Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

The third season of The Mindy Project takes a little while to find its footing, but once it does it proves to be yet another entertaining season courtesy of Mindy Kaling. At the start of this season Mindy and long-time co-worker Danny Castellano (Chris Messina), end the “will they, won’t they” hinting built up over the previous two seasons to embark on a relationship together. This changes the dynamic of the show somewhat, and when combined with the introduction of a number of new characters could explain why things feel wobbly in early episodes.

However, these teething problems do eventually go away and over the course of the season, a number of fun stories are told. Fun, although not wholly original. Indeed, anyone well-versed in the tropes of the TV sitcom will find much of this season to be familiar at best and predictable at worst. Although there were a few surprises along the way, numerous moments seemed derivative of scenes we’ve seen before elsewhere, while some subplots ended feeling rather half-baked. Fortunately, The Mindy Project can, for the most part, get away with these unoriginal tendencies thanks to a roster of loveable characters portrayed by a talented ensemble cast.

Stand-outs in season three include the aforementioned Kaling and Messina who have excellent chemistry together, while Ike Barinholtz also continues to be a favourite. Impressively, Beth Grant delivers a number of great lines in spite of having arguably the smallest role of all the season regulars. Perhaps it is due to the strength of the show’s returning cast that some of this season’s new members can take some time to warm to, though it should be said that by the end of the season almost all of them define themselves as worthy additions. The Mindy Project also shines in its high-profile guest stars which in season three include the likes of Laura Dern, Lee Pace and Stephen Colbert with It’s Always Sunny‘s Rob McElhenney also making an impression in his small recurring role.

Although the performances here are strong, it is worth noting an odd trend that in numerous scenes actors seemed on the brink of breaking character. This isn’t anything major, but subtle smirks during moments which clearly shouldn’t feature them were surprisingly common; judging from the season’s blooper reel (included on the DVD bonus features) there are a lot of laughs on the set of this show, but when they creep into the final cuts it can take you out of the moment. Additionally, there are some editing issues here and there with some lines quite obviously dubbed over but this becomes less of a problem as the season progresses.

Still, in spite of these flaws, it’s difficult not to have a fun time watching The Mindy Project. While the plot of the show suffers at times from a case of unoriginality, the strong cast and memorable characters act as an anchor to stop it from drifting into mediocre territory. While not a show that will redefine the genre, The Mindy Project should satisfy anyone looking for some light entertainment.

THE MINDY PROJECT – SEASON THREE / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: MINDY KALING, IKE BARINHOLTZ, ED WEEKS / RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 14TH

 

With I, Daniel Blake recently released to widespread acclaim and recognition, it’s clear Ken Loach is as relevant and socially engaged as ever. Loach has had a long career in film and television and Kes is one of his earliest features, being released here in the UK on Blu-ray for the first time, courtesy of Masters of Cinema.

Based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines, and scripted by Hines, Loach, and Tony Garnett, Kes introduces us to young Billy Casper, a working class schoolboy growing up in a mining area of Yorkshire. Bullied at home by his older brother Jud, marginalised and ignored, Casper is struggling to pay attention in school. Billy and Jud’s lives are, according to their own mother, ‘hopeless cases’. A bleak and listless existence of grinding work, no prospects, petty fighting and theft is all that Billy has to look forward to.

That is until Billy finds a kestrel in a farm’s nest and decides to take it, naming it Kes. Stealing a book to learn how to raise and train the bird, Billy finally finds something he is good at and wants to do, though sadly grief looms.

Kes is not one of Loach’s more overtly political or polemical features, but themes that have been constant throughout his work nevertheless still prevail, as does his fascination with the drama and poetry inherent in everyday lives. Billy is seemingly unremarkable and with little ambition for himself or belief that anything will get better. His relationship with Kes changes this as it shows him he is capable of something and is not just simply good for nothing, and a quiet fury at the many children like Billy that are deemed worthless and discarded by society pervades.

