The Bank Job

(2008, 110 min) Fans of hard-hitting, gritty '70s films rejoice! Hell, even the title is efficient. Now, The Bank Job doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel, but it's easy to forget that some of my favorite films from my favorite decade (including, say, Prime Cut and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three) didn't do that either. They just deliver straight-up, smart thrills and snappy dialogue in a refreshingly adult package. And if Jason Statham isn't quite the new Lee Marvin, he's just about the best we have right now.

Statham plays a lovable rogue who, acting on a tip from his sultry ex (Saffron Burrows), assembles a scrappy crew for a massive heist of safety deposit boxes. It's all based on a real story, with emphasis on the word "story." Nobody really knows what went down during the heist, and details have been embellished over the years thanks to urban legendry. But the version that longtime writing team Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais invent could hardly be more entertaining.

Renting a shop two doors down from a massive bank on Baker Street, the Statham's crew conspires to dig a tunnel into the safety deposit area over a weekend and be gone by the time anyone notices. As if that wasn't enough, the contents of the boxes present a new problem... one that goes so far up the chain, that the actual facts in the case wound up sealed by the government for decades to come. It's a procedural, a conspiracy story, even a romance of sorts, all addressed without fluff and with respect for the audience's intelligence. The only false note I can detect is a brief foray into traditional Statham superhero mode near the end, though even that is exciting enough to tempt me into giving it a pass. It's surely more fun than whatever happened in real life, the details of which may be revealed sometime around 2054.

– David Gorgos

© TLA Entertainment Group

Hot Fuzz

(2007, 121 min) If you think you know what Hot Fuzz is going in, you're probably wrong. The easy answer is to call it a spoof of '80s action buddy movies, but like Adaptation before, it also wholeheartedly becomes the very movie it spoofs... right down to its 121-minute running time, and its creation of an irresistible new catchphrase ("Yarp"). The presence of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost ensures a steady stream of droll British humor, while the direction of Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) leaves plenty of room for shockingly gory violence. Hot Fuzz is simultaneously very familiar, and unlike anything you've seen... and it puts most of the American franchises to shame.

Pegg plays the prototypical tough cop. Perhaps he's a bit too eager to use his gun, but he always gets his man. He's so good at his job that he's showing up the rest of the crew in his London office, and earns himself a "promotion" to the sleepy town of Sandford, where crime is nonexistent. This brings to mind the old adage that the safest place to be is in a restaurant with a mob boss. Surely there's something sinister to uncover; does anyone trust Timothy Dalton nowadays?

The plot is a most elaborate macguffin, a mere excuse to shower the screen with blood and guts at the most hilariously unexpected moments. But like any good buddy movie, the entertainment is propelled by Pegg's pairing with his new portly, dim but action-starved partner, played by the utterly delightful Frost. (Their character names of Nick Angel and Danny Butterman are priceless.) The best aspect of their relationship is their emulation of Point Break... note to reader: this would make a most excellent double feature. Fans of guilty pleasure '80s cop movies should make this a must-see. The question is, after dismantling this genre as well as the zombie movie, what's next for this immensely talented team?

– David Gorgos

© TLA Entertainment Group

Sunshine

(2007, 107 min) In his latest endeavor, Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Millions) pays homage to (and, of course, steals from) a plethora of popular cinematic outer-space excursions. Included are 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Solaris and even the less heralded Event Horizon. Combining some of the best of what each of these films has to offer with an original premise, Sunshine plays like a greatest hits compilation of the cosmic thriller genre while establishing a place of its own within the canon.

The journey begins 50 years in the future aboard the appropriately named Icarus II, an artificially intelligent spacecraft (imagine a female HAL 9000) designed to deposit and detonate a Manhattan-sized bomb – referred to as “the payload” – inside the Sun. If all goes according to plan, the payload will regenerate particles and destroy a fusion-stopping form of matter left over from the big bang which is causing our natural light to fade. If the Sun dies, so will all Earthly life. Seven years prior, the Icarus I made the same journey, but lost all contact with Earth shortly before reaching its destination. The crew of Icarus II (capably portrayed in part by Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, Troy Garity and martial-arts mega-star Michelle Yeoh) are both fully aware of the fatal dangers that their mission presents and prepared to give their lives in an effort to save the human race. Their plans are eerily altered, however, when they receive a distress signal from Icarus I. This presents them with two options – they can stay the course with no guarantee of triumph or investigate the ill-fated Icarus I – and face a wealth of potentially disastrous variables – in hopes that salvaging the original payload will duplicate their chance of success.

