herbiehancock

No 409 - Men in Black Director - Barry Sonnenfeld This is such a brilliant concept - policing aliens who live secretly on Earth. However it needs to be handled just right, and this is why I think this film works so much better than its sequel (or indeed than the newly announced MIB 3 (or MIIIB ) doubtless will). We're following NYPD cop James Darrel Edwards III, played by Will Smith in the early days of his action hero career. He meets a mysterious figure and is subsequently enlisted into this unusual organisation - The MIB . Because, for all the Alien Hi-Jinks, this is actually a very standard film formula. Will Smith plays the cocky arrogant new recruit who is struggling to re-evaluate his preconceptions and fit into this new world. As his new partner says: Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the centre of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagi...

No 228 – No Country for Old Men Directors – Joel and Ethan Coen I have been trying to watch this film all week. For some reason, every time I have gotten 6 minutes into the film something has occurred to scupper my plans. However, I finally got round to it. The first thing that this makes me think of is Electra Glide in Blue. The sweeping desert vistas, the film’s palette of shades of brown, the dusty jaded police driving through the dusty desert roads. This is a dirty and brown film. This film follows Josh Brolin ’s Llewellyn as he discovers a drug deal gone wrong and manages to prise $2,000,000 from one of the corpses. Rather than make life better for him and his wife, it opens up a whole can of worms as it introduces the chilling Anton Chigurh , played brilliantly by Javier Bardem . Anton is a bounty hunter (or a tracker, or an assassin) hired to kill whoever stole the money, and get the money back. He is armed with two of the greatest weapons ever – an air bolt (as used for killing...