THE MOVIE WAFFLER

Summer 2013 Movie Preview

2013-05-18T23:53:00.001+01:00

What better way to spend those warm summer days than in a darkened movie theater? TMW looks at the most interesting movies on the way this summer.*

Behind the Candelabra

'Side Effects' may have technically been Steven Soderbergh's last theatrical feature, but this movie, which he made for U.S cable network H.B.O, is receiving a cinema release in Europe. After a career which covered such heady themes as drug trafficking, disease, and the pharmaceutical industry, it seems the director is going out on a lighter note with this biopic of the outlandish musician.

Man of Steel

With Zack Snyder at the helm, it's been hard to get excited for this new incarnation of America's favorite superhero. If it's the Snyder of 'Dawn of the Dead' we could be in for a treat. If, however, it's the Snyder of '300' and 'Sucker Punch', we'll be sticking with our Christopher Reeve classics, thank you very much.

Before Midnight

It's hard to believe it's been 18 years since Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy's first encounter in 'Before Sunrise'. In this second follow-up, they're now married with kids and, worryingly, there's a 'This is 40' vibe off the trailer. We fear Linklater's series may have jumped the shark.

World War Z

Having made one of the worst blockbusters of the modern era with 'The Quantum of Solace', it's baffling why Marc Forster was chosen to direct such a large-scale project as this adaptation of Max Brooks' popular novel. Frankly, if I never see another zombie movie it'll be too soon but Brad Pitt has a good recent track record. The fact that the film's release was pushed back by major re-shoots doesn't bode well though.

The Bling Ring

It's almost a tradition now for former female child stars to choose a bad girl role in an attempt to shake off the baggage of their past career. Here, Emma Watson casts aside Hermione to play a real-life valley girl who, as part of the title group, raided the homes of L.A celebs. Think 'Spring Breakers' with mini-skirts rather than bikinis.

A Field in England

The English civil war gets the horror treatment in Ben Wheatley's homage to the period horrors of seventies British genre cinema. If he can recreate the mood of 'Kill List', while adding the substance his previous work lacked, Wheatley could be onto a winner.

Breathe In

Watching Drake Doremus' unintentionally hilarious 'Like Crazy' was one of the most entertaining experiences I had in a cinema last year. He's quickly assembled his next film, re-teaming with the delightful Felicity Jones, an actress who really should be doing better for herself. Has Doremus learnt anything about script-writing in the past year or will he continue his role of the Ed Wood of mumblecore?

Frances Ha

Noah Baumbach is responsible for some quality films ('The Squid & The Whale', 'Margot at the Wedding') but can straddle a line of quirk which he's at times crossed disastrously at times ('Greenberg'). 'Frances Ha', starring the mumblecore high priestess, Greta Gerwig, seems to once again tread this perilous line. Frances could be a lovable character or she could be the type of irritating twenty-something New Yorker she played in last year's 'Lola Versus'.

Blue Jasmine

The great thing about a poor Woody Allen movie ('Whatever Works', 'To Rome With Love') is the comforting thought that his next one is less than a year away. The plot remains a secret but I think it's fair to say Louis CK will be playing the Allen surrogate.

Pacific Rim

Giant robots fight giant monsters in Guillermo Del Toro's biggest ever project. While the concept appeals to the ten-year-old in all of us, the footage released thus far reminds us a bit too much of 'Transformers' with its cartoonish tone.

Only God Forgives

The most anticipated premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival sees acclaimed Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn re-team with his 'Drive' star Ryan Gosling. Not too much has been made public, plot-wise, but, visually, this looks incredible.

Pain & Gain

Michael Bay's first straight drama, though with so many close-ups of male biceps, we're not sure just how "straight" this is. Released Stateside a few weeks back, its gotten a lot of bad press, as you'd expect for a Bay production, but it looks so bonkers our curiosity is getting the better of us.

Elysium

The director of the over-rated 'District 9', Neill Blomkamp, returns with more sci-fi fare. Having previously tackled apartheid through the medium of genre cinema, he now takes on the class system with a tale of a future where the wealthy now live on a space station, leaving the working classes to reside on a ravaged Earth.

*Based on U.K release dates.

TV Waffle - The X-Files (1993-2002)

2013-05-18T21:29:00.000+01:00

On its twentieth anniversary, a look back at the sci-fi phenomenon.

'The X-Files' is now twenty years old, its place in the firmament of classic American TV Science Fiction shows assured. It is up there with 'Star Trek' and 'The Twilight Zone' as instantly recognizable to a mainstream audience. Satirized in 'The Simpsons', with its theme song reaching Number Two in the British music charts, it's a show that was birthed alongside the internet revolution to be picked apart, analysed, and scrutinized ad infinitum by its core of obsessed devotees. It also did what most shows of its ilk failed to do, which was to garner a general audience. With a new Blu-Ray box set of Chris Carter's show on the horizon, how does it now fare against the more knowing and slickly produced shows coming from HBO, Showtime and the JJ Abrams factory?
Looking back on the first season, it is amazing how tonally different the pilot is from the show we now hold dear. It has a breezy lightweight quality. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is an insouciant, sarcastic and glib character and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is a one note character, there to ground the storyline in reality and allow the audience to enjoy the silliness as if the creators are implying they too know it's not to be taken seriously. The first season is hugely derivative, its "monster of the week" episodes riffing on films as diverse as 'The Thing', 'Predator', 'The Omen', 'Scanners' et al, with a hint of seventies paranoid conspiracy thriller just below the surface. It's only towards the end of the season that the overarching narrative structure of the show is fixed; the Alien conspiracy and the disappearance of Mulder's sister.
Like most networks shows of this era, 'The X-Files' had to balance the need for audience jumping-on-points and stand-alone episodes alongside the overarching narrative structure and character development that would appeal to the existing fan-base. One of the great triumphs of the show is how it maintained this delicate balance between the deadly serious Alien conspiracy and the more jokey stand-alone and monster efforts. This did become more problematic as the show progressed when major changes to Mulder And Scully's lives are put on hold. In one episode, Scully is dying of cancer, while in the next episode we are dealing with a camp Frankenstein monster with a Cher fixation.
Looking at the show with a decade's distance, the pacing of episodes is one of the most interesting aspects. It's not afraid to be slow and talky. At times it takes itself with the utmost seriousness. Even when dealing with God, there is an Alien hokeyness. It's lugubrious, desolate feel can sometimes be wearying when watched in bulk, a tone that became even more heavy handed and stifling in Chris Carter's other show, 'Millennium', leading to the alienation of its audience and eventual cancellation.
The success of 'The X-Files' lead to better production values as seasons went on and allowed the narrative to develop in a confident and complex way. Success in some ways for 'The X-Files' turned into its own worst enemy. A movie released after the fifth season asked more questions than it answered and the mythology was spinning out of control. Unlike a novel or a film, network TV shows don't end if they are a success, they just go on until viewer fatigue sets in and ratings drop, either grinding to a halt mid season or finishing in a desultory, half thought out, nonsensical manner.
Looking at the show as a whole, it is easy to see that the show was spinning plates by half-way through Season Six. By then the Alien Invasion thread has been pretty much wrapped up and by Season Seven there is even a resolution of sorts regarding Mulder's sister. With contract negotiations with the leads, and the uncertainty of continuing, they worked hard to give the show a sense of closure. Seasons Eight and Nine that followed seem like an act not wanting to get off the stage, one encore too many until the audience are booing them off the stage.
With everything wrapped up, the creators then had to pick at the threads and unravel a new conspiracy similar to previous events, even interconnected in some overly convoluted way. With new characters introduced to make way for the absence of main characters, this didn't feel like a new beginning or natural progression for a show, more a screensaver to keep you viewing while contract negotiations went on behind the scenes. Even the Eigth season manages to find closure and a grace note to end on. This is then scuppered by a Ninth and final season that again has to dredge up another conspiracy with pale facsimiles of the original until it reaches a finale that pleases no one and leaves more unanswered questions than existed in its initial endpoints. Questions are still left hanging even after a second movie, which no one wanted to believe existed once viewed.
With the creative control that would be available on a cable network, it would be interesting to see how 'The X-Files' would have played on modern TV. Would carefully choreographed 12 episode seasons have allowed for rigorous quality control? Or is the ramshackle, some good, some execrable, stand-alone and mythology episodes, part of its overriding charm?
What has changed most profoundly now is the way in which we watch television, the weekly segments of shows parceled out to us no longer the only way to watch our favorite programs. Downloads and box sets have allowed us to binge on whole seasons of a show in one blissful couch-bound weekend. It's allowed shows to explore, with confidence, one main story over a whole season, knowing that viewers can handle complex narratives spread over many hours and viewed in different ways. The DVD box set in many ways works against 'The X-Files'. Watching an episode once a week means that the stand-alone episodes have a chance to breath. The whip-pan change of pace and tone seem less disorientating with the distance. It also means that the various gossamer thin strands of the conspiracy are more easily overlooked, and extraneous information conveniently dropped or forgotten, rather than picked over relentlessly to the point of abstraction.
It is arguable that the mythology is a smokescreen to the true narrative drive of 'The X-Files' - the love story of the mind between Mulder and Scully that slowly develops over the seasons and culminates in the apotheosis of the Season Eight finale. Together, with child, love is unsaid but implicitly fades out. Possibly the reason that Season Nine is so reviled is that essentially Mulder does a runner and Scully turns into a shrill single mother trying to find her man like some Science Fiction Jerry Springer hybrid.

