In 1996 a virus is released that will wipe out 5 billion people, the remaining humans living under ground. Scientists in that future send back “volunteer” prisoners to find out how the virus was released and to get a sample of its original form. Unfortunately time travel isn’t quite an exact science and they send Cole (Bruce Willis) back to 1990 where he’s banged up with a real nut job, Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) and has a sympathetic shrink Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe).
I mention the last two as they are important characters in the plot. But the plot I cover is something like the first 20 minutes. This is a VERY convoluted movie and I don’t want to spoil any of it.
Time travel is easy to completely arse up, particularly when you hop back and forth like this film does. They’re very clever with it here though and the script writer was obviously careful with how they set out the various character paths.
Unfortunately it makes it a little hard to review without getting in to spoiler territory, so I expect this will be a short one.
It’s a Terry Gilliam film so obviously its pretty fucking weird. In fact with that first 20-30 minutes I wasn’t all that sure I’d like it. The mental hospital didn’t really look like one to me. Because it isn’t, it’s an abandoned prison. That aside and the fact that much of the film is dingy and dirty, and that there’s some strangeness for strangenesses sake, the look doesn’t really detract from the overall movie. I didn’t think it really added much either though besides the overt weirdness possibly adding to how nuts Cole might be. If your trying to help someone keep their mental faculties sticking them half way up a wall with eyeballs on screens and staring at them through a distorting magnifying glass probably isn’t going to work though. Just saying.
All the performances are great. Bruce Willis isn’t in full on action star mode here, but he plays very good slowly deranged. And the Brad Pitt we see is pre-star Brad. He is frankly one of the best actors of his age, and it shows through in his off the wall performance in this.
I’d say that this might be a bit nuts and out there for some people, but if you pay attention and you don’t mind a bit of strangeness you’ll enjoy the hell out of this movie.
Next up: The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys. Which is a bit of a cheat as its basically the making of THIS movie, but its listed as a different documentary movie in most places and it’s feature length.
Further Reading: http://iheartthetalkies.wordpress.com/ reviews the latest releases. And I don’t, well maybe occasionally. So go read her blog.
Thursday 29 April 2010
Wednesday 28 April 2010
Movie 118: Real Genius
A 15 year old prodigy is admitted to college due to his aptitude with lasers. There he is taken under the wing of the previous “stud”, who was 12 when he entered, who tried to get him to relax more or he’ll go nuts. Like the other previous stud who lives in the steam tunnels under the college. Little do they know that they’re professor is using them to build a weapon.
This is an 80’s film. A very 80’s film. There was a glut of these movies back then. Not necessarily teenage geniuses, but the whole feel of the thing. And I love em.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying I LOVED this, but it was pretty damned good. It does have a slightly big failing which is an over reliance on the montage. There are 3 big montage sequences in this movie, possibly more but definitely 3. That’s 2 more than most. Yes, even Rocky had a montage but not every 20 minutes.
Not that I have a problem with them, it just cuts down on actual character time.
The characters themselves are great, which is why a slightly longer running time would have been fine. The young kid isn’t all that impressive, but the leads rarely are in ensemble comedy. His love interest, the hyperkinetic engineer who never sleeps, works very well in her small doses but seems to calm a bit towards the end. And of course the stand out is this kid called Val Kilmer. It’s a weird name, but if he plays more wacky characters like the one in this he could go really far.
All joking aside, this is Kilmer on his game playing the type of role he’s damned good at. The last film I saw him in, Heat, basically had him looking cool and saying nothing which DOESN’T work as well. He’s a wise ass dammit.
This being an 80’s film, and a college one at that, it has the rival dick student. For once he’s another nerd, though a relatively incompetent one, who sucks up to the dick teacher. Or should I say dickless. Yes, poor William Atherton is playing that role he plays in pretty much every 80’s film he’s in. I assume the guy is just a jerk. But your looking at a slightly less asshole version of his character from Ghost Busters, the Die Hards and I’m assuming Bio-Dome though I can’t remember him in that as I’ve repressed the memory.
This is a bit of a Sunday afternoon watch. It’s no Revenge of the Nerds, but its also no Revenge of the Nerds 4: Nerds In Love. Worth a look! Assuming Wargames isn’t on.
Next up: Twelve Monkeys
Further Reading: http://iheartthetalkies.wordpress.com/ reviews the latest releases. And I don’t, well maybe occasionally. So go read her blog.
This is an 80’s film. A very 80’s film. There was a glut of these movies back then. Not necessarily teenage geniuses, but the whole feel of the thing. And I love em.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying I LOVED this, but it was pretty damned good. It does have a slightly big failing which is an over reliance on the montage. There are 3 big montage sequences in this movie, possibly more but definitely 3. That’s 2 more than most. Yes, even Rocky had a montage but not every 20 minutes.
Not that I have a problem with them, it just cuts down on actual character time.
The characters themselves are great, which is why a slightly longer running time would have been fine. The young kid isn’t all that impressive, but the leads rarely are in ensemble comedy. His love interest, the hyperkinetic engineer who never sleeps, works very well in her small doses but seems to calm a bit towards the end. And of course the stand out is this kid called Val Kilmer. It’s a weird name, but if he plays more wacky characters like the one in this he could go really far.
All joking aside, this is Kilmer on his game playing the type of role he’s damned good at. The last film I saw him in, Heat, basically had him looking cool and saying nothing which DOESN’T work as well. He’s a wise ass dammit.
This being an 80’s film, and a college one at that, it has the rival dick student. For once he’s another nerd, though a relatively incompetent one, who sucks up to the dick teacher. Or should I say dickless. Yes, poor William Atherton is playing that role he plays in pretty much every 80’s film he’s in. I assume the guy is just a jerk. But your looking at a slightly less asshole version of his character from Ghost Busters, the Die Hards and I’m assuming Bio-Dome though I can’t remember him in that as I’ve repressed the memory.
This is a bit of a Sunday afternoon watch. It’s no Revenge of the Nerds, but its also no Revenge of the Nerds 4: Nerds In Love. Worth a look! Assuming Wargames isn’t on.
Next up: Twelve Monkeys
Further Reading: http://iheartthetalkies.wordpress.com/ reviews the latest releases. And I don’t, well maybe occasionally. So go read her blog.
Tuesday 27 April 2010
Movie 117: Outlander
A space ship crashes in Norway, around 900 AD. There is one human survivor, but he has some company. A deadly alien called a Moorven. The Moorven slaughters a village and nearly starts a war, but out hero is blamed. Until the Moorven attacks again. Well, until he kills a bear and everyone suddenly likes him, THE the Moorven attacks.
For a film about an alien-kinda-but-he’s-actually-human-but-from-space fighting alongside Vikings to kill a big dragon beasty this takes itself pretty seriously. Which is the main problem, as it’s a load of old toot.
Btw if you have seen this you might have missed the “abandoned seed colony” bit at the start. This explains why Kainan the alien looks like a person. See, we’re from space too! Sorted. But they don’t go much further than that. I’m fine with that to be honest.
If this had gone whackier I would have liked it a hell of a lot more, but its too straight faced. The Moorven, while an interesting design and idea, is pretty damned hard to decipher. When its glowing like a bunch of fairy lights I had trouble telling what was tail and what was tongue. The effects just weren’t up for what they were trying.
There is some kind of light hearted moments, but they weren’t all that good either. And the comic relief, Boromir of all names, had a very mobile accent. Sometimes he was a bit Scottish, then he’d be Irish, then English. Bit piss poor that.
I did think it was a nice touch that the “alien” language he was speaking at the start was Norse, then he and everyone else speaks English for the rest of the movie. Somehow the little kid is the only person bar our alien who has an American accent, which was lazy as hell.
Ron Pearlman is in this. He isn’t in it enough. Man did they waste that guy, he’s in about 10 minutes of actual movie. And his accent is pretty fucking good! Didn’t expect that, but Ron is actually a rather good actor. I think his look is the main reason for being cast in a lot of films but if he looked more conventional he’d be all over the damned place.
What we have here is a wasted opportunity for a fun B movie. The Viking village looks good, but the special effects are terrible. As is some of the acting and that one important supporting characters accent. The creature effects don’t really work. The plot is REDICULOUSLY predictable.
I wouldn’t bother watching it if I was you, but the buzz seems to be that its pretty enjoyable. You’ve been warned if you think its arse afterwards.
Next up: Real Genius
Further Reading: http://iheartthetalkies.wordpress.com/ reviews the latest releases. And I don’t, well maybe occasionally. So go read her blog.
For a film about an alien-kinda-but-he’s-actually-human-but-from-space fighting alongside Vikings to kill a big dragon beasty this takes itself pretty seriously. Which is the main problem, as it’s a load of old toot.
Btw if you have seen this you might have missed the “abandoned seed colony” bit at the start. This explains why Kainan the alien looks like a person. See, we’re from space too! Sorted. But they don’t go much further than that. I’m fine with that to be honest.
If this had gone whackier I would have liked it a hell of a lot more, but its too straight faced. The Moorven, while an interesting design and idea, is pretty damned hard to decipher. When its glowing like a bunch of fairy lights I had trouble telling what was tail and what was tongue. The effects just weren’t up for what they were trying.
There is some kind of light hearted moments, but they weren’t all that good either. And the comic relief, Boromir of all names, had a very mobile accent. Sometimes he was a bit Scottish, then he’d be Irish, then English. Bit piss poor that.
I did think it was a nice touch that the “alien” language he was speaking at the start was Norse, then he and everyone else speaks English for the rest of the movie. Somehow the little kid is the only person bar our alien who has an American accent, which was lazy as hell.
Ron Pearlman is in this. He isn’t in it enough. Man did they waste that guy, he’s in about 10 minutes of actual movie. And his accent is pretty fucking good! Didn’t expect that, but Ron is actually a rather good actor. I think his look is the main reason for being cast in a lot of films but if he looked more conventional he’d be all over the damned place.
What we have here is a wasted opportunity for a fun B movie. The Viking village looks good, but the special effects are terrible. As is some of the acting and that one important supporting characters accent. The creature effects don’t really work. The plot is REDICULOUSLY predictable.
I wouldn’t bother watching it if I was you, but the buzz seems to be that its pretty enjoyable. You’ve been warned if you think its arse afterwards.
Next up: Real Genius
Further Reading: http://iheartthetalkies.wordpress.com/ reviews the latest releases. And I don’t, well maybe occasionally. So go read her blog.
Monday 26 April 2010
Movie 116: Seven Samurai
A small mountain village in 16th century Japan is being plagued by bandits. They have no money and are near starvation, but decide to try and find some Samurai to help protect them. Finding ones that will work for food isn’t easy, but they manage to gather a miss fit band of young, old, inexperienced and nuts to keep the bandits off their back.
This is a premake of The Magnificent Seven and it’s REALLY fookin long. But the thing is, I can’t think of a scene that could really be cut.
This is my 4th Kurosawa movie, and again it only has a small amount of plot for a film of its length. And yet it’s entertaining through out. They take they’re time with the story, you see the Samurai all joining up more or less individually. They harvest crops in the village. The bandits, when they finally come, lay siege to the town and it’s a proper siege with probing attacks and all that malarkey.
I LOVE The Magnificent Seven, it’s probably my favourite western. All jokes aside about this being a premake, there are obvious similarities and pretty big difference. And both are fantastic films. I wondered how it would work in a swords and spears era. There are a few guns in the movie, but thankfully not many. But the deliberate pacing of how the bandits attack, and the fact that they pretty much only do it once, means it works fine. Mag Seven had the advantage of having more action, Seven Sam made the action more personal.
I mean think of one other epic where you get to see pretty much EVERY death, even for the minor characters who have no lines whatsoever. Can’t, can you?
That is one of the films few failings though. It was an issue on Hidden Fortress as well, but not as glaring. It’s REALLY obvious that no one is being stabbed. The killing is like a Shakespeare play, with slashes in front or barely stabbed stabbings felling people instantly. Its something you have to forgive though as it’s no doubt due to technical limitations.
Apart from that, there isn’t much to complain about. BFI did their usual shite subs job with no translation for pretty big swathes of film. No important dialogue is missing, but I feel like some funny insults might have been lost. It’s ironic that on the day I get HD TV I watch a 56 year old black and white grainy film, but it still looks damned good.
And before I go, no Kurosawa review is complete without saying something about Mifune. He’s more nuts than a bag of Snickers in this. And literally has his arse hanging out for a good chunk of the film. The whole cast is great, and there’s a fair bit of cross over with Fortress from what I could see. Not a major miss step in the bunch.
The one thing missing from this that IS in the western remake is that the bad guys aren’t fleshed out that much. They pretty much have one small scene at the start but remain faceless. That’s a bit of a blessing though as otherwise the thing would be 4 bloomin hours long…
Next up: Outlander
Further Reading: http://iheartthetalkies.wordpress.com/ reviews the latest releases. And I don’t, well maybe occasionally. So go read her blog.
This is a premake of The Magnificent Seven and it’s REALLY fookin long. But the thing is, I can’t think of a scene that could really be cut.
This is my 4th Kurosawa movie, and again it only has a small amount of plot for a film of its length. And yet it’s entertaining through out. They take they’re time with the story, you see the Samurai all joining up more or less individually. They harvest crops in the village. The bandits, when they finally come, lay siege to the town and it’s a proper siege with probing attacks and all that malarkey.
I LOVE The Magnificent Seven, it’s probably my favourite western. All jokes aside about this being a premake, there are obvious similarities and pretty big difference. And both are fantastic films. I wondered how it would work in a swords and spears era. There are a few guns in the movie, but thankfully not many. But the deliberate pacing of how the bandits attack, and the fact that they pretty much only do it once, means it works fine. Mag Seven had the advantage of having more action, Seven Sam made the action more personal.
I mean think of one other epic where you get to see pretty much EVERY death, even for the minor characters who have no lines whatsoever. Can’t, can you?
That is one of the films few failings though. It was an issue on Hidden Fortress as well, but not as glaring. It’s REALLY obvious that no one is being stabbed. The killing is like a Shakespeare play, with slashes in front or barely stabbed stabbings felling people instantly. Its something you have to forgive though as it’s no doubt due to technical limitations.
Apart from that, there isn’t much to complain about. BFI did their usual shite subs job with no translation for pretty big swathes of film. No important dialogue is missing, but I feel like some funny insults might have been lost. It’s ironic that on the day I get HD TV I watch a 56 year old black and white grainy film, but it still looks damned good.
And before I go, no Kurosawa review is complete without saying something about Mifune. He’s more nuts than a bag of Snickers in this. And literally has his arse hanging out for a good chunk of the film. The whole cast is great, and there’s a fair bit of cross over with Fortress from what I could see. Not a major miss step in the bunch.
