Arizona Dream.

Described as a surrealist comedy drama this early outing for both Johnny Depp and Vincent Gallo is a 'vision of the world that does not correspond to the weary write by numbers formulas of standard screenplays'[1]. Certainly more European than American Arizona Dream (1993) was filmed in 1991 released all over Europe in 1993 where it was highly regarded eventually becoming a cult film in France, but did not get a theatrical release in the USA until September 1994 and in the UK in June 1995, even a decent  DVD release never came about until much later. Watching this film you can't help but question why was there a delay in releasing this intriguing movie?

 

The wonderful Lili Taylor with a young looking Johnny Depp.

Directed and written by filmmaker Emir Kusturica. Although he has twice won the Palme d'Or at Cannes his is a name I was not familiar with but I must admit I was very impressed with my first experience of the Serbian director. Surrealistic is certainly the correct description for a film in which you’re never sure quite what's going to happen next! Depp plays Axel Blackmar whose dream about an Eskimo, who catches a rare halibut, gets rescued by his dog and finally gets the fish back to his family, opens the preceding's. Both the dog and the halibut make further appearances in the movie as our story unfolds.

 

Vincent Gallo and Faye Dunaway.

Axel earns his living tagging fish in New York City and it’s there he is approached by his cousin Paul Leger (Gallo best known for his roles in Buffalo 66 in 1998 and The Brown Bunny in 2003) to travel back to Arizona to be the best man at his Uncle Leo’s wedding (a truly great role for comedian Jerry Lewis whose ‘made up’ Eskimo language is one of the movies highlight's) to a much younger woman. Paul, who thinks of him self as a great ladies man, dreams of being an actor while Leo Sweetie dreams of selling enough Cadillac’s piled on top of one another to reach the moon. Leo talks Axel into becoming a salesman with the eventual aim of him taking over the management of his car sales business. While attempting to sell Cadillac’s Axel meets two women Elaine (Faye Dunaway) who dreams of building a flying machine and her stepdaughter Grace Stalker (Lili Taylor, who also played opposite Depp in 2009’s Public Enemies and was the first to be cast in this movie) who dreams of killing herself and being reincarnated as a turtle.

 

The comedic Jerry Lewis.

I think you may gleam from my brief description that Kusturica's beautifully evocative movie is not your standard main steam cinematic fodder but something slightly of the wall; well ok it's a long way of the wall! Ten years in the planning/writing stage it took a year to shoot during which time the director had a nervous breakdown! First cut was 4 hours that was finally reduced to around 140 minutes for release. In an interview Depp said all the actors morphed into the character that they were playing and that the script was adjusted and altered as the filming progressed also additional scenes were added. The director's work reminds me of Fellini, a man who also has his own unique way of working, and does not sound an easy man to work with, although it is said that after some initial problems he got on very well with his lead star. An unusual but very diverting piece of movie making and one I would highly recommend.

....and playing us out tonight.....

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[1] Chicago Sun-Times Review January 1995

Transcendence.

Bullshite with knobs on, this science fiction ‘thriller’ (a word I use very loosely) about an attempt to incur world domination by Artificial Intelligence via an uploaded brain into a computer hard drive, does its level best not to keep you awake while watching! Even considering its star line up, which includes Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman and Paul Bettany, can’t save this part Chinese financed movie from masquerading as an entertaining film, perhaps it’s a deliberate plot by The Peoples Republic to pour scorn onto the American film industry. Would someone please inform them that the Americans are quite capable of doing that themselves!

 

Not Depp's best performance come back Captain Jack.

Dr Will Caster (Depp) is working on AI and not every one agrees with his work. One such person shoots Caster who eventually dies from his injuries and his wife (Hall) decides to upload his brain to a super computer the Doctor has been building. This she believes will keep her husband ‘alive’ but what she does not realise is that is her husband is a megalomaniac and desires world domination! Will he succeed in his dastardly deed; well you find that out in the opening scene, which puts the kibosh on generating any tension!

