I was not that fussed about seeing Tim Burton's latest movie, especially after what he did the 'remake' of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so I am pleased to say that I enjoyed Alice in Wonderland thoroughly!
I'm only familiar with Alice through the 1951 Disney animation and I've never read Lewis Carroll's original books, so I didn't really have an idea of what to expect, although I knew the story wasn't just a straight adaptation. Burton makes his Alice a 19 year old on the verge of marriage and adult-hood, who is plagued by dreams of a strange fantasy world. After falling down a rabbit hole, Alice finds herself back in Wonderland - a bit like Return to Oz I suppose (though I'm guessing as I've not watched that, yet) - and all the usual suspects remember her, but she doesn't remember them, although she needs to so that she can slay the Jabberwocky and save Underland (as it's actually called - Alice misremembered it as Wonderland) from the evil Red Queen.
The movie is full of fantastic characters and surprising actors, along with lots of laughs and heart. Mia Wasikowska's Alice is somewhat jaded and a little cold, but she plays the role just right, with only the occasional scene where she seems a bit flat. As the movie opens in the 'real' world, I was name-checking the actors (including the amazing Lindsay Duncan) and, once in Underland, the voice-actors, so I'd completely forgotten that Johnny Depp was even in the thing! Despite bearing an uncanny resemblance to Madonna that only me and Andrew seem to have noticed (it's the gap in his teeth!), Depp's Mad Hatter is a hilarious creation, backed up by a whole host of imaginative and well-voiced collection of supporting characters such as the dormouse (Barbara friggin' Windsor!), Cheshire Cat (Sir Stephen Fry), and the caterpillar (only Alan Rickman!), plus Matt Lucas in a dual role as Tweedles Dee and Dum, who stole every scene he was in. Twice.
Talking of scene stealers, Helena Bonham Carter's Red Queen is easily the best character in the whole film. A close cousin of Blackadder II's Queenie, judging by the delivery, the Red Queen and her castle featured so many great lines and sight gags, it'll take a second viewing to catch them all. As the ethereal White Queen, Anne Hathaway had a less showy part, but she imbued the potentially-irritating wholesome good queen with enough mannerisms and off-beat charm that she completely fit into this weird, weird world.
In 3D the film looked fantastic, and I expect it would look the same in 2D - there wasn't the level of immersion in the movie as in Avatar, but it certainly didn't detract from the experience. Alice had a brighter palate for a Tim Burton film, in keeping with a more family-friendly tone, although there were some rather scary scenes, mostly involving the hideous, slavering Bandersnatch creature. Going into the film with no (or low) expectations meant that I had few preconceptions and as a result I think I enjoyed the film more than I thought I would. In fact I liked everything about it. What a frabjous day!
Of all the James Bond movies, The World is Not Enough (TWINE) is probably the one I've seen most often, and it's most likely my favourite of them all. I can't remember seeing it at the cinema, but it's definitely one of the first DVDs I ever owned (the other was Sleepy Hollow) and I've revisited it a number of times. The first time I watched it I remember being baffled by the plot and the double-crossing, but now I appreciate that complex story and the multi-layered characters and enjoy the film afresh.
Beginning with an astonishingly exciting pre-credits boat chase along the Thames that ends with Bond rolling down the side of the Millennium Dome, the pace never lets up. But this film isn't just packed with excellent set pieces (though it is), it also finds room for testing character moments and emotional dilemmas, foremost among them being Bond's betrayal by his lover Elektra - Sophie Marceau's Bond girl is one of the most interesting ever encountered, even before she turns into the movie's cold-hearted villainess. She's stunningly beautiful and seductive, and it's easy to see why Bond falls for her charms, for the audience does too. The moment 007 and we realise that she's actually evil is a real shocker not often found in the sometimes safe hands of a Bond movie - it didn't have this impact when 006 proved to be the baddie in GoldenEye. Her death scene is very low key (for Bond) and packs an emotional punch more often reserved for the deaths of 'nice' Bond girls (and Bond's wife).