The one thing missing from this that IS in the western remake is that the bad guys aren’t fleshed out that much. They pretty much have one small scene at the start but remain faceless. That’s a bit of a blessing though as otherwise the thing would be 4 bloomin hours long…
Next up: Outlander
Further Reading: http://iheartthetalkies.wordpress.com/ reviews the latest releases. And I don’t, well maybe occasionally. So go read her blog.
Sunday 25 April 2010
Movie 115: Superbad
Best friends Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) aren’t exactly popular, but two weeks before graduation Seth is teamed up with a girl in home ec who invites him to a party. Using other friend Fogell (Chris Mintz-Plasse) to buy booze with his new fake ID, which makes him 25 year old McLovin from Hawaii, they plan to try and get laid before they run out of time. Until everything goes wrong
I didn’t say hilarity ensues! Fuck….
Every ten years or so there’s a good movie like this. In the 80’s there’s obviously the Hughes flicks but they’re probably not quite in the same genre. Ferris Bueller is close though. Then came Dazed and Confused. Next there’s American Pie, just the first one as the second is a college movie. There’s a lot of drek in this genre, but Superbad is the next in the pattern.
And yes I know I’m late to the party on this being a good film. For most people this is the first time their introduced to the main players. Particularly McLovin. This is my third CMP movie though so I benefit from not associating him with this character for ever. He pretty much plays the same role as he generally does though. Same with Cera and I assume with Hill.
And pretty much the same with Seth Rogen as one of the cops who hang with McLovin.
Many of you will have seen this film, so I’ll get a bit bullet pointy with the good parts. First off, they portray being a teenager very realistically. At least this kind of teenager. The guys swear a lot, they are somewhat fascinated with the female of the species and most importantly they haven’t got a clue what they are doing and are a bit scared. The bromance relationship between the two leads and they way they act with each other throughout the film is also spot on. I can’t get in to it too much as I don’t want to spoil anything, but I can identify with the relationship between these two guys.
Much of the cast seems to be the right age too. There’s a few background people that are now semi well known in their own right, playing people in there early twenties which fits. Nice to see kids cast as kids for once.
There’s also plenty of crazy comedy and ridiculous situations too. But importantly, for me at least, it’s not heavy on the gross out humour. There’s some, but the film doesn’t lean heavily on it.
This is a great comedy with note perfect performances that portrays what its like to be a 17 year old boy pretty damned well. If you haven’t watched it yet and you were once one, go fucking see it. I guess girls will probably like it too though!
Next up: Seven Samurai
I didn’t say hilarity ensues! Fuck….
Every ten years or so there’s a good movie like this. In the 80’s there’s obviously the Hughes flicks but they’re probably not quite in the same genre. Ferris Bueller is close though. Then came Dazed and Confused. Next there’s American Pie, just the first one as the second is a college movie. There’s a lot of drek in this genre, but Superbad is the next in the pattern.
And yes I know I’m late to the party on this being a good film. For most people this is the first time their introduced to the main players. Particularly McLovin. This is my third CMP movie though so I benefit from not associating him with this character for ever. He pretty much plays the same role as he generally does though. Same with Cera and I assume with Hill.
And pretty much the same with Seth Rogen as one of the cops who hang with McLovin.
Many of you will have seen this film, so I’ll get a bit bullet pointy with the good parts. First off, they portray being a teenager very realistically. At least this kind of teenager. The guys swear a lot, they are somewhat fascinated with the female of the species and most importantly they haven’t got a clue what they are doing and are a bit scared. The bromance relationship between the two leads and they way they act with each other throughout the film is also spot on. I can’t get in to it too much as I don’t want to spoil anything, but I can identify with the relationship between these two guys.
Much of the cast seems to be the right age too. There’s a few background people that are now semi well known in their own right, playing people in there early twenties which fits. Nice to see kids cast as kids for once.
There’s also plenty of crazy comedy and ridiculous situations too. But importantly, for me at least, it’s not heavy on the gross out humour. There’s some, but the film doesn’t lean heavily on it.
This is a great comedy with note perfect performances that portrays what its like to be a 17 year old boy pretty damned well. If you haven’t watched it yet and you were once one, go fucking see it. I guess girls will probably like it too though!
Next up: Seven Samurai
Saturday 24 April 2010
Movie 114: Dan In Real Life
Dan (Steve Carell) is an advice columnist who lost his wife a few years ago and is raising three daughters on his own. He goes to a family gathering and his mum makes him get away for a bit. While getting the papers he runs in to a woman, Marie (Juliette Binoche), who he instantly clicks with. Unfortunately she’s seeing someone. His brother (Dane Cook).
Hilarity insues. Well, that’s how it’s billed. This is billed as a flat out comedy, possibly partly because of the two main leads. And its part of the reason that the film doesn’t QUITE hit the mark in the way the directors last effort, Pieces of April, did. It’s a little bit too light.
Ironically the other problem it has is that it’s a bit tough to watch at times. Dan being tortured by his feelings for Marie, and some vice versa, are kind of heart breaking. It’s very realistic and generally the emotions and how they worked are played right, but its bad enough living through that kind of crap.
Carell is on great form here. It’s not typical goofy Office Carell, and its not full on indie Little Miss Sunshine Carell, it’s somewhere in between. He’s funny at times but not in the usual idiot way. But he plays a great range of emotion here too.
Binoche is….well she’s pretty adorable and easy to fall for. I haven’t seen her in much yet but if I’m right in thinking this is kind of the role she plays most of the time.
And I said it before, but I actually like Dane Cook. People generally seem to think he’s a dick, I happen to think he’s a damned fine comedic actor who has actual range outside of comedy. I think he could end up being a bit of a breakthrough guy. I’ve yet to see him playing someone who isn’t at least a bit of a full of himself over confident dude, and I’d like to, but I’m impressed so far.
The supporting adults are all fine, Frasier’s dad stalked in to this one from a few days ago. There is a bit of a let down in the cast with Dan’s daughters. They are fine enough actors and everything, the littlest especially, but the middle girl who I think is 14 is just a giant pain in the ass for 95% of her screen time. And it gets old. Real old. That might be realism, and it does highlight a point about how we never really get smart about love no matter what we might think when we’re older. I get the comparison that we’re all basically hormonal teenagers some of the time. But there must have been a less annoying way to do it.
This is a good family, and by that I mean portraying one, film. And it’s a not bad (I assume) light indie. But it’s too light. Or not light enough. It slots in to the weird middle area. Decent rent or TV watch, but it won’t be making any favourites lists of mine.
Did nearly cry at one scene towards the end though. Because I’m a big pussy.
Next up: Superbad
Hilarity insues. Well, that’s how it’s billed. This is billed as a flat out comedy, possibly partly because of the two main leads. And its part of the reason that the film doesn’t QUITE hit the mark in the way the directors last effort, Pieces of April, did. It’s a little bit too light.
Ironically the other problem it has is that it’s a bit tough to watch at times. Dan being tortured by his feelings for Marie, and some vice versa, are kind of heart breaking. It’s very realistic and generally the emotions and how they worked are played right, but its bad enough living through that kind of crap.
Carell is on great form here. It’s not typical goofy Office Carell, and its not full on indie Little Miss Sunshine Carell, it’s somewhere in between. He’s funny at times but not in the usual idiot way. But he plays a great range of emotion here too.
Binoche is….well she’s pretty adorable and easy to fall for. I haven’t seen her in much yet but if I’m right in thinking this is kind of the role she plays most of the time.
And I said it before, but I actually like Dane Cook. People generally seem to think he’s a dick, I happen to think he’s a damned fine comedic actor who has actual range outside of comedy. I think he could end up being a bit of a breakthrough guy. I’ve yet to see him playing someone who isn’t at least a bit of a full of himself over confident dude, and I’d like to, but I’m impressed so far.
The supporting adults are all fine, Frasier’s dad stalked in to this one from a few days ago. There is a bit of a let down in the cast with Dan’s daughters. They are fine enough actors and everything, the littlest especially, but the middle girl who I think is 14 is just a giant pain in the ass for 95% of her screen time. And it gets old. Real old. That might be realism, and it does highlight a point about how we never really get smart about love no matter what we might think when we’re older. I get the comparison that we’re all basically hormonal teenagers some of the time. But there must have been a less annoying way to do it.
This is a good family, and by that I mean portraying one, film. And it’s a not bad (I assume) light indie. But it’s too light. Or not light enough. It slots in to the weird middle area. Decent rent or TV watch, but it won’t be making any favourites lists of mine.
Did nearly cry at one scene towards the end though. Because I’m a big pussy.
Next up: Superbad
Friday 23 April 2010
Movie 113: Moon
The future, man uses Helium-3 to create fusion energy. There’s a shit load on the moon so we mine it there. Though largely automated the moon base has one human operator, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell). Sam is nearing the end of his 3 year contract and seeing as he’s only had GERTY (Kevin Spacey) the bases computer and time delayed messages from his wife, he’s going a bit nuts. Same has an accident when checking out one of the mining machines one day, which leads to him discovering something he should never have known.
And I won’t spoil it, but when the reveal happens I figured the gig right away
That aside, and I’m a big sci fi fan so I jumped straight to the correct conclusion, this is a well plotted and very well acted movie. Which surprised me some what as it’s the dude from Avatar. Not that he sucked in that movie, just that he didn’t have to do much.
For a film about one dude on the moon there was actually a surprisingly large cast list, but there’s only the two dudes I mentioned to talk about really. I will say that the supporting wife is a damned fine actress too though.
Kevin Spacey is basically channelling HAL here. I’d be surprised if it took more than a few hours to record GERTY, but he does a fine enough job. It’s surprisingly difficult to stay in an even tone with your dialogue and he nails it.
Sam has a LOT to play with here and he’s bloody brilliant. It’s a bit of a travesty, but not a huge surprise, that there wasn’t an Oscar nod in his direction for this. Whether he’ll get a chance to stretch like this again is another matter, but he acts the shit out of this movie. I can’t get in to it too much though as it’ll enter spoiler territory.
The film looks great. The moon base is lived in, the equipment has that Star Wars used feel to it. I buy it entirely. And the practical effects are spot on. Also, the music is by Clive Mansell who’s stuff I love. While its not quite as iconic as the Requiem For A Dream music it is some lovely understated piano and electronic work. I think it would probably be perfect to chill out to and might hunt it out.
Moon won’t be for everyone, it’s a little bit Twilight Zone and if you don’t like sci fi this probably won’t win you over. For everyone else it’s nice to see a smart one for a change, even if it is a bit predictable.
Next up: Dan In Real Life
And I won’t spoil it, but when the reveal happens I figured the gig right away
That aside, and I’m a big sci fi fan so I jumped straight to the correct conclusion, this is a well plotted and very well acted movie. Which surprised me some what as it’s the dude from Avatar. Not that he sucked in that movie, just that he didn’t have to do much.
For a film about one dude on the moon there was actually a surprisingly large cast list, but there’s only the two dudes I mentioned to talk about really. I will say that the supporting wife is a damned fine actress too though.
Kevin Spacey is basically channelling HAL here. I’d be surprised if it took more than a few hours to record GERTY, but he does a fine enough job. It’s surprisingly difficult to stay in an even tone with your dialogue and he nails it.
Sam has a LOT to play with here and he’s bloody brilliant. It’s a bit of a travesty, but not a huge surprise, that there wasn’t an Oscar nod in his direction for this. Whether he’ll get a chance to stretch like this again is another matter, but he acts the shit out of this movie. I can’t get in to it too much though as it’ll enter spoiler territory.
The film looks great. The moon base is lived in, the equipment has that Star Wars used feel to it. I buy it entirely. And the practical effects are spot on. Also, the music is by Clive Mansell who’s stuff I love. While its not quite as iconic as the Requiem For A Dream music it is some lovely understated piano and electronic work. I think it would probably be perfect to chill out to and might hunt it out.
Moon won’t be for everyone, it’s a little bit Twilight Zone and if you don’t like sci fi this probably won’t win you over. For everyone else it’s nice to see a smart one for a change, even if it is a bit predictable.
Next up: Dan In Real Life
Thursday 22 April 2010
Movie 112: The Broken Hearts Club
A character piece about a group of friends who hang out together and play softball. It covers somewhere between 6 months and a year in there lives and the introduction of a new guy to the group. Oh, and they all like cock.
That’s pretty much the point. The way I wrote that. Sure there’s plenty of gay stuff in here, guys hooking up (nothing graphic though) and they all act gay but besides that……its not that big a deal.
The way I see it this is kind of like the Kevin Smith film that he would have made if he was his brother, and was a bit less vulgar. Or for probably a better comparison, it’s a bit like St Elmo’s Fire which they directly call out at one point.
As far as I’m aware much of the cast aren’t actually fags. The 3 I’m pretty damned sure on are John Mahoney, Frasier’s Dad, who plays Jack the matriarch of the group. Much of the action centers around Jack’s bar where a lot of the guys seem to work, and he’s the guy who runs the softball team. He’s the glue for these guys friendships.
Dean Cain is straight too, I think. Imaginatively he plays a very attractive trying to make it actor. And he’s funny and charming. So Dean Cain from what I’ve seen then.
And there’s the now famous straight guy who’s damned near gay, Zach Braff. He made this RIGHT BEFORE Scrubs. In fact this was it before Scrubs for him. And the talent shows through right off. He gets plenty to play with and….well you’ve seen Scrubs you’ve seen the range. Think JD if he just finally got it on with Turk and was done with it.
Timothy Olyphant is the lead here. He’s a fine enough actor even if he did play it a bit broad at times for my liking. And…..oh fuck it I’m not doing a cast list review. Or ruining the plot.
What this is is 90 minutes of what the gay world is like. You have insecure guys, far too secure guys, dudes who work out too much and do drugs, dudes who can’t commit, a new dude that can barely admit he’s gay and an old queen watching over them all from time to time. And it’s great. I love a good character piece and that’s what this is.
If you have a problem with the gays then avoid this. You won’t like it. I don’t thankfully, be a bit fucked in the acting world if I did. Hell, there’s been periods where I was hit on by dudes and there was nary a woman in sight which was flattering if depressing. I’ve known many a homo, and this film portrays them perfectly in my experience. So if you sick of flouncing Jack or Julia Roberts best friend in whatever rom com then check this out.
Pretty much just paraphrased the movie there, then went meta with the theme a couple of times.
Next up: Moon
That’s pretty much the point. The way I wrote that. Sure there’s plenty of gay stuff in here, guys hooking up (nothing graphic though) and they all act gay but besides that……its not that big a deal.
