Author: BRWC

The concept for Iron Sky, the Finnish comedy/sci-fi/action/Nazi mash-up, was borne from the dream of writer Jarmo Puskala and a subsequent conversation with the eventual director, Timo Vuorensola, in a sauna. Not surprising really, for a film that is utterly ridiculous, completely nonsensical and absolutely brilliant for it.

Set in the not-too-distant future, Iron Sky sets out an alternate reality whereby the Nazis retreated to the dark side of the moon after defeat in World War 2. Following 70 years of lunar exile, they plan to return to Earth and finish what the National Socialist Party started with their newly manufactured armada of Nazi-space ships. Yes, it’s that ridiculous.

Right from the off, the film is fully aware of what it is and has no aspirations of being anything other than an absurdly raucous action comedy that never takes itself seriously (how can it? it has Moon Nazis). While it’s well and truly a modern B-Movie affair, complete with hammy acting, one-liners and a crappy soundtrack, the action scenes look pretty damn cool. With some exceptional craft design, particularly on the Nazi’s behemoth of a war ship, almost all of the sci-fi CGI is none too shabby at all. We’ve got some more than convincing looking space battles, an epic earth invasion and some really crisp green screen compositions. Yes it may sometimes look like an internet/made for TV movie, but for it’s modest budget, it makes the most of its truly outlandish ideas and presents them with a wonderful sense of self-awareness.

As mentioned earlier, the performances have more ham in them than a European continental breakfast, but this is by no means a bad thing. As each character knowingly lampoons current and historical figures, it only makes sense for the actors to be gross exaggerations of the characters they are playing. Be that Stephanie Paul’s quite blatant and superb impression of Sarah Palin or the consistently brilliant Udo Kier as the Führer, each performance has its tongue very firmly in cheek throughout. The partnership that develops between Julia Dietze’s innocent Nazi teacher and Chris Kirby’s quite hilarious black astronaut is charming without ever being overly schmaltzy or forced. Peta Sergeant’s stylist-cum-Secretary of Defence makes a constant mockery of the Western worlds obsession with style over substance, and does so with completely over the top bravado; a style very much suited the movie itself. It is however, Gotz Otto’s superbly devilish turn as the movie’s villain that steals it. Always smarmy and consistently evil, his performance as the Führer to be is every Indiana Jones villain rolled into one, with a little bit of Roger Moore era Bond villain for good measure. He’s brilliant.

Occasionally the jokes fall a little flat, but on the whole the film is littered with straight up hilarious moments and brilliant one-liners (the best is saved for the very end). As a commentary on the nature of war, and the reasons behind such, it is surprisingly quite clever in places offering political jibes at almost all the major world leaders somewhat reminiscent of Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove. As a result, the film very much feels like something from the Matt Stone and Trey Parker School of comedy; anyone and everyone is fair game as the subject of unabashed parody.  Even the Finnish get a roasting at one point.

You won’t find Michael Bay’s overly bombastic production values, or Oscar worthy performances, but Iron Sky never intends or aspires to be that. Put simply, it’s as ridiculous as it is entertaining. It pokes fun at people who deserve it, while never becoming overly offensive or cheap. The jokes are funny and the action holds up despite not being the most polished film ever made…but most of all, it’s fun.

Taken for what it is, then, Iron Sky is a hilarious slice of Nazi action cake and thoroughly entertaining for it’s entire 93-minute duration.

Iron Sky is in Cinemas nationwide on the 23^rd of May for one day only and available on DVD and Blu-Ray from the 28^th of May.

If you’re in London however, The Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square has a full run from Friday the 25^th of May. (For more details visit www.princecharlescinema.com)

Beyond The Grave (or Porto dos Mortos) is a Brazilian movie from writer and director Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro set in a post apocalyptic future full of zombies and a few demons. The story is focused on Rafael Tombini’s Officer who is battling the relentless Dark Rider, a demon of absolute evil who is difficult to kill on account of his ability to switch bodies every time the one he’s possessing gets killed.

