Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten

Dir: Julien Temple

2007

****

Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten is a lovingly put together tribute to The Clash legend following his premature death in 2002. If you’re a musician and want your story to be told with respect, passion and truth, then you couldn’t hope for anyone over Julien Temple. I would never confess to knowing everything about Strummer and The Clash but I was surprised about how much I didn’t know while watching the documentary. I was at first confused for instance by the separate scenes that had various different groups of people in different parts of the world talking about Strummer around huge bonfires. I learned that in his last few years Strummer organised bonfire parties and invited many guests to join him for a drink and good conversation and maybe a little music. His family, close friends and celebrity pals all sit around the fire talking about how much he meant to them and tell of all the things about him that many people didn’t know. There are people such as Bono, Martin Scorsese, Johnny Depp, Flea, John Cussack, Steve Buscemi, John Cooper Clarke, Jim Jarmusch, Courtney Love, Don Letts, Damien Hirst, Bobby Gillespie and Michael Stipe, among many, all people of substance who certainly don't need to be in the film to make themselves seem cool, but genuinely loved the singer and want to share the joy, creativity and thoughts he brought. The interviews are heartfelt and informative and the archive footage is pretty comprehensive, and there were so many aspects of his life that I had no idea about, some of which really shocked me. I had no idea he married a South African woman, so she could obtain British citizenship (foreign wives of male Britons could obtain British nationality via marriage, until the British Nationality Act 1981 came into force). Then there was the incident in 1980, when he was arrested for hitting a violent member of the audience with his guitar during a performance in Hamburg was fascinating. This incident shocked Strummer, and had a lasting personal impact on him. He said in a later interview that, "It was a watershed - violence had really controlled me for once". He determined never again to fight violence with violence and became even more vocal against hate. His work with the Anti-Nazi League and the Rock Against Racism campaigns are touched on, as is the famous 1980 Rock Against Racism concert at Victoria Park, as featured in Jack Hazan and David Mingay’s part fiction, part rockumentary film Rude Boy. The film explains that Strummer was born John Graham Mellor in Ankara, Turkey. His Scottish mother, Anna Mackenzie, was a nurse and a crofter's daughter born and raised in Bonar Bridge in the Scottish Highlands, while his British father, Ronald Ralph Mellor M.B.E., was a clerical officer- later attaining the rank of second secretary - in the foreign service. The family spent much time moving from place to place, and Strummer spent parts of his early childhood in Cairo, Mexico City and Bonn. At the age of 9, Strummer and his older brother David, 10, began boarding at the City of London Freemen's School in Surrey. Strummer rarely saw his parents during the next seven years. He reflected “At the age of nine I had to say good-bye to them because they went abroad to Africa or something. I went to boarding school and only saw them once a year after that – the Government paid for me to see my parents once a year. I was left on my own, and went to this school where thick rich people sent their thick rich kids. Another perk of my father's job”. He took it hard but the move had a far greater effect on his brother. “David was a year older than me. Funnily enough, you know, he was a Nazi. He was a member of the National Front. He was into the occult and he used to have these deaths-heads and cross-bones all over everything. He didn't like to talk to anybody, and I think suicide was the only way out for him. What else could he have done?” It’s amazing how different the two brothers turned out, this is respectfully touched upon. Strummer did so much in his life, it was always going to be impossible to cover everything, although it’s still quite comprehensive. Strummer appeared in a couple of my favorite films, and while Jim Jarmusch speaks about filming 1989’s Mystery Train, it would have been cool if Aki Kaurismäki could have spoken about his 1990 film I Hired a Contract Killer which stared Strummer as a guitarist in a pub, performing two songs ("Burning Lights" and "Afro-Cuban Bebop"). Still, lots to enjoy and inform - I also had no idea that he fronted The Pouges in the early 90s when singer Shane MacGowan temporarily left the band. The highlight of the film for me was when, on 15 November 2002, Strummer and the Mescaleros played a benefit show for striking fire fighters in London, at the Acton Town Hall. Mick Jones was in the audience, and joined the band on stage during the Clash's "Bankrobber". An encore followed with Jones playing guitar and singing on "White Riot" and "London's Burning". This performance marked the first time since 1983 that Strummer and Jones had performed together on stage. Jones remarked  in the film that it was totally unplanned and that he felt compelled to join Strummer on stage. It’s heartbreaking to know that the pair were writing new Clash songs and were preparing to get back together just before his untimely death. Awesome musician, lovely man, loving tribute. I really wish I had a chance to have seen him play live.

