Saturday 9 August 2008

Film Review: Rock Star (2001)


In 1991, Rob Halford, the lead singer for leading British heavy metal group Judas Priest, left the band. He was eventually replaced by an unknown named Tim "Ripper" Owens, who was the lead singer for a Priest "tribute" band called British Steel. One of the nicknames of Judas Priest was "Metal Gods", after their song on the album British Steel.

The movie Rock Star is loosely based on these events. During the making of the movie there was a fallout between the film's producers and Judas Priest that prevented the movie from being explicitly linked with the band, so Rock Star claims to be a work of fiction, but the parallels with real life remain clear. The movie's working title was "Metal God". The British heavy metal band in the movie is Steel Dragon, and their lead singer quits the band. Mark Wahlberg plays Chris Cole, the unknown Pittsburgh-based lead singer of a tribute band, who is plucked from obscurity to become the new lead singer of Steel Dragon, the most famous heavy metal band in the world. However, the movie is set in the 1980's, at the peak of heavy metal's popularity, and about a decade prior to the story that inspired it.

There are few good serious movies set against a heavy metal backdrop. This Is Spinal Tap (1984) is a terrific movie, but it unfortunately established an expectation that heavy metal can only be treated as a joke, and not a subject for a serious narrative. Rock Star is therefore a welcome achievement. It provides a terrific peek into the world of heavy metal super stardom, set against an interesting story made more fascinating by its connections to reality. The true top-of-the-music-heap sex, drugs and rock'n'roll life that is vividly described in books like Slash (2008) comes to life on the screen, and Wahlberg does a terrific job as the wide-eyed neophyte who is dropped into a world that he always dreamed of, but that is wilder than he could ever have imagined.

In supporting roles, the film has real-life heavy metal musicians like guitarist Zakk Wylde, drummer Jason Bonham, and members of Slaughter and Dokken adding a layer of authenticity to the proceedings. Jennifer Aniston is Wahlberg's grounded manager / girlfriend, and her performance lifts her character out of the routine and into a full member of the plot.

Director Stephen Herek keeps the story moving briskly, and does an excellent job of conveying the electricity of massive live heavy metal concerts, the sweatiness of smaller performances in less glamorous surroundings, and the excessive lifestyle that accompanies the biggest music bands in the world.

The movie features a few original songs, but mostly the soundtrack is composed of top heavy metal tunes from the 1980's that almost serve as narration, providing commentary on the unfolding story.

Rock Star ends with a wistful echo of the rapid downfall of stadium heavy metal and the emergence of grunge that occurred between 1989 and 1991. This adds a fine denouement to an enjoyable movie forged in metal.



Sunday 3 August 2008

Film Review: Wall.E (2008)


The latest film from the minds at Pixar aims at some big, broad, messages, suitably amplified to penetrate young minds and the minds of their possibly denser parents: Don't Trash the Planet! Take Care of Nature and Nature Will Take Care of You! Avoid Junk Food! Teamwork Rocks! Love Conquers All!. It's all very topical, and the audience takes these messages in, nods knowingly, and fails to make the connection that they arrived at the Cineplex in a needlessly oversized SUV, are junking the floor with sticky pop and fake-butter smudged popcorn, while drinking water out of plastic bottles. We cheer the film's message; but we don't necessarily really get it.

The genius of the movie is in its delivery. The story is told with almost no dialogue, and using the latest in computer animation technology. Wall.E is a small trash compacting unit left behind on Earth to clean up the mess after all the humans took refuge on space ships because the planet was overtaken by garbage. The clean-up was supposed to take 5 years; instead, 700 years have passed. The humans have adapted to life on robot-controlled spaceships by taking obesity to new levels. They can't walk anymore, and are transported everywhere on cool looking motorized chairs. They communicate through virtual reality screens, and have their every food and drink need delivered instantaneously by endlessly scurrying robots. In short, "comfortably numb" has finally been defined for the human race.

Back on Earth, Wall.E is one of the last remaining robots getting on with the job, and he's developed some very human, almost nauseatingly cute emotions and intelligence, not to mention a friendship with a fellow-surviving cockroach (they will, apparently, survive anything). Onto Earth descends Eve, a shiny new and powerful robot programmed to look for signs of growing life (but apparently not cockroaches). Wall.E is smitten. Eve finds a growing plant. The humans can come home. But there are evil-doers trying to foil the happy ending, and Wall.E and Eve have to team-up with some rogue robots to save the day.

The ending of this film is telegraphed about half-way through, and except for the very young, the audience has to grin and watch the very expected events unfold for the last 45 minutes. It is not too tedious, but it gets close.

There is no doubting the artistry and talent behind this film, and Pixar deliver another extremely high quality product. But a bit less messaging, and a bit more originality in avoiding the obvious, would have been appreciated.