Here comes the pain!!

OK post robbery time, the lazy bugger that writes this stuff (i.e. me) has to decided to pinch another post from that other blog (loaded with tennis posts) and this one is Carlito's Way, Brian De Palma's classic thriller about a former gangster who tries to turn good.  But I've decided to add to the entry to prove I'm not being too lazy.  So without further ado here's the plot....

Right so the film begins with Carlito Brigante (Pacino) who has just been acquitted after serving five years of a 30 year sentence, and a former big drug dealer, who returns to the streets of New York and his Peurto Rican neigbourhood.  However after his time in the joint, Carlito finally has changed and no longer wants to return to his life of crime and wants to start again with a clean slate.  But going straight isn't all that easy for Carlito as he gets drawn into the life again, after narrowly surviving a botched drug deal which he is brought along on by his cousin, who is then killed, leaving Carlito to shoot his way out of the bar.  Carlito then uses the money from the drug deal to buy into taking share of a nightclub, which his lawyer friend David Kleinfeld (Penn) also puts money into.  But Carlito insists he is only buying in so he can get enough money together to get out and take over one of the friend's in the joint's car businesses, to ensure he will go straight.  Along the way Carlito also re-unites with his former girlfriend Gail (Penelope Ann Miller).  But Carlito also faces a few new problems, the first one being and up and coming gangster Benny Blanco "from the Bronx" (John Leguizmo) who repeatedly tries to get Carlito to become business partners with him, which ultimately leads to a fight in the club, where Carlito tells Benny if he returns to the club he will be killed.  Benny then swears if he ever sees Carlito again he will kill him, which leads Carlito to knock him down a flight of stairs, but rather than kill him he choose to let him go.

And Carlito's biggest problem of all is his buddy David Kleinfeld, who in his absence has become quite a corrupt fella, who is into jury tampering, bribing, and money laundering.  Kleinfeld also stupidly gets involved in ripping off a mob boss Tony "T" Taglialucci (Frank Minucci) by stealing a million dollars from him.  Tony insists that Kleinfeld help him bust out of prison, and given very little choice in the matter, as Tony will have him killed if he doesn't.  At this point Kleinfeld becomes a nervous wreck, using cocaine regularly, and he asks Carlito to help him with Tony T's prison break, who initially is reluctant but agrees to help David out.  On the night of the breakout Kleinfeld is accompanied by Tony T's son, Frank (Adrian Pasdar) as well as Carlito, but on locating Tony in the rough waters, Kleinfeld beats Tony T to death with a golf club and cuts Frank's throat.  With Carlito's help, Kleinfeld dumps the two mobsters bodies into the river, Carlito now incensed at Kleinfeld's actions, says they are through and walks away.  Despite being confident about shaking off the mafia, Kleinfield the next day is attacked by two mobsters who stab him in the chest, however he survives.  Shortly after this happens Carlito is brought in for questioning by the DA Norwalk (James Rebhorn) who plays him a tape of Kleinfeld tipping off Carlito as supposedly dealing again, Norwalk offers Carlito a chance to testify against Kleinfeld, but he denies knowledge of the events surrounding Tony T's murder, even though the DA insists he knows that he was on the boat with Kleinfeld at the time.  Carlito soon after confronts Kleinfeld himself who by now is recovering in his hospital from his attack, and Carlito finally gets confirmation of his Jewish friend's duplicity, leaving him with an empty gun for when the mob guys come after him.  And duly enough, Tony T's surviving son Vinnie (Joseph Siravo) dressed as a cop comes in and kills Kleinfeld with a silenced gun.  At this point the mafia guys track Carlito to his nightclub and there he faces a tense game of cat and mouse as he tries to escape his enemies and leave his life of crime behind him once and for all. 

Carlito's Way is not only a great crime thriller in its own right, its also ranks as one of Brian De Palma's best films and it features so many great suspenseful scenes, two of which in particular are the drug deal that goes awry near the start of the film with Carlito forced into shooting his way out.  And the other being the big chase scene through Grand Central station at the end.  De Palma as usual also employs many of his camera techniques, the opening scene is definitely worthy of note, the way it starts with the camera turning upside down as we see Carlito being carted away on a stretcher into an ambulence.

Performance wise, the film also features an excellent cast, Pacino particularly is great as Carlito, and plays him as a man with a dark past who really has changed and become a better person, who just wants to try wipe the slate clean and start again.  Carlito also gets some of the film's best dialogue, my favourite of course being the title of this entry, "Here comes the pain!!" during his tense shoot-out in the botched drug deal at the start of the film.  Another line Pacino has that sticks in the mind is when he confronts Benny Blanco in the club "you think you like me??? You ain't like me, motherfucker, you're a punk! I've been with connected people, who you been with??? Chain snatching, jive ass maricon motherfuckers! Get out of here, snatch a purse, take a fuckin walk!".  Pacino also has some great dramatic moments in the film and one of the best is when he goes to Klenfield after he has seen a friend of his, Lalin (Viggo Mortenson, great in this part) who was wired and tried to get him on tape saying he was dealing again.  Carlito angrily says to Kleinfeld "fuckin, Lalin, man! There's nobody, there's nobody left!".

Sean Penn is also great as the slimy and devious David Kleinfeld, and he wears that 70s permed hairdo quite convincingly!  His funniest moment in the film comes when he taunts a mafia associate who in one scene dances with Carlito's girlfriend, Gail, and he says "hey you! Wop! You, spaghetti dick!".  But more importantly Penn brilliantly shows Kleinfeld come apart at the seams as the film progresses, events spiral out of control and he becomes a coke addled mess as events inexorably lead towards his sticky end.   His scene where he Carlito faces him in hospital for the last time is also really good where Carlito finally sees him for what he is, and Kleinfeld says "fuck you and your self-righteous code of the goddamn street!". 

John Leguizmo is also very good as the ambitious young gangster Benny Blacno who later proves to be Carlito's nemesis, and Benny is naturally very arrogant, and all too quick to point out who he is all the time, but he praises Carlito intially when they meet "this man is the JP Morgan of the smack business!".  Carlito of course looks down on Benny throughout the film, and he says to Stephie (a girl that hangs around the club) "he's got a big future, if he can last past next week!".  Luis Guzman as Pachanga, Carlito's bodyguard is priceless too, as he delivers his dialogue so well, and I love it when he says "Come on, Carlito, lets dump him off the pier, like old times.  Be fun pappi be fun!".  Perhaps though the only real weak link in the cast is Penelope Ann Miller, as Carlito's girlfriend Gail, and its not so much a slight against her as an actress as she does a fine job with her role, its her scenes aren't that interesting.  But Penelope does have one really good scene with Al, where she argues with him about his boat trip with Kleinfeld and she pleads with him not to go, and lets also face it, she has a great body! ;-)

And while the film has many strengths, it has few weaknesses, although if I have to pick one or two or just the main one, then it would be Carlito's almost naive trust in those around him, particularly with Kleinfed, who despite getting him released from prison, betrays him to the DA and nearly gets him killed by the mafia.  Yet throughout we can see how blatantly devious he is, and Carlito must be putting on some serious blinders to it, either or that or just maybe he's not too bright when it comes to his own friends.  As the film progresses we see that Carlito's attitude towards Kleinfeld does change from overawed respect to cynicism, and by the time he gets to the boat ride, he has almost gone off him entirely, which at that point makes you wonder why he even did it.  Carlito also has the same blind loyalty to his bodyguard Pachanga, who at the end of the film (SPOILER!!) is revealed to have betrayed him as well to Benny Blanco, in promise for getting rich off the young gangster, who instead just kills Pachanga and runs off.  Just deserts there I guess.  But throughout it you do see Carlito's strong moral character and of course he makes a few decisions that put him in serious danger and one that costs him his life, it does show that he doesn't want to go back to that old life.  So even if Carlito's choices cost him so dear, its almost as if he would rather keep his soul rather than go down the bad road once again. (pretty deep!).  Also quickly it has to be said that Joseph Siravo as Vinnie Taglialucci (the son of the Tony T, the mob boss that Klenfield bumps off) gives a pretty duff performance, particularly in the scene where he spots Carlito in the busy grand central station "Hey there is!!". 