The Belly of an Architect

Dir: Peter Greenaway

1987

*****

Peter Greenaway’s lavish opus is an astonishing exploration of art and metaphor, telling the story of Etienne-Louis Boullee through the obsessions of a contemporary architect. Brian Dennehy was quoted after the release as saying "I've made lots of movies but only one film." The film begins with American architect Stourley Kracklite (Dennehy) mounting his wife Louisa (Chloe Webb) next to a window of a speeding train as it crosses the French-Italian boarder. Kracklite has been commissioned to construct an exhibition in Rome dedicated to the architecture of his idol Étienne-Louis Boullée. Doubts arise among his Italian colleagues about the legitimacy of Boullée among the pantheon of famed architects, perhaps because Boullée was an inspiration for Adolf Hitler's architect Albert Speer. Kracklite immerses himself in his work and in Rome, indulging himself wherever possible – represented most by his greed for food. Tirelessly dedicated to the project, Kracklite's marriage deteriorates, along with his health. His social and physical decline corresponds to the decline of his idol Boullée, who until the 20th century was hardly known. Kracklite becomes obsessed with the historical Caesar Augustus after hearing that Livia, his wife, supposedly poisoned him. Kracklite assumes that his own wife, Louisa, is trying to do the same because he is suffering increasing stomach pains. She informs him that she is pregnant, and is sexually involved with the younger co-organiser of the exhibition. He discovers that he has a stomach cancer and has not long to live. The film ends at opening ceremony, which Kracklite watches from a higher vantage point. Louisa gives birth to their child, and Kracklite jumps to his death. Belly of an Architect uses far more metaphor than most of Greenaway’s work and is less abstract. I like Brian Dennehy in pretty much everything he’s been in but this was the role that was made for him, the best of his career and indeed, one of the best of all time. Greenaway's visual technique heightens Kracklite's alienation. It is as grandiose as you’d expect from the cult director but for once it is far more controlled and intentional. There are few close-up shots of the other actors beside Dennehy, who himself is dwarfed by the dominance of the Roman architecture surrounding him. Greenaway's trademark historical reenactments also compose a major theme as many visual images of the film appear to replicate major 18th-century works of art and architecture. In addition there are subtle references to Isaac Newton and the law of gravity, perhaps alluding to Kracklite's own inability to escape the physical laws of mortality, as well as Boullée’s project for the Cenotaph, for Isaac Newton, which has been studied by architects for its viability for years, not least by Albert Speer who modeled the New Berlin for Hitler. The cake presented to Kracklite at the initial banquet is also perfect replica of Boullee's drawings for the Isaac Newton Cenotaph. The visuals of Rome are stunning and every frame is beautiful. The controlled movement coming in and out of every composition is seemless but so vital to the overall feel and theme. It is compelling and utterly breathtaking. Wim Mertens' musical accompaniment is also brilliant and on par with any modern minimalist composition. Film and theatre have enjoyed a long relationship with one another, as has art in general, but never before have all three been married so successfully. When one is asked to think of some of the great films of the 1980s, you can’t help but think of films such as Back to the Future, The Goonies, a John Hughes film maybe or a Steven Spielberg picture. You’d be forgiven (but only just) for forgetting or overlooking films such as Cinema Paradiso, Fitzcarraldo, Babette’s Feast and The Belly of an Architect but these are, among many, the best films of the decade by a country mile that seem unattached to the time they were made. Indeed, they are timeless masterpieces and everything element of Greenway's epic is perfect.

