If Napoleon Dynamite is to be believed, Idaho (or at the very least a place called Preston) is stuck back in the mid-Eighties and everybody is slightly odd. Napoleon is a school misfit with a misfit brother (who cruises Internet chat rooms), a misfit uncle (who is trying to recreate his high school football days) and a misfit friend Pedro who is trying to become Class President and is up against the all-American cheerleader, Summer. Add to that some milk-tasting contest and eating raw egg yolks in a chicken farm and I’m happy to admit it was a very strange experience.

Usually, I like films with a plot and Napoleon Dynamite is missing much of one but somehow the offbeat comedy works in a subtle – not laugh out loud – way. Add to that the massive Idaho landscapes and somehow you have an enjoyable way to spend a few of December’s final hours in a cinema. Just thank goodness for LaFawnduh.

On this day…

2003: At Home
2003: It Was A Good Read
2002: Denia

So I’ve just got back from a nice – but rushed – meal and a visit to Clapham Picture House to see Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow, starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s a vision of what will happen if we don’t all take up cycling, ditch the cars and stop throwing out refrigerators with the trash (or some such thing).

Actually, it’s a disaster movie with a message and it certainly makes the grade as the first although the message is somewhat lost along the way and the plot is, like all movies in this genre, ridiculously enjoyable. Basically, it starts to rain and then gets very cold and the only place where you seem to be able to survive in New York is the public library (and that’s because you can burn the books). Gyllenhaal’s dad, is of course, the only person on the whole of the American continent who can save him so he tries to. Marvelous, stupid and thoroughly entertaining.

Ian Holm puts in a notable performance from a remote Scottish weather station where – at the moment of disaster – they decide to toast England, Manchester United and Mankind (so not very convincingly Scottish – although they, of course, drink a decent malt to ward off the end).

It’s a mankind in peril, gripping disaster movie and I found it immensely entertaining. It’s stunning when it’s building and the effects are at their best (and who cares if the ice at the start looks computer generated)? Sadly, it does fade a little towards the end – especially as any last elements of believability fly out the window – but as a couple of hours entertainment you must go and see this film.

The message to all of Planet Earth is, of course, corrupted to work for the film and lost after the first third. But that doesn’t make any difference.

On this day…

2003: We all love Dermot
2003: Just In Time
2003: Last Night

So why did I go and see this film? Perhaps it was for the epic nature of the story or perhaps it was to see the battle scenes in all their cinematic glory. Of course it could have been just to see Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt buffed up and clad only in armour for a couple of hours on the screen.

The film was a huge let down. The epic, cinematic battles looked old-hat when compared to The Lord of the Rings. The story seemed disjointed and unfulfilling. There was nobody to side with, nobody to support and precious little humour to lighten the feel. It may be based on real-life events but if you are going to take licence you may as well bring some feeling into it.

Trojan champion Prince Hector (Eric Bana) is the most likeable but – while not wanting to spoil anything for you – his fate entirely predictable even if you didn’t know the story. Pitt had all the moves, looks and swagger but was an unsympathetic mercenary and Orlando Bloom came across as a wishy-washy waste of space. Sadly, Achilles’ end (the heel, if you will) is entirely lost despite the best efforts of the film makers.

I’d wait until it’s on television if I were you.

On this day…

2004: Polo Shirts: A Fashion Idea For 2004
2003: Open Secret
2003: Crossroads ‘was all a dream’
2003: Pop Life
2003: Unfortunately There Are Effectively No Funds Available To Pay The Salaries
2003: No Consensus In Support Of Same-Sex Unions
2003: Dr Kildare is a Sissy

I have finally managed to see the final part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King. To be honest, I am not sure if I was a little disappointed or not in the last part. Nevertheless, there are many, many more good things than bad and, regardless, it is a superb film. The battle sequences are truly ‘epic’ and, in the case of the catapulted heads, a little horrific. The acting is superb, the bonds between the characters are, at times, tear-jerking. The settings are stunning (and Minas Tirith exactly as I imagined it), the story is edited in an edge-of-the-seat way and the effects that created Sauron’s massive Orc armies are incredible.

Although the effects are really brilliant it is the acting that makes this film (and in that respect it is sad that Orlando Bloom and John Rhys-Davies do not have a bigger part to play and that Christopher Lee – Saruman – does not get anything at all). Elijah Wood is great as Frodo, tormented by The Ring to the very end, but in that partnership it must be Sean Astin who deserves some kind of award. I am not sure there were many dry eyes in the theatre. And how will Ian McKellen every play anything other than Gandalf?

On the downside, Arwen’s decision to become mortal is really not played out (which is a shame) and does leave the very end of the film a little limper than the book.

When I read the book, I was very conscious of Tolkien’s multiple ending points. You felt it went on beyond it’s natural end. You can also say the same about this film (although it doesn’t get dragged out quite so much) and yet I am disappointed that the return to The Shire was not faithful to the book as it really shows the changes that have taken place to The Hobbits. That is, however, a minor complaint. This is a stunning film and Peter Jackson deserves all the praise that has been heaped on him.

