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Reviews
Four Lions (2010)
Hits most of it's targets
When it was first announced that provocative comedian Chris Morris was planning on directing a film about a group of jihadist suicide bombers my reaction, as a long term fan of Morris' work, was "that will be brilliant...if it ever gets made." Over the years Morris has taken acerbic and absurdist pot-shots at politicians, celebrities and the press and all the while gleefully trampled his comedy boots over any topic that could be even remotely labelled 'taboo'.
So when I sat down to watch 'Four Lions' I braced myself for a film that would sail close to the winds of controversy with a disregard for whomever may find any of the content offensive.
In actuality it turned out to be quite.... soft.
Well, maybe 'soft' is the wrong word, Four Lions has definitely got bigger balls than any other comedy films of recent years; Morris (along with co-writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstong) should be applauded for having the guts to tackle such a touchy subject. But compare Four Lions to the rest of his comedic output of recent years and it seems oddly unique, a comedy that isn't afraid to put a smile on the audiences face.
Not since 'The Day Today' has Morris injected his work with such a degree of silliness and fun. Four Lions is full of memorable characters, good gags and snappy dialogue. I think that this shows a maturity to Morris' work, he clearly no longer feels the need to goad or shock the audience to elicit laughs (Jam) or populate a project entirely with dislikable characters (Nathan Barley). If anything this, despite the subject matter, seems like Morris' most 'traditional' style of comedy he's approached. A luxury he can surely afford himself, given the amount of ground he's broken in the last two decades.
The film centres around a gang of five young Muslim men in the north of england and their plans to stage a memorable and epic suicide attack. Led by Omar (Riz Ahmed), the group wrestles with power struggles, hair-brained schemes and general stupidity and ineptitude.
The movie cleverly avoids bombarding the audience with any political opinion by being too silly to be taken seriously. If there's any message to be read from the film it's this: 'We're not saying Muslim extremists are stupid... but these ones are'.
Though this is what gives the film a lot of it's charm, it's also partly it's downfall. The film is entirely populated by stupid people, which brings to mind the films of Christopher Guest. To begin with the daft exploits of Omar's gang of misfit revolutionaries is a rich vein of comedy gold but when the film goes past the one-hour mark, like Guests' movies, this starts to feel a tad one dimensional. Omar is the only character that displays any kind of nous, and his frustration at being surrounded by idiots is, I feel, mirrored by the audience.
It's the performance of Riz Ahmed as Omar that really gives the film some heart, The scenes showing him at home as a proud father and supporting husband brings a much needed pathos and realism amongst the farcical antics of his cohorts.
One criticism that I can also aim at the film is the fact that we don't get to see why Omar is ready to sacrifice his life for his beliefs. It's easy to see how Waj (Kayvan Novak), Faisal (Adeel Akhtar) and Hassan (Arsher Ali) became radicalised, they're all clearly stupid enough to believe anything they're told and psychotic white convert Barry (Nigel Lindsay) is clearly itching to see any kind of carnage. There are brief moments where we see Omar's more traditionalist brother but any kind of conflict or discussion between the two must have ended on the cutting room floor due to lack of laughs. A shame really, as I think it would have been worthwhile to take time to establish the main characters' motivations.
But, all in all, Four Lions is very much a film that everyone should watch. Not only does it provide a solid amount of entertainment, It also succeeds in enlightening the audience on it's chosen subject matter. If anything, by portraying some Islamic extremists as a group of bickering twerps, it actually humanises them more than the gun-wielding 'terrorist threats' that the mainstream media portrays.
As well as a standout performance by Riz Ahmed, the supporting cast is also very good with Kayvan Novak and Nigel Lindsay's characters standing out in particular. The dialogue is sharp and extremely quotable and gives the film an immediate 're-watch' factor. For me, there were no massive 'piss yourself laughing' moments but compared to the current crop of movie comedies, Four Lions hits most of it's targets.
The Wolfman (2010)
It's not cool but it is good
Joe Johnstone's remake of the 1941 horror classic was a box-office bomb; Made on a budget of $150 million, the film managed to scrape back a peasy-assed $140 million-ish at the cinemas (that's worldwide, mind).
The film seemed cursed (pun, as always, intended) before it's release as stories of directorial changes and production delays held the film up. Upon release the film met indifferent reviews and quickly disappeared from public conscience; but for some reason I felt an urge to give it a go.
Maybe it was because I thought it would be good to see Benicio Del Toro headlining a 'mainstream' movie or maybe it was the fact the brilliant original is still the benchmark of werewolf movies but still old and quaintly archaic enough to warrant a 're-imagining'.
