It’s hard not to like a film that praises its writers as ‘the real heroes of this movie’. Ryan Reynolds has finally got this made after years of living in The Green Lantern’s shadow and he is brilliant as the verbose anti-hero. Deadpool gleefully subverts the superhero clichés, is self-referential and full of verbal gags.
The film gets off to a great start; I won’t ruin anything but let’s just say you’ll never listen to ‘Angel Of The Morning’ in the same way again. Told mainly through flashbacks we learn how Wade (Ryan Reynolds) became Deadpool. After meeting his soul mate in Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) he is then diagnosed with terminal cancer and reluctantly accepts help from a stranger to be tested on by the Weapon X program (which created Wolverine). A British doctor, Ajax, brings out the mutant in Wade but only by torturing and leaving him badly scarred. Wade, now blessed with regenerative powers and superior fighting skills, escapes the facility and vows to hunt Ajax down.
Deadpool’s antagonist, Ajax, is cartoonish bad and I think a film that aims to stand out from the superhero crowd could have given us a more memorable villain. However, T.J. Miller excels as the amusing friend of Deadpool, telling him when he takes off his mask: ‘You look like Freddy Krueger face-fucked a topographical map of Utah.’
You get the feeling that Deadpool has come around at exactly the right time.
There are too many superhero movies (and TV shows now thanks to Netflix), so this film has a lot of fun distorting the origin story mould. Reynolds constantly acknowledges the viewers, openly mocking every aspect of the film he inhabits. The juvenile humour does grow tiresome though and the constant breaking of the fourth wall threatens to pull us out of the story but for the most part Deadpool succeeds in giving us a new, albeit warped, perspective of a superhero film.
The last act adheres to the formula of previous Marvel films and, come the credits, you can’t help wishing the filmmakers had been a bit more risky with their choices, because they end up conforming to the superhero clichés that they were so desperate to subvert.
Point Break started with four lines of clunky exposition and didn’t really improve from there. I’m probably a bit biased, I loved the original Katheryn Bigelow film and after watching the trailer for this I was certain they’d ruined it. The original film stood out because of the characters. And without the charisma of Patrick Swayze and the intensity of Keanu Reeves this film becomes like any other action film, a bland combination of chases, shootouts and ridiculous stunts.
The story is not especially original; a young FBI agent, Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey) goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of robbers, led by the mercurial Bodhi (Edgar Ramirez). Whilst there, Utah’s loyalties are tested as he gets to know these criminals. Instead of locating the film on a Californian beach (like the original) we follow the gang around the globe as they try one crazy stunt after another in order to achieve the impossible eight tasks set by their late guru, Ono Osaki.
Point Break can boast to have some of the worst dialogue I’ve ever heard. It’s not just bad, it’s just so formulaic, so derivative that you wonder who actually thought lines like, ‘We can get these guys. I just need more time’ and ‘The only law that matters is gravity’ would sound good? In fact the dialogue was so poor at times I felt like I was watching a parody, I half expected Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg to appear to put us out of our misery.
Hollywood churn out sequels and remakes by the pound these days so it should come as no surprise that any vestiges of the original’s charm has been glossed over and replaced with beautiful scenery and one-note characters. It’s perhaps a sad reflection of Hollywood’s current mindset that they’d prefer to remake a film from twenty years ago rather than take a gamble on an original story.
None of the actors cover themselves in glory, especially not Ray Winstone who’s laboured performance seemed particularly desperate. I also felt like I was watching a clothes advert for many parts of the film. Highlighted in the arbitrary scene in which Utah and the gang decide to eat their dinner on an idyllic hillside. This film is meant to be about morally ambiguous criminals, not fashionable hipsters.
The only way I’d have enjoyed this and felt narratively engaged was if I cared about the characters. I didn’t. And that’s the films greatest flaw.
All in all, this is a carbon copy of the original but without the charm, intelligence or intensity. The films denouement was almost laughable it was so devoid of drama. Save yourself some money and re-watch the original. I wish I had done.
Vicious, the writing/directing debut of Somerset rising star Oliver Park, is an 11-minute anxiety attack, dread-soaked from start to finish. Make sure you watch it alone with the lights off and the sound up.
It’s late at night on a quiet residential street in Anytown, England. A woman – the credits identify her as “Lydia”, though she’s never referenced as such – has parked her car and is headed to her home. As she reaches the door, she notices the door is already slightly ajar. Gingerly pushing the door open, she calls a nervous “Hello?” into the silent gloom of the unlit house, and makes her way to the kitchen, where she appropriates a kitchen knife. She then proceeds to inspect the property room by room. Who’s in here? Is anyone in here?
Is any thing in here?
Anyone who has read one of Stephen King’s short story compilations or the works of HP Lovecraft – most of which are shorts – will be able to attest to the fact that, when done well, short-form storytelling fits the horror genre magnificently. No exposition or explanation. No background baggage. Not even any real reason is required for the nightmare being presented. All killer, no filler. That’s not to say that it’s easy, though. The creator of a bite-sized frightener only has a limited time and means with which to ratchet up the tension, or to get us to give a monkey’s for their protagonist. In the case of Vicious, Oliver Park knows what he’s doing and imbues his piece with a sense of great unease from the off, his slow camera movements through the long shadows of the house reminiscent of Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014) assisted by an unsettling soundscape score which ably keeps the sense of foreboding and despair as high as the heart-rate, even during the periods of relative inaction. Vicious is a gore-free ghost-em-up but when Mr. Park decides to pay off the suspense, he does so with considerable aplomb.
