Film Shapes

Title - Gone Girl . Director - David Fincher. Main cast -  Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike. Genre - maybe mystery, thriller (?). These raisins were pretty much all I knew about this going into the cinema. And that's the best way to see this fine film. With no background at all. So, even though I'll try to avoid spoilers, I'd suggest not reading any more of this until you've seen the film. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Okay. So.....For fuck AND fuck's brother's sake as well. What a satisfying 'big' film. Very much against type for a studio picture. The performances are nicely tuned to the bi-polar nature of the story. Pike is superbly icy and unhinged. Affleck plays a more aggressive version of The Affleck but it's positioned in the sweet spot, almost like a Tendulkar cover drive. The supporting cast fill in the cracks with farce or pathos or whatever is required at any given point. Uniformly sound. Fincher himse...

This will be a brief write-up as I have to admit to a bit of 'Middle Earth fatigue'. In short The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is okay, a bit better than An Unexpected Journey and not as good as The Desolation of Smaug. I'd actually like to see one film with the Bilbo/Gollum face-off of the first and the titular battle of this one wedged into the second film somehow. Instead, we'll get extended versions, director's cuts, anniversary editions, blur, blah, blamph....... There were some nice touches - the 'battles within the Battle' featuring Legolas (Elf) vs Bolg (Orc) and Thorin (Dwarf) vs Azog (also Orc), as well as some grotesque 'war beasts' (basically huge Orcs with battering rams for heads or catapults on their backs. Visually very Jackson-esque. On the clumsy side - The character of Alfred from Laketown was an annoying prick and really changed the mood of the film (as well as being used for the same 'gag' a fe...

I like so many things about Interstellar that I'm quite willing to ignore or disregard the missteps. I don't care if the physics are a bit unlikely or inaccurate. I'm satisfied with the dumbing-down of some of the dialogue. Shit, I was even happy with the occasional clichéd 'cowboy' attitude of McConaughey's character. None of this bothered me at all during the film, and it's only since reading some reviews that I've come across the criticisms. In fact, the only problem I had with Interstellar was the ear-splitting volume of some of the audio (possibly a cinema issue). So maybe I should go over some of the positives. To begin with, this film had a great feel to it. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe simply the cinematography of Hoyte Van Hoytema was key. Maybe because it recalled some old sci-fi that I'm partial to ( Star Trek , 2001 , Silent Running , Hitchhiker's Guide , etc). Maybe the throwback music of Hans Zimmer. Not many fil...

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes picks up about 10 years after the end of Rise of the Planet of the Apes . Incidentally, I'd have thought a dawn would be before a rise , but there you go. There's quite a bit going on here. It opens with Caeser and his ape tribe (face paint and all) and stays with them for a good while before any pesky humans start stinking up the place. These pesky humans (Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, etc) don't compare very well to the apes, as far as holding the interest goes. They do compare in other ways, though, chiefly the fact that the human group mirrors the dynamics within the ape group. Without getting to technical, there's a liberal and a hawk on each 'team', and therein lies the drama. The performance capture technology is top drawer once again, but whereas in Rise it was gob-smackingly advanced, here in Dawn it might be taken for granted. In fairness, it's probably a little better and Andy Serkis d...

As the picture above suggests, Guardians of the Galaxy is a bit reminiscent of such films as Seven Samurai (and its remake, The Magnificent Seven ) and The Dirty Dozen . An unlikely bunch of misfits come together to fight something or somebody. Hatred and tension within the group leads to respect and friendship. Victory is achieved, albeit at some loss. This is not to undersell Guardians, though. It's a fun film with many things to like about it. It reminded me of Firefly and Serenity , especially the costumes and the design of the spaceships and planet vistas - the giant floating skull of 'Knowhere' is a stand-out. It's also a nice coincidence that Nathan Fillion (Mal in Firefly ) has a pretty funny cameo. Most of the humour in Guardians works. Not too esoteric (though I missed the joke about 'baby gravy') or American focussed, even the 1980s cultural references fit the lead character's situation. The lines are played straight and Chris Pratt h...

Or as some wag writing in to the BBC's film review show put it - Saving Private Groundhog. Wish I'd though of that. The similarity to Groundhog Day is pretty clear but it doesn't lose anything for it. Someone was going to re-use that high-concept conceit and I'm pretty glad it was a Sci-Fi film and not some dodgy rom-com or something (Richard Curtis missed a trick here - though About Time treads similar ground). In fact, here in Japan they've gone with the name of the original manga book, All You Need is Kill . Wait, what? Kill can be used as a noun, can't it? Good enough for me. Apparently the book differs slightly in that the protagonist is a raw recruit, not the cowardly press officer that Cruise plays in the film. If you have Cruise, you have to fit the part to him, not t'other way round, but this works as the character has a pretty curvy arc. A word about Mr. Cruise. He's not terrible here. I'm not his biggest fan and he did his signat...

I managed to see the newest X-Men film, Days of Future Past just before the World Cup kicked off. And if my memory serves me correctly, this is my third favourite, after X-Men and X-Men: First Class. It starts with a nice showcasing of some new mutants - Blink takes the gold here - being torn new ones by robotty fellas called Sentinels. The overall pace is fairly sprightly and blends the typical three act structure of super-hero films better than most. Much has been made of the lack of a smashy-smashy finale but I liked the more thoughtful climax. The cheeky decision to all but remove Wolverine from many of the action scenes shows massive brass balls, as he is pretty much the main draw in these films, especially when he gets to slice some muthas. There's quite a lot of Mystique in this film. This works well enough as a MacGuffin of sorts, but I couldn't help thinking this may have been more due to the fact that the writers and director needed to give Jennifer Lawren...

A rainy morning/afternoon meant I had the chance to slip away to the cinema to catch the second part of the Hobbit trilogy in Kobe. Now that I've seen two of these films, I think I've come to the conclusion that I'm a bit dwarfist. Not in reality, of course. Some of my best friends are dwarves. And Tyrion Lannister is the business. But in these films I have found myself wanting that lot off screen. Martin Freeman as Bilbo - great, more please. Sir Ian as Gandalf - say no more. Even Orlando "Legoman" Bloom as Legolas was fine. But I'm terribly underwhelmed by the dwarves. I hope this is due to the rather one-dimensionality of the characters and not a deeply hidden mistrust of the wee folk. Time will tell, I suppose. I still think this film had too much dwarf action and not enough Hobbit (or Gandalf. Or Smaug. Or even Galadriel. And don't get me started on the dearly absent Gollum). Thirteen dwarves is about ten too many I reckon. Of course it's fai...

So here are the ten best films I saw in 2013. These may have been new films last year or they may just have been first time viewings for me. I'll start with the ten best from July 1st 2013 (following on from the mid-year report ) and then an amalgamated yearly top ten. From July 1st 1. Captain Phillips (2013) 2. Rust and Bone (2012) 3. The World's End (2013) 4. Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013) 5. The Raid: Redemption (2011) 6. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) 7. Silver Linings Playbook (2012) 8. World War Z (2013) 9. Gravity (2013) 10. Carancho (2010) All Year 1. Captain Phillips (2013) 2. Rust and Bone (2012) 3. The World's End (2013) 4. Wish You Were Here (2012) 5. Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013) 6. The Raid: Redemption (2011) 7. The Imposter (2012) 8. We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011) 9. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) 10. Silver Linings Playbook (2012) As for the dregs, I'll just list the ten worst films I saw in 2013. No pictu...