Upon watching it's very easy to understand why the film failed to find an audience. The style of the movie is reminiscent of the Gothic spookiness of recent family friendly horror-lite such as Van Helsing or the Twilight series but the film contains enough blood, viscera and gore to warrant it's 15 certificate (R in the US). Though this was an attempt to give the film some much needed credence in the horror genre (the original is, after all, a pioneer of terror) compare it to the current swathe of 'torture-porn', the SAW movies and their copycat offspring and The Wolfman seems tame, like almost, well, a kid's movie.
Away from the current trends of modern horror, The Wolfman stands out as a very entertaining, old-school, blood-and-guts romp. That's right, you heard me, 'ROMP'. You don't see enough films these days being referred to as 'romps'... But, I digress, whereas a lot of fantasy films these days have decided to maintain an air of po-faced seriousness, The Wolfman is a film that is aware of it's own sense of silliness and this undoubtedly is, in my opinion, a good thing.
With each wolf-attack sequence seemingly trying to tick off an inventory of 'cool and creative ways of killing people' the action sequences, despite the odd bit of 'see-the-lines' CG are well-shot and superbly edited together.
The style and tone of the film is impressive, with some tasty Gothic set design and a decent amount of creepy forests at night. The film's makers made a good decision to keep the film as a period piece as opposed to setting it in the modern day. It resembles an early Tim Burton film with creative use of shadows and colour (it also has a Danny Elfman score which adds to the Burton-esqueness) The acting is largely spot-on too, Del Toro maintains an air of tortured menace throughout, Emily Blunt does a good job despite her character being dragged out to show a bit of side-boob and offer a sympathetic ear to our titular monster and very little else. However, Anthony Hopkins and Hugo Weaving seem to be more than aware of the type of film they're making and are both clearly hamming it all the way to the bank, which benefits the film immensely.
The film successfully updates the original without tarnishing the memory of the Universal horror classic, it largely maintains the same story as the original and keeps the same characters and is a worthy addition to the Werewolf sub-genre.
The Wolfman is a rare treat, a piece of brainless escapism that keeps the audience gripped from start to finish, anyone with half a brain will spot the plot twists a mile off but that doesn't matter. It won't tax the brain or change the way you think about life and it won't have you thinking about it for any time afterwards but it succeeds in being an entertaining, dark and thrilling horror romp.
That's right..... Romp.
Electra Glide in Blue (1973)
A Seminal Cult Cop Movie
The film follows 'Big' John Wintergreen (Robert Blake), a diminutively statured highway patrolman based in the deserts of Arizona. John takes pride in his work and does his job fairly and efficiently but also yearns to be promoted to the rank of detective and see some real police work. When he discovers the apparent suicide of an eccentric loner and, rightfully, suspects foul play, his opportunity arrives and he is taken under the wing of no-nonsense Detective Harve Poole (Mitch Ryan). This sets John off on a journey that makes him question justice, authority and his own sense of identity.
I really enjoyed the film. From an era in which Hollywood was seemingly torn in half by rebellious counter-culture movies such as 'Easy Rider' and hard-boiled Cop dramas like 'Dirty Harry', Electra Glide In Blue makes a bold step in placing itself somewhere in between these two camps. The film, like John himself, views both authority figures and free-spirited hippies with an even-handed face value, with neither side being demonised or exalted. The influence of Easy Rider looms heavily over the picture, not only in the stylised photography of the American landscape and the depiction of the motorcycle as the modern day outlaw's 'steed' but also with some knowing references to 1969 counter-culture classic, the film's ending cleverly mirrors that of Easy Rider but Guercio is quite blatant in showing that his film has a different agenda entirely (one scene features Wintergreen and his other officers using a poster of Hopper and Fonda as target practice at the shooting range).
Although Wintergreen is depicted as the films 'hero', he is clearly a flawed and complex man. He seems to be driven to achieve greater things by a kind of Napoleon syndrome, as his height (or lack of it) is referred to throughout the film, not only is he jokingly referred to as 'Big' John, there are barely any scenes in which he stands eye-to-eye with another character. It's only when he's perched upon his motorcycle does he feel equal with the rest of the world. This, ultimately, becomes his undoing as he clearly begins to resent the fact that, when away from his bike, he lacks the confidence and grit to be an able detective. At one points an exasperated Wintergreen says (about his motorcycle) "I'm here to tell you there ain't nothing' in the world I hate worse than that elephant under my ass." The film is ultimately about loneliness, escapism, aspirations and a yearning to find one's true self. The murder investigation that ties the film together simply acts as a macguffin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin- for those who aren't in the know) to base Wintergreen's journey of self discovery around. Another theme of the film is the ambiguity of justice and the middle ground between right and wrong as Wintergreen learns the difficulty of upholding the law without breaking a few rules, and his career aspirations become tainted as he fights against the apathy and corruption of his fellow police officers. This is a film which has neither good guys or bad guys.
