On first glance, Real Steel could be easily dismissed as 'Rocky meets Transformers', and while it certainly has a lot of elements of Rocky in, its only connection to Transformers is that it is A, about robots, and B, a film. In fact, it's another Stallone drama that Real Steel also has a lot in common with, and it makes for a fairly enjoyable ride throughout.
The year is 2020, and robot boxing is one of America's most popular sports. Deadbeat fight promoter Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) ends up saddled with a son, Max (Dakota Goyo) that he's never properly connected with over the Summer while he tries to find a new robot contender. After Max finds a discarded robot in a scrap yard, it becomes clear that the 'bot has got what it takes...
It's all watchable enough. But it's not the most original story ever, even if it does boast boxing robots. The underdog unexpectedly rising through the ranks towards a battle with the champion is pretty much the plot of the first Rocky film. Hell, the champion robot is called Zeus! (which must be a reference to Apollo Creed, another Greek God named fighter)
And the Father-Son bonding over competitive sports as they travel the country is also the plot from another Stallone movie, Over The Top (which featured arm wrestling as the sport of choice), even down to the bratty kid warming to the Father even when relatives take him away.
But other than that, it's a pretty fun film. Jackman is likable as always, even when his character is pretty much selling his son so he can buy a robot, and there is good support from Evangeline Lilly as Bailey, Max's on/off girlfriend. And even the kid isn't too annoying.
At the end of the day, this films target audience is probably kids and teenagers who haven't even heard of Rocky or Over The Top, but really dug seeing massive robots fight in Transformers. So for that reason, and the fact you actually see the robots fight without cutting back constantly to useless humans, I think we can let the slight plagiarism slide.
*** If you've seen Rocky or Over The Top, and can imagine robots clashing instead of humans, you've seen this film. But it's charming enough, and ideal for youngsters who don't know anything about Stallone!
It's been a hideous 12 years, watching Eddie Murphy lurch from one terrible project to another. After 1999's Bowfinger, Murphy seemingly wanted to make the most offensively piss-poor cinema possible, and eradicate any memories of films like 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places.
In the space of 12 years, he committed the following celluloid crimes - Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (at least the first one had a few amusing moments), Dr. Dolittle 2, Pluto Nash, I Spy, Daddy Day Care, The Haunted Mansion, Norbit (possibly one of the worst films I've ever seen, and definitely the nadir of Murphy's career), Meet Dave and Imagine That. He did bag critical acclaim for a supporting role in Dreamgirls, but that's kind of like finding a quid after you stick your hand in a pile of manure.
Meanwhile Brett Ratner spent the last few years getting ideas above his station. Best suited to easy to watch stuff like Rush Hour and The Family Man (a film I really dig, when every bone in body tells me not to), he had no business going near the likes of X-Men: The Last Stand (Notice after this disaster, there has still yet to be a straight sequel) or Red Dragon (a film that dared to remake Manhunter, the cast was there, the correct director was not.)
These two wayward careers combine in Tower Heist, which is exactly the kind of stuff both men need to be doing. Frivolous, throwaway fun with more adult jokes and language. Hell, I've been waiting over a decade for Eddie Murphy to swear again...
Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) manages an apartment complex in New York, where only the wealthiest live. When he discovers that a financier, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), who lives in the buildings penthouse, has perpetrated a pension scam that has robbed most of the employees of the complex of their money, Kovacs hatches a plan to rob Shaw's safe, enlisting the help of his robber neighbour Slide (Murphy.)
Tower Heist isn't a particularly challenging film, but assembles a good cast (Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, Judd Hirsch, Tea Leoni, and Michael Pena also star) and kept my interest throughout. There's no spectacularly funny moment, or a wham-bam set piece, but it's an amusing, watchable action/comedy.
Ratner is so much better suited to this kind of thing, and it's an actual joy to watch Murphy reel off his fast-talking rants that are so reminiscent of his 80's and early 90's work. After years of dreadful kids films, it's brilliant just to see the guy curse again!
