Clearing the Backlog:

29 Reviews Covering Every Film I've Seen But Haven't Reviewed Since I Started This Blog.*

*in alphabetical order, and with the exception of several films I watched but had seen before (I've decided not to review those).

Clerks II
(Kevin Smith, 2006)
Not great, but not bad either. There are just enough decent gags to keep the whole thing afloat, although it does start to sink towards the end under the weight of its own self-referential smugness. My main complaint is that instead of resurrecting Brian O’Halloran (Dante) and Jeff Anderson (Randal) to make this sequel, Smith should have utilised the far greater talents of Jeremy London and Jason Lee to make Mallrats II. All it would have taken was a fat chronic blunt.

A Cock and Bull Story
(Michael Winterbottom, 2005)
This nosedives after the first twenty minutes or so, when you realise it’s going to focus more on the making of the film-within-the-film than on the film-within-the-film itself. I found the bickering between Brydon and Coogan (playing themselves) reasonably amusing, but could have done without the pointless subplots involving Coogan’s marital and extra-marital relationships.

Corpse Bride
(Tim Burton & Mike Johnson, 2005)
I do not, have never, and will never see the point of musicals; so the fact that I managed to sit through this film surely must count in its favour. The main problem is that it’s simply not dark, gruesome, or disturbing enough. Don’t get me wrong: I wasn’t looking for a remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre with puppets; but this is the cinematic equivalent of a skull & crossbones t-shirt sold in Asda’s George section for mothers to buy as accessories for their 13-year-old wannabe-goth daughters.

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
(Kenneth Bowser, 2003)
Based on a well-known book by Peter Biskind which I hadn’t previously read, and will now never read, since after watching both this film and the accompanying DVD-extra interview with Biskind, it’s patently an unprofessional hack job pursued solely in the interest of making a bit of cash. The lack of interviews with major players such as Scorsese and Coppola is telling.

Festival
(Annie Griffin, 2005)
Laced with irony insofar as it’s a film about amateur writers and performers that features amateurish writing and performances. It would have been better as a TV drama (like Griffin’s most well-known work, The Book Group), not least because if it had, I probably wouldn’t have felt inclined to watch it.

Fun with Dick and Jane
(Dean Parisot, 2005)
I have to admit, I quite enjoy a bit of mindless Carrey nonsense now and again. And this was no exception.

Ghost in the Shell
(Mamoru Oshii, 1995)
Stylish (albeit in an overly blatant guns-and-tits kind of way) but somehow deeply unsatisfying. Not that I’m a big fan of Anime anyway. I tried to watch Akira many years ago, when it first became cool to do so, but quickly got bored of it. I stuck this one out, but only in the hope of seeing some stunning action sequences - of which, it turns out, there are too few. It all ended very suddenly, giving rise to a vague conviction that I must have completely misunderstood what had been going on. Strange. But not in a good way.

Hidden Fortress
(Akira Kurosawa, 1958)
Drags a bit towards the end, but still worth watching, even if only to witness the expert shot-framing and camera movements generally associated with Kurosawa. Not meaning to sound pretentious, but when the camera pans, it’s almost as if the scenery bends to Kurosawa’s will. (Damn, that did sound pretentious.)

Howl’s Moving Castle
(Hayao Miyazaki, 2004)
Enjoyable enough, and full of nice little ideas and images, but the story itself is uninteresting, and the ending is ridiculous.

The Island
(Michael Bay, 2005)
Fairly average on the whole, but affords the kind of mild enjoyableness that arises whenever something turns out to be slightly better than the crap you thought it would be. Buscemi’s presence helps (as always), and McGregor isn’t bad in the lead role either.

The Jacket
(John Maybury, 2005)
A nicely effective fusion of several genre clichés (sane man locked in asylum / time-travel romance / whodunnit) helped along by very good performances from Brody and Knightley. If anyone can explain to me why this film required no fewer than 19 producers, I’d be interested to know.

Kagemusha
(Akira Kurosawa, 1980)
More directorial fried gold from Kurosawa, although I was surprised to find the final battle scene visually underwhelming. Some of the early camera moves are incredible, though. Just a slight pan one way or the other, and a whole new scenic image opens up. Makes me wish I knew more about cinematography, in order to describe it properly.

Lady Snowblood: Blizzard from the Netherworld
(Toshiya Fujita, 1973)
Overlong, and not enough swordplay for my liking, but features some entertaining bloodshed nonetheless. I hoped it would compare well with the Lone Wolf and Cub films, but it doesn’t.

Last Days
(Gus Van Sant, 2005)
Undoubtedly not a film to suit all tastes, but as far as I’m concerned Van Sant is a cinematic genius, especially when shooting in 4:3 aspect ratio, as here (I’m not a huge fan of Drugstore Cowboy, and that’s probably because it’s in 1.85:1 rather than 4:3). This isn’t as good as Elephant – one of my favourite films of all time – but it’s still a pleasure to watch.