The way I see it this is kind of like the Kevin Smith film that he would have made if he was his brother, and was a bit less vulgar. Or for probably a better comparison, it’s a bit like St Elmo’s Fire which they directly call out at one point.
As far as I’m aware much of the cast aren’t actually fags. The 3 I’m pretty damned sure on are John Mahoney, Frasier’s Dad, who plays Jack the matriarch of the group. Much of the action centers around Jack’s bar where a lot of the guys seem to work, and he’s the guy who runs the softball team. He’s the glue for these guys friendships.
Dean Cain is straight too, I think. Imaginatively he plays a very attractive trying to make it actor. And he’s funny and charming. So Dean Cain from what I’ve seen then.
And there’s the now famous straight guy who’s damned near gay, Zach Braff. He made this RIGHT BEFORE Scrubs. In fact this was it before Scrubs for him. And the talent shows through right off. He gets plenty to play with and….well you’ve seen Scrubs you’ve seen the range. Think JD if he just finally got it on with Turk and was done with it.
Timothy Olyphant is the lead here. He’s a fine enough actor even if he did play it a bit broad at times for my liking. And…..oh fuck it I’m not doing a cast list review. Or ruining the plot.
What this is is 90 minutes of what the gay world is like. You have insecure guys, far too secure guys, dudes who work out too much and do drugs, dudes who can’t commit, a new dude that can barely admit he’s gay and an old queen watching over them all from time to time. And it’s great. I love a good character piece and that’s what this is.
If you have a problem with the gays then avoid this. You won’t like it. I don’t thankfully, be a bit fucked in the acting world if I did. Hell, there’s been periods where I was hit on by dudes and there was nary a woman in sight which was flattering if depressing. I’ve known many a homo, and this film portrays them perfectly in my experience. So if you sick of flouncing Jack or Julia Roberts best friend in whatever rom com then check this out.
Pretty much just paraphrased the movie there, then went meta with the theme a couple of times.
Next up: Moon
Wednesday 21 April 2010
Movie 111: Annie Hall
The story of the relationship between neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) and a girl who’s name is the same as the title (Diane Keaton).
Really, that’s how short the synopsis can be.
Much like it’s male star, the style of this film is a bit all over the place. On the one hand its somewhat surreal. The main character breaks the fourth wall sporadically and one a few occasions a group of characters will be present witnesses to flash backs, like Scrouge and one of the ghosts. One scene features subtitles of what the people are really thinking. Another has their concurrent thoughts.
On the other hand it’s a realistic portrayal of relationships, all be it one between two relatively messed up people. And the style of conversation is generally realistic too, with people talking over each other slightly in an Altman style.
Its rather good too. Like I said, it shows a realistic relationship rather than a rom com fall in love, contrived problem, break up, get back together, happily ever after. It’s two people going through a chunk of life together.
I was going to make the, I think its Family Guy, joke about how I like Woody Allen movies except for that nervous Jewish guy that’s in all of them. But I do like Woody Allen movies. For the most part anyway, going by what little I’ve seen. There is a slight problem with characters talking in over intellectual wanky style, but this movie mocks that as much as it indulges in it.
It’s extremely 70’s too. Lots of hair all over the place with some iffy clothes here and there. If you keep an eye out there are three appearances by actors that would be classed as celebrity cameos too. Christopher Walken barely appears as Annie’s messed up brother. Technically he was actually known at the time so it’s a bona fide cameo. Jeff Goldblum has one line in a blink and you’ll miss it featured extra position. And Sigourney Weaver is in there in an actual extra position, her first credit on film apparently.
I think a lot of relationship movies have probably borrowed a lot from this one over the years, unless Annie Hall is ripping something off that I don’t know about. I can definitely see the influence on (500) Days of Summer.
If you don’t mind the nervous Jew I’d check this one out. Not on a date though, it’s probably not the best date movie….
Next up: The Broken Hearts Club. The second in a possible series of three cheats as it’s a movie I saw late at night and remember being good. The first was 3 o’clock High and the third is a nam movie called 84 Charlie MoPic which I will be watching if I get my hands on it.
Really, that’s how short the synopsis can be.
Much like it’s male star, the style of this film is a bit all over the place. On the one hand its somewhat surreal. The main character breaks the fourth wall sporadically and one a few occasions a group of characters will be present witnesses to flash backs, like Scrouge and one of the ghosts. One scene features subtitles of what the people are really thinking. Another has their concurrent thoughts.
On the other hand it’s a realistic portrayal of relationships, all be it one between two relatively messed up people. And the style of conversation is generally realistic too, with people talking over each other slightly in an Altman style.
Its rather good too. Like I said, it shows a realistic relationship rather than a rom com fall in love, contrived problem, break up, get back together, happily ever after. It’s two people going through a chunk of life together.
I was going to make the, I think its Family Guy, joke about how I like Woody Allen movies except for that nervous Jewish guy that’s in all of them. But I do like Woody Allen movies. For the most part anyway, going by what little I’ve seen. There is a slight problem with characters talking in over intellectual wanky style, but this movie mocks that as much as it indulges in it.
It’s extremely 70’s too. Lots of hair all over the place with some iffy clothes here and there. If you keep an eye out there are three appearances by actors that would be classed as celebrity cameos too. Christopher Walken barely appears as Annie’s messed up brother. Technically he was actually known at the time so it’s a bona fide cameo. Jeff Goldblum has one line in a blink and you’ll miss it featured extra position. And Sigourney Weaver is in there in an actual extra position, her first credit on film apparently.
I think a lot of relationship movies have probably borrowed a lot from this one over the years, unless Annie Hall is ripping something off that I don’t know about. I can definitely see the influence on (500) Days of Summer.
If you don’t mind the nervous Jew I’d check this one out. Not on a date though, it’s probably not the best date movie….
Next up: The Broken Hearts Club. The second in a possible series of three cheats as it’s a movie I saw late at night and remember being good. The first was 3 o’clock High and the third is a nam movie called 84 Charlie MoPic which I will be watching if I get my hands on it.
Tuesday 20 April 2010
Movie 110: District 13 – Ultimatum
This is a sequel, if you haven’t seen the original it’s about a walled off section of Paris that’s gone to shit, Escape From New York style. A cop and a criminal team up to stop some really bad criminals setting off a neutron bomb. It was the first film to feature parkour, and it’s awesome.
At the end of the first one the government promises to remove the walls around the district. They don’t do it. So Leito (David Belle) periodically blows bits off them. However, the war lords in charge of the district don’t want him to as they feel protected and like the status quo. But some corrupt cops frame a gang for killing some other cops and shit kicks off. They want to destroy the district so it can be rebuilt for yuppies. Supercop Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) is framed for drug possession to get him out of the way. Tomaso calls Leito to bust him out so they can get evidence and save the day!
I actually had trouble condensing the plot there and I’ve missed stuff. Bit surprising for an action movie!
When you think of French cinema what do you think? Poets eating cheese with hairy women and a duck with jazz in the background? Me, I think kick ass action films. Because they really can make some damned fine action, generally with the name Luc Besson attached somewhere.
This is a bit like a good 70’s Jackie Chan movie, but Jackie Chan is a French guy called Cyril Raffaelli. And Jackie has a cousin, say Jimmy Chan, who is a French guy called David Belle and isn’t as good at Kung Fu but he jumps around fantastically.
This is honestly one of the best action movies I’ve seen in a while. It’s cleverly plotted, well acted (including the warlords) and has some damned fine set pieces. Tomaso’s re-introduction scene in particular is worth the price of admission alone.
While David Belle may be the founder of Parkour, Cyril may be the better practitioner for film. And he’s trained in two martial arts. Why he doesn’t have a bunch of films under his belt I don’t know, but start throwing this guy in to crazy action please! Not that Dave sucks or anything…
Awesome!
Next up: Annie Hall
At the end of the first one the government promises to remove the walls around the district. They don’t do it. So Leito (David Belle) periodically blows bits off them. However, the war lords in charge of the district don’t want him to as they feel protected and like the status quo. But some corrupt cops frame a gang for killing some other cops and shit kicks off. They want to destroy the district so it can be rebuilt for yuppies. Supercop Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) is framed for drug possession to get him out of the way. Tomaso calls Leito to bust him out so they can get evidence and save the day!
I actually had trouble condensing the plot there and I’ve missed stuff. Bit surprising for an action movie!
When you think of French cinema what do you think? Poets eating cheese with hairy women and a duck with jazz in the background? Me, I think kick ass action films. Because they really can make some damned fine action, generally with the name Luc Besson attached somewhere.
This is a bit like a good 70’s Jackie Chan movie, but Jackie Chan is a French guy called Cyril Raffaelli. And Jackie has a cousin, say Jimmy Chan, who is a French guy called David Belle and isn’t as good at Kung Fu but he jumps around fantastically.
This is honestly one of the best action movies I’ve seen in a while. It’s cleverly plotted, well acted (including the warlords) and has some damned fine set pieces. Tomaso’s re-introduction scene in particular is worth the price of admission alone.
While David Belle may be the founder of Parkour, Cyril may be the better practitioner for film. And he’s trained in two martial arts. Why he doesn’t have a bunch of films under his belt I don’t know, but start throwing this guy in to crazy action please! Not that Dave sucks or anything…
Awesome!
Next up: Annie Hall
Monday 19 April 2010
Movie 109: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Cacophonous noise! Monkeys! Monolith! Monkeys learn basic tool use! Cut to the future, 9 years ago! People in space! Another monolith! Lets go to Jupiter!
Frankly, most people know the plot of 2001 by now. In fact I probably couldn’t spoil it if I wanted to. But I’ll still try and avoid too many.
Why this starts with about 2 minutes worth of what sounds like orchestra tune up with a black screen, I don’t know. It may have been a nice touch in the original cinema release but all it did was make me worry that my DVD player was broken. The same goes for the bit after the intermission.
I tried to watch this film many years ago and go really bored. Thankfully that didn’t happen this time. The monkey suits look great and the 20 minute sequence is fine. I think it was the future (I believe it was still my past) bit that I gave up as that too is slow.
Didn’t bother me this time. In fact I quite liked it. A bit of scientific accuracy, for the most part, never did anyone any harm. And the effects for their time are fantastic.
Those two points to flag up two issues that the film has though. The second is no doubt due to a limitation in the effects work. Not one engine is ever seen firing, for attitude adjustment or anything. I can forgive them that but it’s a bit glaring now. Everything is in glide mode. The other issue which was more pointed for me is with the space walk.
Why the hell park sooooooo far away from the craft? Then, what are they using to adjust themselves and slow down? And finally, why the hell doesn’t Dave attach a tether or something when he lands on the dish? They were so exacting with everything else that this really stuck out for me.
There’s not much point in me going on about the good points, or ranting too much about the bad. Besides the two crazy loud noise sections with blank screens and the fact that the monolith’s choral whaling gets a bit too much after a while, there’s the ending. It’s hippy trippy bollocks and it lasts far too long. I know its not supposed to be understandable, and I can read some stuff in to it, but it lets the whole movie down for the most part. Mainly because we never see Dave’s pod enter the monolith or even come close. That could have used scissors.
So yes it’s a great movie, though its probably too slow for many. What I’d advise if you like the hard sci fi aspects is that you watch it up until Dave his headed towards the monolith then click it off. There’s nothing more for you here.
Next up: District 13 – Ultimatum
Frankly, most people know the plot of 2001 by now. In fact I probably couldn’t spoil it if I wanted to. But I’ll still try and avoid too many.
Why this starts with about 2 minutes worth of what sounds like orchestra tune up with a black screen, I don’t know. It may have been a nice touch in the original cinema release but all it did was make me worry that my DVD player was broken. The same goes for the bit after the intermission.
I tried to watch this film many years ago and go really bored. Thankfully that didn’t happen this time. The monkey suits look great and the 20 minute sequence is fine. I think it was the future (I believe it was still my past) bit that I gave up as that too is slow.
Didn’t bother me this time. In fact I quite liked it. A bit of scientific accuracy, for the most part, never did anyone any harm. And the effects for their time are fantastic.
Those two points to flag up two issues that the film has though. The second is no doubt due to a limitation in the effects work. Not one engine is ever seen firing, for attitude adjustment or anything. I can forgive them that but it’s a bit glaring now. Everything is in glide mode. The other issue which was more pointed for me is with the space walk.
Why the hell park sooooooo far away from the craft? Then, what are they using to adjust themselves and slow down? And finally, why the hell doesn’t Dave attach a tether or something when he lands on the dish? They were so exacting with everything else that this really stuck out for me.
There’s not much point in me going on about the good points, or ranting too much about the bad. Besides the two crazy loud noise sections with blank screens and the fact that the monolith’s choral whaling gets a bit too much after a while, there’s the ending. It’s hippy trippy bollocks and it lasts far too long. I know its not supposed to be understandable, and I can read some stuff in to it, but it lets the whole movie down for the most part. Mainly because we never see Dave’s pod enter the monolith or even come close. That could have used scissors.
So yes it’s a great movie, though its probably too slow for many. What I’d advise if you like the hard sci fi aspects is that you watch it up until Dave his headed towards the monolith then click it off. There’s nothing more for you here.
Next up: District 13 – Ultimatum
Sunday 18 April 2010
Movie 108: Heat
Robert De Niro plays a thief, Al Pacino plays a cop. They are trying to avoid/capture each other. Both of them have pretty fucked up personal lives. And they have coffee once. That’s about it.
Really, that is about it. While Heat does have a fair few good points, it is FAR from being a masterpiece.
For one thing, my plot description mentions two characters. For the most part so does the script. The two main guys have their respective crews, and those crews have wives or girlfriends sometimes. Both leads have their own personal relationships. But the people outside of the leads aren’t exactly rounded out.
They aren’t all just characateurs or anything. The members of De Niro’s gang don’t say all that much. And seeing as they are all pretty integral to the plot makes that a bit of a travesty. Tom Sizemore’s character is a first hole to the gang, but we never see that or really know anything about him. Val Kilmer kind of zombies through a lot of the picture, but he’s a relatively significant B plot in the last half of the film. In some kind of reverse Samson manoeuvre his acting seems to significantly improve when he has a hair cut. I’d say it was hampering his acting to have long hair if he wasn’t a bad ass in Willow.
And poor Danny Trejo. He’s literally an after thought until towards the end when he becomes plot important
The cops are better written, though it doesn’t get in to any of their personal lives outside of Pacino. Which is fine. But in a 160 minute movie they should have done a better job of rounding out the people that they DID focus on.
Pacino’s relationship is a mess due to his obsession with his job. Nothing new there. But it works fine in the glimpses we get. Natalie Portman does well as his step daughter, but once again she’s kind of glossed over so her actions don’t have really well known motivations. And are important to the plot. His character seems to have random out bursts which were explained by an early draft coke habit, but then that was taken out and the behaviour was left. Great writing there Mann….
