2009. Dir: Robert Zemeckis. Starring: Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Robin Wright Penn and Bob Hoskins. ●●○○○
I arrived at the cinema for Disney's A Christmas Carol in a bouyant mood. We had just done a great school, with suitable and incisive questions, we had the afternoon off and there was a favourite fast food restaurant across the car park, with the perfect time needed for pre-cinema burgers. We paid for our tickets, and were given the snazzy 3D glasses, it all felt like going back to being a pre-teen and heading to the local fleapit on a Saturday afternoon.
The trailers were exciting and strange in 3D, even the adverts filled me with a sense of wonderment. The film began and I was suddenly on a chase through the streets of London, throwing snowballs at passing urchins, narrowly missing lamp posts and getting caught in snow flurries. Then the film truly started, and I'm shocked to say the opening 5 minutes were the best in the film.
In case you've lived under a rock for all of your life A Christmas Carol takes place during the night before Christmas as miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited first by his deceased partner Jacob Marley, and then by 3 ethereal spirits (the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and "Yet to Come") who conspire to teach him the true meaning of the season, by taking him on a tour of his youth and failed courtship, how his relatives and employees will spend this Christmas and, if things remain unchanged, what will take place in the future.
The work may be considered a lighter novel than most of the works of Charles Dickens, it's certainly his only major work to concern the supernatural, however the key themes of inequality and poverty which dominate his work. Indeed it is the the realisation that leading an uncharitable life leads to an uncharitable death that changes Scrooge, not the glimpse into the family life of his ever-faithful clerk Bob Cratchit.
The story has been filmed dozens of times, with each version and derivative having it's detractors and admirers. What Bob Zemeckis was promising with his motion capture technology was the story as we've never seen it before, every nuance of the novel would be filmed, every fantastical detail could be brought to life.
To some extent this is true, I have never seen Ignorance and Want rendered in the film, or witnessed the genius image of letting the Ghost of Christmas past truly be a candle, whose fluttering appearance lets you imagine Scrooge's nearest and dearest. However extra seems to have been brought in - Carrey, as Scrooge, does more than his fair share of runnign through the London streets escaping the succesive spirits.
Amazingly this addition of action doesn't make it more exciting, indeed the great problem of this film is that the mystery and message is lost in the effects. Whether it's Scrooge flying to the moon, Mr. Fezziwig's fantastic acrobatics (surely even through the rose tinted vglasses of the past he would still have been governed by laws of physics) or the occasionally jarring use of pointy things to remind us the film is 3D. The insistence of upping the action also seems to come at the expence of the fun of the story, we never enjoy the company of Scrooge always laughing at him and never with him.
Carrey does a fine job as Scrooge in the early stages of the film, and has a nice withering tone, however he becomes the same old Carrey as he gurns through the later parts, and the least that can be said for his wondering accent as the Ghost of Christmas Present the better.
The rest of the cast are fine, although most of them seem to have worked on less than Scrooge by the special effects team leaving them with waxy unreal looking skin or lifeless eyes.
Overall I would say this was a terrible disappointment, with all the fun and wonder drained out by the technology. Would have much prefered to sit at home and watch the Muppets to see how the story should be told.
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
A Christmas Carol
Friday, 6 November 2009
Out This Week (06/11/09)
So I'm writing this in advance, which means that, to a certain extent, I'm making up the scores for the excitometer. That is to say some (or a large measure) of excitement is based on the reviews coming out for a film. Not that I always expect to see reviews - it's extremely rare that a Bollywood film will be previewed in the main film press hence they mostly score poorly on the anticipation stakes - however when the biggest release has yet to be screened I usually wait. Saying that unless Zemeckis' latest received "masterpiece" commentary the film of the week will still be Men who stare at Goats.
Photos of goats if I get the opportunity...
Bright Star
Lauded Keats biopic from Jane Campion, director of The Piano and Portrait of a Lady. Trailer indicates the film is very pretty to look at and may contain scenes of excessive eye gazing. Is unlikely to introduce hordes of unititiated teenagers to the poets work.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
A Christmas Carol
Provisionally coming in at 4 blobs of excitement I wouldn't be surprised if this motion capture film starring Jim Carrey moves up against the competition. Although quite why you'd want to motion capture the infamously rubber faced star is beyond me.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○p
The Fourth Kind
Another provisional score - but one I don't expect to change when the reviews are available. Genre bias certainly, but lets face it a horror with Milla Jovovich can't be everyone's cup of tea.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○p
Jennifer's Body
Or, What Diablo Cody did next. Maybe the horror conventions mixed with Cody's hipper than though writing might of worked if this film didn't focus on sexy starlets Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. Or maybe a film with vampy leads will always be doomed to failure.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Men who stare at Goats
Grant Heslov may have changed to tone of this true story about a psych ops CIA team, with mind bending skills such as staring goats to death and walking through walls, from astonished disbelief to wacky comedy but the trailer looks hilarious, and at least it will bring more people to this amazingly unreported element of the history of the US armed forces.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
1 Day
This film has been virtually banned in Birmingham. Apparently the police and council have been trying to persuade local cinema managers to veto the film because of it's glorification of Brummie gang violence and it's crime does pay message. They should try to ban it because it's chock full of amateur performances and inexplicable r 'n' b musical interludes.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Paper Heart
Documentary from Charlyne Yi, which exlores the nature of love, as well as pushing boundaries in the documentary form. For instance the relationship between Yi and Michael Cera which forms the catalyst for the investigation appears to be purely for the cameras.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Welcome
Phillippe Loiret's refugee drama about a Kurdish boy from Iraq making his way across Europe only to find the British Channel too much of a hurdle. Should go down well with Daily Mail readers.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Tuesday Trailers - A Christmas Carol
The latest trailer for Robert Zemeckis' CGI Mo-Capped version of the Charles Dickens short story was released over the weekend, so here it is. I'm not completed sold by the trailer. The rendering doesn't look as good as Beowulf, and the cutting on the trailer seems a little fast, but maybe it'll still be OK up on the big screen. What do you think? Is no-cap a passing phase or is Zemeckis showing the way of the future?
A Christmas Carol opens on 06 Nevember 2009.
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Catching up - Birthdays
Here are the birthdays I have missed:
Name Age Birthday Coming Soon (if I have an interest in seeing it)
Bill Murray 58 21 September
Mickey Rooney 88 23 September
Will Smith 40 25 September Seven Pounds
Gwynneth Paltrow 36 27 September
Mira Sorino 41 28 September
Marion Cotillard 33 30 September Public Enemies, Nine
Julie Andrews 73 01 October
Clive Owen 44 03 October Duplicity, Boys are Back in Town
Susan Sarandon 62 04 October Lovely Bones
Kate Winslet 33 05 October Revolutionary Road, Reader
Mary Badham 56 07 October
Sigourney Weaver 59 08 October Avatar
Melinda Dillon 69 13 October
Angela Lansbury 83 16 October
John Lithgow 63 19 October
Viggo Mortensen 50 20 October Appaloosa, The Road
Joan Fontaine 91 22 October
Kevin Kline 61 24 October
Bob Hoskins 66 26 October Christmas Carol
Peter Firth 55 27 October
Jane Alexander 69 28 October
Richard Dreyfuss 61 29 October W.
And a picture for Richard as it's his birthday today:
