The Fighter is one of those movies that’s production echoes it’s script, to the point where it’s less seconds and more months out for Marky Mark’s punishing and passionate pugilistic effort, but despite the nebulous involvement of a galaxy of stars (Matt Damon and Marty Scorcese can take a bow) it turns out to have been well worth the wait….
Tag Archives: Action
Review: True Grit
0 CommentsJanuary 11, 2011 – 12:52 am
For all their many ecccentricities, no one could ever accuse the Coens of not being fine filmmakers. Indeed, it’s testament to their singular talents (and long-tail box office returns) thet True Grit was made at all.
Seriously, would any major studio really budget a western (let alone one so strongly tied with John Wayne’s 1969 version -very much a product of its time) if they weren’t betting on the jingle-jangle of Oscar gold in the future?
Luckily for the execs, the Coens pull off their first fully-fledged western in spectacular style, Charles Portis’ indulgently cinematic novel represented perfectly through Ethan and Joel’s penchant for subtle sepia hues and singular, often bizarre characterisation.
Jeff Bridges continues his long run of laid back, supremely naturalistic acting as drunken US Marshall Rooster Cogburn, and it’s truly astonishing that he takes a role previously indelibly stamped with The Duke’s mark and makes it wholly his own.
As the ‘One eyed fat man’, his irascible character slowly thaws, revealing a history of heartbreak and hard times through anecdotes and actions. Bridges is comical, wry and deeply, powerfully human, and will surely be heading towards more nods come awards season. It’s hard to imagine another actor managing to make kicking two small children off a balcony both funny and charming, but The Dude manages it with aplomb.
Backing him up, Matt Damon continues to provide value for money, alternating between amusing, annoying and honourable as vain Texas ranger LeBeouf, his poor shooting and hyperbole a perfect counter to Rooster’s solid, earthy charm.
Likewise, a special nod goes to newcomer Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross. Out to avenge her father’s death she is initially cold, practical and precocious, but brings a winning and natural charm to a wordy role that could easily be jarringly theatrical in the wrong hands. Her coldness finally breaking towards the end of the film when, despite aloofly witnessing terrible violence on the trail, she breaks down and cries at the death of her horse Little Blackie and reveals the vulnerable child beneath her businesslike exterior.
Here, Mattie still comes across as slightly rehearsed, but that’s entirely down to the Coens penchant for precise screwball wordplay, delivered in a wry and affected manner that brings an arch humour to proceedings without ever detaching you from the story or the people.
Likewise, the cinematography is superb. Oddly,at first glance many scenes appear as though they’ve been shot with the small screen in mind, coldly lit forest scenes recalling nothing so much as 90’s TV filmatography. At first it’s a little disturbing -this is supposed to be a western after all, a majestic retelling of the Birth Of America. As the film progresses however, you see this convention is being slyly mocked, the TV styling actually a return tto classic 1960’s Hollywood framing, the directors making a concientious effort to shrug off the shadow that ‘Unforgiven’ has cast over ’serious’ westerns for so long. True Grit may be built on a mythical framework, but it’s skin is resolutely small, detailed and human.
Effortlessly amusing, relentlessly engaging and intelligent and not afraid to show very adult themes while remaining a childlike sense of fun, True Grit is a deserving film that never feels try-hard or worthy. It’s fun, and it can be enjoyed as a Sunday afternoon tea-time TV flick or a massive, tense and moving Oscar contender -and just about everything inbetween.
A fantastic film that kicks off 2011 in real style.
NewsGush: Transformers: Dark Of The Moon Trailer.
0 CommentsDecember 9, 2010 – 11:52 am
We haven’t mentioned much about it, mainly because everything Michael Bay has ever done has been complete and utter wank, but apparently those fucking awful Transformers films did quite well. So well in fact that there’s a third helping of robo-shite about to be heaped onto steaming cinema screens everywhere. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Anyway, here’s the first trailer for Transformers: Dark of the moon, wherein we find out that Hasbro’s favourite son’s (and daughters -can’t forget the fashionably pink Arcee after all) have been lurking about on the moon for years. For some reason…
Review: Monsters
0 CommentsOctober 26, 2010 – 10:11 pm
Going in to former BBC visual effects guru Gareth Edwards’s first big screen foray, it’s forgivable if audience and reviewer alike are amped up in expectation of this year’s ‘District 9′, so it comes as a shock when we get a rambling, very human drama that meanders along at a pace that matches it’s protagonists long trip across central America towards their comfy suburban homes.
In terms of plot, there’s a fairly straightfoward setup that’s efficiantly dealt with in the opening credits. At some point in the past a space probe is sent to investigate possible alien life, on it’s return, the probe breaks up over Mexico, causing strange new life-forms to arise and spread. In the panic the US and Mexico wall off much of central America and begin a long running (and possibly futile) battle to halt the spread.
Cast into the middle of this we find photographer Andrew (a rangey and able Scoot McNairy), tasked with escorting his boss’ injured daughter Sam (the elfin, and frankly too-sexy-by-half Whitney Able) home from South America. With no ferries or air travel available across the ‘infected zone’, they find themselves forced to cross the heavily guarded no man’s land, first in the company of gun-weilding mercenaries, then finally trekking up to a mile high wall erected as protection by the US.
Of cours, the US has resorted to walls and violence to keep the alien invaders out – anyone miss the metaphor?
And that, in a nutshell, is the biggest problem here. The heavy handed preaching unfortuantely becomes grating and patronises the audience, while the central characters lack empathy – Sam is a spoilt little rich girl, Andrew is..well, a bit of a dick really, meaning scenes which could have been emotionally stirring are rendered isolated and quickly dismissed. The characters (of course) begin to fall for each other, but they never develop in any noticable way despite the horrors they witness on their journey.
Edwards litters the script with wishy-washy liberalisms too. The soldiers in the jungle talk about the wall with Sam who agrees “hey, yeah, it’s like, we’re fencing ourselves in…man…” while on reaching the wall Andrew pipes up with the oh-so-wise 2 it’s so weird, looking into the US from outside, you know? And tomorrow it’ll be so easy to forget all this…”
Wow man…like…mind. BLOWN!
or not. If you’ve a modicum of intelligence you’ll recognise these as first year student ramblings, poorly formed and ill-advised. The underlying message here is that hey, even if things seem different, we’re all the same deep down man,. Can’t we all just get along? A point hammered home as the pair witness a bizarre alien mating ritual once they’re over the border. Hey man, they tried to stem the flood of illegal aliens into the country, but they got in anyway dude, and hey – they’re a lot like us really aren’t they? (apart from being 80-foot tall photonic Octopusephants obviously).
On the plus side Edwards has a superlative eye for cinematography, catching the startling latin scenery in awe inspiring detail. Magnificent ancient ziggaruts contrast starkly with scenes of urban decay and genuinely realistic military destruction, while the waters on an ill-advised river trip are magical, calling to mind Eric Gautier’s wonderful work in The Motorcycle Diaries. The quiet beauty is wonderfully realised.
As a nature documentary, this would be stirring stuff, but as a movie, it’s meandering, overlong and misguided. it’s crass to say so but the film fairly cries out for a few good action sequences. Instead we get a mish-mash of ‘Blue Planet’ with splashes of Jurassic Park and Schindlers List, minus the excitement or emotional heft of either.
Overall, this is a good looking but unrewarding watch.
