Reviews: Some Recent Films

The Falling (Carol Morley, 2014)
When one of the pupils in a late-1960s all-girls school suddenly drops dead, her best friend starts displaying the same symptoms, her classmates following suit.  Are they sick?  Cursed?  Faking it?  Or is it all in their heads?  This bewitching exploration of teenaged sexuality provides no easy answers to these questions; however, for my part, I would actually have prefered it to be more ambiguous, as I felt the solution too heavily implied, perhaps due to the amount of coverage of Morley's research into mass hysteria.  Still, if you've ever wondered what would happen if Girl, Interrupted met The Devils, this is the film for you.  It's beautifully shot, edited, and sound designed, and the big revelation will leave you stunned.

A Royal Night Out (Julian Jarrold, 2015)

It's VE Day, and all of Britain has taken to the streets to celebrate.  All, that is, except for the royal family.  When Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret finally convince their father to let them go out incognito, it looks like they're in for a dull evening with some stuffy old courtiers, but then Margaret runs off, and it's up to Elizabeth, aided by an AWOL airman, to find her before she causes a scandal.  A cute little film that would have perhaps been better suited to television, A Royal Night Out was filled with a lot more humour than I expected it to be.  I had trouble, though, suspending disbelief for this mostly-made up tale (a recent Channel 4 documentary on the real royal night out suggests that their evening was far tamer); while Princess Margaret's characterisation was wholly believable, it was hard to imagine the Queen as a young princess.

Mad Max:  Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
When Furiosa, one of the Citadel's most respected tanker drivers, helps the warlord's favourite "brides" run away, it provides the perfect opportunity for Max to escape.  Circumstances bring them together, and Max and Furiosa team up to race across the desert and bring the girls to safety.  A pace that never lets up, strong characterisation, and the effects--mostly done practically, not by CGI--look AMAZING.  You could level the criticism that, for a Mad Max movie, it really isn't about Mad Max, and so why didn't Miller just make a post-apolcalyptic movie about freeing sex slaves?  However, Fury Road delivers a message about female empowerment and liberation that really shouldn't be causing all the controversy it has (Empowered women in an action movie?? Oh, the humanity!).  But don't worry, meninists, there are so many explosions you'll hardly notice the feminism.  It will just seep into your tiny little brains while you're watching shit blow up, and, who knows, in a few hours time you might actually feel like treating women a little bit more like actual human beings. 

Review: The Avengers: Age of Ultron

While cleaning up a Hydra cell, the Scarlet Witch, a totally-not-mutant-you-heard-that-20th-Century-Fox? who can do pretty much whatever the script requires her to, puts some bad dreams in Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man)'s head.  So he and Bruce Banner (Hulk's non-green alter ego) decide to use the magic thingy out of Loki's staff to create an A.I., Ultron, that will defend the earth from alien attack, achieving, as Tony puts it, 'peace in our time.'

Now, had Steve Rodgers (Captain America) come into the room at that very moment, this would have been a much shorter film.  Anyway, Tony's project has a similar effect to Neville Chamberland's surrender of the Sudetenland:  aided by his sidekicks Scarlet Witch and her twin brother, Quicksilver, who, despite having the exact same name and ablilities, is totally not the same one from the X-Men, Ultron sets about bringing down his creator and destroying humanity, all the while evolving himself into his ultimate form.  Only the Avengers can bring Ultron down, but that's not an easy task, as they're at odds and on the run (thanks to Hulk's uncontrolled smashing).

Now, I've seen people whinging on social media about how Age of Ultron wasn't as fun as the first Avengers movie, and yes, I would have to agree in a way.  But what Ultron lacks in playfulness, it make up for in maturity, not unlike The Emperor Strikes Back or The Godfather Part II.  Ultron is a lot darker, but also a lot deeper.  In creating Ultron, Tony plays God not unlike another well-known fictional scientist, and, like Dr Frankenstein, his creation also turns on him.  Meanwhile, Bruce's Jekyll-and-Hyde-like dualism is further explored, as, on the one hand, his relationship with Natasha (Black Widdow) makes him more human, but, on the other, he finds it increasingly difficult to come back from his Hulk state.  Futhermore, Ultron rectifies the first film's under-use of Hawkeye in allowing us a greater look into Clint Barton's private life. 

