North By Northwest

Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock combine in a great caper movie – maintaining just enough menace to be thrilling in the vein of Hitchcock’s best movies, yet also featuring much comedy. The acting class on display only adds to the movie’s excellent reputation.

Roger Thornhill, a suave and handsome advertising executive, gets mistaken for someone else by chance, and is thrown into a game of cat and mouse where the mouse doesn’t understand why it’s being hunted down. Pursued by Phillip Vandamm (Mason) and his cohorts, Thornhill must enlist the help of beautiful stranger Eve Kendall (Saint) in his quest to understand who exactly is chasing him and who they have mistaken him for.

Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint star and contribute the best performances, along with a strong supporting cast including James Mason, Martin Landau and Leo G. Carroll. Grant is wholly deserving of his reputation – and George Clooney, despite taking many similar roles in his career, has nothing on him. Starring as Roger Thornhill, a city man mistaken for someone else, Grant conveys the sense of a wholly bewildered yet ingenious man caught up in something far bigger than he can imagine. The actor strongly conveys his hold on comedy, with much of the film’s witty humour and sexual charge coming from him.

Eva Marie Saint, as Eve Kendall (the somewhat femme-fatale of the piece) counteracts Grant as a strong female lead – despite the initial assumptions, she’s deeper than we think, and the actress does brilliantly well to portray such a conflicted character. Her scenes with Grant present some incredibly charged encounters – some of which could clearly be seen as raunchy for the time, but perhaps less so now – a testament to her performance as well as his.

James Mason, as villain Phillip Vanndamm, exudes ruthlessness with a hint of charm, giving what could have been a stock movie villain a sense of class and ambiguity. His assistant Leonard, played by a young Martin Landau, provides a deadly and somewhat ominous performance to the movie that lends it its more sinister scenes, whilst an accomplice to Thornhill, the Professor, is played by Leo G. Carroll, who presents his character as the stereotypical old gent, but one who is, much like many other characters here, deeper than at first impressions.

Hitchcock crafts another hit movie with his trademark mix of tension and strong performances – and the addition of comedy to this mixture only serves to make the film stronger. Hitch presents a lighter side to his film-making here, with a movie not only shot in colour but featuring much comedy and goofing around that he is not known for. However, the darker sides of his direction are not lost, and the film’s main plot holds many dark mysteries and discoveries for Thornhill. All in all, the famous director shows his flexibility and diversity in North by Northwest – it’s a shame that he didn’t make more films like this.

Grant’s Thornhill gets the best lines by far – his putdowns and sarcasm towards the men mistaking him for someone else are witty and damning. Much of the suggestive dialogue between the leads is also impressive, and quite raunchy in its suggestions for its time. As with many other Hitchcock movies, Bernard Herrmann contributes the fantastic score, and the memorable theme sits alongside his past collaborations on Psycho and other such Hitch films. Shot in colour, and quite often on location or in a convincing sound stage, this movie is brilliantly visualised from the opening credits onward. It’s a shame that for the final set-piece of the movie Hitchcock wasn’t allowed to shoot in the real location he wanted to – as the obvious matte paintings are pitifully fake.

As with any Hitchcock movie, North by Northwest is filled with twists, wry humour and a sense of mounting tension. However, including comedy into this already potent broth pays dividends for the legendary director – the movie is among his very best.

9/10

The Big Sleep

Perhaps the quintessential film noir, The Big Sleep offers Bogart and Bacall in a riveting, fiesty murder mystery that’s perhaps too beguiling for its own good at times.

PI Phillip Marlowe (Bogart) is called in to investigate the bribery and blackmail of a young rich girl, Carmen Starkwood (Vickers) – her and her sister Vivian (Bacall) lead Marlowe’s investigative mind to discover a far bigger and more complex series of manipulations beneath the surface.

Humphrey Bogart really is unlike any actor alive today – with the hangdog face and sarcastic, suggestive characters he chooses, the actor cemented his place in history. Whilst Casablanca seems to be the film for which he’s known best, his performance as Marlowe has shaped the detective and noir genres since – an outstanding yet understated performance from a great actor. John Ridgely plays Edward Mars, the antagonist of the piece – well, one of them, I’ll leave it down to you to try and wade through the plot’s many turns. Ridgely plays against Bogart with a sense of malevolence and comedy – he’s a suave character whose intentions are never truly clear. Regis Toomey plays Marlowe’s contact in the police, and his few scenes with Bogart do provide much of the interesting interplay that’s often seen (watered down and dumbed down) in buddy cop movies these days.

Lauren Bacall, despite her obvious and quite disarming attractiveness, produces a femme fatale in Vivien who is both suggestive and mysterious – and her scenes with Bogart sizzle with sexual tension. It’s clear to see how she went on to greater fame from here quite honestly! Martha Vickers almost manages to upstage Bacall here in her role as Vivian’s sister Carmen – all coy expressions and suggestive approaches to Marlowe, she remains in the mind more so than any other character, so bizarre and so memorable is her performance as the spoilt little rich girl with skeletons in her closet.

Howard Hawks manages to fashion a superb movie from a convoluted plotline, though the narrative issues still permeate the finished product. A truly lavish movie, each scene’s soundtrack and visual splendour cement it as a classic of Old Hollywood, whilst Chandler’s dialogue adds sizzle and style to the proceedings. Hawks directs each scene with a sense of fluidity – the movie flows from point to point, not stopping to wait for those who can’t keep up. The legendary director coaxes interesting and diverse performances from his cast whilst maintaining the style and intent of the novel’s dialogue and characters. The issues with the plot do cast a shadow however – the film isn’t that simple to follow, and you really need to listen out for names – and concentration is a big issue for many film-watchers, so be warned.

Chandler’s zippy, street-smart dialogue makes the movie the success it is – every line Bogart’s Marlowe speaks has some form of barb behind it, whether it be sexually suggestive or simply an attack. The women’s lines are entendres to the last; Bacall and Bogart’s scene in the cafe is perhaps the best example of the exemplary dialogue provided by Chandler. The soundtrack is classic Hollywood – one memorable motif that permeates the rest of the movie alongside much forgettable and overdubbed music. Not that this matters – the theme is good, and the scenes tend to be so complex with their exposition that overbearing music would only confound plot issues. From the Starkwood mansion to the streets of the city, Hawks fashions a believable and tangible 40s environment, and whilst the inevitable driving scenes are terribly done with the bluescreen behind, they are not overly used – and Hawks actually uses outside shots of the cars driving, something not often seen at the time, particularly with the actors behind the wheel!

Twisting, manipulative and sexy – this 1940s noir is devilishly interesting but requires some attention for maximum enjoyment. Other than this complexity, it is a true classic and deserves the attention it receives.

9/10

Watchmen

People will call it the first adult comic book movie – but sidestepping that and all the other chit-chat, Watchmen is a sprawling, visual feast of intertangled stories and interesting performances – which only happens to be about superheroes.

The mysterious murder of the Comedian (Morgan), a masked vigilante and member of the Watchmen (a group of superheroes) leads the aggressive and paranoid Rorschach (Haley) to begin investigating whether his murder was random or an attack on ‘masks’. His actions and investigation bring in the other members of the disbanded group; among them Nite Owl (Wilson), Silk Spectre II (Akerman) Ozymandias (Goode) and the god-like Dr. Manhattan (Crudup) – their lives intertwine following the murder of one of their own to devastating and revelatory effect, foregrounded against the spectre of nuclear annihilation between the U.S. and the Soviets.

The Watchmen themselves range from passable to impressive, Matthew Goode’s Ozymandias the former and Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach the latter. With no truly big stars, the film benefits – this ensemble piece allows for the actors, many of whom are very underrated, to push through onto the mainstream, and their performances are on the whole excellent. Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl/Dan Dreiberg, alongside Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach, provide the lead male roles here, and both men are able to disappear into their roles. Nite Owl is a Batman imitation, but you can’t say that Bruce Wayne is human – particularly when he’s Christian Bale, who can’t seem to be anything but angry. Wilson is great here, mixing a sense of nostalgia with the resignation of a man who has left an old life behind, hoping never to go back whilst pining for it. Haley is the best actor in the film though – acting through a full face mask for most of the film, he convinces entirely as the murderous vigilante, even managing to remain sinister in the moments where his mask is removed.

I’m placing the remainder of the Watchmen in supporting cast – simply because they don’t get as much time as Dan or Rorschach. Billy Crudup is the distanced, God-like Dr. Manhattan, a superbeing who lacks empathy despite his endless powers – Crudup infuses him with a sense of complete detachment, and acting as a big blue naked guy, he does actually make the character believable. Matthew Goode, as Ozymandias/Adrian Veidt, is the intelligent, rich member of the troupe, and Goode is, well, good in the role. He doesn’t seem to get enough time though, and his role is pretty integral to the plot – I just felt like something was lacking, but then in a film this long it’s no surprise that some stuff might have been cut.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, playing the Comedian/Eddie Blake, is our entry into the world of the Watchmen, and his performance (particularly his looks) will remind many of Javier Bardem or Robert Downey Jr.; he looks like the former and acts like the latter, and gives that sense of imbalance and danger that the character demands.

Malin Ackerman plays Laurie Jupiter/Silk Spectre II – the effective female star of the film. And damn if she isn’t good here – it’s so much better to have a new actress than someone we recognise, which obviously goes for the rest of the cast. Ackerman is more than a match for the guys, and manages to carry off the ridiculously exploitative costume of her character without distracting too much. Carla Gugino plays Silk Spectre I – Laurie’s mum Sally, and the actress provides the film with some of the more interesting scenes in her descriptions (and cover-ups) of her and her daughter’s pasts.

