Superhero Showdown 2012 - Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance vs. The Avengers vs. The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Dark Knight Rises

Seconds out... welcome the 4th annual Superhero Showdown!


LAST TIME OUT...

As always, we begin with a recap of 2011, which saw Marvel Studios continuing down the road to The Avengers with Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, Fox opening up the newest chapter of their X-Men franchise with the prequel X-Men: First Class, and Warner Bros. looking to do something… anything… with their latest DC offering, Green Lantern.

Last year’s prediction - “It’s hard to predict an overall winner here. Thor may not the most popular character in the Marvel universe but has the advantage of being the first superhero in cinemas this year so I’d expect it to perform well and probably exceed the $263m world-wide gross of The Incredible Hulk. It will likely be a toss-up between Captain America and X-Men: First Class for the North American box office crown, but First Class has to be the favourite for victory on a global scale and could go on to become the highest grossing instalment in the franchise. That just leaves poor old Green Lantern, whom I expect to be on a hiding to nothing with Warner Bros. once again struggling to recoup their outlay.”

The reality - Well, Green Lantern just managed to recoup its hefty production budget, limping to a haul of $219m, and Thor did exceed the world-wide gross of The Incredible Hulk. However, it also went on to become the biggest superhero movie of the year, banking $181m from North America and pulling in a combined world-wide gross of $449m. Next up was Captain America with $368m, while X-Men: First Class didn’t come anywhere near a franchise high, with its total gross of $353m only enough to overtake Bryan Singer’s 2000 original.

THIS TIME OUT...

Over the past three years Warner’s DC properties have taken a back seat as Marvel's characters raked in the box office, but with Christopher Nolan set to unleash the third and final installment of his Batman series with The Dark Knight Rises, the studio will be hoping to taste victory for the first time since The Dark Knight hit screens back in 2008. However, Batman will face plenty of competition as the three biggest superhero franchises in history go head-to-head-to-head, with Marvel Studios finally bringing their Cinematic Universe together for The Avengers and Sony hoping to replicate their earlier Spidey-successes with a series reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man. Oh, and Nicolas Cage is also back as Ghost Rider.


Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.
Starring Nicolas Cage, Johnny Whitworth, Ciarán Hinds, Violante Placido, Idris Elba, Fergus Riordan and Christopher Lambert.

A ‘sort of’ sequel to Mark Steven Johnson’s disappointing first effort from 2007 and the second film to be released under the Marvel Knights banner after Punisher: War Zone, Spirit of Vengeance sees Nicolas Cage return as Johnny Blaze, a.k.a. the avenging anti-hero Ghost Rider, as directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank) look to inject some life back into the franchise. Severing all ties with the original save for Cage in the lead role, the new film sees Johnny hiding out in a remote part of Eastern Europe as he struggles to come to terms with his curse, but he is forced to embrace his power after he’s recruited by the church to save a young boy (Fergus Riordan) from the clutches of the Devil (Ciarán Hinds).

Having been promised all kinds of insanity by the directing duo of Neveldine/Taylor, hopes were high for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance until the film was slapped with a PG-13 rating and some pretty harsh early reviews left fans fearing the worst. So far we’ve had two trailers (see them here and here) and while both were passable, it’s hard to see Spirit of Vengeance delivering anything above the standard we’ve come to expect from Cage over the past couple of years. Still, despite being terrible, the first Ghost Rider managed to pull in $228m at the global box office and with a reduced budget of just $75m for the sequel – coupled with the fact that Johnny Blaze will be the first superhero out of the gate this year – there’s a chance that Spirit of Vengeance could turn a decent profit, atrocious or otherwise.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is set for release in the UK and North America on February 17th.


The Avengers

Directed by Joss Whedon.
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, Gwyneth Paltrow, Clark Gregg and Amanda Righetti.

Back in 2005, the newly-developed Marvel Studios announced their ambitious plan to build towards an Avengers feature film by establishing a shared 'Cinematic Universe' through a series of solo movies. Fast-forward to the present and the studio have since laid those foundations with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, pulling in almost $2.3billion in the process; with their iconic line-up of heroes established and the majority of the original cast members still on board (well, except Edward Norton, who's replaced as Bruce Banner by Mark Ruffalo), Marvel have now set the stage for director Joss Whedon to deliver every superhero fanboy's wet dream.

Despite the release of the first trailer, all we really know about the film is that the Avengers will assemble to protect the world from Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his army – an “unexpected enemy” widely thought to be an alien race such as the Skrulls or the Kree – although rumours about the villain(s) have also pointed to everyone from Thanos to Namor and the Atlanteans. So far their films have been pretty grounded in reality, so you have to wonder how the general public will react to an influx of extra-terrestrial life, should that prove to be the case. Still, Thor worked out pretty well and seeing the God of Thunder alongside the likes of Iron Man, Cap and the Hulk should be enough to ensure another huge hit for Marvel.

The Avengers is set for release in the UK on April 27th and hits North America on May 4th.


The Amazing Spider-Man

Directed by Marc Webb.
Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, C. Thomas Howell, Embeth Davidtz, Campbell Scott, Chris Zylka and Irrfan Khan.

Warner Bros.’ Batman films may have grossed more at the box-office, but Sony’s Spider-Man series is the clear champion when it comes to the highest average gross, with Sam Raimi’s three movies pulling in an astonishing $2.5billion between them. Still, an $890m haul for Spider-Man 3 wasn’t enough to convince Sony to extend Raimi’s stay as custodian of the series and instead they opted to start things over with a brand new 3D reboot. Following Raimi through the exit door were stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst as Sony handed the reigns to (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb, who then turned to up-and-coming actor Andrew Garfield for his interpretation of Peter Parker, a.k.a. The Amazing Spider-Man.

Garfield seems to be a great choice for the lead and judging by the first trailer, we can expect a true shift in tone from the earlier movies rather than a straight-forward retread, with a healthy dose of teen angst injected into the familiar origin story. However, the trailer also offered up some rather wonky first-person web-crawling action and it’s rumoured that Sony executives have been left unimpressed by some of the VFX, particularly Rhys Ifans’ Lizard – the final version of whom we’re yet to see. The production also seems to have spent more time on reshoots than principal photography, which is always a huge concern. Still, let’s face it – Spidey’s always going to be popular (especially with the little ‘uns) so there’s no way The Amazing Spider-Man is going to tank, even if it turns out worse than Ghost Rider.

The Amazing Spider-Man is set for release July 3rd in North America and arrives in the UK the following day.


The Dark Knight Rises

Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nestor Carbonell, Juno Temple, Alon Abutbul, Josh Pence and Matthew Modine.

