The Great Wall.

Sometimes its best to ignore the critics and go with your gut feelings and The Great Wall (2017) is a fine example of this. After seeing the trailer for the film at our local cinema I thought it may be well worthwhile shelling out for two tickets to see the movie on the big screen, which in all honesty is the only place to see it to get the best out of the special effects, and I was not disappointed. This is an exceptionally enjoyable movie with action that never stops from start to finish. And believe me its great to have such worthy escapism at this time of political upheaval. 

 

William Garin.

This Chinese/USA co-production is a fantasy monster movie set in the Song Dynasty (AD 1010-63). The story involves a band of mixed race mercenaries who are hunting for the ‘black powder’ but are attacked by bandits who reduce their numbers down from twenty to five. Continuing on their journey they are attacked by an unknown creature who kills a further three men before it is killed by the head of the mercenaries William Garin (Matt Damon) who cuts off its arm, keeping as a trophy.  Along with his side kick Pero Tovar (Pedro Pascal) they continue their search. That is until they accidently stubble on the iconic Great Wall of China that is manned by The Nameless Order who are a special part of the Chinese Military and are all specialist in their own field of battle. Led by General Shao (Zhang Hanyu), Strategist Wang (Andy Lau) and Commander Lin Mae (the very attractive Jing Tian) of the Crane Troop who have the task of holding the wall against invaders. It’s not long before our two soldiers of fortune discover that the arm belongs to the invaders - the TaoTie are a massive horde of alien monsters who are now due to attack after a break of sixty years. 

 

Commander Lin Mae.

Strategist Wang

General Shao.

Directed by Zhang Yimou, best known for The Road Home (1999) and the action fantasies Hero (2002), House of the Flying Daggers (2004) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) with an imaginative screenplay co-written by director/producer/writer Tony Gilroy. The movie has a large Chinese cast and shooting took place in Qingdao in the Peoples Republic of China and incidentally this movie is the most expensive film ever shot in that country. 

Elysium

After greatly appriciating Neill Blomkamp’s debut feature film District 9 (2009) I was looking forward to another exciting romp through the neverlands of the future with his latest feature film, and I was not disappointed.

 

Max Da Costa.

It's the year 2154. The earth is over populated and polluted. The very rich and powerful live above earth on an idyllic man made space station called Elysium. While the privileged are residing in comfort, good health and tranquil surrounding Earths population are living in derelict shantytowns, most have no jobs, except those who work in nuclear factories, food and adequate drinking water are scarce. Crime is the norm and the population is brutally controlled by armed robots.

 

Armed robots.

Max Da Costa (Mat Damon) an ex car thief and parolee works on the assembly line for the company that built Elysium. Max has always maintained that when he has enough money he would transport his childhood sweetheart Frey to the luxury community above the earth. But while he working, there's an accident and he receives a lethal dose of radiation leaving him with only 5 days to live. A deal is struck with local smuggler Spider for Max to get to Elysium in exchange for transferring the stations constitutional data to his own brain. Once there he can cure himself of the radiation sickness and if he takes Frey and her leukaemia stricken daughter all will be well.

 

The hard nosed Delacourt. 

Meanwhile on the space station it's chief security officer Delacourt (a real hard nosed Jodie Foster) is plotting to take control and reinforces her border controls with the help of the gruesome Kruger (Blomkamp regular Sharlto Copley) and his crew.

 

Kruger.

I really loved the noise and the power of Elysium (2013), It ticked all my boxes, the cinematography, the GC effects, the acting was all first rate.  Some sections of the movie reminded me of the later parts of Coppola's masterpiece Apocalypse Now (1979) with its hell like visions. The movie straddles the gulf between a socio political drama involving the criminal unfairness of the worlds healthcare system and a straightforward action packed sci-fi movie, it proved convincing in both camps. The difference between rich and poor is made very obvious, how the non-privileged class are deliberately kept down for the benefit of the rich. Similar to Blomkamp’s previous feature film deals with segregation but this time it’s financial. He said in an interview he believes the increase in population and decrease in resources means the whole planet will become one big Johannesburg of fortified communities nestling next to slums: will he be proved right?

Anyway it is nice to see our own countries leader getting a cameo as an android parole officer!

The Adjustment Bureau.

Doesn't this remind you of a Hitchcock film poster?

Do you believe in fate, well according to screenwriter George Nolfi (Bourne Ultimatum 2007 and Oceans Twelve 2004) and now a feature film director there is no such thing, our lives are pre-mapped with nothing left to chance. But should we dare to wander of course then that’s where the Adjustment Bureau’s operatives come in. Headed up by the Chairman (read God) his caseworkers (a modern day equivalent of angels) they set out to redefine your pathway through life.

