The Grudge 3

…

Rating 1½


Directed by Toby Wilkins

Written by Brad Keene

Gil McKinney (Max), Johanna E Braddy (Lisa), Jadie Hobson (Rose), Emi Ikehata (Naoko), Shawnee Smith (Dr Sullivan), Marina Sirtis (Gretchen), Matthew Knight (Jake), Beau Mirchoff (Andy) and Michael McCoy (Praski)


The curse that originally emanated from a house in the suburbs of Tokyo now resides in an old apartment building in Chicago. Max is the supervisor in charge of the building, dealing with lettings and general maintenance. He lives in an apartment there with his sisters Lisa and eight-year-old Rose, who suffers from severe and life-threatening asthma. Another resident, Gretchen, a painter who suffers from arthritis, sometimes babysits for Rose, when Max is working and Lisa, who plans to leave soon, is with her boyfriend Andy. Lisa plans to leave soon, which creates conflict with her brother. Jake, the sole surviving member of a family killed by the curse in the building (as told in ‘The Grudge 2’) is under the care of Dr Sullivan in a secure psychiatric facility. Naoko, the younger sister of Kayako, the young woman whose violent death was the starting point of the curse (‘The Grudge’), comes to Chicago from Japan, intent on putting an end to the curse once and for all.

…


‘Ju-on: The Grudge’, the 2003 Japanese horror film written and directed by Takashi Shimizu, itself a remake of an earlier direct-to-video film by the same writer/director, is a classic of J-horror. A genuinely inventive film that is pervaded by a aura of creepiness and foreboding, it was remade in 2004 as ‘The Grudge’, a film also directed by Shimizu and filmed in Tokyo, but with a largely American cast, with top billing for Sarah Michelle Gellar. This film was a substantial box office hit, grossing in excess of $187 million against a production budget of just $10 million.

A sequel, ‘The Grudge 2’, followed in 2006, once again directed by Takashi Shimizu, but this time with the action split between Tokyo and Chicago. Gellar returned to make a cameo appearance and the lead role went to Amber Tamblyn, playing her younger sister. Although not as successful as the first film, it still grossed nearly $71 million.

Now comes a third American film, this one released direct to DVD. Takashi Shimizu turned down the offer to direct this time around, but he is credited as one of the executive producers of the film. Although set in Chicago, filming took place in Bulgaria, with Toby Wilkins, who had previously made the well-received low-budget independent horror film ‘Splinter’, as the director.

‘The Grudge’ was very nearly as good as the original Japanese film and managed to retain the unsettling aura created in that film. ‘The Grudge 2’, although certainly flawed and several notches below the film it followed, did have merit and was not altogether unsuccessful. However, the decision to transfer the curse from Japan to America, as told in that film, was always likely to be the undoing of the story.

As a quick cash-in direct-to-DVD horror film, ‘The Grudge 3’ succeeds in doing what presumably was intended. However, it is a pale shadow of the films that preceded it, telling its story in decidedly pedestrian fashion and completely missing the point of the Japanese folklore that informed the original. Shawnee Smith, who is familiar from the 1988 remake of ‘The Blob’ and the ‘Saw’ horror franchise, is wasted here in a role here that amounts to nothing. Equally, Marina Sirtis, best known as Deanna Troi in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’, plays a character who could have been cut out of the film entirely with no difference made to story. These are the two most immediately recognisable actors amongst the cast.

I cannot say I actively disliked the film. It was a painless enough watching experience, but I do think it’s a shame that it blunts some of shine of the ‘Ju-on: The Grudge’ and ‘The Grudge’, which despite some negative critical reaction was a very credible remake. I am being very generous in giving it one and a half stars.

Review posted 29 April 2009



…

The Blob (1988)

...

Rating 2¾


Directed by Chuck Russell

Written by Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont, based on the 1958 film written by Theodore Simonson and Kay Linaker (as Kate Phillips), from a story by Irvine H Millgate

Starring Shawnee Smith (Meg Penny), Kevin Dillon (Brad Flagg), Donovan Leitch (Paul Taylor), Jeffrey DeMunn (Sheriff Herb Geller), Candy Clark (Fran Hewitt), Joe Seneca (Dr Meadows), Paul McCrane (Deputy Bill Briggs), Del Close (Reverend Meeker), Art LaFleur (Mr Penny), Sharon Spelman (Mrs Penny), Michael Kenworthy (Kevin Penny), Ricky Paull Goldin (Scott Jeske), Douglas Emerson (Eddie Beckner) and Beau Billingslea (Moss Woodley)


A meteorite falls to Earth near to Arborville, a small town in Colorado. A strange alien creature emerges from the crash site and terrorises the town. It is first witnessed by an old hobo, who is infected by it. Brad Flagg, a teenage tearaway who has already had previous trouble with the local sheriff, tries to help the old man, who is taken to the local hospital by Meg Penny, a high school cheerleader, and Paul Taylor, her boyfriend and the star player on the high school football team. A military operation led by Dr Meadows arrives soon afterwards, claiming that a virus has been identified, and the town is placed under complete quarantine. As the creature grows ever larger it becomes a race against time to find some way to defeat it.

...


The original film, an independent production made on a miniscule budget in 1958, is celebrated because it features Steve McQueen in the lead role. Two years later, McQueen appeared in ‘The Magnificent Seven’ and went on to become one of America’s most iconic film stars. This 1988 remake follows the basic premise of the original, but embellishes the story and in the process prefigures ‘The X-Files’, with its theme of military conspiracies and cover-ups.

The film has an old-fashioned feel and harks back to the golden age of 1950s horror and sci-fi, not surprisingly, given its source material. It actually does this rather well and although it lacks a little bit of spark and ends up being a touch pedestrian, there is no denying that it is a largely enjoyable if predictable 90-minutes.

Shawnee Smith, who has the lead role as Meg Penny here and was 18-year-old at the time, is now best known for playing Linda across all six seasons of the popular sitcom ‘Becker’, which ran from 1998 to 2004 on the CBS network, and for playing Amanda Young in the successful ‘Saw’ horror franchise. Kevin Dillon, who plays Brad Flagg, is the younger brother of Matt Dillon. Donovan Leitch is the son of the famous Scottish folk singer Donovan and the brother of the actress Ione Skye. Candy Clark, who plays Fran Hewitt, the owner of the local diner, has starred in several celebrated cult films, including ‘American Graffiti’, ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’ and ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.

Frank Darabont, who co-wrote the screenplay, went on to direct ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, ‘The Green Mile’ and the acclaimed 2007 horror film ‘The Mist’. The next film made by director Chuck Russell was the hugely successful Jim Carrey vehicle, ‘The Mask’, which grossed over $350 million at the box office.

‘The Blob’ had a domestic box office gross a little over $8.2 million. There was mixed reaction to it and it has a 53% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 15 reviews.

To all intents and purposes, James Gunn remade the film in 2006 as ‘Slither’, although not directly so.

Review posted 27 April 2009



...

The Lost

...

Rating 2¾


Directed by Bryan Goeres

Written by Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie

Starring Armand Assante (Kevin), Lacey Chabert (Jane), Dina Meyer (Mira), David Selvas (Hugo), Ferran Lahoz (Gil), Sergi Mateu (Molina), Ricard Sales (Alex), Jorge Bosch (Delgado), Miquel Gelabert (Alonso) and Toby Harper (Barry)

Kevin, once a practicing psychoanalyst, now a successful writer, is approached by Mira in New York during a book tour to promote his latest book. At first she asks for his autograph, but then she tells him she is the older sister of Jane and that his diagnosis of her sister’s condition three years earlier during a high profile criminal trial in Spain had condemned her to spend the rest of her life in an institution, drugged to a permanent near-comatose state. Mira claims that it was the wrong diagnosis and threatens to expose his mistake in the newspapers. Kevin reluctantly agrees to reassess Jane’s condition, travelling back to Spain, and as he learns more about her split personalities he becomes ensnared in a web of intrigue.

...


