Reviews by Lexi

''The shadow of a man can never desert that man. I was my brother's shadow. Now that I have lost him, it is as though I am nothing.''

When a powerful warlord in medieval Japan dies, a poor thief recruited to impersonate him finds difficulty...

Tatsuya Nakadai: Shingen Takeda / Kagemusha

Kagemusha(影武者) is a 1980 film by Akira Kurosawa. The title (which literally translates to "Shadow Warrior" in Japanese) is a term used for an impersonator. It is set in the Warring States era of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class criminal who is taught to impersonate a dying warlord in order to dissuade opposing lords from attacking the newly vulnerable clan. The warlord whom the Kagemusha impersonates is based on daimyo Takeda Shingen and the climactic 1575 Battle of Nagashino.



The first time I watched Kagemusha I was enthralled by the visuals, and hypnotised by being transported to 16th Century Japan; A captivating Era retaining precise honour and orderly constraints.
The central story of Kagemusha, the double, the shadow warrior, whom is chosen by the late Lord Shingen's advisers to be the Lord himself, to fool his enemies and even his own clan, is storytelling worthy of Akira Kurosawa.
It is indeed a three-hour epic (Kurosawa's second longest film, disregarding the unseen cut of The Idiot), however resulting in a not necessarily condensed experience.
Every scene has enough nuance, perspective and irony to pierce the impending tragedy that looms over the Takeda clan.

It's been said, most of all by Kurosawa himself, that this film was a "dress rehearsal" for his last epic masterpiece RAN.
RAN is the more artistically overwhelming and incredible superior, although Kagemusha is still a staggering achievement for any director and Akira blasts this point across with this layered piece.
This being his third colour film, after his 70s period, you see the work divulged by the impressive storyboards he created (you can see the reprints in the Criterion DVD package), creating scene after scene where colours are heightened, returned and made precisely for specific moods and settings required.
Akira and Bergman are the first directors who were able to move from expressive black and white films into the World of colour yet still make the personal renderings regarding certain scenes meaningful with powerful imagery.
The scene in which Kagemusha is dreaming, a colourful landscape with snow, mountains, and water, whereupon the armoured original Lord pursues him.
This imaginative rendering is his subconscious coming to a conclusion via this dream. It is a premonition of the impending doom which presents itself to the Takeda Clan; The overconfidence and temporary affiliation that Kagemusha has with them...Yet the reality is still to be concluded.
It perhaps also perceives the eclipsing demise of their irrationality by moving the mountain representation, which is the Lord. The answer is open to interpretation yet Akira has given many clues throughout the film for audiences to analyse and reflect upon. The reality, echoes and dream all symbolise the circle of power man is fighting himself for.
Even Nobunaga Oda, an enemy of the Takeda Clan, utilizes acquisitions and ambitions perhaps representing the future of Japan. He is the representation of Western civilisation mixing with Eastern superiority and the honour = strength + nobleness mindset.

The final climactic battle-turned-slaughter also is on par with Akira's action acculturation. It has a scope and vastness later echoed in his RAN, and it also echoes the point that warfare has changed with the arrival of arquebuses; Guns.
In the aftermath, the horses in slow motion represent the last gushing of life, and bodies strewn with blood hopelessness. Following this with Kagemusha's final stand as he runs madly through the field towards his end, it all marks as one of the supreme set-pieces ever done depicting the horror of sacrifice and futility of war. It's not one of the easier Kurosawa films to watch due to its pacing and length, although it does contain effortless performances and imagery unrivalled, thus it stands as a fine interpretation of history via artistic means.
Kagemusha shows its main character double, redeem and ultimately beguiles moral implications from his actions: In a final show of loyalty, he takes up a lance and makes a futile charge against Oda's fortifications, ultimately dying for the Takeda clan. The final image kagemusha's bullet-riddled body being washed away down a river, next to the flag of the Takeda clan. This is quite possibly among Akira's most personal, intriguing endings that capture loyalty, sacrifice and horror. He is a ghost that has become a shadow, an honour-drenched martyr to a seemingly lost cause.  A tragic yet heroic act in a story of turbulence, deception and conflict.

''Swift as the wind, silent as the forest, fierce as the fire, immovable as the mountain.''

''There is no way I'm kissing a frog and eating a bug in the same day.''

A fairy tale set in Jazz Age-era New Orleans and centered on a young girl named Tiana and her fateful kiss with a frog prince who desperately wants to be human again.

Anika Noni Rose: Tiana

The Princess and the Frog is a 2009 American animated family film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, inspired in part by E. D. Baker's novel The Frog Princess, which was in turn inspired by the Grimm brothers' fairy tale The Frog Prince.



It is the 49th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics line, and the first of these films to be traditionally (2D) animated since 2004's Home on the Range. The film was directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, directors of The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and Treasure Planet, with songs and score composed by Randy Newman and featuring the voices of Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Michael-Leon Wooley, Jennifer Cody, Jim Cummings, Peter Bartlett, Jenifer Lewis, Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, and John Goodman. Tiana, the main character, is also notable as Disney's first black princess.

