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Dice_Man
Film-maker Heroes... Shane Meadows, Stanley Kubrick, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Actress 'Heroes'... Kim Novak, Christina Ricci, Jenny Agutter, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Music Heroes Massive Attack, John Lee Hooker, Seth Lakeman, Placebo
Filmic Inspirations It's a Wonderful Life, Das Boot, Blade Runner, LA Confidential
Reviews
The Abyss (1989)
The Dice Man Revieweth #1: The Abyss
Hmmmm, is The Abyss then abysmal, twenty years later? Well, it depends on what you want from a film. Great FX, sound, colour and a heartwarming moral tale? Check. Once great - now a little ropey - FX, cheesy and poorly reasoned dialogue, over-sentimentality bludgeoning it's way through the last 30mins? Check that too if you're so inclined. At it's (Deep)core it was a personal labour of love for James Cameron, the nautically interested (crazed?) Director, gene-splicing Sci-Fi and the Sea, and for that it's a worthy film - "Respect the Sea" is a heavy (and far better) sub-text to the frankly ludicrous ***Spoiler*** pre-text of tensions between the Superpowers over a downed USN sub. The real-life Kursk incident was by comparison far more revealing of how nations might react to such circumstance.
I watched the 163min special edited version, but was left wishing I'd stuck with the Theatrical Cut. The Abyss then - it's not for me, but it might be for you.
The Dice Man.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
The Real Bond Antidote
There are some who say that The Ipcress File and Harry Palmer is the other side of James Bond. I disagree, as HP is a low ranking agent, whilst Bond is of course the highest. Whilst Bond gets the glamour and exotic girls, HP gets the drab and the girl-next-door. As such, The Ipcress File is a complement to Bond, whereas The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is the true depiction of Spydom.
Wonderfully shot in claustrophobic, seedy B/W, the direction is carefully reserved to allow Burton to shine in the central performance as the world-weary 'station master'. There are twists aplenty as you would expect from the world of spies and counter spies.
All this contained within a perfectly balanced script which keeps it simple most of the time, but allows carefully written flourishes at key moments - exemplified by the stirring monologue Burton delivers near the end of the film: "What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? - They're not, they're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me, little men, drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing Cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives."
For Bond aficionado's - look out for Bernard Lee as the shopkeeper Patmore, who unwittingly becomes just another pawn in the grand plan as we all are deceived.
There are some excellent questions asked about morality, and it all conspires into a true British classic of cinema, and ranks alongside 'The Manchurian Candidate' as the greatest cold-war feature. Be warned however, for the ending, as you might expect by that point, is depressingly bleak, as our hero can no longer trust his own.
DICE MAN
Joan of Arc (1999)
Disappointing and nondescript by turns
Considering that 'The Messenger' was deeply flawed, I took the vast majority of positive comments here to mean I would be in for a treat watching 'Joan of Arc' - particularly as I have a soft spot for Ms. Sobieski.
Unfortunately, post-viewing, I feel I must redress the balance on the comments board here because it is plainly not as good as many here are making it out to be. I was hardly impressed by the title at the beginning suggesting we were in the Dark Ages......in 1412. Was Joan of Arc really prophesised by Merlin? Why, after telling us seven years had passed on screen, did JOA tell her priest it had been six? Was she really ennobled? Did her peasant brother really come to fight with her - suddenly acquiring the trappings of knighthood (especially a horse?) and die just as quickly as he had arrived? We know all about the 'voices' - but did they really forewarn her of Charles's treachery? Were there really drinking glasses in 1430?
...And the clincher of course, is how did a 'rescuing' French army get all the way through occupied territory to camp outside the walls of Rouen (to make a charge against stone walls on horseback....which is pretty pointless) without anybody knowing about it?
The production was generally good, and some effort had been made on the sets, costumes and armour. The battle scenes were poor, however - never achieving anything approaching realism. When JOA is hit by an English arrow at Orleans, she recovers and rides back to the walls of the Tourelle (where, conveniently, the English foot soldiers have largely disappeared and helpfully left the French ladders against the walls of the Tourelle from the first attack. How kind!)
As for the performances, there are far too many lapses into American accents for the characterisations of any except Peter O'Toole and Shirley MacLaine to be truly convincing (though those two stalwarts truly shine when on screen.) Leelee - though I admire her so, is stilted and too uncharismatic in the lead role - a pre-requisite one would think?
The script, on the whole, is curiously un-engaging. It feels as if the writers were going through the motions. There is little in the way of memorable quotes.
As a piece of television entertainment, it fits the 'passing time' bill only. It is in no way a standout piece of television production, nor should it be treated as such. After watching this, I found myself reappraising 'The Messenger' with slightly more favour.
DICE MAN
Idi i smotri (1985)
A Relentless 'rite of passage' in the face of Nazi War Crimes
'Come And See' - The title is taken from the Book of Revelation where people are invited forward to bear witness to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, is a relentlessly mounted assault on our personal sense of justice in a war without rules. It is harrowing in places, disturbing in others, but never less than watchable - indeed, you may feel as I did that it was impossible not to look - you owe it to yourself to watch. The film follows an adolescent man from naive partisan recruit to the traumatised wreck he becomes through the experiences he undergoes as the German War Machine advances through Belarus in WWII.
The Film itself has been criticised for it's own Partisan approach, yet it still (truthfully) lays to rest certain myths, particularly the one about the supposed non-participation of the Wehrmacht in Nazi/SS War Crimes.
DICE MAN