The herring

The herring is a fantastic film. I give it 9/10.

Jolly gosh.

"Stoned" : Stephen Wooley: 2005

Last nights DVD: a bio-pic based on the last weeks of Brian Jones, original Rolling Stones life.

Enjoyed this a lot. Thought Leo Gregory's lead role was excellent. A cast of lookalike actors and the use of mixed film stock to help capture the era all work to good effect. Certainly not a typical Rock Bio-pic thankfully !

Bomber

Batman Begins

Often the films which we most eagerly anticipate are the ones which disappoint us the most. This has all-too-often been the case in the past for me.

I had been looking forward to seeing Batman Begins since late 2004 when I first read about the cast and director involved. That being the case, I may as well get straight to the point: I was not disappointed with this film.

Christopher Nolan first made his name with Memento, and although Batman Begins is more mainstream and ‘polished’, it nevertheless has his stamp all over it, both in the well- put-together flashback sequences that make up the first third of the film, and in other parts too: this is no cheesy, slick, cartoony Spiderman-style film. This is Batman as he really would be yet, strangely, totally true to the comics.

The cast, as I said above, looked good on paper. However, there is always a fear when such a great array of famous actors is assembled that they play on their own fame, rather than simply act the part. That fear is more than quashed here, as just about everyone is superb.

I’m not usually the biggest Gary Oldman fan, but here he goes totally against the usual Oldman grain and is all the better for it as Gordon (who looks eerily similar to a young version of Gordon from the Batman animated series, a world away from the bumbling idiot of the Tim Burton Batman films). One scene that I particularly enjoyed was the one where Gordon leaves his house and finds Batman sitting on the steps above him. The mood and tone felt like it had been lifted directly from a comic book.

Christian Bale has been threatening to be a major star ever since, as a fresh-faced twelve year old, he was superb in the Empire of the Sun. Since then he has flirted with various cinematic disasters (Reign of Fire, anyone?) as well as some decent indie films (the Machinist) and the not-as-bad-as-its-made-out-to-be Equilibrium. Here, however, Bale takes his work to a new level. No doubt cynics will say, after watching this, that such a great talent is wasted on a character who they would presumably regard as being fit only for childrens’ cartoons, but Bale makes Batman, and Bruce Wayne, utterly believable and real. If a sequel is planned, they must make sure at all costs that he, and Oldman, return, because they are both so perfect for the parts.

The rest of the film is also star studded – Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine. I especially, of these, liked Caine as Alfred. Although playing the part very differently to Michael Gough in the older films, it worked perfectly in the context of Nolan’s darker, grittier take on Batman. Cillian Murphy is also great as Dr Crane/The Scarecrow, and will prove to be one of the better actors to come out of Ireland in some years.

Unlike many, I personally also thought Katie Holmes was fine. It is possible that next to such a great cast and with such a good script and director, Holmes looked like the weak link in comparison, but let’s face it: she is hardly comparable to, say, Jar Jar Binks, which is what some of the more crazed fans seemed to be suggesting.
If anything, were I to look for a fault in the casting, I would have to point to Tom Wilkinson as Carimine Falcone. Even as a non-American, I found his accent sounded rather fake and unconvincing.

I also loved the fighting scenes. Whilst they might seem, to some, ‘choppy’ and blurred, I thought this method worked amazingly well. Batman doesn’t use guns, but he is usually fighting people who do. He has to come in in a blur and take people out as quickly as possible, and the way the fights were done really conveyed that.

Whilst the last 30 minutes do veer into more conventional action film territory, I nevertheless enjoyed them hugely, and the previous sections of the film had built the characters up so well that I actually cared about them.

All in all, I would have to rank this as possibly the all-time greatest superhero film, and easily the best film of 2005 so far (and one of the best of the noughties yet)

10/10

Gangs of New York (2002)

Written by Jay Cocks
Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Starring - Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, Henry Thomas, Liam Neeson, Brendon Gleeson.

Based in New York, in Lower Manhattan's Five Points district in 1883. The story is about a young boy, Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) who watches his Father, Priest Vallon, (Liam Neeson), a Catholic Immigrant from Ireland, killed while fighting in a wild brawl against his rival, William 'Bill the Butcher' Cutting.