Despite its flaws, 'The X-Files' more than deserves its ranking as one of the most successful and influential shows of its generation. It changed the way network TV treated Science Fiction, allowing the quirky and unusual to be shown before the internet gave geek culture a voice that eventually dominated media culture. Simply, without 'The X-Files' there is no 'Lost', no 'Fringe', no 'Supernatural'. Its influence is wide, it allowed complex interesting characters to develop and pushed the boundaries that others now seek to fill. When it was at its best it expanded the possibilities of what could be seen on TV and, even when it was bad, it still happily whiled away 40 minutes. Except for the 'Fight Club' episode. That was bad, oh so bad.

Jason Abbey

New Release Review - The Sky in Bloom

2013-05-17T12:11:00.000+01:00

Blackly comic crime thriller set in the world of human trafficking.

Directed by: Toor Mian
Starring: Bill Thomas, Sean Knopp, Ross Mullan, Paul Marc Davis, Kelly Eastwood

Have you ever watched a film you knew absolutely nothing about and once it’s over you are completely floored by what you’ve just seen? Enter ‘The Sky in Bloom,’ a film with great characters who deliver clever, snappy, and witty dialog that, at times, shows sparks of genius, not unlike that of Tarantino or Ritchie. Writer/Director Toor Mian has done such a great job with this terrific little thriller that I am going to keep my eye out for what he has coming next.
The film begins with a man driving another into a secluded field, with devilish intent, before rewinding to a few days prior, where we are introduced to the usual array of low-life characters. Mr. Hammond (Thomas) is a loving father who is dying, co-runs a successful human trafficking and prostitution business, and has an oddly funny obsession with carpeting. Sean (Knopp) and Ducek (Mullan) are two enforcer types whom are employed by Mr. Hammond and come across a peculiar murder that requires Mr. Hammond’s help as they attempt to find the one responsible, before the one responsible gets all of them.
What seems like a cut and dried story becomes a bit more complex when Sean is revealed to be dating and in love with Mr. Hammond’s beautiful daughter, Amy (Eastwood), without his knowledge. Sean must then tip-toe his way around Mr. Hammond until he finds the best moment to ask permission to marry her. Unaware of Sean and her father’s real occupation, Amy, who is the only clean-souled character in the entire film, has no idea why Sean is so frightened by her father.
With a great cast and script, the only real drawback to this intelligent, entertaining film is when the camera becomes a little jittery during the intense scenes, but I have to give credit to Mian for being able to go from dark comedy to horror with such ease. Hopefully, this great outing will help Mian work his way up to a bigger production budget, like Rian Johnson working his way from 'Brick' to 'Looper'.
Ultimately, if you enjoy the quick dialog and quirky characters of Tarantino and Ritchie or even dark comedies like ‘In Bruges,’ I know you will enjoy this as much as I did.

7/10

Andy Comer

New Release Review - Something in the Air

2013-05-16T15:20:00.001+01:00

A group of French teenagers mope around 1971 Europe.

Directed by: Olivier Assayas
Starring: Clément Métayer, Lola Créton, Felix Armand

Gilles (Metayer) is a young wannabe-anarchist in his final year of high school, engaging in riots, graffiti-ing, and various other disruptive modes of communicating his political philosophy. One night, he and his friends attack their school with petrol bombs, resulting in an injury to a security guard who has a bag of cement dropped on him from a height by Gilles. When one of the group's ID cards is found at the scene, they flee France for Italy, beginning a summer of sex, drugs and psychedelia.

There are some films I like to give a few days to sink in before writing a review. Such films usually receive positive reviews from me, if for no other reason than the fact they occupied my thoughts in a positive manner. Then there are those films which are so bad, I rush to my keyboard to exact a petty form of revenge, chasing the film-maker off the lawn of my subconscious before he can get his creative ball back. I know, of course, he'll simply buy a new ball, one which will find its way over my wall at some point in the future, but it gives me a small pleasure to deflate this one, regardless. 'Something in the Air' is one such film. Allow me to puncture Assayas' ball.

The film is thought to be somewhat autobiographical, and, if this is indeed the case, Assayas teen years are nothing to boast about. I struggle to remember a lead character I wished to smack bout the face so much as the dopey-eyed Gilles, a spoiled, self-righteous brat who inexplicably seems irresistible to pretty French girls. Along with his friends, they're a despicable bunch of entitled clowns who speak about helping the "working classes" as if referencing a group of disease-sufferers. The idea that some people work for a living seems repugnant to these middle-class snobs. They're like a seventies, European version of the elitist teens of 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower', but with more body hair, and, no doubt, worse body odor. Watching these juvenile Citizen Smiths sit around discussing Buddhism, Communism, Feminism, and many other "isms", in their uninformed way, is one hell of an irritating way to spend two hours.
There's nothing in the air of Assayas' shallow film. I've seen more profound Tommy Hilfiger commercials.

3/10

New Release Review - Third Contact

2013-05-15T17:11:00.003+01:00

A psychotherapist investigates the mysterious suicides of two of his patients.

Directed by: Simon Horrocks
Starring: Oliver Browne, Cristiana Dell'Anna, Kristina Erdely

Third Contact marks the feature debut of Simon Horrocks. Shot on a minuscule budget of £4000, it certainly doesn't lack in ambition. This, however, is very much an example of reach exceeding grasp.
The film tells the story of Psychotherapist David Wright (Tim Scott-Walker), in a state of existential crisis following the break-up of his relationship and the apparent suicide of one of his patients. A discussion with Karl (Oliver Browne), one of his patients, regarding "quantum suicide", leads him to a dark journey of the soul. Meeting up with Rene, the sister of the suicidal patient, reveals a sinister company offering 'Destinations'. What part have they played in the suicide and will they be targeting another of David's patients?

It is at least a pleasure to see a new British film that does not resort to cockney gangster stereotypes, however this feels like a short film stretched beyond endurance. Shot in moody black and white, and with a nicely used score, it tries hard with its intellectual mind games and woozy dreamlike mood. This is very much a film of dialogue, rather than action, and unfortunately his actors are not capable of doing the heavy lifting needed to make this fly. Tim Scott-Walker is adequate as the lead but it's the other actors that let him down. Karl is a pivotal role that Oliver Browne is really not capable of realizing. These amateurish performances really destroy the atmosphere that director Horrocks is trying hard to maintain. This coupled with second-year student pop psychology dialogue and some scenes of hard drinking, alcoholic, despair that border on parody, scupper an interesting premise.
It's a shame that it's so lugubrious and stodgy at the outset, because it's final 20 minutes show that Horrocks may have some promise. Reminiscent of the psychological games of David Cronenberg's 'Videodrome' and Gela Babluani's '13', Horrocks shows that he can do more than stage endless scenes of portentous dialogue. With a more disciplined script and tighter editing this may have yielded more excitement. Horrocks is a one man band at the moment; writing, directing, editing and composing the score, one can admire his ambition but on this evidence he has spread himself too thin. His shot choices are interesting and he knows how to evoke atmosphere. With better acting and a tighter, less pretentious script, he may develop into an interesting director. File under noble failure.

3/10

Jason Abbey

New Release Review - Fast & Furious 6

2013-05-15T16:11:00.001+01:00

Sixth installment in the high-octane franchise.

