Lavonardo

Saw Guillermo del Toro’s sequel to Hellboy yesterday and liked it a lot. While the story was a bit shallower than in the original film, the better-developed characters made up that small shortage.

The sequel is not based on a Mike Mignola comic, and that shows. The story is fast-paced, and there’s too much reliance on good old fisticuffs. The fights are rarely boring, but there’s just too many of them. The plot has some holes in it, but none big enough to really detract from the enjoyment.

Ron Perlman returns as Hellboy, and feels even more comfortable in the role than in the original. Definitely the actor is a perfect match for the swaggering gruff demon with a weakness for kittens and cigars. Selma Blair and Doug Jones (rewarded with a voice role here, unlike the original) return as the rest of the B.P.R.D. trio and both carry their parts effortlessly. The interplay remains great - with one of the greatest moments being the scene where Hellboy and Abe Sapien take the traditional finnish route towards being able to talk about their feelings - by getting plastered on Tecate. Johann Krauss, the ectoplasmic new guy, gets a few scenes, but is mostly reduced to comic relief. But the character concept does have potential for the future.

Like all del Toro movies the cinematography is exquisite. Here the contrasts between uniformly gray cityscapes and a sudden verdant bloom are nothing short of magic. The troll market is pretty much how I would expect a high budget version of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere to look. And like many previous movies, it’s not the protagonists who are the most fascinating of characters, but individuals encountered only for a single scene. In addition to the breathtaking scenery concentrating on nature there’s a very pointed steampunk element in the movie. The titular golden army is powered by clockwork machinery, and the cogs and pistons are depicted with precision.

Even though the movie didn’t exactly rock the box office - it is hard to fight against the biggest movie of the year - a sequel seems inevitable. Though with del Toro hopefully very busy with the twin Hobbit-movies, it remains to be seem whether someone feels brave enough to continue the saga. The threat of the Ogdru Jahad’s displeasure ought to provide good incentive not to screw up the franchise.

And even if I will refrain from smoking in bomber jackets (as proven so cool recently in Sky Crawlers), I definitely have to try out drinking beer in the shower. Far more impressive. And far less destructive.

Right now Hellboy II has been relegated to the smallest screen of the multiplex, go see the second best comics-based movie of the year before it’s too late.

Paul Newman passed away today.

The list of excellent movies he starred in is long indeed. And I think it’s definitely a high time to re-appreciate the Sting or Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid some evening.

Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica was my last movie of this year’s Rakkautta&Anarkiaa-festival.

Yes. It’s about a font. And no, there are no action scenes.

Nope, just interviews, some of them interesting, some not, with various graphic designers.

Learned a few things, but also came close to nodding off.

The conclusion: since Helvetica is ubiquitous already, there’s no real danger (nor adventure) in continuing its use.

Arial was badmouthed less than expected.

And what’s pretty much the first thing seen after walking out of Andorra. That’s right, a poster for a gig at Redrum. Audaciously laid out in Helvetica Bold.

CSNY/Déjà Vu is a film that documents the Crosby Stills Nash & Young 2006 tour on Neil Young’s Living With War album.

Very few songs are played to the full extent - the film concentrates on the timelessness of the musical protests against an ongoing unpopular war. Parallels to the Vietnam war (and the Kent State shooting of 1970) are not left to the audience, the movie is explicit in its message.

The audience reactions, especially in Atlanta to Let’s Impeach the President vary expectedly - some see the rabble-rousing lyrics as nothing short of high treason, whereas others think that it is vital to be able to question authority. And the point is hammered home with an off-hand statement pointing out that while the seventies’ protest songs (especially Ohio) got a lot of airtime - nothing suchlike happens now, the radio is packed to the brim with songs devoid of any kind of message.

Charles Ferguson’s No End in Sight shows the non-military side of the occupation of Iraq. And the streams of mistakes made by misguided officials that continue to affect the lives of millions still.

This is a document film that doesn’t pull its punches. Bad decisions and their consequences are shown explicitly on screen. Unsurprisingly quite a few of the figures of authority refused to participate in the production - but some of the interviewed individuals are responsible for some of the worst policies. Whether they come off as badly deluded incompetents or staunch believers is left to the viewers to decide.

It is scary to see how amateurishly one of the biggest endeavours of the decade was undertaken - the people responsible for managing the occupied country were given next to nothing as tools. It’s noted that planning the occupation of Germany in the second world war was begun two years before the regime capitulated, in Iraq’s case the whole planning was done in fifty days by people who had no idea what they were doing.

The decision-making officials come off as arrogant and self-righteous. In Rumsfeld’s case that’s not really news to anyone. But the man whose handwriting is visible in the utter descent into chaos following the disbanding of the Iraqi army seems eerily convinced that he was doing the right thing. With no oversight in place, nor means to question authority, the policy was enacted as written - resulting rampant lawlessness that continues to this day.

As a movie No End in Sight is effective, it stalls momentarily a couple of times, but that’s to be expected given the complexity of the subject.

This great documentary film should be broadcast in the states just before one of the big presidential debates, to show exactly how and why the occupation is not going as planned.

Mamoru Oshii’s Skycrawlers was my second and last piece of anime of the festival.

Skycrawlers happens in an alternate Earth, where waging of war is outsourced to mercenary air force companies. And that results in beautifully rendered scenes of aerial combat. In contrast to the spectacular scenery and machinery, the characters are sparsely drawn.

Slowly the underlying themes of identity and memory start to emerge, and despite the protagonists persistence in trying to drown them in wine and bowling, the plotline slowly pushes the glitter aside and demans attention from the audience.

Despite its constant presence on screen, I don’t think I’ll take up smoking while leaning on walls in a bomber jacket. No matter how cool it appears to be in a movie.

(Strangely enough, no poster image for the movie appears to have been released.)

The first thing apparent from Eagle vs. Shark is the murderously thick kiwi accent with which the initial monologue is spoken. It takes a moment or two to adjust, but following that the dialogue is actually understandable.

Eagle vs. Shark is a twisted romance. Laced with great chunks of understated humor. And brimming with strange characters, most of which have crossed the borderline of believability. The film treats the whole ensemble with respect, the characters are not mocked because of being socially handicapped, only because of the truly horrible decisions they end up making.

Napoleon Dynamite is a definite influence, but Eagle vs. Shark ends up superseding that sleeper. And no movie that introduces a lovingly crafted mock-up of Mortal Kombat called “Fight Man” cannot be respected enough.

Full Metal Village attempts to play up the juxtaposition between a sleepy village and the hordes of metalheads that invade Wacken for an extended weekend annually.

And fails in the attempt.

While the bits on the visiting fans vary between interesting and cringe-inducing, the bits on the villagers remain uniformly boring. And since the ratio inbetween the categories does not favor the former, Full Metal Village ends up being a very boring movie. While the characters interviewed have occasionally interesting things to say, the slow pacing hurts.

Props to the director for using Ensiferum for one of the very few stage scenes.

99 Francs, Jan Kounen’s critical take on the advertising industry was the only movie of the festival I watched outdoors. Indeed, the R&A-festival traditionally forms the tail end of the outdoor presentations at Engel, and this year was no exception.

I loathed Kounen’s previous film, Blueberry. It managed to take a perfectly decent western movie, and turn it into a pretty but ultimately empty trip to innerspace when the protagonist ingests some serious peyote.

The very same mannerism rears its ugly head here. The inevitable coke binges are visualized in a psychedelic and longwinded fashion.

But fortunately they remain sidelined for almost the entire length, and the plot actually advances.

The satirical depiction of the life in an advertising agency veers between believable (a beautifully realized brainstorming session) to the utterly bonkers (which, obviously, may be just the protagonist’s drug-addled synapses misfiring). I’m pretty sure the executives of Danone were not amused with the target of the bluntest attacks.

