I seem to have neglected to inform everyone that the following films must be seen: 300 and Hot Fuzz. Went to see them on Friday, back to back (well, there was a two hour gap in which I had some KFC and read some Patrick O’Brian).
Hot Fuzz is basically a police drama set in a sleepy English village that’s done in the style of a big-budget over-the-top Hollywood action movie. It is screamingly funny, and as a bonus, all the over-the-top Hollywood action is incredibly well done in its own right. Oh, and if you’ve ever seen a British movie or TV show, the cast is ridiculously star-studded.
300, meanwhile, is over-the-top in its own entirely serious way. This is Unsubtlety Cinema – being as big and as bold as it can be. It’s wonderfully unconventional – completely eschewing the usual cinematic look to create its own style. It wants to be a comic book brought to life – a vibrant unconventional stylised comic book at that – and most assuredly is. Like the Spartans themselves, if the film ever, for one second, lacked the slightest bit of confidence in itself or what it was doing, it probably would have fallen flat on its face and been forgotten. But it doesn’t, and ends up with its own particular triumph.
Tags: comics, film, movies
I’ve seen the first, and I have had firm plans made for me to view the second. As accidental preparation I stumbled across a web site which compared stills from the movie with panels from the comic. Obviously made by fanatics.
I’ve seen 300 now – brilliant cpa pec-and-gorefest. The first comic-based movie I’ve seen which was not only totally unashamed of its origin, but got closer than I’ve witnessed to a real comic on screen rather than trying to make a ‘proper film’. I notice it’s now the springboard to discussion amongst the chattering classes (at least in this country) about the role of History in schools. Certainly when I watched this with (16-yr-old) James I had to explain a lot about Sparta, Ancient Greek city-states and Xerces.