The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

January 24, 2015, 11:35 am

≫ Next: 10 Films That Were Originally TV Shows

≪ Previous: The Flash - Season 1, Episode 10

Wes Anderson's latest piece of exquisitely crafted whimsy is the odd one out among this year's Oscar Best Picture nominations. Though having absolutely no hope of winning, it's nice that a film that is so playful, irreverent and wonderfully daft can be recognised along with the more predictably worthy films on the list. The story starts as a delightful Russian doll of stories - a young girl reading the memoir of a dead writer that switches to his recollections then flashbacking back to the writer as a young man (Jude Law) holidaying in the once opulent Grand Budapest Hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka, now past its best in 1968. Here he meets Zero Moustafa, the enigmatic owner (F Murray Abraham), who, over dinner, tells him the tale of how in the glory days of the hotel in the 1930s he was once the lowly lobby boy and of how he became the friend of famous Concierge Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes) and the amazing adventure they had involving a stolen painting, a prison break, a fascist uprising and a homicidal family that ended up with Zero owning the Grand Budapest. It's a tale of intrigue, impeccable manners and cakes.

From the off, Anderson's film is totally assured, dropping us into an impossibly opulent confection of a tale, featuring a cast that other directors would die for. Gustave has a penchant for sleeping with the elderly ladies who stay at the hotel and ends up inheriting a priceless painting when his latest (an almost unrecognisable Tilda Swinton) dies. However, this is at the ire of her son (Adrien Brody) and homicidal hitman Jopling (Willem Dafoe, spoofing himself marvellously). Soon Gustave has been framed for the murder while the family hunt out the painting (which also has hidden in it a second will). The plot however, is entirely secondary to the various subplots that develop along the way. In prison, Gustav befriends Ludwig (Harvey Keitel) and his gang resulting in one of the funniest prison breaks ever. As a concierge, Gustav is connected to a vast network of other concierges who help him in his moment of need. The film is full of cameos of well known faces, from Ed Norton as a policeman on Gustav's trail to Owen Wilson, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman as other concierges. Saoirse Ronan plays Agatha, the love of Zero's life, a young girl with a huge birthmark who works in the local cake shop.

As a visual experience, The Last Budapest Hotel is hard to beat with every frame lovingly crafted and framed. In many ways, this film, more than Anderson's others, evokes the spirit of early Tim Burton, especially the use of deliberately obvious miniatures for backgrounds and silly action moments. This reinforces that what happens may be as much the various storytellers' inventions than anything that actually really happened. However, Anderson also knows when to step back and let his actors have their head. In the lead role, Fiennes is as charming as you'll ever see him, and it's a shame this kind of performance - every bit as difficult as playing a more traumatic role, I'd wager - can't be more widely acknowledged in awards season. Fiennes is constantly funny, light, and unruffled by the disasters that befall him, a mix of mild snobbery and genuine lovability. As the young straight man to Fiennes more comedic character newcomer Tony Revolori as the young Zero is engaging and endearing. At its heart, there's a gentle mediation on the harsh reality beneath the glittering façade but, like a great chocolate, The Grand Budapest Hotel leaves a delicious but quickly fading taste, ultimately inconsequential though thoroughly amusing. It may not be the best film on the Best Picture list but it's probably the most entertaining one.

GK Rating: ****

↧

10 Films That Were Originally TV Shows

January 25, 2015, 2:11 am

≫ Next: American Sniper (2015)

≪ Previous: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Traditionally when it comes to television, the film community has often looked down upon the 'Idiot's Lantern'. Initially, it was the movie world that inspired many TV shows. Classic TV such as Dixon of Dock Green, M*A*S*H*, the Odd Couple and Buffy the Vampire Slayer all came from successful movies while others less notable ones such as Planet of the Apes, Blade, Highlander, Ferris Bueller and Blue Thunder all followed a film incarnation. Others, such as Flipper, started as a film, became a successful TV show and then a film again!

However, TV can now boast shows with a cast and complexity that is the envy of cinema. The Killing, Broadchurch and True Detective are as good, if not better than any film. Increasingly over the years, film has turned to the gogglebox for inspiration. We all know that Star Trek, Mission: Impossible and The A-Team were based on TV series but it's often a surprise to find out that a film had an earlier life on television. Here are ten examples, from action to comedy to political intrigue.

10. The Fugitive

This Harrison Ford star vehicle in 1993 was a huge hit and bagged Tommy Lee Jones a best supporting nod for his grizzled detective Gerard. Ford played Dr Richard Kimble, a man wrongfully accused of murdering his wife. The doctor, after escaping following a train crash, tried to find the mysterious one-armed man he saw at the scene while Gerard relentlessly closed in. The film was such a success that a sequel, US Marshals, was made, this time with Tommy Lee Jones's sheriff chasing Wesley Snipes. It bombed. Recently, Taken 3 basically remade the film again.

In the 1960s, the Fugitive was a hit for producer Quinn Martin, featuring movie star David Janssen as Dr Kimble. Over four seasons the Doctor went from place to place getting involved in various dramas, problems and conflicts, all the time trying to stay ahead of Barry Morse's Gerard. In the final episode in 1967, when Kimble finally found the one-armed man and proved his innocence, around 46% of American households tuned in, a record until 1980 and the reveal of who killed JR.

9. Lost In Space

This big budget sci-fi, that featured Joey from Friends' Matt LeBlanc in his first big film role, failed to set the box office alight. The film follows the misadventures of the Robinsons, a family who blast into space but are sabotaged by Gary Oldman's slippery Dr Zachery Smith and crash land on a mysterious planet. With John Hurt as Mr Robinson and Heather Graham as his comely daughter and the object of Matt LeBlanc's cocky pilot's affections, expectations were high. However, the film managed to be a halfway house that pleased no-one, not exciting or cerebral enough for the sci-fi fans or soapy enough for those who would enjoy the family dynamics.

Out of the realm of sci-fi fans, many don't realise that the film was based on a successful show in the 1960s. Running from 1965 to 1968, Lost in Space was a fun runaround where the difficult Doctor Smith (Jonathan Harris) would normally get the Robinsons into trouble. Young Will Robinson was played by Billy Mumy who went on to have a long term role in Babylon 5. As the series progressed it became more comedic and camp with much of the episodes revolving around the chalk and cheese relationship between the Doctor and the ship's robot. Smith would call the machine a 'bubble headed booby' but need the robot to save him before episode's end. The robot could also play the guitar. Useful that.

8. Wayne's World

For better or worse, the role that finally made Mike Myers a star and led to Austin Powers, Dr Evil, Shrek and, er, the Love Guru. Coming from his parents' basement in Aurora, Illinois, Wayne Campbell (Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey), broadcast on public access cable television their views on metal music, their favourite babes and use catchphrases such as 'Schwing', 'Extreme Close-Up!' and end sentences with '-not!' When slimy Benjamin (Rob Lowe), a TV executive signs the rights to the show, fame comes between the pair of childhood friends while Wayne and Benjamin both falls for Tia Carrare's Cassandra. Along the way, famous faces such as Alice Cooper and Meatloaf put in cameos. The fourth wall breaking, easy comedy charm of the leads made this a huge smash, helped by the then recent success of Bill and Ted, and led to a sequel imaginatively named Wayne's World 2.

The film was based on the same characters that appeared in regular sketches on Saturday Night Live from 1987. Like the Muppets, famous faces would occasionally guest, including memorably Madonna and Tom Hanks and Aerosmith jammed with Garth and Wayne. SNL was responsible for a whole host of films based on sketches, including The Blues Brothers, Coneheads, The Ladies Man and MacGruber. Myers and Carvey have reprised their famous characters since, including the 2008 MTV Music Awards and back on SNL in 2011. They probably need to stop.

7. State of Play

Sometime Hollywood looks to a TV mini-series for inspiration. More recently, we've had the Mel Gibson starrer Edge of Darkness, based on the iconic British drama (and rather uniquely, being directed by the same person who helmed the series, Martin Campbell) and before that we got this tale of political machinations and journalistic investigations starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck in 2009. In the film, the pair were meant to be old friends (in what world could we imagine those two being buds?) until Crowe's journalist discovered the crimes and subsequent cover up his old fiend, a Congressman, was involved in. Helen Mirren starred as the paper's editor.

The TV version of 2003 was far superior, consisting of six one-hour episodes with room to flesh out some of the supporting cast, especially fellow jornos at the newspaper including a young James McAvoy, Kelly MacDonald and the sublime Bill Nighy as the paper's editor. John Simm (the Master in the Tennant years of Dr Who) and David Morrissey were the reporter and politician. It was directed by Peter Yates who went on to helm the last few Harry Potter films. It's a cracking drama and well worth searching out.

6. Dragnet

Sometimes when mounting a film version of a TV property, the makers decide to change the entire tone of a piece, often taking a show that was made to be taken seriously and making it into a comedy. For fans of the original version this can be very frustrating; take Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson's take on TV double act Starsky and Hutch. The iconic 1970s detectives in their red Ford Torino were turned into a control freak and a corrupt cop, engaging in threesomes and drug taking. Luckily, the film is very, very funny.

