Lost In The Land Of The Lost

On paper this should have been a monster comedy (no pun intended, dinosaur fans).
Take a director (Brad Silberling), with visual flair and a background in Fx movies (Casper / Lemony Sniketts)...combine it with a big budget...a top comedy actor (Will Ferrell) looking for a high concept effects funride...give them able support with starlet Anna Friel and newbie comedian, Danny Mcbride...and then, as a sure thing, base it on a beloved hit American TV show. And thats how you make a hit movie!

Wrong. Too many cooks spoiling the broth on this one as it smacks of studio interference, and misjudged artistic decisions all over. The tone of the thing is all over the place for one, veering from crass (yey) tits and arse gags to pre-pubesent slapstick. I think Ferrell and Mcbride wanted to make one film while the studio aimed for the child market. Ferrells performance is inconsistant anyway; one minute a intelligent and heroic professor...the next a brailess pleb with no common sense.
Silberling aims for a parallel world that has a heightened reality to it...but can't keep the look consistent. On the one hand are the beautiful location shot desert scenes, complete with Raptors and T-Rex's. There's some amazing photography here. But he undermines it with an abundence of studio bound stage work that is deliberately made to look like it was shot on a set. It's Spielberg's Hook all over again. At least last years Journey To The Centre Of The Earth stuck to it's indoor studio look...not mixing the fantasy world up with a more realistic location shoot.

Unavoidably, the kiddie aspect is enhanced by the alien Sleestacks, the 1950's bug eyed baddies. By this point it's just a pantomime and you'd just wish Ms Friel would strip off for some crude distracting boob jokes.

A faliure, and unfotunately it's not funny enough to compensate for its mistakes. In this age where studios are trying to make more mainstream movies more palletable to a greater demographic...let this be a warning to all who proceed.

Losers - The Story Of Losers

Wanna see a spiritual movie? Don't fancy The Passion Of The Christ? Steven Segal's On Dealy Ground not for you? Then check out Anvil - The Story of Anvil. It's about a heavy metal band, Anvil, that toured with the likes of Bon Jovi and The Scorpions in the early 80's. They predated the big four Thrash Metal bands of the time (Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax) by a year or two. They were highly regarded. They were inspirational trend-setters. Their lead singer, Lips, played the guitar with a plastic dildo. And they failed to make an impact.

Of course, then as it is now, many bands get their break and fail to make the big time (where would the 'line-up' round on Never Mind The Buzzcocks be without it. The difference here is Lips, and fellow founding member Robb, have never given up the dream. This documentary is funny (Lips is sliigghhty crazy), interesting, sad and quite touching as we follow the band trying to make it...one more time.

On every US sitcom you have to have the moment, near the end, where the characters realize moral of the story...you know, like 'never give up, despite the odds'. With out the sentimentality, Anvil IS that moment embodied in full metal glory.

Jacko Of The Dead

Considering the pop culture nature of this blog, it seemed appropriate tp mention the passing of of an important cultural icon; Michael Jackson. Many will sing his praises, and deliberate the controversies of his life elsewhere, but I just wanted to add my perspective.

Pop videos...no one made music videos like Michael Jackson, even if they had money to spend. When an MTV countdown showed the most expensive music videos ever...most were wasteful crap. Will Smith on a speedboat ain't that engrossing. Anything with Mariah Carey is a waste of money. P Diddy...we don't care how much attitude or bling you have. Jackson videos were mini movies. The had plots. They had epic dance sequences, impressive Jackson dance solos, imaginative settings and inventive direction. From the stark sci-fi slickness of Scream to the power of the Earth Song video. From the crazy unrelated collection of scenes in Black or White to the gang-inspired confrontation of the Bad video. Most were memorable. Some were great.

Perhaps intentionally, his best songs were adapted into his best videos. There's the glorious 1930's gangter style Smooth Criminal with it's bizarre gravity defying dancing. In its longer, Moonwaker cut, it goes all Transformers on us, destroying all pop video competition in the process.

