Category: Review

Four Film Tuesday

Despite being loaded with cold (by which I mean, being male, that I was DYING) I made it to the cinema to catch four films today: A Single Man, Battle for Terra 3D, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and Valentine’s Day.

A Single Man

Plot-in-a-nutshell: A day in the life of a gay man in the 60’s who’s lover died recently.

Beautifully directed. Artfully shot. Emotionally acted. Utterly boring.

Obvious OSCAR nomination material due to the subject matter and poncy direction, but incredibly dull and boring. To its credit, I can’t believe that this is the same Colin Firth who was in the atrocious St Trinian’s films. OK, this film’s still not exactly great but at least it’s not trash.

Battle for Terra (3D)

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Humanity invades a peace-loving alien world.

I’d not actually heard of this film other than in the cinema listings so I wasn’t expecting much. How wrong I was. This is not the kind of fare one automatically thinks of when you see the words “cartoon” and “computer generated”. Think more The Last Starfighter than Wall-E. I’d go so far as to say it’s not really a kids’ film so much as a young adults’.

First up, there’s no real comedy in it. Neither are their a multitude of background jokes and references. Cute characters or sidekicks? None. OK, so there’s a robot thingy but it’s hardly a comedy character.

It’s hardly original fare. Part of the plot and ideas can be likened to sources such as Avatar, Battlestar Galactica (the way the human ships launch), Planet 51, Independence Day (the ending) and countless others. However, it is so well packaged that it stands very well in its own right.

The story’s fairly run-of-the-mill, but takes the best of many sources and welds things together into a tight little arc that fits snugly into the short running length. The visuals are superb, voice acting top notch (Mark Hamill and James Garner for crying out loud!) and direction pinpoint.

Sure, it’ll never be up there with PIXAR’s finest simply as it’s never going to get the advertising money behind it. This is BandSlam compared to Disney’s High School Musical series. Far superior, but squirrelled away.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Teenage boy finds out he’s a demi-god, quest ensues.

OK, you want a short review? Harry Potter meets The Clash of the Titans. It is such an easy comparison to make because that’s what it is. We’ll see how it fares against the real Clash remake in a few weeks, but in the meantime this is an enjoyable enough ride.

Let’s look at it and I’ll try to be as spoiler-free as possible.

  • Boy has poor, mildly abusive upbringing
  • No real knowledge of parentage (OK, he knows his mum in this film)
  • Ends up at school for children like him when he discovers his “true self”
  • Rails against authority figure at school despite being their favourite
  • Forms little group containing himself, incredibly talented female and token minority character (Jackson: black kid; Potter: ginger kid)

If you’ve seen Clash or have any knowledge of Greek mythology you’ll know how several of the set pieces will go. Medusa to Hydra – it’s just like it was in Harryhausen’s epic.

It’s still not a bad film, though. And it’s great to see Sean Bean as Zeus. Ruler of the gods and he has a Yorkshire accent. I’m assuming this will develop into a series following the books, so it could improve. Harry Potter, in my opinion, did. A decent start, but it really needs some more originality so I hope the later tomes are better.

Valentine’s Day

This will likely be the only mention of this “holiday” on my blog this year as I, personally, hate it. Utterly commercial and not even a proper holiday. Anyway…

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Various people are single or in couples, then they meet up or split up and then it all ends.

This is a US take on the films of Richard Curtis et al who really know how to put one of these together. Plenty of swearing usually helps (Four Weddings, I’m looking at you), and I believe there was one “****” in the entire of Valentine’s Day. Poor showing.

It is not a bad film. There are more plot threads than anything Tarantino’s put together, with the characters interwoven very tightly. A little too much, to be honest, and it pushes coincidence just a little too far. However, the plot doesn’t revolve around this coincidence except for one little piece, so this is forgiveable.

The cast is stellar, though CineWorld’s reason to see the film amounts to the fact that it’s the first one in which Julia Roberts and her niece both star. Erm. Big whoop.

If you know your multi-threaded rom-coms this is nothing new. It’s one full valentine’s day of some indeterminate year (not this year as it’s on a Monday in the film) and… things happen. As a general rule, people who are together split up. Those who aren’t, get together.

There are a couple of little surprise moment, especially towards the end.

Now, I’m a jaded old fart. But there were two moments in particular that had me – and the entire audience – going “aaaaah” and/or reaching tissue-wards. I won’t spoil them other than to say they both involved the young boy.

