Friday 29 December 2017

Goodbye World (2013)



"Goodbye World".  The message flashes from cell phone to cell phone, propagating out to people's address books without their consent.

At first the phenomenon seems to be just a curious exploitation of a flaw in the cell phone system, but then cyber attacks strike at the technological infrastructure of the modern world.  As cities devolve into riots, eight people - most of them former college friends now estranged to greater or lesser degrees by the events of intervening years - gather in the isolated mountain home belonging to two of their number.

This home has its own well water, enough solar panels to be totally off-grid, and a huge supply of food and medicine on hand.  It is, in other words, the perfect place to hide out from the collapse of society ... assuming said collapsing society leaves you alone.  And assuming that your group's own unfinished business won't break you apart.

Goodbye World has pretty mediocre ratings on IMDB, and I suspect that's at least in part because it presents as an 'end of the world' type tale, but the apocalypse is frankly just a backdrop for, and occasional motivator to, a relationship drama.  The characters tend to be much more interested in their personal grievances with each other than with the end of civilisation as they know it, despite the ever increasing signs that the end of civilisation is interested in them.

Benefiting from a strong cast (Gaby Hoffman is particularly good), this is a pretty low-key film on the whole - certainly that DVD cover is highly misleading - and I can see why plenty of potential viewers would be upset with the movie they actually got.  But if you go in with an openness to the idea of watching a film about how people (often fail to) engage with sudden and seismic change, it may well be worth your time.  Certainly I don't regret seeing it.

Tuesday 26 December 2017

Magnum P.I., Season 7 (1986)



A couple of times recently I have seen people refer to the 'Kirk Fallacy'.  This refers to the fact that the conception of James T Kirk in popular culture and the actual character who appears on screen are actually rather different.  We all tend to think of Kirk as some interstellar Lothario who roams the galaxy seducing beautiful women, but he doesn't actually act that way in the original Star Trek TV series.

This is relevant to a review of Magnum P.I. because there's a similar fallacy in popular culture about the nature of this show.  It's remembered as a very light dramedy notable mostly for the weekly parade of beautiful women romanced by the lead, while he wore a very small pair of shorts.

And to be fair, the shorts were short

But Magnum P.I. was actually much more diverse than this popular conception suggests, and nowhere is that more noticeable (at least so far) than in this seventh season.  Initially conceived as the final year for the show, the season has a decidedly more mature tone than is commonly associated with the program, such as the case that starts with the rape and murder of a child, or the episode where a major character's loved one is suffering from Alzheimer's.  And then there's the final episode of the season, which as I said was originally intended to the final episode ever.  While it has its moments of humour, it's most definitely not "light dramedy".

Not every episode of the show is a winner, but Magnum P.I. was a more ambitious and inventive program than people remember.

Monday 25 December 2017

Gremlins (1984)



I don't normally post reviews on Mondays any more, but I wanted to provide a bonus blog instalment for Xmas Day.  You just have to promise not to expose it to bright light (especially sunlight) or to water, or to feed it after midnight.

Yep, it's Gremlins, a film to this day associated with Steven Spielberg even though he neither wrote nor directed it (he was an "executive producer", which mostly means he was a money man, though to be fair it appears he had some input to specific script elements and to casting).

Billly's dad buys Billy a mogwai named Gizmo as a Christmas present.  Mogwai are cute, intelligent, musically-inclined little dudes, but it's very, very important that you follow the three rules I mentioned above when you're looking after them.  If you break them, there will be consequences.

Surprise surprise, it really won't be too long before Billy's managed to goof up the whole trifecta.  But let's be fair, watching what happens once he goofs up is kind of the whole point of the film, isn't it?

So yeah, when you break all the rules, Gremlins happen.  I don't think I'm exactly spoiling anything by saying that: it's right there in the title and the cover image, after all.  The little beasties are going to make this a holiday season Billy is never likely to forget ... assuming he survives!

Gremlins is a horror-comedy, with the emphasis much more on the latter than the former.  It's anarchic and silly and despite its body count I doubt its villains will give any but the most timid audience member any really chills.  In fact, the most unsettling scene has nothing at all to do with little green monsters.  But it's a fun romp, and if you're in the mood for something slightly dark and very goofy, you should have a good time.

Friday 22 December 2017

Bunraku (2010)



In a post-apocalyptic world without guns, the most powerful man is Nicola the Woodcutter.  Backed by his nine Killers, who are numbered two through ten - the implication presumably is that Nicola himself is number one - and an army of red-clad soldiers, the Woodcutter is pretty much a feudal lord.  His goons extort money from the local businesses, run all the local vice, intimidate the workers, and generally make life miserable for everyone.