Age of Ultron provides some great cameo moments, bringing in characters from the Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor franchises, plus S.H.I.E.L.D. favourites like Nick Fury and Maria Hill.  But where were Pepper and Jane?  And it didn't seem like Cap and Thor were given very much to do (perhaps understandable, as they've got their own movies coming up).  Anyway, there were some nice character moments showing just how much the Avengers have bonded as a team, including a great sequence when they all try to lift Thor's hammer, which is brilliantly funny with an even better payoff later in the film. 

I just wish Marvel would realise that there are other ways to end a film other than destroying a city.

Future Me: I really have to learn not to review movies the minute I get back from seeing them. On rewatch, it's not as great as I was talking it up here, but it's not awful, either. 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Round-Up

Recently I've unlocked the geek achievement of having watched all the Star Trek films.  Here's a round up of all twelve--which ones are classics, and which ones you should avoid like The Borg.

Note:  the number in brackets is my ranking.

The Original Series

Star Trek:  The Motion Picture, Robert Wise, 1979 [7]
Several years after the end of the television series, the now Admiral Kirk takes command of a newly refurbished Enterprise and goes after a mysterious entity known as V'ger that's threatening the planet.  Not quite as awful as its reputation suggests.  If you stripped away all the extraneous special effects (which do look great), you'd have a perfectly workable episode of the TV series... about 50 minutes out of a 2+ hour movie.

Star Trek II:  The Wrath of Khan, Nicholas Meyer, 1982 [1]
The second instalment of the movie franchise sees the return of a villain from the TV show's first season, the super-human Khan, who's hell bent on revenge.  Kirk and crew have to stop him from using the Genesis Device, a life-creating machine invented by the ex-Mrs. Kirk and her son, as a weapon of mass destruction.  Not only is the plot more focused than in TMP, but Kirk finally has to face up to the consequences of some of the total ass-pull moves he made earlier in his career, consequences that have deadly results for his closest friend.  Said death is the most poignant and tear-jerking in all of Star Trek.

Star Trek III:  The Search for Spock, Leonard Nimoy, 1984 [9]
My attempts to avoid spoilers in the previous synopsis have clearly failed.  Spock is still out there somewhere, so Kirk et al steal the Enterprise to go find him.  Although it does bring Spock back in a satisfactory manner, the film suffers from a lower budget and Nimoy's first-time direction.

Star Trek IV:  The Voyage Home, Leonard Nimoy, 1986 [5]
On their way back to face court-martial for stealing (and subsequently blowing up) the Enterprise, Kirk and crew find the Earth being threatened by some space whales, so naturally they have to travel back in time to present-day Earth to rescue a pair of humpbacks.   Yep.  While not quite as charming as, say, "The Trouble with Tribbles", TVH manages to capture the campy fun of the 60s series.

Star Trek V:  The Final Frontier, William Shatner, 1989 [12]
Spock's illogical half-brother steals the Enterprise to go look for God.  Apart from some nice character moments (and so much Ho Yay!), this is pretty awful.  Whose idea was it to let Shatner direct?

Star Trek VI:  The Undiscovered Country, Nicholas Meyer, 1991 [2]
On the eve of the Klingon's entry into the Federation, Kirk and McCoy are accused of assassinating their High Chancellor, and the crew must prove them innocent.  Better direction, better effects (featuring impressive morphs from a shape-shifting Iman), and a solid story, TUC is easily one of the best in the Star Trek film franchise.

The Next Generation

Star Trek:  Generations, David Carson, 1994 [11]
Captain Picard teams up with the thought-to-be long-dead Captain Kirk to defeat this guy who's destroying planets basically just so he can go to his happy place.  While the story wouldn't have made a bad episode of TNG, the addition of Kirk was unnecessary, making his death even more pointless than Lt. Yar's.

Star Trek:  First Contact, Jonathan Frakes, 1996 [4]
The Enterprise-E (yes, they blew it up again) travels back in time to thwart the Borg Collective's plan to stop humans from achieving warp speed.  Lots of  action, good effects, a bit of humour, and plenty of suspense.  It's a really clever way to let us see the most important moment in Star Trek's backstory.

