Turning The Page: Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

Trevor Hogg reviews Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson...

Writing in a breezy and plain manner, Daniel H. Wilson, who obtained a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon, has entered into the realm of science fiction thriller. If Wilson is able to channel his youthful and mischievous enthusiasm into more polished adult yarns he could become the next Michael Crichton. Oscar-winning moviemaker Steven Spielberg certainly believes in Wilson’s literary talent as he acquired the film rights to the latest effort from the Portland, Oregon based novelist before the book even had found a publisher.

Divided into five major sections, Robopocalypse chronicles the rise and fall of a malevolent artificial intelligence which highjacks everyday and military technology, such as smart cars, toys, domestic robots, and tanks, and converts them into lethal predators. The devastating World War III between men and machines is documented through a series of vignettes compiled via a transcript composed by human resistance fighter Cormac “Bright Boy” Wallace; he combines his personal recollections with the material obtained from a black box once belonging to Archos, the robotic nemesis that has a genocidal mission to annihilate humanity in a way that makes Adolf Hitler seem like a schoolyard bully.

Focusing more on the human struggle to survive as opposed to the machines’ is the smart choice, as well as the incorporation of short chapters as the tale becomes more interesting and speeds along to its conclusion. “I intentionally included very little science fiction up front,” stated Daniel H. Wilson in the Doubleday press release. “That’s the scariest part of Robopocalypse – that it’s feasible. There are no glinting robot armies from outer space, just the ordinary technology of our lives turning on us, ripping apart our civilization, and then evolving into something that human beings never intended.”

Cinematically, I will enjoy seeing the eerie city street scene where all the cellphones in the surrounding area ring as a computer hacker is stalked by Archos. The one element I have a hard time getting my mind around is the Japanese storyline where an infatuated computer genius seeks to save his virus-infected robotic pleasure doll. The inclusion of the characters from the Osaga Nation is a nice touch as Native Americas too often serve as a forgotten footnote in American culture. For those who seek light entertainment with a futuristic twist Robopocalypse is a worthwhile read; and for their added enjoyment, Steven Spielberg will be working his movie magic to bring the world created by Daniel H. Wilson to the big screen in 2013.


Order Robopocalypse from Amazon and visit Daniel H. Wilson's website here.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

365 Days, 100 Films #25 - True Grit (2010)

True Grit, 2010.



Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen.

Starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Hailee Steinfeld, Barry Pepper and Domhnall Gleeson.





SYNOPSIS:



A tough U.S. Marshal and a Texas Ranger help a stubborn young woman track down her father's murderer.





If you’re really good at making films, the audience forgets they’re watching them. Reality dissolves into a dream-like state, only with more clarity and a musical score. You come to just as the credits start to roll. “That was pretty good,” slowly dawns on you as you wake.



Afterwards, you start to appreciate those bits that were so finely crafted that they made you forget the film wasn’t real. There are many of these in True Grit, but by far the most impressive, and poetic, is the script. It’s as bold as Hemmingway and flows just as good. The characters speak in some lost American dialect from the turn of the last century. In another’s hands it would come across forced and clunky. The Coens make it effortlessly naturalistic. An example;



LaBoeuf: You give out very little sugar with your pronouncements. While I sat there watchin' I gave some thought to stealin' a kiss... though you are very young, and sick... and unattractive to boot. But now I have a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt.



Mattie Ross: One would be just as unpleasant as the other.



It’s as though the script were written out in modern tongue, only for every other word to be replaced by its much grander synonym.



True Grit is about Mattie Ross, a girl no older than fourteen, who seeks revenge on the man who murdered her father. To do so she employs Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), an old, U.S. marshal. They cross paths with a Texas Ranger by the name of LeBoeuf (Matt Damon) who seeks the same man. Cogburn is a drunk and a murderer. LeBoeuf is dull-witted. But in helping Ross they get to show they are both men of ‘true grit’. Not that fake stuff that’s flooded the market.



True Grit is a long way from the black and white morals of most classical Westerns, but it evokes the same misty-eyed steel that they projected - when people were good and decent and weren’t prone to self-indulged soul-searching like the protagonists of the present day. Though it takes the course of the film to show it, all three characters are built upon their principles. Stubbornly so.



