I’ve been told that I am prejudiced against action films made after the nineties when I looked upon today’s release in scorn. I do not apologise for this.
Fast & Furious Five
The gang is back! This time pursued by Dwayne Johnson as the cop who just can’t find t-shirts big enough for his hulking frame. Best quote from the trailer, “whatever you do, don’t let them get into cars.”
I was hoping that seeing Your Highness would present me with the perfect opportunity to write a really scathing review filled with ranting, exaggeration and maybe a bit of swearing, but I can’t. Your Highness isn’t that bad.
Despite the easy comparison Your Highness isn’t trying to be The Princess Bride, it isn’t even trying to parody classic fantasy quest-based films, all it is trying to do is be a broad comedy set in medieval times with plenty of jokes about sex, drugs and people swearing with bad British accents in the middle of speaking with an old English dialect. In trying to be this very specific type of comedy, Your Highness succeeds.
The film may not have been laugh a minute but it was amusing at times, and Danny McBride was offering up nothing different, for better or worse, to what viewers of Eastbound and Down expect from him week on week. The combined talents of Franco, Deschanel and Portman made the film easily watchable, even when director David Gordon Green wasn’t really trying.
A highlight was Rasmus Hardinker as McBride’s sidekick for offering up silly faces and dry wit in equal measure, and to the set designer who hadn’t been told this was just a comedy and the sets didn’t need to rival (and possible beat) Game of Thrones. It was also nice to see Damian Lewis in a larger role than I had expected.
Your Highness is a lot of fun and as a raunchy comedy works quite well. Not all of the jokes stem from sex or drugs and there is some intelligence if you listen hard enough. The only way the film really lets you down is if you are a fan of David Gordon Green’s early work, the beautiful and painfully indie All the Real Girls seems like the work of a much more mature and talented director.
If Your Highness doesn’t seem like your sort of film then it probably isn’t, but for me it fit right into the category of guilty pleasure and I am rightfully ashamed of that fact.
It’s hard not to notice that HBO’s new fantasy drama starts tonight on Sky Atlantic at 9pm. Every newspaper has endless ads and conversations with the cast. Well, not us! No, but we did get to see the first two episodes so that we could pass on our impartial opinion. And that opinion is… it’s alright. Is that good for a poster?
I won’t even try to get into the plot specifics as it all passed me by a little, Sean Bean’s character leaves his comfortable life to join the king, who seems to be an old pal, and somewhere else a pretty young lady marries the leader(?) of a different tribe, after being groped by her brother, and then has lots of rough sex. There’s also the brilliant Peter Dinklage playing a very privileged man who spends plenty of time whoring around. The rest of the characters it will take me the next 8 episodes to get a grip of.
Though the show is technically in the medieval fantasy realm this consists mostly of silly names, a complicated map and lots of horse riding, the fantasy element has so far been pretty light on the ground. There are no elves or hobbits which is all the better for those not so keen of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Even the bloodshed is pretty isolated, though still contains plenty of arcing crimson to keep you satisfied. What you do get is plenty of talking. Quality talking I’ll admit, that is spoken in a modern dialect, but still for a show of this type I expected more sword waving than witty banter. This can only be a good thing, certainly for the first two episodes, as it allows the unsure viewer not too keen on endless horse-riding and slow motion fighting to get into the series before it goes too medieval.
While the violence may be low-key so far the sex certainly isn’t. From Peter Dinklage being swarmed by prostitutes to the new bride being taught how to please a man by her female servant, there’s plenty of boobs and buttocks to make you wish you hadn’t chosen this as the family’s new Monday show.
In summary I enjoyed the show much more than I expected, any fantasy element is so far on the down low and the show is made all the more accessible for it. It still isn’t for everyone and I’m not sure how far into the run I will make it. But you should probably give it a try, so long as you feel comfortable watching the more rompy moments with whoever is sharing the sofa with you.
Our independent cinema reviews begin in London’s East End: The Rio in Dalston, Hackney.
A few treats out this week from a silly old bear to a ghost faced killer. Double bill anyone?
Winnie the Pooh
Everyone’s favourite bear, suck it Yogi, returns for a big screen, 2D animated adventure. It looks as though Pooh notices that he’s in a book which is seven shades of exciting. Plus Zooey Deschanel does some songs for the film, including the theme tune:
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Red Riding Hood
A classic fairytale retold in Twilight fashion. Expect romance, angst and disembowelling. I spoiled myself and found out who the wolf is, now I don’t need to see the film.
SCRE4M
Meta horror returns with everyone off of the telly ready for the chop. Who is the killer? Who can even remember the killers from all three films? A must see.
A Small Act (limited release)
Documentary about a young Kenyan who had his education sponsored by a foreign stranger and grew up to set up his own scholarship program. Expect to be uplifted.
Meek’s Cutoff (limited release)
A PG western starring Michelle Williams and Paul Dano. Very mixed feelings on this one.
Little White Lies (limited release)
Not the fantastically over-designed film magazine that doesn’t resort to endless superhero covers (hi Empire!) but a French film about the relationship between a group of friends after the serious injury of a friend. Lots of acting and emotion… in French!
Cold Weather (limited release)
Two men use their love for detective novels to solve the disappearance of one man’s ex-girlfriend.
Sparrow (limited release)
From IMDb: “A gang of pickpockets roam the streets of Hong Kong.”
From Google: “a minimalist mail application for Mac.”
From Wikipedia: “in the family Passeridae are small passerine birds”
Cooking with Stella (limited release)
Wait… didn’t this come out a month ago?
Currently browsing the mildconcern.com weblog archives for April, 2011.
