David M. Brown's Blog, page 28
February 26, 2014
Masterpieces #7: Norwegian Wood
About Norwegian Wood (1987)
When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire – to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past.
Amazon US Amazon UK Goodreads
Norwegian Wood (1987)
For a long time I never thought I would read a better book than The Lord of the Rings, then one day my brother mentioned a novel by a Japanese author named Haruki Murakami. He assured me it was a very good read so, always willing to try new writers and happy to embrace anything from Japan, I borrowed a copy. My brother is one of the lucky owners of Norwegian Wood in its original format i.e. a gold box containing two small books – one red and one green. When first released in the late eighties the book was very popular with Japanese students who were said to carry one of the two books with them, dependent on which they related to the most. Armed with my two little books I commenced reading Murakami’s masterpiece that propelled him so suddenly and unexpectedly to fame that he fled Japan, unable to cope with his new found status, and would not see him return to his homeland for nearly a decade.
The novel begins with Toru Watanabe arriving in Germany and no sooner has he stepped foot on German soil than he hears the music to Norwegian Wood by The Beatles. Toru is immediately taken back to his days at university in Tokyo in the Sixties, to a time of rebellious students, alcohol, sex, wandering in the wilderness of teenage angst and reaching a life changing crossroads. Toru is faced with the choice of being alone, being with his troubled friend Naoko or with a new girl in his life – the free spirited Midori.
The first noticeable for me about Norwegian Wood was Murakami’s style. Like Hemingway, I found the prose simple but vivid in its imagery, giving life to the many surroundings and capturing a myriad of memorable characters with so much conviction on the page. Midori is a delightful character, being outspoken, confident and unmoved by social convention. Naoko, in contrast, is depicted as extremely fragile both physically and mentally. With Midori, Toru is often dragged through the streets of Tokyo to be involved in all kinds of mischief and fun, but with Naoko the conversation becomes more ponderous and serious.
Norwegian Wood made me nostalgic for my own days at university. The many characters Toru meets all have their own enduring qualities. Midori aside, Toru spends a lot of time with Nagasawa who sleeps with countless girls regardless of the impact on his long-suffering girlfriend, Hatsumi. She puts up with her boyfriend’s betrayals and even tries to advice Toru on his own predicament. Outside university, another notable character is Reiko, a music teacher and friend of Naoko who is convalescing at a sanatorium after the breakdown of her marriage and music career. She becomes integral as a mediator between Toru and Naoko as they try to build their relationship.
The love triangle at the centre of Norwegian Wood is both moving and fascinating. On the one hand Midori helps ease Toru’s sadness and longing for Naoko, but in becoming drawn to her he only feels guilty and that this act is a betrayal to Naoko who he still professes to love. How this love triangle resolves itself is not for me to say and with the ending to the book it is clear Murakami had a difficult time making a decision as well. I had hoped the film adaptation of Norwegian Wood would recreate the majesty of Murakami’s novel but it sadly fell way short despite retaining some of the book’s essence.
The first time I read Norwegian Wood I found myself angry and resentful after turning that final page and closing the book for good. My fury was not born of any weakness in the novel but purely out of frustration that it was over. I’ve since read the book on two more occasions and its impact on me remains undiminished. When Mrs B and I were just friends I recommended the book to her and after reading it she had nothing but praise, even insisting it had changed her life. Murakami’s novel is beautifully written, with intoxicating prose, heartfelt and believable characters and sensuous imagery from the bustling streets of Tokyo to the serenity of the sanatorium. One day I may read a better book than Norwegian Wood but if you were to say to me now that this is as good as fiction gets then no one will be more pleased than me.
The post Masterpieces #7: Norwegian Wood appeared first on News of the Worlds.
February 24, 2014
This Week’s Films (24/02/14)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
In an alternate Victorian Age world, a group of famous contemporary fantasy, SF and adventure characters team up on a secret mission.
Verdict: 3/10
Go to top
Woman on Top (2000)
Isabella (Penelope Cruz) is a beautiful Brazilian enchantress who runs a successful restaurant with her husband, Nino. However, when Isabella finds out that Nino has been cheating on her she heads for San Francisco to pursue her dream of a culinary career on her own. She moves in with her childhood friend, cross-dresser Monica, and is soon given the opportunity to host her own TV show – an offer she cannot refuse. Meanwhile back in Brazil, Nino has decided to travel northwards in a bid to win back his wife’s love.
Verdict: 4/10
Go to top
Memorial Day (2011)
Memorial Day, 1993. When 13-year-old Kyle Vogel discovers the World War II footlocker belonging to his grandfather, Bud, everyone tells Kyle to put it back. Although Bud has never talked about his time in World War II he finds himself striking a deal with his grandson: Kyle can pick any three souvenirs, and Bud will tell him the stories behind each one. Memorial Day not only takes us on a journey into Bud’s complicated wartime past, but also into Kyle’s wartime future. The film shows the similarities between two generations of one family as the two men share parallel experiences in combat, Bud in war torn Europe and Kyle in modern day Iraq.
Verdict: 5/10
ATM (2012)
Three office workers find themselves trapped by a sadistic psychopath in this horror from director David Brooks. Offering a ride home to his co-worker and love interest, Emily (Alice Eve), after their late night Christmas party, David (Brian Geraghty) feels obliged to help out when another employee, Corey (Josh Peck), asks for a lift to the nearest cash dispenser. But after entering the stand-alone unit, the three soon realise that they are being watched by a threatening hooded figure lurking in the car park. Trapped inside the booth, with their phones left in the car and panic setting in, they are horrified when the figure savagely murders a passing dog walker, setting in motion a terrifying game of cat and mouse.
Verdict: 3/10
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
One of the most influential political films in history, The Battle of Algiers, by Gillo Pontecorvo (Kapò), vividly re-creates a key year in the tumultuous Algerian struggle for independence from the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés, and French soldiers resort to torture to break the will of the insurgents. Shot on the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film is a case study in modern warfare, with its terrorist attacks and the brutal techniques used to combat them. Pontecorvo’s tour de force has astonishing relevance today.
