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phreakhamster
Reviews
Life on Mars (2008)
Different... But same ideals.
Well, when Life on Mars came out in the United Kingdom it was a surprise; an enigma to the rest of the British Television which is not as entertaining as shows from the USA. There are greats in the United Kingdom in the likes of Monty Python, Spaced, The Office (was pioneering), The Young Ones and even Blackadder. However, I must stress here if anyone notices the current theme in those shows I just mentioned. They are all comedies.
The Brits are wonderful at bringing in "Post-Modern" shows at the time. Life on Mars was also that kind of a show; albeit that the Post-Modern era is finished, we have here a possible "Post-Post-Modern" or what I would like to call "Contemporary-Modern" show.
So, we move onto the whole argument on whether the US were "wrong" or "right" to take this concept for a show and make their own. All die-hard fans will argue until the cows come home and call everyone in their own right "greedy" and a "thief" for stealing this show! Okay, so be it. If the US were not good enough to come up with this concept themselves, then why on earth should they not use their skills in making a success of an established source of entertainment? Well, the problem is that the USA has produced hundreds upon thousands of shows which even the most die-hard UK lover would add a couple to his/her list. The West Wing, My Name Is Earl, 24, Dallas, Dynasty, Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier, M*A*S*H and even the great Wire.
So what is the argument here? That the US knocked off a show that was deemed a British Great? According to whom? What the Americans did here was use a pilot from a British Show, use the underlying storyline (the serialistic plot of Sam Tyler's conflict of how he can get back home) and develop their own sub-plots. Now I stress the word DEVELOP as from what has been said and written about lots is how ABC are developing this into a longer series than the two-series wonderment that was on BBC. I think that with the correct writers on staff and the right feel of the show, this could just develop into a wonderful television series.
Now about my points of view: Well, the episodes I have watched so far have had less of a flow than the original UK series; the acting has not not had as much chemistry as what was apparent in the BBC version. The look and feel of New York in the 1970's is inspired and interesting. There are small elements lacking in the American Version but hopefully they will be introduced to make this show more fluid and entertaining. There are two main points that I want to emphasize here which were made to me by friends living abroad:
1. Those who are not from the United Kingdom just cannot really empathize with Manchester. It doesn't have the international recognition that New York, London or even Paris has.
2. The Brits are great at making humour out of drama; the Philip Glennister's Gene Hunt was the perfect tonic for the dramatics we were experiencing of Sam Tyler's struggle to adapt to the 1970's era.
So is this show good? I would say when standing on it's own two feet - not next to any other show - yes - it is good. It is enjoyable with a couple of things that could be implemented to make it better. But that is just MY PERSONAL TAKE on the show as a source of narrative entertainment. Let the writers do what they do best: write. Let the actors do what they do best: act. And let the producers do what they do best: produce.
And cross our fingers that the show encompasses what we all want: a source of enjoyment and conversation around a dinner table.
Inside Man (2006)
Spike Lee, Meet Mr Mann - Mr Mann, Meet Mr Lee
So, we reach another pinnacle of being blessed with a Spike Lee film. 25th Hour, Clockers, Crooklyn, Malcolm X, Jungle Fever.... Honestly some of Spike's best work.
Inside Man... the film - the latest release that we are blessed to receive from the man who I hold in such high regard is a great film. We have here a clever script, a good story and some astonishing entrance-scene shots to a film I have seen in quite some time.
So what's all this hoo-haa about this being a Spike Lee Joint or not? So many people have been adamant that it isn't, but I have to dig the proverbial knife and twist it into those who think they know so much but rarely do produce the goods to show that they have knowledge of "Spike Lee Joints". This IS a "Spike Lee Joint" for two main reasons: 1. it was his work and 2. it was his WORK.
25th Hour was not a Spike Lee Joint as is everyone's perception of the phrase, but a lot of people certainly categorize it in such a way. What everyone considers a "Spike Lee Joint", I admit, has a slightly different look and feel to this all, but for a while now he has gone slightly more main-stream with his choice of topic.
But more to the film here: Denzel was good, Clive Owen was bland (purposefully), Jodie Foster was her usual charismatic self and Chiwetel Ejiofor was and is proving to be quite a force to be reckoned with. The bit-parts played by Christopher Plummer and Willem Dafoe were also a wonderful inclusion. The film had it all: Scenery, Great Acting, Great Camera-Shots and a great soundtrack.