1987's Dragnet is another serious detective show given a humorous spin, partnering Tom Hanks and Dan Akyroyd. Akyroyd is Sergeant Joe Friday, a traditional, conservative policeman given a new, sassy partner in Hanks as Pep Streebek. The pair go through the usual mismatched buddy picture conventions while chasing the wonderfully named PAGAN (People Against Goodness and Normalcy!) led by Christopher Plummer.

The actual Dragnet TV show followed on from its radio incarnation, with its famous four note intro, and starred Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday for one of the longest ever runs, starting on radio in 1940, then on both TV and radio from 1952. Stopping in 1959, Webb was enticed back for another tour of duty from 1967 to 1970, thirty years in the part. In a tribute of sorts, Akyroyd's Joe is the original's nephew while one of Webb's partners in the show has been promoted to police captain in the film.

5. The Untouchables

Brian De Palma's 1987 movie is widely regarded as a classic, oozing class with a script from David Mamet and a score from legend Ennio Morricone. It gave Kevin Costner one of his best roles as Prohibition era agent Eliot Ness but everyone remembers the larger than life supporting turns from Sean Connery as Malone and Robert DeNiro as gangster Al Capone. The film is full of memorable moments from the baby's pram bumping down the steps during a gunfight, the sad death of the bespectacled Wallace and Connery's defiant exit. His Irish accent, however, was as Scottish as his Russian one in The Hunt For Red October but that didn't stop him winning the best supporting actor Oscar.

On TV, The Untouchables broadcast from 1959 to 1963, amassing 118 episodes. Film actor Robert Stack played Eliot Ness, winning an Emmy for his efforts in 1960. The show boasts the greatest line up of guest stars, including Charles Bronson, James Caan, Robert Redford, Barbara Stanwyck, Peter Falk and Telly Savalas! However, its depiction of Italian-Americans as gangsters led to criticism, from Frank Sinatra among others, leading to an Italian agent being hastily written in.

4. The Naked Gun (Police Squad)

Leslie Nielson became a cult figure after a lifetime of moderate success, playing the dopey detective Frank Drebin in three Naked Gun films in the late 1980s and 1990s. Capable of doing the most ridiculous things while remaining totally deadpan, Nielson enjoyed a late career boom playing similar parts in a number of spoofs. Wrestling with the Queen of England and complimenting Priscilla Presley on her 'nice beaver' (a stuffed animal) were two of Nielson's highlights in the films although a pre-accused OJ Simpson as an accident-prone colleague often stole the show. The films are up there with Airplane! for classic spoofery.

The films, and Drebin, actually started life as the show Police Squad! On a considerably lower budget they did much the same things as the films and ended with a freeze frame where the actors just stood still while other elements - memorably a monkey - carried on moving. The famous shootouts from behind bins where the participants were then revealed to be about a metre apart also made it into the films, as did Frank's habit of knocking over garbage cans in his car. Police Squad! actually only ran for six episodes before being cancelled!

3. Dark Shadows

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's last collaboration (at time of writing) is one of their better ones, Depp playing Barnabas Collins, head of the household who becomes a vampire, is imprisoned and is resurrected two centuries later in 1972. The film is a celebration of all things kitsch and is genuinely funny, the best bits being Depp's reactions to the 1970s and Eva Green as his vengeful witch ex-lover.
Dark Shadows has an impressive supporting cast, including Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloe Grace Moretz and, of course, Helena Bonham Carter. It's sprawling nature and refusal to pick a genre did it no favours at the box office but it has a cult following.

Dark Shadows was originally a gothic soap opera which ran daily from 1966 to 1971. With melodramatic plots that featured witches, vampires and werewolves, arcs about strange murders and curses and a constantly changing cast (many playing more than one character), Dark Shadows built up a cult following in its run. At 1,225 single episodes, Dark Shadows actually outdoes the entire Star Trek franchise put together!

2. Land Of The Lost

Most people recall this one with a fair amount of head scratching. Anchorman himself, Will Ferrell stars with Beth Jordache from Brookside playing kooky scientists experimenting in tachyons who, along with Danny McBride's gift shop owner Will Stanton, enter a strange new world filled with dinosaurs and odd aliens. It's a real car crash of a film with an uneven tone, dodgy special effects and a plot that is neither funny nor exciting. Even Ferrell can't save this one. For trivia lovers, the voice for villain The Zarn was provided by Mr Spock himself.

The TV version ran from 1974 to 1976 and was a children's show where the Marshall family (dad Rick and children Will and Holly) fell down a waterfall and ended up going through a portal to the Land of the Lost. Much like Lost In Space or Voyager, the show charted their attempts to get home while avoiding 'Grumpy' the T-Rex and dealing with the lizard people called Sleestak. For such a bonkers premise, the show attracted some quality writers, including two of Star Trek's best, Dorothy Fontana and David Gerrold, and sci-fi writing legends Larry Niven and Ben Bova.

1. 21 Jump Street

21 Jump Street was a riot from start to finish, as was last year's sequel, 22 Jump Street. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill play the useless policemen who get assigned to Ice Cube's undercover squad and sent in to pose as students at a school to foil a drugs ring. As directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the films are a blend of gross out jokes, funny improvisation, brilliant sight gags and action sequences that tip a knowing wink to the absurdities of the cop show genre. That the pair play the buddy comedy as if they're a couple also makes the films a consistently funny watch.

The TV 21 Jump Street was the first major role for Johnny Depp and was produced by Stephen J Cannell, who also made the A-Team. It ran from 1987 to 1991. Interesting, even though the film is a spoof, they are set in the same continuity, Depp and two other of his co-stars from the series putting in a late cameo only to be massacred! The show was a big hit for the then new Fox network and is a time capsule of fashions crimes of the period.

↧

American Sniper (2015)

January 25, 2015, 12:47 pm

≫ Next: The 100 - Season 2, Episode 4

≪ Previous: 10 Films That Were Originally TV Shows

Perhaps the Oscar nominated film that is causing the most controversy (closely followed by Selma's depiction of President Johnson), Clint Eastwood's biopic of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle is my 1,500th post. Lambasted by the liberal left, Eastwood's sympathetic depiction of Kyle and the War on Terror has made it a box office smash. It's not hard to see why; the Land of the Free is routinely hated by a chunk of the world, sneered at by another and its own film industry routinely produces films that remind its people of all the country's faults and excesses. It seems a long time ago that US cinema gave its audiences a Green Berets or a Sands of Iwo Jima. In Chris Kyle, the people who feel ignored and mocked by their government can claim his as their hero and poster boy. However, this isn't a film that glorifies war by any extent, in fact it's clear from this that serving four tours in Iraq is bloody awful. It's in the script's refusal to engage with the politics of the conflict that has enraged many and some crude narrative short cuts, the worst being the implication that the invasion of Iraq was a direct consequence of 9/11. I actually have no big problem with much of this - we've had Green Zone and The Hurt Locker already - and it seems fair enough to have a war film based on recent events that sympathises with the soldier on the ground and doesn't muddy that by looking at the contrary view. It's that reactionary and conservative then so be it. Cinema should be a broad church.

Chris Kyle grows up a traditional Texan - God fearing, cowboy loving and a natural marksman - who finds his purpose in life when he enlists in the armed forces after seeing a news reports about Bin Laden's attacks on American embassies abroad in the late 1990s. His ability with a rifle soon gets him noticed and he becomes a sniper that protects patrols in Iraq. He has to make split second, impossible choices, shown in the brilliant opening scene (also the trailer) where he has to decide whether to shoot a mother and child who are holding a grenade. Kyle tries to content himself with remembering the rationale his father instilled in him: there are three types of people - the sheep who need protecting, the wolves who will prey on them and the sheepdogs who must protect the flock. Kyle tells himself not to think about the people he kills but the soldiers he fails he save. However, inevitably, his traumatic job has an impact on his family life, as he becomes increasingly remote from his wife Taya (Sienna Miller) and his young children. On tour he also faces the danger that is the enemy's own sniper, Mustafa, who routinely kills marines and is keen to take out the American sniper dubbed the Legend. The film details this battle and of how Kyle manages to come back from this life and back to his family.

Though a well made and decent film, American Sniper is my least favourite Best Picture Oscar nominated one from the five I've seen so far (still have to catch Imitation Game, Selma and Whiplash). It's a strangely uninvolving film that falls between two camps in my mind. As a war picture, it lacks both the visceral thrill and the insightful edge, the script by Jason Hall being stuffed full of clichés, the nadir being the soldier who has just bought his girl an engagement ring getting shot. The action is very repetitive - perhaps that's the point - and hardly makes for seat gripping tension, apart from the climatic literal dust up in a sandstorm. Ironically, American Sniper could have benefited from being a bit more gung ho and ramping up the action and heroics. The sections at home are also rather formulaic and predictable and Miller, though very good, gets very little to do and is wasted. The script is mostly to blame as it lacks nuance but Eastwood must also take his share. Brought up under the tutorage of Don Siegel, Eastwood has always been an artisan director - unshowy, competent, unhurried, dependable - and that has its place. However, a director like this needs a great script to work from - give Eastwood a great script and he'll produce you a quality movie; give him an average one and, well, you can guess.

