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LexiWolfe
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Black Death (2010)
The Black Death was swift...almost as swift as this movie...
Really really wanted to like this movie, and assumed I would. It has all the elements to make it an awesome movie to my taste - Sean Bean in medieval garb, looking and being a bad-ass (though he at no point says the word 'Bastard - a real let-down!); a little bit of the mysteries and God vs. Pagan religion argument as seen from the Middle Ages' experience; and a nice healthy dollop of blood, gore and excruciatingly painful death.
However, the story itself plunged so quickly in at the deep end, and the characters we were swiftly introduced to were given so little time for real depth, that I found it very hard to find my empathy for them. Eddie Redmayne's character came across as whiny, where I'm sure I should be feeling greatly sorry for him. Sean Bean's Ulric was a little too ruthless, and the other soldiers in their troupe weren't that knowable, so by the time we get to the village, I really don't feel I have a side. In fact, to see Lord Percy - sorry - Tim McInnerny turn up, I almost felt like I should be on his.
Overall, it was a nice watch. I liked the story, but it all took place so fast, I wanted more time to get to know the knights under Ulric, and the person I felt most sorry for was Averill.
I wasn't sure I quite liked the ruthlessness of the pagans either - sure, it's a Kill or Be Killed situation overall, but still, the amount of times I've seen bloodthirsty, bedevilled, brainwashed pagans (speaking as a modern pagan myself) is beginning to wear more than a little thin.
I'm also pretty sure that Carice Van Houten got cast as Melisandre on these merits.
The story arc is good, just too short. The script has a nice, authentic flavour to it, with some nice little twists, and the acting is consistent and engaging throughout - but without a real feeling for who to root for and exactly why, I'm not this film's biggest fan, I regret to say.
Anita & Me (2002)
A Beautiful Coming Of Age Movies - Whatever Age You're Becoming!
Over the weekend, I watched this movie for the first time again in just over twelve years - which in itself is scary and rather heartbreaking, I can tell you.
I watched this for the first time in the cinema, when I was seventeen and, myself having been immersed in different cultures and feeling very much like an outsider in both these places at different times for different reasons, I found it incredibly easy to sympathise with Meena. It's quite easy to see the young Meera Syal and feel a lot of her pain and confusion, as well as get soaked up in her dreams almost as much as she is! It pays off when you knows what really becomes of her in real life!
Having watched this again recently, I've earned a whole new level of respect for this film, because Syal has deliberately and exceptionally painted a picture meant for both struggling teenagers who are at their most painful stages, and adults who are reflecting on how different and seemingly better things used to be.
This time on watching, I found myself empathising and actually properly listening to the adults characters a lot more. A lot has changed since I was seventeen! But they are as padded as they need to be. The Mother and Father are characters whom one cannot help but almost cry for in their own isolation, entirely different but just as easy to sympathise with as their daughter. The recognisable characters in the mad 'Auntie' and somewhat shrewed-over Uncle including, I sadly hasten to add, the prejudiced and narrow-minded neighbours and community made it feel as if one were almost looking back at one's own photo album...
It also has something rather important that is often overlooked these days in there, as one of its main subjects - the first love that one ever has, that isn't a sexual love or necessarily for a member of the opposite sex. It's that somewhat Greek idea, now at least, of falling completely head over heels for someone because they are everything that you wish you could be, and you spend time with them because you want to be them too. I think this is mostly overlooked in books AND films these days sadly, as it's always turned into something seedy, even when it is between juveniles, as that is when it usually naturally occurs. It's very bold and lovely to see this, and to see it portrayed so beautifully and poetically as well.
It is a coming-of-age film at different times in my life for me!
Also, what a marvellous score! Having remembered how great it was, I've been listening to it on Youtube while working all this week thus far!
Accents a bit dodgy here and there, but that's probably to be expected when it is set in a very specific location and with some great talent from all over the country - what am I saying? The world! - here and there.
I can't wait to see how I feel about it watching it in another twelve years, but I don't suspect my love for it will be dulled at all.
Hook (1991)
Your Childhood Will Love You For Giving It This Movie
It's hard to believe that 'Hook' the film based on Sir Barrie's amazing Peter Pan story is over twenty years old now. I found it on beloved LoveFilm one Sunday night when I was at a loose end and in need of distraction... And what a movie to provide it!
Peter Pan eventually found love back in London England in the form of Wendy's granddaughter Moira. But Captain Hook, stuck back in Neverland forever fighting off the Lost Boys and Indians, has not forgotten or forgiven, and kidnaps the now very-grown-up, business-orientated Peter's often-overlooked kids, holding them as leverage for Pan's assured return so Hook can have the final war with him and the Lost Boys he's been gearing up for for years. Peter returns with the help of Tink but, has completely forgotten everything, including his own real identity over the course of the years in which he's been in the Real World. So both sides start to prepare for a fight to the death, prepared to do anything to gain an advantage...
