nickname1 Reviews

Salt (I) (2009)

Surprisingly enjoyable

[7/10 · 21 July 2011]

I had no idea what I was going to see, so a photographer's journey towards the centre of Lake Eyre in Australia wasn't what I expected.

However, the film has a good narrative, and enough time-lapses of the night/day sky to satisfy many of my wanderlust dreams.

It was interesting to see various items of (undoubtedly expensive) modern photographic paraphernalia being deployed around the camp site, as well as the surreal plaque like surface of the lake with white crystalline salt forced up between the edges of the (slightly darker) horizontal salt plaques.

The pay-off of the entire film are the images that were produced in this expedition (and a couple of others) - breathtakingly good.

All things considered, an uplifting documentary!

Rififi (1955)

Memorably good French film noir

[9/10 · 4 January 2011]

To satisfy the 10 lines minimum, the plot of the film is of an ex-convict who is recruited to participate in a jewel robbery. He revises the plan, and his team participate in an imaginative and daring heist. The robbery is, unfortunately, merely the precursor to the remainder of the film. In my opinion, the film qualifies as a film noir because of the plot twists after the robbery scene is portrayed. I'd never heard of any of the actors who played the major roles - which is a pity, as they all appeared to play well together. The film as a whole is a delight to watch, although knowing all the time that 'crime will not allowed to pay' (as in ?all? heist films prior to 'The Hot Rock'). 50s Paris was a definite bonus, as were the semi-flattened Citroens that everybody seemed to drive.

9 out of 10. At least.

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Amusing sardonic film with acerbic characters, sparkling dialogue & real BITE

[9/10 · 16 October 2010]

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS I've heard of this film for a long time but caught it on late night TV. What a revelation! A very youthful Tony Curtis plays an immoral publicity agent, Sidney Falco. In between hustling for additional clients and attempting to satisfy those who have already paid him, he attempts to keep his star client J.J. Hunsecker (played by Burt Lancaster) happy. Unfortunately Hunsecker is both extremely (and, improbably, increasingly) demanding throughout the film, as well as remarkably disparaging to Falco and other players.

Falco himself is (initially) entertainingly manipulative, but the film seems to spiral beyond humour about 90 minutes in. Most of the main players either get their (just?) deserts or escape their oppressive lives, in a sour finale that almost seems more appropriate to a film noir. Maybe the film never achieved the success that (I think that) it deserved because of this perceived change in focus, from cheerful humour to extremely cynical manipulation.

Immediate memories of the film? I've never seen Tony Curtis playing such a youthful character, and I've never seen Burt Lancaster play ANYTHING half as good as J.J. Hunsecker. The dialogue (from the main and minor players) also 'felt' real. 9 out of 10. V Good.

Brazil (1985)

Nightmarish, upsetting, unmissable

[9/10 · 21 February 2010]

I re watched this film today for the first time since 1985 & it hasn't lost its power to shock and disturb. Other reviewers have broadly summarised the plot, which is basically unambitious bureaucrat sees the girl of his dreams, accepts a promotion to a different department to trace her and associates himself with individuals who have been designated terrorists by the administration.

He is sucked into ever deeper trouble by relatively small decisions. Many reviewers have called the film a portrayal of a dystopian future. That is not true - when the film was released in the UK Gilliam described it as 'set on the Los Angeles/Belfast border' in the current time. (I don't know what LA was like then but parts of Northern Ireland were riven by urban terrorism complete with bombings and British Army snatch squads in armoured Land Rovers trying to sweep up terrorists and their support networks.)

As an aside, I recall that many of the locations used existing buildings, be they huge silos (the Records Office set was built under the hoppers of one facility), a dismal council tower block complex located where Disneyland Paris is now (the Buttles' home), the inside of a cooling tower (used for the interrogation sequences) or even Her Majesty's Stationery Office (used for 2 weeks to film the flight sequences). There is a lot of dark humour in the film - and satire at what Britain was like then (e.g. 'Central Services' lampooning the state controlled monopolies and the pneumatic tubes & ducts that were still present in some department stores and offices).

