Reviews

If I hadn't already seen Zhang Yimou's Hero the previous week, I would have had to say that Casshern is one of the most beautiful-looking films I've seen in years (or ever). However, it'll have to suffice with second place. The CGI is highly stylised, with some green-screen shots looking purposefully false, but the real joy is in the production design - very evocative of Metropolis. Visual references are also made to the Nuremburg rallies of the 1930s, the Holocaust, Orwell's 1984 and those retro wind-up robots. A massive twenty-storey building is suspended in the air by hundreds of propellers like some overgrown zeppelin, and there's shots of a train so wide it requires five strips of rail side-by-side to accommodate it. The battle scenes are particularly awesome, and the combat scenes between Casshern and the Neo-Sapiens equally sharp.

However, the story primarily revolves around the drama of two families and there's very little affinity made with the main characters. Perhaps it was because the action scenes were so bombastic, but I found it very difficult to spur my interest in the character-driven moments, and this consequently made the two-and-a-half-hour running time feel a tad too long.

The final closing message, which runs contrary to the adrenalized mid-section of the film, is presented rather clumsily. But in true Japan-fashion, you can't help but be charmed by the sincerity of the whole thing.

Screened at the 2004 Frightfest in London, Romasanta had the privilege of being the only one amongst the five films that I attended to send me to sleep. Only briefly.

As such, perhaps I shouldn't comment on a film that I was only awake for 98% of the running time. Perhaps the "clincher" - the outstanding scene that would win me over - was the one that I was counting sleep to.

I doubt it.

I'm a big fan of the Hammer films, and there's a certain feel to this this evokes a similar mood to those old Terry Fisher and Freddy Francis flicks. It may be the period costumes, the older and more respectable actors hamming it up, the dodgy dialogue and the total lack of any real suspense. But the majority of the Hammer films were made more than 30 years ago, so they do have an excuse for their creakiness.

There's even a scene in the cornfield pinched (or a homage?) from Gladiator.

As per my one line summary - dull and only worth watching for Elsa Pataky.

After watching a string of US movies with derivative storylines at the 2004 Frightfest in London, The Machinist stands out as an impressive exception. Similar to Cypher or The I Inside, you know straight off that there's a puzzle here waiting to be solved, but although (on reflection) all the pieces are there, I found the resolution to be totally unpredictable, and consequently a real joy. Christian Bale's appearance is simply stunning (in a Q&A with the director after the screening, Brad Anderson mentioned that Bale lost 55 pounds in two months to achieve the effect, and then took another two months putting the weight back on to film a very brief flash-back scene).

The support roles, including Jennifer Jason Leigh and Michael Ironside, are also very convincing, and the retro-creepy soundtrack is very reminiscent of Herrmann's work on The Day The Earth Stood Still - this might sound strange, but it actually works to the film's benefit! The general tone of the film is particularly dark and grim, but there are some comic moments to relish, and there is very little in the way of padding.

Evidently Brad Anderson couldn't get financial backing for the film's production in the US due to the story's subject matter, so found assistance in Spain, where the film was shot. None of this notices, as the locations look suitably American. Highlight of the film has to be Trevor's visit to the DMV office and his subsequent attempts to be a hit-and-run victim.

Evidently The I Inside is not due for release in the UK until 2005, but Frightfest in London screened this on 28 August 2004.

This starts off very promising, with Ryan Phillippe's character Simon Cable regaining consciousness in the year 2002 and again in 2000, not entirely sure what he has been doing with his life during the two intervening years. The first couple of "switches" between time-lines succeeded at dis-orientating and jolting the audience admirably, but after some meandering, the "switches" become relatively tedious and gratuitous, and I felt that they did little to further the plot.

The periphery characters all do a sterling job at providing a sense of unease (Piper Perabo is pretty outstanding), but after Simon has "switched" years several times, I found it difficult to retain my attention. By the final denouement, I was past caring, and noticed only with a passing interest that the ending was incredibly similar to another memory-loss psychological thriller from the mid-nineties.

Perhaps I just watched too many films of this sort for my own good? If only I had suffered my own personal memory loss and forget The Butterfly Effect and Jacob's Ladder, then perhaps I would have enjoyed this more.

