Blazin’ Top 10: Most Anticipated of 2010…

So as we approach the end of 2009, and as ever the film world throws up a number of high profile releases vying for Oscar glory, I look forward to what 2010 brings, both those big scale blockbusters and the smaller low profile films that creep up on us like this year’s District 9 and (500) Days of Summer…

So with Oscar in mind I’d mark Clint Eastwood’s Invictus as both my number 10 and my tip for awards glory, following Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) and Francois Pienaar’s (Matt Damon) efforts to unite a country during the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa…

Something highly unlikely to be troubling Oscar is the return of Freddy Krueger at 9, a reboot/remake/rehash of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, this piques my interest because of the involvement of William Earle Haley as Freddy, so good in Watchmen let’s hope he can bring the franchise scarily into the modern age…

Number 8 presents us with a bit of an oddity, Jonah Hex, a blending of some of my favourite genre’s, a western with supernatural elements based of a comic book, and starring people of the moment Josh Brolin and the ever so slightly hot Megan Fox…what’s not to like!

The latest Scott/Crowe team up comes crashing in at 7, this is their fourth collaboration and a new take on that classic tale Robin Hood, Crowe plays Hood and this promises to give us a more historical grounding, Gladiator in medieval England if you like…

After the action spectacle of The Incredible Hulk director Louis Letterier takes on the Titans at my number 6, not the American Football team but the Godly behemoth’s of The Clash of the Titans that include Medusa, the Kraken, and judging by the trailer lots of giant scorpions, Avatar’s Sam Worthington stars as Perseus while Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson square up as Thor and Hades…

No list of exciting films would be complete without a Simon Peg/Nick Frost team up and 2010 brings us Paul, at 5, not a title that will likely have you too excited but when I say that it follows two comic-geeks across America accompanied by an alien, the titular Paul, voiced by none other than Seth Rogen, and with many of the other Apatow crew present, this could be THE comedy of next year…

I had to include at least one animated film and, let’s be honest, what else other than Toy Story 3, at number 4, is going to be the best animation of next year, the gang all return in an effort to survive being dumped in a nursery after Andy leaves for college, but guess what, he takes Woody with him, expect a rescue mission…and a villainous Hedgehog voiced by Roger Moore!

Robert Downey Jr. Makes his inevitable appearance at my number 3, Iron Man 2 may well have slipped in at the top spot yet the hype machine is rather quiet thus far, what we have seen looks great and with Mickey Rourke as Russian Villain Whiplash and Scarlett Johanssen as The Black Cat expect anticipation to build up fast…

Taking a break from Batman related stories Christopher Nolan is working hard on his next opus, Inception, given this is his follow up to The Dark Knight, he could be making a film about a carrot and I’d be excited. So far we know this is a psychological thriller set in the “sphere of the mind”, check out the trailer to whet your appetite and just look at the cast, DiCaprio, Cottilard, Gordon-Levitt, Paige, Watanabe, Murphy…excited yet?

However at number one, for nostalgic reasons if nothing else, is Joe “Smokin’ Aces” Carnahan’s remake of The A-Team. The casting is inspired (just check out that photo!) and seeing Liam Neeson chomping on a cigar as Hannibal has tipped me into geek heaven. Add to that District 9’s Sharlto Copley as Murdock, Bradley Cooper as Face and UFC star “Rampage” Jackson as B.A. Oh and with some Jessica Biel to balance out all that testosterone, don’t you just love it when a plan comes together!

And just to finish…one to miss…Sex and the City 2…say no more!

 

Blazin’ Review: 2012

Starring: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Woody Harrelson, Oliver Platt

Director: Roland Emmerich

Writer(s): Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser

Cinematography: Dean Semler

Original Score: Harald Kloser, Thomas Wander

Running Time: 158 Mins.

Is it enough to say a film is what it is? The exact thing I was left wondering to myself as I walked from director Roland Emmerich’s latest apocalyptic filmic experience, 2012. Yes, he who presented us with the end of the world not once not twice, but thrice before (if you include the risible Godzilla…or even four with last years horrendous 10, 000 BC) comes at us again with his biggest story of mass destruction yet. So where Independence Day had aliens invade and The Day After Tomorrow melted the polar ice-caps flooding us all, this one sees something called solar flares heating up the Earth’s crust, causing the plates to move…. 

