Sin City

...

Rating 3


Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller

“Special Guest Director” Quentin Tarantino

Written by Frank Miller

Starring Bruce Willis (John Hartigan), Mickey Rourke (Marv), Clive Owen (Dwight McCarthy), Jessica Alba (Nancy Callahan), Jaime King (Goldie / Wendy), Brittany Murphy (Shellie), Rosario Dawson (Gail), Nick Stahl (Yellow Bastard), Elijah Wood (Kevin), Rutger Hauer (Cardinal Patrick Henry Roark), Powers Boothe (Senator Roark), Benicio del Torro (Jack ‘Jackie Boy’ Rafferty), Alexis Bledel (Becky), Devon Aoki (Miho), Michael Madsen (Bob), Makenzie Vega (Nancy Callahan, as a child) and Josh Hartnett (The Salesman)


In Basin City John Hartigan, an aging police detective with a heart condition, tries to rescue a young girl from a notorious and sadistic serial killer, Marv goes after the killers of a prostitute, having been framed for her murder and Dwight McCarthy gets involved in gang warfare between the prostitutes in Old Town and a gang of mercenaries after the killing of a “hero” police officer.

...


‘Sin City’ is a 2005 film based on a noir graphic novel series written and drawn by Frank Miller, specifically ‘The Customer Is Always Right’, ‘The Hard Goodbye’, ‘The Big Fat Kill’ and ‘That Yellow Bastard’. It also draws on ‘A Dame to Kill For’, which Miller has indicated will be the basis of a planned sequel. Miller’s other work includes ‘Batman: The Dark Knight Returns’ and ‘300’, which was adapted into a film in 2007 and grossed in excess of $456 million at the box office. I have next to no interest in comic books (or graphic novels) and had very little knowledge of Frank Miller’s work prior to the film’s release.

The film was made using a digital backlot. The actors worked in front of a green screen and artificial computer-generated backgrounds were inserted afterwards. This is not an uncommon technique and it was not the first time it had been used on this scale – another obvious example is ‘Sky Captain and the People of Tomorrow’, released the previous year. The film’s use of black and white cinematography with isolated splashes of colour has been much commented on, but again it is not new. ‘Pleasantville’ in 1998 used a similar trick and, in fact, the influence of the classic 1946 Powell and Pressberger film ‘A Matter of Life and Death’ might be mentioned. The film does have a striking stylistic quality, intended, I assume, to replicate the original comics, although I found that the novelty wore off very quickly.

The proliferation of very graphic and highly stylised violence contained in the film has been much discussed. While it might be tempting to be momentarily in favour of a sadistic paedophile serial rapist and killer having his genitals ripped off, It isn’t shocking or provocative or thought-provoking, compelling or exciting; it’s just incredibly bland and boring. The film is around two hours long and seemed a lot longer to me because I quickly lost interest in the stylised presentation and mind-numbingly boring violence.

The film seems to be making a statement about the treatment of women within society – all the female characters are femme fatales who are invariably brutalised in some shape or form. However, I could not help but think it took too much delight in this depiction and was doing nothing more than pandering to and perpetuating the most reprehensible of fanboy fantasies. Just like the depiction of violence, it seemed to me that the filmmakers enjoyed the idea of women being brutalised just a little too much, although I am undoubtedly biased because of my generally disinterested reaction to the film and probably a long way off the mark.

‘The Faculty’, the 1998 Robert Rodriguez horror film inspired by ‘The Puppet Masters’ and ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, is a favourite film of mine, but I have not particularly liked any of the other films of his I have seen (I haven’t seen the ‘Spy Kids’ films or ‘Planet Terror’). I don’t really like Quentin Tarantino, who Rodriguez has frequently collaborated with and who directs a scene from the ‘The Big Fat Kill’ section here – admittedly, one of the scenes that most stood out for me.

‘Sin City’ is undoubtedly attention-grabbing, up to a point, and I imagine very successful in what it sets out to do. I didn’t particularly enjoy it and although it is clearly quite clever and, perhaps, adventurous, I did not find it especially appealing, despite having a interesting cast and one or two notable performances. It has a 77% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 230 reviews and grossed a little under $159 million at the box office against a production budget of $40 million.

Review posted 13 September 2009



...

The Eye (2008)

...

Rating 1½


Directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud

Written by Sebatian Gutierrez, based on an original screenplay by Oside Pang Chun, Danny Pang and Jo Jo Yuet-chun Hui

Starring Jessica Alba, Alessandro Nivola, Parker Posey, Rade Serbedzija, Fernanda Romero, Rachel Ticotin and Chloë Grace Moretz


Blind classical violinist Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba) has a cornea transplant and regains her sight. When she begins to see disturbing images and suffer from terrifying hallucinations, she persuades her initially disbelieving therapist Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola) to help her to find the truth behind her visions.

