ID Mass Review 3: Pink Floyd- The Wall

Pink, a rock star, is feeling sick of fame and life in general. Spaced out in his hotel room, he thinks about his life, and the many events that have gone into shaping who he is.

Pink Floyd: The Wall is definitely an important film culturally, and should be watched by anyone of age who isn’t easily upset. I got goose bumps watching it but I’m glad I did. There isn’t one scene in this that isn’t strong and provocative, and much of it is symbolic and metaphorical. We follow Pink from childhood into adulthood and stardom, where he is increasingly troubled by his fathers’ early death in the war, his broken marriage, and the way things are going in England. Film is mixed with animation to powerful effect. The animation style is fluid and grotesque, ever changing between nightmarish creatures. The scenes of the film themselves are usually harsh but sometimes innocent and serene, such as when we see Pink caring for a sick rat. Mixed in with all this was the soundtrack which helped give everything an air of impending misery and doom. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed this film because I spent much of it with eyes wide open feeling very uncomfortable, but it was an interesting watch and there are some things that just should be seen, if only for the morbid fascination.

5/5

As a man whose father was a huge prog rock fan, I was brought up with the likes of Yes, ELP and Pink Floyd playing in the background.
However it was when I stumbled upon the timeless surreal animations of Gerald Scarfe on Youtube to songs like The Trial and Welcome to the Machine that I truly fell in love with the Floyd of Pink. When I read in the ID Fest brochure that the full version of The Wall would be on, I knew that it was that above all else I wanted to see. It did not disappoint.
The richness of detail and the richness of metaphor and meaning, guarantees you will be confused and engrossed from the word go. Phallic flowers, vaginal bats, swollen rats, mincing machines, plastic masks, marching soldiers, fascist rallies, grubby hotel rooms and blood-red swimming pools...the film packs about as much creepily iconic imagery into every scene as Ken Russell, and I doubt if even on the third viewing you could really get a hold on exactly where everything fits in in the landscape of Pink's troubled mind. In the toilets afterwards I heard two gentlemen discussing how Bob Geldof 'didn't mess it up'. They were quite right, he doesn't. There isn't a huge amount for him to do except look apocalyptic and burnt out, but he does it so perfectly that there is no point in complaining.
The thing the film is most akin to is the TV Series The Singing Detective, starring the marvellous Michael Gambon; like The Wall, it is much more about what is happening inside the characters mind, rather than what has really happened in their life.
There are scenes which seem a little out of place, such as the 'Young Lust' scene where shameless groupies do the nasty to get backstage passes (a bit of a wasted effort...turns out Pink isn't really in the mood for fans), but overall the quality is truly stunning. The aforementioned animations get the top prize though. I had the wonderful experience one sometimes gets on the big screen, the sensation that you are somehow falling into the image, when watching the marching hammers in 'Waiting for the Worms'.
It is a pity that,as David Gilmour said later, the album and the film marked the end of the bands ability to work together, because it was and still is an amazing piece of work.

5/5

ID Mass Review 2: Wallace and Gromit Curse of the Wererabbit

Its almost time for the Giant Vegetable competion at Tottington Hall and Wallace and Gromit are making sure that rabbits don't get the local people's prize veg by operating a humane pest control agency. But things go very bad when a Were-Rabbit starts terrorizing the town, and it may not be as easy to catch as its small cousins...

Wallace and Gromit the Curse of the were-rabbit was yet another feat of animation from Aardman Studios. I enjoyed the story and recognising all the references and jokes that they make, which had a few surprising adult ones (of a slightly sexual nature) that I wasn’t expecting in a film which would be seen by large young audiences. I don’t think anyone really minded however, I suppose either children are too young to get it, in which case it’s not a problem, or they’re old enough to get it, in which case they’re mature enough for it not to scar them.
This film, as you may have guessed, is a lot about rabbits. So it’s a shame for me that I didn’t like the way they did rabbits here. They looked too boggle-eyed and annoying for me to find them cute, and I think a lot of the sympathy in this film relied on them being so. And look away now if you don’t want a spoiler, but the ‘Wallace bunny’ (Hutch) was so irritating to look at that the ending was rather spoiled for me, being as I was resentful that my eyes were forced yet again to fall upon this failed attempt at adorableness. He looked like Dobby from Harry Potter, being all short and stupid and needlessly cheerful, and wearing an oversize jumper as a dress.
The aspects I did like, however, were the moments of humour and the trademark ‘wacky genius inventions’ throughout. Gromit’s portrayal of a sexy giant rabbit was rather amusing.
Most people will enjoy this a lot so don’t let my nit picking put you off.

