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.       
   

Funny how???

OK so its blog removal time again as I move a post from the "other" blog to this one, this time its my review of Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese's critically acclaimed crime drama about the real life story of former gangster Henry Hill.    

The film itself starts in 1955 with Henry as a teenager who lives in East Brooklyn ad he longs to become one of the "wiseguys" and chooses to work for them at the local cabstand.  However Henry's father soon finds out he has not been at school and beats him, as he doesn't want his son to have anything to do with the mob.  However the mobsters manage to put a stop to this by threatening the local mailman by putting his "fuckin head in the oven first!" if he delivers another letter to Henry's house.  After this Henry works full time under the wing of the boss Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino) and he also meets his two associates the smooth talking but lethal Jimmy "The Gent" Conway (Robert De Niro) and the psychotic loose canon Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci).  After being pinched by the cops for selling cigarettes off the back off a truck, Henry is taken to court, but tells them nothing, and is eventually let go where Jimmy tells him "Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut".

As the film moves into the 1960s, Henry now in his 20s (as is Tommy) are making a solid living stealing cargo from the local airports, and they also pull off the Air France robbery, which sees Henry move up the ranks.  By this time Henry also meets his soon to be wife Karen (Lorraine Bracco) a Jewish girl from the Five Towns in New York, initially they dont get on well, and Henry stood her up on their second date, but after Karen confronts him about it, Henry makes it up to her.  After this Henry charms Karen with the glamourous side of his life, as he takes her out on expensive dates for meals and drinks.  Henry also at one point defends her, by brutally beating up an abusive neighbour of Karen's, and despite her initial shock toward the incident, she admits that it turned her on, and soon after they marry.

Now into the 1970s, where things start to get more heavy as Henry and Jimmy host a party for Billy Batts (Frankie Vincent) who is a made man with the Gambino crime family.  During the party, Tommy arrives with his date, where Billy first off warmly greets Tommy but then proceeds to wind him up about his past when he was just a boy who shined shoes, this drives Tommy mad (or madder than before) and he threatens Billy then leaves.  Later on Tommy comes back and with Jimmy they both brutally beat up Billy, and later stab and kill him, and soon after bury his body out in the woods.  With Batts being a made guy, this causes a serious problem for the three of them as they killed him without consent.  And during this period Tommy's psychosis continues as he first off berates and shoots a young hood Spider (Michael Imperioli) in the foot for not getting him drink, and then later shoots Spider dead for talking back to him.  Round about this time Henry also starts an affair with a girl Janice Rossi (Gina Mastrogiacomo), but Karen soon finds out about it and rows furiously with him, which leads to Karen becoming hysterical and confronting Henry, pointing a gun at him while they lie on bed, but Henry soon slaps her and takes the gun off her and shouts at her that he's got enough to worry about without coming home to this, and leaves.  Soon after, Paulie expresses his concerns about Karen, but insists he can put things to rights, and in the meantime Henry go off with Jimmy on business down to Florida.  However on beating up a bookie, things soon go awry as the bookie's sister is revealed to be a typist for the FBI, who gives them up, and Henry, Jimmy and Paulie serve a prison sentence.

After Henry is released, he gets involved in drug dealing (behind Paulie's back who insisted Henry doesn't get involved in it) and he also comes across a very appealing  business proposal from his friend and local mobster Morrie Kessler (Chuck Law).  This turns out to be the legendary Lufthansa heist at JFK airport, where Jimmy and a small crew pull off a robbery where they steal over 6 million dollars  However as a result of the robbery, the crew all buy expensive things with their cut of the money, which infuriates Jimmy who expressly told them not to buy anything as it would attract unwanted attention.  Soon after Jimmy has the participants of the heist murdered by Tommy in order to cut any link between himself and the robbery, this includes Morrie, Henry's close friend.  Once the dust has cleared from the heist, Tommy receives the good news that he is set to be "made" and ingratiated into the crime family as a proper member.  But it soon turns out to be a setup as Tommy is taken into a room by Tuddie (Paulie's brother) and is shot dead, as a revenge for killing Billy Batts and various other things. 