And then two strangers come to town, each with their own agenda, but each equally destined to come into conflict with the Woodcutter and his flunkies.  Brought together by a local barkeep, whose own motivations involve a woman that Nicola stole, the pair punch, kick and swordfight their way to a final showdown with the bad guys.

Bunraku obviously owes some debt to Yojimbo (via A Fist Full of Dollars) in its script, though it jettisons the iconic "playing two groups of bad guys off against each other" theme to just make it a straight up revenge/justice tale.  That more simple structure doesn't do it a lot of favours really, and neither does the overwrought and far too frequent narration that bangs on and on, telling you stuff that they could have just shown you.

The film takes its name from a type of Japanese puppet show, and the most memorable aspect of the movie is its visual style, which appears to be consciously modelled on the sets and design you might expect from said puppet show.  There's a scene where characters look through a set of trees that look like they're woodcut models, for instance.  This concept often works quite nicely, but there are times when it goes a bit astray.  Still, it's probably the main reason to check out the film at all: I certainly wouldn't recommend it for the script.

Tuesday 19 December 2017

Planet Earth (2006)



In 1984 the BBC produced The Living Planet, a truly excellent nature documentary series.  Just over 20 years later they brought us Planet Earth, which could just have easily been titled "The Living Planet: the Next Generation".

Planet Earth has the same basic structure as the earlier series - touring the world biosphere by biosphere, moving from say mountains to deserts to plains to the sea - and the same narrator in the eternally velvet-voiced David Attenborough.

There are some differences between the two series, of course.  Planet Earth benefits from twenty years of additional research and technological innovation, for one thing, which allows it to show you scenes that would not have been possible in the earlier program.  Not all the changes are for the better, though.  Planet Earth is very much more about animals than it is about other forms of life.  Plants and fungi get much less attention this time around, and I do feel like the more narrow focus is a disappointment.  I get that animals are more active and probably make better footage for that reason, but it just feels a little less ambitious.

The second disappointment is that Attenborough's role is purely voice-over.  Again, there are probably good reasons for that - he was pushing 80 when this show was produced - but his enthusiasm when he appeared on screen was always so unfeigned and so infectious that its absence here was very notable to me.

These quibbles aside, though, Planet Earth is a genuinely excellent documentary, and being "not quite as good as The Living Planet" is still high praise indeed.  If you've an interest in the natural world, you're sure to learn plenty of fascinating things from watching it.

Friday 15 December 2017

Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)



Three Wise Men follow a star to Bethlehem, in order to give homage to a new born child as the Son of God.  They find him in a stable.  Unfortunately, it rapidly becomes apparent that it's the wrong kid, and they scurry off down to the next stable to give their gifts to Jesus, instead.

The next baby over to the Son of God is Brian, who grows up into a rather diffident young man in the shadow of his domineering mother.  Brian seems destined for a life of little note until his efforts to impress a young woman lead him to join the People's Front of Judea, possibly the most inept of the many inept organisations attempting to end Roman control of Jerusalem.

Suffice it to say that Brian isn't going to do much to improve the overall quality of the PFJ's personnel, and that his adventures are only going to be come more absurd from this point on.

The anarchic antics of the Monty Python team are in full effect here in their second original film (and third film overall).  It's a fine bit of farce, though carried in large part by the comedic charisma of the Pythons themselves: describing the jokes simply wouldn't do the film justice.

If you like your comedy broad, silly and off-the-wall, and you're not easily offended by political and religious satire, you might well find Life of Brian a sharply funny bit of work.  If you don't fit that criteria, you will probably think it's just stupid.  Put me down in the "sharply funny" camp.

Tuesday 12 December 2017

Breaking Bad, Season 3 (2010)



A lot of people seem to love Breaking Bad, but I find myself a bit ambivalent about it.  The main reason for that is pretty simple: I find Walter White a repellent and reprehensible individual.  It's hard to thoroughly engage with a show where I dislike the protagonist quite so much.  At least for me, ol' Walt lacks any of the charisma or empathetic traits that might make his deeply narcissistic self more tolerable.  I mean, even Dexter Morgan and Frank Underwood at least know that they're bad people.  Walt, on the other guy, is convinced he's the hero and that the world owes him something for the (admittedly tough) hand he's been dealt.

What I'm saying is that when your script has hired killers plotting to murder your main character and my main reaction is irritation that they won't succeed, there may be a problem.

So why does this season still get a qualified recommendation?  Well mainly because of the second half of its run, where it seems like Walter finally starts to try and act a bit less like a jerk.  I mean sure, his motives for doing so are still pretty selfish, but we can't have everything.

