Author: Mosh

True Grit / Drive Angry

I just spotted there were going to be eight films in the cinema this weekend that interested me. This called for an emergency trip to the Edinburgh Cineworld to offset this load slightly.

True Grit

“If you would like to sleep in a coffin, it would be all right.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: hard drinkin’, straight shootin’, man huntin’… erm… rootin’ tootin’ cowboy flick.

According to the blurb, this isn’t  remake of the 1969 John Wayne movie, but instead a new adaptation of the original source novel by Charles Portis. I heard an interview with one of the Coen Brothers recently, and he stated that they’d stayed close to the book including around 90% of the dialogue being lifted straight from it. The dialogue certainly is fantastic and one of the highlights of a great movie.

Now, I’m not a Coen disciple. In my opinion they’ve done some pretty good stuff (The Hudsucker Proxy) and some completely over-rated claptrap (I’ll be crucified for this, but I think Fargo is ****). I picked True Grit as it had had good reviews and because it started at a convenient time. I’m glad I did as I really enjoyed it.

As I said, the dialogue is a delight. If the Brothers tell the truth then the credit deserves to go to Portis for writing it so well. Of course, the delivery by the likes of Jeff Bridges (“Rooster” Cogburn), Matt Damon (Texas trooper LaBoeuf) and narrator Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) should also be credited in much the way that Aaron Sorkin‘s genius wouldn’t be as effective without the gifted casts of The West Wing or The Social Network.

I am not a fan of westerns, either, but the setting makes no odds for this as the story is good. A simple tale of revenge as Mattie hires Cogburn to track down Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) for killing her father. The two don’t like each other, or Damon’s LaBoeuf who joins them, and the three play well off each other.

It’s a well-spun tale with a good ending (not the same as the Wayne version, and apparently that of the book) which doesn’t over-stretch itself or become maudlin.

Better than I expected and well worth a watch.

Drive Angry 3D

“Wouldn’t wanna be you when Satan finds out!”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Things explode and people get killed and there’s some devil worship in there somewhere… and maybe a plot.

I really can’t be arsed with 3D films. This one claims to be shot in “state of the art”3D. How this is different from the 3D used in other films these days, I have no idea. Yes, I’m aware there are those filmed in 3D and those ruined by mucking about with the print in post-production to fake it, but they’re all just gimmickery.

The first thing you should do upon buying your ticket for Drive Angry is to place your brain into neutral and allow any sense of reality to ooze from your ears before the trailers end (and that ******* Orange advert comes on. Again.). You should now enjoy it immensely. Especially if you’re male and around 18 years of age. It’s that kind of film.

Nicolas Cage is a man on a mission, to rescue his grand-daughter from the clutches of an evil devil worshipper. He’s aided by a ridiculously hot waitress (Piper played by Amber Heard) and a couple of other buddies along the way. To tell you more would only give away as much as is in the trailer but as ever I’ll try to stay as spoiler free as always.

As a bonus for your money, there are two bad guys. The aforementioned evil devil-worshipping cult leader Jonah King (Billy Burke) and The Accountant played by a  magnificent William Fichtner. I’ve seen this man in a few things, including TV’s Prison Break and he is, frankly, the natural replacement for Christopher Walken. Cool, unruffled, slightly unusual-looking and capable of scaring the **** out of you. In fact, he’s so good in this film, that he runs the risk of doing what Alan Rickman did in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and stealing the show.

This is not a sensible film. There are no heart-wrenching performances. It won’t have you rolling in the aisles with laughter. What it will do – if you enjoy films like Death Race – is thoroughly entertain. It does get a little bit repetitive at points, and some of the action scenes drag a little too long. Or maybe that’s me having seen too many daft films.

Either way, it’s worth your cash. Although I still reckon it would have been every bit as stupid and enjoyable without forcing me to wear those bloody glasses for 100 minutes.

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Gnomeo & Juliet

Another trip to the cinema with the kids. We needed something entertaining enough to engage the little one without sending us mad. That ruled the painful-looking Yogi Bear flick out, so we settled on:

Gnomeo & Juliet

“Let’s go kick some grass!”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Shakespeare with pottery.

This turned out to be a great choice. Superb cast, tons of humour, near-constant action and bright colours made it ideal for all four of us.

The plot follows Shakespeare’s original fairly well, to a point, and some of the dialogue is a direct pastiche of the Bard’s work. Gnomeo (James McAvoy) is a blue garden gnome living in the garden of Mr Capulet (voiced by Richard Wilson). He falls for Juliet (Emily Blunt), a red gnome living next door in Miss Montague’s (Julie Walters) garden.

Of course, the owners and therefore the gnomes are deadly enemies. We’re not limited to little rotund porcelain midgets, though. There are plastic flamingos, concrete animals and a cute little toadstool as well. The imagination of the creative team is incredible with amazing attention to detail and beautiful ideas being thrown up time after time.

