Immortals

Well.

Where to start?

A bit of background may be helpful. My husband, the Book God, is a bit of a fan of the old sword and sandal epics that used to star the likes of Steve Reeves and which has its culmination in films such as Ben Hur. If you can add a bit of fantasy and/or mythology into that mix then he is totally, absolutely sold. This led to a bit of a disagreement earlier this year when I stamped my foot and said that although, yes, Jason Momoa was very good in Game of Thrones, there was absolutely no way that I was going to see Conan the Barbarian. And of course gave the BG a bit of moral high ground along the “I went to see Contagion with you, please come and see Immortals with me”

And of course I gave in.

The verdict as shared with friends and colleagues before the writing of this review is that Immortals was far better than it had any right to be. I mean, it’s tosh, the story is all over the place, bits of mythology and other totally-made-up stuff shoved together. Mickey Rourke over-acting as if his life depended on it but managing to do it all with his trademark growl. Lots of violence, some of it quite cruel though I gather there were quite a few cuts to get a certificate in the UK. The villain’s motivation was weak, the romance was obvious and by the numbers. And yet.

And yet.

It was great fun. It looked absolutely gorgeous, really visually arresting which deflected from a lot of the stuff I’ve mentioned above. I can see why Henry Cavill is going to be the next Superman, for the chin alone. Freida Pinto is beautiful, Stephen Dorff amusing and John Hurt shows them all how its done while keeping a straight face. But my favourite was Luke Evans who plays Zeus. In fact all the Greek gods were brilliant, though if I was a Titan I’d be getting myself a new PR guy.

So, not a masterpiece by any means but quite good fun; amusingly the Book God was slightly disappointed whereas I felt that there had been enough to keep me engaged. Fewer half-naked men than 300, much more violence against women, not one to be actively sought out for a re-watch but could see myself getting sucked into watching it if, say, it was 2 in the morning and I couldn’t sleep.

Utter nonsense!

The Awakening

I first came across this film as a trailer shown when I went to see Contagion several weeks ago; for some reason (probably to do with a large stack of not-properly-read Empire magazines on my study floor) it had totally slipped under my radar, but I’m so glad I spotted it as The Awakening is a really creepy British ghost story set in the period just after the First World War.

Florence Cathcart has lost her fiance in the war and feels guilt over how they parted. The need for the grieving to make sense of what has happened to them and their huge sense of loss has led many to seek solace in spiritualism, and of course to be taken advantage of by charlatans. Florence has set herself up as a debunker of such hoaxes. She is persuaded to take on the case of the sighting of a small boy at a boarding school in the north, which appears to have led to the death of a young pupil. And that’s probably as much as can be said about the plot without straying into spoiler territory.

There are some really fundamental themes here: loss, loneliness, survivor guilt, repressed memories, the position of women in the inter-war period and the need to make sense of things which seem to have no rational explanation. Florence herself is fascinating – I couldn’t quite decide if her quest to expose spiritualism as a fraud was as much about hoping to be proved wrong as it was about protecting people from the unscrupulous.

It is, to me at least, a wonderfully atmospheric and quite ambiguous film. I had a very interesting exchange with Silvery Dude last week; he had seen this before me and urged me to go along. When we discussed the film a week or so later we discovered an almost diametrically opposite view of some key scenes and the ending in particular, all of which makes me want to see it again just to test my theory (and not at all to prove him wrong, that would be childish *coughs*)

What I can say is that it is really creepy and there were a couple of scenes which really made me jump, all very satisfying. Both Rebecca Hall and Dominic West are excellent, but I really loved Imelda Staunton as the school matron/housekeeper, a wonderful key character.

This would make a good companion piece to The Others which I saw for the first time recently, possibly too much of a sense of foreboding in both to make a sensible double bill but I may give it a try next Hallowe’en.

Recommended to all lovers of the ghostly.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn

I must admit that I had my doubts about this one. I’m not a fan of this use of motion capture  – you know, where the whole film is delivered that way rather than selected characters a la Gollum or King Kong. the Polar Express humans freaked me out a bit and only the Jim Carrey Christmas Carol changed my view (a bit).

I’m not also that huge a Tintin afficionado; I think I’ve only read one of the books (Tintin in Tibet, probably only because of the Yeti) and my experience had largely been of the Canadian (?) animated series when I was growing up. I was always more of an Asterix the Gaul kind of girl.

So going to see this was largely about keeping the Book God happy  (he is a bit of Tintin completist, though would never admit to it!) But I’m glad I did because it was both very well done and great fun.

So Tintin is wandering through a street market when he spots a magnificent model sailing ship in a glass case which he buys on the spot; and as soon as he has done so he is approached by a variety of unsavoury characters who offer him large sums to take it off his hands. Of course he refuses, and high jinks ensue.

Theft, kidnapping, pickpocketing subplots, searches for hidden treasure, revenge, this has it all delivered at real pace with some fabulous set pieces which probably wouldn’t have been possible in live action even with expensive CGI, so I suppose that’s one chalked up to mo-cap.

I gather the story was changed a wee bit from the books and I know that I missed most of the in-jokes but I really enjoyed this and would happily watch it again.

And the Book God loved it so good result all round.

Contagion

This film somehow eased its way into my consciousness in the weeks before it was released. It wasn’t on my list of things I was looking forward to, but then I saw it was opening and who was in the cast and I decided I really fancied giving it a go. I quite like this sort of big ensemble cast movie and Contagion definitely falls into that category with a quite a few big names in the cast list. I’m also interested in the whole issue of epidemics, disease mutation and how our modern world allows such things to spread much more quickly than in earlier times.

