Fradam

Mr Bean, a name I grew up with, is almost synonymous with disaster. His unerring ineptitude provided me with many laughs… how someone could traverse the earth with such incompetence was beyond me. As a child, I could appreciate it, since much of Bean’s humour was without words — in fact, I daresay many children have a better command and use of the English language than did Bean.

I noticed when I last visited Malaysia that my youngest cousin, only about 8, was enthralled by the antics of Bean; the continual struggle to solve the mundane problems of life elicited much laughter from most of the family actually. You almost cringe seeing the situations he ends up in, especially as you can feel them building up. Ofcourse, with only 14 30minute episodes made, there wasn’t ever going to be a huge build up.

Until they made a movie. I honestly wasn’t that impressed. Americanising the English sense of humour has been on the todo list for the US for a while now, and this movie simply highlighted they hadn’t quite got it yet. Whilst I won’t go into all the problems of that film, one of the key things that was problematic was that Bean’s legendary communication skills were glossed over; he was happily talking all over the place! What was once one of the cornerstones of this humour, was now null and void.

The latest Bean movie, sought to right the wrongs of the past. 10 years on, and once again, simply not being able to communicate was a predicament faced by Bean. All in all, it turned out to be an enjoyable film, and as the final time Rowan Atkinson performs as Bean, definitely a good way to end it. An interesting part of the movie was a movie within the movie.. but alas, that turned out to be a ploy at self-indulgence for William Dafoe’s character. Luckily, Bean saved the day! The only real downpoint to his victory was the lack of Teddy.

As much as it is easy to distance yourself from Bean, and laugh at his sillyness, at times I felt that he was addressing very common problems we all face… it’s just a lot funnier seeing it compacted into the one individual’s life… and with some rather bizarre solutions.

Wild Hogs was very much the same thing; problems that ordinary people face, and some very bizarre solutions. OK, so I suppose to some people, a road trip across the country isn’t very bizarre, but it is to me! The people represented though, and the problems they reflected were ones that were easy to identify with. Between the stagnating low-risk dentist, the once-wealthy-now-bankrupt businessman, the software programmer who can’t find a girl, and the plumber who was clearly not wearing the pants in the relationship… well, I’ll let you decide which one I thought I was most akin too.

Surprisingly though, the movie was full of laughs. It wasn’t all cheese/bad puns.. but there was the token gay police officer. There was an element of self-discovery in each of them, which naturally I soaked up, and love to see. Whilst not every character ended up on top, they all at least seemed filled with hope, which is a good position nonetheless. The best bit was seeing Peter Fonda randomly appearing toward the end of the film — whilst it was no Easy Rider, it was nice to see a bit of a classical genuflection.

300, on the other hand, was anything but classical. I know … almost nobody who agreed with me about this movie, but really, I didn’t think it was that wonderful. Being a progeny of Frank Miller told me to expect that there would be elements of gore, and it would not hold back for the sake of being gentle. It met those expectations. However, as for the rest of it…

Most of the action scenes were like any other film which involved hand to hand combat — only difference here, was someone continually pressing fast-forward, and then pause, and then playing it slowly… and then fast forward again. Repeat, rinse and lather. To its credit, actually seeing a phalanx formation, working in unison, in the manner real soldiers would have executed it (or so we are led to believe), was certainly an amazing thing.

The acting was… yes. The key role of King Leonidas was allegedly cast because he had the loudest voice of those who auditioned. David Wenham was a nice little boon for Australia, but nothing terribly special there. In general, the only real plus of the casting (or perhaps, this was more about the 6 months training), was that every single body was incredibly fit. And considering 90% of the film was spent with a group of 12-pack males running around in loincloths, there was certainly ample opportunity to observe just how fit many of these characters were. Dumdedum… anyways.

As for plot?! It struggled. Big time. They would have been better off making it a pure hack and slash movie, rather than attempting to do political intrigue and doing it badly. The problem with all movies of this nature, is that they are invariably compared to the likes of Gladiator/Braveheart — movies that characterised a genre and time period, and did it well. To any aspiring film maker who happens to be reading this, I say two things:
1. What are you doing here!?
2. Learn from others’ movies!

Anyhow, that is it for me for recent movies watched…so for upcoming movies…

Spiderman 3 — We’re nearly there!

Pirates 3 — I cannot wait .. ! Thanks to Kellie for the following link — just to wet your appetite a bit!

My new movie — Okay, I can’t talk about this too much, but Will has put together a trailer for it… enjoy!