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Review – Fast & Furious 6

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Three Rows Back

For a franchise so long in the tooth, Fast & Furious is still firing on all nitrous-fuelled cylinders and showing no signs of slowing down as it shifts into sixth gear.

Fast and Furious 6 is unbelievable, ludicrous (or Ludacris) and absurd, but when brainless full-throttle action entertainment is done as effortlessly well as this it hardly matters

Fast & Furious 6 is unbelievable, ludicrous (or Ludacris) and absurd, but when brainless full-throttle action entertainment is done as effortlessly well as this it hardly matters

Although no slouch at the box office, 2009’s Fast & Furious accelerated the downward critical spiral of a series that had become weighed down by its underground car-racing roots. Realising the franchise needed a major jump-start, returning director Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan expanded their horizons and delivered the most successful entry to date in 2011’s Fast Five.

Essentially Ocean’s Eleven on wheels, Fast Five managed to attract a whole new audience while still keeping the core fan base happy with plenty of turbo-charged vehicles. Thankfully, Fast & Furious 6 is far from the car wreck that Ocean’s Twelve turned out to be; instead we get a high-octane joy ride that revels in its crazy stunts but doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Brian (Paul Walker) and Dom (Vin Diesel) discuss where to go next in Fast and Furious 6

Brian (Paul Walker) and Dom (Vin Diesel) discuss where to go next in Fast & Furious 6

After pulling off the heist of their lives, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and the rest of the A-Team are enjoying the spoils. That is until Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) turns up unannounced offering to clear their criminal records in return for bringing down a highly professional and deadly gang of mercenaries led by criminal mastermind Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), whose second-in-command is Toretto’s presumed-dead lover Letty (Michelle Rodriguez).

The team realise they’ve taken on Mission: Difficult in Fast & Furious 6

One of the things that really worked in Fast Five was the addition of man mountain Johnson to the cast, a far better actor than he’s given credit for as well as an imposing screen presence. We not only get Johnson back for Fast & Furious 6, we also get the ‘face of women’s MMA’ Gina Carano, who proved her chops in Steven Soderbergh’s under-appreciated 2011 action flick Haywire and stars here as Hobbs’ right-hand woman Riley. With so many bad-asses on screen it wouldn’t have taken much for the film to become one long (and ridiculous) fist fight; however, the narrative, much of which takes place in London, and characters are more than engaging enough for the fito work.

Another believable action set piece in Fast and Furious 6

Another believable action set piece in Fast & Furious 6

That’s not to say it’s shy when it comes to action, which is both fast and furious. The fight scene between Riley and Letty in a London Underground station is one of the best you’ll see this or any other year, while the demolition derby involving Shaw and Letty in a tank and Toretto, O’Conner, Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) in souped-up motors trying to stop his dastardly plans is utter lunacy. Although it can’t match that other epic highway wig out in The Matrix Reloaded for sheer over-the-top spectacle, it’s still jaw-dropping stuff (although the lack of interest given to the civilian casualties along the way is somewhat troubling). Likewise, the final stunt-filled set piece staged on what must be the longest runway in the world doesn’t reach the heights of Fast Five‘s joyously pleasurable denouement involving a bank vault being dragged through the streets of Rio, but it’s another fine example of how every penny spared is on screen.

Agent Luke Gibbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Riley (Gina Carano) look on impressed in Fast and Furious 6

Agent Luke Gibbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Riley (Gina Carano) look on impressed in Fast & Furious 6

Diesel (who now looks set to stay after realising this is his best bet at a regular pay cheque) is hardly the world’s greatest actor, but then he doesn’t need to be to play lunkhead Toretto. The same goes for Walker, although there’s no denying they work well off each other and with the other members of the ‘family’ (as we’re constantly reminded), tech whiz Tej (Chris Bridges, aka rapper Ludacris), street racer Han (Sung Kang) and former Mossad agent Gisele (Gal Gadot). It’s also good to see the return of a few old faces, including Shea Whigham as O’Conner’s former FBI colleague Agent Stasiak.

The post-credits coda is becoming one of the franchise’s staples and this time delivers its most dramatic final twist yet, promising a great villain for next year’s follow-up. That being said, neither Johnson nor director Lin have signed up for Fast Seven due to it being rushed into production which is a big shame.

It’s unbelievable, ludicrous (or Ludacris), absurd and if you had a drink for every time someone changes gear you’d be slaughtered half an hour in, but when brainless full-throttle action entertainment is done as effortlessly well as this it hardly matters.

In Retrospect – Natural Born Killers (1994)

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Three Rows Back

It’s been almost 20 years since Oliver Stone’s outrageously provocative indictment of our obsession with media-fed celebrity and violence grabbed its own set of headlines, but if anything it’s become even more prescient.

