Filed under Reviews …

Apr 17 2012
4 Comments
Action, Comedy, Drama, Movies, Reviews

Three Surprises and Battleship

I’ve seen four movies over the last four weeks. Three of them surprised me. One of them was Battleship.

21 JUMP STREET

21 Jump Street

Level of Surprise: Quite Pleasant

I was expecting very little of this, having never seen the TV show, or having never liked Jonah Hill. But this was quite a pleasant surprise. The script cleverly plays with high school genre conventions in a fish out of water way. Hill and Tatum are the best buddy cop duo I’ve seen in a long time – Hill proving there’s more to his comedic skills than loud-mouth swearing and Tatum proving to all his detractors that he is more than just rom-com eye candy. He’s a funny guy. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Mar 02 2012
Leave a comment
Movies, Reviews, The 59 Sci-Fi Movie Challenge

The 59 Sci Fi Challenge: #3 Gattaca (1997)

Dave is partaking in a death-defying one man high-stakes challenge that involves him watching movies. This is it.

Gattaca Ethan Hawke Andrew Niccol Uma Therman Jude Law

1997 features several times on the 101 sci fi films list, which statistically makes it one of the book’s favourite years for scifi. Starship Troopers, Open Your Eyes, Men in Black and The Fifth Element I had all seen, but one film of 1997 has eluded me for the last 15 years (yes, 15 years, I know, I remember the Spice Girls as if it were yesterday aswell).

Gattaca, for those who don’t know, is set in a dystopian (some might say utopian) future ruled by gene manipulation. Genetic advances have allowed for babies to be born free of disease, defects or even negative personality traits. DNA profiling is widespread, allowing potential employers or law enforcement to see every detail of your physical and mental performance. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Feb 27 2012
5 Comments
Comedy, Drama, Movies, Oscars, Reviews

The Artist: (All the good silent puns have been used already)

The Artist is an easy film to like. It’s funny, charming, endearing and simple. And it just won most of the good Oscars. What the Academy likes is rarely what I like, but this is an exception.

It’s easy for a film to be swallowed up by its own hype and awards-praise and this can often result in disappointed viewings from those expecting one of the greatest films of all time. The Artist is not one of the greatest films of all time, but it is a fun and light-hearted tribute to an era of cinema we don’t talk about much (I crack myself up). It’s a fine accomplishment and deserves all the attention its getting, whether or not it was the best film of 2011. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Feb 22 2012
4 Comments
Drama, Movies, Oscars, Reviews

The Descendants: Clooney, cousins and comas

The Descendants George Clooney

Peek-a-Cloon!

Alexander Payne has quite a distinct directorial and writing style. His characters feel real, his films look earthly and his dialogue is touching and humorous. The Descendants ticks all those boxes nicely and as long as you’re not dead inside (or in a coma – eh? Eh?) it should evoke some sort of emotional response. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , ,
Feb 16 2012
3 Comments
Drama, Movies, Reviews, The 59 Sci-Fi Movie Challenge

The 59 Sci-Fi Challenge: #2 Slaughterhouse Five (1972)

Dave is undertaking a challenge. This is it.

Slaughterhouse Billy Pilgrim Tralfamadore Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse Five is an absolute mindfuck of a film. I still don’t think I quite understood what it was all about, but I’ll do my best to make sense of it.

Slaughterhouse Five opens on Billy Pilgrim (played really strangely and brilliantly by Michael Sacks, who I had never heard of either), typing a letter to the editor of a magazine. We see as he types that he has a problem: he is unintentionally time-travelling throughout moments in his life, past, present and future. From there, the disjointed narrative structure kicks in and we start to be propelled (often very suddenly and unexpectedly) through various points in Billy’s life, primarily his time in WWII Germany and post-war America. It’s a fascinating and useful device, allowing for random moments from Billy’s future and past to deepen our understanding of him as a character. It allows for some pretty nice fades and scene juxtapositions, but on the downside can feel a bit disorienting at times. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , ,
Feb 13 2012
1 Comment
Action, Movies, Reviews

Man on a Ledge: Cryptic Title of the Year

Man on a Ledge Sam Worthington Elizabeth Banks Ed Harris Jamie Bell

My favourite part of my Man on a Ledge experience was that I knew absolutely nothing about the film except that Sam Worthington would be on a ledge. In this age of the overly-informed, it feels like every movie we see we know the story in advance, we know the cast, we’ve seen the plot outline in the trailer and we can usually figure out the rest. For the most part, I’ve stopped reading film news and I’ve stopped watching trailers, and it’s thanks to this that a movie like Man on a Ledge can reach my eyes completely free of expectation or even awareness. This can definitely make for a more interesting cinema experience as the plot unravels to genuine surprise. I haven’t seen the trailer for this, but I’d imagine the first half of the movie is in there. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , ,
Feb 07 2012
6 Comments
Drama, Movies, Oscars, Reviews

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Candlestick Maker Not Included

Spoiler Alert: There’s no tinkers or tailors in this movie.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a film about lies. It is an incredibly slow, subtle and grim depiction of cold-war paranoia and mistrust, told from the perspective of a veteran spy investigating the very people he should trust. It’s very British and very old-fashioned, but both lend themselves perfectly to the 60s setting and the classic feel.

Oldman’s performance is so quiet that you could miss it if you blinked. Besides a standout scene in which he describes a meeting with the enemy, his performance is reserved and powerful, expressing a life-long weariness and a stubborn determination through Smiley’s slow, deliberate dialogue. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Jan 31 2012
9 Comments
Movies, Reviews, The 59 Sci-Fi Movie Challenge

The 59 Sci-fi Challenge: #1 Akira (1988)

Akira movie 1988

See here for full details on the 59 sci-fi movie challenge.

So I finally saw Akira. It’s quite a strange, cool, trippy sci-fi movie.

It cleverly tackles subjects like the corruption of power and the nature of the universe and evolution effortlessly, while throwing up colourful and lasting images and characters. The animation is sublime and looked great with its bluray makeover, the voice-acting is passionate and the score is weirdly and unsettlingly experimental in a way that perfectly compliments the mad visuals.

The setting of New Tokyo, built from the ashes of World War III, is beautifully realised and conveys a heavy sense of dread, that probably rang even truer for this film’s post-cold war release. The Han Solo of the piece, Kaneda, has more than enough charm and cool and is the perfect foil to the maligned Tetsuo, whose fall from grace is charted roughly a million times better in two hours than, say, Anakin Skywalker’s six-hour long laugh-fest of a fall. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , ,
Jan 27 2012
4 Comments
Movies, Oscars, Reviews

Hugo: Not really for kids, is it?

Hugo

This would be a great time for a hilarious clock-pun

A lot has been made of Marty Scoozazzy’s decision to turn his back on hardcore violence and embrace the kiddies (when you put it like that, it sounds a bit sinister), with critics and movie peers heaping on the praise.

Scoozazzy certainly proves himself as versatile, tackling the material with spades of enthusiasm and gorgeous visual flair. Paris is fawned over in a way that would impress Woody Allen and the setting of the train station is created with clockwork precision (see what i did there?) From the pastry shop owner’s dog to the squeak of the inspector’s fake leg to Hugo’s intimate knowledge of the crawlspaces and crannies, Scoozazzy establishes a definite sense of familiar space and setting. It feels like a thriving, bustling, ominous place to live. Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , ,
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 110 other followers