Basically, to cut a long story short, here we have the occurance of everything from every disaster film you can possibly imagine, the capsizing boat from Poseiden, the giant volcano from, well, Volcano, collapsing building’s from any number of films and giant earthquakes just for good measure. Knowing the director and subject matter you can also likely guess the setup, and you would be right, a band of survivors assemble, overcoming their differences, some are related, some have relatives left behind, some perish along the way, some reconnect with their children, you name the cliche, chances are it’s in there.

So a multitude of freak disasters and a motley crew of survivors, so far so same-y and I’m afraid to say that is really all there is, and therein lies the problem. 2012 has never pretended to be anything more than that, and I have a feeling all went into it expecting to make nothing more, but we deserve something more, some surprises along the way and relying on effects alone nowadays is simply not enough. Audiences have seen this kind of CG mayhem all too often before and with better acting and better direction (War of the Worlds for one). All of which means that as good as the effects look, there is no substitute for something, well, real, even if that real aspect is the human emotion.

I won’t hammer on about the acting too much as to be honest 2012 was never about the acting, though that said when your film is bloated to over 2 and a half hours we deserve much more than the estranged father/son drivel and the leaving daddy behind rubbish 2012 presents us with. Thank heavens for Chiwetel Ejiofor and Oliver Platt, one injecting some humanity in an interesting character and the other providing the kind of pantomime villainy that helped make the water-treading time span flow much more quickly. Offset against the absolute dullness of John Cusack and Amanda Peet they are pure joy. And why Woody Harrelson decided to turn up for a near-cameo as a conspiracy theory nut is anyones guess!

At the very least casting a charismatic lead would have helped and though Ejiofor is onscreen as much as Cusack it is Cusack’s estranged father we are meant to relate to, the thing is at no point does he look interested, clearly there for the paycheck alone he is an actor desperately in need of a role to regain his street-cred!

Padded out around the core survivors are a range of bit part-ers, far too much time is spent on building up minor side characters that add little to nothing making the pace drag furthermore, and worst of all they are built up to be obliterated in seconds and never mentioned again, this is the fate the director is surely hoping befalls his audience for the word of mouth on this is not going to go far… 

VERDICT

So, 2012 is what it is and that is no good thing, tired, bloated and one big cliché, piqued only by a couple of fun performances that save this from total ignominy, Emmerich needs to learn that CG destruction alone is no longer exciting, especially stretched over what feels like a lifetime!

 

Blazin’ Review: Jennifer’s Body

Starring: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, Adam Brody, J. K. Simmons, Kyle Gallner

Director: Karyn Kusama

Writer: Diablo Cody

Cinematography: M. David Mullen 

Original Score: Stephen Barton, Theodore Shapiro

Running Time: 102 Mins.

That Jennifer’s Body is from the writer of Juno at first seemed like a big ploy to get the oh-so-cool kids that would have thrived off that film’s hip, and deeply over-rated, scripting in at any cost, but I knew thought I knew better, I thought the similarities would be non-existent in terms of both tone and execution. How wrong I was, this could basically be called “Juno-The Dark Year”, with Mamma Mia and Mean Girls Amanda Seyfried standing in for Ellen Paige, which to be honest gives it one up on Juno from the off, given Paige’s irritating delivery of the supposedly cleverly ironic lines. But let’s be honest this film isn’t about Amanda Seyfried, just look at the poster!

So yes, what of the much maligned (by critics at least) Megan Fox, well she looks as damn hot as you would expect and is given ample opportunity to show off her “talents” but what of any actual talent, well, she is clever and for that you have to give it to her. Playing off the dumb beauty tag she seems to have adopted since starring in the Transformers franchise and never likely to win any awards, she at least plays to her strengths, ironic knowingness is her game and in that field she runs amok. Bouncing between good-looking but emotionally weak school hottie and evil spawn of Satan, Fox exudes charm and hits all the right notes, coming across as creepy when needed and delivering Diablo Cody’s lines pitch perfect. So a revelation to be sure and thankfully worthy of more than just being oggled!

