Feasting On The Hunger Games

Ever since the Twilight series was adapted into a franchise of dire teen-friendly movies, Hollywood has been attempting to capture the public's imagination once more with the next big, youth-fiction thing. We've had Beastly, I Am Number Four and Red Riding Hood all failing to recapture that elusive spark, mainly because they're not very good. Now, along comes The Hunger Games, an adaptation of the first book in Suzanne Collin's youth orientated science fiction trilogy.

Given the dire nature of the films that have filled the needs and wants of the demographic so far, Hunger Games is startlingly excellent. This is great, all round film making from top to bottom which seeks to service Collin's source story than the drippy romantic urges of some naive adolescents. Bringing on writer/director Gary Ross was a smart move by the producers since his was the mind behind Pleasentville, a great piece of thought-provoking fantasy, which was told in a style dictated to by the story as opposed to the dubious imagination of a music video director's vision.

Hunger Games is handled with maturity, not dumbed down for an audience weaned on Transformers or Twilight films. The directoral style is varied and often experimental, often recalling the pre-Star Wars work of George Lucas on THX 1138 (which also dealt with an oppressive, futuristic dystopia) and the writing smart enough to allow for restraint in the dialogue, bravely preferring to let the visuals inform the audience.

The cast is equally impressive. Woody Harrelson brings a roguish nonchalance to the hero's mentor, Donald Sutherland brings authority and a serene, cold-hearted ruthlessness to his Presidential role, Elizabeth Banks is fantastic as the most shallow rich-person in the world while Wes Bently is Wes Bentley (meh!). Liam Hemsworth gets to stand round brooding manfully, but at least he's got 10 times the screen presence of Taylor Launtner in this kind of thing. Josh Hutcherson is pretty low key in what is essentially the male love interest role...but his performance pretty much suits the role he's playing. But this is Jennifer Lawrence's film from start to finish. She's already proven she's got the acting chops from her Oscar nominated performance in Winter's Bone, but she really steps up the pace to demonstrate she's got the charisma and star wattage to carry a blockbuster motion picture. Her Katniss Everdeen is both strong but vulnerable, skilled but flawed and impulsive yet patient. It's her eyes we discover this fantasy world through and without being able to empathise with her, the drama (of which there is considerable quantities) would just fall completely flat.

The post-apocalyptic world Katniss inhabits is simply designed yet utterly believable, the CGI strong although seldom needed, the action tense and gripping and the narrative along the lines of The Running Man or Rollerball is compelling.

Ignore the hype and the fact this is adapted from novels aimed at a youth audience. This is a serious film, intelligently made, spectacularly acted with a mature subject matter and themes. Like all good science fiction Hunger Games passes comment over the world we live in such as youths being sent off to do combat for its government for an unnecessary cause, oppressed undemoratic government oppressing the masses, shocking, manipulated reality TV to distract the masses from the real problems of society as well as drawing attention to the ever increasing wealth divde between the ultra rich and the distressingly poor. In many ways the timing of The Hunger Games release is apt in part because it becomes firmly part of the Occupy generation.

Of course many will either be unaware or choose to ingnore the warnings contained within The Hunger Games, it is after all the survival tale of a resourceful young woman, but it is comforting that young people are choosing to watch something this insightful in their masses.

Best Of TV - Airwolf "Moffett's Ghost"

There wasn't much in the way of quality genre television produced in the 1980's. Doctor Who was on the decline, Star Trek The Next Generation didn't really get going until the last year of the decade and Knight Rider was the general level of popular action/science fiction that was being churned out of the USA circa 1984. Occasionally an American drama managed to climb above the standard level to deliver something a fraction more mature and a touch smarter. One such show was Airwolf which started a trend (along with Miami Vice and The Equaliser) to veer away from slightly dumber action adventure fare (The A-Team, The Fall Guy) with a more serious, thriller tone. It being the 80's, the quality of the stories and dialogue didn't improve much so there was a tendency to be corny and cliched a lot of the time, but the direction and acting was more somber and moody. It also helped that Airwolf often played on the larger canvas of an espionage thriller, rather than the crime of the week show that U.S. TV normally transmitted.

