Cinema Archives - Page 6 of 8

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Nov 162012

On 7 October, Hugo Chavez was re-elected as President of Venezuela. Since 1998, Chavez and his Bolivarian movement have championed the cause of the poor in Latin America and have proved to be tough opponents to the power structure that would see them deposed in the same way that Pinochet dealt with the Allende Government in Chile. With thanks to Mike Martin.

Film showing, Monday 19 November at New King’s NK10 at 1930

Two independent filmmakers were inside the Presidential Palace in Caracason 11 April 2002, when Chavez and his team were forcibly removed from office. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably, he returned to power amid cheering aides and massive pro-Chavez demonstrations.

The film records what was probably history’s shortest-lived coup d’état. It is a unique document about political muscle and an extraordinary portrait of the man The Wall Street Journal credits with making Venezuela, ‘Washington’s biggest Latin American headache after the old standby, Cuba’.

This meeting has been organised by the Aberdeen Latin America Solidarity Network and is supported by the Shared Planet Society and the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign.

Everybody is welcomed to attend.

For more info: www.venezuelasolidarity.org.uk or contact Mike Martin 0797-476-3082

Sinister Shocks In Shiprow

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Nov 122012

Another horror film finds Voice reviewer Andrew Watson again, in his own words, ‘crapping his pants’ at Vue Cinema.

Scott Derrickson’s latest offering initially trundles along innocently enough as author Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) moves to a new house seeking inspiration for his next book. Ignoring the local sheriff’s advice about moving into the house, Oswalt finds a box of home movies in attic… yeah, it’s not so pedestrian from here on!

Five reels of film, dating from the 1960s to the present time, show grisly murder scenes with families snuffed out in all manner of creative ways.

Despite this movie being promoted as a supernatural horror, at first it seems all very real and far-removed from the paranormal. That creepy guy you catch glimpses of in the found reels just seems like a nutter in a mask… at first.

It is only after a while it begins to sink in that perhaps things aren’t so rooted in the type of horror often recounted in the tabloid press. This is also set against real phenomena like the author’s son Trevor (Michael Hall D’Addario) enduring night terrors in his sleep and being found in the back garden during these episodes.

When Trevor is found folding himself out of a cardboard box, his parents’ shock fades in the knowledge that similar things have happened before. Is the sleepwalking part of the boy’s night terrors, or are Exorcist-like bodily contortions at play?

It’s strange how the further a film seems to creep from reality, the more horrifying it can become. But this is how filmmakers tap into our deepest fears and it is only when we see the ghosts of children playing hide and seek with Ellison that we are 100% sure what kind of film we’re dealing with.

Let’s just say the face didn’t exactly look like your typical Halloween gimmick…

You might think knowing this would put us at ease, making further attempts at horror redundant, but the element of surprise is expertly deployed and the suspense keeps up right to the film’s finale.

When Ellison finally encounters the children face to face, the childish mischief of earlier disappears, the innocent veil of child’s play swiftly replaced with repulsion. I all but fall from my seat as Ellison tumbles from the staircase and I curse when I finally catch a close-up of the ‘masked’ man. Let’s just say the face isn’t your typical Halloween gimmick…

This last scene clinches my satisfaction with this morbid tale. In my eyes, any decent horror film has some link to religious mythology, preferably of the occult variety. Our man in the ‘mask’ turns out to be a pagan deity called Bughuul, or ‘eater of children’s souls’. Creepy stuff!

This film ticks all the boxes, and then some. Definitely recommended.

Film Review: Paranormal Activity 4

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Nov 062012

Returning to Shiprow’s Vue for a bit of horror, I actually found I quite enjoyed myself. Paranormal Activity 4 was a bit of a slow burner, meaning the last half hour was, hands down, the most intense period of the film, says Voice reviewer Andrew Watson.

I spent Hallowe’en watching a rented copy of Paranormal Activity 3, just to make sure I was clued up on what I was in for. PA3 is actually the prequel, so 4 beginss where 2 left off.

There’s been a kidnapping, and the whereabouts of the woman and child are seemingly unknown – until now.

I have to be honest and say outright that I cannot stand creepy kid films. You know the type – the various spawn of the Sixth Sense phenomenon.

I really enjoyed this film, however politically incorrect I feel I’d get with the film’s resident brat! I actually found myself reserving most of my ire for the ‘boyfriend’ of the film, a pervy chancer who I hoped would see an early end.

The film’s family find themselves babysitting the child of a new neighbour. Yep, the creepy kid.