Seyfried compliments Fox well and as a pairing they are hugely watchable, playing of one-another strengths and weaknesses, but what lets them down IS the script. Cody desperately wants to be the female Tarantino, borrowing from a horror film here, referencing a teen film there, snatching dialogue from this, and echoing something that happened then, it all becomes rather tiresome and fits together so incoherently it frankly seems messy and undisciplined, simply highlighting the fact that Cody has no original ideas of her own.

In its attempt to prove cool and trendy it feels overly knowing, to self-aware of its reverential nature and all too proud of its postmodern structure and style, this kind of self-awareness can work a dream, Kevin Williamson knows this all too well. And horror is a fine genre to work within but you need focus, something Jennifer’s Body doesnt have and come the finale I had a yearning for Williamson’s The Faculty which this seems to rip the whole final third from, albeit with much less impact.

Fox has said she is proud to be in a film written by a woman, directed by a woman and starring two strong female leads, this really stands for nothing as there is no message about female strength in here, or any message of any sort, only that all the male characters are pushover’s or Devil-worshippers, characterisation needs to be a little deeper to mean something beyond being weak willed, and the made up slang just made me think Cody was craving her youth again, at least in a film like Brick it had a purpose and place, with this and Juno it is simply grating.

VERDICT

Coming as something of a shock, Megan Fox CAN act and is self-aware enough to carry of the rather scatter-shot dialogue of writer Diablo Cody, but it is in Jennifer’s Body’s script that the film falls apart. Trying far too hard to be hip and trendy it fails miserably, leaving the great fun performances to carry you through a film far too self-aware for its own good.

 

Blazin’ Review: Harry Brown

Starring: Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Iain Glen, Liam Cunningham, Ben Drew, David Bradley

Director: Daniel Barber

Writer: Gary Young

Cinematography: Martin Ruhe

Original Score: Ruth Barrett, Martin Phipps

Running Time: 103 Mins.

The Punisher, Death Sentence, The Last House on the Left (2009), The Brave One, and the upcoming Law Abiding Citizen, all films of varying quality but with one thing in common, they are quintessentially films that would fall under the banner of vigilante, it would be quite easy to pool Harry Brown with these, after all it concerns one man’s revenge mission against those that brutally murdered his best friend, but two things raise Harry Brown’s game above all the aforementioned, firstly (and most obviously) Michael Caine and secondly the lensing of first time director Daniel Barber.

Opening with a startling phone-shot segment showing the initiation of a young teen into a gang of “hoodies”, it culminates in one of the most shocking scenes you will likely see all year, marked out by its likeness to many of the gun crime events we all too often hear about on the news, but never really get a true sense of in terms of the cruel callousness of them. This sets Harry Brown’s stall early, it is not a film for the faint of heart or those adverse to the brutalities of “real life”, forget the unconvincing violence of Saw and its brethren, this is how it is for many living in these conditions.

The stamp of a quality Caine performance usually pervades through even the worst kind of tosh, given he chooses to quite openly star in anything that lands on his desk in order to pay the bills, but when he gets a script this meaty (which along with Is Anybody There? has provided him with an excellent year) there is a every chance that Oscar glory should, and could, beckon. Starting as a broken widower he makes the transition to what is effectively an avenging angel, when the largely useless police fail to act and help his old friend Len (David Bradley).

Spending time spying on the gang of drug dealers, pimps and thugs provides Brown with the opportunity to take them down one by one, if it all sounds rather Death Wish like, it isn’t, Brown is much more human than any of the vigilante’s we have seen on-screen lately (he IS a pensioner after all!) and there is a sense of regret in the action he is having to take. Action’s which culminate a little to close to home. The build up of tension is often unbearable, helped along by a great score from Barrett and Phipps, with a scene in a crack den being the pinnacle of this, as Brown lets his ex-SAS soldier side out of the closet, so to speak.

Like this years Fish Tank the portrayal of the all too stereotypical council suburb is used to great effect, Barber is quoted as saying he sees Harry Brown as a modern western and on that could he has succeeded, melding the sensibilities of the western with a gritty all to uncomfortably real world that we live in now. With some stunning shots and the ability to keep a great pace I would expect if he continues at this level we have the next Shane Meadows in our grasp, high praise indeed for a first timer!