It is Ross who eases out Cogburn and LeBoeuf’s true grit. She’s a remarkable gal. Her superego seems too large for her age, separating everything into either ‘good’/‘bad’, ‘lawful’/‘unlawful’ and ‘godly’/‘godless’. She goes about revenge in the language of bureaucracy and supports her sass with knowledge (often to the embarrassment of the adults with whom she talks). It’s what makes her pairing with Cogburn so parental, like she’s some chip off the ol’ block. There’s always the sense that she’s imitating the talk and actions of those much older than her. It’s kinda cute, if a little brash.



The film’s great strength, alongside and because of the script, is this sincerity. The score doesn’t have an ironic note in it. Being post-modern is the easy way out these days. The Coens don’t allow their characters to sit and agonise over personal pain – they internalise it and proceed with the tasks at hand. Psychoanalysis had yet to take off on those shores. Consequently, True Grit conducts itself in heroic charges against terrible odds. It’s easily the film of the year thus far.

Oli Davis



365 Days, 100 Films



Movie Review Archive

DVD Review - The Halfway House (1944)

The Halfway House, 1944.

Directed by Basil Dearden.
Starring Mervyn Johns, Glynis Johns and Sally Ann Howes.


SYNOPSIS:

A group of strangers take shelter at a remote Welsh Inn during a storm where they are soon brought together by a series of unsettling events.


If you are yet to enter the competition here at Flickering Myth to win a copy of Ealing Studios' production The Halfway House on Digital Versatile Disc, I do suggest that you hurry up and get a move on. This is a film worth seeing for three very good reasons. Pay attention ladies and gentlemen and I shall outline them for you.

Firstly The Halfway House is a fragment of history, a slice of our country’s past, and an especially engaging and vivid one too. For those of you enjoying the developments in three dimensional cinematic viewing or perhaps partial to the high definition of your colour television sets, it might be rather off putting that this is a film presented in mere black and white. I readily admit that I am not an avid viewer of black and white pictures myself.

I can assure you though that the lack of variation in colour is more than made up for by numerous other qualities. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that it added to the charm of the film. In any case, this is top notch black and white, because The Halfway House has been digitally restored to a wonderful standard, so that it is, to all intents and purposes, as good as a modern day release.

This film was originally released in 1944 and judging by references to the date during the plot, filmed in 1943. It is therefore significantly influenced by the context of the ongoing Second World War in Europe. A number of the characters have lost friends, colleagues and relatives during the conflict. Others are affected in other ways.

The Halfway House is somewhat inaccurately and crudely labelled as a horror but in reality it is an interesting infusion of ghost story, fable and propaganda. The propaganda element is particularly fascinating and marks the film out as a genuine historical artefact. It is not overdone to affect the level of satisfaction for a modern audience, but certainly during the conclusion an Irishman’s change of allegiance from neutrality to supporting the Allies is noticeably underlined.

The second principal reason you should see The Halfway House is the impressive and rounded characterisation, forming part of a touching and timeless narrative. Whilst the historical background to the plot is crucial to setting it apart from modern releases, the quality and nature of the storytelling is also no longer replicated by studios today.

The first half of the film introduces a wide range of characters across Britain (showcasing unusual scope and variety of outdoor locations for Ealing Studios), each with their own problems, from terminal illness to divorce and criminality. The second half then brings all of these characters together at The Halfway House, a Welsh inn that may or may not have been destroyed by fire. The kindly and wise owners of the inn, who speak almost poetically at points, help the guests to help each other. Gradually they all gain perspective on their issues and worries by taking time out from the everyday grind. Such an intricately woven moral is still just as relevant today.

The Halfway House is superbly acted, even by modern day standards. It has a marvellous script that seems to transfer something from the original play by Denis Ogden. Primarily that something is dialogue which allows characters to breathe and grow convincingly, as they would on stage. Somehow The Halfway House is full of excellently fleshed out characters, despite the ensemble cast.

The third key reason for seeing The Halfway House is that it is tremendously amusing. Part of that humour arises inadvertently from the old fashioned and outdated formal register of the dialogue, which I have tried unsuccessfully to mirror regularly throughout this review. In certain situations the tone and accent of 1940s British speech, along with that persistent formality, is unavoidably hilarious.

However most of the comedic moments are intentional, with a mixture of fabulous and average one liners on show, alongside character humour enabled by their believability. One moment in the opening segment, in which we meet a dodgy dealing crook, is amusing due to role reversal; our criminal dismisses an employee for NOT having a criminal record and lying about it. This is also an example of one of many moments where the war has turned things upside down.

