Filmography
Jan. 1st, 2012 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilyThis is the post to round off the films watched in 2011; new numbering system begins next post! Didn't quite make it to 52 this year, but given that I did watch the new series of Downton Abbey and Doc Martin without filmographising them, I think they probably mean I managed it. These are brief because dinner is in the oven and I am hungry.
Starship Troopers
I still hadn't seen this, now I have. A satirical piss-take, albeit very cleverly done, of pro-military-industrial-complex films, done through the medium of mankind's war against alien bugs. Considering it was made in 1997, there are some surprisingly prescient things in this, particularly about the role of the media and popular perception of military action. There is also a very naked fascist ideology, even down to the second world war-style uniforms, which gets more and more extreme as the film goes on (gently luring you in, actually - once you've accepted one element, it's a bit worrying how easily you accept the lot). Rather on the splatter-fest side - I spent quite a lot of it hiding behind G - but worth it for the overall architectonic.
Whoops Apocolypse
Fairly forgettable farce based on what would happen if the British Prime Minister went stark raving bonkers and was prepared to start nuclear war over a small and otherwise unimportant imperial outpost somewhere in South America. Clearly fuelled by Cold War concerns. The Americans are the good guys, although their previous president is in a chain gang. A couple of good visual gags, but not ultimately a must-see. Fairly on the nail critique of British imperialist mentality, though.
The Assassination Bureau
1960s nonsense with Oliver Reed and Diana Rigg essentially doing The Avengers. Diana Rigg is superb, Oliver Reed is surprisingly handsome and dashing. Rigg's character has uncovered a secret assassination bureau, selling death, and determines to undermine it by commissioning its chairman's murder; the chairman (Reed) takes this as a sporting challenge to his board to kill him before he kills them, thus reinforcing his conviction that the bureau should only kill those who deserve killing. The vice-chairman, a newspaper proprietor played devilishly well by Telly Savalas, is all in favour of the chairman's death since it means he will take over the Bureau and use it for his political ends. There is a zepplin. Good fun.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Oh, they said this had got its mojo back, and indeed it has! Gone are Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, who insisted at being at the center of the second and third film despite not really having the guts for it. Back is Cap'n Jack Sparrow, once again allowed to be all inventive and plotty and more clever than he looks, and also back is a nice, simple plot that doesn't suddenly try to create things like pirate councils and other hitherto unexpected mythic substrate which descend, ex machina, for very flimsy reasons. We have a simple quest for the fountain of youth with various imperial and piratical powers racing to be the first to get there, and Sparrow playing the players off against each other. The characters have fun. The creative team have realised that there actually is such a thing as too much CGI and too many set pieces, and have scaled back to allow the landscape to create most of the spectacle. Most of the fight scenes are, actually, very simple, involving an uncomplicated relationship with the landscape (or urbanscape) they occur in, very little in the way of whizzy ridiculousness, just good slash n' thrust swordplay.
Basically, the franchise feels as if it's decided that what it's really about is having piratical shenanigans, and if we must have a love story, it can be safely boxed off in a sub-compartment that doesn't impair the really quite good dynamic between Jonny Depp and Penelope Cruz. So, overall, definitely yay. It's not trying to do too much and, as such, succeeds at being good entertainment.
Sherlock Holmes
Watched on Christmas Eve when it appeared on television. This is the Robert Downey Jr one from 2009. Actually very entertaining. Some lovely cinematic touches with the world-building and the sets, not to mention some nice work with the actual shots. Also a pleasingly daft set of characters, and I thought they worked the balance of tension out between slashy-Holmes/Watson and Watson's financee very nicely. I am definitely looking forward to watching the new one.
Starship Troopers
I still hadn't seen this, now I have. A satirical piss-take, albeit very cleverly done, of pro-military-industrial-complex films, done through the medium of mankind's war against alien bugs. Considering it was made in 1997, there are some surprisingly prescient things in this, particularly about the role of the media and popular perception of military action. There is also a very naked fascist ideology, even down to the second world war-style uniforms, which gets more and more extreme as the film goes on (gently luring you in, actually - once you've accepted one element, it's a bit worrying how easily you accept the lot). Rather on the splatter-fest side - I spent quite a lot of it hiding behind G - but worth it for the overall architectonic.
Whoops Apocolypse
Fairly forgettable farce based on what would happen if the British Prime Minister went stark raving bonkers and was prepared to start nuclear war over a small and otherwise unimportant imperial outpost somewhere in South America. Clearly fuelled by Cold War concerns. The Americans are the good guys, although their previous president is in a chain gang. A couple of good visual gags, but not ultimately a must-see. Fairly on the nail critique of British imperialist mentality, though.
The Assassination Bureau
1960s nonsense with Oliver Reed and Diana Rigg essentially doing The Avengers. Diana Rigg is superb, Oliver Reed is surprisingly handsome and dashing. Rigg's character has uncovered a secret assassination bureau, selling death, and determines to undermine it by commissioning its chairman's murder; the chairman (Reed) takes this as a sporting challenge to his board to kill him before he kills them, thus reinforcing his conviction that the bureau should only kill those who deserve killing. The vice-chairman, a newspaper proprietor played devilishly well by Telly Savalas, is all in favour of the chairman's death since it means he will take over the Bureau and use it for his political ends. There is a zepplin. Good fun.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Oh, they said this had got its mojo back, and indeed it has! Gone are Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, who insisted at being at the center of the second and third film despite not really having the guts for it. Back is Cap'n Jack Sparrow, once again allowed to be all inventive and plotty and more clever than he looks, and also back is a nice, simple plot that doesn't suddenly try to create things like pirate councils and other hitherto unexpected mythic substrate which descend, ex machina, for very flimsy reasons. We have a simple quest for the fountain of youth with various imperial and piratical powers racing to be the first to get there, and Sparrow playing the players off against each other. The characters have fun. The creative team have realised that there actually is such a thing as too much CGI and too many set pieces, and have scaled back to allow the landscape to create most of the spectacle. Most of the fight scenes are, actually, very simple, involving an uncomplicated relationship with the landscape (or urbanscape) they occur in, very little in the way of whizzy ridiculousness, just good slash n' thrust swordplay.
Basically, the franchise feels as if it's decided that what it's really about is having piratical shenanigans, and if we must have a love story, it can be safely boxed off in a sub-compartment that doesn't impair the really quite good dynamic between Jonny Depp and Penelope Cruz. So, overall, definitely yay. It's not trying to do too much and, as such, succeeds at being good entertainment.
Sherlock Holmes
Watched on Christmas Eve when it appeared on television. This is the Robert Downey Jr one from 2009. Actually very entertaining. Some lovely cinematic touches with the world-building and the sets, not to mention some nice work with the actual shots. Also a pleasingly daft set of characters, and I thought they worked the balance of tension out between slashy-Holmes/Watson and Watson's financee very nicely. I am definitely looking forward to watching the new one.
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-01 11:10 pm (UTC)I think the problem with any political comedy is that they are based on the issues of the day so 25 years later they seem less relevant.
If you view it with the politics of mid-80s in mind: the Falklands, the very real threat of the cold war, the Thatcher government and some of the political figures of the day, it is very well done.