28 Days Later: In the House, In a Heartbeat

London is a hectic place. Normally filled with more traffic and pedestrians than seems humanly possible, people crammed this close together tend to get edgy. What if a terrifying virus got unleashed that turns the inhabitants of the UK into rage fuelled running zombie monsters known as the ‘infected’? Before imagining the UK as a green and pleasant isle of wonder for the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, Danny Boyle cleared the streets of London to envisage a truly shocking zombie apocalypse.

Recently roused from a coma, bicycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) checks himself out of a deserted hospital and finds London completely empty. The bustle of the city is dead, left only with an eerie stillness. This is what London will look like when the apocalypse comes. Desolate, forsaken and forgotten. The survivors are hiding out of sight. The Infected appear from nowhere like rabid dogs intent only on attack. The film later has Jim and other survivors shop in empty supermarkets and travel down empty motorways all in search of an army base that promises hope. But when the world goes to hell, is it really the army we should be turning to for help?

John Murphy’s entire soundtrack is a master class in atmospheric horror scoring, but as all hell breaks loose at the climax of 28 Days Later, his In the House, In a Heartbeat climbs to an explosive crescendo over six minutes of beautifully shot, visceral violence. 

Our three surviving characters (a man, a woman and a teen girl) have dodged death at the hands of rage infected super-zombies, only to find themselves in the ‘safety’ of an army base populated by aggressive male soldiers who have a scary attitude to women.

As hero Jim escapes the soldiers’ clutches and begins a rage-fuelled rampage with the help of some unleashed Infected, Murphy’s music builds and builds; quiet and calm at first with just two piano notes, then joined by mounting acoustic guitars and climaxing with drums crashing, electric guitar pounding and the visuals on screen becoming more and more terrifying as the deadly mixture of frightened soldiers, vicious Infected and one angry protagonist face off in the confines of the dark mansion. This is music to gouge out eyes to.

Listen:

In the Heart of the Sea Review

Ron Howard gets right to the heart of the true story that inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. Reteaming again after the success of Rush with Chris Hemsworth, and more importantly DOP Anthony Dod Mantle, Howard goes beyond Melville's story of man vs whale to reveal the harrowing tale of survival that followed the sinking of the whaling vessel Essex in the 1820s.

Melville (Ben Whishaw) visits an old Tom Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson), last survivor of the Essex and offers him a wodge of cash in exchange for the full story on what went down in the middle of the ocean all those years ago. So begins Nickerson's version of events; a story of conflict between Captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker) and First Mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth), as the two men hurl their ship across the oceans in pursuit of whales. Their quest for whale oil brings them into conflict with a giant monster of the sea; a white whale that won't even stop when it has destroyed the Essex itself.

Survival at sea has rarely looked so horrible, even after the likes of Life of Pi and Unbroken. The whale is the least of this crew's worries once the Essex goes down. Storms, sun, starvation; attack of the Hollywood skinniness. By the end, Hemsworth and his fellow survivors look like zombies as they resort to unspeakable actions in order to survive. You'll soon forget that you're watching Thor and the future Spider-Man Tom Holland face to face, as their eyes become sunken holes in their scrawny heads.

As the months aboard the Essex pass, there's a sense of excitement and adventure every time the crew find whales. But mixed with the majesty of the great creatures is the tragedy of their hunting, killing and butchering. Howard and Dod Mantle find the oily business grotesque and it shows in the inky, off-kilter cinematography. In fact, In the Heart of the Sea very clearly becomes Dod Mantle's film as it goes on. The shot choices become more bold and more stark as the situation for the crew gets more desperate.

In its heart, it’s a conflicted film. Hemsworth skips around the sails in typical hero style, but then the film mourns the first whale he manages to kill. He's clearly more cut out for the sea than his captain, who for the first half at least, is set up as the villain. But things get far more interesting once the monster whale turns up and cuts them all down to size. Howard does a decent job of making us sympathise with the men, investing just enough to make a few of the characters register above their blooming beards.

But the whale is the real heart of the sea. The tagline of Jaws: The Revenge said it best: This time it's personal. The incredible creatures might all be made of CGI, but that big white whale steals the show. Smashing, crashing and chasing his foes in payback for the family it has lost, it's a stark reminder of how nature can respond if men keep abusing the planet so arrogantly and recklessly.

