hermes

30 Days of Night is the movie adaptation of the seminal comic and graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. Templesmith's distinctive style paints a dark and warped picture in blacks and whites sharply punctuated with the visceral blood red of violence. Personally I think the film did a great job of transferring the vision to the big screen, with a similar cinematography and a similar palette. Perhaps the best thing about the film though is how it makes vampires scary again. The bloodsuckers here are ravening, unstoppable monsters that speak their own language and which bear little resemblance to the humans they used to be. For some time now in literature and on screen vampires have been romanticised (e.g. Anita Blake) or humanised (e.g. Joss Whedon) and it's great to see the theme move back to its proper horror roots. Josh Hartnett and Melissa George were both great, and the film was only slightly let down by the showdown with the boxx vampire which, while hard to swallow, is IIRC faithful to the comic's original rendering. The closing scene is different however, and possibly rules out the, ever doing sequels based on the other, subsequent comics that are still being produced by Niles in the 30 Days of Night storyline.

American Gangster is the latest film from Ridley Scott, based on the true life story of Frank Lucas, a Harlem gangster and drug lord who was eventually caught and offered a deal by the authorities to inform on all of his underworld contacts. As you would expect, the script is slick, tight, and full of meat for the heavyweight leads Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe to get into. The period of the late 70s and early 80s is well realised and backed up by a great soundtrack. I certainly couldn't find fault with the film, and while it may be up for oscar nominations, it wasn't *that* great - it certainly didn't get the blood pumping like Gladiator or Black Hawk Down. (By coincidence I also just picked up Virtuosity, the first film in which Denzel and Russel starred together, on DVD for 2.50 in Morrisons.)

Stardust is a nicel bit of fluff based on a book by Neil Gaiman and directed by Matthew Vaughn. Given his penchant for Brit gangster flicks, this seemed like a strange choice for Vaughn, but it all worked well enough. However, although it had plenty of great comedy moments, and Claire Danes is just wondrous to look at, ultimately it all fell a bit flat. Perhaps it's just me though, as I tend to find the classic whimsy of fairytales a little bit frustrating - having things the way they are ' just because' as a form of storytelling just annoys me. Meh.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford as a film title is a bit of a mouthful, and also serves as a warning regarding the length of the film itself. In many reviews critics complained about the slow, rambling pace of the film - while it is fair to say that perhaps it is slow, and it does ramble, personally I don't see that as a drawback. All of the best Westerns of recent years have set their own leisurely pace, and not all of them have been ciritcised for it. In this case the film takes it time defining the relationship between Jesse and Robert, starting with their first job together and on through the subsequent years up until the assassination. In fact, it goes a little past the deed itself to sketch out what happened to Robert afterwards. I actually knew very little about the story beforehand, and didn't realise quite how prominent a figure he was in the press and in American culture. Lovingly executed, informative and immersive I can see this finding its place with the other classics of the genre.

Hitman is a quite a dramatic change of pace - a film based on a console game about a deadly contract killer who works for a secret agency and who works for the highest bidder. It would be unfair to call it a poor man's Bourne Identity, but nevertheless there are many siimilarities. Ultimately though the film struggles throughout as it continues to grapple with the fact that Agent 47 is essentially a cold-blooded character-less person and not really a great focus for a movie. Nevertheless I think Timothy Olyphant did a brilliant job (given the material) and gave 47 just enough charm to make it worthwhile. Besides, his co-star Olga Kurylenko is quite frankly sex on legs, which helps makes it easy viewing.

The Golden Compass is the first film to be released based on the trilogy of children's books by Philip Pullman. While not quite in the league of the Lord of the Rings, it was quite gripping, well-realised and shoulders above the pure whimsy of Stardust (see above). What I particularly liked was how the story was told in a different version of earth, but the effects-work on the technology and the landscapes was done sensibly and sparingly, helping to it seem like it really was just an every-day world. The 'daemon' animal-souls were brilliantly rendered, although I thought some of the voices for them could've been better chosen, particularly Pan's own, as it was hard to tell whether it was he or Lyra speaking at the beginning. The casting was great, although we didn't see a lot of Daniel Craig, who seemed to get an extra action scene (not in the book) half-way through the film, as if just to remind us he was still around. Kudos to both Christopher Lee and Ian McKellan who have each managed to sneak their way into yet another massive film trilogy. The film also didn't end in the same place as the book, although I think this was probably wise, given what happens in the book's final scenes. It's difficult to give a final verdict until the other two parts are released, but at least that gives us something to look forward to...