I_John_Barrymore_I Reviews

Avatar (2009)

Avatar

[9 May 2010]

Just as I did in Star Trek, I'm going to again single out Zoe Saldana as the one who walks off with the show. Granted this time her wonderful performance is only made possible through the truly, truly astounding work the tech guys did on bringing the Na'vi to life, but still, her character (well-written, strong, developed) is all her own. She's like a proper kick-ass, fully-formed, independent, very sexy (yes you read that right; move over Jessica Rabbit) fiery, spunky heroine, and I thought she was awesome. It's her - not Sam Worthington and her, just her - who gives the film such real heart and means the emotional stuff really does work exactly as it was intended to.

In 3D IMAX the spectacle is immense. I don't quite know what I was expecting for this - my first time seeing either 3D or IMAX - but as soon as I walked in I dialled down my expectations a touch. The whole 3D thing is brilliant, and although I unfortunately had the projectionist's reflection at the extreme right of my vision, and - undoubtedly due to my somewhat poor eyesight - it occasionally became a little "squinty" around the edges, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not all of Pandora is photo-real (and alarmingly, not in the opening shot!) but much of it is. And I mean photo-real. The thrilling first scene set at night, with the forest illuminated only by a touch of moonlight and Jake's flaming torch is for me the technical standout (the Na'vi notwithstanding) because everything in the frame looked absolutely real, yet none of it was. At many times during the film I had no idea where to put my eyes. There was so much going on, and the screen was so big, the detail so vivid, the design so spectacular.

My major fears about the content of the film itself proved unfounded. No it's not a groundbreaking plot, but the presentation makes it feel - if not new - certainly nowhere near as hackneyed as it might seem on paper. The characterisation is about what you'd expect from a film of its type, and if Sam Worthington doesn't make much of an impression as Jake, Saldana, the always-brilliant Stephen Lang, and Sigourney Weaver all impress to one degree or another. Thanks to the technical achievements the plight of the Na'vi is often heartbreaking. They're big blue aliens but before long they were as real to me as anything else. Once key scene where they're subjected to a horrendous attack seems to last forever, and is a forceful and tragic piece of cinema the likes of which modern Hollywood event pictures never see. This was the part where I was closest to welling up, although there was a touch of that kind of thing towards the end.

The Iraq/Afghanistan allusions (is that the right word?) are blatant; impossible to miss. I personally don't think that counts as heavy-handed though, not in this kind of film. Cameron's not making an allegory here, he's not making a political point, he's not even asking us to think. He's merely saying "What happens on Pandora has many similarities to what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan" and nothing more.

The action sequences are spaced out nicely and none of them outstay their welcome as is almost always the case in my opinion. They're approached in the same visionary manner as everything else that even the familiar seems fresh. The final battle was awesome (even if Jake's pathetic rallying speech before it was a shocking damp squib.) The humour - all of it - works.

The score is good, but it blatantly rips off Enemy at the Gates at one point, and Aliens in another.

I have a feeling this rating will go down on subsequent viewings, but as it stands now I can't find significant fault with it; its strengths and achievements tower over and so thoroughly dominate what weaknesses it may have; and I honestly can't remember the last time I was this excited about a film after I've seen it that it's top marks from me.

The sheer magnitude of that scene where they're destroying Hometree was staggering. I thought, They're not going to nuke it? Well then how will they destroy something that huge? Then the ships lined up and started a very familiar, almost mundane pounding. And pounding. And I realised that's how they were going to do it. Endless waves of artillery. They're just going to keep chipping away at this noble tree with their ignoble weapons until it falls. That was all just tragic to me. It's a testament to the writing, the acting and the CGI that this destruction felt so... wrong.

I loved Jake fending off the "dogs" before he meets Netiri. As great as anything I've seen in recent sci-fi. Loved the design of everything, especially inside Hometree with the vines. That exhilarating ride/climb/jump (!!!) up to the Hallelujah Mountains was another standout moment; in fact the whole sequence was. As they leapt from the tip of that vine my heart jumped into my throat along with them. Later when Jake's wrestling that banshee and he slips over the edge I had a similar reaction. Breathtaking stuff.

It's rare these days to get a proper, honest-to-goodness look at something (Quantum of Solace, Transformers step forward) but Cameron's eye is so keen that he's confident enough in everything to put it all up there on the screen. Ebert was right about the way he spent the money. Every penny is up there, without question.

