Film Review: SURROGATES (2009)

Director: Jonathan Mostow
Running time: 88 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12A

Watched at the cinema Saturday 26th September 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This film was based on a graphic novel, which I must point out I haven’t read, so no comparisons here, just a film review. Set in a future where people live their lives through robotic ‘Surrogates’. The people stay at home and control their ‘Surrogates’ from there with no pain and with certain augmentations, you can be anyone you like. Some people are against the use of ‘Surrogates’ and choose to live in human-only enclaves lead by ‘The Prophet’, an outspoken opponent of these mechanical ‘monstrosities’. The creator of the ‘Surrogates, Canter has been removed from the company he created and has been living in exile ever since.

Tom Greer is a Boston detective, and like all cops, he uses a ‘Surrogate’ to perform his daily duties. One day he and his partner, Peters, are called to what seems a routine hit and run, only to find that two of the victims were murdered. The people controlling the ‘Surrogates’ were killed by some kind of electrical pulse fired from an unknown weapon. When it transpires that one of the victims was the son of Canter, the inventor of the ‘Surrogates’, the case moves up to a higher level. The perpetrator is identified and Greer chases him into the human-only enclave, where he escapes and Greer’s ‘Surrogate is destroyed. He has no choice but to leave his home and investigate the crime in person…

An interesting film, it reminds me a little of I, Robot in places, with its squeaky clean vision of the future, a far cry from Babylon A.D. which I recently reviewed. Having said that, it was a good production, with not too much reliance on CGI. I particularly liked the way they achieved the plastic look to the ‘Surrogates’, you knew when you were looking at one on screen. Great performances from Bruce Willis as Ton Greer, Radha Mitchell as Peters, Rosamund Pike as Maggie (Greer’s wife), Boris Kodjoe as Stone (Greer’s boss), James Francis Ginty as Canter’s ‘Surrogate’, James Cromwell as the real Canter and Ving Rhames as The Prophet. Over all, it was an exciting sci-fi thriller that I very much enjoyed, not a great intellectual piece, but entertaining none the less.

My score: 7/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1235124/
Official Site: http://chooseyoursurrogate.com/

Film Review: BABYLON A.D. (2008)

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Running time: 89 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 12

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 26th September 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This film is set in the future, the not too distant future if I’m not mistaken. The world looks overcrowded and very violent. Only time will tell if this depiction is accurate, I have a nasty feeling it will be, but that’s only my opinion. Anyhow we’re here to talk about the film. A futuristic action thriller with Vin Diesel can’t be all bad, can it? From some of the reviews I’ve been reading out there in internetland, it can be very bad indeed. Well, I’m here to tell you that in my opinion, it’s not all that bad. Yes, it’s got faults, there are no faultless films, but it is certainly better than some out there would have you believe. Let me tell you a bit about the plot then I’ll continue.

Toorop is a mercenary hired by Gorsky, whose position is not made clear, but he’s certainly influential. Toorop’s mission is to get a girl, Aurora, and her companion, Sister Rebeka, from Russia to New York. Unbeknownst to Toorop, the High Priestess of the Noelite religion is behind the contract and other forces are trying to stop Aurora from reaching her destination. This makes for an exciting journey, especially when we discover that Aurora is very special. I won’t say too much more because I don’t want to give away too many spoilers.

As I said before, this film has its faults, the story can be quite hard to follow, but it’s all there if you look for it. It was technically competent with some nice explosions and even some pretty cool CGI. The cast were all pretty good, I couldn’t fault any of the performances, Vin Diesel was good as Toorop, Michelle Yeoh was great as Sister Rebeka and a fine performance from Mélanie Thierry as Aurora. Good supporting parts from Gérard Depardieu, who I’ll admit I didn’t recognise, as Gorsky and Charlotte Rampling as the High Priestess. At the end of the film I actually cared about the main characters and what happened to them, which tells me the film wasn’t all that bad. I think maybe it suffered a bit from being given a 12A Certificate in the UK (PG-13 in the US); this severely limited the way the story could be told. I would love to see a ‘director’s cut’ to see how it should have been made. Over all, an exciting futuristic action adventure that could have been better, but not as bad as some might have you believe.

