tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72498858433781328762024-02-21T00:12:55.399+00:00Yet Another Film Review BlogFilm & Movie Reviews with occasional wit and insight.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-20984941306337487782009-09-11T23:53:00.002+01:002009-09-11T23:58:05.418+01:00The Prestige<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ZBFoRaLWHJdDcJaHC2yNM81CjmtDQLg-78SIz4cD4MZ79sbprUgZ-RwWTznc3iwMxToGtiSVCjsfKUvo9Fzd9UXnTtOg6Zf-WEishpI2gtL1FjDQq6hHY2JgBomRXBmeM22iZDkiMR0/s1600-h/the-prestige.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ZBFoRaLWHJdDcJaHC2yNM81CjmtDQLg-78SIz4cD4MZ79sbprUgZ-RwWTznc3iwMxToGtiSVCjsfKUvo9Fzd9UXnTtOg6Zf-WEishpI2gtL1FjDQq6hHY2JgBomRXBmeM22iZDkiMR0/s400/the-prestige.jpg" alt="The Prestige" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380347802416647778" border="0" /></a><br />My reviews have become a little more sparse of late, more sparse than I’d like. The reason is not that I haven’t seen anything I’ve liked. Quite the contrary – I have half written reviews of three films that I thoroughly enjoyed, two of which I think are true greats, sitting unfinished on my hard drive for a couple of weeks. The reason they are unfinished is not because I didn’t enjoy them, no, but because they haven’t made me think. It’s been a while since I walked out of the cinema, thinking the film over and over in my head, slotting all the pieces into place – since Moon, in fact. They haven’t consumed my thoughts for hours, or even days afterwards. The Prestige, however, does.<br /><br />What follows here will come in two sections. The first will be spoiler free, the second will not, and will be less review than discussion. Please do not read the second section unless you have seen the film, you will be spoiling a true classic for yourself.<br /><br /><br />The Prestige is the film that Christopher Nolan made with his brother Jonathan in between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, starring Hugh Jackman and his Batman stars Christian Bale and Michael Caine. It concerns a bitter rivalry between two stage magicians, Rupert Angier, aka The Great Danton (Jackman) and Alfred Borden, aka The Professor (Bale), at the turn of the 20th Century.<br /><br />The performances all around are nothing short of superb, with Jackman the best he’s ever been, before or since. The myopic, destructive fire of vengeance burns deep within Angier, a fire that eventually consumes him, and it is brilliantly realised by Jackman. Bale is equally great as Borden, whose complex, determined character cannot be fully comprehended until the last moments of the film. What is interesting about the rivalry between the two is that there is never any doubt but that Borden is the better magician, but equally that Angier is the better showman. It is in wishing to possess the others skill that is the undoing of both.<br /><br />The supreme achievement of The Prestige is to be a film with lots of magic tricks, but the film is not about the tricks. But while you’re focused on trying to figure out the trick over <span style="font-style: italic;">here</span>, the film is performing the real trick over <span style="font-style: italic;">there</span>. The film is not about the tricks, the film <span style="font-style: italic;">is </span>the trick. (If that makes no sense, go watch the film and re-read it – it should fall into place.)<br /><br />It can be a little difficult to follow the shifting timelines at first, but stick with it and you will be rewarded with one of the most underrated gems of the decade. Simply superb. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A+</span>.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">*** Here starts the second section, so here be spoilers. ***</span><br /><br />One of the most wonderful things about the film for me is the Angier copies. I say copies and not clones, because there is a subtle, but hugely important, difference between the two. Clones are not the same person. A clone does not retain the memories of the original – they are genetically identical, but are different due to experiences and development. Clones are like identical twins.<br /><br />The copies are just that – complete and total copies, two of the same person. Same memories, same experiences, same everything. The concept of original and copy is irrelevant – as both are identical in every way, they are equally both the copy and original.<br /><br />So, when Angier walks to the machine, wondering whether he will be the man in the box or the prestige, he fails to realise that he is both eventualities in one; that when he steps in the machine, he will fall below the stage and drown <span style="font-style: italic;">and </span>walk out to reveal himself to the audience. Obviously, only the prestige survives to remember this, so to him, it does feel like he is taking his life in his hands each time, but it is only this eventuality played out over and over again. It is, in fact, inevitable that at the end, there will be one copy left who will have the memories of having experienced the entire thing; but the question of whether or not it is the original Angier is irrelevant. The notion of original no longer makes sense.<br /><br />Compare this to the film’s “clones”, if you will – Borden and Fallon, Fallon and Borden. As twins, they are genetically identical, but there experiences make them different. Look at the women they love. Look at their missing fingers. Look at their relationship with each other. They are two men masquerading as one. They only live as Borden, Fallon is an empty shell, a disguise, a hiding place. When one of them dies, one of them <span style="font-style: italic;">truly </span>dies – a distinct personality is lost. That is not so with Angiers.<br /><br />So I thank you for granting me this indulgence of sharing with you some of the things that consume my mind every time I watch The Prestige, and I leave you with this observation: the only trick not revealed in the film is that of Nicoli Tesla. After all, like Cutter says, he has done what magicians only claim to do.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Real magic</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-40290486513791149972009-08-22T12:25:00.002+01:002009-08-22T12:28:22.013+01:00Gran Torino<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCikkK0Yo944w8-eYap07z3U8D3EYEhvah1fumVGFb8F4lY-htmF9pWSaUSIWYOy2sd98LxtgD1anYnFOC83OVBIvdJfVuy8ZN2odUThvaY1Ixjl2TnWNsTWBm9q_9pVw-CZt84Dl-b1M/s1600-h/gran-torino-poster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCikkK0Yo944w8-eYap07z3U8D3EYEhvah1fumVGFb8F4lY-htmF9pWSaUSIWYOy2sd98LxtgD1anYnFOC83OVBIvdJfVuy8ZN2odUThvaY1Ixjl2TnWNsTWBm9q_9pVw-CZt84Dl-b1M/s400/gran-torino-poster.jpg" alt="Gran Torino Poster" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372748393312980818" border="0" /></a><br />Clint Eastwood, directs, produces and stars in what be his final work as an actor. He plays Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran who has just been widowed. When we first meet him, he is standing bolt upright beside his wife’s coffin, channelling Harry Callaghan as he snarls at his grandchildren, who really couldn’t care less their grandmother is dead – his granddaughter pulls out her phone at the service. Shortly after, it becomes perfectly clear that Walt has just as much difficulty relating to his two sons as his grandchildren, muttering “Would it kill you to buy American?” as they drive off in their Toyota.<br /><br />Alone, sitting on his porch, Walt laments that his neighbourhood is no longer filled with other working class Americans like him: “Why’d all these gooks have to move into the neighbourhood?” But when he accidentally becomes a hero to the Hmong people of the area by chasing away a local gang (“Get off my lawn” was never so menacing), Walt realises that he has more in common with these people than with his own family.<br /><br />One of the singularly most impressive things about Gran Torino is sheer volume and variation of racial slurs that Walt manages to use: gooks, chinks, slopes, spooks, zipperhead – you name it, Walt uses it. These, combined with Eastwood’s impeccable delivery, are a sure-fire recipe for hilarity, bizarrely making what is a genuinely very touching film, also one of the funniest in recent memory.<br /><br />Which leads us, naturally, to the real force behind Gran Torino: Clint Eastwood. Watching him hold up three black corner boys with nothing more than his hand pointed like a gun is one of the singularly funniest and most powerful scenes I have ever seen in a film – a very tiny part of your brain thinks that, somehow, Clint Eastwood could actually shoot you with his finger if he wanted to. Watching him spit bile at one of the gang members that hassle Thao as he pummels him in the face reminds you that Eastwood, when he wants to be, is still the most commanding man on screen.<br /><br />Gran Torino, then, is a superb little film with a monumental performance from one of cinema’s finest actors. If it is to be Eastwood’s last hurrah as an actor, then what a hurrah it is. The ending may surprise you, or even sit a little funny in your mouth as the credits roll, but give it a little time and you’ll realise it’s the only way that makes sense. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-18907431776298266982009-08-15T12:35:00.009+01:002011-01-25T10:12:10.859+00:00This Month I Won't Be Watching…<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Ah yes, it’s that time again, the time where I get to spit hate and rage and bile without really having to do more than cry broad generalisations to support my claims and get away with it. If you don’t like swearing, well then I suggest you make the beep noise in your head as you read this, as there’s plenty of it below. First up…<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Bandslam</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9K-zXZl24VK5cwX6ShU7FzGqopEvWOUgz1Oeeoyaw7ld7BtX_7Q_ZAcQrbfbcsV96AaR3zJAUA5imJj-0fojPHIFDcFGOpQWbEsJD_FfxsqonlAVE28c3zlMCbt5wLl7F5cQkehAB_1c/s1600-h/bandslam-poster.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="Bandslam Poster" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370154336924385506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9K-zXZl24VK5cwX6ShU7FzGqopEvWOUgz1Oeeoyaw7ld7BtX_7Q_ZAcQrbfbcsV96AaR3zJAUA5imJj-0fojPHIFDcFGOpQWbEsJD_FfxsqonlAVE28c3zlMCbt5wLl7F5cQkehAB_1c/s200/bandslam-poster.jpeg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 133px;" /></a><br />
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Ok, I know I’m not the target audience for this kind of film, but don’t think that means I don’t get to shit all over it!<br />
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No wonder kids these days are supposedly dumber than ever – if you had this kind of crap rammed down your throat by a corporate marketing machine with an operating budget bigger than the GDP of a mid-sized African nation, you’d be thick as shit too. Hell, at least this way the poor little bastards don’t have to be aware of the hell they’re being put through.<br />