When I first heard about this film back in 2009 I felt somewhat nostalgic. Having seen the Directors had worked on some Disney offerings from my childhood; Aladdin & The Little Mermaid.
I was willing to give the film a chance, I was however not excited enough at the time, to rush down to the Cinema and see it.
Thank God I didn't. Disney's latest has the same tired formula that the 49 films previously have all touched upon; The fact remains the pacing is slow, the depth and meaning relatively non-existent, and the characters are hardly easy to understand or warm affection upon.
The Princess and the Frog certainly proves that if you have seen one Disney film you have seen them all. Girl and guy argue, they fall in love, and then the flat villains are defeated by the good guys. Everything wraps up nicely, to the extent, one feels sick with intrepidation.
Running to the defence, the film does have some gorgeously drawn frames and animation. Unfortunately the unmemorable songs negate the charm and charisma that is necessary to propel the story and characters into the memory. It is simply forgettable, dull and somewhat pointless in it's pretentious self righteousness.

The visual effects and backgrounds for the film were created digitally using Cintiq tablet displays. Perhaps the best aspect of the film and the smooth animation rates.
The backgrounds were painted digitally using Adobe Photoshop, and many of the architectural elements were based upon 3D models built in Autodesk Maya. Nicely done.
The former trend in Disney's hand-drawn features where the characters and cinematography were influenced by a CGI-look has been abandoned. Andreas Deja, a veteran Disney animator who supervised the character of Mama Odie in Princess and the Frog, says "I always thought that maybe we should distinguish ourselves to go back to what 2D is good at, which is focusing on what the line can do rather than volume, which is a CG kind of thing. So we are doing less extravagant Treasure Planet kind of treatments...''
Deja also mentions that Lasseter was aiming for the Disney sculptural and dimensional look of the 1950s: "All those things that were non-graphic, which means go easy on the straight lines and have one volume flow into the other – an organic feel to the drawing." Lets save these people time explaining because the finalised piece is a disappointing slog. A 2D farce with no proper storytelling elements to back its style. The substance is lacking.

Overall, The Princess and the Frog feels a waste. It also has the good and evil themes concerning black and white. Voodoo is unjustly labelled as devilry while doctrines are sadly stereotypical.
Woefully sad the experience becomes because I had some high expectations from Disney as always. It doesn't retain the former glory of previous instalments. The Little Mermaid had charm, Aladdin had charisma, even Beauty and the Beast had heart and passion...So why on earth does The Princess and the Frog have none of these elements?
I'm actually still in a state of flux and fuming rage due to the lack of provocative the Picture takes with it's A to B simplicity. Mindless children and witless adults may indeed lap this rustic affair up, but I energetically see the charade for what it is...A complete travesty only saved by luscious animation and drawings. Seeing past the surface, The Princess and the Frog neither pleases musically or with the unoriginal storytelling it divulges.

''Ponyo loves Sosuke! I will be a human, too!''

An animated adventure centered on a 5-year-old boy and his relationship with a goldfish princess who longs to become human.

Noah Lindsey Cyrus: Pony

Ponyo is a 2008 Japanese animated film by Studio Ghibli, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is Miyazaki's eighth film for Ghibli, and his tenth overall. The plot revolves around a goldfish named Ponyo who befriends a five-year-old human boy, Sōsuke, and wants to become a human girl.



Studio Ghibli has always retained a special place in my heart for it's imaginative animation and luscious drawings yet the magic, like most other studios today, begins to lose some of it's original glow, this being the 8th film to be released. Spirited Away achieved the pinnacle asphyxiation with audiences levitating inspiration and creativity hand in hand. Totoro was fun, while Grave of the Fireflies had an emotional resonance and truthful acculturation regarding suffering in life.
So what new narrative and wayward path does Ponyo follow? The answer is indeed nothing new. This is simply a regurgitation of previous works with the same moral happiness fibre that accelerates them all. 7 of the titles that followed, 5 of which, exceed in excelling philosophical proportions, as well as fun and imaginative meanderings.
Don't get me wrong Ponyo is a lovely film. It's detailed and has a slow pacing which captures detail and the gorgeously drawn animation; The Sea creatures and frame rate are vibrant and perfect.
The characters all have the qualities that others had previously, but I guess who cares when Ponyo is this cute right? The untrained eye and ear will find nothing to fault with this latest offering, long term fans will perhaps know otherwise.

Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey and Liam Neeson to name an exceptional few, voice the characters in the Western voice-over version. While Yuria Nara, Hiroki Doi, Tomoko Yamaguchi, George Tokoro and Kazushige Nagashima of Japanese renown voice the Original voice-overs.
Anime Diet cited the quality of the translation, noting, "The story and the core of the film was communicated more than adequately through the professional dub and it did not get in the way of the sheer delight and joy that Miyazaki wanted to convey." Citing "slight pacing problems," it gave Ponyo a rating of 88%. The pronunciation of Japanese names in the English cinema version varied between characters, however.
The film was written, directed, and animated by the main man; Hayao Miyazaki, whom said his inspiration was the Hans Christian Andersen story, "The Little Mermaid".
Miyazaki was intimately involved with the hand-drawn animation that Ponyo has. He preferred to draw the sea and waves himself, and enjoyed experimenting with how to express this important part of the film. This level of detailed drawing resulted in 170,000 separate images—a record for a Miyazaki film.
Ponyo's name is an onomatopoeia, based on Miyazaki's idea of what a "soft, squishy softness" sounds like when touched.
The seaside village where the story takes place is inspired by Tomonoura, a real town in Setonaikai National Park in Japan, where Miyazaki stayed in 2005. Some of the setting and story was affected by Richard Wagner's opera Die Walküre. The music also makes reference to Wagner's opera. The character of Sōsuke is interestingly based on Miyazaki's son Gorō Miyazaki when he was five. Sōsuke's name is also derived from the hero in the famous novel The Gate.

Overall, it is a very simplistic story with the usual quality, enjoyable and with rich textures. Ponyo will please any simple minded individual who enjoys seeing the World from a Child's vantage point. However, Miyazaki fails to imitate his glory achieved by numerous past projects, which is predictable and yet disappointing. Ponyo in fact feels like a watered downed version reminiscent to Totoro, which was innocent and realistic. Yet with Ponyo the story doesn't transition as smoothly as it should. The beginning seems disjointed, while the later segments begin to flag and become pretentious conclusions.
The lovely sea creatures and action segments of the storm make me forgive and forget most qualms. Ponyo is imaginative 2D art which eclipses and adds a needed change from the PIXAR monopoly constantly hypnotising little boys and girls.

''After so many years, a lot of it has become obscure, and many questions remain unanswered. But I feel I must talk about the strange events that occurred in our village. They could perhaps clarify certain things that happened to this Country. It all began, I think, with the Doctor's riding accident...''

Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years just before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. The abused and suppressed children of the villagers seem to be at the heart of this mystery.

Christian Friedel: The School Teacher

The White Ribbon(German: Das weiße Band, Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte) is a 2009 black and white drama written and directed by Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke. The story darkly depicts society and family in a northern German village just before World War I. According to Haneke, the film is about "the origin of every type of terrorism, be it of political or religious nature."



Set in a German village manifested by acts of malice and violence in the months leading up to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Michael Haneke's latest offering The White Ribbon is a creation defined by images dually effecting and deeply insightful.
A gentle, sinless romance that builds at the center of The White Ribbon between a school teacher and a young woman named Eva (Leonie Benesch) balances the other circumstances which arise. It is from a later time and with the pangs of wisdom and helplessness that the nameless school teacher (Christian Friedel) narrates the happenings in his home village preceding the Great War.
The choice to make the film in black and white was based partly on the resemblance to photographs of the era, but also to create a distancing effect.
All scenes were originally shot in colour and then altered to black and white. Christian Berger, Haneke's usual director of photography, shot the film on Super 35 using a Moviecam Compact. Before filming started, Berger studied the black and white films Ingmar Bergman made with Sven Nykvist as cinematographer. Haneke wanted the environments to be very dark, so many indoor scenes used only practical light sources such as oil lamps and candles. In some of the darkest scenes, where the crew had been forced to add artificial lighting, extra shadows could be removed in the digital post-production which allowed for extensive retouching.
In Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, a German paper, Julia Evers called the film "an oppressive and impressive moral painting, in which neither the audience nor the people in the village find an escape and a valve from the web of authority, hierarchy and violence. Everything in The White Ribbon is true. And that is why it is so difficult to bear." Markus Keuschnigg of Die Presse praised the sober cinematography along with the pacing of the narrative. Keuschnigg opposed any claims about the director being cold and cynical, instead hailing him as uncompromising and sincerely humanistic.
Die Welt's Peter Zander compared The White Ribbon to Haneke's previous films Benny's Video and Funny Games, both centering around the theme of violence. Zander concluded that while the violence in the previous films had seemed distant and constructed, The White Ribbon demonstrates how it is a part of our reality. Zander also applauded the "perfectly cast children", whom he held as the real stars of this film.
"Mighty, monolithic and fearsome it stands in the cinema landscape. A horror drama, free from horror images", Christian Buß wrote in Der Spiegel, and expressed delight in how the film deviates from the conventions of contemporary German cinema: "Director Michael Haneke forces us to learn how to see again". Buß suggested references in the name of the fictitious village, Eichwald, to the Nazi Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann and the Buchenwald concentration camp.
Eichwald is however a common German place name, meaning the "Oak Forest", thus it is open to interpretation to its meaning, if any.

''Will you set it free once it's healed?''

