Category Archives: UK

High Spirits (1988, Neil Jordan)

Posted on 9 April 2013 | Leave a comment

High Spirits is another fine example of how excellent production values, earnest performances and a genial air can make even the most problem riddled film enjoyable.

The studio, infamously, took Spirits away from director Jordan in the editing and the resulting version isn’t his intention. The narrative is disjointed–characters get lost, their arcs collapse, in the case of the hotel employees… they don’t even get established.

The film has an utterly wonderful comic performance from Peter O’Toole near its center. Eventually, O’Toole has to give up the spotlight to Steve Guttenberg, who isn’t nearly as funny (or as good). Guttenberg’s generally likable, thanks to having an fire-breathing dragon of a wife (Beverly D’Angelo) and a pleasant way about him. Terrible outfit though. Spirits has great photography from Alex Thomson, a nice score from George Fenton, lovely Anton Furst production design and lame eighties costuming from Emma Porteus. Why Guttenberg’s wearing a heavy wool coat around indoors half the movie is beyond me.

Jordan’s direction is decent but not exceptional. The special effects and Thomson’s photography make the film after a certain point, especially the effects.

Besides O’Toole, the best performance might be Liam Neeson’s hilarious turn as a horny ghost. As his wife–and murder victim (not to mention Guttenberg’s romantic interest)–Daryl Hannah is good. She doesn’t have a lot to do though. D’Angelo’s on the low side of mediocre.

Regardless of Jordan’s original intent, High Spirits is often rather funny and exquisitely well-made. It’s fine.

CREDITS

Written and directed by Neil Jordan; director of photography, Alex Thomson; edited by Michael Bradsell; music by George Fenton; production designer, Anton Furst; produced by David Saunders and Stephen Woolley; released by TriStar Pictures.

Starring Daryl Hannah (Mary Plunkett Brogan), Peter O’Toole (Peter Plunkett), Steve Guttenberg (Jack Crawford), Beverly D’Angelo (Sharon Brogan Crawford), Jennifer Tilly (Miranda), Liam Neeson (Martin Brogan), Peter Gallagher (Brother Tony), Ray McAnally (Plunkett Senior), Martin Ferrero (Malcolm), Connie Booth (Marge), Donal McCann (Eamon), Mary Coughlan (Katie) and Liz Smith (Mrs. Plunkett).

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Posted in 1988, Color, Comedy, English, Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Tri-Star Pictures, UK, USA

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Interview with a Hitman (2012, Perry Bhandal)

Posted on 27 February 2013 | Leave a comment

It feels like whole parts of Interview with a Hitman are missing. A major supporting character will be revealed in the present action, grown up from a little kid in one scene in the flashback. There’s probably a good ten minutes of exposition missing from the picture.

It might explain why, when it’s not full of bad dialogue, Hitman is such a beautifully made film. Director Bhandal can’t write dialogue whatsoever (he also doesn’t even know when he’s got half a good scene–he just goes on and runs it with more talking), but the plot sometimes feels like After Hours with a hitman. Great music from Dan Teicher, just phenomenal. Hitman works best when there’s no talking, just Teicher’s music, Ben King and Harry Skipp’s sublime editing and Richard Swingle’s lovely photography. It’s like Bhandal realized, in post, he couldn’t tell his story straightforward because of the writing and acting fails, so he let it at least partially succeed through exceptional work from his crew.

Luke Goss plays the lead as an adult and he’s middling. He’s good when he doesn’t have any lines. He’s particularly bad during the terribly written narration. Still, he’s leagues ahead of Elliot Greene, who plays the same character as a child. Greene’s terrible.

Caroline Tillette’s good as Goss’s love interest, Danny Midwinter’s all right, Philip Whitchurch is good.

The obvious finish fails some of the actors’ good work and there’s a lot terrible about it. But there’s a lot good about Hitman too.

CREDITS

Written and directed by Perry Bhandal; director of photography, Richard Swingle; edited by Harry Skipp and Ben King; music by Ben Teicher; production designer, Mickaela Trodden; produced by Dean Fisher; released by Kaleidoscope Film Distribution

Starring Luke Goss (Viktor), Caroline Tillette (Bethesda), Stephen Marcus (Traffikant), Danny Midwinter (Sergei), Philip Whitchurch (Tosca), Patrick Lyster (Xavier), Ray Panthaki (Franco), Uriel Emil Pollack (Alexandru) and Elliot Greene (Young Viktor).

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Posted in 2012, Action, Color, English, Kaleidoscope Film Distribution, Thriller, UK

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Die, Monster, Die! (1965, Daniel Haller)

Posted on 28 December 2012 | Leave a comment

For the first three quarters of Die, Monster, Die!, the biggest mystery in the film is how wheelchair-bound Boris Karloff gets around so well. The lifts become visible in the last act.

