Review - Pontypool (2008 - Dir. Bruce McDonald)

Pontypool is a bit of a masterclass in low budget film making. They're even cheeky enough to tell you how they did it. I won't spoil the scene but it's all about sound. I'm not going to sit through it again with a stopwatch, but I would guess that there are only about two minutes of zombie footage. The threat is made more intense and, perversely, the zombies kept alive in the viewer's mind through the clever script and the sound effects. 

Another thing that helps the low budget is that the vast majority of the film is set in a radio station. Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) is a DJ for a local radio station in Pontypool. On his way to work Grant stops to make a phone call and is startled by a woman banging on his window. When he winds down the window she is repeating the same words over and over. Mmm, intriguing. At the station he is joined by his producer Sydney Briar (Lisa Houle) and technician Laurel-Ann Drummond (Georgina Reilly). Then they begin to receive some strange news reports... Some other characters make an appearance but costs are kept low through the use of a small cast. 

The zombies aren't really zombies in an animated dead kind of shambling about way. In fact, they're more... get ready for the dirty word... 'infected' than anything else. At least they don't actually look like zombies, they look more like confused people. In the context of the story this fits perfectly. And again, keeps the cost down.

Apart from one moment of excessive bloodiness, the rest is kept offscreen. There is a fairly brutal kicking but you soon realise that you actually saw nothing and it was all done with sound effects. Was the budget low or was the director just tight?

I'm not painting that great a picture of Pontypool. But what the film-makers have done is look at what they've got access to, what they can afford and what they can do well. The script is great with a pearler of a line about a paedophile. The writer brilliantly painted images into my head as the characters heard from their weather reporter out in the field, Ken Loney. Better than actually seeing it visually.

It is really well shot. The initial shots of Grant Mazzy on air are accompanied by tracking shots of all three main characters, creating an intimate radio-like atmosphere. Off-air the camera switches to being more static, but depth of field is still used beautifully. 

The main characters are all well-realised and believably acted. The top piece of casting has to be Stephen McHattie. If he hasn't got a radio show of his own he should be given one. Even a radiophobe like me might listen to it. Well, no, I wouldn't, but you get the idea.

Don't go into this expected your usual zombie fare or you may be disappointed. This is far more restrained and - what's the opposite of 'In-your-face'? 'Out-your-face'? - whatever, it's that. (In a similar vein the opposite of 'Off-your face' must be 'On-your-face'. For example, 'When I got to work this morning Terry was completely on-his-face.') Enough of this malarkey, give it a watch. You may be pleasantly surprised.
8/10
evlkeith

(Average rating for the season so far = 7.5)



If you like this you could also try:
Shooting the Past, The Fog.

Intermission - Dating

We all know that obscurendure is the premier site for single middle-aged men looking for love. Who can forget the services provided by www.idateasia.com and www.filipinocupid.com amongst others. One of our most recent adverts has been for www.uniformdating.com where you can date a Policewoman of all things. It's only a matter of time before we get the most specialist of specialist sites, www.dinnerladydating.com.

I'd reached a point where I couldn't imagine being surprised by any of the strange dating action being touted. Until I saw the following:

Doccortex will be in dating heaven with this ladies + milk combo. Happy Birthday mate! And who knows what new dating experiences await us in 2013...

evlkeith

Review - Redline (2009 - Dir. Takeshi Koike)

It's Wacky Races in anime form. Only not as good.

That's being a tad harsh because at its best Redline is stunning. The first race is a blistering exercise in linking speed, sound, visual distortion and sensory overload. I played the Blu-ray at the normal volume setting that I generally use. The soundtrack came belting out and shook all of the pictures off the walls. Fair enough. It needs to be watched at a very high volume to get the full effect. When a character uses a nitro boost, the screen distorts to a dramatic degree and the music lulls, waiting for the moment when the speed kicks in and the music relaunches. Breathtaking stuff.

Then we hit the story. JP is a racer in the Redline competition, and he also has a neat sideline in race fixing (a bit like certain Doncaster Rovers players). And he's got large pointy hair. There are some other characters in the style of Wacky Races but it's all a bit of a waste of time. The reason why I say that is because I only watched this two days ago and I can pretty much remember nothing from the middle section. All I was doing was waiting for the final race.

When the final race eventually comes it's yet more sensory overload, with a sprinkling of character overload. The race is held on Roboworld and the leader of Roboworld is not overly impressed. In typical fashion, he sends in the army. And a big mutant energy baby. It loses it for a while until the story focusses on the racing action. But it never reaches the peak of the first race.

The animation is a mish mash of Paprika with its distorting unpleasant characters and one of the sections of Gotham Knight (Deadshot, I think) where black shadows are used for the characters. Except here we have black shadows in the background too. I'm not overly keen on the style and it feels generally dirty and unsavoury but it's all down to personal preference.

This took seven years to make and I can see why. It's just a shame that the story is almost non-existent. If you do decide to watch this, enjoy the first race at a rather loud volume. Possibly skip forward to the last race. Then, for indulgence, watch the first race again.
4/10
evlkeith



If you like this you could also try:
Speed Racer, Paprika, Gotham Knight.

Book Review - The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks

I quite like a bit of science fiction for something a little different every now and again, and have really enjoyed some of Banks' other offerings like 'Consider Phlebas' and 'Against a Dark Background', although I found the plot in both a bit too close to Serentity for comfort. The Player of Games is different and even though he embarks on a journey into other galaxies the main story details his game playing antics and integration into a new and often brutal society. If you want a read with an entertaining story and the ability to make you think then this book if a definite winner.

