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Film & TV on DVD - John Doe News & Reviews

Greetings Film Fiends and welcome to John Doe's Film Blog. 30 years of dedicated celluloid obsession has meant that I have seen a few films. Drawing attention to some of the lesser discussed gems that I love. Cult classics, obscure curios and quality genre pictures. This blogs purpose is to translate some of my passion for these films and with luck, inspire you the reader to go check em out.

Crime Fantasy/Adventure - Film & TV on DVD

Watchmen (2009) - Trailer Included

October 22nd 2009 00:00

The Extra Dimension to the Portrait of a Superhero

watchmen, dvd, super hero, comic book film, zack snyder, action film, alan moore

Watchmen DVD - Available in Australia

Director: Zack Snyder
Writers: David Hayter and Alex Tse
Starring: Billy Cruddup, Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jackie Earle Hayley, Mathew Goode, Carla Gugino, Matt Frewer (Dawn of the Dead), Stephen Mchattie

“Rorschach's Journal: October 12th, 1985. Tonight, a comedian died in New York.” - Rorschach

Based on the idiosyncratic Graphic Novel by Alan Moore, The Watchmen is possibly the most esoteric of all superhero films. Deemed unfilmable by the ever imaginative Terry Gilliam back in a pre CGI 1989, passing through several hands including Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass before docking in the palm of Zack Snyder. The Watchmen’ s history of getting to the big screen is as much a struggle as any cinema venture ever has been.

The much lauded and revolutionary Watchmen comic forms its mighty spine around caped avengers being treated as human beings in a real world of ambiguous motivations.

Subverting the genre and deconstructing the myth. What kind of a normal person dons a costume and fights crime? The answer is no normal person. These are dark vigilantes, deluded souls and all of them have serious psychological disorders. There are no distinct lines between good and evil, right and wrong, hero and villain.

Cleverly rewriting history in the process the story takes place in a “parallel universe” 1985. In this timeline Nixon has been in power for 5 terms, Watergate never happened and the audience knows who assassinated JFK. Tricky Dicky has banned all superheroes and is faced with the threat of nuclear Armageddon from the Russians.

The murder/mystery plot opens with the brutal, balletic death of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) by an unknown assassin. Rorschach realizes immediately that one of his own is gone and begins an obsessive search for the truth along the way recruiting other ex heroes and forcing some to ponder their choices.

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The original Minutemen

The Watchmen at the centre of this struggle are a second generation of super heroes, taking over from the Minute men of the 1950’s.

There is Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson), an inheritance rich geek deluded by idol worship who fights crime using expensive technology like Archie, his mechanical flying vehicle.

Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) is driven by serious mummy issues and is suffering an identity crisis as she uses her sexy figure as a weapon.

Rorschach (Jackie Earle Hayley) is a rage filled sociopath who only understands violence and leaves a trail of bloody carnage wherever he goes.
“I heard a joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life is harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world. Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. The great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says, "But doctor... I am Pagliacci." Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains.” - Rorscach

The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is a bigoted, racist happiest when taking lives and not opposed to raping and enjoying his work too much.

Olympidius (Matthew Goode) is the smartest man in the world with lighting fast reflexes. Cashing in on the fame afforded a hero, billionaire genius Ozymandias comes with questionable morality impaired by brutal logic.
“We can do so much more. We can save this world... with the right leadership.” - Ozymandias

The only one of the bunch with true Super powers is Dr Manhattan (Billy Cruddup). Arguably the most powerful being in any comic book universe he can manipulate all physical matter at a molecular level, experience his lifespan of time in non linear sequence and teleport. This omnipotent control and his scientifically wired brain have him detaching from humanity.

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Rorschach finds his motivation

John Doe says:

Startling CG FX are used in a nontraditional narrative structure to make the Watchmen as much a character piece as a grandly designed commentary on our self destructive nature. Jumping back and forth in time the main story is interspersed with graphic background or origin stories that give perspective on current events.

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Zack Snyder directs The Comedian

Director Zack Snyder continues his experiments in visual technology that began with a worthy Dawn of the Dead remake and led to the visceral 300. There is a level of indulgence to the film’s style that may grate on some but there is no denying the impact of the screen imagery. Snyder’s familiar soundtrack choices purposefully conflict with the established tones that are meant to accompany certain types of scenes. For instance Jimi Hendrix wailing where a Hans Zimmer score may have felt appropriate.

