tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81298720470191975912024-03-05T21:41:39.760-08:00New Film BlogNew Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-4267212439188941742011-05-11T03:02:00.000-07:002011-05-11T03:02:07.855-07:00Review for Hanna<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPDH5xT8gqMCVx5EH0ytd11-HUvAABQKdCrEplcKni1r0b-qnU_HtqiEMgZSMkkhjm5GGqIaH5GLWCLlur7zDOlUrEJWv-j7N2NywBv5WF4GaWLZ0X3uGq3M0_AE-HJWENI2AxlbNYzEE/s1600/hanna_poster_movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPDH5xT8gqMCVx5EH0ytd11-HUvAABQKdCrEplcKni1r0b-qnU_HtqiEMgZSMkkhjm5GGqIaH5GLWCLlur7zDOlUrEJWv-j7N2NywBv5WF4GaWLZ0X3uGq3M0_AE-HJWENI2AxlbNYzEE/s320/hanna_poster_movie.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Interest grew for Hannah after the news that director Joe Wright (director of Atonement) was set to film the script by Seth Lockhad and David Farr and that The Chemical Brothers were set to record a soundtrack for the first time in their career. After some slow burners the British film-maker has done in the past, he has finally steps up to direct something fast paced and fun.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">In the snow covered wilderness of Finland lives ex-spy Erik (Eric Banna) and his young daughter Hanna (<span class="apple-style-span">Saoirse Ronan</span>). At the beginning of the movie we see the super kid Hanna, take down a wild dear bringing back memories of the recently popular young girls kicking ass crossed with a Luc Besson movie. This sets the tone as the story develops into a chase movie. The reason for their hidden location is made clear to Hanna upon Erik asking if she is “ready”? For reasons unknown to us at first, Hanna is being haunted by some government headed by Marissa (Cate Blanchett) who is looking to capture and dispose of her. As the race begins we see Hanna traverse different continents in a classic secret agent style which has been simplified for younger audiences.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Despite Hanna appearing to be another James Bond for kids it is more a cross between the Bourn trilogy and Besson’s Nakita. The film does over all feel like a simple, non-Parisian Besson film on the whole which is one of its likable qualities. Whilst the quick cuts do thrill on the most part, Cate Blanchett does another great performance as the OCD government boss who has more character then a lot of super spy badies we see now a days and even though Eric Banna disappears for some part of the movie his role is interesting enough to keep audiences entertained.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Also surprisingly for an action adventure, director Joe Wright does include a lot of poetic shots which work well. The director whose previous movies, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice as well as The Soloist<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>have all been at the very least visually impressive, and Hanna is no exception.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The movies biggest floor is one which could have been dramatically shortened and would have had a better effect over the film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The part I am referring too happens to be that of the travelling British family who hang onto the action in the movie like a bad smell which won’t leave. Now at first it is easy to see that their obnoxious daughter Sophie (Jessica Barden) is suppose to be the contrast to Hannah as we see a normal girl compared to this outrageous killing machine that Hanna is. However in the end they just entertain the hordes of young audiences.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Over all Hanna is an enjoyable movie. Despite some setbacks with the family, the movie is both visually entertaining as well as adding a touch of Bourne to keep the action fresh. But don’t get me wrong, there is very little in it that is original but with the Chemical Brother’s fast beats the movie transcends more than most spy action thrillers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRUx88vRjIk">Trailer</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">* * *</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-90581124285926872702011-05-09T03:00:00.000-07:002011-05-09T03:00:40.290-07:00Review for Thor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikPpsj9aW7q_53i27RQKHcqNMsngJ1dQIpeaVn1X3jJZLrz5gTRLYmFCSJhT98RgfsIk2vsJtw6KnjmQX10k39m5zub7473Fvxct05H28tlpjaB0l6KsqPATqUKw1jL1lBu6VxDcpT73s/s1600/thor-poster-olly-moss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikPpsj9aW7q_53i27RQKHcqNMsngJ1dQIpeaVn1X3jJZLrz5gTRLYmFCSJhT98RgfsIk2vsJtw6KnjmQX10k39m5zub7473Fvxct05H28tlpjaB0l6KsqPATqUKw1jL1lBu6VxDcpT73s/s320/thor-poster-olly-moss.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">For comic book geeks, the horizon looks very bright as comic book adaptations are beginning to be taken a bit more seriously after the recent success. With the unknowing success of <span style="line-height: 115%;">Jon Favreau</span>’s two Iron Man movies, Marvel Studio’s are heading to bigger names with both the Thor and Captain America movies lined up for this summer. The first of this summer is Kenneth Branagh’s high anti superhero flick before we get to experience Captain America: The First Avenger this June.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">As the movie begins we meet Jane Foster (Natilie Portman) an enthusiastic (to say the least )<span class="Heading1Char"><span style="color: #111111; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span>astrophysicist with her mentor Erik (<span class="apple-style-span">Stellan<b><span style="color: #136cb2;"> </span></b>Skarsgård) and the ironically unfunny comic relief Darcey (Kat Dennings) as they are searching for a cosmic occurrence which is unlike anything they’ve seen. What soon follows in the wake of it all is the discovery of a mysterious man they hit with their truck. The movie then truly begins at Oden (Anthony Hopkins) gets the audience up to day on a brewing war between Asgard and the Ice Giants. At first we see Thor as a war hungry warrior with little regard for life but between the squabbling with brother </span>Loki (<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Tom Hiddleston</span>) and the arrogant behaviour, Oden is finally left with banishing Thor to Earth in order to prove himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">First thing to say about Thor is that you get everything you wanted (which I don’t mean in a good way). It is another dumb comic book movie with little real characters and very little staying power. Unlike The Dark Knight or Road to Perdition, which had a lot of character even though it was adapted material, Thor feels very safe and family friendly. It is understandable seeing how the budget was through the roof, however Branagh original vision was for Thor to be an art movie and it is hard to imagine what a movie like Thor would have been like in an art house cinema.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Whilst being completely stupid one moment, the movie is actually enjoyable in parts. Despite the heavy expository dialogue which is needed to keep the audience up to speed, when the movie is set on Earth everything feels very dumbed down. One moment we see an interesting story set in a fairly interesting world of Asgard only to be ironically disappointed like Thor himself when sent to Earth. It almost becomes a tease after we see impressive sets such as God-like halls and beautiful (but artificial) vistas only to going to middles of Arizona with annoying mortals. This is a problem when all the Earth sections equal up to roughly forty percent of the movie, and during that time the audience is left wondering what is happening in Asgard rather than the action on screen.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The story on Earth does potter along and grow more appealing towards the end after some unsurprising twists and turns as the two world merge. With the odd unfunny joke and a un-amusing racist remark (you’ll know it when you hear it) the film does take itself a little too seriously as S.H.E.I.L.D, who look like a bunch of idiots, attempt to look ‘cool’ in front of the superheroes. And with the comic book references and nods to The Avengers movie, fans of the source material will enjoy looking out for all the little secrets which does make the movie more appealing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">It is strange seeing a now prestigious actress such as Natalie Portman (after the recent award season) take a role so easy as Jane the one dimensional character but it is her co-star Kat Dennings who takes the award for being one of the most truly annoying on screen appearance in cinema this year (and after Nick & Noah’s Infinite Playlist she is turning out to be an very obnoxious actress). Chris Hemsworth (who was last seen in Star Trek) does a believable job as the God of Thunder and appears to have fun with it. Along with him Tom Hiddleston as Loki and Idris Elba as Heimdall the movie is redeemed and pulled together.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Apart from some stupid set scenes and boring action sequences, the scenes in Asgard do revive the movie and make it worth a watch. Marvel fans will go on multiply viewings but they will be alone with a lot of the children audiences as the movie only asks for the one viewing before Marvel Studio’s next summer blow up Captain America: The First Avenger.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOddp-nlNvQ">Trailer</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">* * *</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-83295255895165138862011-04-05T03:28:00.000-07:002011-04-05T05:42:02.748-07:00Review for Sucker Punch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUIZYTxLaWEJxSiDKFb8su_lqqTpJL97kM94yhKlqlRdrBeyGTzuJTNqwnedrF_OoFh1sdhRDcNUNan2R9gG1bSAtfJOJrP7LWET21t4sCh05k8iuZIYZ8T6IUOeWNYinKjeoOZeJFzKc/s1600/sucker-punch-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUIZYTxLaWEJxSiDKFb8su_lqqTpJL97kM94yhKlqlRdrBeyGTzuJTNqwnedrF_OoFh1sdhRDcNUNan2R9gG1bSAtfJOJrP7LWET21t4sCh05k8iuZIYZ8T6IUOeWNYinKjeoOZeJFzKc/s320/sucker-punch-poster.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">After adapting material from great writers and director’s such as Frank Miller, Anal Moore and George A. Romero, the 300 director Zack Snyder is back for his first film from a none established source in the seemingly beautiful Sucker Punch. This being Snyder’s fifth film and third screenplay you would have thought he’d be competent enough to whip up at least a half decent movie. However this is not the case as instead he throws up this childish dribble.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> Set at an undisclosed time, the story begins with a nameless character (Emily Browning) going through difficulties at home as her abusive father torments her and her sister after the death of her mother. Shortly after this nameless character is sent to an insane asylum come night club after she is blamed for the death of her little sister. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">When at the asylum, she receives the nickname Babydoll as she finds that dancing is taught to the patients to help them overcome their troubles. However Babydoll is special (why wouldn’t she be), when she begins to dance she begins to enter a world of her imagination where she has to defeat some generic obstacles such as dragons, Nazi zombies, robots and so on. Babydoll is quick to realises that she can paralyse men when they watch her dance and she begins to form a simplistic and naïve plan to escape from the power crazy owner Blue (Oscar Isaacs) before the doctor arrives to lobotomise her in a few days time. With the help of a few other inmates such as Rocket (Jena Malone), her uptight sister Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), the ironically named Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and the unfortunately boringly named Amber (Jamie Chung) they set out to collect four various item which in some way will aid their escape.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">In quite a surprising turn Snyder, who has made some good pieces of work, has out done himself as Sucker Punch is one of the most stupid and insipid movies you’ll see this year. The terrible plot is covered by flashy fight scenes which resample an anime sooner than a comic book. The visuals are quite impressive but I falls flat as the context is so preposterous it’s ridicules. The thought that when a character dances she fights generic looking robot is so contradictory it just makes it feel as if Snyder has no respect for dancing and replaces it with a twelve year olds wet dream.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">When watching the movie it’s hard not to notice the portrayal of both sexes which Snyder puts forward. If it wasn’t offensive enough to cast only beautiful women from different cultures (one for everyone) who blame men for all the evil in the world, the men in the movie are at times so blinded by their penis’ that they boil down to nothing more than dumb fifties archetypes of a manly men. The machismo is through the roof like the skimpy outfits the women wear when running around the imaginative world. It seems Snyder was aiming more for Sin City in tone then his last audience splitter Watchmen. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Then when you begin to see the characters more clearly you begin to realise that none of the girls are even slightly insane. It isn’t made clear if this is an intentional One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest similarity but it seems it’s more down to a bad script. But that obviously isn’t where the criticism on the script ends. A lot of things are so contrived in the script such as the insane asylum come club (which is more a whore house) who’s workers only gain a sense of morality towards the end after some futile sacrifices and murders of the patients.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The only redeeming fact is that some of the antigravity like fight scenes are impressive which doesn’t compliment Snyder as it does the fight choreographer. The stylish sword swinging as well as the artificial visuals which looks to be mostly green screen do make the film worth seeing but audiences will become restless and soon bored of the subtle distraction to a very flawed movie.