Untergang

History has a way of portraying some of it's most influential figures and events as almost mythical, superhuman figures.

If you want a good example of this then you need only look to Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP. Whilst we are all aware of the evil they did, little is done to address how they rose to power, and we see them portrayed in media, it is almost always as some sort of virtually supernatural villain.

So it is refreshing to see the human side of evil, and that's evident here in Der Untergang, or if you prefer it in English, Downfall. This epic film charts the last few days and hours of the Third Reich, the death throes of Nazism if you will. We meet all the infamous Nazis, from Goebbels to Speer to Himmler, with the chief himself, Adolf Hitler being played superbly by Bruno Ganz.

Initially the film is shown through the eyes of Traudl Junge, one of Hitlers private secretaries but over the course of the film we get to see the downfall of Berlin through the eyes of many different characters, from a terrified parent, to a brave doctor and the men and boys of the Wermacht making a last ditch defence of Berlin. Detailing the plot of this movie is kind of unnecessary given that most people are aware of what happened in WW2.

From what I have read and studied of that era, most of the actors here are absolutely spot on with their portrayal of some of modern histories most evil men and women. For example, Dr Joseph Goebbels is shown as a spectacularly vain man, with an undying devotion to the Fuhrer. Himmler is portrayed as the self serving and snivelling toad we all know him to be and Eva Braun? A ditzy, ineffectual blonde who partied whilst Berlin burned.

This is not a movie that can be watched lightly, it is certainly not Saturday evening popcorn fodder. Nonetheless this is a film that sticks the memory. With what we already know happened, you could be forgiven for being bored by this films premise but there's certainly no tedium here, despite the near enough 3 hour run time. In fact the director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, has delivered a sense of impending doom, an all pervading menace that infests the faces of all. What Hirschbiegel and Ganz also deliver, amazingly, is a human side to Hitler. That's somewhat troubling, the sympathy evoked but at the same time you're reminded of the terrible crimes committed in his name.

Films in a foreign language aren't everyone cup of schnapps but I would heartily recommend seeking out this one.

28 Days Later

Along with the remake of Dawn Of The Dead, this movie kicked of my love affair, some would say obsession, with Zombie films. Although strictly speaking this is not a Zombie film as such, it's about The Infected, but to all intents and purposes they're near enough to being Zombies.

The film starts off with some animal rights activists breaking into a lab. During a tussle with some of the staff a monkey is released. Said simian is infected with Rage, a virus that makes whoever catches it ultra violent. The film then cuts to a hospital, coincidentally the one i was born in. We see Jim wake from a coma,having missed the outbreak of the Rage virus. He stumbles through the hospital, and then the streets of London looking for someone, anyone. Eventually, after surviving an attack by the Infected, Jim hooks up with 2 other survivors, one of whom doesn't even last the night before he is bitten and is hacked into small pieces by Selina, the other survivor.

Jim and Selina then meet up with Frank and Hannah, a father and daughter holed up in a tower block. Our group then decide to make for an encampment 'oop north' to be with soldiers who they believe will protect them. Not all is as it seems though and Major Henry West has some rather devious plans for our plucky survivors.

This film is almost unremittingly bleak. Interesting questions are asked here about violence. The Infected are violent but our heroes can either become violent when faced with a threat and survive or they can try another way and probably have their entrails munched on. It also shows how violence is corrupting and dehumanising with the effects of the post apocalyptic Britain on the soldiers. Really, in order to survive the Infected, one must become violent like them.

Although the young girl who plays Hannah is amazingly bad, the rest of the actors here are fantastic and cast perfectly. In as much as Africa was a character in The African Queen, i firmly believe that in the opening scenes London is also a player. Quite how the makers of this film managed to capture the streets utterly deserted and devastated truly is a marvel to behold and it qualifies as one of the creepiest scenes you will see. Some zombie films are played for laughs, some are played for scares and some are played for thrills. This one stands alone as being played for psychological thrills and chills.

This shouldn't put you off as this easily one of the best, if not THE best British films of the last 10 years or so.

