Feature - Christmas Quiz 2013

Following on from the runaway success of last year's Christmas Quiz, here's this year's instalment. Again there are five films to guess and they've all been reviewed in these very pages. 

Here's how it works: I type in the name of a film I've reviewed this year into Google images, then I select five of the images as clues. Simple. Yet decidedly tricky. Some shouldn't be too bad but if you get more than two right you'll have done well. More than three is bordering on the supernatural.

Mystery film 1 

Mystery film 2

Mystery film 3

Mystery film 4

Mystery film 5

Have fun (is it possible not to?) and we'll have the answers just before the New Year.

evlkeith

Review - Safety Last! (1923 - Dir. Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor)

It's a silent film. It's black and white. And it's in a 4:3 ratio. It's about as ye olde fashioned as you get without it being shown on a zoetrope. And it's really rather good.

Harold Lloyd (played by the similarly monikered Harold Lloyd) is a small town kind of guy who moves to the big city to find his fortune and pay for a lovely wedding for his bride to be. Things don't go to plan and he ends up living with his buddy, "Limpy" Bill in a small flat. But he comes up with a crafty scheme to get rich quick. (I don't know why he's called "Limpy" because he doesn't have a limp.) "Limpy" is a bit nifty when it comes to climbing buildings so Harold sets it up so that he can climb up the outside of the department store where he works. Again things don't go to plan.

After a cleverly shot start things kick off with the story and some impressive physical comedy (Jackie Chan must have been influenced by some of this stuff). For example, Harold and "Limpy" pretend to be coats on a coat rack to avoid their landlady. 

The whole of the first half is setting up the reasons why Harold would be motivated to climb the building himself in the latter stages of the film. And very carefully set up it is too. As my mum always says, "Everything happens for a reason." That's certainly true here. The first half also shows how resourceful Harold can be in a variety of situations. He's constantly lurching from one scrape to another but he always manages to come good. 

There are some early visual effects that are used to further the story rather than just fluffy eye sweets. At one point Harold eyes up a gorgeous business man's lunch that's being advertised in a local restaurant. Alas he's also seen a necklace for his sweetheart. We know it's meant for her because her face appears in the centre of said piece of jewellery. Then as he puts each coin down to pay for the necklace, one item disappears from the plate of the business man's lunch. So without any words the story is conveyed in a very crafty manner.

Then we get to the second half of the film: the climb. Now I'm afraid of heights and the last half hour is pure torture for me. If torture was fun. My hands go all clammy as I watch because he's actually up at that height climbing the building. (Okay, there is a bit of trickery in there, that I won't spoil for you, but even so it looks completely terrifying.) There are so many incidents on the way up and it goes on for ages and ages. The tension never lapses. He gets attacked by pigeons accompanied by some very Psycho-like music. A mouse goes up his trouser leg and makes him do an amusing little dance on a narrow ledge. Then there's the whole malarkey based around the iconic clock face. It's amazing how many problems they wring out of one simple thing. All in all it's a cracking sequence.

If you don't feel the need to watch this yet bear in mind that there is a scene where a drunk gets netted. Well, not exactly netted by the police or another government agency, but a net does fall on him causing some entrapment.

I had to buy the definitive Harold Lloyd collection to get this. It was a good move though because every film has been pretty good so far (as long as you can put up with a fair bit of political incorrectness). Well worth tracking down. (Don't take my word for it. I took a class of 11 year olds to see Hugo and they were completely bored all the way through - as I was - apart from the clip from this very film. They were literally on the edges of their little seats.)
8/10
evlkeith

If you like this you could also try:
Girl Shy, The Cat's-Paw.

Review - Hell's Ground (2007 - Dir. Omar Khan)

This has really got me thinking about what makes a great film.  I've ranted recently about Uninhabited with its dull story and irritating characters who are incredibly adept at making stupid decisions. Then along comes Hell's Ground that has some stupid characters and at times, a very cliched story. But I like it. I think I've worked out why. 

If you had to write down a list of the top ten critically acclaimed films of all times using all of your film buff knowledge, there would probably be stuff like Battleship Potemkin, Vertigo and Citizen Kane in there. Now if you write down your top ten films they would probably be very different. So even though the films loved by critics worldwide have great stories, acting, etc they're still missing something. I actually think its two things that decide whether we personally love a film rather than merely appreciate it: atmosphere and tone. 

Without an atmosphere or tone that I like, a film better be pretty strong in other areas or I'm just not going to enjoy it. But for me a film can be lacking in terms of story, acting, characterisation, technical ability etc and still be great if the atmosphere and tone are right. It's the irrational secret ingredient that can make me love a film.

Uninhabited didn't have it. Hell's Ground does. Not in huge amounts but enough to make the viewing experience strangely pleasurable.

A group of five teenagers lie to their parents and slip away for a night of drugs and rock and roll. Ayesha (Rooshanie Ejaz) comes from a conservative family but due to peer pressure goes along for the ride. They have petrol problems on the way (funnily enough), take an enticing short cut (oh dear), pick up a mildly unhinged passenger (one of many, ahem... homages) and meet up with a Crazy Ralph type figure who sells them some dubious drugs whilst cackling and ranting (I did say it was cliched). Contaminated water has turned some locals into flesh eating zombies and the group of plucky chums soon come into contact with the drooling horde. Then things fly off on a bit of a tangent with the appearance of a mad killer who knocks about in a bloodstained white burka, slinging a spiky ball round on a chain at passersby.

So it's a film of two halves. The zombies look great. The special effects guy made them from tissue paper, latex and other zero budget stuff but they're not bad at all, very reminiscent of the zombies from Zombie Flesh Eaters. They get far too little screen time, although this is made up for by the insane serial killer, Baby.