His mother’s not feeling well and was taken away by ambulance, apparently. Their own son takes a shine to him, but finds himself dragged into realms of weirdness that wouldn’t be Hollywood if they weren’t evil. Sweet-natured Wyatt, played by Aiden Lovekamp, retreats into himself. So much so that he begins to insist his name is Hunter, the child kidnapped in 2!

Meanwhile, creepy Robbie (Brady Allen) doesn’t merely sit on the sidelines goading Wyatt to do his bidding. Why, he’s at it himself, sleeping with Wyatt’s big sister Alex (Kathryn Newton) while she lies there unaware! This scene is actually the catalyst for Alex and her boyfriend to attempt to unfurl the mystery of the weirdness going on.

You see, boyfriend Ben (Matt Shively) records their webchats. Or at least his computer does it automatically, so he says. Anyway, he comes a cropper when he sees this kid nestling up to his girlfriend. And so it goes until a rather messy ending.

There a few aspects about this series that merit some analysis I suppose. It’s shown in real time, meaning it takes much from the style in which The Blair Witch Project was recorded. We must assume this technique is deployed to give the film a sense of realism, a cinematic approach that increased my viewing pleasure.

Specifically, what I enjoy about this is the fact that big events throughout the film are thinly spread, not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it adds to the realism. Real life is punctuated with infrequent seemingly-inconsequential events which nevertheless impact upon all our lives. In Hollywood, stories are punctuated with life-changing events that occur, seemingly and rather predictably, every two minutes.

Which is why I come back to the point of the last half hour of this film. It’s a wild thirty minutes, like a punch to the solar plexus. You’ve been caught unawares and now you’re crapping your pants trying to keep up with what’s going on.

Furthermore, there are murmurs throughout that a secret community, or covenant, is holding black masses. Ever since I watched The Last Exorcism, this concept has intrigued me. All I can say, or hint at, is that there are similar things going on in this film, particularly in the last two and a half minutes.

All in all – and I know the critics have panned this film – this is an excellent piece of cinema. I genuinely can’t wait to see what’s in store for Paranormal Activity 5.

007 Latest – Reviewer Neither Shaken Nor Stirred

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Oct 292012

This particular cinema outing, to Cineworld, proved the moviegoer’s maxim that ‘the trailers show all the good bits’. Skyfall isn’t a bad film, but all the excitement I experienced watching the trailer didn’t translate into the same, or similar, sensations during the film’s two hours and twenty-three minutes, says Andrew Watson.

Casino Royale was a fantastic Bond debut for Daniel Craig, although Quantum of Solace left me cold. His third Bond effort, fell somewhere between the previous two.

I enjoyed, particularly, how his character, though faithfully suave, was a grizzled agent, bordering on psychotic.

I know there have been grumbles, probably from the old school Bond-ers, that it’s becoming less about the gadgets and girls as it is about our beloved spy’s oh-so-complicated character.

This time round, bearing in mind the fallout from the previous film, Bond isn’t at his physical or mental best. Unknown to James, he’s failed his aptitude test as a field agent, and is displaying worrying dependencies on alcohol, among other substances.

This film seems to be driven by its characters, and the super-villain in this piece is no different. Think Jaws with half his jaw missing! It is, in fact, this dastardly ex-MI6 man, Raoul Silva, played by Spaniard Javier Bardem, top dog before Bond’s time, who reveals to James his lack of aptitude. Judi Dench’s ‘M’ lied to Bond, hurrying him back into the fold of spydom, just like she betrayed her previous agent all those years ago.

Don’t get me wrong, the locations and the ladies are something to behold, and the shots of China are particularly beautiful. ‘Q’, played by young gun Ben Whishaw, is also on hand with the latest in gun technology, though the sight of the classic Aston Martin DB5 far outshines anything new he has to offer.

The story, without reciting the plot verbatim, is relatively interesting, too. MI6 is under fire from the government after important information contained on a hard drive is stolen. ‘M’ is hauled before an Intelligence and Security Committee to answer to her superiors, who call into question the need for the fanciful and romantic notion of spies in a modern world.

Of course, what hooked me in the trailers was the explosion of the MI6 offices. The heart of British intelligence is rocked, but there appears to be little emphasis on this throughout of the film. Rather than being stripped to their bare bones and with limited resources, the explosion seems to have done little to dent MI6’s capabilities. Was the explosion overplayed in the trailers, and underplayed in the film? The bearing of this on the plot directly affected my overall enjoyment.

