Oh look, some film reviews
The problem I found with Oldboy was not so much the intense level of violence or slightly blocky narrative. My problem was more along the lines of, "Okay, when am I going to start hating this because everyone I know seems to like it?" You know, because I'm like that. It's why I'm dreading watching Fight Club and Donnie Darko although I'm quite convinced for some reason that I will hate the latter.
I was never fully convinced though that I would hate Oldboy though, I have to say. I'm a sucker for weird violent Oriental films, live action or animated, for some unknown reason in the same way that I don't understand why I can sit through 3 hour French social dramas even if Emmanuelle Beart or Ludivine Sagnier aren't in it and are therefore unlikely to get their norks out. The two aren't really compatible. So maybe that's the reason why I thought deep down I would enjoy it.
In many ways it reminded me of Gozu, Takashi Miike's gloriously stupid gangster film, in that the underlying plot was actually incredibly simple. But when you have the consumption of a live octopus, tongue snipping and a horizontal scrolling beat 'em up scene that had me checking to make sure I wasn't sat on a joypad, it is easy to be distracted from that. And that is part of the genius of Oldboy and, to a slightly lesser extent, Gozu. The occasionally unnecessary filler and flannel trick you into believing that you are watching something far more complex than it actually is.
It's along these lines that Oldboy has copped most of its rare criticism - that it's mostly filler and the main plot amounts to very little. But why is that a bad thing? I like filler. Without it, Quentin Tarantino would barely have a career and Death Proof wouldn't be nearly as fantastic as it was. It is the absolute epitome of a movie that you will love or hate. I can't really see a middle ground with this and it's exactly the film that would make Tarantino haters hate him even more.
The long sections of obscure popular music. The pop culture heavy and seemingly endless conversations. The explosions of ultra-violence from almost nowhere. All are present and correct. Then throw in an action-packed denouement so obviously and shamelessly set up and telegraphed that it feels far too easy to enjoy it, and what you have is a film that you almost feel Tarantino made for his haterz, y'all. It's just so bloody stupid but it's just so bloody good at the same time. And I make no apology for the fact that I enjoyed Kurt Russell's performance as an unexpectedly feeble serial killer more than anything I've seen in a movie for quite some time. So I'm a Russell fanboy. Wanna make something of it?
Tarantino gets away with another, it would seem, and spectacularly so. Robert Rodriguez finds it slightly tougher to do so with Planet Terror, as he did with From Dusk Till Dawn which I think I don't like now although I liked it when I first saw it. I hate it when things do that. It was like when I had scrambled eggs for the first time in about 3 years a few months' ago and after eating them wondered what the fuck I'd seen in these things in the first place and why I didn't just boil them and do toast soldiers and shit with them.
Yes, Planet Terror is a harder sell I think because it's more obviously over-the-top and if you're going to do this type of thing properly you need good actors to convincingly pull off the idiocy with a straight face and to commit to being utterly ridiculous at all times. Having seen Jeff Fahey and Freddie Rodriguez in the cast, alarm bells started to ring a little bit. But hey, you know what, seems like Robert Rodriguez saw something that I didn't and the whole thing is just brilliantly mental. The best thing in it is Marley Shelton, a ridiculously ignored actress who out-performs even the gun-legged Rose McGowan and a Bruce Willis cameo that, in all fairness, wasn't quite as exciting as it perhaps should have been. Best bit? The kid shooting himself. Good swerve! And to think, we might get a feature length Machete soon. I like it.
I also liked Infection. Similar to Planet Terror in that it was a completely ludicrous and rather gooey horror, this J-Horror offering is rather more straight-faced but no less enjoyable for it. Set in a hospital that makes East Surrey Hospital look like, well, a good hospital, it never seems to quite know if it's about ghosts or a virus striking everyone down or what. It also has an ending that makes practically no sense whatsoever. Yet some genuinely startling horror set pieces and a constantly uneasy atmosphere that reminded me for some reason of the criminally ignored Prince Of Darkness make this great fun from start to finish.
Severance somehow managed the impossible - it was a film with Danny Dyer that didn't make me want to vomit blood. And, actually, he shows some semblance of comic timing in the film. Mind you, I was watching it on BBC1 at 1am in the morning and was in the middle of an insomnia episode so I might have imagined it. I hope so. Fun film though and nice seeing Tim McInnerny in something fairly high profile again.