Drowning by Numbers

Dir: Peter Greenaway

1987

*****

Peter Greenaway’s Drowning by Numbers is an extraordinary achievement. It is a wonderfully dark comedy that is half oil painting and half puzzle. It’s also  reminiscent of a fairy tale and feels like it is rooted in folklore but there is so much going on, I can’t pretend to understand each and every reference. The film's plot centres on three married women - a grandmother (Joan Plowright), her daughter (Juliet Stevenson), and her niece (Joely Richardson) - each named Cissie Colpitts. As the story progresses, each woman successively drowns her husband. Bernard Hill plays the coroner, Madgett, who is cajoled into covering up the three crimes and Jason Edwards plays his son Smut. The structure, with similar stories repeated three times, is fairy tale-like, most specifically like The Billy Goats Gruff, because Madgett is constantly promised greater rewards as he tries his luck with each of the Cissies in turn. The link to folklore is further established by Madgett's son Smut, who recites the rules of various unusual games played by the characters as if they were ancient traditions. Many of these games are invented for the film, including: Bees in the Trees, Deadman's Catch Hangman's Cricket and Sheep and Tides. In Drowning by Numbers, number-counting, the rules of games and the repetitions of the plot are all devices which emphasise structure and symmetry. Through the course of the film each of the numbers 1 to 100 appear (apart from the number 19. Apparently this is because it is impossible to score 19 in the game of cribbage), the large majority in sequence, often seen in the background, and sometimes spoken by the characters (I think I only recognised this by number 57). According to the director, there are 100 things beginning with the letter 'S' in Smut's room and, 100 things beginning with the letter 'M' in Madgett's room. On Greenaway's specific instructions, the film's musical score by Michael Nyman is entirely based on themes from the slow movement of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat, bars 58 to 61 of which are heard in their original form immediately after each drowning. The Skipping Girl in the film (played by Natalie Morse) who counts the stars reaches number 58 in her counting game. This was said to be a subtle way of drawing attention to the key bars of the Mozart piece. It is a production to be marveled at, and one where all of the elements of the film contribute to the structure and design of the piece as whole, where form and content perfectly integrate into each other. The women who drown their husbands, at first do it out of anger, then out of disappointment, and finally out of "solidarity", or in other words for no real reason at all. The pattern of threes needs to be complete, three murders, three autopsies, and three funerals. We know the husbands will die, they are as inexorably fated to their turns in the plot as all people are fated for death, as films are fated to end after a certain number of scenes. We are made hyper-aware of these numbers because they are flashed in a countdown on screen. In a sense, we are all drowning by numbers and there is a beautiful absurdity to it. The moot of the film can be summed up in a line that Smut says: "The full flavour of the game Hangman's Cricket is best appreciated after the game has been played for several hours, by then every player has an understanding of the many rules and knows which character they want to play permanently, finally an outright loser is found and is obliged to present himself to the Hangman who is always merciless". It is definitely a film that deserves repeat viewing; the first time for story and the second time to take in the amazing detail. What astonishes me most about the film is how quickly it was made. Greenaway made The Belly of an Architect, Drowning by Numbers and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover consecutively, releasing one film a year between 1987 and 1989. Each film is a technical masterpiece, the sort of production that would take most modern directors years and years to complete. It won the award for Best Artistic Contribution at the Cannes Film Festival of 1988 – which it deserved – but I think it deserved a little more than that. Plowright, Stevenson, Richardson and Hill are superb and clearly understand Greenaway’s vision. Every shot is beautifully composed and nothing short of exquisite, with many mimicking some of the great lesser known Renaissance paintings – mostly of Italian origin. Greenaway’s film, particularly of this era, seem to connect through detail and theme, indeed certain props can be seen from his earlier films which I’m sure is intentional. It is an indulgence for sure but one that is open to everyone to get lost in. It’s a masterpiece and Greenaway is a genre unto himself.

