Clerks 2

It was years ago that the low budget movie of Clerks came to this blog. Clerks is a movie with one of the lowest budgets I have ever seen and I have to admit that I don't really remember the plot of it so I will have to go back and re-watch it just to familiarise myself with the plot.

Clerks 2 starts  off with the burning down of the shop from the first film. Randall left something on that managed to catch fire and send the entire building up in flames. So it's not the same setting as they all have to move to working in some burger king like place in America. Randall seems to be the same as ever- making general mistakes with people's names and offending people. The part where he kicks the ass of two LOTR fans was genius (even if I am more of a rings fan than a star wars fan).

I don't really remember Dante ever having a fiancee in the first film so If she doesn't feature in that film then this is a cast addition but otherwise it is the same main cast of 5/6 and the same low budget style. I can't help but get the feeling that they spent the budget on the Jackson 5 Dance sequence that takes place towards the end of the movie. What seems like a simple plot is not entirely as simple as it appears but we all like a twist and a positive ending. Ben Affleck's cameo was also nice.

The soundtrack is great and the entire thinking behind it of you don't need a lot of money or a star to make a good movie is entirely fulled by these films but they don't work for everyone. Watch works for Clerks and the sequel is that most of us have worked in a shop at some point and the smaller the shop the less staff there are so you do have conversations of a similar nature in your shop while you are working. It's not completely unrealistic but there are things that Randal says when you just think that whoever was hiring them would have fired them for saying something like that.

I actually felt that this film was better than the first film but I may be the only one who felt that way.

Unfortunately I don't have anything scheduled while I am away so I may surprise you with one post but there wont be frequent posts for the next two weeks.

Smiley's people

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was reviewed last year on the blog. It was of course actually a tv episode feature that was made many years back starring Sir Alec Guinnes and Richard Harris and is the only episode feature to feature on the blog in any year. Smiley's people, for anyone familiar with John Le Carre's books is the third and final instalment in the series against Karla. With the second feature being 'The honourable schoolboys' and not turned into a tv work one can only assume that they have taken any relevant information and placed it somewhere in these episodes so that the audience can continue to follow the plot.

Sir Alec Guiness returns to finish his mission against Karla and most of the previous cast are now long gone out of the circus, retired or dead. There is no real spy to this, no real shooting because it is just another 'non-existent' mission that Smiley has to undertake in order to finish what he started. Karla is starting to leave a trail of evidence carelessly behind him as he goes around and this will end up being his downfall.

You are looking up spending more than 4 hours watching these episodes just to discover who Karla actually is (Patrick Stewart) and what he looks like. You aren't watching it for the action, you are watching it either because you have followed it this far and want to see it concluded or because you are a lover of Alec Guinness. I am both so I enjoyed it greatly.

As always, the character of Smiley doesn't actually give that much away and with Alec Guinness playing a similar character to that of Ben Kenobi from his acclaimed performance in 'Star Wars', the emotionally controlled performance is exactly what the character in the book always has. There is no humour in this series and not really a masterclass performance but just a nice ending to the story that we all wanted. I haven't read this book but I will add that in this novel from the wikipedia quick search I did George Smiley isn't really looking for any friends and isn't making any effort to make any more so there are a lot less characters in this series.

All the struggle, all the dodging of people's company and attempting to show no emotion comes down to hardly being able to face his enemy once his enemy is in custody. There is symbolism at the end of the final episode but I don't really understand it and can't explain it so I wont. For the simplicity of watching a genius at work in an old film and admiring the way that the world of film used to work this is an excellent series to apply four hours of your time to. Never pass off any chance you get to watch Alec Guinness.

I am going to try and watch a few films before going away at the end of the week so as to keep the blog going but otherwise just bare with me because I am taking the first holiday I have had in five years abroad and wont have any internet access to write about anything new I may watch.

Cowboys & Aliens

When Daniel Craig was making two or three movies a year, just after becoming James Bond this was another one of the films that he made. It coincided with Harrison Ford becoming slightly big again so this was more 2008/9 and possibly more 'Quantum of Solace' than 'Casino Royale' time.

