philosoraptor42

Bedazzled (1967)
I'd already seen the remake, but since reviews for it had often asked "why even remake it" I was interested to see what the original was like. My goodness, what a disappointment! I really don't understand why anyone could possibly prefer this version at all. I'd heard people criticising Liz Hurley for her acting ability, but to be quite honest she gives a much more interesting performance with far better comic timing than we see here from Peter Cook. Meanwhile jokes are stretched out far too long and rather worryingly there are several (rather unfunny) rape jokes. In fact, this original version of the film seems rather misogynistic.

In case you don't know already the film features a love-struck man (Dudley Moore) who is offered to have his wishes granted by the Devil (Peter Cook). For an example of the misogyny, there's one wish where he finds he has married to the love interest but, as you'd expect, there's a catch. It turns out his wife is cheating on him. In the remake we are given a motive for his wife cheating on him which she herself voices. In the original, she says nothing at all and we are explicitly informed by the male lead characters that the reason for her cheating on her husband is simply because of a rising libido (translation: "it's because she's a slut"). It's been noted that both versions of this movie were a product of their time. Perhaps those who lived in the 60s can excuse the misogyny, but I'm afraid it struck a nerve for me.

2/5

Aguirre Wrath Of God (1972)
Werner Herzog's masterpiece apparently. I can certainly see why. The camera is often a bit shaky so it gives you the rather odd impression that the conquistadors searching for El Dorado have a cameraman with them. Nevertheless, there's no doubting the breathtaking scenery in which the action takes place. While slow-paced, there's always plenty to take in. The two Werner Herzog movies I had seen before this were both documentaries, so perhaps that's what made me find this to also be rather documentary-like. It's like we are following the actions of the conquistadors as they unfold. Certainly there's little doubt as to what is going to happen. At the very beginning we are told that the Mexicans made up the story of El Dorado, so the soldiers are clearly going on a wild goose chase. As such, it is remarkable how the film continually keeps your interest.

All this being said, the movie is still rather slow-paced, so as worthy of praise as it is, I don't feel I can award it the full 5 out of 5. If you watch this you must bear in mind that it is more of an arty movie.

4.5/5

Johnny Mad Dog (2008)
I went into this expecting it to be a really horrible and shocking film and, in many ways, it is. The easiest thing is to provide you with the synopsis:

Fifteen-year-old Johnny Mad Dog heads a platoon of soldiers who are younger than he is. Charged with overtaking a city in an attempt to unseat the government, Johnny leads this band of killers on a murderous rampage toward their destination. Meanwhile, the studious Laokolé lives with her young brother and disabled father and dreams of a better life- until Johnny's hurricane of destruction comes her way.

Shot in Liberia, many of the phenomenal young actors actually lived through conflicts similar to those in the film. They bring the weight of their experience to the screen and unleash some of the bravest and most genuine performances you will ever see. Fiction based on horrifying fact, Johnny Mad Dog portrays the atrocities of an ongoing civil war in an unnamed African nation.

Remarkably the film features compelling characters and is constantly surprising the audience. Quite early on one of the child soldiers goes into one of the houses and puts on a wedding dress, which they proceed to wear for much of the film. I don't know about you, but I found that to be a bit surprising. I could list the various bits and pieces which surprised me like this but I don't want to spoil it.

Remarkably the film is filled with a fair few moments of (admittedly dark) humour. With one stand-out line for me being "watch out for Israelis or Chuck Norris". On a side-note, Quentin Tarantino said he wished he'd made Battle Royale, a quirky almost cartoon-like film about children forced into violence against one another. This movie is perhaps closer to what I'd prefer Quentin Tarantino to be doing. Something truer to life which reminds us of the real horror of violence and bloodshed. Yeah, Kill Bill was fun, but it's beginning to look like Tarantino has very little left to actually say. Not so for this film which pulls no punches in portraying the result of combining a loss of innocence with a lack of knowledge and experience. I was expecting a much simpler story than the movie provided and I must say it absolutely stunned me.

Not for the feint of heart, but nevertheless the movie does have a softer side to it in places.

5/5 - Brilliant!

Local Hero (1983)
An old classic which I'd never seen before. An American company is planning to set up oil rigs along a beach in Scotland. A member of the comany is tasked with buying up the land so they can start building and is also asked to make astonomical observations for his rather eccentric boss. It's a fun movie with some absolutely wonderful moments.

4.5/5

Bright Star (2009)
The story of John Keats and his romance with Fanny Brawne. The movie succeeds in being very moving and visually stunning. However, the romance comes off as a very unhealthy obsession at times. The pacing is pretty slow and while the movie is very pretty, I'm not sure I'd recommend. I must admit it's above average and that I don't regret watching it. However, it's not one I'd actively recommend.

3.5/5

La Jetee (1962) / Sans Soleil (1983)
La Jetee is an art film which features either still images or very short pieces of film where very little happens. It's quite atmostpheric and somewhat intriguing and importantly it's the inspiration for Terry Gilliam's "Twelve Monkeys". It spends rather a long time focussing on a female character without ever actually giving her any... well, any character. Anything worth seeing in this is done better in "Twelve Monkeys", particularly the female character who in Gilliams movie is actually a human being. Also thankfully Gilliam decided to leave out the stupid bit where the protagonist goes into the future and wears sunglasses while he talks to people with weird blobs on their foreheads.

2/5

Sans Soleil had some interesting things in it, especially the shrine to pets in Japan. Unfortunately no proper context is given, so it's hard to follow where things are happening and how they relate to each other, so in the end I gave up on it.

1.5/5

Television Reviews

Jekyll (2007)
With Steven Moffat's new Doctor Who series starting up soon, I was interested to hear about this old series starring James Nesbitt. In my review of Five Minutes Of Heaven I was very impressed by Nesbitt and he is similarly up to scratch here as the doctor who regular changes into someone else. There are several points where the sci-fi seems to cross over into full-on supernatural fantasy, but I was thankful to find that the loose ends are tied up pretty well by the end and things don't go quite as strange as I feared they might. Great fun, though not perfect.

4/5

Longitude (2000)
Michael Gambon is awesome. Jeremy Irons is pretty fantastic in his role too. There's a star-studded cast of highly talented British actors. The story skips between the creation of a clock to calculate Longitude at sea to a war veteran with PTSD who is obsessed with the history of clocks, to the detriment of his marriage. This two-part tv miniseries is adapted from a novel and it's an absolutely fascinating story. If you haven't see it already, you really ought to check it out.

5/5