Looking for Eric Review
Athletes don’t often make the jump to the big screen very well, as anyone who has seen Steel or anything released by WWE Films will attest to. In fact, there are really only 2 sports crossover “stars” who have never truely disgraced themselves in film, one is Vinnie Jones. The other is the man still known as ‘King Eric’ around Manchester; Eric Cantona. This is his finest hour to date and it’s a damn fine film to boot.
Looking For Eric is the latest work from renowned director Ken Loach and focusses on Steve Evets’ Eric Bishop; a man coming off a recently failed suicide attempt, two step-sons who don’t listen to him and not enough money to see his beloved Manchester United play anymore. At his lowest ebb, when his life seems so utterly desperate, he is visited by a vision of Eric Cantona who helps him turn his life around and picks him up when all seems lost.
The cast of the film is made up entirely of English acting talent (with the obvious exception of the titular Frenchman), with the likes or Shameless‘ Gerard Kearns, Red Riding‘s John Henshaw and newcomers Stefan Gumbs and Stephanie Bishop providing excellent supporting performances. The film generally is well written, acted and thought out and even when it looks like it’s about to spiral into tragedy; it maintains it’s very British humour.
Cantona Mosaic - captured by dullhunk @ flickr commons
Cantona is great in the film; despite only appearing at random intervals to guide Evets’ Eric through hard times. He is self-depricating (allowing the infamous “seagulls” comment to be ripped into) and pulls off the difficult task of seeming friendly and caring whilst maintaining a fantastic air of mystery about his character. It’s never explained who or what he is in the film, and to be honest you don’t care. This may well be the role that lands him bigger and better parts; nuanced acting in a vein completely opposed to Vinnie Jones’ brand of “hit ‘em til they bleed”.
The real stars of the show, however, are two-fold. One is Evets, who blows everyone else off the screen with his desperate but loveable working-class father who struggles to cope with the modern world. The other is football. Make no mistake about it, whilst this is a film that a non-footballing fan can watch and really enjoy (my girlfriend declared it “really good”), the flashbacks to Cantona’s goals and the overall tone of the film work best on the football fan; who understand the passion and emotion of following their team. Loach deals with the fact that the working class has been priced out of attending top-flight football in a particularly telling scene between one of Eric’s FC-United (the fans’ club set up after the take-over of Man Utd) supporting friends and a pub full of Manchester United fans. This may well be the best film ever made about football; and none of the football clips are less than a decade old.
In a Summer full of exploding robots, starships and priests; this is a much-needed change of pace and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a “different” kind of movie as well as any football fan of any generation.
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(1 votes, average: 1 out of 5)
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Film Information
Director: Ken Loach
Actors: Eric Cantona; Steve Evets; Stephanie Bishop
Year: 2009
Certificate: 15
Star Trek review
It’s been 6 1/2 years since the last big-screen adventure for any Starship named “Enterprise”. It’s been 4 years since the cancellation of the last Star Trek series. There’s a reason for this. The franchise ahd lost touch with the general public. Whilst the hardcore Trekkie may have still watched; no-one else did. So Paramount decided the time was ripe for a complete and total revamp of the franchise. Who better to bring in than JJ Abrams; he of Lost, Cloverfield [which he produced] and MI:3 fame and a hip, young director making waves in the industry? However the question still remained; could Abrams drag this deeply uncool behemoth of a franchise back to life in a way that would please the general public, casual fan and hardcore Trekkie alike?
(c) chaucer's daughter - flickr commons
The answer; is yes. Star Trek is the first proper Summer blockbuster (and by proper, I mean one that doesn’t make you wnat to tear yoru hair out…I’m looking at you Jackman!) and it delivers continually over the course of it’s 2 hour run time.
Action? Check
Humour? Check
Random appearance from a well-known figure? Check
Utterly batcrap crazy plot? Check
I’ll freely admit I’m probably not the sot objective viewer for this film. I grew up loving Star Trek and was a child of the Jean-Luc Picard Next Generation crew; but like the series itself my interest had waned in recent years. What Abrams’ succeeds in doing is revitalising the very name of Star Trek and from its surprisingly emotional, action-packed opening sequence it carries on at an utterly breakneck pace. This is not the ponderous Star Trek that people are used to. This is Star Trek for the internet age; instant gratification using 40-year old plot devices (transportation, warp drive, time travel, mind-melds) to jump from one scene to the next with very little in the way of a break.