De Niro’s relationship makes the least sense. I think we get to see two dates in the first half ish of the movie, so he barely knows the woman he’s with. When they are together there really doesn’t seem to be shit loads of chemistry, mainly because of the way his character is portrayed.
It just feels like Mann came up with a few plot bullet points, then went back and kind of shoved characters in to the script to fit them at the time. It detracts from the movie to have two fully focused on leads and half assed surrounding characters. The plot itself is decent, could have been great, if it wasn’t for the fact that the whole thing feels strangely draggy AND jumpy.
I guess its worth a watch. If it was shorter then yeah, but its 3 hours out of your life more or less. Up to you really.
Next up: 2001: A Space Odyssey. Which I probably shouldn’t watch with the cold as I need my brain…
Really, that is about it. While Heat does have a fair few good points, it is FAR from being a masterpiece.
For one thing, my plot description mentions two characters. For the most part so does the script. The two main guys have their respective crews, and those crews have wives or girlfriends sometimes. Both leads have their own personal relationships. But the people outside of the leads aren’t exactly rounded out.
They aren’t all just characateurs or anything. The members of De Niro’s gang don’t say all that much. And seeing as they are all pretty integral to the plot makes that a bit of a travesty. Tom Sizemore’s character is a first hole to the gang, but we never see that or really know anything about him. Val Kilmer kind of zombies through a lot of the picture, but he’s a relatively significant B plot in the last half of the film. In some kind of reverse Samson manoeuvre his acting seems to significantly improve when he has a hair cut. I’d say it was hampering his acting to have long hair if he wasn’t a bad ass in Willow.
And poor Danny Trejo. He’s literally an after thought until towards the end when he becomes plot important
The cops are better written, though it doesn’t get in to any of their personal lives outside of Pacino. Which is fine. But in a 160 minute movie they should have done a better job of rounding out the people that they DID focus on.
Pacino’s relationship is a mess due to his obsession with his job. Nothing new there. But it works fine in the glimpses we get. Natalie Portman does well as his step daughter, but once again she’s kind of glossed over so her actions don’t have really well known motivations. And are important to the plot. His character seems to have random out bursts which were explained by an early draft coke habit, but then that was taken out and the behaviour was left. Great writing there Mann….
De Niro’s relationship makes the least sense. I think we get to see two dates in the first half ish of the movie, so he barely knows the woman he’s with. When they are together there really doesn’t seem to be shit loads of chemistry, mainly because of the way his character is portrayed.
It just feels like Mann came up with a few plot bullet points, then went back and kind of shoved characters in to the script to fit them at the time. It detracts from the movie to have two fully focused on leads and half assed surrounding characters. The plot itself is decent, could have been great, if it wasn’t for the fact that the whole thing feels strangely draggy AND jumpy.
I guess its worth a watch. If it was shorter then yeah, but its 3 hours out of your life more or less. Up to you really.
Next up: 2001: A Space Odyssey. Which I probably shouldn’t watch with the cold as I need my brain…
Saturday 17 April 2010
Movie 107: Lakeview Terrace
A young couple, a black girl and white guy, move in to a house in the hills of LA. Unfortunately for them, their next door neighbour is a cop who has a problem with mixed race couples. An escalating war of annoyances ensues.
The biggest question this movie brings up? What was the point of that? It’s message seems to either be all black guys are racist if a white guy takes one of their women OR all cops are pricks. And that’s it.
The plot kind of skips ahead a lot too. It’s not a taught thriller, it’s a barely able to bother paying attention thriller. There’s a big of development with Samuel L Jackson’s (the cop) bad relationship with his kids, but then they fuck off half way through so that’s wasted. And there’s no real reason given for his thinly veiled racism, which would be fine if it was slowly revealed and better hidden, and then then give a reason. Something they wouldn’t have done if it was a white racist. Though they wouldn’t have made the film in that case.
And it suffers badly from the characters not saying obvious shit syndrome. Patrick Wilson never says “oh, Able did this” or “but I’m not that guy dude”. Its something that annoys me a lot in films, no one ever asks a second time for an explanation or talks in a realistic way leaving contrived tension…
The performances are decent enough though. Jackson is down right scary sometimes in this, in a “I’m gonna rip your head off, buddy” way. The buddy being overly friendly. Wilson is fine, Kerry Washington is fine as his wife. But the relationship kind of falls apart in an unrealistic way over time. Sure there’s tensions, but not the tensions that there should be.
It’s a bad TV movie thriller thrown up on the big screen before the script was finished. I’d just skip it, there’s plenty of crazy ass Jackson elsewhere.
Next up: Heat
The biggest question this movie brings up? What was the point of that? It’s message seems to either be all black guys are racist if a white guy takes one of their women OR all cops are pricks. And that’s it.
The plot kind of skips ahead a lot too. It’s not a taught thriller, it’s a barely able to bother paying attention thriller. There’s a big of development with Samuel L Jackson’s (the cop) bad relationship with his kids, but then they fuck off half way through so that’s wasted. And there’s no real reason given for his thinly veiled racism, which would be fine if it was slowly revealed and better hidden, and then then give a reason. Something they wouldn’t have done if it was a white racist. Though they wouldn’t have made the film in that case.
And it suffers badly from the characters not saying obvious shit syndrome. Patrick Wilson never says “oh, Able did this” or “but I’m not that guy dude”. Its something that annoys me a lot in films, no one ever asks a second time for an explanation or talks in a realistic way leaving contrived tension…
The performances are decent enough though. Jackson is down right scary sometimes in this, in a “I’m gonna rip your head off, buddy” way. The buddy being overly friendly. Wilson is fine, Kerry Washington is fine as his wife. But the relationship kind of falls apart in an unrealistic way over time. Sure there’s tensions, but not the tensions that there should be.
It’s a bad TV movie thriller thrown up on the big screen before the script was finished. I’d just skip it, there’s plenty of crazy ass Jackson elsewhere.
Next up: Heat
Friday 16 April 2010
Movie 106: War, inc
Brand Hauser (John Cusack) is a troubled hitman generally under employment by the Tamerline Corporation. The world is now run by companies and there’s generally a lot of war going on. Brand is tasked with running a trade show in the Taraqistan Emerald Zone as a cover for killing Omar Sharrif, not the actor, which will culminate in the wedding of pop star Yonica Yeahbaby (Hilary Duff). Things are further complicated when he falls from liberal reporter Natalie Hegalhuzen (Marisa Tomei)
God this is an awful film.
Okay, that’s not entirely accurate. There’s about 15 to 20 minutes of good in it. Those scenes are dramatic and generally feature the 3 actors I mentioned above, particularly the two grown ups though Duff surprisingly has her moments. The real problem is that this isn’t a drama. It’s supposed to be a comedic satire.
They missed out the comedic part. It’s far too outlandish for its own good. Joan Cusack also stars and she is flat out awful, chewing the scenery, the camera, her own face, the audience…TERRIBLE. There’s “whacky” characters all over the place and silly moments that just don’t sit at all. Its like whoever wrote this never had a sense of humour, or is possibly German.
Ben Kingsley shows up too as a kind of bad guy boss character. I think he’s still trying to make up for playing Ghandi by being as god awful as he can in his decisions and characterisations. One scene has Cusack literally looking bored when something funny is supposed to be happening.
Besides the bad comedy, the satire itself is ridiculously heavy handed. The idea of corporations running the world isn’t a new one. Having advertising all over the military vehicles is fine. The soldiers don’t have to be bizarre hyped up caffeine freaks for no damned reason. And the commentary on companies and celebrity doesn’t have to be in a style that’s akin to having a copy of the Daily Star rubbed in your face while someone yells “ISN’T THIS REALLY SMART AND FUNNY!!!”
The sad thing is it could have worked. If they’d played it more or less straight, let the situations inherent insanity just sit in the background and gone for more subtle humour this would have been a very good film. Cusack is very good here and he has a couple of fantastic action scenes. Marisa Tomei is pretty damned good. I wasn’t even aware that WAS Hilary Duff, probably more down to the look of the character, and she acted quite well in the subtler scenes.
Unfortunately they didn’t go that way, and it shows in the suckyness. Avoid it. Maybe see if the Cusack big action scene from the middle where he fights a half dozen guys is on You Tube. The other 10 good minutes isn’t worth the 85 shite ones.
Next up: Lakeview Terrace
God this is an awful film.
Okay, that’s not entirely accurate. There’s about 15 to 20 minutes of good in it. Those scenes are dramatic and generally feature the 3 actors I mentioned above, particularly the two grown ups though Duff surprisingly has her moments. The real problem is that this isn’t a drama. It’s supposed to be a comedic satire.
They missed out the comedic part. It’s far too outlandish for its own good. Joan Cusack also stars and she is flat out awful, chewing the scenery, the camera, her own face, the audience…TERRIBLE. There’s “whacky” characters all over the place and silly moments that just don’t sit at all. Its like whoever wrote this never had a sense of humour, or is possibly German.
Ben Kingsley shows up too as a kind of bad guy boss character. I think he’s still trying to make up for playing Ghandi by being as god awful as he can in his decisions and characterisations. One scene has Cusack literally looking bored when something funny is supposed to be happening.
Besides the bad comedy, the satire itself is ridiculously heavy handed. The idea of corporations running the world isn’t a new one. Having advertising all over the military vehicles is fine. The soldiers don’t have to be bizarre hyped up caffeine freaks for no damned reason. And the commentary on companies and celebrity doesn’t have to be in a style that’s akin to having a copy of the Daily Star rubbed in your face while someone yells “ISN’T THIS REALLY SMART AND FUNNY!!!”
The sad thing is it could have worked. If they’d played it more or less straight, let the situations inherent insanity just sit in the background and gone for more subtle humour this would have been a very good film. Cusack is very good here and he has a couple of fantastic action scenes. Marisa Tomei is pretty damned good. I wasn’t even aware that WAS Hilary Duff, probably more down to the look of the character, and she acted quite well in the subtler scenes.
Unfortunately they didn’t go that way, and it shows in the suckyness. Avoid it. Maybe see if the Cusack big action scene from the middle where he fights a half dozen guys is on You Tube. The other 10 good minutes isn’t worth the 85 shite ones.
Next up: Lakeview Terrace
Thursday 15 April 2010
Movie 105: Friday the 13th (2009)
In 1980 Jason Vorhees drowned in the lake when his camp councillors should have been watching, but were shagging and boozing instead. So mamma kills them all bar one. But Jason isn’t dead and she tells him to get revenge. 20 odd years later a bunch of campers come to the wood, and Jason is a good boy and does what mamma said. A few months after that another group come up to one of their dad’s cabin, and the brother of one of the last batch comes looking for his missing sister. What is a Machete wielding maniac to do?
This isn’t a remake, or reboot, or Friday the 13th. It’s a remake of part one for the first 2 minutes, part 2 for the next 15 to 20 and then part 3. Sort of. You get to see Major Kira from DS9 as mum doing a bit of her thing, then potato sack Jason does his thing a lot, and finally the hockey mask gets put on.
I’m fine with that. At this point the fact that the mother was the original killer is moot. You hear Friday the 13th or chichichi papapa and think Jason, so we get Jason but with the original set up. And we want hockey mask, so we get it with the original lead in. All very good.
In fact I’m over all happy with the remake. Jason is the right amount of supernatural unstoppable and he’s not been overly humanised as can happen now. He’s a very fucked up little boy in a giant elephant man body who cuts people up. In fact we have a smarter, better skilled Jason in this one than you’d expect. He’s a bit like a mute Rambo at times. And that’s fine. You can only get so much out of a guy who stalks about after all.
The main problem the film has is the unlikability (that a word?) of the majority of the cannon fodder. They are douches, plain and simple. But if you want a hack and slash where you don’t have to care about most of the characters that’s fine. The first group aren’t so bad actually, it’s the bulk of the films kids that are dicks.
To balance it we have the hero leads. Jared” the not all that cool one from Supernatural” Padalecki is the brother hunting for his sister. He’s a likeable guy, a bit quiet, not some kind of Jason hunting superman. Fine. And Danielle “Cute daughter from Shark” Panabaker is the main douches girlfriend who wants to help out the brother as she feels sorry for him. She’s a nice girl who you don’t really get why shes with the dick head, but she obviously apologises for him a lot. There’s no overt sexual tension between the two of them, she’s not a cheating bitch and he’s not a dick moving in on a girl who has a guy. Two likeable kids. All well and good.
But for you classics fans, you will get two things here that are god damned requirements. There are plenty of boobs, 3 pairs I believe. One is incredibly fake looking to me. And you get plenty of stabby blood kills. Nothing over the top like in modern gorenography, Jason is actually quite a clean killer. Just well done stabbing stab stabs. And a few creative ones too. Nice.
Honestly I couldn’t have hoped for a much better Friday the 13th film. Less annoying kids would have improved it a lot but I think they did a damned fine job.
Next up: War, Inc
This isn’t a remake, or reboot, or Friday the 13th. It’s a remake of part one for the first 2 minutes, part 2 for the next 15 to 20 and then part 3. Sort of. You get to see Major Kira from DS9 as mum doing a bit of her thing, then potato sack Jason does his thing a lot, and finally the hockey mask gets put on.
I’m fine with that. At this point the fact that the mother was the original killer is moot. You hear Friday the 13th or chichichi papapa and think Jason, so we get Jason but with the original set up. And we want hockey mask, so we get it with the original lead in. All very good.
In fact I’m over all happy with the remake. Jason is the right amount of supernatural unstoppable and he’s not been overly humanised as can happen now. He’s a very fucked up little boy in a giant elephant man body who cuts people up. In fact we have a smarter, better skilled Jason in this one than you’d expect. He’s a bit like a mute Rambo at times. And that’s fine. You can only get so much out of a guy who stalks about after all.
The main problem the film has is the unlikability (that a word?) of the majority of the cannon fodder. They are douches, plain and simple. But if you want a hack and slash where you don’t have to care about most of the characters that’s fine. The first group aren’t so bad actually, it’s the bulk of the films kids that are dicks.
To balance it we have the hero leads. Jared” the not all that cool one from Supernatural” Padalecki is the brother hunting for his sister. He’s a likeable guy, a bit quiet, not some kind of Jason hunting superman. Fine. And Danielle “Cute daughter from Shark” Panabaker is the main douches girlfriend who wants to help out the brother as she feels sorry for him. She’s a nice girl who you don’t really get why shes with the dick head, but she obviously apologises for him a lot. There’s no overt sexual tension between the two of them, she’s not a cheating bitch and he’s not a dick moving in on a girl who has a guy. Two likeable kids. All well and good.
