Now THIS is comic book style. Gruesome, gritty, noir, lots of gravelly voices, the sparkling rain lashing down at an angle against the silhouette of a very wide-shouldered man, blood bursting from bullet wounds whilst the hero soldiers on, bent cops and benter cops, bad guys that are so recognisably evil that you feel no remorse when their limbs are hacked off or their head pummelled into a puree.
Oh yes, there is violence present. But it’s “stylised”, which means that it’s so far fetched as to be a little bit ridiculous – I personally found the shark scene in The Beach to be more disturbing.
Clive Owen is pretty mediocre, and most of the female actresses do their duty as broads and prostitutes, but Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke and Benicio Del Toro are all fantastic, with their compulsory identikit gravel voices. Elijah Wood also puts in a great performance as Brodo Gaggins, the halfling hobbit with spirit.*
Bring on the sequel, I say.
*Not really – more of a (highlight for slight spoiler) bespectacled psychopath with cannibalistic tendencies and great powers of stealth (spoiler ends).
UPDATE: Another thing that occurred to me: Brittany Murphy. I don’t think she’d ever read a comic book before. She was most incongruous. I expect that after the film was finished and she saw it for the first time, she probably sighed and said “Oh, so THAT’S the effect that I was supposed to be going for. Doh!”
June 6, 2005
That there is one damn fine coat you’re wearin’
Don’t have much to add to that, spot on. And lets not forget the top work done on the outfits for the ladies. 🙂
Way to retire, Pete!
Actually, I rather like Pete’s not-retiring. I think Pete is going to be the Norman Wisdom of the blogging world – except without the prat-falls and ‘Mr Grimsdale’, of course. Everytime you think he’s about to retire, he’ll come back for just one more. And he’ll be really big in Albania.
Actually, I’m not sure Norman Wisdom was a very good comparison. Who else didn’t retire? Pope John Paul II? Um, er, Barbara Cartland?
Really bad analogy. Sorry. Should never have started this comment.
re: Brittany, Although you’re right, she probably never read a comic, I don’t think she was that bad. Although I do think that story was the weakest of the three.
No way- The Big Fat Kill stomped all over That Yellow Bastard.