“Less of a random killing machine, more of a personal statement”

Hello Everyone :-)

So where do you stand on James Bond? This MI6 shaped pillar of British cinema has divided audiences for many a year.
Me? I’m a fan. Admittedly some are better than others but I can’t help but like them. After the success re-boot of the franchise in 2006 with the fantastic ‘Casino Royale’ the saga floundered with 2008’s ‘Quantum of Solace’ that has flashes of brilliance but gets wrapped up in its own plot and is an unfortunate product of the Writers Guild of America strike. So, four years later it’s the 50^th Anniversary year of the James Bond series, Sam Mendes is at the helm and Daniel Craig is, once again, donning the tux of our favourite secret agent.

‘Skyfall’ follows Bond (Daniel Craig) in the wake of a mission where he is injured, presumed dead. Bond treats this near-miss as an opportunity to retire from duty until an explosion at MI6 headquarters pulls him back to MI6. The attack is thought to be a message for M (Judy Dench) from the enigmatic and dangerous Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) who is hell bent on revenge.

I listened to the always entertaining ‘Kermode and Mayo Podcast’ the other day. Al Murray and the ‘Oyds (Boyd Hilton and Nigel Floyd) were filling in for the Good Doctor and Mr Mayo the week after ‘Skyfall’ opened and Al Murray said (I’m paraphrasing) “If ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Quantum of Solace’ are post-Bourne Bond films, then ‘Skyfall’ is a post-Nolan Bond film”. In fact, some people have actually complained that ‘Skyfall’ has borrowed themes from ‘Dark Knight Rises’. IN WHAT WORLD IS THAT A BAD THING?!?!?! Whether or not ‘Skyfall’ was influenced by Nolan’s Batman Trilogy is irrelevant. Personally I think if we get two films of the same quality as DKR and ‘Skyfall’ every year I’ll be a happy girl.

The opening scene of ‘Skyfall’ is absolutely wonderful and shows films like ‘Taken 2’ exactly how to do a chase across the roofs of Istanbul. There is a moment in this first sequence that is included in the film’s trailer where Bond leaps onto the back of a train carriage as it is ripped open by a digger. He jumps, lands amidst the chaos and calmly adjusts the cuff of his shirt. It is a wonderful moment of pure cinema that signals a return to some of the more fantastical elements that have traditionally been present in Bond’s action scenes of old. I like that the film makers have catered for the section of the audience that feels that there should be a certain suspension of disbelief where Bond is concerned. This doesn’t just apply to action scenes either; the film makers have hit the perfect line between the recent gritty take on Bond and nostalgia for previous instalments of the series.

It isn’t just the action that is on point, the acting is too. ‘Skyfall’ continues Craig’s impressive run as Bond. I love his dark and brooding take on the character. He’s charismatic without being too comic, he’s serious without being too severe and he plays perfectly against the other performers.
There is a distinct lack of a traditional ‘Bond-Girl’ in ‘Skyfall’. Naomi Harris’s Eve is an interesting character whose identity is the worst kept secret ever, nevertheless I won’t drop any spoilers here. Bérénice Marlohe is a beautiful, if ultimately pointless, shot of oestrogen in the film but ultimately it falls to Judi Dench’s M to represent those of us lacking a Y chromosome.
It’s accepted that Dench is a massive spanner in the continuity of the Bond universe but that doesn’t stop her giving the performance of her Bond tenure in 'Skyfall'. When M quotes the poem ‘Ulysses’ during a parliamentary hearing I swear my Goosebumps had Goosebumps. She’s fantastic.
A little mention to NerdyRachelMay favourite Ben Whishaw, star of ‘The Hour’ and ‘The Hollow Crown’. If I didn’t have a crush on him before I definitely do now thanks to ‘Skyfall’. Whishaw is the physical embodiment of the franchise’s move forward into more modern, relevant movie making. He is young, clever, pithy, has a playful on-screen chemistry with Craig and a face that makes me melt… but enough of my ridiculous crushes.
Question: Can you remember the names of the villains in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace? I know I can’t, not without consulting Professor Wikipedia. Aside from the fact that he has already played one of the most terrifying on-screen antagonists I have ever seen, casting Javier Bardem as Silva was a stroke of genius. Bardem plays ‘Skyfall’s big, bad, cyber-terrorist as camp riddle wrapped in an intimidating enigma. He is threatening in every way; physically, psychologically even sexually. The first scene in which he appears is a hypnotic monologue delivered as he slowly walks towards Bond and the audience; I was utterly transfixed. To my mind he’s the best Bond villain to date.