Battlefield Earth (2000)

Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000

[19 April 2009]

And 3000 years is about as much time as you'll guess you've been sitting there when the credits roll because, astonishingly, Battlefield Earth really is as bad as you've heard.

Aimed squarely at kiddies, it's impossible for adults to take seriously. The Psychlos are represented primarily by John Travolta and Forest Whitaker, but their brand of Disney villainy extends only to constant bickering which may well be unintentionally hilarious but it's not the least bit menacing. Indeed Travolta makes for one of the worst screen villains in recent memory, his Terl coming across as petulant, stroppy and very, very campy rather than the terrifying monster the film is so desperately crying out for. It's this need to keep things safe so the little 'uns won't be scared that saps any sense of danger from proceedings. I mean, his big evil plot is to use the humans to mine gold on the side so he can retire. Hardly Earth-shattering stuff. . .

Still, it's not all bad. Barry Pepper as the heroic Jonnie Goodboy Tyler is magnificent, expertly capturing the awesome personal charisma of the character and - oh who am I kidding? He's as dull as dishwater.

The modest budget shows in every frame, and much of it appears to have been filmed in the same warehouse re-dressed numerous times. It's all shot in tight close ups at wonky angles in an ill-fated attempt to hide the generally cheap nature of the thing. Right down to the hair extensions and prosthetic Psychlo hands it all has a compromised, that'll-do feel.

There are huge holes in the plot. And I'm talking about several of them. Gaping ones with barbed wire fencing and flashing warning signs around them to stop audiences falling in. However they're not as jaw-droppingly stupid as the massive chunks they either forgot or couldn't afford to include. But then again this is a film where spending a few hours in a library can enable a man who can't read to become knowledgeable on just about everything - including besting a warrior race at military strategy - and a couple of days in a flight simulator means you become an expert fighter pilot. Logic is not Battlefield Earth's strong point.

Neither is its score, a truly dreadful effort in which even the instruments it's played on sound like they were found in a skip.

The final battle is spectacularly inept, and springs from nowhere with no build-up. It's quite amusing actually; before you realise it's started it's there in front of you and then it's not.

But the most staggering thing about the film is that not only was it not knocked together by a bunch of disinterested monkeys, it was in fact a labour of love for John Travolta. This is something he'd wanted to make for years, so how it turned out so indescribably, monumentally atrocious is a mystery.

Runaway Jury (2003)

Runaway Jury

[19 April 2009]

A classy, exciting thriller, and a cut above the usual John Grisham fare.

This is one of those rare films I can happily watch a couple of times a year and still enjoy because it's so completely satisfying. It's got a great cast all doing fine work, a nifty plot, an exciting score, and is full of fantastic little moments. It's gripping too - which a surprising number of modern thrillers are not - and is generally executed brilliantly.

It's a shame that so few sparks fly between Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. Their moments together are good but they don't burn up the screen in the way one might hope. Nevertheless Hackman in particular is excellent, and everyone involved looks to be having a lot of fun.

The Hot Chick (2002)

The Hot Chick

[19 April 2009]

Delightfully stupid fluff, The Hot Chick might be marred by Rob Schneider's ever-so-slightly annoying characterisation but it has many other good things going for it.

Anna Faris is good as usual, even if she does play the same role in everything she's in. The delightful Rachel McAdams handles both her "characters" very well, but is especially fun after the switch. It's a shame she's given so little screen time as she makes for a fine villain.

The jokes aren't exactly plentiful but they're funny for the most part. What came as a surprise to me was the lack of crass humour and the fact the film had so much heart. The scenes with Jessica and her budding cross-dresser kid brother Booger were underplayed nicely and were downright subtle by Schneider movie standards. The pep talk to the unhappy mother, the locker room talk, letting April down gently - it was all rather touching.

I'm surprised so few people like this one, but then again I enjoyed Deuce Bigalow. . .

The House Bunny (2008)

The House Bunny

[17 April 2009]

Decent comedy, but most of the laughs are to be had in the first half - discounting the grating opening Playboy mansion sequence, that is - and as the plot starts to kick in the jokes seem to take a back seat.

Anna Faris is a deft comic actress and her performance here is very good - even if she's not always given lines that match her talents - and the film benefits from excellent casting of the Zeta house sorority girls. They all work well together and are a likable bunch that's easy to root for.

