October is Coming!

Like last year, I will be reviewing the darker, creepier, weirder and scarier side of films throughout October!* It is my way of getting people into the Halloween spirit, of which there isn't enough of in this country! :D


Get ready for some Dark Cocoa, are there any suggestions of scary films I may not have seen??






*Apologies if some less-than-scary films appear. You never can tell sometimes!

Review: Hua Mulan

Having just watched Disney's Mulan I thought I would give the authentic live-action retelling of the legendary story a shot! 
I loved House of Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger and Red Cliff, but unfortunately Hua Mulan does not join the ranks of those films... not even close.
The film opens with the most bizarre shot, a man in a Chinese army camp who clearly wasn't Chinese. I had to tell myself that this was indeed an oriental picture... yet as infrequent as this man appears, he isn't explained. I had to research a man called Vitas, a Russian pop singer who guest stars in Hua Mulan, having helped promote the film.............
What?
I shouldn't go on about him, but he's really distracting! The film does have decent production value, and (otherwise!) decent casting, so everything locks up whenever he appears.
But the nail in this film's coffin unfortunately is the pacing. We are given ten minutes of scattershot backstory for our heroine; a mash of flashbacks and lazy editing, giving no sense of humanity to the character as she's thrown into the military.
Once there, the film attempts to form relationships around her, but the writing is so heavy that none of the dialogue feels genuine, there was little chemistry. Ultimately events feel forced and contrived having been given little context or narrative foundation, making for the often flashy combat scenes feel quite unsatisfying.
A very poor screenplay and shoddy editing cannot be saved by decent battle scenes, and so I recommend Disney's vision any day!

Review: Patriot Games

A solid 90s action/thriller, but it might feel a little lukewarm by today's standards.
When an IRA bomber's attack on British royalty is dramatically foiled by a retired American marine-turn author, he plots to extract revenge on the man's family for the death of his brother.
Harrison Ford plays the handsome and vigilant hero we have always known, this time determined to protect his loving wife and daughter from an increasingly vengeful Sean Bean (who does his best at an Irish accent). But perhaps it being based off a Tom Clancy novel, I was expecting it to feel more involved than it ultimately proved to be.
The movie's beginning and end have some excellent action and Clancy's iconic military combat/warfare scenarios, but the middle of the film felt awfully lost with extraneous details. While Ford's family feels indeed genuine, and the threat feels dangerous, I wasn't on the edge of my seat as much as I should have been.
Also, I did not expect this film to get the good-looking Ford to smirk the word "tits" in such an isolated, deliberate fashion! Made me laugh and immediately check that he did indeed say it.
An exciting conclusion, some good acting within the family unit sparks good threat, but some of the story feels like padding.

Additional Marshmallows: I know that composers generally have a "style" that defines them and similarities between scores will occur, but James Horner could have toned down the cues from Aliens! I was half expecting Ellen Ripley to walk into frame!

Review: Batman Beyond - Return of the Joker

I know next to nothing about Batman Beyond, but I have been fortunately watching through Batman The Animated Series recently, discovering the surprisingly rich devotion the character has been given. Truly the dark knight is one of the most timeless comic book heroes to date.
No better example of this than the Return of the Joker animated feature. While it is short, less grand in its music and has an awkward twist, it definitely feels like a fitting epilogue to the wonderfully dark children's show that I am only just discovering (sadly).
Batman Beyond is set in the heady future of Gotham (lasers, hover cars, everything) a new Batman protects the innocent, Terry McGinnis, and an ageing Bruce Wayne mentors him (voiced by Kevin Conroy). This feature unveils the Joker's return to this futuristic world to terrorise the duo, and dig up the dark secrets of Wayne's past.
If this wasn't enough, the feature cements Mark Hamill's ongoing  performance as the Joker. Truly the man has delved deep for such an unsettling, cruel-yet-entertaining character, and the feature relishes in his presence. Hamill should be recognised as one of the greatest Jokers; his own spin on the multi-faceted character is unique. 
If you followed the Animated Show to its conclusion, I sense that this feature is definitely worth your time. It feels like a conclusion to an era, a bridging of generations and proof that the Dark Knight will last for a long time yet.

With Dark Knight Rises approaching, I am swatting up on my Batman movies! That will be a long and interesting Cinema Cocoa post.

Banter: Source Code to Small Screen

So having just watched the unique film by Duncan Jones, and wrote a glowing review of it last night (it is easily in my top 10 for this year) I come to learn they are making a television show!