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Enjoy your mindless oblivion, kids!<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Time Traveler’s Wife</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnTABog_DFGjvj3Jr_QBAXanCvZIJjtAQOQtB2Dvv7cnYGhB6vQ6ptW-S5ptxhnu5IaoIt5teBJ9hZVtlFE7mPUTJ4uzoYNr_gBsD8iVsP5stUw7BaUbzgSZVVBCWLk5FTKRU6W7SOR3s/s1600-h/time-travelers-wife-poster.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="The Time Traveler's Wife Poster" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370154826035672306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnTABog_DFGjvj3Jr_QBAXanCvZIJjtAQOQtB2Dvv7cnYGhB6vQ6ptW-S5ptxhnu5IaoIt5teBJ9hZVtlFE7mPUTJ4uzoYNr_gBsD8iVsP5stUw7BaUbzgSZVVBCWLk5FTKRU6W7SOR3s/s200/time-travelers-wife-poster.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 141px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaG8FRo709VLviiFc_PlnqSd2CRfOrd_88qetcpN0rgAsCWo-dT4ZrJhyphenhyphenfxZArYnCp2Oj9vOVXmWKp6NPITDWm7Dlh6QeaCASJq4EArxNwEwbF9lzOjgdHjEBCiwx8b7egmCk97pcPgM/s1600-h/the_notebook-poster.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="The Notebook Poster" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370155506112165778" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaG8FRo709VLviiFc_PlnqSd2CRfOrd_88qetcpN0rgAsCWo-dT4ZrJhyphenhyphenfxZArYnCp2Oj9vOVXmWKp6NPITDWm7Dlh6QeaCASJq4EArxNwEwbF9lzOjgdHjEBCiwx8b7egmCk97pcPgM/s200/the_notebook-poster.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 135px;" /></a>I’ve heard reports that this one may not be half bad, but it deserves a spot here just for the sheer fucking shamelessness that this film goes after what I like to call “The Notebook” market.<br />
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The Notebook is, of course, a big steaming pile of shit that burrows itself into the emotional control centre of the female brain in pretty much exactly the same way that Crank 2 burrows into the “kick the shit out of stuff” centre of the male brain. Like The Notebook, The Time Traveler’s Wife also stars Rachel McAdams; and just in case there were any people out there who weren’t certain about the links, check out these posters!<br />
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Congratulations, marketing fucks, you just won my eternal fucking contempt.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Ugly Truth</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqyDRd-WaiaXwz84MwU_66a_yOe-8mIpV9yc99bSjaPzY33X5h-3XvfxorVLjkPpDmHvxTGPkhQ88mjF2pJIAyXtoVQz_Ah-wUb1rFOngUVo0Tc_E70ThDKj8WjTJR9oLTjeBkdjd3yqA/s1600-h/the_ugly_truth.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="The Ugly Truth" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370156521637009122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqyDRd-WaiaXwz84MwU_66a_yOe-8mIpV9yc99bSjaPzY33X5h-3XvfxorVLjkPpDmHvxTGPkhQ88mjF2pJIAyXtoVQz_Ah-wUb1rFOngUVo0Tc_E70ThDKj8WjTJR9oLTjeBkdjd3yqA/s200/the_ugly_truth.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 166px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 113px;" /></a><br />
Well, the ugly truth is that I would rather turn my head into a Pinhead from Hellraiser costume using nothing more than some rusty nails and a dull spoon than watch this giant, dangling horse cock of a movie. To everyone who made this film: congratulations, you got paid, and in the process you managed to make the world just a little bit worse of a place to live. Thanks a lot, you soulless cunts.</div>Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-82083333019462090462009-08-09T17:19:00.002+01:002009-08-09T17:21:51.411+01:00Public Enemies<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2G48XUGcX3CofDMGvbeMQrw5SD4Wy4QGylX3DjiQC1eXH9MurNesP5CgP7MKImlExYDNSkXXW_PrIkG741P3S0Ma_1nltw7ZIkw2ujqM36EGrsma6uVYPoqORRBLoITc59JN4ilvhfOA/s1600-h/Public+Enemies+Poster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2G48XUGcX3CofDMGvbeMQrw5SD4Wy4QGylX3DjiQC1eXH9MurNesP5CgP7MKImlExYDNSkXXW_PrIkG741P3S0Ma_1nltw7ZIkw2ujqM36EGrsma6uVYPoqORRBLoITc59JN4ilvhfOA/s400/Public+Enemies+Poster.jpg" alt="Public Enemies Poster" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367999962468154402" border="0" /></a><br />Johnny Depp stars as John Dillinger, the legendary American depression-era bank robber, in the Michael Mann directed biopic. It follows Dillinger as he begins his spree, robbing numerous banks in a matter of months, becoming both America’s most wanted criminal and a folk hero at the same time. Along the way he meets and falls for a young lady name Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard). Chasing Dillinger is the Bureau of Investigation’s Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale). Purvis has been turned into a poster child for the Bureau by J Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup), who is pushing for more power for his still fledgling organisation.<br /><br />While the film is careful not to simply on the focus on the legend of the man, we do get plenty of little nods and acknowledgements to it. Dillinger is as obsessed with his legend as anyone else, and takes steps to cultivate that legend, stopping to recount details of his exploits to awed reporters while waiting to be processed in prison. It is as if he acknowledges that his is a life not destined to last, and so he wishes to live on in people’s memories, but in the transfer to public memory, he has the chance to round a few edges and embolden a few attributes.<br /><br />Mann’s use of digital video gives the film a harshness that is highly unusual for any film, but particularly one set in an era normally softened with a sepia tinge. While it does render the shoot-out scenes superbly, making them enormously real and completely devoid of the glamour with which they are usually portrayed, it does pull you out of the experience on a few occasions and can be very distracting. There’s also the shaky camera work, which at times is so shaking that I defy you to be able to tell what is happening on screen.<br /><br />One of the biggest problems with Public Enemies is that we never grow to truly care particularly for any of the characters, as we never really learn what makes them tick. We see what they do, but we never really get much insight into <span style="font-style: italic;">why</span>, much to the film’s detriment. Because of this, we’re left feeling cold and distant, much like the digital video camera work.<br /><br />I guess that, ultimately, my biggest problem with Public Enemies is that it’s not as good as it could and should have been, from a director like Michael Mann and a cast of Depp and Bale. This should have been one of the very best films of the year, an all time classic. Instead, it’s a decent enough film that I don’t imagine I’ll sit down to watch again any time soon. And that’s a real pity. <span style="font-weight: bold;">B-</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-45542367350061001142009-08-04T22:59:00.001+01:002009-08-04T23:01:28.400+01:00Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GCehE7BNxvlLJ07FiuiooRuy6wjJz6oPyhyphenhyphen8wz_amqDwzZzadiVVzASZw1sXhyNZQAax_dPuTyIueFnw_ejvhy7EaxlIkEIbJqQElVxxf97fHxFS-6lPQScPPboNFRB6Er1yDdDXghY/s1600-h/Harry+Potter+%26+The+Half+Blood+Prince.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 260px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GCehE7BNxvlLJ07FiuiooRuy6wjJz6oPyhyphenhyphen8wz_amqDwzZzadiVVzASZw1sXhyNZQAax_dPuTyIueFnw_ejvhy7EaxlIkEIbJqQElVxxf97fHxFS-6lPQScPPboNFRB6Er1yDdDXghY/s400/Harry+Potter+%26+The+Half+Blood+Prince.jpg" alt="Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366232044420272258" border="0" /></a><br />(Technically, the review below might contain some spoilers, but since the world and its dog have already read the books anyway, they barely count.)<br /><br />The sixth instalment in the Harry Potter series is, as ever, billed as darker than those that came before, and it could well be said that this is true. Not a huge amount happens by way of plot (certainly by Potter standards, which are normally so bursting with what that they forget the why), so there’s plenty of room to soak up the darker ambience. However, rather bizarrely juxtaposing with that darker mood is some awkward teenage romance stuff, most of which is rather terrible, if I’m honest.<br /><br />Michal Gambon is as impressive as ever as Dumbledore, capturing just the right level of fatherliness. For the first time, I also thought Daniel Radcliffe did some great work when Harry takes the Felix Felicis. His tone changes, his demeanour lifts, his trademark cardboardness loosens, and he puts in a great couple of scenes – if only he could do that throughout!<br /><br />However, the star of this film, stealing scenes from everyone left and right, is Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn. It has almost become a tradition in the Harry Potter franchise that the Dark Arts (in this case, Potions) professor will be by far the most interesting and best played character – Kenneth Brannagh as Gilderoy Lockheart, Brendan Gleeson as Mad-Eye Moody and Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge; and Broadbent keeps that tradition going with a wonderful performance. He perfectly captures the vanity, loneliness and shame that make up Horace Slughorn, and his facial expressions alone make the film worthwhile.<br /><br />Unfortunately, Emma Watson is disappointing once again. While undoubtedly a beautiful young woman, she simply lacks the ability as an actress to give Hermione any real strength as a character. Instead, she ends up sobbing and scolding her way through the film, an not really contributing. Doing far more with far less are Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood and Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley, both of whom impress throughout; while Jessie Cave is perfectly, wonderfully, sublimely simpering, gooey and mushy as Lavender Brown.<br /><br />And then we have the ending. Needlessly, disappointingly and poorly changed from the source material, the ending is rather anticlimactic. Where the book inserts a huge battle in the halls and grounds of Hogwarts, the film, well, doesn’t. Instead we get Harry running after Snape, only to get knocked on his arse. The reveal that follows, of the identity of the Half Blood Prince is pretty pathetic, with Alan Rickman delivering his lines so soaked in his patented “bad guy” tone that they flow like treacle. In short, while the ending of the book is frantic, exciting and heartbreaking the ending of the film is, well, none of these things; and that’s a real pity, as it’s one of the most powerful sequences in the entire series as a whole. I don’t typically like comparing a film adaptations to their book sources, but in the case of the Harry Potter films, they don’t particularly work if you haven’t read the books, so I feel it’s justified.<br /><br />All in all then, Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince is better than I had expected, but, just as I <span style="font-style: italic;">had </span>expected, worse than the book. So, the stage is set for the final two-parter. In the meantime, Half Blood Prince gets a <span style="font-weight: bold;">B</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-6152860561127416932009-08-02T21:27:00.003+01:002009-08-02T21:28:56.409+01:00Unbreakable<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVUsvOLqO2R53Ck2FRdP5OO1efCIfCjjKR4AOtcCOJPWirCPon7D8aAEajBHQlzyNiZBpn-OQ1UN8a5IZPm498Cu8RQHgBi3F2cXqAqqyVW5JXsoxlvsB0LZn9ATeFdAkPGe2nk-eRYJE/s1600-h/unbreakable.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 285px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVUsvOLqO2R53Ck2FRdP5OO1efCIfCjjKR4AOtcCOJPWirCPon7D8aAEajBHQlzyNiZBpn-OQ1UN8a5IZPm498Cu8RQHgBi3F2cXqAqqyVW5JXsoxlvsB0LZn9ATeFdAkPGe2nk-eRYJE/s400/unbreakable.jpg" alt="Unbreakable" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365465990496453442" border="0" /></a><br />Bruce Willis stars as David Dunn in M. Night Shyamalan's tale of a real life "superhero". The concept is simple – comic books are the last remaining vestiges of a very ancient form of storytelling. Like all stories, they have, over time, been exaggerated and embellished, but they nonetheless retain the essence of stories of people who are not like the rest of us. People who protect those unable to protect themselves.