Face/Off

Year: 1997
Running time: 138 minutes
Certificate: 18
Language: English
Screenplay: Mike Werb, Michael Colleary
Director: John Woo
Starring: John Travolta, Nicholas Cage, Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola, Gina Gershon, Dominique Swain, Nick Cassavetes

Sean Archer as Caster Troy: Still not having any fun.

This is it, dear readers. The lunatic pinnacle the ridiculous '90s action craze. The highest of concepts, the most ridiculous of stories. The most overblown performances. And some of the most scorching action visuals ever committed to film. The recent announcement that a remake is in the works is nonsensical. How can this ludicrous perfection ever be improved? Surely it's tantamount to blasphemy to even consider it? The two movies of the time that came closest to matching Face/Off for insanity were probably Con Air and Starship Troopers. I love them both, but Face/Off towers above them with ease.

John Woo is up there as one of the best directors of action we've ever had, but prior to Face/Off his output while in America hadn't measured up to the best of the films he had made before moving to the US. For Face/Off, everything finally came together.

Caster Troy (Nicholas Cage) is a Villain. Capital V. Hell, the whole word should be upper case. Murder, terrorism, drugs, Caster is just living his best evil life. A thorn in his side however, is super-serious cop Sean Archer (John Travolta). Since Troy accidentally killed his young son Michael (Myles Jeffrey), Archer has had a singular mission to obsess over: take down Caster Troy. In an astonishing opening set piece most films would save for the climax, Archer and his team finally take down Troy, landing him in a coma and capturing his brother Pollux  (Alessandro Nivola).

You'd think Archer would feel like celebrating, a least a little, after that wouldn't you? But no, when his colleagues give him a round of applause, he snaps at them, because of course catching Troy was never going to bring back his son, and he feels just as shitty about it as he ever did.

The problem is, before he went to sleep, naughty Caster planted a giant bomb, and nobody knows where, except Caster and Pollux. So naturally, the go to move here is to use plastic surgery to alter Archer into Troy and then swapping their faces. Not in some clever Mission Impossible mask kind of way, but by actually swapping faces. Then dump Archer into the most maximum of maximum security prisons to pose as Caster to find the location of the bomb from Pollux.

Typically understated moment of action.

This is, obviously, bonkers. But, watching Cage pretending to be Travolta's character pretending to be Cage's character in that full-on bug-eyed way that only Cage can do, you very quickly come to the realisation that it is actually a stroke of genius. And then it gets ever more ridiculous, because having his face cut off caused Troy to wake up from his coma, and he proceeds to force the orchestrators of this plan to alter his body and give him Archer's face. And then murders everybody that knows about it and destroys all the evidence.

Having taken over Archer's life, the scene in the prison when Cage playing Archer playing Troy sees Travolta playing Troy playing Archer for the first time is so much fun. The fact that it is played completely straight just makes it even better. Left to rot in prison as Caster Troy, Archer has an uphill struggle to escape and reclaim his life back from his nemesis. The rest of Face/Off is the story of how he goes about this, and it's every bit as over-the-top and bombastic as you could wish for: The prison escape turns everything up to 11. A shoot out with the police during which the gangsters are desperately trying to protect a young boy named Adam (David McCurley) which turns out to be Caster's son. There is some masterful framing at work, as Woo puts young Adam standing on some lights in the floor, listening to Somewhere Over the Rainbow on headphones while all hell breaks loose around him. The Woo signature of doves is present and correct, heralding the final showdown in a beautifully atmospheric church. Even the obvious use of stunt doubles in the crash at the end of the climactic speedboat chase doesn't spoil it too much (you read that right: Face/Off ends in a speedboat chase, because of course it does).

It's overblown, it's ridiculous, sometimes it's just plain weird (there is much face stroking going on for some reason), but, somehow, against all the odds, Face/Off works.

Score: 8/10

The brilliance and ridiculousness of Face/Off is not lost on others, as seen in these reviews by Tom at the A.V. Club and Benoit at Dead End Follies.

Finding Nemo / Finding Dory

Year: 2003 (Nemo), 2016 (Dory)
Running time: 100 minutes (Nemo), 97 minutes (Dory)
Certificate: U
Language: English
Screenplay: Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, David Reynolds (Nemo), Andrew Stanton, Victoria Strouse (Dory)
Director: Andrew Stanton
Starring (voices): Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe, Brad Garret, Allison Janney, Austin Pendleton, Stephen Root, Vicki Lewis, Joe Ranft, Geoffrey Rush, Andrew Stanton, Nicholas Bird, Bob Peterson, Barry Humphries, Eric Bana, Bruce Spence, Bill Hunter, LuLu Ebeling, John Ratzenberger, Elizabeth Perkins, Ed O'Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Hayden Rolence, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Sloane Murray, Idris Elba, Dominic West, Sigourney Weaver

Marlin and Dory hitch a 'righteous' ride on the EAC.

