20,000 Days on Earth.

Opening with a montage of his complete life 20,000 Days on Earth (2014) depicts a fictitious 24 hours period in the life of the Australian musician, model, songwriter, author, screenwriter, composer and actor Nick Cave at a time when he was recording his 2013 album Push the Sky Away. I saw Cave, a very tall lean man who resembles an Old Testament character in a dark suit, perform with his band The Bad Seeds at the Glasgow Academy in November 2004 and it was a performance that I won't forget.  There is no doubting the mans ability, he has produced some great music over the years, mainly about sex, death and religion, and composed, along with Warren Ellis's, some great movie soundtrack's including The Proposition (2005), The Assassination of Jessie James (2007) and Lawless (2012) j

 

Conversations with Kyle Minogue....

....Warren Ellis....

....and Ray Winstone.

Although said to be fiction ‘where great truths get told’, it’s a re-assessment of his life via a scrapbook of memories and made up sets. Originally Cave had invited directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard to film the making his latest album but it evolved further into an insightful and fascinating look at the complicated mind of a singularly unique artist at the grand age of 57, one who has spent a career building a character around himself with his words and music and actually becoming that character! If the film proves nothing else then it proves that Nick Cave can smile - as he does in the 'car' scenes with both Kyle Minogue and Ray Winstone. A driven artiste whose greatest joy is still performing live.  An un-tempered and honest reflection of a very deeply affecting man. Be adventurous and bear witness to this absorbing 'documentary' 

The Legend of Barney Thomson.

A cracking wee film, chock full of great Scottish humour with just a touch of cockney banter via Mr Raymond Winstone. The Legend of Barney Thomson (2015), which opened the 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival to great acclaim, is based on Douglas Lindsay's novel The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson and was adapted for the screen by Richard Cowan. It has the distinction of being directed by Maryhill born Robert Carlyle who also takes the title role.

A charisma bi-pass and no patter....

Barney works in a local family run barber shop in the Bridgeton area of Glasgow’s East End, and is described by his colleges has having a charisma bi-pass and accused of not having one of the most essential qualifications of a Glasgow barber - patter! He worships his mother, a rather colourful and outspoken character that shares the same name, although spelt different, with the rather dreadful pudding that you may remember being served up at school diners! Played with obvious relish by Emma Thompson, Cemolina Thomson is certainly one of the highlights of this movie, as is the afore mentioned Ray Winstone who plays the Glasgow hating London policemen Detective Inspector Holdall.

 

....that is until the 'accidental' death of Wullie Henderson....

Life for Barney Thomson consists of boring mediocrity, that is until one particularly dark day his boss, Wullie Henderson (Stephen McCole), tells him that the family has decided to let him go. Incensed by this unexpected announcement he accidentally kills Wullie! Meanwhile in another part of Glasgow our cockney police inspector and his long suffering sidekick are investigating, none to successfully, a series of murders that have become known as 'the body part killings' the reason is that the thoughtful killer sends a victims body part to the dead persons relative’s as a keepsake! It's when the investigation overlaps with the disappearance of the deceased Wullie that Barney's life becomes less mundane.

 

....something Barney discusses with his mother over a fish supper.

This is a brilliantly gruesome black comedy I had the great pleasure of actually seeing in Glasgow and comparing it to the dross showing elsewhere in the multiplex is head and shoulders above anything else on release at this particular time and certainly should not be missed. A love letter to a great Scottish city from one of its best-known sons.

Noah.

Darren Aronofsky has lost his touch! After two consecutively excellent movies, The Wrestler (2008) and Black Swan (2010) we have gone back to the ridiculousness of his confusing romantic drama The Fountain (2006). His latest is deemed a ‘biblical blockbuster’ and is allegedly said to be based on the story of Noah’s Ark found in Genesis chapters 6-9 in which God is said to have saved Noah, his wife, children and a male and female animal of each species from a great flood by instructing him to build a giant ark.