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">With all it’s flash visuals and smooth choreography, Sucker Punch is nothing more the a horrendous pop corn movie. The film will sell tickets though and audiences will feel cheated as the advertisement promised a better movie all round. All that is left is an immature portrait of mental health which merges into a twelve year olds wet dream. It’s uninspiring and boring. It appears that the genre for a character who deals with troubles in an insane asylum (ala Girl Interpreted, I’m A Cyborg, But That’s Ok) is over as it has become as cut and paste as the last film.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Q_1IdCFkU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Trailer</span></a></o:p></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">* * </span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-34798135423470210082011-03-23T09:44:00.000-07:002011-03-23T09:44:01.894-07:00Review for SUBMARINE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRmpUoRjtA5-GTXwIkx1O2NjjQtTGCmn4DMKdYB9RIYOUiH-m5Rx8E9k-0Y00zdozFhWFgWDgUun6_FyGMmRLEsrj5hrn7IfSjZ0UtwJdiuL9_DfWMQ_EXBqZfi2ETOQDYahVyUZ_yWLA/s1600/Submarine-Film-Poster7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRmpUoRjtA5-GTXwIkx1O2NjjQtTGCmn4DMKdYB9RIYOUiH-m5Rx8E9k-0Y00zdozFhWFgWDgUun6_FyGMmRLEsrj5hrn7IfSjZ0UtwJdiuL9_DfWMQ_EXBqZfi2ETOQDYahVyUZ_yWLA/s320/Submarine-Film-Poster7.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Was it just me or did most people grow up believing in the back of their minds that they where the stars of their own movie? For the sixteen year old Oliver Tate this happens to be the case, as the lead character in Richard Ayoade’s new feature debut Submarine, based on the book by Joe Dunthone. The movie which played at a number of film festivals has been picking up speed since its debut at Sundance, and has proven a success in both the UK as well as the US as the Weinstein Brother’s have picked it up for one million dollars.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">Set in Swansea, in an undisclosed time period the movie follows Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) an over-thinking adolescent whose biggest worries are keeping his parents Jill (Sally Hawkins) and Lloyd (Noah Taylor) dying marriage together, whilst trying to woo an anti-romantic girl in his class Jordana (Yasmin Paige). For Oliver it appears he is having a sort of mid-life crisis (even at the young age of sixteen) as he pulls all the strings of his life together, but on the arrival of new next door neighbour Graham (Paddy Constantine), an old flame of his mother’s, Oliver’s depressed dad begins to lose interest in saving the marriage which proves harder then he first expected.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">Submarine is the story of a boy trying to grow up before his time. Whilst attempting to keep his family life together, he bullies the easy target at school to impress Jordana. His almost selfish tendencies do become comical as he imagines the repercussions of his death whilst bored in school. The dark subjects of the movie are made comical whilst keeping the respect they deserve, which is shown in one scene as a timid Oliver sits uncomfortably eating dinner around Jordana’s house as the family cry over the possible death of Jordana’s mother after being diagnosed with cancer.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">The film has also been compared to the works of Wes Anderson and Francis Truffaut and it is easy to see why as the film holds its heart on its sleeve. Its kooky edge will be appealing to some but annoying to others who aren’t so much a fan of American Indie cinema or the French New Wave, however the film is extremely funny in a way that will please all.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">Richard Ayoade (whose popularity arose whilst he played Moss in The IT Crowd as well as Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace) really has done an impressive job as the film looks timeless whilst mixing in 16mm footage of Oliver and Jordana’s blossoming love. Accompanying the two naïve teenagers is a soundtrack by Arctic Monkey’s lead Alex Turner, which is a slow and gentle collection of melancholy tunes which is worth listening to outside of the movie. This all adds to a film about young love which many of us expected and wanted all the while, consistent with the theme of girls growing up faster then boys. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">All in all Submarine is an unbelievably cool and funny British flick which has a lot of staying power. The funny moments are highlighted by the artistic visuals and witty voiceover of an adolescent teenager fighting to grow up, much like Jim in Rebel without a Cause. The film is likely to entertain all, even though nods to Rohmer, Truffaut and Anderson will fly over most audiences’ heads.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">* * * *</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IVFfiv6wpY">Trailer</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXU1e51enAtHALU-NQzx0q3A0ZnCey62jXheqmsanaEBynQ6ihzOC8zSBtVsmIct7ICKwcWmDdoa81z-rGNEn5qB2fV9-UVRoiQ8jiHLoZAF612xxzyLa0_CqzGR4OWiYEU08qZeRFPog/s1600/submarine07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXU1e51enAtHALU-NQzx0q3A0ZnCey62jXheqmsanaEBynQ6ihzOC8zSBtVsmIct7ICKwcWmDdoa81z-rGNEn5qB2fV9-UVRoiQ8jiHLoZAF612xxzyLa0_CqzGR4OWiYEU08qZeRFPog/s320/submarine07.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></span>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-36975579596502089022011-03-15T14:16:00.000-07:002011-03-15T14:16:27.566-07:00Review for Norwegian Wood<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFfAcRvesnmb8dYld0HKoXOd39rLD3t5Li53VoeEmSHZet0053aHTxKBYrDGFmqbU-rojSfmySHmjrC68FCL-iKVT8-zTgpHomKGlH6vw8Xsgz2r8dZrnuXcARWOpC-RuK8K-OvjOJ5iA/s1600/tumblr_lhjminLik01qzkg8ro1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFfAcRvesnmb8dYld0HKoXOd39rLD3t5Li53VoeEmSHZet0053aHTxKBYrDGFmqbU-rojSfmySHmjrC68FCL-iKVT8-zTgpHomKGlH6vw8Xsgz2r8dZrnuXcARWOpC-RuK8K-OvjOJ5iA/s320/tumblr_lhjminLik01qzkg8ro1_500.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Adaptations are never an easy task, at one point you’ll always upset a die hard fan in one way or another. Luckily for Norwegian Wood’s director Anh Hung Tran, this isn’t the case. The only problem is that fans of the original source will enjoy its pace and mood, whilst others might be left slightly bored.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Based on the famous Japanese book by Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood tells the story of Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama), a student in 60s Tokyo who falls in love with his dead best friend’s girlfriend Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi) as they attempt to over come their shared tragedy. However as depression and teen angst sets in, so does Naoko’s mental illness, forcing her to leave Tokyo. In this time Wantanabe meets free-spirited girl Midori (Kiko Mizuhara) in his class who is a light in the dark tunnel of his life.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The first problem the movie has is its slow nature. However this is a conscious factor that the director clearly wanted for the movie. Long shots of the beautiful Japanese meadows are littered throughout, juxtaposed with close intermit shots inside Japanese flats. The melancholic pace the film has might bore some audiences and entertain others who are used to it. The film clocks in at over two hours keeping in all the importing quirks the book has which fans will latch onto, such as the character of Storm Trooper (Tokio Emoto).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The slow pace is also thrown in with a lot of silent sections which almost makes the content we are watching awkward, as if we are intruders on their lives. This isn’t a fault; this makes the audience feel more involved in the movie as we see Watanabe’s struggles with growing up. When the soundtrack is present its orchestral numbers and electric tunes (done by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood) are mixed in with songs from the time period such as The Doors. These give it an authentic feel and set it in its time period.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Even though the Vietnam-born director couldn’t speak Japanese, Rinko Kikuchi (who received an Oscar nomination for her flawless performance in Babel) steals the show as the mentally fragile Naoko. The movie is really at its high point when we are with Naoko and drops when Kiko Mizuhara plays an awkward Midori whose playful edge (which is present in the book) is slightly downplayed. Kenichi Matsuyama performance as Watanabe may look dull on the outside but actually hits the nail on the head as he is witness to a world changing around him which he can’t seem to do anything about. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Norwegian Wood is a near perfect adaption of an amazing book. The film has a personal feel from the director which people get when reading a Murakami book. All the little traits and jokes from the book happened to make it in which will entertain some audiences but confuses and bore many others however Anh Hung Tran’s beautiful visuals and believable characters already has it’s audiences as the movie is playing on limited screens.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZWVipm16sU">Trailer</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">* * * *</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-88203506468398863922011-03-13T09:55:00.000-07:002011-03-13T09:55:46.167-07:00Review for Rango<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKWOM6LqiPyWLqdIbsKVWRzC9SUuUK_TxF0BXjRVyInkUFF9_EHQ9Lc8hwL8cgkqcZLOYn9SMzpWwlzNOC_qZ7-6Fj0mBsMQjuyr09Msk1trn5NDFfmzjRT1PD6fKrbbmZBWMmDnA3RPk/s1600/Rango1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKWOM6LqiPyWLqdIbsKVWRzC9SUuUK_TxF0BXjRVyInkUFF9_EHQ9Lc8hwL8cgkqcZLOYn9SMzpWwlzNOC_qZ7-6Fj0mBsMQjuyr09Msk1trn5NDFfmzjRT1PD6fKrbbmZBWMmDnA3RPk/s320/Rango1.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">When you look at a directors back catalogue, such as Gore Verbinski’s, and see the trash they’ve spewed, it’s finally nice to see something off worth and merit shine through. The Pirates of the <st1:place w:st="on">Caribbean</st1:place> director is back with Johnny Depp in a story of destiny that will have Pixar shaking in it’s boots.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Rango tells the story of a lonesome but charming chameleon (Johnny Depp) who after a literal bump in the road is forced to survive in the harsh climates of the <st1:place w:st="on">Mojave Desert</st1:place>. Before long he meets Roadkill (Alfred Molina) a mysterious travelling Armadillo who points him on his journey. After some psychogenic trips in the desert our charismatic hero finds himself in the town of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dirt</st1:place></st1:city> and after some confrontation in the local bar becomes a character he creates named Rango. After taking care of one of many of the towns problems, Rango is promoted to town Sherriff where in he begins to discover the mystery of where all the towns’ water has disappeared to. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">As to be expected along the way there is betrayal and redemption which all add up into a somewhat generic story similar to this years terrible action movie The Warrior’s Way, however adds elements from other movies such as Chinatown and A Fistful of Dollars to make it shine.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">And that’s really all the negative thinks you can say about the movie. The animated visuals done by Industrial Light & Magic (which is a division of Lucas Arts) are the easily one of the best that’s been seen in the cinema, hands down. Where Pixar balances it’s content with beautiful visuals, Rango’s visuals are heavily impressive with a easy going plot. The detail on the many verities of animals and environments is impressing and leaves the audience in awe.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The voice work by celebrated actors such as Bill Nighy, Ray Winstone and Ned Beatty is on top form with Johnny Depp stealing the show (which was needed after the travesty that was The Tourist). The film will play to both children as well as adults as there are references to Fear and Loathing in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Las Vegas</st1:city></st1:place> as well as Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Rango ends up being a very enjoyable film which entertains nearly everybody. Even though the story is lacking in originality the visuals, jokes and characters give the movie what it needs to not be forgotten anytime soon. As well as the LSD implied trips and plastic yellow fish it’s nice to go back to the Wild West.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQjJEYTiga0">Trailer</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">* * * *</span></div></span>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-19927649184559465352011-02-13T05:41:00.000-08:002011-02-13T05:41:13.874-08:00Review for ‘The Fighter’<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHGDJHN3TqMzExcFs6bxfS4WW2mZMs8Hv4bNvg9SfnbG4Cj4tkVkuo4GfqCKGg8RF8z4_EfWYkOk5AT-g83qzTAX8kCezOHUgXtctcdC2KMgConhcmGyhApgnKLa7c8w2EwQpQrcoabYk/s1600/the-fighter-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHGDJHN3TqMzExcFs6bxfS4WW2mZMs8Hv4bNvg9SfnbG4Cj4tkVkuo4GfqCKGg8RF8z4_EfWYkOk5AT-g83qzTAX8kCezOHUgXtctcdC2KMgConhcmGyhApgnKLa7c8w2EwQpQrcoabYk/s320/the-fighter-poster.jpg" width="204" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Before you even sit down and watch The Fighter it is already apparent that this movie reflects Christian Bales career. He has had some ups (such as the American Psycho) and some downs (need I remind people of the on set freak out). However as he has shown he is once again back on top form along with Mark Walberg and Melissa Leo in David O. Russell’s story of someone following their dreams.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Based on a true story, Micky (Mark Walberg) a small time boxer who’s trainer is his older brother Dicky (Christian Bale) has only been a steppingstone for other boxers. But that’s not Micky’s only problem, whilst battling his latest opponents he is also battling with a controlling mother (Melissa Leo), a crack addicted brother Dicky, an ex-wife who won’t let him see his daughter all the while trying to keep everything in his life together. After loosing an important match, Micky feels as if his career is over as he is being pulled at by several separate things in his life. After meeting Charlene (Amy Adams) a college drop out from a bar, she is soon to boost the fighters moral and help him accomplish his dreams.