Starring: Carlos Gallardo
Directed by:Robert Rodriguez
The reason why this movie has become legendary is because of its budget - $7,000. Not enough to pay for a day's hair-styling on Terminator 2, this somehow manages to transcend the obvious extreme limitations to make an exciting, action packed, inventive, original and frequently very funny movie.
Collandros is a Mariachi, a travelling guitarist and storyteller. He walks into Mexican border town Acuna, and also into a whole heap 'o trouble, since a maverick prison escapee (with a weapon-stuffed guitar case in his hand and a chip on his shoulder) is busy picking off the local crime bosses' stupid workers. Cue mistaken identity, and double trouble when he falls for the Big Guy's girl, working behind the bar.
Writer/Editor/Cameraman/Producer/Absolutely Everything Rodriguez injects tons of wit and style into this basic plot, so that after fifteen minutes you forget the super-cheap origins. Splendid town and desolate country locations help the atmosphere, as do evocative music and sound (admittedly tweeked later at Columbia's expense). Also, this is one occasion when subtitles work in a film's favour - a suspicion that one or two performances from his non-actor mates may leave a bit to be desired remains only that, since you are reading the smart dialogue rather than watching the woodenness...
Not that there's much dialogue, though. This is almost unique, an ultra-low budget action movie that is actually full of action, is genuinely exciting and is superbly shot and edited.
If you ever harboured a desire to make your own movie, this provides the ultimate inspiration. But beware two things. Number one - Macclesfield ain't Mexico, and number two - while you may think $7,000 is a bargain, be sure to check this first with the person that pays the phone bill.
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush. Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes, Eric Cantona, John Geilgud
Directed by: Shekhar Kapur
Somewhat needless retelling of Elizabeth I's turbulent life is reasonably engaging, with Blanchett excellent. Minuses - Eric Cantona is no Vinnie Jones, wildly variable supporting cast (Kathy Burke makes for a dodgy Mary Tudor and Angus Deaton's cameo is unbearable) and over-directed. Perfectly okay, but certainly NOT a Trainspotting for period drama, as the rather desperate marketeers would have us believe.
The Empire Strikes Back: Special Edition **** (Short Review)
Starring: Mark Hammil, Carrie Fisher & Harrison Ford
Directed by: Irvin Kershner
Part two of the original trilogy (part five in the grand scheme of things), has only an almost imperceptable minor tart up. Lots of good stuff still let down by that non-ending that suggests they eventually just ran out of film.
An Englishman Who Went Up a Hill, But Came Down a Mountain ***
Starring Hugh Grant &Tara Fitzgerald
Directed by Chris Monger
Well, if the budget is small, the least you can do is make the title huge. Made eons ago before that movie sent Mr Grant's career hurtling through the stratosphere - and then through tabloid turbulence - this is cosy English cinema at it's most cosy.
Together with his stiff-upper-lip boss, Grant-man rides into town (or rather quaint Welsh village) in a splendid car during WW1. As cartographers, their job is to measure the height of the local hill; a seemingly mundane task given monumental significance due to the villagers insistence that it is not a hill at all, but rather a full blown mountain - the first in Wales, no less. Uproar is caused when it transpires to be 984ft, 16 less than the 1,000 needed to qualify as the genuine article. Their very Welshness at stake, they thus decide to build the necessary extra few feet themselves, whilst attempting to stall the oblivious Englishmen long enough to see the noble task through.
With echoes of Local Hero ringing round the widescreen valleys, this leaves no stereotype unturned - the outraged puratanical vicar, bounder barman and wench-with-the-heart-of-gold all dutifully put in appearances. That said, the required charm is poured on slowly and evenly - Grant plays Grant again very nicely (as he might) and the other cardbord characters are fleshed out well by the rest of the cast. Despite precious few belly laughs or delicious quirky vignettes, a happy grin is more or less established by the closing credits.
This misses the mark as a classic little gem, but it may still provide a welcome antidote to the disappointing megabucks offerings playing at the biggest screens down your local multiplex. Charmed, to be sure.
Starring: Ralph Finnes, Kristin Scott Thomas & Juliette Binoche
Directed by: Anthony Minghella
So the film that won the hearts of the Oscar Academy arrives at home shores. Sort of home shores, anyway - American money, Brit talent.
We open with a dramatic WW2 plane crash, which leaves pilot Finnes in a right old state. Selflessly tending his death-bed wounds is gutsy nurse Binoche, which allows him time to reminisce about how he got there in the first place. His married lover, Scott Thomas, may have had something to do with it, their passion inflamed amongst the sand dunes of Africa.
It's a long epic, for the vast majority lovingly filmed. Quite what Scott Thomas first saw in Fines in order to jump on his bones is a mystery however, as he appears to be remote, annoying and not a little creepy. Indeed, for all the literacy, beauty and intelligence, the film lacks warmth, and the inherant tragedy is made less potent by an occasionally pompous overblown sentiment. It has an epic form - widescreen and searing orchestra - but the initimate, actually quite small story and cold characters don't sit so easily within it.
That said, the performances are largely good (even if Binoche's accent is a tad bizarre and Fines is a bit too earnest), the structure very graceful and elegent, the set-pieces are superbly executed and the overall air of quality helps endure the bum-numbing running time of 2 and 3/4 hours. But a suspiscion remains that, with good lighting and an on-display classic education, a filmaker can fool most of the people most of the time. Including the Academy...
Starring: Alicia Silvertone, Max Del Toro & Christopher Walken
Directed by: Marcello Brambillo
Diabolical misfire involving Silverstone staging her own kidnapping - she hides in the boot of her car, which subsequently gets stolen. Veteren scriptwriters Dick Clements and Ian Le Frenais should be ashamed of this leaden, humourless and unnatractive shambles - even Walken only reminds you of how good he is in other films. Boring beyond all reason.
Starring: Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman and Sarah Jessica Parker
Directed by: Michael Apted
OK - it's a fine idea, a sort of ER meets The Fugitive. Hmm - if that sounds like the movie has been concocted by one of those screenwriting programs, then consider this.
Hugh Grant (no27 - a brilliant, slightly cocky but caring surgeon) is disturbed by the bizarre and apparently unexplainable death of one of his patients. He digs around, gets the help of an attractive nurse (no2 - potential love interest), but soon comes to the conclusion that a major conspiricy is at work in the hospital, and now his darnfool meddling around means he's for the high jump (plot 4b).
Grant is obviously keen to show the world that before he did his trademark self-effacing comic schtick, he knew how to tread the boards with the best of them. Sadly, Extreme Measures actually makes life worse - his shouting doctor turn is so dubious it merely serves to highlight the skill with which he performs the light comedy when required. As much as anything, some blame must rest on the shoulders of Apted - we know Grant can do better than this and it's a half decent script.
Alright, only half decent. All plot logic and believability becomes victim of the script doctor's knife somewhere towards the last half hour, and the film's closing lines rank among the worst in recent cinema history. A great shame this, since there is a reasonable (admittedly formulaic) film struggling to get out here. More medicine, nurse.
All reviews / articles copyright Guy Rowland (1998).