Top 5 Improvised Movie Moments

Improvisation is not just the realm of pretentious posh drama student types, it’s also a tool used by actors and directors today in the creation of some of the silver screen’s finest moments. Here’s a rundown of some particularly good examples of the craft in use….

1) Empire Strikes Back (1979) – farewell scene between Han Solo & Princess Leia: The space smuggler turned intergalactic hero is about to be frozen alive in carbonite after being betrayed by his old pal Lando Calrissian, and sold out to helmet-headed bounty hunter Boba Fett. Han Solo’s last words to the love of his life, the feisty Princess (played by Carrie Fisher), when her final words are “I love you”? He responds with “I know”. Ford changed the reply to be in keeping with the macho rogue’s cocky, confident persona, and the result is one of the most memorable moments in movie history.

2) Reservoir Dogs (1992) – the ear cutting scene: The film which brought the worlds’ attention to uber movie-geek Quentin Tarantino is most well-remembered for the moment where Michael Madsen’s character, Mr Blonde tortures an undercover cover detective while dancing round the room to “Stuck In The Middle With You” by Stealers’ Wheel ; The rather cheerful tune forms a freaky counterpoint to the psycho action on screen. 4 takes that were improvised of Madsen chopping the fella’s ear off. In the one that made the final cut, the actor managed to up the ante by committing the heineous act (at which point the camera pans away) but then went one step further proceeding to speak into the unattached appendage once he had it in his hands! For an interview where Madsen talks about his work on the scene, check out:



3) Borat : Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) – the whole damn thing: Almost all of Sasha Baron Cohen’s breakthrough international hit is improvised, though the makers clearly set up situations designed to make the best of the charms of the fictional Kazakh television personality. Best bits? Borat explaining to three eminent feminist academics that a leading government scientist had proof that women were clearly inferior to men as they had “brain the size of squirrel”. In another gem he upset the genteel attendees of a polite private dinner in America’s Deep South by telling one aging lady she had an “erotic physique”, and announcing after returning from the restroom that he had enjoyed a “good shit”. With so many good memorable moments, the film is a masterful work of improvisational comedy.

4) Blade Runner (1982) – Replicant death scene: (NB For those who don’t want a movie spoiler, look away now). The final scenes of this landmark science fiction movie culminate in the death of Rutger Hauer’s character, leader of a group of rebel “replicant” androids responsible for escaping and killing countless humans. Hauer’s character shares his final moments with Harrison Ford’s Deckard, a police officer assigned to track him down and “retire” him, with the android declaring to his human counterpart of all the amazing things he has seen in his life, and that “all these moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain”. Hauer has since described his work on the movie as the best he had ever committed to film.

5) Apocalypse Now (1979) – Brando’s Colonel Kurtz : Francis Ford Coppola’s epic, insane war flick follows Martin Sheen’s rather green footsoldier Benjamin Willard making his way up a river with orders to “terminate with extreme prejudice” Brando’s AWOL military leader Kurtz. It ends with his finally meeting the great man. Brando, was by the early 70s a fading, errant star, much known for misbehaving and squandering his prodigious talent, and turned up on set 220 pounds overweight and not having read the source material, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness despite having being told to turn up slim and fully briefed on it. As a result, he had to improvise most of his appearance, except for the payoff line “The horror, the horror” – Coppola asked Brando to stay back a further hour after his initial 1 weeks' work, so he could do a closeup of this. The maverick actor agreed, charging an additional $75,000 for his trouble.

Hellboy II : The Golden Army (12A)

Tucked in amongst this summers blockbusters is the new film by much lauded director Guillermo Del Toro. The man responsible for the award-winning visual feast of Pan’s Labyrinth has this time contrived a similarly stunning piece of artful cinema, cleverly disguised as a mainstream box-office winner for mass audiences in this follow-up to his 2004 introduction to this franchise.

Ron Perlman reprises his role as the lead character, a comic-book creation who is a demon originally brought to earth by Nazi Occultists, and who now works for the US government as undercover agent for the top-secret Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence. Big, dumb and brutish as he is, the macho man-mountain isn’t the sharpest tool in the box, and suffers from being insecure and short-tempered, but what he lacks in brains he makes up for in heart.

The film sees the big man in the early stages of his relationship with Selma Blair’s character Liz Sherman, a woman who has the gift of being able to turn into fire at will. Jokes about being too hot to handle aren’t too far wide of the mark, as the action sees the new couple partaking of the petty arguments that accompany moving in together, and adjusting to one another’s differences and flaws.

This domestic stuff is mostly handled with a light touch, and unfolds whilst the world once more needs saving from the forces of evil. This comes in the shape of no less than Luke Goss, who almost exactly reprises his character in Blade II, as a long-haired pale goth-like Prince Nuada. He seeks to reunite the pieces of magical crown which gives the holder the power to control the mythic clockwork ‘Golden Army’, and allow his Elven creed to rule over the human race.