It's not the greatest thing ever made, it's not even as sweet or charming or as fun as it should be. but it works well enough and I'm sure its target audience will be satisfied.

The Lookout (2007)

The Lookout

[16 April 2009]

This quiet, understated drama-thriller may take a while to get going, but the characters are fascinating and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels have a wonderful chemistry that lends the film an unexpected heart. As a brain-damaged student and a blind wannabe entrepreneur respectively, their relationship is very sweet and would probably work well in a buddy comedy.

There's a neat Fargo-like quality to a lot of the characters and dialogue and while it covers few locations it has that convincing small town feel.

Gordon-Levitt is a night janitor at a local bank who's targeted by a gang and finessed into acting as a lookout while they rob it. Things - as they must - go wrong and he has to summon all the faculties of his fractured mind to save himself.

Isla Fisher is quite revelatory in her small role. As Luvlee she's either rather dim-witted or incredibly cunning. Fisher's performance hints at the deeper recesses of her character but doesn't reveal what they hide. Luvlee is one of those rare characters where you find yourself genuinely hoping they won't turn out to be something other than what they appear. Ultimately there's something curiously redemptive about Gordon-Levitt's journey, where there really shouldn't be. It's a testament to the quality of his performance.

Overall a satisfying drama with sustained tension and some fine performances.

Crank (2006)

Crank

[16 April 2009]

I can understand why it's so divisive, but for me Crank is an absolute classic.

What can I say? It's a big, dumb, non-stop, deliciously obnoxious action mental case that uses every trick in the book to get as in-your-face as possible while squeezing your two veg and tickling your chin.

While I didn't care much for The Transporter and didn't bother with the sequels, it's so pleasing to see Jason Statham emerge as a fully-fledged leading man; a proper, bona-fide Hollywood movie star, and in Crank he's simply brilliant. Likewise Amy Smart (of all people) as the delightfully clueless girlfriend.

It's consistently hilarious, exhilarating, utterly insane and hugely enjoyable.

Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Gone Baby Gone

[16 April 2009]

Ben Affleck's assured debut behind the camera is an extraordinary achievement by anyone's standards, let alone a first-timer.

It's as authentic a depiction of a city as you could want. The accents, the cast and extras, the locations - everything comes together beautifully to form a complete picture. It doesn't feel researched or studied, it feels like it was made by people with a great affinity for the area, and it was.

It's a shame that at the end of a film marked by such understated realism and naturalism the final twist - the one set on a front lawn - goes several steps too far and is so outside the realms of credibility it shocks more due to the disappointment rather than the surprise. I will say that the ensuing moral dilemma it creates is hugely satisfying though, so the oh-boy-that's-stupid feeling is short-lived.

It's the one single false note in an otherwise outstanding film, and I dare say that the writers and Casey Affleck have given us - in Patrick Kenzie - one of the screen's great heroes. I haven't read the Dennis Lehane novel it's based on, but on screen at least it's no exaggeration to say that Patrick Kenzie is an Atticus Finch for the new millennium. He's the classic Average Joe thrown into something much bigger and important than he, and while he's aggressive and uncouth, he also shows remarkable bravery both physically and emotionally. He'll have to make several tough decisions and sacrifices before the credits roll and it will ultimately cost him everything except his honour and his unerring sense of right and wrong. And Casey Affleck's performance is just stunning. Physically slight yet imposing and occasionally even frightening. Tender and loving, ruthless and callous, yet always noble and dignified.

The mystery is dense and gripping, the dialogue throughout sharp and snappy. And at the risk of sounding too hyperbolic "Annabel" should go down as one of the all-time great final lines in cinema history.

Scary Movie (2000)

Scary Movie

[15 April 2009]

With the endless, utterly moronic ". . . Movie" films flooding theatres on a regular basis with their particular brand of "parody" and non-existent humour, it's easy to forget how genuinely funny and fresh the one that started it all was.

The humour is of course very stupid, very base, and very crude but it mostly works, with the dialogue being just as funny as the plentiful sight gags. The performances are generally spot-on - star Anna Faris being the standout in a turn that isn't exactly a tour-de-force but is cute and perfectly suited to the material - and the parody works.

There are one or two hints of things to come with the random Riverdance moment and the Budweiser commercial spoof but this one sticks to the gameplan and is frequently very funny indeed.

