markmartin2305 Reviews

Angel Heart (1987)

A sublimely powerful, menacing and brooding film.

[10/10 · 21 March 2009]

So many fine reviews of this film and so good to see that the appreciation of what makes it great, runs so deep.

It creates a fantastic atmosphere, I never lived in NY in the 50's but I did in this film.

It generates intense visceral fear without the need for gratuitous violence or gore.

It has great performances from De Niro, Rourke and Bonet. Sublime portrayals of sinister brooding evil, edgy sleazy guilt, and powerful yet vulnerable beauty, respectively.

The plot, and the tension, build relentlessly to the cataclysmic ending with (for my money) the greatest piece of cinematic imagery I have ever seen. In keeping with the film it is understated, and IMO devastatingly chilling.

If other reviewers haven't mentioned it then I would like to encourage fans of this film to read William Hjortsberg's Fallen Angel on which the film was based.

Its a great book and despite the fact that, having watched the film, you know the ending it still slams into you like a steam train.

Great book, great film.

The Hide (2008)

An interesting, different and suspenseful film

[8/10 · 2 March 2009]

I watched this film tonight without any expectation and ended up very pleased by it.

It is different and eccentric, wonderfully atmospheric, a little slow to build, but delivers a splendid denouement.

It is certainly not a film for those who want pyrotechnics and prestidigitation.

It is dark, contains some excellent use of language, and some very funny (though admittedly obscurely so) moments.

The "twist" can be seen some little way off but that does not detract from the enjoyment of it and of the film - and the very best is saved for the very last piece of dialogue and really does drive the plot home. Sure I saw what was coming, but I didn't understand it to THAT extent.

In summary if you are WOWED/DULLED* by Hollywood's ever more SMART/CRASS* outpourings then this film IS CERTAINLY NOT/MOST CERTAINLY IS* for you.

* delete as appropriate.

Sweeney! (1977)

Cheers Guv'nor

[8/10 · 29 October 2005]

A no frills film in keeping with the series, the genre and the time.

This is a film about edgy London police in an edgy London in the edgy 70's. You could of course substitute "edgy" for "dodgy" in the above sentence and it would still be true...

For those of us around in the 70's it, like the series, is fantastically atmospheric. The hair, the clobber (look out for Regan's green anorak), the boozers, the motors, the women.

The plot is far less important than the characters who are all superb, and a particular mention for the young (and very beautiful) Diane Keen, and to a lesser extent Linda Bellingham - whose nudity makes you look at those OXO adverts very differently (or it would if they were still on) The film also gives some extra scope to the relationship between Regan & Carter, and there are some edgy moments between the 2, starting with their morning-after-the-night-before and culminating in the dramatic ending and indeed the film's last words. One of the many things I liked about the Sweeney was its realism and how it didn't portray its main characters as heroes but showed their dark sides and their failures.

I loved the TV Sweeney, for me John Thaw's (God rest his soul) Regan is one of, if not the, best TV characters of all time and this is an appropriate and very satisfying movie length "episode" Hollywood it ain't guv'nor, and for me thats what makes it the boll***s.