I carry a small candle for Katie
Holmes, a light that has been present since my teenage years. I was
head-over-heels in love with Joey Porter and I remained that way until the end
of Dawson’s Creek - no matter how many times she played best friend against
best friend.
The test for both actresses is whether you believe they
are the long-time friend of Bruce Wayne and whether you buy their ‘destined to
be together’ plot arch – Holmes does nothing that makes me question these points.
...
At a push, Holmes’ Dawes is more crudely written than
Gyllenhaal’s – the speech she makes to Bruce after he admits to nearly killing
Joe Chill is, well, unfortunate. You could also point to the hotel scene when she meets Bruce again after his time in self-imposed exile. These moments feel
forced and I blame the words given to Holmes rather than her performance of
those words.
I also can’t help feeling that a lot of the hate towards
Holmes’ stems from who she was romantically linked with at the time. As I have said previously, audiences find it difficult to separate an actor’s personal
life from their professional. Holmes did not give a barnstorming performance but
neither did Jake’s sister and I have yet to read a review where Gyllenhaal has
been lampooned.
(Sigh) I can feel my inner Holme’s flame burning as I
write this. As I said at the beginning, I may be biased when it comes to this
subject. I don’t know.
I love the Christopher Nolan Batman films with all my
soul – I truly believe each film is a classic. What Nolan did for the character
is not easy – he made Batman, in the eyes of the mainstream audience, into a
serious character. Previously, under different directorial regimes, I just
couldn’t take character seriously.
But as well as all three films being wonderful, there are
moments in the Nolan series that just make you remember why you love movies.
Moments that force you to say “wow” and moments that conjure a chill at the
back of your neck.
These are my favourite 10 moments in the Nolan Batman
series.
...
Ten:
Ras al Ghul reveal
I feel that Batman Begins gets a bad rap among fans and
critics – I think it is a very good film that expertly lays the ground work for
The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. There are moments in the film that are as good as any in the series.
I remember the first time I watched Begins and seeing
Bruce Wayne’s birthday scene and being blown away. The tension from the whole
film pretty much builds to this moment. You realise that the real big bad
of the film was a bloke you thought was a good guy and probably dead – Liam
Neeson’s Ras al Ghul. From this moment on, I knew this was a very different
Batman story than those that came before.
Nine:
The Lau Extraction
This scene is the best bad ass “Batman” moment in series.
I love it because it brings home a point that Heath Ledger’s Joker mentions
earlier in The Dark Knight, “Batman has no jurisdiction.” It is the clearest
demonstration of why Batman is more important than the Gotham City Police.
It is also just very cool.
Eight:
Do you feel in charge?
As I have said before on this blog, I am shit scared of
Bane and you only have to watch the below scene to understand why. In a moment,
with a light touch of the shoulder, the whole dynamic of the conversation
between Bane and John Daggett (played by the bloody brilliant Ben Mandelsohn)
changes – and it is shocking.
Seven:
Ninja Batman
Something that people overlook about Batman is that he is
supposed to be a fiercely intelligent individual that thinks on his feet – a
detective if you will. That is best illustrated in the Ninja initiation scene in Batman Begins.
First off, Ninja’s are just bloody cool anyway, so this
scene was always going to stick with me. But I love the way that in this one scene
you see Bruce using all of the knowledge Ras has passed on to him (or the
knowledge we have seen him pass). This is where you pretty much see the
transformation – this is the birth of Batman.
Six:
The Bane walk
You take the boss hostage and threaten his life in
front of his people who are ebbing closer and closer towards you. So you fight them with the help of a bloke that dresses as a bat, but more men keep coming.Chief among
those approaching you is a big bastard with his hands on the collar of his
jacket.
Question: What do you do? My answer: Shit myself.
Five:
Joker’s coward
The thing with me is that I keep forgetting how great
Ledger’s performance was as the Joker. I try to downplay it because of the
incredible hype it gets but when you watch The Dark Knight you realise what a
remarkable performance it is. Truly jaw dropping.
