So, Tony Scott back again. The man who gave us the magnificent True Romance and the surprisingly wonderful Man on Fire remake is remaking another cult classic with The Taking Of Pelham 123, starring his favourite actor, and who wouldn't want him in their film, Denzel Washington, as a rail controller, the voice on the other end of the line as Travolta's eccentric hostage taker as he works out a plan to make $10 million in one hour. Add John Turturro as a hostage negotiator who helps Denzel and James Gandolfini as the mayor.

So, it's all you expect, tense dialogue, people being shot and shouting "Where's the money Lebowski?" swishy camera work, fast editing, saturated images, slo-mo and fast motion mixed together, the Scott Standard.

The opening credits are a testament to him, lots of classic styles mixed with showy offy text work and dialogue.

And that's kinda the film's big weakness, the dialogue is dull and just has lots of f-words because they can't think of something to say, I never cared for Denzel and never feared his life would be in danger at all, Travolta was never a savage man, just a slightly odd character with a gun and friends, and it's a shame because the actors work really well, the film looks and sounds amazing, but the script is flat and lifeless.

I guess it's that everything else works then, because considering it's high score the script just makes you question why they let it go into production without another re-write, stupid Writer's Strike.

It's not the Tony Scott film you've waited for since Man On Fire, but it's got the same components and it'll do for now.
7/10

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Last three films seen on the big screen:
Law Abiding Citizen - 5/10
2012 - 5/10
A Serious Man - 6/10

Well, I headed out to theaters and caught an amazing indie film spreading through the USA recently, and have to say, its the best I've seen all year. I mean, damn, I loved it. Here's my review:

(500) Days of Summer (10/10)

Let's start this off bluntly: Few films are as brilliant, vibrant, sweet and heart-breaking as (500) Days of Summer: It's whole make is beautifully and meticulously sculpted and glossed into a realistic love story. Wait, scratch that. As the film's narrator spouts in the early moments of the film: "This is not a love story." In fact, (500) Days might very well be the anti-love film, stripping away much of the common qualities of a convential rom-com and producing a consumate work of art. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Excellent) plays Tom, a young greeting card writer who has all but given up his dreams of being an architect. He claims to believe in love, and when he meets his boss' new assistant, Summer for the first time, he's starstruck and pegs her to be "the one."

The title comes from the 500 days we are whisked off through (In random order) that define Tom's relationship with Summer: Their first meeting, his awkward courting of her, and the highs and lows of their relationship. The highs (Such as a musical number choreographed with Hall & Oates after Tom sleeps with Summer for the first time) are colorfully bright; the low's are so masterfully directed that they feel as if you're getting punched in the stomach. That being said, the gifted helmer of the film is Marc Webb, debuting his first feature film (After a string of music video and commercial projects). And believe me, it delivers. He takes Scott Neustader's blisteringly personal script and shapes it into a piece of bittersweet visual candy.

And that's the objective of (500) Days: To show what romances are: Bittersweet. That they sometimes can bring heartache: And Webb directs the film in such a way that you'll feel like you have a hole in your chest during portions of the film. The acting is brilliant, with Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel giving superb, flawless lead performances, all of which are captured (Lovingly-and-hate-d-ly) by cinematographer Eric Steelberg's camera. The soundtrack is flooded with appropriate pop-rock, indie-style pieces that further define the film. And throughout the whole endeavor, you're drawn in and feel for the characters: For all their flaws and quirks, for all the heartbreaks and blooming "love", (500) Days of Summer reaches out and touches you. And then slaps you in the face.

 

Seriously, see this now.

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"Censors tend to do what only psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion." - David Cronenberg

DarthDirector:

Seriously, see this now.

I cannot wait until that is out, the trailer is the only one showing at the cinema all the time that I enjoy more and more.

Well, saw a film today cos Will Ferrell and Danny McBride are in it, and I like them, erm... Liked them.

