North By Northwest

Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock combine in a great caper movie – maintaining just enough menace to be thrilling in the vein of Hitchcock’s best movies, yet also featuring much comedy. The acting class on display only adds to the movie’s excellent reputation.

Roger Thornhill, a suave and handsome advertising executive, gets mistaken for someone else by chance, and is thrown into a game of cat and mouse where the mouse doesn’t understand why it’s being hunted down. Pursued by Phillip Vandamm (Mason) and his cohorts, Thornhill must enlist the help of beautiful stranger Eve Kendall (Saint) in his quest to understand who exactly is chasing him and who they have mistaken him for.

Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint star and contribute the best performances, along with a strong supporting cast including James Mason, Martin Landau and Leo G. Carroll. Grant is wholly deserving of his reputation – and George Clooney, despite taking many similar roles in his career, has nothing on him. Starring as Roger Thornhill, a city man mistaken for someone else, Grant conveys the sense of a wholly bewildered yet ingenious man caught up in something far bigger than he can imagine. The actor strongly conveys his hold on comedy, with much of the film’s witty humour and sexual charge coming from him.

Eva Marie Saint, as Eve Kendall (the somewhat femme-fatale of the piece) counteracts Grant as a strong female lead – despite the initial assumptions, she’s deeper than we think, and the actress does brilliantly well to portray such a conflicted character. Her scenes with Grant present some incredibly charged encounters – some of which could clearly be seen as raunchy for the time, but perhaps less so now – a testament to her performance as well as his.

James Mason, as villain Phillip Vanndamm, exudes ruthlessness with a hint of charm, giving what could have been a stock movie villain a sense of class and ambiguity. His assistant Leonard, played by a young Martin Landau, provides a deadly and somewhat ominous performance to the movie that lends it its more sinister scenes, whilst an accomplice to Thornhill, the Professor, is played by Leo G. Carroll, who presents his character as the stereotypical old gent, but one who is, much like many other characters here, deeper than at first impressions.

Hitchcock crafts another hit movie with his trademark mix of tension and strong performances – and the addition of comedy to this mixture only serves to make the film stronger. Hitch presents a lighter side to his film-making here, with a movie not only shot in colour but featuring much comedy and goofing around that he is not known for. However, the darker sides of his direction are not lost, and the film’s main plot holds many dark mysteries and discoveries for Thornhill. All in all, the famous director shows his flexibility and diversity in North by Northwest – it’s a shame that he didn’t make more films like this.

Grant’s Thornhill gets the best lines by far – his putdowns and sarcasm towards the men mistaking him for someone else are witty and damning. Much of the suggestive dialogue between the leads is also impressive, and quite raunchy in its suggestions for its time. As with many other Hitchcock movies, Bernard Herrmann contributes the fantastic score, and the memorable theme sits alongside his past collaborations on Psycho and other such Hitch films. Shot in colour, and quite often on location or in a convincing sound stage, this movie is brilliantly visualised from the opening credits onward. It’s a shame that for the final set-piece of the movie Hitchcock wasn’t allowed to shoot in the real location he wanted to – as the obvious matte paintings are pitifully fake.

As with any Hitchcock movie, North by Northwest is filled with twists, wry humour and a sense of mounting tension. However, including comedy into this already potent broth pays dividends for the legendary director – the movie is among his very best.

9/10

The Big Sleep

Perhaps the quintessential film noir, The Big Sleep offers Bogart and Bacall in a riveting, fiesty murder mystery that’s perhaps too beguiling for its own good at times.

PI Phillip Marlowe (Bogart) is called in to investigate the bribery and blackmail of a young rich girl, Carmen Starkwood (Vickers) – her and her sister Vivian (Bacall) lead Marlowe’s investigative mind to discover a far bigger and more complex series of manipulations beneath the surface.