There's really not a great deal to say about Tower Heist. It's nothing we haven't seen before, but it's entertaining while it's on, and amuses throughout. It's more interesting for returning two people to the sort of work they should have been doing all along. Let's just hope they don't drift away again.
*** Fun while it's on, but nothing more. Good to see Brett Ratner direct something more suited to his talents, and brilliant to see Eddie Murphy do something a little more grown up. Worth a rent.
A step up in terms of production value and effects, and an even smaller step up from acting and plot than the likes of Troma's The Toxic Avenger and The Class Of Nuke 'Em High, was Street Trash. But whilst it had these advantages over the Troma films, it's still not as widely known as they are.
Upon finding a case of mysterious alcohol called 'Viper' in his cellar, a liquor store owner decides to sell it to the local homeless community for a dollar a bottle, unaware that something has happened to the substance over time, causing whoever drinks it to melt. Two homeless brothers are involved, and they cross paths with an angry hobo Vietnam vet, who is slightly unhinged to put it mildly, and the owner of the junkyard that all the local homeless seem to live in.
Street Trash starts strong, with a stunning set piece where a hobo, having consumed some 'Viper', sits down on a toilet and melts into it, and continues the body count until it just drifts onto the conflict with Bronson (Vic Noto), the 'Nam veteran who acts like a hobo king (he even has a throne in a tyre pile!)
As we drift away, we encounter the brothers, Fred and Kevin, and their respective encounters with women, and their troubles with Bronson. We also meet a cop (handily called Bill the Cop) who is investigating the presence of the mob, and the strange melting deaths. Yep, there's also a mobster, Nick Duran (Tony Darrow) , whose subplot seems pretty unconnected to the main story.
It just seems like the film forgets what it's about for a while in the middle. Yeah, I know it's not like I'm reviewing The Godfather, and films like this are never meant to make a whole lot of sense, but I had almost forgotten about 'Viper' till it comes back into play in the last act. Although, anyone would forget about the story, when the film stops for an extended sequence involving a hobo having his penis cut off, then thrown about from person to person in a bizarre game of catch!
But when the film enters that last act, it takes a massive step up, and the melting death scenes (which, after all, is why we are all here) are nothing short of superb, and still look good today.
As Street Trash is a DVD release from Arrow, you get all the usual bells and whistles on it, the reversible sleeve, the booklet, the poster, but on the second disc you have a fantastic documentary called The Meltdown Memoirs, lasting 2 hours that tells the story of how the film was made, but in a diary retelling style format.
The documentary is made by Street Trash's writer and producer Roy Frumkes, and goes into great detail about every facet of the films production, and shows us what a lot of the cast are doing now, and some of them are absolute lunatics. Vic Noto seems legitimately insane, Bill the Cop (Bill Chepil) seems like a total oddball too. Even Bryan Singer (yes, that Bryan Singer), who was a production assistant on the film, turns up to tell some classic anecdotes about the making of the movie.
A particularly interesting revelation in the documentary is that director Jim Muro really doesn't like the film or it's over creators much, but he still appears to talk about it! The Meltdown Memoirs is worth the price of the DVD on it's own.
Street Trash is a great gore packed film, that has such great effects, it lets itself down slightly when things get silly. It's fine when Troma do it, everything looks cheap on their films, but it just distracted from the progress of the film here. Stunning finale, though.
*** Top notch gore action, let down by a silly, but not un-watchable, middle section. And the documentary, The Meltdown Memoirs, would get 4 stars. Hunt out the DVD today!
As regular readers of Thom's House Of Words know, I was very worried about pretty much every aspect of a new Muppets movie being released. Could the charm and innocence of the late 70's and early 80's films still work in cynical and selfish 2012? (or more accurately, 2011, which was when the film was released in the States), do we really need a new Muppet? And what about there being several big roles for actors, surely that would take up Muppet time?
On all fronts, I had nothing to worry about.
