Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

We caught a bit of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit on TV a couple of weeks ago, so what better reason for revisiting it on DVD this weekend? I’ve also not seen it since it came out in the cinema, and back then I was a little under whelmed by it, so it needed revisiting (I seem to be doing that a bit lately, what with seeing Avenue Q again and re-reading The Eyre Affair).

I have to say that as much as I love Wallace & Gromit, and as technically perfect and astounding as the animation and direction in Were-Rabbit is, I still find the story and the humour a little lacking. Maybe the humour just works better in a half hour chunk, but that’s a dubious claim when Flushed Away turned out to be hilarious. There just aren’t as many laughs per minute as Wrong Trousers or A Close Shave. The story is good, but the bad dog character is too reminiscent of Preston in Shave, and the cute Hutch character (the rabbit who turns into Wallace) is underused and not as memorable as Shawn or Feathers McGraw. Despite good voice-work from Helena Bonham-Carter, Lady Tottington is not as endearing as Wendolene (voiced by Anne Reid).

After these grumbles you’d think I didn’t enjoy the film! I did though, it’s still miles better than a lot of animated movies, with genuine laugh out loud comedy (I particularly liked PC Mac – great name – and his Peter Kay voiced line about ‘arson, people arsin’ about’) and, as I’ve said once and worth repeating, the animation is flawless. And there’s nothing wrong with the plot, it’s a lot of fun, and it’s great spotting the riffs on films like American Werewolf in London, and all the little in-jokes on the signage around the much-expanded set. The end felt a bit like the movie Van Helsing, as Wallace was absent, replaced by his giant Were-Rabbit persona, as in the former movie Hugh Jackman is replaced by a speechless CGI monster. Always an odd move to cut down your lead character/actor’s screen time.

So, aside from the less-than-memorable characters, the low joke-rate and the missing Wallace… I really liked Curse of the Were-Rabbit! There’s so much to marvel at, and Gromit is a wonderful character, there’s so much charm and humour in his mute visage. Last Christmas’ A Matter of Loaf & Death brought the traditional half hour format back successfully, although The Wrong Trousers has yet to be bettered, as close as A Close Shave gets.

As You Like It (23/09/10, WYP)

Shockingly I haven't been to the Playhouse since July! But then it is closed over the summer... We remedied this last Thursday when we went to see a production of Shakespeare's As You Like It, one of this plays that I was not at all familiar with going in. I'm often a bit trepidatious about seeing Shakespeare without having studied the play in detail, so I was happy to say that As You Like It was pretty straight forward to understand and follow, although there were a couple of passages where the significance passed me by - this didn't stop me enjoying the performance. 

I still can't make my mind up into what category the play fits. I suppose since no one dies at the end it's not a tragedy, and it's quite funny, so it's probably a comedy, although it does take a while for the funny to kick in, though that could be down to getting the plotting sorted. The play concerns a number of relationships and pairings, and a large dose of cross dressing as cousins Rosalind and Celia run away to the Forest of Arden, the former disguising herself as a man to evade capture. At the same time, banished Orlando finds himself in the same forest, and pining for the fair Rosalind, whom he meets in her disguise, so she has a bit of fun with him. There's also a deposed duke, a melancholy wanderer and a few other couples wandering around the forest, so it gets pretty busy. 

Sadly, the theatre was only about a third full and we found ourselves to be the only people sat on the front row, actually on the stage! It was a bit weird at first, but as the play went on and I found myself absorbed in Shakespeare's language, I came to appreciate it and it felt like we were part of the action. The play was faultlessly acted and directed, and there was much humour in both the words and the performances, Bruce MacKinnon as the fool Touchstone in particular added much comedy to his words. Vanessa Kirby, playing Rosalind, was undoubtably the star of the show, she was utterly magnetic. The rest of the cast were top notch, and I recognised Alice Haig and Connie Walker from the recent WYP production of Hay Fever, and eventually realised that Orlando was played by Nathan Wright, who was Annie's bar manager in series 2 of Being Human! It was especially nice being right at the front when he and Ivanno Jeremiah got topless to 'wrestle'... As You Like It then - I liked it very much.

