Hi,
Started to watch this with the kids last night, they all watched the first hour before the twins went off to bed. Then my eldest and I continued with the rest of it. Plus the Gag reel, which was pretty funny.
This is the 7th time I've seen it now, and at no point in the film did I lose concentration, it never drags and it never bores me.
Is it perfect?
To me yes it is, at least in it's genre it is. I can't think of much I would watch again and again, maybe Star Wars, but I haven't seen them in years, and never watched the first 3 more than once. Alien? started it a few months back but never finished it, Serenity?, I want this on Blu Ray, but I've not seen this since the cinema.
I'm looking forward to watching the 2nd hour again tonight with the twins. Pity I haven't got time to watch it all again, but United are on!
Star Trek is now my number 1 film.
Wednesday 25 November 2009
Tuesday 24 November 2009
Harry Brown
Hi,
Last night's film was the Michael Caine, urban drama Harry Brown. Directed by Daniel Barber and with Emily Mortimer (Dear Frankie), Iain Glen (Tombraider), Ben Drew (Adulthood) and Liam Cunningham (The Escapist). The cast was very good, and the writing pretty strong, with a very good performance from Caine.
It was a bleak look at today's society and I would suspect that we all know areas like the one portrayed in the film. Barber caught the sense of loneliness the guilty found themselves in living under the constant threat of gang violence. But who would fight back and make a stand, Harry Brown ex-marine stepped up.
The violence and the script were both pretty hard hitting but they were kept in the realms of reality and served the film well. The other good thing was that they didn't turn Caine's character into some super ex-marine going round beating everyone down with his fists, he knew how to use a gun and how to kill!
Overall, good all round British drama (7/10)
Last night's film was the Michael Caine, urban drama Harry Brown. Directed by Daniel Barber and with Emily Mortimer (Dear Frankie), Iain Glen (Tombraider), Ben Drew (Adulthood) and Liam Cunningham (The Escapist). The cast was very good, and the writing pretty strong, with a very good performance from Caine.
It was a bleak look at today's society and I would suspect that we all know areas like the one portrayed in the film. Barber caught the sense of loneliness the guilty found themselves in living under the constant threat of gang violence. But who would fight back and make a stand, Harry Brown ex-marine stepped up.
The violence and the script were both pretty hard hitting but they were kept in the realms of reality and served the film well. The other good thing was that they didn't turn Caine's character into some super ex-marine going round beating everyone down with his fists, he knew how to use a gun and how to kill!
Overall, good all round British drama (7/10)
Wednesday 18 November 2009
2012
Last night's film was the disaster movie 2012, which in turn become a little bit of a disaster in itself.
Roland Emmerich (The day after tomorrow,ID4) again brings the earth to it's knees in another end of the world film. This time the destruction of our planet is on such a massive scale compared to the day after film, this was true end of the world stuff and it was amazing to watch (in a strange way). Land crumbling away into the molten core of the earth, cities gone, yellowstone erupting into a gigantic volcano. These scenes were something else, even if the escape from LA in the limo and plane skated on the wrong side of believable, it was still 20 minutes of pure cinema entertainment. These scenes were fantastic, the CGI was astounding, but even as great as this was the rest of the film, and I mean the narrative wasn't fantastic.
John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chitwetel Ejiofor and Oliver Platt headed the cast, and it's a great cast, let down by sloppy writing and cliched situations. Not only do we have lots of incidental characters which turn up to say their good-byes to loved ones or try to reoncile their differences that it all becomes unemotional, I didn't really care for these characters, who were they and why are they hanging around this film, I didn't care! As for the main man and I'm not taking about Cusack, what was the point of returning to his plight when he had agreeded to stay behind, he's made his decision we can all assume the outcome, but Emmerich wants us to see him go in the most spectacular way he can make happen. And the film is littered with these pointless excuses to show us disaster moments from around the world, when all I wanted to see was Cusack's story!
