmed by the steadicam creator, Garrett Brown, who deserves alot of credit for his great work here.

Performance wise, The Shining is pretty much top of the drawer stuff, with Jack Nicholson providing a wonderfully over the top performance, as he starts the film as a cool composed guy, but as things progress he loses his mind, and before we knew he is dementedly limping around with that axe, with wide rolling eyes.  Jack has several highlights in the film, the scenes where he rows with Wendy are gerat, particularly the first scene where we see him grow frustrated with his wife and he tells her "to get the fuck out of here" and leave him to his work, as well as the confrontational scene where Wendy finds his pages and pages of typing with the words "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy".  I also like the scene where he sits on his bed in a catatonic state, as Danny slowly creeps into the room to get a toy, and Jack asks his son to come over and sit on his knee, which he does, and drowsily asks him if he is enjoying the hotel.  Its easily the most disturbing scene in the whole film, because we see in that moment Jack's madness slowly set in, and there is already the impending threat that he will hurt his family, but its neatly offset by his cheeky little grin at the end as he tells his son he would do nothing to hurt him.     

Shelley Duvall is also excellent as Jack's suffering wife, and she proves to be quite a strong resilient character, despite her going into an almost full traumatic meltdown as it goes on, and the famous scene where she is in the bathroom as Jack smashes the door down is a terrific highlight, as she brilliantly reacts with such hysteria.  Scatman Crothers also makes a fine impression as the good hearted chef, Dick Hallorann, who shares the gift of "shining" that Danny has, who is eventually drawn back to the hotel by Danny's telepathy in order to help them.  Crothers himself was moved to be involved in the film, but he also at times grew frustrated with Kubrick who was infamous for doing many many takes of one scene.  Philip Stone also makes a creepy cameo as Grady, and his bathroom scene with Jack is great as he tells him how he "corrected" his family.  And finally Danny Lloyd is terrific as the young Danny, as he plays him as an almost detached boy, who is quite morose, but also has a special gift that let's him see things, and his scenes where he takes on his imaginary friend's persona, Tony, are almost creepy at times, especially when he mutters "redrum" over and over.

Technically as I already said, Kubrick pretty much does everything to perfection here, there is precious little to fault in his stunning visual presentation of the film.  The photography by the late John Alcott is also outstanding as he produces some amazing rich images in the film, particularly the opening vista shots (which were taken overhead in a helicopter, as you can see the reflection of the copter blades in one shot! Also this footage was later re-used in Blade Runner) and the eerie beautiful lighting in the hotel.  The sets are also truly remarkable, designed by Roy Walker, the Overlook Hotel at that time was the largest set ever built, and they look stunning on film.

Score wise Kubrick again brilliantly chose his music tracks very carefully, and they do nothing but add to the intense dread and atmosphere of the film.  Some of the tracks Kubrick chose included works by the composer's Gyorgy Ligeti, Bela Bartok and Kyrzsztov Penderecki, and they are terrific and quite often they will send shivers down your spine, they certainly had the hairs standing up on my neck for sure.  Some of my favourites are used in the scenes where Danny looks in Room 237, and where Jack goes mad and chops down the door with an axe (followed by the mad montage of the river of blood, and Wendy seeing the bizarre image of someone in a teddy bear costume giving a party guest a blow job!).  Wendy Carlos also created one or two original pieces of electronic music for the film and they also add well to the atmosphere of the film, although more in a spatially atmospheric way (to do with the vista shots I mean).  Wendy's most notable piece of music is of course in the opening shot where she does a cover of Berlioz's "Dies Irae".

Its also worth noting that there are in fact two different versions of the film, with the US version running at 146 minutes, but for European version, Kubrick reduced the running time by 24 minutes, cutting out various scenes.  You could argue that either version of the film works well, but my preference is the original US release as it features several interesting scenes, which also reveal a bit more about the characters, especially the scene where Wendy explains to the doctor that comes to their house after Danny takes a funny turn, about her son and a bit about Jack's background and his alcoholism.  And with the extra scenes put in, one or two other scenes make more sense, especially when Wendy asks Danny to stop speaking in Tony's voice, and Danny explains in Tony's voice that "Danny has gone away, Mrs Torrance", which helps explain why he mumbles "REDRUM" in the scene when Jack takes the axe to the door.    

Sooooooo that's it for The Shining post, its one of my favourite films for sure and it remains a great horror classic, and if you are silly enough to have not seen it, and like an old horror film now and then, then its a must see.

So I will leave it there.