Ilo Ilo

Dir: Anthony Chen

2013

***

Anthony Chen’s debut features opened to global acclaim but I found there was a lot to dislike about as much as there was to enjoy. Literally translated as "Mum and Dad Are Not Home”, IIo IIo won the 2013 Caméra d'Or award, becoming the first Singaporean feature film to win an award at the Cannes Film Festival. I can’t think of a Singaporean film worthy of the award made before 2013 but I can think of a few made since, so I believe the country’s film industry owes a lot of gratitude to Chen’s debut. The story is set in Singapore during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and chronicles the Lim family as they adjust to their newly arrived Filipina domestic helper, Teresa, (Angeli Bayani) who has come, like many other Filipinas, in search of a better life. The father, Teck, (Chen Tianwen) works in sales for a glass company, his pregnant wife, Hwee Leng, (Yeo Yann Yann) works as a secretary for a shipping company that is down sizing, and their ten-year-old son, Jiale, (Koh Jia Ler) is a troubled delinquent. Hwee is a ‘westernized snob’ in her husband’s own words and her treatment of Teresa is quite uncomfortable. Teresa and Jiale are both shocked to learn that both have to share a room. At first, Jiale and Teresa (known as 'Terry') exhibit a troubled relationship, when during a trip to the bookshop Jiale places some unpaid merchandise in the maid's shopping bag causing her to be accused of theft. After being scolded by Terry, tensions rise, causing Jiale to climb over the school fence at dismissal just to avoid his maid. He runs home and locks her out of the apartment. When Teck loses his sales job, he conceals it from his wife, secretly smoking on the steps outside their apartment. After some time, unable to find work in a career position, he accepts a temporary job as a security guard monitoring an egg farm. As he continues to lose money in the stock market, in a moment of depression, he acknowledges their losses to his wife who lambasts him over his failure. As the family finances begin to descend deeper, familial tensions grow as Jiale continues to act out against his family and Terry. Upon the death of a neighbour who jumps from the roof of their apartment building, Jiale and Terry begin to kindle a relationship. While the mother is desperate to stay employed as she continues to script termination letters at her job, Terry and Jiale become fast friends sparking the mother's jealousy as their relationship develops. Desperate at home, and emotionally neglected by her son, Hwee Leng attends a motivational seminar where she is moved by the optimistic words of the speaker and immediately purchases his full catalogue of motivational books and CDs. During a lunch break at work, she attempts to call the speaker using a phone number included on the seminar's flyer, and discovers the line has been disconnected and rerouted. Later that night while watching television, she learns that the motivational speaker has been arrested for fraud causing Hwee Lang to break down in the presence of her confused husband as more money is lost. Although Jiale is a poor student and is constantly in trouble, he shows high intellect and cunning in his obsessive calculation of past winning lottery numbers, which he catalogues in his schoolbook during class. One day, after being taunted by another boy that his maid only loves him because she is paid to, he pushes the boy into the bathroom wall causing him to split his head and bleed. Threatened with expulsion, and the school's administration unable to contact his parents, Terry arrives to plead for mercy on his behalf. After some resistance, the principal appears moved as Hwee Leng arrives angrily dispatching Terry and berating Jiale. As Hwee Leng and Jiale leave the administration office, Hwee Leng aggressively reminds Terry that she is Jiale's mother before snatching Jiale and walking away. Given a punishment of public caning rather than expulsion, Terry arrives to the school auditorium, powerless, as she watches Jiale being whipped in front of the student body. After the family car is sold for scrap, the family acknowledges they can no longer afford to keep Terry employed as Jiale's father has been recently fired from his job due to an accident tripping over eggs while attempting to find a suspected intruder. Desperate to keep Terry, Jiale uses his savings to purchase lottery tickets but loses. He becomes tearfully despondent, cutting a lock of Terry's hair during a tense goodbye before she is sent home. Holding on to his cassette player, Jiale listens to music with his father on a bench in the hospital as Hwee Leng gives birth to a baby girl. In a rather personal moment, we actually see actor Yeo Yann Yann give birth to the baby she had been carrying through filming. On the whole I ended up liking IIo IIo on reflection but I found that a lot of the content seemed to be lost in translation and the boy – who is supposed to be annoying – is annoying to the point where I found it hard to watch. I thought they got the 90s look rather well and I did like the mother and father – even though I felt their performances were a little forced at times. It was fascinating to see how the Filipinos were treated by the Singaporeans back in the day and I thought Angeli Bayani carried the film well, but I suppose as annoying as he was (and was meant to be), the film belonged to young Koh Jia Ler. I just wonder whether that was really him or if he was in fact acting.