One of my favourite moment is when he taunts a police officer
into an altercation. It is the way that Ledger
achieves being extremely threatening and funny at the same time.
I chuckle every time Ledger mouths “six” in this scene - I don't know why. And when he drops his “do you know why I use a knife speech” you realise
what Ledger was doing in this film was not normal.
Four:
Joker reveal
There is probably nothing I can say about this moment
that hasn’t already been written. It is my third favourite introduction to a
film behind The Godfather ("I believe in America") and The Lion King ("Circle of life"). It is already iconic and rightly
so.
Every time someone argues with me that Nolan isn’t a
technically gifted director, I mention this scene because it is nigh near
perfect beginning to a wonderful film.
Three:
Hi
And yes for a third time in a row I choose a Joker moment
– I left out so many.
I’m really not that bothered about the rest of this
scene (which is awesome in its own right), it is just the “hi” moment that
delights me. Again, it shows you the level of detail Ledger put into his performance.
Firstly, it’s funny and secondly, for that to be the
first word you say to a man who you ruined is just sadistic.
The fight scene in the sewers between Bane and Batman
encapsulates everything terrifying about the character – but it is his
“darkness” speech that tips me over the edge every time. Terrifying.
One: Fire Engine
It is just funny.
I remember laughing out loud in the cinema when I saw
this visual gag. The thing is, I wasn’t the only one laughing.
Again, it sharply shows two important elements to the
Joker, his humour and sadistic nature. But somehow, his humour is the thing
that shines through the most – at least for me it is. I really don’t know what
that says about me as a human being.
But this is the one moment I love the most in the whole series. It is small but it says a lot.
I’ve never pretended to be a comic book expert – I’m not –
but thanks to the explosion of films which were inspired by the medium I have
started to appreciate them a lot more.
It is all about storytelling and like TV and film, some
of the best stories can be found at the grassroots level.
“Tales from a lonely planet” is a collection of stories
by grassroots comic book writers and artists put together by Stu Perrins. Importantly,
all proceeds from the anthology will go to Cancer Research UK.
...
It is the editor of the anthology that kicks off matters
with his satirical strip “No such thing as bad press”. I must admit, the
artwork of Nick Gonzo put me off at first but once I started to read the story his
contribution became evident.
Gonzo adds a lot of charm to Perrins’ funny and
sharp writing and by end of the story you want to read more about the
adventures of Harvey Spig.
But it is the next strip, “Dogs” by Niall Doonan which is
the stand out piece of the anthology. Inspired by the characters of Tarantino’s
iconic debut film, it follows a hilarious conversation about one of the Dogs becoming
a vegetarian. It is a little gem of a strip – it’s surreal, laugh out loud
funny and also strangely familiar. The art work by Trystan Mitchell is just fantastic
and adds even more quality to the strip.
...
Every story in ‘lonely planet’ is peppered generously
with humour, but I also enjoyed how different the art in each story was. No
story looks the same and this makes starting a new strip feel like a breath of
fresh air. There will probably be some strips in this book that may not be to everyone’s
taste, but that’s fine – that’s the point.
What this book demonstrates is just how unique comics
are. There are ideas and little fables in this anthology that will stay with
for a while (Blas Bigatti’s piece is just beautiful) and they show you that
comics can be so much more than your Batmans or Supermans.
I loved “Tales from a lonely planet” and I applaud Mr
Perrins for putting this together. Importantly, I can’t wait to see what these
artists come up with next.
Tom Hardy is 5 feet 9 inches tall. I am an inch shorter than
this man. I say this because time and again I have been described as a man of
below average height – which is true – yet, Tom Hardy is only an inch taller. I
take this as an empowering piece of information.
Despite Hardy’s height impediment, he is one of the most
physically imposing actors I have seen on the screen – I put him up there with
Arnold Schwarzenegger. His performance in Bronson echoed that of a young Robert
De Nero, as did his impressive turn in Warrior – but for me, it’s his turn as
Bane that shows how special he is.
