Movies Watched in July 2005

(*) Scream 3 ***

USA: Wes Craven, 2000

I underrated this movie last time I watched it. Yes, it has its problems, not least the fact that Neve Campbell, whose character the entire trilogy has been about, appears in what seems to be less than one-third of the movie, and ** SPOILER ** doesn't actually meet the killer until the big climax ** END SPOILER **, but there's a lot of fun to be had. A number of gifted actors, including Campbell, Parker Posey, Emily Mortimer and Lance Henriksen, lend their talents, and even if Wes Craven seems to be operating in a more restrained manner with regard to the gore than on the first three films, he still knows how do do a decent stalk-and-slash sequence. By all accounts, most of the participants didn't actually want to make this movie, but it doesn't suffer unduly and everyone seems to be game to do their absolute best.

By the way, kudos to writer Ehren Kruger for dropping most of the self-referential stuff that was present in the first two films. It was clever at first, but once every horror movie started doing it, it got old fast.

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(*) Gangs of New York ****

USA: Martin Scorsese, 2002

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Gangs of New York ****

USA: Martin Scorsese, 2002

After reading quite a few negative reviews of this film, I finally got around to experiencing it myself and was pleasantly surprised. It has its share of problems - not least the fact that, even with a running time of nearly three hours, it's obvious that a significant amount of material was left on the cutting room floor - but it's engaging stuff, well-shot and with a genuinely palpable atmosphere of 1800s New York. Daniel Day-Lewis, of course, steals the show, but I found myself enjoying Cameron Diaz's performance as well (in the few movies that I've seen her in, she's always come across as a better actor than most people give her credit for). Leonardo DiCaprio seems a bit lost at times, but he comes round in time for the third act. Some very unusual, but effective, choices for the music too (I was surprised, when reading the end credits, to discover that the Corrs provided much of the instrumentation for the film's title song).

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(*) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ***

USA: Mel Stuart, 1971

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(*) James and the Giant Peach ***

USA/UK: Henry Selick, 1996

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(*) The Witches **½

UK: Nicolas Roeg, 1990

This film is a mix or really good elements and truly awful ones. The opening prologue explaining the specifics of witches is great, as is Nicolas Roeg's camerawork, which accentuates the creepiness of the ghastly ladies. There are also some pretty impressive prosthetic and animatronic episodes courtesy of Jim Henson and pals. At the other end of the spectrum, the child actors are infuriating, and the way the script mangles with Roald Dahl's original book in a number of respects (not least the skin-crawling ending, which apparently the studio insisted on) succeeds in running all the story's best elements through the meat grinder. This film doesn't know whether it wants to be a genuinely creepy fairytale or a ridiculous pantomime.

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(*) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ****

USA: Steven Spielberg, 1989

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Frida ***½

USA/Mexico: Julie Taymor, 2002

This ambitious but plodding character portrait suffers from many of the common problems that plague films such as this. Namely, it is overlong and episodic in nature, and by no mean consistently interesting. There are many good moments, but to reach them we have to slog through a lot that is less entertaining. There are also some odd gaps where changes in Frida's situation are not explained, and it is frequently unclear just how much time is meant to have passed between one "episode" and another. Still, props to director Julie Taymor for employing some interesting stylistic touches (such as partially animated variations of many of Frida's paintings, and an interesting collage sequence when she goes to New York), and to Salma Hayek for delivering an assured performance in such a brave role.

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(*) Porco Rosso ****½

Original title: Kurenai no Buta
Japan: Hayao Miyazaki, 1992

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(*) Toy Story 2 ****

USA: John Lasseter, 1999

Somewhat overrated in my opinion, this film, which started off as a direct-to-video cheapquel, is a pale shadow of its predecessor. Things do improve around the half-way mark, and the final act is an enjoyable enough rollercoaster, but the first act is just terrible, and surprisingly, the look of this film has dated far more quickly than the original Toy Story. That said, every time I think I don't like this film, it comes out with something I love. I can see why Pixar don't want to do sequels, though.

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(*) The Day of the Jackal ****

UK/France: Fred Zinnemann, 1973

An amazing piece of work that violates virtually every movie protocol (characters the audience can care about, mounting tension, a three-act structure, etc.) and yet still manages to be thoroughly engaging. Zinnemann's direction is cold and calculating, going from one scene to another in an almost documentary-like manner with an almost total lack of music. For something so precise and emotionless, it manages to be remarkably exciting and satisfying.

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(*) The Ninth Gate ****

France/USA: Roman Polanski, 1999

(Watched with commentary by Roman Polanski)

"A fairytale for adults" is how Roman Polanski describes The Ninth Gate during his audio commentary, and that is exactly what it is. It is also a delightfully tongue-in-cheek romp that, despite dealing with some very clichéd material, never comes across as camp or silly. Nice performances by Johnny Depp and Emmanuelle Seigner.

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(*) Blade: Trinity ***

USA: David S. Goyer, 2004

(Watched with commentary by David S. Goyer, Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Beil)

"You cock-juggling thundercunt!"

Enough said.

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(*) Abre los Ojos ****

Spain: Alejandro Amenábar, 1997

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A Very Long Engagement ****½

Original title: Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles
France: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2004

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The House with Laughing Windows **½

Original title: La Casa dalle Finestre che Ridono
Italy: Pupi Avati, 1976

Dry and uninvolving giallo by Pupi Avati, this film moves at a snail's pace and suffers from flat, ugly photography and a bland lead in Lino Capolicchio, who is simply too dour and disinterested to carry the film. The revelation at the end is reasonably interesting, but it is too long in coming and doesn't justify the tedious crawl required to reach it.