Slightly echoing real life, The Muppets are no longer famous, and have each gone on their separate ways. But a lifelong fan Walter, his brother Gary (Jason Segel) and Gary's girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) help persuade Kermit to put on another show with the original gang to help prevent their old theater being destroyed by the evil oil baron Tex Richman (Chris Cooper.)
Obviously, just the first part of the plot rings true. A whole generation of kids, up till now, didn't even know who The Muppets were! And only people who grew up with them remembered, even though that memory had been slightly tarnished by some not-brilliant DTV efforts, but we always had the original movie and Christmas Carol, personally, I never thought anyone would make an attempt on another big screen outing.
Thank god then for Jason Segel. He was the guy who took the idea to Disney, and they let him run with it (he also co-writes and co-produces), and it's clear that it's a labour of love. Unlike so many other people, Segel, and co-writer Nicholas Stoller (Yes Man, Get Him To The Greek) make no attempt to reboot, or in any way contemporize the Muppets. They are exactly the same as you remember them.
There's also zero innuendo, or any kind of cynicism or attempts to be smart-alecy or flippant about the Muppets, the film is warm, fuzzy and innocent (except of Chris Cooper's bad guy, and hilarious tribute act The Moopets, but that's kinda their point in the movie.) When reviewing the original Muppet movie, I wondered with the same kind of innocent charm could ever be replicated. Yes it can, and is on display throughout.
There were several times during the film where things get quite emotional, such as Kermit's melancholy song 'Pictures In My Head', and pretty much most of the stuff between Kermit and Miss Piggy, and later scenes with Gary and Walter, which will bring a tear to your eye almost. The fact that you can connect to these characters so easily says so much about their enduring appeal, and the writing. I found Gary, Mary and Walter to be just as important to the film as the rest of the gang within minutes.
Another important part of any Muppet film is the songs, and with Flight Of The Conchord's alumni Bret Mackenzie involved (FOTC creator James Bobin also directs the film), we are treated to some of the best Muppet songs ever. 'Life's a Happy Song', 'Me Party', 'Man or Muppet', and the aforementioned 'Pictures In My Head' are all instant classics that will remain lodged in your head for weeks. And the evergreen 'Rainbow Connection' is revisited in grand style. Heck, there's even a couple of Muppet-charged covers thrown in for good measure.
The cameos are also there. There's no huge names to distract from the business at hand (arguably, the biggest star that shows up is Jack Black), but they are fantastically placed and work well. Probably the best would be the one that takes place during the 'Man or Muppet' song, in fact, that was the only cameo that wasn't revealed before the film came out! But I won't go into any other appearances, just in case.
There are some faults of course. The voices of the Muppets are slightly different now, due to some of the voice actors have passed away (Muppets creator Jim Henson and Richard Hunt), or just passing on the project - Frank Oz read the script and didn't want to do it. I have a hard time believing that, because everything that makes the Muppets great is there.
The possible induction of a contemporary song (Cee-Lo Green's 'Forget You') to be clucked along to by the chickens was another minor quibble. Not for the content, it was another funny moment, but putting a song like that in this, or any, film has a habit of dating it. Just hope people remember that song 30 years down the line.
But these are tiny, minuscule complaints. The Muppets is a fantastic film for all ages. I've been to see it twice now, and the screenings combined had all age groups. Kids, teenagers, adults and everyone loved it. It makes no attempt to try and be different or trendy, sticking to what the Muppets do best. It's a heartwarming hug of a movie, and a movie that has had an impact. In just the week after it's UK release, I've seen kids with Muppets shirts, with Animal toys, and singing 'Mahna Mahna' loudly. The Muppets are back, and it's all thanks to Jason Segel et al. Huge praise for all involved.
****1/2 The Muppets return in fine form, with a witty and touching script, great cameos, some of the best Muppet songs ever...look just go and see it OK?
After I first watched The Room (and reviewed it here), the film exploded in popularity with my friends and I. Multiple viewings for other friends so they could see it, and even a ill-fated drinking game. Sadly, the film had so many repetitive moments, the game was derailed after about 30 minutes, when everyone was too drunk to remember when they were supposed to drink.
