Water for Elephants

Finally caught up with the movie Water for Elephants - based on Sara Gruen's novel with the Twilight star Robert Pattinson and Reece Witherspoon. Its been out for a while and I only recently saw it, having been acquainted with the novel and wanting to see how it worked as a movie. I was pleasantly surprised - particularly by Mr Pattinson's efforts as well as the sumptuously filmed circus scenes depicting the 30s and the Depression era. Rosie the elephant was wonderful ( though not as well developed as the book's) and I enjoyed watching Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) once again playing a bastard.


Sara Gruen has said that her story parallels the story of Jacob in Genesis and you can see the similarities in the movie. There are obvious changes (always are) but in essence the love story remains at the heart of the piece. I had read that there was a Facebook campaign by animal activists to boycott the film but it seemed to have fizzled. I'd recommend it - but I am an old romantic heart and anything with Elephants, circus big top, Reese in spangly tights and a love story set in the thirties is always going to be a winner with me.
Burn brightly, Pete.

Tintin Art Book

Directors Sir Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg have written the forewords to a new book on the art of The Adventures of Tintin. The book will accompany a new film made by the two directors, The Adventures of Tintin, due for release next week in Britain. Oscar winners Joe Letteri and Richard Taylor also share their insights into making the film in the book. The art has been created by NZ Weta artists (and if you plan on buying it before seeing the movie, be aware that it does contain spoilers!).

Moulinsart, the official organisation that looks after the world of Tintin, has contributed an introductory chapter on the comic's creator Georges Remi, aka Hergé. The book, The Art of The Adventures of Tintin, is to be released in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand on October 13 in a 200-page hardcover book and digital e-book. Trailers for the film have been up on the web for some months now and the new movie is due for release in London in a few short days.

For the Tintinologists....

Seen around the streets of London recently. The new TinTin movie is due for international release in just six days time! Burn brightly, Pete

Hammered Again

Gem (Channel 90) seems to have a collection of old Hammer horror movies on file that they bring out of the vaults for lat night enthusiasts on Saturday nights. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, this suits me down to the ground and I'm either catching up on old movies i've missed and only read about, or else reliving my youth watching 1970's styled vampires bite down on buxom women in low-cut blouses. Which brings me to the Gem that was on last night, "Blood from the Mummy's Tomb".

Adapated from Bram Stoker's novel The Jewel of Seven Stars, this stylish Hammer Horror film was director Seth Holt's last picture - he died from a heart attack on the set five weeks into the six week shooting schedule. The typical mummy movie genre is given a slight twist by Hammer, with the voluptuous Valerie Leon (remember we are talking Hammer here). Unsurprisingly, the normal garb of bandages is replaced for as much of Leon's bare flesh in the film as possible in the early 70's.

The director knows she’s the major attraction of the film and Leon is just drop dead gorgeous. She plays a dual role - Margaret the daughter of the expedition leader and Tera, the evil Egyptian queen. Leon spends most of her time as Tera sleeping in a jewelled sarcophagus in golden underwear and essentially does exactly the same as Margaret except she stands up and talks. Leon has an amazing presence and body and Hammer have used both of these to advantage. Filmed on an ultra low budget (200,000 pounds), the film works rather well given the changes from Stoker's original plot line. (It was to be remade as The Awakening years later with Charlton Heston and was even less successful than this effort). Not bad for Hammer, and a little different than the usual bandaged jerky mummy movie, but if it's on late at night, set the timer and record it like I should have.

Burn brightly, Pete.

Come Back Michelle....

Some of the latest photos from the set of the latest Dark Night Rises show Ann Hathaway in her Catwoman suit looking very Lee Merriweather-like, a throwback to the 1960s Batman Tv series. These shots show her with cat ears on and looking quite distanced from Michelle Pfeiffer's performance in the 1980s. Note the stilettos - perfect attire for a master criminal/jewel thief.

For some reason I find the images of the motorbike far more edgier than Ms Hathaway and the more scenes I see coming from the sets, the less I'm becoming inclined to see this latest addition to the canon. Of course, when its released and I see the trailers, I'll change my tune. Still... Hathaway seems less convincing than Eartha Kitt in some of these stills (and the motorcycle stand seems very convincing as well). Come back Michelle, – all is forgiven!