As fearless as it is bombastic and problematic, it’s unlikely we’ll see the like of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers again

With each new school shooting, massacre and serial killer, America’s news networks have sunk to new depths and served up opinions and conjecture as ‘factual’ prime time entertainment to a public drawn to the grisly details like a moth to a flame.

Cinema has long-held a fascination with our darker side, from such classics as Badlands (1973), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Funny Games (1997) to schlock horror like the recent run of torture porn flicks.

Mickey and Mallory Knox (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) on their media-fuelled rampage in Natural Born Killers

Oliver Stone, one of America’s most polarising directors, has long explored humanity’s black heart and loss of innocence in the likes of Platoon, JFK and the under-appreciated Talk Radio, so it came as no surprise when it emerged he was making his most controversial film to date in Natural Born Killers.

Originally written by a pre-Reservoir Dogs Quentin Tarantino, Stone dramatically altered the tone of the script from popcorn action to a polemic attacking what he saw as the insidious and cynical devolution of the media from a fair and balanced news provider to a ratings-chasing entertainer that glorifies the violence it purports to condemn.

The shizer hits the fan for tabloid TV journalist Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jr) in Natural Born Killers

Drawn together by a common desire and abusive childhoods, lovers Mickey and Mallory Knox (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) hit the road and embark on a frenzied killing spree that captivates the sensation-hungry media machine, encapsulated by bloodthirsty tabloid journalist Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jr) and his rabid TV show American Maniacs (which he describes as “junk food for the brain” for “those dim wits out there in zombieland”). Regarded as “the best thing to happen to mass murder since Manson” by his deluded fans, Mickey and Mallory’s notoriety only increases with each new massacre and explodes after they’re captured and locked up in prison, run by Warden Dwight McClusky (Tommy Lee Jones).

If you thought JFK was a cinematic smorgasbord, Stone and cinematographer Robert Richardson give us one of the most hyperactive and kaleidoscopic movie experiences ever committed to celluloid. Switching frenetically between colour, black and white, video, Super 8, CCTV, slow motion, projection, red lens, green lens and animation, it’s nothing if not eye-popping.

Not the thing you want to be staring at in Natural Born Killers

The late Roger Ebert said of the film: “Seeing this movie once is not enough. The first time is for the visceral experience, the second time is for the meaning.” Re-watching Natural Born Killers, I was able to get past the “visceral experience” and realised that Stone was trying to portray events through Mickey and Mallory’s crazy perspective. When we see the animated Mickey looking the cool hero, for instance, it’s how he sees himself.

Stone depicts his central pairing as an unstoppable force of nature relentlessly careering down “the road to hell”. When Mickey escapes prison for the first time, he jumps on a horse and symbolically rides towards a tornado. Likewise, they seem to float above those seeking to drag them down to the gutter, especially the parasitic Gale who sees Mickey and Mallory as his ticket to the big time. When Mickey poetically announces that “only love can kill the demon” during a live interview, Gale cheapens the moment by going to commercial, where an ad for Coke duly pops up.

Mickey and Mallory Knox (Woodly Harrelson and Juliette Lewis), “the best thing to happen to mass murder since Manson”, in Natural Born Killers

Mickey and Mallory Knox (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis), “the best thing to happen to mass murder since Manson”, in Natural Born Killers

Images of sex and violence are projected in the background and dominate the airwaves, including footage of Scarface (an odd choice considering Stone wrote the screenplay). Also, Mickey and Mallory each have ying and yang tattoos to show their “extreme light and dark” sides, but they could just as easily represent the interdependence between their killing spree and the media’s insatiable blood lust.

However, for a film seeking to throw a cautionary spotlight on where we are and where we’re heading, Stone undermines his message in the way he depicts the moments of violence. Within the first five minutes, we’re shown a highly stylised scene of brutality visited upon the staff and customers of a diner, including an arresting tracking shot of a bullet fired from Mickey’s gun that dramatically stops in mid-flight before ending up in a cook’s head, and another tracking shot of a knife sent spinning slow motion through a window and into its victim. Crudely, Stone has the rednecks leer and grab at Mallory as she dances next to a jukebox, suggesting they’re asking for it.

Warden Swight McClusky (Tommy Lee Jones) loses it in Natural Born Killers

Warden Dwight McClusky (Tommy Lee Jones) loses it in Natural Born Killers

Stone would argue he’s seeking to project such violent scenes through the prism of satire, but when every cinematic trick in the book is adopted it’s difficult not to conclude he’s having his cake and eating it.