Karloff’s British upper crust whose family name has fallen on hard times thanks to an embarrassing father. Satanic ritual embarrassing, not hounding the ladies embarrassing. He’s also stupid. Karloff has a really hard time with that part of the role. He’s not convincingly dumb… or dangerous for that matter.

Still, he does better than Nick Adams. Adams is the young American courting Karloff’s daughter. Adams’s hair is Monster‘s second great mystery. Why aren’t there any scenes of him pomading it? Especially since he has an indoor style and an outdoor one.

When Monster is good–and Adams’s investigation of the creepy goings-on often aren’t bad–Adams is serviceable. Sadly he’s never convincing as Suzan Farmer’s suitor. He comes off like a protective younger bother (I forgot to mention, Adams looks like he’s twelve).

Farmer is quite good, even if Jerry Sohl’s script seems to give her good material by accident. As her ailing mother, Freda Jackson is excellent.

Director Haller does a great job fifty percent of the time. He’ll fully utilize the wide screen one shot, then do something lame the next. It’s frustrating, especially since he’s got fine photography from Paul Beeson. Alfred Cox’s editing, however, is a disaster.

While the multiple (weak) endings hurt the picture, there’s definitely some good stuff to it.

CREDITS

Directed by Daniel Haller; screenplay by Jerry Sohl, based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft; director of photography, Paul Beeson; edited by Alfred Cox; music by Don Banks; produced by Pat Green; released by American International Pictures.

Starring Boris Karloff (Nahum Witley), Nick Adams (Stephen Reinhart), Freda Jackson (Letitia Witley), Suzan Farmer (Susan Witley), Terence de Marney (Merwyn) and Patrick Magee (Dr. Henderson).

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Posted in 1965, American International Pictures, Color, English, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, UK, USA

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Les Misérables (2012, Tom Hooper)

Posted on 26 December 2012 | Leave a comment

Thank goodness for Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen… otherwise, someone might confuse Russell Crowe’s performance as the most inept in Les Misérables. Actually, Crowe’s quite a bit better than Eddie Redmayne and Amanda Seyfried too. Redmayne just can’t sing–neither can Crowe, but it doesn’t impair his acting too much–and Seyfried’s just misused. Director Hooper–possibly sticking to the original stage production–never bothers to establish her relationship with adoptive father Hugh Jackman. As a result, Seyfried never resonates.

As for Jackman, he’s good but the film takes place around him. It works when it’s Anne Hathaway, who’s absolutely amazing in the film and just one of her songs is worth sitting through the entire boring picture, but flops when it’s Redmayne. Samantha Barks is part of a love triangle with Redmayne and Seyfried and she’s not bad. She can’t carry the second half of the film though.

What’s so inexplicable about Les Misérables is the bad casting. Why anyone put Redmayne in it opposite someone who can obviously sing and act–Aaron Tveit–and then give Redmayne the bigger role is (artistically speaking) beyond me. Hooper mollycoddles about half the cast, which doesn’t do the film any favors.

Of course, Hooper doesn’t do it many favors himself. He can’t direct actors (child actor Daniel Huttlestone is atrocious) and he can’t direct the CG sequences either. The film looks absurdly silly at times, especially with Danny Cohen’s truly incompetent photography.

Hathaway and Jackman deserve a better production.

CREDITS

Directed by Tom Hooper; screenplay by William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Herbert Kretzmer, based on the musical by Boublil and Schönberg and the novel by Victor Hugo; director of photography, Danny Cohen; edited by Chris Dickens and Melanie Oliver; music by Schönberg, lyrics by Kretzmer; production designer, Eve Stewart; produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh; released by Universal Pictures.

Starring Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean), Russell Crowe (Javert), Anne Hathaway (Fantine), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette), Eddie Redmayne (Marius), Samantha Barks (Éponine), Aaron Tveit (Enjolras), Helena Bonham Carter (Madame Thénardier), Sacha Baron Cohen (Thénardier), Daniel Huttlestone (Gavroche) and Isabelle Allen (Young Cosette).

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Posted in 2012, Color, Drama, English, Musical, Romance, UK, Universal Pictures

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Act of Faith (2012, Mitch Jenkins)

Posted on 13 December 2012 | Leave a comment

Act of Faith feels a little like a one act play. Alan Moore’s script does whatever it can to make the short feel contained to the protagonist’s apartment–expository phone calls overheard, an answering machine in the age of cellphones. In some ways director Jenkins’s lack of exteriors is impressive. His composition, Gary Shaw’s photography and Jamie Trevill’s editing are all excellent.