Directed by: Justin Lin
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Luke Evans, Gina Carano, Jason Statham, Elsa Pataky, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson

Retired criminal Dominic Toretto (Diesel) is living in exile in the Canary Islands when he is approached by Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs (Johnson) with an offer of a full pardon for his crimes. Hobbs needs Toretto's crew to help take down a London based criminal, Owen Shaw (Evans), who is using a crew of expert drivers to pull off heists across Europe. When Hobbs shows Toretto a recent photo of his girlfriend, Letty (Rodriguez), who he presumed dead, working for Shaw, Toretto accepts and assembles his crew.
'The Fast & The Furious' franchise has a curious history. The first installment, a loose remake of a 1955 Roger Corman production, was a relatively big hit, given its medium budget, and made Diesel a star for a brief few years. Diesel was doing so well he turned down the sequel and made just a short cameo in the third movie. By the time the fourth movie arrived in 2009, however, his career was well and truly washed up so he was happy to return to the series. His return boosted the fortunes of the franchise and, unbelievably, 2011's 'Fast 5' enjoyed Universal's biggest ever opening weekend, ensuring this latest episode of vehicular mayhem. The first movie was a simple, and pleasant enough, reworking of the "cop seduced by crime" theme explored so well in 'Point Break'. Now the budget's as bloated as Johnson's biceps, as is the running time (a mind-numbing 130 minutes).
Watching this film is like being repeatedly struck on the head by a wrench, thanks to a script that seems to have been written by the producer's ten-year-old nephew. This is a thinking man's blockbuster, but only in the sense that you'll spend two hours trying to wrap your head around what exactly is happening before your eyes. The film raises a lot of questions. Questions like; why are the streets of Europe's busiest city always so empty, how can a car drive at 100mph for 20 minutes down an airport runway without running out of tarmac, and, if two objects collide in mid air at velocity do they...well, you get the idea. The characters here break a lot of laws, including several laws of physics.
Little in this film makes any sense. Why Johnson decides to recruit this inept bunch of criminals is beyond me as we don't see them achieve anything that actually requires their particular skills. In fact, everything Diesel and his crew touch ends in disaster. Johnson bullies his way around Europe, mocking those pansy European law officials' soft approach by employing his own brand of violence, a tactic which, shockingly, results in scores of civilian deaths which are never acknowledged in the film's happy ending. About fifty Spanish motorists are killed in one set-piece, but hey, Diesel gets his girl back in the end so it's worth it, right? If this was meant as an allegory for American foreign policy, it's genius. I'm not going to give the film-makers that much credit.
The concept of high speed chases through London must have looked great on paper, but Lin films it in such a dull, confusing manner, the onscreen result is completely underwhelming. If you're the sort of viewer who thinks a rim-job is something a mechanic does to your tires, you'll probably be satisfied by this. The rest of us will stick with movies like 'The French Connection' and 'To Live & Die in L.A' for our car-chase kicks.

3/10

New Release Review - Simon Killer

2013-05-13T16:12:00.001+01:00

A young American sociopath spends a winter in Paris.

Directed by: Antonio Campos
Starring: Brady Corbet, Lila Salet, Mati Diop, Constance Rousseau, Nicholas Ronchi

Following a rough break-up with his girlfriend, twenty-something New Yorker, Simon (Corbet) travels to Paris where an acquaintance, Carlo (Ronchi) has allowed him to make use of his apartment. Simon spends days walking the city, seemingly attracting negative attention from many locals. One night he wanders into a brothel where he meets prostitute Noura (Diop), who seems to show him more affection than is normal for such a situation. A few nights later, Simon is attacked by a group of youths (after possibly provoking them on purpose) and turns up at the brothel, telling Noura he has nowhere to stay. She invites him to stay with her and quickly falls for him romantically. It soon becomes apparent he's far from the innocent abroad she mistook him for.

Last year, Campos acted as producer for Sean Durkin's feature debut, 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'. Here, the roles are reversed, with Durkin producing Campos' follow-up to 2008's 'Afterschool'. Between the two of them, they seem to be forming a two-man American new-wave. While the rest of the American indie film community seems intent on boring us with dull "dramedies", Campos and Durkin ignore the restrictions of their budgets to give us low budget movies of a quality not seen since the Australian New Wave of the seventies. Like those Aussie flicks, their movies feel geographically unique; not quite American, not yet European, but borrowing the best elements of both schools.

Like 'MMMM', 'Simon Killer' is a "snippet" movie. Rather than a traditional three act structure consisting of a beginning, middle and end, we find ourselves thrown in at the deep end of the narrative. At first Simon appears to be a sympathetic victim of his own romantic nature, struggling to adapt to an intimidating alien city. It's a cinematic con-trick, deftly played by Campos and his committed, perfectly cast, leading man. Over the past decade we've grown accustomed to seeing Anglo-Saxons suffer at the hands of Europeans, be it physically ('Hostel'), psychologically ('Berberian Sound Studio'), or culturally ('Vicky, Christina, Barcelona'), but here Campos and Corbet flip things around. Early on, Simon appears to be suffering from mistreatment at the hands of Parisians, both aggressive males and apathetic females. As things progress, and Campos' constantly tracking camera begins to allow us to see his subject's face, rather than following him from behind to conceal his true nature, we realize Simon, not Paris, is the film's true antagonist.
Campos isn't a film-maker prone to spoon-feeding his audience, and his long takes (one unbroken static shot on a dance-floor is a stunning representation of Simon's coiled aggression) may well test the patience of less committed viewers. Those who appreciate a film which allows you to fill in the blanks will be richly rewarded. The American New-Wave has arrived!

8/10

TMW's 500th Post!

2013-05-13T14:28:00.000+01:00

TMW has hit our 500th post. Allow us to get all nostalgic.

The site was started by myself, Eric Hillis, back in February 2009 with an embarrassingly poorly written review of Marcus Nispel's 'Friday the 13th' remake. For the next couple of years the site was barely touched, save for the odd dabbling here and there.
It wasn't until late 2011, after being made redundant from my decade long job running a DVD store, that I decided to knuckle down and try and make something of the site. Taking out a loyalty subscription with my local Dublin branch of Cineworld, I decided to review every movie released.
I continued with this tactic until early summer 2012 when I figured I'd get myself added to the press lists of distributors, thus allowing me to attend press screenings. The first screening I attended was 'The Dark Knight Rises', courtesy of Warner Bros, the first distributor kind enough to add me to their list. This completely changed the profile of the site in terms of visitors, as my review was one of the first to appear in the IMDB critics section for the movie. Gradually, other distributors added me and now there is but one who still choose to ignore me, (a certain Hollywood studio associated with a right-wing news channel).
Along with screenings, I began to be regularly contacted by low-budget film-makers asking if I would review screeners of their films, something I was more than happy to do.
In November of last year, my review of 'Skyfall' impressed a writer for The Irish Times, leading to me acquiring a position as journalist with a local Dublin newspaper. Now, finding the time to review new releases as well as screeners is getting tougher, which is why I've recruited several other writers, and still need more.

Roughly 90% of the content here comes from me but other contributors have provided great stuff. They are Joshua Mitchell, John Saltwell, Ruairi Kavanagh, Nick Sauer, Denny Spangler, Courtney Young, and Michael Parkes. My thanks goes out to all of them.

Want to write for us?

There are three areas in which we need more contributors. While Nick and Michael have come on as TV writers, we'd love some more help as there's just so many damn shows out there. We're also looking for someone to review new release documentaries for us. Lastly, if anyone is interested in reviewing low budget screeners, which we'll have posted to you, this would be a helpful addition also.

If you fancy coming on board in any of these areas, or in any other capacity, drop me a mail at eric@themoviewaffler.com.

The Waffler's World

Back in the beginning, it was only personal friends who knew about the site, but now we have a worldwide audience. Our readers come from literally all over the globe. Here are the ten countries TMW is most popular in, according to Google analytics.

1. United States

2. United Kingdom

3. Ireland

4. Canada

5. Germany

6. Australia

7. France

8. Israel

9. India

10. The Netherlands

Our 5 Most Read Reviews

1. Life of Pi

2. Paranormal Activity 4

3. Skyfall

4. Bullet to the Head

5. Sinister

The 10 Best New Releases Of Our Run

1. Martha Marcy May Marlene
2. Mud
3. The Hunt
4. Margaret
5. No
6. To the Wonder
7. The Grey
8. The Muppets
9. Melancholia
10. Blue Valentine

If we can see another ten movies of this quality over the next 500 posts, we'll be very happy indeed!

Thanks to everyone who has helped us out over the years and, most of all, thanks to all our readers!

Stardate 2013 - The Final Frontier (1989)

2013-05-13T13:49:00.000+01:00

The Enterprise is hijacked by a Vulcan who plans to use the ship to find 'God'.

Directed by: William Shatner
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Laurence Luckinbill, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, David Warner

Spock's half-brother, Sybok (Luckinbill), shunned by the Vulcan race for his embracing of emotion, has taken hostages on the planet Nimbus III. Kirk (Shatner), McCoy (Kelley) and Spock (Nimoy) have their shore leave interrupted as they are ordered to take the newly rebuilt Enterprise to the planet. Once there, they are overpowered by Sybok and his followers, who he controls through a form of "mind meld". It becomes apparent that Sybok used the hostage-taking as a ruse to acquire a starship. His plan is to take the Enterprise to find the mythical 'Sha Ka Ree', the place where, according to Vulcan lore, the universe began.
With Nimoy directing the previous two installments, Shatner insisted on being allowed to direct 'The Final Frontier', having come up with the film's original concept. After the high-concept, commercially appealing story-line of 'The Voyage Home', Shatner wanted to pursue a more heady plot-line, one which essentially boiled down to the crew of the Enterprise setting out to find God. In concept, it was closer in theme to the first movie, but the lighter tone of parts two, three and four continued here. In fact, this is by far the funniest installment of the series.

