Film Review - Fury

Film Review - Fury 

Starring Brad Pitt directed by David Ayre 

 In 1998  Steven Speilberg changed how we viewed the Second World War with his multi award winning film Saving Private Ryan. From its harrowing portrayal of the D Day landings. To the graphic scenes of death and destruction. The film exposed the grim reality of the horrors of war. 

David Ayre's latest Film 'Fury' continues in that vein with that same raw theme of the intensity and ultimately the futility of battle 

Brad Pitt leads a war weary tank crew in the final trek across Germany   during the final days of world war II. It's a film that lacks any traces of humour or humanity. It shows war at its most brutal. And it paints a picture as scary and as frightening as any horror film. 

Director Ayre has managed to capture the pressure cooker intensity of being under fire in a tank. The opening credits reveal the huge casualties the crews suffered and you quickly become aware of the dangers involved.

Bradd Pitt last foray into battle was in Quentin Tarentino's satirical 'Inglorious Bastards'. This is a far more serious role, and Pitt gives a strong edgy performance as the tanks commander, fighting a war not only with his killing machine, but with his own inner demons hidden from his men by a required hard shell exterior. 

 His rag tag crew make no attempt to conceal their inner fears they are portrayed as physiologically on the edge. And this is only heightened by the  introduction of a new'rookie' crew member played by Logan Leman 

The brutality and cruelty of the allied troops, both in and out of the tank are exposed in one harrowing scene portraying the .'' realities of war  and the image of  the frightened 'newbie' Leman. Being screamed at by Pitt to either 'kill or be Killed' 

'This is is an honest but hard bitten expose of war at its most desperate. The killing fields of Europe are littered with the glorious and some cases inglorious dead. Every inch of ground  that was fought over has its own story. This  film is probably based on some elements of truth  their is suffering and their is inhumanity. The tank crews suffered huge casualties and perhaps that is conveyed in the phsycological tightrope all of the crew of 'Fury' walk 

Their is no feel good factor to a movie like this. It leaves you shell shocked and scared. The final pull back camera shot gives a lasting reminder of the futility and the insignificance of so much  wasted life. The war carries on. The 'Fury' no longer appropriate for the glorious dead  

Footnote : 

In researching for this article I discovered that very little original film

Remains from the original D Day landings Despite the hours of footage filmed. At the end of the day it was all collected to be returned to the appropriate newspapers and film companies for showing. However the officer assigned to deliver these priceless records dropped them all in the sea and they where all ruined. 

The short film which remains was captured by noted war photographer Robert Capa. And is as realistically recreated as possible for the opening credits for Saving Private Ryan 

A gritty dirty depiction of the brutality of war 

Review – Hamlet at the Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester

 

Review – Hamlet starring Maxine Peake at the Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester

 

 

For many Shakespeare is an aquired taste, Its like fine wine or rich food, only really appreciated with age and experience.

 

Perhaps it was being force fed it at school that turned me off the bard. I managed to survive on the Shakespeare for dummies notes. I could get by on a blaggers guide, I was no expert but knew enough to get by.

That was until recently when my apetite for the the bard was wetted, first with a great production of 'Twelfth Night' at the Everyman in Liverpool. And then stumbling across Othello on Sky Arts a few weeks later. Age allows you to appreciate the delicacies and the craft of the writing. The sheer depth and volume of work, once realised makes you appreciate even more the quality of the words.

 

And so it came to pass that we had tickets for what by some, is thought to be Shakespeare's Most challenging and perhaps most famous work Hamlet. The Royal Exchange production had taken the bold decision to cast a woman Maxine Peake in the Lead role. 

Best known for her TV work. She was by any stroke of the imagination a brave decision. This for many actors would be the highlight of their career. She'd said in interviews she was looking for a more challenging woman's role, and she certainly took up the challenge with this role. 

The greats of the theatre have attempted Hamlet with  varying degrees of success, and many a career is remembered for how they performed in the role. 'The oft asked question by theatre critics  'But did you see his Hamlet?' would be one a lot of actors would rather not be answered.