By the time we hit 1980, Henry gets involved even heavier in his drug deals and is trying to set up a deal with his associates in Pittsburgh.  But by now Henry is a total dishevelled mess, addicted to cocaine and has become increasingly paranoid.  However before Henry can get the deal underway he is arrested by narcotics police and he is sent to jail, where Henry fears he may be murdered by his crime partners in case he rats them out.  After posting bail, Henry meets with Jimmy who for the first time asks him to do a hit on someone who was supposedly the rat who snitched on them, but Henry realises its a setup because if he decided to go along with the hit, he himself would be killed.  Henry afterward realises he has little choice but to become involved in the witness protection program in order to save his own life and his family.

Right from the start you just know that Goodfellas is a classic film, that certainly isn't far off the level of The Godfather.  The first scene which definitely ranks as one of the most violent opening scenes in American cinema where Tommy and Jimmy finish off Batts, really grabs you by the throat and pulls you into the film straight off.  The characters in Goodfellas are certainly very vividly drawn and Henry Hill himself is far from an angel, but he does appear to be a man who is out of his depth in this world.  He is surrounded by vicious thieves and murderers and while he is a thief himself, he isn't murder, and as Hill in real life himself said, he lived in constant fear 24 hours a day, fearing that he might be killed himself at any moment.  Hill's narration in the film is also really contrary with the events that occur in the film where he says he loved the life, and the thrill he got from it, but you also see Henry's utter shock and fear at his associates behaviour.  This is probably best displayed in the scene after Tommy and Jimmy brutally bludgeon Billy Batts and stick him the boot of their car, they then go and have dinner at Tommy's mother's house, and Henry sits silently, while Tommy and Jimmy laugh and joke, despite what they have just done.  But at the end of the film even though he is living in the witness protection program, he still has the nerve to complain about how boring and inconvenient has life has become since leaving the crime life behind.  Yet if it wasn't for the program he would have been dead long ago, since then Henry Hill himself said how grateful he was for the program and that it did save his life, although he has since had a few lapses and gotten in trouble with the law for drink and drug abuse.  

However Jimmy and Tommy are far from sympathetic as they come across as the vicious bastards they no doubt were in real life, and no doubt in real life they were much worse.  Tommy's character was for example based on Thomas DeSimone, Hill's real life criminal associate who Hill himself described as a "sick deadly fuck, who would kill your rather than steal", DeSimmone also in reality attempted to rape Karen Hill as well.

Performance wise there is precious little to fault here as the cast are all really strong and on top form.  Ray Liotta is great as Henry Hill, as he starts off as a suave well dressed gangster, but ends up a total mess, burnt out on cocaine.  Liotta perfectly grasps the (fancy word here) Hill's ambivalent emotions about the life, as one minute he loves the thrill of stealing, but the next he fears for his life.  De Niro is also really good as Jimmy Conway, he plays him with just the right amount of charm and menace.  Paul Sorvino also does really well as Paulie Cicero, its basically a part he initially found really difficult to capture, until he saw a look he gave in a mirror which scared the hell out of him!  And he adopts this menacing look throughout the film, and his best scene comes when he confronts Henry about drug dealing.  Lorraine Bracco is terrific as Karen Hill, and she is a far cry from the quiet wives off The Godfather as such as Kay and Connie.  Karen is far more fesity and has the guts to stand up to Henry and confront him about his infidelities, and she also remains strong when Henry serves his time in prison.  But the best performance in the film comes from Joe Pesci as the hot headed and aggressive crook Tommy, and its great how he can take his small demeanour and turn himself into quite a chilling but at the same time amusing bad guy.  Pesci's famous scene where he asks Henry "funny how?" is a great example of Pesci's intensity and ability to play a scene as being both funny and menacing all at once.

The film itself has only a few flaws, but the main one unfortunately however has to be that after Tommy's character is bumped off, the film takes a dip and the energy and momentum of the film drops.  In the last 30 minutes or so, its all about Henry's frantic state of mind as he tries to put his drug deal together, and picking up his brother from hospital and getting him to stir the tomato sauce for their dinner, while at the same he is paranoid about helicopters following him outside.  It all becomes a bit bogged down with inconsequential details at this point, and all Henry's running around really drags the pace of the film down.  However it does feature a great moment where Karen meets up with Jimmy who says he has some dresses for Karen to look at, which are in the back of Jimmy's warehouse in an alleyway, but Karen out of fear choses not to look and drives away in her car.  But the end of the film does feel like a bit of an anti-climax, which is a shame as the rest of it is so good.  

