Dir Larry Charles

Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Sir Ben Kingsley

Runtime 80mins, Rating 15.

Plot summary: The heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.

Sacha Baron Cohen’s Channel 4 series “Da Ali G Show” rocketed him to international success and acclaim roughly ten years ago – the three main characters from that show have each enjoyed cinematic outings (to varying degrees of success) making the Dictator, General Aladeen his 1st original character to grace the silver screen. “Original” may be a misnomer however, as Aladeen is a gestalt surrogate used to embody every despotic cliché one can imagine.

The plot, such as it is, borrows heavily from Coming to America – Aladeen is ungraciously ripped from his luxuriant lifestyle and plonked penniless in Manhattan, shorn of comedy oversized beard or fawning acolytes. This fish out of water discovers he has a few days to reclaim his rightful place before Machiavellian antagonists replace him permanently and sell off his assets to Western corporations hungry for his nation’s oil reserves. As chance would have it, Aladeen crosses paths with a vegan feminist (Faris). Soon his path to redemption begins to unfurl in front of him.

Of course, all of this is mere place-setting for a relentless torrent of gags & skits that mine the baser depths of the comedy spectrum. Choosing a South Park-style approach to political correctness; every minority, race, religion, style tribe & lifestyle choice is attacked in some form of gross out gag, misanthropic put-down, or withering disdain. To SBC’s credit, the jokes come flying so frequently that even with roughly a 50% hit rate there’s enough wrongness to keep most audience members chuckling along.

With a runtime that barely eclipses an hour before the credits roll, the Dictator is brief enough to not outstay its welcome, but it does smack somewhat of a wasted opportunity that potentially could have provided a far more pointed and biting satire. A climactic speech hints at contemporaneous observational insight that could have achieved more were it spread throughout the movie.

SBC’s previous films have relied on using members of the public to be shocked into unwitting reactions and the spontaneous comedy that comes from these moments– the rodeo in Borat, the fashion show in Bruno and so on. With the Dictator, Cohen’s star has risen so high that such shock tactics would have proven futile. Consequently, with this scripted excursion , it feels like he has gone out of his way to be significantly more offensive and puerile to elicit a reaction from the paying audience. Whether he succeeds is something that only your own comedy sensibilities can decide: certainly some audience members chose to walk out at the screening I attended.

Unfortunately, the final impression is of somebody trying a bit too hard to replicate former glories and coming up short. Cohen is a natural comedian and a brilliant character actor – his turns in both Hugo and Sweeney Todd were both extremely good, which leads this reviewer to conclude that perhaps he is better suited to playing along in other people’s films.

The Dictator – you probably will laugh, but you won’t be proud of yourself for doing so.

2.5/5

This review was originally written for and posted on Blogomatic 3000

Welcome to Clockwork Shorts – allow me to wish you a joyous, fruitful and relaxing holiday season, wherever you are.  When you find that you have a bit of time to kill, please bookmark and come back here to enjoy my round up of movies & music from 2011..

After a couple of weeks of fairly intensive blogging, it’s time to wave a fond farewell to this year and count down the days until Armageddon (Friday 21st December 2012, just in case you weren’t sure).
I thought it would only be sensible to provide a page with links to all the other posts to ease your navigation & my organisation, so here we all are!

Firstly, and most importantly:

THE CLOCKWORK SHORTS XMAS “BEST OF 2011″ MIX CAN BE FOUND HERE

Please have a listen – you may even be pleasantly surprised, who knows? I think I’ve managed to largely keep the bagpipe techno and Navajo nose flute whistling to only a few tunes this year, so perhaps the rest is vaguely tolerable.

Whilst we’re on the mixing theme, let’s count the rest of them down:

MIXES

12: House, Funky, Minimal & Techno

11: Wobble Bass Hip Hop

10: Ghoststep II – Chilled Dubstep & Future Garage

9: Banging Rave & Wobble Mix

8: Heads Down Percussive Funky & Tropical

7: Heavy Dubstep & Brostep Mix

6: Classic Chill Out & Trip Hop Mix

5: 100bpm Lounge & Bass Mix

4: Bliss Drone Ambient Chill Mix

3: Acid House & Techno Mix

2: Chilled Dubstep Mix

1: Bass & Rave, Juke & Jungle Mix

Staying on the topic of music, we should next tackle my choices for Top Ten Albums of 2011.  I tend to prefer to just mix music and let it speak for itself than write about it normally, so this was a bit of an experiment for me.  I hope they were of adequate quality to your delectation..