At the time of its release, 'The Final Frontier' was slated by critics, chiefly for its ambitious but simultaneously weak plot. It's this lightness of plot that makes the film enjoyable though, as we get to spend time with the central trio. The opening and closing campfire scenes are some of the best seen throughout the franchise. The relationship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy is Trek's greatest asset and it's a joy to just hang out with these characters. Personally, if the entire film had just followed the trio on their camping trip for two hours I would have been quite happy.
The plot is indeed nonsense but Luckinbill, an actor Shatner discovered playing President LBJ in a one-man show, gives a great performance which really sells the idea. When we do finally meet 'God', it's an anti-climax, but how could it ever not be?
The sound of 'The Final Frontier' is notable, reprising the bells and whistles so familiar to fans of the original TV series, yet largely absent from the previous four films. Thanks to the return of composer Jerry Goldsmith, we get the best score since 'The Wrath of Khan', erasing the memory of Leonard Rosenman's horrible work on 'The Voyage Home'. Goldsmith reprises the march he wrote for 'The Motion Picture'. At the time, younger fans mistook it for a borrowing of the 'Next Generation' theme, which was, of course, the very same theme.
If you're looking for a gripping story, this wouldn't be your first choice among the Trek series but, if you just want to hang out with three of pop culture's great icons for a couple of hours, 'The Final Frontier' is thoroughly enjoyable.

7/10

10 Great Public Domain Horror Movies You Can Watch For Free

2013-05-13T11:32:00.000+01:00

pub·lic do·main
Noun
The state of belonging or being available to the public as a whole.
Not subject to copyright.

There are hundreds of movies which, for varying reasons, have no copyright, meaning they can be legally shared online. Here are ten of the best from the horror genre, available to view in full right here. (Of course, for the best experience these movies need to be seen on DVD or Blu-Ray).

Night of the Living Dead

Carnival of Souls

The Last Man on Earth

House on Haunted Hill

Dementia 13

Nosferatu

The Most Dangerous Game

White Zombie

Freaks

Horror Hotel (aka City of the Dead)

New Release Review - Everybody Has a Plan

2013-05-12T20:03:00.001+01:00

A doctor assumes the role of his dead twin to escape his marriage.

Directed by: Ana Piterbarg
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Sofia Gala, Soledad Villamil, Daniel Fanego, Javier Godino

Buenos Aires doctor, Augustin (Mortensen), has grown tired of his middle class existence in the city. When his wife, Claudia (Villamil), pressures him into adopting a child, he confesses a wish to leave the relationship, locking himself in his study for days until Claudia eventually leaves their apartment, putting it up for sale. Augustin's identical twin brother, Pedro (Mortensen in a dual role), arrives in the city from his home in rural Argentina to inform his estranged brother he is suffering from terminal cancer. Pedro wishes Augustin to euthanize him, something which the doctor refuses at first, but realizing this is the perfect way to escape his life, Augustin drowns Pedro in his bath, leaving the body there for all to assume it as his. Now adopting his twin's identity, Pedro leaves for his childhood home but, once there, discovers Pedro is caught up with a dangerous gang of local kidnappers.

'Everybody Has a Plan' is a movie whose protagonist finds himself in an unfamiliar situation, but it's also made by people themselves working in foreign territory. Mortensen, pulling a "Kristin Scott Thomas", gives a performance entirely in his second language, Spanish. Piterbarg is a female writer-director making a movie about emasculation, both literally and figuratively (The impotent Augustin embraces his macho twin's tough lifestyle). The plot feels like a combination of Antonioni's 'The Passenger' and Hitchcock's 'Strangers on a Train', with the existentialism of the former struggling to share a bed with the thrills of the latter, resulting in a film that can't decide whether it's a crime thriller or a meditation on masculinity.

Neither element is explored to a satisfactory degree, with little in the way of either plotting or character development. Augustin's motivations are sign-posted through a quick scene where some noisy toddlers get on his nerves. (Sure, kids can give you a headache but it hardly seems enough motivation for committing fratricide and changing your entire identity.) For a movie written and directed by a woman, its female characters are given particularly short shrift. The subplot involving Augustin's wife is rendered pointless by her indifference. I rarely condone remakes but this is a case where a more experienced film-maker could likely craft something impressive from this bizarre but thrilling scenario. While ultimately her ego is writing checks her talent can't cash, Pitarbarg has made a film that's an indulging enough watch (thanks mainly to Mortensen and the sleazy charm of Fanego), but one which should be so much more.

6/10

TV Waffle - Leverage (2008-2012)

2013-05-11T15:32:00.001+01:00

A look at the show which followed the exploits of a team of high-tech crooks.

'Leverage' was a series produced for Turner Network Television (TNT), a cable channel in the United States. The series premiered on December 7th, 2008 and ran for five seasons, ending on Christmas day of 2012. The series is fairly unique in that it doesn’t fit easily into any standard television format and the only other series I know of comparable to it is the British series 'Hustle'. 'Leverage' is about a crew of criminals, who have since decided to become a bunch of modern day Robin Hoods, under the leadership of a former insurance investigator named Nate Ford. Perhaps the best description of the series is the tag line used in the credits “The rich and powerful, they take what they want. We steal it back for you.”
The heart of the show is the characters themselves. The team leader and mastermind is Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton).He was an insurance investigator who quit his job when the company he worked for refused to approve a medical treatment for his son that ultimately cost the child his life. Nate was apparently very good at his job as all of the other members of the crew knew who he was before they first worked together. Eric Hardison (Aldis Hodge) is a hacker extraordinaire. If you don’t want to risk him tampering with your computer, don’t connect it to the internet. Elliot (Christian Kane) is the team’s hitter who, as he says on a regular basis, doesn’t like guns. This may seem like a bit of a limitation for an enforcer but he demonstrates repeatedly that this is not the case for him. Then there is the team’s thief Parker (Beth Riesgraf).Parker had an “interesting” childhood as shown through a number of flashbacks throughout the series. Elliot is fond of saying to her “There’s something wrong with you”, and he could very well be right, as the question of her mental stability is never really answered. Last, and most certainly not least, is the grifter Sophie (not her real name), played very ably by Gina Bellman. While Sophie is a horrible actress on stage, this talent completely reverses when she is pulling a con, which Nate likes to describe as her “true stage”. While these characters are pulled together for a job which they all agree will be a one time affair, the reward to their collective egos for doing what they know to be the right thing proves too alluring and they end up forming a more permanent arrangement to continue with these sorts of jobs. The fact that they end up filthy stinking rich at the end of the pilot does little to hinder that decision either.
'Leverage' is a largely episodic program with the standard continuing character development happening throughout the series. In the third and fourth season, they do introduce a season spanning story arc but there are still stand alone episodes in each season as well. This makes the series more accessible than the increasingly common full story arc seasons we get in other series. It also makes the series easy to revisit as you can pretty much throw on any episode without having to worry about having to remember where you are in a major story line.

Each episode starts with the crew being approached by an individual who has been wronged in some way. This can range from something as simple as a church being threatened by an unscrupulous land developer to something as big as a corrupt congressman.At this point the crew will dig into information on their target and decides what sort of scam they are going to use to help their client which often, but not always, equals money. While the formula is the same the series regularly finds ways to turn the dynamic on its head. There are enough twist episodes, or twists within episodes, to keep you guessing and, as a result, you are always guaranteed a pretty wild ride along the way.
One of the other features I love about 'Leverage' is the in-jokes for fans of genre television. These usually involve 'Doctor Who' but have also covered 'Star Trek' and 'Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy' at times. In one season, a 'Warehouse 13' reference was not only thrown in but also provided a bit of foreshadowing with regard to that season’s finale. You don’t lose anything from the story if you miss these throw away references but the extra effort to put them there in the first place demonstrates how much the show goes that extra little bit for its audience.
The series ran for five seasons of varying lengths but averaged around 15 episodes per season. This variability in the length of each season hints at the somewhat dismissive attitude TNT seemed to have regarding 'Leverage'. Being a TNT original series, one would think that, like most cable channels with original series, they would put a good deal of effort into ensuring their series success. This seemed to not be the case with 'Leverage' from the beginning as TNT decided to air the episodes out of their intended order. If you buy or rent the DVD set for season one, just watch them in the order on the discs but, if you look at the dates of broadcast given in the index, or consult IMDB, you will notice that they were shown in a completely different order. Due to the more episodic nature of the series this was not a deal breaker but it did lead to some weird out-of-sequence moments, especially with Elliot’s personal history. I’m also wondering how aggressively TNT advertised the series as I didn’t even know it existed until I saw an advertisement for season four at a movie theater, and I can safely state that I was probably a member of the show’s target audience. To its credit, the series managed to still find enough of an audience to make five seasons and those audience members that I do meet tend to speak as highly of the series as I do. Even though the show was cancelled somewhat unexpectedly, the final episode is an actual series finale. Shown on Christmas Day of 2012, I found it to be a perfect holiday gift for the loyal fans of the series.