Verdict: 8/10
Go to top
The Words (2012)
“There’s more than one way to take a life…” and THE WORDS couldn’t be truer. Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper) has achieved his every goal: a loving wife critical success and a best-selling novel. The only problem is he didn’t write it. Now as his conscience starts to haunt him and his past wrongs are revealed it’s difficult to tell fact from fiction. Jeremy Irons Dennis Quaid Olivia Wilde Ben Barnes and Zoe Saldana star in this romantic thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end.
Verdict: 6/10
Lonesome Jim (2005)
Steve Buscemi directs and Casey Affleck stars in this comedy drama about a failed novelist who returns from New York to the small Indiana town he grew up in. When Jim (Affleck) runs out of money in the big city, he is reluctantly forced to return to his dysfunctional family home. He doesn’t really get on with his folks and he has no interest in the family business. But after his depressed, older brother Tim (Kevin Corrigan) ends up in a coma, he is forced to help out at his parents’ ladder factory as well as looking after his two mischievous nieces (Rachel and Sarah Strouse). At the factory he meets his Uncle Stacey (Mark Boone Jr), aka Evil, who is using the plant as a front for his drug dealing business. When Jim’s mother (Mary Kay Place) is mistakenly arrested and jailed for narcotics smuggling, it looks like things can’t get any worse. But between his budding relationship with his brother’s nurse Anika (Liv Tyler), and coaching a junior basketball team that includes Tim’s daughters, the perenially glum Jim concedes that there may be a chink of light at the end of the tunnel.
Verdict: 6/10
Thale (2012)
Two crime-scene cleaners discover a mythical, tailed female creature in a concealed cellar. She never utters a word, unable to tell her story, but the pieces of the puzzle soon come together: she’s been held captive for decades for reasons soon to surface… Fun fact: THALE is based on a mythical character in Nordic folklore called the “huldra”. According to the myth, a huldra is a beautiful creature with female attributes living deep in the woods. It is said that it seduces men that works in the woods by humming a beautiful song, and they never return to their village. You can recognize a huldra by its cow tail.
Verdict: 4/10
Le Havre (2011)
In this warmhearted comic yarn from Aki Kaurismäki (The Match Factory Girl), fate throws the young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (La vie de bohème’s André Wilms), a kindly bohemian who shines shoes for a living, in the French harbor city Le Havre. With inborn optimism and the support of most of his tight-knit community, Marcel stands up to the officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation. A political fairy tale that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic French cinema of the past, especially the poetic realist works of Jean Duvivier and Marcel Carné, LE HAVRE is a charming, deadpan delight and one of the Finnish director’s finest films.
Verdict: 7/10
Mutants (2009)
Like David Cronenberg’s The Fly, co-writer and director David Morley s fright flick Mutants turns the horror genre on its head and makes it personal. It s one thing to kill a zombie. But what if the zombie was someone you loved? ER doctor Sonia (Helene de Fougerolles) and her boyfriend Marco (Francis Renaud) take refuge in an abandoned base when a pandemic has turned almost everyone in the world into a flesh-eating monster. But one of the creatures infects Marco and soon Sonia is fighting off zombies, dealing with her own pregnancy and desperately hoping for a cure as Marco literally disintegrates before her eyes. Finally, Sonia faces the truth: the one man worth fighting for has become the one man she must fight against to survive.
Verdict: 4/10
Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
True story of Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountain climber who became friends with the Dalai Lama at the time of China’s takeover of Tibet.
Verdict: 7/10
Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)
Supernatural villain Pinhead (Doug Bradley) finds himself on the wrong side of the law in this, the fifth film in the Hellraiser franchise. Joseph (Craig Sheffer) is a detective with the L.A.P.D. who one morning discovers he’s no longer living in California – he’s been exiled to Hades, and the only way to escape is by solving the mystery of the all-powerful puzzle box. The box is now in the hands of the fearsome demon Pinhead, and Joseph finds himself in a life-and-death struggle with the demon for control of the puzzle box.
Verdict: 4/10
Transit (2012)
THIS IS NOT A PERFECT GETAWAY. To move four million dollars of stolen money past a police roadblock, the perpetrators of a deadly bank heist use a suburban family as unwitting couriers. Now, the criminals want their money back and will stop at nothing to reclaim their ill-gotten gains.
Transit is a high-octane, explosive action thriller, from legendary action producer Joel Silver (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, The Matrix) and After Dark Films also starring James Frain (Tron: Legacy, True Blood, Diora Baird (30 Days Of Night) and Harold Perrineau (Lost, The Matrix Reloaded)
Fasten your seatbelts, this is going to be one hell of a ride…
Verdict: 6/10
Go to top
Wall-E (2008)
The highly acclaimed director of FINDING NEMO and the creative storytellers behind CARS and RATATOUILLE transport you to a galaxy not so far away for a new cosmic comedy adventure about a determined robot named WALL-E. After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, the curious and lovable WALL-E discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. Join them and a hilarious cast of characters on a fantastic journey across the universe. Transport yourself to a fascinating new world with Disney-Pixar’s latest adventure, now even more astonishing on DVD and loaded with bonus features, including the exclusive animated short film BURN-E. WALL-E is a film your family will want to enjoy over and over again.
Verdict: 8/10
Go to top
The post This Week’s Films (24/02/14) appeared first on News of the Worlds.
February 23, 2014
This Week’s Books (23/02/14)
Mo Yan – Red Sorghum (1987)
The acclaimed novel of love and resistance during late 1930s China by Mo Yan, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature
Spanning three generations, this novel of family and myth is told through a series of flashbacks that depict events of staggering horror set against a landscape of gemlike beauty, as the Chinese battle both Japanese invaders and each other in the turbulent 1930s.
A legend in China, where it won major literary awards and inspired an Oscar-nominated film directed by Zhang Yimou, Red Sorghum is a book in which fable and history collide to produce fiction that is entirely new—and unforgettable.
Verdict: 4/5
Go to top
Jan Jarski – Story of a Secret State: My Report to the World (1944)
Jan Karski’s “Story of a Secret State” stands as one of the most poignant and inspiring memoirs of World War II and the Holocaust. This definitive edition — which includes a foreword by Madeleine Albright, a biographical essay by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, an afterword by Zbigniew Brzezinski, previously unpublished photos, notes, further reading, and a glossary — is an apt legacy for this hero of conscience during the most fraught and fragile moment in modern history.