Speed

Some things in life constantly amaze me. Stuff like why people will insist on drinking that vile Ginger Beer stuff or the continued popularity of Lady GaGa. Chiefly among those things that perplex me is how it is that Keanu Reeves manages to be basically the same character in pretty much every movie he is in. He isn't the only 'actor' to fall into this trap, with Vinnie Jones and Danny Dyer jumping to mind.

In Speed, he plays Jack Traven, an LAPD officer who gets drawn into a game of cat and mouse with Dennis Hoppers mad bomber character. After an entertaining scene with a bomb on a lift and Hopper escaping we meet Sandra Bullock, playing Annie, a ditzy bird on a bus in LA. Once Reeves boards the bus we are treated to action set-piece after action set-piece. In essence we are battered about the head with them until we just give in.

The movie ends with Hopper get beheaded in a most amusing way and Traven and Annie end the film by making out in a wrecked tube train.

Hopper by the way spends much of his time chewing the scenery with gay abandon and is almost laughable in his attempts to come off as evil. Also, i think i noticed that his injured hand changes from left to right randomly through the film. Continuity errors much? Bullock is perfectly good in this movie and Reeves? Well, I'm still flabbergasted he is an actor! The action in this comes over quite well, especially when one considers much of it takes place on a bus. There is one scene though that actually had me swearing out loud at the ridiculousness of it. The bus is careering along the freeway and our protagonists notice that part of the freeway hasn't been finished and the bus.... jumps the gap!

This sort of thing is typical of this sort of action film. See, there are 2 types of action film, those take themselves seriously like the Die Hard films and then there are those that almost send themselves up with the over the top action and ridiculous characters. If you can switch your brain off, then both types are perfectly enjoyable and in the case of Speed, although it has dated horribly and Reeves has the range of a myopic hamster, is still a good if undemanding action film.

Bustin Loose

I'll start my first ever review on here with a confession.



When Richard Pryor died, I was in tears. I utterly adored him, he was by some way my favorite comedian. The stand up he does blows all of today's comics out of the water and the only to even remotely approach him is Frankie Boyle.



Now that I have that off my chest, let's get into the meat of the reason for this blog, reviewing my film collection.




I haven't seen this particular part of Pryor's work for many years, so in effect it's a new-ish film to me. The first thing to note is that it is not a comedy as such, certainly not like Stir Crazy for example.



Pryor plays Joe, an ex con who gets roped into driving a bus full of troubled kids from their children's home in Philadelphia to a farm owned by their social worker in Washington. And yes, the plot really is as hackneyed as it sounds and every bit as cloying as it implies. Along the way, the hard bitten but essentially lovable rogue gradually falls for the kids and their social worker.


Along the way the gang get into some scrapes but get out of them with wearing predictability. On one memorable occasion, with the bus bogged down in mud somewhere in Iowa, Pryor dismounts and comes back with KKK members who push the bus out of the mire! I don't mind stretching incredulity watching a film but that takes the piss!

When they finally reach the farm, it seems that it's not owned by the social workers parents but by the social worker herself, played by Cicely Tyson who is so wooden I'm shocked she wasn't made into a cabinet. Of course, Pryor tries to save the day with a harebrained scheme involving stealing money from a hoodlum but the kids come through by stealing the bank managers car and then returning it to said bank manager who is so grateful he hands over $15000. The film ends with some astonishingly contrived claptrap between Pryor and the kids as they face their issues. In fact i would go so far as to say the whole final 30 minutes is unnecessary and feels tacked on.


The kids incidentally are the best thing in this movie by a country mile. The storyline is hackneyed, the 'acting' by everyone bar the aforementioned kids is awful and there are plot holes big enough to get the bus through. Some characters don't get enough screen time and others get too much. The jokes, such as they are, just about qualify as amusing but to me, this where the film falls down. It seems like the directors, Oz Scott and Michael Schultz couldn't decide if they wanted to make a family comedy, a straight comedy , a kids movie, or a drama. In the end they've got a melange of genres that doesn't quite work.