This isn’t the laugh-fest promised by the trailer. In fact most of the biggest giggles are in the trailer itself. There’s a fair bit going for it, though, and it’s worth seeing. It could have stood beig maybe 15 minutes shorter, but other than that it’s not bad.

An easy pigeon hole to put it in, but it’d be a good date movie.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Film Feast

"Invictus" sneak preview in Hsinchu,...
Invictus (honestly!)

Four Film Friday this time – Invictus, Youth in Revolt, Astro Boy and Edge of Darkness. I’ll try to get through them quickly…

Invictus

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) becomes President of South Africa and decides to use the upcoming Rugby World Cup as a means of unifying the country.

I don’t like rugby, on the whole. This worked in my favour going into this film as it’s based on real events and I didn’t know what the outcome would be as I had no idea who won the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Clint Eastwood directs, Freeman is – as ever – simply superb and Matt Damon captains the Springboks.

How close is it to what really happened? Who knows. I’m sure there are certain key scenes and events which mirror history but there’s always room for dramatisation (Wikipedia has a small list). Thankfully it’s not overly-sentimental or symbolic, though it does push this from time to time.

Both Freeman and Damon pull off decent accents although some of the other actors appear somewhat stilted, especially towards the beginning of the movie.

This is a good film. Not overstated, not grandstanding, and a very good story. The obvious link between a battered country finding its feet and being led by someone who’s overcoming the odds is very much mirrored by their rugby team’s efforts. If I have a complaint, it’s the huge over-use of slow-motion to enhance “dramatic effect” near the end.

Youth in Revolt

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Boy meets girl, boy has to become bad boy to get girl, boy goes a little too far…

Michael Cera plays two parts in this film – Nick and the alter-ego Francois that he creates to get the girl, Sheeni (Portia Doubleday). The only other film I’ve seen Cera in was Superbad and that lived up to its title. Youth in Revolt is marginally better but still lacks greatness.

If there’s one thing that stands out, it’s the amusing animated segments interspersed throughout the live action. They don’t really add to the story, but they’re amusing and the one at the start got one of the loudest laughs in the theatre. It’s worth watching the one over the end credits as well.

Amusing in places, messy in others. Next!

Astro Boy

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Scientist creates uber-bad killer robot, and also a robotic replica of his dead son. Cue obvious battle.

I’m not a Manga geek so I don’t know how this hold up to the original, however it’s kind of “OK” as a CGI Hollywood version. There’s no denying the quality of the voice cast: Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Nighy, Charlize Theron… However, the script needs more work. Or more jokes.

Visually it’s nice, but CGI films are all starting to look a little samey now. There’s no real imagination in Astro Boy. If you want a mechanical visual feast, check out Robots from a few years back.

The kids will like its simplicity, but adults will miss the added depths, double meanings and references present in films such as Toy Story or Planet 51.

Edge of Darkness

Plot-in-a-nutshell – a cop’s daughter is gunned down in front of him on his doorstep, so he sets out to find out who did it

This film is based on a BBC drama from some years ago which I vaguely recall watching. Obviously, it’s been shifted to the US but well re-written to make it fit both geographically and in a modern timeline.

However, while the drama had several hour-long episodes to fit everything in, the film version has only 117 minutes. As a result, Mel Gibson‘s efforts to locate his daughter’s killer and work his way through the conspiracy tree is often a little messy.

Ray Winstone’s role is rather hard to pin down. We know he’s there but who the hell actually is he? Other than an English guy who swears a lot (i.e. he’s playing himself again).

The film begins well enough, but the thrills and spills promised by the trailer really don’t occur. There’s a lot of soul-searching and threats by Gibson’s character mixed with very occasional bursts of fast driving. It is a drama, not an action thriller – but the trailer is misleading.

It’s a good story, too. But as I said it’s compressed into too short a time. Some questions are left unanswered while other bits of evidence are thrown in and the viewer is left wondering where they came from.

Well-acted, good story but just not suited for film form without better scripting.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

44 Inch Chest

It’s not very often I leave the cinema thinking “I could have been doing anything else, but watching that”. 44 Inch Chest made me feel that way.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Man (Ray Winstone) finds out wife is being unfaithful, kidnaps the guy who she was with, threatens him a bit along with his mates and then goes mad. Or something. I’m not sure.

I had some time to kill on the way home today (by flipping bus, but that’s another story) and this was the only film on at a convenient time. Given that it’s by the same writers as Sexy Beast I was looking forward to it. However, the only things it has in common with that masterpiece are Ray Winstone and a ton of swearing.