If there’s a downside to the film it’s that all the music is by Elton John and it’s not exactly my favourite genre. In fairness, a lot of it is reworked into the background. As the film goes on, the songs themselves are replaced by background instrumentals. Right up to the end credits when a voice from Hell takes over and cuts into the eardums like a chainsaw. I think it’s Ellie Furtado and it’s horrendous.

Gnomeo & Juliet is fun, bright and funny on enough levels to make it entertaining for the whole family.

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The Fighter

Only time for one film on Friday again. I am so looking forward to a return to university (hopefully) next year when I can start cramming in 7-8 a week again!

The Fighter

“That guy did not just get off the fuckin’ couch. If he did, I’m gonna get a couch like that.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: The ups and downs of two brothers, both boxers, in smalltown America.

Very short review as I’m short of time.

Fairly run-of-the-mill rags to riches story, though based on true events. One brother (Dicky – Christian Bale) never quite made it in the ring, so he looks to his younger sibling Micky (Mark Wahlberg) to capture that glory for him. With a possessive mother (Melissa Leo) managing him, Micky never quite seems to be getting there.

Events take a turn for the worse for Dicky at around the point where the story is waning. Just as the plot seems to be stuck in the “seen it all before” rut, things do get more interesting. As ever, I’ll avoid spoilers so I won’t say what happens.

The family starts to squabble, Micky looks to other avenues and his career moves in another direction.

The Fighter won’t be remembered for its story, enjoyable though it is. It will be remembered for one of the best casts to come together for a film in some time. Bale and Wahlberg could be brothers in real life, the way they appear on screen. Leo is magnificent as the bitchy mother and their sisters are scary and mad. Amy Adams is a perfect mix of sweet and tough as the love interest, while special credit must go to Micky O’Keefe who plays himself. Not as a minor part, but as a major supporting character.

While this isn’t a great film, it contains so many excellent performances it should be seen to appreciate the acting. Also, ensure you wait a few seconds into the end credits to see a short segment featuring the real-life brothers. From that shot, you can see how well Bates and Wahlberg have captured their subjects.

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Murderdolls / Black Veil Brides, Glasgow O2 ABC

Murderdolls
Murderdolls

[More photos of this gig on my Flickr feed]

I wasn’t 100% certain about this gig, partly as it was on a Thursday night. This is awkward for me as I live and work just outside Edinburgh and my other half lives in Glasgow. Basically this means driving to Glasgow on a Thursday evening, seeing a gig, driving back to Edinburgh… then heading back to Glasgow on the Friday after work.

Well, Gill bought me the ticket for my birthday which kind of made my mind up for me!

Due to traffic congestion I missed the opening back (Defiled?) but was in good time to catch Black Veil Brides who I was looking forward to. Their current album’s not that bad and their live show matches up musically.

They certainly had a decent fan base a few rows deep at the front, though the screaming sounded a little too much like a crowd baying for the latest boy band to come on. The band themselves are of the “look how filthy and covered in scars drawn on in mascara I am” ilk, and their repartee was limited to “we don’t care if you don’t like us – we like us” which is fair enough.

For an opening act, they put on a decent show with a fair bit of variety in the songs. Nicely silly, good music – good luck to them.

The Murderdolls came on at 20:30 precisely and played a great 90 minute set with a balance of old and new material. Towards the end “Welcome to the Strange” was dedicated to the recently deceased Paul Gray of Slipknot fame, which earned a lengthy chant of the former masked metaller’s name by the crowd.

Wednesday 13 is a great front man. Despite the language, the attitude and the subject matter you can’t help but feel he’s just a guy having fun who’d be awesome to share a drink and a laugh with. The whole band looked like they were having the time of their lives and the audience didn’t calm down for the entire set – barring a small unscheduled interval when someone went down the in the pit and didn’t get up again. Security quickly spotted this and help was rushed in. Hope they’re OK.

As I said right at the start, the Murderdolls aren’t a band I’m massively into though I enjoy them. On this showing, I’d definitely recommend them as a good live act. They absolutely don’t take themselves seriously and the music was top notch.

This was my first visit to the O2 ABC, at least as a concert venue. There’s every possibility I was there to see a film back when it was a cinema and I was tiny. After the support and into the headline act, the one thing I’ll say is – great sound. There was no problem making out the vocals to either act, the drums were thumping and the guitars clear as a bell.

The security staff were also from the same stable as those used at the O2 Arena down the road. In other words, they were great.

Definitely a venue I’ll look forward to visiting again.

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Thanks from Blue Dragon!

Blue Dragon Children's Foundation
Blue Dragon Children's Foundation

A few months ago, Blue Dragon launched an appeal to raise $50,000 to secure the future of the current “house”. This is where street kids are looked after, fed, entertained, educated, assisted and – in some cases – sleep.

Fantastic news. Courtesy of many donations, they reached $41,000. Planet Wheeler had promised to match the first $30,000 and did so raising the grand total to a whopping$71,000!

Many thanks to everyone who dug deep. The house is now “safe” for at least the next five years!