Red Tails

                    

Many elements of 'Star Wars' were in homage to older world war two dog fighting films. Lucas obviously has a thing for this style, as now that he can do whatever he wants he's decided to fund and direct his own throw-back dog fighting movie about the Tuskegee airmen. 

This wasn't a weird move in itself - it's a neat story idea - but the way he talked about it was embarrassing. You know he said that no big studios would fund the film because it had an all black cast? And that it was somehow the first of its kind? His whole spin on what is nothing more than a sub par dog fight movie was awkward and I think bordered on offensive in its miss-selling this film as being somehow culturally significant.

                  

                      

Firstly, the plot is overly simplistic and the dialogue is laughable. Seriously, it's like a child wrote it. There is also a heavy use of effects and a lot of it feels very fake and green screeny (George is very much still in a prequel style rut). It's very heavy handed all round. The religious elements, the racism, the friendships. All the sides are painted with such a broad brush too - almost all the white people are terrible racists, and all the Germans are evil and take pleasure in killing. 

It's intentionally campy, but the mix of styles doesn't work well. There are lots of shots of people dying horribly or being set on fire or whatever, and it's weird to see them cheering and laughing after killing so many people. 

And there are several major plot holes. They keep showing footage of areal battles that was just from an earlier scene of the movie with an old timey filter over it. Where were the cameras meant to be? Did all the fighters have dashboard cams or something? And are we meant to believe that that guy saw a woman on a roof from his plane in enough detail to decide that he was in love and recognise her later and that she actually saw and recognised him?! Through the glass of the plane cockpit? The whole romance sub plot is stupid. There's no chemistry or even much dialogue between the two, yet each time we cut back to a scene together their relationship has apparently progressed in leaps and bounds - suddenly they're together, now he's proposing, now they're getting married.

The whole film just feels like it's for children. The plot is so simple and all the characters are so black and white, if you'll pardon the pun. Oh, and the weird motivational speeches don't feel earned and fall totally flat. It plays more as a sly comedy than a serious war drama.

                  

Red Tails: 25.8

The Woman in Black: Angel of Death

                      

When taken as a stand-alone: meh. It's run of the mill and lacks anything that would particularly endear me to it (apart from effective atmosphere and lighting, which can be pretty much taken for granted in a horror like this with a reasonable budget anyway). When taken as a direct sequel to 'The Woman in Black' though, it doesn't hold up at all.

The setting is the same, but it's set like 40 years after the first movie, and none of the same characters are in this one. Their replacements are bland and forgetful (the main thing about our hero is that she smiles to hide fear/sadness...?), and the film doesn't use it's slow pace to build on them enough. The villain is the same, as far as I can remember, but I don't understand why she's back. Unless this is a different ghost now? It's not just that, though. This just doesn't feel on the same level as the previous movie. The scares are cheap and predictable, the pacing is up and down, and the plot plays out extremely predictably.

                   

                    

The fact that I'm unsure of what the main villain's motivation is, is a bad sign - I mean I was trying to pay full attention to this movie, it just never fully clicked, you know?

But as a stand-alone, fine. Not great, or even good, but not the worst. I don't recommend it though, the war stuff (which I'd usually find sort of interesting) wasn't even that real feeling. Sort of like 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow' but not quite as bad.

                       

The Woman in Black: Angel of Death: 23.9

Hell in the Pacific

            

Not much speaking in this one - it would have worked as a silent movie. 'Hell in the Pacific' is a slow, thoughtful, WW2 drama about a Japanese officer and an American pilot who are stranded together on a small pacific island.

Time for the obligatory "reviewer talks about himself" bit: I've always had something of a soft spot for all things castaway, and it is one of the few types of plot where I do not necessarily mind a lot of time being taken over not very much happening. I just sort of enjoy watching or reading about people building something of a life and exploring their surroundings, and this has undoubtedly softened my opinion of this film, which in all honesty drags its plot along like an ox does a plow, and often goes in circles like an ox with a plow, who's going in circles. I loved the parts in 'The Lord of the Flies' before the shit hits the fan, my favourite part of 'In the Heart of the Sea' was post-wrecking (at the time of writing I have yet to see the movie, but the novel was brilliant), and I did actually quite enjoy the slower parts of 'The Beach'.

             

Kalima!

