What I Watched This Week (w/e April 20th 2008)
DVD:
Dracula - With Frank Langella as the count, this 1979 adaptation of Stoker's novel is the first where Dracula is really seen as a romantic character. The special effects are a bit creaky by today's standards, but these were the days before computers, so it's all about matte paintings and models. Langella is an excellent Dracula, but avoided being typecast by refusing to reprise the role, hanging up his cloak. :)
Dracula 2000 - Due to the staggered release dates, this was called Dracula 2001 when I saw it at the cinema and was not over-awed by it then and my opinion hasn't changed in the seven years since. The idea of Van Helsing keeping himself young by injecting blood from Dracula purified through leeches into his arm is odd to say the least and then to have the Count stolen by criminals hoping for riches is the sort of thing Hammer would have dismissed as too farfetched. As for the whole Dracula is Judas, I don't even know where to start. :(
Dracula: Dead and Loving It - Dracula gets the Mel Brooks treatment, lampooning in particular the 1931 and 1992 Dracula movies. Leslie Nielsen plays the ineffective vampire who is constantly frustrated by the ineptitude of Peter MacNicol's Renfield and the gags about Dracula's shadow, lack of reflection, bouffant hairdo and the fountain of blood in the staking scene work really well. :)
M*A*S*H - My favourite Robert Altman film - although I haven't seen the highly regarded Nashville - and one that is as funny now as when I first saw it. Tom Skerrit, Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland are just fantastic, especially the latter two, and the overlapping dialogue and anarchic sense of humour create believability about the film. A classic comedy and a great film. :D
Quintet - Paul Newman looks very uncomfortable in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi set in the frozen tundra, where the deadly game of 'Quintet' takes place. Altman assembled a really odd cast, including Fernando Rey and Bibi Andersson and the result is quite dull, never getting going until the very end, by which time it's too late. :(
A Wedding - This has Altman's trademark overlapping, natural sounding dialogue and follows the reception of a wedding that brought together two unlikely families. Cue back-biting, deception and dramatic revelations. Really enjoyable, funny and probably quite true to life. :)
A Perfect Couple - Using a dating agency, downtrodden divorcé Alex Theodopoulos, who still lives with his overbearing Greek family, begins seeing free-spirited singer Sheila Shea. Everything seems to be going ok, then they fall out, get back together and so on… Paul Dooley and Marta Heflin are fine in the roles, but the film isn't as satisfying as it could have been. :|
Sleepy Hollow - Like Blade II, this is another of those films that I didn't particularly like on first viewing, but now really like. Johnny Depp proves what a great physical actor he is and the (predominantly British) all-star supporting cast are fantastic. Tim Burton's commentary reveals the size of the sets, with most of it shot in Shepperton Studios, where they built a forest and the titular town. :)
Road to Perdition - The DVD had been sitting on my shelf since January, and the graphic novel since before then. In one day I read the book in the morning, did several hours of Uni work and then watched the DVD. I wasn't keen on the film when I saw it on release, thinking that Tom Hanks was miscast, and although he doesn't match the drawings he does a fine job and Paul Newman is excellent as the patriarchal crime boss. The changes to the story are necessary to extend the running time which would have otherwise been very short; the result is a decent, but not great follow up to American Beauty for Sam Mendes who provides a good commentary on the disc. :)
Cinema
Shine a Light - Martin Scorsese, an über-fan of The Rolling Stones, filmed them over two nights at the Beacon Theatre in New York. The documentary begins with Jagger & Co. looking nonplussed over Scorsese's stage designs and then the negotiations over the set list: Scorsese has his ideas, Jagger has his, but saying he might change his mind an hour before they go on. Using a huge team of Oscar-winning and nominated cinematographers, Scorsese captures the band in tremendous detail - obviously none of them have used botox - and cuts expertly according to the performance. I'm not a massive Stones fan and many of the songs were new to me, but I loved it and interspersing the concert film with stock footage of Jagger, Richards, Watts and Wood through the years was really revealing and added a great deal to the experience.
