DVD Review: Clash of the Titans

Often-entertaining remake of cult favorite 80s adventure debuts on DVD, Blu-Ray tomorrow.

A  moderate hit upon its theatrical relsease this past spring, director Louis Leterrier’s (The Incredible Hulk) remake of the semi-beloved 1981 adventure will at least never be accused of pretension. Crammed with enough machismo to power a rugby league and wearing its derivations of established franchises (especially Star Wars and Transformers) on its brawny sleeves, it fearlessly deploys both state of the art CGI and hammy acting chiefly for the purpose of one-upsmanship. It’s a summer blockbuster through and through, a faithful depiction of Greek Mythology about as much as Star Wars was about family dynamics or space exploration. And it’s sometimes, maybe just often enough, entertaining for just those very reasons.

The setup is at least more complicated, this time around. After centuries of servitude, the human race has taken up arms against the gods who both protect and bully them, toppling the gods’ images and launching sieges against their aerie on Mount Olympus. The gods can’t live without mankinds’ prayers fueling their immortality, even though their chieftain Zeus (Liam Neeson) favors a wait-and-see approach to his rebellious creation. Others, like his brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes) prefer a kill-’em-all retaliation; small wonder, since as ruler of the underworld he feeds on fear and terror.

Amid this, ahem, clash, an orphaned baby is found by a kindly fisherman (Pete Postlethwaite) and raised as his own child. Nineteen years and one awkward jump in time later, the adult Perseus’ (Sam Worthington) adopted family is killed as the indirect result of anti-Zeus actions committed by soldiers from the nearby city-state of Argus. He’s taken to the Argive court, where an attack by Hades reveals his true heritage – he’s actually the son of Zeus, conceived in retaliation for a rebellious king’s (Jason Flemyng) aggression. Hades threatens to destroy the city in ten days if the Argives don’t sacrifice their noble princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos), as punishment for their defiance and as part of a larger scheme to weaken Zeus. Encouraged by fellow demi-god Io (Gemma Arterton), Perseus agrees to lead an expedition to the distant lair of the Stygian Witches, to consult their oracular advice. In turn, this sends them to murder the gorgon Medusa, to use her head against the Kraken beast Hades will send to raze Argos.

With so much plot to cover, it’s no wonder the script by Travis Beacham, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi rarely slows down long enough to catch its breath – or even clearly identify some of its central characters. Of the four principal soldiers who accompany Perseus, only the bitter and intense Draco (Mads Mikkelsen) is given sufficient screen time to emerge as a character in his own right; the others fall into convenient war movie types: the rookie, the older veteran smartass, the carefree guy. Two additional adventurers, hunters who volunteer only until the party reaches the underworld, receive plenty of screen time but almost no characterization at all. The special effects sequences, naturally, get all the time they want under Leterrier’s  direction, including a belabored and 3-D pandering coin skipping over the river Styx.

To the extent that they’re allowed, the supporting players inhabit their parts with gusto. Mikkelsen is effective as the embittered warrior who will smile “only once I’ve spit in the gods’ eyes.” Arterton, so fetching in her brief screen time in Quantum of Solace, is an alluring figure, while Davalos uses every second to build Andromeda up as both strong and compassionate. Neeson and Fiennes thump and bellow according to their parts; Fiennes seems to enjoy himself more, wallowing in the heavy metal album cover art of costuming. As for the film’s star, lately Worthington has drawn comparisons to Russell Crowe: they’re both Australian, and well-built, with plenty of cocky swagger. But Worthington lacks both Crowe’s intensity and his sense of reserved confidence. He’s a placeholder, but to his advantage the script requires him to do nothing much besides react to the circumstances around him with little need for dramatic initiative.

Perhaps the film’s greatest strength lies in its production design. The monsters are terrifying, the costumes layered and textured in such a way as to seem glamorous while lived-in at the same time. The city-state of Argos, ringing a mountainous cove, is a terrific bit of CGI imagery, while the gorgon and its lair are chillingly atmospheric. A glaring exception is the underworld ferryman Charon, whose flat and uninspired designs recall any number of comic book monsters and again, heavy metal album art (specifically, Iron Maiden.) It’s also sort of hard to take Zeus’ glittering silver armor with complete seriousness; at times its luster ebbs a bit, and the designs inlaid in the plating – an eagle-shaped shoulder guard – seem overwrought. Leterrier keeps the action moving, sometimes faster than necessary, other times slowing down at odd moments that stall the forward momentum that the characters need.