3/5

Curse of the Were-rabbit is undeniable proof that there is ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE for people to make bad films, and especially not bad family films. Wallace and Gromit make a seamless transition into their first feature incarnation, which is chock full of mixed laughs...Britta and I were privileged (if thats the word) to be pretty much the only people older than seven in the audience, and so could appreciate which bits made them laugh. Predictably, it was mostly the jokes about burping and suchlike. In fact, I think they probably enjoyed the film more as a straight horror/mystery whereas a lot of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it gags were for adults. The film has some very nice references to things like the Gerry Anderson series and a lot of hammer horror and earlier Wolfman films, but of course the exquisite eye for details is one of the great strengths of Aardman. The film avoided Americanitis despite its joint venture with Dreamworks, and the Britishness is never compromised. One thing I very much liked on this front was the Vicar character, an affectionate but still quite mocking portrait of the C of E, particularly when he claims they are being punished by God for growing large vegetables.
The central partnership are as lovable as ever, with a consistency of character that few series manage to hold up. Their flaws get them into trouble, and their smarts and good old British grit bring them out again. The brilliantly over-complex heath-robinson gadgets are charming, there is plenty of cuteness in the form of rabbits (although the Wallace-Rabbit really hits the uncanny valley for me) and the photography is just beautiful. There is nothing to say about the animation that hasn't been said a hundred times but just for the record, it is perfection.
Take note, all those making films; you cannot get away with crap any more.

5/5

ID Mass Review 1: Dog Soldiers

Its the final of the World Cup footie in 2001, but a section of luckless soldiers are being sent off to Scotland for an apparently routine exercise, pitting themselves against a Special Ops platoon. However, it only takes a few short hours for things to take a macabre turn as they discover all but one of the Special Ops guys have disappeared, their equipment smashed and their blood spilled. It seems some old dogs have taught themselves new tricks...

I’ve seen Dog Soldiers once before but quite a few years ago, so I had an almost fresh viewing of this. It still did a good job of making me jump and grossing me out in the relevant places. I think the best thing about this film is the acting from the soldiers, who are all well developed characters (as well as can be developed over a day or two) and are very humorous and sympathetic and plausible. The lady character, however, has occasional very awkward lines that seem to come out of the blue and which would be nigh on impossible for anyone to pull off naturally. I blame the scriptwriter and the director.
The storyline itself is easy enough to follow until the end, when once again the lady character shamelessly pulls a plot twist out of her arse and rants on about ‘not trusting women’ as if that’s been a story element before. This is just confusing and brings up a lot of questions which don’t get answered. I’m very happy for them to have things go the way that they do but seriously please make motives and such a little more transparent.
Apart from this, the film is well executed and I have no complaints regarding pacing, sound, tone or camera shots. The gore was done nicely, with some quite-convincing innards at one point. It also has a nice twist (before the aforementioned bad twist) concerning the nature of the werewolves. That reminds me; at the start of the story I was disappointed with the obviousness of the way that a solid silver dagger is introduced. It’s just so groan-worthy, like if at the start of a vampire movie someone gifts someone else a crucifix necklace, you just know it’s going to come back as the deciding weapon later on. I’m sure they could have found a more subtle way to put that in. Gripe over, it’s not such a big detail that it ruins the film. Overall, I think it is very good and definitely worth seeing.

4/5

Dog Soldiers plays with the survival horror genre giving the often overlooked werewolves some good screen time. It gives us the great premise of 'what if the protagonists were actually competent'? And it is fun to watch. The section is smart, well armed and experienced. They are also utterly screwed, because werewolves shake off machine gun fire like pond water, but they are badass enough to keep fighting in the face of these circumstances. They are also quick to adapt and, though they don't necessarily start believing in werewolves the instant things gets weird, they do not act like straw man Scullys and claim it must all be a hallucination brought on by light refraction. Or angry badgers, or some such.
The squaddies are great characters, their sweary but affectionate banter making them appeal even to a limp-wristed anti-military liberal like myself. Sergeant Wells particularly, the vitriolic but caring father to his men. In their dialogue, especially exchanges with animal-mudering Special Ops scumbag Captain Ryan who is up to something dodgy, there are some very interesting asides into what makes a 'real' soldier, and the multiple meanings and metaphors contained within the title go very deep if you look closely.
The only person who doesn't give an absolutely top notch performance is Emma Cleasby as Megan, who appears rather to be phoning it in. It might be just how the character is written; her 'posh bird' schtick seems unnatural compared to the salt o' the earth soldiers, and she's just not as well-rounded. She throws out philosophical lines like 'Now consider what you really believe!' without a care for the tone of the scene, which is in usually bullet-riddled ass-kick mode. Also there is a bit at the end where she reveals the true nature of the werewolves which is cryptic to the point of complete incomprehensibility, leaving us wondering whether it was supposed to be mysterious or if the writer just accidentally left out a few important lines.
The cinematography and editing are, I am given to understand, typically Neil Marshall; gritty, action-packed, fast-paced. The film makes this style its own so much that the more artist shots (one I remember is some bullet casings dropping to the floor in perfect focus) seem quite out of place.
The gore is well done and there are some literally gut wrenching scenes of wounding...also, when the monsters turn up on screen they look great, and are shot in such a way as to make them very real.
The locations (not in fact in Scotland, but it looks like it) are great. The house where they end up holding fort is a charming cottage that would not out of place in an adaptation of Wuthering Heights, but here it ends up being part of some kind of demolition challenge, whereby the various characters try to destroy as much as possible using only the implements inside. Could be a good premise for a game show, if it isn't one already. Its slightly explained at the end, but during the film I couldn't help wondering how the wattle-and daub and timber was keeping out the werewolves. Also it was hard to see how the wooden beams that were nailed to the window frames with huge gaps between them could form an effective barrier.
This was a very fun film, more of an action flick that a true horror, but nevertheless a good yarn. Look forward to exploring the rest of Neil Marshall's bloody back catalogue.