In the Heart of the Sea is an epic odyssey of survival; much bigger, more emotional, and more exciting even than this year’s other great disaster story, Everest. 

Watch the trailer:

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Rush Review

Ron Howard feels the need, the need for speed! Getting inside the beautiful minds of not one but two Formula One race car drivers in Rush, his latest film grips as hard as the drivers grip the wheel. It's frequently buttock clenching, white knuckle stuff as engines roar, gears shift and rain pours on unforgiving race tracks.

Dreamy Chris Hemsworth is long haired British lothario, the cocksure and arrogant James Hunt. His nemesis is rat faced German, the know-it-all Nikki Lauder played by Daniel Brühl. The pair are contemporaries and fierce competitors, making their far too fast on-track showdowns breeze by in breathless set pieces. Off the track the sparks also fly with Lauder and Hunt trading insults and revving each other up so much their rivalry becomes their reason to live... and very possibly their reason to die.

Hunt and Lauder's fight for the championship is the stuff of Formula One legend with both racers refusing to give an inch or back down in the face of incredible danger, personal injury and in the case of Nikki Lauder a particularly terrifying brush with death.

As fun as some of the off track scenes can be, the supporting characters never get much room to breathe. Hemsworth and Brühl hold the film together, the film starting with dueling voiceovers from each of the pair. Despite both playing seriously flawed characters with little to like in either, the stars find room to wrap around your heart and skid into likeability by the end. Brühl is particularly adept at making Lauder completely understandable, and if not wholly likeable, at least deserving of a huge amount of respect.

Formula One is still very much a man's world and the women, including Olivia Wilde get little to do except mope on the sidelines. Though Hemsworth might be unacceptably sexy, it is easy to see why beautiful women are attracted to the drivers for other reasons. Though the thought of grown men racing round and round a track, risking their lives for money, glory and the title of champion might seem silly to some, the bravery of the men and the risks they rush into become quickly clear and surprisingly alluring even to those of us who have no interest in watching race cars whizz round a track.

It is on the track however where Rush really races into pole position. For a film about Formula One the track scenes are relatively few and far between and rush past in a blur of inventive angles, slick editing and roaring sound design. Freeze frames, intense close ups and cameras in every place imaginable make the race scenes incredibly tense, especially when the rain starts to pour. Director of Photography Anthony Dod Mantle captures every drop and frames the moody skies over the proceedings like ugly portents of doom. With cameras even right next to the eyes of the actors as their helmets are put on, we are right there in the action as the cars race, collide and crash their way round the tracks.

Though many will know the story and may even have seen the races or the terrible crash that nearly killed Lauder, they will not have seen behind the helmet of the man as he recovered in hospital. The scarily real recreation of the crash is brutal and heart stopping and the race that leads up to it is terrifically tense whether you know the story or not. The stakes are raised each time either Hunt or Lauder gets in a car and it is a shame that so many of the races are rushed when the cinematography and score are so effective. For a film that could have done with a bit more action, the mood is more sombre, the score adding to the sense of dread and sadness at what is to come.

However Rush does not dwell on the down sides. It is a film that finds the humour in the characters, their rivalry and even their tragedy. Hunt and Lauder may have faults but they made each other better racers and Howard and writer Peter Morgan find the insecurities and arrogance endearing and worthy of investigation. 

Some moments of the script might steam ahead into obvious sound bites but Rush never fails to raise a smile or take its lead pair too seriously, making it easy to forgive the odd line that spells out the characters motivations, feelings or the message of the film. Hemsworth and Brühl consistently sell their real life characters and manage to make both men surprisingly warm and likeable antagonists despite their conflict, an admirable achievement for both actors in the circumstances.

Peter Morgan continues his fine work with real life figures and particularly two-handers in the tradition of his previous collaboration with Howard, Frost/Nixon. His knack for character and dialogue could be the reason the film comes in at the two hour mark while giving short shrift to vital race scenes that could have fuel injected Rush onto the 5 star winners podium. Whether you like cars or not, Rush will get your heart beat racing.

Release date:  September 27^th, 2013

Running time: 123 minutes

Director:  Ron Howard

Writer: Peter Morgan

Cast:  Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl, Olivia Wilde

 
Here is the trailer:

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