Legally Blonde: The Musical (17/09/10, Savoy Theatre, London)

The day before Avenue Q, we saw Legally Blonde: The Musical, again in London (it's just wrong to have 3 nights in London and not do at least 2 shows!). I didn't have particularly high expectations for Legally Blonde, so I was more than pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be an absolute laugh-riot, with catchy, memorable songs, a funny script, and top class performers. 

The story sees blonde sorority girl Elle follow her boyfriend to Harvard Law school, and follows her journey from a love-struck girl who enrols in law school just to appear smarter for the man of her dreams, to a spectacularly camp, funny and melodramatic court case involving a fitness instructor which allows Elle to use the law skills she has developed, and so she discovers she doesn't need to prove herself to her ex, and finds love with someone who's pretty on the inside. It surprised me how much plotting there actually seemed to be, and many of the jokes were fairly sophisticated. There were a row of dumbing-looking blondes in front of us who didn't seem to get some of the jokes, thereby proving that although Elle isn't as dumb as the stereotype suggests, some people are. 

Sheridan Smith played Elle in a flawless American accent, and she can really sing and dance with the best of them, she truly is a star and she breathes life into Elle, making her a rounded, fun, engaging character. Ex-Corrie and sometime singer Richard Fleeshman played Elle's ex, whom she follows to Harvard, and I have to say his singing was spot on, and he was very good at making Warner Huntington III sometimes sympathetic, and at other times sycophantic. Jill Halfpenny rounded out the 'named' cast (Peter Davison was supposed to be in, but like John Barrowman in La Cage Aux Folles, he was a no-show, the difference being I didn't miss him as I didn't know he was in it) and she was just fantastic as Paulette, Elle's hair salon owning friend.

I'm looking forward to the soundtrack arriving any day now, so that I can relive numbers such as 'Omigod You Guys', 'Bend and Snap' and my favourite, the outrageous 'There! Right There!', which concerns the identity of a key witness and whether he is gay or in fact just European! It's a song them sums up the ethos of the musical, it's camp, it's funny and it's knowing, and Legally Blonde is very much like Hairspray in that it left me grinning from ear to ear and singing the songs all the way home.

Avenue Q (18/09/10, Wyndham's Theatre, London)

The only musical I've seen twice, other than Hairspray, is Avenue Q, which I caught again last weekend in London, as part of a group of internet friends meeting up. It's up there with Hairspray as being one of the funniest, most enjoyable musicals I've ever seen, and it was just as good the second time around. 

It's basically a stage show which is like Sesame Street but with filthy songs, a good dollop of racism, sexism and gays. With songs like 'Everyone's a Little Bit Racist', 'If You Were Gay' and my favourite, Trekkie Monster's 'The Internet is For Porn', it's definitely not for kids, or anyone easily offended. There are human characters, including a stereotypically-accented Japanese lady called Christmas Eve, and there are puppet characters, who are operated by perfectly visible puppeteers. The puppeteers are never acknowledged though, and there aren't even any sly references to them, so once you get past the initally incongruity of being able to see them, you really do find yourself watching the puppets. 

The show is like Sesame Street with a hefty dose of realism, and all the fakery stripped away. There are screens showing educational cartoon skits occasionally too, explaining terms like 'schadenfreude' and 'one night stands', which just add to the general hilarity. There's nothing I can fault Avenue Q for, it's balls out fun, with added scenes of puppet sex. I can't wait to go and see it again when it tours!

Le Silence de Lorna / Lorna's Silence (2008)

I think that Lorna's Silence is the first Belgian movie I've ever seen. In Bruges was set there, but Lorna's Silence is set there and originated there. It stars the lovely Jérémie Renier and newcomer Arta Dobroshi, who is great as the titular Lorna. The drama involves Albanian-born Lorna, who marries Renier's drug-addicted Claudy in order to become a Belgian national, she then intends to make Claudy overdose so that, widowed, she can marry a Russian, to allow him to become a Belgian national. Money motivates Lorna to get involved with these marriages of convenience, but she unexpectedly begins to have feelings for Claudy and tries to help him kick his drug habit. This doesn't go over well with Lorna's associate, Fabio. Lorna wishes to divorce Claudy rather than have him killed, but unforunately she is unable to stop Fabio carrying out the original plan. 