What also irked me somewhat are the circumstances surrounding the Scottish estate belonging to the Bond family. Whilst it’s conceivable that the Bonds were an English family which moved up north to James’s childhood home, it seems a bit ridiculous that the gamekeeper speaks with a rather implausible English accent.

Is attention to detail in this respect too much to ask for?

Zeppelin Celebration Day: Rolls-Royce Of Concert Films

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Oct 182012

For those who love Led Zeppelin, this film has been a long time coming. Was it worth the wait? Did it capture the concert as it was? Does it give the viewer the real taste of the legendary O2 concert? Absolutely. Suzanne Kelly reviews Celebration Day.

If you have the remotest interest in the fathers of all things metal, you have to see this film. It delivers the concert as it happened. I was one of the lucky 20,000 who managed to get a ticket to the O2 for the one-off Led Zeppelin concert (over 4 million people applied for tickets via the online email lottery), and I can honestly say I felt as if I were back at the O2 and that no time had elapsed between the movie and the concert.
The problem for most bands playing live let alone making a concert film is that a certain level of musicianship is essential. A concert film is going to capture for posterity any errors, wrong notes or bad musicianship; undertaking to do a concert film of a one-off concert is an act of bravery.

By way of illustration, one of the worst acts live I will ever see was the Scandinavian outfit, The Cardigans.

Their music was never very complicated, yet when they tried to play the Astoria some years back, they had to re-start one particular (otherwise wholly unmemorable) number three times. Every member of Led Zeppelin is a consummate, dedicated, hard-driven professional, and the years haven’t remotely changed this fact.

The sound mastering in this film is genius; even without the film to back it up, the soundtrack would assuredly be flying off the shelves on the release date, 19 November. This is as expected; Page’s standards in particular for delivering sound are unrivalled.

The pressure on all the acts performing on the night was immense. Pressures included the fans and their expectations; the desire to give a fitting tribute to Ahmet Ertegun, the man behind the iconic Atlantic Label; the movie being made and so on must have been an immense weight to perform under. As Jones told a German interviewer earlier this week, the first thing they said to each other after the show was ‘We did it.’

The certainly did.

There was much speculation what the first song would be; it was in the end ‘Good Times Bad Times’ – the first track on the first side of their first album, fittingly enough. The film takes you through the concert song by song just as it happened. Visually there are nods to the earlier (and shall we say ‘quirkier’) Zeppelin film, ‘The Song Remains The Same’. Special effects from that earlier work are gently given the nod, particularly in some of Page’s solos.

Perhaps the best thing for me is the film’s close-ups of his unequalled solos. I could single out work during ‘In My Time of Dying’ or ‘Dazed and Confused’ as personal favourites, but every bit of Page’s solos are blistering. When not in frenzied guitar attack mode, the film captures the spectrum of his work from ice cold blues (opening of ‘Dazed’) to triumphant pure rock (‘Rock and Roll’ – an encore).

Robert Plant in some ways had the most pressure on him of the four. He had to relate to and engage with 20,000 fans as well as turn in as flawless a vocal performance as possible. You can tune guitar and keyboards, but achieving vocal perfection is another matter. Plant’s voice was required to span quite an octave range and sustain notes for longer than most of us can even hold our breath. Performing this repertoire was a very tall order.

Verdict: complete success on all counts. Whatever it is Plant had in his 20s, he’s still got it now.

They say an army marches on its stomach; complex, layered metal with intricate time signature changes is reliant on a rock solid rhythm section. They said in the past that John Paul Jones was part man,part metronome, and part god; I’ll give him that. One minute he’s finishing a bass performance, the next instant he’s playing the introduction to ‘No Quarter’. This film has in Jones the best all-round, most versatile rockstar musician of our (or any) age captured perfectly, as he turns in a perfect turn. Jones is one of the reasons this band was far more than the sum of its parts. If the word ‘gestalt’ hadn’t existed before Zeppelin, it would have had to be coined because of them.

It was very pleasing that the film’s creators devoted many frames to Jones; it was well deserved. Likewise was the attention paid to original percussionist John Henry Bonham’s son, Jason. Jason Bonham was amazing, and the camera has caught moments of his performance that you just couldn’t see well enough on the night.

Words fail me – everyone who cares about Zeppelin (dare I say loves them?) missed John Bonham – but it was fitting his son got this coveted percussion role – and the son did his father proud.