4/5

IR: "Dead and Breakfast"

We strolled down to our favourite cinema, the Derby Quad, on the eve of the 30th October to enjoy a 5 film marathon of horror. Here's what we thought...

1. Evil Dead II
Dir: Sam Rami

Gave me the chills. Very scary but very funny. Worst (scariest) moment: when the recording says “I buried her in the cellar!” and the main guy is hearing this from the cellar where he’s just been thrown. It’s an old film but it still has an effect on audiences now. Very silly a lot of the time. The audience laughed throughout but I was too busy getting shivers on my arms and spine. The different colours of blood were impressive; I think we saw red, black, blue, green and even purple at the end. I was wondering if the girl who was eaten by a tree was going to come back. The main guy has an amazing face for looking freaky with. “Let’s have some champagne!” Brilliant.

5/5

Although I had seen Army of Darkness years ago, I had never partaken of the original Evil Dead II. Its great to see it on the big screen, and here’s why.

Although the script reaches Ed-Woodian levels of badness, barely a line spoken that isn’t clumsy exposition (Chainsaw! Workshed! THE KEYS!), the technical aspects are all excellent. Inventive cinematography combined with every trick in the visual fx book from truly terrifying prosthetics to matte composites and miniatures giving us wonderful moments. Stand outs include the lurking P.O.V. monster shot zooming through the labyrinthine cottage to grab hold of Ash and drop him in a puddle (oh Jj Abrams…and we thought you were original), or the stop-motion dance of his decapitated ‘ex’ girlfriend. I notice that the creator of the mother-monster’s ‘Rotten Apple Head’ gets a special end credit – kudos to them! The whole film is lit with unreal, theatrical intensity, as a horror film should be. Bruce Campbell turns in the physical comedy performance of the decade, like Chaplin’s gore-splattered grandson, beating himself up, smashing through doors and mugging his chiselled face so frantically you wonder two eyebrows could take it. Add to this some great shocking moments, and you have a schlock treat that deserves the full canvas of a cinema.

4/5 - “Groovy”

2. Halloween
Dir: John Carpenter

‘Oh for fucks sake’

This is the essence of my review.

Once he’s down, keep stabbing until he’s in pieces. Don’t drop the bloody knife next to him and turn away to relax. You daft bint. This film fails because it doesn’t explain why he turned evil in the first place. Not half as scary as the first film (Evil Dead 2). The ‘scariest’ thing was how the main girl looked like a 35 year old cross-dresser, and I think she’s meant to be in college. At least this film was interesting to see American suburbia and because it was groundbreaking in its time. Not great. By any means.

2/5

It’s impossible to deny the importance of Halloween in the history of horror. However, in the cold light of day, from the eyes of someone who has never seen it before, it is not as great as its given credit for.

The opening sequence (complete with the rather charming Pumpkin in the titles) is very well done, and the voyeur-cam throughout the film is highly effective, particularly to modern eyes with its undertones of paedophilia. Suburbia is shot very well, a place both suffocating and agoraphobic where Michael Meyer’s appearances are made all the more frightening because of the sheer sunny normality.

However the acting is wooden in the extreme, except for Donald Pleasances’ Dr. Loomis who gives us some good old fashioned ham. The effect is like a sandwich with chipboard for bread. The horror is a slow burn verging on the point of boring, with few real shocks. John’s carpenters recognisable synth score is overpowering at times and although Jamie Lee Curtis gives a good turn as the likeable ‘girl-scout’ Laurie, the script has her carry the idiot ball in the final sequence to such an extent its difficult to feel sorry for her. It’s like she WANTS to get stabbed up and is just playing a little bait-and-switch game with Michael. And speaking of the villain, I felt a little short changed. After being built up as ‘pure evil’ he doesn’t really do an awful lot…far be it from me to egg on a serial killer, but I paid my two bits, dammit! Work that knife! Of course, the real horror of the piece is not in Michael Meyers, it’s in the suburbs themselves; as Laurie runs screaming, bleeding and hysterical down the street, the neighbours close their blinds on her, annoyed at just another kidding playing around.

