Aeon Flux

So, why? Well, Aeon Flux was recommended to me about 5 years ago by an ex-girlfriend… Apparently an ex with terrible taste in films.

Aeon Flux, Charlize Theron, is a freedom fighter known as a Monican, fighting against the secretive government of Bregna. After her sister is murdered by the Chairman Goodchild (Marton Csokas) defeating Trevor Goodchild becomes a personal vendetta, that is, until she realises that she was once his wife.

As it transpires, the entire nation of Bregna is comprised of infertile clones. A virus wiped out 99% of the population and the cure made the remaining 1% infertile. Trevor Goodchild has been working on a way to “fix it” for 400 years. However his brother wishes to remain immortal and for humanity to continue cloning itself.

To that end Oren Goodchild turns on his brother and demands his execution. In a final firefight Oren reveals that women have begun to give birth again and that he has been ordering their execution. Oren and most of his guards are killed and Aeon destroys the cloning ship. The End.

It is difficult to criticise the script for this film, because it doesn’t really exist. Most scenes have less than five words of dialogue and those that have more are simply filled with the exposition needed to power the matrix-esque action sequences.

The action sequences themselves may have been inspired by that “mother of all rubber/leather clad action movies” but they don't look anywhere near as good. The final fight for example features special effects and stunts that wouldn’t look too far out of place in an episode of the Power Rangers. Neither would the Villains.

The film certainly has the feel of a graphic novel realised on the silver screen, but like, for example, Chronicles of Riddick, it does not inspire me to read it (or in the case of Aeon Flux, watch the miniseries). Which is a shame, because some quick research tells me that true Aeon Flux fans also hated the film and that it bore little resemblance to the story they know and love.

So this film fails as an action movie, it fails as a drama, it fails as a billboard for the Aeon Flux brand, does it succeed at anything? Erm… No…

Next month I will be using Marton Csokas to connect us to the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.  

The Italian Job… It’s a Mini Adventure!

Yup, it’s time for another Big Screen Blog review and after the  vaguely high brow “Fight Club” from last month, I thought we’d settle down and have something simple and straight forward, the remake of the Italian Job.

The film begins with a heist, in Venice, Italy, however the majority of the story is about the fallout after “The Italian Job”. Baddie Steve (Edward Norton) turns on the team and takes the gold, shooting old timer John (Donald Sutherland) who was just part of the team for that elusive “one last job” and dumping the rest of the team, spearhead by Charlie (Mark Wahlberg) into a frozen river.

The team tracks down Steve, who is living it large and they make a plan to retrieve their stolen gold. Joining forces with John Bridges bereaved daughter, the beautiful Charilze Theron, Stella, who it turns out works for the police, cracking safes, they make a plan to take back the gold.

However the plan goes south and the team is forced to improvise a new plan. Steve is onto them by this point but Charlie is always one step ahead. The whole thing comes down to an exciting chase across the city with three Mini Coopers loaded with gold and a helicopter. What more could you want?

I’ll be honest, the film doesn’t have much of a plot beyond that. A group of men steal some gold, one turns on the others, they get him back, job done. However the whole thing is nicely executed. If for example Tarantino had directed this movie the whole thing would have ended in a blood bath, with just Mark Walhburg or possibly Jason Stratham, walking away from camera, a bag over his shoulder loaded with cash and a bloodied samurai sword dripping in his other hand. Instead, however, barely a shot was fired and no one died, apart from poor old Donald Sutherland, but we’ll let them off there, because the new team member was decidedly better looking.

This film really followed in the footsteps of its predecessor Ocean’s Eleven (2001). Everything from the star studded cast to the soundtrack reminded me of that movie and that is a good thing. If Oceans Twelve had felt anything like The Italian Job, I would have been happy (instead of bored). I don't mind that the film has no real plot beyond taking back the gold. I don’t mind that the characters were pretty much one dimensional. Despite the fact that nearly everyone in the cast has been responsible for one or more of the worst cinematic experiences of my life (Max Payne, Crank, In the Name of the King, to name but a few) I really enjoyed this film.

I am a big Seth Green fan and he played his part perfectly, delivering the laughs when we needed them. Charilze did a great job of looking fantastic, while Wahlburg and Statham kept us engaged with beautiful actions sequences and Mos Def blew stuff up and that’s great too! In fact only Norton let me down, his portrayal of Steve was a little clichéd, a little over the top and while it is the nature of films like these, I had hoped he could play the role with a little more subtlety.

All in all The Italian Job is just enjoyable, high budget, reasonably well scripted piece of light entertainment, choc full of those iconic Mini Coopers and plenty of action. It is the perfect piece of escapism for any Saturday afternoon.