The cast do their utmost to compete with the insane speed of the film. Chris Pine is a very different kind of Kirk, but you can see the glimmers of the Kirk we all know in him. Likewise Zachary Quinto makes the role of Spock his own; taking it in a new direction from Leonard Nimoy’s stoic portrayal. However the crown jewel of “the big 3″ is Karl Urban, who utterly nails McCoy; to such a degree he seems to be channelling DeForest Kelly at times. The character is both fresh and familiar; and that’s what grounds Star Trek as a whole.
The rest of the cast tend to get a bit lost in the shuffle, so to speak, with Bruce Greenwood, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Simon Pegg and even Eric Bana all reduced to more cameo roles as the film looks to solidify the relationship between it’s leading players. One notable exception is Zoe Saldana, who is given an Uhura that is beyond anything we ever saw Nichelle Nicholls given to work with.
The film as a whole works; that’s the important thing. And in an age of dark and brooding action films (the news Transformers and Terminator films look especially dark) it’s nice to be given a genuinely enjoyable ride. I, for one, can’t wait for a sequel.
DVD-Film-Review.co.uk’s rating:
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(3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)
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Film Information
Actors: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Karl Urban
Director: JJ Abrams
Year: 2009
Time: 125 mins
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
The X-Men films were the starting point for all of the “serious” superhero films to come since the turn of the decade. No arguements here. They were the first to try and base things in reality; to rationalise the idea of men dressing up in costumes and going about trying to save the world. Was it always believable? No. But the first 2 X-Men films were intelligent takes on the comic-book idea (though the 3rd strayed slightly without the mighty Bryan Singer to reign them in). Of all the characters, Wolverine was the one that stood out. Hugh Jackman became the character in a way few could envisage and was the fanboy favourite made flesh. So how hard could it be to make a successful film around this most beloved of characters?
Taken from Flickr Commons
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Where did it all go wrong? Let’s make no bones about it, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a bit of a mess. In fact, it might even qualify as a lot of a mess. We begin in 19th century America with a little bit of background on the child Wolverine’s (apparently called James Logan) life. Emphasis on the little. No sooner do we meet James Logan and his half-brother Victor creed than we are pelted headlong through a credit sequence that charts their participation in all of the major wars over the next century. It looks very cool, but doesn’t address any of the questions of what motivates these men, clearly indestructible, to fight? And really that lack of motivation runs through the film. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so I’d skip to the next paragraph now if you wish to avoid spoilers, but at the end of the 1st Act, we are suddenly given Logan’s new motivation, with very little back-story to set it up. As a viewer we are expected to suddenly empathise with a character we barely know (Logan’s wife/girlfriend/lover) and then back Logan as he tried to avenge her. Then, midway through act 3, the motivation is totally removed. The entire film feels a touch pointless because of this. A lot of the film follows this road; it views like a collection of ideas rather than a complete film.
The sense of pointlessness carries through into many of the guest-stars to grace the film. There’s some real talent on display here aside from Jackman, who we know from past experience can do wonders with the Wolverine character, with the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Durand and Dominic Monaghan all given various mutant characters to play and all doing it very well. For about 10 minutes. This in and of itself, is a major flaw with the film. Ryan Reynolds is easily the most charismatic character in the film and he never really gets out of first gear (try the otherwise poor Blade 3 to see him at his best). Even worse is Taylor Kitsch as Gambit. Gambit is another cult favourite, a Cajun card-shark with the ability to make objects around him explode with just a touch. Unfortunately Kitsch never nails the Franco-American accent and even if he did, he’s not on screen long enough for us to realise it.
There are, however, some redeeming features. Liev Schreiber is excellent as Victor Creed/Sabertooth and does wonders with a character who could easily have been very one-dementional. In addition, the final battle between Weapon X and Weapon XI is spectacular (though you get the feeling that they blew their entire CG budget on this as Wolverine’s claws never look as good as they do in any of the previous X-Men films).
The film is best summed up in the final sequence, as a character from the original films makes a surprise appearance in a moment that should have fanboys and regular punters alike cooing. Unfortunately the entire effect is ruined with utterly awful CGI. It’s a bit like the film as a whole; some good ideas, but really not enough thought going in to how the final product will look.
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(3 votes, average: 3 out of 5) Loading ...
Film Information
Actors: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston
Director: Gavin Hood
Year: 2009
Running Time: 107mins
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Blu Ray Review
Sir Sean Connery. Perhaps the greatest British actor of all time? Certainly one of them. The man has had an outstanding resume of film credits including the Bond films, The Untouchables (for which he won his only OSCAR) and even the likes of The Rock. But, as with all the greats, there is the occasional steaming turd on his CV (Can anyone really explain The Avengers remake?). However probably the greatest injustice to Sir Sean’s acting legacy is the fact he appears to have finished his acting career with this utterly diabolical mess.