This is the quintessential metal / rock / blues / innovating act of our time captured honestly and if you don’t mind the word ‘vibrantly’ in their brilliant final performance. It does what it should do, and if you are of the Led Zep loving set, you gotta see this movie.

Note to the woman who I stopped from taking photos of the screen during the show.

You were astonished and asked ‘why not?’ as to why it was wrong to make any recordings/take pictures. I don’t care if you wanted pictures for personal reasons or to share – you quite simply don’t have the rights to a piece of work people spent years creating. Your £10 ticket was for looking at the show.

Note to everyone:

Please buy the official product when it comes out – and help the music and film industry which are suffering – definitely from piracy. It might not be the top stars who suffer financial crunches caused by free sharing of product – but there is a whole long list of people behind the scenes who are going to suffer if people don’t pay for product.

No, this isn’t a very popular line to take – that’s fine with me. But remember the fifth member of Led Zeppelin who sadly is no longer with us: the best manager in the world ever, Peter Grant. Grant fought long and fought hard for musicians to be treated well and paid well. There is a memorable scene from ‘The Song Remains the Same’ in which Grant confronts people selling illegal/unauthorised merchandise; Grant says sarcastically and angrily

“as long as there’s an extra nickel to be drained by exploiting Led Zeppelin, that’s fine…” (with a few choice expletives thrown in).

It is because of Grant that Led Zeppelin didn’t suffer the fate of many American blues and Motown artists and writers, who died in poverty. Thanks to Mr Grant, and I’m glad themusic industry gives out a Peter Grant manager award marking his achievements.

Aberdeen Musicians In Bid To Save Historic Organ

Aberdeen City, Featured, History, Information 7 Responses »

Oct 112012

As plans progress for a new 10 storey office block on the former Capitol cinema, Murray Henderson meets Charlie Davidson, an early member of the Aberdeen Theatre Organ Trust, who talks about his hopes for the legendary Compton Cinema Organ, still resident in the now derelict building.

During the Capitol’s spell as a nightclub, few clubbers could have known that beneath their feet lay an exquisite example of one of the most complex and beautiful musical instruments ever produced in Britain.
The mighty Compton Organ was sealed underneath the floor of the nightclub as a condition of planning approval to convert the cinema in 2002. It was built by master organ maker John Compton of Nottingham. His brand was the most popular in Britain, with a total of 261 organs installed in British theatres¹.

Because of the silent nature of early cinema, it was left to virtuoso organists to provide the spine-tingling soundtracks to the era’s films. In its heyday the Capitol’s Compton was of some renown and organ performances in the theatre were even broadcast to the nation.

A previous planning application for the demolition of the Capitol auditorium was approved by Aberdeen Council and backed by Historic Scotland. Though the plans were not progressed, they included the display of the organ console alone, to be rendered unplayable, above the entrance as “a reminder of the original use of the building”².

But that is not enough for former Trust member and Aberdeen-born organ maestro Charlie Davidson, who is intent on saving the entire instrument from the wrecking ball and ensuring that its unique sound can once again be heard in the city.

Aberdeen Voice (AV): Charlie, what is your association with the Capitol’s Compton Organ?

Charlie Davidson (CD): I was born and raised in Aberdeen, and studied organ at St Andrews Cathedral in King Street Aberdeen in the 1960s but also discovered there was a magical Pipe Organ in the Capitol at the same time. I was allowed in to play the Compton on Saturday mornings which was wonderful. This was about 1965 and the Compton in the Capitol was the first Cinema Pipe Organ I ever played. The Capitol Organ, and in fact the entire cinema, was a big part of my life.

AV: Can you describe the Compton and how it felt to play in the Capitol?

CD: The Compton was a wonderful instrument. The acoustics of the Capitol were great and the organ console was on an electric lift situated in the centre of the orchestra pit. It was a great thrill to push the ‘up’ button on the organ console whilst playing and you would be lifted up to stage level in full view of the audience.

AV: How does a Cinema Organ differ from a Church Organ, which people might be more familiar with?

CD: The mechanical side of the organ is very similar to some Church Organs but the stops, or ranks of pipes, are quite different. Because the Cinema Organ was originally designed to accompany silent films, its main purpose was to imitate an orchestra. Having said that, it can still sound like a Church Organ if required.

The technique required is quite different to Church Organ playing. In fact, you will find that practically all cinema organists can play the Church Organ, but few church organists can play the Cinema Organ. The percussions were a major part of this design.

