Death In Three Dimensions

The Final Destination is the forth in the horror franchise and the second to be helmed by David R Ellis (who directed Part 2 and Snakes on a Plane). Rather like Part 3, this is the dictionary definition of horror franchise by numbers. There's no cleverness or variation in the script structure from previous installments. Nothing is added to the franchise mythology. Just teens surviving slaughter due to mysterious preminition...then brutal death in the order they should have died originally.

While the deaths aren't as playful or as drawn out as Part 2, my favorite of the series, they are gory, inventive and very very violent. Nobody in the cast can fill the lovliness vacated by The Winstead in Part 3. So you have Bobby Campo (doing a dull James Franco impression), the marvelously wooden Shantel VanSanten as his girlfriend and a Sean William Scott/Stiffler-esque performance from Nick Zano.

This does exactly what it says on the tin. It gains points for pushing the death scenes to the fore in glorious digital 3D...as well as the best opening title sequence of the year as we see slow motion, X-ray versions of the previous franchise deaths. Nice.

Chase Me, Tommy, Chase Me!

Catch Me If You Can is one of Steven Spielberg's lighter efforts from the early part of the decade. It's his first collaboration with Titanic megastar Leonardo DiCaprio (solid as usual) and a second partnership with Tom Hanks (having fun with a workahloic character piece). Its fast, fun , frothy and quite unlike anything else Spielberg had done at this point (although why he did The Terminal frustrates me, even now).

Spielberg's doing a bit of a Tarantinio with his casting here. On one hand he's given established actors a second shot; Martin Sheen and a career best performance from an amazing Christopher Walken. He's also cast a lot of up an coming youngsters; Amy Adams (Doubt), Jennifer Ganer (Alias), Sarah Lancaster (Chuck), Ellen Pompeo (Greys Anatomy), Amy Acker (Angel) and Elizabeth Banks (Zack & Miri).

A minor work from the master, but still accomplished and entertaining.

Mad Matt and the Ironclad Battleship of Doom

These days, no matter how good, some movies are not going to be that well received. In Sahara's case it might be the combination of putting Mad Matthew McConaughay as the lead in a big budget action role and of making it a CG-less, old fashioned action adventure. Sahara, adapted from the Clive Cussler novel featuring adventurer/research Dirk Pitt, is just that. But that's what makes it such a great movie.

McConaughay is teamed with Steve Zahn in an inspired teaming. It's this banter with each other and their colleagues which is the heart of the movie. There's an unspoke ease in their partnership as they plow headlong into unexpected situations, with cool heads and an almost telepathic understanding of each others way of thinking, unphased by danger. The actors and the characters seem to have fun with their way of life even if it is extremely dangerous, and it shines onscreen. A super-sexy Penelope Cruz, Rain Wilson, William H Macy and Delroy Lindo join in the fun (it has an ensemble feel rather than as a star vehicle for Mad Matt)while Lambert Wilson and Lennie James make adequete bad guys.

Breck Eisner directs with a steady hand, favoring a thriller-ish old fashioned approach rather than the avid-fart approach to most contemorary action films. The action sequences are old school stunts rather than CGI orgies and it pays off; The punch ups are refreshingly martial arts free, the river chase a class act and the climax suitably epic. The photography is lush (Lean and Spielberg influence me-thinks), the production design grounded and textured; the waste disposal factory is the nearest you'll get to a Bond-villain's lair outside of a Bond film.

Clint Mansell's score elevates the whole enterprise with it's Bond-like wailing brass and strong heroic theme; when most composers are trying to do the electro-Hans Zimmer thing, here comes a reinterpretation of an old style and it works a treat. There's some high energy retro rock thrown into the mix when things are getting too serious which helps lighten the mood.

The whole thing feel;s like a combination of Raiders and Bond. There's the fun, yet serious thrillerish tone. There's the modern treasure hunting aspect (but far more interesting than the National Treasure flicks), and the global threat represented by a topical eco-disaster caused by greedy corporations.

It was obvious from the film's ending scenes, and from the opening title billking Sahara as a "Clive Custler Dirk Pitt Adventure", that the studio wanted to make a franchise out of this. Unfortunately that won't happen. Real shame that.

I Took The Red Pill (And Got High On The Matrix!)

The Matrix, directed by the Wachowski Brothers is now an established classic. It frequently turns up in Best Films of All Time compilations and it's Joss Whedons favorite film. I totally agree with those that hold that opinion. So why do I think it's so good?