But his best is the incomparable, John Landis monster epic Thriller. Landis was at his peak here and had proven himself a master of comedy, horror and the musical (all the genres on show in Thriller). A perfect marraige of music and moving image, it's barely dated despite it starring 'black' Jackson in his red-leather period. The video is so iconic, it's inspired a collection of affectionate homages and spoofs (including the above Final Fantasy DVD extra from the 2000 movie).

Still brings a shiver to my spine, the perfection of that dance sequence. Today, at perhaps this very moment, Jackson is being laid to rest. In three days time, if he were to rise from the grave, if Jacko were to perform this dance, I'd be a happy man.
So would Jackson (no make up required you see).

Dillinger, You Da Mann

No matter how much director Michael Mann denies it, his new gangster flick Public Enemies, has many similarities to his 1995 classic Heat. There's the equal but opposites of the career criminal and hardened cop, both smart enough to realise their obsessions are not the best thing for their peace of mind, relationships or health. Of course, they have one major conversation in the entire movie...and it ends rather badly for one of them (no spoilers here...it's Dillinger...don't you read history?).

After an rambling start the movie starts to click as we get to see how bank robber Dillinger (Johnny Depp) operates and how his opposite number, Christian Bale's FBI go-to guy Purvis, organises his counter offensive. Depp is well cast as the serious but charismatic thief. As the movie progresses we begin to see his love of cinema and how it affects his lifestyle; his choice of women, how he looks and where he chooses to operate.

Whether it's Mann's direction, the structure of the script or the quality of the casting, but I found the Christian Bale side of the story more interesting. Bale's got a reputation of only doing shouty, angry roles recently. Here he dials it back and proves why he's one of the best actors working today. He demonstrates his commitment to his line of work, but he very subtley conveys his doubts, inner-conflicts and insecurities. The police procedural stuff is facinating..seeing how deduction and investagative techniques had advanced by 1933 (they had wire-tapping dontchano!)

Best of all is the decision to shoot this period movie in hi-defintion video, as Mann has done since Collateral. It gives the movie an immediate home video style, putting the audience right in the centre of the action. You feel you're there in the room or standing next to the guy with the tommy gun. The technique removes part of the cinematic barrier which subliminally tells you it isn't real. The result, combined with the detail-obsessed Mann, is an immersive cinematic experience. You feel like you're in 1933. The digital film brings out all the subtle details in the image; individual hairs on a fur coat or the imperfection on a facial compexion.

Goldenthal's music score is sparse, but makes an impact when it appears. Better still is the director's decision to use music of the time, as he did with Miami Vice, to give the movie more texture. The use of Otis Taylor's Ten Million Slaves during the early robberies brings an excitment and coolnes music score alone could not achieve.

An enjoyable movie but not an original or great one. Heat still remains the template for this basic story, being better balanced between the leads and is generally written overall. But I'd say it's Mann's best film since that masterpiece.

M.I.A.: George Lucas

Where is George Lucas? No, not Star Wars director George Lucas who is holed up in Skywalker Ranch in California, producing Indiana Jones movies and preciding over his private technology stretching empire. I'm talking about the angry, uncompromising, experimental film student, George Lucas, who made 1970's THX 1138. Because you would hardly make the connection that the director of The Phantom Menace made THX.

The future world that Lucas presents is a typically stark, early 70's vision of a modernist future. It's a frightening future where corporate mentality has conquered humanity. Everybody is sedated so as to perform with out question, exactly as instructed. This kind of control ensures efficiency is maintained at work and in the factories. In fact, with so much control and technology to support it, there seems to be very little in the way of war, disease, overcrowding, starvation or conflict. But with virtually everybody giving away their freedoms, humans are reduced to a robot-like existance. When Robert Duvall unknowingly comes off of his sedatives, he looks for a better life.

The revelation her isn't the story but the imagination and level of experimentation that Lucas indulges in. It has a cold, documentary feel for the most part...but Lucas throws every editing and sound technique in the book to communicate his ideas. A far cry from the guardian of conventional directing when he produced Jedi in '83.