2/5 - “Sleep well, kids”

3. Night of The Demon
Dir: Jacques Tourneur

Fell asleep halfway through but caught the end. Not scary in the least but from what I can tell, a damn fine film that has no want of it. Good ‘smoke’ effect, nice to see something without lots of overdramatic effects i.e. the ones we saw were more natural like a windstorm and wind gripping a piece of paper. Bad guy instantly recognisable by his demonic black pointy beard. The demon had a disappointingly rubbery face close-up, like someone was wriggling fingers behind it.

4/5

A properly acted old school theatrical affair, this is much more of a drama than a horror, but with enough moments of genuine shock to remind an audience to sit up and pay attention. An American psychologist and skeptic, John Holden, comes to London to investigate and discredit the Faustian cult of Professor Julian Karswell…needless to say, he finds more than he bargained for.
The story is perhaps a little winding, but it remains interesting throughout due to solid performances Special mention goes to Niall MacGinnis in the role of Karswell, the disarmingly reasonable and urbane devil-worshipper, always one step ahead of Dana Andrews’ cynical scientist. It is amazingly well crafted technically, with a surprisingly unsettling monster.
A bit of casual sexism and racism is included, although plucky girl Joanna does hold her own.

4/5 - “My dear boy, you look as pale as death.”


4. The Horde
Dir: Yannick Dahan, Benjamin Rocher

Bloodbath. The most interesting thing was the characters, taking sides, showing their true values. Started off very promisingly but lost its way and we ended up losing the interesting characters and the ones who were left had no emotional connection so anything that took place like people sacrificing themselves didn’t mean much. It’s not really understood why the lady doesn’t care about the other cop and how she intends to go it alone. There are funny moments but also squirmingly horrible bits like when they’re laughing about raping a zombie. There should have been an epilepsy warning with all the flashing gunfire, which got old and annoying very quickly. There was at least a good (effective) visual style, which was very dark and dirty and bloody. Overall though, quite inconsequential and not something you’re missing out on if you’ve seen films like 28 Days Later or Silent Hill.

3/5

A film which should be called ‘Gangtas vs. Zombies’, the Horde is a back to basics survival horror gorefest with a slight social-commentary.
Beautifully shot in a fantastic decaying tower block, the film follows a group of cops who try to kill some gangtas, not banking on the End of Days. Shit gets real faster than you could imagine in the shape of fast zombies. Not just any fast zombies, though. These guys make anything cooked up by Umbrella Inc. look like a bunch of girl scouts. Thankfully out protagonists make the STARS team look like boy scouts, so they manage to survive for longer than the rest of the human race by about 80 minutes. A bleak, sleek and occasionally inspired film, the first quarter is by far the best, after which the film loses its way a bit. It trips over quite a few over-used tropes, and there are some absurdly overblown bullet-blazing meat-pounding screaming-mad fight scenes that go into Garth Merenghi territory. Plus most of the characters thoroughly deserve to die so watching them get nommed by hungry, hungry zombies isn’t really that heartbreaking.
Overall a solid zombie film, but nothing new.

3/5 - “Fuck this, I’m not going to die of a heart-attack!”


5. Bubba Ho-tep
Dir: Don Coscarelli

Not very good. Elvis and President Kennedy discover a soul-sucking mummy in their care-home. No point to have made it. No need to watch. Has its moments but not worth trawling through the rest of the film to witness them. Why is this classed as a horror film? It’s not even scary. It’s just a horrible film. Har har.

1/5

Again, not really a horror…Bubba Ho-Tep is a surprisingly poignant musing on lost youth, lost fame, growing old and social attitudes to the old, with a monster for good measure. From its outset it is elegiac, winding down rather than building up. The King and JFK (or not) face off to an ancient Egyptian evil, and in doing so gain some kind of redemption from their less than spectacular final years. It is heartwarming to see Bruce Campbell’s Elvis ‘come to life’ after years of semi-catatonic moping and doubly so remembering Gerry Robinson’s television expose of care homes last year.
The films technical aspects are all workmanlike and solid, with a good sense of atmosphere. The humour relies a little too much on the mention of anuses and old-man erections, but again it isn’t really a comedy. It is funny and scary but it is a tragedy, as evidenced by the wonderfully bittersweet ending.

3/5 - “I’m thinking with sand here!”