In short, if, like most people, you have never heard of 'Leverage' before, it is definitely worth your time to check it out. I’ll warn you in advance though, that you may very well find yourself with a five season time commitment, so plan accordingly. 'Leverage' is one of those rare shows for me that I like to describe as a “comfort show”. This is a show that I will just put in the DVD player when I find myself in need of some pure, unbridled entertainment and relaxation. It is my sincere hope that anyone who tries 'Leverage' has the same reaction to this amazingly fun series.

Nick Sauer

For more from Nick, visit his site 'Fantastic Television'.

Stardate 2013 - The Next Generation (1987-1994)

2013-05-09T18:24:00.002+01:00

Star Trek's return to the small screen.

The release of JJ Abrams’ 2009 'Star Trek' has retroactively left 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' (known form here on as 'TNG') in a rather unusual place in the history of the franchise. With the general public’s view of Trek being the show with the ‘guy with pointy ears’ re-solidified, and the events of the 'TNG'-era Trek being consigned to an entirely different plain of existence by the alternate-reality-bending elements of said reboot, this incarnation and its sequels have seemingly had their time in the sun. The modern casual film-goer could probably be forgiven for viewing this era as a curiosity, as dated in its own way as the Original Series seemed to us 'TNG' viewers back in the late eighties and early nineties. This is of course a mistake. In its own way 'TNG' is as important as the original theatrical run of movies, starting with 1979’s reviled but misunderstood 'The Motion Picture', and Abrams’ Rock ‘n Roll reboot, in blowing on the franchise's embers and resuscitating it during difficult times.
'TNG' was actually Paramount’s second attempt at returning Trek to TV. The "Great Bird of the Galaxy" himself, Gene Roddenberry, oversaw 'Star Trek: Phase 2', a TV project deemed so lofty that it was going to be used to launch a whole network. Shepherded by Roddenberry, it shared (going on the scant filmed test footage) a similar aesthetic to its primary-colored predecessor as well as similar themes of science versus religion and the evolution of humanity into logical, fair minded super-beings. Of course, the unprecedented success of another ‘Star’ movie suddenly repurposed the pilot into being the foundation for 'The Motion Picture'. Other episodes of the un-filmed season would morph into episodes of 'TNG', often during writer’s strikes, and often supplementing the 'Phase 2' characters of Decker and Ilia with their suspiciously similar 'TNG' counterparts, Riker and Troi.
By the time Roddenberry began to develop 'TNG', with many of the old-hands who had helped make the original 79 episodes, such as Rob Justman and DC Fontana, he was largely consigned to being a symbolic figurehead of the franchise, often critical, usually side lined and reduced to meaningless fan-service titles such as "executive consultant". As the film series successfully continued on, under the stewardship of ex-TV producer Harve Bennett, many of Roddenberry’s philosophical elements had been eschewed. This was understandable as the utopian world of scientific and philosophical discovery he had pushed for in the sixties was hardly fodder for action and conflict.
So while the films had taken a more militaristic, visceral route, it was with Gene’s alternate aesthetic of tight-fitting science jumpsuits, smooth comfortable environments, carpeted walls and psychoanalysis that the franchise he had lost control of in the earlier part of the decade re-emerged into television in 1987. With producer Rick Berman, Paramount Television Networks' ex-vice president for long form projects, at his side, the "Great Bird" took his gamble and began production on what he was touting at conventions as the "true" Roddenberry vision of Trek, not the post-'Star Wars' crowd pleasing, money making and well received nonsense being peddled by Bennett.
To say that the first season of the show is not indicative of the quality it would go on to attain is an understatement of Q-like proportions. It feels self consciously camp in a way the franchise had not been since the notorious third season of the 'Original Series'. The sets were replete with glittery foam rocks and stock alien races that ranged from the absurd ('Skin of Evil') to the downright offensive ('Angel One', 'Code of Honor'). Roddenberry’s school-boy fascination with sexuality and the joy of permissiveness is front and center in a way the films had sidestepped. Initial attempts to ignore the earlier show’s villains were disastrous, with Gene’s new villains, the Ferengi, being hastily consigned to bumbling comedy characters. Worst still, despite the embargo on direct references to the original show, many of the episodes felt like warmed up versions of superior earlier adventures, but less dynamically executed. This was partly down to Roddenberry’s increasingly absurdist view of the franchise's ethos, which he now had preached to the world over at conventions that had elevated him to almost deity levels, but which the original show rarely actually reflected. One of the strengths of the original was that it largely ignored Roddenberry’s conceit that man was perfect and right in all things, as the roster of writers increased and the network leaned on the show to be more action-adventure oriented and less "cerebral". Season one of 'TNG' shows us what Trek must have looked like in Roddenberry’s mind all that time and, as people would decry of George Lucas a decade later, made us wonder if 'Star Trek' was great despite, not because of, Gene Roddenberry. A visionary no doubt, but it was the collaborations of others such as Robert Justman, Gene Coon, Herb Solow, David Gerrold and DC Fontana (who would both return for 'TNG') to name a few, that made the Enterprise fly, and their contributions here could barely lift a runabout.

One thing Roddenberry and Berman got right was the core casting. Patrick Stewart was a left field choice, softened by the likable Shatner-esque presence of the fresh faced Jonathan Frakes as his womanising second in command. Brent Spiner hit the ground running as the android Data, the observer of humanity in the opposite way the iconic Vulcan was. Not all of the character choices were as sharp, and it is a testimony to the touchy-feely sentiment of the decade that a prominent member of the bridge crew was a Counselor gifted with "feeling" as a superpower. There were a few signs of the good things to come; John de Lancie consumed the scenery and flossed with the lighting rigs as the omnipotent Q from the first episode. ‘Conspiracy’, whilst ultimately copping out, broached the previously heretical idea of the Federation being less than perfect and the portentous talk of Federation outposts and settlements simply vanishing, in the season’s final episode, would foreshadow the introduction of one of 'TNG’s most formidable villains, the Borg.
Roddenberry’s health would begin to sharply decline throughout the show's early seasons, and whilst he continued to be a potent figurehead to the wide-eyed young writers, (who viewed him in an almost mythic light), the lion’s share of the show-running was being taken on by Berman who would continue in this capacity through to the end of 'Star Trek: Enterprise' in 2005. It should be mentioned at this point that Berman is now viewed as a controversial figure in Trek history, but his role in nurturing new talent and keeping the franchise alive cannot be underestimated.
As the production values increased from the first season, we had our first bona-fide classics ('Q Who', 'The Measure of a Man'), but the show had still yet to find its own identity and world. This development was hindered by a combination of the revolving door of TV writers, Roddenberry’s continued insistence that character conflict and violence be avoided, as well as a crippling writers' strike that resulted in a number of 'Phase 2' scripts and a (gulp!) clips show being shoe-horned in. It was with the show's third year that everything changed. The introduction of Michael Piller as head writer seemed to be just what the franchise needed and the double header of Berman and Piller on-board along with a burgeoning team of hungry writers, many first generation Trek fans; it was time to get serious. Ronald D Moore and Ira Steven Behr lead the writing charge, part idolising and part challenging Roddenberry to feature more dynamic and edgy storytelling that had more in common with the films Harve Bennet was making adjacent to their TV counterpart. In a matter of weeks we got a staggering array of high quality episodes such as Ronald D Moore’s sensitive ‘The Bonding’ and his intrigue-laden ‘The Defector’. Richard Danus brought us the hilarious ‘Deja Q’ that borders on Jim Carey levels of surreal humor. The cinematic ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’ with its mind bending ‘Groundhog Day’ structure and back-lit visuals gave us an early idea of how the show night look on the big screen, and Ron Moore would hit it out of the park again with ‘Sins of the Father’, rebooting the Klingons in a way that defined them for many years to come. But it was with the season straddling two-parter 'The Best of Both Worlds' that the 'Next Gen' (as it is affectionately know to fans) earned its wings. By defining the almost Clive Barker-esque, cadaverous Borg Collective, and shockingly raising the stakes by having our hero and Captain abducted, and in an act analogous to rape, be assimilated into their hive mind, the 'Next Generation' had arrived and was starting to make the 'Original Series' look like a dinosaur.
As the show moved into its fourth season, the stakes were raised by talk that Patrick Stewart was trying to negotiate out of his contract (he never expected the show to move beyond pilot) and that the Borg cliffhanger was contrived in case he should not return. I have no idea to the truth of this, but it added a palpable edge to the tension and became a vital part of the folklore of the show. It was also indicative of this new regime that Picard was not simply diving back into action the next week. We got a lyrical, peril free episode called ‘Family’ which is essentially 45 minutes of Picard "dealing" with the psychological weight of his experiences. Contrasted with the garish kitsch of 'TNG’s first season it is like night and day. With the dying Roddenberry’s involvement essentially nonexistent by this point it was down to Piller, Moore and Behr along with newer recruits such as Brannon Braga and René Echevarria to deliver classics such as 'First Contact' and 'The Drumhead'. This quality continued through a fifth and sixth season with other must-see episodes such as 'Darmok', 'Unification' (which saw a return for Leonard Nimoy as Spock, legitimizing 'TNG' as true Trek "canon"), 'Cause & Effect', 'The Inner Light', 'Relics' and 'Chain of Command' where we see our Captain tortured by a Cardassian (another great new villain created in this era) in scenes that would have made Roddenberry gasp.
The show faltered in its seventh year as actors began to think of their next gigs and a lot of the writing staff jumped ship to the even less Roddenberry-eque 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'. Whilst this season had a lot of filler, and downright headscratchers ('Masks', anyone? ANYONE?), it went out with a bang with the Ronald D Moore/Brannon Braga penned 'All Good Things'. It is rare that a series-ender is both a poignant love-letter to the show itself, but also a solid episode in its own right. This is made even more ironic considering how quickly and easily the pair wrote it, contrasted with the agony of writing the far less interesting feature 'Generations', mere months later.

