Broken Arrow (1996)

Looking for a movie that would keep us entertained, but without taxing the brain, last night I persuaded Andrew to watch Broken Arrow, which I remember enjoying years ago on TV. It's perhaps not as great as I remember - although it certainly kept me entertained! 

It's a much less preposterous movie than John Woo's Face/Off, despite both films sharing John Travolta in maniac mode. Here, Travolta is a rogue airforce pilot who plans to steal 2 nukes and sell them back to Washington for ransom, while a hot looking Christian Slater, Travolta's former partner, tries to stop him, with the aid of Samantha Mathis' park ranger. Broken Arrow has a much simpler plot than Face/Off for a start! There's a thread with a suit from Washington flying in to Utah, where the nuke was stolen, but it never really goes anywhere and doesn't get a resolution, other than that this is a fantastic chase movie with MASSIVE explosions and excellent fight scenes.

This is another film that harks back to a simpler time (the 90's!) in movies when bad guys shot anyone they liked and there was no gore. Unrealistic, but easier to watch than the splatter-fests of today. Broken Arrow would hardly win any points for realism anyway. Slater and Travolta are great in the lead roles, and Samantha Mathis makes an impression as the token woman (actually, I don't recall any other female cast members... Hmmm), but in a role that doesn't sexualise the character or turn her into a quivering annoyance to Slater's hero - she's actually very competant, and can kick ass and match wits with Travolta's bad guy as much as Slater can. Now there's something you wouldn't expect from a testosterone packed movie like this! 

The action is great throughout, but the film really kicks up a gear in the last 20 mins or so when the nukes are being moved by train through some gorgeously photographed locations (and Woo's all about the pretty images - he never turns down a chance to use slo mo - this is pretty much action porn) and the action is nearly all train-bound. This makes for great punch ups, shoot outs, and a final explosion that all had me gasping and cringing as if I could feel ever blow or close call. Broken Arrow may not be high art, but it is entertaining.

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

A few days after seeing the delightful Ponyo we made a trip to the cinema to see another 2D animation - this time it was Disney's return to form with The Princess and the Frog, which managed to feel like a classic, old-fashioned Disney yarn while at the same time feeling fresh and exciting. 

I enjoyed everything about this movie - the plot kept me guessing, the characters were interesting and involving, the look of the animation was beautiful, the songs were incredibly catchy and toe-tapping, the comedy was genuinely funny, and the sum of these parts was a magical return to form for Disney animation. Less modern and, unlike Treasure Planet or Lilo & Stitch with their aliens and technology (although great films both), Princess and the Frog instead kept things traditional. The inter-war, New Orleans setting and the choice of a black lead character (and villain, 'fairy godmother', etc), along with the rich colour-schemes and superb Southern voice cast made the movie appear vibrant and different. At the same time there were Disney 'staples' like a fat, comedy villainous side-kick, a talking animal who wants to be human, and a happy ending, as well as an unexpectedly emotional death for a main character (see Bambi and The Lion King). 

There has been much publicity about this being Disney's first black 'princess' (although Mulan and Pocahontas were non-white heroines) and it does add an interesting dynamic, particularly when you consider the setting and era in which the movie is set. Without getting preachy about it, and without glossing over history, there are subtle nods to the fact that Tiana lives in a black 'ghetto' of New Orleans, while her mother makes dresses for the rich white man and his spoilt daughter in their massive mansion. This (subtle) social commentary is unusual for a Disney animation, but it's not jarring and just adds an extra dimension for the viewing adult. 

The Princess and the Frog is a marked improvement of the last couple of Disney 2D animations, the boring Brother Bear and misfiring Home on the Range, and it lived up to the brief glimpses of 2D seen in Enchanted, so I'm hopeful now that John Lassester will steer the Walt Disney Animation Studios onwards and upwards, and that a new (golden?) era of 2D animation is about to dawn. 