The Stepford Wives (2004)

The Stepford Wives

[15 April 2009]

This comedic adaptation of Ira Levin's novel could potentially have worked very well but it suffers from a painfully unfunny script and the re-shoots are evident throughout.

It's a horribly confused mess, but it's unclear whether all its problems are a result of reaction to poor test screenings or whether it was a lame duck to begin with. There certainly aren't many successful gags in the film, (just many poor ones), the performances are all pitched too high and the music is silly and intrusive. On the other hand it's hard to see how any half-decent writer could allow the issue of whether the women are in fact robots or just brainwashed to become so foggy. Issues like that and the often uneven tone suggest it was a mixture of both.

At least it's brief, and it's watchable - just about - in a car crash kind of way.

The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

The Midnight Meat Train

[15 April 2009]

Having been unceremoniously dumped onto theatres to do Jessica Simpson business, this nasty, spectacularly violent shocker isn't perfect, but it's solidly entertaining and well worth a look.

If the idea of a prominently-featured Vinnie Jones as a serial killer turns you off, rest assured he does a wonderfully menacing job and is perfect for this kind of role.

The over-the-top (mostly CGI) violence is the film's unique selling point and it delivers in spades. While it's not photo-real it is insane enough to work beautifully, and those familiar with the more violent modern Japanese fare (like the director's own Versus)will find it a treat to see such sensibilities in a Western production. That said, there are plenty of gruesome practical effects to keep the purists happy.

The main character's descent into madness is too abrupt; it comes out of nowhere rather than being a gradual process. This combined with the fact that Bradley Cooper is a generally weak lead, and as an actor just can't meet the demands of these scenes in particular, makes them rather laughable. Leslie Bibb as his girlfriend fares little better but at least her arc makes sense.

The revelation at the end is a mild surprise but where it really succeeds is in changing your perception of what's come before. The ending feels rushed, but all the information we need is presented clearly so it's hard to grumble.

Puppet on a Chain (1970)

Puppet on a Chain

[14 April 2009]

Looking and sounding like a cheap porno without the sex, this is the first in an impressive string of stinkers from producer (or in this case director) Geoffrey Reeve.

And it's a doozy. Laughable on just about every level.

Some government agents (I think) are "professionally murdered" in Amsterdam and a considerably less-than-charismatic, block-of-wood Interpol agent (who I assure you is not named Louis Salinger) is sent in to investigate by walking around a lot to ensure the tax-dodge financiers get their money's worth for the plane tickets to shoot on location.

The wannabe-hard-hitting attitudes to drugs and depiction of prostitution must have looked laughably outdated even before the celluloid dried, but the script at least is very obliging in that it explains exactly what's happening regularly in horribly contrived direlogue ("Were you followed? Oh no of course not. No one outside Washington even knows you're here!") yet despite this the plot somehow remains confusing. By the time a sinister Vladimir Putin lookalike Priest (no less than Kronsteen from From Russia with Love) swaggers up to his pulpit to deliver a sermon your brain will have switched off, which is unfortunate because you'll miss our hero - pinned to the ground during a fight - struggling to reach for a plank of wood only to later realise he is in fact sitting on a loaded pistol, and him shouting "You bastaaaard!" at his friend's murdered corpse, and the leather-bound, moustachioed go-go boys, the morris dancing and the hilarious torture sequence - all of which provide ample laughs. Only the climactic boat chase impresses. It's an exciting, well-directed sequence that really has no place in this movie. Such a glaring anomaly is explained when the credits roll - Reeve had nothing to do with that sequence! Thankfully everything goes back to business as usual for the ridiculous, spit-out-your-drink twist and warehouse shootout.

Unless such a wretched thing as a Geoffrey Reeve completist exists - and you're one of them - I wouldn't bother with this instantly forgettable nonsense.

Man on Wire (2008)

Man on Wire

[14 April 2009]

Oh dear. I'm in the minority on this one, but Man on Wire did very little for me.

Perhaps it's down to the unlikable Philippe Petit himself, who is surprisingly hard to root for. I didn't care for his personality and the fact that he had so much of it just exacerbated my feelings.

For a 90-minute documentary there's remarkably little actual information. My general knowledge of the incident is still almost non-existent and I only watched it last night! Too much time is spent on Petit's other exploits and the WTC walk - supposedly the focus of the film - comes perilously close to being glossed over. The basic, essential facts of the operation are recounted in an incidental manner and are buried under mumbling voices with heavy French accents.

