Well we've already had a Science Fiction/Horror movie and an action movie, so this time I'm going to go with one of my favourite comedy films - Groundhog Day. By now I'm sure you're at least somewhat familiar with the concept of the film. If you're not, or you want a refresher I'll break it down for you now.

Groundhog Day is a simple concept turned into an exceptional film - the core concept of it being "what if you had to live the same day over and over?" At it's heart this is an exceptionally simple concept, almost deceptively so. But what emerges from the other end is a genuine and enjoyable exploration of the human psyche and issues humans have with repetitive living.

Bill Murray stars as Phil, Phil Conners. A weatherman who it seems has reached his peak and found out he's standing on what is pretty much a hillock. Every year he heads off to the little town of Punxsutawney Philadelphia to see if Little Punxsutawney Phil the Groundhog is predicting more winter or not (how wonderfully alliterative). The difference this year is he's travelling down there with his new producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) and Larry the camera man (Chris Elliott).

His experience while down there is pretty awful, the day does not pass well for him and after going through the motions he finds that a blizzard has moved in, meaning he's stuck in Punxsutawney for the night. Only when he awakens the following morning he discovers that it's groundhog day - again! And again, and again, and again and again...

The rest of the movie plays itself out on two levels, the first is a simple and enjoyable comedy with humour being derived from the fact that Phil's been here so long he's learnt just about everything he could ever know about the town. He experiences almost everything, the only goal remaining beyond his grasp is Rita herself.

The second level is a little (but not much) more subtle, it's a play on the psychology of the individual and also coming to terms with loss and grief. It's also a tale of self-improvement, Phil only escapes from his inexplicable trap after he's improved himself as a person and learnt to appreciate others instead of being so selfish (a modern day Buddhist story if you like).

Phil himself goes through many of the seven stages of death, at first he's shocked about what's happened, then he moves briefly into denial and bargaining - attempting to escape from the situation, Phil doesn't really stop in guilt to much beyond wondering why it's happening to him before rapidly heading off into anger and depression. But finally he does settle on acceptance, and that's when he begins to look at improving himself - finally breaking free of the cycle when he achieves a completely selfless day, one spent bringing joy to others.

The performances across the cast are almost uniformly fantastic, Bill Murray of course holds this show up - but he's the perfect man for the job. Amongst the supporting cast it's Stephen Tobolowsky (as Needle Ned) who stands out, but just about everyone is great. With of course one exception - Andie MacDowell - she's a lovely woman to look at, but she's never really been any good at acting. While she's not as wooden as she is in Four Weddings and a Funeral she is still pretty bad at times and remains the only rough spot in an otherwise perfect film.

While there's a lot to recommend about Groundhog Day there are also a few things to be wary about, this isn't a film for everyone and I'm going to list a few reasons why you might not enjoy it:

Groundhog Day isn't for you if:

1. You don't find Bill Murray funny or endearing. 2. You get frustrated if mysterious things happen without explanation (like say a time loop). 3. You get annoyed with time travel concepts (even if this isn't a time travel movie as such). 4. You have no sense of humour. 5. Repetitiveness annoys you. 6. Repetitiveness annoys you. 7. Repetitiveness annoys you. 8. You want a film with action and excitement in it rather than soul searching and understanding of the human condition. 9. Andie MacDowell's acting irritates you. or 10. Repetitiveness annoys you.

Ultimately Groundhog Day is an enjoyable and charming film which mixes great comedy, a dash of romance and an interesting existential journey together, resulting in something which I can watch again and again, and again.
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In the first of two posts due to come out today, I'm going to continue the theme of film Fridays and mix it with the current 'My Top Shows' run (which has just a few more entries left then it's back to business as usual). Which means here I'll be listing my personal favourite films.

I'm not going to go into them with as much detail as I do television shows, writing about films here is just a diversion to mix things up and see if people are remotely interested in the odd film post (the answer seems to be no by the way).

Without further ado here's an alphabetical list of the twenty films which I've enjoyed the most over the years.

Aliens
As Good as it Gets
Back to the Future Trilogy (I can't separate my favourite from these)
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
Die Hard
Ghostbusters
Groundhog Day
Heat
Hellraiser (oh yes!)
Kung Fu Hustle
Monsters Inc
Oldboy
Pulp Fiction
Rocky (1, 2 & 3)
Sin City
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
The Spaghetti Western Trilogy (For a Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More & The Good The Bad and the Ugly)
The Three Musketeers
The Usual Suspects
Wall·E

I make no apologies for this selection at all, they're all movies I can re watch and still find enjoyable and fresh. Some of them are classics from when I was younger, others are just films I like watching at least once a year (Die Hard is my Christmas movie of choice) and a few are just plain amazing.