One of these two is plastic...

Eastwood's no nonsense approach doesn't seem to get the best out of Bradley Cooper either. Though realistic and amazingly buffed up, Cooper's understated, mumbling delivery lacks charisma and we never really get to know Kyle other than the fact that he's a loyal soldier and husband who is also a great shot. Perhaps the point is that Kyle was a simple soul but that doesn't make for a riveting biopic. Eastwood also seems bored when he's not in the battle zone, the home sections static and already infamous for a scene where - because the two babies used to represent Kyles's newborn daughter were ill or absent - an obvious rubber doll was used instead. I can't think of any director of note who would have let that scene through - it's terrible and perhaps suggest that, at 84, Eastwood lacks the patience for the number of takes it needs to make a great picture. The psychological effects of warfare on Kyle are also downplayed to the extent that you wonder why they even bothered, some high blood pressure and a freak out at a barbeque being about it. Though not a classic, American Sniper is well made and shows a hunger in the States for a new kind of film - or maybe the return of an old one.

GK Rating: ***

↧

The 100 - Season 2, Episode 4

January 26, 2015, 6:34 am

≫ Next: Broadchurch - Series 2, Episode 4

≪ Previous: American Sniper (2015)

Former Chancellor Jaha makes all the classic mistakes of the holidaymaker abroad this week. First, he goes on a beach holiday without any sunscreen, parasol or deckchair and then he realises he's booked his vacation at the same time the Mad Max Fan Club has. Still, he has his handy chess piece so that's alright. He's found in the desert (either that or it's low tide at Frinton) by young lad Zorin (with a mutated face) who takes him to his parents in their tent. I'm not sure where we're meant to be - the music is giving us a Middle Eastern vibe, as does dad's beard, yet mum Sienna, with her blue eyes and facial tattoos tells a different story. Apparently, Jaha has dropped into the Dead Zone (perhaps it's also Stephen King Fan Club week). Jaha also makes the rudimentary mistake of sampling the dubious local cuisine, in this case bug stew. I tried the street food in Laos and was so ill I had to be flown to Bangkok back in 2002. Let's hope Jaha has travel insurance - or at least a toilet. Just when you think this Holiday form Hell can't get any worse, the family trade him for a horse to warriors who offer a bounty for Sky People. I'd ask for a full refund.

Bellamy, Murphy, the two younger ones who have fodder written all over them, and newly maverick Finn meanwhile, are still hunting for the missing 100 but stumble across the wreckage of a crashed section of the Ark. Somehow, even though the crash site is a humungous crater, littered with bodies, which suggests a huge impact, one girl has miraculously survived and is hanging off a branch midway down a sheer cliff face. Before you can say 'spurious action sequence padding', faceless young guy 1 has rappelled down and promptly fallen to his death. D'oh! "We can't stop," says Finn, having somehow switched personalities with Bellamy who now wants to be all heroic. They fashion some new rope from wreckage and Bellamy tries. We now get the most over the top sequence the 100 has yet given us, the rope breaking and Murphy heroically (and impossibly) holding both ends while Grounders start firing arrows at them. I suppose I must admire the writers restraint at not having a mutant rhino storm in as well, or maybe some lava. Luckily, Octavia, already renowned for having a bit of fog horn, literally blows one to fool the Grounders that the acid fog is coming. Girl on twig (called Mel) is rescued. While the others take their wounded 'home', Finn and a newly redeemed Murphy go on to hunt for survivors.

Raven back at Camp Jaha is struggling to cope with being disabled. Put to work to solve the communications problem she is teamed with sparring partner Wick (Rick?). He tries to help her but she is as stroppy and independent as always. When she can't climb up a tower to fix a relay, Wick convinces her to "let your friends help" and tries out a handy brace that he designed to help her leg work. They try to put up a balloon full of helium to give any survivors a signal but the hard core Major shoots it down, reasoning that Grounders now know where they are - which is a fair point. One person who does see it is Clarke who spent the episode in a kind of buddy movie without the laughs, tied to Anya. I do love Anya - not only does the actress possess one of the oddest yet beautiful faces I've ever seen but she is 100% badass. When she discovers that her arm has a tracking device implanted in it, she just bites it out! The two finally also get the promised scrap we've been waiting for ever since they first crossed paths. It was a bit unfair, Anya being slightly dopey from being drugged by Clarke earlier, but still satisfying. It even resulted in the pair calling a truce, Anya agreeing to help rally her Grounders to join forces to liberate all their people from Mount Weather. It's a bit of a bugger then, when Anya is shot by Camp Jaha forces as they approach. "My fight is over," she tells Clarke before dying. Damn!

GK Rating: ****

↧

Broadchurch - Series 2, Episode 4

January 27, 2015, 11:34 am

≫ Next: Kingsman - The Secret Service (2015)

≪ Previous: The 100 - Season 2, Episode 4

A rather frustrating episode that promised much but didn't actually deliver. As before, the plot develops over two fronts: the trial of Joe Miller and the investigation into the missing girls at Sandbrook. In the courtroom, Ellie's sister Lucy deviates from her testimony - for what she considered good reason - but has probably done the prosecution few favours, even if she said to Ellie that she'd played "a blinder." A new witness, Joe's former paramedic shift partner, was more useful, detailing how in the late 1990s Joe went wild and started beating on a guy who stole his parking space. However, the defence - led by the odious Sharon Bishop - is looking around for another potential suspect they can cast doubt on Joe's guilt with. Who has she in mind? Mark Latimer? What about his mate, dopey Nige? His mum, the awful Susan Wright (Pauline Quirk), has returned to her caravan meaning that Tom Miller has to leave. It's a bad day all round for Ellie's son, Mark telling him they can't hang out any more now that he has Lizzie to think about. It's a surprise when Susan is called as a defence witness and testifies she saw son Nige carrying the dead body on the beach! These courtroom scenes still seem a little off to me, writer Chris Chibnell not being at his most comfortable here.

It's a shame we have to have the trial at all as we have a genuine whodunit at Sandbrook that could be given more room to develop and breathe. Tonight, Hardy goes back for the first time since his big failure. Of course, poor Ellie has to drive because of Hardy's condition and they are forced to share a room when the booking is lost. "This is weird," says Ellie as they share a bed, one on top, one under the covers. Lee Ashworth and Claire have no such misgivings, going at it like hammers and tongs once Lee delivers her favourite takeaway (and I thought it was the way to a man's heart). Did Hardy also once have a go? Ashworth tells Ellie the detective slept with his wife and Hardy doesn't deny it. Has that affected his judgement? Is Claire holding something back? What about the Gillespies? Wife Kate, mother of the still missing Lisa, isn't too happy to see Hardy back but dad Ricky is far more direct, approaching Hardy, his ex-wife and 15 year daughter while they're out. "You're a failure", Gillespie spits. "You can never put it right." He adds: "When you go this time, you stay gone." But why does Claire have his number and why has she called it recently? Was she having an affair with her neighbour? What is the significance of a photograph of bluebells on Gillespie's wall? Did he send the pressed flower to Claire? In terms of plot, things were forwarded but it was hard to feel anything this week. The two best bits were Hardy recounting how he found babysitter Pippa's body in the river - aided by a flashback - and the obvious affect it had on him and Alec's terse response to young jouno Ollie who was after a scoop on Ashworth. "You people think you're saving the world; you're just making it harder to live in. Now, p*ss off." Probably the weakest instalment of this run so far.

GK Rating: ***

↧

Kingsman - The Secret Service (2015)

January 28, 2015, 2:17 am

≫ Next: Doctor Who - Shadow of the Past

≪ Previous: Broadchurch - Series 2, Episode 4

We're not even through January and yet I know I've already seen what will be one of my favourite films of the year. Kingsman: The Secret Service is everything I hoped it would be, a kinetic, irreverent, affectionate and dazzling mash up of the violence of Kick-Ass and pitch perfect spoofery of the expansive Bond films of the 70s and 80s. The Kingsmen are an independent spy organisation that grew out of a swanky London tailors. Like modern day knights, the Kingsman keep the world safe secretly, working to a non-political agenda. Let by Michael Caine's Arthur, each Knight has a Camelot name, including Colin Firth's Harry Hart, known as Galahad. When Lancelot (Jack Davenport) is murdered, trials begin for a new Kingsman. Harry picks council house lad Eggsy (Taron Egerton), the son of an agent who sacrificed himself 17 years earlier to save Harry and his team. Can Eggsy put his deprived upbringing behind him to compete with the silver spoon fellow candidates? Meanwhile, billionaire Richmond Valentine (Samuel L Jackson) is masterminding a plan to save the Earth from global warming; however, this involves the slaughter of millions. Can the Kingsmen rally themselves to save the world?