So, Kevin Smith predicted it, in 2001, Will Ferrell played Marshall Wilenholly in Jay and Silly Bobs' Stricken Backs, and 8 years later Ferrell pops up in TV adaptation Land of the Lost as Rick Marshall in a film that tries to do the Starsky and Hutch mickey take and yet loving homage to the show, but messes it up completely by losing the funny for CGI, jump scares, lots of unnecessary plotting and poor character development.

Rick Marshall and new assistant Holly, Anna Friel, go to Will, Danny McBride, and his crazy d cave where they travel time and space to an odd land full of monkey men, Chaka played by the legend that is Jorma Taccone, dinosaurs who are smart, odd lizard men and a giant crab for no real reason.

It begins with a horror scene, then some relaxed improv, with Bobbe J'Thompson, the brilliant kid from Role Models, and slowly forgets this for lots of running, gross out gags with blood sucking bugs, sex jokes that aren't funny, except "Watch out you'll get wet, No I mean Holly" which the kids in the audience, mainly the entire limited audience, after all the ads and trailers were child friendly, didn't get. Add the moment where Ferrell says Eff you to Chaka and lots of cursing and some violence, comedic but boring, and it's stupid how they can put Coco Pops ads in front of it.

So, whilst the actors are solid, the music is brilliant, it's just forgotten that CGI is the anti-funny, like David Koepp said on the Ghost Town commentary, CGI stops jokes, it's true.

What a waste of time, avoid, like most films this year, avoid.
2/10

---

Last three films seen on the big screen:
Law Abiding Citizen - 5/10
2012 - 5/10
A Serious Man - 6/10

Gerard Butler, oh Gerard, the future was so bright. After 300 we were willing to overlook P.S. I, Love You, no one should make a film with Ms. Swank anymore, especially when steady grower into an awesome film RocknRolla had you being so freaking funny and willing to debase himself with some scenes, mainly the getting the *** out and the sex scene, god that sex scene, so unbelievably graphic. Nothing like that in his latest venture, Produced and starring Knocked Up's Katherine Heigl as a woman who is human and can't find love, but film cliches say she will at the end. She's a sad story too, after the brilliant Knocked Up where she wasn't just some gal, but a full character, human to the bone, she went off and made 27 Dresses, and because she was in two big hits, now produces this film with her sister, or cousin or mother, or something.

So, one of the first R-Rated Chick Flicks for a long time, The Ugly Truth is about Heigl's TV Producer struggling to accept the bringing in of Butler's shock jock TV show host to boost ratings as he explains his misogynistic views live on air, leading to Cheryl Hines' and John Michael Higgin's married anchor-people going from hating to loving each other in one reel, ending their portion far too quickly.

Boy and Girl hate each other, must work together, and sure enough they bond as he tells her how to woo a man of her dreams kinda guy, amidst comic moments where she falls over, off a tree, and all that malarky that's genuinely cringeworthy and would be out of place if this film were aiming to make a human romance story, which it's first 20 minutes seems to believe so.

You know the big twist at the end, all the drama and everything, down to the dialogue it's all there, and it's nothing special. As an R-rated film, yes there is some vulgarities, but nothing too much, and the most raunchy part is, thankfully, the film's funniest scene, with a kid picking up what he thinks is a toy in a restaurant but is the control for a pair of vibrating undies Heigl is wearing as she presents her ideas for advertising during sweeps to the big guns. You know what's gonna happen, but it's still rather funny.

The only other times you laugh is when Butler is being a real piece of work and making sex jokes, they are childishly funny.

Sub-plots come and go, Butler's character's nephew is introduced, used a few times to make Butler a nice guy, and then disappears, Heigl's assistant had little to do, the man of her dreams does nothing until the end where he becomes and arsehole. Heck, they even have E from Entourage in it and only gives him one short scene.

It's not The Proposal calibre, but it has it's moments, and would be awful if it weren't for Gerard Butler's talents leading the way into the light of this generic mess, a shame as it could have been a really near-the-knuckle Truth About Cats And Dogs for the 21st Century, maybe in a few years someone will change rom-coms for the better by turning them on their heads, has there been a romance flick that ended with one of them murdering the other one sadistically? Maybe 2011...