If there is a fault to be found it is in the lack of characterisation in the support, Emily Mortimer’s police Inspector is far too meek and withering to come across as real and Iain Glen as her superior is a cardboard cut-out ignorant police chief, while the various lowlife’s Caine visit’s his revenge on have no redeeming features what-so-ever, meaning the film’s final message, that these gangs are how they are for fun with no cause (unlike, say, the IRA), does hit but you can’t help feeling that it does dehumanize those who are clearly not quite that two-dimensional.

VERDICT

Harry Brown is a brutal and brutally realistic account of the gang-culture we are in the grip of, not easy watching for sure, but between Caine’s impeccable acting and the stunning direction of Barber this is a visceral treat not to be missed.

 

Blazin’ Review: The Men Who Stare At Goats

Starring: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Lang

Director: Grant Heslov

Writer(s): Peter Straughan, Jon Ronson

Cinematography: Robert Elswit

Original Score: Rolfe Kent

Running Time: 93 Mins.

The Men Who Stare At Goats has huge potential, beginning with the fact that in watching the trailer I was mistaken in thinking this was the latest Coen zany comedy following in the footsteps The Big Lebowski and O, Brother Where Art Thou, starring those two film’s key players and with a tone seemingly very Lebowski-esque in its surreal representation of an almost truth. So how shocked I was to learn this has nothing to do with the Coen’s and is in fact directed by Grant Heslov (the villain from True Lies no less!) and therefore it comes as no surprise that it was deeply disappointing given the expectations.

Clooney is usually great value for money when he does zany, but here he looks quite confused, playing it straight to an extent when his character really needed a little more craziness, it concerns the apparently true story of a U.S. Army initiative setup to train a set of troops in the new-age ways of psychological warfare. This includes driving blind-folded, running through walls, and the titular killing goats by simply staring at them. Surely ripe territory for a great satirical comedy, but alas Heslov’s unsteady hand seems unsure of which way to jump. Never funny enough to be a proper comedy and nowhere near as clever as it needed to be to make some comment on warfare, it’s a film stuck very unfortunately between two stalls.

There are funny moments, mostly involving Bridges daft training sessions delivered through dance and blind-folded driving, and a lot of LSD! But linking these flashbacks is a road movie section where Clooney’s ”retired” psych spy Lyn Cassady is accompanied by journalist Bob Wilton across the Iraq deserts in a search for a story on Bob’s part and something more on Lyn’s. Sadly, given Ewan McGregor is as good as he has been in a long time, the whole thing feels like a desperate attempt at trying to link all the events together in a coherent whole. It works, nothing is confusing as such, it just doesn’t work in terms of consistent entertainment and pacing.

Many well-known faces show up for a few scenes including  Stephen Lang (soon to be seen in Avatar), Robert Patrick and Kevin Spacey, though none of them are given anything significant to do, Spacey is downright embarrassing in the villainous role, you half expect him to start swirling his moustache and giving a Dr. Evil style laugh. It is in sweeping gestures like this that clash with the apparent attempts to make some observation as to how absurd the whole idea was. Come the film’s close when there is an attempt at some deep message about self-worth the likelihood is that you will have stopped caring.

VERDICT

The Men Who Stare At Goats is a confused and deeply disappointing squandering of a potentially great idea, some amusing sight gags (mostly involving the great jeff Bridges) save it from being a total waste of time and a good performance from McGregor is always a welcome thing, but the negatives far outweigh anything good, proving trailer’s really shouldn’t promise so much…

 

Blazin’ Review: A Christmas Carol (3D)

Starring: Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Bob Hoskins, Colin Firth, Cary Elwes

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Writer(s): Robert Zemeckis

Cinematography: Robert Presley

Original Score: Alan Silvestri

Running Time: 96 Mins.

The term “visionary film-maker” is one that is bandied around a lot, but I would argue if any director can fit that particular description it would be Robert Zemeckis, long has he pushed cinematic boundaries of both story and technique, bringing us films as diverse yet as original as Back to the Future, Cast Away, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forrest Gump. All contain, apart from anything else, a technical advancement of some sort and while there is nothing new as such on this take of Dickens’ classic tale it simply forges ahead with the motion-capture technique’s he has pioneered since technologically great but otherwise poor Polar Express, followed by the much better and more adult orientated Beowulf and now this latest attempt at refining the technique and ironing out past criticisms.