But that aside its all good, and before I finish I have to say something about the film's excellent score by Patrick Doyle, who provides a wonderfully dramatic soundtrack, which has several great passages, mainly the chase scenes through grand central station are very noteworthy.  And in addition to that music DJ Jellybean Benitez provides an excellent supplementary soundtrack with some music from the 70s, with a mixture of salsa, latino, as well as disco tracks of that time, which is heard mostly in the club scenes. 

Soooooo that's it for Carlito's Way, which definitely ranks as one of my favourite crime thriller movies, and given the surprisingly poor reception it received on its release, it is fitting that its gained the reputation that it now deserves. 

And that's that one out the way.  

The man with two brains

Right well time for yet another post on this review blog, and its yet another film this time, and I've gone for a comedy, and its one of my favourite comedies, which is The Man With Two Brains, which is easily the best the film Steve Martin ever made in my opinion anyway.  And with that let's get to it.....
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Right so starting with the usual plotting stuff, the film begins with Dr Michael Hfuhruhurr (Steve Martin at his very best here) a renowned brain surgeon, who has developed a unique method of cranial screw-top brain surgery, who accidentally knocks down a beautiful woman, Dolores Benedict (Kathleen Turner) on the street whilst driving.  Michael decides to operate on her in order to save her life, although his colleague and fellow Doctor, Dr Brandon (Peter Hobbs) advises him against this as it would make him too emotionally involved.  Regardless Michael performs the operation, which is a success and its not long before Dolores recovers, and Michael, who is a widow, falls for her, and the two of them soon marry.  Dolores is of course in reality a gold digging femme fatale who is only interested in Michael's money, and as she recovers, she starts to torment him by pretending to be too ill to have sex with him.  Michael then decides in order to get their marriage under way to go on a honeymoon, which also turns out to be a business trip in Vienna.

Michael while in Vienna hears of stories surrounding a serial killer named the "elevator killer", and during his presentation at a conference, using a dead test subject, but when he opens the dead man's head, nothing but oranges fall out, as the brain has been stolen.  After the conference, Michael meets an eccentric scientist, Dr Alfred Necessiter (David Warner) who tells him that he has created a new technique of keeping brains alive in jars with the use of a special liquid, which he shows him at his laboratory and that he has devised a method of transferring the thoughts from a dying brain into another body.  Michael then returns to his hotel room where Dolores is about to having behind touched by a man, who is paying her money to do so, but Michael is enraged by this and tells him to get out, and he declares his marriage to Dolores as over.  Michael then returns to Necessiter's lab where he sits and waits on his return, but while he waits he sings a song which another voice suddenly joins in with him.  Michael then sees that he can communicate with one of the brains in a jar, brain 21, who tells him she is Anne Uumellmayahe (voiced by Sissy Spacek).  When Necessiter arrives at the lab, he is unable to hear Anne, and Michael realises that they are communicating by telepathy.

Michael then returns back to his hotel room, where Dolores has written a fake suicide note (as she has learned of Michael's dead Aunt's estate), which she has left on the chandeliers, on hearing her scream he runs outside and sees that she is standing on the window ledge, where she feigns dispair, and Michael rescues her.  Later on that night after Michael and Dolores finally consumate their marriage, Michael receives a telepathic cry for help from Anne.  Michael goes to Necessiter's lab again where he finds that Anne has been placed in a plastic pod where we find out that Necessiter plans to transfer her mind into the body of a gorilla.  Michael steals Anne's brain and takes her back to his hotel room and hides her away, and the next he rents out a private home, so he can hide Anne away from Dolores (who goes with him).  Its not long before Michael and Anne fall in love with each other, and Dolores quickly grows concerned and follows Michael around, as she even sees him kiss Anne's brain on a lake (with a pair of fake plastic lips!).  Dolores soon confronts Michael about him kissing the brain, and he grows angry when he receives a call from his lawyer about his Aunt's estate, realising that Dolores "only stayed around for the money!", he gets ready to pack and leave her.  Dolores then takes Anne's brain and puts her in the oven to cook, but soon rescues her from the oven and throw Dolores out the house, telling her she won't get a penny of the money.

Michael by now is obssessed with being together with Anne, as he goes to Necessiter and begs him to remove his brain and put it in a tank with Anne's as they have fallen in love.  Necessiter however tells Michael that her brain won't last long as the special fluid can only sustain the brain for so long, and it will be necessary for him to find a body for Anne before her brain dies.  Michael then after this decides to go and try and find a body for Anne, but in doing so he also has Dolores gunning after him aswell, as the film reaches its crazy climax.

(Ok that's the plot summary over with)

This is without a doubt the best film Steve Martin ever made, as the Man with two brains saw Martin at the peak of his comedic talents, and the film has the perfect mix of broad humour and mad zany comedy.  And in its own strange way its even quite an endearing love story as Michael falls in love with a brain, and as he says to Anne on the lake"you are the most complete woman I've ever met.  All my life I've been looking for women with perfect bodies, 10s, but now for the first time, I'm aroused by a mind!".  But its the really silly madcap moments in the film that make it work so well, such an example (of which there are many!) is in the scene where Michael goes up to the little girl after he has knocked down Dolores, and he tells her in a great detail what she is to do when calling for the paramedics.  And the little girl says "it sounds like a subdural haematoma to me" and Michael angrily replies "Three years of nursery schools and you think you know it all! Its not subdural its epidural! Goddamn that makes me mad!". 

There are of course more examples, of which I'll mention one or two, starting with the scene where Michael expresses his sexual frustration to his boss, Dr Brandon, and then he does a wall jump and a somersault, after tensley ripping the door handle off the door, and Brandon says to him "even to me you seem a little jumpy!".  And the conference scene where he tells the audience his theory on cranial screw-top surgery and they all murmur in disagreement, and he asks his fellow doctor what they are doing, who says "they are just going: no, no, no, no no," and Michael says "you mean just a general murmur??" and the doctor says "yeah murmur" to which Michael addresses the audience and says "you may murmur all you like!" and they murmur even more. 

Other scenes I like include Michael's scene where he confronts Dolores over her attempt to cook Anne in the oven, and Anne after she is taken out the oven counts to ten leaving out nine, and he says "you cooked her nines!" and he and Dolores struggle as she tries to knive him and he knees her in the crotch and she says yells "oh my balls!".  And one of my favourite scenes in the film is undoubtedly the drunk test, where Michael is pulled over for speeding, and the police officer makes him walk a straight line, then do a hand stand, a somersault, and then do a tap dance, juggle and sing the Catalina Magdelena Lupensteiner Wallabeiner song, which pre-empts one of Martin's best lines in the film when he says "Goddamn your drunk tests are hard!".

Performance wise this is definitely one of Steve Martin's best comedic performances, as Dr Hfuhruhurr, the brilliant but ever so slightly unhinged surgeon, who's name no one can seem to pronounce right! (except Anne of course).  Martin plays Hfuhruhurr as being quite sympathetic, yet quite egotisitical at the same time, where he clearly is in mourning of his late wife, Rebecca one minute, but flashing newspaper cuttings on the lining of his jacket saying how great he is and "Dolly Parton wants to have my baby!".  And I like the scene where he looks at her painting longingly near the start of the film and says to her about Dolores "she has a behind so sexy you could eat lunch off it, just like we did, remember??".  And by the end of the film Martin's performance comes almost completely deranged as he becomes obssessed with trying to save Anne's brain, and finding a replacement body for her.  This also leads into another funny scene where Michael looks around at the bodies in the morgue and he says to the orderly who shows him a corpse and he says "she just doesn't have any.... vavooom!" and the orderly says "she is dead you know!" and he says "I know but nothing really leaps out at me here".  As Hfuhruhurr, Martin shows that his character has at times almost superhuman strengths in that he can use his hands as suction cups to move safely over the fallen ledge to rescue Dolores in the scene where she pretends to throw herself off their hotel room window ledge.  I also love his line where Necessiter tells him that he could put Anne's mind in the body of a gorilla and Michael says "I couldn't fuck a gorilla!".    