With elements of a spy thriller, documenting his experiences in the Polish Underground, and as one of the first accounts of the systematic slaughter of the Jews by the German Nazis, this volume is a remarkable testimony of one man’s courage and a nation’s struggle for resistance against overwhelming oppression.
Karski was a brilliant young diplomat when war broke out in 1939 with Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Taken prisoner by the Soviet Red Army, which had simultaneously invaded from the East, Karski narrowly escaped the subsequent Katyn Forest Massacre. He became a member of the Polish Underground, the most significant resistance movement in occupied Europe, acting as a liaison and courier between the Underground and the Polish government-in-exile. He was twice smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto, and entered the Nazi’s Izbica transit camp disguised as a guard, witnessing first-hand the horrors of the Holocaust.
Karski’s courage and testimony, conveyed in a breathtaking manner in “Story of a Secret State,” offer the narrative of one of the world’s greatest eyewitnesses and an inspiration for all of humanity, emboldening each of us to rise to the challenge of standing up against evil and for human rights.
Verdict: 4/5
Go to top
George Tiffin – All the Best Lines (2013)
Pithy put-downs, hard-boiled snarlings, words of love and regret… ALL THE BEST LINES presents 500 memorable movie quotes, embracing both one-liners (‘My name is Pussy Galore’) and slices of snappy dialogue from pictures as diverse as When Harry Met Sally and Pulp Fiction. Arranged under such timeless themes as Dreams, Friends, Libido and Memories, the quotes juxtapose films and stars from every era and every genre.
Dotted throughout the text are feature capsules focusing on themes and stories in the movies from Goldwynisms to Mae West, plus a generous scattering of cinema anecdotes, making the book both a joy to browse and an authoritative reference.
Lavishly illustrated with full-colour photographs, ALL THE BEST LINES will delight and entertain you in equal measure, reacquainting you with your favourite movies and introducing you to some forgotten classics.
Verdict: 5/5
The post This Week’s Books (23/02/14) appeared first on News of the Worlds.
February 22, 2014
Dave’s Odyssey #11
In May 2008, I went travelling on my own for the first time and was out of England for a month. Along the way I took in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Thailand before coming home. I kept a journal of my time on the road, so here’s a day by day account of my trials and tribulations that has the undeserved title of Dave’s Odyssey.
Day 11 – Wellington
View from Mt. Victoria
I’d forgotten what it was like to wake up at 7.30 a.m. but compared to previous days it was bliss. After breakfast Cameron took us on a tour of the city. Wellington is on a much grander scale than anything on the south island is and situated by the coast there were some impressive sights. The streets promised to be hectic tonight as graduates in caps and gowns dominated the city as we drove through. It was a painful reminder that my university days had ended five years before!
The tour led us to the top of Mt. Victoria, which was more like a steep hill than what I’d classify as a mountain, but what do I know? Mt. Victoria gave us a fantastic view of the city and was worth a few photos. I got particularly lucky with one shot of the sea as the sun was in my eyes. Thankfully, it turned out to be one of my better pictures from this tour.
The Beehive
It soon became apparent that Cameron was fairly laid back. He didn’t really designate a time for us to return to the coach so most of the group took a tad too long. Cameron took everything in his stride particularly on our return into the city when some seemingly uneducated builders took ages to move their van and let us through.
Back in the city we stopped off at three notable buildings all conveniently situated next to one another – Parliament House also known as the Beehive and named for obvious reasons, the Old Parliament House and finally Parliament Library. We were given ample time to wander the park in front of the trio of parliamentary buildings. I took the opportunity to wander over to a nearby war memorial; I seem to have a morbid curiosity about sombre tourist attractions. I also had a chat with Cameron back at the coach about the Parliament buildings.
Parliament Library
Afterwards we headed for Old St. Pauls church erected in the nineteenth century and made almost entirely of wood. The interior was pretty impressive with the usual stain-glass windows and altar. It was also something of a museum offering enlightening history on New Zealand during WWII and the precarious position it was in as the Japanese wreaked havoc throughout the Pacific.
Our final stop was once again overlooking Wellington. A cable car service ran tourists and locals from the city to the Botanic Gardens. After stopping off at a café, the majority of the group chose to visit the Gardens and take the cable car back into the city. I was keen to see the Te Papa Museum so took the coach back to the hotel with Cameron and a small group.
From there I took in the sights of Wellington. I did some shopping for the first time on this tour. I’m not here for the shops but had to do some obligatory souvenir buying for the family. I couldn’t go home without doing so.
Wellington Harbour
I worked my way to Te Papa Museum, had a late lunch at the café before exploring. The museum was six floors in total and I was there for the remainder of the day! The early floors were your typical museum stuff delving deep into New Zealand’s history. I was surprised to find that compared to most lands New Zealand hasn’t been settled very long.
The top two floors were not really my things but I found myself surprisingly engrossed. Two exhibitions of various artists throughout the ages were on show. As usual I found the majority mind-boggling but one artist – Albrecht Durer – won my approval. His pieces were detailed and captured the mood of his time, which I think was sixteenth century with religious/mythical themed scenes. They were so good I wouldn’t be against owning one but my budget doesn’t extend to buying works of art.
It was early evening when I finally left the museum. I took the scenic route along the harbour and back to the hotel. It’s an earlier start tomorrow as we say farewell to Wellington and head for the Maori centre of Rotorua. The journey there includes volcanoes of all things so it should be a swell trip. I suspect Cameron won’t be as laid back tomorrow.
The post Dave’s Odyssey #11 appeared first on News of the Worlds.
February 20, 2014
Masterpieces #6: House of Flying Daggers
About House of Flying Daggers (2004)
A romantic police captain breaks a beautiful member of a rebel group out of prison to help her rejoin her fellows, but things are not what they seem.Starring: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Ziyi Zhang, Dandan Song
Directed by: Zhang Yimou
Runtime: 119 minutes
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Amazon US Amazon UK IMDB
House of Flying Daggers (2004)
Zhang Yimou is undoubtedly one of my favourite directors with five of his films worthy of 10/10 ratings in my opinion, and I have yet to see them all! Yimou often delivers visual treats, whether it’s the golden fields in The Road Home (2000) or that serene lake in Hero (2002) where Jet Li and Tony Leung run on the surface of the water to exchange an emotional duel. Yimou’s talents are at their very best, however, in his masterpiece – the breathtaking House of Flying Daggers (2004).
