Star Trek IV: Double dumb ass on you!!

OK so I've left a bit of a gap in between my review of Star Trek III and IV, so I thought I would IV now before I leave it too long, so let's give it a looksee..

Starting with my usual of looking at the film's plot, it begins in deep space where an giant orbiting probe sends out powerful signals, which ends up disabling starships that it passes by.  The probe then arrives over the Earth where it signals end up doing serious damage to the Earth's atmosphere and creating heavy storms.  The president of Earth is advised by visiting Vulcan ambassador, Sarek (also Spock's father, played by Mark Lenard) to send out a planetary distress signal.  Meanwhile the USS Enterprise crew (or rather the late Enterprise as it was destroyed in ST III) have been living in exile on Vulcan, where Spock (Leonard Nimoy) has been ressurected and is still recovering.  Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew at this time are ready to travel back to Earth to face the consequences of their theft and destruction of the Enterprise.  Enroute, travelling in their captured Klingon vessel, the crew receive the president's distress call, and on hearing the probe's signal, Spock soon deduces the signal is that of whale song, sung by humpback whales.  Spock then proposes to Kirk that they attempt time travel to go back in time to the 20th century where they can hope to find and take a humpback whale back into the future.  Kirk briefly and successfully manages to communicate with Starfleet command long enough to tell them his theory, and after this Kirk and crew successfully make a timewarp leap back in time via a slingshot round the sun.

The crew soon find that they have arrived back in 1986, however the chief engineer, Scotty (James Doohan) tells Kirk that the time travel has drained the ship's power crystals, and after 24 hours they will be out of power and visible.  On arriving on the surface of the planet, the crew find that they are San Francisco, and Kirk has his crew split up into two teams, with Dr McCoy (DeForrest Kelley), Sulu (James Takei) and Scotty being given the task to create a whale tank, whereas Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) are to find nucelar naval vessels in order to recharge the ship's power.  Meanwhile Kirk and Spock find out the location of two humpback whales, which are kept at a Cetacean institute, which are nicknamed George and Gracie.  The tour director, Dr Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks) gives a tour to a group, along with Kirk and Spock, who discreetly slips away and enters the tank to perform a mind meld with one of the whales.  Taylor is outraged by Spock's actions, but Kirk insist they mean no harm, and later on Taylor meets up with Kirk, where he tells them half the truth he needs the whales to be brought back into the future.  Meanwhile Chekov and Uhura, who locate a naval ship, manage to drain enough of the vessel's energy to refuel the klingon ship.  Chekov however is captured, and on attempting to flee he falls and is severley injured.  This leaves Kirk with limited time to find the whales, save Chekov, create the tank and try and get back to his own time to save the planet's future....

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is generally considered to be one of the most popular entries in the Star Trek movie franchise, and its pretty easy to see why as it remains a very entertaining and also quite light hearted film.  And the interesting thing in this film is that for once there is no actual villain, as the main problem: the probe, which does all the damage to Earth is merely trying to find out what has happened to the whale species, and as Spock suggests it maybe unaware of the damage it is causing.  The film is also that bit more humorous than most of the entries in the Star Trek world, and there are plenty of amusing moments especially when Krik and his crew travel back in time to San Francisco and they are taken by surprise at the people's customs and behaviour at the time, especially Spock.  The re-training of Spock's mind in a strict Vulcan fashion, also makes for quite a few funny moments in the film as Spock clearly struggles to understand human behaviour and is almost bemused the profanity of the 20th century.  

Which brings me onto saying a bit about the performances, which sees the regular cast all give good accounts of themselves.  William Shatner is great again as Kirk, and he has quite a few highlights in the film, with one of my favourites being when they walk the streets of San Francisco in 1986 and he is nearly hit by a taxi driver who yells "watch where you are going ya dumb ass!" and he replies "well a double dumb ass on you!".  I also liked the moment where he goes into a pawn shop and sells his glasses to the owner, who says he will give him 100 dollars for them, and Kirk who has no concept of the value of money asks "is that alot?".  Another great line comes from Kirk after they land the cloaked Klingon ship in Golden gate park, and two bewildered garbage men look and drive away their track in panic, and we see Kirk and the others come down the ramp and he says "every one remember where we parked!".  Shatner also has a good scene where he goes out to dinner with Gillian, and he is interrupted on communicator by Scotty where he quietly says "what is it?? I thought I told you never to call me!" and Scotty replies, and Kirk quietly says "OK tell them to put phasers on stun and good luck, Kirk out!".    

Leonard Nimoy also provides quite a few of the film's highlights as Spock, with his character being so logical that he fails to understand human behaviour.  One of Nimoy's most memorable scenes in the film of course comes when he performs his Vulcan neck pinch on a ill mannered punk rocker on the bus, who refuses to turn down his music, and he renders him unconscious where the passengers all applaud Spock loudly.  Nimoy also get's some funny lines of dialogue where he struggles to come to grips with how to use human profanity such as when Gillian Taylor asks him after he performs his mind meld with the whales "what the hell are you doing here??" and he replies "attempting the hell to communicate!".  And this one is followed up by Gillian angrily saying "you were messing up my tank and my whales!" and Spock replies "they like you very much but they are not the hell your whales" Gillian says "Oh and they told you that did they??" and Spock says "the hell they did!".  Also the moment where Gillian asks Kirk and Spock if they both like Italian food, and Spock replies no with Kirk interrupting saying "yes, I love Italian and so do you" to Spock, who flatly replies "yes".  Spock rather amusingly get's the hang of the profanity towards the end of the film when Kirk asks him "Spock, where the hell is that power you promised??" and Spock replies "one damn minute, Admiral!".  Gillian in another scene feeds an amusing line to Spock when she says "are you sure you won't change your mind" re: dinner, and Spock replies "is there something wrong with the one I have???".  Spock also refers to the profanity as "colourful metaphors" and when Gillian says to Kirk about Spock's words and referring to the whales extinction in the past tense, Spock replies "are you sure this isn't time for a colourful metaphor???".       

The rest of the regular also fine, starting with James Doohan, who get's a chance to shine as Scotty in the scene where he approaches a plastics manufacturer, and gives him the formula for transparent aluminium.  But as Scotty tries to process the formula he tries to speak to the owner's computer, like he would an advanced computer in the 23rd century, and McCoy gives him the mouse to speak into like a mic and Scotty says "Hello computer!", after this the manufacturer manager says "just use the keyboard" and Scotty replies "a keyboard, how quaint!".  DeForrest Kelley also get's some funny moments, especially in the scene where they go to the hospital to rescue Chekov, and he rushes Gillian in an emergency room on a stretcher (who feigns illness) where he gives some medical jargon to bluff his way into the operating theatre.  After he is let in Kirk asks "what did you say she had??" and McCoy says "cramps!", also McCoy dispairs in the moment they are in the hospital elevator listening to two young doctors talk about chaemotherapy, which obviously must be outmoded in the future, and he says "it sounds like some sort of goddamn Spanish inquisition!".  And finally I will mention Catherine Hicks as Gillian Taylor, who does a good job as the caring doctor, who tries to protect the whales in her care at the institute.  Hicks has a good scene where she picks up Kirk and Spock in her truck and she asks Kirk "I hope you guys aren't here to teach whales retrieve torpedos or some dipshit stuff like that!" and Kirk replies "no ma'am no dipshit".  I also quite liked the way in the scene where she slaps her boss at the institute for releasing the whales during the night before they are due to be released, that she times her slap in time for saying "bitch" from "you son of a bitch!".     