My score: 6/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0814022/
Official Site: http://www.babylonadmovie.com/

Film Review: BURN AFTER READING (2008)

Director: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Running time: 92 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 15

Watched on Sky+ Friday 25th September 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I’ll admit to being a bit of a fan of some of the Coen brother’s work, particularly their comedies. This is, without doubt, the best one since The Big Lebowski (1998), a film for which I still have great affection. Enough about me, there’s a great cast, a very funny story, if a little complicated at times, and a lot of laughs. I certainly enjoyed it, but I’ll tell you a bit about the plot before I go on…

Osbourne Cox is a CIA analyst who has been in the job a long time when his superiors decide his time has come to leave. He decides to write a memoir no that he has some free time, a copy of which ends up in the hands of Linda Litzke and Chad Feldheimer, two employees of a Georgetown gym. Linda wants plastic surgery and has been turned down by her health insurance and Chad, well; he’s just an amiable goof. The incompetent pair tries to blackmail Cox, only to discover that he’s not playing ball. The plot is complicated by a relationship between Linda and Harry Pfarrer, who is also having an affair with Cox’s wife Katie. Got it so far? Having failed to persuade Cox to part with any money, the conspirators decide to go to the Russians. I won’t say any more, you’ll have to watch it…

I loved Frances McDormand in Fargo (1996) and she was even better in this as Linda Litzke. Great performances from the entire cast, particularly George Clooney as Harry Pfarrer, Brad Pitt was really good as Chad Feldheimer, John Malkovich as Osbourne Cox and Tilda Swinton as Katie Cox. As I said, a great cast. The production was good too, it was like a modern twist on a fifties screwball comedy. The only thing I felt that let it down was the way the ending was done. It was done through narrative rather than letting it be played out on the screen, which IMHO I found rather disappointing, apart from that, a really fine effort!

My score: 7.5/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0814022/
Official Site: http://www.filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/burn_after_reading

Film Review: BANGKOK DANGEROUS (2008)

Director: Oxide Pang Chun & Danny Pang
Running time: 99 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 18

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 19th September 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Based on a 1999 Thai film of the same name and made under the supervision of the same directors, I expected something better. I haven’t seen the original, but since Hollywood has seen fit to pump money into a remake, it can’t have been all that bad. It seemed to be a film that couldn’t decide what story to tell, there was a love story (actually two, now I think about it), there was the tale of a hit-man & the tale of a hit-man training his replacement. But rather than concentrating on just one or two, we get all of them at once. Just too much to take in. Anyway, here’s a bit about the plot(s) before I continue.

Joe is a hit man, a paid assassin, who lives to a code. No more than four ‘jobs’ in one place, don’t get involved with anyone outside work, move on as soon as the work is done and leave no loose ends, simple. Unfortunately, he goes to Bangkok and ends up breaking all of his ‘rules’. He gets to know, and like, his hired go-between, Kong and he meets and falls for a deaf girl, Fon. He is employed by a gangster, Surat, to dispose of some of his rivals, but when asked to kill a politician who is a hero to the Thai people for stamping out corruption, Joe has second thoughts.

To me the way the film was shot didn’t work, the film has a kind of washed-out quality to it that lends nothing to the vibrancy and colour of the region. Nicolas Cage, although he played his part well, looked like a man in a hurry, and he was too thin. So, decent performances from the main players, namely, Nicolas Cage as Joe, Shahkrit Yamnarm as Kong, Charlie Yeung as Fon, Panward Hemmanee as Aom and Nirattisai Kaljaruek as Surat. Unfortunately the plot got far too complicated, although there were some nice chase sequences, and the cinematography left a lot to be desired.

My score: 5/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0814022/
Official Site: http://www.bangkokdangerousmovie.net/

Film Review: HELP! (1965)

Director: Richard Lester
Running time: 90 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): U

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 19th September 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is probably about the third time I’ve seen this film, but the first time I’ve attempted a review. I really don’t want to say bad things about it because I’m a fan of the Beatles and have been for many years, having said that, I was slightly disappointed. It may just be because I’m getting older, or maybe because what was funny in 1965 isn’t all that funny today, but for some reason, today, it didn’t work for me. I think, for me, the script let it down in a major way, for the most part you could see the jokes coming from about three miles away. Anyway, I’ll tell you a bit about the plot before I continue…

Ringo has got a new ring, a large red stone that just happens to be the ring worn by the sacrificial victims of an Indian cult. The leader of the cult, Clang, wants the ring back and will stop at nothing to get it. Here ensues a mad-cap chase across England, the Alps and ending in the Bahamas. Throw in a couple of bumbling scientists, an inept Superintendent from Scotland Yard, and of course, the Beatles, and you’ve got yourself a comedy (or so they’d have you believe).