Death Wish V: The Face of Death

Dir: Allan A. Goldstein

1994

****

I’m not sure anyone expected that there would be a fifth Death Wish film but somehow, seven years later, there was. The three previous films in the Death Wish series were produced by Cannon Films but in 1989 Cannon faced bankruptcy and its financial records came under investigation. Co-owners Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus also had an infamous personal falling out during the collapse of their company. Golan soon launched his own company, 21st Century Film Corporation whereby each film tended to have small budgets and performed poorly at the box office, much like Cannon. Meanwhile, the Death Wish films continued to enjoy popularity in the video and television market. Golan came up with the idea of a fifth Death Wish film to serve as a much-needed hit for the company. It was a box-office disaster. People didn’t go to the cinema to watch Death Wish films, they rented them on VHS, after all those years Golan still didn’t grasp this. Financing to start the film production was secured through a loan from the Lewis Horwitz Organization. Golan still owned an unused screenplay for a Death Wish film, submitted in the late 1980s by J. Lee Thompson and Gail Morgan Hickman but he decided against using it, since it would be too costly to produce. Instead, he hired Michael Colleary to write a new script. Colleary would go on to write Face/Off and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Golan initially reserved directorial duties for himself but his preoccupation with directing Crime and Punishment reportedly prevented him from doing so. Michael Winner was available to direct, but was never asked to do so. According to Winner, his lack of interest in directing Death Wish 4: The Crackdown may have led Golan to count him out. Golan then hired Steve Carver for the job, an experienced director in the action film genre. Carver recalled discussing with Bronson over the depiction of Paul Kersey. Bronson wanted the character to become more sympathetic and less violent. Carver and screenwriter Stephen Peters started co-operating in revising the script. Carver worked on pre-production for two months before Golan decided to replace him. His replacement was Allan A. Goldstein, who himself was surprised at the offer, since he specialized in drama films. Death Wish V was his first action film, he hadn’t seen the previous films, and when revising the script he decided that what the series needed was more humor and black comedy elements. Bronson and Golan were not on speaking terms during the filming, only communicating by using Goldstein as an intermediary. Goldstein has since said he was uncertain of the reasons behind this adversarial relationship but then Golan wasn’t around during filming, so escaped the drama that the crew of the first four films had to endure. To be absolutely clear, it’s a terrible film, but it does have certain points that I really enjoyed. Firstly, there aren’t any gratuitous rape scenes. A strange thing to say when talking about any other film outside of the Death Wish franchise. Secondly, it has a really great villain thanks to the great Michael Parks. Paul Kersey (Bronson) returns to New York City, having assumed the name Paul Stewart under the witness protection program. He is invited by girlfriend and designer Olivia Regent (Lesley-Anne Down) to a particularly 80s fashion show (in the mid-90s). Backstage, mobster Tommy O'Shea (Parks) and his goons muscle in. Tommy threatens Olivia, who is his ex-wife and mother to their daughter Chelsea (Erica Lancaster), over money he has invested in her business. Olivia later informs Paul of her ex-husband's behavior after he finds bruises on her hand. Paul confronts him, but Tommy's henchman Chicki Paconi (Kevin Lund) pulls out a revolver at Paul. The confrontation ends with the arrival of Chelsea. D.A. Brian Hoyle (Saul Rubinek – who played a thug in the first Death Wish movie) and his associate detective Lt. Hector Vasquez (Miguel Sandoval) visit Paul's home. He informs them about Tommy O'Shea. Hoyle says they have been trying to nab Tommy for years, and he wants Olivia to testify. That night at a restaurant, Paul proposes to Olivia, who accepts. Olivia excuses herself to the bathroom and is attacked by Tommy's associate, Freddie "Flakes" Garrity (Robert Joy), a supposed brilliant assassin, who is dressed as the most unconvincing women you have ever seen. He bashes her head on a mirror, supposedly disfiguring her face to the point she can’t look at herself and the doctors had to ‘fight to save her life’, even though she clearly only had a scratch above her eye. Freddie escapes but Paul gets a look at him and cleverly sees through his drag outfit. At the hospital, Paul is told that even if Olivia will get reconstructive surgery, her face will never be the same. While there, he meets Lt. Mickey King (Kenneth Welsh) and his partner Janice Omori (Lisa Inouye), who are working on the O'Shea's case. During a failed bugging mission on the mob, Janice is killed after getting struck by Freddie's car. Then at the hospital, Lt. King warns Kersey not to go back to his old ways, before saying that he has been working on the case for 16 years. Kersey remarks that is a long time to be failing. Freddie and his henchmen, pretending to be the cops sent to protect Olivia, attack Paul and Olivia. Freddie shoots Olivia in the back, killing her as the couple tries to escape. Paul jumps from the roof of his apartment, where he lands in a pile of trash bags, and is retrieved by the police. It’s rather odd that the front of their house is a house and the back of their house is a huge warehouse, but these are minor details. Tommy is cleared of involvement in Olivia's death and seeks custody of their daughter. The vigilante is back. This time he is assisted by Hoyle, who learns his department has been corrupted by Tommy. Paul poisons Chicki with cyanide in his cannoli. He then kills Freddie in the most hilariously convoluted manner by blowing him up with a remote-controlled soccer ball. Tommy finds out from an informant that Paul is the vigilante and will be going after him for killing Olivia. The informant, revealed to be Vasquez, tries to kill Paul himself, but Paul gets the upper hand and kills him. Hoyle arrives and finds out Tommy wants both him and Paul dead. Hoyle tells Paul he must never see him again, and Paul agrees. Tommy hires three hoodlums (the same criminals responsible for murdering Paul's wife and mugging his daughter twenty years earlier) to go after Paul at the dress factory, using Chelsea as bait, although she manages to escape. Paul first faces the killers and then Sal, another one of Tommy's men, by shooting him into an industrial sewing machine. Paul picks up an empty bottle, smashes it, and cuts Tommy's face in retaliation for what he did to Olivia. Lt. King then arrives, but is wounded by Tommy. Armed with a shotgun, he corners Tommy and knocks him into an acid pool, where he disintegrates. I do love it when the bad guy disintegrates at the end of a movie. Like I say, it’s utter garbage but Parks is a great villain and its got that certain magic that bad 90s action films had that make me go all nostalgic. Awful, but thoroughly entertaining.