So to turn a critical eye on Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol (under the moniker of Disney which mean’s very little given Disney’s welcome turn to dark matter), there are two things to consider, firstly does this address the problems many (including myself) have with the whole mo-cap technique, and the “dead eyes” condition, and secondly is it actually a worthy adaptation that offers something new to the tale?

Well the answer to the mo-cap problems is an unfortunate yes and no, the dead eyes look really is something that seems impossible to get over, not so much in Scrooge who I’ll come to in a minute, but more with the characters played by Bob Hoskins, Colin Firth and Gary Oldman, all looking like strange waxy versions of themselves, never “real” enough to convince as actual people yet stuck in between in a place that makes them not quite cartoon and exaggerated enough. Carrey, though, in all 7 of his roles including Scrooge at various ages and the three ghosts, overcomes all issues by making his characters real unique creations, it would be a fool to expect Carrey couldn’t do this and given his acting ability extending beyond mere facial movement he allows his body to exaggerate so that he becomes what mo-cap should really be used to create. A way whereby an actor can fully become a character by acting through voice, appearance and movement.

Gary Oldman achieves this to some extent in his Ghost of Marley but the uninspired humble portrayal of a portly Bob Cratchit made me long for Kermit the Frog. If the whole film existed using more exaggerated design of that used for Scrooge there would have been no problems on that front, so halfway there at least Bob! It is a telling sign that Monster House (produced by Zemeckis) was the best use of the technique so far but setting the stall somewhere between Beowulf’s darkness and Polar Express festive spirit was a good idea.

But what of the beloved tale itself, seen so many times only a hermit would not know the story, and if this is anyone’s first foray into the world of Dickens’ they are really in for a treat. Much of the dialogue is pulled directly from the novel and it is a deeply faithful adaptation, the portrayal of London on show is as sumptuous as anyone who has seem the scenery in Zemeckis past two film’s would expect. Brought scarily to life at times it is in these scenes that the 3D aspect is at its best, the camera swooping above rooftops and under gutters, if you could class a cinema experience as a rollercoaster ride, this is it.

Though that in itself presents a slight problem, as the story builds through the ghostly encounters the need for an all action ending was apparently sought meaning we have a breakneck race through the streets of London as a shrunken Scrooge is chased by the horses of Hell and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. Not quite what Dickens’ had in mind when he wrote the finale I expect! So while it does offer a showcase for the technology it feels slightly out of place where a more intimate encounter (like that in A Muppet Christmas Carol) would have been more welcome, given Carrey’s fantastic performance.

VERDICT

Robert Zemeckis A Christmas Carol is worthy adaptation that lend’s itself to the mo-cap technique well, with Carrey’s Scrooge and the Ghosts being great cinematic creations, though the urge to strive for “realism” in other aspects and an out-of-place breakneck finale let it down slightly, that said I doubt this year will see a better festive offering!

 

Blazin’ Review: An Education

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Olivia WIlliams, Dominic Cooper, Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina

Director: Lone Scherfig

Writer(s): Nick Hornby, Lynn Barber

Cinematography: John De Borman

Original Score: Paul Englishby

Running Time: 95 Mins.

Upon watching An Education throughout I had but two thought’s running through my head, firstly that it was really rather good overcoming my expectations that I was in for just another British coming of age kitchen sink drama and secondly, and more surprisingly, that The Daily Mail hasn’t had more to say about the rather unethical central romance that in many director’s, and indeed writer’s, hands could have felt rather more seedy.

Written by Nick Hornby, best known for his novels including About A Boy and High Fidelity, An Education is adapted from a memoir and somewhat glamourises it from what I have read elsewhere, that in itself proves not to be a problem though as spun out as it is, we could not have wished for a more fulfilling film. Yes it is essentially a coming of age drama but there are hugely enjoyable layers with characters written so that they are not just grittily real as is often the case, but have a sense of fun and warmth to them, often lacking in films such as this.

The talking point as far as performance goes has to be newcomer Carey Mulligan, playing the 16 year old Jenny, she portrays Jenny not as a lost waif but as a strong willed person open to the experience of life, torn between the prospect of getting into Oxford to read English (as her father pushes towards) and the want to do soemthing more with her life than get old and boring, so to seemingly help make this decision enter’s David into Jenny’s life, a charming man twice Jenny’s age, it is to Sarsgaard’s credit that manages to always make David likeable and never creepy. Even when he asks Jenny to remove her top to “have a look”, there is the sense that this is a respectful man, however there is always that underlying sinister feeling that there is more to David than the surface charm would suggest.