On the flip side you have Denise Richards' decidedly Lara Croftesque Bond girl (and here 'girl' is very appropriate - Elektra is really a Bond woman), a nice bit of eye candy at first glance, but then she's revealed to be a nuclear scientist. I'm less concerned with how believable Denise Richards is playing a scientist than I am with how, on reflection, she doesn't actually get a great deal to do. She seems to exist to diffuse nuclear bombs, or to tell Bond (and us) how to diffuse nuclear bombs, and then just hangs around looking pretty. I suppose next to a multi-layered character like Elektra, most Bond girls would suffer, so I don't think Richards' does anything wrong.
Robert Carlyle's Renard, the sub-baddie really, is a bit of a red herring as he turns out to be Elektra's pawn, and so I don't think he has much to do. It's a great performance, but not a particularly memorable one. I don't think it helps that Carlyle looks so puny and weak here - that's not what Bond villains are made of! Rounding out the villains is a weird turn from Goldie as a henchman with gold teeth (actor's own), who plays Robbie Coltrane's lackey. Coltrane reprises his role as Bond's occasional enemy-cum-ally from GoldenEye for (sadly) the last time, and he's an absolute joy. The exhiliration of the helicopter buzz saw attack on Zukovsky's caviar factory is heightened by Coltrane's comic performance throughout.
In this movie, Judi Dench's M gets in on the action more than previously as she is kidnapped by Elektra and proves to be a resourceful MI6 head. Any Bond movie that features scenes with Judi Dench is great in my book! And Bond also has excellent interplay with Moneypenny this time round. The final scene featuring Desmond Llewelyn's Q is especially poigniant given that this would be his last Bond movie before his untimely death an age 85 in a car accident. It's incredibly moving when Q tells Bond that he should always have an escape plan. John Cleese has a good stab at Q/R in this and Die Another Day, but for my money he plays it a bit broad - certainly too broad for Daniel Craig's era, so I very much doubt he'll be back in the role.
Pierce Brosnan continues to impress with his suave, although oft vulnerable spy - he's given some wonderful moments to grow Bond as a character here, and he often does so through subtle looks or gestures, for example in an allusion to his wife's death, and in the way he handles Elektra's betrayal. Throw in a cracking Garbage title song and Bond-theme drenched score, and The World is Not Enough proves to be a damned near perfect James Bond movie that excites and moves on every level.
American Werewolf is such a great film, I'm not sure what I liked most. It's funny, very, very funny, and a bit scary, and all the characters are so likable. Oh and it's funny. Much more comedy than horror, this film features David Naughton (who? no idea) as an American back-packer exploring the Yorkshire Moors with his buddy Griffin Dunne (who I know from Scorsese's excellent and pretty unknown After Hours) and it's not long before Dunne has been killed by a werewolf, while Naughton escapes with his life... and the werewolf curse. Taken to London by creepy Yorkshire villagers, he wakes up in hospital and seen to (in many ways...) by Jenny Agutter's nurse, oh and dead Dunne pops back to say hello and tells him to kill himself before he becomes a werewolf.
It sounds like such a familiar, cheesy set up, and this is acknowledged in the dialogue - the classic Wolf Man films of yore are directly referenced. Everything about the film has it's tongue placed firmly in cheek, without resorting to farce or parody. Even all of the songs played on the soundtrack have 'Moon' in them! The banter between Naughton and Dunne is effective and Agutter is a great love interest. John Woodvine plays a doctor treating Naughton, and it is he who fills in Agutter in on the fact that her beau is a werwolf, and he's a wonderful creation. Just one of the many well-rounded characters - even the small roles of detectives investigating Dunne's murder are treated well, with excellent lines and characterisations.
The gore during the werewolf attacks, and the bizarre alien-like dream sequence, is very schlocky and thankfully lacks the realistic gore-porn of today's horror/slasher movies. The werewolf transformation effects are very well done for 1981, a time when CGI meant nothing and stop-motion was king of special effects. I always think it's difficult to do a werewolf well, without making the end result look like a man in a suit. Buffy's Oz was a case in point, and his werewolf costume never really convinced; Being Human's George is better; and this film's falls somewhere in between - thankfully director John Landis doesn't spend a lot of time with the werewolf in full shots, other than his transformation most of the wolf's time is spent in a blur as it runs amock. Nicely, Landis (and Naughton) don't shy away from the fact that to become a werewolf a body needs to shed clothing, and thus before and after transforming, Naughton is pleasing naked. Not a bad thing!
