This film is set just before the time of another much better film in the same location: LA Confidential. The contrast between the movies however could not be greater, whereas one was unique, subtle, dark and surprising, Gangster Squad is obvious, cartoonish, and badly written. All the characters speak in clichés only, all the scenes are clichés and the whole premise was taken from The Untouchables with even some of the same characters- The main difference being that everyone is unlikable in this film. The acting, costumes, props, special effects, cinematography etc. are all perfectly fine, it's just the boringly cliché writing and direction that destroys this film. That's not quite true about the acting, Ryan Gosling's bland face shows almost no emotion and his poorly enunciated speech is horrible for delivering lines. His performance here reminds me a lot of the character played by Simon Baker in LA Confidential.
Reviews
10 Reviews
Silent Hill
(2006)
Almost arty.
10 April 2013
As a game adaptation film this is apparently very good, however I haven't played the game so I'll have to judge this on its merits as a stand alone theatrical production.
Silent Hill is a mystery horror film. The mystery is sort of interesting and sort of compelling, till it's all mostly revealed near the end and we find that the driving plot was really pretty silly. As for the horror aspects; it's not scary but it IS gross.
Visually this is a lovely film. The scenes are beautifully shot, the sets are great, and the monsters are fantastic. The scene with the jerky bodied nurses was wonderful, I kept wanting a strobe light to play over them and techno blasting in the background. The constant eerie atmosphere created by the dulled light and twilit colour worked perfectly and gave the film a "waking dream" feel.
But, the story just couldn't match the clever visuals and the child actor that played the little girl roles wasn't convincing in any of them. They'd have done better to have an adult play the demon version with the child actor miming along. All in all a good looking film, but long and with a weak story, fine acting from all except the child.
Silent Hill is a mystery horror film. The mystery is sort of interesting and sort of compelling, till it's all mostly revealed near the end and we find that the driving plot was really pretty silly. As for the horror aspects; it's not scary but it IS gross.
Visually this is a lovely film. The scenes are beautifully shot, the sets are great, and the monsters are fantastic. The scene with the jerky bodied nurses was wonderful, I kept wanting a strobe light to play over them and techno blasting in the background. The constant eerie atmosphere created by the dulled light and twilit colour worked perfectly and gave the film a "waking dream" feel.
But, the story just couldn't match the clever visuals and the child actor that played the little girl roles wasn't convincing in any of them. They'd have done better to have an adult play the demon version with the child actor miming along. All in all a good looking film, but long and with a weak story, fine acting from all except the child.
Minority Report
(2002)
Well realised but flawed future thriller
31 March 2013
This is one of Spielberg's better films. It's a highly competent, Blade-Runneresque vision of the future that was highly influential in its depictions of gesture computing, personal transport, advertising, and people tracking. There are scenes here directly influenced by David Cronenberg and Ridley Scott. The atmosphere is tense and pace is handled very well throughout. The story is interesting in its treatment of precognition as a scientific crime-fighting tool. Spielberg does well to set up a convincing future world with a bizarre mystery at the center of the story.
Where things unravel is towards the end of the film. What begins as a clever, twisty tale with a very interesting and unusual concept, ends with a bog-standard and very tried trope which does not do the rest of the film justice. The final twist and reveal are extremely weak, not even to the level of a weekly TV detective story. It's a disappointing flaw in an otherwise exciting and thought provoking SciFi thriller.
Where things unravel is towards the end of the film. What begins as a clever, twisty tale with a very interesting and unusual concept, ends with a bog-standard and very tried trope which does not do the rest of the film justice. The final twist and reveal are extremely weak, not even to the level of a weekly TV detective story. It's a disappointing flaw in an otherwise exciting and thought provoking SciFi thriller.
Lord of War
(2005)
Artistically beautiful
3 March 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Lord of War is cartoonish movie with a serious message delivered with dark comedy, exaggerated scenes, and wonderfully artistic visuals.