I consider my opinion to be flawed though, because in a way I do sort of understand that a lot of 'Hell in the Pacific' is boring. There are a lot of shots of the two men staring at each other, and a lot of times where the music picks up and becomes distracting (and indeed detracting, thanks autocorrect, though I will write you as one word regardless, as hyphenation is so last century) even as very little is happening on screen.

That isn't to say that it wasn't a very enjoyable film. The sole two characters (who are played by the heavyweights Toshiro Mifune and Lee Marvin) are both so lifelike and fun to watch, and I found myself really enjoying their exchanges, especially as they began to warm to one another. The acting is a little explosive and overdone at times, but the intensity fits their state of mind well, and I think it says a lot that we basically know what Toshiro is ranting about without any subtitles. I loved the scene where he was tending to his zen garden, only for the American to sneak up and mess it up slightly for his foot. For a moment I thought that the Japanese officer was going to attack him, but he ended up tenderly re-raking the damages area while the American watched him, bemused. This shows their thoughts excellently, as the Japanese officer wants to create some kind of order in his life, and the American pilot wants to keep fighting with the other man in some way, but at the same time is aware that he is providing him with something to do, a fact that the Japanese man is also aware of, and through this the beginnings of a friendship is built.

                

                

I'm glad that neither man even attempted to learn the others' language, as this would have broken the wordless spell that the movie builds in its duration. They are either staring at one another in silence or one is shouting at the blank faced other man. They might be telling each other drunken stories simultaneously, or shouting at each other inconclusively.

And then it ends, and the ending isn't very good, sorry. They were happy, and then the war gets in the way and they start shouting at each other. Just as it looks like they're going to start fighting the war really gets in the way as we hear aircraft approaching and then - what? An explosion, filmed from the exterior of the building, so maybe they die or maybe they don't, but it's the end either way. I heard that the original ended with some Japanese soldiers finding them and killing the American, and then the Japanese officer, enraged, kills them in turn. That would have been nicer in a way, as then at least the war wouldn't have won completely, and the last act would have been one of friendship-driven vengeance. It is certainly a bold ending, especially for it's time, but I just felt that it happened far too fast and left me feeling dissatisfied.

Overall a neat anti-war film, if ponderous and at times directionless. Fascinating in conception but disappointing in conclusion.

                    

Hell in the Pacific: 56.1

Age of Heroes

          

A fairly run of the mill World War II action flick about the formation of the 30 Commando unit and seizing Nazi radar tech from occupied Norway. Sean Bean has done better work, but this is one of the better movies I've seen Danny Dyer do. That's not saying a huge amount though, and don't get me wrong - this movie is seriously lacking in several ways.

              

                   

The acting is just about acceptable. At some points I'm still very aware that I'm watching actors act, and while the emotional scenes are sometimes done well enough to make enjoyable viewing, but most of the time I failed to be completely drawn into the movie.

The plot was alright, and at times I could tell that the book this movie was based on was written by Ian Flemming. Unfortunately the film could have done with a bigger budget, and some of the more actiony sequences felt a bit thin. Watchable overall though, and with a cast of "oh yeah, that guy" faces.

            

Age of Heroes: 34.0

Inglourious Basterds

A study in the dramatic build up of tension, and the extreme contrast between explosively violent and disturbingly uneventful conclusions. 'Inglourious Basterds' is a ridiculous action movie set during WW2, while simultaneously retaining many aspects of a classic western. We've seen Tarantino do this sort of thing before, with 'Kill Bill', in which he blended elements of samurai revenge with matrix-like American action and gore left over from 'Saw'.

"Oooooooh, that's a BINGO!"

Most of said world class tension comes straight out of the acting talent of Hans Landa, as played by Christoph Waltz. He is all at once an extremely enjoyable character to watch, and a horribly monstrous one. He takes such pleasure in his work (embracing the nickname "Jew Hunter" that he is given) and in teasing his victims. One of the many excellently tense scenes in this film was when he was questioning Shosanna (played wonderfully by Mélanie Laurent) in the restaurant, and he orders her a glass of milk (in the opening scene her and her family were hiding under the floorboards of a dairy farm). The tension builds perfectly, before ending in nothing as he puts his cigarette out in a tasty looking strudel.