There are a number of things one must consider, contextually, when viewing 'TNG' today. We exist in a very different landscape now that only the final few episodes of 'Enterprise' years later would briefly crossover with. The "adventure of the week" formula seems almost as archaic in this post-'24', post-'Lost' culture as the Buster Crabbe serials that influenced 'Star Wars' did to children of my generation. Much of the production values and acting styles, particularly in the earlier seasons, might appear unusual and jarring to a modern, Netflix, sensibility but it is key to consider certain things; firstly, this was it. This was pre-'X-Files', Pre-'Xena', Pre-'Buffy'. Weekly science fiction was virtually non-existent, particularly on the scale we saw here. This along with the likability and comfort gained from the weekly (yes, they made nearly 30 episodes a year, none of this 12 episodes nonsense) time spent in the company of these characters recaptured the very simple formula of lightning in a bottle that Gene and his team caught in the sixties: people we like, doing stuff we want to.
The legacy of 'TNG' is uncertain now that Trek is shinier and faster than ever. Episodes such as 'Measure of a Man', 'Darmok' and 'Drumhead' that explored moral issues through the prism of sci-fi, supported by Stewart's authoritative baritone and the sympathetic writing of Piller and his team might seem quaint, but for fans of a certain age, is what 'Star Trek' is, and should be, about.

Michael Parkes

Google's Saul Bass Tribute

2013-05-08T11:36:00.000+01:00

Today, May 8th 2013, Google paid tribute to Saul Bass with a Bass-themed "doodle" on their homepage.
Bass would have turned 93 today, having been born on May 8th 1920. He passed away on April 25th 1996, leaving behind a rich cinematic legacy. Bass is most famous for a series of unforgettable credit sequences, most notably those he designed for Hitchcock. If you missed Google's homepage tribute, you can view it in the video below.

New Release Review - Star Trek: Into Darkness

2013-05-07T15:40:00.000+01:00

The Enterprise is dispatched to eliminate a terrorist responsible for attacks on Starfleet.

Directed by: JJ Abrams
Starring: Chris Pine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Alice Eve, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, Leonard Nimoy, Noel Clarke

With his daughter lying terminally ill in a London hospital, a young father is approached by John Harrison (Cumberbatch), who claims to be able to cure her. In exchange for his child's salvation, the young man acts as a suicide bomber, destroying a Starfleet archive facility and killing 42 in the process. Hearing of this, an emergency meeting is conducted in Starfleet's San Francisco headquarters. During the meeting, Harrison attacks the building in a spacecraft and escapes to hide on the Klingon home-world of Kronos. Admiral Marcus (Weller) orders Captain Kirk (Pine) to take the Enterprise and kill Harrison.
With 2009's reboot of 'Star Trek', Abrams faced the considerable task of making the franchise relevant to the general public without alienating its fans, (who are arguably the most passionate in all of pop culture). For the most part, he succeeded. The first film in a new adaptation of a popular brand is always difficult as you have to spend so much time establishing the main characters, and their world, it leaves little room to inject a satisfying story into the mix. Thus, the first film featured a dull villain and not much of a story. We forgave this though as it set everything up for a potentially great sequel. A clever plot device meant Abrams' Trek was set in an alternate reality, allowing him to take things in his own direction. Strange then that the follow-up movie is, essentially, a remake, and a poor imitation, of a previous movie.

There's a mythical figure, let's call him 'Joe MidWest', who Hollywood execs have conjured up and consistently pander to, despite no real evidence he actually exists. Joe MidWest, we're led to believe, won't watch Judge Dredd unless he removes his helmet. He won't watch a 'Halloween' movie unless Michael Myers removes his mask. Now, it seems, he won't watch 'Star Trek' unless the guy with the pointy ears stops behaving like an alien and shows some emotion. What's done to Spock (Quinto) here is bizarre; turning him into a blubbering, emotional wreck which goes against everything that makes the character so fascinating. A huge part of the series' charm came from the interplay between the emotional Kirk, (and McCoy), and the logical Spock. Now that Spock is just as emotional as Kirk, this element is gone. The screenwriters seem intent on shooting themselves in the foot. (Considering the writers are responsible for such travesties as 'Transformers 2', 'Prometheus' and 'People Like Us', a wounded foot is the least they deserve, given the pain they've inflicted on audiences.)
Much of the marketing focuses on the casting of Cumberbatch, an actor who finds his star rising rapidly. Fans of the BBC 'Sherlock' reboot know what a great presence the actor is but he's sadly wasted here. His scenes with Kirk have none of the power of those seen in the older film this one references. The extent of his character amounts to a bit of poorly written exposition and an iconic name. As with the first film, McCoy (Urban) is pushed aside for Uhura (Saldana), seemingly for politically correct reasons. Scotty (the horribly miscast Pegg), by far the worst element of the previous installment, is, thankfully, less of a comedic presence here.

As a director, Abrams does some impressive work. The movie's highlight is a stunning pre-credits sequence set on a vivid red planet that recalls the opening of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. The FX work is equally impressive, particularly a glorious shot of the Enterprise falling through a thick blanket of clouds. The sets, costumes and production design are all spectacular too, as is Michael Giacchino's majestic score. Unfortunately, when it comes to narrative cinema, the most important element is the script. Hundreds of people did fantastic work on this film but three people did a terrible job. Those three wrote it.

5/10

Stardate 2013 - The Voyage Home (1986)

2013-05-05T14:14:00.000+01:00

The crew find themselves in 20th century San Francisco.

Directed by: Leonard Nimoy
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Catherine Hicks, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Mark Lenard, Robin Curtis

A large space-probe takes up orbit around Earth, disrupting the planet's weather and energy sources to create an impending global catastrophe. The probe emits a strange sound which Starfleet fail to decipher. When the crew of the Enterprise, now commandeering a Klingon 'Bird of Prey', arrive in Earth's atmosphere to face trial for the events seen in 'Search For Spock', they decipher the probe's signal as the song of, now extinct, humpback whales. Deciding that live whales are required to communicate with the probe, the crew time travel back to 1986 San Francisco, where a local aquarium houses two such creatures.
If there's one sub-genre which defined Hollywood during the eighties, it's the "fish-out-of-water" archetype. The massive success of 1982's 'E.T', followed by 1984's 'Beverly Hills Cop', meant the sub-genre would be milked till this particular cash cow's teats ran dry. We had gruff Aussies struggling to adapt to life in New York city ('Crocodile Dundee'), geriatric convicts struggling to adapt to life in the eighties ('Tough Guys'), and even kids struggling to adapt in the adult's body they magically find themselves in ('Big'). The permutations were endless, making it a screenwriter's dream. All you needed was a character and a contrasting setting to drop them in. It was drama in its simplest form and adapted easily to comedy. For the bean-counters of Hollywood it was manna from heaven, particularly where science fiction was concerned. In the wake of 'Star Wars', sci-fi was associated with huge budgets but the fish-out-of-water concept changed this. Rather than spending millions creating alien worlds, you could simply bring the aliens to our world. Thus we got 'Starman', 'Masters of the Universe', 'Lifeforce', and countless others. It was inevitable then that Kirk and crew would find themselves Earthbound.
With the success of time travel movies like 'Back to the Future' and 'The Terminator', the producers of 'The Voyage Home' knew they had a winning formula on their hands. Nicholas Meyer ('Wrath of Khan') was brought back as co-writer, along with Harve Bennett ('Search For Spock'). Bennett handled the film's future-set bookends while Meyer wrote the 1986 middle section. In the hands of a lesser writer, the film could have become just another bad eighties high concept comedy but Meyer comes up with some clever ways to mine jokes from the situation without completely destroying the integrity of the characters. Every eighties fish-out-of-water movie seemed to feature a scene where our "fish" is confronted by a mohawk-sporting punk, (Hollywood seemingly failed to realize punk died in the late seventies); "Nice night for a walk", "That's not a knife, this is a knife" etc. Here, Meyer has Spock (Nimoy) employ the Vulcan neck-pinch on one such stereotype, a hood who insists on blaring loud music on a bus. Meyer also gets around the old time-travel paradox with some simple, yet clever, throwaway dialogue.
Some of the jokes don't work quite so well, particularly Chekhov's subplot of being mistaken for a Russian spy. Likewise, Spock's failure to grasp "colorful metaphors" is a tad overplayed. The film is at its best when focusing on Kirk, allowing Shatner to exploit his brilliant, and under-rated, comic timing.
'The Voyage Home' came at a time when special effects where at a crossroads between practical and digital. It's the former which hold up the strongest here, with some stunning model work on display. The early experimental computer generated effects, seen in the time-warp sequence, look extremely primitive now, resembling an Atari ST loading screen. The matte paintings, particularly one featuring the Klingon ship, are totally unconvincing yet still beautiful to look at. Given the choice between real and stunning, I'll gladly take the latter.
The worst element of 'The Voyage Home' is its horrifically bad soundtrack. Following great work by Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner on the previous three installments, Leonard Rosenman's score sounds like it was composed for a Christmas comedy rather than a Trek movie. Bizarrely, along with Goldsmith's work on 'The Motion Picture', it's one of only two Trek scores nominated for an Oscar, yet another reason why the Academy shouldn't be taken seriously.

