When you watch as many movies as I have over the past five years and three months (1915 afternoons and evenings to be exact) it really is quite astonishing just how many American films involve violence – guns, bombs, explosions, knives, fisticuffs, torture, car crashes, blood, gore, pain, death, etc - and it gets incredibly tedious. A rough guess would say that 90% show at least one shooting. Come on! Give peace a chance, baby! This obsession with bloodshed is not only exported from Hollywood to the rest of the world but also travels via the US military complex that sends weaponry and soldiers overseas as if a titanic and demonic take-away martial pizza, which incidentally makes up a major slice of the US economy, under the farcical premise that they are keeping the peace. What really concerns me now is what is going to happen when every Tom, Igor and Jihadi have their own drones to drop mayhem on random targets as and when they please. And what’s with this craze of using American in so many movie titles: American Beauty, American Sniper, American Hustle, American Werewolf in London, American Muscle, Captain America, American Gigolo, American Graffiti, American Loser, American Idiots, American Gun, American Pie, American Psycho, American Virgin, or simply The American, which is a good one. In fact there are over 100 of them and can be checked out here. But back to the sandy movies. Pretty much long gone are the innocent halcyon days of Stan and Ollie, the Marx Brothers, Jimmy Stewart, Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn bringing fun, brio and romance to an evening in front of the silver screen or living room telly. Feel Good movies replaced by Fuck You films. Jokes? Humanity? No no no, here’s a gun in your face, buddy boy. Don’t leave home without one. Just the other night I was unfortunate to watch a film of truly top class dross called The Interview, which so irked North Korea that it threatened nuclear retaliation, eventually settling on hacking Sony Pictures web server instead. For sure the film had guns and tanks and shooting but on top of that it was marketed as a comedy except the totally humourless humour turned out to be base vulgarity, which was not funny in the slightest. Thankfully a few great movies did find their way out here and so some dull days on the sofa were enlivened by a glow to my hardened heart and a smile to my face, resonating for a long time afterwards. Some of them I’ve viewed over and over again like my niece who has watched all 236 episodes of Friends three times. There’s even an English guy somewhere who watches Zulu every day. Here is a list of the high points. Click on the orange title for a more in-depth lowdown:- The Wire: Creme de la Creme. Not a movie but five TV seasons stretching from 2002-08. Guns galore but highly realistic and important in highlighting the insanity of a country that prevents women getting their tits out on the beach but where you can easily buy a pistol and shoot your neighbour, and, with a good lawyer, get away with it. Violence Rating: Guns and death galore. Welcome to America. Grand Budapest Hotel: A visual feast of colour, amazing scenery, comedy and a fast-paced script that makes the story run. Two hours has never felt shorter. Violence Rating: One slapstick shoot-out. No blood visible. American Gangster: The sort of film you don’t want to end. Fascinating true story, brilliantly acted, set against a soundtrack of Motown’s best. Violence Rating: A lot of guns and violence. The Jane Austen Book Club: The perfect film to demonstrate that you don’t need death and destruction to entertain and that America can be a sane, witty place, if they took away the weapons. Violence Rating: Peace in the Sacramento suburbs. Nb. One of THE hottest chicks I've ever met came from Sacramento. She worked as a strip-tease artiste in Reno, of all places. Rock ‘n Rolla: A satire on modern day London with criminals viewing themselves as ordinary working people earning a crust. "All in a day's work, Guvner." Understated humour and great music. Mark Strong and Tom Wilkinson are hilarious. Violence Rating: A lot of guns and death and violence. In The Mood For Love: Set in Hong Kong, one of my favourite destinations, and brilliantly photographed, perfectly capturing the ambience. Director Kar Wai Wong displays Maggie Cheung's talent and porcelain beauty and allows Tony Chiu to act while barely uttering a word. Genius. Violence Rating: Zero guns or death. No Country For Old Men: One of those rare films that lives up to the excellence of the book. Made Josh Brolin one of my favourite actors while Javier Bardem plays weird like no other. Violence Rating: So much shooting that even a dog bites the bullet. New York I Love You: An eclectic mix, vaguely connected, of ten eight-minute scenes each shot by different directors. The film is a collection of snapshots from everyday life in the Big Apple. Impressively captures the city’s vibe and self-absorption. Violence Rating: No guns; one death by heart attack. |
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‘I don’t understand why when we destroy something created by man we call it vandalism, but when we destroy something created by nature we call it progress.’ Ed Begley Jr. * "The more I see of Humans the more I like my dog." Mark Twain * Only when the Last Tree Is Cut Down, The Last Fish Eaten, And the Last Stream Poisoned, Will Man Realize That Money Cannot be Eaten Cree Indian proverb Nb. Doesn't work in Google Chrome, no idea why not...
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January 2016
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