The Capitol Organ has a xylophone, glockenspiel, cathedral chimes, vibraphone and a full set of drums, cymbals and sound effects. The effects are operated by buttons above the pedals and consist of things like horses’ hooves, bells, buzzers, car horns, sirens, etc. – all great fun.

AV: It sounds like a very complex instrument.

CD: The organ is not just the console in the pit; it also has a massive blower in the basement and two rooms full of organ pipes and percussion instruments half way up the proscenium arch on the right hand side. There are also miles and miles of cables and relays etc. Restoration is a big job and I should know as I have removed several of these instruments over the years. The last one was in Mallorca this year.

AV: Can you tell us more about your previous restoration work?

CD: Another of the organs I rescued was from the Rex Cinema in Stratford, east London. This organ has now been fully restored by a team of enthusiasts in the Royalty Theatre in Bowness on Windermere and had its opening on the 6th October³. In addition, I have the unique Ingram Organ from the Astoria Corstorphine in storage and also a fine Wurlitzer Pipe Organ from the Ritz Workington.

AV: I understand the Capitol Compton was broadcast.

CD: Yes, the Capitol organ was broadcast many times on the BBC. We had lots of famous resident organists including Rowland Timms, George Blackmore, Bobby Pagan and others – all of whom broadcast regularly. The Capitol was very well known to the UK BBC audience.

AV: There seem to be a number of different Compton designs, do you know if the Capitol’s Compton was unique, designed especially for the cinema?

CD: There were many designs of organ console. The Capitol console was unusual but not unique. The art deco end boxes are known as ‘coffin ends’ for obvious reasons and are really just for show, to make the organ look more impressive as it rose out of the pit in the spotlight.

AV: Do you have any idea of how rare these instruments are nowadays?

CD: There are now only four Cinema Pipe Organs left in Scotland – the Capitol Compton, a very fine restored Wurlitzer in Glasgow, a Hilsdon organ in Greenlaw (ex Playhouse Edinburgh) and a Compton under restoration in the Heritage Centre Coatbridge. To the best of my knowledge, these are the only Cinema Pipe Organs left in all of Scotland. The Capitol Organ was a particularly good instrument as was the one in the Astoria Aberdeen.

AV: What became of the Aberdeen Astoria Organ?

CD: It was rescued and installed in the hall of Powis Academy. In November 1982, an arson attack by a pupil destroyed parts of the school including the organ. It had a glass surround and organ bench and the organist could change the colour of the entire lighted console at the flick of a stop. It could also be set to ‘auto’ and gently fade through all the colours of the rainbow. These illuminated consoles were known as ‘jelly moulds’ again for obvious reasons. They were unique to the UK which I always found surprising. The American Cinema Organs never had anything like it.

AV: How did you learn the skills necessary to restore Cinema Organs?

CD: Sheer trial and error. I bought my first pipe organ from Letterfourie House in Buckie when I was 14 years old and completely rebuilt it. It was a really historic organ and is still going strong with a local organ builder. It just went on from there and I got interested in the mechanics of Pipe Organs. The restoration encompasses woodwork, electrical, relays, etc. which I love and you end up with something you can play.

AV: In your opinion is the Compton Organ in the Capitol restorable?

CD: The Capitol Compton organ is most certainly restorable. It will require a lot of work, but it is such an important piece of Aberdeen’s history it really has to be done.

References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Compton_(organ_builder)

2. Aberdeen City Council Approval Notice for Planning Application (P101757) searchable on ACC website. Current Capitol Planning application is (P101757).

3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-19270424

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Future Shorts Global Short Film Festival: October 25

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Oct 112012

The Future Shorts Festival is the biggest pop up film festival of its kind, and continues to grow. Showcasing the most exciting short films from around the world, anyone anywhere can set up a screening and join this massive screening network and powerful global community. With thanks to Fiona Soe Paing.

Since November 2011, festival screenings have taken place in over 541 cities and 178 countries with an audience of more than 75,000 people experiencing a showcase of the best short films, often alongside live music, DJs and art.

From London to Tokyo, Cairoto Kabul, screenings have taken place across a massive network of music halls, cinemas, theatres, galleries, clubs, bars and warehouses.

Future Shorts celebrates the best and most innovative short films, connecting global stories with global audiences.

Every three months, Future Shorts HQ in London puts together a feature-length programme of some of the best classic, cult and award-winning short films from around the world. The festival programme is then made available to a global network of film enthusiasts, promoters, entrepreneurs and adventurers who book, organize and host local screening events. Screening partners pay a fixed fee for the festival programme, which varies according to the intended size of their audience, and then promote the screening, charge for tickets and keep any profits.

