The Pink Panther (2006)
directed by Shawn Levy
written by Len Blum and Steve Martin
starring Steve Martin, Emily Mortimer, Jean Reno, Kevin Kline, Jason Statham, Henry Czerny, Kristin Chenoweth, Roger Rees, Beyoncé Knowles
This reboot of the famous franchise maintains much of the celebrated fervor of the original films. It is a harder, meaner extrapolation of the Edwards-Sellers-Mancini years and often feels like a tribute to those films while maintaining its own vision.
It’s impossible to compare Peter Sellers and Steve Martin with any clarity. Each brings his own take on the character of Inspector Jacques Clouseau and their styles are distinct enough to warrant an appreciation for their approaches. In this film, Clouseau is even more tiresome than Seller’s version. He’s irritating in a way that is relentless as his ego is so profoundly out of touch with his sleuthing methods. Still, there is a raving intelligence to Martin’s Clouseau that is played out in a variety of scenes. He sees things but his interpretations are always incredibly off base.
The film is fairly sexy with the glamourous addition of Beyoncé Knowles who most certainly knows how to make an entrance and fill out a shimmery dress. Still, her sexiness is matched by the more understated appeal of Emily Mortimer. She’s less glam and more buttoned up but there’s a tigress within her that one wants desperately to burst from her bosom. There are hints of her desire for Clouseau which is one of the great unfinished aspects of the film. The hunger in her eyes when they almost kiss is delectable.
Jason Statham plays soccer coach Yves Gluant who is murdered by a poisoned dart while the Pink Panther diamond ring he is wearing is stolen. This kicks off the action proper as Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Kline) decides to bring in the most inept police officer so he can swoop in and take all the glory for solving the crime. Despite himself Clouseau is perpetually putting himself in the right place at the right time. Specifically, he goes to a casino owned by Gluant’s business partner Raymond Larocque (Rees) to question the entrepreneur regarding Gluant’s death. He meets a highly secretive British Secret Service agent named Nigel Boswell (Clive Owen) who heroically slides down a rope ala James Bond and defeats the Gas Mask bandits who are staging a robbery while wearing Clouseau’s coat. Clouseau is credited with the takedown and is nominated for the Medal of Honor which Dreyfus is desperately seeking having lost six times previously.
In the usual fashion Clouseau botches every attempt to get closer to the killer while somehow remaining subconsciously aware of the correct path to take. Martin is more aggressively annoying that the other Clouseaus. His confidence rivals anything else in Paris as he steadfastly refuses to accept that he’s anything short of a master detective. Of course events play out that support this assessment of his abilities and it’s actually an exceedingly deft piece of investigation that leads him to the killer. Again, Clouseau spends the entire film utterly clueless but just when the odds are the most against him he comes through to save the day.
Jean Reno has the difficult task of keeping tabs on the maniacal Clouseau. He’s very funny in this as mostly a straight man who plays off of Clouseau’s absurdist antics. He manages to dull the terribly sharp edges that define Martin’s Clouseau and often garners bigger laughs.
There are elements in this film that update it to the modern age. There are cell phones, personal computers and a slick, modern feel to the scenes in New York and Paris. There is actually quite a bit of glamour on display in this film that almost feels decadent at times. There is more frank brutality specifically in the scene where suspect Bizu (William Abadie) is murdered by the same person who killed Gluant. He’s shot in the head and its filmed in such a way that it comes off as a shock.
Steve Martin is more physically aggressive in his stunts than Sellers. He possesses a reposit of energy that Sellers never accessed it. It can be argued that he didn’t need to because his ease of movement was more pronounced. He was clumsy but in an exceedingly deft way. Sellers was doing a bit more than falling down. He was dancing a particularly perverse dance with no partners. Martine’s accidents and disruptions seem a bit more forced and less graceful than the best Sellers gags. He also comes across as more immediately threatening. This is a Clouseau who could actually kill a great number of people and it’s a testament to the film’s effectiveness that they are able to walk the fine line between lunacy and outright disaster.
Kevin Kline fills the shoes of the great Herbert Lom with dexterity and tremendous charm. Kline’s Dreyfus is a bit more fastidious than Lom’s and more anal. He takes umbrage with Clouseau mainly because he is threatened by the distinct possibility that he has gravely underestimated the man. He lives in constant fear that Clouseau will actually be able to crack the case before he gets a chance to push him aside and take all the glory for himself. It’s the driving force that propels him forward and his obsession with Clouseau doesn’t move beyond this aspect. It’s not a full-on colossal loathing that Lom’s Dreyfus felt for Clouseau. It’s personal but it’s far more practical. One doesn’t suspect that this version of Dreyfus could ever be driven absolutely mad by a man such as Clouseau.
The performances in this film are uniformly excellent. Emily Mortimer has a swanlike manner that is also very much like Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. She’s got the same neck and her mannerisms are similar. She’s a bit more prudish than Ms. Hepburn, though, which nevertheless is part of her appeal. Steve Martin does everything one could ask in his performance. He’s clearly a capable physical comedian and his work here is entirely his own. He wisely sees fit not to attempt to borrow too much from his famed predecessor. Kevin Kline is remarkably grounded in this film. He plays Dreyfus with a singular sense of calm. Dreyfus in this film is not a man you would expect to see make any sudden movements unless he is attacked or otherwise compromised which he is routinely in this film.
Overall, this film satisfies the yen for another Panther film even if it doesn’t quite live up to the best of the earlier films. Still, the gags are routinely amusing and the performances are all top notch. It’s clearly created with the previous films in mind but doesn’t try to make a direct copy of anything that has come before. It is its own animal from start to finish and this is most pronounced by Steve Martin’s take on the classic character of Inspector Jacques Clouseau. He makes the character work within a more modern milieu which is the only way he could have possibly taken it.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Film Review--Curse of the Pink Panther
Curse of the Pink Panther
directed by Blake Edwards
written by Blake Edwards, Geoffrey Edwards
starring David Niven, Capucine, Robert Wagner, Herbert Lom, Joanna Lumley, Robert Loggia, Harvey Korman, Burt Kwouk, Ted Wass
As the film opens, the theft of the diamond from the previous film is repeated. A mysterious man tries to sell it to Countess Chandra (Lumley) but she shoots him dead just after Clouseau appears as if he is about to foil the transaction. Chandra points the gun at Clouseau and the opening credits begin.
Clouseau is still missing and the Sûreté are looking for the world’s greatest detective to track him down. Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Lom) is less than enthusiastic over the search and devises a plan to ensure that the exact opposite of what is programmed into the computer is tabulated in locating the best man (or woman) for the job. Subsequently, another bumbling, clumsy idiot in the guise of Sergeant Clifton Sleigh (Wass) is found and put on the case.
Sergeant Sleigh in this film is entirely ineffectual as a physical presence in this film. The character, an obvious pacifier for those who deeply lament the loss of Peter Sellers and who nevertheless will settle for a substitute, lacks Sellers’s solidity and strong sense of place. Despite his buffoonish behavior Seller’s Clouseau was grounded albeit it directionless at times and anathema to any objects put in his path. Sleigh is as much of a stumblebum as the man he is attempting to find. Clearly, the film wants us to satisfy ourselves with Nutrasweet while the real stuff is tragically out of reach. Wass’s dialog is often wooden and combined with his presentation the result is a character who isn’t particularly easy to like or root for.
The mob, led by the affable and utterly winning Bruno Langois (Loggia) naturally do not want Clouseau found so they put out a number of hits on Sleigh which manage to fail in the same manner they did with Clouseau.
