ASK THE DUST (2006)

Directed by: Robert Towne

Starring: Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek and Donald Sutherland (oh, and the Mum of the Jewish girl from Glee)

The reports are that John Fante is one of the great and neglected American novelists of the 50s (Charles Bukowski was influenced by him and Nick Mamatas swears by him).  While this might be the case, Ask The Dust written in 1939 doesn't translate well to screen.  The Depression Era story is about the conflicted love affair between impoverished author Arturo Bandini whose come to LA to find fame and fortune and Mexican waitress Camilla Lopez who finds herself both repelled and attracted to Arturo.  It's a movie about racism and intolerance, and although the chemistry between Farrell and Hayek is strong, they can't save a film that's both slow and aimless, a movie missing a strong over-arching narrative.  Or, being less pretentious about it all, it's dull.  Still, this movie hasn't put me off purchasing Fante's work, which I'm sure sits better as novel then as an adaptation.

5/10



BATTLE ROYALE 2: REQUIEM (2003)

Directed by: Kenta Fukasaku and Kinji Fukasaku

Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Al Maeda and Shugo Oshinari

There's no hiding from the fact that this film is terrible.  I adored the first Battle Royale, with its ridiculous and yet strangely compelling idea of a Government that attempts to quell its rebellious children by passing an Act that means a random class of students will be sent to an island to kill each other - until there's only one standing.  The film is brilliant not just because of the allegorical nature of the story-telling, but because director Kinji Fukasaku makes you care for most of the kids and their plight.  Battle Royale 2, though, only works when its copying the moments from the first film in its opening 15 minutes.  After that it becomes this horrible polemic about the evils of America and how its involvement in other people's wars has led to the deaths of so many children.  Even if I was willing to accept the argument, the melodramatic and overblown way that it's presented in this film makes it feel like a piss-take then a serious argument about war and imperialism.  It's not helped that the plot makes no sense at all - I mean, even more so than the first which at least was consistent with its logic. 

People blame the drop in quality in the fact that Kinji died after one day of filming to be replaced by his son.  But the fact is, the problem with this film is the script, and unless Kenta performed massive re-writes after the death of his father, the problems existed before Kinji died.  If you've seen Battle Royale and have been thinking about seeing the sequel, don't.  It will ruin your love of the first film.

2/10 (mostly for the first 15 minutes).

(That was more then 150 words).

THE EVIL DEAD (1981)

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManicor and the voice of Bob Dorian

OK, fine, as of two weeks ago I hadn't seen Evil Dead.  Does that make me a bad horror and SF fan?  Probably.  I'd like to make the excuse that I hadn't seen it previously because of all the hype, but hey I haven't seen ET either and as of 12 months ago I hadn't seen Jaws.  What can I say, I have big, gaping holes in my movie watching career.

Anyway, Evil Dead is a huge amount fun and deserves its cult status.  Sam Raimi, as a first time director (other than the odd short) does a great job in mixing together some genuine chills with over the top moments of gore.  It's actually, at times, hard to believe how shoestring the budget was considering the quality of film-making and acting on show. 

In terms of the violence and horror, there's one false moment - the bit where the girl is basically raped by a bunch of trees - and I can see why that scene might have been cut in edited versions of the film.  But the rest of it is so fake and so silly that the outcry to have the film banned befuddles me.  But then that's the 80s for you. 

Bruce Campbell isn't as zany as he would be in the next two instalments, but he's still great value.  He does wide eyed crazy eyes better than anyone in film history.
 
8.5/10