Kathleen Turner is also great in her role as Dolores, a cunning and maniuplative gold digger, who is out to get her hands on Hfuhruhurr's money, and she throughout the film teases and taunts him, by feigning her illness to put off having sex.  Turner's first scene in the film is really funny when she just about finishes off her former lover, who says she won't get a penny as he changed his will, and she says "you son of a bitch! Well I guess I'll just have to find me a new man to torture!".  Her confrontatiom with Michael over Anne's brain is also funny when she point blank asks him "Michael were you on the lake today kissing your brain???", which he denies and she says "its funny how there was a man out there on the lake that looked just like you kissing a brain, how many can there be like that???" and Michael replies "oh around here??? There must be hundreds!".  Her scene with Michael when she arrives back at his home is funny when she looks with contempt at the two gardeners in Michael's employee outside the house, and she asks "what are those two assholes doing on the porch?".  And Michael laughs and says "they're not assholes, its pronounced azelias".

David Warner is also very funny as Dr Alfred Necessiter who is also rather deranged, yet is also a brilliant brain scientist, who has developed an advanced technique of mind transfer without "even opening the skull!".  And I love the scene where he tells Michael that he has had two near successes but still has problems perfecting the brain transfer process, as he says he has two test subjects that do nothing but this: and he claps his hands together and blows a raspberry and he says "but I think I've solved the problem!".  This is followed by another great line from Martin who says after repeating the same action "so this is my wife??? I know her, she'd hate that!".  I also like the moment where he tells his next door neighbours to shut up "with your TV blaring out and your twelve kids running up and down the halls!".  And finally another line I like that Warner has is when he says to Michael about his quest to find a body for Anne "if you're unsuccessful I'll have the gorilla wired and ready!". 

And finally Sissy Spacek, who strangely didn't receive a screen credit for her voice work as Anne (maybe because she wasn't on screen???) does a wonderful job as the brain and the woman of Michael's dreams.  Spacek's sweet Southern tones also add a nice tone to Anne's character, and her surname provides a good laugh, especially as she is the only person that can pronounce Michael's surname correctly, but she matter of factly says "how else can you pronounce it??? Its H-F-U-H-R-U-H-U-R-R ain't it???".  I also quite like her first scene where she asks Michael "will I ever be able to play the piano again?" and he lamely says "I think... no".

And quickly a big shout also has to go out to the director, Carl Reiner, who does a brilliant job here and it was his third collaboration with Martin, having previously directed The Jerk and Dead men don't wear plaid, and I think its safe to say this saw their partnership hit its peak right here.  

Well that's it for yet another very exhaustive and lengthy post on another film, and The Man With Two Brains is without a doubt one of the best and funniest comedy films from the 1980s, which still remains as fresh and funny as the day it was released.  

And with that, that will do her.   

Keeping the British end up, sir!

Right OK review time once more on this blog, which now has over 60 posts on it (not bad at all, despite the fact quite a few of them have been taken from my other blog, so there has been fair a bit of blagging there).  So this time I've went for a classic Bond film, and the film I've gone for is The Spy Who Loved Me, Roger Moore's third and best film as the secret agent Jame Bond.  And with that, let's give the plot a look....

So it all starts in Austria, where James Bond (Roger Moore) is on holiday, but he soon receives a communication from HQ to investigate the disappearance of British nuclear submarines.  As Bond leaves his log cabin, leaving behind a saucy Russian girl, he is attacked by Soviet agents, and he kills one of them as he skis downhill and escapes using a Union Jack parachute.  Bond soon joins up with M (Bernard Lee) the head of MI6 and Bond's boss, who tells him that he is to try and recover plans for an advanced submarine tracking system, which is supposedly to be found in Egypt.  Bond travels to Egypt and soon meets up with a rival agent, from the KGB, Major Anya Amasova "Triple XXX" (the foxy Barbara Bach) who is also looking for the plans, as Soviet submarines have also gone missing.  Bond and Anya meet with a marketeer, Max Kalba who has the plans on microfilm, but Kalba is called away for a phone call at one point before they can start bidding for the microfilm, and Kalba is then killed by a 7 foot henchman, Jaws (Richard Kiel) who has metal teeth.  Jaws takes the microfilm and leaves, with Bond following him, he get's into the back of Jaws's van, as does Anya and the two of them are driven out into the desert.  Jaws parks the van at a building site, and as Bond and Anya follow him, Jaws fights with Bond, but they quickly manage to escape and take the microfilm.  Bond and Anya soon make it across the desert and get onto a boat, where Anya knocks out Bond with gas from a mock cigarette and takes the microfilm.  

Bond comes to and soon travels to MI6's HQ based in Egypt, where he sees M and also M's opposite number, General Gogol (Walter Gotell), the head of the KGB, along with Anya.  M tells Bond that he and Anya are to work together in order to find the missing submarines, and Bond also tells them that microfilm they recovered was useless as the crucial technical information was removed, but they scan the film nonethless and see mark which shows the signature of the laboratory of scientist and shipping tycoon, Karl Stromberg (Curd Jugens) who turns out to be the film's main villain.  Together Bond and Anya travel to Stromberg's base out in Sardinia, and en route Jaws tries to kill them both on a train, but Bond stops him.  Once they arrive at Stromberg's base, Bond meets with the man himself, who tells Bond of his dream to create a world under the sea, as he has a great passion for marine life.  After Bond and Anya leave, Stromberg reveals that he knows who they both are, and he tells Jaws to let them get ashore and then kill them.  Jaws persues them on land but fails to kill Bond or Anya, who escape in Bond's fancy Q gadget loaded, Lotus Esprit, which Bond drives into the ocean and he takes out some bad guys underwater as well, before rising to the surface and driving back onto shore.

Later on Anya confronts Bond over the death of her former lover, as Bond reveals the coincidence that he was in the same place and same time as her boyfriend was.  Bond admits that he did kill Anya's lover, who then coldly tells him that after the mission she will kill him.  Bond and Anya soon make their way onto a US submarine, where they travel to Stromberg's underwater base, and they confirm that he is operating the tracking system.  The submarine however is soon captured by a supertanker called the Liparus, which captured the other submarines aswell.  Bond, Anya and the submarine crew are taken onboard the supertanker, where Stromberg tells Bond of his plan to create a new Atlantis under the water, as he plans to launch missiles at New York and Moscow, which would pre-empt nuclear war, so Stromberg can rebuild his new world under the sea.  And at this point its up to the world's greatest secret agent to stop the megalomaniac from carrying out his nefarious plan....

There is little doubt that The Spy Who Loved Me is Roger Moore's best Bond film, as it has the perfect mixture of laughs, suspense, action and sheer fun.  Lewis Gilbert who previously directed You Only Live Twice, does a great job here and keeps the pace of the film moving along brilliantly allowing for some really entertaining action sequences, particularly where Bond fights with Jaws on the train, and he uses a lampshade to electrocute Jaws's teeth!  There is also the impressively staged opening sequence where Bond after a quick tussle with Soviet agents on the snowy hills, skis off a cliff and he opens his Union Jack parachute (the stunt itself was performed by stuntman, Ricky Sylvester, who was paid $30,000 for it).  And then there are the sequences where Bond is chased by Jaws on land, while being persued by an armed helicopter, before he drives his Lotus Esprit into the sea and eventually emerges back on the shore, before dropping a fish out of his window in front of bewildered onlookers!  

