Weeks 21-23

Introduction

This time I do see Spider-Man 3! But not Zodiac, mainly because I can't be bothered and I'm quite happy to catch it on DVD. Plus, Pirates 3 is long out now, and if you think I'm going to be foolish enough to brave the cinema to see a film of that popularity in its opening week when that week is also half term then you've got another thing coming! This period is also affected by exams and the beginning of Script Frenzy.

Talking of exams, I had my film exam on May 30th, which should in theory have meant a glut of films from the course or related to the course just before that. Well, there's Chinatown... and there would've been Only You but the sound wouldn't play... on my Mac anyway... and how about Die Hard and Once Upon a Time in the West (seen them before)... or connected films such as The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon, Easy Rider, The French Connection, The Godfather, Jurassic Park, Predator, Dirty Dancing, The Fifth Element, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Star Wars or Once Upon a Time in America? Well, I can tell you for nothing that I've seen some of them before. As for the others... you'll just have to see... or not...

Actually, this entry has wound up covering a longer than I initially thought (though not as long as it nearly did). Mainly cos it turned out I didn't (and haven't) watched many films since those pesky exams finished. I'm not sure why, to be honest.


Weeks Twenty-One to Twenty-Four

Films films films, and more films. I'm slowly making my way past the halfway mark in numbers, and slowly heading towards it in time. This period covers the three weeks from May 21st to June 10th.


53) West Side Story (1961, Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins, DVD) 4/5
"Everything's free in America," goes the famous line; but this film is probably more accurately summed up in its following line: "For a small fee in America". For, surprisingly, underneath the song and dance numbers (some impressive, some embarrassing), the Shakespearian romance story, and the vibrant and beautiful cinematography, beats the heart of a gritty, political, social drama about gangs, racism, immigration, and more -- issues that seem as pertinent today as ever. It's a brilliant film, which falls short of full marks only thanks to some of those weaker song & dance bits (and I might be being a tad unfair there).

54) Spider-Man 3 (2007, Sam Raimi, cinema) 3/5
Spider-Man 3 carries the distinct air of a group of people trying to recapture former glories, and the fun they had achieving them, and failing on both counts. There are hints at the things that made the first two (especially the second) movies so good, but they're relatively poorly executed. The pacing is shot to shreds, scenes and plot points need rearranging, the villains are less engaging, Venom is shockingly underused, the climax virtually comes out of the blue, and emo-Parker is just plain embarrassing (at first people at least laughed at him in the street, but then there's the jazz club sequence...) I also spend much of it wondering where most of the massive budget had gone. Yes, there's the odd action sequence (often with not-that-impressive CGI, it must be said), but much of the film focusses on the 'human drama' side of things, much more so than the first two (which were relatively heavy on it for summer movies) and with much less effect. It's only really in the finale that the budget shows, as if they saved it all up to pour out then. I've wittered on again, in a way I haven't since Hidden, and all with complaints... but here's why: the Spider-Man movies were great and, while this one has a relatively ambiguous ending in some respects, this is in so many ways clearly designed as a trilogy-ender. And it disappoints; and it disappoints in the worst possible way, because there are some great germs of ideas here... it just feels like they've filmed the second draft instead of letting it be fully polished. It's a huge shame.

55) Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski, download) 5/5
Polanski's post-noir thriller follows J.J. Gittes, a private eye who begins investigating another cheating husband case but ends up drawn into a conspiracy that he can't hope to beat. It's often held up as an example of a perfectly structured screenplay, and the carefully considered reveal of character and plot throughout makes it easy to see why. It's also packed with imagery and subtext for those who want it, but if that's not your thing it still makes for a darn good thriller with a few neat twists.

56) Road to Morocco (1942, David Butler, VHS) 3/5
Gentle, silly humour abound in this comedy, the third in the Road to... series. If you remember those plays that Morecambe & Wise used to do you'll have a fair idea what this feels like, although with a couple of added musical numbers (and pretty good ones at that). It's not 'great cinema' and it won't be to everyone's taste, but it makes for a light, fun way to spend not much more than an hour.

57) It's All Gone Pete Tong (2004, Michael Dowse, DVD) 3/5
If you're into dance music/clubbing/Ibiza/etc, then this film is definitely aimed at you. As for the rest of us normal folk... well, to be honest, it's actually a fair bit better than I was expecting! The main reason I wanted to see it was because I'd heard it had interesting sound design; other than that, I thought a clubbing-based 'comedy' really wasn't for me. Turns out it's not as much of a 'comedy' as I expected, though there are some funny bits (and some mere attempts at funny bits). By the end, there's an odd feeling of having seen something a great deal better than expected, but still with a certain oddness that somehow holds it back.