Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman), an accounts processor from Denver, has his identity stolen by a woman (Melissa McCarthy) from Winter Park, Florida. When his accounts are frozen and the police get involved, his employer (John Cho) threatens to sack him. Realising the police will move too slowly, he chooses to travel to Florida himself to track the thief down, with hilarious consequences.
I imagine that’s how it was sold it anyway. The problem is that despite having an interesting premise and a few laughs at the beginning, it loses its way and sort of stops being funny by about halfway through. Both Bateman and McCarthy end up playing the same characters we’ve seen them play time and time again, in particular Bateman who could be the same character from Gordon’s previous film Horrible Bosses. There’s also some dreadful CGI work on a snake attack to endure.
It must have been a slow month for films in February 2013 as Identity Thief made $150m at the box office despite mainly negative reviews. I guess reviews, word-of-mouth and being entertained don’t count for everything.
Identity Thief is available now on Blu-ray, DVD and Netflix.
Orson Welles film F For Fake (also known as Fake or simply “?”) is a brilliantly bizarre piece of cinema that shows off the art of deception in storytelling. The purpose of the film isn’t to reveal a scandal, despite its superficial attempts to make the viewer think it’s a straightforward documentary. Rather, the ultimate goal is to tie us up in knots, frustrate us and lead us down as many blind alleys as possible in a relatively short running time (85 minutes for this version). In this respect the film is a glowing success and if you keep this in mind the whole thing is absolutely hilarious.
The purported premise of the film involves Welles revealing a huge visual art scandal involving professional forgery at the hands of Elmyr de Hory. A second man, hoax-biographer, reveals all in the role of hoax-biographer Clifford Irving, whilst Oja Kodar also appears in a few critical scenes.
The story it creates is almost believable but for the handful of telltale signs of fakery. The deliberate continuity errors throughout (see “practioners” and Don Amiche); the overuse of the phrases like “of course our story really starts with…”; the ridiculous conversational tone Welles uses when engaging the viewer (or disengaging them by ordering dinner halfway through a scene); swapping out Oja Kodar with her sister for one scene for no reason. There’s a lot going on besides this and I felt it was designed to deliberately deceive. I was on board. I got it. That it succeeds in this is indicative that the film was a huge success, though I’m fairly confident if I wasn’t aware it was itself a hoax I might have found the whole thing a little self-indulgent.
F For Fake is available on Masters of Cinema DVD only, but there are no plans to release it on Blu-Ray so you may as well go for that version.
It won’t affect any of you who access the site through the WordPress website, but it should make it more approachable for those linking from other places on the internet, especially my Twitter feed (@Call_Me_Samuel if you’re interested).
The big live-action summer blockbuster for Disney is always hotly anticipated [1]. The previous three summers’ blockbusters were John Carter (2012), The Lone Ranger (2013), Maleficent (2014) [2], and before that there were plenty of Pirates films to chew on. These have all been at worst reasonable sellers but have received middling to good reviews. As long as the basic premise is generally acceptable to cinema-goers and there’s enough advertising involved, they tend to do well. In recent times, it seems Disney’s summer blockbusters have been review-proof.
So how will Tomorrowland fare? It is an action-adventure film with a young female lead (Britt Robertson as the intelligent and headstrong Casey), a child as a prominent supporting character (newcomer Raffey Cassidy as humanoid robot Athena) and a big name alongside them both (guaranteed ticket-seller George Clooney as Frank Walker), so it has a good chance on that front. It is also in good hands with director Brad Bird at the helm. His previous work for Pixar as director includes The Incredibles and Ratatouille, two of my favourite animated films. He’s also responsible for excellent film The Iron Giant, a film which broke him as a director [3].
Visually stunning, but wrapped up in its own spiderweb of overthought plot.
However, there has been a distinct lack of the blanket media coverage we’ve come to expect from these kinds of films. It’s almost as if Walt Disney Pictures hasn’t really got faith in it. Inevitably, this disinterest in the film has seeped its way down to the general public, who are simply not checking it out. It is currently on track to lose money, with a global taking of $133.2m against a budget of around $190m. It’s still ploughing on and might break even after Blu-ray sales and merchandise is taken into account.