The excellent Harrelson and Lewis walk a fine line between being frightening, charming and sympathetic, while the manically over-the-top Jones and Downey Jr are deliciously sleazy and Arliss Howard’s angel of death on Mickey and Mallory’s shoulders is all the more unnerving for how underplayed it is.

As fearless as it is bombastic and problematic, it’s unlikely we’ll see the like of Natural Born Killers again, while for all his faults we need more directors like Oliver Stone to make us think, however unsubtle the message might be.

Sequels Schmequels

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Three Rows Back

A little piece of my soul died when I finally ignored my better judgement and watched with increasing dismay as Bruce Willis took the pay cheque and trampled over one of my favourite movie franchises (fully justifying the title in the process) with A Good Day To Die Hard.

“What are we doing here again?” – The lazy cash-in that is A Good Day To Die Hard

A very pale shadow of the classic 1988 original – arguably the greatest action movie ever made – this fifth very bad day for John McClane sees him joined by his son (who’s suddenly come out of the woodwork) to “put a whuppin'” on a cabal of evil Ruskies.

It’s fair to say that none of Die Hard‘s follow-ups has matched that film’s ridiculously high standards, but the laziness and empty-headed cynicism of A Good Day To Die Hard would be incredible if it wasn’t so insulting.

A Good Day To Die Hard (we’re being promised a sixth film in the same way that children are promised a smack for being naughty) is just one of many, many terrible sequels that have soiled the good name of the original film they were so hoping to cash-in on.

In no particular order, here are five that unfortunately came to mind, although I’d love to know what you think are the worst sequels ever made.

Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)

Keanu Reeves has made some very questionable career choices over the years (Johnny Mnemonic, anyone?), but even he had the foresight to give a wide berth to this woeful ‘action’ film that, bizarrely for a film with the word ‘speed’ in it, was largely set on a boat capable of travelling only slightly faster than the milk float used in Father Ted‘s hilarious homage to Speed. Sandra Bullock at least had the stones to admit it was terrible, although to claim anything else would have been unwise.

The Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

Never has a title been so accurate. William Friedkin’s 1973 original is still regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever and still has the ability to unnerve 40 years later. The only thing memorable about John Boorman’s follow-up, however, is just how massively ill-judged it is. Not even Richard Burton can save what ended up being an unruly mess of confused and conflicting themes thrown together by a director who recut the film, but found out to his cost that a stinker’s a stinker whichever way you package it.

Son Of The Mask (2005)

Although hardly a work of art, 1994’s The Mask did at least boast star-making turns from Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz and a zany plot that matched its lead’s hyperactive temperament. This afterthought made more than a decade on sees Jamie Kennedy donning the mask while impregnating his wife, with the resulting baby-related ‘comedy’ being more unnerving than anything else. It’s safe to say Kennedy’s no Carrey and this is about as far from “smmmookin’!” as you can get.

Highlander 2: The Quickening (1991)

Currently in that special club of films with a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s unlikely this sequel to the cult 1986 original (which itself lost money) is going to win critics over from now until the end of time. As well as having a plot so nuts you’ve got to wonder how on Earth (or the Highlander’s home planet Zeist) it ever got the green light, Christopher Lambert can’t act, Sean Connery (who had his head lopped off in the first film, lest we forget) can’t be bothered and Michael Ironside can’t be controlled. Who wants to live forever? After watching this, not me.

Jaws 4: The Revenge (1987)

We were told that ‘This Time It’s Personal’. Hollywood movies have never tried too hard to strive for authenticity, but dreaming up a storyline in which a great white shark stalks the Brody clan from the United States to the Bahamas in a bloodthirsty attempt at revenge is pushing it. The film co-stars Michael Caine (who at the time would have read the phone book had there been money involved), who had this to say: “I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!”

Batman And Robin (1997)

Thank god for Christopher Nolan. Before Batman Begins reinvented the comic book movie, director Joel Schumacher was busy burying the Dark Knight under a garish pile of camp costumes, ridiculous plotlines, bad acting and terrible Arnie one-liners with what in effect was one long advert for peddling lunch boxes to kids. Summing it up better than I ever could, comedian Michael J. Nelson wrote in his book Movie Megacheese: “Batman & Robin is not the worst movie ever. No, indeed. It’s the worst thing ever. Yes, it’s the single worst thing that we as human beings have ever produced in recorded history.”

There are lots more awful sequels to choose from, unfortunately? What are yours?

Proud To Be A Member Of…

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Three Rows Back

I’m delighted to announce I’ve been let in through the side door to join the great and good of the movie blogging world at The LAMB.