Licence to Kill (1989)

I thought that The Living Daylights was excellent and wondered how on earth Licence to Kill match the thrill and adventure of Timothy Dalton's first outing as 007. It turns out that he turned in a movie just as great and modern as the last, albeit with less gags and more bad language, not to mention two of the goriest death scenes in Bond history. 

The entire plot of LTK involves Bond's personal mission to avenge the mauling of his ally Felix Leiter and the murder of his brand-new wife by drug baron Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi). This movie deviates from the traditional Bond formula by making 007 a rogue agent, acting on his own against not a world-conquering megalomanic but a very real Latin American drugs czar. There's still room for a cameo from M - set up in a very devious way to make the audience think that Bond is about to come a cropper from Blofeld - and Moneypenny (the same poor Lois Maxwell imitation from Daylights), with a wonderfully extended part for Desmond Llewellyn's Q.

Carey Lowell plays the top rate Bond girl Pam Bouvier who doesn't scream once, doesn't cause any disasters and can hold her own in any fire fight and fly any plane that's required of her. She really is a Bond girl for the eighties. Her flip side is Talisa Soto's Lupe Lamora, a more traditional damsel-in-distress type who never-the-less helps Bond out and manages not to meet a sticky end - unlike Benicio Del Toro's henchman, who ends up minced alive. Eurgh. 

Dalton plays a very driven 007, and it's fun to watch him tear up Sanchez's drugs operation from the inside. It's a shame that the poor box-office performance of this more serious, more adult Bond curtailed his time playing the secret agent. At least he went out with a bang in a frankly astounding final 20 minutes as oil tankers exploding, filling the screen with flames, as Bond pulls wheelies with tanker cabs and dodges stinger missiles. I think both Dalton and Lazenby were lucky in that they made 3 great movies between them and neither hung around long enough to make any Moonrakers to sully their score cards. And so on to Pierce Brosnan and Dame Judi...

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

With the recent release of the Travolta/Washington action remake The Taking of Pelham 123, Channel 5 showed the original, which starred Walter Mathau and presumably is a completely different kettle of fish. I doubt I'll bother with the remake as I found the original imminently enjoyable, and can only assume how the new one is sexed up for the worst. 

The plot reminded me of the end of Speed, except it was nothing like it since the subway train that is taken by the baddies here stands stock still for most of the movie, and Walter Mathau spends most of his time in a command centre, talking to chief baddy Mr Blue (Robert Shaw) by radio. Despite the static and minimal locations, the movie is never boring, and the motive of the theives turns out to be refreshingly simple, although their means of escape remains a mystery - just how do they expect to escape from a closed-in subway tunnel? The answer when it comes is fairly obvious really, but the clever script kept me guessing. 

There's a fair bit of humour peppered throughout, but the baddies are never trivialised - a number of poor souls are coldly gunned down. The humour diffuses the tension and previous welcome breaks from the claustrophobic subway car, and the chillingly calculated Mr Blue who orchestrates everything with real panache. Walter Mathau's hero is no action man, he's a wise-cracking old timer who's seen it all, and won't let these gunmen get away , but he tries to outsmart and second-guess them rather than running head long into the fray with guns blazing. 

The movie is a little dated in its treatment of women and blacks, but I think that this says more about the character of New York transit workers in 1974 than Hollywood, and provides for an authentic feel. This is a fantastic thriller that I seriously doubt could be bettered by any remake. Especially one starring Denzel Washington.

Oh and Walter Mathau's final look as he gets his man is priceless.

Arthur Smith: At Large (21/02/10, WYP)

In the first of many already-booked evenings out at the theatre in 2010, we popped along to the West Yorkshie Playhouse to see Arthur Smith's stand up show. I wasn't sure what to expect, and mostly we took a chance as we'd only seen Smith on shows like QI or Grumpy Old Men, so we had no idea what his solo stand up show would be like. 