Bumblebee

Dir: Travis Knight

2018

***

While I would agree that Bumblebee is the most authentic Transformers film so far, I would still argue that it’s not the amazing film that many suggested to me. I think because the previous films are so devoid of heart, that suddenly, a film that wears a blatant cloak of 80s movie nostalgia is always going to look a hundred times better than it really is. The first Transformers film really did kick me in the nostalgics. Bumblebee was a Volkswagen Beetle dammit and the fact Michael Bay turned him into a Chevrolet Camaro told you everything you needed to know about the adaption and in what regard the original fans would be held. Watching a spoiled brat berate his father because he couldn’t see the beauty in a classic Camaro he’d just bought him made me feel old and in the wrong universe. When it was updated to a modern Camaro, like it was some kind of improvement, was a step too far. It was like watching a Fast and Furious film but with robots, Fast and Furious 3 with characters even less lifeless than Vin Deisel’s eyes. It took them just over a decade to correct all of the obvious mistakes but for me it is a little too little too late. Setting the film in the 80s and making it look as if it is a lost classic from the era is a little cheap. Making Bumblebee a Volkswagen Beetle again was an easy fix also but I’m not sure they managed to steer clear enough from the Herbie films. The film begins on Cybertron as we see the Autobot resistance, led by Optimus Prime, on the verge of losing the civil war against the Decepticons. A Decepticon force, led by Soundwave, Starscream and Shockwave, intercepts them during their evacuation from the planet and Optimus sends Autobot scout Bumblebee (known as B-127) to Earth on an escape pod in order to set up a base of operations where the Autobots can regroup. B-127 reaches Earth alone, crash-landing in California and disrupting a training exercise by Sector 7, a secret government agency that monitors extraterrestrial activity on Earth. Colonel Jack Burns (John Cena) presumes B-127 to be a hostile invader and pursues him. B-127 scans a Willys MB jeep and flees to a mine, where Blitzwing, a Decepticon Seeker, ambushes him. When B-127 refuses to reveal Optimus's whereabouts, Blitzwing tears out his voice box and damages his memory core; despite this, B-127 stabs and destroys Blitzwing with one of his own missiles. B-127 flees from the soldiers, scans a nearby 1967 Volkswagen Beetle and collapses from his injuries. It’s not clear when this all occurs but we are then taken to 1987, which is in the future, by around ten years I would guess. There, we follow teenager Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) who remains traumatized by the death of her father, and resentful of her mother Sally for moving on too quickly with a new boyfriend named Ron. Charlie finds a yellow Volkswagen Beetle (which is actually B-127) in a scrapyard belonging to Hank, who gives it to her as an 18th birthday present. When trying to start it, Charlie unknowingly activates a homing signal that is detected by Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick as they interrogate and execute the Autobot Cliffjumper on one of Saturn's moons. The pair heads to Earth, where they adapt Earth vehicle forms and pretend to be peacekeepers, persuading Dr. Powell (John Ortiz) and the rest of Sector 7, despite Burns's disagreement, to help them find and capture B-127, whom they claim is a fugitive and a traitor. While Charlie attempts to fix the Beetle, it transforms into B-127, whom she befriends and nicknames "Bumblebee". She then unknowingly unlocks a message from Optimus urging Bumblebee to defend Earth in their absence, which restores some of his memories. Bumblebee begins to speak using songs, as he does in the later films. He is discovered by Charlie's neighbor Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), who agrees to protect their secret due to his feelings for Charlie. Left alone, Bumblebee accidentally destroys Charlie’s home and causes an energy spike that attracts Sector 7’s attention. When Sally blames Charlie for the destruction, Charlie finally expresses her pain over her father’s death and angrily leaves with Bumblebee and Memo, only to be intercepted by Sector 7 and the Decepticons. Bumblebee is captured while Charlie and Memo are returned home. Charlie convinces her brother Otis to cover for her and Memo as they follow Burns to the Sector 7 outpost where Bumblebee is being held. Shatter and Dropkick torture Bumblebee and activate the message from Optimus Prime discovering that the Autobots are coming to Earth. They leave him for dead after revealing their plan to bring the Decepticons to Earth. After alerting Burns to the truth about the Decepticons, Dr. Powell is killed by Dropkick. Charlie electroshocks Bumblebee back to life, restoring his memories. After fighting past Burns' obstruction and attempt to re-secure Bumblebee with the help of Memo, Sally, Ron, and Otis, Charlie and Bumblebee set out to prevent Shatter and Dropkick from contacting the Decepticons using a radio tower at a nearby harbor. Burns also intervenes and defends Charlie. His helicopter is shot down by Shatter, but Burns is saved by Bumblebee. While Bumblebee fights Dropkick, he binds him with a chain, entangling his systems when he transforms, and Bumblebee rips him apart. Charlie deactivates the Decepticon beacon, causing an enraged Shatter to pursue her. Bumblebee destroys a dam wall, triggering a flood that causes a cargo ship to crush Shatter into the docks, killing her. Burns, having a change of heart and grateful towards Bumblebee, gives him and Charlie time to escape before the army arrives, having yet to convince them that Bumblebee is not the enemy. Charlie and Bumblebee arrive on a cliff overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, where Charlie, realizing that Bumblebee has a greater purpose on Earth, says goodbye. Bumblebee scans a 1977 Chevrolet Camaro, transforms into a yellow version of it, and drives away, presumable towards Transformers 2007. There is a ridiculous diving sub-plot that goes with the film, which is almost as pointless and annoying as the whole dead dad storyline but in many respects that captures the mood of many a silly/classic 80s movie perfectly. The Film starts off as Star Wars, goes into Commando territory before switching to a mix of Herbie and ET: The Extra Terrestrial. It’s Transformers from there on in but without so much of the terrible attempts at humour seen in the previous films. It’s not without its charm but it is completely devoid of all originality. They’ve basically given us what we said we wanted in the first film but it turns out we didn’t want it at all. Well I didn’t anyway. I probably sound harsh, but although it is a far superior film to the other Transformer films, it’s still nothing special and it relies far too heavily on nostalgia – nostalgia created by other film. It’s barely a Transformers film in my opinion. It’s also quite frustrating that, although they got Bumblebee right with regards to him being a VW Beetle, they totally got Soundwave wrong. Okay, so you may ask how, in 2018, could they feature a character who was originally a cassette player? My answer is that the film is set in 1987, with some moderately creative writing it should have been easy. I feel we’re back to square one. Nice try Transformers, I see through your game, even though I didn’t hate your film.

