So its the last day of 2011 and its been a bit of a mixed bag this year, some good things and some not so good things went on this year for me.
On the plus side I did a few more little bits of acting with the Ramshorn just before its untimely closure, although the STG still carries on without the bulding. But when I was there I got involved in a couple of the a la carte events, the first being the comedy one which I did the Python argument sketch with the great Will Spiers, which was a lot of fun and we got alot of people request to see our sketch at the time, and despite a few loose goes, we eventually got it right and it was fun to do. The second one later on in July was Shakespeare at Large, which was a collection of scenes performed by actors from various plays written by the bard. In this event I did a scene from Measure for Measure, whom I played the Duke, the main part, as it was only one scene, it was alot of fun to do, and I sprouted some heavy facial growth for it too!
I also have this year gained a new addiction as I have become an absolute tennis nut, and I have been avidly watching and following all the tennis matches on both the mens and ladies tours. This year has seen the emergence of Novak Djokovic, who has risen his game to the highest level and has become the new world no.1 in the process. I also have managed to go and see a few live matches at the Braehead Arena, where Great Britain have played two ties against Hungary and Luxembourg and emerged triumphant in both. It was also great to see the British No.1 in the flesh, Andy Murray, and you really appreciate how good he is when he is live. And of course if you look at this blog, its about 85% all tennis!
I also managed to keep up with my IT qualifications through Whitebox Digital based in Rutherglen, and also with Routes to work south, who are based out in Rutherglen. So I have done my CompTIA A+ and Network+ certifications, and I am currently still in the middle of doing the Windows 7 exams. Whether or not this will lead somewhere remains to be seen, but it has kept me busy. Although unfortunately I did have the mispleasure of working briefly out at Teleperformance based in Airdrie, where I was going to be a tech support guy working with Virgin media However I found the job was very stressful and wasn't quite for me so I ended up qutting it after the first four days. And as usual in these jobs, you don't so much get support, or proper training, you get bombarded with facts and background info and are expected to just ask and get on with it.
Another low this year for me has been unemployment in between Whitebox and Routes to work, and of course RTWS is training for work which is basically not employment, but training, so the lack of money has been a pain. On a personal level I have also had to deal a few personal anxieties, where I went and spoke to someone about it (a heid doctor basically) as I was having almost agoraphobic reactions out in wide spaces. I could get out and about, but when I was walking down a street or in a big spacious place, like say George Square and Central Station, I would feel anxious and a bit panicked and felt like I needed to keep walking to get away from it. It wasn't the most pleasant of feelings, but thankfully I feel they have mostly gone away, but I also sometimes think the acting had sparked this anxiety, as it was like being in front of an audience for the first time in a big room, you feel exposed and like there is nowhere to hide. So it wasn't the most pleasant of times dealing with this, however, in time things get better and you move on from it.
And of course on a personal level I think confidence is one of the areas that I need to work on for next year, and it has to be said there is nothing worst for someone's confidence than being unemployed and not having something to occupy your time. But things sooner or later sort themselves out.
Sooooooooo that was 2011, not the best of times, but not the worst either. So here's to 2012 being a better and brighter one.
Saturday 31 December 2011
Sunday 18 December 2011
Alien anthology part 3: the bitch is back....and the resurrection.....
So onto part 3 of my analysis of the Alien Anthology, which will actually combine the last two films together, Alien3 and Alien Ressurection.
Naturally I will start with Alien 3, which is by far the better of the two, and the film re-introduced the concept of the single alien, running rampant and killing everyone, rather than a whole hoard of them. This time the film takes place on a penal colony, on the planet Fiorina "Fury" 161, of which its inhabitants are all convicted criminals, guilty of rape or murder. During an electrical fire on the Sulaco, Ripley and the remaining crew (Newt, Hicks and Bishop, who is badly damaged) still in hypersleep are ejected in an escape pod, which lands on Fury 161. Ripley, who is the only survivor, is soon found by the inhabitants of the planet, and brought to the colony, where there criminals are kept in order by a small staff of prison officials, lead by the warden Andrews (Brian Glover). Ripley is also treated for her wounds from the crash, by the prison doctor Clemens (Charles Dance) whom Ripley soon becomes romantically involved with. Ripley however is concerned by the nature of what caused the ejection of her escape pod and Hicks and Newt's deaths. Due to the nature of Newt's death (drowning in her cryotube) Ripley requests an autopsy of her body to see if there was any possible chance of her being impregnated by an alien, however the results showing nothing. And at round this time, a dog wandering round encounters what appears to be an alien creature which attacks the dog, which one of the inmates later finds that dog. Ripley also being the only woman on the colony, is a temptation to some of the criminals, and narrowly avoids being raped by some of the inmates, when their religious leader Dillon (Charles S. Dutton) stops them. Ripley also soon finds the mangled remains of Bishop's body from the escape pod, and manages to get him working long enough to find out there was indeed an alien onboard. At the funeral for Newt and Hicks, during the proceedings, the dog elsewhere starts convulse violently, and soon enough a baby alien bursts from its chest. And before we know it, the alien grows in size and starts to pick off the inmates, leaving the Ripley and the criminals to fight for their own survival against the alien menace.
Alien 3 while not as strong a film as the first two films, definitely remains a credible sequel and its setting on the prison planet gives the film a welcome moody atmosphere. The film also features a strong cast with Sigourney Weaver once again playing Ripley perfectly, with the usual mix of toughness and vulnerability. Particularly among the cast is Charles S. Dutton who gives an excellent performance as the religious leader of the inmates, Dillon, who is the only really spiritual member of the group, and despite his past crimes, utilises his faith to keep himself from temptation and helps Ripley in the latter half of the film. Charles Dance is also good and plays Clemens, in a very understated way, as the prison doctor with a troubled past, and Brian Glover and Ralph Brown are also very good as the prison officials.
The film despite its unremittinlgy grim tone, also has a few little moments of humour too, especially when Ripley arrives in the mess hall and speaks to Dillon for the first time, who says to her "You don't wanna know me lady, I'm a murderer and rapist of women!", and Ripley replies "well, I guess I must make you nervous." Ralph Brown's character, Aaron, is also target of ridicule of the inmates as they one time secretly grabbed a look at his file, which reveals his IQ as 85. There are also some very good scenes in the film, one highlight is where Ripley (PLOT SPOILER HERE!!) finds out she has been impregnated with an alien, and she begs for Dillon to kill her, which he doesn't. The film's resolve which takes part in the prison's leadworks, is also worthy of mention, where Ripley once again is victim of the company's duplicity where a man, Michael Bishop (Lance Henriksen again), whom apparently created the Bishop android, comes and offers to take Ripley away, where they will operate and remove the alien from her chest. Ripley then refuses and throws herself into a pit of molten lava just as the alien bursts out her chest, she grabs hold of it, as she and the alien are incinerated in the pit. Even though this part is in itself ridiculous, in the director's cut, they changed the scene to just have Ripley fall into the pit without the alien bursting out (which works better to be honest).
For me though the films only negatives are perhaps the film's overall tone is so grim, that it threatens to alienate (no pun intended!) the audience, especially with pretty much every single character being killed off, except the gobby inmate Morse (Danny Webb). I also think, while I guess it is appropriate that there is too much swearing in the film, as it feels like we are at a football match at times, with all the "shut the fuck up, ya fucker!!" etc etc. But again it is set in a prison so they won't be saying "Oh crumbs, there is an alien in here!", the language has to be raw and it certainly is, I just feel there is a bit too much of it at times.
But despite that the film is definitely helped along by David Fincher's excellent direction, who at the time, made his film debut with Alien 3. Fincher himself was previously a music video director, and he did a great job here in creating a visually superb, bleak view of the future, also with some great camera work, especially in the scene where the inmates run around the corridors, using themselves as bait to lure the alien into the leadworks. Fincher at the time, also endured some terrible flak from the executives at 20th Century Fox, as he had to deal with the pressure of schedule and the problems he encountered during the making of the film. The film itself remains one that Fincher refuses to talk about, so obviously his memories of the film's production were far from pleasant. Regardless of Fincher's misgivings of Alien 3 and his experiences on it, it was the film that jump started his career in cinema.