Performance wise you could definitely argue that things here are a bit of a mixed bag, starting with Roger Moore, while he isn't the greatest actor of all time, he was for me one of the best Jame Bonds, as he brought a great mix of charisma, dry humour and a smooth physicality to the role (at least I think so, but you can all disagree!).  Roger Moore himself here I think got Bond just right, as he said himself after making The Man With The Golden Gun that he felt the filmmakers were still trying to make him more like the gritty Sean Connery type of band, wich Moore felt uncomfortable about.  But here we do get Moore's Bond played just right in the tone, with a cheeky dry sense of humour, but also with right amount of seriousness.  And he get's plenty of amusing lines, especially in the scene where he fights with Jaws at the building site in Egypt, as the big fella takes a swing with a piece of wood and brings down half the worksite on himself.  Bond afterwards wipes his hands of dust and walks away saying "Egyptian builders!".  There is also his line where he says to Anya after he saves her life from Jaws on the train "he just dropped in for a quick bite!".  Also another of my favourites is when he uses the metal magnet while at Stromberg's base, to pick up Jaws by his metal teeth, and he says "how does that grab you?". 

Of for the other cast members, Barbara Bach is probably the real weak link here, as despite the fact she is undeniably gorgeous as Major Anya Amasova, her performance is almost totally robotic.  Bach delivers pretty much all her lines in a monotone, and quite a few of them are delivered in such a naff way, if it wasn't for her great looks, it makes you wonder why she was cast, especially in the scene where she tends to Bond's injury at the hands of Jaws, and she says "why don't you lie down and let me look at it".  Regardless of her flaws however, Bach does a good job as showing Anya to be a tough and resourceful agent, and it is a good reveal when we see that the KGB's best man (so to speak) is a woman, and while she isn't as physically strong, mentally she is very much Bond's equal.  Curd Jurgens however as the main villain, Karl Stromberg is excellent, as his grandiose voice really lends to the dramatic villanous qualities that Stromberg requires.  Jurgens uses it particularly well in his first scene where he ejects his assistant from a lift into a watery grave where she is eaten by a shark and he says "it was you who betrayed me, and now you will pay the penalty!".  Stromberg also gets some rather dry and sicky witty lines in the film, especially in his first scene where he kills off two scientists who worked for him, as he detonates the helicopter they are on, and he says "in form the next of kin, they were killed in a tragic helicopter accident.  The funeral was at sea!".

But for me the main star of the show is of course Richard Kiel, who plays Jaws, Stromberg's 7 foot tall metal toothed henchmark, who is seemingly indestructable throughout the film.  Jaws's character was in fact partly based on a villain from one of Ian Fleming's books called Horror, who wore metal braces on his teeth.  Kiel has a remarkably imposing presence in the fim, and for the first half he really is quite intimidating, particularly in the scene where he kills Fekkesh at the Pyramids, by viciously throwing him against a pillar and biting his neck.  However after that Jaws does become a bit comical, as he fights with Bond at the Egyptian building site, and as they flee, he picks up a big boulder which he clumsily drops on his foot!  Also rather amusingly Jaws's name is clearly a piss-take from Steven Spielberg's same named film, and this is reflected in the scene near the end where Bond drops Jaws into Stromberg's water tank with the sharks, and Jaws kills the shark with his metal teeth.  Regardless, Jaws still remains one of the most memorable villains in the Bond films, and Kiel does a great job here, and his character was such a hit that he was brought back for the next Bond film, Moonraker.

As for the flaws of the film, well it has to be said that yes it isn't perfect, as for starters, some of the film's problems lie with Christopher Wood's script, which while it is quite witty and entertaining, it also features some cringeworthy dialogue as well, and it also definitely reflects the rather old fashioned and sexist views of the time.  One such scene I cringe at is when Bond meets his contact in Egypt, as he delivers a steely line and a stern look and then says "James Bond, how are you after all these years, my dear fellow!".  Some of Bond's dialogue while it is really amusing its also a bit cringeworthy at times, especially in the scene where he meets the woman who is at Fekkesh's place, and she comes onto Bond and says "is there anything you would like?" and Bond replies "well I had lunch, but I seemed to have skipped desert!".  Another line is when Bond and Anya are at the Kalba club, and Kalba says regarding Anya's dress "seems you have competition, Mr Bond, and judging by the lady's figure, you will find it hard to match!".  Another thing that slightly troubled me is the scene where Bond drives his Lotus into the water and Anya screams as he does it, yet she knows what the car can do, and studied the blueprints of it two years ago, so surely she knows its no surprise that it can go underwater (I guess its just her surprised reaction at the time).

There are also some silly illogical moments especially in the scene, where Bond uses the nuclear warhead to blast open Stromberg's control room onboard the Liparus (this next bit sounds confusing).  In the scene Bond sets the timer on the warhead for 10 seconds, he starts the timer and tries to push away from the warhead (which is strapped to a large silver globe Bond travelled on) using an automatic metal rail, which is not turned on, and he is stuck dangling in the air, but then the baddies in the control room turn the rail back on, and Bond jumps back onto the stairwell just in time.  But given the time it took for the bomb to complete its countdown and the rail to switch on and get him back far enough safely to the stairs, Bond would have been killed in the blast, but again its just silly, how in the Bond films how they continue to cheat time!

Regardless of that however the film technically is terrific, and its easily one of the best looking Bond films in terms of production.  Ken Adam, the production designer (who famously worked on previous Bond films, and some of Stanely Kubrick's films such as Dr Strangelove) created a stunning set for Stromberg's supertanker, the Liparus, which was built at Pinewood Studios.  Derek Meddings, one of the best ever special effects designers (some of his screen credits include Superman and Alien), also designed some brilliant miniatures for the supertanker as well, particularly in the scenes where Bond and the others escape from it.  Location wise the film also looks stunning, as Lewis Gilbert shot the film in various different locations, such as Sardinia, Egypt, Matla and Mount Asgard in Canada (which was used for the opening sequence with Bond being chased on skis).  

And finally I can't leave without saying something about the film's excellent score by Marvin Hamlisch, which was actually nominated for an Academy award, which has a great mixture of suspense, drama and sheer fun in it, and even pays homage to Lawrence of Arabia at one point.  Hamlisch also co-wrote the memorable theme song "The Spy Who Loved Me" which was sung by Carly Simon and to this day it still remains one of the very best Bond theme songs.

So that's it for my pretty exhaustive look at The Spy Who Loved Me, which remains one of my favourite Bond films, and one of the best regarded Bond films in the public eye (and rightly so).

And on that note I'll leave it there.

Here come the fuzz!

OK another film analysis is coming at you just now and so I thought I would follow my review of Shaun of the Dead with a review of Edgar Wright's second film, the action packed comedy, Hot Fuzz, released back in 2006.  So without much ado about much, let's get on with it.

The film follows Sgt. Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) a extremely dedicated and highly decorated police officer in the London metropolitan police force.  However his colleagues think he does his job too well and in doing so makes the rest of them look bad, so he is seconded to a peaceful village, Sandford, in Gloucestershire.  On his arrival, Angel arrests a bunch of underage youths in the local pub, as well as drunken man, Danny (Nick Frost) who soon turns out to be his new fellow police officer partner.  The next day at the station, Angel meets with the rest of the police officers, and the local inspector Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent) who is also Danny's father.  Angel at first struggles to adapt to the slow paced life in Sandford, and his fellow police colleagues mock him as well.  But its not long before a bizzare series of "accidents" happen in the village, starting with the deaths of Martin Blower (David Threlfall) and Eve Draper (Lucy Punch) who are found decapitated on a country road, in supposed car accident (or traffic collision as Angel points out to Danny).  After this another so called accident occurs, when local businessman, George Merchant (Ron Cook) is blown up in his own home.  At this point Angel becomes suspicious of these so called accidents, especially the following day where the local news journalist, Tim Messenger (Adam Buxton) asks to speak privately with him during a village fete, but before Angel can, Tim is decapitated by a falling statue from the church tower.  Angel grows even more convinced that Messenger's death was a murder as were the other deaths, but again his fellow police officers and Frank are all dismissive. 