Cusack's story did have some good potential, his trip to Yellowstone, the return to LA, the cracks in the road, the comments by the kids all adding up and pushing him to save his family and get to the "ships".I think this would have made a great story, losing around 1 hour of the film would have helped as well. But in the end it became bogged down in morality and a Goverment cover-up! You never had this problem on the Poseidon!
Both 2012 and The Day after Tomorrow use the except same story forumla but I prefered the Day after tomorrow, mainly because I had characters I could care for and I wanted to see survive. Cusack's family would have been the same if we had spent more time with them.
Overall (5/10) and thats for the special effects! The rest was not very good at all!
Roland Emmerich (The day after tomorrow,ID4) again brings the earth to it's knees in another end of the world film. This time the destruction of our planet is on such a massive scale compared to the day after film, this was true end of the world stuff and it was amazing to watch (in a strange way). Land crumbling away into the molten core of the earth, cities gone, yellowstone erupting into a gigantic volcano. These scenes were something else, even if the escape from LA in the limo and plane skated on the wrong side of believable, it was still 20 minutes of pure cinema entertainment. These scenes were fantastic, the CGI was astounding, but even as great as this was the rest of the film, and I mean the narrative wasn't fantastic.
John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chitwetel Ejiofor and Oliver Platt headed the cast, and it's a great cast, let down by sloppy writing and cliched situations. Not only do we have lots of incidental characters which turn up to say their good-byes to loved ones or try to reoncile their differences that it all becomes unemotional, I didn't really care for these characters, who were they and why are they hanging around this film, I didn't care! As for the main man and I'm not taking about Cusack, what was the point of returning to his plight when he had agreeded to stay behind, he's made his decision we can all assume the outcome, but Emmerich wants us to see him go in the most spectacular way he can make happen. And the film is littered with these pointless excuses to show us disaster moments from around the world, when all I wanted to see was Cusack's story!
Cusack's story did have some good potential, his trip to Yellowstone, the return to LA, the cracks in the road, the comments by the kids all adding up and pushing him to save his family and get to the "ships".I think this would have made a great story, losing around 1 hour of the film would have helped as well. But in the end it became bogged down in morality and a Goverment cover-up! You never had this problem on the Poseidon!
Both 2012 and The Day after Tomorrow use the except same story forumla but I prefered the Day after tomorrow, mainly because I had characters I could care for and I wanted to see survive. Cusack's family would have been the same if we had spent more time with them.
Overall (5/10) and thats for the special effects! The rest was not very good at all!
Monday 16 November 2009
Star Trek (BD)
Hi,
Last night watched Star Trek (2009) on Blu-Ray, stunning, just stunning, the transfer looked superb, the sound was awesome. This was the 6th time I've seen this film, 4 at the cinema, 1 at the Imax and now on BD. And looking forward to seeing it again soon with my eldest.
Is this my number 1 film? Hmmm, it is the Dark Knight at the moment. Not sure but it's very close.
Last night watched Star Trek (2009) on Blu-Ray, stunning, just stunning, the transfer looked superb, the sound was awesome. This was the 6th time I've seen this film, 4 at the cinema, 1 at the Imax and now on BD. And looking forward to seeing it again soon with my eldest.
Is this my number 1 film? Hmmm, it is the Dark Knight at the moment. Not sure but it's very close.
The fourth kind
Hi,
The fourth Kind was the latest film I saw at the cinema at the end of last week. Hmm, not an easy one to review, it’s not a bad film, but you really have to buy in to it all.
The film is set in an isolated town in Alaska where numerous people have gone missing or have the same strange experiences. Dr. Abigail Tyler (Jovovich) is leading the study to unlock these secrets until she encounters them herself and her life is thrown into turmoil.
Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, starring Milla Jovovich, Will Patton and Elias Koteas, the film uses so called “real” footage cut into the actual film, sometimes both playing the same scene to authenticate the “real” one.