Aside from the pilot episode which had an impressively cinematic production level, the best episode of the show was early in the second season with "Moffett's Ghost". It brought the ruthless creator of Airwolf back for a cameo in which his character is revealed to have implanted a computer virus in Airwolf's electronics prior to his death, in essence possessing the super-copter like a demon might inhabit Linda Blair. With a race against the clock to rescue a stranded scientist from enemy soil, the heroes must exorcise the 'ghost' without killing themselves, shooting innocents out of the sky or destroying Airwolf herself.

The pairing of Jan Michael Vincent as silent-but-strong hero Stringfellow Hawke and Ernest Borgnine as chirpy mechanic Dominic Santini was inspired, effectively counter-balancing their characters in an engaging dynamic. Alex Cord, playing CIA director Archangel, does a good job of being the guy that gives them the orders yet cannot be trusted and provides the episode with the narrative thrust with the high stakes of nuclear Armageddon. Like Seaquest's Games episode, this is again a case of clever people trying to out-think and outwit each other, and those kind of mind games are always compulsive viewing.

Many of my favorite TV episodes work better than others simply because they exist within the context of a TV show rather than a stand alone story. The backstory a previous TV episode can not only add weight to to an new episodes story but it also makes the loyal audience who have seen the returning plot element or character before feel rewarded because they're 'in on it'. With actor David Hemmings returning to play Moffett, it's an episode that gets right to the heart of Airwolf...Airwolf herself...and deepen the mythology of a show back in an era when TV show mythologies were largely ignored beyond the pilot episode.

Best Of TV - Seaquest DSV "Games"

Seaquest DSV came at a time where there was a healthy boom of big budget, quality genre TV shows appearing on the airwaves which included The X-Files, Lois & Clark, Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5. Of those shows, Seaquest was perhaps the weakest, and as such, the most troubled series to make it on air although that didn't stop it from producing a few gems on the way.

Seaquest's history can be divide into three, which just so happens to align with the three produced seasons of the show. The first season took it's cue from Star Trek The Next Generation, with an expensive ship bound science fiction drama (underwater instead of outer space) that was one part serious sci-fi drama (although it was always dumber than it thought it was) and one part action adventure. Thanks to declining ratings, the producers started dumbing down the drama, replacing the older, more interesting actors with younger, prettier mannequins and upping the fantasy adventure of the plots. If quality megastar Roy Scheider was worried what type of nicey nicey bullshit he'd gotten himself into in the first season then it's no wonder he fled the show at the conclusion of the second. The third rebooted the show yet again with a more aggressive military based universe and a harder edged lead actor with the legendary Michael Ironside. Although the show was still more adventure than drama at this point, it did allow for some impressive high concept science fiction episodes which fitted in snugly with the tougher cast and premise.

The best episode produced was way back at the shows inception with Games, which was the fourth story to be broadcast. Again riffing from Star Trek, it's a Space Seed like tale of a highly intelligent mass murderer loose on board the ship engaged in a high stakes game of cat and mouse with the captain. Brit actor Alan Scarf gets to do his best Hannibal Lector on the crew and does it with scenery chewing aplomb delivering a detached insanity mixed with a self-amused arrogance.

What makes this work is the chess game played between Roy Scheider's Captain Bridger and Scarf's madman Zellar. A tense display of brinkmanship is always more compelling than a shoot out any day of the week and the bluffs and counter bluffs of the two men combined with massive global consequences for their actions is damned exciting stuff.

Of course, in the cold light of retrospect Seaquest does look a bit daft and childish compare with the likes of Firefly and Battlestar Galactica that have succeeded it, but episodes like Games still have the ability to entertain.

