film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Alton Williams

  • Guilty Pleasures: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen


    Poor Sean Connery, he turned down the roles of Morpheus in ‘The Matrix’ and Gandalf in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ because he didn’t “understand” the scripts, then, when each film came out and became the biggest movie of the year he felt, understandably, stupid. So, chose to accept whatever big effects-heavy script he didn’t understand that came his way…

    When producer Don Murphy was working on the Alan Moore adaptation ‘From Hell’ he contacted Moore to discuss any projects the writer was currently working on. Moore told him about a comic he and artist Kevin O’Neill were polishing about, essentially, a Victorian superhero squad, kind of like the ‘Justice League’ of literature. Murphy was instantly excited and snapped up the rights to adapt that immediately.

    Stephen Norrington the director of sleeper hit ‘Blade’ was brought on as director, the cast began to take shape, sets got built, the usual malarkey…

    For me ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ (or ‘LXG’ as the marketing department tried to sell it) is a film that I find watchable solely because I love the concept and the potential inherent in it, it’s just a cool idea that these icons of fiction all teamed up and solved mysteries, fought evil, had dinner, etc. I’ve never read Moore’s comic, and should because it’s undoubtedly going to tell a better tale than the ghastly screenplay from James Dale Robinson (himself a comic book writer); it’s unsurprising to learn that the film and comic differs, but due to Murphy’s haste to develop Moore’s brilliant idea the production of this movie began before the graphic novel had even been released.

    There are some positives with the film as it is, the opening sequence on Victorian cobblestones as clueless British bobbies try to face off against a primitive tank, and the ensuing montage of events trying to drum up a World War is reasonably well executed. But this sense of momentum is sorely lacking in the rest of the film.

    The art direction is lovely, with sets and costumes benefitting from the film’s $78million budget. Norrington’s choice to use model work over CGI was wise; though the scale of Nemo’s Nautilus doesn’t make the right impact, and the near-destruction of Venice falls flat, but this are the more the failings of the edit than the craft involved. Indeed, the film feels like a bit of a hatchet job and perhaps by the end of a tumultuous production Norrington was too exhausted to fight for his vision.

    Connery and the director battled throughout the shoot, and Connery had the creative sway – and a producer’s credit – to have details changed, such as excising the plot of Quartermain being an opium addict when we first meet him, as is the case in the comic. Would he have stopped Gandalf from partaking of the pipeweed? Or would he have curbed Morpheus’ addiction to cakes?*

    Though Connery was signed to a three-picture contract he announced his retirement from acting after ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’, it’s the last time Connery has been on screen and prompts me to hope he maybe makes one last comeback for an appropriate swansong. If ‘LXG’ had worked it would have been a fitting end to Connery’s career, featuring a surrogate father-son story between Quartermain and Tom Sawyer (a character written in to help appeal to American audiences), a bittersweet character arc that references death and fading in time and ultimately features Quartermain’s funeral as the film’s closing scene. (Though there’s a strong suggestion, as Connery’s contract commitment makes clear, that Quartermain wasn’t quite 100% dead yet…) The film also made reference to the James Bond era, naming the man sending the League out on their mission ‘M’, which is revealed to stand for Moriarty, and involves Richard Roxborough suddenly adopting a really cheesy Laaandaaaan accent. But the film’s a shambles, so, Sean goes out with a whimper not a bang.

    The rest of the cast are so-so, as mentioned Roxborough pops in and out occasionally playing varying degrees of rubbish villain. The League features Indian actor Naseerudin Shah lending a great deal of charm and dignity to his portrayal of Captain Nemo; Peta Wilson – who was brought in when Monica Belluci dropped out – as Mina Harker, who has vampire powers (another departure from the comic, which also has Mina as the League’s leader); Tony Curran providing disappointing ‘comic’ relief Rodney Skinner, a thief who stole an invisible man formula; Stuart Townsend looking good but acting dull as Dorian Gray; Shane West playing the token American; Jason Flemyng delivering a fine performance as Dr. Jerkyll and Mr. Hyde (a really fun looking prosthetic suit). Sadly the team don’t really get much of a chance to develop camaraderie or even rivalries other than Connery telling them off a bit.

    I guess the problems with the film are similar to those of the first ‘X-Men’ in that there’s so much to establish and in such a compact running time, in order to get enough showings per day to warrant a sequel. But what kept ‘X-Men’ afloat was the chemistry between its players, and it was there, buried away between the cast of ‘LXG’ because Tony Curran and Jason Flemyng’s commentary on the DVD is an absolute hoot! But it doesn’t show on screen, which is the film’s biggest crime, because audiences needed to want to spend time with these characters, and then really regardless of the story they’d be happy to come back and see them again for hopefully the film’s equivalent of ‘X:2’.