As is the case with most space-based genre films, a suspension of disbelief is required to truly enjoy Sunshine. Nuclear physicists – both established and aspiring – may find it difficult to accept a man-made vessel that can withstand the Sun’s heat or a scene in which humans – wrapped in makeshift thermal insulation, mind you – survive in temperatures more than 2,000 degrees below Celsius. Less nitpicky fans, however, should find enough engrossing qualities to forgive Boyle and frequent screenwriting collaborator Alex Garland’s creative licensing. They employ captivating cinematography and visual effects set to a perfect other-worldly score by John Murphy and electronic/techno staple Underworld to showcase their sci-fi allegory’s many compromising twists and turns – some of which are sure to please horror fans as well. This is a must-see for any of many with state of the art home entertainment centers. Dim the lights, flick on the surround sound, (spark up?) sit back and let it sink in.

– Robert O'Neill

© TLA Entertainment Group

Severance

(2006, 95 min) A collection of office stereotypes from multinational munitions company Palisade Defence is on a team-building weekend in Eastern Europe. Their tour bus meets a fallen tree, blocking their progress. The driver, a local, refuses to take an alternate road leading to the same destination. So you know that the tree is no accident and bad things will happen if they take that path. But apparently none of these guys has ever seen a cheesy comedy horror slasher flick before. (Cheesy in a good way.)

They trudge through the Hungarian forest, viewing the circumstances through their own personal filters (middle-management claptrap, toadyism, drug haze, social ineptitude, nascent insanity, corporate conformity and — rarest of the rare — basic common sense). They find a building that they take as the company lodge, but uncover files that evidence its earlier uses: insane asylum, prison, Nazi torture chamber. Their internecine bickering turns to uneasy awareness of the forces around them, as they uncover some buried history about Palisade itself.

Unsurprisingly, these purveyors of sophisticated weapons of mass destruction find themselves on the receiving end of some rudimentary weapons of individual destruction. Methods of execution are varied and inventive, and there’s no shortage of blood. It’s totally derivative and hackneyed, but grudgingly redeemed by some pretty good performances, some clever ideas, some snappy editing and a total lack of pretension. If you can take the gore, Severance can be a guilty pleasure.

But I have to ask: It was a team-building weekend, right? Why didn’t they just join together and move the damned tree?

– Ann Yarabinee

© TLA Entertainment Group

Cold Comfort Farm

(1995, 99 min) Do you like English movies? Well, if you don’t, do you at least like making fun of English people? Oh, good. I do, too.

Aren’t English people from the olden days (ie: before 1960) so funny, with their stuffiness and propriety and "tea" being "lunch" and "supper" being "dinner"? With their flats and petrol and lifts, their being permanently flustered (no, Hugh Grant didn’t invent it) and the men all calling each other "old boy"? With their nervous meetings and awkward goodbyes and lack of visible emotion? They’re so charming!

I had the privilege of having read the novel "Cold Comfort Farm" less than a week before watching the film version, so I can tell you for a fact that the movie perfectly captures the book in its entirety. I was extremely impressed. It didn’t make me laugh quite so much as the book did, being that I laughed two times instead of three. It is an old book, you know, not a David Sedaris pseudo-memoir, but it was great all the same.

Stella Gibbons, a moderately successful journalist and book reviewer, wrote "Cold Comfort" in 1932 and it was an instant hit. She went on to write dozens of other books, none of which were as popular. The book has the distinction of being a successful parody of a genre that nobody (especially in this country) really remembers, but it is clearly parodying something, which makes it work. The biggest names to come out of this genre were D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy and the Bronte sisters. Tragedy in the country life was the common thread between them…along with the subtext of nature representing sexual desires. Or something like that. The only thing I remember from reading "Wuthering Heights" in high school was that the moors were a metaphor for Heathcliff’s animal brutality, so that seems about right. In fact, one character, a writer, spends most of his time roaming around the countryside, pointing out how much the hills look like breasts.

The 1995 movie stars a young and surprisingly talented Kate Beckinsale (before she got hair extensions, tanned herself into a moccasin and married an animal-print-wearing Hollywood director), Joanna Lumley from "Absolutely Fabulous", Ian McKellan from X-Men and Stephen Fry from Wilde. They’re good too, except that McKellan could use subtitles. I wouldn’t have understood a word of his dialogue if I hadn’t already known what he was going to say.

One aspect of the book that the film ignores is that it was actually set in an alternate future timeline. Written in 1932 but taking place sometime in the '50s, Gibbons correctly guesses that World War II has taken place already (although she gets the continent wrong) and imagines the everyday use of video phones and personal airplanes. Most recent adaptations overlook this for obvious reasons.