Also worth of note in the film is Elliot Goldenthal's excellent score, which complements the mood and atmosphere of the film perfectly. One of my favourite passages of music in the film is where Ripley examines Newt's body, and we hear some haunting piano played in the background (perhaps the pianist was sitting playing next to Ripley! ;-)). Goldenthal's music from them film has also been used many times for various film trailers since, so it definitely has a memorable quality to it.
And with that, that's my Alien 3 critique done with. Now onto that other one....
So.... Alien Ressurection to be honest in my opinion is undoubtedly the weakest of the four films, and it really doesn't deserve too much analysis, so this will be fairly brief.
Quickly the plot of the film, which takes place far in the future, where Military scientists have created a genetically enhanced version of Ripley, taken from a sample of her DNA prior to her death. And with her DNA sample, they have not only recreated Ripley, they have also managed to extrapolate from that a tissue sample of the alien that was in her body at the time. As a result the scientists are able to create many aliens, which they use for their experiments, however as usual, the humans underestimate the big double jawed menaces, who soon escape and wreak havoc on the ship, but eventually some of the crew escape, however so do the aliens. Ripley along the way meets up with a crew of mercenaries lead by Frank Elgyn (Michael Wincott), among them the gruff Johner (Ron Pearlman), the parapleigic Vriess (Dominique Pinon), and Annalee Call (Winona Ryder) who is later revealed to be an android sent to kill Ripley. But of course the events of the aliens wreaking havoc and killing everyone gets in the way of all that, and before we know it, its up to Ripley to help them fight for their survival.
Alien resurrection is definitely the most disappointing film in the series, and with the director being Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who was responsible for such cack as Delicatessen and Amelie, I really didn't expect much from it. Overall the plot is pretty ludicrous and very disappointing, the effects are also overly gory, and a bit too OTT, even for the Alien series. In the end, the film offers precious little in the way of subtlety, suspense or even interest, of which there are too many scenes that are just nothing but chronic. Especially towards the end, where we see Ripley comfort her new alien "son" with the malicious (and at that point cocooned) Dr Gediman (Brad Dourif) looking on in awe. And the ridiculous scene where one of the ship's crew is about give birth to an alien as he grabs one of the baddies and thrusts he chest against the baddie's head, and the alien bursts through the guy's head. Just plain daft!
However to be fair though, Resurrection does have one or two redeeming qualities, the main one again being Sigourney Weaver, who plays the android Ripley, as being somewhat almost aloof, sarcastic and more assured than her original counterpart. The film also has a couple of good sequences, the best probably being where the mercenaries are being chased by the aliens underwater through the ship, and they have to try and climb their way out. Also the scene where Ripley meets the mercinary crew and toys with them by playing basketball and refusing to give the ball to Johner.
But overall Alien Resurrection is a big letdown, and not the best way to (presumably) end the series. I only hope that maybe they will make another sequel to make up for the lacklustre way in which the series has so far finished up until now. Because three out of four of the films are definitely worthy, just a shame about the fourth.
Annnnnndd on that note I shall end my analysis of the chest bursting, double jawed menaces.
Scuttle, scuttle, hiss, hiss. (OK enough).
Naturally I will start with Alien 3, which is by far the better of the two, and the film re-introduced the concept of the single alien, running rampant and killing everyone, rather than a whole hoard of them. This time the film takes place on a penal colony, on the planet Fiorina "Fury" 161, of which its inhabitants are all convicted criminals, guilty of rape or murder. During an electrical fire on the Sulaco, Ripley and the remaining crew (Newt, Hicks and Bishop, who is badly damaged) still in hypersleep are ejected in an escape pod, which lands on Fury 161. Ripley, who is the only survivor, is soon found by the inhabitants of the planet, and brought to the colony, where there criminals are kept in order by a small staff of prison officials, lead by the warden Andrews (Brian Glover). Ripley is also treated for her wounds from the crash, by the prison doctor Clemens (Charles Dance) whom Ripley soon becomes romantically involved with. Ripley however is concerned by the nature of what caused the ejection of her escape pod and Hicks and Newt's deaths. Due to the nature of Newt's death (drowning in her cryotube) Ripley requests an autopsy of her body to see if there was any possible chance of her being impregnated by an alien, however the results showing nothing. And at round this time, a dog wandering round encounters what appears to be an alien creature which attacks the dog, which one of the inmates later finds that dog. Ripley also being the only woman on the colony, is a temptation to some of the criminals, and narrowly avoids being raped by some of the inmates, when their religious leader Dillon (Charles S. Dutton) stops them. Ripley also soon finds the mangled remains of Bishop's body from the escape pod, and manages to get him working long enough to find out there was indeed an alien onboard. At the funeral for Newt and Hicks, during the proceedings, the dog elsewhere starts convulse violently, and soon enough a baby alien bursts from its chest. And before we know it, the alien grows in size and starts to pick off the inmates, leaving the Ripley and the criminals to fight for their own survival against the alien menace.
Alien 3 while not as strong a film as the first two films, definitely remains a credible sequel and its setting on the prison planet gives the film a welcome moody atmosphere. The film also features a strong cast with Sigourney Weaver once again playing Ripley perfectly, with the usual mix of toughness and vulnerability. Particularly among the cast is Charles S. Dutton who gives an excellent performance as the religious leader of the inmates, Dillon, who is the only really spiritual member of the group, and despite his past crimes, utilises his faith to keep himself from temptation and helps Ripley in the latter half of the film. Charles Dance is also good and plays Clemens, in a very understated way, as the prison doctor with a troubled past, and Brian Glover and Ralph Brown are also very good as the prison officials.
The film despite its unremittinlgy grim tone, also has a few little moments of humour too, especially when Ripley arrives in the mess hall and speaks to Dillon for the first time, who says to her "You don't wanna know me lady, I'm a murderer and rapist of women!", and Ripley replies "well, I guess I must make you nervous." Ralph Brown's character, Aaron, is also target of ridicule of the inmates as they one time secretly grabbed a look at his file, which reveals his IQ as 85. There are also some very good scenes in the film, one highlight is where Ripley (PLOT SPOILER HERE!!) finds out she has been impregnated with an alien, and she begs for Dillon to kill her, which he doesn't. The film's resolve which takes part in the prison's leadworks, is also worthy of mention, where Ripley once again is victim of the company's duplicity where a man, Michael Bishop (Lance Henriksen again), whom apparently created the Bishop android, comes and offers to take Ripley away, where they will operate and remove the alien from her chest. Ripley then refuses and throws herself into a pit of molten lava just as the alien bursts out her chest, she grabs hold of it, as she and the alien are incinerated in the pit. Even though this part is in itself ridiculous, in the director's cut, they changed the scene to just have Ripley fall into the pit without the alien bursting out (which works better to be honest).
For me though the films only negatives are perhaps the film's overall tone is so grim, that it threatens to alienate (no pun intended!) the audience, especially with pretty much every single character being killed off, except the gobby inmate Morse (Danny Webb). I also think, while I guess it is appropriate that there is too much swearing in the film, as it feels like we are at a football match at times, with all the "shut the fuck up, ya fucker!!" etc etc. But again it is set in a prison so they won't be saying "Oh crumbs, there is an alien in here!", the language has to be raw and it certainly is, I just feel there is a bit too much of it at times.
But despite that the film is definitely helped along by David Fincher's excellent direction, who at the time, made his film debut with Alien 3. Fincher himself was previously a music video director, and he did a great job here in creating a visually superb, bleak view of the future, also with some great camera work, especially in the scene where the inmates run around the corridors, using themselves as bait to lure the alien into the leadworks. Fincher at the time, also endured some terrible flak from the executives at 20th Century Fox, as he had to deal with the pressure of schedule and the problems he encountered during the making of the film. The film itself remains one that Fincher refuses to talk about, so obviously his memories of the film's production were far from pleasant. Regardless of Fincher's misgivings of Alien 3 and his experiences on it, it was the film that jump started his career in cinema.
Also worth of note in the film is Elliot Goldenthal's excellent score, which complements the mood and atmosphere of the film perfectly. One of my favourite passages of music in the film is where Ripley examines Newt's body, and we hear some haunting piano played in the background (perhaps the pianist was sitting playing next to Ripley! ;-)). Goldenthal's music from them film has also been used many times for various film trailers since, so it definitely has a memorable quality to it.