...


This is a 2008 American remake of the acclaimed 2002 Pang Brothers film ‘Gin gwai’. It adheres closely to the plot of that film, but it is almost tempting to surmise that the screenwriter and directors have deliberately sucked the meaning and purpose out of each and every scene. Particularly galling is the horribly tweaked climax to the film.

Jessica Alba is an actress I don’t find especially interesting on screen, although I have no strong opinions one way or the other. I had previously seen her in a handful of episodes of ‘Dark Angel’, a television series I never took to, and in the ‘Fantastic Four’ films. I liked the first one, although I wasn’t particularly struck by her performance. Here, she is okay, but her acting feels flat and rather detached to me, not that the uninspired quality of the film helps very much.

Remakes are often a problem, especially when compared to an obviously superior original. ‘Pulse’ is another recent example of a fairly dire American remake. Having said that, not all remakes are worthless. ‘The Ring’ worked well and, contrary to most of the reviews, I thought so too did ‘The Grudge’, which was directed by the original Japanese director. John Carpenter’s original 1980 version of ‘The Fog’ is my favourite horror film, but I enjoyed the 2005 remake, even if I don’t make any claims for it. The problem with ‘The Eye’ is that it singularly fails to reproduce the aura of sadness and melancholia and hope and fear and alienation and dread and resignation that made the original such an interesting story. In its place it gives us nothing.

‘The Eye’ has a 22% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 74 reviews. It grossed just under $57 million at the box office against a production budget claimed to have been in the region of $12 million.

Review posted 13 February 2009

...

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

…

Rating 2½


Directed by Tim Story

Written by Mark Frost, Don Payne and John Turman, from the original Marvel comic books written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis and Julian McMahon


This reminds me of the second ‘Scooby Doo’ film. The first one, like ‘Fantastic Four’, was silly and likeable and didn’t take itself too seriously. The sequel, however, doesn’t seem to quite know what to do and ends up just ladling on a whole lot of extra special effects, at the expense of most of the things that made the first film so surprisingly good.

The story is okay – and for once London actually looks reasonably authentic, as opposed to the laughable parody we are usually treated to. The Silver Surfer is quite effective. Not being a comic book reader, I am not affected by whether or not he is an accurate portrayal of the original comic book character. Once again, Jessica Alba’s acting didn’t overwhelm me. Maybe I am being overly critical.

I quite enjoyed it, but I don’t think I would rush to watch a third film, if one were in the offing.



…

Fantastic Four

…

Rating 3½


Directed by Tim Story

Written by Mark Frost and Michael France, based on the Marvel comic books written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis and Julian McMahon


I rented this film on a whim. I have no interest in comic books and the genre simply leaves one massive gap or black hole in my thinking. Equally, I have minimal interest in films based on comic book superheroes, although I have somehow ended up watching quite a few – and even enjoying one or two of them.

One of the advantages of having no interest in comic books is that I can approach a film like ‘Fantastic Four’ with no particular pre-conceived ideas about how the characters should be portrayed, how they should look, what the film should look like, how the story should be told, etc. None of that can be a disappointment to me because I don’t know from squat.

I recently watched ‘Hellboy’ when it was shown on television and I was quite taken by its sardonic wit. I am not trying to compare ‘Fantastic Four’ to that film, but once again, I was quite taken by the humour. The story struck me as being typical of the genre, superpowers thrust upon a group of people in extraordinary circumstances, angst about what has happened and alienation from society, the fight between good and evil, but it was all dealt with nicely, not too slow and not too frenetic. The acting is fine and I rather like Michael Chiklas in the role of Ben Grimm / The Thing.

My only prior knowledge of Jessica Alba’s work was the TV show ‘Dark Angel’, which I watched a few times, but never really took to. I didn’t think she displayed any special talent as an actor. It’s the same here. Her main attribute is that she is an obviously very attractive young woman. It’s not a criticism. I don’t find her dislikeable by any means and she certainly isn’t a ‘bad’ actor, unlike, say, Elizabeth Hurley, who seems to me to be entirely bereft of any acting ability whatsoever. Alba’s performance is decent enough and does not in any way take away from the film.

Mark Frost, one of the writers, was the co-creator of ‘Twin Peaks’ with David Lynch and wrote five episodes of that groundbreaking show.



…