I’ve read and do own the graphic novel, but in all fairness I’m no geek – I just wanted to watch this great story onscreen, and sod the changes or whatever the fanboys moan about – the film is expertly directed by Snyder, whose command of effects, actors and visuals are becoming unparalleled in Hollywood. Jumping from zombies to Greeks and now superheroes, Snyder seems to have really begun to etch out a visual aesthetic in his movies that is both stunning and innovative. His handle on the actors isn’t as great, but then in choosing a more unknown cast he shows (as with 300) his faith in those who aren’t expensive but have more talent. Every single angle of this film from a directorial perspective seems difficult, but he’s arguably pulled it off perfectly – and I look forward to seeing what he manages to get next.

Lots of the dialogue is taken straight from the novel, so much of the film’s outstanding interchanges or comments are in fact from that. However, the film obviously doesn’t adhere completely, and in making the necessary changes, whilst retaining the dialogue that works so well, the scriptwriters and Snyder present a movie that flows despite its detail and expositionary scenes. The soundtrack is perhaps the best part of the film other than the visuals – music from the 60’s to the 80’s infuses the film with a sense of time and place, foregrounding the audience in the past, alternate America that the film is set in whilst also matching some amazing songs to some amazing imagery – watch the opening credits to see EXACTLY what I mean. Hendrix, Dylan, Nena (99 Luftballons!) and various others crop up in surprising places whilst still working perfectly in the narrative – who would have thought a comic book, superhero movie would contain such a diverse soundtrack!

Snyder bests even the exploits of 300 here visually – New York, Antarctica, Mars, Vietnam – they’re all created realistically and depicted with a grim, realistic tone that harks back to the Cold War days. On top of this, the action loses some of the slow-mo that haunted 300 and increases the harshness – some of the fights are BRUTAL. All in all, the film shows that whatever has been drawn or written in fiction, however immense, can be replicated on film in such quality now – Snyder seems to be leading the charge in this regard, and it’s exciting to think where he might go next.

A truly excellent movie, and one that must definitely be seen by anyone who has even seen one superhero film – it is that, but it’s also so much more. Hopefully it will receive the attention and plaudits it deserves.

9/10

The Island

A Michael Bay film with some thought behind it?! As ridiculous as it may seem, The Island is rooted in similar, preceding films with a bit of ingenuity behind them, and the Master of Bayhem combines his love of shiny things, exploding shiny things and attractive women with a bit of intelligence – an underrated movie that should be seen.

Lincoln Six Echo (McGregor) and Jordan Two Zero (Johannson) inhabit the mysterious, post-apocalyptic world in which lotteries dictate who will leave for the Island - a haven against the biological disease that wiped out most of the planet. Becoming more inquisitive than he perhaps should, Lincoln penetrates the air of mystery surrounding his life and discovers the shocking truths behind his, and others’ lives.

McGregor and Johansson are perfectly matched as the leads, Bay electing to hire some actors with a bit of actual acting ability and his decision proving to be the right one. Ewan McGregor is a great actor – a fact that makes it all the more shocking that he chose to star here. The story gives more than enough credence to his decision however, and he gets to present his mastery of accents as well as convincingly innocent in his character’s lack of knowledge – better him than someone like Ben Affleck any day.

Scarlett Johansson is all too often said to be trading in on her looks for roles – and whilst Bay has these intentions with every film he makes, Johansson is a good actress quite honestly – her character, similar in behaviour to McGregor’s, coyly plays with the sterotypical view of women Johansson would often be picked to play. There aren’t any significant female co-stars, as, after all, Michael Bay likes his attractive leading ladies (Megan Fox, Kate Beckinsale etc.), and with Scarlett onboard the other women are just there to even the numbers out. Shame really as his films might be more popular if they had a bit more oestrogen injected in.

Sean Bean hammers another nail into the proverbial coffin of British actors in Hollywood – surprise surprise, he’s British and he’s the bad guy! Wow. Didn’t see that coming. We’re not all bad by the way! He does his hammy best here, actually managing to be a bit different from the multitude of bad guys he’s played before. Djimon Hounsou pops up in a cool little role here – and as with the rest of the cast, he almost seems to be beyond a Bay film. His character has some interesting moral foibles, but that’s about it. Steve Buscemi plays himself again – that dodgy, shifty, jokey little man who has a secret – but then I suppose he is good at it by now.

Shiny and boom – these two words, added to the high-concept behind the eponymous isle, present a movie that is atypical of Michael Bay whilst presenting a very clever (albeit ripped-off) presentation of one possible human future. With Bay, subtlety is usually not the name of the game, but here his action sensibilities do have to wait behind the plot – and it doesn’t affect the film, rather the action seems supplementary to the concept – an alien idea to many of you I imagine. He’s blatantly ripped off The Prisoner as well as countless other similar films or TV shows, but nevertheless, this movie looks good, has good performances and a surprisingly smart plot for Bay – a hidden gem in his filmography.

Techno-babble and army talk is needless and ridiculous, and the film’s dialogue only picks up when it addresses who the leads are and what their purpose is – as well as in illustrating their innocent, child-like demeanour. Hans Zimmer recycles the themes once more to give us another audio barrage. Seriously, I like his Batman stuff, but you can hear Batman or Pirates in nearly everything else he composes – some ingenuity please! The action takes a while to come, but when it does, it’s typically stunning. Whatever you have against Bay, you cannot deny he has the panache and visual flair to blow stuff up – and a lot of stuff blows up towards the end here. For the remainder of the film, the towers in which the groups live are rendered in a clinical, amazing style – it must have cost loads to make these modern, swish sets that wouldn’t look out of place in an Apple shop or an upmarket bar.

If Michael Bay had more high-concept ideas like this, he’d have been received in a more kindly way by a lot of people. As it is, the public loves his films anyway – as do I – and this one deserves praise for at least attempting to lift itself above the explosions.

7/10

Event Horizon

A guiltily enjoyable and disturbing horror sci-fi, Event Horizon provides gore and suspense as well as taking the viewer in a decidedly unexpected direction.

Dr. Weir (Neill) built the Event Horizon – a spaceship capable of opening a hole in space and travelling instantaneously across to another point. When the ship is lost in mysterious circumstances, he enlists the help of the Lewis and Clark, a rescue vessel, along with its crew and captain (Fishburne). On reaching the Event Horizon orbiting Neptune, they discover what happened to the ship and the implications of the discovery upon their lives and their ideas of reality.

Laurence Fishburne is captain of another ship before the Nebuchadnezzar here – and Morpheus he is not. It’s hard to remember that he was such a good actor other than his performances in the Matrix trilogy, but his tussles with Neill are fun to watch. Sam Neill positively ruins any and all innocent perceptions of him after Jurassic Park with this character – Dr. Weir is haunted by his wife’s suicide, and eventually driven over the edge, Neill conveying this insane man rather convincingly.
Joely Richardson and Kathleen Quinlan play the two women on board – but they don’t really have anything to do, and as a result their effect is somewhat diminished. No Ripley is on board this ship. Richard T. Jones (Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles), Jason Isaacs and Sean Pertwee present the different aspects of the ship’s male crew, each with a certain archetype but each presenting their character as someone the audience can relate to.

Paul Anderson (he of Death Race and AVP ignominy) makes what I would consider to be his best film here – an original idea executed in a very intelligent way through his direction. All the other aspects help give this film its deserved cult status. Anderson directs a cast of famous (and not so famous) actors in what they would probably have considered a ridiculous movie. Nevertheless, he does his best work here, and it’s a damn shame that he decided to go the way he did in Hollywood – this British director had excellent promise on watching this movie, and it’s a sign of the times that a new film from him is laughed at.

Much of the dialogue is hammy – but when the disturbances onboard begin to be understood, it picks up a little. Techno-classical beats background the uncomfortable tension and horror ever-present in the movie, giving it a bizarre and at times rather disturbing soundtrack. Space, as well as the spaceships themselves, is rendered beautifully for a ‘90s film – these effects are better than some of today’s, which says something about film-making. What is more significant though are the practical effects – the gore and presentations of torture are disgustingly done – again, the film appears to give more than you would expect from it.

I really enjoyed this film – it has that eerie balance between sci-fi and the supernatural that just makes it work. The cast and visuals go some way to making it even better – a true cult classic.

8/10

Deliverance

A disturbing tale of city meets country, ‘Deliverance’ presents the viewer with a series of disturbing assaults on the senses – and a desire never to venture where you don’t belong.

Four city men venture to the recesses of the Appalachians to camp and enjoy the rivers before they are dammed. However, on leaving the comfort of the urban areas for the wilderness, they find that their idea of wilderness leaves much to the imagination, and they soon have to become far more like the people they encounter than they might have wanted to be.

John Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty ably portray the four city men venturing into the country, whilst the supporting cast of rednecks (some real, some actors) add a sense of reality to the disturbing nature of the narrative. The two leads represent the varying presentations of the city man – Voight’s Ed is the meek man forced to get in touch with his strong side, whilst Reynolds’ Lewis is the experienced traveller; the others look to him for guidance and advice. Voight and Reynolds appear to almost switch roles throughout, but both are believable as their respective characters.

Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty present the other sides to Reynolds and Voight – Cox’s Drew is a guitar-playing nerd, whose sense of right and wrong comes into clear focus at times, whilst Beatty’s brash Bobby pays the price of his cynicism toward the rednecks. Ably supporting the two leads, these two actors are more morally and socially complex, presenting the other aspects of the urbane man.