Much more of the focus will have been on Harrison Ford as he had made that terrible fourth Indiana Jones movie and it wasn't considered to be a particularly good film. It wasn't spectacular from him but he played it nicely. With him not being the main character there was a lot more freedom from him but he did spend one entire scene just looking worried- did anyone teach him to do something other than look worried or have that Indi smerk??

After more than an hour we welcome the first 'Alien' to the movie. With a weird bracelet until that point being the most alien like feature of the film and immediately after the introduction of the alien the woman being on the verge of death, after one hour the movie gets interesting. Even a top class performance from Daniel Craig doesn't make this a particularly interesting film. For the most part this plot just seems to go round in circles and rarely differentiates from other cowboy films. No one part stood out from the rest of the film and no one character stood out from the others. Daniel Craig had the most screen time so it looked like he was the best actor but he wasn't as good as he has been as James Bond.

Olivia Wilde was probably the best of the bunch and having more of 'Zoe' from 'Firefly' feel to her than of a typical woman in the west. She was strong and emotional but she wasn't the strongest character. That's not her fault and she did the best that she could with the character but her role was really to be the love interest of Daniel Craig, to die and come back to life and to just guide him along in the movie.

Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I am and of this film. It's weird, the play is weird, everything about it is weird.

The play is three hours long and seems to be one big game between two characters. They invite this couple that they have only just met over for drinks. This is very late on in the evening and the couple are younger. Manners seem to go out the window and they just creep out this couple in a bad way, in an uncomfortable way. I would hate to be in that situation and would look for a way to escape from that environment.

Elizabeth Taylor (National Velvet, Lassie Come Home) and Richard Burton (1984, Hamlet, Alexander the Great) take on the lead couple but it is not the best performance from Elizabeth Taylor, more of a different performance. The character is weird and as I haven't read the play or seen the play (not that I want to) I can't say that she isn't doing a good job of portraying the character but there have been more convincing performances from Elizabeth Taylor or at least character better suited to her that allow her to shine a little more.

Even though the movie was made only 8 years after 'Cat on a hot tin roof' Elizabeth Taylor looks a lot older and they obviously chose to shoot this film in black and white. I don't know if she put on weight for this film or they just upped the makeup and effects for this film because I would have sworn that there was something like twenty years in between those two films. Both actors looked a lot older than they actually were for those films. Knowing that Imelda Staunton is playing this role gives an idea of the age range of the character and I am surprised that these actors pulled off the age of these characters so that is an extra thumbs up for them.

The film manages to cut off almost an hour from the stage production so thanks for that because most of this film is a lot of shouting, screaming wildly or generally being a little crazy and three hours is far too much to endure if that is all that it is going to be. With hardly anything in the setting- just the interior of the house and the exterior of the house there is nothing to contribute to the scenery or set expenses so it is safe to assume that the movie was low budget because they spent the budget on their stars. Having watched the film I am not particularly inspired to go and see the stage production. Maybe the play is just like that, just that weird with the only memorable moments coming from them jumping around the house singing 'Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?' and it's not a bad adaptation of the play but either way it isn't selling the play very well.

Fist of Fury

There aren't many martial arts film on the blog this year and it is very difficult to space them out preferably so I apologise for that because it is likely to be months until the next martial arts film features unless I manage to acquire a few more.

Fist of Fury is a Bruce Lee film- not Bruce Li. This is the Bruce Lee who died at the age of 32 and was a Hong-Kong and American martial artist. He is not the father of Jet Li and is not Bruce Li who became an impersonator of Bruce Lee after his death. Enter the Dragon is another Bruce Lee film which hopefully will feature on this blog later on in the year.

Fist of Fury is a little confusing at the start. The version I have is already dubbed in English and yet my media player attempted to sub it as well which made no sense because the subtitles weren't even close to what was being said. If you don't understand the language then learn a few word to try and pick up as the film goes on and appreciate the work of the film without the terrible subtitles that are hardly ever accurate or the irritating American voice overs (no offence meant to any Americans reading this- i'm sure you find British voice overs just as irritating). This film is similar to Ip Man. Japanese and Chinese martial arts schools end up fighting against each other to prove which one is better, or rather, the Japanese school has the teacher of the Chinese school poisoned and then the entire Japanese school looses a fight to Bruce Lee.