Too bad Faith is just dumb. I neglected to mention that problem above. It’s a dumb one act play. Moore’s script, when he’s writing dialogue, isn’t bad. But there’s not much dialogue in it. Jenkins just follows the protagonist–Siobhan Hewlett–around the apartment as she gets home for work and gets ready for her evening. It’s not voyeuristic, but still manages to be exploitative. Even if Shaw’s lighting is pretty.

Then Faith reveals its plot and it becomes painfully predictable.

Technical successes aside, Faith is a failure.

CREDITS

Directed by Mitch Jenkins; written by Alan Moore; director of photography, Gary Shaw; edited by Jamie Trevill; music by Andrew Broder; produced by Pete Coogan.

Starring Siobhan Hewlett (Faith Harrington).

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Posted in 2012, Color, English, Short, UK

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A Pig’s Tail (2012, Sarah Cox)

Posted on 4 December 2012 | Leave a comment

A Pig’s Tail is a lovely little short, thanks to the hands-on Aardman stop motion, Cox’s straightforward but enthusiastic direction, and Catherine Taylor’s voice acting as the protagonist. The short tells the story of a determined piglet who doesn’t exactly like being in a factory farm. She decides to do something about it.

The U.S. Humane Society co-produced Tail, so it has an educational component and that component occasionally gets in the way of good narrative. For example, the farmer–who is more traditionally animated (in a deft move)–is almost more sympathetic than the pigs. Especially given how Tail shows the reality of the brutality a starving, abused animal will render.

It’s almost too short for its own good–running about five minutes. Cox and her cast could probably have held up for a lot longer. As is, Tail is still a finely produced, delicately made film.

CREDITS

Directed by Sarah Cox; written by Matthew Walker; director of photography, Nathan Sale; edited by Victoria Stevens; music by Steven Delopoulos; produced by Jason Fletcher-Bartholomew and Christine Gutleben; released by The Humane Society of the United States.

Starring Catherine Taylor (Ginger), Sophie Angelson (Mama Pig), Heidi Lynch (Mean Piglet), James Arnold Parker (The Farmer) and Kaia Rose (Nice Piglet).

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Posted in 2012, Adventure, Animation, Color, English, Family, Humane Society of the United States, Short, UK, USA

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Extranjero (2011, Crinan Campbell and Daniel Lumb)

Posted on 8 November 2012 | Leave a comment

Extranjero is some exceptionally pointless, exceptionally pretentious swaddle concerning an illegal immigrant (Cristian Cardenas) who can fly. He actually just hovers and then maybe disappears. About the only good thing about the short is the special effects of him flying. Otherwise, it toggles between boring and confusing.

Directors Campbell and Lumb do a fine enough job when it comes to composition, but they have fast editing and jerky camera motion to hide their utter lack of ability when it comes to narrative structure. They have no story, so it can’t have any flow; they at least realize they need to hide it… I guess that self-awareness is a good thing.

Extranjero also gets some credit for having brief end credits. It’s a five minute short and it gets long in the tooth around minute one. Long credits would just make it worse.

But the special effects work is impressive.

CREDITS

Written, directed and edited by Crinan Campbell and Daniel Lumb; music by Shervin Shaeri; produced by Jo Coombes, Hannah Cooper and Mark Farrington.

Starring Cristian Cardenas (Extranjero) and Evan Regueira (Man on Train).

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Posted in 2011, Adventure, Color, Drama, Sci-Fi, Short, Spanish, UK

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Seven Psychopaths (2012, Martin McDonough)

Posted on 15 October 2012 | 1 Comment

One could say a lot about Seven Psychopaths and how McDonough teases the fourth wall to propel the plot. But such a discussion would distract too much from the film. McDonough gleefully avoids profundity with Psychopaths, though he does occasionally find it. At those moments, he allows the briefest pause before continuing with the relentless, savage humor.

McDonough isn’t discreet about these plotting decisions either–he draws attention to them so jokes pay off better. Psychopaths jokes range from situational to phonetical. He takes great advantage of each actor, whether it’s Sam Rockwell (who gets the most to do in the film) or Christopher Walken (who gets the second most, but has the best revelations in his character). The actors fully inhabit their characters, even Woody Harrelson, who has the weakest part.

Of course, the lead’s not Rockwell or Walken (they just carry the movie away with them), it’s Colin Farrell. And Farrell’s playing a screenwriter named Martin–just like McDonough, playing up the pliable fourth wall. Farrell’s job is to provide some stability and his greatest achievement is not getting lost amongst the more dynamic performances. He has an analogue in an underutilized Zeljko Ivanek. Both are playing straight men (Ivanek to Harrelson, Farrell to everyone); both do rather well at it.

Also excellent are Linda Bright Clay and Tom Waits. Look fast for Crispin Glover.

McDonough’s Panavision composition is strong, ably assisted by Ben Davis’s photography. It’s occasionally too crisp.

Psychopaths is an excellently acted, excellently written amusement.