Set in 859 AD under China’s crumbling Tang dynasty, rebel groups are formed throughout the country with one particular faction, The House of Flying Daggers, being the most prominent. Adopting a Robin Hood motto of helping the poor at the expense of the rich, the Flying Daggers become the government’s primary target and the film depicts a plot to bring their organisation down once and for all. Two police captains, Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Leo (Andy Lau) plan a mission to assassinate the leader of The House of Flying Daggers. They arrest a blind dancer, Mei (Zhang Ziyi), who works at a brothel and is believed to be the daughter of a previous leader of the rebel faction. As part of the plot, Jin breaks into the prison where Mei is held and leads her into the wilderness, all the time having the authorities nearby, believing she will reveal where the Flying Daggers are hiding.
Yimou’s film is a beautiful feast for the eyes whether it’s the exquisite costumes or the stunning scenery ranging from golden fields to bamboo forests. Combat plays a big part in the film as well with such scenes as the flight path of daggers and arrows through forests and long grass being notable spectacles. Bloodshed is more prominent here than in Yimou’s Hero but it is never to the extent that I feel it would alienate an audience with an aversion to violence.
House of Flying Daggers boasts many wonderful set pieces, beginning with the echo game between Mei and Leo and continuing outside the city as Jin pretends to be fighting off the pursuing police. It’s hard to convey in words just how amazing the effects, settings, locations and characters are in this film. I enjoy a film that surprises me and House of Flying Daggers manages this on more than one occasion. While a dilemma faces Jin it’s important to remember that nothing is as it seems in this film and a rebel organisation that has evaded capture and outwitted the government is not so easily brought down even when faced with a clever plot from the local authorities.
Yimou has the ability to showcase the most extravagant of spectacles but at the same time to give prominence to the small and seemingly trivial things. So many of the shots in House of Flying Daggers will take your breath away and though its conclusion may leave more questions than answers, it somehow feels completely apt. The three central characters deliver terrific performances and this is arguably Zhang Ziyi’s finest role to date. Although this does offer as much combat as Yimou’s wonderful Hero, the characters are better fleshed out and the love story that develops makes for a moving one. Yimou’s finest hour in celluloid is also one of the most beautiful films you will ever see.
The post Masterpieces #6: House of Flying Daggers appeared first on News of the Worlds.
February 17, 2014
This Week’s Films (17/02/14)
In the Woods (1999)
While on a hunting trip in the woods, firefighters Alex Kerwood and Wayne Higley discover the skull of a mysterious horned creature on an ancient burial site. The woodland takes on a terrifying perspective for the two men as they make their way out, but once back home the terror continues, for it now transpires that the skull has the power to kill!
Verdict: 1/10
Go to top
Melinda & Melinda (2004)
Romantic comedy/tragedy written and directed by Woody Allen. Sy (Wallace Shawn) is having dinner with some friends when they begin debating the nature of the tragic and the humorous. Sy, observing that a very fine line separates the two, decides to demonstrate this by showing how the same story can be either funny or sad depending on the way certain elements are handled. He uses the story of Melinda (Radha Mitchell), a young woman with some serious problems in her life. In the tragic version, Melinda crashes a dinner party thrown by old friends Laurel (Chloe Sevigny) and Lee (Jonny Lee Miller). When she arrives, she is under the influence of alcohol and pills, much to the annoyance of Lee, an actor hoping to impress a producer who is one of his guests. After breaking up with her husband, Melinda lost custody of her children and came to New York City, where she became involved with Ellis Moonsong (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a handsome and well-mannered composer whose promises to her proved to be worthless. In the funny version, Melinda shows up dazed and confused at the home of Susan (Amanda Peet) and Hobie (Will Ferrell), who are in the midst of a dinner party. Learning about the sad state of Melinda’s love life after divorcing her husband and losing custody of her children, Susan decides to play Cupid and fix her friend up with a well-to-do dentist. However, neither Susan nor Melinda are aware that there is another man deeply interested in the troubled divorcee – Hobie.
Verdict: 6/10
Go to top
The Lookout (2012)
When a bank heist goes wrong it’s up to the expert and deadly sniper Vincent Kaminski (Mathieu Kassovitz – La Haine, Haywire, Munich) to take out the army of police outside the bank waiting for the armed robbers. Vincent’s accuracy from behind the scope of his rifle soon gains the attention of Mattei (Daniel Auteuil – Hidden) a disgruntled cop and head of the team that Vincent is targeting, who is hell-bent on bringing him to justice. When an anonymous tip off puts him behind bars, Vincent suddenly finds himself a target, and a deadly game of cat and mouse emerges when those close to Vincent begin to die.
Verdict: 6/10
Go to top
Nacho Libre (2006)
Jack Black is at his comic best as Ignacio a disrespected cook at a Mexican monastery that can barely afford to feed the orphans who live there. Inspired by a local wrestling hero he decides to moonlight as the not-so-famous Luchador Nacho Libre to earn money for the monastery — not to mention the admiration of beautiful nun Sister Encarnacion.
Verdict: 4/10
She’s the One (1996)
The love lives of two brothers, Mickey and Francis, interconnect as Francis cheats on his wife with Mickey’s ex-girlfriend, while Mickey impulsively marries a stranger.
Verdict: 6/10
Two Girls & a Guy (1997)
They’re as different as they are beautiful, but Carla (Heather Graham) and Lou (Natasha Gregson Wagner) have more in common than meets the eye. Each brags that she has the world’s greatest boyfriend — until both realize they’re talking about the same guy! Sparks fly when the two girls team up to confront their lying, two-timing lover.