That was the 2012 Olympics that was

OK well a change from the usual reviews, this time I'm looking at the London 2012 Olympics, which yesterday came to a close, as Great Britain's largest city played host to the biggest games on the planet.

So starting with the end (makes a change!) the Olympic games had a massive closing ceremony, which was in a similar vein to the opening one (except this time Danny Boyle was not involved) with the usual razamatazz of a lot of dancers dancing the sound of popular songs, such as Madness's "our house", Blur's "Parklife" (except Blur didn't show), Pet Shop Boys "West end girls".  In fact Madness and the Pet Shop Boys actually turned up performing the songs live, with Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys wearing one of the most ridiculous outfits I've ever seen!  There were also performances from George Michael, the Spice Girls and the rock band Elbow, as well as Ray Davies (from the Kinks), and Liam Gallagher (glad I missed that one!), and The Who doing "My generation" (clearly the most decent thing on the bill here!) who closed out the ceremony with fireworks going off and confetti flying everywhee.  Other performances also included Eric Idle doing a version of "Always look on the bright side of life" and a cringeworthy performance of "I am the walrus" from Russell Brand, who sang it sitting on top of a psychedelic bus. Ughhhh!!!

As for the other parts of the ceremony that were nothing to do with the music, we had Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, hand over the Olympic flag to the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes.  After this there was a display from a group of Rio dancers, and we also the stadium light up green and yellow to resemble the colours of their flag.  Also a whole host of athletes from different countries took stage with their different nationalities flags, and we see the final medals being handed out, on this occassion they went to the medalists in the men's marathon, which was run on the final day, the gold medal going to Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda.

And in regards to the Olympic games themselves, well it was a tremendous success for Great Britain, who recorded 65 medals in all over 16 different sports, with 29 of them being gold medals, 17 silver and 19 bronze.  This must easily rank as Great Britain's most successful Olympics to date, and obviously as they were the hosting nation the athletes no doubt would feel inspired to win for their country.  And after a slow start Great Britain soon gathered momentum throughout the games, which started with the rowing team of the two Heathers Glover and Stanning, who won the first gold, in the women's pair.  And plenty more gold medals followed including two golds for Sir Chris Hoy, who won the men's team sprint and keirin events, and Laura Trott who won her first two gold medals in the ladies team pursuit and omnium events.  Other events saw some first time records as well, such as Nicola Adams, who won the gold medal for the women's flyweight in boxing, and Luke Campbell who won the gold for the men's bantamweight.  Team GB also won medals in other events such as the Equestrian (or show jumping), Taekwondo, sailing, shooting and canoeing.  There were some notable victories in the bronze medal bracket with Tom Daley, winning his first Olympic mdeal for the men's 10m platform diving, and for the first time in about 100 years, GB won two silvers and a bronze in the men's and women's gymnastics.  

However one of the most historic wins for team GB was Mo Farah, who won the men's 10,000 metres and the men's 5,000 metres events.  This saw Great Britain's first ever victory in the men's 10,000 metres event, and it also saw Mo take the podium doing his Mo-bot dance in celebration (which apparently was suggested to him by someone to do the "M" from the YMCA dance!).  In fact there is a much seen photo of Mo's reaction when he won the 5,000 metre event, as he gave a look of shock and delight.  And this was parodied as Mo Farah was superimposed in the famous painting by the artist, Edvard Munch, "The Scream", in which he replaced the famous image of the figure holding their face in shock, which was quite funny, although I wonder what Mo made of it! ;-)   

And of course another historical victory, which I've already said more than enough about, was in the tennis with Andy Murray winning his first ever Olympic gold medal, after he defeated Roger Federer in straight sets.  Andy by winning the medal became the first ever British tennis player to have won an Olympic gold medal since Josiah Richie back in 1908.  So I think it was safe to say that the Muzza was pretty inspired by all the success the Brits were having around him, and just maybe this could finally lead to him winning the majors, and he has at last got that monkey off his back (as well as Roger Federer!) in trying to win a big title. 