Reactions and effectual repercussions: The village pastor punishes his children and makes his two eldest wear the titular woven band. It is a symbol of innocence and throughout his film captures devastating cultural and historical implications; Haneke's more fervent fascination is with how innocence and sin are both entwined regarding childhood. The children all possess the basic indicators of innocence but their demeanours akin to their faces, say otherwise. What they are taught -- a strict reading of God's laws -- and what they see are dissimilar and their allegiances become first-and-foremost to God. Their imposing of His wrath takes the form of punishing not only their elders but of a rich boy and a young handicapped child.
These children would grow up and support -- if not birth -- the National Socialist movement but Haneke is careful not to corner his film or let it stand as pure symbolism. The White Ribbon is richly drawn and complexly layered in crisp and perfectly calibrated black-and-white landscapes which emphasizes shadowy house interiors and beautiful, light-drenched exteriors; A picture of immense negativity upon a foundation on a doomed community rather than a smattering of barking ideologies. The school teacher's courtship and a poor, widowed farmer's family may not be implicit in the children's surreptitious punishments but they are likewise troubled and affected by the bedlam.
Only in the film's last quarter does someone start suspecting that the children are those responsible but the viewer is meant to feel like the moral crimes perpetrated by the adults are more substantial than the atrocities committed by the children throughout. Haneke, in fact, is elliptical when it comes to acts of degrading innocence: The attacks on two boys, the murder of a cherished pet, a child's molestation and the caning of two siblings are all conveyed through their early stirrings and their ultimate effects, with interpretation and discussion adding symbolic referendum. The violence, bred from idealized indoctrination, exudes an eerie, poignant resonance retaining déjà vu and indeed, the film's pristine aesthetic, bleak with a thematic palate which help shape The White Ribbon.

The White Ribbon is simply this: Mysterious things happen. The setting of the fictitious Protestant village of Eichwald, Germany between July 1913 and August 1914, captures the feel, history and time more than any other film preceding it. It is not merely confined to being a master work of cinematography but one where storytelling and history merge together.

''There was a feeling of expectation and departure in the air. Everything was about to change.''

''Technically, G.I. Joe does not exist, but if it did, it'd be comprised of the top men and women from the top military units in the world, the alpha dog's. When all else fails, we don't.''

An elite military unit comprised of special operatives known as G.I. Joe, operating out of The Pit, takes on an evil organization led by a notorious arms dealer.

Dennis Quaid: General Abernathy / Hawk

The man behind The Mummy series and Van Helsing explodes his latest project G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra upon audiences.
Although knowing Director Stephen Sommers you instantly assume CGI, effects and colourful meanderings will take precedence over any substantial material or dialogue. So what is the result? Well, it is an overblown fest of nonsense with no defining plot.



Sommers never truly develops his characters thus we can never relate to them. By all means you could argue he tries, by using flashbacks, used at the strangest possible interludes. The acting doesn't help matters either because performances range from dastardly villainy to macho good guys cracking lame jokes.
Going back to the flashbacks, which merely include a few of the main members of G.I. Joe and Cobra, the rest of the cast, which is many do not have the necessary fleshing out to define them.
Needless to say, Joseph Gordon-Levitt impressed me the most, if I had to choose a defining, stand out actor. He plays the nefarious evil Doctor whom is also the brother to Sienna Miller's Baroness, although supposedly recognizable to the untrained eye he instantly was spotted by me. He gives a chilling, over the top, twisted definition to bring to life his character. What else? He's clearly having fun and I guiltily admit watching him.
The rest of the cast range from the eye candy females there to drawn in the mindless male audiences whom don't know any better, and the strong, buff men used to draw the females. Yet, this is a very boyish film much like the Hasbro toys the film is based upon.

''They feel no fear. Cortical nerve clusters showed complete inactivity. They feel no pain. Concepts of morality are disengaged. They feel no regrets. No remorse.''

Sienna Miller utilizes the advantages of the push up bra and a sexy exotic black costume while red headed Rachel Nichols does exactly the same thing with her shaped body suit. G.I. Joe clearly is style over substance in a dizzying array of CGI mayhem.
Villain arms dealer Christopher Eccleston has a Scottish accent that quite honestly makes milk curdle with it's comical tones of stereotypicalist provocation. Whereas Dennis Quaid's Hawk expects us to believe he's an American General leading an Elite Unit of technologically blessed block heads.
Ray Park reprises a silent role from his days of The Phantom Menace, Marlon Wayans is the black guy cracking jokes, and Arnold Voosloo pops into this Sommers outing to whistle. Speaking of Voosloo, G.I Joe is littered with The Mummy old cast churning out odd cameos which essentially back fire because the film becomes a ''Spot The Mummy cast member!'' outing instead of just a contorted mess. I'm actually puzzled as to whether Brendan Fraser and Kevin J. O'Connor appearing randomly in scenes is good or bad.
As for Jonathan Pryce being cast as the US president someone is clearly having a lovely laugh at our expense.
Channing Tatum as duke, the so called lead man, shows not everyone in this World has the ability to act or say lines correctly. He's essentally a walking, talking bloke whom just found his way out of the gym.
He does succeed in being more wooden than a cemented lama which one night became fossilized by non-movement.