Leonard Nimoy also who plays a threefold part in the making of this film, as he co-wrote, starred and directed it, also in his role as director, does another fine job, and he gives the film a nice leisurely pace, and provides just the right mix of drama and humour.  Also lastly I will mention the film's score by Leonard Rosenman (who was a close friend of Leonard Nimoy) which is not bad at all, although for me its not quite as strong as James Horner's previous two scores for films II and III. 

So as to the film's flaws well its hard to nitpick too much with IV, although you could argue the lack of a villain in the film, does take away some of the excitment factor of the story, and there is where it probably has to rely more on humour to make it work so well.  Also the whole idea of time travel via a slingshot around the sun seems in intself to be a daft one.  The concept of going into timewarp and building up enough energy to do so in itself would have been more sufficient here than bringing the sun into it in my opinion, as I think they just used it as a dangerous obstacle they had to pass just for the sake of needing one!  Also at the end of the film the charges against the crew are submarily dismissed and Kirk is reduced in rank to Captain and given the command of a starship, but that in itself isn't really a punishment its more what he would have wanted, surely they should have put him in the brig or something for a few months! ;-)     

And that is it for my look at Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home which remains one of the most entertaining and more unique movies in the franchise and it is well worth a look.  Next up after this though was the rather underwhelming Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, directed by William Shatner, but I can leave that for some other time (if I can be bothered! ;-)). 

So I will leave it there and be beamed up.... 

Star Trek: My name is.... KHAN!!

Right time for another new review of a new movie, as I went and saw Star Trek Into Darkness this week (twice, once in 2D and 3D!) which is the second film in the reboot of the classic series franchise, so let's take a butchers at it.  WARNING PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!

So to have a quick look at the plot, the film begins with Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine again) who after an incident regarding a planetary survey, in which he violated his prime directive (non interfering with the planet's history, as they witness the Enterprise take off)  is demoted and ordered back to the academy on Earth.  Admiral Pike (Bruce Greenwood) however manages to persuade Starfleet to bring him onboard the Enterprise as his first officer. Kirk and Pike attend an emergency meeting regarding a bombing incident at one of Starfleet's installations in London.  During the meeting however they are attacked by a man named John Harrison, who was a former Starfleet officer, and Pike is killed during the assault.  Kirk is soon reinstated and he requests from Admiral Alexander Marcus (Peter Weller) to go after Harrison and hunt him down, which Marcus permits him to.  The Enterprise is then supplied with 72 photon torpedos which Marcus has ordered Kirk to fire on Harrison when he finds him.  The chief engineer Scotty (Simon Pegg) refuses to allow them to be used and he resigns his duties rather than carry on, but after this Kirk is convinced by Spock (Zachary Quinto) and commander Uhura (Zoe Saldana) to capture Harrison alive.

The Enterprise then travels to Kronos, the home planet of the Klingons, which is a forbidden zone for Starfleet, so Kirk with Spock and Uhura travel to the planet via a shuttle.  On arriving at the planet, Uhura speaks with the Klingons in an attempt to negotiate to take Harrison, who launches a surprise attack and kills off the Klingons almost on his own.  Harrison on hearing of the torpedos from Kirk surrenders at once and allows himself to be taken onboard the Enterprise.  Harrison on the Enterprise reveals his true identity as Khan (who I will say now is played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and that he is a genetically enhanced human from the late 20th century.  Khan tells Kirk that he was awakened from 300 years in suspended animation by Marcus to help him develop advanced weapons to protect Starfleet and use them against the Klingon empire, and that the torpedos actually contain inside his people (i.e. 72 people in one each) who were held hostage by Marcus.  And its not long before Marcus shows up on the scene in an advanced new Federation starship, the USS Vengeance for a showdown which will leave Kirk an impossible choice ahead of him....

Star Trek Into Darkness is certainly a very entertaining sequel to the first film, and it sees the rebooted franchise continue on in fine style.  And JJ Abrahams who is again at the directorial helm (sorry using so many cliches!) does an excellent job in continuing to develop the main characters and keep them in tune with the original series.  Kirk even though he is now a Captain at the start of the film still shows that he is a reckless playboy who refuses to play by the rules and goes out of his way to make rash decisions until he is demoted and forced to buckle down.  But as the film progress Kirk definitely matures in his attitude and we see him take full control of the situation once he confronts Khan and Marcus.  Spock's character also progresses somewhat even though he is still stubbornly logical and remains emotionally detached, he does later on choose to feel when Kirk's life is later on in danger (don't worry I won't say anymore!) and he says himself that even if he choses not to feel it doesn't mean he doesn't care.

So getting onto the performances it has to be said they are all crap... no just kidding(!) they are actually all very good.  Starting with Chris Pine, who returns as the young Kirk, he does an excellent job in the part as he did in the first film, as he continues to play Kirk as a bit of playboy and a charmer, but as the film progresses he becomes that bit more serious and mature, as he takes on the responsibility of the "chair".  Zachary Quinto is also very good again as Spock, who bears quite a fair resemblance to Leonard Nimoy (most likely why he was cast in the first place!) and he continues to show Spock's stubborness and rather annoying habit at spouting out logic like a pretentious twat.  But behind it all Quinto manages to succeed in showing that Spock cares not only for Uhura but also for his friend Kirk and the crew.  Pine and Quinto also share a nice onscreen chemistry as Kirk and Spock and how they argue with one another, and they have a funny scene where they are due to part ways as they are reassigned, Kirk says to Spock "the truth is... I'll miss you" to which Spock gives a strange look, then they both walk away.  Kirk has another funny scene where he speaks with Uhurar in a lift about how she is arguing with Spock, and he stands outside the elevator as it arrives and he looks enquiringly at them and Kirk walks up and says "ears burning??". 

As for the other cast members Simon Pegg is once again funny as Scotty, the Enterprise's Scottish (surely not!) chief engineer, and he has some funny moments in the film, especially in the scene where he is drinking in a bar with his short wee alien friend, where Kirk calls him up to ask for a favour, and he silently give a "wanker" sign to his alien friend to let him know its Kirk.  Pegg also get's one of the film's funniest lines where he tries to help out Kirk gain access to the USS Vengeance's airlock, and he says "Just give me a minute this is not easy ya mad bastard!".  Karl Urban is also excellent as Dr McCoy, who also bears a small resemblance to DeForrest Kelley and he get's Kelley's voice and inflections spot on for the character.  Urban also get's some funny lines, especially the scene where Sulu is the acting captain of the ship once Kirk has left and he delivers a stern message to the Klingons, and McCoy says "Sulu, reminder me never to piss you off!".  Zoe Saldana does a fine job again as Nyota Uhura, the ship's communications officer and she shares a good scene with Spock when they travel to Kronos in the shuttle.  And Alice Eve does well in her role as Dr Carol Marcus, and her best moment comes when she walks into a shuttle with Kirk and she asks him to turn around while she changes her clothes, and he turns around to see her in her underwear! (nice!).  Anton Yelchin also does a good job again as the young Pavel Chekov, who later on Kirk puts in charge of the ship's engineering once Scotty resigns.