In truth the whole film has a streak of a mischievous 13 year old eager for audience reaction. Sex scenes are glossy and seem to come out of a Playboy shoot, but isn’t that fitting for a pair of split personality sufferers dressed in latex who decide on mutual penetration within a giant owl ship above the city? The violence and carnage is equally excessive, the filmmakers seem to be having too good of a time making it appear on screen, there’s a streak of Paul Verhoven (Robocop, Starship Troopers) in this boy me thinks.

The script was always going to be a tough hone and David Hayter (X Men 2) and Alex Tse do a pretty admirable job. There is substance to be found in their loyal adaptation of the cantankerous Alan Moore source. Sure the ending is changed, but it works for the medium. The “Black Freight” sub plot was not needed in the big picture way and the film would have been about 4 hours long with it all back in.

Those unfamiliar with the original may struggle to put the pieces of the puzzle together, but if you pay attention it is clear. The comic was presented in a similar order and never gave all the answers either making it equally thoughtful.

The acting is variable from the excellent to the abysmal. As the Edward Blake/Comedian Jeffery Dean Morgan (Taking Woodstock, Weeds) is vibrant and charismatic embracing all his characters faults (and there are many) to make a very entertaining performance.

Former child star Jackie Earle Hayley (Breaking Away, Bad news Bears, Little Children, Remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street ) is a violent, ticking-time-bomb presence that makes us feel Walter Kovacs/Rorschach’s ceaseless rage.

In the part of Dr. Manhattan / Jon Osterman actor/computer tracking device Billy Cruddup (Jesus Son, Waking the Dead, Almost Famous) had the thankless task of giving a god genuine emotions. Limited by the fact Dr Manhattan is a completely CGI creation, there are only two scenes where we actually see the unaltered actor.

Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy, Little Children) plays Nite Owl II with appropriately gawky competence. The Mr-Nice-Guy of the bunch still manages to interest next to the more intriguing members.

Sure Malin Akerman (Entourage) looks great in her Silk Spectre II costume but she is certainly the weak link where performance is questioned. Occasionally showing potential, but mostly she seems self conscious and fake in the more demanding scenes and other times is just wooden and disappears. Maybe it the urge to see what Carla Gugino (Sin City) would have looked like in that skin tight disguise that makes this verdict.

Incidentally Carla does bring the damaged melancholy of Silk Spectre I and sells the aging make up. Matthew Goode (The Lookout, Match Point) as Adrien Veidt /Ozymandias encompasses the quintessential superhero type ala Superman in looks while gleefully exposing the darker side of the propaganda image.

John Doe agrees Watchmen is not a perfect film, but it is a fantastic comic book experience for those sick of by the numbers big budget predictability and sentimentality. There is something very fresh feeling about competent adult subversion of the genre. Compared to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta this is the first worthwhile interpretation of Alan Moore’s seminal work. Remembering to have fun while captivating with cunning awareness, the kids had The Incredibles (which John Doe loves) and the big kids get Watchmen, it is that simple.

Trailer for The Watchmen

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Sorcerer (1977) - Footage Included

April 21st 2009 00:01

Monumental Sabotage and the Price of Fearful Desire

sorcerer poster, dvd, roy sheider, william friedkin, cult film, driving film, famous directors

Poster for Sorcerer - Available on DVD in the U.S.A

Director: William Friedkin
Writer: Walon Green
Starring: Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, Amidou

"There were not any effects or optical’s in those days. It was extremely difficult and hazardous. If I knew it would be such a hassle – endanger people’s lives and my own – and then meet the sort of fate that it met in some parts of the world I wouldn’t have done it. But it is the favourite of all my films”

– William Friedkin

Fuelled by excessive accolades and monumental receipts for The Exorcist and The French Connection, to discuss William Friedkin’s epic remake Sorcerer it is tough to not get bogged down in a loss of traction analysis and examination of its production and place in the lexicon of pop culture.

One must first acknowledge George Annauds intense source novel "Le Salaire de la Peur” translated to Wages of Fear. The inspiration for the revered French classic of the same name helmed by recognized maestro Henri-Georges Clouzot. (The Film is dedicated to the instrumental filmmaker)

Shot on location in Paris, Jerusalem, New Jersey and in the military dictatorship of the Dominican Republic with its unforgiving jungle. Sorcerer like Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, the war of attrition, logistical nightmares of production and its subsequent box office failure has become the stuff of cinema legend.

Harsh weather destroyed sets. Friedkin’s stubborn perfectionism elevated the budget. Cast and crew were pushed to breaking point. The sum of all these parts echoes many of the films key themes and tone. For instance a perilous bridge crossing which is one of the films centre pieces was destroyed or unsuccessful a trio of times at a price tag of a million dollars a pop.