Neuralyze My Mind From The Men In Black

Like many others I'm really rather fond of Men In Black, the 1997 comedy vehicle for Will Smith in which he joined a government organisation which policed aliens secretly living on earth (mainly New York). Perhaps because of the mix of comedy, an action adventure that took itself and the characters seriously, blended with a mix of fantasy with original effects work, not to mention its New York setting, Men In Black most felt like Ghostbusters...but for the UFO crowd. It shouldn't be surprising then that the sequel to Men In Black should be equally as lame as the Ghostbusters follow up.

But it is. Men In Black II feels rushed and like it's been developed by a committee of eager to please studio executives and toy manufactures. So we have an Earth in peril plot that feels kind of derivative of the first film (complete with evil alien hiding in a host human body), a contrived love interest for Will Smith (thankfully in the luminous form of the lovely Rosario Dawson), a time wasting plot to wedge Tommy Lee Jones' previously departed character back into the franchise, a visual style that rarely ventures outside the parameters of the first film and an annoying talking animal sidekick.

The story has no real flow feeling more like a serious of disjointed, unfunny scenes, Barry Sonnenfeld's direction lacks the sharp timing he brought to The Addams Family movies and much of the effects work is terrible whether it's Jeff the giant worm of Johnny Knoxville's weird, detached, floating-in-space second head.

There are a few smiles to be had and one big belly laugh once Mr Jones is back on the case, but really, this is a sequel that shouldn't have happened. Here's hoping this summer's Men In Black 3 regains the franchise mojo.

Reload The Mother Load

Despite a stellar box office return that was obviously based on audiences positive word of mouth as opposed to pure anticipation, The Matrix sequels are regarded by many as substandard to the classic 1999 original. And while it's true that both The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions can't quite reach the stellar levels the first film achieved, they do give it a damn good run for it's money.

The first sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, gets the closest to recapturing the greatness of the first film. One of the things that made The Matrix great was the intricately detailed new universe it presented and much of the enjoyment came from discovering the look, the backstory and the rules of both the world of the matrix and the post-apocalyptic real world inhabited by machines and a small human rebellion. Reloaded takes the baton and starts expanding it in both areas. In the real world we get to see Zion, it's geography, it's infrastructure, it's defences, it's spirituality and it's politics. The matrix itself is expanded upon as we're introduced to programs other than agents, the concept of system upgrades, "the source" which is the machines central computer, backdoor pathways which circumnavigate the geographical rules of the matrix as well as programs which are suggested to be supernatural in nature (like werewolves and vampires). It's all cool stuff.

The multi-layered subtext is also broadly expanded upon with the focus falling more on choice verses fate, the importance of purpose, the illusion of choice and how understanding, information and outside controlling influences alter the perception of choice. As with the first film it doesn't stop there. The interdependent symbiosis of man and machines is also explored, religious parallels to Christianity, Gnosticism and Buddhism continue while the philosophical works of Descartes, Socrotes, Plato and Baudrillard are mussed upon further. While it can be argued that scenes with characters stood around talking about the meaning of life grind the plot to a stand-still(the Merovingian's musings on the nature of cause and effect), I'd argue that such discussions are so well written and so strongly cinematic that their inclusion is to be welcomed, not shunned.

Plot wise, there's a 72 hour deadline introduced to the plot within the first 10 minutes which lend a power air of urgency to both the sequels. As with the first film, an equal amount of time is spent in the real world and the matrix meaning the film visually never gets tiresome and the film makers do their damnedest to expand the style of Reloaded over it's predecessor at every opportunity.

In terms of action, Reloaded's ambition is staggering. Rather than Keanu Reeve's Neo fighting one to one in a tube station or a training program, here he's got multiple opponents (super human, come to think of it) in meticulously choreographed wire worked martial arts confrontations. The beautifully staged stairway fight in the Merovingian's house narrowly beats out the epic relentlessness of the Burly Brawl in which Neo fights off multiple Agent Smiths...although not by much. Yes, it can be argued that the CGI computing power to pull the sequence off entirely convincingly was not achieved, but I still think as a piece of fight choreography, film editing and boundary pushing effects work it's more jawdropping than Tarantino's amazing Fight at House of Blue Leaves from Kill Bill (and boy does that rock!)