Technically though the film is just as good as anything Scorses has done, as there are many great scenes, the scene where Henry escorts Karen through the bowels the club they are going to in order to skip the queue at the front door is definitely one of the most memorable.  I also love the pull in zoom shot where Henry meets with Jimmy in a diner toward the end where they discuss Henry's case.  Scorsese's also put together a terrific soundtrack for the film and his choice of music is perfect in each scene with such artists as The Rolling Stones, Donovan, The Sex Pistols, George Harrison and Cream.

Soooo that's my review and analysis of Goodfellas over with, its a real classic no doubt it and if you haven't seen it well get it sorted! 

That it for now.

Star Trek III: Searching for Spock

Right as I did a review of Star Trek II, I thought I might as well follow it up with one on Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, which saw Leonard Nimoy make his directorial debut back when it was made in 1984.  So let's gie it a look.  (As usual PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!)

Right right right, I might as well start with a bit of the old plot, which begins with the USS Enterprise returning back to Earth, in the aftermath of Kirk's battle with Khan, who tried to destroy the Enterprise by detonating the Genesis torpedo, and as a result Spock sacrificed his life to save the ship.  As they are about to dock, Kirk (Shatner) receives word that someone has broken into Spock's quarters, and he goes to find McCoy (DeForrest Kelly) there who is acting strangely as he tells Jim to "climb the steps to Mount Selaya" which is on Vulcan, but McCoy passes out before he can say more.  Once back at Starfleet command, Admiral Morrow (Robert Hooks) tells the crew that the Enterprise is to be decomissioned and that Genesis is now a taboo subject and not to be discussed with anyone, as a result of a political fallout over the device.  Kirk back home receives a visit from Spock's father, Sarek (Mark Lenard) who confronts him over his son's death.  Sarek mind melds with Kirk but he finds no trace of what he had hoped was his son's "katra" or living spirit, however Kirk suggests that Spock might have joined with someone else.  This is revealed to be the case when they check the engineering room video tapes and they find Spock performed a mind meld on McCoy, on which Sarek tells Kirk that he must find Spock's body and bring him and McCoy to Mount Selaya where they can restore Spock's mind.  

Meanwhile Kirk's son David Marcus (Merritt Butrick again) one of the main scientists involved in the Genesis project, is now assigned to the USS Grissom, where investigates an unidentified lifeform coming from the Genesis planet.  Along with Lt Saavik (Robin Curtis) David beams down to the surface of the planet and they find that Spock's coffin chamber is empty, and they soon find a Vulcan child, which as it turns out the Genesis wave has regenerated Spock back to life.  However the planet itself is becoming highly unstable as David admits to Saavik that he used "protomatter" in constructing the Genesis device, which means that Spock will age rapidly and the planet will be destroyed within a matter of hours.

Elsewhere Kirk with help of Sulu (George Taeki), Scotty (James Doonan) and Chekov (Walter Koenig) manage to steal the Enterprise from space dock and fly off to find Spock.  However to complicate things a Klingon crew have learned of the Genesis device, and the commander, Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) intercepts and destroys USS Grissom and he beams down to the planet, taking David, Saavik and the rapidly aging Spock hostage.  As the Enterprise reaches the Genesis planet, Kruge is informed of their arrival and beams up to his Klingon bird of prety, where he does battle with the Enterprise, and knocks out the ship's engines and weapons in the process.  Kruge tells Kirk that he has David and Saavik hostage below and he orders one of them to be killed, and on the surface, David prevents one of the Klingons from killing Saavik, but he is killed himself in the struggle.  Kirk is devastated by news of his son's death and surrenders to Kruge, but in the meantime he activates the Enterprises's self destruct sequence, and he sets the transporter to beam down to the surface of the planet, just in time before Kruge's boarding party arrive on the ship as it self destructs.  On the surface Kirk and the others soon find Saavik and the aging Spock, who by this time has fully growing into the adult Spock we know.  But before they can escape, Kruge beams down and seeks revenge over the death of his crewmembers, as he confronts Kirk as the planet collapses around them...