Humphrey Bogart really is unlike any actor alive today – with the hangdog face and sarcastic, suggestive characters he chooses, the actor cemented his place in history. Whilst Casablanca seems to be the film for which he’s known best, his performance as Marlowe has shaped the detective and noir genres since – an outstanding yet understated performance from a great actor. John Ridgely plays Edward Mars, the antagonist of the piece – well, one of them, I’ll leave it down to you to try and wade through the plot’s many turns. Ridgely plays against Bogart with a sense of malevolence and comedy – he’s a suave character whose intentions are never truly clear. Regis Toomey plays Marlowe’s contact in the police, and his few scenes with Bogart do provide much of the interesting interplay that’s often seen (watered down and dumbed down) in buddy cop movies these days.

Lauren Bacall, despite her obvious and quite disarming attractiveness, produces a femme fatale in Vivien who is both suggestive and mysterious – and her scenes with Bogart sizzle with sexual tension. It’s clear to see how she went on to greater fame from here quite honestly! Martha Vickers almost manages to upstage Bacall here in her role as Vivian’s sister Carmen – all coy expressions and suggestive approaches to Marlowe, she remains in the mind more so than any other character, so bizarre and so memorable is her performance as the spoilt little rich girl with skeletons in her closet.

Howard Hawks manages to fashion a superb movie from a convoluted plotline, though the narrative issues still permeate the finished product. A truly lavish movie, each scene’s soundtrack and visual splendour cement it as a classic of Old Hollywood, whilst Chandler’s dialogue adds sizzle and style to the proceedings. Hawks directs each scene with a sense of fluidity – the movie flows from point to point, not stopping to wait for those who can’t keep up. The legendary director coaxes interesting and diverse performances from his cast whilst maintaining the style and intent of the novel’s dialogue and characters. The issues with the plot do cast a shadow however – the film isn’t that simple to follow, and you really need to listen out for names – and concentration is a big issue for many film-watchers, so be warned.

Chandler’s zippy, street-smart dialogue makes the movie the success it is – every line Bogart’s Marlowe speaks has some form of barb behind it, whether it be sexually suggestive or simply an attack. The women’s lines are entendres to the last; Bacall and Bogart’s scene in the cafe is perhaps the best example of the exemplary dialogue provided by Chandler. The soundtrack is classic Hollywood – one memorable motif that permeates the rest of the movie alongside much forgettable and overdubbed music. Not that this matters – the theme is good, and the scenes tend to be so complex with their exposition that overbearing music would only confound plot issues. From the Starkwood mansion to the streets of the city, Hawks fashions a believable and tangible 40s environment, and whilst the inevitable driving scenes are terribly done with the bluescreen behind, they are not overly used – and Hawks actually uses outside shots of the cars driving, something not often seen at the time, particularly with the actors behind the wheel!

Twisting, manipulative and sexy – this 1940s noir is devilishly interesting but requires some attention for maximum enjoyment. Other than this complexity, it is a true classic and deserves the attention it receives.

9/10

Watchmen

People will call it the first adult comic book movie – but sidestepping that and all the other chit-chat, Watchmen is a sprawling, visual feast of intertangled stories and interesting performances – which only happens to be about superheroes.

The mysterious murder of the Comedian (Morgan), a masked vigilante and member of the Watchmen (a group of superheroes) leads the aggressive and paranoid Rorschach (Haley) to begin investigating whether his murder was random or an attack on ‘masks’. His actions and investigation bring in the other members of the disbanded group; among them Nite Owl (Wilson), Silk Spectre II (Akerman) Ozymandias (Goode) and the god-like Dr. Manhattan (Crudup) – their lives intertwine following the murder of one of their own to devastating and revelatory effect, foregrounded against the spectre of nuclear annihilation between the U.S. and the Soviets.

