#1 - THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN RIDE
Stars - Lee Van Cleef, Stefanie Powers
Director - George McCowan
Memorable Quote - 'Seven's always been my lucky number.'
Review - Yes, I've finally got around to watching the final installation of the Magnificent Seven series! This time Lee Van Cleef plays an aging Chris in what must be his last adventure, defending a whole town of women from evil Mexican rapists. This is quite a bit darker than the other movies - the emergence of the women from the church in their first meeting sends shivers down the spine at the implied violence, and this only increases when Laurie describes the ratio of men to women in the attack. The women have clearly been through a terrible ordeal, which is why it is a) unrealistic and b) kinda creepy when they all immediately fall in love with members of the Seven, particularly in Laurie's case and in the case of the Mormon wives. This film was clearly written and directed by men, no two ways about it - a female perspective would have been very different. The rape and murder of Chris' wife at the start of the film is also conveniently forgotten - should he not still be in mourning? A lot of plot holes with this then, as well as the obligatory Deaths of People You Like. It's the same as last time - woman falls in love with man, offers him chance of redemption, man dies unnecessarily. I guess it's for the feeling of realism, but in that case they might as well have not bothered, considering the other unrealisms presented here. Not bad overall, but you can't ignore the glaring obviousness of these plot issues. 3.5/5
#2 - PRIMAL FEAR
Stars - Richard Gere, Edward Norton, Laura Linney, Terry O'Quinn, Joe Spano, Tony Plana
Director - Gregory Hoblit
Memorable Quote - 'Sooner or later a man who wears two faces forgets which one is real.'
Review - Whew, isn't Edward Norton fantastic? This portrayal of a young, psychologically disturbed altar boy is exceedingly well done, from the stuttering, nervous Aaron to the psychopathic Roy. TV fans will no doubt be pleased to spot Locke from Lost appearing with Ignacio from Ugly Betty, along with a plethora of other faces we will recognise in small parts. The plot is layered in several stages, as first we see the crime and chase, then the initial denial of guilt, the revelation of the existence of Roy, the courtroom battle in which Roy finally emerges, and then at last that chilling final scene. It is all well acted and well presented, particularly in Norton's case of course, and the sense of tension is raised throughout. What makes this movie really stand out from the crowd is that final twist: for a large percentage of the film we think we are only watching a lovely story about a lawyer with a conscience, making sure that his client is not wrongfully punished for something that was not his fault. However, with the dark ending we realised a whole new level to the film, something we could perhaps not have anticipated. The length of Gere's walk away from the cell is important, because it gives the audience time to take in what the hell just happened. Well-directed and just right. 5/5
#3 - STARSKY AND HUTCH
Stars - Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Snoop Dogg, Vince Vaughn, many more
Director - Todd Phillips
Memorable Quote - 'Do it.'
Review - I'll say first of all that my knowledge of the original S&H is almost nonexistent, so this can by no means be a comparison. Instead I'm taking the film just as a thing in its own right. It is of course highly amusing - with the combination of Hollywood heavyweights Stiller and Wilson there was never going to be any doubt of that. Snoop Dogg adds his own wonderful dose of self-aware charm and humour, while the cameo of the original S&H at the end is a nice nod to the heritage of the film. All in all a good night's entertainment, and many a scene that will make you laugh time and time again - I can't count how many times I or someone I'm talking to has said 'do it' and caused an impromptu rendition of Stiller's undercover character. There's much fun to be had with this, but not much more I can say without ruining the jokes which, after all, don't work on paper as well as they do on screen. 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment