Posts Tagged reviews
Splice: jmag review
Here’s my quick review of the new sci-fi / horror Splice from this month’s jmag. It was the second Adrien Brody movie I’d seen in consecutive days, but thank god here he doesn’t use his hilarious ‘yeah, I once saw an Clint Eastwood movie, so what?’ voice from Predators…
SPLICE
Directed by: Vincenzo Natali
Starring: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chanéac
Country: Canada
Many think Frankenstein was the first science fiction story. It tapped into something so powerful we’re still seeing new twists on the story today. This year it’s Splice, from the director of the 1997 lo-fi sci-fi Cube.
Sarah Polley (always excellent) and Adrien Brody (usually terrible, though pretty okay here) play a pair of gene-splicing scientists. Bored with using animal DNA, they introduce something human into the mix and soon have a gooey ‘daughter’ born with a stinger-tipped tail – and she’s growing fast.
Splice’s weighty ethical issues let it take itself pretty seriously for a movie that’s regularly so ridiculous. I mean, there are two pink lumps of Cronenbergian flesh licking each other with monster tongues in the first five minutes, and later there’s a sex scene that’ll keep fetish websites loaded with screengrabs.
But the best thing about Splice’s science-gone-wrong is how it asks the same question that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein asked back in 1818. What’s worse: children or parents? Splice says there’s enough horror in both.
Other reviews this month: Greenberg and The Ghost Writer in cinemas; Youth In Revolt, Cop Out, and Party Down: Season One on DVD.
Issue #42 on sale now.
Love Exposure: jmag review
Despite my usual demands that every film should be 87 minutes long at most, I enjoyed the hell out of Sion Sono’s truly epic Love Exposure, coming out soon on DVD. Here’s my quick review from this month’s jmag – though I must admit that fitting four hours of oddness into a couple of paragraphs might’ve been beyond me.
LOVE EXPOSURE
(AI NO MUKIDASHI)
Directed by: Sion Sono
Starring: Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima, Sakura Ando
Country: Japan
Love Exposure is a four-hour movie about an expert upskirt photographer – so saying it’s Japanese is probably redundant, isn’t it?
It begins with Yu being forced into confession by his Catholic father. At first he invents his sins, but soon decides to actually commit them. After he’s told that everything he seeks can be found “between a woman’s legs”, he becomes an urban ninja of voyeur photography.
That’d be enough insanity for most films, but Love Exposure is more ambitious. It’s also a family farce, redemptive love story, cross-dressing kung fu comedy, and hysterical psychodrama. Its relentless exploration of how religion and sex combine gives it unexpected depth among the erection jokes. (It uses the word “pervert” so often that somewhere John Waters’ ears are burning.)
Could it’ve been shorter? Sure. But I have no idea what could’ve been cut. I just pretended it was a TV miniseries and watched it in three chunks. When you watch it – and you should – I suggest you do the same.
Other reviews this month: the less-painful-than-expected Shrek Forever After in cinemas; Tom Ford’s A Single Man and Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland on DVD.
Issue #41 is on sale now.
Harry Brown: jmag review
Here’s my short review of UK revenge flick Harry Brown from the latest issue of jmag. One thing I didn’t manage to squeeze into the wordcount was a mention of its killer opening scene – like a low-rent remake of the first moments of Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days.
HARRY BROWN
Directed by: Daniel Barber
Starring: Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer
Country: UK
Michael Caine has always been a “working actor”, happy to accept a role now rather than wait around for something better. It’s why he’s been in so many great films as well as so many shockers. Harry Brown is somewhere in the middle.
This “vigilante pensioner” flick plays shamelessly into the story currently fuelling newspapers worldwide: KIDS THESE DAYS ARE SOCIOPATHIC MONSTERS WHO’LL KILL YOU AS SOON AS LOOK AT YOU, GRANDPA! Caine brings echoes of his legendary 1971 Get Carter hardarse to Harry – an elderly ex-marine who decides enough is enough. The emotional realism of his performance gives the movie a classiness that doesn’t mesh with its grimy, cartoonish thrills. (Especially the ridiculous digitally-added spurting blood.)
Most vigilante films pay at least a little lip-service to the fact that revenge is wrong – fun, sure, but wrong. Harry Brown has no such qualms. You’ll have to balance your desire to see Michael Caine kill teenage thugs with how dirty cheering him on might make you feel afterwards.
Other reviews this month: Fish Tank, Baghead, and True Blood: Season Two on DVD.
Issue #40 on sale now.
Bad Lieutenant: jmag review
Here’s my quick jmag review of Werner Herzog’s non-remake of Bad Lieutenant, now out on DVD. Since writing it, I discovered that Nicolas Cage may have implied his acting style is the result of Miles Davis once winking at him. It’s not quite a radioactive spider-bite, but it’ll do.
BAD LIEUTENANT – PORT OF CALL – NEW ORLEANS
Directed by: Werner Herzog
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer
Country: USA
I’ve always had the sneaking suspicion that Nicolas Cage was developing a new kind of acting that will only be properly understood by future generations. Kooky cop drama Bad Lieutenant – Port Of Call – New Orleans suggests maybe I was right.
Director Werner Herzog (of Grizzly Man fame) says it’s not a remake of the infamous Harvey Keitel film Bad Lieutenant; he says he hasn’t even seen it. It’s just another story about an out-of-control, drug-snorting cop. This one is set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, although it looks like it was filmed on leftover porn sets sometime in the mid-1980s.
The script – from a writer of TV cop shows like NYPD Blue – is nothing special, but the movie’s offbeat style makes it oddly fascinating. It’s like Herzog created an entire film from his lead actor’s DNA. After phoning in so many performances, Nicolas Cage gives this one everything he has. Even if you think his acting is laughable, this is a movie that gets the joke.
Other reviews this month: anthology film New York, I Love You, The White Ribbon, and The French Kissers.
Issue #39 on sale now.