The movie begins when Flora Poste (Beckinsale), having just nonchalantly attended her parents’ funeral and found out about her measly inheritance, decides to find extended family members to take her in. She chooses the Starkadders, despite their obvious backwardness, and goes to live with them at Cold Comfort Farm. The farm is a run-down, gloomy mess where the disheveled bunch is controlled by their matriarch Ada Doom. Ada inspires devotion through her apparent madness, supposedly brought on by a traumatic experience she had as a little girl when she "saw something nasty in the woodshed." Pretty much every Starkadder needs some major personal help. Seth, the aimless local stud whose only interest is the "talkies," knocks up the servant girl every spring; Adam, the 90-something farm hand, washes dishes with a twig; and Elfine, the free-spirited and beautiful teenager, just needs to get the hell out of there.

Flora sets about tackling everybody’s problems in her calm, efficient and orderly manner. She hopes that by successfully changing the Starkadders it will give her enough life experience to write a great novel when she’s fifty.

It’s a charming, quaint little story that’s also really funny. And by funny I don’t mean funny like the 40-Year-Old Virgin or watching Dumb and Dumber when you were fifteen, I mean the kind of funny when you’re not actually laughing but just kind of grinning inside. It’s a nice, pleasant feeling that may be unique to certain types of subtle humor. Or it may be the feeling you get when you realize you’re one step closer to completely forgetting having watched Love, Actually.

– Rachel J. Cox

© TLA Entertainment Group

Zardoz

Ed note: Please welcome Rachel J. Cox to the blog. We're resurrecting the old "TLA Rewind" brandname for her regular insights into classics that are languishing on the dustier shelves of our video stores.

(1974, 105 min) Last week I watched Zardoz, the latest in a long series of post-apocalyptic movies from the '70s that I have enjoyed. Why are they so great? More specifically, why are they so much greater than the post-apocalyptic movies from oh, say… every other decade? Were those ten years really so bleak and full of despair? Disco was dying, and perhaps in the hearts and minds of an entire generation the earth was, too.

Let me start by saying that I will watch or read anything that is set in the future…anything. I openly admit that there is little uncharted territory left when it comes to the "speculative fiction" genre (the hot, smarter cousin of the science fiction genre). Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men was the most unique vision of the future to come out in years, but of course it was based on a novel from 1992 and greatly diverged from the original storyline. (We can immediately dismiss A.I. as having any original content; it might as well have been titled Pinocchio 2001.) Nevertheless, I personally find any creative work of speculative/post-apocalyptic/dystopian/science fiction worth watching.

Although today it has achieved a cult status, Zardoz was hailed as both a failure and a joke when first released in 1974. It was written and directed by John Boorman, a notoriously uneven director, right after his critical and commercial success with Deliverance. The two endeavors at first glance seem disparate, but both films utilize the ideas of societal breakdown and emotional detachment as central themes.

Zardoz is most often criticized for its low production values. The larger sets are comprised of minimally altered pastoral farmland and country estates, while the interior scenes are typical campy sci-fi fare: rooms draped in fabric, a maze of mirrors, props constructed of papier mache. The colorful and somewhat comical costumes could have come from a child's collection of play clothes. These meager surroundings completely escaped my notice, perhaps because I look at all special effects before Terminator 2 as pathetic but well-meaning. Nice try, I think, but that is clearly rubber. Although the visual techniques of Star Wars were groundbreaking at the time, today they have been far surpassed and the film barely stands apart from its peers Flash Gordon and Tron. To me, Zardoz seems appropriately dated and its simplicity intentional, as it fits in with the desolate scenario.

In the year 2293 the world is populated by pockets of Eternals, highly evolved humans who have achieved immortality and shed themselves of the more animalistic qualities of their ancestors. They have little to no interaction with Brutals, the unevolved humans that live like scavengers in the wasteland outside the Eternals’ protected enclaves. The main character, Zed, is played by Sean Connery and wears a red loincloth throughout most of the picture. (He also has a long braid, and both are mildly distracting at first. This is post-James Bond, people. He wasn't a spring chicken then, either.) Zed belongs to a warrior class that exterminates Brutals at random and has recently forced them to begin farming, at the behest of a giant, flying stone head known as the idol Zardoz. The film opens with Zed meeting his god and actually manages to get more interesting.