…
I love The Dark Knight Rises – I think it is brilliant,
ambitious and most of all brave. I also admit that the film is very much
flawed, but not to the extent some believe it is. For instance, I do not think
that there is much technical difference between The Dark Knight Rises and its
much celebrated predecessor, The Dark Knight. The only difference to my mind is
Heath Ledger.
Now when I think of The Joker, I don’t think of the comic
book incarnations or Jack Nicholson for that matter, I think of Ledger – that
tells you what a hell of a job he did in TDK. But Tom Hardy has done the same
thing for the character Bane.
I can safely say, hand on heart, that if I was walking down
the street late at night, I’d be more scared of the brute slowly walking towards
me with his hands on the collars of his jacket than the bloke skipping and
laughing next to him. Don’t get me wrong, I’d brown my pants if I encountered
both of them – but Hardy’s Bane strikes me with more fear.
…
I fear Bane more because it doesn’t take much to imagine a
real life version of this character – and many of them at that. I don’t believe
there many Joker’s in this world, this is despite the horrible events of the
Aurora shooting.
Bane is a terrorist. He is smart, he is manipulative and his
logic makes a warped kind of sense. While The Joker had no motive or ideology
other than to create chaos – the presence of such things in Bane utterly
terrifies me.
It is the rooting of this character in a post 9/11 reality and
the addition of a physical menace that makes him special. Honest to god, he scares
me.
…
Let’s also not forget that all of Hardy’s performance was
with a mask on. He had to portray a range of feelings with a mask on. I mean,
stand in front of a mirror with a balaclava over your mouth – now act angry,
tough, surprised, calm, worried, sad and happy. It isn’t as easy as it looks.
I accept that the voice is an acquired taste – I liked it,
but I understand why it has been ridiculed. I don’t think the character would
have been as menacing if he had an American or British accent. Maybe they were
going for a non-Arabic foreign accent. Since 9/11, the foreign is a lot more
threatening than the domestic.
…
I truly believe that in time people will start to see The
Dark Knight Rises the same way they see The Dark Knight – as a generational
defining movie with outstanding performances. I accept that Hardy’s Bane will
never be as beloved as Ledger’s Joker, and that is ok, but I feel his character
and his work on that film deserves a lot more respect that it has gotten.
I'm writing about a film that I
didn’t finish watching. I think of the utter and complete tosh that I've
managed to sit through in my life and realise just how special this film, Cowboys
and Aliens, is. I mean, I've finished Spiderman 3, Catwoman and Batman and
Robin. The latter was so bad that the director, Joel Schumacher apologised for the film – yet I've watched that film many times.
The only other film that I abandoned midway was You’ve Got
Mail in 1998. My uncle took me, my sisters and our cousins to see that film. I
was so mystified by how bad that film was that I walked out and spent half an
hour in the arcade.
But Cowboys and Aliens is different, this Jon Favreau
joint should have been a good, if nothing else, fun film.
…
I sat and watched the
first hour of this film and not once did I smile. For a film called Cowboys and
Aliens not to rise one smirk from my face suggests that there is a fundamental
flaw in its DNA.
The warning signs were there from the very beginning –
Daniel Craig scowled far too much and Mr Ford played the grumpy old man too
well for my liking. I found myself getting angry at Daniel Craig for playing
his character just as he would Bond and that isn’t what I signed up to watch.
But
for me it was Sam Rockwell’s character which indexed the very reason why this
film didn’t work. I assume that Rockwell’s Doc was supposed to be the comedy
relief of this piece and that relief never materialised. I felt for Rockwell in
this film because given the right material he is a fantastic actor, but you get
the impression that he and the film itself was just weighed down by a need to
be taken seriously.
…
The blame for the faults of this film has to be put on the
door of the director. Jon Favreau should have known better – why on earth he
thought this film should be a straight and serious movie is beyond me. The
title and premise is Cowboys and Aliens for crying out loud.