And with that, that's my Alien 3 critique done with. Now onto that other one....
So.... Alien Ressurection to be honest in my opinion is undoubtedly the weakest of the four films, and it really doesn't deserve too much analysis, so this will be fairly brief.
Quickly the plot of the film, which takes place far in the future, where Military scientists have created a genetically enhanced version of Ripley, taken from a sample of her DNA prior to her death. And with her DNA sample, they have not only recreated Ripley, they have also managed to extrapolate from that a tissue sample of the alien that was in her body at the time. As a result the scientists are able to create many aliens, which they use for their experiments, however as usual, the humans underestimate the big double jawed menaces, who soon escape and wreak havoc on the ship, but eventually some of the crew escape, however so do the aliens. Ripley along the way meets up with a crew of mercenaries lead by Frank Elgyn (Michael Wincott), among them the gruff Johner (Ron Pearlman), the parapleigic Vriess (Dominique Pinon), and Annalee Call (Winona Ryder) who is later revealed to be an android sent to kill Ripley. But of course the events of the aliens wreaking havoc and killing everyone gets in the way of all that, and before we know it, its up to Ripley to help them fight for their survival.
Alien resurrection is definitely the most disappointing film in the series, and with the director being Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who was responsible for such cack as Delicatessen and Amelie, I really didn't expect much from it. Overall the plot is pretty ludicrous and very disappointing, the effects are also overly gory, and a bit too OTT, even for the Alien series. In the end, the film offers precious little in the way of subtlety, suspense or even interest, of which there are too many scenes that are just nothing but chronic. Especially towards the end, where we see Ripley comfort her new alien "son" with the malicious (and at that point cocooned) Dr Gediman (Brad Dourif) looking on in awe. And the ridiculous scene where one of the ship's crew is about give birth to an alien as he grabs one of the baddies and thrusts he chest against the baddie's head, and the alien bursts through the guy's head. Just plain daft!
However to be fair though, Resurrection does have one or two redeeming qualities, the main one again being Sigourney Weaver, who plays the android Ripley, as being somewhat almost aloof, sarcastic and more assured than her original counterpart. The film also has a couple of good sequences, the best probably being where the mercenaries are being chased by the aliens underwater through the ship, and they have to try and climb their way out. Also the scene where Ripley meets the mercinary crew and toys with them by playing basketball and refusing to give the ball to Johner.
But overall Alien Resurrection is a big letdown, and not the best way to (presumably) end the series. I only hope that maybe they will make another sequel to make up for the lacklustre way in which the series has so far finished up until now. Because three out of four of the films are definitely worthy, just a shame about the fourth.
Annnnnndd on that note I shall end my analysis of the chest bursting, double jawed menaces.
Scuttle, scuttle, hiss, hiss. (OK enough).
Alien anthology part 2: Game over, man, game over!!
So onto part 2, with Aliens, James Cameron's much anticipated sequel, which scored massively at the box office, and while not in the same league as the original, is still a worthy addition.
To start with a summary of the plot, the film kicks off, many years after the events (57 to be precise) of the first film, with Ripley's shuttle, drifting aimlessly through deep space, which a salvage team eventually find, who board the ship and take Ripley to a space station. Ripley now, the only survivor of the Nostromo, has to explain her actions to a company commitee who suspend her flight licence as a consequence of her destroying the Nostromo in order to try and kill the alien. Ripley herself, still suffering from post traumatic stress, has nightmares from her harrowing ordeal on the Nostromo. However, one of the company execs, also informs Ripley that on the alien planet, now named LV-426, now has colonies of family living there, which has now been made habitable through the implementation of air processing stations.
Ripley herself is horrified at this revelation, and pretty soon after, one of the company execs, Burke (Paul Reiser) visits Ripley and tells her that they have lost contact with the colony, and that they want her to go with a team of marines, as an advisor to help them know what they are up against. Ripley eventually agrees reluctantly to go with the marines, accompanied by Burke to the planet. Some of the crew include, the hardened veteran Sgt Apone (Al Matthews), the down to earth Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn), the cocky Hudson (Bill Paxton), the helpful and cool headed android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) and the gutsy and muscly female Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein).
On arriving at the planet, they find one of the colonies to be deserted, with alot of interior damage and acid burns found on the floor decks, however they do find one young girl, Newt (Carrie Henn) who has been left traumatised, as her family were killed by the aliens. Hudson eventually manages to track the location of the colonists, at an atmosphere processing station, on arriving, the marines to their horror find some of the colonists have been cocooned by the aliens, and pretty soon the aliens themselves emerge and attack and kill most of the marines. Ripley soon drives the reinforced military vehicle to rescue the remaining marines, and from there they decide on their plan of action what to do. On trying to hail the APC, their dropship, an alien infiltrates the ship and kills the flight crew, thereby destroying the ship. Now stranded on LV-426, Ripley and the remaining crew, have to fight for their survival against a hoard of aliens, and find a way to escape the planet.
Aliens, while certainly not as big a classic as Alien, does actually have alot going for it, mainly Sigourney Weaver's superb performance as Ripley. Ripley in this film, after the events of the first film, decides to go back and face her fears on the alien planet, and the aliens themselves almost at times seem to fear Ripley herself, as if she is their biggest threat (which she is). Ripley also is the strongest and toughest character in the film as well, as after the alien attack on the marines, she takes control of the situation. And Sigourney provides just the right amount of bravery, vulnerability, and stubborness.
The film's other characters are also quite memorable, particularly Hudson, who is actually quite annoying in the film, and he is so cocky in the first half, but after the alien attack, he becomes quite cowardly and scared of the alien threat. Bishop is also a good character, as after Alien, Ripley has developed a mistrust of androids, and its a nice touch, toward the end when we think Bishop has abandoned Ripley, by leaving in the dropship, with the cooling station about to blow, that he comes back for her. Hicks, while not the strongest character in the film, does provide a strong, down to earth quality, much needed for the man remaining in command, and in the director's cut, is it hinted that he is attracted to Ripley, although that is mostly cut out from the theatrical release. Burke is another good character, as he is a sleazy executive, who accompanies the marines to the planet, only really to protect the companies best interests, as the company still wants an alien specimen brought back. Although I have to say one of the film's biggest flaws is why the hell would anyone want to live on a barren shithole such as LV-426 anyway???! As its hardly the prettiest of planets is it???? Brutal winds, lovely atmosphere, scenic barren wastelands, oh yeah, families want to live there for sure!! It also shows just how far the company will go to endanger so many innocent people, by letting them live on such a dangerous, creature infested planet.
But the film does have some cringeworthy dialogue as well, as the marines provide so many cheesy moments, and the whole hoo-rahhh, gung-ho mentality of the marines is almost embarrassing to watch at times. One particularly cringeworthy scene is where Hudson shows off to Ripley at what high-tech weaponary they have "high particle beam phalanx!! Whoahh!! Fry up city with this puppy!". Also Newt, while naturally just a little girl and you would expect to say some pretty child-like things gives another cringing line when Ripley jokes with her about her doll, Casey, having bad dreams, "Ripley, Casey doesn't have bad dreams, because she is just a piece of plastic". Nonetheless the film does have some memorable and funny lines too, such as when Ripley angrily knocks a tray of cornbread out of Bishop's hand, to which one of the marines quips "I guess she don't like the cornbread either!". And Hudson mocks Vasquez for her muscly physique, "hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?" to which Vasquez replies "Nope, have you??". We also can't forget other classics such as Ripley when she faces off the queen alien near the end who is about to kill Newt "Get away from her you bitch!!", and Hudson's "That's it, man, game over, man! Gamer over!!".
The set design again, model effects creature effects, are all terrific, and James Cameron effectively brings the barren alien planet to life once more. James Horner score is also pretty good, and brings the menace and fear to the fore, especially in the main Aliens theme, and the memorable titles, where the word A L I E N S slowly appears. Stan Winston also contributed a great deal to the special creature make-up for the aliens, and deserves much credit for enhancing the design of the aliens, and this time, we have not just one guy in a suit, we have six!