All this mythic stuff gives Del Toro licence to play to his strengths and create a rich visual world of characters combining the weird and wonderful likes of creatures in the Lord of The Rings trilogy and the Star Wars movies. Aesthetically, a lot of it utilises puppetry and prosthetics over CGI, which does play a part in augmenting rather than dominating the screen.The effect is magical, and stunning.

Perlman is excellent as the misunderstood, overly sensitive giant, rejected by an unsympathetic human race yet willing to fight for it’s survival, while having more in common with the otherworldly creatures he is sent out to destroy. The rather sexy Selma Blair (previously seen snoggging Neve Campbell in Cruel Intentions) is there for more than decoration also, as a strong female in a mans’ world.

Overall, then it’s a beautifully baroque creation of elves, trolls and demons battling it out, but somewhat let down by a lack of urgency and pace, but still worth it for sheer escapism, beauty and fun.

Hack Rating: 2/5

Superbad

So, been a while since I've touched this baby, as I have been predisposed surviving and making my way in the cut and thrust world of my corporate day job.


Anyway, I figured it was long overdue since I checked out a highly rated movie from last summer, Judd Apatow's Superbad. It involves the antics of 3 slightly dorky teenage boys as they attempt to get laid in their final days of high school before going off to college, with all the uncomfortable fumbling, gaffes and stupidity that that implies.


It lacks the raw hilarity of say, American Pie, which is more overtly commercial and formulaic in it's take on the ubiquitous American teenage experience, going more for character driven storyline. It also captures the idea that most of growing up is about goofing around with your mates not getting laid and wondering what it will be like and recogising that those friendships have value and meaning, perhaps more than the flings that happen along the route to adulthood.

Writers Seth Rogen (the male lead in last years' Knocked Up, and a drunken, wayward cop in this movie) and Evan Goldberg also heavily lay out the homoerotic subtext of the friendship between lead characters Evan and Seth heavily from the offset. "Have you ever stared into his eyes?" he says of one ex-boyfriend of the girl he has a crush on. "It was like the first time I heard the Beatles".


Though it successfully captures the confusing burst of feelings that accompany growing up, Superbad is definitely a film about the boys (finally) getting the girls. As well as getting some action, Evan, Seth and Fogle (aka McLovin, as his fake ID states) find themselves also getting into hi-jinks involving illegally buying liquor, being chased by the Police, and gatecrashing a party and nearly being beaten up by the host. It's a great ride with lots of fun, and the best movie of it's kind for many years, though it did leave me feeling slightly unsatisfied, like the hi-jinks weren't quite high enough, and the jokes didn't quite make one laugh out loud. For a slightly superior take on growing up, check out Richard Linklaters' Dazed And Confused. As for Superbad, it's still an entertaining, funny 2 hours of anyone's time.


Hack Rating 3/5

In Bruges

This weekend, I had the chance to check out this black comedy starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two hitmen hiding out in Bruges after a job, with a Ralph Fiennes doing a creditable cockney geeza gangland boss, back in England calling the shots.

The stunning backdrops of European capital provide a counterpoint to macabre comedy, as Colin plays a young upstart, frustrated at being trapped, far away from home, as the odd couple have to play pretend as tourists, for cover, while waiting for instructions from the big boss man. It's a surreal trip in some ways, with fat Americans, a dwarf in school uniform, copious amounts of cocaine, and hookers down from Amsterdam all form part of the journey in a bitterly comic examination of the value of human life. It's not for the easily offended.

Farrell's acting is wayward at times, Fiennes does a respectable turn as something other than posh English gent, but Gleesons' avuncular character holds the piece together. In some ways a bit of a British gangster movie uprooted and plonked in a derided European city, the film feels like a stage play at times, and it comes as no surprise that it is the first feature for Anglo-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh.

It feels somewhat overwrought because of this, with self-conscious references to other movies such as Don't Look Now, and perhaps a few too many twists and turns, as a friend of mine suggested. In this sense it does feel like the film maker is a little too trying too hard, but he doesn't need to. Overall, a funny, well observed, thought-provoking 2 hours of viewing....

Hack Rating 3.5/5

Top Five Slacker Flicks

Okay....So I've just had the pleasure of checking out Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. It's a surreal caper based upon a rather ropey premise which involves a plane full of rather jittery US citizens mistaking the word "bong" for "bomb". Much hilarity ensues.

I'd give it a Hack Rating of 3/5. But more importantly, here are my top 5 movies recommendations of the grand tradition of US movies featuring slackers and stoners.....