As well as having a strong narrative structure the film is wonderfully photographed and it's a shame that, to this date, this is the only film that John William Guercio has directed as he shows a real flair for film-making. He establishes scenes by focusing on peripheral information as opposed to putting the main action right up front. The story unfolds at a gradual pace and Guercio uses the breathtaking Arizona landscapes as a character itself to highlight Wintergreen's isolation and loneliness (both of these aspects reminded me strongly of the work of Terrence Malick). The film also uses some wonderfully stylised sequences to set up the scenario and the opening credit sequence, in which Wintergreen meticulously puts on his highway patrolman's uniform seems to fetishise the appearance of the motorcycle cop (surely referenced by the T-1000 in James Cameron's Terminator 2- Judgement Day?) I thoroughly enjoyed Electra Glide In Blue and can find only a handful of flaws with it. There are a couple of sequences that seemed out of step with the rest of the film- There is a frenetic stunt-laden chase scene that, although it impresses individually, seems to jar with the philosophical nature of the rest of the film. Another scene, in which a waitress is revealed to be the object of affection of both Wintergreen and Poole seemed to drag a little and could have easily ended up on the cutting room floor without greatly affecting the structure of the film.
But all-in-all a very well made and interesting film. Robert Blake gives a brilliant performance, the pacing of the film and the dialogue hold up well and the cinematography is superb. It also features an exceptionally memorable final shot.
9/10
Now, I know James William Guercio has never made another film but has Robert Blake done anything interesting lately?.......
The Wicker Man (1973)
One of the all time great British horror films
I had seen The Wicker Man twice before. The first time I watched it, when I was about 16 or 17 (I'm 30 now) I just didn't get it, maybe this was because I was at an age when if a film had Christopher Lee in it and was on after midnight, I usually had a pre-conceived idea of what it would contain. I revisited a few years later and upon second viewing I did 'get it'. Watching it for the third time reiterated my opinion that it is one of the great British horror movies.
The story centres around a police officer, Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) visiting a remote Scottish island, Summerisle, to investigate a report of a missing 12 year old girl. Upon arrival at the island, the islander's all deny any knowledge of the girl's existence, even the woman believed to be her mother. As Howie continues to investigate he begins to discover that all is not quite right on Summerisle, with the villagers seemingly practising their own religion, a lot of which entails highly sexual behaviour, which grates against Sergeant Howie's own strong Christian views. The islanders also seem to all be operating under the orders of the mysterious Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). The town's disregard for Howie's authority and religious beliefs causes him to investigate further and when he discovers that the girl must be somewhere on the island, this starts a series of events that lead to a shocking climax.
The reason the film works so well is because it eschews a lot of the horror conventions that were common in the era that it was made. Rather than using formulaic devices ('Don't open that door!' etc), the film uses it's location and cast of bizarre characters to create a sense of a creeping and gradual uneasiness. There aren't many moments that will cause you to jump out of your skin but the film contains surreal and disturbing imagery to create a sense of fear within the audience (another film that does this is The Shining). Another aspect of the film that sets it apart from it's peers is the soundtrack, which consists of traditional folk and pagan music that goes well with the films location and imagery, in fact, there are points in the film that almost feel like a musical, which lends itself well to the slightly surreal nature of the movie.
What I like about the film is the fact that, as an audience, we are watching the film through the eyes of Sergeant Howie. He appears in every scene and we don't find out any information before he does, so his confusion and intrigue is matched by our own. Another aspect that helps the film work is the location. The fact that all the action takes place on a remote island adds to the fear. Howie arrives by plane, and when he tries to leave the plane has been sabotaged, therefore trapping him and the audience on the island. This is an incredibly effective device which adds to the fear the film contains. Another factor that helps the film is the islander's behaviour towards Howie, they never show any fear or appear to be intimidated by him and treat him with a casual indifference and amusement despite his authority, this gives him (and us) a feeling of powerlessness.
I think that the film is about the dangers of organised religion and a clash of ideals and the devastation that these things can cause.
It is a very well made film. The direction and cinematography are superb and Woodward and Lee both play their parts with convincing aptitude, the soundtrack is also brilliant too. It also features an incredible final shot too.
An excellent and fascinating film 9/10 ...now what's this I hear about a remake?....