Savior

Since I'm in a bit of a movie review mood, I thought I'd include this film which I've been intending to post about for ages.

Long-short: Dennis Quaid, before he was famous, playing an American officer who joins the French Foreign Legion after killing the terrorists who killed his family.He turns mercenary for the Serbian forces during the recent conflict where he struggles to rescue a pregnant Serb and her baby.

I've only seen this film once, I was in the mood for an action film and Dennis Quaid (The Day After Tomorrow) and the Foreign Legion (Legionnaire) seemed to make a good combination. What I watched, however, blew my mind and has haunted me almost every day since I saw it morer than a year ago.

I've never seen real war, but without spoiling the film, it's clear why so many soldiers have trouble letting go. I honestly recommend that each and every one of you finds this film and watches it, but do so knowing that'll it might very well screw you up.

300

There's been just a wee bit of hype surrounding 300 lately. With the success of Sin City, everyone was scambling to be able to claim 'I liked Frank Miller before it was cool!' and, with the current wars, 300 must have been the natural next choice. As far as I can tell, it's fairly close to the comic (the terms 'comic' and 'graphic novel' are equal in my book...get over it) but that doesn't redeem it much. I know I may be surrendering my wang, but 300 just wasn't as good as it should've been.

Whatever reason you could have for watching 300, there is a better film out there.
If there's actually anyone who saw it because they really wanted to see realitic-ish Ancient-Greek fighting, I reckon Troy was heaps better, or even apparently the original The 300 Spartans.

If you just wanted a rousing battelcry of a film, one that makes you want to go and take a swing at the tall poppies or the state as soon as you leave the cinema, The Last Samurai, V for Vendetta, and Tears of the Sun (or practically any Bruce Willis film...that has a gun, ghosts don't count)

I imagine there were quite a few fans of the comic-book style of Sin City, who were expecting a similar film, just set about 2500 years prior. But even then, while it did have a unique (read 'fake') feel to it, it still fell short with V For Vendetta and The Crow and, of course Batman Begins leading the charge (I'd even include Road To Perdition in there despite a significantly realistic wash, it still flowed with more of the feel of a comic).

I presume, however, that the main reason people saw it was for the gore, which as you can tell by the logo was meant to be a pretty important character itself.

But even then, there are so many films that have surpassed it; I'm thinking the Blade series, A History of Violence and, of course, Josie and the Pussycats.

There's also amazing inaccuracies, presumably taken from the comic such as African elephants, huge rhinoceroses, giants, Immortals who look very ninja-like, guys with swords for arms and black-African Persians! I figure it was a pretty ferocious army before CGI was invented didn't really need enhancement.

My final gripe, was contained in the climax, don't worry it's not a spoiler, we all know they all die, but the whole film, they've put up this heroic fight, allowing time for all the armies of Greece to move to engage the Persians, they all expose themselves only to die in a shower of arrows, despite, seconds before, being adequately protected in a formation we've already seen was impenetrable. They could've at least taken a few with them.

As far as pros, Gerard Butler was great, as were each of the 300 Spartans (with David Wenham narrating really well and Vincent Regan in his second Greek-captain role) and it showed the immensity of Xerxes' army that appeared on Greece's doorstep.

For some fun, have a look through the film's keyword list from IMDb.

Musings on heroes

Okay, so this whole James Bond posting craze had been in warm up to seeing Casino Royale at the ANU Film Group on Monday. First of all, Daniel Craig can act...the action scenes are pretty awesome...and overall, the film was entertaining...but it's definitely not Bond. A complete lack of any remotely humorous wit, the ridiculous prominence of Sony products (even in his provided inventory...when the hell did British Intelligence need sponsorship?) immediately preclude it from inclusion as such.

However, the fun of watching a professional killer be driven effectively mad by girls is cool and the film ends up something like a cross between the action and the girl-chasing-ness of Mission: Impossible: 3 and the character development and transformations of The Matador (which I suggest anyone watch).

I kept trying to remember that the film was meant to be a 'restart' for the franchise, but the fact is, in the last 40 years, the character of Bond has developed beyond the books and Eon did fine jobs effectively refining the character by introducing a new actor in the past. When they wanted to sell on the humour and charm, they swapped out for Roger Moore. When they wanted to bring back the gritty realism, they were able to rely on relatively strong scripts to launch Timothy Dalton. And then when they needed just a wee bit more charm, to take it back to the height of Connery, they found the equal-best Bond in Pierce Brosnan.

The only real reason that a restart was really needed was because they'd already ballsed up the last film by giving him an invisible car! (Seriously, if they had them they'd be using them a bit more often wouldn't they?) In the Cold War, the KGB's own 'Q's regularly watched the early Bond films beacuse they thought the gadgets were real...and the fact that most of them were working props meant that they were pretty close. Assuming that you write-off Moonraker (as you should George Lazenby) and the occasional cutting-lasers Q hid in everything, the rest was actual technology, just in well-controlled environments.

Anywho...in my attempts to calm myself I went looking for randomness and, thanks again to Chris, I found some suitable, mindless entertainment in the random comics at Fishing For Orphans, only to get even more distracted by With your Moneys Combined. Wanting initially to look at the names of the old Captain Planet characters (check out the wanky sound on the gif of the Heart ring at the top), I am led into another rant: What kind of a superhero is weakened by the very thing he has been specifically created to fight? For those who can't remember, Gaia, the spirit of the Earth created Captain Planet, apparently thousands of years ago, to help her fight pollution...but if he gets too close it's like kryptonite (don't even get me started on Superman). Secondly, for a guy created, presumably with the first fire, why does he have a hairdo limited to about 10 years of being cool? Why is he blue? Why does he have seemingly infinite powers yet never use them? Why, if he's against pollution, doesn't he use his powers to create clean technologies and kind of ease the path to a less-polluted world? And why the hell does he have to be powered by some stupid kid who looks like a pineapple? And why does said kid not use his 'heart' powers to get some action? Seriously, if the 5 of them were at a club, Kwame leans over to a girl and says some crappy line about the 'earth moving under her feet', she's kinda interested until Wheeler sets something on fire...as if Ma-ti can't just use his ring to persuade her (abstract) heart to dump those two with their cheap tricks and go with him because she thinks she's in love!

Okay...deep breath...count to 10...in Greek...

That reminds me. The fourth Indiana Jones movie is to be out for next year with shooting starting in June (link). Who reckons Ford can pull it off? Apparently the script is "...well worth the wait." However, George Lucas is still involved (despite his Star Wars Travesties...that's right, they get a capital) and has even described it as "...doing the Phantom Menace." thus proving his millions of dollars and ranch in the middle of nowhere do nothing to keep him in touch with audiences. He does want to use another supernatural motivator though...which I think is a good thing. And the film will follow a week after Prince Caspian is released so be prepared for much movie merriment in May 2008.

(A bit of surprising: the first 3 Indy flicks got 7 Oscars from 14 nominations between them...that's just begging for another rant about Starship Troopers, but that's for later).

Oh yeah, a bit old but worth posting: J.J. Abrams is officially attached to Star Trek XI with rumours of Matt Damon (who can't seem do one film wrong lately) as Kirk.

hmmm...I hereby attach a 'Most Links in a Post Award'...and the 'Longest Post (at the Very Least in a Long While) Medal'