Pinocchio Platinum Edition DVD
Pinocchio comes to DVD, for the third time, in a newly remastered two disc special edition to mark the 70th anniversary of the picture.
Pinocchio comes to DVD, for the third time, in a newly remastered two disc special edition to mark the 70th anniversary of the picture.
1985 saw the release of the 14th official James Bond film, A View to a Kill and marked the swansong of Roger Moore. It was also notable for being the first James Bond film to not premiere in the UK. The film had its charity premiere on May 22nd in San Francisco‘s Palace of Fine Arts. Now, you might be asking what is the relevance of all this, if any? The film premiered in San Francisco as a special thank you to the city for its participation in the making of the blockbuster, but also to gloss over some controversy that threatened the making of the film. The scene that caused the outrage was set in City Hall and involves the film’s villain, Max Zorin (a suitably insane Christopher Walken), shooting an official in his own office. Sound familiar? No? Have I just ruined the movie? Suffice to say, Harvey Milk’s impact was as important then as it is now, almost halting 007 dead in his tracks, and I’m sure he would have been amused by that fact. … Continue Reading
The DVD release of the new Indiana Jones movie opened my eyes to the horror that is development hell. In one of the interviews, Steven Spielberg claims that the release of Independence Day sidetracked the script for Indy 4. Excuse me? Independence Day? I think we should all count ourselves lucky that we were spared the sight of Harrison Ford flying a WWII fighter jet into the side of a flying saucer. Makes KOTCS look spectacular, right? This prompted me to take a look through my DVD back catalogue to find other films that almost turned out completely unrecognisable.
We are looking for more news bloggers to carve a little place for themselves on various sections of our site.
Lightspeed Champion - Falling Off The Lavender Bridge
Yep, you heard it right. Mr. Devonte Hynes, a.k.a. Lightspeed Champion, is playing a one-off show at the British Film Institute on London’s Southbank, on December 11.
Big Screen Little Screen has rounded up trailers for all fifteen documentaries shortlisted for the Oscars. The list must be cut down to five for the Oscar nominations.
“Maybe someone’s pickin’ off costumed heroes.” There’s a new trailer online for the hotly anticipated movie adaptation of the greatest graphic novel ever, Watchmen.
CERT: 12A
UK DVD RELEASE DATE: 10 November 2008
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
STARRING: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Kate Allen, Shia LaBeouf
THE MOVIE
“Nuke the fridge.” This phrase seems to have been banded about quite a bit in relation to Indiana Jones’s latest cinematic adventure – which arrives in UK stores this week. ‘Nuke the fridge’ is a reinvention of the oft-used phrase “jump the shark“, supposedly pinpointing the exact moment when the Indiana Jones film series lost the plot and the respect of fans worldwide. I love to be in the minority and I love to stand up for an underdog, and gosh darn it, I just love ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’.
The moment in question sees Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) fleeing from an atomic blast in a 1950s picture-perfect town etched out of plastic in the middle of the desert. He finds his sanctuary in the form of a lead-lined refrigerator and seals himself inside. The ensuing nuclear blast throws the fridge, and Indy, clear of the devastation and the audience heaves a collective sigh of relief. However, the resulting silhouetted shot is pure Steven Spielberg and I immediately forgave the illogical sequence. Spielberg effortlessly places Indiana into 1950s America, a world as alien to him as it is to us.
Revisiting ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ offers up a whole new viewing experience. No, George Lucas hasn’t digitally altered the chipmunk in the opening sequence or added a hundred new monkeys to the Tarzan-inspired vine swing, but we know what to expect – and what’s good about the film becomes a lot more obvious: they got the little details right. The classic-style Paramount logo, the font for the opening credits, the references to past characters, and John Williams’s triumphant score (before all his stuff started to sound the same). ‘Quantum of Solace’, the twenty-second James Bond film, suffered from a case of ambiguity: no vodka martinis, no ‘Bond, James Bond,’ and no Monty Norman theme until the final moments. ‘Crystal Skull’ has enough nods to its roots, both audibly and visually, to make it feel like a natural continuation rather than a pointless reinvention. Indy isn’t trying to compete with the Bruce Waynes or Jason Bournes of the world. He’s trying to recapture the heyday of 1980s entertainment, when heroes were free to be infallible and action scenes didn’t always have to be followed by a shot of the characters in pain, literally licking their wounds. Indy simply places that signature fedora back onto his head and he’s ready for another round. This is pure escapism for the whole family.
