Due to the fact that I’m the worst blogger in the world some of the films I've written about are now out on Blu-Ray and DVD.
Just so I can throw my 2p into the mix I thought I’d do a round up of which this is part 1 :-)
A Field in England
‘A Field In
England’ marked the first time a
British picture had been released simultaneously in theatres, DVD, TV and
On-Demand. I watched it a few days after it aired on Channel 4
at my friend Rob's house. Rob’s a big film nerd like me (he’s doing the IMDB 250 top rated challenge) and after watching ‘A Field in England’ the only thing
we knew for certain is that we enjoyed it and we’d never seen anything like it
before.
Lovers of structured narrative and a clearly
defined plot will want to stay away from ‘A Field in England’. In the midst of a battle during the English Civil
War an alchemist's assistant, Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith) flees from his
commander and meets Cutler (Ryan Pope), Jacob (Peter Ferdinando) and Friend
(Richard Glover). Together they leave the battleground and head off in search
of an Ale house. That’s all I can tell you. Everything that happens from that
point on may or may not be real, it’s hard to tell after the characters consume
great quantities of hallucinogenic mushrooms…
Reece Shearsmith
tweeted about the responses to ‘A Field in England’ and said,
“Only be concerned
that you don’t ‘get’ something if you don’t ‘get’ the antidote to a poison you
just drunk. You don’t have to ‘get’ films.” I think this is the best way to
approach ‘A Field in England’; you don’t have to ‘get’ it to enjoy it.
It’s definitely
Ben Wheatley’s least accessible film to date but the way he gets so much
atmosphere from some period clothes, a few beards and a square of grass is to
be applauded. The Film is blackly comic and truly terrifying in one very
memorable scene aided by its score which chooses to unnerve the audience with a
near constant stream of eerie notes and tones.
Michael Smiley is
fantastically scary as O'Neil, who may or may not actually exist, while
Shearsmith's Whitehead stands as an equal to (if not better than) the plethora
of dark, gothic characters he has previously created for TV. The characters
revel in the Shakespeare-esque dialogue that veers from prim and proper to toilet
humour and sometimes the downright daft.
Due to the hallucinogenic
quality of ‘A Field in England you might spend the majority of the film not
knowing what is and isn’t real, your level of enjoyment depends on how
alienating you find that. Grisly and visceral, peppered with black humour and
psychedelic madness, ‘A Field in England’ is going to stay with you for a long
time after you see it.
‘A Field in
England’ is out now on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Star Trek
Into Darkness
It’s confession
time… My name is Rachel and I’m a bit of a Trekkie. I’ve seen all the films,
watched the all the series. I’ve even got badges (yeah … badges PLURAL. Three
comms badges, TNG, Voyager and the 2009 reboot). I wore said badges when I went
to see ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ (just ‘Into Darkness’ from now).
We re-join the
crew of the Starship Enterprise as they are undertaking missions from Starfleet
during which Kirk (Chris Pine) decides to contravene Starfleet law, risking
Spock's (Zachary Quinto) life in the process. The team are brought back to
earth when the terrorist John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) attacks a
Starfleet records archive. The crew of the Enterprise are tasked with following
Harrison across the galaxy and bringing him to justice.
We’ll start with
the good. This is the most consistently exciting films I’ve seen in a cinema
for AGES! Right from the get-go we’re running and we never really stop. There
is a brief pause near the start of the film (headed up by Blighty’s own Tin
Dog, Noel Clarke) that is very poignant and affords us some breathing room
after the initial assault to the senses. However after that, there isn’t any
let up. The action sequences are beautifully crafted and you don’t become apathetic
towards the mad stream of energy but the film’s constant sprint does leave you
wishing some things had been better explained.
You’d be forgiven
for saying that perhaps the film travels at such a speed and cracks a lot of
jokes to obscure some of its plot holes. It doesn’t take a lot of asking ‘why?’
before you realise that some of the things that happen in the film don’t make a
whole lot of sense, in fact some of them are downright stupid.
‘Into Darkness’
just about gets away with some of its dafter moments mainly due to the strength
of it’s cast. Zachary Quinto takes his fair share of the action and really
makes good on the promise of his last outing as Spock. He is note perfect as
the ever-logical Science Officer.
There are some lovely moments from the beautiful Karl Urban as Bones with his melon twisting metaphors and Simon Pegg gets to flex his comedy chops as Scotty takes a more central role.
There are some lovely moments from the beautiful Karl Urban as Bones with his melon twisting metaphors and Simon Pegg gets to flex his comedy chops as Scotty takes a more central role.
