seamuss Reviews

Die Champions (2003)

"Don't put your daughter on the stage, Mrs. Worthington"

[22 December 2003]

.... or on the football pitch, if this depiction of four young hopefuls trying to forge football careers at Borussia Dortmund is any guide. This film is about how making a successful career in football is incredibly fickle. Often depressing viewing, particularly the way all four contenders - even the one who was very very good and got into the first team - became visibily disillusioned. The happy, floppy-haired Chilean, bounching about pretending to be Marcelo Salas (to his coach's voiceover of "Claudio thinks he's going to be Salas .. he isn't far from being Salas, he's light years away") - by the end of the film getting gradually more obese, moping miserably around the Jugendhaus. The driven Mohamed, Ghanaian and determined to make it, whose decline started when he came back from Mecca one week into training camp, provoking another stern coachly outburst ("he must learn football is more important than religion") - again gradually phased out. Francis Bugri, the really really really good one (as you could tell by the way he tracked back in training early one) - shy, unassuming, hardworking and on the Borussia first team - and then cometh Sammer (as coach) and, in short order, injury and "The 25 Million Mark Man" Rosicky. And Heiko, half German half Thai, who ends up resigning and gets a soccer scholarship to the US (the film spends a bit too much time following him after he drops out)

Francis Bugri couldn't have completely dropped out of football - he must be playing somewhere in Germany?

If it ended after an hour, it might have been a feelgood flick, but Die Champions is a very well made portrayal of broken dreams.

Analyze That (2002)

The Concept swings low

[4 March 2003]

The rise of the producing team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, Flashdance and sundry other subtle works exploring the deepest secrets of the human heart) in the 1980s introduced the High Concept movie - one whose premise and entire raison d'être could be summed up in a single sentence, preferably referring to other hit movies – for example Days of Thunder was `Top Gun with cars.' 1999's Analyse This may have been a High Concept movie – Mafia Don Sees Shrink With Hilarious Results – but it had a lightness of touch that made it seem less like a focus-group product and more like an offbeat little comedy.

Unfortunately for Analyse That, the success of The Sopranos has made Mafioso-psychiatrist relations almost as much a cliché as two cops, one steady and by the book and the other an impulsive maverick, who initially hate each other but bond over the course of several gun battles. More fundamentally, the concept of Analyse This hasn't been taken any further. There could be some entertainment to be had when Robert de Niro's character takes a job as an advisor on `Little Caesar', a Mafia-themed TV drama, but the main joke is that the actor playing the Don is an Australian. It struck me that both actors who played Don Corleone in The Godfather series have now taken the mickey out of the mafia – Brando in The Freshman and now de Niro in the Analyse This and That series (if there's a sequel, what will it be called? Analyse The Other?)

Lisa Kudrow is grossly underused – one gets the feeling that much of her part ended up on the cutting room floor. Both Crystal and de Niro are pretty good (this is called `damning with faint praise' in the trade, if you're wondering) There are some pleasing shots of New York, and David Holmes' soundtrack has its moments (although is nothing to his work for Ocean's Eleven or Out of Sight) Analyse That is not a bad film, just a rather forgettable one. Puts the `sleep' into `sleeps with the fishes.'

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

the triumph of lightness

[4 March 2003]

Since Schindler's List, Stephen Spielberg has felt compelled to make Important Movies. Thus the portentous likes of AI and Minority Report have bored moviegoers worldwide. Spielberg' s latest is thankfully more playful than his recent work. And unlike some of his previous films, its less manipulative of the emotions than usual. Ironically Catch Me If You Can's lightness and lack of manipulativeness make its more emotional moments much more effective. Partly this is due to John Williams' soundtrack; usually Spielberg's in-house composer writes rather formulaic orchestra-driven music, but marimbas and glockenspiels and other percussion instruments lead the breezy theme here.