THE ALBUMS OF 2011

10: Vanilla – High Life

9: James Blake – James Blake

8: Lanu – Her Twelve Faces

7: Gatto Fritto – Gatto Fritto

6: Sun Glitters – Everything Could Be Fine

5: Africa Hitech – 93 Million Miles

4: Rustie – Glass Swords

3: Kuedo – Severant

2: Machinderum – Room(s)

1: Amon Tobin – ISAM

oh, and of course, Bjork’s Biophilia was my chosen Stinker of the Year .

Last but by no means least is my selection of the Top Ten Films of the Year, quite a hard list to choose, I Must say:

THE FILMS OF 2011

10: BUNRAKU

9: The Woman

8: Hesher

7: Hanna

6: Marwencol

5: Take Shelter

4: Rango

3: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

2: Submarine

1: Tree Of Life

Transformers 3D was my chosen Stinker of the Year and in actual fact I got so worked up about it that I accidentally typed out a 2,000 word essay on the matter.. So, that should kill a lunch break when you’re bored, I reckon.

I feel I should make a disclaimer of sorts – there are many films that might well have made the list that I am still keen to see but have as yet failed to do so: Drive, Tinker Tailor, Kill List, The Ides of March, Contagion and War Horse are just a handful that spring to mind. Still circumstance can prevent these things from happening sometimes, and anyway, what the hell’s the point in my wittering on about a film that you know and like already?

In actual fact, if you’re morbidly curious, you can see a complete chronological list of films I’ve watched in 2011 HERE .  Yes, there IS an awful lot of dreck, isn’t there?

A considerable amount of time effort and energy has been put into getting all of this content onto Clockwork Shorts, so I genuinely do hope that you find the time and the inclination to read at least one or two articles, dip your ears in one of the mixes, hey maybe even share the links with other people you think might enjoy a good read, dance, or even a meditation tape.

Please come back in 2012 when I will do my damndest to get some more movie reviews written, along with the regular(-ish) monthly mixes and perhaps some exciting surprises (woo!)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you – may your loved ones remain happy and healthy, and let us all snuggle together as we watch the gradual crumbling of society and civilised behaviour whilst Armageddon looms ahead.. Only twelve months to go, let’s make the most of it, or failing that, at least get to see Batman in the IMAX.

ta ta for now.

Duncan Orangewarrior

Inevitably there were some rotten films in 2011. Some, I was alert enough to avoid like the plague and spare myself the harm: Twilight for example, or Mars Needs Moms, or Hop, or Apollo 18. Others, I somehow managed to subject myself to: Russel Brand’s Arthur springs to mind. Brand’s charmless pasquinade of English eccentricity coming off as a mentally subnormal Mick Jagger lookalike managed to push Anti-UK xenophobia back another century and smashed up the Batmobile in the process. Still, I can’t quite muster the energy to rattle off a full Bottom Ten of terrible films. I’m sure you saw the ones you hated the most.

That being said however, I have a particular axe to grind, and whilst I may as well be bellowing into the abyss, I may as well as get it off my chest.

Let’s go back, let’s go way back.. Let’s go all the way back to 1984, Surrey, England. A rather excitable carrot-topped 7 year old is to be found sat in front of the sitting room telly in his tartan pyjamas and dressing gown. Wacaday’s been and gone and He-Man’s just finished, so it’s not long before it’ll be time to turn over to Saturday Superstore, but just then before he gets up to press the big “1″ button, something quite magical happens.. This:

Of course the little ginge was me, and as I sat there entranced by these cars and planes that could magically turn into fighting robots with axes and chain maces for hands, I instantly fell in love.

Now, it could well be that you’re sat there in the 21st Century sneering at the judgement of a small child from 30-odd years ago, but so it goes sometimes. Other kids had Star Wars (remember that?) but My Thing was Transformers. Yea, Bandai tried to con us with Gobots, but you can’t just tell kids that a windscreen is a face, where are the eyes for starters?? Don’t even get me started on Rock Lords. . . I would save up all of my pocket money to get my hands on the little toy blighters (not Bumblebee though – he was rubbish). I dutifully went to see the cartoon film in ’85 and wept as Optimus died (spoilers!); I even recall co-ordinating one birthday party’s presents, Cartman-like, so that I might hope to have all of the Arialbots to combine into Superion.
For several years I would get the Marvel comic delivered with my parents’ newspapers – woe betide the paperboy if a Friday breakfast was Transformers-light. Little did I realise it at such a tender age, but on a weekly basis, I was enjoying some of the finest science fiction / pulp storytelling and mythology building, courtesy of the inestimable Simon Furman. Yes, the cartoons were just glorified toy commercials, but Furman’s work rounded the Autobots and Decepticons into fallible personalities, just as nuanced as their human counterparts.

