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Hitchhiker's
Guide To The Galaxy
Cert: PG
Starring: Bill
Nighy,
Martin Freeman, Warwick Davis, Zooey Deschanel,
Mos Def, Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich
Director: Garth
Jennings
Running Time: 110 minutes
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Touchstone
Pictures’ decision to hire a debutant director to adapt
Douglas Adams’ classic BBC series raised a few eyebrows
when first announced, and unfortunately, it may well be a decision
that comes back to haunt them. This isn’t necessarily to
say that the film’s atrociously bad, mind. It often just
seems a little…confused.
Despite some spot-on casting
,
director Garth Jennings’ attempt
to sift through Douglas Adams’ enormous mass of material
ends in a mammoth accumulation of needless clutter. His introduce
of a romance to the tale will doubtlessly have purists exploding
with anger, also.
Huge chunks of story which feel utterly shapeless are prominent
throughout, and coupled with the rather unorthodox pacing, Hitch-hiker’s… proves
to be something of a difficult pill to swallow. Jennings appears
to have piled his creative energies into individual scenes, rather
than how they ought to string together. Adams’ mad whirl
of ideas seems to have been just too much for him.
A few comic ideas survive the scrappiness: the notion that aliens
are even dafter than us, for instance, provides a constant source
of amusement. Various nods to bargain-basement British telly (such
as Dr Who and the Hitchhiker series itself) are also quite charming.
Nonetheless, if only Spike Jonze had agreed to direct, we may well
have had a modern masterpiece on our hands. Pity, that. |
xXx2
The Next Level
Cert: 12A
Starring: Ice
Cube, Nona Gaye, Samuel L. Jackson, Willem
Dafoe
Director: Lee
Tamahori
Running Time: 101
minutes
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For
xXx2, everybody’s favourite meat head Vin Diesel has
been (rather unusually) replaced by Ice Cube. To be perfectly
frank, though, you’re likely not to even notice, since
this kind of film simply requires square-jawed presence, as
opposed to good ol’ fashioned acting ability. And Cube,
alarmingly, pulls this off to a satisfactory standard.
Anyway, xXx, who’s banged up in prison due to various acts
of mutin
ous
violence, is the only all-American hero capable of helping National
Security Agency operative Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson)
after his outpost is ensnared by an unknown enemy. As the Defence
Secretary (Willem Dafoe) seems less than eager to help his hapless
country, and a plot to assassinate the President comes to light,
xXx must stop America’s first revolution
in the making
Of course, XXx 2 is unlikely to win much in the way of acclaim
outside of its target audience, but it pretty much achieves what
it sets out to do: it’s fast, it’s violent, it requires
pretty much nothing in the department of thought, and it’s
loaded with lots of nice visual effects.
Not exactly along the lines of my usual choice of viewing, but
then, I was hardly expecting Raging Bull 2. Inoffensive fun. |
Cursed
Cert: 15
Starring: Christina
Ricci, Illeana Douglas, Joshua Jackson, Michael
Rosenbaum, Omar Epps, Shannon Elizabeth
Director: Wes
Craven
Running Time: 97
minutes
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After
hearing that Wes Craven has requested to have his name removed
from the movie’s direc-torial credits (as a result of the
film’s apparently over-enthusiastic editors), I didn’t
really hold much hope for Cursed. And after witnessing his first
dabble into the world of Werewolfdom, it’s hardly difficult
to see why.
Working again with Kevin Williamson, the brains behind Scream,
Wes Craven attempts once more to fuse together the winning chemistry
of teen flick and OTT horror, although to an ultimately inferior
level of accomplishment. Where Scream felt fresh and innovating,
Cursed just seems to drag along without any real direction, managing
to be simultaneously predictable and dull.
Christina Ricci is one of the movie’s few highlights, her
goth-like gloom and jet-black hair being pretty much the film’s
scariest element, and that’s even before her transformation
into the savage wolf. A number of set-pieces involving her transformation
invite the odd chuckle.
However, as a finished article, Cursed falls somewhat short of
the mark; the fact that it can’t decide what kind of cinematic
experience it’s trying to be (Funny? Very infrequently. Clever?
Uh-uh. Scary? Absolutely not) makes it feel like nothing more than
a multitude of over-used clichés, scrambled together in
the hope of producing another Scream-like exper-ience. Which, sadly,
it isn’t.
An American Werewolf In London remains unchall-enged for the crown
of best Werewolf flick. |
The
Kingdon of Heaven
Cert: 15
Starring: Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson,
David Thewlis, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, Brandan Gleeson, Alexander
Siddig, Marton Csokas, Ghassan Massoud
Director: Ridley
Scott
Running Time: 144
minutes
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Ridley
Scott’s latest dabble into the historical action flick
genre combines culture clash, egotism versus idealism, and
is all set between the second and third Crusades. So, with
such consequential subject matter in mind, it’s already
1-0 up on Gladiator. But is it as much fun as the aforementioned
Russell Crowe fest? Well, no, not quite. But it’s not
too far off.
Balian (Orlando Bloom) starts the film as a blacksmith in 1186
France, and is visited by his father, Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam
Neeson), a knight noble except only for the shame of Balian
being illegitimate. Godfrey has his son follow him to Jerusalem
to pursue his agenda - that the weak should be protected, and
that there should grow not only a long-lasting accommodation
between East and West, but also a kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
It’s quite obvious that Ridley Scott has a prominent
interest in history, and is also a highly gifted technical
master behind the camera, so a project like this is always
going to end up coming up trumps. Kingdom Of Heaven is a painstakingly
crafted endeavour on the grandest of scales, which has an active
mind as well as heart and soul. An action flick for the thinking
film fan, if you will. Speaking of such, the battle sequences
truly are remarkable, with every bone-crunching blow delivered
on screen guaranteed to be felt by any audience member. Bloom’s
performance is as emphatic as it is subtle, perfectly cast
in the role of Balian.
Perhaps it isn’t quite as enjoyable a romp as Gladiator,
but make no mistake, Kingdom Of Heaven is definitely up there
with the very best in its genre. |
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