Sunday 25 January 2015
Thursday 17 December 2009
Monday 14 December 2009
Thursday 12 November 2009
MOON: Film review by Mark Woods.
n the cold vacuum of space Moon is a breath of fresh air! At last, what fans of intelligent science fiction have been waiting for. A film with a proper plot. Ideas. Atmosphere.Duncan Jones, known to some as Zowie Bowie, to others as David Bowie's son, directs his first major motion picture. A modest budget of 5 million dollars enables him to bring us a tale with believable subjects and brooding menace.
Sam Bell is a miner working on the moon in the near future for the resource Helium-3 which now powers Earth. Quarries on the lunar surface provide the cargo which is periodically shuttled back to Sam's home planet during his contract. This is 3 years.
The film joins Sam as he is nearing the termination of this period. He is feeling lonely - unsurprising as his only companion is GERTY, Lunar Industry's maintenance computer. As with most symbiotic man-machine relationships in science fiction the computer comes across as thoroughly sympathetic and friendly but also slightly untrustworthy and a little too good to be true. His surroundings are the grubby rooms of his living quarters. His food comes in small, square packets which simply need heating. Convenience and boredom abound.
There is a communications glitch with the Earth-Moon communications which has dragged on for much of Sam's shift. This means his conversations with his wife and child are recorded to disc and played back to him. Never mind - his shift is about to end. Right?
Wrong. Sam's routine, beginning with his Chesney Hawk's "I Am the One and Only" alarm call, is beginning to fall apart. He's feeling increasingly agitated..he seems to losing his grasp on reality. Is this because of the isolation? His physical health is deteriorating although he looks after himself. Most of his spare time seems to be spent on a treadmill. Perhaps it is just terminal boredom?
Without spoiling what is the intelligent twist to the plot and spoiling it, we watch Sam discover that he is neither alone nor safe in his industrial environment...
Very atmospheric, well photographed with a haunting soundtrack and a great performance from Sam Rockwell this film provides a classic sci-fi tale. Paranoia and tension build with good pace and the character is developed so that the viewer actually cares what happens to him. A rarity these days. Those who are as ancient as I am will be reminded of the claustrophobic atmosphere of Dark Star and Silent Running.
A clever plot idea is revealed towards the end. It's a long time coming but worth the wait. The waiting is bearable as the scenery is worth looking at.
I'll be looking out for Duncan's next film .I like his style.
7/10.
Review: Mark Woods, 2009 (LordBeanpod@GMail.com)
Tuesday 13 October 2009
Wednesday 2 September 2009
Thursday 27 August 2009
DVD Review: Dead Snow. Reviewed by Mark Woods.
Recipe for Good Zombie Pie:
Take several fresh young actors (enough to fill 91 minutes)
Cool to near freezing on a weekend trip to a log cabin somewhere in Norway (well, Øksfjord, actually.)
Heat the tempers of a platoon of undead Nazi Zombies by invading their personal space.
Add a large dollop of humour.
Wrap up filming with decent photographic direction.
Consume with several beers.
Right, enough of the pie analogy...it's not really going anywhere and I feel slightly queasy....
Dead Snow is a Norwegian film which follows the usual teenagers-versus-unspecified-hostiles-in-a-secluded-location-format. This time its a platoon of Nazi Zombies.
During the Second World War the evil Nazi Colonel Herzog and his platoon terrorised the local village of Øksfjord. They performed unspeakable acts of horror upon the population and made their lives a living nightmare as they raped and looted to their hearts' content. Finally unable to cope anymore the locals banded together and managed to get the upper hand, chasing the troops into the mountains and it was presumed that they had all frozen to death.
The story takes place in the present day. A group of medical students, who, as usual, are far older than the teenage characters they are supposed to represent, are holidaying. They drive to their log cabin in the mountains and are equipped for a weekend of fun with all the snow-mobiles, music and drink they could wish for. It's not long before fantastic shots of fjords and snow sports fill the screen.
At first everything is tickety-boo. No problems. A good time is had by all. Then, during the evening, a stranger knocks at their door. As the old, gnarled hunter helps himself to their beer, eyes the sensational Evy Kasseth Røsten lasciviously and rolls and smokes his meagre cigarettes he recounts the tale of the Nazi oppressors being overcome in this vicinity. He warns them...strange spirits walk abroad in these forests. They need to respect their surroundings. Having scared them silly he vanishes again into the night.
The group discover a box of stolen Nazi gold in the snow. Deciding to keep it is their biggest mistake. That night their partying is interrupted by strange visitations which begin with fleeting glimpses of shadowy figures surrounding their cabin and works to a climax of gore-filled battling in the increasingly crimson snow. Chainsaws and snow-mobiles are used to good effect in dispatching their supernatural foe. The odds are stacked against them however and Colonel Herzog manages to kill them all except one despite the fact that he has been dead since the Second World War.
Our final character makes it to the car....he's lost the gold and his friends to the Nazi Zombies but managed to hang onto his life.
Except.............well. Watch the film.
I enjoyed this film. It's a load of old nonsense. Which is good as that's what I wanted. What makes it stand out is the humour. A lot of horror films, especially the low-budget variety such as this, try to give better value by attempting humour. It rarely works. This film has some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. If you're a fan of gory deaths done with aplomb then you'll enjoy this. Oh, and Evy is lovely. Stunning. Ahem...
With stunning helicopter aerial shots of Norway the photography is head and shoulders above your usual gore flick.
Recommended zombie fun.
7/10
Review by Mark Woods, August 2009. LordBeanpod@GMail.com
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