OK well its taken me quite a while but I finally managed to get around to seeing Skyfall at the pics, the latest James Bond film, which has garnered alot of critical acclaim from critics and audiences all round the world. So is it actually that good????? Well that's what this post is all about, but anyway on the with cursory stuff first, a bit of plot (don't worry I won't give it all away! Well ok quite a bit maybe! BASICALLY DON'T READ THE NEXT NEW FEW PARAGRAPHS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!).
The film begins in Istanbul, with James Bond (Daniel Craig) chasing a mercanary named Patrice (Ola Rapace, former husband of Noomi Rapace) who has a hard drive of files containing a list undercover agents placed in terrorist organisations by NATO states. In an ensuing fight, Patrice shoots Bond in the shoulder, and they fight on top of a train, with Bond's counterpart, Eve (Naomie Harris) backing him up from afar, using a rifle, she is ordered by Q (Judi Dench) to take the shot and eliminate Patrice, however she misses and shoots Bond instead, who falls into the water below. Months later and with Bond presumed dead, the ISC chariman Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) puts pressure on M to resign from her post, after the debacale of Bond's alleged death. As M makes her way back to the the MI6 offices, there is a large explosion that takes out the offices, as a result of which alot of employees are killed. M learns that the MI6 servers were hacked and she receievd a taunting message on her computer just seconds before the explosion occurred. Meanwhile, Bond is still alive and living abroad, using his presumed death as good reason to retire, he lives his life sleeping with women and drinking, when all of a sudden at a local bar he sees the headlines of the terrorist attack in London on TV. Bond returns to London and meets with M, who says if he is to be re-instated he must undergo a series of tests to be fit to return to the field. Bond takes the tests and does well in none of them, but regardless M informs him that he has passed.
Bond with the help of using shrapnel from his bullet wound, manages to track Patrice, and follows him to Shanghai, where he plans to assassinate someone. Bond arrives a little too late to prevent the assassination, but then engages Patrice in a fistfight, with Patrice falling over the edge of a high rise building, he falls to his death. Bond then finds a gambling chip from Patrice's equipment, which he uses to trace to a casino in Macau. There Bond meets with a woman, Severine (Bereince Lim Marohle) who was an accomplice in the assassination, and he asks to meet with her employer, however she warns him that he will be killed by men at the casino, but she will help him if he kills her employer. Bond survives the attack at the casino and then later meets Severine on a boat where they soon get down to it (well it is a Bond film!). Bond and Severine arrive on abandoned island off the coast of Macau, where they are captured and Bond soon meets Severine's employer, Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem). Silva is soon revealed to be a former MI6 agent, who worked under M, but has now turned to cyberterrorism, he taunts Bond into playing a shooting game where Severine is tied up and Silva places a drink on the top of her head, which Bond must shoot off. Bond (being a shaky shot due to his time away from the field) misses and shoots above her, but Silva shoots her dead instead. Bond then quickly fights off Silva's men and before we know MI6 agents arrive to capture Silva (as Bond was given a secret radio chip by Q, which broadcasted his whereabouts to MI6).
Bond returns to London with Silva captured, he is placed in a glass enclosure at the new underground headquarters of MI6. Silva reveals that he once worked for M and she handed him over to the Chinese intelligence, after he hacked his way into their networks. M meanwhile is being called to an inquiry over the mishandling of the events with the stolen hard drive at the start of the film. Silva however soon manages to escape custody at MI6, as he has hacked their systems, allowing his men to get him, he escapes into the subway system, with Bond in pursuit. Silva then proceeds to make his way to the inquiry so he can confront and kill M, in revenge for her actions, but Bond manages to save her just in time. Bond and M then flee from London and travel to Scotland where he goes to his childhood family home, Skyfall, in order to prepare for Silva coming, where they will face him for the last time.
(PLOT STUFF OVER!)
Skyfall is a highly entertaining addition to the Bond series, and with it we can see Daniel Craig's Bond develop even further towards become the suave Bond that we will eventually all recognise. But at this stage, he is still in transition, after his presumed death, Bond does appear to go back to being a drunken self loathing dropout. But its only when he learns of the attacks in London that it forces him to come out of hiding and back into the scene, out of concern for M. And its clear that M is a maternal figure for Bond in the film, as he was an orphan he had no parents to look up to when he grew up. She also protects him from the truth when it came to the tests he underwent in order to get him back into the field, as he failed, but she said he passed by the skin of his teeth. But in the end we all know when it comes to taking down the bad guys, Bond is the right man for the job. However thankfully Bond is no longer quite the cold blooded ruthless killer from the last two films, here we are starting to see him transition slowly into a slightly more humane figure than in Royale and Solace. And its partly that change that helps Skyfall work very well, as Bond needs to eventually evolve and adapt into the character we all know, rather than stay a gritty killing machine like he did previously.
Performance wise its all pretty good here, with Daniel Craig now having easily grown into the role of Bond, he provides a bit more warmth to Bond than before, as we get a bit more of his dry wit and humour. I especially like the scene where he undergoes one of the tests, which is free association with a pscyhologist, who asks him to say the first word that comes into his head when he says a word to him, such as "day..... wasted", and "M..... bitch". Also the scene where he quietly talks with M at the gallery who gives him a new signature enabled Walther PPK, and a small radio chip, he puts them away and says "a gun and a radio, its not exactly Christmas is it?". And by the end of the film we can see he has made the final transition into become the suave, well groomed, and (sort of) sophisticated fella that Bond is. Javier Bardem, who is no stranger to playing villains, plays a chilling one in Raoul Silva, as he comes across as being camp as a row of pink tents at first (practically coming onto Bond in their first scene, where he opens Bond's shirt looks at his wounds) but behind that is a chiling sociopath, with an appetite for mass destruction (and he probably owns a few weapons of them too!) and scary line in cyberterrorism.
Judi Dench makes her final appearance as M in the film and she is as fine as ever in the role, but I think at some point they were right to make the transition to a new M, and she makes a good exit in the part, which ends on a tragic note. Ralph Fiennes is also good as Mallory (who later turns out to be the new M!) playing the part of the pompous beaurocrat to perfection, although it does appear to be something of a cliche in these films, that they are all so posh and toffy nosed. And Naomie Harris is also very good as the famous Eva Moneypenny, and her flirting with Bond provides some of the film's fun moments, and they keep it in tradition as she just about the only girl that Bond never did! ;-) And finally Albert Finney makes an entertaining turn as Kincaid, the gamekeeper of the Skyfall estate, where Bond and M make their last stand against Silva. Finney get's one of the film's best lines, when shoots at some of Silva's men when they attack the house, and he shouts "welcome to Scotland!".
Directionally Sam Mendes does a great job here, as he was easily the best choice of Bond director in quite a while, and he keeps the action zipping along nicely, although perhaps the film could have done with a slight trim, time wise but overall it works well at just under 2 hours and 25 minutes. And its refreshing to see that they have recruited Thomas Newman to do the music score for Skyfall, as after so many years of Dave Arnold at the helm, its about time they changed him, and Newman's score is excellent and well suited to the film.
Flaw wise the film doesn't have too many, although it has to be said while its a very enjoyable film, its not what I'd call a masterpiece, as every Bond film that comes out always gets branded as the best one ever, and this is a pretty good film, but its not what I'd call a classic. And one thing that did bug me a little was clearly the plot line for when they captured Silva, was pinched from the Dark Knight, when the Joker allows himself to be captured and taken to prison. At that point its quite predictable that we know he wants to be captured, so he can be taken to M and he can confront her, but the style in which it was done was fairly similar to the Dark Knight, and you can see it coming when it happens.
So that's it for my Skyfall review, its a very enjoyable Bond film, probably not the greatest of all time, but it sees the series continue on the right track, and we are starting to move towards the James Bond we all recognise.
And that's it for now.
Friday, 30 November 2012
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Back and to the left
Right its blag time from the other blog, so its yet another movie, and this time its Oliver Stone's acclaimed epic drama JFK.
JFK is a dramatisation of the events that surrounded John F. Kennedy's
assassination that took place on 22 November 1963 in Dallas, Texas and
the aftermath of its investigation. So as usual here is the plot summary:
On the day of the assassination, in New Orleans, District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) is informed by one of his staff Lou Barnes (Jay Sanders). After Kennedy's death is announced officially on television, the suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman) is arrested and taken to the station for questioning. Garrison then plans to investigate any suspects and associates of Lee Harvey Oswald's that might be under his jurisdiction in New Orleans, however before he can do that, Oswald is assassinated live on TV by Dallas mob man Jack Ruby (Brian Doyle Murray). Regardless of Oswald's shock assassination, Garrison brings in one of Oswald's alleged known associates, David Ferrie (Joe Pesci) who naturally denies he ever knew Oswald. However Ferrie gives a very shaky account of his activities on the day of the assassination which Garrison quickly disbelieves and has Ferrie detained for more questioning by the FBI, regardless of this though Ferrie is let go, after which Garrison decides not to continue investigating any further.
Three years later in 1966, after sharing a conversation with a senator (played by the late great Walter Matthau) on an airplane, Garrison starts to have serious doubts and suspicions about the events of the assassination and that Oswald was the lone gunman. After more digging around, and reading over the 26 volumes of the official assassination investigation, published by Warren Commission and conducted by chief judge Earl Warren, Garrison decides to re-open the investigation of the crime. With his small team of staff, Garrison questions many different witnesses to the shooting, and potential suspects that may have been connected to the assassination. As Garrison and his team investigate further, a name that keeps popping up is Clay Bertrand, who is later revealed to be Clay Shaw (played by Tommy Lee Jones) a well respected businessman and entrepeneur. However on bringing Shaw in for questioning, Shaw categorically denies any knowledge of Oswald, Ferrie or any one else potentially involved in the conspiracy, as well as denying his Clay Bertrand alias. But soon after their meeting, Garrison's investigation is made public and soon the press and media come down hard on him. Now forced to operate out in the open, Garrison faces tough choices ahead of him in carrying out his investigation, after receiving various death threats, crank calls, and narrowly escaping frame ups to discredit him. Eventually after rigorous investigations, including a discussion with an ex-military figure who simply calls himself "X" (Donald Sutherland) who provides him with important background knowledge to the events surrounding the assassination, Garrison decides to arrest Shaw and prosecute him for his possible involvement in the alleged conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy. What follows after this is a lenghty trial sequence where Garrison presents his case for the prosecution of Clay Shaw as well as his speculation on the events on the day of the assassination in Dallas.
JFK is without a doubt a great achievement in its own, as Oliver Stone took a controversial subject and turned into a film that is fascinating, intelligent and gripping. If you look at the events and evidence that are presented in the film, it certainly does a great job at convincing you that there was a possible conspiracy involved. Jim Garrison himself showed tremendous moral courage and character in bringing such a trial to the public eye, as he himself faced great danger in pissing off the government and endangering his own life in the process. But Garrison is never potrayed as anything else other than a very decent man who in reality at first was never really keen on Kennedy at the time, but during his investigation came to admire him for what he stood for and tried to do in the United States.
But whether or not a conspiracy took place in Dallas that day or not, no one really knows, but I do think there was more than enough evidence to point towards one. One of key aspects of the assassination as highlighted in the film was that it seemed highly unlikely that Oswald could have fired 3 shots that from the book depository window, in such a short space of time (5 seconds), and do it with such precision from the distance he was at from the motorcade. And that is where the other riflemen come into the equation and overall it sounds like a far more likely scenario than a lone guman, as the team would be able to place themselves in fixed positions to ensure the assassination would be carried out precisely. Another crucial crux of the film and the case was, there had to be more than just 3 shots, as if for no better reason, there were four known wounds, three to Kennedy (in the throat, back and head) and one to Governor Conally (one in the back). This is where the Warren Commission presented the ridiculous "magic bullet" theory that one bullet accounted for the wounds between Connally and Kennedy. Also based from the facts given from the film, it seems unlikely that if after Oswald committed the crime, that he would be able race down the stairs in about 90 seconds, only to face a police officer who was checking out the building, to ask whom he was, and appear not to be out of breath, which the policeman testified later that Oswald was absolutely not out of breath.
And overall too much evidence points toward the possibility of a conspiracy, with so many witnesses later on dying in mysterious circumstances, or being bribed in order to be kept quiet, the events after the assassination regarding the car also appear strange, as the car is washed and rebuilt before any forensics can be taken. There were also many different documents, interview notes from suspects that were also either torn up or burnt. But the one piece of evidence that does remain however is the film footage, taken by an onlooker Abraham Zapruder, which shows the assassination itself, and gives possible clues of the direction of where the bullets came from. The footage itself is terrible to watch, as it signified the start of several public assassinations (Oswald himself, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy followed), and Garrison himself later subpoenaed the Zapruder film for his trial (the footage itself was later televised for the first time in 1975 on American television). Another key point was surely, if Oswald was even the lone gunman, he would not have acted alone, as he must been acting on behalf of powerful people behind the scenes, in this regard Oswald himself could well have been a sleeper cell, who was set in motion at the key moment, but again this is just a bit of speculation.
But back to the actual film, JFK is without a doubt fascinating to watch, and features so many great performances and cameos from its a big cast. Kevin Costner, while not the best actor in the world, does give a fine performance as the DA Jim Garrison, who takes on the massive task of bringing the JFK assassination to trial, he also shows Garrison as being a man of moral decency, as well as being very strong and stubborn in the face of adversity. Joe Pesci also probably gives the film's best performance as Dave Ferrie, the crazed suspect (replete with a ridiculous wig and eyebrows!) who later admits to his involvement with Oswald, as he shows a mixture of malice and remorse. Tommy Lee Jones gives an excellent performance also as Clay Shaw, and he depicts as a very sly businessman, who is clearly also very manipulative. The other smaller character roles are equally impressive, with fine stuff from Michael Rooker as Bill (one of Garrison's staff), Laurie Metcalf as Susie, another staff member, and of course Jay Sanders as Lou Barnes, who was in reality one of Garrison's key members of staff (although the film depicts Barnes as quitting the investigation, in reality he didn't). Also Kevin Bacon, is excellent as Willie O'Keefe (who in reality was based on one of Garrison's key witnesses, Perry Russo) the gay prostitute who claimed to have known and had sexual relations with Shaw. Donald Sutherland is similarly great as the mysterious "X" who delivers a very lengthy 17 minute dialogue giving Garrison the background info surrounding the events leading up to the assassination. Also there is the superb Jack Lemmon as Jack Martin, who worked for another one of the possible key people behind the assassination, Guy Banister (played by Ed Asner) who died shortly after in 1964. And last but by no means least, there is Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald. Oldman is great as Oswald, and potrays him as a complex and private man, who remained a mystery even after his death. Gary Oldman also facially resembles Oswald a fair bit, and does an excellent job at reproducing his unusual American accent, which had a tinge of Russian to it.