‘Into Darkness’
also serves as a reminder of how brilliant a piece of casting Chris Pine was as
James T Kirk. In Kirk Pine has found his perfect role. He’s suave, charismatic
and charmingly impulsive which Pine absolutely nails.
The most
anticipated member of the cast is RMLM favourite Benedict Cumberbatch
and he did not let me down. Irrelevant of who his character really is (even if
it is one of the worst kept secrets ever I’m not going to spoil it here) it
must be said that Cumberbatch is the most magnetic screen presence and he
brings every ounce of that to John Harrison. As much as John Harrison’s
plan doesn’t make sense (and it REALLY doesn’t) Cumberbatch’s performance is so
convincing that on more than one occasion I cheered for the bad guy.
It's impossible
to explain why I'm at such odds about the film without giving away the big plot
twist, so I'm not going to go into detail. What I will say is that as much as I
adore JJ Abrams (and I really do. The 2009 Trek and ‘Super 8’ are both on heavy
rotation in my house), the more I hear about the way he approached the Star
Trek franchise the more upset I become. It is one thing to create an addition
to a franchise that caters for everyone but to actually come out and say ‘we
didn’t make this for existing Trek fans’ is quite another. I’m not saying you
have to be a full blown fanboy/girl of a franchise in order to direct its films
but Abrams is making me ask a lot of questions that I never expected to ask
about his motivations for taking on the ‘Star Trek’ universe.
I could never be
too down on this film. It’s super fun, looks gorgeous and stars some of my
favourite actors firing on all cylinders but that willingness to re-tread, not just old ground but
hallowed Trek ground, is a little disappointing.
'Star Trek Into Darkness' is out now on DVD and Blu-Ray.
'Star Trek Into Darkness' is out now on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Much Ado
About Nothing
‘Much Ado…’ is a number of stories playing out at
once. Set in Messina where the city’s Governor Leonato (Clark Gregg) plays host
to Don Pedro (Reed Diamond), Benedict of
Padua (Alexis Denisof) and Count Claudio (Fran Kranz). Claudio
becomes infatuated with Leonato’s daughter Hero (Jillian Morgese), a war of words wages between
Benedict and Leonato’s niece Beatrice (Amy Acker) and Don Pedro’s brother Don
John (Sean Maher) quietly sets about spoiling everyone’s day.
I’m a fan of the Bard, especially ‘Much Ado…’ which
is the most accessible of Shakespeare’s plays. I also love the 1993 Kenneth
Branagh adaptation. Also, as a dyed in the wool Whedonite when I talk
about his work I’m wearing rose-tinted spectacles so you’ve got to be a little
bit cynical when you read this post but, I really loved ‘Much Ado…’
Admittedly the story is one of the more adaptable
of Shakespeare’s works and the surface elements lend themselves to a modern
setting (change a sword for a gun, etc.) but the story itself is relatively
unchanged. Whedon has included a bit of back-story by way of an explanation as
to why Benedict and Beatrice are so bitter towards each other which really
works.
This film is an exercise in simple but effective
film making. All filmed in one house, no special effects, no CGI; the film
relies on the strength of its story and great actors. It’s obvious that the cast are all friends with
Joss Whedon because they all seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. Every
member of the cast radiates warmth and, although it’s easy to be cynical, it
seems like there’s genuine love here.
Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof are fabulous. The Shakespearean
prose trips off their tounge with the greatest of ease and the way they bounce
off each other is a joy to watch.
My favourite
performance came from Nathan Fillion. I adore this man; not just because he’s
funny and clever and beautiful but because he’s a brilliant actor. His Dogberry is so wonderfully deadpan you
can’t help but laugh with him.
‘Much ado’ is lovely. It’s smart but untaxing,
sweet but not saccharine and really fun :-)
‘Much Ado About
Nothing’ is on DVD and Blu-Ray now.
I’ll post
another blog with some more mini-reviews later but now I’ve got a bumper
trailer edition of…
Reasons to the
cheerful :-)
1. The trailer for ‘Kill Your Darlings’ looks rather good. I’m looking forward to seeing where
Daniel Radcliffe goes post-Potter but mainly I want to see the beautiful and
magnetic screen presence of Dane Dehaan in more movies. With this, the upcoming
‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ and ‘Life After Beth’ looks like I’m going to be
getting plenty of my daily recommended Dehaan.
2. It’s nearly
Christmas so that can only mean ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’! Admittedly the
first Hobbit film has its flaws, but bloody hell this one looks good! Lots of
lovely elves, some nasty spiders and a proper look at the Cumber-dragon!
3. Saving the best till last here is the new trailer for‘The Muppets Most Wanted’. You know how much I love the Muppets so I don’t need
to tell you how excited I am :-)
That’s all for now!
Goodbye till next time :-)
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