'Journey's End'
Simply put, one of the best WWI "trench life" films that I've seen. Saul Dibb's film, of R.C. Sherriff's play, expertly captures what day to day existence was like on the line in First World War France. While it's been filmed before, most famously as 'Ace's High', no other production has managed to be as technically correct and as engaging.
Sporting a brilliant cast, with many familiar non-stars, everybody is perfect in their role. Asa Butterfield, as the fresh faced Second Lieutenant Raleigh is well cast as the naive and innocent young officer, who hero worships an old schoolmate of his, Captain Stanhope (Sam Claflin), and wishes to be placed in his company. Through familial maneuvers he gets his wish and faces a baptism of fire, as Stanhope's battalion has been placed in the forward trenches just in time for the German Spring Offensive of 1918. Stanhope is not the same man as Raleigh remembers from his public shool days in England and has become a drunkard, while still maintaining a managable offcer's command position. Stanhope doesn't relish the thought of Raleigh being in his command, as he's worried that young officer's sister, with whom he has a relationship, will find out about his alcoholism.
Elsewhere, the excellent Paul Bettany is great as the congenial "Uncle", the "superior" by age in the officer's dugout. Despite being a subordinate rank to Captain Stanhope, all of the men look up to Lieutenant Osborne, including Stanhope himself. He's softer with the men and quietly dispair's on their behalf, while trying to maintain a stoic type of dignity. He, along with Stephen Graham as Second Lieutenant Trotter and Toby Jones as Private Mason are the most recognisable faces.
'Journey's End' is not a bombastc war movie. There's no silly over the top (if you pardon the pun) heroics, like we see in the likes of 'Hacksaw Ridge'. It plays out its time with a quiet, unsettling, patience, rather like much of the war itself. The men are locked into their fate, waiting for the inevitable German attack to come. They carry on as best they can, finding distraction in drink, their official duties or willfully ignorant humour, like the working class, Liverpudlian, Trotter who uses laughter as a distraction from his situation.
Those expecting to see bullets flying and explosions will be disappointed, although there are a couple of well handled action scenes. But, 'Journey's End' is more about a slice of life in the trenches of WWI, rather than a showcase for violence. It remains largely concentrated on the officer's dugout too and ventures out amongst the enlisted men only on a couple of occasions.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the film made no money. It's gross at the box office was minimal, which is a real shame, because it's a very fine film and I wouldn't let that put people off from watching. I suppose in the age of superhero actioners, a film such as 'Journey's End' has no place.
9/10
'The Lost Continent'
There are a number of Hammer films that I have never seen, despite growing up with them and being familiar with the titles. 1968's 'The Lost Continent' was one such film. While it has to be said that a lot of Hammer films are quite mediocre affairs these days and are more fun to talk about than to watch, they usually contain elements of great interest to me and a lot of other people and this was no exception. On paper, the story seems wild and unfocused, but as it plays out, it's kind of fascinating. A tramp steamer with a contriband cargo and a dodgy passanger list sets sail from Freetown to Caracas. But, due to stormy weather, it gets lost in the Sargasso Sea along the way where the crew and passangers tumble upon man eating seaweed, giant scorpions, mutated crabs and the a band of religious nutters who are descended from Spanish Conquistadors! As mad as it sounds, it's a crazy story that begins as a sort of low key voyage of the damned and ends up a half arsed 'When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth' mixed with Peter Benchley's 'The Island'.
The acting is weak in parts, especially from the females. The model effects are charming, but obvious. The rubber creatures are downright laughable and the story doesn't have a real conclusion. But, it's never boring, which is its real credit. The DVD I watched was pretty poor quality too, with visible interlacing and a murky picture. But, maybe it's filtered murkiness added to it sense of oddness? I'd like to see a Blu ray restoration of the film, but I won't be holding my breath for that to appear any time soon and in all probability, the hi-def image would betray those models and creatures even more.
'The Lost Continent' is not a good film in any respects, but it is an entertaining one. So it's very hard to score. Therefore, I won't.
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Originally Posted by EvilNed
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It came out first, after all.
Plus the aforementioned agregiousness of the molten steel moment.
Really, the film has a three-eyed central protagonist, by which I mean, a trio of POVs to view the film through - John, Sarah, and the T-800 - we view the film through all of their eyes throughout. Plus, the underlying theme of family (with the T-800 as the surrogate father figure) doesn't make it a "family" movie. Indeed, these themes don't register with children, but they kick like a mule for grown ups - the T-800 lowering into the molten steel and then the thumbs up always manages to coincide with something getting in my eye (funny how that works!
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