Last but by no means least comes the sequel to the biggest superhero movie of all-time and Christopher Nolan's epic conclusion to his Batman saga - The Dark Knight Rises. Shrouded in secrecy despite a seemingly endless flow of spy photos, all we really know about the film is that it will pick up some eight years after The Dark Knight and that Christian Bale's Batman will face his greatest test courtesy of the Man who Broke the Bat, Bane (Tom Hardy). Also getting in on the action is Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, while there's been enormous speculation surrounding the characters of 'Miranda Tate' (Marion Cotillard) and 'John Blake' (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), with Cotillard widely expected to be playing Talia al Ghul and JGL rumoured as everyone from Alberto Falcone to Dick Grayson.

Nolan has promised that The Dark Knight Rises will bring a definitive end to the story he started back in 2005 with Batman Begins and it's thought that both Cillian Murphy and Liam Neeson will return for cameos as the Scarecrow and Ra's al Ghul respectively. Naturally with Bane as the villain, there's also plenty of talk that Nolan will draw heavily on the classic KnightFall storyline and leave Batman 'broken' - or, shock horror, even dead - and going by the most recent trailer, there's little doubt that Bruce Wayne is in for a world of pain. Frankly, given Nolan's autonomy over the film, absolutely anything is possible and that's one of the main reasons why audiences are sure to flock to The Dark Knight Rises in their droves.

The Dark Knight Rises is set for release in the UK and North America on July 20th.


PREDICTIONS...

On paper, everything looks set for 2012 to become the year of the superhero movie and - done right - all four releases have the potential to become the defining installment in their respective series (which in the case of Ghost Rider, isn't saying all that much). Selecting a favourite will probably come down to personal taste, but in terms of critical and commercial success it's hard to look past The Dark Knight Rises. If the current level of hype is anything to go by, Nolan’s goodbye to Gotham City is going to be huge and may even surpass the billion dollar haul of its predecessor. It will also cut into the takings of The Amazing Spider-Man, so although Sony’s reboot will enjoy a fantastic start, I expect it to end up the lowest-grossing installment behind Spider-Man 2 ($783m). The Avengers on the other hand should set a record for Marvel Studios and will probably offer the most competition to The Dark Knight Rises, with the big event picture arriving early and facing little competition from fellow superheroes as it looks to overtake Iron Man 2's global haul of $623m. As for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, it won't set the box office on fire but will more than likely do just about enough to 'warrant' another installment.

So, assuming The Dark Knight Rises reigns supreme at the box-office, will 2012 mark a turnaround in fortune for Warner Bros. and their stable of DC superheroes? We'll see the following year when the studio unleash Man of Steel against competition from Marvel’s next batch of sequels, Iron Man 3 and Thor 2…

Agree? Disagree? Let me know your thoughts on 2012's big superhero showdown...

Gary Collinson

Holy Franchise, Batman! - Coming 2012.

Flickering Myth's Top 10 Movies of 2011

As the curtain falls on 2011, it’s that time again when we reflect on the past twelve months to deliver our selection of the very best films to arrive on screens over the past year. As with 2010 – which saw Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending thriller Inception snatching victory from Pixar’s heart-warming sequel Toy Story 3 – the team here at Flickering Myth have put together individual lists of our favourites, which we’ve then used to compile an overall selection of our 'Top 10 Movies of 2011'. So, let the countdown begin…

10. The Fighter (dir. David O. Russell)

Although it was released in North America last December, David O. Russell’s Best Picture nominee didn’t arrive here in the UK until February, allowing The Fighter to claim tenth place on our list. A biopic of professional boxer “Irish” Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), The Fighter features Oscar-winning supporting turns from Melissa Leo as Ward’s mother, Alice, and Christian Bale as hiss drug-addicted brother, former boxer Dicky Eklund. Released to much acclaim, The Fighter was described by Sports Illustrated as “the best sports movie of the decade” and went on to earn $129 million at the global box office.




9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (dir. David Yates)

The year’s biggest movie with a mighty $1.328 billion in box office receipts, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 saw Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione Grainger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) return for a final, climactic showdown with the Dark Lord, Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), as director David Yates brought the curtain down on Warner Bros. blockbuster film adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s epic wizarding saga (in 3D, no less). The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has since picked up a number of awards and with the studio embarking on a big Oscar push, there’s every chance it could become the first in the series to contend the Best Picture gong at the Academy Awards.



8. Thor (dir. Kenneth Branagh)

It’s been a busy year for movie superheroes, with Green Lantern (dir. Martin Campbell), X-Men: First Class (dir. Matthew Vaughn) and Captain America: The First Avenger (dir. Joe Johnston) all gracing the screen. However, none of those managed to replicate the success of the year’s first superhero offering, Thor, which grossed almost $450 million and featured a star-making turn from Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder. Also standing out in a cast that included Academy Award winners Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins was Brit actor Tom Hiddleston, who will reprise his role as the villainous Loki alongside Hemsworth’s Thor in just a few short months when The Avengers arrives in cinemas.



7. Moneyball (dir. Bennett Miller)

Based on Michael Lewis’ 2003 book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, Bennett Miller’s adaptation sees Brad Pitt as the general manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, Billy Beane, who employs a controversial new method of scouting players in his efforts to rebuild his team for the 2002 season. Praised by audiences and critics alike, Moneyball is set to contest the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actor - Drama (Pitt), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill) and Best Screenplay (Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin), and could prove to be a big player at the Academy Awards.




6. The King’s Speech (dir. Tom Hooper)

One of the year’s most critically acclaimed and financially successful features, The King’s Speech was second only to Harry Potter at the UK box office in 2011 and earned a host of accolades, taking home Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Colin Firth) and Best Screenplay (David Seidler), in addition to seven BAFTAs, three European Film Awards, a Golden Globe and way too many more to mention. And now, the tale of Prince Albert’s (Firth) efforts to overcome a speech impediment with the help of therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), takes sixth place on our list. Yes, it’s certainly been a good year for The King’s Speech.




5. Midnight in Paris (dir. Woody Allen)

Heralded as a fine return to form for its writer-director Woody Allen, the romantic comedy Midnight in Paris stars Owen Wilson as an American screenwriter vacationing in the French capital, where he finds himself transported into the 1920s on a nightly basis, Goodnight Sweetheart-style. The film – which also features the likes of Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Carla Bruni, Tom Hiddleston, Kathy Bates, Marion Cotillard and Adrien Brody – provided Allen with his biggest hit, banking over $145m at the global box office, and it will also contest the Golden Globe awards for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor – Musical or Comedy (Wilson).