I had high hopes for An American Werewolf in London, and thankfully the movie lived up to it's promise. Other than a very abrupt ending, which actually makes sense but is still jarring, this is a perfectly formed beast and I'd happily watch it again.
I had only seen 1 Swedish film before, the quiet excellent Evil, and I didn't know the book at all, but armed with a five star Empire review I was prepared to give The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a shot - and I'm so glad I did! It's hands down the best 2.5hr Swedish thriller I've ever seen! And also one of the best movies I've seen, and it just goes to show, after Japanese Ponyo and French Micmacs, that foreign language films can be absolute gems.
Dragon Tattoo is a (cliché alert!) real edge-of-the-seat thriller. It's occasionally brutal, sometimes funny, a little disturbing, and very, very exciting. It's nominally a murder mystery, and it's so much more. The central characters are a discredited journalist and a paroleé computer hacker with an abusive handler, and the way the come together to get involved in a 40 year old disappearance has so many layers and intriguing characters, so many twists and revelations the extended running time flew by.
Noomi Rapace's titular Girl is such an interesting, conflicted character. We don't learn much about her background here, apparently all will be revealed in the sequels, and that intrigue adds to her mystique. Her interaction with Michael Nyqvist's investigative journalist is believable and very different from a traditional Hollywood relationship.
I didn't guess any of the twists, but looking back, there were clues (as well as aspects of the plot that don't hold up to scrutiny), so the way the film is constructed and plotted is so tight you'd think there would be no time for character development and the like, but that's just not the case. If there's an American remake I'll give it a wide berth, but I'll certainly be booking tickets for the Swedish sequels that are due out by the end of the year.
Building on his success in GoldenEye, Pierce Brosnan's second Bond film is a revelation. Although it only came 2 years after the last, it looks and feels much more modern, helped no doubt by the gadgetry and stunts, as well as the fact that Jonathan Pryce's megalomaniacal villain, Elliot Carver, wants to rule the TV, print and generally all media on the planet. There's no gritty desert or jungle set work here - everything has a glossy sheen and a modern edge, which doesn't necessarily make this better for being more techy, but it makes it a movie that can hold it's own up against a comic book blockbuster or the like.
The script for TND is noticeably sharp, especially in the sparkling dialogue it provides for M, Moneypenny and Q - Judi Dench clearly relishes her more expanded role here, as she faces down her sometime As Time Goes By costar, Geoffrey Palmer at the movie's opening. After an exhilirating pre-credits sequence where Bond shows off some fancy aerial acrobatics and prevents a nuclear warhead exploding, Sheryl Crow's wonderfully modern-yet-classic-Bond-sounding title track sets the tone for a very smart adventure. Thankfully, David Arnold provides the music from this film onward, and it's great to hear the James Bond Theme aired with a bit more frequency than previously.
Brosnan imbues a real effortlessness in his portrayal as Bond, which verges on cocky, but manages to stay the right side of likable. He certainly looks like he's enjoying himself in his interactions with Q et al, and especially during the BMW car chase around a German car park, conducted by remote control from the backseat! The action was very exciting this time round, particularly the motorbike chase in Saigon and the climactic battle aboard Carver's 'stealth ship'.
I always thought it was weird that Teri Hatcher was billed 4th in Tomorrow Never Dies, since she doesn't get much screentime, but watching the film again she's in it more than I remember, and Michelle Yeoh doesn't really get much to do until half way through. Having watched 18 Bond movies now, I can see that Hatcher's Bond girl lasts longer than many others have, so it's fair she gets a good billing I suppose. Yeoh's Wai Lin kicks a lot of ass, and is from the same stable as the future Jinx - a 'rival' secret agent who can handle herself and doesn't really need 007's help. I think Tomorrow is one of the best Bond films all round, as it has memorable villains, girls and action, along with a cracking script and a polished feeling that confims that a new, modern Bond has arrived.