This is all I will give away of the plot, since most of the pleasure of watching Zardoz comes from the deliberately paced developments regarding Zed’s background and intentions. Like many science fiction films of its generation, Zardoz attempts to tackle some important questions about the nature of religion and the extent of its power. In Beneath the Planet of the Apes the apes worship a nuclear bomb and in Logan's Run the religious ceremony known as Carousel falsely promises resurrection.

I won't say that Zardoz blew my mind, that it made complete sense from start to finish, or that the denouement takes place in a timely fashion. I will say that it is inventive, unique and thought-provoking. Certain people will enjoy the random female toplessness, while almost no one will enjoy the loincloth.

And that's all that anybody can really want from a movie.

– Rachel J. Cox

© TLA Entertainment Group

The History Boys

(2006, 109 min) The joy of learning and the beauty of teenage boys are the two intertwined themes in Nicholas Hytner (The Madness of King George) and Alan Bennett's (Prick Up Your Ears) glorious adaptation of their stage play. In order to preserve the original feeling of the award-winning production these two men rushed the film into being with the original cast intact. What a great decision that was, as we've got a fresh interpretation of the gay schoolboy film to enjoy.

An old-school eccentric Hector (Richard Griffiths) is getting his prize students ready to enter Oxford or Cambridge. He feeds the boys gobbets (delicate, delicious morsels of knowlege) they can pepper their entrance exams with. He's a married homosexual who delights in giving the boys rides home on his motorcycle – complete with an obligatory feel. The school has much riding on these boys so they hire Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore), who will fill the boys' heads with more conventional knowlege they can actually use to pass their exams. He's also gay, but hides it better! The film is most focused on handsome charismatic Dakin (Dominic Cooper) who's having an affair with the school secretary. With his eyes clearly delighting on Dakin is Posner (Samuel Barnett), the gay student who sings songs of love to his beloved – who isn't all that interested in men – or is he? Posner's rendition of "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" is the gayest thing this writer has seen in a film this year! There is also a jock, an overweight boy, a Muslim, a black and a Christian, but they are more stock characters compared to the two flamboyant boys and the teachers.

With its great soundtrack and captivating story, The History Boys is a film we treasure.

– Scott Cranin

© TLA Entertainment Group

Venus

(2006, 95 min) Peter O'Toole plays Maurice, who rattles around London with his thespian cohorts, picking up small TV acting gigs to make ends meet even while approached by starry-eyed fans who remember his glory days. With his friends Ian (Leslie Phillips) and Donald (Richard Griffiths), they are the epitome of codger rapscallions. They trade their medications as they share caustic, witty banter in the local coffee shop; their advanced age does not prohibit heated exchanges and an occasional stab at fisticuffs.

Ian, something of a hypochondriac, has his grandniece Jessie (Jodie Whittaker) sent to care for him. She's unschooled and rude and not an ideal candidate for caretaker. Country-bred and rough-hewn, she wants to be a model. Ian finds her nerve-racking, but Maurice is enthralled. He initiates a Pygmalionesque connection: He takes her to the theater and she takes him to clubs. Her vibrant youth rekindles the pansexual libertine's sensuality. As the body ages and breaks down and the soul suffers increasing indignities, the pleasures of the flesh can still be recalled — enjoyed as memories evoked by the scent of a woman’s neck or the curve of her foot.

Maurice starts wrapping up loose ends and making amends. He visits wife Valerie (Vanessa Redgrave), whom he treated shabbily; and attempts to reconcile other, current rifts and to ameliorate extant wounds. He visits places that he loves, and meets the future without pretense or illusion.

Director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Changing Lanes) gives the assembled luminaries their head, and has crafted an intelligent and unsentimental examination of a lion in winter. Whittaker holds her own in a pretty heavy-duty acting ensemble, allowing Jessie to grow and deepen as she experiences a life she couldn’t have imagined for herself. The troupers move through the story as one, with natural grace; and O'Toole commands the screen with the same authority he showed as Lawrence of Arabia or Jack, the 14th Earl of Guerney. If this should be O'Toole's last piece of work, it can hold the weight.

– Ann Yarabinee

© TLA Entertainment Group

The Queen

(2006, 97 min) Helen Mirren essentially morphs into Queen Elizabeth II in director Stephen Frears' superbly crafted film detailing the immediate impact of Princess Di's death on the House of Windsor.

Elizabeth is old school — stoic, regal, duty-bound, and most definitely drawing sharp demarcation between public and private affairs. She served as driver and mechanic during WWII, ascending to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her father in 1952. She is always unswerving and disciplined in the execution of her duties. She and the family are at Balmoral Castle when news of Diana's car accident first hits. The Windsors remain ensconced in the 50,000 acres of Balmoral, surrounded by servants and long-standing tradition, even after Diana dies. Elizabeth doesn't see the event as an issue for the crown or the government: Diana and Charles are divorced, and Di is no longer an HRH.