Sleigh meets with the luxuriating Sir Charles Lytton (Niven) and his gallant wife Lady Simone (Capucine) who remain surprised that Clouseau hasn’t turned up yet. They discuss the diamond and the disappearance of Clouseau. This scene features one of several blatant sexual references in the film. Somehow Sleigh manages to get a rubber raft in the shape of a duck attached to his bottom so that when he sits down the ducks head peaks out between his legs so it looks like wood. They play with this gag for quite a long time as every time he moves or falls down the same head keeps bobbing away.
Also, there is a scene where Sleigh has just left Professor Auguste Balls’s disguise shop with an inflatable companion that Balls has sold him for a diversion. The scene changes and Sleigh sits outside a French café with his new toy. He lights her a cigarette and the ashes burn a hole in the doll. So, Sleigh puts his head very suggestively between the doll’s legs in order to attempt to blow her up or whatever you want to call it.
Sleigh is certainly a bumbling, stumbling mess but he moves and speaks like a character from “The Forbidden Zone”. It’s amazing if you compare the film and this cop. It’s as if he stepped straight off of that set onto this one and remained the same character for both films. After a while it becomes easier to like Sleigh because one begins to feel horribly for him; one develops a feeling of pity for him. He is lowly and unfortunate throughout although he does manage to get a girl interested in him. She is named Juleta Shane as well as Julie Morgan (Leslie Ash) and she meets Sleigh at a club where she is clearly interested. They had actually seen each other at the hotel they are staying at and later when she appears in his room she is ready to go. She’s one of the more ribald and blatantly sexual female characters in this series and she is basically grinding for it.
There is a tremendous openness at Countess Chandra (Lumley)’s health spa which includes hot mud baths and other various extravagances. It’s an exceedingly clean and vital place and every time the film goes back to it, it is infused with an intense energy that comes directly from the various stations at the spa.
The clumsy antics of Sleigh are over the top to put it mildly. It’s possible that he’s even more vertically challenged than Clouseau is in the first several films. Regardless, he’s a serious wreck and cannot step two feet without stumbling over himself and putting others at serious risk. There are really none of his falls that are particularly amusing. They have the physical characteristics of Sellers’s work but none of the style or grace. They are ugly and perhaps less choreographed but in the end they come across as second rate when compared to the master. But, one can hardly blame young Wass for this. He does what he can in his role which is an attempt to capture the essence of Sellers in the body of another character. It certainly is a smarter move than taking another stab at a Clouseau replacement which lowered the impact of “Inspector Clouseau” with Alan Arkin.
The end of the film is certainly curious and it involves Roger Moore tripping over everything in sight, speaking in an exaggerated French accent, and spending most of his scenes with an ice bucket on his head. It’s clear from the beginning who this really is and it’s a whole lot of fun because Moore isn’t exactly known for slapstick and this display shows him in fine form. These scenes tie the film together and make sense of it. In a way it’s too much, too soon as prior to that the film seems to meander a ways before finally getting to the point. Still, the ending is very appealing in its way and ultimately satisfactory. Indeed, it’s the perfect ending for this part of the series. It would be ten years before another one, “Son of the Pink Panther”, was attempted and that film really has little to do with the tremendous 20 year ride between the original Panther and “Curse”.
This film combines extended gags with short riffs where Sleigh trips over his feet and destroys a piece of furniture or a display. In its way it is successful at what it is attempting to do. It creates a character who is similar enough to Clouseau to not be a shock to long term fans of the series while molding a passably entertaining story around it. It works quite well and the film maintains its directive throughout without succumbing to self-parody.
The performances in this film are all impressive. I’ve decided that Ted Wass is brilliantly playing a wooden character with no rhythm and that he is supposed to be that way. Wass has a certain affability that he exploits routinely. He’s got natural comic timing which comes in to play throughout the film. Joanna Lumley also possess a fantastic comedic touch. She and Roger Moore have excellent chemistry here and it works to the film’s advantage. Herbert Lom is, as usual, very discomforted as Dreyfus and phenomenally agitated at the prospect of Clouseau being alive. It’s a testament to the series that it manages to make Dreyfus’s neuroses regarding Clouseau fresh and novel every time they attack it. Dreyfus is really the central character in these films and Clouseau is merely the comic relief.
Overall, this film captures the spirit of the earlier films without quite managing to create their elegance or style. Tedd Wass of course isn’t as dynamic and thrilling as Sellers but that isn’t what the film is going for here. Wass is an entirely different animal even though he shares the same afflictions as Sellers in terms of his lack of balance and inability to avoid falling down. He is a repressed, buttoned-up nerd with no clue about the world, and especially women. Next to him Clouseau is Casanova. Seller’s Clouseau, despite his tendency to destroy inanimate objects, is a man of the world. He’s sophisticated in a way that Wass’s is not. The film wonderfully gives us a character who doesn’t try to be a mock-up of Clouseau and instead carries on with his own personality quirks that come in the end to define the character.
directed by Blake Edwards
written by Blake Edwards, Geoffrey Edwards
starring David Niven, Capucine, Robert Wagner, Herbert Lom, Joanna Lumley, Robert Loggia, Harvey Korman, Burt Kwouk, Ted Wass
As the film opens, the theft of the diamond from the previous film is repeated. A mysterious man tries to sell it to Countess Chandra (Lumley) but she shoots him dead just after Clouseau appears as if he is about to foil the transaction. Chandra points the gun at Clouseau and the opening credits begin.
Clouseau is still missing and the Sûreté are looking for the world’s greatest detective to track him down. Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Lom) is less than enthusiastic over the search and devises a plan to ensure that the exact opposite of what is programmed into the computer is tabulated in locating the best man (or woman) for the job. Subsequently, another bumbling, clumsy idiot in the guise of Sergeant Clifton Sleigh (Wass) is found and put on the case.
Sergeant Sleigh in this film is entirely ineffectual as a physical presence in this film. The character, an obvious pacifier for those who deeply lament the loss of Peter Sellers and who nevertheless will settle for a substitute, lacks Sellers’s solidity and strong sense of place. Despite his buffoonish behavior Seller’s Clouseau was grounded albeit it directionless at times and anathema to any objects put in his path. Sleigh is as much of a stumblebum as the man he is attempting to find. Clearly, the film wants us to satisfy ourselves with Nutrasweet while the real stuff is tragically out of reach. Wass’s dialog is often wooden and combined with his presentation the result is a character who isn’t particularly easy to like or root for.
The mob, led by the affable and utterly winning Bruno Langois (Loggia) naturally do not want Clouseau found so they put out a number of hits on Sleigh which manage to fail in the same manner they did with Clouseau.
Sleigh meets with the luxuriating Sir Charles Lytton (Niven) and his gallant wife Lady Simone (Capucine) who remain surprised that Clouseau hasn’t turned up yet. They discuss the diamond and the disappearance of Clouseau. This scene features one of several blatant sexual references in the film. Somehow Sleigh manages to get a rubber raft in the shape of a duck attached to his bottom so that when he sits down the ducks head peaks out between his legs so it looks like wood. They play with this gag for quite a long time as every time he moves or falls down the same head keeps bobbing away.
Also, there is a scene where Sleigh has just left Professor Auguste Balls’s disguise shop with an inflatable companion that Balls has sold him for a diversion. The scene changes and Sleigh sits outside a French café with his new toy. He lights her a cigarette and the ashes burn a hole in the doll. So, Sleigh puts his head very suggestively between the doll’s legs in order to attempt to blow her up or whatever you want to call it.