As if those three major reasons alone weren’t enough to at least have a go at the competition, there are also too many minor points of interest to mention. Director Basil Dearden has been underrated for years, only to be steadily recognised more and more recently as a groundbreaking filmmaker, with films like Victim starring Dirk Bogarde challenging taboos long before that was easy to get away with and just an arty saying. His direction here is simple for the most part, with the exception of one smartly edited action sequence which could fit into a modern film, but effective and professional. It’s remarkable enough they were making films as entertaining as this with the war raging on.

Good luck in the competition! But basically make sure you see The Halfway House when it’s released on the 20th of June. It’s an unseen and unappreciated classic of British cinema.

Liam Trim (follow me on Twitter)

Movie Review Archive

Movie Review - Super 8 (2011)

Super 8, 2011.



Written and Directed by J.J. Abrams.

Starring Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Riley Griffiths, Noah Emmerich and Glynn Turman.





SYNOPSIS:



A group of kids making a film on their ‘Super 8’ camera witness a freight train crash that releases ‘something’, causing the military to shut down their town and setting a series of mysterious disappearances and weird occurrences in motion.





There are always going to be comparisons between the films that influenced Super 8 and the film itself. And its success is really going to be measured on that. Just prior to the release director J.J. Abrams, distributor Paramount, cinema Alamo Drafthouse and AintitCoolNews.com hosted an event screening the following films that were said to have heavily informed and influenced Super 8. They included: Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, The Thing, and Scanners. Now if you’re going to aim for a the kind of film that you want to make when you’re heading down the sci-fi road - aiming to harness the youthful exuberance and bravery of three Hollywood masters Spielberg, Carpenter and Cronenberg, working at the peak of their powers, is commendably ambitious. To come remotely close to affecting your viewers with an experience like watching The Thing or Close Encounters is quite simply – super.



The production design and cinematography aesthetically align themselves with iconic Hollywood films like The Goonies, E.T. and Poltergeist and from the moment the film begins I found myself slipping into an uncontrollable nostalgia. The summer, the bikes, the great detached naïve perspective of youth. Abrams creates an authentic portrait of small-town-working class America of a somewhat broken American family in the late 70s. Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) and his father Jackson (Kyle Chandler) are in a traumatic state in the wake of an accident at the town steel mill that killed Mrs Lamb, mother and wife of the family. This trauma heightens the contrast between Jackson, one of the town deputy’s and Joe the young artist whose relationship is left in the void made by the death in the family. Joel Courtney’s performance as Joe is soulful and heartbreaking but terrifically sweet. His look infuses the baby face of Sean Astin in The Goonies and the great wisdom conveyed in the eyes of Henry Thomas as Elliot in E.T. Since the passing of his mother Joe carries her locket around and he turns to holding it as the only form of comfort in the varying extreme situations that he and the group face. Joel’s acting in the scene after the wreck was so affective that it nearly had me weeping. Kyle Chandler who plays Joe’s dad Jackson is probably best known for his role as Coach Eric Taylor in the great Friday Night Lights television series. Jackson’s tough exterior is immediately examined and given a fragile dimension by Abrams that distances him from the stoicism of his most famous role. I loved the father son dynamic here that’s without (the necessary) maternal figure – and that the two starkly different characters are having to deal with the warmth being out of their lives.



Abrams made all the right choices with casting - filling out the cast with a group of character actors most people will go "oh yeah he was in that movie with um... yeah I've seen him before in that TV show". And the adult characters, while being believable and authentic really take a back seat to a great little bunch of child actors. Normally the golden rule for a director is to NEVER work with animals or children. Abrams must be commended for extracting such deep and multi dimensional performances from the core group of kids. They are the focus of the films and they carry it. Cary (Ryan Lee) the firebug, Preston (Zach Mills), lead actor Martin (Gabriel Basso) and tyrannical amateur director Charles (Riley Griffiths) form an eclectic little group that represent the burgeoning generation of filmmakers influenced by the explosion of B-Grade monster centric films of the period that the film is set. They are all authentic and quirky and in contrast to their adventurous Goonies brethren; yearn to create an adventurous scenario on their friend’s ‘Super 8’ instead of participating in a grand adventure. Some of the best moments in the film for me were watching the kids filming. Watching Charles hilariously utilise his counterparts to realise his vision and use their ingenuity for ‘production value’ was a source of many laughs; I especially enjoyed the last minute rewrites for Martin. And when Charles needed a wife for Martin’s character so we can ‘care’ more about him we’re introduced to the wonderful Alice (Elle Fanning); whose moments acting in the film within Super 8 are the most stunning for Joe, the boys and the audience in alarmingly legitimizing something that is the source for most of the comedy in the film.



