Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Based on what is said to be the worlds best selling book, and one that has been translated into more languages than any other, Ridley Scots Epic movie Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) tells how Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt to the Land of Canaan. But before he was allowed to do that we witnessed how God forced the Egyptians by cruel and foul means to let these people go.  He inflicts various plagues that include turning the water to blood, death of livestock, frogs, lice, boils, locusts and flies but what really persuades Ramesses to let the Hebrews go is the Passover, the meanest of the ten plagues which killed all the Egyptian first born. The Hebrew’s were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a slaughtered spring lamb so God knew which houses to ‘Passover’.  Scot does very well to highlight the hypocrisy of Christian teachings whose main presentation tells us to love our neighbours and forgive others their sins, but only if it pleases the good Lord?

 

Beware of the high tides!

As well as Pinewood Studios the film was shot in Almeria in Spain and on the Island of Fuerteventura. It features various well known faces including John Turturro, Aaron Paul from Breaking Wind, Ben Mendelsohn, Ben Kingsley and Sigourney Weaver. But only Christian Bale as Moses and Joel Edgerton as Ramesses are given roles of any depth, the rest are almost relegated to walk on parts. How does it compare with Cecil DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956), which at the time was reputed to be the most expensive film ever made, I would very much doubt if the images from Ridley Scot’s film will stay in your mind as long as DeMille’s film has. It is a spectacular film but does not really live up to the book.

Christian Bale as Mosses 

Springsteen & I.

Springsteen reaches out to the fans.

Popular music is one of life’s most cherished forms of entertainment; soundtracks to each of our own personnel lives, something that can make you remember good times and bad. For one night only on Monday 22^nd July 2013 the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre joined another 1,999 cinemas worldwide to show the premiere of the documentary Springsteen & I (2013) that celebrates a career that has spanned four decades since New Jersey born singer songwriter Bruce Springsteen signed a record deal with Columbia Records in 1972 and released his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park in early 1973.

 

The great man at work.

Produced by Ridley Scott and put together by director and music video maker Baillie Walsh the documentary consisted of short video clips, photographs, old footage and audio narration sent in by the fans, helping to build a picture of what Springsteen really means to them and the affects he had on their lives. It also featured footage of live performances of some of Springsteen’s most popular songs.  Following the films credits those of us that attended this theatrical release were treated to six exclusive performances from 2012’s Hard Rock Calling concert in London’s Hyde Park followed by some great moments between the artist and some of his devotees seen in the film.

 

'Elvis" and the Boss.

The real stars of the documentary were the fans, some made you laugh, some made you cry, others made you cringe at times but what a great bunch of people they turned out to be. Of course we must not forget the great man him self who is not only a top class entertainer, singing and performing some great rock music but come’s across as a really nice guy who’s personally always shines through and who seems to genuinely care about his audiences and his fan’s. Even this blogger shelled out for a copy of Essential Bruce Springsteen to play on the MP3!!!

Prometheus.

The Beginnings of Mankind?

There is certainly no doubt that the British film director Sir Ridley Scott has provided a great deal of entertaining cinema since he made his debut feature film in 1977, The Duellist a film set during the Napoleonic War and one that I saw at the RBC in very early days of the Film Club, others include Alien (1979) Blade Runner (1982) Gladiator (2000) Black Hawk Down (2001) American Gangster (2007) Body of Lies (2008) Robin Hood (2010) and my own personnel favourite Thelma and Louise (1991) where a waitress and a housewife take off for the weekend in a 66 Thunderbird and go on the run after shooting a rapist.

Prometheus Spacecraft.

His latest production is a return to the science fiction genre that originally made his name. Billed as a prequel to Alien, Prometheus (2012) is set before the horrifying events that take place on spacecraft Nostromo. This intriguing new film is a complex story about unearthing the origins of our universe and poses the question: are we all descendants of Aliens and therefore did they actually visit our planet to procreate the beginnings of mankind? 

Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Scott.

Our story starts in Scotland on the Isle of Skye in 2089; two Archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover cave paintings that indicate that at the beginning of mankind aliens, known as Engineers, visited our planet. The evidence gathered points to a far away moon called LV-223. We then move on to the year 2093 and the spacecraft Prometheus lands on LV-223. The Weyland Corporation, headed up by a Robert Maxwell look alike Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), finances the journey and appoints a director in the sinister form of Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron). During the voyage an Android known as David (Michael Fassbender) guards the sleeping passengers. Upon waking, the scientific team along with the Android explore this inhospitable moon an action that leads to catastrophe, tragedy and some startling discoveries.

Michael Fassbender's spooky Android.  

This is a very watchable movie that holds your attention throughout helped, as you would expect, by some great special effects and some powerful role-playing by both the lead stars. Noomi Rapace, who was completely wasted in the dreadful Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) returns to form depicting Elizabeth Shaw from the timid God fearing young women at the start of the movie to a feisty battling one that will do anything to stay alive. But its Fassbender that steels the show as the mysterious Android who was built to resemble a human being, a creature that models himself on Peter O’Toole in the film version of Lawrence of Arabia (1962), but to me he resembles Hugo Barrett, Dirk Bogarde’s character in the Joseph Losey masterpiece The Servant (1963).

Noomi Rapace on set.

OK its not perfect and I’m sure sci-fi fans can find plenty to complain about with comparison’s to Alien raising more question’s than it answers and probably makes a sequel almost certain to bridge the narrative gap between the two films, but that in my humble opinion that’s not a bad thing. I truly enjoyed this film it does what it set’s out to do, provide an evening’s entertainment and makes a awfully good job of it.

Robin Hood (2010)

I am reliable informed that nothing in Ridley Scott’s version of the legend of Robin Hood is based on fact, but who cares, his latest film Robin Hood (2010) is an enjoyable romp that brings to mind the Hollywood swashbuckling tradition which Scott has made palatable for the expectations of modern day cinema audiences. British film director Ridley Scott has made some seriously enjoyable movies including The Duellists (1977) Alien (1979) Blade Runner (1982) Gladiator (2000) Black Hawk Down (2001) American Gangster (2007) Body of Lies (2008) and my own personnel favourite Thelma and Louise (1991).

The outlaw and the Lady.

Robin Hood, originally titled Nottingham, is Scott’s fifth collaboration with Russell Crowe who despite the bad press makes a great Robin Longstride who in the film becomes the heroic legend and social outcast who went on to rob the rich and give to the poor, a sort of reverse David Cam-moron! The villian of the piece is the sadistic, ruthless but clever Sir Godfrey, (splendidly played by Mark Strong ) King Johns henchman who conspires with the “evil French” King Philip, to invade the shores of Great Britain. The film reinvents the normally passive Lady Marian Loxley portraying her as a liberated woman, equal to the men in her life and quite capable of taming the wild Robin of the Hood. Cate Blanchett makes a beautiful and courageous Marian who rides bravely into battle with the British cavalry dressed in a suite of armour!!!! Come back Saturday morning at the pictures! I can’t wait for the obvious sequel. Perhaps we will get it next Saturday?