Somethink Old Somethink New

Old:Europa Europa (1990)

Director: Agnieszka Holland

Writers: Solomon Perel, Agnieszka Holland,

Stars: Marco Hofschneider, René Hofschneider
 

Solomon Perel (upon who’s written account the film is based) is part of a German Jewish family about to incur the hateful sphere of Nazi Germany’s Nuremburg Laws, despite escaping to Polish refuge in Lodz the danger follows and the family is divided. Solomon subsequently via a ricocheting collective of fate and fortune finds his way into a Bolshevik orphanage, part of a German army unit and enrollment at a Hitler Youth school.

At each stop we suffer a juxtaposing set of belief systems, and are told “Communism is Beautiful” by a Russian Teacher, a German educator waxes lyrical of the Fuhrer’s lust for the purity of Nordic faced Aryan race, whilst a German School girl and would be love interest reveals her poisoned longing to see his people eradicated. Solomon absorbing all this hate and bluster must also ingests a grimly symbolic Grave of Jewish Graves Stones and the pain of his gruesome attempts to reverse his now clandestine circumcision; the only way his true ethnic identity can be revealed.

Europa Europa takes a particularly nuanced look at this survivalist true story of a Jewish boy manoeuvring his way through World War 2, the film has a rather assumptive stance on the graphic horrors of the war which are implied but not widely shown, instad there is a focus on the intense ideological backdrop of the conflict which manifests itself through religion, political propaganda and imposing institutionalism.

 

8/10

New:Last Vegas (2013)

Director: Jon Turteltaub

Writer: Dan Fogelman

Stars: Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman

Imagine Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, David Bowie and the lead singer from Shed Seven getting together for a knees-up in Blackpool to which you are invited, what might sound like it has all the ingredients for a great night soon declines into the group ogling young girls they are old enough to grandparent. If you can imagine this then you are at least half the way to the attempted joys of Last Vegas, a film that promises you 3 legends for the price of 4 and proceeds to patronise its audience with some uninspired life messages with only a few mildly funny gags to act as compensation.

In what could be dubbed the “The Expendables for serious actors”, Michael Douglas assembles his old pals Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and last and least Kevin Kline for a Bachelor Party in Sin City as he battles to fight off father time by marrying a woman half his age, in the process his friends are drawn into a similar battle against the other purported lethargies of later life such as stale sexless marriages, loneliness and ill health.

In the end Last Vegas resembles that night out you probably could do without, but couldn't help feeling like you'd be missing out so you pop along for the heck of it, only to return home somewhat underwhelmed by your own sobriety.

6/10