LXG (as the cool kids call it), is based on the Alan Moore graphic novel of the same name and charts the adventures of literary hero Alan Quartermain as he teams up with a bunch of other fictional characters to battle an evil force who is bringing Europe to the brink of war, known as “The Fantom” (don’t even get me started on the spelling). “The Fantom” has attacked the UK and Germany using advanced(ish) weapons and wants to…well…..I’m not sure. Herein lies the biggest (ok..one of the biggest) problems with LXG - it doesn’t make any bloody sense! The plot twists and turns and moves from some nutter trying to start a war, to some nutter looking to create a super-soldier for some reason that’s never really explained.
Or maybe it is and I’d just given up trying to understand what was going on by that stage and focussed on just how truely appalling the acting from the likes of Shane West (token American who is so out of place it’s crazy to think they didn’t cut him out altogether), Peta Wilson and Richard Roxburgh is. You can see Sean Connery struggling to lift himself above the material (the same can be said for the quite excellent Stuart Townsend as the immortal, Dorian Gray) but this entire sorry film is dragged down by a plot no-one can understand, acting that makes you wish you’d never bothered turning the TV on and the fact that no matter how hard you try to escape the fact - Sean Connery is an old man beating up 20-year olds and he LOOKS it.
The transfer? Pretty standard to be honest. It looks a little crisper (and Nemo’s ship the Nautilus looks particularly good) and the sound is polished nicely. But really, no matter how much you polish a turd…it’s still a turd when you’re done.
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Film Information
Year: 2003
Actors: Sean Connery, Shane West, Peta Wilson
Director: Stephen Norrington
Time: 110 mins
Escape From New York - Blu Ray
Snake Plissken is a character that has inspired a million copies (including my personal favourite; Solid Snake). Escape From New York is one of the most fun “B” movies ever made. Everything about this should scream “cult classic” and “must have” in an HD transfer. So where did it all go horribly wrong?
Not worth it
Escape… is one of John Carpenter’s most famous films outside of Halloween and you would expect a Blu Ray transfer of this to reflect that fact. Visually it’s an impactful (if it’s not a word then I’m making it one!) film; getting across the squalor and decay of a New York in the hands of criminals on a tight budget. As a lead, Kurt Russell has a ball in a role he freely admits is his favourite to date. The film was so well received, and both the Director and Lead had so much fun making it, that a sequel (Escape from LA) was commissioned. If anything was ever ripe for Blu Ray to show what it can do, to justify the expenditure on an HD version of a film without the explosions and editing of a Dark Knight or visceral nature of 300, this should be it.
It isn’t. The transfer is pretty close to being the worst Blu Ray transfer I’ve ever seen. Text on computers (important text that you can actually read in the DVD version!) is illegible. When DVD provides a better veiwing experience than Blu Ray, you know you’ve messed up. Likewise the sound is nowhere near as good as it could be, occasionally requiring a lot of volume to understand what exactly is being said.
Likewise, the extras are poor and there’s really very little information on what steps they took to upgrade the picture (you suspect they may be hiding in shame!).
Save your money; get it on DVD.
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(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5) Loading ...
Film Information
Year: 1981
Actors: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Issac Hayes, Donald Pleasence
Director: John Carpenter
Time: 99mins
Get to see advanced previews of blockbuster movies
A quick update. If you’ve ever fancied getting a head-start on your friends when it comes to seeing the latest hit moves, you should check out Mystery Movies
They’re showing summer blockbusters at Vue cinemas up and down the country before they’re put on general release! I’m off to a screening on Tuesday (and praying it isn’t Star Trek as that’s the one film I already have tickets booked to this Summer) so you guys can expect a review up of the film, and the experience as a whole, the next day.
Some of the great Summer blockbusters (and, therfore, the ones I’m hoping they’re showing) coming up include Angels & Demons, Transformers 2, Inglorious Basterds, Terminator: Salvation and the new Harry Potter film. Who knows which (if any) of these major releases we could be about to see!?
Star Trek - Season 1 on Blu Ray
With the release of the new J.J. Abrams remake of Star Trek on the horizon, Paramount & CBS have finally released the Original Series of Star Trek on to Blu-Ray. This already existed on the failed HD-DVD format, but this marks the seminal sci-fi franchise’s bow on to the winner of the HD format war. And what a bow it is.
