KIA ORA AD

This is another reminder of the 70's there is no way this would play now, political correctness police would scream blue murder. But in the 70's and early 80's this ad would have shown in most british cinemas and certainly UK tv. Its an advertisment for an orange juice drink, in the days before popcorn and candy concession counters the usherette was queen. When attending a double bill, they would drift down the isles during the interval to sell choc ices, orange drinks, and ice creams. Kiora was one such drink .

Pearl and Dean 1970s

Some things bring back fond memories of cinema going back in the 70's and early eighties and this is one of those things. In the heady days of my youth when Harryhausen , Lucas and Spielberg were my heroes. Pearl and Dean were the advertisers of choice for most cinema chains. Asterioid was there theme music and this little intro signaled the adverts preceding the coming attractions group of cinema trailers. I think this is a uniquely brit thing, but enjoy.

Three Musketeers 3D

Paul W S Anderson is a compentant director, he has visual flair and a good directing style. In short he is not a bad director. But frequently he will take a slick well written idea, tamper and over work it and deliver something that just doesn't deliver. Its like he takes a good recipe, adds one ingredient too many and the taste becomes a sickly confection. His Event Horizon is a guilty pleasure and I do enjoy the Resident Evil films.

Now his attentions are focused on a classic tale which true to form he has molded and shaped into an  inferior product. How come?. well in Paul's world the orginal classic needed to be contemporised for the modern cinema goer. It needs Matrix style effects, it needs airships.
    Unfortunatelty this just ruins a great classic with title characters which dont engage and a shift of emphasis towards Milady played by Mila Jovavich who plays her as a playful superspy and as she's the directors wife well?? But this undermines one of the great character conflicts of Athos and Milady diluting it and depriving their relationship of its emotional relevance and conflict. Athos in this version comes across as dull , moody and lifeless and his betrayal losing its emotional power.
The classic story is buried somewhere in this misguided effort, and Dumas would be turning in his grave over how  misshapen and ungainly his well crafted tale has  become.The plot with the Queens diamonds is overly simplified and turned into an excuse for heist , thus losing pace and urgency. Buckingham as played by Orlando Bloom is promoted to villain and an ineffectual one at that just coming across as a self centred egotist.
          If you want to see this tale told the way it should be, then revisit the 1948 Gene Kelly starrer. If you want a more modern version then  the  Richard Lester directed 70's take on the tale delivers with spades and stands up well and with humour to boot.  These are the versions which have not been bettered but stay well clear of this misguided  effort.  One note Anderson employing James Corden as Planchett is a sly wink at Roy Kinnear's characterization and in this effort one of the few things that works.
      To show some sense of fair-play the treatment of Louis as a boy king is well played, it works and just highlights the potential missed.  Andrew Davies  is the script writer of this effort he of the BBC's  Pride and Prejudice fame and is by no means a hack writer. He has crafted other literary adaptions for Television which are masterful works and I am by no means opposed to imaginative re imaginings of literary classics. Take Stephen Moffat's modern  adaptions of Jekyll and with Mark Gatiss Sherlock. Its just when such attempts are made and work they stand out and when they don't , well they fall flat.
     As a diversion its an okay film not particularly exciting it works in places, but it doesn't improve on previous incarnations and lacks that most important ingrediant for a Musketeer film , excitement.