What Petit did was undeniably spectacular - and at its best the film captures that well, with the wire walk sequence being thrilling - and I'm tempted to say it's a shame such a feat received such a poor documentary treatment, but it's an Oscar winner, and an overwhelming success with critics and audiences alike, so I'll accept that I'm just one of the few for whom it didn't work.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

[13 April 2009]

An excellent crime thriller with a cracking, intelligent script that's only slightly marred by wildly uneven performances and an implausible final act.

The fractured narrative works incredibly well. Vast amounts of information are withheld to great effect as the revelations - small and large - come thick and fast. Telling Hank and Andy's stories pretty much separately means that it feels almost like a competition to see who's in worse trouble. Just when we think one of them has hit rock bottom, it's revealed that the other learnt even more bad news that will impact both of them - and it all comes from credible sources. There's no broken down cars or flat cell phone batteries here; everything that befalls them feels realistic yet almost fated.

The tension is palpable in just about every scene, helped along by a truly fantastic, immediate score.

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke are either excellent or terrible depending on the scene they're in. both of them vacillate wildly between impressive naturalistic moments and ridiculously affected overacting which at times makes some scenes inadvertently comic. I have no idea what Albert Finney was thinking - he's usually a great actor - but he's horrible here. Marisa Tomei does her usual great work and the quality of her performance is sustained throughout. What's puzzling though is why the script calls for her to be so comic. She feels at times like a character who's wandered in from a different movie. Still, the role is more complex than any of the others and she handles it brilliantly.

The final act goes too far over the top and doesn't feel true to the rest of the story, which is a shame. All the other faults are minor but this one really takes the film down a notch or two.

Nevertheless this remains a near-great film, and on the occasions when everything is pulling in the same direction it works astonishingly well.

Bounce (2000)

Bounce

[12 April 2009]

This romantic drama is entirely predictable - even by the genre's standards - but it works very well thanks to excellent chemistry between the two leads and a more mature, philosophical edge than this kind of fare usually offers up. Another thing that sets it apart is that the inevitable spanner-in-the-works climax involving the air hostess doesn't feel like something the writer just came up with out of the blue to add tension. It's been there all along, we just didn't think about it.

While Ben Affleck acquits himself well, it's really Gwyneth Paltrow's performance that rings the most true and provides the film's emotional heart. Her character is equally sad and inspirational, and her portrayal is spot-on.

It's not the greatest romantic drama ever made, but if you can forgive the formulaic script and appreciate its numerous strengths you'll be quietly impressed.

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

Jason and the Argonauts

[12 April 2009]

Decent enough, but episodic (perhaps due to the nature of the poem it was based on) and surprisingly flat. Ray Harryhausen's visual effects deserve their reputation for the most part but some of them have dated terribly and the film's budget limitations are evident much of the time in the bigger scenes. Consequently it never feels anywhere near as epic as it ought to.

Nigel Green makes a strong impression as Hercules but is given precious little screen time. The rest of the cast - and Jason in particular - are a deathly dull bunch and not really a great deal of fun to be around. That may not be true of Honor Blackman and Niall McGinnis - as Hera and Zeus respectively - but they hardly set the screen alight.

Bernard Herrmann's score is good but he cribs from his own work on Vertigo and pre-empts some of his Taxi Driver cues.

Overall it's fun and enjoyable but it isn't the great classic you may have been led to believe, and without Harryhausen's work it'd be a real turkey.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

[10 April 2009]

Given the target audience I can understand the decision to cast Asian actors with American accents as Japanese characters, but there is a depressing number of supporting actors and extras that have clearly never been west of Orange County.

The hero looks utterly gormless and spends the running time grinning like an idiot and staring wide-eyed in amazement at newfangled alien technology like chopsticks and sandals. Watching him act is like watching a retarded child struggle with his shoelaces - tragic yet cruelly hilarious. His father's in the Navy - we know this because all his clothes have "NAVY" written on them - and even though judging by his apartment he's dirt poor he can still afford an endless stream of plane tickets to back up his threats to send the poor retarded boy home. The lead actress is a bizarre-looking, hideously unattractive creature, and one of the strangest choices for a female lead in a teen movie in recent memory. No one in the entire cast has a shred of talent between them.