Robin Williams makes a convincing Pan, who has literally given up his wild youthful days and forgotten all about them, needing to be put through rigorous tests before he can remember and do what is needed of him. With such a role and how it has been written, one needs to balance the comedy with the more serious moments with gravitas and, proving even here that he's not just a comic actor, Williams strikes it very right!
Dustin Hoffman and Bob Hoskins make a wonderfully formidable and naturally funny team as Captain Hook and Smee, bouncing off each other splendidly (and probably with a good pinch of ad-lib) in several scenes. It's hard to believe it actually is Hoffman under all those eyebrows, but with his usual Method style, completely throws himself into the role and is unidentifiable within it. (As a fellow actor, I'm in awe of when actors can do this)
A lot of the kid actors in it as well are quite obviously having the time of their lives and hold a good performance despite their young years. Maggie Smith is on top form, as per, as Wendy, as is Caroline Goodall, most recently seen as the bitchy Duchess Cecily in The White Queen (who'd have thought it???)
It is a wonderfully feel-good movie, even with the short but hard- hitting death scene (no spoilers here, me laddie!) The added touch of making Neverland a young kids paradise to live in, complete with proper treehouse with a built in skate park, weapons which fire eggs and rotten tomatoes and a real Us vs. Grown-ups feel to it, makes one feel both nostalgic for one's own childhood and proves very endearing in the overall feel of the film, without being overly twee.
We also see a very endearing take on where Peter Pan may originally have come from, which is never really touched upon in the book (if memory serves). The more tender moments are of course needed in such scripts, coming in the form of realizations of what life's important moments are and should be. These softer moments are also very reminiscent of Barrie's writing style, where happiness is mixed with reflective sorrow, proving almost surprisingly shocking.
It completely takes you back to being a kid, its overall message being it's okay to get older, but you don't necessarily have to give up being a kid.
Maid Marian and Her Merry Men (1989)
Timeless, deathless and something I'll watch with my children
I watched this series religiously when I was a kid, and my mother taped as many episodes as she could. Fast forward about twenty years (yes, believe it or not!) and me and the mister spend hours howling with laughter and wondering why the heck our younger siblings and future kids don't have anything half as good to watch as this. Maid Marian is probably the reason I'm so independent nowadays (and, yeah, bossy too). Despite becoming a biker glove fan myself, I still always associate them with King John. And if I ever meet Tony Robinson, I think I may have to hug him just for creating this series.
This series has everything going for it. The actors just throw themselves into their parts like nothing you seem to get nowadays. Whose amazing idea was it to have a laid back Rasta and an overly aggressive Little Person as members of the Merry Band, and make Robin (of Kensington) an absolute wuss?
From the brilliant one liners ('They've got the power, they've got the weapons. All we've got is a Raster, a Wally and a Bearded Avocado') to the memorable songs that I join in with though years have passed since I last saw that particular episode (I dare you not to come away from this review not reminiscing over 'Naked To The Visible Eye' and 'P-p-p-p-p-p- pancake Day!'), Maid Marian and her Merry Men is as much an institute of British humour as Blackadder or Monty Python.
The wonderful thing is that watching it as an adult, it's actually even funnier for the references that I never got, but still thought were funny as a kid. I have every faith that I'll be watching this again and laughing along with my own children in years to come. I love how real the characters are in it as well, and definitive. There's no 'filler characters' you find in a lot of shows these days.
Because of the nature of the show being filmed 'out of its time', despite some of the contemporary references, there are so many generic social and popular culture jokes, that even now it doesn't seem to be as old as it is. Twenty years? Seriously?
There's a different and varied plot for each episode, from the gang to getting together, to a talent show for Worksop, to visitors from Outer Space, and each plot is used to great effect.
I could go on and on about it, but the best thing to be is to crack out the old VCR player, or get on down eBay and get the complete series.
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982)
The Perfect Classic Story-Telling
It's rather rare that I would give a 10/10 for anything, so you would probably guess that this version of The Scarlet Pimpernel must be one of my very favourite movies - and you would be 100% right.
This movie, though in of itself very stagey and utilising what one can tell are predominantly stage actors for most of its roles - is actually a terrific piece of cinema, coupling a wonderfully fleshed-out script that in places is pure poetry with action and the much-loved characters possibly even more detailed than Baroness Orczy herself originally imagined.