Both AI and Minority Report went on far too long; both could have ended at a point where it was logical and satisfying but chose to carry on and on and on. Catch Me If You Can only possesses this fault of Spielberg's recent work to some extent; the film might have ended ten minutes earlier to no particular disadvantage. It tells the story of Frank Abagnale Junior (di Caprio), son of his namesake upright pillar of the community father (played by Christopher Walken, in one of his less psychotic roles), who runs away from home rather than confront his parents divorce. He learns that forging cheques and impersonating airline pilots and other professionals is much easier than it seems. All it takes is audacity. Inevitably, Abagnale draws the attention of plodding, methodical FBI man Hanratty (Hanks), the FBI's one passionate believer in the importance of cheque fraud.

The opening credits resemble nothing so much as the cover of a 1960s paperback. In a way Catch Me If You Can is a film about the Sixties, but a Sixties slightly different from the image we have of it. Both Abagnale and Hanratty are touched by broken marriages, his parents in the case of Abagnale, his own for the older man. Aside from a few brief references, Vietnam and student radicalism and LSD might as well not exist.

Some might see this as Spielberg closing his eyes to reality, but for me it more accurately reflects what the Sixties must have been like for the great mass of people who actually lived through them. It reminds us that for most people (at least most people who didn't go on to lucrative media careers in which they could endlessly revisit their preoccupations) the Sixties weren't about fashionable radicalism and rioting but a decade where they got on with their lives as most people generally do; working, living, getting married etc. Or in Frank Abagnale Junior's case, impersonating doctors and lawyers and airline pilots and passing fraudulent cheques.

Adaptation. (2002)

Pure cinematic joy

[2 March 2003]

Adaptation.

Once I was trying to write a short story and was stuck. The old advice to budding writers `write about what you know' came to mind, and what I knew about at the time was a budding writer trying to think of an idea for a story. So I began to write a story about a budding writer who was stuck and began to write a story about a budding writer who was stuck and began to write about … you get the picture. There were various other twists, by the way, if that summary sounded exceptionally boring (you don't think I'm going to reveal them here, do you?). But I abandoned the story, because of the ridiculous belief that fiction should be about Emotions and Great Themes and The Famine and Difficulties With Girls.

Adaptation is the best film of the year so far and made me wish I stuck with my story. It is manages to be intricate and amazingly clever but also, through not even trying, moving and emotionally true. It begins on the set of Being John Malkovich with a (real) out-take of Malkovich ordering the crew to cut the dead time between takes. The camera follows various real-life figures from the Being John Malkovich set, finally focussing on `George Kaufmann', the screenwriter of (he really was) who is played by Nicholas Cage.

The George of Adaptation is a neurotic bag of self-loathing and doubt, hired to adapt New Yorker writer Susan Orlean's elegiac, and apparently action-free, tale of orchid obsession The Orchid Thief. George's happy-go-lucky/annoying (delete according to taste) twin brother Donald (also played, naturally, by Cage) decides to become a screenwriter too and becomes a devotee of a screenwriting guru, much to George's initial disdain. I don't want to give away anymore of the plot, as much of the joy of the film lies in the brilliant way it perfectly predicts itself and contains itself, the way the Adaptation of the title refers not only to adapting a book into a film but to Darwinian natural selection, to personal change, and most dizzyingly of all to the film itself.

Reality and the world of the film merge confusingly; for example the screenwriting credit goes to `George and Donald Kaufmann, adapted from the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean'. Characters within the film talk about their portrayal in the script and constantly wonder who will play themselves. Oddly, despite its cleverness the structure of the film is actually quite linear, aside from flashbacks that are more traditional than they seem. And for all its avant garde, mess-with-your-head aspects, Adaptation gives the same kinetic rush of joy as Singin' in the Rain and Bringing Up Baby. It manages to be hip and vastly thought-provoking while `having a heart' in the most unsentimental and least manipulative way possible. In the end one has to stop writing and lay it on the line: see this film now, five times at least.

Love's Labour's Lost (2000)

Song for Swingin' Lovers

[7 February 2001]

In Kenneth Branagh's latest Shakespeare adaptation, Alessandro Nivola stars as the King of Navarre, an enthusiastic chap who vows to devote himself to a life of study and self-denial (including the injunction not to look at any women) for three years. Two of his friends, Dumaine (Adrian Lester) and Longaville (Matthew Lilliard) follow his lead without much reflection. Only Berowne (Kenneth Branagh) urges them to think twice about their ascetic course of action, before joining in with less of an idealistic spirit.