The following day however, on Danny's birthday, Angel goes into town and goes to the local plant store, where he looks to buy a Japenese peace lilly for Danny (as he owns one himself).  The owner of the store, Leslie Tiller (Anne Reid) reveals to Danny information of a property deal involving, the local supermarket manager, Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton) who goes out to get his note book to record the info, when all of sudden a cloaked figure stabs Leslie in the throat with gardening shears.  Angel chases the cloaked figure through a field but he loses sight of them, as the masked murderer flees. Back at the station Angel is now totally convinced that Leslie was murdered and the other deaths were murders as well, and he goes to the Somerfield supermarket, managed by Skinner, and confronts him.  Skinner naturally denies being involved in any of the deaths, and he let's him "spool through" the supermarket's security video footage which shows that he was there all day.  After this Angel starts to feel disappointed and that he is getting nowhere, but then it dawns on him there could be more than one killer.  Angel takes this theory to Frank who is again dismissive, telling him that the village's former predecessor to Angel suffered the same delusions and drove him round the bend. Frank advises Angel to sleep on it and if he feels the same way in the morning they will do something about it. 

On returning to his hotel room, Angel is attacked by a cloaked figure, who turns out to be the local trolley man, Michael (Rory McCann).  Angel knocks him unconscious with his Japenese peace lilly, and picks up Michael's radio, on which we hear Skinner's voice, Angel pretends to be Michael, and Skinner gives him the command to go to the church.  On arriving at the church we see Skinner and all the other members of the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance (NWA for short) are there, all dressed in black cloaks.  Angel soon arrives and confronts them all, as the NWA are about to capture him, Angel runs for it but is soon stopped by Danny who stabs him in the chest.  Later on Danny drives out of the town and let's Angel out of his car boot, as he reveals that he use a sachet of tomato ketchup to make it look like he had stabbed him.  Angel tries to persuade Danny to come with him and arrest the NWA, but Danny refuses as he says his dad would make it all disappear, leaving Angel with no option but to leave.  Angel however at a petrol station sees a couple of DVDs, Point Break and Bad Boys II (which he and Danny watched earlier in the film) which inspires Angel to head back to the village and confront the NWA and put an end to their reign once and for all.

Hot Fuzz for me is even more entertaining than Shaun of the dead was, as it is the perfect mixture of action and suspense.  Here, the director, Edar Wright, and stars Pegg and Frost make a really amusing homage to all the Hollywood action films you may have seen.  And its nice how they take the rustic film setting of the village, and by the end we see the village has been turned into a wild west shootout as Angel takes on the villanous NWA.  The film also has a really good plot as it has more of a structure to it than Shaun of the dead had, which was basically trying to evade and survive the zombie outbreak, but here we have a mystery which Angel has to solve. 

The film also has some really entertaining action sequences, particularly the big long shootout in the village near the end of the film, where Angel goes back to the town to take down the NWA.  And in those scenes its almost like watching a video game, where the villagers, even the pensioners all have shotguns and and 9mm berettas!  Hot Fuzz also even pokes fun at Shaun of the Dead in a couple of scenes, especially in the scene where Danny and Angel are in the supermarket, and Angel chases a shoplifter, while Danny looks at the DVDs and he drops one, which is the cover of Shaun of the Dead (which is re-named Zombies Party).  The other scene is of course where they are in gardens chasing after the shoplifter, and Angel turns to Danny and says "what's the matter, Danny, haven't you ever taken a shortcut before?" and he proceeds to leap over the garden fences with athletic ease (unlike Shaun does in SOTD). 

The performances in Hot Fuzz are also excellent, with Pegg in the main role as Nicholas Angel doing a great job, playing the straight man, about as straight as you can, as Angel is a man who takes everything he does so seriously, and he can't switch off his job, as he lives and breaths it, and its up to Danny to try and lighten him up.  One of Pegg's most amusing scenes in the film is when he runs after the shoplifter and stops and gasps for breath, and says angrily "you mothers!" and we see a group of mothers pushing prams.  I also like it when Angel puts a pound in the police station's swearbox when he angrily tells them that "Leslie Tillers was fucking murdered!", and when he swears again, Danny puts in a pound for him, and he says "thank you, Danny!".  Nick Frost is also pretty good as Danny, with whom the two of them have a close friendship, which isn't quite homo-erotic, but in the one scene where they share a beer round at Danny's house, Danny tells him how Angel can switch off from his job, and you think he might kiss him! (but of course he doesn't and instead shows him a couple of DVDs).  This gives a funny piece of dialogue where Danny holds up two DVDs to Angel and says "Point Break or Bad Boys II?" and Angel asks "which one would you think I would prefer?" and Danny says "no, which one do you want to watch first?".  Jim Broadbent who is always reliable is similarly excellent here as Frank Butterman, who is so cheerful and benign on the outside, but he harbours a dark secret underneath it all.  Broadbent's funniest moment in the film comes when Frank says to Angel, about his predecessor in Sanford that he had something Angel doesn't, who asks what that is, and Frank says "a great big bushy beard!". 

The supporting cast are also really good, including Billie Whitelaw, as Joyce Cooper, the owner of the hotel that Angel stays at, and the two of them share a moment when she is trying to complete a crossword, and she says "fascist" to Angel, when she is reading out the answer to a clue in the crossword.  And Angel in response says "hag" to her, responding with the answer to another crossword clue, which they actually repeat those words to each other later on during the village gunfight.  Edward Woodward also does a fine job in a small role as the NWA member, Tom Weaver, who monitors the village's security, and is more concerned with a statue-esque clown than the local hoodies, and he says "if we down come down soon on these clowns, we could be up to our balls in jugglers!".  Paul Freeman also does a great job as the local Reverend, Philip Shooter, who tries to remonstrate with Angel when he comes back into the village to fight the NWA, and Angel says "I know what's right and wrong, and I have good grace to know which is which", to which the rev replies "fuck off, grasshopper" and gets out his guns. 

Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall also make a funny double act, as the two police officers, nicknamed the two Andies (Andy Wainright and Cartwright), with Considine being the funniest out of the two of them.  Considine get's some really funny lines especially when he keeps taunting Angel, as he refuses to believe his conspiracy theories about the deaths in the village, and he says "what absolute horseshit!".  And also the scene in the supermarket where the cops fight against the supermarket butchers, who throw knifes at them, and Considine get's covered in a jar of sauce, which is smashed, and he screams in pain, but he says to his partner "its ok, Andy, its only bolognese!".  Also in another funny, the Andies make good use of the swear box installed in the police station, where officers are fined money for saying the f-word, b-word, or c-word.  In smaller roles still, Olivia Coleman is good as the local sultry female police officer, who says she "likes a good midnight gobble!", and Kevin Eldon as the clueless Sgt. Tony Fisher, who on being introduce sits infront of a whiteboard, with a list of words that inadvertently describe him as being "useless" etc. 

And last but not least, Timothy Dalton, who for me steals the show, and is simply brilliant as the villanous Simon Skinner, who makes no bones of his duplicity and even keeps rubbing it in, in front of Angel.  And he keepss making some not so subtle threats to the people who are soon to be bumped off, such as to Eve Draper when he says "Oh, I'm sure if we bashed your head in, all sorts of secrets would come tumbling out!".  Dalton has quite a few other funny lines, especially in his first scene where he runs into Angel, as he jogs with him and says "lock me up! I'm a slasher, a slasher of prices!".  I also like the moment where Angel confronts him in his office which his theory of how he is behind the murders, and Skinner says he was there all day, and he can check the security footage, and he says "do feel free to spool through", and he smiles standing in front of photo of him smiling in the exact same pose!

Director Edgar Wright does a terrific job here in the film, and he keeps the action going at a fast pace, and he does a really good job at directing the action scenes, and he makes great use of the village setting, which was filmed in Wells in Somerset (which is Wright's hometown).  Wright also employs again the use of frantic paced zoom in shots, just like he did in Shaun of the Dead, and there are some really funny moments, particularly in the pub where we see extreme close ups of pints being pulled.  In other shots we get fast cuts of Angel's travel to Sandford by train and taxi, and also the scene where Angel goes into the petrol station near the end and pays for some bottles of paintspray and sunglasses, and he hands over the money, and we see the change given back, and a bit of a cover of a Cornetto ice cream!