1/ It blends complex concepts in an easy to understand story. So many movies have tried this and it's got mind-bendinly confusing for mass audiences (Dark City, I'm talking to you). Up until the Matrix, no one had figured out how to talk about complex philosophical topics like 'what is real?' and put it in the context of a relatively-simple to follow narrative. The Matrix's strategy was to introduce you to the story concepts very gradually, while referencing familar stories that covered similar ground (like Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz). Once they got the concept of the dream world communicated, the rest follows easily.

What's staggering is how many philosophical concepts are layered into the story. There's examination of the systems of control, perception of reality, destiny vs freewill, faith vs doubt and ignorance vs enlightenment.

There's also commentary on religion, sociology, politics, history and psychology.

2/ It takes Asian cinema to next level. The Wachowski's obviously have a love of cinema from Asian countries and have integrated several techniques and styles in the movie. First off, it is taking John Woo's balletic, slow-motion, two-handed gunplay up several rungs. By including slow motion acrobatics with the gunplay and by heightening the movements with the revolutionary special-effect of 'bullet time', the film-makers changed shoot 'em ups forever.
Then there's the use of wire work, rarely used in western films up until The Matrix, to allow the characters to perform superhuman moves. Martial arts, rather than bar brawling, is used as the signature fighting style... and it defines the movie. Western cinema (and myself) was reeling after these two action revolutions.
Finally, The Wachowski's direction is still and understated; prefering a longer, clear quality shot than lots of messy shorter ones....a trademark of Asian cinema, especially the horror movies.
So having these beautifully choreographed fights, enhanced with wire-work and bullet-time effects, and shown in all its beauty with perfectly composed long takes delivers a style of action that was new to world cinema.

3/ Sucessfully adapts Manga. Manga comic often create massively complicated far-future worlds that has really only been atempted in western cinema with the original Star Wars trilogy. The Matrix was to illustrate a future Earth society that was dominated by an agressive machine foe. These weren't simple nuts 'n' bolt terminator baddies but complex Squiddies and impossible high skyscrapers of sleeping human batteries. No one since has quite had the vision to pull off something this unique visually in science fiction.

4/ Modern myth. The story has a certain power because it adopts the very familiar narrative threads that define a myth. There's the hero from an unexceptional background that is destined to save the world, with the help of a love interest and a wise man, and who will have to sacrafice his life (and be resurrected) to achieve that goal.

5/ Uses Techno/dance. The Matrix was one of the first of a handful of films to successfully integrate dance music into an action film. Prior to that action was general accompanied by a traditional music score or with guitar-ridden rock songs. Starting with Mortal Kombat and improved by Blade, dance music made the action relentless and the movie hip. The Matrix perfected this with great, perfectly integrated tracks from Rob Dougan ,The Propellerheads and The Prodigy.

On top of that you have a top notch cast. Keanu Reeves is finally directed in a way that makes him credible in a non-valley dude persona. But its the Hugo Weaving and Laurence Fishburne that run away with the awards. Fishburn is magnetic and larger-than-life as Morphius, the father figure to Reeve's Neo. Hugo Weaving is miraculous as Agent Smith; all precisely delivered sentences and quirky pauses. It might be theatrical but it works within the film's context.

The FX are top notch, the photography ground-breakingly bleak (everybody copied the near-monotone look after this) and the production design magnificent. The matrix set stuff is brilliant in it's simplicity while the future stuff is impossibly detailed.

The ultimate praise for an action and special effects movie of this magnitude is the story and how its told. You can take out ALL of the action and all of the special effects in the production and you would still have a unique, facinating and entertaining film. That's something 1999's other fantasy epic, The Phantom Menace couldn't boast. And the great thing is, it works on so many levels, it has great broad appeal. If your thick...or just feeling lazy, you can watch a fast fun action movie. If you feel like stretching your noggin you can contemplate phillosophical issues until the cows come home. In fact, it's one of those rare works of art that is so detailed that you can find something new on every viewing that you didn't see before.
Joss Whedons favorite film of all time? Clever man.

The Phantom Gooberfish

With all the fuss surrounding the trailer/footage for James Cameron's Avatar recently, it reminded me of the pre-release hype surrounding George Lucas' return to the Star Wars universe with 1999's Episode I: The Phantom Menace. After all, both are intent on introducing revolutionary CGI to create a massively detailed outer-space environment as well as convincing CGI characters. I haven't seen Episode I for a while so I was intested as to whether my opinion of the film had risen or fallen in the intervening years.

