Spider-Man Begin Again

So, Sam Raimi is no more.
Tobey Maguire, the face of geek chic from 2002 to 2006, is now just another actor, Kirsten Dunst is, well, James Franco, poor guy, and Dylan Baker, they got screwed over didn't they.

Yes, if you need that rock pushed over to see the Sun again it'll be a shock to the system to hear, mere hours after the 'confirmation' of John Malkovich as Vulture in Spidey 4, that project was cancelled, the creative team kicked out and in it's place, Sony are going for a new origin story of Spider-Man, in 2012, the world will end, and doing the destruction will be a retconning of one of the biggest film series in recent history, one full of critical acclaim, fanboy love, and worst of all, isn't even a decade old yet.

You may stop me right now and say But Andrew, how about The Punisher, that had big actors, but they did a change up, hell, look at Hulk, then look at 2008" And I'd say, 1, shut up, this is my piece, and 2, they weren't well received, be it financially, critically or both.

Whilst I found Tom Jane's Punisher well done, or Eric Bana a good actor, the films ultimately were wrong for the franchise, and myself, I'm glad that these changes occurred, the Ray Stevenson Punisher was nastier, more silly and much more violent, perfect, whereas the Ed Norton Hulk had a well rounded plot, needing only 3 action scenes, great cast, and lots of fun.
But if the Daredevil reboot ever starts going, I'll throw a hissy fit there, I find, and me only, Daredevil to be more than just a solid flick, I think it's one of the best superhero films ever made, it's not revolutionary, but it knew the formula, abided by it well, and made it entertaining, unlike, say, Iron Man, which just did everything in a ridiculously slow and dull manner like a kid doing paint by numbers whilst having already done the image yesterday, and today he's distracted by bigger, shinier CGI.

I wish I could say "I'll reserve judgement" for this Spider-Man idea, but lets face it, the great stuff comes out of ideas that were going no where, aren't anywhere near as close to our hearts, do you remember Spider-Man when it first came out? I sure as hell do.
Spider-Man was the first film I saw in the cinema without an adult, my first independent film, if you will. It was action packed, funny, scary, well acted, well shot, some great set pieces, yes the CGI was never amazing, but you could ignore that because you were invested in Maguire's Parker, he was sweet, geeky but you believed he could get the girl, change into the brave hero, Dafoe was freaky, he knew too much, he was insane, a perfect villain.

The template for all forthcoming superhero films, Spider-Man leapt off the success of the first X-Men film, a film which was differently structured to all other comic book films now, and between them, the humour was never pushed too much, and retained the more serious aspects, obviously they couldn't take the subject matters completely seriously, but for films about mutant heroes and men with the powers of spiders, they both managed to retain a lot of key themes and didn't mock the ideas, instead they were willing to go deeper into what the powers would do to the heroes and people around them.

So, what can we expect from Sony with this film?
Well, they've already stated that they'll be going back to Parker in high school, so, maybe the whole film will be based around the somewhat slow first 35 minutes of the first film, before the action kicked in. Whilst it'll be nice to get away from the too many villains issue that was going to plague Spidey 4 as well as ruined number 3, which Sony are clearly blaming Raimi for, though who pushed for Venom to be in it when Raimi stated that he wasn't a fan of that villain? Yeah, thought so.
Sony, the studio behind such masterpieces as 2012, are going to give us some 90210 Skins style superhero film, young good looking people in the roles now synonymous with other actors, it's got Star Trek 2009 written all over it. (The gag reel on that DVD actually has the new actors messing up, and then their names come up with the characters they portray, not the actors they are ripping off, and yes, Chris Pine is ripping off an actor, Mark Hammil)

On top of seeing new faces, which is always hard, there are some key elements to the franchise which will be lost. Namely the build up for Dylan Baker as Dr. Connors who would have become Lizard at some point, and you can sense some darkness and apprehension in his performances, a well structured 2 film arc that will never get it's conclusion. It's a shame because Baker has done so much good work it would have been great to see him suddenly be thrust into the limelight of the Spidey series, not just the lecturer Peter goes to for problems, as unenlightened kids presume he must have been.