Loach is one of the most respected directors working in the naturalistic style. He doesn’t impose upon viewers how they should be thinking or feeling, or rely on big dramatic acting. The film mainly rests on the slim shoulders of David Bradley as Billy and he is more than up to the task. Loach coaxes exceptional performances out of all of his cast and is ably supported by sterling work from the director of photography Chris Menges and composer John Cameron. It all ensures Kes never strays into sentimentality but instead feels authentic and real, earning your emotional investment.

Funny, wise, touching and bristling with anger about wasted lives, Kes remains a vital piece of British cinematic history.

Extras on this release include amongst others a lengthy 1992 NFT interview with Loach, as well as interviews with cast and crew, and with the restoration of the film supervised by Loach and Menges, it’s highly recommended.

KES / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: KEN LOACH / SCREENPLAY: BARRY HINES, KEN LOACH, TONY GARNETT / STARRING: DAVID BRADLEY, FREDDIE FLETCHER, LYNNE PERRIE, COLIN WELLAND, BRIAN GLOVER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

Craig has made a plan for what he’s going to do when the zombie apocalypse hits: stock up supplies, hole up until the worst of it has passed, then make a break for an isolated area. When a strain of mutated flu sweeps the country and causes the dead to rise his preparation pays off at first, but even the best laid plans sometimes need changing.

In our post-Shaun of the Dead/Zombie Survival Guide world, most undead movies now attempt to inject a degree of humour or postmodern irony into proceedings, but Plan Z goes in the opposite direction, driving its story with nihilistic hopelessness. Instead of going on a rampage to take out as many zombies as possible and save friends and loved ones from their ravenous jaws, Craig’s biggest challenge is trying to shut out the screams of the dying as he crouches barricaded in his flat. He silently justifies his decision to isolate himself, the rules of his plan echoing in his mind like some survivalist mantra, along with his belief that trying to save people will ultimately prove futile. “We’re not the fucking A-Team,” he declares after a friend tries to convince him otherwise.

The film acknowledges what many of us who have devoted thought to the subject might not wish to accept, that rather than life in the zombie apocalypse becoming both a culmination and vindication of a lifetime of watching horror movies, the entire experience would actually be absolutely terrifying. The first time Craig encounters a zombie (and a lone one at that) he runs away and has to psyche himself up to go back and face it, and it’s only with greater practical experience that his courage rises.

The film gets by with very little in the way of practical effects, instead making the inventive decision to use sound rather than gore. The gruesome auditory effects inspire your imagination to fill in the gaps with visceral imagery, craftily tricking your mind into thinking what’s shown is far more brutal than what you actually see. Shaky camerawork adds to the frantic intensity of action scenes, while any lulls in violence don’t rely on jump scares to keep you enthralled, but utilise pervading tension to the extent that the creak of a floorboard is enough to ratchet up the apprehension.

Each character gets brief flashbacks to times before the infection hit, not for any real narrative significance, but as appreciation of basic human moments. Insignificant and unmemorable at the time, they are what remains of the humanity that is now a shattered memory, forever beyond anybody’s grasp to ever reclaim. All that’s left is a world so swiftly run down that people soon truly appreciate the simple pleasure of functioning electricity or the orgasmic bliss of a hot shower.

In a world as awash with independent zombie movies as the films themselves are with the ravenous undead, Plan Z is a standout entry from its bleak and uncompromising vision. You are, like its characters, instilled with a sense of grim satisfaction for making it to the end.

PLAN Z / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: STUART BRENNAN / STARRING: STUART BRENNAN, MARK PAUL WAKE, BROOKE BURFITT, VICTORIA MORRISON, EUGENE HORAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Holiday-themed horror is nothing new. It seems that every date worth celebrating throughout the year has a genre film or two created in its honour. Some, like Halloween, do themselves proud, but there are a lot more that fall short of the inspiration that prompted the project to be green-lit.

Santa slashers are a staple of the Christmas horror film and it is no surprise to find that our killer in this film is appropriately attired in a jolly ol’ Saint Nick costume as he sets about working his way through a neighbourhood with a pair of trusty garden shears. Women are skewered and men are castrated in nearly equal measure, so at least he’s an equal opportunities killer.

