Kung Kuan

Super 8? Really?

When advertisements for Super 8 hit the TV and the big-screen, I, like many people, was highly excited. How could I not be? As a life-long Spielberg fan I’d seen and loved them all, from the early ones to the more recent masterpieces (excluding the last Indiana Jones film, which was less fantastic than promised, unfortunately). And this…this film looked like it had all the hall-marks of a modern-day classic. In the style of The Goonies I had no doubt in my mind that this film was going to set a new bench-mark in cinematic history…

Then I sat down and watched the film in the cinema and held my head in my hands…yes the film was good, but a classic? I fear not.

I definitely expected much more than what director JJ Abrams delivered

Super 8, if you are clueless, begins when a group of kids in an un-named US town experience a horrifying train-crash while making their own Super 8 movie. Soon after that, the mysterious cargo leads to a series of startling revelations involving the military and one big monster-type-thing.

Be sure of one thing: the first half-an-hour of this film is magic. It recreates the era fantastically well and does a great job of establishing one hell of a mystery storyline.

The problem with Super 8 is that it’s an empty vessel; an exciting empty vessel, and one which has all kinds of twists and turns, but unfortunately one which won’t be as memorable as it should have been. And, just like the online running accessories shop which my friend started a few months ago, just because it looks flashy doesn’t mean that it’s going to really hold your attention for that long (sorry Fred, but I did tell you to get someone who knows about marketing involved!).

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh, but personally I expected much more than Spielberg gives us in Super 8. I definitely expected much more than what director JJ Abrams delivered.

So here it is: if you’re a die-hard Spielberg film fan then you will find very little not to love about this movie. The effects are great, the acting is wonderful and the production value is, as ever, out of this world. But, on the other hand: if you’re a fan of intelligent films which possess an incredible storyline without gaping plot-holes, then you may find yourself frowning throughout Super 8.

Thanks Steven, but next time I think you need to focus less on the explosions and more on reading between the lines.

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Inside Man

Featuring a determined Clive Owen acting as the most mysterious bank robber we’ve seen in years, Inside Man – a Spike Lee joint – burst onto our screen a few years ago and still remains intriguing and very much watchable. One of the more original heist movies of the last decade – and yes, Sarah Jane Szikora , I think you owe me £10 now as I definitely win that bet! – Inside Man marked a new kind of bank robbery movie. One which focussed on acting and suspense over action and raw fire-power. In other words, it was just what we needed: something new and invigorating that could inject new life into what was beginning to turn into a stubborn and lifeless genre.

Inside Man begins when a bank – New York’s largest, in fact – is taken hostage by a seemingly typical gang of robbers. Clad in the same uniform, to start with we’re convinced this is all about the money. But as the tension increases and a detective (played by a well-casted Denzel Washington) gets closer to what he’s sure is the truth, deadly secrets begin to unravel.

I for one would have liked to see a bit more variety in the pacing of this movie

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Inside Man becomes a movie which seems to have little in common with the movies we first compared it to.

Inside Man, as well as being a heist movie, is a film about secrets and lies…power and deceit. It’s both serious and at times laugh-out-loud funny too; somewhere between a high-octane thriller and a mystery drama we’ve never seen before. By the end of it, the film has carved out a genre of its own, making it somewhat of an anomaly.

That’s not to say that the film doesn’t have its faults — big faults. One thing many have noted about the film is its smugness; intelligent as it is, you can’t help but think that at times it’s all a little too in-control for your liking. That is the point of the film, true, but I for one would have liked to see a bit more variety in the pacing of this movie.

There again, the ending is a good one and easily ratchets up the tension to make you glad you sat through it. More importantly than that, when the final secrets are revealed – right in the closing minute or two – there are a few plot points the majority of us did not see coming.

In this age of predictable Hollywood messes and CGI, it’s nice to know that the big movie makers still care about surprising us.

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