4. The Skin I Live In (dir. Pedro Almodóvar)

The only foreign language film to make our top ten this year, the Spanish generic hybrid The Skin I Live In saw leading man Antonio Banderas reuniting with filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar for the first time since 1990’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! to deliver a dark and twisted tale about a surgeon (Banderas) looking to cultivate a synthetic skin with the aid of a woman held captive in his home. Loosely adapted from Thierry Jonquet’s novel Mygale (a.k.a. Tarantula), The Skin I Live In was overlooked by the Spanish film industry in favour of Agustí Villaronga’s Black Bread as the country's official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but nevertheless it remains one of the year’s most unique and memorable features.



3. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (dir. Tomas Alfredson)

Based upon John le Carré’s 1974 espionage novel of the same name and directed by acclaimed Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In), the acclaimed thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, a former British Intelligence operative called out of retirement to track down a mole within the agency. Oldman leads a superb cast of British acting talent that includes Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Jones, Stephen Graham and Kathy Burke, and there’s already plenty of talk that his performance will be recognised by a long overdue first Academy Award nomination.



2. Attack the Block (dir. Joe Cornish)

It’s been a fantastic year for Joe Cornish, formerly one half of the comedy duo Adam and Joe and now Hollywood screenwriter of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, not to mention writer-director of Attack the Block, a low-budget sci-fi action comedy about a group of youths fending off an alien attack on a South London council estate. A stunning debut that delivers both laughs and thrills in equal measure, Attack the Block features superb performances from its young cast – led by John Boyega as gang leader Moses – and although it went largely unnoticed in cinemas (banking just under £2.5m here in the UK), it will surely go on to become a cult classic.



1. Drive (dir. Nicolas Winding Refn)

And so, our choice for the best movie of 2011 is Nicolas Winding Refn’s stylish ‘neon noir’ thriller Drive, an adaptation of James Sallis’ 2005 novel starring Ryan Gosling as an unnamed Hollywood stunt-man and in-demand getaway driver who finds himself having to deal with the fall-out from a heist gone wrong. Bursting onto the scene at the Cannes Film Festival where it was greeted with a 15-minute standing ovation (and the Best Director Award for Refn), the film – which co-stars Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks – has since went on to rack up the accolades and just manages to pip Attack the Block as our favourite film of the year by the narrowest of margins.



Just missing out on a place in the top ten were…

Source Code (dir. Duncan Jones)
True Grit (dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
Super 8 (dir. J.J. Abrams)
Super (dir. James Gunn)
Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky)
Hugo (dir. Martin Scorsese)
I Saw the Devil (dir. Kim Ji-woon)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (dir. Lynne Ramsay)
The Ides of March (dir. George Clooney)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (dir. Rupert Wyatt)

And our individual favourites…

Gary Collinson – Attack the Block
Simon Columb – The Skin I Live In
Oli Davis - Drive
Nick Goundry - Drive
DJ Haza – The Fighter
Trevor Hogg – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Anghus Houvouras – Midnight in Paris
Blake Howard – Red State
Emma Hutchings – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tom Jolliffe – Drive
Simon Moore - Paul
Rohan Morbey - The Tree of Life
Arnold Stone – Super 8
Liam Trim – Attack the Block


What are your choices for the best movies of 2011? We’d love to hear your thoughts…

365 Days, 100 Films #85 - The Artist (2011)

The Artist, 2011.

Directed by Michel Hazanavicius.
Starring Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Anne Miller, Missi Pyle, Malcolm McDowell and Uggie.


SYNOPSIS:

George Valentin, a star of the silent era, faces the dawn of sound cinema.


Silent films are easy enough to watch at home. Chaplin has recently had another box set released for Christmas and the Laurel and Hardy collection permanently lingers around the gift idea sections of HMV. Their quality gets them through the distractions of home viewing, but it’s nothing like experiencing silence in the cinema.

Such opportunities are rare. Not counting University screenings, I’ve only ever seen two in a theatre – a Chaplin short film marathon a couple of Christmases ago at the BFI, and Keaton’s The General at the Prince Charles a few months back. The novelty is so overwhelming that, after a while, you forget it’s a novelty; you forget what you’re watching is a silent film. It’s simply a film, like any other.

The Artist is a loving tribute to the era, to Fritz Lang, King Vidor and Eric von Stroheim, silence, black and white and 1:33 aspect ratios. “You’d be crazy to make a black and white, silent film,” Michel Hazanavicius, the director, recalled what everyone told him before production began, in the question and answer session following the screening. “They’re right,” he said immediately after, a cheekily boyish grin breaking across his face.

George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a Douglas Fairbanks-esque star of the 1920s. His films all appear to follow the same narrative, where his trusty, sidekick dog, Uggy, eventually saves the day. The Artist opens on one such film, on a scene where a pair of unnamed captors are torturing George. Uggy, as always, is busy orchestrating an escape plan. Eventually, we’re given a shot of the cinema watching George’s film at its premiere, a mirror of our audience seated in reality. They’re shown in rapturous applause at its conclusion, yet still muted in the film’s silence. Your imagination leaps to fill the void, colouring the quiet and making the clapping louder and richer than any sound recordist could ever hope.

George is married, but also starting to fall for Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), a young film extra. Their lives continue to entwine throughout the film. Miller cares very deeply about George, but his self-centredness blinds him to her help. Peppy Miller, George Valentin – the names, like the film entire, are so innocent you cannot help but concede to their charm.

The sequence where George realises his feelings towards Peppy is enchanting. Shooting a scene for his latest film, ‘A German Affair’, George plays a spy and must walk across a dance floor, comically acting discreet. Peppy is one of the extras with whom he briefly dances. They become caught in each other’s stare, momentarily forgetting all those – the cast, the crew – around them. They laugh upon realising that the take is ruined, so the shot burns out and they go again, each time falling in love a little more.

The sequence appears as though they are outtakes from ‘A German Affair’, all in silence with the mechanics of film (the flare at the end of each shot) laid bare. The Artist is as much a tribute to a cinematic format, as well as a period and genre.

“It’s the future,” reads the black and white placard of Al Zimmer’s (John Goodman), the studio’s head producer, declaration on sound cinema. George howls at the idea. It’s a gimmick, it’ll never catch on, reads his expression as he swaggers confidently from the theatre in which Zimmer had shown him an example. There’s no future in that.

Well, not for him anyway.

But there is for Peppy. By this point, she’s worked her way up the bill to carrying films on her own. George wants nothing to do with sound cinema and leaves Zimmer. Peppy is brought in to fill his place.