Many of the excellent sites I follow are LAMB members and I’m pleased to see some of these sites having been nominated for – and in a few cases won – LAMMYs. Congratulations to everyone who won recognition for their site. I know we all created our sites to wax on about our abiding love of all things cinema, however, it always makes you feel a little warm inside knowing others out there not only take the time to check out your stuff, but like it enough to feel some form of official appreciation is in order.

The LAMB has a lot of great features I look forward to delving into and a fantastic community of people who, like me, absolutely adore films.

Review – Star Trek Into Darkness

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Three Rows Back

After achieving the sort of franchise rejuvenation in which Christopher Nolan would be proud, J.J Abrams has boldly gone bigger, badder and bolder for his breathlessly enterprising Star Trek sequel.

Star Trek Into Darkness – As smart and engaging as it is outrageously entertaining, blockbusters don’t come much better than this

It looked like the final frontier was upon one of cinema’s longest-running film series when 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis tanked at the box office. But as the Batman franchise had so effectively demonstrated, when stuck in a creative cul-de-sac the best way out is to wipe the slate clean and start again (this summer’s Man of Steel being a case in point).

Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) come face-to-face with John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) in Star Trek Into Darkness

The task of delivering ‘Star Trek Begins’ fell to Abrams, a major player in television with such cult shows as Alias and Lost, but whose only previous big screen experience in the director’s chair had been with the underrated Mission: Impossible III. A self-confessed Trek neophyte, Abrams’ lack of fan-baggage essentially made him the perfect man for the job.

With the help of a finely tuned script by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman that wasn’t afraid to take risks, 2009’s Star Trek managed to please both hardened Trekkies and newbies alike with its impressive mix of epic action set-pieces and emotionally engaging characters.

Abrams wisely retains the core of what worked last time around, while upping the ante considerably with Star Trek Into Darkness, which sees Starfleet under attack from Shakesperean-esque villain John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch). Seeking vengeance, Kirk (Chris Pine) leads Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban) and the Enterprise crew into a deadly conflict against the cold, calculating terrorist.

Deadly terrorist John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) in Star Trek Into Darkness

Trek is often at its best when subtly preaching tolerance on issues reflecting the times we live in. In the 1960s it was civil rights and feminism, here it’s terrorism, specifically the desire for revenge when cooler heads are needed. It’s an issue that gives the writers plenty of scope to play with the dynamics of the cast, in particular the relationship between the hot-headed, unvarnished Kirk and logical Spock. Kirk’s impulsiveness is what gets results, but it’s also what gets them into trouble in the first place.

New crew member Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) hasn’t yet fallen for Kirk’s (Chris Pine) charms in Star Trek Into Darkness

One of the things that really worked in the rebooted Star Trek was the generous screen time given to the supporting cast. It’s good to see the same approach being taken for the sequel, with Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho) and Chekhov (Anton Yelchin) all integral to the story and given their moments to shine.

Spock (Zachary Quinto) ready for action in Star Trek Into Darkness

Pine finds the chinks in Kirk’s armour and makes him more likeable this time around, while Quinto’s become so comfortable as Spock it’s as if he’s never taken off his Vulcan ears and makes you believe the tumult of emotions under the surface could erupt at any time. Cumberbatch relishes his role and gives the impression he knows he’s always two steps ahead of everyone else. When he tells Kirk that “I’m better … at everything”, you believe him.

Needless to say the film looks stunning, with Abrams’ signature lens flare present and correct in virtually every frame. His long-time production designer Scott Chambliss manages to make the Enterprise beautifully functional (lots of white) without it becoming sterile, while the digital effects team outdo themselves with their realisation of a 23rd century London and San Francisco that feels entirely authentic.

“Damn it Jim!” Bones (Karl Urban) Star Trek Into Darkness

No Abrams film would be complete without a nod to his hero Steven Spielberg and here it’s in an opening scene lifted straight from Raiders Of The Lost Ark in which Kirk and Bones run for their lives from the inhabitants of a primitive planet. Abrams also seems to have a thing for filming long takes of his actors running (remember the extended scene of Tom Cruise legging it in Mission: Impossible III?) and visits that upon poor old Pegg here. There’s even a wink at The Godfather Part III.

On the negative side, Michael Giancchino’s score is way over-the-top. I’m normally a fan of his work, but there were times when the soundtrack was too big even for a film of this scale. Likewise, the finale gets a little too ridiculous for its own good and could have done with being trimmed.

Abrams leaves enough breadcrumbs to whet your appetite for the next installment, even if he’s likely to pass in favour of that other franchise starting with ‘Star’. As smart and engaging as it is outrageously entertaining, blockbusters don’t come much better than this.

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