As a change of pace from movie reviews I thought I'd talk about something that I've meaning to address for a while, and that's the whole code wars thing - Aussie Rules vs Rugby League, or AFL vs NRL. Having lived in Victoria for 20 years I obviously grew up following the AFL, as many Victorians adopt it as their second religion (or, in many cases, their first) and it's almost impossible to escape. I always thought it was a great, exciting game, and to be honest never gave NRL much thought. However, upon moving to Queensland I found it was harder to follow the AFL, especially not having Foxtel at the time, and began to be inundated with pro Rugby League sentiment. Following this, I discovered the dislike and even outright hatred a lot of League fans had for my beloved sport. I found this kind of perplexing, as from my experiences in Victoria people there seem mostly fairly indifferent to League, and it was as if League fans somehow threatened by Aussie Rules.
Well, they have good reason to, as Aussie Rules is clearly the superior sport in every way, and I can only assume that seeing it on TV leads League to realise how many hours they have wasted watching such dribble, and I imagine this must be very unsettling. There are really only two criteria I can think of to judge the merit of a sport, how much skill is involved and how entertaining it is to watch. For the criteria regarding skill this one is obviously won by Aussie Rules, so much so that I don't really know what else to say. I challenge anyone who disagrees with me to watch a full game of both sports back to back and then honestly and without bias hold onto their claim. The second criteria regarding entertainment is much more subjective, however I will say that Aussie Rules is faster, there's much more going and more variety to the game, and as it does OBJECTIVELY require more skill, then I can't see how one could prefer to watch League. But whatever.
I think the easiest way for me to drive my point home would be to address every criticism I can think of that has been directed at Aussie Rules, so here it goes;
League players are so much more buff than Aussie Rules Players
Yeah, never mind the fact that Aussie Rules players are generally fitter, can jump higher, run faster, kick further, have to think more about their plays and get paid more. The fact that League players are "More buff" is way more awesome, man!
In Aussie Rules you get a point for missing
I've got to points to make about this one. First, you don't get a point for missing, you get a point for kicking a "Behind", which if you like is a secondary goal. If you missed completely you would get no score and would most likely have kicked the ball out of bounds on the full, turning it over to the opposition. Second, I don't know how many times I've been frustrated watching sports, say for example Soccer, where a team will work tirelessly to try and get a goal, and have several shots only to keep missing, sometimes only narrowly. I think a point for a behind is a meagre concession for the hard work of getting the ball in your forward line but being unable to convert.
Aussie Rules is so scrappy, you may as well just throw some chips to a group of seagulls and watch them fight over them
I'll make a small concession here, as there is a scrappy element to the game, especially when multiple people are converging around the ball. However it takes up only a small amount of game play, and EVERY sport without exception has their less attractive, boring elements. So it's only a minor concession. Besides, I'd much rather watch seagulls fight over chips than a bunch of lobotomised baboons run into a wall for 80 minutes any day of the week.
League is much faster paced than Aussie Rules
Nope.
Aussie Rules doesn't translate well onto television
I don't know what to say to this other than I just find it to be completely untrue, although I guess it's another statement grounded in subjectivity. I will say however that how well a sport translates onto television is no measure of how good the sport is - most sports were around well before television exited.
Aussie Rules isn't violent enough
This statement makes the presupposition that a sport needs to be violent, which is patently false given the large number of non contact sports. Although I will admit that it's a shame how much this aspect of the game has been toned down in recent years.
Aussie Rules is aerial Ping Pong
I'm not even sure if this is a criticism and it definitely makes absolutely no sense, but it gets stated so often that I thought I had to look at it. Ping pong, also known as Table Tennis, is a game played between either two or four people. They stand at opposite ends of a table with a net on it, and using miniature bat hit a ball back and forth to each other, with the aim being to hit the ball past your opponent, similar to the original game of Tennis. This, in no way whatsoever, mimics the game of Aussie Rules, which is played on a large oval where the aim is to kick or hand pass a ball forward to your team mate, avoiding the opposition players in the process. If the game being played was kick to kick, which you can often see being played by juveniles in parks on suburban streets, then MAYBE there is some vague similarity to be found. Anyone who refers to Aussie Rules as aerial Ping Pong is either a complete idiot or has never seen a game of Ping Pong.
AFL, more like GAYFL
Good one. Your lack of wit is only surpassed by your unoriginality and blatant homophobia.
Need I go one. No. Also, the sport is called Australian Rules Football (Aussie Rules for short), not AFL, you dumbasses.