Rachel Kimmel (Nunes) comes home for Christmas to visit her nan and is roped into assisting a neighbour with her Christmas decorations, completely unaware that there is a killer on the loose. In turn, she manages to convince two of her friends to help her out and, when the neighbour goes out, the girls begin snooping around the house. It isn’t long before the killer turns up and the usual shenanigans begin in earnest.

There is a twist woven into the plot that is both baffling and genius at the same time, but unfortunately, it doesn’t save the film from itself. With Christmas horror, there is a certain level of absurdity that needs to be either addressed with subtle comedy or wiped out entirely as with Black Christmas. Instead, All Through the House manages neither.

Where there should be some humour injected, even black humour, they try the darker path without success. The acting is poor and for every time you find yourself slagging off the characters for the decisions they make, you’ll groan just as much at the coincidences (or poor scriptwriting) that allow events to move along.

We try and find the best in any kind of artistic creation, but when it turns out this inept, it’s difficult to offer much in praise. Even the ending is so head-scratchingly unexplainable that you honestly wonder why you just spent nearly ninety minutes of your life watching this.

If you were fifteen, you might enjoy the mild titillation considering there are two shower scenes but when the same shock gags are used too many times – there’s somebody under the bed – then it loses all its appeal. If you want to see a cat nibbling on a severed penis, you’re covered. Desperate to see a cake used as a weapon, you’ve got it. If you want a well-crafted horror film, look elsewhere.

Our advice is to not open this until, well, ever!

ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: TODD NUNES / STARRING: ASHLEY MARY NUNES, JESSICA CAMERON, MELYNDA KIRING / RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 21ST

 

To certain generations, the mere mention of the words “Smokey and the Bandit” will instantly splash a wry smile across their chops. And now, all three Smokey and the Bandit movies – no, we’re not counting those later TV specials either – have been given a spruced-up Blu-ray release courtesy of Fabulous Films.

Plot-wise… well, plot-wise, there really isn’t all that much to any of the Smokey trilogy. But whilst the plot is minimum, all three movies are overflowing with fast cars, exhilarating chase sequences, foot-tapping musical numbers, instantly quotable dialogue, Fred the basset hound, and, of course, a magnitude of marvelous, masterful moustaches. Despite being all largely similar in plot, however, all three Smokey and the Bandit efforts certainly vary in quality.

In the first film, charming rogue The Bandit (Burt Reynolds) loves nothing more than a cold beer, a hot set of wheels and a hot piece of ass. When he takes on the job of running some illegal booze across country, he soon finds himself being chased by the long arm of the law, Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) and his klutz of a son, Junior (Mike Henry). Luckily The Bandit has his old pal The Snowman (Jerry Reed) to keep an eye out for him on the road, although the mustachioed smooth-talking speedster also finds himself picking up Frog (Sally Field) on his travels, and her having just jilted Junior at the alter means even more trouble on the horizon for our main man.

With Smokey and the Bandit II – or Smokey and the Bandit Ride Again as it’s been known over the years – we again see The Bandit, Frog, Snowman, Buford T. Justice and Junior all back for the ride. The Bandit winds up becoming involved in another cross-country run, although this time an elephant becomes an unwanted part of the plan as we see a slightly different take on the central character compared to the first time around. Here, Bandit is a man in need of finding his spark once more. As the movie opens, Frog has left him and he’s spending his days trying to find answers at the bottom of bottles. With a newfound fame from his previous shenanigans, Smokey II doesn’t paint the Bandit character in exactly a great light. In fact, for large parts of the film’s second half, you’ll find him to be quite the unlikable prick. With seven times the budget of the original movie, and with a monumental spectacle in the final act, the sequel ultimately lacks some of the heart of its predecessor despite having a far greater budget and scope.