Harrison Ford is sixty six years old, and he does a damn fine job of kicking ass and taking a beating. However, he’s sixty six fricking years old; of course they were gonna bring in a sidekick to take over the action and, predictably, he became the victim of critical fanboys. Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) is a pretty thankless role, though luckily it has been cast with a pretty likeable actor. LaBeouf takes over much of the stunt work, particularly during the chaotic jungle chase sequences, and he holds his own as an action hero. Sure, he’s no Indiana Jones, but he gels well with Ford and ‘Raiders’ returnee Karen Allen, and as teen sidekicks go, he’s pretty inoffensive and proactive.
The same can’t be said for Ray Winstone’s Mac. He plays a double/triple/quadruple/whatever agent that inexplicably shouts most of his lines and feels like he’s walked in from an episode of ‘Only Fools and Horses’. As Indiana is trailed by his four (!) sidekicks during the film’s climax, Winstone definitely stands out as one pointless sidekick too many.
Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) is an interesting if unmenacing villain, declaring psychic warfare on Indiana without… actually… doing anything, but who cares? Blanchett has fun with the role; the accent and haircut being enough to ensure she’s a memorable if not villainous foe.
However, in a wider sense, Blanchett’s role speaks to perhaps the biggest flaw: missed opportunities. Why bring the delightful Karen Allen back into the fold only to give her very little to do? Why tease us with images of the Nazca Lines without fully exploring their significance? Why blacklist Indiana as a communist and then drop the storyline completely? The film feels unfinished; an obvious victim of numerous rewrites and the demands of three Hollywood bigwigs in the form of Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford.
For all its faults, we should be grateful that ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ turned out as fun as it did. I won’t speak of the plot-holes, the unfortunate use of CGI, or the ludicrous climax, but I will say that personally, it captured my imagination the way films used to do when I was kid. Maybe I was blinded by nostalgia or predisposed to love it no matter what (just like ‘Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace’) but it’s classic family entertainment.
It’s simple. It’s fun. It’s popcorn. And that’s what Indiana Jones has always been about.
THE FEATURES
The film has been given the 2-disc special edition DVD treatment by Paramount and the obligatory Laurent Bouzereau documentaries are typically thorough and entertaining. The moviemaking process is covered from conception to post-production and the documentaries feature on-set interviews with most of the key cast and crew members.
It’s nice to hear from Lucas and Spielberg about the development hell this film lingered in, but what’s missing is an exploration of the film’s reception. Though reviews were generally positive, this film was never embraced fully by the fanbase and it would be nice to hear Lucas and Spielberg’s thoughts as to why this was. Also missing are any deleted scenes and an audio commentary but these will no doubt appear in the inevitable re-release.
CERT: TBC
UK RELEASE DATE: London Film Festival
DIRECTORS: Dino Gentili, Filippo Gentili
STARRING: Massimo de Santis, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Giorgio
‘Sono Viva (I Am Alive)’, is the lovechild of Italian TV screenwriters and first-time directors Dino and Filippo Gentili, and follows the impoverished Rocco as his consciousness blossoms and he discovers he is ‘alive’.
In production for five years following the granting and retracting of government funding and the subsequent reliance on a personal loan, ‘Sono Viva’ was shot in twenty-three days and illustrates twenty-four hours in the life of the principal protagonist.
Rocco is a poverty-worn, unemployed labourer on the verge of having his house repossessed and it’s this situation that forces him to take the peculiar job of watching over a dead body. An almost mute man that walks through life without experiencing it, his encounter with the corpse ‘Silvia’ and her self-absorbed kin awakens his compassion and subsequently induces him to defend what for the first time he truly believes in: avenging injustice. By entangling himself in Silvia’s life, he discovers unknown strengths, and in this conscious discovery he accepts his place in existence.
Combining elements of thriller, ascetic realism and drama genres in equal parts, ‘Sono Viva’ is an ambitious film. With its use of gritty and sometimes disturbingly protracted cinematography, and investigation of incestuous and overlapping themes of life and death in its portrayal of an anesthetised man, it offers a fresh look at the genre.
Unfortunately the potential hinted at in the film’s opening is almost eclipsed by a character that is hard to understand, lazy continuity errors, misplaced shots and a soap opera soundtrack, all of which reveals the inexperience of the directors.