Star Trek:  Insurrection, Jonathan Frakes, 1998 [6]
Picard and crew go rogue to stop a Federation plot to meddle in the affairs of a peaceful planet.  An intersting concept that plays out fairly well, though the silly campy moments aren't handled as well as in TVH. 

Star Trek:  Nemesis, Stuart Baird, 2002 [8]
The Romulan clone of Captain Picard seeks revenge on his creators, the Federation, and the Captain himself.  Again, an interesting concept that's entertaining, but I didn't like it because they killed off my all-time favourite Star Trek character for real and didn't even give him a funeral.

The Reboot

Star Trek, J. J. Abrams, 2009 [3]
Young Jim Kirk and co. have to stop a vengeful Romulan who's traveled back from the future and messed up the timelines.  Wonderful nods to TOS, great performances (especially from Zachary Quinto as he explores Spock's contradictory half-human half-Vulcan nature), and a perfect way to reboot the franchise while keeping everything from the originals canon.

Star Trek:  Into Darkness, J. J. Abrams, 2013 [10]
Kirk and the Enterprise crew must stop Benedict Khanberbatch from wrecking destruction across the galaxay.  References to TOS seem a bit more forced this time around, plus it continues to draw out the 'how Kirk became Kirk' angle instead of just letting him be Captain Kirk.  Really, it's just a shoddy remake of Wrath of Khan.

Reviews: The Films of 2014

2014 has been, well, quite a ride, to put it charitably.  Here's a look back at the films I've seen this year, reviewed and ranked from best to worst.

1.  The Lego Movie

Ordinary Lego figure Emmet gets mistaken for a Master Builder and has to stop Lord Business from destroying the universe with the Kragle.  Full of in-jokes, cameos, and heartwarming moments, The Lego Movie was the most fun I've had at the cinema in years.  Yes, the message of "don't follow the rules" does seem a bit incongruous coming from a massive corporation like Lego, but the story delivers it well.  Everything is awesome!




2.  Guardians of the Galaxy

Peter "Starlord" Quill teams up with Gamora, a deadly daughter of the god-like super-villain Thanos, the muscular, literal Drax, badass talking raccoon Rocket, and a sort-of talking ("I am Groot") tree to stop the genocidal Ronan from getting an Infinity Gem and destroying the universe.  My first reaction was "What was Stan Lee smoking?", but Guardians of the Galaxy was the kind of summer blockbuster we haven't seen for a long time.  It's got well developed characters and plot, humor, exciting action, looked amazing, and has a soundtrack full of awesomely cheesy 70s pop.  Proof, perhaps, that the comic book movie is far from becoming stale.  

3.  Paddington

Marmalade-obsessed talking bear from Deepest, Darkest Peru Paddington arrives in London looking for an old friend of his aunt and uncle's, gets taken in by the Browns, and, after they save him from an evil taxidermist, becomes part of their family.  Imaginatively directed by Paul King (who directed The Mighty Boosh on stage and TV), the film does justice to the beloved children's stories by Michael Bond:  it's funny, heartwarming, and gives a much needed reminder to British audiences about how you should treat the people who choose to come live in your country.  The one drawback is that the two villains, the Browns's racist neighbor and the unhinged taxidermist, were a bit over the top; their motivations didn't seem very believable.

4.  Captain America:  The Winter Solider

Someone within S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to kill Nick Fury, so, with no one they can trust, Captain America and Black Widow team up to stop them and the mysterious Winter Soldier.  Great action, solid story with a lot of intrigue and suspense.  I think Hydra have become my favorite Marvel villain (and meme).  There's a lot that can be done with Steve Rogers as a concept and a character, and that's perhaps why the Captain America franchise is the best one in the Avengers universe.

5.  X-Men:  Days of Future Past

Wolverine travels back in time to the 70s to get Magneto and Professor X back together to stop Mystique from setting in motion the chain of events that will lead to the future annihilation of mutants and humans alike.  Highly entertaining with engaging action sequences, loads of laughs, and appearances from beloved characters we haven't see for a while.  Sadly falls back on an overblown, slightly implausible final battle, but still holds exciting prospects for a reboot of the X-Men franchise.