‘The Lost’ (or ‘Perduts’, to give the film its Catalan title) is a made-for-television film, first released at the beginning of 2009. It was made by the Barcelona based Drimtim Entertainment production company, which specialises in product that has appeal in the American market. It is not exactly a horror film, although it might be marketed as such. More accurately, it is a psychological thriller. There are no scares as such and certainly no blood and gore.

The premise that takes Kevin back to Spain to reassess Jane is daft in the extreme and the twisty ending is equally outlandish. The film follows a tried and tested formula that is very familiar, but all in all it is really rather well done and enjoyable, with decent performances all round by an experienced and very competent cast.

The writers Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie are an experienced team, having also worked together on numerous American television series, including ‘Cold Case’, ‘Criminal Minds’, ‘Surface’ and ‘Vanished’. Director Bryan Goeres has direcetd several other films for Drimtim.

Review posted 26 April 2009



...

Splinter

…

Rating 2½


Directed by Toby Wilkins

Written by Toby Wilkins, Kai Barry and Ian Shorr

Starring Shea Whigham (Dennis Farell), Paulo Costanzo (Seth Belzer), Jill Wagner (Polly Watt), Rachel Kerbs (Lacey Belisle), Charles Baker (Blake Sherman Jr) and Laurel Whitsett (Sherrif Terri Frankel)


Polly Watt persuades her boyfriend Seth Belzer to join her on a camping trip in the wilderness. Escaped convict Dennis Farell and his drug-addicted girlfriend Laurel Whitsett kidnap them. When the vehicle Polly is driving hits a strange creature and the damage causes the engine to overheat, they pull into an isolated and seemingly deserted gas station, where they become trapped and are menaced by a splinter-like organism that infects and takes over warm-blooded living creatures.

…


‘Splinter’ is a low budget horror film that was released into cinemas in the latter part of 2008, achieving a worldwide gross a little under $38,000. It has a 71% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 31 reviews and it won six awards at Screamfest, the largest horror film festival in the United States, including best picture and best director.

The film is very well made and clearly knows its audience, but I didn’t like it very much. I found it gruesome and unpleasant, in the first half particularly, and the rapid editing effects used whenever the creature appears quickly became extremely annoying. For horror film fans who like their films to be blood-splattered, but who don’t necessarily subscribe to the school of “torture porn”, I suspect this is a film that should come highly recommended. It left me cold.

Director and co-writer Toby Wilkins has subsequently directed the soon-to-be-released direct-to-DVD ‘The Grudge 3’, which stars Shawnee Smith, a familiar face from the ‘Saw’ horror franchise.

Review posted 23 April 2009



…

Time After Time

…

Rating 4


Directed by Nicholas Meyer

Written by Nicholas Meyer and Steve Hayes (story), based on the novel by Karl Alexander

Starring Malcolm McDowell (H G Wells), Mary Steenburgen (Amy Robbins), David Warner (John Leslie Stevenson), Charles Cioffi (Police Lieutenant Mitchell) and Patti D’Arbanville (Shirley)


London, 1893: Jack the Ripper kills again, five years after his last attack. H G Wells unveils a time machine for his friends, gathered at his home. John Leslie Stevenson, a local physician, is the last to arrive. The police follow the trail of the Ripper to the house and discover evidence that implicates Stevenson, who disappears in the confusion, using the time machine. Fearing that evil has been unleashed on a utopian future, Wells follows Stevenson and ends up in San Francisco in 1979, where he meets bank worker Amy Robbins while trying to track down his old friend, who has resumed his killing spree.

…


‘Time After Time’ was released into cinemas in August 1979. I first came across it at the start of the 1980s on Betamix video and watched it several times during the next few years. I counted it as one of my favourite films. I had not seen it in at least the last fifteen years, probably even longer, when the opportunity presented itself again recently. I approached it with a degree of trepidation, fearing that it would not live up to my memory of it, but I need not have worried. I enjoyed it just as much again after all this time.

The film is based on a novel by Karl Alexander, which was, I believe, written at more or less the same time as the screenplay. It takes its inspiration from ‘The Time Machine’, the novella by H G Wells, first published in 1895, Wells himself, and Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer who brutally murdered five women in the Whitechapel district of London in 1888 and whose identity has still not to this day been established, despite countless theories and books written on the subject.

Wells is played by always watchable Malcolm McDowell, who will probably be best known to many of us for his startling performances in three of his earliest films, ‘If’ (1969), ‘A Clockwatch Orange’ (1971) and ‘O Lucky Man!’ (1973). Younger watchers might know him from the American television series ‘Heroes’. David Warner is terrifically malevolent, oozing a kind of decadent and slightly effeminate elegance, in the role of John Leslie Stevenson. Warner is a stage actor of considerable renown, particularly celebrated for his Shakespearian work, although he was plagued for many years by prolonged bouts of illness, self-doubt and stage fright. Mary Steenburgen, making just her second screen appearance, plays Amy Robbins. She made her film debut the previous year in ‘Goin’ South’, a film directed by and starring Jack Nicholson, for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award.

H G Wells, who was a socialist and pacifist and a political campaigner, hoped for a Utopian society in the future, a theme explored in many of his works, including ‘The Time Machine’. That theme is followed here, with Wells (the character) quickly discovering that his dreamed of utopian future does not exist. When he tells Stevenson they don’t belong in the future, Stevenson replies, “On the contrary, I belong here completely and utterly,” and goes on to say, “The world has caught up and surpassed me. Ninety years ago, I was a freak. Today, I’m an amateur.”

A film with a time travel theme is always going to have holes that we can poke our fingers through if we wish. One small quibble that I had when I first watched it and still have now is that Wells and Stevenson are both able to exchange currency from Victorian Britain in a late 20th Century bank in San Francisco without any problem whatsoever, which seems to me to be completely ludicrous. It would no longer be legal tender. Watching the film now, I did notice a few momentary asides that could be interpreted as having an anti-Islamic/Middle East slant, whether they are intended or not. These have nothing to do with the theme of the film or the plot, they are noticeable.

Director and screenwriter Nicholas Meyer is probably best known to many people as the director of two Star Trek films, ‘The Wrath of Khan’ and ‘The Undiscovered Country’. He also contributed to the screenplays of these two films and ‘The Voyage Home’. This latter film saw the crew of the USS Enterprise travel back in time to San Francisco in 1986 and it was these scenes that Meyer wrote.

Review posted 23 April 2009



…

The Russell Girl

…

Rating 3


Directed by Jeff Bleckner

Written by Jill E Blotevogal

Starring Amber Tamblyn (Sarah Russell), Jennifer Ehle (Lorainne Morrissey), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Gayle Russell), Paul Wesley (Evan Carroll), Henry Czerny (Howard Morrissey), Tim DeKay (Tim Russell), Daniel Clark (Daniel Russell), Ben Lewis (Jon Morrissey) and Max Morrow (Rick Morrissey)


Sarah Russell, who is working and living in Chicago while she waits to hear the outcome of her application to study medicine, learns that she is suffering from an aggressive form of leukaemia. She returns home to the sleepy town where she grew up, but on arrival she discovers that her application has been successful and her parents Gayle and Tim have just received the news. They think she has come home to tell them this, treating her arrival as a cause for celebration, and she keeps her illness secret from them.

She still feels guilt following the death of the young daughter of Lorainne and Howard Morrissey, who live across the street, some six years previously. The death occurred while she was babysitting and she questions whether or not her illness is karma for what happened. The death destroyed her relationship with her former boyfriend Evan Carroll, who has also recently returned to town to care for his sick father, and, so her father believes, created an invisible barrier that has prevented the family from communicating properly ever since.

…


‘The Russell Girl’ is a Hallmark Hall of Fame made-for-television film that was first broadcast in January 2008. It follows a pattern familiar from previous Hallmark films, incorporating the well-worn themes of serious illness, secrets hidden, recrimination, forgiveness and salvation. In its favour, the film is expertly handled and the acting is excellent, particularly the performances of Amber Tamblyn and Jennifer Ehle, whose characters largely carry the story.