The premise of the storyline is loosely based on the futuristic area of the Disney Theme Parks, which is also the source of the film’s name (it was originally titled 1952). It’s a time-travelling adventure with absolutely stunning visuals that make the film very easy on the eye. It’s actually very similar visually to The Rocketeer, and I felt as though this is what would have been achieved had that film been released today rather than 1991.
It’s a problematic film, however, and I put this down to the hard-to-follow plot. I don’t think it’s overly complex, I just don’t think it’s explained very well. Alongside Brad Bird as co-scriptwriter is David Lindelof of Lost fame, whose scripts tend to walk a fine line between intrigue and confusion. When he gets it right (the earlier episodes of Lost, Star Trek: Into Darkness), it can be the most gripping sci-fi around. Sometimes, though, he misses the mark and becomes far too confusing to follow. Tomorrowland is certainly in this category.
The problem is that the plot loses the plot, and therefore its own essence. I’ll try to summarise (SPOILER ALERT!). Casey, the daughter of a NASA engineer, finds a magical pin that transports her to a Utopian parallel universe. However, it has a limited lifespan and counts down to expiry, meaning you only get a glimpse of the alternate universe (we later learn it’s an advert). It also means you co-exist in the alternate reality, so if you move around in the alternate reality you might bang your head in the real world. She tries to track down a second pin and finds herself teaming up with Frank, who can access the real universe via a secret rocket inside the Eiffel Tower, and can get them there by a secret teleportation device he invented. When they get there, the Utopia is now derelict, but evil genius David Nix (played by Hugh Laurie) doesn’t want to let anyone else in, even though humanity will end within 60 days.
I won’t ruin the ending but as you can see, it does get quite far-fetched and I do seriously question whether or not the children in the cinema were fully on board with it. Indeed, it took five of us about ten minutes of debating until we settled on what exactly we’d just seen [4]. We still had some questions remaining though. Firstly, I’m assuming the robots that were sent to kill Casey were sent by David Nix. If so, he didn’t seem to know who she was when she arrived. Why weren’t they trying to kill Frank instead? He was the one known entity. Perhaps they assumed she would lead them to him, but I didn’t feel this was explained very well. Following on from this, why weren’t they all killed immediately after they arrived in the Utopia? It seemed there was a “well, they’re here now, let’s give them a shot” sort of vibe going on. I wasn’t buying it. Finally, why had the Utopia got so run down? I feel there was a huge area of the plot to explore here but it wasn’t mentioned. Oh, and why the Eiffel Tower?
In the end, it was just a huge advert for world peace, creativity, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, and not stifling imagination. And Disney merchandise (yes, you can buy your very own copy of the Tomorrowland pin that is so integral to the plot). It was a missed opportunity. I don’t recommend you avoid it. Perhaps I’m not as intelligent as I once thought and it’s my fault alone that I don’t understand a film aimed at 12-year-olds. It’s visually stunning and is almost worth seeing just for that. Just don’t get your hopes up and don’t try to overthink it.
[1] It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good.
[2] Despite being classed as a box-office flop, John Carter actually made money on its $263m budget at global box offices alone, pulling in $281m in receipts. Once you factor in sales of merchandise, video games, DVDs, Blu-rays and downloads, it must have made a huge amount. Not bad for a flop…
[3] Surprisingly, he also directed the music video for “Do The Bartman”, right at the start of his career. It’s less of a surprise once you know he was already involved in The Simpsons from earlier on, though this knowledge could help win you a pub quiz one day.
[4] I went to see this one with a couple of good blogger friends, whose blogs can be found at the following addresses: Nesbitt Web and Ahoy Small Fry. They’re both very different blogs but I enjoy them both on a regular basis. Check them out!
Performance Date: 27th May 2015
Location: Shaftesbury Theatre, London
Cast: Rachel John as Felicia Farrell, Jon Robyns as Huey Calhoun
After a poor choice of show last time my wife and I visited the West End (see my review of the stale Thriller), we were desperate to get it right this time. Visiting the West End is not a cheap experience, no matter where your seats are, and we wanted a feel-good show that would lift our spirits for the rest of the day. Memphis was the perfect choice and delivered on every promise the hype gave us.