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Rental - Remember Me
Two things to mention upfront about this movie. First, this is an above average chick flick that any male person can watch with his significant other in the confidence that they're watching at least a semi well made movie with adequate performances. Second, I'm sure a lot of people will be instantly turned off by this movie just because it has Robert Pattinson in it. If you belong in that camp you are, quite frankly, a moron. Open your mind just a smidgen and realise he's not the worst actor in the universe just because he was in Twilight. His performance in this is just fine.
This film appears to be essentially a romantic drama, with Pattinson falling for some chick who's name I can't be bothered looking up right now. But it actually goes deeper than that, as both of them are dealing with grief, and I think the central theme on display here is how families relate to on another following tragic events. The performances are all quite fine, and the two main leads have some good chemistry, and I cared about the characters so the film has to be considered a success in that respect. However, the story didn't really draw me in the way I would have liked it to, and there are a few awkward scenes weighed down by slightly clunky dialogue.
This movie had another point of interest for me in that it was directed by Allen Coulter, who I know from directing a number of episodes of The Sopranos, one of the best TV shows ever. He's also directed episodes for a number of other TV shows, however I think this is only his second feature film. He's brought a sort of semi understated style to this film, which I'm familiar with from and enjoyed in The Sopranos, however here I felt it possibly worked against the movie a little bit, failing to draw me in as I said above. Without giving too much away the ending is very unexpected, and I'm still not sure if I like it.
You certainly won't waste your time watching this film and it's worth a rental, just don't expect anything mindblowingly amazing and you wont be disappointed.
*** out of *****
This film appears to be essentially a romantic drama, with Pattinson falling for some chick who's name I can't be bothered looking up right now. But it actually goes deeper than that, as both of them are dealing with grief, and I think the central theme on display here is how families relate to on another following tragic events. The performances are all quite fine, and the two main leads have some good chemistry, and I cared about the characters so the film has to be considered a success in that respect. However, the story didn't really draw me in the way I would have liked it to, and there are a few awkward scenes weighed down by slightly clunky dialogue.
This movie had another point of interest for me in that it was directed by Allen Coulter, who I know from directing a number of episodes of The Sopranos, one of the best TV shows ever. He's also directed episodes for a number of other TV shows, however I think this is only his second feature film. He's brought a sort of semi understated style to this film, which I'm familiar with from and enjoyed in The Sopranos, however here I felt it possibly worked against the movie a little bit, failing to draw me in as I said above. Without giving too much away the ending is very unexpected, and I'm still not sure if I like it.
You certainly won't waste your time watching this film and it's worth a rental, just don't expect anything mindblowingly amazing and you wont be disappointed.
*** out of *****
Saturday, 25 June 2011
X-men: First Class & The Green Hornet
Man I'm getting slack with updating this thing, especially considering I saw both of these films over a week ago. So, that said, lets get straight into it;
X-men: First Class
Presuming all the X-men films are meant to be set in the same universe and follow the same canon, then we now have our fifth film in the series. In an unusual release format we've seen the original trilogy, followed by a prequel, followed by a prequel of a prequel. The first film was enjoyable fun, the second was a surprisingly better and deeper sequel, haven't seen the third, and the series defiantly went downhill with decent but unnecessarily convoluted Wolverine film. Fortunately, the series is now back on track with the best film in the series so far.
It starts off by laying the background for Eick Lehnsherr (Magneto) who, as a child sees his mother murdered in a Nazi concentration camp by another mutant named Sebastian Shaw whilst trying to get Erik to unleash his powers. Meanwhile, pre-teen Charles Xavier meets Raven (Mystique), and is relieved to find out he is not the only one with extraordinary abilities. Jump forward to almost 20 years later, Shaw and a group of other mutants are bent on mutant world domination through a careful plan of manipulating the worlds superpowers. Xavier is publishing a thesis on mutation, whilst Lehnsherr is tracking down Shaw to get his revenge. Xavier and Lehnsherr meet, and stat working together to stop Shaw. There's a whole bunch of other stuff going on too, but I think that's best left to the viewer to discover.
There's a lot to like about this movie. It tells a great story on an epic scale, but developing the two main characters from their childhood, and then showing them team together and learn from each other right up til the final battle, where, well I'm sure I'm not spoiling anything by saying they don't remain BFF's and live happily ever after. The film moves at a constant pace and theres some much happening and plenty of good action scenes, so there's no room for boredom. The usual X-men political themes and messages of accepting yourself and others for who they are are present, but I think they're looked at in a more poignant way than ever. I'm still waiting for a really awesome film to come out this year, and this one comes close to achieving that, however perhaps falls a little bit short due to the limitations of the genre. Still, it's my favourite film of 2011 so far.