On the downside, the progression of the story is predictable and rather too glib, presenting a chocolate-box version of small-town America and offering a resolution that is too neat and too easily reached. More so, the depiction of Sarah’s illness suggests that she is suffering from little more than a severe head cold; cancer still being an illness that we seem to shy away from really wanting to confront or understand.

This is, in many ways, all the more puzzling when one considers that the main theme of this film is the failure of the various characters to communicate, while the film itself somewhat fails to communicate the seriousness of the illness, apparently deciding that the word “leukaemia” itself will be enough to convey this. As it transpires, since Sarah is clearly in denial about the seriousness of her illness, this partially ends up working in the film’s favour in a round-a-bout way, but it could perhaps have benefitted from more to highlight the seriousness of the condition and what Sarah faces because of it.

The film does conform to a long established formula, but that should certainly not take away from its many merits. After all, it has a very specific target audience in mind. Despite my criticisms, I enjoyed it immensely.

Review posted 20 April 2009



…

Alice in Wonderland

...

Rating 5


Directed by Jonathan Miller

Written by Jonathan Miller, based on the noval by Lewis Carroll

Cast includes Anne-Marie Mallik (Alice), Wilfrid Brambell (White Rabbit), Alan Bennett (Mouse), Michael Redgrave (Caterpillar), John Bird (Frog Footman), Leo McKern (Duchess), Peter Cook (Mad Hatter), Michael Gough (March Hare), Wilfrid Lawson (Dormouse), Peter Eyre (Knave of Hearts), Alison Leggatt (Queen of Hearts), Peter Sellers (King of Hearts), John Gielgud (Mock Turtle) and Malcolm Muggeridge (Gryphon)


Jonathan Miller’s adaptation of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ was broadcast on BBC1 on 28 December 1966 as part of “The Wednesday Play”, a series of acclaimed weekly one-off dramas that ran from 1964 to 1970. These included, perhaps most famously, ‘The War Game’, which was scheduled for transmission in August 1966 on the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, but was considered to be so shocking and controversial that it was banned and not finally shown by the BBC until 1985, although it was screened in art house cinemas prior to that. Also of note is ‘Cathy Come Home’, which was directed by Ken Loach and first shown in November 1966, leading to a considerable amount of comment and debate, as well as the raising of awareness about issues like unemployment and homelessness.

Jonathan Miller came to prominence at the beginning of the 1960s as part of the groundbreaking satirical stage revue Beyond the Fringe alongside Alan Bennett, Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, the pre-eminent comedy writer and satirist of his generation. After that he was the editor and presenter of the BBC arts programme ‘Monitor’, before producing and directing ‘Alice in Wonderland’ from his own adaptation of the celebrated Lewis Carroll novel. During the 1970s he became best known as a director of opera for the English National Opera and in the 1980s he famously directed six of the plays of William Shakespeare for the BBC.

‘Alice in Wonderland’ was mentioned to me recently by my brother. Although I was only 8-years-old when it was broadcast and had certainly not previously given any thought to it, I immediately had vague memories back to the programme, including the knowledge that Wilfrid Bramble (then famous as old man Steptoe in the long-running BBC television comedy series ‘Steptoe and Son’, which had ended its original run the previous year) played the White Rabbit and the mercurial Peter Cook was suitably cast as the Mad Hatter. My interest was roused enough to want to watch it again and as I did so, presumably for the first time in more than 42 years, more vivid memories of it came flooding back, including Alice following the White Rabbit through the tunnel (as depicted by Miller, rather than down a rabbit hole) and the scene in which the gardeners attempt to paint the white roses red before the arrival of the Queen of Hearts.

The scene above all others that stands out for me, although not necessarily from memory, occurs late in the story when Alice meets the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle, played beautifully by Malcolm Muggeridge and John Gielgud. I laughed loudest, though, at the entrance of the Mad Matter at the Trial that takes place immediately before Alice wakes from her daydreams.

‘Alice in Wonderland’ was filmed in black and white – BBC1 did not start to transmit colour programming until November 1969, two years after BBC2. It eschews the frenetic child-like lunacy of most adaptations of the novel, instead giving it a sleepy hallucinogenic quality that is very much a product of the time; The Beatles had released the ‘Revolver’ album a little less than five months prior to the broadcast. It perfectly captures the stillness of an English summer’s day. The actors do not wear prosthetics or appear in animal costumes, instead appearing in human form with an assumption made that the audience will have some pre-existing familiarity with the story. There is a wealth of famous acting talent on show here, including theatre heavyweights like John Gielgud and Michael Redgrave, Miller’s old cohorts Alan Bennett and Peter Cook, and a genuine film star in the guise of Peter Sellers. Eric Idle of Monty Python fame is featured in a non-speaking role in what I believe was his first television acting appearance. However, perhaps the most interesting piece of casting is that of 14-year-old Anne-Marie Mallik as Alice, in what appears to have been her only professional acting performance.

Alice is often on the fringes of the various scenes, frequently looking off in some other direction to the characters surrounding her; her expression impassive and immobile. In this respect, she is not even an observer. Mallik, who looks a little like a young Scarlett Johanssen and for some reason put me in mind of Kate Bush, projects a kind of disinterested melancholia. Whether or not her acting would have been up to close scrutiny had her acting career advanced on from this is a point of conjecture, but her performance here is in perfect keeping with Miller’s adaptation.

As might be expected, Miller draws out the satirical aspects of the story. For example, we are reminded that this is a story written and set in Victorian England that shines a magnifying glass on the Establishment – The Queen of Hearts is a representation of Queen Victoria and the King of Hearts is Prince Albert. The Knave of Hearts is, I imagine, the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, whose own son Prince Albert Victor has been somewhat spuriously linked in the past to the Jack the Ripper killings in the Whitechapel area of London between August and November 1888, some 23 years after the book was first published.

If I am being truthful, a couple of scenes did veer a little too close to tedium, notably the caucus race that occurs near to the start of the story. However, this is a remarkable work, a wonderful adaptation, and an excellent example of the kind of production the BBC was once capable of.

The music for the production was composed and performed by Ravi Shankar.

Review posted 16 April 2009


...

Gwoemul (The Host)

…

Rating 4


Directed by Bong Joon-ho

Written by Bong Joon-ho, Baek Chul-hyun and Ha Wong-jun

Starring Song Kang-ho (Park Gang-du), Byeon Hee-bong (Park Hee-bong), Park Hae-il (Park Nam-il), Bae Du-na (Park Nam-joo) and Ko Ah-sung (Park Hyun-seo)


Park Gang-du runs a snack bar with his father Hee-bong. He spends most of his time sleeping and gives every impression of being rather slow-witted and shiftless. When a huge amphibian creature emerges out of the Han River, attacking the many bystanders who witness the event, and makes off back into the water with his young daughter Hyun-seo, he becomes intent on rescuing her, aided by his father, his brother Nam-il, an alcoholic university graduate, and his sister Nam-joo, a medal-winning archer. His quest is hampered by the authorities, who do not believe his daughter is still alive and who claim he has been infected by a virus they say has been unleashed by the creature.

…


‘Gwoemul’ (or ‘The Host’, to give the film its English title), a South Korean production, broke all existing domestic box office records when it was released in 2006, becoming the biggest grossing South Korean film of all time. It’s a mixture of monster movie, black comedy with outbreaks of slapstick humour, human drama, and political and environmental statement. These seemingly disparate elements combine to create a bizarre, intriguing, thought-provoking, enjoyable and often heartrending film that bears many of the hallmarks of the famous 1954 Japanese monster movie ‘Godzilla’ (‘Gojira’).

The film is critical of American military presence in South Korea and of the influence of American foreign policy in the region generally, although it also depicts an un-named American character performing an act of genuine unselfish heroism that costs him his life. Equally, it can be viewed as a satire on the South Korean government, with the authorities portrayed as both bureaucratic and incompetent.