Although it isn't quite in the same league as its predecessor, STIII: The Search for Spock has alot going for it as a film, and Leonard Nimoy makes an impressive directorial debut here taking over from Nicholas Meyer, who was set not to return.  It also sees the second part in what is something of a trilogy of its own as the story arc of finding Spock is a continuation from the events of the second film, and this continues into Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  I also quite like the concept that Spock can be brought back to life by placing his "katra" or living spirit into McCoy's mind and it also allows for McCoy behave in an amusingly strange manner, as he takes on some of Spock's personality traits, which I'll mention more about a bit later on.  And the Genesis theme is again used well here, although it does seem a bit of a change-up that all of a sudden Genesis, which is supposed to have the power to create, turns out to be a scientific failure, as the Genesis planet becomes unstable and destroys itself later on.  Its also refreshing to see the return of the Klingons to the franchise as well, and this time they are far better represented than they were in Star Trek The Motion Picture, where they hardly had any screen time at all.

Which brings me onto the performances in the film which are again pretty good, and the regular cast once more deliver some nice performances.  William Shatner once again is great in his role as James T. Kirk, and he shows great decency, courage and loyalty in doing all he can to find Spock and bring him back.  Bill also has some funny moments in the film, one of which being when he finds McCoy who has been arrested in put in a holding cell after having an argument in a bar, and Kirk does the Vulcan peace sign and says "how many fingers am I holding up??".  Also later on he has an amusing moment when he takes the remaining Klingon crew hostage, and he says "help us or die" to the Klingon officer, Maltz (played by John Larroquette) who says "I do not deserve to live!" and Kirk replies "fine, I'll kill you later!", which he doesn't to which Maltz angrily says "wait, you say you would kill me!" and Kirk says "I lied.".  Bill however does have a rather silly dramatic and cheesy moment where he learns that David has been killed and he collapses in his chair on the Enterprise bridge, and says "you Klingon bastard you killed my son!".  Bill also has another great moment in his climactic fight scene with Kruge on the Genesis planet as it destroys itself, and he tries to save Kruge from falling over a cliff, but Kruge tries to take him with him, and Kirk says "I... have.... had....enough... of.... you!!!" as he kicks him off.  

DeForrest Kelley is great again as McCoy, and this time he is given more to do as he holds the burden of carrying Spock's katra in his head, and as a result he takes on some of Spock's logical personality, which provides some amusing moments in the film.  McCoy's best scene is of course where he meets with a strange looking alien with big ears, whom he tries to arrange a space flight with to go to Genesis, and he says to him angrily "I wan't to go to Genesis, how can you be deaf with ears like that??!".  He also has a funny moment in the same scene where a barmaid asks McCoy what he wants to drink and he asks for something different to which the barmaid says "that isn't your usual poison" and McCoy replies in Spock fashion "you don't expect one to order poison in bars, its not logical".

And while they three of them have limited screen time, Walter Koenig, George Taeki and James Doonan also provide nice performances.  And James Doonan in particular get's one of the film's best lines where he is about to sabotage the new USS Excelsior starship he has been assigned to, and the automated elevator voice asks him where he wants to go and he says "up your shaft!".  George Taeki as Sulu also get's a funny moment where he teases a big security guard who stands up over Sulu and says "don't get smart. Tiny!" and later Sulu knocks the big guy out and says "don't call me tiny!".  And I will quickly mention Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, who get's an amusing moment in the film where she locks an ambitious cocky wannabe starfleet officer in a closet, "the old adrenalin going?? Good now get into the closet!".   

Of the new cast members, Christopher Lloyd is excellent as the Klingon commander Kruge, an meglomaniacal Klingon who is out to seek power, glory and the usual stuff renegade Klingons look for!  Lloyd overall makes for quite an effective villain, and he has some good moments one of which is where he kills a crewmember who mistakenly destroys the USS Grissom when Kruge asked him to target only the ship's engine, and the victim officer says "A good shot sir!" before being vapourised!  Robin Curtis who takes over the role of playing Lt Saavik also does a good job here although she is arguably not quite as good Kirstie Alley, but she does play Saavik in a more logical way, and her most notable moment is when David has been killed, she calmly tells Kirk on the radio "Admiral, David is dead".  This might appear to be a badly acted moment, but considering that she is Vulcan and they are a logical race, it makes sense that she wouldn't be overcome by emotion.  Merritt Buttrick again as David provides a good performance and his last scene is quite poignant as Kirk speaks to him over the radio and asks "David what went wrong???" and he replies "I went wrong!" before sacrficing himself to save Saavik and Spock.  And finally Mark Lenard as Sarek does a fine job playing Spock's father, and his scene with Kirk at the start when they join minds is quite a sad moment in the film, where Sarek sadly reflects about Spock "that every he knew, everything he was is lost".

