Monsters belong in B movies.

No 450 - King Kong

Director - Peter Jackson

Right, sorry for the gap. I've been in the middle of nowhere for a little while and therefore far from my DVDs and LOVEFiLM.

This is, to my enfeebled memory, the only film on the list which appears as both the original and as a direct remake. Let me begin by saying the original is better. There are some good moments in Peter Jackson's version, but it suffers from being long and self indulgent. Whereas the original is a leaner and tauter creature feature.

Lets begin with my main negative gripe: The film doesn't seem to know when to reign it in, it seems that Jackson is so excited by the concept of remaking the film that he just throws everything he can afford and think of onto the screen. This is most evident on Skull Island when the film becomes nothing but a series of set pieces.

Now, I am usually quite fond of set pieces, but we have a seemingly unending series of events for about an hour (a third of the too-long film) which don't really move the story in any way. Because of everything happening in this middle hour, the special effects suffer too. A lot of the action (specifically the dinosaur stampede) shows how the green screen doesn't gel between the live action cast and the dinosaurs. If Jurassic Park could do it ten years prior, Jackson shouldn't have an excuse.

But, worse than the bad visual effects is the fact that after the third set piece you just stop caring. By the time the film had got to the massive bugs sequence I just wanted the sailors to capture Kong and move to America. Please. Even weird toothy monster penis worms couldn't save the sequence.

However, once Kong gets to America we're still prone to too many unnecessary sequences. This time, the film suffers when Jackson moves away from the action. I love seeing a giant gorilla attacking 1930's America. It is brilliant cinema. Whereas I really couldn't give a shit about seeing a gorilla sit on the ice. I nearly wrote ice skating - but I'd love to see a gorilla ice skating! Give Kong some skates, and that scene would have been a lot better.

The only real good thing to come out of the over egging of these set pieces (be it 'look at the sailors in peril' or 'look at the touching relationship between Ann and Kong') is that the film's final line "Was Beauty killed the Beast" is clearly signposted with all the irony and misunderstanding.

So, that was a bit of a negative start, let me talk about what I like in the film. Firstly, Jackson knows how to make some amazing visuals, and here whether it is the glamour and poverty of New York or the terrifying surroundings of Skull Island's tribal village we get a wonderful world to explore.

Secondly, I like the little nods to the original film. The inability to hire Faye Wray is a good touch. As is the fact that the stage show looks a lot like the 30's film. Including the frankly horrible racially awkward savages of the original film (I'm glad that the remake creates a much more realistic and much scarier remote isolated tribe).

However, like almost any film he is in, the film's real hero is Andy Serkis. The man is brilliant - and usually the best thing - in any film he is in. Whether the films are brilliant, flawed or just a bit rubbish.

Here, he plays two characters - and whilst Lumpy the cook is a brilliantly gruff and mysterious character who can shoot bugs with a machine gun and rustle up ship food - He isn't the star of the show.

That honour goes to Serkis' portrayal of the titular Kong. And it is with Kong that this film triumphs over the 1933 original. Motion capture and Serkis' remarkable character work means that Kong is fully rounded. Menacing and tough at times and childlike and ridiculous at others. He acts, like a proper ape.

The film's most amazing scene (in my opinion) is when he repeatedly knocks down Ann as she performs a slapstick routine. The sheer joy on his face is both wonderfully real, but also the foundation of his affection for Ann. That cements the bond in place far more than any ice pond skating sequence. The puppet Kong always seemed to either look angry or surprised, so the real triumph of this film is giving Kong a whole range of emotions. Seeing him begin the terrifying beast and end up this scared and pitiful giant fish out of water searching for the one thing that will make him feel safe.

That is this film's triumph. I just wish it didn't use such a meandering 3 hours to do so.

And I wish to end with this old video.... just in case anyone has any doubts about Andy Serkis' general brilliance.

I have been touched by your kids... and I'm pretty sure that I've touched them.

No 188 - The School of Rock

Director - Richard Linklater

Thank you Freeview. You have served me well, providing films as I was trapped in a hotel in Sunderland. Today's film is an unusual entry from introspective indie darling Richard Linklater, a gleefully anarchistic comedy starring the gleefully anarchic Jack Black.

If you look at the synopses of the film, it is not particularly intelligent. A man fakes his way into a stuffy private school where he teaches the children how to have fun and loosen up. Through the power of RAWK. Even in the execution of the film there are some massive plot holes. The main (and most important) one also being the simplest. How the hell has somebody managed to set up and rehearse a rock band within a school. Schools are notoriously quiet places (especially a cliche private school like the one in this film) and rock bands are not quiet in the least.

Somebody would have noticed. Early on.

However, the skill of the film is that you don't care. You overlook the plot holes. You overlook the obvious flaws and you enjoy the ride of the film. This is down to a number of things, but I'm going to begin with Jack Black.

If there is one role that Jack Black plays well it is the arrogant rock buffoon. You can argue that the majority of his roles have played to that side but this is the first film to truly embrace it. I saw Tenacious D when they performed their first gig in the UK and Dewey Finn is a slightly scaled down version of Rock Behemoth JB. I think this is a good thing, because for all his vulgar hilarity, Tenacious D might be slightly too much. Whereas Dewey feels like a real person. An idiot. But a real person.

This is helped by the fact that School of Rock was written specifically for Jack Black and therefore celebrates his rock persona and his wild eyed delivery. This is easily Jack Black's best performance.

What is truly impressive is that despite this being Black's finest hour, he doesn't steal the show with excessive mugging. It is an impressive task to outshine Jack Black, doubly so when he is on such top form, and yet it is not done by just on person but by an entire class of them.