 

  
There are several examples of this same brilliant tension. One of my favourite characters was the British film reviewer-come-soldier-come-spy (played by Michael Fassbender, who also did a sterling job as a young Magneto in those 'X-Men' prequels). The sickeningly tension filled scene with featuring him in a basement pub is another excellent example, and it was a shame that his character didn't last any longer. His intro scene was lots of fun, at least. It's quite possibly because I was born here, but there is something about the British war effort that feels somewhat more wholesome than it's American counterpart. It might be that they didn't end up committing genocide in order to win, it might be that they didn't wait until they were directly attacked before choosing a side, or it might be their stiff mannerisms and borderline alcoholism. Whatever it is, it's a feeling I associate with 'Dad's Army' and Granddad Cornwall.

The other stars of the show were the Bastards themselves. A group of American Jews headed by the slow talking swastika carving matter of fact LT. Aldo Raine. These psychos travel around German occupied Europe and brutally kill enemy soldiers and then collect their scalps. The group become minor legends in the German ranks, and they provide quite a few genuine laughs. There is one scene that manages to be both hilarious and tense, as Hans questions some of the Bastards, who are pretending to be Italian film makers. They can speak less Italian that I can (and everything I've learnt has been from 'Assassin's Creed') and Hans forces them to repeat themselves as they struggle through in clumpy American accents.

 

  
I enjoy the matter of fact way that LT. Raine talks, and his voice and accent could easily have been hammed, but they work very well. I liked the cuts to Utivich as he is scalping a guy. He answers the questions with simple confirmations, acting as though he's merely sawing a log in half or something similarly menial.

I felt a twinge of sympathy as the German officer was being beaten to a pulp by the "Bear Jew". He was proper WW1 style old school, remaining polite even as his men's bodies were being scalped all around him and refusing to answer questions that would result in "the loss of German lives". It was depressing that after he was killed one of his men gave up their positions immediately. When asked if he got his iron cross for killing Jews he answered that it was for bravery. D'aww.

I took a somewhat sick pleasure watching a man and woman burn down a theater filled with Nazis while two of the Bastards literally machine gun Hitler's face into little bits. What made it even better was that it was a black man and a Jewish woman. I found it surprising at the time that it broke from history and they all actually died, as until then I had imagined that the movie could have been based on real events.

Another interesting character was Frederick Zoller, who on the surface seems sweet and adorably awkward. However, as you start to see the pleasure he obviously took in killing all those soldiers, and the way he forces himself on Shosanna, we see the monster that he is. More a product of his environment than Hans, who is thriving in his conditions because of how he is already, but still competitively abhorrent to my eyes.
  

 

The scene where he gets shot, and she begins feeling sympathetic, only for him to shoot her back, is amazing. The music builds to a crescendo as the red of her blood melds with the red of her dress. she is beautiful even as she dies, while his white suit is ruined by his blood, as is his reputation. The cutaways from music to new scenes are perfectly timed and brilliantly jarring, the contrasts between scenes often had me rubbing my hands together in glee. The use of sound is an important factor in 'Inglourious Basterds', often suddenly blasting before suddenly cutting out as the scene changes. This lends the film a slightly goofy, comic book quality.

Finally, the image of Shosanna laughing, ghostly in the smoke, as the Nazis are squashed up and burning to death was haunting. As was the demented look on Donowitz's face as he empties his machine gun into Hitlers head. Also, I honestly found it surprising that both plots to screw up the Nazi party worked. That's rare for me, and that's point for the movie for sure.

This is one of those films that is such a joy to watch and write about, and one of the reasons why i started this blog.

Inglourious Basterds: 89.3

Dead Snow

What the hell is this? Is this serious? This is crap.

No, it's not serious. It's not that funny either, though.

I'll be honest: pre-viewing I got a little excited at the prospect of Nazi zombies. Now that you no longer take me seriously (as if you ever did) I'll tell you my opinion on the other aspects of this movie.

The acting was really poor, the sets were nice (but, I mean... outside so... not that hard), the horror elements were meh at the best of times and lame at the worst, and the writing was terrible. Some kids go to a cottage in some snow somewhere in Norway I think, and then there are Nazi zombies because reasons, and then one of them cuts off his own arm and then dies at the end anyway, I think. Or maybe he doesn't. I actually forget.

But yeah, if you like COD maybe you'll like this (bit mean to Call of Duty fans). There are lots of zombies and lots of Nazis, it takes a while to get into the action though, which surely is one thing a film of this caliber (though if this was a gun, it would be a turd on a stick, so it wouldn't have a caliber) should do right.

Dead Snow: 5.0