Now this great chemistry and authenticity of the characters provide a great foil for the films other dimension - a suspenseful alien/monster thriller. I really don’t want to say too much, as to not spoil the plot but the kids witness the crash of the freight train, what caused it, and that something escaped the wreckage – and have course to investigate. Now saying that, despite the great deal of secrecy that the filmmakers and distributor have been making to conceal the catalyst for the film’s mysterious event and strange goings on, I found that there wasn’t the traditional emphasis on incremental glimpses of the films alien/monster. I wouldn’t say that it is quite as overt as the stunning South Korean Host in terms of showing the monster right up front but I felt that we (the audience) had enough glimpses of the alien visitor that it quenched anyone usually gearing himself or herself for the big reveal.



Super 8 engages your sense memory. There are certain songs, smells of nature in the breeze, the taste of home cooking and films from your childhood that when you’re re-exposed to them – instantly transport you to that moment. I think that the biggest compliment I can give this film is that it elicits the same feelings I get when I watch E.T. Ricky Gervais was onto something when once described Abrams as the next Spielberg – and I think that a late seventies summer where kids are making zombie movies with their friends is indicative of a hat tipping to say thank you for your influence. This is a great Hollywood MOVIE. Go and see it to feel like a kid again, if you love sci-fi and want to see Spielberg’s successor working under the supervision of his mentor and affirming Mr Gervais’ claim.

Blake Howard is a writer/site director/podcaster at the castleco-op.com.



Movie Review Archive

365 Days, 100 Films #24 - My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

My Neighbor Totoro, 1988.

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Featuring the voice talents of Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Tim Daly, Lea Salonga, Frank Welker, Pat Carroll and Paul Butcher.


SYNOPSIS:

In post-war Japan two young sisters move to the countryside and discover a forest inhabited by magical spirits known as Totoros.


Remember when you were a kid and everything was massive? Cynicism barely existed back then. You could genuinely believe that a ‘People’s Elbow’ was the most devastating move in all of sports entertainment when really it was just The Rock doing an elbow drop. You could sit for hours in your bedroom plotting out mass, universe-wide battles pitting a Boba Fett action figure against an evil army of Lego drones. Some stories would span across many planets from under the stairs to the back of the garden. Christmas was great not just for the presents, but also because there was a rare military base that appeared only once a year in that assembled tree.

Suspending disbelief is easy when you’re young. There’s no doubting or second-guessing the realities you create with friends or toys. I’ve never seen a film that commits this unquestioning belief to film more than My Neighbour Totoro. It’s about two sisters who move to a new house with their father. Their mother is in hospital, but with nothing serious. It isn’t that sort of film.

Nothing much happens besides three brief scenes. The two sisters, Satsuki and Mei, about ten and four years old respectively, play in the garden and explore their new surroundings for most of the film. Satsuki eventually starts attending school, leaving Mei at home with her father. Mei’s the sort who could entertain herself for hours with only a toy bucket. On one of these play sessions, about half an hour into the film, she sees a tiny, faint blob hopping across the ground in her garden. Its ears are two small triangles on the top of its head. Mei startles the creature and chases it through the bushes at the garden’s edge. She comes to the base of an enormous tree, one that stands about twice the size of the rest of the forest. The faint blob jumps down into a gap between the roots. Mei jumps in after it.

Here she discovers two more of these blob-like creatures, only one is a little bigger and furry, and the other is much bigger and furrier. They are ‘Totoro’, which is Japanese for ‘forest spirits’. Satsuki compares them later on in the film to some drawings in Mei’s picture book. A lesser film might have used this to reveal the Totoro as figments of Mei’s imagination. That’s the easy interpretation – the sisters have created a fantasy to deal with their mother’s extended stay in hospital. If you wish to reduce the film with such redundant psychoanalysis, you’re missing its point. My Neighbour Totoro isn’t about the power of a child’s imagination. It’s about an entire realm of fantasy of which only children are conscious.

