The End of Another Month, which although I have seen plenty of films this month, with one or two exceptions has been fairly average.
The Croods is easily the best film I have seen this month, and aside from perhaps two great performances from Catherine Zeta Jones in Side Effects and Broken City, there has been very little else to get excited about, with the Majority of films getting a fairly average 6 or 7 out of 10 from me, and most would be instantly forgettable without this blog to refresh my memory.
Worst film of the month has to go to the ridiculously unfunny Identity Thief, although Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters does run it close.
Upcoming in April, several big budget blockbusters, Starting with Oblivion, Olympus has fallen and Iron Man 3, which probably means there will be several smaller films that I miss out on, so I hope to plan another film day trip to Chichester if I can make it work in terms of timing and films I want to see.
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Saturday, 30 March 2013
The Host
Stephanie Mayer certainly knows how to write a good book, after vampires and werewolves we now get an alien invasion, and a schizophrenic Alien with a human voice in her head, The Storyline and the concept are superb, and visually this film is stunning, but unfortunately I can't help feeling that maybe this movie does not do the book justice (although I have not read the book)
It just felt like there was something lacking from the acting performances, I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Maybe the characters lack a bit of depth, so you don't feel emotionally involved with them, and the "If we are the last man and woman alive" scene, early on in the film, is loaded with so much cheese it is almost cringe worthy.
I'm sure the Twilight Audience will enjoy this, certainly take your teenagers, but if you are expecting a fully rounded movie you will come away a little disappointed 7/10
It just felt like there was something lacking from the acting performances, I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Maybe the characters lack a bit of depth, so you don't feel emotionally involved with them, and the "If we are the last man and woman alive" scene, early on in the film, is loaded with so much cheese it is almost cringe worthy.
I'm sure the Twilight Audience will enjoy this, certainly take your teenagers, but if you are expecting a fully rounded movie you will come away a little disappointed 7/10
Thursday, 28 March 2013
G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Wat can I say about G.I. Joe? this is a film with issues, mainly the acting, or lack of, from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who should just stick to wrestling, and Bruce Willis who really should just give up with the action movies and retire gracefully, or take on something different.
The plot is extremely contrived, and if you go and See it make sure you don't sit towards the front, as in several of the fight scenes the camera angles change so quickly that if you are to close to the screen you can't actually process the images fast enough to see whats going on.
Apart from that this is an ok movie 5/10
The plot is extremely contrived, and if you go and See it make sure you don't sit towards the front, as in several of the fight scenes the camera angles change so quickly that if you are to close to the screen you can't actually process the images fast enough to see whats going on.
Apart from that this is an ok movie 5/10
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
BBFC classifications
I have just written my review of Trance, if you read it you will see that my enjoyment of the film was limited slightly by my distraction with regard to its 15 certificate, this was also the case with The Master last year.
Is full frontal nudity acceptable for a 15 year old? especially when that full frontal nudity includes a close up of the genital area to emphasise a point.
In the case of The Master, it was a hullucination where he was seeing everyone in the room naked, maybe my objection to that one was that not everyone in that room was as attrative as Rassario Dawson! but that film also included use of the C word, however according to the BBFC "The single use of very strong language occurs during a psychological experiment in which some pornographic prose is read out. This includes the line "I felt his fingers opening the lips of my c**t". The use of the word occurs in the context of a crude sexual description and is not used aggressively or insultingly"
So again is this the sort of thing that a 15 year old should be allowed to see? in many ways the context of the word in The Master, a slang term for the vagina, is, for me, worse than it being used as a insult.
Some may argue that our 15 year olds should be exposed to this, that the vast majority of them will have seen much worse anyway and that they need to experience this sort of thing. if that is the case, why are our rules on TV for channels like Babestation so draconian?
Is full frontal nudity acceptable for a 15 year old? especially when that full frontal nudity includes a close up of the genital area to emphasise a point.
In the case of The Master, it was a hullucination where he was seeing everyone in the room naked, maybe my objection to that one was that not everyone in that room was as attrative as Rassario Dawson! but that film also included use of the C word, however according to the BBFC "The single use of very strong language occurs during a psychological experiment in which some pornographic prose is read out. This includes the line "I felt his fingers opening the lips of my c**t". The use of the word occurs in the context of a crude sexual description and is not used aggressively or insultingly"
So again is this the sort of thing that a 15 year old should be allowed to see? in many ways the context of the word in The Master, a slang term for the vagina, is, for me, worse than it being used as a insult.
Some may argue that our 15 year olds should be exposed to this, that the vast majority of them will have seen much worse anyway and that they need to experience this sort of thing. if that is the case, why are our rules on TV for channels like Babestation so draconian?
Trance
I was really looking forward to watching Trance, ever since I saw the trailer and then heard that Cineworld were doing a preview, I have to admit I really like Danny Boyle, I guess post olympics he is a bit of a national treasure, but also his recent films Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours are both a superb watch.
