A Man Who Wants Nothing Cannot be Bought - Hercules and Godzilla

A few more films from my Amazon subscription, both based on legends old and new.

The first is based on one of the oldest Greek legends. After completing his twelve labours, a war-weary and haunted Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) and his companions Amphiaraus (Ian McShane), Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), Tydeus (Aksel Hennie), Atalanta (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) and his nephew Iolaus (Reece Ritchie), are hired by King Cotys of Thrace (John Hurt) to defend his kingdom from ruthless bandits.

Despite a slightly shaky start, this turns out to be quite a good film. It's a good story and deceptive enough to keep you second guessing almost until the end; the special effects aren't too bad; and the acting is more than adequate, the effect of all the class British thesps in supporting roles encouraging Dwayne to raise his game above previous attempts. Recommended as an above average pizza movie.

In contrast we have as my second film, Godzilla: a remake of a remake of a modern Japanese legend. Fifteen years after his wife dies in a mysterious accident at a Japanese nuclear power plant, engineer Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) breaks into the quarantined area with his estranged son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) to get answers.

I suppose that if you like the original Japanese movies, this will be quite a good experience, even nostalgic. For me, however, it was a little tedious. Most of the "A" listers had gone by the time the movie got going and all that was left was three huge monsters slugging it out in San Fransisco. In the dark.

Turning Japanese - 47 Ronin and Kick-Ass 2

Two films from my Amazon subscription. The first is the sequel to the popular Kiss-Ass. Bored with premature "retirement", David Lizewski a.k.a. Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Mindy Macready a.k.a. Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) join with other super-heroes while struggling with growing up and leading a normal life.

I must admit that I haven't read much of Mark Millar's work, in particular the Kick-Ass books, so I can't compare them to the original. The one book I have read, Wanted, was awful, and the film much better. The original Kick-Ass had a kind of naive violence, like Tom and Jerry, and the corresponding charm. This has the difficulty that the novelty has worn off, and the violence seems a little more serious and intense, as does the whole film. Jim Carrey (Colonel Stars and Stripes) plays the father figure that Nicolas Cage (Big Daddy) played in the first film, and the supporting cast is good enough, but it is an inferior sequel to a mediocre film.

The second film is 47 Ronin, based on a classic Japanese story. Kai (Keanu Reeves), a mixed-race woodsman in feudal Japan, is treated with suspicion and ill-disguised contempt by his master Lord Asano's (Tadanobu Asano) samurai retainers.

A visually stunning film, and worth watching for that alone, the cast, aside from Reeves (who isn't that bad, really), is excellent, headed by Hiroyuki Sanada as the lead samurai and the beautiful Ko Shibasaki as Kai's true love. Tadanobu Asano and Rinko Kikuchi are also suitably evil as Asano's nemesis and his sorceress.

It's problem, however, is that it adheres too closely to the original story for the Western audience (and is too conservative a film for the modern Japanese audience: Battle Royale is more typical) and yet is too Western for the Japanese audience, so it's no surprise (but a bit unfair) that it's the second most unsuccessful movie of all time, losing $20 million at the box office. You can imagine the effect on us if Hollywood decided to make a film about The Battle of Britain with Harrison Ford as Hugh Dowding, or The Dambusters with Nick Cage as Guy Gibson. Nah.. they wouldn't... would they?