Classic Scene: True Romance's 'Sicilian scene'

This notable scene involves a member of the Mafia named Vincenzo Coccotti, Christopher Walken’s character, paying a visit to Clarence’s father, Clifford, played by Dennis Hopper, to try and discover the whereabouts of his son. Clifford mocks Coccotti, speaking of his Sicilian ancestry in an offensive way, trying to provoke Coccotti’s wrath and his own quick death. He does this because he knows that sooner or later he will buckle under Coccotti’s torture and pressure. This is a classic example of the type of snappy, witty dialogue used in Tarantino’s movies. The elements which make this scene stand out from the rest of the film are that the two characters are both seated for almost the entirety of the scene, and interact with each other through humour, eye contact and head movements, watching and waiting for each others’ reactions. Another major point is the use of music. The use of a classical piece creates a tranquil atmosphere, which contradicts the violence and intensity of the scene.

TOP 5 CINEMA EXPERIENCES: No. 3

SERENITY

Serenity previewed at the Edinburgh International Film Festival prior to its release and the cast and director were in town to promote it.
At the time I had never heard of the film or Firefly but walking past HMV one day I noticed there was going to be a signing with Joss Whedon and most of the cast the following day, and being a huge Buffy fan I had to go. This was a pretty humiliating experience as I mistook Adam Baldwin for a security guard and practically ran away from Whedon instead of speaking to him but I was lucky enough to be given a free ticket to one of the screenings while I queued.
I then had to queue again at the cinema for roughly 40 minutes before the film started, something I've never again had to do at an EINN screening. I remember being blown away by the film at the time (corny lines included) and had to go back a further three times, mainly to send away my ticket stubs and claim a free Serenity t-shirt...probably one of my geekiest experiences as well then. This paid off though as the film did reach no.1 at the UK box office (even if it was the lowest grossing no.1 that year hehe). :)

TOP 5 CINEMA EXPERIENCES: No.2

MOULIN ROUGE

I saw Moulin Rouge in Leicester Square's largest Odeon cinema when it was released in 2001, when I was 13. As a big fan of musicals (mainly due to this film) seeing this in the cinema had a huge emotional impact on me. The cinema itself was amazing, such a massive screen and zebra stripe patterned seats which I thought at the time was extremely cool. The colours and imagery in scenes such as the 'Elephant Love Medley' and 'Your Song' are what made the film for me, as well as Kylie Minogue's cameo as the Absinth Fairy lol. By the end of the film I was glad to see that most of the audience were weeping alongside me and it still remains one of my favourite movies today. Unfortunately I don't have much else to say as this was such a long time ago but has obviously made a lasting impact :)

TOP 5 CINEMA EXPERIENCES: No.1

1. LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

My dad actually paid me a tenner to go and see this with him because up until then I hadn't watched The Two Towers and had slept most of the way through The Fellowship, so I did not go in expecting to enjoy it. By the end of the film (or maybe 20 minutes before the end :-s) I was about ready to jump out of my seat and cheer. I was only 15 when this film was released and I'm sure at this age the thought of going to the cinema on my own totally horrified me but I went back another four times and loved it more and more on each viewing :) .

THE BFI IMAX EXPERIENCE

So I recently had my first experience visiting London's BFI Imax, the biggest cinema screen in Britain. I went to see Tim Burton's new 'Alice in Wonderland' and literally managed to book myself the last ticket for the entire week of screenings. This however meant I was in the second row which was not so great as the screen was so huge it was a bit difficult to concentrate.

The ticket cost between £11-12 (for a student price) which to be fair is not too much more than you would pay for a standard central London cinema ticket even without it being in 3D.

Unfortunately I fell asleep for a short period of the film (though in my opinion it did not live up to expectations), and wish now I had gone to see Avatar as Alice was beautiful but was apparantly not made for 3D which just made it kind of blurry so if you are planning on seeing it you're probably best to do so in 2D.

Anyway, the adverts and trailers shown before the main feature seemed to be of a much higher standard than in any normal cinema, it actually made me want to go and see Toy Story 3 for example. The doors closed 10 minutes prior to the film beginning so if you were not in your seat before then you would not get in. There is a bar and cafe as well as all the usual food and drink available at cinemas so you can take alcohol into the screen as long as you ask for it in a plastic cup.

Unfortunately I found the seating rather uncomfortable which along with being seated in the second row spoiled the experience for me. If I had have booked further in advance I'm sure it would have been much more enjoyable, so for my personal experience I would give it 3/5.

