Boldly going again
Movies seen late autumn 2009.
Originally written: June 2009
The Boat that Rocked
Star Trek
As we enter the (northern) summer period, when studios aim to cash in on holidaying school-children and those with even more infantalised tastes, it becomes just a little harder to find a movie you want to watch. Not only have the summer movies of the current era become less reliant on ideas and dialog, they become more reliant on effects and, if the god of comedy is invoked, the humor of the bodily function. An equally distressing trend is the increasing lack of originality. Of the two best "summer" movies of 2008, one was a sequel (The Dark Knight) and one was an animation (Wall-E). Both were reasonably intelligent, even though the Batman movie was part of a series. This year, we are seeing the same trends repeat. The early season blockbusters have been a re-imagining of a classic children's television show of the 1960s, a prequel to a series of adventures based on superhero comics, a sequel to one of the more mindless and illogical thrillers of recent years, a sequel to about the most mindless "comedy" of recent times, and the latest instalment of an SF series that had no real plot to begin with and which has become less and less attached to whatever logic it might once have had. Next cab-off-the-rank is an americanised version of a British television thriller, trying to tell in two hours what the Brits took six hours to unravel. Of that lot, we've seen Star Trek and not seen the Wolverine prequel, Angels and Demons, Night at the Museum 2 or the latest Terminator movie. We'll be seeing State of Play this week, I imagine.
Not many reasons to go off to the cinema.
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Richard Curtis' latest writer/director gig is an affectionate, if slightly chaotic, remembrance of the pirate rock radio stations of the 1960s. For those too young, or too American, to recall, the BBC monopoly on radio, enforced by government, meant that there was no station devoted to the developing rock and pop market, even at the time that the Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits and Lulu were changing music. How did my British contemporaries survive without an equivalent of the "Good Guys" playing the latest platters? The vacuum was filled by broadcasts from the continent and from ships anchored in the English Channel, like Radio Caroline. The Boat that Rocked is loosely based on Radio Caroline at the time when authorities were contemplating the introduction of laws to shut down the pirate radios, so there are two focuses for the movie: the goings-on, somewhat anarchic, on the boat; and the government offices where Kenneth Branagh and Commodore Norrington (here called "Twatt", in less-than-subtle nominative determinism) are working on ways to shut them down. On the boat, Curtis uses a diverse cast of characters, as is his preference, and a number of interlinking plots. Without having either Hugh Grant or Rowan Atkinson (or both) to rely on, Curtis has relied more on an ensemble, amongst which Bill Nighy, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rhys Ifans stand out. The point of view is carried by Tom Sturridge's Carl, a young man sent to work with his uncle Bill Nighy on the pirate boat. Chubby comedian Nick Frost provides the broad humor on the boat and Emma Thompson makes a telling cameo appearance. Generally the boat scenes are well-handled, from the interaction of the various DJs, and their support staff, through the romantic, and other, adventures on the high seas, to the creation of an evocation of the era, through music, language and dress. Most of this works very well, at least until the climactic moments. On the other hand, the broadest, least subtle, digs are aimed at the buffoonery of the politicians and their bureaucrats. Kenneth Branagh (in an attempted comedic version of the administrator he played in Rabbit-Proof Fence) and Jack Davenport, as the Minister and his Twatt, seem to be in a different movie altogether. The other weakness of the movie is the overblown climax. Unlike Love Actually, his previous directorial outing, Curtis has not maintained enough discipline here to keep his boat afloat. The music is great, as an evocation of the era and as a reminder of how great music was in the mid 1960s, and why it was that the young, and the not-so-young, of Britain were so loyal to the pirate radio stations. It's a shame that Curtis couldn't quite get the humorous tone to match the nostalgic schtick.
Still boldly splitting infinitives
JJ Abrams has re-imagined the Star Trek universe ... and has not corrected the one major error in the original series. Of which, more later. The way he has effected the change and set the stage for further Trek movies or series is interesting as well. By returning us to a time before the original series was set, and creating an alternate time line in which to set his story (without too many kilowatts being expended on the double-talk generator), Abrams has rid himself of the constraints on the makers of earlier movies and series and freed the franchise to indeed explore strange new worlds. The best thing about this film is that it is great fun. It refuses to take too seriously the sort of solemnity that has slipped into the Star Trek universe. Having started out with three series of what was, basically, kids' television, Star Trek has been weighed down with too much high-flown rhetoric and too many complex plot developments. Many of the movies were so effects-oriented that they lost the human touch, and it's hard to think of a decent entry since they saved the whales. Abrams, and his writers, take us back to when the Enterprise crew were largely in training, with a rebellious Kirk and a young Spock who hasn't as yet discovered his human side. The way in which the plot gets them aboard the Enterprise, with the young Sulu, Chekov, Uhura and McCoy, again under the command of Christopher Pike (as was the case in the TV series pilot), is good - it allows us to understand that these are different versions of the same people we used to know. While there are many very good effects scenes, they largely carry the story forward and are integrated with the character development. But even better is the lighter tone of the piece. This is not spoiled by the villainy of Nero (Eric Bana), who plays his part in the romp. This is truly a picaresque SFnal film, that expands its horizons beyond the expected. There is the usual round of death and destruction but they never interfere with the joie de vivre of the piece. By and large the actors playing the younger crew are excellent. I liked Chris Pike as Kirk and loved Zachary Quinto's Spock. Simon Pegg is a left-field choice for Scotty, but somehow it works. Zoe Saldana's Uhura is, thankfully, given a little more to do than the "Tawny-Madison" talk-to-the-computer style of role and both Chekov and Sulu get an opportunity for a scene or two. The only "new" character that doesn't quite ring true is Karl Urban's McCoy. Maybe he is just not given enough to do. Leonard Nimoy makes an appearance and, given he was the best of the original actors, provides a benchmark for the quantum leap in quality evinced by the new lot. At the end, the villain finally despatched and the alternate universe safe until the next Mule appears, the Enterprise is again tasked to its "on-going mission". And, damn it, they have no corrected the annoying grammatical solecism and still split that infinitive. Great fun, and thoroughly recommended for old fans and new.
[Note: Information about the movies mentioned, including cast and crew lists and all sorts of trivia, is available at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).]