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Despite the fact that he tackles his craft with tongue planted firmly in cheek, Robert Rodriguez may go down in film history as the greatest B-movie director of all time. Planet Terror is Rodriguez’ half of the Grindhouse double feature joint project with Quentin Tarantino. Although Tarantino’s effort, Death Proof, was great, it begins to look almost trivial in comparison to this instant schlock classic.
If you were a power-hungry, morally corrupt, fearlessly determined and super powerful villain, which of these agents would you be the most unhappy to find yourself pitted against: Jack Bauer from 24, Jason Bourne from the Ludlum books and films, or suave old James Bond himself. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather see an aging Roger Moore blocking my path than a trigger-happy Kiefer Sutherland or a moody yet scarily efficient Matt Damon. Yes, James Bond has been in need of a 21st century makeover for some time now, and in Casino Royale, we finally meet a representation of the character that we can believe in, regardless of how outrageous the premise may be. Read the rest of this entry »
And this is where things are going to start getting difficult for the Harry Potter films. After the appalling Chris Columbus’ painfully mediocre interpretations of the first two books, this film series suddenly hit its straps – first with Alfonso Cuaron’s brilliant Prisoner of Azkaban, and then with Mike Newell’s surprisingly fine effort for the Goblet of Fire. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was always going to be a difficult book to turn into a film, with its extreme length and preoccupation with Harry’s incessant brooding and angst (hey, fifteen is a difficult age, OK?). Although new director David Yates struggles to craft a coherent plot out of it, there are certainly some things to admire in this one. That won’t stop hordes of Harry Potter readers clamouring for his head because of his rape and pillage of the storyline but, hey, you can’t have everything! Read the rest of this entry »
Strangely flat, given the fact that it has a great cast, a top director and is based on a popular novel. Read the rest of this entry »
Tough action film from Sam Peckinpah. It doesn’t pull any punches and, like many Peckinpah movies, it portrays women in a pretty weird way. But it’s very exciting and I like how it avoids moralising about the characters – it’s just a dog eat dog world, and the only reason you root for the main characters is because they’re less despicable than everyone else!
The impact of Doug Liman’s interpretation of Robert Ludlum’s most famous novel, The Bourne Identity, is such that the writer will likely be most remembered for the quality of a screenplay that he didn’t write, and that is largely unrelated to the original work. That’s a shame, but it’s a credit to the film that the body of work of such a proficient writer should be overshadowed at all.
It’s been a good year for a dodgy genre. There have been two great superhero flicks made – a bit of an achievement for a genre so riddled with bad films that the mediocre ones have almost felt like triumphs. The first great film was Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight. With an utterly different, but just as fresh an approach to the genre, comes Jon Favreau’s Iron Man.