The story was interesting and I suppose it may have happened, 4th kind alien contact that is. How real it is in this film is open to debate, if you believe aliens exist then you may buy into this film 100%. If you are a little sceptical then you may just enjoy the film as a film, like I did.
It wasn’t bad; the acting was ok, the script ok, a couple of nice intense scenes, but nothing really scary.
Overall 6/10 – Will you believe.
The fourth Kind was the latest film I saw at the cinema at the end of last week. Hmm, not an easy one to review, it’s not a bad film, but you really have to buy in to it all.
The film is set in an isolated town in Alaska where numerous people have gone missing or have the same strange experiences. Dr. Abigail Tyler (Jovovich) is leading the study to unlock these secrets until she encounters them herself and her life is thrown into turmoil.
Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, starring Milla Jovovich, Will Patton and Elias Koteas, the film uses so called “real” footage cut into the actual film, sometimes both playing the same scene to authenticate the “real” one.
The story was interesting and I suppose it may have happened, 4th kind alien contact that is. How real it is in this film is open to debate, if you believe aliens exist then you may buy into this film 100%. If you are a little sceptical then you may just enjoy the film as a film, like I did.
It wasn’t bad; the acting was ok, the script ok, a couple of nice intense scenes, but nothing really scary.
Overall 6/10 – Will you believe.
Tuesday 10 November 2009
The men who stare at goats
Hi,
Last night's film was The men who stare at goats, and what a good movie it turned out to be.
Directed by Grant Heslov, with George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. The 4 main actors are superb, all of them aided by a really good script. Funny, never over the top silly and very clever.
However the film did run out of steam in the last 20 minutes, and to be honest become a little dull after such a great opening hour or so. Which is a shame really, but overall the sum of the parts still made it a worthwhile watch.
Oh yes, what's it about? Well McGregor's character is a small town reporter, who's wife leaves him and he sets out to prove he's bigger man than she thinks. He stumbles into a story about the US defence training men for pyshic war fare! Meeting the main man in the training programmer (Clooney) in Iraq. McGregor then follows Clooney's character on his next mission to cover the story and get his big break!
Overall, Funny and clever, good performances all round, but the film just lagged towards the end (8/10)
Last night's film was The men who stare at goats, and what a good movie it turned out to be.
Directed by Grant Heslov, with George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. The 4 main actors are superb, all of them aided by a really good script. Funny, never over the top silly and very clever.
However the film did run out of steam in the last 20 minutes, and to be honest become a little dull after such a great opening hour or so. Which is a shame really, but overall the sum of the parts still made it a worthwhile watch.
Oh yes, what's it about? Well McGregor's character is a small town reporter, who's wife leaves him and he sets out to prove he's bigger man than she thinks. He stumbles into a story about the US defence training men for pyshic war fare! Meeting the main man in the training programmer (Clooney) in Iraq. McGregor then follows Clooney's character on his next mission to cover the story and get his big break!
Overall, Funny and clever, good performances all round, but the film just lagged towards the end (8/10)
Monday 9 November 2009
Jennifer's Body
Hi,
Last night’s movie was Jennifer’s Body, directed by Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux), written by Diablo Coby (Juno). Starring Megan Fox (Transformers), Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia) and Adam Brody (The O.C).
Two high school girls, best friends since childhood, have their world turned upside down when one becomes a man eating demon!
I was looking forward to this, not just for the concept of the film, demon man-eating female, but for the writing and also seeing if Megan Fox could act. Well talk about disappointed on most counts.
If this was a horror – comedy if failed in both genres, I didn’t find it remotely funny, not even darkly funny, and as a horror film it had no scares, no tension and not much gore! This is a man eating demon there should have been plenty of gore.
As you might have guessed the writing wasn’t that funny, if people are comparing this to Heathers or Mean Girls for the bitchy script it’s not a patch on either of them.
The acting, I will give Fox the benefit of the doubt here, I think she was let down by a poor script and not the best direction so I’ll reserve judgement for now. She wasn’t bad though!