And quickly a word about James Cameron's direction as despite a few of the film's already mentioned shortcomings, he does a terrific job at building up the tension throughout, especially as its quite a long long build up to the first attack, and keeps it going. I also don't think there was another director out there that could have pulled off such a feat as bringing a worthy sequel to a great original, even if it doesn't scale the same heights. Cameron also did incredibly well in producing such a film, under great pressure from a cynical British crew, who at the time slagged off Cameron, for his inexperience and work ethic, as the film at the time was made at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. This was also similar to what George Lucas endured while making the orignal Star Wars.
Rrrrright so that's my critique of Aliens, its a fine sequel, worthy movie, and if you haven't seen it, give it a try, I can't guarantee its for everyone, but it definitely worth a go, if you are after a few frights and thrills an that.
Cue part 3.....
To start with a summary of the plot, the film kicks off, many years after the events (57 to be precise) of the first film, with Ripley's shuttle, drifting aimlessly through deep space, which a salvage team eventually find, who board the ship and take Ripley to a space station. Ripley now, the only survivor of the Nostromo, has to explain her actions to a company commitee who suspend her flight licence as a consequence of her destroying the Nostromo in order to try and kill the alien. Ripley herself, still suffering from post traumatic stress, has nightmares from her harrowing ordeal on the Nostromo. However, one of the company execs, also informs Ripley that on the alien planet, now named LV-426, now has colonies of family living there, which has now been made habitable through the implementation of air processing stations.
Ripley herself is horrified at this revelation, and pretty soon after, one of the company execs, Burke (Paul Reiser) visits Ripley and tells her that they have lost contact with the colony, and that they want her to go with a team of marines, as an advisor to help them know what they are up against. Ripley eventually agrees reluctantly to go with the marines, accompanied by Burke to the planet. Some of the crew include, the hardened veteran Sgt Apone (Al Matthews), the down to earth Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn), the cocky Hudson (Bill Paxton), the helpful and cool headed android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) and the gutsy and muscly female Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein).
On arriving at the planet, they find one of the colonies to be deserted, with alot of interior damage and acid burns found on the floor decks, however they do find one young girl, Newt (Carrie Henn) who has been left traumatised, as her family were killed by the aliens. Hudson eventually manages to track the location of the colonists, at an atmosphere processing station, on arriving, the marines to their horror find some of the colonists have been cocooned by the aliens, and pretty soon the aliens themselves emerge and attack and kill most of the marines. Ripley soon drives the reinforced military vehicle to rescue the remaining marines, and from there they decide on their plan of action what to do. On trying to hail the APC, their dropship, an alien infiltrates the ship and kills the flight crew, thereby destroying the ship. Now stranded on LV-426, Ripley and the remaining crew, have to fight for their survival against a hoard of aliens, and find a way to escape the planet.
Aliens, while certainly not as big a classic as Alien, does actually have alot going for it, mainly Sigourney Weaver's superb performance as Ripley. Ripley in this film, after the events of the first film, decides to go back and face her fears on the alien planet, and the aliens themselves almost at times seem to fear Ripley herself, as if she is their biggest threat (which she is). Ripley also is the strongest and toughest character in the film as well, as after the alien attack on the marines, she takes control of the situation. And Sigourney provides just the right amount of bravery, vulnerability, and stubborness.
The film's other characters are also quite memorable, particularly Hudson, who is actually quite annoying in the film, and he is so cocky in the first half, but after the alien attack, he becomes quite cowardly and scared of the alien threat. Bishop is also a good character, as after Alien, Ripley has developed a mistrust of androids, and its a nice touch, toward the end when we think Bishop has abandoned Ripley, by leaving in the dropship, with the cooling station about to blow, that he comes back for her. Hicks, while not the strongest character in the film, does provide a strong, down to earth quality, much needed for the man remaining in command, and in the director's cut, is it hinted that he is attracted to Ripley, although that is mostly cut out from the theatrical release. Burke is another good character, as he is a sleazy executive, who accompanies the marines to the planet, only really to protect the companies best interests, as the company still wants an alien specimen brought back. Although I have to say one of the film's biggest flaws is why the hell would anyone want to live on a barren shithole such as LV-426 anyway???! As its hardly the prettiest of planets is it???? Brutal winds, lovely atmosphere, scenic barren wastelands, oh yeah, families want to live there for sure!! It also shows just how far the company will go to endanger so many innocent people, by letting them live on such a dangerous, creature infested planet.
But the film does have some cringeworthy dialogue as well, as the marines provide so many cheesy moments, and the whole hoo-rahhh, gung-ho mentality of the marines is almost embarrassing to watch at times. One particularly cringeworthy scene is where Hudson shows off to Ripley at what high-tech weaponary they have "high particle beam phalanx!! Whoahh!! Fry up city with this puppy!". Also Newt, while naturally just a little girl and you would expect to say some pretty child-like things gives another cringing line when Ripley jokes with her about her doll, Casey, having bad dreams, "Ripley, Casey doesn't have bad dreams, because she is just a piece of plastic". Nonetheless the film does have some memorable and funny lines too, such as when Ripley angrily knocks a tray of cornbread out of Bishop's hand, to which one of the marines quips "I guess she don't like the cornbread either!". And Hudson mocks Vasquez for her muscly physique, "hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?" to which Vasquez replies "Nope, have you??". We also can't forget other classics such as Ripley when she faces off the queen alien near the end who is about to kill Newt "Get away from her you bitch!!", and Hudson's "That's it, man, game over, man! Gamer over!!".
The set design again, model effects creature effects, are all terrific, and James Cameron effectively brings the barren alien planet to life once more. James Horner score is also pretty good, and brings the menace and fear to the fore, especially in the main Aliens theme, and the memorable titles, where the word A L I E N S slowly appears. Stan Winston also contributed a great deal to the special creature make-up for the aliens, and deserves much credit for enhancing the design of the aliens, and this time, we have not just one guy in a suit, we have six!
And quickly a word about James Cameron's direction as despite a few of the film's already mentioned shortcomings, he does a terrific job at building up the tension throughout, especially as its quite a long long build up to the first attack, and keeps it going. I also don't think there was another director out there that could have pulled off such a feat as bringing a worthy sequel to a great original, even if it doesn't scale the same heights. Cameron also did incredibly well in producing such a film, under great pressure from a cynical British crew, who at the time slagged off Cameron, for his inexperience and work ethic, as the film at the time was made at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. This was also similar to what George Lucas endured while making the orignal Star Wars.
Rrrrright so that's my critique of Aliens, its a fine sequel, worthy movie, and if you haven't seen it, give it a try, I can't guarantee its for everyone, but it definitely worth a go, if you are after a few frights and thrills an that.
Cue part 3.....
Alien anthology part 1: In space no one can hear you scream....
The title of this document of course refers to the Alien anthology, which will be the topic of this post as I would quite like to say a bit about the Alien series, as naturally the first one is one my favourite films, so I will start with that, and to reduce the length of the posts, they will be split up for the films.
In Alien, to summarise the plot quickly, it takes place in deep space with a mining spaceship called the Nostromo, and a crew of seven onboard, who are awakened from the cybersleep on orders from their employers, the company Weyland Utani. They receive orders from the company to investigate an alien planet for life signs and to investigate what appears to be a request beacon message for help. On landing on the planet, three of the crewmembers, the Captain, Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Kane (John Hurt) and Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) go outside in spacesuits to investigate the planet, which is barren and very windy. They soon come across what appears to be an alien spaceship, and on investigation inside, they find what appears to be a vast cavern full of eggs, Kane, goes down into the cavern and looks closer at one of them, which opens a strange creatures pounces out on his helmet. Dallas and Lambert soon take the unconscious Kane back to the ship, where the third in command, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) refuses to let them aboard, due to quarantine laws, but the science officer Ash (Ian Holm) lets them in anyway. After getting Kane to medical bay, they cut off his spacesuit helmet to find that the alien has attached itself to his face, on attempting to remove it, the creature bleeds what appears to be an acidic blood, which eats into the floor of the ship, but it stops before it does any damage to the ship's hull. Soon after the alien detaches itself from Kane's face and it dies due to blood loss, and shortly after Kane regain consciousness, apparently fine, but when they sit around having dinner, Kane convulses violently on the table, and before we know a small alien creature bursts out of his chest, and scuttles away, and that's when their troubles really begin, as the alien grows in size and starts to pick off the crew one by one.
