Review: The Tree of Life (12) / Directed by: Terrence Malick / Written by: Terrence Malick / Starring: Brad Pit, Sean Penn, Caro Lenssen, Jessica Chastain  / Released: Out Now

The Tree of Life is a disappointment, perhaps one of the biggest disappointments of the last ten years. I have greatly enjoyed Terrence Malick’s previous work, even the underrated The New World but I can see where his detractors have a point. His films often lack focus and a coherent narrative in favour of philosophical musings and dialogue that would be better served by a novel. In The Thin Red Line, the philosophy and subtext is part of the film, we follow several soldiers each of whom have a journey but the metaphysical aspects are a part of the organic whole and never feel at odds with the rest of the film. Same goes for The New World, there is a lot going on under the surface (and many have said it’s basically a feature length nature documentary) of what is essentially a love story spanning several years and Malick never loses sight of this. With The Tree of Life, Malick has essentially gone in the opposite direction. What little plot there is becomes completely overwhelmed by the philosophy and pretentiousness despite some very beautiful cinematography.

The film begins with Brad Pitt’s Mr O’Brien and Jessica Chastain’s Mrs O’Brien receiving horrible news that their 19 year old son had been killed in war. They both grieve in their own way, Mr O’Brien being stoic and strong and Mrs O’Brien essentially breaking down and receiving comfort from the neighbours. During this time we also meet Sean Penn as an adult version of a child we will meet later. Penn works in a city surrounded by monuments of glass and steel. The film then completely changes tack and goes back to portray the big bang which lead to the birth of the universe. It then focuses on planet earth and how it developed from a bubbling mass of molten lava into the lush green world it became. We then see single cells form and evolve in the water giving birth to life, then follows dinosaurs, then the meteor that ended their reign. We go forward in time again to Texas in the 1950’s and Mr and Mrs O’Brien as a happy young couple giving birth to their first child Jack. Two other children follow and a collection of scenes show their upbringing via two very different parents. Mr O’Brien is a strict parent, he loves his kids but teaches them to be strong and merciless if they want to get anywhere in life. He is a parent full of regret for a life he never lived and a path he didn’t follow and does not want his children to make the same mistake. Mrs O’Brien is a graceful and beautiful woman full of life and optimism, she instils in her children the ability to love and cherish each other as well as the beauty of nature. As the film goes on we learn that Sean Penn is playing the adult version of Jack and is perhaps looking back on his upbringing as he faces his own mortality.

The Tree of Life is an incredibly frustrating film, the segment set in the 1950’s constantly threatens to leap into life and tell a whimsical, life affirming tale of growing up during a very optimistic era in history but it never fully commits. The kids do an outstanding job but none of them ever really has any dialogue or time to shine as brightly as they should. Malick portrays brilliantly scenes of childhood wonder where you smash your first window of an abandoned shack or when you go for a swim in the local pond. He also portrays convincingly frightening events like your first experiences with death and disfigurement. These scenes are lovingly photographed and shot but never are injected with the pathos needed because Malick is too obsessed with his voice overs and philosophy. Ultimately the actor who comes off best in the film is Brad Pitt. It’s another brilliant performance from the man who is undoubtedly one of our best actors working today, Mr O’Brien is full of sadness and love for his family but being the stoic proud type he is never allowed to show emotions the way his wife does. Pitt does a lot with just a look at the kid actors that conveys a world of inner turmoil and regret. Sean Penn publicly poo pooed the film in August and watching this and his appearance in it, it’s easy to see why. I don’t think a single line of Penn’s dialogue was audible throughout the whole time he was on screen and his appearance seems pointless. He mopes around his apartment or office building and then wanders around aimlessly on a beach for a bit and as a result you feel completely indifferent towards this when I’m sure the intention was for this to make emotional sense with the context set out by the 1950’s scenes. Due to Malick constantly choosing style over substance you never feel anything beyond the aesthetics during the film and during supposedly great metaphysical drama come the climax the feeling you’re left with is bewilderment. Penn said in the interview in which he slated the film that it was ‘the most magnificent script I ever read’ and there is apparently a five hour cut in existence. This may be one of those occasions when the longer cut is something that addresses the deficiencies of the film because you can see the beginnings of a masterpiece in there somewhere.

In order to carry out his ambitious depiction of the beginnings of life, Malick went back to effects wiz of old Douglas Trumbull and these dialogue free scenes are the best that The Tree of Life has to offer. When the dinosaurs appear is when it all goes wrong. For a film with a budget of over 30 million dollars, these dinosaurs are very poorly rendered. They never stick out from Malick’s lushly captured landscapes but they are no better than effects in something like TV series Primeval. Again even the birth of the universe and life emerging from the swamp scenes feel compromised in this version of the film. We go from jellyfish to dinosaurs very quickly and it feels like a large chunk is missing from this sequence. We also never get the first apes evolving into men or learning to use tools and fire, or crucially – feel love. For a film called ‘The Tree of Life’ it sure does miss a lot out.

Like most of Malick’s work the film looks magnificent (apart from the dinosaurs). Brilliant cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki and incredible sound design and music by Alexandre Desplat go some way towards ensuring the film is not an out and out loss. Curiously for a film that looks this good there was no IMAX version which is originally what the plan was I think, and probably the best way to enjoy the film.

