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(Bronson, Fear X, Pusher 1-3, Valhalla Rising, TV: De udvalgte, Marple)
Producers:
Daniel Hansford and Rupert Preston
Screenplay:
Brock Norman Brock and Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast :
Charles Bronson: Tom Hardy
Paul: Matt King
Phil: James Lance
Mum: Amanda Burton
Uncle Jack: Hugh Ross
Alison: Juliet Oldfield
Andy Love (Librarian): Mark Powley
So there was I thinking we'd get a film about the next chapter in the life of the angry Hitleresque teacher from Grange Hill...
Oh, no, it's not that Bronson. It's about Charles Bronson, violent thug and long-time friend to the cells.
In 1974, Michael Peterson was locked up for seven years for armed robbery on a post office where he got away with all of
£26.18. As he states, all he ever wanted to do is be famous and he saw prison as a place to make his name known.
As the film progresses, we can see he went through several prisons before going to Rampton, being drugged up to the
eyeballs, and ending up at Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminal Insane.
Tom Hardy takes the lead role and Peterson is released in 1988 and moves back to Luton to stay with his gay
Uncle Jack (Hugh Ross) and meets up again with gay fellow prisoner Paul (Matt King, aka Superhans from
Peep Show) and temporarily dates Alison (Juliet Oldfield), but it doesn't take long before he's locked
up 69 days later for a jewellery robbery, from which he has never escaped since due to his violent tendancies.
However, even though he was out in the late '80s, the style does look like the late '70s, with the music being early '80s
electro at a time when acid house was all the, ahem, rave.
Whilst back in jail, he takes the name of Charles Bronson and becomes a prize bare-knuckle fighter. At least he's good
at something. Well, that and he kidnaps prison guard Andy Love (Mark Powley) in his cell.
You can feel the tension coming off the screen but it does feel very bitty on the whole and it does start to outstay
its welcome; and while Tom Hardy certainly does a great job of portraying the vicious thug, this is a film that doesn't
match up to his talents.
There are some bizarre theatrical interludes as 'Bronson' introduces varius periods of his life in a style more befitting
the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The trailers in the extras make this out to be a "Clockwork Orange for the 21st
Century". Well, no. That's just the weird make-up from during these scenes. It doesn't have the weirdness from ACO,
although it does have the same boredom factor.
Other than that there's what basically amount to be cameos from the aforementioned Matt King, plus James Lance
as an art teacher and Amanda Burton, unrecognisable as Bronson's mum.
Overall, I couldn't get into Stuart: A Life Backwards on BBC2 and the same goes for this. It's just a case of:
Man spends a few years in jail. Comes out. Goes back in 3 months later because he can't stop being violent. Man spends
rest of life in prison. The end.
Glass Candy: Digital Versicolor
The film is presented in 1:85:1 and there's a gritty look to the print so doesn't really show off the quality of Blu-ray
and which actually detracts from the film itself so I'm not sure quite what they were aiming for here. There's no problems
with the sound, here in Dolby True HD, DTS 5.1 and Stereo, but apart from the excellent theme tune (Glass Candy's Digital Versicolor, see right)
and the Pet Shop Boys'
"It's a Sin", there's only really general ambience and dialogue in there, other than shouting when Bronson thumps
people.
The extras are as follows:
Making Of (15:23):
Behind-the-scenes featurette with various comments from the cast and crew. The director tells us that the script wasn't
the best before he got his hands on it, but... I could argue that he clearly can't have done a lot with it to improve
that.
Audio introduction (16:06):
from Charles Bronson himself. A long introduction, but if you're a fan of the convict then this is for you.
Tom Hardy: Building the Body (5:48):
How he bulked up for the part.
TV Spots (0:54):
Three TV trailers
Teaser (0:55):
Does what it says on the tin, and makes it look more interesting than it actually is.
Valhalla Rising (1:58):
A trailer for the director's new film, starring Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Pusher, Flame & Citron)
The menus feature a segment of the film's theme, along with brief clips sandwiched together. However, common complaints
with a few films from Contender, now E1 Entertainment, are that there's only 12 chapters to the film - which isn't nearly enough
as I work on a rule-of-thumb of one every five minutes, plus one each for opening and closing credits; and also that there
are no subtitles. There's 50Gb of space on these disc, and 9Gb on a regular DVD where subtitles were also conspicuous
by their absence. Can Contender/E1 please look into sorting out both of these issues?
Oh, and there's also trailers before the main menu as well. Please don't do this as they should be in the Extras menu.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Blu-ray: 
So there was I thinking we'd get a film about the next chapter in the life of the angry Hitleresque teacher from Grange Hill...