TIM BURTON

INCOMING NEWS FLASH: Tim Burton's newly announced project will be a 3D stop motion remake of...... 'The Addams Family!'

According to Total Film: "don’t expect this to be an animated sequel to Barry Sonnenfeld’s live-action Addams Family flicks. Though we’d love it if Christina Ricci, Angelica Huston and Christopher Lloyd reprised their roles for the voice work.

It’s an about turn back into the gothic realms that Burton is most comfortable in after the director made this year's more kid-friendly Alice In Wonderland.

Not sure that the Addams bunch pose much of a challenge, but it’s at least something more in line with the Burton that we know and love than things like Alice and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory..."


In my opinion this sounds a bit beneath his talents (not that he has made a truly awesome film in god knows how many years).

As far as I was aware Burton's next film was going to be 'Maleficent', a remake of Sleeping Beauty told from the evil queen's point of view, which sounds good in theory but will probably turn out the same way as Alice in Wonderland, visually stunning but NO PLOT WHATSOEVER.

Why the need for all the remakes??? I mean come on...Maleficent, The Addams Family, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Planet of the Apes.....all been done before, a couple of them more than once.

The man clearly needs to take a time-out, rethink whether all this 3D nonsense is really worth it and write some new stories...bring back the days of Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice and Batman Returns!

SHUTTER ISLAND

I went into this not knowing what to expect, save for that it starred DiCaprio and was directed by Scorcese. Not an unimpressive starting point, one could reasonably assume, and while this differs somewhat from a lot of his other work there is still an identifiably Scorcese feel to the movie.

However, what started out as an arresting psychological/detective yarn had, by the end, descended into familiar and hackneyed territory :-s

DiCaprio plays US Marshal Teddy Daniels, called to investigate a disappearance at the hospital for the criminally insane located on... um... Shutter Island ! He's accompanied on
his assignment by the stereotypical 'new partner' Chuck Aule, played capably by Mark Ruffalo. Now, it turns out during the movie that Teddy has a vested interest in the case -
and has actually requested that he be assigned to it. The question is, has Teddy been assigned the case - or has the case been assigned to him ?

If you were to take 1 part "Wickerman" (the PROPER version not the WOEFUL Nick Cage honey bee nonsense), 1 part "Identity", 1 part "Angel Heart", 1 part "The Game", a few pages from a novel by Umberto Eco, a sprinkling of kafka and fire it all into a tub you pretty much have the rough outline of how this movie is going to feel for the viewer. Oh, you might want to burn a copy of 'the number 23' in the corner, too, being as it's a good example of how to handle a similar idea in a flabbergastingly more inept way. Anyway we're basically talking the ol' 2 people in 1 switcheroo - yet another attempt at recreating a personality crisis on celluloid and it fails and succeeds in much the same way as other such films have done before.

As the key themes appear to be subterfuge and duality one spends a lot of time analysing everything that is happening. Or, erm, I did anyways. This leads to a somewhat strange
experience. Clearly there is something not 100% 'by the book' about the whole way DiCaprios character 'investigates' the supposed incident, nor how he receives his 'clues'. This was something of a gripe for me, as everything falls so neatly into place that I found it hard to believe him in his role as a super sleuth. I mean, surely if everything came together so obviously in an investigation it would cause even a mildly switched on person to figure "Isn't this all being funnelled down a very narrow tube??". Also, the situations that arise where ANY investigator would have his guard about him are treated with no such air and the dynamic duo stumble on through, seemingly oblivious to the signposts all around them. Infact, at points, it's almost like they're stopping to walk around them :-s

The main turning point for me from believable into unbelievable territory came with the 'cigarette swap' incident. The two 'detectives' are caught out in a rainstorm and pretty
much the first thing that's mentioned afterwards is that their cigarettes got wet ? NO SHIT, SHERLOCK ! Oh, but never mind, there's a bunch of new packets laid on. I mean, would YOU smoke those cigarettes ?? Hmmm... Supplied by an institution packed with psychoactive drugs and people who know many ways of administering them. Oh, and these same people appear to be under the impression you're trying to 'fuck them over' (and don't forget, you're pretty positive they're a 'bad lot'). Willing suspension of disbelief is one thing, stupidity is another. Plus, this is like a lot of films in that there's almost no dialogue that isn't moving the plot along - so I naturally questioned the inclusion of the fact that their cigarettes got wet (yet another GLARING SIGNPOST). If the viewer is questioning this then surely it's reasonable to expect the detective who is supposed to be IN THAT SITUATION might have an inkling that something isn't quite so welcoming about their new found smokes :-s


