Furious on Film 12.13.07: Issue 118
Posted by Arnold Furious on 12.13.2007
Double timelines, a good Paul Verhoeven movie, more Will Ferrell antics, bad anime and Miike does horror again. Plus more!
Furious on Film 12.13.07: Issue 118
Double timelines, a good Paul Verhoeven movie, more Will Ferrell antics, bad anime and Miike does horror again. Plus more!
Before we start this week I'd like to remind everyone why it's taken so long to get back to reviewing films. Here below lies a list of links to the Furious on Film top 100 director's column. The one that took a huge chunk out of my life but earned me more positive feedback than a bundle of WCW reviews. Be warned though, this is a long read.
Thanks for reading, thanks for taking the time to email me and thanks for your continued support over the past hundred odd columns. I'll keep writing them if you keep reading them.
This week I have the following cinematic delights for your reading pleasure;
Zwartboek, Blades of Glory, Appleseed, Gozu
But first;
ONCE UPON A TIMELINE; The other' WW2 resistance
1831. The Dutch fought a brief and unspectacular war with Belgium. Prior to World War 2 this marked the last time the Dutch had been involved in a war with any European nation.
1914-1918. During World War 1 the Netherlands remains neutral and isn't attacked in any way by Germany who don't consider them a threat. The two nations appear to have an unspoken accord, which leads to the Dutch largely ignoring the rise of fascism and expansionism in Germany during the 1930's. The "it'll never happen to us" mentality.
1940. May 10th. Germany invades the Netherlands without first declaring war. The Dutch army is totally unprepared for war and gets rolled over in short order. Mainly because of the vast superiority of the Luftwaffe. Hitler systematically wiped out cities until the Dutch surrendered. The war lasted less than a week. Despite surrendering the Dutch still suffered a bombing campaign from the Germans probably to teach them some sort of lesson.
In the early years of occupation the treatment of Dutch citizens wasn't as severe as in other occupied countries because of the similarities between the German and Dutch races. Although many Jews were sent to concentration camps. As conditions worsened with the working male population effectively enslaved to work for the German war machine the likelihood of resistance grew.
1941. February 25th. The Communist Party calls for a strike, which is the only recorded one during the occupation of any European nation during WW2. The Germans quickly put a stop to it and conditions continue to deteriorate. The Dutch resistance was much smaller and less organised than the French. They mainly specialised in forging documents and protecting Jews from persecution. The most famous case being of diarist Anne Frank.
1943. February. The resistance is spurred on by a lack of German reprisals and assassinate a retired 70 year old Lt-General. The SS General in charge ordered reprisals and 50 Dutch prisoners were shot. The resistance attempted to go after the general Rauter but that lead to severe reprisals including the shooting of 147 prisoners and 116 locals.
1944. In a bid to destroy the resistance once and for all the German army took 600 prisoners in the village of Putten and executed them all. But the Germans were on their last legs. The Normandy Invasion came in 1944 with the Allies landing in Northern France. By September Antwerp had been liberated and the Dutch resistance took the fight to the Germans in a bid to make their defence of occupied territory harder. The Nazi's replied by stopping food entering the still occupied and densely populated areas of Northern Holland like Amsterdam causing a famine.
1945. With the war coming to an end the rest of the Netherlands was finally freed when Germany surrendered in May.
And to compensate for the lack of timeline last week here's another!
ONCE UPON A TIMELINE; Paul Verhoeven: Dutch Master
1938. Born in Amsterdam.
1943. Moved to The Hague, setting for Zwartboek. His family lived near to a German base and suffered from Allied Bombing raids. Verhoeven describes the war as an adventure. Like "Bill Rowan in Hope and Glory".
1950's. Verhoeven developed an interest in film and saw War of the Worlds in 1953 at least 10 times. He also took an interest in writing after reading comic book Dick Bos. He graduated from university with an M. Sc in Mathematics and Psychics.
1960. Made his first film; a Lizard Too Much. He'd been attending film classes towards the end of his university education and made the film as part of his student corps anniversary celebrations.
1960's. Verhoeven continued to make short films before entering the Dutch Navy. In 1965 he shot a documentary about life in the navy, which was his first award winning film.
1969. After leaving the navy he went to work in TV breaking out with Rutger Hauer's TV show Floris.
1971. Debut feature film Business is Business. A movie about hookers it showed Verhoeven obsession with all things seedy and didn't go down well with critics as a result.
