Reviews - 2003

Big Fish

I'm something of a fan of Tim Burton's work; the only films of his I didn't care for were Mars Attacks, and Planet of The Apes - both of which were horrendous. Big Fish was much better than I expected it to be, although that's not saying much because I expected it to be really godawful. There are just too many obstacles for me to overcome with this film: It stars Ewan McGregor, who's a woodentop, and Albert Finney, who I'm not too keen on, and they both have dodgy American accents here. It's unashamedly sentimental, and I don't tend to like sentimental films. The premise of the film is a little hard to swallow, and if you can't swallow the premise of a film then you're pretty much up a certain creek without an essential piece of equipment. Having said all that, it did kind of win me over toward the end. I mean, who could resist a film that features Danny DeVito as a werewolf? I wouldn't dismiss this film, and I wouldn't discourage people from seeing it. Although it's not really my cup of tea it is inventive, and it's well done, and it's never really less than interesting. If the story appeals to you then I would recommend you see it because there's a lot to enjoy.

Hulk

I liked this film quite a bit, and I didn't think I'd like it at all - that doesn't happen very often so it's all the more refreshing when it does. Everyone knows the story by now so I won't bore you with the details. Eric Bana is spot on as the man with the dangerous glint in his eye and everyone else is having a lot of fun. The cinematography is utterly stunning - vibrant colours and a crisp clean line to everything and the action sequences are so over the top as to be very entertaining. In short, everything is pulled off to perfection and the film's a lot of fun. This is like a Sergio Leone cartoon - big close-ups and larger than life action. It's CGI-tastic!

Intolerable Cruelty

Up until now I haven't seen eye to eye with the critics who say that the Coen brothers make dispassionate soulless films with identikit characters culled from the golden age of cinema but with Intolerable Cruelty I kind of understand what they mean. Although the film is enjoyable enough - and Roger Deakens' cinematography is always a joy to behold - it does smack of too many knockabout comedies of the thirties and forties and so leaves an aftertaste of familiarity once you've watched it. It's as if all those Katherine Hepburn/Spencer Tracey/Cary Grant films have been studied intensely and then put in a Preston Sturge-O-Meter and, hey presto; out pops Intolerable Cruelty. That said, some of the dialogue is priceless and George Clooney is frequently hilarious in the role of a matrimonial lawyer par excellence, and makes the whole thing worth a watch, but he does overcook the ham on occasion. It would be cruel to say that Catherine Zeta Jones must have found the part came naturally to her, but there - I said it anyway.

The Last Samurai

This is stupid, sentimental, overblown codswallop. The obsession of the filmmakers to make Tom Cruise's character 'strong' and 'sensitive' and 'heroic' is sickening in it's obviousness and unsubtlety. In fact the whole film is about as subtle as a kick in the balls. The temerity of the director to suggest that Tom Cruise can pop over to Japan and in three months hold his own in a sword fight with the best samurai warriors just beggars belief. It really annoys me when a well known director is given a bunch of money and some big stars and churns out drivel like this. I mean, this is just a TV movie with a budget. Everything is spelled out twice so that the viewer can be in no doubt who are the goodies and who are the nasty baddies; who deserves to live and who deserves to die. What rubbish. Tom Cruise should be ashamed of this po-faced nonsense and of his hammy, preening performance. And as for historical accuracy, don't even get me started on that.

Love, Actually

One of the most cynically calculated and manipulative films I've ever had the misfortune to have to endure. Richard Curtis seems to have analysed his earlier effort, the very successful Four Weddings And A Funeral and decided to duplicate all the things that got a laugh, or made people cry and put them all in this new film. If films can be said to have a 'soul' then this one definitely does not have one, or if it ever did it's been sold to the highest bidder from the biggest multinational corporation in exchange for lining Curtis's pockets, which he obviously would prefer rather than writing a genuinely moving film that isn't quite so popular but actually has some meaning.

