Hair Thief Reviews

Harvey (1950)

An ideal life and a touching story

[10/10 · 26 December 2005]

I'm probably repeating many sentiments already expressed but I can't just keep quiet about Harvey. To me, Elwood P Dowd is the perfect human, he is simply a 'good' man. There isn't a nasty or vicious bone in his body and James Stewart plays this amazingly well. Harvey is Elwood's way of escaping reality, escaping all the responsiblities that make people miserable.

There are a number of quotes in this film that strike me as poetic:

"I have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I'm with" - I wish I could say the same.

"in this life you can be oh-so pleasant or oh-so smart, for years I was smart, I recommend pleasant" - that sentiment means so much, people are so often obsessed with showing off their intelligence or bragging but just being pleasant is a wonderful quality.

"I've struggled with reality for 25 years doctor and I'm happy to say I won out over it" - the idea that you just need to beat reality into submission again is a lovely way to look at it. Elwood has created his own reality that works for him.

The other characters in the world are wonderfully sucked into Elwood's life and reality and come to realise how beautiful it is. Of course, we can't all live like Elwood otherwise nothing would ever get done but he's found his place and likes it. He is content and very few people are these days, I hope to be someday.

The Italian Job (2003)

Very poor

[19 September 2003]

Okay, I went into the cinema determined to forget that it was a "remake" of a damn fine film. I was going to judge it on it's own merits. I chose to do this I already knew it had little to do with the original or even Italy as the title suggests.

Even if I look at it as a film on it's own, it fails on every level. The script is stunned, the delivery of these poor lines is also lacking, there is NO character depth and it is amazingly slow. After the gang pull the job in Venice and are discussing spending the cash in the Alps, the conversation is so stilted, it's like an awkward moment at a dinner party, no one seemed to know what to say. That's just a small example. The lines were standard pap and predictable in every way. When the film moved to USA it totally slowed down, big long discusion and recon of the baddies lair, convulted explainations on how they could involve the minis. A pointless subplot with ukranians that suggested it might get interesting but totally failed. Wooden acting from Mark Whalberg and Edward Norton just looking unhappy to be even involved in the film. All this without even thinking about the original.

Just to compare briefly, the original was a fun crime caper, it was all about the hiest with a minor sub plot of the Mafia to keep Caine on his toes. It was excellently paced too, the development of the job, the set up and the actually heast and mini chase, all evenly spread through the film. The mini chase lasted for quite a while and used them to maximum effect. Whereas this remake uses the mini for about 15 mins at the end (the only decent bit) and spends too long on the setup.

All in all, it just seems a waste on all levels to me but it might improve mini sales.

Johnny English (2003)

Truely painful

[13 April 2003]

I went to see Johnny English and was kinda expecting some mild laughs as the adverts I remembered were quite entertaining. What I saw was a painful experience and reminded me of a visit to the dentists.

Rowan Atkinson has created 2 characters that have gained success, the first was Blackadder and the second was Mr Bean. They are totally different approaches to comedy and generally you like one or the other but not both. Bean was a success in the US as a comedy british character and fell around alot, Blackadder used sarcasm and a sharp wit to create humour. Unfortunately Johnny English plays toward Mr Bean rather than Blackadder.

The film just doesn't work on any level for me, the jokes can be seen a mile away and it takes hours for the punchline to kick in and even then it's played weakly. There are two or three major jokes that can be seen in an instance (hospital and face mask) and it's just a case of tapping your fingers until they are played out.

The plot is disjointed and insane, John Malkovich unfortunately embarasses himself in a terrible hammy french accent, the gorgeous Natalie Umbrugia is given there to look good (what attract is there to English????).

Now of course, you could just say "it's a comedy, not meant to make sense if its funny" but there were just too many jokes that failed. Yes there were bits that I laughed at but 4 laughs in a entire film does not a comedy make.

Compare this to Austin powers and Johnny English can easily be seen as a poor copy with more flaws than seven pound note.

Daredevil (2003)

Guess I'm in the minority (spoilers)

[20 February 2003]

Frankly, I didn't like it. I admit I haven't seen any Daredevil comics so whether it's a faith adaption or not is not an issue with me.

Firstly, the plot; seemed slow, the setup of Daredevil himself was nicely played but seemed to take forever. Then another half hour to meet Electra. It was 3/4 into the film before Electra got her motivation and what happpens her first trip out? well you know. It just seemed so slow to get going and then suddenly wanted to tie everything up quickly. At least in Spiderman they developed spidey and Green Goblin at same time. The plot just seemed to jump around with no flow, the police conveniently turned up at the rooftop and the church with no prompting. Daredevil is injured to the point of dying then recovers perfectly well to do back flips in the church. The climatic fight with kingpin apparently just involves kicking the back of his knees. It just seemed full of silly moves, a letdown, an easy way out.