I’m running out of ways to say how brilliantly imaginative Pixar are. Finding Nemo was a massive hit and thoroughly deserving of it. Marlin (Albert Brooks) is a clown fish who suffers the loss of not only his mate Coral (Elizabeth Perkins), but also all but one of his offspring in an attack from an ocean predator. The only survivor is merely a cracked egg Marlin names Nemo (Alexander Gould), and the bereaved father swears that he will never let anything happen to him. As a result of the damage he took whilst he was an egg, Nemo has a damaged fin and the constant attention of an overprotective father. Marlin's heavy-handedness naturally causes Nemo to rebel and during one heated exchange Nemo ventures too far from the protection of the coral and is picked up by a human and transported to a dentist's fish tank in Sydney. A frantic Marlin immediately sets off in pursuit of the boat, but soon loses it in the wide ocean.

Unable to give up, Marlin teams up with the only fish around willing to help, Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a blue tang with short-term memory loss. The story follows two strands for the majority of the film then. Firstly is Marlin and Dory's trek across the ocean to find Marlin's son, facing everything from jellyfish, to an underwater minefield, to a trio of vegetarian sharks led by Bruce (Barry Humphries), as well as riding the East Australian Current with a surfer-dude turtle named Crush (voiced by director Andrew Stanton) and being almost swallowed by a both a whale and two pelicans, one of whom is named Nigel (Geoffrey Rush) and helps them to finally make it to Nemo's tank.

Nemo meets the Tank Gang.

The second story strand follows Nemo as he befriends the Tank Gang, led by Gill (Willem Dafoe), a Moorish Idol who is constantly trying to escape. Nemo finds a kindred spirit in Gill, who also has a damaged fin. As you might expect, the happy ending is never really in doubt, but the journey is a huge amount of fun, and as it's Pixar, there is some heavy emotional heft to stop the film being insubstantial - Nemo learns that his physical impairment is no bar to achievement despite all the time his dad used to worry about him and Marlin realises that he has been stifling Nemo with his insistence on never letting anything happen to him and learns to lay off a little.

As with every Pixar film, the quality of the animation is utterly astounding – everything underwater has a slight sheen to it to lend it realism (yes I know the animals have faces and can talk, but you know what I mean), but this never distracts from what’s going on; before long, you don’t notice it anymore, apart from to marvel at the attention to detail.

Dory, Marlin and Nemo set off on another adventure.

13 years is a long time for a sequel to arrive, but Finding Nemo became such a part of western culture that the risk that the original would have been forgotten by the time Finding Dory arrived was non-existent. As the title suggests, the sequel focuses on the blue tang and her journey to find her family. Dory remembers very little about what happened to her, but slowly events begin to trigger long-buried flashes of memory and, determined to find her family, Dory sets off to rediscover herself. Her journey leads her to the Marine Life Institute where we meet some colourful new characters, best of which is Hank (Ed O'Neill) an octopus who is able to camouflage himself and uses this talent to give himself free reign throughout the institute.

Meanwhile, Marlin and Nemo (this time voiced by Hayden Rolence) are trying their damnedest to break into the Institute to help Dory, with the assistance of some unusual characters, including a scruffy but useful Common Loon named Becky who gives them a lift into the institute via bucket. Unlike Finding Nemo, I was never quite sure if Dory would manage to find her parents, but there is a beautiful moment when, as these things go, Dory is at her lowest and has just about given up and the final and most important memory surfaces and she manages to follow a trail of shells just like she was taught as a child. It's wonderful.

A young Dory, before losing her parents.

Finding Dory is full of comedy moments ingeniously realised (a truck, driven by an octopus, flying off a cliff edge into the sea, in slow motion, to the strains of Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World is, from the genius build up beforehand to the tender moment when Hank holds Dory safe through the landing is perfect, and peak Pixar) and hilarious characters, but its more character-driven moments hit you like a ton of emotional bricks. The fact that after all this time, Dory's mum (Diane Keaton) and dad (Eugene Levy) have never given up and are still setting out trails of shells for Dory to follow home. The fact that Dory's condition is never presented as a weakness or a problem, but just another part of who she is, without any of the well-meaning but misguided attempts you so often see to set disabilities apart as something to take centre stage, eclipsing the person behind. Dory has short-term memory loss, not is short-term memory loss, and her life and personality is every bit as full as any other character, even with this facet.

More Pixar magic, highly recommended.

Score:
Finding Nemo: 8/10
Finding Dory: 8/10

Praise is inevitably high for Finding Nemo - see this review from Mark at The Telegraph. The same is generally true for Finding Dory, as seen in this review from Ben at Screen Rant. I can't help feeling however, that, based on his review, Peter at The Guardian must have fallen asleep at the start and made up a best guess.