In essence, this is a story about an unremarkable individual who suddenly finds himself in an extraordinary situation. He is already written off as someone of little worth; when the father asks his other son and daughter, “In your view, is Gang-du really so pathetic?”, they both reply yes. However, he remains unyielding in his attempts to find his daughter, helped by his family, and the true spirit of these four people, battling in the face of seemingly impossible odds, is brought into sharp focus.

The film is rather muddled in parts and many holes could be found in the narrative if so desired, but this is such an enjoyable and kind spirited film that they deserve to be overlooked.

‘Gwoemul’ has a 92% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 138 reviews. It had a production budget of $11 million (quoted at Wikipedia) and grossed a little over $89.4 million at the box office worldwide.

The film is based in part on a true event that occurred in 2000 when a large quantity of formaldehyde being stored on a US military base in Seoul was dumped into a sewer system leading to the Han River. The South Korean government attempted to pursue a prosecution of the civilian employee responsible, but the US military refused to hand him over to Korean authorities, leading to considerable criticism of the impotence of the government in the face of American political might. A prosecution did finally take place in 2005 with a guilty verdict passed, but no custodial sentence.

Review posted 16 April 2009



…

Ten Inch Hero

...

Rating 1½


Directed by David Mackay

Written by Betsy Morris

Starring Elisabeth Harnois, Clea DuVall, Jensen Ackles, Sean Patrick Flanery, Danneel Harris, John Doe, Alice Krige Adair Tishler and Sean Wing


Piper (Elisabeth Harnois), a young aspiring artist, moves to Santa Cruz and answers an ad stating, “help wanted, normal people need not apply,” to get a job as a waitress at the City Beach Cafe, which is owned by an old hippie surfer called Trucker (John Doe, the one-time singer with the mercurial Los Angeles punk band X). Piper has come to Santa Cruz in search of the daughter she gave up for adoption as a teenager.

...


‘Ten Inch Hero’ was made in 2007 on a shoe-string budget and subsequently screened at a number of film festivals in the US, although it has never received a theatrical release. I first became aware of the film because of the cast and have been waiting for the opportunity to see it ever since. Sadly, it proved to be a somewhat disappointing experience. This might be the most cloyingly saccharine film I have ever willingly sat through. There is more treacle to be found here than in a sweet factory. It conforms to all the stereotypes of a typical low-budget independent feel-good movie, but whereas the characters are clearly intended to be quirky and likeable, too often the screenplay has them veer way too close to being simply annoying. The message the film seems to be trying to tell us is that beauty is not just skin deep, but far too often it almost borders on being offensive.

After a while I found myself going with the flow, but although it is not by any means entirely dislikeable, it did try my patience early on and only the likeable cast kept me watching to the end.

Review posted 14 April 2009



...

The Unusuals (pilot episode)

...

Rating 3

Created by Noah Hawley

Written by Noah Hawley

Directed by Stephen Hopkins

Starring Amber Tamblyn, Jeremy Renner, Adam Goldberg, Harold Perrineau, Kai Lennox, Joshua Close, Monique Gabriela Curnan, Chris Sarandon and Terry Kinney

Detective Casey Shreager is pulled off Vice and assigned to the New York Homicide squad following the murder of a possibly crooked cop. She is teamed up with his former partner Detective Jason Walsh (Jeremy Renner).

She quickly discovers that the squad is made up of a collection of decidedly oddball characters; Walsh seems to operate a run-down diner as a sideline that he opens sporadically as the mood takes him. Detective Eric Dalahov (Adam Goldberg) has a brain tumour that he is keeping a secret. It might explain his tendency to cry constantly, his sudden outbursts of temper and his decision to give his moustache a name. It doesn’t explain why he seems to be impervious to danger – in this pilot episode he survives falling in front of a subway train and being shot at close range with both barrels of a shotgun. His partner Detective Leo Banks (Harold Perrineau) is obsessed with germs and convinced that death is waiting around the corner for him. He permanently wears a bullet-proof vest, even in bed. Detective Eddie Alvarez is an egotist who always refers to himself in the third person and is mocked by his colleagues. Detective Henry Cole (Joshua Close) is a born again Christian who hides a delinquent past. They all have something they seem to be hiding, including Casey Shreager, who is, in reality, a “Park Avenue Princess”.

...


‘The Unusuals’ is a police procedural, promoted as a comedy-drama. This pilot episode was broadcast on 8 April 2009, the first of ten episodes commissioned by the ABC Network. The viewing figures, just 6.8 million, which seems very low for the opening episode of a brand new show, and the fact that ABC has only committed to ten episodes suggests that the series may well be doomed, even at this early stage.

It is being promoted as a kind of up-dated cousin of ‘MASH’ and the similarities are evident immediately, right down to the quirky tannoy announcements. It has an old-fashioned feel that put me in mind of ‘Hill Street Blues’ and ‘Cagney & Lacey’. The planned format will have a main investigation each episode, shadowed by a second quirkier one. In this pilot, Shreager and Walsh investigate the murder, a case that Alvarez is put in charge of, while Dalahov and Banks are assigned to investigate the killing of a cat and find themselves on the trail of a serial cat killer. Dalahov and Banks are, it would seem at this early stage, likely to become quickly established as particularly popular characters with viewers. Adam Goldberg and Harold Perrineau (who played Michael Dawson in seasons one, two and four of ‘Lost’) work very well together.

Amber Tamblyn is a favourite actress of mine and has been excellent in everything I have seen her in. She is the reason I first became aware of this show when it was being cast. However, as good as she is, I could not help but have a suspicion during the pilot episode that she might be miscast here. She doesn’t seem to be a perfect fit for the character, whether as a police detective working vice and homicide, or as the “spoilt princess” daughter of rich society parents. Time will tell if this becomes more or less apparent.

I think the pilot episode was trying too hard at times and some of the humour and quirkiness was rather too obviously forced. However, it was very enjoyable and this is clearly a show with promise, although it seems unlikely to be around long enough to have sufficient time to find its niche and iron out the crinkles.

Review posted 14 April 2009



...

Doctor Who: Planet Of The Dead

...

Rating 2½


Directed by James Strong

Written by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts

Starring David tenant, Michelle Ryan, Lee Evans, Noma Dumezweni, Ellen Thomas, Reginald Tsiboe, Adam James, Victoria Doherty, David Ames, Daniel Kaluuya and Keith Parry


Lady Christina de Souza (Michelle Ryan), a notorious jewel thief, is cornered by police following the daring theft of a priceless artefact from a museum. She boards a number 200 bus to make her getaway. The Doctor (David Tennant) boards the same bus, which is then sucked through a ripple to a desert on a distant planet. It now becomes a race against time to steer the bus back through the ripple to Earth before the passengers are eaten alive by a swarm of flying parasitic vampire-like creatures.

...


‘Planet of the Dead’ is the first of four one-hour specials that will be broadcast by the BBC during 2009 and the early part of 2010, after which David Tennant and executive producer Russell T Davies will leave the show, to be replaced by Matt Smith (who becomes the third Doctor since the show was revived in 2005, the eleventh in all) and Steven Moffat. It follows the pattern already set in the previous “specials”, dating back to the excellent ‘The Christmas Invasion’ in December 2005, with the story told at a breathless pace from start to finish.

Unfortunately, that pattern has now become rather stale and predictable. In the rush to give us a piece of Indiana Jones-like action-adventure, the story is given no room to breathe. This is an episode that might have worked rather well had it been given longer to unfold and had we been allowed to see how the various passengers on the bus cope with the inexplicable situation they find themselves in. It needed to draw breath every once in a while.

Having said that, there are some nice touches here and it is quite possibly exactly what the majority of viewers want, a piece of rollicking escapism on a Saturday early evening. Michelle Ryan is good in her starring guest role and works well with David Tennant. I am not a fan of Lee Evans, but he is not quite as annoying here as I feared he would be, although he was required to give us nothing more than a comic turn that paid little attention to the history of the show - we were surely not really expected to believe that this was a scientist attached to UNIT?

At the end of the episode was a short trailer for the next “special”, ‘The Waters of Mars’, which will be broadcast sometime in late 2009. It looks promising.