Clearly influenced by both David Lynch and the Italian Realists, Dino and Filippo Gentili definitely have something important to say; they just haven’t found their pitch yet. But with a sold-out showcase and the exposure that accompanies a London Film Festival release, by their next outing there’s no doubting they’ll be breaking down barriers.
Quantum of Solace
CERT: 12A
UK RELEASE DATE: 31 October 2008
DIRECTOR: Marc Forster
STARRING: Daniel Craig, Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko
In Daniel Craig’s second outing as the indestructible British Agent, we’re immediately zeroed in on Bond a mere ten minutes after we left him at the conclusion of ‘Casino Royale’ – in all his Saville-Row-three-piece-suit-with-coordinated-assault-rifle splendour; and from the insanely adrenaline busting opening car chase right through to the extraordinarily explosive finale, there’s barely time to sharpen a pencil, let alone attempt to draw a breath.
‘Quantum of Solace”s principal villain is Dominic Greene, a wealthy property developer with a nice sideline in regime change. Obviously he’s an expert in micromanagement and possesses an enviable aptitude for multitasking, because when he’s not overthrowing dictators, he’s stockpiling a lot of water for “Quantum”, a mysterious, international organisation that might or might not have been behind the blackmail of Bond’s beloved Vesper Lynd, the very thing that drove her to suicide. Our man is out for blood from the get-go, and ploughs through the ranks of Greene’s similarly nefarious cohorts with all the sucrose-infused gusto of a toddler let loose in Hamleys. He finally earns a showdown with the main man himself and rounds things off nicely by blowing up half of the Bolivian desert.
And that, in essence, is pretty much it. It all sounds like standard Bond material. But ‘Quantum of Solace’ is anything but a standard Bond film. ‘Quantum of Solace’ is a cinematic quandary. Some of the things it does work brilliantly. Some of the things it does fail miserably.
Firstly: the major failure. Although it’s the shortest Bond film to date, it’s also the one with the most action: loads of it. In fact, when the OED is next updated, the phrase “Quantum of Solace” should stand as the definition of the phrase “action-packed”. Unfortunately, this means that there’s little room for a comprehensible narrative, so ‘Quantum of Solace’ also ends up being the Bond movie with the flimsiest plot to date – which is saying rather a lot given the existence of ‘A View to a Kill’. This failure can rather obviously be traced to another JB, and another franchise.
On paper, Jason Bourne’s influence seems positive enough. Action sequences have become fast, physical and hyper-realistic affairs; the stunts are executed by performers in camera and on set, rather than against a green screen which later gets a CGI makeover or a character that’s wholly computer-generated. Major villains have become predominately cerebral and believable characters that love delegation, rather than demonstrably maniacal thugs – though their aspirations remain as diabolically nefarious as ever. Heroes have become psychologically three-dimensional; s/he has foibles, strengths, idiosyncrasies and a back-story: they are now human beings and not robotic hitmen.
Unfortunately, due to the “mine-is-bigger-than-yours” arena of the action film, the filmmakers believe that with each movie, they have to raise the spectacular quotient just to keep our attention…and raise it and raise it and raise it. ‘Quantum of Solace”s sensational spectacular action bar is therefore so damn high, it’s pushed the plot into cloud cuckoo land. Apparently storytelling isn’t as important as free-running stunt work and “look-no-non-diegetic-music” hand-to-hand scraps. The film feels like a carefully orchestrated sequence of set-pieces, and while these set-pieces truly are technically astounding, the film itself is therefore as hollow as a chocolate Easter bunny.
Of course it just might be that Marc Forster chose to employ an insanely thrilling visual style and chose to crank up the pacing to F1 speed to stylistically reinforce and elucidate Bond’s fractured psychological state (more on that later), but if he did, it’s really backfired.
The film is SO bombastic and SO visually overwhelming and SO spectacular that it’s impossible to follow what’s going on. And about twenty minutes in, you subconsciously realise you’ve got absolutely no idea where you are, why Bond is wearing someone else’s dinner jacket, why he’s messing about with a big plane and you instinctively engage “Popcorn-Movie” mode.
And that’s a real shame because Daniel Craig continues to impress as the indefatigable super spy. His immense physicality supersedes that of even Connery, and his wonderful, psychologically-nuanced work in the film’s very few contemplative moments, represents all of the heart that is to be found in the picture. The scene in which his friend Mathis is shot and Bond cradles his head while he dies is particularly touching. Of course, Bond then dispassionately slings the body into a skip with the quip, “He wouldn’t mind”, but that glimpse still remains one of the film’s better scenes.