The redneck characters are largely played by men from the deeper recesses of the wilderness – the two that the men encounter in the infamous ‘Piggy’ scene are prime examples of the realism Boorman sought, and they, along with the bizarre banjo-playing kid give the film that extra edge – these, after all, are the people Boorman is saying are perpetrating the wrongs upon the four men, and yet they’re happy to portray this on-screen in a chillingly real way.

John Boorman achieves a sense of wilderness and isolation that few directors seem able to here – the oppressive silence, coupled with the sparse dialogue and starkly beautiful natural surroundings provide the movie with an unescapable feeling of tension and horror. Boorman evokes the mysterious nature of the American countryside, forcing city man against rural man and presenting the outcomes. Skilfully presenting the conflicts and disturbing aspects of this meeting, the British director achieves in ‘Deliverance’ a sense of evil and mystery that is tangible and not supernatural – a more effectively frightening film is the result.

In terms of dialogue, it’s fair to say you’ll not hear “Squeal like a piggy” without thinking of this film – other than that however, the script is sparse, reflecting the detached nature of the film at large. “Dueling Banjos” is the one piece of music that most permeates the film – its use at the start is perhaps one of the more memorable uses of music in a film, and the improvised, fresh style of it reflects quite starkly the backwards nature of the people – the kid playing the banjo is clearly a testament to this. It’s fair to say you won’t forget this piece of music after watching. The wildernesses and natural beauty of the setting provide a vivid backdrop, and in the scenes involving the canoes and the rapids, it’s clear that the actors actually rode the canoes – the sense that the film was made with as little film intrusion as possible adds to the themes of isolation concurrent throughout.

Disturbingly graphic, sinister from start to finish and a distinctly human drama – Deliverance may put you off camping in the wild for life.

9/10

Badlands

Visually stunning, Terence Malick’s ‘Badlands’ provides a compelling odyssey of a murderer and his girlfriend – drifters in America’s South given credence and strength by Sheen and Spacek.

Kit (Sheen) murders his girlfriend’s (Spacek) father in a fit of passion, and the two elect to run away – venturing across the countryside, they continue to kill and survive on the edges of society.

Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek are the two leads, and arguably hold the movie together. What little support there is doesn’t really warrant much attention, as the film is their story. Sheen shows why he was such an acclaimed actor in the dawn of New Hollywood; his drawling, carefree Kit goes from drifter to cold-blooded killer in an instant, and those who cross him soon realise he is not at all as he seems to be.

Sissy Spacek plays the young, lithe Holly, innocently swept up into a life of hiding and running by the influence of Kit. Spacek portrays the character with a real sense of growth – she moves from the innocent, girl-next-door type to someone who feels they can stand up to the one they love.

Malick is infamous for the visual acumen he brings to every movie, and in his debut he doesn’t disappoint. What is perhaps more striking here is that the story actually grips the viewer more than in any of Malick’s other efforts – a rarity from the reclusive, opulent director. Dialogue here is minimal but effective, whilst the repetitive music will remind some of Tony Scott’s ‘True Romance’.

Malick provides a slow-burning but involving story concerning the two fugitives – the conflict between the two grows slowly and with tension, whilst the action is befitting of such a movie. If Malick’s other films were more like ‘Badlands’, he would perhaps be held in higher regard. The dialogue is sparse, but when it needs to be, effective in its use. Martin Sheen’s drawl, foregrounded against Sissy Spacek’s impressive Southern girl narration, provides a brash yet gripping voice to Kit’s random bouts of violence.

Gassenhauer, by Carl Orff, dots the film with a sense of detachment; this impressive piece of music seems to jarr with the Southern settings and quite cleverly presents the detached nature of the two leads as they run from their actions. Malick’s visual skills are perhaps his greatest asset on-screen, and in visualising the murders and the beauty of the Badlands themselves, the director presents a movie that defines a strong sense of place.

This film requires a certain amount of patience to get through – but it’s worth it.

8/10

The Exorcist

Chilling, exploitative horror at its best, The Exorcist grips and disgusts in equal measure, and is an enthralling horror experience.

Young girl Regan McNeil (Blair) begins to exhibit signs of what appears to be demonic possession, around the same time as a series of violent and anti-Christian crimes begin to occur around the area. Regan’s frightened mother Chris (Burstyn) enlists the help of conflicted priest Damien Karras (Miller) and learned, mysterious Father Merrin (Von Sydow) to exorcise the demon from her.

Jason Miller and Max von Sydow play the two priests charged with exorcising the demon from young Regan, and Miller takes much of the share of screentime; his character Damien Karras faces the demons of his past in his mother’s illness as well as the literal demon in possession of Regan. Miller manages to present a conflicted yet strong-willed man whose faith eventually shines through, whilst Von Sydow sagely portrays the elderly priest as the saviour of the piece – a withered man who has fought evil before and must once more. There is nothing that can be said against Linda Blair’s portrayal of Regan – the actress is believable as the normal child and disturbingly, horrifically so as the possessed and changed one. How Friedkin got such a young actress to convincingly act out what she has to in the course of the film is beyond belief, and in some cases rather disturbing to consider. Ellen Burstyn plays Regan’s mother Chris McNeil, and as the audience centerpoint of the film, Burstyn does well to portray the utter horror and fear any parent would feel in such a situtation!

Of the supporting cast, the most significant appears to be the policeman Kinderman, played by Lee J. Cobb, whose utter confusion and disgust at the events leading up to and surrounding the exorcism suggest a man who cannot quite believe what is going on – the outsider’s view on the situation if that’s possible to comprehend. The fellow priest to Karras, Father Dyer, is played ably by William O’Malley, a real priest – adding another layer of complexity to the already confusingly-structured production.

William Friedkin achieves a vast amount for so little onscreen here – whilst the film went well over-budget, the movie maintains an air of independent, tight drama beneath the horror and demonic subtext. Friedkin, having already made The French Connection, clearly had a hold on the New Hollywood conventions of filmmaking, crafting a taut and tense masterpiece of disturbing horror using subliminal imaging, effects and a steadily-built, tangible tension that is almost unbearable at points. The dialogue on show is impressively written; again, Hollywood’s adaptation of a novel takes on the novel’s author as scriptwriter, as William S. Blatty crafts his novel into a workable, dramatic and chilling series of conversations. From the initial silences, conversations break up and differentiate the tension – the debates between possessed Regan and the priests are intricately constructed and religiously-based, and the permeating idea of age-old religious conflicts between good and evil bubbles up from under the surface.

Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells is used to such interesting effect in the movie, along with the brooding score, that you will never hear it in the same way afterward. The movie effectively ruins what positive and optimistic overtones that the piece may have had by irrevocably linking it in my mind with the visuals in the movie, and its mystical, ominous tones synchronise perfectly with the film’s content. I think it’s obvious to many that may have seen the film that the visual horror stands tall alongside the tension and psychological frights onscreen – the subliminal presentations of a demonic face throughout the film begin to pinpoint upon the viewer that something’s up, and the image itself is almost burned into your mind. By the time Regan is possessed by the demon, we’ve been treated to madly moving beds, disgusting bodily contortions and a scene with a crucifix that must go down in history as one of the more disturbing scenes in a mainstream movie. Regardless to say – visually speaking, this film will leave its horrors embedded in your mind for a while afterward.

This is a truly horrific horror movie - one that horrifies, as befits its generic title, and lingers in the conciousness longer than many others will. Genius.

10/10

The Graduate

The Graduate, unlike most of the films trumpeted through the ages, is one that lived up to the promise and surpassed it; this quirky and altogether morose comedy/drama is certainly a film that succeeds in aiming to eviscerate adult expectations of young people as well as give the young the idea of rebellion. A must-see relic of the dawn of New Hollywood.

Hoffman is a revelation; his quirky, completely uncomfortable Benjamin like Rain Man in his social awkwardness and reaction to others. This is the film that set Hoffman off toward stardom, and in his delightfully out-of-place performance the actor cemented his place in film history. Katharine Ross and Anne Bancroft play Elaine Robinson and her mother respectively, with Ross in particular standing out as the innocent Elaine, manipulated and forced around by Ben’s philandering and her mother’s seduction. Bancroft is what most people will remember about the film though, the actresses’ dark looks forcing through the screen and presenting a woman with no qualms about taking advantage of a younger man or her own daughter.

What few female co-stars there are pepper the film with a realistic bent, Benjamin’s mother (played by Elizabeth Wilson) is almost the antithesis of Mrs. Robinson; a woman who is happy with her life and anxious that her son continue along the path she has set for him. The only significant co-stars appear to be Ben’s father and Elaine’s father, played respectively by William Daniels and Murray Hamilton. Ben’s father has Ben’s life planned out for him, and Daniels conveys that sense of expectation and forceful parenting that many young people will find uncomfortable to watch. Hamilton conveys the image of a man damaged beyond repair by the affair between Ben and his wife, and the scenes in which he encounters Ben are at turns comedic and tragic.

Mike Nichols peppers his film with unforgettable quotes, trail-blazing visuals and direction, presenting in effect a movie entirely compromised of New Hollywood motifs and themes. Nichols expertly subverts Hollywood archetypes of film-making with The Graduate; such a sexually frank movie, with daring presentations of seduction and adultery, would doubtless have been nipped in the bud ten years beforehand. What Nichols helped achieve was the next step in Hollywood movie-making; that of an unafraid director who sees no problem with sensitive subject matter nor pioneering filming techniques. “Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson?” – there is no person on Earth interested in films that does not know that quote, and besides this, the film features many comedic and sardonic lines of dialogue, peppering the film with a sense of humour that many people would not expect.