**** out of *****
Rental - The Green Hornet
Before I say anything else I guess I need to mention that I'm not familiar with the Green Hornet character in anyway. I've never seen any movie, TV show or read any comic book featuring the character. Therefore, there's no nostalgia involved for me in watching this film, nor can I say how faithful the film is to the source material. So here we go.
The movie's about Britt Reid (Seth Rogan), who is a constant embarrassment to his father, a wealthy media... errr.... guy. When Britt's father dies, Britt inherits the fortune, and then for some reason decides to start fighting crime with Kato, a martial arts expert and his dad's mechanic. Their motivations escape me completely, however never mind that as they drive some TOTALLY BAD ASS cars in the process, and that's more important than storytelling, right?
The movie starts out pretty badly, with some cheesy soundtrack music, poor dialogue and boring action sequences that make it feel like a straight to DVD film rather than one that got an actual theatrical release. It's only really at the end where you're actually positioned to give a crap about what's going on, with a plot twist giving some depth to the character of the protagonist, and an over the top finale being a bit of fun. But it's a case of too little too late. It's hard to believe that the same guy who directed the emotional and visual roller coaster Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind directed this tosh.
**1/2 out of *****
X-men: First Class
Presuming all the X-men films are meant to be set in the same universe and follow the same canon, then we now have our fifth film in the series. In an unusual release format we've seen the original trilogy, followed by a prequel, followed by a prequel of a prequel. The first film was enjoyable fun, the second was a surprisingly better and deeper sequel, haven't seen the third, and the series defiantly went downhill with decent but unnecessarily convoluted Wolverine film. Fortunately, the series is now back on track with the best film in the series so far.
It starts off by laying the background for Eick Lehnsherr (Magneto) who, as a child sees his mother murdered in a Nazi concentration camp by another mutant named Sebastian Shaw whilst trying to get Erik to unleash his powers. Meanwhile, pre-teen Charles Xavier meets Raven (Mystique), and is relieved to find out he is not the only one with extraordinary abilities. Jump forward to almost 20 years later, Shaw and a group of other mutants are bent on mutant world domination through a careful plan of manipulating the worlds superpowers. Xavier is publishing a thesis on mutation, whilst Lehnsherr is tracking down Shaw to get his revenge. Xavier and Lehnsherr meet, and stat working together to stop Shaw. There's a whole bunch of other stuff going on too, but I think that's best left to the viewer to discover.
There's a lot to like about this movie. It tells a great story on an epic scale, but developing the two main characters from their childhood, and then showing them team together and learn from each other right up til the final battle, where, well I'm sure I'm not spoiling anything by saying they don't remain BFF's and live happily ever after. The film moves at a constant pace and theres some much happening and plenty of good action scenes, so there's no room for boredom. The usual X-men political themes and messages of accepting yourself and others for who they are are present, but I think they're looked at in a more poignant way than ever. I'm still waiting for a really awesome film to come out this year, and this one comes close to achieving that, however perhaps falls a little bit short due to the limitations of the genre. Still, it's my favourite film of 2011 so far.
**** out of *****
Rental - The Green Hornet
Before I say anything else I guess I need to mention that I'm not familiar with the Green Hornet character in anyway. I've never seen any movie, TV show or read any comic book featuring the character. Therefore, there's no nostalgia involved for me in watching this film, nor can I say how faithful the film is to the source material. So here we go.
The movie's about Britt Reid (Seth Rogan), who is a constant embarrassment to his father, a wealthy media... errr.... guy. When Britt's father dies, Britt inherits the fortune, and then for some reason decides to start fighting crime with Kato, a martial arts expert and his dad's mechanic. Their motivations escape me completely, however never mind that as they drive some TOTALLY BAD ASS cars in the process, and that's more important than storytelling, right?
The movie starts out pretty badly, with some cheesy soundtrack music, poor dialogue and boring action sequences that make it feel like a straight to DVD film rather than one that got an actual theatrical release. It's only really at the end where you're actually positioned to give a crap about what's going on, with a plot twist giving some depth to the character of the protagonist, and an over the top finale being a bit of fun. But it's a case of too little too late. It's hard to believe that the same guy who directed the emotional and visual roller coaster Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind directed this tosh.
