Rev Stan's film blog

Guillermo del Toro is back, sort of: Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark

Pan's Labyrinth is one of my all time favourite films so if his name is attached to something then I immediately prick up my ears.

Del Toro didn't direct Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark but he co-wrote and produced it and it certainly has his mark stamped on it.

Like Pan's it blends reality and fantasy but this time is set in contemporary America rather than in Spain during the civil war. Young girl Sally (Bailee Madison) has been sent to live with her father and his new girlfriend in a big old house they are doing up to sell on. She is depressed and it is hoped the change will bring her out of her shell.

When Sally discovers a hidden basement and hears her name being called from behind an old fire grate she is initially curious and pleased thinking she's found new friends. But they turn out to be not quite as friendly as she first thought, in fact they don't just want her for a friend.

Unfortunately for Sally her busy Dad (Guy Pearce) and his girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) just think she's misbehaving.

What I love about del Toro's style is that his fantastical elements have such a dark and sinister edge that harks back to the old fairytales before Disney got their hands on them and made them all cutesy and cuddly. Of course Don't Be Afraid, like Pan's, is not a children's film it's a 15 certificate and here in lies the problem.

Great LOTR fun reel

This has been around for a while but I've only just discovered it. Am planning  LOTR-a-thon at Christmas as it's been a few years since I watched them.

 

Stan's 10 favourite things from the Harry Potter films

It is with a mixture of sadness, excitement and worry that the final film instalment of the Harry Potter story approaches. Sadness because it will be the end, excitement because it's a Harry Potter film and worry because I'm getting trailer-nerves. They have done a pretty good job of interpreting the books, adding excitement and layers of imagination to the books albeit with one or two dubious choices and one really bad one.

But putting that all to one side, I've spent the last few weeks re-watching all the films in order and it's reminded me of individual delights. The result is this list, my favourite scenes, and it has been extremely tough whittling it down. Have I missed a particularly good one?

1. Mirror of Erised, Philosopher's Stone

Harry discovers a mirror in which he can see himself with his parents, Dumbledore later discovers him and tells him that the mirror shows your deepest hearts desire. Despite the first book being the most child-like and fun this was such a moving and poignant moment, it never fails to bring a tear to my eye - a scene which is nicely mirrored, for want of a better word, by the grave yard scene in Deathly Hallows part 1

2. Whomping willow, Chamber of Secrets

Always makes me smile, the tree with attitude that terrorises birds and Hogwarts students alike. Especially like it when it decides to shed its leaves for winter and just shivers them off.

3. The Knight Bus, Prisoner of Azkaban

So much to like about the bus: the way it shrinks to fit between on-coming traffic, the talking shrunken heads hanging in the window, the way the beds on the bus are all on wheels and move around as the bus swerves and breaks and of course Harry having to peel his face of the window it comes to an abrupt stop outside the Leaky Cauldron - having of course nudged a park car setting off it's alarm.

4. The Yule Ball, Goblet of Fire

The teenage trio take their first tentative steps onto the road of romance and the sexual tension crackles from Harry awkwardly taking his first dance to Hermione's exasperated, high-pitched rant. It is one of the joyful scenes that reminds you of your own early teen romances and unrequited love and also a rare moment when the three can forget the trials and tribulations of magical life.

X-Men: First in Class

Pre-quels are curious things. Is it a sign of desperation, that the writers have run out of ideas for taking the characters forward or that the previously disregarded back-story is now deemed suitable script fodder? I'm not a comic book expert so I have no idea whether X-Men: First Class fits into either of those categories (please do let me know - my life is too full of other mindless internet surfing these days).

Which leads to the key question is it worth it? Well I can answer that with a resounding 'yes' - every one of the 243 minutes. And the reason why it works is purely down to the cast.

This is much more of a character-led film than the other X-Men movies. In a nutshell it's about how Professor X came to be in wheelchair and arch enemy of  Magneto but in having such skilled actors as James McAvoy (Xavier) and Michael Fassbender (Erik/Magneto) what you get is the depth of character necessary to elevate this above the usual movie froth. 

When the camera pans to Xavier's tear-filled eyes and pained face you genuinely believe that he has been inside Erik's head and witnessed the horrors and subsequent pain he experienced as a child. It gives the characters the heart and soul and connection needed to get the audiences buy-in to the rest of the story  which revolves around the cuban missile crisis. 

The short review for the longest film title: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 3D*

Wasn't going to go and see Pirates 4, they've gone downhill rapidly since the first. Then I was offered a free ticket to a private preview screening...

So what was it like? Well it is certainly more coherent than Pirates 3 but overall it is just mildly entertaining. The problem is that we've seen and heard it all before in the first three films: the fights, the escapes and the Jack Sparrow jokes, nothing is new.

OK so there are mermaids in this, which were very well done and probably the best bit and there is no wooden acting by Orlando Bloom but ultimately the story just feels pedestrian. It follows three different parties racing to find the fountain of youth - the Spanish, the British led by Barbosa (the ever wonderful Jeffrey Rush) and Black Beard who is forcing Cap'n Jack to navigate.

Ten minutes in I asked myself: "Would I care if the film projector broke now and I never got to see the rest of the film?" And the answer was "No". The story just feels like a loose structure on which to pin the aforementioned fights, escapes and Jack Sparrow jokes.