<br /><br />After a train crash from which he is the sole survivor, David is contacted by comic book art gallery owner Elijah Price (Samuel L Jackson), who believes that David is one of the type of people on whom these comic book tales are based. Elijah has a rare bone disorder that makes his bones extremely brittle, and while spending a large part of his life inside reading comics, he has formed his theory.<br /><br />The concept is executed very well - David is less not a superhuman, but rather a super human. This distinction is subtle, but important. One has amazing powers like flight or X-Ray vision; the other doesn't get sick, is very very strong and has good instincts for wrong-doing. We're not talking mutants, just a normal person turned up to 11. It is this distinction that the film makes that makes Unbreakable so refreshing and such a joy to watch.<br /><br />Willis perfectly captures the feeling of someone who is unhappy with his life, but can't figure out what is wrong or missing. His distance from his wife and son is palpable, and we can see him visibly try to distance himself further from his son. It is only when he embraces and explores his abilities that he begins to fill this void, and bond with his family in the process.<br /><br />When one thinks what could have been if this film was only the first instalment of a trilogy as Shyamalan intended, it can’t help but make you detest the Hollywood machine for what it is. Unbreakable is a great film, one that brought a freshness to the comic movie genre long before Spiderman, X-Men or Batman Begins came along. Essential viewing. Unbreakable? No, unfortunately not, but unmissable? Certainly. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-2938901274813593752009-08-02T21:24:00.002+01:002009-08-02T21:26:52.530+01:00Hot Rod<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO-k6AKHz2_1mJeh26x6ZVl45diNOe5zhx9y2PMQLmjk-ZAwVUw2OOC4_xShjAHuFzabHfxM3-z5RRebreMrJZ-9mTRM_xGbL8cm017UwwQgxNUXg-sk_6WVAGOadSIhHyxE6FUaMkVbg/s1600-h/hot_rod_1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 269px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO-k6AKHz2_1mJeh26x6ZVl45diNOe5zhx9y2PMQLmjk-ZAwVUw2OOC4_xShjAHuFzabHfxM3-z5RRebreMrJZ-9mTRM_xGbL8cm017UwwQgxNUXg-sk_6WVAGOadSIhHyxE6FUaMkVbg/s400/hot_rod_1.jpg" alt="Hot Rod" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365465439776168786" border="0" /></a><br />The story of Rod Kimble (Andy Samberg), amateur stuntman. Rod hates his stepfather Frank (Ian McShane), and wants to prove to him that he’s a man by beating him up. When Frank gets sick and needs a heart transplant, Rod sets out to raise enough funds to get him a new heart, so that he can then kill him in a fight and prove that he’s a man. How? By jumping 15 school buses – one more than Evil Kenivel.<br /><br />The script was originally written for Will Ferrell, and it’s got his fingerprints all over it. Rod is exactly the kind of man-child that has become Ferrell’s trademark, and Andy Samberg does an excellent job of filling his shoes. However, there’s no getting around the fact there’s a reason Will Ferrell didn’t make this film, and it’s because the script isn’t all that strong. Despite this, Samberg and the rest of his team (Jorma Taccone, Bill Hader and Danny McBride), flanked by the ever-lovely Isla Fisher, make a good job of the material available.<br /><br />The 80’s soundtrack is a wonderful piece of the film’s cheesiness, and consists mostly of Europe songs (tacky classics like Ninja and Cherokee feature), punctuated by classics like John Farnham’s You’re The Voice. There are some genuinely great scenes, such as Rod’s punch dancing in the forest, followed by the longest fall in human history, which takes on a bit of a “John Cleese running out of the forest in The Holy Grail” level of humour it goes on so long.<br /><br />Overall, Hot Rod is an enjoyable film, with a few gags that will make you laugh out loud, but despite the best efforts of Samberg and crew, it never quite outgrows its status as Will Ferrell left-overs. Despite this, I’m genuinely looking forward to seeing Samberg’s next role. <span style="font-weight: bold;">B-</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-81102154880620318462009-07-19T21:27:00.003+01:002009-07-19T21:29:49.107+01:00Moon<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKTDtGcWUdltmapK-EqxHcvI3otzgF7RJy3bUzNsrp-zjI3Ucih9vbMw-ZiUqFTxg3sGwC2XJJAzWj_VGcrqU24MgQ5-nBWyoeCEQhT3QPFyF8-GA9uMcNzTlJa5qwUynmX6HCLalvSZQ/s1600-h/moon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 272px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKTDtGcWUdltmapK-EqxHcvI3otzgF7RJy3bUzNsrp-zjI3Ucih9vbMw-ZiUqFTxg3sGwC2XJJAzWj_VGcrqU24MgQ5-nBWyoeCEQhT3QPFyF8-GA9uMcNzTlJa5qwUynmX6HCLalvSZQ/s400/moon.jpg" alt="Moon Poster" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360271072729119378" border="0" /></a><br />A sci-fi film made just like they used to.<br /><br />Moon tells the story of Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), the sole inhabitant of a lunar mining base coming to the end of a three year contract. Having spent so much time alone, he is, naturally, enormously lonely, and speaks to himself for company. His only companion is a computer called GERTY (wonderfully voiced by Kevin Spacey), who assists Sam in running the base.<br /><br />Rockwell puts in the performance of a career, and does astoundingly well as Bell. The character feels thoroughly lived in, and it’s so easy to believe that he’s spent three years up here, all alone, so craving human contact of any kind that he touches the screen that he touches the screen showing his wife long after the message has ended and her image has faded. It is a one man tour-de-force, as while other characters appear briefly, it is Rockwell that occupies 99% of the screen time, and he never once loses your investment.<br /><br />There’s also the fact that Moon looks, to my mind, simply stunning. The base was very clearly once cold and clinical, but now that has faded and been replaced by a very lived in feeling. Little touches like the coffee stains in GERTY’s coffee-cup holder make this film seem fantastically real. Director Duncan Jones has a real talent for hauntingly beautiful shots, and the shots of the Earth from the Moon are some of the best. At one point, there is a sot of Sam, sitting in one of the lunar trucks, sitting, looking up at his home, and all he wants is just to be able to go there. When he cries out “I just want to go home”, your heart will bleed for him.<br /><br />The Clint Mansell soundtrack perfectly underscores the growing feeling of generalised unease, that something is not quite right – very non-specific, but very real, nonetheless. It’s difficult to really get into what makes Moon so great without spoiling it, as the reveal of what is wrong comes relatively early in the film, and this film is far too good to be spoiled. Suffice to say that Moon is thought provoking, clever, and, ultimately, heart-breaking.<br /><br />When I went to see it today in the cinema, I was surprised to find the film packed out. There wasn’t a spare seat to be found by the time the film started. I suspected (correctly, as I later determined) that most of the people there had tried to go see Harry Potter but it was sold out. I was therefore delighted when, afterwards, I overheard so many groups of people talking about how amazed they were by the film. It seems like Moon may, bizarrely, benefit from being released along side a box office smash. If it means more films like Moon get made in the future, then that’s fine by me.<br /><br />To put it simply, Moon is the best film on release at the moment, and a sci-fi classic that can readily be mentioned alongside 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner or Outland. With a tiny $5million budget, the production team have worked wonders and produced what is possibly the finest sci-fi film of the decade. Simply put, go and see this film. You will not be sorry. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A+</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-630223232716335852009-07-19T10:05:00.002+01:002009-07-19T10:07:56.184+01:00Quantum Of Solace<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXPip32bCYKITYRcd2ofPk8EEkq4Pk6Voe6e5KeiyWtLS7TReo2xbwGSYYuIuaCQjoQKg7KAAvRwKyYOed9guWkNRzQ5rpst2AKc7HPsT15YBgKWDLB927AKlfeAoqXi_pXIfxybZBpBs/s1600-h/quantum_of_solace.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXPip32bCYKITYRcd2ofPk8EEkq4Pk6Voe6e5KeiyWtLS7TReo2xbwGSYYuIuaCQjoQKg7KAAvRwKyYOed9guWkNRzQ5rpst2AKc7HPsT15YBgKWDLB927AKlfeAoqXi_pXIfxybZBpBs/s400/quantum_of_solace.jpg" alt="Quantum Of Solace Wallpaper" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360095350195440610" border="0" /></a><br />Daniel Craig returns as 007. Following on from Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace opens just minutes after the former ends, with Bond having captured Mr White and now evading would-be assassins. After some digging (read: killing of anyone who comes within spitting distance), Bond comes across Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amlaric), with a little help from Camille (Olga Kurylenko).<br /><br />Quantum of Solace is not a particularly easy film to like. In fact, it is the film that sucked any joy out of reviewing films for me last year. Several half-started sentences sat in my draft posts for weeks before I eventually gave up. The film is almost completely devoid of humour. In fact, only two funny moments jump to mind from the entire film. (Check to see if mine are the same as yours: when Bond flips the guys off the motorbike and when Bond moves he and Fields (Gemma Arterton) to the fancier hotel, keeps their cover story of being teachers on sabbatical, and then adds “and we’ve just won the lottery”.)<br /><br />In addition, the plot takes a very long time to reveal itself. For a long time, it’s just Bond flying around the world, killing whoever he comes across. The action is solid throughout, but in many places it felt like the film was attempting to recapture the magic of Casino Royale, instead of trying to be something different, something on its own.<br /><br />Camille is a very strong female character, something that Bond films have tried on many occasions before (Pussy Galore, for example), but, somehow, Camille just never quite gels as a character. The reason is simple – she does not need to be saved, and certainly not by Bond. When Bond films introduce a female lead that does not lead saving, the result is inevitably poor (Jinx form Die Another Day, for example). This should not be taken to suggest that all female characters in Bond films need to be saved (Judy Dench quashes that argument in a single frame), but the female that works alongside Bond does. They can be feisty or strong willed or anything else, but at the end of the day, they need to have Bond save them.<br /><br />Quantum Of Solace tries hard to be a worth successor to Casino Royale, and to be a film worthy of all that seriousness. However, in the end, we’re left feeling much like Bond: none of it matters very much in the end. <span style="font-weight: bold;">C+</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-16685464156425539162009-07-12T15:39:00.003+01:002009-07-12T15:42:32.134+01:00American Teen<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi13t8Cfms05X3Q0f5yc9-LrLq_DdiTU5CbfTyLfuNz1E_bm2pib-Pygr5iFEwYuqKJ4LYE00LEESD7Jx4O5KKydXqoQPtO9hFtRoIf_fk3tC57GMsUjRvq3EaocCDW-FH-ZVz-Qgr0018/s1600-h/American+Teen.