The film is great on a narrative level but also on a technical level it far surpasses, not only its immediate predecessor but most of the previous Bond outings. Sam Mendes initially seemed like a strange choice to direct the latest film in the series but he pushes the story forward at a rate of knots and thoroughly earns his keep. I like his vision for the character and I would love it if he stayed for a second film.
The effects are fantastic, both CGI and in camera. The unsung hero of the piece is cinematographer Roger Deakins. ‘Skyfall’ is utterly beautiful; to the point where some of the shots made me well up with just how gorgeous they are (I am very aware of how ridiculous that makes me sound but it’s true). I haven’t seen a more handsome film this year and doubt anything will touch it between now and the end of December.

Some have said that the latter half of the film gives way to OTT displays of firepower and unbelievable plot contrivances. There is a certain level of truth in that accusation but in my opinion the first two acts delve into character and plot so much that I think it earns the right to let loose and go hell for leather in the final few scenes.
I have heard negative reviews of ‘Skyfall’ that decry it to be “boring”, but that baffles me. Call it what you will but “boring”?!?!? REALLY?!?!?! I understand that other opinions are available, you may have liked the film or you may have hated it but I fail to see how you could find any of it boring.

I loved ‘Skyfall’. It has such a wonderful marriage of energy, performances and drop-dead gorgeous cinematography; I fail to see how you couldn’t get swept up in it. ‘Skyfall’ left me with no doubts; Bond is back and better than ever.

Let’s keep the merriment going with some…

Reasons to be cheerful :-)
1. The official synopsis for ‘Star Trek: IntoDarkness’ has been released! Unfortunately it doesn’t go a long way to answering the question we’re all asking: Who is Benedict Cumberbatch playing? Early reports said Khan (from ‘Wrath of…’ fame) and more recently Gary Mitchell has been suggested. Gary Mitchell was a Starfleet officer and friends with Captain Kirk until he has an unfortunate encounter with a galactic barrier and turns rogue. I think he would make the most interesting villain out of potential candidates but we won’t know who it is until we see the trailer… and even then there is no guarantee we’ll get a definitive answer!
The trailer is to be shown before screenings of ‘The Hobbit’ part 1 and no doubt nanoseconds later the Interweb will be aflutter with blogs and articles dissecting every last frame of it! Can’t wait :-)

2. The Sports Personality of the year shortlist has been released! I adore so many of the athletes on the shortlist so in a year where (due to the efforts of our sports-men and women) I have been constantly reminded of how truly grateful I am to have been born into such a brilliant country (I say that with complete sincerity) I have genuine sympathy for the people that have to choose a winner out of that shortlist. If it was up to me they’d all get an award!

3. The award for ‘The Thing That Made Me Laugh The Most Today’ goes to this guy :-)

That’s all I’ve got for you today!

Goodbye till next time :-)
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“Listen to me carefully, Kim. Your mother and I are going to be taken."

Hello Everyone :-)

Question: When did Liam Neeson become such a badass? Answer: When ‘Taken’ happened. I think it’s safe to say that ‘Taken’ came as a bit of a surprise to everyone. It was a sleeper hit, spread mainly by word of mouth; a decent, gritty, exploitation B-movie that re-invented Neeson as an action star virtually overnight.
The trouble is that in today’s cinematic climate no one can leave anything as a successful one-off, everything has to have a sequel. Enter the hilariously named Olivier Megaton. Megaton is the Director of ‘Taken 2’ which I went to see a few weeks ago.

Now doing contract security work, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is learning to accept that his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) is growing up and is going through all the things teenagers do like learning to drive and getting a Boyfriend. When picking Kim up for a driving lesson Bryan finds his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) has had an argument with her husband and as a way to cheer her and Kim up he invites them to meet him out in Turkey where he will be working the following week. The three meet up in Istanbul but it soon transpires that some men are plotting against Bryan and he and his family and may be in danger.