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Despite the movie being compared to Rocky, The Fighter doesn’t feel too much as if it is living in the shadows of it’s older brother. There is enough in the movie about family conflict to keep the audience focused on the important issues rather then simply the fighting. It goes without saying that it won’t be remembered like Rocky or Raging Bull however that doesn’t mean it’s bad, just very forgettable.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">One of the most impressive parts of David O. Russell’s directing involves the sections in the boxing ring as the camera jumps to an ESPN style of live sporting to add authenticity. And the authenticity doesn’t end there; Micky’s training gym is the actual location where the real boxer spent his time training for fights and to add to that Mickey O’Keefe (one Micky’s trainer) plays himself with some dignity and surprising talent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> At one point The Fighter had Darren Aronofsky’s name attached (before he decided to make Black Swan), and it’s easy to see why as some of the issues which we saw in Aronofsky’s The Wrestler are seen here but without the sheer brutality as we saw with Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson. The Fighter feels much more like a <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city> by the numbers film with little originality. O. Russell never goes to much extremes as the film doesn’t take much thought about the effect boxing has on the body, even though Micky is constantly being beaten for rounds on end he seems to shrug of the bruises.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> All in all The Fighter is no where as edgy as films such as Raging Bull or The Wrestler and doesn’t have the apple of lasting effect however is still an enjoyable movie as Bale shows he’s back on top form as some major slips.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">* * *</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-78278034311383829322011-02-12T05:33:00.000-08:002011-02-12T05:38:29.605-08:00Kevin Smith invents INDIE 2.0<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCY-9qMHP8KgkHHdjij_9mfWL55y6BzB0iwTrBLdhOH7gQ2Vl9mChDIWtwqfRWt4m3Rge-3v6BrO1fh6aNFqyjU0xy2CrfX5MNEfg_A1wQmTgtg7FzjZN9v_twET-78wfw1Ovr4m-M0sc/s1600/kevin-smith-sundance-red-state.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCY-9qMHP8KgkHHdjij_9mfWL55y6BzB0iwTrBLdhOH7gQ2Vl9mChDIWtwqfRWt4m3Rge-3v6BrO1fh6aNFqyjU0xy2CrfX5MNEfg_A1wQmTgtg7FzjZN9v_twET-78wfw1Ovr4m-M0sc/s320/kevin-smith-sundance-red-state.jpg" width="224" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Kevin Smith has upset <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city>. The Clerks director premiered his latest movie; <st1:placename w:st="on">Red</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype> last month at the Sundance Film Festival in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Utah</st1:place></st1:state> and after a rumoured auction turned out to be true, his producer Jon Gordon sold Smith the rights to his own movie. In the speech that followed Smith talked about how "Indie film isn't dead. It just grew up," before announcing that the writer director himself would be taking the movie on a road trip, much like what happened with Gone With the Wind. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Red</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype></st1:place> with be toured around various cities and after the screening Smith do a Q&A along with lead actor Michael Parks.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Red</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype></st1:place> is the story of three teenage boys who go into the woods looking for sex but instead find God as horror unfolds involving fundamentalist Christians. The cast includeds Michael Parks, John Goodman, Malissa Leo and Kyle Gallner who recently stared in the remake of a Nightmare on Elm Street. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Smith has a fan base and knows it after creating the successful Smodcast Podcast Network, and is only aiming for his personally audience. However not everyone is as happy as the director, Marketing people and Studios are apparently up in arms after Smith confessed that even though the movie cost five million to make, a studio would waste twenty million just on advertisements. Smith has taken time to research and design a plan to get his movie distributed without big companies throwing money at it but the bit question is; will it work?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Is this the true future for independent cinema? It is apparent these days that independent film-makers are finding it hard to get their films distributed however showcasing it in theatres around the country might be a good way to get buzz for the movie and to find a distributor. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Has all this controversy destroyed the movies reputation before it’s general release sometime in October? <st1:placename w:st="on">Red</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype> will be debuting on tour March 5 at <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>'s <st1:placename w:st="on">Radio</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Music Hall</st1:placetype> and hitting major <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> cities throughout March before ending on April 4 in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Seattle</st1:place></st1:city>. This month the movie will be playing at the Berlin Film Festival and Smith hopes to get the movie distributed in <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> in October to make the seventeenth anniversary of his original movie Clerks, which put his name on the map. After seventeen years of independent and studio films, is Smith doing the right thing with indie 2.0 and is this the future?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90pcHCF2h44">Kevin Smith speech at Sundance Film Festival</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLp1ecYt7N1qhiY9JPI0CJmzmmbVdnNXs4EQ6J86s9nCORrLeYalPtiYnAwkn8QBRbHNoU_uGaVJp_T_7ChOtakxU8NJPnk9_XmKbMAIQukCq-4DS4I2rmGgHp9kKLQrOs8xQzotpHrsk/s1600/kevin-smith-sundance-007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLp1ecYt7N1qhiY9JPI0CJmzmmbVdnNXs4EQ6J86s9nCORrLeYalPtiYnAwkn8QBRbHNoU_uGaVJp_T_7ChOtakxU8NJPnk9_XmKbMAIQukCq-4DS4I2rmGgHp9kKLQrOs8xQzotpHrsk/s400/kevin-smith-sundance-007.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-83753399474559997072011-01-19T09:00:00.000-08:002011-01-19T09:00:24.682-08:00Review for Black Swan<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeEQ87r1gajnpWcp9nXNd36apjagHBojkEZPDOk-bPTU5rFSORaF4KrOg_X_8CEDczY3f1aLIqYwzlOLu3qowNYpdmGTIXZcYvXdP4uNiJysZOFckA01R9Lr8nI6mb9eEn0US0T5xQdT0/s1600/blak-swan-xlg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeEQ87r1gajnpWcp9nXNd36apjagHBojkEZPDOk-bPTU5rFSORaF4KrOg_X_8CEDczY3f1aLIqYwzlOLu3qowNYpdmGTIXZcYvXdP4uNiJysZOFckA01R9Lr8nI6mb9eEn0US0T5xQdT0/s320/blak-swan-xlg.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Natalie Portman has always had an up and down career, sometime she chooses her roles carefully (for example Garden State) but other times not she’s chooses the odd questionable job (Star War trilogy). After exploding on the scene in 1994 in Luc Besson’s phenomenal <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Leon</st1:place></st1:country-region> it has taken her almost fifteen years until she has given a perfect performance in the form of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. After playing at the Venice Film festivals and several other film festivals the film has gradually built up momentum until it has finally been realised to the general public, however it definitely is a movie not suited for a lot of audiences despite the BBFC giving it a mere 15 certificate.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The story follows perfectionist ballerina Nine (Natalie Portman) who becomes obsessed with gaining the role of the Swan Princess in the latest performance of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Swan</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Lake</st1:placetype></st1:place> for a highly acclaimed ballet company. With an over baring and controlling mother (Barbara Hershey) and an eccentric director Thomas (Vincent Cassel) the pressure on Nina becomes a heavy burden. After being told time after time that she’s a perfect Swan Queen however lacks the power to play the swans evil twin the Black Swan, Nina begins to descend into madness and the line between what is reality and what’s in her head are drastically blurred. On top of that new competition in the form of free spirited girl Lily (Mila Kunis) comes in to wreak Nina’s new found fame. Or is she?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">For a film in which it’s themes of oppression, obsession and perfection have become common ground, Aronofsky handles them excellently as they feel new and fresh. The dark material is handled excellently as the movie becomes unpredictable as we see Nina’s fractured state. It is also hard to pin point a specific genre for the movie, is it a horror? A dancing movie? A psychological thriller? Who knows? Aronofsky rehashes the same themes he showed with The Wrestler (2008) but moves beyond it in almost every way. The stark black and white feel to the movie is both beautiful but at some points menacing. Aronofsky’s themes of self destructions which are see in all his films such as Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler are once again back as well as his very dark nature which is present towards the end as the horrific third act plays out. The handheld direction is far from Paul Greengrass territory as it reflects Nina’s state of mind and clever camera techniques make the camera invisible around the ballet studios. This is an artistic movie where the director has used modern technology to tell a story rather then avoid one. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">It is easy to see how the movie have been compared to The Red Shoes (1948) mixed with the work of David Cronenberg and Dario Argento as Aronofsky shows the beauty but hardships of pursuing your love. The rituals which Randy the Ram religiously went though in The Wrestler are echoed as we see Nina crack bones and modify her ballet shoes like a professional. Portman in fact even took a year out to train in Ballet and is it clearly apparent here as she moves as if she’s being dancing for years,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">It has to be said that Portman’s near flawless performance as the fragile performer is incomparable to any female performances in the past year. However she’s doesn’t just steal the show as Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis and even Wynona Ryder all play significant roles. All the performances are moving and horrifyingly believable.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Black Swan is definitely a movie for certain audiences who can stomach certain scenes which I couldn’t begin to describe without spoiling plot points. It will have anyone turning away at the graphic images which have an artistic beauty to them. And the movies crescendo will leave you emotionally drained and make you doubt your shadow. This definitely won’t be Aronofsky’s swan song however he has set a bar for himself which will be hard to follow.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">* * * * *</span></span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-55942884345082308202011-01-17T08:29:00.000-08:002011-01-17T08:32:20.636-08:00Review for The King's Speech<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZDujwwOJbL75b-Q_6mAs-1s0_QvoJL93V_SPgMfi0ac49WkeXf5gBtwNvjtnN_tJoUaWDdsf8_mezTkpx8t6v9fDht8Ihe4Yuf1Mpcr1mrBneBgObdTfuQnOzCmsl-j4vEm-aiwrioSU/s1600/the-kings-speech-poster-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZDujwwOJbL75b-Q_6mAs-1s0_QvoJL93V_SPgMfi0ac49WkeXf5gBtwNvjtnN_tJoUaWDdsf8_mezTkpx8t6v9fDht8Ihe4Yuf1Mpcr1mrBneBgObdTfuQnOzCmsl-j4vEm-aiwrioSU/s320/the-kings-speech-poster-2.jpg" width="218" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Finally there is a great British contender to stand up to the plate of the American oppressive market which is modern cinema. Every so often you have the odd British movie which pops up but is soon over taken by the next big explosion movie. Last year it was films like Made In Dagenham and Another Year but what makes Tom Hooper’s movie stand out more is how it doesn’t get bogged down about it patriotism which the film is centered around.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> The true story is passed on George VI (Colin Firth) as he battles with himself as he has a self-esteem crippling speech impediment. After trying everything with wife Elizabeth (Helen <span style="text-decoration: none;">Bonham Carter</span>) everything seems at a loss. However after being recommended by an outside force <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Elizabeth</st1:place></st1:city> soon finds Lionel (Geoffrey Rush) a failed Australian actor who promises to help the prince. After some fairly big bumps in the road George VI begins to open up as we see the antagonist is mainly in himself rather then a specific being. After his farther King George V dies Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) reluctantly becomes king. With World War 2 on the horizon the royal house is throw into a frenzy as the country needs to sort its self out before any war breaks out.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> There’s very little you can say against a movie like The King’s Speech. The script by <span style="text-decoration: none;">David Seidler</span> is informative and handles humour in all the right places. Without being a show off Seidler uses the right information to inform the viewers on a subject which was hid from the general public. Tom Hooper’s direction is superb as he shows the pre-war <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city> in all it’s beauty before the bombs begin to fall. The mist covered streets add a artistic edge to the visuals and the locations you travel through are beautiful.