It Came from Outer Space (1953)

From Ray Bradbury's great science fiction story!

Based on a story by the great lyrical SF writer, Ray Bradbury, this low budget but interesting aliens-on-Earth thriller is dated, but at only 81 minutes well worth a viewing for SF fans, and could work well in a double bill with Don Siegel's superior The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). And like Body Snatchers, often viewed as a reflection of contemporary Cold War paranoia, this film could be seen as an expression of Americans' fear of the Red Menace, the personification of the unknown other from a strange land. Hollywood was in the grip of an FBI and governmental witch-hunt for Communist sympathisers in the few years leading up to this film, with many unlucky writers, directors, actors, musicians and others being blacklisted from working in the movie and TV industries.

The story, set in small-town Arizona, USA, begins with science writer, John Putnam (Richard Carlson), and fiancée, schoolteacher Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush), investigating a large meteor crash. Descending alone into the crater, Putnam discovers that the meteor is actually a crashed space craft. He examines some strange tracks he finds outside the craft, little knowing that he too is being observed by an off-screen presence within the space craft. Other people, including a local newspaper reporter, arrive at the scene, but before anyone else can see anything, the space craft is hidden by a massive land-slide.

Can Putnam convince others of what he has seen, and what he suspects (that non-Terrestrial life-forms are on Earth)? What is the reason for the mysterious sounds on the telephone wires outside town? What is to be made of the disappearance of certain townspeople and the strange behaviour of others?

As I said, the film is dated, and the theme of alien visitation has been pretty thoroughly explored in the almost 60 years since this film was released, but it's still a fun watch. The script is intelligent (Wikipedia says "it is said Ray Bradbury wrote the original screenplay and Harry Essex merely changed the dialogue and took the credit"), and takes some interesting turns that resonate very ironically with a Red Menace paranoia reading. The acting by the leads, Carlson, in particular, and also Charles Drake as the local Sheriff Matt Warren, is very good. The weak link in the chain is the special effects, which at the time were probably rather poor, and for 21st century eyes are decidedly ropey though not without their own kind of kitsch charm.

Funny how so many movies in this period, in order to signal reliability in a male character, give him a pipe, even if, like Putnam in this tale, the character uses it only as a prop, never actually smoking tobacco in it. Funny too, how, although Putnam is characterised as a lonely intellectual seeking the solitude of the desert, he seems to be able to greet almost everyone in town by their first name, and everyone seems to know him.

• Rating: Matinee
• When seen: 8 Apr 2011
• Where seen: Home, on iPad
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist#The_Hollywood_Ten
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Came_from_Outer_Space

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Amendments: Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.

StreetDance 3D (2010)

Two worlds, one dream.

As Mark Kermode pointed out re High School Musical 3 (2008), you've got attractive athletic young people displaying fantastically skillful dance numbers to foot-tapping music in a coherent narrative. What's not to like? The lead actress was very charming and the supporting cast were fine if unremarkable.

True, the story was fairly unoriginal, seeming to pretty much retread the narrative of Step Up 2 (2008). There wasn't much verbal acting for the supporting dancers. There wasn't a big villain, as in the High School Musical franchise, to create lots of conflict.

As for the 3D... It's annoying and I find it gets in the way of my appreciation of what's happening on the screen. I actually find that it's somewhat difficult for my eyes to physically focus on what I'm trying to look at. Worse, it seems that everything is calling out for my attention, and I'm being distracted from the main action by insignificant peripheral objects. For example, there's a bed scene where we're looking up at the lovers from the foot of the bed, and there are various planes of vision: first, in the foreground, the foot of the bed, then the sheets on the bodies of the lovers, receding to the more distant head of the bed, where the main action of the heads, arms and faces of the lovers can be seen. But alongside them, calling for attention, are various cups, etc.

I think there is a use for 3D, connected to what seems to be vertical planes of vision bisecting the audience's view. So, for instance, a film using the kind of tracking shot that Peter Greenaway used in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) movie... But they didn't make such great use of it in this film.