The film that The Tree of Life most resembles is David Lynch’s Inland Empire in that it’s a film completely unfiltered and absolutely a product of the director no matter how obtuse it chooses to be. Directorial freedom is a great and rare thing these days but perhaps not always for the best. You can’t help thinking that with better advice and a better editor, Malick would have produced his best film here. Sadly what we have for the time being represents the biggest disappointment of the directors’ career and a seriously compromised creation that is only suitable for the most serious of art house enthusiasts.

Extras: None

Review: Dexter – Season 5 (18) / Developed by: James Manos Jr. / Starring: Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, Lauren Velez, David Zayas, James Remar, C.S. Lee, Desmond Harrington, / Release Date: Out Now

Dexter seems to be following the pattern established by the Star Trek movies in that every odd numbered season is mediocre. A big problem faced by Dexter’s fifth season is the fact that Season four was quite frankly amazing and was powered by a terrifying performance from John Lithgow. Season five is not quite the let down that a lot of people claimed it to be however. Watching it all in one go on DVD now it’s certainly enjoyable and has some great moments but I can see how on a weekly basis people may have lost interest.

If you don’t know the premise of Dexter by now; it follows forensic blood specialist Dexter Morgan who works with the Miami police department and just happens to have a sideline in sociopathic serial killing. Dexter’s mother was murdered in front of him when he was a toddler and he was guided by his surrogate father; Detective Harry Morgan (who occasionally still appears to him as a kind of spiritual guide) to channel his urges into killing the guilty. This is further complicated by the fact that his sister Deborah works for the Miami police as a homicide detective. People get suspicious of Dexter but they don’t seem to last very long. The fifth season picks up after the cataclysmic events of the finale of season four and finds Dexter understandably devastated by the Trinity Killer’s final victim. Dexter has to take on the responsibility of sole parent as well as keep his own urges in check and avoid the increasingly suspicious Detective Quinn. Whilst dealing with his grief Dexter ends up murdering a dim witted road worker and this leads him to Lumen (guest star Julia Stiles) who has been a victim of a horrific rape and torture ordeal. This presents Dexter with an interesting quandary which sadly they don’t spend much time on. Lumen has witnessed Dexter in full on serial killer mode and is a threat but he can’t get rid of her because she is as much a victim as he was at a young age. Eventually Dexter nurses Lumen back to health – much to the Ghost of Harry Morgan’s disapproval – and the two set out to bring her captor(s) to ‘justice’. Meanwhile back at the police station, the homicide squad investigate a killer who beheads his victims and leaves their tongue-less heads on display in the Puerto Rican community. Batista and La Guerta’s marriage hits a rocky patch as La Guerta continues to do anything to stay on top. Quinn and Deborah begin an ill advised affair as Quinn hires a sleazy ex-cop to start watching Dexter.

I think the main problems with Dexter are that it has now settled into a formula. Every season you know there is going to be a ‘big bad’ serial killer even worse than the last, which is going to be the plot arc for the next twelve episodes. You know someone is going to have suspicions about Dexter and you know he is going to come closer than ever before to getting caught, and man does he ever get close in season five. The other problem is that outside of Dexter himself and whoever is the semi big name performer they get to guest star, none of the other characters are that interesting. La Guerta and Batista were never that interesting as characters in the first place and their marriage is so annoyingly contrived and boring that during their scenes I would often go make a drink because I just was not interested. Plus you have Deborah Morgan who on her own is kind of interesting and likeable, but her turbulent love life combined with the previously mentioned marriage of convenience sometimes makes the whole thing seem like CSI Miami written as soap opera. If you are familiar with the Dexter books written by Jeff Lindsay then you know that the books differ considerably and are even more morally ambiguous. The third book Dexter in the Dark is certifiably insane with its plot and involves cults, the supernatural and Dexter teaching his adopted kids to be murderers. I’m not saying that’s where the show should go, but what I wouldn’t give for them to mix it up a little. Still we have three seasons left so there is still time for them to wow me into silence.

What stands out in this season of the show are the guest stars. John Lithgow left some pretty big shoes to fill so you get Julia Stiles acting her socks off and making me wish we saw her on screen more often than we do. Lumen is a tragic figure that bonds with Dexter and they set off on a doomed crusade which will not end well, much as you hope it will. They give Lumen some wonderful moments where she reflects on her simple life before her ordeal which are heartbreaking as they show a memory of a life that has gone forever and Stiles revels in the bruised soul of the character who is now driven by a need for vengeance. Jonny Lee Miller shows up late in the game in a pivotal role which is chilling in its duality and whilst Miller is no Lithgow he makes the most of the role often stealing entire scenes from the rest of the cast. Best of all though is Peter Weller as a shady ex-cop who is sent to follow Dexter by the suspicious Quinn. Weller is having a whale of a time here, blackmailing every one he comes into contact with and playing on peoples frayed nerves with aplomb. He gets all the best lines and I would have loved to have seen more of the character. Michael C.Hall continues to impress as the main character, he continues to reveal more and more depths to Dexter and subtly humanises him as the show goes on, even more impressive considering that Hall was fighting cancer during filming of this.

Season five is not as bad as some have made out (and season six sounds frankly terrible) but it is a show that needs to really start going somewhere. The end of the show hints at something… something possibly discovered by a key character but refuses to commit to it because that would just be too much of a shake up. The final four episodes of season five are certainly some of the best and most thrilling that the series has done and for that alone it’s still worth watching. Please though kill off some of the station personnel because they are starting to grate.