You honestly wouldn’t be able to tell that this film is
related to Iron Man, Elf, Zathura and (little gem of a film) Made. You couldn’t even tell that it was
a second cousin of Swingers.
This film should have been light, fast moving and silly –
but it plods along at an excruciatingly slow pace. This film should have been bogged down with stupid jokes, not tired western-film cliches.
…
At the end of the day it comes down to me losing my
patience, something that I rarely do when it comes to films.
The hour that I
watched of this film didn’t intrigue me or give me sufficient reason to hang on
beside my better judgement – many films have made me make that poor decision.
Not only is Cowboys and Aliens a bad film (I can handle and
enjoy bad films), it is a disappointing film that feels very lazy and that is
something I cannot stomach.
As an aside, this film made me appreciate the much panned Wild
Wild West. WWW and its stars knew that the films was ridiculous.
Ridiculous is fun to watch. Ridiculousness is an ingredient that this film sorely needed.
This lovely little piece was written by my friend Jess Everett. One of the few sad things about being a new father is the fact that I haven't had many opportunities to go to the cinema - first world problems and all that, right? But there is something special about being in an enclosed space with smelly strangers, as Jess explains below.
As an aside, Jess has one of the best speaking voices known to man.Just saying.
...
Attending the movies is a communal
experience and some movies were just meant to be seen in the theatre. Much like
music aficionados who claim the only way to really know a band is to see them
live, or sports fans who travel continents not only for the joy of cheering on
their team but also to experience being part of the crowd, when you go to a
theatre and watch a movie you become part of something.
Inspiring films move us more when watched
with others. The dread in a horror movie becomes more real as the person behind
you gasps and screams. Jokes are more enjoyable when others are laughing with
you. And epic moments are more memorable when you high-five the stranger next
you (this actually happened to me during the first screening of Attack of The
Clones. Apparently the gentleman really enjoyed a good Yoda fight).
Movies are a defining moment for
generations. Anyone who experienced the first Star Wars trilogy in the theatre
has an immediate connection. Growing up and watching every Harry Potter movie,
waiting in anticipation for the next Lord of the Rings, and knowing every song
lyric to The Lion King are moments that connect us all.
We all remember our first movie. The thrill
of watching the screen light up and seeing larger than imaginable characters
flood your view. The goosebumps that leave you feeling nervous and excited, and
the joy of having your very own popcorn and sneaking ninja cuddles*with your
movie date.
Although cinemas have been pricing
themselves out of relevancy for years, I will continue to make the sacrifice as
long as I can afford it. Why? Because for me there is nothing like a night out
at the movies.
*The phrase “ninja cuddle” and its adorable relevance to movie theatre watching is borrowed
from the film loving @8bitbatman
Secondly and more
positively, Idlewild was important because it was the first time I heard
Janelle Monae. She was the silver lining on that album. We both heard the death
of one of black music’s greatest and most innovative bands and the birth of
fearless young artist.
Fast forward to 2010 and
Janelle Monae showed that I was right to take notice. She released an album
which left my jaw on the floor. Although I am 26 years old, I feel like an old
bastard and regularly complain about the quality of music today – especially
black music. The ArchAndroid was all my complaints answered. It was ambitious,
expansive and it took risks jovially – sometimes it missed the mark
spectacularly (Make the bus, for example) but most of the time it hit highs
that left me in goosebumps (Oh, maker).
The ArchAndroid is a
modern day classic. I genuinely thought Monae did a Nas, she made her Illmatic
and would be hard pressed to repeat the trick.
…
With Electric Lady,
Janelle has proved how special she is. Monae has grown remarkably as an artist
and it shines blindly through on this album. Electric lady doesn’t manically
bounce from genre to genre like its predecessor, this is more of a traditional
R’n’B album.