The Rolling Stones have been performing live for 45 years and it shows - they are great showmen, not necessarily great musicians, but fantastic entertainers who really know how to please a crowd. It's not as good a documentary as The Last Waltz but it's close. :D
Television
Bath vs. Leicester - Showing that squad rotation doesn't work, starting with only one of the XV that lost to the Ospreys last weekend, Leicester went down at the Rec to a Bath side that outplayed them and shut them out in the first half. The Tigers needed 5 points from their clash with Bristol on Saturday and they got them.
London Irish vs. Harlequins - Quins are this seasons surprise package, having only been promoted last year, and are currently sitting fairly comfortably in the top four. Travelling to the Madjeski Stadium to play a side in the semis of the Heineken Cup was going to be tough and so it proved, as they defended for virtually the whole game, hanging onto a narrow lead before Topsy Ojo crashed over in the last five minutes.
Gary Woolcombe vs. Ryan Rhodes - Woolcombe would probably have liked an easier first defence of his British Light-Middleweight title than 'The Spice Boy' who held the title eleven years ago. Rhodes was very impressive, powerful and composed and slowly broke the champion down. It was nice to see Naz at ringside supporting his friend and giving value for money in an interview.
Joe Calzaghe vs. Bernard Hopkins - Like Ricky Hatton, Calzaghe proved himself to be the best in his weight class before travelling to the US, to step up a weight against the recognised #1 in the division. He also had problems with Joe Cortez who allowed B-Hop to persistently hold and almost transgressed the rules at will. After overcoming a very heavy knockdown in the first 70 seconds and Hopkins' cagey style and laser-like right hand, he took control in the middle rounds and deserved the points decision. I initially had it 6 rounds apiece with Hopkins winning 114-113 but on repeated viewings scored it 114-112 and 116-111 to Calzaghe.
Rumble Fish - This low budget film from 1983 by Francis Ford Coppola features a young cast including Matt Dillon, Larry Fishburne, Chris Penn, Nic Cage and Micky Rourke and is a really interesting and beautifully filmed story of a troubled teenager who idolises his older brother. :)
Sixteen Candles - Not bad in itself but compared to the likes of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Breakfast Club, this is a below par offering from John Hughes. Although intermittently touching and funny, this suffers from a lack of consistency, racism and Anthony Michael Hall being genuinely irritating as 'The Geek'. :|
The Naked City - Narrated by producer Mark Hellinger, this forerunner to the successful TV series about the "eight million stories in the naked city" begins as a guide around New York, including the murder of a blonde model, causing the homicide squad to investigate. It turns into a fine film noir with twists, turns and the real inhabitants of the Big Apple starring. :)
Kinky Boots - Joel Edgerton, almost a poor man's Martin Freeman, inherits a shoe factory from his father which is in financial difficulties so almost immediately has to lay off 15 people and realises, with the help of someone he fired (Sarah-Jane Potts) that he needs to find a niche market to keep the factory open. Help comes in the unlikely form of drag queen Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor) so needs high heeled boots for men. Ejiofor proves what a versatile actor he is and, although the romance between Edgerton and Potts is blindingly obvious, this is a funny and charming British film with a supporting cast of fine British actors. :)
Dracula - With Frank Langella as the count, this 1979 adaptation of Stoker's novel is the first where Dracula is really seen as a romantic character. The special effects are a bit creaky by today's standards, but these were the days before computers, so it's all about matte paintings and models. Langella is an excellent Dracula, but avoided being typecast by refusing to reprise the role, hanging up his cloak. :)
Dracula 2000 - Due to the staggered release dates, this was called Dracula 2001 when I saw it at the cinema and was not over-awed by it then and my opinion hasn't changed in the seven years since. The idea of Van Helsing keeping himself young by injecting blood from Dracula purified through leeches into his arm is odd to say the least and then to have the Count stolen by criminals hoping for riches is the sort of thing Hammer would have dismissed as too farfetched. As for the whole Dracula is Judas, I don't even know where to start. :(
