BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE)

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) follows - quite literally - Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton), the ex-star of Hollywood's hugely successful Birdman franchise, as he courts legitimacy with a Broadway production of the Raymond Carver story ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’.  Riggan is staking everything - his financial stability, his professional reputation, his sanity - on the success of  his play, as he encounters problems with his cast and his own brittle metal state. His internal monologue, personified by his famous Birdman character, is constantly questioning whether he wants critical acclaim or global celebrity.

Alejandro González Iñárritu has crafted a strange and enigmatic movie. Birdman's two hour duration is presented as one long, glorious tracking shot. It's an inventive device that succeeds in depicting the whole movie almost as if it were itself a play; and it lends itself to some very inventive problem solving when faced with the progression of time and location. Likewise, the superhero motif of Riggan's past glory is used to illustrate the movie's bigger, art v commercialism pondering, and creatively sketches Riggan's mental unravelling.

It's Keaton's show, and no mistake, but he's ably abetted by the likes of Naomi Watts and Zach Galifianakis testing their acting mettle here. But for all its great performances, it does over-egg itself at times. Emma Stone's grandstanding,  wide eyed gesticulating is a gnats cock away from being Jack Nicholson on the stairs in The Shining shrieking "gimme the bat", and even Keaton himself ramps up the 'actor face' a bit much.  Edward Norton excels above all others as Mike Shiner, the best actor in the production, which has one wondering if this is intentional - if the actors in the movie are supposed to be mimicking the skills and qualities of the actors in the theatre production - or if that's reading too much into it?

Birdman is a weird,  interesting cinema experience, but is ultimately a little unsatisfying.  Is Birdman just musing on relevance in the digital age, and creative success versus commercial success  like it's conflicted protagonist? Or is there a message in the madness? Perhaps it is merely asking questions of itself and its audience, despite feeling like it has a point to make. On the one hand Birdman is taking pot shots at Hollywood and comic book movies, while on the other, it rails against the critic who dismisses Riggan outright for his celebrity and populist career. It's message therefore, IF it has one, is left feeling a little inscrutable.

Nonetheless, Birdman is an absorbing watch. I'm not sure if it is quite the challenging piece of cinema it is being held up to be. Nor is it perhaps fully deserving of all its attendant hyperbole.  But it is certainly an intriguing curiosity, with a very pleasing oddness about it. And that alone makes it worth a look.

IMDB: Birdman 

NIGHTCRAWLER

Nightcrawler follows the story of Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhall), a small-time petty thief and nominal jobhunter eeking his way around Los Angeles trying to make ends meet. Whilst driving home one evening Lou chances upon a dramatic road traffic accident and, stopping to investigate, becomes aware of the career potential in 'nightcrawling' Nightcrawling is the practice of trawling the police band radio every night for juicy accidents and crimes to film, translating into lucrative sales to the ratings hungry, morally abject local TV news stations. Lou gets a lucky break and manages to sell a graphic, but poor-quality video of a fatal carjacking to local news chief Nina (Rene Russo), who recognises a crude talent.  Nina encourages Lou to bring her further footage, and so he gets his foot in the door of a seedy news industry, where the grimmer the tragedy, the bigger the paycheck. Lou hires an assistant, Rick (Riz Ahmed), to help him navigate the labyrinthine Los Angeles streets and decipher the coded police calls they track from the car. As Lou's career ascends, so too do the lengths he will go to frame a good shot or best his competition.

Lacking in any sort of moral compass, Lou manipulates everything and everyone he comes into contact with, from his assistant Rick, to the bodies at a crime scene. Nothing is off-limits and everything is a 'sale'. A gaunt looking Jake Gyllenhaal is super creepy as Lou, superficially earnest and hardworking, but underlying it all he is a sociopathic void. Lou is constantly spouting weird business platitudes as he gives it the bug-eye. Rene Russo and Riz Ahmed are excellent as the closest thing Lou has to friends, and it's fantastic to see Bill Paxton as a sleazy nightcrawling competitor. Note: it is scientifically impossible for Bill Paxton to be bad in anything. He rules.

On the face of it, Nightcrawler might sound like a grim ride, and although it feels OTT at times, it is no less compelling for it. It's grimly amusing in its own way. The absurdity of Lou Bloom's detachment and  lack of empathy, combined with his self-help book motivational creed, lend themselves to some darkly comic scenarios. If you've ever pondered whether ambitious people are dangerous, then Nightcrawler is going to give you some bad dreams. It's a stylish yet seedy study of what happens when blind ambition and moral ambiguity collide. An extreme portrait of aspiration as a weapon.