There does of course come a time to put away childish things, and once Transformers UK reached its 200th issue in early ’89 I decided it was time to cancel my subscription and give away all the comic books. After all, Warhammer 40,000 looked Far more grown up (tragic isn’t it?) Still, that intense five year first love affair had left an indelible mark – one that still has me getting irrationally excited by anything with a fearsome looking robot in it: be it an album cover, a work of art (graffiti normally) or, would you believe, a multi-million dollar movie franchise that boasts some of the biggest explosions recorded on film.

So yes, I’ve wasted all of your time up until now with my Harry Knowles-style confessional autobiography to establish one vital, important fact. I bloody LOVE Transformers.

Which of course brings us to the Paramount / Dreamworks / Hasbro car-wreck (literally) that is Michael Bay’s Transformers.
The first one was pretty good in retrospect, it seemed to be in keeping with the stories from the 80s, cosmetic adjustments aside. We got to see the Cybertronian War come to Earth and we got to see giant robots punch each other in the head for a couple of hours, so that was a result. Whilst slight and brainless, it also felt like it was laying the groundwork for a larger, epic storyline that would be delivered in the sequel.. Transformers 2 though, oh my, what a mess, what a disappointment! I wrote a review at the time which you can find on this site, and I desperately tried to convince myself that it was not that bad, choosing to enjoy the effects and ignore the flaws, but really the film was an affront to pretty much everyone who went to see it – I mean, the trailers had made it look like a fantastically epic adventure, but instead we got lazy racism, bad humour, and giant clanking robot testicles.
Audiences continued to flock to the spectacle but were equally vocal about what a hollow, trashy, and offensive film it was.

When the inevitable threequel was announced, Michael Bay, Shia TheBeef and many others went to great pains to proclaim that this time it would be different – there had been a writer’s strike last time; this one would go much deeper into the Transformers mythology; the crap humour and racism had been excised; we’d concentrate on the robots more than the humans. It’s be this, it’d be that, it’d be everything you wanted from a film called Transformers.
It Would Be Awesome.

Trailers can often be misleading, and Bay’s team have a disturbing knack of putting exciting ones together. It would take a cold heart to deny that this looks like a fun time is to be had in the cinema:

3 hours of robot carnage – of interplanetary war, of Cybertronian Armageddon: cool fight scenes, human peril and robots in disguise.
Sadly however, the truth was quite another story altogether.

First off, Shia’s character Sam is the most hateable human being in the entirety of cinema’s existence – whining about how he only got a medal for “saving the world” and resenting his rent-free unemployed residence in the home of a sexually adventurous lingerie model. Sympathetic protagonist or relatable hero he ain’t, and from the first scene of his bile spewing rhetoric, you can’t wait for him to get crushed underfoot by a malevolent mechanoid.
The other humans don’t fare so well either – said aforementioned model seemingly lacks the ability to say words in her mother tongue, the tedious unfunny parents are back, the shouty US Marines are more of a cypher than actual characters, and indie alumni like John Malkovich & Frances McDormand really have no excuse whatsoever.

As if the dead eyed human tedium wasn’t bad enough, there is a full NINETY minutes of seemingly interminable mugging to camera before anything remotely of interest happens. When it eventually does, none of it makes any sense, and nobody cares. The film can’t even be bothered to follow it’s own internal logic, just blindly stumbling from one incomprehensible blender-fart of a set piece to the next without any regard for the laws of, say, storytelling, basic physics, audience interest, or entertainment.

One pleasant side effect of the (near-inscrutable) 3D stereoscopic presentation of this film was that it HAD to slow down the action to give people’s brains time to process exactly what was happening on screen – for several moments in the film, you can indeed work out vaguely what is supposed to be going on, but Michael Bay just can’t help himself and the next flash frame we’re off up some girl’s skirt, laughing at a tiny robot making sex /fart jokes, or just happily dribbling out the sides of our mouths. If this is indeed “Fucking The Frame” then maybe Bay should try taking the frame for dinner first, lighting some candles, putting on some Alexander O’Neal, and taking his time for once, rather than rutting away innefectively like an ADD-afflicted teenager dry humping a puddle of motor oil whilst listening to Nu Metal cds.

What is possibly the most offensive aspect of the entire franchise to this lifelong Transformers fan is just how completely and utterly fucking dickless the Autobots are. Admittedly, they’ve taken a pasting in the past, and one had put it down to narrative tension, but this is the third (and supposedly final..until the B.O. receipts came in) installment, so it should be their time to shine. But no as ever, Optimus and his gang are just as ineffective as ever, paying fealty to their draconian human overlords and perpetually apologising for their own existence.