Trance is a very good film, and an enjoyable watch, but you need to stick through to the end to really appreciate it in its entirity, about half way through I thought I knew what was going on, I was wrong! the whole thing is quite mind bending in that once you get into the hypnotism section, certain elements are not actually real and are the subject of hypnosis. however the end "reveal" shows how deep that actually goes. (I won't ruin it for you)
My Issue with Trance is the use of nudity, there are several sex scenes, and scenes where people are nude, that are shot so that you don't see anything, (IE head shots and above the waist shots for the men) Then all of a sudden there is a plot device which involves Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson) shaving off her pubic hair, she goes into the bathrom, you hear the electric razor, but then she steps out of the bathroom full frontal, and to emphasise the point you get a nice close up of her (freshly shaven) vagina.
Now don't get me wrong here, I am a red bloodied male afterall, but a) I wasn't expecting it, b) if you are going to show that, why be so careful for the rest of the movie and c) how on earth can the BBFC justify giving it a 15 certificate?
Unfortunately I came out of the cinema thinking more about BBFC classifications that I did about the film, which is a shame, because had this been an 18, I probably would have enjoyed it more without being distracted by the certificate. 7/10
Trance is a very good film, and an enjoyable watch, but you need to stick through to the end to really appreciate it in its entirity, about half way through I thought I knew what was going on, I was wrong! the whole thing is quite mind bending in that once you get into the hypnotism section, certain elements are not actually real and are the subject of hypnosis. however the end "reveal" shows how deep that actually goes. (I won't ruin it for you)
My Issue with Trance is the use of nudity, there are several sex scenes, and scenes where people are nude, that are shot so that you don't see anything, (IE head shots and above the waist shots for the men) Then all of a sudden there is a plot device which involves Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson) shaving off her pubic hair, she goes into the bathrom, you hear the electric razor, but then she steps out of the bathroom full frontal, and to emphasise the point you get a nice close up of her (freshly shaven) vagina.
Now don't get me wrong here, I am a red bloodied male afterall, but a) I wasn't expecting it, b) if you are going to show that, why be so careful for the rest of the movie and c) how on earth can the BBFC justify giving it a 15 certificate?
Unfortunately I came out of the cinema thinking more about BBFC classifications that I did about the film, which is a shame, because had this been an 18, I probably would have enjoyed it more without being distracted by the certificate. 7/10
Monday, 25 March 2013
Jack the Giant Slayer
Yet another fairy tale reworked with a different story, the trouble with this sort of movie is that although they change the original story of the fairy tale, they tend to keep a lot of the key elements, and therefore become terribly predictable, Jack the Giant Slayer falls right into this trap, the story of jack and the beanstalk is so familiar, that athouh this is "Jack the Giant Slayer" not "Jack and the Beanstalk" you are always one step ahead of the movie.
For what its worth, the CGI is good, as per my hatred for all things 3D I saw the 2D version, but I have heard people who have seen the 3D version saying it is good, and very subtly done, so they didn't come out with the usual headache.
The acting is passable, I'm not sure this will go down as one of Ewan Mcgreagors most memorable performances, but decent enough from the leads Nicholas Hoult and Eleanor Tomlinson.
Take your children, and if you have never told them the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, I'm sure they will enjoy this immensly. otherwise just don't bother 5/10
For what its worth, the CGI is good, as per my hatred for all things 3D I saw the 2D version, but I have heard people who have seen the 3D version saying it is good, and very subtly done, so they didn't come out with the usual headache.
The acting is passable, I'm not sure this will go down as one of Ewan Mcgreagors most memorable performances, but decent enough from the leads Nicholas Hoult and Eleanor Tomlinson.
Take your children, and if you have never told them the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, I'm sure they will enjoy this immensly. otherwise just don't bother 5/10
Identity Thief
Identity Thief is supposedly a comedy about a guy who has his identity stolen, and in a bid to clear his name he goes to Florida in order to bring the Woman who stole his Identity back to Denver in order to clear his name.
The reality is that this is about as funny as watching paint dry, all the best "Jokes" are in the trailer, and even those are not funny. I actually cannot recall laughing once. the acting is poor and even as a story line it just dosent work. It just fails on very level.
This is possibly the worst film I have seen so far in 2013, if you have seen the trailer then you have seen the best of the movie, just satisfy yourself with that and don't bother with the rest. 3/10
The reality is that this is about as funny as watching paint dry, all the best "Jokes" are in the trailer, and even those are not funny. I actually cannot recall laughing once. the acting is poor and even as a story line it just dosent work. It just fails on very level.
This is possibly the worst film I have seen so far in 2013, if you have seen the trailer then you have seen the best of the movie, just satisfy yourself with that and don't bother with the rest. 3/10
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