The freeway chase is a wonder to behold, beating out the likes of Terminator 3 and Bad Boys 2 in the summer of 2003 to be one of the greatest vehicular action setpieces committed to celluloid. Again, great stuntwork, brilliant storytelling with the sequence having a proper beginning, middle and an end, high stakes drama, top notch effects work (only a crappy CGI agent jumping on a car's hood irritates) in a breathless display of imagination and balls. The lobby shootout in The Matrix was always the action sequence that had to be topped in a sequel, and this leviathan of a chase certainly provided bigger and better.

The returning cast from The Matrix bring their A game to the sequel although Reeves is perhaps a little stiffer here than he needs to be. Of the new cast a stern Harry Lennix, feisty Jada Pinkett-Smith, smary Lambert Wilson and voluptuous Monica Bellucci stand out but I particularly love Helmut Bakaitis's condescending portrayal of The Architect in a climactic scene which really irritates the movie's naysayers. Not only are important philosophical themes discussed, but the epic plot twist is revealed, the set design is thought provoking and iconic, the language memorable and quotable (see below for Will Ferrell's smirksome MTV Award parody) and intellectually unlike anything in an action movie either before or after Reloaded's release.

If I have a criticism, it's the way the film has to service the third Matrix film Revolutions of which Reloaded is the story's first half. While I like the scenes in Zion, too many peripheral characters are introduced (Zee, Mifune, Kid) that have no consequence of the plot as it exists within Reloaded as a single, self contained movie. The biggest problem is the ending, which should wrap up after Neo revives Trinity at the film's climax, but we have another 5 minutes of fannying around in which the plot can create a cliffhanger which can link to Revolutions. The cliffhanger itself is utterly terrible with the revelation that Agent Smith possessed Bane is alive and within striking distance of our heroes in the real world! The visual reveal is so confusing (with Bane's face upside down) that I had no idea who I was looking at when I saw the film originally. It doesn't help that the character only appears a couple of times before the end shot and the concept of his possession isn't made particularly clear.

But still, despite it's flaws, the amount of technical skill, ambition, epic, beautifully staged action, multi-layered intelligent thematic material and end-of-the-world, race-against-the-clock storytelling means Reloaded is right up there with the best of them for me. It's just a shame Revolutions had to let the team down.

Viva La Revolutions!

If The Matrix Revolutions was a near-perfect sequel to one of the greatest films of all time, then The Matrix Revolutions was one of the biggest let downs in a movie franchises life. That's not to say Revolutions is a bad film (far from it) but the expectation for the Matrix Universe to ambitiously progress even further in terms of imagination, effects and action just wasn't met.

A direct continuation of the story started in The Matrix Reloaded, Revolutions picks up immediately afterwards...and it's still a pretty good story. Zion, and thus mankind, has to be saved in the few hours that remain before the machines reach humanity's final stronghold and wipe it out. There's action aplenty whether it's in the real world of the post apocalyptic far future or the more familiar contemporary world with the matrix itself. And in terms of character arcs and thematic explorations, Revolutions reaches its conclusion with confidence and style.

But there's a few big problems, especially when compare with the first two films:-

1/ There's very little left to explore. Most of the world of The Matrix has been revealed to the audience. How it works, the limits of what can be achieved technologically and personally in this fictional world have been pretty much reached and it doesn't feel like there's much that feels fresh and new to experience. That's not to say what is there isn't interesting, but the creativity seems to have spent their load at the end of Reloaded, making one wishing they'd have paced themselves a bit more across the three films.

