Top Gun (1986)

During our stay in Lawers this year, amid glorious weather we went to the excellent Birks of Aberfeldy cinema.  A brilliant and very friendly community-owned cinema.  There was no real question of what we wanted to see: having never seen it on the big screen Top Gun was the obvious choice.

There is little I can really say about Tony Scott's classic tale of fast planes, fast living and homo-eroticism.  Sure I could mention the fantastic cast featuring Tom Skerrit, Daryl Revok Michael Ironside, Mr Strickland James Tolkan as well as the up and coming Tom Cruise.  Or I could mention how great the aerial photography is, and how amazing the soundtrack is (it won Academy, Golden Globe and BRIT awards).  I could also witter on about the excellent pairing of Anthony Edwards and Tom Cruise, and how they play perfectly off each other; as well as how quotable the whole film is. But I thought I'd be lazy and simply embed the Facebook conversation I started just after we seen it.  So without further ado, here it is.

For all the realism of the movie, I can't help but think that Goose's polaroid of the MIG wasn't quite as good as this selfie: http://theaviationist.com/2014/03/03/rdaf-missile-selfie/

Scanners (1981)

Probably most famous for THAT scene, Scanners has more to offer than exploding heads.  Ok, so it is an iconic scene and rightly deserves that status, but there is actually a great story in there too.  Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) has a powerful telekinetic power but without guidance can't control it; because of this he is living as a bum.  When Dr Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) who works for ConSec (a company which OCP from Robocop is surely based on) takes him under his wing, Cameron learns to control this "scanning" power and is sent on a mission to find a very powerful and dangerous scanner called Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside).

I really like this film; it is a well written story and David Cronenberg is creative in his direction.  There are several instances of mundane scenes that are made noticeable by the movements the camera makes.  I love the 70s vibe and the almost animalistic noises when someone is being scanned.  Add to this Howard Shore's rather weird but perfectly placed score and the result is a slightly unsettling film whose atmosphere really sticks with you.

Scanners is not without its faults; probably most obvious is the acting, which is average at best.  That is of course except for Michael Ironside who is brilliant as the unhinged Darryl Revok.  Though the only substantial piece of dialogue he really has is during his final confrontation with Cameron, Michael's Revok has a presence that casts a shadow over the whole film.  This can't be said of Stephen Lack though; I can't quite decide whether he just can't act; or if that is how Cronenberg wanted the character played, and Stephen's William Hague-esque voice just doesn't do him any favours.

The special effects are suitably gooey, very much in the style of The Thing.  Of course the highlight is the exploding head, achieved with a shotgun behind a prosthetic head full of offal.  Almost because of the early spectacular scene, it's easy to overlook the final confrontation which is also fairly spectacular, Cameron clawing at his own face is pretty gruesome.  Though the final reveal is a bit perplexing.

Scanners does look very dated, a fact that I think would distance an audience looking for slick special effects and not much else; but look beyond this and you realise that the film is so much more.  After all, no one ever accuses The Italian Job of being rubbish just because it looks old.  Scanners deals with themes of social misfits (rather like the mutants in X-men) and corporate/scientific conspiracy; everyone loves a good conspiracy.  Cronenberg would revisit the scientific meddling perhaps more famously in The Fly.  Maybe not the most original ideas, but Scanners manages to squeeze a hell of a lot into 90 minutes, and does it with style. That maybe a 70s style, but with such a strong script and a great Michael Ironside, that style works really well.

Terminator Salvation (2009)

I had seen this before, many years ago, and all I could really remember was the bad CG Arnie towards the end. Actually it exceeded my expectations, it was a lot better than I remembered. Though there was no direct time travel involved this time, all of the action being set post-Judgement Day, the story still had enough intrigue and originality while still being fairly true to the original canon.

Let's be clear, this is no James Cameron brilliance, but director Joseph McGinty Nichol (McG) does seem to have an eye for directing the action here. There was one scene in particular that impressed me. John Connor climbs out of an underground base, and from this point the camera tracks him. It tracks him to a helicopter, watches him get in, take off, when he is hit by a missile the camera whips into the chopper to just behind his seat as he crashes, and then when John unbuckles his seatbelt, he falls upwards. A nice touch. Not finished though, the camera tracks round him as we see the huge machine that destroyed his helicopter, and then he is finally confronted by a Terminator. For a film I was expecting to simply be milking the Terminator cash cow, I was fairly impressed by the scope, and design of the film.

Christian Bale is good and fairly dependable as John Connor, and Anton Yelchin is fine as a young Kyle Reese; but that's about as good as we get. Michael Ironside phones in a performance as General Ashdown, which is a shame as he can be so much better. His character is very much a bit part though, so he doesn't get the opportunity to be memorable. All of the rest of the cast are background really, apart from Marcus Wright who is played by the personality-less Sam Worthington. Spoiler Alert! OK, so I know he's actually a machine, but come on, even Arnie managed to have some personality when he was a Terminator; and if he couldn't manage it then he wisely didn't say very much! Sam Worthington's character speaks far too much for a guy who can't act!

Having said that, I still enjoyed the film more than I expected to. This is probably down to a half decent plot, and fairly solid and inventive direction from McG. Not a classic, and possibly an unnecessary addition to the Terminator franchise, but certainly better than the third film. It's just a shame that Brad Fiedel's wonderfully iconic score is ruined by Danny Elfman.