Whilst Baker's performances have been for nought, do you know who suffers most? Bruce Campbell.
How key was Campbell? To the point where he was the narrator for tutorial levels for the Spider-Man games. The cameos were always the things to look out for, be it silly as all get out as the French waiter i number 3, or the hysterically annoying usher in number 2, his work really brought the normal life back to Parker, the difficulties of the mundane, like an episode of Seinfeld, and helped the films balance the super moments and the normal elements.

So, what can we expect from the new film?
Who will play our heroes, villains, who, in fact, will be chosen to be the first villain Spidey must fight? Will it end up being a straight remake of the original?
We'll have to wait until the teaser in 2011 to really make up our minds, but for now, we have to ask Sony, was Sam Raimi such a bad choice? Really?

'atchet 'olmes & Dr. "Sleuth" Watson

Guy Ritchie isn't the kind of director you'd think would make a PG-13 action adventure for the mainstream, then again a Madonna comedy was also unexpected. Unlike that film however, Sherlock Holmes is great.
From the off, Downey Jr. in the lead nails a fantastic accent and between him and Jude Law's Watson the chemistry and comedy work perfectly. Action isn't as integral but is more than I thought, and more visually stunning than I thought it would be.
Holmes doesn't go as much on the detection parts, but it doesn't shy away at points, having preview slow motion fight sequences from Holmes guessing how a fight will go down, in Guy Ritchie's most esque- sequences.

The biggest issue in the film is Rachel McAdams as the lover of Holmes, annoying as always, never fun, poorly written, worse acted and when she appears all quality runs off screen.
And it's a shame as sans McAdams the film is top notch, far superior to the summer's outputs. Mark Strong as the villain is eery and exciting, the plot, whilst long winded and near incomprehensible, is entertaining and does the keep you guessing element well like a good detective tale.

Hans Zimmer's score is truly fantastic, well done, memorable and interesting, using odd instruments to help create the London of a Victorian era, and boy the film gets that well, In comparison to the dark Tim Burton one of 07 and Dorian Gray of recent, it's better, more realistic and easier to see, being not dark in any way whatsoever, take that Gothic over the top directors!

The film plays well, it's long but vastly entertaining, well made and better than most big films of the year, a corker of an action adventure, great actors in the leads, great entertainment and superior in every way to Avatar.
8/10

You know what's hard to get? Unobtanium.

So, Avatar, a long process for a film and here we are, it's out, it's about, and how is it?
Well, most critics agree it's a masterpiece.
Is it?
Well, short answer no, long answer Absolutely not.

15 years to make this?
Well, Cameron clearly spent 5 minutes making a plot, by fingering out 3 films and using their plots, and then 14 years doing 3D and CGI.

The plot is painfully dull, cliched and doesn't even try to regenerate the dying ideas, for a 'gamechanger' it's shit.
The acting, on top of that, is limited to Sam Worthington's unlikeable blah-ness, Sigourney Weaver's unfortunate annoyingness, and two good actors in Stephen Lang as the general, who you root for to kill the Na'Vi and their fucking annoying smugness, and Giovanni Ribisi who has no interest in the indigenous people, instead wants to make money from the 'Unobtanium' in the planet's core.

Unobtanium, that's right, is all the humans want, and the Na'Vi are literally connected to their world, and it's an environmental message played much more subtly in An Inconvenient Truth. The CGI is painfully just better than GI: Joe, the 3D was meh at best, and it never ever tries to be anything more than a 2 and a half hour film about cowboys and indians, however it thinks it's a superior epic.