And finally worthy of note is the film's score by David Arnold, who did numerous James Bond scores at that time, and its a good one, which has plenty of dramatic passages in there, as well as one or two homages to the cheesy guitar driven action music scene in plenty of Hollywood movies.

So that's it for my rather exhaustive entry on Hot Fuzz, which is a really entertaining British action comedy, and is well worth a watch if you haven't already seen it. 

And I will leave it there. 

 

Shaun's walking dead

OK time for another review, and this is not a blagged one, this is new one (honestly!).  So I've opted for a comedy this time, a British one to precise, and one of the most successful ones in recent years, as its Shaun of the Dead, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who pay homage to the zombie movies and in doing so add in their mix of humour and horror.  And with that let's get the plot summary over with...

Right well the story begins with Shaun (Pegg) a TV salesman, who's life is going nowhere, as his relationship with his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield) is on the rocks, he has a tense time with his flatmate Pete (Peter Serafinowicz) because of his best friend Ed (Frost), who is boorish and deal drugs, and slouches around their flat.  Liz is very dispondent in their relationship as they always spend time going to the same place, the Winchester, which Shaun and Ed's favourite local pub.  After a miserable day at work, Shaun forgets to book a table at a restaurant for Liz, and they end up arguing at her flat, where she dumps him.  Later on that night, Shaun goes back to the Winchester and drowns his sorrows with Ed, and at the end of the night they go home and play electro records loudly, which angers Pete, who comes downstairs and tells them to shut it off, and for Shaun to sort his life out.  Shaun and Ed also notice that Peter has had his hand bandaged, as he says that he was attacked by some crackheads, one of whom bit him. 

The next morning, Shaun wakes up with a blinding hangover, and he goes to the local store an en-route we notice the local area is deserted and as Shaun goes into the local corner shop, there is blood on the floor, and as he walks out there are a couple of zombies hanging around.  When Sean gets home Ed tells him there is a girl in the garden, who soon turns out to be a zombie who attacks Sean, who fights her off.  Shaun and Ed then see another zombie in the garden, so they go into the garden shed and find some tools and bash their brains in.  The two of them go back into the house and watch the TV where its revealed there has been a serious zombie outbreak, and Shaun goes upstairs into the bathroom where he soon finds Pete, naked and now transformed into a zombie.  Shaun and Ed flee the house, taking Pete's car, as they drive over to Shaun's mum' house.  Shaun's mother, Barbara (Penelope Wilton) tells Shaun that his stepfather, Phillip (Billy Nighy) has been bitten by a zombie, and they leave together, taking Philip's Jaguar.  Shaun heads over to Liz's flat and persuades her to go with him, along with her two friends, David (Dylan Moran) and Dianne (Lucy Davis).  And quite soon Philip turns into a zombie aswell, and they escape the car.  They head back to the Winchester, but en-route have to evade the zombies, and Shaun leads the zombies away from the pub to let others enter safely. 

After several hours, Shaun returns to the pub, telling them he managed to give the zombies the sli, but its not long before they make their return.  And to make matters worse its soon revealed that Barbara was bitten by one of the zombies as well, and she eventually turns into one as well, where Shaun is forced to shoot her.  The zombies break their way in and they grab David, who is torn apart by the undead, and in the ensuing chaos Shaun and Liz try to make their escape as the zombie hoards infest the pub, and Ed is bitten by Pete (who comes back in with the other zombies).  Shaun and Liz head down underneath the pub into the cellar, where they are faced with having to go outside and face the zombies one more time, but will they survive???????

Shaun of the dead was a natural progression for Pegg and Frost, and for the director, Edgar Wright, to make their way into films.  Spaced, the critically acclaimed Channel 4 comedy (which Wright directed and starred Pegg and Frost) of course made several references to Resident Evil in one of the episodes of the series, so there was no doubt at some point they had make good on one of the themes in the TV show.  And in Shaun of the Dead we get a great blend of humour and horror, and what's so surprising about the film is it actually succeeds in being both a comedy and a suspenseful horror film, as it get's increasingly intense towards the end, especially in the big showdown in the Winchester when the zombies break in. 

And Shaun of the dead certainly has plenty of funny moments in it, one of which stands out is the scene in the garden, where Shaun is attacked by a zombie checkout girl, where Shaun at first think's she is drunk and trying to get off with her, and Ed quickly goes off and takes a picture with his camera!  There are also several nice touches throughout the film and it makes quite a few references to other films, one of which being Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness, where the zombie Pete reaches out his arm and points at him, and Shaun nervously says "maybe you could.... join us!".  There is also another neat reference to An American Werewolf in London, where Shaun is in the bathroom and he closes the cabinet door, which is left ajar and we see Pete standing behind him.  Another amusing moment is where after Shaun's stepdad has turned into a zombie, he says to Barbara "there is nothing, absolutely nothing left of the man you knew in there!", and the zombie Philip, turns off the loud music in the car (as Philip hated loud music earlier in the film).  And another memorable moment in the film is in the stand-off scene against the zombies at the Winchester, Shaun and the others batter the zombie turned pub owner with pool cues along to the sounds of Queen's "Don't stop me now" playing ont he dukebox.  And a final fav I will mention in this paragraph is when Shaun and Ed drunkenly leave the pub singing "White lines", and a zombie nearby trudges slowly, groaning, and they two men stop and sing a bit of the song, and the zombie groans in time with them! 

Cast wise the film also has some very good performances, and Simon Pegg is particularly good in his main role of Shaun, as he goes from being a lazy salesman, who is directionless in life, to being a heroic stand-up guy who fights an army of zombies.  Pegg even proves very effective in the more dramatic moments of the film especially where he is faced with having to shoot his mother once she has turned into a zombie.  One of Pegg's funniest moments in the film also come when he says to the others to follow him, as they need to go through some house gardens to get to the Winchester, and he makes to jump over a fence, but instead it collapses and he falls into it.  Nick Frost is also quite good in his part of Ed, although he is arguably not as good as Pegg, as his character is pretty obnoxious, although there was a hilarious re-dubbed TV version of some of the scenes from the film on the DVD extras, where instead of saying "prick!" to Pete, he says "prink!".  One of his funniest moments comes in his first scene where he says to Shaun, Liz, David and Diane in the Winchester "Can I get any of you cunts a drink???".  Kate Ashfield is also good as Shaun's long suffering girlfriend who is fed up spending her life in a monotonous relationship, and her funniest moment is when Shaun asks her if she wants to go to the Winchester for the millionth and she replies angrily "NO I DON'T FUCKING WAN'T TO!!". 

In the supporting cast Bill Nighy, who is ever excellent here, also provides a few moments of amusement, especially in the scene where he makes his first appearance in the eletrical store where Shaun works, as he spins around to announce himself.  Penelope Wilton is also very good as Shaun's mother, Barbara, who is quite sympathetic, and she has one or two funny moments as well, especially when Shaun asks her on the phone if she and Philip are alright, and she says "well did run into some people, and they were a bit bitey!".  And finally Dylan Moran is also pretty good as the rather obnoxious David, who has always had a thing for Shaun's girlfriend, Liz, which pre-empts a funny line from Shaun when Liz says to him how he called her friends "a failed actress and a twat", and Shaun (who doesn't like David) replies "I never called Diane a failed actress!".  Moran of course most notably get's gruesomely torn to pieces by the zombies, which is done really well, and is also a pretty stomach churning moment in the film.  Lucy Davis is also fine in her small role as Diane, who at one point all gives them acting classes in how to be a zombie, so they can blend in as they try and get past the undead hoards on the street.  And finally Peter Serafinowicz is good as Pete, Shaun and Ed's flat mate, who has a great scene with them as he angrily tells them that "I have a splitting headache and your stupid hip-hop isn't helping, and the front door has been left open, AGAIN!!!".  This scene rather aptly reveals an unintentional prediction from Ed who says, "its not hip-hop, its electro, next time I see him, he's dead!".