All in all it's a good film to educate people on the morality of arms dealing and give you a very broad brush caricatured look at the practice. In reality someone of Yuri's level would never, ever leave his city, let alone ever meet his clients in person- Those people have middlemen up the wazoo... but by illustrating a direct connection it gets the point across easier.
Some negatives- His pretty-boy brother was a little too much. The collapse of the sweet, innocent, handsome blue-eyed boy because of the bad things his nasty big brother Yuri did was simply over-egging the pudding. Also, the scene with Yuri's wife finding out "the truth" in the "wife discovering the Other Woman" type fashion was a bit TOO silly.
All in all it's a good film to educate people on the morality of arms dealing and give you a very broad brush caricatured look at the practice. In reality someone of Yuri's level would never, ever leave his city, let alone ever meet his clients in person- Those people have middlemen up the wazoo... but by illustrating a direct connection it gets the point across easier.
Some negatives- His pretty-boy brother was a little too much. The collapse of the sweet, innocent, handsome blue-eyed boy because of the bad things his nasty big brother Yuri did was simply over-egging the pudding. Also, the scene with Yuri's wife finding out "the truth" in the "wife discovering the Other Woman" type fashion was a bit TOO silly.
Any Questions for Ben?
(2012)
painful, expensive, bad
22 February 2013
There are nice views of Sydney and the characters aren't overly ocker like they tend to be in some Aussie films. Those are the positive things I have to say about this movie.
Any Questions for Ben is tedious, to put it simply. It's a story of a wealthy, successful "27 year old" (looks late '30s at least), and his little mid-life crisis. Similar in some ways to "Bliss", but as if it was written by a marketing executive. None of the characters except for Ben have any depth or reality, little of the dialogue really fits their personalities or the situations, and few of the actors are convincing in their roles apart for Lachy Hulme as Ben's friend Sam, who was pretty believable as his character.
I was astounded by the obvious expense on show for such a limited story- top tier sports cars, locations galore, extras, helicopter shots all over the place, and last but not least all the music, a lot of it big hit songs. And that was another one of the issues: Massive hit songs like Time of the Season by the Zombies simply wasted on boring reaction shots. There was such an obvious attempt to add depth and feeling to very empty scenes with iconic songs that the emptiness of the scene was highlighted rather than disguised.
There were some good ingredients here and a lot of obvious quality film making skill, but the writing was just so underdone and superficial.
Any Questions for Ben is tedious, to put it simply. It's a story of a wealthy, successful "27 year old" (looks late '30s at least), and his little mid-life crisis. Similar in some ways to "Bliss", but as if it was written by a marketing executive. None of the characters except for Ben have any depth or reality, little of the dialogue really fits their personalities or the situations, and few of the actors are convincing in their roles apart for Lachy Hulme as Ben's friend Sam, who was pretty believable as his character.
I was astounded by the obvious expense on show for such a limited story- top tier sports cars, locations galore, extras, helicopter shots all over the place, and last but not least all the music, a lot of it big hit songs. And that was another one of the issues: Massive hit songs like Time of the Season by the Zombies simply wasted on boring reaction shots. There was such an obvious attempt to add depth and feeling to very empty scenes with iconic songs that the emptiness of the scene was highlighted rather than disguised.
There were some good ingredients here and a lot of obvious quality film making skill, but the writing was just so underdone and superficial.
American Pop
(1981)
Long and pointless, but well acted with some good scenes
20 March 2012
Warning: Spoilers
A Ralph Bakshi rotoscoped film. It's long and pretty pointless really, but well acted with some good scenes.
The story follows the line of a Jewish boy who escapes the pogroms in the old imperial Russian states with his mother and moves to the USA. All through the years this man and his heirs are peripherally linked to the pop scene and also the petty organised crime scene, running illegal booze, selling pot, supplying cocaine etc. They're all apparently talented performers or songwriters or whatever, but only the last one of them ever really makes it at the very end...