Verdict: 5/10
Go to top
Casa de mi Padre (2012)
Armando Alvarez (Will Ferrell) has lived and worked on his father’s ranch in Mexico his entire life. As the ranch faces financial strains, Armando’s younger brother Raul (Diego Luna) shows up with his new fianc‚e, Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez) and pledges to settle all his father’s debts. It seems that Raul’s success as an international businessman means the ranch’s troubles are over, but when Armando falls for Sonia, and Raul’s business dealings turn out to be less than legit, the Alvarez family finds themselves in a full-out war with Mexico’s most feared drug lord, the mighty Onza (Gael Garc¡a Bernal).
Verdict: 6/10
FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)
Magic and adventure await in FernGully, a spectacular rainforest where a bat named Batty, whose radar has gone haywire, joins together with Crysta, Pips and the Beetle Boys to save their marvelous world from the evil Hexxus. Ignoring the warnings of her friends, Crysta, the curious tree fairy, explores the world beyond FernGully. She discovers Zak, a real live human who is helping demolish the rainforest. Once Zak sees the beauty and magic of FernGully, he vows to save it. But it may be too late. The Diabolical Hexxus is on the loose and intent on destroying all of FernGully. This animated feature rocks with an original score performed by Sheena Easton, Raffi, Tone-Loc and others.
Verdict: 5/10
Creature of the Night (2006)
Angst-ridden rock star Rob Parker has a horrible secret, one he’s desperate to keep from adoring fans, in this unusually fresh take on the werewolf legend which introduces a completely new semi-wolf phase.
Verdict: 1/10
Barney’s Version (2010)
Academy Award® nominated Barney’s Version is a warm and witty story documenting the extraordinary life of seemingly ordinary Barney Panofsky. With a stellar cast including a Golden Globe® winning performance from Paul Giamatti as Barney (Sideways, Cinderella Man), Dustin Hoffman (Meet The Fockers, I Heart Huckabees), Minnie Driver (The the Phantom of The Opera, Good Will Hunting) and Rosamund Pike (Made in Dagenham, An Education), Barney’s Version is set across two continents and spans three decades. Take a flashback journey through the different stages of Barney’s unusual life.
Barney’s Version begins in Rome where Barney meets and marries first wife Clara (Rachelle Lefevre; New Moon, Twilight) a fiery and flame-haired free spirit until he discovers her infidelity with one of his close friends. Encouraged by his father and close confidante (Hoffman), his second shot at marriage sees Barney wed a wealthy Jewish heiress (Driver) who barely notices him switch off whenever she talks. Ironically it is at their wedding Barney meets the third ‘Mrs’ P, Miriam (Pike) who turns out to be his true love and mother to his two children. At times a true romantic, performing acts of gallantry, generosity and goodwill, often when he least expects it; other times acting jealous and wallowing in self pity, Barney certainly lives a packed life, making him an unlikely and captivating hero. An emotional, heartfelt comedy portraying the depths one will go to for love; sometimes getting it right, other times getting it wildly wrong, Barney’s Version is a must see.
Verdict: 9/10
In America (2002)
From Academy Award Nominee Jim Sheridan comes this deeply personal and poignant tale of a poor Irish family searching for a better life In America. Through the eyes of their spunky daughters, two anguished parents find hope and the ability to once again believe in love and magic…even amidst the dangers of New York’s harrowing Hell’s Kitchen. With mesmerizing performances by Samantha Morton and Djimon Hounsou, In America is “a classic” (USA Today) you won’t ever forget.
Verdict: 8/10
Go to top
Me, Myself & Irene (2000)
A nice-guy cop with dissociative identity disorder must protect a woman on the run from a corrupt ex-boyfriend and his associates.
Verdict: 6/10
War of the Dead (2011)
March 1941. Captain Martin Stone(Andrew Tiernan) leads an American unit on a mission to destroy a secret Nazi underground bunker. Fighting alongside an elite platoon,the soldiers find themselves attacked by the same men they killed in an earlier assault. Now, the remaining officers must struggle to survive against the war s most terrifying enemy…a flesh-hungry army of the living dead.
Verdict: 2/10
Go to top
The post This Week’s Films (17/02/14) appeared first on News of the Worlds.
February 16, 2014
This Week’s Books (16/02/14)
Matteo Civaschi; Gianmarco Milesi – Film in Five Seconds (2013)
In today’s jet-fuelled, caffeine-charged, celebrity-a-minute world, who actually has the time to watch a film from start to finish? Let’s face it, life’s too short. Now, Film in Five Seconds lets you fast-forward to the best bits so you can enjoy all your favourite movie moments in – literally – moments.
Design studio H-57 have taken over 150 iconic films and cut away all the useless details, boiling them down into ingenious pictograms and creating hilarious visual snapshots that are witty, provocative and to the point.
From Batman to Bridget Jones, Grease to The Godfather, King Kong to The King’s Speech, via slapstick, sci-fi and superheroes, you’ll laugh out loud as you identify some of the greatest screen moments of all time. This is the perfect book for film buffs and anyone with a sense of humour or a short attention span.
Verdict: 4/5
Go to top
Karen Krozanovich – Infographic Guide to the Movies (2013)
Infographics Guide to the Movies presents unique, witty and surprising facts about every film genre, from blockbuster, rom-com, horror, crime, science-fiction and action, to Noir, zombie, nouvelle vague, slasher, erotica, world cinema and much, much more. Mixing cinematic fact with legend, it features infamous and often ludicrous tales of Hollywood, Bollywood, European cinema, underground and indie film making.
More than just a book of words with graphs, Venn diagrams and charts included, this book is packed with over 100 original artworks and illustrations, at-a-glance facts to amaze and astound readers, graphics on every major movie genre, and every major movie market around the world.
With surprising and enlightening secrets of the industry, Infographics Guide to the Movies has global scope, universal appeal and is visually impressive.
Verdict: 4/5
Frederick Taylor – The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961-1989 (2006)
On the morning of August 13, 1961, the residents of East Berlin found themselves cut off from family, friends and jobs in the West by a tangle of barbed wire that ruthlessly cut a city of four million in two. Within days the barbed-wire entanglement would undergo an extraordinary metamorphosis: it became an imposing 103-mile-long wall guarded by three hundred watchtowers. A physical manifestation of the struggle between Soviet Communism and American capitalism—totalitarianism and freedom—that would stand for nearly thirty years, the Berlin Wall was the high-risk fault line between East and West on which rested the fate of all humanity. Many brave people risked their lives to overcome this lethal barrier, and some paid the ultimate price.
