Monster Trucks

Dir: Chris Wedge

2016

*

I had assumed that the concept of Monster Trucks was based on an old toy line, indeed I had convinced myself that I had owned such a toy back in the early 80s. This would have made some sense to me, not everyone would have been on board but the studio would have though “Yeah, okay, so some guys in their 40s might go and see it and we can do a deal with Mattel for a retro toy line”, so money will be made, but no, this was not the case. The original poster looks like a spoof, a classic b-movie that didn’t really exist, an idea Homer Simpson would have come up with in an early 90s episode of The Simpsons. It was actually written by Derek Connolly who wrote the Jurassic World movies, based on a story written by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger and Matthew Robinson. Now I didn’t care much for the first two Jurassic World movies but many people did and it was an already established franchise. He also wrote Safety Not Guarantied, an overrated film in my opinion but not bad and still well received. Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger and Matthew Robinson are responsible for films such as The Invention of Lying, Monsters vs. Aliens, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, Trolls and the animated TV show King of the Hill. I loved King of the Hill back in the day and even though I thought I’d hate all the other films, I ended up really enjoying them, mainly thanks to their silliness. Monster Trucks is silly but it is so much more than that – it is utterly stupid. I think the only way the idea could have worked was if the film makers had traveled back in time to 1986 and made it into a kids cartoon. No doubt it would have been made into a disappointing live-action film around 1990 with cheap effects but it still would have reached cult status and we’d all be talking about how much we love it even though it was terrible. I would bet my favorite shoes that in 2046, absolutely no one will look back at 2016’s Monster Trucks and say “Hey, wasn’t that film so bad it was good”? I will raise my stake and throw my favorite trousers on the table and bet that in 2046 no one will even remember Monster Trucks – including those that worked on it. Is this really where creative writing is in Hollywood these days? These guys get paid actual money for coming up with these ideas. Can you imagine? 

“Hey guys, you know Monster Trucks? Well, what if the truck actually was a monster”?

“What, an actual monster”?

“No, a giant squid that sort of looks like a five year old drew it”

“And this giant squid turns into a truck”?

“No, it just acts as the trucks engine”

“Brilliant, here’s $125 million”

That isn’t a made up number either. This film cost $125 million and that was before promotional costs. It is estimated that the film ended up costing the studio $123.1 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues. It really does make me wonder why I’m not a screenwriter in Hollywood. It makes me wonder why we’re not all Hollywood screenwriters. I’ve written loads of rubbish scripts and not one of them has been green-lit. Maybe they thought they had the next E.T. on their hands, I don’t know, but there must have been hundreds of people who looked at Monster Trucks and decided that A. It was a good story and B. It would make money. The thing I find astonishing about Monster Trucks – the stupidest film ever made – was that I didn’t hate it. I’ll be enjoying headaches and dancing to car alarms next but even though I felt nothing but disgust for the people who made it, I watched it without switching off or becoming upset. Remember cassette tapes? Well, I’ve started to think that watching as many films as I do is a bit like listening to cassette tapes in the late 80s. In order to clean your overused tape player you would occasionally play a cassette head cleaner – a cassette that would play silently for a minute and clean the playback heads in ones ghetto blaster. If you watch nothing but crap films then you must occasionally watch something of quality, so if like me you tend to watch only good films, then maybe sometimes you need to watch some crap films to address the balance and remind you what terrible really looks like. The next three star film you watch suddenly becomes a four star film and so much more enjoyable then it would have been if you hadn’t watched the crap beforehand. Crap films are therefore head cleaners for cinephiles and after watching Monster Trucks my head felt as fresh as a freshly made bed and as clean as the interior of a brand new car. I don’t really have anything specifically positive to say about the film itself other than it might get kids interested in the negatives of fracking but I very much doubt it. I like looking at Rob Lowe’s face and I like both Danny Glover and Barry Pepper. Lowe and Glover will be fine, they’ll survive the film but I do worry about Pepper. He didn’t deserve this and I hope he gets a break soon. I give zero f**ks about anyone else involved in the film, they get what they deserve and they are lucky to still have work. Still, I thank them all for reminding us what quality is and that time is precious and should never be wasted – unless you want to unclog your brain pipes that are full of rich goodness with a massive turd-shaped unclogger.