So it gives you a bit of an interesting perspective into the American pop scene through the years from the angle of the grubby drug scene that has always clung onto the outside of it... but no real reason as to why. We just meander from one generation to the next, you never really identify with or understand any of the protagonists, then we get to the last guy who has the shortest screen time and the least established connection to the whole generational thing and then it's suddenly all over.
The only other thing of note is that the journey (in the US at least) begins on the East coast, heads west and then ends up where it began in the east again, but not even that is that big a deal.
It's one of those films where you wait for something cool to happen, all the way through, thinking "any minute now...". It never does.
The story follows the line of a Jewish boy who escapes the pogroms in the old imperial Russian states with his mother and moves to the USA. All through the years this man and his heirs are peripherally linked to the pop scene and also the petty organised crime scene, running illegal booze, selling pot, supplying cocaine etc. They're all apparently talented performers or songwriters or whatever, but only the last one of them ever really makes it at the very end...
So it gives you a bit of an interesting perspective into the American pop scene through the years from the angle of the grubby drug scene that has always clung onto the outside of it... but no real reason as to why. We just meander from one generation to the next, you never really identify with or understand any of the protagonists, then we get to the last guy who has the shortest screen time and the least established connection to the whole generational thing and then it's suddenly all over.
The only other thing of note is that the journey (in the US at least) begins on the East coast, heads west and then ends up where it began in the east again, but not even that is that big a deal.
It's one of those films where you wait for something cool to happen, all the way through, thinking "any minute now...". It never does.
Screamers
(1995)
A quite impressive but obviously flawed film
13 March 2012
There are two sides at war, but the war is winding down, it looks like one side has won, and the other side wants a truce... The trouble is that the autonomous weapons systems that the winning side deployed (called "screamers") and which helped them win, have other ideas. It stars Peter Weller, from Robocop.
On the face of it, this looks like it'll be a by the numbers crappy scifi thriller horror with paper thin characters and wooden acting, and at best some testosterone fueled action movie sequences... That's what I thought anyway. I was very wrong.
The acting was all extremely well done, especially by Weller. I was very impressed. Very good performances by all. The filming was atmospheric and well shot. Sets were great, props and costumes too. The story was full of emotion, it was thought provoking and well acted. This was an intelligent film!
It was let down in two areas: 1. For most of the film the effects were very cheap, contrasting with the quality of the rest of it. 2. They lent a little too much on the cheap thriller aspect in parts of it, especially at the very end. It detracted a little from the intelligent themes and great acting. It's almost as if there were two competing forces at work: Highly competent, professional, pro, A-list film makers VS some strange incompetent cretin who BADLY wanted it to be a B-film. So it was flawed.
On the face of it, this looks like it'll be a by the numbers crappy scifi thriller horror with paper thin characters and wooden acting, and at best some testosterone fueled action movie sequences... That's what I thought anyway. I was very wrong.
The acting was all extremely well done, especially by Weller. I was very impressed. Very good performances by all. The filming was atmospheric and well shot. Sets were great, props and costumes too. The story was full of emotion, it was thought provoking and well acted. This was an intelligent film!
It was let down in two areas: 1. For most of the film the effects were very cheap, contrasting with the quality of the rest of it. 2. They lent a little too much on the cheap thriller aspect in parts of it, especially at the very end. It detracted a little from the intelligent themes and great acting. It's almost as if there were two competing forces at work: Highly competent, professional, pro, A-list film makers VS some strange incompetent cretin who BADLY wanted it to be a B-film. So it was flawed.
Spring Break
(1983)
Bellow average for the genre
20 February 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Even as a boobs& bikinis comedy it was dull. There were far more scantily clad men than women, which didn't improve things considering the genre of this film. The colour obviously wasn't that great on the film print either; everyone's skin is a bright angry red. The 80s styles are to be expected but no less horrible: men in short shorts with no shirt, white socks pulled up high and white tennis shoes, topped off with a boofy butt-head hairstyle.