2/ The action is no longer ground-breaking. In Reloaded, each action sequence felt like it was 10 times more ambitious than had been attempted before whether it's 100 Agent Smiths pummelling Neo, sword fighting with twin ghost dudes, super-heroic martial arts and that gobsmacking freeway chase that too bullet time to the next level. Revolutions only provides tiny steps of inventive action...an upside down gunfight or a rain soaked superman style smackdown...but nothing that recalls the feeling of seeing Neo dodge bullets for the first time. There is the film's centrepiece action sequence where the machines invade Zion, but impressive though it may be, it still feels derivative of the epic battles seen in the Star Wars prequels, Lord Of The Rings or Starship Troopers.

3/ The bulk of the film takes place in the 'real world' as opposed to the world of the matrix. Yes the real world is filled to the brim with cool human devouring squiddie robots, insane mechanised robotic powerloader fighting machines, cool hovercraft and computer designed A.I. cities...it's just not as cool as seeing a guy in a leather suit kung fu dodge a 9mm bullets from a sunglasses wearing fiend. The matrix was the section of the films where most of the groundbreaking stuff happened. Without it, events feel overly familiar and kind of safe. I don't want safe. I was danger, surprise and breathless excitement.

4/ The main characters, whom we have grown to know and love over the last two films disappear from the story for large chunks at a time. The best example of this is the invasion of Zion, which at close to 20 minutes is by far the film's biggest and most epic set piece. Trinity and Neo are ignored for the whole time while Morpheus rushes to the rescue, and even then, he's only seen to be helping out. The rest of the sequence is seen from c-list characters points of view which means the stakes feel much, much lower than if a main characters life was at stake.

5/ Morpheus is a pussy. Thematically it's great that they explore loss of faith along to balance out the spiritual an religious subtext in the film and it's fantastic that Lawrence Fishburne got a story arc where his character got to evolve and learn of the course of the narrative. But, what it meant practically was that Morpheus gets to stand around quietly and cry like a baby because he's lost his faith, leaving Jada Pinkett Smith to take up the slack. Now she might be cool, tough and easy on the eyes, but what we really want is the kick ass Morpheus who was described as the world's most dangerous terrorist from the first film.

Aside from that, the film is made with the same care, skill and attention to detail as the first two films. Screw the people who don't like the actress playing The Oracle this time round (she's mint). Screw the people who don't like that the war ended in peace and not with the machine's destruction (pay attention, you might learn something about real life wars). And screw people who don't like this film. If science fiction or fantasy films aren't allowed to provoke intelligent discussion about the meaning of life the universe and everything like Revolutions does, then a dumbed down world where only Stephen Sommers movies exist doesn't sound like a world I'd like to live in.

Viva la Revolutions!

Something To (Cameron) Crowe About

Cameron Crowe doesn't make films very often, choosing to slowly hone his visions rather than rush them into production, but when he does they usually pretty darn good. Say Anything is considered a classic (although I've yet to see it), Jerry McGuire is one of my favorite rom-com/dramedys ever, Vanilla Sky is a brilliant science fiction piece, Almost Famous was great enough to reconsider the works of Elton John (amazing, I know!) and Elizabethtown was almost wonderful except for the tragic casting of Orlando Bloom in the lead.

It's taken 7 years for Crowe to figure out his next step but he's now back with We Bought A Zoo which is his best and most 'Cameron Crowe-y' story in years.The basis for the plot is much like this award seasons The Descendants in that it's about a father struggling to bring up his two children after his wife has become ill and died. Unlike George Clooney's well received drama which was quite quirky and subtle, Crowe goes straight for the sentiment in a moving and amusing, dramatic comedy.

Crowe's style is very emotionally manipulating. His exceptional choice of songs (from artists like Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Temple Of The Dog), a beautifully haunting score (from Sigur Ros's Jonsi), powerful universal themes (overcoming loss, loneliness, finding purpose, discovering inner courage) and iconic, quotable dialogue ("sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage" is this movies "you complete me") will connect with many, although not with all. Fortunately, these techniques to highlight emotion are thankfully undercut by very naturalistic performances from the cast, an unshowy directoral style, wonderful injections of humour when things are too intense and an strong understanding that restraint actually delivers a greater emotional whack instead of Spielberg levels of hugging, kissing and crying.