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi13t8Cfms05X3Q0f5yc9-LrLq_DdiTU5CbfTyLfuNz1E_bm2pib-Pygr5iFEwYuqKJ4LYE00LEESD7Jx4O5KKydXqoQPtO9hFtRoIf_fk3tC57GMsUjRvq3EaocCDW-FH-ZVz-Qgr0018/s400/American+Teen.jpg" alt="American Teen" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357583847882888866" border="0" /></a><br />A documentary from Nanette Burstein following the lives of four Indiana teenagers in their final year of high school. All the cliques and clichés are represented: Megan, the popular girl, Colin the jock, Jake the loner nerd and Hannah the emo chic. On the face of it, it feels like we’ve seen this all before, and much of it, we have. In fact, perhaps part of the reason that this documentary almost feels scripted is the incredible similarity it bares to, well, every teenage cliché ever.<br /><br />But there are some issues we see here that are not normally dealt with quite so openly, in particular Hannah’s mental health. With a mother suffering from clinical depression, Hannah is very determined not to end up like her mother, living a life that she does not particularly want. And yet, all it takes is a breakup with her boyfriend to drive her into depression herself, one which she spends the remainder of the year battling.<br /><br />Of course, all of these teenagers come with the complete lack of perspective that being that age brings. Megan cannot imagine a world of which she is not the centre, Colin has no idea where his life goes beyond basketball, Jake thinks he will always be an outcast and Hannah cannot wait to get out of that town so she can be the person she wants to be.<br /><br />To Burstein’s credit, she manages to make the kids extremely comfortable with her presence, and is witness to many of these teenagers most intimate and vulnerable moments. What is bizarre (or perhaps even dubious) is how well the events in these teens' lives play out narratively. From Colin sinking the winning basket in the dying seconds of the championship game, to Hannah realising her dream of moving to San Francisco, to Jake’s optimism about his future with his girlfriend from San Diego, there is a remarkable level of “happy ever after” derived from these real lives. Of course, maybe I just have cynical world view – maybe things typically turn out for the best for most people. Wouldn’t that be nice?<br /><br />Overall American Teen is an update of the clichés that we all know inside out. While it does bring some interesting new aspects to the table, it’s not quite enough to make it feel fresh. <span style="font-weight: bold;">B</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-25173832485314964362009-07-07T21:41:00.002+01:002009-07-07T21:46:06.284+01:00Looking For Eric<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijB2WB8cuFSoKFUgMNoeDuQd9HNgjsAV1zrZwjSeXZfCJ_7MIbkESDVf2olieMbAXGSNej2JBYjOBYN6LML8rPqw6Xtu0z7RSfYpOXGBaH67uWhfZ1GFRcOq0Qbr_LC2L1c3NgTiShyro/s1600-h/looking+for+eric.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijB2WB8cuFSoKFUgMNoeDuQd9HNgjsAV1zrZwjSeXZfCJ_7MIbkESDVf2olieMbAXGSNej2JBYjOBYN6LML8rPqw6Xtu0z7RSfYpOXGBaH67uWhfZ1GFRcOq0Qbr_LC2L1c3NgTiShyro/s400/looking+for+eric.jpg" alt="Looking For Eric poster" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355822029589292738" border="0" /></a><br />Ken Loach’s latest film is the story of Eric Bishop (Steve Evets), a kind and decent man who has made some decisions in life that he truly regrets, and how, with the imagined help of his hero Eric Cantona, he takes the first steps towards righting those decisions.<br /><br />The film opens with Eric trying to kill himself, and he is truly a pitiable character. He lives with his two step children (their mother having run off), who treat him in much the same manner as one would treat a doormat made of dog shit. We’re introduced to Eric’s football obsessed friends, most of whom feel just a bit sorry for Eric. And then we find out why Eric tried to kill himself – his ex-wife.<br /><br />Eric’s friends try to find ways to cheer him up, one of which being suggesting that he try to emulate his hero, Eric Cantona. While this fails, it unlocks something in Eric’s brain, because soon, he finds himself being counselled by his hero.<br /><br />Eric Cantona is excellent, happy to both cheekily acknowledge his god-like status in the minds of fans (“I am not a man, I am Cantona.”) and to show a sliver of what the real man is like. But more than all that, he plays his role with such charm and gusto that it’s a performance impossible not to like.<br /><br />But the star of the show here is not Eric Cantona, it’s Eric Bishop. The title can be a little misleading because knowing, as we do, that Eric Cantona is in the film, we assume that he is the titular Eric, but I don’t think he is. The Eric that is being sought is the old Eric Bishop, back when he still had his first wife Lilly in his life. Back before the pressure of a new marriage pushed him away from the love of his life; a woman he loves so much, even to this day, that the very sight of her, that visual reminder of all he had lost, was enough to drive him to attempt suicide.<br /><br />Then there is the excellent plotline of Eric’s stepson Ryan (Gerard Kearns) getting caught up with a gangster, and the simply extraordinary steps that Eric takes to save someone who treats him like a nothing. It is here that Eric gets a chance to show his true colours, how he stands up to the gangster even though he knows he has no hope of winning.<br /><br />What is most rewarding about the film is that, although Cantona is Eric’s counsellor and guide that sets his life back on course, the film never pretends that Cantona is anything other than a figment of Eric’s imagination. Eric wasn’t saved, he saved himself. It is this, coupled with the beautifully touching moments between Eric and Lilly that make this, to my mind, one of the most touching and heart-warming stories ever put to film.<br /><br />A beautiful, touching, heart-warming, uplifting and occasionally hilarious film that gives us insight into the life of a man who thinks he’s hit bottom. Wonderful. Simply wonderful. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A+</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-56618744021260509212009-07-07T20:12:00.002+01:002009-07-07T20:14:48.016+01:00Terminator: Salvation<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjee3AbRu9dC3ZEvAxTl-7xuw6mn7suNkA6Zm_FQ2zyhEKmetRNCyJHtCSela01KbGQeJzwnRrhz4C4pM4l5SQ4mGolkZETqJMsjGE6qjYQQ5IrDb1AtWbtu-O3S1xOzj-GddhUkuVvoU8/s1600-h/terminator-salvation.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 242px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjee3AbRu9dC3ZEvAxTl-7xuw6mn7suNkA6Zm_FQ2zyhEKmetRNCyJHtCSela01KbGQeJzwnRrhz4C4pM4l5SQ4mGolkZETqJMsjGE6qjYQQ5IrDb1AtWbtu-O3S1xOzj-GddhUkuVvoU8/s400/terminator-salvation.jpg" alt="Terminator Salvation" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355798736675608114" border="0" /></a><br />It’s been a while since I saw this film, so some of the details in here might be a bit soft, but I remember how I broadly felt, so I wanted to share it with you all.<br /><br />Christian Bale stars as John Connor in this latest installation in the Terminator franchise, the first to be set post-Judgement Day. Connor is a lieutenant in the Resistance, but commands a large following of people who see him as mankind’s saviour. (This aspect reminded me much of Neo’s status in the second two Matrix films, actually.) Sam Worthington stars as Marcus Wright, a half-human, half-machine prototype who awakens with no memory of Judgement Day and no knowledge of his cyborg nature.<br /><br />Worthington is the film’s stand out revelation – incredibly watchable and he brings a superb humanity to his character. Anton Yelchin is (as ever) excellent, truly striking home the frailty of John Connor’s temporal-manipulation-dependent existence as Kyle Reese. None of the other character’s really get a chance to flesh out their characters, with Bryce Dallas Howard in particular getting a rather easy payday.<br /><br />To the film’s considerable credit, there has been a significant effort put into thinking through the mechanics of this post-apocalyptic world, into <span style="font-style: italic;">how </span>the machines fight the humans. We are introduced to humanoid terminator designs ranging from 7 feet tall to 70 feet tall, motorbike terminators as well as enormous airship terminators. The mechanics may be a tad overly-complex, but they produce such good action scenes, it’s hard to complain too much.<br /><br />Which brings us to another strength of the movie – action. Thankfully, McG has not failed to realise what made the Terminator franchise so successful – great action sequences. We may not quite have anything to match T2’s storm drain bike-truck chase, we’ve got plenty of contenders – the chase from the petrol station comes particularly to mind.<br /><br />Overall, it’s not great, but it’s not bad. When you view it as a stand-alone action movie instead of as a part of a franchise, it actually comes out looking fairly decent. It sure kicks the hell out of T3. <span style="font-weight: bold;">B</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-77287486817667726922009-06-27T19:32:00.003+01:002009-06-27T19:35:58.389+01:00Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLtgmzaspV0wUV3CqWDJBvUwFEkXf_pN19P3SWyjeiMxdadI4Tcftvxf7qp4LF2P_8mEkxwsIQffDDBmTa3XshtJ-69FHjas_Z8BvO6fobJICs_SiBwXFPFPkHTBFT0gz_h1f3YVCipjU/s1600-h/star+trek+ii+the+wrath+of+khan.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 271px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLtgmzaspV0wUV3CqWDJBvUwFEkXf_pN19P3SWyjeiMxdadI4Tcftvxf7qp4LF2P_8mEkxwsIQffDDBmTa3XshtJ-69FHjas_Z8BvO6fobJICs_SiBwXFPFPkHTBFT0gz_h1f3YVCipjU/s400/star+trek+ii+the+wrath+of+khan.jpg" alt="Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352077629660043426" border="0" /></a><br />The crew of the Enterprise return for their second outing on the big screen. After the disappointment of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, it’s fair to say that the future of the franchise on the big screen, possibly anywhere, hung in the balance. It focuses on a tale of revenge, as Khan Noonien Singh seeks his revenge on James T Kirk for his actions that Khan perceives to have caused his wife’s death.<br /><br />The Wrath of Khan is very probably the most celebrated of the Star Trek films, and is proudly held aloft by Trekkies as some of the very finest of what Star Trek has to offer. (Personally, as a child of The Next Generation as opposed to The Original Series, my own favourite is First Contact, but that’s another review.) Frankly, it’s hard to disagree with them.<br /><br />The performances here are excellent all round, with Shatner at his very finest, bring the most dimension to Kirk that he ever managed. He’s funny, without being farcical. He’s smart, without seeming overly knowing. He’s conflicted, without ever dragging the film down with ponderous reflection. (Plenty of other Star Trek films and series for that.) DeForrest Kelly is marvellously grumpy as Bones, and Leonard Nimoy is ever magnificent as the stoic Spock.<br /><br />The script, however, is what makes Wrath of Khan stand out from the crowd. For the first time, the crew of the original Enterprise got a story worth telling. Powerfully emotional, genuinely witty, with a personal intimacy that many of the Star Trek films have lacked, it is a truly engaging watch. More than this though, Wrath of Khan is one of the few Star Trek films that stand up on their own, as entities independent of the franchise and all of the backstory that comes with it.