Review: Fight Club

The Info Bit

Genre: Drama/Black Comedy/Thriller
Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter
Director: David Fincher
Run Time: 2hrs 13min
Rating: 18
Year: 1999
Production Company: 20th Century Fox


Some films are seen in the viewing community as ‘modern classics’ (a phrase I hate by the way) and none more so, maybe, than Fight Club. David Fincher’s most recognised piece of work to date is ten years old this year and as a result I thought it might be time to dust off the DVD and give it the once over *.

The first thing I will say is this film is gripping!! From the start where the camera pulls out through Edward Norton’s brain travelling past synapses and past a gun all accompanied by a track of music with a lot of bass, all the way to the final scene again accompanied, in this writers opinion, by the perfect musical backing track (Kudos to the music coordinators The Dust Bro‘s), the film manages to keep you enthralled following the band of characters which include, apart from the main three stars, Meat Loaf and Jared Leto (Now of band 30 Seconds to Mars Fame). Edward Norton puts in the best performance in this film of any film I’ve seen him in, his workload is massive!! Not only is he in every scene in someway (which makes sense seeing as its his Insomniac Car Recall Coordinator’s character we’re following) but he also spends much of the film doing a ‘nourish’ narration of his life and the story. Brad Pitt is, for me, also putting in one of his best performances ever, playing the character Tyler Durden who is a soap salesman, who when he is introduced at about the 20 minute stage rarely spends any time away from Norton’s character and complements Norton’s noir voiceovers with intelligent and frank statements about the pointlessness of life and what people should do to survive in a world ruled by commercialism.

Somewhere in the mix appears the other title character a broken down waste of a women called Marla played by Helena Bonham Carter, she also puts in a brilliant performance making the character very believable. So as not to spoil the film I won’t go into the plot and character details anymore, partly because its much more fun to see it all revealed before you, but what I will say is pay careful attention during the first half hour or so to see if you can see the little hints of the things to come.

DVD extras on this one are pretty much what you’d expect Audio commentary by the director and cast, a little behind the scenes documentary, some cast and crew bios with photo galleries, some deleted scenes which probably aren’t going to be missed if ever added to the final product and a music video. I should at this juncture point out that I have watched the Special Edition 2 disc version of this film and there is now a definitive edition available. As far as I can tell there is no difference between these versions but I can’t guarantee that.

So basically this film is certainly David Fincher’s best to date, its gripping, its exciting and it holds messages about the drone like existence commercial dependence of our species that were relevant in 1999 and surely have only become more relevant ten years on. Almost the entire cast puts in the performances of their lives (Sorry Ed but you will never top this no matter how hard you try) and as a result it ’s a film you will want to watch at least a few times to discover all the little twists and turns and subtle nuances in the performance. Its not a perfect film because nothing in this world is but I reckon its about as close as anyone’s come………so far.


Stars out of Five: Five


* Thanks Les for the suggestion, check out the genius that is Les at http://afrofilmviewer.blogspot.com/

Cows and Violent Films!!

We all underestimate violence in movies and video games but i have found proof that it is effecting us all...How??

BY TURNING THE COWS AGAINST US!!!

Violent cows are ruining are lives (see stories below) and the only difference i can come up with is a much wider acceptance of violence in our entertainmnet industry than thta of many years ago......you have been warned people!!!

(Oh and thanks to Les 'Afro Film Blogger' (http://afrofilmviewer.blogspot.com/) for the suggestion of this post you are a special kind of guy lol)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/3911943.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/3049811.stm

Review: Godfather 2 - The Game

Info Bit

Genre: Action Adventure
Players: 1 Offline, 2-16 Online
Format Played: Xbox 360
Rating: 18



The Review

First off let me say i love the Godfather movies and I loved the first Godfather game, (although both had their flaws but what doesn't these days), as such when i bought Godfather 2 - The Game i expected it to be much the same as the first one but with improvements.

Well it is and it isn't, the game sees you playin the role of Dominic a member of the Corleone family in New York in the 60's. Starting in Cuba in what you might call a flashback sequence you learn all the basic controls including the 'EA Blackhand' fighting controls (More on that later) and of course set up the story where you become the New York Family's new leader (i won't go into to much story detail so that those of you who want to play it don't get upset). As you might imagine the aim of the game is to become a Don big surprise there!!

The controls are logical for the 360 pad, whilst on foot the triggers aim and shoot, A sprints, Y is the action button etc etc, same locical setup is used for driving the triggers accelerate and brake, B is your handbrake and Y gets you in and out of cars. In short the basic controls are the same as every freeroaming 3rd person adventure game under the sun and thats not a bad thing, then we come the 'Blackhand' a fighting control loosley based on the Fight Night series of games (created by EA as well). Basically the left trigger punchs your left hand, right trigger punchs your right hand and if you press them together you will do a grab. The only problem with this that i found was that because you don't 'lock-on' when punching occasionally you would either punch thin air or hit the wrong person which wasn't nescessarily the end of the world ITS JUST DAMN ANNOYING!! (and to be honest it had the same problem in the first game).