Far from his supposed 'best-known role' as Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited, Anthony Andrews instantly makes Sir Percy Blakeney, known also as the Scarlet Pimpernel to his League, completely his own, with every other interpretation - even the wonderful Richard E. Grant's endeavours - pale in comparison, playing what is possibly one of the best yet hardest parts to get right on screen and in theatre: a character whose real personality is the one least shown to others, and whom puts on a great act the rest of the time (all actors who have played super heroes with public counterparts - apart from, possibly Christopher Reeves as Superman, please take note!) Better yet than that, one falls in love with both sides of Andrews' character: one minute, the rich, foppish, naturally-funny-through-idiocy baronet; the next, the intelligent, moral and verging-on-wrecklessly-loyal aristocratic liberator. The two are so perfectly defined as well, with one glorious cinematic moment where with nothing more than a look, Andrews goes from one to the other while looking in a mirror, covering up some terrible news that the devastated Pimpernel has just heard with Percy Blakeney's ignorant smile. If for no other reason, you must see this film for Andrews' perfect interpretation of a classic British literature hero.
The on screen chemistry between himself and Jane Seymour is also something quite delectable, and will have most red-blooded females swooning at every even-slightly romantic scene. Seymour herself is, as usual, on excellent form, at all points believable as the witty French actress with whom the genuine side of Percy falls in love, their romantic story as much of a focal point in the film (as much as in the original stories) as the daring getaways and well-planned rescues and escapes. She holds her own side of the story very capably with genuine yet perfectly-tuned emotion, filling the role of Margeurite St Juste so perfectly, no one before or since has quite encapsulated her or done this complex character of great moral standing, get genuine, all-encompassing love for her husband, quite as much justice as Seymour herself.
Ian McKellen, surprising quite a few viewers as an unexpected name in the cast as the wonderful antagonist Chauvelin, also singularly encompasses both the brutal force of the French revolution as well as an individual vulnerability and sense of having been wronged. He masterfully makes Chauvelin both a character that at times one feels sorry for, and at others, one feels a great sense of joy at the Pimpernel's continuing victories and escapades at Chauvelin's expense, a very hard part to get right to serve the story best, with McKellen managing it superbly and seemingly effortlessly.
The lesser roles are, as I've already said, peopled with actors who belong chiefly more on the stage than in the cinema, yet this in itself lends greatly to the atmosphere of the film, as no one therefore feels out of place in the cast and one feels almost as if one is watching an intricate play rather than a film.
I can imagine Baroness Orczy herself watching it with great delight to see how actors of some thirty years ago interpreted her beloved characters and are entertaining cinema and classic literature lovers to this very day. Put simply, this version of the Scarlet Pimpernel is the one that, for many people, will forever be solidified in people's minds as the only version that was ever really needed. Its characters are wonderful and involving, its fabulous costumes, sets and locations lend to the genuine feel of the film, and the story is overall the kind one could quite easily lose oneself in. It deserves its rightful place in cinematic and story-telling history.
Haunted (1995)
The Perfect Ghost Story For The Non-Thrill-Seekers
As a long-time ghost story fanatic, this is the kind of story which gives the other gently terrifying stories of the same genre, such as The Others, a real run for their money. Thrill-seekers who want a good ghost story are after A-bump-a-minute scenarios which, thankfully, this film does not have, instead garnering a slow but natural and steady pace which involves wonderful hints and twists throughout and a wonderful, touching and ultimately, creepy conclusion.
I have never been a great fan of Aidan Quinn or Kate Beckinsale, though their chemistry here makes the film very watchable, and Quinn is acceptable as a hapless if not quite lovable hero. Beckinsale is also on generally good, charming form and, to be fair to both actors, there are several points in the script where the dialogue is so shallow and blunt, that Laurence Olivier and Gielgud himself (who appears and is wonderful as the local doctor) would have struggled to bring any more life to them without making the words seem silly and unrealistic.
The show-stealer, as per usual in almost everything he is in, is undoubtedly Anthony Andrews, as the understatedly creepy yet charmingly alluring elder brother. Andrews is a very-much underrated actor as it is, but his performance and changes in attitude towards Quinn as the guest in their sprawling home, very much makes the film and most of the tension therein.
Anna Massey too is wonderful as the housekeeper/nanny and creates a very sorry character with whom one instantly feels sympathy, playing out her pivotal role right until the very end with her usual grace and unabashed talent.
To one who knows the ins and outs of modern twists and turns in movies and stories such as these, the ending is not altogether unpredictable, but the well-disguised yet compelling hints throughout make it all much more exciting, and the scenes of ghostly appearance are, for a change, nicely inserted without too much musical decoration or unnecessary special effects, making the whole thing very watchable. The sets and locations are stunning and elegant at all times, bringing up both the believability and charm of the story. This film, overall, falls into the category of a sadly overlooked, but wonderful fireside story, which deserves more publicity than it gets.