If it’s not been made clear over the course of this blog so far, let me declare it in the most unequivocal way possible; I love cinema.
I love watching trailers, I love deciding what films to see, I love buying my ticket, I love getting my Ben and Jerry’s (I always have 3 scoops of Cookie Dough Ice cream when I go to the pictures), nothing makes me happier. All this cinema related joy makes me an eternal optimist; I go into a film expecting the best. You can therefore imagine what a crushing disappointment it is to me when the film in question turns out to be as appallingly bad as ‘Taken 2’.

The plot is tracing-paper thin and totally devoid of excitement. The most galling thing is when it does have an interesting idea (which are few and VERY far between) it throws it away. Take, for instance, a scene where Bryan has been ‘taken’ (a word that is thrown around in this film far too liberally for my liking), he calls Kim and gives her some instructions so he can work out where he is being held captive. That is a really interesting idea; that Bryan has to instruct Kim in order for her to find and free him. They could have run with that idea and made Kim the gun-toting rescuer, flipping the Father/Daughter dynamic on its head but instead they cop out and do a piss poor chase around the roofs of Istanbul before Bryan comes and saves her. So unbelievably BORING! I have never fallen asleep the cinema but halfway into ‘Taken 2’ I was getting a wobbly head and had to be sharply elbowed by my friend to keep me awake.

I think the rating is part of the problem. One of the things that made ‘Taken’ so enjoyable was the mad violence that took the film up to its totally appropriate 15 rating. Blockbusters are so often filled with dull CGI action that when you get something like ‘Taken’ that has an insane amount of gritty, realistic brutality, it’s actually quite fun. ‘Taken 2’ has had all the violence toned down so it can achieve a 12A rating and in doing so has made the film completely beige. It’s been demonstrated that a 12A film can be brutal; ‘The Hunger Games’, for example, is a 12A with as much vicious-clout as a higher rated film. The difference between that and ‘Taken 2’ is that ‘The Hunger Games’ was well edited whereas this looks like an appalling hack-job.
Not just the violence itself but the feel of the fight scenes is disappointing; they’re dull. The final fight between Bryan and one of the Albanian cronies takes place in a Turkish bath house. What is supposed to come across as a tense, brutal showdown actually turns out to be a damp-squib of a fight between Neeson and a short, fat Albanian.

The cast try their best but they can’t lift this dull lump of a movie.
There’s quite a sweet story that starts to play out before anyone gets ‘taken’, where Kim is trying to get her Mum and Dad back together. In these scenes Janssen is quite good but that’s all the character development she’s afforded before someone puts a bag over her head and ties her to some metal piping for the remainder of the film.
Likewise Grace has the scene where she has to be Bryan’s eyes and ears and help him work out where he is in Istanbul when he gets kidnapped. After a paint-by-numbers car chase Kim is packed off to the American embassy not to be seen or heard from until the film’s conclusion.
Neeson makes a debonair killer and at 6”4 he is undeniably physically imposing but his talents aren’t pushed much further than demonstrating his ability to shoot a gun from the window of a moving car. He really convinced in ‘Taken’, it felt like he really was a Father on the edge. He never gets near that level of conviction in ‘Taken 2’ and has the look of a man who is only doing this for the paycheque.

Even if you don’t give a hoot about plot or narrative or things like that; even if all you want from a film is exciting action set pieces, trust me, you will come away from ‘Taken 2’disappointed. It smacks of a film made as a result of a financial spreadsheet and something with that kind of origin rarely turns out to be any good. If you liked ‘Taken’ and want to spend more time with those characters just buy it on DVD. Please don’t go and see this mind-numbingly dull film.

Well after that bitter taste of disappointment I desperately need some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)
1. OMG Les Misérables Official Trailer! My lovely Twitter-friend (Twiend?) Mike had the privilege of seeing this trailer when he went to see ‘Skyfall’ (my blog post about which is on the way) and I was super jealous because it wasn’t shown at my screening. Since then it’s been put up online and Mike was good enough to send me the link. It looks so good! I’m excited :-)

2. Any of you that see my Twitter feed will already know but last week I watched‘Game of Thrones’ series 1 for the first time.
The ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ books are fantastic; what Harry Potter was to me as a Teenager, these are to me as an adult. The TV adaptation is so wonderful I cannot begin to tell you, everything is how I imagined it, the opening titles are amazing, the music is fantastic; I just love it.
Anyway, I’m yet to see series 2 due to the fact I don’t have Sky but I have been looking at the new cast members for series 3! Paul Kaye as Thoros of Myr... INSPIRED!