13 Assassins

Yesterday my mate Greg and I headed over to Dendy Portside in Brisbane to catch 13 Assassins, a remake of the 1963 Japanese movie of the same name. I hadn't realised I was watching a remake at the time, but my buddy Greg commented at the end - "Now there's a director who understands how to film a fight scene" and both of us were left making comparisons with Kurosawa's 7 Samurai (which itself was remade in the west as The Magnificent Seven.) What we saw yesterday is one of the great samurai films and very much a fifties or sixties film, in form as well as content. 

Prolific cult director Takeshi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition) delivers a brilliant period action film set at the end of Japan's feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a wartorn future.


Based on a true story, the film has all the historical references outlined as well as the official view at the end with the 13 Assassins wiped from the records. Officially, a minister never asked 13 samurai to assassinate the Shogun’s brother, who has been causing too much trouble. Officially, the Shogun’s brother died of sickness and the Government of the time didn’t care about samurai - they were fast becoming an anachronism as we learn at the end of the movie. The code of honor that is reinforced throughout the film has become a useful tool forcing common men to die for something they don’t understand and the 13 samurai fail to realise they’re acting as assassins. The opening shot where a man kills himself in front of a palace sums up the whole story as it points out the consequences and meaning of loyalty, whether it’s to an institution or a moral code.

 It is a straightforward samurai tale which is also a straightforward remake (in some cases shot for shot) that makes no attempt to be revisionist or post-modern - so don't expect  Kill Bill in period piece. It broods with smouldering stand-offs; it trains a la Brynner and McQueen; it fights - for 40 minutes without getting boring; its historical (and as far as I can tell accurate) and it  does all of these things exceptionally well. Not to be missed if you can handle subtitles and  violent Japanese swordplay and chicanery. 


I was impressed with Miike's direction as well, although a lot is owed to the original film in some cases, but for a guy who knocks off so many films in such a short time frame, his direction here was truly superb making great use of Japanese scenery in the forests and lighting all the early scenes of subterfuge and wickedness in semi-darkness before the full blown battle scenes in harsh daylight.



Far more pessimistic and darker than Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, Thirteen Assassins isn’t flawless (the early section of exposition and setup drags a little and the shots are quite dark and often in candlelight) but it deserves to be watched, at least for its deadly final ‘mousetrap’ attack in the village they take over as well the brilliant and breathtaking 40 minute battle sequence against overwhelming odds as the finale.
Burn brightly, Pete.

Avengers Assemble

Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame has begun shooting The Avengers this week in the US with Cleveland standing in for New York City.  Police cars with NYPD logos whizzed by, extras were running down the street screaming as part of a battle scene, which was among the first to be shot in Cleveland. Whedon plans to shoot exterior sequences throughout the rest of the week  in downtown Cleveland. Images are now up on the web with live footage of the shooting caught on mobile phones. Basic looking images at first glance, but its good to see it under way and the film will give the aging JLA cartoons from DC comics a run for their money with this big budget effort.

I recently saw Captain America in the cinema here in Australia and there was a brief preview at the end of the film featuring some previous Marvel stars from recent films like Thor and Iron Man. Robert Downey Jnr had a nice line in the teaser  but I'm not sure if it was a teaser only or actually part of the upcoming Whedon film. It'll be interesting to see how the stories are reshaped and updated to explain the whereabouts of the Cosmic Cube which shifts through a few different story arcs. And the special effects bill for this feature will be amazing with the likes of the previous marvel characters plus newcomers like AntMan etc.


Burn Brightly, Pete

Captain America

Saw the Captain America movie last week - in fact I've been sitting through a spate of super-hero movies of late : Thor, Capt America, Green Lantern. I was surprised by Captain America and it was much better than I thought it would be. All the patriotic hype was there as would be expected and I expect we'll see a new SHIELD film come along before long with the new interest in spy movies and the possibility of terrorist cells in the US.

I would recommend Captain America - it has a similar feel to the Rocketeer and has that same Boy's Own escapism. My 24 year old daughter and 20 year old son both enjoyed it so it was good to know that it wasn't my nostalgic longing for the comics I read in the sixties that coloured my point of view. The movie was lovingly put together with great costume and casting, a reasonable storyline that adhered reasonably closely to the comics (except for Bucky's death) good sense of humour, obligatory guest spot by an aging Stan Lee (this may be his last) and some great song and dance routines (yes - I'm not kidding!).