Extras: Making of a scene, Sounds of the splatter, Dexters Kill Room, Interview with artist Ty Matterson, twenty questions and photo gallery.

Review: Saint (15) / Directed by: Dick Maas / Written by: Dick Maas / Starring: Huub Stapel, Egbert Jan Weeber, Caro Lenssen, Escha Tanihatu, Madelief Blanken, Bert Luppes  / Released: Out Now

The Saw films are over, Jeepers Creepers 3 is nowhere to be found and there will not be a My Bloody Valentine 2. So we need a new horror maniac bogeyman for this decade and if the Dutch have their way it’s going to be no less that St Nicholas/Father Christmas himself. Taking its lead from last years Rare Exports, Saint takes the dark Christmas story and runs with it into a full blown slasher movie complete with nubile young teenagers and a Captain Ahab/Dr Loomis type figure. I’m happy to report that Saint is a whole heap of fun and far more accomplished and exciting than 99% of the current horror output from the rest of the world. Directed, Written, Produced and scored by one Dick Maas who has been making films in Holland for a while but may well be a big name one day still if he keeps this up.

We begin our story in seventeenth century Holland with a rogue bishop and his pirate minions attacking a village and murdering the inhabitants by climbing down their chimneys and kidnapping the children. Eventually the bishop is cornered and burned to death.  We then pick up in 1960s Holland and a country house where on December 5th during a full moon, something arrives and slaughters the entire family except for one boy. Then we find ourselves in modern day Amsterdam and we meet several university students on December 5th as they prepare to celebrate the feast of St Nicholas. Gifts are exchanged, we learn that there is kind of a love triangle type situation going on with Frank and two of the female students and people prepare for parties by dressing up as St Nick himself and his minion Zwart Pietr. During this time, police detective Goert is convinced that every 36 years on the full moon the undead St Nicholas will arrive and wreak havoc on the city. His colleagues however believe he is overworked and simply stressed out. Then one of the teenagers is brutally murdered and her ex boyfriend Frank comes face to face with St Nicholas as he kills his friends and Frank is blamed for the crime. This brings Frank into contact with Goert who is the only person who believes his wild story. The two of them must stop the evil armies’ rampage across the rooftops of Amsterdam before it’s too late.

The thing I liked most about Saint is the way that it evokes early John Carpenter and specifically the films The Fog and Halloween. There are some great scenes later in the film with a thick mist along the canals which hides the evil goings on from the world at large. They have taken the Amsterdam canals inherent creepiness and really used it to their advantage. Ghoulish pirates popping out of the mist to stab people never gets boring. It’s unusual to see a film set in Amsterdam which is more notorious for other reasons and actually have it be about something other than sordid goings on or stoner humour. Having said that, despite being not really that far away it may as well be another world. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the films opening twenty minutes where we get a taste of what I assume is typical Dutch teenage culture where students give each other a series of presents (mostly sex toys) on December 5th as their teacher looks on. Somehow I think we would never see this in a horror film set in California. The differences in culture become even more obvious when students ‘blacken up’ to play Zwart Pietr (Black Peter) before going to a party. In another film this would be seen as a blatantly racist and politically incorrect thing to do but alas this is Amsterdam and their ways are not our ways. The early scenes of the teenagers walking home and discussing their complex love lives evokes the early scenes in Carpenter’s Halloween as does Detective Goert’s personal vendetta and belief in the existence of the evil St Nick. Much like how Rare Exports homaged The Thing, these scenes in Saint never feel like a blatant rip off as the whole film is made with a lot of love, skill and care.

Another thing that surprised me about this film is how well mounted and staged a production it actually is. I honestly expected to never really see the killer, due to being a lower budget Dutch film, but instead there are epic action scenes with full views of the impressively made up monsters. One scene in particular has St Nick riding a horse across the rooftops of Amsterdam as the police give chase on the road below firing a gun at the evil ghoul. Apart from some obvious CG work this scene is as impressive as anything I have seen this year in a Hollywood production. The film also doesn’t skimp on the gore factor. Limbs are lopped off, heads are decapitated and blood sprays all over the place. It works because it’s all so well paced with just the right amount of build up before a set piece often climaxing in something impressive like a horse crashing into a police car and then getting up and walking away. The film is tremendous fun throughout and has a suitably explosive climax.

The slight drawback to Saint is the problems with its script. It may well start off homaging Halloween with its attractive teen cast and the film does a lot of good character work when they are introduced. As soon as the action picks up though these characters are forgotten about to concentrate on Detective Goet and the explosions and maimings. One female character starts the movie off as essentially the lead and then becomes just a voice on the end of the phone as the film becomes more concerned with Frank. If they could have somehow gotten the female lead more involved in the climax it would have gone a long way towards addressing the jarring oddness of the sudden shift in focus.

Dick Maas has created a great dark Christmas movie which I may well like more than Rare Exports one day. If like me you try and make time to enjoy the darker Christmas movies in the lead up to the big day, try and add Saint to that list. You won’t regret it.

Extras: None

Review: Underwater Love (15) / Directed by: Shinji Imaoka / Written by: Shinji Imaoka, Fumio Moriya / Starring: Sawa Masaki, Yoshiro Umezawa, Ai Narita, Mutsuo Yoshioka / Released: Out Now

Japanese Pinku cinema or ‘Pink’ cinema has long been a staple of the country’s filmic output. Since the 1960s these soft core porn films have dominated a large proportion of the market.  With the emergence of home video and a veer towards the more graphic side of things, the market declined somewhat though films in the genre are still being produced. A ‘Kappa’ is a Japanese mythical creature, also known as a Kawataro (river-boy) or Kawako (river-child) and they are a water sprite found in Japanese folklore. Kappas are depicted as reptiles in a humanoid form often causing mischief. So where am I going with this? Well some mad director called Shinji Amaoka decided to combine these two elements into a fantasy ‘pink musical’ called Underwater Love.

