Now that Beige Towers has been dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era of film watching with the arrival of the Blu-ray player, coupled to the fact that I still have to sit here all day and do nothing, for a few weeks more (see upcoming post), there's been a lot of watching films of late. So began a task to watch the DVDs in the stack that I hadn't watched, those I wouldn't necessarily want but had to buy to make up the numbers in a 'buy-five-for-£20' sort of thing, plus a couple of online orders now I am able to relax the purse-strings a little, plus a couple of Blu-rays. Here are some reviews of a few of them. More to come over the coming weeks.
The Departed (2006). IMDB score 8.6/10.
Martin Scorsese's return to some fertile ground in the crime/gangster genre. Matt Damon is a corrupt, newly-minted Massachusetts state trooper, working his way up the ladder, aiding and abetting underworld overlord Jack Nicholson from the inside. Leonardo DiCaprio is a similarly aged new recruit, hiding undercover as a mole, trying to feed the police tips from within. The central conceit is a good one, two double agents working for either side against each other. Problem is, it's nothing outstanding, just another film that's better than some, not as good as others, but not really worthy of the audience praise and awards showered on it (see also Gangs of New York). I can't help but think that even twenty years later, people still feel obliged to overpraise Scorsese movies as penance for not awarding Goodfellas the 1990 Best Picture Oscar, going for Dances With Wolves instead. 6.5/10.
Public Enemies (2009). IMDB score 7.0/10.
On a similar line, Michael Mann knows lots about the crime/thriller genre (Manhunter, Heat, The Insider, Collateral). So with a cast including Christian Bale, Johnny Depp and Marian Cotillard, and a director more than capable you'd think you were onto a winner. Amirite? Sad to report, this is a plodding rehash of Heat, in which policeman (Bale, instead of Al Pacino) pursues gangster (Depp, in place of Robert DeNiro), except that instead of being set in 1990s LA, we're in 1930s Chicago. There's even a set-piece gunfight running down the middle street that looked almost exactly the same. If you don't care what happens to the central characters, what's the point in watching on? I was bored after about 40 minutes, but stuck it out in the hope that it might get better. It didn't. Watch Heat instead. 4/10.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008). IMDB score 8.2/10.
Danny Boyle's career to this point has been all over the map; heroin addicts in
Trainspotting, discordant housemates
Shallow Grave, zombies in
28 Days Later, and slightly off-beat Sci-Fi in
Sunshine. This 2008 film swept the board at the Oscars. It's the sort of thing the Academy voters like, the feelgood story of the downtrodden orphan underdog from the slums who succeeds in the face of almost unbeatable odds, then walks into the sunset. The plot device is simple enough; a tea-boy from an Indian call-centre gets on the local version of
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? His life is told in a series of flashbacks to various hardships pertaining to how he knows the answer to the questions, which of course, he gets right and wins the show. It stretches the plot concept right to breaking point, but it's enjoyable stuff, looks great in HD, and a nice Bollywood tribute over the end credits. I look forward to the sequel, where he ends up on the Indian equivalent of
Eggheads. 8/10
.
Contagion (2011). IMDB score 6.8/10.
The first Blu-ray at Beige Towers. It looks amazing compared to DVD. Gwyneth Paltrow returns from a business trip in China with some sort of lurgy shrugged off as a bit of winter cold. She passes it on to her colleague, her lover, and her son. All drop dead within hours from a brain haemorrhage. Her husband (Matt Damon) and step-daughter don't; the rest of the story is mostly told from their point of view as society collapses in the absence of critical services. In the meantime, the Centres for Disease Control (led by Larry Fishburne and Kate Winslet) work on a vaccine to the virus, along the way examining the issues related to scientific ethics and homeopathic remedies as advanced by bloggers (Jude Law, never more annoying). The first hour is very good, the second hour tails off a little, but it's certainly way better than Outbreak was. 7/10.
In The Loop (2009). IMDB score 7.5/10.
This is the cinematic spin-off of the BBC4 comedy series The Thick Of It, a spoof behind-the-scenes documentary about a fictional government department and the spin doctors that surround the minister. Think Yes Minister meets The Office. The show's most notorious character is Malcolm Tucker, a very thinly-veiled Scottish version of Alastair Campbell. The show is famous for its use of a swearing consultant. Now rude language is not big, and not clever, but most of Tucker's lines (Peter Capaldi) are rude enough to get you giggling at just how rude he is. Nothing is off limits, and the inspiration for the rudeness comes from some unlikely places; the subversion of the infamous Ferrero Rocher adverts to name but one. The plot involves a bumbling minister (Tom Hollander) and his off-message remarks on an imminent (unnamed) war, and the mess he and his aide get into when trying to backtrack. He ends up sent to Washington and the United Nations in New York, where the predictable fun happens between two very different political cultures. The US military are also no help in the form of James "The Sopranos" Gandolfini. Biting - and very profane - political satire. 8/10.