See what I mean, JD is 220 words in to his review and hasn’t even scratched the chassis of what the movie is about or began critiquing.

Insert Jump cut.

Sorcerer is a harrowing journey into the obsessive bowels of madness.
Here’s a high concept pitch, this is the thrilling tale of 4 men who must navigate the perilous mountain terrain of South America driving trucks laden with volatile nitroglycerin. One bump or wrong move will cause explosive consequences.

"We're carrying three cases each. One is enough to blow out your fire, six cases will blow out the whole field. That means you don't think all the trucks will make it, one of us is a backup." - Dominguez

The story begins with extended character prologues. A petty crook (Roy Scheider), a terrorist (Amidou), a corrupt banker (Bruno Cremer) and an enigmatic slime (Franciso Rabal) with no links, all from different corners of the globe end up fleeing punishments to an isolated, impoverished South American Village.

These are desperate men trapped in a world they want no part of. Cornered, forced to work together despite personal animosity or they will die. The only way out is to take on the suicidal task of transporting explosives to rescue an oil refinery under attack.

"Listen Pancho, I've been clocking you every second you've been in this town. If you wanna pick your nose in this truck, you better clear it with me first, otherwise I'm taking you and this nitro right into a ditch! " - Dominguez

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The toughest truck around, it's name Sorcerer

John Doe says:
A brooding, fatalistic tour deforce carried by brutally intense suspense drawn out to unbearable proportions. Balancing a verite attitude within a ludicrous conceit, the film replaces the adventurous tone of the original for a dark examination of humans pushed beyond the realm of sanity to survive.

Motivated by personal demons and manipulated by circumstance there is a palpable fear and surreal air to the end result.

Director Willaim Friedkin (To Live and Die in LA, Cruisin’) entered the project as glory boy and was expelled out the other side as a perceived failure. What was once a bright future forever tarnished to this day.

In his own words the title and its purpose are:

"The Sorcerer is an evil wizard and in this case the evil Wizard is fate, it’s more a film about fate and about the mystery of fate. The fact that somebody can walk out of their front door and a hurricane can take them away, an earthquake or something falling through the roof or something. And the idea that we don’t really have control over our own fates, neither our births nor our deaths, it’s something that has haunted me since I was intelligent enough to contemplate something like it."

(Quote from Wikipedia.com)

Admittedly there are faults to be found, the first half hour is disjointed much like the central figures. Audiences at the time did not adapt to the use of subtitles for the sequences on foreign shores. Let’s not forget 1977 was the year that Star Wars and Smokey and the Bandit became cultural phenomenon’s.

Damn. Again Mr Doe is diverted from the task at hand and indiscreetly attempts to defend the cult gem.

Adapted for the screen by Wild Bunch scribe Walon Green, the dialogue is tough and there is a no nonsense air to the action as written. The geographical set pieces and rampant symbolism astonish with dexterous staging.

Shot with manic energy, the Direction and Cinematography communicate a truth that seldom feels manufactured. Lacking special effects most of the major risks were done for real with the leading actors serving as stuntmen in most cases. As a result the element of realism and genuine danger is never far from the surface. There is a sense of awed wonderment in viewing some of the more intricate sequences like the annihilation of a log that blocks the drivers path.

The sound design of the film boosts the claustrophobic urgency and acting in conjunction with the surreal electronic score by Tangerine Dream.

Originally intended as a vehicle for Steve Mcqueen, Friedkin says :

“As good as I think Sorcerer is, it was really written for Steve McQueen and I will always have a soft spot in my heart that I never made it with him. But I think Roy Scheider did a fine job with it and it’s probably the one film of mine I can still watch.”

(Quote from The Directors Take Two by Robert J Emery)

Working together on The French Connection The Director and Brody himself Roy Scheider developed a short hand that brought out the best in the actor. Here he is at his deadly serious best. Tortured and determined with eyes of pained torment Scheider envelopes his damaged character.

The rest of the cast succeed in delivering naturalistic performances that never appear forced. There is a relentless tension always visible in the dynamics of the group that are as crooked as they are admirable. The numerous extras and smaller parts filled by authentic locals complete the illusion that makes every scene reek of 3rd world decay and pestilence.

Johnny D is obviously a fan of this misunderstood and over dissected work. Yet another example of genius muted. Punctuating the public’s insatiable need for generic distractions that exist in a one dimensional, disposable experience best left in the confines of an unlit cinema.

The oddly constructed trailer for Sorcerer

A themed montage of sequences set to the haunting tangerine Score

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The Dark Knight (2008) - Footage Included

August 29th 2008 01:19

The Many Sides of the Good Guys and the Bad Guys

Some early leaked concepts for the Dark Knight on DVD

Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher and Jonathon Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Eric Roberts, Heath Ledger, Anthony Michael Hall.