In the threequel, Smokey and the Bandit III, Burt Reynolds’ Bandit moniker is actually handed over to Jerry Reed’s Snowman. And going one step further, it’s actually the Smokey of the franchise, Buford T. Justice, who finds himself challenged to speed across the country, this time as part of a bet with no-good series mainstays Big Enos (Pat McCormick) and Little Enos (Paul Williams). Snowman’s Bandit – complete with a car, outfit, and moustache that all scream Burt Reynolds – ends up involved in the trek, and again shenanigans begin to escalate. Interestingly, Sheriff Justice was supposed to be both Smokey and The Bandit here, but test screenings saw that scrapped and The Snowman turned into The Bandit.

As a franchise, Smokey and the Bandit was certainly one that saw the quality drop as it went on, but the original still stands up as a remarkably entertaining way to spend 90 minutes or so, and it’s a true time capsule of just how charming and entertaining Burt Reynolds could be in his pomp. The sequel, which has been much-maligned by many over the years since its 1980 release, is nowhere near as bad as you may think, and there’s even some great, poignant moments as Sally Field’s Frog brings the cocksure Bandit crashing back down to earth (which in truth was mirroring the real-life break up of Field and Reynolds). Where Smokey III is concerned, Jackie Gleason is again brilliantly bullish as the arrogant, quip-spouting ball of rage known as Buford T. Justice, but Jerry Reed’s Bandit-lite just makes you miss the presence of Burt Reynolds. And in terms of put downs and insults, they don’t get any finer than the zingers handed out by Gleason’s Buford throughout all three films.

What you likely really want to know here, though, is whether this new release of three movies that were originally released in 1977, 1980 and 1983, respectively, is worth picking up. Well, sadly, the extras are pitiful on this new release. In this whole trilogy, the only special feature or bonus material included is a trailer for Smokey and the Bandit II. Given the attention and care that has gone in to sprucing up these films for Blu-ray, it’s massively disappointing to see no documentaries, interviews, retrospectives, etc. The actually films though? They look utterly brilliant, with the HD restoration of each movie making them very much feel like films of their time yet also giving them a freshness and crispness that makes the thrill rides feel as engaging and attention-sapping as they’ve ever been.

For fans of the series, the cleaned-up Blu-ray transfer of all three Smokey films will make this a must-have, just don’t be expecting anything of note when it comes to bonus material.

Special Features: Smokey and the Bandit II trailer

SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT 1, 2 & 3 – THE COMPLETE COLLECTION / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: HAL NEEDHAM, DICK LOWRY / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: BURT REYNOLDS, JACKIE GLEASON, SALLY FIELD, JERRY REED, MIKE HENRY / RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 21ST

Inspired by a true story, The Lighthouse is Devil’s Bridge director Chris Crow’s attempt to imagine what might have happened when two lighthouse keepers went to the Smalls Lighthouse off the southwest coast of Wales in 1801, and only one returned.

As maritime mysteries go, it’s hardly Flannan Isle – although it did result in a change in lighthouse policy, and as a piece of Welsh history, it is no doubt important. As the two man team of Thomas Griffith (Jones) and Thomas Howell (Jibson), already known not to get along prior to the events in question, arrive on the isolated rock for a one month tour of duty, it immediately becomes apparent that Howell isn’t popular with the departing team either. Griffith is a terse man and Howell a timid one, and the picture Crow paints is of two men who have little reason beyond the job to interact. Three weeks into the assignment a storm descends the likes of which neither has before seen, causing the two Thomases – unable to contact land – to continue working amid appalling conditions and with rapidly dwindling supplies, and with no clue as to when and whether their replacements will arrive.

When one of the Thomases is killed in an unfortunate accident, fearful of being blamed for his colleague’s death the other is driven insane in keeping the light going entirely unaided.

The most fascinating aspect of Crow’s film is the dichotomy between the two characters, each feeling a sense of ultimate responsibility for differing reasons, one tragedy driving Howell towards religion and another sending Griffith in the other direction. Although this underpins the entire story, it’s something there isn’t really the opportunity to fully investigate thanks to the barriers that keep the men from talking; even after the storm has hit interactions are limited by Griffith’s lack of social abilities.