But for you classics fans, you will get two things here that are god damned requirements. There are plenty of boobs, 3 pairs I believe. One is incredibly fake looking to me. And you get plenty of stabby blood kills. Nothing over the top like in modern gorenography, Jason is actually quite a clean killer. Just well done stabbing stab stabs. And a few creative ones too. Nice.
Honestly I couldn’t have hoped for a much better Friday the 13th film. Less annoying kids would have improved it a lot but I think they did a damned fine job.
Next up: War, Inc
Wednesday 14 April 2010
Movie 104: The Informant!
Michael Whitacre (Matt Damon) decides that he doesn’t like the way certain things happen in his agro-business, so he turns informant with the FBI under false pretenses. Once he’s in he tells them why he’s really there, price fixing!
How exciting! The title totally deserves the exclamation mark!
Actually that’s part of the problem. We know that corporate espionage isn’t exciting, the film makers know that, so they go tongue in cheek with it. Unfortunately what might have worked as a gag in a short film doesn’t so much over a long one. Exciting spy music where exciting spy music should not be isn’t funny the half dozenth time.
And that’s the whole problem with The Informant! It doesn’t seem to know what tone to go for. It looks a bit like a film set in the 70’s, and the location and date titles that pop up are in bubble writing to match that style. But its set in the 90’s.
It’s cast leans towards the comic, Melanie Lynskey, Joel McHale, Paton Oswalt amongst others. But its not overtly comic. Farcical in many ways yes, but not all that laugh out loud funny.
It says its based on true events, and I don’t know how true that is. But if it is its extremely convoluted. Things twist and turn on a whim and you never really know whats actually going on. Particularly towards the end.
Its not terrible, but its not great. I can’t really recommend or warn you off from The Informant! But don’t expect anything terrific.
Next up: Friday the 13th. The remake. Ruh roh.
How exciting! The title totally deserves the exclamation mark!
Actually that’s part of the problem. We know that corporate espionage isn’t exciting, the film makers know that, so they go tongue in cheek with it. Unfortunately what might have worked as a gag in a short film doesn’t so much over a long one. Exciting spy music where exciting spy music should not be isn’t funny the half dozenth time.
And that’s the whole problem with The Informant! It doesn’t seem to know what tone to go for. It looks a bit like a film set in the 70’s, and the location and date titles that pop up are in bubble writing to match that style. But its set in the 90’s.
It’s cast leans towards the comic, Melanie Lynskey, Joel McHale, Paton Oswalt amongst others. But its not overtly comic. Farcical in many ways yes, but not all that laugh out loud funny.
It says its based on true events, and I don’t know how true that is. But if it is its extremely convoluted. Things twist and turn on a whim and you never really know whats actually going on. Particularly towards the end.
Its not terrible, but its not great. I can’t really recommend or warn you off from The Informant! But don’t expect anything terrific.
Next up: Friday the 13th. The remake. Ruh roh.
Tuesday 13 April 2010
Movie 103: Monsters vs Aliens
On her wedding day Susan is hit by a meteorite which turns her in to a giant. The government comes to pick her up and stick her in monster jail, forever. Forever that is until a giant alien robot lands in San Francisco and the only way to stop it is to release the monsters, Gigantica aka Susan, Professor Cockroach, The Missing Link, Bob and Insectasauras.
What a brilliant concept, a big smack fight between monsters and a bunch of aliens. Though technically its been done many times by Toho where Godzilla and his pantheon have done similar things. And I’m pretty sure that Gamara has too. But whatever, its still a good idea.
They miss the mark a little here, but not hugely. The 50ft woman isn’t the best monster going, but I guess they wanted a bit of a human connection. She’s far from the most interesting character in the movie too, but that’s generally the case when it comes to animation.
The first half didn’t really grab me at all, but things pick up once they start fighting the giant robot. The animation of the humans is generally pretty generic and I was far from impressed, but they can make some pretty blowing up scenery at Dreamworks.
It’s not as whacky as the years other non Pixar big animation movie, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. But it has the chance to be as the concept is pretty mental. Unfortunatly they didn’t go balls out, or just didn’t have the writing chops to pull it off.
A couple of the characters are fun though. The Prof could be great if he’s given the chance to make a lot of crazy inventions, which he wasn’t HUGELY given in this film. Insectasauras was also a bit under used. I know its tough to find something to do with an enormous bug but they should have stuck him in there more. He kind of just stands about and roars for the most part.
Bob was hilarious though. A big, dumb, gelatinous blob who provides much of the verbal comic relief for the film. And President Colbert was nice too.
There’s plenty of craziness here and kids will probably love it. I still liked it so there’s that for the adults, but I’d want a sequel to be funnier. I saw this in 2D though it was shot for 3D. It didn’t really have many glaring “this should be in your face!!!!1!!!” moments that are a bit of a problem for 3D films, but there were one or two. One is blatantly obvious at the start. But watching in 2D doesn’t seem to be any kind of an issue.
Next up: The Informant! I’m not excited, that’s just the title of the film. With a ! at the end.
What a brilliant concept, a big smack fight between monsters and a bunch of aliens. Though technically its been done many times by Toho where Godzilla and his pantheon have done similar things. And I’m pretty sure that Gamara has too. But whatever, its still a good idea.
They miss the mark a little here, but not hugely. The 50ft woman isn’t the best monster going, but I guess they wanted a bit of a human connection. She’s far from the most interesting character in the movie too, but that’s generally the case when it comes to animation.
The first half didn’t really grab me at all, but things pick up once they start fighting the giant robot. The animation of the humans is generally pretty generic and I was far from impressed, but they can make some pretty blowing up scenery at Dreamworks.
It’s not as whacky as the years other non Pixar big animation movie, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. But it has the chance to be as the concept is pretty mental. Unfortunatly they didn’t go balls out, or just didn’t have the writing chops to pull it off.
A couple of the characters are fun though. The Prof could be great if he’s given the chance to make a lot of crazy inventions, which he wasn’t HUGELY given in this film. Insectasauras was also a bit under used. I know its tough to find something to do with an enormous bug but they should have stuck him in there more. He kind of just stands about and roars for the most part.
Bob was hilarious though. A big, dumb, gelatinous blob who provides much of the verbal comic relief for the film. And President Colbert was nice too.
There’s plenty of craziness here and kids will probably love it. I still liked it so there’s that for the adults, but I’d want a sequel to be funnier. I saw this in 2D though it was shot for 3D. It didn’t really have many glaring “this should be in your face!!!!1!!!” moments that are a bit of a problem for 3D films, but there were one or two. One is blatantly obvious at the start. But watching in 2D doesn’t seem to be any kind of an issue.
Next up: The Informant! I’m not excited, that’s just the title of the film. With a ! at the end.
Monday 12 April 2010
Movie 102: The Hidden Fortress
Two greedy bumbling peasants find gold in a stick one day, and go hunting for the rest. A mysterious man comes across their camp, and ends up leading them to a hidden fortress. He’s secretly a famous general, and he uses the idiots plans to get home to try and return a princess and her fortune to their kingdom.
The Hidden Fortress of the title being a bit of a small catalyst to the whole story. Going in I thought this would be about attacking some kind of hidden fortress as I thought that was where the Star Wars influence would come in. That’s because I don’t look to see what films are about all the time.
The shared themes are actually the feisty princess and the story being told with the main characters being a couple of lowly muppets. The two farmer loser soldiers are R2D2 and C3PO. They can be funny at times, a bit annoying at others. What people seem to forget with all the Jar Jar hatred is that Threepio can be a complete twat sometimes so Lucas nailed that.
But this isn’t a Star Wars review.
This is my third Kurosawa movie, and the third good one. It looks great. I’ll say that BFI arsed up a bit with the subs at times again. There’s patches that aren’t translated, and we never get to see all the lyrics to the fire ceremony song which is very important to the third act of the film. Bad BFI. But they are putting these films out so I can’t grumble too much.
While this is great, I do have a few niggles. Tahei and Matakishi, the two farmers, are pretty one note. They aren’t hugely funny, but a bit in a slap stick kind of way. I would have liked a bit more progression for the two of them but its not my movie. Also, the big lance fight between Makabe and Tadokoro was a bit too long but that’s partly to me being used to modern day action than anything else really. It IS realistic, which is nice. Oh and the princess doesn’t have much range, she kind of barks most of her lines which is fine generally but didn’t fit for one scene. That isn’t a Japanese thing really, I’ve seen similar moments played out better.
The good is that its well paced. It looks great and your kept interested throughout, which seeing as it’s a movie about hauling some gold could have easily not been the case. This being a Kurosawa movie you also have a performance by Toshiro Mifune. He’s a bad ass in this film, a complete and utter bad ass. Essentially, to get back to Star Wars, he’s the Obi Wan character but more in his prime than A New Hope Obi Wan. Under a lesser actor he would have either been a one note guy or not believable as a legendary general. Mifune is a master though.
Like any Kurosawa movie I’ll review, if you don’t like subtitles, black and white (that might not apply to all of them) or Japanese cinema then you won’t like this. If you like good old movies or are any level of film fan you will. Great stuff.
Next up: Monsters vs Aliens
The Hidden Fortress of the title being a bit of a small catalyst to the whole story. Going in I thought this would be about attacking some kind of hidden fortress as I thought that was where the Star Wars influence would come in. That’s because I don’t look to see what films are about all the time.
The shared themes are actually the feisty princess and the story being told with the main characters being a couple of lowly muppets. The two farmer loser soldiers are R2D2 and C3PO. They can be funny at times, a bit annoying at others. What people seem to forget with all the Jar Jar hatred is that Threepio can be a complete twat sometimes so Lucas nailed that.
But this isn’t a Star Wars review.
This is my third Kurosawa movie, and the third good one. It looks great. I’ll say that BFI arsed up a bit with the subs at times again. There’s patches that aren’t translated, and we never get to see all the lyrics to the fire ceremony song which is very important to the third act of the film. Bad BFI. But they are putting these films out so I can’t grumble too much.
While this is great, I do have a few niggles. Tahei and Matakishi, the two farmers, are pretty one note. They aren’t hugely funny, but a bit in a slap stick kind of way. I would have liked a bit more progression for the two of them but its not my movie. Also, the big lance fight between Makabe and Tadokoro was a bit too long but that’s partly to me being used to modern day action than anything else really. It IS realistic, which is nice. Oh and the princess doesn’t have much range, she kind of barks most of her lines which is fine generally but didn’t fit for one scene. That isn’t a Japanese thing really, I’ve seen similar moments played out better.
The good is that its well paced. It looks great and your kept interested throughout, which seeing as it’s a movie about hauling some gold could have easily not been the case. This being a Kurosawa movie you also have a performance by Toshiro Mifune. He’s a bad ass in this film, a complete and utter bad ass. Essentially, to get back to Star Wars, he’s the Obi Wan character but more in his prime than A New Hope Obi Wan. Under a lesser actor he would have either been a one note guy or not believable as a legendary general. Mifune is a master though.
Like any Kurosawa movie I’ll review, if you don’t like subtitles, black and white (that might not apply to all of them) or Japanese cinema then you won’t like this. If you like good old movies or are any level of film fan you will. Great stuff.
Next up: Monsters vs Aliens
Sunday 11 April 2010
Movie 101: Downfall
Or Der Untergang which is a much better title, but does sound a bit like it would be about a whacky German bigger gang.
It’s actually about the final days of the Third Reich, mainly focusing on the events that occurred in Der Fuhrerbunker. When Hitler had completely lost his shit and gave orders to use troops that didn’t exist, the Allies and Ruskies were closing in on all sides, everyone was offing themselves and Adolf Xbox Live account had been cancelled.
Okay, so the last one if from one of the many You Tube videos that have redone subs. And can be rather funny.
I actually listened to a radio drama not so long ago that dealt with the same subject matter. I don’t know if it used the same sources for its information, and it was mainly about Adolf and Eva, but it showed a bit of a human side to one of histories greatest monsters too. Not as adequately though.
It’s a tough task, and a very fine line to walk. Who wants to feel a bit sorry for fucking HITLER of all people? But you kind of do. Particularly if you switch your brain to the other side of the coin for a minute. Or just see what a broken pitiful wreck of a human being he was at this point. It does show one very important thing though. Hitler was a vegetarian that didn’t drink or smoke. So always offer someone you don’t know a steak, a fag and a bottle of beer. If they turn down all three, shoot them in the face and save the world some bother.
I did learn a few things from the film. I had to idea that Goebbels was knocking about with as much influence towards the end, or that he was a Dick Cheney like figure. Things may have run a bit more smoothly at the finish if it wasn’t for that bastard as someone might have been able to talk some sense in to Hitler. Probably not though.
And there are parts of the movie that are quite heartbreaking. Two, well three but two big ones, that effected the actors themselves. One in particular that just showed how brain washed and flat out mental many involved where. If you’ve seen it you probably know what I’m talking about. It’s very sad.
Over all this is well handled, manages to walk any fine lines very well, and doesn’t glamorise or demonise anyone in particular. It just shows them as real, probably mentally challenged or deficient, people. Bruno Ganz and all involved to a damned fine job, and the whole thing looks great. As a history lesson pretty much everyone should watch this.
And if it helps, even though she’s dead, I don’t blame Traudl Junge at all. Assuming what she says is true she won’t have had anything truly awful crossing her desk, and she probably didn’t help or hinder anything. In much the same way as I don’t think the bankers secretaries should feel sorry for the financial collapse I don’t think she did anything wrong.
If you do, and everyone can have an opinion, it might help to know that she didn’t walk out fine. She was captured and repeatedly raped by the Russians. Technically the good guys. I’m glad that’s not in the movie…
Next up: The Hidden Fortress. More subtitles!
It’s actually about the final days of the Third Reich, mainly focusing on the events that occurred in Der Fuhrerbunker. When Hitler had completely lost his shit and gave orders to use troops that didn’t exist, the Allies and Ruskies were closing in on all sides, everyone was offing themselves and Adolf Xbox Live account had been cancelled.
Okay, so the last one if from one of the many You Tube videos that have redone subs. And can be rather funny.
I actually listened to a radio drama not so long ago that dealt with the same subject matter. I don’t know if it used the same sources for its information, and it was mainly about Adolf and Eva, but it showed a bit of a human side to one of histories greatest monsters too. Not as adequately though.
It’s a tough task, and a very fine line to walk. Who wants to feel a bit sorry for fucking HITLER of all people? But you kind of do. Particularly if you switch your brain to the other side of the coin for a minute. Or just see what a broken pitiful wreck of a human being he was at this point. It does show one very important thing though. Hitler was a vegetarian that didn’t drink or smoke. So always offer someone you don’t know a steak, a fag and a bottle of beer. If they turn down all three, shoot them in the face and save the world some bother.