Direction wise, Edgar Wright does a terrific job here, as he keeps the whole film moving along at a fast pace, and he employes some relentless quick cuts and zoom-ins, in the film too convey the frantic nature of the story.  And in doing so there are some really funny moments, especially with his extreme close ups of Shaun putting jam on his toast and opening the fridge!  Wright also employes just the right amount of comedy, horror and suspense as well as the film starts with unsettlingly, and its get more and more intense as it goes on.  And finally a bit on the soundtrack as there are some really good tracks in the film, most notably Blue Wrath's "I Monster", which is used really well at the start of the film as we see the zombies move trolleys in the supermarket.  Other tracks that are well used are of course The Specials "Ghost Town", The Smiths "Panic", Queen "Don't stop me now" and "White Lines (Don't do it) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.  And the film's original music score by Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford is very good, and also quite intense as it conveys the tone of the film really well, and builds up the suspense. 

So that's it for my look at Shaun of the Dead, which rightly gathered much acclaim on its release, and the legendary zombie filmmaker, George A. Romero was so impressed by it, that he asked that Pegg and Frost appear in one of his films (as zombies of course!).  And if you haven't seen it then give it a go, as there is much to enjoy in there.

And that's it for now, until the next one, bye for now.

Alien Anthology Part 3: The bitch is back and... the ressurection

So onto part 3 of my analysis of the Alien Anthology, which will actually combine the last two films together, Alien3 and Alien Ressurection.

So I'll kick off with Alien 3, which is by far the better of the two, and the film re-introduced the concept of the single alien, running rampant and killing everyone, rather than a whole hoard of them.  This time the film takes place on a penal colony, on the planet Fiorina "Fury" 161, of which its inhabitants are all convicted criminals, guilty of rape or murder.  During an electrical fire on the Sulaco, Ripley and the remaining crew (Newt, Hicks and Bishop, who is badly damaged) still in hypersleep are ejected in an escape pod, which lands on Fury 161.  Ripley, who is the only survivor, is soon found by the inhabitants of the planet, and brought to the colony, where there criminals are kept in order by a small staff of prison officials, lead by the warden Andrews (Brian Glover).  Ripley is also treated for her wounds from the crash, by the prison doctor Clemens (Charles Dance) whom Ripley soon becomes romantically involved with.  Ripley however is concerned by the nature of what caused the ejection of her escape pod and Hicks and Newt's deaths.  Due to the nature of Newt's death (drowning in her cryotube) Ripley requests an autopsy of her body to see if there was any possible chance of her being impregnated by an alien, however the results showing nothing.  And at round this time, a dog wandering round encounters what appears to be an alien creature which attacks the dog, which one of the inmates later finds that dog.  Ripley also being the only woman on the colony, is a temptation to some of the criminals, and narrowly avoids being raped by some of the inmates, when their religious leader Dillon (Charles S. Dutton) stops them.  Ripley also soon finds the mangled remains of Bishop's body from the escape pod, and manages to get him working long enough to find out there was indeed an alien onboard.  At the funeral for Newt and Hicks, during the proceedings, the dog elsewhere starts convulse violently, and soon enough a baby alien bursts from its chest.  And before we know it, the alien grows in size and starts to pick off the inmates, leaving the Ripley and the criminals to fight for their own survival against the alien menace. 

Alien 3 is definitely a credible and entertaining sequel and its setting on the prison planet gives the film a welcome moody atmosphere.  The film also features a strong cast with Sigourney Weaver once again playing Ripley perfectly, with the usual mix of toughness and vulnerability.  Particularly among the cast is Charles S. Dutton who gives an excellent performance as the religious leader of the inmates, Dillon, who is the only really spiritual member of the group, and despite his past crimes, utilises his faith to keep himself from temptation and helps Ripley in the latter half of the film.  Charles Dance is also good and plays Clemens, in a very understated way, as the prison doctor with a troubled past, and Brian Glover and Ralph Brown are also very good as the prison officials.

The film despite its unremittinlgy grim tone, also has a few little moments of humour too, especially when Ripley arrives in the mess hall and speaks to Dillon for the first time, who says to her "You don't wanna know me lady, I'm a murderer and rapist of women!", and Ripley replies "well, I guess I must make you nervous."  Ralph Brown's character, Aaron, is also target of ridicule of the inmates as they one time secretly grabbed a look at his file, which reveals his IQ as 85.  There are also some very good scenes in the film, one highlight is where Ripley (PLOT SPOILER HERE!!) finds out she has been impregnated with an alien, and she begs for Dillon to kill her, which he doesn't.  The film's resolve which takes part in the prison's leadworks, is also worthy of mention, where Ripley once again is victim of the company's duplicity where a man, Michael Bishop (Lance Henriksen again), whom apparently created the Bishop android, comes and offers to take Ripley away, where they will operate and remove the alien from her chest.  Ripley then refuses and throws herself into a pit of molten lava just as the alien bursts out her chest, she grabs hold of it, as she and the alien are incinerated in the pit.  Even though this part is in itself ridiculous, in the director's cut, they changed the scene to just have Ripley fall into the pit without the alien bursting out (which works better to be honest).

For me though the films only negatives are perhaps the film's overall tone is so grim, that it threatens to alienate (no pun intended!) the audience, especially with pretty much every single character being killed off, except the gobby inmate Morse (Danny Webb).  I also think, while I guess it is appropriate that there is too much swearing in the film, as it feels like we are at a football match at times, with all the "shut the fuck up, ya fucker!!" etc etc.  But again it is set in a prison so they won't be saying "Oh crumbs, there is an alien in here!", the language has to be raw and it certainly is, I just feel there is a bit too much of it at times.

But despite that the film is definitely helped along by David Fincher's excellent direction, who at the time, made his film debut with Alien 3.  Fincher himself was previously a music video director, and he did a great job here in creating a visually superb, bleak view of the future, also with some great camera work, especially in the scene where the inmates run around the corridors, using themselves as bait to lure the alien into the leadworks.  Fincher at the time, also endured some terrible flak from the executives at 20th Century Fox, as he had to deal with the pressure of schedule and the problems he encountered during the making of the film.  The film itself remains one that Fincher refuses to talk about, so obviously his memories of the film's production were far from pleasant.  Regardless of Fincher's misgivings of Alien 3 and his experiences on it, it was the film that jump started his career in cinema.  

Also worth of note in the film is Elliot Goldenthal's excellent score, which complements the mood and atmosphere of the film perfectly.  One of my favourite passages of music in the film is where Ripley examines Newt's body, and we hear some haunting piano played in the background (perhaps the pianist was sitting playing next to Ripley! ;-)).  Goldenthal's music from them film has also been used many times for various film trailers since, so it definitely has a memorable quality to it.

And with that, that's my Alien 3 critique done with.  Now onto that other one....

So.... Alien Ressurection to be honest in my opinion is undoubtedly the weakest of the four films, and it really doesn't deserve too much analysis, so this will be fairly brief. 

Quickly the plot of the film, which takes place far in the future, where Military scientists have created a genetically enhanced version of Ripley, taken from a sample of her DNA prior to her death.  And with her DNA sample, they have not only recreated Ripley, they have also managed to extrapolate from that a tissue sample of the alien that was in her body at the time.  As a result the scientists are able to create many aliens, which they use for their experiments, however as usual, the humans underestimate the big double jawed menaces, who soon escape and wreak havoc on the ship, but eventually some of the crew escape, however so do the aliens.  Ripley along the way meets up with a crew of mercenaries lead by Frank Elgyn (Michael Wincott), among them the gruff Johner (Ron Pearlman), the parapleigic Vriess (Dominique Pinon), and Annalee Call (Winona Ryder) who is later revealed to be an android sent to kill Ripley.  But of course the events of the aliens wreaking havoc and killing everyone gets in the way of all that, and before we know it, its up to Ripley to help them fight for their survival.

