Silence

“I pray but I am lost. Am I just praying to silence?”

For decades Martin Scorsese has been pushing the limits of the cinematic medium through evocative styling and directorial decisions as a channel for storytelling – so perhaps it’s telling that one of his greatest achievements is his new film, the understated, brooding, minimalistic Silence.

In the 1630s, news reaches St Paul’s College, Macau that Cristóvão Ferreira (Liam Neeson), a Portuguese Jesuit who had helped bring Christianity to the people of Japan, has renounced his faith after being tortured in the anti-Christian purges of Japan. Two of Ferreira’s devout pupils, Father Sebastião Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Francisco Garupe (Adam Driver) cannot believe that their mentor would commit apostasy and set out on a three year long journey to find him.

With the help of an alcoholic fisherman, Kichijiro (Yôsuke Kubozuka) the priests reach Japan and land at Tomogi, a small village with a secret Christian population to which the priests administer the sacrament. Soon however a band of Samurais led by “The Inquisitor” (Issei Ogata) arrive in the village, looking to flush out Christianity from the land and are after the Jesuit priests. Meanwhile, the fate of Father Ferreira remains a mystery.

With Silence, Scorsese strips away the directorial personality he’s built up over nearly fifty years of filmmaking. His camera is almost always static because the beauty and terror of what’s on-screen speaks for itself. The Kluge siblings score is practically non-existent, because like with a smattering of examples from Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas and The Departed, Scorsese’s use of silence is the most powerful sound. His co-authored screenplay doesn’t draw you in like some of his others, but is true to the novel, and aside from a smaller than you might expect role from Liam Neeson, his frequent collaborators are nowhere to be seen. What hasn’t changed is his undying passion and dedication to storytelling. Twenty-five plus years of research, understanding and maturity went into the creation of this, one of his most impressive films to date.

To suggest however that Silence isn’t cinematic would be an injustice to DoP Rodrigo Prieto’s work and would gloss over one of the crucial elements that ties Silence together. With a distinctly minimalist look and feel, the character of the landscape is as mysterious and unforgiving as the inquisitor himself. If Raging Bull is Scorsese’s most physical portrayal of the harsh realities of the body, then Silence is his most visceral representation of how abusively all-encompassing nature can be, and is central to the films depiction of the direct correlation between Buddhist beliefs and the environment – a determinate factor in the fate of the Christian communities living under such intense persecution.

Indeed the core focus of the film is to find some sort of reconciliation between the ancient undying beliefs held in 17th Century Japan and the influx of Christianity, a task simply impossible for the time with many indirect victims on both sides. Layered on top of that is the challenge for these priests and the persecuted population to maintain unwavering faith with no sign or manifestation from their deity; only silence. Where some films use cinematic technique to manipulate audiences, Silence simply lays down a narrative and lets the viewer draw meaning. Faith is cruel and unexplained, as is humanity, and it’s up to the audience to find some sort of answer or at the very least closure from that.

Ultimately though this is the story of one man’s crisis of faith. Garfield’s Rodrigues takes centre stage for the vast majority of the film and suffers immensely at the hands of a people trying to protect their dynasty from what they see as a spiritual pollutant. Rodrigues is torn between his search for answers in regards to Father Ferreira, a desire to peacefully serve the oppressed Christian Japanese, and personal spiritual uncertainties that have been brooding throughout his Mission. This is Andrew Garfield’s best performance to date, brimming with compassion, suffering and spiritual rumination. Driver is similarly fantastic, although as with Neeson his time on screen is limited compared to Garfield. Some of the best depictions come from the hugely talented Japanese cast. Yoshi Oida as the Elder of Tomogi, Shin'ya Tsukamoto - one of the oppressed villagers, and Issei Ogata as the horrific yet somehow serene Inquisitor are all superb in their roles.

Silence is an extremely rare example of elemental filmmaking that will have hugely varied effects on audience. It will enlighten some, bore others and destroy many. It trusts so deeply in its own material and the themes buried beneath that it’s willing to leave audiences with questions unanswered, perhaps to dig deeper if they can find themselves ever watching it again. It may not have the mainstream appeal of Wolf of Wall Street, but Silence is nevertheless, a masterpiece.