A hotshot racer at home, to make the grade on the streets of Tokyo our hero must first learn to master the "Tokyo drift" - an awesome, almost mythical driving technique that turns out to be, um, skidding.

It fails completely to make any decent use of a city that is as cinematic and beautiful as they come, it's filled with loud, obnoxious rap and rock music, it doesn't have an original bone in it's body and about the only thing to recommend it is that in the first half at least there is a pleasing number of very attractive young women in very tiny skirts.

Green Street Hooligans (2005)

Hooligans

[10 April 2009]

The kind of film you'd cross the street to avoid, this absolutely dreadful waste of time is filled to the brim with all the standard clichés of the football hooligan film.

As an added bonus, this one has a cast of fake Cockneys putting on terrible accents. In fact, the second lead Charlie Van Dyke - I mean Hunnam's accent is so awful it was a shock to learn he's an Englishman! Coming across like an Australian actor struggling with a South African accent, it's honestly worse than the Cockney accents in Timothy Hines' worst film ever made The War of the Worlds. At one point I swear I saw him look at the camera and sing "Maury Pappins, stip in tahm!" If you're going to make a film about Cockney hooligans you'd better make damned sure your actors can convince with the accents, otherwise the audience will be left in hysterics as I was. To me it's as fatal a flaw as having Count Dracula wear a pretty pink dress and it's beyond me how such a performance was even considered suitable.

Aside from the accents the film adheres strictly to the tired old rules of the sub-genre, offering only an American in the way of something fresh - and that fails, obviously. The only thing about the film that isn't entirely predictable is the reprehensible way it seeks to glamorise these thugs - just watch Hunnam's final moments - apparently seeing organised violence at sporting events as some kind of noble warrior tradition.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

[9 April 2009]

The film series got off to a decidedly rocky start with this very slow-moving, ponderous affair that feels like a first act drawn out over 136 minutes.

The big revelation of V'Ger's nature at the end is quite good and a genuine surprise but it's no reward for enduring the build-up. The pornographic establishing shots of the Enterprise seem to last forever, particularly when it's first shown. Any sense of awe is soon replaced by total boredom as it slowly floats by, shot from a dozen different angles. Once we're inside V'Ger it gets even worse and the film grinds to a halt. All this repetition of scenery is meant to suggest immense size but that's already established early on and this hammering the point home is completely unnecessary.

It plays almost like a mystery thriller and is very light on action, but while the creators should be applauded for trying something different, unfortunately there isn't enough suspense inherent in the story to make it work.

When something's actually happening it's quite good, it's nice to see the cast doing their thing in roles that fit like gloves, and it isn't exactly a chore to sit through - but The Motion Picture still feels like a very long car journey to nowhere special.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

[9 April 2009]

This is more like it! After a rocky start with an admirably cerebral but ultimately dull first big screen outing, the Star Trek series bounced back with this excellent, rip-roaring adventure classic, generally considered the best in the franchise.

Filled with memorable moments, vivid performances, awe-inspiring spectacle and a much-improved score, it's more-or-less a perfect entertainment. And all this for a staggering one-third of the cost of its predecessor.

The jury's still out on the legitimacy of Ricardo Montalban's chest but his wonderfully hammy performance as Khan gives us one of the great modern sci-fi villains, countered by William Shatner's heroic, sly Kirk who - along with everyone else on the crew - seems to have been upping their Personality Plus supplements since the last film.

It's this twinkle in the eyes of the entire cast and a strong sense of wry humour that makes the film such terrific, old-fashioned fun. It's the kind of film Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone might have made forty years earlier, with galleons instead of spaceships.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

[9 April 2009]

Even though it cost considerably more than The Wrath of Khan it's hard to spot the money on the screen. Not helped by Leonard Nimoy's flat direction either, it has an unfortunate TV movie feel about it, with cheap-looking rubbery puppets and rather paltry econo-explosions. Even Genesis somehow manages to be a little less impressive this time around despite the time we spend exploring it.

While its predecessor had a rich vein of wry humour running throughout the entire script, this tends to rely more on (albeit successful) comedy moments and consequently a lot of the warmth is lost. It's still got heart, just not as much.