Flushed Away

Year: 2006
Running time: 85 minutes
Certificate: U
Language: English
Screenplay: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keenan, Will Davies
Director: David Bowers, Sam Fell
Starring (voices): Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis, Jean Reno, Shane Richie, Kathy Burke, David Suchet, Miriam Margolyes

Roddy and Rita smiling at...something.

Flushed Away was Aardman Animation’s first step into the competitive world of CG, and unfortunately, it shows a little. Aardman brought us the likes of the Wallace and Gromit shorts, full-length feature Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Chicken Run, which are all great and brimming with imaginative stories and characters, and on that front, Flushed Away is no different. Teaming up with DreamWorks Animation, they go to great lengths to retain the Aardman aesthetic. The creation of a city in the sewers of London populated by rats, toads and slugs is fabulous, and it’s brimming over with hilarious characters, invention and wit.

Roddy St. James (Hugh Jackman, doing a note-perfect Hugh Grant-type) is a pampered pet rat in a Kensington house. While his owners are away Roddy has the run of the house, busy enjoying himself while trying to distract from the obvious loneliness, when another rat makes his way up from the sewer. The home invader goes by the name of Sid (Shane Richie), and Sid thinks he's hit the jackpot and decides to move in. While trying in vain to convince Sid the toilet is a Jacuzzi, Roddy finds himself flushed from his cosy home into the depths of the London sewer system, where he finds a bustling 'ratropolis', mirroring the city above.

While attempting to get home, Roddy crosses paths with Rita (Kate Winslet) and soon gets swept up with her ongoing spat with the villainous Toad (Ian McKellen, the comedic highlight) and his plan to wash away the makeshift city and make a home for him and his tadpole offspring. There follows a fine yarn with much comedy, both pun-based and slapstick, as well as some joyfully funny action set pieces.

Toad fancies himself a bit of a Shakespearean villain.

The sticking point is the quality of the animation itself; it’s just not a patch on the beautiful CG stylings of Pixar, DreamWorks, or even Blue Sky Studios (the animation house producing content for 20th Century Fox). The characters don’t move fluidly, and when they speak it’s almost like a stop-motion technique. It’s likely that the makers did this to make it look like the Aardman output we all know and love, but it just doesn’t retain the charm of genuine stop-motion. If you're going to move onto CG, then commit to it. A shame, because the delightful story certainly deserved more.

Still worth a watch.

Score: 6/10

Reviews of Flushed Away are a little mixed out there: Peter at The Guardian wasn't particularly impressed, but James at Reelviews was rather charmed.

The Frighteners

Year: 1996
Running time: 110 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Chi McBride, Jim Fyfe, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace, Jake Busey, Troy Evans, Julianna McCarthy, R. Lee Ermey, Elizabeth Hawthorne, Angela Bloomfield

Frank with his spectral business partners.

The Frighteners is an example of post-splatter but pre-Rings Peter Jackson, and is very much recognisable as his work. The manic energy and unusually imaginative camera angles are present and correct, and in addition there are a number of Jackson-esque gags and some surprisingly dark moments.

Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) is a paranormal investigator, taking jobs getting rid of ghosts haunting the houses of punters. But he's a conman. A traumatic incident in his past has left him capable of seeing the dead. Rather than freak out in a Sixth Sense kind of way, Bannister senses a business opportunity and goes into business with three ghosts The Judge (John Astin), Cyrus (Chi McBride) and Stuart (Jim Fyfe). They agree to haunt the houses and point the marks in his direction (although I'm not entirely sure why they'd bother, being dead an' all).

Before long Frank starts to see another apparition, one that is killing the living. Before each victim is offed, a number appears burned into their head, visible only to Frank's second sight. Shaken from his stupor, Frank goes after the killer ghost before it kills anyone else. Watching this, as with watching Back to the Future, there is a bittersweet feeling for the lost roles Michael J. Fox might have played, had it not been for his illness. He is a likeable leading man, and even though you know his Frank Bannister is dishonest at the start of the film, you still root for him - Fox has a gift for keeping the trauma of Bannister's past just below the surface.

The comedy dries up entirely as Frank and Lucy relive a grisly massacre.

While there is much comedy in The Frighteners, there are scenes that are genuinely disturbing as well, in particular a sequence in a hospital where Bannister and Lucy Lynskey (Trini Alvarado), a widow for whom Frank had agreed to be a medium, talking to her recently deceased husband Ray (Peter Dobson), relive a gut-wrenching murder spree through visions.

Like Heavenly Creatures, this seemed like a testing ground before stepping up to bigger projects, and I would imagine that New Line found themselves with a fair bit of confidence in Jackson’s directing ability after seeing this.