Two things hit home immediately; the effects and the acting. First off the environments are utterly top notch with ritchly detailed interiors, exterior model shots, epic planetary vistas, cityscapes and flawless integrated CG characters. Sure, there's a few areas where improvements in computer graphics could have enriched the universe further (Bos Nas / The climactic grass battle) but is all looks damned good. After being wrapped up in The Matrix sequels and the Lord of the Rings trilogy over the last decade, it's cool to go back and admire where the era of super-rich fantasy movies started.

On the negative side there's the acting (or perhaps the direction given to the actors); it's bloody dull. Neeson is restrained and terribly bland as the film's lead Qui Gon Jin. Natalie Portman, while enigmatic as the Queen of Naboo, is also unenergetic and lifeless as Padme. Her delivery comes across as uninspired pre-production, practice script-reading. Ewan MacGregor, in the Padawan leaner role, is subdued also, and plays it too 'eager-to-please'. This partly comes from a director who's unable to articulate his needs to his actors or a belief that he can 'fix' the acting in the editing suite. It's shot with a great deal of medium and long shots, further distancing the audiences from the characters. But the biggest problems are the characters, who are too wrapped up in the formality of their duties (Queens, Jedi, Senators) to interact with any sense of fun; they're too stiff and reserved. Jake Lloyd is too young and too poor an actor (he lives up to his Mannequin Skywalker moniker) to lift the movie with the lust for life that Anakin possesses.

So it's up to the voice cast of the CG creatures to lift the overall performance level of the cast. Ahmed Best is engaging as Jar Jar. Yes he's a twat but it fits the tone of the movie, before the darkness sets in and The Clone Wars begin. Andrew Seacombe is great as Wstto while the unmistakable Brian Blessed gets to unleash his vocal chords as Bos Nas.

Plot wise, Lucas toys with a lighter story, despite the political manuverings. From our knowledge of the original trilogy, you can see plot elements being nudged into position; Anakin's fear of leaving his Mom and joining the Jedi. Also, the whole point of the invasion of Naboo is to manipulate the Senate/Padme/Trade Federation into making Palpatine Chancellor.
It's less urgent than the other films in the saga as the stakes aren't quite so high at this early point. The relationships are too new and too overwhemed with formalities, so there's very little emotional depth or interpersonal drama. It's all set-up with no meat on the bones; just tantalising glimpes of what might be.

The first half lacks pace, with a diversion to Gunga City and shopping trips and yakking on Tattoine slowing the movie down. A lot of the smaller action set-pieces don't registar that well either, particularly the running of the Naboo blockade.

BUT, once the midpoint podrace kicks in, the movie doesn't let up. Indeed, the film is saved from some of the best action editing and direction of the decade..firstly in the beautifully structured pod race and in the multi-threaded climactic battles. All of the final action is top-notch action but the obvious stand-out scenes are the Darth Maul vs Jedi sword fight. It's exhilarating and gravely serious and undoubtedly the best lightsabre fight of the saga. Ray Park as Darth Maul makes a dangerously aggressive foe with an raw, untamed attitude that is showcased even further against the calm of Neeson and MacGregor. Williams score, while a little too whimsical and flourishy at times, is one of his best of the decade. The sword fight accompaniment of 'Duel of the Fates' proves that Williams is the best film theme writer ever.

It's still not improved with age but that doesn't matter 'cause I loved this film anyway. Despite the stiffness, it's still a Star Wars film. That means there's more imagination per second than any other movie series out there (apart from LOTR perhaps). And it's produced to such a staggeringly high standard that the film stills alone are worth gazing at for hours on end, let alone a 2 hour movie. So all the Jar Jar haters and Midichlorian moaners can sod off back to Transformers 2 cause I'm sticking with Phantom Menace.

Attack of the Squeaky Jedi

Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the clones is a film of halves. The middle of the film can be divided in two. Much like The Empire Strikes Back, the other middle trilogy entry, the established heroes Obi Wan (Ewan MacGregor) and Anakin & Padme (Hayden Christensen & Natalie Portman) split up with diffent goals. Unlike Empire, the two story paths are not as engaging as each other.

