The Machinist

The length's some actors go to prepare themselves for a role are often astonishing. Adrian Brody sold his apartment and car for The Piano; Heath Ledger spent a month in isolation for The Dark Knight; Edward Norton gained 35 pounds of muscle for American History X, and let's not even go bother going into all the things Robert De Niro has done over the years. But possibly the most shocking transformation was undertaken by Christian Bale for the psychological thriller The Machinist.

Directed by Brad Anderson (Broadwalk Empire & The Wire) and starring Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sanchez-Gion and Michael Ironside, The Machinist was released in 2004. It follows chronic insomniac Trevor Reznik, who has not slept for a year. His weight has plummeted, and his mind constantly plays tricks on him. Due to his appearance and behaviour, his colleagues at the machine factory he works at have distanced themselves from him. The only 2 people he feels he can be himself around are an airport waitress named Maria (Sanchez Gijon) and a prostitute name Stevie (Leigh), whose feeling towards him are more than physical.

One day while at the factory, Trevor is distracted by a mysterious individual name Ivan (John Sharian), which results in an employee named Miller (Ironside) losing his arm. Wracked by guilt over the incident, Trevor begins to find cryptic messages around his apartment, predominantly a post-it note with an unfinished game of Hangman on his fridge. He also finds out nobody from work has ever heard of Ivan, and that he has never worked in the factory. Trevor confronts Ivan about this, but never receives an answer.

Bale lost 63 pounds for the movie.

As the film progress, we see Trevor's continuing descent into madness and paranoia. He become convinced that he is the focus of a conspiracy, and finally snaps when he himself nearly loses an arm at work, believing it to have been his co-workers' doing.

From that moment on, things go from bad to worse, with Trevor convincing himself that events have been set in motion with the sole purpose of driving him insane. His power is cut off as he has forgot to pay his utilities, a dark liquid which progressively resembles blood begins to leak out of the fridge, and when he gets hold of Ivan's License plate numbers in order to ascertain his address, he finds that the car was in fact registered to him a year ago.

The film is a first-rate exploration of the effects of everyday events on a withered and increasing fragile mind. We fell Trevor's pain, both physical and mental, and empathise with his increasing alienation. The film is so draped in darkness and misery that you would think it was directed by Tim Burton (but of course if it did he would have cast Johnny Depp!)

Bale is perfectly cast in this picture, not just because he exquisitely captures the haunted nature of his character, but because of his determination to appear every bit as wracked and worn as he feels. His weight dropped to 54kg, but said he would have gone down to 45, had he not been forbidden by the filmmakers due to health risks. On top of this, the decision to lose so much weight was Bale's own. Nobody made or even asked him to do it. Now THAT is dedication.

So, if you're a fan of movies with more than their share of dark touches, this is definitely for you. Overall it's just like a journey into a tortured psyche. Deep, intense and totally gripping.

V For Vendetta

Natalie Portman makes her second appearance on my blog in what is my favourite of her films, V For Vendetta. A tense, gripping, thought-provoking, action-packed thriller that features some of my favourite speeches, characters and fight scenes in movie history. Seriously, I love this movie; let's find out why.

Based on the Moore and Lloyd comics of the same name, V For Vendetta was released in 2006 under the direction of James McTeigue, in his directorial debut, with screenplay courtesy of the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix trilogy). The film follows our main characters V (A beautifully versatile Hugo Weaving) and Evey Hammond (An Anglo-accented Natalie Portman) over the space of a year in futuristic, dystopian London city. It features themes such as dictatorship, oppression, totalitarianism, insurrection and unification. The amalgamation of these elements gives birth to one of the most entertaining movies of the noughties.

The movie begins with a short segment on Guy Fawkes and his attempts to blow up Parliament in 1605. We then cut to 20-30 years in the future where we find London under the control of the iron-fisted and oppressive Norsefire government, who have established curfews, all-seeing cameras, phone monitoring, and a constant screening of TV propaganda, turning the city into one reminiscent of Orwell's '1984'. Here we meet Evey, a working class girl who, like most of the population, lives each and every day in fear of what will happen if she ever steps out of line.

One night she unintentionally violates curfew and is confronted by the secret police, or 'Fingermen'. Fortunately, she is saved by a cloak and mask wearing individual who identifies himself as V. He then takes her up onto a rooftop, allowing her to witness his quite literally 'orchestrated' destruction of the Old Bailey. To prevent a public stir, the government claims that the destruction was both planned and necessary. Unfortunately for them, V breaks into the TV station and broadcasts his own message, revealing not only his role in the annihilation of the Baileys, but also his intention to destroy the Houses of Parliament the following year.

In response, the government brands V a traitor and a terrorist, and the High Chancellor Adam Sutler (John Hurt at his most badass) announces that he wants him apprehended so he can cause no further acts of rebellion. But V is far from finished, for he systematically eliminates important party members who were instrumental in a series of events that led him to becoming the person he is today, and also uses rather unconventional methods to help Evey conquer her fears and become a stronger person.

I don't remember the last time I saw a film that left such an impact on me. However you interpret the film and the themes it portrays, you can't deny their relevance or their power. A life devoid of free will is something that I believe many people would fear more than anything else, and here that stark reality is brought to life through the direction, settings and interactions between our characters. We see every aspect of peoples lives being not only monitored, but also manipulated, creating an unsettling atmosphere in which our heroes can fight for their liberation.

