Jennifer’s Baddie
There is a point about two thirds of the way through Jennifer’s Body when Megan Fox’s Jennifer visits her best mate and explains to her exactly why she has been acting weird (where weird = not being grief stricken about mass deaths / eating boys). And the flashback takes us through the fatal night when she was to be sacrificed as a virgin, but because she wasn’t quite so pure she ended up sharing a body with a succubus. Its a clever conceit, and an original movie monster, but the problem is the film stops whilst this happens. Its not as if there has been any mystery, we have already seen Jennifer eat one boy. And while this explains a slight change in her behaviour, it doesn’t really make much sense for her to tell her bff Needy, unless she feels she really could do with a nemesis.
This is the problem with Jennifer’s Body: there are a lot of good ideas in it, but the mechanics of making its plot work clunk on more than one occasion. No-one is going in cold to this film, we know the basic plot is Megan Fox is a maneating evil high school girl. more »
I have never been directly involved in an African civil war. I have read a fair bit about them, the tragedies drawn up on racial lines, the devastating effect upon the population and the vicious cycles it seems to set up. And more recently the stories of child soldiers, from as young as six, turned into killing machines, fighting a fight they barely understand with ferocious savagery. Johnny Mad Dog is the first African film I have seen to deal with it and is a powerful piece of work. Possibly because many of its lead actors are ex-child soldiers themselves, the question “what happens to these brutalised children afterwards” becomes even more germane. But perhaps its power is derived from its visual aesthetic: brutal, rough and surprisingly reminiscent of future dystopia comics.
I was in Tokyo in 2002 for a week. I left the day before the World Cup started. If there was ever a point that Japan was geared up to deal with foreigner visitors, it was that week. And whilst the script was incomprehensible to me, and I spoke about ten words, I got by just about. But being on my own for much of the time, the big challenge was with food. And since I ate some great food in Tokyo, how did I do it. Well there is the pointing method (pointing at someone elses food or more likely the plastic model of the food in the window). But another good way was to go to a restaurant that only really served one thing. I eat anything so going to a ramen restaurant and just nodding when the waitress checked if I wanted egg, tofu, squid, rawlplugs did me fine. Because the ramen was always about the noodles and the soup.
Whilst I hate answering the question “what is your favourite movie”, there is a fair chance that if you ask me, and I give you an answer, it will be 
I saw three films last week set in Tokyo. None of them, not even the one with the city in the title, would claim to be about Tokyo, but they ended up creating a triptych of Tokyo which, more than any individual film, reminded me of that crazy city. After all Ozu’s Tokyo Story is not about Tokyo, but still manages to say something about it. So while none of these films were all that great, its worth having a look at them to see what they can tell us about Tokyo.
When I was a kid, I used to get great School reports. High marks for attainment through the whole booklet, nice phrases. The only letdown was under physical education where I would often get an A for effort, but a 4 or 5 for attainment. When it came to sports, I was just no good. This was highlighted in my final report where my PE teacher basically said “STOP DOING SPORT, YOU ARE ON A HIDING TO NOTHING”. He was right.
I’ve not been to every pub in London, but I have been to a fair few in the centre and think myself to be pretty well versed in the whereabouts of drinking venues. From refurb to closure, I keep an eye even on the holes I rarely visit. All that said, when Ewan suggested we drank in 
Solo is an awesome name. Think of the great movie characters who use it. Intergalactic rogue Han Solo, suave UNCLE agent Napoleon Solo. To these ranks we now add Senegalese cab driver Solo, from the film Goodbye Solo who in his own eyes is equally heroic. Though actually, he is not quite as exciting as the other two. But hey, he’s in an arthouse film, what does he expect. Well I’ll tell him what not to expect: adventure, escapism and a happy ending. Because whilst Solo is the optimistic heart of Goodbye Solo, it is the shit life throws at him that is the meat and potato of the movie. He drives a cab in a shitty little town, but he rents the cab because his own one has broken down. He is in a relationship with a woman who doesn’t take him seriously. He is training to become an air steward, and is finding the tests hard. He is a Senegalese immigrant trying his best to provide for his parents back home, and provide for his girlfriend and her daughter. 
In 28 Days Later, Cilian Murphy’s character wakes up 28 days after a localised zombie apocalypse has occurred. He is our viewpoint stranger in a strange land, wandering through a deserted London trying to survive. Perhaps it is telling (though more likely a flaw) that the real bad guys in 28 Days Later are a squad of soldiers who want to rape the women in the gang, it is mans inhumanity to man (woman) writ large. But in 28 Days Later most of the infected kills are due to the lead characters general stupidity. Even with fast zombies, once you follow the basic rules of survival, you should probably be alright. And in 28 Days Later there is the spectre of rescue, the chance that safety exists somewhere else.
“The Invention Of Lying” is as dull as its title. Sorry to say this, particularly as Ricky probably still has a flat around here and he takes criticism badly, but “The Invention Of Lying” stunk. And it stunk because it didn’t think through its premise enough. I am no stranger to world building, and this one is fine. A world where people are just like us, as the clunky voiceover begins, except no-one lies. No-one knows how to lie, tell stories which are not 100% factual and true. Fine. I can take that as far as it goes, but the ability to conceive of things which are not true is so fundamental to humanity that it actually topples the entire film.