 

I read that Maxine Peake was the first woman to take the role for thirty five years, maybe because the idea of Hamlet being played by a woman may be an issue for some. However in this production, it would quickly be forgotten once she appears on stage. Such is her charisma that the gendre of the 'Prince of Denmark' is imediately forgotten. With her razor short platinum blonde hairstyle and angelic features, she looks every inch the young innocent. Which in a way gives weight to her performance and the tragedy that follows. Not so much a brooding Prince, her Hamlet comes across as a cynical and petulant schooboy. On hearing of the murder of his father it draws out the childish bitterness towards everyone around him.

 

The rest of the cast whilst efficiant and proffesional, mearly play a suppotrting role to Ms Peake. She is the star and in the intimate surroundings of the Royal Exchange Theatre she holds court over the audience. The well known soliliqueys, are met with a light ripple of laughter by the audiences as they are given new breathe. Its the equivalent of hearing a track from someones greatest hits.

 

At three hours plus this a production that sweeps by, for those unacustomed to Shakespeares texts the words quckly take on meaning and understanding, and the staging  park Denmark part Manchester, make it easily understandable to a novice. In the end this 400 year old story comes across as fresh and a triumph of a tradgedy.

 

Maxine Peake's performance lives up to the hype she is stunning both is appearance and in character. And its a production that doesn't dissapoint. If you've been afraid of Shakespeare or feel its 'wordy' this is a production well worthy of its acclaim and one people will be talking about for a long long time 

'Did you see Peake's Hamlet ?' - 'Yes it was brilliant.'

Film Review :- Gone Girl : We need to talk about Amy

Its one of the most anticipated movies of the year. 'Gone Girl' Adapted from The best selling novel by Gillian Flynn. Hit the big screen this week. Ben Afleck and Rosmund Pike took the leads. Afleck is the Hollywood golden boy of the moment. An Oscar winner with Argo and soon to be the next Batman. 

Where as Pike is a newcomer to the heady heights of leading lady status previously best known as a Bond Girl, this  is new territory for her, but after this performance it's a role she should experiencing more often in the near future. 

Director David Fincher takes on the job of transferring this much read and hotly anticipated dark drama from page to screen.

If it ain't broke don't try and fix it. And that appears to be Finchers approach to this film. No twists no turns no re inventions. As a novel it works perfectly well, and as movie it does the same. 

Casting Afleck one of tinsel towns hotest talents and big box office appeal. allowed Fincher to take a gamble on the relatively unknown Pike. And it's paid off. As a character she grows throughout the movie. 

Flynn certainly deserves her title as queen of 'chick noire' This is a story aimed at a female audience. And if book sales are anything to go by they're going love this movie.  And what's not to love. The character Nick is a metaphor for every could care less, selfish, do nothing husband,  and Amy is the woman who secretly the books fans all want to be. She is a liberated woman playing along to the male fantasy whilst secretly plotting his destruction.

Pike plays her role to perfection - dutiful and beautiful. Afleck plays afleck to perfection. Never needing to break out of his acting comfort zoneI. He gets it. He recognises he's not expected to be the hero or carry the film that honour falls to Rosamund Pike. And to some extent the other women in he film. The strong feminist theme, exposes the men as weak and always a step behind the strong female characters. 

 As Amy the not so loving wife her devious plan is deliciously revealed layer by layer.. This a beauty with a beastly plan. Pike  was previously best known for starring opposite Pierce Bossnan In Die Anorher Day, but here she gives a stand out performance, that fully desteves the plaudits. 

After a slow sombre start the film picks up pace once Amy finds her voice. Obviously the film can't go into the finer details of why Amy turned into a bad bad girl. Maybe the author is saving that story for another day. 

Perhaps seeing husband Nick in the loving embrace of model turned actress Emily Ratajakowski certainly didn't help. Emily more widely known for her role in the Robin thicke Pharrell Williams video for Blurred Lines, certainly does her acting credentials no harm with this brief but entertaining cameo. 

