Film Review - Lockout

A secret agent, Agent Snow, has been framed. Emilie Warnock, the president's daughter, goes to a space station that is being used as a prison, in order to investigate their rather unusual way of keeping the prisoners in order. Locked in an artificial sleep, or "stasis". Emilie wants to investigate the psychological side effects of stasis, but her appearance prompts a breakout by the prisoners. Sent in to rescue the kidnapped president's daughter, Snow is given the chance to clear his name.

Not only is this film fairly heavily edited for violence, I got the feeling that it was sped up too. Maybe it was just the overdubbing from French to English that created this effect, but it seemed like a lot of the scenes have a dramatic flow and the right dramatic beats. They just came too quickly. There's a lot of cheeky energy to the film, however, and there's a childish wit that keeps entertained whilst the movie fails to find any decent pace.

The wit, really, is rather unusual. Both the comedic styling and plot fall under this barrier. Relatively recently a film called In Time came along and tried to pander to Hollywood action cliches without really understanding them - Lockout is relatively similar in this respect. The real difference is that whilst In Time did not seem to really put any stock in the cliches, throwing them in almost off-handedly, Lockout misses the target in a really strange way and hits a strangely ironic button. Characters talk strangely, strange colloquialisms being slipped in at really inappropriate times, possibly just to keep it from being obvious that the film is dubbed.

As Snow fights the evil space Glasweigans - yes, they're all Weegies - it's best to go with the flow. Plot holes abounds, cliches revelled in - the whole thing has about as much depth a paddling pool. If you are determined to have a film that is sturdily plotted and unpredictable, then it will inevitably fall flat. Characters exist only to say funny things, be evil or be saved. Nonetheless, the B-movie feel and weird tone of the movie, I feel, make these complaints rather pedantic. Sit down and go with it. It's a crazy fun time.

Film Review - Chronicle

It was always going to end like this. Each step of the way we are on board, and it makes sense. We'd probably fall too.

Anyway.

Andrew has decided to film everything: his abusive father, his sick mother, his loneliness and oppressive school life, his pretentious cousin who doesn't want to be seen with him. It's a situation anybody would struggle to cope with, but Andrew isn't even coping. When his cousin, Matt, persuades him to come to a party, he is approached by Matt's friend, Stephen, to come film a discovery. A hole in the ground containing dark secret that'll change all over their lives.

This is, if you were to take a person through the plot and character arcs, a pretty well trodden path. There's a lot of imagination and creativity here, some originality, but really the strongest points of this movie are things we have seen before. A rise and fall narrative, the weak becoming the strong, the self-perpetuating cyclical misuse of power. The film doesn't seem to hide it's intentions, either, and the direction the plotting is heading seems, from the outset, to be obvious.

I think this works in the films favour. The air of inevitability, the dark tone that acts as an anacrusis to any super powers or real character changes, hangs like a guillotine blade over the narrative. When we see our protagonists learning and growing, a nigh palpable sadness seems to add a new layer to every scene. Despite this, we invest in them: really, this is what makes the film so special.

The characters are relateable and flawed and complex. They have motivation that make them likeable, each one just trying to find their way, still early on in their life. The film makers have realised that the characters are the most important part, and the end result is a movie which does not have that much of a plot - certainly when you consider the central premise. Instead it's about getting to know these three youths as the invisible fourth gang member, watching how the powers change their life.

Chronicle builds to an impressive finale, a climax that really puts you through the emotional ringer. The limited budget is compensated for brilliantly by the central gimmick and the characters are pushed to the edge. Coming out of the film, it is no coincidence that myself and the people I watched it with all felt as if we had been put through the ringer. Towards the end, there was a few moments where the framing device broke down, became so contrived that suspension of disbelief is stretched thin.

This a great sci-fi, a great tragedy and a great film.

Film Review - Haywire

tl;dr I'm really not sure how summarise this one.

We're not just desensitized to violence. Hollywood seems to have endeavored to neuter any fight scene of anything that can be construed as really violent in any relateable sense, leaving us only with a strange choreographed dance. No one, really, is getting hurt after all.

But the moment the first blow hits home in Haywire, I found myself wincing. What's this? This is violent! You could hurt each other if you keep doing that!