Mark Reviews: Ted 2

Hey guys, I'm really pissed off. You know why? Because they said my friend Ted wasn't a human and that he isn't allowed to have kids. Why is that you guys? Have you seen how many beers he can drink? There are guys back in Dorchester who would be passed out and he would still be going. And those guys have Irish parents too.

Well, the whole reason we found out that was he wasn't allowed to have kids was because we snuck into All American hero Tom Brady's house to steal his sperm for Ted to have a kid (that's a whole other story and I don't want Ma to read about me breaking into houses because I don't do that anymore to be a good example for Donnie). But, hey, Ted you don't need some football player when your best friend is right here and he's better than any football player. Hell, I'll even play football if you want.

Okay, so maybe that's a photo of me throwing a football at the back of Donnie's head, but it still counts as being an athletic guy. Anyway, I got your back Ted. Your babies will be strong. But hey, what about my troubles? My character's wife left me, so I gotta get back in the game. Luckily, Amanda Seyfried plays a hot young lawyer, so there's always that option.

If you're gonna see any of my movies this year, just make sure it's this one. I had so much fun making it. And if you don't like me, it's an opportunity to see me get covered in semen.

Tak3n

Before properly reviewing Tak3n it's worth describing the screening conditions as they were out of the ordinary for my cinema experiences. As I walked towards the cinema some woman waiting for a bus yelled at me about not touching my penis in public, and I believe this is sound advice that deserves to be shared. Inside the cinema, things didn't improve as Event Cinemas on Tak3n's opening weekend were only screening the movie in Vmax (larger screen, better audio, better seats, higher ticket prices), but the version shown was the standard format resulting in giant black bars surrounding the screen and only two-channel audio. To add injury to insults, one bloke two rows behind me attempted to start a fist-fight with the bloke seated directly behind me twenty minutes into the film. An argument ensued, other punters yelling for the instigator to "Fuck right off!" and the instigator's girlfriend was presumably pronounced DOA on the way to hospital from the shame and embarrassment of a packed house angrily staring at her and her dickhead boyfriend. While these kinds of conditions could obviously poison my experience I've attempted to remain as objective as possible.

                                                 "She's going to the bathroom."
                                                           "Call for back-up!"

There is a moment in Tak3n where Liam Neeson as the gravelly-voiced, obsessive death-machine Bryan Mills escapes from police by hiding in the sewers of suburban Los Angeles. As he sits there, trapped within a literal river of shit, art imitates life as Neeson reflects on what his career has become. From Oscar Schindler to a 60-year old action-man who has penthouse shoot-outs with bland Russian villains in their underwear. In 2009, Pierre Morel (District B13: Ultimatum, From Paris With Love, The Gunman) directed Taken, a simple story of a retired CIA agent rescuing his teen-aged daughter from Albanian sex traffickers in Paris by murdering EVERYONE. It's popularity and success can be attributed to the one memorable moment of the film, the infamous phone call involving Liam Neeson's cold threat. Most everything outside of this moment is mis-remembered, the action is average at best, the conclusion passable but undeniably lackluster, and minimal character development resulting in a one-note slog of "American man kills foreigners in their own country because they're inherently evil.". Luc Besson (director of The Fifth Element, Leon the Professional and Lucy) co-wrote the script with Robert Mark Kamen, who wrote all of the Transporter movies, The Fifth Element, a lot of the Karate Kid movies, and the pair wrote Taken's two sequels. Taken is an okay film, but its sequel, helmed by Colombiana and Transporter 2 director Oliver Megaton is a power-play of lazy writing, seizure-inducing editing (1:02-1:09) and the "Sequel Cash-grab" (see Hangover 2), where the only difference between Taken and Taken 2 was the setting and the amount of people who were taken. Taken 2 is a steaming pile of shit, but the success of this franchise and Neeson's recent star-power as "angry, fighty, middle-aged man" proved to be a sure-fire path to decent box office earnings.