From watching X-Men: First Class, it was obvious that director Matthew Vaughn was a Bond nut; Michael Fassbender's Magneto was 60s Connery in all but name while villain Sebastian Shaw was an archetypal Bond baddie in his lavish submarine. In a key scene, Harry and Valentine have dinner (a McDonald's Happy Meal!) and bemoan the way modern spy movies have got too serious. They yearn for the days of the nutty mastermind and the gentleman spy, a role both play in the story. The film has much fun portraying the rather archaic Kingsmen, with their John Steed umbrellas, Harry Palmer specs and 'Oxfords, not Brogues'. In a very early, and brilliant scene, Jack Davenport's Lancelot gets to channel 100% Golden era Bond, taking out a handful of heavies while never ruffling his jacket and finishing it by drinking an expensive brandy. However, as with Kick-Ass, this celebration is fused to na anarchic sensibility, Davenport then being sliced vertically in half by Valentine's henchwoman Gazelle (Sofia Bontella), a glorious creation who has razor sharp blades instead of lower legs. This juxtaposition of styles carries Kingsman along, making it feel both familiar and fresh. The script - as with Vaughn and Jane Goldman's previous efforts - manages to marry extreme action, great characters, sharp humour and constant invention.

It's tremendously cast too. As Harry Hart, Firth brings all his trademark class but also a steel we rarely see. His Galahad is noble, mannered but lethal. A wonderful scene in which he takes out some bullies in a pub (cleverly referenced later on) is a delight while a scene where Firth is caught in the middle of a killing frenzy is astonishing, the blending of physical action, stunt work and CGI being seamless. Representing an elite, Hart is actually a believer in the old fashioned meritocracy, reminding Eggsy of what Hemingway said about being a gentlemen: it's not about being superior to other men but by being superior to who you used to be. Elsewhere, he reminds others that: "manners maketh the man". In an odd kind of way, Harry is a benevolent Thatcherite, advocating Eggsy's aspiration to do better for himself. Hart is contrasted to Arthur, a more dyed in the wool snob (but with a fantastic pay-off that is one of the film's most sly treats) and the silver spoons who compete with Eggsy to be the new agent. Their trainer is Mark Strong as Merlin with an accent that could only be described as Celtic. As in Kick-Ass, Strong provides a powerful presence, bringing an effortless quality to the role. However, the real star turn from the established names is Samuel Jackson's Valentine, a truly brilliant creation. A super villain in a wonky baseball cap, with a terrible lisp and an aversion to blood, Valentine is hysterically funny and Jackson steals most scenes he's in.

Of course, the film rests on the young shoulders of its new Kingsman, Eggsy. Conceived by comic writer Mark Miller to provide a working class hero when so few now exist, Egerton is great in the role, providing the requisite street smarts, casual disregard for authority and toughness with an easy likability and vulnerability. As a viewer you instantly warm to him and root for him, as he faces the prejudices of the other recruits (bar Sophie Cookson's Roxy) and some of the Kingsmen themselves. Arthur even views him as Hart's 'social experiment'. Harry, however, has spotted the diamond in the rough and his instincts hold true. In the final reel, when Eggsy dons the suit and spectacles to become a fully fledged Kingsman, the transformation is brilliant and the action that follows as Eggsy storms Valentine's base to save the world is as giddily violent and inventive as anything out there. To go into too much detail would spoil the pleasure but be warned: if you don't like limbs flying off in slow motion past the shocked faces of the one who used to be attacked to them, you might be best going to another film. If, however, you love a beautifully framed, hyper-kinetic, ridiculously over the top gory action scene, then this film rewards you over and over. There's also a section that marries a firework display with mass death that manages to be utterly hysterical and visually beautiful! Above all, Vaughn knows what makes a great cinema experience. Like his previous efforts, Kingsman is fast, funny, violent, audacious and compulsive. It also has the most gloriously rude ending I've seen in quite a while (clue: add two letter to Q's closing line in Moonraker) and an exploding Luke Skywalker. I already want to go back and watch it all again. Brilliant stuff.

GK Rating: *****

↧

Doctor Who - Shadow of the Past

January 29, 2015, 4:17 am

≫ Next: The Flash - Season 1, Episode 11

≪ Previous: Kingsman - The Secret Service (2015)

A Companion Chronicle for the Third Doctor and Liz Shaw, read by the late Caroline John. Called to UNIT's Vault 75-73 Whitehall in the present day to check on an alien spacecraft there since Liz's time with the Doctor, Liz relates the tale of when the spaceship crashed to Earth to UNIT Sergeant Marshal (Lex Shrapnel). The ship crashed in the Pennines and was brought back to UNIT HQ in London. However, there is no pilot inside, only what looks like some grisly remains. When the Doctor starts acting strangely and an invasion fleet of the Mym appear, the Brigadier is horrified to find the Doctor deactivating Earth's defences. Has the Time Lord gone mad? However, this is not the Doctor, the alien being a shapeshifter. Can Liz and her sergeant protector Robin find the real Doctor and work out a way to repel the invasion while the Brigadier and UNIT fight the true form of the alien - a giant, tentacled creature that seems indestructible? Meanwhile, back in the present, is there more to Liz's visit than she's letting on and more to Marshal than meets the eye?

As written by Simon Guerrier, Shadow of the Past is an entirely adequate pastiche of the Pertwee era, where stories were simple and usually involved blobby aliens invading the Home Counties. We get the Third Doctor being haughty, the Brigadier stiffening his upper lip and the requisite explosions and threat of nuclear Armageddon. Guerrier does seem to be taking the mick just a bit when he has the Doctor appeal to the Time Lords for help and the bowler hat wearing chap from Terror of the Autons turns up and whisks them away. Why didn't the Doctor ask for this favour every week? Guerrier likes his framing devices and here it is quite affecting, Sergeant Marshal actually being a combination of the alien and Liz's original protector Robin, fused together in an explosion. Her visit was actually to test whether this hybrid was benign or malignant, alien or human, and the resolution is quite sweet. Not the best I've listened to but inoffensive enough and it's precious to have another small moment of Caroline John in Who.

GK Rating: ***

↧

The Flash - Season 1, Episode 11

January 29, 2015, 1:28 pm

≫ Next: Whiplash (2014)

≪ Previous: Doctor Who - Shadow of the Past

After last week's fun but inconsequential offering, the plots kick off again with a face from Doctor Harrison Wells' past coming back to haunt him and threaten to reveal his secrets. The man in question is anti-social science whizz Hartley Rathaway, Wells' former favoured employee at STAR Labs. However, Rathaway had doubts about the particle accelerator and warned that it might blow. Wells had him marched off the premises. Now with tech that means he can generate sonic vibrations, Rathaway first targets Wells at his home before next attacking his own family business where the Flash takes him down. However, this was a trick, Rathaway - or the Pied Piper as he dubbed himself - wanting to get into STAR Labs and steal info from the mainframe, including the frequency that could vibrate the Flash to death. The two have a face off at a dam, with the Piper using his sonic blasters to tip cars over the side, the Flash having to speed the occupants out of them before they plunge to their deaths. This is all the time the Piper needs to hit Flash with his sonic onslaught. In the end, it is Wells who comes to the rescue, sending a pulse frequency through the nearby car radios to overload Rathaway's sonics. The nutty genius is put back in solitary but tells Cisco they'll soon let him out as he knows what happened to Ronnie Raymond and how to save him. The only problem in this strand was Piper actor Andy Mientus who looked like a Hogwarts reject and had all the menace of a tin of soup.

This episode had the requisite thrills and action but also delved deeper into the enigma that is Harrison Wells. As well as seeing his house and the fact that he leaves his chair the second he's alone we also saw him display super speed when his windows were hit by Rathaway's sonic boom. So this means he's Reverse-Flash, right? OK, but how could he be in two places at the same time when Reverse-Flash attacked him in episode 9? Is there a robot decoy? Is it Wells from the future? Could it be someone else, i.e., Eddie? Wells' powers seems to be spasmodic, the tachyon device he ended up with giving him temporary control over his super speed. Is this why he's so keen to nurture the Flash, to steal his speed? Tom Cavanagh plays him really well, every line being possibly read as sincere or false. Rathaway warns the STAR Labs team that Wells will betray them, and, to show his contrition, Wells gives a press conference where he admits he was warned about a possible explosion. Joe isn't fooled, however, and is circling closer and closer, starting a secret investigation of Wells with partner Eddie. This episode also had Iris starting a new job at Picture News; alas, she's only there because the editor thinks she can get them Flash scoops, which she no longer can. She's given to a prize winning journalist to be her mentor who instead mocks her ("My mother writes a blog") before then saying it takes more than "spunk, grit and gumption" to make it. She gets the last laugh, however, when Wells picks her to ask a question. A strong episode this, and we even got to see Cisco's first day at STAR Labs (wearing a 'Don't Panic and Han Shot First' T-shirt). God, I love him!