The musical, set in 1955 Memphis, was written Joe DiPietro (book) and David Bryan (score). Huey Calhoun, a young white man from a poor family, is trying to make headway in the Memphis Beale Street clubs. He quickly becomes entranced by a young black singer named Felicia and they start a relationship, despite the protests from his mother and her brother. As his career leads him into being a DJ on a mainstream Memphis radio station, he becomes a champion of black R&B music and helps break it into the subconscious of the white masses. All is going well until their romance is halted by the devestating racial segregation rules of the state of Tennessee.
The plot itself feels slightly reminiscent of Hairspray, albeit from a more mature viewpoint. It elevates it above being a simple romantic tale by adding an element of period-based controversy in a way that just couldn’t be dealt with at the time. It’s a powerful piece of theatre and it was delivered perfectly by everyone involved.
In a way, this is all merely a platform for a huge amount of extremely powerful songs that blew me away throughout. The performance I saw was a Wednesday afternoon, meaning we didn’t see Beverley Knight. Instead, I was treated to the understudy Rachel John, who is destined to grow in popularity if the performance I saw and standing ovation are anything to go be. She has an amazing voice and, to be honest, I feel lucky to have seen her as she’s a perfect fit for the part. The usual male lead Killian Donnelly was also not present (he is soon to be replaced by Matt Cardle anyway), so we were able to catch Jon Robyns as the lead instead. Jon is, in my opinion, one of the West End’s most talented performers and he’s a perfect fit for this role. It’s a shame he’s slightly underused as an understudy but if you can work out when he’s on and get to see him you’ll understand why I’m singing his praises so much.
If you are yet to see Memphis, I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s a tough battle in the West End to get the tickets sold, but this should be on your “to watch” list if it isn’t already.
The second in the Mutual Comedies series (the first, The Floorwalker, I have previously reviewed), The Fireman is another great example of master craftsmanship from Chaplin. It involves an insurance fraud setup whereby a man (Lloyd Bacon) colludes with a local fire chief (Eric Campbell) to collect on the insurance money. However, things don’t quite go to plan when a real fire breaks out on the other side of town and the whole plot falls over to humorous results. Chaplin plays a fire engine driver who fails at everything he is involved with and this character is the source of most of the humour, especially in his interactions with the fire chief, played by the brilliant Campbell.
It’s not quite Chaplin at his best, nor is it really quite as effective as The Floorwalker, but it has its charm and is worth watching if only for the few big laughs dotted throughout. There are much worse ways to spend 28 minutes of your day.
I preferred the original Fotoplayer music and sound effects as performed by Robert Israel on this one, but both audio tracks compliment the original visuals perfectly well. It comes down to personal preference and I’m more of a traditionalist.
Charlie Chaplin – The Mutual Comedies is out now on BFI Blu-ray and DVD.
On 25th February 1916, Charlie Chaplin signed a $670,000 deal with the Mutual Film Corporation to produce a film a month over a one-year period. This made him the highest-paid entertainer in the world. The deal came as a surprise to the film industry; many had expected him to sign with a larger studio and Mutual hadn’t really been considered as an option. However, the money (according to Dollar Times online calculator it was equivalent to $15.2m in 2015) and the creative freedom swayed him and production began in earnest.
The first of these films, all of which were short comedies, was The Floorwalker, released on 15th May 1916. The basic story involves a department store floorwalker (Lloyd Bacon) who is involved with embezzlement of money with the store manager (Eric Campbell). When they receive a letter informing them that detectives are on the way to investigate the finances, they decide to run. However, when the floorwalker spots a near-perfect lookalike in a tramp (Chaplin), he decides to offer to switch personas with him, without realising that the tramp himself is in trouble with the police for property damage in the shop.