Sleigh is certainly a bumbling, stumbling mess but he moves and speaks like a character from “The Forbidden Zone”. It’s amazing if you compare the film and this cop. It’s as if he stepped straight off of that set onto this one and remained the same character for both films. After a while it becomes easier to like Sleigh because one begins to feel horribly for him; one develops a feeling of pity for him. He is lowly and unfortunate throughout although he does manage to get a girl interested in him. She is named Juleta Shane as well as Julie Morgan (Leslie Ash) and she meets Sleigh at a club where she is clearly interested. They had actually seen each other at the hotel they are staying at and later when she appears in his room she is ready to go. She’s one of the more ribald and blatantly sexual female characters in this series and she is basically grinding for it.
There is a tremendous openness at Countess Chandra (Lumley)’s health spa which includes hot mud baths and other various extravagances. It’s an exceedingly clean and vital place and every time the film goes back to it, it is infused with an intense energy that comes directly from the various stations at the spa.
The clumsy antics of Sleigh are over the top to put it mildly. It’s possible that he’s even more vertically challenged than Clouseau is in the first several films. Regardless, he’s a serious wreck and cannot step two feet without stumbling over himself and putting others at serious risk. There are really none of his falls that are particularly amusing. They have the physical characteristics of Sellers’s work but none of the style or grace. They are ugly and perhaps less choreographed but in the end they come across as second rate when compared to the master. But, one can hardly blame young Wass for this. He does what he can in his role which is an attempt to capture the essence of Sellers in the body of another character. It certainly is a smarter move than taking another stab at a Clouseau replacement which lowered the impact of “Inspector Clouseau” with Alan Arkin.
The end of the film is certainly curious and it involves Roger Moore tripping over everything in sight, speaking in an exaggerated French accent, and spending most of his scenes with an ice bucket on his head. It’s clear from the beginning who this really is and it’s a whole lot of fun because Moore isn’t exactly known for slapstick and this display shows him in fine form. These scenes tie the film together and make sense of it. In a way it’s too much, too soon as prior to that the film seems to meander a ways before finally getting to the point. Still, the ending is very appealing in its way and ultimately satisfactory. Indeed, it’s the perfect ending for this part of the series. It would be ten years before another one, “Son of the Pink Panther”, was attempted and that film really has little to do with the tremendous 20 year ride between the original Panther and “Curse”.
This film combines extended gags with short riffs where Sleigh trips over his feet and destroys a piece of furniture or a display. In its way it is successful at what it is attempting to do. It creates a character who is similar enough to Clouseau to not be a shock to long term fans of the series while molding a passably entertaining story around it. It works quite well and the film maintains its directive throughout without succumbing to self-parody.
The performances in this film are all impressive. I’ve decided that Ted Wass is brilliantly playing a wooden character with no rhythm and that he is supposed to be that way. Wass has a certain affability that he exploits routinely. He’s got natural comic timing which comes in to play throughout the film. Joanna Lumley also possess a fantastic comedic touch. She and Roger Moore have excellent chemistry here and it works to the film’s advantage. Herbert Lom is, as usual, very discomforted as Dreyfus and phenomenally agitated at the prospect of Clouseau being alive. It’s a testament to the series that it manages to make Dreyfus’s neuroses regarding Clouseau fresh and novel every time they attack it. Dreyfus is really the central character in these films and Clouseau is merely the comic relief.
Overall, this film captures the spirit of the earlier films without quite managing to create their elegance or style. Tedd Wass of course isn’t as dynamic and thrilling as Sellers but that isn’t what the film is going for here. Wass is an entirely different animal even though he shares the same afflictions as Sellers in terms of his lack of balance and inability to avoid falling down. He is a repressed, buttoned-up nerd with no clue about the world, and especially women. Next to him Clouseau is Casanova. Seller’s Clouseau, despite his tendency to destroy inanimate objects, is a man of the world. He’s sophisticated in a way that Wass’s is not. The film wonderfully gives us a character who doesn’t try to be a mock-up of Clouseau and instead carries on with his own personality quirks that come in the end to define the character.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Film Review--Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak
written by Justin Marks
starring Kristen Kreuk, Chris Klein, Neal McDonough, Robin Shou, Moon Bloodgood, Michael Clarke Duncan, Taboo, Josie Ho, Edmund Chen
This is the story of a little girl who longed to be nothing short of a renowned classical pianist. We learn of her ambition through voice over narration by her adult Self. She is Chun-Li (Kreuk) and along with her piano studies she also undertakes extensive martial arts training with her father Xiang (Chen) who teaches her a wide variety of useful techniques that she proves to be exceedingly adept with. Unfortunately their idyll is shattered by Bison’s (McDonough) henchmen who kidnap her father and leave her mother in a crumpled heap. Chun-Li grows up to indeed by a pianist who plays extravagant concert halls and is well received. She receives a scroll written in ancient Chinese and this ultimately leads her to Bangkok where she has been instructed to meet a man named Gen (Shou). Eventually she does meet him and he instructs her while helping her get more control over her anger.
This film, adapted from the successful video game franchise, suffers as most adaptations of this sort do. It quite often feels like a video game with little character development, ludicrous dialog, and absurd fight sequences. Still, it does have its charms which mostly come through in the performances which are mostly excellent.
Kristen Kreuk has an unassuming personality as Chun-Li in this film and her tiny frame contains a fireball of martial arts skills that seem to erupt as if out of nowhere. It’s delightful to watch her launch herself into full on fighting mode and her particular fighting scenes have a ballet quality to them as well as seeming to be incredibly athletic. She manages to infuse the scenes with an erotic quality that is conspicuously missing from other such scenes in the film. She expresses a tremendous energy and possesses a strong presence throughout the course of the film.
The character of Bison is presented to be one who has basically sold his soul to the devil. Literally, in one of the more preposterous scenes which is never properly explained, he removes his unborn daughter from his wife’s stomach and transplants his conscience in her so he can be rid of it once and for all. Ostensibly this is so he can continue to fleece people without ever having to suffer the damned pangs of guilt that generally accompany such nefarious transactions. He grew up a thief and continues his activities by managing to buy out all of the waterfront slums in Bangkok and forcing all of the residents out of their homes so he can build expensive, exclusive hi-rises for the affluent. Neal McDonough plays him with fiendish glee yet he never makes the mistake of turning his character into a cartoon. In this film Bison is all too human and representative of the corrupting influence that greed and power can hold over certain individuals who do not know how to reign in their appetites.
Bison’s sinister machinations are not fully explored in this film. I wanted more evidence as to why he’s such a dangerous person and I only got a hint of what he is up to. I learn that he’s prone to extreme violence, commands an army of sycophants, kidnaps well-connected businessmen to do his bidding, and makes plans for obliterating the lifestyles of scores of people for his own profit and amusement. But, there is clearly so much more sinister goodness inside this man. His reign of terror is just too local to have much street value. I assume he is more ambitious than what he appears but perhaps he’s satisfied with his corruptive schemata.
As Chun-Li makes her way to Bison, whom she has learned is holding her father, a cop named Maya Sunee (Bloodgood) and an operative named Charlie Nash (Klein) are following a series of decapitated heads to Bison. Eventually they both intersect setting up the final showdown between the police and Bison’s military squad. It’s a typical battle sequence and nothing particularly dramatic stands out although again Chun-Li possesses a legitimate sense of grace and elegance as she administers her various assaults on her enemies.