My Neighbour Totoro wisely never addresses this explanation, rather opting for a world where such fantasy is real for the children but only warmly humoured by their parents. It suggests that these Totoro are real, but because we’re a little older now, we just can’t see them.

Toy Story does this more obviously. After first watching that film, who didn’t believe that their toys would jump to life as soon as they saw you close the door? See it when you’re a little older though. You’ll appreciate the technique and some of the humour more, but you’ll loose that sense of wonder – that Toy Story was actually revealing something a lot bigger, a grand conspiracy where toys are actually sentient beings. My Neighbour Totoro addresses how a child’s imagination experiences the world more subtly. In doing so, it merges together this fantasy with reality. It makes you want to not only believe like a kid again, but for that lost perspective when you could see where the Totoro existed.

That the Totoro are used so sparingly is another of the film’s great strengths. You’re left wanting far more than you’re given and you start to dream yourself about what they might be up to when they aren’t on screen. Are they nocturnal? Are they the last of their kind? Do they take trips into space on the Cat Bus? Oh, right, the Cat Bus…

The Cat Bus is arguably the greatest animal form of transport ever conceived. It has five legs on either side and two mice on its roof for illumination. Its face owes a great debt to Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat and its eyes beam out strong headlights.

Its first appearance comes in the rain, whilst Satsuki and Mei are waiting for their father at the bus stop. He forgot his umbrella and they’ve brought one to give to him when he arrives. That’s how nice they both are, and how superbly simple this film is. King Totoro (the biggest of the three) has joined them, but he’s has only a leaf to cover his head from the rain. Satsuki offers him her father’s umbrella. He doesn’t know what to do with such a contraption, so he plays with it in Chaplin-esque naivety. He’s delighted when it opens above him. This is the first time Satsuki has encountered a Totoro, yet she batters not a single eyelid.

After standing in the rain for a while, King Totoro lets out an enormous roar to summon the Cat Bus, who gallops down the road and takes him away. You’re as unfazed as Satsuki because you share her child’s perspective, accepting the bizarre with a merry shrug. It’s only when the camera cuts to a witness frog across the street, mouth agape, that you realise the how absurd it all is – two girls and King Totoro underneath an umbrella that’s hardly half his width. Oh, right, and the Cat Bus. Taken out of context, it’s as trippy as balls.

So many movies are hard going. Lead characters often have some form of parent trouble or bereavement; others require parts of intense conflict for the conclusion to mean anything. Some, however, like My Neighbour Totoro, are just charming. It’s easy to read “a child’s perspective” as condescending, like it’s inferior to our wiser, aged view. William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience addresses the differences between the two outlooks. He also spoke of a higher innocence, an enlightened stage that follows experience. My Neighbour Totoro helps you get there.

Oli Davis

365 Days, 100 Films

Movie Review Archive

Hayao Miyazaki: Drawn to Anime

Movie Review - X-Men: First Class (2011)

X-Men: First Class, 2011.



Directed by Matthew Vaughn.

Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Lucas Till, Zoë Kravitz, Álex González, Caleb Landry Jones, Jason Flemyng, Oliver Platt and Ray Wise.





SYNOPSIS:



In their efforts to prevent Armageddon, a grave rift emerges between close friends Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) that will ultimately pave the way for war between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants.





Matthew Vaughn made quite an impression last year with the hugely entertaining Kick-Ass and now he looks to breathe new life into the X-Men franchise with X-Men: First Class, a 1960s-set prequel that arrives in cinemas on the back of a sea of glowing reviews. Now it’s fair to say that the publicity campaign for First Class didn’t get off to the best of starts but Fox seemed to pull things round with some pretty impressive trailers, and with all the hype the film has been generating this past week I was full of anticipation for something extra special. Sadly, that’s not quite what I ended up with and if I'm being brutally honest, I can't see what all the fuss is about.



Now before anyone jumps on my back, I’m not saying that First Class is a bad film. Far from it. It’s a vast improvement over the utterly lacklustre X-Men Origins: Wolverine and any fears I’d had over the casting choices (James McAvoy, I’m talking to you) were completely misplaced. In fact, the whole cast are solid, there’s plenty of exciting action set-pieces, just the right amount of humour and a decent enough story. And, given the insane turnaround time, Matthew Vaughn and company have pulled off a remarkable achievement. But man, there's been so much Kleenex shed over First Class this week that I guess all those masturbatory reviews really had me hoping for that little bit more.