1973. Turkish Delight. Re-teaming with Hauer got Verhoeven his first hit. Not only was it popular it was also good and the reputation of Verhoeven began to grow. He received an Academy Award nomination that year and it was later named the best Dutch film of the century.
1978. Soldier of Orange. Verhoeven's first take on the Dutch resistance was a big hit earning a Golden Globe nomination and solidifying his International reputation as a fine filmmaker.
1980. Spetters. Verhoeven often returns to crude films. This being a graphic film about homosexuality. Although unlike Showgirls it was well received.
1985. Flesh & Blood is Verhoeven's American debut. He takes Rutger Hauer with him. Rumour has it George Lucas offered him the chance to direct Return of the Jedi but then everyone seems to that same story; Cronenbourg and Lynch included.
1987. Verhoeven scores a massive hit with Robocop. One of the most memorable films of the 80's it's been parodied several times since and spawned 2 sequels and a TV show. It's also one of my favourite movies, ever. It was the first 18 rated film I saw and it's one hell of a bloody way to start. I remembered thinking all this gore is what I'd been missing. It's also very quotable. Just the other day I was doing the "I work for Dick Jones" speech from Clarence Boddicker only with a Sean Connery accent. Don't ask. It's a work thing.
1990. Total Recall. Teaming with Arnold Schwarzenegger the Dutch director produces another satisfying American effort. Huge budget hijinks make it look great too. Verhoeven by this point as a reputation as a big time flashy director capable of making big budget flicks.
1992. Basic Instinct. While it's Verhoeven's worst film to this point, and arguably his worst film ever, Basic Instinct makes a tonne of money and turns Sharon Stone into a star. Once again Verhoeven can do no wrong. Although the sleazy nature of the film gives Verhoeven a reputation for mucky movies.
1995. Showgirls. Oh, what could have been. Initially Carolco was set to bankroll a Verhoeven-Schwarzenegger re-teaming with a medieval epic called Crusade. Carolco also wanted to make Renny Harlin's pirate blockbuster Cutthroat Island. They couldn't afford both. Can't help but notice they now don't exist, which should tell you how wise that choice was. Showgirls is hysterically bad. So much so Verhoeven won a Razzie and turned up to collect it. His reputation was forever tarnished though and Hollywood hasn't liked the look of him since. Kinda harsh when you consider his track record going into Showgirls.
1997. Starship Troopers. Verhoeven's battered reputation meant his return to big budget sci-fi was not well met. Starship Troopers got about half its $100M budget back, which I say to this very day is an absolute travesty as the film contained subtle layering and use of propaganda. The more you think about Starship Troopers the more sinister everything becomes. It's loaded with politics and satire that casual viewers often miss. It also has a bonus of working as a straight, albeit ludicrous, action film. I honestly thought it was quite the work of art but most people dismiss it without thought.
2000. Hollow Man. Not a total disaster Verhoeven's invisible man film only lost $20M. The studios had seen enough though and this was his last work in America. He pretty much retired to pursue other ideas and wrote a book about Jesus of Nazareth, which is apparently very good albeit controversial.
2006. After taking some time off Verhoeven returned to his native Netherlands for the filming of this World War 2 drama. The Dutch were somewhat divided over the film but the International press were thrilled with it and Verhoeven had his first critical hit in over a decade. The response in America has been so strong that Verhoeven has been invited back and will be shooting the sequel to the Thomas Crown Affair in 2008 and Azazel after that.
Zwartboek (2006) aka The Black Book.
EXPECTATIONS I've always liked Verhoeven and when he's making movies that aren't about sex, Showgirls & Basic Instinct, he's quite good. I had him at #95 on my top 100 directors count down. I was looking forward to Zwartboek but so much as to make it my lead off film this week. That was intended to be Blades of Glory and I was going to go on about Will Ferrell but after I watched both films in the same day my lead film changed.
TRAILER In Dutch but frankly the English language version of the trailer just ruins the movie. NSFW gents. It has nudity.
PLOT Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) is a Jewish singer in hiding in the Netherlands. Unable to contact her family she has to fend for herself and finds her way into work in a factory. The factory owner is part of the Dutch resistance though and Rachel changes her name to Ellis de Vries to infiltrate the German forces in particular SD officer Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Koch the Lives of Others).
