The Wicker Tree (2010)

For many, it has been a movie that has been nearly 40 years in the making, some see it as a re-imagining, and some see it as a sequel, I think I need to steal some terminology from Ridley Scott, The Wicker Tree has the same DNA as The Wicker Man, but that, is quite literally as far as it goes. What The Wicker Tree most definitely is, is a tale written and directed the creator of the original man, so really who could be better to handle such a project?

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Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

Back in 1987 when I was a little “wet behind the ears” I wanted to be Bud Fox, he was the hero of Wall Street, a few years later and of course I realised that the real money laid at the door of Wall Street’s villain Gordon Gekko, for over 20 years Wall Street has held a unique place in the movie industry, but late in 2009 came the news we all either wanted or dreaded, Wall Street was getting a sequel.

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Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is a young upcoming Wall Street trader, a loyal and conscientious worker who dreams of bigger and better things. The protégé of bank founder Louis Zaber (Frank Langella) Moore has a very bright future. From nowhere the shares of Zaber & Zaber fall through the flew, and Louis struggles to save the bank from the clutches of Bretton James (Josh Brolin), when a last ditch attempt fails Louis commits suicide, leaving the future of thousands of staff in jeopardy, and his protégé scarred from the events that ran up to his death. Moore realises where the fault lies, and desperately wants revenge, the only way he can think of achieving the task is under the mentorship of one time king of Wall Street Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), this relationship must however remain secret, for Moore and Gordon are connected in more than one way, Moore is dating Gekko’s daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan), and she wants nothing to do with her estranged father.

Before I begin I need to point out that despite some reviews Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is not a bad film, as a sequel to what in my opinion is one of the best movies of the 80’s however this is cut from a much different cloth. It’s a confusing affair watching Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, because despite the return of its star Douglas, cameo performances from Charlie Sheen reprising his role of Bud Fox, and a demented estate agent played by Sylvia Miles; and of course its director Oliver Stone, this movie feels like an imitator and a poor one at that. As the story begins to slowly unravel you cannot help but ask if this is a parody of a great classic, and this is a problem that haunts the entire movie. To engage in this movie you really need to almost erase all memories of 1987’s Wall Street, if you can manage that your fighting a battle you can win, and then, and only then will you be able to embrace the story for what it is.

I’d find it difficult to believe that anyone without prior experience of the stock exchange or high intelligence, would honestly be able to say they got all the aspects of the original Wall Street, no such chance here however the story level and the detail has been dumbed down to a level that anyone can take onboard. Sadly this also takes away some of the charm, it was god to revisit Wall Street and discover that you had figured out new aspects of the story, herein lies a problem, this is a one off movie, not something that will serve you well by repeat viewings, this is a one outing adventure.

For those that have found director Oliver Stone a little hard to tolerate over recent years, you really will find it difficult to feel his trademark on the movie. The grittiness is gone, as is the bitter agenda he seems to have been carrying out over his work, this is a much more clean and polished piece.

Douglas does feel a little out of place in the movie, he should be feeling at home, but this is a much different Gordon Gekko to the one we left behind 23 years ago; he bumbles about unrecognisable as Gekko, weaker less concerned for his image. But this is more than just character change, this feels an awful lot like either Douglas never wanted to return to the role, or budget demanded his return. One time Hollywood heavyweight, in recent years Douglas has been on a sliding slope, and you do tend to feel his performance here (up until the final quarter) is nothing more than an overblown cameo role.

Good screenwriting keeps the story compelling, as does the links with the past (I appreciate a slight contradiction from earlier comments), you wait patiently for the curve-balls to come, you also enjoy the slow unfolding storyline, the character development, the small victories, and the major defeats.

LeBeouf of course shines, he is proving to be a consistently like-able actor , and is joined by Doctor Who actress Carey Mulligan as the female lead, Mulligan is becoming a favourite in the key Hollywood players especially in light of her performance in the acclaimed “An Education”. While Brolin delivers a very capable performance as the arch villain of the piece, almost stealing the role that Douglas played in the original. The reuniting of Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas is an unpleasant addition to the movie, lots of nauseous “Blue Horseshoe loves Annacott Steel” and “Blue Star” references that come out of the actor’s mouth like a thick tarry vomit.

Music wise Stone obviously figured that the Talking Heads tracks worked well in the original movie, and leans heavily on the bands lead singer to deliver the vocal feel to the movie, 23 years on however and it does not work so well, despite the inclusion of the legendary return track from the original.