Overall the film moves at a great pace, but also is on the verge of bombarding you with too much information at times, so it definitely takes a few viewings to get the gist of all the details. The only other thing I would say about the film that probably lets it down slightly is the melodrama of Garrison's home life, as he argues with his wife Elizabeth (Sissy Spacek) who is frustrated by the amount of time he devotes to the case. It is however key to the film as well I guess, as it is important to show how the events of the investigation impacted on Garrison's personal life, and later in reality, his first wife Elizabeth did divorce him. But not to take away from Sissy's performance, as she herself does very well with her role in the film, for her all she wants to do is get her normal life back. Another slight problem with the film, and probably the case in general is there is not much evidence that cold links Shaw to knowing Oswald, as it ultimately is just the word of people who have witnessed seeing Shaw and Oswald together in the past. But it was later revealed in 1978, four years after Shaw's death, by the at the time CIA director, Richard Helms, that Shaw did actually work for the CIA as a contractor (this is added in as insert at the end of the film). And based on the Richard Helms testimony, it proved that Shaw was guilty of perjury. But people of power and persuasion like Shaw, can as it seems get away with murder (or assassination in this case).
However Garrison's trial definitely did raise enough questions about the dubiety of the Warren Commission's conclusions and of the many loose ends that peppered the investigation. And as portrayed in the film, a key moment where Clay Shaw gives away his alias as Bertrand to a police officer after his arrest, the officer in question Aloysius Habighorst's testimony wasn't allowed and was ruled inadmissible by the judge. This in itself seems very peculiar that the testimony wasn't allowed, and as the film almost shows that even the judge and court system was corrupt enough to cover things up. In the end of course, Clay Shaw is acquitted of the charges and found not guilty and allowed to go free, once again to "walk between the rain drops". It also does raise that Clay Shaw could also been as Ferrie in the film states as being "untouchable, with the highest clearance". Whatever way it was, Shaw was also an enigma and in the end he got away, guilty or not.
Soooooooo after that rather exhaustive entry, JFK is definitely one of my favourite films and its great to revisit it once in a while, kind of like a fine wine (don't buy (or watch) it too much in other words). And if you haven't seen it, then it certainly will be an eye opener behind the events one of America's most disgraceful crimes.
So that is that.
On the day of the assassination, in New Orleans, District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) is informed by one of his staff Lou Barnes (Jay Sanders). After Kennedy's death is announced officially on television, the suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman) is arrested and taken to the station for questioning. Garrison then plans to investigate any suspects and associates of Lee Harvey Oswald's that might be under his jurisdiction in New Orleans, however before he can do that, Oswald is assassinated live on TV by Dallas mob man Jack Ruby (Brian Doyle Murray). Regardless of Oswald's shock assassination, Garrison brings in one of Oswald's alleged known associates, David Ferrie (Joe Pesci) who naturally denies he ever knew Oswald. However Ferrie gives a very shaky account of his activities on the day of the assassination which Garrison quickly disbelieves and has Ferrie detained for more questioning by the FBI, regardless of this though Ferrie is let go, after which Garrison decides not to continue investigating any further.
Three years later in 1966, after sharing a conversation with a senator (played by the late great Walter Matthau) on an airplane, Garrison starts to have serious doubts and suspicions about the events of the assassination and that Oswald was the lone gunman. After more digging around, and reading over the 26 volumes of the official assassination investigation, published by Warren Commission and conducted by chief judge Earl Warren, Garrison decides to re-open the investigation of the crime. With his small team of staff, Garrison questions many different witnesses to the shooting, and potential suspects that may have been connected to the assassination. As Garrison and his team investigate further, a name that keeps popping up is Clay Bertrand, who is later revealed to be Clay Shaw (played by Tommy Lee Jones) a well respected businessman and entrepeneur. However on bringing Shaw in for questioning, Shaw categorically denies any knowledge of Oswald, Ferrie or any one else potentially involved in the conspiracy, as well as denying his Clay Bertrand alias. But soon after their meeting, Garrison's investigation is made public and soon the press and media come down hard on him. Now forced to operate out in the open, Garrison faces tough choices ahead of him in carrying out his investigation, after receiving various death threats, crank calls, and narrowly escaping frame ups to discredit him. Eventually after rigorous investigations, including a discussion with an ex-military figure who simply calls himself "X" (Donald Sutherland) who provides him with important background knowledge to the events surrounding the assassination, Garrison decides to arrest Shaw and prosecute him for his possible involvement in the alleged conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy. What follows after this is a lenghty trial sequence where Garrison presents his case for the prosecution of Clay Shaw as well as his speculation on the events on the day of the assassination in Dallas.
JFK is without a doubt a great achievement in its own, as Oliver Stone took a controversial subject and turned into a film that is fascinating, intelligent and gripping. If you look at the events and evidence that are presented in the film, it certainly does a great job at convincing you that there was a possible conspiracy involved. Jim Garrison himself showed tremendous moral courage and character in bringing such a trial to the public eye, as he himself faced great danger in pissing off the government and endangering his own life in the process. But Garrison is never potrayed as anything else other than a very decent man who in reality at first was never really keen on Kennedy at the time, but during his investigation came to admire him for what he stood for and tried to do in the United States.
But whether or not a conspiracy took place in Dallas that day or not, no one really knows, but I do think there was more than enough evidence to point towards one. One of key aspects of the assassination as highlighted in the film was that it seemed highly unlikely that Oswald could have fired 3 shots that from the book depository window, in such a short space of time (5 seconds), and do it with such precision from the distance he was at from the motorcade. And that is where the other riflemen come into the equation and overall it sounds like a far more likely scenario than a lone guman, as the team would be able to place themselves in fixed positions to ensure the assassination would be carried out precisely. Another crucial crux of the film and the case was, there had to be more than just 3 shots, as if for no better reason, there were four known wounds, three to Kennedy (in the throat, back and head) and one to Governor Conally (one in the back). This is where the Warren Commission presented the ridiculous "magic bullet" theory that one bullet accounted for the wounds between Connally and Kennedy. Also based from the facts given from the film, it seems unlikely that if after Oswald committed the crime, that he would be able race down the stairs in about 90 seconds, only to face a police officer who was checking out the building, to ask whom he was, and appear not to be out of breath, which the policeman testified later that Oswald was absolutely not out of breath.
And overall too much evidence points toward the possibility of a conspiracy, with so many witnesses later on dying in mysterious circumstances, or being bribed in order to be kept quiet, the events after the assassination regarding the car also appear strange, as the car is washed and rebuilt before any forensics can be taken. There were also many different documents, interview notes from suspects that were also either torn up or burnt. But the one piece of evidence that does remain however is the film footage, taken by an onlooker Abraham Zapruder, which shows the assassination itself, and gives possible clues of the direction of where the bullets came from. The footage itself is terrible to watch, as it signified the start of several public assassinations (Oswald himself, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy followed), and Garrison himself later subpoenaed the Zapruder film for his trial (the footage itself was later televised for the first time in 1975 on American television). Another key point was surely, if Oswald was even the lone gunman, he would not have acted alone, as he must been acting on behalf of powerful people behind the scenes, in this regard Oswald himself could well have been a sleeper cell, who was set in motion at the key moment, but again this is just a bit of speculation.
But back to the actual film, JFK is without a doubt fascinating to watch, and features so many great performances and cameos from its a big cast. Kevin Costner, while not the best actor in the world, does give a fine performance as the DA Jim Garrison, who takes on the massive task of bringing the JFK assassination to trial, he also shows Garrison as being a man of moral decency, as well as being very strong and stubborn in the face of adversity. Joe Pesci also probably gives the film's best performance as Dave Ferrie, the crazed suspect (replete with a ridiculous wig and eyebrows!) who later admits to his involvement with Oswald, as he shows a mixture of malice and remorse. Tommy Lee Jones gives an excellent performance also as Clay Shaw, and he depicts as a very sly businessman, who is clearly also very manipulative. The other smaller character roles are equally impressive, with fine stuff from Michael Rooker as Bill (one of Garrison's staff), Laurie Metcalf as Susie, another staff member, and of course Jay Sanders as Lou Barnes, who was in reality one of Garrison's key members of staff (although the film depicts Barnes as quitting the investigation, in reality he didn't). Also Kevin Bacon, is excellent as Willie O'Keefe (who in reality was based on one of Garrison's key witnesses, Perry Russo) the gay prostitute who claimed to have known and had sexual relations with Shaw. Donald Sutherland is similarly great as the mysterious "X" who delivers a very lengthy 17 minute dialogue giving Garrison the background info surrounding the events leading up to the assassination. Also there is the superb Jack Lemmon as Jack Martin, who worked for another one of the possible key people behind the assassination, Guy Banister (played by Ed Asner) who died shortly after in 1964. And last but by no means least, there is Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald. Oldman is great as Oswald, and potrays him as a complex and private man, who remained a mystery even after his death. Gary Oldman also facially resembles Oswald a fair bit, and does an excellent job at reproducing his unusual American accent, which had a tinge of Russian to it.
Overall the film moves at a great pace, but also is on the verge of bombarding you with too much information at times, so it definitely takes a few viewings to get the gist of all the details. The only other thing I would say about the film that probably lets it down slightly is the melodrama of Garrison's home life, as he argues with his wife Elizabeth (Sissy Spacek) who is frustrated by the amount of time he devotes to the case. It is however key to the film as well I guess, as it is important to show how the events of the investigation impacted on Garrison's personal life, and later in reality, his first wife Elizabeth did divorce him. But not to take away from Sissy's performance, as she herself does very well with her role in the film, for her all she wants to do is get her normal life back. Another slight problem with the film, and probably the case in general is there is not much evidence that cold links Shaw to knowing Oswald, as it ultimately is just the word of people who have witnessed seeing Shaw and Oswald together in the past. But it was later revealed in 1978, four years after Shaw's death, by the at the time CIA director, Richard Helms, that Shaw did actually work for the CIA as a contractor (this is added in as insert at the end of the film). And based on the Richard Helms testimony, it proved that Shaw was guilty of perjury. But people of power and persuasion like Shaw, can as it seems get away with murder (or assassination in this case).
However Garrison's trial definitely did raise enough questions about the dubiety of the Warren Commission's conclusions and of the many loose ends that peppered the investigation. And as portrayed in the film, a key moment where Clay Shaw gives away his alias as Bertrand to a police officer after his arrest, the officer in question Aloysius Habighorst's testimony wasn't allowed and was ruled inadmissible by the judge. This in itself seems very peculiar that the testimony wasn't allowed, and as the film almost shows that even the judge and court system was corrupt enough to cover things up. In the end of course, Clay Shaw is acquitted of the charges and found not guilty and allowed to go free, once again to "walk between the rain drops". It also does raise that Clay Shaw could also been as Ferrie in the film states as being "untouchable, with the highest clearance". Whatever way it was, Shaw was also an enigma and in the end he got away, guilty or not.
Soooooooo after that rather exhaustive entry, JFK is definitely one of my favourite films and its great to revisit it once in a while, kind of like a fine wine (don't buy (or watch) it too much in other words). And if you haven't seen it, then it certainly will be an eye opener behind the events one of America's most disgraceful crimes.
So that is that.
Monday, 26 November 2012
Hush hush!
OK blog blagging time again, as this is another post I have salvaged from my tennis blog, back when it was a mish mash of everything. So this my review of the critically acclaimed film, L.A. Confidential, directed by Curtis Hanson back in 1997, which is one of my favourite films. So without further ados here we go....
The film begins on Christmas Eve 1952, where the hot headed, thuggish police officer Wendell "Bud" White (Russell Crowe) stops a violent domestic dispute between a married couple, Bud himself has a thing for not tolerating women beaters. After that, Bud and his partner Dick Stensland (Graham Beckel) go back to the police station, where six Mexican suspects are brought into the station who apparently attacked two of the station's officers. In a vengeful mood, Stensland goes down to the cells and beats up on one of the Mexicans, and before you know the whole place erupts into a riot, with the press labelling the riot as "Bloody Christmas". In the aftermath of the event, Bud refuses to testify against his partner Stensland, and is suspended from duty, meanwhile one of the officers Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) who was witness to the attacks, is more than happy to testify against Stensland the other officers who attacked the Mexicans. At his insistance, in order to play ball, Exley requests that he be made detective lieutenant, something which his late father Preston Exley once held the mantel of. However in snitching against the other officers, Exley soon makes himself very unpopluar with the other officers. But the police captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) re-instates Bud, and uses him in his scheme as one of his muscle men to beat up and intimidate any criminals who try to make a name for themselves in LA.
But the crux of the film comes when Bud's ex-partner Stensland, is found murdered in a coffee shop, the Nite Owl, with some other people, among them was a female associate of the millionaire, Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn). The LA police dept then arranges a full man-hunt to try and catch the killers, and soon find three young black men as prime suspects for killings. On interrogating the men, Exley finds out they actually are holding a young Mexican woman hostage in a house, who has been raped and beaten. On the scene of the crime, Bud sneaks into the house and kills the black man in the house. Later on the young suspects escape the station, but Exley soon tracks them down and kills them, which finally garners him some respect from his fellow officers at the station. But something doesn't sit right with Exley about the negros being the killers, as he investigates further, he receives help from local cop celebrity Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) who has a sideline in acting as a technical advisor on the show Badge of Honor, as well providing some hot press collars for local sleazy newspaper journalist Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito). Likewise Bud also thinks something is strange about the suspect negros, and also investigates, meanwhile he dates Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger) who is a movie star look-a-like of Veronica Lake.
