twelve monkeys (1998)

terry gilliam's first foray into science fiction since 1985's "brazil" marked the biggest success of his career (thus far at least). bruce willis is wonderfully overshadowed by a young brad pitt, in his pre-fight club days showing off the depths of his potential. indeed his turn as mental patient turned animal activist jeffrey goines proved that he wasnt just a pretty face, in a turn that is both full of humour and terror in equal measures. thats not to say that bruce willis isnt great either, his performance as jailbird turned human saviour james cole is the performance of his career, and probably the best thing to come out of any of the resurrected careers of pulp fiction.

the world of the future portrayed in "twelve monkeys" is that of a dystopian one, wherein a virus has ravaged the human race. its up to james cole to go back in time to prevent the terrorist attack that caused the decline in civilization. "twelve monkeys" is one of the films from the late nineties that deals with the subject of terrorism in the way in which it existed prior to the events of 9/11 and as such is an interesting take on the subject.

the film deals with the familiar gilliam themes of memory, time and perceived madness. in this case the most obvious comparison would be "brazil", but i think that the nature of the issues are far less ambiguous in "twelve monkeys" than that film.

for me, "twelve monkeys" sits alongside "brazil" as gilliam's finest film. its strange considering that "twelve monkeys" may actually be his most commercial feature, but i just think it works so well.

judge dredd (1995)

a moment of madness, partly inspired by the news that a new version has recently been greenlit, ended with me taking a look at the the sylvester stallone-led "judge dredd". needless to say it wasnt as bad as expected, nor as bad as i remember. the concept of a helmetless dredd will never really work with me, yet the rest of the visuals work a treat. the blade runner-esque world of mega city-1 is really strongly realised, and stallone as the eponymous dredd is actually borderline perfect casting (were it not for the ego and the mask removal).

robocop 2 (1990)

the lowest point in the robocop movie trilogy (the tv series being off of the radar when it comes to levels of poor), has the eponymous hero dealing with a super addicitive futuristic drug and the ensuing cult that is attached to it. the film is harmless enough, yet it lacks the subtle sophistication of the first film.

the element of crime (1984)

lars von trier's directorial debut tells the story of a detective provoked to return to his old beat in order to solve an old case. the film has a very unique look about it, in that it is largely filtered with a sepia tone, albeit with vivid occasional splashes of blue. british actor michael elphick leads the cast as the aforementioned detective, following the trail of a serial killer using a technique outlined in a book, the element of crime of the title.

following 'europa' i was very much looking forward to checking out some similiar period von trier, and 'the element of crime' didnt disappoint, in fact i found it to be much better than 'europa'. the concept and the style worked perfectly together, both really complimenting each other, making a film that is not just style over substance, but incredibly powerful at the same time. the world of the film reminded of the work of gilliam and early jeunet, creating, similiarly to 'europa' a very old fashioned future, except that the world of 'europa' was a very futuristic past.

as to whether the film will hold up to repeated viewings im not sure, but the initial experience alone was incredibly inspiring, leading to what i would consider one of the best screenings i have seen in a long time.

robocop 3 (1993)

at this time of year i like to binge on rubbish films for some reason. or guilty pleasures as it were.

robocop is an unfairly maligned classic in some circles. the original 1987 film is genuinely great, with a deeper level of satire than most remember/give it credit for. thats not to say that the sequels benefit from the same level of quality in layering.

robocop 3 conceptually actually works really well, its just a shame about the execution. the story itself, concerning a corporation buying a city, draws semi-clever comparisons to many a politic strand, be it capitalism, globalisation or the holocaust, its just a shame that the b-movie production values and lesser performances let the film down.

i look forward to darren aronofsky's take on the subject matter.

the terminator (1984)

in light of the recent hype over next years terminator : salvation i decided to take in a light night re-viewing of the first terminator film. as a boy it was the OTT special effects of terminator 2 that excited me the most, overshadowing the fairly basic premise of the first film, but as iv gotten older the first one is the only one that i can bear (lets not mention the third one). i love the gritty nature of the flashbacks, the lower budget revealing a more basic setting that doesnt seem exagerated and is actually semi-believable. as far as eighties action films go, this is one of the stronger ones, and one that actually still has legs today, almost 25 years on from its original release.

red desert (1964)

following my previous foray into the world of michelangelo antonioni with the wonderful blow-up, i decided to follow it up with the newly released (on dvd) 'red desert', which incidently was antonioni's first colour film. i havent yet seen any of his black and white work, a situation hopefully soon rectified, so cant really comment on the difference between the colour and the black and white films, but i would like to point out just how beautiful the film looks. his use of colour has many connotations, with the use of red being symbolic of our protaganists state of mind amongst other things. the bold backgrounds, especially the earlier scenes set within the compound of industry gives the feeling of an otherworldy nature, which leads to my next point -

the film is almost like a science fiction piece. the environment and use of sound reminiscent of the worlds later created in films such as stanley kubrick's "a clockwork orange" and andre tarkovsky's "stalker''. ''red desert'' has a very unique electronic score, that adds to the mechanical and otherworldy feel of the picture, and the use of industrial change as a metaphor is similiar to those of those seen in later science fiction work.

i enjoyed red desert wholeheartedly, and look forward to my next antonioni, the passenger (1975).

europa (1991)

having never had a great deal of luck with lars von trier i approached europa with some trepidition. granted, my previous endeveours within his work all circled around that of the dogme period, and this looked very different. europa centres around the story of a young american man who heads to germany after the second world war in order to work with his uncle as a ''sleeping car conductor''.

the look of the film is what appeals most. using lots of back projection von trier creates a world that is reminescent of the type of film one would expect from the period of the films setting, but is almost cutting edge in its satirical note. as a fan of canadian avant-garde filmmaker guy maddin i noted many similiarities between europa and his work, be it in the use of film type and the style of the dialogue. it is said in the liner notes for criterion's new release that europa inhabits a setting that is an "oddly futuristic past", a description that i would wholeheartedly agree with.

one final note; max von sydow's iconic narration is outstanding. its a key ingredient with regards to clarifying the intended state of mind necessary with regards to viewing the film in the best way possible.

blindness (2008)

fernando meirelles follow up 'city of god' (2002) and 'the constant gardener' (2005) is a miraculous piece of cinema. from what must go down as one of the most terrifying opening scenes in modern cinema, through to the joyful climax i was thoroughly gripped.

i wanted to let the film lie for a while before posting my review, as based on what others have said about the film i was under the impression that the film lacked any real soul, or point, and unfortunately i can confirm that this is almost the case. the film itself was incedibly powerful an experience, yet post-thought i have to be honest and admit that the lack of substance has really caught up with my opinion. it is a great film tho, one definately worth seeking out, and worthy of a place on my top 20 of the year.

mad max - beyond thunderdome

in the first 25 minutes or so mel gibson utters something along the lines of the following -

"call it what you like, it still smells like shit to me..."

that about sums up my feelings towards mad max - beyond thunderdome. which is a shame really, as i actually kinda enjoyed the first two (which i watched yesterday and will henceforth file under "guilty pleasures").