1. Easy Rider (1969). Original Stoner road trip movie starring Peter Fonda, and Dennis Hopper going "looking for America" on Harleys in the Groovy late 60s, and getting trolleyed.
2. Dazed And Confused (1993). Cult coming of age flick directed by Richard Linklater, set on the last day of school in 1976. Not too much getting stoned, but lots of slacking.
3. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. (1998) Johnny Depp as infamous Rolling Stone journalist Hunter S Thompson with lots of insights into 70s counterculture, and lots of mescaline.
4. Dude, Where's My Car? (2000) Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott as two stoners who wake up to find their car is missing, and spend the whole movie finding it.
5. Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982). Written by Cameron Crowe, classic 80s school movie featuring an ensemble cast which included a host of young actors and actresses who went onto become household names, including Sean Penn, Nic Cage, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Happy slacking....

Gone Baby Gone

After the past several years pursuing a truly egregious career as a naff male lead in a series of critically panned turkeys such as 2003's Gigli and Surviving Christmas, people had begun to forget the promise Ben Affleck showed early in his career. Back in 1997, he co-wrote and starred alongside childhood friend Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, for which the duo won an Oscar for Best Screenplay. Where did it all go wrong?

Well, after being somewhat eclipsed by his old Boston buddy and writing partner in recent years, Affleck has undergone a career revival in the past couple of years with the well received George Reeves biopic Hollywoodland, and now this, his co-written directorial debut Gone Baby Gone. The film was out in October 2007 in the Us, but delayed for release here in the UK for several months due to it's somewhat superficial similarities to the case of missing child Madeline McCann which has dominated tabloid headlines here in the past year.

So is it any good, despite sharing the same name as a Gnarls Barclay tune? Well, surprisingly, it's excellent. A brilliant performance by brother Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan, a couple who work as private investigators, and are enlisted by a distressed family to intervene in the search for an abuducted 4 year old girl, who has gone missing in their local neighbourhood in Boston. They uncover a complex and murky plot involving drugs, money, and police corruption where no one is as they seem and not even the family involved can be trusted.

Casey's streetwise Patrick Kenzie is both canny and cool as he confronts drug dealers, neglectful family and ultimately, a corrupt police force in his search for the truth, and a great deal is lost and learned in the search for missing girl Amanda. It's compelling viewing, with a slightly unsatisfying ending, but infinitely much more thought-provoking and worthy than some of the atrocious Hollywood fodder Ben Affleck (case in point: Pearl Harbor) has been involved in during his career. Very enjoyable, intelligent, but ultimately bleak.

Hack Rating 4/5

Last King of Scotland

Hi chaps and ladies.....

Okay, so just watched Last King Of Scotland, featuring an Oscar-Winning performance for leading man Forest Whitaker - a bit of a chameleon, having appeared in movies such as The Crying Game, Platoon, and as jazz legend Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood's Bird. A Black Kevin Spacey, maybe?

Anyway, it's based on the 1998 Giles Foden book, loosely based on actual historical events surround the life of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, the British Army trained, capricious mass murderer who famously ejected all the Asian population from the country in the 70s, as well as killing 300,000 people. It concerns the odd couple relationship between the big man and Scottish Doctor Nicholas Garrigan (played by James McEvoy), who is also based on an actual person, Bob Astles, the President's physician, friend, eventual confident, and right-hand man.

Forest Whitaker's performance is as magnificent as has already been documented. By turns charming and friendly, he gradually reveals his murderous, capricious nature to Garrigan over the course of the movie, as McEvoy's character, a Brit abroad escaping from his oppressive father and prospectively boring life as just another GP, evolves from being a naive lad off on his jollies into someone who eventually becomes complicit in the murderous regime of his dictator friend, before the terrifying reality of his entrapment in the nightmare situation is gradually revealed to him.

With a plummy, posh English Gillian Anderson making a brief appearance as a missionary doctor making an appearance, the usual criticism of such movies depicting Africa come into play. Africans are depicted an unsophisticated, barbaric heathens, and the movie is very much presented through the White eyes of McEvoy, who does however distance himself from the overtly colonial attitudes of the English ambassadors who represent the British government's interests in the chaos of Uganda. The movie does make some concession to blurring the boundaries between civilised and uncivilised in the somewhat unsypathetic portrayal of Gerrigan, who is too busy having a fun adventure abroad to realise the seriousness of the situation faced by the native people (including one of the President's wives, whom he impregnates) of Uganda for much of the movie.

It's a good watch overall, worth the time for Whitakers' performance alone, which embodies a compelling mixture of charisma, capriciousness, charm and evil, though the lack of a largely sympathetic central character in McEvoy to balance proceedings means the film lacks a heart which stops one from truly loving it.

Hack Rating: 3/5