Tuesday 15 June 2010

In Memory Of Stan Winston


A moment to remember "Stan Winston" who sadly passed away two years ago today, A true genius who created visual magic in films such as "Predator","Aliens", "Jurassic Park", "Avatar","Iron Man" and "The Terminator" series amongst many other great movies. You opened the minds of a generation giving audiences a better film going experience thought the effects and creatures that you created, May your legacy continues through Stan Winston Studios.

Stan Winston (April 7th, 1946 - June 15th, 2008) Forever My Personal Hero.

Tuesday 8 June 2010

The Taking Of Pelham 123


"The Taking Of Pelham 123" is a 2009 thriller remake of the 1974 film of the same name directed by Tony Scott (Man On Fire) and stars Denzel Washington (Training Day) as Rail Control Center worker Walter Garber who is being investigated for allegedly taking a bribe, but all is not well in the Rail Control Center as a group of heavily armed men led by the mysterious Ryder (John Travolta - Pulp Fiction) take control of the 1.23 train to Pelham and hold its passengers hostage. Garber is then forced to negotiate with Ryder in order to save the lives of the hostages.


This is the latest Washington and Scott collaboration since their previous films such as Deja Vu, Man On Fire and Crimson Tide. Scott and Washington like Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe (Gladiator, American Gangster, Body of Lies, Robin Hood) prove to be an effective duo with many of the films they have collaborate on being financial successes, and highly enjoyable movies, so how does this remake hold up compared to these other collaborations?

Set in New York City the film is able to create a great contrast in tonal locations that the film is set, with the dark underground train tracks and control room contrasting from and the bright, busy streets of New York despite several seemingly unnecessary slow motion moments to highlight key details that seems to interrupt the flow of the movie, in the opening credits in particular.
A count down clock to the hostage deadline gives the film a mush needed sense of urgency as the plot progresses and helps build a tension as the two characters of Ryder and Garber come head to head.

Which brings us onto our characters themselves and the difference here is staggering, Washington's Gaber is a well portrayed every-man  a husband and farther who is simply doing his job when things go wrong and is then relied on to resolve the situation. Granted the character is given a shady back story in order to give the villain Ryder a reason to be fully open with him and make the character a little more three dimensional but overall Garber is a highly sympathetic and relate-able character, who is easy to root for as the film progresses.
Travolta on the other hand is far less effective as Train hijacker Ryder for a variety of reasons, the main problem is that the audience is supposed to fear that this character might harm the hostages as things go amiss but its hard to fear for them since the characters of the hijackers and the hostages hardly ever seems to interact with one another, Ryder is constantly located in the train cabin away from the hostages so you don't really think about them.

Another problem is that the character far to quick going from a fast talking cool guy to a screaming psycho that likes to say "Motherfucker" a hell of a lot, it just doesn't feel realistic and it gives off this almost cartoon villain effect, make no mistake when Ryder is calm, cool and plotting the character works well the problem is when the character becomes erratic the audience just doesn't buy it.

The film deals with its set up well since Garber is supposed to be a normal guy he cant run around performing action stunts as you would see from a film such as "Die Hard" so instead the film focuses more on the threats that come from talking to one another and what saying the wrong thing may result in for both characters.

When the action begins in the third act the film keeps the characters limitation in mind which prevents the realism running off down one of the tunnels, with Garber limited by his normality resulting in a chase scene rather than a series of gun battles that would have subtracted from the effectiveness of the character development in the first hour of the film.
So "Pelham 123" is a enjoyable enough film; not brilliant, not terrible.

The tension and atmosphere works well, the locations balance one another and Washington's Garber is well developed and likable even if Travolta's Ryder isn't, but this review is based on the fact that i have not seen the original and so is not a comparison meaning your opinion may be differ, but i believe that this film deserves a watch at least.

Friday 4 June 2010

Zombieland


In my last review I ranted on about Paul W.S Anderson and some of the terrible zombie films that he had created, in this review I'm going to give an example of a good zombie film.
Edgar Wright's 2004 film "Shaun Of The Dead" really opened the market for the Horror cross Comedy genre and created a new genre known as "ZomCom" and since then there has been a constant stream of similar films with some more successful than others and today and so today I'm going to discuss "Zombieland".

Directed by Ruben Fleischer it tells the story of four mismatched survivors of a zombie Apocalypse as they travel across the country towards a theme park, but all is not well in Zombieland (for obvious reasons) and the survivors must try to survive both the zombies and each other.

Lets jump straight in and discuss the characters to avoid forming connections or bonds to one another each charter gives the names of locations that are of relevance to the character , the film stars Woody Harrelson (2012) as Tallahassee a happy go lucky character so simply wishes to enjoy the little things and find Twinkie.
Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland) plays Columbus a cowardly, anal kid who has kept himself alive due to devising a list of 33 rules for surviving that becomes a running joke through out the film.
Emma Stone plays Wichita, Columbus's love interest who starts the film constantly outwitting and conning Columbus and Tallahassee as she takes her younger sister to the theme park to remind her of something normal and let her be a kid again.
And finally Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) plays Little Rock, Wichita's younger sister.
Also there is a special cameo appearance but i wont ruin it by going to much into it.

Now granted the jokes are few and far between but this film simply know what it is, lots of fun, it doesn't take it's self to seriously....in fact it doesn't take it self seriously at all, the jokes are funny and towards the climax a battle with the undead at a fair ground combines some amazing action sequences with some incredible special effects, the relationships between the characters is well developed and never rushed, the zombie effects are what we've come to expect from today's zombie films like the "Dawn Of The Dead" remake as zombies look better these days than ever and to mention the cameo again it is fun and yet doesn't feel forced or awkward and its impossible to say just how much fun this film is, it takes it self far less seriously than even "Shaun Of The Dead" did even cutting away to side gags like "zombie kill of the week", its these little breaks in the feature that keep the enjoyment flowing....basic what I'm trying to say is that through reviewing it I'm making it sound boring, but its not it is without doubt one of the funnest, light-hearted, enjoyable films I've seen, and you should see it to.