Bud after enquiring about the Nite Owl case to one of the forensic staff, finds out one of the victims was a Susan Lefferts (the young girl from earlier in the film, with a bandage on her nose sitting in Patchett's car). Bud goes to Susan's mother's house and inquires about her, and she finds out that Stensland was her boyfriend, on looking around the house, Bud notices a foul smell, which he tracks to under the house, where he finds the remains of Buzz Meeks, Stensland's former partner. Exley soon follows Bud's tail and he too goes to Mrs Lefferts house where he finds the body, which he takes to the pathology lab to get ID'd. Exley working with Vincennes, tails Bud's movements, as they spy on him from Lynn's house, as we see them both together. Shortly after Exley goes to meet Lynn to confront her, believing that Patchett has her seeing Bud, but she denies this and instead seduces Exley, as the pair of them have sex, we see Sid Hudgens outside the window, taking pictures to frame him. Around this time, Vincennes goes to Dudley's house and tells him about an old case involving Dick Stensland and Buzz Meeks (by now his remains have been ID'd by the coroner), when without warning Dudley shoots Vincennes in the heart, he then leans in and asks him "do you have a valediction, boyo?" to which Vincennes quietly gasps "Rollo Tomasi" and then dies (a name that Exley told him earlier, which was a made-up name he gave to the man who killed his father, Preston Exley).
The next day Dudley orders a man hunt for Vincennes's killer, and he enquiries to Exley about the name Rollo Tomasi and if he ever heard Vincennes mention it, which he denies. After Dudley walks off, Exley realises that Dudley was behind it all along. Dudley then goes to the Victory motel, where he interrogates suspects, and braces Sid Hugdens, with Bud present, Sid reveals that he has blackmail in his car, pictures of Lynn having sex with Exley. This enrages Bud who storms out to Sid's car and opens the boot to find the pictures inside, he then races off in his car to confront Lynn, who doesn't deny it, Bud then hits her and runs off to get Exley. Exley at the station has uncovered information showing that Dudley, Stensland and Buzz Meeks go back a long way together, but before he can do anything, Bud enters the room with one of the photos of Exley doing it with Lynn, and the two of them engage in an intense fight. Exley soon after makes Bud see that Dudley was behind the whole thing, and that he deliberately set up Bud, by showing him the photo, as it would tip him over the edge to kill Exley. After this the two men put aside their differences and decide to work together to bring down Dudley and expose the police corruption behind the Nite Owl murders.
L.A. Confidential is without a great film, and one of the best films of the 1990s. Curtis Hanson who after directing some fairly pedestrian thrillers such as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and The River Wild, arrived as a terrific filmmaker here. The film itself is of course based on the same titled novel by James Elroy, and the book features many more characters and detail which isn't in the film, but what the film presents is surely a great representation of the book. And its the characters in L.A. Confidential that make this film work so well, and if you look at it, there actually isn't a morally decent character in the film, everyone is essentially a sleazeball in one way or another, but they are all something of a dichotomy as well. Exley, may appear to be a stand-up cop with integrity, who refuses to get his hands dirty with planting evidence or beating up suspects, however he does ruthelessly rat on members of the police force, in order to further his own career. Bud on the other hand, appears to be as Exley puts it a "mindless thug" but he does have another side to him, as ultimately he wants to be a detective also working cases, but his temper and violent streak threaten to alienate him from the audience at times, but behind it all is a guy who wants to escape it all. Jack Vincennes is also corrupt character in that he gladly takes money from Sid Hudgens, the local Hush Hush magazine reporter, as he sets up arrests and the suspects get unwanted publicity in Sid's mag, but again behind that, Jack starts to feel guilty about his activities and questions himself as the film goes on.
The film also has several excellent supporting characters, particularly Dudley Smith, as the slight yet intimidating police captain who has another agenda, while he looks after the men under his command, he also ironically has a line in corruption and tampering with evidence as well as police brutality. And Pierce Patchett, the mysterious millionaire, who while he hosts high class sex parties, and makes pornographic films, he has ambitions beyond that to invest in freeway construction. And there's Lynn Bracken, meanwhile she isn't the most interesting character in the film, she is also another one who is wishing to escape from her sleazy lifestyle, as a wannabe film actress, who is engaging in Patchett's sexual enterpises.
Overall the film's performances are great, particularly the three main leads are very strong, with Guy Pearce, who prior to this was in Priscilla, the queen of the desert, as a transvestite and playing Mike from Neighbours, playing the part of the ice cool Exley to perfection, and his best scene is where Dudley asks him if he has heard of a known associate which alarms him but in a way in which he tries not to show it, and in this moment we see Guy give a very subtle reaction with his eyes. Its a very subtle deft moment in his performance. Russell Crowe, is also excellent as the explosive Bud White, two thirds heavy, one third sensitive, and he provides some of the film's highlights with Bud's brutal and volatile behaviour, some of which feature his scene where he faces off against Exley near the end of the film, and another where he dangles the DA Ellis Loewe (Ron Rifkin) out the window of his high up office. Another amusing scene as a result of Bud's violent streak is after he beats in succession Lynn and Exley, after Exley and Bud make amends, Exley goes to visit Lynn at the station, they both carry the scars of their encounters with Bud, and Exley asks "Are you ok?" to which Lynn nods and looks at him and says "Are you ok?".
Kevin Spacey who is usually superb, certainly doesn't let the side down, and provides some great moments as Vincennes, one of his best being when Exley asks him "why did you become a cop?" to which Vincennes looks lost for an answer and quietly says "I don't remember". James Cromwell, also a brilliant actor, before this was in some light hearted fluffy stuff such as Babe, arrived as a great dramatic performer, playing Dudley Smith superbly. David Strathairn similarly is great as Pierce Patchett, and while his role is somewhat smaller, he definitely makes an impression here. Kim Basinger, despite the fact, she was awarded an Oscar for her performance in this film, gives a decent account of herself, but it is hardly spectacular stuff, and not what I would quite call Academy award material. Finally of course, there is Danny DeVito, who actually to be honest plays the film's most irritating character, Sid Hudgens, the sleazy reporter for Hush Hush magazine, mainly because he talks alot of crap for the most part in the film using phrases such as acey duecy (bisexual apparently) which you have no idea what they mean (unless you look them up!). In fact when Hudgens gets his comeuppance you don't really have that much sympathy for him, given all the dirt he has dug up on so many people throughout the film. This pre-empts one of the film's best lines from one of the cops that arrives on the scene of Sid's murder, where he says "some one beat him to death, and stole a bunch of files. Guess he dug up dirt on the wrong guy, we've got it nailed down to a thousand suspects!".
And another great feature of the film is of course the score written by Jerry Goldsmith, one of the all time great composers in American cinema. Goldsmith's score provides the perfect mixture of sleaze, menace and moodiness to capture the time of the film and the events. Strangely enough the score also resembles Goldsmith's score for Chinatown, in fact you could almost swear at times that's what you were listening to if you kept your eyes closed. Overall its a great one.
So L.A. Confidential is a terrific film and if you haven't seen it, go rent it, buy it or wait for it to come on the box and gie yourself a treat and watch one of the best tributes to film noir in recent years.
The film begins on Christmas Eve 1952, where the hot headed, thuggish police officer Wendell "Bud" White (Russell Crowe) stops a violent domestic dispute between a married couple, Bud himself has a thing for not tolerating women beaters. After that, Bud and his partner Dick Stensland (Graham Beckel) go back to the police station, where six Mexican suspects are brought into the station who apparently attacked two of the station's officers. In a vengeful mood, Stensland goes down to the cells and beats up on one of the Mexicans, and before you know the whole place erupts into a riot, with the press labelling the riot as "Bloody Christmas". In the aftermath of the event, Bud refuses to testify against his partner Stensland, and is suspended from duty, meanwhile one of the officers Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) who was witness to the attacks, is more than happy to testify against Stensland the other officers who attacked the Mexicans. At his insistance, in order to play ball, Exley requests that he be made detective lieutenant, something which his late father Preston Exley once held the mantel of. However in snitching against the other officers, Exley soon makes himself very unpopluar with the other officers. But the police captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) re-instates Bud, and uses him in his scheme as one of his muscle men to beat up and intimidate any criminals who try to make a name for themselves in LA.
But the crux of the film comes when Bud's ex-partner Stensland, is found murdered in a coffee shop, the Nite Owl, with some other people, among them was a female associate of the millionaire, Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn). The LA police dept then arranges a full man-hunt to try and catch the killers, and soon find three young black men as prime suspects for killings. On interrogating the men, Exley finds out they actually are holding a young Mexican woman hostage in a house, who has been raped and beaten. On the scene of the crime, Bud sneaks into the house and kills the black man in the house. Later on the young suspects escape the station, but Exley soon tracks them down and kills them, which finally garners him some respect from his fellow officers at the station. But something doesn't sit right with Exley about the negros being the killers, as he investigates further, he receives help from local cop celebrity Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) who has a sideline in acting as a technical advisor on the show Badge of Honor, as well providing some hot press collars for local sleazy newspaper journalist Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito). Likewise Bud also thinks something is strange about the suspect negros, and also investigates, meanwhile he dates Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger) who is a movie star look-a-like of Veronica Lake.
Bud after enquiring about the Nite Owl case to one of the forensic staff, finds out one of the victims was a Susan Lefferts (the young girl from earlier in the film, with a bandage on her nose sitting in Patchett's car). Bud goes to Susan's mother's house and inquires about her, and she finds out that Stensland was her boyfriend, on looking around the house, Bud notices a foul smell, which he tracks to under the house, where he finds the remains of Buzz Meeks, Stensland's former partner. Exley soon follows Bud's tail and he too goes to Mrs Lefferts house where he finds the body, which he takes to the pathology lab to get ID'd. Exley working with Vincennes, tails Bud's movements, as they spy on him from Lynn's house, as we see them both together. Shortly after Exley goes to meet Lynn to confront her, believing that Patchett has her seeing Bud, but she denies this and instead seduces Exley, as the pair of them have sex, we see Sid Hudgens outside the window, taking pictures to frame him. Around this time, Vincennes goes to Dudley's house and tells him about an old case involving Dick Stensland and Buzz Meeks (by now his remains have been ID'd by the coroner), when without warning Dudley shoots Vincennes in the heart, he then leans in and asks him "do you have a valediction, boyo?" to which Vincennes quietly gasps "Rollo Tomasi" and then dies (a name that Exley told him earlier, which was a made-up name he gave to the man who killed his father, Preston Exley).
The next day Dudley orders a man hunt for Vincennes's killer, and he enquiries to Exley about the name Rollo Tomasi and if he ever heard Vincennes mention it, which he denies. After Dudley walks off, Exley realises that Dudley was behind it all along. Dudley then goes to the Victory motel, where he interrogates suspects, and braces Sid Hugdens, with Bud present, Sid reveals that he has blackmail in his car, pictures of Lynn having sex with Exley. This enrages Bud who storms out to Sid's car and opens the boot to find the pictures inside, he then races off in his car to confront Lynn, who doesn't deny it, Bud then hits her and runs off to get Exley. Exley at the station has uncovered information showing that Dudley, Stensland and Buzz Meeks go back a long way together, but before he can do anything, Bud enters the room with one of the photos of Exley doing it with Lynn, and the two of them engage in an intense fight. Exley soon after makes Bud see that Dudley was behind the whole thing, and that he deliberately set up Bud, by showing him the photo, as it would tip him over the edge to kill Exley. After this the two men put aside their differences and decide to work together to bring down Dudley and expose the police corruption behind the Nite Owl murders.
L.A. Confidential is without a great film, and one of the best films of the 1990s. Curtis Hanson who after directing some fairly pedestrian thrillers such as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and The River Wild, arrived as a terrific filmmaker here. The film itself is of course based on the same titled novel by James Elroy, and the book features many more characters and detail which isn't in the film, but what the film presents is surely a great representation of the book. And its the characters in L.A. Confidential that make this film work so well, and if you look at it, there actually isn't a morally decent character in the film, everyone is essentially a sleazeball in one way or another, but they are all something of a dichotomy as well. Exley, may appear to be a stand-up cop with integrity, who refuses to get his hands dirty with planting evidence or beating up suspects, however he does ruthelessly rat on members of the police force, in order to further his own career. Bud on the other hand, appears to be as Exley puts it a "mindless thug" but he does have another side to him, as ultimately he wants to be a detective also working cases, but his temper and violent streak threaten to alienate him from the audience at times, but behind it all is a guy who wants to escape it all. Jack Vincennes is also corrupt character in that he gladly takes money from Sid Hudgens, the local Hush Hush magazine reporter, as he sets up arrests and the suspects get unwanted publicity in Sid's mag, but again behind that, Jack starts to feel guilty about his activities and questions himself as the film goes on.
The film also has several excellent supporting characters, particularly Dudley Smith, as the slight yet intimidating police captain who has another agenda, while he looks after the men under his command, he also ironically has a line in corruption and tampering with evidence as well as police brutality. And Pierce Patchett, the mysterious millionaire, who while he hosts high class sex parties, and makes pornographic films, he has ambitions beyond that to invest in freeway construction. And there's Lynn Bracken, meanwhile she isn't the most interesting character in the film, she is also another one who is wishing to escape from her sleazy lifestyle, as a wannabe film actress, who is engaging in Patchett's sexual enterpises.
Overall the film's performances are great, particularly the three main leads are very strong, with Guy Pearce, who prior to this was in Priscilla, the queen of the desert, as a transvestite and playing Mike from Neighbours, playing the part of the ice cool Exley to perfection, and his best scene is where Dudley asks him if he has heard of a known associate which alarms him but in a way in which he tries not to show it, and in this moment we see Guy give a very subtle reaction with his eyes. Its a very subtle deft moment in his performance. Russell Crowe, is also excellent as the explosive Bud White, two thirds heavy, one third sensitive, and he provides some of the film's highlights with Bud's brutal and volatile behaviour, some of which feature his scene where he faces off against Exley near the end of the film, and another where he dangles the DA Ellis Loewe (Ron Rifkin) out the window of his high up office. Another amusing scene as a result of Bud's violent streak is after he beats in succession Lynn and Exley, after Exley and Bud make amends, Exley goes to visit Lynn at the station, they both carry the scars of their encounters with Bud, and Exley asks "Are you ok?" to which Lynn nods and looks at him and says "Are you ok?".