6/10

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Last three films seen on the big screen:
Law Abiding Citizen - 5/10
2012 - 5/10
A Serious Man - 6/10

Just sat through GI Joe, I can't print my review here because it's too vulgar for words, well, not for words, clearly, so check it out here instead: http://ethanfilms.blogspot.com/

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Last three films seen on the big screen:
Law Abiding Citizen - 5/10
2012 - 5/10
A Serious Man - 6/10

Finally got to see Moon last night, it was that or G-Force/GI Joe, so was glad we chose Moon to be honest. Absolutely incredible movie! Easily my favourite of the year, topping even The Wrestler.

Its a haunting, yet sometimes funny movie that stays with you long after the credits roll. Sam Rockwell deserves an Oscar nod next year for the role, and I'd have the movie to get some acknowledgement as well. Its simply beautiful, and I cannot wait to see it again and again.

A definite 10/10 movie.

---

Damn, hopefully will avoid seeing G.I. Joe...is it just me, or were we on a shortage of blockbusters this summer? Inglorious Basterds is coming here in 2 weeks or so, I think, so hopefully will get to see that.

Been catching up on a lotta DVD's...8 1/2, The 400 Blows, L.A. Confidential, Blood Simple were some of the best of the lot. Also caught Le Samourai which was interesting if slow at times (8/10) and Akira Kurosawa's gangster flick Drunken Angel (9/10) was superb.

---

"Censors tend to do what only psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion." - David Cronenberg

I saw Funny People today...

I have to say, I came out of the theater unimpressed. I was expecting a lot more laughs, or maybe I just wasn't expecting the movie to be as dark as it was, but either way it didn't stick with me. No real memorable scenes and only one real joke that I remember, and that's not considering it was a movie about stand-up comedians. Also, even for an Apatow production, the profanity was off the charts.

Well acted, though, although Adam Sandler's mopey, half-groaney "I'm depressed because I'm gonna die" voice got a little grating.

The trailer really showed all the funny parts exept a few other chuckles, but nothing truly hilarious like 40 Yr Old Virgin or Knocked Up.

5/10

Next week is District 9 for sure, and hopefully The s: Live Hard, Sell Hard. Both look really great for their resepctive genres. Next next week is Inglorious Basterds. Yay!

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^ Check what Beck's up to now.

TMUnderground

Picked up The The Bad The Weird on DVD and sat in for a night.

Whilst the camerawork and choreography were , the film's action sequences have lots going on, the script, the humour and the characters leave a lot to be desired, very one dimensional approaches leaving the final showdown boring and about 30 minutes too late for the audience to give a crap.

Music choices are mixed, some songs, one chase sequence just got the Kill Bill soundtrack out, and whilst the film looks , there's nothing inside.
5/10

---

Last three films seen on the big screen:
Law Abiding Citizen - 5/10
2012 - 5/10
A Serious Man - 6/10

Watched the much lauded Broken Flowers by Jarmush on TV (thank god for small favours, I would have hated to have wasted money on that piece), and can only say, wow, what a bore!

It's a extremely one dimensional film, filled with cardboard characters: a promiscuous daughter called Lolita, a ex Flower Girl that turned into a hushed housewife, a misantropic sociopath that has herself holed up with a bunch of outcast hicks, a aging gigolo that starts to feel the emptiness of his perfect life, oh, and not to forget a female loony that thinks of herself as a Dr. Doolittle ... really, least imaginative movie I witnessed unrole in while.

It's not a total failure, but borderline annoying and pointless, a 3/10 effort at best.

---

"Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude.
It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them."

Just saw DISTRICT 9.

It was decent but didn't meet my expectations.

6/10

---

Well, day one of Movie-Con is over, and I'll give you a rundown, sans proper reviews yet, like you wouldn't believe.