Overall, not really impressed by much at all from this film, the soundtrack was possible the best thing in it. (3/10)
Last night’s movie was Jennifer’s Body, directed by Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux), written by Diablo Coby (Juno). Starring Megan Fox (Transformers), Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia) and Adam Brody (The O.C).
Two high school girls, best friends since childhood, have their world turned upside down when one becomes a man eating demon!
I was looking forward to this, not just for the concept of the film, demon man-eating female, but for the writing and also seeing if Megan Fox could act. Well talk about disappointed on most counts.
If this was a horror – comedy if failed in both genres, I didn’t find it remotely funny, not even darkly funny, and as a horror film it had no scares, no tension and not much gore! This is a man eating demon there should have been plenty of gore.
As you might have guessed the writing wasn’t that funny, if people are comparing this to Heathers or Mean Girls for the bitchy script it’s not a patch on either of them.
The acting, I will give Fox the benefit of the doubt here, I think she was let down by a poor script and not the best direction so I’ll reserve judgement for now. She wasn’t bad though!
Overall, not really impressed by much at all from this film, the soundtrack was possible the best thing in it. (3/10)
Thursday 5 November 2009
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
Hello,
Saw Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, the other day, and what a surprise it was, I was hoping it was going to be ok, but i really liked it. It wasn't brilliant but it had it's heart in the right place.
Directed by Paul Weitz (About a boy) and starring, John C Reilly (Criminal), Josh Hutcherson (Journey to the center of the earth), Chris Massoglia and Salma Hayek.
Adapted from the Darren Shan novels, (Darren Shan been the name of the main character) how close to the book the film is, I couldn't tell you, but it did make me want to read the books.
As for the film, I really enjoyed it, the cast was great, Reilly was really good, the two younger cast members did well also. The story was engaging if a little predicatable, but it was entertaining due to the performances and the script. My eldest also really liked it as well.
I just hope they continue with the next one.
Overall good script, good performances and an enjoyable concept (8/10)
Saw Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, the other day, and what a surprise it was, I was hoping it was going to be ok, but i really liked it. It wasn't brilliant but it had it's heart in the right place.
Directed by Paul Weitz (About a boy) and starring, John C Reilly (Criminal), Josh Hutcherson (Journey to the center of the earth), Chris Massoglia and Salma Hayek.
Adapted from the Darren Shan novels, (Darren Shan been the name of the main character) how close to the book the film is, I couldn't tell you, but it did make me want to read the books.
As for the film, I really enjoyed it, the cast was great, Reilly was really good, the two younger cast members did well also. The story was engaging if a little predicatable, but it was entertaining due to the performances and the script. My eldest also really liked it as well.
I just hope they continue with the next one.
Overall good script, good performances and an enjoyable concept (8/10)
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Trick r Treat (BD)
Hi,
On Halloween I sat down and watched the BD copy of Trick R Treat. One of my favourite films from this years Frightfest, I had had been looking forward to seeing this again, and the DVD was to be released just before Halloween, Perfect!
Except no sign of the Blu-Ray version, the US were getting one, why not the UK? After a little more digging I found that the disc would be region free, and would play over here! Brilliant, I ordered it from America.
It arrived 2 days before the 31st! Checked it would work – it did – Great!
Halloween, kids in bed and on with the film, my wife started to watch it then went to do something else – horror just isn’t her thing!
Anyway the film, I met Michael Dougherty at Frightfest for a brief moment, while he signed my book, he was thrilled it went down so well! Even John Landis liked it a lot!
And so he should be – I think it’s one of the best “true” Halloween films every made, most just take the name, but this film is about Halloween, about the history, about the things that come out to play on this one night. It’s not a scary film, I just found it very clever and a little twisted, but what I really liked was Sam Pumpkin, the spirit of Halloween. Dougherty has created a great little monster here and he uses it brilliantly throughout the film. He’s not chucky turning up every 15 minutes to kill some one, he get’s his own segment sure but he’s there to watch, to make sure the traditions are upheld, lanterns stay lit, kids get their candy and if you don’t like Halloween then he will make you pay.