Online columnist Matthew Belinkie recently wondered in an excellent analysis if, thanks to the proliferation of online video and ecommerce, the time of the cult movie has ended. The original Clash of the Titans has become something of a cult perennial if not exactly a classic, well-liked but perhaps not widely adored. This remake shares with its predecessor the hammy acting and endearing special effects, yet its shortcomings of script and story keep it from developing as a complete work in its own right. Still, IMDB shows a sequel already announced, so it’s exceeded its inspiration in one respect.

- Michael Kabel

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(Note: An earlier version of this review originally appeared for the film’s theatrical release.)

Review: Clash of the Titans

Remake of 80s cult film is big, loud, and dumb – and those are its advantages. 

Whatever its many flaws, director Louis Leterrier’s remake of the semi-beloved 1981 adventure Clash of the Titans will at least never be accused of pretension. It’s a big, loud, overly plotted yet aggressively dumb action adventure with more brawn than sense and enough machismo to power a rugby league. Like its predecessor, the film doesn’t mind wearing its derivations of established franchises (Star Wars and Transformers) on its brawny sleeves, bringing state of the art CGI and hammy acting all for the purpose of one-upsmanship. It’s a summer blockbuster through and through, a faithful depiction of Greek Mythology about as much as Star Wars was about family dynamics or space exploration. We’re not oracles, but our advice is simple: don’t ask for much more than spectacle and you won’t be disappointed.

 The setup is at least more complicated, this time around. After centuries of servitude, the human race has taken up arms against the gods who both protect and dominate them, toppling the gods’ images and launching sieges against their aerie on Mount Olympus. The gods can’t live without mankinds’ prayers fueling their immortality, even though their chieftain Zeus (Liam Neeson) favors a wait-and-see approach to his rebellious creation. Others, like his brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes) prefer a kill-’em-all retaliation; small wonder, since as ruler of the underworld he feeds on fear and terror.

Amid this…. clash, an orphaned baby is found by a kindly fisherman (Pete Postlethwaite) and raised as his own child. Nineteen years and one awkward jump in time later, the adult Perseus’ (Sam Worthington) adopted family is killed as the indirect result of anti-Zeus actions committed by soldiers from the nearby city-state of Argus. He’s taken to the Argive court, where an attack by Hades reveals his true heritage – he’s actually the son of Zeus, conceived in retaliation for a rebellious king’s (Jason Flemyng) aggression. Hades threatens to destroy the city in ten days if the Argives don’t sacrifice their noble princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos), as punishment for their defiance and as part of a larger scheme to weaken Zeus. Encouraged by fellow demi-god Io (Gemma Arterton), Perseus agrees to lead an expedition to the distant lair of the Stygian Witches, to consult their oracular advice. In turn, this sends them to murder the gorgon Medusa, to use her head against the Kraken beast Hades will send to raze Argos.

With so much plot to cover, it’s no wonder the script by Travis Beacham, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi rarely slows down long enough to catch its breath – or even clearly identify some of its central characters. Of the four principal soldiers who accompany Perseus, only the bitter and intense Draco (Mads Mikkelsen) is given sufficient screen time to emerge as a character in his own right; the others fall into convenient war movie types: the rookie, the older veteran smartass, the carefree guy. Two additional adventurers, irregular hunters who volunteer only until the party reaches the underworld, receive plenty of screen time but almost no characterization at all. The special effects sequences, naturally, get all the time they want under Leterrier’s (The Incredible Hulk) direction, including a belabored and 3-D pandering coin skipping over the river Styx.

To the extent that they’re allowed, the supporting players inhabit their parts with gusto. Mikkelsen is effective as the embittered warrior who will smile “only once I’ve spit in the gods’ eyes.” Arterton, so fetching in her brief screen time in Quantum of Solace, is an alluring figure, while Davalos uses every second to build Andromeda up as both strong and compassionate. Neeson and Fiennes thump and bellow according to their parts; Fiennes seems to enjoy himself more, wallowing in the heavy metal album cover art of costuming. As for the film’s star, lately Worthington has drawn comparisons to Russell Crowe: they’re both Australian, and well-built, with plenty of cocky swagger. But Worthington lacks both Crowe’s intensity and his sense of reserved confidence. He’s a placeholder, but to his advantage the script requires him to do nothing much besides react to the circumstances around him, with little need for dramatic initiative. 