The isolation of Balmoral is perfect allegory for the Royal Family's disconnect from the temper of the times. Despite the growing mountains of flowers in front of all Royal residences, despite books of condolences filled with messages appearing at British embassies and consulates worldwide, despite increasingly strident headlines wondering why the Windsors are not with their subjects in their time of grief, Elizabeth's husband insists that people will come to their senses soon, and her mum doesn’t understand the fuss. Only Charles seems to have some comprehension of the situation (and that seems to be at least partially motivated by fears of reprisal). He reaches out to newly-elected Prime Minister Tony Blair, asking him to advise the recalcitrant Royals. No easy feat: Elizabeth's life has been guided by the dictum duty first, self second. Indeed, much of her private life is conducted as an office. The first glimmer of any awareness of her country's profound shift in values shows when she finally deigns to appear outside the walls of Buckingham Palace; many of the messages attached to the mounds of flowers are not kind to the Royals.

Frears seamlessly incorporates news footage to create an almost documentary feel, and in a brief sequence captures the frenetic, obsessive, unending stalking by the press and paparazzi which Diana endured. He also conveys the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Queen's daily life, insulated in splendor, always aware of responsibility, free to shed tears only alone on a stretch of countryside, feeling commiseration for a fallen stag as she was never able for her ex-daughter-in-law. Frears, Mirren and the ensemble have successfully delivered a believable re-creation of recent history, and evoked the surprising emotional intensity experienced by millions around the world.

– Ann Yarabinee

© TLA Entertainment Groupmicroid: b802c9765da1a9de754e40c56118e176cac6d962

Borat

(2006, 82 min) So much American satire falls under the category of "preaching to the converted"... especially in the political arena, where Bush or Hilary jabs are rarely seen outside of the insular left/right wing cultures. Amazingly, Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, one of the most vicious sneak-attacks on American culture to ever hit cinemas, managed to cross over into the mainstream and even be embraced by the middle of the road. It played in Peoria, but we're not sure if they got it.

A faux documentary so immersive that only Cohen, a few actors and the camera operators were in on the joke, Borat's shock value comes as much from its raunchiness as the blatant intolerance of the Americans who (willingly!) appear in it. Cohen (a Brit who rarely makes public appearances as himself) plays a Kazach TV personality on a tour of the U.S. to learn about our culture, and boy does he ever. He uncovers homophobia, racism, anti-semitism and sexism in horrifying amounts, enough to make the laughter quite painful. Ever the expert comedian, Cohen is smart enough to balance this with raunchy jokes about Pamela Anderson, public nudity and the lengths people will go to be polite in the face of Borat's unbelievable density. And yes, the nude wrestling scene is an all-time slapstick classic.

– David Gorgos

© TLA Entertainment Group

Casino Royale

(2006, 144 min) The 007 franchise has gone through several transmutations over the years: slick mod; hackneyed pop; cartoon paplum; ironic self-reflexive action-adventure; just plain bad. This Casino Royale goes back to its harsher, meaner literary source, with the requisite technological updates and a contemporary dismal world view.

Daniel Craig ratchets up his Layer Cake outlaw persona to a near-psychotic level. His Bond, James Bond, exhibits a cunning, bestial intelligence and a crystalline focus unencumbered by any hindrance of morality or guilt. His assignment is Le Chiffre (aka "The Number"), who runs an equal-opportunity money laundering operation for the world’s terrorists and dictators, and appears to be manipulating international markets for fun and profit. But he’s sustained heavy losses recently and has set up a high-stakes poker game at Casino Royale with the intention of recouping his losses. Bond, the newest Double-0 in the M-16 organization, will be financed for the game, assigned to ensure Le Chiffre’s defeat and the dissolution of his entire organization. M (a vibrant Judi Dench) sees Bond as reckless and entrusts his stake to another agent, the beautiful Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), to hold the purse strings. Then the games begin.

Director Martin Campbell, who helmed Pierce Brosnan’s quite successful debut as the enigmatic agent, propels the story with relentless celerity and unadulterated, hardcore brutality: Casino Royale sets new standards for the genre. The supporting cast is superb, the locales are used to maximum effect, and the atmosphere sustains an electric crackle. Definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but a state-of-the-art delight for aficionados.

– Ann Yarabinee

© TLA Entertainment Group