So. Some films there.
I was never fully convinced though that I would hate Oldboy though, I have to say. I'm a sucker for weird violent Oriental films, live action or animated, for some unknown reason in the same way that I don't understand why I can sit through 3 hour French social dramas even if Emmanuelle Beart or Ludivine Sagnier aren't in it and are therefore unlikely to get their norks out. The two aren't really compatible. So maybe that's the reason why I thought deep down I would enjoy it.
In many ways it reminded me of Gozu, Takashi Miike's gloriously stupid gangster film, in that the underlying plot was actually incredibly simple. But when you have the consumption of a live octopus, tongue snipping and a horizontal scrolling beat 'em up scene that had me checking to make sure I wasn't sat on a joypad, it is easy to be distracted from that. And that is part of the genius of Oldboy and, to a slightly lesser extent, Gozu. The occasionally unnecessary filler and flannel trick you into believing that you are watching something far more complex than it actually is.
It's along these lines that Oldboy has copped most of its rare criticism - that it's mostly filler and the main plot amounts to very little. But why is that a bad thing? I like filler. Without it, Quentin Tarantino would barely have a career and Death Proof wouldn't be nearly as fantastic as it was. It is the absolute epitome of a movie that you will love or hate. I can't really see a middle ground with this and it's exactly the film that would make Tarantino haters hate him even more.
The long sections of obscure popular music. The pop culture heavy and seemingly endless conversations. The explosions of ultra-violence from almost nowhere. All are present and correct. Then throw in an action-packed denouement so obviously and shamelessly set up and telegraphed that it feels far too easy to enjoy it, and what you have is a film that you almost feel Tarantino made for his haterz, y'all. It's just so bloody stupid but it's just so bloody good at the same time. And I make no apology for the fact that I enjoyed Kurt Russell's performance as an unexpectedly feeble serial killer more than anything I've seen in a movie for quite some time. So I'm a Russell fanboy. Wanna make something of it?
Tarantino gets away with another, it would seem, and spectacularly so. Robert Rodriguez finds it slightly tougher to do so with Planet Terror, as he did with From Dusk Till Dawn which I think I don't like now although I liked it when I first saw it. I hate it when things do that. It was like when I had scrambled eggs for the first time in about 3 years a few months' ago and after eating them wondered what the fuck I'd seen in these things in the first place and why I didn't just boil them and do toast soldiers and shit with them.
Yes, Planet Terror is a harder sell I think because it's more obviously over-the-top and if you're going to do this type of thing properly you need good actors to convincingly pull off the idiocy with a straight face and to commit to being utterly ridiculous at all times. Having seen Jeff Fahey and Freddie Rodriguez in the cast, alarm bells started to ring a little bit. But hey, you know what, seems like Robert Rodriguez saw something that I didn't and the whole thing is just brilliantly mental. The best thing in it is Marley Shelton, a ridiculously ignored actress who out-performs even the gun-legged Rose McGowan and a Bruce Willis cameo that, in all fairness, wasn't quite as exciting as it perhaps should have been. Best bit? The kid shooting himself. Good swerve! And to think, we might get a feature length Machete soon. I like it.
I also liked Infection. Similar to Planet Terror in that it was a completely ludicrous and rather gooey horror, this J-Horror offering is rather more straight-faced but no less enjoyable for it. Set in a hospital that makes East Surrey Hospital look like, well, a good hospital, it never seems to quite know if it's about ghosts or a virus striking everyone down or what. It also has an ending that makes practically no sense whatsoever. Yet some genuinely startling horror set pieces and a constantly uneasy atmosphere that reminded me for some reason of the criminally ignored Prince Of Darkness make this great fun from start to finish.
Severance somehow managed the impossible - it was a film with Danny Dyer that didn't make me want to vomit blood. And, actually, he shows some semblance of comic timing in the film. Mind you, I was watching it on BBC1 at 1am in the morning and was in the middle of an insomnia episode so I might have imagined it. I hope so. Fun film though and nice seeing Tim McInnerny in something fairly high profile again.
So. Some films there.