IMDB: Nightcrawler

HARD TARGET

Hard Target was John Woo’s first film outside of Hong Kong, and is arguably his finest western movie. You may well have enjoyed Nicholas Cage and John Travolta facing off in ... erm ... Face/Off, and there is much to get down with where the proto-Nicholson stylings of Christian Slater are concerned in the underrated Broken Arrow, but Hard Target is an utterly unsung masterpiece of action cinema. It has everything going for it.

The premise is thus: Lance Henricksen runs an Nth-degree-evil corporate events management company, where rich bastards pay him some fat wedge to safari hunt homeless people in New Orleans. With some cops on the payroll and Joe & Jane public's casual ambivalence to the plight of the homeless - even when they are being big-game hunted through a pedestrian arcade - they've got a pretty cushy number going for them. Things start to unravel, however, when they inadvertently kill a man who still has a family (a fact not picked up on by their screening process). The man's daughter (Yancy Butler) comes looking for him, enlisting the help of down-on-his-luck ex-army guy Chance Boudreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) when she runs into nothing but dead ends at the cop shop and city hall. Together, they set out to uncover the mystery of her father's death.

Hard Target has got an astonishingly mullet-permed Van Damme, looking like a cross between Billy Ray Cyrus and Deidre Barlow,  sprinkling his dialogue with Cajun spice (i.e. a weird accent) and uber-creepy references to finding Yancy Butler’s “Daddy”. He is one heck of an oddbod as the hero, but don’t get me wrong, Van Damme is completely badass in this.

We have Lance Henricksen as the villain, chewing the scenery and stalking the indigent with an absurdly impractical antique gun he can only reload one shot at a time, while Arnold Vosloo (of The Mummy and the Darkman-sequels 'fame') menaces all as his cue ball-headed henchman.

We have Wilford Brimley as a mega-stereotypical crazy old coot living out in the Bayou backwaters brewing moonshine, and of course, this being a John Woo picture, it's got more slo-mo, motorbikes, fluttering birds and Uzi's than could be ever be imagined by a normal human mind.

Although Van Damme's fans are legion, and often point to his skill and martial arts prowess as being peerless amongst the action heroes of the '80s and '90s, for my money his obvious technical ability was just never a match for the comedic, brute thuggery of Arnie or Sly in their prime. But in Hard Target’s Chance Boudreaux, the stoic brow-beaten hero, plays perfectly to Van Damme’s strengths as a quietly composed nut job, kicking gumbo-flavoured ass in a Canadian tuxedo and Timberlands.

This leads us on very nicely to one of the greatest sequences in all of cinema history. Now, the scholars amongst you might well stand before the jury and present a well-reasoned case for Bogart and Bergman at the end of Casablanca being the best. You might choose to sit yourself down and eulogise the cockle-warming ending of It's A Wonderful Life. Or you might even want to stand up and salute the virtues of Citizen Kane's famous Rosebud enigma. But before we go any further, let me ask you this: do any of those movies feature Jean-Claude Van Damme knocking a rattlesnake unconscious with one punch, biting off its 'rattle' with his teeth and then hanging it in a tree so it can silently attack a baddie later on? The only movie that can answer 'yes' to that question is Hard Target, and that is precisely why it is awesome.

Insanely, the internet abounds with rumour concerning various alternate cuts of the movie. From a supposed extended laser disc version through to an ultra violent, director’s cut work print with a whopping 20 extra minutes. Whatever the reality, the fact remains that even in its theatrical incarnation, Hard Target is a rare gem of an action movie. Over the top and a bit silly, but at the same time huge amounts of fun and massively entertaining.

In fact, I love this movie so much I feel like I should start a crowdfundung campaign to allow me to write and co-direct Hard Target 2. Of course, I’d only do it with the proviso that I could get Van Damme and Woo on board and cast Jason Statham as Van Damme’s ass kicking Cajun cousin.

Hard Target is the God of underrated 90s action. Go forth and spread the gospel.

IMDB: Hard Target

                  

DEAD HEAT

Dead Heat is a criminally underrated horror comedy from 1988, which seems to have either flown under most folks' radar or been largely misunderstood for the past two and a half decades. Riding the wake of Lethal Weapon, it's part cop/buddy movie, part zombie flick.

Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo - who I knew of previously only from a couple of Simpsons references) and the magnificently monikered Roger Mortis (Treat Williams - the unlikely action hero of the underrated sequels in The Subsitute series) are a pair of classic play-by-their-own-rules detectives who stumble upon a criminal masterplan to achieve eternal life through the resurrection of the dead!

Thing's kick off nicely with an enjoyable cameo from the master of the '80s cameos, Robert Picardo (as a detective chief), when the two cops foil a jewellery store robbery by a couple of hoods, who take scores of bullets but refuse to die. Having resolved the situation via unconventional means, Doug and Roger get chewed out back at the station by the Chief, who does not approve of unconventional means but DOES approve of the results. They follow up on a lead, which takes them to a suspicious laboratory that has been working on a 'resurrection machine' to bring back the dead, and it's no spoiler to reveal that Roger is killed in the line of duty. He is subsequently reanimated, and it's up to the pair to track down Roger's murderer and uncover the truth behind the resurrection machine.