Last year's Let's Dance for Comic Relief proved to be one of the best shows associated with the BBC charity, and I was pleased that the format was revived for Sport Relief this year - and I was relieved to find that the emphasis was still on humour, despite the change of charity. Thankfully the only concession to sport was the inclusion of Olympic athletes, darts, snooker and football players, otherwise it was another hilarious 4 part 'dance' competition.
Robert Webb won the first series with a routine that is one of the funniest and most entertaining fews minutes ever screened on TV as he dragged up and flung himself around the stage to 'Flashdance... What a Feeling'. It was an unalloyed joy. One of the other hightlights from last year was runners up Paddy McGuinness and Keith Lemon's take on '(I've Had) The Time of My Life' from Dirty Dancing.
This year's winner was another comedian in drag, this time Rufus Hound put in a sterling performance as Cheryl Cole with 'Fight for This Love'. It was a sure fire winner from the moment it opened the first show. Robert Webb, a judge for the final, quite rightly commented that Hound's performance was more watchable than Cheryl Cole, and added that quite frankly, who isn't. Love it. Other joys from this series were Katy Brand and her HUGE thighs jigging about to Beyoncé's 'Single Ladies' (the runner-up), and the surprisingly funny and game Cheryl 'Heather from Eastenders' Fergison doing a wonderful Vanilla Ice to 'Ice Ice Baby'. The Grumpy Old Women (Jenny Eclair, Linda Robson, Susie Blake and Lesley Joseph) also put on a memorable performance, each dressed as a different incarnation of Lady Gaga for 'Poker Face'.
As with last year, Claudia Winkleman and Steve Jones proved to be an inspired pairing as hosts, making each other laugh and making the whole thing that much more watchable. It could've been so much worse (think Fearne Cotton... on second thoughts, don't, or you'll fall into a coma). Let's hope that Let's Dance becomes a permanent fixture on the charity 'Relief' calendar - let's face it, it's the only thing I'll be watching to do with Sports Relief!
Before Hot Fuzz, and before Shaun of the Dead, there was Spaced, the Channel 4 sitcom starring Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson, Nick Frost, Mark Heap and Julia Deakin, and directed by Edgar Wright. I remember watching most of the series when it was first broadcast, and recently we watched them all over again as Andrew had never seen it!
Spaced is full of movie references that I often don't get, but I appreciate the humour of, and as I continue my movie experiences in the future hopefully I'll be able to revisit Spaced and enjoy new elements. It's also full of pop culture references to things I was into in 1999 and 2001, such as Buffy, and most especially the X-Files, with particular emphasis on Tim's crush on Gillian Anderson. So, Spaced is nostalgic, and also a right hoot from beginning to end.
My favourite character is Brian (Heap), the tortured artist who lives below Tim and Daisy. He's just so out there, and Mark Heap does an excellent job making Brian both funny and warm - he's rather sweet in his own special way. Nick Frost's Mike is also a wonderful creation, incredibly dim and massively lovable - you can see how he and Tim share one of Spaced's central (b)romances.
Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Stevenson) are of course just beautiful lead characters - the actors are never less than magnetic and their energy and enthusiasm for the show really shines through. There are some marvellous sight gags - the Shaggy and Velma reveal being one of my faves - and some just generally funny lines, that have no recourse to movie or TV or pop culture. Edgar Wright's direction shows exactly why he's now making movies. The guest cast too, a veritable who's who of comedy around the turn of the 21st century, are a game bunch. Spaced works so well, I think, because everyone involved really cares about what they're doing, and underneath all of the hilarity is a genuine emotional heart.