The Longest Yard
(Peter Segal, 2005)
I have to admit, I quite enjoy a bit of mindless Sandler nonsense now and again. Unfortunately, this was an exception.

Maborosi
(Hirokazu Koreeda, 1995)
Excruciatingly tedious. No doubt there will be some hardcore fans of world arthouse cinema who think it’s a beautiful and / or poignant representation of something or other. And maybe it is. But it’s still excruciatingly tedious.

Nacho Libre
(Jared Hess, 2006)
The perfect vehicle for Jack Black’s physical-comedy talents (namely: jumping, arm-flapping, jumping whilst arm-flapping, bounding, jumping and bounding, bounding whilst arm-flapping, rolling, singing in a silly voice, and further combinations and permutations thereof). Genius. If you like that kind of thing. Which I do.

Night Watch
(Timur Bekmambetov, 2004)
This is far better than most recent American attempts to make superhero / vampire flicks. The pacing is a little off, resulting in one of the most anti-climactic sequences I've ever witnessed, but there are some nice details in the story (no doubt because it came from a novel), and some effective (Fincher-esque) use of CGI to bring those details to life. I particularly liked the way in which the alternative dimension of 'the gloom' was represented (this is how it should have looked in the Lord of the Rings films when Frodo wore the ring).

Ping Pong
(Fumihiko Sori, 2002)
A very funny and original film about two table-tennis-playing schoolfriends. As entertainment, it's got some good CGI-ping-pong action, and some great characters and dialogue. As a sports-based drama, it's wholly refreshing insofar as it doesn't all come down to the usual cliché of the hero's team securing a victory in the face of adversity in the final few frames.

The Princess Bride
(Rob Reiner, 1987)
Many people seem to regard this as a classic, probably because they first saw it as kids and have been fond of it ever since. I didn’t, and was therefore disappointed (although I could tell that I probably would have thought it was fantastic had I seen it as a kid). The first 30 minutes are resoundingly unfunny. After that, it improves. Overall, I liked it, but I was about 19 years too late to stand a chance of really loving it.

Princess Mononoke
(Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)
Imaginative ideas, nice animation, and a mature downbeat ending. From what is essentially a kids' cartoon, you can't ask much more than that.

Red Eye
(Wes Craven, 2005)
Since I was a fan in my teens, I’ll always have a soft spot for the Elm Street movies (the first of which is genuinely a good film), but Wes Craven really is a talentless old hack.

Severance
(Christopher Smith, 2006)
Generally disappointing UK comedy-horror. The script is painfully bad in places, especially for the first 30 minutes or so. After that it gathers some pace and style. It’s saved from being a total disaster by one or two genuinely funny scenes, and a couple of clever horror-genre references.

Stoned
(Stephen Woolley, 2005)
A fairly average dramatisation of the lead up to the death of Brian Jones. Not helped by the fact that I watched it in close proximity to Van Sant’s far superior Last Days.

The Squid and The Whale
(Noah Baumbach, 2005)
On paper, this looks dull: a story about the effects of divorce on a family. To my surprise, it turned out to be superb, with excellently crafted characters and relationships and great acting all round. The only thing that spoils it is the fact that it’s American, and therefore manifests the dogmatic conviction that therapy is required to bring about genuine self-understanding.

Survive Style 5+
(Gen Sekiguchi, 2004)
A unique, stylish, and surreal interweaving of 5 disparate story-strands into a fascinating whole. The only slightly off-putting aspect is the large amount of English scattered throughout. This will no doubt make it seem ‘cool’ from a Japanese point of view. But ironically, from a Western point of view, what makes the film ‘cool’ is its overridingly bizarre Japanese-ness. But anyway, it’s excellent. Go watch it immediately.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
(Adam McKay, 2006)
Much like Anchorman, but with NASCAR drivers instead of newsreaders. Either way, it doesn’t matter, since Ferrell is hilarious. Sacha Baron Cohen is less than 100% effective as a comedy Frenchman (he just doesn’t seem able to bounce off Farrell as well as some actors can), but this is a minor quibble, since a more-than-adequate amount of comedy support is provided by John C. Reilly and Gary Cole.

Tony Takitani
(Jun Ichikawa, 2004)
Based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, this is a slow, surreal, film that sits strangely halfway between kind-of-uplifting and kind-of-depressing. The intriguing characters and storyline make it worthwhile, and it's very nicely shot and edited.

Wedding Crashers
(David Dobkin, 2005)
The plot is pure clichéd romcom-by-numbers, but Wilson and Vaughn (plus Ferrell, in a small part) are funny enough to make it work.