As An Eductaion moves along at a brisk pace, it does so in a way that keeps you interested, and while you always have a feeling that David’s secrets will out, and they do, it doesn;t feel like a join the dots exercise while never really pushing any boundaries or leading to a twist as such. The film does not appear to frown upon Peter for his (eventually rather large) misgiving’s but it equally doesn’t seem to want us to make a judgement call on Jenny either, that she is sucked into Peter’s glamorous world that includes friends Danny (Cooper) and Helen (Rosamund Pike) is totally believeable especially given the lenths they will go to to achieve the lifestyle.

If the film has an issue it is that David’s charm would have won over Jenny’s parents quite as easily as it appears too, after only two meetings she is allowed to go on weekends away to Paris, seemingly because he is polite and well spoken and apparently has money, so while Molina is brilliant as Jenny’s father his performance is somewhat undermined by the disbelief I felt as the relationship between David and the parent’s wasn’t shown to be a little more sunstantial than just the wow factor. That said, if it were covered in mroe detail the sense of pace may have been lost for a largely needless plot expansion. 

VERDICT

An Education doesn’t break boundaries, but what it does do is present a solid coming of age drama with a hugely enjoyable edge, and overcoming a rather large taboo by making its character’s both believeable and warm despite theri scruples.

 

Blazin’ Review: Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

Starring: John C. Reilly, Chris Massoglia, Josh Hutcherson, Patrick Fufit, Willem Dafoe, Jessica Carlson

Director: Paul Weitz

Writer(s): Paul Weitz, Brian Helgeland

Cinematography: J. Michael Munro

Original Score: Stephen Trask

Running Time: 108 Mins.

Since the phenomenal success of Harry Potter, “children’s” novels have been snapped up left right and centre by studios, after all if the book is one in a series, the potential is there for many films and a very solid cash cow. Sadly not all of these book-to- film adaptation’s have worked, some, like The Golden Compass, failed to make the big money needed to warrant forging ahead with a second, some have just about scraped by, the Narnia series which has shifted studios for next chapter The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and some have been a flyaway success, Twilight being the most blatant recent example. So it comes as no big surprise that Cirque Du Freak: The Vampires Assistant is both based on a series of books and features, unsurprisingly given the title, vampire’s much like Twilight.

The similarities with the Twilight series do not end there, there are two warring factions of vampire (good and bad), and a werewolf and a teenage lead whom looks, coincidentally I’m sure, a lot like Edward (R Patz) of Twilight fame. Thankfully though superficial similarities are all the films (and franchises) share in common, where Twilight (the film) was dark and brooding with an abundence of teenage angst The Vampire’s Assistant is refreshingly light and fun, with a knowing great line in sarcastic humour, courtesy of the great John C. Reilly.

Yes a film that isn’t dark, it’s such a relief to be able to write that seeing as the criteria for any film nowadays’ seems to be darkness with added despair, sadly this has become not a byword for edgy, as once was the case, but for dullness, see Twilight and the later Pirates of the Caribbean for two examples. Film’s it would seem have lost their sense of fun, and lost the abilty to offer great escapism however it is in rediscovering this sense of fun that The Vampire’s Assistant succeeds.

That the cast have a blast in their freakish parts goes a long way to enhancing the mood, John C. Reilly is the stand out as Krepsley, the good vampire who turns 16 year old Darren, newcomer Chris Massoglia, into one of his kind, Reilly who has always been a great character actor gets his Jack Sparrow moment here, and has some good sparring going on with Massoglia and in a cameo role Willem Dafoe as a fellow head bloodsucker. Padding out the cast are the likes of Hayek and Fugit who work well with their very limited material.

The effects are used sparingly but to great effect, with the use of make up over CGI always great to see as it gives a great feel of authenticity and genuine creepiness, in fact the werewolf here is likely one of the freakiest designs your ever likely to find.Sadly the limited running time and attempt to squeeze so much into it means a lot of character’s are simply passers-by, aside from Reilly there is no-one that becomes particularly memorable with two lead boys, Hutcherson and Massoglia,  largely out acted by whoever they are on-screen with, thankfully this poses little problem as here they both act merely as spectators, providing us a view into the freaky world of vampires and other such oddities.