George invests all his money into a film of his own making – a silent one, entitled 'Tears of Love', to compete against the beckoning noise. It’s a tragic masterpiece where the hero dies at the end, but audiences have flocked to the theatre next door, watching Peppy’s first sound film. Along with the stock market crash, George is financially ruined.

It sounds sombre, but your laughs will be amongst the most sincere you’ve ever enjoyed in a cinema. The comedy is completely visual. Sideways glances to each other, slight movements of the hand, cheesy facial expressions – the timing is impeccable, as is the composition within the frame. All the limitations – the absence of both sound and colour – both refine and free The Artist.

Effectively, the entire film is structured around a single gag – why won’t George Valentin speak? He has lost his job, his wife, his wealth, yet still he refuses to embrace sound. There’s a wonderful innocence to a narrative being so tongue-in-cheek and simple, and fully deserves the Oscar buzz it is currently receiving.

Although technically a French film, The Artist is not nominated within the Foreign Language category. It’s one of the perks of silent cinema – movies of that era could be exhibited around the world with little regard of the native tongue. A Swedish film could be understood equally in both America and Spain. The coming of sound toppled this like the Tower of Babel.

If it wins, it’ll be the first silent movie in 80 years to do so. That’s quite something. In your face, 3D.

RATING ****

Oli Davis

365 Days, 100 Films

Arthur Christmas reclaims the UK box office crown after seven weeks on release

UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 23rd - Saturday 24th December 2011...

After a low-key opening way back in mid-November (during which it lost out on the top spot to Immortals), Aardman Animations' Arthur Christmas finally toppled The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 in its fourth weekend and now - three weeks later - the CG-animated movie has once again reached the summit of the UK box office chart. With UK cinemas closed on Christmas Day, Arthur Christmas pulled in a fantastic seventh-weekend haul of £2.05m from the Friday-Saturday period, pushing its cumulative total beyond the £17.5m mark. Still, with the holidays coming to an end, you'd have to expect a rapid descent over the next couple of weeks.

After occupying the top two positions last week, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked drop to second and third, while Puss in Boots and New Year's Eve hold on to fourth and fifth. Bollywood acton sequel Don 2 was the only new release to appear in the chart, taking sixth with a solid £320k from just 76 screens and pushing Hugo, Happy Feet Two and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 down into seventh, eighth and ninth respectively. Finally, It's a Wonderful Life appears in the chart in tenth - the James Stewart holiday classic earning £75k from a limited re-release on 50 screens.

Number one this time last year: Little Fockers

Incoming...

The final Friday of 2011 offers nothing in the way of new releases, with Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo having already opened here in the UK on Boxing Day.

U.K. Box Office Archive

Films To Watch Before You Die #35 - Zoolander (2001)

D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die...

Zoolander, 2001.

Directed by Ben Stiller.
Starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Christine Taylor, Gavin Rossdale, Jerry Stiller, Milla Jovovich, David Duchovny, Vince Vaughn and Jon Voight.

Zoolander is quite simply so bad that it is brilliant. Not a single thing makes any sense, everyone in the film is idiotic and yet it is so funny. The story follows celebrated male model legend Derek Zoolander (Stiller) as he career takes a turn for the worst once the new face on the scene Hansel (Wilson) takes his crown.

Unable to comprehend his turn of fortune Zoolander struggles with not being the centre of attention and announces his retirement from modeling. As he tries to reconnect with his family, who are coal miners, he is rejected and finds himself lost. All the while an evil fashion designer named Jacobim Mogatu (Ferrell) is planning to brainwash Zoolander into killing the Prime Minister of Malaysia who has recently put a stop to the child slave labour in his country that works for the fashion industry.

Aware that something bad is going to happen Zoolander seeks the help of Matilda (Taylor) and his rival Hansel. As the three of them try to stop the killing of the Malaysian Prime Minister they build a bond that sees Zoolander and Matilda become an item and him and Hansel friends for life. However, in order to save the day Zoolander must break the brainwashing and unleash his new model look ‘Magnum’, which is so beautiful it stuns everyone and allows him to apprehend Mogatu.

Zoolander is just as stupid as it sounds and probably even worse as the world of almost brain dead male models is found to be the breeding ground of all the major political assassinations in American history. Zoolander is a film you must see before you die because it is so bad it’s hilariously great.


D.J. Haza

Follow my blog at http://djhaza.blogspot.com/
Follow me at http://www.facebook.com/djhaza

The Walking Dead - Who do you choose?

Sean Guard asks you to choose your side...

The grand New Year is nearly upon us, (Yay, Joy, Rapture, etc.), so everyone is of course resolutioning this and promising that once the clock strokes the ball-dropping tone of midnight. For those of us in tune with our favorite shows, I’m sure there are plenty that will use one of those New Year’s pledges to commit more of their time to watching them. One of those favorite shows should definitely be AMC’s The Walking Dead. If it’s not, you really don’t know what you’re missing. In any other case, not knowing what you’re missing might not be a big deal but this case simply does not apply. Watch the show, it’s good. I really don’t know how else to put it.

Since I’m trying to be kind, I’ll avoid revealing any major details about the plotline (insert SPOILER here). For those of you who watch the show and are fully aware of its sheer awesomeness, I have just one question for you; “After the single largest turning point within this second season occurred on the last brand new episode, what are your thoughts? Furthermore, whose side would you choose, Rick or Shane?”

We can look at some minor character traits that might help you to decide:

Rick:
Pretty much a born-leader but still struggling to make the major decisions, life-and-death, for his beloved people.
The responsible one; always thinking ahead and tries to do the right thing.
Painfully forgiving (those of you who watch know what I’m talking about).
Loving, caring, dedicated husband and father (blah, blah, blah).

Shane:
Second in command but seems to have gone over the edge.
Another leader but in the “Malcolm X by-any-means-necessary” kind of way.
Seems to receive the most sex out of any other character. I know random but still a trait.
Loving and caring but masked by the fact that his heart has possibly been bitten and not by a walker.

So my fellow “Watching Dead”, who do you choose as your next messiah to lead you through the zombie apocalypse? Personally, although I think it’s a tough choice, the conscientious part of me will always side with Rick. In the long run, it’s all about trying to survive and the possibility of having my leader shoot me due to his unstable mental state doesn’t quite sit right with me.

So lend your voices and opinions and reveal to us who you would follow. If you haven’t seen the series and would like to catch up or if you are a fan and would just like to relive its epic-ness, AMC will be showing an entire series marathon on New Year’s Eve beginning at 11am. Season 1 can also be found on Netflix Instant in its entirety.