James Cameron fucked up with his most disappointing, dull, painful film for ages, Titanic was better.
4/10

Where The Independent Filmmakers Are

I love Spike Jonze.
I love Spike Jonze more than my love for Richard Kelly, not Kevin Smith love, but by god it's a close battle.
Spike Jonze hasn't just done two masterpieces of cinema in Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, but he's made some amazing short films, exceptional music videos and helped create Jackass. He's got an amazing sense of humour, genius visual style and amazing mix of indie hipster and mainstream.
In Malkovich he gave us the most freaky, funny, bleak tale, in Adaptation we got two Nic Cages (When he was really good) being shot at by Meryl Streep and now, like Wes Anderson, he's chosen to make a kids film.
Or so it seems.
What we get from Jonze and Away We Go writer Dave Eggers is an adaptation of a book from the 60's or 70's that's about a child's reluctance to accept responsibility, instead the violent, bi-polar kid escapes into a fantasy world occupied by parts of his psyche and he learns how hard a job his mother has.

Max Records as the lead is a capable actor, for such a young kid he makes us care enough and wonder what's wrong with him, The Wild things are voiced impeccably with people like Catherine O'Hara (jealous), James Gandolfini (anger), Paul Dano (immaturity), Chris Cooper (compassion) and Forest Whitaker as, well, I dunno.
On top of that Catherine Keener is impeccable as the mother, subtle, simple, sweet.

The film never tries too hard, we have an intro about aggression and depression, some very kid like moments, then a mass escape, then the Wild Things segment which is the majority of the movie, where fascination and childlike wonder meets the mental challenges of the child, and soon it becomes a life lesson.

Between wildly inventive and bleakly compressed, WTWTA manages to be a big budget film that doesn't care about magic and hope, and replaces things like that with the simple artistic devices you'd find in a student production, once again Jonze switches the expected with the opposite, and doesn't even make you expect it. He's a smart one, Mr. Jonze.

Whilst being an odd film, tonally, visually, structurally, it's still an amazing film, a real gem. Script-wise it's impeccable, acting is strong, and if you've yet to catch it, go now, I promise you'll be disappointed if you expect anything big.
9/10

Me & Linklater's Most Interesting New Direction For Years

Richard Linklater is never a director you can comprehend the choices of, at one point he'll be making a kids film with Jack Black, then a rotoscoping sci-fi film and then a partially Spanish language drama about fast food.
This year he has a film set in '30's New York filmed in the Isle of Man starring Zac Efron and about an early production by Orson Welles. Yeah, exactly, Funny thing is, however, it can sound as shit as possible, but damn him, Linklater knows quality still.
Efron once again proves his talents and charisma isn't just working on tweens, he's fun, engaging and top quality throughout, as a young man trying to get a big break in the theatre it's sweet, his interactions with fellow cast members, trying to be one of the men, and at the same time wooing the 'beautiful' young woman, Clare Danes, who oversees the theatre. I put beautiful in quotation marks because she's supposed to be good looking, but as it plays out, good god she's ugly.
The film manages to be fast paced and witty, entertaining in the build up, the interactions with Efron and the other actors, and of course Orson Welles, played to perfection by Christian McKay who is a shoo-in for an Oscar nod (Though Mr. Chris Waltz will win), It's a shame that people would avoid the film due to Efron's appearance in the film, alongside Hairspray, he's showing his qualities are vast and his talent is underused in the Disney career he's begun with, in the next 10 years he's gonna break out and be a BIG star, you can count on that.

The film looks amazing, you could never tell it wasn't shot in New York, and the palette is well done, almost an amalgamation of the period setting being realistic and the sepia tone we see it from footage nowadays. The music is big and broad, the script is brilliant, acting fantastic and the direction is top notch. A small and subtle film that won't be noted much but is superior to what you might expect.
9/10

WHAT'S IN THE BOX! WHAT'S IN THE BOX!

Richard Kelly is very marmite, he's one you love, of which I sit in that camp with a passion, or you hate his works, like a lot of people.
You can claim Donnie Darko is a masterpiece, doesn't mean you love his work, Southland Tales is the deal-breaker. No one seemed to like it, poor reception at Cannes, recut, sorted out, limited release after a year and a half later, critics and the few who saw it still unimpressed.

What I saw was a very funny, odd, eccentric fantasy comedy drama thriller that doesn't really want you to keep track of what's going on unless you actually care enough to watch the film, rather than ignore it and hope to know what's going on.
People hate to be active.