GK Rating: ****

↧

Whiplash (2014)

January 30, 2015, 3:55 am

≫ Next: Wolf Hall - Episode 2

≪ Previous: The Flash - Season 1, Episode 11

Soon to be Mr Fantastic in the reboot, Miles Teller here stretches himself (sorry) as promising drummer Andrew, a student at the prestigious Schaffer Academy in New York. A loner and desperate to be one of the greats, Andrew is spotted practising by the school's top conductor Terence Fletcher (JK Simmons) and invited to try out for his Show band. However, Fletcher is a tyrant of a teacher, ritually abusing his students for any perceived mistake or lapse and constantly undermining them in an attempt to bring out their greatness. Soon Andrew is practising to the point where his hands bleed, becoming remote from his long suffering dad and his new girlfriend Nicole. But can anything Andrew does ever be good enough for the exacting Fletcher? Will Fletcher's methods be the making of Andrew or the breaking?

Whiplash is a tense and very well made film, one that manages to wring out much drama and emotion out of what is effectively the story of someone drumming in a school band. As the rather closed off Andrew, Teller is very good, mostly blank faced until he gets his drumsticks in his hand. Your view of the film will largely depend, however, on your acceptance - or not - of Simmons' Fletcher. The film flip-flops between presenting him as out and out bully or as someone misguided in their beliefs of how to bring out musical genius. At one stage he tells Andrew that accepting the mediocre and saying 'good job' is the worst thing a teacher can do and it is true that, ultimately, Fletcher's 'tough love' brings out the best in Andrew. However, as a teacher, I can't see Fletcher as anything other than the worst kind of bully, a small man in a small pond who misuses his power to abuse those in his care. His treatment of the band kids is horrific - calling them all manner of names and using details he gleans about them to belittle them - horribly using the information from a chat with Andrew to mock him for his mother's absence. At another stage, he throws a symbol at Andrew's head, in the way Charlie Parker once had one thrown at him. Simmons sees this as character building - it's not and the film's ambivalence about this makes me like it less.

This is also a film about obsession. Andrew is obsessed with being a musical great and being remembered. In one awkward scene at an extended family dinner, he is asked why he wants to be like Parker who died in the gutter. Isn't it better to have friends and family and be happy? Andrew's answer, that people who never knew him know Bird's name shows his dislocation from those around him. The quick downward spiral of his relationship with Nicole, Andrew seeing her as a distraction, also shows an element of snobbery and elitism in the lad; her lack of direction and lowly choice of college is a reason for him to look down on her, just as he does the sport jocks in his family. However, Andrew is partially redeemed in our eyes by his refusal to give in to Fletcher's barbs, pushing himself past the limit of what is bearable to improve himself. Playing until his hands literally bleed, the sweat flying off of him, these scenes pack a real power, although a car crash in the final third feels unnecessary and forced. It goes without saying that Simmons is brilliant, playing a character of great extremes in a way that almost has you sympathise with him. Director Damien Chazelle keeps the tension ratcheted up and the film crackles with energy. The music is also brilliant, a final drum solo by Andrew as thrilling as any superhero mash up.

GK Rating: ****

↧

Wolf Hall - Episode 2

January 30, 2015, 11:01 am

≫ Next: The Musketeers - Series 2, Episode 4

≪ Previous: Whiplash (2014)

I wish the BBC would stop preening quite so much over their period drama. The announcer actually said it was time for "the riveting Wolf Hall" before this one. We'll be the judge of that, thanks. Tonight, Thomas Cromwell's fortunes rose while those of his benefactor, Cardinal Wolsey, continued to decline. The Cardinal has to face a relocation to York, which Thomas helpfully tells him is full of "filthy weather" and "morons". However, Anne Boleyn and her dad, the Duke of Norfolk want him gone, so gone he goes. Cromwell wants to stay and plead Wolsey's case, or does he just want to feather his own nest? Either way, this will involve trying to ingratiate himself to the King and to the fearsome Anne. Cromwell is hardly Anne's favourite person but sister Mary seems to like him, coming onto him and suggesting marriage. Mary was Henry's mistress and was left with nothing. "She sees how I am left and learns from it," she says of Anne, while Anne has this to say to Cromwell. "The Pope will learn his place," adding of Henry that: "I mean to have him." Claire Foy is suitably imperious as Anne, a true ice queen. Cromwell also has dinner with Thomas More, his drunk wife and her pet monkey (as you do). More is full of lovely dinner conversation, having this to say of Protestant Martin Luther in Latin: "Luther is sh*t. His mouth is the anus of the world." Quite.

Of course, to advance, Cromwell must get close to Henry VIII, a move fraught with danger. However, the monarch has taken to him, respecting his loyalty to Wolsey and his pragmatic counsel which includes getting more money from the monks. Damian Lewis's Henry got a bigger outing this week and Lewis seems to be bringing us a different Henry to the one we're used to. Less Brian Blessed clutching a chicken drummer or Jonathan Rhys Meyer with his top off, Lewis's Henry is surprisingly unsure of himself, fragile even. At one stage, he confides to Crowell his predicament with Anne. "Dear Christ!" he laments, "I shall be unmanned by it! Anne says she'll leave me, says there are other men." It's obvious who holds the power currently. Later, Cromwell is roused from his bed when Henry has a nightmare of his dead brother - the former King. "He has come to make me ashamed!" Henry wails. Cromwell, ever the lawyer, turns this around, convincing Henry that the 'vision' was a sign that his dead brother agreed with Henry's plans to break with Rome. Dreams of his brother and father, Crowell claims, "they come to strengthen your hand!" Henry is quieted. "I knew who to send for," he says. So Cromwell becomes part of the Privy Council and continues to rise while Wolsey is arrested for treason but dies on the long march back to London. A satisfying hour of drama although the pace is still too slow and Mark Gatiss continues to stick out like a sore thumb. Mark Rylance, however, continues to give a superlative performance as Cromwell.

GK Rating: ****

↧

The Musketeers - Series 2, Episode 4

January 31, 2015, 12:54 am

≫ Next: Agent Carter - Season 1, Episode 4

≪ Previous: Wolf Hall - Episode 2

An enjoyable story this week that, at times, was more thoughtful than the usual Musketeer offerings. Trouble was brewing in the countryside with a young woman, Emelie of Duras, who was having visions that Prince Philip of Spain was the Anti-Christ. An army of peasants were gathering in support to march to Madrid and in Paris attacks on the Spanish were on the increase. Aramis was tasked with infiltrating the camp and gaining Emelie's trust. This tapped into a recurring theme this series for the smooth talking charmer, of how he is constantly having to lie. There's the relationship he's having with the Dauphin's Governess just so he can keep close to his son and now here he is pretending to be Emelie's new loyal supporter. Aramis is shown to be conflicted at this role but it is one that he plays very well, perhaps too well. Will there be some kind of pay off or retribution for his actions?

Things got complicated when Queen Anne decided to try to sort things out and came to the camp with Constance (after stopping at the tanning salon as the pair looked bright orange this week - did they get a bejazzle too?). The peasants wanted to string Anne up but Emilie instead offered them some soup. Constance had Emelie's and had some suspiciously familiar visions. This is the era before CSI so we had a great scene when Constance and co got back to Paris where the poor doctor had to test the soup by taking it himself! Turns out Emelie's mother was giving her magic mushroom soup to give her the visions. The Musketeers make her go cold turkey, restoring her sanity but robbing her of her link with 'God'. Mum ended up getting a stone in the head for her deception. Had Aramis made Emelie's life better or worse? Emilie may have got her own thoughts back but her mother was dead and her sense of purpose destroyed. This is something that made the main plot a bit more substantial than usual, even if the doped soup reveal was rather daft and a bit of a cheat. I'd have liked it to be a little less clear cut than mum drugging her.

Elsewhere, Rochefort (Marc Warren) finally got sick of the King's new mistress, Milady, and threatened the Cardinal's man to find out all about her. I wasn't sure about Warren at first and still find him a little pantomime but he's turning into a fine schemer and his plans to be the Queen's future consort are certainly ambitious. Rochefort had the problem that the Spanish Ambassador was tiring of him and had even paid the prostitute Rochefort gets to dress up as Anne to try and kill him. With the Musketeers having the ambassador in protective custody because of the anti-Spanish sentiment fermented by Emelie, Rochefort struck a deal with Milady for her to poison him. Of course, the ambassador didn't have time to reveal that Rochefort was an over ambitious Spanish spy plus Rochefort could blame Emelie's forces for the murder and get Hugo Speer's Captain Treville sacked as a consequence. The episode also managed to fit in the usual unrequited longing, D'Artagnan and Constance getting all dopey eyed in a pub, Aramis and the Queen coping a quick snog and Athos and Milady meeting in the street. They're all at it - is there something in the soup?