Master & Commander

Naval warfare in the mid-nineteenth century between England and France, starring Russell Crowe as the captain of an old battleship sent to search out and destroy a new and improved French battleship. This is a salty old sea-dog tale with most of the kind of cliches you'd expect from a tale of men at sea. It's well done, but not terribly exciting because everything is so telegraphed it all seems inevitable. Paul Bettany is very good as the ship's doctor, and Russel Crowe is also well cast as the dogged and charismatic captain Jack Aubrey. It's Gladiator on the High Seas really.

Monster

So this is the film that all the fuss was about. This is the film Charlize Theron bagged an Oscar for. Ooh, she put on loads of weight and wore prosthetics to make her ugly you know. Well, hang on just a second. She didn't look like a 20-stone bloater to me. But her face did look funny. It looked all stretched and tight. Like it'll actually be in twenty years time, after all the face-lifts. As for the film, I don't see what all the fuss is about, it was mediocre at best. Charlize Theron was good, but her funny face makeup was distracting. I don't agree with the message of the film though, which says it's okay to kill people as long as they're, well, men basically. I don't believe that a convicted serial killer, and that's what Eileen Wuornos was, should be the subject of such a sympathetic and forgiving film.

Mystic River

Clint Eastwood's new offering which was heavily nominated at last years Oscars. The acting is uniformly good, but poor Kevin Bacon - he gives the best performance of the film in a role that's not as showy and hence harder to pull off than either Sean Penn or Tim Robbins, as good as they are. Eastwood puts together a taut thriller that's very involving, but without giving too much away I was again disappointed in the weak ending which took a bit of a u-turn from where the film was heading then just sort of fizzled out and left me deflated. Very good film all in all though.

Open Range

Kevin Costner's new film and it's a western, so judging by his previous western effort, Dances With Wolves it's looking good. Costner co-stars with Robert Duvall as a couple of free-rangers who get on the wrong side of the local bad-guy, played by Michael Gambon. Classic Western scenario but it reminded me of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven in that both films look at the Old West in a new and more realistic light. I don't like to give anything away but I have a major problem with the ending though - very bad.

Open Water

This film is very very VERY boring. It's only on for 80 minutes and for almost the first hour absolutely nothing of any interest happens. When things do start to happen they happen very slowly and with no sense of excitement. It's all just so bland and uninvolving. And, once again stop reading right now if you don't want to know the ending. This I found really irritating: The beginning of the film proclaims that it is 'based on true events' but if this is the case how can anyone know what the sequence of events was as soon as the two protagonists were left alone in the vastness of the ocean, considering that they both die at the end? Now that's just dumb.

Owning Mahowny

Fact-based drama about Dan Mahowny, a bank manager from Toronto wrestling with his growing gambling problem. When the main character has such an all-consuming gambling habit, and is surrounded by such a large amount of money in his workplace you just know it's not going to take long for things to spin out of control, and indeed they do. The speed with which his debts mount and the sheer scale of them beggars belief, but if you were to ask Dan about the whole thing he'd only admit to having 'a few financial problems'. Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role gives a performance of such mesmerising intensity that you just can't take your eyes off him wherever he is in the frame and whatever he's doing. In fact, I was so fixated on his performance that it took about twenty minutes for me to notice that his girlfriend is played by Minnie Driver. Philip Seymour Hoffman has always been one of my favourite actors, but with this film he's risen to the very top of my Most Wanted List. This is also the best film about the psychology of gambling and gamblers that I've seen.

The Station Agent

Interesting film about a dwarf who inherits an old railway depot no longer in use when his friend dies and leaves him it in his will. He goes off to live in this railway station and collects a few new friends, against his will originally. This is one of those feel-good movies where nothing much happens but there's an inviting atmosphere about the whole affair, and it seems as if the cast and crew enjoyed themselves making it. All the main characters play their parts very well and although it's not a thrill a minute it is an engaging little journey.

21 Grams

Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu's new film. The last one he directed which I caught was Amores Perros, which was very well done but not exactly a barrel of laughs, and neither is this one. Drug addiction, self-loathing, death and the destruction of families pretty much sums it up. The acting is very good - Sean Penn turns in another Oscar worthy performance and the story is engaging enough, and it's very well directed as you would expect, but it would be nice to see some light at the end of the tunnel.