I adore so many things about this film, but probably my favourite of all is the character of V, our articulate, charismatic hero. His ideas are great, his motivation understandable, and his dialogue is witty, profound, and often sends a shiver up my spine. And last but not least, the fight scenes he gives us are among the coolest and most visually impressive I've ever seen. I've probably left a lot of things out but trust me, if I was going to detail all the reasons why this I love this film, it would takes hours to read, so I'll end by saying that it's one of my favourite movies, and it always will be.

In Bruges

2 Irishmen walk into a Belgian bar. The start of a bad joke? No, a snippet of one of the funniest, quirkiest and most original black comedies in recent history. Prepare for an epic ride featuring drug dealers, hitmen and film-star midgets.

Currently the most youthful movie on my blog, In Bruges was released in 2008 under the direction of Irish playwright and film newcomer Martin McDonagh, and went onto win a British Independent Film Award, an Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild Award, a BAFTA, and earned critical acclaim, particularly for it's screenplay. The movie features Colin Farrel & Brendan Gleeson as Ray & Ken respectively. They're 2 hitmen who are ordered to travel to Bruges, Belgium by their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to hide out after one of their jobs goes awry. They sit tight and wait until Harry calls with further instructions. With the 2 of them having very different opinions of Bruges, we get some of the funniest dialogue and most entertaining performances of the last decade.

The movie opens with Ray & Ken arriving in Bruges, & already the movie starts throwing funny lines at us. This is gonna be a riot!

Ken is immediately taken with Bruges, enjoying the buildings and the history. Ray on the other hand, is less than impressed by his new surroundings, and remains withdrawn and cantankerous. The comically mismatched pair wait for Harry's call, while they try to find some middle ground, things that both of them enjoy while in Bruges. Eventually Ken receives Harry's call, and the instructions he is given take him completely by surprise, and set in motion a series of events that spiral towards the movies decidedly dark and twisted ending.

Thank you for calling the Telstra Helpline, please hold...

That's pretty much it. The movie revolves around the interactions between Ken and Ray, the other people they meet while in Bruges, and the bizarre situations they find themselves in. The movie is all about the witty lines. Like Airplane, Blazing Saddles or The Dead Parrot Sketch, this is one of those comedies where almost ever line is infinitely quotable. The dialogue is hilarious. The film provides a multitude of set-ups for great jokes, and takes advantage of every single one of them. You may think that the moment coming up is going to be entirely serious, but then the script will drop a little comedic gem. All the main characters have some spectacular line. Ralph Fiennes (in typical pernicious form) delivers some especially facetious moments.

Like Beavis & Butthead Do America, I could quote this film all day, but that would take up a LOT of space. But this review needs wrapping up, so that's what I'll do.

The characters are hilarious, the scenarios are hilarious, the screenplay is hilarious, and when the film takes it's dark turn, we get some of the most gritty and intense confrontations as our heroes find themselves trapped in a fight for their lives. If you want a film that seamlessly combines laugh-out-loud humour and bleak, commoving drama, then look no further.

Beavis & Butthead Do America

There are many things in this world that epitomise 'awesomeness'. T-Bone steaks, John Woo movies, Jimi Hendrix solos, Chuck Norris etc. But there is 1 thing that reigns above all these. Something that puts other awesome things to shame, and that is the duo of Beavis & Butthead. Created back in 1992, these 2 snickering,  metal loving, sex-obsessed adolescents had their own MTV show between 1993 and 1997, with it being renewed in 2011. The episodes lasted only 5 minutes and, while amusing, were pretty forgettable. But when this pair of loveable imbeciles got their own movie, that was a whole different story!

Directed and co-written by creator Mike Judge, Beavis & Butthead Do America was released in 1996. It involves our heroes taking a trip across America with 2 objectives in mind:

1. Get a new TV
2. Fulfill their collective dream of finally 'scoring'.

The result is one of the absolute best comedies ever to grace the silver screen, and one of the most hysterical films I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing.

After suffering a Godzilla-esque hallucination, Butthead wakes to find that the TV in the house he shares with Beavis has vanished. The window is broken, there is a crowbar on the floor, and footprints on the carpet leading to the open front door. Butthead's analysis of the situation: 'This sucks'. By God I love this movie.

While searching for their TV, the duo come across a drunk named Muddy (Bruce Willis), who offers them $10,000 to 'do' his estranged wife. Being the, shall we say, undiscerning individuals that they are, they believe this is their chance to finally score. Flying to Las Vegas, they encounter Muddy's wife Dallas (Demi Moore), a drop-dead gorgeous blonde who has stolen a prototype biological weapon known as the X-5. Aware that the ATF is onto her, she plants the X-5 in Buttheads' pants and puts them both on a coach to Washington D.C., where she claims she will let them 'do' her.

With that, we have one of cinemas most epic road trips. The scale of their adventure can barely be quantified. In the space of several days, they shut down Hoover Dam, cause a highway pile-up, incur the wrath of God, become America's most wanted men, and nearly die of dehydration in the Arizona Desert. But what makes everything do damn funny is just how nonchalantly they treat these incidents. They face the most horrific perils and it barely seems to faze them. They are truly the world's most fearless individuals.

This film slays me everytime I see it. The cheeky innuendos, the hysterical quotes, their utter cluenessness about pretty much everything, and their uncanny ability to end up in the deepest trouble and not even notice it. I love this film so much I could talk about it all day. But for the purposes of this review, I will simply finish by saying that this is, hands down, one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. If you have the chances to see it, do NOT pass it up.