The film has a couple of classic Chaplin comedy moments. The first (which is reused throughout to great hilarity) involves the tramp’s inability to go up or down an escalator. It is just pure comedy gold and though it has been imitated many times over, never has it been done so effectively. Another set piece that has had its imitators over the years is the first meeting of the trap and the floorwalker, in which they become intrigued by one-another and begin to mirror the other’s movement. It requires perfect comic timing and is brilliantly executed. It is perhaps more fondly remembered in The Marx Brothers’ comedy Duck Soup, though the gag in that film involved a mirror so isn’t strictly a copy.
All twelve films from the Mutual Film Corporation period are collected in an excellent Blu-ray (and DVD) released by BFI this month. The presentation of each includes two scores (all have one score by Carl Davis and an alternative score by a range of composers), an audio commentary and a brief discussion in the extensive booklet. The restorations are evidently full of care and attention to detail, which I’ve come to expect of BFI releases but will never stop appreciating.
Go out and buy a copy now and support the important restoration projects for classic cinema. You won’t be disappointed with this release.
Charlie Chaplin – The Mutual Comedies is out now on BFI Blu-ray and DVD.
Earlier today, my wife and I found ourselves walking on the red carpet, alongside Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Miranda Hart and Peter Serafinowicz, for the UK premiere of new film Spy. It was at the ODEON on Leicester Square. Here’s a photo of me on the red carpet.
I’ve been on the red carpet a couple of times before and it’s always a lovely experience. Of course, nobody cares who we are, though that doesn’t mean we didn’t ham it up a little. [1]
There’s been quite bit of interest for the film over the last few weeks and the anticipation was well justified. We laughed so much our faces hurt.
McCarthy and Law are hilarious throughout.
Spy is an action comedy about office-based CIA data analyst Susan Cooper (McCarthy), who is forced to go out onto the field when her partner Bradley Fine (Law) disappears and the identities of other top field agents – including Rick Ford (Statham) – are compromised. Going undercover to attempt to infiltrate arms dealer Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne) with the help of her office friend (Hart), the story is the perfect platform for some caper-based hilarity.
I was a little apprehensive going into it as the premise is quite familiar and hasn’t been done well for a long time. I was immediately pleasantly surprised, with an opening scene that sets the story up well, falsely draws us in to a serious film, then slaps us in the face with a huge laugh.
Jason Statham has never been so likeable. His character can best be described as Jay from the Inbetweeners if he somehow became a CIA agent. You can see he’s flexing his comedy muscles and really trying hard to make his co-stars laugh whilst holding back himself. His character is a highlight.
The real star, of course, is Melissa McCarthy. Her comic timing is impeccable and it’s easy to see this film becoming a critical and commercial success with her out front. She has had several opportunities to show us what she’s got, but she has fallen slightly short on several occasions (see Identity Thief). This is a comic actor at the top of her game.
The rest of the cast are excellent, especially Serafinowicz, and you can see they’re enjoying such a fun script. I can’t recommend it enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the start of a franchise.
[1] About a month ago I speculatively tweeted a review of Furious 7 as an entry to a competition run by Stella Artois and Film4. Actually, it was a review of the trailer. I’ve not seen the film, nor have i seen the trailer. Indeed, of all the films in the series I’ve only seen Tokyo Drift. I didn’t think much of it. Anyway, that’s why I’m here. I’ve included the review here, in case you’re interested.
The Video Game E.T. the Extra Terrestrial is an infamous piece of video gaming history. Everyone knows how it went: in 1983 Howard Scott Warshaw (Yars’ Revenge, Raiders of the Lost Ark) was given five weeks to produce a game for the Atari 2600 system alongside the release of the film and in time for the Christmas market. An over-confident board pushed to produce a market-saturating amount of cartridges based on the game being a best-seller, but when the reviews came in and everyone discovered that the game was terrible, the sales dried up. Atari started getting large amounts of returns of the cartridge and realised they were haemorrhaging money, so (the legend has it) they decided to dump some 700,000 cartridges in a landfill in New Mexico.