Inevitably enough, the Princess of France (Alicia Silverstone) and her ladies are coming for a conference. Not only does this cause the boys problems with their vows not to see women, everything is further complicated when all concerned fall in love. The plot is eminently predictable from then on.

Alicia Silverstone may seem a surprising cast choice, but then again this world of flirting and flightiness isn't all that far from the world of Clueless (a Jane Austen adaptation after all) The cast also features Broadway star Nathan Lane as a sly clown, Timothy Spall as a ridiculous yet romantic aristocrat, and Richard Briers and Geraldine McEwan as two elderly tutors who nevertheless prove that love can affect hearts of all ages.

The classic songs from the likes of Cole Porter and the Gershwins include "The Way You Look Tonight", "Cheek to Cheek", "There's No Business Like Show Business", "I Get a Kick Out of You" and most memorably and movingly "They Can't Take That Away From Me." At first the songs seem strangely artificial; when Nivola and his three chums launch into "I'd Rather Charleston" in the opening scene it seems to come from nowhere. But as the film goes on the songs seem more natural and complement the action. Love's Labour's Lost is widely regarded as one of Shakespeare's weakest plays and Branagh has cut and condensed the action wholesale (a stark contrast to his brilliant full-length, four-hour adaptation of Hamlet)

This certainly isn't gritty urban realism or an existential trip into the heart of darkness. But if you love the glamour, wit and style of old-style Hollywood, and the classic songs from the era, then this is the film for you.

Mansfield Park (1999)

amusing, less radical than its publicity might suggest

[7 February 2001]

Jane Austen adaptations have a bad press. They are seen as cavalcades of pretty costumes and good manners, a sort of filmic wing of "Good Housekeeping." Austen's insight into human behaviour, her dextrous use of language and her keen satire of the mores of love, wealth and marriage are all too often ignored. As well as being (loosely) adapted from the novel Mansfield Park, the script is based on Austen's early journals and letters. It might be better to call this Patricia Rozema's (the director) Mansfield Park, rather than Austen's.

This has been portrayed in the mass media as punk Jane Austen with lesbianism, sex, slavery and other assorted liberties taken. As usual the coverage of these aspects is out of proportion. The lesbianism amounts to a couple of mildly flirtatious moments; although slavery is a key theme in this adaptation. Modern critics, such as Edward Said, make much of the references to an Antiguan slave plantation in the novel; far more than Jane Austen does. Rozema makes the moral issue - how can these people live a life of ease with the profits of slavery - central to the movie.

Fanny Price (Frances O'Connor) lives in poverty in Portsmouth until sent to live with her Aunt's family in Mansfield Park. The family is led by Sir Thomas Bertram (Harold Pinter) the alternately affable and stern patriarch; his alcoholic wife (Lindsay Duncan, who also appears as Fanny's mother); Mrs Norris, Fanny's aunt, who is a petty dictator; the youngest son of Sir Thomas, the serious Edmund (Johnny Lee Miller); Sir Thomas' two silly daughters; and Tom the eldest son, who in the original book was merely a libertine but here is not only a libertine but an anti-slavery libertine (content though to squander the proceeds of slavery)

Into all this come Henry Crawford (Alessandro Nivola) and his sister Mary Crawford (Embeth Davidtz); attractive, unconventional and ultimately amoral, and the agents that send most of the action in motion. Fanny acts as the catalyst for the moral regeneration of the family. Her patience, kindness, and intelligence shine through at all times.

Naturally enough, while other characters constantly remind us of Fanny Price's undesirability (mainly due to her lack of family name and money), Frances O'Connor is a babe who would stop traffic in real life. This Fanny Price is far more assertive and acerbic than Austen's. As is the way with the movies, the action is less subtle than in the novel; what Austen leaves unspoken, or doesn't deal with, is made explicit. The acting is superb, especially Harold Pinter, holding up very well for a man who'll be seventy in October.