Score: 7/10

It seems The Frighteners isn't everybody's cup of tea. Time Out thought it was alright. Ebert really didn't like it much though.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Year: 2001

Running time: 106 minutes

Certificate: PG

Language: English

Screenplay: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Al Reinert, Jeff Vintar, Jack Fletcher, Ramin Mebdy, B. L. Jurgens

Directors: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Motonori Sakakibara

Starring (voices): Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin

Aki's dreaming again.

Final Fantasy is, of course, better known as a hugely successful video game franchise, but developers Square thought it a good idea to make a CG movie and stamp the well-known name on the product.

The big thing about this movie was to show what could be done with computer technology, and the results were undeniably very impressive. Even now, they hold up reasonably well. It was a not-quite-but-almost successful attempt to render photo-real humans on screen. Before we get to the humans though, the gorgeous landscapes deserve special mention – particularly the final scene and the dream sequences, which look spectacularly, stupendously good.

On an Earth of the future, humankind is under threat from an invading force of alien phantoms. Much of the planet is uninhabitable, with survivors cowering behind cities encased in gigantic force-fields. Dr Aki Ross (Ming-Na) and her mentor Dr Sid (Donald Sutherland) are on a mission to find a peaceful solution before the sinister General Hein (James Woods) launches a massive attack on Earth to wipe the alien invaders from the face of the planet, likely along with the remnants of humanity as well. Helping Aki and Sid find the evidence they need in the dangerous wasteland outside of the protective walls is the Deep Eyes military squadron, led by an old friend of Aki's, Captain Grey Edwards (Alec Baldwin). Under the shell of flashy animation and action set-pieces lies a heart of spirituality. Peace is the key to saving all, and Aki and her team race to resolve the conflict before Hein destroys everything.

Dr. Sid tries to press the case for peace.

The animation is genuinely impressive, with lingering moments spent on Dr. Aki’s exquisitely animated hair and the creases in General Hein's black leather coat as he stands in his office or glides through zero gravity. A particularly astonishing job was done with Dr Sid, with lifelike blemishes and liver spots making the old man look more convincingly human than the others. However, for all the technical wizardry, the characters are not quite 100% convincing. Sometimes they don’t quite move like they should, and there are awkward pauses that only come from matching voice-work to animation and not from real people acting.

So the animation is impressive, including the landscapes, the action and the characters. The story, although not the top priority here, isn’t too bad either, if a little re-hashed, covering a number of emotional bases, including spirituality, unresolved love and sacrifice, with the obligatory ray of hope at the end.

Score: 6/10

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within doesn't seem to be quite as vilified as I had thought, if this review at Triple J and this one from Roger Ebert is anything to go by.

Funny People

Year: 2009
Running time: 146 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: Judd Apatow
Director: Judd Apatow
Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Aubrey Plaza

Sandler could always crack Rogen up with a well-timed
dick joke.

Judd Apatow has established a hugely successful career writing and producing smash hit comedies that at first glance can appear to be fairly standard lowest common denominator stuff, but, given a chance turn out to have more substance than expected. Funny People is different, in that it is clear from the start that this is a drama about comedians. This makes it more complex and better written than Apatow's previous efforts, and makes the comedy somehow seem funnier. It's a drama set in the world of comedy and comedians, making the jokes feel more natural; the point isn't to be funny, the jokes are just part of the world in which the story is set.

Apatow regular Seth Rogen is Ira Wright, a stand up comedian struggling to make a name for himself. Adam Sandler, in one of those rare roles that doesn’t make me want to puke (it might actually be his career-high), is George Simmons, an ex-stand up turned successful film star (he's a mutant mix of Sandler's real-life career-path with added Rob Schneider) diagnosed with cancer. In an attempt to recapture how it felt to be young, happy, in love, and brimming with potential, he decides to return to his stand up roots and meets Ira. On a whim, Simmons offers him a job writing material for him, and an unlikely friendship slowly develops.

Nobody could understand why the dick jokes had no effect
on Bana.

George also makes the (possibly ill-advised, possibly not) decision to get back in contact with the woman he used to be in love with, Laura (Leslie Mann), because she is the person he was most honestly able to share his feelings with. The problem is, Laura is now married to the rather unlikable Clarke (Eric Bana). In preparation for the roles, Apatow had the cast write their own stand up material and deliver it in comedy clubs, giving them a taste of how difficult life as a stand up comedian can be. It shows, as everyone convinces when on stage, delivering decent material with good timing. In particular, Rogen delivers fine routines, genuinely funny.

It’s too long, and could have done with losing a few scenes to stop me checking my watch in the last third, although Ira's ill-judged dash for the airport is a great scene which helps to pick the film up just as it’s beginning to drag. The thing about clichés is, you just need to know how to handle them, and Apatow's handling of the airport dash as well as the garden-set man-tussle make potentially groan-worthy scenes work a treat.

Not amazing, but certainly not a bad way to pass a couple-and-a-bit hours.

Score: 7/10

Funny People is generally considered an Apatow high-water mark - see these reviews by the much-missed Roger Ebert and Mark at Empire.