‘Planet of the Dead’ attracted an audience in the region of 8.7 million viewers, equating to approximately 40% of all television viewers in its timeslot.

Review posted 12 April 2009



...

Películas para no dormir: Regreso a Moira

..

Rating 3¾


Directed by Mateo Gil

Written by Mateo Gil and Igor Legarreta

Starring Juan José Ballesta, Jordi Dauder, Natalia Millán, David Arnaiz, Adrián Marin, José Ángel Egido, Miguel Rellán, Victoria Mora and Walter Prieto


Tomás (Jordi Dauder), a grey-haired man, perhaps in his sixties, is driving through mainland Europe back towards Spain and the small village where he grew up. He carries a Tarot card marked “Los Amentes” (The Lovers). He has flashbacks to the village over forty years earlier and a woman called Moira (Natalia Millán) who comes to live in a house up on the hill. The woman lives there alone with her cat and does not attend Mass. The region is suffering a severe drought and the suspicious local villagers come to believe she is a witch who consorts with the devil.

...

One of the six films in the “Películas para no dormer” series (Films to Keep You Awake), ‘Regreso a Moira’ or ‘Spectre’, to give the film its English title, is the slowly unfolding story of a teenage boy, Tomás (played in his younger guise by Juan José Ballesta) who experiences his sexual awakening when he encounters the mysterious woman who has come to live outside his village. He becomes enchanted by her and she offers him a glimpse of an alternative life to the stifling traditions of the remote village he has grown up in, where everything revolves around the local Church. However, his jealousy grows stronger with each passing day, with tragic consequences.

The film explores the ingrained suspicions of people who fear anything they do not understand and see evil all around them. It also comments, indirectly, on the ways in which the landscape of Spain and the very fabric of life in the country has changed. The small remote village of forty years ago has long gone is now an inhospitable town relying on tourism to survive, with many faceless buildings in various stages of construction.

This is a quiet and beautiful film, a doomed love story, with an almost dreamlike quality.

Review posted 9 April 2009



...

Ginger Snaps

...

Rating 3½


Directed by John Fawcett

Written by Karen Walton, from a story by Karen Walton and John Fawcett

Starring Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche, Mimi Rogers, John Bourgeois, Jesse Moss, Danielle Hampton, Pak-Kwong Ho and Peter Keleghan


“Out by sixteen or dead on the scene, but together forever... United against life as we know it.”

Two sisters, Ginger and Brigitte Fitzgerald (Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins), aged nearly 16 and just 15 respectively, rebel against the mundane conformity of their dull and faceless suburban lives by cultivating a morbid fascination with death, staging a number of fake suicides, all of them horrific in nature, and photographing the results for a school project. Both sisters have so far not started menstruation, which they consider to be a badge of honour. However, when Ginger is savagely attacked on the night of a full moon by a werewolf, which is then killed when it is hit with force by a van driven by the local drug dealer Sam (Kris Lemche), everything begins to change.

...


“Just so you know... the words “just” and “cramps”, they don’t go together!”

This strange darkly comic low-budget independent Canadian werewolf film was first shown at the Toronto Film Festival in 2000, before receiving a theatrical release in Canada the following year. It had, if the entry at Wikipedia is to be believed, already been the subject of an unusual degree of adverse media attention in Canada during the casting process as a result of the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado in April 1999.

The werewolf theme is a metaphor for puberty and menstruation, the hormonal sexuality of teenagers and the different attitudes of and towards teenage boys and teenage girls. In many ways it bears some comparison to the 1984 Neil Jordan film ‘The Company of Wolves’, based on Angela Carter’s short story of the same name. However, many critics seem to have identified a stylistic link to David Cronenberg, making the point that Cronenberg, like John Fawcett, the director here, is Canadian.

For about the first hour or so this film is quite brilliant, with a rapier-sharp script and fabulous performances by the two leads, as well as a great turn by Mimi Rogers, playing their equally quirky mother Pamela. After that it does start to gradually rather lose its way and ultimately it is simply too long. Fifteen minutes could easily have been shaved off the running time. This is a shame, because it slightly spoils what might otherwise have been a near-classic film. Having said that, I think it still deserves its cult reputation.

‘Ginger Snaps’ has an 89% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 47 reviews. The production budget is quoted at Wikipedia to have been CAN$4.8 million. The film had a virtually non-existent theatrical run in the U.S., grossing just $2,500 at the box office. However, two more films followed; ‘Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed’, which I like very much, and ‘Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning’, a decent prequel, both with Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle reprising their roles. Although Perkins plays the younger of the two sisters, she is actually four and a half years older than Isabelle.

Kris Lemche played God in the wonderful ‘Joan of Arcadia’.

Review posted 8 April 2009



...

Jar City (Mýrin)

…

Rating 4


Directed by Baltasar Kormákur

Written by Baltasar Kormákur, based on the novel by Arnaldur Indriðason

Starring Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Ólafia Hrönn Jónsdóttir, Atli Rafn Sigurðsson, Kristbjörg Kjeld, Þorsteinn Gunnarsson, Theódór Júlíusson, Þórunn Magnea Magnúsdóttir and Rafnhildur Rósa Atladótir


Chain-smoking and world-weary police detective, Erlendur (a fabulous brooding performance by Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson), is brought in to investigate the murder of a man named Holberg (Þorsteinn Gunnarsson), who has died in his squalid and stinking apartment as a result of a hard blow to the head with an ashtray. Holberg, judging by the images on his computer and the stack of magazines found in the lorry he drives for work, was addicted to porn.

Erlendur finds an old photograph taped to the bottom of a drawer in Holberg’s apartment – a picture of a grave bearing the name Aude. This leads him to investigate the death of a four-year-old girl some thirty years earlier, an accusation of rape that was never prosecuted and the disappearance of a petty criminal around the same time, against a backdrop of his fractured relationship with his troubled, pregnant, drug-addicted, former prostitute daughter Eva (Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir).

…


‘Jar City’ is, I think, the first film from Iceland I have ever watched. Based on the novel ‘Mýrin’ (translated as ‘Tainted Blood’) by the celebrated crime-thriller writer Arnaldur Indriðason, it is not exactly a barrel of laughs. Set against a wet, stormy and grey backdrop of crumbling nondescript buildings and self-loathing, it paints a particularly bleak and depressing picture of Icelandic society. The film it most puts me in mind of is ‘Get Carter’, the classic 1971 Mike Hodges film that tells the unrelentingly grim story of a hardened London gangster who travels up to Newcastle to find out the truth about the death of his brother.

An aura of grey despair, distrust and melancholia envelopes the film from start to finish. There is no sense of hope whatsoever, although there are a couple of strange comic moments to be found here involving Erlendur’s younger colleague Sigurður Óli (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson); one when he is required to knock on doors and ask random women if they were raped thirty years earlier and later on when he is chasing the psychotic Elliði (Theódór Júlíusson) and the tables are suddenly turned when they both realise that were Sigurður Óli to actually catch up to him he would likely be beaten to bloody pulp.

I read one review that described ‘Jar City’ as a “haunting enigma” and that is a good two-word summing up of what is on offer here. It makes excellent use of the other-worldly Icelandic landscape and introduces little mundane moments that are strangely unsettling to the eye of the outsider, such as Erlendur eating a sheep’s head for his supper. This is not a feel-good movie, but at the end of it you feel good that films of this quality are still being made.

One minor point of criticism is that the sub-titles, which are displayed against the actual picture, are often hard to read. I had to stop the film (DVD) several times, scan back and put it on pause to read them.

‘Jar City’ has a 94% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 35 reviews.

‘Mýrin’ or ‘Tainted Blood’ is the third of eight novels featuring Detective Erlendur as its central character. It was first published in 2000.

Review posted 8 April 2009



…

Impostor

...