In this captivating work, sure to be the definitive history on the subject, Frederick Taylor weaves together official history, archival materials and personal accounts to tell the complete story of the Wall’s rise and fall, from the postwar political tensions that created a divided Berlin to the internal and external pressures that led to the Wall’s demise. In addition, he explores the geopolitical ramifications as well as the impact the wall had on ordinary lives that is still felt today. For the first time the entire world faced the threat of imminent nuclear apocalypse, a fear that would be eased only when the very people the Wall had been built to imprison breached it on the historic night of November 9, 1989.
Gripping and authoritative, The Berlin Wall is the first comprehensive account of a divided city and its people in a time when the world seemed to stand permanently on the edge of destruction.
Verdict: 3/5
Go to top
Yukio Mishima – The Temple of Dawn (1970)
Honda, a brilliant lawyer and man of reason, is called to Bangkok on legal business, where he is granted an audience with a young Thai princess – an encounter that radically alters the course of his life. He is convinced she is a reincarnated spirit, and undertakes a long, arduous pilgrimage to the holy places of India, where, in the climatic scene, he encounters her once more, only to have his newfound beliefs shattered and his life bereft of all meaning.
Verdict: 3/5
Book of Lost Things (2006)
High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a world that is a strange reflection of his own — populated by heroes and monsters and ruled by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book, The Book of Lost Things.
Taking readers on a vivid journey through the loss of innocence into adulthood and beyond, New York Times bestselling author John Connolly tells a dark and compelling tale that reminds us of the enduring power of stories in our lives.
Verdict: 3/5
Go to top
Stephen King – Doctor Sleep (2013)
Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special twelve-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.
On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky twelve-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death.
Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”
Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of devoted readers of The Shining and satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.
Verdict: 3/5
Go to top
The post This Week’s Books (16/02/14) appeared first on News of the Worlds.
February 15, 2014
Dave’s Odyssey #10
In May 2008, I went travelling on my own for the first time and was out of England for a month. Along the way I took in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Thailand before coming home. I kept a journal of my time on the road, so here’s a day by day account of my trials and tribulations that has the undeserved title of Dave’s Odyssey.
Day 10 – Fox Glacier – Wellington
Franz Josef Glacier
A 7.00 a.m. wake-up call was an improvement on the early starts of the last few days. After checking out we headed for Franz Josef Glacier. A path ran close to the face of the glacier but you had to be quick to get there and back to the coach in time. An earlier lookout point gave you an ideal view of the glacier at least and what a sight it was.
After a quick shot I endeavoured to get as close to Franz Josef Glacier as possible. The path until this point had been steep but easy to follow. I now faced a series of streams, bridged by rocks, in order to get to Franz Josef. Green markers laid out the path to the glacier face but it soon became apparent that I wouldn’t have time to reach the end of the path. I took another photo closer up and headed back so as not to be left behind.
Our coach stopped off at a café near Franz Josef next. As we parked up a group of teenagers to our left were balancing gunge-filled containers on their heads and being filmed by cameras. It was some New Zealand children’s show we had stumbled upon. The kids were annoyingly noisy so I made a very quick exit to the café. I’ve never been great with kids! They frighten me!
Franz Josef Glacier
This café had a piece of art worth a purchase were it not for the $1,250 price tag. It was a car door with an image of Jim Morrison painted on the side. The accompanying notice advised that delivering it to the States would cost at least $400 for guaranteed safety. How much it would have cost to get to the UK is anyone’s guess. I love the Lizard King and The Doors but my hard-earned pennies simply wouldn’t stretch far enough for such a purchase, beautiful though it was.
It was our last day on the south island of New Zealand so the coach took us through yet more fantastic scenery, all the time heading on to Christchurch. We stopped off at the town of Hokitita for lunch. Like most towns in New Zealand so far, there was very little there. The New Zealand mentality seems to avoid over extravagance. Certainly the vast scale of Singapore is not on offer here but I prefer it this way.
After lunch I had a wander around Hokitita. One shop dealt in the Wild West and military history in general. You could buy swords, pieces of armour, models of tanks, artillery etc. The options were endless. I spent some time chatting with one of the women that worked there. It was a pity I couldn’t afford anything. I imagine wielding a sword for the remainder of this tour wouldn’t have gone down too well though!
The Doors memorabilia was a little out of my price range!
Before leaving Hokitita the majority of the group perused the Jade Shop. Jade is on sale everywhere in New Zealand but the pieces, though well crafted, are inevitably expensive. I don’t doubt the skill involved in making the jewellery, but for these prices I’d be hoping for something like a diamond.
Heading on we drove through the Southern Alps and found the landscape changing once again. The mountains covered in trees were now bare and the rainforests were also behind us. The steep, winding road led us onto a brief stop at the far from encouragingly named “Death’s Corner.” It was host to a spectacular view but the main attraction was a kea that drew the group towards him before emptying his bowels. It certainly knew how to make an impression.
Before reaching Christchurch we stopped off for ice cream at Arthur’s Pass, drove past the scene of one of the battles in the first Narnia film and finally entered the Canterbury Plains. We soon came to Christchurch airport and enjoyed the luxury of a flight to Wellington that took less than an hour. We’d said farewell to our driver, Dave, in Christchurch and were now greeted by our new guide – Cameron.
The very assertive Kea!
Cameron’s first act of duty was loading all our suitcases, single-handedly, onto the coach. When he finally reached his seat and spoke to us through his microphone he was breathing heavily between words. Poor guy. Cameron spoke pretty quietly which didn’t impress some of the group but it may have been down to fatigue and he’d saved them a job loading luggage so I’m not sure what their problem was!
Driving through Wellington it was clear what a contrast the north island would be be compared to the south. The capital appears vast and somehow more modern than the towns on the south island. It was a pity we had little time here. The Ibis Hotel we stayed in was also on a larger scale than the previous hotels. We returned to the card that you need to swipe to get into your room but on entering and placing the card in another slot I was impressed to find not only did the whole room light up but the television came on as well. It had the message “Welcome Mr. Brown” imposed on a variety of viewing options, including the latest films. Can’t complain.