• Rating: Matinee
• When seen: 2 Jun 2010
• Where seen: Cinema
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

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Amendments: 1) A few tweaks of the text, mainly to add years to films mentioned. 2) Corrected foolish link to "Step Up 3" (wrong film entirely) in Amazon.com to StreetDance 3D - Sorry! Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.

Rango (2011)

From the director of "Pirates Of The Caribbean"

Rango is a lot of fun and sometimes laugh out loud funny: an animated western set in a parched desert town, with a plot driven by a suitably noirish mystery and a cast list full of quality performers.

Johnny Depp voices a fey captive chameleon used to filling his days acting out improvised heroic scenarios with make-believe friends who is suddenly dropped, literally, into a real western adventure, full of life and death choices.

Adopting a heroic facade, Depp's character's fate becomes tied to that of the townspeople, a mixed set of crusty characters including the town bully and his cronies, an avuncular wealthy wheelchair-bound mayor and a feisty attractive young female lizard fighting to keep her farm under threat of bank foreclosure. Outside town, there is a nest of outlaws. The stage is set for a series of showdowns. How long will Depp's character be able to keep up his act?

As a western, this film stands up very well, swiftly shifting the action from the present day to a world of classic and spaghetti western tropes. The saloon sequence early on is very nicely scripted, and along the way there are some clever gunfights and some rollicking action set pieces. There are a lot of nods to classics of the western genre, the soundtrack pays homage to Sergio Leone's films and at one point The Man With No Name himself (as voiced by Timothy Oliphant) even puts in an appearance.

The plot borrows its Hitchcock McGuffin (and the basis of at least one major character) from the classic Roman Polanski/Jack Nickolson detective thriller Chinatown (1974), which fits perfectly in the context of this film.

The cinematography and quality of animation are very good, almost to Pixar level, and should be with the famed Roger Deakins in the credits.

The only question is what market the film is aimed at, and whether children will enjoy it. I would say that it is primarily aimed at a cine-literate adult audience, but will also be suitable for older children, say 10-12 plus. Though generally avoiding westerns, my 10-year old son enjoyed the film, though for him I suspect it had more longueurs than for me.

Turning briefly to the topic of 3D films, as we were waiting for the film to begin, a small child at the front was heard to complain rather piteously, "But Mummy, we haven't got our glasses! Where are our glasses?" Clearly, this poor creature had been brainwashed by the recent studio trend of releasing nearly all films for young people in 3D into believing that 3D glasses were actually NEEDED at the cinema. For shame, film studios, for shame!

• Rating: Full price
• When seen: 13 Mar 2011
• Where seen: Cinema
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

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Amendments: added year of release (1974) to mention of film Chinatown. Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.

Avatar (2009)

Enter the World.

Ground-breaking motion capture animation, creating a totally believable alien world with characters that seem to live and breathe, with full emotional range.

Plot and characters somewhat less special. That said, I couldn't help falling in love with the lead female character played by Zoe Saldana.

The theme of avatars is interesting. Cinema-goers often identify with - or perhaps are normally led to identify with - the protagonists in films, especially perhaps when they are movie stars. In effect, without any special technology, the lead characters function as our avatars. This is mirrored by the plot-line in Cameron's film, doubling the use of avatars. The lead character, who is our virtual avatar in the world of the film, is himself using an avatar.

3D or not 3D? This is the best use of 3D I have seen so far. Even so, do we really need 3D? Modern man is long used to interpreting all kinds of two dimensional images - photos, paintings - as having three dimensions. We learn to do this from infancy, and readily do this with new images, particularly moving images. So, if we already are already adept at interpreting two dimensional images as having three dimensions, using our mental powers, do we really need this to be done for us by technology?

What destroys filmic illusion for me is poor film-making - poor plotting and characterisation, bad acting - and that operates in both two and three dimensions. Create a compelling storyline and believable characters that draw me into their world and I don't need the special effect of 3D.

• Rating: Full price
• When seen: 20 Dec 2009
• Where seen: Cinema
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Amendments: Added actor tags: "Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, Sigourney Weaver". Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.