It is, therefore, for Crow to show us rather than telling us his story, and in this respect, The Lighthouse is mostly effective. The acting and especially the photography, for what is essentially a low-budget film, are exemplary, but with very little light to offset the shade – but physically and metaphorically – it’s a film that’s often difficult to engage with emotionally. The surviving Thomas’ mental breakdown is elliptically conveyed through the repetition of certain triggers that were already driving his emotional state prior to the accident, but with the story now reduced to just the one character (albeit alongside his mental projections of his dead associate) there’s an increasing reliance on external phenomena to illustrate the man’s  condition.

The Lighthouse is certainly a story that was worth telling, but ultimately the result is something that is as much an academic success as a functional one.

Extras: Cast and crew interviews, On location, Behind the scenes, Alternate opening titles, trailers

THE LIGHTHOUSE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: CHRIS CROW / SCREENPLAY: PAUL BRYANT, CHRIS CROW, MICHAEL JIBSON / STARRING: MICHAEL JIBSON, MARK LEWIS JONES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

Some jobs are more glamourous than others; some people are perfect for what they do. That’s the problem for Richard Vanuk (Falicki), a pill-popping alcoholic writer whose main source of income is performing exorcisms. And even that doesn’t pay enough to stop the landlord’s son threatening him every day for overdue money. As the film’s title suggests, though, this isn’t a voluntary career choice Vanuk has made. It’s just something he can do.

Vanuk has no problem vanquishing demons from the poor people he has to visit. He just gets a call from the mysterious agency that hires him and drops in on them. The actual exorcism part takes seconds, but Vanuk builds up to that moment, chatting and purging his soul to the possessed and pitiful. The procedure also takes a lot out of him, causing him to pass out and wake covered in a mixture of blood, sweat, booze and – all too often – vomit. If you think your nine to five routine is gruelling, you wouldn’t last a day as Vanuk.

There are some people who want to help him, such as his brother who gets him an office job, which causes him to disassociate even more and realise he should stick to doing what he does best. As the exorcisms continue, his life and mind begin to spiral further and further into a state of disarray. His squalid apartment is lined with empty bottles and his battered hip flask is never empty, his personal demons clearly harder to beat than the others.

Falicki’s film is a claustrophobic and dense nightmare. It’s shot with a palette that highlights the seedy and ramshackle existence of the main character, more akin to the grimy look of The Driller Killer than a possession film (with the bizarre and detached tone of Union City), with the colours saturating the screen and tinting Vanuk’s world. Managing to avoid the tropes of the subgenre, we’re presented with a variety of persons under the demonic influence, but they’re not the focus. As Vanuk, Falicki holds the attention throughout, whether it’s during a pre-exorcism monologue, an impromptu food fight or while he’s seeing to the stigmata that flare up following the process. He finds it much easier to talk to and open up to the possessed, although one client – a deeply religious man who was blind before Vanuk cured him – does seem to get through to him at one point. He sees the effect he has on people and how grateful they are, but even this doesn’t help him come to terms with the gift he has. The narrative gets deliberately skewed throughout as Vanuk’s profession gets the better of him, with some moments making the viewer unsure what they are seeing; be it a mystery figure here or an odd reference there…

While Accidental Exorcist is a tad overlong and occasionally ponderous, it’s an extremely engaging film that touches on some very tough existential issues but is handled with an intensely dark humour. It will be hard going for some viewers, but it’s certainly worth the time and could one day be held in high regard as a cult film.