The Big Hero Moment of the film was teased in the trailers and it was a shot that every Transformers fan wanted to see – Optimus riding into town with a jetpack on his back and flaming swords in each hand: taking names, chopping limbs and cracking skulls… But in the actual film, that isn’t the end of the story, no he keeps on flying along like Frank Spencer on rollerskates, totally out of control and ending up tangled in a mess of wires, mumbling apologies and thank yous as some nameless droids cut him free and the grown ups get on with the important business of saving the world. Seriously, if you can’t allow the Hero of the film to behave like a hero, then why are we even here? Give the guy some dignity for chrissakes.

Although disappointed by the film when led by the nose to see it in IMAX 3D over the Summer, I figured I could have just been having a bad day and decided to give it a second shot when the bluray came out. It was about an hour into the film that a “hilariously” orange spray-tanned John Malkovich could be seen threatening Bumblebee with karate chops. Like everything else in this film, it was stupid, pointless, devoid of any logic or narrative, and basically quite boring. It was at this point that the wife & I decided to turn it off and watch Spooks instead.

So, Congratulations Michael Bay, over the course of three films you have manage to make me hate the things I loved – I would rather watch an over-wrought British facsimile of 24 than endure another minute of your mindless dreck. I’m sure you couldn’t care less, and will happily rest easy in your mansion built entirely out of dollar bills and bikini thongs, but it is a sad day indeed for an individual such as I who was once so passionate and enthusiastic about the ongoing exploits of our Cybertronian allies.

Transformers 3: Dark Of The Moon is without a doubt the worst film of the year. Avoid it at all costs.

You didn’t honestly think it’d be anything else, did you?

I was lucky enough to attend an early preview for the Tree Of Life and was so fit-to-bursting with superlatives that I swiftly dashed home and laid out my thoughts. You can of course still read that initial review HERE.

Having seen the film twice now, and with a bit of time to consider & compile my thoughts, I must say there is little from that initial review that I would change. What has been fascinating to me has been the public profile & evolution of the film’s acceptance. Returning triumphant from Cannes, it quickly became a bit of a media dahlink’s curate’s egg. That initial screening split the audience: some lachrymose in awe, others booing and jeering at what a load of soppy old codswallop it all was. Indeed that pretty much set the bar for public reception when it came out. It might seem a bit harsh to say, but it’s definitely one of those films that either you Get or you Don’t – it’s cinematic Marmite. However, if you’re one of the ones that didn’t like it, that doesn’t mean you need to be derisive or mocking to those that do (of which I am one, of course).

I particularly enjoyed just how such an obtuse film could draw such large audiences, and yet invoke widescale bafflement and walkouts. Case in point, this sign that was put up at The Avon Theater – an “arthouse” cinema in Stamford, USA:
Just. Brilliant.

Strangely enough, it is the prolonged “birth of life” sequence that has received the most flack – I suppose showing dinosaurs onscreen is setting oneself up for being an easy target. Truth is, that breathtaking Douglas Trumbull sequence is definitely my favourite part of the film – it looks beautiful, it tells a vast, incomprehensible story that slowly explains itself like a budding flower; and it sets up the rest of the film perfectly. Perhaps one’s enjoyment or appreciation of that sequence is the key to how you’ll get on with the rest of the film. Someone very close to me joked that she was waiting for David Attenborough to start a voice over, which is quite a valid reaction. Mind you, if you sat in a cinema watching alternate scenes from Frozen Planet and Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Universe, perhaps you would be just as awe-smitten. … Who am I to judge?

Anyway, if you haven’t had the pleasure, allow me to direct you towards the Tree Of Life trailer:

An outstanding work of cinema, there was no way this could be anything but my personal choice for Film of the Year. Give it a chance.

Postscript:

The reason I wanted to do this Top Ten list for 2011 was that I’ve noticed a disturbing trend of critical and blogger pessimism that inevitably filters through to public opinion. We often mourn the death of the film industry, new innovations like Real-3D are rapidly spun into cynical cash cow franchises without any creative insight on how best to use the new tool at one’s disposal, and a seeming dearth of risk-taking or originality means that nearly everything is a sequel, a remake, a reboot, or some other exploitation of already over-familiar material.  People seem to accept less and less from their entertainment, but still gobble it up with consistent and ever-increasing voracious appetite.

Audiences are welcome to their Twilight Sagas, to their “Alvin and the Chipmunks 3″, and any other disposable flimsy excuse for a distraction that may flit into sight (Lord knows I’m just as guilty of getting over-excited about anything Batman or robot-related), but when we look back at our experiences, maybe those should not be the only things that are remembered.. “Everything Sucks” is a popular sentiment, but it is an erroneous one.  Perhaps, just perhaps, we can enjoy a bit of fibre & nutrition before just launching into the sticky toffee pudding.

Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life is a film that dared to ask audiences to bother to engage, to put down their iPhones for 2 whole hours in a dark room, to pay attention, stop talking, and appreciate the art crafted by a man who is a master of his chosen discipline. Perhaps it didn’t gel with you, perhaps it did and you’ve since sat others down to see what they make of it. We as a global audience have a responsibility to support and encourage a film like this (or others like it). If it’s flawed then you can still celebrate its ambition, its overt attempts to rewrite the vocabulary of cinema and how the viewer engages or interacts with that.
If we’re not careful, the window for new creative talent to be experienced will continue to narrow, and before you know it, there won’t be anything on at the cinema except kids’ books adaptations, gritty re-imaginings of fairy tales, and anaemic romantic comedies based on calendar dates.

I hope that you have enjoyed counting down this list with me. Have a Merry Christmas, and try and see a film this holiday season that doesn’t have a number in the title.

The full Clockwork Shorts 2011 retrospective of Movies, Music & Mixes can be browsed for your pleasure right HERE
Merry Christmas and a Happy New 2012!

In 2011, a fondly regarded and greatly admired British television comedian made his debut feature film, wowing critics and audiences alike and instantly making his name as a talented chap who clearly has a very bright directing future ahead of him. Yes indeed, Joe Cornish’s Attack The Block is a brilliant & kinetic piece of fun, escapist cinema: indeed one of the best films of the year. Personally, I think AtB is just outside my Top Ten though, still love ya Cornballs.

You may have noticed my “hilarious” misdirection at the top there, but one could bestow all of those plaudits upon Richard Ayoade. Most TV audiences will know him as the hapless geek Moss in the IT Crowd; some may remember him as Dean Learner in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, but it may come as some surprise that he has quietly been forging a parallel career as a director: after music videos for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Arctic Monkeys, Submarine is his first foray onto the silver screen.

Based on a novel by Joe Dunthorne, Submarine is the tale of awkward Welsh teenager Oliver (Craig Roberts – previously seen as an awkward Vampire teenager in Being Human) and his attempts to avail himself of his virginity, whilst simultaneously disrupting his mother’s extra-marital affair. Told in snippets of Oliver’s internal monologue and diary entries, this Unreliable Narrator’s story is one that feels autobiographical, is frequently hilarious, and openly mocks its own verbose pomposity. Oliver is convinced that he is an utter genius, that the other kids all admire his brilliance, and that one day his exploits are of such magnificent importance there will be a film made of them. Clearly he is wrong on the first 2 counts.

Ayoade’s film takes great pleasure in toying with the storytelling format and twanging the edges of the fourth wall. As Community’s Abed might say, it’s all very Meta. One particular gag about a tracking shot and how Oliver imagines the film to play is particularly pointed & hilarious. The ingenuity on screen is exciting and without par this year, almost making the film at times feel like a sequence of very clever music videos that just happen to be stitched together by a narrative. A flicker-book sequence of polaroid photos might be one scene, a bullet-timey frozen moment in time the next.

Admittedly I would have been a few years younger than Oliver was in the 1986 setting, but there are numerous heartwarming (and sometimes groan inducing) moments of nostalgia for a childhood in 1980′s Britain – nothing feels forced or crass like a Peter Kay routine, just very subtle and pleasingly familiar. Oliver’s self-referential attitudes, his delusions of grandeur, his teenaged gawkiness, his enthusiastic and misplaced affections : all resonated extremely strongly with my own experiences, and I could not help but identify hugely with him, imagining myself in his shoes (parental indiscretions aside, I must point out). It was empathy for Oliver that had me falling madly in love with this film upon first watching, and happily watching a subsequent three times in the next week.

I should also mention that there’s a wealth of talent from the adults too – Brit favourites Sally Hawkins and Paddy Considine both having fun with their roles, Noah Taylor delivering a huggably pathetic cuckold of a father. Arctic Monkey Alex Turner delivers a jaunty soundtrack that never feels out of place.

So yes, effectively feeling like a hand-crafted love letter to my own adolescence, Submarine is a hugely enjoyable, unpretentious & fun film. I can only wait for news of Ayoade’s next film, and meanwhile applaud the fact that he went on to direct one of the most touching & tender episodes of TV’s current best comedy: Community. Have a watch of the trailer and get your hands on the film as quickly as you can:

Tomorrow I shall unveil the Clockwork Shorts Film of the Year 2011. Bet you can’t wait, eh?

The Clockwork Shorts 2011 retrospective can be browsed for your pleasure right HERE

It would be churlish and deceptive of me to not include at least one bonafide Hollywood Blockbuster in my year’s countdown.