First Class begins in exactly the same fashion as Bryan Singer’s opening installment did, with a young Erik Lensherr discovering his powers of magnetism in the horrific confines of a Nazi concentration camp. After witnessing the brutal murder of his mother at the hands of Klaus Schmidt, a.k.a. Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), the adult Erik (Michael Fassbender) devotes his life to avenging her death. This brings him into contact with Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), a telepathic mutant working with C.I.A. agent Moira MacTaggart to prevent Shaw from conspiring to start a nuclear war between the United States and Russia. The pair soon spark up a friendship as they work together to create a team capable of combating the energy-absorbing Shaw and his villainous crew of super-powered mutants, only for their conflicting ideologies to ultimately put them at odds with one another.



The main problem for me with X-Men: First Class is that, much like Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand, the filmmakers have tried to cram as much as possible into the script and not only does this cause the film to skip from one place to the next for much of its running time, but it also leaves quite a few of the characters sorely underdeveloped. Apart from Professor X, Magneto, Shaw, Emma Frost (January Jones) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), the remaining mutants don’t get too much of a look in. While it’s Magneto’s story that drives the film (with Fassbender delivering a fine performance), it is a shame that we didn’t get to see more of the eponymous ‘first class’, especially with characters such as Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) having so much potential to explore.



As I said earlier, X-Men: First Class is infinitely better than Gavin Hood’s previous effort and a worthy installment in the X-Men franchise, but it’s not as good as X2: X-Men United (or Kick-Ass, for that matter) and I can’t say I enjoyed it any more than I did Thor. Matthew Vaughn has been peddling the ‘Batman Begins’ line as to his inspiration for the film, and he’s probably right in that the sequel could be so much better. I’ll certainly be back for it, although next time I won’t bother reading any of the early reviews.

Gary Collinson



Movie Review Archive

Michael Mann Retrospective - Collateral (2004)

Collateral, 2004.

Directed by Michael Mann.
Starring Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Mark Ruffalo, Jada Pinkett Smith, Javier Bardem, Bruce McGill, Irma P. Hall, Peter Berg and Jason Statham.


SYNOPSIS:

A Los Angeles cab driver unwittingly becomes the chauffer for a hired assassin.


To improve upon the depth and detail of the nighttime images for his 2004 thriller Collateral, director Michael Mann shot the exterior footage with high definition digital cameras giving the movie a gritty documentary feel. Initially it was jarring to see the usually glamorous Tom Cruise playing the grey-haired assassin Vincent; however, the shock quickly disappears as he effortlessly dissolves into his psychotically-charming character. The pivotal role is given to Jamie Foxx who plays the unfortunate cabbie, Max. The transformation from being the victim to the victor is so believable that the performance provided Foxx with one of his two Oscar nominations that year.

The Chicago filmmaker impressed Tom Cruise with his vision for the motion picture. “When Michael sent the script he sent different stills,” explained the box office megastar, “almost an art motif of things he was thinking about, and what he wanted to explore. It was just something else because his vision of L.A. and what he sees has real emotion, has real poetry. I knew it was going to be a lot of fun and it was.”

In regards to the nondescript attire Cruise wears doing the course of the film, Mann stated: “It's not really a disguise, but it's anonymous. If somebody actually witnesses him and police ask for a description, what are people going to say? A middle-aged, middle-height guy wearing a middle grey suit and white shirt. It describes anybody and nobody.”

When it came to portraying Vincent convincingly, Cruise stated, “It was kind of an anti-social character. It was months of talking with Michael and finding that point of fracture. Where does it all go wrong for Vincent and where does it start? You know. We just kept creating layers. Normally, I always do a lot of research for a character, particularly something like this. That back story has to inform every scene. With Michael, he had pictures of where I came from. We discussed a lot of different aspects of where I live and how I became the way I became as Vincent. So it will emotionally inform the movie and start to look at where does this fracture happen. Vincent is impinging on Max. I'm driving that car from the back seat and then bring my attention to the things I have to do to get my job done. When you're making a movie, it's not like oh, it's going to happen here. It evolves out of this creative process, which Michael is excellent at.”

