07/06/2014 The Film Review


07/06/2014

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Welcome to the Film Review. With me today is Mark Kermode. What do we

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have? As I am sure you know, we have Grace of Monaco, which has opened to

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universally, shall we call them mixed reviews? Universally negative

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reviews. We have 22 Jump Street, the sequel

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to 21 Jump Street, which was the spin`off of the TV show.

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And we have Fruitvale Station, a harrowing retelling of a true life

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story. We have Princess Grace and Nicole

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Kidman saving the little state of Monaco for billionaires as a tax

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haven. That is pretty much it. When Grace of Monaco opened at Cannes,

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the phrase that everyone used was that it was worse than Diana. The

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story is that it begins with the Grace Kelly filming her last scene

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in Hollywood. There is a crisis going on, because there is the war

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in Algiers, Monaco is acting as a tax haven. There is a blockade.

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Alfred Hitchcock wants Grace Kelly to go back to Hollywood and film.

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The prince is not happy. Here is a clip. My head. Who told you to cut

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it? We are still in 1962. I think her head looks elegant. It is

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dreadful. She is a modern woman. She is the Princess of Monaco. Call

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Hitchcock. Turn him down publicly. We need you to show him how happy

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you are here. Because I say so. It is not your decision to make. I am

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your husband. I will not do it. I did not make you marry me. I did not

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make you come here. What is it that Hollywood can give you that I

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cannot? You were just an actress. Here is what happens. All the time

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you're watching the movie, you think, is this deliberately stilted

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or is it some kind of call back to the movies of the time? Nobody could

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have made a movie this bad by mistake. It is like they went out of

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their way. We are getting the talk about the idea of my life as a fairy

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tale, is the fairy tale? We got the worst possible fairytale. They were

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not interested in facts. What happens is that Grace Kelly bats her

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eyelids at Charles de Gaulle, who appears to be blockading Monaco to

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stop her taking part in a Hitchcock film and says she believes in

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fairies and he says, that is fabulous. It is preposterous beyond

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belief. You think, there must be some underlying, it must tie itself

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back to reality. No, it is just... It is not entirely her fault. Her

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performance is not terrible. Every minute of the film, the camera is

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right in her face. For heavens sake, just back off a bit. But you get

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this terrible caricatures. You get the most caricatured version of

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Alfred Hitchcock. It is like a pantomime. I can see why people who

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are interested in the history will be outraged by it. It is one of

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those things that is such a spectacularly ill`conceived film.

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All you can do is sit there slack`jawed. Often when critics at

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Cannes react badly, the critics are over the top. In this case they are

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not. Seeing this on the big screen for the first time and going,

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really, you have really made that movie, it is genuinely worse than

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Diana. 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, what will they think of

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next? One of the funniest parts of the film is the end credits

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sequence. It does a whole thing about, where would you go next with

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the other sequels? What it did was it was a parody, a pastiche of the

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TV show. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill were the centre relationship.

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The just said, the first movie did better than anyone expected, let us

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do the same thing over again. The sequel is not as good as the

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original. But it is funny enough that it can get away with it. The

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final end credits sequence is funny. My rule with comedy, you have to

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laugh six times for it to count. I counted six times. It is not

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brilliant, but it does the job. You do not need the action sequences,

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but I did laugh. I laughed a lot. It is a summer movie. If you are bored

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with the World Cup. Sequels take two thirds what the originals take. This

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is two thirds as funny. That is not too bad. Fruitvale Station. This is

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the true life shooting of Oscar Grant in 2009. It is something that

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made all the headlines, a terrible story. The actual event was captured

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on cellphone footage. We went back and look at the events leading up to

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that terrible shooting. I am scared. Scared of what? I hear guns outside.

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Those were just firecrackers. You are safe inside with your cousins.

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What about you, daddy? Me? Everything will be fine. I tell you

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what, though. Wake up in the morning, we are going to play

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Candyland. And guess what else? Go to the park? Better. Way better than

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that. What? Chuck E Cheese. Really? I promise. We are going to play all

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the games, OK. Then we are going to get your favourite pizza and eat it

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all up. Even your mother. The story is a shocking and alarming one. The

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film itself is somewhat unremarkable. It does have a

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terrific central performance and that somewhat carries it. There is

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an overwhelming sense that you are moving towards this tragic event.

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The film is not an extraordinary piece of work. It is a solid piece

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of work. The central performance is a genuine rising star performance.

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It makes the whole thing engaging. The thrust of the film is to engage

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with the central character. He is played as flawed, but you see him as

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a 3`dimensional character. He does a very good job of fleshing

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that out. Your best of the week is Ken Loach's latest, Jimmy's Hall.

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Some critics have complained that it is didactic and they are wrong. It

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is a story of a hall in Ireland in the 1930s, set up for ideas and

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singing and dancing. He is runout of town by the clergy. What I like is

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that it is an important story and it has a historic backdrop. I liked it

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as a movie. The way it uses music. The characters are engaging and

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likeable. They are not 2`dimensional. There are some

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interesting conversations between the main characters at loggerheads.

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And yet they both give a little. The Christmas was terrific. There was

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one scene where Jimmy dances with his old sweetheart who has gone off

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to marry someone else and nothing happens. That was the kind of

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atmosphere of innocence. Ken Loach does get accused of making didactic

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movies. If you look at what is on screen, they are not. They engage

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real things. He is interested in history and politics, but most of

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all he is interested in people. That is probably why your DVD choice is

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The Past. Strange characters and flawed relationships. Working in

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France here, it is basically a story about people in crisis. A fantastic

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performance. Beautifully absurd, very truthful, very moving, very

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gentle, very low key. I thought it was a wonderful piece of work. It is

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impressive. Great stuff, thanks. A reminder before we go. You will find

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more reviews on Mark's blog. That is it for this week. Thank you for

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watching. Good evening. We have seen a bit of

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rain around early on the day.

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