Widows

Dir: Steve McQueen

2018

****

I’ve always loved a bit of Lynda La Plante having grown up watching many of her superb thrillers on television, but I don’t think I would have ever expected any of her old TV shows to be made into a Hollywood movie. For me her works are classic Sunday night telly – the best Sunday night telly you can get, along with Poirot (the David Suchet years) and The Darling Buds of May. Egg sandwiches, buttered malt loaf and a bit of Prime Suspect, that was Sunday night telly for me in the late 80s/early 90s and it was glorious. Widows was a TV show that was a little before my time but I did rewatch it when the first and second series were repeated in the early 90s when the sequel, She’s Out, was made. The TV series was ahead of its time but very much of its time, with the script being original and exciting but the budget being limited (and the hair being massive). Steve McQueen’s updated feature-length adaptation is refreshingly similar to the original but updated perfectly with just the right amount of change. The political aspect of the story was a clever extra element that proved timely and original. It is a satisfyingly slow-burning affair with the story that develops gradually, making the conclusion all the more striking. The beginning of the film sees a robbery go wrong and renowned thief Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) and his team (including Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Coburn Goss and Jon Bernthal) killed as the van there are in is fired upon until it explodes by armed police. Harry’s wife Veronica Rawlings (Viola Davis), a Chicago teachers' union delegate is left distraught and alone. Unbeknownst to her, the money that Harry and his team stole before being killed belonged to Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), a crime boss and politician who needed the money ($2 million) to finance his electoral campaign for alderman, a South Side ward of Chicago. The way he sees it, Veronica now owes him and he believes Harry left her quite wealthy. However, the opposite is true. Jamal sends his brother Jatemme to regularly harass and follow her until she pays up. Manning is running against Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell), the next-in-line of a dynastic family who have historically dominated the alderman position. His father (Robert Duvall) is very critical of his work and has only stepped aside due to poor health. Meanwhile, Veronica discovers Harry's notebook, which contains a detailed plan for a heist of $5 million. She decides to carry out the plan to repay her debt to Jamal, and recruits two of the other widows, Alice and Linda (Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki), to assist her. The fourth widow, Amanda, does not show at their initial meeting; when Veronica visits Amanda at her home and notices Harry's flask on a table, she realizes that Harry is the father of Amanda's newborn child. Devastated by Harry's infidelity, Veronica leaves. Alice buys the getaway car and guns, while Linda is tasked with deciphering a blueprint in Harry's plan. Alice uses a real estate executive (played by Lukas Haas) with whom she is in a transactional relationship to identify the blueprint as a safe in Jack Mulligan's home. When Veronica's loyal chauffeur is murdered by Manning's people, Linda recruits Belle (Cynthia Erivo), her children’s babysitter, to be their driver. Veronica visits the Mulligan home to ask Jack for protection from Manning - a request he rebuffs - and to case the premises in advance of the heist, while Belle scans the external security. Veronica acquires the code to the safe by blackmailing the CEO of the Mulligans' security company, using incriminating photos left in Harry's notebook. The heist doesn’t quite go to plan and the conclusion is both shocking and unexpected. We learn a little about each character as the film goes along proving that a little character development goes a long way. The cast is near perfect, although I didn’t think Liam Neeson brought much to his role and I thought Jon Bernthal and Lukas Haas were somewhat shortchanged. Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki are perfect as the widows themselves and carry the film effortlessly. I liked the political side of the story and I enjoyed the relationship between Colin Firth and Robert Duvall’s characters even though Duvall’s character wasn’t entirely necessary in the bigger picture. My favourite character/performance was from Daniel Kaluuya as the mob boss brother. I still remember Kaluuya as Parking Pataweyo and I love how his career has jumped the way it has. He is incredibly intimidating as his character and is the most convincingly ‘bad’ bad-guy I’ve seen in film for a while. Steve McQueen wrote the screenplay with Gillian Flynn and I think asking her to collaborate with him on it was a stroke of genius. Everything about it fits, it is refreshingly smooth throughout and even though it is nothing new when you strip it down to its bare bones, it is told in such a way that feels almost radical in its originality. Fresh, full of suspense and intrigue but criminally overlooked. Ain’t that just the way. Perfect viewing for any evening of the week, not just a Sunday.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Dir: Bryan Singer

2018

***

Like pretty much everyone else, I was very weary of this Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic and for many reasons. I’m a fan of both man and band, I’m not sure there is anyone who can say they don’t like/love at least one Queen song, and recent music biopics haven’t all been that successful. Making a biopic when so many people involved are still around and advising can be both a benefit and a hindrance. I suppose my main concern came after Sacha Baron Cohen left the project. I could see him giving a convincing performance as Freddie Mercury and had little reservation regarding his casting. However, when he left the project citing that the rest of Queen wanted to focus more on what happened after Mercury died, alarm bells went off. Sure, Queen carried on with Adam Lambert taking over singing duties but in reality, no one really sees Queen now as anything other than a novelty band with a west end musical. Sacha Baron Cohen clearly wanted it to be a full on Mercury biopic, while Brian May and Roger Taylor wanted it to be about the band. You can’t have one without the other really but the truth is Freddie Mercury is by far the interesting part of Queen, while the other three are rather dull. Talented but dull. The end result is clearly a compromise, which was for the best, but even with May and Taylor as co-writers/producers/advisers they still come across as dull. To be fair though, everyone is dull compared to Freddie Mercury. This begged the question, who on earth could take on such a performance? Getting Mercury right was the first concern, fitting in all of the band’s history into a feature film was the second. Less important aspects of their history are missed out and many events and characters are amalgamated to great effect but it was the key moments that they needed to get right. In this regard they did and didn’t get it right. The film clearly went through development hell when Sacha Baron Cohen walked and was replaced with Ben Whishaw with Dexter Fletcher as the director. Both men walked soon after citing creative differences and it became clear that May and Taylor had no idea what they wanted, or at least, what they wanted was not what everyone else thought was right. I’m not sure Ben Whishaw was the right actor for the job personally, so I’m glad they found Rami Malek when they did. His performance was tremendous and without it I’m not sure the film would have been the success it was. The film itself covers many important moments in Queen’s history but a lot of it is untrue and so much of it is omitted due to the time constraints. This made me think that this could, and perhaps should have been a televisual mini-series. After all of the film’s development problems, it was amazing that it was actually finished thanks to Bryan Singer’s irrational behaviour while filming. The disgraced director would turn up late and often not at all during the shoot and in the end Dexter Fletcher was asked back to finish the filming after he had left the project some years before. I don’t think the direction of the film is very good at all and it looks like a typical made-for-TV biopic with all the usual clichés thrown in. However, they get it right where they really need to. The Live Aid scene is the big one and the one everyone was talking about. It is incredible and like watching the real thing, it’s just a shame the rest of the film is a million miles away from it. I would argue that it would be only half a film without Rami Malek’s fantastic performance. That said, there are some brilliant tidbits thrown in that I loved. These range from the amalgamation of events and people, nods to certain actors/characters and big moments in Queen’s history that they didn’t have time to explore. I loved how Freddie is coxed into a men’s room by Adam Lambert playing a truck driver. I loved Mike Myers’ character Ray Foster (a fictional character loosely based on EMI chief Roy Featherstone) who complains that Bohemian Rhapsody isn't music that teenagers can bang their heads to. This is clearly a nod to Wayne's World where Wayne (portrayed by Myers) and his friends are headbanging to Bohemian Rhapsody in the car. Myers really had to push for the use of Bohemian Rhapsody in the film when the producers felt it wouldn't be appropriate. Myers stood his ground, eventually threatening to quit the movie. Myers got his way in the end though, and when the movie became a huge hit, and Bohemian Rhapsody reentered the charts, peaking at at #2 in the United States. The movie was also credited for introducing Queen to a new audience. Myers was offered the part as a way of thanks from the band. I liked the acknowledgment of Queen’s work on the Highlander soundtrack by showing Mercury reflected in a pair of sunglasses and I liked the amalgamated appearances of so many rumoured occurrences that happened at several of Mercury’s infamous parties. If you are a Queen nerd then the film is something of a puzzle full of Easter eggs. These Easter eggs almost make up for the film’s misgivings. I found the factual errors, no matter how minor, to be typical of music biopics and I do find them tiring. People do want to know how big band got together, so I’m not sure why this is always changed?For instance, Freddie Mercury had known Staffell from art college, and had shown an interest in joining Smile before his departure. Mercury had also lived and worked with Roger Taylor, way before he joined Smile and he didn’t meet them and best friend Mary Austin on the same night. Also, John Deacon was not their original bassist, he was the fourth! Later on in the film Mercury is portrayed as selfish for seeking a solo career but Taylor had released two solo albums and May had released one before Mercury had even thought about releasing his first. Queen never split up, so Live Aid was not a reunion. They released The Works in early 1984 and then toured worldwide. The last show of the tour was eight weeks before Live Aid. They also had no reservations about performing in the concert at two weeks' notice, as depicted in the film. It is another case of false tension for dramatic effect at the cost of fact and reason. It nearly ruins the film for me. Mercury wanted to keep his HIV diagnosis private, so I understand why the film wouldn’t go into it much but you do have to question when the biopic starts and the fantasy ends. According to 'Freddie Mercury: His Life in His Own Words', compiled and edited by Greg Brooks and Simon Lipton, he once said "I have visions of actually having a film made of my life story, one day, which I would have a key part in. I might not play the lead myself. My dears, the things I've done in my lifetime... it'll be totally triple X-rated, I'll tell you!" This almost makes me think we’ve been cheated out of a Sacha Baron Cohen version of the film, the fact that he wasn’t allowed to make the film the outrageous biopic that he thought it should be and walked because of it. Many people who knew Freddie didn’t like the film and many people are written out of history because of it. I all honesty, this should have been a passionate television mini-series, chronicling how they really met and where each member was at each chapter of their history. They could have got at least eight compelling hour-long episodes out of it and the making of their video to I Want To Break Free could have been an episode in itself. It would have allowed time for Freddie’s diagnosis to be explored more tastefully and for the audience to understand the overall progression of the band – arguably one of the greatest in rock and roll history. It should have been as compelling, entertaining and as outrageous as Freddie was, but it wasn’t. I liked it and I thought Rami Malek was excellent, I just think that after he received death threats from the Egyptian government over his performance, they might as well have gone all the way and told a 100% authentic version of the story.

