As penance for failing to blog for 3 months I am going to post another review I wrote last May, in a series of retro reviews in which I post reviews of films released around this date in history. So here follows a "Retro Review" of Terminator Salvation (Released May 2009).
While enjoyable The Terminator films have always been popcorn-fodder part of the burgeoning box office tradition of the 1990s, an innovation in the delivery of cyber-punk theology in the cinema, many would argue that without The Terminator there would be no Matrix. While not having the perceived depth of The Matrix, or the ground-breaking effects and fight scenes, The Terminator delivered a tense action film, akin to Duel, merely replacing a big truck with a giant German, whose requests for clothing and machinery aren't to be taken lightly.
While the original's 80s fashions seem dated, Terminator 2 was a more glossy affair, with an interesting twist on the original's premise. What Terminator 2 is remembered for though is the effects; audiences were blown away when the T-1000 rose up from a pool of liquid metal.
T3 was the cash-in giving the movie-going public a plain action film, loosely bridging us to the point where Terminator 4: Salvation begins.
The events foretold in Terminator 2 and shown in T3 appear to have taken place as told, we rejoin John Connor as the leader of a group of soldiers, who are part of a worldwide resistance against the machines. Connor learns that his time travelling future/past father (this area of time travel is classically difficult to define in writing), Kyle Rees (Anton Yelchin) is being targeted by the machines, threatening John's very existence.
Meanwhile in the early 21st century a man called Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), is condemned to death is given the chance to donate his body to science, a chance he takes, he then awakes in the post-apocalyptic world, seemingly unchanged and soon comes into contact with the aforementioned Rees, as they battle to survive against the menacing machines.
The benefit of the Terminator films is that there is so much time travel, each film can redefine what happened and how it has affected the world. The resistance are a well supplied army in this film, and there is seemingly quite a large human population. To this extent the choice of the film-makers was wise, the weapons are fairly conventional, and recognisable, the machines aren't the shape-shifting monsters of T2 and 3.
Many of the post-apocalyptic clichés are present, overtures of Waterworld and Mad Max are abundant, the coveting of oil, and small mute children that represent just how bloody terrible the situation is that even the kids aren't whining constantly about ice cream.
The film is really struggling between two stories, one is an interesting study of what it is to be human and issues of redemption, and how someone from our time would react to this dystopian future, with some juicy fighting thrown in, nothing too original, but enjoyable nonetheless. The other story is Christian Bale yelling in your face ">
In the original draft of this story the John Connor part was far smaller, focusing on the more interesting story, with the Connor part very much peripheral to the central story, however when they hired Bale there was a drastic re-write, which crow-barred his character in and tried to make it the focus, when it was clear that what they had before was so much better.
Christian Bale comes fresh from his performance in last summers' smash success, The Dark Knight, and is seemingly still doing the Batman growl, which was so distracting in that film. Every line is growled or yelled, and all delivered as if it were the most important thing in the world, and while in the context of the film they are important the audience simply don't care. Bryce Dallas Howard is under-used as Connor's girlfriend, and subsequently the audience doesn't know what to think of her, so when she tearfully kisses John goodbye as he goes on a mission it falls flat. She was clearly told she would have a more substantial role, most of which was probably left on the cutting-room floor.
There isn't a good performance to pick between them, the film plods along to its inevitable conclusion, going through all the beats in a very conventional fashion, and often detracting from the story we want to see about the Marcus Wright character. Director McG, doesn’t even offer the audience an interesting camera shot.
Thoroughly uninspired directing a conflicting script and poor performances have made this film a huge disappointment, given the pedigree of its star and the first two films. The main problem is that unlike T1 and 2, we've seen it all before, the squid-like robots from the Matrix, the conflicts with leadership which could almost have been lifted directly from every cop film from the 1980s, with the exception of no badges and guns being requested. We're left with characters we don't care about, playing out a story that we all saw coming a mile away. It’s a pity that the focus fell on John Connor again, there are other stories to tell in a post-skynet world, many would have been more interesting than this.