There is one set of classic films from my childhood which I no longer enjoy, it's the original Star Wars trilogy. Somehow the magic has gone from them now.

A bit later today I'll continue the Rev/Views Top _____ series with Animated shows.
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I've been a fan of Chinese action Kung Fu movies for something around a half to two thirds of my life, ever since Channel 4 started showing classic Jackie Chan movies like 'A' Gai Wak (Project A), Long Xiong Hu Di (Armour of God), Se Ying Diu Sau (Snake in the Eagle's Shadow) and my personal favourite Kuai can che (Wheels on Meals). But of all the various martial arts movies I've watched over the years it's Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle which holds the (somewhat dubious) distinction of being the only movie more gripping than going for a pee.

Now that's a title which probably needs a little explanation; unfortunately the story isn't a gripping or exciting as the movie is. The short version is as follows, I went to watch the movie with several friends - including Snark and Fury (if I recall correctly, at the least I was sat next to his housemate of the time); and around twenty or thirty minutes into the movie the soft drink I'd consumed while watching the previews (side question: Do you also consume most of your snacks before the movie actually starts?) started to wreak it's vengeance on me. Normally if this happens I'll either pause (when at home) or wait for a lull period in the film (like a romantic scene or some extended talking/extrapolation) and nip out quickly. The problem here was that at no point did I find a spot where I wanted to walk away, I didn't want to miss a single moment of the movie - so for the remaining hour I had to exercise an iron will and banish the thought from my mind. The movie was entertaining and exciting enough that this was possible and it was only when the credits started that I had to run out of there at high speed, quite literally jumping over a few of the seats and the stairs to get out as fast as I could. The comment of 'There's someone who really needs the loo.' following after me.


To this day I can't exactly put my finger on what it is about Kung Fu Hustle which appeals so much, I suspect it's due to the sharp contrast it portrays when placed alongside the other style of kung fu movie which was in ascendancy at around that time, movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Accomplished and beautiful movies with spectacular fights and wire play, but lacking in that sense of fun and wit that first drew me to those Jackie Chan movies years back.

Kung Fu Hustle is nominally set in 1940's Shanghai, but it's not a semi-realistic adaptation of a traditional Chinese legend (like the Once Upon A Time in China series), instead it's an energetic and fast paced story which borrows and parodies elements from many other films and genres. Including, but not limited to The Matrix, Spider-man, Looney Toons cartoons and more. While it's definitely a member of the kung fu action comedy house, it also provides a story with heart and soul.


Sing (Stephen Chow - Writer, Producer) is a down and out street punk, surviving with his friend Donut (Zhi Hua Dong) by grifting hardworking peasantry by pretending to be members of the infamous and dangerous Axe Gang who have recently risen to ascendancy in the city and now control most of it. One day they attempt their special brand of con artistry in a low rent set of tenaments called 'Pig Sty Alley' and the resulting debacle sets up a series of events. Events that gradually escalate until the lines are clearly drawn between the inhabitants of the alley itself (who just happen to have some Kung Fu masters living there) on one side and the Axe Gang. Sing spins out of control through all of this, torn between his basically good nature and his desire to be a genuine bad ass criminal.

Eventually the Axe Gang turn towards increasingly dangerous kung fu masters in the hope to crush and defeat the masters of Pig Sty Alley and an arms race of a kind breaks out. Until the most dangerous master of them all, a man known only as The Beast, is released from the asylum in which he is kept by Sing (acting under the orders of the Axe Gang).

The only one who could possibly beat him and save would be a one in a million natural born kung fu master, 'The One' as referred to in a pastiche of The Matrix, and the final climatic series of fights result in some incredible moments of martial art skill mixed with wire play and CGI.


It's not like Kung Fu Hustle is a clever movie as such, but it has a real charm and wit to it which I enjoy immensely. It feels like the spiritual sucessor to those 1980s martial arts movies, but updated to take advantage of modern technology. The story as well feels like an evolution (or perhaps a parody) of the style used in the afformentioned movies; it's very fast paced, filled with convienient moments and plot holes but it just doesn't matter. The whole is just complete, unadulterated fun - high action, comedy and even a little romance thrown in to boot. It's my favourite Stephen Chow movie and one of my top martial art films as well.


All of which leaves me somewhat excited about Kung Fu Hustle 2.
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I've chosen to write about Ridley Scott's classic horror/sci-fi movie Alien in the first part of the new Film Friday series for a few reasons. Alien is a film which has influenced or at least been involved in a lot of my life, back when it was first released in the UK my parents went to go and see it (or at least my father dragged my mother along to watch it). But, as my mother is also prone to reminding me, I also went along to the cinematic showing of this film as she was pregnant with me at the time. I can only imagine how being pregnant would have influenced her experience of the film, it's certainly resulted in her consistently mentioning that same anecdote just about every time the movie Alien is mentioned. I'm not sure how I should take this and sometimes I wonder if I'm being compared (by her) to the Alien in the movie.

