Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

BLU-RAY REVIEW: I CLOWNS (THE CLOWNS) / CERT: U / DIRECTOR: FEDERICO FELLINI / SCREENPLAY: FEDERICO FELLINI, BERNARDINO ZAPPONI / RICCARDO BILLI, FEDERICO FELLINI, GIGI REDER / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 27TH

Federico Fellini’s oeuvre is so loaded with strange and influential films that it’s easy for some to get overlooked in favour of Juliet of the Spirits or 8½. The Clowns, however, as part of the Masters of Cinema series has been given the Blu-ray overhaul and plays more like a curiosity than some great underappreciated part of the director’s work.

The Clowns, a barmy blend of documentary and fantasy, may very well have been made for TV, but it did receive a simultaneous theatrical release. Articulating his own complicated fascination with circus performers, the film is almost a companion piece to Fellini’s masterful 1954 film La Strada, which captured the circus in a fuller, less rose-tinted light.

That isn’t to say that The Clowns was shot with blinkers on, it does capture the energy and exploitation of the big top, but with little of the cruelty. In any case, it’s certainly superior to Roma, which, two years later, adopted a similar chaotic structure with less of the insight or humour.

Though there isn’t much in the way of narrative, Fellini does talk of his early experiences of the circus and how he, like many, was scared of clowns; wistfully conjuring up an Italy filled with grotesques, themselves clowns by any other name. Starting by simply narrating the piece, he soon takes up the role of interviewer, leading the viewer on a tour through seminal circus performers throughout Italy and France. There’s even Charlie Chaplin’s daughter Geraldine with a bubble machine.

In typical Fellini fashion, it’s quite odd, beautifully shot and lit with all the knowing of a renaissance painting, indeed the primitive pleasure of the circus has perhaps never looked as good on screen. But it’s not without its sadness, with many of those interviewed and Fellini himself stating that the circus of their past no longer exists.

There may very well be moments of laughter and enlightenment, though the sequences of clowning do grow tiresome quickly and while it does wear thin, it’s always well shot. In searching for the clowns place in history and society, Fellini proved again why he’s such a revered and significant filmmaker.
Extras: Fellini’s Circus

DVD REVIEW: OCULUS / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: MIKE FLANAGAN / SCREENPLAY: MIKE FLANAGAN, JEFF HOWARD / STARRING: KAREN GILLAN, BRENTON THWAITES, KATEE SACKHOFF / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 20TH

Mike Flanagan’s understated Oculus takes the Paranormal Activity formula and goes in an altogether different direction. While mirrors in horror have failed to reflect anything other than dreary movies, Oculus is a stylish and modern antidote to the genre’s pomposity and excess.

Following the strained relationship of siblings Kaylie and Tim, you slowly piece their dark history together, parasitically linked with a haunted antique mirror. Whether or not the mirror was itself evil would have been better left ambiguous, Flanagan instead telling a psychological chiller; the uncanny element of making the inanimate frightening could have been taken further. Nevertheless, the director’s script is fine-tuned and effective, though lacking.

Flanagan also deftly edits the film, streamlining the past and present which merge more and more into one another, in a psychedelic mix that’s held together remarkably well. It’s all very well shot, with some great camera flourishes, which help to prop up some of the weaker aspects of the film.

Karen Gillan is especially good as the obsessive and slightly unhinged Kaylie. There’s a lot of subtlety to her acting in general, and she brings her game face to Oculus. Katee Sackhoff, too, is on great form as Kaylie’s mum, with her usual strong screen presence.

The music lets the film down, offering up a generic droning peppered with noisy string sections any time there’s blood on screen.

Oculus tries and gets away from the rut the genre is in, but ends up relying on the familiar; the mirror eyed manifestations, especially, suck all the tension and fright-factor. The film does rely on some familiar techniques, but it’s altogether zestier than many of its counterparts (i.e. The Conjuring). Despite its flaws, Oculus does manage to unsettle without being overly explicit and there’s hardly a jump scare in sight.