In regards to the special effects, once again they were provided mostly by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and this time we have four spaceships on display with the USS Enterprise, Grissom, Excelsior as well as Kruge's Klingon bird of prey.  Overall once again the special effects for the ships are all very impressive and one of the new effects we see in the film is the Klingon cloaking device, which is well used.  However the most notable effect in the film is of course the destruction of the Enterprise, and its one of the film's most memorable images as Kirk, McCoy, Sulu, Scotty and Chekov have safely beamed to the Genesis planet, we see the smouldering remains of the Enterprise fire down in the distance.

And regarding the film's music, we are again treated to a great score by James Horner, who follows up his terrific work from Star Trek II with another wonderful effort here, which has the perfect mix of drama, adventure and atmosphere.  Horner reprises some of the themes from the second film, but he also adds in plenty of great new cues, such as the one used in the Enterprise self destruct sequence, and the scene where they attempt Spock's "refusion" on Vulcan.

So that's it for my look at Star Trek III, which to this day is still a very entertaining and worthy addition to the franchise.  It might not be quite as good as Star Trek II but it still stands tall among some of the efforts to be later found in the Star Trek world.

And with that I shall leave it there.  Live long and all that. 

Star Trek II: KHANNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!

Righty time for another review, so this time I've dug back in time to an old sci-fi classic and its one of the Star Trek films, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which is widely regarded as the best of the original crew's films.  So let's give it a look....

OK starting with the usual stuff, i.e the plot the film begins with Starfleet officer, Lt Saavik (Kirstie Alley) who is taking the "Kobayashir Maru" test, which is a test of Starfleet officer's character and leadership qualities in battle situations.  Saavik fails the test as it ends Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) comes as he has been overseeing the test and speaks with Captain spock (Leonard Nimoy) afterwards.  Kirk by now has given up his command of the Enterprise, as he insists "galloping round the cosmos is a game for the young".  On the night of his birthday back on Earth, Dr McCoy (DeForrest Kelly) visits Kirk and insists he get back his command on the Enterprise.

Meanwhile the USS Reliant, is on a mission to find a lifeless planet so they can test the Genesis device, which is a torpedo that has the ability to reorganise matter and create habitable worlds for colonisation.  On beaming down to a barren planet named Ceti Alpha V, Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Captain Terrell (Paul Winfield) beam down to the surface, during a heavy sandstorm they are soon captured by mysteriously masked figures.  The leader reveals himself to be Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) a genetically engineered tyrant who was exiled to the planet 15 years ago by Kirk.  Khan tells them that he was abandoned by Kirk and that he blames him for the death of his wife.  Kahn then uses small eels which he places into Chekov and Terrell's space helmets which crawl into their ears, which Khan uses to control the men's minds and he get's them to find out where Kirk is, and they soon take the Reliant.  Chekov then sends a strange message to the Genesis research team, who created the weapon, insisting that they transport the Genesis materials to them.  The leader of the group Dr Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch) then contacts Kirk to ask why they are taking Genesis away from them, but their transmission is jammed.  Kirk then decides out of concern to take command of the Enteprise, which is supposed to be on a three week training cruise.  And its not long before Khan shows up in the Reliant and launches an attack on the Enterprise, but Kirk manages to trick them into lowering their shields and they counter-attack and escape.  

On arriving at the scientist space station, Kirk with Lt Saavik and McCoy find most of the crew murdered and also Chekov and Terrell, who tell them that Khan tortured and killed most of the crew to get information about Genesis.  Saavik tells Kirk that the remaining might have beamed down into the planetoid of Regula, and they teleport down, to soon find the remaining project team members, including Carol Marcus and her son, David (Merritt Buttrick) which turns out to be Kirk's son.  At this point Chekov and Terrell draw their guns on Kirk, as Khan has been using them as spies, and they beam up Genesis at Khan's command, who tells them to kill Kirk.  Terrell however resists and feeling the torment of the eel inside him, kills himself, whereas Chekov collapses, but eel drops out his ear and Kirk shoots it, and angrily speaks to Khan who taunts him.  Stranded on the planetoid for a short while until Spock on the Enterprise can restore enough power to the ship's engines, Carol shows them around the Genesis cave, which is a beautiful paradise like world.  After a short time, Spock calls Kirk and beams them back onboard the Enterprise, where Kirk once again is involved in a battle of wits against his old foe Khan for the final time.

