Spoiler free.

The 65th Edinburgh International Film Festival kicked off yesterday with opening film ‘The Guard’.  Starring veteran actor Brendan Gleeson as Galway police Sergeant Gerry Boyle.

Boyle has a bit of a reputation for his ‘unorthodox’ ways.  Soon shit goes down in the small town he patrols, American FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) has been called over to investigate some mysterious murders and reports of drug trafficking.

Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, brother of ‘In Bruges’ director Martin McDonagh.  The film shares many similarites with ‘In Bruges’ and has been fairly compared with that film.  For one thing the comedy is as black as you like, much of Boyle’s remarks (some pretty racist) will have you howling with laughter at how wrong they are.  The odd couple team up of Gleeson and Cheadle results in some of the film’s best laughs.

The first few minutes of the film set the tone perfectly, ‘The Guard’ is definitely one of the ballsiest films of the year.  The tone of humour won’t sit well with everyone especially Daily Mail types.

Though bolstered by a great cast, Gleeson is the obvious standout.  But its refreshing to finally see him in a lead role after numerous supporting roles in the likes of Braveheart and the Harry Potter films.  It was clear that from ‘In Bruges’ Gleeson is perfectly adept at comedic acting and timing and I’m very glad that he’s had a chance to shine in this film.

If you enjoyed ‘In Bruges’ you’ll love this, it may not be as good as it but it is a bit funnier.  I urge you to check it out when its on general release on 17th August or at the end of the EIFF at the best of the fest where it will undoubtedly have a place.

9/10

I will start off by saying that X-Men: First Class, whilst it has a few problems absolutely wipes the floor with the last 2 X-Men movies, X-Men 3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Director/Writer team Mathew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (Stardust, Kick Ass) along with Bryan Singer producing (having been forgiven for his Superman ship jumping in 2006) have delivered a worthy addition to the now bustling X-Men franchise.

There are a lot of characters in the movie, many fan favourites but this is Charles Xavier and Erik Lenshaur’s movie, both played exceptionally by James MacAvoy and Michael Fassbender.  This film has made me respect MacAvoy as an actor a lot more, but I have always considered Fassbender as an excellent actor so that goes without saying.  They don’t just base their performances on Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellon either, but make the roles their own. 

Some other characters get a good look in, like Hank McCoy but some others are left by the wayside.  One character’s arc actually consists of them being good one minute then bad the next.  But X-men 3 this isn’t.  There are some great character moments that really make you care about what is happening and what they are going through.  There are some great moments reminding us that whilst having Mutant powers can be a burden they can be a lot of fun too.

There are some real five star moments in this film (mostly of Magneto being a bad-ass, Azazel being a teleporting bad-ass and some of the acting) but they are some two star clunky moments too (some dodgy effects, dialogue, bad acting - mostly from January Jones).  There’s a few cheesy bits in the film - there’s a lot of sterotype military types in this and they’re played by actors who have made careers out of playing military stereotypes - Michael Ironside especially.  But these cheesy bits and stereotypes could be attributed to the film being set in the 60s and I think Vaughn has genuinely gone all out for a 60s look and feel and made it work.

The film maybe wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be but I believe a lot of it’s faults can be contributed to it’s rushed production and not to the exemplary cast and crew.  It only started pre-production just after Kick Ass’ release in April 2010. 

Through great character nuances, great action scenes, some lovely nasty violence as well as many treats for X-Men fans the film is most definitely worthwile and a lot better than a lot of films in the cinema just now (Pirates of the Caribbean for example) as well as being the first worthy X-Men film in 8 years.

Best line: “Go fuck yourself”.

7/10

My ratings for the other X films:

X-men 7/10,

X2:X-Men United 8/10,

X-Men 3: The Last Stand 5/10,

X-Men Origins: Wolverine 4/10

So you know how I do weird things in my sleep from time to time. Well last night, I woke up, startled and turned on the light. After staying in a different hotel room every night for the last 5 nights on my own I was very confused not to be in a hotel room and in a strange place (my bedroom!). I was like ‘whoah!’ then I heard a voice from behind me “Ben, it’s ok, you’re just doing your sleep thing again’.”

I turned round to see a woman in the bed and screamed for about a minute, as I thought I was on my own. Then I my next though was that I picked up a chick in Amsterdam, then I realized it was Clare Richardson, but then I was like ‘why is she in Amsterdam’

I eventually realized I was being incredibly silly and went immediately to sleep. This is the second time I have shat myself and screamed at my own girlfriend in my sleep.  I’m sure you’ll hear Clare’s side of the story in her sleep blog she has on me.

