16/05/07 : Sin City

Sin City, based on Frank Miller's novels, is quite a dark and sinister film, depicted in a stylish crime genre comic book fashion. The look of the film adds well to it's tales of urban, pulp fiction styled violence and depravity. Miller directs the film (mostly in black and white, with generous spatterings of red rouge and occasional yellow stinkiness) along with Robert Rodriguez and the noir obsessed Quentin Tarantino.

It is sectioned off into three stories which host a number of gnarly characters and scenarios all set in Basin City, a sort of x rated, down low and dirty Gotham City, full of villains, prostitutes, crooked cops and murderers mostly hell bent on vengeance or redemption of some sort.

First off, Bruce Willis plays a straight laced cop who has one more assignment to solve before retiring as he attempts to rescue a young girl from an evil child molester. Then we encounter Marv, played by Mickey Rourke, who is possibly the hardest, most grizzly looking dude the silver screen has ever seen. Marv goes on the rampage when he finds out his favourite hooker Goldie has been murdered right under his nose. Marv, ever the true romantic, (he hates when guys mess with broads) encounters the sadistic and psychotic natured Kevin, (played by Elijah Wood) who dismembers his victims, has a little brain on toast and feeds the remains to his dog, which is ironically how he meets his own timely death, giving a new meaning to the saying "bite the hand that feeds you".

The last story has Dwight, played by Clive Owen, as a private investigator who gets tangled up with the hard nosed, gun toting prostitutes in the old town and a bent and nasty cop who loses his head (literally) in yet more all out gruesomeness. All three stories come heavily doused in ultra violence and menace with a shadowey undertone that will leave you slightly disturbed but equally engrossed.

Reviewed by Bombardier Burbot

16/05/07 ; V for Vendetta

We watched this film having all heard a lot of negative reports about it, but in the spirit of film club decided to make up our own minds about it.

I know that some of my learned colleagues were disappointed, and Bombardier Burbot actually gave it a 0.3 out of 10 declaring it (quote' 'the biggest load of pap I have seen in years') personally I felt this was a little harsh. We all conceded that visually it could have been done better ( for example : a la sin city ) and as a graphic novel it was probably far more powerful, but having never read the book and coming into this with no preconceptions I enjoyed the story and general 'philosophy' behind it.

For anyone who has no idea what the film is about :

V for Vendetta is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s about the 1990s. A mysterious anarchist named "V" works to destroy the totalitarian government, profoundly affecting the people whom he encounters.
The series is set in a near-future Britain after a limited nuclear war, which has left much of the world destroyed. In this future, an extreme fascist party called Norsefire has arisen. "V", an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, begins an elaborate, violent, and theatrical campaign to bring down the government. There is an emphasis on technology, especially closed-circuit television monitoring in the mode of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and modern Britain.

Unlike most 'comic book' heroes it would be difficult to imagine that hordes of kids across the country will be asking for some V for Vendetta pyjamas or slippers this Christmas. He is basically a guy that dresses up as Guy Fawkes (the original Anarchist!) who tells riddles in a flowery 'ye olde English' type way. As this was not at all what I was expecting there were times that I struggled with his character but he has some great lines such as 'People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.'

If nothing else this film has inspired me to hunt down the graphic novel - though it's interesting to note that Alan Moore completely disassociated himself from the film and refused to be even credited at the end. Its one of them. I think you should make up your own mind!

09/05/07 : The Enigma of Kasper Hausen

Another offering from the clubs 'director of choice - Werner Herzog' who once again did not fail to come up with the goods.

As seems to be the case with many of the Werners films its based on a true story. In 1828 a man appears in Nuremberg holding a letter that explains that he has been raised in captivity ( a darkened celler to be precise ) since birth and has never seen a tree, the sky or met another human being ( apart from his captor ) Whilst able to read and write he can only speak one sentence.

The film revolves around Kasper trying to 'integrate into society' with occasionally comical but usually quite tragic circumstances. The first line of the film was …do you hear that dreadful noise all around ? that’s the sound that screaming men call silence'.

As someone who thrives in company but feels a bit lost on my own - this line sort of appealled and has remained with me.