Indulge me if you will as I quickly run through my thoughts on those mega-budgeted visual extravaganzas which I saw at some point over the Summer:
Captain America – probably the best Superhero Adventure film of the year, closely followed by X-Men First Class; Green Lantern and Thor, not so much. Super 8 was a joy to behold but my enthusiasm suffered from an overlong delay coming to the UK’s shores after the US release. Cowboys & Aliens deserved to be better than it was, Real Steel on the other hand was much more fun than I would have given it credit. The End of Harry Potter felt more like a relief than a celebration. Pirates 4 and Fast 5 seemingly shared the same brain cell when they weren’t delivering over the top sword fights or car chases, and the less said about Transformers 3 the better really.

So – in summary, probably a C+ for Summer – could try harder. 2012 is certainly shaping up to be a vast improvement so far.

Sniping dealt with, let’s concentrate on the subject matter of this post. Sensibly ignoring the diabolical Tim Burton film from a few years ago, Apes deftly “does a Batman Begins / Casino Royale” and roots the story in a plausibly believable real world context that’s dashed with the merest sprinkle of Implausible Techno Bollocks. In this case, James Franco’s super-scientist (no, that’s not the implausible bit) is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s, personified in the paternal form of John Lithgow. DNA testing leads to a strain of super-intelligent chimpanzee, in particular orphaned baby chimp Caesar… One thing leads to another and before long Caesar is resident with Franco and a newly-improved Lithgow. Oh, and Frieda Pinto is there, just coz.

As is the way with any Prequel film, the journey may change but the destination will be the same, which is why I wasn’t honestly all that enthused about the film when publicity started drip feeding.. Director Rupert Wyatt has done a remarkable thing though and made us genuinely care for the simians on screen – the film properly comes to life when Caesar is incarcerated with other apes and we witness the machinations and subterfuge that he employs to claw his way to the top of the pile and beyond, turning from an outcast into a sort of monkey Che Guevara. It’s exciting to watch as one roots for this unlikely hero, and in fact a climactic scene in the detainment centre had me literally gasping in surprise & shock.

Of course, the role of Caesar is central to our buying of this conceit, so it’s fortunate that motion capture king, former Gollum & Kong Andy Serkis was the man in the skin-tight ping pong suit. There have been rumblings that he should be nominated for an Oscar on the basis of his performance here, despite the layers of computer generated make up – farcical or not, it speaks volumes about the strength of his performance here that people are genuinely discussing it. The outer layer of Serkis’ onscreen appearance is crafted by Peter Jackson’s flawless WETA team, and the depth of subtlety and emotion will very nearly almost make you forget you are watching a computer graphic. It’s an excellent and impeccable achievement that pushes cinema one step further over the uncanny valley.

No film is perfect, and there are flaws – the aforementioned Pinto is less empathic than most of the simians; a handful of apes somehow magically transform into a large, structured army as it marches on San Francisco; and Draco Malfoy’s cameo as a sneering prison guard is pretty laughable. Despite these quibbles though, the film is easily the best blockbuster of the summer – the first half takes its time to develop an emotional core that we can root for, before whipping the rug away and allowing fate to follow its natural course. By the end of the film, it’s not the most awe-inspiring citywide destruction that we’ve seen on screen, but the fact that we care about the characters involved makes it a profoundly more important & compelling one.

Apes franchise fans are treated to a smattering of Easter Eggs that reference the original films, and a masterful plot development comes to fruition in the 3rd act that has me convinced this would make a perfect double bill with Gilliam’s brilliant Twelve Monkeys.

Reboots are almost always a cash-generating effort by the studio to scratch away at the dregs of whatever franchises they have gathering dust in the vaults, it is extremely rare for these to be critically or popularly lauded, but Apes is without a doubt a film that ripped the low expectations out of my hand, slapped me around the face, and left me begging for the inevitable sequel.

In case you haven’t seen it, here is the trailer for Rise of The Planet Of The Apes:

Quit monkeying around and come back tomorrow to see my pick for Film #2 of 2011.

The Clockwork Shorts 2011 retrospective can be browsed for your pleasure right HERE

Let’s be honest, 2011 hasn’t been the best year for animated cinema. Normally it’s Pixar that will save the day, but their money-spinning decision to make a sequel to Cars resulted in a good looking but ultimately garish and confusing mess. Kung Fu Panda 2 was pretty entertaining & looked great, but again suffered somewhat from sequelitis. Mars Needs Moms was declared one of the biggest flops of all time, and trust me, you don’t want to get me started on Tekken: Blood Vengeance 3D.