With Marvel Studios gearing up for the release of the biggest film ever ‘The Avengers’ next year, they are owning the muliplexes this summer with not one but two superhero movies.  ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ and this ‘Thor’.  Thor is probably the lesser known of the two, especially on UK shores.  But it plays admirably to what people expect from a blockbuster whether you are familiar with the material or not.

Despite the potential for some real Flash Gordon-style hamminess, and other than the first 30 minutes which set up the crazy world of Asguard that our superhero originates from, Thor manages to keep its feet firmly on the ground with the majority of the film taking place in New Mexico.

Kenneth Brannagh, despite being a completely leftfield choice as director handles the sci-fi/mythical mumbo jumbo with aplomb and is adept at startling camera movements - some lovely shots that spin us around Asguard are quite lovely.  (But not in 3D - more on that later).  Though he does overuse the squint camera angle

Chris Hemsworth other than a role in Home and Away and as Kirk’s dad in JJ. Abrams’ Star Trek hasn’t been in a whole lot and probably wouldn’t have a starring role by now if he wasn’t perfect for this role.  Without coming off like I fancy him a bit too much, Hemsworth has great screen presence and I can easily see him in starring roles in the future.

Natalie Portman appears in her 26th film this year as Thor’s potential mortal love interest, but shes not given a whole lot to do except be freaked out / fancy Thor, but shes got a hell of a lot more to do than a lot of the supporting actors.  Kat Dennings and Rene Russo (Jesus!  When was the last time she was in anything?) barely register and are fairly unnessential to the story.

Clark Gregg reprises his Iron Man role as SHIELD agent Coulsen, and hes pretty annoying in this, going about being a big smarmy pants like he was in the Iron Man films.  A lot of this seems to be a big Avengers advert, they do seem to be saving a lot of the good stuff for the main event, but theres plenty here to be excited about including the first appearance of a particular Avenger.  Like Iron Man and Incredible Hulk you should really hang around to after the credits for some Avengers nonsense.

Tim Hindlestoun isn’t an actor I was familiar with before but h  does a good job as the villainous Loki. (and that’s no spoiler, hes dodgy from the start)  Rumour has it he is the villain in The Avengers too and I’m sure he’ll do a fine job in that.

The Stan Lee cameo is great as always, it will be a sad day when you can’t look forward to a Marvel film without a Stan Lee cameo.

Please try and see a 2D showing if possible as the 3D post conversion isn’t really up to snuff, its not the worst I’ve seen but the camera angles surprisingly don’t lend themselves to 3D.  The shots of Asguard as we wiz around it are very headache inducing and very hard to tell at times whats going on as the screen moves to fast for your brain to cope with the 3D of it.  Motion blur is particularly bad during battle scenes -especially the one near the beginning as it is quite a dark setting.

Thor is overall a great blockbuster with it’s heart in the right place and has the right balance of humour and respect for the material.  It works both for and against it that the most excitement you get from it is the wee tasters for the main event next year.  Roll on 4th May 2012…

7/10

(spoiler-free)

When I was 14 Scream was like the best.film.ever!  Older and wiser I know thats not the case but damn that original trilogy was a lot of fun and a great product of the time.  (I would of given anything to see the first 3 Scream films in the cinema, but with them being 18s I couldn’t - now I’m 26 and this is a bloomin’ 15).

Other than elevating the franchise to post-modern horror to post-post-post-post modern horror and lots of mentions of Twitter and blogging, Scream 4 is seriously dated and very much stuck in the 90s.  And thank Christ for that.

There’s no inventive ways of people dying like in Saw, just good old knife butchery.  Its been so long since we’ve seen a horror film as fun as this.  It’s cliched, cheesy, too smarty pants for its own good but it’s always fun and never boring with a great game cast.  This was the kind of a film that was made for packed Friday night cinema screenings, it ain’t ever gonna win any awards but you’re going to come out with a big evil smile on your face.

Despite talks of rebooting with a mostly new cast etc, this is most definitely a sequel.  This brilliantly silly film returns us to the original’s small town location of Woodsboro with ghostface once again returning to kill folks.  For once the silliness of the lines and general plot actually add to the experience, this is one funny film.  (There was an Indian gentleman sat next to us on his own, he was pissing himself all the way through it, but when something bad was about to go down he couldn’t help shouting “Oh shit!”, it very much added to the experience - in fact take a point off the final score if you don’t have an Indian guy shouting this stuff during your performance screening).

Only things letting it down was the lack of David Arquette because that guy is a legend.  They didn’t quite know what to do with Courteney Cox’s character and the middle section can’t keep the momentum up after the crazy opening scene.  But the ending is great which probably wouldn’t have worked had it not been for the performance of the cast.