It's not a bad film by any means. There's fun to be had most of the time, it's just a shame that so little of the sparkle remains.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

[9 April 2009]

The most overtly comic of the series, this silly but fun caper sees the crew travelling back to modern-day San Francisco to steal a couple of whales.

How he got that awful sequence depicting time travel past the studio is a mystery, but otherwise Leonard Nimoy's direction is more assured and it at least looks like a proper movie. The whale models are impressive and there's some beautiful matte work (even if once or twice it's very ropey.) There's plenty of fun to be had in the streets of San Francisco and while it's alluded to plenty there's thankfully no over-reliance on we're-from-the-future-and-we-don't-understand-your-ways gags, and the ones that are there work well for the most part.

Ultimately it feels more like a stop-gap, a holiday special rather than a proper addition to the series. There's no tension, no villain, no action. Still, taken on its own terms this oddity succeeds well enough.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

[8 April 2009]

In much the same way as The Motion Picture was a long journey to a less-than-spectacular pay-off, The Final Frontier feels like a TV episode stretched out over a feature length.   It's clear from the opening scene that Sybok is no villain, so that leaves the film sorely lacking in the tension department. There's a bored Klingon Captain out to get Kirk but the character is introduced late and is underused to the point of pointlessness. In fact the real bad guy isn't introduced until ten minutes before the film ends, and his scene is a frankly pathetic excuse for a climax.

In place of dramatic tension we're left with pratfalls from Scotty, scenes of Kirk, McCoy and Spock singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" around a campfire and Uhura performing an erotic dance - none of which is as much fun as it sounds. While some scenes border on the epic (by Star Trek standards) others seem to be grappling with budget restraints - the ship that picks up the campers is represented by sound effects and flashing lights, and the less said about the Face of God finale the better - which give the film a curiously schizophrenic feel.  

Probably just edging out The Motion Picture as the weakest of the first seven "original crew" films (not counting their cameos in Generations.) Like that film it's not exactly bad, just very thin on plot and not much fun.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

[8 April 2009]

Nipping at Khan's heels in the race for best Star Trek movie, The Undiscovered Country is a hugely enjoyable adventure.

While Khan succeeded with its simple story and cliffhanger ending, this one is the most dramatically satisfying of the series to date. Densely plotted in comparison with its predecessors the political intrigue is a welcome addition and adds real weight to the gripping race-against-time events.

There's no fat on the script - every scene counts. From the awkward dinner with the Klingons, the zero gravity assassination, the trial, to the prison planet, searching the ship, the beautiful Iman's memorable scenes during the escape, the tag team battle with the Bird of Prey and the nick-of-time ending - it takes you from one superbly executed scene to another and at every step of the way you're left wanting more.

This is the film where it all came together for the first time in nearly a decade - performances, script, impressive computer effects - it's the kind of treatment Star Trek deserves. Although it's sad to see Sulu kept apart from the others, the entire cast are having as much fun as they ever had in the series, slyly acknowledging their advancing years with great humour and pulling out all the stops to ensure their farewell outing is a perfect swansong, and at the end there's a very novel and touching moment that perfectly conveys the end of an era.

Hancock (2008)

Hancock

[3 April 2009]

A hugely enjoyable superhero movie offering a unique take on the genre, not only through having the hero be an alcoholic, homeless, antisocial liability but also because of the unexpected level of emotional depth it reaches.

Jason Bateman is wonderful as the mild-mannered, good-hearted PR man who takes Hancock under his wing and helps him turn his life around. Charlize Theron makes less of a first impression but really comes into her own when the major plot twist is revealed.

The script isn't frequently laugh-out-loud funny but it's consistently amusing and one scene involving two prisoners threatening Hancock is an absolute classic and worth the price of admission alone. Hancock's Kryptonite comes in an unusual form and whereas these things often end up somewhat gimmicky - the green stuff is a case in point - in Hancock not only is it a neat idea but it actually serves the story.

Producer Michael Mann's stamp is all over it, and it's shot in a gritty, realistic style that is at first jarring but as the plot unfolds and the tone establishes itself becomes perfectly fitting.

It suffers maybe from a weak villain who's introduced too late and the rotten CGI in a movie with this budget is unforgivable, but those are about the only serious things it has going against it.

The trailers and TV spots made this look thoroughly obnoxious but renting it despite my better judgement I found it to be not only a lot of fun but one of the most emotionally mature superhero movies out there, and probably the most moving of the ones I've seen.