The soundtrack, to me at least, is a failing of the film, only a slight one mind. Simon and Garfunkel were, at the time of production, a popular band, and commissioning them to make the soundtrack is an idea that has carried forth onto modern times. It’s a great idea, but as with newer films like Juno, Nichols elected to repeat the songs over and over, and as a result the effect of the music is somewhat lost amongst the endless repetition of “Scarborough Fair”, “Mrs. Robinson” and “The Sound of Silence” in particular. California seldom seems to have been presented onscreen with such understated emphasis – from the Golden Gate Bridge to Berkeley University, Nichols evokes a sense of space and time, and the interesting fades and angles that the cameras take throughout the movie permeate through the narrative to suggest that at the time, Nichols was a true innovator of visual film.

Much has been said about The Graduate, not all of it true. It comes heartily recommended from me as a movie that speaks to the young, telling not only of the dangers of temptation but also of becoming the person others want you to be, and not the person you want to be.

8/10

Natural Born Killers

Bizarre, acerbic to the extreme and highly overhyped, Natural Born Killers is like a Bonnie and Clyde for the ’90s – quick, quirky and not all that satisfying nor interesting.

Mickey (Harrelson) and Mallory (Lewis) are a married couple on a killing spree across small-town USA. With the law (Sizemore) and the media (Downey Jr.) on their tale, the killers engender a public frenzy, presenting themselves as the kind of sociopathic individuals that the public loves to hate.

Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis play the two killers with a semblance of insanity, both appearing to be the kind of individual that could and would flip and kill. Harrelson is the heart of this film; just look at the poster for proof. The traditionally top-notch actor is great here (one of the few shining lights actually), and it’s disturbing to think Harrelson is so convincing as the suave and dangerous Mickey. Juliette Lewis has disappeared from Hollywood for a while, but this performance is proof that at the onset of the ‘90s she was one of the more promising actresses. She combines innocence and cold-blooded psychopathy in Mallory, Mickey’s partner in crime and wife, but in comparison with Harrelson her performance somewhat suffers, which is a shame. Robert Downey Jr., as sycophant TV personality Wayne Gale gives the film its greatest satirical moments, and you can see even here just how good an actor Downey was. Tom Sizemore does little more than mug around onscreen as Scagnetti, the cop after the couple, whilst Tommy Lee Jones plays insane (Two Face insane) as the prison warden of Mallory and Mickey towards the conclusion of the movie. Rodney Dangerfield is perhaps the most impressive performance here, as Mallory’s abusive, repugnant father, the comedian presenting the idea that he can act seriously and be perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of the movie.

Oliver Stone tries to upset the establishment again, and did with this movie. It’s a shame that more people didn’t recognise it for the satire that it was, but despite this, the film is bizarre and suffers from too little focus. Many people will let the bombardment of images and dialogue wash over them, and this is a shame given that Tarantino wrote the script – this collaboration between two of Hollywood’s more maverick, edgy filmmakers should have been far better. Stone decided to shoot the film in a quasi-documentary style, and intersperses jump cuts and flashes of subliminal images. Whilst I get his point, it doesn’t mean that it makes the film easy to watch or understand; rather, the satire is lost amongst the hyperactive edits and stupid vignettes that intersperse the main action. If he’d shot the film straight, as I actually expected him to have, it may have been more enjoyable.

For a Tarantino-scripted film, there are no extended conversations on esoteric subjects, but it’s easy to spot the Quentin-infused dialogue here, and when it’s needed, it works. With a soundtrack masterminded by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, it’s no surprise that the film’s soundtrack employs edgy, diverse music, and even features some of the performer’s early music. Ravaging murderers and the dark, gothic metal of NIN gel perfectly together, and this is one of the standout tenements of the movie. As with the direction, it can be said that Stone is aiming to satirise above all here, and in the unbelievable bevy of visuals on display, it can clearly be seen that the director is mocking the advertising agencies and MTV-style TV channels (rapid cuts and wipes aplenty). But, again as I said before, this is detrimental to the film at large, and as a result the more subtle imagery is lost.

The film is, to me, a failure. I expected too much of it, I know this now, but it’s apparent in watching it that the film doesn’t know which way to go, nor how far the satire should go.

4/10

The Maltese Falcon

A film noir twisting and turning and presenting Bogart at the top of his game, The Maltese Falcon is a deservedly classic Hollywood movie packed with subterfuge and manipulation from beginning to end.

P.I. Sam Spade (Bogart) becomes ensconced in a tangle of events involving a client (Astor), mysterious men (Greenstreet and Lorre) and an expensive, jewel-encrusted Falcon statuette. Spade endeavours to reach the bottom of the conspiracies that stand in his way, but the revelations he unearths go deeper than just the treasure – and it soon becomes a question of who to trust.

Bogart dominates proceedings here – Sam Spade is, in the vein of previous and future Bogart characters, a sour and emotionless man who will do anything for profit – but for whom doing the right thing will always be the prerogative. The famous actor is at turns sinister, hilarious and sensitive (though he doesn’t present the latter until the conclusion). If you’re to watch a Bogart movie to get a sense of his best performance, this film is probably one of the more recommended flicks to catch.
Mary Astor, formerly a silent movie actress, features here as Brigid, the woman who comes to Sam for help, and who entraps him in the Falcon conspiracies and manipulations. Astor is not the most attractive woman, but she makes up for that here by subtly changing her performance – Brigid is constantly lying to Sam, who sees right through her, and it’s a strength of her performance that Astor is so sneaky, so manipulative. Lee Patrick plays both secretary and confidante to Spade as Effie – a woman who clearly will do anything for the man, and the only person he can actually trust throughout the film. Gladys George, playing Iva Archer (Spade’s partner’s wife) adds one of the big mysteries to the film in that her character appears more significant at the onset than might be believed.

Peter Lorre plays Joel Cairo, a bizarrely eccentric man who seeks the Falcon, and the famous character actor once again presents his distinctive voice and face to the viewer as a man who is prepared to make any deal or tell any lie to get what he wants. Sydney Greenstreet, making his film debut at 62, plays the Fat Man, a rich opportunist by the name of Kasper Gutman, and the veteran stage actor creates an icy, somewhat disturbing persona on-screen as another individual seeking the Falcon. Barton McClane, as Lt. Dundy, projects some hard-handed police cynicism into the film also, reminding the viewer that Spade is not operating beyond the reaches of the law.

Director John Huston’s movie is an example of exemplar film-making; tight, focused scenes oozing with tension and terse, edgy dialogue. Huston was given this film as his first directorial outing, and you really wouldn’t think this on watching the movie. He edits the scenes together with skill, Bogart hardly ever seeming to be out of frame and the camera capturing what it needs and nothing more. The actors, all at the top of their game, are presented respectfully onscreen, and Huston’s career after this first film is a reflection of the vision he had whilst making this. As you might expect from a Dashiell Hammett novel, the script is taut, with Bogart and Lorre in particular getting many of the best lines. Bogart’s character Sam Spade receives many of the more dialogue-heavy scenes, but they seem to have been perfectly made for the actor’s infamous drawl.

The music, for what it is, suffices. Being an older film, the symphonic scores were not so popular nor necessary, and whilst this is a factor in the lesser significance of the music to this movie, it still doesn’t take away from the dramatic orchestration in the most tense scenes. Filmed in black-and-white (obviously the limitation at the time) the movie makes the most of the monochromatic presentation – bright lights of interiors making the different tones stand out, and the night scenes reflecting the great amount of darkness during the evenings, as well as accentuating the tension.

For an older film, this is a fantastic and taut thriller that still holds up sixty years later – a movie that for all its twists and turns is the Humphrey Bogart show, and the better for it.

9/10

Layer Cake

Drugs are bad, m’kay? And according to Daniel Craig and ’co, the trading and exchange of them can be just as life-threatening, in a film that for all its shimmer and star power fails to engage as much as it should.

Mr. X (Craig) is a drug dealer who acts as the middleman between the providers and consumers of narcotics in the UK, and alongside a group of cohorts, hopes to move up in the world or eventually leave the business. When drug runner Duke (Foreman) steals some ecstasy from the wrong people, X finds that he and the business he’s made so much money with are in for it; in trouble, marked for death and having to answer to many, many others in the layered ‘cake’ of the drug world.

Daniel Craig proves here that he has both the emotional range and sharp wit to portray James Bond; his mysterious protagonist sees his life combust in front of his eyes, and the actor’s intensity burns with his hopes. This is actually one of his better performances outside Bond; well worth watching him for. I guess Sienna Miller is considered a star now; but in this film she appears for about five minutes, seducing Craig’s character and doing nothing else. How she’s managed to make a career out of this appears to be only as a result of her looks; and this is shameful, considering the impressive performances she’s made in other movies. The only other woman to make an appearance is Sally Hawkins, who plays the Duke’s girlfriend Sasha, and the actress does a good job of impersonating a truly horrible, common woman, serving as the ultimate presentation of the scum that Duke represents.
Kenneth Cranham and Michael Gambon are filthy as Jimmy and Mr. Temple, two of the drug profiteers, whilst Dexter Fletcher and George Harris present the film with some humour as Craig’s cohorts in his drug escapades. Jamie Foreman is the drug Runner ‘Duke’, and alongside the excellent Colm Meaney as Gene, present the best supporting performances, men who have had their lives consumed and taken over by drugs and greed.