The silence of the title I presume refers to how Lorna must suffer along with Fabio's plan, particularly after Claudy is unexpectedly killed off screen - the first the viewer is alerted to Claudy's death is through Lorna taking clothes to the morgue for him to be buried in. It's clear that the money that motivated Lorna and her boyfriend is not match for the emotions that her grief and guilt over Claudy awakens. This is a heavy film, with strong performances from the cast, particularly Dobroshi, who puts a lot into Lorna's silences. Naturally there is no real happy ending, and I wouldn't watch the movie again, but it was a strong, effective movie all the same. 

Roger and Val Have Just Got In (2010)

Of the several new laugh-track free comedies that the BBC has put out lately, such as Rev, The Great Outdoors and Getting On, all have had, to varying degrees, something of a serious side, or an emotional edge. Roger and Val quietly grew over it's 6 (yes 6, a full series!) episodes from an amusing look at the minutiae of married life to an exploration of grief, as the subtle hints of earlier episodes revealed the elephant in the (spare) room. 

Dawn French and Alfred Molina are the only actors to appear in Roger & Val, although an extended cast of characters are discussed - such as Roger's workmates, Val's headmistress and Roger's dying father - and they are simply perfect in their parts. They make a believable couple, and they are nothing less than magnetic - the shows are sometimes over before I realise, because I'm utterly drawn in to the charming humour and the often crushing emotions. 

Through scattered hints, we finally learn that Roger and Val had a baby son 18 years ago, who died not long after his birth. The 'big reveal' of the secret is not handled salaciously, for the size of the grief that the couple still experience forces them to talk of the incident indirectly, through allusions or cryptic remarks, for fear that talking openly about it will be too hard. And when they do talk about it, and Val leaves, everything feels so real. 

I'm making the series sound very depressing, but it's not, it's also hilarious. The humour and the drama are wonderfully balanced - in lesser hands than French and Molina's this could have been mawkish, however they both so inhabit the parts they make every moment real. This is one series that I have enjoyed from beginning to end, and I hope that they don't make another series, because I think that Roger and Val Have Just Got In stands as a perfect piece as it is. I'd definitely watch if they were to do another series, but I'd be quite happy just to see this one again.

Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847) / The Eyre Affair (Jasper Fforde, 2001)

I'm not sure what drove me to pluck Jane Eyre from the shelf, possibly I'd not read anything so worthy and literary in a while. I'm glad I did though as I found it a really easy, pleasurable read. Jane narrates her life from time spent as a child at a boarding school, then jumps on to her early adulthood as a governess at Thornfield Hall, and on to time spent with her new-found relations, the Rivers family. Along the way Jane falls in love with Mr Rochester, and he with her, and after a diversion when Jane leaves Thornfield, everything ties up sort-of-happily by the end. 

After reading Brontë's original, I decided to revisit Jasper Fforde's humorous detective novel that uses the book in an intriguing way. I've read The Eyre Affair before, not knowing the story of Jane Eyre, and as a result I didn't feel that I got as much from the first read through as I might have. Upon rereading The Eyre Affair I could appreciate the sections based on Brontë's book more, although I have to say, I still didn't find it as great as all of the cover-quotes would have me believe. 

The Eyre Affair sees LiteraTec Thursday Next (there are lots of daft names in the book, including Paige Turner and Jack Schitt, which are amusing to begin with) out to stop Acheron Hades from first destroying the narrative of Charles Dicken's Martin Chuzzlewit, and then Jane Eyre. In a curious mix of literary parody, alternative history (where the world is book-mad and nearly all past time are informed by literature, including coin-operated Shakespeare quoting booths, this is also a world where airships are still used for transport), time-travel, the supernatural, and standard detective tropes, there is almost too much going on, and Fforde is so intent on wringing as many clever puns and literary allusions out of each sentence, occasionally I found the book a bit wearying. 