Last Friday night the BBC put on a one off show to select the singer of this year's United Kingdom entry for Eurovision 2010. It consisted of 6 'acts' thrown together seemingly at random by the BBC, in order for Pete Waterman and then the public to select a singer for the Waterman and Mike Stock penned 'That Sounds Good To Me', which is supposed to emulate the UK's success last year. In 2009, there was a 4 part show to select the singer, and Jade Ewen was selected to sing Andrew Lloyd Webber's massive ballad 'It's My Time', which ended up at 5th place - the UK's best performance in years.
This year everything seemed very amateur. Why the BBC insists on shoving an untried, unsuccessful-in-their-home-country, amateur vocalist into Eurovision I've no idea. Last year it worked. This year? Well, we'll see. The song itself, as premiered on Friday night, was ok. People may scoff 'when did Pete Waterman last have a hit?' (with Steps I guess), but then when did Lloyd Webber last set the charts alight? OK the Lord has successfully picked Nancies and Josephs for the West End, but as far as I know he's not had a catchy tune for a while, until Eurovision 2009 that is!
Pete Waterman might seem like a perfect fit for Eurovision, if all you know about the show is fuelled by the media that still makes out that it's an embarrassing cheese-fest. But for those people who watch it and appreciate it every year, it's only rarely that acts are so bad - the UK (and Ireland - remember the singing turkey?) is the one that can't stop taking the piss. The reason Europe responded to 'It's My Time' was probably because the UK for once seemed to be taking the show seriously - and for one of the show's 'Big Four' and thus a major financial contributor to Eurovision, you'd think the BBC would have more reason to take it seriously.
The acts the BBC chose this year had barely any experience between them - the awfully named Uni5 was a 5-piece group consisting of solo singers with no experience of working together prior to Your Country Needs You, and it showed. Even Pete Waterman said they didn't work as a group - and this was an act the BBC deemed good enough to possibly represent the country at Eurovision! This sort of rubbish should have been weeded out long before Graham Norton introduced them to the nation. The other group was poor, and the 2 solo female singers were so-so. Thankfully the solo guys were great singers, and both beautiful in their own ways too.
The pretty Alexis (above) came runner up to eventual winner Josh Dubovie (right), a lovely lad with a fantastic voice - he sounds very 'Eurovision' somehow, it's hard to define. I rooted for him from his first performance, and I'm glad he won out. I read today on Mike Stock's blog (or something) that the song is going to be reworked now that they know who's singing it, because how hard must it be to write a song to suit a male, a female and a group, not knowing who may end up singing it? So I haven't given up all hope. They may create a mini pop masterpiece yet. But I won't hold my breath.
Bellamy's People is not a sitcom or a panel show or a sketch show, and it's one of the funniest new series I've seen on the BBC since, well last year's Miranda! Rhys Thomas plays Gary Bellamy, a radio talkshow host who's got his own series driving round the country and meeting the people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And that's it really. It's a spoof of those celebrity travel documentaries that interview various members of the public for no good reason, and I suppose it's a semi-sketch show, with recurring vox pops talking heads, expertly played by creators Charlie Higson and Paul Whitehouse, along with the superb Simon Day, Felix Dexter, Amelia Bulmore et al.
Each of the 8 episodes had us both chuckling from beginning to end. Part of what makes the show so funny is that the talking heads are so real - if you didn't know it was scripted and you came across Bellamy's People while channel hopping I reckon you wouldn't click very quickly that it's not one of those earnest lets-define-the-nation celebrity bore-fests. The fact it's not boring sets it apart from the real shows, along with the make-up jobs on Higson and Whitehouse.
My favourite character was the elderly gent played by Higson as he talked so much sense, and coming from a crusty old figure the conceit is, it shouldn't. He's the first to declare religion rubbish, to support youth and modern language, and to love email. He's a wonderful creation. Simon Day played a fair few of my other faves, such as the Alan-Bennett-like Yorkshire poet, the reformed ex-con, and a whole host of other pitch-perfect pastiches. Felix Dexter used an array of accents to play a street wise bloke who's use of English completely confuses Bellamy, and a hilarious African hotel-management trainee with a curious idea of what Britain is and means.
I'm not sure if there will be another series of Bellamy's People, but I'm hopeful that there will be, and that there will be new characters as well as old. And Rhys Thomas is a comic genius - especially in scenes where he tries to frame a question about Islam for 3 Muslims, without trying to offend them. Priceless.