The Butcher is the leader of a gang called "the Natives" who believe they have a claim to the area because they were all born in the USA.
The Dead Rabbits as a gang is destroyed and never to be talked about by anyone in the Five points again.

After his Father is killed the young Amsterdam spends 12 years in a Orphanage and then as a young man is released and returns to the Five Points area. He bumps into a few old friends and eventually comes into contact with the Butcher.
Amsterdam becomes close to the Butcher who looks after the young man and teaches him how things are done. Amsterdam is getting close so he can kill the man who killed his Father.

Intertwined with the main story of the film is the sub plot showing the issues of the time, the Civil war, and it's relation to the freedom of the slaves. Scorsese brings this into the film as if what was going on in Five Points was a part of the whole of the history and birth of New York (America?), and in a way it was, but the same story could have been told in a different city in a different country anywhere in the world.
Call me a cynic but I fail to see how a couple of street gangs affected Abraham Lincoln's decision making.


Overall, Gangs of New York is quite a visually pleasing movie, nothing like a bit of blood and guts to add atmosphere ;-).
The Set and costumes were great. The designers obviously went into a lot of effort to get the detail of the era just right. It was a credit to the people who put it all together. The set and costume design both received Academy award nominations too btw.
It was filmed in Rome, Italy (Cinecitta Studios) ... who, in my opinion, did a great job.

I watched this Film not long after it was released and watched it again tonight, it's an OK film but I believe so much more could have been done with it, and Leanado De Caprio just doesn't do the tough guy bit very well. There's so many young male actors who could have played the part with a lot more plausibility. Johnny Depp, Edward Norton and Brad Pitt all would have been more suited to the part...But thats just my opinion.

If you haven't already seen the film it might be just the thing for a night in.

The Day After Tomorrow

Written and Directed by Roland Emmerich .

Starring -
Dennis Quaid
Jake Gyllenhaal
Emmy Rossum
Dash Mihok

I don't usually watch this type of movie (Hollywood disaster movie) unless it has had reasonably good reviews. This one didn't and to be honest the main reason I rented this movie was because 3 more movies only cost another 2 dollars and I've already watched most of the movies at the Video rental place, and this one had just come off the "Overnight" shelf and onto the "2 dollars a week" shelf ....So in the basket it went.

What was it like?
Basic plot ... A Climatologist all of a sudden finds out world is in danger, tells Government, they don't listen to him, he goes off to save the world from this climatic catastrophe and in the meantime his kid gets into danger, oh, and a couple of the main characters fall in love.
Hollywood disaster movies are just a bit too predictable.

If it weren't for the special effects this movie would literally have nothing to offer at all....The script was poorly written, in fact it was a slap in the face for anyone who likes a story with a plot. The main characters were one dimensional, there just wasn't anything you could really like or dislike about them and the story was completely disjointed with ridicules subplots.

I just get annoyed when these people make a film with a massive budget but still include scenes that look as though they have been written and shot at the last minute. It looks as though some of the scenes have been added just to fit in another Product Placement add. or something. The scene described below is one of those, it doesn't make sense and in a situation like the one the people were in, why risk everything when you don't have to?...Or the girl who cuts her leg, she leaves it until it has festered and she has blood poisening!...I mean c'mon ... she didn't even clean the wound when she went to the toilet? .... and considering there were first aid kits all over the place it seems even more unlikely. I don't mind a bit of Artistic licence but when there's no need for it why stretch a point so far that it actually spoils the movie? Why treat the paying audience like idiots?

So, we have a ship that has floated into Manhattan, the survivors split into 2 main groups, one group, the majority of the people, plan to walk south where it's warm and the other group, consisting of the son of the Climatologist and the girl with the cut in her leg decide to stay put. OK, the group that stays put needs food so he goes outside into the freezing weather to get some and while in this big freighter that floated down Manhattan they get attacked by these wolves that escaped from the Zoo...now, the people who are walking are dying in droves but of course the wolves don't go for easy pickings, they would rather risk their lives trying to attack the 2 healthiest and strongest survives left. That and a whole lot of other stuff just spoils a film that could have possibly had potential ....Anyway there were some OK special affects, but thats about it.
2 stars out of 10... only just.