Let’s get straight to it; there are a few good things about this movie – previously I’ve voiced my love of zombies so we’re on good ground – but unfortunately for every good point there are numerous issues. Chief amongst these issues is the vague and not very compelling plot; it’s nice and simple, basic good versus evil, but the what and the how are never really explored. Characters are introduced and then roughly tossed aside without any real depth to them, which is a shame. The whole movie comes across as somewhat hazy, and without anymore information it’s difficult to feel engaged in the narrative or the characters. It would have been nice to have explained a couple of points, particularly how the Officer seems as invulnerable as the Dark Rider, and who both of them are.

The zombies are fairly well executed, this is an understandably low budget movie and there’s something about zombies that lends itself to that look, but regrettably there are never enough zombies to be even remotely threatening. A plus is that they are the slow ambling variety of zombie, which en masse can produce a fairly terrifying spectacle, one unfortunately not employed here. The focus remains on the Officer and his nemesis the Dark Rider, perhaps in light of that we can forgive the lack of zombies. Though I’m inclined to never forgive a lack of zombies.

The cinematography works in Beyond The Grave’s favour, as does the largely run down industrial locations it was filmed in – even if they do start to seem repetitive and uninteresting. However the editing is a mess, frequently in order to convey confusion or distress the film resorts to a fairly irritating succession of jerky back and forth cuts that don’t really add anything to the tension, or make any sense. I can appreciate the ‘experimental’ approach but I don’t think it pays off.

There’s an element of Westerns in the feeling of some of the shots, and it’s blatantly referenced in some of the costumes and the final scene, and while this adds to the overall sense of good duelling bad it doesn’t do much for the pile of unfocused, unexplained, and occasionally dull scenes. I can’t even say that the action makes up for the lack of pace elsewhere as unfortunately what little exists exhibits the same slow meandering pace of the rest of the movie and doesn’t produce any excitement. If you’re a fan of low budget, dubious, horror flicks then you’ll probably enjoy Beyond The Grave regardless of, and perhaps even because of, it’s faults. For me it was a passable movie that lacked any real hook or intrigue to keep me entertained, or any of the trashy panache seen in niche zombie classics like Zombie Holocaust or any of the countless other equally good ‘bad’ movies.

The names William Hanna and Joseph Barbera are huge in the animation world. Creating icons of animation since the 1950s, their characters became engrained in the childhoods of many and are still regularly featured on Cartoon Network for the next generation of children to become familiar with the beloved stars of yesteryear. It makes sense, then, to bring the most popular Hanna-Barbera creations to the silver screen every once in a while, particularly after the commercial success of 2010s Yogi bear. The only problem however, is to decide whether to breathe new life into these traditional characters; modernising them to align with modern audiences or whether to maintain a sense of nostalgia; presenting these characters in the same way that made them so famous in the first place. Unfortunately, Top Cat attempts to do both but succeeds in neither, creating a curious mish mash of conflicting ideas that doesn’t quite know whether to be a throwback to the glory days of Hanna-Barbera or a modernised take on a classic.

Beginning like the Top Cat cartoon of old, the movie opens with a traditional montage of TC doing what he does best; scamming his way through New York City with confident swagger as the mischievous yet loveable back street alley cat. As a heady wave nostalgia sweeps over courtesy of the memorable theme tune and classic animation style, the early signs are indeed positive. Unfortunately, as the music stops and the film gets going, any expectation that this big screen adaptation would do ol’ TC justice steadily begins to dwindle.