Fast forward about a dozen or so years and one of the more vivid memories from my childhood is my father proudly sitting me down before bedtime and showing me the opening scenes from Alien. The scenes with the lights coming on inside the Nostromo and the stasis pods opening up remain branded into my consciousness even to this day. Mostly because after showing a few of the opening scenes my father stopped the film and said "The rest of the film is horrible and scary so I won't show you it." and then sent me to bed. I didn't sleep well for quite a few nights after that, there's nothing quite like an active imagination to keep one from falling asleep without disturbing dreams...

It is worth saying that Alien was not actually the first movie in the franchise I watched in full, that prize goes to it's action packed sequel Aliens (which I'll probably touch on in a later issue of Film Friday), but it is definitely the one which left the biggest mark on me thanks to the actions of my parents. And there is no doubt that it's an iconic and brilliant film which holds up alongside and even shames many modern films (especially some of it's own later sequels).

It's hard to write anything original about Alien as it's such a critically acclaimed, influential and iconic movie, as has been noted numerous times before the structure of the movie is very simple - it's a haunted house/slasher movie in space, but the execution of the movie is something which turns the whole thing into much, much more than that.

The start of the film builds very slowly; establishing the setting, the technology and the characters with an almost leisurely pace. From the reflection of the computer screen on the empty space suit helmet onwards the show almost effortlessly crafts a world which feels real with it's low-tech approach to science fiction. The Nostromo is a brutish, ugly construct and the interior scenes continue the functional style of the exterior. There are no elegant, swooping curves or doors that go 'swoosh, beep' on this ship. Instead there are broken pipes and crew members complaining about their cut in the shares.

Which brings me smoothly onto the characters, the slow build of Alien gives us a chance to get to know these people - the engineers Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) and Parker (a pre-Homicide Yaphet Kotto), their amusing cliquishness towards Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and complaining about money. Ripley herself is also far more interesting here than in later movies and Weaver gives a great performance as the sole survivor while Tom Skerritt is on top form as the bearded and pragmatic Dallas. It's only Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) who is somewhat forgettable in this. But the most memorable performances (aside from the barely glimpsed xenomorph) lay with Ian Holm as the semi-villainous artificial human 'simulant' Ash and of course there is John Hurt who was described as "The Man" in Coupling because of the power and disturbing nature of that famous dining scene. Embodying all the male fears about pregnancy in the space of a few moments it's a scene which has been homaged, referenced and parodied more times than I'd care to count. It's a scene for all ages it's the most memorable of all the deaths in the movie (the other two which I always recall are Ash's - because of the sheer brutality and crudeness of it and Dallas' for the tension and sudden release at the end).

The final two characters in the film are the computer Mother (voiced by Helen Horton) and the titular alien itself, who was played by the 7' 2" tall Bolaji Badejo. It's pretty much his only time in the world of film, but he gives an exceptional physical performance, greatly enhanced and aided by the adage "less is more". Unlike some of the more modern horror movies Alien avoided showing too much of it's antagonistic monster/killer, partially because it was quite literally a man in a rubber suit (and would have looked almost comedic) and partially because the human imagination of things unseen is far more potent than anything actually seen. Keeping the alien in the shadows and just providing partial glimpses or sudden visions of it - a method I appreciate far more than the ultra detailed horror which has moved into vogue right now. There's nothing more frightening than the unknown.

These days it's difficult to watch the movie without considering all of the baggage which the franchise has gathered. While the movie Aliens (which I'll certainly write about later) is a worthy, if different, successor - the later movies are a series of let downs and by the time the franchise rolls into the Predator one things are stinking to high heaven (On a side note the computer game series for Aliens vs. Predator is a far superior creation, the story for AvP2 in particular is amazing and it's a real shame it wasn't adapted when the AvP movies were announced.) Alien itself is a superb example of science-fiction and horror at it's finest, and not amount of obviously dated computers present in the movie can detract from the experience. It's certainly a contender for the best movie of 1979 and one I am able to watch and re watch time and time again.
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Starting from next week I'll be filling in Fridays (way-hay!) with a series of reviews and retrospects on various films I've watched and enjoyed over the years. Where I own the actual film I'll review the DVD set as well at the same time. Up until now I've mostly concentrated on television shows as I do prefer long running stories where I can get to grips with the characters and experience their lives, their losses and their gains. Films do offer the same experience, but on a shorter time frame - so while they are not my first love, they are something I am going to dabble with.

Sorry this isn't longer, I went out for the evening instead of coming home and writing. I wish I could devote more time to the written word, but at the moment it's not possible - one has to earn a living!
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