First of all, the music was excellent, all classic songs I’ve heard many times before and it was nice to see the Beatles performing them, albeit miming. Second, considering the Fab Four are not actors, I thought they performed well. OK, down to the nitty gritty, I thought most of the performances were fine, particularly Leo McKern as Clang, Eleanor Bron as Ahme, Victor Spinetti as Foot (the scientist) and Roy Kinnear as Algernon (great to see him again as Foot’s assistant). The main problem was the script, it was quite terrible. If they had made it about an hour shorter it would have been fine, but the same gags over and over again got a bit tiresome after a while. It was almost like watching a 90 minute episode of The Monkees which, I know came a little later, but has the parallel of great songs but poor comedy. Sorry to leave it on a slightly bad note, I’m sure it must be funny to someone… it just isn’t me.

My score(s):
10/10 (for the music)
4/10 (for the script)

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0059260/

Film Review: DORIAN GRAY (2009)

Director: Oliver Parker
Running time: 112 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Watched at the cinema Saturday 12th September 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is not the kind of film I’d usually go to the cinema to watch; despite this I quite enjoyed it. It was quite a straight forward story which benefited from some great performances, good direction and some really good production. Filmed in England, I thought the locations helped the story, although I found it slightly lacking in a couple of areas which I’ll expand on later. For now, here’s a summary of the plot.

Based on a story by Oscar Wilde, this film tells of a young man whose soul is captured in a painting after selling it to the devil for eternal youth and beauty. As a result he discovers that whatever he does in life, he cannot be injured or show any sign of ageing. Instead, the painting decays and rots with every foul deed he commits. He is lead down a path of depravity by Lord Henry Wotton, an acquaintance of his grandfather who had recently died and left him a fortune. As time passes and everybody ages except Dorian, people become suspicious that he is more than he appears to be.

As I said at the beginning, I found the film lacked in a couple of areas. Firstly, I don’t think we knew enough about the main character, yes, we are told that he was beaten by his grandfather, but apart from that we know very little about his background. Secondly, I felt that with it having a 15 Certificate, it very much limited the depth of depravity the main character lowered himself to. With an 18 Certificate, there could have been a little more ‘edge’ to it. A decent performance from Ben Barnes as Dorian Gray but I have to say I most enjoyed the performance of Colin Firth as Lord Henry Wotton. Honourable mentions go to Rachel Hurd-Wood as Sybil Vane, Rebecca Hall as Emily Wotton, Emilia Fox as Lady Victoria Wotton and Ben Chaplin as Basil Hallward. Over all, a decent enough film that could have been better.

My score: 6.5/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1235124/

Film Review: DISTRICT 9 (2009)

Director: Neill Blomkamp
Running time: 112 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Watched at the cinema Saturday 5th September 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

District 9 is a very interesting film, made, for the most part, in the style of a documentary, it documents the attempts of a private company to evict and re-locate alien beings from a district of Johannesburg. The aliens had arrived 20 years earlier in a giant spaceship the hovered above the ghetto they now occupied. Known by the locals as ‘Prawns’, because of their appearance, they are, for the most part, not very intelligent. MNU, the company trying to re-locate them are interested in getting hold of their technology, particularly weaponry, which can only be fired by the aliens because it is linked to their DNA. Another faction interested in their weapons is a gang of Nigerians who live in the camp selling them food and generally ripping them off.

The film follows the fortunes of Wikus Van De Merwe who has been selected to lead the operation to evict the aliens. We start in the style of a documentary, following him as he begins to go around the camp getting the ‘Prawns’ to sign eviction notices. A large and well armed military force; lead by Koobus Venter (I think) is also employed as security for the operation. An accident with a piece of alien technology leaves Wikus injured. He ends up in hospital only to find that his arm has changed into that of an alien. In fact his whole body is changing. He is kidnapped by MNU and forced by MNU scientists into firing alien weapons at ‘Prawns’ they have been experimenting on. They decide to kill Wikus in order to discover the secret of the change in his DNA. Wikus escapes and hides in District 9 where he meets ‘Christopher’, the alien responsible for building the device that changed him. They must retrieve the device so that ‘Christopher’ can get home and that Wikus can be cured.

A really interesting film, I particularly liked the way the action switched between the documentary style to news footage and back again. The sets and the CGI were all excellent, hats off to the production team and the director. A brilliant performance from Sharlto Copley as Wikus Van De Merwe, I really didn’t like his character at first, but, as we discover, he’s not as bad as he first seems. Honourable mentions also go to David James as Koobus Venter and Vanessa Haywood as Tania Van De Merwe, Wikus’s wife. Over all, a really excellent film with plenty of action, great performances and a decent story. I really hope they make a sequel, the way it ended (which I’m not going to give away) left it open for one!

My score: 9/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1136608/
Official Site: http://www.d-9.com/