There is no doubt that Star Trek II is one of the best films if not the best in the Star Trek movie franchise, and after a very disappointing and frankly boring first film, Star Trek: the Motion Picture, this saw the makers refind the essence of what made the TV show so entertaining.  The re-introduction of an old enemy from the TV series was also an excellent choice, as the filmmakers decided to go with Khan, who appeared in the original TV series episode "Space seed".  Khan himself is a very charismatic villain and at times even quotes pieces of Shakespeare, especially near the end when he is (PLOT SPOILER) abotu to detonate the Genesis device and he says "for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee!".  Its also a really good choice in the film that Khan and Kirk never actually meet in person as they only communicate over the radios, or the ship's screen, and this is used to great effect in the scene where Kirk is left stranded on Regula planetoid and Khan taunts him by saying "I will leave you marooned for all eternity on the centre of a dead planet, buried alive!".  And Khan's mean motivation for vengeance is the death of his wife, although in the film its not really specified directly that this was Kirk's doing, it was more the eel like creatures that were responsible for her death as he says so himself "they killed 20 of my people, including my beloved wife!".  In the end however it is more about Khan purely out for revenge over Kirk for abandoning him on a desolate planet in the end more than anything else.

So getting onto the performances, well starting with the Star Trek crew themselves, they all give reassuringly charming performances that are very much akin to the TV series.  William Shatner is great as James T. Kirk and after playing Kirk in a very stiff and serious manner in the first film, here we see the proper Kirk, with a wry sense of humour.  Shatner himself get's some great lines in the film such as in the scene where he beams down to the planetoid with McCoy and Saavik and McCoy asks and tries to find the remainder Gensis project crew:

McCoy: Where are we going?
Kirk: Where they went?
McCoy: Supposing they went nowhere?
Kirk: Well this will be your big chance to get away from it all!

Shatner also shows Kirk as being quite vulnerable at times and at the start of the film he appears to be undergoing a sort of mid-life crisis, as he refuses to take command of the ship.  And in one of the best dramatic scenes, his former lover, Carol Marcus asks him how he feels and he replies "old, worn out".  Although later on he changes that to the film's last and cheesiest line where McCoy asks him how he feels and Kirk replies "young, I feel young!".  There is also of course the classic line which he delivers after Khan angers him by leaving him stranded on the planetoid and Kirk yells into his radio "KHANNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!".   

Leonard Nimoy also plays Spock nicely in a very subtle way, and he also shows that over time he has grown used to human customs and has a good understanding of their behaviour, and even at times displays a quirky sense of humour himself, as he says at one point to Kirk "I'm a Vulcan, I have no ego to bruise!".  Spock's friendship with Krik has always been one of the key relationships in the series, and they also share a couple of good scenes, mainly the one at the end where (ANOTHER PLOT SPOILER) Spock sacrificies himself to save the ship from the Genesis detonation, and in his dying moments he says to Kirk "I am and shall always be your friend!".  This still is one of the more poignant scenes in the Star Trek movie franchise, and no doubt there will be a few fans out there with something in their eye when this scene comes on!  Although in an earlier scene the way in which he phrases his friendship to Kirk sounds a bit suspect, as he says to him "you are my superior officer, and also my friend, I am and shall always be yours".   Ahem!

Of the other regular cast members DeForrest Kelly is great as Doctor McCoy, and he too get's some great lines when he argues with Kirk and Spock over the merits and flaws of the Genesis device and he says "according to myth the Earth was created in six days, now watch out, here's Genesis, now we can do it in six minutes!".  Later on McCoy becomes instrumental in the saviour of Spock's life in the scene just before Spock goes into the engine room, Spock uses his nerve pinch to knock out McCoy and he performs a mind meld on him, simply saying "remember".  Which amusingly brings to mind a story from William Shatner who was totally unaware of this scene at the time and implications of how it meant they were leaving it open for a third film, which Shatner had no idea about and jokingly accused Harve Bennet the producer and Leonard Nimoy with coming up with this sneaky idea to extend the film series.  And Shatner jokingly said "they knew about it, and did it on purpose and I didn't know, and I'm going to get them for it one day!".  Walter Koenig also does fairly well as Pavel Chekov, despite his forever dodgy Russian accent (always overpronouncing his v's as w's) he get's more to do in this film than normal, and its a nice change-up that he is used as a spy by Khan.