CBC has claimed the rights to the movie... and I just realised I cannot discuss much in detail without spoiling the mystery of the movie to those unfamiliar!
However the idea of turning small, underrated movies into television shows appears to be Hollywood's newest trick. Both Taken and The Transporter have been considered for small-screen productions. The latter (as awful as the sequels were) is slightly more realistic than Taken; I can't imagine the mental scarring from someone's daughter being kidnapped on a weekly basis!
I jest.
But is it a good move, turning popular often cult movies into TV shows? I think it certainly could be worse, we could get awful sequels that tarnish the name of the original film by being parodies (Source Code 2: This Time its Personal) whereas a television show needs to expand what has been laid down in order to fill a whole season's story arc.
A prime example (ironically as I have also discussed this already!) is Terminator 3 versus The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Now lets ignore the raging Arnold fans who will defend to the death T3's superiority and consider this. SCC had more than a few similarities with T3, yet without the weight of Terminator 2 on its shoulders, and the requirement of a storyline larger than "Must Kill John Connor", the television show was the stronger piece. Sure it was flawed, but it was unique. Plus if you don't like the show, you aren't obligated to register it (unlike if it were part of the same canon or saga).


Ultimately, a television show of Source Code could well be a good move. And while it may be Quantum Leap in disguise (highlight if you are okay with slight spoiler material), I think it's better than a network simply remaking that show instead! 
We lose out on an unsightly movie sequel, and stop a remake... Win-Win?


Source Code the TV show is due to arrive in 2012.

Review: Source Code

I really didn't expect too much from Source Code... but wow was I wrong! It might be because I'm a sci-fi junkie, or that it was much more brain-food than advertised, but this properly surprised me with its ingenuity.
Through an advanced piece of technology a man is continuously sent back in time to prevent a train bombing, but only has eight minutes in each attempt to do it.
I really can't say more about the plot because it would spoil too much. The plot initially is confusing and awkward, but like fresh puzzle pieces tossed out of their box and assembled, the film evolves and builds upon itself with frequent revelations about what's really going on.
I'm genuinely surprised how no one told me to see this sooner, did no one go to see it? It might prove confusing to some, and the ending might lose people, but if you have a mind for science fiction you will enjoy this.
The film is short, wonderfully precise with no extra baggage or exposition than it requires, the characters are realised just enough to keep us invested and to learn more through its reiterating narrative. Possibly one of the most original concepts I've seen in a film in a long time! (in fact I had to check it was an original screenplay!) It is like a sci-fi Groundhog Day with Christopher Nolan's sensibilities.
I urge you to go and see this, and do not read up about the plot before you do!

Review: Mulan

Having ignored most of Disney's 2D offerings after Aladdin (not that I didn't like Aladdin, I very much did) discovering them now always makes me wary. But luckily Mulan proves to be a late, but great, bloomer.
While it has some of the typical Disney trappings, this ancient Chinese legend is brought to life with a refreshing weight of sincerity; a clumsy and emotionally lost young girl must find herself and restore her family's honour, joining the Chinese military's fight against the Hun invasion. 
Aided by Eddie Murphy as a ancestral dragon spirit. What. 

Mulan's tale fits for a Disney classic, but unlike other princesses that have come and gone, I did feel a lot of sympathy for the character, who is certainly a strong female role-model.
Yes there are songs, but the music pieces are not misplaced or too frequent and only add emotion to the scenes. (like all good musicals should, he says as someone not fond of musicals!) While Murphy is a spirit dragon, I suppose he should stand out from the crowd! 
A mature tale, with tight humour and action around a woman masquerading in the army and enough colour, threat and morality to make it an excellent family movie. I would recommend it to anyone.

Saga Review: Terminator

The Terminator directed by James Cameron was one of the several elite films released the year I was born! Besides this, I have a long-lasting memory of the Terminator 2 trailer on TV; they had the Terminator endoskeletons being built on a production line. Like Aliens, The Terminator became something of an obsession of mine.

I still have the toy of the endoskeleton, the one with the red plastic in its head that made its eyes glow; I loved that figure! Incredibly well preserved too; his legs are really wobbly and his power-punch ability... isn't too powerful anymore. A few years ago I found a McFarlane endoskeleton figure with working pistons. Awesome! He stands next to my Alien figure now.
I remember in Primary School I made a talk about my "favourite villains" in film. The T-1000 from Terminator 2 was one of them. That means my parents let me watch that film as young as ten.  True... the nightmare scene about Judgement Day terrified me. It really did.




It was a long time before I actually saw The Terminator, the original film, which is a lot more of a horror film than a blockbuster sci-fi like T2. But god is it good. Arnold Schwarzenegger's best role (undoubtedly!) as a relentless killing machine hunting down Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor.
Interestingly, the idea for this film was based on an illustration James Cameron had painted depicting a metal skeleton rising from fire. No wonder the plot of this film is so messed up!