A new addition (and a welcome one i think) is 'Don's View', basically you now have the ablity to pay guards to defend your propertys which on its own doesn't sound impressive but it highlights one of the main changes in the game play which is that rival famlies now try to take back their businesses, this doesn't sound like much but it was a major bugbear for me in the first game in that you would take their business and the rivals would never try to take it back or if they did you had to defend it on yur own.

Apart from that there are 2 new additions one is that you get to travel to 3 cities instead of just one which is ok except that the 3 cities combined only make up the same amount of space you had in the 1 city on the first game and you can now recruit new members to your family all with special skills that help you during the main game (ie Demolitions, Arsonist and Bruiser). The only other problem with the game is that ever so occasionally the camera angles are a bit rubbish and you can't see, but it happens rarely.

I enjoyed this game immensely (even if i did complete it in 8hrs) and if you never played the first one it might be even better for you than it was for me, more of the same please EA but for the love of god fix the bugs!

Stars out of Five: 4

Review: See No Evil

The Info Bit

Genre: Horror
Starring: Kane, Christina Vidal, Michael J Pagan
Run Time: 1hr 20mins
Rating: 18
Production Company: Lionsgate


The Review

I have to admit like many overgrown kids I have a special place in my heart for wrestling but I don’t think its to harsh to say that many films starring wrestlers are traditionally, by most peoples standards, poor films always having a current top star in the lead role to sell his face to the masses and always somewhere in the action putting in an ‘obligatory’ wrestling move just because they can (perfect example see John Cena in The Marine not an awful film but confirming everything I just said).

As a result I came into watching See No Evil with that on my mind and expected an average film that might occupy an hour or so with some celluloid violence with the odd scare and a weak plot. To be honest I got what I expected but with a few nice surprises.

Horror films it seems to me traditionally don’t have a particularly impressive back story/character development (do they need it?? I guess that a debate for another day) and this one is no different. The story sees our band of criminal ‘kids’ who as part of their punishment have to do some community service by repairing and cleaning an old and dilapidated hotel all arranged by a warden/ex cop who a few years before was involved in dealing with a psychopath. However whilst working on the building they are being watched but someone or something and obviously start disappearing or getting killed off in various increasingly gruesome ways. Unfortunately it takes (for me anyway) far to long to get to the ‘killing’ part which sounds a bit sadistic of me but to be honest it’s the reason we watch this sort of film, not to watch a bunch of teenagers talk about nothing for a half hour or so.

When the killing starts however the film does start to massively redeem itself, Kane does a fabulous job as a killer (not sure if that’s actually a good thing) but at over 6ft in height and weighing a good 300 pounds plus he is the perfect imposing figure that a movie like this needs. Kane’s performance, is for me, one of the better ‘horror figure’ performances I’ve seen lately, he oozes rage and frustration without speaking a word (limited mainly to grunts and snorts) and he is physically imposing, throwing people left right and centre without any problem (I’m not sure if he did all his stunts but I’d imagine he did the majority). I won’t spoil it by telling you the methods of death but there are a couple that really stick out for me as, if you will, ‘new horror deaths’ that haven’t been done before as far as I’m aware in any movie let alone horrors. Unfortunately as you approach the end things do go downhill a little with a pointless ‘plot twist’ and some obvious CGI but is slightly redeemed with the final few set pieces of action ending with a little irreverent humour to finish off a film that is definitely a mixed bag of tricks.

Extras on the DVD aren’t too bad, the usual director commentary can probably be missed unless you’re a massive fan of commentaries, the Cast and Crew interviews and Storyboard comparisons are pretty much what you would expect from the titles and the Making of Documentary with Kane: Journey into Darkness are ok for people learning a bit about the making of movies and character development from an acting perspective but aren’t really anything particularly new to the DVD extras world.

All in all if you fancy a moderately scary (I jumped about four times I think if that) and entertaining film without an impressive plot this would be right up there with Friday the 13th and The Hills Have Eyes in that department and is one of the better wrestler starring films out there.

Stars out of Five: 3 1/2

Welcome All

Hello and welcome all to my blog Chunky Monkay Reviews (cue applause)

Here you will find me ranting, raving and occasionally praising movies, games and anything else entertainment related that I feel I wanna share with you good people out there in internet land, including sometimes (if i can convince them to tell me their opinions) guest reviewers.

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Thanks for your time and check back when you can for all the reviews and news, although bear with me intially as it'll take a while to get going :-)

Love and Peace

Jim 'Chunky Monkay'