I did learn a few things from the film. I had to idea that Goebbels was knocking about with as much influence towards the end, or that he was a Dick Cheney like figure. Things may have run a bit more smoothly at the finish if it wasn’t for that bastard as someone might have been able to talk some sense in to Hitler. Probably not though.
And there are parts of the movie that are quite heartbreaking. Two, well three but two big ones, that effected the actors themselves. One in particular that just showed how brain washed and flat out mental many involved where. If you’ve seen it you probably know what I’m talking about. It’s very sad.
Over all this is well handled, manages to walk any fine lines very well, and doesn’t glamorise or demonise anyone in particular. It just shows them as real, probably mentally challenged or deficient, people. Bruno Ganz and all involved to a damned fine job, and the whole thing looks great. As a history lesson pretty much everyone should watch this.
And if it helps, even though she’s dead, I don’t blame Traudl Junge at all. Assuming what she says is true she won’t have had anything truly awful crossing her desk, and she probably didn’t help or hinder anything. In much the same way as I don’t think the bankers secretaries should feel sorry for the financial collapse I don’t think she did anything wrong.
If you do, and everyone can have an opinion, it might help to know that she didn’t walk out fine. She was captured and repeatedly raped by the Russians. Technically the good guys. I’m glad that’s not in the movie…
Next up: The Hidden Fortress. More subtitles!
Saturday 10 April 2010
Movie 100: Dead Snow
Holy shit, 100 movies? Really?! Time for Zombie Nazis then!
A group of young medical students head up to a cabin in the Norwegian mountains for an Easter weekend of beer and fucking about. On the first night, Grandpa Exposition comes up and tells the story of some truly nasty Nazis that were stationed there during the war who took everyones shit and ran in to the hills when the people revolted. They laugh him off, but when they find a box full of gold and valuables the Nazis come a knocking
This movie is trying to be Shaun of the Dead, at least at first. In fact, the director even rips off Ed Wrights quick cut close ups trademark. It’s not Shaun of the Dead. The dialogue in the first half isn’t witty enough, the plot is pretty standard slasher fare and they aren’t technically up against zombies.
In fact if the whole film was like the first half it wouldn’t be all that good. But come the second half it just goes bat shit crazy. Blood, guts and brains fly and it’s actually funnier. It’s like a bigger budget Troma movie with decent special effects.
The second half will probably not be to your liking if you don’t like gore. Because there is a LOT of claret up on the screen. A LOT. And as I said, these aren’t shambling undead braindeads, or even fast ones. The Nazis seem to be intelligent, though they can’t talk, and seem to be relatively mortal. Tough, but there doesn’t seem to be any need to smash the head in.
It’s worth sticking through the first half, not that it’s that bad, if you don’t mind guts though. This is the most batshit insane horror movie I’ve seen in a while. In addition to Troma, it also brought to mind Peter Jackson’s earlier work. Colin wouldn’t be out of place with a belt around his head to keep his brain in here.
I don’t want to say too much as it is quite original in execution and I don’t want to give anything away. But if they make a Dod Sno 2 I’ll be there.
Next up: Downfall. More Nazis!
A group of young medical students head up to a cabin in the Norwegian mountains for an Easter weekend of beer and fucking about. On the first night, Grandpa Exposition comes up and tells the story of some truly nasty Nazis that were stationed there during the war who took everyones shit and ran in to the hills when the people revolted. They laugh him off, but when they find a box full of gold and valuables the Nazis come a knocking
This movie is trying to be Shaun of the Dead, at least at first. In fact, the director even rips off Ed Wrights quick cut close ups trademark. It’s not Shaun of the Dead. The dialogue in the first half isn’t witty enough, the plot is pretty standard slasher fare and they aren’t technically up against zombies.
In fact if the whole film was like the first half it wouldn’t be all that good. But come the second half it just goes bat shit crazy. Blood, guts and brains fly and it’s actually funnier. It’s like a bigger budget Troma movie with decent special effects.
The second half will probably not be to your liking if you don’t like gore. Because there is a LOT of claret up on the screen. A LOT. And as I said, these aren’t shambling undead braindeads, or even fast ones. The Nazis seem to be intelligent, though they can’t talk, and seem to be relatively mortal. Tough, but there doesn’t seem to be any need to smash the head in.
It’s worth sticking through the first half, not that it’s that bad, if you don’t mind guts though. This is the most batshit insane horror movie I’ve seen in a while. In addition to Troma, it also brought to mind Peter Jackson’s earlier work. Colin wouldn’t be out of place with a belt around his head to keep his brain in here.
I don’t want to say too much as it is quite original in execution and I don’t want to give anything away. But if they make a Dod Sno 2 I’ll be there.
Next up: Downfall. More Nazis!
Friday 9 April 2010
Movie 99: It’s Complicated
Jane (Meryl Streep) is divorced from Jake (Alec Baldwin). He’s remarried, but she’s kind of lonely. On a trip to see one of their kids graduate the two end up spending an evening together and hooking up. They then have an affair, but things are further complicated as a nice guy, Adam (Steve Martin) her architect, starts being an option for Jane.
I am 20 years too young and have too much of a penis for this movie.
That said, it wasn’t a horrendous watch. And not for the reasons I expected either. Meryl’s character is fine, she’s a bit shallow and silly but the fact is you never really grow out of that. I didn’t expect her to draw me in really anyway as I can’t identify with a 50+ year old woman. I did expect to get a few laughs out of Baldwin’s character though.
I didn’t. He’s a shit. He’s a slimy, creepy, controlling asshole who wants his cake and everyone elses cake too. He just oozes greasy. Think his character from 30 Rock, but badly written and without any charm. That’s Jake. You could empathise with him if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s so damned selfish.
John Krasinski from the office is one of the reasons to see this. He’s not given a hell of a lot to do, but he’s good in every scene that he shows up in. He’s kind of playing another version of Jim but that’s okay. He’s not the surprise though.
Steve Martin is the surprise. He’s not amazingly brilliant, but he is damned good and Adam is the most likeable character in the film. He’s not quite correctly written either, there’s a twisted bit that felt very much like it was written by a woman that doesn’t quite get nice guys. By twisted I don’t mean that he’s in to whips, I mean a plot twist. But he’s a genuinely likeable character, he’s funny and he’s charming. THIS is the kind of role that Martin should be playing more now, though in better written movies.
That surprise aside, and Jim, unless you’re a middle aged divorcee you should probably just leave this one alone. It’s not complicated, though it’s not TOO formulaic towards the end, and its not all that well written.
Next up: Dead Snow. ZOMBIE NAZIS!
I am 20 years too young and have too much of a penis for this movie.
That said, it wasn’t a horrendous watch. And not for the reasons I expected either. Meryl’s character is fine, she’s a bit shallow and silly but the fact is you never really grow out of that. I didn’t expect her to draw me in really anyway as I can’t identify with a 50+ year old woman. I did expect to get a few laughs out of Baldwin’s character though.
I didn’t. He’s a shit. He’s a slimy, creepy, controlling asshole who wants his cake and everyone elses cake too. He just oozes greasy. Think his character from 30 Rock, but badly written and without any charm. That’s Jake. You could empathise with him if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s so damned selfish.
John Krasinski from the office is one of the reasons to see this. He’s not given a hell of a lot to do, but he’s good in every scene that he shows up in. He’s kind of playing another version of Jim but that’s okay. He’s not the surprise though.
Steve Martin is the surprise. He’s not amazingly brilliant, but he is damned good and Adam is the most likeable character in the film. He’s not quite correctly written either, there’s a twisted bit that felt very much like it was written by a woman that doesn’t quite get nice guys. By twisted I don’t mean that he’s in to whips, I mean a plot twist. But he’s a genuinely likeable character, he’s funny and he’s charming. THIS is the kind of role that Martin should be playing more now, though in better written movies.
That surprise aside, and Jim, unless you’re a middle aged divorcee you should probably just leave this one alone. It’s not complicated, though it’s not TOO formulaic towards the end, and its not all that well written.
Next up: Dead Snow. ZOMBIE NAZIS!
Thursday 8 April 2010
Movie 98: 88 Minutes
Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) is forensic psychologist who’s testimony lead to serial killer Jon Forster being put away. On the day that Forster is due to be executed, some copy cat murders show up and Jack gets a call telling him that he has 88 minutes to live.
What follows is a tense, real time thriller full of twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat. Apparently. That’s not what showed up on the screen. What showed up on the screen was a discarded episode of Lie To Me that they didn’t use because it was a bit shit.
It’s not horrendous, it’s just a bit crap. I never really felt any tension. I wasn’t 100% sure who the bad guy was, but it ended up being on of the couple of candidates. I hope Al Pacino bought a boat or something with the pay check as then someone will get a decent amount of entertainment from this. No idea why he was in it.
The acting at times is slightly elevated from porn level, the rest of the time its just fine. It’s actually a shame as one guy I’d like to see getting lots of work, Ben Mackenzie who played Ryan in the OC, is very briefly in this and he does a fine enough job with a non existent character.
They seem to set things up to be full of potential suspects, but it never really is. I think Ben’s character is meant to be one but he shows up 3 times in the whole movie. Just pick the person you think is kind of creepy and you’ll probably hit the nail on the head.
And its not in real time either. I think it might make a valiant effort at it, until the end. There’s 15 minutes to go and Al Pacino drives what appears to be across Seattle and wanders about a college campus with a good 5 minutes to spare. I don’t know Seattle all that well, but you’d be hard pressed to do that in Inverness and its bound to be WAY smaller. Particularly as he sits looking at some files at a red light for a good 3 or 4 minutes. You’d think they’d have stuck to the real time aspect at least, but no.
The whole thing is under written too, with a few character moments that are really forced. I’d just avoid it entirely if I was you.
Next up: It’s Complicated
What follows is a tense, real time thriller full of twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat. Apparently. That’s not what showed up on the screen. What showed up on the screen was a discarded episode of Lie To Me that they didn’t use because it was a bit shit.
It’s not horrendous, it’s just a bit crap. I never really felt any tension. I wasn’t 100% sure who the bad guy was, but it ended up being on of the couple of candidates. I hope Al Pacino bought a boat or something with the pay check as then someone will get a decent amount of entertainment from this. No idea why he was in it.
The acting at times is slightly elevated from porn level, the rest of the time its just fine. It’s actually a shame as one guy I’d like to see getting lots of work, Ben Mackenzie who played Ryan in the OC, is very briefly in this and he does a fine enough job with a non existent character.
They seem to set things up to be full of potential suspects, but it never really is. I think Ben’s character is meant to be one but he shows up 3 times in the whole movie. Just pick the person you think is kind of creepy and you’ll probably hit the nail on the head.
And its not in real time either. I think it might make a valiant effort at it, until the end. There’s 15 minutes to go and Al Pacino drives what appears to be across Seattle and wanders about a college campus with a good 5 minutes to spare. I don’t know Seattle all that well, but you’d be hard pressed to do that in Inverness and its bound to be WAY smaller. Particularly as he sits looking at some files at a red light for a good 3 or 4 minutes. You’d think they’d have stuck to the real time aspect at least, but no.
The whole thing is under written too, with a few character moments that are really forced. I’d just avoid it entirely if I was you.
Next up: It’s Complicated
Wednesday 7 April 2010
Movie 97: Inkheart
Mo Folchart (Brendan Fraser) discovers that when he reads from a book he can draw the characters in to the real world. Tragically, as his wife then vanishes in to the book. The evil characters that he draws out destroy his copy of the story and he goes on a quest to find another so he can get his wife out. Years later he’s still on his quest, but the bad guys have other plans for the ‘silvertongue’
As I’ve said before, I like Brendan Fraser. He seems to just make these family adventure type films but he’s really good at it. While Inkheart isn’t amazing, it is a good family adventure.
It’s quite a clever concept which allows the script/novel writers to use pretty much any character from literature that they choose too. Unfortunately they don’t go for all that much variety here, but the one book they lie heavily on (besides the fake book of the title) is The Wizard Of Oz. I love The Wizard of Oz. And while I could nit pick that they get the flying monkeys wrong and go along with the movie version (the book versions are more intelligent and not really evil) that’s an understandable think to do as world wide people are more familiar with the film.
The cast is all good. The aforementioned Fraser does his thing, more seriously than normal as his character isn’t really in it for the yuks. He’s a single father trying to get his wife back. Andy Serkis in non heavily made up or CGI’d form for once is a very good Capricorn, a big bully who’s not as tough as he wants everyone to think. He’s surrounded by comedy henchmen including Matt King who comes across as a semi-twin for Mackenzie Crook, which gives the henches a similar feel to the pirates from the Caribbean. Jim Broadbent, as the books author, feels a fair bit like Slughorn here too though this was a year earlier than his Potter turn. So while this doesn’t directly borrow from children’s films in the same way as it borrows from books, it has the same over all vibe.
Paul Bettany’s Dustfinger is a reluctant hero type who never acts truly heroic but eventually gets there. Sorry if that’s a spoiler, but I’m pretty sure he shows those kind of characteristics early on. He wants back in to the book, but is also terrified as he dies at the end of it. It’s a very rounded portrail of a character that could have been terrible. He blows fire out of his hands and has a ferret for a best mate after all…
And to add some class, there’s Helen Mirren as the feisty granny who loves books more than people. It’s Helen Mirren. She’d be good in a Tellytubbies movie. And if this is worth watching for anything, its worth watching for (SPOILER) the shot of Helen Mirren coming to the rescue on the back of a Unicorn with a minotaur and flying monkeys. Name one other movie that gives you THAT!
We just missed one, but there’s another couple coming up. So if Inkheart is on, consider this a good bank holiday watch that will shut kids up and keep you entertained too.
Next up: 88 Minutes
As I’ve said before, I like Brendan Fraser. He seems to just make these family adventure type films but he’s really good at it. While Inkheart isn’t amazing, it is a good family adventure.
It’s quite a clever concept which allows the script/novel writers to use pretty much any character from literature that they choose too. Unfortunately they don’t go for all that much variety here, but the one book they lie heavily on (besides the fake book of the title) is The Wizard Of Oz. I love The Wizard of Oz. And while I could nit pick that they get the flying monkeys wrong and go along with the movie version (the book versions are more intelligent and not really evil) that’s an understandable think to do as world wide people are more familiar with the film.