OPINION I didn't even realise Paul Verhoeven had this kind of film in him. I was startled by the subtlety of the films early scenes showing Rachel hiding, learning Bible excerpts to please the Christian family she lives with and flirting with a local boy. It's all very low-key until the explosions kick in then it has more of a Verhoeven feel to it. It's still very stylish but Verhoeven frequently adds in gratuitous nudity and violence that don't necessarily add to the storyline. His film is rather good regardless though. It has a glossy and rich feel to it like Scorsese's the Aviator. Which makes Zwartboek an unusual film for World War 2 settings. Normally a WW2 film will be gritty and dirty (Saving Private Ryan, Army of Shadows, Der Untergang etc). Zwartboek is almost the opposite. But the storyline it covers is by no means glossy. There are executions, mass killings and savage beatings. It's every bit as harsh as any other film to look at the Nazi occupation. Plus it has some great acting in it. Sebastian Koch in particular is superb. His German officer is perhaps controversial as he's at heart a decent man. There's an unwritten law in film making where you're not allowed to portray anyone in Nazi Germany as good or kind hearted. But why not? I'm sure at some point in time Muntze wasn't the most pleasant of human beings but during the course of the film he portrays a character who is realistic and honourable. There are enough cartoon character Nazi's surrounding him like Franken and Kautner. Both evil in their own way. Franken as a greedy lecherous vile beast. Kautner more cold and calculating. Having these men to play Ellis off against is great. She is not only in fear of her life but she's also disgusted that she has to spend time in the company of these men. Carice herself is very good as Ellis and has earned herself a part in the forthcoming Valkyrie alongside Tom Cruise. I imagine she'll be quite famous soon. Word had her as a possible Bond girl as well. She has a few moments of melodramatic overacting ("does it never end" being the one most singled out by critics) but the lines she's given are so cliché there's really no other way to deliver them. "You can write it but you can't say it" as Harrison Ford once said. She really gives it her all in Zwartboek and Verhoeven makes a point of putting her through her paces. She's routinely thrown about and degraded. Not to mention spending most of the film in varying states of undress. According to Mr Skin, god bless his filthy mind, she gets her tits out 5 times during the film. So if you want to seem smart to your girlfriend by renting a classy flick, which this is, but also get the urge to see some tits in the process then this could be your solution. And they are fine tits. Although by the 2nd or 3rd reveal she may become suspicious of your motives. Luckily I've just provided you with some history lessons on the Dutch resistance that you'll be able to fall back on. "I really want to see this film, it's all about the Dutch resistance" and just reel em off. Then kick back and let the tits wash over you. Gawd bless you Mr Verhoeven and your smutty mindset.
BEST BIT The ambush on the boat load of Jews. It's the point where Verhoeven's glossy Hope & Glory turns to something more sinister.
RATING - ****. Yes, it has a degree of melodrama to it and gratuitous nudity for the sake of titillation. Since when were those bad things? Carice van Houten and Sebastian Koch both come off as big film stars in Verhoeven's polished WW2 romp.
Blades of Glory (2007)
EXPECTATIONS I like Will Ferrell. He's come a long way since his bit parts in the Austin Powers movies as henchman Mustafa. He's one of the few modern success stories for Saturday Night Live as well. Consider the earlier days of the show and it's constant string of famous participants; Dan Ackroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Jon Lovitz, Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, Chris Rock and Adam Sandler. Ferrell started in 1995 with the show starting to show some cracks. Most of their draws had gone on to movie roles. Most notably Adam Sandler and Chris Farley. Ferrell pretty much carried the show through a period of underachievement providing many of SNL's best moments during his 7-year tenure. As a movie star Ferrell was hit and miss until his supporting role in Old School then he really started to come into his own as the party animal/loud idiot/man child character. Seemingly without any kind of shame he seemed willing to do anything to get a laugh, which is good for a comedian. And especially good for him as he's served up a string of hits. Anchorman, Talladega Nights and the offbeat Stranger Than Fiction have all been rewarding viewing experiences. His sporting trio will be completed by basketball flick Semi-Pro next year.
TRAILER
PLOT When rival ice-skating champions Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) are banned for life from singles competition they're brought together with a common goal. Trained by their coach (Craig T. Nelson) and driven by a desire to beat the world's best pairs skaters the creepy Van Waldenberg's (Will Arnett & Amy Poehler) they embark on a campaign to win the gold as a team.