Jean Dujardin in the starring role occasionally bore a striking resemblance to Josh Holloway (of Lost fame), a fact that took almost half of the distance to figure out.

And sure, it was growing cold outside after the sunset. But a spare hoodie, a big blanket and a cup of seriously spiked tea helped endure the chill.

Astrópía was the first truly good movie of the festival. Pretty much par for the course, I didn’t worry too much about the uneven progress thus far.

The first thing apparent from Astrópía is its origin. The characters spout icelandic, and never let go.
The occasional english phrases folded in are there just for contrast.

The movie is a beautifully realized Beauty and the Geek. A model-class blonde is forced to seek out employment in a gameshop upon a sudden turn of events. After the expected clashes with the people threatened by the presence of a misfit (in their circles), the movie turns even better. Occasional injections of scenes from an ongoing role-playing campaign - definitely played at a table, the film disrespects the live action players quite fiercely - and the reality and fantasy mix very well at the hands of the creative team.

Definitely a movie I intend to seek out in dvd form. If only to inflict on gamer and non-gamer friends alike. And with partial finnish funding, such a release is not too outlandish a concept to consider.

The first animated film of the festival was Evangelion: You Are (Not) Alone.

As far as I can understand, this movie was the first part of a quadrilogy, that reimagines the very popular Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series.

To someone who’s never seen a single episode of the show, this movie was both over- and underwhelming.

While the imagery is pretty, the action constant and the interpersonal relationships appropriately angsty, it’s still rather hard to understand the plot. The script is full of references to unknown things, and with the dialogue bristling with abbreviations, the storyline was occasionally challenging to figure out.

I’m pretty sure that this quartet of movies is an easy introduction into the subject, and with all the rest of them slated for release in 2008, this review probably would warrant an update once the whole epic has been watched.

The first day of exposure to new and unusual movies at the annual Rakkautta ja Anarkiaa festival began with a trio of films. While this entry covers multiple movies, regular service will resume for the rest of the program.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson was exactly what the name points out. A ninety minute journey into the life of the guy who created his own brand of journalism. The involvement of Johnny Depp (who played the author in Terry Gilliam’s 1998 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) is surprisingly small role. The movie consists of interviews and monologues, and quite a few outtakes from Gilliam’s movie (which do not really add anything). Three stars.

I thought Gogol Bordello Non Stop would be a full-length concert video, but was sadly mistaken. The film details the life and times of the world’s premiere gypsypunk band, but has not got very much music in it. The interviews with the raving eastern europeans start off interesting, but begin to loop the very same loop quickly. Two stars.

Preceding Timecrimes was perhaps the gloomiest short movie I’ve seen this side of the millennium - being exposed to theory and practice of euthanasia was not an ideal kickoff to a weirdly familiar film about time travel paradoxes. I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed the movie a lot more had I actually been fully awake, and will thus refrain from giving it a rating. The big twist was pretty much apparent from the onset, but the story did take a couple of interesting shortcuts working through to the conclusion.

Bring on Love and Anarchy, I come equipped with a two-figure count of tickets.

One movie outdoors.

One biopic.

Two concert movies: Gogol Bordello and CSNY.

A couple of documents on the situation in Iraq - both political and musical.

Two three-movie days, with miniscule pauses inbetween.

Two animated movies. Neither by Miyazaki.

Probably a few post-movie beers.

And a movie about a font.

Not on the agenda: seeing the opening club evening at Tavastia today.

Watched Pixar’s Wall*E on sunday, and came away impressed. But came away thinking that this movie was simply not as good as, say, Ratatouille.

Wall*E is indeed a weird movie.

It’s a bona fide dystopia, the future has been thoroughly maimed by greed and consumerism. The blows are not pulled at all - Earth lies in ruins, and the scenery is not pretty.

From a perspective of an Earthling that is. From an objective viewpoint the twin environments are amazingly detailed. Especially the dusty abandoned city where the movie starts is beautifully realized.

And despite the movie having a positive message, and an upbeat ending, I think this was the first Pixar movie from which I walked out without a grin plastered on my face. It’s by no means a serious movie (apart from the underlying theme), but it’s not a feel good buddy-movie like the most of the studio’s
previous output has excelled in.

It’s an almost silent movie for long stretches of its run. And with the exception of a few human characters, most of the vocals are severely computer-filtered. The extent of Wall*E’s own vocabulary can be counted with fingers.

But for the most part, the vocals go unmissed. The plot advances like an old silent film - with actions and expressions overtaking speech. The story is laid out slowly, exposition is not piled on from the start, as audiences are given time to figure at least some of the details themselves.

It’s the first Pixar movie that features non-animated actors. Even if Fred Willard’s face is only shown rendered on a video screen, it’s still a trailblazing moment for the company.

It’s an effective romantic movie that deals with two unorganic creatures, no matter how hard that is to imagine.

While the satire reaches pinnacle-height upon arrival to the generation ship axiom, the future generations of man are not depicted as evil or indifferent - just profoundly ignorant. This was a welcome change from the likes of Idiocracy and the like where stupidity seems to be one of the very few rapidly renewing resources known to man.

And by far this is a daring movie - combining all of the above with a sky-high cost of an animated movie meant that this is by no means a slam dunk for the studio. Happily enough both critical reception and audience acceptance have been high, thus proving that Pixar can continue taking risks in their upcoming productions.

The plot rolls along smoothly, so smooth in fact that I thought that for example the scene where the protagonist sees stars for the first time when dirtclouds temporarily part are not played to the full sense of wonder value.

But a far more severe shortcoming is the use of rebel robots. While the action is imaginatively thought, this is ground that has already been covered in Dreamworks’ Robots.

Like all Pixar films Wall*E is packed with intertextuality - a lot of references to older films are obvious, while others are truly well-hidden among the scenery. A lot of the items have been discovered already, but the list will probably keep stretching with the release of the dvd and the possibilities of stop-motion analysis. The first Apple reference (when Wall*E boots, the sound is that of an OS X-equipped computer) is amusing, but it gets repeated a tad too often.

Ultimately I was a bit disappointed in Wall*E. This is probably nothing more than a case of too high expectations. Based on the freely flowing hyperbole and the fact that this is the first true science fiction film from Pixar, I thought I would have liked this more. I’m not committing to the four stars as an ultimate expression, the rating might very well change upon a second viewing. Which is inevitable, considering that I’ve picked up all the preceding movies on dvd as well. And considering the visuals offered, this might be one of the very first movies that demand to be taken home in blu-ray format.

Wall*E is, again traditionally, preceded by a short film. This time “Presto” is featured, it concerns a stage magicians struggle with a hungry rabbit. And if the main event is more thought-provoking than out and out funny, this five minute piece packed with slapstick sleight of hand had the entire audience laughing out loud within seconds of kickoff. Also, an additional short film, called “BURN*E” seems to be slated for inclusion on the dvd release.

And I figure that it’s time to take a look at Hello Dolly, since both Pixar and Wordpress seem to have an unrequited love affair with the musical.

As fasr as nifty info-porn on interesting subjects is concerned, the Wired take on the immense effects of the Star Wars franchise cannot be discounted.

Browsed through the Rakkautta & Anarkiaa tabloid yesterday and noted that there’s plenty of interesting movies on offer: from confessions of love to a font to the Coen brothers’ newest via a paradox-inducing spanish time travel experience.

Jotted down fifteen movies, the catch will be smaller due to scheduling, but I definitely aim to catch way more movies than in the last couple of years.

Ha, I’m not the only one bothered by Batman’s voice in the Dark Knight.