6.  The Hunger Games:  Mockingjay, Part 1

Lead by the militaristic and previously thought destroyed District 13, the people of Panem rebel against the Capitol.  Katniss is roped in as a propaganda tool to rally the nation; meanwhile, Peeta, captured after a daring escape at the last Hunger Games, is being tortured by President Snow.  As with the previous two Hunger Games films, Katniss's world is brought excellently to life, fleshing out the bits we don't see (but wanted to) in the books, and subtly showing us that which Suzanne Collins bluntly tells us.  Unfortunately, Mockingjay was the weakest of the trilogy, and, as with many book adaptations that have been split into two or more parts, it does not give a proper sense of ending.  

7.  The Hobbit:  The Battle of the Five Armies

Smaug attacks Laketown, Thorin Oakenshield lusts for power, and then Elves, Men, Dwarves, and Orcs all fight each other.  There is a lot of criticism to levy against Peter Jackson for trying to make less than 1/3 of The Hobbit into a feature length film that I won't go into here but that can be summed up as such:  amid the (needlessly) extended action sequences, material nicked from The Silmarillion, and made-up Elven girls, Jackson appears to have forgotten that the main character is, in fact, Bilbo Baggins.  Still, The Desolation of Smaug lowered my expectations so much that I was able to get some enjoyment out of the battle scenes.

8.  Muppets Most Wanted

Kermit gets mistaken for the world's most wanted frog, who uses the Muppets' European tour to pull off the ultimate heist.  The movie opened with the brilliant musical number "We're Doing a Sequel", which was about how sequels are never as good as the original.  Sadly, this was a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Aside from some good jokes and the wonderful double act between CIA agent Sam the Eagle and his "European" counterpart from Interpol, it just didn't live up to the promise of The Muppets.  The story was a bit weak, and Walter is starting to get (even more) annoying.

Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past

 It's about 10 years in the future, and evil robots are killing both mutant and human alike.  So Wolverine gets sent back to the 70s to try to stop Mystique from killing the robots' inventor, Tyrion Lannister, because a) this causes the humans to fear mutants even more, and b) she gets captured, experimented on and her DNA used to make the robots invincible.  There's a catch, though:  to get to Mystique, Wolverine has to get Professor X and Magneto talking to each other again.  This is far from an easy task, as not only is the enmity between them strongest, but Magneto's in a high-security metal-free cell beneath the Pentagon for his involvment in the Kennedy assassination, and Xavier has forsaken his powers because 'Nam's such a bummer, man.

Like all the X-Men movies, Days of Future Past delivers highly engaging action sequences and loads of laughs, especially since time travel creates situations where we can laugh at people in the past's lack of knowledge of things to come.  (My favorite--Beast's monitoring system for 'all three networks--and PBS!')  And it was great to see so many of the characters we haven't seen since the last proper X-Men movie--Kitty Pride, Storm, Iceman, and the older Xavier and Magneto, and a few cameos that were awesome but way too spoilery to mention here.  It was a bit of a shame that some of less familiar mutants introduced in First Class were missing--they got drafted or worse--but at least we got to meet Quicksilver as a teenager straight out of That 70s Show. The sequence where he helps break Magento out of jail is brilliant.

The highlight of the film, though is young Xavier's struggle to become the man we all know he'll be.  Massively depressed due to the closing of the school (students and teachers alike were being drafted in too great numbers), feeling betrayed by Mystique and Magneto, and unable to use his powers due to the cure for his paralysis, Xavier seems to have turned into a drunken selfish dickbag.  But we come to realise that what he really has to overcome is fear--fear of all the pain and suffering his powers expose him to.  There is a wonderfully heartwarming moment when young Charles meets older Professor X.  The only way the scene could have been better would be had Professor X told him to 'make it so.'

One thing that annoyed me about the Days of Future Past is what also bothered me about Wolverine:  Origins and First Class:  the massive slightly implausible battle at the end.  Now, all the X-Men movies have one, but in the past setting, they seem even harder to swallow.  It's a big leap of faith to believe mutants caused the Three Mile Island disaster or were involved in the Cuban Missle Crisis.  This time, it's even more bizarre, involving a baseball stadium and the White House.

The other thing I thought could be better was more time with young Xavier and Magneto working together.  X-Men 2 is still my favorite because I love it when they have to team up.  After the break-out, I was hoping to see this, but their time working as a team is shortlived, though, and soon Magneto is back to doing Magneto things.