After that, The Room laid low for a while, but when we heard the news that there was a screening at the Prince Charles Cinema in London, with director/star/producer/writer Tommy Wiseau and star/producer Greg Sestero in attendance, it came back!
We arrived at the cinema about an hour before the doors were going (any attendees reading this, we were at the 7pm screening on the Saturday night), to find no one queuing. Having nothing else to do, we decided to wait. As Tommy himself might say, this was "Good thinking!"
After a while of waiting (in the company of, it has to be said, some rather surly security people), who should we see walk up the street but Tommy and Greg themselves! Now bear in mind that the most we thought we'd see of them was inside as part of the introduction/Q&A portion of the evening, so when we were able to say "hai" and shake hands with them, we were ecstatic!
Not long after that, we were let in and quickly entered to find the merchandise table (selling shirts, posters, the DVD and a Johnny Bobblehead doll!), as well as Tommy and Greg waiting to meet and greet everyone! At this point, excitement levels pretty much went off the chart. I bought a shirt (in hindsight, I probably should have bought a second DVD, as washing it is going to be a pain, but I didn't care at the time!), which Tommy signed. I was so shocked, that I forgot to get Greg to sign it also, sorry Greg! Then we got photos with them, that you can see below...
After that, we bundled into the screen and got some killer seats in the front row, right in front of the stage. An employee of the PCC quickly ran through the ground rules, making sure we knew about the spoons. I should add at this point, it's tradition to throw spoons every time a spoon photograph is seen in the background. If you're reading this, and haven't seen The Room, I'd stop now, go find it, then come back.
Tommy and Greg then hit the stage, for a frankly bizarre Q&A session. If people are wondering if Tommy's weirdness is just an act, or it's real, well I still don't know. Judging by his erratic behaviour and answers to the questions ("Move on, next question" was repeated a lot!) and the fact he was wearing his belt half way down his trousers, I'd opt for the latter.
Meanwhile, Greg, who didn't get too many questions, just seemed bemused by the whole thing, and seemed to not even be listening at one point, although when Tommy starts going on about how "retarded" the character of Denny was, or trying to do a French accent (at least, that's what I think he was trying to do), you can't really blame him for zoning out a bit. He did convince Tommy to perform some of his Shakespearean sonnet, which he did. In a way. I should mention, that no matter how strange any of this sounds, I'm not making any of it up.
The screening begun to a huge reaction, and the shouting began! Shouting along to the dialogue, swaying arms, singing and clapping along to the songs, throwing the aforementioned spoons, and just generally heckling the film were all part of the experience, and I even discovered new things to do during the film...
I'd heard the term "wine and neck" used about a scene in The Room before, but not until I saw it on the big screen did I realise what it meant. Next time you watch it, check out Lisa's neck during the scene with Michelle before the amazing "You're tearing me apart!" scene. Screams of terror resonated throughout the screen!
Other new fun to be had included counting the amount of passes during the games of "throw the ball", and chanting "GO GO GO" during the repeated establishing shots of the Golden Gate Bridge ("Meanwhile, back in San Francisco..."), it was all just amazing fun!
The film ended, and everyone gave it a standing ovation, and as we all left the building, looking at the queue forming for the next screening, we were satisfied. But it wasn't quite over yet...
Earlier in the evening, Stacey had her American football confiscated by the grumpy security people, and we had to grab that before we left, it was £12 after all! But as we asked, out bounds Tommy Wiseau, with Stacey's ball in hand, wanting to play "throw the ball"!
Needless, to say I ran over, and sure enough Tommy THREW ME THE BALL! And I threw it back! If the previous few hours weren't Room dream fulfillment enough, actually playing "throw the ball" with Tommy was the icing on the cake!
We then watched on as a huge circle formed, and Tommy threw the ball back and forth with people for a while, then went back in to get Greg. All this time we were very aware we needed the ball back before we left, so we waited. But then, Tommy went in, ball in hand, and we turned into the little kids next door - "Can we have our ball back please?"
