32.filmfeatures
Monday 9 November 2015
The Courier
Film  Editors:  Emma  Allsopp,  Rhian  Hunter  &  Simon  Ramshaw
MEGA FAN vs
W
GIANT CYNIC
ith the success of Guillermo del Toro’s most recent film, Crimson Peak, we decided it was time to ask for judgement on his dividing Hollywood venture, Pacific Rim. This week, Iqra Choudhry and Imogen Scott-Chambers battle out whether this robot-monster smash-em’-up is a sci-fi hit, or rather just a drop in the ocean (into the rift...geddit?).
In  Defence
To the majority of filmgoers, Pacific Rim was just another summer blockbuster. To some of us, it was a brilliant apocalyptic offering from the mind of Guillermo del Toro. Give the man a budget and he will CGI like no one else, bringing to life monsters and machines that spit on Michael Bay’s Transformers movies (yeah, I went there). It’s soundtracked by Ramin Djawadi from Game of Thrones, for that added epic grandeur, too. Pacific Rim is visually stunning, but it is also a film that doesn’t take itself too seriously: it’s just fun. The comedic relief provided by Charlie Day and Burn Gorman is brilliant (and the It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia fan in me was in raptures). Pacific Rim is that rare thing - a film with a strong female character. Rinko Kikuchi’s character provides a counter-balance to Charlie Hunnam’s lead. She is just as important, and unlike most tired female leads in monster blockbusters, she can kick some serious ass. Iqra Choudhry
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yler Durden summed it up best when he said “a copy of a copy of a copy� in a film ironically based on a book of the same name. Though Fight Club surpasses its source material in a number of ways, there’s no denying it’s become a worrying trend in recent years for most of cinema to be based on other aspects of media. Books are a popular go-to for most studios, considering the script is pretty much pre-written for them. There’s no denying that talent went into the production of the Harry Potter franchise and Silence of The Lambs, but how many Bond films do we really need? Poor James must be tired out with 51 of them under his belt. Comic book adaptations similarly dominate most of the Summer box office, and whilst I appreciate seeing storylines like The Dark Knight Returns and Civil War being screened to the masses, this means they’re often watered down to cater for general audiences, making them sometimes too silly to stomach. Television shows are likewise becoming a favourite of the Hollywood honchos, thanks to having multiple episodes to establish the plot and characters in advance. Often this is due to show popularity, drawing in thousands of fans to see The X Files and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles simply on a larger screen. This can only lead to disappointment (think The Last Airbender outrage), all whilst The Smurfs maniacally cackle as they exploit 80s animation nostalgia. Star Wars is the biggest offender in that regard, with countless mediums ‘expanding’ the universe. The recent cash-in is Shattered Empire, a prequel comic series set before The Force Awakens, undoubtedly contributing to the massive sales the brand will see come December. Let’s not even be-
Pacific Rim is like Marmite. You either love it or you hate it – and, my, do I hate it. Guillermo del Toro is an otherwise visionary director, and yet, every scene in Pacific Rim is flat and ordinary, unrelentingly jam-packed full of CGI and then more CGI until the audience gets a side order of CGI with their already super-sized CGI buffet of a film. Charlie Hunnam and Idris Elba fail to shine in this overly-complicated sci-fi flop, as all the acting is drowned out (literally) by all the computer-generated ocean shots. The actual plot is sketchy, because, let’s face it, it’s basically Transformers but in the sea; the Kaijus, who come from an interdimensional rift beneath the ocean (!), simply fight the Jaegers (massive human-operated robots built by a dystopian version of the UN), leaving the film’s human element unnecessary and boring. At the end of the day, don’t waste your time on Pacific Rim - watch Pan’s Labyrinth instead. Imogen Scott-Chambers
Battleship and Ouija being critically panned for reusing action and horror film setpieces respectively, whilst the Transformers franchise has generated millions in various formats, from toy cars to TV to Michael Bay’s testosterone-fuelled blockbusters. Nevertheless, considering we’ve come so low that the US marshmallow treats Peeps actually have a movie in the works, it’s time to stop giving studios o u r money and start rooting more for the Best Original Screenplay awards come the New Year rather than the banal adaptations we’ve come to accept as the norm.
Do  hooligan  movies  shoot  and  score?