The Obi Wan plotline, as he unravels the mystery of Padme's attempted assasination and the creation of a clone army is brilliant...taking the lively MacGregor to interesting fantasy locations, cool encounters with Borgnine inspired cafe owners, greyskin prime ministers, dangerous asteroid belts, devious ex-Jedi and grumpy bounty hunters. The flipside is Anakin and Padme travelling to Naboo where they picnic, fall in love and have nightmares about Mom. Portman comes out of her shell more in this instalment, making Padme more human in the process. Christensen follows in Jake Llloyd's footsteps perfectly as he misjudges a teenage Anakin by making him a whiney, immature and moody teenager. Christensen naturaly talks with a deep voice in interviews, so why he decides squeak with a high-pitched girly drone is beyond me. The result is a stiff, chemistry free, unconvincing love story that's a little uncomfortable to watch as Anakin stalks the lovely Portman (the blokes in the audience are thinking' "Yeah mate, she is hot. But don't freak her out by being a moody, cocky twat")

In the second half of the film, things pick up, especially when the plot shifts to Tattoine for the young couple. There's some spark between the two as Anakin finally goes bugnuts after losing his Mum to Sand-people and Anakin's descent towards the Dark Side begins properly. The Anakin and Obi Wan threads are brought together for a relentless series of supurb, ever escalating action sequences on Geonosis as the heroes escape capture, the Jedi are ambushed, the Clone War begins and Dooku faces of with Yoda.

This is a vast improvement over Episode I. The actors are looser in their roles (apart from the squeaker Christensen) and the characters have bonded and are emotionally invested in each other. Anakin weds the mother of Luke and Leia and further highlights his fear of loss and his internal anger. The stakes are higher as Palpatine/Darth Sideous manipulates the galaxy into war, giving him, the chancellor, the political powers he needs to eventually single-handedly rule the galaxy.

Visually, the film is richer than Episode I as the advances in CG make the Star Wars universe even more textures and realistic. The art direction is much more powerful too, as the composition of shots is improved and the vehicles linger in frame longer (like the atmospheric opening Corasant landing sequence). The individual action set-pieces don't match the pod-race but are still imaginative and fun, like the car chase in the films first third. The Jedi battle in the Geonosis arena is a technically flawless adrenalised kick in the balls which has hardly been matched in subsequent blockbuster epics.

While still not perfect, Lucas showed he could listen and learn from his critics and produce better work. The only let down is the casting of Anakin, but that pays off down the road.

Sith Out Of Luck

Shrugging off virtually all the negative aspects of the previous 2 prequels, Star Wars Episiode III Revenge Of The Sith is by far the best of the new Star Wars trilogy. This has mostly to do with the extremely strong script that starts off with one of the most technically complicated action sequences of the saga (a 25 minute space battle and rescue) and builds it's tragic narrative to it's inevitable conclusion.

Only a couple of awkward, early scenes between Portman and Christensen, as they re-declare their love for each other, suck. Apart from that Christensen handles the downfall of Anakin Skywalker well, his demise not from a mystical evil but from the simple desire to save his wife...at any cost, even if it means lying, betraying his faith, and killing kids. It's gripping stuff and the cast are on top form here. Portman's matured and plays her limited scenes with a subtle complexity. MacGregor's at his best with something to get his teeth into, playing Obi with the cheekiness he brought to Episode II, and also with the added embodiment of Sir Alec Guiness, who plays the role in A New Hope. Ian McDiarmand is excellent as ever. The outstanding scene of Sith isn't an action sequence but the Opera scene, as Palatine skillfully seduces Anakin with the possibilities that the Dark Side hold.

Indeed it's these interactions that are the key to Sith's success. Take the moment before Padme confronts Anakin on Mustafar; silently she contemplates her future... or the execution of Order 66 across the galaxy, signalling the culling of the Jedi. Another beautiful, wordless sequence is when Padme and Anakin gaze across the vast city at each other, as Anakin reluctantly chooses his fate.

The action isn't shabby though, with the Grevious Vs Obi Wan confrontation providing a midpoint adrenaline rush. But it's that swordfight...the one we've been waiting for for 19 years that takes the prize. It might not be as well choreographed as Episode I's duel, but it's loaded with an emotional punch as two mates slug it out for the fate of the galaxy. It's compulsive, sad and when it gets to poor ol' Anakin clawing his flaming body up the side of the volcano, you know Lucas has delivered on the promise of the prequels. The brilliance of the birth of Vader juxtaposed with the death of Padme is sadly undermined by Vader's brief Frankenstein impression. Yes, he's very upset, but considering the lenghth of time fans have been wating for the return of THAT suit, another way to show his distress might have been in order.

Still, it can't ruin a supurb, five-star movie that ends on an nostalgically moving note with the setting of Tattoine's two suns on familiar homestead. It's a shame that Episodes I & II couldn't have been as powerful as this, but it's obvious that without their existence, we would not have had a third entry as powerful and satisfying as this.