<br /><br />A true classic. Endlessly parodied and ripped on, Wrath of Khan represents the finest that the crew of the original Enterprise have to offer. <span style="font-weight: bold;">B+</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-17870611545731522702009-06-27T09:36:00.002+01:002009-06-27T09:39:53.592+01:00Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2F0PzwhtfJs2t_T8oJoEbqblzdzEQlLq3uFypgwCx9e_FDdAXAnAVmHQQVJRqNrBs9pUVQt4ErzZEaBjKkMvbOjtN_td2iAC57EGCRUpHqhBQnaNPBOwmQSsJgJTadAi88RoAMwyNz58/s1600-h/transformers+revenge+of+the+fallen.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2F0PzwhtfJs2t_T8oJoEbqblzdzEQlLq3uFypgwCx9e_FDdAXAnAVmHQQVJRqNrBs9pUVQt4ErzZEaBjKkMvbOjtN_td2iAC57EGCRUpHqhBQnaNPBOwmQSsJgJTadAi88RoAMwyNz58/s400/transformers+revenge+of+the+fallen.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351924249670421570" border="0" /></a><br />Too long. Too too too long.<br /><br />The world’s least favourite director Michael Bay returns to helm this unnecessary follow up to a mediocre summer blockbuster from two years ago. This time out, Sam Whitwicky (Shia LeBeuf) heads off to college, only to become embroiled, along with his girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox), in a new attack by the Decepticons against the planet Earth. Teaming up again with Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and a dozen or so other Autobots, they set out to foil the doomsday plans of the oldest of the Decepticons, known only as The Fallen.<br /><br />The dialogue is truly terrible, on two fronts: human and robot. On the human front, we have such gems as “It’ll work, I know it will.” “How do you know?” “Because I believe it.”; while on the Transformer side of things, all the Autobots apart from Optimus Prime sounds like they’re from the Bronx, which is certainly unusual for a species of sentient robots from another planet.<br /><br />In addition to this, the jokes aren’t funny. There are dozens of short little scenes between characters that serve very little purpose, other than to allow characters to banter back and forth. It took me a little while to realise that these scenes were supposed to be comic relief because no one in the cinema was laughing. Not one person. Certainly, not all of the jokes are bad, and I’m sure I laughed a few times, but 4/50 is not a good success rate when it comes to comedy.<br /><br />The acting is also less than stellar, with Le Beuf given very little to work with, and thus hands in a thoroughly mediocre performance. Megan Fox appears to have been shot by a masturbating 13 year old boy, existing for no reason other than to bring the boobage. Sam’s father Ron (Kevin Dunn) is once again terrible, but his mother Judy (Julie White) is good for a few laughs at the start of the film. John Turturro is reasonable as Agent Simmons, though does nothing particularly memorable, and Leo Spitz (Ramon Rodriguez) marches straight onto the list of most annoying and pointless sidekicks ever.<br /><br />The plotting is poor, with Bay constantly being distracted by shiny things that keep bogging down the plot any time it threatens to actually go anywhere. That is not to say that the film is slow – there is always something happening on screen – just none of it leads anywhere. This is a relatively simple film, but it last for over 140 minutes and takes about 40 minutes longer than necessary to get to its hour long climax; which, as it lasts an hour, never really climaxes, just plateaus. A line of dialogue from Kevin Dunn summed it up nicely for me: “I don’t know what’s going on, but we’d better run.”<br /><br />Then there is the issue of the effects. There is certainly no question the ILM have, as always, outdone themselves. My gripe is more to do with design and direction, and it was an issue I had with the first Transformers film too: the Transformers are so incredibly complex and the direction is so fast moving and fast cutting that it becomes nigh on impossible to make out what is happening on screen when there are two Transformers fighting. This is a genuine issue for me, as I am by no means a CGI-hater. In fact, I love my CGI. I also think the availability of relatively cheap convincing CGI typically removes a lot of the old budget barriers that exist on old films. But on Transformers, a line has been crossed, where we have vast quantities of CGI for CGI’s sake. It has become so big and so complex that it actually makes watching the film MORE difficult than if the CGI budget had been halved.<br /><br />So, in summary then, I did not enjoy Transformers 2. I went to the cinema expecting something mindless but entertaining – a summer blockbuster. What I got was two and a half hours of an assault on the senses, a film that leaves you drained and angry that you’ll never get those two and a half hours back. Don’t bother. Just don’t. <span style="font-weight: bold;">C-</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-49058274612934871612009-06-26T21:50:00.001+01:002009-06-26T21:53:02.028+01:00The Hangover<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4l6tR_zqq08yBYjr2uLMfDMhgaoisrHuCd9qTQs1Y5JGEolODle29sEBuK87mNUk9CCAsKvE8TEY3rSLluNP7e_0S9Mlrov8bZ__rtfWl6ts7-HLU-v6n7kbIoq2FPX5RX98WvsF3c5w/s1600-h/the_hangover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 259px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4l6tR_zqq08yBYjr2uLMfDMhgaoisrHuCd9qTQs1Y5JGEolODle29sEBuK87mNUk9CCAsKvE8TEY3rSLluNP7e_0S9Mlrov8bZ__rtfWl6ts7-HLU-v6n7kbIoq2FPX5RX98WvsF3c5w/s400/the_hangover.jpg" alt="The Hangover" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351741996112575970" border="0" /></a><br />“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Except herpies. That shit comes back with you.”<br /><br />Never have truer words been spoken, as evidenced by this mother-of-all-mornings-after-the-night-before film from the director of Old School and Road Trip, Todd Philips. Doug (Justin Bartha) is getting married in two days, so his friends Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) are taking him to Las Vegas for his stag night. Beginning the night with a toast of Jagermeister may have not been the smartest idea ever, however, as they awake in their trashed hotel room with a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet and the groom missing. And so, the posse set out to find their misplaced buddy, and embark on the hangover-day-from-hell.<br /><br />Where The Hangover avoids being cliché by showing us the boys ever more outrageous antics is by starting with the aftermath, and slowly but surely filling in all the salient details from the night of debauchery. While admittedly, it is more of a narrative necessity than a stylistic choice, the effect is the same, and it vastly contributes to The Hangover’s charm. It is aided further by mostly eschewing big name stars, with the relatively unknown cast bringing an additional feeling of realness and freshness to the table.<br /><br />It’s superb to see Ed Helms making his big screen breakout, and I genuinely hope he gets more from it, as he possesses unparalleled skill as a comedic doormat, and I didn’t even feel enormously envious of him when he got make out with Heather Graham. But, from a pure one-liners point of view, the stand out winner is Zach Galifianakis: “It would be so cool if I could breast feed.”, “Did Caesar live here?”, “I didn’t know they gave out rings during the Holocaust!”<br /><br />Incredibly, the film is written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the duo responsible for the celluloid rape that is Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past. I say incredibly because the film is superbly written, with some beautifully off-beat and quirky jokes, and perhaps more laugh-out-loud moments than anything I’ve watched since Crank 2. Not many film can boast having Mike Tyson air-drum to In The Air Tonight, a bizarrely confrontational Asian gangster who is introduced to us when he leaps naked out of the boot of the car and begins attacking Stu, a baby who is made to mime masturbating, a fat kid tasering Fat Jesus in the face and a band singing a bizarre lounge version of 50 Cent’s Candy Shop while gyrating in front of a granny.<br /><br />There’s also some great direction from Philips, and the shots over the open credits of Las Vegas in the bright sunlight perfectly represent the sobering regret that is to come with the morning it brings. Vegas is a night city, full of bright, flashy lights, full of enormous bombast and excess in its architecture – it is a dream city. Yet the harsh light of the morning strips away the illusion, wakes you from the dream revealing Vegas for what it truly is: a horrendously tacky place, devoid of soul. It is a parlour trick, a con. All of this wonderfully underscores the mood that the film opens with. You can almost feel the headaches yourself…<br /><br />The Hangover is, hands down, in my top 3 funniest films this year. It’s a joy to watch, the gags are great and the cast are refreshing. This one’s a must see. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-24182388346165659452009-06-20T22:56:00.002+01:002009-06-20T23:00:48.297+01:00Drag Me To Hell<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6TYRlLoEsSzZVEvrWv-JUpsv-HIZkJQNrhiGeDqMk4Ojd2vLKqtA6rcduu8qW4rewbRJtvBAYFUUlnxUBu2fMrVjJT-cFneL1qJrMU7gaXh7ftlds5fleEz3U9pyMq6KHkFFDzvIQVA/s1600-h/drag+me+to+hekk+poster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6TYRlLoEsSzZVEvrWv-JUpsv-HIZkJQNrhiGeDqMk4Ojd2vLKqtA6rcduu8qW4rewbRJtvBAYFUUlnxUBu2fMrVjJT-cFneL1qJrMU7gaXh7ftlds5fleEz3U9pyMq6KHkFFDzvIQVA/s400/drag+me+to+hekk+poster.jpg" alt="Drag Me To Hell Poster" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349533013886899938" border="0" /></a><br />They don’t make ‘em like this anymore, so Sam Raimi decided to do something about that.<br /><br />Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is a loan officer at a small bank. When she denies Ms Ganush (Lorna Raver), an elderly gypsy woman, an extension on her mortgage, Christine finds herself the subject of a gypsy curse that will see her dragged to hell by a powerful evil spirit, unless she can find some way to break the curse. To do this, she enlists the help of spiritual medium Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), much to the chagrin of her psychology professor boyfriend Clay (Justin Long).<br /><br />Drag Me To Hell is a wonderfully old-fashioned horror flick, bouncing from laugh-out-loud funny to jump-out-of-your-seat scary in the blink of an eye. While modern horror films have a frequently distasteful and almost boring obsession with gore, Drag Me To Hell is a masterclass in scares. The film has more jumps than can be counted, more disgustingly horrible things than bears thinking about and enough suspense and creepiness to fill at least four Hollywood knock-offs.<br /><br />From the very first frame, Raimi wants you to know that he’s returning to his Evil Dead roots. (Literally – the film opens with the old, 1980’s Universal logo, just like with Evil Dead.) It doesn’t take long for Raimi to show us that directing the Spiderman trilogy has dulled his sense for scares not one iota, with the film’s prologue containing some wonderful frights and jumps. Raimi also pays some wonderful homages to others in the horror genre throughout – when Christine is in the grave, see if you can spot the homage coming.<br /><br />Which brings us on to Alison Lohman. I’ve never seen Lohman in anything else before, despite spending the entire film convinced I had, but she doesn’t disappoint. On the contrary, in fact, she is perfect in the role. She brings to the table a wonderful blend of innocence and depravity, weakness and strength, all of which serve to make Christine a superb protagonist of our story. She has a kind heart, but is perfectly capable of holding her own in the ass-kicking department, as we see throughout. On top of all this, Christine is not completely without blame in her situation, despite not being deserving of her curse by any means. All this serves to make the film better rounded than most films of its ilk would bother, and it thrives for this.