I can understand why this film splits viewers into those who either love it-to-death or those who despise it. To properly enjoy Volcano High, you will need to relax, loosen up and dig up some old skool memories.

Considering this is primarily a fun film, main and periphery characters are well portrayed, and there's a lots of subtle comedy and bombastic drama to keep anyone with a developed sense of humour happy.

However, if you love martial arts movies, you will be disappointed - the martial arts is spread pretty thin. Although Volcano High is Korean, it appears to have gone the way of recent Hong Kong kung fu films, in that choreography is either obscured or entirely replaced by CGI effects. However, the special effects and acting are top-notch, Hyuk Jang especially evoking both sniggers and respect.

Well made and good fun if you don't take your movie-watching too seriously. If, however, you want something a bit more substantial from Korea, try Musa or Shiri.

After watching the disappointing Deathwatch, another British-made horror film set during war-time (this time the WWI trenches), I was hoping that The Bunker would prove a better option. Unfortunately, The Bunker falls into the same trap as Deathwatch, in that they're both over-long, characterless and (most heinous crime for a movie) boring.

There is an effectively creepy atmosphere built up during the first half-hour, but this evaporates into the standard horror cliché - creeping up and down poorly-lit corridors - and with such poorly sketched characters, that it generates very little tension.

Towards the end there is an effectively-eerie looking scene where the main characters' hallucinations take on the shape of zombie troops. And there's a vague parallel drawn between the actions of the bunker's supernatural spirits and the Nazis themselves, but it is framed in such a woolly manner that it's almost entirely lost in the mire of mediocrity.

My initial impressions of Musa on seeing the trailer was an epic with a cast of thousands. Although this is not the case, Musa is still an impressive movie which borders on the epic in its storytelling. The cinematography is outstanding, the battle scenes brutal (obviously inspired by Gladiator) and the dialogue dramatic without being glib. This is not a stylised martial-arts film similar to those that Hong Kong produces but a more realistic and moving movie, that should still satisfy both art-house and action fans.

Jung Woo-Sung's character is a strong-but-silent slave, and having no knowledge of Woo-Sung's previous roles, I've no idea whether his role's familiarity is down to the writing or acting. Any shortcomings on his part, however, are overshadowed by the rest of the cast, who are all given ample time to express their motivations and do so wonderfully. The presence of Zhang Ziyi and Yu Rong Guang (The Iron Monkey) offer a concession to the Hong Kong audience.

However, the film's primary audience was obviously the Koreans. The story shows the Korean characters struggling with each other to do the right thing, and I can imagine this may have stirred by some strong lump-in-the-throat moments in it's home country cinemas.

The only aspect that I thought let the movie down was the incidental music - rather cheap and 'eighties-sounding, and the pop-song that accompanied the closing credits felt decidedly out-of-place.

Despite this, the 127 minutes (running time according to the DVD box) flew past, crammed with exhilaration and drama.

Opening with a deceptively fast-paced and violent scene of African slaves escaping their chains aboard ship and brutally murdering nearly all the crew during a thunderstorm, Amistad has plenty of moments. The scenes of sweaty escape and merciless slaughter are lit only by flashes of blue lightning, with lashing rain and minimal incidental music (spare us John Williams!), which lend a horror movie sensibility. I get the impression that Spielberg was attempting to ally our sympathies with the Spanish crew rather than the slaves at the start, but anyone with any knowledge of the real life case or of 19th century slavery will not be fooled. And in fact Spielberg pulls no punches, not just with the opening sequence, but also with the flashback depiction of slavery life.

Unfortunately, the majority of the film focuses on the legal work and courtroom scenes, and could have benefited from more time spent with the slaves awaiting their trial - but I guess this would have slowed the film's pace further.

And the pace is a little out of the ordinary, as we are lead to believe that the abolitionists have won, only to have another 30 minutes of appeal hearings and a rather tedious speech by Anthony Hopkins' character about the importance of our ancestors on our current lives - a little obscure, and a bit meandering considering the direction the material was previously taken.

However, there are many things to admire - not just the incredible cast (Hopkins, Matthew McConaughey, Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne and Pete Postlethwaite among many), but the acting, in particular Djimon Hounsou.