OPINION If there's one thing Will Ferrell always brings to a comedy it's these big laugh out loud ridiculous set pieces. The ice dancing in Blades of Glory is just that. His cooky improvisation is there as always creating some superb one liners. My personal favourite being "whoever invented rope was a real a-hole". Much in the niche market he's already created for himself this is typical Ferrell throughout with lots of laughs. There's a sense that Ferrell may be on his way to stagnating in his self-created world (much like Sandler did playing the same character over and over) but he's not there yet. Blades of Glory is probably on a par with Talladega Nights in terms of the number of laughs, which are frequent, but doesn't have truly great characterisation like Anchorman. I still think that's Ferrell's highest point career wise to date. Heder is game to play off Ferrell's strength's and spends most of the movie as a whiny bitch thus creating another foil for Ferrell's comedy. While they received a combined top billing this is still the Will Ferrell show and Heder knows it. The only downside to watching a film like Blades of Glory is getting that nagging feeling that all of Ferrell's comedies are eventually going to be interchangeable and his quirky performance in Stranger Than Fiction is probably more rewarding and ultimately a place he should go in the future. After all I think he's a better all round actor than Adam Sandler despite the latter receiving more critical acclaim for his dramatic turns. In support Blades of Glory does have another trick up its sleeve in the form of a charming performance from Jenna Fischer as the Van Waldenberg's downtrodden younger sister who falls for Jimmy. She's equal measures hot and naïve in her performance, which is fantastic and suits Heder's character perfectly. Will Arnett is also sublimely weird as is his real life wife Amy Poehler. Their antics include a set piece on ice tracking the relationship between JFK and Marilyn Monroe. The bit with the pills cracked me up something fierce. Chazz & Jimmy's own ice dancing varies between gay as hell and highly amusing. The fire & ice bit has to be the gayest thing I've ever seen on film and I've seen Brokeback Mountain.
BEST BIT The introductions at the start where Chazz is described as "an ice devouring sex tornado". Or perhaps Chazz's badly deteriorated antics during the kids ice show "Grublets on Ice" where his giant headed wizard staggers onto the ice with the line "Hey! Hey, you little forest creatures! None of you sons of bitches try to be heroes!"
RATING - ***1/2. It's another fine comedy from Will Ferrell. His third palpable hit in the straight up mainstream arena. It's every bit as funny as Talladega Nights, which is a film I enjoyed a great deal. I hope Will can keep it up because it's very rare for mainstream comedians to keep having hit after hit. I guess he knows what he's doing so I'll leave any criticism at the doors. Thanks for another fun 90 minutes Will!
Appleseed (2004)
EXPECTATIONS Appleseed is based on a manga by Masamune Shirow. He's written a few strong manga's that have crossed over well into anime. In particular Ghost in the Shell. Although it has to be pointed out that despite loving the film's style I didn't really care much for it compared to other Japanese animation I've liked over the years (Otomo, Miyazaki, Kon). Director Shinji Aramaki is trying to make a name for himself by doing Appleseed as a multiple parter. A sequel has already been released.
TRAILER
PLOT A young female warrior called Deunan makes her way to the Utopian society called Olympus. When she gets there she discovers half the population are clones including her friend Hitomi and the city's leader Athena. She also finds her ex-lover and military colleague Briareos has become a machine having lost his body in the fighting. As Deunan adjusts to the big city she discovers a plot to unleash something called "Appleseed" and an underlying hatred of clones by the human side of the city headed up by the military.
OPINION Watching Appleseed is like watching someone playing a computer game. And having a 12 year old nephew I know what that's like. The backdrops look beautiful but the animation on all the characters looks like they're designed as moveable sprites. Playable characters. And I'm sure a game based on Appleseed would be very cool. But watching this inferior animation style when I'm used to Pixar or Miyazaki's work is unbearable. It's just SO inferior. Seeing the human's hair divided up into big chunks, like it is in computer games, was just the beginning of my irritation. The total lack of characterisation was painful. The only character who did anything for me was Briareos and he didn't even have a face to emote with. But his body language was quite good. Everyone else is just a smiling personality-void. Perhaps that was an elaborate attempt to make me think Utopia wasn't quite so Utopian but I doubt it. The other excruciating part of Appleseed was the exposition. Normally in a film exposition gets snuck in so characters can have apparently normal conversations but tell the audience what's happening at the same time. It's an old trick designed to make you feel like you know what's going on around you. Appleseed doesn't use tricks. It just reels off exposition every now and again like when Hitomi is driving Deunan across Olympus. All that changes is the great looking backdrops. The exposition goes on and on and on and on as the film maker tries to cram as much information in as possible. None of it is interesting. It would have worked better as a way to develop character but characters would get in the way of the tonne of plot they need to get in there. But the plot is boring. The conspiracy is all the less interesting for the cardboard cut out characters that roam around trying to stop it. Staring at me with their dead eyes. It got to the point where everything would stop every couple of minutes for more exposition. I started shouting "EXPOSITION" every time this happened in the hopes it'd make watching it more interesting. It didn't. Like I said it's like watching a computer game play out. Exposition. Few minutes of shooting. Exposition. Few more minutes of shooting. Exposition. Problem solving bit. More shooting. Exposition. I just got bored with it. And in a hurry. Appleseed is a tremendously good looking failure.