Bottom line, if you didn’t like the first 3 Screams you aren’t going to like this, if you’re a fan check it out immediately, it’s like the last 11 years never happened… in a good way.

8/10

Its been a 4 longs years since their not bad but not great album ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace’, but Foo Fighters have returned with an absolute belter for their 7th album. 

Working as a five piece having now been reunited with original guitarist Pat Smear, the band headed to Dave Grohl’s basement to record the album on analogue tape.  The raw sound truly sells the album, eschewing the auto-tune/ perfect sound of so many albums these days.  Which isn’t to say it doesn’t sound amazing, because it does with ‘Nevermind’ producer Butch Vig at the helm.  It sounds exactly like its supposed to - a ripping rock record and definitely up there with the band’s best album ‘The Colour and the Shape’.

I always thought this, but this album just confirms it.  Foo Fighters are the rock band of my generation.  Handling popular big sounding rock songs with aplomb.

8/10

Current Favourite Track: These Days

(Minor spoilers)

Up until now I have been on the fence when it comes to Zack Snyder and his directorial style.  Whilst I agree he is one of very few directors who can make the dreaded MTV style work in favour of an exciting artistic cinematic experience, he does really needs to slow down on the ol’ speed ramping and invest more time in plot and a coherent structure.

‘Sucker Punch’ is Snyder’s 5th film as director, and 2nd as writer.  But it is his first original idea plucked directly from his imagination and not based on a previous comic book or film.

The first five minutes set an impressive presedent, set completely to Eurythmatics’ Sweet Dreams’ sung impressively by star Emily Browning herself.  Through fluid shots and camera work and impressive art direction, it sets up the rest of the film rather nicely.  (The title shot made of rain on a car window is very nice)

It’s a shame this promise is squandered.

We are then plunged into a brothel whore house where protagonist Baby Doll (seriously) is trapped along with other girls.  She is asked to dance at various times during the film which spins off into really well constructed and visualised action actions.  But there is no ryhme or reason to these seasons, with nothing going for it in terms of context, tension, peril with the girls squaring off many at times against various faceless bad guys.  Scott Glenn appears in each of these sequences as some kind of mentor/perv who likes following these girls through these dreamscapes and giving sage advice, but he just comes off as being a bit creepy.

For an original creation Snyder still can’t help but pinch other creations whether it be Manga, steampunk or Tolkien, and it just reeks of the sake of seeing cool ideas on the screen, but without any earned build-up or context there purely is no reason for them.  Its like Snyder had so many ideas for his first original creation and didn’t want to do away with any, throwing them all in the mix to create a fine mess.

Some excellent actors are wasted.  Carla Gugino is burdened by a ridiculous Russian accent, Jon Hamm’s role size is pitiful especially considering his astronomical rise in recent years.

Like the Wachowski brothers’ Speed Racer, another would-be fanboy pleaser which arrived with a disappointing thud despite the obvious passion that was thrown at it, this film won’t be greeted by a general ‘meh’.  It will have many detractors and hardcore fans and very few in between. 

The film has flopped stateside (Warner Bros. must be biting they’re nails after giving Snyder the keys to the Superman franchise) with even some fan boys decrying it and rightly so.  However it isn’t a complete disaster.  I appreciate this film has come through with an a vision of a true auteur, that is rare in Hollywood these days. Even if he does need to lay off the candyflass.  A failure.  But an interesting failure.

4/10

I can’t believe its taken me this long to start a blog.

For someone who lives and breathes film and music so much I’ve always been quite reluctant to share my views (other than my usual review of the year of course).  But to hell with it!  My reviews are coming at you.  I hope to update the blog quite often (maybe too often!) so we’ll see how it goes.

I will be mostly blogging film, cd and gig reviews. And maybe… just maybe a few features on my personal life (most likely the creation of my short films or things film related). But every so often I will be posting a feature or a rant depending on how strongly I feel about something.

Also expect some links and videos etc.

Just to give you a taste of my tastes / preferences:

I am a purist, so if something was shot in 3D I want to see it in 3D, if something wasn’t shot in 3D I don’t want to see it in 3D.

I don’t care what the genre is whether it be nu-metal, emo, progressive rock or classical music or what baggage or reputation a genre brings with it, good music is good music.

There is a difference between ‘My favourite film of the year’ and ‘the best film of the year’.

I will generally try to write formally but every so often please don’t blame me if I insert words and phrases like ‘Pish’, ‘baws’ or ‘shit the bed’.

Enjoy.

Ben