The plot was exactly the same plot as all films of this genre, with no elaboration or clever twists: Young men go on holiday to get away from parents and "get laid". stay at cheap hotel, a corrupt developer wants to close hotel to build a resort (or something), the young men vow to help save the place. They DO save it and the nerdy one finds his true love/lust partner, everyone parties.
Characters were thin, performances were at the same level as a late 70s porn movie- that isn't hyperbole either, it's an honest description.
The plot was exactly the same plot as all films of this genre, with no elaboration or clever twists: Young men go on holiday to get away from parents and "get laid". stay at cheap hotel, a corrupt developer wants to close hotel to build a resort (or something), the young men vow to help save the place. They DO save it and the nerdy one finds his true love/lust partner, everyone parties.
Characters were thin, performances were at the same level as a late 70s porn movie- that isn't hyperbole either, it's an honest description.
Reform School Girls
(1986)
This movie doesn't know what it's supposed to be
21 January 2012
It's a WIP movie: Women in Prison. In this "Reform School" the girls night time gear consists of g-string panties, lingerie, high heels... basically sexy to a silly degree. This has all the clichés you want, with nudity, violence, girl fights, all that sort of stuff. Wendy O Williams was great as the ultra violent gang leader Charlie. She also did great work on the sound track.
We know this is a WIP cliché film and the purpose is titillation and all that sort of stuff, but it didn't really seem clear to me. A lot of the violence was pretty brutal for the sort of movie it was and many of the scenes are quite realistic, with realistic, emotional performances from some of the key actors, which is quite at odds with that "women in Prison" titillation theme, especially when you have inmates incongruously wearing high heels, thigh high stockings and g-strings to bed!
It seemed almost like a bizarre mash-up of two different films that'd been crudely rammed together: You have Wendy O Williams and her gang of ultra-sexy, violent, tough girls, and the huge lumpy, hilariously sadistic and over the top Pat Ast as "Eddie" doing their very best to make it a sort of Rocky Horror Show ridiculous soft core romp (which would have been marvellous), VS this other theme with the sympathetic characters Jenny, Lisa and Dr Norton where it's a serious look at abuse of power and the horrible toll abuse takes on its victims- almost as it they're going for Cool Hand Luke or Full Metal Jacket sort of stuff...
That made a weird mix that didn't really fit together well at all. It's as if the film makers were trying to be too smart for the material.
We know this is a WIP cliché film and the purpose is titillation and all that sort of stuff, but it didn't really seem clear to me. A lot of the violence was pretty brutal for the sort of movie it was and many of the scenes are quite realistic, with realistic, emotional performances from some of the key actors, which is quite at odds with that "women in Prison" titillation theme, especially when you have inmates incongruously wearing high heels, thigh high stockings and g-strings to bed!
It seemed almost like a bizarre mash-up of two different films that'd been crudely rammed together: You have Wendy O Williams and her gang of ultra-sexy, violent, tough girls, and the huge lumpy, hilariously sadistic and over the top Pat Ast as "Eddie" doing their very best to make it a sort of Rocky Horror Show ridiculous soft core romp (which would have been marvellous), VS this other theme with the sympathetic characters Jenny, Lisa and Dr Norton where it's a serious look at abuse of power and the horrible toll abuse takes on its victims- almost as it they're going for Cool Hand Luke or Full Metal Jacket sort of stuff...
That made a weird mix that didn't really fit together well at all. It's as if the film makers were trying to be too smart for the material.
Gosford Park
(2001)
Cliché riddled and dull
27 December 2011
I saw this at a film festival when it originally came out. I came in with great expectations and left feeling cheated. Gosford park is full of every single cliché that has ever been raked over in a thousand British films, TV series, and even plays since the 1920's. It's much like Noel Coward's The Vortex crossed with a cheap made for TV Mrs Marple adaption. If you're interested in story lines focusing on British upper-class hypocrisy, murder mysteries, and the upstairs downstairs dynamic, I strongly suggest you skip this and go looking for a few good Mrs Marple TV adaptions, you'll certainly get a better class of writing.
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