What's funny is that little kids, young teenagers and handfuls of geeks or fans of the toys will love this chaotic, colourful rainbow of action and CGI.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra for me, was at times fun yet mostly a confusing experience. I mean, they actually fooled me into for a moment indulging a thought that the film may have a story to back itself up. The beginning has a period flashback in Scotland reminiscent of The Man In the Iron Mask yet the illusion is dispelled with the jump back to modern reality and G.I. Joe prominently shows it's true colours. A hyper actioned affair with no defining plot. Gigantic set pieces and CGI over-kill may impress the simple minded film junkies who need a quick fix but alas for those more intelligent viewers, like I, I can boldly say we're not fooled. Try again Sommers. Reading books might help Stephen discover what substance and story means.

''The time has come for the cobra to rise up and reveal himself. You will call me Commander.''

''In the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.''

Alexander, the King of Macedonia and one of the greatest military leaders in the history of warfare, conquers much of the known world.

Colin Farrell: Alexander

Everyone may remember Colin Farrell taking a moment to urinate upon a religious tree in Jerusalem. It comes to mind generally because Olive Stone, director of Alexander happens to create controversy by effectively taking his own urination session upon History.
Irish accents, shifty wigs, and a perception of Macedonia that would make a grown man cry like a baby.
Who may you ask is to play Alexander the Great? Oliver Stone seems to shock audiences by choosing the ill-cast Colin Farrell into a role he cannot hope to conquer.



Alexander ironically has the likes of talented Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson and even Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Yet Oliver Stone manages to turn the epic into a abysmal waste of celluloid thus creating a travesty and in essence an Irish sounding mockery of History.
Angelina Jolie speaks similar to a Romanian Gypsy with chaotic tones to her lines, while actually asking audiences to believe she is Alexander's Mother Olympias, when in fact she looks more like a sibling sister.
Val Kilmer fails to portray King Philip as anything more than a over weight slob, Anthony Hopkins hobbles around narrating the story in the future while oozing self pretentious offal.
As for the homosexual relationship between Leto's Hephaistion and Alexander, what more can audiences ask for to make them uncomfortable? Oh yes, don't forget that blonde gay wig that Farrell wears. I'm still squirming and writhing in pain doth the agony inflicted upon the very eyes.

In its defence Alexander does indeed feature battle sequences and aerial shots that defy expectations and the appalling dramatics. It also features a couple of cameos that shine a light upon a greatness that could of been; Brian Blessed pops up as a Wrestling trainer and Christopher Plummer makes an appearance as Aristotle.
A sex scene prominently is used half way between Farrell and the newly famed Rosario Dawson, which in turn, wakes one up as the film flags. This is the scene to watch and indeed the pause button was invented primarily for such a joyous occasion. Unfortunately the joy is short-lived, the film's incessant jumping and flashbacks irritate and confuse spiralling audiences into madness and frustration.
I kept asking myself why? Then correspondently looking at my watch for the time, sweating, wondering if this film would be the death of me, before asking myself why again? Why has Oliver Stone made Alexander the Grape? A bisexual hippy whom believes in uniting Asia with Greece and Macedonia. Alexander was ahead of his time yes. But does Oliver Stone capture this fact with bad boy Farrell? The answer is a solid no.

Ultimately, Alexander ironically is a showcase for Persian art, Babylon, and showing off beautiful exotic Asian locations, it could be quite possible to watch the entire film muted. In fact Vangelis whom did the music probably are the victors here, the one constant Oliver Stone does not tarnish with his inadequate film-making sinisterness.
A small decision to watch the 1958 Alexander the Great by Robert Rossen may be a better alternative, or better yet, a Documentary on the History Channel. Books, pictures and films done correctly can tell the story of Alexander, unfortunately Oliver Stone failed and as a consequence wasted time, film, and an ineffective selection for a cast. It had a great assemble, yes, but the right choices? No. Fortune does not favour Mr Stone.

''I've lived... I've lived long life, Cadmos, but the glory and the memory of men will always belong to the ones who follow their great visions. The greatest of these is the one they now call Megas Alexandros. The greatest of them all.''

''Rise, and rise again. Until lambs become lions.''

The story of an archer in the army of Richard Coeur de Lion who fights against the Norman invaders and becomes the legendary hero known as Robin Hood.

Russell Crowe: Robin Longstride

Cate Blanchett: Marion Loxley

Ridley Scott is a master when it comes to film making and visionary realization. Just look at his sci-fi legacies Blade Runner and Alien as a beginning to a long resume of fine creations. Ridley over time moved away from Science Fiction to sate lavish interest with history and real time, capturing epic grandeur with artistic means.
His best work would have to be Gladiator, while Black Hawk Down, Body of Lies and the robotic Kingdom Of Heaven show Ridley can still make a good film, although perhaps consistency remains in question.
Robin Hood proves what a charismatic cast can achieve and a solid screenplay that equals cleverness can conjure.
Ridley weaves the whole picture majestically well, essentially bringing to life a legendary character in a light never seen before in any previous films or literal manifestations.