Matthew Vaughn, director of Stardust, directs this film with style, verve and a biting reality. The dialogue is witty and incisive, and the soundtrack deep in popular music – a more realistic and presentable film than I would have imagined. Vaughn presents the drug business through the eyes of Craig’s character, and as such (with the film having been adapted for the screen) he does not have much in the way of plot to invent himself. The director again shows his skill with visuals however, and to many this film will appear similar (or perhaps to some an antithesis to) David Fincher’s movies; narration, inventive camera angles and a witty script. Vaughn should make more films like this as opposed to fantasy like Stardust; he’s clearly better at reality.

The dialogue is realistic (mostly in its use of profanity) but in many cases very witty, particularly in the case of Craig’s character, whose every other word appears to be a put-down or insult of some sort. The use of music here is fantastic, merging a classical soundtrack with popular chillout and dance music, peppering the scenes around London with a reality and naturalism that would bypass other movies. From the opening scenes, Vaughn presents vistas and wide open space – the movie is clearly not constricted, and the effects that are used sparingly are to aid camera angles. The director’s hold on capturing one particular fight sequence, and juxtaposing it with another pivotal scene, is masterful whilst also quite incredibly brutal.

The film is great, don’t get me wrong, but the performances aren’t as good as perhaps they should be, and the story itself is shockingly incoherent at times. A good performance from Craig and impressive direction by Vaughn lifts it however.

7/10

Stargate

A cheesy, cliched and sometimes intelligent blockbuster, Stargate is the best Roland Emmerich film by a mile.

In 1928, a mysterious gate is found buried in Giza, Egypt. In the present day, American scientists, enlisting the help of Egyptologist Daniel Jackson (Spader) come to realise that the ‘Stargate’ is a portal to the other side of the known universe. Sending Jackson with a team of soldiers led by Colonel Jack O’Neill (Russell), the other side of the gate holds mysteries and answers for the team and for human history, but at a cost.

Kurt Russell and James Spader have to pretty much carry this movie, and they do just about enough to succeed. Russell’s hard-ass soldier with an emotional problem is a pretty naff role, but Russell makes it that much better simply being a bad-ass like he always seems to be. Spader plays the geek who saves the day and gets the girl, but again, as with Russell, a better actor than should have been chosen was chosen, and so Spader’s geek Daniel Jackson is that much more eccentric. The actress that plays Sha’auri, Mili Avital, really doesn’t have much to do other than speak Egyptian and look longingly at Spader. Nice job if you can get it I guess – expressions and some ancient language, followed by a paycheck! Jay Davidson, the bizarrely ambiguous star of The Crying Game, plays the antagonist Ra. As androgynous as you can get without feeling ill, and with a superimposed deep voice, this is the hammiest of all hammy, crappy villains – you will practically cringe every time he’s on-screen. The army grunts that make up the rest of the group act better than him, including a pre-3rd Rock from the Sun French Stewart.

Roland Emmerich, he of Independence Day and The Day after Tomorrow, started his Hollywood career with this gem, and it’s actually the most intelligent film he has made that I’ve seen. Emmerich burst onto the scene with this film in the 90’s, and effectively so – the mix of sci-fi with Ancient Egypt is a film-maker’s dream, and the German director convincingly manages to convey this insane mash of genres with his trademark spectacle film-making. This is not to say that his terrible script and cliched moments throughout the film are in any way good also. The script for this film is so, so bad it’s good. Not withstanding the fact that half the Ancient Egyptian is not subtitled (an incredibly confusing move), the hackneyed and ridiculous dialogue between Jackson, O’Neill and the tribes is painful to watch. Emmerich obviously hadn’t learnt by Independence Day four years later, and this is a reminder to directors to get in professional scriptwriters rather than write their own damn films.

David Arnold, of James Bond soundtrack fame, wrote this amazing soundtrack in a hotel room whilst working in a video store. Listening to it, you would have thought it was composed and written in vastly different surroundings, and it’s a testament to the composer’s fantastic talent that the score is one of the best things about the film’s production. The effects and vistas presented throughout the film are, as viewers would later come to associate with Emmerich, big, impressive and even jaw-dropping. Alas, time has allowed for some of the effects to date quite terribly, but the crowd scenes, desert setting and enemy ship are even today examples of fantastic visual storytelling. The journey from star system to star system again was more effective at the time, but nevertheless, the visual acumen of Emmerich’s film-making started with a bang here.

This is probably the guiltiest pleasure in film from my point of view – try as I might, I cannot hate this film, despite recognising how terrible it is.

6/10

The French Connection

For its time, The French Connection is a ground-breaking movie, and with a gripping narrative alongside brutal action and strong performances from Hackman and Schneider, it deserves recognition.

NYPD officers Doyle (Hackman) and Russo (Schneider) find out about and pursue (on a hunch) the possibility of a drug deal between low-level gangbanger Sal Boca (Lo Bianco) and a French trafficker, Alan Charnier (Rey). Doyle’s maverick style makes him no friends, and the parties involved in the deal are ready to outwit the narcotics cops at any time.

Hackman and Schneider are perfectly cast as the partners, one impulsive and the other reticent. Hackman’s legendary acting prowess shows here – the man is able to hop from jovial to raging in a heartbeat, and casting the suave, chilled in comparison Schneider gives the film’s star pairing a jarring yet alluring quality. Fernando Rey, as French drug trafficker Alain Charnier, dominates the support – his seemingly harmless old man in reality a truly reprehensible criminal; one who seems to be able to outwit his police pursuers at any turn. Tony Lo Bianco as Sal Boca is manifest of the low-life looking for a bigger score, whilst Marcel Bozzuffi portrays Charnier’s henchman Nicoli with a steely evil.

William Friedkin creates some of the most realistic car-chases ever put to film, as well as capturing the gritty, run-down heart of New York. Friedkin, later to be known more for his skill helming The Exorcist, commits to film a vision of police-work and gritty urban realism that is quite rightly lauded almost forty years later. The action and dialogue scenes sit perfectly in proximity, and the rising tension throughout the movie, as well as the sharp beats of action, present a tightly-produced and slick movie that any director would be proud of. Most people will know of the Poughkeepsie dialogue, and its bizzare nature. The rest of the film’s script is full of intelligent discussion and real-life references however, and the fact that the narrative is based on a real-life counterpart series of events only adds to the realism of the procedurals. Doyle does get the best lines, and Hackman can deliver any form of dialogue with a rasping sarcasm if he wants.

The score is brooding – at the onset it’s swift, reflecting the quick and brash entry into the events, but later it builds tension, reminding me very much of the Dirty Harry score – urbane and seventies. The car chase that is so revered is a brutal, bone-crushing scene that Friedkin filmed without the permission of the city of New York. Bear that in mind when you watch the car smashed to pieces as it pursues its target – this is the level of realism that Friedkin aimed for, and this, along with the dilapidated, crumbling surroundings, adds another layer of realism atop a film already too close to reality for its own good.

This really is a quite amazing film, not only for its time but in watching now – a taut thriller, filled with the right amount of grit and power to reflect its source events as well as produce a gripping fictional narrative.

9/10

Hard Boiled

This is probably one of the more satisfying and madcap action films I’ve ever watched or am likely to watch. Blood, bullets and slow-mo cameras present John Woo as an action genius in the making here.

Lt. ‘Tequila’ Yuen (Yun-Fat) is an uncompromising and wise-cracking cop who makes it his personal mission to take down a gang of criminals operating in his city. An inside man on the gang itself, Tony (Leung) teams up with his police colleague against Johnny Wong (Wong) and his henchmen.

Chow Yun Fat is a charismatic actor – his English language films have shown many people this. However, in this movie he seems far more at home; the Chinese language (seen through the dubbing) gives his performance a more realistic feel. Tony Leung, as the undercover officer Tony, plays flawed and secretive very well here, and his scenes with Fat, in terms of rapport and humour, are some of the best in the film.Teresa Mo doesn’t really have that much to do here as Yuen’s girlfriend, but she does at least contradict the movie stereotype of damsel in distress – her scenes with Fat are hilarious, as their relationship hits ups and downs at the worst possible time. Anthony Wong and Bowie Lam play the antagonists Johnny Wong and Benny, with the former projecting a large amount of sinister expressions as a performance to quite effective, if hammy, success. Lam is more disturbing however, his terminator-like Benny seemingly unstoppable and ruthless. Philip Chan plays the police sergeant, a role that Hollywood has done to death; put-upon, shouting and demanding results – not exactly remarkable.

John Woo presented the movie world with a new kind of action here; non-stop, adrenaline-pumping action all round, directed perfectly and skilfully by the Chinese director.Say what you want about Mission Impossible 2, Face/Off or Broken Arrow, but John Woo and action go together like peaches and cream. The director seems to only need the semblance of a story and the option for action to make an insane movie like this – and the three minute long take towards the conclusion is proof of his skill as an action film director. The version of the film I watched was heavily dubbed – but the translated dialogue was still poor beyond this disappointment. Some of the lines were so hackneyed as to be laughable – there’s one point at which Tequila and Tony discuss the accidental murder of policeman, and the characters actually go back on what they’ve just said – with no hint of comedy. Incredibly poor standards of writing for any film, but in this case it does not actually detract that much from the action itself.

Tequila plays at a jazz bar – and so for the first half of the film we’re treated to jazz, Chinese style. However, the rest of the soundtrack is pretty superfluous – if you can hear it over the gunfire or incredibly terrible dubbing then you’ve got fantastic hearing. Woo’s handling of action is, dare I say, the best of any director worldwide (other than Michael Bay), and the ballet-like movements of the policemen as they take down swathes of enemies is something other-wordly to behold. There are scenes and shots that just provoke an astonished laughter; you struggle to comprehend the madness of the shots, particularly stunt shots – Chow Yun Fat’s ability to mount seemingly any surface to aid in a fight is remarkable.