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> The acting from everyone is brilliant and touching especially with the cameo from Guy Pearce. Obviously the film main focus is on Firth and Rush’s characters and it is handled very delicately as the have little arguments about hierarchies before finding a middle ground. Firth has once again proved himself a terrific actor as we see his internal struggle and frustration he feels towards himself. And with support from Bonham Carter in a surprisingly ‘normal’ role she becomes a very warm presents through out the movie.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> It is surprising with all the acting talent that this is a brilliant film which aims to entertain and inform audiences of any age about a time in British history which has not been seen before. If you are stuck for what to watch there isn’t much better out there amidst the dull and copy/paste films which pollute the cinema. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">* * * *</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-43164805176310633432011-01-17T08:27:00.000-08:002011-01-17T09:10:31.845-08:00Review for The Green Hornet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPaUx21VdR0EjA6S9_9fNomGbXSNxExYYnM2EywQ4wqtcJtCIdivwXtMA5Zf0Ql4myeJKmw6DNtJoou5laX3qNvvZ9xk6EHH4dUkWERGgKfVw71eCnU-rqGKCY9j7iuAbgFoCnTxTmtw8/s1600/green_hornet_poster-535x793+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPaUx21VdR0EjA6S9_9fNomGbXSNxExYYnM2EywQ4wqtcJtCIdivwXtMA5Zf0Ql4myeJKmw6DNtJoou5laX3qNvvZ9xk6EHH4dUkWERGgKfVw71eCnU-rqGKCY9j7iuAbgFoCnTxTmtw8/s320/green_hornet_poster-535x793+%25281%2529.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">It’s really a sad day for creative art as we say good bye to Michel Gondry as he sails off in to the untalented horizon which is <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city>. After his last flick, Be Kind Rewind, was such a disappointment he returns to direct the Seth Rogan and Even Goldberg superhero tale which is The Green Hornet. The Green Hornet is based of an old pulp hero which happened to be a television show in the 60s. After director Stephen Chow dropped the project it looked bleak for the production however after Michel Gondry jumped on board there was a certain comfort in knowing the movie would turn out well, the end result however is far less interesting then it should have been.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The story follows Brett Ried (Seth Rogan) a spoiled son of a millionaire who, after the death of his father decides to become a superhero with his sidekick Kato (Jay Chou). However instead of going down the normal route they decide to pose as villains in order to get close to the villain before taking them out. The villain in this case is <span style="text-decoration: none;">Chudnofsky</span> (<span style="text-decoration: none;">Christoph Waltz</span>) a less then scary villain who has a complex issue as he blows up various competition around <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">L.A.</st1:city></st1:place> With Kato’s quick wit and engineering talent and Brett’s charisma (often mistaken for arrogance) and apparent wealth the two set out to have some fun sooner then actually save the neighbourhood.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">It comes as little surprise that the movie is full of gags especially after the writing due to them making their names from penning Superbad. However sometimes the jokes feel out of place and even inappropriate, but when they are in the right place they work to the films advantage. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The film also handles it’s homage’s well as subtle hints a littered through out of the television show and more importantly it Bruce Lee who played the role of Kato in the 60s television show. Aside from that the film is poorly paced as the only interesting parts include Brett and Kato’s relationship whilst the rest seems to drag its heels especially with the scenes with Chudnofsky and Lenore (Cameron Diaz). Whilst the Bromance elements seen in Superband are also present here the stylised action scenes soon become boring and repetitive.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">With Seth Rogen in the lead he plays his usual funny guy however it is Jay Chou who steals the attention as this is his first <st1:place w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:place> movie and in fact when he’s on screen the film becomes much more interesting. Apart from them Christoph Waltz and Cameron Diaz did the best they could with the fairly poor material they where given. Christoph Waltz appears as a tacky 80’s villain whilst Cameron Diaz is really showing her age.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The most disappointing part of the movie is the direction which is so bland and contrived with only a few sparks of originality but it is even more disappointing seeing how the director has made his man on his visual style. Certain impressive visual elements to peek through but on the most part it’s a generic <st1:place w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:place> big budget movie.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">If your looking for an action superhero flick with some good laughs then you should take a look but don’t look for too long or you might get a head ache. The movie is very flawed and vastly disappointing. Once again another movie has been throw out in 3D and whilst it appears present at first you are quick to forget it’s even there. With Superhero movies on the rise of in quality such as Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim- this is definitely a step back but with the pedigree behind it it should have been much more impressive however it falls flat on it’s face like its wacky lead.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">* *</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-26585449518860408942011-01-17T08:24:00.000-08:002011-01-17T08:24:27.075-08:00Review for 127 Hours<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoMyTwXUp7QSHb96Uss43A6KglAfdXXJVmU4lrelG1_Jy94vCPCBPGlMX3AGM23LqgGwvKvRnJOamWlzFxWC_qAM-lwgTdYuTM1y61wB0OoZCWgCUeJdONoVmpeK3TG5-3iP9Q4XgKAXE/s1600/127-hours-poster+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoMyTwXUp7QSHb96Uss43A6KglAfdXXJVmU4lrelG1_Jy94vCPCBPGlMX3AGM23LqgGwvKvRnJOamWlzFxWC_qAM-lwgTdYuTM1y61wB0OoZCWgCUeJdONoVmpeK3TG5-3iP9Q4XgKAXE/s320/127-hours-poster+%25281%2529.jpg" width="216" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Aron Ralston can be called several names: explorer, adrenalin junkie, and/or idiot. After stories surfaced that he was trapped in the American desert after a climbing accident where in he had to amputate his own arm with little more then a off the shelf tool, Aron has become a star in America, giving motivational speeches which he charges $37, 000 for. How could such a seemingly simplistic plot be fitted into a feature length movie is an impressive feet as writer director Danny Boyle steps up to tackle the amazing story of survival.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">127 Hours is a film much like The Titanic, as in the audience knows what’s going to happen before it actually does. The film begins with Aron (James Franco) preparing to go on a trip and after collecting a few essentials such as water, food and Gatorade however missing his Swis Army by only a few centimetres (one of many shameful gags). After arriving in the desert he camps out until morning before taking a bike ride out across the harsh terrain. Along the way he happens to meet Kristi (Kate Mara) and Megan (Amber Tamblyn), two young post college ‘explorers’ and spend a fun afternoon which aims to set up his character before going their separate ways. It is not long before the cocky armature explorer manages to slip whilst climbing and gets his hand crushed between a rock and the crevice wall.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Up until this point there is a certain tension which hangs over all the little moments when Aron is alone. The tension is then shifts after the accident to when he will eventually cut off his arm. Whilst Franco does fantastic performance the main flaw is in the character himself. He appears to be a fairly unlikable character who is so self obsessed that he videos trivial things such as himself riding a bike. Whether the real Aron Ralston is like this or not is irrelevant because it is hard to sympathise with a reckless, selfish adrenaline junkie who finally gets his comeuppance.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">During the time which we are waiting for him to finally cut off his arm, Aron makes videos of himself as a diary of a man going crazy by isolation which is mirrored in his eyes. After making a little camp around him Aron has to ration all his belongings. All of the dialogue is also between himself and the camera as he narrates the situation to us. It’s around the mid point that Aron begins to loose it and the flashback begin with girlfriend Rana (Clémence Poésy) which leads to a truly appalling line after a break up in which she screams at him “You’ll always be alone.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The lead up to the eventual dismemberment is filled with flash backs and hallucinations before Aron’s camera runs out of battery which forces him to finally cut it off. It is only until he can’t document himself that he feels the need to do something about the situation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Danny Boyle reprises his usual frantic editing and unusual camera work as he rejoins Slumdog Millionaire DP Anthony Dod Mantle however it all become a bit much and a little too frantic. That mixed in with footage of people in crowds to further add the notion that he will be alone for the movie begins to border on the annoying. The film has also been compared to last years brilliant thriller flick Buried. Unfortunately it lacks the clever and pure execution that Buried prized itself on as the movie escapes the small confines which Aron finds himself in. It is understandable that he escapes his fate through his hallucinations however Buried just handled the idea of isolation much better as all the action happens which in the coffin. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">127 Hours fits in well with Boyles body of work as the themes of survival and isolation are seen through out with films such as 28 days Later, Trainspotting and Sunshine. The gruesome special effects are handled excellently and it’s easy to believe the reports of fainting and stomach contents being emptied. Whilst 127 Hours is a fairly solid movie, there are bits which annoy (especially the cringey sequence before the credits) and it is the sort of film which only needs one viewing but it is a fairly amazing story of survival.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">* * *</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-9480279558758365232010-12-28T04:43:00.000-08:002010-12-28T04:45:54.114-08:00Top Five Movies of 2010<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPL8798Qf_eXg53gb3pt2yg7a7CN0hfJEUSoNZLBtK1eXQRMDUrGlG7YU_ZgISPbx800FM9Y6lEWtnmTLv2Bske0hh_WUeJDXuISb9xWDDsoVlY83un4NKRWc0NnyTCEbCvM5IEbXNlcY/s1600/Biutiful_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPL8798Qf_eXg53gb3pt2yg7a7CN0hfJEUSoNZLBtK1eXQRMDUrGlG7YU_ZgISPbx800FM9Y6lEWtnmTLv2Bske0hh_WUeJDXuISb9xWDDsoVlY83un4NKRWc0NnyTCEbCvM5IEbXNlcY/s320/Biutiful_Poster.jpg" width="214" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Finally it is the end of the year and at this point we look back in an optimistic fashion by looking at the highlights. However when compiling this list I realised how many great films I missed; either through then only showing at a film festival or unless they are due to be released next year in the UK. The films I missed and would like to have seen are: Winters Bone, Black Swan, Animal Kingdom, The Kings Speech, The Arbor, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Mother and so on.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">However from the films I did see this is the final list.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">5. Dogtooth (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Yorgos Lanthimos</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Greece</st1:country-region></st1:place>)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">This Greek beautiful yet disturbing movie tells the story of a family whose mother and father characters lie to their twenty year old children about the horrors which lay outside their enclosed garden. The twisted black humour and graphic incestuous scenes may turn some views off but the over all central theme reminds some people of a Michael Haneke movie.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">My Rating- <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">* * * *</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">4. The Disappearance of Alice Creed (J. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Blakeson</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region></st1:place>)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">With it’s Hickcockian style and pace, J. Blakeson’s first feature length flick was truly and eye opener. With it’s seemingly simplistic plot it soon becomes a tale of twists and turns and the three member cast each add another interesting dimension to the story. Shown on only a limited amount of screens the movie unfortunately didn’t see the recognition it deserved. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt;">My Rating- <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">* * * *</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhONqNERlSlyYpn9MXyjMDKu3rZTXsfKMm6qlwXk8AxLcuIUJrI9KyDB6FgZCVOH4tis-6sujQzObIR5J9QtFu0CjAAr04wpL4wJFDCvqwJa-Io3EO4nyncf_U5lR6CosM4kSz-S2wrZak/s1600/tumblr_lbxs414sOw1qbpl7no1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhONqNERlSlyYpn9MXyjMDKu3rZTXsfKMm6qlwXk8AxLcuIUJrI9KyDB6FgZCVOH4tis-6sujQzObIR5J9QtFu0CjAAr04wpL4wJFDCvqwJa-Io3EO4nyncf_U5lR6CosM4kSz-S2wrZak/s400/tumblr_lbxs414sOw1qbpl7no1_500.