Eventually we got it back, but it's typical isn't it? You go to see a film at the cinema, and the director and star steals your American football. I don't know!
After that, we stumbled back to the tube, in a dream like state. In fact, the dreams I had during the night that followed were more realistic than the events of Saturday evening. I can only hope that Tommy and Greg do indeed return next year, as they were "99% certain" it would happen. I can't miss another evening like that. But the scary thing is, other than that, where can we take The Room from here?
In 1977, Star Wars was unleashed on the world, and cinema as we know it changed forever. Even though George Lucas, seemingly pissed off that he made a good film which people loved, has been trying to ruin it ever since, at the time, the 'blockbuster' movie was truly born, knocking the auteur's like Francis For Coppolla, Martin Scorcese and Peter Bogdanovich into a cocked hat.
After 1977, if you had a film, or an idea for a film that included the word 'Star' in the titles, or was very clearly set in outer space, you could guarantee it would get made. 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, based on the popular TV show, was made as a knock on effect of Star War's success, and seemingly was brought out in such a rush they barely bothered with a plot, thinking glory shots of how cool the Enterprise ship and outer space looked was enough to keep an audiences entertained. However, it made a ton of money, but was deathly dull, so it kind of worked.
But the worst of all the films that followed has to be Starcrash. Everything about the film screams shoddy knock off. In fact the opening shot of the Death Star in A New Hope, is flat out copied at the start of Starcrash, except the ship is clearly made of Lego, or similar plastic blocks.
Instead of R2-D2 and C3PO, we have Elle, a robot who seems to have the voice of Sheriff Buford T. Justice from Smokey And The Bandit, and Princess Leia's iconic 'bun' hairdo? Well, that ends up on Count Zarth Arn (Joe Spinell) who is not the movies love interest, but the villain!
The plot, for what it's worth, concerns a mission to save the son of an Emperor (Christopher Plummer) by a pair of smugglers, Akton (Marjoe Gortner) and Stella Star (Caroline Munro), who after the rescuing the son, Simon (David Hasselhoff. Yeah, really) must stop the evil Count's plans to use a mysterious weapon. Or something.
Everything about Starcrash is pretty terrible. It's like Plan 9 From Outer Space...in outer space. For a film you can sit and watch with friends it's a total laugh riot, but as a film it's a mess. And quite how actors like Christopher Plummer and Joe Spinell (Willy Cicci in the first two Godfather films, and Tony Gazzo in Rocky) ended up in this mess is beyond me. It can't have been the money, because there doesn't look like there was any spent!
To make matters all the more embarrassing, pretty much all the main cast are dubbed, and the sets look like toys. And really cheap toys at that. The space battles are headache inducing, and the special effects include such highlights as footage of clouds being used so poorly they blur into other objects in the same shot (shockingly, mountains are not transparent.)
If you're looking for one of 'those' films, where you can sit back with friends, crack open a few beers and tear it to pieces, Starcrash is for you. If you're looking for a worthy (or even average) sci-fi film in the tradition of Star Wars, you couldn't be looking in any worse a place. Any film where you wait 50 minutes for David Hasselhoff to show up in the hope it will get good, is never going to be.
* An utterly dire attempt to make a bit of money by surfing on the wave of Star Wars. Only redeemable for being one of those 'so bad it's good' movies. But it is still better than Phantom Menace.
Whilst I haven't followed them that closely their whole career, and really only started listening to them in the last year or so, it seems obvious to me that Mastodon are one of those bands who do whatever they want, in terms of music. Whilst remaining 'heavy', no two albums of theirs really stay the same. And no more so than their latest album, The Hunter.
Whilst it's predecessor, Crack The Skye adopted a more progressive feel to it, with epic long songs such as The Czar and The Last Baron, The Hunter goes for shorter songs, a move that angered many people, who seem unable to enjoy watching a band as talented as Mastodon evolve.