Kevin Spacey who is usually superb, certainly doesn't let the side down, and provides some great moments as Vincennes, one of his best being when Exley asks him "why did you become a cop?" to which Vincennes looks lost for an answer and quietly says "I don't remember". James Cromwell, also a brilliant actor, before this was in some light hearted fluffy stuff such as Babe, arrived as a great dramatic performer, playing Dudley Smith superbly. David Strathairn similarly is great as Pierce Patchett, and while his role is somewhat smaller, he definitely makes an impression here. Kim Basinger, despite the fact, she was awarded an Oscar for her performance in this film, gives a decent account of herself, but it is hardly spectacular stuff, and not what I would quite call Academy award material. Finally of course, there is Danny DeVito, who actually to be honest plays the film's most irritating character, Sid Hudgens, the sleazy reporter for Hush Hush magazine, mainly because he talks alot of crap for the most part in the film using phrases such as acey duecy (bisexual apparently) which you have no idea what they mean (unless you look them up!). In fact when Hudgens gets his comeuppance you don't really have that much sympathy for him, given all the dirt he has dug up on so many people throughout the film. This pre-empts one of the film's best lines from one of the cops that arrives on the scene of Sid's murder, where he says "some one beat him to death, and stole a bunch of files. Guess he dug up dirt on the wrong guy, we've got it nailed down to a thousand suspects!".
And another great feature of the film is of course the score written by Jerry Goldsmith, one of the all time great composers in American cinema. Goldsmith's score provides the perfect mixture of sleaze, menace and moodiness to capture the time of the film and the events. Strangely enough the score also resembles Goldsmith's score for Chinatown, in fact you could almost swear at times that's what you were listening to if you kept your eyes closed. Overall its a great one.
So L.A. Confidential is a terrific film and if you haven't seen it, go rent it, buy it or wait for it to come on the box and gie yourself a treat and watch one of the best tributes to film noir in recent years.
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Terminator Part 4: Salvation or damnation
Well time for the last of my posts on the Terminator films, which will cover Terminator Salvation, which is the latest in the series, which would finally see the film set in the future when Skynet and the machines run the world. So without further ado let's have a look at it....
The film begins in 2018, in the future when John Connor (Christian Bale) has taken up the mantle of the leader of the resistance against the machines. John attacks a Skynet base and finds schematics of human prisoners and what appears to be terminators made with living human tissue. John returns to the resistance headquarters which is situated on a nuclear submarine, where he tells General Ashdown (Michael Ironside) of his discovery. The resistance then find a radio signal which they believe when transmitted can shut down the machines, and they plan to launch an attack against the Skynet base. This is in response to receiving a kill list that indicates that Skynet plan to kill the resistance command staff within a week, of which one of the names on the list is John's, and another is Kyle Reese. Meanwhile a man called Marcus (Sam Worthington) arrives in the ruins of Los Angeles and is attacked by a T-600 terminator, but he is rescued by a young Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin). It is revealed that Marcus was in fact a criminal who was sentenced to death years ago, by lethal injection, but he signed an agreement to leave his body to medical research, as a result it is revealed that Marcus is in fact part cyborg from the medical resarch that was done to him. Kyle tells Marcus of the future and Skynet, which he is unaware of, but they are soon attacked by more machines, and Kyle is soon captured by one of them. The film eventually leads towards Marcus and John trying to find and rescue Kyle from the Skynet machines so the future of humanity will be ensured.
Terminator Salvation it has to be said is the weakest entry in the Terminator films, although it is entertaining to an extent, but the characters in the film are not that interesting or three dimensional (perhaps one and a half at best!). The tone of the film while it is suitably grim to the backdrop of the bleak future, it also makes for a somewhat dreary watch at times. However visually the film is quite impressive and there are some very good action sequences in there, especially in the scene where Marcus and Kyle try to escape the clutches of the Skynet machines who chase them on the road. Another highlight is of course later on when John manages to locate Kyle at the Skynet base and before he can get him, he is attacked by a very familiar looking T-800 terminator!
However part of the problem I have with the film is with the casting, in particular I think Christian Bale as John Connor was miscast, as he doesn't really quite suit the role. Bale goes around almost a la like Batman without the outfit, speaking in a low gruff voice, and for me he just doesn't give the right impact the role of John Connor really needs. Although I do like the scene where he fights with the Terminator at the end who scars his face with its metal hand and is about to finish him off and he shouts "Do it you son of a bitch!!!!". Anton Yelchin however does fare better as the young Kyle Reese, but for me once again they keep borrowing from the dialogue of the first two films, especially in the first scene when he meets Marcus and he says "come with me if you want to live". At this point it feels just a bit cringingly self referential to the first film, although perhaps its something Kyle said to everyone he met that he rescued at that time! And Sam Worthington, who it has to be said isn't the best actor in the world, but he does ok in his role as Marcus, playing the key role of a former criminal, who was turned into part cyborg after his death, and he still has his human heart, and he plays his part in some of the film's good action scenes.
But in all these roles all the characters are pretty dreary and they don't offer a great deal in terms of humour or interest (it is set in bleak times of course, but still!). Moon Bloodgood (now there is a name!) whom I didn't mention in the plot summary is not bad as Blair Williams, a tough pilot who forms a bond with Marcus, but again her character is underwritten and there is not much room for development. And finally Michael Ironside, who is forever reliable provides a fine cameo performance as General Ashdown, the leader of the resistance, and its a pity he isn't in the film for long, as clearly he's better than just about anyone else!
The director McG (who directed such classy films as Charlie's Angels!) actually does a fairly decent job here, particularly with the action sequences, which as I previously mentioned are very well done and fairly suspenseful. Although one of the more memorable aspects of this film was during its production where Christian Bale threw a hissy fit at the film's director of photography, Shane Hurlbut, who made the bad decision of walking on set while he was in the middle of doing an intense scene. Bale's rant is of course available on Youtube for a listen, and he is out of order and comes across like a real dick during it, especially when he says "I'll kick your fucking ass! No don't just say sorry, THINK FOR ONE SECOND!! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING????!". And the most bizzare thing about it is how his accent changes between American and cockney English during his diatribe. To be fair though Bale later apologised publicly on radio saying he acted like "a punk" in regards to his outburst.
So that's it for Terminator Salvation, its not a bad film, but its not a great one either, and it does have its good points, especially in regards to its action scenes, but as a whole its not an entirely satisfying follow up to Terminator 3. However I'm sure they will come up with another film to move the saga further on in the future.
And with that, I shall say bye the now, and I'll be back..... later.
The film begins in 2018, in the future when John Connor (Christian Bale) has taken up the mantle of the leader of the resistance against the machines. John attacks a Skynet base and finds schematics of human prisoners and what appears to be terminators made with living human tissue. John returns to the resistance headquarters which is situated on a nuclear submarine, where he tells General Ashdown (Michael Ironside) of his discovery. The resistance then find a radio signal which they believe when transmitted can shut down the machines, and they plan to launch an attack against the Skynet base. This is in response to receiving a kill list that indicates that Skynet plan to kill the resistance command staff within a week, of which one of the names on the list is John's, and another is Kyle Reese. Meanwhile a man called Marcus (Sam Worthington) arrives in the ruins of Los Angeles and is attacked by a T-600 terminator, but he is rescued by a young Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin). It is revealed that Marcus was in fact a criminal who was sentenced to death years ago, by lethal injection, but he signed an agreement to leave his body to medical research, as a result it is revealed that Marcus is in fact part cyborg from the medical resarch that was done to him. Kyle tells Marcus of the future and Skynet, which he is unaware of, but they are soon attacked by more machines, and Kyle is soon captured by one of them. The film eventually leads towards Marcus and John trying to find and rescue Kyle from the Skynet machines so the future of humanity will be ensured.
Terminator Salvation it has to be said is the weakest entry in the Terminator films, although it is entertaining to an extent, but the characters in the film are not that interesting or three dimensional (perhaps one and a half at best!). The tone of the film while it is suitably grim to the backdrop of the bleak future, it also makes for a somewhat dreary watch at times. However visually the film is quite impressive and there are some very good action sequences in there, especially in the scene where Marcus and Kyle try to escape the clutches of the Skynet machines who chase them on the road. Another highlight is of course later on when John manages to locate Kyle at the Skynet base and before he can get him, he is attacked by a very familiar looking T-800 terminator!
However part of the problem I have with the film is with the casting, in particular I think Christian Bale as John Connor was miscast, as he doesn't really quite suit the role. Bale goes around almost a la like Batman without the outfit, speaking in a low gruff voice, and for me he just doesn't give the right impact the role of John Connor really needs. Although I do like the scene where he fights with the Terminator at the end who scars his face with its metal hand and is about to finish him off and he shouts "Do it you son of a bitch!!!!". Anton Yelchin however does fare better as the young Kyle Reese, but for me once again they keep borrowing from the dialogue of the first two films, especially in the first scene when he meets Marcus and he says "come with me if you want to live". At this point it feels just a bit cringingly self referential to the first film, although perhaps its something Kyle said to everyone he met that he rescued at that time! And Sam Worthington, who it has to be said isn't the best actor in the world, but he does ok in his role as Marcus, playing the key role of a former criminal, who was turned into part cyborg after his death, and he still has his human heart, and he plays his part in some of the film's good action scenes.
But in all these roles all the characters are pretty dreary and they don't offer a great deal in terms of humour or interest (it is set in bleak times of course, but still!). Moon Bloodgood (now there is a name!) whom I didn't mention in the plot summary is not bad as Blair Williams, a tough pilot who forms a bond with Marcus, but again her character is underwritten and there is not much room for development. And finally Michael Ironside, who is forever reliable provides a fine cameo performance as General Ashdown, the leader of the resistance, and its a pity he isn't in the film for long, as clearly he's better than just about anyone else!
The director McG (who directed such classy films as Charlie's Angels!) actually does a fairly decent job here, particularly with the action sequences, which as I previously mentioned are very well done and fairly suspenseful. Although one of the more memorable aspects of this film was during its production where Christian Bale threw a hissy fit at the film's director of photography, Shane Hurlbut, who made the bad decision of walking on set while he was in the middle of doing an intense scene. Bale's rant is of course available on Youtube for a listen, and he is out of order and comes across like a real dick during it, especially when he says "I'll kick your fucking ass! No don't just say sorry, THINK FOR ONE SECOND!! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING????!". And the most bizzare thing about it is how his accent changes between American and cockney English during his diatribe. To be fair though Bale later apologised publicly on radio saying he acted like "a punk" in regards to his outburst.
So that's it for Terminator Salvation, its not a bad film, but its not a great one either, and it does have its good points, especially in regards to its action scenes, but as a whole its not an entirely satisfying follow up to Terminator 3. However I'm sure they will come up with another film to move the saga further on in the future.
And with that, I shall say bye the now, and I'll be back..... later.
Monday, 12 November 2012
Terminator Part 3: Talk to the hand!
Right time for part 3 of my Terminator posts, and this time is about Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, made back in 2003, after a 12 year gap since T2, so let's have a look at it shall we???
OK the film takes place about 10 years after T2, with John Connor (Nick Stahl) now a young man, who has been keeping a low profile since the events of the second film. Despite the actions that helped stop Judgment day from happening in 1997, John still believes that the future is still not safe as he believes Judgment will still come and it has been merely postponed. Skynet, then sends a new advanced Terminator model, T-X (the saucy Kristanna Loken) to track down and kill John's future lieutenants in the human resistance (most of them at this points are mere teenagers). At the same time, the future resistance send back another T-850 101 model terminator (Arnie again) to protect John, his lieutenants and a woman called Kate Brewster (Claire Danes). The T-X manages to kill off the lieutenants, but the Terminator manages to fight off the T-X just before it gets to John and Kate, who meet up at Kate's work, but the T-X intercepts them there. Following the fight, John explains to Kate who he is, and the Terminator explains that in the future that Kate will become John's wife. The terminator also tells them that he was sent back in time by Kate, who in the future was left to do, as John was killed by the Terminator, whom Kate then re-programmed to send back to protect John (confusing eh??).
Anyway John tells Kate and the Terminator that his mother, Sarah, died some years back from leukemia, and they visit her grave, and they find inside a weapons cache left by Sarah's friends. Pretty soon the T-X arrives on the scene, and they manage to escape by stealing a hearse from the graveyard. The terminator drives John and Kate towards a safe location, as he explains that Judgment is set to take place in a matter of a few hours, and that there is no avoiding it. The terminator takes them to a location occupied by the United States Air Force, of whom Kate's father is Lt General Robert Brewster (David Andrews) is leading the project in taking over the Skynet project, however they are too late to stop him from activating the skynet network. And pretty soon the T-X also arrives who activates some of the military machines hidden in storage, who kill off alot of the personnel at the base, including Kate's father, but before he tells them the location of safe site. The terminator fights again with the T-X, but he manages to escape with John and Kate, as they make their way to the safe location, a military base called Crystal Peak, based in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This is where John and Kate are to await the armageddon that will become Judgment day, but before that they still have to fight off the T-X, with the help of the Terminator.
As the sequel to T2, it was always going to be tough to follow it up well, but Terminator 3 actually manages to do it quite well. While the film isn't in the same league as the first two, T3 still has alot going for it, and there is much to enjoy here, with the sexy new female terminator, the T-X, similar in ability to the T-1000, she can imiate other people, and she has improved electrical manipulative qualities, as she can start cars, control machinery and other things. It is also good to see they have continued with the progression of John Connor, through his life as a young man, who spends most of his time, laying low, soon he won't be detected by the authorities, before the choas begins again.
Performance wise things are not too bad in T3, and Nick Stahl is by far the best actor in the film, as he plays John Connor really well, as a serious young guy who realises the fate of the world is still in his hands. But he also allows for a few moments of levity too here and there, and I like the bit where the Terminator grabs him by throat, after he moans about not being the one the terminator is looking for, John chokingly shouts "Fuck you, you fucking machine!". And the scene where the Terminator, who malfunctions after being damaged by the T-X, nearly throttles John to death again, who reminds him what his mission is and the terminator, with a struggle says to protect him, and John says "you are about to fail that mission!!". And also when he first meets the terminator he tries to remind it of the sayings he tought the previous one in T2 "do you remember anything I told you???? Hasta la vista ring any bells??!". Kristanna Loken is also good in her role as the T-X, the ultra sexy female terminator, and she has plenty of good moments, one of my favs is when she is in a stolen car, a police officer approaches her, and shes a big billboard of a busty woman across the street, so she automatically inflates her breasts to allure the cop! I also like her fight with the terminator at the air force base in the toilets, when she grabs the terminator off the floor and ploughs him through the toilet cubicles! Clare Danes is not too bad as Kate Brewster, although I would have to say that she is probably the weak link in the chain, as she comes across just a bit too whiny in the film, also as John's wife you think he could gone for someone a bit more bonny, no offence, Kate! There is also a neat little cameo performance from Earl Boen again as Dr Silbermen, who is present at the graveyard site, when Kate is being attended to by paramedics, and he says how he had nightmares of terminators, before he sees Arnie turn up again!