As much as Haywire looks to put the violence back into fighting, it also looks to take the action movie out of an action movie. Normally, a kind of introduction to the plot is a good idea round about now, but for Haywire it's not really relevant. What plot Haywire does have is relatively token - it's there to link each event, each scene, to another. There's a lot unclear and muddled in there, and in the end everything comes out feeling a bit shaky.

Character motivation, too, seems very much their because it's necessary. With this they do take great care making sure you understand why "X" does "Y" at each part of the story, but you never invest in those motivations or are really convinced. It does just enough and no more, although certain later twists in this respect feel very weak.

Normal action movie fare places a great amount of onus on plot and character motivations, and if you attempt to look at it as an action movie then everything rather falls apart. The script features rather a lot of lines which are just plain clunky, and there are moments of forced whimsy that really don't work. Despite all this, I have to say that I found Haywire to be very much a worthy watch. Scenes are often drawn out, and shot in unusual ways, and the film has a very interesting flow to it. Whilst, alone, this is isn't necessarily enough, the fact that this is happening in an action film that doesn't really work as an action film kind of makes it interesting in a round about way.

The star of the show, a professional fighter leading an all-star cast of Hollywood actors, is very much part of the appeal. She's not exactly a good actress, but she's a damn convincing action heroine, and in that she is effective. This creates a problem however: when she fights the likes of Fassbender and McGregor, you don't ever believe they can stand up to her. In this film, acting itself seems to detract from the strange flow rather than add to it.

This is a difficult film to recommend. For what it's worth, I enjoyed it and you might too. It's one of these films you just don't know until you give it a shot.

Film Review - Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows

tl;dr Did you like the first movie? If so, go see it, if not, don't. Simples.

The most recent spate of adaptations of Conan Doyle's iconic detective was always going to be a rather unusual affair, what with the way it keeps the setting and styles of the book's original context, whilst bringing highly Hollywood action blockbuster sensibilities to the table. But between Guy Richie and Robert Downie Jr., this is a film series with an incredibly strong sense of character.

In this, the second outing in the series, we see our inimitable Mr Holmes go up against the shadowy figure from the first film, his arch nemesis: Moriarty. Meanwhile, Watson is getting ready to marry, and talks about stopping his crime-busting partnership with Holmes. As the two chase down Moriarty we meet Sherlock's brother Mycroft, French gypsies and German bomb factories. Moriarty has plans - evil plans - and it's up to our mismatched couple to save the day. Can you tell I dislike summarising films?

Anyway, this second installment runs with a very simple philosophy: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We get more action, more explosions, more audacity and a plot convoluted enough to become enjoyable through it's innate silliness. With a tongue firmly in cheek and a disregard for any loftier ambitions than just entertaining the hell out of you, the second film is perhaps even an improvement on the first.

Character wise, there's certainly nothing new going on here. Holmes is as flamboyant and silly as ever, hyper-articulate and incredibly observant. Watson is still proper, upright and socially more concious than his erstwhile friend. Their passive-aggressive need for each other is still as fun as it was the first time around. The treatment of female characters here is far from stellar; the film isn't sexist, but it clearly isn't particularly interested in them either. The biggest success of the pool of characters here was Stephen Fry's Mycroft Holmes, whose comic relief is always a welcome addition to the story rather than a tone disrupting annoyance.

As a villain I found Moriarty to be a fun and well executed Hollywood villain who was a little bit blander than I feel one of the most iconic criminal masterminds in literature deserved. He was not as interesting or as fun as his counterpart in Holmes. This, perhaps, was part of the point - to make him far more straight laced and academic than the off-beat Holmes, but the result came out a little too beige. 

There's an irresistible energy to everything about this film, the way it shudders along like a train that is about to go off the rails. Richie's direction is sharp and, as already mentioned, helps to lend the flick a distinctive flavour. With a tight, funny script and tactical use of slow motion and flash forwards, this is a not inconsiderable film. The music is incredibly good too, Zimmerman turning in a score that has grandeur and excitement and more than little cheesiness mixed in.

There's lots of nitpicks to be had here: the female chars aren't well done, the plot is silly, Moriarty is a touch too bland. These are most definitely nitpicks however - this is a polished and highly enjoyable film that offers something a bit more colourful than most other action blockbusters out there. D'you like the last one? Really, that's the only question that you need to answer when deciding whether or not to see this movie.