That’s all I’ve got for you today!

Goodbye till next time :-)
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Rachel’s DVD Extras - “Most Engagements end up like ‘Saving Private Ryan’. Good Luck. God knows you’re going to need it”

Hello Everyone :-)

I realised something the other day; I’d forgot to write up some films. One was because I went to see it on my Birthday and I must have been distracted by the various celebrations that were happening at the time and it slipped my mind. So I’ve decided to write it up now as a 'DVD extra' because it was released last week on DVD and Blu-Ray. Let’s have a look at ‘The Five Year Engagement’.

Tom and Violet are a couple living in San Francisco that get engaged a year after they started dating. Tom is a sous chef at a successful restaurant and Violet is a psychology PhD graduate. The couple begin their engagement with the best of intentions but unfortunately life gets in the way of their planned nuptials.

I enjoyed ‘The Five Year Engagement’. It was advertised as “From the producer of Bridesmaids” but it’s not as broadly comic as that statement would suggest. It is funny but its humour comes mainly from its observations of life as an engaged couple that are fighting to keep it together.

I think this is quite nice spin on the modern Rom-Com. The characters are well written, believable and in a genre that is so often filled by adults that behave like they’re teenagers these are adults that (to a certain extent) act like they’re adults. The characters have jobs and families and worry about grown up things like money which gives the film a nice authenticity. The times the story strays into the realms of unbelievably is when it’s at its worst. One of the characters has a breakdown during part of the film that just seemed a little bit OTT and not in keeping with the rest of the film's realistic look at relationships.

The two leads are great and there are some nice supporting roles. Jason Segel as Tom is really very sweet and believable. He makes the phone call that we have all made to our ex where you try to be civil but then descend into name calling and blame pinning.

Emily Blunt is effortless and charming as ever. She is funny, sweet, clever, beautiful, all at the same time… some girls really do have all the luck!

I like the supporting performances from Alison Brie as Violet’s sister Suzie, Chris Pratt as Tom’s best friend Alex and Rhys Ifans at his slimy best as Winton, Violets lecherous Boss. That said the strength of the film is in the central pairing between Blunt and Segel. They’re adorable, the conversations they have are really realistic and above all else they make you root for them; you want it to work out between them.

The film’s humour is quite gentle save for a few broadly comic scenes. Tom’s relationship with Chris Parnell and Brian Posehn’s characters Bill and Tarquin lends itself to some brilliantly gawky moments but it’s the Elmo/Cookie Monster conversation between Violet and Suzie that had me in absolute stitches. Some of the attempts at comedy fell a little wide of the mark. The scenes with Violet’s colleagues Ming (Randall Park), Vaneetha (Mindy Kaling) and Doug (Kevin Hart) didn’t work for me. Also a scene with a breakfast conversation between Tom and his parents jarred. It didn’t make me laugh partly because it seemed to have been clumsily improvised and felt really awkward to watch.

Overall I liked ‘The Five Year Engagement’. It’s attempts at out and out comedy sometimes miss the target; it sags a little at the start of the third act and could have done with 15-20 minutes being cut from the run time but by and large I think it succeeds. It plays well with its intended audience (I went with 4 of my girlfriends and by the end of it we were ALL a little bit in love with Jason Segel) and it would take the stoniest of hearts not to warm to the central coupling of Violet and Tom. Highly recommended rom-com fluff :-)

Now it’s time for some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

1. ‘The Hour’ is back! YAY! I recently saw the trailer again for the new series and immediately got on Amazon bought series 1 on DVD. I’ve been watching it again these past two days and I must say it’s so bloody good! There are some clips on the BBC website; a chat with the show's writer Abi Morgan and a clip from the first episode of the new series! Series 2 starts on Wednesday 14^th November at 9pm on BBC 2.

 2. New series of ‘Black Mirror’ has been confirmed! The always wonderful Charlie Brooker have been speaking about the new series and lots of lovely things besides :-)

That’s all I’ve got for you today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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