To say The Hunter went down well critically is a bit of an understatement. Recieving glowing reviews across the board from places you'd expect it to, like Kerrang, Classic Rock and Metal Hammer to places you wouldn't, such as Q, The Guardian. Hell, The Times named it their album of the year for 2011!
The album even bothered the top 20 album charts in the UK, and they featured on an episode of Later With Jools Holland on the BBC. As you may gather, Mastodon are not just another metal band.
What I like so much about them is that they don't try and sound like a tribute to older bands. When you have seemingly every metal band out there emulating Metallica, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden etc., Mastodon, again, do what they want and have a style that's almost their own.
Opening for Mastodon at the UEA was Red Fang, a band about as close as you can get to Mastodon musically. And I mean that in a good way. From Portland, Oregon and on their first tour ever in the UK, the band really impressed. A stoner-style mix of big riffs and dazzling solos, won everyone at the sold out UEA over almost instantly. A great start to the night.
What didn't fit that well on the bill however, was the inclusion of The Dillinger Escape Plan. Whilst they were hugely popular with the crowd (many of whom were clearly only there to see them) and did at first hold my interest with their energetic and crazy performance, I just couldn't maintain the excitement levels others had for them. I've never been a huge fan of screaming vocals, but DEP play extremely well, but after a little while, the vocals, and the lack of memorable songs (they really did bleed into each other after a while) really started to turn me off. There are plenty of Mastodon's contemporaries that could have fit the bill, it's a shame that didn't happen.
All such issues with the support bill were soon forgotten when Mastodon hit the stage. What followed was over 90 minutes of pummeling metal, with no breaking for any between-song talking, a lot of which was from The Hunter (9 songs out of the 23 played in fact), and those seemed to be the songs that got the biggest response from the crowd, from where I was standing anyway. Songs like Dry Bone Valley, Black Tongue, Curl of the Burl, and Blasteroid got huge cheers, up there with the reaction when they played the older hits such as I Am Ahab, and Blood and Thunder.
As is becoming tradition at gigs, the people around me didn't seem to share everyone's enthusiasm. While Mastodon were on stage, some kids to the left in me (wearing DEP shirts) seemed more interested in throwing a shirt about the crowd, and a lot of the time weren't even facing the stage.
But the worst thing by far was the young guy in front of me who I saw UPDATE HIS FACEBOOK STATUS whilst Mastodon were on stage, moaning about how dull they were, and how he wanted them to play the older stuff. Even though the name of the tour was The Hunter. Just astoundingly ignorant, and possibly the worst thing I've ever seen at a gig.
Apart from the idiots who refuse to accept a band must release new material to continue to have a career, the crowd reaction to Mastodon was one of the loudest I've ever heard at the UEA (which was either sold out, or extremely close to) throughout the set. The performance reminded me in a way of when I saw Dream Theater at High Voltage last year, just amazing musical skills, but utterly grueling, in the best possible sense.
Where Mastodon go from here is anybody's guess. They seem to be able to do no wrong for the last few years (they even emerged unscathed from doing the score for the terrible Jonah Hex movie), so the only way is up. At this rate they could be the band that finally changes the public's perception of metal. It'd be about time.
I'm sure I've seen Michael Shannon in other films, but it wasn't till his fantastic turn as the unstable Agent Nelson Van Alden in HBO's Boardwalk Empire that I really sat up and took notice. I've seen a few of his films, and while he seems to be playing equally unhinged characters, he always seems to add something different to each one. And to make things really interesting, he's playing General Zod in the forthcoming Superman reboot, Man Of Steel. Inspired casting.
But, so far, the best film I've seen him in is Bug. Made in 2006, and directed by the legendary William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection, To Live And Die In L.A.), Bug stars Ashley Judd as Agnes White, a lonely woman who ends up holed up in a hotel room with a damaged war veteran, Peter Evans (Shannon), who convinces her that the room is crawling with an insect infestation. But is there really a bug outbreak? Or is it all in their lonely and delusional minds?
