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Is There a Mort in Mortdecai? a Movie Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Mortdecai

Johnny Depp is Charles Mortdecai, or rather, Captain Jack Sparrow … or should that be Barnabas Collins? There’s a debonair quality in Depp’s performance that’s familiar even though there’s nuances to make this new persona ever so slightly different. When his life is in danger, this boy is simply a coward. Just how he manages to remain an unscrupulous arts dealer really needs to be asked.

In a movie based on the works of English author Kyril Bonfiglioli’s trilogy of the same name, starting with, “Don’t Point That Thing At Me,” perhaps better explanation can be found within the book than in the film. When an arts restorer is killed working on a Francisco Goya painting thought to be lost, he’s called to the scene by agent Martland (Ewan McGregor) to track down where the canvas went. But when Martland has a past with Mortdecai’s wife Johanna (Gwyneth Paltrow), the issue of infidelity gets put into just one layer of this film’s rather confusing direction.

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A Look Into Shout! Factory’s Nightbreed and Lord of Illusions

Only the die-hard fans and film studies enthusiast will enjoy the extra content in the bonus disc that comes in this latest home video release of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed.

nightbreed-blu-ray-1 The underground world of Midian was very much alive within me many years ago, even before I discovered Clive Barker’s Cabel. I loved the narrative and it spoke to me as there were times I felt misunderstood. Life of an outcast as a nerd was never easy but I adapted. When the film Nightbreed appeared in 1990, I hoped some of the themes explored in the book would get translated over. Instead, what was presented was totally alien. This film was not Barker’s story and I wondered why. My favourite moments were either cut out or never written in.

As a rated R film, I hoped the way Boone connected to Baphomet would be represented but alas ….

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Unwrapping The Boxtrolls, A Blu-ray/DVD Review

91geiQgmvFL._SL1500_ — Available on Amazon

Studio Laika’s The Boxtrolls is a very bourgeois film. Unless viewers know something about how European nations historically treated the lower class, some aspects of the tale will feel alien. Some explanation is offered in the home video release’s director’s commentary, but for the most part, the point of the bonus material is to show how much work was put into this adaptation of Alan Snow’s children’s novel, “Here Be Monsters!”

The story takes place in the fictional country of Norvenia rather than some real world. Anyone who has studied Western Civilization knows how some growing cities saw revolt when one social class chastised another. As a result, this film examines the problems facing the town of Cheesebridge. A baby is lost, and Archibald Snatcher (wonderfully voiced by Ben Kingsley) blames the trolls! Those who fear them stay safe in their domiciles, while the monsters and a human boy named Eggs (Isaac Hempstead Wright) skirt the city at night. These night crawlers scavenge for food and other sundries to make their life underground possible.

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All Hail King Julien! A Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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The high production values in Netflix’s All Hail King Julien certainly makes this cartoon worth paying attention to. Its CGI quality puts the animated television show Penguins of Madagascar to shame. Story wise, this show has a lot to like about how Julien inherits the throne. The series is not always about slapstick because the next ring-tailed lemur in the family has to learn how to be a proper king.

The irresponsible one viewers have come to know from the films and television series is Julien XIII (Danny Jacobs). In the past, he never learned responsibility and to be suddenly crowned by King Julien XII (Henry Winkler) is a bit of a shock to him. Even as a kid, he was a self-absorbed social misfit and party animal. He never understood about what courtly duties meant until now, and to make a series based on him learning important lessons puts this program right up there as a socially responsible show.

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An Interview with the Producers of Black Fly

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Playing at Cinecenta
University of Victoria
January 20th
7pm and 9:15pm

Vancouver based writer / director Jason Bourque is certainly looking to break away from the norm. While his work in genre movies like Doomsday Prophecy and documentaries like Dreams of Flight helped establish him, the movies he directed for SyFy like Seattle Superstorm is a far cry from what he wants to express creatively. His first dramatic feature film, Black Fly, was easy to write and perhaps quite terrifying to express since a crime scene was unfolding about a well-known serial killer, Noel Winters, back when he was growing up and living in New Brunswick.

“Describing situations inspired by my personal experiences gave the script an honesty that sometimes can be difficult to find in other work,” said Bourque, “As a young teen, discovering that we had a serial killer as a neighbour left an indelible mark on me. It was a story that haunted me; I knew it was one I needed to tell.”

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The Timeless Appeal of Secret Agent Man, a DVD Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

SecretAgent(DangerMan)_Complete_TMG

There can only be one Secret Agent Man (aka Danger Man in the UK) and that’s Paul Drake (played by Patrick McGoohan), an operative who started his career at NATO. Sorry James Bond, but you are more of a super spy for the Crown than a covert ops officer. When considering the producers of this movie franchise first approached McGoohan to play role of Bond in the very first film, Dr. No, and he declined, this fine actor had no regrets. He believed that he had a social responsibility to audiences. The television medium can be like a “third parent” to many a young viewer and this actor’s goal is to provide a good moral compass to anyone who watches the shows he’s in. When looking at the life and times of James Bond, some might think that it’s cool to like him, a Casanova. McGoohan thought otherwise.

Producer/director Ralph Smart created a wonderful television show to spotlight McGoohan’s talents in Danger Man. The stories were realistic scenarios that edged close to what current cold war sentimentality were like back then. To see Drake in conflict with his own superiors showed that he was not going to violate his own sense of principles. Drake’s persona is simply grounded in humility. His experiences with the female persuasion was met with occasional disdain, especially in the early episodes, and the trust must be earned if he’s to ally with them.

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