Peter Weller also provides a fine performance as Admiral Marcus as the Starfleet officer who soon turns out to have another agenda, and at first I didn't recongise as I thought it was Scott Glenn instead on screen.  And finally I will mention Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan, who I have to say at first I wasn't so keen on his performance but on a second viewing I thought he was pretty good as the villain.  While Cumberbatch plays Khan quite serious for the most part he still does exhibit a dark twisted charisma, that while his performance lacked the flair that Ricardo Montalban brought to the role back in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, its still a fine performance nonetheless.  Cumberbatch's best scene comes when he has been captured and placed in a cell onboard the Enterprise where he reveals his true identity as Khan and admits to how he was used by Marcus in building the USS Vengeance weapons systems and how Marcus had threatened to destroy his people if he didn't co-operate.  And his best line comes when onboard the USS Vengeance, he beams Kirk back onboard his ship and he says "no ship should go down without her captain!" just before he opens fire on the Enterprise.

J.J. Abrahams once again, getting onto the direction, does an excellent job here as he keeps the pace of the film moving along really well, and it never drags.  Visually the film also looks spectacular as there are some great action sequences in the film particularly the scenes where the Enterprise comes under attack from the USS Vengeance, and also where Kirk is chased in a shuttle by the Klingons on Kronos.  The film was also shot in IMAX and I've yet to see it at the Glasgow IMAX but as I've seen it twice already, I'm more than prepared to give it another go as I'm sure it will look stunning in it!  And I'll say a quick word about the film's music score by Michael Giachinno which is acutally quite good, although I'm not very keen on his take on the Star Trek theme, as he always seemed to overuse it, and its nowhere near as good as Jerry Goldsmith or James Horner's variations of that theme.  But the rest of his music score is fairly impressive, particularly in one of the film's poignant moments between Kirk and Spock (which I won't go into). 

Getting onto the film's flaws well there are one or two niggles, first off I feel at times as I always do that franchise films that use dialogue from its previous ones is something that is a bit cringeworthy.  And Into Darkness is guilty of this here as well, especially where they re-use the "ship out of danger" and "KHAN!!!" lines, as it feels again just a bit too self referential to Star Trek II.  I also thought that there was something a bit silly about Kirk's continual sexual activity with beautiful alien women, last time she was a green lady, this time they have tails!  Are they trying to tell us something about Kirk that he can't get it on with Earth girls??? (or perhaps he's just pissed them all off!).  You could also argue that Khan's ability to regenerate his cells is a strange plot strand in the film as if he can regenerate his cell, then surely in the fight scene where he battles with Spock near the end, he scars will heal up, but they don't.  Also in the scene where Khan is stunned by Scotty by a blaster shot and he goes down unconscious for a few minutes, Uhura later on blasts Khan with five or six shots before he even falls down!  But I guess these films or anything film will always have some inconsistencies.

So that's it for my look at Star Trek Into Darkness, which sees the franchise continue on very well, with its new excellent cast members, great action sequences and splendid visuals, and here's hoping it continues on as well as it has so far.

So I shall leave it there......

Djangle Dajngo

Right time for another movie review and this is a more recent one as I finally got round to seeing Quentin Tarantino's lastest film, Django Unchained, so here's what I think of it...

So the film is back in 1858 in the America deep south, back in the time of the black slaves, and the story centres around one of the slaves, Django (Jamie Foxx) who has been sold into slavery and been separated from him wife.  Django however is soon freed by a passing German bounty hunter, Dr King Schultz (Christophe Waltz), as he reveals he knows the whereabouts of a gang he has a bounty on.  Schultz kills one of the Speck brothers, who hold the slaves and let's the remaining slaves kill the other.  Schultz leaves with Django and under his wing he trains Django in becoming a bounty hunter, and he soon decides to help Django get his wife back, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) who has been held as a slave.  Schultz and Django soon learn of Broomhilda's whereabouts as she is being held by her owner, Calvin Candie (Leonardo Di Caprio) who is the owner of Candyland, which is plantation where slaves are forced to fight to the death in Mandingo fights.  And from here the two men travel to find Calvin and also to find Django's wife in order to save her from her cruel life of slavery.

While I wouldn't rate this as one of his very best films, Django Unchained definitely still has a lot going for it, as with each film Tarantino does a different genre, and this being his western, he certainly has done a fine job.  Characterisation has always been a strength of Tarantino's and he does a fine job here with the characters, Django being the somewhat cold and very unforgiving protagonist who has endured a brutal life of slavery, and Dr King Schultz who despite his cool laid back and intellectual nature is also a natural killer, but at the same time he comes from a place where he is shocked to witness the harsh American lifestyle.  The film also doesn't shy away from its harsh depiction of the times and the terrible brutality that the slaves had to endure at the hands of the white men.  However the film in fine tradition doesn't stop at poking fun at some of the themes of the time, particularly in taking the piss of the Ku Klux Klan and a group of Klan members, try to wear their sheets, but they struggled to see out of them, and end up arguing with one another and throwing them off!

Getting onto the perfomances they are all pretty much top drawer, with Jamie Foxx putting in a fine and at times subdued performance as the cool, tormented and deatched Django, who is on a mission to find his slaved wife.  One of his best lines comes when he and Schultz ride into a town and they all looked in total surprise at seeing Django riding, and Schultz asks why they are staring and Django replies "cos they ain't never seen a nigger on a horse before!".  Christophe Waltz once again in a Tarantino delivers a terrific performance as Schultz, the surprisingly sympathetic bounty hunter, who frees Django and helps him to find his wife.  One of the Waltz's best scenes is where he is haunted by the memories of witnessing a black slave being torn apart by one of Calvin's dogs, and he confronts Calvin over the incident and he refuses to shake his hand over the deal they have done.  Samuel Jackson also puts in an amusing but at the same time menacing performance as Calvin's old grumpy senior house slave, Stephen, and his make up is actually very good and at first you wouldn't actually even recognise him!  Kerry Washington also delivers a subtle performance as the long suffering slave and Django's wife, Broomhilda, and it would hard not to feel for her when see what she has endured at the hands of her masters.

But for me the performance of the film belongs to Leonard Di Caprio as Calvin Candie, who is simply superb in his role as the charming yet brutal plantation owner, and for me this is the best one of his career so far.  Di Caprio's best scene in the film comes when (PLOT SPOILER!) he discovers that Django and Schultz aren't what they appeared to be, and forces them to sit at his dining table, and he shows them a skull of an african american slave, which he saws open!  In fact in retrospect, I think the best supporting actor academy award really belongs to Di Caprio's work in the film as he is simply outstanding here, and if he is to deliver a finer performance (which he just might in the future) it would be tough to beat this one.

The film of course does have some flaws, the main one probably being the film's length as just over 2 hours and 40 minutes it is a bit too long, and the film starts off a bit slow before it moves up a gear and it could have benefited from being a bit shorter.  The violence in the film is also at times a bit disconcerting as Tarantino, who is never one to flinch away from making violent films, really does subject you to the brutality of the times, with the torture the slaves endured.  Also the gunplay and general violence is also pretty strong, and Tarantino, rather amusingly I must admit, can't resist in spraying blood all over the screen during the bloody gunfights.  I also felt the end sequence while it was ok and gave the film a reasonable resolution, it also left me a bit cold at Django's unreserved sociopathic behaviour as he shows the full extent of his revenge.  But that is what Tarantino does I guess, in making uncompromising films.  