Next I really didn't like the music, I know it was going for the more romantic style but quite a few times I actually was distracted by the music to the point of thinking "why are they playing this?", in the best films the music shouldn't be noticed except subconsiously to enhance the mood you are watching. Also Ben Affleck looked like a dead kipper, his face just looks bored in the role, it may be how the character was but just seemed odd. Kingpin wasn't given enough time, more of his nasty dealings would have rounded the character. Electra just seemed wasted, good character but her first proper fight with bullseye, oh dear.

To me, spiderman had a lot more fun basically cos the character is lighter, Batman was darker, cooler and calmer. I prefered this version of dark hero, daredevil didn't come across as anything special just a grumpy, miserable, anger fighter.

Oh and I got the point that he had enhanced senses after it had been demostrated for the 100th time, I didn't need the other 100 times to labour the point.

Bullseye was of course the start, excellent character, saved the film for me. Just inspired. 5/10

HairThief (sorry for so negative but I think it needs balance)

People Like Us (1999–2001)

Truely inspired

[29 September 2002]

The other comments have covered this series very well but I just had to post my comments.

There has been a new wave of comedy recently, the office, people like us and to a lesser extent Unnovations. They are all packed with jokes but its always left to the viewer to pick up on them.

People like us seems to have an amazing number of jokes in every episode. Roy's commentary is inspired and many times you have to think carefull about what he has said until you realise that it's total gibberish. My example is "he has worked in such diverse places as Yeovil".

Chris Langham has perfect timing, I've never laughed so much as someone just saying "oh" before. Each episode Roy manages to put in foot in every possible cowpat in sight. In fact, in the entire series, Roy is the only normal person. Everyone he interviews misunderstands his questions in an amazingly stupid way. They all tend to be tragic characters who put on a brave face.

The sad thing is that many of the jokes are just thrown away and pass the viewer by.

"she worked on an oil rig just off Norway, then, after servere weather, just off Denmark"

I don't think there will be another series and to be honest I hope there isn't. This series is perfect as it is, any more and the jokes will run thin or they will use the same jokes again. 12 episodes is impressive enough.

Chris Langham has been around for quite a while, he was in Life of Brian and I'm pleased his talent has found a platform at last.

Ali G Indahouse (2002)

It really shouldn't work but it kinda did

[27 March 2002]

I was sure after see the trailer for this film that it was going to be a waste of my time. However I was dragged there tonight and I have to say it was entertaining. It seems to be a general thread of these comments that everyone has been surprised with this film. No one has said it is a great film but its difficult to say it was a failure.

With the millions that are spent on films today, scripts, locations, actors and effects then a standard has been set for a "good" film. Ali g doesn't bother with any of these elements (except actors like Dance and Gambon), instead we are just presented with joke after joke whether inspired or crude one liners. It's difficult to pick anything out about the film that is quality but at the end of the day it made me laugh and surely that's the point.

Of course there are people that find farting in someones face unfunny but if that image even begins a smirk on your face then this film is worth seeing. Although definately go when you think the cinema will be full cos its much funnier when everyone else joins in with the laughs and cringes at the same time.

It just must have been a shock for Micheal Gambon and Charles Dance to go from Gosford Park to Ali G indahouse. One end of the scale to the other.

Aliens (1986)

Sequels - they can work

[9/10 · 12 April 2001]

When I first saw Aliens back in the late eighties, it was considered the hip and cool film to see. I really didn't like to just go with the crowd so the main point I picked out was that it was almost always dark and so you couldn't see what was going on, hence I thought it wasn't that good. I am now big enough to admit that I was wrong.

As for the argument "is it as good as original?", my answer is yes. Mainly for the fact that it succeeds on its own merits, very rare for any sequel. The 2 films are very different in my opinion, different genres under the general umbrella of sci-fi. The first "alien", was a tense, scary atmospheric film. It had a group of civilians that come up against a terrifyingly dangerous opponent and how they fight for their lives. Now for a sequel, it would be stupid to do the same thing, there had to be something new. Cameron decides to take things up a notch, instead of the atmospheric "where is it? I'm terrified", we have a band of good guys that could be a match for the alien, professional army types. I agree that eventually they are in a similar situation to the characters from the original but there is still a preference for action than suspense. It is then left to the viewer if they would rather see a suspense film or an action film, both are of high quality. Personally I prefer action films (probably because the original is a little too suspensfull for me, I find myself jumping out of my seat every 2 minutes). I just hope that films like Matrix 2, Jurassic Park 3, MIB 2 and The Mummy Returns all take note and have the same mix of the spirit of the original but still have something new to see.

Aliens has a superb plot, i love the idea of the marines thinking they can kill anything, meeting their match and then running for cover. Paul Reiser's character is maybe a little bit too evil *spoiler* surely he wouldn't want to risk being attacked by the aliens on the trip home when he intended to have ripley impregnated, he's a weasel, he'd just want to get out of there alive and forget about the others *end spoiler*

All in all, I do like this film and its name has been tarnished by the far lesser sequels that follow it (even though the talented fincher directed alien3).

9 out of 10