Dracula: Dead and Loving It - Dracula gets the Mel Brooks treatment, lampooning in particular the 1931 and 1992 Dracula movies. Leslie Nielsen plays the ineffective vampire who is constantly frustrated by the ineptitude of Peter MacNicol's Renfield and the gags about Dracula's shadow, lack of reflection, bouffant hairdo and the fountain of blood in the staking scene work really well. :)
M*A*S*H - My favourite Robert Altman film - although I haven't seen the highly regarded Nashville - and one that is as funny now as when I first saw it. Tom Skerrit, Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland are just fantastic, especially the latter two, and the overlapping dialogue and anarchic sense of humour create believability about the film. A classic comedy and a great film. :D
Quintet - Paul Newman looks very uncomfortable in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi set in the frozen tundra, where the deadly game of 'Quintet' takes place. Altman assembled a really odd cast, including Fernando Rey and Bibi Andersson and the result is quite dull, never getting going until the very end, by which time it's too late. :(
A Wedding - This has Altman's trademark overlapping, natural sounding dialogue and follows the reception of a wedding that brought together two unlikely families. Cue back-biting, deception and dramatic revelations. Really enjoyable, funny and probably quite true to life. :)
A Perfect Couple - Using a dating agency, downtrodden divorcé Alex Theodopoulos, who still lives with his overbearing Greek family, begins seeing free-spirited singer Sheila Shea. Everything seems to be going ok, then they fall out, get back together and so on… Paul Dooley and Marta Heflin are fine in the roles, but the film isn't as satisfying as it could have been. :|
Sleepy Hollow - Like Blade II, this is another of those films that I didn't particularly like on first viewing, but now really like. Johnny Depp proves what a great physical actor he is and the (predominantly British) all-star supporting cast are fantastic. Tim Burton's commentary reveals the size of the sets, with most of it shot in Shepperton Studios, where they built a forest and the titular town. :)
Road to Perdition - The DVD had been sitting on my shelf since January, and the graphic novel since before then. In one day I read the book in the morning, did several hours of Uni work and then watched the DVD. I wasn't keen on the film when I saw it on release, thinking that Tom Hanks was miscast, and although he doesn't match the drawings he does a fine job and Paul Newman is excellent as the patriarchal crime boss. The changes to the story are necessary to extend the running time which would have otherwise been very short; the result is a decent, but not great follow up to American Beauty for Sam Mendes who provides a good commentary on the disc. :)
Cinema
Shine a Light - Martin Scorsese, an über-fan of The Rolling Stones, filmed them over two nights at the Beacon Theatre in New York. The documentary begins with Jagger & Co. looking nonplussed over Scorsese's stage designs and then the negotiations over the set list: Scorsese has his ideas, Jagger has his, but saying he might change his mind an hour before they go on. Using a huge team of Oscar-winning and nominated cinematographers, Scorsese captures the band in tremendous detail - obviously none of them have used botox - and cuts expertly according to the performance. I'm not a massive Stones fan and many of the songs were new to me, but I loved it and interspersing the concert film with stock footage of Jagger, Richards, Watts and Wood through the years was really revealing and added a great deal to the experience.
The Rolling Stones have been performing live for 45 years and it shows - they are great showmen, not necessarily great musicians, but fantastic entertainers who really know how to please a crowd. It's not as good a documentary as The Last Waltz but it's close. :D
Television
Bath vs. Leicester - Showing that squad rotation doesn't work, starting with only one of the XV that lost to the Ospreys last weekend, Leicester went down at the Rec to a Bath side that outplayed them and shut them out in the first half. The Tigers needed 5 points from their clash with Bristol on Saturday and they got them.
