Skip to main content

Archive - F



FEATURING:

 Fast Five
Following
Four Lions
From Beyond the Grave
From Russia with Love
Frost/Nixon
Full Frontal



Fast Five
(2011)

I've only seen two of the previous Fast & Furious films, but this is far and away superior to those. Gravelly Vin Diesel and ex-cop Paul Walker plan a heist in Rio with the massive Dwayne Johnson in pursuit. 

 As expected, the characterisation is pure cardboard, but there's a spark to the direction and a bit of pep to the plotting. Far better than it has any right to be.

***1/2







Following
(1998)

S'alright, I suppose. But the acting is strictly am-dram and while the idea is solid enough, it's also kind of sub-Mamet.

**1/2

Four Lions
(2010)

Some very funny sequences, particularly during the London Marathon finale. And almost every line uttered by the white Muslim convert. But it's essentially a one-joke premise, and no matter how cleverly Chris Morris dresses the film up he can't really disguise that.

***
From Beyond the Grave
(1973)

Ian Carmichael's story gets top marks ("There's an elemental on your shoulder"), and David Warner gives his dramatic weight. Only Ian Ogilvy's tale falls a bit flat, but it does have Lesley-Anne Down. As a whole, the film is very effective at achieving a kind of '70s-gothic tone.
***

From Russia with Love
(1963)

A massive step-up from Dr No, partly due to the quirky characterisation and casting and partly down to a plot that becomes more intriguing due to the addition of Smersh. If I've a criticism, it's that the climax is really the fight with Red Grant 20 minutes from the end (although there is a certain symmetry, since it's that long from the beginning until Bond appears). 

 The action after that is well-staged, but lacks the personal touch of a real opponent (well, until Klebb turns up). Robert Shaw lends the piece weight, despite hardly speaking until they're aboard the Orient Express. The chess sequence at the beginning is great (and Vladek Sheybal's supporting turn is lovely; he has a face for spy movies).

****


Frost/Nixon
(2008)

It's Ron Howard, America's most anonymous filmmaker! He's at least better suited to character pieces, since his blandest-of-the-bland approach to filmmaking allows the actors to come to the fore here. 

 That said, Michael Sheen is too smarmy to do a really good job as Frost; he's more Blair, and you forget how Frost was actually appealing in his dry delivery, rather than ingratiating. Good support from Oliver Platt and Sam Rockwell (in an untypical straight edged turn). Frank Langella rules, though.

***

Full Frontal
(2002)

Not totally without merit, but it's a willfully inaccessible, experimental outing for Steven Soderbergh (he wanted to make a film without a plot). This feels like a chance for stars to indulge themselves and an increasingly mainstream director to claim that he hasn't lost his art. 

 What's really damaging is that none of the characterisations are particularly involving; Julia Roberts and Blair Underwood, who have the largest roles, are utterly bland. The best moment is Curb Your Enthusiasm's Jeff Garlin doing a Harvey Weinstein impression.

**
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

She writes Twilight fan fiction.

Vampire Academy (2014)
My willingness to give writer Daniel Waters some slack on the grounds of early glories sometimes pays off (Sex and Death 101) and sometimes, as with this messy and indistinct Young Adult adaptation, it doesn’t. If Vampire Academy plods along as a less than innovative smart-mouthed Buffy rip-off that might be because, if you added vampires to Heathers, you would probably get something not so far from the world of Joss Whedon. Unfortunately inspiration is a low ebb throughout, not helped any by tepid direction from Daniel’s sometimes-reliable brother Mark and a couple of hopelessly plankish leads who do their best to dampen down any wit that occasionally attempts to surface.

I can only presume there’s a never-ending pile of Young Adult fiction poised for big screen failure, all of it comprising multi-novel storylines just begging for a moment in the Sun. Every time an adaptation crashes and burns (and the odds are that they will) another one rises, hydra-like, hoping…
3 comments
Read more

He mobilised the English language and sent it into battle.

Darkest Hour (2017)
(SPOILERS) Watching Joe Wright’s return to the rarefied plane of prestige – and heritage to boot – filmmaking following the execrable folly of the panned Pan, I was struck by the difference an engaged director, one who cares about his characters, makes to material. Only last week, Ridley Scott’s serviceable All the Money in the World made for a pointed illustration of strong material in the hands of someone with no such investment, unless they’re androids. Wright’s dedication to a relatable Winston Churchill ensures that, for the first hour-plus, Darkest Hour is a first-rate affair, a piece of myth-making that barely puts a foot wrong. It has that much in common with Wright’s earlier Word War II tale, Atonement. But then, like Atonement, it comes unstuck.
2 comments
Read more

What we sell are hidden truths. Our territory is the mind. Our merchandise is fear.

The Avengers 5.1: The Fear Merchants
The colour era doesn't get off to such a great start with The Fear Merchants, an Avengers episode content to provide unstinting averageness. About the most notable opinion you’re likely to come away with is that Patrick Cargill rocks some magnificent shades.
Post a Comment
Read more

Just make love to that wall, pervert!

Seinfeld 2.10: The Statue
The Premise
Jerry employs a cleaner, the boyfriend of an author whose book Elaine is editing. He leaves the apartment spotless, but Jerry is convinced he has made off with a statue.
Post a Comment
Read more

Never compare me to the mayor in Jaws! Never!