Smith provided an evening of jokes, anecdotes, tall tales, readings from his autobiography, a Leonard Cohen impersonation, poetry, a surprise guest slot from comedian Dan Bland, and questions/comments from the audience. All in all it was an amusing, fun night out. I've not seen a live act quite like Arthur Smith and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Even though I'd heard several of his actual jokes before, and the audience was worringly much older than us, I was most definitely entertained. His best joke: 'Did you know that 1 in 3 Americans weighs as much as the other two?'

Ponyo (2008)

Ponyo is hands down the cutest movie I've seen for ages! At least since last year's Up! The deceptively simple-sounding plot that mirrors The Little Mermaid in the central sea creature character's desire to become humour does little to explain how wonderful the experience of Ponyo really is. 

I've seen Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki's (sort of the Japanese Walt Disney) eariler animated films for Studio Ghibli and I'd enjoyed them, but with some reservations due to some of the inexplicable weirdness that Japanese animations often involve. Ponyo is much more linear, and simpler, but without being boring or childish in any way. I was completely entranced by the touching story of little Sōsuke and his new friend Ponyo, a tadpole-like creature, who, when she tastes human blood, begins to turn into a human child. Ponyo discovers she likes being human, and she loves her new friend, but her father, Fujimoto is king of the sea and doesn't want to let Ponyo go.

The 2-D animation looked gorgeous on the cinema screen, and the score was lucious. I saw the English-dubbed version that has been produced by Pixar creator and all-round animation messiah John Lasseter and it was a seemless blend of Japanese animation, with it's slightly jerky style, and an all-star American voice cast that includes Tina Fey, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, Betty White, Lily Tomlin and Cloris Leachman (the latter I'd only just seen in the final 1978 episode of The Muppet Show: Season 2!). The rather twee song over the end credits with the lyrics 'Ponyo, Ponyo, fishy in the sea' has been in my head and not left for days! I walked out of the cinema beaming and when I think of Ponyo it still brings a smile to my face. Wonderful.

The Muppet Show: Season 2 (1977-78)

Part of the massive Muppets themed bundle I got Andrew for Christmas, was season 3 of The Muppet Show on DVD, but before we get to that we had to watch season 2, so that's precisely what we did. 

An improvement in tone and humour over season 1, not to mention recognisability of the guest stars over 30 years since the series went out meant that I enjoyed this season more than the previous. Knowing who the weekly guest star is doesn't necessarily improve my enjoyment of the show, but it sometimes helps! Sometimes I'd heard of someone, but I wouldn't be able to pick them out of a line up, however this season there were some true greats - Elton John, John Cleese, Peter Sellers, Russian ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev, Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters (last seen in season 3 of Ugly Betty running YETI!) and Julie Andrews - many of whom are still around today, although all too often the guests where getting on a bit when they appeared in the Muppet Show and didn't last much longer - Zero Mostel was not old, but he died only days after his episode was shown. 

One of my favourite guest stars of the season was Teresa Brewer, an American singer I was not familiar with before. She had an excellent voice and sang some great songs on the show, yet she was also very funny in the comedy sketches. Not every guest star was adept at both. John Cleese didn't really get songs, and his comedy was top rate. Some of the acts, such as Bob Hope, I don't think really 'got' what the Muppets was and so sometimes looked a bit uncomfortable - when the guests loosened up and just went with it, these were the best episodes. Rudolf Nureyev's was a surprisingly funny (and stangely hot, for he spent one number in just a towel) turn, and is an example of someone I'd heard of but wasn't very familiar with. 

As for the Muppets themselves, the writers really seem to have landed on who works best and when, in comparison to season one. That means Miss Piggy gets an expanded role - especially with the introduction of the hilarious Pigs In Spaaaaaaaaaaace 'sitcom'; Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker make more appearances; the Swedish Chef becomes more of a fixture; and Fozzie gets more to do backstage than just get heckled onstage. Statler and Waldorf seem to have had more to do too, although that just may be my selective memory at work. One of my favourite recurring spots is the cringe-inducing pun-packed Doctor Bob sketch, with Rolf, Miss Piggy and Janice in an operating theatre - every time the announcer comes on at the end of the sketch and the three Muppets start looking around for his voice, it cracks me up! 