Rating 2½


Directed by Gary Fleder

Written by Richard Jeffries, Ehren Kruger and David Twohy – based on a short story by Philip K Dick, adapted by Scott Rosenberg with revisions by Caroline Case and Mark Protosevich

Starring Gary Sinise, Vincent D’Onofrio, Madeleine Stowe, Mekhi Phifer, Tony Shalhoub, Tim Guinee, Gary Dourdan, Elizabeth Peña and Lindsay Crouse


The Earth has been at war with an alien adversary for over a decade. Spencer Olham (Gary Sinise), the chief designer of a hugely destructive new intergalactic weapon, is accused by Major Hathaway (Vincent D’Onofrio), a ruthless officer in a clandestine government organisation, of being a replicant, effectively a living walking nuclear bomb. Olham manages to escape and enlists the help of Cale (Mekhi Phifer), an insurgent, in his desperate quest to prove his humanity. He says he can get access to much-needed medical supplies, from the hospital where his wife Maya (Madeleine Stowe) works as a senior doctor, in return for Cale’s help. All the while, Hathaway is hot on his trail.

...


As a boy and teenager in the 1960s and 1970s I watched television series like ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Star Trek’, ‘Lost in Space’ and ‘Blake’s 7’. I read the C S Lewis space trilogy, which made a big impact on me at the time, and from there many other sci-fi novels, including, notably, the work of Isaac Asimov, seeking out everything I could find by him. I loved 1950’s sci-fi films like ‘It Came From Outer Space’, ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’, ‘Forbidden Planet’ and ‘This Island Earth’ – as well as British films like ‘Village of the Damned’, ‘The Day of the Triffids’ and ‘Quatermass and the Pit’. There is a lot of stuff I still do like, but somehow I grew out of love with science fiction a little bit.

I think it started with ‘Star Wars’, a film I have always disliked intensely. In fact, the extraordinary success of the whole franchise mystifies me. The gigantic popularity of the cloyingly sentimental ‘ET’ also put me off. Moving on several years, I really wanted to like John Carpenter’s ‘Ghosts of Mars’, but I thought it was awful. There is stuff I have liked – for example, ‘Starman’, the first ‘Alien’ film and ‘Event Horizon’ – but in recent years I have failed to get a grip on the widely acclaimed ‘Serenity’, despite watching it three times. A fourth attempt came to a premature end after little more than fifteen minutes when I decided I just could not take any more of the smugness of the thing. I can’t bring myself to watch ‘Battlestar Gallactica’, despite widespread claims that it is one of the greatest American television series ever made.

I am not a big fan of the writer Philip K Dick, despite his reputation. I tried reading things like ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ back in the days when I was reading Asimov, but somehow I did not make any connection to his work. There have been many film adaptations, starting with ‘Blade Runner’ in 1982, which was adapted from the aforementioned novel. ‘Total Recall’ followed, based on the short story ‘We Can Remember It For You Wholesale’, and since then the likes of ‘Minority Report’ and ‘A Scanner Darkly’, neither of which I have actually seen.

‘Impostor’ is based on a 1953 short story of the same name. It was co-produced by Gary Sinise and director Gary Fleder, whose other films include ‘Kiss the Girls’ and ‘Things to do in Denver when you’re Dead’. It’s a typical Philip K Dick theme.

I managed to guess exactly where the film was going almost from the moment when Olham is first arrested by Hathaway and accused of being a replicant. To all intents and purposes, from that point onwards it is nothing more than an extended chase sequence that lasts the best part of 90 minutes. The film is formulaic and clichéd in the extreme, but as it progressed I actually found myself rather enjoying it, if perhaps not enough to imagine ever needing to watch it again.

I wouldn’t call myself a fan of Gary Sinise, but I had no problem with his performance here. I do like Vincent D’Onofrio and I thought his performance did help the film quite a lot. Madeleine Stowe’s performance was strangely uninvolved and uninvolving, but that might have been intentional. The cast also includes Mekhi Phifer, who played Dr Gregory Pratt is ‘ER’ during seasons eight to fifteen, and Gary Dourdan, who plays Warrick Brown in ‘CSI’.

‘Impostor’ had a production budget variously estimated to have been anywhere between $30-$40 million, which was clearly a waste of money since the film is shot in annoying permanent semi-darkness. It grossed a little over $8 million at the box office worldwide, making it a fairly major commercial bomb. There are no reviews collected at Rotten Tomatoes.

Review posted 7 April 2009



...

Insomnia (2002)

…

WARNING: Minor spoilers in the film description

Rating 3½


Directed by Christopher Nolan

Written by Hillary Seitz, based on the film written by Nicolaj Frobenius and Erik Skjoldbjærg

Starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan, Maura Tierney, Pail Dooley, Fred Dugger, Jonathan Jackson, Crystal Lowe and Katharine Isabelle


Two homicide detectives from Los Angeles, Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan), are sent to a small fishing town in Alaska to assist with the investigation following the murder of a teenage girl, Kay Connell (Crystal Lowe). The underlying motivation for sending them is take them out of the line of fire during an internal affairs investigation of their department. They are met by local police officer Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank), who has a near-encyclopaedic knowledge of the cases of Dormer, a veteran detective who is revered within the police force. Dormer is unable to sleep in the perpetual daylight of the Alaskan summer and his mood darkens when Eckhart tells him he plans to give evidence to Internal Affairs in exchange for immunity. When Dormer shoots his partner in the chest during a bungled attempt to capture the killer, he claims that the shooting was carried out by the murder suspect, local crime thriller writer Walter Finch (Robin Williams). However, Finch witnessed the shooting and a complex game of psychological cat and mouse now ensues between the two.

…


This was Christopher Nolan’s follow-up film to the critically acclaimed ‘Momento’. The executive producers were George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh (the director of ‘sex, lies & videotape’, ‘Erin Brockovich’ and others). Released into cinemas in 2002, ‘Insomnia’ was a remake of a 1997 Norwegian film. Although the film has a 92% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 166 reviews, I clearly recall generally rather negative reviews at the time from British film critics. It was suggested that the film was heavy-handed and too routinely conventional, a disappointing follow-up to its left-of-centre predecessor. Undoubtedly this initial reaction was influenced by Nolan working within the mainstream Hollywood studio system with a big production budget – and probably because the film was a remake. By the time the film arrived on DVD, critical reaction to it had altered considerably, which simply attests to the subjective nature of such reviews.

I cannot compare the film to the original, which I have not as yet seen, but it is very effectively staged and put together. The setting is perfect, although when I first watched it at the time of its cinema release I could not stop myself from making the link to the quirky American television series ‘Northern Exposure’. The performances are excellent. Al Pacino, who was starting to become prone to Jack Nicholson-style barnstorming and scenery chewing during this period, gives one of his quieter performances – a blessed relief, having shouted his way through ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ just a few years earlier. Hilary Swank, three years on from her first Academy Award and two years away from her second one, is very good in a role that necessarily plays second-fiddle to the two male leads. The real star here, though, is Robin Williams, brilliantly playing against type, just as he would do again that same year in the excellent ‘One Hour Photo’.

Maura Tierney, who played Abby Lockhart for ten years in the long-running hospital drama ‘ER’, is amongst the supporting cast. The Canadian actress Katharine Isabelle plays Tanya Francke, the less-than-reliable best friend of the murder victim. Two years earlier, Isabelle was one of the co-leads in the terrific Canadian werewolf film ‘Ginger Snaps’. Her co-star from that film, Emily Perkins, has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it walk-on role here.

‘Insomnia’ is an effective thriller with an interesting slant on what would otherwise have been a mundane story. It makes good use of the icy setting in which the sun never sets and the internal conflicts that eat away at Dormer, a scrupulously honest cop gone bad with good intent, is nicely done. It is, though, best not to think too hard about the plot, because holes do soon start to appear it.

The film had a production budget of $46 million and grossed just under $114 million at the box office. The two films Christopher Nolan made prior to this, ‘Momento’ and ‘Following’, had production budgets of $9 million and $6,000 respectively.

Review posted 6 April 2009



…

The X Files: Fight the Future

...

