Random thoughts on the films I see

First up, I love the original Alan Moore comic book. One of the best, subversive and true stories of our time. Based on Moore’s own reaction to the politics of the 80s, this near future story is quite prophetic and I hate to say it but there’s a truth in those pages. The story is quite dense, and shows a “terrorist” V rebelling against a totalitarian government, and getting his revenge on his previous captors. But it’s more than that, and I couldn’t quite put down words of what I experience from this comic, but it is simply a masterpiece.

The film however is a crap realisation, I read some good reviews, thought it might be worth a punt. I knew about Moore’s dissaproval, but I could understand that after terrible films like From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Maybe third time lucky… I liked the Wachowski’s Matrix films even the maligned final chapter, and their excellent thriller Bound. Perhaps they could finally do Moore’s work justice.
Knowing the comic so well, maybe clouded my judgement. But after contemplating everything, I realised I was right. The film as an adaptation is so wrong, as a movie in it’s own right it is just passable entertainment. One thing that was right was the mood and setting of the film, it was even cast very effectively. V killing of his previous captors and even having Evey (Natalie Portman) dress as a little girl for a priest was straight out of the comic. I thought it was pretty good up till this point. Then when Evey escapes, there is a whole missing chapter of Evey becoming a prostitute (Portman as a whore must have been a big no-no for someone…). Instead we get a scene with Evey visiting her gay TV presenter friend (Stephen Fry), and his house being raided. In fact the whole TV station subplot with Evey is a new invention. It works to show how bad the totalitarian state is, but that people are not frightened and living almost “freely”. Which is a mistake I think. People are constantly shown disagreeing with their leader on TV a lot during the film too. Surely their impure thoughts would have been picked up sooner and their houses raided…
One thing that actually made me dislike this film the most, was the copper following V’s trail to the Larkhill camp. In the comic, he starts to see what V is, and follows his line of thinking to where V actually resides. In the film he just “figures” it out with his colleague and just has a passing visit to Larkhill. Not very well executed at all, and neither is the “deal” V makes with the No.2 leader.
Some people have said this was a good adaptation, I cry triple nay to that, it is very bad…

“Sha la la la la la, don’t be scared,
You got the mood prepared,
Go on and kiss the girl”

Just got my slightly cropped new Platinum Edition DVD of this, and watched it while ironing… I jumped back on the Disney train when Beauty and the Beast came out, and missed this one, though I remember people raving about Disney “coming back”. I watched it a few years later, and loved it, even had the “rare” limited edition DVD from 7 years ago (which I sold for £50 on ebay…). This is never quite as good as Beauty and the Beast, but shows where Disney were going at the time quite clearly. Although it takes some liberties with the Han Christian Andersen tale, it is an excellent story in it’s own right. Some cracking hummable tunes, the “Kiss the Girl” song actually has some useful dating tips…

“I know this is a dream, so I can say anything I want and get away with it. So I think I will say, from my heart, kiss my ass. Kiss my ass!”

Eddie Murphy reluctantly becomes the “the chosen one”, when he goes in search of the Golden Child. The film is very funny and never takes it self too seriously. This was in the days when Murphy was in his prime, he does re-use some of his stand-up routine in this movie to good effect. You wonder while watching whether they had a stronger rating in mind while filming, some of the violence and dialogue seem trimmed.
Charles Dance is good as the demon in human form, especially when Murphy is playing off him for comedy effect. A lot of the Chinese cast of Big Trouble in Little China appear in this film of the same vintage, a film that is very similar in some respects.
While not in the same league as Murphy’s Trading Places, 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop etc, it still is very funny in places. My favourite gag is when he starts singing along to the Nepalese in-flight music, cracks me up every time.

“I figured you had to be French or something because of your accent.”
“What accent?”

This is an early film in a string of Emmerich/Devlin partnerships, this one happens to be the best too. Van Damme capulted to the bigtime with this film for a brief few years, before returing to B-movie/straight to video fare. This film is very entertaining and has the right mixture of action and comedy moments. Van Damme stars as Luc a Vietnam soldier who gets killed along with psycho soldier Dolph Lundgren. Their bodies are kept on ice for 20 odd years and revived as re-programmed soldiers. Their bodies are preserved by keeping them cool, and their memories are wiped after every mission. The program however is secret even from the government, and a reporter played by Ally Walker is on the case. She goes on the run after taking some snapshots, and is “rescued” by Van Damme, who starts remembering the war and wants to protect her. There are some great comedy moments when Van Damme strips naked to keep cool, and a gratuitous shot for the ladies (had to cover my wife’s eyes at this scene). Van Damme could have been the next Schwarzenegger (this being Van Damme’s “Terminator”), and even surpassed his rival Steven Seagal. However things turned out slightly differently…

Clint Eastwood fans seem to dislike this first film to be directed by the man himself that he didn’t appear in. It doesn’t help that the film is about a relationship that builds between a 19 year old girl the title character Breezy (Kay Lenz) and a middle aged man Frank played by William Holden. Some may find it creepy in today’s climate, but I like it’s intentions. This a story of love and innocent unconditional love. Holden is great as the cynical real estate divorcee. Maybe I’m soppy in my advancing years, but I really enjoyed watching this film again recently with my wife who also liked the film. The relationship builds naturally and it’s great the way that both characters change during the course of the film.