Perhaps the film’s greatest strength lies in its production design. The monsters are terrifying, the costumes layered and textured in such a way as to seem glamorous while lived-in at the same time. The city-state of Argos, ringing a mountainous cove, is a breathtaking bit of CGI imagery, while the gorgon and its lair are chillingly atmospheric. A glaring exception is the underworld ferryman Charon, whose flat and uninspired designs recall any number of comic book monsters and again, heavy metal album art (specifically, Iron Maiden.) It’s also sort of hard to take Zeus’ glittering silver armor with complete seriousness; at times its luster ebbs a bit, and the designs inlaid in the plating – an eagle-shaped shoulder guard – seem ridiculously overwrought. Leterrier keeps the action moving, sometimes faster than necessary, other times slowing down at odd moments that stall the forward momentum that the characters need. It’s the kind of movie that shouldn’t its audience a chance to think too much.

 Online columnist Matthew Belinkie recently wondered in an excellent analysis if, thanks to the proliferation of online video and ecommerce, the time of the cult movie has ended. The original Clash of the Titans has become something of a cult perennial if not exactly a classic, well-liked but possibly not widely adored. Gen X’ers appreciate the already-dated charm of Ray Harryhausen’s stop motion effects (the effects wizard made the film his swan song), and the giddy over the top acting of Laurence Olivier, Burgess Meredith, and Ursula Andress, performers also possibly ready for a career bow. This remake shares with its predecessor the hammy acting and endearing special effects, yet its shortcomings of script and story keep it from developing as a complete work in its own right.

- Michael Kabel

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Miscellaneous Debris, March 2010 Edition

This has become our most popular feature. Go figure.   

By the time you read this, March 2010 will likely have gone out like a lamb, with April and the full arrival of  spring coming just after it. Not an awful lot happened by way of movies and film in the last month, at least by way of new releases. A couple of films we expected to do better performed poorly at the box office, while others offered mild surprises. The coming months at least promise plenty of popcorn fare, including The Losers, the eagerly awaited Iron Man 2 and, this coming week, the less-eagerly awaited Clash of the Titans reboot.  

The following is just a roundup of news about television and film stuff we didn’t get around to giving the blogging attention the stories probably deserved. There in no particular order, and they’re just our opinions. They may differ from your opinions. That’s okay.   

1. March was noticeable for a couple of releases that we think fell short of  our vague, informal box office expectations. We thought Green Zone would have excited the public more, though Repo Men, which looked to address health care the same way that Soylent Green addressed overpopulation, got the box office cold shoulder we were afraid it might. Green Zone seems a victim of the American movie audience’s continuing aversion to films about Iraq, while Repo Men was simultaneously under- and mis-promoted. Green Zone may also have been perceived, to quote a friend of ours, as The Bourne Redundancy.  

We'd rather stay home.

2. For a while now we’ve had an idle theory that there exists an inverse proportion between the quality of a high-budget, high-concept movie and the degree of saturation which its marketing receives. If this theory is true, we already suspect Date Night may prove one of the worst movies of the year. The omnipresent, profoundly unfunny ads explaining the film’s premise were all over the dial this month, broadcast and cable alike, making us suspect that 20th Century Fox has little faith in its appeal spreading by word of mouth. For our part, we’re weary of stars Steve Carell’s and Tina Fey’s bland, self-congratulatory schticks, and can’t imagine paying to get what we can see, for free, every Thursday night.  

3. Which is not say NBC’s Thursday night lineup is completely without laughs. Over the course of its first season, Community has quickly bloomed into one of the smartest and most daring shows on network TV. Critics fault its humor for being too reliant on cultural references and its own quirkiness; we see those issues as growing pains in a show with the potential to become a classic ensemble comedy along the lines of New Radio or even Cheers. NBC finally renewed it for a second season, several weeks after re-upping the far drearier Parks and Recreation.  

4. FX’s new Justified has garnered rave reviews in just its first couple of episodes, praise with which we’re hard-pressed to disagree. Adapted from an Elmore Leonard short story, the almost flawless pilot established U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens’ (Timothy Olyphant, Deadwood) return to Harlan, Kentucky as punishment for an act that may or may not have been simple vengeance. Fans of Leonard’s complicated characters and wry black humor won’t want to miss the show; neither will fans of old-fashioned, uncomplicated TV-hero drama. It’s great fun, and like Community has the potential to only get better.  

