Four Lions

Omar (Ahmed), a radicalised British Muslim, has formed a terrorist cell with his dim-witted brother Waj (Novak), angry white convert Barry (Lindsay) and apprehensive bomb-maker Fessal (Akhtar). While Omar and Waj are in Pakistan at a Mujaheddin training camp, Barry recruits would-be rapper Hassan (Ali) to the group. Returning to Britain, Omar reveals his plans for a suicide bomb attack against an unexpected Western target.

Now the a comedy about would-be suicide bombers might not be every ones cup of tea but it certainly is my kind of black humour.
And the fact that it is a movie by Chris Morris sealed the deal for me, but to be honest i got more than i was hoping for.

The movie follows a small cell of radical Muslims who wish to be part of the jihad against western society, however they are mostly held back by their own flaws, stupidity being the biggest flaw in most of the group.
These four friends live on the fringes of society in dead-end jobs dreaming of greater glory, particularly for their fellow Muslim's; unfortunately their solution to train as 'ideological soldiers' forming their own cell to hit back at the oppressive and uncaring authorities will result in farce with both tragic and comic consequences.
The story of losers on the edge of society desperate to be somebody is a familiar theme, but I bet it has never been tackled in this way before!
The humour, both slapstick and extremely black, is on the surface for all to see and laugh at, and there is plenty of those moments throughout.
Barry's idea to bomb a mosque along with Omar's misfiring of a rocket launcher are prime examples of the laugh out loud moments in the movie, along with the would be suicide bombers disguised in fancy dress costumes ready to bomb a marathon.
The characters are well drawn, particularly cynical family man Omar and the 'wannabe' who tries too hard, Barry. Faisal and Waj manage to create mirth and elicit sympathy and empathy from the audience at the same time. The film walks a tightrope and in lesser creative hands could easily have fallen flat on its face; but thanks to the heartfelt performances of everyone this works well as both comedy and tragedy.

The subplot of Omar and his wife, a very touching story of a man willing to sacrifice himself for a cause he believes in and the acceptance of his wife that he doing the right thing would be as perfectly at home in a high quality drama as it is here bring heart and reality to this comedy.

Putting a human face to suicide bombers is a bold thing to do, especially in the comedy genre but it works here. Very dark humour and at times deeply poignant, the tough subject matter may be unpalatable to some but this is a well intentioned and well executed (pardon the unintentional pun) project. This is undoubtedly the most unusual films to fall into the British comedy category, but is probably one of the best.


8/10

Attack The Block

When a group of feral aliens starts terrorising the denizens of a South London tower block, it’s left to a gang of hoodies and a trainee nurse they’ve just mugged to band together and fight back.

This movie has found considerably more success in the US than in the UK, which is a little surprising.
Firstly it a very enjoyable movie but suffers little from a lack of focus to one genre. Its not scary enough to be a horror, its not funny enough to be a comedy and it lacks enough alien action to be sci-fi but i saying that it does sit nicely enough in the middle of those three genres.

A group of inner city thugs have to defend there 'block' from an alien invasion, the premise is so enticing and as soon as i heard about this i was looking forward to it.
The cast are the highlight of the movie, every member of the gang plays their part perfectly, Pest in particular, who gives a great performance and has a bright future ahead of him. His performance reminded me a little of Jamie Bell.

But its the story that lets these kids down. While not a bad story, and capturing the feel of the block perfectly, fast paced and exciting in parts, the characters have no believable redemptive arcs as you would expect in this kind of movie.
We first meet our 'heroes', a group of young inner city thugs led by Moses, played brilliantly by John Boyega, as they mug a young nurse at knife point and soon encounter and kill an alien that crashes into a car. They proceed to march to the local drug dealers flat all the while parading the dead alien as a trophy. And while at the drug dealers apartment Moses is promoted to a cocaine dealer. Now throughout the movie they encounter the young nurse, Sam, again and are forced to tea-up, in order to survive the arrival of many more, even bigger, fiercer aliens.

Pest: "That's and alien bruv, believe it."

That brings up the highlight of the movie, the aliens. The design and execution of these aliens is amazing. the simple yet original design is the one thing that elevates this movie above average to thoroughly enjoyable.
The design is simple, large apelike creatures that are 'blacker than black' and have large luminous teeth are the best creature design that I've seen in a movie in ages!
But the inability to sympathise with the characters is the movies downfall, and probably seeing youths like this all the time around London is a reason that sympathy is not quickly forthcoming is why the movie was not a s well received in the UK as it was in the US.

While it does try to show us that there is more to these inner city youths than meets the eye, something in which it fails, if it concentrated more on the atmosphere and sci-fi/horror aspects of the movie that were extremely promising it would be a far superior movie.
Despite its flaws its still an enjoyable movie.


