Celluloid Irrelevance & Some Scallys
All signs indicate that summer is indeed upon us, vast quantities of our inhabitants have taken to the streets, intent on displaying all of their purulent, pasty flesh for all to see. As ruffians turn pinker on one side whilst driving around in Honda Civics with additional plastic adornments, listening to what I believe is known as “Hardstyle” from my brief but informative encounters with such creatures. (It’s different to Hardcore, more Trance-y, with helium based vocals.) Anyway, discussion of the listening habits of scallys is not why I write today, we’ll save that for a more bilious post.
Despite the good weather and general inclination towards congregating with the masses in the standard meeting places to partake in drinking Buckfast with the student’s, posers and hobo’s that make up the majority of the population of this city, I have managed to restrict any outdoor activity to pleasant excursions in good company, to locations were there is less dense activity of public drunkenness and tomfoolery.
Also, nearly setting my apartment on fire in the process. Yes kids, don’t try and use a disposable barbeque on the third floor balcony of your apartment. Height, Wind & Fire= Bad. In fact, I think that Height, Wind & Fire is now the name of my new band. All was well in the end, George Forman came to the rescue and the food was saved! Joy!
Human nature has once again been at the forefront of my thoughts. I fear that we move ever closer to an age were we will soon be almost incomprehensible to each other. Communication on the most basic of levels is a disintegrating attribute and it is always dismaying when avoidable incidents occur which could be so easily resolved with conversation. However, if we do not learn from such situations, a just view on the human condition will never be reached.
I don’t wish to appear despondent in any way, merely thougthful on the matter of late. If one reflects on every argument or unpleasant situation that one has been in with those close to them (Friends, family or otherwise), it would appear that reason and communication are the two factors that are usually absent from the preceding events and this is a crying shame. It seems commonplace to be more effort to vocalise ones grievances, rather than to share them constructively.
Enough on that, for I am here to talk about movies, believe it or not. Due to a recent turnaround in my employment schedule, I have found myself readjusting to night work and so am now generally pottering about until the dawning hours. This has been marvelous for several reasons. The first being that I have all those serene, midnight hours to peruse books at my leisure, both of improvement and entertainment. Secondly, I have had much cause to sit and enjoy movies, without disturbances and have gone through quite a number in the last week. Some worth mentioning, others less so.
The two that have really taken my attention are one new and one not so new, Doomsday is the new film by rapidly ascending Descent and Dog Soldiers director Neil Marshall. Online perceptions of this movie have been far from complimentary so far and I feel that they are a little too harsh, for a brief examination of the film, could leave a viewer very rewarded indeed. For a start, it all depends on what you want to get from the movie. It is important to remember that there was an aspect of humour in his last offerings, that counteracted the extreme gore onscreen, in horror, this is the most difficult of tasks, one which most American horror’s fail to do at an extraordinary rate. From this humour, one gets glimpses into the excitement that resides in Marshall as he unleashes his work upon us. This excitement is parallel to the humour in Doomsday.
Taking his love of 70′s and 80′s cinema and shying away from the solid genre lifts the like of which, Tarantino & Rodriguez have been offering up of late, we are presented with a veritable selection of genre slices. It is these drastic and blatant shifts that keep a unique turn on these well-trodden tracks. The characters are ridiculous, shallow and vacuous, and they serve the feature splendidly. For, any attempt to deepen the stereotypes displayed would confuse and distract from the sheer madness that is occurring around them.
Considering the absolute tosh that is released under the guise of comic book adaptations, this has been the closest thing to a decent comic book adaptation that I have seen in quite some time. The car chases, Bob Hoskins, post-apocalyptic Scotsmen (Hilarious), Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Medieval Knights, Malcolm McDowell, Zombies! C’mon people, complaining about character depth in such situations is like saying that your Big Mac was a little overdone. This is a welcome addition to both the horror / exploitation genre and also to Neil Marshall’s increasingly expanding portfolio. We can only hope that for our benefit, they give him even more money for the next one.
Obviously from some previous indiscretions in a past life, I was made to watch Cloverfield. All I can say is, don’t watch Cloverfield. It is watchable but the sheer annoyance factor is way, way too high. It will also annoy you more after you have watched the movie. You have been warned. Watch The Host (2005) instead, it is a far superior movie in all senses, with a better monster, less infuriating cast and an actual story. For, what passes as a plot in Cloverfield, is, well, it is a waste of time to convey, so I won’t.
Also on a bum note, I was naive enough to give yet another of Judd Apatow’s terrible, terrible movies a chance. Apatow, has become synonymous, with overstretched, gratingly banal comedies, where his college buddies and himself have a jolly old time apparently, but forget to make a movie in the process. Superbad and Knocked Up were painful to anyone familiar with comedy, wit or common sense. His latest tainted passing, is known as Walk Hard : The Dewey Cox story, (I know, I know, look, I watch them so you don’t have to) is a really weak pastiche on Walk The Line and whilst the bad taste of subject matter may have contained some amusing spoofs, it just fails to deliver at every turn. In fact, it just hurt after a while and when it clearly would not end, despair takes a hold and as the jokes dry up a good half hour before the film starts to wind down, one is left a much more damaged individual at the closing credits. Damn you Apatow, Damn you Seth Roegen, damn you all to hell.
I have seen more but I’ve been thinking about Walk Hard for the last ten minutes and so that’s a good time to stop and go do something else. I will follow up with some more intriguing movies shortly. Oh, in movie development news. They are now making a Magnum PI movie, with Matthew McConaughey. Wow. William H Macy as Higgins, no none for you Higgins, you’ve had yours.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.