Captain Marvel

Dir: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck

2019

****

Captain Marvel is one of those Marvel characters I never quite got into as I found the character largely uninteresting. Originally, the character was a clear copy of Superman and DC Comics sued Marvel successfully because of it back in the early 50s. The character was a cheap nothing superhero with the same name as the comic, an idea probably thought up in very little time and with very little development. Undeterred (and in competition with DC) Marvel managed to gain the trademark Captain Marvel in the late 1960s but to retain their trademark, they had to publish a Captain Marvel title at least once every two years, leading to a number of ongoing series, limited series and one-shots featuring a range of characters using the Captain Marvel alias. It is fair to say that the origin story for the character is a messy one. The first Captain Marvel created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan in 1967. This character is an alien military officer, Captain Mar-Vell of the Kree Imperial Militia, who is sent to observe the planet Earth as it is developing technology to travel into space. Mar-Vell eventually wearies of his superiors' malicious intent and allies himself with Earth, and the Kree Empire brands him a traitor. From then on, Mar-Vell fought to protect Earth from all threats. He was later revamped by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. They exiled him to the Negative Zone by the hands of the Supreme Intelligence and the only way Mar-Vell could temporarily escape was to exchange atoms with Rick Jones by means of a special wristband called a Nega-Band. He was also given superpowers and his Kree military uniform was replaced. The process of the young man being replaced in a flash by the older superhero was a nod to the original Fawcett Captain Marvel, which had young Billy Batson saying the magic word "Shazam" to transform into the hero. That’s another story and not one I’m going to explain here. The comic didn’t sell well so Marvel allowed Jim Starlin to conceptually revamp the character, although his appearance was little changed. Starlin freed Mar-Vell from the Negative Zone and turned him into ‘a cosmic champion’, the "Protector of the Universe" appointed by the cosmic entity Eon. Together, Mar-Vell and Rick continued to battle against evil, most notably battling the Death-worshipping Thanos. However, comic sales remained low so Marvel gave him inoperable cancer, the supposed result of an earlier exposure to toxic nerve gas during a battle with Nitro. He died from this cancer on Titan in the presence of the Marvel Universe's superhero community, as chronicled in Marvel's first large-format graphic novel, The Death of Captain Marvel, published in 1982. Captain Marvel was then resurrected, sort of, the very same year. Roger Stern’s version saw New Orleans police lieutenant Monica Rambeau suddenly posses the power to transform herself into any form of energy she desired from out of nowhere. She soon found herself as leader of the Avengers but she later ceded the Captain Marvel name to the original Captain Marvel's and changed her name to Photon. That was until Genis-Vell adopted the same name. After a rather unimaginative and confusing chapter in comic-book history, Genis-Vell and Monica decided she be called Pulsar from then on. Genis-Vell then became the next Captain Marvel and Monica became Spectrum. It’s all very confusing. Genis-Vell was the genetically-engineered son of Mar-Vell and his lover Elysius, created from the late Mar-Vell's cell samples and artificially aged to physical, if not emotional, maturity. Genis, like his father, wears the Nega-Bands, possesses Cosmic Awareness and is, for a time, bonded with Rick Jones. Although the pair do not get along at first, they eventually become good friends. Genis goes insane and threatens to destroy the universe. After dying and resurrecting himself Genis-Vell joins the Thunderbolts under the name Photon. The next Captain Marvel was Phyla-Vell, Genis-Vell's younger sister. She was created when Genis, an only child, recreates the universe and, in doing so, creates various anomalies which result in his mother being restored to life and his sister coming into existence. Phyla-Vell appears in the Annihilation event, fighting alongside Nova’s United Front in an effort to stop the destructive armies of Annihilus. She becomes the new Quasar after the original one is killed by Annihilus. Phyla has superhuman strength. She can fire energy blasts, fly, and act like an "energy sponge", absorbing any energy attacks directed at her and returning them as energy blasts. Phyla also has cosmic awareness and is a proficient fighter. Phyla later became an avatar for Oblivion, and renamed herself Martyr. She died to save her comrades in the Guardians of the Galaxy. Khn'nr, who first appeared in Civil War: The Return, was the next captain Marvel. He was a Skrull sleeper agent who was bound with Mar-Vell's DNA to lock itself into Mar-Vell's form and given technological replicas of the Kree Nega-Bands. However, his mental conditioning was botched, causing his personality to be erased leaving the Mar-Vell persona dominant. You really do need to be a super-fan before you could really follow or indeed appreciate the character and I don’t think many people were. It wasn’t until Carol Danvers, AKA Ms. Marvel took over as Captain did the character really take off. Danvers became a ‘superhero’ after her DNA was fused with Mar-Vell’s during an explosion. She pre-dates all the other versions of Captain Marvel, which makes me wonder why this film wasn’t called Ms. Marvel, as this would have saved much confusion among those of us who know what is what in the Marvel Universe. It is understandable but still frustrating that most of the character changes are made for film audiences that haven’t read a single Marvel comic – even more frustrating when it is they who make uneducated comments regarding time-lines and of a sexist nature. I remember the uproar from non-fans a few years ago when Thor was temporarily a women. The non-fans didn’t understand the story but instead just read the headline in some newspaper and decided that the liberals and feminists had gone too far this time. Thor was actually trapped in Lady Sif’s body temporarily and actually, back in the day he was turned into a Frog and remained one for far longer than he was ever a women. Anyway, I digress, the history of Captain Marvel is messy and it is hard enough keeping track of all the other characters so it never really appealed and I wonder whether others felt the same. There are hundreds of cool female superhero characters, so the sex of Carol Danvers had nothing to do with it. I also dislike prequels, especially those that are shoe-horned into a series already in full stride. I think the character deserved a little more than that but then again Danvers has the least interesting origin story and when it comes to superhero films, origin story is key. It is why Black Widow, a real fan favorite, is yet to have her own film. The end of Avengers: Infinity War is devastating, so when Captain Marvel came along in such a ‘oh, we forgot to mention’ manner it was a bit of a cheap trick from Marvel. How else they could have introduced her I don’t know, truth is this was probably the best way. I went into the film with little enthusiasm if I’m being honest. Thing is, you had to see the film in order to fully understand Avengers: End Game. They got away with it with Black Panther and made an amazing origins