Blast. I said a week ago I'd write "definitely" write something about Source Code if I saw it, and here I am a week later having written nothing. Poor effort. I've got two to write about now.
Source Code
I've seen some people throwing around the idea that Source Code is this years Inception, seeing as it's a "smart" sci-fi film, or whatever. I'd call it a cross between Inception, Groundhog Day, and some spy mystery film (I can't think of a good film as an example of that genre). The basic premises of this film is that there has been a terrorist attack against a train in Chicago, and there a fears of further attacks. The powers that be in America have developed a program that allows someone to connect with the brain patterns of one of the passengers for the last eight minutes of his life, and effectively live as him and experience everything on the train in an attempt to discover who the bomber is. The subject is able to live the same 8 minutes over and over again until the truth is discovered, hence the Groundhog Day element An army helicopter pilot named Colter Stevens, played by Jake Gyellenhaal, is the subject of this exercise, and takes of the body of deceased teacher Sean Fentress.
The audience are slowly drip fed new information regarding this whole operation, and needless to say there are loads of plot twist and red herrings, and to go much further into the plot would be to spoil it. It's fair to say that this film moves at a million miles an hour, and the edge of your seat suspense hardly lets up for a moment. But what is also so good about this movie is watching the character of Colter develop as he comes to grips with his situation, interacts with passenger Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan), and deals with the regrets of the state he left his relationship with his father in before he left to serve his country.
As the thrill die down toward the end of the film, the tone shifts from action suspense to pathos quite brilliantly, and starts to reflect on the nature of life and death. However, without giving anything away, just when the film feels like it has the perfect ending, it goes for another five minutes and ends.... well... I have to say that the ending really annoyed me, and I've had to drop off half a star because of it.I can't really fault the film up to this point, and I thought this was overall a great film. I just don't know why they insisted on such an insipid ending.
**** out of *****
Water for Elephants
Hmmmm. Mixed feelings about this one. It's about Robert Pattinson's character, who runs away from home and joins the circus (yah rly) after his parents die in car crash, and he falls in love with Reece Witherspoon's character. Except she's married to Christoph Waltz's nutbag character. And yeah, there's an elephant.
On the one hand it's a very technically competent attempt at making an old fashioned style film, and reminds me of modern films such as Forrest Gump, The Green Mile, Big Fish and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. On the other hand while the imagination and characters in those films almost lept off the screen, this one just seems to plod along in a fairly safe and methodical, and lacks that special something to really hook you in. The characters for the most part aren't overly interesting, and the relationship between Pattinson and Witherspoons' characters just doesn't make you care. Whether this is due to a lack of chemistry or something else entirely I'm not sure.
The main driving point of the film actually seems to be the relationship between the central cast and the elephant, and that component does raise the film above mediocrity. Also, Christoph Waltz give a pretty great performance. I'd say this one fits nicely into the "Wait for DVD" category.
*** out of *****
Next review to come will be the rental "Winters Bone." See ya later.
Thursday 19 May 2011
Thursday 12 May 2011
Multiple Reviews
I've fallen way behind with my goal to write a review of every new film I see for the first time, So I've got a few to do at once. I guess they'll be fairly short as they're not as fresh in my mind as they should be
Rental - Cemetery Junction
Being a big fan of Ricky Gervais I'd wanted to watch this for a while after first seeing it at the video shop, but it took me a few months to actually rent it out. It's only Gervais' second attempt at writing/directing a film after the decent but somewhat disappointing The Invention of Lying. While Gervais wrote and directed that film with some other guy, he shared writing and directing credits on Cemetery Junction with his usual writing partner, Stephen Merchant, so I was almost certain it would be better and more true to his usual style.
The main difference between the two films is probably that while Invention of Lying was a comedy with a pretty ridiculous premises, Cemetery Junction is a much more serious coming of age film, a dramadey if you like. It's about three friends, Freddie, Bruce and Snork, who are all young and stuck in the dead end town of Cemetery Junction. Freddie is determined not to follow in the footpaths of his blue collar father (played by Gervais who is surprisingly only playing a supporting character), Bruce appears fairly apathetic about where his life is going (despite his protests otherwise) and blames his dad for his mum leaving, and snork is basically the loser/sidekick/comic relief character. Freddie ends up falling in love with Julie, which leaves him with some hard decisions about where he's going to take his life.
Although the themes aren't exactly original (the movie reminds me a bit of The Graduate amongst others), I really cared about the journey they went on, and the move is full of the usual Gervais humor. The cinematography is beautiful and some really good selections were made for the soundtrack (I loved the choice of Bowie near the end). Well worth watching.
***1/2 out of *****
Thor
And the summer block busters have arrive (even though it's not summer yet and they're actually the winter blockbusters in Australia.) This is the continuation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe series, which started with Iron Man, continued with The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2, and will continue after Thor with the Captain America and Avengers films, and probably others as well.