Regardless of that though Tarantino has made a fine film in Django unchained, and once again his writing is really good and technically as a filmmaker he continues to show his technical skill, and a special nod also deserves to go out to Robert Richardson's brilliant and stunning cinematography.  Tarantino who always makes great use of existing songs, provides another fine soundtrack selection, as he uses the main 1966 "Django" theme tune, as well as some classic pieces from classic composers such as Jerry Goldsmith and Ennio Morricone.

So that's it for my look at Django unchained, which is a fine Tarantino film, which makes for an entertaining and at times uncomfortable watch, but if you like Tarantino then this is well worth checking out.

And with that, I shall leave it there.    

Doctor Who: Genesis of the daleks...

OK thought I would opt to do another Doctor Who review (yep they are sprouting up in this blog!) and the one I've decided to go for is one of the all time classics, which is from Tom Baker's era: Genesis of the Daleks, made back in 1975.  So let's gie it a look...

Right the plot is quite lengthy in itself so I will TRY my best not to keep it too long winded here, which for me is difficult, but I'll do what I can.  So the story starts with the Doctor being intercepted by the Time Lords while he is travelling to space station Nerva (from the Ark in Space story).  The Doctor meets with a Time Lord (John Franklyn-Robbins) who tells him that he is on the planet Skaro, and gives him the mission to prevent the development of the daleks being turned into evil creatures, which the Doctor accepts.  The Doctor is soon joined by his companions, Sarah (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry (Ian Marter) as they look at their surroundings, which is a barren desolate warground, as the two warring races on the planet, the Thals and Kaleds, have been engaged in a thousand year war.  The Doctor, Sarah and Harry arrive in a trench and soon attacked by a group of Thals, but the Kaleds soon come to their rescue, however Sarah is left for dead in the trenches, and is soon found by a group of Mutos (Kaleds who are mutated and were banished from the kaled dome).  Sarah is later captured by a group of Thal soldiers who take her and one of the mutos, Severin (Stephen Yardley) for slave labour in the Thal dome.    

Inside the Kaled dome, the Doctor and Harry are taken for interrogation, and the Doctor has his belongings confiscated, which includes the time ring, given to him by the Time Lord, which let them return to the TARDIS.  The Doctor and Harry soon stand witness to the unveiling of the first prototype dalek at a presentation given by the scientific elite's leader, Davros (Michael Wisher).  The Dalek armed with its weapon is about to kill the Doctor and Harry, but one of the scientists, Ronson (James Garbutt) intervenes in time to stop it.  Later Ronson meets with The Doctor and Harry in the prison cells, where he admits his concerns over the dalek project, and how Davros has created a monster with no morals or conscience.  The Doctor and Harry escape from their cell with Ronson's help, as they agree to reach the Kaled councillors and express their concerns and insist they shut down Davros's research.

However Davros's personal guard and security commander, Nyder (Peter Miles) has his spies discover of Ronson's treachery and also of the council's decision to investigate his work with the daleks.  On this basis, Davros decides there is no alternative but to destroy the Kaled race and the dome, as he makes a journey to the Thal dome with Nyder and gives them a formula to destroy the Kaled dome.  The thals agree to use the formula and the Doctor along with Harry arrives in time to free Sarah from the labour prison before the rocket is launched, but he is too late to stop the countdown, as the Thals launch their rocket and Kaled dome is destroyed.  Meanwhile Davros exposes Ronson as a spy and has one of his daleks exterminate him, and with 20 new daleks in place, Davros uses them to infiltrate the Thals dome and exterminate the Thals.  Back in the Kaled bunker the Doctor and his companions are captured by Nyder and Davros interrogates the Doctor, realising that he is from another planet and time, he forces the Doctor to reveal his knowledge of the Daleks defeats and how they can be avoided, which is recorded on tape.  And from here the Doctor must try and find a way to stop Davros, destroy the dalek force and prevent them from evolving into the most evil dominant species in the universe....

There is no two ways about the fact Genesis of the Daleks stands easily as one of the very best Doctor Who stories of all time.  The script is brilliantly written by Terry Nation, and the setting is great, a thousand year war between two warring races, and from this war the daleks are born.  And with the new hard hitting style of the show under the producer at the time, Philip Hinchcliffe, Genesis here shows the perfect mix of suspense and drama.  Terry Nation shows his affinity for fascism in Genesis as well as the Kaleds are dressed in very Nazi-esque uniforms, and the Elite, lead by Nyder, are dressed in almost SS type clothing.  And he would later on use similar themes in Blake's 7 where the human population are controlled by the Federation, a fascist regime, who show ruthlessness to those who opposed them.  The daleks themselve are brilliantly introduced into this story and the concept of their creation is really well devised, with the daleks having been born out of mutations, and in one scene Ronson shows the Doctor and Harry a screen room where the dalek embryos are grown, and Ronson says to the Doctor "that is our future!.

Getting on to the performances they are all top notch, starting with Tom Baker as the Doctor, who by this time had started to grow into his role.  In the early stories everything is still pretty dramatic, but Tom still allows for a few moments of humour here and there in the story, especially in the scene where he asks for a cup of tea, and one of the Elite officers tells he will kill him if he doesn't comply with his orders, and the Doctor says "no tea, Harry".  There is also another amusing moment the Doctor catches onto the fact that Kaled is an anagram of Dalek, "K-A-L-E-D.... hang that's almost an anagram of.... how interesting!".  However Tom also has some great dramatic moments as well, particularly in his scene with Davros where he pleads with him to stop the development of the daleks, and as he realises he is looking at a madman, he grabs Davros's one hand.  Later on also in the scene where the Doctor, having wired up the dalek incubation room with explosives, stands with the two wires in his hand, and all he needs to do is touch them together to destroy the daleks, and he asks Sarah "But do I have the right?".

Lis Sladen and Ian Marter also put in fine performances as Sarah and Harry, and Elisabeth shows Sarah Jane once again as being a strong independent women, who in the scene where she is placed in the Thal labour camp, organises an escape attempt to climb up the rocket scaffolding.  Although later on the Thal soldiers capture her, and one of them takes a hold of her arm and kicks her feet away underneath, dangling her off the side of the rocket, and he says "I hear that people who fall from great heights are dead before they hit the ground.  I don't believe that.  Do you??".  Ian Marter as Harry for once is actually shown to be a bit more adept at dealing with the action and situations, and less clumsy as he was before.  Although there is still that scene where he get's his foot caught in the giant clam in the caves, and he later says "why is it always me that puts a foot in it??!".  

Of the other cast members, Peter Miles is great as the conniving and manipulative Nyder, Davros's right hand man, who remains loyal till the bitter end.  Miles has some good moments in his performance, particularly where he tells the Doctor what Mutos are "they are the scarred relics of ourselves".  And later on in the scene where he tricks Gharman (played by Dennis Chinnery) into thinking he is on his side about being against Davros's work with the daleks, and he says "Thank you! That's all I wanted to know!".  Although at one point even Nyder realises that while he remains loyal to Davros, he cannot quite digest that he will go as far as to the annihilate the kaled race "you will go that far??".  James Garbutt as the Kaled scientist Ronson is also very good and at times you feel sorry for his character as you realise he has good intentions but ultimately they bring to his own demise.  Guy Siner, who plays the young General Raven, gives a decent account of himself, although his main scene is a bit over the top when he angrily shouts about how they will defeat the Thals "Our battle cry will be TOTAL extermination of the THALS!!".