And as for the supporting new cast there is Bibi Besch, who is good as Dr Marcus, although she does have one cringeworthy line where she speaks to Kirk down on the Regula planetoid and she says "let me show you something that will make you feel young, as when the world was new!".  Although Besch does have a good line when David refers to Kirk as an "overgrown boyscout" and Dr Marcus says "listen kiddo, Jim Kirk was many things but he was never a boyscout!".  Merritt Buttrick is also good as Kirk's feisty and stubborn son David, and he would later go on to reprise his role in Star Trek III, and it was a great pity that he later on died only at the age of 29 due to AIDS related toxoplasmosis.

And finally there is of course Kirstie Alley as Lt Saavik, who is really good as the cool headed and ambitious Starfleet officer, who for half the film is frustrated at her failed attempts to succeed in the Kobayashi Maru test, before she get's a chance to have a shot at the Enterprise command chair herself when Kirk says "Saavik, you have the comm!".  As Saavik, Alley shares a nice little scene with Kirk in the elevator scene where she asks him how he passed the test and he says "you may ask!  That's just a little joke" to which Saavik shakes her head and says "humour its a difficult concept, it is not logical!".  But of course Kirk later on tells Saavik his solution to the test, which in effect suggests that he cheated to win, although Kirk puts it as "changing the conditions of the test".  Saavik also most notably cries near the end of the film at Spock's funeral, which was very uncharacteristic for a Vulcan, although in the script it was revealed that Saavik was of mixed Vulcan and Romulan ancestry, although Vulcans do of course have emotions, they just suppress them, and its fair to say that even Vulcans might shed a tear every once in a very long while. 

Which brings me onto the star of the show, Ricardo Montalban as Khan, and he does a terrific job as Kirk's old arch enemy.  Montalban plays Kahn as a charming, intelligent yet vicious villain who is quick to take lives when he feels like it, as we see the bloody aftermath of his attack on the Regula space station.  Montalban get's plenty of great dialogue in the film and he has several highlights in the film, especially in his first scene where he reveals himself to Chekov by removing his mask and he interrogates him, lifting him off the ground asking "why are you here???".  There is also the scene where Montalban is about to launch his first attack on the Enterprise and he says "Ahh Kirk my old friend, do you know of the old Klingon proverb that revenge is a dish best served cold?  It is very cold in space!".  I also like the line where Khan's second in command, Jaochim tries to convince him that he doesn't need to go after Kirk now they have taken the Reliant but Khan insists and says "He tasks me and I shall have him! I shall chase him round the moons of Nibia, and around the Antares Maelstrom and around Perdition's flames before I give him up!".  Montalban also did a fair bit of physical work to give himself a strong physique for Khan and he does impose himself as a very effective villain throughout the film both physically and mentally. 

As for the technical specs of the film, direction wise Nicholas Meyer does a terrific job here, and he also co-wrote the screenplay, and he adds in some doses of Shakespeare for measure here (although not Measure for Measure!) with several quotations from Hamlet, as Kirk and Khan both separately quote from the play.  Meyer also provides the perfect balance of humour, drama as well action to the film, and he nicely conveys how Starfleet is more like on giant navy in space, with even an admiral ranking to back it up.

The special effects for the film are also excellent as the Industry of Light Magic bring the space battle between the USS Enterprise and Reliant brilliantly to life in space and the model work for both ships are great.  And one of the most visually impressive sequences in the film is the cat and mouse chase through into the Nebula, where the two ships can't detect one another due to the large amount of static discharge in the Nebula itself.  Star Trek II is also one of the first films to have used computer graphics effects as well, which is shown in the Genesis proposal video, which shows the effects of the torpedo and how it creates a world.  And its ironic how Star Trek II cost a quarter of the amount that Star Trek The Motion Picture did ($11 million as opposed to $46 million), yet Star Trek II is by far the more visually impressive film, as I guess they used the money in just the right way. 

And finally I can't finish without mentioning James Horner's brilliant and wonderful music score for the film, which easily stands as one of his very best film scores and it was also his debut major film.  And throughout there are so many terrific passages of music, especially in the scene where Khan is introduced, and also in the scenes where the Enterprise comes under attack, as well as the film's terrific main theme. 

Sooooo that's it for my pretty exhaustive look at Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which for me is the best of the Star Trek films and to this day remains a very enteratining, suspenseful and enjoyable film.

And that's it for now, till the next time, beam me up!