At the beginning of the year, it seemed like there was a lot about Rango that just shouldn’t work: Jonny Depp for one had burnt up the bulk of goodwill towards him between slurring pirates and maddened hatters; Gore Verbinski had never directed an animation before, and similarly, CGI studio Industrial Light and Magic were breaking new ground with Rango being their first fully animated movie. No, Revenge of the Sith doesn’t count, you wags.

So, with expectations suitably lowered, it was indeed an extremely pleasant surprise to discover what an absolute delight Rango really is. Depp’s nameless chameleon finds himself ripped from his comfort zone and stumbles upon a water-starved animal community in the Mojave desert. Assuming the nom de plume of Rango, the Hunter S. Thompson-styled boho realises that he really can use his abilities to blend in and reinvents himself as a murderous, dangerous gunslinger… One it just so happens the town are deeply in need of.

Let’s get it out of the way – Jonny Depp’s voice work here is absolutely brilliant, easily the best “acting” he’s delivered in quite some time: Rango’s character demands a quick-talking, smart mouthed vagabond who also has moments of quiet introspection and self doubt, and Depp delivers in spades. A stellar supporting cast all avail themselves well, most notably Isla Fisher as potential love interest Beans.

Also, the animation is deliciously detailed. Perhaps it’s because ILM does have a history of live action cgi, characters and environments have an uncanny realism to them, (albeit within the magical context of a town of talking animals of course).. Every lizard’s scale, bird’s feather, and bat’s wing is lovingly rendered with pixel-sharp lifelike resolution and convincing use of light & shadow. Perhaps the fact that this film was produced in 2D and not 3D would explain why this is (ie: unlike other films, one didn’t watch this wearing sunglasses indoors). The action sequences are bursting with inventive flair, an Apocalypse Now-inspired dogfight being a particular high point.

One can’t help but feel that Depp & Verbinski were desperately in need of a change after three Pirates movies together, and this was just the tonic for them. Exciting, witty & silly, Rango is to me unquestionably the finest family animation of the year…and I haven’t even mentioned the Greek chorus of mariachi narrators! It could well be the one to knock Pixar off the throne, come Oscar Season.

watch the trailer here:

Please come back at the same time tomorrow to see my pick for Film #3 of 2011. Treat yourself to a drink in the meantime.

The Clockwork Shorts 2011 retrospective can be browsed for your pleasure right HERE

Curtis LaForche (Shannon) is a blue collar worker content in his life with radiant wife Samantha (played by 2011′s undeniable breakout actress – Jessica Chastain) and their hearing-impaired daughter. That is until Curtis starts to have visceral haunting nightmares & visions: of a storm, of oily rain, and of unprompted extreme violence. Ever the rationalist, Curtis pursues ways to make the dreams go away, or at least identify why they are happening, and why each is so much more intense and terrifying than the last. As his mania starts to take over, his small town friends and family begin to question his motivations, his sanity, and slowly the world crumbles around him.

Take Shelter could easily be dismissed as a parallel to Donnie Darko, were it not for the unmitigated level of talent displayed by everyone involved. Naturally Shannon owns the film, setting the audience on edge with a flinch or a raise of a sweat-flecked eyebrow, escalating his reactions in keeping with his hysteria. The supporting cast are on a par though, most notably Chastain’s homely Samantha, and Curtis’ best friend and work colleague Dewart, played by fellow Boardwalk almunus, Shea Whigham. Director and writer Nichols plays with the audience delightfully – offering beautific scenes of natural mid-western beauty, before hurling us into the maelstrom of another oily storm with behemothic tornadoes reaching down to the ground like a malevolent deity’s icy fingers. A climactic scene in Curtis’ home-made storm shelter is one of the clammiest-palmed scenes of tension I’ve enjoyed and endured in quite some time.

Offering no easy answers and leaving many enigmas open to interpretation, Take Shelter may not be for every audience, but those that are hardy enough to weather the storm will be greatly rewarded. The number of allegorical parallels one can debate will keep you busy for a whole other evening at least.
I would be amazed if Shannon isn’t shortlisted for many, many awards on the strength of his performance here – one that will stick with you long after the film has finished.

Take Shelter’s trailer can be seen here:

Please come back at the same time tomorrow to see my pick for Film #4 of 2011. Batten those hatches down.

