Harry Brown (2009) dir: Daniel Barber

Almost unbelievable that Sir Michael Caine is still a movie star at the age of 76, and it’s great to see him continue to put his star power behind smallish British films such as ‘Is Anyone There?’ (2008) (which I also liked) and now ‘Harry Brown’ – the debut feature film from director Daniel Barber (who was nominated for an Oscar for a short – which I’ll have to check out).

Michael Caine is Harry Brown, a man who lives alone on a London council estate where youth gangs intimidate and kill without fear of any consequences for their actions, but a sequence of events pushes Harry into obtaining a gun…

There is pretty much one word that describes this film: grim. But it’s a grim good movie and Michael Caine shines in the role, and unlike some Hollywood treatments of vigilantism, the whole thing is horribly believable. Harry doesn’t have super fighting prowess – he’s an old man who can barely run down the street. The story is simply and effectively told and the whole cast is uniformly good, especially Ben Drew as the gang leader, and it’s always great to see Iain Glen on the screen. For those Americans out there used to the Hugh Grant/Notting Hill style of London, this will be a bit of a shock.

Filed under: action, drama, film , Ben Drew, Daniel Barber, Emily Mortimer, Iain Glen, Michael Caine

Mesrine: Part 1 & 2 (2008) dir: Jean-François Richet

Never heard of the guy, Jacques Mesrine, France’s Public Enemy No.1 during the 1970s, but it turns out that he (in the film anyway) has a certain amount in common with John Dillinger in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies. Robbing banks, getting imprisoned, escaping (four times!), courting the press, being a celebrity and seeing himself as an honest villain and a friend of ‘the people’.

This film though is a lot grittier and works better in my opinion. Here Mesrine is also, quite frankly, a violent and brutal monster (jamming a gun into his innocent wife’s mouth as he tells her his friends are more important to him than her) yet Vincent Cassel’s terrific performance makes you like him, even when he’s smashing a glass into another thug’s face.

Split into two films ‘Mesrine – Part 1 – Death Instinct’ and ‘Mesrine – Part 2 – Public Enemy No 1′. This is a big budget two part movie and it shows. There’s a huge amount going on as the story moves chronologically through a series of events in the gangster’s life. There’s a thoughtful, interesting story with depth, tons of interesting characters, interspersed with action and a lot of violence. The whole shebang is skilfully executed by director Jean-François Richet who brings an element of authenticity and realism to it rather than Hollywood gloss.

Tiny spoiler alert: skip the next paragraph if you want to know nothing about what happens in the films.

I’m not really giving anything away in mentioning that the two movies are bookended by Mesrine’s death. What’s clever is although we know that he dies and how it happens during the opening titles of Part 1, when it’s played out again at the end of Part 2 it’s told from a different perspective with all that we now know about the man – and it still manages to rack up the suspense – even though you already know the outcome.

This is quality stuff, great film making and was a deserved mammoth hit in France. Don’t let the subtitles put you off. If you can see one film after the other – with a short break between the two to let you recover and get your breath back.

Filed under: action, cinema, drama, entertainment, film, movies, thriller , Elena Anaya, Gérard Depardieu, Jacques Mesrine, Jean-François Richet, Ludivine Sagnier, Vincent Cassel

The Hurt Locker (2008) dir: Kathryn Bigelow

Sorry for the long delay between posts but I’m working on my own movie at the moment (my first as director!) so I haven’t seen as much as I’d like.

Been a long while since Kathryn Bigelow’s last movie, ‘K-19: The Widowmaker’, and like that film and much of her other work ‘The Hurt Locker’ centers around a male group.  This story is based on writer/producer Mark Boal’s experiences when he was working as a journalist in Iraq circa 2004 and concerns a US bomb disposal team in Iraq – a volunteer team that work in and around Baghdad disarming Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). They do this every day knowing that they can be blown to kingdom come at any moment.

This is very much an independent film where both Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal have full creative control and it shows. Shot on super 16mm in 44 days this is a film with some incredibly tense sequences and well choreographed action. Surprisingly, one of them is the slowest gunfight I’ve ever seen which takes place between a sniper and the US soldiers over a distance of 1 km as the combatants watch each other through high powered telescopic sights. You wouldn’t think such a slow sequence could be so intense and suspenseful and is a masterclass in film making on its own.

As the team go from one disposal mission to the next I had a quick look around the audience and people actually were leaning forward and sitting on the edge of their seats. And I thought that was just an ad man’s phrase!

Shot primarily in Jordan, the director teamed up with Ken Loach’s regular director of photography Barry Ackroyd. They shot with 4 cameras simultaneously, then after each take all the camera positions would change so that the actors had no idea where the cameras would be, so the actors had to stay focused at all times. This has given the film a documentary style immediacy which generates excellent performances especially from Jeremy Renner as the team’s new bomb specialist.

It’s been out on limited release already in the USA and is definitely a film worth seeing. It doesn’t take sides or go into the politics behind the war, but follows the experience and personal trauma of a small group of soldiers.

Filed under: action, cinema, drama, entertainment, film, movies, war , baghdad, Barry Ackroyd, bomb disposal, Iraq, Kathryn Bigelow, Ken Loach, Mark Boal

Newsmakers (2009) dir: Anders Banke

Apologies, it’s been too long since my last post. So, interesting stuff this Russian cop movie. Since, ‘Nightwatch’ I’ve been slowly becoming a big fan of Russian movies and this is no exception.

After a confident score opens the film, (I’m sure I’ve heard the musical phrase it uses somewhere else!??), we’re launched into an impressive gun battle that reminded me of a sequence in Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’:  an armed gang calmly takes on the police in a roaming gun battle through the city streets.

Actually its just occurred to me that there are several sequences that remind me of other films – rocket launcher from window takes out van, “the quarterback is toast!” I remember thinking. I digress.

This is an independent Russian Swedish co-production so I’ll let it off the hook. Where was I? Yes gun battle.

Unfortunately, this is part of a police stakeout gone awry,  leaving a major PR disaster on the police department’s hands.

So what do they decide to do?

Well, they agree to turn the hunt for the criminals into a tv show – to be broadcast live.  Despite some iffy, naive and convenient plotting throughout the film, including why a TV broadcaster would wish to risk innocent bystanders getting blown apart live in front of it’s viewing public – I really enjoyed it – and it has a few surprises up its sleeve as the gang gets cornered inside a massive urban tower block.

It’s great to see entertaing action movies from outside the USA and Asia, and I’m looking forward to a couple more Russian films that are in the pipeline.

Filed under: action, cinema, drama, entertainment, film, movies , Anders Banke, Andrei Merzlikin, Горячие новости, Goryachie novosti, Heat, Mariya Mashkova