By rights this movie should be a stinker of the first order! All the ingredients are wrong. From Stallone and Russell's cringeworthy macho posturing and Jack Palance's pantomime, moustache twirling villain to Brion James' preposterous cod cockney accent (somewhere between Dick Van Dyke and Paul Hogan). Somehow though put them all together, add a sprinkling of gloriously tongue in cheek dialogue and a dash of the delicious Teri Hatcher and you have a sure fire smash hit on your hands. The chemistry between the two leads is a dynamite combination of wise cracks and sheer musclebound, knuckle headed bravado. The story line involving a plot to stitch up our two heroes is pretty much irrelevant as they lurch from one chaotic punch up to the next narrowly avoiding getting FUBAR'd (don't ask!) in the state pen before escaping to prove their innocence. Okay, we're not talking Academy awards here or even anything approaching intellectual stimulation but as lame brained, unpretentious action movies go this delivers the goods and then some! The whole movie is riotously O.T.T. right from the start and never once makes the mistake of taking itself too seriously (Kurt Russell's hilariously unconvincing drag act being a good case in point). The script is chock full of delicious one liners and cheeky put downs (rendered even more comical in the censored for TV version, "Rambo is a Primitive" anyone?)to keep the whole gleefully testosterone fuelled enterprise afloat for the duration. Basically forget Freebie and the bean, forget Lethal Weapon, this is the Citizen Kane of all Buddy cop movies. Or maybe I'm just FUBAR'd?
Reviews
6 Reviews
24 Hour Party People
(2002)
the greatest story never told
8 April 2002
My visit to the pictures to see '24 hour party people' was a surrendipitous venture to say the least. Confounding all my expectations I found myself warming to a film I had not really gone to see. The film I had in fact gone to see was the story of Joy Division, New Order and The Happy Mondays (3 of my favourite bands) but what i actually ended up seeing was 'The Legend Of Tony Wilson:The Greatest story never told', a film in truth i would never have anticipated actually enjoying before now. Charting the rise and fall of seminal Manchester record label 'Factory', from it's chaotic inception in the heyday of 70's Punk to it's equally chaotic implosion during the dying days of Acid House in the early 1990's the film chooses Wilson as it's central focus rather than the bands he signed. A minor stumbling block really in a film that bristles with style and vigour courtesy of Frank Cottrell Boyces' irreverent script and Michael Winterbottom's flashy direction. Steve Coogan is quite simply flawless in the central role and turns in a performance that is without doubt his best work since the TV classic 'Paul Calf's Video Diary'. The rather lazy reviews recently describing his performance as simply Coogan plays Alan Partridge playing Wilson do him a disservice as I felt his portrayal was far more subtle and also poignant than a mere caricature. Making frequent comic asides (docmentary style) to the camera, Coogan imbues Wilson with a sympathy and naive charm that anybody familiar with Wilsons' pretentious and pompous TV image would find hard to believe. It is the fact that for a man at the epicentre of so many important musical happenings that he never fits in which makes him so interesting and the movie portrays him as a Middle class smart alec who wants to be the Popular hero of the masses but also be taken seriously by his more intellectual peers and ends up being perceived as a clown by both. It's not all great. The narrative is occasionally incoherent as so many characters wander in and out of the story with no explanation and the tendency towards nudge nudge wink wink in jokes, although amusing created a distance between me and the characters which I felt couldn't be bridged by any degree of jazzy camerawork. Despite the fact that most of the Factory Luminaries ie. Ian Curtis, Shaun Ryder, Bernard Sumner are treated as rather peripheral characters in a movie that dwells on the business side of things I do feel special mention should go to Paddy Considine as the irascible Rob Gretton and Andy Serkis as a thoroughly barmy Martin Hannett (a performance so splendidly eccentric i would have liked to have seen more of him) who provide solid support for Coogan. It is however Coogan's film and it is overall a pleasing blend of myth and reality that creates a tale which is as flawed a masterpiece as Factory records was itself.
Withnail & I
(1987)
the greatest british film ever? course it is !!!
25 March 2002
A difficult film for me to remain calmly objective about and avoid hyperbolic hagiolatry for I am one of those classic sad cases who go through life forever quoting from this particular gem the first opportunity they get. Having said that I'll have a go. 'Withnail and I' is for all intents and purposes the archetypal stoned, student slacker movie (made years before that term became vogueish) and is the tale of two out of work actors who spend their days in a dishevelled flat consuming copious quantities of alcohol and amphetamines. One day they drive off into the country to'rejuvenate', and that's about it really. It's simplicity is it's beauty however and the almost episodic nature of the film only heightens the pleasure and the overall impression one is left with is of a series of beautifully crafted sketches neatly woven together into a thoroughly satisfying whole. Grant is superb and has quite simply never done anything to surpass his role here and both Paul McGann and Richard Griffiths give stirling performances but it is Grant's film really and as he staggers shambolically from one paranoid drunken rant to the next he seems to eclipse everything else on the screen. Whether it is roaring profanities at gay uncles "Monty, you terrible C**t!" or hurling salacious abuse at teenage schoolgirls "Scrubbers!", he is gloriously monstrous and lovable all at the same time. Having said that though the real star of the film is Bruce Robinson's script which throws any traditional plot conventions out of the window in favour of a charming (oh so very English) tale of a fading, outlived friendship set against the backdrop of a fading, outlived decade. It is a truly unique achievement filled with eccentricity, surreality and just a dash of pathos with Robinson's restrained direction leaving the dialogue and the flawless performances (honourable mention should go to Ralph Brown and Michael Elphick) to carry the film which they do effortlessly. The greatest British film ever? There's a few close contenders (Black Narcissus, Scum, Trainspotting to name but a few)but for my money there isn't even a debate. Course it is!