The movie sees Top Cat and his gang of misfit felines, Benny, Choo Choo, Fancy Fancy, Spook and Brain, face off against a new narcissistic police chief who isn’t too happy with TC’s shenanigans or Officer Dibble’s inability to control him. As the new chief, Strickland, aims to police the city with an army of robot minions, it’s up to Top Cat and the gang to help Officer Dibble take his rightful place as New York’s chief of police. The characters themselves are lovingly portrayed like they always have been. The design of everything, from the grimy alleyways to the gang themselves, appear pretty much exactly as we remember and are a respectful nod to William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Aesthetically, then, the film really does hit the mark. Maintaining the visual charm of the original TV show, the 3D is subtle but effective, with traditionally crisp and colourful 2D illustrations popping out above the rendered 3D backgrounds. It is actually quite refreshing to see the instantly recognisable Hanna-Barbera style relatively untouched in a modern world where detailed CGI and mo-capped animation is the norm. Alas, as classic as the visual style of the movie is, everything else fails to maintain any sort of appeal. Admittedly, the story is far from groundbreaking, but as a film aimed solely at the children, it’s fair to expect such a bare bones hero versus villain tale complete with nonsensical hi-jinx and simple physical humour. There is however, a lack of appeal for the parents who will be forced to sit through 90 minutes of regurgitated jokes and annoying character voicing.

With studios like Pixar setting the standard for storytelling nowadays, the story Top Cat: The Movie tells and the jokes that litter it just don’t seem relevant anymore. A more telling factor for this notion is that in a screening filled with children juiced up on free cartons of Um Bongo, I didn’t hear one shred of laughter at any point. These kids were either the most well behaved bunch in all the land or the humour they were being force fed just isn’t funny to them. As a result, it just all felt a tad patronising. It was clear that a few jokes were lost in translation (the film is actually Mexican and did perform well in its native country), but a curious inclusion of an unexplained solar eclipse gag that made no sense and a villain that is downright annoying made it seem that the writers were scraping the very bottom of the comedy barrel in their attempt to revive TC as a comedic property. To help masquerade an inability to make Hanna-Barbera feel relevant, the film is bafflingly awash with an unnecessary and incessant inclusion of modern gadgetry that is just thrown in to say, “look, Top Cat can live in the 21^st Century”. Overall it just seems a very half hearted and cheap attempt to modernise a classic. Shamefully name checking GPS Trackers, MP3 players and a constant reference to modern surveillance is just bizarre more than anything, especially since the setting, characters and even design is all so respectfully portrayed in an old-school 60s style.

Essentially the film is 90 minutes of jokes lacking any real humour, a littering of absurd anachronisms and an animated villain that is one of the worst I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a shame really that Top Cat and his gang are lost in this alternate 1960s limbo. TC and his gang deserve better. **

Top Cat: The Movie will be released nationwide on June the 1st.

Vertigo is one of the most beloved films from the 20th century, considered by some to be Hitchcock’s masterpiece, it is an undeniably complex and dizzying marvel. So then, what could (or needs to) be added to this movie’s story? One answer comes in the form of The Testament of Judith Barton, a book by Wendy Powers and Robin McLeod that expands upon the character of Judy Barton, shifting to her perspective and in the retelling flesh’s out the character who remained, until now, a tragic mystery.

Judy Barton is often a little overlooked in Vertigo; the obvious assumption is that she’s damaged goods and possibly a mistress of Gavin Elster, used by him and then discarded. Her story is tragic yes, but largely the audience feels for the more manipulated victim Scottie, played fantastically by James Stewart, or even the unwittingly doomed Madeleine Elster. Until now I’d given very little thought to Judy’s backstory or motive and perhaps what is most successful about this book is how easily it alters your perception of Hitchcock’s film by cleverly highlighting the misfortune and folly of her character.

Going right back to the beginning of her life, The Testament of Judith Barton tells the story of Judy’s childhood in small town Salina Kansas, her growing up and moving to San Francisco, and then to her untimely demise tumbling from the San Juan Bautista clock tower. In the process of doing so it slowly layers up the motivational keys that help to explain how Judy ended up where she did: her fondness of jewels – in particular emeralds, a love of acting, the thrill of taking centre stage and becoming a character, the love and loss of her father, a weakness for older men, and the more obvious need for money. Suddenly there’s a greater picture of who she was and how she ended up being led to impersonate Elster’s wife to begin with.

