Failsafe (1964, Sidney Lumet) & Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, Stanley Kubrick)

Dr. Strangelove

Failsafe

Failsafe and Dr. Strangelove are two sides of the same coin.
Both explore an impending accidental nuclear apocolypse in the infancy of the Cold War period. Both are based on novels, the former based on Failsafe by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler and the latter based on Red Alert by Peter George.

There's some mental legal beurocracy behind the scenes of these films.
Both released in the same year, Kubrick was dubious about the reception of his own film, as Lumet's thriller had some big names attached, and the added edge of realism and potent social commentary, whereas the satirical nature of Dr. Strangelove approached the issue in a different light.
The novel of Failsafe was accused of plagiarising the former Red Alert and there was a legal battle between them, settling out of court...
Dr. Strangelove was released eight months before Failsafe and the test of time has seen Kubrick's masterpiece outshine Lumet's equally as enthralling work in memory and box office reciepts.

Failsafe is just extremely tense and masterfully shot.
The bomber scenes convey the insane consequences that de-humanising military pawns can have on the fate of human existance.

The acting is outstanding and is amazingly scripted, with some deep philosophical insights into the mindset of mislaid power struggles and inept preventative systems which are put in place to stop us tearing ourselves from the face of the planet, but end up putting way too much power and control in the hands of incompetency.

The bizarre hypocricy and stale-mate politics of human's 'ultimate' control of such powerful weapons, lays far too much pressure on the human mind, and Failsafe highlights the ludicrousness of this weight of decision and nuclear weapons in general.

Amazingly put together, with some of the most tense cinematic moments ever, this is one of my all time fav's as it is captivating, insightful and downright scary right 'til the climax.

10/10!

Trailer:


Dr. Strangelove's take on an extremely similar storyline runs with this ludicrousness even further, directly challenging and mocking the power structure of cold war doomsday weapons, and just purely saying 'what the fuck was wrong with them'.

Peter Sellers plays three of the main characters in this film and is just amazingly funny in all of them...
Enternalising the stupidity of nuclear war in his Dr. Strangelove character, Sellers plays an 'ex'-Nazi, who is granted the influential power of scientific advisor to the president...

There really isn't much to say apart from this is one of the funniest, most influential satirical comedies of the last 50 years without a DOUBT, and has one of the most iconic ending sequences in the history of film.

10/10!

Amazing trailer as well!:


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The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011, Steven Spielberg)

I have been looking forward to this for tiiime!

I loved Tintin as a kid (who didn't?), which led me to be equally apprehensive and excited about the prospect of a immense budget Spielberg rework. Not to mention the script being produced by some absolute creme de la' of British comedy talent, in the form of Stephen Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish (big up Cornballs!).

There was a huge amount of buzz round this film, as there often is when it takes a long time from conception to production.
Mixed reviews and the prospect of die hard Tintin fans being let down, softened the blow a little for me, so I went in with fairly low expectations...

First of all, this film looks fantastic. The quality of animation is by far the most original, silky smooth, amazingly textured and just plain beautiful constructed visuals I have seen in a long, long time.

The motion capture technology is tip-top, bringing real clarity and fluidity to the characters and also helps stay true to the original graphic novel's clean cut, simplistic, pastel coloured animated style.

It's literally mind blowing how good it looks, so much detail is crammed into every shot that it just sort of flows over you with a wash of hyperreal, colourful and high-octane action. It's fully immersive and captivating, which animated films (for me) don't do very often.

OK so enough about looks, we know it's all about personality...
This film should be called The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Crab with the Golden Unicorn Claws, as it ambiguously incorporates a few Tintin stories into one. This confused me a little at first but does enrichen the narrative slightly, opening the story up to a wider range of locations and characters.

I did find the story a little shallow though. It seemed to rush through without any true climactic moments that really stick out as being brilliantly orchestrated set-pieces.
Don't get me wrong, there's some amazing action sequences that are wonderfully choreographed, and do well to showcase the freedom that doing this kind of animation brings, but they just seemed to fall a little short of spectacular.
However, the distinct comedic charm and mystery of Herge's original ouvre is definitely portrayed in a fantastically original and multi-layered form, helped a lot by the scriptual tweaks.

The 'acting' for me stays true to the essence of Tintin, Captain Haddock's (Andy Serkis) performance is great, really captivating his belching whiskey doused charisma really well.
Tintin (Jamie Bell) himself is played a little different, but equally charming. Snowy's performance is outstanding too...
The Thompson Twins (Simon Pegg and Nick frost) deserve a mention too, creating a very considered, funny picture of the bumbling police officers, who save the day when it counts.

This film serves an obvious purpose, as a set-up to a franchise, which is of course inevitable.
It does come across as a prequel-esque introduction to a new generation of Tintin which I am pretty satisfied with, and definitely leaves me wanting Destination Moon to lift off soon...

On the whole Tintin is really captivating, showcasing the best of modern animation techniques.
It breathes big-screen life into the massively popular and timeless stories which are built upon extremely competently by a great script and cast.
Definitely DON'T go and see it in 3D as it is completely lost in the brilliant 3D animation technique and is an utter waste of money...
Highly reccomended to Tintin fans and a wholly capable introduction if you're new to the stories.

7/10



Trailer:


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