Where The Eyre Affair picks up is when it brings Jane Eyre into the mix, through a strange Prose Portal device that allows the user to 'enter' a novel and interact with the characters - Hades intends to hold the world to ransom by entering the original manuscript of Jane Eyre and kidnapping its protagonist, thus rending the first-person narrative dead. Somehow doing this affects all previous editions of the book, effectively wiping Jane Eyre from the literary firmament. I found it a strange concept to get my head around, and there are big gaps in how this is supposed to work, but disbelief is set to permanent suspension throughout the novel. 

In this alternate history, Jane Eyre ends with our hero going to India with St John Rivers, whereas the 'real' book ends with her return to Mr Rochester, who has been blinded and disabled when Thornfield Hall burns down, and the two marry. Fforde suggests that Thursday Next's interactions with Eyre and Mr Rochester leads to the 'real ending', with Thursday being in the original manuscript when Thornfield burns to the ground, as a result of Hades' actions. It's a fun romp, and a well-executed idea, but I have to say that I enjoyed Jane Eyre much more than I did The Eyre Affair.

Brontë writes with humour and warmth, and I really enjoyed Jane Eyre as a character, she's an interesting heroine. Although my interest waned a little towards the end when Jane left Thornfield Hall and took up with the Rivers' (and I found it just too coincidental that the people who took her in turned out to be her cousins, but hey, that's nothing compared to the coincidences I swallowed during The Eyre Affair!), I could easily tell why this book became a classic. On the strength of The Eyre Affair, I probably won't pick up any of Thursday Next's further adventures, because although I enjoyed it to an extent, I get the feeling I would enjoy it more if I was a snooty book critic or professor of English Literature. I'd happily pick up more by Brontë, and would branch out to her sisters too. 

The Great Outdoors: Series 1 (2010)

Tucked away on BBC4 for a short spell of 3 episodes, The Great Outdoors was a fun comedy series starring the marvellous Mark Heap and Ruth Jones, with it’s USP being that each episode was set on a ramble across the English countryside – all of the characters being part of the rambling group run by Heap. Jones played a newcomer, bringing her own ways of doing things from her previous group in Barnstaple.

The Great Outdoors naturally looked wonderful, being set entirely in the titular outdoors, and it provided some amusing interactions. Group leader Bob was a variant on Heap’s great frustrated perfectionist that plays so well (see Spaced), and his embarrassed daughter Hazel tried to fend off the attractions of classmate Victor, who meanwhile was pursued by candle-shop owner Sophie (played by Katherine Parkinson, who was Tom’s daughter in The Old Guys). Sophie’s jobless leech of a husband, Joe, was passive aggressive and didn’t care for the walks, he just went along as the only selfless act he knows to help Sophie’s stress levels. The final cast member, other than Ruth Jones’ nerdy Christine, is Tom, a simpleton who lives in Bob’s car. He’s the only character who I didn’t really like, as he was portrayed in broader strokes than the others.

Like Getting On, The Great Outdoors was over too quickly, and I think that there is great potential for future episodes. As it is, the 3 episodes make a nice self-contained package, with relationships that develop as they go on, and with a colourful cast of characters I wouldn’t want to go on a walk with, but with whom I wouldn’t mind spending some more time.

Brothers & Sisters: Season 3 (2008-09)

I’m not a soap watcher, but I love Brothers & Sisters, which really is just a glossy, American soap, since there’s no real theme too it, except the relationships between the central titular siblings and their families.

The main appeal of Brothers & Sisters when I first started watching it was the awesome cast, which includes Sally Field (mom Nora a.k.a. Mrs Doubtfire’s wife/Forrest Gump’s mother, etc), Calista Flockhart (Kitty a.k.a Ally McBeal), Rachel Griffiths (Sarah a.k.a Brenda from Six Feet Under) and Ron Rifkin (uncle Saul a.k.a the bad guy from Alias). Later in season one, the West Wing’s Rob Lowe joined the cast as Senator McAllister, Kitty’s love interest and now husband. The rest of the extended cast includes Matthew Rhys (Kevin, the gay one), Balthazar Getty (Tommy, the bad boy), and Dave Annable (Justin, the youngest, hottest one), as the Walker brothers, with Patricia Wettig (Holly Harper, baddy from Prison Break), Luke Macfarlane (Kevin’s hot husband) and the underused Sarah Jane Morris, who plays Tommy’s wife.