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">3. The Social Network (David Fincher, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region>)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">This was another easy contender as The Facebook Movie (now one of two; the second Facebook movie being Catfish) dominated both American and European audiences as it depicts the somewhat sad live of multi-billionaire Mark Zuckerberg played fantastically by Jessie Eisenberg. Aaron Sorkin’s quick paced, fast dialogue story of success and betrayal captivated audiences as transcended the expectations of the general audience.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">My Rating- <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">* * * *</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">2. Biutiful (Alejandro González Iñárritu, Spain/Mexico)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">One of the most original and powerful movies of the year (which is due for general release sometime next year), Biutiful definitely had to be put somewhere in the list. The movie won Javier Bardem the Prix d'Interprétation Masculine or Best Actor award at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">My Rating- <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">* * * * *</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">1. Inception (Christopher Nolan, UK/USA)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Riding off the success of The Dark Knight, Nolan is an unstoppable force and Inception was no exception. Surprisingly only one person voted for it to be in the top ten movies in Sight & Sound magazine. Even so Nolan showed studios that with a big budget doesn’t mean the target audiences are as mindless as they believe.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: 16px;">My Rating- <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">* * * * *</span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnSU1gldJqGJp6A-ikrLQfXS948u6WND4tuVAcseRrlkKE0w-9ZG6SpO_NDLfOvQx6HPhDPnj6cnRiE1rTPtEQvXnD66hDyblipAAzgz7QlhOq-vqU_Ay1M3KfF6PPhabSeL4jnKJ2aW8/s1600/dogtooth_ver3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnSU1gldJqGJp6A-ikrLQfXS948u6WND4tuVAcseRrlkKE0w-9ZG6SpO_NDLfOvQx6HPhDPnj6cnRiE1rTPtEQvXnD66hDyblipAAzgz7QlhOq-vqU_Ay1M3KfF6PPhabSeL4jnKJ2aW8/s400/dogtooth_ver3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Unfortunately not every film can make it into the list. Here was the best of the rest; Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Of Gods and Men, The Kids Are All Right, Monsters, Four Lions, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">What where your favourite films of the year and why? If you disagree with my list please comment. Below I have left the top film lists from Sight & Sound magazine, Little White Lies magazine and IMDB.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/polls/films-of-2010-intro.php"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Sight & Sound’s Top Ten Movies</span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/the-magazine/issue-32">Little White Lies #32 Digital Issue</a></span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/features/yearinreview/2010/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Internet Movie Dater Base, Year in Review 2010</span></span></a></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-24187833791798724362010-12-25T05:24:00.000-08:002010-12-25T05:27:47.487-08:00What to watch this Christmas (TODAY)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoTdK5oy18oOMuhFJ05hyphenhyphen9KYoz0RHriZSsDGd_cMSG4PPJOG4rdAJi3AlAwO3CZqEEtOtsj8kyYjdBjhqef9hbb_javMVhtkVq2MAkSqBAB_FuSOp6XW_mWIVmD7bzsexhiCzUEUw7jZY/s1600/Nightmare-Before-Christmas-nightmare-before-christmas-494173_800_494.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoTdK5oy18oOMuhFJ05hyphenhyphen9KYoz0RHriZSsDGd_cMSG4PPJOG4rdAJi3AlAwO3CZqEEtOtsj8kyYjdBjhqef9hbb_javMVhtkVq2MAkSqBAB_FuSOp6XW_mWIVmD7bzsexhiCzUEUw7jZY/s320/Nightmare-Before-Christmas-nightmare-before-christmas-494173_800_494.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">You know it’s Christmas when you see the Coca Cola advert on TV and you read the TV listings and see the movies they’re showing. As Christmas draws near here is a list of some of the movies which will help you dissolve back into the kid you use to be whilst also including some movies you wouldn’t think to be Christmas flicks but are technically either about of set during the Christmas holidays.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The First Movie I am going to mention has been a great movie to watch annually, and includes Macaulay Culkin when he wasn’t a drug addicted brat. Obviously I’m talking about Home Alone (1990), which is the story of a big family who all go on Christmas holiday together but unfortunately forget to bring their eight year old boy Kevin (Macaulay Culkin). Whilst the parents are away Kevin runs amuck watching violent movies harassing old snow shovelers and invading his older brothers privacy. Everything appears to be perfect until two thieves Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (<span lang="EN">Daniel Stern</span>) attempt to steal Kevin’s fun which sends him on a mission to defend his home by any means possible. Filled with laughs which never get old this is a film everyone should see this year.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Now Christmas films can’t always be filled with fun and laughs sometimes you have to watch something with a lot of heart and joy and in this case; Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life (1941). For those who haven’t seen it the movie is about George Bailey (James Stewart) a frustrated businessman who is helped by an angel by showing what life would look like if he had never been born. Even though it isn’t filled with laughs this is a definite classic which has stood the test of time. Even if you think you haven’t seen it you have seen the story in one carnation or another because of the great story elements.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9z6Pjcu0s2HvHjSai9j-9FwGGfm3KjJsbPe_TOI4pXXvIfapj8KbG4X5FtFtQ8r1XOd4QSs4bafF1R0SEonP97WeNl_M5K5SEBAnRHscOUVCmlNAvrFol-elmpmcAU3BgLZ8c41Yf5Xs/s1600/its_a_wonderful_life_stort.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9z6Pjcu0s2HvHjSai9j-9FwGGfm3KjJsbPe_TOI4pXXvIfapj8KbG4X5FtFtQ8r1XOd4QSs4bafF1R0SEonP97WeNl_M5K5SEBAnRHscOUVCmlNAvrFol-elmpmcAU3BgLZ8c41Yf5Xs/s320/its_a_wonderful_life_stort.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">For those who are Tim Burton fans the next choice will come at no surprise, produced by the gothic master himself and directed by Henry Selick The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) is a brilliant movie especially in a time where CGI is seen as perfection and stop motion is dead. The story is about Jack Skeleton (Chris Sarandom & Danny Elfman), the King of Halloween who becomes bored with his monotonous life and goes in search of something new and stumbles across Christmas Town. With a mix of songs written by Elfman himself an great visuals this movie will always be played to both young and old and will be in an Tim Burton completesists collection.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Now for something completely different, even though at first you wouldn’t think it is considered a Christmas movie but he holiday isn’t complete without at least one viewing of Bruce Willis as John McClane as he saves LA from terrorists in the brilliant Die Hard (1988). Now this is a film filled with gags and gore as the hard boiled cop, John McClane infiltrates the Nakatomi Plaza building to save his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) as terrorists led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) threaten the safety of all the hostages including Holly. Even though some of the sequels where terrible the original still stands for being a kick-ass all out battle between one cop and building full of terrorists.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The second to last movie I have picked to get people in the Christmas spirit is a movie so frightening no one wanted to feed their beloved pets after midnight. Before I sound as if I have lost the plot, I am talking about Joe Dante’s Gremlins (1984). A lot of people might mistake a film such as Gremlins for a horror with humour however this is all cast over the Christmas backdrop. Whilst looking for a present to give to his son Billy (Zach Galligan), inventor Randall Peltzer (<span style="text-decoration: none;">Hoyt Axton</span>) stumbles across an old antique show in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">China</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Town</st1:placetype></st1:place> and attempts to buy a small fury creature called a ‘Mogwai’ from a strange old Chinese man named the Grandfather (Keye Luke). After being refused it is only his grandson (<span lang="EN">John Louie</span>) who manages to sneakily sell Randall the Mogwai. Once bought, Randy is given a set of rules about how to treat the cute animal, 1) never expose it to bright light, 2) never get the Mogwai wet and 3) never feed it after midnight. Obviously these rules fall on deaf ears and its up to Billy to finish what he started. Even though it has dark tones the movie is still classic and enjoyable for everyone this Christmas. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">I saved the best for last with possibly one of if not the greatest Christmas movies which everyone will agree with. This movie would be Muppet’s Christmas Carol (1992) which once again mixes funny songs with great characters as the Muppets do their take on the classic story by Charles Dickens whilst bringing in great action talent such as Michael Cain to play the selfish Ebenezer Scrooge as he is haunted by three ghosts in order to change his soul in the after life. I imagine it will be broadcasted on television at one point or another this Christmas but if not people should dig out their copies on VHS and remember one of the most enjoyable movies which everyone loves.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvWvftc7M9MCU44-onzhAKIObzsGnVuGwOwZ6zyEghJv3fLtB3gsJk-SgGBFl3EUPqb8WlOpPqhyVU42sQlMx0hcQtVQ2bLQhLGX9iu1FlvRtD4EJx5PbVD_k4LXMrzhdxl7bFAEV-e7Y/s1600/Muppet-Christmas-bv01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvWvftc7M9MCU44-onzhAKIObzsGnVuGwOwZ6zyEghJv3fLtB3gsJk-SgGBFl3EUPqb8WlOpPqhyVU42sQlMx0hcQtVQ2bLQhLGX9iu1FlvRtD4EJx5PbVD_k4LXMrzhdxl7bFAEV-e7Y/s320/Muppet-Christmas-bv01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-24859131726937211912010-12-04T10:41:00.000-08:002010-12-04T10:41:50.464-08:00Review for 'Monsters'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhctSbM2CJOZN0yGI1U6Qj4x0vVShcy1ThA4Ml9pbNWzsFiPZS5jn_GfywWtCMYaspszbFjQZ1LdKkaH2T6Tf_HeeA4m3LG9kt3De_2g_WdJxhTXRRfeAFaavV4MmJnaK_Hq9qAvVqSjcM/s1600/661960mons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhctSbM2CJOZN0yGI1U6Qj4x0vVShcy1ThA4Ml9pbNWzsFiPZS5jn_GfywWtCMYaspszbFjQZ1LdKkaH2T6Tf_HeeA4m3LG9kt3De_2g_WdJxhTXRRfeAFaavV4MmJnaK_Hq9qAvVqSjcM/s320/661960mons.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">First time director Gareth Edward’s has described his high-concept but low budget movie <em>Monsters</em> as “if movies such as <em>Cloverfield</em> or <em>Godzilla</em> is 9/11 then Monsters is Afghanistan and Iraq”, it is this line alone which caught the attention of the general public and made people turn on this indie monster movie in a good way. Shot for only a shoe string budget of £15,000 and film across Mexico, Guatemala and Belize really sets it’s self apart form the big Hollywood mainstream.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Samantha (Whitney Able) is stuck in Mexico, and so is Andrew (Scoot McNairy). Two different people in the same city for two different reasons only brought together by the fact that Samantha’s father is Andrew’s boss. After a brief meeting Andrew is tasked to bring Samantha back safely to America, the only problem is that after buying a ferry ticket which turns out to be a dead end the two must travel through the ‘Infected Zone’ It is established at the beginning of the movie that a NASA space probe collecting samples crashed landed in Mexico releasing spores over the vast woodland, and it is from these spores that the extra terrestrials seeped out from. Whilst they are apparent and somewhat scary these giant hundred foot creatures are roaming around they are not the central theme of the movie and only lay in the background. What Gareth Edward’s focused on was the relationship between Samantha and Andrew as they discuss trivial things such as dolphin’s belly buttons.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The brilliance of the movie is this key theme of the film not focusing on the aliens but rather on the relationship of the two characters who try to get home. This movie could have easily been set in Iraq and Afghanistan and had little cut form the script, and it would still have been a fantastic movie. But the movie also has a political subtext as it intertwines social class as well as immigration to further blur the lines.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">What Gareth Edward’s has created on only his bedroom laptop is spellbinding. There is no big reveal of the monster at the end ala <em>Cloverfield</em> and whilst <em>Cloverfield</em> is still a fantastic achievement, Monster’s goes leaps and bounds with the enjoyment of the narrative.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Scoot McNairy and real life girlfriend Whitney Able do a terrific performance as two people who have different lives which are pulling each other away form the other. Both characters had to improvise the whole script whilst acting opposite unaccredited actors. Whilst this use of improvisation might seem lazy on Edward’s behalf the end result feels natural and believable.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">In Matt Bochenski’s review for <a href="http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/">Little White Lies</a> magazine (#32) he commented on the apparent connection the movie has to Neill Blomkamp’s <em>District 9</em> (2009) however Bochenski said that it has more connections to Duncan Jones’ <em>Moon</em> (2009) in terms of it being a British sci-fi movie with an American cast. Bochenski is definitely on to something. If you enjoyed those two movies you will enjoy <em>Monsters</em>, however don’t go in expecting the new <em>Cloverfield</em>, go in expecting a movie which crosses into many genres whilst staying true to it’s central theme.