The last music we hear over the end credits is an African song called "Slavery." We are a long way from the pretty frocks of stereotypical costume drama. Occasionally the political and sexual subtexts are a little forced. One character exclaims "this is 1806 for Heaven's sake" which is the early 21st Century talking. Overall though there is much to enjoy in this thought-provoking film that catches the spirit if not perhaps the letter of Austen's works.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)

almost unbearably moving

[7 February 2001]

Based on Laurens van der Post's "The Seed and the Sower", "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence" is an involving, almost unbearably moving and incredibly humane film. While Bowie toplines, the real star is Tom Conti as the eponymous British Officer trying to reconcile his respect for Japanese culture and innate humanity with the barbarity of the POW camp. Bowie has often been criticised for his acting, yet aside from a rather laughable flashback sequence where he impersonates a schoolboy, he is convincing as a mysterious and spirited "soldier's soldier" who has a beguiling effect on the young officer commanding the camp, played by Ryuichi Sakamoto, who quotes Shakespeare and issues brutal orders in almost the same breath.

Sakamoto, who is also a pioneer of electronic music with the Yellow Magic Orchestra, also wrote the soundtrack, including the famous "Forbidden Colours" theme (you probably know this even if you don't know where it's from) which conjures up the atmosphere of regret, lost love and repressed heartbreak in which we see the strange, unrequited love of Sakamoto's character for Bowie's. This film is about this impossible unrequited love and about the struggle of human values in wartime. As Lawrence (Conti) says to a Japanese Officer facing execution after the war; he is now the victim of "men who are sure they are right", just as in the camp the Japanese were sure they were right. The last scene between the decent, humane Lawrence and this officer, who was by turns hearty and brutal in the camp, is one of the most heartbreaking ever committed to celluloid.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

you say you want an evolution, well you know....

[7 February 2001]

Impenetrable, mystical, beautiful, hilarious, moving, inspiring, baffling. Kubrick's vision was never realised so completely as in this masterwork. Kubrick himself said he didn't want to impose a meaning on the viewer; this is a film that rewards attention and a willingness to suspend the quest for a clear direct meaning. Few filmmakers understand the rather obvious fact that cinema is primarily a visual medium; Kubrick's gem is among the most visually stunning movies ever made.

The plot, such as it is, revolves around a big black monolith that seems to act as some sort of accelerator of human evolution; we first encounter it at the Dawn of Humanity as it appears to inspire the first use of tools. There's an amazing jump cut from a bone thrown aloft by an exuberant ape to a spiralling spaceship - the connection of technologies is made beautifully. The most famous aspect of the film is HAL, the all-powerful computer that controls the ship sent to investigate the Black Monolith. HAL is possessed of the ultimate deadpan voice, which is used to both hilarious and moving effect. Overall 2001 - A Space Odyssey is truly the ultimate trip.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Remember MAD?

[7 February 2001]

When I was seven Gorbachev was newly installed in the USSR, CND logos were everywhere, and to a highly impressionable young boy who read a lot, every high altitude roar could be the ICBMs and death was a matter of minutes away. We weren't sure if it would take 15 or 30 minutes for humanity to be annihilated and how many times over they could blow the world up. I was among the last people born for whom worldwide nuclear apocalypse was a possibility, the ultimate childhood bogeyman.

Dr Strangelove may seem dated to many, but two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis it was a prescient as they come. The blackest of black comedies, Sellers' triple performance, Sterling Hayden as General Jack D Ripper ("Women sense my power, and they seek out the life force... I don't fear women Mandrake, but I deny them my essence" - there's a line for Copperface Jacks), Slim Pickens' cowboy/B52 pilot Major Kong (famously yee-hawing his plunge on the back of a nuclear missile) and the demented eponymous doctor are all still hilarious. The US military insisted on a disclaimer at the start describing the film as a work of fiction bearing no resemblance to any possibility; recently it has emerged that this was not true.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

taut gripping entertainment

[7 February 2001]