Other than that, X-Men:  Days of Future Past is 2+ hours (was it really that long?) of solid entertainment.  And it's got pretty exciting prospects for the future of the X-Men franchise.  Without saying too much, the end basically reboots the entire universe.  Which means two things.  First of all, with no future continuity to worry about, we can see more of the retro origin story type films.  Second, with things changed, it means there's a whole new set of present X-Men stories to explore, especially given the reappearance at the very end of some much loved characters.

Imagine if The Last Stand never happened.  Beautiful.

Movie Review Round-Up

It occurs to me that it's been well over a year since I've written a movie review. Since I've seen 10 movies (theatrically) in that time, that sounds like the perfect number for a round-up of brief reviews.

Iron Man 3

Tony Stark experiences PTSD from the events of The Avengers as he goes up against the Mandarin.  Although the final battle was a bit over-long, this is perhaps my favorite of the Iron Man franchise.  It retains the levels of sarcastic Tony we saw in the previous Avengers universe film, which some people thought detracting, but which I thought the first two Iron Man films could have done with more of.  And the twist with the Mandarin, though not entirely unpredictable, was still hilarious and brilliant.

Future Me: Having watched these again, Iron Man shows itself to be the best of the bunch. Iron Man 3 is one of the MCU's middling efforts, but, still, not bad.

Star Trek Into Darkness

J. J. Abrams remakes Wrath of Khan with younger, prettier actors (Cumberbatch!!!).  Into Darkness follows up 2009's Star Trek by showing us more of how Kirk became Captain Kirk, instead of just letting him be Captain Kirk.  Plus, references to TOS seem a bit more forced this time around, and Uhura is reduced to having "relationship problems" with Spock.  It just wasn't any good.

The World's End

Five guys return to their home town to complete a pub crawl from their youth, only something's not quite right....  Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright team up once again to make one of their comedy homages, this time to science fiction films, particularly Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  With some familiar faces (Nick Frost plays the straight man this time around), they deliver entertainment and laughs.  It's good, but just not up to the levels of excellence of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, which became even more apparent if, like me, you saw it in a Three Flavors of Cornetto screening. 

The Wolverine

Logan vows to protect the granddaughter of a Japanese soldier who saved his life, but there's something more sinister going on... something that might just make him mortal after all.  The Wolverine was quite unambitious, but that works in its favor.  It wasn't great, but it wasn't awful either, and delivered some solid entertainment and, apart from some obligatory Mecha, good action.

Sunshine on Leith

Two Scottish soldiers return from Afghanistan to face the complicated world of family, relationships, and... music!!  Set to the songs of the Proclaimers, Sunshine on Leith is the Scottish (filmed on location in Edinburgh and supported by Creative Scotland) musical that blows Brigadoon off the map.  It blends the working-class milieu of social realism with the musical in a way that shouldn't work, but totally does.  Vocal performances were good all around--yes, even Peter Mullan's.  And who knew the Reid twins wrote something other than "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)"!

Thor:  The Dark World

A bunch of Elves led by the 9th Doctor are coming back, and apparently their threat to not just Norway but all the realms is so great that Thor must team up with Loki to stop them.  It's certainly much better directed than the previous Thor movie--the action was better, the plot made a bit more sense, and the moments of humor seemed more appropriate--but it's still a Thor movie.  But on the plus side, it did have some great bromance bits between the two Asgardian brothers, some wonderful moments for Tom Hiddleston to do some proper acting, and a scene with Chris Hemsworth shirtless.

Future Me: AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!! Wow, was I wrong. The more I watch Thor, the more I love it. And the more I watch this piece of garbage, the more I hate it. The bits with Loki are good, though, and if it's on TV, I'll watch those parts, but not the rest.

The Hobbit:  The Desolation of Smaug

The bits from The Hobbit in between when they escape the Orcs in the Misty Mountains and when they run afoul of Smaug.  More so than An Unexpected Journey, Desolation of Smaug is really suffering from Peter Jackson's decision to split the book into three films.  Whereas Part 1 padded things out with character development and world building, Part 2 went with extended action sequences that felt really unnecessary.  As there isn't really much left from the book, I dread to see what Part 3 will have to offer.  Although I don't mind too much the material taken from The Silmarillion, it's the original stuff I don't much care for.  As a character, Tauriel was okay, but The Hobbit is already a great story; it doesn't need a superfluous romance.