A grounded and laid back Matt Damon leads a pitch perfect cast that includes Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Hayden Church, Angus MacFayden, Patrick Fugit, Ellie Fanning and 7 year old Maggie Elizabeth Jones as the most endearing moppet the movies have seen since Drew Barrymore in E.T. There's no Orlando sized miscasting this time round proving that digitally inserting Damon into all of Bloom's scenes could technically save that film.

It has to be said I loved We Bought A Zoo. There's a delicate balance between hauntingly poetic and schmaltz, and 95% of the time Cameron Crowe stays on the appropriate side of line between the two with confidence, leading to a satisfying blend of poignant drama and warm, light comedy. If that's not to your taste, you'd better stick to colder visionaries like Kubrick and Fincher.

Susan's Plan (To Flush John Landis' Career Down The Tubes)

There's no doubt about it; director John Landis is a legend. In terms of top genre film making Landis has made the best musical of all time in The Blues Brothers, the best comedy of all time with Animal House, the greatest music video of all time with Michael Jackson's Thriller and the best straight-up horror film of all time with An American Werewolf In London. But there's also a lot of inconsistency in his career including the fantastic (Trading Places, Oscar, Coming To America), mediocre films (Spies Like Us, Three Amigos, Beverly Hills Cop III) and the outright shit ones (Innocent Blood, Blues Bothers 2000, Into The Night). There's only a few of his works I've yet to see and until a couple of days ago that included 1998's Susan's Plan.

Susan's Plan is a comedy thriller, penned by Landis, and stars Nastassja Kinski in the centre of a convoluted caper plot to kill her ex-husband in a murderous life insurance scam. Along for the ride in this Tarantino-esque inspired concoction are C-listers Michael Biehn, Billy Zane, Rob Schneider, Thomas Hayden Church, Bill Duke, Lara Flynn Boyle and Dan Ackroyd who to a lesser or greater degree, get the quirky tone Landis is gunning for. Surprisingly, diva Flynn Boyle nails her role best with a ditzy, airheaded performance as a hustling skank with Biehn giving her a run for her money as a killer with the mindset of a young teen.

Despite the cast and director, Susan's Plan is awful. The script is dire, little of the humour translates through the situations and characters on to the screen and very little of that signature Landis magic is visible in the comic timing. The pacing is slow, tonally it has trouble jumping between serious and humorous the way American Werewolf pulled off so perfectly, and it goes absolutely nowhere.
Thankfully Landis was to redeem himself on the excellent Masters Of Horror episode Deer Woman, but considering this cluster cuss, it's amazing he achieved even that feat.

Double Trouble

Now in his fourth decade as a movie star it's amazing Richard Gere still hasn't retired or migrated, like many of his peers, to the now very respectable land of TV.
But make movies the man still does, the latest of which is the espionage thriller The Double. Gere stars as an FBI agent brought out of retirement to track down Cassius, a Russian spy and serial killer on US soil who was once thought long dead. He's teamed up with the Topher(Predators)Grace as a enthusiastic and naive young Agent and it's pretty early into their investigation that the first big twist is revealed. SPOILER ALERT. Gere IS Cassius.

From then on it's much like No Way Out with the main character trying to derail the investigation that will ultimately lead them to his front door. Of course, Grace, and bubbly wife Odette Yustman, are in ever increasing danger as Grace gets closer and closer to unraveling the truth. Unfortunately, it's so blandly written and directed by Michael Brandt (the writer of Wanted and 2 Fast 2 Furious) that much of the dramatic tension is squandered in a story that frequently feels TV movie-ish.
While it's great to see high stakes espionage movies being produced, especially while the likes of Bourne, Bond, Bauer and Jack Ryan take a breather, it's a shame this never really soars, even with a last minute twist.