Alien is a classic no doubt it, the cast are all excellent, particularly Tom Skerritt as the cool headed captain, Yaphet Kotto as the sarcy ship engineer, Ian Holm as the science offier Ash who isn't what he appears to be, and of course Sigourney Weaver herself as Ripley, the warrant officer. Ridley Scott's direction is top notch, and the visuals, set design and alien and spaceship miniatures are all stunning. The alien itself is a real achievement in terms of design and originality, as the conceptual artist H.R. Giger designed the alien himself, and ultimately it was played by a tall skinny Nigerian (Bolaji Bedejo) in the alien suit. And the appearance of the alien in the film is extremely effective, creepy and very unsettling.
Overall the film is highly effective and has many tense and creepy moments, especially where Dallas crawls around the airshafts with a flamethrower trying to seal off the ducts and zap the alien into space, as well as the "chest burster" scene, the scene with ship engineer Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) looks for Jonesy the cat, and the scene where Ash is revealed to be something else. The score is also superb, one of Jerry Goldsmith's best, and he later revealed that he was never happy with the score, as he had to rewrite the title theme, from originally being romantic and idealistic sounding, to the sinister utterly memorable theme that is in the film.
The script by Dan O'Bannion and Ronald Shusset is terrific also, and their concept of the alien and its life cycle are great too, and if you look at it, the aliens only do two things: have sex and kill people, in a bizzare way, that's quite a good life isn't it???? (well ok, the killing part isn't so good). The characters themselves are all very well drawn, with Dallas being in command and refusing to be drawn into debate or argument, Ripley being stubborn and very headstrong, Lambert being hysterical and highly strung, Ash being controlled and somewhat inhuman himself, Kane is curious and ambitious, and the two engineers Parker and Brett, who have a weary cynicism. Also if you look at the film, it mirrors very nicely the politics of a business even in outer space, with a corrupt, duplicitous company, forcing its crew to go out and investigate an alien lifeform, regardless of whether its hostile or not. Its also a nice touch how the crew are split into a hierarchy with the captain (Dallas), executive officer (Kane) and warrant officer (Ripley), all on a higher pay grade, while the engineers Parker and Brett bitch and moan about not getting the same money. Even in space its still all about money.
Later on there was of course a director's cut released under the approval of Ridley Scott, which brought in a couple of scenes that were cut from the original theatrical release. The scenes included a row between Ripley and Lambert after the bring Kane back on the ship, as Lambert is furious at Ripley for refusing to let them in the spaceship with Kane. Another scene is toward the end where Ripley stumbles upon Dallas, who has been cocooned by the alien, and he begs Ripley to kill him, and she does with her flamethrower. While these scenes don't add a great deal to the film, they don't detract from it either, however Ridley Scott himself said his preferred version was the theatrical release, which leaves me puzzled as to why he released the director's cut in the first place. It probably seemed more of an excuse to remaster the film print, and enhance the soundtrack and add in a few new things, but in a way it seems redundant, as the old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and Alien sure isn't a film that needs fixing.
Right so that will just about do it for Alien, its a classic film, and to this day it is still as creepy, spooky and as effective as it was when it was originally released back in 1979.
Cue part two.....
In Alien, to summarise the plot quickly, it takes place in deep space with a mining spaceship called the Nostromo, and a crew of seven onboard, who are awakened from the cybersleep on orders from their employers, the company Weyland Utani. They receive orders from the company to investigate an alien planet for life signs and to investigate what appears to be a request beacon message for help. On landing on the planet, three of the crewmembers, the Captain, Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Kane (John Hurt) and Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) go outside in spacesuits to investigate the planet, which is barren and very windy. They soon come across what appears to be an alien spaceship, and on investigation inside, they find what appears to be a vast cavern full of eggs, Kane, goes down into the cavern and looks closer at one of them, which opens a strange creatures pounces out on his helmet. Dallas and Lambert soon take the unconscious Kane back to the ship, where the third in command, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) refuses to let them aboard, due to quarantine laws, but the science officer Ash (Ian Holm) lets them in anyway. After getting Kane to medical bay, they cut off his spacesuit helmet to find that the alien has attached itself to his face, on attempting to remove it, the creature bleeds what appears to be an acidic blood, which eats into the floor of the ship, but it stops before it does any damage to the ship's hull. Soon after the alien detaches itself from Kane's face and it dies due to blood loss, and shortly after Kane regain consciousness, apparently fine, but when they sit around having dinner, Kane convulses violently on the table, and before we know a small alien creature bursts out of his chest, and scuttles away, and that's when their troubles really begin, as the alien grows in size and starts to pick off the crew one by one.
Alien is a classic no doubt it, the cast are all excellent, particularly Tom Skerritt as the cool headed captain, Yaphet Kotto as the sarcy ship engineer, Ian Holm as the science offier Ash who isn't what he appears to be, and of course Sigourney Weaver herself as Ripley, the warrant officer. Ridley Scott's direction is top notch, and the visuals, set design and alien and spaceship miniatures are all stunning. The alien itself is a real achievement in terms of design and originality, as the conceptual artist H.R. Giger designed the alien himself, and ultimately it was played by a tall skinny Nigerian (Bolaji Bedejo) in the alien suit. And the appearance of the alien in the film is extremely effective, creepy and very unsettling.
Overall the film is highly effective and has many tense and creepy moments, especially where Dallas crawls around the airshafts with a flamethrower trying to seal off the ducts and zap the alien into space, as well as the "chest burster" scene, the scene with ship engineer Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) looks for Jonesy the cat, and the scene where Ash is revealed to be something else. The score is also superb, one of Jerry Goldsmith's best, and he later revealed that he was never happy with the score, as he had to rewrite the title theme, from originally being romantic and idealistic sounding, to the sinister utterly memorable theme that is in the film.
The script by Dan O'Bannion and Ronald Shusset is terrific also, and their concept of the alien and its life cycle are great too, and if you look at it, the aliens only do two things: have sex and kill people, in a bizzare way, that's quite a good life isn't it???? (well ok, the killing part isn't so good). The characters themselves are all very well drawn, with Dallas being in command and refusing to be drawn into debate or argument, Ripley being stubborn and very headstrong, Lambert being hysterical and highly strung, Ash being controlled and somewhat inhuman himself, Kane is curious and ambitious, and the two engineers Parker and Brett, who have a weary cynicism. Also if you look at the film, it mirrors very nicely the politics of a business even in outer space, with a corrupt, duplicitous company, forcing its crew to go out and investigate an alien lifeform, regardless of whether its hostile or not. Its also a nice touch how the crew are split into a hierarchy with the captain (Dallas), executive officer (Kane) and warrant officer (Ripley), all on a higher pay grade, while the engineers Parker and Brett bitch and moan about not getting the same money. Even in space its still all about money.
Later on there was of course a director's cut released under the approval of Ridley Scott, which brought in a couple of scenes that were cut from the original theatrical release. The scenes included a row between Ripley and Lambert after the bring Kane back on the ship, as Lambert is furious at Ripley for refusing to let them in the spaceship with Kane. Another scene is toward the end where Ripley stumbles upon Dallas, who has been cocooned by the alien, and he begs Ripley to kill him, and she does with her flamethrower. While these scenes don't add a great deal to the film, they don't detract from it either, however Ridley Scott himself said his preferred version was the theatrical release, which leaves me puzzled as to why he released the director's cut in the first place. It probably seemed more of an excuse to remaster the film print, and enhance the soundtrack and add in a few new things, but in a way it seems redundant, as the old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and Alien sure isn't a film that needs fixing.
Right so that will just about do it for Alien, its a classic film, and to this day it is still as creepy, spooky and as effective as it was when it was originally released back in 1979.
Cue part two.....
Intel inside..... and a bit of gaming!
Well haven't blogged up much of late as not too much has been going on except for a bit of study, looking for work and a little bit of shopping for Xmas, not to mention forking out a little bit on my Intel based system as my Christmas present. So yep got an Intel Core i5 2500 CPU, Gigabyte Intel GA-P67-DS3-B3 board, and I'm about to get 8GB of Corsair DDR3 RAM, lovely eh??? All for a bit of gaming. So I have to say there is some geeky stuff ahead here of a computer based nature.