Based on a twenty-page short story called Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner 1982, Totall Recall 1990), The Adjustment Bureau (2011) is basically a love story with a slight difference. When budding politician David Norris (Matt Damon) meets promising young dancer Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt, daughter of one of the highest-profile barristers in the United Kingdom) it turns out that this was not meant to have happened so up pop’s the Adjustment Bureau’s top agent Thompson (Terence Stamp) who attempt’s to put the pair back on separate paths. Will true love win through in the end; well I’m sure you all know the answer to that one.

If we can't understand the script, wot chance the viewers!

Nolfi’s debut film has been described as ‘Bourne meets Inception’[1] but I would beg to differ, it has not got that exciting tempo that made the Bourne movies such a success, although the third one was not up to the standard of the other two, and its narrative is not as intelligent as Nolan’s Inception (2010). But it’s a diverting watch raised a notch or two by the interaction between the two main leads.

These are the Adjustment Team, nice titfers.

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[1] Total Film

Holiday Viewing 2011.

As many of you know we finally managed to take a break after a very busy year, revisiting Southern Spain. You can read about our exploits at Fort Bravo by following the link. Texas Hollywood - Spain 2011. This time I did not have to take a portable player and a pile of DVD’s! Thanks to the genius of Apple we have the iPad on which you can down load your viewing pleasure before you depart and watch a movie anywhere. So just to keep up to date I submit a short ramble on each of the films I managed to watch.

A Fish Called Wanda (1988) 

It was Charles Crichton most successful film, other than of course the brilliant Ealing comedy The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) in which Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway hatch a plan to smuggle gold bullion out of the country disguised as Eiffel Tower paperweights, A Fish Called Wanda (1988) that I selected for the outward plane journey.  Not being a great lover of travelling at hundreds of miles an hour thousand of feet above earth I thought this particular movie would take my mind of it, and I was quite right.  The film is a cracking UK comedy crime drama co-directed and written by its star John Cleese. It boasts a first class cast headed up by two Monty Python stars the afore mentioned John Cleese as the lawyer Archie Leach and Michael Palin. The plot, which in this kind of film is never that important, involves one Wanda Gershwitz who is involved in a diamond hoist. Not satisfied with her share she attempts to manipulate the three men involved and the defence solicitor of one of them, endeavouring to keep the proceeds all for her self. The greedy Wanda is played by the attractive Jamie Lee Curtis, the other three villains are her so called ‘brother’ Otto West brilliantly overplayed by Kevin Kline, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the London based gangster George Thomason who thinks he’s the brains behind the operation is played by the British actor Tom Georgeson best known for television work and Thomason’s right hand man and animal lover Ken Pile is amusingly portrayed by Palin.

Jig (2011)

Wigs and Dresses!!!!!

This movie, part funded by BBC Scotland, is the first time the competitive world of the Irish Dance has ever been filmed by an outsider. Sue Bourne, a documentary filmmaker, produced and directed Jig (2011), which documents the 40^th Irish Dancing World Championships that were held in Glasgow in March 2010. The competition lasts for one very intense week and involves three thousand dancers from all around the world, their families and their teachers. This obsessive world involves young competitors dressing up in wigs and outfits that can cost thousands of pounds, they sport fake tans and heavy makeup and reputedly love every minute of it, but after watching this rather melancholic affair I would suggest that these very determined youngster’s are in fact under extreme stress! An enjoyable film for around 60 minutes but after that it gets a little tedious.

Among Giants (1998)

Sheffield Yorkshire: A team of men lead by middle aged Ray and his young flatmate Steve find cash-in-hand employment painting electricity pylons.  When Gerry, a young fancy-free Australian backpacker, joins the team its not long before Ray, who has two kids and is separated from his wife, falls in love with her and wants to settle down. Problems arise when Steve realises that he is also in love with the girl and both men find out she is not quite ready for domestic bliss. Among Giants (1998) star’s the late Pete Postlethwaite as the ganger Ray with James Thornton as the slightly immature Steve and Rachel Griffiths as the worldly-wise Gerry. Direction is by Sam Miller, best known for the TV series This Life, and its written by Simon Beaufoy, who won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Danny Boyles Slumdog Millionaire (2008). The original idea for the film came from a documentary Beaufoy wanted to make about painting giant pylons, an idea that was eventually turned into this work of fiction. It was on the back of Beaufoy’s other big writing success The Full Monty (1997) that a producer was found and the film was made. After training given by the Electricity Board’s climbing experts some of the shooting actually took place on real pylons, which looked hellishly scary. An interesting British romantic comedy drama with believable acting from both Postlewaite and Griffith but the script could have done with a little more oomph.  