GK Rating: ****

↧

Agent Carter - Season 1, Episode 4

January 31, 2015, 8:53 am

≫ Next: Star Trek - Insurrection (1998)

≪ Previous: The Musketeers - Series 2, Episode 4

Dominic Cooper returns as Howard Stark and causes all kinds of complications for double agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), as well as shaking her belief in what she is doing. Howard has snuck back into the country to find out what tech of his has been recovered in last week's raid, giving Peggy a camera pen to take stock. He then tells her she must retrieve a certain device - a silver ball with a switch on it - which he claims could permanently black out New York if activated. However, Peggy is suspicious when Jarvis (James D'Arcy) starts fondling his ear every time it's mentioned. You'd think being Mr Stark's butler and having to tell all manner of lies to cover for him over the years would have made him a better liar, surely? Who actually grabs their ear when they lie anyway? Peggy pushes the button to find the ball contains a vial of blood - yes, Steve Rogers' blood. Howard tries to apologise and explain but he's lost her. She sees Howard for what he is, someone who wants to hold onto the precious vial so he can make millions down the line from the possible health benefits the blood could unlock. Can Peggy trust anyone? Jarvis has lied to her and, surprise surprise, new neighbour Dotty (Bridget Regan) is an assassin who takes out who we think is going to be a major villain, Mr Mink, in a second (a nice touch that). Cooper was good value here (he always plays the cad well), constantly coming out of another single lady's room in The Griffith every time Peggy came back.

Elsewhere, the agents of the SSR are still trying to find the connection between the voiceless members of Leviathan and a battle between the Russians and the Nazis at Finow. Chief Dooley flies off to interview Nazi Mueller before he is hanged and is told that there was no battle but that the Nazis came across a giant pile of Russian bodies ripped apart. What connection does this have to the Leviathan members who are named after the dead Russians? Meanwhile, the cynicism of Agent Thompson and the compassion of Agent Sousa (Chad Michael Murray and Enver Gjokaj) are contrasted. Sousa brings back a wino who saw something at the docks. He tries to reason with him but it is Thompson bringing in a bottle of whiskey that gets the drunk to talk, revealing he saw a brunette and a smartly dressed man at the scene. "Not everybody came back from the war wanting a hug," Thompson says. He also has a few words to say to Carter too, telling her that she would always be inferior as she was a woman. "It's the natural order of things," he states. Hopefully Peggy will get to kick his ass before the season is out (though she only has four eps in which to do it). A decent 40 odd minutes of entertainment and Atwell continues to excel in the lead role and give us a powerful heroine not clad in spandex. That said, Agent Carter rarely thrills and is rooted firmly in the second tier of TV superhero shows. Great Stan Lee cameo though.

GK Rating: ***

↧

Star Trek - Insurrection (1998)

February 1, 2015, 2:41 am

≫ Next: Doctor Who - The Time Vampire

≪ Previous: Agent Carter - Season 1, Episode 4

The ninth Star Trek film - and the third starring the Next Generation crew - was widely seen as a misfire for the franchise following the dramatic First Contact. Viewed as a motion picture event, Insurrection is indeed underwhelming, the threat of the Borg wiping out Earth followed up with a plot that has some old guys hooked on facelifts trying to relocate 600 hippies. However, viewed as a feature length episode of the Next Generation show, Michael Pillar's script is a neat little adventure for this crew which is warm and affectionate and reminds you why watching the Next Generation for seven years was such a pleasure. The Enterprise crew are called into action when android officer Data goes haywire, endangering a mission to observe the Ba'ku. Having restored Data with some singing (!), Picard uncovers a plot by the Federation, with the help of the Sona - a race that is aged and constantly giving themselves facelifts - to relocate the Ba'ku as their planet has regenerating properties that make it a fountain of youth. However, rather than follow Admiral Dougherty's (Anthony Zerbe) orders, Picard and his crew beam down to the planet to defend the Ba'ku. With Riker leading the Enterprise to confer with Starfleet command, can Picard and his crew hold out long enough?

From the off, Insurrection lacks menace, the Baku village looking exactly like what it is, a fake development built near the river, peopled by extras in tastefully ethnic clothes. The Ba'ku might live forever and want for nothing but would anyone want to live there? Endless gardening and tapestry weaving? The horror. Paramount apparently asked for a lighter instalment, hoping to recreate the success of Star Trek 4. However, despite all the 'fish out of water' japery of that movie, there was a genuine menace to the Earth and a sense of scale. Here, Picard and his crew wander around some hills and occasionally shoot some little hovering transporter thingamajigs. There's never really a sense of urgency until the final third, with plenty of opportunities for Picard to chat up the local totty, played by Donna Murphy. Some odd concepts are thrown into the mix, such as the Ba'ku being able to slow down time and live in an endless moment. Better is Pillar's comment on society's obsession with youth (even more prescient now than it was back in 1998). The Sona are actually wayward children of the Ba'ku, keen to kick out their parents and reverse the ravages of time. The lengths they go to, including endless, obscene face-lifts is funny and disgusting at the same time. It's true that, among the pantheons of Star Trek baddies, the Sona are never likely to figure but leader F. Murray Abraham brings gravitas and anger even though he's covered in latex. The ending however, is yet another Picard versus villain face-off involving some climbing of scaffolding. These Next Gen movies really only seem to know one way to end, with First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis all ending in this way (even Generations did the same, except with Kirk along for the ride too).

Though, as a spectacle, Insurrection underwhelms, as a love letter to the characters of the show, there is much for fans to enjoy. The interplay between the leads is great, from Picard and Data singing Gilbert and Sullivan to the great 'smooth as an android's bottom' pay off. The rekindling of the Riker-Troi romance has been something long wanted by viewers and is handled with charm. Each member of the ensemble gets their moment, from Worf's giant spot to Troi and Crusher chatting about their firmer boobs! Data gets a large share of proceedings, Brent Spiner becoming as influential behind the scenes as Leonard Nimoy was in the earlier films. The sweetest moment is when Geordi temporarily gets his natural sight back and gets to see a sunrise unaided for the first time. Picard is also well defined, his defence of the Prime Directive and his great speech to Admiral Dougherty of how many displaced people it would take before it was wrong - 1000, a million? is punch the air spot on. This is a script that has been written with great affection for the crew of the Enterprise-E. We even get Riker in command, taking on the Sona forces and displaying his inner Kirk, something the character rarely got to do in the series. As a Star Trek film, Insurrection lacks the wider appeal and big concepts that a more casual audience demand; as a reminder of why the Next Generation cast were so beloved by so many, Insurrection works just fine.

GK Rating: ***

↧

Doctor Who - The Time Vampire

February 1, 2015, 11:03 am

≫ Next: The Hobbit - The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

≪ Previous: Star Trek - Insurrection (1998)

Writer/director Nigel Fairs final part of his Leela trilogy of audio plays is a right old mess, I'm afraid. When K9 (voiced again by John Leeson) starts acting strangely, the Doctor thinks he might have to take him apart. When Leela finds the metal mutt messing around in the secondary control room the TARDIS lands and Leela follows K9 out into a sea fort. Once outside, however, she experiences a number of time hops, seeing the fort in the past and the far future. Versions of the Doctor appear too, trying to help in the midst of a series of time ripples being generated by a fabled creature known as a Time Vampire. As Leela sees the whole history of the fort, including its invasion and destruction by the dreaded Z-nai (the villains from Fairs previous two plays), she begins to realise there is a connection between her and the temporal creature.

Where to begin? The Time Vampire is certainly ambitious but it is also confusing beyond belief. In the interviews at the end of the CD, Fairs argues that in buying a CD listeners deserve their money's worth, therefore needing a story that required more than one listen. What rubbish; people listen to stories again because they're good and they enjoy them. The Time Vampire is overly complex and repetitive, with far too much of it based on Leela and an odd group time hopping from era to era. Leeson pops up again playing a Machiavellian tour guide with a daft accent while Fairs overindulges his lead actress (and best bud by their banter) by giving her another chance to use a broad Belfast accent for a character she'd recently mastered for a play. Alas, the audience is having far less fun than Nigel and Louise. If you had been following the trilogy, there is some kind of closure to the framing device of an old future Leela trapped in a Z-nai prison but, by audio's end, all I carried about was putting the CD back in its case, never to be opened again.

GK Rating: **

↧

The Hobbit - The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

February 2, 2015, 3:46 am

≫ Next: X-Men Roundup - January 2015

≪ Previous: Doctor Who - The Time Vampire

The overblown, plodding and completely dull Hobbit trilogy reaches its end - and its nadir - with this truly moribund effort that felt more like an endurance test than a film. It starts well enough, with Smaug the dragon (voiced by the ubiquitous Benedict Cumberbatch) on the rampage and burning the human settlement. Luke Evans, bringing his usual brand of bland to hero Bard, gets up the tower while the town burns and lobs some arrows at it, until his plucky son brings his a large enough missile to kill it. Hooray! Alas, that's about as good as it gets. What follows could be the dullest two hours I've sat through in quite some time as dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) goes all Anakin and refuses to honour his promise to share the loot of the reclaimed dwarf mountain. Soon we've got the pointed eared Vulcan like Elves on the scene looking for a scrap and then a Dwarf army with a leader voiced by Billy Connelly for Pete's sake. Oh look, some evil Orcs have turned up - and then another lot. Go on then, lob the humans in too to make the requisite five and let's have endless, dull and repetitive CGI laden fight scenes. Somewhere in there, decent actors like Ken Stott try to act while having what looks like a giant dildo stuck to his nose while Martin Freeman runs about being Martin Freeman in fake feet slippers.