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Zatoichi ***

Japan: Takeshi Kitano, 2003

After reading so many positive comments about this film and having the DVD lying on my shelf for several months, it was perhaps only to be expected that I would be a bit disappointed by it. I enjoyed the speed and matter-of-factness of the action choreography and liked the look of the film overall, but I had real trouble getting into the characters and story, and generally felt that the plot was too fragmented to be particularly interesting. One to rewatch at a later date, methinks.

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Before Sunset ****

USA/France: Richard Linklater, 2004

Any worries that this will just be a lame retread of Before Sunrise are quickly quashed in this sensitive and surprisingly moving follow-up, taking place nine years after the original. It's interesting how so much has changed and yet so much is still the same. The characters have changed, or feel that they have changed, and yet in many ways they are still unable to move on from that fateful night in Vienna nine years ago. The change of location to Paris is also interesting as it very much puts Julie Delpy's character in control while leaving Ethan Hawke floundering. Great, ambiguous ending too, which recalls the opening in which Hawke's character, now an author, says that his readers must make up their own minds as to whether or not the two lovers will get together. Perhaps Richard Linklater will do a third film in another nine years and set it in the US?

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Before Sunrise ****

USA/Austria/Switzerland: Richard Linklater, 1995

I surprised myself by liking this film a great deal, since on the surface it seems to have very little going for it: a man and a woman meet by chance and spend a night together in Vienna, having conversations about various facets of life. And yet for some reason I couldn't look away. Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke are both fantastic, and the simplicity of both the concept and the way in which it is shot is what makes it work. My only real complaint would be that the dialogue, while sounding pretty realistic and doing a good job of sounding genuinely unrehearsed, at times had an overly artificial feel - "Oh, tell me about..." "What do you think of...?"

PS. The absolute highlight for me was Julie Delpy pretending to be an American man. "Uh, hey, duuuuude!"

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(*) Where Eagles Dare ****

UK/USA: Brian G. Hutton, 1968

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(*) Trauma ***

USA: Dario Argento, 1993

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The Last of the Mohicans (director's expanded edition) *****

USA: Michael Mann, 1992

I first saw The Last of the Mohicans (or, at any rate, the last half of it) when I was a kid. This was the first time I saw Michael Mann's director's cut, and I loved every minute of it. The music, the cinematography, the performances... this is a true "epic" in the best sense of the word, and it is a very human one too. And could Jodhi May be any more sublime?

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(*) What Have You Done to Solange? ****½

Original title: Cosa Avete Fatto a Solange?
Italy: Massimo Dallamano, 1972

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Titan A.E. *½

USA: Don Bluth/Gary Goldman, 2000

Ugh. What was that about? Quite frankly, I don't care. Something about awakening a Titan that is mankind's only hope for survival in the future, but it wasn't particularly clear. Since nice hand-drawn animation mixed in with some truly horrendous 3D, bland characters and a dull script (by Ben Edlund, John August and Joss Whedon???) results in a film that dearly wishes it were live action but isn't. Honestly, it's no wonder Don Bluth struggles to find work these days.

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The Jacket ***

USA/UK: John Maybury, 2005

Full review here.

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Hellboy **

USA: Guillermo del Toro, 2004

Eh, I didn't really enjoy this film at all. It's boring, silly and nothing much seems to happen. Guillermo del Toro is the flavour of the month at the moment, but I haven't been wild about any of his movies - Mimic, Blade II (weakest of the trilogy, in my opinion) and now this. It's nicely-shot, I'll give you that, but the CGI is pretty ropey and more than anything, I just didn't find myself entertained at all.

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Hellraiser ***

UK: Clive Barker, 1987

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Sin City ****

USA: Robert Rodriguez/Frank Miller/Quentin Tarantino, 2005

Great cast, great visuals, great audio... I personally really enjoyed Sin City, although I don't feel that it's the out-and-out classic that some have proclaimed it to be. For one thing, in an attempt to stay completely faithful to the graphic novels, Rodriguez and Miller have created a film that feels a bit disjointed and episodic in nature, with storylines that don't really seem to hook up in a very satisfying way. My favourite storylines were the one with Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba, and the one with Clive Owen. The rest didn't really seem to fit quite as well, but I wouldn't say I disliked any of them.

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(*) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ****

USA: Steven Spielberg, 1989

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(*) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ***½

USA: Steven Spielberg, 1984

Lacks the likeable characters of the first film, and starts of slow, but ups the ante with a great mine-cart chase and a surprisingly disturbing sequence involving the sacrificial cult operating in the Temple of Doom of the title. But dear god, please someone kill Kate Capshaw and that snotty little kid.

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(*) Raiders of the Lost Ark ****½

USA: Steven Spielberg, 1981

Finally watching this film in its original aspect ratio and with a decent quality transfer, I am able to enjoy this film much more than the blurry, washed-out pan & scan print doing the rounds on BBC1 at least once every year. This film is cheesy as hell and has pretty much no depth to it, but it's great fun and is masterfully accomplished on just about every level. Once upon a time Steven Spielberg made fun movies.

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