Overall a poor sequel to such a seminal sci-fi film, this could have been so much better, there’s no salvation for this film.
Thursday 1 July 2010
American - The Bill Hicks Story
Synopsis - "American" is details the life of legendary stand-up comedian Bill Hicks, known for his forthright style and his rage at the American "Dream", Hicks is one of the best loved stand-ups of all time, achieving great success in a life cut tragically short by pancreatic cancer.
The Review
I first heard Bill Hicks’ comedy when I was about 14 or 15, and my reaction was the same as my reaction to many of the other introductions to great comedy that I’ve experienced, “Why did nobody tell me this existed?” I spent my meagre savings on Hicks’ “Salvation” album, having almost randomly chosen the album among many others like the better known (though not to me) “Arizona Bay” or “Sane Man”. At a time when mainstream stand-up was all that was available to a kid living in sub-urban Warwickshire, and this was populated by poor satirical stand-ups and was being dominated by Peter Kay, Hicks’ loftier ambitions and finer craft were like a bolt of lightning to me, and perhaps as one loves the “Doctor Who” of their generation, I still believe that “Salvation” recording in Oxford to be Hicks at his best. I listened to the album repeatedly learnt it by word and wanted to learn more of the man behind the laughter. I learnt of the substance abuse, growing up in Texas, his feud with Dennis Leary, his being dropped from the David Letterman show, and of course of his untimely and tragic death.
“American” gives the audience an interesting insight into Hicks and his roots, friends and families, it almost takes it as red that the audience have some knowledge of Hicks. It is notable that outside of the clips of Hicks’ performing (much of which to me as a Hicks fan was new) we do not hear much of Hicks talking about himself, instead we are shown Hicks through his friends and family. We aren’t subjected to the fawning adulation of other stand-ups who Hicks influenced, instead we hear from the other comedians who were close to him and who performed with him.
The film-makers have unearthed some fantastic archive footage of Hick performing at a very young age, as well as a lot of photographs of Hicks. The photos are animated in a very interesting way, which has some similarities with the great “The Kid Stays in the Picture”, bringing movement and dynamism to static photos, while Hicks’ friends and family talk about him in voice-over, it isn’t until far later in the film that we see these people as they are today, discussing Hicks with the film-makers, instead we see them in photographs as they were and as Hicks knew them.
The film was made by two English fans of Hicks and they provided a new perspective on Hicks, from that in other documentaries made about Hicks, which often fail to reflect that Hicks gained his greatest adulation, not in his native America, but on the other side of the Atlantic. The film strikes a good balance between stand-up clips and interviews with those who knew him best, this stems from a good understanding that the main audience for this documentary is fans of Hicks who have seen almost all of the footage of him performing, and those that haven’t will be inspired by the segments which do feature to seek out more of Hicks.
It is incredible to see the subjects Bill talks about and how much of it has not lost its relevance, his main philosophy on the power of love over fear, feels particularly poignant when one thinks of the events in the world in the years since Bill’s death.
The film is possibly a little too light on some detail, his feud with Dennis Leary isn't mentioned at all, I can understand why the film-makers preferred to focus on the positives of Bill, and not on the stodgy allegations that Leary plagiarised some of Bill's material and the persona of Hicks, however a friend I had gone to see the film with (who wasn't familiar with Hicks' work) remarked to me that he seems very similar to Leary, I worry that in the years since Hicks' death that some viewers will not be as knowledgeable of Hicks' career as the film-makers clearly are.
The film has had a very limited release, being shown for only one night in Lincoln and this only coming almost two months after its initial release, where I was one of fewer than twenty viewers enjoying the film, which is a tremendous pity as the film cleverly shows Hicks through his friends, providing the audience with a new outlook on Hicks, which has been missing in other documentaries which focus on his style and his legacy, while not providing viewers with information on what Hicks was like as a person, away from stand-up.