Tak3n takes places in L.A two years after the events in Istanbul. Brian Mills (Neeson) spends his days obsessing over his young daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) and slowly re-connecting with his ex-wife Lenore. That is until she is killed and he is framed for the murder. Lead FBI agent Frank Dotzler (Forest Whitaker) takes charge in the pursuit of Mills, but in the course of his investigation becomes aware of Mills' history and capabilities. This doesn't prevent Dotzler from keeping a close eye on Kim, who he knows is Mills' greatest priority and weakness, and Lenore's husband Stuart (Dougray Scott), a businessman who's relationship with Lenore was deteriorating before her death. Meanwhile, a group of mysterious and deadly mercenaries appear to be following Mills and his family.

In this scene, Brian Mills poisons his daughters yoghurt drink so she'll feel nauseous and leave her university lecture and go to the bathroom. When she enters the very women's toilet he is hiding in, he grabs her and forces her into a stall. Between this and her mum's murder for which he is the prime suspect, Kim is remarkably resilient and doesn't at all act like this is the creepiest fucking thing ever.

To borrow a phrase from BBC's The Thick of It, Tak3n is an omni-shambles, a complete fuck-up of purpose and execution from top to bottom, a movie almost offensively bad and artless. Taken 2 was one of the worst movies of 2012 with it's premise worthy of all the mockery it received, some of the shakiest and incoherent action ever recorded, and a clunky, worthless ending that contradicts itself. But there are moments where Neeson at least appears to give a damn, though as he says in the final scene "I am tired of it all." So when this new mess begins, Neeson grits his teeth and grunts his way through scenes, devoid of any personality or real emotion. It's amazing the world of difference between his performances in the Taken movies and other recent movies like The Grey or even a Walk Among the Tombstones, both films where he plays a comparably dark and grunty character, but with actual humanity and vulnerability. He's not alone in this endeavour, Famke Janssen just blunders her way through her lines, lacking any subtlety or depth as she desperately rushes to finish her lines and fuck off from the movie. Dougray Scott hams it up a bit in his bid to pretend that the audience will not realise he's replacing Xander Berekely and that he totally isn't the villain (SPOILER ALERT: he's Dougray Scott, of course he's the villain). Frankly, Scott was much better in the much more enjoyable Mission Impossible 2, a similarly shit sequel. Though some joy can be derived from his interactions with Neeson as he is much better at hiding his native Scottish accent than Neeson is with his Irish accent. Maggie Grace appears depressed she's still playing a 30-year old teenager and that's the only work she seems to be getting. Forest Whitaker does his best impersonation of Lawrence Fishburne's career recently, in just playing the fat, black guy who is in charge, though someone obviously told him his character needs a quirk so he carries around a chess piece for no conceivable reaosn, unless he thinks he's actually in Inception.

In typical Tak3n style, the action is fast and fucked-in-the-head. Most fights appear as a flurry of black leather before a cutaway of someone falling out of a car, a bottle hitting the ground or a gun sliding away. With the excellent staging of action scenes in films like The Raid, John Wick, The World's End, Why Don't You Play in Hell?, or even  A Walk Among the Tombstones, Tak3n blatantly and bizarrely exists on the side of The Expendables 3, which also lacks any talent or idea of how to present action well. Even outside of the fights, the filmmakers lack the basic ideology behind editing or cinematography as a foot-chase through suburban backyards devolves into the cinematic equivalent of being stuck in a tumble dryer as no less than a dozen cuts can convey Nesson vaulting onto and climbing over a chain-link fence. Comparable to the fucking mess that is the action cinematography is the script, which comes across as a translation from French by a deaf man who converts it into feudal Japanese and then finally into English. Lenore's dialogue is so painfully on the nose, and Stuart's methods and motivations are dismally at odds with the committed family-man he was portrayed as in the previous movies. Dialogue such as the convenience store cashier describing Kim Mills' habits to Dotzler ("She gets the same thing everyday, peach yoghurt drink. I feel bad for the girl. She drank it right there out of the refrigerator. She must've been thirsty.") or Dotzler getting a record of Kim's movements from the FBI agent trailing her (FBI "She's gone to the bathroom." Dotzler: "Call for backup! Now!") will  result in repeated and deserved mocking of the script of Besson and Kamen. There's even a moment where Mills' car is run off the road and over a cliff, and when he confronts the perpetrators five minutes later, he asks "You wanna know how I escaped the car crash" before a 3-second blur of cars crashing and a cutaway of him falling out and hiding next to a rock, because just putting the words "FUCK YOU, HE ESCAPED" in giant letters on-screen at this moment didn't test well.