Sean Guard
Follow me on Twitter @Sean_Guard

The ten most pirated movies of 2011

Earlier this week TorrentFreak revealed the ten most pirated movies of 2011 through file-sharing software BitTorrent - a list that was topped by the most recent installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise, Fast Five, which suffered a total of 9,260,000 illegal downloads since its release in April.

The list throws up a few surprises, such as the inclusion of 127 Hours and The King's Speech as opposed to smash hits such as Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, both of which crossed the $1 billion mark this past summer. Meanwhile, whereas last year's list was dominated by James Cameron's Avatar with a whopping 16.5 million downloads, the biggest box office success of 2011 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - finds itself way down in tenth with 'just' 6 million downloads.

Take a look at the full top ten here...

1. Fast Five: 9.3 million downloads
2. The Hangover Part II: 8.8 million
3. Thor: 8.3 million
4. Source Code: 7.9 million
5. I Am Number Four: 7.7 million
6. Sucker Punch: 7.2 million
7. 127 Hours: 6.9 million
8. Rango: 6.5 million
9. The King's Speech: 6.3 million
10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2: 6 million

Studios will take little comfort from the fact that the total number of illegal downloads appears to be down on 2010. Furthermore, of the ten most pirated movies of the year, the only real failure at the box office was Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch - which was also recently named as one of the biggest flops of 2011 - but I'm guessing that had more to do with it being shit than anything else. Of the 7.2 million people who stole it, I wonder how many still felt robbed?

Movie Review - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2011.

Directed by David Fincher.
Starring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Joely Richardson, Goran Visnjic and Geraldine James.


SYNOPSIS:

A magazine journalist and a troubled computer hacker team up to search for a woman who has been missing for forty years.


Ah, the Hollywood remake. Often maligned by anyone who’s seen the original film on which Hollywood has taken upon itself to remake for 100 times the original’s budget, they can be hit and miss. But this is David Fincher and he directed Se7en and Zodiac, so The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is bound to be an improvement… Right?

Let’s look at this film from two different angles; as a remake of Män som hatar kvinnor, the Swedish movie of 2009, and as a stand-alone film. I think on both fronts this new film is only a marginal success.

The original film was something of a surprise to me when I first saw it over 18 months ago. The brutality, violence, and grim, dark and depressing storyline was not what I had seen at the cinema from the usual Hollywood fare for a long time, and I thought ‘You’d never get that if it were an American production’. The star, Noomi Rapace, had a real energy about her and the character (that of Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the tattoo) was far from anything I’d seen before. It looked polished and professional and had a great production value for a country not known for its cinematic output.

Fast forward two years and Fincher’s version is, in my mind, no better than what I’d seen before. It has all the usual trademark Fincher shots and lighting that we’ve become accustomed to but none of terror, fear or sheer genius of the aforementioned Se7en or Zodiac. It’s fair to compare this film to those, unlike The Social Network or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; those saw Fincher go in a different direction, but TGWTDT sees him go back to familiar territory but on autopilot. I assumed (having not read anything about this version) that the much publicised screenplay from Steven Zaillian would do what most remakes do and change the original to set it in the US, and with a reported budget of $100 million I again assumed we’d be treated to something a bit special. What we have is the same story in the same setting but with different actors. In my mind, this is a pointless exercise – why remake a film without at least trying to imprint something new on it? Yes, it looks good and is a perfectly functional piece of work, but this is the minimum you’d expect from the players involved.

Moreover, I believe this film is too easy for Fincher to make at this stage in his career and the script gives him nothing to make improvements on the perfectly watchable original. If this were 1995 and he was looking to follow on from Se7en, perhaps this would be a good film to make, but not now and not after he has cemented himself as the best at what he does in the business. Once a director hits the heights he has, I expect nothing but the very best, or at least attempts to move away from what we know they can do expertly well.

As a standalone film and forgetting having seen the original, TGWTDT remains a brutal, violent, and grim, dark and depressing story, but crucially it’s not a story I’m gripped by nor does it have characters which captivate me. Essentially, the ‘unique selling point’ of the story is Lisbeth Salander and her dark past and uncertain present; yet I found her (in both films versions) too far removed from what I want from a heroine. I can’t root for her because she hardly speaks and I don’t know anything about her other than she’s a bit mental and doesn’t shy away from a fight. Despite what happens to her, I don’t feel sympathy in the way I should for a woman who goes through such ordeals. Moreover, Mikael Blomkvist, the journalist character played by Daniel Craig, is someone I’m interested in because I found him a more believable character with something really at stake in his life. However, the film takes far too long for get Lisbeth and Mikael together on screen and by the time they do half the film has gone and their relationship is built over too short a time on screen to fully buy into. Both Craig and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth deliver fine work in their roles, but the story is, to me, not gripping or intriguing enough to warrant having two main characters fighting for screen time.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is by no means a bad film, but it’s not exciting or thrilling, or even disturbing and terrifying, and it’s far from cinematic, which for a Fincher fan such as I am, is a hard to take.

VERDICT: 6.5 OUT OF 10

Rohan Morbey - follow me on Twitter.

Films To Watch Before You Die #34 - Black Swan (2010)

D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die...

Black Swan, 2010.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky.
Starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey.

Black Swan is another dark tale from director Darren Aronofsky and again deals with obsession and self-destruction. This time out Aronofsky has made the obsessive world of ballet his setting and the efforts made by Nina (Portman) as she tries to be the best dancer she can be soon turn her world upside down.

Nina is selected to play the lead role in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake for a prestigious New York ballet company, but being a mild mannered and quiet girl she struggles to play both the white and black swan convincingly. The former being gentle and timid and the latter aggressive. Pushed by her ballet director, Thomas (Cassell), she edges herself closer and closer to her physical limits.

Threatened by the arrival of rival dancer Lily (Kunis), whom she believes is trying to take her place; Nina becomes obsessive and her personality changes. Also blighted by strange visions, dreams and happenings the fine lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur wildly for Nina. Her world grows darker and darker as she begins to destroy her relationships and personality in order to become the black swan. Her story almost mirrors the ballet itself and her transformation from white swan to black is the driving force behind the narrative.

Black Swan was a critical and box office success upon its release and earned itself an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, Aronofsky a nomination for Best Director and Portman a win for Best Actress. Aronofsky’s dark and dynamic vision of ballet is just a visceral and shocking as any of his other films and as always has audiences on the edge of their seats with their toes curling.

Black Swan is a film you must see before you die because it is an unnerving and uncomfortable way to experience the dark world of ballerinas and the efforts they must place upon their bodies and minds in order to achieve the absolute perfection that they strive so hard for.


