herbiehancock

No 453 - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Director - Steven Spielberg So 20 years have past since Indiana Jones rode away from Petra... and the question that some people might have been asking is "What is he up to now?" Well.... turns out he's still up to the same old shenanigans. This is a difficult film to analyse because all the pieces are there, everything SHOULD work, and yet.... somehow.... it doesn't. I don't want to turn this into a purist rant about how the trilogy didn't need to be revisited, but I will talk about the things that did work and (in my opinion) the things that didn't work. Before I go on.... I want to say, I don't mind the Aliens - sorry, Pan-Dimensional Beings . I don't really see how they are any more unbelievable or ridiculous than the sheer bonkers nonsense that is the old old old man guarding the holy grail. The first one of these is that it really feels like it is trying too hard to appease fans.... ...

No 306 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Director Steven Spielberg When watching the films as a set in succession (as I have just done) - the qualities of this film (which I always remembered as the weakest of the original trilogy) really shine through. After the darkness of face melting and nightmare tribes, the far more jokey vibe of this film seem a lot more appropriate. There is a lot of good in The Last Crusade.... lets check it out. Really - what we're doing with the trilogy is building and then - to a certain degree - deconstructing a legend. So where Raiders of the Lost Ark gave us the hero and a romantic foil who is his equal, the sequels begin to look at how he behaves with people less suited to his adventurous lifestyle. Whether they be children and civilians (Short Round shows Indy's paternal streak far more beautifully than his relationship with Mutt... but I'm jumping forward a film) or whether they be his own estranged family. The films show us just enough...

No 233 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Director - Steven Spielberg Well... Whilst the sight of a Nazi's face melting off may be a dark ending to Raiders of the Lost Ark, it is nothing compared to the outright horror that makes up Temple of Doom.... We are in for some rough times in our PG rating. Some tough times indeed. However, firstly, Spielberg lulls us into a false sense of security by offering what must be the campest introduction in all of his career: So... we're in the fab 30's before war has broken out and before Raiders has taken place... And Indy is getting himself into trouble - and after an awesome little shoot out we are saddled with Indy's new sidekicks for the film.... and this is where Temple of Doom falters. After the excellent double bill of Sallah and Marion, leaving us with Willie and Short Round feels like a punishment. Especially as most of their character seems built around screaming. In fact about 95% of Willie's screen time is scream...

No 2 - Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark Director - Steven Spielberg A hand brushes through the jungle. The brim of a fedora throws a strong jaw into shadow. A leather jacket is seen through the dense foliage. A gun is produced and then WHIP CRACK we see our hero... Much like the introduction of James Bond (something I know a lot about now thanks to BlogalongaBond ) - Spielberg teases the audience before finally unveiling his hero. It is that subtle and masterful presentation (and a fucking cool crack of the whip) that makes a star. And Indy is a star. And... lets be honest... Harrison Ford is the kind of awesome that means you can fully imagine his classrooms filled with dreamy eyed girls going all gooey over him and his brainy tweed and spectacles. - I also like the Superman- esque imagery of it all. How by donning glasses, he can put on a disguise of academia and mask the fact that he is a globe trotting bad ass. And yet a bad ass who is prone to mistakes (which is impo...

No 330 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Director - George Lucas Episode 3 is the prequel which finally (at times) looks like Star Wars. Episodes 1 and 2 are all taking place in the grand old palaces of Naboo or the super busy super-city of a Coruscant - places which are massively different from the general aesthetic of the original trilogy. However, after the scroll of episode 3, we get to see the old school Star Destroyers back in action. We're beginning with an inter-galactic dog fight and it all feels like star wars. And yet, what Lucas has managed to do is take the basic designs of Star Wars and use CGI to make it feel wrong. Lets start out with that initial dog fight. The action is big and dramatic , but there is so much CGI thrown into the sequence that it just becomes a bit of a mess and difficult to follow. But CGI is a bit of a curse for the film. Everything has been replaced with CGI . Every single shot has CGI in it. Let IMDB put it into context with ...

No 449 - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Director - George Lucas This may be controversial, but you know what? Whilst there are some massive MASSIVE flaws with the film (which I'll discuss in a bit) - there are some really exciting bits. Lets focus on the positive shall we. Firstly, there is something which I've omitted from my previous Star Wars blogs - John Williams' excellent score. It is always a dramatic highlight of every film, underpinning the action with a real sense of drama and excitement. When it comes to the new trilogy, the score has been dramatically improved. I mean, cast your ear holes over at the frankly amazing ' Duel of the Fates ' which acts as Darth Maul's theme. It is a frankly epic and terrific piece of music. John Williams is an amazing composer (it is such lazy blogging to continuously point to another person's blog.... but still ). In fact, besides John Williams score, Darth Maul is probably the saving grace of the first f...

No 91 - Star Wars Episode VI - Return of the Jedi Director - Richard Marquand So, we come to the last of the original trilogy and whilst this film is a lot cuddlier and less bleak than the middle film, it holds a special place in my heart because of 3 freaking awesome monsters in three teeny tiny roles. And so.... ladies and gentleman... may I introduce: In fact, this film has a really impressive overall monster count. From the grandiose of Jabba's palace (and, in fact Jabba himself is a spectacular puppet) to the cute little Ewoks - this is the film where we begin to really see the extended alien life, in a way that hasn't been seen since the cantina in A New Hope. The film also revisits Yoda, who is awesome, and who gets to have a truly powerful emotional scene. It is testament to Frank Oz's fabulous skills that he can create such a wonderful performance from a tiny puppet. But there are some flaws in the film too, some pretty massive niggles that pestered me through...

No 3 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Director - Irvin Kersher What is it that makes this film so awesome? It is the film where George Lucas fully understands his vision and wisely puts it into the hands of a better director. Where the cast feel more comfortable with their roles and perform them fantastically. It is a film which is wonderfully wonderfully bleak. A New Hope is a great film and introduces ideas such as the Jedi and the lightsaber (the buzzing sound of lightsabers will always make me geekily excited) - however it isn't Empire that the full idea of the Jedi is realised. We first hear and see the Emperor (Grand Moff Tarkin having mysteriously vanished) and we begin to learn some of the other powers of the force. The audience, like Luke, is guided through this new world by Yoda. Possibly one of the greatest mentors ever put to film. So, not only is the world richer in theology, it also becomes far richer in location. A New Hope is mainly spent inside s...

No 22 - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Director - George Lucas I had a serious ponder as to what order to watch the Star Wars films. Should it be 1,3,4,5,6 or 4,5,6,1,3 (2 didn't make it into the list.....) - in the end I chose to pick with the order they were released, and I'm glad I did. I promise not to moan too much about the re-issue, and the constant fuckery that George Lucas does with these films ( The Incredible Suit did it much better here ), but what I will complain about is that if I wanted to watch the original film I had to trawl through the special features to find it. Also, the film was exactly as it was in the 70's, which meant that it had had no digital remastering. So I ended up watching a copy with worse sound and picture than my old VHS copies. But it was worth it not to get all the bullshit added stuff. Don't get me wrong - I can see the appeal of making the lightsabers slicker, or making the explosions better, or making the battles more epic.....