But the best performance of the story by far is Michael Wisher's as Davros, as he is simply magnificent as one of the show's most memorable villains.  And despite the physical limitations that Wisher had as Davros, as he was encased in a half Dalek chair, and he only had the use of one hand (with the other curled into a limp state) his vocal performance is sheer perfection, as he produces the perfect mix of megalomania, hysteria and controlled manipulation.  Wisher has various highlights in the story, and one of his best scenes is where he interrogates the Doctor on his knowledge of the Daleks, and he says to him "Now, you will tell me the reason for every Dalek defeat. With that knowledge I will program them, with that knowledge they will know their mistakes and how to avoid them, with that knowledge there will be no defeats! WE WILL BEGIN!".   Also in the scene where the Doctor asks Davros if he would have created a virus that would kill all life, would he use it and Davros admits he would "I would do it! That power would set me up among the gods! AND THROUGH THE DALEKS I SHALL HAVE THAT POWER!!!".  The character of Davros is also helped invariably by the brilliant mask created by make-up arist, John Friedlander, which remains one of the most memorable in the show as well.

In terms of the direction David Maloney, a regular with Doctor Who, rarely puts a foot wrong here, as he keeps the mood of the story as intense and perfect as you would hope for.  And as for the incidental music, by the regular composer, Dudley Simpson, again there are some great passages of music, especially in the scenes with the daleks being introduced.

Flaw wise the story itself hasn't really got many, although it has to be said that one or two of the cliffhangers are a bit weak, such as in episode two where Sarah falls from the rocket scaffolding and the picture is freeze framed, it makes for a pretty duff cliffhanger (especially as we know she will be alright!).  Also there are one or two cheesy inclusions, one of which is the uninentionally funny inclusion of Davros's "destruct button" which has the words "Total destruct" written on it in the scene where he dares the scientists to destroy his work.  The inclusion of the giant clam is also really daft, as it is yet another crappy looking prop in the show, where Harry get's his foot caught in it, and the Doctor feebly uses a big rock to try and hit its mouth open.  You could also argue that by the end of the show that the Doctor really hasn't accomplished anything with trying to prevent the Daleks from turning into an evil race, as they still will grow into the evil shitbags that we have come to know in the series (so you could aruge from that point of view the story was a waste of time!!  But a great one nonetheless!).

Anyway so that's it for my look at Genesis of the Daleks, which to this day is one of the very best Who stories, and if you are even a casual fan of the new show, and like the idea of checking some of the oldies, this is one of the ones to look out for.

So I will leave it there.  

      

 

Doctor Who: The Movie

Right time for a quick look at yet another Doctor Who post on this blog, which will be about the revamped version of the swhow in the format of the Doctor Who: The Movie made back in 1996.  So let's have a look at it (this post was actually written as a small part of my review on the Doctor Who: Revisitations 1 DVD set, so I've expanded it more here).  So the movie saw the resurgance of the series albeit for the briefest of times, where Paul McGann stepped in and played the Doctor in fine style.  So let's have a quick look at the plot...

OK so the story starts with the Doctor in his seventh incarnation (played by Sylvester McCoy) returning to Gallifrey with the remains of his old enemy, the Master, encased in a casket.  However the casket breaks open, which causes the TARDIS to malfunction, and the Doctor is forced to make an emergency landing.  The TARDIS materialises in San Francisco in 1999 on December 30, where the Doctor is shot on exiting his ship by some Asian gang members.  The Doctor is then taken to hospital, by a young gang member who was being chased the gang, Chang Lee (Yee Jee Tso).  At the hospital the Doctor is operated on by Dr Grace Holloway, a cardiologist, and the Doctor briefly awakens to tell her he needs a beryllium atomic clock, however Grace, confused by his two heart anatomy, fails to save him and he dies on the table.  Meanwhile the Master's remains, which is a snake like shaped goo, has escaped from the TARDIS and takes over the body of an ambulance driver, Bruce (Eric Roberts).

The Doctor meanwhile has been placed in the hospital morgue, but overnight he regenerates into his new incarnation (Paul McGann) who then leaves the morgue in a state of confusion.  The Doctor then looks through the staff hospital lockers and finds a fancy dress costume, with turns out to be clothes for a Wild Bill Hicock costume (a famous Western folk hero) which he puts on.  Meanwhile Grace argues with the hospital administrator who burns the X-ray film of the Doctor's two hearts, and Grace refuses to argree to cover up the mess of her operation and quits her job.  On leaving the Doctor follows her into her car, and he removes a piece of tubing from his chest, that Grace inserted into his hearts, and he tells Grace to drive off, which she reluctantly does.  Back at Grace's home she examines the Doctor's chest again, amazed to find that he really does have two hearts.  The two of them take a walk outside where the Doctor's memory slowly comes back to him and he kisses Grace in delight, when he realises who he is. 

Meanwhile the Master has caught up with Lee, who had stolen the Doctor's things, including his sonic screwdriver and the TARDIS key.  The Master enters the TARDIS with Lee and get's him to open the eye of Harmony, the power source of the Time Lord's time travel, but once it is open the Doctor sees what is going on through a psychic link and that the Master is loose.  The Doctor then tells Grace that is the Eye is not closed before midnight the whole planet will be sucked inside out and that he needs an atomic clock to set the timing mechanism on the TARDIS so he can put things to rights.  The Master and Lee soon track the Doctor to Grace's house, and they arrive in an ambulance where the Doctor, unaware of the Master's presence at this point, to drive them to the Institute of Technological Advancement and Research.  Enroute the Doctor susses the Master's identity and attacks him with a fire extinuisher and he and Grace escape.  At the institute the Doctor and Grace manage to steal the atomic clock chip and return to the TARDIS, where he finds that from the TARDIS's instruments that the eye has been open too long, and in order to save the Universe they must go back in time before it was opened.  However its not long before the Master catches up with them, which leads into a climactic battle between the two rival Time Lords.....   

With Doctor Who: The Movie the series was brought back in fine style, and Paul McGann here delivers an excellent performance as the Doctor, with his light scouser accent he brings some nice touches to the Doctor, where he also infused it with some of his neurotic character from Withnail and I, and gave the story some romantic overtones.  This in fact proved to be quite controversial at the time, where the Doctor has a romantic attachment to his new and lovely companion Grace (Daphne Ashbrook) and sees the Doctor kissing his companion for a change, and not in a platonic way, probably in part this is to do with the revelation the Doctor is half human (on his mother's side).   At the time I thought it detracted from the movie, but in retrospect I don't think it did it any harm, as since in the new series, the romantic overtones have always been brought into the show, especially with David Tennant who had to have at least one snog per series!  McGann as the Doctor provides some nice moments in the story as Grace examines his chest with a stethoscope she is amazed at his extra cardiovascular system and he says "you see that is no echo!" referring to his second heart.  Also in the scene where tries on Graces' ex-boyfriend's shoes, as they walk around outside, his memory comes back to him and he says "Yes! These shoes! They fit perfectly!".  Also there is the moment where he steals a police officer's gun and points it at his chest as he wants to take the officer's motorbike and he says "now stand aside before I shoot myself!".  McGann also has fine dramatic moments, particularly in the scene where he has been captured by the Master in the TARDIS and strapped into some weird equipment, with some strange eyepieces around his eyes, that resembles the ones that Malcolm McDowell wore in A Clockwork Orange.   