Vicious
So is Mr. Park an important new voice in the UK horror scene? Well it’s probably still a little early to say for sure, but the potential for just that is there, and there in spades. Another short – Still – is next up for him but if it’s as promising as Vicious, a feature-length debut cannot be far away. Then, we’ll see what we’ve got on our hands in Oliver Park. I’m watching with keen interest.
Released in 1999, Kikujirois something of a departure from the blood-soaked, action-packed affairs most often associated with its writer/director/star, the legendary “Beat” Takeshi Kitano. A quirky, offbeat and frequently improbable road trip, Kikujiro is also a warm, funny and melancholy tale of a young boy determined to find his mother and the hapless curmudgeon charged with looking after him, and it arrives on Blu-ray next week courtesy of Third Window Films.
Kikujiro
Masao (Yusuke Sekiguchi) is a 9 year-old boy, living with his grandmother in suburban Tokyo. She’s a pleasant lady but she has to go to work, leaving Masao to his own devices for much of the time. His father is dead, his mother… well, she’s “working away”, according to grandma. Masao wears the countenance of one too young and powerless to do anything but accept his lot.
Rooting through some drawers in search of a stamp, Masao finds a photograph of his mother, and an address. She lives in Toyohashi, 150 miles away. Packing his little bag in the way kids do (colouring books, pencils, a little over a tenner in cash), Masao takes off on foot to find her. He doesn’t get far before being robbed by some local teenage louts, but he’s saved by a friend of his grandma and former neighbour who, upon hearing Masao’s plan to visit his mother, instructs her husband Kikujiro (Kitano) to accompany him, giving him £300 for the trip. Kikujiro, a former low-level gangster with his prime far behind him, is a feckless waster and within a day he’s blown all of their money at the races, and from there it’s a 300-mile there-and-back hike in which Kikujiro and Masao encounter a variety of misfits and oddballs; mostly nice, some not so. To begin with, the destination is all that matters to Masao. None of it matters to Kikujiro at all. But, as they go along, it seems that the journey might be something they both needed…
Largely a straightforward road trip, Takeshi Kitano sprinkles Kikujiro with odd touches, bizarre dream sequences and episodes which don’t necessarily play into the typical tropes of the kid-centric buddy picture. Whilst this doesn’t always hit the mark – an early encounter for Masao with a child molester which wouldn’t work in a film of this nature if it was played straight is played for laughs instead, and it still doesn’t work – this approach keeps Kikujiro well clear of the mawkish and saccharine fare it might have become in less adventurous hands, and is to be applauded, although you may appreciate Kikujiro‘s charms more if you don’t ruminate for too long on the shaky premise, and just ride with it (I have a 12 year-old son. If my neighbour ever catches him attempting to abscond 150 miles on foot with no money, provisions or clue, I expect that neighbour to return him to me instantly, not hand him to a middle-aged spiv to assist him on his trip whilst lying to me about taking my son to the beach for the day).
Kikujiro
Third Window Film’s blu-ray presentation of Kikujiro in 1.85:1 is clean and artifact free, and colours are vibrant when they present themselves. If I were nitpicking I’d say that the picture resolution is a little on the soft side, though this I’m sure is a trait of the source negatives rather than a result of Third Window’s restoration. Besides, this isn’t Avengers: Age of Ultron. Bleeding edge resolution is not a priority here. The 2-channel DTS-HD Japanese audio sounded perfectly crisp and clear on my soundbar (the score – particularly the piano-driven main theme – by Joe Hisaishi was tearjerkingly sweet and evocative, and a highlight of the movie). The English subtitles were visible throughout and were never out of sync. The extras are limited to just the one “Making Of” feature but it’s huge – over 90 minutes – and even though it’s basically a collage of raw behind-the-camera footage, it’s never dull and frequently funny.
Overall then, Kikujiromight not be to everybody’s tastes and fans of Takeshi Kitano, looking for an adrenaline fix from the man who brought them Violent Cop, Boiling Point and Hana-Bi, may well be bemused to find nothing of the sort here. But if you’re after an easy-going left-of-center tale which is sad, sweet, funny and odd all at once, Kikujiro would be well worth your time.
Third Window Films’ Blu-ray presentation of Kikujiro is out 22/02/2016.
Two 4 One is Canadian writer/director Maureen Bradley’s debut feature film.
After directing and producing over forty short films, this is a stunner, and has been recognised with many nominations and awards. The film is a quirky love story, mostly concerned wih humanity and honesty. If that sounds cheesy, it’s not.
The film tells the story of a man named Adam, played by Canadian actor and comic Gavin Crawford. Along the way we meet his ex-girlfriend Miriam (Naomi Snieckus) and his mother, the extraordinarily balanced Franny (Gabrielle Rose) as well as an interesting array of workmates, medical staff and miscellaneous friends and debt-collectors. A great laugh-out-loud introduction sets the pace for a funny and sincere look at how we go about living authentic lives. I can’t describe the rest of the story because its core rests on a gradual revelation, which I want you to have the pleasure of discovering by yourself. But if you can’t wait, then just have a look at the trailer.
Filmed in just 15 days, the confident pace portrays Adam’s life as he comes to grips with what it means to be a man, or as he describes it: “This is about me becoming the person I’ve always been”. His many endearing qualities, best shown in the scenes with his mother, are what make him such a likeable character and this, such a watchable film. Bradley’s excellent script and its dramatic irony, willingly takes the spectator along for an emotionally intriguing and humorous ride.