Even with a big name star from Peaky Blinders couldn't improve the calibre of this movie !

This pretentious nonsense is the first film directed by Wally Pfister who is normally to be found behind the camera, most notably for Christopher Nolan. It was filmed in New Mexico and did win an award when it tied with Interstellar (2014) for the Worse Film Award in the Village Voice film poll. If you suffer from insomnia, this is the film for you.        

The Lone Ranger.

Sometimes it pays to ignore the critics. A case in point is the latest movie from the ‘Pirate’ partnership of producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski and of course Johnny Depp. If I had listened to other people I would never have seen The Lone Ranger (2013) a film that turned out to be very entertaining and humorous, in fact it was laugh out loud funny due to Depp’s natural comedic skills. 

 

The indian and  the spirit horse.

The movie is a revamp of a TV series of the same name that I loved to watch as a wee lad, one who was in love with any thing to do with westerns: comic books, films and on the TV, which in the past never ignored the genre. This American TV series ran from 1947 to 1954 and continued beyond these dates because of continuous reruns on British TV, well after the series finished in the States. The most famous incarnation was with Clayton Moore playing the masked man in a total of 169 episodes. John Hart followed him in the remaining 52, episodes that have hardly seen the light of day since their first release. Jay Silverheels played Tonto, the Lone Rangers constant companion, in 217 episodes.

 

The Villain.

The unscrupulous railway tycoon.

In the latest outing of this classic western Depp plays the Comanche Indian Tonto who takes credit as the inspiration behind the invention of the masked avenger and crime fighter. It’s also Tonto, as an old man, who relates the story to a young boy, how John Reid, a man of the law, was transformed into the legend of justice. Armie Hammer, who played both the Winklevoss Twins in The Social Network (2010), is the latest actor to play the man that brought justice to America’s old west and he does it with just the right amount of laid-back panache always making the audience think perhaps Reid is not quite the right man for the job but with the help of the white ‘spirit’ horse we all know as Silver, an enormous white Stetson and of course constant advise from an Indian with a well fed dead crow on his head he can’t go wrong, or can he?  They have to pit themselves against a great villain in the form of Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner), a ruthless and cannibalistic outlaw, whom Tonto believes is a wendigo.[1] Tom Wilkinson plays Latham Cole an unscrupulous railroad tycoon, the brilliant Ruth Wilson plays Johns love interest and ex sister in law Rebecca Reid (you will know Wilson from playing the wonderfully murderous Alice Morgan in the TV series Luther). James Badge Dale plays John Reid’s brother Dan and of course we must not forget the lethal ivory-legged brothel madam Red Harrington played with style by Helena Bonham Carter.

 

The love interest.

The ivory legged madam. 

A wee warning, on seeing this picture you must not take it too seriously, just as the TV series was always very tongue in cheek so is the movie version. I think the critics took the whole thing far too seriously, but it’s not, its just great fun and never boring. Enjoy.

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[1] A demonic half-beast creature appearing in the legends of the Algonquian peoples along the Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes Region of both the United States and Canada. The creature or spirit could either possess humans or be a monster that had physically transformed from a person. It is particularly associated with cannibalism. The Algonquian believed those who indulged in eating human flesh were at particular risk; the legend appears to have reinforced the practice of cannibalism as a taboo. It is often described in Algonquian mythology as a balance of nature.

Dark Shadows.

An American T.V. gothic soap opera created by Dan Curtis, that run from June 1966 to April 1971, became a childhood obsession for a certain John Christopher Depp the Second and it was this same gentleman that persuaded Tim Burton, a man who has made a very successful career out of dark eccentric movies, to direct the 2012 film version of Dark Shadows.

One rather dysfunctional family.

Seth Grahame-Smith’s screenplay starts in 1750 at the Port of Liverpool where Joshua and Naomi Collins along with their young son Barnabas set sail to start a new life in America. It’s here that they build a fishing business and a town called Collinsport. We move on twenty years and find that Barnabas Collins is a very rich and well to do young man who falls in love with the beautiful Josette DuPres. This upsets the powerful witch Angelique Bouchard who has fallen for the good-looking Barnabas. She casts an evil curse that forces Josette to jump off a cliff and turns Barnabas into a vampire and then buries him alive.