Not being a reader of Marvel comics puts me in the fortunate position to judge these movies objectively, and without the "They changed the character's personalities and motives, and they messed with the continuity THIS REALLY ISN'T LIKE THE COMIC BOOK AT ALL AGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" attitude that you get from the comic book crowd. Fidelity to the source material should never be taken into consideration when judging the quality of a film. Anyway, the back story at the start of this film explains that Thor and his other buddies who reside in Asgard are actually just extra powerful beings from another dimension who were worshiped as deities by the vikings because they didn't know otherwise. Of course. The Asgardians are at war with the Frost Giants, and after Thor tries to challenge them against his father Odin's will he is exiled to Earth for his arrogant insubordination, and the fish out of water storyline begins.
The scenes in Asgard quite visually impressive in 3D, and there's plenty of action to keep the movie exiting. While I do enjoy these fish out of water story lines the movie was at it's strongest whist delivering the action scenes. Thor's transformation from arrogant jerk to compassionate comes about through his relationship with Natalie Portman's character, and I don't think this element of the film was handled overly well. Also, while Chris Hemsworth is competent as Thor, he doesn't have the charisma as Robert Downy Jr as Iron Man or the serious character study approach the Edward Norton brought to Hulk (although this obviously has a lot do with the script as well.) Overall though, this is a good action packed addition to to the Marvel Cinematic storyline whatever it's called, and is worth seeing at the cinema if only because it won't be as visually impressive on DVD.
***1/2 out of *****
Rental - Monsters
This one got some critical attention for being a quality low budget film whilst at the cinemas in 2010 although I missed it at the time. The basic idea of the film is that the northern part of Mexico has been invaded by aliens, and is now an "Infected Zone" or something like that, and the male lead, Andrew, is sent by his boss to pick up the female lead, his daughter Samantha who is stuck in Mexico and to bring her back to the USA. Considering the critical acclaim I expected more from this move. As a sci-fi thriller there's not enough action or suspense. As a romance story/character study not enough time is devoted to making us care about the relationship, and the character of Andrew is fleshed out more than Samantha. And as a political metaphor the movie feels confused and makes no strong comment on anything. However when all of these elements are taken together, and coupled with the fact that the film is a pretty original idea and is quite pretty to look at, it makes for overall fairly enjoyable viewing.
*** out of *****
Paul
This is a movie about a foul mouthed alien voiced by Seth Rogan, and that should be a strong indication as to whether you will enjoy this move or not, and I loved it. Written by and starring Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, I've enjoyed their previous work together (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) and this one is no less hilarious. A homage to everything nerdy, including a sci-fi theme and nerdy main characters, numerous quotes and references to sci-fi films, scenes at Comic Con and, errr, nerdy cameos (I can't think of a better expression at 1.30am). There are plenty of digs at Christianity, because of couse all Christians are unintelligent, uneducated backward hicks who need smug, enlightened comedians to point out their stupidity. I find this a bit off putting, although some of the digs are admittedly pretty funny. I don't have much more to say about this move, other than it's hilarious. See it while it's still at the cinemas.
**** out of *****
Rental - Life As We Know It
Just watched this one, so it's still fairly fresh in my mind unlike the others. It was picked out by the wife, and I agreed to watch it as I think it's fair to give any movie a chance, no matter how bad it looks. This one is a romantic comedy, so of course it has Katherine Heigl in it. Josh Duhamel plays the male lead. They both meet through mutual friends who think they might hit it off, however instantly dislike each. However, when their mutual friends die they leave custody of their child to both of them jointly, and the rest of the film writes itself, as they move into the late couples house to raise the child
The premises of the movie is pretty hard to believe, however after starting slowly you do begin to care about the couple, and Heigl and Duhamel have pretty good chemistry together (unlike another Heigl rom-com, The Ugly Truth, where she had zero chemistry with Gerard Butler.) Also, amongst all of the gay jokes, stoner jokes, baby poop and vomit jokes there is some legitimate humor to be found.
However, there are formulaic and cliched elements aplenty on show here, and at the end of the day this is just another standard rom-com churned out by the sausage factory. It's not an especially bad one, but it's not an especially gone one either. If you can't get enough of the basic romantic comedy formula you're sure to this enjoy this though.
**1/2 out of *****
That's it for now, I'm going to bed. I plan on seeing Source Code today, and if I do I'll defiantly write something about it.
Rental - Cemetery Junction
Being a big fan of Ricky Gervais I'd wanted to watch this for a while after first seeing it at the video shop, but it took me a few months to actually rent it out. It's only Gervais' second attempt at writing/directing a film after the decent but somewhat disappointing The Invention of Lying. While Gervais wrote and directed that film with some other guy, he shared writing and directing credits on Cemetery Junction with his usual writing partner, Stephen Merchant, so I was almost certain it would be better and more true to his usual style.
The main difference between the two films is probably that while Invention of Lying was a comedy with a pretty ridiculous premises, Cemetery Junction is a much more serious coming of age film, a dramadey if you like. It's about three friends, Freddie, Bruce and Snork, who are all young and stuck in the dead end town of Cemetery Junction. Freddie is determined not to follow in the footpaths of his blue collar father (played by Gervais who is surprisingly only playing a supporting character), Bruce appears fairly apathetic about where his life is going (despite his protests otherwise) and blames his dad for his mum leaving, and snork is basically the loser/sidekick/comic relief character. Freddie ends up falling in love with Julie, which leaves him with some hard decisions about where he's going to take his life.