London Irish vs. Harlequins - Quins are this seasons surprise package, having only been promoted last year, and are currently sitting fairly comfortably in the top four. Travelling to the Madjeski Stadium to play a side in the semis of the Heineken Cup was going to be tough and so it proved, as they defended for virtually the whole game, hanging onto a narrow lead before Topsy Ojo crashed over in the last five minutes.
Gary Woolcombe vs. Ryan Rhodes - Woolcombe would probably have liked an easier first defence of his British Light-Middleweight title than 'The Spice Boy' who held the title eleven years ago. Rhodes was very impressive, powerful and composed and slowly broke the champion down. It was nice to see Naz at ringside supporting his friend and giving value for money in an interview.
Joe Calzaghe vs. Bernard Hopkins - Like Ricky Hatton, Calzaghe proved himself to be the best in his weight class before travelling to the US, to step up a weight against the recognised #1 in the division. He also had problems with Joe Cortez who allowed B-Hop to persistently hold and almost transgressed the rules at will. After overcoming a very heavy knockdown in the first 70 seconds and Hopkins' cagey style and laser-like right hand, he took control in the middle rounds and deserved the points decision. I initially had it 6 rounds apiece with Hopkins winning 114-113 but on repeated viewings scored it 114-112 and 116-111 to Calzaghe.
Rumble Fish - This low budget film from 1983 by Francis Ford Coppola features a young cast including Matt Dillon, Larry Fishburne, Chris Penn, Nic Cage and Micky Rourke and is a really interesting and beautifully filmed story of a troubled teenager who idolises his older brother. :)
Sixteen Candles - Not bad in itself but compared to the likes of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Breakfast Club, this is a below par offering from John Hughes. Although intermittently touching and funny, this suffers from a lack of consistency, racism and Anthony Michael Hall being genuinely irritating as 'The Geek'. :|
The Naked City - Narrated by producer Mark Hellinger, this forerunner to the successful TV series about the "eight million stories in the naked city" begins as a guide around New York, including the murder of a blonde model, causing the homicide squad to investigate. It turns into a fine film noir with twists, turns and the real inhabitants of the Big Apple starring. :)
Kinky Boots - Joel Edgerton, almost a poor man's Martin Freeman, inherits a shoe factory from his father which is in financial difficulties so almost immediately has to lay off 15 people and realises, with the help of someone he fired (Sarah-Jane Potts) that he needs to find a niche market to keep the factory open. Help comes in the unlikely form of drag queen Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor) so needs high heeled boots for men. Ejiofor proves what a versatile actor he is and, although the romance between Edgerton and Potts is blindingly obvious, this is a funny and charming British film with a supporting cast of fine British actors. :)
Your Opinions and Comments
Event Horizon - Fond memories of this completely gashed, perhaps by seeing Sunshine, perhaps by repeated viewings of Alien since I first saw it back in the day. It's not a great film. It's not a particularly bad one either, and as David said last week, it's Anderson's only decent film - but then his real lack of talent lies in his writing, which was mercifully not on display here. Still, despite apparent homages to Alien and Hellraiser, it's far too popishly produced, the story doesn't live up to the central conceit, and it's populated by the f***ing dumbest cast of characters in living memory, who'd rather chase shadows around a malevolent ship than run for safety. Gah! Still, give it some credit, Joss Whedon liked it enough to crib bits of it for Firefly (and not just the most obvious).
Rome - Finally finished the first season of HBO's great historical drama. I actually got this for my birthday last year, started to watch it ,but then was involved in a car crash, and I lost the will to watch pretty much anything. Anyhway, got back on the horse a few weeks ago, and boy, was it worth it. "The Sopranos in ancient Rome" isn't a bad tag, actually. Deftly combining the politicking and the human drama of the day, as two fictional soldiers are caught up in the events that would change the course of history, the joint US/UK/Italy production has the budget of a US series, the quality of a good British drama and the verve of Italian production.