Overall, this film manages to be fairly entertaining despite its myriad flaws regarding pacing, style, and dialog. It has the requisite amount of energy for an action film and the performances are mentioned are uniformly good. Robin Shou quietly commands the screen in every scene he’s in. His character is spiritually wise and it’s consistently enlightening to listen to him wax philosophically about various aspects of martial arts and yoga. Ultimately, it’s a film that probably should have gone straight to video as it doesn’t exactly feel very cinematic most of the time. It feels restrained, as if it were trapped in a tiny box not very unlike a gaming system or television set.
directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak
written by Justin Marks
starring Kristen Kreuk, Chris Klein, Neal McDonough, Robin Shou, Moon Bloodgood, Michael Clarke Duncan, Taboo, Josie Ho, Edmund Chen
This is the story of a little girl who longed to be nothing short of a renowned classical pianist. We learn of her ambition through voice over narration by her adult Self. She is Chun-Li (Kreuk) and along with her piano studies she also undertakes extensive martial arts training with her father Xiang (Chen) who teaches her a wide variety of useful techniques that she proves to be exceedingly adept with. Unfortunately their idyll is shattered by Bison’s (McDonough) henchmen who kidnap her father and leave her mother in a crumpled heap. Chun-Li grows up to indeed by a pianist who plays extravagant concert halls and is well received. She receives a scroll written in ancient Chinese and this ultimately leads her to Bangkok where she has been instructed to meet a man named Gen (Shou). Eventually she does meet him and he instructs her while helping her get more control over her anger.
This film, adapted from the successful video game franchise, suffers as most adaptations of this sort do. It quite often feels like a video game with little character development, ludicrous dialog, and absurd fight sequences. Still, it does have its charms which mostly come through in the performances which are mostly excellent.
Kristen Kreuk has an unassuming personality as Chun-Li in this film and her tiny frame contains a fireball of martial arts skills that seem to erupt as if out of nowhere. It’s delightful to watch her launch herself into full on fighting mode and her particular fighting scenes have a ballet quality to them as well as seeming to be incredibly athletic. She manages to infuse the scenes with an erotic quality that is conspicuously missing from other such scenes in the film. She expresses a tremendous energy and possesses a strong presence throughout the course of the film.
The character of Bison is presented to be one who has basically sold his soul to the devil. Literally, in one of the more preposterous scenes which is never properly explained, he removes his unborn daughter from his wife’s stomach and transplants his conscience in her so he can be rid of it once and for all. Ostensibly this is so he can continue to fleece people without ever having to suffer the damned pangs of guilt that generally accompany such nefarious transactions. He grew up a thief and continues his activities by managing to buy out all of the waterfront slums in Bangkok and forcing all of the residents out of their homes so he can build expensive, exclusive hi-rises for the affluent. Neal McDonough plays him with fiendish glee yet he never makes the mistake of turning his character into a cartoon. In this film Bison is all too human and representative of the corrupting influence that greed and power can hold over certain individuals who do not know how to reign in their appetites.
Bison’s sinister machinations are not fully explored in this film. I wanted more evidence as to why he’s such a dangerous person and I only got a hint of what he is up to. I learn that he’s prone to extreme violence, commands an army of sycophants, kidnaps well-connected businessmen to do his bidding, and makes plans for obliterating the lifestyles of scores of people for his own profit and amusement. But, there is clearly so much more sinister goodness inside this man. His reign of terror is just too local to have much street value. I assume he is more ambitious than what he appears but perhaps he’s satisfied with his corruptive schemata.
As Chun-Li makes her way to Bison, whom she has learned is holding her father, a cop named Maya Sunee (Bloodgood) and an operative named Charlie Nash (Klein) are following a series of decapitated heads to Bison. Eventually they both intersect setting up the final showdown between the police and Bison’s military squad. It’s a typical battle sequence and nothing particularly dramatic stands out although again Chun-Li possesses a legitimate sense of grace and elegance as she administers her various assaults on her enemies.
Overall, this film manages to be fairly entertaining despite its myriad flaws regarding pacing, style, and dialog. It has the requisite amount of energy for an action film and the performances are mentioned are uniformly good. Robin Shou quietly commands the screen in every scene he’s in. His character is spiritually wise and it’s consistently enlightening to listen to him wax philosophically about various aspects of martial arts and yoga. Ultimately, it’s a film that probably should have gone straight to video as it doesn’t exactly feel very cinematic most of the time. It feels restrained, as if it were trapped in a tiny box not very unlike a gaming system or television set.
Film Review--Friday the 13th (2009)
Friday the 13th (2009)
directed by Marcus Nispel
written by Damian Shannon, Mark Swift, Mark Wheaton
based on characters created by Victor Miller
starring Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, Aaron Yoo, Derek Mears, Julianna Guill, Ben Feldman
In this stellar, atmospheric reimagining of the Friday the 13th film series, the various aspects that made the earlier films in the franchise so effective are maintained and occasionally enhanced. The result is a menacing, deeply haunting telling of the mythos that surrounds the character of Jason Voorhees (Mears).
Jason is hard in this film. His movements, demeanor and cold calculations render him one of the more salient mass murderers in recent horror history. This film reworks elements from the first four films to tell the familiar story of a disgruntled homicidal manic who preys on those who stumble into his terrain. Jason is territorial here and the locals know enough not to enter into his domain. There is a quiet complicity amongst the locals who seem to accept the fact that a crazed killer routinely stalks and butchers his prey in their midst. They just want to be left alone and are not prone to asking any questions. Also, it is perhaps likely that they too view the incursions of the outsiders as troublesome and that those who suffer at Jason’s hands somehow deserve their fate for their dissolute lifestyles.
The film features two sets of killing sprees six weeks apart. In each a group of young people are out for a good time of sex, booze, and whatever other substances they can find and ingest. The first group are seeking out weed that they have learnt grows around Crystal Lake and they want to procure it in order to sell it at a huge profit. The first kill who is obsessed with GPS tracking systems but is clearly not one that the ladies favor finds the marijuana just before he is slaughtered by Jason. These kids fall relatively quickly except one girl named Whitney (Righetti) who resembles Jason’s mother when she was younger. Jason keeps her chained in his basement although there is no clear indication that he attempts to torture or sexually assault her.
Six weeks later a man named Clay (Padalecki) is looking for his sister, Whitney, who disappeared and he is traveling around knocking on doors asking if anyone has seen her. One woman says “She ain’t missin’. She’s dead” before slamming the door in his face. He gravitates to the beach house of Trent (Van Winkle) who is hosting a wild weekend for his friends. Trent and Clay do not hit it off and a clear rivalry is set up between them. The kids booze it up and some of them have sex which it has been proven is never a good idea in these films. Gradually, Jason makes his way through the group until all but Clay and Jenna (Panabaker) are left. The film focuses mainly on Clay’s continuing search for Whitney as Jason bores down on satisfying the edicts of his killing plan.
There is a definite mood set up in this film through editing and music. The killings seem brutal and more intense than the majority of recent remakes and most contemporary horror films in general. Jason is depicted as not so much a raging force out of control but as a calculating killer who has a set agenda that involves careful planning and deliberate action. Jason has evolved into more of a modern day serial killer who knows precisely what he wants to accomplish and has the tools to reach his aims. He is also a mass murderer who kills a great number of people all at once. For the first time he captures and detains a victim and also tortures a girl named Amanda (America Olivo) by stringing her up in a sleeping bag over a camp fire.
The film starts with the beheading of Jason’s mother (Nana Visitor) which took place at the end of the original film. Jason observes this act and it is this moment that is assumed to have triggered his violent course of revenge. Thirty years later the kids show up and Jason takes his pleasure at their unwitting expense. Clay is similar to a character in one of the early films in that he is also looking for his disappeared sister. The use of a sleeping bag as a death chamber is similar to a girl who was slammed against a tree in a previous film.