“...So we’ll hunt him because he can take it.” - Gordon

Darker and more intense than any of its predecessors, this is the batman movie for the 30 year old geek boy age. In this sequel Director Christopher Nolan who helmed Batman Begins, continues to distil the shadow cloaked psychological violence of the bat as seen by Frank Miller in the graphic Novels “The Dark Knight Returns” and “Batman: Year One”.

Drawing on Alan Moore’s gritty and inventive comic, “The Killing Joke” and Grant Morrison’s "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth" for inspiration, Nolan’s exciting second chapter of the Caped Crusader lives up to the hype.

The faces in the Knight

The Dark Knight opens with an intensely thrilling bank heist reminiscent of Michael Mann’s Heat setting the tone for the next 2 plus hours of involving action. A madman is on the loose in the Gotham, an enigmatic anarchist, an urban terrorist intent on destroying the last remanent of morality in the city. Known only as the Joker (Heath Ledger), he has worked his way into the criminal underworld.
“Nothing. No matches on prints, DNA, dental. Clothing is custom, no labels. Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint. No name, no other alias.” - Gordon

Hope for the city comes not from the bat but in the form of white knight District Attorney Harvey Dent. A stoic and determined believer in justice who also happens to be romancing Bruce Wayne’s flame Rachael Dawes.

Tackling the complexities of vigilante justice and existing on an invisible line that a crime fighter must walk in order to quash his enemies without becoming that which he despises most. The film is loaded with relevant social sub text regarding the nature of the war on terror and the powerful machinations of pure intentions corrupted.

The Bat stalks and the Joker takes action.

John Doe Says:
Many are claiming the film reinvents the comic book genre. John Doe won’t go that far, but it certainly continues to evolve the adult extensions began with Alex Proyas’ The Crow, and Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City. It is easy to draw comparisons between the film and Cinema classics like Citizen Kane and even Hearts of Darkness reworking like Apocalypse Now.

The tight narrative ensures the viewer is constantly assessing the plot. Dwelling on the similarities between each of its 3 leads, the screenplay by the brothers Nolan exploits the character dynamics to become a triage coin of psychological examination.

The set pieces are astonishing in their authenticity. Utilising all the technical tricks of manipulation, the sound design and cinematography invest the viewer in the heart of each fresh visual maelstrom.

Christian Bale (American Psycho, Emperor of the Sun) is again the embodiment of the flawed human superhero playing the Batman. Brooding and driven by rage he is assured as the bat. In the role of alter ego Bruce Wayne he effectively communicates the uncertain struggle to find an artificial personality that can exude the illusion of truth.

Much has been made of Heath Ledger’s final cinema outing as the maniacal and unhinged Joker. Some of the praise is justified, though Oscar Nomination rumours over state his effectiveness. For every moment where Ledger embodies the jester of death with clairvoyant body language and slow drawling line delivery, there is also several opportunities missed. Growing into the part his diabolical psychosis becomes more pronounced. This may have been a conscious decision for a character arc, as the Jokers exploits become more successful so to does the confidence grow, sadly though this means that any menace or threat of intent is subdued.

If JD was to signal out one great performance, it has to be Aaron Eckhart (Thursday, In the Company of Men) as Harvey “Two Face” Dent. Continuing on from his strong turn in Thank You for Smoking, Eckhart brings dimension and humanity to his part. The subtle internal transformation realised with cloaked facial expressions a precursors to the external tragic villainy to come.

Where he is normally the extroverted villain in films like True Romance and Leon The Professional, here the versatile Gary Oldman brings a genuine tenderness as the incorruptible Officer Gordon.

The film is not without its faults. Maggie Gyllenhaal (Secretary) makes the most of what’s on the page for Rachael Dawes. Sadly the part is underwritten and as a result we don’t quite connect on the emotional level necessary to carry the suspense of one of the films major dramatic revelations.

An armoured van seemingly constructed from the same material as Superman’s torso also stands out as a minor quibble in suspension of disbelief.

Over all this is a gritty and authentic adventure that drags a fictional hero into the real world and revels in convincing us to believe. Fast and savage, the running time passes by with seldom a pause. A pop culture landmark sure to be dissected and reconstructed several times in the coming years.

The Dark Knight is an intelligent action film with plenty of substance, everything a big budget blockbuster should aspire to. But be warned the cost of such an exercise means it is not family friendly and caters to a more mature audience.

Now as a treat here are some FAN MADE posters for Batman 3.