film but Captain Marvel/ Carol Danvers are totally shoe-horned into the MCU here. However, I’m not sure the hardcore fans have much to complain about. It’s not a stand alone film but it is perhaps bigger than any other Marvel character has enjoyed. I like how not too much was made of this being a female superhero either, as it doesn’t matter, she’s as good as the male superheros and really doesn’t have to explain as much. As original screenwriter Nicole Perlman said, “We've been talking a lot about archetypes and what we want this movie to be about and just how to write a strong female superhero without making it Superman with boobs ... we'll catch ourselves and say, 'Wait a minute, what are we saying here about women in power?' Then we have to say, 'Why are we getting so hung up on that? We should just tell the best story and build the best character.” Marvel Studio went with the most current version of Ms. Marvel and added all the interesting but less confusing elements of Captain Marvel from over the years. The film is not the Shazam/Green Lantern bastard we would have feared had the film been announced ten years ago. It fits nicely into the MCU and is probably the most satisfying prequel I have ever seen. So it features Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, making one think initially that the character couldn't stand on her own merit but this version of Fury is very different and somewhat fitting. The thing with Marvel – more so than DC – is that all of Marvel’s characters meet at one time or another and it feels like these stories make more sense now because of it. It gives the film a sense of authenticity, rather than it being for commercial reasons. The re-introduction of Agent Coulson is a treat for fans but it is also clever continuity. I love that the film is set in the 90s, an era full of dodgy superhero films, so it is nice to now have a good one with the decade as a backdrop. Like I say, I had no real enthusiasm but I trusted in Marvel and they impressed and entertained me once more. My only criticism is that it was fairly predictable, something a prequel will always have an issue with. I thought Brie Larson was perfect in the lead role and I liked Ben Mendelsohn’s performance very much. The 90s version of Fury is brilliant and all in all I liked everything about it. I feel happy that Ms. Marvel will fit in well within the End Game story line as Black Panther did in Infinity War but beyond that, this felt like a classic superhero film but without any of the usual flaws. It is also, quite purposely, a great 90s film with loads of 90s references. It won me over quite easily and made what was an uninteresting character to me, rather compelling.

Ratcatcher

Dir: Lynne Ramsay

1999

*****

Everything that was great about Lynne Ramsay’s short films is amplified in her debut feature. I’ve seen so many short films and thought to myself “Someone give that director a heap of money” only to be disappointed when they do. By 1999 Ramsay had gained a following and a reputation, Ratcatcher was clearly produced by people who knew to let her have full control and make it without compromise. Much like her previous films, Ratcatcher is stark and disconnected. It feels almost dreamlike in its hazy realism. The film is set in Glasgow in the early 1970s. The city, despite its Victorian grandeur, has some areas with the poorest housing conditions in western Europe, such as no running hot water, no bathing facilities, and no indoor toilets. The city is midway through a major re-development program, demolishing housing schemes and re-housing the tenants in new modern estates. The problems in these schemes are somewhat compounded by the binmen going on strike, creating an additional health hazard and a breeding ground for rats. The main character, James, is a 12-year-old boy, growing up in one of these schemes, which is gradually emptying as the re-housed tenants move out. James, with the rest of his family, (two sisters, one older, one younger, his mum and heavy-drinking father), patiently wait to be re-housed. The film begins with James’s friend Ryan as he is forced to put on his wellington boots to go visit his father in prison. Ryan runs off instead while his mother isn’t looking and joins James who is playing near the canal. The friends are close and partake in some rough play that leads to Ryan falling into the canal. The tone of the film is set when Ryan, unable to climb out, drowns in the canal. James bears much of the blame for not having raised the alarm but he believes his inaction has gone unnoticed. James’s grief and guilt is the skeleton of the film, we feel his pain through his quiet internal suffering – which makes for uncomfortable viewing at times. Ryan's family is eventually re-housed and on the day of leaving, and when Ryan's mother gives James the pair of brown sandals that she'd bought for Ryan on the day of his death, it is like being punched in the heart. James' one escape comes when he takes a bus to the end of the line and ends up in the outskirts of the city, where a new housing estate is under construction. He explores the half-built houses, and wonders in awe at the view from the kitchen window: an expansive field of wheat, blowing in the wind and reaching to the horizon. In a scene central to the film, he climbs through the window and escapes into the blissful freedom of the field. His freedom is literal and symbolic, he wants to be free of his living situation as well as his mental torment. James befriends a girl, Margaret Anne, who he tries to help after her glasses are thrown into the canal by the local gang. James and Margaret Anne become close friends. She is his only other relief from his home environment. Margaret Anne has problems of her own, and one of them is allowing herself to be abused by the local gang. The duo find comfort in each other's company. In one of the films most startling scenes, one of James' friends, Kenny, receives a pet mouse as a birthday present. After the gang throw the mouse around in the air to make him "fly", Kenny ties the mouse's tail to a balloon, and in the most unexpected moments I’ve ever experienced in a film, the film shows it floating to the moon. The mouse then joins a whole colony of other mice frolicking on the moon, in a surreal dream-like fantasy that is nothing like Ramsay’s previous work, or indeed the film up to that point. It comes from nowhere and it is beautiful. Kenny later falls in the canal and is rescued by James' father, making him briefly into a local hero. Though the military eventually comes and cleans up all the garbage in the neighbourhood, James realizes that his situation will most likely never change. He plunges himself into the canal, and a brief scene is shown, in which James' family is moving into a new neighbourhood without him. It’s this stark realisation that brings the film back down to earth after the excitement of fantasy. There are moments of hope and wonder but fact remains that life is stark and brutal and James’s life is set out in front of him. William Eadie is brilliant as James Gillespie, a non-actor directed perfectly by one of the best directors working today. It’s a near perfect film all round, everything fans wanted from a feature-length Ramsay film and so much more. To balance gritty realism and almost absurdist fantasy so beautifully takes a great talent and a visionary story teller. I just wish Ramsay would direct more films that are written by her, although she continues to improve her adaptations with her own input. It’s one of the last great films of the twentieth century.