The Watchmen themselves range from passable to impressive, Matthew Goode’s Ozymandias the former and Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach the latter. With no truly big stars, the film benefits – this ensemble piece allows for the actors, many of whom are very underrated, to push through onto the mainstream, and their performances are on the whole excellent. Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl/Dan Dreiberg, alongside Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach, provide the lead male roles here, and both men are able to disappear into their roles. Nite Owl is a Batman imitation, but you can’t say that Bruce Wayne is human – particularly when he’s Christian Bale, who can’t seem to be anything but angry. Wilson is great here, mixing a sense of nostalgia with the resignation of a man who has left an old life behind, hoping never to go back whilst pining for it. Haley is the best actor in the film though – acting through a full face mask for most of the film, he convinces entirely as the murderous vigilante, even managing to remain sinister in the moments where his mask is removed.

I’m placing the remainder of the Watchmen in supporting cast – simply because they don’t get as much time as Dan or Rorschach. Billy Crudup is the distanced, God-like Dr. Manhattan, a superbeing who lacks empathy despite his endless powers – Crudup infuses him with a sense of complete detachment, and acting as a big blue naked guy, he does actually make the character believable. Matthew Goode, as Ozymandias/Adrian Veidt, is the intelligent, rich member of the troupe, and Goode is, well, good in the role. He doesn’t seem to get enough time though, and his role is pretty integral to the plot – I just felt like something was lacking, but then in a film this long it’s no surprise that some stuff might have been cut.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, playing the Comedian/Eddie Blake, is our entry into the world of the Watchmen, and his performance (particularly his looks) will remind many of Javier Bardem or Robert Downey Jr.; he looks like the former and acts like the latter, and gives that sense of imbalance and danger that the character demands.

Malin Ackerman plays Laurie Jupiter/Silk Spectre II – the effective female star of the film. And damn if she isn’t good here – it’s so much better to have a new actress than someone we recognise, which obviously goes for the rest of the cast. Ackerman is more than a match for the guys, and manages to carry off the ridiculously exploitative costume of her character without distracting too much. Carla Gugino plays Silk Spectre I – Laurie’s mum Sally, and the actress provides the film with some of the more interesting scenes in her descriptions (and cover-ups) of her and her daughter’s pasts.

I’ve read and do own the graphic novel, but in all fairness I’m no geek – I just wanted to watch this great story onscreen, and sod the changes or whatever the fanboys moan about – the film is expertly directed by Snyder, whose command of effects, actors and visuals are becoming unparalleled in Hollywood. Jumping from zombies to Greeks and now superheroes, Snyder seems to have really begun to etch out a visual aesthetic in his movies that is both stunning and innovative. His handle on the actors isn’t as great, but then in choosing a more unknown cast he shows (as with 300) his faith in those who aren’t expensive but have more talent. Every single angle of this film from a directorial perspective seems difficult, but he’s arguably pulled it off perfectly – and I look forward to seeing what he manages to get next.

Lots of the dialogue is taken straight from the novel, so much of the film’s outstanding interchanges or comments are in fact from that. However, the film obviously doesn’t adhere completely, and in making the necessary changes, whilst retaining the dialogue that works so well, the scriptwriters and Snyder present a movie that flows despite its detail and expositionary scenes. The soundtrack is perhaps the best part of the film other than the visuals – music from the 60’s to the 80’s infuses the film with a sense of time and place, foregrounding the audience in the past, alternate America that the film is set in whilst also matching some amazing songs to some amazing imagery – watch the opening credits to see EXACTLY what I mean. Hendrix, Dylan, Nena (99 Luftballons!) and various others crop up in surprising places whilst still working perfectly in the narrative – who would have thought a comic book, superhero movie would contain such a diverse soundtrack!

Snyder bests even the exploits of 300 here visually – New York, Antarctica, Mars, Vietnam – they’re all created realistically and depicted with a grim, realistic tone that harks back to the Cold War days. On top of this, the action loses some of the slow-mo that haunted 300 and increases the harshness – some of the fights are BRUTAL. All in all, the film shows that whatever has been drawn or written in fiction, however immense, can be replicated on film in such quality now – Snyder seems to be leading the charge in this regard, and it’s exciting to think where he might go next.