There is some comedic relief in the form of Chewie (Yoo) who offers up the occasionally witty remark before getting his in the shed. We actually spend quite a bit of time with Chewie which is almost unheard of in the series. We get to know his quirks as well as the contents of his one-track mind. He’s one of the only characters worth knowing in this film and his demise comes as something of a shock although we know from the outset that it’s inevitable. There are others who are more developed than is typical including Clay and Jenna who necessarily become the two who are thrust into the role of key survivors who face Jason and make concerted efforts to eliminate him.
It is possible that Jason is just defending his weed from the greedy mitts of intruders. Perhaps he’s been cultivating it all along and becomes exceedingly angry when it is disturbed. He wants it to be left alone and is bent on ensuring that it remains protected by those who would ravish it for mere profit.
The killings have a visceral quality that renders them immediate and vital. The use of sound enhances the deaths and accentuates their brutal natures.
The performances in this film are all relatively impressive for the genre. Jared Padalecki has a particularly strong presence and carries his part of the film effectively. Amanda Righetti is at ease looking terrified and her character possesses a genuine spark that is actualized near the end of the film
Overall, this is one of the most satisfying remakes of recent memory. In fact, it’s one of the most invigorating horror films of recent vintage and does everything right to jack up the series and return it back to its roots. It provides the viewer with an opportunity to revisit the elements that have made this one of the most popular franchise series in cinematic history. There are moments of legitimate terror which is brought to bear by the score and set design. Each of the main characters are well thought out and seem necessary to the story being told. Still, the majority of the characters are just fodder for Jason’s peculiar tastes and he dispatches them without fanfare. Jason himself is exceedingly swift and energetic in this film. He seems more human and therefore more terrifying than in many of the more recent additions to the film’s canon. In every way this is a successful take on these films and it seems as if they have set it up so that there will likely be a sequel.
directed by Marcus Nispel
written by Damian Shannon, Mark Swift, Mark Wheaton
based on characters created by Victor Miller
starring Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, Aaron Yoo, Derek Mears, Julianna Guill, Ben Feldman
In this stellar, atmospheric reimagining of the Friday the 13th film series, the various aspects that made the earlier films in the franchise so effective are maintained and occasionally enhanced. The result is a menacing, deeply haunting telling of the mythos that surrounds the character of Jason Voorhees (Mears).
Jason is hard in this film. His movements, demeanor and cold calculations render him one of the more salient mass murderers in recent horror history. This film reworks elements from the first four films to tell the familiar story of a disgruntled homicidal manic who preys on those who stumble into his terrain. Jason is territorial here and the locals know enough not to enter into his domain. There is a quiet complicity amongst the locals who seem to accept the fact that a crazed killer routinely stalks and butchers his prey in their midst. They just want to be left alone and are not prone to asking any questions. Also, it is perhaps likely that they too view the incursions of the outsiders as troublesome and that those who suffer at Jason’s hands somehow deserve their fate for their dissolute lifestyles.
The film features two sets of killing sprees six weeks apart. In each a group of young people are out for a good time of sex, booze, and whatever other substances they can find and ingest. The first group are seeking out weed that they have learnt grows around Crystal Lake and they want to procure it in order to sell it at a huge profit. The first kill who is obsessed with GPS tracking systems but is clearly not one that the ladies favor finds the marijuana just before he is slaughtered by Jason. These kids fall relatively quickly except one girl named Whitney (Righetti) who resembles Jason’s mother when she was younger. Jason keeps her chained in his basement although there is no clear indication that he attempts to torture or sexually assault her.
Six weeks later a man named Clay (Padalecki) is looking for his sister, Whitney, who disappeared and he is traveling around knocking on doors asking if anyone has seen her. One woman says “She ain’t missin’. She’s dead” before slamming the door in his face. He gravitates to the beach house of Trent (Van Winkle) who is hosting a wild weekend for his friends. Trent and Clay do not hit it off and a clear rivalry is set up between them. The kids booze it up and some of them have sex which it has been proven is never a good idea in these films. Gradually, Jason makes his way through the group until all but Clay and Jenna (Panabaker) are left. The film focuses mainly on Clay’s continuing search for Whitney as Jason bores down on satisfying the edicts of his killing plan.
There is a definite mood set up in this film through editing and music. The killings seem brutal and more intense than the majority of recent remakes and most contemporary horror films in general. Jason is depicted as not so much a raging force out of control but as a calculating killer who has a set agenda that involves careful planning and deliberate action. Jason has evolved into more of a modern day serial killer who knows precisely what he wants to accomplish and has the tools to reach his aims. He is also a mass murderer who kills a great number of people all at once. For the first time he captures and detains a victim and also tortures a girl named Amanda (America Olivo) by stringing her up in a sleeping bag over a camp fire.
The film starts with the beheading of Jason’s mother (Nana Visitor) which took place at the end of the original film. Jason observes this act and it is this moment that is assumed to have triggered his violent course of revenge. Thirty years later the kids show up and Jason takes his pleasure at their unwitting expense. Clay is similar to a character in one of the early films in that he is also looking for his disappeared sister. The use of a sleeping bag as a death chamber is similar to a girl who was slammed against a tree in a previous film.
There is some comedic relief in the form of Chewie (Yoo) who offers up the occasionally witty remark before getting his in the shed. We actually spend quite a bit of time with Chewie which is almost unheard of in the series. We get to know his quirks as well as the contents of his one-track mind. He’s one of the only characters worth knowing in this film and his demise comes as something of a shock although we know from the outset that it’s inevitable. There are others who are more developed than is typical including Clay and Jenna who necessarily become the two who are thrust into the role of key survivors who face Jason and make concerted efforts to eliminate him.
It is possible that Jason is just defending his weed from the greedy mitts of intruders. Perhaps he’s been cultivating it all along and becomes exceedingly angry when it is disturbed. He wants it to be left alone and is bent on ensuring that it remains protected by those who would ravish it for mere profit.
The killings have a visceral quality that renders them immediate and vital. The use of sound enhances the deaths and accentuates their brutal natures.
The performances in this film are all relatively impressive for the genre. Jared Padalecki has a particularly strong presence and carries his part of the film effectively. Amanda Righetti is at ease looking terrified and her character possesses a genuine spark that is actualized near the end of the film
Overall, this is one of the most satisfying remakes of recent memory. In fact, it’s one of the most invigorating horror films of recent vintage and does everything right to jack up the series and return it back to its roots. It provides the viewer with an opportunity to revisit the elements that have made this one of the most popular franchise series in cinematic history. There are moments of legitimate terror which is brought to bear by the score and set design. Each of the main characters are well thought out and seem necessary to the story being told. Still, the majority of the characters are just fodder for Jason’s peculiar tastes and he dispatches them without fanfare. Jason himself is exceedingly swift and energetic in this film. He seems more human and therefore more terrifying than in many of the more recent additions to the film’s canon. In every way this is a successful take on these films and it seems as if they have set it up so that there will likely be a sequel.
Film Review--Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason
directed by Ronnie Yu
written by Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
based on characters created by Victor Miller and Wes Craven
starring Robert Englund, Ken Kerzinger, Monica Keena, Jason Ritter, Kelly Rowland, Chris Marquette, Brendan Fletcher, Lochlyn Munro
From the bowels of Hell, Freddy Krueger (Englund) fears his ability to terrorize the dreams of the unwitting is fading so he turns to Jason Voorhees (Kerzinger) for help. Unfortunately, he fails to acknowledge that Jason’s fundamental purpose, that which gets him out of the bed in the morning, is to kill as many humans as possible before sundown. Jason simply cannot be shut off on a whim and kills just as naturally as another man brushes his dog’s teeth.