The Fifth Element

Year: 1997
Running time: 126 minutes
Certificate: PG
Language: English
Screenplay: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
Director: Luc Besson
Starring: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry, Brion James, Tommy Lister, Lee Evans, Tricky, Charlie Creed-Miles

Leeloo struggles to come to grips with Luc Besson's
imagination.

In a recent interview, Milla Jovovich, now arguably better known for the Resident Evil movie franchise, was asked what line she gets quoted back to her most often. The answer was one word: "Multipass". Such is the depth of love for this flawed yet fun epic sci-fi mess. The Fifth Element is a fairly unique film, in that it is a big budget Hollywood action movie but, thanks to director and writer Luc Besson retaining full creative control, it has a distinctly European flavour to it. The result is, frankly, weird. Set in the future where all life is periodically under threat from a flaming planet of evil known as Mr Shadow, only ex-military cab driver Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) can save us all with the help of the four elements Earth, Fire, Wind and Water (yes, apparently the ancient Greeks were right all along – anyone with the simplest grasp of modern chemistry will wince at the whole concept) and a mysterious fifth element – a supreme being. Despite sporting a bizarre blonde haircut, Willis is as charismatic a leading man as you’d expect. Two members of an ancient order of monks dedicated to thwarting evil, Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) and David (Charlie Creed-Miles) convince President Lindberg (Tommy 'Tiny' Lister) of the seriousness of the threat, but it all goes horribly wrong when the alien ship containing the titular element is destroyed. Behind this dastardly act is millionaire and all-round bad egg Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman), who is working for Mr Shadow. The fact that it has taken this long to outline the opening and general plot illustrates just what a sprawling mess this is. Somehow, it only adds to the charm. ‘Serious’ actors Ian Holm and Gary Oldman are clearly having a blast and simply going with the ridiculousness. Stealing the film outright, however, is the magnificent Milla Jovovich, as the perfect supreme being Leeloo. Re-created from a piece of DNA recovered from the crashed ship, she soon escapes from her 'unbreakable' cage and goes on the run.

The plot is fluff and nonsense, simply providing an excuse to go from set piece to set piece, while showing off the wonderfully designed visuals. For example, the moment when Leeloo escapes out onto a building ledge and we and her get a first look of the sprawling city, with buildings that stretch beyond the clouds and layer upon layer of flying traffic it is breath-taking, even now, 15 years later. With nowhere to go, Leeloo takes a dive off the ledge, landing in Korben's taxi-cab. Action follows, and the Universe is eventually saved. Despite the expense and beautiful imagery, sometimes the sets appear cheap and cardboard-like – see the supposedly luxurious cruise liner floating above tourist planet Flotsam Paradise, for the most obvious example.

Korben Dallas, busy saving the Universe.

So, Bruce Willis (or Korben Dallas if you prefer) does his thing and saves the day– that part is all pretty standard. It is not quite that simple, though. Added into the mix, for example, are techno-opera performed by a blue alien diva carrying magic stones in her stomach and Chris Tucker as Ruby Rhod, a batshit crazy squeaky-voiced over-sexed DJ. Tucker is easily the most criticised thing in this film and for some he ruins the whole movie, while for others he’s only mildly annoying. No-one ever tells you they loved him. For me, the whole thing was already so insane, Tucker’s character made little difference - his obvious frustration at the one-word answers he gets from Dallas is actually quite amusing.

There is something about The Fifth Element that causes me to like it a lot more than perhaps I should. Despite Chris Tucker, the poor dialogue, overly complicated plot (Besson came up with the story as a teenager, and you can surely tell) and mad character and costume design, or even because of these things, it sets itself apart from its peers. Whatever the reason, I count myself a fan.

Score: 7/10

I'm certainly not alone in my slightly perplexed admiration of The Fifth Element - see these reviews by Bryant at Deep Focus and Roger Ebert.

Fargo

Year: 1996
Running time: 98 minutes
Certificate: 18
Language: English
Screenplay: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Starring: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare

Marge is on the case.

The Coen brothers are well known for their clouding of the truth (just look at the interviews they gave for A Serious Man, in particular the questions regarding it being somewhat autobiographical), so the fact that Fargo opens with ‘A true story’ should be taken with a truckload of salt. It almost certainly isn’t true. What it is, however, is fabulous, a trait shared with many Coens' films.

Jerry Lundergaard (William H. Macy) is a below-average car salesman who, desperate for cash, arranges for the kidnap of his wife Jean (Kristin Rudrud) in order to score some ransom money from her father Wade (Harve Presnell), a belligerent and successful businessman. The two men Lundergaard hires are Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare) and they are anything but competent and things begin to spiral badly out of control almost from the beginning. Showalter and Grimsrud are not at all alike - one talks too much, the other hardly says anything, and it is clear from the outset their plan is doomed to failure. Grimsrud commits a shocking and grisly murder on the road at night, scaring his partner in crime, leaving the bodies for the police to find the next morning.