Beginning the day with some horrible Astroboy clips the film fails as animation, comedy, action and Donald Sutherland's acting is phoned in.

New Moon clip had a man take his shirt off so Kristen Stewart's minimal head wound could be covered...

Proper stuff, though, was Kick-Ass, which was effing amazing. I mean, you know the Comic-con reaction, it's probably impossible to reach the heights it's set itself, you'd be wrong, it reaches those heights, jumps off and slams into a car after Nicolas Cage's daughter in the film calls everyone the C-word and slices limbs. Genius.

District 9 was a solid if odd film, the mockumentary effect went away after 25 minutes to get to a real film that doesn't settle quite like it should.

Terry Gilliam's new film had short clips that exposed nothing, Gilliam was a bit confused as to why the clips weren't in the right order, he's a rather boring man.

Downey Jr. introduced a Sherlock Holmes trailer that was only a little more than we've seen online, and it was .

Michael Caine's latest film is Gran Torino in an estate, and seems rathe rmediocre.

Finally The Basterds, a slow, boring film with bad dialogue, no real protagonist and the tone shifts too often to care.

Bring on Avatar, Iron Man 2 and Katherine Bigelow tomorrow.

---

Last three films seen on the big screen:
Law Abiding Citizen - 5/10
2012 - 5/10
A Serious Man - 6/10

Just watched District 9 the other day and that was an amazing movie and i would give it a 9.5/10.

Well, having gained some much needed sleep, I had to miss Hurt Locker to do so, I can now report on day 2.

Iron Man 2 started slowly, with a Marvel man popping in to do some schtick, showing some behind the scenes stuff, then Downey entered and said they should play the real stuff, like the Comic-con act, it's officially a tour now, and we saw the 5 minutes online on the big screen, personally I don't care much for Iron Man nor this, it's a film, but it's nothing special, and this looks like it's not trying to be anything groundbreaking, but Gary Shandling popping up got some applause from Larry Sanders fans around.

Then there was a trailer for Paranormal Activity, which as a horror trailer didn't do any jump scares, was all about building tension, an amazing trailer to a film I'll never want to see if I like sleep.

After that a man credited as directing Garth Meranghi's Darkplace and The Mighty Boosh popped in with footage from a new English film about a road trip inside someone's apartment, highlights of the footage included Richard Ayoade (Moss from the IT Crowd) as a deadpan Polish Shoe Museum tour guide making bad shoe puns, was hysterical, and Jullian Barret of Boosh fame as a Russian dog milker, drinking direct from the source. It should be a solid English comedy, unlike last year's English comedy presentation of Lesbian Vampire Killers...

An odd clip from an English thriller called Exam with a bunch of people stuck in a room with a blank piece of paper and a pen each, was tense for minimalism, and finally the 3-D event began.

Christmas Carol was very dry, a couple of humour attempts fell flat as they were misplaced between serious Carrey moments, the CGI looked more Polar Express than Beowulf and the 3-D didn't reach out at all, we'll see come Christmas if the whole is better than the parts.

Finally of course was the big one, Avatar, of which we only saw a couple of minutes, 16 on Friday, but a couple yesterday. It was not mindblowing nor life changing, it was a man giving a speech in army uniform then a scene with a blue man running from a panther looking creature in a jungle planet like in Star Wars, we'll see with this one, so far as Cilla Black rapped, Don't Believe The 'ype! (Hype)

Jonah Hill is funnier than I thought in person, guess in a room where you can say anything, he will say anything. He's also larger than I expected, which is a tad worrying.

Funny People, like the Adventureland screening earlier, was disappointing, neither worked well and were worse second time round.
Real reviews in the coming days.