The class of the School of Rock themselves.

What I love about this film is the characterisation. Whilst some of the adults do fall by the wayside (Sarah Silverman is just a bossy cow, with no further dimensions), and it doesn't matter what Joan Cusack does, all I can hear is Jessie. The children are superb and have fantastic characters which just shine. Characters like Summer or Fred may not really develop but they are really rounded (Fred's rebellious nature and Summer's controlling naggyness). The real star of the film is the mighty Zack, played excellently by Joey Gaydos Jr. His journey from being beaten down by his family through to finding his Independence and his awesomeness - and he is an excellent guitarist.
The film really celebrates the journey of the children. It follows them from the beginning where they are prim and proper and under the thumb of their parents and their headmistress, the fabulous Joan Cusack. Throughout this film she is played as the much misunderstood authoritarian of the piece, however throughout it all I could hear was Jessie. Which is the problem with voice casting.
Gradually though, Jack Black helps the children find their individuality, their confidence, their sense of fun.

The most important part of the film is the final gig. Here you can see how fabulously the children work and play together. Following their journey, the final scene is a real goose bump raising heart warming moment of pure joy. I like to think that each child designed their own outfits and helped to create the real sense of unity and strength which shines from the film.
You can watch it in isolation and it is still really fun.

But it isn't as fun as seeing it in context...

I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like... Books, records, films - these things matter.

No 446 - High Fidelity
Director - Stephen Frears

Narration is a tricky cinematic feat. It is perfectly normal for a book to be written in first person, or to be written in a style that directly targets its audience.
"You may be wondering, dear reader, why I - a humble plumber from Constantinople did blah blah blah...."
However this is a very difficult thing to convey in filmic terms. A narrator and breaking the fourth wall is a very risky move. Which can sometimes work and sometimes feel like a lazy inability to convey emotion.

Rather than a narration, we have a protagonist who is also the narrator. The riskiest of risky moves as he flips out of the film to tell the viewer something, whilst surrounded by oblivious co-stars and extras.
This film presents itself as a story of love and music, but it isn't. It is a story about lists. John Cusack's Rob has a near-autistic obsession with lists. He loves music and records, OBSESSES over music and records because it can be compartmentalised, put into lists. Top 5 side 1 track 1s, Top 10 live performances between 1969 and 1973 etc etc. This film is also about his inability to grasp relationships and romance. He represents it as this big, oppressive, confusing entity which he can't grasp - because he can't organise it.
I would not be surprised, ladies and gentleman, if Mr Rob Gordon is perhaps on the autistic spectrum.

It would also explain his store which is deliberately elitist, difficult to find and rude. The only reason people go there is it is the only place with the records they need in stock.

I find it hard to like Rob for a lot of these reasons. But mainly because he feels that he deserves better, that a better life should be handed to him. He spends 90% of the film complaining. Breaking down former situations and focusing on the negatives, bitching, moaning and being infuriatingly 'woe is me' about everything.

The film basically follows Rob after he has been dumped and he dismantles his top 5 worse break ups and revisits his exes to get closure. Slowly he starts to realise that he isn't the destructive force he feared he was. That the relationships ended naturally (or in one excellent scene, that he himself ended the relationship).
Each moment is introduced with a flashback of the relationship, and they are faultless. I don't if it is the genius of John Cusack as an actor or if it is excellent use of make up and wardrobe. But, teenage Rob and Mid 20s Rob all the way up to present day Rob. Each is a perfect and real feeling snapshot. Even the kid they get to play 14 year old Rob looks and acts like John Cusack, it is a really impressive feat.

I also love that there are some really weird choices for cameos which motivate Rob on his journey. Firstly Tim Robbins as Ian, the man whom Laura (Rob's most recent ex) has left him for. Despite the cameo in Anchorman, I still see Tim Robbins as a SERIOUS ACTOR - mainly, I think, down to Shawshank Redemption. So I found it really odd to see him appearing as this middle aged business orientated - new ager full of self importance and pomposity. I went to uni in Brighton. I know the type.
His cameo also leads to one of the best scenes. Due to the fact that this film acknowledges it is a film (through John Cusack's to camera narration) it means that a singular scene of fantasy can be forgiven. When it is as brilliant as this - it is more than forgiven, it is LAUDED.

The only other flight of fantasy in the film is the excellent cameo from The Boss himself, Springsteen - who tells Rob to go on this journey of self discovery. That cameo is excellent because Springsteen is excellent. Like a Boss.

These individual reunions help him to discover something. He is still in love with his current ex and finally Rob's character begins to deepen.
He seems to spend the entire film expecting the worst. He expects the worst from his relationships so he's always on the look out for a better option (which naturally leads to his relationships failing). So the finale of the film is great because it proves him wrong on so many levels.
Firstly - he gets back together with Laura and the film's journey of reunions showed him that the 'fantasy woman' doesn't exist and that he does love Laura and he does want to be with her.

Secondly the 'no good punks' who clutter up his kids are talented musicians and people like their music. So he promotes them.

Finally (and most refreshingly, for me as a viewer) - after an entire film of mocking his colleague Barry's band. They play and they are excellent. Barry is the scene stealing dervish of arrogant chaos that is Jack Black - and Rob is convinced that his band, Sonic Death Monkey, will be awful. Laura asks them to play a gala event and Rob tries to get them to back out.

Luckily the band is fab - and Rob's reaction is the most important part of the film.

This is not a film about music. This isn't even about lists. It is about realising there is more to the world than the impossible dream and to embrace the good that surrounds you rather than focus on the flaws.