Extras: Inside the Mirror: Creating Oculus, deleted scenes, Oculus Chapter 3: The Man with the Plan (original short version)

BLU-RAY REVIEW: MARK OF THE DEVIL (1970) / DIRECTOR: MICHAEL ARMSTRONG / SCREENPLAY: MICHAEL ARMSTRONG, ADRIAN HOVEN / STARRING: HERBERT LOM, UDO KIER, OLIVERA KATARINA, REGGIE NALDER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The past, as they say, is a foreign country. Oddly enough, so is Germany.

It was once fashionable to do all sorts of unspeakable things to ordinary people because you thought they might be witches. But here in the British Isles, we were lightweights. During witch-hunting’s golden age, England managed no more than 1,000 witch-burnings (although the Scots put in a more respectable 4,000). However, Germany got all over-efficient and roasted 26,000 innocents. Philipp Adolf von Ehrenberg managed to make our own Matthew Hopkins look like an amateur by clocking-up 900 burnings in Würzburg alone (including his own nephew).

But Hopkins can at least claim he was portrayed on film by no less than Vincent Price in the surprise hit, Witchfinder General (1968). In the spirit of the exploitation movie, it was inevitable the Germans would have a go at the witch-hunt-flick themselves. Witchfinder is generally accepted as a bona fide classic even if there is an argument to say it was nihilistic, mean-spirited and a teensy-bit dull. So how did these witch-hunting over-achievers fare on film? Well they were certainly enthusiastic even if Mark of the Devil (1970) ended up with a British director. Perhaps that’s why it’s nihilistic, mean-spirited and a teensy-bit over the top.

All you need to know of the plot is that it’s about witch-hunters burning and torturing innocent people; there really is no more to say than that. It’s cheap, it shows, and it doesn’t have an ounce of the class of Witchfinder. But what it does have is rather a lot of torture. Seriously, if endless shots of wide-eyed blondes being stretched on racks are your thing, this one’s for you. Fancy a bloke being forced to sit, bare-arsed on a seat of spikes? Look no further. Herbert Lom (in pretty good form as the sexually impotent villain) could almost be directing the film when he tells a henchie to “torture him harder”. In fact, bearing in mind this is a 44-year old movie, it’s somewhat surprising that it still has the power to shock through sadistic violence and little else.

So are we saying it’s bad? Well, that depends. You see, despite director Michael Armstrong’s assertion that this is an historical film, it’s not; it’s a horror-flick and you have to judge it accordingly. Don’t even get us on the subject of historical accuracy – Professor Ronald Hutton has nothing to fear. This is a humourless and sadistic horror from a time when Hammer (who would never have approved) were about to be overshadowed by the new wave. Think about why you like horror; our reasons are all different. The tongue removal scene (it’s the poster money-shot) is pivotal here. If that’s your bag, you’re going to love Mark of the Devil. If you like your horror chilling-but-subtle or you pine for the days of Cushing and Lee bringing a warm-spirited smile to your face, give it a wide berth.

Extras: Optional English and German audio, Newly translated English subtitles for the German audio, Audio commentary by Michael Armstrong, Mark of the Times – documentary on British ‘new wave’, Hallmark of the Devil, Mark of the Devil: Now and Then, Illustrated collector’s booklet.

DVD REVIEW: THE ANOMALY / CERT: 15 / DIRECTED: NOEL CLARKE / SCREENPLAY: SIMON LEWIS / STARRING: IAN SOMERHALDER, NOEL CLARKE, BRIAN COX, ALEXIS KNAPP, LUKE HEMSWORTH / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 27TH

One man British film industry Noel Clarke is in danger of losing the hard-won respect which earned him the Lawrence Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer in 2003 and the BAFTA Orange Rising Star Award in 2009. Ferociously driven and industrious, Clarke made serious waves with his tough, gritty urban dramas Kidulthood and Adulthood although he’d already come to a wider audience’s  attention thanks to his role as Rose Tyler’s hapless boyfriend Mickey in Doctor Who in 2005. But his fondness for genre movies, and his apparent determination to become an action movie star risk sending him into rocky territory. The Anomaly follows up his enjoyable but poorly-received 2012 monster thriller Storage 24 and is, largely, a rather dull, woolly and derivative film with ambitions way above the capabilities of its budget.