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown

Dir: J. Lee Thompson

1987

****

Death Wish 3 was a ridiculous film, but it made money, and if there was one thing the Cannon group was good at, it was flogging a dead horse with huge sums of money. Cannon Films announced Death Wish 4 in 1986, estimating that it would be ready for release by spring 1987, even though the film company was by this point facing huge financial problems. Its greatest box office hit was still 1984’s Missing in Action with $38 million domestic gross and Cannon had lost money through huge box office flops. We might look back at the films they made now with nostalgic whimsy but their films sucked at the time. So by the time Death Wish 4 came along they tightened the budgets of all their upcoming films to under $5 million per movie. They reached an agreement with independent producer Pancho Kohner, son of Paul Kohner - Paul Kohner being the agent of Charles Bronson. Pancho himself had produced seven previous Bronson films, so the men trusted each other and decided to take the franchise down a route of their choosing. Michael Winner did not return to direct, with the excuse at the time being that he was working on another project at the time but the truth is he was never asked. Bronson was displeased with their previous collaboration and decided to work with J. Lee Thompson, who he had worked with in several previous films, and had also had a good working relationship with the producers of Cannon Films. Writing duties were ultimately assigned to Gail Morgan Hickman, who had previously contributed rejected scripts for Death Wish 3. Hickman's first script, which had Paul Kersey struggling with a crisis of conscience was rejected. The second script, which had Kersey going after an international terrorist, was rejected due to its premise having similarities to 1987’s Wanted: Dead or Alive. Disheartened, probably, Hickman decided to just copy Akira Kurasowa’s Yojimbo, although he might have been copying Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, it is unclear, but it’s the same story. He later said in an interview that Cannon producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus wanted a mindless movie with nonstop action, so he came up with "cartoonish" action scenes especially for them. Hickman also admitted that he wrote the film as they filmed it, being called by Bronson himself to re-write scenes on a daily basis. In this fourth instalment, Kersey has a crackdown. Erica Sheldon (Dana Barron), the teenage daughter of Karen Sheldon (Kay Lenz – who was only 12 years older than her screen daughter), Paul Kersey's current girlfriend, goes with boyfriend Randy Viscovich (Jesse Dabson) to an arcade to meet up with a man named JoJo Ross (Héctor Mercado) and another buddy, Jesse Winters (Tim Russ). JoJo offers her crack cocaine behind her boyfriend’s back, and she later dies from an overdose. Having seen Erica smoke a joint with Randy while in his car the previous night, Paul suspects Randy was involved with Erica's death, so he follows him to the arcade. Randy confronts JoJo and threatens to go to the police. JoJo murders Randy to prevent this. Paul then promptly shoots JoJo, who falls onto the roof of the bumper-car ride and is electrocuted. At home, Paul receives a package indicating the sender knows he's "the vigilante," and a phone call threatening to go to the police if Paul won't meet. Paul is taken to the mansion of the secretive tabloid publisher Nathan White (John P. Ryan). Nathan says that his daughter became addicted to drugs and eventually died of an overdose, so he wants to hire Paul to wipe out the drug trade in LA. There are two major gangs competing for the local drug supply: one led by Ed