<br /><br />With that said, Drag Me To Hell lives and dies on its ability to scare, and it has the ability in spades. I almost leaped out of my seat on more than one occasion, and gripped the armrests in anticipation plenty of times too. I winced in horror, I grinned in nervousness and I cried out in disgust. Everything you could ask of a horror film and more.<br /><br />A truly superb film from Sam Raimi that only serves to highlight the subpar nature of most of the genre today. You’ll be frightened to your hearts delight throughout. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-20605437119536977452009-06-05T12:03:00.007+01:002009-06-05T12:51:54.424+01:00Terminator Salvation<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj57CJLv7mgPmalvr-WNz3wyM96SGflTjkVNIwZK9FJwk6xrB7zL3E3KI_93-2d10WksHumB02AZH8tarpQ7GOp4IVWA2ibs4bPOCznLVhOOxgtMCdEGGeoZt8xycmCsQSxy0cT9SAs4bkW/s1600-h/Terminator-salvation-poster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 269px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj57CJLv7mgPmalvr-WNz3wyM96SGflTjkVNIwZK9FJwk6xrB7zL3E3KI_93-2d10WksHumB02AZH8tarpQ7GOp4IVWA2ibs4bPOCznLVhOOxgtMCdEGGeoZt8xycmCsQSxy0cT9SAs4bkW/s400/Terminator-salvation-poster.jpg" alt="Terminator Salvation, Christian Bale, Sam Worthington" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343807092002951058" border="0" /></a><br />In a desolate future overrun with killer robots, two men fight separate battles. One of them has a mysterious destiny, and the other has a mysterious past...<br /><br />Dreadful dialogue, too many war movie cliches, a lack of story and a boring visual style drag this one down towards mediocrity. But there are things to enjoy. There are a couple of good performances, a couple of good action sequences and - if you forget the first two <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_%28franchise%29" title="Terminator (franchise)">Terminator</a> movies - you will enjoy this fast-moving summer blockbuster.<br /><br />The movie opens with stirring lines like "it's too quiet" and "don't point a gun unless you intend to use it" and continues in that vein for two hours. You are better off not listening when the characters speak because it will make you laugh. So will many of the set-ups and situations. The hero has a hard ass commanding officer who ignores him and reprimands him, there's a mute child running around looking alternatively cute/scared, there's a woman who lays it all on the line for true love, there's a big sacrifice at the end and stuff like that.<br /><br />Story-wise the split narrative does a great job of keeping the viewer interested. When the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Bale" title="Christian Bale">Christian Bale</a> storyline gets boring (as it frequently does), the tale returns to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Worthington" title="Sam Worthington">Sam Worthington</a> and we are interested again. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Worthington" title="Sam Worthington">Worthington</a> has a better story, a better character and gives a much better performance. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Bale" title="Christian Bale">Bale</a> is relentlessly boring and his character does nothing. He spends a lot of time sitting brooding (while listening to his mother's voice on cassette) and when he does make decisions they are frustratingly bad ones. This is John Connor, huh? Since 1984 we have been told of this great leader. The writers appear to have forgotten that fact or are incapable of delivering a script that will demonstrate his abilities. A hero who sits for hours squinting at a tape recorder and then runs full tilt into a trap does not inspire confidence. Idiot.<br /><br />Then there is the greyness of everything. Everything is grey and dusty in this movie. Even flickering flames appear to be grey! It's all a bit much.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvdZ5hMkJKfApndhfDbZ0MNw8r89xQ2vO2s6jsZ8_KPUEzUzWcl6xnYROR5Fw_lvI7ZQ_zizY56ECPKpE6XuBCUfOXgQF0-MVfomWdSPQKNsAQrt3ZItZAh7VI1RkynVWx_SIc_uPHqoLa/s1600-h/moonbloodgood.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 289px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvdZ5hMkJKfApndhfDbZ0MNw8r89xQ2vO2s6jsZ8_KPUEzUzWcl6xnYROR5Fw_lvI7ZQ_zizY56ECPKpE6XuBCUfOXgQF0-MVfomWdSPQKNsAQrt3ZItZAh7VI1RkynVWx_SIc_uPHqoLa/s400/moonbloodgood.JPG" alt="Terminator Salvation, Moon Bloodgood" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343808447340459714" border="0" /></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Worthington" title="Sam Worthington">Sam Worthington</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Bloodgood" title="Moon Bloodgood">Moon Bloodgood</a> are the highlights of the film. Both have interesting characters to play. Yes, their story arcs are predictable, but - thanks to the performances - I cared and enjoyed. In fact, had this been their story (with no reference to <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_%28franchise%29" title="Terminator (franchise)">Terminator</a></i>/<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Connor" title="John Connor">John Connor</a>) this would have been a much more enjoyable film.<br /><br />In terms of actions there is lots to enjoy. Killer robots (small, medium and large) run rampant, there are chases on the land and in the air, and there are fights in the water, in the dusty grime and in sleek futuristic hallways. There isn't much downtime between action sequences and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McG" title="McG">McG</a> manages to put a neat visual twist on a couple of them (I really like the helicopter crash).<br /><br />Even with all the stuff that was bad/awful/disappointing I can honestly say I enjoyed the film as a whole. It's not epic like former <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_%28franchise%29" title="Terminator (franchise)">Terminator</a> movies, and it's not clever/deep like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator:_The_Sarah_Connor_Chronicles">TV series</a>, but it's not an entirely bad way to spend two hours if you like to see things blowing up.<br /><br />Grade: BUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-50690848869216233492009-05-30T21:02:00.003+01:002009-05-30T21:05:42.246+01:00Three Days Of The Condor<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgswQD5glWLTbaTur69_CDpGOqGzyl9GOUhyphenhyphenFjEdsZ-Y8VlAKWNIXcu36H17WdeiVNucisvxVeZFxqqCgzXYjR000F5Or3ex_irf74TbW8DKrnnTJbZjo0Zu2LYWg-KURfXcbAy7M_mBrM/s1600-h/three_days_of_the_condor.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 283px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgswQD5glWLTbaTur69_CDpGOqGzyl9GOUhyphenhyphenFjEdsZ-Y8VlAKWNIXcu36H17WdeiVNucisvxVeZFxqqCgzXYjR000F5Or3ex_irf74TbW8DKrnnTJbZjo0Zu2LYWg-KURfXcbAy7M_mBrM/s400/three_days_of_the_condor.jpg" alt="Three Days Of The Condor" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341710377544771394" border="0" /></a><br />Joseph Turner (Robert Redford) is a CIA researcher, who reads books to help the CIA computers find patterns and codes in a small building disguised as a literature centre in New York. One day, while he’s out to lunch, all of his colleagues are killed by hitmen. Turner – codename Condor – is understandably freaked out by this, and tries to get his handlers to bring him in from the cold. When that first contact goes wrong, Turner goes to ground, kidnapping Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway) to stay in her apartment. From there, Turner slowly begins to pick at threads of the conspiracy against him, working his way up the chain to discover why someone wants him dead.<br /><br />Condor has a superb premise, this cannot be doubted, but its execution seems a little unusual today. The pacing is a little jumpy, but not so much that it’s off-putting. There’s also a rather large amount of exposition at the end, having been more or less completely starved of the why throughout. Perhaps it’s simply that as a modern audience, we’ve seen this story so many times before that we’re less interested in the what and more in the why.<br /><br />Redford is great as Turner, and amply pulls of both his bookish and more worldly sides. Turner has never been trained as an operative, but has picked up lots of tips and tricks in the books that he has read; and Redford does a great job portraying a man out of his depth, using everything he knows just to try and stay afloat. The more memorable performance comes from Max von Sydow as Joubert, the cold, calculating hitman sent to kill Condor. Joubert is the consummate professional, who comes to respect Turner for his ability to continue to evade him. It seems like the performance that launched a thousand imitations. Sydney Pollack’s direction is noticeable throughout, and the film is littered with nice touches and smooth camera work.<br /><br />What’s important to remember about Condor is that it came just shortly after the Watergate scandal, when the American public’s cynicism of its government was only in its infancy. As such, stories like Condor were relatively new and groundbreaking. Now, the cynicism and paranoia that the film goes to such effort to capture seem almost naïve in their simplicity. Several characters in the film pine for a simpler time, when good and evil seemed more well defined, more black and white. If only they knew. The standout speech of the film comes from Turner’s contact in the CIA, Higgins (Cliff Robertson), and it’s almost uncannily prophetic of the attitude of intelligence agencies today.<br /><br />Condor is an engaging watch, and one that demands some thought afterwards. It certainly improves with reflection, and it’s a recommended watch. <span style="font-weight: bold;">B+</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-49696545896000181402009-05-25T18:13:00.002+01:002009-06-26T21:55:20.072+01:00I Love You, Man<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv7JkR6UCHxY4UTkXT348YetSGGfxguzIvfniCChCPNG-W8eFE9ccbJp5ONPv6pG9xEOB8C8SWv9wz0J6i3R5x6kipNENYJs5QOIuM7LdivkV5wv4iVGMGsUb16SyZmqp8urk51C4CVNc/s1600-h/i_love_you_man.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv7JkR6UCHxY4UTkXT348YetSGGfxguzIvfniCChCPNG-W8eFE9ccbJp5ONPv6pG9xEOB8C8SWv9wz0J6i3R5x6kipNENYJs5QOIuM7LdivkV5wv4iVGMGsUb16SyZmqp8urk51C4CVNc/s400/i_love_you_man.jpg" alt="I Love You, Man" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339811282997636018" border="0" /></a><br />A simple tale of male bonding.<br /><br />Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) is a real estate agent in LA, happily engaged to Zooey (Rashida Jones) and working a major sale (Lou “Incredible Hulk” Ferrigno’s mansion) which he plans to use to finance his own dream project. One small problem – Peter realises that he has no best man for his wedding. This prompts a series of (frequently hilarious) man dates in search of a male best friend. Enter Sydney Fife (Jason Segel) – a smart, painfully honest, easy-going bachelor who embraces Peter’s desire to have male best friend.<br /><br />Jason Segel’s introduction is superb. I, for one, know I wanted to be his friend. He portrays the kind of humour, intelligence, confidence and all-round suave-ness that makes every guy want to be him. His little bachelor pad in his garage, filled to the brim with guy stuff – guitars, a drum set, a big TV and AV system, beers and a masturbation station – is more than enough to make every guy in the audience grin in vicarious pleasure. Rudd is ever likeable as Peter, with Rashida Jones putting in a good performance too. Jamie Pressley is hilarious in her role as Zooey’s friend and husband of consummate asshole Barry (Jon Favreau). Lou Ferrigno has a great cameo as himself, introducing a nice element of slapstick into an otherwise down-to-earth affair.