</span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IshZoIwz_o">Trailer</a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><span style="color: red;">* * * *</span> </span></div></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-17769764219358522182010-11-29T11:40:00.000-08:002010-11-29T11:40:09.897-08:00SPECIAL FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW FOR ‘BIUTIFUL’<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdONFCqN4QlfUTsvT36BCQsoVKvnzmY9Fw2V19CcuutNU4gPF6LsNEHce-f3zxMBV5WchDrLr1_KxCWyDKmCx0antQh0AY9-Sfm-J2AM_HOQ6SNYD4fTNWo5pR3a2tk-RLssjMpan5as/s1600/Biutiful%252520poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdONFCqN4QlfUTsvT36BCQsoVKvnzmY9Fw2V19CcuutNU4gPF6LsNEHce-f3zxMBV5WchDrLr1_KxCWyDKmCx0antQh0AY9-Sfm-J2AM_HOQ6SNYD4fTNWo5pR3a2tk-RLssjMpan5as/s320/Biutiful%252520poster.jpg" width="234" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">I managed to see a special screening of the film which won actor Javier Bardem the Best Actor award at this years (63rd) Cannes Film Festival at this years Cine-City Film Festival in Brighton and what an experience it was. The movies I am referring to is Alejandro González Iñárritu’s ‘Biutiful’. The Mexican born director is already famous with English speaking countries with films such as ’21 Grams’ and ‘Babel’, however he is back on top form with one of this years best foreign film.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Uxbal (Javier Bardem) a single parent of Matoe (Guillermo Estrella) and Maramba (Hanaa Bouchaib) is a good man who is trying to do the best he can for everyone, unfortunately it doesn’t always work out how he anticipated. Whilst Uxbal runs a sweat shop for Chinese immigrants and gets African immigrants to sell the stuff on the streets, his main job is to talk to the recently diseased and help them move on to the next life. After suffering from stomach pains, Uxbal is quick to find out he only have a few months left to live which sets him off in a desperate attempt to get closer to his kids so that the do not forget about him whilst at the same time trying to patch things up with his ex-wife Marambra (Maricel Álvarez). </span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Whilst Uxbal’s uncanny job only appears a few times during the course of the plot the films main focus is on a man who is trying to make the most of his life before he dies. It is only until the end, that we understand the supernatural edge the movie carries, and carries well. Iñárritu has managed to cross different genres and the end result is a cross between a melodrama and a growing of age story with haunting scenes which will freak out experienced horror fans which films such as ‘Paranormal Activity 2’ can’t copy. But be warned this isn’t a supernatural movie, it is clear that the main focus is on the family.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The visuals are beautiful as the film opens on a snow covered hill top but soon moves onto the darker side of Barcelona. The excellent visuals stay through out the movie as Iñárritu shows different sides of the city which cinema hasn’t been before. And even though the film comes in at over the two hour mark it is a somewhat enjoyable viewing which isn’t down to the movie but the content it shows as we see Uxbal slowing dying.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The special effects, whilst only being brief are terrific as they blend into the surroundings rather then distract you from them. The nightmarish scenes as Uxbal makes peace with the spirits of the dead leave a distinct taste in the mouth of the audience well after you have left the cinema. It is easy to see why Guillermo Del Toro attached his name to the project.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The acting is fantastic as we see Uxbal at his best and worst but this detail to character arch is also seen with the characters such as Marambra. But even the children have to deal with some tough material as the parents a constantly bickering at each other. Javier Bardem has made the character of Uxbal a very like able one as we sympathise with what he does despite him hurting everyone he tries to help.</span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjToayuDizb4TT8ujgcaXGFFJ7OhMEZHqRzYFiuQ5kdX274J7sF-z8VK7aksQw9dUEtbtz_dMjaeMHETZFNACm3iTpOxYhh5eg5OTGv5VaKG-D82ZaQkJ-iSvUa0rUX1xl4v5S7GKb4T4w/s1600/biutiful-movie-photo-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjToayuDizb4TT8ujgcaXGFFJ7OhMEZHqRzYFiuQ5kdX274J7sF-z8VK7aksQw9dUEtbtz_dMjaeMHETZFNACm3iTpOxYhh5eg5OTGv5VaKG-D82ZaQkJ-iSvUa0rUX1xl4v5S7GKb4T4w/s320/biutiful-movie-photo-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">‘Biutiful’ is definitely one of the best films of the year and possibly the best foreign film. Iñárritu has blended a fantastic story about a man attempting to tie up all the strings of his somewhat messy and uncontrolled life before his inevitable fate with and equally good supernatural subplot which ties everything up in the end. If Bardem won an Academy Award for his psychotic killer in ‘No Country for Old Men’ then he definitely deservers to be nominated for Best Actor at next years award season.</span><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdWz1IFEv4k"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Trailer</span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">* * * * *</span></div></div></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-68277851014937473892010-11-15T05:15:00.000-08:002010-11-15T05:15:49.241-08:00Review for 'Due Date'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOXj3tcxCpD_8OVPS0kPl_DwcBJ5GClfIvoN-N4ZIhiGP73UyKKhZUpGLL-l5F6sIqN4COOwKg_0dSIhhlVo54CBWh2oWQBZFBlGgqlirij-qZWQZq_dF1dT1zWDgHsQ0NmPSsmoZvk-0/s1600/DueDate_Teaser1Sheet_INTL.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOXj3tcxCpD_8OVPS0kPl_DwcBJ5GClfIvoN-N4ZIhiGP73UyKKhZUpGLL-l5F6sIqN4COOwKg_0dSIhhlVo54CBWh2oWQBZFBlGgqlirij-qZWQZq_dF1dT1zWDgHsQ0NmPSsmoZvk-0/s320/DueDate_Teaser1Sheet_INTL.JPG" width="216" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Riding on the success of ‘The Hangover’ (2009) which made just under $500 million world-wide, writer-director Todd Philips was given the permission by Warner Bros to make any movie he wanted. The end result is something not too far from his last movie whilst at the same time audiences have flashes of déjà vu from movies such as ‘Planes Trains and Automobiles’ (1987).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) is an uptight businessman who is on the road most of his life, whilst his pregnant wife Sarah is ready to go into labour. On the day he is meant to catch a plane to get home, Peter meets wanna-be actor Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) who is about to change his life. After briefly meeting outside the airport, they meet on the flight and due to a misunderstanding with an air marshal both of them are put on the “no fly” list. Ethan soon finds Peter, and they set out on a road trip from Atlanta to Los Angeles just days before Peter’s baby will be born.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">As expected the long trip is full of genuine laughs. And this is to be expected from the director of possibly one of the funniest films of last year. Whilst the story isn’t completely original, and the few pointless cameos are thrown in to fill the time, the film on a whole is worth a night out to the cinema. Unfortunately Galifianakis is the weakest link as he is no different from his character in ‘The Hangover’. As the flamboyant strange character of Ethan, Galifianakis is no different then the dim witted Alan. On the other hand, Peter is a schizophrenic businessman who jumps between hating Ethan and liking him. Together they make an odd funny couple just like Steve Martin and John Candy in ‘Planes Trains and Automobiles’.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Along their journey they survive through a lot of memorable moments such as attempting to cross the border into Mexico whilst stoned, crashing the car after falling asleep behind the wheel, and insulting a crippled war veteran and paying the price for it. Of course the events in ‘Due Date’ are outrageous and over the top, however the combined laughs of Robert Downey Jr. and Zack Galifanakis make it a trip worth riding in the back seat.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">This movie appeals to practically all younger audiences whilst more mature audiences might not enjoy it as much. It’s definitely not as enjoyable as Todd Philips’ last flick but still worth a watch. Whilst ‘The Hangover’ is very re-watchable, ‘Due Date’ lacks the same freshness.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGpJUh9j-jU">trailer</a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">* * *</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-8574299207001503022010-11-14T04:40:00.000-08:002010-11-14T04:40:24.005-08:00Review for ‘Another Year’<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjvTtSWMcJvJWdKFXoU0A5qCZOZtgiiSoe42GD83ulGpTSv8v8kMuiYZDRNbTAhqY1uzFE4R6nxIFBbwuSqvlWF1F108ex8G6Il0lntHc4P45homUHQzw0RR2ZcHZlzqhYecuwlJ1Fjk/s1600/anotheryear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjvTtSWMcJvJWdKFXoU0A5qCZOZtgiiSoe42GD83ulGpTSv8v8kMuiYZDRNbTAhqY1uzFE4R6nxIFBbwuSqvlWF1F108ex8G6Il0lntHc4P45homUHQzw0RR2ZcHZlzqhYecuwlJ1Fjk/s320/anotheryear.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Mike Leigh has built his career on improvising his movies with the various actors he work has worked with over the years. Taking a couple of months and only an initial idea and transforming it into a full movie with the help of the actors he employs. After riding the modest success of his last movie ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ (2008) is ‘Another Year’ up to scratch on the edgy creativity Leigh’s known for?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Like everybody, Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Jim Broadbent) are getting old. However whilst their happiness lies in each other it appears everyone around them is finding it much more difficult to find that special someone. As the spring turns to summer and so on, Tom and Gerri have various dinner dates with characters such as Mary (Lesley Manville) a dysfunctional co-worker of Gerri’s who likes to drink more then someone should, whilst on Tom’s side he battles to keep high spirits with his friend Ken (Peter Wight) who wants to find solace in Mary. The movie chronicles the year from Tom and Gerri’s point of view as characters as the year goes by and characters come and go in through their little world.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">One of the main problems with the movie is that it runs on much longer then it should. Whilst characters such as Tom and Gerri are fun and interesting in their old age, most of the other characters just nag on and draw out the film. Characters such as Marry (who is very similar to Blanche from ‘A Street Car Names Desire’) keeps popping up uninvitingly as we begin to see her slipping from normality in such a way that when she is at the front door even audiences don’t want her around. Then there’s Ken, a pathetic booze guzzling chain-smoker who recalls when he was young before breaking down into tears. But their son Joe (Oliver Maltman) hasn’t got it any easier as he tries to find someone he wants to settle down with.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The movie ambles along each season with little point other then to draw the movie out into four separate sections as characters promises are lost through the different times. Leigh has definitely hit the same style Yasujiro Ozu in which the film centres around a character (or characters in Leigh’s case) and we see their friends and family around them as they effect the story however missing the historical importance which Ozu is know for. Whilst it appears that nothing is happening under neither it all you have love, loss, alcoholism, shattered dreams and bitter disappointment. </span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Whilst ‘Another Year’ won’t be to everyone’s taste, some may find a heart warming story about getting old. Others will see it as nothing more then old people talking about getting old. If you enjoy works by the elderly director then you will be pleasantly satisfied however apart from it having a lot of heart it ends up feeling somewhat boring and repetitive.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yypx-Tz8NzU">Trailer</a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">* * *</span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-8517032132273153242010-11-07T07:32:00.000-08:002010-11-07T07:34:22.720-08:00Review for 'Saw 3D'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWH7U_rTZSB2PceMoM6ko5ftJiJnkOO1pfOVVgvL4sGqNmb5ShF66KJ7oghXeJIq1_5d54C7S4cEqu9Flque5BWND97cKRwiQZFPf-2b8JG9RVDCcZL_x-6_i4BT6agrLhtLkc0qeACI/s1600/saw-3d-mind-blowing-poster_366x536.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWH7U_rTZSB2PceMoM6ko5ftJiJnkOO1pfOVVgvL4sGqNmb5ShF66KJ7oghXeJIq1_5d54C7S4cEqu9Flque5BWND97cKRwiQZFPf-2b8JG9RVDCcZL_x-6_i4BT6agrLhtLkc0qeACI/s320/saw-3d-mind-blowing-poster_366x536.jpg" width="218" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The Saw franchise has been gripping to life more then it’s once great serial killer Jigsaw, but now as we come to the final chapter of the series; ‘Saw 3D’ leaves a bitter taste in our mouths worse then any trap the producers could have thought up. The Saw franchise has become such an endurance test that it’s amazing they could string out such a ridicules story this far.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">This final time round Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is targeting survivor turned author Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery) as he cashes in on his so called ‘experience’. Before long we realise that he has fabricated his test and is cashing in on it. So it is no surprise to him or the audience when he wakes up in some elaborate trap and has to rescue his team of liars as he attempts to also save his two dimensional wife. The story also pulls together loose ends especially with Dr Gordon’s character (Cary Elwes) who makes and appearance as well as the on going feud with Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) and Jigsaw’s widowed wife Jill (Betsy Russell) with a conclusion which tries to but fail to redeem the lost franchise.