Underwater Love begins in a small village with Asuka (Sawa Masaki) working at a fish processing plant where the staff spontaneously erupt into a song and dance number. Asuka is engaged to the manager of the plant and one day when she goes outside she sees a Kappa (Tetsuya Aoki) in the river eating a fish. Nobody believes her about her sighting of the creature and she returns to the water hoping to catch another glimpse. Then one day the Kappa introduces itself in the middle of the road and reveals that it is actually the reincarnation of a former high school friend. From here the Kappa stays with her a while but starts getting in the way of Asuka’s relationship with her fiancé. The Kappa moves out to an abandoned house and gets a job working at the fish plant. The Kappa clearly never got over his high school crush on Asuka and spends his days hanging out with a hippy who may or may not be the god of death. The hippy tells the Kappa that Asuka will die soon unless he can get some kind of mythical anal bead from the Kappas who live in the forest and shove it up Asuka’s butt (yes seriously). Based on this the Kappa has to convince Asuka that he is the one, and take her into the forest. In between all this madness are a series of song and dance numbers occurring at random intervals, oh and there is some sex but it’s about as arousing as supermarket sweep.

Before you think I have lost my mind and have started reviewing porn, you should know that this DVD is available in HMV and although it’s pretty far from mainstream it has played film festivals to some acclaim. It’s also shot by renowned cinematographer Christopher Doyle who worked on such great looking films as 2046 and Hero. The problem with this film and the reason that it’s not really an out an out success is that it doesn’t go far enough in any direction to become a bona (tee-hee) fide cult classic that it so wants to be. The songs are catchy and well scored by Stereo Total and they stick in your head for days. The manner in which they are performed is less musical number and more an afterthought. The lip synching to the songs is way out of whack and the actors flounce around with some basic dance moves as seen performed by your dad at the family Christmas party. There is a sense of joy in much of the music and story that at first puts a smile on your face. You can’t help but wish though that more emphasis on outrageous musical set pieces would have gone a long way to improving the film overall.

Due to the fact that this is basically a low budget dirty musical, there isn’t much of a budget for the special effects. The Kappa is basically an actor wearing a fake beak, rubber gloves and a turtle shell strapped to his back. Somehow this works in the film’s favour though and adds to the goofy handmade charm of the piece. Much of the budget has obviously been spent on a huge prosthetic scaly penis, visible in the films most explicit scenes. Sadly also due to being a low budget movie none of the cast is particularly impressive to look at, which if you’re making an erotic movie is probably what you should be aiming for. The actor playing the Kappa is wooden as a board as well, even though he is subtitled it seems like someone with no previous experience they just plucked off the street

After the initial scenes that set the story up, the film meanders a bit until the climax. However for a film shot by such an acclaimed cinematographer it sure is dull to look at. Only during the scenes where they wander into the forest or near the water does the texture of the film really stand out. Once it gets into the bugnuts story it does kind of make you smile, although they are limited by the budget there is a sense of unbridled joy to the whole thing and a simple universal message about going for what you want before it’s too late.

Underwater Love is perhaps the strangest film to ever come out of Japan and although it won’t cross over or set the world alight, it may be a good surprise purchase for the film geek who thinks he has seen everything this Christmas.

Extras: Interviews with Christopher Doyle and the director, Behind the scenes footage, Trailer.

Review: Kung Fu Panda 2 (PG) / Directed by: Jennifer Yu / Written by: Jonathan Aiben, Glenn Berger / Starring: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Gary Oldman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross,  / Release Date: Out Now

When film historians look back in years to come, it’s likely that the first Kung Fu Panda film will be seen as the turning point for DreamWorks animation. It was the first film that took itself just about seriously enough and wasn’t weighted down by the endless pop culture references that have plagued the Shrek and Madagascar films. Kung Fu Panda was surprisingly serious for a film about an overweight panda becoming a kung fu master. It took its fight scenes just as seriously as its slapstick comedy and actually had a good story too with a central message about believing in yourself.  DreamWorks then followed up with How To Train Your Dragon which was even more impressive. Due to the success of the first film it was inevitable that we would get a sequel featuring Po and his gang of animal martial arts masters. Whilst it won’t re-define animation, Kung Fu Panda 2 expands the story just enough to keep kids and adults entertained.

Our story picks up a short while after the first film with Po (Jack Black) and his fellow martial arts masters (Tigress, Monkey, Crane, Snake and Mantis) keeping the valley crime free and defending it from marauding wolves who have been sent in to steal metal for the evil peacock Lord Shen (Gary Oldman). With the help of his master, Po is attempting to find inner peace which is complicated when he learns the truth about his parentage and the fact that Lord Shen is building weapons that threaten to end their way of life.

Kung Fu Panda 2 deftly balances the comedy and the action elements with aplomb. The fact that Po is now the Dragon Warrior as foretold in the first movie means that we don’t have to put up with an origin story and can leap directly into the action. If the first movie was about realising your full potential then the second is about accepting who you are. The story wastes no time in setting the tone with some impressively animated fight sequences and some new characters with sometimes surprisingly brutal results. Po and his team of animal kung fu experts launch into fight scenes taking advantage of each others physicality and working as a team to impressively and hilariously despatch the bad guys.

