Film Review: SHALLOW GRAVE (1994)

Director: Danny Boyle
Running time: 92 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

UK release date: 6th January 1995

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 8th January 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is the first feature film directed by Danny Boyle and I have seen it a few times now. I find it funny that when an artist becomes famous, people always look back at their early work, as if looking for the beginnings of that spark of genius. Me, well I just enjoy a well made film with some good performances and a decent plot. But more about my thoughts later, here’s a brief summary first (summary haters please hide in the attic and guard the cash).

Three young flatmates, Juliet Miller, a doctor, David Stephens, an accountant and Alex Law, a journalist, have a spare room and are looking for a new tenant. Having interviewed, and callously rejected, several applicants they finally settle on Hugo, a writer. He moves in and locks his door and that’s that last the trio see of him… alive that is. After a couple of days they break into his room to find him lying dead on his bed. Searching the room, Alex comes across a suitcase stuffed full of cash. After much debate it is decided to keep the cash and dispose of the body. At this point I’ll have to stop or I will give too much away, but needless to say, things don’t go exactly to plan.

Unfortunately this film was made in the nineties and the three main characters personify everything I hated about that era. They are greedy, arrogant and just about the most loathsome trio I would wish to meet. However, the story that’s played out on the screen is pretty good, so I stuck with it. Great performances all round, particularly from Christopher Eccleston who is brilliant as David, Ewan McGregor is particularly lithesome as Alex and Kerry Fox put in a good effort as Juliet.

As we’ve come to expect from Danny Boyle, this is a very well made film with great attention to detail. The star performance for me came from Christopher Eccleston; he gave us the full range of emotions here which made him stand out. If the three main characters weren’t quite so loathsome then maybe I would have given a higher score, but it’s definitely worth watching nonetheless… Recommended.

My score: 7.4/10

LINKS:
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0111149/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/screenplay/vi1328349977/

Film Review: G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA (2009)

Director: Stephen Sommers
Running time: 118 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12A

UK release date: 7th August 2009

Watched on DVD Saturday 20th November 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I believe that G.I. Joe was originally a toy, an all American hero meant to inspire young boys to join the American armed forces. We have a similar thing over here in the U.K. call ‘Action Man’. In the film G.I. Joe is no longer an individual, but a special top secret unit, and the unit is no longer American, but made up from the best of the best from all over the world. I guess Hollywood is learning that there is a bit chunk of the planet that isn’t the USA. But more of this later, here’s a short summary before I tell you what I really think (summary haters please inject yourselves with nanobots and omit the next paragraph… thank you).

Captain Duke Hauser and his team are tasked with delivering new weapons, special nanobot warheads, to NATO. They are ambushed but the mission is saved by the intervention of the top secret unit known as G.I. Joe. Having been taken to their HQ in Egypt, Hauser and his sidekick, Ripcord ask to join the Unit, lead by General Abernathy. They go through training under the watchful eye of Heavy Duty and Snake Eyes. Both qualify to join the team. Before they can set off after their ambushers the base is attacked and the bad guys, including Anastasia ‘Ana’ DeCobray, who has a history with Hauser and Storm Shadow, who is the sworn enemy of Snake Eyes. They get away with the warheads and head for Paris. The bad guys are led by megalomaniac James McCullen, also known as Destro who is assisted by the evil genius the Cobra Commander. The G.I. Joe unit follows the bad guys to Paris where they fight a pitched battle. They escape but ‘The Joes’ are on the trail and a big showdown is imminent.

This film relies very heavily on CGI, which is very well done. There are also some nice fight sequences and the stunt work is all of high quality. The sets are of James Bond scale, giant complexes hewn into the ground or vast undersea cities, all very impressive to look at. It’s a shame the same effort wasn’t put into the plot. There were too many flashbacks that broke up the narrative and proved more of a distraction than, I’m sure, was intended.

I have to say that Christopher Eccleston‘s Scottish accent as James McCullen is one of the worst I’ve ever heard, I expect much better from an actor of his standing. Nobody really stood out, performance wise, but I guess I’ll give honourable mentions to Channing Tatum as Captain Duke Hauser, Dennis Quaid as General Abernathy / Hawk, Sienna Miller as Anastasia ‘Ana’ DeCobray / Baroness, Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Rex Lewis / Cobra Commander and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Heavy Duty.

At the end of the day the great special effects could not make up for an over-complicated plot. It’s left wide open for a sequel and I hope the producers take a long hard look at this one before giving any sequel a green light. I can see what they were trying to achieve but I feel they tried to squeeze too much into this film. Over all, for me, although it’s visually quite spectacular, it just doesn’t work, and so, not recommended.

My score: 5.3/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1046173/
Official Site: http://www.gijoemovie.com/dvd/index.html
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi2463367705/