Bus 174

Dir: José Padilha, Felipe Lacerda

2002

*****

Bus 174 is a Brazilian documentary film and the debut film of director José Padilha and co-director Felipe Lacerda. It tells the story of an incident in 2000, when a young man from a poor background called Sandro do Nascimento, held passengers on a bus hostage for four hours. The event was caught live on television with all four corners of the bus in full view. Padilha’s documentary not only examines the incident but it also goes beyond the scene, exploring what life is like in the slums and favelas of Rio de Janeiro and how the criminal justice system in Brazil treats the lower classes. Within the film, Padilha interviews former and current street children, members of the Rio police force, the Rio BOPE police team, family members, and sociologists in order to gain insight into what led Nascimento to carry out the hijacking. Nascimento witnessed the murder of his mother as a young boy and ran away from his home to live a life on the streets soon after. Some years later in 1993, at the age of fifteen, Nascimento resided in the area of Candelaria, a historical church in Rio de Janeiro, where he witnessed the Candelaria church massacre on July 23. According to survivors, on the morning of July 22, 1993, the day before the massacre, a group of children threw stones at police cars, with some of the policemen allegedly saying "don't worry, we will get you soon!" to threaten them. As the children from the Candelária Church area were usually only given warnings by policemen, the young perpetrators left without worrying too much about the threat. At midnight, several cars with covered license plates came to a halt in front of the Candelária Church, and the occupants began shooting at the group of roughly seventy street children sleeping in the vicinity of the church. Nascimento managed to escape unharmed but the event had a huge effect on him. Eight children were killed and numerous others were wounded outside the Candelária Church. Subsequently, during the investigations the shots were found to be fired by policemen, and fifty officers were accused of the massacre. One of them, Mauricio da Conceição, died during a shootout as he was about to be arrested in 1994. Two others, Marcos Emmanuel and Nelson Cunha, were handed sentences equivalent to life sentences. One of the children that survived that attack was supposedly shot several times before he could testify against policemen that were to go to trial and ended up fleeing from Brazil in order to save his life. A social worker who later tracked the fate of these homeless survivors of the Candelária massacre found out that eventually 39 of them were either killed by police or by elements of street life, and discusses this in the documentary. Nascimento would later scream on television cameras about social injustice in Brazilian society while holding his weapon to a hostage's head. Amidst his threats, Nascimento argued that mainstream Brazil ignored the poor and destitute to the point of denying even the humanity of the homeless. The footage is shocking. It was June 12, 2000,  when Nascimento boarded a public bus (bus #174) in Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro. He was armed with a .38 caliber revolver, with the intention to rob the passengers. However, moments after he announced the robbery, a passenger signaled to a passing police vehicle, prompting the police to intercept the bus. Nascimento took the passengers of the bus hostage. The bus was soon surrounded by police officers, television news crews, and onlooking civilians, with all of them getting right up close to the vehicle. Nascimento at first assured the passengers, the police, the television crews and their viewers that he did not intend to kill anyone. He demanded weapons and a new bus driver (since the original driver had escaped through a window) to aid in his escape from the scene. As his demands went on ignored, he then threatened to kill a hostage at six o'clock that evening. Nascimento singled out several of the hostages for dramatic demonstrations over the course of the event. He repeatedly used the hostages as human shields. Nearing seven o'clock, Nascimento fired his revolver, bluffing the execution of hostage Janaína Lopes Neves to those outside the bus. The other hostages were told to act as if the execution had occurred. At 06:50, Nascimento exited the bus, using schoolteacher Geisa Firmo Gonçalves as a human shield. As Nascimento's attention was being held in one direction, an officer armed with a sub-machine gun approached Nascimento from behind. Just prior to the officer reaching him, Nascimento turned directly toward the officer and reacted by jerking away from the officer, falling to the ground, taking Gonçalves with him. The officer reacted by continuing his advance and firing two or three shots at Nascimento while doing so. None of these shots struck Nascimento. Nascimento then murdered Gonçalves. Officers then converged on Nascimento and Gonçalves as they lay on the ground. Surrounding crowds rushed the area and all of it was captured on live television. Nascimento was immobilised by the police and taken into custody. Nascimento could be seen to be alive at the time he was placed into a police vehicle. Some time after being taken into custody, he died of asphyxiation. There were later assertions that Nascimento was intentionally killed by the police and that his death was revenge for the public nature of the hostage event. The officers who took him into custody were charged with murder but were later found not guilty by a jury. Gonçalves was shot four times. Police reports concluded she had been shot once in the face by the advancing police officer and then three times in the back by Nascimento in the ensuing struggle. The officer's shot was ruled unintentional by a court. The archive television footage of the event is exciting and full of suspense and it really got my heart racing. I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen, just like I’m sure many a Brazilian couldn’t when watching it as it happened on live TV. The realisation that I was watching it as entertainment was disturbing. I’m torn, as I’m glad that it was filmed so we know what happened but it should never have been aired live and the media and other spectators should have been no-where near the scene. It’s horrific when you look at it. The way the street kids live and are treated is also shocking. Nascimento did wrong, no question, but they were the actions of a broken man forced into a terrible situation. There is sensation here but the story isn’t sensationalised, the facts of the incident are laid out as they happened, are analysed and the background – how this sort of thing could happen – explored. It is how all documentaries should be handled and it is all the more interesting because of it. Thanks to Bus 174 and Bowling for Columbine, 2002 marked the beginning of a whole new wave of great documentaries, some of which – such as Bus 174 – are yet to be matched.