It's then we meet the star of the show, heavily pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand). She has such a sunny disposition despite the biting cold and ghastly murder trails she cleverly follows all the way back to Lundergaard, that you can't fail to love her. The accents are distinctive but don't get annoying, being just another Coens peculiarity that adds to the appeal, like the bizarre character names.

How do you ever hope to find it again Carl?

It’s a joy to watch the great cast in every blackly comic scene, and everyone delivers – William H. Macy excels as usual as the bumbling Lundergaard, and also Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare as the nervous, angry Showalter and the quietly psychotic Grimsrud, but the standout is definitely the wonderful Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson.

As the plan unravels, things go from bad to worse as the desperate Showalter leaves a trail of bodies and buries his share of the money under the snow, before realising the landscape is so unchanging he's likely never to find it again. The Coens do enjoy killing off Buscemi's characters whenever he turns up in one of their films, and Showalter's end in Fargo is perhaps his most memorable Coens death yet.

It is also filmed exquisitely. The bleak all-white scenery is striking, often leaving the screen bereft of detail – an effect which is strangely beautiful and illuminates how alone and removed from everyday reality these characters are.

Near perfect.

Score: 9/10

Most people, including Roger Ebert and David at The Hollywood Reporter seem to agree regarding Fargo's brilliance.

Firefly & Serenity

Year: 2002 - 2003 (Firefly), 2005 (Serenity) Running time: 625 minutes (Firefly), 119 minutes (Serenity)
Certificate: 12 (Firefly), 15 (Serenity)
Language: English
Creator (Firefly): Joss Whedon
Screenplay (Serenity): Joss Whedon
Director (Serenity): Joss Whedon
Starring: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Ron Glass, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Dave.

I'm not going to make a habit of reviewing TV shows in the blog because frankly not many of them warrant watching all the way through (pointed glance in the direction of Lost, 24 and Heroes). I will occasionally make exceptions when I think it is worth it (also, there is a film, so I can include it for that reason).

Serenity herself, the tenth major character.

Fox have given us a lot over the years; in particular, we have them to thank for two of the best TV shows ever broadcast, in The Simpsons and The X-Files, as well as the defining show of an entire generation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For Joss Whedon the powerful network is both the grantor and destroyer of dreams. Following the huge success of the aforementioned Whedon-created Buffy and spin-off Angel, Fox gave him the chance to create a new show without studio interference. The phenomenal sci-fi western Firefly is proof of Whedon's under-rated genius for creating near-perfect TV shows. The empty-headed ass-face at Fox who saw the pilot of this elaborate, brilliantly conceived show and said 'I don't get it, let's bury it in the schedules so no-one will watch it, giving us a reason to cancel it before the end of the first season' should be shot in the face or, in the interests of humanitarianism, should at the very least be flogged and forced to work in a shoe shop until they retire, so they cannot possibly influence television scheduling again.

"Curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal!"

The show itself was truly flawless, set in a future where humanity has reached the stars and Earth is now just a myth of 'Earth-that-was'. English and Chinese are spoken by everybody fluently, reflecting a past (our future?) where China's elevation into a superpower rivalled anything in the West. There is an inner core of planets forming the Alliance, and an outer 'wild frontier' where people are left to pretty much fend for themselves. It's a whole new type of wild west, which allows for lots of clever mixing of futuristic technology and old-west style environments. The Alliance is the victor in a war fought against the Independence, a war many people are struggling to forget. And on the very edge of space are the Reavers; humans reduced to primal animals, cannibalistic and without mercy.

The show focuses on the ship Serenity and her crew who go from job to job, sometimes legal, sometimes not, and it is here where Whedon's talent shines through. Without fail every character, major or even minor recurring ones, are fully realised, completely developed and performed impeccably by perfectly cast actors.

The crew and passengers are wonderfully varied. There's Shepherd Book (Ron Glass), a man of faith hitching a ride for the sake of the journey rather than the destination, who has a secret somewhere in his past, giving him knowledge of tactical fighting and the ability to handle a weapon, not to mention clearance of the highest kind on any Alliance cruiser.

Mal channels Dirty Harry.

The show quickly developed an X-Files-type mythology in brother and sister fugitives Simon and River Tam (Sean Maher and the remarkably talented Summer Glau). River is a mystery with a damaged mind, rescued by her brother after being experimented on by Alliance research scientists. River's crazy-lost-girl-genius shtick could get old quickly with someone less gifted but Glau invests her with such an achingly acute sense of lost potential, you can't fail to love her and it's easy to see why her brother sacrificed a glittering medical career and all of his wealth to save what he could of her.