5. In last month’s Miscellaneous Debris we talked about the land war in Asia that was the casting process for The First Avenger: Captain America. Late this month it was announced that familiar comic book movie presence Chris Evans (The Fantastic Four) had finally won the role. An informal sampling of friends and associates (we asked around our local comic book shop) revealed the general mood surrounding the announcement amounted to vague relief. Nothing against Mr. Evans, who’s dependable if not exactly thrilling as an actor, but such long-awaited news ought to elicit more from its target audience than a collective “well, it could’ve been worse.”  

To this day, we're not sure who killed Laura Palmer.

6.  Here’s something to make Gen-X’ers feel their age: Twin Peaks turns twenty years old next week.  As argued in this panegyric from the British Observer website, the 30-episode surreal crime drama subtly revolutionized television drama, moving it away from the superficial episodics of the 80s towards the meatier, more literate fare that’s become the modern bastion of cable television from The Sopranos on down. Some of us were fans back in the day, and some of us still appreciate the never-ending reruns on the Chiller cable network. Nevertheless, the occasional campiness of the plots and acting are starting to show their age, and the early episodes are markedly more cohesive than the show’s troubled second season.  

7. The industry isn’t promoting their release as well as they could, but several studios are quietly issuing some classic and near-classic fare to Blu-Ray at bargain basement rates. We’ve already found the 80s vampire cult favorite Near Dark and the Steve McQueen crime classic The Getaway for less than ten bucks each at the local big box retailers, with similar prices offered on several more films. Though the cumulative Blu-Ray library still has a long way to go before rivaling DVD in depth or quality, putting out such special-interest films at collector’s prices is a huge step in the right direction.  

Here’s the trailer for The Getaway, not so much a preview as a seemingly random assortment of moments from the film:  

  

If you’ve scored your own cheap Blu-Ray find, tell us about it in the comments section below.  

8. Finally, an open plea to our readers: longtime DVD collectors will likely remember the heady days of the early 00′s, when the format’s swift replacing of the VHS medium caused a deluge of titles to appear on retail shelves and in the catalogues of online boutiques alike. Now, many lesser known titles that were given releases back then are going out of print and/or commanding exorbitant prices on eBay and throughout Amazon.com’s gallery of affiliate merchants. If you know of a reputable, dependable e-commerce DVD retailer, please let us know. Particularly, right now we’re looking for Fat City and The Duellists; on a larger level, we’re trying to find a dependable e-commerce merchant with a broad, deep back catalogue. Thanks.  

We’ll be back next week with more reviews. Thanks for reading.  

- Michael Kabel

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Miscellaneous Debris, April 2009 Edition

Our semi-regular compendium of movie, TV and DVD news of general interest.

The summer movie season is just around the corner

Something we didn’t realize when this blog started up a year ago: it takes more time to research and keep up with what’s forthcoming than it does just watching and reviewing films. That makes us think sometimes that we should narrow our focus. But where’ s the fun in that? Trailers, after all, are the only good reason (besides good seats) to get into the theatre early.

Every month or so we make a list of items and news stories that maybe don’t warrant a full blog post of their own. Some excite us, some bore us, one or two irritate or even piss us off a bit. But they’re all worth mentioning at least for their conversational value.

1. Though there’s not much going on by way of new releases lately, the good news is that the summer movie season starts three weeks early this year, with the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on May 1, followed by Star Trek just a week later and Terminator: Salvation only two weeks after that. That’s three blockbusters before Memorial Day, traditionally the kickoff of the summer blockbuster avalance.

He also once played Orson Welles

2. Speaking of the Wolverine movie, we can see both sides of the flap about its illicit appearance online this week, but on the other hand it’s not that hard to predict some things about it. Based on what we know, we can assure viewers that 1. Hugh Jackman will give a very good (but not great) performance, 2. Ryan Reynolds will have all the best lines and 3. Liev Shreiber will act circles around everyone else. And the ending will remain open for a sequel.

3. Rescue Me, FX’s series about a New York City Fire Department crew and the families that love but often fall victim to their angst, premiered this week after an eighteen-month hiatus. The episode was entertaining but not quite exceptional, about as good as the show ever was during its uneven first season. Still, it had the fesity energy that later seasons lacked, abetted in no small part by charismatic performances from Robert John Burke as an alcoholic ex-priest falling off the wagon and a show-stopping turn by Michael J. Fox as a new boyfriend for Janet Gavin (Andrea Roth), the oft-separated wife of main character Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary).