In conclusion the film has aged well. But it's still disturbing, in in parts downright scary.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Amazing fun

[8/10 · 24 January 2010]

I saw this film recently with friends of my generation and loved it. We agreed that we wished we'd seen it in a cinema rather than at home.

Tonight I watched it again with my mother (aged 69). Amazingly she repeatedly described it as 'excellent', and was riveted throughout it.

The film really does suck you in, and although occasionally brutal, the more violent scenes are short and sharp. There are several scenes which are full of suspense.

We were amazed by the large proportion of the film spoken in German/French - it's a long time since I have seen such a mainstream 'foreign language' film.

Although an (almost?) total re imagining of WW2, I've found the film to be surprisingly authentic in (minor) details - and I loved the (fifth) part set in a cinema. I understand that WW2 German cinema & Russian propaganda was focused towards 'sniperism', and other details also appeared to ring true.

All told, an amusing and captivating tale. None of the major details are true, but it was the best Sunday evening's viewing we've seen in quite a while!

The Prisoner (2009)

Well I thought that it was OK!

[6/10 · 9 January 2010]

The 2009 incarnation of 'The Prisoner' shares common plot elements with the 1967 original, and even the episode titles are based on episodes from the original. However the latest version is sufficiently different to be worth while watching. The cast is also passable, though Ian McKellen outshines the other cast members by at least one order of magnitude.

I was surprised to see the negative reviews other viewers have left. I thought that there was subtlety in the performances, although once again McKellen is the best at portraying it. I'm not fantastically fond of all the episodes in the original series, so maybe I was more receptive to a re imagination than reviewers who treasure the original highly.

Dark Water (2002)

Very disappointing

[2/10 · 4 February 2006]

I was told that this film was similar to The Ring, and made by the same director. Well, The Ring was pretty scary but this film never seemed to get started at all.

With very few exceptions this film was totally unscary and seemed to relate a divorcée's domestic arrangements. (The very few moments of tension were quite untense too.) I'm usually pretty scared by most horror/ghost films but this one totally failed to frighten. Also, the 'creepy environment' would have been fairly familiar to quite a lot of council tenants.

In conclusion I recommend potential viewers to avoid this film.

Judge Dredd (1995)

Appalling film adaptation of superior comic strip

[4/10 · 5 April 2004]

This film was a poor adaptation of the '2000AD' comic strip and had an awful script. It's difficult to appear 2 dimensional compared with a comic strip character but Sylvester Stallone managed it. The film was devoid of humour and human interest - why didn't they just cover what Dredd did in a duty shift? That's how the comic garnered readers.The only things worth seeing in the film were the depiction of MegaCity1 aerial & streetscapes, the block war at the start & the ABC warrior ('Hammerstein' without his hammer). Seldom has a robot upstaged human actors! >> A V O I D <<.

For devoted Dredd fans maybe someone will make a cartoon film that does him justice - and alows him to keep his hat on all the time!

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Good Disney film but only a Disney film

[4 February 2004]

I saw this recently & was impressed by (some of) the acting, dialogue & special effects. J Depp is prominent mainly because O Bloom's acting is very weak. The film's much better than most Disney fare & might actually be spoken of in the same breath as 20000 leagues under the sea. Some of the humour appears to be aimed at adults and practically all actors at least attempt non American accents (except for Zoe Saldana, who presumably couldn't manage one). All things considered, it's a good Disney film (but it's still only a Disney film).

Spirited Away (2001)

'Spirited Away' is an exceptionally good animation.