And finally Arnie is as good as ever in his role as the terminator, and he has plenty of funny scenes, one example is at the start where he enters a strip bar, having just arrived back in time, naked, he walks up to a male stripper, and tells him to take off his clothes, and the camp stripper says "talk to the hand!", which the Terminator proceeds to do by crushing it and saying "Now!". This pre-empts another funny scene where the Terminator is in a convenience store lifting casual items off the shelves, and he goes to the checkout, where he is about to leave without paying as the clerk objects, he puts up his hand saying "talk to the hand!". I also like the moment where he drives John and Kate towards the Airforce base, and they both share a nice moment together, remembering their first kiss at a slumber party years earlier, and the Terminator responds by saying "your levity is good, it relieves tension and the fear of death!".
In terms of flaws, the film certainly isn't perfect, and it has to be said that the tone of the film is at times a bit grim, yet there is plenty of moments of humour as well. But the ending of the film itself is very downbeat, and it reminds me almost of Alien3, in that they decide to ultimately kill off the main characters (well not all of them,and not in the actual film, just we know that John dies in the future and that Sarah has already died) and leave the audience with a rather depressing message that leaves little hope. It also seems to totally negate the actions that occured in T2, with the Terminator cpus and the remains of the terminator metal arm, as with these items destroyed, surely the actions of the future cannot happen. And if that is the case, how can Skynet still exist in the future???? The film does explain of course that the US air force take over the Skynet project, so I guess they must have created the technology that would form the basis of the machines in the future. But again this is where the whole timeline process becomes very blurred in the Terminator series and in those instances they don't make a great deal of sense.
Regardless of that though it remains an entertaining sequel, and the director Jonathan Mostow, who directed the excellent thriller, Breakdown, does a fine job here with pacing the action, and keeping the film going along nicely.
So that's it for T3, Terminator Salvation is up next.
OK the film takes place about 10 years after T2, with John Connor (Nick Stahl) now a young man, who has been keeping a low profile since the events of the second film. Despite the actions that helped stop Judgment day from happening in 1997, John still believes that the future is still not safe as he believes Judgment will still come and it has been merely postponed. Skynet, then sends a new advanced Terminator model, T-X (the saucy Kristanna Loken) to track down and kill John's future lieutenants in the human resistance (most of them at this points are mere teenagers). At the same time, the future resistance send back another T-850 101 model terminator (Arnie again) to protect John, his lieutenants and a woman called Kate Brewster (Claire Danes). The T-X manages to kill off the lieutenants, but the Terminator manages to fight off the T-X just before it gets to John and Kate, who meet up at Kate's work, but the T-X intercepts them there. Following the fight, John explains to Kate who he is, and the Terminator explains that in the future that Kate will become John's wife. The terminator also tells them that he was sent back in time by Kate, who in the future was left to do, as John was killed by the Terminator, whom Kate then re-programmed to send back to protect John (confusing eh??).
Anyway John tells Kate and the Terminator that his mother, Sarah, died some years back from leukemia, and they visit her grave, and they find inside a weapons cache left by Sarah's friends. Pretty soon the T-X arrives on the scene, and they manage to escape by stealing a hearse from the graveyard. The terminator drives John and Kate towards a safe location, as he explains that Judgment is set to take place in a matter of a few hours, and that there is no avoiding it. The terminator takes them to a location occupied by the United States Air Force, of whom Kate's father is Lt General Robert Brewster (David Andrews) is leading the project in taking over the Skynet project, however they are too late to stop him from activating the skynet network. And pretty soon the T-X also arrives who activates some of the military machines hidden in storage, who kill off alot of the personnel at the base, including Kate's father, but before he tells them the location of safe site. The terminator fights again with the T-X, but he manages to escape with John and Kate, as they make their way to the safe location, a military base called Crystal Peak, based in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This is where John and Kate are to await the armageddon that will become Judgment day, but before that they still have to fight off the T-X, with the help of the Terminator.
As the sequel to T2, it was always going to be tough to follow it up well, but Terminator 3 actually manages to do it quite well. While the film isn't in the same league as the first two, T3 still has alot going for it, and there is much to enjoy here, with the sexy new female terminator, the T-X, similar in ability to the T-1000, she can imiate other people, and she has improved electrical manipulative qualities, as she can start cars, control machinery and other things. It is also good to see they have continued with the progression of John Connor, through his life as a young man, who spends most of his time, laying low, soon he won't be detected by the authorities, before the choas begins again.
Performance wise things are not too bad in T3, and Nick Stahl is by far the best actor in the film, as he plays John Connor really well, as a serious young guy who realises the fate of the world is still in his hands. But he also allows for a few moments of levity too here and there, and I like the bit where the Terminator grabs him by throat, after he moans about not being the one the terminator is looking for, John chokingly shouts "Fuck you, you fucking machine!". And the scene where the Terminator, who malfunctions after being damaged by the T-X, nearly throttles John to death again, who reminds him what his mission is and the terminator, with a struggle says to protect him, and John says "you are about to fail that mission!!". And also when he first meets the terminator he tries to remind it of the sayings he tought the previous one in T2 "do you remember anything I told you???? Hasta la vista ring any bells??!". Kristanna Loken is also good in her role as the T-X, the ultra sexy female terminator, and she has plenty of good moments, one of my favs is when she is in a stolen car, a police officer approaches her, and shes a big billboard of a busty woman across the street, so she automatically inflates her breasts to allure the cop! I also like her fight with the terminator at the air force base in the toilets, when she grabs the terminator off the floor and ploughs him through the toilet cubicles! Clare Danes is not too bad as Kate Brewster, although I would have to say that she is probably the weak link in the chain, as she comes across just a bit too whiny in the film, also as John's wife you think he could gone for someone a bit more bonny, no offence, Kate! There is also a neat little cameo performance from Earl Boen again as Dr Silbermen, who is present at the graveyard site, when Kate is being attended to by paramedics, and he says how he had nightmares of terminators, before he sees Arnie turn up again!
And finally Arnie is as good as ever in his role as the terminator, and he has plenty of funny scenes, one example is at the start where he enters a strip bar, having just arrived back in time, naked, he walks up to a male stripper, and tells him to take off his clothes, and the camp stripper says "talk to the hand!", which the Terminator proceeds to do by crushing it and saying "Now!". This pre-empts another funny scene where the Terminator is in a convenience store lifting casual items off the shelves, and he goes to the checkout, where he is about to leave without paying as the clerk objects, he puts up his hand saying "talk to the hand!". I also like the moment where he drives John and Kate towards the Airforce base, and they both share a nice moment together, remembering their first kiss at a slumber party years earlier, and the Terminator responds by saying "your levity is good, it relieves tension and the fear of death!".
In terms of flaws, the film certainly isn't perfect, and it has to be said that the tone of the film is at times a bit grim, yet there is plenty of moments of humour as well. But the ending of the film itself is very downbeat, and it reminds me almost of Alien3, in that they decide to ultimately kill off the main characters (well not all of them,and not in the actual film, just we know that John dies in the future and that Sarah has already died) and leave the audience with a rather depressing message that leaves little hope. It also seems to totally negate the actions that occured in T2, with the Terminator cpus and the remains of the terminator metal arm, as with these items destroyed, surely the actions of the future cannot happen. And if that is the case, how can Skynet still exist in the future???? The film does explain of course that the US air force take over the Skynet project, so I guess they must have created the technology that would form the basis of the machines in the future. But again this is where the whole timeline process becomes very blurred in the Terminator series and in those instances they don't make a great deal of sense.
Regardless of that though it remains an entertaining sequel, and the director Jonathan Mostow, who directed the excellent thriller, Breakdown, does a fine job here with pacing the action, and keeping the film going along nicely.
So that's it for T3, Terminator Salvation is up next.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Terminator Part 2: No problemo!
Right now onto part 2 of my Terminator posts, which is all about Terminator 2: Judgment Day, James Cameron's multi-million dollar follow up to the original, so let's have a look at it shall we?
OK starting with the usual stuff (i.e. the massive plot summary, actually its not that big for a change!) the story of the film begins back in 1995, where John Connor (Edward Furlong) is just a 10 year old boy, who at this time lives in Los Angeles with his foster parents. John's mother Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) however has been sent to an asylum after she tried to blow up a computer factory, and is monitored by Dr Silberman (Earl Boen) from the first film. Skynet in the future, still set on destroying the resistance, sends a new terminator back in time to kill the young John Connor, the terminator, a T-1000 model, is far more advanced than the T-800 model, which is composed of liquid metal and can imitate anyone it comes into contact with, as well morph its hands into stabbing weapons. The T-1000 (Robert Patrick) assumes the identity of a police officer, and starts to track down John, but at the same time, the future resistance send back an older T-800 model Terminator (Arnie) to protect John. Both terminators eventually track John to a mall, and they end both fighting each other, with John barely escaping on his motorbike. The T-1000 chases John in a truck along the freeway and before he is run over, the T-800 rescues him, and shoots out one of the truck's tyres, causing to crash and explode, but the T-1000 soon emerges unharmed, as it morphs back into its normal form.
The T-800 (or Terminator as I will call him from now on!) then explains to John that his mission is to protect him and that he was sent by the future John. The terminator tells John that the T-1000 in attempt to kill him, will wait for John to contact his mother, who he will assume her identity and kill her. John orders the Terminator to help him avoid Sarah from being killed, and they soon rescue her from the maximum security hospital, as she was in the process of trying to escape herself, but they are soon intercepted by the T-1000 who gives them chase, but they escape. John, Sarah and the Terminator then travel out south where Sarah meets with an old friend, who helped her during her resistance days. Sarah during their stay has a terrible nightmare about the nuclear holocaust of Judgment day and this pre-empts her to go after the man responsible for creating Skynet, Miles Dyson (Joe Morton). With the knowledge the Terminator has given Sarah, she travels out to Dyson's home and attempts to assassinate him, on entering his house however, on the verge of pulling the trigger, with Dyson's family around him, she can't bring herself to do it. John and the Terminator soon arrive once they realise what Sarah is doing, and they tell Dyson about Judgment day and the future. Dyson agrees to go to Cyberdyne labs with them to destroy his research, however they are soon surrounded by police, and as the police breach the building, they shoot Dyson, who holds the detonator, wired to blow up his research, on his dying breath he lets it go, and blows the labs up.
John, Sarah and the terminator manage to escape the Cyberdyne building, but they are pursued by the T-1000 who chases them on the freeway, and they eventually arrive at a steel mill, where they face the T-1000 in the final final confrontation.....
After the surprise success of the original Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day had quite a bit to live up to, and for the most part it delivers on its promise in doing so. At its time it was easily the most expensive film ever made, budgeting at just under $100 million dollars, and CGI just in its infancy, it proved to be one of the most groundbreaking visual films in the last 20 years or so, which paved the way for computer imaged based films since. And Terminator 2 definitely is one heck of thrill ride as there are plenty of great action set pieces throughout the film, of which some of the highlights are the first scene where John confronts the two terminators at the mall, the scene where Sarah tries to escape the hospital and stumbles into the Terminator coming out the lift. And of course one of the biggest set pieces is the police seige at the Cyberdyne building, with the Terminator using a mini-gun to take out the police cars (with zero human casulaties).
And if there is one thing that has changed in the terminator universe in the 2nd film then that is the added morality of the T-800 terminator being re-programmed to protect John Connor, and John ordering it to not kill anyone, and all of a sudden the terminator has become a tamer version of its former self. But that's not to say the terminator still doesn't do a fair amount of damage in the film, as he certainly does that, with him throwing people through windows, stabbing them in the shoulders, or kneecapping them with a gun, as well as blowing shit up. The terminator also takes on a father figure for John in T2 where its mission is to protect John, comes like a paternal one, which helps bridge the gap of not having a dad in John's life, but in the end the Terminator admits to John that its something he could never do, in which is one of the film's rare poignant moments at the end when terminator gently consoles John, before he sacrifices himself by lowering himself into the lava pit in the steel mill.
As for the cast well things are pretty good here, with the new inclusion of Edward Furlong as John Connor, he does a fine job as the young cocky upstart, who despite his mischievious youth, realises the importance of his future existance and he also starts to take on a commanding position later in the film. Admittedly though at times Furlong can be a bit annoying when he is being cocky, and telling the Terminator how to talk and sound cool among people, "and if you really wanna shine them on, then its "hasta la vista, baby!", but overall he does a good job. But I can't quite digest him as being a 10 year old in the film, as he clearly looks a little too old to be 10 (Ed was in fact 13 at the time), and he comes across as being that bit more precocious than a 10 year old might be at that point. Robert Patrick as the new and improved T-1000 model terminator is perfect, as he plays the terminator almost like a cat, who is very cool and detached, and his ability to move in a smooth and stealth like manner, suits his ability to play the part perfectly in the film. I quite like the scene where he attacks John, Sarah and the terminator just as they escape the hospital in a police car, and he tries to swipe at them with his liquid metal knive shaped hands, and he get's shot off the car, and a piece of a metal lies on the boot of the car, which John throws off, and the T-1000 walks up to it, as the piece of liquid metal slides back into his shoe.
Linda Hamilton also gives a fine performance once again as Sarah Connor, who by now has become half crazed by her nightmares, and being imprisoned in a maximum security hospital, when she desparately wants to protect her son and try and end the nightmare that would become Skynet. And she is a far cry from the Sarah in the first film, as she has become a more hardened, physically stronger woman, Linda's most amusing moment in the film comes in her first scene where she is doing pull ups in her cell and Dr Silberman, who is giving a tour of the hospital to some guests, say good morning to her through the speaker com, and she says "Good morning, Dr Silberman, how's the knee?". Earl Boen also makes another appearance as Dr Silberman, and he provides a fair bit of amusement as the smarmy criminal psychologist, who does everything he can to keep Sarah down. My favourite moment with him are when he sees through Sarah's attempts to try agree that she no longer believes in the prophecy of judgment and the terminator never existed, and she tries to throttle him, and he gets away as the staff move in to restrain her he looks to the video camera recording the interview, and he says sarcastically "model citizen".