Daphne Ashbrook also gives a pretty good performance as Grace, and the fact that she is attacted to the Doctor adds a completely different aspect to the series, which as I already mentioned was further expanded during the new series and the Tennant era, where his companions Rose and Martha were both attracted to him also.  Daphne has some nice moments in her performance as well, especially in the scene where the Doctor kisses her and he says "I know who I am!  I am the Doctor!" and she replies smitten "Great! Now do that again!".  And later they escape they drive to the institue on a police bike and she says "I finally meet the right guy and he's from another planet!".  

Eric Roberts (brother of Julia), as the Master is great from the get go and I thought he was excellent in his role as the Doctor's arch nemesis.  Roberts brings a sly charm to his portrayal as well as a real sense of menace and danger, it also saw some rather violent scenes in the film (Bruce the man who's body the Master has taken over, at one point chokes his wife to death (not seen of course), and breaking Chang Lee's neck.  Some of Roberts highlights include the scene where he asks at the hospital where the Doctor's body is and his things, and she tells him that Chang Lee stole them, and he says "Ah the Asian child" and the nurse replies "Oh, Bruce you are sick!" and the Master gives a wry smile and says "Thank you!".  He also as the Master also mainpulates Lee towards his way of thinking and tells him how it is the Doctor that is evil, and he tells him that the Doc was once Genghis Khan "That was him!" to which Lee says "No way!" and the Master replies "Yes way!".  Of course towards the end, the Master dons his Gallifreyan Time Lord robes as he has captured the Doctor in order to steal his body he says "I always dress for the occassion!".    Yao Tse Loo who I will briefly mention also does a good job as the gang member, Lee, who turns out to be not too bad a kid after all, and he is manipulated by the Master, but towards the end he soon comes around.  Near the end of the show the Doctor gives Lee his bags of gold dust and Lee says "I better get out of here before you change your mind!".   

I also can't leave without mentioning Sylvester McCoy's performance as the seventh doctor, as it is a nice swansong for his incarnation, who I always thought was underrated as the Doctor, and it showed him bow out with dignity, and it was also a shrewd move I thought from the producer of the movie Phil Segal to include Sly into the show to justify his reason for regenerating into Paul McGann.   

In terms of the movie's flaws, a fair criticism raised at the film from some fans was that it took a bit too long for Paul McGann's doctor to come into it, as its only about 86 minutes long and he doesn't appear for the first 25 minutes!  Also another bone of contention for me with the film is how they decide to have the eye of harmony placed in the Doctor's TARDIS, which is in actual fact the entire power source of time travel for the Time Lords!  And it seems bizzare the Doctor would actually have it in his TARDIS, as in the Tom Baker story, The Deadly Assassin, the eye of harmony was on Gallifrey, so I can't quite see how they transferred into his ship!  Not unless of course they constructed another one just for the Doctor due to all the good work he had done throughout time and space (but even that seems a bit far fetched by Doctor Who's standards!). 

So overall Doctor Who The Movie is very entertaining and it saw a welcome return of the show, but sadly I think due to poor ratings the American networks wouldn't take it on for a whole series.  And ultimately a lot of good US series have missed out or been cancelled due to poor ratings (Firefly, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip to name a couple, also Family guy and Futurama were cancelled before they were brought back due to popular demand), which shows the networks know hee haw about quality TV!

And that's it for my look at the Doctor's flick. 

Say hello to my little friend!!!

OK time for another movie review, this time its another action classic from the 1980s, which is Brian De Palma's Scarface, starring Al Pacino as a Cuban refugee who makes it big in the world of crime in America.  And with that let's have a look at the plot....

Right well the film is set in 1980, and the film's main character, Tony Montana (Al Pacino) is a Cuban refugee who arrives in America during the Mariel boatlift (which was a real life mass emigration of Cubans into the US).  Tony along with his best friend Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer) are sent to "Freedom camp" which is refugee camp.  After a while Manny tells Tony the news that they can recieve green cards if in return that Tony does a hit on a Cuban government official, on behalf of a drug kingpin Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia), which Tony does.  On the outside, Tony and Manny are offered a deal from Frank's henchman, Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham) to buy cocaine from Colombian drug dealers.  However the deal itself goes sour, as Tonny and one of his crew, Angel, are captured by the Colombians, and Angel is killed by a chainsaw, but before Tony suffers the same fate, Manny bursts in and rescues him.  Tony then kills the Colombian who nearly chainsawed him, and takes the money from the deal, and then contacts Suarez and defiantly tells him that he will take the money to Frank himself.  Frank on meeting Tony is impressed by him and he decides to hire him and Manny to work for him.  Tony also meets Frank's girlfriend, Elvira (Michelle Pfieffer) who is stuck up and cold in manner, but Tony falls for her instantly.

Months later Tony reunites with his family, his mother Georgina (Miriam Colon) and his beautiful younger sister, Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) who Tony is very protective off.  Tony's mother however is far from pleased to see him and refuses to take his money, after which Tony leaves angrily, and Gina goes out after him, and Tony gives her the money anyway.  Manny clearly smitten by Gina, is warned by Tony to stay away from her.  Some time after this Frank sends Tony along with Suarez to meet with cocaine kingpin Aljeandro Sosa (Paul Shenar) where Tony does a deal with Sosa without Frank's consent, which angers Suarez, but Sosa allows Suarez to call Frank before they move on.  However Sosa soon reveals to Tony that Suarez is a police informant, and he shows Tony that his men have Suarez up in a helicopter, beaten up with a rope around his neck, they hang him from the helicopter.  Sosa despite his dislike for Frank, admires Tony's honesty and fortright nature and decides to the deal with Tony.

Tony returns to Frank with the news of the deal, who is outraged and tells Tony that to stall the deal for now, but soon after their partnership falls apart.  Tony later on at a nightclub is shaken down by a corrupt cop Mel Bernstein (Harris Yulin) who proposes to tax him in return for inside police information and protection.  Tony also tries to come onto Elvira, while Frank is present, who angrily tells him to leave, but Tony instead says "the only thing that gives orders in this world is balls!" and Frank leaves.  Not longer after thought an attempt is made on Tony's life in the club, who barely escapes, killing the hitmen in the process.  Tony then get's Manny and his men together, and they soon confront Frank at his office, who confesses to have ordered the hit on him, and pleads with him to spare his life, but Tony has Manny shoot Frank dead, and Tony kills Bernstein who is also present.  With nothing in his way, Tony takes over Frank's business and also takes Elvira with him, and he soon rises in power and partners with Sosa on his drug deals, turning his business in a multi-million dollar empire.  But from here Tony's life becomes increasingly complicated and its not long before events in his career and personal life spiral wildly out of control.

(PLOT STUFF OVER)

While it can be said to be a remake of the 1932 film of the same name, there is not a great deal of similarity between the two films, and for De Palma's Scarface is the more memorable and relevant of the two films, as it mirrored the real life events of the time as a result of the Cuban mass immigration, and the political and social repercussions as a result in America.  Character wise the film is also brilliantly written and Tony Montana is a memorable antagonist with a complex background, as it is suggested that he was an assassin back in Cuba, but also his family have made it over with his mother and sister.  But more interestingly in the film despite his sociopathic behaviour he is to a lesser extent show to be a moral character aswell, as he clearly is very protective of his younger sister Gina, and he wants to keep her away from that part of his life.  Also later in the film when Tony is given the task by Sosa to do a hit on a political activist who is threat to Sosa's business partners, by planting a bomb underneath his car.  But when the day comes and Tony is set on killing the activist, he sees that the activist has picked up his wife and daughter, and he refuses to kill the activist and his family, as he says "this is so fucking bad!" realising of course he too has a family to think of.  And its bizarre in a way that Tony Montana has become such an iconic character, as he's hardly a role model, with so many films and TV shows referencing him, and to this day there are plenty of T-shirts and memoribilia to be seen with Tony Montana on them with infamous lines from the film. 