So we start on Day 2. Gwyneth Paltrow has already got a bit of a nasty cough (in fact that’s the first thing we are aware of, over a black screen)and is on her way home from the far east where she has been on a business trip. She has made a stopover and we see her in the airport eating for her final flight (in more ways than one). Understatement of the year – she doesn’t look at all well, and you begin to be aware of all the people around her, and the things she touches as a matter of course. We see other people, apparently unconnected, falling ill and dying, It isn’t a spoiler to say that Gwyneth dies as well as this happens very quickly (someone on Twitter unkindly said that Gwyneth dying automatically made this a five-star film).

This is when the film really gets going as the scientists work around the clock to identify, contain and find a vaccine for this flu-type illness. Lots of people fall along the way before there is ultimately a resolution.

I was going to say that the scientists race to find a solution but that would be misleading, for this is not a film to see if you are looking for heaps of action. Its quiet and has a stately pace which has been off-putting to some. I even got into a Twitter exchange with Jonathan Ross (@wossy) over whether dull was the better word (he was generally disappointed with the film). But I found all the science stuff totally absorbing and in particular it was heartening to see how many of the scientists were women.

It was also good to see Matt Damon put in another one of his everyman performances as Gwyneth’s husband, trying to come to terms with his loss; because of the need to track where the illness originated from and how it was spread personal questions are asked which leads him to find out things about his wife which he didn’t know.

And Jude Law produces another one of his shady/creepy characters.

I liked the structure, with the disease already well under way when the film starts, although I was pleased to see that we got the full story of Day 1 at the end. I really enjoyed it. I’m not sure that it’s a film I would deliberately revisit, but its the type of movie that, if I came across it on TV I would watch to the end. The implications are frightening but it isn’t handled in a flashy or glib way.

This was my final watch for RIP VI.

The Others

I was astonished to find that I had first intended to watch this film two Octobers ago, having taken it on holiday to Scotland with me with the aim of watching it on my laptop. I remember taking it with me along with a small stack of other DVDs and being so overwhelmed by the experience of watching Twilight (I don’t necessarily mean that in a good way) that I didn’t get around to any of the other films but concentrated on books instead.

But this year Carl cleverly included a movie watching peril for his RIP VI challenge and I created myself a little list, of which this and The Nightmare Before Christmas (which I won’t review because I watch it at least once every year) were the only ones I got around to watching; go figure.

As this is a psychological creepy film I am going to try very hard to talk about it without giving away any spoilers; this may be difficult but I will do my best.

So The Others has Nicole Kidman apparently abandoned by her staff in her stately home on an island previously occupied during the Second World War, waiting with her two young children for her husband to return from the fighting. Three mysterious new servants turn up and we begin to see how odd the household actually is – the children are apparently incredibly sensitive to light and so doors are kept  locked and unlocked as people move through the house and the curtains kept drawn and windows shuttered to protect them from the outside world.

And that’s when all the strange occurrences begin. Noises. Presences. You get the picture.

This is a really effective and atmospheric chiller. The sense of isolation is constantly reinforced by the fog which occasionally surrounds the house, and the small community goes through its daily routine without any visits from the outside world. Well, not many anyway.

I was very impressed with the performances, especially from Nicole Kidman who is an actress I can take or leave; when she’s good she’s brilliant (as here) but I’ve often been underwhelmed by her choice of projects. The two children are very good indeed, and it’s always lovely to see Eric Sykes on good form. But my favourite has to be Fionnula Flanagan who is simply wonderful as the housekeeper who knows more than she is willing to share.

I’ll have to confess that I knew the outcome of the story in advance (it is a film that has been kicking around for quite a while after all) and as with Fight Club it’s difficult to now what I might have thought of the film without this background. But I didn’t know exactly how it was all going to work out, and there was still a huge amount to enjoy, so still a great experience.

This is a film I know I will go back to in future. A good watch for RIP.

Films to see before I’m 51 – a personal challenge

So I had a quick drink with Silvery Dude before I went on holiday and we had a good old natter about films, and in particular those films that I have not seen (this largely to do with the shock felt by some friends and colleagues when they discovered that I hadn’t seen Fight Club until recently). This led to the creation of a new project: films to see before I’m 51, a personal selection by His Silveriness.

So between 1 November 2011 and 30 January 2013 I have to try to watch the following – and this is the order in which  I’ve been instructed to watch them, a celluloid compilation tape if you will:

1. The Last Samurai* – starring The Cruiser (my guilty pleasure)
2. Breaking Away* – cycling
3. Night on Earth - taxis
4. True Romance - Cage & Arquette
5. American Beauty* – a classic which I’m ashamed not to have seen
6. Big Fish* – Tim Burton, yay
7. Cinema Paradiso - oh dear, another hanging one’s head situation
8. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off - ditto, but for different reasons
9. Cars* – not sure why I haven’t watched this, the only Pixar not viewed so far
10. The Transporter - Jason Statham!
11. Crash* – not the Cronenberg one (which I saw largely because the Daily Mail told me I shouldn’t, this is the one that stopped two films I liked from winning an Oscar)
12. Unforgiven* -the Book God will be pleased
13. The Big Lebowski - no excuses for this one
14. I’ve Loved You So Long* – the lovely Kristen
15. Les amants du Pont-Neuf* – romantic, apparently
16. King Lear - the Laurence Olivier one
17. Merry Christmas Mister Lawrence - Bowie
18. Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy - I’ve avoided this because I have the books, records, radio shows and fondly remember the TV series

Those with asterisks are films I already have in my possession but just haven’t got around to watching yet.