Suspiria
(1977)
classic of gore? No! just an unpleasant bore!
14 January 2002
Following a retrospective documentary on the work of Dario Argento, and the gushing praise heaped upon this film by Horror afficianados and Film makers alike I was left with one thought lingering. 'Did I just watch the same film, these people are describing?',because 'Suspiria' must rank as one of my biggest cinematic dissappointments in recent years. I was looking forward to this dark tale of modern day witches and initially i must say I was intrigued by the dance academy setting and it's splendidly gothic appearance but here lies my main gripe with the film, that being that on the surface it looks like a much better film than it actually is. The sheer look of the film is as striking as it is macabre but the admittedly stylish visuals and stunning use of colour and lighting cannot fully paper over the cracks of a frankly preposterous storyline and some pretty shoddy editing. The special FX despite what anybody says are downright lame (a supposedly chilling scene involving a clockwork bat is unintentionally hilarious)and even the much touted soundtrack by Italian prog rockers Goblin (altough initially effective) begins to grate as it is wheeled out on a regular basis to signpost another stalk 'n' slash sequence. Likewise Jessica Harper as our hapless heroine Susy just didn't seem to engage me in the slightest and as she lurches gormlessly from one creepy corridor to another i found myself caring less and less about what was coming next. I realise Argento was attempting to imbue his film with a dream like quality but that is no excuse for the lead actress to sleep walk her way through an entire performance. Personally I feel this movie does nothing to cement Argento's rather dubious reputation and as i sense a snarling 'Emporer's New Clothes' style rant coming on I think it probably best to end the review here. Sorry. I don't mean to rain on anybody's parade here but it just didn't float my boat.
Hurlyburly
(1998)
A Powerful, compelling must see movie!
12 December 2001
I suppose on the surface 'Hurly Burly' looks like one of those satirical expose's of Hollywood excess but i think to pigeonhole it as such is to maybe miss the point because despite it's obvious fixation on the decadent, ultimately vacuous lives of it's characters, Sean Penn gives a vivid portrayal of a man who has become so removed from his emotional self that even emotions themselves have become in someway suspect. He is a man lost in a world where everything is a cliche and even communication itself seems redundant (eg. the blah blah blah's inserted at the end of Penn's and Spacey's sentences).
Nothing seems real in this stifling, sincerity free environment (a situation not helped by the mountains of cocaine he imbibes throughout the story).
Penn's character flounders through the film clinging to doomed love affairs and deceitful pseudo friendships in an attempt to remind himself that he is still a human being and not just some robotic consumer unit.
In that sense 'Hurly Burly' is more existentialist angst than moral fable or media satire and is all the more refreshing for that. Spacey is magnificent as Penn's charming but ultimately soulless flatmate and Chazz Palminteri gives a splendidly unhinged performance as Penn's aspiring actor client.
Although Davids Rabe's screen adaption of his play can often look exactly that the dialogue brims over with dark sardonic wit and there are some truly hysterically funny scenes that so accurately capture the derangement of drug psychosis it is almost painful to watch.
Ultimately though the film's melancholy tone takes precedence and in the final analysis one almost feels ashamed for having laughed at all.
Nothing seems real in this stifling, sincerity free environment (a situation not helped by the mountains of cocaine he imbibes throughout the story).
Penn's character flounders through the film clinging to doomed love affairs and deceitful pseudo friendships in an attempt to remind himself that he is still a human being and not just some robotic consumer unit.
In that sense 'Hurly Burly' is more existentialist angst than moral fable or media satire and is all the more refreshing for that. Spacey is magnificent as Penn's charming but ultimately soulless flatmate and Chazz Palminteri gives a splendidly unhinged performance as Penn's aspiring actor client.
Although Davids Rabe's screen adaption of his play can often look exactly that the dialogue brims over with dark sardonic wit and there are some truly hysterically funny scenes that so accurately capture the derangement of drug psychosis it is almost painful to watch.
Ultimately though the film's melancholy tone takes precedence and in the final analysis one almost feels ashamed for having laughed at all.
The Hill
(1965)
Sean Connery's finest hour?
12 December 2001
In which Connery doesn't get to cop off with the customary harem of beach babes, doesn't get to save the world and more importantly gets his butt kicked by Ian Hendry! Sidney Lumet seasons Ray Rigby's claustrophobic screenplay with some stunning black and white cinematography (reminiscent of his earlier masterpiece '12 Angry Men') and then bakes it in about 6 million degrees of scorching desert sun. The story of five squaddies holed up in a military stockade at the tail end of WW11 is as preoccupied with examining political conflict within British society (through the interactions of the microcosmic cell mates) as it is with presenting a taut, compelling psychodrama. The allegorical tone of the movie is never clumsy or heavy handed though and Lumet keeps the narrative on the rails every step of the way. The dialogue crackles with blunt barrack room banter and black humour throughout perfectly offsetting the grim circumstances the prisoners find themselves in. Roy Kinnear, Ossie Davis and Ian Hendry (as a deranged martinet of a prison guard) all deserve special mention but the film surely belongs to Connery who stumbles 'bruised, battered and scarred but hard' through to the bitter climax with an extraordinary kind of dignity as he rails against the brutal injustices of 'the system'! It is a truly unmissable picture if only for Connerys' star turn but don't take my word for it. Check it out now.
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