---

Last three films seen on the big screen:
Law Abiding Citizen - 5/10
2012 - 5/10
A Serious Man - 6/10

Saw two great films in theaters recently. The first was District 9; it's definetely one of the smarter science fiction films in a long time, taking the time and effort to be a brutal allegory on human nature. I mean, s--t, I even started hating us ten minutes into the picture. It's not your conventional Hollywood picture: It doesn't chop itself apart for a PG-13 rating, the lead character is barely likeable, and it doesn't feature any extreme star power. But, its a beautifully done film, great direction, superb acting, effecting. 9/10

And then, the greatest film of the summer quite possibly: Inglourious Basterds. I mean, f--k, my audience oohed and awed at every moment of tightening tension, laughed at every slightly funny gesture or quip of dialogue, and clapped at the ending. I mean, goddamn, this is a movie to root for. As per the film's last line, this is byfar one of Quentin Tarantino's greatest masterpieces: Smart, engaging and probably the most fun I've ever had in an auditorium. I fuckin' loved it. The cast was pitch-perfect, from Brad Pitt to Christoph Waltz to Eli Roth to Diane Kruger and everyone else...its a spaghetti western/war film/revenge thriller that's funny and explosive from the opening credits. 10/10, no doubt.

---

"Censors tend to do what only psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion." - David Cronenberg

At the moment I'm watching Stardust, I was watching a part with Robert De'niro as the camp pirate and there was one line that made me laugh harder than I have done in a long long long time, and it wasn't a big comedic line and I doubt it was meant to be as funny as it was,

SPOILER WARNING HERE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT YET SEEN IT.

it was the part were he's taken Tristan down to his cabin and Tristan asks "Wont the crew notice me" and Robert De'niro in the most calmest and politest and none threatening way says the line "Listen when I'm done with you even your own mother won't recognise you" , at that moment I stopped a second and thought about what he'd just said and just burst out into uncontrollable laughter, don't know why, maybe it was just how he said it, that line is commonly used as an insult.


SPOILER ENDS HERE

Stardust it's self is a brilliant film, I was really, really, really dreading watching this film at first and any of you out there who haven't watched this and don't think it will will you kindly slap your self across the face and watch it, it's a brilliant film, it had a clichéd plot basis true enough, the same basic plot most fairy tales have, but it's execution was perfect, it was told like a masterpiece, it was humorous, it was exciting, it wasn't even corny. I can't praise this movie any more, it was a fairy tale, watch it, the movies score is another thing to watch out for. Also is it just me or has Michelle Pfeiffer got more attractive the older she's got??.

10/10




Warning more SPOILERS but for a different film below.

District 9; watched it the other day a friend had it on pirate copy, he didn't recommend much to it, noting that it was boring and stupid he turned it off 30 minutes into it so I lent it off him to see what it was like, the copy was bad and blurry but the movie it self was brilliant, it was emotionally gripping, it had beautiful action, it had characters I actually gave a *** about and a odd sense of realism to it, the main character was so moral ambiguous that I really wasn't surprised when he decided to leg it and leave his "Friend" to die, I was more surprised by the fact that he came back and helped.
My only regret about this film is that I watched a pirated copy instead of waiting to watch it at the cinemas, I will still go see it at cinemas because movies like these deserve my support but it just won't be the same as watching it the first time, 10/10

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"IrishMorn"
If Adon and Sagat step in....ah, what the hell, I'll get drunk and join in on that one.

Officially up to date with reviews:

The Final Destination 3-D:

Yes, it's another sequel to a film that's had it's basic premise abused for 3 more movies than it should now, but having never watched them I went in fresh for The Final Destination, a film containing characters so paper thin that it's easy to understand how they get impaled or squished or cut apart that easily.

David R. Ellis offers no likeable characters in the film, and using the basic structural highlights of Snakes on a Plane, he gives us shitty CGI, bad dialogue, stupid unrealistic scenarios and a wealth of bad actors.

You have the main guy, who sees the deaths, and his girlfriend, they are happy people, then his best friend, a man more 1-D than possible, and her friend, an unnecessary ***, then the Black guy who doubles up as the smart one, and a wealth of others who just happened to get deaths too.

For a 78 minute film, plus credits, the opening premonition and subsequent set-up is about 12 minutes long, and then there's a wonderful CGI X-ray title sequence looking at highlight deaths from the previous 3.

