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Reviews
Dredd (2012)
The Helmet stays on
Created in the 1970s on a diet of anti-heroes and Clint Eastwood's grizzled chin, Judge Joe Dredd patrols Mega City One dispensing justice as judge, jury and sometimes overly creative executioner. With the first film outing in 1995 an overstyled (to quote Clint from Heartbreak Ridge) 'clusterfuck'; this version had to distinguish itself from that Jean Paul Gaultier festival to hook back the fans.
Urban, starring as the main man, managed to do this well before release with the reveal that Dredd does in fact keep his helmet on. In a society that seems to revel in what gets taken off it's refreshing to see art that values restraint, reserve and the beauty of understatement.
This reserve does not extend to the violence. This is Mega City One as the spotty youth to which I belonged imagined it. It hurts the eye to watch the misery and cheap life flow through the cracks in the radiation-stained concrete one minute and experience the magical drug- filled bliss the next.
Through this world of pitiful contradiction Dredd strides like a constant. The man's presence is such that as his dialogue becomes ever more truncated, his impact increases to the extent he can deliver one liners without a word.
Alongside him is rookie judge Anderson (Thirlby): psychic and damaged, she is a perfect counterpoint for Dredd. With an earnest desire to 'make a difference' the struggle to reconcile her vision of justice with the absolutes of the world of 2000AD gives the film a depth that takes it beyond actioner and into social and moral commentary.
With a plot centred on Anderson's first and possibly last day on the job, her character is set directly against the deliciously deviant Lena Hedley as drug lord Ma Ma. Almost a mirror to each other, both characters are scarred by the nightmare future and pushed either side of the law.
Dredd occupies the centre: implacable, unreadable. Like Harry Callaghan before him, if we ever asked him why he did what he did, day after day, year after year, well, we'd never believe him if he told us.
Jeon Woochi (2009)
Time travelling wizard fights giant rabbits for the future of mankind...seriously
A film with time travelling Goblin Rabbits trying to steal a pipe that will
.I don't know what. This is Asian cinema at its best. A story built on eastern story telling. Young buck, wise old master, humorous sidekick (who may or may not be a dog of indeterminate gender) and a love interest with guts and gumption when needed most.
Following the apprentice Wizard Woochi (Don Wong-Kan) and his shape shifting Dogberry-esque friend Chorangyi and their hunt for the magic that will make Woochi's name and Chorangyi human.
Fight scenes of inventiveness that take the stylistic quirks of the later Matrix films and make them great, comedic timing and watch out for the reality of magic in the second act (21st century) as we find out what would really happen if you had to seek out a magic painting at two in the morning in downtown Pyongyang.
Betrayal, magic, drunken Taoist gods who can't seem to get anything right and a downbeat upbeat ending that wraps the film up in the brilliance of the eponymous hero's own imagination.
This is a film for teenagers, lovers of story and people who don't take themselves seriously.
Big bag of popcorn.
Magic Mike (2012)
Existential essay on manhood masquerading as a chick flick
OK. So I'm 6'10" and when dressed reasonably still resemble a badly shaved bear. I could not sneak in to Magic Mike, I could not duck under the covers, pull up a hoodie or hide under a parasol (not manly I know, but I was looking for an absurdist third).
I walked in with my head held high and in full understanding that by going to see Channing – is that a tree ? - Tatum for two hours I was paying my wife back for all the films I had dragged her to see over the last year (yes that includes Prometheus).
What I had failed to realise was three things. That Magic Mike is directed by Steven Soderbergh (yes the Director of 'Solaris' and producer of 'From a Scanner Darkly'), that the actors (Tatum included) can actually dance and pulled off some brilliant moves, and that it was, rather than being a film about the sausage fest that is the 'ladies night', a film about what it means to be a man. My contention is that Magic Mike is not a film for the ladies at all: it is squarely a film for the guys and one of my best of the year. (Suck on it Ridley.)
Set in Tampa, it follows part-time roofer and full-time stripper 'Magic' Mike (Channing Tatum) and new guy Adam (I'm sure actor Alex Pettyfer is a Brit, if so his yank accent is impeccable) and their experiences in the clubs. But where other directors would have either gone all 'Chicago' or worse 'Dogme', Soderbergh hits the fine line that produces an examination of what is most important in life, up there with films like 'Lost in Translation' and 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. More than this he explores what it means to be a man in the modern and traditional senses – where it chimes with the very best of modern cinema including the sublime 'Drive' and the Manic 13 Assassins.
I will say no more other than I recommend it for what it is, a well- directed, well-acted piece of drama that left me feeling lifted.
Take your wife this weekend!
Looper (2012)
Time travelling assassins run out of luck
Joe is a Looper. In the future when you want to disappear a body, back it goes in time to a desolate field in the deep mid-west to Joe and his blunderbuss. There he will blow a hole in the hapless rube before taking the pay strapped to their back.
And the pay is good but the price, as Joe finds, is even higher. When Joe fails to end his own future self a tsunami of organised criminality comes after him.
The film is clever and walks the fine line between standard fare and wrapping itself in its own smugness. The performances are touching at times and brutal in others. There are themes that get explored here for the first time in mainstream cinema that had all 6'10" of me wincing in a way I haven't experienced since Old Boy and the live octopus. The film asks the question 'What would you do to save the one you love?' The answers are extremes that creep up on you and the characters slowly as they are cut free of their own time.
It is genuinely original and there are elements you don't expect at. However fans of the new Sci-Fi wave will recognise a Deus ex Machina when they see one and while it does not flag you down in the first act, it certainly wolf whistles.
The film has more in common with another Willis vehicle, the trippy and ultimately circular 12 Monkeys than it does with the other summer Sci-Fi fare (please avoid Total Recall I beg you!). While it works and works well it could have been more. The bite of the Looper's cruelty is panned away from too often and the potential horrors of the future are only referenced in passing. This denies the audience the chance to really connect with the choice that has to be made.
In all a cerebral film that will certainly keep the conversation going past the starter on date night.
If you are still discussing it with your dessert I would respectfully suggest you were not paying close enough attention.
Total Recall (2012)
You've been here before...
There comes a time in every cinema goer's life when he realises despite the completely new actors, effects, concepts and plot line he has seen every inch of the movie before.
Total Recall is set in a future world where the earth (ruined by our stupidity as usual) is inhabited in Europe and Australia. However The United Federation of Britain (Europe) is the big boss, demanding workers from the Colony (Australia - Yes they actually call themselves that) to support their evil imperialist aims. Imagine Winston Churchill's dreams of British Empire crossed with futuristic cliché and you have the idea.
In the midst of this is a story about a man with two identities. Colin Farrell, married to Kate Beckinsale visits a company (Rekall) to give him memories he can return to in the squalor of his existence in the Colony. But his brain holds its own secrets and soon all hell is let loose as Farell scrambles across the remnants of society to discover the truth.
There are a few nice innovations and nods to the 1990 Paul Verhoeven classic. But the reboot misses a trick. The film is half as clever as it thinks it is, and it doesn't give itself that much credit. Beckinsale (star of lycrasmash Underworld) is dull, Farell looks lost, Jessica Biehl is stunning and Bill Nighy bemused by the whole affair.
It really does feel like a movie you've seen already despite all the innovation and the effect is quite disconcerting. It's a half marks and a must try harder. I recommend if you want a movie this week you take the other half for a good meal and wait for Dredd.