The scenes that contain Baby are brilliant. Easily one of my favourite screen villains of recent times. The sight of Baby swinging that ball of death around is always unnerving. The killings are nicely disturbing but never become nasty and unpleasant (that all important tone I talked about earlier).

Wide angle lenses, smoke machines and lights were all completely abused during the making of Hell's Ground yet they add up to a very pleasing atmosphere. The short lenses aren't used for scene setting landscape shots, but for medium shots in scenes containing the characters, producing plenty of distortion. Due to its overuse, it becomes part of the style of the film rather than just a mark of a low budget horror enterprise. The smoke machines may as well be visible in some shots because they're constantly chucking out smoke. The operator had obviously had way too many Space Raiders and Red Bulls for brekkie. As for the lighting, well it cant be described as naturalistic. Huge inexplicable lights are just there, smack bang in the frame. Yet again, they add to the otherworldly atmosphere.

Being a Pakistani zombie film it shows some interesting differences between cultures. When Ayesha gets ready to go out on her dubious evening's jaunt she takes some risque clothes to get changed into. Risque for Pakistan anyway. In the UK her clothes would probably be considered too safe and dull to even have as a school uniform. It was also interesting to hear in the director's commentary that he was worried about some extreme swearing getting cut by the sensors. After all it was two utterances of a word that means... poo. Wild edgy stuff. 

Despite being fairly standard teen slasher characters, taking drugs and dancing to pop music they're actually fairly likeable. They feel more like real children rather than the stereotypes seen in the usual American fare. I wouldn't go as far as saying that I really cared about what happened to them; I didn't hate them though which has to be a good sign.

Finally a mention has to go to the music. The main theme is fantastic. In the review of A Bay of Blood I went on about how I could listen to the music on the Blu-ray menu for ages. The same applies here. The theme tune was acquired from a seventies film from Pakistan and what a cracker it is. Possibly worth the entrance fee alone.

I've struggled to decide on a final rating for this because it has so many faults but my overall feeling is positive. Plus I want to buy it so that I can watch it again at my leisure (in fact I've just ordered it this very minute). I think I'm going to have to make it a:
7/10
evlkeith

If you like this you could also try:
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween.

Review - Chocolate (2008 - Dir. Prachya Pinkaew)

I'm not sure whether this scenario counts as exploitation of the vulnerable, but see what you think...

Zin is the lover of Yakuza boss Masashi. She works for her ex, a Thai gangster called No.8. Zin and No. 8 have a minor fall out, with No. 8 shooting his own toe (?) then at a later date chopping off Zin's toe. Anyway, Zin has a daughter to Masashi but No. 8 forbids Zin from seeing Masashi again (it's all a bit complicated). The daughter, called Zen (Yanin Vismitananda), turns out to be autistic and a dab hand at catching objects that are thrown at her face. Zin and Moom, a young boy she's taken in, decide to make some cash by using Zen as a street performer. Everyone gathers in a ring round her and chucks stuff at her, which she catches. Then they cough up some dough. Hooray. After watching some martial arts films, like the director's own Ong-bak, Zen develops the ability to kick people around a fair bit. So Moom and Zen embark on a quest, collecting debts owed to Zin to pay for her cancer drugs. 

So yep, it is exploitation but at least it's for a good reason. Although the inclusion later on of another adult with a learning disability who fights on the side of the gangsters left an unpleasant taste in the mouth and felt decidedly unnecessary.

Despite this Chocolate is actually a pretty good scrapping film. It doesn't go down the Ong-bak route of not using wires for the lead actor but they seem to have used wires more for safety than for performing supernatural leaps like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Given that they were used there are still a surprising amount of injuries shown in the credits sequence. It's actually really funny. Not the fact that people got hurt making the film, but more the way it's edited. Someone gets kicked in the face. An ice-pack is applied. Someone gets punched in the face. Ice-pack. Someone gets slapped in the chicken nuggets. Cue ice-pack. (Maybe the slapped nuggets doesn't actually occur but you get the idea.) A neck brace appears at one point, which possibly isn't that funny.

The stunt where this happens is in the final fight scene set on the side of a building and it's impressive stuff. Zen regularly boots hoodlums off the narrow ledges and they fall to ground level, hitting other ledges as they plummet. Admittedly they were slowed slightly by wires but the falls still look brutal. Let's face facts, that's why we love Jackie Chan films and stuff like this: there's virtually no health and safety. The actors certainly suffer for their art which makes it far easier to appreciate them. 

Probably the stand out stunt is when Zen runs towards a low glass table and slides under it. At the exact same moment a crime boss type throws a wooden pallet just over the top of the table at her. This could have gone really badly wrong if the timing had been even marginally out. The ice-packs would definitely have been needed. (Along with a surgeon who specialises in skull breakages and facial reconstructions. Or possibly an undertaker.)

Good fight films have scraps that are all different in some way. Chocolate manages this task perfectly well. One fight involves Zen doing a quality Bruce Lee impersonation, another has her using two big sticks to batter criminals and yet another has her fighting in an abattoir with all of the lovely weapons that location suggests. All in all the variety keeps things interesting right up to the end.

As for Yanin Vismitananda, well she's one to watch. I've already got another couple of her films on my radar: Raging Pheonix and This Girl is Bad-ass!! (That's if some kind person gets around to releasing the latter in the UK.) She seems to have a natural flair for comedy and I must say that I like a few laughs with my bone-crunching, plum-squashing action.

This lacks the really brutal edge of Ong-bak (no elbows plummeting vertically down on heads here) but it makes up for it with engaging lead characters. The story is non-descript but I don't watch these films for their stories. Enjoyable stuff.
7/10
evlkeith

If you like this you could also try:
Ong-bak, Police Story.