Saw the new Star Trek film last night...... awesome!
Saw the new Star Trek film last night...... awesome!
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I was so happy to hear that this film was going to be released on DVD. Restless Natives is a film that was a well known film when released in the 1985, and is a film that recently is making a bit of a comeback, it's a film that you can just watch over and over again and just take the story in and enjoy it again and again for what it is and what you see on-screen. It's also a film that is very rarely shown on TV as well.
Set in Edinburgh, the story sees two men hatching a plan to do something original and spontaneous that will change their lives forever and give them worth in life, with this in mind they don the masks of a Wolfman and a Clown. Using a motorbike they travel out of the City and go up into the Highlands, springing surprise robbery's and holding up a number of tourist coaches, with the money they receive they distribute as they see fit, a good example being that we see them throw vast amounts of money over a wall to a mobile kitchen serving the homeless or going through a housing estate literally chucking the money away.
As the story goes on we see Will and Ronnie in their alter-egos become wanted men by the Police and an unlucky member of the FBI who just happened to be on holiday and got held up by the pair. As news spreads nationally about the hold up's the pair are doing they become modern day Robin Hood's, the only problem being that a few unexpected issues have raised to the surface to which the film really take the opportunity to open up and as the story proceeds we see Will and Ronnie having to tackle with the multiple cans of worms that have been opened.
Costing of two unknown actors in this role was one of the ingredients that makes the film so good.
Will is the family boy; he lives at home with his parents and has a mischievous sister who seems to know everything going on. Played by Vincent Friell, the character is desperately looking for a path to move on with his life. Remember this was the time of Thatcherism was at its peak and it is reflected in some of the dialogue and scenes.
Will's accomplice in this adventure is Ronnie, played by Joe Mullaney, like Will he also wants more from life and is bored working at the joke shop, however he is the complete opposite of Will; he wants the fame, the glory and the good life. In fact he wants more at every outing and starts to take the role of modern day Highwayman to seriously and makes acquaintances with the local villains who also want a piece of the action. Ronnie works in a joke shop and this is where the masks originated, in fact it was his mix of various itching powders that was used on the FBI agent, played by Ned Beatty, who wants to get revenge for what he did to him. Both main leads are given a decent backstory from where they come from and enough to see that where one has a family the other doesn't as it is Ronnie who is the outcast and feels safer talking to gravestones and dead people.
The rest of the cast fit in line with the story perfectly and although the Police are made to look stupid with what they do when working with Ned Batty playing FBI Agent Bender. In fact the reason Bender is on-leave is due to the fact that he is going through a divorce, so throughout the film this played as a running gag when he has to take an important phone call thinking its Washington, when in reality it's his Solicitor. Beatty who was well known and was in quite a few other films such as Superman II is the biggest star of the film, he brings an edge to the film and plays the role of Bender in a completely over the top way and takes charge off the situation in quite hysterical consequences.
The film is a comedy and the genesis of the story is the two main characters being friends; in fact the methods they use to hold up the coaches are never actually aggressive at all and through multiple hold up's being performed the pair start to get a cult following. For example with the Police they become the 17th most wanted criminals, while with the tour companies they are running more daily trips than before as the tourists are flocking to the various tour companies to get a close up look of the bandits in the flesh in the hope of being held up!
The cleverness about this film is in the writing as each situation has an end solution and the fact that there are a number of issues before that solution is applied, whether right or wrong, is just pure entertainment. The film works well with the story telling of the film which ends up not too far away from fiasco, but a long way from farce.
There a number of sub-plots involved in the film and even though some of these are there for laughs and are funny in their own right, some aren't and as the pressure against the Wolfman and Clown builds up you see just how much media coverage they get, to the extent that a Japanese news crew get involved as well and decide to film one of the Police chases that take place in the last third of the film and is done on a huge scale, a chase which goes round Edinburgh City Centre to start with and ends up some distance outside the City.
As is natural for somewhere as historical and beautiful as Edinburgh, the locations are used to the maximum, from the City Centre which really hasn't changed at all and the open Highlands that the Wolfman and Clown use to their advantage. In fact the locations outside the City are indeed used to send a postcard to the audience to show what Scotland has to offer in terms of tourism and I think that even though the film has been made in this manner, you can't deny that all the locations have a lot to offer. The film itself has definitely captured the beauty and even captured the reality of the amount of American tourists that still board the coaches to this day, even ensuring that the manner in which the more mature of the group are dressed correctly.
The other big selling point of the film is the soundtrack, recorded by Big Country and being released on the Restless Natives and Rarities album, a 35 minute piece is on the album with all the music contained from the film interspersed with dialogue from the film. Rare being the key word as the album is extremely hard to get hold off, and has been exchanging hands for £60 on Amazon!
As I said at the beginning that the film is making somewhat of a comeback, well this is the first time that it has been released on DVD as the last time it was available was on VHS some 20 years ago. It is good to see this film again and great to see that it has been released with the dignity it deserves.
It's harmless fun that easily fills 90 minutes and does indeed show what Scotland has to offer without detracting from the story and the plot, one thing I will say that it is a film that you have to watch from the beginning. If you join half way through then the chances are you won't understand what is necessarily happening on-screen.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Must have passed me by first time around. Might try and catch it now though.
Ruby.xo 19.08.2009 12:14
A really good review, E from me. Agree with LawrenceP below that its well written and helpful without spoiling the storyline for people who haven't seen it yet. xxxxx
Ronnie (Joe Mullaney) and Will (Vincent Friell) are two free-wheeling lads living on a ... more
housing estate in Edinburgh. Broke and bored, the two decide to politely rob coachloads of tourists travelling through the Highlands for a bit of cash. Donning a wol...
They're bigger than the Loch Ness monster! Ronnie and Will two lads from Edinburgh ... more
embark on a non-violent spree of robberies. Dressing up in bizarre costumes the duo act as modern highwaymen robbing coach loads of tourists in the Highlands; eventu...
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![Restless Natives [DVD] [1985]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/79303855.jpg "Restless Natives [DVD] [1985]")
Aug 18th, 2009
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