Film Screening 13th September, 2008

Poster for The Incredible Hulk

The Incredible Hulk 

8:00 PM, 13th September, 2008
No Guests

  • M
  • 112 mins
  • Unknown
  • Louis Leterrier
  • Zak Penn, Edward Norton
  • Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson

When last we saw Bruce Banner, he was hiding in South America, battling to control his anger - an anger that manifests in a big, green, muscular way. The only way to get information that might cure his condition is to reapproach his old girlfriend - Dr. Elizabeth Ross. Unfortunately, her dad, General T. Ross, is leading the US Military in a hunt for Banner - and one of his special forces commandos, Emil Blonsky, begins to take the hunt very personally...

Yes, I'm fully aware that Ang Lee did this stuff first, and did it sensitively, beautifully, in a psychologically complex way. He also did it in a confusing-plot way, and in a "not making enough money for a blockbuster franchise" way. So it's time for a film less focussed on Bruce Banner's internal psychology, and more focussed on director Leterrier's forte - , strong dynamic action set pieces (the bloke made the first two Transporter films, and Jet Li's Unleashed). This may not affect your soul as deeply as the Ang Lee version, but it'll probably get your adrenalin pumping and satisfy the 10 year old boy within you. And if you have a 10 year old girl within you ... um, Norton looks quite nice with his shirt off and his pants heavily ripped...

Simon Tolhurst

Poster for The Noah's Ark Principle (Das Arche Noah Prinzip)

The Noah's Ark Principle (Das Arche Noah Prinzip) 

10:07 PM, 13th September, 2008

  • M
  • 100 mins
  • Unknown
  • Roland Emmerich
  • Roland Emmerich
  • Richy Müller, Franz Buchrieser, Aviva Joel, Matthias Fuchs

It's an old story: one day you're a promising European director with a fresh voice; next thing you know you're one of a hundred indistinguishable ((eacute))migr((eacute))s in Hollywood who'll spend the rest of his life making Julia Roberts vehicles and Die Hard sequels ((ndash)) and for the life of you, you have no idea what happened or how you got there. I believe many of these directors are initially given rohypnol.

But German director Roland Emmerich, whose most intelligent (which is not to say best) film is probably the 1998 Godzilla, is different from the rest. He wanted to end up in Hollywood making stuff like Independence Day and 10,000 BC; in fact that's the kind of film he made in Germany ((ndash)) where, as a film student, he showed he could make it surprisingly well on the cheap.

It's 13 years in the future (well ((ndash)) 1997) and the world's weather is monitored and tamed by the Space Station 'Florida Arklab', which is manned by a crew of... two. One of the two, Billy (Müller) notices something odd about the orders that he's receiving from Earth, and suspects that someone, somewhere is attempting to use the satellite as a weapon of mass destruction. Can he stop them? Sorry, that was a fatuous question.

I want as many of our members as possible to see this film, partly in the hope that someone will tell me what the title has to do with the story.

Henry Fitzgerald