Bug is an uncomfortable watch throughout, but make no mistake it is not a 'Insects eat Ashley Judd for 90 minutes' picture, it's a film about loneliness, paranoia, and if you really read into it, drug addiction. Friedkin has made a career making films about the darkness in people, just look at Regan in The Exorcist, Popeye Doyle in The French Connection, Richard Chance in To Live And Die In L.A. or Steve Burns in Cruising. Bug is no different. Both lead characters are tortured souls, whether its loneliness or the after effects of war.
The leads are simply phenomenal. In the hands of lesser actresses and actors, the film would have crossed a line into wildly O.T.T. nonsense, but such is their skill, they keep it both utterly believable without ever appearing silly. Fans of Shannon in Boardwalk must see this, as this is by far the wildest of his performances I've seen.
As it's based on the play of the same name (which Shannon starred in, reprising his role here), most of the action is confined to the Motel and has a relatively small cast of characters. Lynn Collins plays R.C., a 'friend' of Agnes' who introduces her to Peter, and Harry Connick Jr. plays Agnes' dodgy ex Jerry, who shows back up on the scene early on. But it's really a two person show. , and what a show it is, and at the same time, probably Friedkin's best film since 1985's To Live And Die In L.A. Quite the statement.
***** A truly superb film. Ignore the trappings of the DVD case which make it look like a trashy horror film, and enjoy a superb, albeit at times difficult to watch, character study into paranoia, loneliness and addiction. Couldn't recommend it highly enough.
A film like The Artist is always going to be considered a bit of a novelty. A silent movie being released when everything is getting louder and louder. Huge IMAX screens churning out (usually) dreadful films in 3D, normally based on a range of toys, or a sequel,a prequel, a re-imagining. To release a silent, and black and white, movie these days seems crazy.
But, aside from the inevitable stories of dimwits demanding refunds because they didn't know it was a silent movie (how they managed to evade that piece of information is beyond me), the film has been a huge success, made even more so by being nominated for every award under the sun. Although, some of those awards don't exactly hold much luster.
Directed by French director Michel Hazanavivius, who has previously filmed tributes to 60's style spy movies in his home country, The Artist is an unashamed tribute to Hollywood (which is probably why it's picked up so many Oscar nominations), starring Jean Dujardin as George Valentin, a silent movie star whose career is threatened by the advent of the 'talkie' picture. He discovers then-unknown starlet Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) who becomes a huge success, while Valentin's star starts to fall, rather rapidly.
The Artist shows that you don't need talking to make a good film. The only sound you hear (save a short dream sequence and at the very end of the movie) is the score by Ludovic Bource. The music in the film hasn't been so important in recent memory, and it's wonderful, and really captures the moods of the film throughout. So much had to ride on it, seeing as it's all you hear, and it does a marvelous job.
Dujardin is superb as George Valentin, it's a tremendous performance. Even more so as it's a performance where not a single word is uttered. A man who has been a huge star, finding himself on the Hollywood (or Hollywoodland as it was back in the 1920's) scrapheap almost overnight, leaving him without work, then eventually divorced and broke, with only his little dog (played by amazing wonder dog Uggie) and his driver Clifton (James Cromwell) left.
There are a few other recognizable names too, other than James Cromwell. Most prominent is John Goodman as Al Zimmer, the producer who ditches the silent movie for the talkie, and smaller roles for Penelope Ann Miller and Malcom McDowell (who only has the one scene.)
If anyone fears the silent movie novelty will detract from the film, with all it's pauses to display what is being said, they have nothing to worry about. The Artist's story and acting performances are better than the majority of it's contemporaries on the big screen today. It took me about 10 minutes to get used to it, and then I was hooked for the rest of it. Remember, films used to be like this! Didn't mean they are no longer worth watching!
The only thing I fear, is that other people will try and ride on the coattails and make another silent picture. It just wouldn't work. The Artist is a wonderful one-off and it should be kept that way.
***** The Artist is an absolute triumph in every respect. Brilliantly acted and directed, it's a true one-off in this day and age. Let's hope no one tries to do another, though.