D.J. Haza

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Working with Clint: Michael Owens talks about Clint Eastwood

Trevor Hogg chats with Academy Award-nominated visual effects supervisor Michael Owens about his collaborations with Clint Eastwood...

“Space Cowboys [2000] was my first experience with Clint [Eastwood]. We got along great and it worked out very well,’ recalls Michael Owens who has become the visual effects supervisor of choice for the Hollywood legend. “Clint let me do pre-viz for the last quarter of the movie. I edited it together and we shot it. ILM [Industrial Light & Magic] was thinking I was stepping too far; they didn’t quite understand that was what Clint was asking for.” The experience was a not an easy one for Eastwood. “He got through it fine and wasn’t complaining but I could tell it was harder for him because he had to imagine a lot of things.” Owens goes on to tell a story about his time spent working on Invictus (2009) in Vancouver, British Columbia. “At the end of projects, you usually don’t get a lot of sleep; you wakeup in the middle of the night because you’re worried about something. I turned the TV on in the hotel room and Jedi [1983] was on. I was like, ‘I haven’t seen this for a long time.’ It was terrible. We won Best Visual Effects for that movie and at the time it was stunning. But boy did it not age well. I was thinking, ‘Oh, man. I had a blast on that movie. It was very fun movie to work on. It had great scenes in it.’ Cut to two nights later. I can’t sleep again. I turned the TV on and Space Cowboys comes on and I go, ‘I don’t think I can watch this. It’ll be terrible.’ For some reason I always thought it was a milk toast sort of movie storywise. But I enjoyed terribly working on it.” Watching it on the small screen Owens found himself being captivated by the outer space sequence. “We did a lot of that stuff in miniatures. We didn’t do much digital work. We did some digital doubles.” It was a case of using the right blend of visual and practical effects. “I was thrilled that it held up.”

“Flags of Our Fathers [2006] was a wonderful project to work on. It was a turning point for Clint,” believes Michael Owens. “We were shooting in Iceland and had so much war hardware, people, extras, and the ocean. It was hard to get things to work the way you wanted them.” The visual effects supervisor went back to Iceland as a second unit director to get more footage. “When Clint saw what we could do later in post, he said, ‘I guess we didn’t need all that hardware!’ In some sense maybe he was right. We were right on the cutting edge of trying to get the water and the hardware to work interactively. In hindsight, I was slightly under confident of being able to accomplish it as well as we did. From then on Clint was like, ‘Nah. You’re going to do it.’” Questioned about Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Owens remarks, “It was a continuation; almost like a sequel but it wasn’t.” A remarkable piece of acting stands out to the visual effects supervisor. “On Letters there is this one shot where the general dies in the hands of the lead young guy; we were filming it and he was supposed to cry. One tear fell out of one eye onto his cheek at the perfect moment; he did one take and Clint looks up and says, ‘Well, that’ll never happen again. We’re done.’”

“It was trying to pick the moments that would payoff the best,” says Michael Owens when discussing Changeling (2008) which is set in 1928. “The other thing was to give the audience a sense of period without hammering them or overstating it. I pointed out the places where I thought it would work and Clint agreed with it. I enjoy the idea that you are an extension of what the filmmaker is doing and you’re trying to get the story to be visually correct.” Owens admires Eastwood. “You need to trust yourself to go forward. What’s brilliant about Clint is he’s very secure, not egotistical, and knows what he wants.” Perfection is not the objective. “His films are not supposed to be polished; that’s one of the charms of them.” However, the Californian admits, “Every once and awhile I’d say, ‘Couldn’t we do another take of that?’ He’ll say, ‘It’s fine.’”

“That was supposed to be one shot,” reveals Michael Owens who became more involved with the production of Gran Torino (2008). “Clint doesn’t cry very well as an actor; he gets all stuffy and messy.” The moviemaker wanted to recreate the moment from Letters from Iwo Jima where the soldier cries a single tear when the general dies. “Clint said, ‘I want something like that to happen. Could you do that as a visual effect?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ I worked out the shot, put in the timing, and he said, ‘Perfect.’” Eastwood felt his character should have a more dramatic response upon learning that the young girl who lives next door to him has been assaulted. “Clint wanted to bang through a glass cupboard; he did that late in shooting. It meant he needed blood and scars on his hands for the last third of the movie. We added scars to his hands. It’s not a big deal at all. We did some of that on Flags where we added scars and dirt on costumes, and we art directed their makeup to make it look rougher. In Gran Torino there were some fights where the guys weren’t beat up at all so we added all kinds of scars, blood and bruises tastefully.”

“We replaced everything except for the players on every shot,” remarks Michael Owens in regards to the rugby matches in Invictus (2009). “There was no other way you could have done that and still have the freedom of the camera which was what I wanted him to have.” It is important to have the ability to improvise. “I know that I need to give him the room to maneuver the way he likes to maneuver.” He carries on and says, “I hardly ever use green or blue screens with Clint because it will slow him down. It would change his photographic style and it wouldn’t look like a Clint Eastwood movie at that point.” Owens is proud of Invictus. “It worked out quite well. That’s one of the favourite movies I’ve ever worked on.”

“Hereafter [2010] would have been a daunting thought to him awhile back but it didn’t faze him,” says Michael Owens who received an Oscar nomination for creating a computer generated tsunami. “It was difficult not to upstage the rest of the movie with that sequence. Yet it had to be gut-wrenching enough that it made you known what her motivation was for being disturbed about life after that. It was push and pull. I hope that we hit it right. Clint liked it and I think it worked well. I like that movie a great deal. It was a challenge to design the sequence so it flowed.”

Comparing the period films Changeling and J. Edgar (2011), Michael Owens observes, “They’re very similar in their requirements for visual effects.” The latest film from Clint Eastwood carries on his tradition of being subtle with the visual imagery. “J. Edgar isn’t a giant visual effects movie; it’s meant not to be noticed at all and hopefully appropriately so. There wasn’t a tsunami sequence or anything like that even though we joked about it. ‘Maybe we should put a tsunami sequence through this scene?’” The sequence where J. Edgar Hoover reflects upon the 1932 inauguration parade required the blending of archival footage, live action photography and a virtual environment. “We didn’t touch anything of Leo [DiCaprio],” states Owens who had to do some CGI fixes to the practical effects. “Armie’s [Hammer] makeup as an older man didn’t quite come across on film as well as they were hoping.” The visual effects supervisor has a habit of not watching the entire picture until it is completed. “On J. Edgar I needed to see the movie because I was more involved.” He recalls, “When I first saw Gran Torino, I said, ‘This is great.’ I hope I have the same opinion of J. Edgar.”

