"OH NO! A BAD MOVIE!"
If you were expecting a great film, you’ll be disappointed. It’s far from great. If you’re a fan of the Pegg-Frost combo, you’ll probably be expecting an exceptional comedy, along the lines of Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz. You’ll also leave disappointed. This is a great shame; Paul had the potential to be an excellent film.
So what went wrong? The premise is OK – two geeks from England tour Sci-Fi/Alien landing sites in the US in an RV but encounter a lovable alien (the eponymous lead) and embark on a cat and mouse adventure to get Paul to safety. The film stumbles over its poor plot, hit & miss jokes and a terrible love-interest side plot. Oh, and a lot of the jokes that miss the most seem to be easy homophobic rubbish: “Oh two men travelling in a camper, what are you guys? Some kind of gay?.” Ho. Ho. Ho. Throw on the fire some really bad and facile creationism humour – “let’s deconstruct the design argument for the existence of God in 5 seconds guys” – and you’re left with a Beavis and Butthead Do America and Dude, Where’s My Car? combo, lacking the humour of the former and resembling the latter far too much.
Rating: ★★★★★★½☆☆☆
Related posts:
- Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (2010) Some interesting issues are raised but the film is let...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
]]>
Suprisingly not about S&M Fetishism
As you can probably tell from the poster (left), this film is a little confused. An “homage” to Kato? Perhaps. A little too much leather? Definitely. The poster is emblematic of the problems in the film; it’s a confused mess, lurching from historical drama to comedic superhero fantasy. The film suffers as a result.
If you’re a fan of good old Chinese and Hong Kong martial arts movies, you’ll have encountered the fictional character of Chen Zhen. Bruce Lee was Chen Zhen in Fist of Fury, Jet Li in Fist of Legend (and his real master in Huo YuanJia/Fearless). Donnie Yen takes up the reins to go beyond the traditional semi-historical narrative to explore what might have happened if Chen Zhen survived.
We see Chen Zhen go from First World War hero – and this is something we’ll explore in a moment – to Shanghai dandy-by-day leather-clad chauffeurtastic superhero-by-night who fights against the one-dimensional Japanese with the aim of Chinese unity in mind. The attempt to replicate the martial arts narrative of the traditional story – Japanese sensei does something horrible while the Japanese are oppressing the Chinese and Chinese martial arts superstar overcomes adversity to defeat the Sensei and his students – falls somewhat flat. Sideplot elements like the band-of-brothers camaraderie between Chen and his war friends, the nods to current Chinese political trends and the love-interest side plot that rather clumsily try to paint a sympathetic picture of a double agent do not meet their full potential but are at least attempts to present a sophisticated multiple-threaded narrative. It is promising for future martial arts films.
It then ruins the promise it does have with its clumsy attempts at comedy and turning Chen Zhen into a Scarlet Pimpernel figure decked out in what is quite obviously a reference to the Green Hornet’s Kato. It’s really not necessary. A nod to The Iron Monkey would have been somewhat less embarrassing for all involved.
The film’s most interesting facet is its dig at Western nations for the lack of recognition of the role of the Chinese in the First World War. This is certainly something that needs much more than a footnote in school curricula and I was glad to see the first 15 or 20 minutes dedicated to a First World War scenario.
If you’re interested in the genre, it’s worth a watch. If, however, you’re not interested in martial arts or Chinese films, this film is probably something you’ll want to pass by.
Rating: ★★★★★½☆☆☆☆
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
]]>It’s a fantastic film and the last free French classic on the Auteurs. You can now watch the previous films featured in the festival (for a fee) to watch on demand on the Auteurs now.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
]]>
Chris Marker's La Jetee
If you’re interested in the work of ‘nouvelle vague’ director Chris Marker, you mustn’t miss the chance to catch his classic film ‘La Jetée‘ free on The Auteurs today. You can find it here: http://bit.ly/tasrd(18+, UK Only). It was the inspiration behind Gilliam‘s great ’12 Monkeys’ and is an excellent example of a ‘photo-roman’. Fans of French cinema or sci-fi classic shouldn’t miss this opportunity!
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
]]>
Godard's 'Vivre Sa Vie'
If you’re a fan of Jean-Luc Godard or any cinema from ‘la nouvelle vague’ in general, you should take the opportunity to watch what is one of his best films, for free on independent/classic film website ‘The Auteurs’. You can watch it here: http://www.theauteurs.com/stellaartois (18+, UK Only)
They’re showing ‘La jetée’ tomorrow, which is a great film and the inspiration behind ‘Twelve Monkeys’.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
]]>
Avatar AKA Pocahontas in Space
So, like some others no doubt, I was ‘invited’ to an advanced screening of 15 minutes of Avatar footage. I have deliberately avoided reading about or watching trailers for the film, hoping to keep a bit of the plot tucked away. How could I reconcile that with my innate love of IMAX and modern 3D movies? I couldn’t, so I snapped up the tickets and made my way to Waterloo.
I turned up late. Whoops. Yet how fortuitous! The 10.00am screener had been backed; our 10.20 am showing had about 50 seats filled, which meant my pick. Warning: if you do go watch this in Waterloo make sure to sit fairly far back (probably beyond row J).
The preview started with a little introductory message from James Cameron, who looked dead tired. He gave a one line plot summary then told us to enjoy the preview. And then it began.
There were five or six scenes in the movie which revealed enough to give an idea about the plot and showcase some action. True to form, the CG is excellent, potentially groundbreaking. The plot? Not so much.
From what I could make out: a crippled soldier called ‘Sully’ (played by Sam Worthington) volunteers for some sort of military scientific experiement which either implants your mind in the body of a type of alien, or allows you to telepathically control it. We see him get to like walking again and then bam, we’re back in action, with a CG-athon of alien animals. We haven’t seen enough of those in recent Sci-Fi memory *cough*Star Wars Episodes I + II *cough* Star Trek.
Now, stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the plot looks roughly like it might be:
Civilised-but-crippled (just physically?) white man gets out of his depth in an alien world, has his life saved by a native woman (with a strange accent!), slowly assimilates into their culture and way of living managing inexplicably to better the natives at their own way of life before, for some reason, the white civilised culture (with token ethnic characters) tries to ‘save’ or attempts to eradicate the native population.
It feels like James Cameron has feasted down on everything in modern Sci-fi canon, snacked on some Disney movies and crapped out Avatar. You’ll see elements from (Disney’s) Pocahontas, Apocalypto, Dances With Wolves and take your pick of any of the Star Wars Movies. This does not bode well. The racist undertones are disconcerting and the plot looks like it’s going to be cliched to hell. I don’t think Sam Worthington’s a good enough (or interesting enough) an actor to carry a big-budget movie.
On the other hand the CG’s pretty good. Is it really worth the reported $240,000,000 budget? I don’t think so.
Like a chump, I’ll still go see it in the cinema. I wonder if it will exceed my expectations?
Until then – here’s the trailer:
Click here to view the embedded video.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
]]>