Black Swan

Dir: Darren Aronofsky

2010

*****

Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 psychological horror Black Swan is astonishing. It had been a while since a film had taken my breath away quite like it did, although I don't know why I was surprised, I've been a huge fan of Darren Aronofsky since Pi, the man is a genius. His depiction of the world of Ballet is spot on. I've actually lived with a couple of Ballerinas and their discipline, focus and obsession was quite frightening at times, indeed one of them utterly ruined herself in the process. I haven't liked Natalie Portman as much since I first saw Leon and Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey and Winona Ryder are all perfect in their supporting performances. Black Swan is a metaphor for achieving artistic perfection, with all the psychological and physical challenges one might encounter, incorporating one of the greatest ballets of all time. Aronofsky conceived the premise by connecting his viewings of a production of Swan Lake with an unrealized screenplay about understudies and the notion of being haunted by a double, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Double being a key inspiration. Natalie Portman plays Nina Sayers, a 28-year-old dancer in a ballet company in New York, which is preparing to open its new season with Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. With prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder) being forced into retirement, artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) announces he is looking for a new dancer to portray the dual role of the innocent White Swan and the sensual Black Swan. Nina auditions for the role and gives a flawless performance as the White Swan, but fails to embody the Black Swan. The following day, Nina asks Thomas to reconsider choosing her to play the role. When he forcibly kisses her, she bites him before running out of his office. Later that day, Nina sees the cast list and discovers, much to her surprise and that of her overprotective mother Erica (Barbara Hershey), she will be portraying the lead. At a gala celebrating the new season, an intoxicated Beth confronts Nina, accusing her of sleeping with Thomas to get the role. The following day, Nina discovers that Beth was hit by a car while walking in the street and Thomas believes she did it on purpose. During rehearsals, Thomas tells Nina to observe new dancer Lily (Mila Kunis), whom he describes as possessing an uninhibited quality that Nina lacks. Nina also falls victim to several hallucinations of a doppelgänger following her wherever she goes and finds unexplained scratch marks on her back. This is where the obsession and the horror element of the film begins. One night, Nina accepts Lily's invitation to dinner despite Erica's objections. Over dinner, Lily offers Nina an ecstasy capsule to help her relax. Nina turns it down, but later accepts a drink laced with ecstasy powder. The two dance at a nightclub and return to Nina's apartment late. After fighting with her mother, Nina barricades herself in her room and has sex with Lily. The following morning, Nina wakes up alone and realizes she is late for the dress rehearsal. Upon arriving at Lincoln Center, she finds Lily dancing as the Black Swan and confronts her about their night together. When Lily doesn’t recall, Nina realizes that their encounter never took place. After learning that Thomas has made Lily her alternate, Nina's hallucinations grow increasingly stronger to the point where Erica tries to prevent her from performing on opening night. Nina forces her way out of the apartment and arrives at Lincoln Center only to discover that Lily is set to take over. She confronts Thomas, who becomes so impressed by her confidence that he allows her to perform. During the end of the play’s second act, Nina becomes distracted by a hallucination, causing her partner to drop her. She returns to her dressing room and finds Lily preparing to play the Black Swan. When Lily transforms into Nina's doppelgänger, the two engage in a fight that ends with Nina stabbing the doppelgänger with a shard of glass. She hides the corpse and returns to the stage, where she loses herself and gives a flawless performance as the Black Swan. Nina receives a standing ovation from the audience and, after surprising Thomas with a passionate kiss, returns to her dressing room. While changing, Nina hears a knock at the door and opens it to find Lily alive and congratulating her. Realizing the fight never occurred, and yet the mirror is still broken, and that she stabbed herself, Nina quietly continues changing. After dancing the final act, in which the White Swan commits suicide by throwing herself off a cliff, Nina falls onto a hidden mattress. As the theater erupts in thunderous applause, Thomas, Lily and the cast gather to congratulate Nina, only to discover that she is bleeding profusely. Nina loses consciousness, but not before telling Thomas that her performance was perfect. Aronofsky considered Black Swan a companion piece to his 2008 film The Wrestler, as both films involve demanding performances for different kinds of art with alter-egos of sorts. I agree, I found both films brilliant, Black Swan the visually stunning horror/thriller and The Wrestler the heartfelt drama. He knew he would make a film about both a wrestler and a ballerina at some point and in the beginning one of his early projects was about a love affair between a wrestler and a ballerina. He eventually separated the wrestling and the ballet worlds as he felt it would be "too much for one movie". He compared the two films: "Wrestling some consider the lowest art - if they would even call it art - and ballet some people consider the highest art. But what was amazing to me was how similar the performers in both of these worlds are. They both make incredible use of their bodies to express themselves.” The screenplay The Understudy was written by Andres Heinz; Aronofsky first heard about it while editing his second film Requiem for a Dream and described it as "All About Eve with a double, set in the off-Broadway world." After making The Fountain in 2006, Aronofsky and producer Mike Medavoy had screenwriter John McLaughlin rewrite The Understudy; Aronofsky said McLaughlin "took my idea of Swan Lake and the ballet and put the story into the ballet world and changed the title to Black Swan." When Aronofsky proposed a detailed outline of Black Swan to Universal Pictures, the studio decided to fast-track development of the project in January 2007. The project "sort of died, again" according to Aronofsky, until after the making of The Wrestler in 2008, when he had Mark Heyman, director of development of Aronofsky's production company Protozoa Pictures, write for Black Swan " and made it something that was workable." With Heyman’s ideas and Aronofsky's vision, Black Swan wasn’t just workable, it proved itself a masterpiece and the first great film of a decade.