Tak3n is a perfect example of franchise fatigue, an idea which should have died in 2009 limps on because the internet was stupid enough to immortalise one single moment, as it always does. Oliver Megaton is almost as bad a director as Besson is a writer, and the on-going trend of dark and gritty Neeson is absolutely past any acceptable limit. As a stand-alone movie, this isn't all that bad, but as one of 2015's first major releases, and the second sequel in an action franchise, it's fucking insulting. 2015 shouldn't start off with something like this taking money away from films like Birdman or the Imitation Game, but Tak3n absolutely reiterates the cineamtic creed of "Fuck you, it's January."

War Movie Month: Schindler's List (1993)

"Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire"

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 75 years, you're probably quite aware of the Holocaust and the horrific events surrounding it. However, you may not be aware of the story of Oskar Schindler, a rich industrialist that used his production empire to save the lives of some 1,200 Jews from certain death. His astounding work is the focus of Steven Spielberg's film, Schindler's List.

At the beginning of World War II, in the Kraków Ghetto, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a businessman and member of the Nazi Party, opens an enamelware factory, hiring Jewish workers because they are cheaper labour. He appoints a local Jewish man Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) as his managerial assistant, all the while, Oskar maintains his links with local officials and members of the SS, bribing them to allow his workers to stay. A notorious womaniser and drinker, Oskar maintains a high profile and lavish image whilst many of his workers struggle to survive.

With a new concentration camp to be constructed in Kraków, SS member Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) is put in charge of the project. Goeth is relentless in his anti-Semitic actions, often referring to the inhabitants of the Ghetto as "rats" and executing people randomly for his own amusement. When Schindler meets Goeth, he forms a pseudo-friendship with the man, in the hope that he will prove useful down the line. Indeed, towards the end of the war, when Goeth is ordered to send the remaining Jews for extermination, Schindler is able to bribe him into letting him keep his workers. The names of these workers and their families, compiled by Schindler and Stern to send to Goeth, would become known as "Schindler's List".

The film was finally made, largely thanks to Holocaust survivor and 'Schindler Jew' Poldek Pfefferberg, who had been attempting to get the Schindler story made into a film for years with no success. That is, until he met Australian author Thomas Keneally. Keneally wrote the Booker Prize-winning novel Schindler's Ark, which inspired Spielberg to make Schindler's List. Keneally said that what drew him to the story was Schindler's flawed nature,"the fact that you couldn't see where opportunism ended and altruism began". Schindler is portrayed by Neeson as complex and difficult to read, but undeniably charitable. Whether his plan was always altruistic, or simply due to the transformative experience of a country deep in war, his actions permeate a sense of hope from a dark period in history and are presented through Spielberg's poignant biopic.

Presented almost entirely in black and white, the colourless imagery of Schindler's List depicts a low point in recent human history. Spielberg and his regular cinematographer, Janusz Kamiński felt that the black and white gave the film a documentary style, which they tied together with plenty of handheld shots, making it less subjective. However that doesn't make it any less of an emotional viewing experience. Certain elements of shots, including the flame from candles and the red coat worn by a little girl, were left in colour. This involved a painstaking process where the colour shots had to be greyed out, frame by frame, leaving just the desired colour. The result, given the symbolic nature of these moments, is really very moving. The musical score by, you guessed it, John Williams (Spielberg's go-to composer) seems very fitting for the sombre tone of the film and won Williams an Academy Award, one of seven awarded to the film. Schindler's List sends you through a barrel ride of emotion, and much of this is down to its superb presentation.

Spielberg couldn't have chosen a better cast with the then relatively unknown (now major action star) Liam Neeson leading the way as Schindler. Neeson's performance is crucial in creating a character that isn't simply a messiah, but rather has uncertain goals and personal demons to grapple with. Kingsley is astoundingly good as the intellectually brilliant Itzhak Stern, his performance is honest and often touching. Fiennes is very fierce as Goeth, which must have been an emotionally exhausting character to play given his horrific and heartless actions. Supporting them are Caroline Goodall as Schindler's wife Emilie, Jonathan Sagall as Poldek Pfefferberg and Embeth Davidz as Helen Hirsch, the Jewish girl that gained Goeth's admiration's whilst working as his maid.  