6 years after Licence to Kill, Timothy Dalton's second and final Bond movie, Pierce Brosnan slipped comfortably into his shoes as Agent 007 in GoldenEye. This movie is the only one of Brosnan's four that I've not rewatched, as I saw the others on video/DVD or at the cinema, and this one somehow passed me by - presumably because I was only 11 when it came out. I really like Brosnan's Bond, and watching GoldenEye in sequence I can see why his portrayal really sticks with me - he's got the sincerity of Dalton, the wry humour of Moore, and the Bond 'look' of Connery (and Lazenby...), all wrapped up in a suave, modern take on the British secret agent.
I'll start with what I didn't like so much about GoldenEye: The music is pretty piss-poor at times, mostly during action scenes, and it's good that 1-time Bond composer Eric Serra was dropped in favour of David Arnold from Tomorrow Never Dies to date. Sean Bean's villain, Alec Trevelyan, is a bit of a wet lettuce and he doesn't make much of an impression - especially not next to Famke Janssen's manic Xenia Onatopp (whose double entendré surname didn't even register with me until this viewing!). Bond girl Natalya Simonova is well portrayed by Izabella Scorupco and she's given a useful role, but again I felt she was a bit overshadowed by the most enigmatic Onatopp.
The best bits of GoldenEye are: Pierce Brosnan. Judi Dench's debut as a no-nonsense M, one of the highlights of post-Dalton Bond movies in general. Her iconic speech to Bond about his womanising ways and description of him as a Cold War dinosaur are on the money without emasculating and belittling 007 and his past adventures. For a Bond in the 90's not to acknowledge how some of his attributes are a little outdated would be unbelievable - almost as unbelievable as Bond's opening dive into a nose-diving plane... Equally, Samantha Bond's Miss Moneypenny presents a more modern woman than Lois Maxwell's doe-eyed secretary, and whoever portrayed her in Dalton's two films (she made so little impression). That's not to dismiss Maxwell, who had great banter with Connery, Lazenby and Moore, but a modern Bond needs a modern Moneypenny to match wits with, and Samantha Bond (great surname!) is perfect for the part.
I've already mentioned Xenia Onatopp, and she's worth talking about again - she steals nearly every scene she's in thanks to Janssen's almost-OTT portrayal. A villainess who kills people during sex with her thighs is an extraordinary prospect, and she instills a little vulnerability in Bond. Unfortunately she makes Simonova look a bit less exciting by comparison. Robbie Coltrane has what amounts to an extended cameo in a role that is expanded upon in The World is Not Enough, so it's great to see the link across the two films. I also enjoyed Minnie Driver's actual cameo in the same scene as a (terrible) night club singer! Even funnier when you know Driver can actually sing, and very well too.
The tank chase sequence around Moscow is another highlight - Andrew finds it a bit prepostrous but I say if Bond can have a chase seen in a moon-buggy (Diamonds Are Forever) or a motorised gondola (Moonraker), then why not in a tank? The downside to that argument is that those other chases were in two of the weakest films in the series, but never mind. Finally, Tina Turner's theme song is just fantastic - it sticks in my head and doesn't leave for days. She's got an ideal voice for a huge Bond tune. GoldenEye has it's faults then, but it's a great introduction to Pierce Brosnan's modern 007.
On our recent 'cruise' to Bruges we considered watching Sherlock Holmes at the on-board cinema, but we decided that on the way back to Hull would make more sense, as we'd gain an extra hour in bed, rather than lose one. So we found ourselves watching Guy Ritchie's up-date of Conan Doyle's super sleuth in a 40-seater area on Blue deck, in the waters between Bruges and Hull. It's only the second movie I've seen on a boat since I watched Mrs Doubtfire on the way to Denmark over a decade ago. The experience is a bit weird, especially since the screen isn't a great deal bigger than a large wide-screen TV; you can feel the cinema move; and the sound of a pianist in the bar behind was sometimes distracting.
