Cell Out
With Mark Russell; he's like Max Payne...totally inane.
It’s possible that we of the general populous misunderstand sex addiction. It can be a little hard to take seriously as an affl iction.You turn to your friend at the pub – grave-faced, hesitant, swallowing hard. “Johnno, I think I’m a sex addict.” His brow furrows, a mixture of tolerance and concern. “Yeah me too mate, but I can’t seem to fi nd anyone to support my habit.” Psychologically, hypersexuality is often called nymphomania in women and satyriasis in men. Named so after nymphs and satyrs, horny demi-gods of Greek mythology. It seems that even psychologists worship these people. I can understand it, I took David Duchovny as my personal saviour the night the fi rst episode of Californication aired.
Archie (Mark Strong): “People ask the question...what's a RocknRolla? And I tell 'em - it's not about drugs, drums, and hospital trips, oh no. There's more than that, my friend. We all like a bit of the good life - some the money, some the drugs, others the sex game, the glamour or the fame. But a RocknRolla, oh, he's different. Why? Because a real RocknRolla wants the fucking lot." RocknRolla
Choke Chuck Palahniuk is one of those authors who relishes in the depraved, the ugly and the debauched. From scene one of this adaptation of his novel, we know that this tale of sex addiction is gonna be a sardonic comedy of sleaze. The collection of characters who make up Victor’s (Sam Rockwell) sex addicts’ support group are tortured souls whose every waking moment is driven by a relentless, slobbering quest to scratch their libidinous itch. Victor himself is fi nding it hard to stick with the program. His unfulfi lling job as an ‘historical interpreter’ and his mother’s (Anjelica Huston) degenerative mental state mean that often his only escape can be found in a dirty public toilet or internet dating service. When he starts to form an emotional connection with
Paige (Kelly MacDonald), his mother’s doctor, things that once... ahem... came easily, now seems more complicated. Choke is innovative, interesting and often very humorous. Victor is the kind of hero Palahniuk loves... forgive me... an uninhibited prick. Rockwell is well cast in the role and the support acts do well with MacDonald cleaning up some of the grittier edges. Unfortunately overall it seems to be a little too faithful of an adaptation. It’s structured more like a novel than a fi lm and our interest suffers because of this. A clear goal isn’t really defi ned for most of the running time and Victor spends too long yo-yoing between a few locations without obviously advancing the story.
This all leads to... the last one I promise... a fl accid climax that should have pushed the boundaries further than it does. Added to this, Anjelica Huston seems to be wondering what she’s even doing there. Though she does play a dementia patient, this ‘lost’ performance characteristic doesn’t seem intentional. As a fi lm,Choke is better than a buggering in the vicarage, but not exactly a steamy Swedish threesome in the jacuzzi.
a whole bunch of new grisly murders that could be connected to her death. Payne (Mark Wahlberg), hardened and unforgiving cop that he is, must fi nd out what happened. There’s also a Russian broad (Mila Kunis) who wants to help (kind of), and they unravel clues about tattoos and pharmaceuticals until they fi nd out who’s responsible – capping a whole lot of fools along the way. The ending is frustrating, and makes about as much sense as freezing a cheese grater then throwing it at a monkey. So laughable plot aside, surely there’s some good shooting sequences, cool effects or gratuitous nudity/sex scenes? The shooting bits are moderately interesting, but sadly no attempt
to win over the audience with sex or nudity. Yes, those angel-winged demon things are kind of cool but the explanation for their presence in the film is so head-smackingly inept that it overrules the initial coolness factor. Character development? Ha. HA. Good points?! Well, the cinematography is quite beautiful in some scenes, but never quite shines as it is overpowered by the half-arsed acting and terrible story. Overall, Max Payne is a poor excuse for a video game adaptation, an action fi lm, and entertainment in general.
The characters haven’t escaped this maturity either. They’re darker, multi-layered and more well-financed. Ritchie used to look at street level crims, fast talkers who played out of their league while dreaming of the big score. The protagonists here do multi-million dollar deals, though they do still look like they’re living hand to mouth. There’s no need for a cast run down. As with all of Ritchie’s creations, the list is as long as your arm holding a shotgun. Look at the poster and imagine all of those actors on their A-game. Plotwise it’s fair to say that someone pulls a shady deal, gets in over their head, and spends the rest of the time desperately trying to stay alive.
Standard fare really but no one does this like Guy Ritchie, and even he never did it like this. This is a great fi lm that should appeal to all. If you loved Lock, Stock... or Snatch, there is easily enough of the sharp editing and snappy dialogue to keep you entertained. On the other hand if these left you sneering, the rounder characters and noir-esque soul of RocknRolla will draw you in. Best of all, if the fi nal credits are to be believed, this is the fi rst of two fi lms featuring this line-up. Get it up ya.
MARK RUSSELL
Max Payne Max Payne is a hideously bad fi lm – barely entertaining and a complete shambles of character and plot. Case closed. Any questions? It’s based on the video game, right? Correct – but unfortunately director John Moore has made a very poor adaptation. He puts very little of the positives of the video game to good use, instead pumping loads of money into buying stupid looking fi re special effects so he can imitate a Nutrigrain commercial. What about the plot? It is basically a lame collection of parts of the video game that looked cool with other bits that are necessary to fl esh out some sort of dimwit storyline. In a nutshell, Payne’s wife was murdered, and now there’s
RocknRolla Guy Ritchie blows the shavings out of his pencil sharpener, shakes off the separation blues, and offers up a celluloid rebuttal to the mounds of crap heaped on him after Swept Away. Heartbreak seems to have aged him a little as Rocknrolla is undoubtedly the grown up’s version of his earlier successes Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Everything’s a little adult really and, though his other fi lms are brilliant, we’re the better for it. The violence is often off screen, and what is on screen is visceral enough to show the consequences, rather than the coolness, of brutality. The pop culture soliloquies are also simpler, more potent, and woven more cleanly into the overall story.
MEGAN McKEOUGH
MARK RUSSELL