For all its lightness and fun The Vampires Assistant has one major flaw, and that is very much like The Golden Compass it feels like one long setup for a much more epic second and possibly third, or fourth film, building up to Darren’s transformation it plays out like an origin story that has a very rushed third act simply to provide some closure to it as a stand-alone film, sadly it doesn’t work as it feels just that, rushed and anti-climatic.

Having not read the books I think thats attempting to squeeze the plot of the first three novels in the series into one film was not the wisest move, and can’t help feeling that in sticking to one there may not have been as many plot peaks but the story would have worked better as a stand-alone piece. This means that not only does the pacing feel slightly amiss from an hour in but also we are left looking forward to a sequel that likely won’t happen due to this film’s largely poor reception stateside, which once more, like The Golden Compass before it, is a great shame given the potential. 

VERDICT

It is great to see a film that is quite simply fun to watch, especially where John C. Reilly is concerned, it’s just a shame that the attempt to spin Cirque Du Freak: The Vampires Assistant into an origin story rather than a stand alone piece means the final third feels rushed in an attempt at kick-starting yet another franchise. 

 

Blazin’ Review: This Is It

Starring: Michael Jackson, Kenny Ortega, Orianthi

Director: Kenny Ortega

Writer: N/A

Cinematography: Kevin Mazur

Original Music: Michael Jackson

Running Time: 112 Mins.

This, Michael Jackson fans, I am afraid to say, is not It, if what you were expecting was something deifinitive that gave you the full immersive experience of the King of Pop. If on the other hand you aren’t a fan of the man or even music This Is It will offer nothing aside from more poison to fuel your dislike, despite displaying a slightly more real and less media-whorish vision of the man within. I have to admit that I am a fan of Jackson, always have been, not I assure you, a die-hard fan that wept upon his death or stood his corner upon the accusations of child-abuse etc. more one who appreciated his worth as a genius of both music and dance, the stage was udoubtedly where Jackson seemed most at ease.

So it is rather fitting that his last moments (other than the macabre shots seen in Hello magazine) were those caught in the preparations that ran up to his “final curtain” (as the man himself put it) residency at Londons O2 Arena, edited down from over 100 hours of footage This Is It simply represents just that, a heavily edited version of rehearsals intercut with the CGI heavy videos that would have played on the large screen behind Jackson, meaning this is far from a definitive piece of cinema and will likely leave most either gravely disappointed that they never got to see the concert proper, or that the guy was, as many accused him of being, a “freak” to be forever misunderstood as the most post-modern of celebritie’s miles ahead of most in his approach to the media.

This film plays through song by song, presumably in the setlist the concerts were to be, each intercuts between Jackson dancing and singing, opinions (all glowering and back-slapping) of the man and the setup and shooting of the CGI heavy set pieces for the likes of Thriller, Earth Song and They Don’t Really Care about Us. As an insight to the concert it is undeniably frustrating they will obviously never happen, a slight drawback when your singer is dead!, considering the amount of money that was to be invested, indeed even at the early stages what was planned looked deeply impressive.

Jackson himself evidently still had it, but so often looks on the edge of cracking, still dancing as much as ever yet showing a frailty (he’s rake thin and irritable) that maybe comes from the fact that he was 50, but is also hindered by what we now know about his final days and the addictions. Is it his perfectionist personality, a trait he has always displayed? Or a tic of something more sinister? it is in questions like this you wonder whether the film was genuinely a good idea, apart from in the money-men’s eyes.

Also for an experience that should feel pacey and exciting it plods all to often, with the editing working as both hindrance and benefit, benefit because the fact that there were only ever one of two cameras so they could capture Jacksn in a more “real” and less edited way but a hindrance in that this often feel slow and deathly dull, there are only so many times you can watch the “moonwalk” or the “crotch-grab” and think “wow it’s MJ, he’s still got it!”. Sadly the spark of live performance get’s lost in translation making for a not particularly gripping film.