I fully admit that I'm not the best person to write a favourable review of a Tolkien movie; I never got past the first 20 pages of the Lord of the Rings, have not read the Hobbit and while I can watch all manner of alien worlds and species with much enjoyment I just find dwarves and elves hysterically funny, the realm of fat blokes with matching t-shirts who play Warhammer at weekends and talk too loudly. However, I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy well enough, even if they were a little long and came to these Hobbits with a relatively open mind. A big problem for Peter Jackson, as with many pioneers, is that the world has moved on and run with his ideas while he's stayed still. Game of Thrones has given audiences who love fantasy one that feels real and immediate, risqué, visceral and frightening. I love it as do most people who watch it. Watching Hobbit 3 feels as if someone has snuck on a film from 2001; it's a time capsule of what was considered cutting edge 14 years ago. The CGI, which is ever present, looks false throughout (not helped by the pin sharp picture quality and that much of it is set in daylight) and Jackson's direction is as familiar as an old pair of slippers by now. I can't help but wish that someone else had had a crack at directing these as was originally intended. Like George Lucas with his Star Wars prequels, you sense that Jackson's heart is not really in it.

I also found I could care less about any of the characters. It didn't help that we all know that Bilbo, Gandalf and many of the elves will be fine, as they're in LOTR, but that the dwarves were all one dimensional and boring. Without giving too much away - in case you still haven't seen it - some dwarves die but nothing was ever done to make me care. I couldn't even remember any of their names and kept thinking of them as the 'Jimmy Nesbitt one' of the 'Ken Stott with dildo nose one'. Some die, the music swells, the close up on teary faces dwells and I just wished them to get on with it. To be honest, by this stage with so much additional material added, subplot padding and pointless cameos from stars from the first trilogy I couldn't even quite remember what the plot was meant to be about. On the bright side, hopefully that's the last Middle Earth nonsense I'll have to sit through. Any positives? Well, I'm scratching my head here, but some of the one on one fights were decent enough - if obviously filmed against greenscreens - and Freeman is a likeable presence. Other than that, to be honest, I thought The Battle of the Five Armies was one of the most pointless and boring films I've ever sat through. Sorry, Tolkienites.

GK Rating: **

↧

X-Men Roundup - January 2015

February 2, 2015, 12:05 pm

≫ Next: Fortitude - Episodes 1 and 2

≪ Previous: The Hobbit - The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Whoops! With all the Axis shenanigans I somehow missed my comic shop not putting Uncanny in for the last month or so and find myself behind the pace. When last I read, Cyclops had just confronted new mutant Matthew Malloy with an offer. Two missed issues later, SHIELD has launched missiles and blown up Malloy, Cyclops and Magik! With art by the super-talented Chris Bachelo, Uncanny X-Men 30 is a real winner. Surely the face of the mutant revolution can't be dead? Well, his bleached skeleton is there. Malloy, almost omnipotent in his power set, reforms himself but, for now, Cyclops seems toast. Malloy tries to bring them back to life but finds he does have limits (at last for now). A grief stricken Emma Frost attacks Malloy when he turns up at the School and, by reflex, he atomises her! Crikey! What is going on! As if that wasn't all brain-burning enough, Eva Bell has used her time travel powers to bring the past version of Charles Xavier to the present. OMG! I am geeking out! All-New X-Men 35 meanwhile, continues the adventure of the original X-Men on the Ultimate Earth alongside their X-Men and the Miles Morales Spider-Man. It's all fun stuff and ends with a huge dust up in Latveria as our heroes amass on Dr Doom to rescue the Beast. However, has Doom vaporised Morales in the final panel? We'll find out next month! Uncanny Avengers relaunches with another issue 1 and brings the post-Axis team of Quicksilver, the Scarlett Witch, Dr Voodoo, Vision, Sabretooth and Rogue. The art by Daniel Acuna is gorgeous and the new arc is as ambitious as usual, set on the Counter-Earth. One to watch.

Amazing X-Men 15 and 16 begins a new arc with Cyttorak, the demon who made the Juggernaut, somehow sending another Crimson Ruby to the Thai jungle. A new set of potential Juggernauts head there to claim their prize. Colossus, once a Juggernaut and now back at the school, wants to go but Storm is yet to trust him again. As the X-Men face off against a host of rotters to stop a new host being crowned, Colossus gets Pixie to take him into the fray. Chris Yost's tale has a nice old-school Claremont vibe to it but the art by Jorge Fornes is just substandard, I'm afraid. The female squad finally get a female writer in X-Men 23. This opener by G Willow Wilson is decent enough and she has a nice ear for dialogue. A giant hole opens up in Utah with a super storm above it. What gives? It ends with Storm getting trapped underground - not good when you're claustrophobic. Gambit gets a nice little cameo too. The art is average however. Spider-Man and the X-Men is once again the most fun read of the X-titles. Sauron and Stegron have taken over Staten Island and started turning the residents into dinosaurs! Spidey and his team of students have to save them but can't stop arguing for more than five minutes. The resolution is great, the dinosaur villains both falling for Shark Girl and fighting themselves to exhaustion. A lot of fun. Finally, X-Force 14 continues to suggest that Simon Spurrier is one of the better writers around. With Fantomex now threatening to destroy everything, Hope comes out of her coma and takes charge of the team. It's an issue fizzing with ideas and concepts and well worth a read. Spurrier's ability to get into the head of extreme characters - such as Marrow - and make them relatable is second to none. See you next month!

↧

Fortitude - Episodes 1 and 2

February 3, 2015, 1:02 am

≫ Next: Broadchurch - Series 2, Episode 5

≪ Previous: X-Men Roundup - January 2015

Sky Atlantic's new home grown show is an ambitious thriller/drama set in a small community in the Arctic which boasts an impressive cast. Touted by its Governor as crime free and "the one place on Earth where we're guaranteed a quiet life," Fortitude is rocked to its foundations when local boffin Charlie Goddard (Christopher Eccleston), head of the Arctic Research Centre is murdered in a frenzied attack in his home. This is bad news for the Governor, Hildur Odegard (played by The Killing's Sofie Grabol) as she's trying to get off the ground an impressive project to build a swanky hotel into the glacier. Could the fact that Charlie was having second thoughts about okaying the project in his vital environmental report be the cause of his death? What is becoming apparent from the off is that Fortitude is a place full of secrets which is great news for the viewer. The town is a mix of Brits and Scandinavians, some having lived there for years like Michael Gambon's photographer Harry, dying of liver cancer, and Sheriff Dan Anderssen (Richard Dormer), presiding over a murder case in a town that usually has no crime whatsoever. Why was he already in Charlie's house when new researcher Vincent (Harry Treadaway) broke in after seeing Charlie's body?

Could the remains of an animal found in the ice by two kids - Cassie and Liam - then reported back to Cassie's dad, who dug it up with his mining colleague Jason, be the cause of the murder. The two miners believed it to be a mammoth and hoped to sell it to the research centre. Jason had a small skirmish with Charlie when the Professor refused to pay for the find. Could the fact that Liam went into some kind of coma briefly be connected to the dead animal he touched and did that also make him climb out of the window and get frostbite on his feet? This caused real trauma for husband and wife Harry - who works for the police - and his wife Jules (Jessica Raine) as this led to the reveal that he had left the house - and his ill son - to sleep with mysterious new resident Elena, a woman with secrets of her own. Why is she here and why does she point a shotgun at the door when someone knocks on her hotel room door and why does she have to check in at the police station? Who are the two guys walking about on the glacier?

Fortitude provided us with a plethora of suspects, potential secrets and odd, surreal moments in this double bill opener. Some, such as the pig in an oxygen tank in the research centre, seemed a little too surreal, almost Twin Peaks like, but the show provided a good sense of menace and atmosphere. The cast is impeccable and also includes the wonderful Stanley Tucci as Eugene Morton, an American sent from Scotland yard who arrived to help seemingly too soon after the death occurred. What is his story? Straight away a great battle of egos started between him and the Sheriff. "Get out of here," Dan growls at the autopsy. "I can't do that," Morton says quietly, the two eyeballing each other. My only real complaint was the lack of truly sympathetic characters. I didn't warm to many of the cast (rather appropriate given the location, I know) but if I'm to care for the next 10 weeks I need to be able to invest in at least some of them. Simon Donald's script cleverly laid out the various threads that will be developed - including the possible connection to Charlie's death to that of a man mauled by a polar bear three month's previously - he now needs to make me want to spend more time with the cast.