I would love to say that the third feature from Mr. Kelly was up there with his last two greats, the first chance I got to see one of his films in the cinema, The Box stars Cameron Diaz who manages to not be completely awful, James Marsden who is always good and Frank Langella who is very creepy but easy to watch. Add to that Holmes Osbourne once more, who is great though underused, and the cast is solid.
It's a shame, however, that the film never really gets good enough for the talent involved. It's tense, really tense at points, the pre-push the button sequence, the final 10 minutes, it can be horrendously hard to watch, however the hour and forty in between the tense stuff, whilst interesting and funny near the start, can be a drag. After 40 mins the titular decision gets made, and until the last 10 minutes the film slows to a snails pace, sometimes it's a detective tale, other times it's about aliens, but it's never interesting, getting painful. I wish I could say it was at the very least consistent but alas it tends to lend itself to a boring waste of time with a good start and amazing ending. Sorry Mr. Kelly, this isn't a step in the right direction.
7/10

Top 25 of 2009: Part 2 Top 10

10. Watchmen

Directed by Zach Snyder
Written by David Hayter and Alex Tse
Starring Billy Crudup, Malin Akerman, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Carla Gugino & Matthew Goode

This time last year I still had no clue what Watchmen really was, I saw the Movie-Con footage, violent and interesting visually,but not full of any kind of coherent story. Then, last February, I finally got round to reading the novel. And it hit me. It's longwinded, slow, and in classic Alan Moore style, the dialogue is near appallingly generic through and through, but the ideas, the characters, the structure, it was so well done, clear parody without ever pushing humour, instead going for a serious meditation over the ideas of costumed heroes.

And the film doesn't fail to do it justice. The film, of course, couldn't tell the WHOLE spectrum of the novel, it leaves out the Black Freighter, which is how I read it, skipping over those parts, but on top of the amazing visuals, the story is well told, the action well done but minimal, the acting near top tier, thanks to Matthew Goode and Malin Akerman for being shit.

Patrick Wilson gives the understated performance of this year, akin to Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent, perfect but underrated, especially between Jeffrey Dean Morgan's loud, violent, brash but still within inches of humanity performance as The Comedian, Billy Crudup's total removal of humanity as Dr. Manhattan, and most of all Jackie Earle Haley's sterling work as moral vigilante Rorschach, clearly a messed up person, but one who sticks by his guns throughout.

A sublime 3 hour film, better of course in the director's cut edition where the 3 hours flow by at a superior pace, and new additions from the novel are added in perfectly. See this movie.

9. Crank 2: High Voltage

Written & Directed by Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor
Starring Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Efren Ramirez, Dwight Yoakam, Art Hsu, Ling Bai, Clifton Collins Jr., David Carradine & Joseph Julian Soria

If your top 10 of 2009 list includes Star Trek but has no conscious notion of Crank 2 inside it, then your top 10 sucks. Not only did Star Trek come out a month later, but it was no where near as well done, plot wise, character wise or action wise. Lens flare can go fuck itself, this is adrenaline fueled filmmaking at it's finest, a step up from the first, whilst not as good, Neveldin/Taylor raised the bar of just how fucked up they are wiling to get in the series as Chev Chelios now has his heart stolen and powers off the mains as he kills people. It's not political correct, it's not for kids and it's not for the mainstream, it never lets up and it's not taking itself seriously, it's about as ballsed up as a film can get and it's super hysterical. Fuck Star Trek.

8. In The Loop

Directed by Armando Iannucci
Written by Simon Blackwell, Jesse Armstong, Tony Roche & Armando Iannucci
Starring Tom Holander, Chris Addison, Peter Capaldi, Gina McKee, Steve Coogan, James Gandolfini & Paul Higgins