“What I like about Clint and the other directors I have worked with is that they just do drama,” states Michael Owens. “They don’t want the visual effects to be seen and I don’t want them to be seen either.” The process of dealing with Clint Eastwood is straightforward. “I estimate what he would be looking for as a director, I present stuff to him and get feedback.” Eastwood has come a long way from Space Cowboys. “At this point he’s in complete command of utilizing visual effects.” There is a current trend which the filmmaker is likely to avoid. “Clint I can’t quite see doing stereo pictures.” Owens explains, “Clint is a very progressive thinker but he’s just into storytelling.” He remarks, “All of us who work for him get good at knowing where Clint probably wants to go with the material. We get right in the zone and Clint can be the conductor of the nuances he wants to have happen.”

Many thanks to Michael Owens for taking the time out of his schedule for this interview. For more, be sure to check out Image Conscious: A conversation with visual effects supervisor Michael Owens.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

Films To Watch Before You Die #33 - Raging Bull (1980)

D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die...

Raging Bull, 1980.

Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty.

Raging Bull is one of the greatest films of all time and is an absolute classic in film history. Scorsese’s biographical masterpiece follows the life of middleweight Boxing World Champion Jake LaMotta (De Niro) as his life and career enfold with bouts of rage, jealousy and anger. LaMotta is a character who struggles with his inner demons on a daily basis and destroys his relationships and family. His brother, Joey (Pesci), tries to keep him on the straight and narrow, but he gets so blinded by rage that he can only see his way to do things.

De Niro put on around 27kg of weight for certain parts of the film and Pesci was an unknown actor at the time of his casting. Scorsese himself was struggling in the industry and was expecting this to be his last ever feature film and so made sure he had a hand in all areas of production. The film received mixed reviews initially and many were unhappy with the violence used in the film outside of the boxing ring, but it has since gone on to become regarded as one of the greatest films ever made and reinvigorated Scorsese’s career.

The most notable thing about the film is the style in which it is directed. When in his New York apartment and at home with his family the film is shot in an almost documentary like style in order to feel like a fly on the wall of the LaMotta residence. There is a vast difference between that and the style used for the boxing matches in the film. The fights were shot with a highly stylized use of lighting, camera and sound. Scorsese helped create the punching noises for the fight scenes by using tomatoes to punch a punch bag and get that flesh squishing sound. Once the film was finished those sounds were permanently deletes so no one else could ever use them.

Raging Bull is a film you must see before you die because Scorsese’s career was on the way down after a few huge flops and a cocaine addiction that was said to be ruining his health. When De Niro convinced Scorsese to kick his habit and make this film he poured his every energy into making it and doing it right, a style Scorsese later called a kamikaze method of filmmaking. The end result is a film that is hailed as the greatest boxing film of all time, one of the greatest films ever made and earned eight Oscar nominations including Scorsese’s first for Best Director.


D.J. Haza

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David Lynch in Four Movements - A Video Tribute

Way back in February we posted a video tribute to Stanley Kubrick that had been created by Richard Vezina and now Richard is back with his latest offering, which celebrates the work of David Lynch, the visionary filmmaker behind the likes of Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. Take a look...

"After my popular tribute video to Stanley Kubrick (A Stanley Kubrick Odyssey), here's a new video about David Lynch. It was done during the same period as the Kubrick tribute, back in 2004/2005, and this is why the image isn't in HD. I added scenes from the movie Inland Empire, which didn't exist at the time.

My video is a symphony in 4 movements, using 4 musical pieces from Angelo Badalamenti / David Lynch. Each movement is about certain themes or visual trends in Lynch's work. Since the tribute lasts 20 minutes, it may be a bit long for people who are not familiar with his films."

David Lynch in Four Movements...

365 Days, 100 Films #84 - Death Wish (1974)

Death Wish, 1974.

Directed by Michael Winner.
Starring Charles Bronson, Hope Lange, Vincent Gardenia, Steven Keats and William Redfield.


SYNOPSIS:

Paul Kersey wages a one-man war against crime in New York City after the murder of his wife.


After enduring Movember, you appreciate a man with a good moustache. Charles Bronson has a great moustache.

He plays Paul Kersey, an architect and ‘bleeding-heart liberal’ in New York, i.e. the guy you would least expect to pick up a gun and start killing criminals. And be really good at it.

While at work one day, his apartment is brutally invaded by three punks, one being a young Jeff Goldblum. His daughter is sexually assaulted and his wife later dies in hospital from her injuries. Goldblum home invasions were rife in the 70s. Bloody Jeff Goldblum.

New York appears a little darker after that day, like Gotham without the architecture. It has the same chill, the same rampant, unstoppable crime, the same ever-falling snow. The police are pragmatic. They don’t offer hope. It’s a cold whore of a city.

It’s a sentiment anyone who has ever been robbed in the street or had their home burgled will share – everything looks a little suspicious in the months immediately after. Your faith in humanity takes a considerable knock. And that’s just for a Playstation 2 and an old VCR. Imagine how Kersey must feel.

His boss sends him on a business vacation to Tucson, Arizona. It’s real nice out there. Kersey becomes friends with the company’s client, Ames Jainchill (Stuart Margolin), and the two visit a reconstructed Ol’ West town. A few actors stage a mock gunfight for the tourists with a group of bandits against the lone sheriff. Justice was done with bullets in those days.

Half inspired by the tourist attraction, Kersey becomes a vigilante. He’s always had the skill of a killer (his father was a hunter), but never the heart. Until his wife murdered and his daughter raped, that is.

Walking through New York’s darkened streets, Kersey sees the face of his wife’s murderer, his daughter’s rapist in every street crawler, drug dealer or mugger’s face. The crime of the city is so extensive that it has produced its own antibody in Kersey. He’s a Batman who kills.

Kersey’s justice is a tad heavy handed – perhaps petty thieves should be given a trial rather than shot dead – but the city’s crime rate has dropped significantly since he’s taken the law into his own hands. The vigilante question adorns billboards and the front covers of magazines; he’s the main topic of conversation at middle-class parties; old women beating muggers away with their bags claim him as their inspiration. Kersey’s alter ego is now a symbol against lawlessness, despite being a murderer himself. The architect has constructed an effective crime deterrent, but missed the structural flaw in its foundations.

Nevertheless, Death Wish is an immensely enjoyable film. Half ridiculous, maybe, but the revenge motive is played perfectly throughout. Despite killing a whole load of people who don’t deserve to die, you never stop rooting for him. In fact, it’s a rather nice, passive aggressive way of releasing any anger you might have towards any shifty looking people in your town centre.

All you have to do is get past the shudder upon seeing the movie’s opening credit: A MICHAEL WINNER FILM.