Ghostbusters 1921

The Awakening is an unexpectedly effective period ghost story in the vein of The Turn Of The Shrew. Well produced by BBC Film with a great cast led by Rebecca Hall with strong support from Dominic West and Imedla Staunton, it features the efforts of an independent an educated woman in 1921 to disproved that a children's Boarding School is haunted.

It's atmospheric and tense with enough character stuff to keep things moving along quite nicely, with the central hook for the audience being whether the events are real or faked. As with all ghost stories since The Sixth Sense, this is rather dependant on a final act twist, which fortunately works well, despite what some mopey critics might have you believe. There is an odd subplot about a slightly bonkers groundsman that has no business being in the narrative at all, but that aside, The Awakening is well worth your time.

John Carter & A Princess Of Mars

Disney's John Carter has been getting quite a bit of attention recently, but unfortunately not for the right reasons. Whether it be its decades in the making production, an untested animation director, its $250 million plus mega-budget, derivative and over-familiar story and set-pieces, confidence lacking in the title department, a vague and confusing marketing campaign, the outdated 95 year old source material or an unworthy, meat-headed lead actor...poor John Carter has had a lot to overcome, even prior to its theatrical release. Rather surprisingly, what has emerged is a bloody entertaining piece of romantic, pulpy, sci-fi adventure...much in the spirit of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books on which the screenplay was based.

Despite all the moaning that the film resembles Attack Of The Clones visually (there's a gladiator verses monster battle in a giant desert area) and Avatar (the hero's consciousness is transported to a superhuman body where he leads a rebellion and saves the girl)the thing that John Carter most reminds me of is Flash Gordon...both the 1980 film and the old black and white serials. It feels very episodic as Carter is thrust from one escapade top another meeting allies, adversaries, mentors, friends and most importantly, a lover in Dejah Thoris the princess of the city of Helium. It's the first science fiction epic in a long time that has captured the essence of the fun, serial adventure that made 1977's Star Wars such a blast (and something the prequels that were too bogged down with backstory to include).

The film is a great exercise is world building as we are slowly gradually introduced to the planet of Mars, or Barsoom as the natives call it, and to it's antagonistic cultures one by one from the 9 foot tall, four armed Tharks to the mystical, meddling Therns. To many, especially in these days where CGI can create any environment imaginable, Barsoom may seem disappointingly familiar. But with the majority of the film being filmed in a desert setting for real with FX being used to augment and enhance the original image, this version of Mars is very easy to identify with allowing the audience to put themselves in John Carter's shoes. The effects there are (and the money is certainly up there on the screen) is some of the best I've seen in recent years and goes some way of making the setting feel authentic.

Wall-E director does a great job of balancing the adventure with drama (Carter's tragic past is handled very effectively without being intrusive), comedy (the hero's Earthbound escape attempts amuse), action, character development and story. This is a great story, even if it is one that has been mimicked a 100 times over the 95 years since the book was written, that's extremely well told. And when I mean well told, I mean in a steady, unflashy, un-Michael Bay kind of way which may put off the youth market along with it's establishing period setting, abundance of loin-cloths, the classic orchestral score and its strong romantic tone (where the heroine isn't confined to emotionless blank stares).

Taylor Kitsch does a solid job as the title character; he's not a great actor by any means but he does possess the charismatic twinkle in his eye that the likes of Sam Worthington and Channing Tatum lack. The supporting cast are great on every level to he mocapped CG characters (a gruff and playful Willem Defoe particularly) to the more regal human(ish) cast including the ever dependable Mark Strong, swashbuckling James Purefoy, tyrant Dominic West and the wise Ciaran Hinds. Top honors goes to Lynn Collins who play the Princess Of Mars. Her Dejah Thoris is tough yet vulnerable, fierce yet fearful, smart yet naive and one of the most watchable female heroines to grace an adventure film in many a moon. It also doesn't help that her combination of graceful curves, high cheekbones, dark skin, black locks, piercing blue eyes and the plumiest posh totty English accent this side of Angelina's Lara Croft means she's destined to adorn my desktop wallpaper for several decades to come.