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">This movie separate it’s self from the rest of the series, with not only 3D but how it is only gratuitous violence. Not to say that the other instalments where any less gratuitous however the producers used the extra dimension as an excuse to show appalling murders. There is nothing smart or sophisticated about this movie which the first few had along with their charm. It appears that director and creator of ‘Saw’, James Wong jumped off the sinking boat as the editor of the franchise Kevin Greutert returns to direct after working on equally bad Saw VI.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The acting is possibly some of the worst I have seen as it looks like a low budget American TV drama. None of the characters have any depth as their characters bios couldn’t last more then one line sentence. Part of the theory of horror cinema is that you need to establish likable characters which engage with the audience in a way that when they are in threat the audience feels the same dread, which is why the final girl archetype works as a good template to horror movies. This theory is completely lost in ‘Saw 3D’ as all the characters are selfish and boring cardboard cut outs.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">This movie might entertain people who are fans of the series but if you are stuck thinking what to watch at the cinema you should definitely skim past this one. The 3D is barely there and used in a pathetic way to grab what little money the producers think they need. The only saving grace is possibly the last five minutes as they string together the last threads of a once entertaining series. Fans of the series will be let down, and those who aren’t will be left sickened by the over the top violence as bit of humans come ‘flying’ out of the screen.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">*</span></div></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-20524353791744941052010-11-03T04:32:00.000-07:002010-11-03T04:32:41.490-07:00Review for 'The Kids Are All Right'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP_YsAf8J8Pi9KthVaLH4Qav5IbPMFaRhboYKp_u1OUbH8OoiR8JpP8RWTHLBKj1Dt0mf_MoglOua9w5lvBbZSl0b6a5T717rw9F215I92TuPhus95iqub0KX_jKSb3eW8IxzbAGbvxTw/s1600/The-Kids-Are-All-Right-Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP_YsAf8J8Pi9KthVaLH4Qav5IbPMFaRhboYKp_u1OUbH8OoiR8JpP8RWTHLBKj1Dt0mf_MoglOua9w5lvBbZSl0b6a5T717rw9F215I92TuPhus95iqub0KX_jKSb3eW8IxzbAGbvxTw/s320/The-Kids-Are-All-Right-Poster.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">On the outside a film like ‘The Kids are All Right’ (2010) might look like a little indie flick which should live in an Arthouse cinema, however once you delve in you realise that there is something more interesting and entertaining then a bunch of teenager sitting around talking ala Mumblecore or a Kevin Smith movie. Not that works by the Duplass Brothers or Andrew Bujalski are teenage trash, it is just they have hardly pushed the indie boundaries like Lisa Cholodenko’s ‘The Kids are All Right’. Once again I am forced to pull out the Oscar nods card however this is the general consensus from a lot of critics, but there isn’t smoke without fire.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) are a seemingly happy lesbian couple with children Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson) however when Joni turns eighteen she is bugged by her younger brother Laser to call their biological dad Paul (Mark Ruffalo) and set up a meeting. Whilst not telling their loving mothers, Joni and Laser head out to meet Paul, a cool, relaxed man who appears to have it all. As Nic and Jules are quick to find out about Paul the family begins to see that everything isn’t what the believed it was. Head of the house Nic has a drinking issue which is reminiscing of Miles from Alexander Payne’s ‘Sideways’ (2004), Jules becomes confused with her life choices, Jodi is about to go off to college but has feelings for her long term friend Jai (Kunal Sharma) and Laser is friends with bad influence Clay (Eddie Hassell). On the outside each character appears confident and assure of their lives however after Paul joins the mix everyone’s self esteem breaks down and we see their less then perfect world.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Penned by Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg this smart, intellectual movie about parenthood, responsibility and growing up deals with some heavy issues. It’s obvious to note that it is an off beat comedy which some people are not going to get but that is the crowd who enjoy the works of Michael Bay. This is edgy stuff, especially with the lesbian couple which doesn’t bog down any of the story plot but it is really the family who works as a unit but breaks down if separated.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">As I mentioned before the film can be associated with the likes of films such as ‘Sideways’, in that it prizes it’s self on dry humour especially with Mark Ruffalo’s character Paul. All the main actors especially Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo’s characters are very well acted and believable whilst being let down by minor characters especially with Kunal Sharma and Eddie Hassell however that doesn’t shy from the movie on a whole.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Whilst ‘The Kids are All Right’ has very few minor weak leaks on a whole the movie is very enjoyable. The characters are interesting and likable and the jokes aren’t the adolescent humour you come to expect in an Apatow movie. If you enjoy movies with some edgy intellectual characters this is right for you.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">* * * *</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-80064461881096226682010-10-27T05:52:00.000-07:002010-10-27T05:52:33.992-07:00What’s Got You Spooked This Halloween?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEXyZxP274qp6r3tUVPea1VIGk_7YtWWPoSYEN9-3onhrGSCVHEnymXzUU7cQWoB7Ng7Mi7dUrLOLx2gmWub7ccZFmQQwtud2XuzuygXq8RX8sahP3d4Wxi8zqpgLjC1kUVcmKQS1gPLo/s1600/the-thing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEXyZxP274qp6r3tUVPea1VIGk_7YtWWPoSYEN9-3onhrGSCVHEnymXzUU7cQWoB7Ng7Mi7dUrLOLx2gmWub7ccZFmQQwtud2XuzuygXq8RX8sahP3d4Wxi8zqpgLjC1kUVcmKQS1gPLo/s320/the-thing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Halloween has once again come around just days before the Mexican Day of the Dead (2nd Nov) however once again us horror hounds are disappointed by the lack of films in the cinema. Where are our saviours: John Carpenter or Sam Raimi (to name a few) to haunt us with chilling tales? Instead we are left with ‘Paranormal Activity 2’, ‘Let Me In’ and the film which just won’t ironically die ‘Saw 3D’. And whilst a few of them aren’t necessarily bad they lack that spark that will keep people talking about then for years to come. This year has been a fairly terrible year for horror movies whilst last year we where satisfied with interesting and fun horrors such as Christopher Smith’s ‘Triangle’, Charles Guard’s ‘The Uninvited’ and Sam Raimi’s return to horror ‘Drag Me To Hell’. So whilst this year we have been “treated” with re-makes (or re-imaginings as the studios say), re-boots and sequel, I say save money from the cinema and go out and buy a stack of horror flick. What should I buy? I hear you ask, well here’s my list of some classic movies to keep you up.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">First movie I’m going to mention is a film I personally hold dear and that’s John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ (1982). Set in Alaska in a remote research centre in the middle of no where the team is happy and safe until a helicopter chasing a cute dog comes along will all guns blazing. After handling the situation, our hero R.J. McReady (Kurt Russle) heads to the facility to which the helicopter came from only to find some bazaar corpses and locations of a crashed alien space ship. Before long the team discovers that the alien has infiltrated the research centre with the ability to replicate any organ mass leaving the rest of the men paranoid and frightened. Not for the faint heart this classic is sure to send disgusted shivers down anyone’s backs. Especially go see it because a prequel is coming next year to spoil all the fun.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD6-iyA5zRjDsUYDzkKo7nQP9LoANgQdZLF_ZLyO1bV_EVd1O2vbBLO2wqUUFg5_TfHvJwVBWqp3peCfdFIcY2fbw9NsZuavshHFTnvIS1Bz1pfwIdvhCXR1CVd69f_3g0oUXEIpixo5U/s1600/pontypool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD6-iyA5zRjDsUYDzkKo7nQP9LoANgQdZLF_ZLyO1bV_EVd1O2vbBLO2wqUUFg5_TfHvJwVBWqp3peCfdFIcY2fbw9NsZuavshHFTnvIS1Bz1pfwIdvhCXR1CVd69f_3g0oUXEIpixo5U/s320/pontypool.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Next film I’m going to recommend is a Canadian horror click which came out late last year named ‘Pontypool’ (Bruce McDonald, 2009). Now bear with me whilst I explain as little as possible; the film opens with radio presenter Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) on his way to work when a babbling woman stops him before disappearing into the snow, nothing to strange some may thing however when Mazzy gets to work in the basement of a church on a hill strange reports of cannibalism begins to flood the news team. Whilst hosting a radio station, Mazzy begins to decipher whether the reports are factual or a hoax. What makes this movie stand out is it’s take on zombie movies where by the infection is spread by a viral infection, ‘Pontypool’ plays with an infection which is spread verbally. This twist on the zombie genre is based on Tony Burgess’ chilling book ‘Pontypool Changes Everything’ this adaption will become a cult classic which is also going to spawn a trilogy. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">With a terrible re-make coming from Satan himself Michael Bay, ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’s credibility has gone down slightly, however seeing the iconic scene with Johnny Depp being pulled into his bed, we really remember what this film was all about. No one can take Robert England’s place as the burnt slasher killer as he moves from dream to dream, killing off the inhabitants of Elm Street. Possibly Wes Craven’s greatest achievement this film belongs in an true horror fans collection.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_HwYUNety104dA5ulV1_x0tck3YZreIC4jTAdTibJ3qgWAZ6M_bqXm8_TR_66FmGU1VlcSTmObswXv24l-b9U1U5vwM4RcHTHbZhH0IXiohhaYJf3WpGGjwVFDjshqEU4akMi7QqH5JQ/s1600/ShiningShelleyMes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_HwYUNety104dA5ulV1_x0tck3YZreIC4jTAdTibJ3qgWAZ6M_bqXm8_TR_66FmGU1VlcSTmObswXv24l-b9U1U5vwM4RcHTHbZhH0IXiohhaYJf3WpGGjwVFDjshqEU4akMi7QqH5JQ/s320/ShiningShelleyMes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The last film to spook you this Halloween comes from director Stanley Kubrick whilst spawning from the disturbing mind of writer Stephen King. Of course I’m talking about ‘The Shining’ in possibly one of Jack Nicholson’s greatest performances as the troubled writer, who is forced together with his lovely wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and disturbing son Danny (Danny Loyd) in a claustrophobic haunted hotel miles from civilisation. The empty halls, creep corridors and haunting bathrooms all contribute to a great viewing experience which would keep you up all night. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The Thing <span style="color: red;">* * * *</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Pontypool <span style="color: red;">* * *</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Nightmare on Elm Street</span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><span style="color: red;"> * * *</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The Shining <span style="color: red;">* * * *</span></span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-82681055475710940172010-10-24T03:42:00.000-07:002010-10-24T03:42:26.635-07:00Review for 'Paranormal Activity 2'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJtNjkLSN-6rmq5ivMJGN1b9MVh8a7fkJOu1cRT9DciOK2q-0C-to_sJt9U38FHQLRORCvNiOpPqe2xAMwGGWIVtyTaqvcTREHm5eo9fLpkUO_yGiQ5ecVgIU6591HHtiE4g5oQRXghic/s1600/paranormal-activity-2-movie-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJtNjkLSN-6rmq5ivMJGN1b9MVh8a7fkJOu1cRT9DciOK2q-0C-to_sJt9U38FHQLRORCvNiOpPqe2xAMwGGWIVtyTaqvcTREHm5eo9fLpkUO_yGiQ5ecVgIU6591HHtiE4g5oQRXghic/s320/paranormal-activity-2-movie-poster.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The story of ‘Paranormal Activity’ is one of an independent horror film’s shoot to fame and popularity, ‘Paranormal Activity 2’ on the other hand is very different. It’s like the first was a geek who had to work to get a girl, whilst the sequel is like the pretty boy who never had to try.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">To explain the story of ‘Paranormal Activity 2’ is to say too much, once again it relies on the audience to believe that this is ‘found footage’ ala ‘Cannibal Apocalypse’, ‘Blair Witch Project’ and ‘[REC]’. On the arrival of new born baby Hunter, recently wed parents Dan and Kristi (whose acting credit is hidden whilst the film tries to keep the ‘found footage’ mentality) appear to be living a perfect life only until strange things begin to happen in and around the huge house. After returning home one night, the family find their picturesque house completely in ruin; they decide to set up security cameras around the house whilst mixing in footage from a hand held camera which individual characters hold at certain time. The end effect works really well as the audience sees the action from afar, but then are sucked into a sort of point of view angle as the characters scream and run.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">What was so impressive about the first film is lost on the sequel. When the first (finally) came out audiences where left shaking and dreading the following night, however with this instalment it has all been watered down to the point when you are mainly surprised rather then shocked. For some audience members ‘Paranormal Activity 2’ will scare the life out of them but for any horror fanatics it’s not much.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The main problem with this movie is that it feels very ‘been there done that’. A lot of the spooky ‘activities’ pop up a second time from the first movie, however with a high budget gloss. Rather then playing on your nerves, it is just filled with cheap scares. Having said that the comedy makes a nice counter balance to the poor scares; horror and comedy are closely linked in cinema and it is a nice change from the quick scares which are too far apart.