Five Deadly Venoms

Dir: Chang Cheh

1978

***

I think out of all the Shaw Brothers films, I like the ones directed by Chang Cheh the most. The story and concept behind 1978’s Five Deadly Venoms remains a firm favorite, however, I felt that the film itself never quite reached its full potential. The story begins with the dying master of the powerful Poison Clan (who is sitting in a pot of boiling water for no obvious reason). He tells his last pupil, Yang Tieh, that he regrets teaching him all of the various combat styles because it meant that he never truly mastered any of them. He then sends him on a crucial mission. Worried that the skills he has taught are being used to evil ends, he orders Yang to trace a retired colleague, Yun, and warn him that the fortune he amassed from the clan's activities is under threat from five of his former pupils, each an expert in his own lethal combat style. Yang must discover the whereabouts and true identities of these masked warriors, and decide which, if any, he can trust to join him in his mission. The five pupils are the Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Lizard, and Toad. Centipede and Snake were the master's first and second pupils and they knew each other. Lizard and Toad were the fourth and fifth pupils respectively and they knew each other but Scorpion, the third pupil was unknown to the other four members. Before he dies, the master teaches Yang the strengths and weaknesses of each style. The Centipede is wriggly and quick, this style is a nice blend of defensive and offensive posturing. The strikes are so fast that it is almost as if he has a hundred arms and legs. The weakness of this style is to attack both the opponent's upper and lower body in a simultaneous assault. The Snake - On one hand: the mouth, venomous fangs emulated in precise finger motor control, designated to aim for the target's vulnerable spots with pin-point accuracy. On the other: the stinging whip of a rattling tail. Masters of this ability can even fight extremely well while lying on their back from the floor. The weakness of this style is to stop the "head" and "tail" (the opponent's two arms) from combining, as neither the head nor tail can function well individually. This usually meant pinning the two limbs, at an angle, as far away from each other as possible. The Scorpion represents a double threat. Kicks from the Scorpion style are just like the stinging tail of the namesake. When delivered by a master, a single kick can paralyze or even kill, let alone the strong pincer-style attack of the arms to contend with. The weakness in this style is not clearly revealed as Yan Tieh is cut off from his explanation but one can assume (by watching The Scorpion in his bout with Yan Tieh and The Lizard) that it would be to stay out of reach of The Scorpion's damaging kicks and make him come to you. The Lizard style has an emphasis on speed and gravity. It is best known for the ability to walk on walls, and can fight with ease from such positions, even maneuver in such a way that can rebound off such sources to both dodge assaults as well as strengthen own attacks. The Toad is primarily a defensive pose. The Toad is invulnerable to just about any form of damage, including blades and puncture. They can even bend solid metal. The weakness of this style is that any master of the Toad style has a "weak spot" that when punctured, drains the user's Toad style benefits (most notably the iron skin.) This particular Toad’s weak spot are his ears but many thought the way to discover the weak spot in one's Toad style was to use an iron maiden. Yang Tieh arrives in the village just in time to see the Centipede and the Snake go to the Yun family house to steal the money. They murder the entire family when Yun refuses to divulge the location of his fortune. A witness sees the Centipede at the house. Later, the Scorpion investigates the scene and retrieves a hidden map. The Lizard, working as a policeman, recruits the Toad to help arrest the Centipede. After the Centipede is arrested and charged with murder, the Scorpion tells the Snake to frame the Toad for the murders. The corrupt judge sends the Lizard away on government business. The Snake pays an officer to make the witness commit perjury. The Toad is framed by the witness, who tells the judge that he saw the Toad at the scene of the crime. Toad refuses to confess, and his kung fu initially makes him invulnerable to their torture. The Snake devises a torture device to counteract it. When this fails, the Scorpion secretly cripples the Toad with darts to his weak spot (ears). Subjected to further torture, the Toad passes out, and his signature is forged on a confession. The Centipede is acquitted of the murder charges and goes free. The officer suffocates the Toad and hangs him in the cell as if he committed suicide. The Centipede and Snake kill the witness and the corrupt officer. Two Chinese policemen in the restaurant tell the Lizard what happened to the Toad, the witness, and the officer while he was gone. The Lizard's supervisor, Chief Constable Ma, encourages him to forget the issue, but the Lizard refuses. Yang identifies the Lizard, teams with him, and together they practice techniques to defeat the others. As Yang and the Lizard prepare to confront the Centipede and the Snake, the chief constable joins them. During the fight, he reveals himself as the Scorpion and reveals that he intends to kill everyone and keep the Yun fortune for himself. The Scorpion fatally injures the Snake and bribes the Centipede into helping him. Yang and the Lizard defeat the Centipede, and the Snake helps kill the Scorpion before he, too, dies. Yang and the Lizard retrieve the Scorpion's map from his corpse, vowing to use the fortune for good to restore the reputation of the Poison Clan. I’m going to be frank about this cult favorite. Most of the film is like a bad episode of Colombo and Agatha Christie gone wrong. The ninjas have skills but tact and subtlety aren’t two of them – which is a little ridiculous when you think about it. We know exactly who each man is from the beginning but the film still insists on making a thing of their identity reveals towards the end. It is one of the most predictable films I’ve ever seen – which is what is so frustratingly silly about the whole thing. Yang Tieh comes across like a Hong Kong version of Robin Askwith and the plot is thinner than the fake beards half the cast seem to be wearing. The film is really at its greatest when the gang starts fighting. The film is inter-cut with loads of slowed-down action sequences that sees the venoms walking on walls and kicking crockery in mid-air while wearing their individual animal masks. The masks are brilliant, indeed, it is the visuals and the fighting that make this such a great film, it’s only the plot, acting and script that let it down. I’m not a big fan of remakes, film makers should always make something new and original, but, I would love to see a serious modern remake of Five Deadly Venoms.