Despite the terrible marketing campaign the film has had to endure, John Carter still might struggle to find a wide audience, particularly with the youth crowd. Not only may they be put off with the perceived derivative style and plot and off-putting period setting but the old fashioned way the story is told may not be enough to capture their imagination. In many ways this reminds me of 2005's Sahara which also had a mega-budget, was film in a non-contemporary way, died at the global box office...and yet was outrageously well made and ten times more fun than it had any right to be. We may not get sequels out of this costly endeavour but there's enough greatness contained within to keep my geek brain entertained for years to come.

Menaced By The 3D Phantom

I've watch Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace many, many times since it's original 1999 release and even reviewed it in this hallowed blog about two and a half years ago (here). Being a huge Star Wars fan there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to see Episode I on the big screen with its 3D re-release this year. The 3D wasn't important to me (I'm getting weary of this marketing gimmick and it rarely 'improves' the visual impact of the film) but it did allow a rare opportunity to see an impeccably designed fantasy film digitally projected on a screen as big as an AT-AT.

Since my first review of Episode I back in 2009, my opinion of the film has sank tragically into the depths of hell thanks to my nagging doubts being focused and confronted by Redlettermedia's Mr Plinkett, an unsavory character whose feature lengthy Star Wars prequel reviews have become the stuff of Internet legend. Rather than going into detail about the film's many, many faults (including the stiff acting, non-existent characterisation, logic defying plotting, inappropriate political guff, static direction, and far too many shots of characters siting and walking and walking and sitting) you'll be much better informed by going straight to the source and checking out Plinkett for yourselves here.

Still the awfulness of the story and characters can't detract from the fact this is a Star Wars film, plain and simple. That means space battles, a fully realised and ever expanding science fiction universe, immaculately designed landscapes, props, costumes, vehicles and planets, a lush and sweeping John Williams score,some still impressive visual effects, a solid 3D conversion, and space battles. He might not be able to direct actors or conjure a coherent plot but Lucas can still orchestrate action like few others. All the action sequences, particularly the podrace and the final battle of Naboo are all first rate cinema and the Jedi/Sith lightsaber battle still has the ability to have one shouting at the screen for Mr McGregor to laser sword Ray Park's Darth Maul into oblivion.

Great to see again, mainly because it manages to transport me back to the mindset of a seven year old boy, although despite its moments of greatness I have to acknowledge that much of The Phantom Menace is dire shit.

March Pick N Mix

Cool Game Of Thrones inspired Simpsons opening credits...

Rare & Under Appreciated: Quigley Down Under

The popularity of the western genre died out in the 1970's, but a few gems have managed to creep out over the years since. One of these is the little seen Quigley Down Under which tried to capitalise on the post Magnum P.I, Three Men & A Baby appeal of leading man Tom Selleck who plays the title role with his trademark rugged masculinity and stoic, charismatic, laconic attitude.

While the story is nothing special Quigley Down Under does have plenty to recommend it. The story is spiced up by this being an Australian set 'western' and having the hero being a skilled rifelman rather than the usual cliched gunslinger, David (Mad Max) Eggby's cinematography perfectly capture that sunsoaked, dusty, wild west look, director Simon (Lonesome Dove) Wincer finds the perfect tonal balance between action, drama and humour, and composer Basil (RoboCop) Poledouris delivers possibly his best ever score which ramps the movie quality up 50% just with its very presence. Let's not forget the spunky Laura San Giacomo as the insane-or-is-she Crazy Cora and the unbeatable Alan Rickman doing one of his slimy masterclasses in villainy from the early 90's era.

Old fashioned, leisurely paced and a dingo load of fun, Quigley Down Under still rules.