Sucker Punch is a look into the twisted mind of Zack Snyder; his first original concept and screenplay as he is more well known for his big-screen adaptations of two graphic novels: Watchmen and 300. His concept for this one involves a mental asylum populated by nubile young women who periodically escape into a fantasy world of their own making. It's sort of a dream within a dream within a dream. Emily Browning plays Baby Doll (they all have stripper names) who is locked up after she tries to shoot her abusive step-father and accidentally kills her beloved little sister instead. Once inside the asylum it is decided that she is beyond redemption and must be lobotomized. She has five days to escape before that happens and she enlists the help of four other inmates: sisters, Rocket (Jena Malone) and Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), and Amber (Jamie Chung). In their imaginations the asylum is some kind of dance club/brothel where their psychotherapist Dr Gorski (Carla Gugino) is their dance teacher/Madam and the head honcho at the asylum, Blue Jones (Oscar Issac) is the pimp who owns the brothel. In this alternate reality Baby Doll dances hypnotically for clients and in doing so transports herself (and the others) into another fantasy world, in an RPG-stylee, whether it be a WW2 trench populated by steampunk Nazi zombies (no, really) or a medieval castle full of Orcs and a Dragon. Within each scenario they must find an object (a knife, a key, a map) which will help them ultimately escape their incarceration.
Warning - Spoilers Ahead!
It's a funny one, SuckerPunch. I had high hopes for it. Empire have been slathering over this film since the first promotional images were released and as ever I was infected by their enthusiasm. The stills looked incredible, it was directed by a man with a proven track record for making good-looking and exciting fantasy films, and it starred Emily Browning and Jena Malone, both of whom I like. However, sadly if you scratch the surface of the glossy good-looking stills there is absolutely nothing else to this film. The story is nonsensical, the characters non-existent behind their short skirts and perfect hair, and the general feel of this film is too obviously aimed at 16-25 year old boys who spend most of their time in darkened rooms staring at Lara Croft's arse bobbing around on a video game screen. Despite the costumes I had hoped that this would be a feminist comic-book adventure with female characters you could really admire. Sadly, our protagonist Baby Doll barely speaks for much of the film, Sweet Pea is a 2D angry girl, and the other three are sweet but dim supporting characters. We are treated to a montage of shots of these girls being abused, attacked, and drooled over by the male characters, and never even get the satisfaction of them getting revenge on their tormentors or even escaping (apologies for the spoilers). It does look good, but only in the sense that the latest Assassin's Creed looks good. And yes, the soundtrack is fun and helps a lot, but really this really does feel like watching a music video, or sitting behind someone playing a video game, for two hours. In fact I wonder if it might have worked better as a video game. A sad waste of an opportunity for Snyder to do something different and create a kick-ass bunch of feminist heroes. Shame on him.
Sunday night's viewing was Le Concert from Lovefilm. 
Promising to be an inspiring film about a bunch of misfits brought together to form an orchestra by their old conductor I expected to thoroughly enjoy this one. Sadly it wasn't quite as good as expected, though still vaguely amusing. The film begins in Russia where disgraced conductor, Andrey Simonovich Filipov, works as a cleaner for the Bolshoi orchestra. One day he sees a fax inviting the Bolshoi to Paris to perform at the Châtelet Theater. Andrey decides to resurrect the orchestra from the days when he used to conduct and go in the Bolshoi's place (sort of like a musical version of the Ship of Theseus for any other Philosophy graduates out there).
The film, for the most part, is a French farce with Russian musicians. Occasionally things dip into more serious territory with references to the Cold War and the persecution of the Jewish members of the orchestra. However the tone of the film feels slightly inconsistent as the dark and the light elements of the story don't always sit easily together. The main protagonists of the film, Andrey, his friend Sasha and later the French violin soloist they must work with, Anne-Marie Jacquet (Anne-Marie Jacquet of Inglorious Basterds fame) are standard but likeable characters, altough Laurent apparently is not convincing as a world-class violinist (no expression, said my violin-playing flatmate). However the rest of the orchestra, which the blurb described as a 'bunch of likable misfits' are no more than stereotypes and cyphers - the Jewish trumpet players are obsessed with making money, the violinist of gypsy stock has a massive gypsy family who follow him around and steal musical instruments for the orchestra, etc etc. I did enjoy the film but I had heard very good things when it was first released and it didn't meet my expectations, being nothing more than the average fluffy French comedy, weighed down by a few dollops of the darkness of Russia's recent history. Myself, I would have preferred something more solid with interesting characters and relationships happening, as within a real orchestra.
Recent Comments