ACCIDENTAL EXORCIST / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: DANIEL FALICKI / SCREENPLAY: DANIEL FALICKI, WARREN CROYLE, SHERI BETH DUSEK / STARRING: DANIEL FALICKI, FAYE SILLS, SHERRYL DEPRES, DAVID HIGBEE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

For the past few years, DC Comics and The CW have become the major heavyweights for delivering some of the best comic book adapted television shows with Arrow (first two seasons), The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow. But that doesn’t mean every single corner of The CW/DC Comics world is full of superheroes and costumed vigilantes… How about crime-investigations involving zombies? Well, iZombie (inspired by the Vertigo comic book series by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred) is the show for you as creator Rob Thomas delivers yet another television standout that’s the perfect combination of Veronica Mars (Thomas’ previous creation) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Like Veronica Mars, this deals with a young heroine who solves crimes and mysteries, and like Buffy, she has her own ‘Scooby Gang’, has supernatural powers, and a true love she’s forced to remain separate from. Like both shows, this is brimmed with snappy dialogue, inside jokes and pop culture references, yet because of how strong and multi-layered this show is, iZombie stands on its own as its own separate entity.

For a first season, it was damn impressive how the stakes kept raising after each episode; each individual storyline developing and changing along the way. When things start out initially, you think you have a good idea what the tone is, who the characters are and where they are at, and where things could possibly lead. However, during the course of the series, the rug keeps getting pulled out from under you as the major story threads loom in, and that’s when things start to change. True, this show does follow a ‘case-of-the-week’ formula, yet this works perfectly with what’s going on within the show. As each new incident rolls in, the characters are developed extensively, relationships are delved into more, and the stories on their own were given time to breathe. Sometimes the cases are one-off’s, whilst some were tied into the main storyline, which made it feel like a natural progression as each character started to tread new uncharted waters.

With this kind of material, each and every actor involved had to be up to the challenge, and the standout that truly brought her A-game was Rose McIver, who was truly the real beating heart and soul of this show. McIver brought out the nuances, the snarkiness and the pathos that drives Liv as a character, and as she digests each brain along with its own unique personality, this brilliantly allowed McIver to show real diverse versatility as an actress. The rest of the cast played of well together too with Rahul Kohli bringing genuine comedy relief as bumbling scientist Ravi, Malcolm Goodwin delivering deadpan charm as no-nonsense Det. Clive Babineaux and David Anders is pure, delicious evil as big bad Blaine. Plus, Robert Buckley was a real surprise as we see different sides to his acting abilities as the character of Major Lilywhite goes to some dark places. 

Whenever a TV show initially starts, there’s usually the case that it wouldn’t be smooth or intricately written at first before things would eventually get better. However, this is not the case as iZombie had an incredibly strong and consistent first season. The light-hearted tone was a welcome relief, the performances were top notch (especially McIver), the writing was strong, the threat got bigger and better, and when it delivered emotionally, it certainly delivered. Even though it was based on an unlikely and surprising source, the result was nothing more inimitably clever entertainment from start to finish.

iZOMBIE SEASON 1 / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: ROSE MCIVER, MALCOLM GOODWIN, RAHUL KOHLI, ROBERT BUCKLEY, DAVID ANDERS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

It’s the end of civilisation as we know it (twice), and boy is it bleak. Bleak viewing, that is. Anybody expecting thrills and drama and indeed any kind of excitement would be better off renting Andy Warhol’s Empire instead.

Ignore the promotional images because Tom Large’s latest film is once again being sold as a sci-fi thriller, a tech-heavy one, and once again it’s nothing of the sort. There are a couple or three nice FX shots intended to set the scene, but the rest of it is basically maybe half a dozen interminably lengthy scenes. The only light in the entire film is the big bright neon signposting the shock revelation at the end – somewhere we’ve been before, many many times. Arcadia makes THX 1138 look breakneck, Soylent Green look cheerful, and 1984 look positively Disneyesque.

So, the plot. It’s the near-ish future, and with the population suffering from an apparent terminal cocktail of diseases that has brought the age expectancy down below forty, Charlie (Coro’s Marc Baylis) is signed up for Guardian duties, as part of a programme that promises to see him and his family admitted into Arcadia, the tall building wherein the wealthy and the auspicious are given ‘the cure’ and can live segregated from the infected masses outside. Except Charlie’s latest assignment, after six years of accruing points and losing a wife, leads to him discovering the real reason nobody lives past the age of 39 these days. You can probably guess why. Charlie is tasked with babysitting the one man who has stopped medicating and lived to try and tell his tale (Baker), but Charlie’s handler (Kotabe) and the prime minister (Wright) are about to make things very complicated.