There's nothing quite like the Muppet Show, and there's not been anything even remotely like it since (Muppets Tonight not withstanding), so it's a joy to watch.

Hustle: Series 6 (2010)

Hustle's 6th series finished a couple of weeks ago, and it's mostly already disappeared into the depths of my memory, as each episode does almost as soon as I've watched it. But that's the joy of Hustle - it's pure silly, escapist nonsense that is put together so prettily and with a knowing humour that is rare in the drama put out by UK television. It's made by the company behind Spooks, which shows in the glossy American feel, yet it's much less afraid to revel in it's own daftness.

One of the highlights of this series and the last was the introduction of Kelly Adams and Matt Di Angelo as young siblings Emma & Sean, after Marc Warren and Jamie Murray left the show at the end of series 4. The two new grifters brought a youthful energy to the series, and along with the return of Adrian Lester's Mickey Bricks after a series 4 hiatus, these past series have been great. I'm a particular fan of Sean, as Matt Di Angelo proves to be a bright young talent, and a hot one to boot! Series stalwarts Robert Vaughan (Albert) and Robert Glenister (Ash) continue to be my favourite characters, and Rob Jarvis is ever a delight as put-upon barman Eddie.

Sometimes the cons this series have been a bit predictable, and the writers seem to have gone out of their way to great some particularly unlikable 'marks' this time round, in order to justify our heroes ripping them off. While the marks have been a bit hit and miss, the cons have been great. I enjoy Hustle for the escapism, and the lack of seriousness, and nothing emphasised this more than the opening moments of the series when the show openly parodied the fact that Kelly Adams bares a striking resemblance to Kylie Minogue - Emma posed as Kylie in a fantastic recreation of the 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head' video in order to con some businessmen, and then she didn't understand why, since she thinks she looks nothing like Kylie. It was a bit reminiscent of the bit when Julia Roberts' character pretends to be Julia Roberts in Ocean's Twelve, except with more wit.

The Living Daylights (1987)

And so we reach Timothy Dalton's first outing as James Bond, and how much better is this than recent fare?! The answer: a hell of a lot. This is one of the most exciting Bonds so far, and the best since For Your Eyes Only. Gone is tired old Roger Moore (and Lois Maxwell, sadly) and in his place is a more serious, although witty, 007 in Dalton. 

Right from the exciting pre-credits sequence, and killer a-ha title track, The Living Daylights hits the ground running and rarely lets up. One minute Bond is sledging down the Austrian Alps on a cello case, the next he's on horse back and riding with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. First a Russian agent is defecting, then he's not, then he's involved with an American arms dealer, next comes the faked assasination of the 'good' Russian, and suddenly Bond's involved in a trade of diamonds for opium... Maybe I was tired tonight, but I found the double-crossing and the politics of the plot a little tough to follow at times! That's no bad thing though - A View to a Kill stretched a simple plot over 2 hours, and here so much plot, and so many bad guys, are packed in you've got to concentrate to keep up. 

There were a couple of flaws to be found - the new Moneypenny made little impression, as did the new Felix Leiter (he was better in Never Say Never Again!). There was some humour to be found - I know Dalton's accused of being too serious - and after the farcical lows Moore occasionally plumbed it was nice to see a straighter secret agent, after all he's regularly put in some very serious situations. 

Maryam d'Abo's cello-playing Bond girl, Kara Milovy was an improvement on Stacey Sutton and Domino from the last 2 films. Neither completely useless nor an action hero herself, she was as likely to hinder Bond as help him, and she really comes into her own towards the end when she rides to 007's rescue and helps pilot a plane out of Afghanistan. It's refreshing to see Bond calm down with the ladies too - he only beds Kara and, we presume, the woman who's yacht he lands on at the end of the pre-credits sequence. 