Dead Heat also features a sprightly appearance from Vincent Price in one of his final roles (behind only Edward Scissorhands and a couple of TV movies) as rich tycoon, Arthur P Laudermilk.

Dead Heat is total fun, and it's a complete mystery as to why this movie isn't better known or well loved. It's surprisingly violent in places, so perhaps this odd tone is what puts people off. If that is the case, then Dead Heat was certainly ahead of its time, as the same mix of broad comedy and zombie-based violence was put to expert use sixteen years later in Shaun of the Dead. If Dead Heat came out ten years later things might well be different - Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo would be huge! It's true that some of the dialogue is pretty corny in places, with some truly dreadful one-liners, but it works somehow. It's an ingenious concept and, despite appearing to operate within the boundaries of genre cliche, it actually does something fun and interesting with it.

The other star of the show are the excellent special effects. One of the unparalleled highlights is a gloriously inventive set piece in a butcher's shop, where Doug and Roger are attacked by the chopped up, reanimated meat products littering the counter.

So, let's recap - it's a violent, mad scientist, cop buddy horror comedy with reanimated, malevolent butcher's meat, a few surprises up its sleeve and Vincent Price. What more do you need? It's essential viewing.

Format note: The US Blu Ray version that I own is not much better than DVD quality, with nothing by way of extra features, whereas previous US DVD releases included deleted scenes, the script and director commentary. The DVD might be the option to go for if you're keen on tracking this down.

IMDB: Dead Heat

2014 REVIEW

2014 produced some really great movies, and this year, my top spot is a three way tie. Three vastly different movies, all reminding me in their own way of the best things about cinema, and all essential viewing.

1. Interstellar
Nolan's ode to 2001. Intelligent, emotive, sublime science fiction

2. We Are The Best! (Vi är Bäst!)
Punk rock + Lucas Moodysson = cinema heaven. I loved this film so much. 5 stars, ten out of ten, all that jazz and then some. We Are The Best? Damn right.

3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson's stylish, hilarious, aspect-ratio-molesting caper delivers on all counts. Gets better with every watch.

4. Her
Technically Spike Jonz's existential sci-fi romance drama hit screens in late 2013, but get included here anyway on account of its brilliance.

5. The One I Love
To provide any plot details about this overlooked gem would be too much information. Trust me, rely on the fact that Mark Duplass and Elizabeth Moss are GREAT; go in fresh and enjoy the hell out of this unexpected treat.

6. It Follows
An inventive, creepy, new horror flick which delivers on it's killer concept. Caught it at M.I.F.F. and it looks like this will get its wider release in 2015.

7. Jodorowsky's Dune
The greatest movie never made. Jodorowsky's enthusiasm for his 40 year old dream project is as infectious as it is inspiring. Wonderful stuff.

8. Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
Massively entertaining documentary on the hilarious, almost unbelievable story of Cannon Films. I saw it at M.I.F.F. and it looks like this will be out more widely in 2015.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy
James Gunn's highly entertaining entry to the Marvel universe did  great job with a relatively obscure comic. The soundtrack didn't engage me like it seemed to with most, and his best movie is still the the underrated Super, but Guardians was lot of fun and you can't ask for much more than that.

10. Godzilla
Solid and entertaining US update of everyone's favourite Kaiju. Cranston adds gravitas to an enjoyable couple of hours while we wait for Pacific Rim 2.

11. Only Lovers Left Alive
Jarmusch's lethargic muso vampire meditation. Slow, yet absorbing.

Honourable mentions go to the ripping indie revenge flick Blue Ruin, which also came out in 2013 but didn't seem to get a release anywhere until 2014.  Whiplash, Inside Llewyn Davis, Dallas Buyers Club, Frank,What We Do In The Shadows and Captain America: The Winter Soldier were also well worth a look-see.

Of the films I didn't manage to catch in 2014, I wanted to see Nightcrawler, The Babadook, Boyhood, Under The Skin, and 12 Years A Slave, all of which I expect would have competed for spots in the Top Ten.

Worst:
Life After Beth
Painfully unfunny Aubrey Plaza zombie / comedy vehicle, with emphasis on it's painful unfunniness. It hurts to watch shit like this when you realise there are probably talented people out there trying to write and make movies and getting nowhere. A derivative, joyless waste of everyone's time. I want my 20 bucks back.

American Hustle
Bloated, star-leaden tedium that attracted praise from all corners like flies on stink, but for my money looked hopelessly inauthentic and bored the utter crap out of me.