"The Manchurian Candidate" was withdrawn from circulation for years, rumour had it due to the uncomfortable resonance of the plot in post-Kennedy assassination America. In fact it was because of a dispute between Sinatra and United Artists over the profitability or otherwise of the picture. Sinatra's utter charisma is evident in this cracking political thriller. Laurence Harvey's platoon commander returns a war hero, idolised by his men, who nevertheless have nightmares in which he murders their comrades in a sedate ladies gardening club, and vague memories that he wasn't as a sound as he's supposed to be. Harvey's mother Lansbury (of Murder She Wrote fame) is the ultra-right wing power behind her hick senator husband.

Any more of the plot would be a give-away, although highlights include Hollywood's first martial arts fight, Sinatra's first encounter with Leigh on a train (the romantic subplot is otherwise rather superfluous), Harvey's desperation and confusion, and the whole edgy, paranoid atmosphere of the piece. "The Manchurian Candidate" has the reputation of being a liberal, slightly counter-cultural film, but its politics are ultimately quite right wing, and while Senator Joseph McCarthy would have despised the brilliant lampooning of right-wing US politics, he would have been pleased with the final pay-off. Forget that though, just sit back, relax, and enjoy the trip.

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

the best of everything is good enough for me

[7 February 2001]

In J.J. Hunsecker, Burt Lancaster portrayed a megalomaniac newspaperman (familiar type, anyone?) to perfection. Based on celebrity columnist and powermonger Walter Winchell, Hunsecker is to Winchell what Charles Foster Kane was to William Randolph Hearst - a bitter portrait that has forever (perhaps unfairly) become inextricably associated with the man, and one of the great monsters of Twentieth Century Cinema. This was a critical and commercial failure on first release, only to become one of that much-misnamed breed, a "cult movie." In Barry Levinson's "Diner", one the characters endlessly quotes the astringently poetic dialogue from the movie, written by blacklisted playwright Clifford Odets. A Scottish director of Ealing comedies, Mackendrick worked with cinematographer James Wong Howe to achieve a cold, glistening look to the film - Howe washed the walls of rooms for the interior shots with oil to achieve the right glycerine glitter.

The film is a portrait of the New York worlds of showbiz and the media years ahead of its time in its harshness and cynicism. Tony Curtis plays Sidney Falco, a slimy publicity agent who will do anything to slide to the top; when Hunsecker wishes to break up his sister's relationship with a jazz musician, Falco acts as his bagman. The good characters in this film are ineffectual ciphers - the vaulting ambition of Sidney Falco and the incestuous control-freakery of J.J. Hunsecker linger long in the imagination. As Sidney himself says, "the best of everything is good enough for me" - and this is one of the best.

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

poetry 24 times a second

[7 February 2001]

As a team, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger knew that nothing exceeds like excess. When the British Ministry of Information commissioned a film to help promote Anglo-American relations as the Second World War came to an end, they could never have expected this opulent fantasy of love beyond all limits. An impossibly cool David Niven plays a fighter pilot about to bail out without a parachute, declaiming love poetry to American radio operator Kim Hunter. But Niven cheats death and stymies the well-ordered engineering of souls after death, provoking a trial in heaven as Niven seeks to stay with his love.

Powell and Pressburger were one of cinema's most unique and visionary teams, and this film can be seen as a meditation on cinema as well as love (the afterlife scenes are in black and white; one character remarks "one is starved for Technicolor up here", and Powell and Pressburger regular Roger Livesey plays a village doctor who acts as omnipotent narrator to the village scenes he sees through his camera obscura) But most of all, "A Matter of Life and Death " is one of the great hand-holdingly romantic movies of all time.

Sexy Beast (2000)

If you liked "Gangster Number One", you'll like this

[20 January 2001]

Like 2000's "Gangster Number One", this is the dark side of the Brit gangster flick - no lovable Lock Stock style rogues here. A previous poster describes this as a "hilarious comedy", which I think may mislead people - there are a few nervous laughs, but on the whole this is a menacing piece of work. Like "G#1", psychopathic gangsterdom takes on more domesticated gangsterdom ; and again this is far from an advert for a life of crime. A few stylistic touches don't quite come off, but overall this is well worth a look.