BEST BIT All the computer generated backdrops. Very pretty.
RATING - *. If you want to be bored by good looking graphics this is for you! All flash, no substance with painfully long speeches about nothing thrown in. Avoid.
Gozu (2003)
EXPECTATIONS I'm 411's resident Takashi Miike fan. Seeing as I've been catching up on his earlier and more renowned work this is a rare trip into his recent work. The most recent stuff I've seen from Miike is Ichi the Killer, Happiness of the Katakuris and Visitor Q (all from 2001). All of those films are quite exceptional for different reasons. Katakuris being my personal favourite for it's off the wall out there weirdness. One moment running a musical with zombies and the next paying tribute to National Lampoon's Animal House. Like many prolific directors, although there are probably none more prolific than he, the temptation after a time is to enter into more surreal and challenging projects. That's the idea behind Gozu, a horror film about weird things happening. Here he's reuniting with Sho Aikawa one of the two stars of Dead or Alive.
TRAILER Honestly though this trailer is just weird and has nothing to do with the plot.
PLOT Minami (Hideki Sone) is a loyal foot soldier in a Yakuza gang. However he struggles with his latest order; dispose of his mentor Ozaki (Sho Aikawa) who'd saved his life in the past but has now gone insane. On a trip to Nagoya to do the deed Ozaki becomes unresponsive and Minami loses him inside the city when he stops for a coffee out of frustration. He hires local hardman Nose (Shohei Hino) to find the missing Yakuza and finish his orders. Or perhaps not.
OPINION The opening scenes of Gozu are like pretty much any other Yakuza movie. Mob heavies discussing business. Everyone hanging around and looking cool in suits and sunglasses. Then Ozaki calls over the head of the Azamawari Clan to explain to him that cops have trained special dogs to attack Yakuza singling out a tiny Chihuahua perched on the front window ledge of the restaurant they're in. Much to everyone's alarm he then walks outside and deals with it in incredibly violent fashion. I was actually laughing very loudly as he swings the dog around by the leash but as soon it slammed into the window my jaw was just dropped. Sometimes Miike will do something completely outrageous just to make sure you're paying attention. Normally he'll wait longer than 5 minutes. So Gozu had me won over pretty quickly. As the film progresses to Nagoya the entire plot just switches gears on the viewer. It becomes like Twin Peaks. Minami the investigator from out of town and everyone in Nagoya is just weird and unwilling to help. The assortment of weirdo's that appear one after another include a guy with no skin pigmentation on his right side, a psychic/retarded doorman and a guest house owner who likes to lactate in order to bottle up her milk for schoolchildren. Just when you think Minami has experienced all the weird he can handle the film even more strange with a dream sequence about a man with a horse's head who just licks Minami's face repeatedly. If that wasn't weird enough Minami goes on to make a shocking discovery about Ozaki at the local car crushing plant, originally the location of Ozaki's planned disposal, while the car crusher's owner repeats "who do you want disposed of" over and over regardless of what he's been asked. Gozu is like a bad acid trip. Every now and again you slip below the surface and into a world you're not quite sure is real. You almost fear reaching out and touching it. Minami leaves Nagoya not knowing what was real and what wasn't. The same with us.
BEST BIT The much hyped birth scene that appears in the trailer. Is that a man crawling out of a woman covered in Yakuza tattoos? Why yes it is!
RATING - ***1/2. It makes very little sense and is gloriously weird in Lynchian fashion. If that's your bag this will be right up your alleyway. I'm just getting entertained by how unusual Miike's imagination is. He seems to be making films that no one has ever thought of before. And then another one and another one and he's still churning out films at a prolific rate. This was one of five films Miike made in 2003.
NEXT Die Hard 4.0 (it has the good title in England), Key Largo, Akira Kurosawa's Drunken Angel and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer!
