On the couch

Peter Madden reviews The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Universal Soldier Regeneration.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (4 stars)
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Starring: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Woody Harrelson
It’s hard not to let the death of Heath Ledger colour any opinion of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
The talented Australian Oscar-winner died roughly a third of the way through the film’s production, leaving its completion in doubt. However, the surreal nature of the film allowed director Terry Gilliam utilise a creative ploy that allowed Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to play Ledger’s role of charming but morally ambiguous amnesiac, Tony, for parts of the film that hadn’t been shot.
The story centres on a troupe of travelling actors who, due to a deal with the Devil struck by Dr Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) himself, they spend their time trying to get members of their audience to explore their imaginations and make some sort of choice that sees them pledge their soul to either the Devil (Tom Waits) or to a more positive but unspecified cause.
So, nice and simple then.
In classic Gilliam style, the former Monty Python member takes a complicated story and makes it more convoluted with the introduction of Ledger’s character to the miserable, but balanced mix of Dr Parnassus, his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole); lovestruck juggler Anton (Andrew Garfield) and cranky dwarf Percy (Verne Troyer).
From the off, moments of confused head-scratching jostle with chuckles, gasps and eye-popping moments of wonder as the somewhat garbled yarn unfolds in imagination-stretching fashion.
As is so often the way with the British director’s work, the style of The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus far outweighs the substance. Not to say that the performances on show are insubstantial. All the cast members are great to watch; Ledger proving himself a generous performer within an ensemble and even ex-model Lily Cole bringing a pleasing combination of streetsmarts and naivety to her part.
The entertaining balance of this team effort is sent off the rails in the film’s second half, however, with the appearance of Ledger’s stand-ins. While each individual performance is excellent to watch, they shift the focus from the film itself to the memories of the dead actor, the high regard he was held in by his fellow actors and the effort that went into completing his final project.
Which is a pity, because if the approach of portraying Tony with different actors whenever he is in the land of the Imaginarium, had simply been an artistic choice it could have been hailed as a great idea without bending the movie out of shape.
That said, there is very little to disappoint here. Ledger reminds us, once again that with or without a villanous vehicle like the Joker to hide behind, he was a excellent actor and Gilliam, one of cinema’s true visionaries shows that few can match the style or extent of his imagination.

Universal Soldier Regeneration (3 stars)
Directed by: Ross Whitaker, Liam Nolan
Starring: Dean Murphy, Abdul Hussain, Darren Sutherland.
It’s hard to work out if Universal Soldier: Regeneration is a cynically brilliant attempt to cash in on the nostalgia of movie fans aged between about 27 and 40 or if producers really thought they were on to something of artistic merit in adding a fifth film to the series.
Regeneration goes back to the films’ core conceit of pitting formerly dead, reanimated super soldiers against each other in suitably perilous situations.
In this case, the peril from of a bunch of Russian terrorists who, with the help of a rogue scientist and his pet next generation Universal Soldier (played by professional mixed martial artist Andrei Arlovski) have taken control of what’s left of the Chernobyl power station and are threatening to do something nasty or nuclear or something.
Look – anyone who remembers the 1992 original fondly or, in fact, anyone else watching this would be best advised not to focus on such trivialities as the story. As soon as the man once called “The Muscles” appears on screen and starts beating the hell out of a coffee shop, the parts of your brain not responsible for giddy glee will switch off.
Either battling his old nemesis Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) or the new guy, Van Damme bears the marks of age like muscle-bound melons with more wrinkles than Peig Sayers’ armpit. Both he and Lundgren still have action chops though and the film’s fight scenes have an urgency and style more in common with the recent Liam Neeson flick Taken than any of the choreographed within an inch of the lives efforts of the 90s.
A straight C+ classic all the way.