In addition to the Future Shorts selections, the autumn programme at SNAFU will also include screenings of short films by local film makers, and this first edition will premiere three new animated music videos by local electronica artist Fiona Soe Paing, which have been made with assistance from Creative Scotland.

The organisers of the SNAFU event are sending a call-out to all local film makers who have work that they would like to show at the next event, to get in touch via the Facebook event page – https://www.facebook.com/events/177919612332737/

THE FILMS –

Cafe Regular,Cairo

Director: Ritesh Batra
Egypt- 2012
11mins

A young couple find themselves speaking about things they have never spoken about before. In a city where the old and new meet, with the potential for anything to happen, they try to find their own place in a changing and uncertain world. Winner of Special Jury Mention at Tribeca Film Festival.

A Brief History of John Baldessari

Directors: Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost
United States- 2012
6mins

From the directors of CATFISH and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3, A Brief History of John Baldessari tells us everything we do and don’t need to know about this American conceptual artist. Many know Baldessari as “the guy who puts dots on people’s faces.” But did you know that he is 6’7″ and that his wi-fi password is 123456789B? An epic career is crammed into five and a half frenzied minutes. Narrated by Tom Waits.

Rite

Director: Michael Pearce
United Kingdom- 2010
14mins

Mike visits his estranged son on his birthday, wanting to take him out and rebuild a damaged relationship. But drink and the simmering violence from match day inLondontaints the occasion, resulting in a strained afternoon for both father and son. Pearce has been named one of the ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ by Screen International, and Rite was nominated for Best Short Film at BAFTA Scotland.

The Black Balloon

Directors: Ben Safdie & Joshua Safdie
United States- 2012
18mins

Winner of Sundance’s Short Filmmaking Award, the Safdie brothers bring a film intended for children, morphed into a sci-fi urban fable. Black Balloon exploresNew Yorkand the complicated lives of individuals and their daily experiences from the heights of a stray balloon.

On the Line

Director: Reto Caffi
Germany- 2007
30mins

A story about love, voyeurism and guilt. A department store security guard watches a clerk in the store’s bookshop on CCTV and falls for her. After he witnesses, and ignores, a supposed love rival being attacked on a train, guilt begins to destroy his once ordered life. On the Line has won over 50 International awards.

Thurs 25th October.
Doors open 7pm,
films start 8pm.
Adm: £5

Looper? Super, Says Voice Critic

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Oct 082012

There are three films I’ve really enjoyed this year, all seen at Vue. Prometheus comes tops, easily, along with Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, an unexpected surprise for me. And then there’s Looper. So says Andrew Watson who mans the Voice celluloid review desk this week.

Looper is a mind-bender, with a script that twists and turns to its conclusion I will try to do its complexity justice without giving away too much of the plot, to help give you the will to stick with it until the very end.
Joe, played by Dark Knight Rises actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, ekes out an existence as a mercenary of sorts.

He obliterates, from point-blank range, mob hits teleported from the future into the present and is more of a dispatcher than mercenary. He disposes of the bodies and therefore any evidence connecting his criminal employers with these disappearances. One of the corpses is actually Joe’s future self, played by Bruce Willis!

Very early on, I was quite impressed. Maybe I’m a bit dim in this respect, but I was honestly trying to see where Bruce Willis’s character would fit into the storyline. Joe seemed like the bad guy in the trailers, but would he turn out to be the cold-blooded killer, albeit complete with three-dimensional, if not redeemable, traits?

Thankfully, there are varying degrees of good and bad between his present and future selves; neither character, as the scales weigh alternatively up and down throughout the film, seems dastardly enough to make such judgements anything but a close call. All part of the film’s complexity.

All films need lighter moments and Looper has them. Jeff Daniels, best known to me for Dumb & Dumber, plays head minion Abe, who only lords it over Joe and company in the present because his superiors in the future have positioned him there. He doesn’t quite convince in displaying the menacing aspects of his character and is perhaps deliberately cast in the role for that reason, funny being something he does well.

His poor son, some slack-jawed paragon of ineptitude with a large gun, acts as his foil in a way you’d think Daniels’ comic sparring partner of yesteryear, Jim Carrey, could just about replicate. Both, particularly Daniels, are reminiscent of the perennial jobbing actor, desperate to avoid being bullied into typecast roles over and over again.

