#1 - THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
Stars - Joseph Fiennes, Jeremy Irons, Al Pacino, Mackenzie Crook
Director - Michael Radford
Memorable Quote - 'If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?'
Review - Having, of course, studied this for A-level Literature, I feel quite sentimental about this here film. Not only does it contain a fine crop of actors (Pacino at his best, Fiennes looking cute enough that his performance hardly matters, and Irons playing the lovelorn man resigned to death very well), it also brings a great reading of the play itself. The are they/aren't they hints between Bassanio and Antonio are amplified here until you can be almost certain that Antonio is in love with his 'friend', and the last scene compells you to feel for both him and Shylock: both of them are saved from death, but end up alone, in a way that makes you question whether they really benefited by Portia's intervention at all. Oh, and Nick from My Family/the BT ads is in it, so you've got to love that. I'm not sure exactly how he manages to make Gratiano exactly like his Nick character with a dash more intelligence, since that shouldn't really work in Shakespearean Venice, but he does. 3.5/5
#2 - THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123
Stars - Denzel Washington, John Travolta, James Gandolfini
Director - Tony Scott
Memorable Quote - 'You know we all owe God a debt... and I'm a man who pays his debts. Are you a man who pays his debts?'
Review - Quite a dramatic movie, and very fast-paced. In fact the start was almost disorientating, not my favourite start to a film ever, but it did improve once it reached the actual storyline. Washington is looking old but acting well, as he always does. Travolta for me was the weak point. I couldn't believe his character, and I couldn't take him seriously - the over-the-top swearing, the grimacing, the earring - all of it was wrong. For me that was the one big flaw, without which the movie would have scored a lot higher. There are a ton of actors with smaller names that would nonetheless be better suited to the part, and I think they were overlooked in favour of being able to name-drop two big actors as the leads instead of just one. The storyline was great, and believable - usually where things like this slip up is by letting everything go to plan with one big stuff-up at the end, but here there were problems from the get-go. In summary, great idea, well executed, badly cast. Keep Washington, Gandolfini et al, exchange Travolta. 3/5
#3 - Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN
Stars - Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, Ana Lopez Mercado
Director - Alfonso Cuaron
Memorable Quote - '... Y tu mama tambien!'
Review - Not for the faint-hearted, this one! I know they did warn about the nudity, but really I didn't take them seriously. By the end of the movie, though, you appreciate why it's all so full-on. Really, the whole movie - the sex, the arguments, the small moments of tragedy by the sides of the road - is setting you up for that final scene. It comes across as a tragedy, but then you remember all those other little anecdotes and you can understand that this isn't a tragedy, but simply the way of the world. The narration style is fresh and interesting, cutting over the sound as it does, and the two boys present perfectly drunk, stoned, naive teenagers. Most of it you can see coming, with trepidation as much as anticipation - once the dialogue gets into 'Yo tambien - yo y Cecilia', you feel yourself tensely waiting for who's going to come out with that line, 'y tu mama tambien'. The final scene is, it has to be said, a masterpiece, but some of the parts before may feel a little contrived or over-shocking (just how many sex scenes do we need before the point is well and truly made?) 4/5
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