A truly excellent movie, and one that must definitely be seen by anyone who has even seen one superhero film – it is that, but it’s also so much more. Hopefully it will receive the attention and plaudits it deserves.

9/10

The Island

A Michael Bay film with some thought behind it?! As ridiculous as it may seem, The Island is rooted in similar, preceding films with a bit of ingenuity behind them, and the Master of Bayhem combines his love of shiny things, exploding shiny things and attractive women with a bit of intelligence – an underrated movie that should be seen.

Lincoln Six Echo (McGregor) and Jordan Two Zero (Johannson) inhabit the mysterious, post-apocalyptic world in which lotteries dictate who will leave for the Island - a haven against the biological disease that wiped out most of the planet. Becoming more inquisitive than he perhaps should, Lincoln penetrates the air of mystery surrounding his life and discovers the shocking truths behind his, and others’ lives.

McGregor and Johansson are perfectly matched as the leads, Bay electing to hire some actors with a bit of actual acting ability and his decision proving to be the right one. Ewan McGregor is a great actor – a fact that makes it all the more shocking that he chose to star here. The story gives more than enough credence to his decision however, and he gets to present his mastery of accents as well as convincingly innocent in his character’s lack of knowledge – better him than someone like Ben Affleck any day.

Scarlett Johansson is all too often said to be trading in on her looks for roles – and whilst Bay has these intentions with every film he makes, Johansson is a good actress quite honestly – her character, similar in behaviour to McGregor’s, coyly plays with the sterotypical view of women Johansson would often be picked to play. There aren’t any significant female co-stars, as, after all, Michael Bay likes his attractive leading ladies (Megan Fox, Kate Beckinsale etc.), and with Scarlett onboard the other women are just there to even the numbers out. Shame really as his films might be more popular if they had a bit more oestrogen injected in.

Sean Bean hammers another nail into the proverbial coffin of British actors in Hollywood – surprise surprise, he’s British and he’s the bad guy! Wow. Didn’t see that coming. We’re not all bad by the way! He does his hammy best here, actually managing to be a bit different from the multitude of bad guys he’s played before. Djimon Hounsou pops up in a cool little role here – and as with the rest of the cast, he almost seems to be beyond a Bay film. His character has some interesting moral foibles, but that’s about it. Steve Buscemi plays himself again – that dodgy, shifty, jokey little man who has a secret – but then I suppose he is good at it by now.

Shiny and boom – these two words, added to the high-concept behind the eponymous isle, present a movie that is atypical of Michael Bay whilst presenting a very clever (albeit ripped-off) presentation of one possible human future. With Bay, subtlety is usually not the name of the game, but here his action sensibilities do have to wait behind the plot – and it doesn’t affect the film, rather the action seems supplementary to the concept – an alien idea to many of you I imagine. He’s blatantly ripped off The Prisoner as well as countless other similar films or TV shows, but nevertheless, this movie looks good, has good performances and a surprisingly smart plot for Bay – a hidden gem in his filmography.

Techno-babble and army talk is needless and ridiculous, and the film’s dialogue only picks up when it addresses who the leads are and what their purpose is – as well as in illustrating their innocent, child-like demeanour. Hans Zimmer recycles the themes once more to give us another audio barrage. Seriously, I like his Batman stuff, but you can hear Batman or Pirates in nearly everything else he composes – some ingenuity please! The action takes a while to come, but when it does, it’s typically stunning. Whatever you have against Bay, you cannot deny he has the panache and visual flair to blow stuff up – and a lot of stuff blows up towards the end here. For the remainder of the film, the towers in which the groups live are rendered in a clinical, amazing style – it must have cost loads to make these modern, swish sets that wouldn’t look out of place in an Apple shop or an upmarket bar.