The Lawnmower Man
Dir: Brett Leonard
1992
**
Brett Leonard’s The Lawnmower Man is an amazing film from the early 1990s – amazing in that it beggars belief as to how it ever got made in the first place. It is also amazingly bad. Originally titled Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man, the story actually had nothing to do with the horror author’s short story. The plot of Stephen King's 1975 short story concerns Harold Parkette, who hires "Pastoral Greenery and Outdoor Services Inc." to cut his lawn. The serviceman who arrives to do the job has a lawnmower that mows the lawn by itself while he crawls, naked, behind the mower, eating the grass. The serviceman himself is actually a satyr who worships the Greek god Pan. When Parkette tries to call the police, the mower and its owner ritually kill him as a sacrifice to Pan. It was first published in the May 1975 issue of Cavalier and was later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift. The film's original script, written by director Brett Leonard and producer Gimel Everett, was titled Cyber God and had nothing to do with King's short story. New Line Cinema held the film rights to King's story, and decided to combine Cyber God with some minor elements of King's "The Lawnmower Man". The resulting film differed so much from the source material that King sued the filmmakers to remove his name from the title. As much as I would have loved to have seen a faithful adaptation of King’s short story, I feel it would be virtually impossible, that said though, the script for Cyber God is really very good. In truth, The Lawnmower Man failed for two reasons; New Line Cinema being complete and utter idiots (and treating everyone involved in the film and the film’s audience as idiots) and the special effects. I’ll defend Brett Leonard all the way – his films are mistaken masterpieces, the only thing letting them down is that they are all ahead of their time, so unfortunately the required special effects just didn’t exist at the time they were filmed. The cutting edge – and utterly breathtaking – special effects seen months later in Jurassic Park pretty much banged the last nail in the film’s coffin. It was laughable then and it’s even more laughable now but watching it now in retrospect I have to say it has taken on a new charm. It begins with Dr. Lawrence Angelo (played by Pierce Brosnan just a couple of years before he became Bond), a doctor who works for Virtual Space Industries, running experiments in increasing the intelligence of chimpanzees using drugs and virtual reality. When one of the chimps escapes using the warfare tactics for which he was being trained the lab suffers a set back. Dr. Angelo is generally a pacifist, who would rather explore the intelligence-enhancing potential of his research without applying it for military purposes and is torn by his work. His wife Caroline is unhappy with the way he is ignoring her to focus on this project and he feels he somewhat stuck in a rut. We then meet Jobe Smith (Jeff Fahey), a local groundskeeper with learning difficulties and a low IQ. He lives in the garden shed owned by the local priest, Father Francis McKeen. McKeen's brother, Terry, is a local landscape gardener and employs Jobe to help him with odd jobs. Father McKeen punishes the challenged Jobe with a belt and "Hail Marys" whenever he fails to complete his chores. Dr. Angelo realizes he needs a human subject to work with, and when he spots Jobe mowing his lawn he has an idea. Peter (Austin O'Brien), Dr. Angelo's young neighbor, is friends with Jobe so Dr. Angelo invites both of them over to play some virtual reality games. Learning more about Jobe, Angelo persuades him to participate in his experiments, letting him know it will make him smarter. Jobe agrees and begins the program but Dr. Angelo makes it a point to redesign all the intelligence-boosting treatments without the "aggression factors" used in the chimpanzee experiments. Jobe soon becomes smarter than Dr. Angelo could ever imagine, learning Latin in only two hours. At this time Jobe also begins a sexual relationship with a young rich widow, Marnie. However, Jobe begins to display telepathic abilities and has hallucinations. He continues training at the lab, until an accident makes Dr. Angelo shut the program down. The project director, Sebastian Timms, employed by a mysterious agency known as The Shop, keeps tabs on the progress of the experiment, and discreetly swaps Dr. Angelo's new medications with the old Project 5 supply (reintroducing the "aggression factors" into the treatment). Jobe soon develops telekinetic and pyrokinetic powers and takes Marnie to the lab to make love to her while in virtual reality. Something goes wrong in the simulation when Jobe's virtual avatar becomes violent, attacking her mind directly; Marnie is soon driven insane, laughing endlessly at nothing. Jobe's powers continue to grow, but the treatments are also affecting his mental stability and he decides to exact revenge on those who abused him when he was "dumb": Father McKeen is engulfed in flames, a bully named Jake is put into a catatonic state by a mental "lawnmower man" continually mowing his brain and a lawnmower invention of Jobe's runs down Harold, Peter's abusive father. Jobe uses his telepathic abilities to make the investigating police attribute it all to "bizarre accidents", all in front of Dr. Angelo. Jobe believes his final stage of evolution is to become "pure energy" in the VSI computer mainframe and from there reach into all the systems of the world. He promises his "birth" will be signaled by every telephone on the planet ringing simultaneously. The Shop sends a team to capture Jobe, but they are ineffective against his abilities and he scatters their molecules. Jobe uses the lab equipment to enter the mainframe computer, abandoning his body to become a completely virtual being, leaving his body behind like a husk. Dr. Angelo remotely infects the VSI computer, encrypting all of the links to the outside world, trapping Jobe in the mainframe. As Jobe searches for an un-encrypted network connection, Dr. Angelo primes bombs to destroy the building. Feeling responsible for what has happened to Jobe, Angelo then joins him in virtual reality to try to reason with him. Jobe overpowers and crucifies him, then continues to search for a network connection. Peter runs into the building; Jobe still cares for him and allows Dr. Angelo to go free to rescue Peter. Jobe forces a computer-connected security door to open, allowing Peter and Dr. Angelo to escape. Jobe escapes through a back door before the building is destroyed in multiple explosions. Back at home with Peter, Dr. Angelo and Peter's mother Carla (who has become a romantic interest) are about to leave when their telephone rings, followed by the noise of a second, and then hundreds of telephones ring, all around the globe, suggesting Jobe is still alive. The theme of someone going ‘on-line’ or plugging themselves into a futuristic mainframe computer was nothing new but The Lawnmower Man displayed a shocking ignorance as to how computers, and indeed, the internet actually works. The special effects might have been cutting edge when they first started work on them but they weren’t by the time the film came out. It’s now considered so bad its good but it is still a shockingly bad film. It was discovered through FBI tapes that this was former Waco cult leader David Koresh favorite movie. Need I say more.