Next time on My Two Cents: AEon Flux

Fight Club

For as long as I can remember people have always looked at me with mock-horror expressions on their faces and uttered the words “You’ve never seen Fight Club” as if it were the holy grail or the cure for cancer and so by process of elimination I am the  single last human being on the planet, that has never seen Fight Club… until now!

So, with this being the first review on this blog I chose a film that I thought, based on popular opinion, I couldn’t help but like. And I wanted to like it… I really really did…


Fight Club focuses on three characters, The Narrator, Edward Norton, Tyler Durden, Brad Pitt and Marla Singer, Helena Bonham Carter. The film follows Edward Norton’s character through a series of unconnected events. He goes to the doctors because he’s not sleeping. He starts to visit therapy groups so that he can remember how to cry. He meets a like-minded, angry young girl called Marla and falls for her, although he doesn’t admit it. He goes on a business trip and meets Tyler Durden on the plane. He gets back to find his condo has been blown up. He moves in with Tyler; into a dilapidated building where Tyler makes soap from human fat and sells it to large hotels and department stores. And through all of this the film fails to find a direction, it just flounders from one mundane experience to the next, each a little stranger, each a little more depraved and each a little more pretentious.

I sat there watching the film, knowing I was going to write about it and all I could think was that we are following the wrong character. The character with the plan, the one that sets up the Fight Clubs, the one that will eventually attempt to destroy half the city is not Norton’s character. Tyler Durden should have been the focus, I thought. If the film had focused on Pitt’s character we would have had structure, rather than the aimless, floundering hour and half, where Norton is dragged this way and that, unable to stabilise the story in any way. I couldn’t understand why this wishy-washy nonsense was the Mona Lisa of the Film World.

Not only was the film directionless, but it was self-servingly pretentious. It thought of itself as more than it was, as more than its subject matter deserved. It dared to pose questions about the meaning of life and suggested that that meaning could be found in the Fight Clubs and glorious ideas like Project Mayhem. I had lasted to 1:34 exactly and I just couldn’t take any more so I turned it off and left it a couple of days.

Tonight, I turned it back on. Norton and Pitt are in a limousine, driving out of control down the highway and Tyler asks everyone in the car, if they were to die, what did they wish they had done. Norton can think of nothing. He fights Tyler for control of the car and eventually he gives up and accepts his fate.

After the crash the true point of the story begins to unravel and I finally understand why we haven’t been following Tyler Durden’s character. I finally understand why we saw the doctors appointment, the therapy groups sessions, the formation of the Fight Clubs and as the audience begins to understand so too does Norton’s character.

The last forty five minutes of the film are infinitely better than the first hour and half, it is gripping as you realise the truth that Norton is Tyler, that his sleep deprivation has brought out in him a monster, a revolutionary. Realising the truth Norton runs to the police, but they are part of his army of revolutionaries and they do nothing to help him. Finally Norton tries to defuse the bombs himself, but Tyler stops him and at last we return to the first scene of the film. Tyler has a gun in Norton’s mouth and he asks “Would you like to say a few words?” Norton replies “I still can’t think of anything.”

After that Norton shoots himself, he tells Tyler “My eyes are open” the bullet passes through his cheek and he lives, however Tyler collapses, the back of his head blown clean off. This is Norton’s final admission that he no longer needs Tyler Durden. Marla is brought in and she and Norton watch the destruction of the American economy, the two are alone, holding hands.

The last third of the film is something completely different and in my opinion it doesn’t excuse the first part, but it does explain it and you find yourself wanting to see it again, to see the clues you missed. Fight Club then is a clever film and despite my opposition to it I found myself liking it more because of that. The pretentious nature of the first part is earned by the intelligent way that the film eventually plays out. The fact that the film feels directionless, aimed in the wrong direction is resolved by the revelation that the two characters are one, that Tyler’s story is hidden so that the twist, when it comes, is that more potent.

Well, that’s been My Two Cents… Tune in next time for my take on the Italian Job.

A Welcome Note

Hi, I’m Chris and apparently I’ve been living in a cave since 1999. Now, however, I am armed with a DVD player and every film “you should have seen since the Matrix and before”. Some of you may be familiar with my TV blog, however that’s just little league stuff, now I’m ready to play with the big boys…

For now, with two other blogs on a weekly or bi-weekly update depending on the season, this blog will open with a monthly posting schedule, hopefully going to a bi-monthly schedule once I have a back log of material. Thanks in advance for your patience, I hope it'll be worth waiting for.