    Maybe one day in the future someone will reboot this adaptation, realising the concept with all the potential it has seemingly oozing from every pore that’s so lacking in Norrington’s film; his experiences on the picture were enough for him to also retire from film directing, though he’s finally crawling back out of the woodwork with a new adaptation of James O’Barr’s ‘The Crow’. For me, if it’s on the box, I’ll always be happy to sit through ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’, but every time I watch it I’ll always hope that some secret magic has occurred and, this time around, it’ll be the film I hoped it was before I saw it for the first time.

    *That may be a lie.

    © BRWC 2010.

  • Film Review with Robert Mann – Going The Distance

    Going the Distance **

    In real life, Drew Barrymore and Justin Long’s on again/off again romance has been the subject of celebrity gossip in the glossy rags for quite some time. Now, with the release of romantic comedy Going the Distance, their real life relationship troubles have been translated to the big screen. A romantic comedy that is clearly trying to be relatable to moviegoers by dealing with an issue that many couples face in real life
    – the long distance relationship – this is certainly a film that has the potential to distinguish itself from the many predictable romantic comedies coming out of Hollywood, even if it will be considerably less relatable to British viewers than American ones – to a Brit a long distance relationship may mean being separated by a few hundred miles, to an American on the other hand, it’s probably more like a few thousand – and with the usual suspects missing from behind the camera – director Nanette Burstein has not only never directed a romantic comedy before but has also never directed a fictional film before, her past movies all being documentaries, among them 2008’s American Teen, 2002’s The Kid Stays in the Picture and 1999’s On the Ropes – there is certainly the promise of something a bit fresh and different. But, like the saga of Barrymore and Long’s real-life on/off relationship, does the film prove tiresome, or is it truly worth going the distance with this one?

    When Erin (Drew Barrymore) hooks up with Garrett (Justin Long), neither of them expects their happy fling to outlast the summer. But when Erin heads home to San Francisco and Garrett stays behind for his job in New York, they realise they don’t want it to end. Garrett’s friends Box (Jason Sudeikis) and Dan (Charlie Day) don’t like losing their drinking buddy to yet another rocky romance, and Erin’s protective married sister Corrine (Christina Applegate) isn’t too pleased either. But despite the massive distance, the doubting friends and family and a few unexpected temptations, Erin and Garrett manage to find something that feels a lot like love. And with plenty of texting, ‘sexting’ and late-night phone calls, their unlikely relationship might actually be able to go the distance…

    Considering that the director of Going the Distance comes from a documentary background you could be forgiven for expecting something innovative or insightful. Sadly, this film is neither. Like last year’s He’s Just Not That Into You (which, incidentally, also starred Justin Long and Drew Barrymore) this is a film that deals with serious real life relationship issues and one that certainly could have made some very interesting and humorous observations about long distance relationships. Instead, however, this is a film that is as tired and predictable as many a romcom, virtually every situation that arises being obvious and the outcome being completely predictable. This predictability might not be a problem if the film was at least charming but a tendency towards adult gross-out style humour lacking any sense of sophistication or class and a screenplay that is laden with needlessly filthy dialogue – some of the conversations between Garrett and his friends are more cringe worthy than they are funny – mean that charm is something that is in very short supply here. It doesn’t help that most of the humour isn’t even funny, the film only occasionally raising any laughs and then not big ones. Simply put, the film fails to bring on the funny and even attempts to leech off classic funny scenes from other films/TV shows fail – there is a spray tan scene reminiscent of a certain scene from Friends, only nowhere near as funny. This tiredness is evident elsewhere in the film as well with touches such as text messages between Garrett and Erin appearing on the screen for us to see being largely redundant and the founding early weeks of their relationship being rushed through in montage form. Fortunately, the film has a few saving graces. If you look past all the needless filth, the storyline at the heart of the film is solid and the performances from the leads are virtually faultless, even if it is perhaps less acting and more them just being themselves. Justin Long and Drew Barrymore have a terrific chemistry and just seem natural together on screen, being completely convincing as a madly in love couple. There is a real spark between them from the very first moment that their characters meet and they also convince as their relationship hits a rocky patch, perhaps drawing from their real life on/off relationship. They are also solid individually, Long being an amusing and likable everyman type and Barrymore being a very strong willed and independent romantic interest. Solid support is also provided by Christina Applegate, who makes a perfect neat freak, as well as Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day. All this, however, is not enough to save the film from mediocrity and while the strong chemistry between Justin Long and Drew Barrymore provides a solid foundation, director Nanette Burstein’s complete lack of experience in the field of comedy shows. So, Going the Distance is just about watchable and if you do see it you may as well go the distance and sit through to the end but it is clear that the filmmakers themselves haven’t really gone the distance by making a film that is anything other than yet another mediocre Hollywood romantic comedy.