And finally we have of course Arnie as the terminator, and once again he is terrific at playing the cyborg, and his terminator in this film becomes a more humanised version of the cold blooded killer in the original. And there is plenty of room for humour in this film, where the terminator learns from John Connor how to adapt and ape human behaviour, as well as pick up phrases from him such as "hasta la vista baby" and "chill out, dickwad". His opening scene is great where he enters the biker's bar, naked, and he asks one of the bikers for their clothes and their motorcycle, and he ends up fighting off some of the bikers, and eventually takes the biker's clothes and bike, where he is confronted by the owner outside, who fires a warning shot from a shotgun, but the terminator cooly gets off his bike and slowly moves up to him and takes the shotgun and his shades from him and leaves. Another funny scene and one of my favs is where John asks him to swear to promise not to kill anyone, which he does, just as they arrive at the hospital gates, the terminator kneecaps the security guard at the gate, and he says afterwards to John "he'll live".
But no matter how entertaining T2 is it isn't without its flaws, one of the main ones for me is Linda Hamilton's at times cringeworthy narration, which at times is embarrassing to listen to. An example of which is the scene where Sarah watches John with the terminator who tries to make him learn human phrases and give a thumbs up, and she says "in an insane world, without a father, the terminator was the sanest choice". Also the her final line is probably the worst where she says "because if a terminator can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too!". Gawd almighty! The tone of T2 is also a bit more cheesy overall than the straight dramatic tone of the original, and it allows for some pretty corny moments, especially with John and his young friend with the mullet hairdo (despite the fact this film was made in 1991, they still hadn't quite yet got out of the 80s!) saying "cool, piece of cake!" etc etc. Some of the additional scenes in the special edition, while most of them are good, the one with Dyson's family is also a bit cheesy, as he is so obssessed with his work, his wife comes in and reminds him "why don't you make time for your other babies!" as his kids peep their heads round the corner and race into the room. The film also falls foul to that rather annoying tradition in action movies of its time where they keep referring to dialogue from the original film such as Arnie saying "stay here I'll be back!" or the T-1000 saying "Get out", which Arnie said in the first Terminator film when he tells a truck drive to beat it out the tanker.
Also from a narrative stand point the whole time travel thing, while in terms of the events being changed by the actions of the terminators and John and Sarah it all seems fairly plausable, it just makes me wonder, when they help make the change in the film, i.e. when Sarah is rescued in the first film, is the future John Connor ever in threat, ala Back to the Future style, in how Marty nearly vanishes when his dad meekly walks away from Lorraine on the dance floor on prom night??? Or have I just confused everybody???? Basically what I mean is, if the events that take place change the future, when these events happen in the present, how soon will they impact on the future, based in the future time, will it be instantenous???? Who knows??? But it does raise a continuity flaw within the series, as when at the end when the T-1000 is destroyed and the T-800 sacrifices itself by being lowered into the steel mill lava pit, doesn't this mean that Skynet will no longer exist? As if the only two surviving terminator cpus, are the one which came from the first terminator as well as the remains of its skeletal arm, which Dyson used for his research, and the one inside the T-800 in this film, once they are destroyed along with Dyson's research at Cyberdyne, does this not change the timeline and thereby Skynet will be pre-emptively aborted? Because if Terminator 3 is anything to go by then this certainly isn't the case, as it would appear the destruction of the two cpus and the cyborg arm, would only postpone judgment day, and the hellish future world will still remain the same. And this is where the whole logic of the timelines becomes blurred, and in that regard it was something that was done that bit better in Back to the Future!;-) But we can leave that for another time and another post.
But despite all that Terminator 2 is still a highly entertaining film, and visually for its time it still looks stunning, and the CGI effects of the T-1000 still remain impressive, especially in the scenes where it morphs into the floor, and rises up and takes the identity of a cop and kills him, and the scene where it moves through a metal gate in the hospital. Not to mention the various gunshot wounds it takes, and how it gets those silly squidgy white entry wounds on its body when it gets shot. And one of the best moments in the film comes from when the T-1000 takes the shape of John's foster mother, who is on the phone to John, and with the other hand we think she has shut a door as we hear a noise, but instead the camera moves to the left to reveal she has shaped her hand into a sharp knife and has stabbed John's foster dad through the mouth with it. Brad Fidel once again provides a fine score for the film, although its not probably quite as good as the first one, but it still remains more than good enough to keep the pace of the film going. James Cameron himself has done a great job with creating a credible sequel to the first film, and he keeps the action and suspense going really well throughout. And it has to be said that the special edition is the much better one over the original theatrical cut, which felt like an abbreviated version of the film, that was cut a bit too short, but the special edition works better as a whole.
So that's it for my T2 post, which remains an excellent sequel to the original, and James Cameron deserved much credit for bringing the terminator back to the big screen in such a big spectacular and entertaining way.
And that's it for part 2, part 3 up next.....
OK starting with the usual stuff (i.e. the massive plot summary, actually its not that big for a change!) the story of the film begins back in 1995, where John Connor (Edward Furlong) is just a 10 year old boy, who at this time lives in Los Angeles with his foster parents. John's mother Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) however has been sent to an asylum after she tried to blow up a computer factory, and is monitored by Dr Silberman (Earl Boen) from the first film. Skynet in the future, still set on destroying the resistance, sends a new terminator back in time to kill the young John Connor, the terminator, a T-1000 model, is far more advanced than the T-800 model, which is composed of liquid metal and can imitate anyone it comes into contact with, as well morph its hands into stabbing weapons. The T-1000 (Robert Patrick) assumes the identity of a police officer, and starts to track down John, but at the same time, the future resistance send back an older T-800 model Terminator (Arnie) to protect John. Both terminators eventually track John to a mall, and they end both fighting each other, with John barely escaping on his motorbike. The T-1000 chases John in a truck along the freeway and before he is run over, the T-800 rescues him, and shoots out one of the truck's tyres, causing to crash and explode, but the T-1000 soon emerges unharmed, as it morphs back into its normal form.
The T-800 (or Terminator as I will call him from now on!) then explains to John that his mission is to protect him and that he was sent by the future John. The terminator tells John that the T-1000 in attempt to kill him, will wait for John to contact his mother, who he will assume her identity and kill her. John orders the Terminator to help him avoid Sarah from being killed, and they soon rescue her from the maximum security hospital, as she was in the process of trying to escape herself, but they are soon intercepted by the T-1000 who gives them chase, but they escape. John, Sarah and the Terminator then travel out south where Sarah meets with an old friend, who helped her during her resistance days. Sarah during their stay has a terrible nightmare about the nuclear holocaust of Judgment day and this pre-empts her to go after the man responsible for creating Skynet, Miles Dyson (Joe Morton). With the knowledge the Terminator has given Sarah, she travels out to Dyson's home and attempts to assassinate him, on entering his house however, on the verge of pulling the trigger, with Dyson's family around him, she can't bring herself to do it. John and the Terminator soon arrive once they realise what Sarah is doing, and they tell Dyson about Judgment day and the future. Dyson agrees to go to Cyberdyne labs with them to destroy his research, however they are soon surrounded by police, and as the police breach the building, they shoot Dyson, who holds the detonator, wired to blow up his research, on his dying breath he lets it go, and blows the labs up.
John, Sarah and the terminator manage to escape the Cyberdyne building, but they are pursued by the T-1000 who chases them on the freeway, and they eventually arrive at a steel mill, where they face the T-1000 in the final final confrontation.....
After the surprise success of the original Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day had quite a bit to live up to, and for the most part it delivers on its promise in doing so. At its time it was easily the most expensive film ever made, budgeting at just under $100 million dollars, and CGI just in its infancy, it proved to be one of the most groundbreaking visual films in the last 20 years or so, which paved the way for computer imaged based films since. And Terminator 2 definitely is one heck of thrill ride as there are plenty of great action set pieces throughout the film, of which some of the highlights are the first scene where John confronts the two terminators at the mall, the scene where Sarah tries to escape the hospital and stumbles into the Terminator coming out the lift. And of course one of the biggest set pieces is the police seige at the Cyberdyne building, with the Terminator using a mini-gun to take out the police cars (with zero human casulaties).
And if there is one thing that has changed in the terminator universe in the 2nd film then that is the added morality of the T-800 terminator being re-programmed to protect John Connor, and John ordering it to not kill anyone, and all of a sudden the terminator has become a tamer version of its former self. But that's not to say the terminator still doesn't do a fair amount of damage in the film, as he certainly does that, with him throwing people through windows, stabbing them in the shoulders, or kneecapping them with a gun, as well as blowing shit up. The terminator also takes on a father figure for John in T2 where its mission is to protect John, comes like a paternal one, which helps bridge the gap of not having a dad in John's life, but in the end the Terminator admits to John that its something he could never do, in which is one of the film's rare poignant moments at the end when terminator gently consoles John, before he sacrifices himself by lowering himself into the lava pit in the steel mill.
As for the cast well things are pretty good here, with the new inclusion of Edward Furlong as John Connor, he does a fine job as the young cocky upstart, who despite his mischievious youth, realises the importance of his future existance and he also starts to take on a commanding position later in the film. Admittedly though at times Furlong can be a bit annoying when he is being cocky, and telling the Terminator how to talk and sound cool among people, "and if you really wanna shine them on, then its "hasta la vista, baby!", but overall he does a good job. But I can't quite digest him as being a 10 year old in the film, as he clearly looks a little too old to be 10 (Ed was in fact 13 at the time), and he comes across as being that bit more precocious than a 10 year old might be at that point. Robert Patrick as the new and improved T-1000 model terminator is perfect, as he plays the terminator almost like a cat, who is very cool and detached, and his ability to move in a smooth and stealth like manner, suits his ability to play the part perfectly in the film. I quite like the scene where he attacks John, Sarah and the terminator just as they escape the hospital in a police car, and he tries to swipe at them with his liquid metal knive shaped hands, and he get's shot off the car, and a piece of a metal lies on the boot of the car, which John throws off, and the T-1000 walks up to it, as the piece of liquid metal slides back into his shoe.
Linda Hamilton also gives a fine performance once again as Sarah Connor, who by now has become half crazed by her nightmares, and being imprisoned in a maximum security hospital, when she desparately wants to protect her son and try and end the nightmare that would become Skynet. And she is a far cry from the Sarah in the first film, as she has become a more hardened, physically stronger woman, Linda's most amusing moment in the film comes in her first scene where she is doing pull ups in her cell and Dr Silberman, who is giving a tour of the hospital to some guests, say good morning to her through the speaker com, and she says "Good morning, Dr Silberman, how's the knee?". Earl Boen also makes another appearance as Dr Silberman, and he provides a fair bit of amusement as the smarmy criminal psychologist, who does everything he can to keep Sarah down. My favourite moment with him are when he sees through Sarah's attempts to try agree that she no longer believes in the prophecy of judgment and the terminator never existed, and she tries to throttle him, and he gets away as the staff move in to restrain her he looks to the video camera recording the interview, and he says sarcastically "model citizen".
And finally we have of course Arnie as the terminator, and once again he is terrific at playing the cyborg, and his terminator in this film becomes a more humanised version of the cold blooded killer in the original. And there is plenty of room for humour in this film, where the terminator learns from John Connor how to adapt and ape human behaviour, as well as pick up phrases from him such as "hasta la vista baby" and "chill out, dickwad". His opening scene is great where he enters the biker's bar, naked, and he asks one of the bikers for their clothes and their motorcycle, and he ends up fighting off some of the bikers, and eventually takes the biker's clothes and bike, where he is confronted by the owner outside, who fires a warning shot from a shotgun, but the terminator cooly gets off his bike and slowly moves up to him and takes the shotgun and his shades from him and leaves. Another funny scene and one of my favs is where John asks him to swear to promise not to kill anyone, which he does, just as they arrive at the hospital gates, the terminator kneecaps the security guard at the gate, and he says afterwards to John "he'll live".
But no matter how entertaining T2 is it isn't without its flaws, one of the main ones for me is Linda Hamilton's at times cringeworthy narration, which at times is embarrassing to listen to. An example of which is the scene where Sarah watches John with the terminator who tries to make him learn human phrases and give a thumbs up, and she says "in an insane world, without a father, the terminator was the sanest choice". Also the her final line is probably the worst where she says "because if a terminator can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too!". Gawd almighty! The tone of T2 is also a bit more cheesy overall than the straight dramatic tone of the original, and it allows for some pretty corny moments, especially with John and his young friend with the mullet hairdo (despite the fact this film was made in 1991, they still hadn't quite yet got out of the 80s!) saying "cool, piece of cake!" etc etc. Some of the additional scenes in the special edition, while most of them are good, the one with Dyson's family is also a bit cheesy, as he is so obssessed with his work, his wife comes in and reminds him "why don't you make time for your other babies!" as his kids peep their heads round the corner and race into the room. The film also falls foul to that rather annoying tradition in action movies of its time where they keep referring to dialogue from the original film such as Arnie saying "stay here I'll be back!" or the T-1000 saying "Get out", which Arnie said in the first Terminator film when he tells a truck drive to beat it out the tanker.
Also from a narrative stand point the whole time travel thing, while in terms of the events being changed by the actions of the terminators and John and Sarah it all seems fairly plausable, it just makes me wonder, when they help make the change in the film, i.e. when Sarah is rescued in the first film, is the future John Connor ever in threat, ala Back to the Future style, in how Marty nearly vanishes when his dad meekly walks away from Lorraine on the dance floor on prom night??? Or have I just confused everybody???? Basically what I mean is, if the events that take place change the future, when these events happen in the present, how soon will they impact on the future, based in the future time, will it be instantenous???? Who knows??? But it does raise a continuity flaw within the series, as when at the end when the T-1000 is destroyed and the T-800 sacrifices itself by being lowered into the steel mill lava pit, doesn't this mean that Skynet will no longer exist? As if the only two surviving terminator cpus, are the one which came from the first terminator as well as the remains of its skeletal arm, which Dyson used for his research, and the one inside the T-800 in this film, once they are destroyed along with Dyson's research at Cyberdyne, does this not change the timeline and thereby Skynet will be pre-emptively aborted? Because if Terminator 3 is anything to go by then this certainly isn't the case, as it would appear the destruction of the two cpus and the cyborg arm, would only postpone judgment day, and the hellish future world will still remain the same. And this is where the whole logic of the timelines becomes blurred, and in that regard it was something that was done that bit better in Back to the Future!;-) But we can leave that for another time and another post.
