Hercules

I bought this for my son (age 10) before I realized it was had a rating of MA15+ and so thought I needed to watch it before he did and see if was suitable for his viewing. (Its not!)

The story is of course based on Hercules, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, a priestess of Hera. It starts with a bit of a warm up into the ‘time of the gods’ before seeing how Alcemene became pregnant with twins – one of which was Hercules. Alcemene hated Zeus and so hates his probable offspring, Hercules, therefore he is never shown any love or affection by her, but rather by his ‘father’ Amphitryon.

He leaves the his home in semi-exile after he thought he had killed a poet, Linus, and after many years becomes stronger - though little wiser. He has an interlude with Megara, who he has had a crush on for many years and she delivers triplet boys. After a daring fight with a monster and saving the king, he is allowed to marry Megara which he does. Megara, however is also a priestess of Hera and under Alcmene’s guidance drugs Hercules who in his drugged stupor believes he is being attacked by demons and kills his sons.

Although he tries to kill himself, Zeus does not allow it and instead Hercules serves Alcemene and her new husband, by completing six tasks set by them. Naturally they are not small tasks, but of course he succeeds and gains much wisdom in their completion. In the meantime he is surprised but pleased to learn that his friend, the nymph Deianeira, loves him and they already have a son.

Basically there is much fighting, quite a bit of maiming and killing and some broad hints in the “mature themes” department.

Quite a few of the characters are quite disagreeable eg. Alcmene (Elizabeth Perkins), King Eurystheus (Kristian Schmid) and Iphicles (Luke Ford), but they are balanced by the nicer ones eg. Linus (Sean Astin), Deianeira (Leelee Sobieski) and Amphitryon (Timothy Dalton). Balance is a theme running through this movie – male/female Zeus/Hera good/bad, belief/reality and so on.

Overall, the acting is pretty average. Timothy Dalton gives quite a good performance and is believable (in as much as you can believe a myth!). The adult Hercules (Paul Telfer) is suitably built for the part and whilst not brilliant, carries off his part well enough. By the end he seems to have embraced his part and is showing more feeling. Elizabeth Perkins seems to enjoy her role and Sean Astin plays his part agreeably. Leelee Sobieski was a little stitled, but seeing as she was a nymph and covered in bronze makeup, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt! I think a number of the actors may have been limited by the script/direction as I believe they are capable of more.

It would probably be accurate to say that I won’t watch it again – it’s mindless watching for those days when you’re unwell and lying on the couch, brain in a fog and unable to think.

Die Another Day

My second Bond film in a couple of weeks! Prepare to check reality at the door as you go on a trip into Bond-world with amazing stunts and special effects.

I have to admit that I happier with a Bond in the traditional mould (Pierce Brosnan vs. Daniel Craig) but I can be a bit of a traditionalist too. So in the tradition of Bond movies, this one takes you on a ‘fantastic’ journey for the 20th Bond film.

The movie begins in Korea where Bond attempts to kill nasty Colonel Moon and a terrorist named Zao, who are trading in banned diamonds and weapons. He manages to destroy their base and quite a few of the weapons but ends up being caught, imprisoned and tortured. Not a nice look for Bond and one of the few touches of realism hits the screen.

After an extended stay in prison and sporting a beard and long hair he is released and becomes a rogue agent as MI6 think he has deceived them. He continues his search for Zao in Cuba where he meets Jinx (Halle Berry) and then the trail leads him to London and the baddie, diamond mogul Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) with his beautiful assistant, Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike).

An interlude of swordplay and then it’s on to Iceland with some pretty amazing scenes in and around an ice palace. Finally some scenes on an Antanov, which of course gets destroyed (don’t they always!?). Of course, Bond wins the day, and the girl.

Pierce plays Bond in his usual cool way and is suave, sophisticated, capable and destructive, with an eye for the girls. Halle Berry is really very good as Jinx – she has some good one-liners and brings a touch of humour to the role along with her beauty. Toby Stephens plays Gustav Graves very well – he is an actor that brings much depth to the roles he plays and this is no exception. Of course being a ‘baddie’ is somewhat limiting, but he plays it to the hilt. Rosamund Pike is coolly beautiful as Ms. Frost and lets no emotion escape, as the part decrees. Judi Dench is of course M and her part seems smaller than some previous Bond movies, but what she is in is played true to form. John Cleese plays Q and brings a lighthearted touch to his scenes.

I wasn’t that keen on the Die Another Day song, which is by Madonna, but its quite a techno song, so I guess that’s why. Scenes in the movie – well the CGI is a bit over the top in a couple of scenes (eg. sea/wave with icebergs) but trying to do those scenes in reality would be impossible, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on that score. On the other hand there is a return to some of the big-budget look scenes (eg. the ice palace) and some nods to previous Bond films.

Overall, a good movie to watch if you like lots of action and a slip away from reality for a couple of hours.

Casino Royale (2006)

Lots of action, as you would expect from a Bond movie, but I am afraid that Daniel Craig left me cold. He seemed to have the look of a thug/hitman/killer in this portrayal and rarely came across as I expect Bond to be - cool, calm and collected. If anything, his appearances at the premiere of this movie and at awards ceremonies (when I assume he was being himself) seemed more in the Bond character than he did in the movie!

As expected, there were plenty of fast action sequences and the body count rose dramatically as the movie progressed. One of the first action sequences included the amazing athletism of a bomber (played by Sebastien Foucan), attempting to escape. I believe what he did was Free Running – apparently a new ‘sport’ in Europe/UK (the British car show, Top Gear did a segment on it recently).

I guess Daniel had a big job playing the part of Bond and wanted to make it his own. I think he succeeded in making his Bond dissimilar to the others, and not just in appearance. He was muscular and ‘square’ whereas I have always thought of Bonds as athletic but slim. Admittedly he did look extremely fit when he was only wearing swimshorts, although the obvious display of his body and the filming of the shot(s), was reminiscent of a good look at a Bond girl, rather than Bond himself! I also found the love scenes left me cold. Craig had the look of ice about him most of the time, with the one exception of a scene towards the end of the movie, in Venice. My husband, who watched this with me, told me when I expressed disappointment in the love scenes, that “it’s a Bond movie – they don’t have to act!” I guess he’s right!

The Bond girls were suitably attractive, although not heart-stoppingly so. Vesper Lyn (played by Eva Green) played her part well, although I felt was not spectacular. I did see Christina Cole (from BBC’s Jane Eyre 2006 – she played Blanche Ingram) in a small part as a receptionist and she looked suitably beautiful.

M (Judi Dench) was her usual wonderful self – no fault on the acting there. There were a few other familiar faces including Ivana Milicevic (she had a small part in Love Actually), Jeffrey Wright (from Lady in the Water), and Tsai Chin (from The Joy Luck Club and Wendy Wu, Homecoming Warrior (my children made me watch it!!!),

Baddie, Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) had the psychotic look of someone rather unbalanced, but didn’t give me the feeling of being bad to the bone/evil.

Interestingly I thought the movie had ended a couple of times before it actually did, so I suppose they did still have a surprise or two in store. The ending was probably the best shot where at least Bond was attired in a suit and uttered his famous line “Bond, James Bond”. Apart from the huge gun he was carrying of course – that seemed a tad out of character.

Then again, this movie was supposed to be the precursor to Bond - a kind of how Bond became Bond, so perhaps we can forgive the brutish behaviour and believe that he mellowed into the sophisticated action hero of the later movies.

All in all, I wouldn’t watch this movie again. But, as a Bond movie, there is no harm in experiencing it - just don’t expect too much from it. What was your take on it?