How can actors like John Goodman, for example, play roles like badass black market gun dealers in Kevin Bacon’s Death Sentence when they’ve already starred as Fred Flintstone? Probably not Goodman’s finest performances, but certainly the two I seem to remember.

Looper also tackles the fate versus freewill argument

I suppose, paradoxically, that the little comic nods here and there give a sense of reality, despite the film being way, way into the realms of science fiction.

Life’s not all doom and gloom, and we don’t inhabit a world where people want to be super-serious and watch films like Inception all the time.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s a fine film but my only reservation about Looper was that it would surely just be another Inception? There are similar, intertwined aspects in both films, but, thankfully, another Inception it isn’t.

Rounding off my attempt to sell you this film, I feel you should know that thematically it tackles some of my favourite subjects, including the nature versus nurture debate. There’s a chosen one in the film too and Looper also tackles the fate versus freewill argument. Is it destiny to save or wreck humankind, or can conscious efforts be made to change a supposedly inevitable future? The way these two issues are conflated appealed to me immensely.

On the other hand, some of the dialogue is clunky. Swearing should be an art form, not something thrashed through by tongues of unthinking thespians, and there’s a Freudian slip by the scriptwriter implying accidental incest. I’ll let you weather that storm, one of many, lateral and literal; yet one of few that’s aesthetically offensive to the filmgoer’s eye.

Resident Evil – The Latest Instalment Reviewed

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Oct 082012

Resident Evil: Retribution, on release at Aberdeen’s Vue Cinema, has its moments, but, latterly, seems to descend into realms of the ridiculous, a departure from the franchise’s previous four outings, writes Andrew Watson.

I hesitate to describe it as a saga, because this film is principally a money-making exercise; one which doesn’t seem to have the decency to stay even remotely faithful to the B-movie but superbly intriguing plots which unfold on your computer screen.
However, this is the most successful and highest-grossing video-game-to-silver-screen adaption ever and one should expect consistency with the four other films in the series.

In that sense, Retribution delivers – plenty of stunts, swords, goring, guns, beasties, beauties and a good dose of apocalyptic foreboding.

The strikingly and unusually beautiful Milla Jovovich plays Alice, a former employee of the Umbrella Corporation who sets her sights on nemesis Wesker, a man to whom, in a perplexing sense, she is grateful. In the previous film, Afterlife, he has injected her with an antidote to the zombifying T-virus that reverses her superhuman abilities. Her chemical and physical reaction to the biohazard is a miracle in the story’s scope of modern medicine yet it helps her become and feel more human. Awww….

Films aren’t films without twists, though, and Alice, captured by Umbrella for the umpteenth time, finds herself in a compromising position which necessitates the help of Wesker, who, since Afterlife, has severed ties with the company. Not exactly the most trusting person at this juncture, Alice resigns herself to a fate in the hands of the perpetual and proverbial devil’s advocate. And so it goes, until the end. Let’s just leave it at that.

When the plot sags, when eyelids are drooping, when your boredom-dependent insanity is fighting and winning against every other impulse in mind, body and soul, the moments of comic relief somehow bring clarity to vision. Without sufficient prescription of hilarity, you’ll be as well signing up for the T-virus and becoming a zombie yourself. Because let’s face it, you are one in all but name

Did this film deliver laughs, then?

To be honest, the film wasn’t that bad. Believe it or not, this film tricked me into believing it really was absolute crap, rather than decidedly average, and that’s why I’m giving this film a kicking!

You see Michelle Rodriguez already died in the first film. So what the hell was she doing in this, four sequels later, and not as a rotting corpse? “Hah, bet they’re running out of money; using the same actors and actresses to play different characters,” I deducted.

Er…no.

Perhaps giving away too much, even about a bad or decidedly-average film, is unfair, but when a kid, knowing glint in the eye – OK, that last part isn’t true – tells Michelle’s character that her sister isn’t a particularly nice person, you know you’ve been hoodwinked.

Audience? Laughing. Me? Scraping the egg off my face.

The only thing funnier than this, though, is the ending. An ending, tragically, delivered in all seriousness. Think Resident Evil 6: Dungeons, Dragons & Castles.

Seriously, though, if you want an action film with big dollops of horror thrown in the mix, you’ll probably enjoy it. I enjoyed it in that sense. However, if you’re somehow hoping for an overhaul of an already-established franchise, one which has resolved to undo all past wrongs in one fell swoop, and with sublime attention to detail of the video game series, then you can forget about it.

Last Act For Capitol Cinema?