Onto other victories, from different countries, well there were aplenty, but some of the most notables ones involved a certain Jamaican fella by the name of Usain Bolt, who was the defending champion at the men's 100m and 200m events.  This time Bolt, came through again in ease as the top man, as he successfully defended his titles, proving that he is without a doubt the fastest man alive.  Also even more impressively as the Jamaican team ran in the 4 x 100 metre relay event, they also again managed to win the gold medal and even broke their own world record from 2008 in Beijing of 37.04 with a Guinness calling 36.84.  So this once again saw the Bolter defend his team's title from 2008, and it reaffirmed his status as one of the greatest athletes in history, so a big well done to the guy, although it has to be said, he is a bit of a poser! ;-)

As for the leaderboard well in the end it was the USA who were triumphant as they surged ahead with a remarkable 104 medal tally, 46 of them being golds, and 29 each for silver and bronze.  And among their victories there were plenty in the swimming with 16 golds, 9 in athletics, and 3 in tennis, most notably Serena Williams won her first ever Olympic gold medal in the final against Maria Sharapova, whereas the Bryan brothers won the men's doubles and the Williams sisters the ladies doubles.  And in 2nd place there was China who came away with 87 medals in all, with 38 golds, 27 silver and 22 bronze, in which they excelled in sports such as badminton, diving and weightlifting (and yup I've spelt that right!).

Sooooooo that's it for the Olympic games of 2012 from London, it was a very enjoyable two weeks and there has been plenty of excitement and some terrific wins for Great Britain, whom I'm sure they can be proud of the great efforts of their athletes.  And its a pity in a way that its over as TV will now be that bit more crap without them on anymore.

But anyway on that note I'll leave it there. 

Now, where was I?

Right another review, and yes this is turninig into a real review blog, but why not?????  More will follow maybe of a different tone soon, but for now why not do another review. :-)

So this time I have chosen the psychological thriller, Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan, who really announced his arrival as a great new talent, who would continue to make some terrific films after this.  Memento takes on a rather complex form, as it is told in reverse chronological order in colour, while the black and white sequences run in forward order.  So the plot analysis will be a bit of a mind shag here, but I will give it a go.

OK so the film starts (or technically ends) with Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) standing over the body of a dead man, Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), having just taken a picture of his dead body, the scene goes into reverse as Leonard picks up the gun and fires a bullett into the back of Teddy's head.  In the next scene, which shows the events leading up before the opening one, Leonard meets with Teddy inside a motel, where Leonard is staying.  Teddy turns out to be a cop, who has been helping out Leonard with his investigation to find the man who raped and killed his wife (Jorja Fox).  Leonard however, as a result of the night of attack on himself and his wife, suffers from a rare condition that causes short term memory loss, as a result he can't make new memories, and he can only remember things for a few minutes, after which he loses the memory and has to start again.  Also as a result of his condition, Leonard has to keep a list of notes to help him with his short-term memory, and even tatooing his body with notes and clues about his investigation.  At the warehouse we see at the start of the film, Leonard looks at a picture of Teddy, which he took earlier, and he sees the words written on the back of it "Don't believe his lies, he is the one, kill him".  This pre-empts Leonard's decision to kill Teddy, who before he dies says to Leonard that he has no idea who he is or what he has become since his wife's death.

Since this is pretty confusing to explain in reverse order, I will explain a bit more without going into too much depth, but as Leonard investigates his wife's death, he also get's help from a woman, Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss) to try and track down this man, who was nicknamed "John G".  But as the film goes on we find out Natalie had a boyfriend who was a drug dealer, who went missing, and he owes money to someone, and she uses Leonard to track down the man called Dodd, and kill him, Leonard on his encounter with Dodd, doesn't kill him, and with Teddy's help they force him to leave town.  We also learn that Leonard's former job was an insurance investigator, and in his biggest case, he investigated a man named Sammy Jenkis (Stephen Tobolowsky) who apparently suffered the same condition, he has, and as result Leonard always seems to remember that name, but unlike himself Sammy apparently was a con-man who hadn't a wife.  And as the film culiminates we soon find out the truth about what happened to Leonard, his wife and what became of the man who apparently killed her.

Memento without a doubt is an excellent film, and really heralded the arrival of Chris Nolan as a talented new filmmaker.  The film is undoubtedly very well written, complex and intelligent, and it remains an engrossing film throughout.  The structure of the film, with the colour scenes running in reverse order, and the black and white scenes running in forward order, is actually also quite daring and it makes for a refreshing take on the narrative of the film.