From the beginning, it’s not a particularly square arrangement. Freddy simply wants Jason to do all the work so he can take all the credit. He imagines that he can control Jason but this proves to be a most unfortunate miscalculation. So, Jason returns and starts killing as if he never let off. He butchers a couple of kids and a parent leaving Springwood utterly beguiled with fear and anticipation.
One of the most satisfying Jason moments takes place in this film. A group of kids all attend a rave in a cornfield and as they get plastered on whatever’s most readily available, one cannot possibly wait for what happens next. Right on cue, Jason comes a swingin’ his machete and manages to take out nearly a dozen drugged out kids before he’s done. It’s truly as glorious as it sounds and fits nicely into Jason’s fundamental moral outrage toward those damn kids and their rampant sexuality and drug taking.
But, Freddy is not pleased. His charge is threatening to usurp all his glory and this troubles him immensely. His sole purpose for tricking Jason into working for him is becoming unraveled at the seams.
The kids, led by Lori Campbell (Keena) and Will Rollins (Ritter) soon become aware of what is happening and take measures to protect themselves from Freddy’s dream land. They try to get their hands on an experimental dream-suppressant drug called Hypnocil and are attacked by Jason but not before one of them injects him with two massive syringes that temporarily knock him out. They cart him back to Crystal Lake to “send him” home but he escapes. Meanwhile Lori also in injected with the tranquilizer in order to pull Freddy out so that Jason can deal with him.
We learn through Jason’s dreams that he is indeed mortally afeared of water. He and Freddy battle to a standstill before Jason wakes up setting the stage for the final, epic battle.
Freddy has an ability to “possess” certain individuals and convince them to do his bidding. This is most readily apparent at Westin Hills Asylum where the kids travel to procure their medication. A stoner named Freeburg (Kyle Labine) finds the medication but is forced to dump it all out when taken over by Freddy. By this stage Freddy is enraged that he is losing so many kills to the unstoppable Jason. He wants nothing more than to ensure that fear will reign in the community so he can once again wreak utter havoc and satisfy his insatiable lust for blood.
There is a ward of patients in the asylum who appear to be sleeping but they are actually comatose from taking too much Hypnocil. Apparently, there is a citywide structure in place to reduce fear so Freddy doesn’t return to torment anyone else’s dreams. It’s not precisely clear why so many healthy, seemingly normal kids are being locked up at Westin Hills. It has something to do with Freddy’s appearance four years back when he went on his most recent killing spree.
The battle sequences between Freddy and Jason are all handled relatively well. They go at each other as one would expect and the tenacity of their fight is readily apparent throughout. It’s a lot of quick editing, and great lighting that changes from red (fire) to blue (water) once Jason becomes faced with his gravest fear. It feels like clash of the titans in hell which is precisely what the film makers are going for.
Lori and Will are two star crossed would-be lovers who dated when they were fourteen. When her mother was killed, he disappeared and spent the next four years at Westin Hills. He claims he was locked up because he saw Lori’s father (Butler) kill her mother. Apparently, Dr. Campbell is the man responsible for keeping all of the kids doped up on the dream suppressing drug. Again, we only get a hint about what happened four years ago. We know that Freddy was active and that the town reacted very strongly in order to eliminate the threat of his returning again. This has something to do with suppressing fear amongst the population which explains why Freddy Krueger had felt compelled to summon help in making the townsfolk terrified again.
One of the most fascinating sequences occurs when Jason and Lori are both dreaming at once. Lori is at camp Crystal Lake the day Jason drowned. She sees a group of kids taunting Jason, driving him onto the dock. Lori runs up to two counselors who are fornicating to draw their attention to what is happening at the dock. One of them morphs into Freddy and Jason is thrown into the water. Lori runs to save him but he is pushed down by Freddy who holds him underwater until Jason awakens and boy Jason disappears. It’s some well-needed back story that helps explain some of the mystery that has always existed in the series regarding Jason’s death. It creates a portrait of a child with a misshapen head who is cruelly teased without as much as an attempt at intervention. It explains his mother’s rage and much of his subsequent behavior.
Overall, this film is a consistently entertaining cross fertilization of the two franchises. It provides the best of both characters and brings to light significant aspects of both narratives. The performances are all effective for the genre and the story has a logical thrust that it maintains over its duration.
directed by Ronnie Yu
written by Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
based on characters created by Victor Miller and Wes Craven
starring Robert Englund, Ken Kerzinger, Monica Keena, Jason Ritter, Kelly Rowland, Chris Marquette, Brendan Fletcher, Lochlyn Munro
From the bowels of Hell, Freddy Krueger (Englund) fears his ability to terrorize the dreams of the unwitting is fading so he turns to Jason Voorhees (Kerzinger) for help. Unfortunately, he fails to acknowledge that Jason’s fundamental purpose, that which gets him out of the bed in the morning, is to kill as many humans as possible before sundown. Jason simply cannot be shut off on a whim and kills just as naturally as another man brushes his dog’s teeth.
From the beginning, it’s not a particularly square arrangement. Freddy simply wants Jason to do all the work so he can take all the credit. He imagines that he can control Jason but this proves to be a most unfortunate miscalculation. So, Jason returns and starts killing as if he never let off. He butchers a couple of kids and a parent leaving Springwood utterly beguiled with fear and anticipation.
One of the most satisfying Jason moments takes place in this film. A group of kids all attend a rave in a cornfield and as they get plastered on whatever’s most readily available, one cannot possibly wait for what happens next. Right on cue, Jason comes a swingin’ his machete and manages to take out nearly a dozen drugged out kids before he’s done. It’s truly as glorious as it sounds and fits nicely into Jason’s fundamental moral outrage toward those damn kids and their rampant sexuality and drug taking.
But, Freddy is not pleased. His charge is threatening to usurp all his glory and this troubles him immensely. His sole purpose for tricking Jason into working for him is becoming unraveled at the seams.
The kids, led by Lori Campbell (Keena) and Will Rollins (Ritter) soon become aware of what is happening and take measures to protect themselves from Freddy’s dream land. They try to get their hands on an experimental dream-suppressant drug called Hypnocil and are attacked by Jason but not before one of them injects him with two massive syringes that temporarily knock him out. They cart him back to Crystal Lake to “send him” home but he escapes. Meanwhile Lori also in injected with the tranquilizer in order to pull Freddy out so that Jason can deal with him.
We learn through Jason’s dreams that he is indeed mortally afeared of water. He and Freddy battle to a standstill before Jason wakes up setting the stage for the final, epic battle.
Freddy has an ability to “possess” certain individuals and convince them to do his bidding. This is most readily apparent at Westin Hills Asylum where the kids travel to procure their medication. A stoner named Freeburg (Kyle Labine) finds the medication but is forced to dump it all out when taken over by Freddy. By this stage Freddy is enraged that he is losing so many kills to the unstoppable Jason. He wants nothing more than to ensure that fear will reign in the community so he can once again wreak utter havoc and satisfy his insatiable lust for blood.
There is a ward of patients in the asylum who appear to be sleeping but they are actually comatose from taking too much Hypnocil. Apparently, there is a citywide structure in place to reduce fear so Freddy doesn’t return to torment anyone else’s dreams. It’s not precisely clear why so many healthy, seemingly normal kids are being locked up at Westin Hills. It has something to do with Freddy’s appearance four years back when he went on his most recent killing spree.