If Michael Bay had more high-concept ideas like this, he’d have been received in a more kindly way by a lot of people. As it is, the public loves his films anyway – as do I – and this one deserves praise for at least attempting to lift itself above the explosions.

7/10

Event Horizon

A guiltily enjoyable and disturbing horror sci-fi, Event Horizon provides gore and suspense as well as taking the viewer in a decidedly unexpected direction.

Dr. Weir (Neill) built the Event Horizon – a spaceship capable of opening a hole in space and travelling instantaneously across to another point. When the ship is lost in mysterious circumstances, he enlists the help of the Lewis and Clark, a rescue vessel, along with its crew and captain (Fishburne). On reaching the Event Horizon orbiting Neptune, they discover what happened to the ship and the implications of the discovery upon their lives and their ideas of reality.

Laurence Fishburne is captain of another ship before the Nebuchadnezzar here – and Morpheus he is not. It’s hard to remember that he was such a good actor other than his performances in the Matrix trilogy, but his tussles with Neill are fun to watch. Sam Neill positively ruins any and all innocent perceptions of him after Jurassic Park with this character – Dr. Weir is haunted by his wife’s suicide, and eventually driven over the edge, Neill conveying this insane man rather convincingly.
Joely Richardson and Kathleen Quinlan play the two women on board – but they don’t really have anything to do, and as a result their effect is somewhat diminished. No Ripley is on board this ship. Richard T. Jones (Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles), Jason Isaacs and Sean Pertwee present the different aspects of the ship’s male crew, each with a certain archetype but each presenting their character as someone the audience can relate to.

Paul Anderson (he of Death Race and AVP ignominy) makes what I would consider to be his best film here – an original idea executed in a very intelligent way through his direction. All the other aspects help give this film its deserved cult status. Anderson directs a cast of famous (and not so famous) actors in what they would probably have considered a ridiculous movie. Nevertheless, he does his best work here, and it’s a damn shame that he decided to go the way he did in Hollywood – this British director had excellent promise on watching this movie, and it’s a sign of the times that a new film from him is laughed at.

Much of the dialogue is hammy – but when the disturbances onboard begin to be understood, it picks up a little. Techno-classical beats background the uncomfortable tension and horror ever-present in the movie, giving it a bizarre and at times rather disturbing soundtrack. Space, as well as the spaceships themselves, is rendered beautifully for a ‘90s film – these effects are better than some of today’s, which says something about film-making. What is more significant though are the practical effects – the gore and presentations of torture are disgustingly done – again, the film appears to give more than you would expect from it.

I really enjoyed this film – it has that eerie balance between sci-fi and the supernatural that just makes it work. The cast and visuals go some way to making it even better – a true cult classic.

8/10

Deliverance

A disturbing tale of city meets country, ‘Deliverance’ presents the viewer with a series of disturbing assaults on the senses – and a desire never to venture where you don’t belong.

Four city men venture to the recesses of the Appalachians to camp and enjoy the rivers before they are dammed. However, on leaving the comfort of the urban areas for the wilderness, they find that their idea of wilderness leaves much to the imagination, and they soon have to become far more like the people they encounter than they might have wanted to be.

John Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty ably portray the four city men venturing into the country, whilst the supporting cast of rednecks (some real, some actors) add a sense of reality to the disturbing nature of the narrative. The two leads represent the varying presentations of the city man – Voight’s Ed is the meek man forced to get in touch with his strong side, whilst Reynolds’ Lewis is the experienced traveller; the others look to him for guidance and advice. Voight and Reynolds appear to almost switch roles throughout, but both are believable as their respective characters.

Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty present the other sides to Reynolds and Voight – Cox’s Drew is a guitar-playing nerd, whose sense of right and wrong comes into clear focus at times, whilst Beatty’s brash Bobby pays the price of his cynicism toward the rednecks. Ably supporting the two leads, these two actors are more morally and socially complex, presenting the other aspects of the urbane man.