Whilst the film has drawbacks; namely, English dubbing (terribly done) and some hammy performances, it cannot be beaten for action – it’s a must-see film simply for the action on display.

8/10

Caddyshack

Hilarious and insane fun, Caddyshack is a reminder of the bygone era of comedy in film, and a comedy classic.

Danny Noonan (O’Keefe) is a golf caddy from a poor family, looking to get into college. Whilst caddying for eccentric golfer Ty Webb (Chase), he finds out about earning the golf caddy scholarship from Judge Smails (Knight), a high-class, influential member of the golf club. Danny’s story takes place at the same time as brash millionaire Al Czervik (Dangerfield) joins the club, much to Smails’ disgust, and behind all this, groundsman Carl (Murray) is enlisted with catching and killing the gopher destroying the course.

O’Keefe has the hard job of being straight-faced in the company of Chase, Dangerfield and Murray, and fortunately he does well. He is the audience’s point of view quite honestly – the underdog aiming to get success. I would say Chase was the other male star, and the comedy legend is in top form here as a golf pro who no-one seems to understand. His personality, a mix of forgetful idiot and smarmy sex-god, is a more normal, more restrained version of Will Ferrell’s iconic comedy characters of the last few years, and Chase shows us how it’s done – genius.

Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield and Ted Knight make this film the classic that it truly is. Murray’s groundsman Carl is the indisputable centre to the movie, and his bizarre appearance, along with his insane quest to kill the gopher plaguing the course, makes him one of Murray’s best roles. Dangerfield and Knight play Al Czervik and Judge Smails respectively, the comedy legend and the actor playing the two sides of the class war – working-class rich man and WASP, their conflicts giving the movie much of its hilarity, particularly Knight’s indignant rage towards the man he deems unworthy of membership at the golf course. Dangerfield is the epitome of crass, and yet you root for him throughout, his brashness a breath of fresh air into the stuffy golf club.

The women in the film really just serve to be attractive, stupid or a mockery – the main focus being Cindy Morgan as Judge Smails’ relative Lacey Underall, and the name suggests what you can expect from the actress. Maggie O’Hooligan, played by Sarah Holcomb, is the antithesis of Lacey, and the other women of his affections. Both women are alright, but not really up to the standard of the other performers – and that’s only because they’re the straight support.

Harold Ramis ably combines comedy legends with the sedentary game of golf; his use of his SNL cohorts a revelation in the circumstances, and Ramis manages to utilise the comedians perfectly – each of them given the space to be as improvisational as possible, and as with the Apatow movies of modern times, the spontaneity gives the movie a feeling of controlled insanity. Nearly every scene with Murray’s Carl is quotable; I’m sure that many will have heard the ‘Cinderella’ scene before, and his wacked-out musings on what he’ll do to the gopher, along with the scene with Chase’s golfer, give the comedian the chance to improvise to hilarious effect. The class battle between Czervik and Smails also provides many excellent lines – some hitting rather close to the bone. Chase gets many of the more surreal quotes, and his scenes provide the viewer with the chance to listen incredibly carefully – so many of his jokes and one-liners go unnoticed he says them so fast.

Kenny Loggins was hired to sing every song on here – and having absolutely no idea who he was before, I don’t really want to know now. The songs sound the same, every one, and it’s annoying to have watched this film, repetitive music in check, alongside Platoon and Taxi Driver – two films with the exact same problem. The physical comedy stunts are staged perfectly – the minimum of effects, if any, are used, and the scenes at the dock in Miami harbour are a prime example of the lengths to which Ramis wanted to make the audience laugh – boats flip, passengers are hurled in the sea, and Smails’ boat subsides into the water in a haze of madcap action! It’s a shame really then that the gopher, so integral to the plot, is a rubbish little toy – I get that the situation would have demanded it, and computer effects at the time would have looked terrible, but it is a little ridiculous. It does add to the humour of the whole situation – and hell, it looks more like a real gopher than the ones in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

If it’s madcap, laugh-a-minute comedy you want, Caddyshack comes highly recommended, quite honestly one of the best of its time.

8/10

Taxi Driver

What an overrated movie. Taxi Driver, for all the praise and plaudits given to it, is at its root a disturbing and repetitive joke, and unfortunately one starring De Niro and directed by Scorcese.

Travis Bickle (De Niro) is a loner, a taxi driver whose anger at the state of the city he lives in begins to drive him toward action. Encountering political worker Betsy (Shepherd) and child prostitute Iris (Foster), two very different types of woman, Bickle’s lack of social skill, coupled with his determination to change things, drives him toward a dangerous destination.

De Niro is engaging as nutcase Travis Bickle, but he lacks the intensity that the actor has shown in more recent times. Revered for this role by critics over the last thirty years, is good at playing psychopaths. Just watch Cape Fear; he’s better in that in than here. Travis Bickle is an immature, pathetic man who thinks he can change New York single handedly, and to that end De Niro does present the near-harmless level of oddness in the man. However, I couldn’t help but imagine a newer actor (say Ed Norton) in the role throughout, because they’d be better; the man is blank – and it’s hard to see how De Niro made a career from this.

Jodie Foster can hardly be called a star of the film, but she and Cybill Shepherd share about the same amount of time on-screen as the focus of Bickle’s crusades. Foster, at twelve, plays a child prostitute, and it is a pretty amazing performance (for what little performance it is) by the young actress. Shepherd plays a campaign worker for the presidential candidate featured in the film, and she at least presents the character as more than one-dimensional, a woman who makes the wrong assumptions about the wrong man.

Peter Boyle, Martin Scorcese, Leonard Harris and Harvey Keitel play small roles in the movie as counters to Bickle, with Boyle his co-worker at the taxi company – giving him advice on his life, and as such, not a particularly strong performance. Harris plays the slightly slimy politician Palantine, whom Bickle supports simply through his obsession with Shepherd’s Betsy working for him. Keitel is bizarre as Foster’s pimp – it’s strange to even comprehend that it is Keitel, as the role is so small and the performance so poor that the actor seems miscast. Scorcese himself seems to make the biggest impact in his cameo as a deranged customer of Bickle’s – his little diatribe about his wife and what he plans to do is probably one of the better scenes in the movie.

The film is gritty – the very definition of the word in fact. Scorcese does direct the film well – the insight into this one man’s insanity is well-synchronised with the degraded Manhattan presented on-screen. It’s just not that fantastic – not as good as the hype would suggest it is. In fact, some of the scenes are quite weak to behold, in particular those featuring Shepherd and her co-worker – almost unnecessary and quite out of place. The infamous line is somewhat lessened in impact thanks to its many impersonators through the years, and in looking at the rest of the dialogue, only Bickle’s descent into anarchy is intelligent in its construction. His uncertainty in voice-over reflects well on the film, with the constant stumble for articulation and justification. The scenes featuring Shepherd and her co-worker mentioned above are stupid however – it seems like Scorcese was trying too hard to get an indie-style conversation in the movie, and as such it feels staged and ridiculous in context – Bickle’s simple humanity clashes wildly with their inane, bohemian-style chat.

Hearing the theme score by Bernard Herrmann at the onset, it is incredibly good – a piece that seems to match Bickle’s bizzare personality with the metropolitan sprawl of Manhattan. However, it’s about ten minutes in when you realise Scorcese is going to use it over and over again – and by the conclusion you just won’t ever, EVER want to hear it again: a prime example of good intentions gone wildly wrong. The city of Manhattan, shot by Scorcese, looks amazing here. The blurred lights, contrasted with the multitudes of people, give the night scenes that sense of urban life that many films miss – and some scenes present the darker side of the city at night convincingly well. The violence at the conclusion is also vividly brutal – shocking considering the plodding, harmless tone of much of the rest of the film.

It’s good to be able to say that I saw this movie – but that’s all I got out of it, other than a sense of disappointment and annoyance. Both actor and director have gone on to better things, so I should be thankful for its existence, but the truth is that the movie is seriously overhyped.

3/10

Kingpin

Not your typical Farrelly brothers movie, Kingpin is at times ridiculous yet morose – not the long-lasting inanity of There’s Something About Mary, or the disturbing laughter of Me, Myself and Irene, but a quality comedy all the same.

Roy Munson (Harrelson) is a former professional bowler, who, having lost his hand, looks for a way to get some cash. Finding Amish man Ishamel (Quaid) bowling amazing scores, he hatches a plan to win the nationals, and with the help of Claudia (Angel), a woman they encounter on their travels, the two men aim to win the national bowling competition, particularly in beating Ernie McCracken (Murray), the bowler responsible for Munson’s predicament.

Woody Harrelson is the straight man, whilst Randy Quaid is the comedy centre as Amish Ishmael. Bill Murray memorably appears, whilst Vanessa Angel provides the feminine side. Harrelson and Quaid are pretty good here – Harrelson presenting Roy Munson as a damaged but good soul, someone burnt before who trusts nobody. Quaid’s Ishmael is an Amish man, innocent of sinful activities but amazing with a bowling ball. Both men play off each other, Harrelson’s seriousness feeding the playful innocence of Quaid.