Kurt Russell stars as Michael a nightclub owner who despite money problems lives in a nice L.A. neighbourhood with his wife Karen (Madeleine Stowe). When a burgular breaks into the house ending up with a knife to Karen’s throat, a cop Pete played by Ray Liotta turns up to reassure them and later install their new security system. A friendship starts that soon sours when Pete finds the burgular and beats the shit out of him in front of Michael. Pete starts going whacko when Michael wants nothing to do with him and starts obssessing after his wife…
All the leads in this are excellent, shame Liotta’s career seemed to dive a bit after this one and his outstanding Goodfellas performance.

“How much courage does it take to walk out on your kid?”

Dustin Hoffman stars as Ted Kramer, whose unhappy wife (Meryl Streep) just walks out on him after 7 years marriage, leaving their kid son behind. Kramer has to struggle with holding down his highflying marketing job and looking after his son. In the process he builds a very close loving relationship with his son. When his wife returns after 18 months to get custody of their son, they both end up in court.

This film is excellent, and is Dustin Hoffman’s finest performance which he won an Oscar for. The film won Best Picture, Best Director and Streep got Best Supporting Actress. Even the kid got nominated, the youngest ever apparently. You take sides with Hoffman at first, you don’t really know why Streep left him. But later you see what a complicated situation it is, when Streep bares all in court. I have no experience of breakups on that scale, but even I understand the trauma the kid must be going through, you just hope he can have something stable in his life. The film teases you at the end, and the scene is perfectly played.

“Father… father, the sleeper has awakened”

I have been watching a reedited version of this visual feast of a film, created by ADigitalMan. It incorporates the theatrical version with the violence left intact, the scenes from the extended version and also the deleted scenes like Thufir’s death. It leaves out the awful TV intro narration, and uses the extended introduction from Princess Irulan. And also misses the repeated sfx shots from the extended version. All together it runs about 177 minutes.
I quite like this film, and I love the first book by Frank Herbert (think the book sequels are very boring). I dislike the 2000 mini-series before anyone asks, seemed a bit cheap and claustrophobic. The first Dune story as written by Herbert is a dense novel, with so much information packed within its pages. Dune the movie trys hard to follow the novel, but misses a big section where Paul is with the Fremen. It adds to the novel as well in a good way, creating the sonic weapons that House Atreides use and later the Fremen. Somehow it covers all the details of the universe of the novel. There is a lot exposition early in the film to get it going though. Anyway watching this fan-made version is so much better, it doesn’t seem so choppy as the theatrical cut. I respect that the theatrical cut is Lynch’s director’s cut, despite not having the resources to finish the film as originally planned.

“I’m looking for the Army of the Twelve Monkeys.”

I love this film, but I think there is a great debate over the ending. Whether James Cole (Bruce Willis) really did save the world by leading the people of the future to the correct source of the disease. My take on this is the following, there are moments when Cole is in the future, he is shown photos/recordings that he hasn’t even experienced/seen yet e.g. the voice mail left by Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe). Kathryn even has a photo of Cole from the first world war. The most obvious is seeing his own death as a child. This indicates that time cannot be changed, and events have already happened and will happen in the context of the film.
When we see the woman from the future sitting next the bad guy who spreads the disease, people believe that Cole lead them to him. But in actual fact time cannot be changed according to the rules set out by the film. Will she kill him and change time, I think not. I think she is there to learn from the bad guy about the very disease he is spreading to aid the future…

Anyway Bruce Willis puts in the performance of a lifetime here, totally out of his usual characters. Also Brad Pitt puts in an excellent madcap performance as Jeffrey.

Watched it on DVD a few nights ago, then it turns up on TV a day later as is usual. Ron Howard’s work can be described as a poor man’s Spielberg. Highlights for me include Backdraft, Apollo 13 and Ransom, but a lot of his films are a bit twee at times. This film though is very good indeed. Russell Crowe stars as John Nash a genius mathematician, whose great mind is troubled with schizophrenia. Crowe is wonderful and portrays the role well. He comes up with a unique bartering system that would one day become everyday in business. He begins teaching and meets Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) and she becomes his wife. Connolly is also excellent in this, and got an Oscar for her portryal. We follow Nash as he has trouble keeping a grip on reality, having imaginary best friends and military employers played by Paul Bettany and Ed Harris. This is all based on a true story, and its great when we see him earn the recognition late in his life, winning the Nobel prize. Where the film differs is Alicia stays with Nash all the way through the film, in reality his wife left for a good number of years.