The cast is all good. The aforementioned Fraser does his thing, more seriously than normal as his character isn’t really in it for the yuks. He’s a single father trying to get his wife back. Andy Serkis in non heavily made up or CGI’d form for once is a very good Capricorn, a big bully who’s not as tough as he wants everyone to think. He’s surrounded by comedy henchmen including Matt King who comes across as a semi-twin for Mackenzie Crook, which gives the henches a similar feel to the pirates from the Caribbean. Jim Broadbent, as the books author, feels a fair bit like Slughorn here too though this was a year earlier than his Potter turn. So while this doesn’t directly borrow from children’s films in the same way as it borrows from books, it has the same over all vibe.
Paul Bettany’s Dustfinger is a reluctant hero type who never acts truly heroic but eventually gets there. Sorry if that’s a spoiler, but I’m pretty sure he shows those kind of characteristics early on. He wants back in to the book, but is also terrified as he dies at the end of it. It’s a very rounded portrail of a character that could have been terrible. He blows fire out of his hands and has a ferret for a best mate after all…
And to add some class, there’s Helen Mirren as the feisty granny who loves books more than people. It’s Helen Mirren. She’d be good in a Tellytubbies movie. And if this is worth watching for anything, its worth watching for (SPOILER) the shot of Helen Mirren coming to the rescue on the back of a Unicorn with a minotaur and flying monkeys. Name one other movie that gives you THAT!
We just missed one, but there’s another couple coming up. So if Inkheart is on, consider this a good bank holiday watch that will shut kids up and keep you entertained too.
Next up: 88 Minutes
Tuesday 6 April 2010
Movie 96: Yes Man
Carl (Jim Carrey) has a very boring life. He closes himself off from everyone and says no a lot. He runs in to an old friend while have lunch one day, and he turns him on to a self help program where you say yes to everything. Reluctant at first, Carl goes to a seminar and makes a covenant to say yes. And it starts to bring him some good results.
Jim Carrey is 48. When this was made, he was 46. Zooey Deschanel, the romantic interest, was 28. I give you these facts for one very important reason. Carrey is a little bit too old for this role.
Not so much for the love story with Zooey’s character. You never hear what Carl’s age is, I’m guessing he’s meant to be mid thirties, and they don’t look like father and daughter or anything. But he doesn’t look young enough. When he’s doing his mugging thing, and he does it a LOT, you can see the lines. Now I have no problem with people getting older, but I do if they are cast wrong. I wouldn’t cast myself as a 16 year old high school student after all.
And the mugging is the second big problem. Carrey can act, he can over act. I’m sure he can do the middle. And that’s what the material called for. There’s no need for Yes Man to come across as Liar, Liar 2. It’s good material, it would have worked a lot better if he’d dialled it back a little. Of course I wouldn’t have cast him in the first place because of the age issue, but still…it would have worked if it was down a notch or two. And he can’t act drunk for shit.
Those complaints aside, it’s a pretty decent movie. It’s also a good message. We should all probably say yes to more things. I know I’ve probably spent the odd night in that I didn’t have to. The one thing I can think of is that I didn’t go down to my girlfriends sisters about a year ago for an impromptu music festival thing. Can’t remember why, but I should have just gone as it looked like it was a great time. I’ll be going next time for sure.
The supporting cast in this is all fine. Bradley Cooper is the cool best friend, like everything else Bradley Cooper is in at the moment. Which is everything. And I’m fine with that as I liked him a lot as Will in Alias and hoped he’d make it big. And I love Zooey Deschanel, I don’t care what anyone else says. No idea why Terrance Stamp is in this as the Yes Guru, pay reasons probably. Should have been Danny Wallace.
Because this is based on a Danny Wallace non fiction book. There’s a lot of that at the moment. Apparently the fiction section isn’t big enough for Hollywood any more. A number of films are being based on non fiction work for some reason, maybe the rights are cheaper…
Bank holiday watch at best I’d say, unless you’re a huge Carrey fan. I like him, but I like him to act more now. Unless it’s a kids or family movie. Or the Number 23. That was fucking AWFUL
Next up: Inkheart
Jim Carrey is 48. When this was made, he was 46. Zooey Deschanel, the romantic interest, was 28. I give you these facts for one very important reason. Carrey is a little bit too old for this role.
Not so much for the love story with Zooey’s character. You never hear what Carl’s age is, I’m guessing he’s meant to be mid thirties, and they don’t look like father and daughter or anything. But he doesn’t look young enough. When he’s doing his mugging thing, and he does it a LOT, you can see the lines. Now I have no problem with people getting older, but I do if they are cast wrong. I wouldn’t cast myself as a 16 year old high school student after all.
And the mugging is the second big problem. Carrey can act, he can over act. I’m sure he can do the middle. And that’s what the material called for. There’s no need for Yes Man to come across as Liar, Liar 2. It’s good material, it would have worked a lot better if he’d dialled it back a little. Of course I wouldn’t have cast him in the first place because of the age issue, but still…it would have worked if it was down a notch or two. And he can’t act drunk for shit.
Those complaints aside, it’s a pretty decent movie. It’s also a good message. We should all probably say yes to more things. I know I’ve probably spent the odd night in that I didn’t have to. The one thing I can think of is that I didn’t go down to my girlfriends sisters about a year ago for an impromptu music festival thing. Can’t remember why, but I should have just gone as it looked like it was a great time. I’ll be going next time for sure.
The supporting cast in this is all fine. Bradley Cooper is the cool best friend, like everything else Bradley Cooper is in at the moment. Which is everything. And I’m fine with that as I liked him a lot as Will in Alias and hoped he’d make it big. And I love Zooey Deschanel, I don’t care what anyone else says. No idea why Terrance Stamp is in this as the Yes Guru, pay reasons probably. Should have been Danny Wallace.
Because this is based on a Danny Wallace non fiction book. There’s a lot of that at the moment. Apparently the fiction section isn’t big enough for Hollywood any more. A number of films are being based on non fiction work for some reason, maybe the rights are cheaper…
Bank holiday watch at best I’d say, unless you’re a huge Carrey fan. I like him, but I like him to act more now. Unless it’s a kids or family movie. Or the Number 23. That was fucking AWFUL
Next up: Inkheart
Monday 5 April 2010
Movie 95: I Love You Man
Peter (Paul Rudd) is a semi-successful realtor, he’s possibly going to make it to the big time if he sells Lou Ferrigno’s place, who’s getting married to Zooey (Rashida Jones). There’s just one problem, he doesn’t really have any guy friends to make up a wedding party. Or to just hang with. So his family and her friends start setting him up on some man dates to try and make some. It doesn’t really work out, until he runs in to Sydney (Jason Segel) at one of his open houses and the two hit it off.
And, as I’ve probably said about 30 times already, hilarity does ensue. It really does. I lolled all over the place. Not that it’s a perfect movie or anything.
Lets get the bad out of the way first. The first half hour doesn’t work all that well. Paul Rudd does very well at being a cynical wise ass, Peter isn’t that at all. So it’s a little bit of miscasting that only hurts in the first section as he’s not entirely believable. Not that he’s doing a bad job, cause god forbid a motherfucker stretches once in a while. That’s a Kevin Smith quote which always comes to mind if someone complains about casting slightly out of type. And Rudd does fine, I just think the script and character might be a little weak here.
The plot is also a little weak at the two thirds mark. Character actions, this follows the rom com formula so you know what happens at this kind of point, aren’t all that realistic and they kind of OVER react to things without much reality. And the film seems to forget its own passage of time. For the whole movie they seem to have been together for 8 months, but the course of the film has to be at least 2 months. You don’t feel like no time has passed, but it’s a script mistake that smacked me in the face a few times.
But that’s more or less all the bad. Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones have very good chemistry in this. They’re an extremely believable couple, and apart from a few weak scenes he fits the bill for his character. It’s something I can identify with as I’m a bit short on the male friends myself. I say a bit short, I mean I don’t have any close ones really. The guy I refer to as my best friend is someone I haven’t seen in about a year and a half and haven’t had any contact with in about 4 months. But life happens, we’re still friends. Whether I’d be his best man or not I have no idea, but I doubt it. So that’s my closest guy mate. I get where this character is, and I found the portrayal at times very spot on.
The reason this really works is obviously the OTHER relationship. Jason Segel’s Sydney is a likeable as hell guy. He’s kind of the opposite of his How I Met Your Mother character in some ways, similar in others. But just an all round nice guy you’d like to hang out with. And his chemistry with Rudd is perfect. They’re realistic guy mates. At least the kind of guys who’s life doesn’t revolve around football (soccer for the international folks) and Jordan’s tits.
The cast is rounded out with Jaime Pressly (Joy from My Name Is Earl) at her least trailer trashy, Jon Faverau as her dick head husband (strange pick that), JK Simmons and Jane Curtin as Peter’s parents and of course Lou Ferrigno being himself. Plus a bunch of others I hadn’t really seen before, or pop up now and again. Not quite all star, but indie feeling in the good way.
Obviously I can’t say how women will like this, but dudes who aren’t the aforementioned type and are in their late 20’s should love it. Or older, cause we never grow up. I dunno if kids will dig Rush…
Next up: Yes Man. I seem to have a “comedies with Man in the title” theme going on…
And, as I’ve probably said about 30 times already, hilarity does ensue. It really does. I lolled all over the place. Not that it’s a perfect movie or anything.
Lets get the bad out of the way first. The first half hour doesn’t work all that well. Paul Rudd does very well at being a cynical wise ass, Peter isn’t that at all. So it’s a little bit of miscasting that only hurts in the first section as he’s not entirely believable. Not that he’s doing a bad job, cause god forbid a motherfucker stretches once in a while. That’s a Kevin Smith quote which always comes to mind if someone complains about casting slightly out of type. And Rudd does fine, I just think the script and character might be a little weak here.
The plot is also a little weak at the two thirds mark. Character actions, this follows the rom com formula so you know what happens at this kind of point, aren’t all that realistic and they kind of OVER react to things without much reality. And the film seems to forget its own passage of time. For the whole movie they seem to have been together for 8 months, but the course of the film has to be at least 2 months. You don’t feel like no time has passed, but it’s a script mistake that smacked me in the face a few times.
But that’s more or less all the bad. Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones have very good chemistry in this. They’re an extremely believable couple, and apart from a few weak scenes he fits the bill for his character. It’s something I can identify with as I’m a bit short on the male friends myself. I say a bit short, I mean I don’t have any close ones really. The guy I refer to as my best friend is someone I haven’t seen in about a year and a half and haven’t had any contact with in about 4 months. But life happens, we’re still friends. Whether I’d be his best man or not I have no idea, but I doubt it. So that’s my closest guy mate. I get where this character is, and I found the portrayal at times very spot on.
The reason this really works is obviously the OTHER relationship. Jason Segel’s Sydney is a likeable as hell guy. He’s kind of the opposite of his How I Met Your Mother character in some ways, similar in others. But just an all round nice guy you’d like to hang out with. And his chemistry with Rudd is perfect. They’re realistic guy mates. At least the kind of guys who’s life doesn’t revolve around football (soccer for the international folks) and Jordan’s tits.
The cast is rounded out with Jaime Pressly (Joy from My Name Is Earl) at her least trailer trashy, Jon Faverau as her dick head husband (strange pick that), JK Simmons and Jane Curtin as Peter’s parents and of course Lou Ferrigno being himself. Plus a bunch of others I hadn’t really seen before, or pop up now and again. Not quite all star, but indie feeling in the good way.
Obviously I can’t say how women will like this, but dudes who aren’t the aforementioned type and are in their late 20’s should love it. Or older, cause we never grow up. I dunno if kids will dig Rush…
Next up: Yes Man. I seem to have a “comedies with Man in the title” theme going on…
Sunday 4 April 2010
Movie 94: Kick Ass
This right here? This is me passing the amount of movies I watched last year. Technically it’s the next one as I’ve reviewed way ahead, but I wanted the Kick Ass review out as quickly after I’d seen it as possible and at time of writing I planned to see it on Saturday.
And I did see it on Saturday. I love it when a plan comes together. Right, plot.
Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a comic book nerd and all round unremarkable kid who asks himself the question “Why does no one dress up and fight crime in real life?” and then decides to do just that. What a run on sentence. Anyway, giving himself the name Kick Ass he heads out and is promptly badly fucked up. After a long recuperating period he has more metal in him than the tin man, and some nerve damage that means he doesn’t feel pain so much. Instead of giving up, he goes out again with some better success. A video of him on You Tube becomes a sensation, but unfortunately local mobsters give him credit for the work of the more capable team of Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Kick Ass is in over his head…
Sorry if you think that’s spoilerific, but it shouldn’t ruin anything. Before seeing this movie I hadn’t heard a single bad review for it, ignoring places like the Daily Mail that get mad about 11 year olds saying cunt and stabbing people. And that’s fitting. It’s a damned good film, not perfect, but really good. Particularly the last 30 minutes which as mind blowingly brilliant.
The bad comes from the fact that this is a first film in a super hero, well hero, franchise. Spider-Man and The X Men aren’t as good as Spider-Man 2 and X2. Same goes form Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Because you have to set up the characters and the world there’s inevitable slow parts, and Kick Ass has that problem too. But that’s understandable and completely fine.
Unfortunately the comic came out right when I stopped reading comics. I have issue 1 and that’s it. From what I’ve heard it follows the comic story very closely which is a good thing.
Aaron Johnson does a fine job as the main character, being very nerdy out of costume and a bit more confident in it. Kick Ass isn’t really a major stand out character though, even though we pretty much follow him all the way through. He is my kind of hero though. I’m a big fan of old school Jackie Chan and the 80’s Bruce Willis hero type. I like my guys to take a shit kicking before they come back.
The bad guys, while generic gangster types, don’t suffer from the B grade problem I had with the Punisher. These are proper wise guys, with witty dialogue. And they’re well developed as there’s hints at a side life. Obviously with one of the main characters being the mobsters son you get side lines like planning to go to the movies while someone is whacked in the background. There’s a lot of funny dialogue between these guys and it works very well.
As for the professional heroes, Nic Cage is Big Daddy here. I actually though Big Daddy could have done with some more dialogue in costume for the joke to work. He has plenty of character development, but without more room the “Adam West Batman” accent joke doesn’t QUITE work. I still found it funny.
The stand out of the whole movie, and the biggest controversy, is Hit Girl. Big Daddy’s 11 year old daughter who he’s been training for the last 6 years to be a 4 foot killing machine in pig tails. She. Is. Awesome. And not just the ass kicking parts. Those scenes to stand out, and they are rather brutal, but in the non-killing people parts Chloe Moretz comes across at times a harden little bitch and others as the vulnerable little girl that she is. She feels like a mini Bride at times and I’m not sure if that was deliberate homage in the way it was shot, but Hit Girl is the Tarantino character that Tarantino never had the balls to put to celluloid.