After doing some background reading I discoved that Werbner actually cast a non actor for the lead role - Bruno S, who had been institutionalised for 23 of his first 26 years, to convey the characters general awkwardness and unfamiliarity with the world.

After the main feature we watched another werner 'short' , a documentary called 'wings of hope' about the sole survivor of a Peruvian plane crash Juliane Köpcke.

02/05/07 : The Big Heat

'The Big Heat' (1953)

A cop suicide opens this story of corruption, murder and hot coffee in the face! Starring a villainous Lee Marvin, Gloria Graham as the spunky femme fatale with a burns problem, and Glenn Ford as the cop trying to unravel the corruption that he suspects is at the heart of his department. When a bomb planted for him kills his wife instead, he begins to fight back....but i forgot how it ends :(

Well it was a few weeks ago, so my stoned little brain is having trouble remembering this film! But as far as 'film noir' goes, I'd say its up there with classics such as 'Double Indemnity', so for fans of Noir I'd say it was worth a punt.
.

Corporal Tench

25/04/07 : Countryman

Countryman is a film I had seen at least twice before in my rebel rousing days. It was known as a must see for all the pot heads and reggae lovers and though it's now a bit dated in style, it still brings an irie smile to the face. The scene is set when an American woman and her boyfriend borrow her dad's aeroplane (like ya do) to smuggle some ‘erbs and end up crashing it on a small uninhabited part of Jamaica. Suddenly broken leg Bobby and his missus find themselves confronted by a big gnarly gator who looks like he wants his supper, but just as the beast is about to strike, enter Countryman to save the day. Our boy performs some Tarzan style moves on ol' snappy jaws and ends up tying the woman’s t- shirt round it's choppers... hooray for countryman, and hooray for the woman who reveals her ample sized mamalian protruberances in this act of kindness. What a start...are you hooked...we were…lol. The plot thickens when some government agents and the local bad boy colonel concoct a story about the plane being linked to the C.I.A. and filled with uzis n tech 9's in an attempt to gain support in the upcoming elections and are soon hot on the trail of countryman and his new Yank chums. Countryman, blessed with the gift of summoning lightning and other such voodoo trickery, fends off the various attempts to find and capture him and his stowaways with some mind altering trance states as well as some nifty Kung Fu moves incorporating a deadly dingy oar and eventually manages to get them to safety. Even the evil colonel (the Jamaican equivalent to boss Hog), gets his timely comeuppance and is slain with many bucks to the chest on the steps of the local jailhouse...pure justice. So if you like your itals rolled fat and your Mangos fresh not to mention Voodoo hexes, beach Kung Fu, government plotting and open shirt motorbike riding, Countryman's for you. Not forgetting to mention the soundtrack, which was good too, with mostly Bob and Toots anthems generously sprinkled with top notch analogue squelching and Bionic Man style sound effects from the keyboards of none other than Mr. Chief Inspectah himself, Wally Badarou. Smelling a bit of Stilton but all in all an old school classic that will have you singing Row Fisherman Row all the way home....seen.

Reviewed by Bombardier Burbot

18/04/06 : The Constant Gardener

The Constant Gardener (2005) It would appear that the continent of Africa has been saturated with film crews these past couple of years! After 'Shooting Dogs', 'Hotel Rwanda', 'Blood Diamond', 'The Last King of Scotland' (to name but a few), 'The Constant Gardener' is another offering with an African setting. I should firstly say that I thought the film was visually stunning (courtesy of Fernando Meirelles) and tries to introduce some sort of social comment about drug company profiteering in conjunction with the love story...but... What really spoiled the film for me was quite simply, Ralph Fiennes! He sure rubs me up the wrong way with his posh twat persona. I struggled to watch him for over 2 hours, and I have to admit, my favourite scene was the one where he gets the living shit kicked out of him. Though I thought Rachel Weisz's performance was worthy of the Oscar nomination it received, I felt there was a definite lack of chemistry between her and Fiennes' character. At times I felt the film bordered on excessive sentimentality; you could feel your emotions (guilt?) being manipulated with all those cute shots of African children. It was yet another film about Africa, where Africans are relegated to bit parts. In my opinion, film is art. Painting by numbers is not art. And this I feel was ultimately an exercise in filmmaking by numbers. Corporal Tench