Die Hard (1988)

The Last Battle of World War II

[27 December 2000]

The Last Battle of World War II

As Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika set in motion the events that would lead to the collapse of both the illusion of Soviet power and the Soviet Union, Hollywood, and in particular the makers of contemporary action movies, had a problem. The Russians (never mind the fact that the Soviets weren't all Russians) were good villains, all sinister accents and sinister brooding looks. For decades they had been led by dour Commies humourlessly taking the salute on May Day. But along came charismatic old Gorby and suddenly the Ruskies were warm, fuzzy huggable allies trying to make a better world. South African apartheid-mongers, South American drug barons and Arab-world terrorists all stood in for the sinister Soviets – but things weren't the same.

John McTiernan's 1988 `Die Hard' went back to the definitive screen villains – German Nazis. Of course, films featuring Teutonic villainy had been made since World War II, but most of these were marred somewhat by the difficulty of making them contemporary, and the fact that most people know who won World War II. `Die Hard' can be seen as a typical World War II movie.

For those of you who haven't seen the movie, here's a brief synopsis: Bruce Willis plays John McClane, a New York cop who is in Los Angeles to go to a Christmas party with his estranged wife. An unspecified group of German terrorists, led by Hans Gruber (played by Alan Rickman, the man who would later impersonate Eamon de Valera as a pantomime sniveling whinger in Michael Collins) takes over the building where his wife works and holds her and 30 workmates hostage. Willis is left alone in the building and the film essentially is made up of McClane wearing a vest and foiling the terrorists by increasingly spectacular means. See it – even if you make a point of loathing that sort of thing, it is a classic example of what Hitchcock meant by `pure cinema' – a series of brilliant sequences held together by a largely irrelevant `McGuffin' or plot.

Die Hard's villains are loosely defined German terrorists. Ultimately their motivation is financial, but that doesn't really matter – they fit in as ruthless, hyperefficient Aryan ubermenschen sneering at American culture as decadent – in short, the stereotypical Hollywood Nazi. They even have a Oriental gentleman in their party – echoes of the Axis (the benevolent owner of the building is Japanese, who makes a jocular reference to Pearl Harbor) who at one stage unconsciously underlines American pop culture's supremacy by surreptitiously grabbing a Mars bar just before another violent showdown.

The starkest illustration of the clash of cultures is when Hans Gruber engages McClane with the celebrated dialogue:

Hans Gruber: You know my name but who are you? Just another American who saw too many movies as a child? Another orphan of a bankrupt culture who thinks he's John Wayne? Rambo? Marshall Dillon? Detective John McClane: Was always kinda' partial to Roy Rogers actually. I really dig those sequined shirts.

`Die Hard' retains the values of the World War II morale booster – multiethnic America's can-do spirit and resourcefulness trumps sinister German murderousness and cultural snobbery. The GIs of World War II modeled themselves on Bogart and westerns, lusted after Betty Grable, swung to the sounds of Glenn Miller – in short, they were creatures of their dominant pop culture. Even in the tension of the decisive showdown, McClane goes on to trump Gruber again in the pop culture stakes:

Hans Gruber: This time John Wayne does not walk off into the sunset with Grace Kelly. Detective John McClane: That was Gary Cooper, a**hole

Interestingly, the German the terrorists speak is often grammatically incorrect and meaningless. The German release of the film feature terrorists from `Europe' and the terrorists Hans and Karl have been renamed Jack and Charlie. In the scene where McClane writes down the names Hans and Karl on his forearm, he says "I'm gonna call you Hans and Karl, just like the two evil giants in the fairy tale." Later on, he still refers to them as Jack and Charlie.

`Die Hard' taps into the ideal of resourcefulness and independence; of course these ideals are especially strong in America where the pioneer experience is historically recent and important to American self-image. You could even read the film as an illustration of the individualist Objectivism of Ayn Rand; the lone McClane trumps the teamwork of the Germans despite the ineffectual teamwork of the police and FBI outside the building. The efficiency and technical expertise of the Germans is no match for good ol' American can-do.