I don't recall the original cut of THX but the Directors Cut is mighty impressive as George, Star Wars Special Edition style, expands his landscapes exponentially. It works; the new subterrainian cityscape is flawlessly integrated into the original footage.

Great ending too; as Duval make his desperate bid for freedom the authorities call off the pursuit as it's 'too expensive to continue'. Makes you wonder how our law enforcement and prison institutions balance the public's safety from criminals and fugitives against profit.

Disturbia II - The Revenge Of Mr Janssen

There seems to exist a type of U.S. movie that is fully intended to get a cinema release but can't get a major distribution deal. Morgan Freeman makes too many of these movies. They're well produced and nicely made...but lack that stamp of quality OR broad commercial appeal that makes a theatrical release viable for a movie exhibitor or distributor.

100 Feet starring Famke Janssen is one such movie. Take a plot similar to that of Disturbia (Famke's finished her prison term for manslaughtering her abusing husband and is now confined to her house via a tagging system). Poor girl can only go 100 feet from the tag sensor and exceed that for no longer than 3 minutes. Which is fine...unless the pissed off ghost of your late husband shares your abode. Bugger.

It's a fine movie. Eric Red, the writer of the original Hitcher, directs with confidence. There's a serious, thrillerish tone that's superior to the teen-dumbness of a 'Friday the 13th' kindathing. Famke's a solid actress and she carries the film with attitude and with ease. There's a small supporting cast; the lack of characters gives the narrative focus..always focusing on Ms Janssen's troubles. The best idea is to make the ghost someone the protagonist knows, rather than some grumpy spirit that wants the new homeowner out of 'their' house. Adding that personal relationship heightens the stakes...and that's never a bad thing.

If there's a downside it's that the resolution is shockingly misjudged. It's not necessarily the story that mucks up...more the choices the director makes (bad music / poor effects / logic hiccups).

Not a classic by any means...and it's more dramatic than horrific (apart from a marvelously brutal poltergeist attack)...but it is a step above most horror dross out there...even the theatrical releases.

Virtuality: The Revenge Of The Holodeck

Ron Moore is TV's God. JJ Abrams has passed the buck to his Lost and Fringe co-producers while he fannys around in movie land. Joss is back in TV land...but Joss don't wanna be funny...unless he's blogging on the net with Dr Horrible. So it's up to Mr Moore. Battlestar Galactica, the greatest TV show of the decade, has finished. The pilot for its prequel Caprica was daring and rather bloody good.

And he's at it again with new science fiction pilot Virtuality. Set on the Space exploration ship Phaeton in the near future, a small crew of astronauts prepare to leave the solar system on a ten year mission to a local star, in a bid to save the Earth from environmental collapse. To help the crew psychologically, theve installed a virtual reality system (like Treks holodeck but in goggle form).

The space mission itself privides a strong bedrock for drama. But Moore adds to this a bunch of professionals, who all have very troubled personalities, even before the mission begins. Then there's the virtual reality angle; there's a murderer/rapist in the dream world thats apparently not part of the program. So who's the evil programmer on the crew. And who killed that key crew member at the pilot's climax?

In true Ron Moore fashion, the premise leaves the writers free to explore philosoiphy, religion, psychology and sociology...as with all good ship shows, it puts a cross-section of society under the microscope. It even deals with news, media, fame and the nature of reality as the crews mission is streamed to Eath in a Big Brother, fly-on-the-wall documentary.

It's brilliant, and under Peter Bergs confident direction, the reality TV feel for the piece really comes off. All it's missing is the explosions.
And that's the downside...to the shows continued production. It's being produced by the Fox network, a company that has already shown its distain for fantasy based TV (see Dollhouse/The Sarah Connor Chronicles) by dumping Virtuality in the infamous Friday Night Death Slot...where TV show go to die. It appears this is the case as this intelligent and gripping pilot was unwatched by nearly everyone.
Unless the Sci-fi channel pick this up, Virtuality is doomed. But when they're about to unleash another Stargate series, I have little faith in the future of smart sci-fi on TV. Fingers crossed with Caprica.