GK Rating: ***

↧

Broadchurch - Series 2, Episode 5

February 3, 2015, 11:27 am

≫ Next: The 100, Season 2, Episode 5

≪ Previous: Fortitude - Episodes 1 and 2

As we're now over half way through I think we can now finally concede that this series of Broadchurch is a massive disappointment after the brilliance of the first. The simple truth is that while the characters were much loved, there was never a compelling enough tale left to tell - Danny was murdered, Joe did it - and the story should have ended, the audience being left with the memory of a great and emotional whodunit. As this second series progresses it just constantly proves this fact, the dual strands being neither engaging enough to make us care enough and the stars of the first series, such as Jodie Whittaker, being largely wasted. The trial of Joe Miller is easily the worst of the two, akin to some bad US soap opera, with antics I can't believe would be tolerated. Pauline Quirk's Susan Wright was so ridiculously pantomime evil on the stand that I'm surprised the jury didn't boo her. It's all heading to nasty Sharon Bishop putting dad Mark Latimer on the spot for the murder and Mark having to take the stand for a tear jerking monologue, no doubt. Actors of the quality of Andrew Buchan deserve better than this. Other bits of padding tried to pass themselves off as drama and I can guarantee no one cares whether Beth finds out that Father Coates has been seeing Joe or if Beth meets some paedophiles or if Sharon's son gets beaten up in prison. To try to compensate, we had more pretty sunrises and sunsets than a Michael Bay movie and some slow motion to try and fill up another minute or so. Jocelyn did get one killer line when she revealed why she had refused to defend Sharon's son. "Because I didn't like you enough," she spat, "and I knew you'd blame me if I lost." Ouch.

The Sandbrook case was slightly more involving but only because it is the one that features Ellie Miller (Olivia Coleman - who should have read the script first this time). With her life turned to ashes, she tells Hardy (David Tennant) that, when it comes to the case, "I'm gonna solve it," and with ridiculous ease, finds a clue Hardy missed in only one night. The problem with the Sandbrook case is that there's only so many suspects - it's Ashworth, Claire, Ricky or a combination of the three. It's clear that they're all hiding things - Ashworth was sleeping with Ricky's wife and recognises the name of Thorps Agriservices. The creepy flashback of the girls playing hide and seek in the woods with both Ricky and Lee suggests a possible scenario but - had the two conspired, would Ricky have tracked Lee down and beaten him up? Could he have killed his own daughter? Ellie posits a theory that maybe babysitter Pippa accidentally killed Lisa and did a runner on a ferry from Portsmouth (where the signal from her phone was last detected. However, Thorps - now abandoned - yields up a macabre possible alternative - an industrial furnace. Did Pippa's body get cremated in it, or is she still at large? Coleman and Tennant did their best to breathe life into things; Hardy is still having his medical issues that caused him to seek out Jocelyn to make a will and will probably collapse next week for a bit of forced jeopardy. As entertainment, this was adequate, but only just. In comparison to last year's Broadchurch, however, this was far, far inferior and - worse - it is starting to take the shine off that first series too.

GK Rating: ***

↧

The 100, Season 2, Episode 5

February 4, 2015, 12:28 am

≫ Next: Doctor Who - Patient Zero

≪ Previous: Broadchurch - Series 2, Episode 5

Let's talk about Finn. Here's a classic example of a show putting plot before character. Shown throughout the first run to be the calm, compassionate voice of reason, the contrast to Bellamy's uncompromising pragmatism, in just a few short weeks the character has become a violent loose cannon. But why? Because it suits the writers, that's why. Nothing they have written convinces that Finn would suddenly flip flop so dramatically or that former bad boy Murphy would also suddenly put himself on the side of the angels. It's a continuing fault that keeps The 100 from achieving greatness. It's not helped by the fact that actor Thomas McDonell, though sweet, doesn't possess the necessary range as an actor to do this change of character convincingly. Where Finn goes after the climax of this episode is hard to tell. On an obsessive mission to find Clarke, Finn - with Murphy - finds the Grounder villager, led by Michael (Lincoln's friend) who has already met Octavia. The 100 (or 48!) aren't there but Finn isn't satisfied, threatening a girl with his gun. When an old man tries to escape, Finn shoots him, starting a massacre where he guns down countless women and children. Well, there goes the Sky People/Grounder alliance.

Elsewhere, our separated cast find various perils. Lincoln is being experimented upon by the President's son at Mount Weather, a thoroughly nasty piece of work. He first gets the poor Grounder addicted to a drug, pain conditions him Pavlov style to fear a noise and then has him murder another Grounder to get his latest fix. Things are looking bad for our tattooed shirtless one. What is the endgame - to make him a soldier, a weapon? Looks like Octavia might be having a heart breaking reunion coming up. The President's son also seems to be up to some dark tricks to get his dad to agree to use the 47 as blood donors. He and Doctor Singh seem behind a containment leak that almost killed Mia, the girl Jasper is sweet on. Jasper agrees to have her blood filtered through his and the effects are even better than 100% prime Grounder. Dr Singh almost gives herself away to Monty, casually mentioning that Jasper's reactions to the treatment were "perfectly normal". Will Monty work it out or are the survivors doomed to be used as permanent blood donors? Former Chancellor Kane, meanwhile, trusts his captive Grounder, sends his men home and is promptly knocked out and chucked down a hole. D'oh! Well, at least former former Chancellor Jaha is down there too, newly delivered from the Dead Zone.

For Clarke, it's an emotional rollercoaster and for her mother Abby too. Reunited after thinking the other dead, Clarke also has to process that her two potential beaus are also still breathing and out risking their lives looking for her. However, Bellamy soon returns and gets a big old hug from Clarke. Of course, this being The 100, it's barely 10 minutes before they're sneaking off again, this time to rescue Finn. Raven helps them past the electric fence and gets a slap off of Abby, rather hypocritical as Abby helped Bellamy and co escape to track Clarke. Abby worries that Clarke thinks she's more than a child. Raven is harsh: "She stopped being a kid the day you sent her down here to die." Ouch. Bellamy tries to tell Clarke of how Finn is different. "Losing you has changed him," he warns her. Alas, Clarke gets to see this first hand, hearing the shots and getting there in time to see her former squeeze after he's just killed some defenceless women, children and old men. "I found you," Finn says stunned. Can't see that relationship enduring somehow...

GK Rating: ****

↧

Doctor Who - Patient Zero

February 4, 2015, 9:36 am

≫ Next: Star Trek - Nemesis (2002)

≪ Previous: The 100, Season 2, Episode 5

Sometimes listening to Big Finish Doctor Who since Nick Briggs took over as executive producer one can get just a little jaded of his endless obsession with Daleks. The metal monsters turn up over and over to battle the Doctor and last appeared, in this main range, a mere two tales ago. However, Patient Zero is one of the better ones and one of Nick Briggs better scripts. It's also the start of a final Charley Pollard arc, a trilogy of plays that will bring to a head the continuing plot of former Eighth Doctor companion Charley who ended up being rescued by the Time Lord's earlier Sixth incarnation. In this opener, the time travellers (Colin Baker and India Fisher) end up on a mysterious space station called the Amethyst Viral Containment Station. Here, the plural life form Fratalin (Michael Maloney) and his hundreds of familiars have tirelessly gathered together a range of dangerous viruses to be collected by enigmatic race the Viyrans. Charley has come down with some illness that causes her to shift in and out of reality. What is the connection to the squad of time travelling Daleks under the orders of the formidable Dalek Time Controller? Who exactly is Patient Zero and why can only Charley see Mila (Jess Robinson), a girl who claims to have been traveling unknown in the TARDIS for hundreds of years?

Few people's childhood dreams come true but look at dear old Nick Briggs. When he was a kid, listing Dalek tales and doodling aliens like the Viyrans in exercise books, who would have guessed he would be doing this aged 40 plus? His childhood self would have died of sheer joy to see his older self producing, writing and directing Doctor Who stories which include aliens he created as a kid and then actually speaking the Dalek voices into his own ring modulator! Patient Zero is a fast moving, clever little tale that has lots going on, from the idea of Fratalin and his numerous selves to the intriguing nature of the Viyrans who speak in the voices of people they meet. The concept of a master Dalek strategist who can see time laid out is a good one too, developing the pepper pots more than usual. Even better is the story of poor Mila, or Patient Zero. Experimented upon by so many viruses that she has gained temporal powers, Mila escaped to the TARDIS when the Doctor was Bill Hartnell but cannot be perceived by anyone, watching the whole history of the show unfold invisible. How would that feel? It's no wonder that she would gradually go mad and seize the opportunity, owing to Charley's unique time displaced nature to become her, Charley herself becoming invisible. The ending has the Daleks actually win for a change and Mila to have assumed Charley's place next to the Doctor. Meanwhile, the intangible Charley is left with the Viyrans. A great start to this trilogy of plays.

GK Rating: ****

↧