In terms of the performances the cast are all top notch her with Al Pacino giving one of his best performances as Tony Montana, as he plays him as a sociopathic egomaniac, who has ruthless ambition as well as a potty mouth!  Pacino has many highlights in the film and plenty of great dialouge, of which there are too many mention all at once, but one or two that stand include the scene where he talks to Sosa on their first meeting and says "all I have in this world is my world and my balls and I don't break them for anybody!".  Tony has plenty of other memorable lines such as when he talks to Manny as they at the start of the employment with Frank he says "first you get the power, once you get the power you get the women".  And near the end when he is overrun by Sosa's men who storm his mansion, he grabs his M16 assault rifle with a grenade launcher attachment, he shouts out the infamous line "say hello to my little friend!!" and later "I'm Tony Montana!! You fuck with ME, you're fucking with the BEST!!".  Pacino despite his many firey shouty moments in the film, where he literally spits out his lines (in fact it must have been tough for actors wanting to stand near him!) also has one or two quieter moments of charm, especially when he has to act as a driver for Elvira, and he puts on her hat and says "would you kiss me if I wore a hat?".  Also the scene where he sits in his obscenely large bath tub in his mansion, and he watches current affairs programmes on his TV, swearing away, Elvira chastises him for it and calls him boring for talking about money all the time, so he changes channel instead where we see a pelican on screen and he says "OK! Look at that, a pelican!  Lovely pelican, fly fly!".   Later in the scene he tells Manny to back out of his money laundering deal who calls him an asshole and he says "Hey fuck you, Manny, who put this together??? ME!  Who do I trust??? ME!".  And another memorable moment is where he drunkenly walks out of a restaurant and berates the onlookers and says "you need people like me so you can point your fucking fingers and say "there's the bad guy!".  Overall it remains one of the real highlights in Pacino's career.

The supporting cast are also excellent, starting with Steve Bauer as Manny, who has the daunting job of playing off Pacino at his very best, but he does a great here, and he plays Manny as the more cautious and level headed of the two as well as a charmer and a bit of a womaniser.  Bauer has some great moments in the film as well, such as when he decides to try and pick up a girl by sticking his tounge out at her, and she smacks him in the face, and he angrily says "Bitch! Lesbian!".  Bauer's scenes with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are nicely played too, as shown in the scene where he drives her home after Tony catches her in the nightclub, and she asks him "why don't you take me out?" and he says "because you are Tony's kid sister, and that's where it ends and that's where it stays".  Manny also probably would have done a better job at keeping Tony alive should Tony have listened to him, which of course in the end he doesn't, and their final scene together is also quite tragic (which I won't mention so not to give it away).

Robert Loggia also does a great job here as Frank Lopez, the drug dealer, who in the end hasn't got the gumption to stand up to Tony and instead tries to have him killed.  Loggia has some terrific moments in the film as well, and some great dialogue, one line which is where he comments on Elvira, "The broad she spends half her time dressing, and the other half undressing!".  Loggia also has a terrific scene with Tony where they argue over the deal Tony has done with Sosa without Frank's permission.  And Frank reminds Tony "rememeber what I said when you first joined this business.  The guys that fly straight, low key, they'll last, but the ones that want it all, champagne, they don't last!".  Michelle Pfieffer is also excellent as the beautiful yet cold and drug addled Elvira, who resists Tony as long as she can until he takes over Frank's business empire, and they soon enter a loveless marriage.  Michelle's best scenes includes the scene where Elvira dances with Tony in a nightclub and he comes onto her and she says "Even if I was starved, desparate, living on a desert island, begging for it, you would be the last thing I would ever fuck!".  The other scene is where she argues with Tony in the restaurant where she outraged when he says he can't even have a baby with her, due to all her drug abuse, she says "I'm leaving you!".

And finally the last few actors I will mention are first off Mary Elizabeth Mastrantoni as Tony's young sister Gina, who Tony is very protective of, and Mary does a fine job with her sympathetic and ultimately tragic role.  It was suggested in the film that Tony actually harbors incestuous feelings for her, but looking at it again, it is more that Tony is just overly protective of her.  Although Gina later on, after encountering tragedy at Tony's hands, suggestively walks into Tony's office with her robe open and a gun in her hand she says "fuck me, Tony!" as she shoots at him in the climactic scene.  F. Murray Abraham is also excellent as Omar Suarez, Frank's devious henchman who clearly despises Tony from the start, and his best line comes when he says to Tony on their first meeting "If anything happens to that money, my boss will shove your head so far up you ass, faster than a rabbit get's fucked!".  Paul Shenar does a great job as Sosa, Tony's business partner, although later on their partnership turns sour and he angrily speaks to Tony on the phone saying "I told you a long time ago, you fucking little monkey not to fuck me!!".  And finally Harris Yulin is great as the corrupt cop who tries to shake down Tony and is bed with Frank, and his last scene with Tony is great just before he is killed, and Tony says to him "Maybe you can get yourself two tickets to the resurrection!".

Direction wise, De Palma does a terrific job here as well, as he provides a great mixture of drama, suspense and humour.  The action scenes in the film are superbly staged, and they are also quite tense, especially the scene where Tony is captured by the Colombians who are about to chainsaw him to death in a bathtub.  The scene where Tony also avoids getting assassinated in the nightclub is another tense well staged moment, as two hitman sit a table with uzis hidden under napkins, and a cocaine fuelled Tony barely notices until the last second.  And the final scene where Tony confronts Sosa's entire army as they storm his mansion is superb even if it is a bit over the top.  Also quickly Oliver Stone, who at the time was as a screenwriter and this was prior to his directorial debut in Platoon, provides a richly well written screenplay with plenty of great dialogue which I have already mentioned as above, and it was at the time the most profane film ever made with over 200 uses of the word "fuck" (with probably over half of them delivered by Pacino!).

And before I finish I thought I would mention the memorable music score written by Giorgio Moroder, which is a mixture of sythensizer based music, and also reflects the new wave scene at the time in the 80s.  It also features several memorable songs which Moroder produced, such as "Push it to the limit" used in the montage scene where we see Tony rise in power, and songs used in the nightclub scenes such as "She's on fire" and "Shake it up".  At times Mororder's score is a bit cheesy and melodramatic, especially in the tense close-up moments when we see Tony react to Gina flirting with a guy on the dancefloor in the club, and the synthesizer reaches fever pitch to reflect his rage.

So that is it for another very LONG critique of a classic movie, which Scarface undoubtedly is, as it is a highly entertaining and suspenseful film, with one of cinema's most memorable villains.

And with that I shall leave it there my little friend!           

Doctor Who: The other Mona Lisa!

Right time for a more light hearted post which is a story from Doctor Who: City of Death, which was a classic during Tom Baker's era, so let's have a look at that!... (and notice the plot summary is quite short!).