But despite all that Terminator 2 is still a highly entertaining film, and visually for its time it still looks stunning, and the CGI effects of the T-1000 still remain impressive, especially in the scenes where it morphs into the floor, and rises up and takes the identity of a cop and kills him, and the scene where it moves through a metal gate in the hospital. Not to mention the various gunshot wounds it takes, and how it gets those silly squidgy white entry wounds on its body when it gets shot. And one of the best moments in the film comes from when the T-1000 takes the shape of John's foster mother, who is on the phone to John, and with the other hand we think she has shut a door as we hear a noise, but instead the camera moves to the left to reveal she has shaped her hand into a sharp knife and has stabbed John's foster dad through the mouth with it. Brad Fidel once again provides a fine score for the film, although its not probably quite as good as the first one, but it still remains more than good enough to keep the pace of the film going. James Cameron himself has done a great job with creating a credible sequel to the first film, and he keeps the action and suspense going really well throughout. And it has to be said that the special edition is the much better one over the original theatrical cut, which felt like an abbreviated version of the film, that was cut a bit too short, but the special edition works better as a whole.
So that's it for my T2 post, which remains an excellent sequel to the original, and James Cameron deserved much credit for bringing the terminator back to the big screen in such a big spectacular and entertaining way.
And that's it for part 2, part 3 up next.....
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Terminator Part 1: I'll be back!
Right so here I go again with yet another film review, and this time I have chosen the Terminator films, so I will do my usual by contributing one post to each film, and why not start with the first un, The Terminator, so here we go...
OK the story is set in Los Angeles in 1984, where at night a strange electric storm takes place and from a blinding white light, the figure of a naked man appears, the Terminator (Arnie). The Terminator soon comes by a group of punks, who attack him with flick knives, but the terminator fends them off with ease and kills one of the punks, ripping out his heart, and he takes the clothes from one of the others. Around the same time another electric storm occurs, where we see another naked man materialise, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) who quickly evades nearby policeman, by breaking into a closed clothestore, he gives them the slip, and takes a shotgun out of one of the cop cars. The next day, a young woman, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who works as a waitress in a local diner, learns on the TV of a murder of a woman with the same name as her, but she brushes it off as a coincidence. The murder was of course committed by the Terminator, who later on kills another woman of the same name. With the police deciding to make this information public, Sarah hears this on TV and get's in touch with the police, and when she walks out on the streets, she notices Reese following her, so she goes into a nearby nightclub. Sarah phones the police on the payphone inside, and speaks to Lt Traxler (Paul Winfield) who tells her to stay put. Meanwhile the Terminator locates Sarah's apartment and goes in and kills her flatmate Ginger (Bess Motta) and her boyfriend Matt (Rick Rossovich), and listens to Sarah's voice message who calls from the club. The terminator soon tracks Sarah to the nightclub, and before he can shoot her, Reese guns down the terminator with his shotgun, just in time, as people flee the nightclub, he helps Sarah up and they escape the club, just as the terminator get's up and chases them, unharmed by the gunshots. Reese and Sarah drive off with the terminator in pursuit as well as the cops, and after eventually shaking off the police, Reese ditches the car in a parking lot and sneaks into another car.
Reese then explains to Sarah that he is from the future in the year 2029, and also that in the future that the world was nearly destroyed by a nuclear war created by the AI military defense machine network Skynet, and out of the ashes rose the machines, who took over the world and put the surviving humans into slave labour. Reese then tells Sarah that he has been sent back in time to protect her from the terminator, who he reveals is a cyborg assassin, who has been sent to kill her as her future son John Connor, will become a future resistance leader against the machines. The terminator soon gives them chase again on the streets, but Sarah and Reese are soon arrested by the cops, who take them both into custody. At the police station, Reese is questioned by a criminal psychologist, Dr Silberman (Earl Boen) whom he tells his story to, but naturally Silberman thinks he is delusional. The terminator soon however arrives, and crashes his car into the station, killing many of the police officers in the station, in searching for Sarah. Reese however manages to escape custody and rescues Sarah before the terminator can get to her. On the road, Sarah and Reese soon stop at a motel, to lay low, however while at the hote, Sarah phones her mother's cabin house, where the Terminator, who has already gotten there, has killed her mother, and pretends to be her on the phone (as the terminator can mimick anyone's voice) in order to find out where she is. Reese later on confesses to Sarah that he travelled back in time to meet her because he had always been in love with her since John gave him a picture of her, Sarah touched by this, kisses Reese and they make love (or shag, or have sex whatever way you want to say it). Later on the terminator tracks them down at the motel where they are staying, and Sarah and Reese escape just in time, but the terminator soon chases them again for the final time, in what becomes the big showdown of the film.
The Terminator is without a doubt one of the best sci-fi films of the 1980s, and it stands as one of James Cameron's very best films. Cameron himself stated that the idea of the terminator came to him in a nightmare he had when he was suffering from a fever, which gave him the image of the metal skeletal figure surrounded by flames. Cameron also said that he was also influenced by the sci-fi series Outer Limits as well as films such as The Driver, that helped give him the ideas he needed to develop the story. And the terminator itself remains one of the great villains in modern cinema, as a killing machine, that has no pity, fear, remorse, or any emotion, and is programmed to do just one thing: kill. The idea of the terminator as a cyborg is also great, and also how tough and resilient the terminator is, as a cyborg it takes on the appearance of a human on the outside, but has a powerful metal endoskeleton underneath, and in the final scenes where we see the terminator emerge from the flaming remains of the big fuel tanker truck, is one of the film's most memorable images.
In terms of the performances in the film well you have to say that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the star of the film, even if he is far from a great actor, his performance as the terminator is sheer perfection, as he Arnie plays the part of the cold, ruthless killing machine better than anyone ever could have. He also of course delivers one of the most iconic lines in modern cinema, in that moment where he arrives at the police station to see Sarah and is told to wait, as he looks around the room he looks at the police officer behind the desk window and says "I'll be back!" (and as wee fact Arnie only has 18 lines in the film in total!). Linda Hamilton is excellent as Sarah Connor, a young lass who basically went from having an ordinary life, working as a waitress, living with her somewhat self absorbed flatmate Ginger, to being thrown into the chaos of playing a crucial part in the fate of the future of the world, and being hunted relentlessly by an unstoppable enemy. Linda also makes that nice transition from a young scared woman, into a strong independent fighter by the end of the film. One of her best lines in the film comes when she realises the task ahead of her as she angrily says to Reese "Do I look like the mother of the future?! Come on, I can't even balance my own cheque book!". Michael Biehn is also really good as Kyle Reese, the human resistance fighter from the future, who protects Sarah from the terminator, who he plays it pretty much straight and serious down the line, but its a good solid performance, and he captures the pain and loneliness of Reese's character really well. And Biehn also get's one of the best lines in the film where he tries to make Sarah understand "that terminator is out there, it can't be reasoned with, it can be bargained with, and it doesn't feel pity, or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop, ever! Until you are dead!".
There are also some good supporting cast performances as well, especially from Paul Winfield, as the police Lieutenant Traxler, who tries to help Sarah, before the shit goes down at the station. Winfield also shares a nice bit of banter with Lance Henriksen in the film, who plays the part of one of his fellow policeman, Hal, and I like the way Traxler always cuts off what Hal says before he can finish. And my favourite exchange of theirs in the film is where Traxler is about to go and speak to the press and he asks Hal how he looks, who says "like shit, boss", and Traxler says "you're mama!". Earl Boen is also very good as the criminal pscyhologist, Dr Silberman, who plays him as being rather smarmy, and he would later on go to play a larger part in Terminator 2. Boen's best moment in the film comes when after showing the video footage of his interview with Reese, Sarah asks him "So, is Reese crazy?", and Silberman replies "In technical terminology, he's a loon!". And finally Bill Paxton makes an amusing brief cameo as the punk leader at the start of the film who taunts the naked terminator by saying "I think this guy is a couple of cans short of a six pack!" and delivers the classy response when the terminator asks for their clothes, "fuck you, asshole!".
Visually the film looks very impressive given its small budget of 6.4 million dollars, the model effects of the machines in the future look very impressive, and Stan Winston's effects make-up for the terminator are great as is the actual design of the terminator skeleton metal frame. Although of course it is pretty obvious the scenes where we cut from the mechanical version of Arnie's head, to the live make-up he is given to wear! The only downside to the effects is the scenes where we see the skeletal terminator stalk towards Sarah and Kyle at the end and these scenes are done using stop motion instead, which makes it look a bit false. But the terminator's infra-red vision effects are for their time are actually quite impressive and I quite like the way they are revealed in the chase scene after Sarah and Reese escape from the nightclub.
Flaw wise the Terminator doesn't have too many, although I would say the film probably like others of its time is a victim of the fashions of the 1980s, and it is populated by some cheesy 80s pop tunes, which we hear Ginger listen to on hear tape player, and the scene in the nightclub and when Kyle turns on the car radio. Also why didn't the Terminator ever think to wash itself and give itself a bath or a shower???! As surely its skeletal frame would be able to cope with water, as it can certainly cope with fire! The scene where the housekeeper in the motel knocks on the terminator's door and asks if he has a dead cat in there or what, is quite funny, especially when the terminator responds by telling the housekeeper to go fuck himself, but it also highlights the terminator has no regard or concern for trying to fit in and not drawing attention to itself by stinking out the place. But wouldn't it make a bit more sense if it did, rather than walking round with stinky BO, ok that's a rather silly criticism, but thought I would just mention it! :-) In the end the terminator is a killing machine and that's that. And I always thought the line where Sarah finally kills off the terminator by crushing it in the hyrdaulic press, and saying "you're terminated, fucker!" was a bit unecessary, as I think it would be better if she just said "you're terminated!", or at least they could have made it funny by her saying "you're terminated, bitch!" or "you're terminated, shithead!". OK I am being just silly now. ;-)
But I can't leave the film without saying something about its excellent synthesized score by Brad Fidel, which is suspenseful, dark and atmospheric, and while it might sound a bit dated with its 80s synth sound, its a really memorable score. The scenes where the terminator is always present are great with its low note synth and the synthesized heartbeat in the background, which always perfectly captures the tension of those moments when he is present.
So that's it for the Terminator part 1, as the first film remains a great classic of 1980s cinema, and what followed would be its higher grossing, bigger budgeted brother, Terminator 2, but more on that soon.
Till then bye the now.
OK the story is set in Los Angeles in 1984, where at night a strange electric storm takes place and from a blinding white light, the figure of a naked man appears, the Terminator (Arnie). The Terminator soon comes by a group of punks, who attack him with flick knives, but the terminator fends them off with ease and kills one of the punks, ripping out his heart, and he takes the clothes from one of the others. Around the same time another electric storm occurs, where we see another naked man materialise, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) who quickly evades nearby policeman, by breaking into a closed clothestore, he gives them the slip, and takes a shotgun out of one of the cop cars. The next day, a young woman, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who works as a waitress in a local diner, learns on the TV of a murder of a woman with the same name as her, but she brushes it off as a coincidence. The murder was of course committed by the Terminator, who later on kills another woman of the same name. With the police deciding to make this information public, Sarah hears this on TV and get's in touch with the police, and when she walks out on the streets, she notices Reese following her, so she goes into a nearby nightclub. Sarah phones the police on the payphone inside, and speaks to Lt Traxler (Paul Winfield) who tells her to stay put. Meanwhile the Terminator locates Sarah's apartment and goes in and kills her flatmate Ginger (Bess Motta) and her boyfriend Matt (Rick Rossovich), and listens to Sarah's voice message who calls from the club. The terminator soon tracks Sarah to the nightclub, and before he can shoot her, Reese guns down the terminator with his shotgun, just in time, as people flee the nightclub, he helps Sarah up and they escape the club, just as the terminator get's up and chases them, unharmed by the gunshots. Reese and Sarah drive off with the terminator in pursuit as well as the cops, and after eventually shaking off the police, Reese ditches the car in a parking lot and sneaks into another car.
Reese then explains to Sarah that he is from the future in the year 2029, and also that in the future that the world was nearly destroyed by a nuclear war created by the AI military defense machine network Skynet, and out of the ashes rose the machines, who took over the world and put the surviving humans into slave labour. Reese then tells Sarah that he has been sent back in time to protect her from the terminator, who he reveals is a cyborg assassin, who has been sent to kill her as her future son John Connor, will become a future resistance leader against the machines. The terminator soon gives them chase again on the streets, but Sarah and Reese are soon arrested by the cops, who take them both into custody. At the police station, Reese is questioned by a criminal psychologist, Dr Silberman (Earl Boen) whom he tells his story to, but naturally Silberman thinks he is delusional. The terminator soon however arrives, and crashes his car into the station, killing many of the police officers in the station, in searching for Sarah. Reese however manages to escape custody and rescues Sarah before the terminator can get to her. On the road, Sarah and Reese soon stop at a motel, to lay low, however while at the hote, Sarah phones her mother's cabin house, where the Terminator, who has already gotten there, has killed her mother, and pretends to be her on the phone (as the terminator can mimick anyone's voice) in order to find out where she is. Reese later on confesses to Sarah that he travelled back in time to meet her because he had always been in love with her since John gave him a picture of her, Sarah touched by this, kisses Reese and they make love (or shag, or have sex whatever way you want to say it). Later on the terminator tracks them down at the motel where they are staying, and Sarah and Reese escape just in time, but the terminator soon chases them again for the final time, in what becomes the big showdown of the film.