And this duopoly in Craig’s Bond is easy to pin down. It’s a distillation of both Connery’s and Dalton’s take on the character; he’s physically formidable, emotionally frazzled, psychologically fragile, dark, brooding, bitter but can throw out a wisecrack when he needs to. And that’s pretty much how Fleming wrote him after all. If Craig keeps the standard this high, and indeed continues to evolve the character as majestically as he does here, he’s a contender to get tagged as “Best Bond Ever” – seriously.
On the other performances, Olga Kurylenko struggles with the underwritten Camille Montes and we have to endure her frantic tussles with a second and rather dull revenge plot. Gemma Arterton‘s straight-laced Agent Fields is barely worth mentioning at all; she has zero chemistry with Craig and zero percent more acting ability than a tree, while Mathieu Amalric is actually a particularly effective Dominic Greene. Many will complain that he’s nothing but a wimpish estate agent that does nothing more sinister than put up someone’s water rates, but as the methodical philanthropist, Amalric is suitably slimy and reprehensible. And let’s face facts here: Greene’s existence and master plan (so, y’know the whole movie really) is nothing more than an elaborate MacGuffin in the ongoing saga of (one) who the members of Quantum are (two) what Quantum wants and (three) how big an arse-kicking the members of Quantum are going to get when Bond catches up with them all in the threequel.
The film does get some things completely right though. Some fans will complain that ‘Quantum of Solace’ doesn’t feel like a proper Bond film. After all, where are the franchise staples of Q, the innuendos, the gadgets, the multiple sexual conquests etc? But as the film is a direct sequel to ‘Casino Royale’, certain elements have been quite rightly omitted.
Bond is, to all intents and purposes, a rogue agent, so why would the British government allow Q to hand over a load of fancy gizmos? Character-wise, Connery, Moore et al, inherited Bond as a seasoned 00 operative, whereas this is only Craig’s second mission: his Bond is still grieving for Vesper, and although the principal consequence of her betrayal and death is his development (actually disintegration) into the bitter, twisted, hard-drinking, wise-cracking and emotionless bastard that we all know and love, he’s obviously not feeling particularly cheery right now.
And of course you do get a few essentials thrown in: silly opening titles, a maniacal villain, an Aston Martin driven very fast, Felix Leiter, vodka martinis (seven of them in a row by my reckoning), and Bond taking his shirt off. There’s also the usual smattering of product placement (Virgin, Sony etc) which raises a wry smile, even if it doesn’t quite scale the dizzying heights that ‘Casino Royale’ did: Vesper: “Nice watch, Rolex?” Bond: “No, Omega”. I mean, Jesus…
Other plus points are the excellent handling of Bond / M’s frosty relationship, (he likens her to his Mother at one point), his penchant for killing suspects rather than incarcerating them, his nonchalant utilisation of his expense account (the hotel upgrade scene is laugh-out loud funny) and the fact that we get the proper recipe for that vodka martini.
There are also minor quibbles. Forster’s attempt to authenticate location titles by using regional fonts is both baffling and irritating. The forays into the M’s private life (and beauty regime) are particularly frivolous, and quite how Daniel Craig can beat up everyone in sight throughout the entire movie but is then subjected to a real whipping by a short, weedy property developer with boggling eyes and greasy hair is anyone’s guess.
So ‘Quantum of Solace’ really is a mixed bag. There probably is a decent plot in there somewhere, but it’s all but completely obscured by the explosions, the jumps, the fights, and the car chases. That said, it is popcorn entertainment of the highest quality and there’s no way you’ll ever get bored.
‘Casino Royale’ was just what the Bond franchise needed; to paraphrase Eva Green, a majestic kick up its not so perfectly formed arse, because it managed to combine an intelligent, realistic and enthralling plot with exceptionally well-executed action scenes, and it had a fantastic ensemble cast. It’s a shame that ‘Quantum of Solace’ has literally lost the plot a little.
But one shouldn’t lose all faith. With the elements of a majestic third-part conclusion to the Vesper Lynd revenge storyline now all present and correct and with Daniel Craig continuing to electrify as 007, there’s every chance the next instalment will be bigger and better than ever. We can only hope that the plot gets as much attention as the car chases do.
Join the conversation...