Star Trek on Blu Ray
The picture quality is as good as you could possibly hope, for a series filmed in the 1960s, and you can tell that cleaning up the old prints has been a labour of love for those involved (not least because they tell you so themselves in the extras!). All of the old special effects have been re-dress with state-of-the-art CGI imagery; but for the purists there’s also the ability to watch the epsiodes with the original effects intact, which is a nice nod to those out there who like their classic sci-fi unmolested (Lucas and Speilberg I’m looking at you!).
The vast majority of the features from the HD-DVD version survive the transfer to Blu Ray and the sheer depth of information available to the viewer is outstanding. This is not some half-hearted DVD transfer; this has been designed to be the ultimate in viewing and it’s good to see, as a lot of Blu Ray transfers don’t seem to have been given the treatment the format allows for and deserves.
I’m not going to sit here and review the series as a whole. After 40+ years, you’ll know if this series is for you or not. But what I will say is that for those of us with fond memories of watching Star Trek with their dinner in their childhood; this is a must-have set.
Casablanca
Easily my favourite film of all time, and quite possibly the best film ever made, Casablanca is being re-released on Blu Ray (in fact, if you’re reading this in Region 1; it already has!).
Bogart and Bergman
What started as a cold piece of WW2 propaganda has become one of the best-loved movies of all time. The on-screen chemistry between the leads, Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, is utterly spellbinding and there’s not one bad performance in the entire film.
Telling the story of “Rick”, a man with a troubled past and a personality as cold as they come (back when such a thing wasn’t a cliche) and the ramifications of his old lover’s return to his life, Casablanca is the ultimate tale of love, live and what it means to be a man. Especially a proud American during the War. Or even a proud Frenchman or German during the war. It is to the film’s great credit that there are no real stereotypes. Even the “evil” German characters are fleshed out fully.
The film also carries an incredible undercurrent of humour, with Claude Raines taking the film from under Bogart’s nose with his Captain Renault stealing every scene he is in. In keeping with this humour (often incredibly dark) is my favourite line in all of cinema; but I don’t want to ruin it. Sufficed to say it comes from Raines at the height of the film’s drama.
If you haven’t seen this film; buy it, watch it…and then watch it again. It’s a classic.
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(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5) Loading ...
Film Information
Year: 1942
Director: Michael Curtiz
Length: 102 Mins
Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Star Trek Trailer attached to Watchmen available in HD
A quick post; Apple has placed the new trailer for J.J Abrams’ Star Trek on it’s site in glorious QuickTime. It looks great and asks yet more questions regarding this re-boot/re-imagining/re0-invigoration of the classic franchise.
Give it a look here
The Wrestler Review
The Wrestler is probably the best film ever made about the pro-wrestling industry. That doesn’t cover a lot of ground. Most films about pro-wrestling or even starring pro-wrestlers have been mediocre at best (Barry Blaustein’s seminal [i]Beyond the Mat[/i] is the exception rather than the rule and is almost the prototype for this film). Thankfully, Darren Aronofsky (Pi, The Fountain) has blown away everyone’s expectations.
The story could be one of any washed-up actor/musician/pro-athlete who did not save wisely during his glory days (a poingant message given the financial climate) and is now selling his name more than his talent to pay his way. Who better to play this than Mickey Rourke; a man who disappears inside the role to the extent that you start to wonder if you’e watching his frustrations of the last 20 years being laid bare on screen. His Oscar nod is well deserved.
The support comes from Marissa Tomei as a similarly washed-up stripper and I will warn you here; she spends virtually the entire film naked. Not that it’s a bad thing (she looks great for a 40+ year old), but towards the end you wonder if it’s becoming more than a little gratuitous. To be honest, it’s a testament to how good she is in this film that she got an Oscar nod. My friend left the cinema unable to remember a word she said. Then again, he’s in a dry spell.
The genius of what Aronofsky has done here is not to get bogged down in “is it real/isn’t it” (it’s dismissed in one line). He lets the wrestlers (all of whom are actual wrestlers) tell the story of how real it is and the particularly brutal CZW match is testament to the fact he doesn’t need the “is it real” debate in any great detail. He uses real people, real companies and that’s what makes the film’s world so relevant. It is, however, Rourke’s film.
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(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...
Film Information
Year: 2008
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Actors: Mickey Rourke, Marissa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Ernest “The Cat” Miller
Time: 115mins
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