Tag: David Thewlis

  • ‘Wonder Woman’ is a marvel to see

    ‘Wonder Woman’ is a marvel to see

    Chris Pine and Gal Gadot in ‘Wonder Woman’

    “Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power” – William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman

    “If you need to stop an asteroid, you call Superman. If you need to solve a mystery, you call Batman. But if you need to end a war, you call Wonder Woman.” – Gail Simone, longest-running female writer of the Wonder Woman comic books

    In the present, “Diana” (Gal Gadot – Keeping Up With the Joneses) receives a package from Wayne Enterprises.  Inside is a very old photograph of Diana and four men, along with a note from Bruce Wayne.  For those who have been living on another planet, Diana/Wonder Woman and Bruce Wayne/Batman were introduced in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.

    From there we go back in time to when Diana is a little girl (Lilly Aspell) is living on Themyscira, the island home of the Amazons.  Their queen and her mother, “Hippolyta” (Connie Nielsen – The Great Raid) catches her watching the Amazon Army training under the command of Hippolyta’s sister, “Antiope” (Robin Wright – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo).  Fast forward a few years we see pre-teen Diana (Emily Carey) beginning to train but still being kept in the dark about the whole truth of who and what she is.  She does learn the story of her origin and how Zeus created a “godkiller” to protect the world from Ares, when he finally returns.

    An adult Diana sees a World War I German airplane crash into the ocean off the shore of the island and rescues its pilot, “Steve Trevor” (Chris Pine – People Like Us).  Trevor was spying on the German Army, trying to find out just what “General Erich Ludendorff” (Danny Huston – Hitchcock) and a brilliant German chemist are up to.  The chemist, “Isabel Maru” (Elena Anaya – The Infiltrator) has the chilling nickname of “Doctor Poison.”  She is working on chemical weapons and is very close to a breakthrough involving a form of mustard gas that gas masks won’t defend against.

    Steve managed to steal her notes and now must get them to London.  But his pursuers attempt to land on Themyscira to capture him and they engage the Amazon Army in battle.  The invaders are all killed, but at a terrible price.  After the Amazons have interrogated Trevor with the Lasso of Truth, Diana takes the God Killer sword, the Lasso of Truth, her shield and the armor that represents the “uniform” of Wonder Woman and takes Steve to London as he requested.

    There they encounter “Sir Patrick Morgan” (David Thewlis – Legend) who is part of the government that is attempting to negotiate an armistice with the Kaiser.  They also meet Steve’s secretary “Etta Candy” (Lucy Davis – Shaun of the Dead) who manages to make Diana look like most British women, albeit an exceptionally lovely one.

    Steve made a deal to take Diana to the front so she can kill Ares and put a stop to the war.  But he is going to do it his way, assembling a small team to try and locate the new lab of Dr. Poison and destroy it before she can supply General Ludendorff with the means to win the war.  With “Sameer” (Said Taghmaoui) and “Charlie” (Ewen Brenner) in tow, Steve’s team meets up with “Chief” (Eugene Brave Rock) who can guide them to the front.

    Ewen Brenner, Said Taghmaoui, Chris Pine, Gal Gadot and Eugene Brave Rock in ‘Wonder Woman’

    If you want to know what happens from this point forward, you must either go and see the movie for yourself, or read another review filled with spoilers.  The remaining part of the story is best experienced personally.  What makes it worth the trip to the movie theater and the price of the ticket is the performance of Gal Gadot.  To use an overused cliché, Ms Gadot was born to play this role.  It isn’t the advances in technology, the superior writing of Allan Heinberg or the spectacular directing job by Patty Jenkins that makes this a terrific movie.  Gal Gadot brings an energy and emotional presence to the screen rarely seen in any movie, let alone a tent pole action flick.

    Yes, the CGI is a bit overdone, a DC Extended Universe trademark.  It won’t detract from seeing the film unless you’re a particularly picky patron of visual imagery.  I can’t wait to see it again, hopefully on an even bigger screen.