The Lego Movie

Ordinary Lego figure Emmet gets mistaken for a Master Builder and has to stop President Business from destroying the world with the Kragle.  Full of in-jokes, cameos, and heartwarming moments, The Lego Movie was the most fun I've had at the cinema in years.  Yes, the message of "don't follow the rules" does seem a bit incongruous coming from a massive corporation like Lego, but the story delivers it well.  Everything is awesome!

Muppets Most Wanted

Kermit gets mistaken for the world's most wanted frog, who uses the Muppets' European tour to pull off the ultimate heist.  The movie opened with the brilliant musical number "We're Doing a Sequel", which was about how sequels are never as good as the original.  Sadly, this was a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Aside from some good jokes and the wonderful double act between CIA agent Sam the Eagle and his "European" counterpart from Interpol, it just didn't live up to the promise of The Muppets.  The story was a bit weak, and Walter is starting to get (even more) annoying.

Captain America:  The Winter Soldier 

Someone within S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to kill Nick Fury, so, with no one they can trust, Captain America and Black Widow team up to stop them and the mysterious Winter Soldier.  Great action, solid story with a lot of intrigue and suspense.  I think Hydra have become my favorite Marvel villain (and meme).  There's a lot that can be done with Steve Rogers as a concept and a character, and that's perhaps why the Captain America franchise is the best one in the Avengers universe.

Ranking them, best to worst:

The Lego Movie

Sunshine on Leith

Captain American:  The Winter Soldier

Iron Man 3

The World's End

The Wolverine

Thor:  The Dark World

Muppets Most Wanted

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Star Trek Into Darkness

Review: Les Misérables

"Do you hear the people sing?/Singing the songs of angry men?/It is the music of the people/Who will not be slaves again!"

There have been many film and television adaptations of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables, but it has taken more than 30 years for the musical version to reach the screen.  It seems a long time since Les Mis, along with Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, was the hit, long-running show everyone had to go see.  However, this is not to say that the story has lost its relevance.  Far from it.

For those of you living in a cultural vacuum, Les Misérables tells the story of Jean Valjean, unfairly imprisoned for 20 years for stealing a loaf of bread.  Valjean is released on parole, and, thanks to a bishop's mercy, resolves to become a better man.  He assumes a different name and becomes a successful businessman and kind mayor.  But the intrepid Inspector Javert, the embodiment of the law, catches up with Valjean just as he is about to adopt the impoverished Cosette as a promise to her dying mother.  The two flee to Paris, and, years later, Revolution (of the 1832 variety) is in the air and Cosette is all grown up.  Naturally, she falls in love with one of the student revolutionaries, and Valjean is torn between keeping her to himself--and safe, now that Javert's in town to put down the uprising--and letting her go.

This newest version of  Les Mis, like the West End musical on which it is based, covers most of Hugo's novel, but dwells longest on the Revolution, and understandably so, as it provides the richest material for conflict--and stirring music.  Furthermore, in 1980, when the original French concept album was released, the barricades of '68 could not have been far from people's minds.  Easy parallels can be drawn between the Revolutions of the 19th Century and various movements of the 1960s; likewise, as I watched the student revolutionaries being fired on by soldiers, I couldn't help but think of the Occupy movement.  Hugo's interest in redemption from sin therefore becomes redemption of another sort--redemption of failed revolutions, redeemed by the hope that in the future they will not fail.

Directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper, Les Misérables (2012), deserves most of the hype it's been getting, though as I was watching it I could never shake the feeling that it would have been much better on stage.  The vocal performances, however, were excellent.  Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe tap into their musical backgrounds to bring Valjean and Javert to life, and Anne Hathaway will probably receive an Oscar nomination from her small but power role as Cosette's mother Fantine.  Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter were hilarious as the Thénardiers, and Daniel Huttlestone was cheeky and adorable as young Gavroche.  I wasn't too fond of Eddie Redmayne as Marius, not because his performance was bad, but because I kept thinking that I'd seen him play a privileged murderer on Inspector Lewis. (IMDB says he did not so IDK??)