As mentioned there are also some new characters added to the mix, like the imprisoned martial arts masters in the shape of a crocodile and a bull who each have their own little character moments which juxtapose nicely with Po’s naïve optimism. Most impressive though is Lord Shen as voiced by Gary Oldman. The character design is wonderful with the animators using the peacock’s natural instinct to show off in order to make the fight scenes that much more visually appealing. The characters face is also animated perfectly in sync with the voice acting in order to make him despicable but also kind of sad. Speaking of sad, the makers decided here to tell a flashback story about Po’s parents and they choose traditional 2D animation to show this. These sequences are very effective and feel like the animation equivalent of an old black and white film presented as a memory that would pop up in a live action film. These sequences do not stick out like sore thumbs the way you would think and are as beautiful and concise as the main feature and very reminiscent of the work of Genndy Tarkovsky. The rest of the voice cast reprise their roles from the first so you get Seth Rogen, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, David Cross and Dustin Hoffman doing good work along with new additions like Michelle Yeoh and Jean Claude Van Damme.

The story has a nice subtext about the advances in technology threatening a more peaceful and serene way of life which culminates in some impressively staged battle sequences towards the end. These sequences along with some truly impressive landscapes show that animation keeps moving forward no matter how advanced you may think it has gotten. This is especially demonstrated in scenes in water, where the environment blends together with the characters seamlessly to create a believable world. A world where animals talk and do kung fu yes, but you get the idea…

The only problem with Kung Fu Panda 2 is that now the central joke of an overweight panda becoming a kung fu master is out of the way, it feels a little light on laughs. There are funny moments but only one or two that are genuinely chuckle inducing. The rest of the film seems content to coast by on the slapstick comedy fight scenes of which there are plenty. It feels like a script that could have done with a comedy writer coming in to do a last minute polish but this is still a minor niggle.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is not life changing but it’s solid entertainment and a further step in the right direction for DreamWorks who seem to be getting it right now. If they keep this up then maybe one day we might talk about them with the same reverence with which we talk about the output of Pixar.

Extras: Filmmakers Commentary, ‘Kickin’ it with the Cast’ featurette, Deleted Scenes, Trailers.

Review: Redline (15) / Directed by: Takeshi Koike / Written by: Katsuhito Ishii, Yoji Enokido, Yoshiki Sakurai / Starring: Takuya Kimura, Yu Aoi, Tadanobu Asano / Release Date: Out Now

It’s been a long time since the anime boom in the west that took place in the early 90s. Back then it seemed to be a lot of anime films were released on video and part of the fun was catching up with all of them if you were lucky enough to find a video store that could rent them to you. Of course you could always blind buy them, but VHS always seemed so expensive compared to DVD which wasn’t on the market back then. Nowadays the market has shrunk considerably and seems limited to mostly banal anime TV series’ that seem more aimed at teenage boys with their exaggerated female forms. Of course we still get the occasional Studio Ghibli release and every now and then a quality release like Summer Wars which was released earlier this year. Redline is almost great, a good deal of your appreciation for it will depend on how much tolerance you have for the more exaggerated and flashy style of anime that has become prevalent. If they ever do a remake/reboot of Wacky Races (and they will) this is how they should do it.

Taking place in the distant future, Redline introduces a galaxy where the air car has taken over from the traditional kind of car with wheels. However some foolhardy individuals take part in an intergalactic racing tournament with a traditional four wheels that culminates in the Redline finale. At the beginning we see the ‘Yellow Line’ race which sets the tone for the rest of the film, at this point you’ll either go with it or turn it off completely depending on how much sugar or LSD you have ingested. The racers are made up of aliens, cyborgs, witches, mutants and humans and our human character JP comes second, crashing violently. JP has been plagued by charges of corruption his whole career and this haunts him. The rest of the film calms down a bit as JP strikes up a relationship with a female champion and it is determined that Redline will take place on the planet Roboworld, dominated by a cyborg dictatorship. Then we get to the race and for forty five minutes it feels like your eyeballs could melt at any time. Not only do you get the cyborgs taking pot-shots at our heroes but you get racing vehicles with weapons, drivers with magic powers and angry robots. Add this to vehicles that have nitrous oxide speed injections and you get an idea of the amount of colour and speed lines that will fill your screen. I honestly think if this was in 3D it could be classified as a weapon of mass destruction, brains would explode Scanners style across the country.

If you’re not sensitive to flashing lights and can keep up with the pace then Redline is kind of fun. The character designs are certainly unusual, like George Lucas on some kind of acid bender and the animation is pretty and unusual. There is a level of excitement within the races as they convey a sense of travelling really fast very well whilst accompanied by a thumping soundtrack. Unusually in this day and age, Redline is completely traditionally animated in hand-drawn style with no CG used and it took them seven years to make. If nothing else the ambition is to be admired and how it flows so well considering the speed with which everything happens is mind boggling.