The premise is very simple. The settings are simple. The acting is fantastic (John Hurt is wonderful, and Ian McShane as the dodgy poof is perfect). Overall, though, it’s ultimately empty. Around halfway through it just goes a little over the edge and the ending is simply awful. I sat for about two minutes of the credits convinced it was a “false” ending and that there had to be more coming up.

Wrong.

I left the cinema feeling bewildered and somewhat cheated. There is nothing in this chest worth seeing.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Armored / Ninja Assassin

Seeing as I was away last week, I missed the usual Film Thursday. I partly made up on Tuesday night by popping through to see two movies after uni.

Armored

First up is this taught action thriller with a mis-spelled title. You’d think they could at least have given the UK a proper set of posters. But, no, Armored it is.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: A group of security guards get involved in a heist involving $42 million, only (surprise) not everything goes to plan.

I wasn’t expecting a lot from Armored. There’s a decent cast, including Jean Reno and Laurence Fishburn who I particularly like. It’s a nice, simple plot. The running time is under 90 minutes.

Given the low-brow plot, Armored does OK. It doesn’t outstay its welcome and the action is mixed with some reasonably tense moments. Yes, it’s hokey. Sure, you can see what’s coming. Of course, there are plot holes you could drive one of the armored… sorry “armoured” trucks through.

The thing is that the 88-minute running time means that you don’t have enough of a chance to dwell on these. I also enjoyed the limited setting. After thirty minutes or so, the film is set in one location. This reduced set still allows for a fair bit of action including two vehicular chase scenes.

Very much a film involving little to no use of the brain whatsoever. No classic, but a good way to pass a little time.

Ninja Assassin

Well, what else do you need to know given how cheese-tastic the name is?

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Raizo (Rain) is a ninja assassin turned traitor, trying to destroy the school that created him.

This is a ridiculously silly film. Let’s get that out of the way. It’s stupid, it’s gory and it’s over-the-top. I’d liken it to Enter The Dragon meets Saw. The grisliest sequence is actually in the opening segment. After that, a lot of the combat and bloodshed occurs in much darker surroundings.

What plot there is follows two strands – a flashback one detailing Raizo’s upbringing, and a current-day one featuring a couple of wooden “Europol” officers trying to track the ninja school themselves.

There’s not a lot else to say about it. I enjoyed it, although the gore just got silly after a while. Some scenes are artily done, but others are just over the top.

It works. I mean, you’re sat watching something called Ninja Assassin, for crying out loud. What do you expect?

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Up In The Air

Up in the Air (film)
Up In The Air

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one and squeezed it in on a Wednesday night around travel arrangements and coursework.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham a well-travelled businessman who lives most of the year on the road… or more accurately on the airways.

Quick stuff first – I really, really enjoyed Up In The Air. I’m not a massive Clooney fan, though I do seem to enjoy a lot of his films. However, there’s no doubting he was a perfect choice for this role and it really does allow him a lot of range. His character is a little… different from what we’d consider normal. A man who revels in the fact that he doesn’t stay at home, instead living out of a small wheeled backpack.

His life seems about to take quite a change when a young upstart at his company comes up with a new method of doing their job (which, incidentally, is firing people) – doing it via webcam. This reduces costs and – importantly to Bingham – travel. His one aim in life is to hit a certain targetted number of air miles so that he can enter an elite club belonging to American Airlines, who it’s incredibly obvious must have sponsored the film.

As an aside, this movie has the most obvious sponsorship deals I think I’ve seen since the last Bond epic. American, as mentioned, are the only airline whose logos you see. Car hire is courtesy of Hertz, and mobile communications are exclusively Blackberry. Surprisingly, no laptop manufacturer seems to have been lured in. It’s actually unusual not to see the name of a tech company prominently displayed on the open lid of a computer – in all cases the badges are obscured.

Jason Reitman has done a great job of directing with the pace changing more rapidly than a tango. Swift, half-second montages cover the sections of Bingham’s life that are oft-repeated whereas the more emotive scenes are allowed a lot of time for them to sink in. The dialogue is simply wonderful. Witty, clever and reminiscent of the banter that I miss so much from The West Wing.

What’s even better is that, although it starts to turn into a feelgood movie the ending isn’t perhaps what you’d expect. As ever, I’ll avoid spoilers but I’m glad it didn’t just fall into a formulaic pattern and ruin an otherwise good film.

Definitely worth seeing, although it’s slightly too long for its own good.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]