The Informant (2009)

Maybe it was me, but I did not find The Informant (2009) very entertaining or exciting, to be honest I thought it was a bit confusing! Perhaps I was just not in the mood for this very talky political parody? The film is an American fact based “comedy” drama about Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), a high level corporate executive who was involved as a whistle blower in the Lysine price fixing conspiracy, which was a deliberately organised attempt during the mid 1990’s to raise the price of animal feed.  This collusion involved five different worldwide companies including the American company that Whitacre worked for, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). He was the highest-level executive in US history to become an FBI informant. Directed by Steven Soderbergh whose quality of work, does vary from the sublime (Sex, Lies and Videotape 1989,Traffic 2000) to the ridicules (Oceans Twelve and Thirteen, Che 2008).

Arlington Road (1999)

My journey home, accompanied by a strong head wind, included the very interesting conspiracy thriller Arlington Road (1999).  The plot involves the widowed University professor Michael Faraday (the ever dependable Jeff Bridges) who begins to suspect his new neighbours Oliver (Tim Robbins) and Cheryl Lang (Joan Cusack) are involved in a terrorist plot. Faraday gradually becomes obsessed with proving to the FBI that his suspicions are correct. Director Mark Pellington, who has been named to direct the remake of the brilliant Spanish/Mexican horror movie The Orphanage (2007), cleverly allows the viewer to continually question whether the Lang’s are really terrorists or is the professor, who we discover is a specialist on the subject and lectures a class, imagining the whole thing? Although not well received by the critics I thought it to be a stylishly tense and exciting movie, perhaps my opinion was affected by the turbulence?

True Grit 2010.

For the more discerning cinema lover the western still holds a special appeal proved by the fact that Ethan and Joel Coens master class in the genre is packing cinemas and Monday nights RBC Film Club showing was no exception.

Mattie Ross.

Based on the 1968 Charles Portis novel of the same name True Grit (2010) relates the story of 14 year-old Mattie Ross who sets out to avenge the shooting and killing of her father Frank Ross by his drunken low life employee who goes by the name of Tom Chaney, amongst other’s. The strong minded Mattie hires the one eyed fat whisky drinking US Marshall Reuben J “Rooster” Cogburn to track the outlaw who is now riding with the Ned Pepper gang across the Choctaw terrain. Texas Ranger LeBoeuf, who is pursuing Chaney for killing a State Senator, joins them on their manhunt.

Rooster Cogburn

Originally adapted as a film in 1969, directed by Henry Hathaway and starring the American icon that is John Wayne, a role that won him his only Academy Award for Best Actor, True Grit has now been resurrected by Joel and Ethan Coen. The “two headed director” wrote the screenplay, based more on the novel than the previous movie, edited under their normal alias of Roderick Jaynes and produced with a little help from a certain Mr Spielberg.  The Coen’s version narrates the story from the prospective of Mattie Ross who in 1928, as an older churchgoing spinster, recounts her adventures. Marshall Rooster Cogburn is portrayed as a complex character who was an unsuccessful family man, a member of William Quantrill’s guerrilla band during the American Civil War and its hinted, that he was once on the wrong side of the law?  The Texas Ranger LaBoeuf is a buckskin clad pipe smoking Texas Ranger who has been hunting Chaney for a cash reward for four months for killing the senator and his dog.

The Texas Ranger.

This western is pure entertainment from the start to the finish, it’s a film marked by its humour, its realism and its brutal social commentary. In my opinion its due to the brilliant cast and crew including long time cinematographer nine time Oscar nominated Roger Deakins, his eleventh film for the Coen’s. The soundtrack, based on 19^th-century church music, is the 15th scored by another long-time collaborator Carter Burwell. There is no doubt that we will certainly hearing a lot more of Hailee Steinfeld, chosen out of 15000 girls for the role of the resolute Mattie Ross. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress she even outshone Jeff Bridges who made the part of Rooster Cogburn his own just missing out to Colin Firth for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Bourne Trilogy star Matt Damon plays the Texas Ranger and Josh Brolin who was in the Coen’s award winning movie No Country for Old Men (2007) plays the psychopathic simpleton Tom Chaney. The directing style is undoubtedly  Coen brothers, with their attention to detail, the humour, the strong characters and their tremendous writing ability. It’s not before time that the brothers turned their clever genre skills to the best of all genres: the western.