When I say R’n’B, I am not talking about her contemporaries such
as Beyonce or Rihanna, I am talking the R’n’B of Prince, Stevie, Michael and
Aretha and Marvin – that is who you must compare Janelle to after hearing this
album. I can give no greater compliment than that.
Suite four is where all
the fireworks are stored. It tells you a lot about Janelle’s confidence when
she starts the album off with His Royal Purpleness. What makes ‘Give em what
they love’ spectacular is not only the appearance of Prince (by the way, this
is the Controversy, Dirty Mind, Sexy MF Prince and not the jut found religion
Prince), but the fact that Monae isn’t an afterthought once the song has
finished. She stands toe to toe with the great Purple one and this prologues the
greatness in the album.
In fact, every guest
appearance on this album manage to sprinkle a little bit of magic to the
proceedings and threaten to overshadow the headliner – but every single time
Monae manages to rise above them. When Badu strolls silkily onto the funky-ass
Q.U.E.E.N like a panther, Monae has a fierce rhyme reminiscent of Chuck D and
KRS-1 to bat her off with. Janelle response to Solange’s irresistible 90’s TLC
vide with a grin-inducing serenading rap-verse that makes you ache for Left
Eye.
When Primetime, featuring
Mugel, rolls around you start to appreciate the change in Janelle Monae’s
attitude and you suddenly realise a great flaw in her previous album. This
Monae is much more open than the one listeners met on The ArchAndoid. “Tonight, I don’t want to be mysterious with
you”, she says on what can only be described as a bedroom jam, a song which
would have never appeared on ArchAndoid. She no longer strictly sticks to her
alter-ego Cindi when she is performing, in Primetime you feel like you are
getting your first glimpse of Janelle.
…
Although Suite four may
have all the headliners, the best of the album is found on Suite five. This is
the Suite which propels this from just being a great album to being a jaw
dropping one. Suite five shows you that Janelle wanted achieve more on this
album other than catch people’s ear and show them how many different genre’s
she can pull off.
If you close your eyes,
you can see a young Michael Jackson shuffling around and singing It’s Code with
his brothers backing him up. Ghetto
Woman could happily sit in the middle of Stevie Wonder’s classic Innervisions
and not be out of place at all. This isn’t to say that Janelle Monae is trying
to imitate these artist, you don’t get that impression at all – you feel like
she understands what made the greats great and she taps into that and makes
their style her own.
In this regard, Ghetto
Woman is an extraordinary extraordinary song. She updates a sound which is
timeless and familiar and entirely owned by a legendary artist and claims it as
her own (I would kill for Stevie to cover this song). This is a worthy
successor to Living in the City and after Kelindo does his usual fantastic
guitar solo, Monae’s Andre 3000 like rap lifts this song into a stratosphere
that I thought modern day R’n’B would never reach. I would love to know what
Wonder thinks of this song.
Victory is my personal favourite.
Again, this song shows how much more willing Monae is to open up to her
audience. She feels vulnerable on this song, something that I never felt on her
previous album. It is a song for when everything in your life has gone wrong
and you need to find something, anything, to make you get up off the floor
before the count. Again, there are shades of the greats on this song – Aretha
and Ms Hill come to mind – but this song is totally Janelle’s own.
…
By the time the closer
comes to your ears with its 80s synth chords, you feel exhausted. It is a
different exhaustion to the one you feel at the end of ArchAndoid – here you
succinct impression is that Janelle has given you all that she can emotionally
as well as talent wise.
Some listeners will be
disappointed with this album for not being The ArchAndoid and not being as
experimental – I can understand that but I don’t feel that way at all. I have
someone I can champion after the untimely death of Amy Winehouse. Janelle could
be the woman to take black music out of its oversexaulised, boring and risk
adverse state that it has been in for years.
I am not naïve enough to
believe that this album will be a commercial success. I do think that people
will come to this album and this artist slowly throughout the coming years and
will see her for the innovator and trail blazer she is.
Janelle Monae is the real
queen of the new school and at 27 I don’t think she will let go of that crown
anytime soon.