By the time I’d unpacked and showered it was after 9.00. The following day promised a half-day tour of Wellington. That left just the afternoon and evening to get a feel for the place. After that we’d be moving on yet again. The brevity of our stays in each town proved the only downside of the tour. To be fair the amount they crammed in across 31 days was pretty impressive. There’d be nothing stopping me from coming back to the places I most enjoyed in future.
The post Dave’s Odyssey #10 appeared first on News of the Worlds.
February 12, 2014
Masterpieces #5: Battle Royale
About Battle Royale (2000)
ONE DEAD. 41 TO GO.Battle Royale is back. Its time to return to the island and kill your friends, because the cult Japanese movie that defines twisted action and sickening violence is ready to shock you all over again.
In a world where teenagers have no respect and adults are losing control there can be only one solution: Battle Royale! Now, see what happens when you let a high school class loose on an island, arm them and then give them a simple choice… Kill your friends or have them kill you; with poison, cross-bows, machetes and dynamite. Beat Takeshi Kitano (Violent Cop, Zatoichi) is a teacher pushed to the edge by his unruly charges. Kidnapped and gassed, his class wake up with exploding metal rings around their necks. If they rebel, they could lose their heads. Now they have three days and only one is permitted to survive this grisly battle to the death.
Directed by the master of 70s Yakuza thrillers Kinji Fukasaku and featuring Kill Bill star Chiaki Kuriyama, Battle Royale is the movie that helped to define extreme Asian cinema in the 21st Century.
Starring: Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano, Taro Yamamoto, Masanobu Ando, Sôsuke Takaoka, Tatsuya Fujiwara
Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku
Runtime: 122 minutes
Studio: Anchor Bay
Amazon US Amazon UK IMDB
Battle Royale (2000)
I often feel that many of the best films these days are found not in Hollywood but in the diverse area of world cinema. I have watched films from across the globe over the last decade or so but, for me, the ultimate masterpiece comes from Japan in the form of Battle Royale. Based on Koushun Takami’s debut novel, Battle Royale tackles a controversial subject but still emerges as a great film in its own right. It would be easy to imagine many audiences being alienated by this film. The idea of a class of students, chosen at random, being left on an island and given three days to kill each other was not something I initially felt would appeal to me. Asian cinema can be extreme, in some cases too much for me, but there is much more to Battle Royale than the difficult premise.
Kinji Fukasaku’s film retains the essence of the controversial book. The film is set in the 21st century when Japanese society is in disarray, unemployment is rising and students at schools are worse than they have ever been. As a last resort the government passes the BR Act (Battle Royale) which ordains that each year a random class from a random school is abducted by the military and forced to partake of a cruel game. Each student is permitted to take their school bag, food supplies and also a second bag containing a random item which may be useful – a gun, a samurai sword – or something useless – a fan, a pot lid or binoculars. The class of students are released on a remote island and given three days to kill each other. If after three days more than one student is alive then they are all killed. For tracking purposes and to ensure everyone abides by the rules, the students each have collars with an explosive inside. To prevent anyone taking cover on the island, there are designated zones with a teacher back at headquarters announcing via speakers which zones are the danger ones at specific times of day. Should a student be in a zone during this time then their collars will detonate! The same fate awaits them if they try to leave the island.
The film keeps a counter of how many students are left as the story progresses and it becomes ever more gripping as only a handful remain. Not all students’ fates are accounted for but the film does impressively reveal the majority of endings for the classmates. Some refuse to partake of the game and choose suicide, others form groups and try to evade other students, but many quite worryingly have no issue with resorting to murder to ensure their own survival. The film is violent but what is intriguing about it is although the content is controversial I find it fascinating how these many individuals respond to their predicaments. In the Roman amphitheatres slaves were forced to fight to the death for entertainment and here we have a similar scenario. A class of loyal friends, bullies, couples and love struck teenagers are each able to face up to their separate grievances. Some students have the chance to get back at the bullies, while others decide they can now tell a fellow student that they have longed to be with them. Friendships are also ruined as suspicion and paranoia take over individual groups.
Although the film reveals the fates of many students the primary focus is on two of the classmates, Shuya (Tatsuya Fujiwara) and Noriko (Aki Maeda). Shuya sees his best friend killed before the game has even begun by former teacher, Kitano (Beat Takeshi Kitano), but he doesn’t resort to violence himself, instead choosing to protect Noriko. Shuya and Noriko join with the rest of the class in a fight for survival but have the added complication of two other participants – Shogo (Taro Yamamoto) and Kiriyama (Masanobu Ando). Shogo is something of a mystery but Kiriyama is in the game purely for bloodshed and is a relentless killing machine.
Battle Royale is fast-paced and action-packed once the students have been released on the island. No sooner has Shuya left the army headquarters than he comes under attack. There are some brilliant exchanges particularly where the ruthless Kiriyama is involved and although many of the students are self-serving in trying to survive, others sacrifice themselves to save others. As the number of students is gradually whittled down over the designated three days the audience will be intrigued how the film turns out in the end. There can be only one winner.
The arrival of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy caused some dispute amongst ardent Battle Royale fans who saw the struggle of Katniss in the arena as a blatant copy of Takami’s novel. I have read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire but am yet to read Mockingjay or see the films but still feel comfortable enough to weigh in on this discussion. In all honesty I believe that Suzanne Collins’ books are her own concept and that there are enough differences between her work and Battle Royale to suggest this. Others have gone so far as to say that Battle Royale and The Hunger Games owe a lot to Stephen King’s The Running Man. Maybe so, but you could argue that 70s cult classic Death Race 2000 could also be something of an influence depicting millions tuning in to watch slaughter as a group of drivers race across America and mow down pedestrians for game points. I’m sure there are other examples out there too.
As much as I enjoyed The Hunger Games, I do have a far greater preference for Battle Royale. It is a shame that the majority of film fans will know The Hunger Games but many will never have heard of Battle Royale. This is often the way with many wonderful films from world cinema. They are remade in Hollywood, very often poorly, and some people believe them to be original concepts. I’ve always found it particularly sad that Scorsese’s The Departed bagged the Oscar glory while Infernal Affairs, the film it is a remake of, is often overlooked. If you watched them side by side, you’d struggle to find many differences!