Kaylee (Jewel Staite) is the mechanic, who pulls genius tricks to keep the ship flying and exudes a charming mix of sunny innocence and uninhibited sexuality. Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin - not a Baldwin brother) is the muscle and provides much of the comic relief, being a man of simple appetites and limited IQ. Inara (the impossibly gorgeous Morena Baccarin) is one of the most intriguing characters, being a high class prostitute. In Whedon's world, prostitution is not only legal, but being a registered 'companion' is a distinguished career choice and she is the most respectable character on the ship, and gives them access to more civilised worlds than they would ordinarily be able to go to.

Mal escorts an excited Kaylee to a rare high-class shindig
in the episode called, um, Shindig.

Wash (Alan Tudyk) is the pilot, who can throw the old ship through the tightest spots like a master composer conducting an orchestra of flying metal and glass. Along with Jayne, Wash provides many of the lighter moments. Wash is married to second in command Zoe (the formidable and perfectly formed Gina Torres), a veteran of the war with the Alliance and pretty much the hardest character on the show.

Leading this varied assortment is Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion, who deserves to be much more popular than he is, due to being wonderful in everything he's in and a genuine '27%er' - a term for a popular but not A-list actor who instantly makes the prospect of seeing something 27% more attractive when their name is on the cast list), a captain equal parts James T. Kirk and Clint Eastwood. Mal is a veteran of the war (with Zoe, he was on the losing side) and lost his faith when he lost the war. He's damaged, and over the course of the show comes to slowly begin to heal.

She can kill you with her brain.

The show also had a tenth main character of equal standing in Serenity herself. Building all the sets to interconnect to give the actors a real sense of location to lose themselves in gave the ship a real personality and the potential for long takes through multiple ship locations. Every character had layers and layers that would have been peeled back over the years. The most engaging scenes are often of all the characters together and the easy camaraderie that exists between them, sharing a bond almost familial in nature. It's clear the show was as much fun to make as it is to watch.

Each episode has complex plotting, elaborate character development and is beautifully filmed using effects that are still very impressive for a television budget - the camera zooms and swoops over the CGI, not always putting it centre screen and this technique adds realism and wasn't really seen before Firefly and has since been seen in Avatar amongst other things. The dialogue is marvellous and ever-quotable, and is always accurate for the character speaking it - you never get one of those jarring moments where you think 'he wouldn't say that, it's just a plot contrivance'.

The crew brace themselves for something dramatic. Possibly.

When trying to pick stand out episodes, I quickly realised that all fourteen episodes are stand out, but my favourite scene, in a bittersweet kind of way is in episode 12 The Message. By the time they were filming they knew they had been cancelled and the final scene is of the crew delivering the body of a war buddy to his family. The shots of the crew standing in the snow while the music, which was written purposefully as a 'farewell' to the show plays are beautifully poignant, and, if you loved the show as much as I did, rather emotional. I simply cannot fathom why Fox got cold feet, and judging by the DVD sales, I'm not alone. They were so impressive that Universal decided it was worth funding a full-length movie to allow Whedon to tie up the loose end Fox had left him with.

Hero poses #9 and #21.

Serenity is pretty good, but it had more character on the small screen. If you watch it without seeing Firefly first, take a point off the score. The focus is on the Alliance hunt for River and Simon and the reason the Reavers became as they are and makes for some spectacular action sequences, the best of which involve Summer Glau, for she is incredible. Not all loose ends are tied up - for example the mystery behind Shepherd Book is purposefully left unexplained, which is inevitable when the complicated threads developed on the show are given less than two hours to resolve themselves.

Serenity does have one great example of how elaborate the characterisation is and how realistic the characters are. In the final moments of the pilot episode, also named Serenity, Mal explains something about himself to Simon: "If I ever kill you, you'll be awake, you'll be facing me and you'll be armed." In the movie Serenity Mal has fallen on some particularly difficult times and during the course of the film shoots three unarmed men, killing two of them. Mal is one of the good guys, but with this Whedon illustrates that even the best of people will abandon their principles if the situation requires it. This doesn't make Mal a failure or a bad person, it merely makes him realistically human.

Even though Serenity isn't how I would have chosen to see the show wound up, I'm grateful for some sense of completion. Whedon continues his rather annoying habit of pulling out surprise deaths during Serenity and it's a little heartbreaking to see certain characters bite the dust when you know they would have lived far longer if it wasn't for Fox. Maybe Fox did Whedon a favour in the long run. There's no doubt Firefly would've jumped the shark at some point, but following its cancellation, it never does and we're left with these fourteen near-perfect episodes.

Much loved, RIP.

Score:

Firefly: 9/10

Serenity: 7/10

Rachel.

Firefly was recommended to me by Dave after he watched the series alone and I was instantly hooked! The characters are immediately likable and intriguing, leaving the viewer trying to guess their secrets. The sci-fi western combination is surprisingly agreeable and, as Dave has mentioned, a real measure of the talent of its creator.