[9/10 · 29 September 2003]

'Spirited Away' is a Japanese film, and is available in the UK in dubbed & subtitled versions. I saw the subtitled film and (with the exception of occasional gaps & pauses in the subtitling) I judge it to be the best animation since Akira, or possibly even Pinnoccio. The storyline is (in outline) no more incredible than most anime, but the film excels because it is bursting with unusual ideas. The imaginative imagery is wedded with fine, detailed animation and evocative music. Some parts of the film (chases/drives through foliage/flowers/within the bath-house) are exceptionally detailed and visually striking. There are (thankfully few) portions of the film soundtrack that suffer an outbreak of a Richard Clayderman-esque piano composition (IMO), but generally the sound supports the animation well and the animation was continually stimulating and moving. I give this (original film with subtitles) 9 OUT OF 10.

The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983)

Great stuff!

[10/10 · 12 August 2003]

It's funny & imaginative, as everyone else has mentioned. However almost no-one else has mentioned that the film was intensely satirical when it came out - practically everything in it captured the zeitgeist in London at the start of the 80s, from the flapping sacking around office buildings being refurbished to the wholesale layoffs/business closures. Maybe irrelevant to the casual viewer but IMO it's the most political Gilliam film that I've seen. Incidentally I believe that the building used in the exterior shots is Loundes House - still standing just north of Finsbury Square in the City of London.

Der Lauf der Dinge (1987)

Amusing & distracting popular science demo

[11 August 2003]

WARNING - SPOILERS :-)

This ~20 minute film records the progress of a series of energy transfers between familiar objects (kinetic, thermal, electrical, chemical). It will be familiar to anyone who has seen the Honda 'Cog' advert except that that sequence used mainly kinetic energy transfers. (Apparently the advert is 'inspired by' the film but not based on it).

It's amusing but not jaw-droppingly attention-grabbing to anyone who's already seen 'Cog'. Unfortunately it's rather repetitive and slow by comparison with 'Cog', but it was first and had a zero budget instead of Cog's 6 million pound one.

I still like 'The Way things go' though as it does have very nice touches (rocket powered and arrested burning car tyres!)and is probably the most entropic cross between 'Mousetrap' and toppling rows of dominos imaginable.

Dog Soldiers (2002)

Well, _I_ thought that it was the best action film I've seen in ages.

[9/10 · 26 July 2003]

I saw this film last night at a friend's house and was very impressed, despite not liking horror/suspense films.

The things that I liked included

1) Characters that were very plausible (the soldiers that is :-) ). 2) With few exceptions no character behaved brainlessly or made laughably crass decisions. (It seems that horror films always require a few bad choices to bring on the plot but this film wasn't packed with them.) 3) Action/humour/nice plot twists (esp the female character's role). I am still recalling nice little twists and lines 24 hours after seeing it. 4) REALLY nice to see a film with British characters, British humour, regional accents & colloquial slang. I'm not anti-American but watching a film without any 'foreign accents' was refreshing.

I see that most reviewers here mention American Werewolf in London/Night of the living dead/Assault on Precinct 13 and occasionally Zulu. It also reminded me of Southern Comfort insofar as a fractured but fairly cohesive band of highly trained and heavily armed men take on the great outdoors and its denizens.

I liked this film & maybe you will too.

The League of Gentlemen (1960)

Unforgettable British Post-War Melodrama with bite

[10 March 2002]

This 1959 (or 1960) film shares the same title as the 1990's comedy about weird northern folk, but is a far more savage satire of decay in the establishment.

A redundant Colonel recruits a unit of marginally more corrupted subordinate Army officers, to stage an American Style heist, based on a US pulp fiction novel. Very few of the characters would initially be associated with the establishment. Their past failings include treason, war-crimes and negligence resulting in deaths.

Jack Hawkins (Colonel Hyde) knits the characters together over the course of the film. By reinventing a form of army discipline the characters appear to rediscover their aplomb.

The actual robbery is almost incidental, occupying ~ 10% of the film.

My real fascination was with the development and interaction of the characters. Even 40 years on their callousness is at times shocking and the 'Blame Ireland' example of scapegoating still resonates, especially in the context of the characters' personal failures in other theatres of the ex-empire.

The film is nearly 2 hours long, but seemed much shorter. Post war film of the City of London (and elsewhere) before 60s redevelopment is a bonus.