In the end, this is a girls on top film. It's from a writing genre aimed at showing women in control.  Despite Amy's crimes in the end you want her to win. Just because her husband is such a wuss. 

It's a film that has a slightly unsatisfactory ending but it does enough to leave you wanting more. 

Gone Girl 2 anyone? 

God only knows - The Beach Boys it's a love hate affair

This years BBC 'Children In Need ' charity single is an all star reworking of the Beach Boys classic 'God Only Knows' I heard it the other day and it reminded me of so many things......

For me the song 'god only knows' brings back all kinds of bitter sweet memories. The 19th century writer Marcel Proust wrote a much discussed novel ' A remembrance of things past' the gist of the story being he bit into a biscuit and it reminded him if lots if things.

My hearing the opening notes of the 'The beach boys classic rekindled a similar moment for me. I loved and hated this song in equal measures. Hated because  it was drilled into my brain from its constant repetition at a supermarket I worked in. And loved  because it was the soundtrack to so many happy memories of what the movies might call 'coming of age' 

This song and the other tracks from the Beach Boys Greatest hits are woven into the fabric of my life, not by choice I might add. But As part of the soundtrack of my wonder years, and as a result,  was unexpectedly the catalyst for my own musical awakening. 

Age 14 I got my first 'Saturday' job. It was collecting the shopping trolleys from the multi story car parks for a large supermarket. This was the mid seventies before iPods MP3 players or even CD players. As a modern 'seventies' shopping hub as well as selling the traditional food and drink it had a large 'homeware' department offering clothes household goods and a selection of  records. Unfortunately the majority of the music available were either never heard of country songs or  the best of compilations. 

The compilations however were of the tribute act variety the 'Top Of The Pops' of the day as performed by various random session singers.  That was all except for one. The Beach Boys Greatest Hits had managed to sneak onto the shelf and it was by the original artist! 

Such was the uniqueness, of this LP ( that's what they used to be called short for 'long player') the manager for a reason I will never know decided that he would dispense with the usual in store 'Musac' and replace it with California's finest. For any weekly shopper in the mid seventies the warming sounds of such classics as  'I get around' 'Sloop john B' and 'Good Vibrations' provided a cheery background to the  supermarket drudge. An hour at most of the Beach Boys could be tolerable even to those with the most selective of musical tastes. However multiply that hour by eight sometimes ten. then by the number of days worked per week that summer five. You too may find that the songs become stamped in your memory. 

This was the for runner to the ear worm. Those Brian Wilson falsetto riffs and close harmonies played on repeat. Was a torture worthy of a CIA black operation.  If to much sugar can kill your taste buds. To much Beach Boys can have an equivalent effect on your own musical tastes. 

' in the Summer 1976 when the Surf sound was at its zenith after a long long day of helping 'Rhonda' and her ' little Deuce Coup' a strange thing happened. I had what you might call a sort of musical revelation. 

Switching on TV one night I witnessed a local News Reporter Tony Wilson introducing his new TV show 'So It Goes' 

The groups and the noise they were making was like some bolt from the musical blue. These Boys where not from the beach, and they didn't have tans they were white pasty and English, in pinned mismatched clothes singing about 'dis- harmony'. I couldn't believe it. That sunny surf beach music that had been brainwashing me all summer was 'wiped-out'  by a 'NewWave' of raw edgy music Jonny Rotten was the antithesis of Brian Wilson. Punk Rock was the evil opposite of the California sound. It was like a musical awakening. Let's be clear it wasn't good it wasn't sing along to stuff,but it was different  you could never compare the two genres, 

So in some 'proustian' fashion hearing the now classic Beach Boys song it reminded me of The Sex Pistols and the Dammed. I remember seeing Elvis Costello on the First Stiff Tour. On buying a cassette of the Jam called 'In the City'  and playing it in the car with my mates and someone complaining ' what's this shit? Get it off' 

So Thank you Brian Wilson for A remembrance of things past 'God only knows where I'd be without you....'

