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IC: Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986)
I have a theory that Tony Scott is a more interesting director than his brother, but this is not the film to make it with. Cruise is the ace but maverick pilot with an authority problem, who loses his mojo when his best friend (who might as well have a large x tattooed on his forehead) is killed in a flying accident. Meanwhile, he's making the moves on teacher (or at least a civilian advisor to the military) and as soon as they are qualified the rookie are sent into aerial battle because apparently none of the rest of the airforce are on duty on that shift. Or something.
There's a homoerotic subtext that threatens to become text, a soundtrack that's partly from the guy who colorized Metropolis, and the whole looks like the videos that used to run on laserdisc jukebozes when no one had put any money in. Oh, and Cruise is eminently punchable. (And no one warned me Meg Ryan was in this.)
C: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974)
A hundred up!
A film I only knew from Graeme Garden's variants on the title in ISIHAC, this is a seventies set and flavoured revenge western. The eponymous Garcia has made the mistake of getting a mafia boss's daughter up the duff, and a bounty is place on his head, dead or alive, and preferably dead. Drunken piano player Bernie (Warren Oates) gets caught up in the quests for the head, but when things go wrong everyone has to pay and everyone needs to be shot in balletic slow motion.
Apparently this is often rated as a really bad film, but I rather enjoyed it, and this is way cooler than most of Tarantino's output. I need to see more Peckinpah.
CI: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Terry Gilliam, 2009)
I was warned off this by D, who claimed it was crap. Well, it's a bit of a baggy monster, and no one would ever claim Gilliam was a disciplined story teller, but get used to it. It's another Gilliam film about fantasies and story telling - with an all but adult daughter for once, rather than a child.
Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer - and I spent the film not recognising him) is a chief monk in charge of the monks who chant the story of the universe who is challenged by the Devil (Tom Waits - on brilliant form, stealing his scenes but still booable). Centuries later, the Doctor has a travelling show (the Imaginarium), and is accompanied by a daughter, a dwarf and adoptive son (Andrew Garfield, from the first Red Riding film, and again I couldn't put the name to his face). One day, as the Devil returns to claim the end of a wager, they rescue an amnesiac hanging from a bridge over the Thames (Heath Ledger), and bring him into the show.
Of course, this is where the problems start - it's Heath Ledger's last performance, and Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell are brought in to play him in some sequences in very neat ways.
The character is eventually named Tony, and the shot of a tabloid headline TONY LIAR indicates the film has a political subtext about people who make things up to manipulate people with - as opposed to good, honest storytellers (like Parnassus and thus Gilliam).
The special effects are beautiful, if not always convincing - that's the point - and reminiscent of Monty Python animation at points. A chorus line even offers a counterpoint to the Lumberjack Song, and the credits reveals this is the Sir Ian Blair Memorial Choir, featuring, amongst others, Terry Gilliam and Ray Cooper. Whilst it might be accused of a lack of visual subtlety, I think there's a lot to think about - and as one character says, we don't guarantee happy endings.
Totals: 101 - [Cinema: 30; DVD: 63; Television: 8]
I have a theory that Tony Scott is a more interesting director than his brother, but this is not the film to make it with. Cruise is the ace but maverick pilot with an authority problem, who loses his mojo when his best friend (who might as well have a large x tattooed on his forehead) is killed in a flying accident. Meanwhile, he's making the moves on teacher (or at least a civilian advisor to the military) and as soon as they are qualified the rookie are sent into aerial battle because apparently none of the rest of the airforce are on duty on that shift. Or something.
There's a homoerotic subtext that threatens to become text, a soundtrack that's partly from the guy who colorized Metropolis, and the whole looks like the videos that used to run on laserdisc jukebozes when no one had put any money in. Oh, and Cruise is eminently punchable. (And no one warned me Meg Ryan was in this.)
C: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974)
A hundred up!
A film I only knew from Graeme Garden's variants on the title in ISIHAC, this is a seventies set and flavoured revenge western. The eponymous Garcia has made the mistake of getting a mafia boss's daughter up the duff, and a bounty is place on his head, dead or alive, and preferably dead. Drunken piano player Bernie (Warren Oates) gets caught up in the quests for the head, but when things go wrong everyone has to pay and everyone needs to be shot in balletic slow motion.
Apparently this is often rated as a really bad film, but I rather enjoyed it, and this is way cooler than most of Tarantino's output. I need to see more Peckinpah.
CI: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Terry Gilliam, 2009)
I was warned off this by D, who claimed it was crap. Well, it's a bit of a baggy monster, and no one would ever claim Gilliam was a disciplined story teller, but get used to it. It's another Gilliam film about fantasies and story telling - with an all but adult daughter for once, rather than a child.
Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer - and I spent the film not recognising him) is a chief monk in charge of the monks who chant the story of the universe who is challenged by the Devil (Tom Waits - on brilliant form, stealing his scenes but still booable). Centuries later, the Doctor has a travelling show (the Imaginarium), and is accompanied by a daughter, a dwarf and adoptive son (Andrew Garfield, from the first Red Riding film, and again I couldn't put the name to his face). One day, as the Devil returns to claim the end of a wager, they rescue an amnesiac hanging from a bridge over the Thames (Heath Ledger), and bring him into the show.
Of course, this is where the problems start - it's Heath Ledger's last performance, and Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell are brought in to play him in some sequences in very neat ways.
The character is eventually named Tony, and the shot of a tabloid headline TONY LIAR indicates the film has a political subtext about people who make things up to manipulate people with - as opposed to good, honest storytellers (like Parnassus and thus Gilliam).
The special effects are beautiful, if not always convincing - that's the point - and reminiscent of Monty Python animation at points. A chorus line even offers a counterpoint to the Lumberjack Song, and the credits reveals this is the Sir Ian Blair Memorial Choir, featuring, amongst others, Terry Gilliam and Ray Cooper. Whilst it might be accused of a lack of visual subtlety, I think there's a lot to think about - and as one character says, we don't guarantee happy endings.
Totals: 101 - [Cinema: 30; DVD: 63; Television: 8]
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