The battle sequences between Freddy and Jason are all handled relatively well. They go at each other as one would expect and the tenacity of their fight is readily apparent throughout. It’s a lot of quick editing, and great lighting that changes from red (fire) to blue (water) once Jason becomes faced with his gravest fear. It feels like clash of the titans in hell which is precisely what the film makers are going for.
Lori and Will are two star crossed would-be lovers who dated when they were fourteen. When her mother was killed, he disappeared and spent the next four years at Westin Hills. He claims he was locked up because he saw Lori’s father (Butler) kill her mother. Apparently, Dr. Campbell is the man responsible for keeping all of the kids doped up on the dream suppressing drug. Again, we only get a hint about what happened four years ago. We know that Freddy was active and that the town reacted very strongly in order to eliminate the threat of his returning again. This has something to do with suppressing fear amongst the population which explains why Freddy Krueger had felt compelled to summon help in making the townsfolk terrified again.
One of the most fascinating sequences occurs when Jason and Lori are both dreaming at once. Lori is at camp Crystal Lake the day Jason drowned. She sees a group of kids taunting Jason, driving him onto the dock. Lori runs up to two counselors who are fornicating to draw their attention to what is happening at the dock. One of them morphs into Freddy and Jason is thrown into the water. Lori runs to save him but he is pushed down by Freddy who holds him underwater until Jason awakens and boy Jason disappears. It’s some well-needed back story that helps explain some of the mystery that has always existed in the series regarding Jason’s death. It creates a portrait of a child with a misshapen head who is cruelly teased without as much as an attempt at intervention. It explains his mother’s rage and much of his subsequent behavior.
Overall, this film is a consistently entertaining cross fertilization of the two franchises. It provides the best of both characters and brings to light significant aspects of both narratives. The performances are all effective for the genre and the story has a logical thrust that it maintains over its duration.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Film Review--A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street
written and directed by Wes Craven
starring John Saxon, Robert Englund, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Johnny Depp, Charles Fleischer.
We still do not know much if anything about our dreams, suggests a doctor doing research into dreams in this film. In this film, the dream scape is unleashed upon cold, waking reality and possesses the ability to kill the unwitting while they sleep.
A decade after an angry mob of parents burnt alive famed serial child murderer Fred Krueger (Englund) he has returned to haunt the dreams of their children.
Fred Krueger seems to have had a special relationship with the local children. We don’t learn specifics only that he lured and butchered a great number of them before finally being caught. Due to a technicality he was set free but was unable to enjoy his solitude for very long because the raging fury of the parents of the dead children swarmed upon him and took their anger and frustration out on him. Like all great cinematic spooks Krueger could not be put down so readily and he made it his mission to make them pay for their mistake.
The film deftly explores the relationship between the dream state and reality through several characters who encounter Krueger in their dreams and return to waking life with physical evidence of what occurred. The prospect is immensely attractive and cinema and fiction writers have been trying for centuries to fully express the implications that such possibilities inherently suggest. This film is an inspired rebuff to our hopes regarding this potentiality because with great bounty comes great sorrow. This is just one manifestation of the idea but naturally there are many more.
Fred Krueger reached a level of infamy in death that very few achieve in life. He became a fiend of such depraved magnitude that the very mention of his name was enough to chill the bones of those left to remember.
Tina Gray (Wyss) has a terrible nightmare where she is being threatened by a horrifically burnt man wearing a tattered green and red striped sweater and with razor-sharped knives extending from the fingers on his right hand. She wakes up with slash marks on her dress as proof of her experience in the dream. She learns that her friend Nancy Thompson (Langenkamp) has been dreaming of the same figure.
Fred Krueger once terrorized the entire community when he stalked, captured, and murdered over twenty children. Yet he has managed to make a deal with his custodians in Hell and been allowed to enter into the dreams of anyone he chooses. It’s not so clear just where the ability to transfer dream characters and objects into real life comes from. It’s not all Krueger’s doing because Nancy is able to drag his hat back with her when she snatches it off of his head just before waking up.
Tina and her boyfried Rod Lane (Garcia) have intense sex and fall asleep. Freddy comes back for her and this time he gets her and brutally murders her while Rod watches in amazement. It’s a fairly thrilling death sequence as she is dragged up a wall and across the ceiling with blood splattered everywhere. Rod is arrested and Freddy hangs him in his cell. Nancy and her boyfriend Glen Lantz (Depp) devise a plan to defeat Freddy but Glen falls asleep and is obliterated in his bed with an impressive spew of flesh and bone spewing toward and coating the entire ceiling. This leaves Nancy alone to deal with the beast so tenaciously assaulting her in her dreams.
So, much of the film deals with Nancy’s continuous torments at the hands of Fred Krueger. In one key scene she is in the tub and the camera is placed at the end so we see her with her legs spread open as the knife-hand emerges from the water. It’s a strangely telling scene that illustrates the sexual nature of Krueger’s intent toward Nancy. It suggests that he is interested in mutilating her sexually or at least violating her in some way. Krueger tends to lay on his victims on occasion simulating a rape. He is more driven by sex than, say, Jason Voorhees, or even Michael Myers. Krueger is not repelled by sex and seems to rather enjoy it whenever he’s afforded an opportunity to get near it.
Nancy is really still a girl trying to make sense of the changes that are occurring in her body. She is not they typical oversexed female teen who has populated so many modern day horror films. She’s much more modest and self-effacing. She doesn’t use her sexuality to manipulate others mostly because she hasn’t been trained, however, subliminally, in the art of seduction. Perhaps it is this girlish quality that attracts Krueger to her. She reminds him perhaps of one of the little girls he raped and slaughtered and he’s eager to relive that experience through her.
Lucid dreaming is explored subtly in this film as Nancy on several occasions attempts to remind her dream Self that what she is experiencing is only a dream. However, awareness is not enough to combat the sinister machinations of Fred Krueger. Eventually, Nancy learns a trick and uses it to (albeit temporarily) defeat Krueger which is something she learned earlier in the film from Glen.
The film employs expert lighting techniques and sound cues to create a legitimately frightening landscape that it maintains throughout. The opening sequence sets up the tone effectively and generates a considerable amount of chills in the audience. Tina is in a boiler room where she is being taunted by Krueger. She’s wearing a sheer nightgown, taunting him with her form readily apparent beneath the fabric. She is alluring and he is terribly excited. He wants her but is most likely impotent. Did he not sexualize his child victims or was it just a matter of predator catches prey with no overt sexual content attached to the killings? These new victims are supposed to be fifteen and yet Krueger murdered children much younger than that. So, why did he wait so long for these kids to become teen-agers? If the thrill was strictly with one age group, then one would expect it to remain so through the special avenue of dreams.
Fred Kreuger possesses all of the frenetic posturings of the oversexed killer. His problems most likely stem from sexual inadequacies which explains why he would target children as they are not likely to point out and subsequently laugh about any shortcomings.
With her friends dead Nancy takes it upon herself to bring Krueger out of her dreams in order to defeat him. In a rather imaginative final battle sequence she uses her ingenuity to assist in her capture of the demonic child killer. The ending is wonderfully ambiguous as it always must be in top notch horror films. Here, it appears as if the dream state cannot be properly absolved of its complicity in creating horror for the victims on Elm Street.
The performances in this film are all effective for this genre. Heather Langenkamp captures her character’s essential naivety and stresses Nancy’s lack of full maturity into womanhood. Langenkamp allows us to follow her character through her dreams and out into waking reality. Johnny Depp, in his first feature role, is believable in a quiet role. His character’s most dramatic moment comes with his death; otherwise, he’s secondary to the true thrust of the narrative. John Saxon is quite impressive as a character that represents law and order or the perfectly rational against all of the chthonic and measureless forms that populate dreams. Robert Englund is magnetic and infinitely creepy as the butcher of children who has found himself a most eventful and delightful new hobby in Hell. Englund provides audiences with a character who is, to the minds of most folks, utterly evil, and manages to make him likable throughout.