**1/2 out of *****
Sunday, 12 June 2011
DOUBLE FEATURE
I went and saw the following two movies within 24 hours of each other, so they may as well have been a double feature anyway. One was quite good. The other not so much...
Super 8
The new film from JJ Abrams (who, of course, was the creative force behind Lost), this feels like a total homage to 80's sci-fi and coming of age films. I've heard it described as a cross between Alien and ET, I'd throw Stand By Me into that equation as well. Set in 1979, it's basically about a bunch of young friends in a small town who decide to make a movie, and one night while filming a scene they witness a train crash. From there a whole bunch of weird stuff stats happening, with suitable doses of mystery, intrigue and suspense.
Coupled with the sci-fi thriller element of the film is the coming of age story of the friends who become caught up in the weird going ons, and the heart of the story (as far as I'm concerned anyway) is the friendship/romance between central protagonist Joe and Elle Fanning's character Alice. There is a quote from one of the characters early in the film that spells out in very simple terms why this film works and why I get frustrated with so many other sci-fi/action films. Whilst going about making their film, Joe's friend who is directing the film makes a comment something along the lines of "It doesn't feel like a story yet. When we give the main character a wife it will make people care about what happens because of their relationship." It's not quoted verbatim but you get the idea. We care about the predicament the characters are in simply because we care about the characters, and about tthe relationship at the heart of the film. For those people who still think The Expendables was a good movie, there's your answer right there as to why that movie sucked (not the only reason though, obviously). But anyway.
There are a surprising amount of themes on display in this movie; dealing with grief, growing up in a small town, bravery, the impact of father's behaviour on their children, and the treatment of people or things that you don't understand (as seen in the film's alien.) The problem is that it only really skims the surface of all these ideas, and doesn't delve deep enough to keep this viewer satisfied. Having said that, all the elements of this film combine nicely to make an overall enjoyable viewing experience, although it falls short of being an amazing one.
***1/2 out of *****
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Oh dear. Here we have what started as an immensely popular and respected family adventure movie that has now degenerated into a shameless attempt to cash in on the franchise with one of the most pointless, redundant sequel I've seen for a while. I wasn't planning on seeing this one after reading the bad reviews, however I was invited out with a group from work and figured why not. Why not indeed.
This film sees Blackbeard, the British Navy and the Spanish all on a quest to find the fountain of youth? Why? Because they can I guess. Jack Sparrow joins Blackbeard's crew, Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) joins the British, whilst the British are hardly seen. Kiera Knightly and Orlando Bloom are gone from this film, and although they played the most annoying characters in the original trilogy this film is somehow more annoying without them. Penelope Cruz joins the cast as Angelica, Sparrows former lover, and despite the writers best efforts to make their relationship a point of interest it fails miserably.
In stark contrast to Super 8, I was left wondering why I should care about anything that's going on. There's no warmth or depth to any of the characters or relationships, and there appears to be nothing at stake should they fail to find the fountain of youth. The only spark of humanity in the film is found in the relationship between a missionary on Blackbeard's crew and a mermaid (yep). There are plenty of pointless action scenes to stop you from falling asleep (Sparrow even gives a monologue before the final fight about how pointless it would be for them to all become involved - but they do anyway), and I'm sure a lot of people will argue that this film is just a bit of harmless fun. But without being set up to give a crap about anything that's happening I don't think that argument is sufficient.
** out of *****
Super 8
The new film from JJ Abrams (who, of course, was the creative force behind Lost), this feels like a total homage to 80's sci-fi and coming of age films. I've heard it described as a cross between Alien and ET, I'd throw Stand By Me into that equation as well. Set in 1979, it's basically about a bunch of young friends in a small town who decide to make a movie, and one night while filming a scene they witness a train crash. From there a whole bunch of weird stuff stats happening, with suitable doses of mystery, intrigue and suspense.
Coupled with the sci-fi thriller element of the film is the coming of age story of the friends who become caught up in the weird going ons, and the heart of the story (as far as I'm concerned anyway) is the friendship/romance between central protagonist Joe and Elle Fanning's character Alice. There is a quote from one of the characters early in the film that spells out in very simple terms why this film works and why I get frustrated with so many other sci-fi/action films. Whilst going about making their film, Joe's friend who is directing the film makes a comment something along the lines of "It doesn't feel like a story yet. When we give the main character a wife it will make people care about what happens because of their relationship." It's not quoted verbatim but you get the idea. We care about the predicament the characters are in simply because we care about the characters, and about tthe relationship at the heart of the film. For those people who still think The Expendables was a good movie, there's your answer right there as to why that movie sucked (not the only reason though, obviously). But anyway.