    [imdb id = tt0451279]

  • ‘Legend’ isn’t quite legendary, but it’s damn close

    ‘Legend’ isn’t quite legendary, but it’s damn close

    Tom Hardy portrays both of the Kray twins in ‘Legend’

    Tom Hardy has the difficult task of playing twin brothers Ronald and Reginald Kray in the film Legend and he is more than up to the task.  The Kray twins were gangsters in London’s East End and this film concentrates on their exploits during the 1960s.  Both had boxed in their youths and this was something that would be part of their violent natures throughout their lives, although Reg was the brains and Ron the true muscle.  They owned clubs, ran protection rackets and they wanted to ‘rule’ London.

    Reg has a driver/gofer named Frankie (Morgan) who has a non-twin sister names Frances (Browning).  Reg meets Frances and falls in love.  She has no desire to be involved with a gangster and tries to convince Reg to go straight.  During a prison stint early in the film, she makes this very clear to him and he promises he will never again be in prison.

    Ron has been incarcerated as well, and it takes some machinations to get him out of the asylum to which he has been committed.  He’s a bit of an odd duck, clearly well-read but a bit of a doofus in other ways.  He’s also clearly out of the closet and not ashamed to admit his homosexuality.  He is very close to Edward “Mad Teddy” Smith (Egerton) who is also part of the Firm, which is the name of the Kray’s gang.

    After a war with a rival London gang, the Krays begin to expand into the tonier areas of London and they draw the attention of the American Mafia.  Meyer Lansky dispatches Angelo Bruno (Palminteri) to negotiate a deal with the Kray twins to partner in gambling, money laundering and other nefarious enterprises.  Eventually they wind up owning Esmeralda’s Barn.  Reg brings in a ‘fixer’ named Leslie Payne (Thewlis).  He has connections but Ron doesn’t trust him one iota.  Their world becomes a hurricane of violence against which the backdrop of the love between Reg and Frances tries to work itself out.

    Emily Browning and Tom Hardy in 'Legend'
    Emily Browning and Tom Hardy in ‘Legend’

    Brian Helgeland’s fifth feature film isn’t quite as brilliant as some of his prior works like 42 and A Knight’s Tale, but it is a very good movie.  It is taut and mixes in an excellent mix of laughs, drama and violence that isn’t gratuitous.  The few exterior shots aren’t overly long or self-serving, while the interiors are just beautiful to see.

    Many actors have portrayed twins in the past.  Sometimes for humor as done twice by Jean-Claude Van-Damme and by Jackie Chan in martial-arts movies.  Sometimes in truly awful fashion as Lindasy Lohan, Adam Sandler and Eddie Murphy demonstrated.  In fact, Adam Sandler won Worst Actor and Worst Actress Razzies for his twin roles in Jack and Jill.  Occasionally we see one actor portraying twins brilliantly as done by Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale and Nicolas Cage.  Tom Hardy’s work here compares favorably with the best of those.  The nuances he creates in differentiating between the two Kray twins is simply astonishing.  He is ably aided by superb work from Emily Browning and the rest of the cast.

    This isn’t a perfect film but it is easy to view and a lot of fun to experience.

    legend3
    Chazz Palminteri and Tom Hardy in ‘Legend’

    For the curious, some spoilers follow solely for the purpose of articulating the differences between the real story of the Kray twins and what we see in this film  Read on only at your own risk.

    The movie portrays Ron Kray as a homosexual.  In fact he self-identified as bi-sexual and was married twice to different women.

    Although it seems to have lasted longer, only eight months passed between the marriage of Reg Kray and Frances Shea, and her leaving him.  That happened in 1965 and she did not die until 1967.  The film shows her committing suicide and that was the ruling of the coroner’s inquest.  However an ex-lover of Ronnie Kray and one of his cellmates both claim that Ron confessed to killing her in a jealous rage.

    The newspaper that alleged Ron Kray had an affair with Robert Lord Boothby not only retracted the story, but paid Lord Boothby a settlement of 40,000 pounds.  This is why the Conservative party had no interest in investigating the Krays.  There are also rumors that Ron Kray had a sexual relationship with a Labour Party MP (Member of Parliament), Tom Driberg and this is why the Labour Party also had no desire to open that particular can of worms.