“In Brussels”
A Hipstamatic shot by Jeppy K.
Dungeon Classics #33: Excalibur
FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….
Excalibur (1981, UK, USA)
Director: John Boorman
Cast: Nigel Terry, Nicol Williamson, Helen Mirren, Nicholas Clay
Running Time: 140 mins.
For the ultimate film about the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, look no further than John Boorman’s Excalibur. It has everything from dark magic to romance, to sword fights. It was filmed completely in Ireland, and the sets and costumes (lots of very heavy and impractical armor) are fantastically realized. Storywise, it incorporates familiar elements, like the sword in the stone, Lancelot’s romance with Guenevere, and Perceval’s search for the Holy Grail, but also new stories such as Arthur fathering a bastard son with his half sister Morgana who wants to destroy him. The cast is very good with early performances by Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, and Helen Mirren. But it is Nicol Williamson who steals the show as Merlin the Necromancer.
The Verdict: The Creator
In 2016, director Gareth Edwards delivered Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first Star Wars movie that was not part of the main series. In terms of cinematography, locations, and visual effects, it was certainly successful, but the film failed to move me. I had exactly the same experience with Edwards’ latest film The Creator, which is about a future war between humanity and artificial intelligence. The movie, which was shot on beautiful locations in Thailand and contains Oscar-nominated special effects, certainly looks amazing. However, the story about an army sergeant (John David Washington, who increasingly looks and especially sounds like his father Denzel) who is on the run with a powerful AI child made no emotional impact on me whatsoever. I didn’t care whether humanity or AI would ultimately win the war. SPOILER: The contrast between what I felt when the Death Star was blown up in the original Star Wars and the destruction of space station Nomad at the end of The Creator could not be greater. A shame really, because the potential was certainly there.
The Creator is now available on Disney Plus
The verdict: to stream or not to stream? Not to stream
Dungeon Classics #32: Starship Troopers
FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….
Starship Troopers (1997, USA)
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Cast: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Jake Busey
Running Time: 129 mins.
In the late eighties till the late nineties, Paul Verhoeven – the pride of the Netherlands – had the decade of his career in which he made three science fiction classics that are both masterful and unique: RoboCop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers. All three deliver on stunning design, ultra-violence and social commentary. Starship Troopers revolves around a future human, militaristic society which is at war with an alien bug species. The film follows several recruits who join different parts of the military organization, and go on outer space missions to defeat the bugs. The social commentary against extreme policies was apparently too well hidden, so that critics and viewers missed it completely at the time and considered Starship Troopers just as a typical Hollywood action movie. Understandable, because Verhoeven’s direction is basically flawless and as a piece of suburb popcorn entertainment, the movie works extremely well. However, it works just as well as a propaganda piece for a future, fascist government, who want to dominate the galaxy through violence and oppression. The good looking cast members (check out main actor Casper Van Dien’s perfect jawline) thereby function as ultimate poster girls and boys for citizenship, a status that is reached through military service. The fact that Verhoeven took 100 million dollars from a major Hollywood studio to make this, is fantastic. Don’t expect it to happen anytime soon again. Luckily, Starship Troopers is still just as effective and enjoyable as it was back in 1997.
FRAGMENTEN UIT HET SCHEMERLAND 