Watched the biggest movie hit of the summer today in a cheap matinee show. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is an excellent movie, but neither perfect nor worth the #1 position it currently holds at the IMDB rankings.

It’s impossible to discuss the second movie of the rebooted Batman franchise without paying attention to the late Heath Ledger. His take on Joker is breathtaking. This is not the jolly and impeccably dressed prankster of Jack Nicholson. No, this Joker is a grungy and unpredictable madman in deteriorating makeup. One whose lizard-like manners and soft voice cause shivers from the first on-screen moment. One who embraces chaos without any plan, happy to push the world to the edge and give it a final shove into oblivion. One that brings to mind the best depictions of Joker in the graphic novels: Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum. I can’t guess who he’ll be against in the “supporting actor” category in the Academy Awards next year, but would bet on a posthumous victory.

Do I really look like a man with a plan, Harvey? I don’t have a plan. The mob has plans, the cops have plans. You know what I am, Harvey? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do if I caught one. I just do things. I’m a wrench in the gears. I hate plans. Yours, theirs, everyone’s. Maroni has plans. Gordon has plans. Schemers trying to control their worlds. I am not a schemer. I show schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.

Ledger’s performance is so strong that it almost consistently threatens the other actors. Christian Bale plays Bruce Wayne effortlessly, and without any real faults. Somehow I found his growling “Batman voice” grating almost immediately and managed not to shed my discomfort during the two and half hours the movie lasts. The two new faces - Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal - fit into the ensemble well. And the latter’s strong presence causes Mrs. Cruise from Batman Begins to be forgotten pretty much instantly. Cillian Murphy (Scarecrow from the first movie) gets a whole ten seconds screentime, which seems almost criminal. Though in a film as busy as this one the scenes are likely better off as dvd extras than part of the continuity.

There are no post-credit scenes, but having grossed gigantically in the box office there’s absolutely no doubt that part three is inevitable.

Why so serious?

Dark Knight is indeed a dark movie. There’s plenty of death, madness, disappointment, violence and betrayal in the plot. And not nearly all of it is of superhuman origin. This is not a movie whose story is easily overcome in future installments.

Dark Knight is also of a truly rare breed - a sequel that exceeds its predecessor. And in the Batman Begins’ case this is by no means a small feat.

Go watch Dark Knight. Just don’t expect to smile much afterwards.

Watched Dreamworks’ newest animated film, Kung Fu Panda, yesterday. And I’ve got to admit that this unexpected tale ran circles around the tired Over the Hedge and the later instances of the Shrek-saga from the same company.

The plot is simple, and echoes shards from a thousand martial arts movies produced during the last decades. That is, if conventional smack ‘em up-movies would be starring anthropomorphic animals, of course. And would be brimming with bildungsroman-qualities, centered on the protagonist reaching maturity. Both are present here, and in so full force that the film never runs the risk of being just a sequence of serialized battles. Of which there’s clearly no shortage, with plenty of homages to classic movies of the genre.

Jack Black stars as the flabby panda, and fits the role perfectly. The other actors I hadn’t really figured out in advance, but there turned out to be quite a selection from the A-list (as well as guys fallen from or aspriring to climb). Didn’t recognize Jackie Chan until the credits rolled in. Nor Ian McShane as the villain, Tai Lung, he seems to be caught doing nothing but voicing nasty animals post-Deadwood.

The art is faultless, packed with details, and especially the hand-drawn initial sequence is worthy indeed. The scenery changes from misty outdoor vistas to medieval prisons, via Matrix-like slo-mo effects.

There is no charge for awesomeness

And speaking of credits, while the post-roll scene is short - it’s well worth sitting through the credits, even after the Jack Black / Cee Lo-version of Kung Fu Fighting is over. There’s a barrage of good background art and the combination of Hans Zimmer and a big chinese orchestra does inspire awe at times.

Scarily enough, this is not a fully self-contained movie, but according to studio owners the concept has potential for five more. Fortunately no loose ends are left hanging here, though.