Performance wise everything is pretty much top drawer here, with Guy Pearce producing one of the best performances of his career, as the tortured and lost Leonard Shelby, who struggles with his condition, who is imprinted with the last memory of his dying wife, but he also tries to keep on top of it with the use of his notes and tatoos.  Joe Pantoliano (or Joe Pants as he is also known!) is similarly great as the cop, Teddy, who turns out to be manipulating Leonard for his own ends, especially at the end of the film, where he get's Leonard to kill a man, for money over a drug deal.  And then there is the lovely Carrie-Ann Moss who is also terrific as Natalie, who also turns out to be a manipulative character, who eventually helps out Leonard in trying to track down the killer.  And in a smaller role, Mark Boone Junior puts in an amusing turn as the motel worker, Burt, where Leonard is staying, where he soon tells Leonard that he has been charging him for two rooms, since business is slow for him, and and Leonard says "Well at least you're being honest about ripping me off!", and Burt says "Well you wouldn't remember anyway", to which Leonard says "you don't have to be that honest, Burt!". 

Direction wise, Nolan rarely if ever puts a foot wrong here, as his keeps you thoroughly engrossed in the film, and despite its complex structure, you can still follow it, thanks to how well written and paced it is by him.  And despite overall serious tone of the film, Nolan does provide one or two amusing moments, with Leonard's condition.  And the film's funniest moment comes when he looks for Dodd's hotel room, but he kicks in the wrong door and he knocks outs the man in the room, as he is looking for room 6, but he has the piece of paper turned upside town with his notes to find the room, and it says 9!  Also worthy of note is the synthesized score by David Julyan, which is quite effective, albeit it is pretty morose in tone, but it has some really good ambient pieces in it too. 

The film itself doesn't have many flaws, although one or two flaws could be in Leonard's character, as he clearly can't remember things for more than a few minutes, yet when he sees Teddy every time, he almost seems to recognise him, which doesn't seem to keep in with his memory condition.  I guess Leonard can use the photos he takes of Teddy and Natalie to help him keep his short term memory in check that he has in fact met this people before.  But when he does meet them he takes it for granted that he already has met them and knows them, even the motel worker, Burt.  But there are also moments when Natalie is with Leonard that he tries or even pretends to make it seem like he does remember her, like the scene when they wake up together in bed, and she stirs a bit alarmed, and Leonard says "its only me".   

At times also in the film, there is something that doesn't sit comfortably with me about Leonard, clearly he is out for revenge, but he also is a killer, as in the film we see him kill four men, in retaliation for his wife's death (one during the assault of his wife with a gun, the other man who raped his wife, Jmmy Grants the drug dealer, and then Teddy).  And one of those murders is Teddy, whom at the end of the film we see that Leonard choses to leave clues for him to use Teddy as the culprit or "John G" he is looking for, when he has already apparently killed the man that attacked and raped his wife over a year ago, as Teddy tells him at the end.  In this moment Leonard deliberately chooses not to believe or accept Teddy's explanation, and out of feeling manipulated and used, he decides to kill Teddy in retaliation, and leaves himself a trace of clues to eventually pin it on Teddy.  

Although what becomes of Leonard after the end (the chronological end I should say!) no one can tell, one thing is for sure is that he has just killed an undercover cop, so no doubt the police would be after him for it.  And if the police arrested him, he would probably come to in jail without even realising why he is there!  Plus he hasn't written down that Teddy was a cop at all, so what if he decides to stay in town rather than leave, as surely he should have kept note that he was a cop, so he would know he had to get out of there.  So Leonard's fate is left ambiguous at the end, and we just have to assume what will happen as a result.

Soooooo that's it for my review of Memento, its a great film, and its one to watch if you haven't already seen it.

OK bye the now. 

Resident Eeeeeeeevil 4!

Right ok back the Blog Odyssey, review time!  Yep this blog is really a review fest, but here is a little something different, this time its on another game, and I've chosen one of the all time great fps horror games in recent years, Resident Evil 4.  Resident Evil 4 (or RE4 for short) originally came out on the Nintendo Gamecube, and it totally revoltionised the series, as the environments were no longer static 2D backdrops, the characters were now in a fully three dimensional summersive environment.

So a little bit about the story, which begins with an agent Leon S.Kennedy, who was a protagonist in Resident Evil 2, sent on a mission to rescue the daughter of the president of the USA, Ashley Graham, who has been kidnapped by a cult.  Leon tracks Ashley to a rural village in Spain, where he soon encounters some hostile villagers, who appear to be infected with a virus, which is soon revealed to be called the "Los Plagas", the villagers are known as the "los ganados" (Spanish for enlighted ones).  On finding Ashley, Leon is captured by the village leader, Bitores Mendez, who injects with the los plagas virus, a mind controlling parasite, as has Ashley.  Leon soon escapes and goes after Ashley and finds her in a chapel, only to be faced by the leader of the Illuminados, Osmund Saddler, who intends to use Ashley's infection, once she returns to America to infect the population and cause disaster.  On their journey they encounter more illuminados, and Ashley is soon re-captured and taken to an island research facility, where Leon confronts an old enemy and does what he has to do to stop the evil that threatens to infect the world.