And then there’s Emily VanCamp, who plays the one-time Walker sibling, who turned out not to be half-sister after all, and became Justin’s girlfriend in season 3. Over the course of this last season, which Channel 4 saw fit to strip across weekday lunchtimes for some reason, I came to really like Rebecca. She’s caught in the middle between the Walkers and her mother, the Walker father’s mistress, and now part owner of Ohai foods, the family firm. Her relationship with Justin also put her in some tricky situations, and she tried not to hurt either her boyfriend, his family, or her rocky relationship with her mother and estranged father – a balancing act that failed now and then, especially towards the season end when Tommy Walker tricked her into an illegal deal to oust Holly.

Season 3 has had some hilarious episodes and moments, and it has had the usual emotional rollercoasters too. Examples of the first include Nora getting drunk at a party, and getting inappropriate with Nigel Havers’ suave architect, and Kevin and Scotty’s failed attempt at a threesome! Emotional times involved Tommy’s daughter getting rushed to hospital for a liver transplant, and Senator McAllister’s heart-attack, followed by the slow dissolve of his relationship with Kitty, while they bring up their newly adopted daughter.

Brothers & Sisters covers a lot of bases – facing new relationships in mid-life (Sarah) and older (Nora); the joys and home comforts of gay monogamy (Kevin and under-used Scotty); coming out for older gay men (Saul, and his boyfriend, who makes just one-episode appearance); estranged fathers (Rebecca)… and much more. Including the introduction of the Walkers’ actual half-brother, Ryan, who blames his father for his mother’s death, and has an unhealthy attraction to Rebecca.

I could just write and write about Brothers & Sisters, which isn’t a trendy musical comedy, or a sexy science fiction show, or indeed anything particularly cool. But it’s a wonderfully written, heartfelt, and funny show, full of well-rounded characters played by a team of excellent actors. I can’t wait for Channel 4 to put the next season on, apparently it’s been and gone on More4 so I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled.

The Golden Girls: Season 2 (1986-1987)

Is there a funnier sitcom from the 80’s about a quartet or old and older women living together in Miami? Is there a funnier sitcom full stop? It’s a difficult one. After just two seasons of The Golden Girls, I’m prepared to put it in my top 5 favourite TV shows. This latest 25 episodes have been comedy gold, with tales of lesbians, cheating husbands, shipwrecks, holidays, prostitution and illegal immigrants, where ‘issues’ are handled sensitively and not rammed down your throat, despite the occasional ‘issue of the week’ tone of some episodes.

The Golden Girls is a classic of the old style, with a set confined to a few rooms, out door scenes are a rarity, and with a reassuring theme tune that I cannot help but sing along to every time. All together now: ‘Thank you for being a friend…’

What makes the show a success is the writing and the perfect cast. It really saddens me watching the show some 25 years after it was broadcast that Betty White is the only surviving cast member. It also amuses me that these ladies are supposed to be old, despite Blanche only being in her 50’s in the second season! My Mum’s in her 50’s and she’s not retired to Miami with her old friends! That’s not fair though, as Blanche, Rose and Dorothy all still work, and it’s only 81 year old Sophia who is naturally retired. I suppose in the 80’s, being old meant something different to what it does now perhaps, but I suppose what all the women have in common is that they’re single, all widowed apart from Dorothy, whose useless ex-husband Stan is a welcome recurring guest star.
 

There’s something comforting about The Golden Girls, and how every episode is bound to have essential ingredients, no matter what the plot concerns. After that sweet theme song, at some point in the next 25 minutes you will see the following:

• Dorothy (Beatrice Arthur) will roll her eyes and look perturbed.
• Rose (Betty White) will tell a tale of her simple life back in St. Olaf, usually using a made-up Scandinavian expression.
• Blanche (Rue McClanahan) will make reference to how much she loves men and/or sex.
• Sophia (Estelle Getty) will say something wildly inappropriate and insult Dorothy or Rose.
• The girls will be up in the middle of the night, and choose to eat cheesecake or ice cream.
• If the girls fall out, they’ll have made up again by the end of the episode.