Vanessa Angel plays the female foil to the two men, and her attractive looks are comically put to use by Munson to get them more cash. The actress is also convincing enough in the dramatic scenes, but as with many a Farrelly film, she does appear to only be there for looks most of the time. Bill Murray is back to his best as Ernie McCracken, the sleazy rival to Munson and the catalyst for the loss of his arm. Having heard Murray ad-libbed most of his lines, it’s testament once again to the actor’s strength as a comedian that he is still one of the best things about the film.

The brothers Farrelly manage to direct another ridiculous comedy here, but then that’s what they excel at, and here is one of the better examples of such a film. The Farrellys once again mix gross-out humour with stupid laughs, but here there’s a little subtlety to much of the comedy, and counteracting it with the pathetic life of Munson gives the film a slightly more morose edge. As you’d expect with a comedy, there are some great lines, but many of them quite infantile. When they’re good though they are great lines – though nothing much on the soon-to-follow Me, Myself and Irene. The use of live bands and some songs appropriate to the film provide an adequate soundtrack – nothing special or particularly memorable however. The gross-out humour provides much of the visual strength, but the bowling scenes are real and as a result that much more competent than, say, a faked or effects-driven sport comedy.

It’s a funny movie, but one which I think would have appealed to me much more as a child or young teenager – as a twenty-one year old adult, the movie is painfully childish at times, but also a lot more serious than I would have thought possible of the Farrellys.

6/10

Step Brothers

Not the greatest Ferrell film of recent times, but a worthy addition to the collection of insane, man-child characterisations that he seems to have made his own.
Brennan Huff (Ferrell) and Dale Doback (Reilly) are two forty-something losers: men who’ve never left home and never mentally grown out of teenage life. When their two parents marry, they become step-brothers and mortal enemies – their childishness and idiocy brought to the fore in the most ridiculous scenarios possible.

Ferrell and Reilly are really just let off the leash and allowed to act like kids – that’s probably why they’re so ridiculously funny. Will Ferrell appears to have carved a niche for these roles – Ron Burgundy, Jackie Moon and Ricky Bobby are all shades of the same inane, stupid character that now manifests as Brennan Huff. The strength of his performance relies on its opposition to Reilly’s, and Dale Doback presents himself, like Cal Noughton, as the stupid foil to Ferrell’s insane performance. Thing is, neither are that believable – and with the superiority of characters like Burgundy, it’s hard to see why Ferrell doesn’t stretch his humour a lot more. Richard Jenkins is worthy of praise though; as Dale’s long suffering father Robert, he explodes at the most bizarre times, and his face seems to indicate that every year he’s put up with this has taken a toll!

Mary Steenburgen plays Brennan’s mother Nancy, and she gives a little calm to the proceedings; which, in many scenes, only increases the laughter of a situation. She works almost like a counterpoint or foil to the man-children and Robert – the normal person in amongst the insanity. Kathryn Hahn, seen in bit parts in other comedies such as Anchorman, gets a bigger role – and look out for her in upcoming comedies, as her performance here is the biggest surprise. As Derek’s downtrodden wife, she seduces and accosts Dale at any given opportunity – and the fantasies and conversations she creates in these situations are some of the funniest parts of the film.

Adam Scott, as Brennan’s younger brother Derek, is hilarious – the man looks and sneers like Tom Cruise, and his rabid control and need for superiority over his brother means that the character is that much more of an important figure in the funniest scenes. In fact, one of the best scenes of the film comes through his character’s need for excellency in his family, and his behaviour at the conclusion cements him as a new comedy actor for the Apatow team – interestingly opposite to the needless cameo from Seth Rogen, who I feel will soon want to play something other than the schlubby, slightly bemused by anything character he plays here in one small scene.

Adam McKay manages to direct another ridiculous Ferrell comedy, and his collaborations, both script-wise and directorial alongside Ferrell, are consistently funny. McKay ably manages to stage the mad comedy that Ferrell indulges in to the full – witness the riot at the children’s playground, or the antics of Dale and Brennan around the house, and it’s easy to see why the director is good at staging the physical comedy as well as presenting the spoken comedy. There are some great lines, some fantastic (and memorable) lines, and shockingly some real clunkers. The scenes in which Brennan and Dale interview for jobs are terrible – and it’s a shame, as it detracts from some of the really great scenes that surround it. As said above, most of the scenes containing Jenkins and Hahn are the best of the film – particularly the latter, whose obsession with Dale leads to some incredibly wrong yet hilarious lines you’ll remember afterward.

The soundtrack itself is ample for the film, but it’s the use of songs here that gives the film much of its score. Sweet Child O’Mine is presented, a cappella, by Derek and his family to hilarious effect, whilst Time To Say Goodbye is performed by Ferrell so well that you would begin to think he should change career. A lot of the film is reliant on physical comedy, and fortunately McKay can present it very well – from the two men fighting across the house, through to their exploits in attempting to reunite the parents and keep the house, it’s sometimes the case that the physical laughs outweigh the spoken.

It’s certainly no Anchorman or Talladega Nights, but Step Brothers is up there alongside Blades of Glory and Semi-Pro – and you really get the sense here that Ferrell and Reilly perhaps enjoy playing these idiots a little too much!

7/10

Platoon

Brutally violent and engaging, Platoon takes the Vietnam War and centres it around a battle between two men for a new recruit’s soul, utilising setting, a wide range of acting skill and narrative to present war from an ordinary man’s viewpoint.

Platoon follows the experiences of Chris Taylor (Sheen) as he enlists in the American war effort against the Vietnamese. Entering a conflict already doomed to failure, he soon finds that the two leading officers, Barnes (Berenger) and Elias (Dafoe), have very different points of view on the rules of engagement and the behaviour of their soldiers. Alongside his fellow recruits, Taylor experiences conflict, both inside and outside the platoon.

Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe are outstanding here, with Charlie Sheen taking his father’s role from Apocalypse Now as the audience’s anchoring point. Berenger and Dafoe, as the two officers, Barnes and Elias, present ruthlessness and level-headedness respectively; their two leaders are said to be fighting for Taylor and his soul, and it certainly appears that way throughout, as the young soldier exhibits behaviour in line with either, and the strength of their performances comes down to their antagonism toward one another. Berenger is cold, scarred and disturbing to watch, whilst Dafoe acts against type as the laid-back, morally central counter to him. Sheen is good as essentially the new recruit – the audience travels with him whilst he gets adjusted to war, and his move from innocent to ruthless soldier is convincing, a strong performance that keeps the film engaging to watch.

The supporting cast would appear to many to be quite unbelievably stocked full of skill – Keith David and Forest Whitaker portray two of the more experienced black recruits, their welcoming of Sheen’s Taylor and what transpires with each presenting the comradeship ever-present in war. Kevin Dillon and John C. McGinley play two of Barnes’ cohorts, insane and loyal respectively, and dangerous – the two manage to convey the darker side of war. Johnny Depp is even here – his small role befits his status at the time, and it’s bizarre to see him not only in a small role, but not assing around for once.

Like many war movies before it, and especially akin to other Vietnam films, Platoon is not just about war, but about the psychological effects of it. Notwithstanding this, the action is top-notch, and some of the dialogue will be familiar – this film is more quoted than you would think. Oliver Stone based the film on his own experiences and thoughts from a stint in Vietnam, and it’s impressive to behold the ambiguity he presents. Going against the war machine, he presents a starkly different picture than many films do of the American soldiers – some are murdering, raping scum, and some have been turned that way through their experiences of war. His experience of the war is a large part of the success of the film, as it is surely obvious that someone who may not have witnessed such a conflict would not be able to portray it truthfully. Some of the lines here are memorable, and the narration is (thankfully) minimal in comparison to other war movies (The Thin Red Line and Apocalypse Now, take note). Berenger’s Barnes and Dafoe’s Elias have some of the more intriguing scenes in which they put across starkly different views on war, and Sheen’s naivety soon changes to hardened, despondent rage – reflected well in his anguished conversations with the other soldiers.

The problem here musically is, while Adagio for Strings is an amazing piece of music, it is used to the extreme in the movie. There doesn’t appear to be a score, and the first few times at which the piece is played, it resonates. But by the conclusion, it loses its impact upon the viewer. Other, more popular pieces of music appear in the socialising scenes off patrol, and the men’s relaxation is reflected in the use of the songs to good effect. With a war movie, particularly one such as this, the action is brutal, swift and realistic. It’s not beyond Oliver Stone, having experienced war first hand in such conditions, to set the action in the jungles and wilds that the narrative demands, but he excels in showing the tight, uncomfortable confines and the subsequent anarchy as bullets, bombs and fire rain down upon the soldiers. To truly convey war, war must be presented realistically – and as a result, the bloodshed and effects are chillingly realistic.

All in all, it’s easy to see why the film is such a classic – it doesn’t need to follow the complicated, intricate plots or bloated running times of other war films, because it knows what story to tell and how to tell it effectively and stylishly.

9/10

Apocalypse Now

A fantastic film cataloguing insanity, war and imperialism, Apocalypse Now is a sprawling, magnificent film that masterfully builds up dread and tension through its adaptation of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Martin Sheen is Willard, the main protagonist and soldier ordered to go after Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz, a soldier who has turned away from his orders and gone insane – ordering tribes of Vietnamese people on a quest of murder and horror. Willard joins a troop of naval soldiers and travels up river to find Kurtz – but what he discovers harks back to the original’s title – the very heart of darkness and a hell on earth both in physical and mental forms.