What would I say I find most rewarding from Robin Hood? For a start, it has a believable humour and resonance about it. The cast have a sombre English feel, with accents that match, Russel Crowe & Cate Blanchett are essentially not Oscar Winners for nothing. They embody their roles with believability and credibility that has us rooting for them, feeling in a sense what they experience. It's very clever of Ridley Scott to choose such wonderful actresses and actors and bring the best out of them.
Max von Sydow, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Oscar Isaac and a short appearance from Danny Huston all grace the screen and add performances with the valour, battles and drama that ensues.
Who can also forget Robin's friends? Little John, Will Scarlet and Friar Tuck. They definitely add laughs, empathy and sensuality audiences can warm to. If Kingdom of Heaven lacked one thing, it lacked this, soul and depth. This is not robotic, this is very human thus we have fun and enjoy the ride.

Robin Hood is perhaps not what mainstream viewers would predict envisioning. This isn't a story about Robin Hood hiding out in the forest, helping the poor and fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham; This is an origin tale, a sort of prequel.
Robin is returning from the crusades with a king whom has followed his ambitions and religious conquests in Jerusalem. The Country thus has been bled dry by the expenses of such a campaign. When Robin ends up accidentally taking the identity of another, after the Lionheart King is killed by a French cook's arrow, we see a chain of events unfold that are fantastical and vast.
Is Robin Hood historically accurate? Not quite. Is it the closest, grittiest envisioning ever to grace the screen? I'd say it comes very close. What the film results in being is an artful epic that has the battle scenes, it has the character interactions, the costumes, the locations, and the setting up for another great successor; A sequel.

Ultimately, the film has it's strengths and weaknesses. The constant location jumping at times defies belief and perhaps the lengthy time the film endures will not be appreciated with mass audiences.
Robin Hood owes a great deal not just to Ridley but to Brian Helgeland's screenplay and story set up, which works wonders when put into effect.
The last battle scene however does have me raising questions over whether Ridley has been watching Saving Private Ryan, with French Boats opening in a way that I never recollected for that day and age. The more puzzling realizations are whether Nottingham and the distance to Mid-Lands coasts are essentially where the French attacked, are also confounding. Why attack in these distant regions?
Puzzlement aside, Robin Hood was admittedly very enjoyable, very different, and extremely lavish. It takes a brave film maker to pull of such a task and to even tackle a legendary character such as Robin Hood but Ridley Scott does it. He makes his own brand and mark upon this legend, and the research, sweat and tears that went into this film's making shows. It's a labour of love from Ridley; A man whom sometimes mixes artistic license with his own vision and scope regarding history.

Thanks Ridley, we are entertained yet again. Now, can you be a good boy and get on with adapting Brave New World for the big screen please?

''If you're building for the future, you need to keep your foundations strong, laws of the land enslave the people to a king who demands loyalty but offers nothing in return, I've been to the South of France, Palestine and back, you build a kingdom the same way you build a cathedral from the ground up!''

''I am not the Zodiac. And if I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you.''

Based on the Robert Graysmith books about the real life notorious Zodiac, a serial killer who terrorized San Francisco with a string of seemingly random murders during the 1960s and 1970s.

Jake Gyllenhaal: Robert Graysmith

Mark Ruffalo: Inspector David Toschi

Robert Downey Jr.: Paul Avery

Zodiac is a layered, impressive thriller covering the true events of the serial killer Zodiac, brought to screen by esteemed David Fincher.
Ultimately this is a thinking man's film, and an in-depth study about obsession. Not merely concerned with the mystery killer's impulsive desires but also one regarding the men whom are obsessed by him, by revealing his identity and solving the puzzle which in turn haunts their lives.



The film does a pivotal job of asking the question; At what stage does intrigue evolve into obsession?
Although it doesn't appear to be as flashy and as stylised as Fincher's previous films, the clever use of CGI and editing techniques are masterfully crisp, clean and technically immaculate. There is one mesmerizing slick and styled scene where we follow a cab through the streets of San Francisco, pre-murder, from the birds-eye view.
It's a wonderful, original story and perspective which sets Zodiac in a firm spot for a number of reasons; It's in a way a historical lesson, and then in another a masterful example of casting and superb acting, while also resulting in a cleverly realized thriller.

''Before I kill you, I'm going to throw your baby out the window.''