$IWHU DQRWKHU YLROHQFH IUHH 7\QH :HDU GHUE\ VHOI WLWOHG VSRUWV D¿FLRQDGR Calum  Wilson  takes  a  look  at  what  cinema  has   had  to  say  about  footie  hooliganism  throughout  the  years
I In  Offence
gin to count the number of TV shows and video games spin-offs that have released over the years (Battlefront conveniently releases in November). Speaking of, our favourite pixelated protagonists have been bridging the gap for decades, either as film tie ins (Spiderman 2, Goldeneye) or on the big screens themselves (Tomb Raider, Resident Evil). In more recent years, the fad is no longer validated with many modern games now taking a cinematic approach to storytelling, what use is trying to squeeze over 15 hours of gameplay into a mere 120 minutes? Of course there’s all the running around from A to B you can edit out, but to have Assassin’s Creed and The Last of Us (both now well into production) be constrained to a feature length running time is a disservice to the fans and creators of today’s console classics. But if there’s one reason to call this craze quits, it’s the films based on everyday objects. As if capitalism wasn’t already infecting Hollywood, brands are now paying big bucks to get their commodities on the silver screen. Though The LEGO Movie was a rare anomaly to this particular trend, featuring hilarious meta parodying of the product itself, most others only serve to personify product placement via skeleton bare plotlines and see-through characters. Most notable tends to be board games, with
t’s been 10 years since everyone’s favourite Hobbit, Elijah Wood, surprised us all by taking the lead role in the hit British hooligan drama, Green Street. Despite originally receiving mixed reviews, the film is now renowned as arguably the best piece of football fan fiction ever made and kick started an era of violent sportsrelated movies during the aptly named noughties. Non-sports fans, who might have immediately dismissed this genre, are encouraged to dabble into the world of the footy hooligan film. Many similarities can be found to critically acclaimed British classics such as Layer Cake, or Guy Ritchie’s epic duo: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. For pure adrenaline fuelled action, look no further than Rise of the Footsoldier. Based on a true story, it follows the life of Carlton Leach, a former member of West Ham’s Inter City Firm (ICF) turned east-end mobster. Leach’s tale offers more than just two sets of supporters mindlessly kicking seven bells out of each other; the guns, the drugs and the gangster politics give it a gripping story.
“The genre has now been the subject of an admittedly hilarious spoof, The Hooligan Factory�
You can perhaps argue that football violence films lack the comedic value of Ritchie’s box-office successes, but then you obviously haven’t heard Charlie Hunnam’s embarrassing Cockney accent in Green Street. Added to that, Danny Dyer’s attempted acting in The Football Factory is worthy of the Hammersmith Apollo and provides further evidence that
he was always destined to join the Z-listers of Albert Square. The better films in this category are the ones which tap into the tribal nature of football supporters. Nick Love’s The Firm and Pat Holden’s Awaydays use young, poor and bored lads as their protagonists as they experience the initial excitement of hooliganism before realising its dark truths. Both films perfectly portray the reasons why these young men (and women) end up in violent gangs. One of the most interesting accounts of the football violence era tells the tale of Cass Pennant, a real-life hooligan from the late 1970s, whose Jamaican heritage made him one of the few black men involved in the football violence scene. In Cass, Nonso Anozie plays the man who became synonymous with the British public for becoming the first person in the UK to be handed a longterm jail sentence
under Maggie Thatcher’s strict regime. The award for best wardrobe must go to The Firm, which brilliantly, if not slightly over exaggeratedly, represents the, erm, colourful fashion choices of the football ‘casual’ era, where looking fly was almost as important as fighting. Certain critics would argue that football fans don’t really wear such ridiculous outfits, but this was proved wrong in hilarious style when Scotland Yard released images of actors from the film who they mistook for actual sought-after hooligans. In fact, The Firm even inspired yours truly to buy a very bright yellow jacket. For reasons unknown, the era of the football violence film seems to be drawing to a close. Furthermore, the genre has now been the subject of an admittedly hilarious spoof. The Hooligan Factory deliberately parodies the likes of The Firm and Green Street, ridiculing their story lines and apparent bad acting. Nevertheless, football violence films remain a memorable part of the noughties and we should never forget the day a Hobbit helped beat up some infamously horrible Millwall hooligans.