With so much of the film taken up by reacting to off-stage stimuli, it’s little wonder the performances are as subdued – and for subdued read stilted – as they are, with much of the actors’ work lacking in conviction. But Large’s direction appears to fetishise the muted quality; so much so that the photography is as dull as the acting, the washed out greyscale giving Arcadia the sheen of a VHS tape that’s been left out in changeable weather for a few too many weeks.

The real problem, however, is that no care is taken to make us care about anyone or anything that happens. There are just a number of vaguely motivated people running through a number of would-be interesting situations, and while Arcadia seems to want to address a variety of issues, the cost of medicine, for example, most of the filmmaking decisions – such as having a totalitarian Tony Blair as Prime Minister – only undermine anything it might have to say. Tedious and depressing.

Extras: trailer

ARCADIA / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: TOM LARGE / SCREENPLAY: TOM LARGE / STARRING: MARC BAYLIS, RUFUS WRIGHT, AKIE KOTABE, JOSEPH BAKER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

Once the Second World War started, British cinema was unsurprisingly obsessed with what a wonderful place Blighty was. Full of thoroughly decent folk and with a class-system that jolly well worked, dontcha’ know. So it comes as a bit of a surprise on viewing Jamaica Inn, an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel released only a couple of months before the outbreak of war, to see a Britain that was full of murderous scoundrels. There was still a class-system but the ruling class weren’t just ruthless, they were bonkers with it. And if that isn’t enough era-ending, it also happened to be Alfred Hitchcock’s last Brit-flick before following the money to Hollywood.

It’s 1819 and on the Cornish coast a team of ‘wreckers’ are putting out false lights on stormy nights to lure ships to their doom on the rocks. They loot the wrecks for anything of value but not before killing any survivors whose testimony might send them to the gallows. They also seem to know rather more than they should about the ships’ routes and what they’re carrying. They operate out of the titular inn but somewhat inconveniently, their leader (Banks) has a niece (O’Hara) who has turned up out of the blue to stay with her aunt (his wife). Well it turns out that shipping information is coming from their real boss, Sir Humphrey Pengallan (Laughton), who is supposed to be the justice of the peace. Matters are further complicated by the fact that one of the newer members of the gang is really a navy lieutenant (Newton) on an undercover mission for the Home Office (no less) to find out who’s really behind all this. Looks like some atmospheric swashbuckling adventure is ahoy.

Well, sort of. Jamaica Inn has got bags of atmosphere and the storm-lashed wrecking scenes are the movie’s best set-pieces. There are also a couple of great performances from some of the gang, including a splendid turn from writer Emlyn Williams as Harry the Peddler. But something isn’t quite right and it’s certainly not the sum of its parts. Hitch seems to have been a bit distracted by his imminent departure to the States and also by the fact that he found Charles Laughton (who produced) all but impossible to work with. Laughton demanded more screen time so his true role as the gang’s organiser is revealed earlier than intended forcing the director to miss out on a twist opportunity. That must have really grated with Hitch. But for the problems Laughton might have brought him, he does rather make up for it with a classic piece of camp villainy before going deliciously off the rails in the closing act. In fact, he actually turns a rather average movie into quite an entertaining one.

Hitch hated it and Daphne du Maurier was so unimpressed she nearly didn’t let him make Rebecca (1940) but it’s still a solid piece of entertainment even if it isn’t quite what anyone had planned.

Extras:  Audio commentary by film critic Jeremy Arnold, Shipwrecked in a Studio: a visual essay by Donald Spoto, Trailer

JAMAICA INN (1939) / DIRECTOR: ALFRED HITCHCOCK / SCREENPLAY: SIDNEY GILLIAT, JOAN HARRISON / STARRING: CHARLES LAUGHTON, MAUREEN O’HARA, EMLYN WILLIAMS, LESLIE BANKS, ROBERT NEWTON / RELEASED: NOVEMBER 7TH