Overall, this film does everything it needs to do in order to create a world of legitimate horror. Fred Krueger is an audacious character who nevertheless is easy to get behind. Certainly, he’s a notorious killer who has taken the lives of many children but he’s also something of a dark romantic hero. He’s a villain with a terrific bloodlust who is necessarily fascinating to observe. He goes about his business with maniacal efficiency and one can’t help but admire his fortitude and his perseverance. The characters are all well written and their stories come off as believable.
Ultimately, this film stands as one of most consistently entertaining horror films in the genre. It gets under the skin and most certainly disrupts the dreams of those who encounter it.
written and directed by Wes Craven
starring John Saxon, Robert Englund, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Johnny Depp, Charles Fleischer.
We still do not know much if anything about our dreams, suggests a doctor doing research into dreams in this film. In this film, the dream scape is unleashed upon cold, waking reality and possesses the ability to kill the unwitting while they sleep.
A decade after an angry mob of parents burnt alive famed serial child murderer Fred Krueger (Englund) he has returned to haunt the dreams of their children.
Fred Krueger seems to have had a special relationship with the local children. We don’t learn specifics only that he lured and butchered a great number of them before finally being caught. Due to a technicality he was set free but was unable to enjoy his solitude for very long because the raging fury of the parents of the dead children swarmed upon him and took their anger and frustration out on him. Like all great cinematic spooks Krueger could not be put down so readily and he made it his mission to make them pay for their mistake.
The film deftly explores the relationship between the dream state and reality through several characters who encounter Krueger in their dreams and return to waking life with physical evidence of what occurred. The prospect is immensely attractive and cinema and fiction writers have been trying for centuries to fully express the implications that such possibilities inherently suggest. This film is an inspired rebuff to our hopes regarding this potentiality because with great bounty comes great sorrow. This is just one manifestation of the idea but naturally there are many more.
Fred Krueger reached a level of infamy in death that very few achieve in life. He became a fiend of such depraved magnitude that the very mention of his name was enough to chill the bones of those left to remember.
Tina Gray (Wyss) has a terrible nightmare where she is being threatened by a horrifically burnt man wearing a tattered green and red striped sweater and with razor-sharped knives extending from the fingers on his right hand. She wakes up with slash marks on her dress as proof of her experience in the dream. She learns that her friend Nancy Thompson (Langenkamp) has been dreaming of the same figure.
Fred Krueger once terrorized the entire community when he stalked, captured, and murdered over twenty children. Yet he has managed to make a deal with his custodians in Hell and been allowed to enter into the dreams of anyone he chooses. It’s not so clear just where the ability to transfer dream characters and objects into real life comes from. It’s not all Krueger’s doing because Nancy is able to drag his hat back with her when she snatches it off of his head just before waking up.
Tina and her boyfried Rod Lane (Garcia) have intense sex and fall asleep. Freddy comes back for her and this time he gets her and brutally murders her while Rod watches in amazement. It’s a fairly thrilling death sequence as she is dragged up a wall and across the ceiling with blood splattered everywhere. Rod is arrested and Freddy hangs him in his cell. Nancy and her boyfriend Glen Lantz (Depp) devise a plan to defeat Freddy but Glen falls asleep and is obliterated in his bed with an impressive spew of flesh and bone spewing toward and coating the entire ceiling. This leaves Nancy alone to deal with the beast so tenaciously assaulting her in her dreams.
So, much of the film deals with Nancy’s continuous torments at the hands of Fred Krueger. In one key scene she is in the tub and the camera is placed at the end so we see her with her legs spread open as the knife-hand emerges from the water. It’s a strangely telling scene that illustrates the sexual nature of Krueger’s intent toward Nancy. It suggests that he is interested in mutilating her sexually or at least violating her in some way. Krueger tends to lay on his victims on occasion simulating a rape. He is more driven by sex than, say, Jason Voorhees, or even Michael Myers. Krueger is not repelled by sex and seems to rather enjoy it whenever he’s afforded an opportunity to get near it.
Nancy is really still a girl trying to make sense of the changes that are occurring in her body. She is not they typical oversexed female teen who has populated so many modern day horror films. She’s much more modest and self-effacing. She doesn’t use her sexuality to manipulate others mostly because she hasn’t been trained, however, subliminally, in the art of seduction. Perhaps it is this girlish quality that attracts Krueger to her. She reminds him perhaps of one of the little girls he raped and slaughtered and he’s eager to relive that experience through her.
Lucid dreaming is explored subtly in this film as Nancy on several occasions attempts to remind her dream Self that what she is experiencing is only a dream. However, awareness is not enough to combat the sinister machinations of Fred Krueger. Eventually, Nancy learns a trick and uses it to (albeit temporarily) defeat Krueger which is something she learned earlier in the film from Glen.
The film employs expert lighting techniques and sound cues to create a legitimately frightening landscape that it maintains throughout. The opening sequence sets up the tone effectively and generates a considerable amount of chills in the audience. Tina is in a boiler room where she is being taunted by Krueger. She’s wearing a sheer nightgown, taunting him with her form readily apparent beneath the fabric. She is alluring and he is terribly excited. He wants her but is most likely impotent. Did he not sexualize his child victims or was it just a matter of predator catches prey with no overt sexual content attached to the killings? These new victims are supposed to be fifteen and yet Krueger murdered children much younger than that. So, why did he wait so long for these kids to become teen-agers? If the thrill was strictly with one age group, then one would expect it to remain so through the special avenue of dreams.
Fred Kreuger possesses all of the frenetic posturings of the oversexed killer. His problems most likely stem from sexual inadequacies which explains why he would target children as they are not likely to point out and subsequently laugh about any shortcomings.
With her friends dead Nancy takes it upon herself to bring Krueger out of her dreams in order to defeat him. In a rather imaginative final battle sequence she uses her ingenuity to assist in her capture of the demonic child killer. The ending is wonderfully ambiguous as it always must be in top notch horror films. Here, it appears as if the dream state cannot be properly absolved of its complicity in creating horror for the victims on Elm Street.
The performances in this film are all effective for this genre. Heather Langenkamp captures her character’s essential naivety and stresses Nancy’s lack of full maturity into womanhood. Langenkamp allows us to follow her character through her dreams and out into waking reality. Johnny Depp, in his first feature role, is believable in a quiet role. His character’s most dramatic moment comes with his death; otherwise, he’s secondary to the true thrust of the narrative. John Saxon is quite impressive as a character that represents law and order or the perfectly rational against all of the chthonic and measureless forms that populate dreams. Robert Englund is magnetic and infinitely creepy as the butcher of children who has found himself a most eventful and delightful new hobby in Hell. Englund provides audiences with a character who is, to the minds of most folks, utterly evil, and manages to make him likable throughout.
Overall, this film does everything it needs to do in order to create a world of legitimate horror. Fred Krueger is an audacious character who nevertheless is easy to get behind. Certainly, he’s a notorious killer who has taken the lives of many children but he’s also something of a dark romantic hero. He’s a villain with a terrific bloodlust who is necessarily fascinating to observe. He goes about his business with maniacal efficiency and one can’t help but admire his fortitude and his perseverance. The characters are all well written and their stories come off as believable.
Ultimately, this film stands as one of most consistently entertaining horror films in the genre. It gets under the skin and most certainly disrupts the dreams of those who encounter it.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
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