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The story takes too long to actually pick up and when it finally does it lingers for too short a time before its finale, resembling found footage Spanish zombie flick ‘[REC]’ and leaves the audience disappointed. It seems director Tod Williams didn’t know pacing very well, and the movie looses a lot of its subtleness which was what writer director Oren Peli got right with the first.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Although ‘Paranormal Activity 2’ lacks originality and subtleness, it ends up still being a fun trip to the movie which will haunt some audience members later that night.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">* *</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-71915630806915393832010-10-24T03:38:00.000-07:002010-10-24T03:38:47.321-07:00Review for 'The Social Network'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKtLTzJ8UWhn6QfkPCBBxpiif3lnuW_BvK20IpT9ueWOy9L04FZFo4zIQQxz0wiuoTWN7uuhRu66rl9m7R55GRRBSME_U2lgQwmsRKCD6h9a1-pgsbPvjC7dLAhAzCZw09TiXUVPkb9BQ/s1600/The-Social-Network-Movie-Poster1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKtLTzJ8UWhn6QfkPCBBxpiif3lnuW_BvK20IpT9ueWOy9L04FZFo4zIQQxz0wiuoTWN7uuhRu66rl9m7R55GRRBSME_U2lgQwmsRKCD6h9a1-pgsbPvjC7dLAhAzCZw09TiXUVPkb9BQ/s320/The-Social-Network-Movie-Poster1.jpg" width="202" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Bloggers Note: I know in the post 'Social Network: My Thoughts' I noted that I would not review the movie however after writting up those notes for my universities newspaper; I thought I would post it here as well.</em></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">One of the biggest problems with David Fincher’s new flick ‘The Social Network’ is everyone going to see it is calling it ‘The Facebook Movie’. What people don’t actually realise is that it isn’t about someone carelessly clicking ‘Like’ on their friends latest Facebook comment, but rather about the legal battles Mark Zuckerberg went through in the past decade to get Facebook to where it is. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The movie begins with soon to be billionaire Mark Zuckerberg (Jessie Eisenberg) on a date with his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara), with enough snappy dialog that the audience begins to establish what kind of a character Mark really is. He’s ingenious, fast and also a bit of an ass as his girlfriend soon dumps him, sending Mark off on a drunken rage to hack all the Harvard Universities ‘Facebook’ pages and make a sexist site called Facemash.com for people to rate their peers. After being suspended by his university, Mark is approached by the Winklevoss brothers, who ask Mark to create a site for them called Harvard Connections. However, Mark has an idea for his own site, a site which everyone with a Harvard email account can access and make a profile, and with best friend Eduardo Saverin backing him, Mark becomes unstoppable. It is this site which later becomes the Facebook we all know and use today. From just the opening scenes we understand the irony which is throughout the film, and that irony is how possibly one of the most anti-social people created the most social network in the world.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">With the West Wing’s script writer Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher behind it, ‘The Social Network’ ends up being a contest of wit between writer and director. It is so refreshing have a director who can use CGI (in the case of the Winklevoss brothers both being actor Armie Hammer) as a tool and not a gimmick, and a writer whose pacing is so fast it doesn’t wait for the dim-witted to keep up.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The acting in it is excellent, Jessie Eisenberg has established himself before and with this movie catalogue behind him, he appears to completely embody Mark Zuckerberg as a character. As well as Jessie, up-and-comer British born Andrew Garfield has really grown from ‘The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus’ (2009) and only good things can come from the new Spiderman. Then there is Justin Timberlake (whose track record of movies haven’t been great until now) as the Napster inventor Sean Parker who becomes Mark’s mentor, whilst attempting to divide long time friendship with co-creator Eduardo Saverin. But even the minor characters grab the audience whilst making them laugh or emotional. Although it is too early for Oscar nods, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these three is nominated and it would be rightly so.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">With the critical acclaim and its second week in the US Box Office chart this movie is really a testament to the fact that people would prefer to see a movie which is clever, funny and insightful. The quick dialog and snappy characters make the lengthy film time go flashing by. We are the Facebook generation, and this movie captures it’s creation in a captivatingly way. </span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">* * * *</span></span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-57836697903499977882010-10-17T12:43:00.000-07:002010-10-17T12:43:21.226-07:00Review for 'Let Me In'<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-MRrUcgfD9c0nw4G0zgG55j5NA3_mg85cGJeYQoSG-80fubCs6b8D5cULgUO20AtbGSkL9GmDHtai1UnFVrV4FfByheq_oIlZ4cvEeNQ6GgTwKIY1x686E8sYgt79EVVgKZhnepMrtwU/s1600/movie_let-me-in-teaser-poster-6-7-10-kc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span></a><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">So I went to a special screening of Matt Reeve’s latest film <em>Let Me In</em> at the BFI Film Festival yesterday and have come back a different person.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcr_i62FOJDpyrOq-b_tXh7lrQEB6jFuOrQh2lIvpcIvx2FPRJbIk9GUJrn94x2KIZDa316pKVgCosnUdLEAAx5tPqsS3qL8IqQI-YuV71TsplFZZcB27nT2IeQrD84d_S4gaIJ_xMyzI/s1600/movie_let-me-in-teaser-poster-6-7-10-kc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcr_i62FOJDpyrOq-b_tXh7lrQEB6jFuOrQh2lIvpcIvx2FPRJbIk9GUJrn94x2KIZDa316pKVgCosnUdLEAAx5tPqsS3qL8IqQI-YuV71TsplFZZcB27nT2IeQrD84d_S4gaIJ_xMyzI/s320/movie_let-me-in-teaser-poster-6-7-10-kc.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">To start with I reviewed Tomas Alfredson’s <em><a href="http://newfilmblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/33-review-for-lat-den-ratte-komma-in.html">Let the Right One In</a></em> last year when it came out and it was definitely one of the best films of the year, if not the best. So when I and every other fan heard that good ol’ Hollywood were going to get their greasy paws on it for the audiences who can’t read subtitles, we were not happy. I also have read the John Ajvide Lindqvist book, so I am in somewhat a good position to judge this movie.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">For those who don’t know the story, it centres on newly named Owen and Abby. Set in the snow covered hills of Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1983; Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) a troubled youth who by night becomes a knife wielding peeping tom but by day is bullied and humiliated by school bully Kenny (Dylan Minnette) on a daily basis. Owen’s only friend is his single fundamentalist Christian mother until a mysterious girl named Abby (Chloe Moretz) moves in next door. After a few rocky moments it only takes a Rubix Cube to begin their deep friendship. However, Abby isn’t all that she seems to be, whilst she acts like a sweet girl there’s something that lies beneath the surface. This brilliant coming of age story is heightened by the horror at which at times can make the true horror fan jump.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Whilst the film is a remake, it is surprisingly interesting. Remakes have a bad name which is only their own faults, and whilst this can’t hold a light to its original counterpart Reeve’s has done a respectable job. The several differences in motivations and character archetypes than <em>Let the Right One In</em> had given the fans of the original enough to come back for seconds. Whilst the film can stand on its own, it is not without its flaws and the biggest one is its script written by Reeves. In true American fashion the pacing never slows down and keeps going on and on, and whilst this doesn’t sound like a bad thing it is a complete change of pace from the first film. The original was slow to show how mundane Oskar’s life is and the progression in time; with <em>Let Me In</em> it feels like this is happening within a week. Reeve has also fiddled about with all of the character’s names, which is strange to say the least. But the most disturbing change is the fact that two characters now wear masks which is a surprising turn which attempts to make the film something of a slasher movie. One of them looks like Leather Face which the other looks like a bin man with a rubbish bag over his face.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Whilst some characters roles have been dramatically diluted, for example the character of Virginia (Sasha Barrese), other characters have stolen scenes in a fairly convoluted what, i.e. the detective (Elias Koteas). Whilst some may see this as a bad thing, it is more apparent that Reeve’s wanted to focus on the relationship of seemingly innocent Owen and Abby.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Then you come to the awkward acting. Surprisingly Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Moretz do a somewhat disappointing portrayal of the two lead characters as they try to mimic the relationship of Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson’s Oskar and Eli. This leaves their relationship stale and forced and is a problem in some scenes. Then there is Richard Jenkins who is a normally a capable actor, however is questionable when playing Hakan, now simply named the ‘Father’, who ambles around the film swearing and being a moody old man who we do not sympathies with.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Produced by the revitalised studios Hammer Films who are known for such vampire classics as <em>Brides of Dracula, Dracula AD 1972</em> and <em>Vampire Circus</em> this is by no means a flop. The <em>Cloverfield</em> director has made an artistic and interesting view on the book which will not disappointing any true vampire fans. Abby can proudly stand among the likes of Christopher Lee’s Dracula. This incarnation of adaption is also far more explicit and will please those who have a strong blood lust. I recommend buying Tomas Alfredson’s original <em>Let the Right One In</em>, however <em>Let Me In </em>is not such a disgrace, and is probably one of the better films emerging around Halloween.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Anticipation - 2</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Enjoyment - 3<br />
Retrospect - 3</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8129872047019197591.post-90441614940072238922010-10-10T13:29:00.000-07:002010-10-10T13:29:22.388-07:00The Social Network: My Thoughts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLpRfymF3cECa3oO0_S53Q4ws3WrHtvSbB3RjZC4U-X3HQmElg2XWcrufXACaZ74NAc4GZ5MQ-Su-e7yJrgviAMxyOndI_JQlhMGnRuQEGZuoTfPkKDmb-ch59pLZ8cM8baiA3Dclp5fc/s1600/the-social-network-movie-photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLpRfymF3cECa3oO0_S53Q4ws3WrHtvSbB3RjZC4U-X3HQmElg2XWcrufXACaZ74NAc4GZ5MQ-Su-e7yJrgviAMxyOndI_JQlhMGnRuQEGZuoTfPkKDmb-ch59pLZ8cM8baiA3Dclp5fc/s400/the-social-network-movie-photo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">So I just got out of the screening of <em>The Social Network</em>, David Fincher’s latest endeavours and rather then doing a review I will just put down my thoughts about the movie and let people decide whether they want to see it or not.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">To begin with the movie is going to have a hard time selling it self and will forever be known as ‘The Facebook Movie’. What people don’t actually realise is that it isn’t about someone carelessly clicking Like on their friends latest Facebook comment but rather about the legal battles Mark Zuckerberg went through in the past decade. With the West Wing’s script writer Aaron Sorkin with director David Fincher behind it The Social Network is exactly what </span><a href="http://co115w.col115.mail.live.com/default.aspx?rru=inbox"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Roger Ebert</span></a><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> said:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">“It [<em>The Social Network</em>] hurtles through two hours of spellbinding dialogue. It makes an untellable story clear and fascinating. It is said to be impossible to make a movie about a writer, because how can you show him only writing? It must also be impossible to make a movie about a computer programmer, because what is programming but writing in a language few people in the audience know? Yet Fincher and his writer, Aaron Sorkin, are able to explain the Facebook phenomenon in terms we can immediately understand, which is the reason 500 million of us have signed up.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The acting in it is excellent, Jesse Eisenberg has established himself and with this movie catalogue however he seems to completely embody Mark Zuckerberg as a character. Andrew Garfield has really grown from the<em> Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus</em> and only good things can come form the new Spiderman and then there is Justin Timberlake whose track record of movies haven’t been great until now. But even the minor characters grab the audience whilst making them laugh or emotional. Although it is too early for Oscar nods, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these three is nominated and it would be rightly so.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">I really enjoyed <em>The Social Network</em>. Only an hour ago did I emerge form the cinema but already I’m planning on a second visit. The quick dialog and snappy characters make the lengthy film time go flashing by. We are the Facebook generation, and this movie captures it’s creation in an captivatingly way.</span></div>New Film Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11868712372537496911noreply@blogger.com0