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    Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

    © BRWC 2010.

  • DVD Review: Kandahar Break: Fortress Of War.

    It’s 1999, two years before Afghanistan will experience the violence of Western liberation, and the Taliban still exert a draconian grip on the people. Working for a private firm, two Englishmen (Shaun Dooley and Dean Andrews) are contracted to sweep the war-ravaged Afghan deserts for mines. When one of them falls foul of the local police chief, all hell breaks loose, and a manhunt ensues.
    Dealing with as controversial a subject as the rules with which the Taliban governed Afghanistan for so long could have been difficult, so it’s to director David Whitney’s credit that Kandahar Break feels neither like a leftist social commentary or a conservative warning. Rather, it boils down to a man risking his life (and the lives of others) simply for love. While that might sound like the synopsis for any retch-worthy rom-com or weepy drama, Kandahar Break is of interest because of where it is set. When mine-sweeper Richard Lee (Dooley) returns to the country to seek out a local woman he fell in love with (the pretty Tatmain Ul Qulb), he can’t simply sweep her off her feet. He can’t even be seen alone with her in the street, lest the archaic police force, led by a corrupt chief, stone her to death.
    This dilemma is added to the fact that coming to Afghanistan to remove mines is like… well, treading on a mine-field. No sooner is Lee back in the country and he’s being fired on by tribesmen, having AK47’s routinely pointed at him and seeing an indigenous helper step on a mine. Clearly, it’s a dangerous place to be. So dangerous in fact that IMDB informs us that the crew were shot at while filming on the Afghan/Pakistan border, forcing production to relocate to Tunisia.

    Afghanistan’s jagged, orange deserts act as a suitably memorable backdrop, and some of the shots really evoke the dry, dustiness of the place. It’s a shame then that some other scenes feel more like budget TV serial, particularly a moonlit car getaway that feels, for want of a better word, a bit Heartbeat-y. Both leading men are suitably blokey and British, with Dean Andrews (Ray from Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes) providing a familiar face, while first time actress Tatmain Ul Qulb more than proves herself as Lee’s love interest, Jamilah.
    Ultimately, the film’s pace suffers a little once Lee is on the run, with many scenes of him scrabbling around on mountains feeling like unnecessary bulk. The ‘thrill of the chase’ isn’t quite there. It does however provide an interesting look at pre 9/11 Afghanistan, reflecting a time when you or I had probably never heard of the Taliban, despite their grip on the country. As for the subtitle Fortress of War? No idea…

    © BRWC 2010.

  • What’s Up Lovely

    What's Up Lovely

    Writer/director Gary King has gone more experimental whilst pushing boundaries and switching genres. A musical is in the works and a zombie piece is out soon. 

    This film, What’s Up Lovely is his latest…

    Luci (Jenn Dees) wanders around a lonely, quiet New York City looking for something, after she lost her phone centre job.  

    That’s the plotline really, It is weird, creepy, humorous, heart warming…

    It’s film that gives you a little and it’s up to you to piece it together and find out what you think of Luci.  You don’t get many films like that.

    Gary King has made a great piece, and folk are mentioning with in the same breath as Kubrick or Gilliam.

    That can only be a good thing.

    © BRWC 2010.

  • Film Review with Robert Mann – Tamara Drewe

    Tamara Drewe ***½

    Comics – they’re not all about superheroes you know. Case in point, Tamara Drewe, Posy Simmonds’ weekly comic strip published in The Guardian (and also released in its entirety as a hardcover graphic novel) which, based on Thomas Hardy’s nineteenth century novel Far from the Madding Crowd, follows the exploits of a young newspaper journalist –
    the eponymous Tamara Drewe – who returns to her childhood home in the countryside, a concept that really is about as far removed from the typical comic/graphic novel fare as you could possibly get with a heroine who’s just as non-super. Now, Tamara Drewe has been adapted as one of 2010’s most high profile home grown British movies under the direction of Oscar nominated biographical drama ‘The Queen’s director Stephen Frears and with the title role going to the much in demand British actress Gemma Arterton who is returning to her British roots after playing prominent roles in recent Hollywood blockbusters Clash of the Titans and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Getting down and dirty in the country is the name of the game here so the question is whether the film is worth getting your wellies out.