The main problem with Redline, apart from the fact that it will never translate to a wider audience of non anime fans the way Akira did, is that the characters are just not that interesting. The main character of JP is the typical sports movie character, haunted by corruption charges and yearning to be a champion. His main rival is a typical huge guy that wouldn’t be out of place in the ring in a Rocky film. Personally I found myself caring more about the furry blue policeman racer and the valley girl witch sisters than I did our main character. What I did enjoy was the true sense of anarchic fun that recalls earlier anime releases like Dominion: Tank Police and Project A-Ko. The film is mostly a camp riot outside of our be-quiffed protagonist’s brooding. You have wonderfully over the top commentators, some brilliant profiles of the other racers and their lives outside of racing and the militant cyborgs are a bunch of buffoons. This sense of fun was the only reason I didn’t bow out early on as the person I was watching with had to turn away after ten minutes due to feeling physically ill. After the film ended things didn’t seem quite right back in the real world, everything moved slower and was flatter, felt very much like a come down the morning after.

I don’t think I can recommend Redline to non-anime fans at all; it’s an experience you will either love or hate and is probably best enjoyed with a whole bag of skittles and some red bull. If you’re looking for something calm and measured this film is not for you. It makes Pokemon look like a Sofia Coppola film.

Extras: Trailer, Making Of, The Characters of Redline.

Review: Mother’s Day (18) / Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman / Written by: Scott Milam,  / Starring: Rebecca De Mornay, Jaime King, Patrick John Flueger, Warren Kole, Deborah Ann Woll  / Release Date: Out Now

A remake of the 1980 B movie Troma classic, Mother’s Day proves to be an effective horror shocker with enough twists and brutal death scenes to keep even this jaded reviewer glued to the screen.

Considering the source material, Mother’s Day should have been destined for the bargain basement bin, yet its combination of horror and humour mashed together with great acting, lashings of gore and a tense – if completely ridiculous script – make it an excellent addition to the genre.

Rebecca de Mornay plays Natalie Koffin, the deranged mother of an unhinged family eager to please their matriarch in any way possible. This 51 year old actress scared audiences back in ‘92 with The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, then sank without trace. Despite her absence from any film of notable worth, she is back on top form for Mother’s Day. Mornay’s chilling performance carries the film for its 118 minutes running time. Her highlights include mildly scolding her boys for a number of truly violent murders, and the cold, calculating reasoning of why a woman should be raped.

Taking the essence of the original Troma exploitation film, yet understanding the need for a fresh perspective, Director Darren Lynn Bousman – whose notable work includes the likes of Saw 2 and Saw 3 – shifts the action to quiet suburbia where a couple are entertaining friends in a ‘hide from the tornado’ party in their basement. Here we’re introduced to a number of 30-something party goers which includes George, played by actor Shawn Ashmore – he of Iceman fame. The house, it would seem, they bought cheap from auction, not guessing at the former occupations and general unsavoury nature of its previous inhabitants.

It’s not long before a gang of bank-robbing brothers burst into the house thinking it still belongs to them. The three brothers, Ike, Addley, and a badly injured Jonny soon find the friends downstairs. George is quickly identified as a doctor, and while he is given the unenviable task of tending to Jonny’s wounds, Ick, played by Patrick Flueger, phones his mother for help.

A natural reaction considering the circumstances.

Ma turns up, and if the friends thought the brothers were bad then she raises the bar to a whole new level of weird. And so begins the need for violence, gore, and a strange, twisted style of humour. In short: my type of movie.

Each actor brings a great sense of depth to their respective roles, whether playing psychotic brother, coldly insane Mum or soon-to-be-dead partygoer. This is Mother’s Day’s strength, and without it the film would have floundered. Shawn Ashmore’s portrayal of doctor George is spot on perfect. Ashmore, in fact, has a sense of believability about him with subtle nuances in his performance to lift him head and shoulders above the rest of the assembled cast.

Mother’s Day doesn’t shy away from its subject material, but it knows where to draw the line, depending of course where you’re used to the line being drawn. It touches upon what we all could be capable of doing if given the right motivation. The horror is a palpable thing, and in this way should be regarded as a complete success.

Review: Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer – Special Edition / Directed by: John McNaughton / Written by: Richard Fire, John McNaughton / Starring: Michael Rooker, Tracy Arnold, Tom Towles / Release Date: Out Now

Prior to Michael Rooker finding himself taking on zombies single-handed in The Walking Dead, he was doing other things to corpses as notorious serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas, in this classic 80s horror/drama.

Throughout the mid 70s and early 80s, buckle-faced drifter Henry Lee Lucas committed in excess of 188 murders (although he would later confess to a staggering 600 slayings). While it was later claimed that he was owning up to killings to make prison life more comfortable, there is no doubt that he was a depraved and twisted human being. And as if murder wasn’t enough, Lee often added necrophilia and paedophilia to his resume during his spree before finally getting caught in 1983.

This movie has practically nothing to do with any of that.

In what can only be described as a homage to his horrors, this independent movie (shot in 1986 but not released until three years later) takes the names and some of the locations from Henry’s back catalogue and inexplicably spins a new tale with it.

Former stripper, Becky (Arnold) returns to her hometown in search of work, leaving her daughter and abusive husband behind her. There to greet her is Otis (Towles), her bucktoothed brother who invites her to stay with him and his roommate, Henry (Rooker). Before long Henry and Becky strike up a bond, but this is secondary to Henry’s true passion: randomly killing people. Then, whilst entertaining two hookers in his car, Henry indoctrinates Otis into his killer club, leading to an evermore increasingly disturbing series of murders.

