12 Monkeys

Year: 1995
Running time: 129 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: David Peoples, Janet Peoples
Director: Terry Gilliam
Starring: Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe, Brad Pitt, Christopher Plummer, David Morse

Cole meets Jeffrey Goines, possibly setting the whole thing in motion.

It would seem, based on his cinematic output, Terry Gilliam the director is completely insane. But, luckily for us, he’s also a total genius, and 12 Monkeys is proof of both. Set in a bleak future where the surviving 1% of the human race has been driven underground by a deadly virus released in 1997, James Cole (Bruce Willis in a role which, along with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, shows that he has acting talent far beyond what he’s often given credit for), is selected by a group of ruling scientists to go back in time to try to collect a sample to bring back, which they hope will help them reclaim the surface, long since the domain of wild animals. What follows is a fractured, mind-bending ride.

Cole is sent back too far at first, all the way to 1990, where he is promptly locked up in a mental institution. While here he meets the manically insane but oddly charismatic Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt, in a film highlight), an animal rights activist whose scientist father (Christopher Plummer) is experimenting on lab animals using the very virus that almost wipes out the species. He also meets psychiatrist Kathryn Railly (Madeline Stowe). Moving in time again to the original target of 1996 (via a quick detour to WWI, where he conveniently gets his photo taken), Cole kidnaps Railly in an attempt to prove that his insane story is true. They find their way into Goines' underground movement the Army of the 12 Monkeys, which Cole is convinced are responsible for the release of the mutated virus.

Battered in mind and body, Cole begins to doubt his sanity, wondering if he really is a time-traveller after all. In a great juxtaposition, Railly begins to find evidence showing that Cole's story really is true. As the audience, Gilliam keep us as off-balance as Cole with jarring framing devices and connections made across time periods, even referencing a scene from Hitchcock's Vertigo; the twisting plot really does defy expectation.

Cole and Railly, doomed to attempt to change the unchangeable.

The pieces come together during the course of the second half, when Cole and Railly try to change the course of the future, which turns out to be impossible, as Cole knew all along, although he still couldn't stop himself from trying; a pretty perfect distillation of what it means to be human. The climax takes place at an airport where a young Cole sees himself, living out a recurring dream that has haunted him for years. One of the best things about this film is the unconventional ending, which refuses to break the rules it has established - the timeline cannot be altered, and our hero ultimately fails and loses his life in the process. You get the feeling that the Hollywood machine would have gone down the Back to the Future route and had Cole saving the world. Thank the gods of cinema for Gilliam's artistic integrity.

However, when we see one of the scientists from the future on the plane at the end, we’re given a little glimmer of possibility that maybe he did enough to give a ray of hope to the future - they finally have their sample, and now maybe they can begin to rebuild.

Disorienting, striking and uncompromising, this is a lasting testament to the film-making genius of Terry Gilliam.

Score: 8/10

12 Monkeys is very well-liked out there, as shown by this review from Peter at Rolling Stone, but while she also has some positive things to say, this review from Katie offers a different perspective.

101 Dalmatians

Year: 1961

Running time: 79 minutes

Certificate: U

Language: English

Screenplay: Bill Peet

Directors: Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton S. Luske, Wolfgang Reitherman

Starring (voices): Rod Taylor, Cate Bauer, Betty Lou Gerson, Ben Wright, Lisa Davis, J. Pat O'Malley, Martha Wentworth, Dave Frankham, Fred Worlock

Pongo, Perdita and the pups indulge in the age-old American
past-time of watching TV.

101 Dalmatians, like most classic Disney, is an wonderful example of remarkable artistry being used to entertain children in a way that, for a long time, possibly not until Studio Ghibli, and then Pixar, no other movie studio could hope to match. Having said that, following the commercial failure of the ambitious Sleeping Beauty, a cheaper animation technique was developed for 101 Dalmatians, and while it certainly looks rougher around the edges than some of its fellow classics (Walt Disney hated the look), it still retains a certain charm and in fact stands out somewhat because of it.

Bored dalmatian Pongo (Rod Taylor) decides that his bachelor owner Roger (Ben Wright) needs some companionship, so he engineers a meet-cute with Anita (Lisa Davis) and her dalmatian Perdita (Cate Bauer). Before long the four of them are living happily together and Pongo and Perdita have a litter of 15 puppies. Enter one of the most memorable and dastardly Disney villains Cruella De Vil (Betty Lou Gerson), who wants the pups for herself so she can turn them into a new coat. Bumbling henchmen Horace (Fred Worlock) and Jasper (J. Pat O'Malley) are tasked with keeping watch over the abducted pups while De Vil gathers enough for her new coat.

"Dah-ling!" The undisputed star of the movie makes her entrance.

There are some really lovely touches in the writing, such as the film starting with Pongo on voice-over duties referring to Roger as his pet, and the animal-emergency-broadcast system. Making use of this ingenious communication system, Pongo and Perdita, with the help of heroic cat Sgt. Tibs (Dave Frankham) manage to recover not only their own 15 puppies, but a total of 99, with Pongo and Perdy themselves making up the 101 of the title. The escape is followed by a mad race to safety with Horace, Jasper and the bananas De Vil in pursuit. This animated incarnation of De Vil is gloriously bonkers and is among the very best Disney villains - Glenn Close never had a chance in the inferior 1996 live action remake (is it a good thing or a bad thing that so many of the best Disney villains are female? – see also Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid).

Not among Disney's very best, but that is no easy task, and in Cruella De Vil it has a villain that makes it much more memorable that it might otherwise have been.

Score: 7/10

Classic Disney never really loses its charm, as evidenced by this review by Pete. While this review from Eric at Slant Magazine shows a fair bit of contempt for much of Disney's back catalog, Cruella De Vil makes the film for him as she does for me.

1408

Year: 2007
Running time: 104 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: Matt Greenberg, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski
Director: Mikael Håfström
Starring: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack


Mike Enslin, losing his shit.

Okay, I’ll not deny that the premise of this, an evil hotel room (you read that right, an evil hotel room), sounds a little silly. In Stephen King’s hands, however, it probably becomes something altogether different. I wouldn’t know, because I don’t read much horror, because, well, it scares me. Yeah, I know. I’m a wuss.

Mike Enslin (John Cusack) makes a living visiting and reviewing haunted inns and hotels, none of which particularly impress him. Until he pays a visit to room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel and comes face to, erm, wall with genuine supernatural evil. That's pretty much it for plot and the film then spends the remaining running time trying to scare the pants off both Enslin and the viewer.

There is much in this adaptation of King’s short story that is genuinely unsettling, such as the ghostly conveyor belt of past victims all plunging to their deaths to escape the room. There is a major jump where Enslin attempts to signal to someone across the street, which turns into a reflection of the room itself. It really is damn creepy.

 

Face to face with a devastating memory.

There is an upsetting back story involving a terminally ill child, which sets up a climax that is at once both devastating and heartbreaking, and as a father to a young daughter is a nightmare for me like no other.

John Cusack is as likeable as ever, and when, after the room offers him the only possible way out – out the window, ker-splat – Enslin simply replies "not your way" and proceeds to firebomb the room, you feel like giving the guy a standing ovation. The fact that it changes nothing and ultimately his soul is trapped in the room forever really sucks, but is refreshing in that it doesn't pander to the usual audience desire for neatly happy endings.

Score: 7/10

1408 would appear to be either middling or fairly well thought of, as shown in this video review by Chris Stuckman or this written one by the Critical Movie Critics.