by Joseph Rossi
One is a big budget summer spectacle, the other is a movie about — well — zombies and soccer. Both are actually not bad.
I’ll admit that when I first saw the trailer for Brett Ratner’s Hercules I rolled my eyes. Another sword and sandal, CGI stuffed vehicle for the latest movie star de jour, Dwayne “ The Rock” Johnson . Much to my surprise, more shock then surprise actually, I ended up likening it.
This film is a nod to Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans (not the remake, the original) and Conan The Barbarian. It delivers what it promises, a good time. Nothing that will win awards but think of it, any film which has a Greek demigod spouting one liners with an American accent doesn’t really need to win anything other the audience approval.
This film is based on Steve Moore’s graphic novel series, Hercules: The Thracian Wars. It presents Herc as a sword for hire rather then focusing on him being the son of Zeus. Thankfully this film has no time for the Gods so Liam Neeson can take a day off. Herc and a gang of rouges (Ian McShane, Rufus Swell, etc) must come to the aid of the king of Thrace (John Hurt) whose kingdom is at war with a powerful sorcerer. Simple. Not complicated. Perfect.
This is Ratner’s biggest film to date. He has tackled large scale movies before but to limited results (X3: The Last Stand). Comedy is his preferred genre so it was a surprise to see how well he handled himself here. The creative team behind the camera deserves mention because the film looks great. The sets, which are actual physical sets, are wonderful and detailed. As well, much love to legendary DP Dante Spinotti. His work always looks good on the big screen but this one is superb. A frequent collaborator with Michael Mann, Spinotti gives this film the scope it needs. Awe is earned here and that is difficult to do.
This is pulpy, silly and fun. As a late summer diversion, you can do a lot worse.
Playing this year at Fantasia is France’s Goal of the Dead. A comical satire about how manic people can get about soccer. Directors Benjamin Rocher and Thierry Poiraud have made a french Shaun of the Dead style horror comedy by having a staudim of rabid soccer fans and players become flesh eating zombies. Pretty cool and quiet disgusting. The blood flows in buckets here and it’s really well done. The problem is this film clocks in at 2 hours. At 90 minutes this would have been a breeze. The film gets bogged down with too many subplots.
The principles do good but standard work. Our two main characters, the snotty star player Idriss ( Ahmed Sylla) and Sam (Alban Lenoir), the centre, really just rehash the standard run, jump and scream routines of other zombie flicks. But that’s why we go to these movies. The really don’t offer anything new to the genre. It’s just fun. Overlong I agree but if you like blood, gore and soccer, you’ll enjoy Goal of the Dead.
