COWBOYS AND ALIENS : archive from 31st August 2011.

Saw 'COWBOYS and ALIENS' last night! Based on a lesser known comic book this film cost US$163M to make and bring to the big screen and in the final analysis made just a little more than that at US$175M despite the pedigree of its Director and lead cast. Here we have Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford; James Bond and Indiana Jones; the Old West and the Final Frontier battling it out in an 1873 Arizona setting where them pesky good for nothing aliens is holed up in dem dar mountains gettin' up to all sorts of no good! Time to assemble a posse, saddle up the horses and take care of business!

So I'm thinking - has this genre ever been done successfully on the big screen before and I'd be hard pressed to answer that question let alone say 'yes'! That said, John Favreau puts in a solid effort as Director eeking out a strong enough FX laden old west tale underpinned by a fistful of dollars to make the action and the storyline convincing and two 'A' listers to give it gravitas - but judging by the worldwide take, audiences stayed away!

This is a simple enough story of Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) who is on the run from the law and suffering a bad dose of memory loss. Waking up in the desert Lonergan is wearing a strange bracelet and has an odd looking wound and no recollection of how he acquired either. After dispensing with some low life drifters Lonergan heads for the nearest one-horse town of Absolution to have his wounds treated and to gain some R&R. He is noticed as a wanted man and subsequently a scuffle ensues with Sheriff John Taggart (Keith Carradine) resulting in him being knocked unconscious by a mystery woman Ella Swanson (Olivia Wilde). Being locked up with local drunk Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano) in no time Dolarhyde's father and local wealthy cattleman Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) arrive to have young Percy set free, and in the process so too Lonergan.

At this point there is an alien attack and all intergalactic hell breaks loose in the street, and which Lonergan's shiny new bracket falls off his wrist and becomes the weapon of choice to thwart them darn pesky aliens! During this conflagration an alien ship is downed and an injured alien makes an escape, hotly pursued by a posse of men wanting to know what just happened! Meanwhile Lonergan slinks away unseen into the night.

What follows are a series of alien attack set pieces and derring-do as humans and aliens are picked off on either side and often in gruesome bloody fashion. Throughout this Lonergan's memory starts to come back with images of stolen gold, double crossing his gang and perhaps where the aliens are holed up. The aliens it seems are mining gold resources and experimenting on humans to understand their weaknesses and in turn eradicate all human life on planet earth. The aliens are however, not indestructible and can be overcome with Lonergan's bright shiny bracelet thingy, a deftly thrown hunting knife, and a few fatally delivered gun shot wounds. And so it's on for young & old to move the alien varmints outta town and off the planet, and so the gathered posse heads for the hills to find the alien lair and kill or be killed.

Needless to say casualties ensue on either side but in the final analysis it's Humans 1/Aliens 0 and there is butt kicking and plenty of fun to be had as those aliens get their comeuppance. Surviving the onslaught Lonergan walks away free with Dolarhyde Senior and the Sheriff attempting to persuade him to stay and help rebuild the town. Declining the invitation but still a wanted man the Colonel and the Sheriff promise him that they will claim that he was killed in the alien attack, and so Lonergan rides off into the sunset . . . and all is good again, in the Wild West!

This is a good fun, entertaining sub-genre offering mashing up a Wild West yarn with some Sci-Fi hokey-pokey alien shenanigans and certainly worth the price of a ticket! Of course this is now out on DVD and BluRay and whilst it won't go down in history as genre defining, it's a little out of the box and still a little gritty, hard-nosed and rough edged to make it a worthwhile viewing in front of your own small screen at home.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

CHEF - Wednesday 14th May 2014.

Given my background it was inevitable that I would see 'CHEF', and so ventured off to the Cremorne Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace last night to see this culinary offering. Serving up the menu in this instance we have Writer, Producer, Director and Star of the film Jon Favreau, who has concocted a simple story of former gastronomic wunderkind Chef Carl Casper who has lost his culinary mojo thanks to Restaurant owner Riva (Dustin Hoffman) who shackles him to a menu that is years old and long past its use by date, but still has the customers rolling in . . . but not the critics!

It is one critic in particular, Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt), who descends on the restaurant, with prior warning, and thanks to Riva's overarching decision is served up the same age old menu that now is tired, lacking imagination, creativity and love, despite what Chef Carl had in mind for that evenings service. And so a few days later the review is revealed to the world via an on-line Blog and a very disappointing two stars only are awarded and our Chef is duly crucified. In the background our Chef is trying to rekindle the relationship with his ten year old son Percy (Emjay Anthony) who introduces his Dad to the world of 'Twitter', and so a war of words breaks out in cyberspace between Chef and Critic which very quickly goes viral. As a result Chef Carl is fired, and can't land a job as a dish pig let alone a Chef!

To the rescue comes ex-wife Inez (Sofia Vergara) with who Chef Carl still has a strong, albeit separated relationship with, and invites him on a conference trip to Miami accompanied by their son. There is a hidden motive here, and that is a meeting with second ex-husband Marvin (Robert Downey Jr.) who just happens to own a beat up 1988 Chevvy Food Truck in need of a new owner and a lot of TLC. And so dad and son set to work to refurbish, upgrade and refit the food truck, quickly joined by good mate and Sous Chef Martin (John Leguizamo) to support the seemingly down trodden no hope cause and because he loves his former boss Chef Carl. Their style of cuisine is honest to goodness, freshly made, value for money quality hand held southern style food with those Spanish, Cajun, Mexican and Cuban influences. What follows is a road trip with the three lads all prepping and serving as they go from Miami, to Atlanta, to New Orleans and various stop offs en route with the money pouring in; customers aplenty thanks to viral marketing courtesy of a ten year old; music, local colour and lights; and lots of laughs and food homage along the way.

This is a feel good movie, with a happy ending where Chef Carl Casper comes good, reconciles with the Critic, the family reunite and everyone lives happily ever after. There is plenty of food porn particularly in the first half where Chef Carl is experimenting with new recipes and showing us his deft knife skills and culinary ability; there is drama from Riva flexing his restaurant owner/operator muscles; there is humour particularly when Chef Carl verbally unloads on to Critic Ramsey Michel publicly in the crowded restaurant, and his later meeting with a hamming it up for all it's worth second-ex Marvin; and there is emotion that comes from son Percy and dad Carl, from Sous Chef Martin, and from ex-wife Inez.

This has the recipe for an enjoyable viewing, and the ingredients that command a second helping! From blockbuster mega budget action fare to a simple story of food, family and freedom Jon Favreau has cooked up a storm with this one - an a la carte offering not to be missed!                                                                                                                                              

  

-Steve, at Odeon Online-