The Terminator is without a doubt one of the best sci-fi films of the 1980s, and it stands as one of James Cameron's very best films. Cameron himself stated that the idea of the terminator came to him in a nightmare he had when he was suffering from a fever, which gave him the image of the metal skeletal figure surrounded by flames. Cameron also said that he was also influenced by the sci-fi series Outer Limits as well as films such as The Driver, that helped give him the ideas he needed to develop the story. And the terminator itself remains one of the great villains in modern cinema, as a killing machine, that has no pity, fear, remorse, or any emotion, and is programmed to do just one thing: kill. The idea of the terminator as a cyborg is also great, and also how tough and resilient the terminator is, as a cyborg it takes on the appearance of a human on the outside, but has a powerful metal endoskeleton underneath, and in the final scenes where we see the terminator emerge from the flaming remains of the big fuel tanker truck, is one of the film's most memorable images.
In terms of the performances in the film well you have to say that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the star of the film, even if he is far from a great actor, his performance as the terminator is sheer perfection, as he Arnie plays the part of the cold, ruthless killing machine better than anyone ever could have. He also of course delivers one of the most iconic lines in modern cinema, in that moment where he arrives at the police station to see Sarah and is told to wait, as he looks around the room he looks at the police officer behind the desk window and says "I'll be back!" (and as wee fact Arnie only has 18 lines in the film in total!). Linda Hamilton is excellent as Sarah Connor, a young lass who basically went from having an ordinary life, working as a waitress, living with her somewhat self absorbed flatmate Ginger, to being thrown into the chaos of playing a crucial part in the fate of the future of the world, and being hunted relentlessly by an unstoppable enemy. Linda also makes that nice transition from a young scared woman, into a strong independent fighter by the end of the film. One of her best lines in the film comes when she realises the task ahead of her as she angrily says to Reese "Do I look like the mother of the future?! Come on, I can't even balance my own cheque book!". Michael Biehn is also really good as Kyle Reese, the human resistance fighter from the future, who protects Sarah from the terminator, who he plays it pretty much straight and serious down the line, but its a good solid performance, and he captures the pain and loneliness of Reese's character really well. And Biehn also get's one of the best lines in the film where he tries to make Sarah understand "that terminator is out there, it can't be reasoned with, it can be bargained with, and it doesn't feel pity, or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop, ever! Until you are dead!".
There are also some good supporting cast performances as well, especially from Paul Winfield, as the police Lieutenant Traxler, who tries to help Sarah, before the shit goes down at the station. Winfield also shares a nice bit of banter with Lance Henriksen in the film, who plays the part of one of his fellow policeman, Hal, and I like the way Traxler always cuts off what Hal says before he can finish. And my favourite exchange of theirs in the film is where Traxler is about to go and speak to the press and he asks Hal how he looks, who says "like shit, boss", and Traxler says "you're mama!". Earl Boen is also very good as the criminal pscyhologist, Dr Silberman, who plays him as being rather smarmy, and he would later on go to play a larger part in Terminator 2. Boen's best moment in the film comes when after showing the video footage of his interview with Reese, Sarah asks him "So, is Reese crazy?", and Silberman replies "In technical terminology, he's a loon!". And finally Bill Paxton makes an amusing brief cameo as the punk leader at the start of the film who taunts the naked terminator by saying "I think this guy is a couple of cans short of a six pack!" and delivers the classy response when the terminator asks for their clothes, "fuck you, asshole!".
Visually the film looks very impressive given its small budget of 6.4 million dollars, the model effects of the machines in the future look very impressive, and Stan Winston's effects make-up for the terminator are great as is the actual design of the terminator skeleton metal frame. Although of course it is pretty obvious the scenes where we cut from the mechanical version of Arnie's head, to the live make-up he is given to wear! The only downside to the effects is the scenes where we see the skeletal terminator stalk towards Sarah and Kyle at the end and these scenes are done using stop motion instead, which makes it look a bit false. But the terminator's infra-red vision effects are for their time are actually quite impressive and I quite like the way they are revealed in the chase scene after Sarah and Reese escape from the nightclub.
Flaw wise the Terminator doesn't have too many, although I would say the film probably like others of its time is a victim of the fashions of the 1980s, and it is populated by some cheesy 80s pop tunes, which we hear Ginger listen to on hear tape player, and the scene in the nightclub and when Kyle turns on the car radio. Also why didn't the Terminator ever think to wash itself and give itself a bath or a shower???! As surely its skeletal frame would be able to cope with water, as it can certainly cope with fire! The scene where the housekeeper in the motel knocks on the terminator's door and asks if he has a dead cat in there or what, is quite funny, especially when the terminator responds by telling the housekeeper to go fuck himself, but it also highlights the terminator has no regard or concern for trying to fit in and not drawing attention to itself by stinking out the place. But wouldn't it make a bit more sense if it did, rather than walking round with stinky BO, ok that's a rather silly criticism, but thought I would just mention it! :-) In the end the terminator is a killing machine and that's that. And I always thought the line where Sarah finally kills off the terminator by crushing it in the hyrdaulic press, and saying "you're terminated, fucker!" was a bit unecessary, as I think it would be better if she just said "you're terminated!", or at least they could have made it funny by her saying "you're terminated, bitch!" or "you're terminated, shithead!". OK I am being just silly now. ;-)
But I can't leave the film without saying something about its excellent synthesized score by Brad Fidel, which is suspenseful, dark and atmospheric, and while it might sound a bit dated with its 80s synth sound, its a really memorable score. The scenes where the terminator is always present are great with its low note synth and the synthesized heartbeat in the background, which always perfectly captures the tension of those moments when he is present.
So that's it for the Terminator part 1, as the first film remains a great classic of 1980s cinema, and what followed would be its higher grossing, bigger budgeted brother, Terminator 2, but more on that soon.
Till then bye the now.
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Break yer own leg!!
Well just for a wee change I thought I would say something about what I've been up to lately, as I have just finished the Wyrd Sisters run up at Bathgate regal theatre (in Bathgate funnily enough) which has been over the last two nights (30 & 31 October, as it was Halloween last night, and a very apt choice for Halloween night!). On more about Wyrd Sisters, its a Terry Pratchett novel from the Discworld series which is basically a spoof on MacBeth (or the Scottish play). This has been something of a rare production as I think Wyrd Sisters has not often been performed as a theatre production, so that in itself makes this choice of play a breath of fresh air. And the company who have put it on are Colour it in theatre, which is run by my one of my acting friends, Martin, and his missus Heather (as Martin is a big Terry Pratchett fan).
So a bit more about the plot, basically the play starts with the murder of King Verence of Lancre, who is murdered by his cousin Duke Felmet. The Duke was persuaded into murdering Verence by his devious and manipulative wife, the Duchess. An escaping servant gives the baby to three witches, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick, along with the king's crown. The witches then travel to a theatre where they persuade the manager, Vitoller (that's me!) who runs a troop of travelling actors, to take the baby and look after him. As result however of Felmet's new reign as king, the kingdom grows angry with how Felmet has been mistreating the lands and his people, he is also driven to madness by the killing of Verence, and spends quite a bit of the play rubbing his hands to try and wash off the blood (just like Lady MacBeth). Felmet also in order to improve his public image decides that a play should be written about him to portray to the people a better side to him, and sends his court fool off to find a theatre group to write the play. In the meantime the three witches deduce that the baby, now named Tomjon, who will grow up to become the rightful heir, and that it will take 15 years for him to become old enough to take his rightful place as king. Granny then decides to cast a spell over the kingdom to move time forward 15 years so that Tomjon will become 18 years of age, and old enough to become the king, and with Nanny's help they cast the spell. 15 years later, the Fool, who by this time has been courting the younger of the three witches, Magrat, eventually finds two of theatre members, Hwel and Tomjon, and tries to persuade them to write the play, giving them gold coins to sway them. The theatre trio, Vitoller, and his playwright Hwel and Tomjon, his adopted son decide to do the play, and after its written, the theatre group travel to the kingdom of Lancre to perform the play infront of Felmet and the Duchess. But as they perform the play, it doesn't sit right with Tomjon and with the witches in attendance, who are appalled at how they are portrayed in the play, they decide to do a bit more meddling to try and put things to rights in order to ensure justice is done, which leads to the climax of the play, within a play.....
I have to say this is not a mainstream play, and unless you are a Pratchett fan, an audience may struggle to follow it at times, particularly the first act of the play is heavy on plot and requires alot of focus and concentration to follow, and it may not be everyone's cup of tea. The 2nd act is less heavy on plot and helps making it that bit more entertaining for the audience and it definitely has the most fun moments that are in the story, especially the play within the play stuff. But personally I really enjoyed the play and being part of it was great fun, and the cast were a real pleasure to work with, as its really important I think in working as part of an ensemble piece, that everyone gets on well with each other, which thankfully we all did.
As regards to the performances, everyone I thought did a great job, and particularly the standouts for me were Clare Sheerin as Nanny, who get's some of the funniest lines, as well as the title line of this post, "break your own leg!", which she shouts to Hwel, who mistakes her as an actress playing one of the witches. Paul Dundas as Hwel, who acts as Vitoller's playwright, had me in stitches as I found it often difficult to keep a straight face when working with him! Stewart Campbell who played the demon and Tomjon had boundless energy and his demon got some laughs, and how he managed to do that voice without hurting his throat is beyond me! As Tomjon he was also supremely camp, as the young actor who travels to Lancre and performs the play. ;-) Heather as the fool was also really good as she carried a fair weight of the play, as one of the key characters, who has to act as a loyal servant to the Duke, but at the same time she is torn by her loyalties to him as she witness the murder of the king and also how she falls for Magrat and ultimately sways toward to helping bring down the Duke. I also like the scene where she looks to the audience tells how she never wanted to be a fool, but her grandfather pushed her into it and told to never tell a joke that hasn't been approved by the fool's guild. And of course Ryan as the Duke was hilarious, as he played him almost as a half-crazed, bumbling and mumbling version of Brian Blessed, and I loved the moment where he stabs the fool at the end, and says "It wasn't me I didn't do it! Telling lies is naughty!". As for my own performance well I thought I did well as Vitoller, I'm not going to big myself up here, but I was overall quite pleased with the way how things turned out, and I thought I shared a nice dynamic with Paul and Stewart, and it will be a pleasure to do it again in the future.
So that's it for now for my acting career (as such as it is!) and I will look forward to doing Wyrd Sisters again next year, as we will be doing it again sometime in February. So more review posts an all that will follow later on.
Till the next one, bye the now.
So a bit more about the plot, basically the play starts with the murder of King Verence of Lancre, who is murdered by his cousin Duke Felmet. The Duke was persuaded into murdering Verence by his devious and manipulative wife, the Duchess. An escaping servant gives the baby to three witches, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick, along with the king's crown. The witches then travel to a theatre where they persuade the manager, Vitoller (that's me!) who runs a troop of travelling actors, to take the baby and look after him. As result however of Felmet's new reign as king, the kingdom grows angry with how Felmet has been mistreating the lands and his people, he is also driven to madness by the killing of Verence, and spends quite a bit of the play rubbing his hands to try and wash off the blood (just like Lady MacBeth). Felmet also in order to improve his public image decides that a play should be written about him to portray to the people a better side to him, and sends his court fool off to find a theatre group to write the play. In the meantime the three witches deduce that the baby, now named Tomjon, who will grow up to become the rightful heir, and that it will take 15 years for him to become old enough to take his rightful place as king. Granny then decides to cast a spell over the kingdom to move time forward 15 years so that Tomjon will become 18 years of age, and old enough to become the king, and with Nanny's help they cast the spell. 15 years later, the Fool, who by this time has been courting the younger of the three witches, Magrat, eventually finds two of theatre members, Hwel and Tomjon, and tries to persuade them to write the play, giving them gold coins to sway them. The theatre trio, Vitoller, and his playwright Hwel and Tomjon, his adopted son decide to do the play, and after its written, the theatre group travel to the kingdom of Lancre to perform the play infront of Felmet and the Duchess. But as they perform the play, it doesn't sit right with Tomjon and with the witches in attendance, who are appalled at how they are portrayed in the play, they decide to do a bit more meddling to try and put things to rights in order to ensure justice is done, which leads to the climax of the play, within a play.....
I have to say this is not a mainstream play, and unless you are a Pratchett fan, an audience may struggle to follow it at times, particularly the first act of the play is heavy on plot and requires alot of focus and concentration to follow, and it may not be everyone's cup of tea. The 2nd act is less heavy on plot and helps making it that bit more entertaining for the audience and it definitely has the most fun moments that are in the story, especially the play within the play stuff. But personally I really enjoyed the play and being part of it was great fun, and the cast were a real pleasure to work with, as its really important I think in working as part of an ensemble piece, that everyone gets on well with each other, which thankfully we all did.
As regards to the performances, everyone I thought did a great job, and particularly the standouts for me were Clare Sheerin as Nanny, who get's some of the funniest lines, as well as the title line of this post, "break your own leg!", which she shouts to Hwel, who mistakes her as an actress playing one of the witches. Paul Dundas as Hwel, who acts as Vitoller's playwright, had me in stitches as I found it often difficult to keep a straight face when working with him! Stewart Campbell who played the demon and Tomjon had boundless energy and his demon got some laughs, and how he managed to do that voice without hurting his throat is beyond me! As Tomjon he was also supremely camp, as the young actor who travels to Lancre and performs the play. ;-) Heather as the fool was also really good as she carried a fair weight of the play, as one of the key characters, who has to act as a loyal servant to the Duke, but at the same time she is torn by her loyalties to him as she witness the murder of the king and also how she falls for Magrat and ultimately sways toward to helping bring down the Duke. I also like the scene where she looks to the audience tells how she never wanted to be a fool, but her grandfather pushed her into it and told to never tell a joke that hasn't been approved by the fool's guild. And of course Ryan as the Duke was hilarious, as he played him almost as a half-crazed, bumbling and mumbling version of Brian Blessed, and I loved the moment where he stabs the fool at the end, and says "It wasn't me I didn't do it! Telling lies is naughty!". As for my own performance well I thought I did well as Vitoller, I'm not going to big myself up here, but I was overall quite pleased with the way how things turned out, and I thought I shared a nice dynamic with Paul and Stewart, and it will be a pleasure to do it again in the future.
So that's it for now for my acting career (as such as it is!) and I will look forward to doing Wyrd Sisters again next year, as we will be doing it again sometime in February. So more review posts an all that will follow later on.
Till the next one, bye the now.
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