<br /><br />There’s an awful lot to like about I Love You, Man. It’s funny, but never grandstands – think of Peter’s repeated pathetic attempts at dude-speak (“See you later, Joben!”). It’s more subtle and gentle than most of the comedy from the Apatow/Segel/Rudd world these days, and it thrives because of it. At the heart of it, I Love You, Man is not really about the jokes. It’s about the friendship: the type of friendship that we see in TV and films all the time, but that are almost never questioned or examined. The film is also about friends just doing friend stuff, like hanging out playing Rush songs or watching TV.<br /><br />As funny and heartwarming as this film is, I really do feel that the males in the audience will come away with more from this film than the females. Films are built around groups of female friends all the time, but films are rarely built around male friendships in this way, and almost never are they the actual subject matter of the film; and I feel that I Love You, Man should be praised for doing so.<br /><br />A hugely enjoyable film, well written and performed with plenty of laughs and an uplifting plot. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A-</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-72769413202971196782009-05-22T22:45:00.002+01:002009-05-22T22:50:04.011+01:00X-Men Origins: Wolverine<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibzoCy4xucFaSTZErOd6VB4GcKkGiyKN-zQvKdFQ8wLkBlD0BUN2OrBt96rGMuKLAzFpNZoZkigl7BBr17rrzXEtB7qa_iC7BOf9CC09-a8c4sSkSihAX82wVZVtJMD9BBma3okSZU4wM/s1600-h/wolverine_poster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibzoCy4xucFaSTZErOd6VB4GcKkGiyKN-zQvKdFQ8wLkBlD0BUN2OrBt96rGMuKLAzFpNZoZkigl7BBr17rrzXEtB7qa_iC7BOf9CC09-a8c4sSkSihAX82wVZVtJMD9BBma3okSZU4wM/s400/wolverine_poster.jpg" alt="X-Men Origins: Wolverine Poster" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338768397436239410" border="0" /></a><br />X-Men is, of course, a massively loved franchise, and is wildly credited with being one of two franchises which helped turn the comic book movie into a major box office success. (The other being Spiderman.) However, when Bryan Singer’s departure from the series led to a rather disappointing third instalment, many fans looked to the anticipated Wolverine film to restore the franchise to its former glory.<br /><br />Those fans have been disappointed.<br /><br />As children in mid 1800’s Canada, James Logan (Hugh Jackman) and Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber) discover that they’re mutants and brothers on the same night. They go on the run, and fight in every major war between the American Civil War and Vietnam, doing plenty of killing along the way. Then, one day they get recruited by General Striker’s special unit, and do some very specialised killing along with other mutants. Then one day, for no apparent reason, Logan gets tired of the killing and leaves, while Victor feels abandoned and can only express his emotions through the medium growling and trying to kill Logan.<br /><br />There are a lot of problems with Wolverine. A <span style="font-style: italic;">lot</span>. For starters, the film is supposed to be set in and around the 60’s, yet we see lovely new computers with modern flashy, slick interfaces. The plot is pretty much paper thin, and the character development is pretty laughable. The film also introduces a number of faces from the X-Men universe, name-checks them, then promptly ignores them or kills them off.<br /><br />Jackman does his best to bring passion to the role, and possibly would have succeeded in pulling off a great performance if the supporting cast were better. Danny Huston’s Striker is a walking cliché of military corruption, and brings none of the nuance to the role that was masterfully handled by Brian Cox in X2. The special effects should also be examined, as they are, in places, some of the poorest I’ve seen in a big budget film for a long time. (The scene with Logan examining himself in the mirror jumps to mind.)<br /><br />The biggest issues that I have with Wolverine, however, are twofold. Firstly, Wolverine focuses almost entirely on the <span style="font-style: italic;">what </span>that made Wolverine the man we see in the X-Men Trilogy, at the expense of the <span style="font-style: italic;">why</span>, and for me the what has never been what made Wolverine interesting as a character.<br /><br />The second problem I alluded to in the first, and it’s quite a grievous problem. Wolverine’s greatest failure is that it tells a story that I’m not interested in. We already received a fulfilling origin story for Wolverine in X2, a brilliantly executed, touching, emotional origin story – a story far more interested in character than in style, and is all the more fulfilling for it. It’s quite sad to see Wolverine as a film of such poor quality, because it’s easy to see the passion that Hugh Jackman has for the role, and for the project, but unfortunately, not even a cameo appearance by Patrick Stewart as a yet-uncrippled Professor Xavier can save this film from its mediocrity.<br /><br />X-Men Origins: Wolverine is, sadly, a rather empty affair - full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. After an hour, I was waiting for the film to end. <span style="font-weight: bold;">C+</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-28969113266772670382009-05-17T11:10:00.002+01:002009-05-17T11:15:41.902+01:00Star Trek<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb3jko3C7nm0ByWr7Ldj762gWTNGZmjlf_K7-85BIZd5Ey-X_509z_DGNJLdQl3DE6pDsTRYOhHgfoMqXMM7CQmG5MA5cZBDxecECtzvc2CNzuGDrmIlPmVqT5EUi-clKBcMzrfyFpXso/s1600-h/star+trek+wallpaper.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb3jko3C7nm0ByWr7Ldj762gWTNGZmjlf_K7-85BIZd5Ey-X_509z_DGNJLdQl3DE6pDsTRYOhHgfoMqXMM7CQmG5MA5cZBDxecECtzvc2CNzuGDrmIlPmVqT5EUi-clKBcMzrfyFpXso/s400/star+trek+wallpaper.jpg" alt="Star Trek Wallpaper" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336734426565164130" border="0" /></a><br />Star Trek is very probably the most widely known and most revered science fiction franchise of all time, so to say that JJ Abrams’ long awaited reboot of the franchise kept a lot of Trekkies awake at night for a very long time would be an understatement. At first, it was the usual fanboy whineiness that Trekkies are infamous for, but then, slowly but surely, as footage and trailers emerged, the complaints turned to faint optimism, and then to excitement, as it became clear that JJ Abrams might just know what he’s doing.<br /><br />Star Trek cleverly solves the "reboot" problem by creating in the opening sequence, not a new Star Trek universe, but rather an alternate one, one that is aware of the existence of the other universe, but that is subtly different.<br /><br />Chris Pine does an excellent job as Kirk, bringing a freshness and humour to the role that Shatner hadn’t managed in a great many years. Zachery Quinto is great as Spock, with a superb passing-the-torch cameo from Leonard Nemoy. The rest of the cast also perform well, with no obvious weak or grating performance. Visually, Star Trek is stunning. With special effects from ILM, the Enterprise and the Romulan ship look spectacular, and the space battles are excellent. (One minor gripe is that the film ranks a bit too high on the lens-flare-o-meter, but it is a minor gripe.)<br /><br />One thing that Abrams has managed to do very well, it must be said, is introduce a real sense of humour to the Star Trek universe. Not in a knowing, slapstick sort of way, but he gives the characters and the script a sense of humour that no other incarnation of Trek has had before, despite Shatner’s best efforts. Bones and Scotty crack one-liners, Kirk is a part-time comedian, and there are moments of brilliant physical comedy. (Who didn’t chuckle a little bit when Kirk turned to run from the giant space bear-ant-eater thing? Who didn’t giggle when Scotty’s little alien helper Keenser stifled a tear?)<br /><br />However, in doing so, Abrams has shifted away from some of the things that were a part of the core of Star Trek, such as complex plots or social commentary; but he replaces them with an enthusiasm and energy that the franchise lacked terribly during the days when Brannon Braga was at the helm. This considered, it is hard to hold it against Abrams for wanting to make Star Trek more fun and accessible, and the end result is so enjoyable that any such gripes are quickly forgotten. Besides, for the true Trekkie, there are more than enough in-jokes and references to convince you that Abrams’ cares about the Star Trek universe. But more than that, for the first time ever, Abrams has managed to make Star Trek cool, to make it the "must-see" film of the summer so far, and for that we can only congratulate him.<br /><br />A highly entertaining, well paced, well performed film from beginning to end, Star Trek hopefully marks the beginning of a new canon to add to the franchise. I for one would like to see more. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-77029361000432656332009-05-16T11:54:00.003+01:002009-05-16T12:00:44.530+01:00Knowing<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL_gLhlTfeEIxTz-D68IgEHzZFsnjyEAWVteBPWXgiu2WUM6FPycxmygfZ2ilzCnIJf9uqeT2dAanvOzqaq5tqQKpsfLBQSyLOmFEfnqqqsK6f8jHQ8LtLINv4v0sXRl6BmiRa1YsnFY8/s1600-h/knowing.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 271px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL_gLhlTfeEIxTz-D68IgEHzZFsnjyEAWVteBPWXgiu2WUM6FPycxmygfZ2ilzCnIJf9uqeT2dAanvOzqaq5tqQKpsfLBQSyLOmFEfnqqqsK6f8jHQ8LtLINv4v0sXRl6BmiRa1YsnFY8/s400/knowing.jpg" alt="Knowing Poster" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336374465554860498" border="0" /></a><br />A young girl who hears voices writes a list of numbers on a page which gets locked in her school’s time capsule. 50 years later, the page finds its way into the hands of John Koestler (Nicholas Cage), who quickly determines that the page lists the time, place and number killed for every major disaster around the world in that time. And there are still three that have yet to happen… When Cage witnesses two of the remaining disasters, Knowing begins to ratchet up the insanity with almost reckless abandon. You wonder how far the film will push the story. No matter how crazy you guess, I doubt you’ll manage to be as crazy as the film.<br /><br />Effectively, Knowing is an M. Night Shyamalan movie, but not by M. Night Shyamalan. Considering exactly how popular M. Night Shyamalan’s movies are right now, you could certainly be forgiven for thinking that making Knowing was either a bold of foolhardy move. But Knowing has an ace up its sleeve that Shyamalan never had – Nicolas Cage.<br /><br />Cage is ridiculously qualified to play someone who needs to run around on film as the world goes insane, screaming, shouting, punching women in the face dressed as a bear (ok, not in this one, but seriously, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, google The Wicker Man). It’s pretty much all he does any more. I can’t help but feel that casting Nicolas Cage actually constitutes cheating, like casting Samuel L Jackson to play someone cool, or Martin Lawrence as the most irritating man to have ever been born. It’s the bits at the start, before the film goes completely batshit insane, when he needs to play a lonely, grieving widow who is slightly detached from the world that Cage struggles.