No one type of martial art is better that the other. Some people are better suited to one thing than the other and sometimes a school just has a better fighter than the opposing schools but that doesn't actually mean that the martial art is better than another and yet the have made at least four martial arts films based on this theory- which was probably a huge cultural argument. This film is rather more dated than Ip Man and so there is less actual action in it, the fight scenes look a little slower or less impressive but that is technology and evolution for you. Bruce Lee cemented his place in history with his impressive skills, no question about that at all so let's not waste too much time talking about those fights scenes in this film.

In Fist of Fury he is known as the 'boxer' and when you watch him fight you can see why. He doesn't box but his style of fighting certainly isn't what we have typically come to associate with Wing Chun. Lee learnt under Yip Man and because of the films Ip Man and watching Donnie Yen perform different moves to Bruce Lee it is interesting to know if Bruce Lee adapted Wing Chun or if he just stuck to what he was taught and Wing Chun has advanced since he was learning and fighting. From reading up about him I can see that in school he was mentored a little by a boxer so that would explain why his style looks different from typical Wing Chun.

What I don't understand about this film is why he is so much better than everyone else in the film. Even in his school, he is not head of his school and yet he is the only one who can defeat those that fight against him. It's a combination of arrogance from his character but also supreme strength and skill that surely must be found in at least one other student in the school. Yes, everyone has a theory about there always being a 'chosen one' and Lee's character in this film was probably the 'chosen one' but even so, from the start he skill is far greater than anyone else's.

Watching Lee fight in this film is watching a work of art. His style is so different that you will only find it in Bruce Lee films.

The Pink Panther Strikes Again.

Last year I watched two of them and this year I will watch the other three films. Understanding the plot of the first film properly helps to understand how they can make so many films which are still funny. Peter Sellers is Clouseau and no one else will ever be because no one else will be as funny as him in this role. It's scripted, natural humour and it shows the genius of a good scriptwriter.

This one is about the attempted revenge of the former chief inspector who in the previous film was committed to an asylum for the insane. After years of treatment and having to brutally attack a figure of Clouseau he is about to be released from the asylum when Clouseau turns up to say some good words on his behalf, which ends up with Clouseau knocking the man into the water at least two if not three times. He attempts to kill Clouseau and is denied release so he escapes and plots his destruction of Clouseau.

Some typically bad police work from Clouseau shows the entire of England that he is an awful policeman as well as France. However, it is hilarious and good to see some genuinely funny moments and script writing. Some times you can see what is going to happen before it does and you star laughing before the event has even taken place but for other moments, because it is so stupid you know that something is going to happen but you can't guess what is going to happen because there are too many possibilities.

With Herbert Lom as the crazy evil Dracula like villain playing the organ in a castle and the focus just around these two characters from the start until the end there is nothing more enjoyable. The plan was thought out except that they can never predict exactly what he will do because he will always do the unexpected, even if it is incredibly stupid. He is not overly crazy or evil, the character has a really nice balance of evil schemes and pleasantness.

Burt Kwouk reprising his role as 'Cato', the butler like sparing partner of Clouseau who hides in bizarre places like on top of the bed, waiting for Clouseau to come back, settle down and be off his guard. Consequently the bed breaks and everything in the appartment gets smashed as they turn to Kendo sticks and other weapons. It's hilarious and 'Cato' is probably the best character in the series. Every time I finish one of these films I have to fight to stop myself from just loading up the next film. No remake of these films will ever be as good as the original.

The Expendables 3

So by this point we've worked out exactly what to expect from these films. The third film doesn't quite have the same stellar name cast that hit the first film so spectacularly because by this point half the team are dead.

With Schwarzenegger taking on his normal cameo roles where he sort of just features in a few scenes and the same being said for Harrison Ford there was a need to take on a few other new members to make the team the same size that they were originally. Antonio Banderas spent at least half of the film trying to get Barney (Stallone) to accept his non-stop talking character who can free run and shoot a lot as part of his team and he had his uses but if it were my team I would not be taking on someone who talked that much! We've seen already from that terrible film X-men Origins: Wolverine that perfect soldiers are ones who don't talk all the time.

Wesley Snipes was also a new addition to the team with him taking a break from starring in the 'Blade films'. The reprise of only wearing black was nice to see. Take the Batman approach and just stick to one colour. Glen Powell is making his second feature on the blog within the space of a week and that has to say a lot because I haven't actually seen many of his films. A different role to his character in 'Hidden Figures' and good to see him doing something a little different. He can pull off action films but equally can pull of being in most other films.