The future has already happened but we are in 1984. John Connor, leader of the resistance against SkyNet - an artificial intelligence bent on destroying the human race - sends one of his soldiers, Kyle Reese, to 1984 to protect his mother Sarah after the machines send back a Terminator. However, Kyle Reese is actually John's father!
See... the series started with a paradox! It is already broken!

Still, the film itself is excellent and for its time and budget had some incredible special effects; the Terminator becoming increasingly battered and having to cut its own eyeball out, to a fully functioning, 
life size endoskeleton! The film is intense, a constant chase sequence that doesn't let you go until the 
very, very end. Great music, incredibly well paced and good use of colours and lighting to make a bleak, harsh mood that only exaggerates the killer's presence even when he isn't on screen. Classic. 

Arguably the best of the series, though in watching them all together, The Terminator is ultimately the better picture for sake of its simplicity and T2's occasional mistakes. The plot is the same; SkyNet tries again and sends a new, more terrible Terminator, the T-1000 back through time, only this time young John Connor is the target. The human resistance sends a new guardian, a reprogrammed Terminator, to protect him.
This film undoubtedly catapulted Arnie's career. While the narrative of the once merciless, butchering machine now being a protector is greatly entertaining, the public took to Arnie's Terminator being the good guy too far. (see Terminator 3)
The film is incredible and won many awards for ground-breaking special effects from ILM, stunt work and action sequences. I was obsessed with it for a long time. While he is quipping immortal one-liners, Arnie still plays the Terminator well, walking the cliche line of a machine learning what it is to be human, without becoming unbearable. But it is the action that make this film; from Arnie reloading a shotgun by flipping it around in one hand while riding a motorbike, to the finale at the steel mill.
One of the greatest action films ever made? Without doubt.

Oh dear. I mean oh deeear [rant mode activated] Now I remember seeing this film in the cinema and thinking afterwards "well... it wasn't too bad..." But when I watch them all in sequence? How glaringly BAD this film is. No wonder I didn't want the DVD.
Terminator 3 is a parody of Terminator 2, with the script that a 12 year old could write. I am not kidding when I say that, when I was that age  I thought of two things: a female terminator, and a terminator endoskeleton coated in T-1000 liquid. OH, if only I knew I'd just invented the villain for a film ten years in the making.

From the word go, this film is not a good Terminator film. The awesome main theme is gone. There's NO music, and not even the Terminator typeface for the title. What, they couldn't get the rights to the original material? 
Next, we are presented with the Terminatrix (gettit?) or T-X, who does the classic arrival sequence, but in a clothes shop window. Naturally this Terminator is played by blonde fashion model, later seen in Bloodrayne (I guess T3 did wonders for her career) and has inflating breasts. I'm not kidding.
The film is just bad. Bad and broken. From Arnie having to take the clothes from a stripper at a hen night, wearing stupid rose-tinted star glasses, to just really clunky action sequences which feel drawn out and boring. The music also continues to suck; not playing at all before reappearing randomly in the middle of an action sequence. 
It isn't just these obvious problems with it that bother me. Terminator 2 ended with a great, inspiring conclusion that only science fiction can deliver, the chance to fight the future, and as a kid that had moved me. Terminator 3 just ditches it completely, it takes that moving philosophical debate and shouts "You cannot stop fate!"

To salvage the franchise from the barrel-scraping Hollywood-safe formula it would take effort, and while Salvation is by far the perfect blockbuster it should have been (the 12A / PG13 rating did not help) it could have been a lot worse! I for one am glad old Arnie was busy in politics!
So finally, after years of waiting, we get to see the apocalyptic Future War of the Terminator series. Finally we aren't rehashing the "Hunt Connor family" formula. 
Terminators are everywhere in this blasted and ruinous future, humanity is on the brink of extinction, and John Connor has grown into the saviour-to-be his mother had been always told he would become. My inner child was pleased.
Surprisingly the film was hesitant to revolve around Christian Bale's Connor entirely, preferring to develop Sam Worthington's Marcus and his backstory. Is this bad? Not exactly, Marcus allows us to see a little more of SkyNet and how it functions, both in the past and in the future.
The set pieces are simple but effective, unmemorable characters and a few notable cinematic flaws, however to see real (not CGI) Terminators again, and to see a reconstructed Arnold, was a chilling blast from the 1980s! Plus, could this be the only film that is almost a sequel and a prequel? Also, if you ignore the dates and the "nuclear fuel cell" nonsense, you can pretend Terminator 3 never happened!


It is no T2 is terms of action, or T1 in its integrity, but it beats the prosthetic skin off T3.  