Although the themes aren't exactly original (the movie reminds me a bit of The Graduate amongst others), I really cared about the journey they went on, and the move is full of the usual Gervais humor. The cinematography is beautiful and some really good selections were made for the soundtrack (I loved the choice of Bowie near the end). Well worth watching.
***1/2 out of *****
Thor
And the summer block busters have arrive (even though it's not summer yet and they're actually the winter blockbusters in Australia.) This is the continuation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe series, which started with Iron Man, continued with The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2, and will continue after Thor with the Captain America and Avengers films, and probably others as well.
Not being a reader of Marvel comics puts me in the fortunate position to judge these movies objectively, and without the "They changed the character's personalities and motives, and they messed with the continuity THIS REALLY ISN'T LIKE THE COMIC BOOK AT ALL AGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" attitude that you get from the comic book crowd. Fidelity to the source material should never be taken into consideration when judging the quality of a film. Anyway, the back story at the start of this film explains that Thor and his other buddies who reside in Asgard are actually just extra powerful beings from another dimension who were worshiped as deities by the vikings because they didn't know otherwise. Of course. The Asgardians are at war with the Frost Giants, and after Thor tries to challenge them against his father Odin's will he is exiled to Earth for his arrogant insubordination, and the fish out of water storyline begins.
The scenes in Asgard quite visually impressive in 3D, and there's plenty of action to keep the movie exiting. While I do enjoy these fish out of water story lines the movie was at it's strongest whist delivering the action scenes. Thor's transformation from arrogant jerk to compassionate comes about through his relationship with Natalie Portman's character, and I don't think this element of the film was handled overly well. Also, while Chris Hemsworth is competent as Thor, he doesn't have the charisma as Robert Downy Jr as Iron Man or the serious character study approach the Edward Norton brought to Hulk (although this obviously has a lot do with the script as well.) Overall though, this is a good action packed addition to to the Marvel Cinematic storyline whatever it's called, and is worth seeing at the cinema if only because it won't be as visually impressive on DVD.
***1/2 out of *****
Rental - Monsters
This one got some critical attention for being a quality low budget film whilst at the cinemas in 2010 although I missed it at the time. The basic idea of the film is that the northern part of Mexico has been invaded by aliens, and is now an "Infected Zone" or something like that, and the male lead, Andrew, is sent by his boss to pick up the female lead, his daughter Samantha who is stuck in Mexico and to bring her back to the USA. Considering the critical acclaim I expected more from this move. As a sci-fi thriller there's not enough action or suspense. As a romance story/character study not enough time is devoted to making us care about the relationship, and the character of Andrew is fleshed out more than Samantha. And as a political metaphor the movie feels confused and makes no strong comment on anything. However when all of these elements are taken together, and coupled with the fact that the film is a pretty original idea and is quite pretty to look at, it makes for overall fairly enjoyable viewing.
*** out of *****
Paul
This is a movie about a foul mouthed alien voiced by Seth Rogan, and that should be a strong indication as to whether you will enjoy this move or not, and I loved it. Written by and starring Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, I've enjoyed their previous work together (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) and this one is no less hilarious. A homage to everything nerdy, including a sci-fi theme and nerdy main characters, numerous quotes and references to sci-fi films, scenes at Comic Con and, errr, nerdy cameos (I can't think of a better expression at 1.30am). There are plenty of digs at Christianity, because of couse all Christians are unintelligent, uneducated backward hicks who need smug, enlightened comedians to point out their stupidity. I find this a bit off putting, although some of the digs are admittedly pretty funny. I don't have much more to say about this move, other than it's hilarious. See it while it's still at the cinemas.
**** out of *****
Rental - Life As We Know It
Just watched this one, so it's still fairly fresh in my mind unlike the others. It was picked out by the wife, and I agreed to watch it as I think it's fair to give any movie a chance, no matter how bad it looks. This one is a romantic comedy, so of course it has Katherine Heigl in it. Josh Duhamel plays the male lead. They both meet through mutual friends who think they might hit it off, however instantly dislike each. However, when their mutual friends die they leave custody of their child to both of them jointly, and the rest of the film writes itself, as they move into the late couples house to raise the child
The premises of the movie is pretty hard to believe, however after starting slowly you do begin to care about the couple, and Heigl and Duhamel have pretty good chemistry together (unlike another Heigl rom-com, The Ugly Truth, where she had zero chemistry with Gerard Butler.) Also, amongst all of the gay jokes, stoner jokes, baby poop and vomit jokes there is some legitimate humor to be found.
However, there are formulaic and cliched elements aplenty on show here, and at the end of the day this is just another standard rom-com churned out by the sausage factory. It's not an especially bad one, but it's not an especially gone one either. If you can't get enough of the basic romantic comedy formula you're sure to this enjoy this though.
**1/2 out of *****
That's it for now, I'm going to bed. I plan on seeing Source Code today, and if I do I'll defiantly write something about it.
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