4. Recent news stories show that movie theatre attendance has risen significantly since last October, when the worldwide economy more or less went to Hell in a bucket. To quote the Propellerheads and Shirley Bassey, it’s all just a little bit of history repeating: the movie business has traditionally thrived during hard times, and no wonder. People looking for diversions from their circumstances have lots of time to kill, and movies are nothing if not an escape. With a summer loaded with science fiction and action franchises just around the corner, Hollywood could be in for a banner year.

5. Some of the most vivid examples of films that both reflected and capitalized on the nation’s Depression-era restlessness got a DVD release this week with Universal’s Pre-Code Hollywood Collection box set. Turner Classic Movies has already released several similar box sets celebrating Hollywood before the sanitizing Hays Code, though we’re tempted to get this newer package just for its films’ lurid titles: The Cheat, Torch Singer, Hot Saturday, Murder At The Vanities, Search For Beauty, and (our favorite), Merrily We Go To Hell. The various films include performances by Fredric March, Tallulah Bankhead and Cary Grant.

6. From the “lurching into self-parody” desk comes news of Sam Raimi’s latest, which if nothing else boasts a title that would right in with the aforementioned set: Drag Me To Hell dusts off the “gypsy curse” conceit for a thriller about a loan officer (Matchstick Men‘s Alison Lohman) stalked by bad juju after foreclosing on an old woman’s mortgage. The stunningly cheesy trailer below seems to include its entire first act. Now, wait and see if somebody doesn’t trot out the old “zeitgeist” and “cultural barometer” arguments to validate the film’s existence. It opens nationwide May 29.

Really, Life On Mars creators? Really?

7.  Two shows that fought continuous battles for survival came to a conclusion over the last couple of weeks, with at least one serving its definite coda. Life, a hypnotically offbeat cop drama starring the singular Damian Lewis, aired its second season finale (and likely series conclusion) that efficiently wrapped up (almost) all its open plots and subplots while bringing closure to Lewis’ tortured Detective Charlie Crews. By total contrast, a week before ABC’s Life On Mars aired a series finale that packed an explanation for its time-lost Detective Sam Tyler (Jason O’Mara) so out-of-left-field, so contrived, that the show’s creators might just as well have walked on camera and given their audience the finger. Look for details in articles with names like “Worst Show Finales” in the years to come.

8.  There’s a logic that goes you can remake a film only if the original wasn’t very good. But what about films we love for their weaknesses? A remake of 1981′s Bullfinch’s Mythology-via-Star Wars cult classic Clash of the Titans is up for remaking, this one reportedly co-starring no less than Liam Neeson as Greek god patriarch Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as his villainous brother Hades. Sam Worthington (Terminator: Salvation) will star as the heroic Perseus, and Alexa Davalos (Defiance) plays his true love Andromeda. The film is slated for release next March.

9. If you’re not already familiar with DC Comics’ long-running hero Green Lantern, get ready to hear a lot more about him over the next twenty months. The comics company plans a massive summer crossover, ominously titled The Blackest Night, about Green Lantern Hal Jordan and the far-ranging Green Lantern Corps (a kind of interstellar police force) waging a “war of light” against the reanimated dead heroes of the DC Universe (And that body count is a lot higher than you’d think). July sees the release of Green Lantern: First Flight, a straight-to DVD animated feature film about Jordan’s recruitment into the Corps, with voice talent by Law & Order: SVU‘s Christopher Meloni and Battlestar Galactica‘s Tricia Helfer. Finally, a live-action feature directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) is slated for a December 2010 release.

10. Finally, something that actually rates at least one blog posting of its own. A couple of weeks ago we ran a long article hoping for, among other actors, a career rebirth for Michael Keaton. May 1 sees the limited release of The Merry Gentleman, a moody neo-noir with religious overtones that marks the errant leading man’s directorial debut. Keaton also stars as Frank Logan, a contract hitman who moonlights as a tailor while contemplating suicide. He becomes involved in a low-heat romance with Kate Frazier (No Country For Old Men‘s Kelly MacDonald), a woman fleeing her abusive husband (Bobby Cannavale, The Ten) and pursued by a cop with bad intentions. The trailer’s evocative atmosphere and deliberate tempo look promising for fans of such films (like us), as well as its premise, which reminds us an odd bit – in a good way – of John Dahl’s dark comedy You Kill Me. 

We’ll be back next week with previews of some of those summer blockbusters. Have a good weekend.

- Michael Kabel
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