Sheen is fantastic here – he is on-screen most of the time, yet appears distant, his character so far gone into the world of the post-war veteran, and sent back, his demeanour is suggestive of someone addicted; he didn’t want this, but he needs it, and there’s nothing else he can do. His narrative’s parallel with Brando’s Kurzt is masterfully played out, and their eventual meeting is impressive to behold. Brando is not in the film that much – in fact, it is in hearing recordings of his voice and seeing pictures of him that we gain a mounting sense of mystery, and when the viewer finally sees the man, the actor does not disappoint – conveying a sense of insanity with that of a man who has had enough with fighting for someone else, and has decided to take that power and use it for his own ends.

The male co-stars here are numerous and incredibly diverse; from the cameo from Harrison Ford, to the gleeful madness of Robert Duvall’s madman officer Kilgore, the supporting cast has many small standouts. The boat captain, played by Albert Hall, is perfectly in sync with Laurence Fishburne’s young upstart soldier, and along with Sam Bottoms and Frederic Forrest, they make the small boat’s crew that much easier to relate to throughout the movie – these are young guys, not ready for war, and not ready to face the hell that Willard commands them into. Dennis Hopper pops up towards the end as a spaced-out, drugged-up photographer who is part of Kurtz’s gang, and his rabid, non-stop idolising of the man makes good use of Hopper’s hyperactive acting as well as continuing to big up the reputation of the as-yet unseen Kurtz.

The documentation on the hell this movie went through on its way to production is widespread, and sometimes it shows here. However, Coppola’s taste for realism is starkly apparent in the way this film has been made – the army attack on the Vietcong coastal village in particular. Coppola has made what I think to be his best film with Apocalypse Now – The Godfather is a fantastic film, don’t get me wrong, but this is, in my opinion, the peak of what he could hope to achieve. The adapting of Conrad’s novella is ingenious in incorporating the Vietnam War, and the sets, actors and visuals are an example of how film should be; the best of the best, without concession.The dialogue takes many aspects of Heart of Darkness, and even tops the book in places where the madness of Kurtz is laid bare for all to see. And the quotable lines – well, you probably know most of them already, an indication of the influence this film’s script has had on popular culture.

The soundtrack was actually the most disappointing thing about the film – other than the great use of The Doors and Ride of the Valkyries, it’s all synth strings – a real shame when you consider the epic scale of the film. With an orchestral soundtrack, it would have been unbeatable, but the synth really ruins some key emotional scenes. The battle of the Vietcong village, which I’ve already mentioned, is a conquest of filmmaking; the sight of helicopters bombarding a real village with real fire-power, followed by a napalm bombing of the forest, is breathtaking to withhold, a battle the likes of which you would be hard pressed to find in any other film. It’s astounding, both in execution and in the way it’s been visualised Using the Philippines as a substitute for Vietnam allowed for Coppola to get the forests, rivers and vistas that only accentuate the splendour, and Kurtz’s palace at the conclusion of the film is an example of the grand, opulent sets that movies used to have. No effects are needed nor were used – only assisting in making the film’s visual acumen that much more profound.

It’s remarkable that this film was ever made, with the amount of problems it encountered – but thank goodness it was, as it remains one of the best films I have ever seen and is not simply the war movie people expect it to be – it’s a journey into the heart of the human soul, and a voyage to the dark side of human nature, packaged in a visual feast amongst the hell of war.

10/10

I Am Legend

Another Will Smith film that gets to its halfway point and loses its promise, I Am Legend nevertheless is a fantastic piece of filmmaking, and a real presentation of Smith’s acting skills.

Scientist Robert Neville (Smith) lives a solitary existence in a deserted Manhattan; after a supposed cure for cancer begins to kill people worldwide, Neville becomes the last immune person left, and he thinks he is alone in the world. However, at night the people who neither died nor were immune to the disease hunt for blood – their bodies changed irrevocably, and their minds diminished to those of animals. Neville attempts to eke out an existence, but it’s becoming harder for him to cope with his solitude, and whilst he may not be the only person left, he has to continue his fight against the infected or face death at their hands.

Will Smith is everything with this movie – without his performance, it would crash and burn. Introducing other survivors only makes his performance better. Smith is the last man on earth, and as such, his performance is somewhat more difficult than usual. The actor is finally and consistently presenting himself (along with another two of his films ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ and ‘Seven Pounds’) as a mature and serious actor – he doesn’t wisecrack, there’s no rap track to accompany him. And Smith is a seriously good actor when he wants to be – his performance as Robert Neville is incredibly strong, the last man alive despondently going about survival, the city of New York his playground. Alice Braga plays another survivor, who, along with a small child she had found, tracks Neville down, and she does well with what she has as someone who is trying to reconnect – she is desperately searching for another human, and in Neville she finds one. The only real co-star other than the dog (who is great by the way) could be said to be Mike Patton of the band Faith No More, who voices the CGI humans, and it’s an achievement to be able to make such disturbing noises as he does. His vocal performance gives the otherwise soulless human infected with a sense of evil – an evil with its roots in humanity.

The film looks, sounds and is presented fantastically well by director Francis Lawrence, the particularly significant highlight being the empty New York in which the film takes place. Lawrence manages to craft a quite interesting update of the Richard Matheson novel here – his master-stroke is managing to convincingly empty New York City (more specifically Manhattan) and present it as a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Along with his direction of Smith’s total solitude and the visual effects on display, Lawrence has succeeded in making a particularly morose and dark blockbuster movie. What little dialogue is present is reflective of Neville’s solitude – memorable exchanges with his dog, the mannequins he strategically places to keep him sane and the eventual conversation with the two other survivors are great indicators of the psychological toll the events have taken on him. The music is mostly absent, only really appearing to accentuate the tension. And this is necessary – the deserted Manhattan is even more ominous when coupled with silence.

The practical and technological prowess exerted to make Manhattan appear so empty must be commended here – it really is incredibly convincing viewing the empty Times Square, or the many deserted streets of NYC that Neville traverses. The whole film is bathed in a dark golden light, and the resurgence of the wildlife amongst the skyscrapers presents the idea that nature is slowly claiming back what it used to cover. The only disappointment is the CGI used on the infected – if this had not been used then the film would most likely have been far more acclaimed, but as it is, the effects used are far too plastic, too fake to be taken seriously.

There are so many positives to this film, really. It’s a great movie that could have been perfect, and so nearly is. However, the CGI (and Lawrence’s adherence to it) ruins what may well have been the ultimate survivor movie.

7/10

Equilibrium

This crazy actioner takes influence from anything from ‘The Matrix’ to ‘1984’ – and the end result is a fun, seriously-thought film that presented Christian Bale as a more than adequate lead three years before Batman began.

Cleric John Preston (Bale) is an officer enforcing the policy of no expression in the futuristic society of Libria – freedom of expression is outlawed, emotions are suppressed by a drug, and order is restored permanently after World Wars 3 and 4. Preston begins to feel however; his missing of a dosage giving him insight into feelings, and up against an ambitious Cleric (Diggs) who wants his job, Preston begins to see that he needs to free the people from their self-imposed, emotionless lives.

Christian Bale shows his depth, moving from emotionless and cold to a man awoken and feeling for the first time. He commands here – his character’s transition from an unfeeling robotic man to an empathetic, deeply angry revolutionist against the established system a true test of his talent. Diggs is the antagonist Cleric Brandt, a man who seeks to usurp Preston at every turn, and the young actor is more than capable of standing toe to toe with Bale. Emily Watson plays Mary O’Brien, a woman with close ties to the feeling, emotional rebellion against the government, and the actress’s searing eyes provide her performance with an extra jolt of power – her scenes with Bale are indicative of the move from dominated to domination, with Preston’s move toward realisation mirrored in his growing affection for her.

Angus McFayden plays DuPont, the representative of the mysterious Father (Pertwee), and the two between them create an image of efficient, ruthless control that should not be tested. William Fichtner plays Jurgen, the leader of the resistance fighters, and Sean Bean Cleric Partridge, Preston’s former partner who cecedes to his feelings. The latter two have small but significant roles to play – Bean is our first indication that not all is pure in the society the men uphold, and Fichtner the representative of the change brewing under the surface.

Kurt Wimmer’s conception of this dystopian future has influences permeating it at every turn, but in his use of the martial art ‘Gun Kata’, the movie moves past its literary and filmic influences to be something quite independent. Wimmer created the martial art ‘Gun Kata’ specially for this film – how many directors have that much commitment in filmmaking? Other than the astounding stunts that the scenes with the fights present, Wimmer shows an adeptness for story and for character moments – and with an acting powerhouse like Bale, he creates some searingly emotional scenes that are astounding in this particular movie’s context.

There is a lot of 1984, Brave New World-style dialogue present here, but its the lyricism with which those who feel speak to those who do not that gives the film somewhat of an independence over these literary influences. The use of a soundtrack with heavy choral influence gives the film an extra sense of expectancy – the music swirls in symmetry with Preston’s discovery of his feelings, and the use of Beethoven in one particular scene sears home the idea that music is the purest form of expression we have come to achieve. The gunfights are more tangible and shattering than many films dare to present – bullets burst from guns with billowing plumes of smoke, and masonry, limbs and flesh splinter, smash and crack onscreen in an incredibly brutal, yet poetic way. The effects, when needed, are alright for the film’s needs, but you do get the idea that Wimmer was hamstrung financially by the studios – making the introduction of the martial art the key that unlocks the film’s potential.

The film seems to have everything – it’s not perfect by any means, but there is so much that lies in its favour that it cannot be ignored or dismissed as a Matrix clone. Expression and personal opinions are suppressed by regimes across the world even now, and with the clever use of action and intelligence, Equilibrium presents a disturbing vision of a possible global future – and reminds us how important our feelings are.

8/10