This is the second Culture novel after 'Consider Phlebas' and is far less dark and war torn, and explains Culture society and structures in far greater detail. The Culture is a cross galaxy, technology savy, super society that has eradicated many of the afflictions prevalent in humanity and is a fascinating idea as a vision for our ultimate evolution. The book places the Culture's seemingly more advanced position against the harsh, semi-dictatorship of Azad where state violence and exploitation is the norm.

We experience Azad through the eyes of Jernau Gurgeh, the best games player in all the Culture and a bit of a Bohemian ladies man with mixed up scruples. It all makes for great fun as the liberal, intelligent game player is forced to confront and participate in the baser, guteral and often violent actions of his morally challenged hosts. It's not unlike being a metro-sexual in modern day, egg throwing South Yorkshire.

There is so much to love in the book. I particularly liked the interaction with the various floating robot characters, the obscure names, the three gendered nature of the Azad people and the internal conflict in Gurgeh's brain. You feel like you've been on a journey yourself on completion of the story, learning and exploring something about yourself. Surely the mark of a decent book.

Doccortex

Review - Night of the Living Dead (1968 - Dir. George A. Romero)

Let's kick off this (stupidly long) season with the film that started the whole sub-genre. I know there were zombie films before this, but Romero defined zombies as the flesh-eating shamblers that we all know and love. Credit where credit's due.

Okay. It's incredibly influential. It's got a smidgen of social commentary in there. It has a black protagonist, and the fact that he's black is not commented on (remember this was made in 1968). But is it any good now?

Yes. I can happily say that it is still a good film. The first act is my personal favourite as it is actually proper scary. There is something incredibly unnerving about a relatively make-up free zombie trying to smash his way into a car with a rock. He is fairly slow moving but there is a strong urgency to his actions. You can easily imagine that he has very recently died and now he wants some flesh. 

The first part of the film also has the strongest sense of being real. We see Barbra (Judith O'Dea) get attacked with her brother in the cemetery. But then, after she has sought refuge in a local farmhouse, she recounts the whole incident to Ben (Duane Jones). This just wouldn't happen in films now. Show you something. Then tell you about it. However, this technique enhances the realism of the film greatly. The cinéma vérité style bolsters this feeling even more. Add to that the grainy black and white film it was shot on and you've got a huge great realistic cake with realism sprinkles on top.

This is a blessing and a rating-lowering curse. The first part is so convincing that when some new characters are introduced in the farmhouse, and their acting is not up to scratch, it all starts to look worryingly amateurish. Which it is. But it spoils the feeling of watching a documentary that has recently been unearthed. It starts to pick up again when many of these Mary's dads have been killed.

At least the zombies get to do a bit of munching. Compared to the zombie antics in more recent films - the shark eating zombie in Zombie Flesh Eaters perhaps - these are positively polite. You could take them home to have tea with your gran. Granted they eat some barbecued humans, including entrails, but at least they wipe their mouths with a napkin afterwards and ask if they can leave the table. Possibly.

The ending is fairly bleak and the assassination of Martin Luther King (1968) added further poignancy. It finishes with some quality news reel type footage of a sheriff going about the business of containing the zombie menace. Shoot them in the head. Didn't work though did it...
7/10
evlkeith

(Average score for the season so far = 7)



If you like this you could also try:
The Plague of the Zombies, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead.

Feature - evlkeith's Top Ten Films of 2012

It's that time of year again: the time for lists. Here are my top ten films of this year. The only rule is that I have to have seen them for the first time this year, it doesn't matter if they weren't released in 2012. 

It seems to have been the year of the 7/10 film. I haven't seen anything particularly special this year, with many disappointments (The Raid springs to mind). But I am looking forward to watching a few films next year, (Holy Motors for one) so hopefully things should be better in 2013.

In traditional reverse order, here we go...

10. The Wicker Tree
I don't think that anyone else likes this, but I've still got a soft spot for it. The final images of her running up the hill have stayed in my mind to this day.

9. Only the Strong

Mark Dacascos. Capoeira. Job done. Wish it was available on R2 DVD.

8. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

Initially I thought that this was going to be terrible but it quickly turns into a humourous little mountain man romp. The chainsaw scene is a classic.

7. The Hindenburg

I completely love the matte shots in this. The story's pretty powerful too. The switch to black and white real footage of the destruction of the Hindenburg is awe-inspiring.

6. To

Some lush CGI anime from Sori in the form of two short stories. Shame it's so expensive on Blu-ray, but I might have to bite the bullet at some point.

5. Rosetta

Following someone round for an hour and a half is always a treat... ahem... Rosetta is a grimy little treat with a stunning central performance. Pity you see her back for the majority of the proceedings.

4. Ong-bak

Anyone who loves seeing someone jumping up in the air and then smashing their elbow down onto a poor unfortunate's head will love this. Looking forward to watching the sequels next year.

3. Lars and the Real Girl

Not at all what I was expecting and this is possibly the only film on this list that I would recommend to absolutely anyone.

2. First Squad

I'm not exactly sure why I've put this Russian language anime so high on this list ,but it's one of those films that I enjoy watching solely for the atmosphere. It leaves room for a sequel where the story might actually develop more satisfactorily.

1. The Avengers

This is a bit of a shock to me that a mainstream film can actually be my top film of the year. I wasn't expecting that much due to the uselessness of Captain America and Thor. And fair enough, The Avengers has a bit of a lull in the middle section and a dodgy uninspiring villain, but when it kicks off it is impressive stuff. Joss Whedon shows again that he is able to juggle a large group of characters and give them all a suitably heroic moment. The Hulk on screen has never impressed me up to now, and the CGI still looks ropey, but the writing helps him to steal the show on numerous occasions. Not as good as Serenity but I bestow it with the title of Film of the Year.

So there you have it, some half-decent films there. But to balance things out let's have my worst film of the year... Donkey Punch. Hate it with a passion. A turgid little turd of a film. 

evlkeith