There's a lot going on in The Living Daylights, and Bond covers a lot of countries and enemies (it's particularly interesting to watch the Afghanistan scenes today in light of more recent developments there, since the US helped the Mujahideen fight the Soviets in the 1980's) and it's entirely to the filmmakers' credit that it doesn't turn into a jumbled mess. Instead Timothy Dalton's debut proves to be incredibly exciting and modern (compared to A View to a Kill anyway) and an excellent taste of things to come.

Never Say Never Again (1983)

The US DVD of Never Say Never Again, the 'unofficial' James Bond movie released in the same year as Roger Moore's penultimate entry, Octopussy, finally arrived, and we settled down to watch Sean Connery's farewell to 007. Sean Connery and his wigs. 

To be fair to Connery, his physique looked good (there are a few too many scenes with him half-naked), but he was a bit grey and haggard up top - a criticism often lodged at Moore in the later movies. Unfortunately, everything in NSNA feels a bit tired. The action and pace is rather slow, the music (when there is any) is very twangy and 80's and uninspiring, and several days later, there's not much that sticks in my mind about it. 

Kim Basinger was good, but the baddie, Largo was a non-threatening presence. And the least said about the computer game battle sequence the better. The best of the whole thing were Edward Fox's take on M, and Rowan Atkinson's small role as a bumbling company man. The plot replays Thunderball's, although I didn't really notice, perhaps because it's so long since I've seen it. I thought Thunderball had a bit more 'oomph' about it though. There was far too much underwater work in this one - so much so that the final battle between Bond and Largo takes place under the sea, resulting in a slow-moving pantomime due to the lack of dialogue and room for movement. There were a few well placed gags here and there, but overall Never Say Never Again is clearly one of the lesser Bonds, official or otherwise. It's still better than Moonraker though.

Broken Flowers (2005)

It's been sat on the DVD recorder for months, and we've now finally got round to watching Broken Flowers. I was a bit reticent to watch it as I feared it may be a Lost in Translation snooze-fest, what with it starring Bill Murray in stoic-mode. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that, although it's directed in a very slow, understated manner, this film was much more enjoyable than hoped. 

The plot is fairly slight and, I felt, not really the point - there's no resolution to the central mystery that drives the movie. The point I think is the people that Bill Murray's Don Johnston meets along the way, and the general off-beat tone. Don receives a letter from a women he was with 20 years ago, telling him about the son he never knew existed. The problem is, the letter isn't signed, so Don (unwillingly and with urging and assistance from Jeffrey Wright's funny neighbour) sets off on a trip down memory lane to meet the 4 women he was with 20 years ago. Don's seems to be irrestistible to women, and many flirt with him along the way, but it's hard to see what they're attracted to! Bill Murray looks rather old with his grey hair, and the character doesn't often utter a word - maybe it's the stoicism the women like?

Broken Flowers is quirky without being irritating, and slow without being boring, and ultimately doesn't answer the central mystery, yet it is strangely satisfying. I think I've come to appreciate stories that don't always have an easy pay-off, or even a pay-off at all - maybe that's due to all The X-Files I've been exposed to, or maybe it's down to the many movies with contrived or forced conclusions. Either way, it's made me appreciate films like Broken Flowers, Sunshine Cleaning and Up in the Air. It's not always about the ending, sometimes it's about the encounters along the way. That sounds almost philosophical - it's a maxim you could apply to life I suppose - forget the ending and enjoy the journey.

Sunshine Cleaning (2008)

The DVD for Sunshine Cleaning says that it's 'from the producers of Little Miss Sunshine', which just happens to be one of my favourite films ever - it's just so funny and uplifting that it makes me smile just to think about it. The only thing that Sunshine Cleaning shares with it's producer-related predecessor is having Sunshine in the title, Alan Arkin as a co-star, and an indie-ness that creates a general feeling of quirky. 

