An outright entertainment and, let’s be fair, an out-and-out total fantasy, this sweet, wittier-than-most teen comedy features generally violence-free classrooms, with an almost respect and rapport between teachers and students. There is not even a hint of a mass shooting, and everyone is self-aware.
No teenagers are on the verge of being sectioned despite their peccadilloes, and we have Orbital’s ‘Halcyon On and On’ from Mortal Kombat (1995) finish proceedings, just to confirm this movie is all a fantasy.
I’ve always said that Donnie Darko (2001) is a tad overrated, and its soundtrack a big role in the movie’s appeal. However, it is a very good motion picture, one with just the right amount of ambiguity and tension to keep it captivating all the way to the end credits. It balances so many different genres and themes, that for a first-time director its remarkable.
Imagine my horror upon accidentally watching the ‘Director’s Cut’. Verily, I was mortified. It started from the get-go, Echo & the Bunnymen’s ‘The Killing Moon’ replaced by INXS’ ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ for the iconic bike ride home. Initially, I thought I was in the throes of one of these ‘fan edits’ that do the rounds. But nah, these are conscious, completely sober adjustments made by the director. Even worse, the bloke inserts title cards before or after confusing (for some) scenes, explaining what is happening.
He can of course do whatever he wants with his own creation, but come on, man. I can’t think of a single reason why the bloke would commit this (art) crime other than boredom or an addiction to needless tinkering. Anyway, I’ll forgive him once I view the only version again.
For the exposition, I thought this one of the worst performances I’d ever seen. It was like Carlyle watched Richard III – play or any movie – and decided to limp about like Crookback for the duration of a gunpowder plot. And spice it up with a bit of Begbie. His James VI/I is a foul-mouthed little bastard with no grace or manners, an opportunistic cockroach who would murder an OAP for a bag of sugar.
I was thinking this and then I thought: this is 1603+. These creatures chucked one another onto bonfires and ripped their entrails apart. And the same sort would do the same today if they could. And then I got the genius of the performance.
Carlyle is keeping it real.
This is the only place I could find it. It’s very good, and with a young(ish) Michael Fassbender as Guy Fawkes:
I’ve been on quite the Oliver Stone binge of late and it was inevitable that I arrived at a certain disaster. This is a complete train wreck of celluloid.
The accents are all over the place, for some unfathomable reason Macedonians from antiquity possessing Irish, Scottish, and Russian dialects. And dreadful ones at that.
The film is rammed, at the expense of drama and thrills, with pointless tactical information about the battles on display. In the nauseatingly constructed Battle of Gaugamela, Stone keeps cutting to an eagle surveying the scene. It’s a mad decision and I recall half the cinema howling at the time. There’s another bit with Alexander taking on an elephant and it is hilarious. The film apparently has like 18,000 different ‘Director’s Cuts’. They will all be shite, I guarantee you.
A nuts and utterly unwatchable motion picture. How can you make one of the greatest military commanders and statesmen in history so irrevocably boring? This movie achieves that impossible feat.
I saw this in the cinema when it came out and thought it amusing but couldn’t quite articulate why. Now I get it: you’re just laughing at these ‘characters’ and how stupid they are. I don’t find it funny to laugh at this. Almost every scene is an extended shot of our aloof protagonist doing something unusual and not being aware of it. That’s about it. Another one of these self-consciously ‘quirky’ movies about absolutely nothing – celebrating geekdom is not a subject matter – that goes quite literally nowhere. And I hate Jamiroquai.
Wanderings and ... wonderings. 