Rating 2¼


Directed by Rob Bowman

Written by Chris Carter, from a story by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz

Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Martin Landau, John Neville, William B Davis, Mitch Pileggi, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Bruce Harwood, Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund, Jeffrey DeMunn, Blythe Danner and Terry O’Quinn


FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are assisting in the search of a federal building in Dallas, Texas after a tip-off that a bomb had been planted there. Mulder follows a hunch and checks a building across the street. An explosive device is discovered and the building is cleared moments before the bomb detonates, causing considerable damage. Following an encounter with Alvin Kurtzweil (Martin Landau), a conspiracy theorist who claims to have once worked on secret government experiments with Mulder’s father, he begins to suspect a high level cover up involving proof of the existence of aliens. He persuades Scully to help him, even though the “X Files” has been shut down and the two of them are under investigation, putting both their lives in deadly danger.

...


‘The X Files’, also known as ‘The X Files: Fight the Future’, was released into cinemas in America in June 1998 following the end of the fifth season of the television series. At the time, I was a huge fan of the show and was very much looking forward to the film. I came away from it feeling decidedly disappointed. Despite a reasonable opening thirty minutes or so it quickly ran out of steam and ended up playing like a painfully over-stretched run-of-the-mill television episode. Some of the major problems that the television series had encountered and been unable to resolve were brought into sharper relief here, not least of them being Scully’s continued refusal to believe what she saw with her very own eyes and her constant attempt to find another explanation for it.

Watching the film again for the first time in over nine years, exactly the same problems became apparent. It is certainly a whole lot better than the dismal 2008 film ‘The X Files: I Want to Believe’, but it’s still not all that great. There are far too many gaping holes in the plot and the story just doesn’t stretch to the two-hour running time, although it is certainly not entirely bereft of merit.

‘The X Files’ movie has a 63% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 68 reviews. It had a box office gross in excess of £189 million, nearly three times as much as the belated second film.

Review posted 5 April 2009.



...

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

...

Rating 2¾


Directed by Andrew Adamson

Written by Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, based on the novel by C S Lewis

Starring William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Ben Barnes, Sergio Castellito, Pierfrancesco Favino, Damián Alcázar, Peter Dinklage, Warwick Davis, Vincent Grass, Cornell John and Tilda Swinton (cameo appearance), plus the voices of Liam Neeson, Eddie Izzard, David Walliams and Ken Stott


The young Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), heir to the vacant throne of Telmarine, is helped to escape from a heavily fortified castle by his mentor Doctor Cornelius (Vincent Grass), fearing that Caspian’s uncle Miraz (Sergio Castellito), a Machiavellian presence in the court, intends to have him killed and claim the throne for his newly born son. Caspian flees on horseback into a supposedly haunted forest, pursued by soldiers loyal to Miraz. When suddenly confronted by two Narnian dwarves (played by Peter Dinklage and Warwick Davis) he panics and, afraid for his life, blows a magical horn given to him by Cornelius. Peter, Susan, Lucy and Edmund Pevensie are suddenly swept from an underground station platform in World War Two-era London and back to Narnia, some thirteen hundred years after they had last been there. Together with Caspian, they team up with the many different inhabitants of Narnia to fight the tyranny of Miraz and the Telmarines.

...


In my pre-teenage years I read the seven novels by the medievalist and theologian C S Lewis that make up ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’. The first book, ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’, especially, was a particular favourite of mine, perhaps only challenged by the classic children’s novel ‘The Wind in the Willows’. I have never read the Narnia books again, although in my teenage years the C S Lewis space trilogy counted amongst my favourite novels and I have subsequently read other books he wrote, notably ‘A Grief Observed’.

In 2005, the film production company Walden Media made ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ with Walt Disney Pictures. Clearly motivated by the enormous commercial success of the ‘Harry Potter’ films and Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, it was intended to film all seven books. The film had a $180 million production budget and grossed over $745 million at the box office worldwide. ‘Prince Caspian’ is the second book in the series (the fourth in chronological sequence), written in 1949 and first published in 1951, and the second film, released into cinemas in 2008.

I was disappointed by the first film. It failed to capture my remembrance of the magical quality of the book. The early scenes when the children first discover the wardrobe that acts as a doorway into Narnia feel a little flat. Once Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), the lion who Lewis intended as a kind of Christ figure, is introduced, the film seems to disintegrate into a mindlessly tedious planning and battle sequence that clearly hopes to capture the same audience as ‘The Lord of the Rings’. The second film is more successful, simply because the story lacks the magical tone of the first book, so there is less to live up to. Once again, the film amounts to little more than a battle and there are moments when more excitement could be had from watching a kettle boil, but it just seems to have a more satisfying feel to it and a surer hand at the helm (both films were directed by Andrew Adamson).

What immediately differentiates ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ from ‘Harry Potter’ is the strong Christian religious theme. In ‘Prince Caspian’ we not only get Aslan (Christ), but also a God/Father figure, in the form of the raging water. The books were intended as an allegory and this has resulted in a certain degree of controversy in more recent years, with claims that they are guilty of both sexism and racism. The time in which they were written is certainly a factor. Lewis was responding to the horror of the Second World War, much as did his close friend J R R Tolkien when writing ‘The Lord of the Rings’. However, there is undoubtedly a grain of truth in what has been suggested.

The accusation of sexism stems largely from the portrayal of Susan after ‘Prince Caspian’. She does not actually appear in any of the remaining five books, but is mentioned in two of them. It is the depiction of her in the final book ‘The Last Battle’ that has caused most comment, particularly in response to the description that, “she’s interested in nothing nowadays except lipstick and nylons and invitations.” It has been suggested that Lewis equated Susan to Judas, the biblical traitor. She seem to become, in his eyes, the antithesis of the Virgin Mary, although it should be born in mind that Lewis was an apologist who followed Anglican theology and was thought by some, including Tolkien, to have taken an anti-Catholic stance. Prior to 1931 when he converted to the Christian faith, at the age of 33, Lewis had been an atheist.

‘Prince Caspian’ could be accused of jingoism. The theme seems to be that we only truly come alive and find our destiny when we have a common enemy, one that is two-dimensionally evil and treacherous, and our goal should be to exterminate this enemy from the face of the Earth. I still find it disconcerting, just as I did with the first film, to see the four children so easily turned into warriors and watch them take the lives of others in battle.

William Moseley (Peter), Anna Popplewell (Susan), Georgie Henley (Lucy) and Skandar Keynes (Edmund) are effective in the lead roles. When first introduced, after the opening sequence in Narnia, they are in Strand underground station, which is now closed and, in fact, by the time of World War Two had been renamed Aldwych. Strand Station was opened in 1907, renamed Aldwych in 1915 and finally closed in 1994. In the book, the four children are standing on a railway station platform, not in an underground station.

It seems almost inconceivable that the film has a “PG” rating, given the level of violence, but such is our extremely skewed attitude to these things, it seems that children can apparently happily be shown violence like this, but never shown sex of any kind. Also, I would imagine the power of Disney had something to do with the certification.

‘Prince Caspian’ has a 66% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 174 reviews. In other words, 60 of the reviews collected are judged to have been unfavourable. It had an eye-watering production budget of $200 million (the special effects are very impressive) and grossed a little under $420 million at the box office. Walt Disney Pictures subsequently announced that it was pulling out of the agreement to make any further films. Walden Media has now teamed up with Twentieth Century Fox and ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ is due for release sometime in 2010.

Review posted 5 April 2009



...

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror

…

Rating 2½


Directed by John Rawlins

Written by Robert Hardy Andrews, adapted from the Arthur Conan Doyle story ‘His Last Bow’

Starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Evelyn Ankers, Reginald Denny, Henry Daniell, Thomas Gomez, Leyland Hodgson, Olaf Hytten, Montagu Love and Lon Chaney Jr (cameo appearance)


Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr Watson (Nigel Bruce) are called in by the “Inner Council” to investigate the identity of the “Voice of Terror”, who is broadcasting radio announcements from Nazi Germany that seem to predict exactly the details of the sabotage of military and civilian installations in Britain at the very moment they occur.