Love Johnny Depp but it's time for Cap'n Jack to hang up it hat. Please.

I'm giving it 38%, Rotten Tomatoes aggregated critics rating is 39% from 121 reviews with a surprisingly high user rating of 86% so perhaps it is one for the kids. Metacritic gives it a rating of 45% from 30 reviews but has yet to register a user rating.

Don't fooled into thinking that the film is as exciting as the trailers looks:

 

Another cracking indie Brit flick: Island

British filmmakers have been ploughing a rich seam in the last 18 months. There have been some cracking low-budget indie flicks - Skeletons and Monsters to name just two. And directing duo Brek Taylor and Elizabeth Mitchell's debut, Island, is another to be added to that list.

OK there are one or two clunky moments but this is an otherwise beautifully shot and acted piece which is intriguing from the outset. Protagonist Nikki (Natalie Press) travels to a remote and bleak island, hell-bent on revenge on her mother Phyllis (Janet McTeer*) who abandoned her as a child. But her plans go awry when she realises she has a brother, Callum (Colin Morgan**) and her mission becomes more about wresting him from matriarchal control.

But weaving its way, like a cat around its owner's legs at meal times, are a series of delightful myths and legends which Nikki and Callum tell each other - almost recreating the childhood they never had together. It lends the story a hint of the fairytale but fairytale of the Grimm vein where there is hint of the grotesque and sinister. Something that is not that far from the truth as revealed in the films final scenes.

Definitely a palette cleanser after the dreadfulness of recent Hollywood fare I've enjoyed it packs a lot of visual and emotional punch. It gets 79% from me but as it has such a limited release at present doesn't yet feature on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic so you'll have to take my word for it.

 * After the screening there was a Q&A with Brek and Elizabeth who said that Juliet Stevenson and Anne Marie Duff were originally lined up for the female leads. Can't quite see that working as well somehow despite them being such good actors.

** Doing a wonderful Scottish accent - he really is a master but would love to see him do something in his native Northern Irish at some point

 

Hollywood fairytales part 2: Beastly or 'oh dear'

This is a film I wouldn't normally touch with a barge pole but I have this fascination with Alex Pettyfer* and the terrible film choices he seems to be making. He's on my list of car crash cinema stars (with Robert Pattinson) mainly because I live in the hope that his intelligence will match his looks and he'll spot a decent project and learn to act properly.

But before I launch into a Kermodian tirade about how terrible Beastly is as a film (and it isn't great) I want to preface it by saying that I actually enjoyed it more than Red Riding Hood.

Hollywood fairytales part 1: Red Riding Hood

I have to confess that watching Red Riding Hood last weekend made me feel old. Not because of the usual stuff, actors getting younger etc but because I spent a large chunk of the film thinking: 'they'll catch their death wearing that in the snow'.

But then that is the problem with this film. If I'm thinking such inane thoughts while I'm watching then it just isn't engaging enough. There are some nice bits in this reimaging of the traditional fairytale, for instance I liked the 'who dunnit?' element of outing the wolf and there is a nice-ish twist towards the end.

The key issue is that in sexing up the fairy-tale to appeal to teens while giving it children's book look and feel isn't a comfortable partnership.

Ready for a reboot: Tron Legacy 3D

All I can remember about the first Tron film is futuristic cars making sharp 90 degree turns and I admit that my main motive for seeing Tron Legacy is that I just fancied a pre-Christmas, mindless popcorn movie.

And at least this was made in 3D so it's not as uncomfortable as watching something retro-fitted - although I still don't see what it actually added. Tron Legacy is a visually stunning film all black and white with splashes of neon. Perhaps it's just the amateur photographer in me but I just love the reflections in all those shiny surfaces.

Anyway, like the last visually stunning, shot in 3D film I saw (Avatar) the plot is fairly slim and predictable. Digital world Tron's original creator, Kevin Flynn, disappears ones night leaving his son Sam an orphan. When the grown up Sam (Garrett Hedlund) goes to investigate the origins of a pager message from his father's now abandoned former office he inadvertently ends up inside the digital world his father created.

Narnia: Voyage of the Yawn Treader

You have to feel a little bit sorry for this third instalment in the Chronicles of Narnia coming out when Harry Potter 7a (as they like to call it on Wittertainment) is still riding high in the movie charts. Next to the bespectacled wizard, CS Lewis' stories show their age although the influence on JK Rowlings books is stark.

Both carry at their heart the battle between good and evil; the problem with Narnia, and in particularly the Dawn Treader, is that the story comes across as overly moralistic and the religious metaphors lack any subtlety.

A further problem with Dawn Treader is that its central story thread just feels, well a little lacklustre. In the Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe there was the excitement of discovering Narnia and freeing it from the icy grip of the White Witch. Prince Caspian had a wronged handsome prince fighting to get what was rightfully his back.

The story of Dawn Treader sees some characters we've never heard about before have disappeared into the mist. Literally. So Prince Caspian and the two youngest Pevensie children, Edmund and Lucy, accompanied by a reluctant cousin Eustace decide to go and find them.

What follows is a predictable and linnear narrative. When we are told that the mist will bring to the fore a person's darkest fears (inspiration for deatheaters anyone?) you can easily tick off the list of the effects it is going to have on each of the central characters. That Eustace starts out as an obnoxious, albeit quite an amusing, brat and will have some sort of epiphany turning him into a hero too is obvious.