RATING ***

Oli Davis

365 Days, 100 Films

Films To Watch Before You Die #32 - The Business (2005)

D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die...

The Business, 2005.

Directed by Nick Love.
Starring Danny Dyer and Tamer Hassan.

The Business is a slick gangster flick from Nick Love that tells the story of a young lad, Frankie (Dyer), who flees the UK and ends up in the Costa Del Crime with a bunch of ex-pat fugitive criminals. As Frankie is eased into their world of drugs, crime and guns he soon finds a taste for what’s on offer and begins to carve out a career as a gangster for himself too.

However, as with many people in the 80s Frankie and his pals get greedy and end up in trouble with the locals. When he loses everything he had and finds himself struggling to make ends meet he knows he has to formulate a plan to get out as soon as possible, but that may involve double-crossing a few people. Throw in several boat-loads of marijuana and cocaine with a love triangle and foul language so you get a film that oozes character and his devoid of morality.

The Business is great fun to watch and is packed full of mockney gangster talk, big egos and macho provado. Love manages to highlight the ups and downs of the 80s with his use of theme, story and the hilariously hideous clothes. Danny Dyer and Tamer Hassan make a great pair on screen in this flick, as it doesn’t require either of them to do much acting. The soundtrack is a killer 80s collection of hits and anthems from the likes of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Duran Duran and Blondie.

The Business is a film that you must see before you die because it makes the 80s look and sound like the coolest decade ever as these crooked individuals live the dream on the Costa Del Crime.


D.J. Haza

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The biggest cinematic turkeys of 2011

Despite Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides all breaking the $1 billion mark at the global box office, 2011 hasn't exactly been the best of years for Hollywood studios. According to a report from The New York Times, box office sales in North America are approximately $500m down on last year (and 2009, which narrowly pipped 2010 in terms of cumulative grosses), despite an increase in ticket prices and of course the dreaded 3D surcharge.

According to distribution executives, the poor box office performance can be put down to "competition for leisure dollars, particularly among financially pressed young people, too many family movies and the continued erosion of star power." That's all well and good, but another hugely important factor has to be the crop of movies that studios have released over the past twelve months and The Hollywood Reporter have put together a list of 2011's fifteen biggest flops - take a look here...

Mars Needs Moms (Budget: $150M; Worldwide Gross: $39M)
Sucker Punch (Budget: $82M; Worldwide Gross: $89.8M)
Arthur (Budget: $40M; Worldwide Gross: $45.7M)
Green Lantern (Budget: $200M; Worldwide Gross: $219.9M)
Cowboys & Aliens (Budget: $163M; Worldwide Gross: $178.8M)
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie (Budget: $9M; Worldwide Gross: $18.7M)
Conan the Barbarian (Budget: $90M; Worldwide Gross: $48.8M)
I Don't Know How She Does It (Budget: $24M; Worldwide Gross: $30.5M)
The Thing (Budget: $38M; Worldwide Gross: $27.4M)
The Big Year (Budget: $41M; Worldwide Gross: $7.4M)
The Rum Diary (Budget: $45M; Worldwide Gross: $21.6M)
Anonymous (Budget: $30M; Worldwide Gross: $14.8M)
Tower Heist (Budget: $75M; Worldwide Gross: $126.3M)
Happy Feet Two (Budget: $135M; Worldwide Gross: $115M)
New Year's Eve (Budget: $56M; Worldwide Gross: $54.9M)

Although some of those figures don't look too bad - such as Glee: The 3D Concert Movie, which made $18.7m from $9m - the production budget doesn't include marketing and promotional costs (which in many cases can match the production outlay), while cinemas usually take between 45-55% of the total box office gross. Still, when you take into account home entertainment sales and rentals, television deals and associated merchandising, the majority of those films should go on to turn a decent profit... well, except for Disney uber-flop Mars Needs Moms, with its atrocious performance leading to the closure of Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital studio and leaving the Mouse House some $100m+ out of pocket. Ouch.

Blu-ray Review - Kill List (2011)

Kill List, 2011.

Directed by Ben Wheatley.
Starring Neil Maskell, Michael Smiley, MyAnna Buring, Emma Fryer and Harry Simpson.


SYNOPSIS:

A hitman takes on a new contract, leading him deep into the heart of darkness.


Following its world premiere at SXSW earlier this year, British filmmaker Ben Wheatley’s (Down Terrace) second feature, Kill List, has been generating plenty of hype on the festival circuit, including a well-received screening at FrightFest 2011, where it was named Best Film ahead of the likes of The Innkeepers and The Woman. While it failed to turn this buzz into box-office receipts upon its limited theatrical release back in September, Kill List will be hoping to ride a wave of positive reviews when it arrives on DVD and Blu-ray here in the UK.

Despite all the praise it’s received, Kill List has also been dividing audiences, with one side proclaiming it as the best thing to happen to British horror in years and the other criticising the film for its utterly left-field ending. I’m siding with the latter, and although I’ll try to avoid spoiling too much of the ending in this review, if you’d like to go into this film completely cold (which is probably best), then you might want to stop reading now.

Kill List follows Jay (Neil Maskell), a former soldier and hitman who’s been struggling to come to terms with his last job. Not only has this left him physically and emotionally scarred, but eight months of lying about the house has also put a strain on his marriage to Shel (MyAnna Buring). Fortunately things seem to be on the up when Jay is offered a new contract by his friend Gal (Michael Smiley) and the two partners begin to work their way through the ‘kill list’, which leads them down a sinister path towards a climax straight out of The Wicker Man.

The whole ‘genre mash-up’ idea is a good one, with Kill List starting out as a kind of social drama before segueing in to your typical hitman effort (complete with Quentin Tarantino-esque title card). While there’s nothing really new here the execution is good, but sadly the final jump into occult horror territory really is a step too far – it’s trying to be too clever for its own good, and it just didn’t work for me at all. It feels like they’ve mistakenly spliced in the final reel from another film and it completely overshadowed such a promising first hour.

Unnecessary ending aside, Kill List is a technically accomplished film – especially considering its £500,000 budget – and Wheatley’s direction is solid through-out. There’s plenty of brutal, graphic violence for those of that persuasion and the likes of Maskell (Rise of the Footsoldier, The Football Factory), Smiley (Burke and Hare, Luther), Buring (The Descent, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1) and young Harry Simpson as Jay’s son, Sam, all deliver strong performances that help to pull us into the story. It’s just a shame then that almost every single plot strand is left hanging in a final effort to shock; in all honesty, it’s probably more likely to leave you scratching your head.

Gary Collinson