21/03/07 : Street Mobster

Street Mobster ( Gendai Yakuza ) : Hito Kiri Yota 1972

The tone of this film is set within the opening credits which role over various street fights, a gang rape and someone being punched in the face with a fist full of razor blades. Street Mobster is undoubtedly shocking - but not really much else. The film club seemed split in its opinion on this one - and I found myself seated in the not liking it camp. I found the plot weak and non of the characters appealed in anyway whatsoever. Im not saying that you have to necessarily have to like the characters to enjoy a film - but they should at least be on some level - interesting to watch which I felt non of them were. The fight scenes ( of which there were many ) were predominantly filmed in low lit alley ways with a single shaky camera. Intended to make the film gritty ? instead it just looked shitty !

So that would be a thumbs down from me ! Not really much else to say on this one.

14/03/07 : For your consideration

'For Your consideration' (2006)

'For Your Consideration' is the latest offering from Christopher Guest and his regular ensemble cast. In this feature, Hollywood is the target of their derision. ‘For Your Consideration’ follows the film-within-a-film format, the action focusing on the set of a tawdry Jewish period drama called 'Home for Purim'. Academy awards buzz around three of the cast members gives vent to their desperate and fragile egos as they begin to believe the hype (whether real or imagined).

At the insistence of the Studio head (a cameo role from Ricky Gervais) who complains that the film is ‘too Jewish’, ‘Home for Purim’ is ultimately stripped of all its cultural specifity, becoming just another blandardised Hollywood feature, remarketed as 'Home for Thanksgiving'!

My favourite part of the film is when we see the actors whoring themselves around the Hollywood promotional circuit, evidently after visits to the stylist or plastic surgeon - Victor’s painfully embarrassing appearance on teen show 'Chillaxin’ is a thing of beauty'!

One criticism of the film could be that perhaps Hollywood is too obvious and easy a target for this kind of parody. I would argue however that Hollywood provides us with a seemingly limitless amount material ripe for satire, and we are perhaps more familiar with the clichés that abound, possibly more so than with Guest’s previous film subjects? Ultimately I found this a cruelly funny film in its ridicule of the fickleness and vacuity of the Hollywood production line.

Corporal Tench

07/03/07 : CLOCKERS Spike Lee 1995

Clockers was one of those films that we all thought we had seen, but couldn’t quite remember the exact plot. The opening sequence immediately catches you off guard as the camera pans back from a bullet hole in someone's forehead and moves into a montage of graphic images of gunshot victims - just in case any of us were thinking of pursuing a career in clocking after watching the film!

The central character is a low level dealer (or 'clocker') called strike, who is persuaded to 'take someone out' by his boss in an attempt to move himself 'up the ladder'.

Inevitably - it's not that easy and the film follows the chain of events that follow as strikes situation moves from fairly crap to completely shite.

The stand out performance for me was by Thomas Jefferson Byrd who plays a dangerous crack head nut case called Errol Barnes.

This is undeniably a great film - with good actors, script, dialogue etc, but for some reason I wasn’t left feeling quite as blown away with it as perhaps I should have been. This partly may have been due to the fact I was tired and not in the best frame of mind to start off with. I wouldn’t say I didn’t enjoy it but just felt a bit non plus - ed at the end. Not really sure why.

Anyway - please don’t let my apathy put you off seeing this film. Compared to the majority of stuff that’s shown on television or available in the video shop this is miles ahead.

28/02/07 : Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Aguirre, the Wrath of God ( 1972 )

This was another offering from our old friend Werner Herzog ( see grizzly man review ) and stars Klaus Kinski as Aguirre, leader of a rebel band of Spanish conquistadors who are travelling down the Amazon river to find Eldorado- the legendary 'city of gold'.

The party weave their way across treacherous mountain paths, through swaps and overgrown rainforest dressed in full body armour, dragging cannon and carrying Aguirre's 15 year old daughter in a sedan chair.

As ever Kinski makes for compulsive viewing - just because he's such a mad looking enigmatic fxcker ! .. but aside from this the film is good anyway. Like fitzcaraldo, the only way that this film could be made was for Werner to get the actors to actually as the conquistadors did. The treacherous mountain paths were real, and so was the huge iron cannon that they dragged along it. This was a film made before the days of digital effects when the only way to get these amazing shots was to go on location and shoot them.

'Futility' was definitely the buzz word of the film and seems to be a subject dear to Werner's heart. The whole mission is inevitably doomed to failure and steeped in ridiculousness.

21/02/07 : The Host

The Host

2006 Director : Bong Joon-Ho

All toxic waste should have the following warning message printed in large letters down the side of the bottle:

'WARNING: FAILURE TO DISPOSE OF THIS MATERIAL CORRECTLY CAN RESULT IN THE CREATION OF TOXIC MUTANT MONSTERS'

Its seems obvious - and you would think that by now, after the numerous films made on the subject scientists would have twigged onto this simple fact of life! Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case as the latest SYNW offering 'The Host' opens with some chump pouring 100s of bottles of Formaldehyde ( well past its sell buy date' down the drain which feeds into the han river. Have you not seen Fxcking Godzilla ? Evidently not!

This 2006 Korean 'Monster Movie' wastes no time in moving straight into the action. On the down side - at a lengthy 2 hours we all felt that it would have benefited from a visit to the cutting room to bring it down to a slightly more palatable 90 mins. On the upside - the monster kicks ass. It's big enough to slap buses and cars around, but small enough to be surprisingly agile, swinging from bridges with its tail and pulling off some impressive back flips into the water.

As is often the case with this type of film I was slightly left with the feeling that I wished there had been a bit more of the monster. Call me shallow - but im not that bothered about the human interest or learning the back stories behind the characters. I just want to see the monster. Whens the monster coming back on ?

I hope my slight moan does not deter others from seeing this film. It’s a good watch and I am glad to have added it to the list…..ends

14/02/07 : Playtime

In 'Playtime' (1967), legendary French director Jacques Tati performs in his trademark role of 'Mr Hulot'. The bumbling Hulot is perhaps best described as a French 'Mr Bean' (see Tati's earlier films 'Mon Oncle' or 'Mr Hulot's Holiday' for further examples of the character). The premise of the film is simple; Hulot is supposed to meet up with a nameless official in Paris, but instead becomes lost amongst events taking place around him (at one point he becomes entangled with a gaggling brood of middle-aged female American tourists).

'Playtime' eschews classical Hollywood film narrative in favour of ambitious, episodic set pieces, where Hulot and a huge cast of extras interact (often simultaneously) with the futuristic sights and sounds of the modern world, its sterile and alienating effects providing the main source of comedy. The camera rarely focuses for too long on one particular character in a scene and dialogue is often relegated to background noise.

Playtime is renowned for its enormous set, 'Tativille', constructed on the outskirts of Paris in 1964 specifically for the film and considered to represent a microcosm of the modern French capital. The overriding greyness of the set design is punctuated from time to time with flashes of vibrant colour, whether it be from the chaotic traffic jams, or a flower seller on a street corner.


The result is a subtle, yet visually and aurally stunning film and is arguably Tati's masterpiece.

Reviewed by Corporal Tench