The three leads Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal are all exceptional churning out perfect performances, adding to the already compelling story that spans over 30 years of murky mystery.
You really feel the period of the time and one must love how it transitions, as the clothes and fashions alter as the film and plot progresses.
It’s a truism that serial killers are media creations, but Zodiac whom may have taken his name and symbol from a watch advert, was perhaps inspired by the 1932 movie The Most Dangerous Game, and wanted a lawyer who had guest-starred in a Star Trek episode to represent him.
Zodiac remains a phantom of the tube and newsprint. Murderers who are caught get shown up as pathetic human beings rather than Lecter-like masterminds, but Zodiac was either clever or lucky, and remains a phantom. Fincher offers us his creepy, misspelled letters in voice-over and brings a hooded form on for one of the killings, but the film’s most unsettling moments come when the possible Zodiacs are around: convicted paedophile Arthur Leigh Allen (John Carroll Lynch) or repertory cinema programmer Bob Vaughn (Charles Fleischer). As in Se7en and Fight Club, Fincher boasts an unparalleled ability to present ostensibly friendly, deeply twisted people credibly — one of Zodiac’s few melodramatic moments, as Vaughn spooks Graysmith so much he flees the suspect’s house, works entirely because of the unnerving performances.

While this isn’t as straightforward as Panic Room, Fincher’s previous film, it lacks the highly wrought style of Seven and Fight Club. Wonderfully acted as it may result in being, there’s still a sense that Fincher(who is evidently as obsessed over Zodiac similarly to James Cameron regarding Titanic)is working perhaps a notch or two below his capacity entails.
Audiences will need patience with the film’s layered approach, which follows its main characters via poring over details, and be prepared to put up with a couple of rote family arguments and wearily divulging conversations, but this gripping character study becomes increasingly, agonisingly suspenseful as it gets closer to a conclusion concerning a mystery perhaps only the imagination can rectify.

''I... I Need to know who he is. I... I need to stand there, I need to look him in the eye and I need to know that it's him.''

''Blood! Your precious blood!''

Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife. Silent classic based on the story "Dracula."

Max Schreck: Graf Orlok

Made in 1922, Nosferatu is the first big screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and it is by far the best.
A free adaptation of the famous book, in the hands of director F.W. Murnau the film becomes a multi-dimensional and personal work that diverts from the original. This appropriation by Murnau explains why the title of the film is Nosferatu and not Dracula: Stoker’s widow saw the plagiarism of her husband’s work and brought court action against the production. Though she obtained the destruction of the film negatives, luckily some copies survived this destructive tempest.



Moreover, a beneficial name change preserved the reputation of Murnau’s vampire. While Dracula, the object of many mostly mediocre adaptations, sounds like a grotesque and overused cliche, Nosferatu still resonates with a certain terror. The film has guarded a certain troubling aura, and its only true remake, Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre, is a majestic tribute to its master. The possessed interpretations of Count Orlok by Max Shreck and later Klaus Kinski only reinforce the myth.
However, what many people ignore is the potency of the political message of the film. 1922 was at the height of hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic which ruled over Germany from 1919 to 1933. The public were used to frequent, violent political confrontation between factions on the extreme left and extreme right.
What we see in Nosferatu is a theme typical of early Weimar cinema: the omnipresent, omni-potent tyrant in the form of Nosferatu (also Caligari, Dr. Mabuse etc.). The tyrant comes from the east (it is unsure what this represents, though I would argue that, given the political situation and the recent communist uprising in Russia, it is the Bolshevists) and we see by comparing the first shot of a quiet, tranquil traditional German town and the last shot of a dilapidated, ruined castle, the progress from the bourgeois ideal into anarchy, chaos and destruction during the film.

''It will cost you sweat and tears, and perhaps... a little blood.''

The film shows that no-one was able to stop Nosferatu in his tracks before he arrived to ruin Wisborg, the town where the film is set. Only Ellen, by sacrificing herself and giving her life, can stop the tyrant. So soon after WWI, it is clear that such a sacrifice is not portrayed as desirable. The film removes Van Helsing, the policeman in the Dracula novel, from the plot, meaning that there is no strong force in traditional Germany; The power is held by Hutter, a middle-class estate agent. The middle classes in power at the time in Germany were the liberals of the Weimar Republic. Hutter is portrayed as weak, easily overcome and without much of a clue as to what's going on. This is clearly a call for a strong leader to fill the evident void in Germany, to come in and rescue society from the threat of being taken over by Bolshevism.
When we look at Murnau's later films, such as Dr. Mabuse, Der Spieler, it becomes clear that the right-wing (not Nazi) anti-authoritarian message of the film was not limited to this piece.

Nosferatu marks the transition between Romanticism and Expressionism. The affiliation of Murnau's work to the Romantic movement is evident. Themes like ambivalence (subjectivity and the unconscious, mystery and imagination) as well as the idea of a double, the ambiguous, Gothic, and the communion between the artist and nature are omnipresent in the film. The ambivalence principally affects the characters, from Orlok (count/vampire) to Knock (prominent/crazy) and Hutter (heterosexual husband/homosexual lover) as well as the parallel between the vampire and human worlds (in particular the use of the negative while the coach passes from the normal world to Orlok's). The unconscious, characterized by the Count's constant fear, materializes in nature when he is not onscreen.