The idea behind this is of course is to build myself a very decent gaming rig, as I had heard Intel processors are supposed to be better for gaming overall. Although I have always used AMD in the past, and the last Intel based system I built was back in 2001 so this will be a switch up from that, as that was only a Pentium III at 800MHz. I have already tested out the board, memory and cpu and they all work really well, and I was even surprised to see that when I ran the 3D gaming benchmark, 3DMark Vantage that the Intel 2500's CPU score was actually higher than the AMD Phenom II 1090T, which I have, as the score reached 1000 marks higher! Most of the Intel processors right now are based on quad core technology, and while AMD have already branched out to six and eight core, AMD still appear to be a bit behind the race in the market, as Intel while more expensive, still are the market leaders. Regardless though if you want a decent system, you can't really go wrong with either Intel or AMD, as they both rule the roost on the computer hardware market.
So I look forward to swapping my main desktop case around for the spare computer system I have (which is in a smaller case) so I can start to use the system properly as my main system, and hopefully all being well it all will be fine (well hopefully!). But I won't be doing this till nearer Christmas, most likely on Christmas Eve, and well as I type this we are less than a week away from Christmas just now, so it really won't be that long now.
Naturally I will be also quite keen to check out some games, as I have already tried Call of Duty Black Ops, an excellent FPS from last year, which saw the COD series really get back on track, after the somewhat disappointing Modern Warfare 2. In Modern Warfare 2, I could see that they were making a move toward making the series that bit more edgy and disturbing, and to anyone who has played the game, call me a wuss, but I didn't like the scene where you gun down innocent people at the airport, its just a bit heavy (and yep I didn't take part in it either!). But I'm drifting away here a bit, Black Ops, however is a great addition to the COD series, and a breath of fresh air, as it added a new dimension to it, by covering the time of the cold war, and the Vietnam war. The single player campaign itself is quite gripping and very entertaining as well, and features some excellent voice acting from Sam Worthington, Gary Oldman and Ed Harris. The game is also fairly demanding for a PC system, so if you want to run it at max settings, you will need a decent rig (which I think the Intel will be up to!).
So that's just one game I will check out quite a few others, such as Splinter Cell Conviction, the latest in the series of stealth games, which sees the hardened veteran stealth agent Sam Fisher forced back into going undercover to bust a conspiracy wide open, and Prince of Persia the Forgotten Sands, a very entertaining platform action game. I also quite fancy playing Batman Arkham City, which I haven't got yet, but hopefully I will get it in time for Christmas (or as a present maybe!), as I had previously played Arkham Asylum, which is a great game in its own right, and Arkham City is supposed to be the same. Although the trouble with new PC games, such as BAC when they come out, is the bugs that can be found in the game, and the game is supposed to be optimised for DirectX 11, but there have been many bugs found with the DX11 features of the game. However the game itself has been found to run really well in DirectX9 from what I have read, and its surprising just how many of today's games still utilise the DX9 technology, and these games still look amazing. In a way DirectX 11 technology feels like it has still to be fully utilised, and while there are quite a few games that use DirectX 10, DirectX9 is still the main one used in PC gaming today. At the end of the day (to pardon the cliche) technology such as DX11 just adds some more fancy effects, or the new bells and whistles, but it isn't ultimately what makes the game great.
Anyyyywayyyyyy that's enough for now, I'll probably put up a bit more once the gaming rig is fully set up, and just maybe if I play Batman Arkham City, I'll put up something about it here.
Till then, the Christmas countdown continues, more posts will follow.
The idea behind this is of course is to build myself a very decent gaming rig, as I had heard Intel processors are supposed to be better for gaming overall. Although I have always used AMD in the past, and the last Intel based system I built was back in 2001 so this will be a switch up from that, as that was only a Pentium III at 800MHz. I have already tested out the board, memory and cpu and they all work really well, and I was even surprised to see that when I ran the 3D gaming benchmark, 3DMark Vantage that the Intel 2500's CPU score was actually higher than the AMD Phenom II 1090T, which I have, as the score reached 1000 marks higher! Most of the Intel processors right now are based on quad core technology, and while AMD have already branched out to six and eight core, AMD still appear to be a bit behind the race in the market, as Intel while more expensive, still are the market leaders. Regardless though if you want a decent system, you can't really go wrong with either Intel or AMD, as they both rule the roost on the computer hardware market.
So I look forward to swapping my main desktop case around for the spare computer system I have (which is in a smaller case) so I can start to use the system properly as my main system, and hopefully all being well it all will be fine (well hopefully!). But I won't be doing this till nearer Christmas, most likely on Christmas Eve, and well as I type this we are less than a week away from Christmas just now, so it really won't be that long now.
Naturally I will be also quite keen to check out some games, as I have already tried Call of Duty Black Ops, an excellent FPS from last year, which saw the COD series really get back on track, after the somewhat disappointing Modern Warfare 2. In Modern Warfare 2, I could see that they were making a move toward making the series that bit more edgy and disturbing, and to anyone who has played the game, call me a wuss, but I didn't like the scene where you gun down innocent people at the airport, its just a bit heavy (and yep I didn't take part in it either!). But I'm drifting away here a bit, Black Ops, however is a great addition to the COD series, and a breath of fresh air, as it added a new dimension to it, by covering the time of the cold war, and the Vietnam war. The single player campaign itself is quite gripping and very entertaining as well, and features some excellent voice acting from Sam Worthington, Gary Oldman and Ed Harris. The game is also fairly demanding for a PC system, so if you want to run it at max settings, you will need a decent rig (which I think the Intel will be up to!).
So that's just one game I will check out quite a few others, such as Splinter Cell Conviction, the latest in the series of stealth games, which sees the hardened veteran stealth agent Sam Fisher forced back into going undercover to bust a conspiracy wide open, and Prince of Persia the Forgotten Sands, a very entertaining platform action game. I also quite fancy playing Batman Arkham City, which I haven't got yet, but hopefully I will get it in time for Christmas (or as a present maybe!), as I had previously played Arkham Asylum, which is a great game in its own right, and Arkham City is supposed to be the same. Although the trouble with new PC games, such as BAC when they come out, is the bugs that can be found in the game, and the game is supposed to be optimised for DirectX 11, but there have been many bugs found with the DX11 features of the game. However the game itself has been found to run really well in DirectX9 from what I have read, and its surprising just how many of today's games still utilise the DX9 technology, and these games still look amazing. In a way DirectX 11 technology feels like it has still to be fully utilised, and while there are quite a few games that use DirectX 10, DirectX9 is still the main one used in PC gaming today. At the end of the day (to pardon the cliche) technology such as DX11 just adds some more fancy effects, or the new bells and whistles, but it isn't ultimately what makes the game great.
Anyyyywayyyyyy that's enough for now, I'll probably put up a bit more once the gaming rig is fully set up, and just maybe if I play Batman Arkham City, I'll put up something about it here.
Till then, the Christmas countdown continues, more posts will follow.
Thursday 8 December 2011
Hush hush
Movie review time again, this time I've picked another one of my favourite films, L.A. Confidential, which is a modern noir classic, although if you look at the timeline its more a tribute to noir as its set in the 1950s, not the 1940s, but its along the same lines. So here's a bit more about it.
The film begins on Christmas Eve 1952, where the hot headed, thuggish police officer Wendell "Bud" White (Russell Crowe) stops a violent domestic dispute between a married couple, Bud himself has a thing for not tolerating women beaters. After that, Bud and his partner Dick Stensland (Graham Beckel) go back to the police station, where six Mexican suspects are brought into the station who apparently attacked two of the station's officers. In a vengeful mood, Stensland goes down to the cells and beats up on one of the Mexicans, and before you know the whole place erupts into a riot, with the press labelling the riot as "Bloody Christmas". In the aftermath of the event, Bud refuses to testify against his partner Stensland, and is suspended from duty, meanwhile one of the officers Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) who was witness to the attacks, is more than happy to testify against Stensland the other officers who attacked the Mexicans. At his insistance, in order to play ball, Exley requests that he be made detective lieutenant, something which his late father Preston Exley once held the mantel of. However in snitching against the other officers, Exley soon makes himself very unpopluar with the other officers. But the police captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) re-instates Bud, and uses him in his scheme as one of his muscle men to beat up and intimidate any criminals who try to make a name for themselves in LA.