The cast was very good, Cox (who was at frightfest even with a heavy cold) was great, Paquin (True Blood) is great as well, her story has a great twist. Dylan Baker (Spiderman) is superb as a killer; I really liked his story too!
The blu ray is great too look at the colours are superb throughout the film. The sound is excellent as well.
Overall – Film (9/10) – Picture (9/10) – Sound (9/10)
On Halloween I sat down and watched the BD copy of Trick R Treat. One of my favourite films from this years Frightfest, I had had been looking forward to seeing this again, and the DVD was to be released just before Halloween, Perfect!
Except no sign of the Blu-Ray version, the US were getting one, why not the UK? After a little more digging I found that the disc would be region free, and would play over here! Brilliant, I ordered it from America.
It arrived 2 days before the 31st! Checked it would work – it did – Great!
Halloween, kids in bed and on with the film, my wife started to watch it then went to do something else – horror just isn’t her thing!
Anyway the film, I met Michael Dougherty at Frightfest for a brief moment, while he signed my book, he was thrilled it went down so well! Even John Landis liked it a lot!
And so he should be – I think it’s one of the best “true” Halloween films every made, most just take the name, but this film is about Halloween, about the history, about the things that come out to play on this one night. It’s not a scary film, I just found it very clever and a little twisted, but what I really liked was Sam Pumpkin, the spirit of Halloween. Dougherty has created a great little monster here and he uses it brilliantly throughout the film. He’s not chucky turning up every 15 minutes to kill some one, he get’s his own segment sure but he’s there to watch, to make sure the traditions are upheld, lanterns stay lit, kids get their candy and if you don’t like Halloween then he will make you pay.
The cast was very good, Cox (who was at frightfest even with a heavy cold) was great, Paquin (True Blood) is great as well, her story has a great twist. Dylan Baker (Spiderman) is superb as a killer; I really liked his story too!
The blu ray is great too look at the colours are superb throughout the film. The sound is excellent as well.
Overall – Film (9/10) – Picture (9/10) – Sound (9/10)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Hi,
Last Thursday’s film was The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and a strange film it was too. Not in the case of Ledger passing away and the 3 stand in actors used to fill his role, but more in the mind of Gilliam himself.
Directed and written by Gilliam, starring the late Heath Ledger, with Depp, Law and Collin Farrell filling in when required. All bringing something different but at the same time wanting to mimic Ledger’s version of Tony. All did well but nothing outstanding.
The rest of the cast were superb though, Plummer as Parnassus was brilliant, and the young girl Lily Cole as Valentina was really good and Tom Waits as Mr Nick, good too.
But for me the story let the film down, maybe it’s a film I need to see again to see beyond the visually stunning ideas Gilliam put on the screen or maybe there’s not much beyond the visuals. I didn’t see it first time round and so walked away a little disappointed in the end.
I really think I need to watch it again.
Overall – (6/10), visually stunning, but poor storytelling left it lifeless.
Last Thursday’s film was The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and a strange film it was too. Not in the case of Ledger passing away and the 3 stand in actors used to fill his role, but more in the mind of Gilliam himself.
Directed and written by Gilliam, starring the late Heath Ledger, with Depp, Law and Collin Farrell filling in when required. All bringing something different but at the same time wanting to mimic Ledger’s version of Tony. All did well but nothing outstanding.
The rest of the cast were superb though, Plummer as Parnassus was brilliant, and the young girl Lily Cole as Valentina was really good and Tom Waits as Mr Nick, good too.
But for me the story let the film down, maybe it’s a film I need to see again to see beyond the visually stunning ideas Gilliam put on the screen or maybe there’s not much beyond the visuals. I didn’t see it first time round and so walked away a little disappointed in the end.
I really think I need to watch it again.
Overall – (6/10), visually stunning, but poor storytelling left it lifeless.
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