For the Romantics, portraits, reflections, and shadows blend into a single entity. The shadow, particularly important (as in the scene as he climbs the stairs), anticipates an imminent danger, embodies a sexual desire, and always betrays the killer in German cinema. Gothic qualities are manifested in the physical characteristics of the vampire and in the architecture. Noseferatu’s bald oval head reflects the Gothic archways of his château, while his twisted body responds to the curves of the gate. His long nails symbolize the East’s despotism and correspond to the elongated lines of Gothic architecture. Finally, nature has a preponderant role, as important as a character. The stretches of land are the mental projections of the characters while the waves of the sea announce the imminent arrival of the count. The mountains have a supernatural side.

A visionary cinematic masterpiece, Nosferatu, is all the more topical as it shows the unequalled potential regarding cinema reduced to its most purified form and, by the same token, is the cruel report initiating the self-exhaustion that lies with modern cinema. If the end of the 90s marked the climax of commercial cinematic exploitation, the 21st century seems to be beginning with a uniquely purposeful horizon. Thus Nosferatu is definitely a timeless masterpiece which any film-maker or lover of film must see, the film which inspired many films and stories to follow.

''Is this your wife? What a lovely throat.''

"I asked for it. 'To be heading into the inexorable... where no mother will care for us... no woman crosses our path... where only reality reigns... with cruelty and grandeur.' I was drunk with those words. Well, this is reality."

The claustrophobic world of a WWII German U-boat; boredom, filth, and sheer terror.
This is the story of 42 raw recruits caught up in a war they didn't fully understand, and the Captain who must lead them in their struggle to survive.

Jürgen Prochnow: Capt.-Lt. Henrich Lehmann-Willenbrock - Der Alte

1981 hailed a victorious, historical triumph in film that would achieve iconic proportions upon and after it's conception. Director Wolfgang Petersen adapts Lothar G. Buchheim's novel and creates a story inspired by true events, a story and film which shows life aboard a submarine like no other. Das Boot is uniquely telling history in a truthful aspiring way which has yet to be echoed.
The premise: A German U-Boat with a crew as real as me or you. A time during WW2 where out of 30,000 German U-Boats only 10,000 survived.



Das Boot is as claustrophobic and as real as it gets, as one is watching it's the realest feeling audiences are given to actually being on a U-Boat Submarine. What other surprises does Das Boot throw into our laps? Of course, the lashings of humour, the sheer terror of red alert scenarios, and what it is like to be among men inebriating bestiality.
The Directors Cut was the version I was most impressed with, mainly due to the vast detail and length it attains. Wolfgan Petersen fully captures the mood and nature of what it would be like to be aboard one of these legendary vessels. As the crew waits, so do we. As explosions from Destroyers shower down from the surface, and planes let loose hails of bombing, we feel the pain the crew feels, and indeed the U-Boat itself, we feel for her.

''Now it all turns psychological, gentlemen.''

Das Boot's great achievement is its pacing. Petersen's an adept action movie director, and he brought that to bear in making his epic. The first half of the picture explores the paradox of the tortured boredom the sailors feel while awaiting the arrival of orders from headquarters, even though getting those orders will lead to certain terror and possible death. The crew's restlessness is palpable, yet never bores us as an audience. The men regale each other with dirty jokes and erotic anecdotes. One officer asks another for help with a crossword puzzle and the answers end up being "bath" and "love," the two things each man desperately wants more than anything. Slowly, we learn a little about the men on the boat, background information that humanizes them without flattening them into a collection of dramatic motivations. We don't get to know them intimately but learn their preoccupations, the sorts of details we'd discover if we were members of the crew.

The cast indeed equal a rough, sea faring, scruffy bunch...However this is realistic. Crews of these particular vessels weren't valued for their appearance or swave looks but for their skills and knowledge regarding mechanics and sea-faring.
Jürgen Prochnow as the captain, is the main character and protagonist, thus of a personal note, the only cast member famous enough for me to know, whom landed success in Hollywood after this film.
Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch, and Uwe Ochsenknecht among many others churn out heralded performances which all give the crew a bravado totality, missing one would not be the same. This is in a sense a family unit whom audiences and I grew to love and became attached to.

Das Boot is a very long film, so if you can't handle that fact, this is perhaps not going to be the film for you. It's also from a time many people do not understand, the Second World War, thus this story is uniquely told from Germany's perspective in a very honest fashion.
My own reflection upon Das Boot is that it's undoubtedly a masterpiece oozing with qualities that transcend Awards and conventionality. It received 6 Oscar Nominations but no wins...Why? I can only guess the Academy voters are afraid to acknowledge masterpieces unless they fit biased criterias.
I just know Das Boot has the flawless cinematography, effects, realism, sound, writing and Screenplay that virtually has no rival since it was released, indeed 30 years later it still retains uniqueness.
Thus, Das Boot is the best submarine film, the best U-Boat educational and psychological assessment ever created upon film. Wolfgang Petersen deserves your respect, and indeed audiences. This is truly something to be admired and treasured.

''You have to have good men. Good men, all of them.''