But the crux of the film comes when Bud's ex-partner Stensland, is found murdered in a coffee shop, the Nite Owl, with some other people, among them was a female associate of the millionaire, Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn). The LA police dept then arranges a full man-hunt to try and catch the killers, and soon find three young black men as prime suspects for killings. On interrogating the men, Exley finds out they actually are holding a young Mexican woman hostage in a house, who has been raped and beaten. On the scene of the crime, Bud sneaks into the house and kills the black man in the house. Later on the young suspects escape the station, but Exley soon tracks them down and kills them, which finally garners him some respect from his fellow officers at the station. But something doesn't sit right with Exley about the negros being the killers, as he investigates further, he receives help from local cop celebrity Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) who has a sideline in acting as a technical advisor on the show Badge of Honor, as well providing some hot press collars for local sleazy newspaper journalist Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito). Likewise Bud also thinks something is strange about the suspect negros, and also investigates, meanwhile he dates Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger) who is a movie star look-a-like of Veronica Lake. As the film progresses, the three men start to uncover the police corruption behind the Nite Owl murders.
L.A. Confidential is without a great film, and one of the best films of the 1990s. Curtis Hanson who after directing some fairly pedestrian thrillers such as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and The River Wild, arrived as a terrific filmmaker here. The film itself is of course based on the same titled novel by James Elroy, and the book features many more characters and detail which isn't in the film, but what the film presents is surely a great representation of the book.
And its the characters in L.A. Confidential that make this film work so well, and if you look at it, there actually isn't a morally decent character in the film, everyone is essentially a sleazeball in one way or another, but they are all something of a dichotomy as well. Exley, may appear to be a stand-up cop with integrity, who refuses to get his hands dirty with planting evidence or beating up suspects, however he does ruthelessly rat on members of the police force, in order to further his own career. Bud on the other hand, appears to be as Exley puts it a "mindless thug" but he does have another side to him, as ultimately he wants to be a detective also working cases, but his temper and violent streak threaten to alienate him from the audience at times, but behind it all is a guy who wants to escape it all. Jack Vincennes is also corrupt character in that he gladly takes money from Sid Hudgens, the local Hush Hush magazine reporter, as he sets up arrests and the suspects get unwanted publicity in Sid's mag, but again behind that, Jack starts to feel guilty about his activities and questions himself as the film goes on.
The film also has several excellent supporting characters, particularly Dudley Smith, as the slight yet intimidating police captain who has another agenda, while he looks after the men under his command, he also ironically has a line in corruption and tampering with evidence as well as police brutality. And Pierce Patchett, the mysterious millionaire, who while he hosts high class sex parties, and makes pornographic films, he has ambitions beyond that to invest in freeway construction. And there's Lynn Bracken, meanwhile she isn't the most interesting character in the film, she is also another one who is wishing to escape from her sleazy lifestyle, as a wannabe film actress, who is engaging in Patchett's sexual enterpises.
Overall the film's performances are great, particularly the three main leads are very strong, with Guy Pearce, who prior to this was in Priscilla, the queen of the desert, as a transvestite and playing Mike from Neighbours, playing the part of the ice cool Exley to perfection, and his best scene is where Dudley asks him if he has heard of a known associate which alarms him but in a way in which he tries not to show it, and in this moment we see Guy give a very subtle reaction with his eyes. Its a very subtle deft moment in his performance. Russell Crowe, is also excellent as the explosive Bud White, two thirds heavy, one third sensitive, and he provides some of the film's highlights with Bud's brutal and volatile behaviour, some of which feature his scene where he faces off against Exley near the end of the film, and another where he dangles the DA Ellis Loewe (Ron Rifkin) out the window of his high up office. Another amusing scene as a result of Bud's violent streak is after he beats in succession Lynn and Exley, after Exley and Bud make amends, Exley goes to visit Lynn at the station, they both carry the scars of their encounters with Bud, and Exley asks "Are you ok?" to which Lynn says "Are you ok?".
Kevin Spacey who is usually superb, certainly doesn't let the side down, and provides some great moments as Vincennes, one of his best being when Exley asks him "why did you become a cop?" to which Vincennes looks lost for an answer and quietly says "I don't remember". James Cromwell, also a brilliant actor, before this was in some light hearted fluffy stuff such as Babe, arrived as a great dramatic performer, playing Dudley Smith superbly. David Strathairn similarly is great as Pierce Patchett, and while his role is somewhat smaller, he definitely makes an impression here. Kim Basinger, despite the fact, she was awarded an Oscar for her performance in this film, gives a decent account of herself, but it is hardly spectacular stuff, and not what I would quite call Academy award material. Finally of course, there is Danny DeVito, who actually to be honest plays the film's most irritating character, Sid Hudgens, mainly because he talks such utter bollocks for the most part in the film using phrases you have no idea of what they mean unless you look them up!
And another great feature of the film is of course the score written by Jerry Goldsmith, one of the all time great composers in American cinema. Goldsmith's score provides the perfect mixture of sleaze, menace and moodiness to capture the time of the film and the events. Strangely enough the score also resembles Goldsmith's score for Chinatown, in fact you could almost swear at times that's what you were listening to if you kept your eyes closed. Overall its a great one.
So L.A. Confidential is a terrific film and if you haven't seen it, go rent it, buy it or wait for it to come on the box and gie yourself a treat and watch one of the best tributes to film noir in recent years.
The film begins on Christmas Eve 1952, where the hot headed, thuggish police officer Wendell "Bud" White (Russell Crowe) stops a violent domestic dispute between a married couple, Bud himself has a thing for not tolerating women beaters. After that, Bud and his partner Dick Stensland (Graham Beckel) go back to the police station, where six Mexican suspects are brought into the station who apparently attacked two of the station's officers. In a vengeful mood, Stensland goes down to the cells and beats up on one of the Mexicans, and before you know the whole place erupts into a riot, with the press labelling the riot as "Bloody Christmas". In the aftermath of the event, Bud refuses to testify against his partner Stensland, and is suspended from duty, meanwhile one of the officers Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) who was witness to the attacks, is more than happy to testify against Stensland the other officers who attacked the Mexicans. At his insistance, in order to play ball, Exley requests that he be made detective lieutenant, something which his late father Preston Exley once held the mantel of. However in snitching against the other officers, Exley soon makes himself very unpopluar with the other officers. But the police captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) re-instates Bud, and uses him in his scheme as one of his muscle men to beat up and intimidate any criminals who try to make a name for themselves in LA.
But the crux of the film comes when Bud's ex-partner Stensland, is found murdered in a coffee shop, the Nite Owl, with some other people, among them was a female associate of the millionaire, Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn). The LA police dept then arranges a full man-hunt to try and catch the killers, and soon find three young black men as prime suspects for killings. On interrogating the men, Exley finds out they actually are holding a young Mexican woman hostage in a house, who has been raped and beaten. On the scene of the crime, Bud sneaks into the house and kills the black man in the house. Later on the young suspects escape the station, but Exley soon tracks them down and kills them, which finally garners him some respect from his fellow officers at the station. But something doesn't sit right with Exley about the negros being the killers, as he investigates further, he receives help from local cop celebrity Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) who has a sideline in acting as a technical advisor on the show Badge of Honor, as well providing some hot press collars for local sleazy newspaper journalist Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito). Likewise Bud also thinks something is strange about the suspect negros, and also investigates, meanwhile he dates Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger) who is a movie star look-a-like of Veronica Lake. As the film progresses, the three men start to uncover the police corruption behind the Nite Owl murders.
L.A. Confidential is without a great film, and one of the best films of the 1990s. Curtis Hanson who after directing some fairly pedestrian thrillers such as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and The River Wild, arrived as a terrific filmmaker here. The film itself is of course based on the same titled novel by James Elroy, and the book features many more characters and detail which isn't in the film, but what the film presents is surely a great representation of the book.