Sunshine Cleaning is a good film, but it's not as funny or as heart-warming as the link to Little Miss that the DVD jacket would suggest. The movie nominally involves the wonderful Amy Adams and Emily Blunt's sisters and the crime scene clean-up business they set up, although in reality the film is much more about the sisters' relationships with each other, Amy Adams' son, their father (Alan Arkin), and the memory of their deceased mother. Plus a flirtation with a one-armed, Airfix building cleaning store owner, and a possible lesbian-liaison with the daughter of a crime scene victim. 

While there are moments of mirth, there's more emotional involvement and melancholy than I expected, but this is not to the film's detriment. I didn't feel there was actually enough time spent on the crime scene clean up, although that meant there was more time to explore the character's personal relationships. The film has something to say about death, and losing loved ones, yet it never feels pretentious. Amy Adams and Emily Blunt make excellent sisters and they're both such great, lovable actresses they really draw you in to every scene. 

To call Sunshine Cleaning uplifting, as one of the reviews on the DVD box does, is as misleading as calling Slumdog Millionaire a feel-good film. Both movies are satisfying and  have uplifting moments, but Sunshine Cleaning in particular ends on a bit of a downer. Things work out for one sister, but the other is left on her own. The conclusion feels more realistic than other Hollywood endings (something I remember noting about Up in the Air) and I think it is this realism and the hesitancy to tie up all plot threads (an expected relationship doesn't come to fruition; the sisters are further apart rather than closer together) that makes the movie feel satisfying, but not uplifting.

Oh, and on a side note: The DVD featurette featuring 2 real life female crime scene cleaners is really interesting!

A View to a Kill (1985)

I did want to watch Never Say Never Again, the unofficial Bond movie with Sean Connery from 1983, but it turned out that the DVD I had was degraded somehow and failed, and so while we waited for a replacement to arrive we made do with Roger Moore's final 007 entry, A View to a Kill.

I think this movie is unfairly maligned. Yes there are faults - the main one being how generally pathetic and helpless Tanya Roberts' Bond girl, Stacey Sutton proves to be, and after a number of stronger women like Octopussy and Melina Havelock it's a let down to have such a weak heroine - yet I think that the film adds up to more than it's parts and it's a great 2 hours entertainment. 

If anything, I think Roger Moore looked older in Octopussy, despite his being 57 here. He doesn't look as old as Moneypenny, but then Lois Maxwell had played the role since 1962! Although Moore's Bond particularly seems to bed anything in a skirt, I think Stacey Sutton is a bit beneath him. Grace Jones' May Day is a different matter! She's strong and silent, and bonkers as hell, and she's also the villain's henchwoman, until the climax anyway. May Day is a truly imposing figure and a believable heavy, and Christopher Walken's Max Shreck Zorin is a wonderfully restrained creation for the most part (as far as Walken's characters usual are anyway). 

The plot to flood Silicon Valley is a rather different affair from world domination, and has a very 1980's 'greed is good' air about it. I think that the plot is a little too simplistic though, or at least there's not much plot as the first half of the film, with Bond in France at Zorin's horse sale is fun, but it doesn't serve much purpose. It's great to see Patrick McNee helping Bond out, especially since fellow Avengers Diana Rigg, Honor Blackman and Joanna Lumley have all put in appearances in the 007 canon before him. 

I've enjoyed Roger Moore's lighter approach to Bond, although occasionally the humour has been a tad too farcical or parodic. I prefer his delivery and cool style to Connery, and Moore's 007 always looked like he was having fun. Maybe he made the spy game look a bit too easy? The main blot in Moore's copybook is the ridiculous Moonraker, the weakest Bond film by far. But still, at least he's also responsible for The Man With the Golden Gun and For Your Eyes Only.