<br /><br />Rose Byrne (who never fails to be anything less than superb in the FX TV show Damages) isn’t given a lot to work with here, and is clearly less comfortable with the insanity of the plot than Cage. In fact, you could boil a lot of the entertainment value of Knowing down to being a game in which you try to guess just how far the script is willing to go and how completely at home Cage feels when it gets there.<br /><br />I feel I should also mention the score, which, while certainly decent musically, so perfectly captures the frantic and incredible insanity of this film that it actually made me laugh at one point. A point which was in no way being played for laughs. In fact, absolutely no part of this film in any way is being played for laughs – to the degree that you begin to suspect that no one involved in its creation is familiar with the concept of humour. This, at least, would explain how a film that deals in the completely preposterous for its entire running time manages to take itself so completely and utterly seriously.<br /><br />Knowing is complete and total toss from beginning to end, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not massively entertaining, even if it is for reasons other than those intended by the filmmaker. Watch it in a mood to laugh, and you won’t be disappointed. Film: <span style="font-weight: bold;">C</span>. Entertainment: <span style="font-weight: bold;">A</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-26298337705605595672009-05-12T18:50:00.002+01:002009-05-12T19:19:26.705+01:00In The Loop<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5S9anXkM-kEUB77awGPd5inzvSrHnp9ieGjYI-RhepqccgOsfT12sNV1hE1Me122GFaENaFK_-SwSRPkI09XKT8RRvf5t48J45oEZWWVuXazNKb57IZ6RtEIBBDaNZGYhKY2bNJB5v4I/s1600-h/in+the+loop.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5S9anXkM-kEUB77awGPd5inzvSrHnp9ieGjYI-RhepqccgOsfT12sNV1hE1Me122GFaENaFK_-SwSRPkI09XKT8RRvf5t48J45oEZWWVuXazNKb57IZ6RtEIBBDaNZGYhKY2bNJB5v4I/s400/in+the+loop.jpg" alt="In The Loop" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335003709789281634" border="0" /></a><br />Anyone familiar with any of Armando Iannucci’s work will know the calibre of his talent. His back catalogue speaks for itself. Writer of comedy milestones such as The Day Today, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge, I’m Alan Partridge and the lesser known Armando Iannucci Shows, he is, simply put, one of the best satirists of today.<br /><br />Based on his BBC TV show The Thick Of It, In The Loop is the story of spineless anti-war British minister Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) being forced to toe the party line in the build up to a war in the Middle East. Doing much of that forcing is shouty, sweary, Scottish communications director Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi). Having been forced to equivocate on the likelihood of war, the Americans lock onto him as a pro-war ally, and he is called, along with his aide Toby (Chris Addison), to Washington.<br /><br />Enter James Gandolfini as General Miller, Mimi Kennedy as Karen Clarke and the wonderful Anna Chlumsky as her aide Liza. (I defy any boy who grew up with My Girl not to fall for Anna Chlumsky all over again.) From here, the satire descends to farce, with political posturing, superiority complexes, arrogant college graduates and hilarious incompetence.<br /><br />One of the interesting things about In The Loop is that Iannucci does absolutely nothing to make any of the characters likeable. With the possible exception of Liza, all of the characters – both British and American – are weak, selfish, stupid, arrogant or a cocktail of all four, with dashes of plenty of other character flaws.<br /><br />The highlight of In The Loop, however, is the creativity and breadth of Malcolm's swearing (and later, of his understudy Jamie). Certainly, a highlight is the sight of Malcolm yelling "Lick my sweaty ball, you fat fuck!" at an overweight American tourist who's asked him to stop swearing outside the White House, or the simply delightful "Fuckety-bye-bye, then."<br /><br />All in all, Armando Iannucci’s world of politics is too spineless, backstabbing and meaningless for us to take it seriously. It is satire after all, it’s meant to use hyperbole to expose the ridiculousness of the problems. I could get all artsy and pretentious here and say that maybe that’s what he’s trying to say. By making his satire a farce, he is saying that politics itself is just that – a farce. I could say that but I won’t. What I will say is that it leaves me just a little bit terrified that it might be true.<br /><br />For the creativity in swearing alone, In The Loop is worth the watch. The addition of Anna Chlumsky makes it hard to miss. <span style="font-weight: bold;">B+</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-10035300377628175562009-05-07T18:22:00.006+01:002009-05-07T18:46:02.648+01:00This Month I Won't Be Watching…So it's been a long time since I did one of these, and there's been a lot of awful films you couldn't drag me to since then, but thankfully most of them have been so bland that they haven't stuck in my memory. So when I started writing on this blog again, I just know that I had to do one of these.<br /><br />As always, remember, I haven't seen these films, I won't be seeing these films. All my opinions on these are based entirely on my prejudices and on the trailers. I may well be completely wrong about these films. But you and I both know that I'm not.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjOiud_4mm_s15cMY-tsReJdVFhC-oy9_Kqjy4YVKyLsiPMV4o7nWhe9aAfyYtsOIrNWYmWKhICaFrryhs5yjeNDftb_gum3XH4PQ0QtmOPP6heayb2hwc1LNCMTpzpb3oksQLURwmic/s1600-h/ghosts-of-girlfriends-past.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; display: block; text-align: left; cursor: pointer; width: 135px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjOiud_4mm_s15cMY-tsReJdVFhC-oy9_Kqjy4YVKyLsiPMV4o7nWhe9aAfyYtsOIrNWYmWKhICaFrryhs5yjeNDftb_gum3XH4PQ0QtmOPP6heayb2hwc1LNCMTpzpb3oksQLURwmic/s200/ghosts-of-girlfriends-past.jpg" alt="Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333135892476988466" border="0" /></a>Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past is a Matthew McConaughey movie – a type of movie so stock, clichéd and unoriginal in nature that it’s bound to be next in line to have its own <insert-vague-genre-here> Movie spoof made soon. Why oh why do these films keep getting made? How does Matthew McConaughey keep getting work? Is his I’m-gonna-sleep-with-all-the-girls smile really that big of a box office draw? Because if it is, then please, please, please, someone, hit him in the mouth with a baseball bat.<br /><br />However, I do need to be fair to Ghost Of Girlfriends Past, and point out that it does deviate from the standard Matthew McConaughey movie format by not co-starring Kate Hudson. Maybe she had to go shopping that day.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Hannah Montana Movie</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_JqsEJMQ7iJxVoQ2L3l-_25dEN0B6nZ_LEl8DsT00HJ2m85-VcTs2lgsR0xpVS7xpHjBVs0ohutgFou4-aafSZl-g6UuBEllYAg3J7u3By-14hlMIzggh6se6EfDxxQ6t2SBok9tv7Lc/s1600-h/hannah-montana-movie.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 135px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_JqsEJMQ7iJxVoQ2L3l-_25dEN0B6nZ_LEl8DsT00HJ2m85-VcTs2lgsR0xpVS7xpHjBVs0ohutgFou4-aafSZl-g6UuBEllYAg3J7u3By-14hlMIzggh6se6EfDxxQ6t2SBok9tv7Lc/s200/hannah-montana-movie.jpg" alt="The Hannah Montana Movie" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333136896864950226" border="0" /></a>I’ve thought this over, long and hard, and I’m quite certain that I would rather contract AIDS from my rapist cellmate named Bubba than watch this 100-odd minutes of diatribe. I remain convinced that Miley Cyrus is an instrument of Satan sent here to destroy the planet Earth, and I don’t really care which persona she chooses to perform this task. I guess the best thing about discovering that Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus are the same person was realising that there was one less useless person in the world. Thank God for small mercies.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cheri</span><br /><br />This just looks shit.</insert-vague-genre-here>Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249885843378132876.post-18278615095785517332009-05-05T21:28:00.002+01:002009-05-05T21:30:48.698+01:00All The President’s Men<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXd2quavv5rGjg-qpKLIJf8JSx7bcDd-BmFTXI5v89rYL6Z8eru6ke_bYMFmMSWX5JVdOThHyQbTUXU8H8cKU7m-Zq56dpmviHpFuKfWJfbA6qUvO_ncgdJ7CWrbaO5fUFqzsj_fFgpMw/s1600-h/all-the-presidents-men.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 291px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXd2quavv5rGjg-qpKLIJf8JSx7bcDd-BmFTXI5v89rYL6Z8eru6ke_bYMFmMSWX5JVdOThHyQbTUXU8H8cKU7m-Zq56dpmviHpFuKfWJfbA6qUvO_ncgdJ7CWrbaO5fUFqzsj_fFgpMw/s400/all-the-presidents-men.jpg" alt="All The President’s Men" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332439956312600642" border="0" /></a><br />All The President’s Men is one of the films that help found the political thriller, and like so many that have come after it, it features a journalist as the hero. (Or rather, two journalists.) But unlike almost any of its successors, the focus of All The President’s Men is not the story or the face behind the conspiracy, but rather journalism itself. In dealing with a conspiracy where everyone already knows who the conspirators are, All The President’s Men is free to focus on the details of the how rather than the who. In fact, once the how has been dealt with, the film abruptly ends.<br /><br />Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman) were the Washington Post journalists who, in following up what started as a relatively small break-in at the Democratic party’s national headquarters in the Watergate building. As they follow where the leads go, the film wonderfully captures the incredulity felt by the editors, and at times even Woodward and Bernstein themselves.<br /><br />There are some wonderful scenes. For instance, the tension when Woodward first meets Deep Throat in a multi-story car park is palpable. It’s a wonderful location. The sense of claustrophobia that the garage elicits, the paranoia that the shadows create, the danger suggested by the flame of Deep Throat’s lighter penetrating the shadows – all of these things make the Deep Throat scenes some of the best in the film.<br /><br />There is a wonderful focus on journalism in the film, the mechanics of breaking a story – the endless waiting, the tedious search for sources willing to talk, the exhilaration of finally finding a source, the long hours, the endless phone calls and face to face meetings. In fact, by focusing on the how with such intent, the film distracts us from the fact that we know the ending, that we know where all the pieces will lie, and allows us to follow the story as Woodward and Bernstein break it.<br /><br />Interestingly, the film doesn’t focus on any of the characters outside of their involvement with the story. We see nothing of our protagonists’ private lives, and nothing of their characters outside of what they do to break the story. This choice firmly roots the film’s focus as a story about the story, suggesting that it is the story that is the most important thing here, not the people who helped break it.<br /><br />There is a reason that All The President’s Men is considered a classic, and if you haven’t seen it, then I suggest you do, and discover that reason for yourself. Whole-heartedly recommended. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A+</span>.Dibblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08798660922647448415noreply@blogger.com0