Formulaic? You bet. Hilarious? Certainly. The Golden Girls is a sitcom I expect to revisit again and again in the coming years. Hopefully at some point they’ll release Seasons 5-7 on Region 2 DVD too, along with the ‘sequel’ The Golden Palace. I can dream. ‘Thank you for being a friend…’

Getting On: Series 1 (2009)

A dark comedy-drama about the life of a geriatric NHS ward, Getting On is like the flip-side of The Golden Girls! Written by and starring Jo Brand, Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine, it’s a short 3 part series that provides many laughs, as well as holding up a mirror to the state of the British health system, with its concentration on targets, health and safety and funding above humane treatment of patients.

Jo Brand, who I don’t think has acted before, is a natural in the role, but then she has the advantage of once being a nurse. It probably helps that this is a part-script, part-ad-libbed, handheld camera comedy, so it’s not so stagey as a typical sitcom, hewing more to the more modern style of situation comedy, with added drama and ponderousness. The three brief episodes are each very funny, but as with Sherlock, why so few Auntie BBC?! Luckily a second series is in the works.

Witness for the Prosecution (04/09/10, Leeds Grand)

I enjoyed the 1957 Billy Wilder movie adaptation of Witness for the Prosecution, and last Saturday night I had the opportunity to see Agatha Christie’s original stage play at the Grand. While not quite as witty as Wilder and co’s script, Christie’s courtroom drama is absolutely riveting.

Originally produced 4 years earlier than the movie version, Witness for the Prosecution is still as compelling today as it must have been then. With it being set in only two locations, a barristers chambers and a courtroom, the play could quite easily be set today – it’s pretty hard to date suits and be-wigged lawyers – but for the rather old-fashioned views of marital relations and the Cold War back story.

The plot sees Sir Wilfred Robarts, QC, defending his client Leonard Vole from prosecution in the murder of Emily French. He his helped and hindered in this by Vole’s German ‘wife’, Romaine, and the action is confined to Robart’s chambers when he takes Vole on as a client, and at the murder trial 6 weeks later. The excellent use of a realistic looking courtroom set means that this is an extremely wordy play, by which I mean that the death of Emily French and events surrounding it are all detailed through expositionary speeches from several characters.

You would think it might be difficult to sustain interest and suspense in a static courtroom set, where the characters can not wander about, and are pretty confined to the witness stand, the public gallery, etc, but the too and fro of the script, and the uniformly spot on cast meant that my attention was rapt throughout. Even though I had seen the movie, I couldn’t remember exactly how it turned out, which helped me sustain my interest to the end. I’d forgotten how the twists pile up by the end. When the jury comes back to deliver their verdict you could have heard a pin drop in the theatre, such was the power of the drama. Another great night out!

Dead Ringers (1988)

No, it’s not the impressionists comedy sketch show with Jon Culshaw, the Dead Ringers I watched recently is a creepy, psychological drama/thriller from David Cronenberg. It stars Jeremy Irons as identical twin gynaecologists Elliot and Beverly Mantle. Elliot is the pushy, confident one, with a bit of a sadistic streak, and Beverly is the strangely-named, quieter one, the one who ends up falling for Genevieve Bujold’s actress character, Claire.

The brothers are inseparable, and share their work and women, often posing as the other so that both can enjoy the good life. Elliot boasts that Beverly only ever experiences what Elliot has experienced first. When Beverly becomes more attached to Claire, and wants her for himself, it of course goes on to affect his filial relationship with Elliot. Once Claire catches on that she’s being ‘serviced’ by both brothers, she’s not happy, but Beverly wins her round. There follows a dissent into drug-induced madness from Beverly when he believes that Claire is cheating on him, and in typical Cronenberg style, there are some lurid dream sequences of conjoined twins, and an ending that is bloody and inevitable.