The Anomaly doesn’t just wear its influences on its sleeve, it pretty much has them printed in large, friendly letters on T-shirts. It borrows fairly liberally (and almost shamelessly) from the Bourne movies, Source Code, The Matrix, Total Recall, and even entirely coincidentally, admittedly, this year’s Tom Cruise sci-fi yarn Edge of Tomorrow. Clarke plays Ryan, an ex-Army type who wakes up in the back of a van with a terrified kid whose mum’s just been shot by a bloke wearing a red hood.  They escape from the van, run around a futuristic-looking London before Ryan discovers – gasp – a red hood in his pocket. Then he phases out of existence and reappears somewhere else entirely…

Turns out our Ryan is the unwilling guinea pig in a series of mind/body-control experiments being carried out the sinister Dr Langham (Cox) and his good-value sneery son Harkin (Somerhalder). Ryan spends just over nine minutes in one location before zapping off and reappearing somewhere and, sometimes, as someone else.

There are a few nice ideas buried deep in the mush of The Anomaly’s story – but they’re generally ideas we’ve seen more than once before and usually in films with a bit more cash to splash than this one. There are a handful of attempts at suggesting futuristic technology and some effective digital trickery but the whole enterprise is sunk not only by its leaden script and flat direction but, sadly, by Clarke’s largely uncharismatic performance. Slo-mo fight scenes lack energy and momentum and the story, opaque at the best of times, becomes virtually impenetrable as the film stumbles along to its conclusion.

It’s a shame that The Anomaly isn’t a better film because Clarke is clearly a cherishable British talent. But he’s doing himself no favours with stuff like this, which needs to be done with a lot more style, imagination, and money if it‘s to be even halfway credible. Much credit for trying to raise the profile of UK sci-fi cinema, but perhaps Noel might be better off for now turning his attentions to something a bit less ambitious and a bit more grounded.

DVD REVIEW: MALEFICENT / DIRECTOR: ROBERT STROMBERG / SCREENPLAY: LINDA WOOLVERTON / STARRING: ANGELINA JOLIE, ELLE FANNING, SHARLTO COPLEY, JUNO TEMPLE / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 20TH

When it comes to the big A-List actors like George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, it’s easy to forget that, when it comes down to it, some of them can really, properly act. Over the years, Angelina the actress has been massively superseded by Angelina the humanitarian and Angelina the wife of Brad. Half-arsed rubbish like Salt and The Tourist haven’t helped either.

That timely reminder of her talent comes in Maleficent, a revisionist retelling of Sleeping Beauty, from the perspective of the eponymous horn-headed enchantress. What starts out as a fairly clear-cut battle between Good & Evil and Faerie & Mankind becomes something a little sweeter – more heart-rending – as moody Maleficent begins to melt at the charms of cute wee Aurora (Fanning). If you’ve seen Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (of course you have), it’ll all feel very familiar, but cleverly adjusted in the name of shaping an entirely different version of the character.

With this and Frozen (and, to a lesser extent, their progenitor Enchanted), there’s been a very concerted effort from Disney of late to move away from stories of Princes Charming, beautiful princesses and ‘True Love’s Kiss’ – to let the ladies of Disneyland control their own destinies. There is still ample room for all of those things, but there’s also the realisation that maybe there’s more to life – and other kinds of love – than hunky Prince Whatshisface. At front and centre of the film, Jolie is a magnificent Maleficent, both terrifying and sympathetic. There’s a lot of CGI, but it rarely detracts from the character or story. The visuals back her up fully, with a wonderful costume which really brings Maleficent to life, and HD cheekbones so sharp you could use them to peel a (poisoned) apple.

While Elle Fanning, Imelda Staunton and Sam Riley do well as Jolie’s support, the weak link in the armour is poor Sharito Copley as Stefan. Lumbered with an iffy Scottish accent and sad lack of development beyond the first half hour, he feels oddly miscast and underused as the film’s villain. Still, his actions are dastardly enough that it’s hard not to hate the bastard.

As a savvy retooling of an old classic, Maleficent is fantastic. It looks beautiful – like a less bleak Game of Thrones – and manages to retain its heart through an abundance of CGI and not always so well-written supporting characters. It’s fun, frequently comical and often stirring. This is Jolie’s best performance in years. Never mind Prince Charming and the all-singing, all dancing princesses: there’s never been a better time to be bad.