DontEffWithThePriest Reviews

Valhalla Rising (2009)

Vapid

[5/10 · 21 December 2010]

A vapid shell of a film that has enough arty pretentiousness to please some critics and no one else. Disappointing, though with some aesthetically pleasing scenes.

While some may find the absence of any explanation of anything in the film an endearingly mysterious feature, I found it boring and a thoroughly unrewarding experience.

While I write this review I'm starting to think my 4 out of 10 was generous.

Just simply don't bother, this is for the hardcore of the genre. Though a particularly niche genre of 'Norse mythology imagery meets Christian conquest quasi-afterlife scenery and war and revenge drama'. There are more themes than actual events in the film.

I Heart Huckabees (2004)

Good combination of understated comedy performances

[8/10 · 23 September 2010]

I Heart Huckabees is more than the sum of its parts, its parts being a combination of subtle, understated comic performances and philosophy for dummies (which I am).

The comic performances come from those who you would expect it from (Hoffman, Schwartzman and Tomlin) but Huppert and Wahlberg turn in the funniest performances of the film and Wahlberg must surely start to be recognised as a good comic actor after this, as well as his roles in 'The Other Guys' and 'The Departed'. Deadpan humour of the highest order.

The film has the left-field feel of films like 'The Big Lebowski' or a Wes Anderson film. Essentially, it's a good quality, offbeat comedy (cliché expression, I know).

Well worth a watch, 7/10.

Salt (2010)

Underwhelming Bourne/Enemy of the State etc rip off.

[4/10 · 22 August 2010]

Was it realistic? No. Did all the dots get connected? Not all. Was it fun to watch? Fleetingly.

Salt is a wholly underwhelming experience, promising so much but failing to deliver. Of course, there were some decent action sequences but without Angelina Jolie it would have been a B- movie. Typical storyline of secret service agent sought out by their own agency much in the mould of the Bourne trilogy or Enemy of the State. However, this pales in comparison and fails to really reach a conclusion in an impossibly frustrating way.

I was expecting to leave the cinema satisfied from watching a standard action film, but left underwhelmed by its attempt at twists and lack of a climax. Left the cinema irritated.

Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 (2008)

Vincent Cassel Masterclass

[8/10 · 16 July 2010]

I think it's common knowledge how the film ends, but I won't divulge for those that don't know. Public Enemy No. 1 is far more action packed and seems far more 'Hollywood' than the comparatively quieter 'Killer Instinct' - unsurprising though, considering it's the business end of the Mesrine story.

Cassel is the driving force behind the whole film, without him it would have been an average to good film - with him it's good to great.

I don't know where everyone stands as far as the real life Mesrine goes - hero or villain. I certainly put myself in the villain camp, and so does Cassel and it shows.

From the offset we see that all though Mesrine can speak passionately, lucidly and 'rabble rousingly' it is always characterised by an impenetrably brash and brazen arrogance which is NEVER counterbalanced with any vulnerability to make the character more endearing. Jacques Mesrine's inherent evil is often masked by a jocular bravado and his monologues justifying his way of life are mesmerising - but you're never convinced enough to actually like him. Therein lies Cassel's greatest achievement in the film - to create a character for which all you can feel is antipathy but nevertheless to find him intriguing enough to carry on watching.

Certainly, he does afford us some light touches. I smiled as he boasted at the beginning of the film of being Public Enemy Number 1; his face being Gallic nonchalance personified, as well as the scene of him and his accomplice Francois Besse (played by Mathieu Almaric) trying to cross a river.

Besse provides a solid sidekick for Mesrine to flourish, telling Mesrine that they are not 'luminaries' soon after Mesrine's interview where he tries to elevate himself to hero status with the most simplistic of demagogic arguments: "I don't like laws and I don't want to be a slave to those laws in perpetuity" (to paraphrase).

I do have some small criticisms, such as Anne Consigny's (who incidentally appeared with Almaric in 'Wild Grass', 'A Christmas Tale' and 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly') unconvincing role as Mesrine's corrupt solicitor. Her face seems just too honest.

That petty criticism aside I'd give the film 7.5/10, giving the benefit of the doubt it's an IMDb 8.

A Prophet (2009)

Universal problems of prison

[10/10 · 17 March 2010]

Because I am not particularly au fait with the ins and outs of the scriptural references in 'Un Prophète', I will concentrate on the what I see the film to be - a critique of the prison system in France. For a country which claims to be the 'homeland of human rights' the French prison system must be a thorn in the side of the French authorities, with suicide rates twice as high as its European neighbours and 63,000 prisoners in a 53,000 capacity system. The gritty oppressiveness is effectively captured in 'Un Prophète', as it should be in any credible prison film.

However, where I think the film differs from other prison films is in its protagonist Malik El Djebena. Our first encounter shows him to be already hardened by years in institutions, yet lacking the pathological violence of fellow inmates. But this changes; by the end of the film he has killed, and has enjoyed killing. His rise up the criminal food chain is not a Machiavellian one though, there is no forethought is his progress; from the offset we see, and Malik explicitly declares, that he just wants to do his time and get out. Malik had no masterplan to be a kingpin and throughout the film he only reacts (intelligently) to external forces - to the gypsy, to the Corsicans, to the Muslims in the prison, to the Arabs in Marseille (that he only met because of being forced to by the Corsicans), and if he had not been approached by the Corsicans at the beginning maybe he would still be keeping himself to himself.

In essence, the film is telling us what we already know - that the prison system does not convert criminals into citizens, but vulnerable citizens into criminals. Audiard leaves the viewer with a question at the end due to final scene, does Malik leave this world of gangsterism or does he support his dying friend's wife and child in an honest way. Audiard's critique of prison points in neither direction, which is what makes the film so great.