This film covers the history of the gaming industry, specifically Atari, the background to the game’s release and Howard Scott Warshaw’s part in the game. The main point of interest, though, was built around the highly anticipated excavation of the landfill to uncover the truth behind the cover-up and see if the burial really happened. I won’t ruin the result of the excavation, though it was a huge news story when it happened.
A happy treasure hunter. I guess he could now “go home”.
The film was of huge interest to me and the subject matter was something I was happy to dedicate an hour of my life to. The director, as the film clearly lays out, is of great stock, having recently help screenwrite several huge Marvel films (including The Avengers). However, in comparison to Blackfish (which I watched in the same sitting), the storytelling failed to get me hooked. It has a short running time so there was no padding, but it just lacked the emotional power that is so evident in the great documentaries or modern cinema. There was nothing terrible about it – there was some good analysis of Atari in their booming year, a great side-story with Ernest Cline (author of the excellent Ready Player One) and a very brief cameo from George R.R. Martin. I just didn’t make the connection I hoped I would.
I perhaps wonder whether the short running time wasn’t enough. there was easily a further ten minutes on each of the two main topics: the history of Atari as a company being the first and the excavation of the landfill site being the second. I left wanting to find out more and though the information is available on the internet I don’t think there was a better platform than this to tell the whole story.
For a more engaging and humorous take on the excavation, check out Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, which pays no attention to the facts and spends its time trying to keep us entertained instead. Atari: Game Over counts as a near miss for me.
David Bowie has made a career out of reinventing himself. In his early days, it felt like he was creating personas simply to discard them at the peak of their popularity: The Thin White Duke, Aladdin Sane, Ziggy Stardust and, most famously, Cobbler Bob. He didn’t simply create the characters – he lived them. The belief he had in these characters seeped into the psyche of the general public in a way no other popular artist has achieved since.
Whilst these great creations don the designs of shirts the world over (or maybe just in Camden and Topshop), and at least one has become ironically infamous, many of Bowie’s ventures and guest appearances have fallen by the wayside, perhaps a little too weird for the average Bowie fan to comprehend.
Here’s a countdown of the weirdest and most wonderful Bowie moments over the years.
1. David Bowie and Tina Turner star in a Pepsi advert together
Whilst Tina Turner’s popularity arguably hasn’t followed the same trajectory as David Bowie, in 1987 she was a big crowd-puller and on a par with Bowie. Pairing the two together after the ill-fated Michael Jackson commercials was a match made in heaven. Unfortunately David Bowie was accused of sexual assault during his Glass Spider Tour and although all charges were later dropped, so was the advert seen above as Pepsi panicked about being associated with a high-profile court case. It’s a huge shame because the ad, which riffs on the 1985 John Hughes film Weird Science, is a great piece of pop music history.
2. Boz in the video game Omikron: The Nomad Soul
Yes, that’s right. In 1999, Eidos released a not-very-popular title called Omikron: The Nomad Soul on PC and, later, Dreamcast. David Bowie had a considerable amount of input into the storyline and design, plus he provided several songs for the soundtrack (most of which were reworked for his then-upcoming album Hours… or released as b-sides for the associated singles). In addition to performing in the in-game band The Dreamers, he features as Boz (see the above video), a mystical figure that appears digitally at various points in the game. It’s hardly Bowie’s finest moment but worth seeing to imagine what it felt like in 1999 when these graphics were cutting edge.
3. The original video for Space Oddity (1969)
I think if you’ve got this far down the article and you’re still reading you probably have already seen the famous video for “Space Oddity”. If you’re in any way interested in the history of Bowie, you’ll recognise the persona in this video as Aladdin Sane, which Bowie had assumed for his sixth studio album in 1973. However, on 2nd February 1969 David and his then-collaborator John Hutchinson recorded a video using an earlier version of the song, and that’s what you can see above. It’s quite different and entertaining in its own right, and a fairer reflection of what he was like at the time the song was recorded. By 1973, Bowie was a completely different person and his backing band had changed, so it’s nice that there is preserved a more accurate visual representation of the track.