Alien resurrection is definitely the most disappointing film in the series, and with the director being Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who was responsible for such cack as Delicatessen and Amelie, I really didn't expect much from it.  Overall the plot is pretty ludicrous and very disappointing, the effects are also overly gory, and a bit too OTT, even for the Alien series.  In the end, the film offers precious little in the way of subtlety, suspense or even interest, of which there are too many scenes that are just nothing but chronic.  Especially towards the end, where we see Ripley comfort her new alien "son" with the malicious (and at that point cocooned) Dr Gediman (Brad Dourif) looking on in awe.  And the ridiculous scene where one of the ship's crew is about give birth to an alien as he grabs one of the baddies and thrusts he chest against the baddie's head, and the alien bursts through the guy's head.  Just plain daft! 

However to be fair though, Resurrection does have one or two redeeming qualities, the main one again being Sigourney Weaver, who plays the android Ripley, as being somewhat almost aloof, sarcastic and more assured than her original counterpart.  The film also has a couple of good sequences, the best probably being where the mercenaries are being chased by the aliens underwater through the ship, and they have to try and climb their way out.  Also the scene where Ripley meets the mercinary crew and toys with them by playing basketball and refusing to give the ball to Johner. 

But overall Alien Resurrection is a big letdown, and not the best way to (presumably) end the series.  I only hope that maybe they will make another sequel to make up for the lacklustre way in which the series has so far finished up until now.  Because three out of four of the films are definitely worthy, just a shame about the fourth.

Annnnnndd on that note I shall end my analysis of the chest bursting, double jawed menaces.

Scuttle, scuttle, hiss, hiss.  (OK enough). 

Alien Anthology Part 2: Game over, man, game over!

So onto part 2 of the anthology: Aliens, the much anticipated sequel directed by James Cameron in 1986, which on its release was a big hit at the box office, so let's have a look. 

Ok starting with the usual plottery, the film kicks off, many years after the events (57 to be precise) of the first film, with Ripley's shuttle, drifting aimlessly through deep space, which a salvage team eventually find, who board the ship and take Ripley to a space station.  Ripley now, the only survivor of the Nostromo, has to explain her actions to a company commitee who suspend her flight licence as a consequence of her destroying the Nostromo in order to try and kill the alien.  Ripley herself, still suffering from post traumatic stress, has nightmares from her harrowing ordeal on the Nostromo.  However, one of the company execs, also informs Ripley that on the alien planet, now named LV-426, now has colonies of family living there, which has now been made habitable through the implementation of air processing stations.

Ripley herself is horrified at this revelation, and pretty soon after, one of the company execs, Burke (Paul Reiser) visits Ripley and tells her that they have lost contact with the colony, and that they want her to go with a team of marines, as an advisor to help them know what they are up against.  Ripley eventually agrees reluctantly to go with the marines, accompanied by Burke to the planet.  Some of the crew include, the hardened veteran Sgt Apone (Al Matthews), the down to earth Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn), the cocky Hudson (Bill Paxton), the helpful and cool headed android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) and the gutsy and muscly female Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein).

On arriving at the planet, they find one of the colonies to be deserted, with alot of interior damage and acid burns found on the floor decks, however they do find one young girl, Newt (Carrie Henn) who has been left traumatised, as her family were killed by the aliens.  Hudson eventually manages to track the location of the colonists, at an atmosphere processing station, on arriving, the marines to their horror find some of the colonists have been cocooned by the aliens, and pretty soon the aliens themselves emerge and attack and kill most of the marines.  Ripley soon drives the reinforced military vehicle to rescue the remaining marines, and from there they decide on their plan of action what to do.  On trying to hail the APC, their dropship, an alien infiltrates the ship and kills the flight crew, thereby destroying the ship.  Now stranded on LV-426, Ripley and the remaining crew, have to fight for their survival against a hoard of aliens, and find a way to escape the planet. 

Aliens, while certainly not as big a classic as Alien, does actually have alot going for it, mainly Sigourney Weaver's superb performance as Ripley.  Ripley in this film, after the events of the first film, decides to go back and face her fears on the alien planet, and the aliens themselves almost at times seem to fear Ripley herself, as if she is their biggest threat (which she is).  Ripley also is the strongest and toughest character in the film as well, as after the alien attack on the marines, she takes control of the situation.  And Sigourney provides just the right amount of bravery, vulnerability, and stubborness in her terrific performance, which got her an Oscar nomination.  

The film's other characters are also quite memorable, particularly Hudson, who is actually quite annoying in the film, and he is so cocky in the first half, but after the alien attack, he becomes quite cowardly and scared of the alien threat, and Bill Paxton put's in a fine performance as the jumped up marine.  Bishop is also a good character, as after Alien, Ripley has developed a mistrust of androids, and its a nice touch, toward the end when we think Bishop has abandoned Ripley, by leaving in the dropship, with the cooling station about to blow, that he comes back for her.  Hicks, while not the strongest character in the film, does provide a strong, down to earth quality, much needed for the man remaining in command, and in the director's cut, is it hinted that he is attracted to Ripley, although that is mostly cut out from the theatrical release.  Burke is another good character, as he is a sleazy executive, who accompanies the marines to the planet, only really to protect the companies best interests, as the company still wants an alien specimen brought back. 

Although I have to say one of the film's biggest flaws is why the hell would anyone want to live on a barren shithole such as LV-426 anyway???! As its hardly the prettiest of planets is it????  Brutal winds, lovely atmosphere, scenic barren wastelands, oh yeah, families want to live there for sure!!  You could argue that its all about pioneering and branching out by living on other worlds, but they could at least find somewhere better than that!!  It also shows just how far the company will go to endanger so many innocent people, by letting them live on such a dangerous, creature infested planet.

The film of course does have some cringeworthy dialogue as well, as the marines provide so many cheesy moments, and the whole hoo-rahhh, gung-ho mentality of the marines is almost embarrassing to watch at times.  One particularly cringeworthy scene is where Hudson shows off to Ripley at what high-tech weaponary they have "high particle beam phalanx!! Whoahh!! Fry up city with this puppy!".  Also Newt, while naturally just a little girl and you would expect to say some pretty child-like things gives another cringing line when Ripley jokes with her about her doll, Casey, having bad dreams, "Ripley, Casey doesn't have bad dreams, because she is just a piece of plastic".  Nonetheless the film does have some memorable and funny lines too, such as when Ripley angrily knocks a tray of cornbread out of Bishop's hand, to which one of the marines quips "I guess she don't like the cornbread either!".  And Hudson mocks Vasquez for her muscly physique, "hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?" to which Vasquez replies "Nope, have you??".  We also can't forget other classics such as Ripley when she faces off the queen alien near the end who is about to kill Newt "Get away from her you bitch!!", and Hudson's "That's it, man, game over, man!  Gamer over!!".  

The set design again, model effects creature effects, are all terrific, and James Cameron effectively brings the barren alien planet to life once more.  James Horner score is also pretty good, and brings the menace and fear to the fore, especially in the main Aliens theme, and the memorable titles, where
the word......

A L I E N S..........

slowly appears.  Stan Winston also contributed a great deal to the special creature make-up for the aliens, and deserves much credit for enhancing the design of the aliens, and this time, we have not just one guy in a suit, we have six!

And quickly a word about James Cameron's direction as despite a few of the film's already mentioned shortcomings, he does a terrific job at building up the tension throughout, especially as its quite a long long build up to the first attack, and keeps it going.  I also don't think there was another director out there that could have pulled off such a feat as bringing a worthy sequel to a great original, even if it doesn't scale the same heights.  Cameron also did incredibly well in producing such a film, under great pressure from a cynical British crew, who at the time slagged off Cameron, for his inexperience and work ethic, as the film at the time was made at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.  This was also similar to what George Lucas endured while making the orignal Star Wars.

Rrrrright so that's my critique of Aliens, its a fine sequel, worthy movie, and if you haven't seen it, give it a try, I can't guarantee its for everyone, but it definitely worth a go, if you are after a few frights and thrills an that.

Cue part 3.....