Schindler's List is an honest look at the Holocaust, and the man that combated it with his power. Through all the haunting imagery rests a positive message of hope that leaves you both ready to mourn history's victims and celebrate those that try to make a difference. A movie for humans.

A Walk Among the Tombstones

"So why are you looking up dead bitches, Matthew?"

Since 2009's Taken, the words "Liam Neeson dark-revenge-action-thriller" have become both ubiquitous and a running joke among audiences. But the sixty-odd year old Irishman's latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, takes this recent bankable action-star power of Neeson and breaks convention through adherence to an old formula, which actually results in both a good performance from Neeson, and a solid film. Based off of the tenth in what is so far seventeen novels by Lawrence Block about an alcoholic cop-turned-private-investigator, Matthew Scudder, and being both written and directed by Scott Park (writer of Minority Report, The Wolverine and Marley and Me), the film opens with a stylised armed robbery being foiled by a badass, grizzled, hairy Neeson  in early 90's New York. The plot then jumps eight years forward with a clean shaven Scudder being summoned to a drug traffickers home to solve the mystery of the man's kidnapped wife Soon, Scudder is on the trail of the sick and twisted kidnapping murderers, and employing a young, savvy teenager as his associate, played by Brian "Astro" Bradley a finalist on the American X--Factor talent show. What follows is a simple, dark and formulaic investigation, though from behind the other side of the law.

Walk Among the Tombstones breaks little to no new ground, but what it does deliver is a solid detective story. Neeson, while not quite in form, fully commits to this role, and for the first time in a while (excluding his cameo in the Ricky Gervais/Stephan Merchant/Warwick Davis show Life's Too Short) he is not sleepwalking through this role. He commits so much that when the film inevitably takes a gulp from the Taken well, as in Neeson answering a phone and taking command of the call with his gravelly voice, it actually fits into the story, becoming a real moment in the film instead of just capitalising on a part of popular culture for the sake of marketing.

The film itself falls into a certain style early on, settling into a calm, disturbing quietness for the most part that is interrupted by a dark score. Much of the early film is shot in static tripod shots and interesting angles that focus on characters, as well as a distinct lack of weaponry, which all seems to serve the film and its classic detective style nicely. Handheld, pans, dolly's and gunplay begin to appear in the late second act, as Scudder's understanding and morality comes under fire. Overall. it's making the old new, but not too new so as to ruin the feel of the old.This film exists somewhere between the iconic Clint Eastwood-starring Dirty Harry and the recent Tom Cruise vehicle also based off of a successful series of books, Jack Reacher. And like the latter, it has little to no business being as good as it is.

Tak3n is a thing now?

The French poster of the movie

That's right everyone. Even after the disastrous sequel to the action hit Taken was a failure, the producers still want to flog a dead horse for all its worth (which is a lot, apparently).

Liam Neeson returns as Brian Mills and this time instead of having someone kidnapped from under his nose, he is being framed for murder. Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace return as his wife and daughter with Forest Whitaker joining as the cop who tries to bring him done.

I think the Wikipedia page for this movie is even mocking it. It refer's to his "specific set of skills" in a very sarcastic way. The film is due for release sometime in 2015.

A Million Ways to Die in the West

There does certainly seem to be a million ways to die in the west, as we constantly being told by Seth MacFarlane's Albert Stark. It's as if he needs to remind the audience of this every five minutes, as though we have forgotten the title of the film we bought a ticket to see. It seems as though MacFarlane has invested a lot in this movie, having written, directed, produced and starred in it, and while it's not entirely unfunny, it isn't quite hilarious the entire way through.

But what more can we expect from the man who created Family Guy. Now I don't want everyone to jump to conclusions and accuse me of hating Family Guy (I do love it), but it is a show known for not being consistently funny. The majority of the jokes in the film are lavatorial in manner and that did appeal to the 10 year old in me, but the jokes that referenced classic western comedies appealed to the film nerd in me.