Another interesting aspect of `Die Hard' is its racial politics. McClane's first contact outside the building is the black Sergeant Powell. McClane's relationship to Sergeant Powell is again typical of the buddy films of World War II. They strike up a relationship on CB radio during the crisis, which extends to warm family reminiscences. Powell has a tragic past; one night he accidentally shot a child and since then has moved to desk duties since he can never bring himself shoot a gun again. In the best tradition of the buddy movie, Powell ultimately overcomes his fear to save the day. Yet another example of redemption through violence.

The terrorists are helped by Theo, a black computer whiz, who is counterpoised by Argyle, a guy ensconced in a limo in the underground car park who ultimately stops him making a getaway. Again one can't help being reminded of the World War II platoon movies where a WASP, a Jew, an Italian kid, an Irish guy, a Native American and a black guy all unite to trump the monotonously Aryan Germans.

World War II was the dominant political and social event of the Twentieth Century. Millions of young men – now elderly – went off to fight, and in many cases witness unimaginable horror, and often killed; and then came back to civilian life. No wonder the themes of World War II are revisited again and again, in surprising locations and in surprising times.

What Lies Beneath (2000)

couldn't watch

[9 November 2000]

I came reluctantly, and stayed in a state of terror. It would be easy to attack this film for the various cliches and corny lines. But it works spectacularly as a horror movie. For at least two-thirds of the film, I had my eyes closed or was staring at the wall of the cinema. Is this praise? Usually I hate being scared in the cinema, but this time I felt weirdly energised afterwards. even though you realise how much Zemeckis is manipulating the tension and slowly building up a symphony of terror, you submit!

Grace of My Heart (1996)

A good film, but a little underdeveloped

[19 August 2000]

I get the feeling that this was cut quite severely at some stage. It seems that the film wants to dip a toe in as many plots as possible - the romance with the Beatnik, the romance with the Brian Wilson style tortured genius, the older man, the commune phase, etc. Some of these plots could have done with a bit more flesh. But excellent performances all round and a fascinating soundtrack to boot. Well worth a look, but I feel it could have been much more.

Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

A1 - ignore at your peril

[17 August 2000]

Just a few short words - mainly provoked by the ignorance of previous posts. Reading the other customer reviews after watching this film, I was shocked to see it described as plotless, inaccessible, and generally as a sort of forbidding, impenetrable arthouse flick (I've nothing against forbidding, impenetrable arthous flicks, by the way) Well it isn't. There is a plot, the fact that it isn't rammed in your face constantly shouldn't put you off. This film is accessible, moving and at times very very funny (the scene in the nightclub, Cage's attempts to get fired) I genuinely don't believe some of the negative reviews this has got.

New Order Story (1993 Video)

They say never meet your heroes.....

[3 August 2000]

.... and they should also say "never watch documentaries about them." While this is informative, and insightful, and the promos in the video release are great, to be honest I preferred the aloof, inscrutable NO. And I HATED the moment when Bono (BONO!) suddenly interrupts love will tear us apart to deliver his own monstrous rendition. Worth a look, but its always a little sad to lose something of mystique.

American Psycho (2000)

Interesting, but too stylised to have any lasting impact.

[11 June 2000]

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!!!

This adaptation of American Psycho is interesting, at times repellent, at times hilarious, yet strangely uninvolving and ultimately lacking in any real satirical bite. Christian Bale delivers a highly stylised performance; when he gives his critiques of Huey Lewis and Genesis prior to committing some atrocity, he reminded me of none other than Jim Carrey in his Ace Ventura days. By the scene where Bateman casually explodes a cop car with his revolver, it is clear that the murders we see - with the possible exception of the homeless man in the alley, and the attempted murder of his secretary - are entirely imaginary. These factors combine to make it less a portrait of a society and culture where surface is everything and more of a chamber piece portrayal of an individual's dysfunctional mind.