The BBC Children In Need charity record 'God only Knows' is available to download now 

Book review - Going To Sea In A Sieve

Award-winning broadcaster Danny Baker’s first novel is a stroll down his own personal memory lane. Now an award-winning radio presenter, his back catalogue covers the glam rock scene, the birth of Punk rock, the heyday of music journalism, and the start of ‘yoof’ TV. It’s a flavour of his part in it all, and like a late 70’s Zelig he bares witness to the events.

This is not so much a book it's a bloke down the pub after a sinking a few and regaling you with a few choice tales from his early years. 

It's a book with a voice, you here Bakers cockney drawl in every line. And doesn't he tell a good story. 

He is no pub bore at the back end of the night crying into his beer and saying where did it all go wrong. No this is Baker after a few liveners casting back his memory and saying,  'Remember this..... Good times'

Now an award winning radio presenter his back catalogue covers the glam rock scene the birth of Punk rock the heyday of Music Journalism and the start of 'yoof' TV Its a flavour of his part in it all and like a late 70's Zelig he bares whiteness to it all 

 Bakers had that rarest of things for a successful life story a happy childhood.  I'm sure it's not what the publishers wanted I bet they put up with the first few chapters, thinking it'll all go wrong in the end. We can wait, and wait , and wait.....and they'll still be waiting because in this story Baker has managed to create page after page of what was a happy family life with a standout dad who is a lager than life character drawn out so well you just want to know more about.  

If Your looking for a hard luck story filled with tales of my struggle, my dysfunctional family and life filled with misery and pain. Then this is not the book for you. 

This a book filled with warmth love and a celebration of life, luck and opportunities. 

He is the much envied lucky man, and he doesn't pull no punches on celebrating that achievement He celebrates being in the right place at the right time and and is firmly of the opinion he has a cup that has always been half full. 

I can imagine its a book he wrote with a smile on his face as every episode has that gentle glow of a happy life. Even the bad times and yes he had a few are doused out in a few lines. Why dwell on those awkward hitches along the way when their is so much to be thankful for. 

Born in Bermondsey in the late 50's. Not quite a child of the sixties but of an age to appreciate its significance particularly in the chosen love of his life music. 

Through chance and opportunity his first job was in a record store in the West End, the then musical heartland of  the early 70s glam music scene dropping names such as Elton John and Marc Bolan and an early encounter with a newly signed Queen introduced us to his musical heritage. 

Thie late 70's were a time of great musical change and again through good fortune he found himself at the heart of the Punk New Wave explosion and began mixing with such bands as The Sex Pistols and The Clash. 

All these early encounters and anecdotes paint a full and interesting life. And he was still only in his early 20' And so it goes on his experiences as journalist with the NME his first forays into Television his first failed marriage. Nothing is over analysed or tinged with regret it's all presented as a statement of fact. 

If your looking  a flaw it's this lack of depth, self analysis or angst. It would appear he doesn't regret a thing. He's taken the hand he was dealt and as skillfull as any poker player has mastered the bluff. 

What comes through in this book is a man filled with confidence and whit and player who knows how to use that cockney charm to its full effect you can take the boy out of Bermondsey. But the skill is to never stop being the Bermondsey boy.

Man talk 17th October 2014

 

 

So whats your view on Locker room ettiquette? Did you know  their was a code of behaviour? I read this week that the do's and don't of a gym changing room have all been formalised for Metrosexual man. 

From dress code, ( Who knew their was a no socks in the shower rule!) to when and where to wear a towel. And to remember you don't hog the shower. And of course, don't make puddles. And finally remember what get said in the locker room stays in the locker room. And my favourite don't be an exhibitionist..... You know what I'm taking about!  