So, how do I feel about the future of the franchise? Well I knew that Salvation director McG had big plans for a "Future War" trilogy, and while I would love to see that realised, what I had read of the storyline felt a little nonsensical. I don't think Salvation did enough for him to keep the gig anyway.
What about the rumours (I nearly wrote humour there) of Arnold Schwarzenegger returning? Ugh... I really don't agree with the idea.  Unless they do some crazy CG work on his features the film will not take place in the future, and I heard rumours of him playing the scientist who created the T-800 Terminator. All I can imagine with this idea is Terminator's answer to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Hmm, and when has Arnie ever played a scientist...? Hmmm.. oh yeah, Batman and Robin and Junior.
Yeah, no.
Can people PLEASE stop asking for him to reprise the Terminator? Salvation pulled it off as best you can get, deal with it. Its just depressing when these timeless, ageless characters start showing wrinkles. 


I could go into Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show... but while there were some decent performances and soundtrack choices, I never really got hooked on it. Summer Glau as a Terminator was unique but unconvincing (Shirley Manson as a T-1000 though was pretty special for me, as a fan of her rock band Garbage!) and alas it remained firmly rooted in the "Hunting Connor Family" formula, which I have already expressed my opinion of. However, kudos are given for completely bypassing Terminator 3, literally; they create new canon for the franchise that ignores that film's existence. That is gold. 


Consider yourself terminated having read such a long post!

Banter: Shooooes (??)

Did you know that Nike, the mega shoe corporation, has finally pulled through and made the shoes Michael J. Fox wore in Back to the Future 2??

Nike "Air Mag" shoes

Pretty cool right? Though what bothers me slightly is how they don't have "Power Laces", the sort that made Marty McFly exclaim in the movie. Ah well, no flying cars yet so I guess I'm asking too much!

On the subject of shoes, check these out:

Yeeeeaah! Ellen Ripley's shoes from the only horror-action film that counts, Aliens. I think these Reebok's are pretty awesome, with all of their mid-80s sci-fi looks, although I'm not sure about the xenomorph inspired pattern on the sole. Wouldn't that weird Ripley out wearing shoes with that on the sole?

Who'd have thought my first banter post would be about shoes.

Review: Sucker Punch

On face value, Sucker Punch is exactly my sort of film. A metaphysical action movie packed with artistic shot composition, mashing science fiction and fantasy at every turn, all with a dark narrative tying it together, oh, and girls with swords and guns. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite satisfy.
I'd like to distance myself from those who condemn it for having no story, Sucker Punch does have a great narrative behind it, a story about strength, the search for confidence and to fight against circumstance. However by the end of the movie I felt a little cheated; a lack of character development and focus made the experience more like a music video than an inspiring character piece, making its message feel more than a little "tagged on".
However, the visuals are superb, as you would expect from Zack Synder - the man really knows how to photograph scenes like pieces of art. It isn't objectifying women either, in fact it is quite the opposite.

Final verdict is that it requires more than one viewing, a great visual and audio experience (I want the soundtrack!) but just shy of greatness with a lack of explanation and development.

The Big Question First

So being quite obsessed with watching and critiquing films, everyone always asks "What are your favourite films?" and what better way to start Cinema Cocoa than with my top fifty list of favourite films?

This is quite an undertaking, and it has been ponderously developing over the last few weeks. Movies are wonderful things though, how everyone can have such radically different opinions on one piece of film, such is the way with all art! As such, this blog is my own opinion :) I have chosen the films that either influenced me personally, surprised me with their quality, or are simply films I grew up with and cannot speak a bad word against!
And as they are all my very favourites, there are little gaps in favouritism! I suppose you can rant about your own favourite not being on it though!

01 - Pan's Labyrinth
02 - Aliens
03 - The Matrix
04 - Amelie
05 - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
06 - Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
07 - The Shawshank Redemption
08 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day
09 - The Terminator
10 - The Princess Bride
11 - Star Wars
12 - Jurassic Park
13 - Ghostbusters
14 - The Fifth Element
15 - Spirited Away
16 - Sleeping Beauty
17 - Alien
18 - How to Train Your Dragon
19 - Inception
20 - Oldboy
21 - Back to the Future
22 - Back to the Future Part 2
23 - Toy Story
24 - The Dark Knight
25 - A Flight of Dragons
26 - Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
27 - Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
28 - Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
29 - Back to the Future 3
30 - District 9
31 - Batman Returns
32 - Batman
33 - Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
34 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
35 - The Usual Suspects
36 - Monty Python and the Holy Grail
37 - Gladiator
38 - Finding Nemo
39 - Pulp Fiction
40 - Ocean's Eleven
41 - Transformers: The Movie
42 - Transformers
43 - Jason and the Argonauts
44 - The Fugitive
45 - The Nightmare before Christmas
46 - Scrooged
47 - Stranger than Fiction
48 - Tron Legacy
49 - Pirates of the Caribbean and the Curse of the Black Pearl
50 - Tron

As such, Cinema Cocoa is a go-go! I shall post up film reviews and any other such nonsense I feel like talking about at length!