This movie was a good deal more creepy than Eastern Promises, the last Cronenberg I watched – incidentally, I’ve now seen a fair proportion of his output, with A History of Violence (2005), eXistenZ (1999), Spider (2002), Crash (1996), and The Fly (1986) all proving suitably weird (and Crash just being plain crap). I’ve still got The Dead Zone (1983) on the shelf ready to watch too. I like the unsettling style of this director, and Dead Ringers is an effective part of his oeuvre. Jeremy Irons puts on a masterful dual performance, making it clear which brother he is through subtle treatments, although you’re not always sure you know which is which. I look forward to catching more of Cronenberg’s back catalogue when I can.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)

The third movie we saw at the cinema in an 8 day stretch, Scott Pilgrim has, like The Girl Who Played With Fire, had some bad reviews, but Empire liked it, so it’s all ok! I can see why people might not like Scott Pilgrim – it’s very much a movie for teenage boys, or people who’ve been one, who get the computer game references that come thick and fast and inform the style of the whole movie.

From the opening Universal logo, retro-fitted to an old computer graphic, with suitably old-fashioned computer game blippy music, Scott Pilgrim is one long series of in-jokes. But more than that, it’s frequently hilarious, energetic and unlike anything else I’ve seen. There are a whole heap of great characters played by equally great actors, and the movie sees Scott (Michael Cera, looking oddly buff in the fight scenes) becoming infatuated with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and having to fight off her 7 evil exes to win her heart, oh and Scott’s band is meanwhile taking part in a battle of the bands contest. It’s preposterous, and oh so brilliant, working in a world with its own logic, where Scott can be punched into walls and survive, where the exes he fights burst into a shower of coins when he defeats them, and where pretty much anything can happen, if it has a basis in computer games.

The plot, when you boil it down, is fairly straightforward, what I enjoyed most about the movie is the many characters and their interactions with each other and Scott. Cera is adorable in the lead, and his gay roommate Wallace Wells, played by Kieran Culkin, provides standout support. The characters share a bed, often with Wallace’s boyfriend and other men friends, and they share an easy relationship that is wonderfully drawn. Other favourite characters are: Young Neal (Johnny Simmons), the mono-syllabic groupie who is much better than this description sounds; Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), Ramona’s second ex and object of Wallace’s crush; Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh), the third ex who is defeated through a hilarious vegan-police intervention; and the wonderful Knives Chao (Ellen Wong) who is really the heart of the movie.

Knives is Scott’s younger girlfriend when the movie opens, who he dumps to go out with Ramona. I found this odd because Ramona doesn’t have much to recommend her, and it’s not really explained what is so fascinating about her other than she has brightly coloured hair. She’s a bit sullen and doesn’t really give Scott any encouragement, whereas Knives is loveably devoted to him. I thought that the brilliantly monikered Knives wouldn’t be in the movie much, but when she is dumped she becomes a bit of a stalker and jealous girlfriend, culminating in a great fight at the movie’s end. I was disappointed that Scott didn’t choose Knives to run off into the sunset with, and this was really the only downside of the movie. She was a much more interesting and fun character than Ramona who stands out as not being so good when all the other characters are so well defined and fun to watch.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World continues Edgar Wright’s hit rate, following Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and he really is a unique director. He’s equally skilled at comedy, action and drama, and it’s only a shame that he doesn’t make more films more often. Having been a teenage boy and a continual geek, I enjoyed Scott Pilgrim a lot, it was one of those movies that I left with a huge grin on my face, and they’re always worth noting. 

June 2011 Edit: We've recently watched Scott Pilgrim again, on blu-ray, and it's still an awesome, hilarious, ass-kicking movie! With a great selection of deleted scenes and outtakes too. I think this will be a movie we come back to again and again.

The Girl Who Played With Fire / Flickan som lekte med elden (2009)

After the rather exciting and excellent The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in March it’s been just a few short months to wait for the next in the Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire the sequel to the Swedish original. The reviews I’ve read of this instalment have been a bit sniffy, but I can’t see why, it’s just as gripping and thrilling as the first movie.

This movie is more thriller lead than mystery as the first one was, and it involves Noomi Rapace’s Lisbeth Salander more than Michael Nyqvist’s Mikael Blomkvist, and the two of them only communicate via email, only meeting up in the last 5 minutes. Salander is a very compelling character, and a strong female lead, with strong views on men who are violent to women. Here she’s framed for the murder of the man who raped her in the previous film, and spends the movie trying to find out who the real killer is, leading her to some very dark places.