Of all the Trek films, this is the one which divides fans the most, a movie arguably more appreciated by casual film viewers than hardcore fans of the franchise. Yes, it milks a formula with a minimum of effort so, in this regard, it can be seen as the 'Jaws: The Revenge' of the series. However, in Meyer, you have a writer who cares deeply about his work and this, coupled with the familiarity of the characters, elevates it above the standard commercial dross of the eighties. It was also a massive commercial success, returning $133 million from its $21 million budget, something which became a huge factor in the green-lighting of the franchise's return to TV a year later with 'The Next Generation'.

7/10

Watch the 'Fast & Furious 6' World Premiere Live!

2013-05-04T22:29:00.001+01:00

'Fast & Furious 6', the latest installment in the high-octane franchise, receives its world premiere on Tuesday May 7th. You can watch the event, live from London, right here. Just pop back here at 5pm U.K time, May 7th.

Great Movie Posters - Hollywood in Poland

2013-05-01T15:54:00.000+01:00

Back in the old days of communist-ruled Poland, regular American style marketing was considered evil western propaganda. To get around this, posters for Hollywood films were redesigned in a uniquely Polish style. Here are some of the best (and weirdest).

Apocalypse Now

The Terminator

Strangers on a Train

Cabaret

Rosemary's Baby

Sunset Boulevard

Alien

Working Girl

The Legacy

Return of the Jedi

2001: A Space Odyssey

Wall Street

New Release Review - Mud

2013-04-30T22:20:00.000+01:00

Two young boys come to the aid of a fugitive.

Directed by: Jeff Nichols

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland, Reese Witherspoon, Sam Shepard, Michael Shannon, Sarah Paulson, Ray McKinnon, Joe Don Baker, Paul Sparks

Two 14-year-old Arkansan boys, Ellis (Sheridan) and Neckbone (Lofland), discover a mysterious stranger, who calls himself 'Mud' (McConaughey), hiding out on a small island on the Mississippi river. When he tells them he's waiting to be reunited with the love of his life, Juniper (Witherspoon), the boys scoff until they see the woman buying groceries in town. With his own parents on the verge of divorce and his first love having just rejected him, Ellis sets about reuniting the two lovers. He soon discovers there are those who aren't so keen; a group of thugs employed by the father of Juniper's abusive boyfriend who died at the hands of Mud.

There was a time when the U.S led the world in narrative film-making. Whatever other faults you might have bestowed on them, American film-makers were traditionally cinema's greatest story-tellers. This tradition was partly killed off in the late sixties by the "movie brat" generation who saw conventional narrative film-making as old hat. By the 21st century the tradition was practically dead, with European and Asian writers leading the way as far as story structure went. The odd contemporary American movie with a well written and engaging story, such as 'The Shawshank Redemption' would come to be treated as manna from heaven but, pre-sixties, America produced these type of films on a weekly basis. Jeff Nichols' third feature, following the over-rated but promising 'Shotgun Stories' and 'Take Shelter', is a return to this tradition, a piece of old school American storytelling at its best.

When we think of American culture, we're more often than not thinking of the South. Most of the country's greatest writers, artists and musicians have come from below the Mason-Dixon line but the area hasn't fared so well on celluloid. The South usually falls victim to a cornball representation, with dodgy Northern actors attempting wildly over-the-top accents. Last year we had two of the worst representations of the South, one mocking ('Django Unchained'), one patronizing ('Beasts of the Southern Wild'). Nichols is a child of the South and the Arkansas we see in his films is not the one we know from the silver screen, rather the one seen by everyday folks from the back of a pick-up truck. He does for the South what David Lynch did for the Pacific NorthWest, representing its rugged beauty alongside its underlying darkness. Indeed, the theme of first love set against the dangers of the adult world explicitly recalls Lynch's 'Blue Velvet'. The film's villains, all skinny ties and slicked back hair, are straight out of Lynchland, that enticing world where America seems stuck in the fifties.

If you had told me the best movie of 2013 would star McConaughey and Witherspoon I would have feared for the state of cinema. A whole generation has grown up without the knowledge that, back in the nineties, the pair were considered two of the brightest lights of American independent cinema. A decade-plus of dreadful (un)romantic-comedies has since soured our perception of them. Here they get the chance to remind us of their potential with career best performances from both. Speaking of potential, young Sheridan shows us that his impressive turn in 'The Tree of Life' wasn't just a once off. Himself and Lofland are fantastic together, a double act way beyond their years but still convincing as naive teens.

'Mud' is easily the best movie about childhood since 'Stand By Me', a stunning portrayal of the confusion of entering manhood in a post-masculine world. There's no sagely, wise-beyond-his-years, advice from Nichols' protagonist Ellis. He sees the errors adults are making but, already at his young age, he is making the same mistakes himself and his youthful ideals are crushed by three different failing relationships throughout the film. There's no annoying voice-over telling us the lessons Ellis is learning, indeed the film's climax suggests no matter how many times he feels love's hoof in his belly, he'll keep climbing back on the horse. Like 'To the Wonder', Nichols' film tells us love, or at least its unattainable ideal, is worth fighting for, even if we're never really sure why.

9/10

The 5 Best Movies of April 2013

2013-04-30T14:06:00.000+01:00

The five new releases most enjoyed by the Waffler this April.

5. Promised Land

TMW said: "It's testament to Damon's affability that, despite the dubious nature of his character, we find ourselves rooting for him to succeed."

Full Review

4. A Late Quartet

TMW said: "While its story is nothing we haven’t seen before, the performances from its ensemble cast and some stunning work by legendary cinematographer Frederick Elmes make ‘A Late Quartet’ a worthwhile watch."

Full Review

3. Bernie

TMW said: "As a film, there's not a whole lot to 'Bernie' but what there is you'll have a lot of fun with."

Full Review

2. Love Is All You Need

TMW said: "Apart from a disappointingly predictable ending, 'LIAYN' is a charming rom-com aimed at middle-aged viewers but accessible to all but those too ignorant to read subtitles."

Full Review

1. Iron Man 3

TMW said: "Marvel purists will probably be aghast at what Shane Black's done to the material, especially the treatment of The Mandarin, but the rest of will be happy to have a comic book movie that's, well, comic."

Full Review

New Release Review - Love Is All You Need

2013-04-29T23:59:00.003+01:00

An unlikely relationship blossoms in the preparations of a wedding in Italy.

Directed by: Susanne Bier
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Trine Dyrholm, Sebastian Jessen, Molly Blixt Egelind, Kim Bodnia

Hairdresser Ida (Dyrholm) sports a blond wig, concealing the fact she has just come through chemo treatment for breast cancer, yet still awaits final results. She returns home to find her husband, Leif (Bodnia), cheating on her with a younger woman from his office. The couple's daughter, Astrid (Egelind), is about to be married in Italy, so they decide to travel there separately. At the airport, Ida crashes her car into that of Philip (Brosnan), a grumpy and misanthropic fruit magnate whose outlook is as bitter as the lemons he trades in. Philip just happens to be the father of the young man Ida's daughter is marrying. Reluctantly, Philip and Ida travel to Italy together. Once there, an unlikely romance blossoms between the two.

Scandinavian cinema, and its TV, has become synonymous with gritty crime dramas in recent years. The romantic comedy isn't the first genre you associate with the region, particularly Denmark, the home of such controversy courting directors as Lars Von Trier, Nicholas Winding Refn and Thomas Vinterberg. Indeed, Susanne Bier, the director of 'Love Is All You Need', is herself known for much heavier fare. The theme of coping with death runs through her work and is again present here, with Brosnan playing a man who becomes angry at the world following his wife's senseless death in a car accident.