Resident Evil 4, while it didn't exactly re-invent the wheel in terms of gaming, it certainly reinvented the game series, by allowing the movement to be more free flow than before, as we had the static shots of the characters running down corridors, rather than a proper three dimensional environment.  It also allows Leon's character to interact with his environment, such as kicking doors open, kicking ladders down or pushing them up, and leaping over fences, or ducking and hiding behind walls.  The combat system was also given a real overhaul as now Leon can use a selection of weapons, and has a gun which has a laser sighting attached to make it easier to target enemies.  The game also has scripted moments where the player has to rapidly press a sequence of buttons to avoid the character from being killed, which also adds a bit more tension to the proceedings, as well making counter attacks to close quarter attacks from baddies. You also even get a selection of attache cases, which range from small to extra large, so you can carry more items as you progress.

Gameplay wise the game is terrific and the control system is very easy to use, and in the context of the action, it lets you get into things really easily, and there is also an upgrade system for the weapons you buy.  And a notable feature of the game is of course the travelling merchant who offers you a series of weapons and items to stock up on, and for some reason the traveller is a cockney, who flashes his coat, showing you his items, saying "Welcome!" and "what are you sellin?" or "what are you buyin??".  There are also moments in the game where you can play as Ashley, when Leon is trapped in a room, and you need her to crawl through spaces to access other rooms, in these moments however Ashely has no weapons, but they aren't really needed.

And what help makes Resident Evil 4 so good is its baddies, and with the new free expansive environment it allows more room for loads of enemies on the screen all at once.  The spanish villagers, who move in groups slowly towards you are very creepy, and the los illimunados priests are without a doubt one of the creepiest game villains you will ever come across in any game, particularly the slow way thye creep towards you, and the low chanting they do.  And that is one of the successes of the terror aspect of the game, is that baddies come in at you from all sides.  There are other enemies as well, not just in human form, as you also got some large insects, or mutated humans who take the form of large insects, as well as a massive cave trolls, who try to flatten you.  You also get a kind of leatherface character (the main baddie from the 1970s horror film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre) who charges at you with a chainsaw, and naturally you have to run for your life or your character will get chopped.  

The music in Resident Evil always plays an important part and here we get another excellent score, which is intense, scary, creepy and generally really good.  It also updates the sound of the series, rather than the cheesy kind of 90s synth type of music that was used in some of the previous scores.  Graphics wise the game for its time looks great, although as time has moved on you could say that it looks rather dated and lacks the detailed and more advanced visuals you get nowadays in games, even in Resident Evil 5, where the graphics got a real overhaul in HD, they looked even better.  The character models are actually pretty good for their time, as Leon and Ashley both look the part and its a step up from the previous games visuals.  

Perhaps though if I am being critical about the game, one thing I could say about the combat system is that it doesn't let you stock up on ammo, when you go to visit the merchant, as you need to either upgrade your weapon's capacity to refill it, or pick up the ammo left from dead baddies.  And it would makes things a bit easier if that was the case, and I guess that's always been an issue with the RE series, especially in the early games where ammo was very sparse.  And there will be moments in this game where you will get that aswell, when you face off loads of baddies and you are low on ammo.  Its the one part of the series that has never been remedied in that respect, and it remains the same here, which can be an annoyance especially given the amount of baddies in the game.

Difficulty wise Resident Evil 4 is far from easy, and will pose a fair challenge at times, and the toughest part of the game by far for me was facing Leon's old foe, Jack Krauser, who has lightning reflexes and keeps shooting at you, and you have to try and dodge his attacks by hand or gunfire, as he hides in different locations at the research island grounds.  In fact I found myself getting killed repeatedly by the guy which was a real pain in the ass after a while!  So you have to try and conserve your ammo in taking him down.  There are other bosses in the game which can present a bit of a test as well, such as the cave trolls who keep stomping at you in the scene where you are trapped in the furnace, and you need to trying to open a pit to drop them in lava.

So overall Resident Evil 4 is a great game and one of the best, if not the best in the Resident Evil series, and if you are a fan of the series and haven't even tried it yet, give it a go! (its only been about 7 years!). 

Riight so on that note, I shall say byeeeeeeeeeeee.....................................e.