I can’t end an appraisal of Battle Royale on such a negative note though. Both the book and the film are classics of their medium. Battle Royale may be controversial in its depiction of senseless violence and a modern society brought to its knees, but it remains an undoubted masterpiece of world cinema with a large but memorable cast all contributing to the film’s countless moments of excellence. The Hunger Games wins out in the popularity stakes, no question, but Battle Royale is the hidden gem waiting to be discovered by many more film fans across the globe.
The post Masterpieces #5: Battle Royale appeared first on News of the Worlds.
February 10, 2014
This Week’s Films (10/02/14)
Black Moon Rising (1986) 
Quint, a shrewd, violent thief is working for the government to steal a tape containing incriminating evidence from a company under investigation. Quint drops the tape in super high-tech auto while on the run from a former colleague who caught him in the act, at which point the car is stolen. Now it is up to him to recover the evidence by stealing the car back while running from those who think he still has it.
Verdict: 5/10
Go to top
Pervert! (2005)
Russ Meyer would be proud! Salacious porn princess and ex-gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey heads a cast of scantily-clad, buxom vixens whose tops are popping amidst a devious serial killer wreaking havoc by splattering buckets of gore. Perpetually horny James (Sean Andrews) is spending the summer with his bible-preaching, whore-loving father when gruesome deaths, objectifying sculptures and a sexy lesbian nurse disrupt his visit. This instant cult classic salutes sexploitation comedies with female flesh, a bloody hex, and above all, sex!
Verdict: 4/10
Go to top
Trash (1970)
The story of Joe [Dallesandro] and his lover-protector, Holly [Woodlawn], who is something to behold, a comic book Mother Courage who fancies herself as Marlene Dietrich but sounds more like Phil Silvers. Joe and Holly try to make a go of things in their Lower East Side basement, from which Holly goes forth from time to time to cruise the Fillmore East and to scavenge garbage cans, while Joe’s journeys are in search of real junk… Trash is true-blue movie-making, funny and vivid.
Verdict: 6/10
Go to top
Matando Cabos (2004)
The planned kidnapping of a Mexico City businessman hits a slapstick snag when mistaken identity leads to a pair of botched abductions by two equally inept gangs. Can a retired pro wrestler and his midget sidekick solve the crimes? Find out in this wild caper comedy.
Verdict: 9/10
Return to Horror High (1987)
Movie producer Harry Sleerik wants to recreate the notorious Crippen High killings for the big screen using some of the school’s original employees to play themselves. But filming starts to go horribly wrong when, one by one, cast and crew begin to disappear. The local cops are baffled, so two of the movie’s young stars team up and launch an investigation of their own. Slowly but surely gruesome similarities between murderous fact and movie fiction begin to emerge, finally leading the pair down a mysterious tunnel to a macabre room and the horrifying answer to the unsolved slaughter at Crippen High.
Verdict: 3/10
Shame (2011)
Thirty-something Brandon Sullivan is a New York yuppie. He is also a sex addict who thinks about sex all the time when he’s not having sex. He surfs for porn on his work computer, masturbates often even in his office’s men’s room, and eyes strange women in whatever situation he’s in in the hopes of having quick anonymous sex with them. He hides his sex addiction from those few people in his life who he lets in in an emotional sense, unlike his married boss, David Fisher, who is open about his marital infidelities to his male work colleagues. And the act of sex holds no emotional connotation whatsoever for Brandon. The arrival back into his life and his apartment of his sister Sissy Sullivan, from who he was estranged due to the emotional baggage associated, changes Brandon’s life, especially in what he can do in what used to be the privacy and sanctity of his apartment. Sissy, unlike Brandon, sees sex and emotional attachment as one in the same. Brandon’s life begins to spiral out of control following Sissy’s arrival. He gains a better understanding, albeit an unpleasant one, of his life following an incident involving Sissy.
Verdict: 7/10
Man with the Screaming Brain (2005)
Man with the Screaming Brain is a story of greed, betrayal and revenge in the big, bad city. William Cole, wealthy industrialist, winds up with part of his brain replaced by that of Yegor, a Bulgarian street hustler. The two couldn’t be more different, but they share one thing – both were killed by the same woman. Brought back to life by a mad scientist, William and Yegor form an unlikely partnership to track down their common nemesis.
Verdict: 4/10
The Divide (2011)
When a cataclysmic explosion devastates New York, eight strangers take refuge in the basement of their apartment building, a converted fallout shelter. The shelter suddenly comes under attack by men in hazmat suits forcing the strangers to join forces in a desperate bid to take on the new enemy.
Amid the chaos there is no real understanding of what these hazmats are looking for and what drives them to be so merciless. Their sanctuary becomes a living hell where the survivors must use their wits to save themselves from becoming victims of the pack in a thrilling, action-packed finale.
Verdict: 6/10
Before the Rain (1994)
The first film made in the newly independent Republic of Macedonia, Milcho Manchevski’s Before the Rain crosscuts the stories of an orthodox Christian monk (Grégoire Colin), a British photo agent (Katrin Cartlidge), and a native Macedonian war photographer (Rade Šerbedžija) to paint a portrait of simmering, entrenched ethnic and religious hatred about to reach its boiling point. Made during the strife of the war-torn Balkan states in the nineties, this gripping triptych of love and violence is also a timeless evocation of the loss of pastoral innocence, and remains one of recent cinema’s most poetic evocations of the futility of war.
Verdict: 8/10
Picture Perfect (1997)
Kate (Jennifer Aniston) is an ambitious career girl who wants to climb the career ladder but her boss really only gives promotions to people who are attached. To achieve this, she pretends that she is due to marry Nick (Jay Mohr), a man she met at a wedding recently and whom she only really knows through a photograph she got from her friend. Kate is meanwhile attracted to her co-worker Sam (Kevin Bacon) who is only interested in women who are attached. Matters are complicated when Kate’s boss expresses an interest in meeting Nick. Oops!
Verdict: 5/10
The post This Week’s Films (10/02/14) appeared first on News of the Worlds.