4. Crystal Japan sake adverts
There’s not much to go on in this advert. Just a bit of Bowie at a piano playing some ambient music followed by him drinking some sake. And a pyramid thing with the top chopped off. So…
5. Jazzin’ for Blue Jean
Back in 1984, David Bowie was riding high off the back of one of the most successful albums of his career, Let’s Dance, which hit number one globally to positive critical reviews. Such was the popularity, a decision was made to rush-release a new album, Tonight, which featured three covers and a couple of collaborations. Sales-wise it was successful, but poorly-received critically. One curiosity from it is the promotional video produced for the song Blue Jean. Clocking in at over 20 minutes, Jazzin’ For Blue Jean allowed Bowie to explore his acting abilities under the guidance of British filmmaker Julien Temple. Unfortunately, the results were less than impressive.
In it, he plays Vic, a window cleaner desperate to impress an unnamed girl played by Louise Scott. To win her heart, he pretends to know popular musician Screaming Lord Byron (also Bowie) and takes her on a date to see him perform. It’s going through the motions for the most part the performance of the song as Byron near the end is vintage Bowie. Perhaps that’s why it was cut into a three-minute conventional video for use on MTV.
It’s a tough watch now but worth checking out if you are really keen.
6. A strange tone for Jareth the Goblin King singing “As The World Falls Down”
We all love the Labyrinth. It was a childhood favourite of mine and in many ways hasn’t really gone into the ironic standing I’m sure it assumes for most people. After all, it’s a great fantasy storyline, the soundtrack is actually fantastic and it has David Bowie in it. What’s not to like? I’ll tell you what… if you take the track “As The World Falls Down” out of context and lay out the facts (as Bowie sings lovingly into the eyes of the girl he’s kidnapped, with those extremely tight trousers on, remember Jennifer Connolly was fourteen when this was filmed) it makes for interesting reading. Well, I’m being purposefully sensational here. There’s nothing terrible here. It’s a great song by a great artist in a great film. Stop fretting.
7. I Want My MTV
“Too much is never enough”, according to Billy Idol at the end of this video. David only appears briefly at the start of this video, but it’s still a wholly bizarre experience. Well worth 30 seconds of your life.
8. Bowie pokes fun at the Laughing Gnome
I remember the first time I heard The Laughing Gnome. It was particularly hard to track down for a quick listen: unavailable on YouTube or any of the streaming sites, the only way I could reveal the hilarity was to purchase it as part of the self-titled 1967 Deram album David Bowie – and even then only on the 2010 deluxe two-disc version where it nestled on the second disc (it strangely wasn’t actually included on the original album despite being one of the singles taken from it). It’s a shockingly awful novelty record that isn’t in keeping with anything else he produced before or since; even treating it as a children’s song you have to worry about how many of the puns would be understood by a child (for example, the “London School of Eco-gnome-ics” is mentioned). It is often misquoted as being Bowie’s first big hit, though it didn’t trouble the top of the charts until he’d achieved mega-stardom as Ziggy Stardust, reaching #6 in 1973 (six years after its original release).
So it’s highly pleasing to see the above video, taken from 1999’s Comic Relief push, where Bowie reveals a new song titled “Requiem for a Laughing Gnome”. It’s a song played exclusively on a recorder, “with choreography”, and a message pops up with a threat that it will continue for four hours unless the public donates more money. It’s always great to see interviews with Bowie from about 10-15 years ago – he’s actually a lot more sociable and friendly than most people imagine he will be.
9. Bowie talks about the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men
In Bowie’s very first television appearance at the tender age of 17 – as Davey Jones – he talks about the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men (presumably SPOCTLHM, pronounced spock-tull-hum”). It’s obviously a publicity stunt to get his face on TV, but a piece of rock history nonetheless.
10. Starring as Tesla in The Prestige
Whilst on hiatus between 2003’s Reality and 2013’s The Next Day, Bowie hardly made any appearances in public. However, in 2006 he found time to act in Christopher Nolan’s film The Prestige as Nikola Tesla. It was a pretty bizarre moment when I noticed this as I’d not seen the film at the time and had forgotten he was in it. He does a pretty good job too. Great film, great ending. Back when Christopher Nolan was good.
Cinema, etc. 