    Once a big-nosed, awkward teenager and now a glamorous newspaper journalist, Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton) returns to the scene of her adolescence as her family home in the English countryside is put up for sale. Only this time she’s all grown up – and she’s had a nose job to boot! The ugly duckling transformed, Tamara’s arrival causes a stir among the local busybodies, receiving quite a reaction from ex-boyfriend and local eye candy Andy (Luke Evans) and married lothario Nicholas (Roger Allam), whose wife Beth (Tamsin Greig) is starting to grow tired of his constant playing away. Nicholas and Beth’s home is also a writer’s retreat and, among the writers staying there, American writer Glen (Bill Camp) begins to grow close to Beth as her marriage is falling apart. Meanwhile, Tamara begins to get reacquainted with her teenage home in more ways than one as she has a series of affairs, in particular with celebrity bad-boy drummer Ben Sergeant (Dominic Cooper) whose band is doing a concert there. This eyeliner-wearing heartthrob is the obsession of teenage girls everywhere, and in particular two meddlesome local schoolgirls – Jody (Jessica Barden) and Casey (Charlotte Christie). These troublesome teens are hell-bent on creating all sorts of chaos for Tamara – something that can only be made worse by Tamara herself.

    Coming across essentially like a filthier feature length version of television soap Emmerdale, Tamara Drewe is a film that is hardly original or innovative. After all, many of the antics on display by not only Tamara but most of the film’s characters are just the sort of thing you would be likely to see on a certain aforementioned soap opera. Of course this film offers much higher quality than you would expect to find in a television soap, even if it isn’t of quite the standard you might expect given the credentials. This is a film that wears all the sex and sleaze within on its sleeve but far from appealing to the lowest common denominator it actually manages to maintain a degree of sophistication and comes across as quite smart in fact, the risqué nature of the film never being used for the sake of cheap laughs but rather realistic character based situations. You see, this isn’t one of those American comedies about sex and stuff, rather a British one and with that comes a certain style of humour, the comedy on display here being of a very British sense of humour. Embracing all the quirks of life in the British countryside and placing character orientated situations at the heart of the comedy as opposed to lame gags, the film is packed full of British wit, the dialogue frequently being very funny and there being some genuine laugh out loud moments within some of the situations that arise. Obviously a lot of this can be attributed to strong writing by Moira Buffini – the dialogue sounds authentic, incorporating country lingo and packed full of wit, and the characters are very well developed with flashbacks showing us Tamara’s childhood, occasional voiceover narration giving us insight into what some of the characters are thinking and even fantasy sequences allowing us to see the desires of some players – and direction by Stephen Frears but the thing that really makes it all work is the acting and in this regard the film is faultless with great character being brought to vivid life by great performances. Gemma Arterton is perfectly cast in the titular role, even though her screen time is not as great as you would undoubtedly expect – the film may be called Tamara Drewe but in reality it is more of an ensemble piece, her being the character who links everyone together but not really getting that much more screen time than anyone else and not even appearing for a short while at the start with other characters being developed before she even turns up – and her balance of naughty and nice makes for a performance that is amusing as it is believable and a character who is more than just the tart who she may appear to be to some. Her relationships with her co-stars are all completely convincing with her sharing a genuine chemistry with each of her romantic interests and each of them delivering a strong performance in their own right. Luke Evans is sweet, charming and charismatic as the virtually selfless country guy, Dominic Cooper is suitably rough around the edges as the somewhat more self absorbed famous drummer and Roger Allam is perfectly slick as the married older man who just can’t stay away from the younger girls. Elsewhere in the cast, Tamsin Greig delivers a very emotional performance as the wife whose marriage is falling to pieces despite her attempts to keep it alive and Bill Camp is amusing as the American writer who tries to comfort her. The show is really stolen, however, by the double act of Jessica Barden and Charlotte Christie who, as the troublesome foul mouthed teenage girls Jody and Casey, deliver perhaps the funniest performances in the film, even if it is a tad troubling to see such young girls acting out in such a way. For all the great performances on display, however, the film is not perfect. While the ensemble approach does work for the most part with the multiple interconnecting plot strands/character arcs each being well developed and eventually coming together as one (all through the connections between characters created by Tamara Drewe herself), at times it does feel like there’s perhaps a few strands too many and perhaps a more focused narrative would have been of benefit to the film as a whole. The film is also rather long winded and seems like something that would have lent itself better to a television mini-series rather than a movie such as this. So, Tamara Drewe is not the amazing film you may expect given the track record of the director but it is nonetheless an enjoyable piece of British cinema that also boasts a 100% British soundtrack and has a superb backdrop courtesy of the beautiful countryside locations. Suffice to say, if you like Emmerdale you will definitely like this film.

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    Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)


    © BRWC 2010.