6/10

House Of 1000 Corpses

Two young couples seek refuge in completely the wrong house - that of a scary, dark witchcraft-practising, cannibalistic family - in the back woods of America after their car breaks down

House Of 1000 Corpses start off as a run of the mill slasher/evil family horror, much of which has been seen before. Disposable teens on road trip encounter car problems and end up at the mercy of a psychotic hillbilly family.
But there comes a point in this movie where the tone slightly shifts and becomes in my opinion a little confused within itself.

The first half of the movie, as mentioned above, is fairly bog standard horror fair.
The couples encounter car trouble but with the help of a stranger end up in a house in the middle of nowhere, amid a creep family and soon they are set upon and some are murdered in gruesome fashion. This has been done before and done better but that doesn't mean to say that its not a little enjoyable if you are a fan of horror.

Zombie brings his own style to the movie, with plenty of cut away scenes showing the torture of some previously kidnapped cheerleaders.
I particular Zombie shows his skill and style when the cops arrive at the farm house to investigate, his use of slow-motion, score and lingering shots are stunning and proves he has potential as a film maker.
The performance are suitably over the top, in particular by Bill Mosely as Otis, who appears to be a deranged Charles Manson style character, often seen almost preaching his views on the world. Sid Haig, Karen Black and Sheri Moon, all perfect for their roles, give good performances too.
But it is the shift in the movie that lets it down, the 'sacrifice' performed in the graveyard seems like a fitting end to the movie, possible leading to the survival girls escape, but alas, that is not to be.
We are suddenly thrown into a different movie, we find ourselves underground amidst the steampunk-esque Doctor Satan and his creations, one of which seems to be some kind of mutant creature that would be more at home in a Resident Evil movie.

And its this descent into madness, if you will that leaves a baffled and slightly sour taste in the mouth that stops this from being a solidly enjoyable horror movie. Overall the movie shows that Zombie has a style of his own and is willing to take chances with a movie but those chances let him down on this occasion


5/10

Machete

Mexican Federale Machete (Trejo), a stone-faced killing machine named after his weapon of choice, flees to the United States after he is betrayed by his bosses. Coerced into an assassination attempt on a corrupt US Senator (De Niro), he finds himself on the run again and falls in with an underground cabal of militant illegal immigrants led by the feisty Luz (Rodriguez).

After the release and mixed success of the Grindhouse movies, Rodriguez set about creating the full lenght movie to accompany his much loved trailer that accompanied the afore mentioned Grindhouse movies, Machete.
The trailer was one of the most enjoyable parts of the Grindhouse movies and the call for the movie to be made rang out loud and clear, the people wanted Machete!!
And Rodriguez gave them Machete!

The movie pivots on the performance and presence of Danny Trejo, who it seems was born to play this role, he looks and acts the part to perfection, and once you see him wield his machete, then you just know that no one else can play this part! While by no means a great actor Trejo does all that's required of him and clearly relishes the pat and the great one-liners that go with it.

Sartana: "Why didn't you send me a text?"

Machete: "Machete don't text."

What raises "Machete" above the level of forgettable cinema though, is the cast and crew's full-on embrace of the concept and vision. That Rodriguez was able to land legitimate talent like De Niro and Alba, combine them with the under-appreciated Jeff Fahey and Michelle Rodriguez and nearly forgotten players like Cheech Marin and Don Johnson, then get all them to come together and not only embrace but enjoy the often over the top but always enjoyable performances.

Like many classic exploitation romps, Machete has intentionally corny subtext as well as ridiculously excessive violence. The immigration issue is obviously something very close to Robert Rodriguez, and he conveys everything he has to say about it as he does best; through celluloid.
As you would expect, all this subtext isn't subtle in the slightest sense; it's overbearing and incredibly crude like the majority of exploitation films that trod this fickle path back in the day. But fuck it, you can't deny that Rodriquez has crafted one genuinely great homage through this deft accuracy, as he nails the tone of exploitation as well as carrying on with the visceral components that have become popular in recent mainstream cinema.

Of course, the blood comes in gallons as Machete offs his adversaries in creatively excessive and ridiculous fashion, packed to the brim with hilarious one-liners and slapstickery. The cast is nothing short of awesome as it meshes insanely beautiful women, acclaimed actors, B-Grade powerhouses and dirty Hollywood whores for strikingly wide pallet of personalities who light up the screen in their own special ways. The sword-fight between Danny Trejo and Steven Seagal was utter awesomeness incarnate.

Overall, this is a fun and genuine homage to B-Grade cinema. I recommend it to all genre fans, plus people who just want a good time while watching a movie.


8/10