The Thick Of It is genius. Right. Now, expand that humour to an hour and fourty minutes. OMG WOW amirite? Yeah, ok, but it's a feature, the x-odd hundred people who saw Thick Of It on BBC4 won't do as the audience, we need to expand. Add some Americans in, maybe they'll flock to see it. Hmm, how does that work? Well, sadly it weakens the film a bit, softening the bludgeoning hell that Westminster politics is shown as, instead we have 3/4 of a film full of anger, vulgarity and genius, and 1/4 a weaker, more pleasantly toned film, but ultimately one that has none of the punch the other 3/4 has, so it's to that 3/4 we say, thank you, for lines so wonderful as "It's not easy peasy lemon squezy, it's difficult difficult lemon difficult" and "You really are a boring fuck, you know that. I know you hate swearing, sorry, you really are a boring F star star cunt"

Peter Capaldi shines once again as Malcolm Tucker, PM's spin doctor extraordinaire, Chris Addison as intern Toby once again brings the snarky mean comedy he's presented in the show so well, newcomer Tom Holander is amazing and fits in so well as the cabinet minister who gets shoved firmly up shit creek throughout the film, if only they never left England, this film would have been contender for number 1.

7. The Hurt Locker

Directed by Katheryn Bigelow
Written by Mark Boal
Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty

Once in a while there's a film made that you sit down, and not at one point do you begin wandering your eyes around the cinema. Rarely, however, are you so invested in the characters and story that you are biting your nails on the edge of your seat for nearly the complete runtime of the film. The hurt Locker really nails you down and pushes you to the edge and stops just before you have a heart attack. It's one of the most intense films made for years, and Ms. Bigelow certainly knows what she's doing. There's about 6 big sequences, and all of them get you hooked, they may run for over 15 minutes, but they feel like they're only 3 minutes apiece, and it's all interesting, handled well and simply perfect. I re-watched this film in HD recently and it more than holds up, I knew what happened in each scene, but it didn't stop the tension from hitting hard. A true masterpiece, acted well, shot well, edited perfectly, written extraordinarily, everything is note perfect.

6. Moon

Directed by Duncan Jones
Written by Nathan Parker
Starring Sam Rockwell, Sam Rockwell, Matt Berry, Benedict Wong & Kevin Spacey

You have £5 million, Sam Rockwell and a script not just set in a space station, but featuring outside shots of the Earth's satellite. What do you do? Besides leaving sound in space and not having limited gravity, you get to Pinewood, as the writer's strike hits all other productions hard, and make your film using some real talents, miniatures, Kevin Spacey as a robot and then throw some CGI on to help the miniatures have a realistic edge to them, then release an adult sci-fi drama that's smart, simple and entertaining. Duncan Jones knows what he's doing with his first feature, a true jaw dropping piece of work on all accounts, and when you get 2 Sam Rockwells on camera together, and playing ping pong, there's no way you can say it's a piece of crap. Definite contender for the Oscars, especially since it's high time Sam Rockwell got one, he so deserves it.

5. Fanboys

Directed by Kyle Newman
Written by Ernest Cline and Adam F. Goldberg
Starring Jay Baruchel, Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Kristen Bell, Seth Rogen & many many awesome cameos.

After years of waiting a friend linked me to a download of this film, I hated having to do this, but it was the only chance I had to get to see this film, it's still not seen the UK, though I've pimped it out everywhere. The day I saw it was actually 1am on Star Wars day, who knew. Fanboys is simply put a wonderful comedy that, unlike The Big Bang Theory, respects the geeks in people, not just playing them up for laughs among the masses. With some real great actors, some who will definitely be big names soon enough, we're hoping Mr. Baruchel, we're hoping, and lots and lots of great Star Wars cameos, and just cool people, like Danny Trejo, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes and Zak Knutson, the road trip comedy about a group of friends who plan to break into Skywalker Ranch and steal a first cut print of Episode 1 for their friend Linus, who has cancer and won't see the release, is a well handled comedy with dramatic elements, unfortunately not enough because our friends at The Weinstein Company only gave a day or so to re-insert the cancer plotline after fearing cancer and comedy don't work well, if anything it emphasises the comedy and adds so much more heart to the piece.

Whilst we wish an original cut of Newman's version will be released one day, import the DVD from America and have a great time, trust me.

4. Zombieland

Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Written by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin & The Cameo.