Unfortunately, what this film highlights is the serious lack of ability to act by Stallone. There is more than one scene which seriously focuses on him in a close up and he just has no facial expressions. Action films are definitely his thing but that doesn't mean that he can act. In order to stop these rants I am going to start selectively not watching films which star him in because I can't bear watching more films in which he just does the exact same thing. He has two ways of delivering a line- aggressively or slightly less aggressively and it is really puzzling to try and understand why he has been in so many films when his acting is fairly one dimensional.

You know what you get with these films. Some great action scenes, lots of shooting and some brilliant music. When you are having a classic action movie night these films have to make the list because they are exactly what the genre should be.

Hidden Figures

I'm not sure how these films were selected for release but they certainly made sure that there was a nice selection of diversity for the Oscars this year so that we didn't have a repeat of the 'whiteoscars' that we had last year.

Hidden Figures, like Fences, deals with this idea of Racism but instead of accepting that your world is different from the 'white people' this film challenges that view and instead says 'if you're good enough we'll change things'. This time we are thinking of highly intelligent women working in NASA, all be it in a completely different part of the NASA complex who are hardly considered to be worth anything until they need someone really good with numbers and a woman who is great as an un qualified mechanic. Three women win their battles. One woman, Katherine Johnson becomes the woman whose maths are needed before a man can take off for space. She corrected the maths of the entire mechanic team, changed their thinking and found out the formulas to make the mission to orbit the earth possible. She goes on to be part of the team responsible for sending a man to moon and her name is no longer missed off of reports that contain entirely her work.

The two other woman go on to take control of their own destiny as well. One becomes the only 'coloured' woman to go to a 'white only' night class to complete mechanic training to become a qualified NASA mechanic. She wins her court case to enable her the right to go to them and then she goes on to make history. The other woman goes on to be the supervisor of thirty other 'coloured' women operating a system that was going to replace them all. She was denied the role of supervisor even though she was already doing that job without being given the pay or the title. She's one step ahead of them and learns how to operate the machines so that when the IBM screws up she can sort it all out. She single-handedly secures the jobs of thirty people.

Kevin Costner in his role removes segregation and treats Katherine with respect. He is the standout character- his is the strongest character. The stories of these women's lives are so important because I know nothing about NASA and learning that actually her research was so important is fantastic. Watching 'Sheldon Cooper' be a similar character and watching him get his ass kicked by those women is fantastic, better than fantastic because Jim Parsons is so 'Sheldon', which means that he is probably just being himself that watching his arrogance take a serious kick is just really enjoyable.

Hidden figures is powerful and everyone should take the time to watch this film.

The Green Mile

Tom Hanks is a rare feature on this blog because I am not the biggest fan of his but this film has been recommended to me by numerous people.

The Green Mile has a very Shawshank Redemption feel to it. The Shawshank Redemption featured on the first year of the blog and hopefully that was long enough for me to be able to make the odd comparison here and there and get away with it.

It's a three hour long film which was slightly unusual for that time and at times felt a little bit lethargic. With the same sort of feel as 'The Silence of the Lambs' because most of the scenes are done in prison it is easy to find it a little boring. I haven't read the Stephen King book that this was adapted from so I don't know how accurate this film is but I would love for anyone who has read the book to comment and let me know if it is anything like the film or vice-versa.

The wardens (or whatever they really are) were probably the best pick of the cast. They had all the laughs and some of the best lines. They were easily the best characters in terms of development and expression. Although the focus was really on 'John' and his weird powers his character was a solom (spelling) one and when that was added to the giant of a man that he was the character was intimidating but not crazy or anything like that, just intimidating. Watching him bring the mouse back to life was lovely. They captured the emotion of the other guards with the serious nature of it all.

The villain was deserving of everything that came his way. Yes, there were some moments when he was made to look like an idiot by the crazy guy in the cell but that doesn't excuse his behaviour and he deserved to look like a fool. The other guys were the ones who showed control, restraint, humour- everything needed to make a complete character and they controlled the prison- this guy didn't control anything or have anything that was needed to make him a complete character.

Good film but i've now seen it so I don't need to see it again.