There are a surprising amount of themes on display in this movie; dealing with grief, growing up in a small town, bravery, the impact of father's behaviour on their children, and the treatment of people or things that you don't understand (as seen in the film's alien.) The problem is that it only really skims the surface of all these ideas, and doesn't delve deep enough to keep this viewer satisfied. Having said that, all the elements of this film combine nicely to make an overall enjoyable viewing experience, although it falls short of being an amazing one.
***1/2 out of *****
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Oh dear. Here we have what started as an immensely popular and respected family adventure movie that has now degenerated into a shameless attempt to cash in on the franchise with one of the most pointless, redundant sequel I've seen for a while. I wasn't planning on seeing this one after reading the bad reviews, however I was invited out with a group from work and figured why not. Why not indeed.
This film sees Blackbeard, the British Navy and the Spanish all on a quest to find the fountain of youth? Why? Because they can I guess. Jack Sparrow joins Blackbeard's crew, Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) joins the British, whilst the British are hardly seen. Kiera Knightly and Orlando Bloom are gone from this film, and although they played the most annoying characters in the original trilogy this film is somehow more annoying without them. Penelope Cruz joins the cast as Angelica, Sparrows former lover, and despite the writers best efforts to make their relationship a point of interest it fails miserably.
In stark contrast to Super 8, I was left wondering why I should care about anything that's going on. There's no warmth or depth to any of the characters or relationships, and there appears to be nothing at stake should they fail to find the fountain of youth. The only spark of humanity in the film is found in the relationship between a missionary on Blackbeard's crew and a mermaid (yep). There are plenty of pointless action scenes to stop you from falling asleep (Sparrow even gives a monologue before the final fight about how pointless it would be for them to all become involved - but they do anyway), and I'm sure a lot of people will argue that this film is just a bit of harmless fun. But without being set up to give a crap about anything that's happening I don't think that argument is sufficient.
** out of *****
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
The Hangover: Part II
When I first saw that this movie was coming out my initial reaction was "Does The Hangover really need a sequel?" As much as I enjoyed the first one (even if it was a bit overrated) I figured that unless they took the characters and placed them in a completely different situation the film would be in danger of being to similar to the original. However, being completely bored last Friday night I found myself sitting in the late session (which was surprisingly busy) up the back waiting to see what they had to offer.
And, you know what, it was pretty much a carbon copy of the original, only this time a different guy is getting married, the soon to be son in law goes missing, and it's set in Bangkok not Vegas. What felt like a fresh and interesting formula the first time (even though the whole bucks party gone wrong concept has been done before) just felt like a rehash this time.
Like the first one there were admittedly quite a few laugh out loud moments, although some jokes missed the mark, and some pushed the bar a bit too far (jokes involving Thai ladyboys sound like any ones idea of a good laugh?) For a boring Friday night this was a bit of fun, although it's more along the lines of "Wait for DVD and veg out at home" Friday night fun that "Sit in a cinema full of middle aged couples who find the aforementioned jokes funny" Friday night fun. If there's a Hangover 3 I expect I'll be taking my own advice here.
*** out of *****
Also, even though I watched Winters Bone and said I'd write about it, I decided not to as a I wasn't really in the right mood while watching it, and therefore wouldn't be doing it any justice. I'll probably rent it out again some day and give it my full attention.
And, you know what, it was pretty much a carbon copy of the original, only this time a different guy is getting married, the soon to be son in law goes missing, and it's set in Bangkok not Vegas. What felt like a fresh and interesting formula the first time (even though the whole bucks party gone wrong concept has been done before) just felt like a rehash this time.
Like the first one there were admittedly quite a few laugh out loud moments, although some jokes missed the mark, and some pushed the bar a bit too far (jokes involving Thai ladyboys sound like any ones idea of a good laugh?) For a boring Friday night this was a bit of fun, although it's more along the lines of "Wait for DVD and veg out at home" Friday night fun that "Sit in a cinema full of middle aged couples who find the aforementioned jokes funny" Friday night fun. If there's a Hangover 3 I expect I'll be taking my own advice here.
*** out of *****
Also, even though I watched Winters Bone and said I'd write about it, I decided not to as a I wasn't really in the right mood while watching it, and therefore wouldn't be doing it any justice. I'll probably rent it out again some day and give it my full attention.
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Source Code & Water for Elephants
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.
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, 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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