Other than that, most of what I didn't care for in Les Misérables come from the source texts--both the novel and the play.  Musically speaking, I can't help compare it to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals that were its contemporaries.  Webber and his lyricists mastered turning even the most dry exposition into a catchy number; Les Mis, the English version, at least, has a lot of "I am singing what I am speaking" parts.  That being said, though, there are several memorable tunes--particularly "I Dreamed a Dream", "On My Own", and the above quoted "Do You Hear the People Sing?", which is even better in the original French.

My biggest issue with the story was Cosette and Marius.  Cosette suffers from Victorian Heroine Disease.  She's beautiful, virtuous, and BORING.  Men love her, but she doesn't seem to do anything other than being really sweet.  The more interesting women like Fantine and Éponine get killed off for their transgressions.  They don't get their happily ending like Cosette and Marius.  And that's another thing that bothered me:  as I was watching it, the ideological working of the narrative became very obvious.  The Revolution failed, and losing all those friends was sad, but only about one song's worth of sad.  Because the young hero goes back to his aristo granddad and marries the girl.  Who cares about the Revolution when there's a happily ever after!  And then Valjean dies and gets to go to heaven, where he joins everyone who died on the barricades--no more shooting, just singing!!

I'm not going to claim that the film--nor, indeed, the novel and the musical--doesn't offer alternative readings to this.  But part of the reason that I felt it would have been stronger on stage is the immediacy of the performance.  For the finale on stage, the singing actors are both dead--in the story--and alive in the presence of the living actor.  And so, there is hope for the future as they sing:

"Do you hear the people sing?/Say, do you hear the distant drums?/It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!"

Review: Rock of Ages

I knew this film was going to be shit. Knew it so surely that I didn't bother to read the reviews. Perhaps I should have, as it was a bit of a surprise to find that it was a proper people-stopping-what-they're-doing-to-sing musical. I was pleasantly surprised about this, for a while at least.

Rock of Ages is set on the Sunset Strip of the 1980s that nurtured some of the biggest bands of that decade, Guns & Roses included. The film focuses on the relationship and quest for fame of Sherrie (Julianne Hough), a newcomer to LA with stars in her eyes, and Drew (Diego Boneta), a waiter at the legendary (or so we're told) Bourbon Club with dreams of rockstardom. They break-up; she ends up stripping, he joins a boy band. Meanwhile, the mayor's wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) goes on a Moral Majority crusade against the Bourbon, who's owner (Alec Baldwin) and stage manager (Russell Brand) are secretly in love with each other, and crazed rocker Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise), who, as a result of liaison with an ingenue Rolling Stone reporter (Malin Akerman), comes to realize that his career's in ruins no thanks to his sleazebag manager (Paul Giamatti). Naturally, it all works out for everyone, and there's a big sing-a-long to "Don't Stop Believing".

As you can see, the plot is clichéd and predictable, adding nothing new to the genre and providing little material with which to redeem itself. Sherrie and Drew are such a cookie-cutter young couple--there is nothing original about them--that they are completely non-compelling. I found myself more interested in the sub-plots, which are given, at times, either too much weight, drawing focus from the main story, or not enough, leaving characters and relationships undeveloped.

While all involved must be given praise their vocal performance, especially since most of the big stars in the cast aren't singers, in terms of acting, performances are all-around terrible. The young leads are incapable of injecting anything interesting into their well-worn characters, and Baldwin delivers every line of the God-awful dialogue while laughing at it on the inside. Zeta-Jones positively feasts on the scenery every time she's on screen, whereas Cruise, perhaps under the delusion he's in an Axel Rose biopic, plays it too seriously, though the role gives him plenty of legitimate reasons to take the performance over the top. Only Brand, whose usual schtick fits in perfectly, and Mary J. Blige (as the strip club madam) do anything remotely watchable. Blige, an R&B legend, delivers a show stealing performance akin to Ray Davies's in Absolute Beginners.