The extended cast of characters in this world is expanded on, with Salander’s female lover, and a boxer friend who are both beaten for their connection to our hero. There’s a blond bad guy who can’t feel pain, who comes across as a standard Bond henchman, and some very gory, bloody bits at the end when Lisbeth faces her ‘enemy’, who turns out to be someone surprising.

Rapace and Nyqvist make a fantastic duo, even though they spend all their time apart. Both are magnetic, and the movie really draws you in. I think this is helped in part by the subtitles which really make me concentrate and stop me watching passively. The Swedish settings are as lovely as ever, but I’ve seen prettier in the Swedish Wallander that I’m also watching at the moment. I’m really looking forward to the third instalment. I’m ambivalent about the US remake though.

Salt (2010)

In this kick-ass action movie Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a CIA operative who is fingered as a Russian sleeper agent, tasked with carrying out the assassination of the Russian president. She then goes on the run, seemingly carries out this assignment, and then prepares to kill the president of the USA…

It’s a preposterous premise, but Salt is action-packed, thrilling and genuinely has you guessing whose side Salt is really on. Most of the success of the movie I think comes down to Jolie, who is a female action hero like no other, she’s as believable in dramatic scenes as she is kicking butt and shooting her way out of situations. There’s just something cool about the woman that adds immeasurably to her performance.

There was a lightness of touch lacking in Salt. Although I know it’s not a comedy, it would have been nice to have a few funny lines to diffuse the tension now and then. As a result, it all comes off a bit serious and earnest. I can forgive the faults when the action and story is this good. I really liked the bits in the White House, with the President being taken deep down into the emergency bunker, but then I like any drama set in the White House! It’s the West Wing’s fault, for being so great. If they made another Salt movie I’d be quite happy to watch Jolie beat up some more people.

Planet of the Apes (Pierre Boulle, 1963)

I plucked the slim volume that is Planet of the Apes from the shelf a few days ago, and I quickly polished off the translated-from-the-French tale of gorillas, chimps and orang-utans. I’d seen the Tim Burton movie of the same name (at the cinema, twice for some reason) and wasn’t very impressed, but I’ve not got round to watching the Charlton Heston-starring original, or any of its sequels. I had few expectations for the book, so I was pleasantly surprised to find it’s a cracking read.

Ulysse Moreau is our narrator, one of three men to jet off from Earth in the not-too-distant future into space, to another galaxy. After 2 years travelling, thousands of years pass and they land on an Earth-like planet named Soror, which turns out to be populated by men and apes. However, the men run naked and feral in the jungles, the apes wear clothes and hunt and experiment on the men, in a reversal of life on Earth. Ulysse is captured by scientists and he eventually persuades them through his ability to learn and talk the simian language that he is from another planet.

Even though I knew the shock ending, having seen the recent movie and being aware of the famous scene from the original movie (that’s printed on the front of the DVD box!) that reveals the planet Soror was Earth all along (spoiler!), the book is effectively creepy and maintains an air of mystery throughout. It is not actually explicitly stated that Soror *is* Earth, rather that the planet used to be like Earth before man got too lazy and the ape’s ability to ‘ape’ mankind lead to them overthrowing their human masters. There are a couple of extra twists after these revelations that I admit I didn’t see coming until the last point. The twists make sense too, rather than the weird monkey-Abraham Lincoln memorial at the end of Burton’s film.

It’s good to read a book that was originally written in a different language for a slightly different perspective on the world. For instance, Ulysse speaks French rather than English, and when he returns to Earth at the end he lands using the Eiffel Tower for guidance, and in less explicit ways there are non-US/English reference points. The simian characters in the book, Zira and Cornelius, and well drawn, and sometimes it’s difficult to remember they are chimpanzees. I especially liked the hierarchy between the three ape species, and how Orang-utans are stubborn bureaucrats, Gorillas law enforcers and chimps more intelligent scientists. The fact they live together harmoniously without war is another indictment of how man cannot do the same, and there is some social conscience about experimentation on animals. All of this commentary on the human experience is secondary to the cracking story and taught writing, and it all adds up to a satisfying whole.