The Clockwork Shorts 2011 retrospective can be browsed for your pleasure right HERE

First off, I should mention that this is one of those points in time where we veer into “Ah Yes, but is that a 2011 Film?” territory . . Thanks to the villainy of global release schedules, this can often colour opinions or lists – personally, one of the first films I saw in 2011 was Black Swan, but i would choose to count it as a 2010 release. Please let’s not get caught up in this – some of you are strict about these sorts of things, I wish you well, but my own personal rules have a certain amount of elasticity. Which brings us to Maerwencol. Listed as an Autumnal favourite in American Film Festival circuits, I had no awareness of the film until @brendonconnelly on twitter happened to mention that it was airing on UK television on More 4.. Oddly enough renamed to “Village Of The Dolls”. So, technically, it premiered in the UK on 19th April 2011, and hence is eligible for my 2011 list. Pedants, I have submitted my evidence!

It has been a particularly strong year for documentaries, and inevitably I have only managed to see a minor fraction of the ones my best intentions would have had me see: Senna and TT3D provided blockbusting, heart-wrenching action in the world of hi-octane motor sports, Countdown to Zero scared the crap out of me, and I caught up with The Parking Lot Movie, Into Eternity, & Waking Sleeping Beauty amongst others. To me though, none of these films managed to balance profundity, power, beauty, and raw talent with as deft as touch as Marwencol.

Focussing on Marc Hogancamp, the film tells of this unassuming, gentle man who is brain damaged after being severely beaten in a bar brawl- 9 days in a coma and 40 days in hospital leaves Marc lacking in memories and capabilities, and so (for whatever reason) he assuages the seeming futility & boredom of his existence by creating some imaginary friends. The friends in question however are not mere figments of Marc’s delusions: he hand paints scaled down army dolls (Action Men, if you will) and has built an entire Second World War-era town (to scale) in his back yard. It slowly comes to light that this reclusive talent has projected his own hopes, dreams, fears, anxieties, and even demons into the cast & population of the town, weaving elaborate narratives into the nuanced & detailed vignettes. Hogancamp photographs & documents these scenes, and in fact continues to do so on his website.

Marc’s artistic talent is one that is genuinely unique, his attention to detail is borne out in his work, and several stretches of the film are presented as lifelike picture-book stories that occur in this bizarre little town.

Every good narrative deserves a few twists, so I shan’t ruin them and divulge here, suffice to say that Marc goes on a journey, both physically & emotionally, and it makes for supremely compelling viewing.

You can watch the trailer here:

and there is plenty of info on the official site Here on how to get or watch a copy. (UK viewers can get it on itunes I think – assuming you didn’t record it off More 4)

Please come back at the same time tomorrow to see my pick for Film #5 of 2011. Assuming that you don’t have something in your eye, of course.

The Clockwork Shorts 2011 retrospective can be browsed for your pleasure right HERE

Saoirse Ronan stars in a bombastic performance as the titular heroine who is, broadly speaking, an amalgam of Jason Bourne and Hit Girl. Having spent a childhood in isolation combat training with her father (Eric Bana), Hanna realises that her childhood is over & sets in motion a sequence of events that find her stealthing her way across Europe in search of parental vengeance whilst inadvertently learning how to become a “real girl” on the way.

As detractors might note, that isn’t the most original of plot premises, but it’s what Wright has done with the material that makes it so special. Scene after scene display almost Kubrickian levels of minute detail & painterly canvas composition. Early scenes in the frozen tundra take effective advantage of the bleak, bleached landscape.. Later scenes in Northern Africa have a balmy warm red glow in a different yet equally uninhabitable world. Cate Blanchett’s character is introduced to us in a vignette that has never made Grey look so colourful. Costume designs have a primary colour code that tell us about the personalities at an fairy-tale level, and indeed the whole film is constructed as a gritty reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s fables.. Don’t go down to the woods today, kids.

There is an escape / chase sequence about a third into the film which is unquestionably one of the most exciting scenes of cinema this past year, demonstrating an even balance of ultraviolence and symmetrical precision that appealed profoundly to the OCD-lite mathematics nerd part of my brain.

Ah yes, and lest we forget, the entire film is soundtracked by The Chemical Brothers – a piece of work that I can happily say is their best in years (it nearly made the Top Ten Albums list, so close chaps), with stomping lazer bassed techno in the action sequences and haunting vocal refrains and catchy whistled melodies at quieter moments.

Hanna is a confident, rolicking ride through the action genre. Reportedly its takings of $40million to date and vague critical ambivalence have translated into it being a film that has not gone over well with The Public. Personally I find this baffling – one can only theorise that its a bit too cerebral for the multiplex crowds, and a bit too trashy for the high falutin’ culture snobs. Either way, to not see this film is to miss out immensely.

Watch the trailer and get involved.

Hanna poster courtesy of legendary comic book artist Jock

Please come back at the same time tomorrow to see my pick for Film #6 of 2011. That’s if a genetically modified teenage assassin doesn’t snap my neck in the meantime.

The Clockwork Shorts 2011 retrospective can be browsed for your pleasure right HERE