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Watched Hurt Locker the other night. It's a difficult film to review really.

On the one hand, you have a gorgeous film (particularly on Blu-Ray). Some great shots and camera work where you really feel you're right there in the middle of the film. Brilliant.

The plot too is an interesting take. Three bomb techs. It's not a role you usually see portrayed, so it's really interesting to watch.

So far, so excellent.

Then you get the characters. Has there ever been such a hideously assembled bunch of clichés gathered together outside an Arnie flick? I don't think so. They fall into pretty basic sets.

1. Foreign accent; will die.
2. Used to have a foreign accent; will die.
3. Shows kindness to the enemy; will die
4. Gung ho all American hero; will get others killed - but likely to have some heart wrenching revelation later which will show he has depth.
5. Series working soldier. Just doing his duty until his time's up and doing it by the book. Will have some heart wrenching revelation later which will show he has depth.
6. Jittery youngster scared of making mistakes. Will probably die in the line of fire before he manages to have a revelation later which will show he has depth.
7. Mad generals who love gun ho heroes. Maaaaaaaaaa! Darling!

Then there's the things I've learned about men from watching the film.
1. If you don't like each other, hit each other until you do.
2. Men love to break the rules.
3. Most men love men who love to break the rules.
4. Men have a soft, emotional under belly that comes out in times of stress. They just want to love somebody!
5. Men love covering up their soft underbelly by killing the enemy, or risking themselves to save people from the enemy.
6. Jack in the boxes are just a plastic box and some stuffing.

Such a brilliant film completely ruined by ham-fisted, ball achingly obvious characters straight off the cliché tree... 7/10
 
The cinematography, sound and editing makes the film, if it wasn't for that it would be a mediocre war film about the stresses of it like Jarhead.

Still think it deserved the Best Picture oscar, historically important (not like Crash shocking)
 
You can't be Best Picture just on the technical side. It doesn't work like that. Or, at least, it shouldn't. Plus, that film was tripe.

Inglorious Basterds had some lovely cinematography, sound, editing, and it actually also had amazing writing, acting and characters.

Not that the Oscar voting body isn't just a load of chimps sat round a table throwing faeces at whichever movie poster interests them most.
 
Jordan, 8 1/2 is the original of Nine, that musical tripe released earlier in the year. I thought the remake was terrible and that had music and a great cast, I dare go near the original, the plot is just so dull.


Furie, I totally see where you are coming from in regards to Hurt Locker. I just hated the way it got award noms etc just because it's about the Iraq war, that just annoys me, a film should be celebrated for it being a good film, not because it has a story based around the most recent war.


Anywho, last night I saw Jackboots on Whitehall.

It's like some British guys went "ha, I love Team America, lets do a British version based in WWII with barbie dolls" and the result is bloody weird. At times it's absolutely hilarious, other times you laugh out of pure wtf moments and at times you can tell its meant to be funny and it isn't. It's very, very British (including an amazing British cast) and I don't think anyone outside the UK will actually understand the humour (especially about the Scots) but I think it was random enough to be enjoyable. I love how they made the Hitler gay, leads to some very amusing scenes.

Rating: 3/5


I also watched The death and life of Charlie St. Cloud.

I only half saw the trailer to this but it was enough for me to have the first 30 mins ruined. Which is a shame (basically it revolves around a **semi-spoiler** car crash **semi-spoiler over** and I spent the first 30 mins expecting it). However the film was generally very good, well made with some good performances from the cast. I didn't quite realise it was going to go down the path it did and you could tell it was trying its hardest to avoid corny lines and clichés. So I liked it, nothing amazing but a nice drama on say a weekend afternoon on the telly.

Rating: 3/5



Oh and Tom Hardy just got announced for being in the cast for Batman 3, yes, time to get VERY excited. :D
 
^ Not seen nor heard anything about Jackboots on Whitehall...may go and see it - sounds like my kind of chill out film :p

Just got back from seeing The Social Network. It was as I expected - very good, showing the current enthusiasm for Facebook and very engaging. It had many moments of what I like to call "smirk comedy" in the fact that it has moments of comedy which aren't laugh-out loud, but make you smirk.

The one thing that I wasn't fond of was that it made Mark Zuckerberg out to be an arrogant arsehole, which I'm fairly sure he isn't. This was even more reflected in the final scene where the viewer is told of his fortune, to which may people shouted out expletives at it, almost in disgust.

Nonetheless, a very nice film, which will make a buck as Facebook is popular nowadays, probably explaining it's overly high rating on IMDB. It's not a film you feel the need to ever rewatch, but a good film that I enjoyed to watch.

8/10
 
I watched Muppet Treasure Island yesterday, amusing film as Muppet films are! Not as good as Christmas Carol! 6/10
Weird seeing Kevin Bishop as a boy in it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiM8MAtY8nQ[/youtube]

Sing along!
 
Oh, going back to 8 1/2... It's AWFUL. So dire and boring, I really hated it.

And I LIKED Nine, just because it's a musical more than anything though...

8 1/2 was the dullest film I've ever seen. Fellini just bores me though, La Strada, which Lynch bangs on about all the time, is just as pointless and awful.
 
Dave said:
I watched Muppet Treasure Island yesterday, amusing film as Muppet films are! Not as good as Christmas Carol! 6/10
Weird seeing Kevin Bishop as a boy in it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiM8MAtY8nQ[/youtube]

Sing along!
Click to expand...

Treasure Island is amazing as Tim Currey's in it... Got it the other week for £7 from HMV :lol:
 
Nemesis Inferno said:
Treasure Island is amazing as Tim Currey's in it... Got it the other week for £7 from HMV :lol:
Click to expand...