As bad as it was, however, Rock of Ages delivers a lot of laughs, though I'm not sure how many of them were intentional. It was hard to tell what was supposed to be a joke because the way the film was paced; it didn't allow enough time for the gags to sink in properly. But the musical numbers were (mostly) well staged and performed. I'm not a fan of hair metal, so I can't really judge whether or not they "ruined" the songs (though having Zeta-Jones and the PMRC dancing chorus singing Twisted Sister was a little disconcerting), but the music seemed to be used well. However, power ballad after power ballad got a bit tiring and the songs soon lost their ability to make you pump your fist in the air and shout "Rock 'n' Roll! WOOO!!!" They come across as dispassioned. And, sadly, the opportunity for a Jets v. Sharks style rumble between the morality girls and the Stacee Jaxx fans in the "We're Not Gonna Take It/We Built This City" medley was completely squandered, though, as a bonus, I think there were a few rockers from the 80s hair metal scene making cameos in the crowd.

It was at this point when I began to wonder if maybe all the music videos for the featured songs strung together with no pretence of a narrative would be more enjoyable. Still, it was mildly entertaining, though the only reason to not to wait to rent it is that movie theaters probably have a better audio system than you do.

Review: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy

For those of you not into anime and manga, Lupin III has been, since the late 1960s, one of the most well-loved series in Japanese culture. It follows the exploits of the grandson of the great French gentleman thief Arsène Lupin as he pulls off heists and tries to pick up chicks, all the while accompanied by his friends Jigen, a marksman, and Goemon, a samurai; his on-again off-again lover, the not-exactly-loyal Fujiko; and the intrepid Inspector Zenigata from Interpol, who's always hot on Lupin’s heels. I got into the show the way I got into most of the anime I watch—though the good ol’ days of Adult Swim when it was shown in the wee hours of the morning. I tried to read the original manga, but had trouble getting into it because I wasn’t comfortable with it’s level of sexism. But the anime is no more offensive than the average James Bond movie, and is a very clever action-comedy. I’m glad I had the foresight to set my VCR to record all 26 episodes AS aired, because , unfortunately, all the North American DVD and video* releases seem to have gone out of print.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I found out the only live-action Lupin III movie ever made, 1974’s Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy is actually available on Region 1 DVD, and that I could even get it from Netflix.

The film is, essentially, Lupin III’s origin story. Or one of them, I should say, as both the manga and anime have conflicting versions of it as well. Here Lupin first teams up with Jigen, falls in love with and is double-crossed by Fujiko, and comes to the attention of Zenigata. The only one missing is Goemon, who in both canon versions, was a later addition to the Lupin gang. His omission, then, is understandable, though nevertheless disappointing.

Strange Psychokinetic Strategy is a lot different from the manga and first (Green Jacket) anime series, though closer in tone to the second (Red Jacket) series which was broadcast on Adult Swim. However, it tends to focus a bit more on slapstick over action than the series did. It is good slapstick, though, which makes the film something of a Japanese version of the Pink Panther movies Blake Edwards was making at the time. In fact, though a lot of fans complain about the “cartoony” nature of the film, it’s what I liked best about it. Among other things, we see Lupin literally leap out of his pants in his eagerness to see Fujiko, rewind and play back in slow motion the film in order to show a thug how he knocked him out, and get serenaded by a group of girl assassins out to kill him. (Only Lupin would cop a feel while getting his ass kicked.) The film operates by the same logic of cartoons—disregarding the laws of physics and the fourth wall whenever possible, which I found incredibly refreshing. In a world where CGI Garfields, Chipmunks, and Smurfs can star alongside real people and act like live-action characters, it’s a nice change to see live-action characters literally behaving like cartoon characters.

However, a little of the focus on being silly should have been moved to the plot, which was thin and episodic. And while the actors playing Lupin and Fujiko were spot-on and cute in their scenes together, the ones playing Jigen and Zenigata seemed a bit out of character. Jigen seemed a bit more hot-headed than usual, though, to be fair, I base this mainly on the English dubs I’ve seen. I don’t know how the character is portrayed in the original Japanese versions. Zenigata, is, of course, always going to be the comic relief, but here they took it to the extreme. With the addition of his two bumbling assistants, he seems more like the Pink Panther’s Chief Inspector Dreyfuss, cast jokes and all. Finally, the subtitles, while far from awful, translate the dialogue well, but seem to be missing some cultural nuances.





*The feature films and direct-to-video releases still seem to be available. The critically acclaimed The Castle of Cagliostro, in fact, is very accessible; it currently streams on Netflix.