And its the characters in L.A. Confidential that make this film work so well, and if you look at it, there actually isn't a morally decent character in the film, everyone is essentially a sleazeball in one way or another, but they are all something of a dichotomy as well. Exley, may appear to be a stand-up cop with integrity, who refuses to get his hands dirty with planting evidence or beating up suspects, however he does ruthelessly rat on members of the police force, in order to further his own career. Bud on the other hand, appears to be as Exley puts it a "mindless thug" but he does have another side to him, as ultimately he wants to be a detective also working cases, but his temper and violent streak threaten to alienate him from the audience at times, but behind it all is a guy who wants to escape it all. Jack Vincennes is also corrupt character in that he gladly takes money from Sid Hudgens, the local Hush Hush magazine reporter, as he sets up arrests and the suspects get unwanted publicity in Sid's mag, but again behind that, Jack starts to feel guilty about his activities and questions himself as the film goes on.
The film also has several excellent supporting characters, particularly Dudley Smith, as the slight yet intimidating police captain who has another agenda, while he looks after the men under his command, he also ironically has a line in corruption and tampering with evidence as well as police brutality. And Pierce Patchett, the mysterious millionaire, who while he hosts high class sex parties, and makes pornographic films, he has ambitions beyond that to invest in freeway construction. And there's Lynn Bracken, meanwhile she isn't the most interesting character in the film, she is also another one who is wishing to escape from her sleazy lifestyle, as a wannabe film actress, who is engaging in Patchett's sexual enterpises.
Overall the film's performances are great, particularly the three main leads are very strong, with Guy Pearce, who prior to this was in Priscilla, the queen of the desert, as a transvestite and playing Mike from Neighbours, playing the part of the ice cool Exley to perfection, and his best scene is where Dudley asks him if he has heard of a known associate which alarms him but in a way in which he tries not to show it, and in this moment we see Guy give a very subtle reaction with his eyes. Its a very subtle deft moment in his performance. Russell Crowe, is also excellent as the explosive Bud White, two thirds heavy, one third sensitive, and he provides some of the film's highlights with Bud's brutal and volatile behaviour, some of which feature his scene where he faces off against Exley near the end of the film, and another where he dangles the DA Ellis Loewe (Ron Rifkin) out the window of his high up office. Another amusing scene as a result of Bud's violent streak is after he beats in succession Lynn and Exley, after Exley and Bud make amends, Exley goes to visit Lynn at the station, they both carry the scars of their encounters with Bud, and Exley asks "Are you ok?" to which Lynn says "Are you ok?".
Kevin Spacey who is usually superb, certainly doesn't let the side down, and provides some great moments as Vincennes, one of his best being when Exley asks him "why did you become a cop?" to which Vincennes looks lost for an answer and quietly says "I don't remember". James Cromwell, also a brilliant actor, before this was in some light hearted fluffy stuff such as Babe, arrived as a great dramatic performer, playing Dudley Smith superbly. David Strathairn similarly is great as Pierce Patchett, and while his role is somewhat smaller, he definitely makes an impression here. Kim Basinger, despite the fact, she was awarded an Oscar for her performance in this film, gives a decent account of herself, but it is hardly spectacular stuff, and not what I would quite call Academy award material. Finally of course, there is Danny DeVito, who actually to be honest plays the film's most irritating character, Sid Hudgens, mainly because he talks such utter bollocks for the most part in the film using phrases you have no idea of what they mean unless you look them up!
And another great feature of the film is of course the score written by Jerry Goldsmith, one of the all time great composers in American cinema. Goldsmith's score provides the perfect mixture of sleaze, menace and moodiness to capture the time of the film and the events. Strangely enough the score also resembles Goldsmith's score for Chinatown, in fact you could almost swear at times that's what you were listening to if you kept your eyes closed. Overall its a great one.
So L.A. Confidential is a terrific film and if you haven't seen it, go rent it, buy it or wait for it to come on the box and gie yourself a treat and watch one of the best tributes to film noir in recent years.
Friday 2 December 2011
Back to square one
Well I haven't said too much lately on a personal level, but I will be careful about what I say here and say a bit about my first week at work, which has been somewhat stressful to say the least. Last week I got word of my new job with Teleperformance who have contracts with various call centers, such as JD Williams, Argos and Virgin Media.
I went up for a tech support post with Virgin media and I ended up actually getting a job through them except it was for another branch of Virgin, it was called Radial Point, where they deal with customers computer problems via a remote assistance connection, and log chats like Windows messenger. But they also deal with customers over the phone, although they said this, they implied that the customer contact would be rare, but of course it turned out to be quite the opposite, as their agents can take many calls a day, some of them go on for anything up to 8 hours! So when I saw the amount of multi-tasking and work juggling involved, I have to say it panicked me and seriously put me off the job. And last night I came home pretty upset about the whole situation, realising I didn't want to work in such a pressured environment. But I guess all these helpdesk centre places are all the same, its just a way of scaring their employees into doing an efficient job, but I don't think it will inspire confidence into anyone, it certainly didn't with me.
So today I decided to call Teleperformance and let them know I no longer wish to work for them, as I felt the job wasn't for me, and left it at that. And while I'm relieved of course, I am also back to looking for work again, it also means that I can no longer be elligible for the training for work program I was doing before for the Windows 7 course (although I can still complete it). But it does mean I no longer need to trek to Airdrie at hugely unsociable hours and come home stressed out my coupon. It was a shame that I choose to apply for the job in the first place, as I should have went with my initial instinct and not bothered applying, as I have always steered clear of call centres in the past, and I should have done the same here. And it has also messed up my benefits with the jobcentre so it is back to the beginning, with signing on again, not too good a prospect, but I'll keep looking for work in the meantime, so what's done is done. But for me personally I don't regret leaving Teleperformance behind.
I also will part company with a certain chappie whom I won't mention their name, who was with me at my Windows 7 course in Cambuslang as well as at Teleperformance. This guy, on the Windows 7 course pretty much managed to piss off everyone on the course as well as the tutor, and I am wondering if he will do the same thing in this job. For his sake he better not because if he does, he will not last 5 minutes in the place (or maybe just 5 minutes more than I have!). Anyway I will not say much more on it than that, just in case someone is reading this.....
Anyhoww while its not the cheeriest of posts, thought I'd put it on, so I'll leave it at that, and start anew looking for something else. :-)
More posts will follow on some better subjects than this un.
I went up for a tech support post with Virgin media and I ended up actually getting a job through them except it was for another branch of Virgin, it was called Radial Point, where they deal with customers computer problems via a remote assistance connection, and log chats like Windows messenger. But they also deal with customers over the phone, although they said this, they implied that the customer contact would be rare, but of course it turned out to be quite the opposite, as their agents can take many calls a day, some of them go on for anything up to 8 hours! So when I saw the amount of multi-tasking and work juggling involved, I have to say it panicked me and seriously put me off the job. And last night I came home pretty upset about the whole situation, realising I didn't want to work in such a pressured environment. But I guess all these helpdesk centre places are all the same, its just a way of scaring their employees into doing an efficient job, but I don't think it will inspire confidence into anyone, it certainly didn't with me.
So today I decided to call Teleperformance and let them know I no longer wish to work for them, as I felt the job wasn't for me, and left it at that. And while I'm relieved of course, I am also back to looking for work again, it also means that I can no longer be elligible for the training for work program I was doing before for the Windows 7 course (although I can still complete it). But it does mean I no longer need to trek to Airdrie at hugely unsociable hours and come home stressed out my coupon. It was a shame that I choose to apply for the job in the first place, as I should have went with my initial instinct and not bothered applying, as I have always steered clear of call centres in the past, and I should have done the same here. And it has also messed up my benefits with the jobcentre so it is back to the beginning, with signing on again, not too good a prospect, but I'll keep looking for work in the meantime, so what's done is done. But for me personally I don't regret leaving Teleperformance behind.
I also will part company with a certain chappie whom I won't mention their name, who was with me at my Windows 7 course in Cambuslang as well as at Teleperformance. This guy, on the Windows 7 course pretty much managed to piss off everyone on the course as well as the tutor, and I am wondering if he will do the same thing in this job. For his sake he better not because if he does, he will not last 5 minutes in the place (or maybe just 5 minutes more than I have!). Anyway I will not say much more on it than that, just in case someone is reading this.....
Anyhoww while its not the cheeriest of posts, thought I'd put it on, so I'll leave it at that, and start anew looking for something else. :-)
More posts will follow on some better subjects than this un.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)