CREDITS

Written and directed by Martin McDonough; director of photography, Ben Davis; edited by Lisa Gunning; music by Carter Burwell; production designer, David Wasco; produced by Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin and McDonough; released by CBS Films.

Starring Colin Farrell (Marty), Sam Rockwell (Billy), Woody Harrelson (Charlie), Christopher Walken (Hans), Tom Waits (Zachariah), Abbie Cornish (Kaya), Olga Kurylenko (Angela), Linda Bright Clay (Myra), Kevin Corrigan (Dennis), Zeljko Ivanek (Paulo) and Long Nguyen (The Priest).

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Posted in 2012, CBS Films, Color, Comedy, Crime, English, UK

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Soldier (1998, Paul W.S. Anderson)

Posted on 1 October 2012 | Leave a comment

Someone must have realized Soldier had a lot of problems because there’s a terribly edited montage showing how Kurt Russell’s socially engineered future soldier is crushing on Connie Nielsen while her husband Sean Pertwee looks on in concern.

It gives Soldier a Shane feel, something the rest of the film doesn’t have. Like I said, it’s an awful montage–mixing footage from previous scenes and future ones with no sense of time–but all of Martin Hunter’s editing for Soldier is awful so it’s not a surprise.

Soldier‘s about Russell being replaced by genetically engineered future soldiers, who are “better”, and protecting a bunch of colonists whose spaceship crashed on the way to paradise. It’s a garbage planet too, which means it’s not really a Western in space… it’s a Western on a space garbage planet.

Anderson’s direction is occasionally mediocre, but mostly bad. He can’t figure out how to direct a fight scene, which is bad for the big finale between Russell and muscle-bound grotesque Jason Scott Lee. He also can’t direct his actors, so Gary Busey just embarrasses himself and Jason Isaacs is more cartoonish than Elmer Fudd.

There’s also a lot of slow motion and bad zooms and godawful music from Joel McNeely. Worse, the slow motion and worst music coincide; Anderson doesn’t trust his viewer to pick up on anything.

Russell’s not bad, though he can’t compete with the idiotic production. Sean Pertwee’s pretty good as Van Heflin, though his highlights are inexplicable.

Soldier‘s ghastly.

CREDITS

Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson; written by David Webb Peoples; director of photography, David Tattersall; edited by Martin Hunter; music by Joel McNeely; production designer, David L. Snyder; produced by Jerry Weintraub; released by Warner Bros.

Starring Kurt Russell (Todd 3465), Jason Scott Lee (Caine 607), Jason Isaacs (Colonel Mekum), Connie Nielsen (Sandra), Sean Pertwee (Mace), Jared Thorne & Taylor Thorne (Nathan), Mark Bringelsorn (Rubrick), Gary Busey (Church), K.K. Dodds (Sloan), James Black (Riley), Mark De Alessandro (Goines), Vladimir Orlov (Romero), Carsten Norgaard (Green), Duffy Gaver (Chelsey), Brenda Wehle (Hawkins), Michael Chiklis (Jimmy Pig), Elizabeth Dennehy (Mrs. Pig) and Paul Dillon (Slade).

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Posted in 1998, Action, Color, Drama, English, Sci-Fi, UK, USA, Warner Bros.

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Loom (2012, Luke Scott)

Posted on 23 September 2012 | Leave a comment

And the award for feckless pretentiousness goes to… drum roll please… Luke Scott for Loom. Yay!

Loom‘s actually not bad for most of its twenty minute runtime. The first half is about thirty times better than the second, but whatever. Both have Giovanni Ribisi and he’s great, even if the script does fail him the second half.

After Scott “borrows” design and story detail ideas from, in no order, Twelve Monkeys, Gattaca and Hardware, he finishes with some kind of strange giant clone lady–poorly played by Jelly Howie–who Ribisi’s apparently growing in his apartment.

It’s unclear if Scott cast Howie because of her height, her acting ability or her willingness to do pointless nudity.

There are actually good female performances in the film–Jae Jung and Erica Piccininni are both excellent in their scenes–so Scott’s must just like bad lead female performances.

Ribisi’s the whole show.

CREDITS

Written and directed by Luke Scott; director of photography, Dariusz Wolski; edited by Jason Hellmann; music by Colin Smith and Simon Elms; production designer, Chris Seagers; produced by Ridley Scott, Jules Daly, Jim Jannard and Jarred Land.

Starring Giovanni Ribisi (Tommy Galvin), Jelly Howie (Escha), Erica Piccininni (Shelley), Jae Jung (Agent Saville), Patrick Foy (Agent Walton), Anthony Rutowicz (Igor) and Gino Aquino (Tico).

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Posted in 2012, Color, Drama, English, Romance, Sci-Fi, Thriller, UK

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