The film itself was better than I'd expected. Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes was as watchable as ever, and Jude Law (Watson) reminded me how good an actor he actually is. The two leads' interactions as Holmes and Watson are the best thing about the film, and their bickering 'bromance' is funny and beliveable in equal measure. Rachel McAdams, who I find to be excellent in everything I've seen her in, proves an interesting distraction for Holmes and Mark Strong's bad guy is compelling, if a little pantomime villain at times.
All of the action scenes are terrific, and the chase that culminates in a fight at a boat-building yard had me holding my breath and chuckling at the dialogue peppered amongst the pulse-pounding action. It was also amusing considering the venue for the film... I wonder if Titanic was ever shown on the cross-channel ferry? Or Final Destination on aeroplanes? Hmmm. Anyway, Sherlock Holmes held my attention and was very enjoyable - the plot had twists that I didn't expect, but the MacGuffin at the centre of it was a bit confusing; the banter between Downey Jr. and Law was infectious; and the tease for the inevitable sequel was compelling. Even the music was fun. I'd certainly watch Holmes and Watson's next adventure, against the nefarious Moriarty.
Andrew's favourtie movie is Jean-Pierre Jeunet's excellent Amelié, and I have to say it's one of mine too. He's seen all of Jeunet's work, while I've watched A Very Long Engagement and, um, Alien: Resurrection. The former is great, the latter... not so much. So we both looked forward to Jeunet's newest film, Micmacs (or Micmacs à tire-larigot as it's called in France) which we caught a couple of weeks ago at Vue.
Micmacs is a surreal comedy-cum-heist movie, a bit like a mix between Ocean's Eleven and Amelié, although there's no robbery, the group of misfits at the heart of the film are involved in an intricate plot to get revenge on a couple of (rival) arms manufacturers. The leader of the group is Bazil (Dany Boon), a dopey looking guy who gets shot in the head before the opening credits - in a very funny, typically-Jeunet scene, the doctors operating on Bazil flip a coin to decide whether to operate or not - with the result that Bazil retains the bullet in his brain and the prospect of it killing him looms over him. This is a curious plot device as it sparks the plot of revenge, but doesn't get utilised enough over the film to make much of an impression - once or twice when stressed Bazil recites some thought exercises to prevent his brain exploding, but these are explored enough.
Bazil's contortionist friend is a curious and flexible character, and the other misfits are a bit hit and miss, but they're all a likable bunch. The two arms dealers at the centre of the revenge plot are deliciously evil and there ultimate come-uppance is satisfying. The movie overall is not as charming as Amelié, yet it still has laughs and looks fantastic. One of the funniest in-jokes are the scenes where Bazil's van drives past billboards that depict the scene itself. Micmacs is a sweetly surreal movie with an unexpected emotional heart and message about how Western arms deals impact on the developing world.
It's only a few short months since I finished watching series 1 of Being Human after it was shown on BBC1, and I was eager to see series 2 as it went out on BBC3 (I've only had digital TV for 12 months!) and now the second series has just finished I want more!
It was great to be back with George, Mitchell and Annie in their cosy house in Bristol, although this series things turned a bit darker and less comedic than previously. There were still many moments of pleasingly British touches to the sci-fi canon - one minute Mitchell may be slaughtering people in a scarily-directed train carriage scene, and the next he's rubbing his body with a men's magazine to utilise the free deodorant pages! Being Human is great at grounding the supernatural with the humdrum existence of a life in middle England.
I've very much warmed to Annie and she's become my favourite of the main trio - she's become more powerful, been visible and then not, and escaped the afterlife several times, all while wearing the same grey-coloured outfit. When she was visible there was a great storyline involving her becoming a barmaid at the local (empty) pub, which involved an ex-Spooks actor who was talked to through his TV by none-other than Sir Terry Wogan! Very surreal.
After George turned Nina into a werewolf last series he went off the rails a bit, suffered a bout of Tourette's and had to deal with some serious anger-management issues. And then when Nina left he jumped right into a relationship with a lovely woman who was completely wrong for him. I wasn't that satisfied with this aspect of George's series 2 'arc', but George is always reliably funny.