And there are plenty of references to these comedies. Films like Back to the Future: Part III, Django Unchained and the original western spoof Blazing Saddles are all referenced and done well. I even spotted a homage to probably the best western ever made, The Searchers.

One thing I found slightly distracting was the use of modern slang. Now while I can understand using the f-word (I mean Deadwood used much worse words on a regular basis), some of the language seemed out of place. It was almost like there was a deleted scene at the start in which Stark used a time machine to get back to the old west.

There are a lot of fantastic actors in this film as well. It's a shame they are all underused compared with the role MacFarlane has given himself. Charlize Theron and Liam Neeson are both extremely talented actors and are just used as scenery in scenes with MacFarlane. There are a lot of great cameos, including Gilbert Gottfried, Ryan Reynolds and Ewan McGregor. Bill Maher also does a western themed stand up set.

Verdict: Funny, but I feel as though MacFarlane could share around some of the bigger jokes to his co-stars to make a better film.

The Lego Movie

The Lego Movie takes the family film to a whole new level. Not only is it fantastically self-aware and satirical, it has jokes that will please the whole family. Back this up with a huge and amazing cast, as well as a great soundtrack by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh with songs that will get stuck in your head long after you finish watching.

The story centres on Emmet (Chris Pratt), a regular construction worker who loves to fit in and follow the rules. One day after his shift finishes, Emmet gets entangled in a plot to destroy the world by the evil villain and president Lord Business (Will Ferrell), who plans to use a relic known as Kragle (which turns out to be Krazy Glue missing some letters). Emmet is mistaken to be the Special and taken by Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) to the blind wizard Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), who tells Emmet that he is the chosen one to take down Lord Business.

The best jokes in this film come mainly from the movie's characters self awareness that they live in a world made of Lego. Emmet cannot build things without an instruction manual of which there are several big ones in the construction yard (the kind that come with all Lego sets). There are also references to many famous Lego sets of the past 40 years, including the famous Classic Space line of the early 80s.

Also there are a great number of parodical and satirical jokes. Some of these are references to real first world problems (# not included) such as exorbitant prices for cups of coffee. Others are very funny in-jokes aimed at the film industry, such as the relationship between Superman, voiced by Channing Tatum, and Green Lantern, voiced by Jonah Hill (both Tatum and Hill starred in 21 Jump Street).

There are also a great number of cameos aside from the two aforementioned. These include Shaquille O'Neal, Will Forte, Liam Neeson, Will Arnett as Batman and one of my favourite actors (if you read my blog regularly, you'll be well acquainted with my affinity for) Charlie Day.

The animation in the film is also amazing. It is done in a way that looks like it is stop-motion capturing whilst still being computer generated. Apart from some real objects that appear in the film, everything is made of actual Lego pieces that come in the sets. Toward the end of the film there are some life action scenes that work really well and don't interrupt the flow when they cut back to the animation.

Verdict: A really funny and smart film that will appeal to everyone.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

I'm going to be upfront, I was never a fan of the first Anchorman film. There were some funny set pieces, like the big fight, but overall I didn't find it consistent. But with The Legend Continues, I feel as though they've made a great comedy from that original concept.

Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) has just lost a promotion as lead anchor on the station on which he works to his wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). He is brought back from the brink of suicide by an offer to be one of the anchors on the world's first 24-hour news channel. First he must bring his award-winning news team back together; Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champ Kind (David Koechner) and Brick Tamland (Steve Carrell). Once they get to New York, the team are confronted by Jack Lime (James Marsden), whom they engage in a battle for ratings with.

Overall, this film is much more consistently funny than the first and although it may not be as quotable, it still will keep you laughing. Much like the first film, my favourite jokes come from Steve Carrell's portrayal of loveable weatherman Brick. James Marsden also gives a hilarious performance as arrogant anchor Jack Lime. There is also a huge range of cameos in this film, with everyone from comedy regulars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to serious actors like Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. Even Drake and Kanye make hilarious cameos.

Most of the best jokes in the film are directed at the 1980s themselves. Hilarious jabs at fashion and hairstyles (keep an eye out for those perms) and historical events, such as the trial of OJ Simpson. These jokes fly under the radar and happen very quickly, but if you can catch them, they are very rewarding.

Verdict: A hilarious film that did a lot better than the first with a fantastic concept.