And you know, there are other characters in the show than Walt, and they're often a good deal more likeable than he is, so I can watch and enjoy their stories, and lament at the inevitable pain they suffer whenever their lives intersect with that of this horrible, horrible individual.

Friday 8 December 2017

Power Rangers (2017)



A group of variously troubled or outcast teens stumble across an ancient spaceship, where the electronically-stored consciousness of an alien warns them that the Earth is in immediate peril of destruction.  They have 11 days to unlock the secret of the morphing field and embrace their destiny as the planet's protectors: The Power Rangers.  If they fail, everything goes boom.

I've seen a lot more films at the cinema in 2017 than in a typical year: about 20.  Many of those films have lived up to my expectations, while several have fallen short, either because they simply weren't as good as I'd hoped (Beauty and the Beast, John Wick 2) or because they were a cinematic blight that further defiled the corpse of a once great franchise (Alien: Covenant).

Only one film, on the other hand, proved to be markedly better than I expected it to be.  I freely admit that in this regard, Power Rangers had a pretty low bar to clear.  I was expecting maximum cheese and endless toy shilling.  Instead I got The Breakfast Club with robot dinosaurs and alien superpowers.  And how could I not enjoy that?

Power Rangers offers up an engaging cast, a scenario that the characters always treat as serious even when the details might be a little goofy (the villain's name is Rita Repulsa, after all), and is a genuinely fun SF action movie.  Sure, it's not going to be to all tastes, but if you're at all a science fiction fan, it's certainly a far better way to spend two hours than say Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.  I'm pleased to hear that toy sales and a strong showing on home media might be enough to justify a sequel.  I'd certainly hit the theatre again if there is one.

Tuesday 5 December 2017

Orphan Black, Season 4 (2016)



Season 3 of Orphan Black had some issues with cohesion.  The plot-line revolving around one of the 'core four' clones felt very divorced from that of the other three.  This season does a much better job of getting all of the quartet interacting on the same things, and ironically it does so by revealing a lot more to us about a fifth clone: the dead police officer Beth, whose suicide was pretty much the opening act of the entire show.

I'm generally pretty wary of the "now let's flashback and show a bunch of stuff that happened a long time ago" as a story-telling technique, as it can often be a pretty heavy-handed and clumsy way of changing the meaning of past story events in order to correct a story that has gone off course.  In this case though, it works well: the events that are revealed generally reinforce the plot direction taken at the end of the last season.  That plot direction wasn't one I felt was all that well set-up back then, but I have to admit it was probably smarter to leap into it before doing all this flashback material, so good call by the show's writers on that front.

As always, the cast remains very strong.  Tatiana Maslany has rightly been lauded for her work on the show, but she is ably supported by pretty much everyone she works with here.  The casting is a real benefit to the show.

Fingers crossed that the fifth and final season will deliver a solid ending to what has been an enjoyable show over the past four series.

Friday 1 December 2017

Salt (2010)



Evelyn Salt is a well-regarded CIA agent who suddenly finds herself accused of being a Soviet-era mole from the KGB.  Fearing for her husband's life - "when they try to burn you, the first thing they do is burn your family" - she breaks out of CIA custody and goes on the run.  Or that's what she claims is her motivation, anyway.  The people chasing her, of course, can't take the luxury of assuming she's on the level.  Certainly not with the life of the visiting Russian president on the line ...

I saw Atomic Blonde a few months ago.  It was a stylish action movie with a strong female lead, and plenty of secret agent high jinks and double crosses.  It was also ultimately a bit unsatisfying to me, because no matter how great the fight choreography or how enjoyable Charlize Theron's performance was, the film was an extended exercise in technical sophistication obscuring narrative weakness.  None of the characters' motivations or actions make a lick of sense, and the movie just seems to hope that a thumping 80s soundtrack and Theron being a bad-ass will distract you from that fact.

I mention all this because Salt is another spy action film with a tough female lead and plenty of double crosses.  On the other hand, the motivations and actions of the characters in this film make sense.  Or at least, make sense if one is willing to accept the basic "let's re-create the Cold War" motivations of the bad guys.  Which is admittedly quite a lot to swallow.

Salt is not a film that offers a transformative cinematic experience.  But it is a solidly crafted modern day espionage movie and overall a pretty entertaining watch in a pretty clearly James Bondian mold.  I'd certainly be more interested in seeing Salt 2 than Atomic Blonde 2, a stale Jason Bourne sequel, or - for that matter - yet another Bond movie.