...And you will know her by the trail of dead reavers.

It is however very bittersweet to watch at times. While you're swept up in the crew's adventures, the brilliant and often memorable dialogue, the humour, and when you're appreciating the quality of the effects and depth of the characters, the fact that it will never reach its true potential sets a bit of a cloud over the series. I echo the sentiment that the decision maker who cancelled Firefly should not be allowed to work in television or indeed any part of the entertainment industry!

When compared to the series proper, Serenity is merely above average as a stand alone film and I fear for those who did not watch Firefly first it would make little lasting impression. However, for a fan like me tying up some of the loose ends did provide a little closure.

Score:

Firefly: 9/10

Serenity: 7/10

Firefly and Serenity are well liked out there - see Doux Reviews' Billie's episode-by-episode review of Firefly and Joshua at Cinemablend's take on Serenity.

Fight Club

Year: 1999
Running time: 139 minutes
Certificate: 18
Language: English
Screenplay: Jim Uhls
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bohnam Carter, Meat Loaf

Dave.

Coming to terms with the idea that just maybe there is
more  to life than stuff.

I am Jack's sense of utter awe. Fight Club is an exceptional film, with a mind-blowing plot line. Every element of it screams inventiveness, from the perfectly pitched music (and sound, a brilliant example of which is the surround sound mix during a scene in which the camera swoops around the inner workings of a bomb, and the ticking and bleeping come from different places depending on the position of the camera), through the outstanding cast (even Meat Loaf, surprisingly), to the unexpected and original direction of David Fincher, an example of which is the inspired opening credits. Adapted from the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, it's a study of how frustrated, testosterone-fuelled men find a way to express their pent up aggression while being a vicious criticism of consumer culture. Despite being such a wonder, the film flopped embarrassingly on its release, and has since found its audience on DVD.

Ed Norton is a nobody, a drone who finds a cure for his insomnia in attending support groups for the terminally ill, even though he's not dying. Disturbed to find he's not the only tourist of the groups of the dying he meets Marla Singer (Helena Bohnam Carter) and is instantly repelled. His life is changed when he meets soap salesman Tyler Durden (a never better Brad Pitt) and the two start an underground club where men, tired of the endless daily grind of their working lives, pummel the crap out of each other so they can feel alive again. Durden is everything Norton secretly wishes he could be; not tied to a job, not chained by etiquette and sexually uninhibited, embarking upon an extreme sexual relationship with Marla ("I haven't been fucked like that since grade school" providing one of many controversially memorable lines).

Durden is an incredible creation, who while onscreen demands your attention as he is preaching to Norton about why his life is pathetic and why he doesn't need any of his home comforts, spouting lines such as "The things you own end up owning you" and imagining a future where "You are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Centre." Much of what he says sounds rather sensible and you find yourself, like Norton, coming around to his way of thinking. Until he goes mental and starts 'Project Mayhem'. If, like me, you found yourself understanding a little of the anti-materialistic place Durden is coming from, what must be acknowledged is that something like 'Project Mayhem' is almost certainly the kind of thing that would result from a large group of people following Durden's 'teaching'. The plot development feels entirely organic, and is a little sobering for those nodding along at Durden's logic in the early scenes. An effective example of the 'wisdom' of Tyler Durden is the scene where he and Norton take a sales assistant to a parking lot and threaten to kill him. At the end of the ordeal, the poor soul is given a choice; start working towards realising his life's dream or be murdered. Though the method is strong, the shop assistant is no longer wasting his life, dreaming about what might have been. Talk about extreme therapy.

Then there is the moment. Oh, the moment. I'll never forget the first time I saw it unfold in front of my eyes. I won't tell you what I'm talking about, this blog's spoiler warning notwithstanding, because knowing it beforehand can genuinely ruin the film for you and rob you of an unforgettable realisation. When you see it you'll know, and then you'll understand.

Truly one of the greatest modern contributions to cinema, this still stands as Fincher's high water mark. Plus, the choice of Pixies' Where is My Mind? over the end credits is inspired.

Score: 9/10

Rachel.

Arguing over diseases.

Girls, if you watched Meet Joe Black wiping the drool from your lips whenever Brad Pitt was onscreen, you should watch this film. His brilliant portrayal of Tyler Durden is the ultimate proof that Pitt is not just a pretty face. In addition to Brad Pitt changing my perceptions of him as an actor, this was also my introduction to Ed Norton, who is the perfect choice for a ho-hum character who slowly loses his mind. The gasp-inducing shock ending blows other film twists (like The Sixth Sense) out the water.

If you haven't already seen Fight Club, stop reading this and go and watch it!

Score: 9/10

It seems others either strongly disagree, like Peter at the Guardian, or agree with reservations, like Adam at Empire. The people that seem to love it as much as me are, ironically considering it flopped originally, the audience.