In truth, Becky was Otis’s 12-year-old niece, who escaped from juvie and wound up having a sexual relationship with Henry. In addition, Otis and Henry shared their own romantic relationship during their time together. Not that these inconsistencies necessarily take anything away from the finished film, but knowing them, you can’t help thinking such details would have made for a far more interesting story.

As it stands, this is undoubtedly a shocking movie (the home invasion scene is still gorge-rising, even by today’s standards), with a stand-out – if slightly uneven – performance from its titular star. While many of the murder sequences are shown after the fact (with haunting screams overlaid), when we do witness Henry and Otis letting off steam, there is a tendency for it to get a little schlocky. The atmosphere, however, is unquestionably thick, and as the film drags you by the hair to its inevitable conclusion, you’ll find yourself desperate for some clean air.

Shot on 35mm film in 1:37 ratio, this can’t help but feel incredibly dated, despite Blu-ray giving the picture as much of a boost as is possible given the source material. But then perhaps that’s what helps set this apart. Despite returning to the public consciousness at a point where serial killer movies are ten a penny, Henry manages to remain a unique example of the medium. Although, to say it is an enjoyable one, would be somewhat difficult.

Extras

An absorbing making of documentary proves to be an interesting viewing experience. Filled with facts about the real killings and director McNaughton’s struggles to bring the film to fruition and then get it off the producer’s shelf, it provides a very well rounded background. One of the most interesting points it reveals, is that the film was originally much, much longer.

Some of these cut scenes are included (all without original audio, with McNaughton giving commentary) and help to fill a few holes in the narrative. They also help to show why Rooker’s performance seems to change midway through the film as many of his ‘lighter’ moments during the early part of the movie were cut, leaving him to appear like little more than an emotionless robot.

A further documentary on the real Henry is included for those who can stomach more, while a revealing featurette on censorship sheds light on McNaughton’s experiences with the board. Feature Commentary, some stills and trailers round off the goodies.

There’s no escaping the fact that this remains one of the first and most disturbing entries in the serial killer genre, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the best. Shocking it may be, but you can’t help think (as you eject and reach for a DVD of Sesame Street to feel better about the world) that this interpretation of Henry is as pointless as the killings he committed.

Review: Community – Season 1 (15) / Created by: Dan Harmon / Starring: Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Chevy Chase, Ken Jeong / Release Date: Out Now

Geek friendly TV is a big money spinner for networks these days, but most would assume that NBC’s Community (now in its third season in the US) would fail to make the grade with such an audience. At first glance its understandable to see why – it’s a comedy based in a community college, and features some of the most heart-warming moments to be found in modern TV, almost a throwback to the 80’s high school and college movies it cribs from. Underneath the premise and initial impression Community becomes not just a genuinely hilarious show with an engaging array of characters and inventive week-to-week situations, but a pop culture paradise of reflexivity and self referential humour. This is as “meta” as it gets.

Ace lawyer and self-centred jerk Jeff Winger is used to living the dream – Fast cars, expensive suits and beautiful women, all for as little work as possible. Trouble is, he never actually graduated law school and is promptly disbarred once the State Bar Association discovers his deception. Aspiring to quickly (and easily) return to his former lifestyle, Winger enrols at a community college for some effortless credit and a swift return to the glory days. After scoping an attractive blonde in his Spanish 101 class, Jeff sets up a fake study group to get one-on-one, but she’s far too smart to fall for the plot, and derails his scheme by inviting other member of their Spanish class to join the study group, much to Winger’s dismay.

Main love interest Britta is an outspoken vegetarian/feminist/atheist/everythingist whose well-meaning but often misguided freedom fighting can cause chaos for herself and the people she is looking to protect the most. Chevy Chase appears as Pierce Hawthorne, a man of both money and advancing years who doesn’t seem to have realised that America has abandoned practices such as slavery in recent years. Shirley is a Black single mother who wants to make something more of her life while spreading the word of Jesus. Annie is a perfectionist ‘Straight-A’ student who crashed and burned out of high school due to a nervous breakdown and minor addiction to uppers. Troy is the boneheaded jock who forms an unlikely but infinitely adorable friendship with autistic pop culture junkie Abed, played to perfection by the shows most noticeable stars-in-the-making, Donald Glover and Danny Pudi.

Will they see past each others differences and become friends despite their wildly contrasting backgrounds? Well, yeah of course they will. It’s just that every so often they conveniently forget along the way ensuring hilarity for the audience each week.

The shows writers take their time getting to know its ensemble cast episode by episode, seemingly unsure early on just how they wanted each of the distinct archetypal characters to function beyond their relation to Joel McHale’s sarcastic lead.

Despite the slow burn opening, and its apparent desire to play it safe early on, Community eventually develops a confidence and awareness unlike any other show around, a strength that grows as the initially underused supporting cast become increasingly important as characters in their own right, and the sociopathic fellow students and certifiably insane faculty members of Greendale add almost endless potential for new laughs.

Beyond achieving the core goal of being funny, Community is also smart. It takes the ethnic mismatch comedy tropes of old – pretty much any convention you can think of for that matter – and shakes them up with a fresh perspective informed by years of trashy TV and films, just like its audience. It doesn’t pander to the meme-spewing mindset too much, but it doesn’t hold back when making its references either, exemplified in its highly praised halloween episode and spectacular series highlight ‘Modern Warfare’, in which a school wide paintball competition descends in to Old West level of lawlessness and a Mad Max style survival of the fittest. This is the show that even manages to do a zombie episode that feels vital in an age where any use of the Z-word is almost entirely passé, based entirely on the strength of its writing and characterisation.