On the plus side, and it is an admittedly rather large plus given the man in question, This Is It presents the closest you will ever get to actually hearing some down-right classic songs in a big scale concert style setup (by that I mean a cinema auditorium), and hearing Thriller and Billie Jean to name but two classics writ that large is a liberating experience in itself. Some of the set pieces devised for the songs are also magnificent especially that for Thriller and despite its terrible crassness the 3d rainforrest for Earth Song is fantastically grand culminiating with a digger stopping behind Jackson on stage, and whether you find that too cringe-worthy will ultimately suggest whether this film is at least worth 2 hours of your life, or not.

VERDICT

Far from the definitive MJ experience This Is It at least provides his classic songs on a big scale, but that will come as little solace to those expecting either something more revealing or those looking forward to the concerts that were to never be, so very much an exercise in money making then!

 

Blazin’ Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Starring (the voices of): George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Brian Cox, Willem Dafoe

Director: Wes Anderson

Writer(s): Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach

Cinematography: Tristan Oliver

Original Score: Alexandre Desplat

Running Time: 87 Mins.

The film’s of Wes Anderson fall into that quiry category that transcend’s the boundaries of indie/mainstream film-making, he has a visual style as oblique as his scripts and it is fair to say his film’s certainly do not connect with everyone yet star enough big name talent to get him an audience. Like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry he has crafted out a little niche in Hollywood where quirk has become a byword for success, both audience, critical and with enough box office clout to continue working within their own unique visions. True modern-day auteurs if you will.

So while on the surface it may seem a little odd that these men are tackling beloved children’s stories (Jonze long awaited Where The Wild Things Are will be out very soon) it is less unusual than it may seem when you really think about it, stories like Wild Things, and in the case of Anderson Fantastic Mr. Fox, are short stories spanning a very minimal number of pages yet with huge space for expansion to spin the story out at will and more importantly to realise the quirks of the quthor’s themselves on screen, the likes of which are limited to the page and your imagination.

This may well be the point of reading a book, the ability to visualise something in your own way, but surely material this ripe for realisation is best suited to minds who have a very clear strong visual sense whist respecting the author’s ideals, not someone who is simply going to play out the story step by flat step. So with this in mind the works of Roald Dahl really are the perfect stomping ground for visual masters, Henry Selick’s James and the Giant Peach being the best example to date. So it is no surprise to learn that a.) Fantastic Mr. Fox is of the same stop-motion style and b.) it really is, to use a cliche, “fantastic”.

Anderson’s whole body of work has revolved around the “family” aesthetic, addressing issues of broken family, missing parent’s, and sibling rivalry, and this is no exception, expanding on the classic tale of fox taking of the farmers, and making it a touching yet hilarious story. Regular Anderson collaberator’s are all present and correct, Wilson, Murray, Dafoe, but it is Clooney that is the film’s trump card, that he is American in a quintissentially British story makes no difference, for there is so much spark in his vocal performance, Streep is workable alongside him lending some warmth and as their son Ash, Anderson favourite Schwartman is great even if he is basically the foxy neurotic equivalent of himself.

In choosing to make the film in stop motion simply means that the director’s style can be applied so wildly, in showing many scnes from afar and with such originality. I feel almost ashamed at my initial response to the almost amateur look that was first seen in the trailers, it’s not that this look is fundamentally any different on the big screen, just that in the sphere of the world that is crafted overall it feels pitch perfect. There is more character in the twitch of Mr. Fox’s ears than in any number of CGI films.

In coupling this with the very witty script that does not pander to children (i.e. Ice Age) yet retains enough quirkiness to sit in the realms of keeping children hooked, as it should do given Fantasic Mr. Fox IS a childrens book. Credit must go to Baumbach and Anderson for retaining the quirks of the story so well, the puppetry of Boggis, Bunce and Bean is so great and while they are very very funny, Bean in particular oozes menace (helped no end by Michael Gambon’s dulcit tones). Some of the flourishes adopted in combining “set pieces” with fabulous character work make this a strong contender for animated film of the year alongside Pixar’s Up, yes I have to admit it really is THAT good.

VERDICT

Fantastic Mr. Fox truly is ”fantastic”, in that Anderson’s take on the Dahl classic retains the book’s spirit, yet spins out the story as a typical study of family, but what really takes the film somewhere special is in its quite frankly hilarious script and the thoroughly perfect realisation of the story through unique and almost retro looking stop motion.