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I watched Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives recently. It's beautifully shot and the acting is pretty good. It has some interesting ideas and some parts play out a bit like a horror film but, overall, I wasn't blown away. It has that arthouse issue where sometimes the characters sit for a bit, walk leisurely to the next nicely framed shot, and sit down again. I don't want to slam the film too much as there were things I liked in there but I wouldn't watch it again in a hurry.
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TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM (1973) Having doubts about wanting to sell his Chamber Of Horrors wax museum to an American buyer, the owner is killed when the wax figure of Jack The Ripper appears to come to life and stab him. More deaths follow and the wax figure is seen coming to life again. Is it the real Jack The Ripper doing the murders ? He has not been caught yet. What about the deformed hunchback in the basement? Enjoyable film set in the familiar creepy old wax work where murderers from history have their gruesome tales told. Good cast keeps this one ticking over nicely. |
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Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) This follows in the footsteps of Kick-Ass as a Dave Gibbons/Mark Millar comic book series (just called The Secret Service) which has been adapted for the screen by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, and directed by Vaughn. Like Kick-Ass, it involves a young man who undergoes training and becomes involved in some extremely violent situations. Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is a petty criminal living on a council estate, who has a degree of protection because his stepfather is a major criminal in the area. He hates the man and is protective of his mum, Michelle (Samantha Womack, formerly Samantha Janus), and baby sister. Meanwhile, a climate change professor, James Arnold (Mark Hamill) was kidnapped and an attempted rescue by 'Lancelot', a member of the Kingsman non-governmental organisation of spies, goes wrong, leading to Lancelot's death. The mastermind behind the kidnapping is the lisping and squeamish Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), a billionaire entrepreneur and climate change activist, who has developed a plan to save the world by killing off most of its inhabitants. With a spare seat at the Kingsman table (it is headed by Arthur, played by Michael Caine and seemingly modelled on the legendary English king's court, only the table is rectangular), six recruits are brought in, with Harry Hart (Colin Firth) – codename Galahad – proposing Eggsy (whose father saved his life 17 years previously). As there is only room for one, Eggsy must be the best of the six other contenders, with his competition principally consisting of upper-class snobs (named Digby, Barnaby and Rufus) and Roxy, perhaps the only woman with a meaningful speaking role. The other is Gazelle, Valentine's sidekick and a double amputee whose 'Blade Runner' metal legs double as deadly weapons, slicing and dicing in combat situations. The plot is unnecessarily complicated, perhaps intentionally so, with Valentine informing Galahad over a McDonald's meal (don't ask) that he prefers spy movies with "a far-fetched theatrical plot" – one of the many in jokes, which makes this a pastiche of films and TV shows such as James Bond, Our Man Flint and The Avengers (those in the agency wield deadly umbrellas), perhaps advising the audience that they shouldn't pay too much attention to the plot and just try and have fun. This is what I tried to do, but the nasty classist and sexist undercurrent really disrupted my enjoyment, with most female characters relegated to bit parts (there is a particularly distasteful scene at the end involving a Princess, Eggsy, a bottle of champagne and the promise of anal sex). The action sequences are extremely well staged and shot, with the film romping along at a fair pace, but I always had the impression that Vaughn was trying too hard to upstage Kick-Ass, so some of the scenes became overlong and a little boring. When Colin Firth is on screen, he is a funny and engaging presence, with nice interplay with newcomer Egerton, and Mark Strong, replete with Scottish accent, is terrific as 'Merlin' this film's equivalent of Q from the Bond films. It is a little sad that the film with so much going for it leaves such a nasty taste in the mouth, and some of the product placement is horrendous, with Valentine and Galahad sitting down for a McDonald's, and Galahad's office covered with front pages from The Sun (I know it's distributed by 20th Century Fox, but Galahad would undoubtedly read The Times). There is a long and brutal action sequence in a church, which is occasionally jawdropping in its audacity and execution, but such scenes were fresher, funnier and more enjoyable in Kick-Ass, and there were several occasions where I felt Vaughn and Goodman were trying to compress too much into the screenplay, so characters were left underdeveloped, some scenes felt rushed and relationships did not have the emotional depth they should or could have had. Overall, I really wanted to like Kingsman, but the snobbish tone and humour, which wouldn't have been out of place in a 1990s 'lads' mag', left me cold.
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I'm guessing the whorish product placement was a result of Matthew Vaughan having to raise funds by himself. He has said he normally self-finances because studios only want PG-13 whereas he prefers the offensive lunacy you can get away with in a higher rating. If that is what is required to get an R rating these days, then I'll take it. Also, doesn't Rupert Murdoch own The Times as well? So, I'm guessing Vaughan included The Sun as a jokey reference to James Bond who, let's face it, is a laddish cad. Very nice, detailed review though.
__________________ "We're outgunned, and undermanned. But, you know somethin'? We're gonna win. You know why? Superior attitude. Superior state of mind." |
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In terms of the newspapers, the Harry Hart character seems like a broadsheet reader, probably The Times or The Telegraph – I mentioned the form because it, like The Sun, is owned by the film's distributor.
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