Filmed in Southern Island, Noah (2014) stars Russell Crowe who mopes his way through the role of Noah.  You remember Crowe he was the one who played the all singing Inspector Javert in the dreadful movie adaptation of Les Miserables (2012) well he’s not much better in the role of Gods emissary on earth, barely braking out of that earnest no nonsense look he always seems to carry around no matter what role he plays even when he’s talking to the sky! Jennifer Connelly is Naameh, Noah’s spouse. She has worked with Aronofsky before in Requiem for a Dream (2000). Emma Watson, who I really enjoyed in The Bling Ring last year, plays the daughter in law, Ila while Douglas Booth, who was Pip in the three-part BBC TV adaptation of Charles Dickens Great Expectations, is her husband and the eldest son of Noah. Anthony Hopkins, who can’t seem to land a decent role lately, plays Methuselah with Hackney born Raymond Winstone as the villain of the piece, King Tubal-Cain, who was much better as Jack Regan in last years The Sweeney. The acting is dire, hammy and completely non-convincing with everybody playing them selves - the blame for which must rest firmly with the director.    

So this is what a Tottenham supporter looks like these days?

This sanctimonious nonsense tries to teach us the meaning of life but fails miserable. Certainly not on par with biblical epics like The Ten Commandments (1956) or Ben Hur (1959) although the Aronofsky’s budget was in the region of $125 million - so there’s no real excuse. And where did the stone monsters come from, don’t remember them at Bible study! If you’re really are feeling in need of a little religion may I suggest Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) your find it far more fulfilling than this modern meaningless gobbledygook.

 

The version from my childhood!

I read in the paper this morning that Aronofsky’s film has spawned a series of novel’s including a graphic one, correct me if I’m wrong but I thought that Noah was already based on a book?   

The Sweeney.

Jack Regan and George Carter

Nick Love’s feature film pedigree to date has not really set the world on fire, although he has sold a lot of DVD’s, all of which include alpha males, guns and a great deal of violence. They have included The Football Factory (2004), which is an adaptation of the novel of the same name written by John King about a group of working class Chelsea supporter’s who attend games both home and away and indulge in fights with rival football fans, The Business (2005) follows the rise and fall of a young villain within a drug importing setup run by a group of fugitive ex-pat’s on the Costa del Sol on the Spanish coast line.  Following this in 2007 he made Outlaw, which like the other two movies starred Danny Dyer and involved lots of violence, this one about a soldier who in 2006 return’s from duty to extract revenge on local criminals.  As you probably gathered his target audience would normally be young ‘geezers’ who after a good night out with their mates would bring home a curry and stick on a DVD to round off the evening.

Jack's love interest Nancy Lewis.

 Using the same formula and a tag line that reads ‘Act like a criminal to catch a criminal’ our 43-year-old London director has made a big screen version of one of the most popular TV series of the seventies The Sweeney (2012). Updating it to present day London this guilty pleasure has lost none of it’s the original excitement and in fact has some extremely good set piece shootouts. One of Britain’s grittiest actors Ray Winstone takes on the role of Jack Regan, originally played in four TV series and two feature films by the late John Thaw, his side kick George Carter has now been given a back story that includes a criminal record as a young lad who, given a chance by father figure Regan, has become an important figure in the flying squad. Taking on the Denis Waterman role is actor, singer and director of ill Manors (2012) Ben Drew who fits the role like a glove. Also in major roles are Homeland star Damian Lewis as Detective Chief Inspector Frank Haskins, the Sweeney’s boss, Steven Mackintosh is the internal affair’s officer Ivan Lewis who has a special interest in Regan and his squad and up and coming star Hayley Atwell, who played Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), is the ultra tough Detective Constable Nancy Lewis, Regan’s love interest and Ivan Lewis wife!

Gun fight in Trafalgar Square.

In the extra’s that accompany the Blu-Ray Nick Love informed us that the film has been on the boil for five years, a change of film company and problems which saw the budget reduced from 8 million down to 2 million held up the films production. Love assures us that it is a serious and honest attempt to follow the format of the original but to update it to modern times, which has allowed him to give the film a contemporary feel hopefully appealing to both the original and new fans. It also allowed his DOP Simon Dennis some wonderful shoots of London.

The Sweeney have a bit of business to sort out!!

Tough, gritty, ultra violent, but wonderfully diverting, a film in which Winstone breath’s fire as the politically incorrect Regan, who will go to any lengths to catch his villain. (Incidentally Ray Winstone started his screen career with an appearance in the TV series in 1976). Credit must also go to the stunt coordinator Tony Lucken without whom the action scenes and fights, not forgetting the car chases, would not have been so thrilling. Ignore what the critics say just suspend your disbelief, sit back and be entertained by a ‘geezers’ film with class.  

The Ford motor car, such an intrinsic part of the original series.