George and Mitchell's love for The Real Hustle was a great running gag this series, although Mitchell had most of the dark stuff this time, as he did last time I suppose. This year we got to see more of Mitchell's past in flashback sequences that amused and repulsed in equal measure, and everything went a bit Angelus by the end of the 8 episodes when the good vampire fell off the wagon after his love interest turned out to be the series' Big Bad. Well, ok, she wasn't as bad as the creepy, God-bothering bloke who claimed to want to heal George and Nina.
Thankfully, what with all the cuts the BBC is planning to make, a 3rd series has already been commissioned, but it's going to be a loooong wait until 2011. Boo!
I stumbled across Nurse Jackie in the Radio Times, it's first 5 episodes were stripped across 5 nights one week in January, and after the first couple I was hooked. Edie Falco, from Oz and The Sopranos fame, is the titular Nurse Jackie, a woman with an apparent heart of gold, who also has a husband and 2 kids, and a lover at her hospital workplace, where no one knows she's even married. Except for her British best friend, Dr O'Hara, as wonderfully portrayed by Eve Best, who has an array of killer one-liners and a stunning wardrobe to match.
The show is peopled with fantastic female characters - there's Nurse Jackie herself, who has a prescription drug habit and a love/home life that keeps getting more complicated, and she's also a realist who knows that faking donor cards is wrong, but it's the right thing to do; Dr O'Hara gets most of the show's best laughs, although she shares this honour with: Merritt Wever's frankly hilarious trainee nurse Zoey; and hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus, played by the formidable, and formidably funny, Anna Deavere Smith, in a much less serious role than that I'm most familiar with, when she was Dr Nancy McNally in The West Wing.
In the very first episode a patient is brought in with his ear off - a prostitute bit it off when he beat her up - and Jackie winds up flushing the ear down the toilet... Only for it to bob back up an episode later to be discovered by Zoey! I love the black humour on show in Nurse Jackie, and the regular old (white?) humour too, usually involving Akalitus being trapped in a lift, electrocuted by a stun gun, or out of her mind on pain medication. Nurse Jackie's not just about laughs though, there are many poigniant moments, such as the euthanising of an old nurse workmate of Jackie's, and each episode ends on a bit of a low moment. I'm sad to see Nurse Jackie leave the airwaves, and I can't wait for the second season, which BBC2 promises later this year!
What's not to love about a show who's tag line is 'Life is full of little pricks'?
I'm only familiar with Alice through the 1951 Disney animation and I've never read Lewis Carroll's original books, so I didn't really have an idea of what to expect, although I knew the story wasn't just a straight adaptation. Burton makes his Alice a 19 year old on the verge of marriage and adult-hood, who is plagued by dreams of a strange fantasy world. After falling down a rabbit hole, Alice finds herself back in Wonderland - a bit like Return to Oz I suppose (though I'm guessing as I've not watched that, yet) - and all the usual suspects remember her, but she doesn't remember them, although she needs to so that she can slay the Jabberwocky and save Underland (as it's actually called - Alice misremembered it as Wonderland) from the evil Red Queen. 
The movie is full of fantastic characters and surprising actors, along with lots of laughs and heart. Mia Wasikowska's Alice is somewhat jaded and a little cold, but she plays the role just right, with only the occasional scene where she seems a bit flat. As the movie opens in the 'real' world, I was name-checking the actors (including the amazing Lindsay Duncan) and, once in Underland, the voice-actors, so I'd completely forgotten that Johnny Depp was even in the thing! Despite bearing an uncanny resemblance to Madonna that only me and Andrew seem to have noticed (it's the gap in his teeth!), Depp's Mad Hatter is a hilarious creation, backed up by a whole host of imaginative and well-voiced collection of supporting characters such as the dormouse (Barbara friggin' Windsor!), Cheshire Cat (Sir Stephen Fry), and the caterpillar (only Alan Rickman!), plus Matt Lucas in a dual role as Tweedles Dee and Dum, who stole every scene he was in. Twice. 