 

Perhaps all this showing off of our bodies accounts for the statistic this week that one in seven men regularly have their body hair waxed. Think about it next time your watching the magnificent 7

 

What does the aging construction billionaire Richard Linger see in the 24year old playboy model Cathy Scmitz, who he married this week. It'll never last...

 

Beware the fat finger! One stockbroker in Japan accidentally pressed the wrong button when carryng out a transaction last week and lost over £380 billion's worth of business. He blamed it on his over sized digit.

 

Just so you know... An idiot is someone whith an IQ of between 0-25 whilst an imbecile is someone who's IQ is between 26-50, make sure you get your facts right before you start brandishing the insults.

 

I heard this week that the Met office is to begin producing a daily weather forcasts for the sun, that's the planet, the big shinty thing in the sky Sun. I think I can save them a lot of money. Here's my weather forcast for the sun for today and all next week Hot! And if your planning on going wear sunscreen. And you can use this forcast for the forceable future as well..Scorchio!!!!

 

Don't panic... there is to be a Dad's Army movie out next year, and some people are up in arms. Saying its sacrilidge, and that we shouldn't spoil the memory of a TV institution.  Stupid boys!!!

 

Moving on from the ice bucket challenge. The latest awareness campaign for men is called #feelingnuts and its features celebrities grabbing their crotches., its  to raise awareness of testicular cancer.

 

How to save water. Pee in the shower, or thats what students in Norfolk are being asked to do to save flusing the toilet and so save water. I thought most of them

Did that anyway. Some might call not flushing lazy and disgusting they might say their just trying to save the planet.

Other planet saving ideas for conscientious students only wash the dishes once a week. maybe use the washing machine in a month with 28 days in it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man Talk October 5th 2014

 

Dont want to seem ungrateful but i'm not really a fan of the new U2 album, which was downloaded onto my phone last week. Nothing worse than an unwanted gift, anyone know how I can swap it for something I might actually want to listen too. 

 

Every trend has its price, and this week we learned that, the beardy scruffy look favoured by those trendy sorts known as 'Hipsters' has cost the mens grooming market 72 million pounds!  Bet those marketing people at Gillette are not so smart now are they? Or maybe that's the problem! 

 

And the winners is ... At the good funeral awards an undertaker named 'Dyer' was named embalmer of the year. A man obviously born to to do his work.

 

Comedian Omid Djalili gained my admiration for going that extra mile. Talking about his new TV series where he is trying to find Britains hottest Curry. He should have guessed from its title that a dish known as 'The Widdower' would be packing a punch. But he went ahead with the challenge, After trying it he said, it was so hot his body immediately rejected it, this is obviously code for he had to go to the toilet right away, he said he was so traumatised by its effects he was constipated for a week!

 

Which ties in nicely with the revelation we learned this week that we spend almost three years of our lives on the toilet. Possibly a lot longer if we have eaten a 'Widdower'  

 

Bad news this week for  'Take Thaters' and for the talented one the cheeky one the cute one and the one who could dance. No more Jason. Big question they'll all be asking - Who's going to make the tea now?

 

A Japanese company has announced that it plans to build an elevator into space which will be able to link up with the space station. They say the work will be completed by 2050 and the lift will be 60,000 miles long, and will take 7 days to reach the top floor. Or maybe a lot longer if kids get in and press all the buttons.

 

What about all these spiders we are being plagued with at the moment. Some of them are huge! I heard this week how in Japan their using their spiders for sport, for what they call spider fighting, and they describe their spiders as 'samuari spiders'. There are also spider fighting clubs you can join. First rule of spider fighting club don't talk about spider fighting club. Maybe we'll be starting them here soon.

 

One thing wrong with Boris johnson's idea to sell tickets to watch the fireworks on New Years eve over London. Most fireworks go off in the sky? Whats he going to do charge you to look up!

 

Hows this for a strange colaboration The Chuckle Brothers Paul and Barry are said to be working with award winning rapper Tiny Tempah, on his new song. If the chorus doesn't include the sentence 'To me – To you' at least ten times I'd count that as a wasted opportunity.