Reviews
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Powerful performances but some odd decisions
Terrific acting, some of the best I've ever seen, make this movie a really powerful piece of work. Dustin Hoffman is just phenomenal and Kate Reid is terrific as well. But why was John Malkovich cast as the elder son, Biff? He's a great actor but he just doesn't fit the part of the athletic, confident 'golden boy' on whom Willy Loman pins his hopes for the future. In fact Malkovich looks rather pale, thin and menacing (especially with that voice!). Still, that strange casting decision doesn't ruin the movie, as Malkovich carries off the part of the fallen son (later in life) very well. In the end, Hoffman is so stellar anyway that it's impossible to turn your eyes away from him for long.
Play for Today: 'Nuts in May' (1976)
Petty human nature goes under the microscope in this brilliant & funny film
This is a good film to see for anyone starting on the long, twisted road that is trying to understand the British. Keith is a deeply anal-retentive man on a camping holiday with his dim, lisping girlfriend, Candace Marie. When a rough biker couple arrives at the campsite next door, his ordered little world is destroyed and his sanity nearly goes with it.
The character of Keith is absolutely brilliant: I've never seen such a deeply flawed, contradictory, human character so well written and well portrayed on screen. Roger Sloman is utterly convincing and very funny. Alison Steadman is also very good and the whole film is difficult to forget.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Wodehouse farce, but with more blood
People have complained about this for being sub-Tarantino but it's not at all like, say, Reservoir Dogs; it just looks that way because of the blood and the swearing. At heart this is a P G Wodehouse-type farce with antique guns instead of cow-creamers and dodgy back-room clubs instead of Picadilly gentlemens' clubs. Lots of running around and shouting keeps the pace lively and the jokes - and all-important set-ups - are genuinely funny. This film comes as such a relief after the anodyne sentimentality of Sliding Doors and the pseudo-intellectual witticisms of Shakespeare in Love (they were funny in their own way, but their own way can be a bit annoying). It's so great to see the old music-hall farce routines united with the modern gritty shoot-em-up so harmoniously, and that the result is still funny is really something to admire.
As Good as It Gets (1997)
Incredible bad taste from a Hollywood stinker
I'm not the type to be easily offended but this film left me nearly in tears at its sheer heartless bad taste. Jack Nicholson does his best, but the script is atrocious - it sets up a series of black-humour situations and tops them off with typically cheesy har-har Hollywood punchlines. I winced all the way through. For example: Greg Kinnear's character goes through a series of horrible ordeals: he is beaten up for being gay, his relationship falls apart, his career has ground to a halt and he is facing bankruptcy in addition to being in considerable pain from his injuries. He tries his parents for help - they reject him. Where does the gag go from here? Even his cute little dog chooses a stranger over him! HA! Big laughs from the audience - watch the mutilated gay guy lose everything he loves! Now that's comedy.
Heavy Metal (1981)
It's terrible... but I wouldn't have it any other way
As a "film" Heavy Metal is a total disaster. Corny, cheesy, cliche'd, wanky (in every sense of the word.... the sexism is outrageous) - all you can think is "thank God it's only a cartoon". As entertainment, though, it's fantastic, not least the wildly improbable babes' outfits - they put Xena to shame. In a way it's sad that this movie was ever made, because the world is a poorer place culturally for it... but who wants to live in a world of high culture? Give me glowing orbs and the SCTV boys every time.
Hard Core Logo (1996)
A dull and self-indulgent disappointment
After the wit and liveliness of Highway 61 and Roadkill I expected this movie to shine, but it was as bloated and self-deluded as the hard-rock stars it parodied. The pace dragged, not helped by an over-long hallucination sequence, the characters were flat and unmemorable, and Art Bergmann is no Jello Biafra. I had to poke myself to stay awake.