…


Although it is very loosely based on the Arthur Conan Doyle story ‘His Last Bow’, a story set on the eve of the First World War in 1914 and first published in 1917, ‘Sherlock Holmes and Voice of Terror’ is not a typical Sherlock Holmes adaptation. It is set in the modern day (the film was released in 1942) and opens with a description of Holmes and Watson as being “timeless” to explain this anomaly. There is also a little in-joke included in the film about Holmes being reminded to wear a fedora rather than his traditional deerstalker.

The film is a propaganda piece, intended to boost morale amongst cinemagoers during the years of the Second World War. It is very clear-cut in its depiction of Nazi Germany and those loyal to it. The “Voice of Terror” is, I assume, based on the real-life Lord Haw-Haw, the nickname given to several radio announcers who broadcast Nazi radio propaganda during the war, most notably William Joyce, who was subsequently executed for treason at Wandsworth Prison in London.

‘Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror’ is complete tosh seen from our distant future perspective, although not entirely removed from the patriotic tone and intention of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original story, but it needs to be viewed simply for what it is. The portrayal of the British working class or Cockney character is predictably ludicrous and makes the infamous performance of Dick Van Dyke in ‘Mary Poppins’ seem like the work of acting genius.

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce portrayed Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson in a total of fourteen films, released between 1939 and 1946. Initially set in Victorian England, a modern setting was adopted from 1942 onwards. Only the first film in the series, ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, is genuinely faithful to the source material. ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror’ was the third film in the series pairing Rathbone and Bruce.

Review posted 3 April 2009



…

The Women's Murder Club

...

Rating 2¾ and getting better


Created for television by Elisabeth Craft and Sarah Fain

Based on characters in the books by James Patterson

Written by Gretchen J Berg (2 episodes), Sherry Carnes (2 episodes), Elisabeth Craft (2 episodes), Sarah Fain (2 episodes), R Scott Gemmill (1 episode), Barbara Hall (1 episode), Aaron Harberts (2 episodes), Melina Hsu-Taylor (2 episodes), Robert Nathan (3 episodes, story only), Tom Postiglione (1 episode), Tom Szentgyorgyi (1 episode), Nichelle D Tramble (2 episodes) and Matt Witten (2 episodes)

Directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá (1 episode), Sarah Pia Anderson (1 episode), Mel Damski (1 episode), Michael Fields (1 episode), Tawnia McKiernan (1 episode), Matthew Penn (1 episode), Michael Schultz (1 episode), Bryan Spicer (1 episode), Skipp Sudduth (1 episode), Brad Turner (1 episode), Rick Wallace (2 episodes) and Greg Yaitanes (1 episode)

Starring Angie Harman, Laura Harris, Paula Newsome, Aubrey Dollar, Tyrees Allen, Rob Estes, Linda Park, Coby Ever Carradine, Ryan McLaughlin, Jonathan Adams, Kyle Secor, Joel Gretsch and Gerald McRaney


Lindsay Boxer (Angie Harman) is a San Francisco homicide detective who devotes herself to her job at the expense of her private life. Her marriage to Tom Hogan (Rob Estes), another police officer who has been promoted to lieutenant and is now her boss, broke down when she became obsessed with the so-called “Kiss-Me-Not” killer, a brutal serial killer who targeted young women, torturing them and sewing their lips together. Jill Bernhardt (Laura Harris) is an assistant district attorney who works out of City Hall, where Boxer’s police division is also based. Dr Claire Washburn (Paula Newsome) is the medical examiner who works alongside Boxer and her partner, the veteran police detective Warren Jacobi (Tyrees Allen). Cindy Thomas (Aubrey Dollar) is a young reporter with the San Francisco Register who is promoted to the crime desk. Together, they solve a series of murders.

...


‘The Women’s Murder Club’ is based a series of novels by the celebrated American crime-thriller writer James Patterson, eight so far, published between 2001 and 2009. Patterson was one of the show’s executive producers. It was created for television by Elisabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, who had previously worked on ‘The Shield’ and before that Joss Whedon’s ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ spin-off ‘Angel’. They are now the showrunners for Whedon’s latest television series ‘Dollhouse’. The other executive producers were Joe Simpson, the father of Jessica and Ashlee Simpson; Brett Ratner, the film director responsible for the Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker ‘Rush Hour’ action films; and R Scott Gemmill, who worked on ‘ER’ over a number of years. Gemmill was the showrunner.

The show was affected by the Writers Guide of America strike in 2007-2008 and went off the air at the beginning of January 2008 after ten episodes. When it returned at the end of April 2008 for three final episodes, Craft and Fain were no longer involved. The show had average viewing figures of 8.9 million, with a high of 10.8 million and a low of 7.8 million. It was ranked number one in its timeslot eight times and never lower than number three. It was ranked number one for the night four times, although this dropped off from the sixth episode onwards. In May 2008 it was announced by the ABC network that a second season would not be commissioned.

As a comparison, the fifth season of ‘Cold Case’ on the CBS network, which was broadcast at around the same time (September 2007 to May 2008) averaged 10.8 million viewers. Previous seasons of that show had averaged between 14.2 million and 15.1 million. It should be noted that ‘Cold Case’ is traditionally broadcast on a Sunday night, whereas the first ten episodes of ‘The Women’s Murder Club’ went out on Friday night, which is considered to be a dead night for television by the networks. The final three episodes were broadcast on Tuesday nights.

The series gets off to a somewhat shaky start, but it does improve with each episode as the main characters begin to gel and the individual personalities are brought more into focus. There does seem to be an underlying theme that a woman without a man is only half a person, and a very pale shadow at that, which I found quite irritating, although this was not rammed down our throats quite as forcefully after the first few episodes. It is very generic, which is the nature of American police procedurals, and rarely rises above the clichéd, other than the “novelty” of having its four main protagonists all be strong female characters, something we could do with more of. However, I found it very easy to watch and increasingly looked forward to each episode. I was quite disappointed when I came to the final episode, even though I knew this was all there was, particularly when that episode ended somewhat abruptly on a cliff-hanger.

I think the show deserved to continue. The viewing figures were certainly not fantastic and perhaps the demographic did not meet the requirements of the advertisers, which would seem to be one of the main concerns of American television networks. The show was unlucky to get caught up in the writer’s strike. When it went off air it undoubtedly lost momentum. It would seem that some problems existed behind the scenes – Craft and Fain were apparently fired from the show, explaining their absence from the final episodes. Perhaps the network decided it was going to be too hard to sell a show like this, without a male lead, to its target audience. Having said that, ‘Cold Case’, to use that example again, a police procedural with a female lead, is now in its sixth season. Of course, there is also the classic example of ‘Cagney & Lacey’, one of the great highpoints of this genre, although that was a long time ago and the landscape of American television has changed a lot since then.

Angie Harman was previously in ‘Baywatch Nights’ and 72 episodes of ‘Law & Order’. Laura Harris, who I like very much, played Daisy Adair in ‘Dead Like Me’. Aubrey Dollar, who I first came across in a cheesy but rather enjoyable made-for-television disaster movie called ‘Trapped’, was in the short-lived and much unloved ‘Point Pleasant’, a show I adore. Gerald McRaney, a veteran actor of many American television series, including the recent ‘Jericho’, played Lindsay Boxer’s father, a disgraced former policeman who had been drummed out of the force for corruption. Christopher Wiehl, who was also one of the cast of ‘Jericho’ and several years earlier had appeared in what remains my favourite episode in the first season of one of the most iconic of American television shows of the last twenty years, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, played the role of Tom Hogan in the unaired pilot episode. He was subsequently replaced by Rob Estes, who is now amongst the cast of ‘90210’. Ever Carradine, who played Heather Hogan, the new wife of Lindsay’s former husband Tom, is a member of the famous American acting family, the daughter of actor Robert Carradine.

Barbara Hall, the creator and executive producer of the wonderful ‘Joan of Arcadia’, was a consultant producer and wrote the second episode. Her previous credits include ‘Judging Amy’ and ‘Northern Exposure’.

Review posted 2 April 2009



...