3d

Dr Who

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll (2010)

Andy Serkis (King Kong, The Lord Of The Rings) plays Ian Dury in this mixed up biopic that glosses over most of Dury’s life. Dury comes across as self centred and obnoxious in a film that focuses more on his personal life than his music. Dull and disappointing.

The Book Of Eli (2010)

Kung Fu meets The Road, as Denzel Washington (The Taking Of Pelham 123, Deja Vu) goes all warrior monk and walks across a post-apocalyptic America (reminiscent of the wild west, but with cannibals) with his treasured book. Gary Oldman (The Unborn, The Fifth Element) once again plays a psychotic bad guy, and the American fascination with linking old men with much younger women continues, as Mila Kunis ( Forgetting Sarah Marshall , Max Payne ) becomes Denzel’s disciple.

The Book Of Eli has a name stars in a b-grade setting (not a bad thing), good performances and action sequences, and Malcolm MacDowell (Doomsday, Heroes). It is a good post-apocalyptic film. It would be very good if not for the overwhelming religious implications and some nonsensical scripting.

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! (aka Strippers Vs Zombies) (2008)

A good title and a good trailer do not a good film make. Strippers Vs Zombies takes the premise of Zombie Strippers (zombie virus infects a strip club) and fails to inject the story with anything interesting (story, characters, action). There are a couple of cute girls amongst the strippers and hookers, and there is a fair amount of zombie killing and CGI blood, but there is a lack of drama, tempo or humour.

Watching this film made me want to go and watch Frankenhooker again so I can see hookers explode after consuming super crack. I do like Frankenhooker.

vs

Kick-Ass (2010)

I’m very fond of the Kick-Ass comic. I like the superhero references. I like the humour. I like the violence. And I like the theme. The film makes the usual concessions to the source, and mostly they are okay. Film audiences are less cerebral to comic readers, and they need be appeased by simpler and more direct means. This does not mean that Kick-Ass has been dumbed down, just simplified for the masses.

Dave (Aaron Johnson) is a disgruntled, outcast teen who wonders why noone has tried to be a superhero before. He thinks he has want it takes and becomes Kick-Ass. His first attempt at heroics is less than successful. Dave soon finds out that there are other heroes in town, namely Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) and Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage). There is romance, comedy, pop culture references, organised crime, and plenty of action in this colourful, delightful, violent outing.

There is a lot to like here. The writers know what they are doing, what they want to say, and they know the superhero medium. They treat it with a balance of respect and ridicule. Cage finally has himself a decent movie, after a dreadful run that includes Bangkok Dangerous, National Treasure, Knowing, and Ghost Rider. When he dons the Big Daddy costume (which is very Batman like) he channels Adam West, and it’s magnificent. Moretz as the 12 year old foul mouthed killing machine is also a laugh.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Iron Man was a pretty good film. A little too gung ho maybe, but with enough humour and humanity to make it enjoyable. The sequel has much the same cast and director, so I expected something similar, and wasn’t disappointed.

Billionaire genius and superhero Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr - Sherlock Holmes, Tropic Thunder) finds himself the target of the US Government (unhappy that Iron Man is doing what they can’t), competing rich Boy Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell hamming it up to the extreme – Moon, Frost/Nixon), an upset Russian physicist that becomes Iron Man’s first supervillain (Mickey Rourke looking extra bizarre – The Wrestler, Angel Heart), and SHIELD, represented by Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson - Snakes On A Plane, Inglourious Basterds) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson – The Spirit). Stark is being killed by the very thing that keeps him alive, and he wants to go out with a bang. And he stills secretly loves his assistant, Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow – Se7en).

The appeal of superhero stories is the human aspect and what goes on in their life. These bits of Iron Man 2 I like, and I lose interest when the CGI fights take place. There are certainly enough jokes and character plot to appease me in Iron Man 2, and probably enough computer game style action to appease the masses. The hints to Captain America and Thor were most welcome too.

Dirty Harry