Michael Mann was drawn to the script written by Stuart Beattie because the story unfolds during such a short time frame. As for the original New York City setting being replaced by the City of Angels, the director remarked, “The idea of shooting an intense film like this in L.A. at night precedes the Collateral screenplay. It's something I wanted to do after the last two films that I made that were both historically accurate - extraordinarily real subjects and characters. So I had an appetite for doing a film like this before I got the Collateral script.”

The majority of the film takes place in a taxi cab with occasional flashes of gunfire. “We don't see it as an action film,” said Mann. “We see it as a drama. It's as extreme as it can be. In this one night, where these guys have been, whatever their expectations and dreams are for the future, everything is going to change. They are not going to be the same people after tonight. That's an idea, that's a dramatic idea. Then we worked very hard to build the characters and make them as real and three-dimensional as possible, just the way you are in your own lives, with as much specificity as we could build in. Then we do the dramatic scenario and that's really it.”

With the taxi having such a key role in the movie, Mann revealed, “We built 17 cabs. Some had no fronts, some had no sides. Some we didn't use at all. What actually worked out was that sequence where they're supposed to be in a real cab with someone, either myself or Gary Jay, with the camera on his shoulder, was in one of the seats. But the interesting thing about a cab is that you have to view it as an opportunity because if you have two people, they're both facing the camera, but whenever we elect to, the man in the backseat can have his own thoughts coming across his face because the other guy is not necessarily seeing him.”

The H.D. technology has found a convert in the veteran moviemaker. “For this movie, it was great shooting in digital.” However, there were complications that needed to be worked out. Mann stated, “It required a lot. It was like having a camera that's attached on an umbilical to your refrigerator at home. So it wasn't portable. But it enabled me to be very painterly with building the scene. It's counterintuitive to photograph in every conceivable way. Throw a light meter away, you don't need it. It's right there on a high def monitor. But it requires knowing exactly what you want because what's available is a much broader spectrum than a motion picture film.”

Tom Cruise had nothing but praise for his director: “It was exciting. And I could feel it. And as an actor, I love movies. I have seen all of Mann's movies. It's something you want to look at and study because he designs his pictures from the ground up and he really has a tremendous command of the medium and the storytelling.”

Collateral trailer:


Mann Handled: A Michael Mann Profile

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

DVD Review - Seconds Apart (2011)

Seconds Apart, 2011.

Directed by Antonio Negret.
Starring Orlando Jones, Edmund Entin and Gary Entin.


SYNOPSIS:

Damned from the moments of their births, two brothers possess a gruesome talent for telekinesis - a power they use in the most horrific ways imaginable.


If cinema history has taught us anything, it’s that twins are scary as hell and not to be trusted. Case in point is Seconds Apart, a chiller/thriller from Colombian director Antonio Negret and first-time feature writer George Richards.

The twins in question are played by real life twins Gary and Edmund Entin who are quite simply excellent in their roles. They are genuinely creepy and feel like a cross between Ricky Fitts from American Beauty and the Grady Daughters from The Shining. While their dialogue feels fairly forced and clichéd, the Entin twins do a very good job of making the content fit the bill.

The Entins are supported by a relatively unknown cast including Samantha Droke in the “love interest” role and Morgana Shaw and Louis Herthum as the equally creepy parents of the films main characters. The only real “star” of the film per say is comedian Orlando Jones who plays Detective Lampkin. It feels particularly odd to watch Jones in such a serious role but he actually holds the screen quite well.

However, Lampkin is a major part of the biggest deterrent for the film. There is a horribly contrived sub plot about the detective’s dead wife that has been shoehorned in for no real reason. It’s terribly written, woefully put together and is a huge distraction from the main plot. Not only is it incredibly boring, but it almost ruins the flow of the movie.

When you’re watching a chiller/thriller, you will undoubtedly be waiting for the twist that will either make or break the movie. Luckily for Seconds Apart, the film’s twist falls into the former category. It’s very well written and incredibly creative. However, I would argue that the final moments of the film are not enough to satisfy an audience.

While Seconds Apart does have its moments, it is by no means a great film. The set pieces of the film are very well executed and Negret does create a great feeling of unease, but Richards’ script doesn’t hold enough water to carry it through the 86 minutes. Perhaps diehard fans of the genre will enjoy it for what it is, everyday movie viewers may find the piece to be hokey and ineffectual.

Luke Owen

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