Son Of Rambow (2008, G. Jennings)

All Music Guide:

Plot Synopsis by Jason Buchanan
As the summer sun shines down on England in the early 1980s, two boys who couldn't be more different are brought together by a mutual love of cinema and a desire to emulate their favorite action movie icon. Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is a well-mannered schoolboy being raised in an ultra-religious community that deplores such corruptive distractions as television and seeks to maintain its purity by severely limiting contact with the outside world. In order to exorcise his creative inner demons, Will has taken to sketching imaginative drawings and complex illustrations. Lee Carter (Will Poulter) is the school terror, a rampaging hellion whose overaggressive behavior has made him an endless source of frustration to the faculty, and a source of fear to his fellow classmates. As fate would have it, Will is in the school hallway avoiding exposure to the classroom television when a fed-up teacher ejects Lee from the classroom. Though at first it appears as if Lee is about to torment timid Will just as he does the rest of the student body, the two form a tight bond after Will convinces Lee to view a bootleg copy of Rambo: First Blood. When Lee informs Will that he wants to shoot a homebrewed version of the violent action film for an upcoming amateur filmmaking contest, a sudden streak of rebellion prompts his sheltered classmate to readily agree. As the summer wears on the two boys set out to create the ultimate no-budget action movie, but their grand vision hits an unexpected hitch when a busload of French exchange students arrive at the school and the leader of the pack attempts to hijack the production.

I saw this film back in September. I was excited to see it, as it was the first original creation/production for the filmmaker team of Hammer & Tongs (director Garth Jennings and his partner producer Nick Goldsmith) after their adaptation of 2005's The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It was their past (and present) work as music video directors, not their previous film, that contributed to my interest in this film. I liked their sensibility and tone in their videos; like for Blur's Coffee & TV and Supergrass' Pumping On The Stereo. While the whimsical special effects side of their personalities was utilized for Hitchhiker's Guide, I was hungry for a film that came completely from their own creation.

It seems that Son Of Rambow has been a long time coming to US theaters. It initially premiered at Sundance in 2007, but because of legal rights with music/trademarked Rambo name held up release until earlier this year. I missed it when it played theatrically in Seattle, and at the SIFF before that, but moved it to the top of my Netflix queue when it was released on DVD.

My hopes paid off. This is a film that focuses solidly on characters, not the special effects of Hitchhicker's; but that's not to say that special effects aren't employed, because they are. But they are used tastefully and in service of the story and to help flesh out emotional ties between the audience and the characters. Tonally, it's very melancholy with dashes of whimsy and genuine humor.


I loved the french kid.

He was a great balance to the story. I gotta admit that I prefer him and his crew better when they were providing the comic relief, than when he joined up with Will & Lee making the film. He then is used as the "third wheel"/catalyst in order to tear Will & Lee apart. While I like that he becomes a bigger part of the story, his humor somewhat disappears.

At the end, when the French were returning back home, was the "popular" French kid really supposed to be a loser amongst his French peers?

After being hooked on to Spaced , it's nice to see Jessica Hynes in another type of role. I need to seek out more films that she is in. Any suggestions?

I also thought that the score was used well. It gave off a vibe that Amblin Pictures had back in the 1980's, preferring orchestral instruments over synthesizers. This helps with the melancholic tone. The 1980's New Wave songs were tastefully selected and deployed as well.

This is the type of movie I would have loved to see on HBO after I had come home from school when I was the age as the characters in the film. I would've made my own version of Rambo at home too! I look forward to seeing this film again, and can maybe revisit that feeling on a sick day.

Hot Fuzz (2007, E. Wright)

AllMovieGuide Synopsis:

by Jason Buchanan
A top London cop who is so good at his job that he makes his fellow officers look like slackers by comparison is "promoted" to serve in the sleepy village of Sandford in this contemporary action comedy from the creators of Shaun of the Dead. Police constable Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) always gets his man, but these days his impeccable record seems to be more indicative of his fellow officers' shortcomings than his own formidable skills as a keeper of the peace. Loathe to stand idly by as their once respectable track record is steadily soiled by the hyper-competent actions of one lone overachiever, Sergeant Angel's superiors at the Met soon determine to remedy their problem by relocating the decorated constable to the West Country village of Sanford -- where tranquil garden parties and neighborhood watch meetings stand in stark contrast to the violent crime and heated gunplay of the city. As Sergeant Angel does his best to adjust to the relative calm of his new environment, his oafish new partner Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) strives to gain the respect of his fellow constables while sustaining himself on fantasies of his favorite action films and police shows. Later, just as it begins to appear as if Sergeant Angel has been relegated to an uneventful existence in the relative calm of the countryside, a series of horrific "accidents" lead him to suspect that the tranquil hamlet of Sanford has fallen prey to a sinister plot which reeks of foul play. Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton, Steve Coogan, and Martin Freeman co-star in the Edgar Wright film.

In order to get ready for the US home video release of Spaced: The Complete Series, I rewatched Hot Fuzz and enjoyed it even more than I did last year.

Wright uses the hyper-montage stylings of Tony Scott not only as parody of that style, but uses it effectively to also further the story. The opening two minutes of the film is a quick-cut montage that successfully introduces Angell as a character. The killing of the theater director is also done in this quick manner. It is never too busy to not notice what is going on in the scene. It's as if Wright only has enough time to tell his story, so he effectively trims down to the neccessities the little pieces of the story that don't need a longer scene to get its point across. This is a parody of the Bruckheimer/Bay style of editing but Wright uses it to tell story instead of show off style. He shows us everything that we need to know and moves on.

I liked the bit when Angell pulls over the theater director for speeding. He writes down in his little book all of the director's "excuses", making the guy increasingly upset the more he writes. They end up having to go to the "homage of Romeo and Juliet" and it actually looks like a homage to Luhrman!

A nice mirror in the story is when Butterman is showing Angell "Bad Boys 2" and "Point Break". Will Smith says "Shit just got real!" as the film also shows the real murders (with explosions!) happening at the same time.

I also like that this film addresses that fact that there would be a "considerable amount of paperwork" for everything that transpires in your typical action film. I would love for once to see a film in which the cops have to second guess everything they do because they'll be a slave to their typewriter and a courtroom for the next five months. It would be nice to see a movie focusing on the aftermath of a huge cops/robbers city blowout, with the cops mired in paperwork and courtroom drama while the city has to clean up the mess.