The supporting cast handle things well and there's certainly a lot of acting talent involved, with Ben Kingsley as the benevolent yet perfectly sinister Dr Cawley and Max Von Sydow as creepy ex Nazi Dr Naehring turning in very competent if not slightly Hammy turns (especially on the part of Sydow, but then again he is and always will be MING THE MERCILESS so he is entitled to behave however he wishes - on-screen OR off). Jackie Earl Haley also crops up in a cameo as an unfortunately typical caricature of an 'insane' character, once one of Teddys informants on the outside, now doomed to a life on Shutter Island as a result of the marshals refusal to 'let things lie'. Presumably taking some time out from the Nightmare on Elm street set, being as it only looked like he was missing half his 'freddy' guise :-o He is, as are the other 'insane' characters in the piece, way too familiar with Teddys character for it to be believable that they are not already in possession of certain knowledge about him. I appreciate this is DELIBERATELY IMPLIED in a lot of cases, but getting guards and the like to be 'in on' a conspiracy is one thing - trying to brief the inmates of an INSANE ASYLUM to remember lines by rote ? That's stretching things a little in my opinion and was one of the main downfalls of the film. It's an impressively overarching conspiracy, sure, but it sure don't stand up to much scrutiny.

Also, there are clearly times in the film when DiCaprio is at peril (see Michael Douglas in THE GAME, as this bugs me in the same way). If he is actually so IMPORTANT to the staff of the island (and by the end of the film it would seem he is ALL IMPORTANT to the future of the facility) then surely they wouldn't let him wander off into situations where he could EASILY DIE ?!? This didn't make much sense, and that's before adding in the fact that he may/may not be insane. I mean, they do say it's a radical therapy I'll give them that but COME ON... All this 'radical therapy' line is effectively doing is saying 'yes, it's a stupid plot vehicle but, erm, here's our get out of jail free card'

So, we have a film that encourages the audience to believe (at least in its early stages) in some form of conspiracy BUT... On the other hand we have a plot that seems designed to both support this thread of the story, whilst allowing the same thread to be easily dismissable in the latter half as the 'real' plot develops. This is what gives the first half an uneven air of inevitability. It's designed to appear as if the detectives have to scramble for information, when in reality it's all pretty obviously laid on for them. I felt, for me, that this gave away the main 'reveal' of the film far too early - I'd pretty much planned the whole thing out within the first 15 minutes (it's a 2 hour movie, for those who are interested). At times it appeared there was to be a different resolution, but in the end I got exactly what I imagined. This isn't, I suppose, a bad thing - but it's nice to be surprised from time to time and I'd presumed Scorcese may have had a few more tricks up his sleeve :-(

VERDICT : 6.5 out of 10
Entertaining for the most part, a tad unfulfilling towards the end and flawed in terms of 'plot give-aways' (if you're paying attention).


Reviewed by Jamie Ball.

THE HOBBIT

Filming for 'THE HOBBIT' has been by confirmed by the White Wizard himself to commmence in July. The only other cast members so so far RUMOURED are Cate Blanchett, Ron Perlman, Hugo Weaving \m/, Andy Serkis and Doug Jones.

Last time I checked, work hadn't even begun on the script so personally this is great news :D. As far as I'm concerned Del Toro will do a fine job and with Jackson on board to help how could anything go wrong?

Hopefully this news will lead to more of the cast being revealed in the near future.....ROLL ON 2012!

MARCH 26TH: KICK-ASS

Last August I was lucky enough to claim the last ticket for Empire Magazine's 'Movie Con', an event similar in intent to the US's much larger 'Comic Con'. I think the highlight for almost everyone during this weekend (excluding a preview showing of District 9 and not one, but two appearances by the Iron Man himself ie. Robert Downey JR) was the showing of three extensive clips from the forthcoming movie as well as interviews on stage with the director Matthew Vaughn and cast members Aaron Johnston and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who most people will know as the LEGENDARY McLovin. I found this pretty ironic as he had come "all the way from the Edinburgh Festival" to attend this event! He was also totally hilarious and was EXACTLY the same as his character from Superbad.

Anyway the scenes that were shown truly did KICK ASS so get your asses along to the cinema on the 26th chumps!!!!!!!!!!!