The redneck characters are largely played by men from the deeper recesses of the wilderness – the two that the men encounter in the infamous ‘Piggy’ scene are prime examples of the realism Boorman sought, and they, along with the bizarre banjo-playing kid give the film that extra edge – these, after all, are the people Boorman is saying are perpetrating the wrongs upon the four men, and yet they’re happy to portray this on-screen in a chillingly real way.

John Boorman achieves a sense of wilderness and isolation that few directors seem able to here – the oppressive silence, coupled with the sparse dialogue and starkly beautiful natural surroundings provide the movie with an unescapable feeling of tension and horror. Boorman evokes the mysterious nature of the American countryside, forcing city man against rural man and presenting the outcomes. Skilfully presenting the conflicts and disturbing aspects of this meeting, the British director achieves in ‘Deliverance’ a sense of evil and mystery that is tangible and not supernatural – a more effectively frightening film is the result.

In terms of dialogue, it’s fair to say you’ll not hear “Squeal like a piggy” without thinking of this film – other than that however, the script is sparse, reflecting the detached nature of the film at large. “Dueling Banjos” is the one piece of music that most permeates the film – its use at the start is perhaps one of the more memorable uses of music in a film, and the improvised, fresh style of it reflects quite starkly the backwards nature of the people – the kid playing the banjo is clearly a testament to this. It’s fair to say you won’t forget this piece of music after watching. The wildernesses and natural beauty of the setting provide a vivid backdrop, and in the scenes involving the canoes and the rapids, it’s clear that the actors actually rode the canoes – the sense that the film was made with as little film intrusion as possible adds to the themes of isolation concurrent throughout.

Disturbingly graphic, sinister from start to finish and a distinctly human drama – Deliverance may put you off camping in the wild for life.

9/10

Badlands

Visually stunning, Terence Malick’s ‘Badlands’ provides a compelling odyssey of a murderer and his girlfriend – drifters in America’s South given credence and strength by Sheen and Spacek.

Kit (Sheen) murders his girlfriend’s (Spacek) father in a fit of passion, and the two elect to run away – venturing across the countryside, they continue to kill and survive on the edges of society.

Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek are the two leads, and arguably hold the movie together. What little support there is doesn’t really warrant much attention, as the film is their story. Sheen shows why he was such an acclaimed actor in the dawn of New Hollywood; his drawling, carefree Kit goes from drifter to cold-blooded killer in an instant, and those who cross him soon realise he is not at all as he seems to be.

Sissy Spacek plays the young, lithe Holly, innocently swept up into a life of hiding and running by the influence of Kit. Spacek portrays the character with a real sense of growth – she moves from the innocent, girl-next-door type to someone who feels they can stand up to the one they love.

Malick is infamous for the visual acumen he brings to every movie, and in his debut he doesn’t disappoint. What is perhaps more striking here is that the story actually grips the viewer more than in any of Malick’s other efforts – a rarity from the reclusive, opulent director. Dialogue here is minimal but effective, whilst the repetitive music will remind some of Tony Scott’s ‘True Romance’.

Malick provides a slow-burning but involving story concerning the two fugitives – the conflict between the two grows slowly and with tension, whilst the action is befitting of such a movie. If Malick’s other films were more like ‘Badlands’, he would perhaps be held in higher regard. The dialogue is sparse, but when it needs to be, effective in its use. Martin Sheen’s drawl, foregrounded against Sissy Spacek’s impressive Southern girl narration, provides a brash yet gripping voice to Kit’s random bouts of violence.

Gassenhauer, by Carl Orff, dots the film with a sense of detachment; this impressive piece of music seems to jarr with the Southern settings and quite cleverly presents the detached nature of the two leads as they run from their actions. Malick’s visual skills are perhaps his greatest asset on-screen, and in visualising the murders and the beauty of the Badlands themselves, the director presents a movie that defines a strong sense of place.

This film requires a certain amount of patience to get through – but it’s worth it.

8/10