Television Series Overview - Welcome to the NHK

This is your happy ending.

Wikipedia tells us  "in Japan, "NHK" refers to the public broadcaster Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai" - it's more or less the Japanese BBC. Sato, the main character of Welcome to the NHK, however, thinks it is more than just that. The NHK is also a conspiracy. Take a look at his life: he's unemployed, friendless and harbours an acute fear of even leaving his untidy apartment. All things which are exaggerated problems that come with being an otaku (Japanese geek), and don't the NHK show things like anime that drag people into such categories in life? Ergo, the purpose of the NHK is to turn people, most specifically Sato, into the urban hermit. One day he meets a girl and everything changes, but trust me: that sentence isn't what it sounds like.

Some more background is, perhaps, required: Sato's specific situation is actually a recognised sociological condition in Japan, affecting young men. They lock themselves away, don't seek out education or employment, and spend all their time gaming or on the internet. Romantically and socially they struggle, and often it overlaps with depression. Last year, there was an estimated 700,000 of them, wikipedia informs me.

Welcome to the NHK is an entry in the slice of life genre, a drama about the happenings of every day life of a man who suffers from this. In truth, it feels a tad disingenuous to call NHK a show about normal life: even when it's not taking into direct visual metaphors of Sato's very unusual mind, it deals with people who are suffering from rather extreme personal and social problems. Watching our maladjusted cast try to cope with life is more or less the entire premise of the show.

What the show does very well is to balance tones. Taking what is a pretty dark and cynical view on the world could have lead to a serious and frowny show, heavy with self-importance, but there's a manic energy to the show which counter balances the depressing elements. We get moments of absurdity, strange and perhaps disturbing viewings directly into Sato's mind; we get moments of comedy that give the show a sitcom-esque feel at times; we get moments of quite tenderness, where suddenly the show seems like romantic story; we get moments of drama that reveal the show's angst ridden characters. That all of these elements keeps the others in balance makes the show a real treat.

The animation and music are both top notch, and the writing is all sharp as far as I can tell - it being translated, I'm not really qualified to comment on the dialogue, but the story is certainly brilliant. The core cast are engaging in there oddness, and very much relateable because, although things are taken to an extreme, their insecurities are, on a fundamental level, something that pretty much everyone has to cope with at some point.  The perhaps predictable message that we are all screwed up on some level is well delivered and not at all forced. And the show does acknowledge that some people are definitely screwed up worse than others.

Welcome to the NHK is two opposing things at once: very cynical, yet oddly uplifting, and in that contradiction there is a humanity that is difficult to resist. It's an absurd, funny, dramatic, touching journey that is very much worth taking.

Sporting Diaries - Bloodbowl

Hey guys, I'm looking to kick life back into my blog by doing a series of posts on a league I've joined: Blood Bowl!

For those uninitiated, Bloodbowl is a tabletop game based in the Warhammer world. Think American Football with Orcs and Elves and Dwarves and a rather more lax approach to violence. Hell, there are many teams whose entire game plans around stomping their opposition into the ground before the ball is even brought into the equation.

Part of the attraction of the game is the rich diversity of interesting and cool races that are available to players. Wanting to choose something interesting or different, but realising from a quick scan of the net that my team of choice (of those teams not already taken) was considered one of the worst in the game, I decided instead to elect to go the Amazons. My sparse research had not really turned up anything about them, so I was getting them without really knowing anything about them.

So as I've a team of Amazons, wearing the team colours red and green, and although the team has been named (each one with a mini-story behind them) I've yet to name the team. I'll write updates on each match and little backgrounds to each of my players as the season goes on.

If I go and see a movie tomorrow I'll get another review up too.

Time is a funny thing

I'm not old. By most people's accounts, I'm actually rather young. Still, time seems to have taken to be a silly bugger already. Something happened two years ago, yet the age I would have been two years ago doesn't correspond to the age I think I was when this stuff happened. I'm an absent minded guy at the best of times, but the fact that I've already been struck by the fluffiness of time is almost disorientating.

Ah well, here's to 2012! Hope it treats you guys well.