Zombies. They've been fuel for nightmares for decades, and only recently have people gone for a more comedic route, see Shaun Of The Dead for a brilliant take on the zombie tale. Zombieland goes for an American style rom-zom-com, young man, still a virgin naturally, survives in the desolate America where the undead roam, meets a gun-toting man, strong, little dumb but good at survival, and they travel together, wherein they meet two young vixens, and then young man and young woman fall in love. It's vulgar, violent and very very very very very funny, add to that great use of text, an opening credit sequence that only Watchmen pips to the post and the cameo from a world famous funnyman, it's all brilliant, and a must see.

3. (500) Days Of Summer

Directed by Marc Webb
Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
Starring Joeseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel

Rom coms, sometimes they can be well done, mostly they are middle of the road, not awful, just, not good. Sometimes they are pure cack.

This isn't a rom com. This is a comedy drama about a relationship, a woman who is a complete bitch and everything possible that makes going shopping in Ikea so damn fun. The two leads are extraordinary as always, the comedy is hysterical through and through, the music fantastic, the style of the piece genius, non-linear, jumping around, sometimes even looking into fantasy and reality simultaneously. A sublime comedy that I've waited months to watch for a third time, I loved it so much that the wait has been painful, nearly over. Simply brilliant.

2. Inglourious Basterds

Written & Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring Christopher Waltz, Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Til Schweiger, Daniel Bruhl, Michael Fassbender and Melanie Laurent

Tarantino films have a shelf life of about 6 screenings before they really turn kinda sour. Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs, Death Proof, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, some elements are great, but for the most part all those films are kinda dull, a little too over the top in every respect, and, well, just annoying at points. Basterds is not. The ensemble cast works perfectly as we jump between the serious tale of Shoshanna and the Nazi premiere party mixed with the comedic action of the Basterds trying to scalp Nazis and invade the premiere. But tying it all together with the intimidating danger and hilarious comedy is Chris Waltz as 'The Jew Hunter' Colonel Hans Landa. He's viscous, dangerous and scary, you are never sure what he's up to, if you want to laugh at his lines or want to hide in case he finds you, and in that lies the genius which keeps Basterds away from the rotting nature of Tarantino's other films. It's a wonderful film, paced well, shot perfectly and with a great soundtrack, dialogue, acting, nothing is wrong with this film, a perfect WW2 action film, of which there haven't been many for years. The last one to be as good or as funny was Schindler's List.

(If I go to hell for that joke it was worth it)

1. Away We Go

Directed by Sam Mendes
Written by Steve Eggers & Vendela Vida
Starring John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeff Daniels, Catherine O'Hara & Allison Janney

And here we are, numero uno, the shock, the twist, the upset. This year I sat in a cinema and watched a film for free, the film started too early so was rewound and replayed, so I missed the opening, then saw the opening and had to re-watch scenes again before setting off. And I wasn't even that big a fan of it. Of course 2 weeks later the film was released and I went to see it. 2 hours later I left the screening in love. Soon enough I imported the Blu Ray and have watched it continuously for months. Away We Go is a funny, well told tale of two people in love, starting a family, but trying to find a place to plant their roots. At times it can be brutal to watch, and particularly moving, beautiful but tragic. Other times it can be the funniest parts of the year. And the two leads in Krasinski and Rudolph rise above the Office and SNL roots that have made them so famous, the last big films they were in were Idiocracy and License to Wed, so seeing them so adult, serious, hysterical but able to hold a film on their own with the chemistry so strong and real you'd swear they genuinely were in love is amazing to watch.

The writing is near perfect, Eggers once again proves himself to be masterful in writing, Mendes' directing is fantastic,a particular shot of a plane taking off through reflections on glass is breathtaking, the music by Alexi Murdoch is nothing short of brilliant and everything in this film is superb, if you haven't seen it yet, check it out NOW!

And as we depart that year and head into 2010 I only have one thing to say to the last year.

FUCK YOU!

You sucked massively, it was so hard compiling this list that only at number 12 (The Wrestler) did films that got 10/10 ratings appear, usually I have over 30 10/10 films. Not this year!

Lots of hate, Andrew.