Ghostbusters (2016)
(SPOILERS) Paul Feig is a better director than Ivan Reitman, or at very least he’s savvy enough to gather technicians around him who make his films look good, but that hasn’t helped make his Ghostbusters remake (or reboot) a better movie than the original, and that’s even with the original not even being that great a movie in the first place.

Along which lines, I’d lay no claims to the 1984 movie being some kind of auteurist gem, but it does make some capital from the polarising forces of Aykroyd’s ultra-geekiness on the subject of spooks and Murray’s “I’m just here for the asides” irreverence. In contrast, Feig’s picture is all about treating the subject as he does any other genre, be it cop, or spy, or romcom. There’s no great affection, merely a reliably professional approach, one minded to ensure that a generous quota of gags (on-topic not required) can be pumped out via abundant improv sessions.

So there’s nothing terribly wrong with Ghostbusters, but aside from …
Post a Comment
Read more

Do not run a job in a job.

Ocean’s 8 (2018)
(SPOILERS) There’s nothing wrong with the gender-swapped property per se, any more than a reboot, remake or standard sequel exploiting an original’s commercial potential (read: milking it dry). As with those more common instances, however, unless it ekes out its own distinctive territory, gives itself a clear reason to be, it’s only ever going to be greeted with an air of cynicism (whatever the current fashion for proclaiming it valid simply because it's gender swapped may suggest to the contrary).  The Ocean's series was pretty cynical to start with, of course – Soderbergh wanted a sure-fire hit, the rest of the collected stars wanted the kudos of working with Soderbergh on a "classy" crowd pleaser, the whole concept of remaking the '60s movie was fairly lazy, and by the third one there was little reason to be other than smug self-satisfaction – so Ocean's 8 can’t be accused of letting any side down. It also gives itself distinctively – stereo…
Post a Comment
Read more

There’s still one man out here some place.

Sole Survivor (1970)
(SPOILERS) I’m one for whom Sole Survivor remained a half-remembered, muddled dream of ‘70s television viewing. I see (from this site) the BBC showed it both in 1979 and 1981 but, like many it seems, in my veiled memory it was a black and white picture, probably made in the 1950s and probably turning up on a Saturday afternoon on BBC2. Since no other picture readily fits that bill, and my movie apparition shares the salient plot points, I’ve had to conclude Sole Survivor is indeed the hitherto nameless picture; a TV movie first broadcast by the ABC network in 1970 (a more famous ABC Movie of the Week was Spielberg’s Duel). Survivor may turn out to be no more than a classic of the mind, but it’s nevertheless an effective little piece, one that could quite happily function on the stage and which features several strong performances and a signature last scene that accounts for its haunting reputation.

Directed by TV guy Paul Stanley and written by Guerdon Trueblood (The…
Post a Comment
Read more

It’s all Bertie Wooster’s fault!

Jeeves and Wooster 3.4: Right Ho, Jeeves  (aka Bertie Takes Gussie's Place at Deverill Hall)
A classic set-up of crossed identities as Bertie pretends to be Gussie and Gussie pretends to be Bertie. The only failing is that the actor pretending to be Gussie isn’t a patch on the original actor pretending to be Gussie. Although, the actress pretending to be Madeline is significantly superior than her predecessor(s).
Post a Comment
Read more

I take Quaaludes 10-15 times a day for my "back pain", Adderall to stay focused, Xanax to take the edge off, part to mellow me out, cocaine to wake me back up again, and morphine... Well, because it's awesome.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Along with Pain & Gain and The Great Gatsby, The Wolf of Wall Street might be viewed as the completion of a loose 2013 trilogy on the subject of success and excess; the American Dream gone awry. It’s the superior picture to its fellows, by turns enthralling, absurd, outrageous and hilarious. This is the fieriest, most deliriously vibrant picture from the director since the millennium turned. Nevertheless, stood in the company of Goodfellas, the Martin Scorsese film from which The Wolf of Wall Street consciously takes many of its cues, it is found wanting.

I was vaguely familiar with the title, not because I knew much about Jordan Belfort but because the script had been in development for such a long time (Ridley Scott was attached at one time). So part of the pleasure of the film is discovering how widely the story diverges from the Wall Street template. “The Wolf of Wall Street” suggests one who towers over the city like a behemoth, rather than a guy …
Post a Comment
Read more

Do you read Sutter Cane?

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
(SPOILERS) The concluding chapter of John Carpenter’s unofficial Apocalypse Trilogy (preceded by The Thing and Prince of Darkness) is also, sadly, his last great movie. Indeed, it stands apart in the qualitative wilderness that beset him during the ‘90s (not for want of output). Michael De Luca’s screenplay had been doing the rounds since the ‘80s, even turned down by Carpenter at one point, and it proves ideal fodder for the director, bringing out the best in him. Even cinematographer Gary K Kibbe seems inspired enough to rise to the occasion. It could do without the chugging rawk soundtrack, perhaps, but then, that was increasingly where Carpenter’s interests resided (as opposed to making decent movies).
Post a Comment
Read more