It’s a sad fact of life that you’ll find it impossible to erase the past, and if you loved the original, you’re not going to be happy here. This is something far different to the original, and you cannot shake that off no matter how hard you try.

No Man's Land: The Rise Of The Reeker

If my name were David Payne, sorry now the slightly more hip Dave Payne, I would be reading this with a little baited breath. For two years ago just prior to the movie Reeker's UK release I wrote a scathing review of the movie. Dave took considerable offense at this and threatened the websites I published to with the full weight of Fox/Pathe unless they removed the reviews I had written. Imagine, an internet nobody such as myself threatened with such action, however I stood by my guns and two of these websites allowed me to repost my review having previously been forced to pull them down. Things have changed since then, and it was the actions of Dave Payne that actually made me more confident to continue to write, review and literally make my living from the practise because when the words of one little person can make one of the world's biggest movie companies shudder, then I must surely be doing something right.

Reeker was a highly successful low budget movie, released in the UK under a stream of big hype, while I absolutely hated the movie, I do have to hand it to both Dave and Tina Illman (AKA Tina Payne) they pulled an amazing con trick, and must have achieved high profits from this movie. I guess with this in mind it was with no surprise that Dave and Tina would try to to replicate their success and this leads us on to...

No Man's Land: The Rise Of The Reeker

Beginning in 1978, the movie shows us the roots of the killer known as The Reeker, and allows us some insight into why the character smells so bad. And I have to commend the director here, this is rather like the original Reeker a fantastic opening, to what promises to be a good movie.
Promise however is a deceitful thing, and I did think to myself at one point that I really was going to enjoy this movie. But suddenly after much promise things went bad, I would go so far as to say worse than the original, now I appreciate that a sequel is rarely as good as the original, when the original is so bad where on earth is the story to go?

The cast are far better picked this time round, for me the most notable being Desmond Askew who I grew up watching in British kids school drama Grange Hill, here Askew delivers the best performance of the movie as a cocky casino robber, who meets with a rather unfortunate accident in his car, leaving him... Shall we say a little lacking upstairs? The movies Deputy Sherriff Harris is played by Michael Muhney who is probably best known as Sherriff Don Lamb in Veronica Mars. With star of television for 40 years Robert Pine the main cast is iced off. What is amazing, and I'm utterly thrilled about is that David has not tried to chuck the awful Tina into the mix again as is often the case with these sort of movies, instead she manages to stay on the right side of the camera, behind it.

Effects are pretty good; the make-up department really earned their cash here, with some fantastic scenes of gore; there are really good signs that this is not quite as low budget as the predecessor. While the CGI department do fantastic justice to Askew's head.

What I give to Dave is the fact that as a director he does have an incredibly good eye, his scenes are almost perfectly framed, some of the scenes in this low budget horror offering are as good as any big budget blockbuster. With cinematographer Mike Mickens close at hand the capturing of effects, action, and the desolation of Reeker's location is captured fantastically. What Dave cannot do however is work a script to his advantage, rather than let the characters develop as the movie progresses often their opening lines contain a nasty TV movie dialogue that gives the characters life story away, sometimes less is most definitely more. As for the story itself it's a little bit jumbled, Payne struggles to keep the movie franchise fresh by adding new bits, as well as trying to justify just how the Reeker appears, simply through a couple of explosions. There are also a number of "unexplained" incidents that no doubt if Payne was given an open mic on the subject he might imply that maybe "You just didn't get it!" Sadly for Payne this is not The Matrix, or anywhere near that quality. Payne's ultimate and I feel disrespectful final strike involving a child talking about his babysitter not only effectively defecates on Payne's work but gives sad promise that maybe Payne will ridicule us all again by returning to the franchise for a third instalment.

If by some freak incident you happened to enjoy the original Reeker, then I'm sure you will get a certain degree of satisfaction from this sequel, if however you enjoy life then head off out for a walk instead, there are better ways to spend your life than to watch this.

As for Dave, and I know that you'll be reading this, I take my hat off to you; in the previous movie it was pretty much all-round awful, whereas despite the deficits of the storyline you have grown and progressed far more as a director, obviously learning a lot since your last encounter with the Reeker. And while I criticise your work harshly you're a far cleverer man than me, and I commend your devotion to your trade. I sincerely hope that I'll be able to enjoy your next movie.

No Man's Land: The Rise Of The Reeker I suspect will greet European audiences in the form of a straight to DVD product.