That's not to say this is a heavy movie, far from it, but it does contain a level of substance absent from the romantic comedies Hollywood churns out. For a start, our two leads are actually likable and worth rooting for. Dyrholm feels like an everyday middle-aged woman who's been dropped into a rom-com scenario. Brosnan's character is more of a movie archetype but he manages to make the role seem fresh. The Irishman is a very under-rated actor, possibly because he doesn't take himself too seriously, but he possesses a range he rarely receives credit for. In the over-looked 2006 western, 'Seraphim Falls' he delivered a stunning dramatic performance and here he shows just how good his comic timing is.
Apart from a disappointingly predictable ending, 'LIAYN' is a charming rom-com aimed at middle-aged viewers but accessible to all but those too ignorant to read subtitles.

7/10

New Release Review - Bernie

2013-04-29T20:59:00.000+01:00

The true story of a murder in a small Texan town.

Directed by: Richard Linklater
Starring: Jack Black, Shirley Maclaine, Matthew McConaughey

In the small East Texan community of Carthage, assistant funeral director Bernie Tiede (Black) is loved by all. Not so popular is millionairess Marjorie Nugent (Maclaine), an abrasive elderly woman who seems to go out of her way to antagonize the other members of the community. Seeing the good in everyone, Bernie attempts to befriend her after burying her late husband. Marjorie resists at first but eventually gives into his charms and the two become close friends. Bernie takes a full time job as her personal assistant, running her affairs and tending to her many demands. As she becomes more possessive and demanding, Bernie struggles to deal with her mood-swings, leading him to shoot her dead in an angry fit. Looking for a conviction after Bernie confesses to the killing, District Attorney Danny Buck Davidson (McConaughey) finds himself up against the people of Carthage who rally around their friend.

Of all the true crimes in recent American history, this isn't one of the more interesting in terms of the investigation as the perpetrator confessed as soon as he was caught. Rather than just another procedural, Linklater's true-crime movie is a character study. What makes Bernie such a fascinating character is just how much of a genuinely nice guy he seems to be. In documentary-style straight to camera pieces, the townsfolk of Carthage give us numerous examples of his generosity and selflessness. Even after killing his wealthy friend, he chooses to spend her money on improving the community, to such a degree that, after his capture, the economy of the town takes a massive hit.

A Texan native himself, Linklater captures the essence of small-town America perfectly. The actors all look exactly like the sort of people you see in Erroll Morris type documentaries, all big hair and tractor caps. In the title role, Black gives a career best performance and McConaughey continues his career reinvention, reteaming with the director who gave him his break in 1993's 'Dazed & Confused'. Maclaine's turn is all the more impressive given her role is almost devoid of dialogue yet she creates a fully nuanced character. As a film, there's not a whole lot to 'Bernie' but what there is you'll have a lot of fun with.

7/10

Stardate 2013 - The Search For Spock (1984)

2013-04-28T14:59:00.003+01:00

Kirk learns that Spock may still be alive and sets out to retrieve his friend.

Directed by: Leonard Nimoy
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Christopher Lloyd, Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Robin Curtis, Merritt Butrick, Mark Lenard

At the end of 'Wrath of Khan', Spock (Nimoy) sacrificed himself and we saw his casket launched into space where it landed on the planet created by the Genesis device. Back on Earth, McCoy (Kelley) is now behaving strangely, Spock having transferred his spirit to the doctor. Sarek (Lenard), Spock's father, informs Kirk (Shatner) that Spock's spirit must be united with his body on the Genesis planet. Kirk and crew steal the Enterprise and set off to save their friend. On the planet, Lieutenant Saavik (Curtis) and David Marcus (Butrick) have discovered Spock, resurrected as a child by the power of the Genesis device. Spock is aging rapidly, as is the planet which will self-destruct within hours. The three are captured by Commander Kruge (Lloyd), a Klingon who wishes to acquire the Genesis device.
1982 is considered by many as cinema's greatest year for blockbusters. As well as 'Wrath of Khan', cinema-goers were treated to 'E.T', 'The Thing', 'Blade Runner', 'Poltergeist', '48 Hours', 'Mad Max 2', 'First Blood', 'Airplane 2', and 'Halloween 3'. (We can only dream of such a roster today). All of the aforementioned films were quality works which didn't resort to any form of dumbing down. In this sense, 1982 can be seen as the end of the seventies, a decade which, in cinema terms, really began in 1969 with 'Easy Rider' and 'The Wild Bunch'. When we reflect on the films of the eighties, we inevitably think of a level of cheesiness which had kicked in by 1984 and is well and truly evident in 'The Search For Spock'.

The entire film essentially exists to rectify what was seen as a major commercial mistake: the killing of Spock in the previous installment. Knowing this, Nimoy blackmailed Paramount into allowing him to direct in return for reprising his signature role. Following in the steps of legendary director Robert Wise and the talented young Nicholas Meyer, Nimoy's bland direction gives the film a cheap look, despite having a substantially larger budget than Meyer had to work with. The script, by Harve Bennett, is tonally all over the place, comedic in the first half and stoic in the second. Little is done to exploit the Klingons, as iconic villains as ever existed.
There are some cringe-worthy moments and a level of camp throughout. (If anyone had doubts over Takei's sexuality he confirmed it here). A backwards speaking alien may be intended as a tribute to Yoda but it just feels like some cheap coat-tail riding.

All that said, 'The Search For Spock' is still a relatively enjoyable movie, though a familiarity with the characters is definitely essential here, unlike 'Wrath of Khan' which serves as a great stand-alone sci-fi movie in its own right. Shatner doesn't get the level of attention he commanded in the previous film but he still gets in a few trademark "Shatnerisms". His famous and unique style of turning. every. single. word. into. its. own. sentence is allowed to shine. Particularly amusing is Shatner's performance when he first confronts McCoy under Spock's influence. As Kruge, Christopher Lloyd casts off his comedic baggage and is very effective in the role.
'The Search For Spock' forms the middle part of a three movie story-line begun in 'Wrath of Khan' and concluded in 'The Voyage Home', a slice of eighties cheese if ever there was one.

6/10

New Release Review - The Look of Love

2013-04-28T13:35:00.001+01:00

Biopic of British porn magnate Paul Raymond.

Directed by: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Steve Coogan, Imogen Poots, Anna Friel, Matt Lucas, Stephen Fry, Tamsin Egerton, Shirley Henderson, David Walliams, Chris Addison

When we first meet Paul Raymond (Coogan) in the late fifties, he and his wife Jean (Friel) are touring England with a gimmicky nude circus act. After a tabloid newspaper incorrectly states that Jean appears nude in these shows, Raymond wins a substantial libel settlement. He uses the winnings to open the Raymond Revue Bar, which quickly becomes the lead attraction of Soho, London's red light district. The film follows Raymond through the seventies and eighties as he builds an empire of sex clubs and porn magazines, focusing on his tumultuous relationship with both his model girlfriend Fiona Richmond (Egerton) and his drug-addled daughter Debbie (Poots).

The biopic film is a difficult genre, one which rarely produces satisfying results. The best biopics choose to focus on a particular moment or aspect of their subject's life. Tim Burton's 'Ed Wood' is a perfect example of a film which focuses on celebrating its subject's best years. Had Burton taken the usual biopic route, as Winterbottom does here, the second half of his film would have been a depressing tale of Wood's downward spiral into drug addiction. There's a strange level of begrudgery involved in most biopics, aimed, as they so often are, to appeal at the primitive jealousy we feel towards the rich and famous. These films take great delight in building up a successful figure, only to knock them down in the final act. Why choose to focus on a famous person's human flaws rather than the achievements which brought them such fame?

Winterbottom's film adopts this crude tactic, all champagne popping montages in the first half, drug-addled paranoia and self-destruction in the second. We've seen this a million times before, with far more interesting subjects. Raymond's character is pretty unremarkable and Coogan does him no favors with his portrayal, indistinguishable from any other character the former comedian has played. The real star of the show is Poots, stealing every scene she appears in. By the end of 2013, this girl's name will be on everyone's lips. Friel is also impressive, perfectly capturing the new-money crassness of her character.
Winterbottom has become the U.K's Stephen Soderbergh, churning out films at an incredible rate. He began his career with a series of interesting works but, like his U.S counterpart, he seems to be coasting on auto-pilot now. Maybe a Soderbergh-esque break is in order?

5/10

17 Stunning Hitchcock Mosaics From Leytonstone Tube Station

2013-04-27T23:23:00.000+01:00

Alfred Hitchcock was born in the London borough of Leytonstone. To celebrate this, in 2001 Leytonstone tube station became home to 17 mosaics which pay tribute to his work.

The Birds

To Catch a Thief

Hitch with Marlene Dietrich

Number 17

North by North West

Hitch on set

The Pleasure Garden

Directing Psycho

Rear Window

Rebecca

Saboteur

The Skin Game

Strangers on a Train

Suspicion

Vertigo

Hitch as a child with his father

The Wrong Man