On this day…

2003: You Spin Me Round

Love Actually is not the film I imagined it to be. I guess you can call it a romantic comedy and it seemed like a sensible film to watch on New Year’s Day. The cinema was packed which suggests we wen’t the only ones with that idea.
I should say from the beginning, it’s sentimental and feel-good. If those words put you off then you shouldn’t really see this film. I do think, however, that if you have ever (even once) got a little lovey-dovey then could go and see this movie and get something out of it.

It’s weaves a whole stack of separate stories together about people in love or finding love (and even out of love) with the backdrop of Christmas in London. Richard Curtis (of Four Weddings And A Funeral fame) makes his directorial debut and provides a very well-shot image of 21st Century London at Christmas. There are some really well-done sequences around the city which gives somebody like me – who thinks he’s seen all he wants to of London – something to smile at.

Having said it’s well-shot it is not without problems. Too many stories are intertwined leaving too many questions unanswered. When you leave a cinema questioning some of your understanding about who was who and where things were set you know that at some point this film failed. Why have the whole Wisconsin sequence, for example? And what happened to the Laura Linney parts – I suspect there is something on a cutting room floor that explains all that somewhere.

But don’t let that put you off. Liam Neeson’s storyline is great (even if it stretched believability a little), Emma Thompson is superb (and you will feel for her as she opens a Christmas present) as Alan Rickman‘s wife (he too stands out with a great, typical Rickman performance). Even Hugh Grant is believable as a Prime Minister who falls for his tea lady (Martine McCutcheon).

What I liked, although I have no idea if they will translate to the US, are the really British touches. Ant and Dec are the kid’s TV presenters; Jo Wiley is a DJ and Wes Butters does the chart run down for the Christmas Number One. And there wasn’t an over abundance of red London busses – which must be a first for British films.

This is really an inoffensive, somewhat amusing, light-hearted, feel-good British comedy and I hope it does well. If you read the message boards over at the Internet Movie Database you’ll read about people walking out in shock and disgust – which, if you’ve seen the film, is just as amusing.

On this day…

2006: Here We Go
2005: 2004 In Review
2005: Bruce Almighty
2004: Review of 2003: December
2004: Review of 2003: November
2002: Why Do You Do It?

According to the internet movie database, the basic premise of the movie S.W.A.T. that I saw on the plane is, “An imprisoned drug kingpin offers a huge cash reward to anyone that can break him out of police custody and only the LAPD’s Special Weapons and Tactics team can prevent it”. It’s about all you need to know really.

If you read this site a great deal you will know that I have a strange love of action movies. I think they are – by and large – a huge waste of time and yet I constantly enjoy them and will watch the same one again and again. This would be no exception. The plot could be passed off as a true story – more or less – but (and correct me if you’re in LA) helicopters be shot out of the sky and races through the subway tunnels can not be an every day/week/year occurrence.

Still, Colin Farrell is Jim Street the cop on the boundaries who makes good and Samuel L. Jackson is always enjoyable in everything he does. Even LL Cool J was good and it’s always good to see Josh Charles on the screen.

Go an enjoy this movie and then see Colin in the Man of the Moment section.

On this day…

No other posts on this day.

Buffalo Soldiers was an attempt at a satirical take on the state of the US Army. Of course it was all made before the terrorist attacks of September 2001 and the war in Iraq of 2003 and has spent some time on the shelf until it was decided to release it.

Ray Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix) is the clerk for a supply unit of the US Army and is running every black-market racket he can until a new sergeant picks up the scent of the corruption and starts to root it out.

I found it a little disappointing as the story seemed narrow and predictable. Phoenix is good and brooding but not convincingly the type to go up against gang-land Germany in the days before the Berlin-wall fell. Ed Harris as Col. Berman, Scott Glenn as Sgt. Robert E. Lee are notable performances and Anna Paquin as the love-interest was well-played.

You do seem to side with Elwood (who is certainly not the good guy here) over the honesty of the others – which maybe as the writers intended – but you can’t help feeling that you wish this movie had more depth. Comparisons to M*A*S*H may be spot-on.

On this day…

2007: Read The Manual
2005: My Idea Changed
2004: Administrative Apologies
2003: Another Russian Birthday
2003: Not Another Teen Movie
2002: How do you say Happy Birthday in Russian?
2002: Marry Me

Just a short note about I Capture The Castle which is one of the most surprising films I have seen in a long time. It’s well produced, written and acted it’s just not quite what I expected. A tale of love and betrayal set in a crumbling English castle as the inhabitants run out of money. IMDB has some great reviews. Henry Cavill, as Stephen, is lovely.

On this day…

2004: Personal Information Management
2004: Cameraphone Backlash
2004: Already It’s Mid June
2003: Show Me Your Bottom