Zacharias (Perry Lopez), the other by brothers Jack (Mike Moroff) and Tony Romero (Dan Ferro). Kersey accepts and Nathan supplies him with weapons and information. Meanwhile, LA detectives Sid Reiner (George Dickerson) and Phil Nozaki (Soon-Tek Oh) investigate the arcade deaths. Paul infiltrates Zacharias's manor as a party bartender. After bugging a phone, he witnesses Zacharias murder a colleague who has stolen a big deal of cocaine from the cartel's South American connection. Zacharias discovers Paul but doesn't realize why he's there. He then orders Paul to help carry out the dead body, motioning to his henchman, Al Arroyo, to kill Paul when they're done. After Paul helps put the corpse in the trunk of a car, he kills Arroyo with the car's trunk cover and escapes. Paul proceeds to kill three of Ed Zacharias's favoured hitmen at a restaurant with a bomb concealed in a wine bottle. He kills drug dealer Max Green (Tom Everett), leader of Romeros' street dealers, disguised as a sex video trader. He confronts the Romeros's top hitman Frank Bauggs (David Wolos-Fonteno) in order to find out more about their cartel, but a fight ensues and Bauggs falls off his apartment to his death. A few days later, Nathan instructs Paul to go to San Pedro, Los Angeles, where a local fisherman wharf acts as a front for Zacharias's drug operations. Breaking in, Paul kills eight more criminals and blows up the drug processing room with a bomb. Detective Nozaki reveals himself to be a corrupt cop working for Zacharias, and demands that Paul tell him who he works for. Paul refuses and kills him. He lures Zacharias and the Romero brothers into a trap, leading to a shootout in an oil field in which both cartels are completely destroyed. Paul personally kills Zacharias with a high-powered rifle. Nathan congratulates Paul, but sets him up with a car bomb. Enraged, Paul returns to the White Manor only to find a stranger who claims to be the real Nathan White; the impersonator who hired Paul was actually a third drug lord who used him to dispose of the rival cartels. Paul is approached by two cops, who arrest him, but he recognizes them as fakes, causes their car to flip over, and escapes. To get rid of Paul, the Nathan White impersonator kidnaps and uses Karen as a bait. Detective Reiner waits inside Paul's apartment to kill him out of vengeance for Nozaki's murder, but Paul knocks him out. He arms himself with a M16 with a M203 grenade launcher and goes to the meeting place designated by the drug lord, the parking lot of White's commercial building. The car rolls forward and the drug dealers spray it with bullets before realizing that Paul's not in it. Paul fires a grenade, destroying a van full of bandits, then fires another to kill Jesse as he betrays his crew and tries to drive away. Paul follows White into a roller rink and decimates the rest of his drug gang, but the drug lord escapes through a back door, still holding Karen hostage. Karen attempts to escape, but the drug lord shoots from behind and kills her. Distraught over Karen's death and realizing that White has run out of bullets, Paul fires a last grenade that finishes him off. Reiner arrives and orders him to surrender, threatening to shoot as Paul walks away. Paul replies, "Do whatever you have to", and Reiner lets him go. The story is rubbish and is a cheap knock-off but the cartoonish action sequences are brilliant. The scene where a badly sculpted mannequin of Danny Trejo is blown up is one of my favourite scenes of all time. I’ve watched it on repeat many times over and is worth watching the film for. It’s classic Cannon, Cannon at its most desperate. It lost money and was as bad as everyone expected, but it’s so incredibly bad, that it’s also extremely watchable.