This is not to say she isn’t culpable in the deceit of Scottie and the murder of Madeleine Elster – she makes some very stupid decisions, some of them out of desperation and a need for money, others perhaps from not questioning things enough – but the backstory creates a sympathy for Judy that perhaps wasn’t so readily present before. Her death is only more tragic in the knowledge of the loss of her father, her brush with success and the loss of another father figure in San Francisco, her loathsome treatment at the hands of Gavin Elster, and then the troubling transformation forced upon her by Scottie.

The Testament of Judith Barton is a welcome addition to the story created in Vertigo, it adds depth to a character that was not present before. Whilst this is true though, the story is more heavily weighted in the events that took place before the film’s timeframe, and when it does get into covering old ground it seems to proceed through the narrative events of the movie very quickly, perhaps too much so. It does manage to add a few extra tidbits to that storyline, thoughts and feelings of Judy’s, but very little in comparison to its earlier descriptions – arguably the film says enough so the book’s focus is elsewhere. Another thing it does succeed in doing is to push forward Gavin Elster who, whilst the instigator of the whole plot, is somewhat ancillary in Vertigo. This is not the case here; Elster is slimy, cruel, frightening, and a true villain through the eyes of Judy.

Since we know what’s going to happen (if you’ve not seen Vertigo why are you reading this, and more importantly what have you been doing with your life?) The Testament of Judith Barton has a sense of inevitability, but it’s the mystery of how we end up at that conclusion that makes the twists and turns of the story ever more compelling. This book is tightly written with an obvious reverence for the source material and for anyone who has seen Vertigo and perhaps wondered who Judy Barton really was this book is a must read.

Crime or Punishment?!? is a Japanese comedy about a pinup girl who is in love with a serial killer. Sort of. Well, maybe. Actually who knows… This movie is a massive interconnected web of unusual character interactions and bizarre story sequences that is difficult to define in any simple terms.

An opening sequence narration introduces a man called Kase, and just as we think he might be one of the films characters theres a surreal sidestep into murderous chaos and from there the movie devolves into a deranged juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated segments, flitting forwards and backwards through the story in a non-linear roller coaster of strange. Ayame Enjoji (Riko Narumi) is a, somewhat unsuccessful, pin up girl whose meltdown in a local supermarket somehow earns her the position of Chief of Police for 24 hours – from that frankly bizarre sentence you should be able to gauge that the reality meter on this film is broken, or more likely never existed.

Reluctant to take on the duties of the Chief of Police, Ayame is reunited with Haruki Onda (Kento Nagayama) someone she used to date and is now a detective. As if things weren’t odd enough the backstory between these two characters reveals that he has a penchant for brutally murdering girls, but its OK because it’s all quite hilarious… Naturally. This is a comedy, so rather than him being a dark monster who preys on and murders pretty women, he’s a ‘kooky’, bashful young man who just can’t help tearing them to shreds. One interlude actually has his mother and a psychoanalyst discussing his predilections in the foreground whilst in the background he tries to kill Ayame.

Ayame, though, is on his side and no matter how much he wants to turn himself in various other characters also seem happy to let him continue picking off women one at a time and help him to cover it up. Yes. This movie is bat shit crazy. Then there’s a robbery, a kidknapping, an unnecessary sequence involving urine, and various other oddities. It takes a while for any of it to make even a semblance of sense, but like the logic of complex systems seemingly small and irrelevant acts have a purpose when considered as part of the whole, and it takes until the end of the film to finally realise the big picture.

Crime or Punishment?!? takes cues from surrealism, having peculiar and out of place things appear on screen, for instance scantily clad pin up girls are rolled across the screen at one point and no one in the scene bats an eyelid. The movie takes the gamble of muddling everything up into a large surreal melting pot of crazy – both by messing with the linearity of the story, and by the inclusion of so many out of the ordinary things. It’s not immediately engrossing or entertaining nor is it flawless by any means, but if you stick with it there’s enough madness littered throughout for it to be funny and towards the end it’s impossible not to have enjoyed this kaleidoscope of lunacy.

Crime or Punishment?!? is available on DVD May 14.