If there was ever a time when Hicks’ viewpoint and outlook on life was required it is now, at a time when this enjoyable and informative documentary on his life has been crowded out of the cinema by the likes of the rampantly materialistic Sex and the City 2, it is clear we need Bill now more than ever.
The Review
I first heard Bill Hicks’ comedy when I was about 14 or 15, and my reaction was the same as my reaction to many of the other introductions to great comedy that I’ve experienced, “Why did nobody tell me this existed?” I spent my meagre savings on Hicks’ “Salvation” album, having almost randomly chosen the album among many others like the better known (though not to me) “Arizona Bay” or “Sane Man”. At a time when mainstream stand-up was all that was available to a kid living in sub-urban Warwickshire, and this was populated by poor satirical stand-ups and was being dominated by Peter Kay, Hicks’ loftier ambitions and finer craft were like a bolt of lightning to me, and perhaps as one loves the “Doctor Who” of their generation, I still believe that “Salvation” recording in Oxford to be Hicks at his best. I listened to the album repeatedly learnt it by word and wanted to learn more of the man behind the laughter. I learnt of the substance abuse, growing up in Texas, his feud with Dennis Leary, his being dropped from the David Letterman show, and of course of his untimely and tragic death.
“American” gives the audience an interesting insight into Hicks and his roots, friends and families, it almost takes it as red that the audience have some knowledge of Hicks. It is notable that outside of the clips of Hicks’ performing (much of which to me as a Hicks fan was new) we do not hear much of Hicks talking about himself, instead we are shown Hicks through his friends and family. We aren’t subjected to the fawning adulation of other stand-ups who Hicks influenced, instead we hear from the other comedians who were close to him and who performed with him.
The film-makers have unearthed some fantastic archive footage of Hick performing at a very young age, as well as a lot of photographs of Hicks. The photos are animated in a very interesting way, which has some similarities with the great “The Kid Stays in the Picture”, bringing movement and dynamism to static photos, while Hicks’ friends and family talk about him in voice-over, it isn’t until far later in the film that we see these people as they are today, discussing Hicks with the film-makers, instead we see them in photographs as they were and as Hicks knew them.
The film was made by two English fans of Hicks and they provided a new perspective on Hicks, from that in other documentaries made about Hicks, which often fail to reflect that Hicks gained his greatest adulation, not in his native America, but on the other side of the Atlantic. The film strikes a good balance between stand-up clips and interviews with those who knew him best, this stems from a good understanding that the main audience for this documentary is fans of Hicks who have seen almost all of the footage of him performing, and those that haven’t will be inspired by the segments which do feature to seek out more of Hicks.
It is incredible to see the subjects Bill talks about and how much of it has not lost its relevance, his main philosophy on the power of love over fear, feels particularly poignant when one thinks of the events in the world in the years since Bill’s death.
The film is possibly a little too light on some detail, his feud with Dennis Leary isn't mentioned at all, I can understand why the film-makers preferred to focus on the positives of Bill, and not on the stodgy allegations that Leary plagiarised some of Bill's material and the persona of Hicks, however a friend I had gone to see the film with (who wasn't familiar with Hicks' work) remarked to me that he seems very similar to Leary, I worry that in the years since Hicks' death that some viewers will not be as knowledgeable of Hicks' career as the film-makers clearly are.
The film has had a very limited release, being shown for only one night in Lincoln and this only coming almost two months after its initial release, where I was one of fewer than twenty viewers enjoying the film, which is a tremendous pity as the film cleverly shows Hicks through his friends, providing the audience with a new outlook on Hicks, which has been missing in other documentaries which focus on his style and his legacy, while not providing viewers with information on what Hicks was like as a person, away from stand-up.
If there was ever a time when Hicks’ viewpoint and outlook on life was required it is now, at a time when this enjoyable and informative documentary on his life has been crowded out of the cinema by the likes of the rampantly materialistic Sex and the City 2, it is clear we need Bill now more than ever.
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