So if you're looking for some escapism, give the Cap a go. The red,white and blue and big musical sounds of the forties might delight and surprise you too.... and make sure you stick around after the credits. My buddy and I and one other guy were the few in the know that Marvel films always have a teaser for their next production right at the end of the credits and the new avengers film is looking pretty good as well. Seems like super hero movies based on 60s comics are the flavour of the month right now in Holloywood.
Burn brightly, Peter.

Sin City on the Way....

At a recent comic convention in the states, director Robert Rodriguez  announced that he was planning to make a Heavy Metal movie (David Fincher’s option has apparently lapsed) that would probably consist of three separate stories and a framing narrative.

As for Sin City 2, Rodriguez indicated that this is the closest he has been to actually making the film.  Frank Miller has written a new chapter, “The Long Bad Night” specifically for the movie.  Rodriguez wants to do the movie in 3-D because he has an idea for an effect he has never seen before.  But the bottom line appears to be that it’s “put up or shut up time” for Sin City 2 with Rodriguez saying “if it’s going to happen, it will happen this year.” Rodriguez also plans to make Frank Frazetta’s Fire and Ice followed by a movie based on Frazetta’s famous Deathdealer painting.

No Stone Unturned

I bought the sixth installment of Robert B Parker's Jesse Stone series on dvd late last year and just got round to watching it four months later. No Remorse is not an actual Parker novel and was co-written by star Tom Selleck ( who is also exec producer of the series). Selleck has done a great job in the previous five versions as the alcoholic and melancholic Stone, police chief in the seaside town of Paradise just down the road from Boston. A big town cop, Stone/Selleck is working as chief in a rural community as he sorts through problems of alcoholism, divorce from a woman he's still in love with and coming to grips with his own special set of problems.

In this 2010 production, Stone is on suspension and is working outside the law to solve gangland killings for his boss, as well as local convenience store robberies in between visiting his shrink, fending off various possible love interests and fighting his own personal demons.

This outing is possibly the darkest in the series, well crafted and directed with some nice shots and surprises along the way. Although not written by Parker, No Remorse has captured his tone well and if this telemovie is anything to go on, then Parker's character may well have a life after his recent death.

Burn brightly, Pete

Rage to Live

With the recent death of Elizabeth Taylor, I have been thinking about the other Mrs Richard Burton - Isabel - and those Burton's life together. One of the great love stories of the 19th century, this seemingly impossible couple met and Isabel fell in love, defying her upper-class family to become the devoted wife and traveling companion of Richard as he lived his "wild, roving, vagabond life".  She was his editor, collaborator and most vehement advocate.  She defended his oft-besmirched reputation, promoted his writing and successfully campaigned to have him knighted.

During his lifetime, Burton was considered to be an expert horseman and the best swordsman in Europe. Expelled from Trinity College, Burton went on to become an explorer, translator, soldier, poet,  spy, diplomat, author, and ethnologist. He spoke 29 European and African languages. Burton was one of the most brilliant men in an era of brilliant men, and he wrote and Isabel edited 43 volumes of his adventures. Best remembered today for his translations and publication of The Arabian Nights, The Kama Sutra and The Perfumed Garden, Burton was the first European to see Lake Tanganyika in his search to discover the source of the Nile. He was also the first European Non-Muslim to enter Mecca (in disguise), was a member of the Royal Geographical Society, was knighted (Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George), and at Isabel's urging and advocacy went on to become an ambassador in Brazil and the Middle East.

His wife Isabel fell instantly in love with this dashing explorer and intellectual at first sight and they married 10 years later. She was a staunch Catholic and did not approve of his translation of the erotic works and is best remembered for her infamous burning of forbidden chapters of the Perfumed Garden, but her support and undying love continued well after his death. The film "Mountains of the Moon" is based on William Harrison's book of Burton and Speke's journeys, and has a memorable and almost haunting scene where Richard and Isabel make love under the glow of candlelight.

The Burtons' burial place is rather unusual and was constructed as a concrete tomb in the shape of a bedouin tent which survives today at Mortlake Cemetery near Heathrow airport. Isabel chose the design to fulfill Burton's wishes, expressed shortly before his death, that they “lie side by side in a tent” for eternity. Complete with tinkling arab bells, there is a ladder at the rear to a small viewing window where you can see the couple at rest together. There have been recent biographies with the centenary of Richard's death and I urge anyone to see Bob Rafelson's 1990 movie "Mountains of the Moon" if they can.

Burn brightly, Pete