Community manages that rarest of things once the series finds its direction and its characters become more fully realised, by being at once razor sharp and surprisingly edgy while maintaining an irresistibly warm and wholesome centre. There’s some strong morality play at work, but it fails to take the high ground, even when dealing with issues such as being old, being black, being autistic, or being Batman. It takes its shots not just at easy targets like so many comedies are prone to, but attacks everyone and everything equally, but with a knowing smile and an honest heart, and with plenty of brains in place of the schmaltz.

Watch Community, or we’ll be taking your geek card.

Review: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea – Season 4 / Created by: Irwin Allen / Starring: Richard Basehart, David Hedison, Robert Dowdell / Release Date: Out Now

And here we are once again, braced for another round of underwater shenanigans with the brave and intrepid crew of the SSRN Seaview, patrolling the depths, saving mankind from just about everything that swims, floats, flies, walks, crawls or slithers.

Season four completes the series run, and sadly, it’s not before time. After four years, the show was unfortunately running out of steam, and according to comments from star David Hedison in a special feature interview the budget was also being cut.

What had started out in 1963 as a gripping weekly black and white television series featuring stories of underwater exploration, espionage and thrilling political espionage against the then-current cold war backdrop with elements of science fiction had, in the second and third series become a colourful, loud monster of the week series with scant, if any, regard for any real science. By 1967, the writing was on the wall. The sheer lunacy of the Batman series of 1966 and its ensuing public mania had caused the producers of several other adventure series of the time to follow suit, becoming increasingly more far out and ludicrous in their plots to try and compete for the audience who were hungry for the comic absurdity of Adam West and Burt Ward. It was happening to Lost In Space, it was happening to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. And sure enough, even the mighty Seaview would eventually sink under the weight of popular camp humour, never again to break surface. Besides that, while the ABC channel were content pumping out juvenile oriented science fantasy during prime time, over at NBC, real science fiction aficionados were being treated to the real deal as their show, Star Trek was hitting its stride with its second season and had the fan-winning advantage of being written by real, actual science fiction authors.

So, while Star Trek explored the Vulcan mating cycle, doomsday machines capable of devouring planets, God-like computers controlling primitive civilisations, telepathic beings, and time travel, what was Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea concerning itself with?

Well, mad scientists who want to draw the moon closer to the Earth, gorilla creatures, plant monsters, amphibians, Blackbeard the pirate, frost men, the abominable snowman, a leprechaun, a lobster man and Vincent Price. The 26 episode series doesn’t as much explore the deep it just plain plumbs the depths.

The writing throughout the season is uniformly sloppy and for the most part, downright childish. For example, The Deadly Amphibians has a race of, well, deadly amphibians who want to reclaim the Earth as their own. We’re subjected to an hour of this plotline (which is interchangeable with most of the episodes in this season, EVERYONE wants to take over) and yet, the entire plot is foiled when a tied and bound Captain Crane rolls over an electrical cable, causing their device to short circuit, and that’s it – show’s over. Roll the credits.

Even worse is The Deadly Dolls, where even Vincent Price’s scenery chewing performance, and believe me, he’s on form here, fails to save the show. Price plays the part of a toymaster who has a number of puppets who can assume the size and appearance of the Seaview crew members. When Captain Crane spends an inordinate amount of time around a control switch on the wall of the Seaview control room that we’ve never seen before in the previous three years – you know there lies the solution to the problem. Somehow, this triggers a device that renders the outside of the sub radioactive so it can charge at torpedo speed and self destruct, annihilating whatever it hits and, presumably every living thing within a radius of hundreds of miles, not to mention contaminating the sea just by being all glowy and radioactive.

This is the kind of sloppy, thrown together storytelling that is the Achilles heel of this season.

However, it’s not ALL bad – suspend your cynicism and you’ll have a good time in an era that was perhaps a little easier for being a little more innocent. To its credit, although the DVD releases have been over 25 years further in the future that the show was even set, it still looks great. In fact, as the episodes have been cleaned up and digitally remastered, even the worst written of them earn some forgiveness points for being just dazzling to look at, with the colours being lush and bright. Even the bridge of the Enterprise looks a bit pale compared with the multi hued splash (forgive the pun) of the Seaview’s control room. We might not know what all those lights do or indicate (I doubt Irwin Allen himself knew) but they look like they’re important – even the imposing countdown display that’s right in front of a crewman’s nose and is perpetually counting down to nothing in particular.

The eight disc set comes fully armed with a disc of special features, which this time include the last part of the interview with show headliner David Hedison, who remains as comically terse and deadpan as he did back in the day in his role as Lee Crane.

Also included are three versions of the pilot. There’s the original unaired pilot in black and white. Then there’s a recut version in colour (oddly with a shot of the Seaview from underneath in the title sequence, which clearly shows the Flying Sub bay doors although the sub itself wasn’t introduced until the second season) and finally there’s the broadcast version – with the original American commercials still in place, so you can see for yourself how the weekly underwater adventures were sponsored by the makers of a range of deodorant products. Altogether now, “Spray Fresh, Stay Fresh”.

I don’t know how many people out there want to watch three different versions of the same episode, but they’re there for you if you want them, though there is a little bit of a cheat here. The original unaired pilot was actually also included in the season one box. Shame on you 20th Century Fox for trying to sneak that past us.