This... And it's considerably better than Christmas Carol... :)
 
Now I slightly like Christmas Carol better. Not exactly sure why to be honest. I also find it amusing that the lad that plays Jim is now a comedian :lol:
 
I prefer Christmas Carol. It could just be that I've watched Christmas Carol more than Treasure Island, but it's always been a special film for me.
 
Ben said:
Oh, going back to 8 1/2... It's AWFUL. So dire and boring, I really hated it.

And I LIKED Nine, just because it's a musical more than anything though...

8 1/2 was the dullest film I've ever seen. Fellini just bores me though, La Strada, which Lynch bangs on about all the time, is just as pointless and awful.
Click to expand...

Urgh, Art Film, one of my possible essay questions is 'is art film important?' I'd love to tear it apart about how **** it is, but I really want to spare myself the agony of sitting through the tripe. I did want to see Nine but am now 100% put off. Forever. Urgh.
 
^As who? It's probably really obvious but... I'm stumped... (especially as imdb throws back NOTHING!)...


And Christmas Carol... It just has those rather dull parts in the middle (as per all Christmas Carols) that just made it a bit... Blergh... Even if Michael Caine is awesome and it does have "There goes Mr Humbug" <3
 
Watched a South African film called Tsotsi in Film today for our exam study. It was a bit bland at times, sometimes I felt the film seemed really fake, but at others I really engaged with the film and the characters. I'm not sure whether I liked it or loved it, but I suppose with me having to study it for months now, I'll be able to decide that soon.

7.5/10
 
^I saw that in the cinema when I did Media Studies in school. I quite enjoyed it and it was filmed quite well. :)
 
Well last night was the first screening I went to that was part of this years London Film Festival. It was the European Premiere of Let me in.

Obviously a slightly controversial as the original Swedish film is adored by film fans around the World and it was only a couple years back that it was released. It's directed by the guy behind Cloverfield and stars the girl who played Hit Girl in Kick Ass and the boy from The Road. It's also the first Hammer Horror film for about 34 years. I actually enjoyed it. The cast were absolutely superb, very talented and give the film a realistic feel (despite it being about a vampire). It was shot beautifully and it made it a real joy to just look at, even when nothing was happening. However I found the score was the real star of the film, it just worked on so many levels. It created the perfect atmosphere for every scene, especially when the scene is meant to be tense and truly terrifying. The film is rife with emotion due to the relationship between the boy and all the other characters and I love the connection it makes with Romeo and Juliet.

Obviously the main thing with this film is that everyone instantly wants to compare it to the original. Annoyingly I've forgotten the majority of the original and when I did see it I remember my initial reaction was that it was over-rated and too arty. I definitely need to re-watch it to give it a full comparison but this new version does feel very similar in regards to the sets etc. So that is at the top of my 'need to re-watch' list.

So back to this film, very good with a fantastic score and cast with some great cinematography and direction.

Rating: 4/5


After the film we got introduced to the director, the head of Hammer Films and the two kids. They did a little Q&A session which was really cool. The biggest thing mentioned was about the original, obviously. The director very interestingly said that he was the only one out of everyone on set that had seen it and he refused to let anyone else see it as he didn't want to make the same film, didn't want anyone else influenced by the Swedish version. Which I thought was interesting as, to me, it looks extremely similar. However he did go on to say that he referred a lot more to the book so maybe there are lots of similarities in style due to the book being very descriptive? I dunno, but its clearly something to think about.

So that was my first film of the festival which will continue with two films over this weekend. Was cool to go down another red carpet (especially as it was at the same time as Chloe Mortez). It was also interesting to see so many producers and directors in the screening (was sitting in the same row as Noel Clarke).



Oh and tonight I got home and what was waiting for me on the side? Only GRINDHOUSE on Blu-ray!!!!!!!!!! Hell yeah, so obviously I watched it as soon as I had foodage.

Still amazing. I prefer Planet Terror by far, feels more like a 'grindhouse' type film, Death Proof looks too clean and new from about half way through. However its all great fun and the trailers are still hilarious. Don't be a hater and love the Grindhouse awesomeness :p
 
Well just before I go out to another screening I thought I better post last night's film review. So my second film for the BFI London Film Festival for me is The American.

It stars George Clooney as a lonely assassin-type bloke. It mainly takes place in this tiny village in the middle of Italy where he is seen as an outsider but is befriended by the priest and his prostitute. I won't say any more on the plot just in case I give too much away. I found it to be a strange film, it took things very slowly but at times it made this work in its favour by building tension very slowly and then 'boom' ya jump at nothing. Clooney's character is meant to be paranoid and I think the style of the film does quite a good job of making you share his paranoia. The relationship between him and the prostitute and another assassin is strange (yet very sexy, you can tell this is a European film lol) but it helps the film move along. There are scenes which are very good (I thought the first part of the film was shocking and cool, took the whole audience by surprise) but they are amongst some out of place scenes that just slow the film down a bit too much. When this is released only go and see it if you actually want to see Clooney in a serious film with some naked ladies thrown in.

Rating: 3/5

The lady sitting next to me was getting excited she might get to see Clooney and when he didn't turn up there was an air of disappointment amongst the majority sitting in the screening, much to my amusement. However did turn up with the two lovely ladies and they did a small q&a session after the film. It was actually quite an interesting q&a as the audience kept asking strange questions and the director was just giving us jokes in return lol. "Were the butterflies real or CGI?" - "We had to train loads of butterflies and we couldn't film until we thought they were ready for their big role." - "LOL"


So yeah, I'm off to see Never let me go which was the film that opened the festival on Wednesday. See ya soons.
 
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