What else do we want? We as cinema-goers want to be entertained. This certainly, hands-down did this. Best is to stop questioning what wasn't and focus on what is. This is a superb film and congratulations to all those who worked on it.
Shooting Gallery (2005)
Higledy Pigledy.... but good to waste a Sunday night....
Well, where can I begin? The film does start in a strange fashion, with quick editing to get the ball rolling (no pun intended) as quickly as possible. It will later transpire that there are quite a few twists and turns in the story, hence the quick beginning. But once we are past the opening sequences and we see the first game of 8-ball, the film slows down and shows it's strengths. There is certainly an element of the film "Rounders" in this film; hustle to get the better of your opposite man. However, what was portrayed in "Rounders" was (in my personal opinion) not even conceived in this film. Many many sequences came about where you can see a certain scene, suck your teeth and think: "Hell, they could have done it better in such a way...." And the sad part about that is that it actually happens in the middle of the film too! But the mid-to-end part of the film does wrap up quite nicely.
The visuals within the film are frantic and well shot. Quodos to Keoni Waxman for showing such a different forray of shots; the sleazy underworld, the wonderful city shots and the added bonus of Pool-Hall terms being printed and written across angled camera-shots - I liked it. Oh - and I can't miss out the scenes where they are actually playing 8-ball! They were well shot and edited - albeit, when someone is playing pool, we always want to see the whole table and see the shots in their entirety, but that would mean sitting through 8 hours of extra film! But as we all know, we aren't here to necessarily be wow'ed by visuals in a film. A film should be the whole ten yards (no - I am not talking about the film, I mean it as a phrase...).
Ving Rhames was waaay below par in this film, Freddy Prinz Jnr did an adequate job, the divine Roselyn Sanchez played quite well, albeit her history in the story does not need to be actually in there, and finally Callum Keith Rennie does a good performance, but his character was written in what seems to be a hurried way. The whole crew was (if you can imagine the analogy) put into a blender, served up with whipped cream and a cherry on top, when you are expecting something bitter. It didn't blend at all well, the acting between the people. But as I stated in my title: "good to waste a Sunday night...." - no more, no less.
What we don't need to have is people now lambasting a film in simple words of: "Yes, this is better than..." or "No-one can make a film of such a story better than...." This film, in it's own right, is a film that was straight-to-DVD/video and quite rightly so. No way would it have performed in the cinemas with this summer's blockbusters. It is going to be one of those films that people rent when they have run out of films to watch. But I hope that this review will raise a touch more interest than that. Yes, I haven't given it glaring and massive praise, but who needs it when the likes of "Crash", "Batman Begins", "War of The Worlds", "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "The Wedding Crashers" are all due for release at the same time? Give it a go, but don't expect too much. It's entertaining (especially the end actually - I wasn't expecting it!) and keeps you watching. What most of us need when there is nothing on TV!
Remember the Titans (2000)
Racist feelings changed by football
I have seen several films in my past, and none have really affected me as much as this one. I remember hearing about it in England, just before I moved to Berlin, and I thought to myself that I wanted to see it, but never had the chance to before I was actually out here. The film did not gain as much press and public awareness than it deserved in Germany, but (from what I heard) it did gross well, but then again, we wouldn't expect a film from Disney not to gross well! When I entered the cinema, the film was starting, and (I was unaware of Disney being behind the production) I saw the Disney symbol, which stopped me in my tracks. I was expecting your usual Village Roadshow, certainly not Disney, but I stuck through, and thought that if this wasn't the film I paid for, well .... I could always leave and say, "You sent me to the wrong theatre!!" The music to the opening sequence was good, and it certainly created the vibe that the film was going to be an entertaining film to watch, and a fast one at that! And how true it was - the time flew by as fast as one of the moves that the team managed to pull in the final match shown! Now to what the film is about: Two schools, one black and one white, are brought together by the state, causing already disturbance in the streets. A black Football coach is instated, and this causes even more uproar within the small town. However, Coach Boon (Denzel Washington) decides to keep the current coaches and work with them. The plot, which I am going to simplify to the bare bones, is how the football team, which Boon creates changes the views on living in a mixed community in the respective town they live in. I cannot give anymore of the story away, otherwise it will kill the film for you. The acting is good, for a football film, and even those who had to say one line don't give out the impression that they are wooden. And I feel sorry for those boys who had to train so hard for the film, but my goodness, they did make it look good.