Aberdeen City, Featured, Information 9 Responses »

Aug 162012

As another demolition threat looms over Union Street’s once great Capitol, new Aberdeen Voice writer Murray Henderson looks at the fortunes of Aberdeen’s slumbering star of the silver screen.

“Aberdeen’s most prestigious cinema. Its facade is of classical proportion. In the centre, soaring above the entrance is a simple pediment, which originally carried the name “Capitol” in neon letters. Inside, grand staircases swept up to the lofty circle and stalls foyers. In the auditorium was the great Compton Organ, whilst Holophane lighting glowed seductively. The Capitol is unique, an outstanding building which deserves a full restoration.”¹

– The Theatres Trust.

The Capitol Cinema once captivated Aberdonians with the latest movies and an Art-Deco interior direct from a Hollywood set.

It is one of the few remaining ‘super cinemas’ from the pre-war boom, akin to the Brixton Academy or the Edinburgh Playhouse.

Though the last film was shown in the 1960s, the Capitol continued to host rock concerts² as late as 1998.

A hammer blow to the Capitol came in 2002 with the arrival of Chicago Rock/Jumping Jacks and their proposal for two separate nightclubs.

Despite public objection, Historic Scotland backed the plans and the council voted in their favour,^3,4 enabling sweeping modifications to be made to the building.

The auditorium was split horizontally in two and an all new identity, which destroyed much of the original character, was imposed. The Theatres Trust condemned the alterations as “brutal” and “a disgraceful failure of the historic building control system,” comparable only to one other in the UK, the Philharmonic Hall in Cardiff.⁵

In 2009, the Chicago Rock/Jumping Jacks owners entered receivership and the clubs were closed. The credit crunch, the smoking ban and cheap supermarket alcohol were cited as reasons for their demise.² In 2010 another planning application was submitted for full demolition of the Capitol’s auditorium and an eight storey hotel and office development being built in its place. The plan was granted approval though never implemented.

As details emerge about the new proposals, the future of the Capitol is once again in the hands of developers and a city council which believes there is neither the money nor the public demand for its restoration.²

According to the British Film Institute (BFI), this story is common across the UK. Traditional cinemas have been unable to compete with the multiplexes and their closures have contributed to the decline of many city centres. The BFI attributes this to the multiplex’s larger screen size, improved sound quality, better choice of films and greater all-round convenience.

But typically, their design is uniform and unadventurous, with many resembling industrial warehouses. Inside, multiplex auditoria are bland, blank voids, utilising the ‘black box’ concept in which the viewer has the least possible distraction from the screen.⁶

Despite the dominance of multiplexes, there are pockets of resistance. The old mining town of Bo’ness had, in the dilapidated ‘Hippodrome’, Scotland’s first purpose-built cinema. After languishing in a state of neglect for 30 years, the cinema was recently restored in spectacular style and this year proudly celebrated its centenary.

According to the Theatres Trust, community stewardship is often a theatre’s best chance of salvation. However, this takes hard work, dedication, and significant funding, which can come from grants or philanthropic sources. If the theatre is saved, the hard work continues in maintaining a programme of events and ensuring it is financially viable.⁷

This model is driving another success story in Glasgow in the Britannia Panopticon, the oldest surviving Music Hall in Britain, which at one time also functioned as a cinema. With members of the public as curators, a charitable trust has been set up with the goal of full restoration. Regular shows have resumed and the importance of the building is now being realised by the wider public.⁸

These examples show that a niche does exist for cinemas like the Capitol. Their distinctive architecture gives a true sense of theatre befitting the drama on screen which the drab, corporate, multiplex cannot rival. Their survival depends not only on the extent of historical alterations made to them but, perhaps more importantly, on how much they are valued by the public and city councils, as part of our heritage.

It is clear that in its current situation, the Capitol Cinema has a considerable mountain to climb if it is to join the Hippodrome, or the Britannia. But cinema’s greatest stars do have the habit of making the most unlikely comebacks. In the Capitol’s case, the show is not over until the curtain comes down.

References

Theatres Trust “Guide to British Theatres 1750-1950”
Aberdeen Council Planning Decision Notice for Application, Ref: P101757
Aberdeen City Planning Committee Minutes 18th April, 2002.
Aberdeen City Council Meeting Minutes Town House, 1st May, 2002.
www.theatrestrust.org.uk
British Film Institute Website
email correspondence with The Theatres Trust.
email correspondence with the Britannia Panoptican Music Hall.

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