Angelique Bouchard.

We are still in Collinsport but two centuries later, its 1972 and workmen are extending the Angel Bay Fisheries when they displace a tomb from which emerges Barnabas Collins: Vampire!!!!!!! After a quick snack Collins returns to his ancestral home where he finds that his once grand estate has fallen into disrepair and is occupied by the dysfunctional remnants of his once proud family and a live-in psychiatrist. Our rejuvenated vampire decides to restore his families fortunes but discovers that the fisheries business, and the town is know run by a certain Ms Angelique Bouchard.

More families should have a live-in psychiatrist?

Tim Burtons tongue in cheek gothic comedy, which brings to mind Edward Scissorhands (1990) and HBO’s True Blood, stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas, Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard the family matriarch, Helena Bonham Carter as the previously mentioned live-in psychiatrist Dr. Julia Hoffman, the ever more beautiful Eva Green plays the vengeful witch Angelique Bouchard and Chloe Grace Moretz plays Elizabeth’s rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn. Both Christopher Lee and Alice Cooper, who plays himself, have cameo roles.

Fooling in love with a vampire is not always easy.

As well as a score composed by four time Oscar nominee and regular Burton collaborator Danny Elfman the soundtrack also includes several great rock and pop anthems from the likes of The Moody Blues, The Carpenters, T.Rex and Black Sabbath, with Depp chipping in on the Steve Miller track The Joker. The whole ‘look’ of the film is brilliant with some great sets from Rick Heinrich (Sleepy Hollow) and costume designs from Colleen Atwood (Alice in Wonderland). It was filmed entirely in England at the Pinewood Studios and on location. Depp’s performance as the wronged vampire is pure class and he is provided with some first rate dialog that is at the same time extremely funny and charming. In fact, although the critics reportedly said that this was not the greatest Burton/Depp collaboration, I found this wonderfully hammy nonsense to be a very agreeable evenings entertainment and can highly recommend it for a couple of hours pure escapism.

The Rum Diary.

Hunter S Thompson was an American writer who started life as a journalist and went on to write various best selling novels. He is credited as the originator of what became known as gonzo journalism, an exaggerated form of reportage where the writer becomes part of the story via a first person narrative. His other claim to fame is his excessive use of drugs and alcohol, which inadvertently led to him sadly committing suicide in 2005 at the age of 67. There had been two feature films based around his work, the first of which Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) starred Bill Murray as Thompson, the second Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) was directed by Terry Gilliam and this time Thompson’s friend Johnny Depp portrayed the journalist.

Richard Jenkins.

After a hiatus of nineteen years Bruce Robinson, who was responsible for Withnail & I (1987), was brought in to write the screenplay and direct The Rum Diary (2011), which was based on Thompson’s novel of the same name. Written in the 1960’s it was not published until 1998.  This time Johnny Depp not only starred in the film but also took on the function of producer. He plays the role of Thompson’s alter ego Paul Kemp a journalist who in 1960 moved from New York to San Juan in Puerto Rico to work on a daily newspaper and found him embroiled with some very unscrupulous US entrepreneurs.  

Giovanni Ribisi.

Lovingly shot on location in San Juan, the strength of this movie is in its very clever use of both verbal and perceived humour and the brilliantly drawn characters played by a superb cast: Richard Jenkins as the newspapers editor Lotterman, Michael Rispoli as Bob Sala news photographer and Kemps room mate and Giovanni Ribisi who steals ever scene he’s in as the substance abusing and Hitler loving Moberg. Depp’s love interest, there always is one, is the beautiful Scarlett Johansson look alike Amber Heard.   Johnny Depp executes his lines with great panache and really gives the impression that he is enjoying playing his role almost as much as this viewer enjoyed watching the film.

Mr Depp and love interest Amber Heard.