OK the usual plottery stuff to start with, the story takes place in Paris 1979, where the Doctor (Baker) and his young Time Lord companion, Romana (Lalla Ward) are on holiday.  When they arrive at the Louvre gallery they encounter strange slips in time, and the Doctor grabs onto the arm of a woman, who was wearing a bracelet.  The Doctor soon reveals that he had stolen the bracelet as he noticed its was not of Earth technology, and that the woman in question was using it to scan the security systems round the Mona Lisa.  Meanwhile the woman in question is Countess Scarlioni (Catherine Schell) who is the wife of the Count Scarlioni (Julian Glover) as they intend to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.  The Doctor and Romana soon also meet a detective, Duggan (Tom Chadbon) who has been following Count Scarlioni's activities, but the three of them are soon captured by the Count's men.

The Doctor, Romana and Duggan are soon taken to Scarlioni, where the Doctor acts the fool to set them off his interest in them, but instead Scarlioni has them locked in his basement.  In the basement, the Doctor soon uses his sonic screwdriver to escape and he stumbles upon time experiment equipment, which is operated by Doctor Kerenesky (David Graham), and is behind the time slips that the Doctor and Romana had encountered.  The Doctor also finds behind their room they were locked in, six exact replicas of the Mona Lisa, which turned out all to be genuine as they have Leonardo Da Vinci's signature and pigment on.  The Doctor then decides to go back in time himself in the TARDIS to have a chat with Leonardo about his work, but instead he meets Captain Tancredi, who is identical to Count Scarlioni.  Tancredi reveals to the Doctor that he is in fact an alien named Scaroth, and he is the last of his race, the Jagaroth.  Jagaroth millions of years in the past on Earth was in his spaceship and was at the centre of an explosion which threw him into a time field and he ended being splintered into 12 different time periods on Earth's history.  Tancredi reveals that he also has been using his technological advances to push the human race and also using Leonardo to create six extra copies of the Mona Lisa so he can fund Kerensky's experiments with time, in an effort to travel back in time before his ship exploded.  The Doctor manages to escape Tancredi's clutches and travels back to 1979 where he goes about to try and stop Scarlioni from carrying out his plan, as the explosion itself brought about the beginning of the human race.  But can he do it?????

The City of Death is without a doubt one of the most entertaining and purely enjoyable Doctor Who stories of its era.  After Philip Hinchcliffe left the series as producer, Graham Williams took over, and while he served the show well enough, there weren't as many classics in his tenure, but this is definitely one of them.  The story itself was written under the psuedonym of David Agnew by Douglas Adams (who was the script editor at that time) and also Graham Williams and it is wonderfully funny with plenty of amusing dialogue and the story itself is quite cleverly thought out.  And the story's light comedic tone is just right here, despite some of the overt uses of comedy in some of the other stories of the Williams era.

Onto the performances, Tom Baker is wonderful as ever as the Doctor, as he was mostly considered the most popular of all the Doctors in the public eye, he does a great job here again.  Baker as you would expect has his fare share of funny dialogue, of which there is plenty, of which some of my favourites (which I will point out as I usually do!) include the scene where he pretends to be a fool when he meet Scarlioni and is pushed into the room by Scarlioni's henchman: "I say, what a wonderful butler, he's so violent!".  Also in that scene where Duggan attempts to escape by lifting one of the chairs to knock out Scarlioni's henchman, the Doctor says "Duggan, what are you doing for heaven's sake???!  That's a Louis Quinze!".  I also like the scene where the Doctor reads Shakespeare's first draft of Hamlet, out of amazement he says "I recongise the handwriting, its mine.  I wrote it when Shakespeare's sprained his wrist writing sonnets!" as well "take sea in the arms of troubles, I told him that was a mixed metaphor and he would insist!".  Another is when he says to Romana, "Romana, do you I think there's something funny going on, you know that man we saw in the gallery, well he's standing behind me poking a gun in my back!" as Duggan stands behind him with a gun.

Lalla Ward, who was at that time Tom Baker's wife is also really good as Romana, and she get's her fair share of witty lines, as she and Duggan investigate together, he asks her "do you know what I don't understand??" to which Romana replies "I expect so!".  As well as Duggan asking "well if you've been around as long as I have, how old are you anyway?" and Romana replies "125!".  She also amusingly notices how the Mona Lisa while she thinks it is "quite good" that "how come she doesn't have any eye brows?" and the Doctor looks closer at the picture and says "you're right, she hasn't got any eyebrows!".   

Which brings me onto Tom Chadbon, who is great as the rather dim detective, Duggan, who is on the hunt to find Scarlioni and catch him in the act of stealing the Mona Lisa.  Duggan's rather amusingly inept as well as brutish manner of dealing with just about everyone in the show is quite funny, especially as he even breaks off the top of a bottle of wine rather than uncork it, "if you want to make an omlette you've got to break some eggs!".  And typically even when the Doctor takes him back in time to pre-historic Earth, Duggan still refuses to believe it all, as the Doctor shows him the ameno acids which would later form human life, and the Doctor says he came from that, to which Duggan replies "I came from that???? That soup???!".  Catherine Schell is also really good as the Countess, and her best scene comes when she forces Scarlioni to reveal who he really is by pointing a gun at him, as Scarlioni peels off his human mask to reveal his Spaghetti-esque alien features.  David Graham also puts in a neat performance as Kerensky, Scarlioni's unfortunate and weary scientist, who is exhausted from all the work Scarlioni pushes him to do in order to get his experiments to succeed.

But the star of the show is of course Julian Glover, who steals it as the Count, who plays the main villain with great charm, charisma and also menace.  Glover also get's some wonderful dialogue and some great moments in the story, especially when he reveals himself as Captain Tancredi as the Doctor asks "You?? What are you doing here???" and Tancredi replies "that is exactly the question I would like to ask you.... Doctor!".  Also the moment where he asks his henchman, Herrman to sell another Gutenberg bible "discreetly" to make more money and Herrman replies incredulously "discreetly??? Sell a Gutenberg bible discreetly???!".  His reveal as Jagaroth is also well done at the end of the first episode and when he reveals himself to the Countess near the end of the story.

Oh and finally on the cameo front John Cleese and Eleanor Bron provide two funny performances as two art lovers who stand and critique as well as appreciate the TARDIS, which is parked inside the Louvre in an exhibit area, as we see the Doctor, Romana and Duggan board it and take off.  This leaves the two art aficinados looking on in wonderment after the TARDIS has dematerialised as Eleanor Bron says "Exquisite! Absolutely exquisite!".    

Flaw wise the story does have one or two though, although nothing too major, but you could argue that the overall comedic tone does offset the drama just a bit too much, and it does lack in providing a sense of real drama and tension.  But the script is so well written and witty in a way you don't mind, but at the same time you would also like that happy medium between the humorous and the dramatic, like the Hinchcliffe did so well.  Also the make-up for Scaroth's real alien face is pretty naff and yes it is pretty obvious that you see Julian Glover's real face beneath it!  But despite those minor quibbles it is a great story of its time.

Also finally I will mention the story's music score by the regular composer at the time, Dudley Simpson, which is nice jaunty little score which has some nice passages, especially in the moments where we see the Doctor and Romana run around Paris (as the story was shot on location there).

So that is it for my look at City of Death and it is easily is one of the highlights of Tom Baker era and just a fun Doctor Who story that is well worth a look.

And with that I shall say byeeeeee.