And that’s one of the big things about this film. I can’t see a studio ever letting this get finished the way that it came out. It’s not the most shocking film ever made, or the most controversial, but its enough that the big studios wouldn’t touch it. So they made it themselves then found distrubtion. Big risk, but big rewards.
This isn’t for everyone, but by the fact that your reading a blog review by a nobody who uses an 80’s TV character as a pseudonym and its on the internet says that its no doubt for you. Go enjoy, and I expect Kick Ass 2 will probably be even better.
On a side note for the locals, I plumped for the VIP seats in Vue for this one. It’s only £1.30 more after all. Not sure if I’m sold on them. If you with someone, don’t bother. Your that little bit too far apart to be able to talk (before the movie, maybe during the ads and I like to say something about the trailers) and you’ll feel like your there on your own. If your by yourself it might be worth it but I’m not sure if the seats are all that more comfy. Would be nice if they were tilted back a bit more, but I’m a bit of a sloucher.
Next up: I Love You Man
And I did see it on Saturday. I love it when a plan comes together. Right, plot.
Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a comic book nerd and all round unremarkable kid who asks himself the question “Why does no one dress up and fight crime in real life?” and then decides to do just that. What a run on sentence. Anyway, giving himself the name Kick Ass he heads out and is promptly badly fucked up. After a long recuperating period he has more metal in him than the tin man, and some nerve damage that means he doesn’t feel pain so much. Instead of giving up, he goes out again with some better success. A video of him on You Tube becomes a sensation, but unfortunately local mobsters give him credit for the work of the more capable team of Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Kick Ass is in over his head…
Sorry if you think that’s spoilerific, but it shouldn’t ruin anything. Before seeing this movie I hadn’t heard a single bad review for it, ignoring places like the Daily Mail that get mad about 11 year olds saying cunt and stabbing people. And that’s fitting. It’s a damned good film, not perfect, but really good. Particularly the last 30 minutes which as mind blowingly brilliant.
The bad comes from the fact that this is a first film in a super hero, well hero, franchise. Spider-Man and The X Men aren’t as good as Spider-Man 2 and X2. Same goes form Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Because you have to set up the characters and the world there’s inevitable slow parts, and Kick Ass has that problem too. But that’s understandable and completely fine.
Unfortunately the comic came out right when I stopped reading comics. I have issue 1 and that’s it. From what I’ve heard it follows the comic story very closely which is a good thing.
Aaron Johnson does a fine job as the main character, being very nerdy out of costume and a bit more confident in it. Kick Ass isn’t really a major stand out character though, even though we pretty much follow him all the way through. He is my kind of hero though. I’m a big fan of old school Jackie Chan and the 80’s Bruce Willis hero type. I like my guys to take a shit kicking before they come back.
The bad guys, while generic gangster types, don’t suffer from the B grade problem I had with the Punisher. These are proper wise guys, with witty dialogue. And they’re well developed as there’s hints at a side life. Obviously with one of the main characters being the mobsters son you get side lines like planning to go to the movies while someone is whacked in the background. There’s a lot of funny dialogue between these guys and it works very well.
As for the professional heroes, Nic Cage is Big Daddy here. I actually though Big Daddy could have done with some more dialogue in costume for the joke to work. He has plenty of character development, but without more room the “Adam West Batman” accent joke doesn’t QUITE work. I still found it funny.
The stand out of the whole movie, and the biggest controversy, is Hit Girl. Big Daddy’s 11 year old daughter who he’s been training for the last 6 years to be a 4 foot killing machine in pig tails. She. Is. Awesome. And not just the ass kicking parts. Those scenes to stand out, and they are rather brutal, but in the non-killing people parts Chloe Moretz comes across at times a harden little bitch and others as the vulnerable little girl that she is. She feels like a mini Bride at times and I’m not sure if that was deliberate homage in the way it was shot, but Hit Girl is the Tarantino character that Tarantino never had the balls to put to celluloid.
And that’s one of the big things about this film. I can’t see a studio ever letting this get finished the way that it came out. It’s not the most shocking film ever made, or the most controversial, but its enough that the big studios wouldn’t touch it. So they made it themselves then found distrubtion. Big risk, but big rewards.
This isn’t for everyone, but by the fact that your reading a blog review by a nobody who uses an 80’s TV character as a pseudonym and its on the internet says that its no doubt for you. Go enjoy, and I expect Kick Ass 2 will probably be even better.
On a side note for the locals, I plumped for the VIP seats in Vue for this one. It’s only £1.30 more after all. Not sure if I’m sold on them. If you with someone, don’t bother. Your that little bit too far apart to be able to talk (before the movie, maybe during the ads and I like to say something about the trailers) and you’ll feel like your there on your own. If your by yourself it might be worth it but I’m not sure if the seats are all that more comfy. Would be nice if they were tilted back a bit more, but I’m a bit of a sloucher.
Next up: I Love You Man
Movie 93: What Just Happened?
A Hollywood producer (Robert De Niro) struggles with reconciling with his ex wife, getting a director to fix the end of his movie and convincing Bruce Willis to shave off a beard.
As thrilling as that sounds.
The big secret about the movie business is that it really quite dull. From the outside people things its very glamorous and exciting. On the inside, it’s a lot of sitting about and waiting for something to happen. I’ve made a few things myself, and the one short film that I wrote and directed comes out at about 8 minutes. It took 8 hours to make. If you include editing time its closer to 16. That’s one minute of film for every 2 hours of work, and that was super fast guerrilla film making with no extra footage to cut out. So that should give you an idea of how exciting making a film actually is.
The film really should be called “what was the point of that?” as that’s its main problem. Trying to get an edit done on a movie and a beard shaved off would only work if it had a sharp, witty script. It doesn’t. Which is a shame.
A film starring Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Stanley Tucci, Catherine Keener, Bruce Willis, John Turturro and Michael Wincott shouldn’t be boring. This is. In fact the best thing for me was seeing Wincott in something for once. I love that guy, he should be in more films.
If you’re a movie producer, you might enjoy this. If not, you probably won’t. It feels extremely under developed. If this had been done in the style of In The Loop it might have been decent, as it stands its just half baked.
Next up: Kick Ass!
As thrilling as that sounds.
The big secret about the movie business is that it really quite dull. From the outside people things its very glamorous and exciting. On the inside, it’s a lot of sitting about and waiting for something to happen. I’ve made a few things myself, and the one short film that I wrote and directed comes out at about 8 minutes. It took 8 hours to make. If you include editing time its closer to 16. That’s one minute of film for every 2 hours of work, and that was super fast guerrilla film making with no extra footage to cut out. So that should give you an idea of how exciting making a film actually is.
The film really should be called “what was the point of that?” as that’s its main problem. Trying to get an edit done on a movie and a beard shaved off would only work if it had a sharp, witty script. It doesn’t. Which is a shame.
A film starring Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Stanley Tucci, Catherine Keener, Bruce Willis, John Turturro and Michael Wincott shouldn’t be boring. This is. In fact the best thing for me was seeing Wincott in something for once. I love that guy, he should be in more films.
If you’re a movie producer, you might enjoy this. If not, you probably won’t. It feels extremely under developed. If this had been done in the style of In The Loop it might have been decent, as it stands its just half baked.
Next up: Kick Ass!
Friday 2 April 2010
Movie 92: Punisher – War Zone
The Punisher is back, and he’s played by a different actor which is always a bad sign. However this isn’t a sequel, it’s a reboot. Which is also a very bad sign. Particularly as I liked the first one. Anyway, plot.
Frank Castle aka The Punisher has racked up a basement of files worth of kills. When going after some mafia guys he leaves one in a glass recycling pit and accident kills an FBI mole. Torn by the fact he killed a good guy, Frank is all for hanging up his guns. But the mafia guy survived, coming back as the mangled villain Jigsaw, and Frank has to protect the FBI moles family and stop him.
I whole heartedly agree with Thomas Jane, original director Jonathan Hensleigh and The Shield writer Kurt Sutter that the way to go with this was a more real world approach. The Punisher fits in to the Marvel universe just fine, but the more comic book like elements only work when there’s a comic book world. Not a more or less realistic one like features in this movie.
A villain like Jigsaw just seems ridiculous here. Particularly as he only seems to have a scarred up face and not his whole body. They didn’t go far enough. And his brother, Looney Bin Jim, would be fine if there was anything else crazy in the film. But there isn’t really, apart from some hyped up gore. Which is fine in and of itself.
Frank Castle is a very staid character. He’s extremely serious. So his world should be serious. The film is just tonally off. The main guy is serious, much of the rest isn’t except when it is.
I really can’t complain about Ray Stevenson as he’s not a bad actor, but I think Jane would have been a bit better. However, the villains at the start come across as second rate Soprano’s extras. And for some reason there’s a Jamaican looking guy with a TERRIBLE intermittent Oirish accent who does some ridiculously half assed Parkour with his friends who’s a bit of a throw away villain.
This could have been decent. With more realistic, or even possibly more outlandish if they threw in some cross references, villains, if Micro had been around more to give some levity to the situation, if the aforementioned shitty villains had been dropped, and if the tone had been consistent it would have been alright. But none of that is the case. The couple of twists in the film are predictable, and its all over the bloomin place.
I’d just skip it if I were you. Not that its HUGELY terrible, it’s just not any good…
Next up: What Just Happened?
Frank Castle aka The Punisher has racked up a basement of files worth of kills. When going after some mafia guys he leaves one in a glass recycling pit and accident kills an FBI mole. Torn by the fact he killed a good guy, Frank is all for hanging up his guns. But the mafia guy survived, coming back as the mangled villain Jigsaw, and Frank has to protect the FBI moles family and stop him.
I whole heartedly agree with Thomas Jane, original director Jonathan Hensleigh and The Shield writer Kurt Sutter that the way to go with this was a more real world approach. The Punisher fits in to the Marvel universe just fine, but the more comic book like elements only work when there’s a comic book world. Not a more or less realistic one like features in this movie.
A villain like Jigsaw just seems ridiculous here. Particularly as he only seems to have a scarred up face and not his whole body. They didn’t go far enough. And his brother, Looney Bin Jim, would be fine if there was anything else crazy in the film. But there isn’t really, apart from some hyped up gore. Which is fine in and of itself.
Frank Castle is a very staid character. He’s extremely serious. So his world should be serious. The film is just tonally off. The main guy is serious, much of the rest isn’t except when it is.
I really can’t complain about Ray Stevenson as he’s not a bad actor, but I think Jane would have been a bit better. However, the villains at the start come across as second rate Soprano’s extras. And for some reason there’s a Jamaican looking guy with a TERRIBLE intermittent Oirish accent who does some ridiculously half assed Parkour with his friends who’s a bit of a throw away villain.
This could have been decent. With more realistic, or even possibly more outlandish if they threw in some cross references, villains, if Micro had been around more to give some levity to the situation, if the aforementioned shitty villains had been dropped, and if the tone had been consistent it would have been alright. But none of that is the case. The couple of twists in the film are predictable, and its all over the bloomin place.
I’d just skip it if I were you. Not that its HUGELY terrible, it’s just not any good…
Next up: What Just Happened?
Thursday 1 April 2010
Movie 91: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
A wiseass, R P McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), scams his way in to the nut house as he thinks it will be easier than the work detail in prison. When he gets there he rebels against head nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). The he finds out that he won’t simply serve his time, but will be there until they decide he’s fit to leave. He then decides to bust out, after rebelling some more.
This is critically lauded, loved by pretty much everyone and has a hell of a cast. BUT it didn’t do much for me.
Its not terrible, I just wasn’t blown away and I wondered what the big hoo ha was about. Yes everyone does a good or great acting job, more or less, but it just seemed pointless and drifty.
I go in to anything with Louise Fletcher ready to hate her character. This is due to being a big fan of Deep Space 9. Kai Winn is an UTTER two faced bitch. And I’ll admit I have trouble separating the actress from that. Which should have worked for this movie, as Nurse Ratched is supposed to be a tyrant and complete bitch. But I never fully bought that she was. She does some nasty stuff, one or two things, but nothing full on out of no where and malicious. She’s not all that terrible. So I don’t quite get it.
All the nuts more or less stay nuts through the movie too. McMurphy gets the Chief out of his shell somewhat, and until Ratched fucks it up he may also have helped Billy, but there’s not enough character development for me. However I’ll avoid re-writing the movie to what I think would have worked better for once.
As for the cast. Well this is Christopher Lloyd’s first movie, and he’s in his full wide eyed glory here. And I didn’t realise that that was Danny De Vito as Martini. Scatman Crothers guard, Turkle, is the second most likeable character next to the Chief. And Brad Dourif is great as Billy. He’s one of those actors that I think should be everywhere as he’s damned good at what he does, but that’s a bit of an issue with being a character actor. Your either everywhere or not. Not that he hasn’t been busy.
So honestly I don’t think this is anything special, but maybe you shouldn’t take my word for it as I appear to be swimming against the tide. Personally I’d have given best picture that year to Jaws…
Next up: Punisher – War Zone
This is critically lauded, loved by pretty much everyone and has a hell of a cast. BUT it didn’t do much for me.
Its not terrible, I just wasn’t blown away and I wondered what the big hoo ha was about. Yes everyone does a good or great acting job, more or less, but it just seemed pointless and drifty.
I go in to anything with Louise Fletcher ready to hate her character. This is due to being a big fan of Deep Space 9. Kai Winn is an UTTER two faced bitch. And I’ll admit I have trouble separating the actress from that. Which should have worked for this movie, as Nurse Ratched is supposed to be a tyrant and complete bitch. But I never fully bought that she was. She does some nasty stuff, one or two things, but nothing full on out of no where and malicious. She’s not all that terrible. So I don’t quite get it.
All the nuts more or less stay nuts through the movie too. McMurphy gets the Chief out of his shell somewhat, and until Ratched fucks it up he may also have helped Billy, but there’s not enough character development for me. However I’ll avoid re-writing the movie to what I think would have worked better for once.
As for the cast. Well this is Christopher Lloyd’s first movie, and he’s in his full wide eyed glory here. And I didn’t realise that that was Danny De Vito as Martini. Scatman Crothers guard, Turkle, is the second most likeable character next to the Chief. And Brad Dourif is great as Billy. He’s one of those actors that I think should be everywhere as he’s damned good at what he does, but that’s a bit of an issue with being a character actor. Your either everywhere or not. Not that he hasn’t been busy.
So honestly I don’t think this is anything special, but maybe you shouldn’t take my word for it as I appear to be swimming against the tide. Personally I’d have given best picture that year to Jaws…
Next up: Punisher – War Zone
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