And then we return to the film in question, and lots of CGI blood and gore, silly macguffins, laughable moments and amazing 3-D, many people in the audience batted pieces of paper away from their eyes it felt that real-ish.

The film isn't serious, and certainly isn't a horror, it's a thriller, and a bad one, there's limited tension and nothing interesting, but you don't care, it's all about seeing people die in more and more ridiculously over the top ways that question logic and gravity, and have a freaking laugh as things pop out in 3-D.

And I loved it, it was silly, violent, bad and everything I enjoy in a bad film, one to enjoy for fun, and in 3-D too, well worth a trip to the cinema.

10/10

The Hurt Locker:

Katheryn Bigelow is an odd mistress, she's surprisingly pushing 60 and looking as young as a 40 year old, and her films are all dark, violent and testosterone filled.

She's a testament to her gender, hell, she made Point Break. Point Break!
Young, Dumb and Full of Come, Johnny Utah, Gary Buesy, it's brilliant!

And she's back with a new film, another Iraq war film, eugh, I know, but this one isn't about the public consensus, the politics of the situation, it's just about a group of men in the situation, and how they face up to it every day, following them as they deactivate bombs.

And by golly is it brilliant. It's more a series of vignettes featuring the same characters in different situations, but that's what you expect, day to day life not a plot about a kidnapped soldier or a murder investigation, there are bombs, they deactivate them, they go back, drink, have a laugh, go out the next day and do it all over again.

By the end of this film you'll be lucky to have a fingernail remaining, nerve-shredding doesn't do it justice, you're there in the action, one false move and it's all over, as noted by the first sequence, starring Guy Pearce of all people.

And he's not the only big name, David Morse has a small role as a dark officer who shoots an insurgent instead of giving him medical support, even Ralph Fiennes appears for a shootout sequence that is so scary you don't know who will survive.

And that's the key to this film. It's all about who will make it out alive, and why they do what they do, with a wonderful heartfelt conversation at the end with two of the team just thinking about what they leave behind if they make that one wrong snip.

It's fast, it's tense, and it somehow makes 2 hours 15 minutes whizz by, a true gem, it looks amazing, sounds amazing, the score is heavy guitars and puts you in the moment, the acting is fantastic and real, and it's just a stunning piece of work that I can't praise enough, I urge you to see this film!
10/10

The Time Traveler's Wife:

So, Eric Bana eh, what happened to him? Chopper, stand up, Incredible Hulk, Jewish avenger, Funny Person...

And now, in the oddly named The Time Traveler's Wife he plays a man who from a young age in a tragic car crash can somehow travel time, and as things happen to him and people who met him years ago meet up once more only to find that he doesn't know them yet, it's a convoluted romance drama about Eric Bana and a long crush of his in Rachel McAdams, who thankfully isn't the lead unlike the title's suggestion, and it's a tale of one man's irregular problem, he can't control it, and how it affects the ones he loves.

For the first 30 minutes nothing is really explained about what happens that makes him travel, and as it leads to a big wedding scene I personally was beginning to feel that if we get no explanation about this odd behaviour the film will be another chick flick with no sense, a Lake House if you will. Somehow during a series of moments involving different aged Banas doing the wedding reception I got lost in the interest of the character too much to care, and from then on out the drama of one man who can't control his problem alongside an annoyingly, and very suddenly bitchy, wife became something I wanted to watch.

Yes the film's script is dripping with cliche dialogue, contrived scenarios and deus ex machina but it's Eric Bana's showcase and he show's off a lot, his humour, heart, emotion, I was enthralled by this man's journey, especially the darker turns and a heartwrenching moment where he goes into the future 10 years and meets his daughter.

This isn't My Sister's Keeper "Look, dying girl, audience, CRY AT MY COMMAND!" instead it's a sweet, oddly dark drama that avoids asking questions but softly touches upon subjects that are all too real in an odd inventive way.

Add to that the director's obvious visual flares, Bana falls on the floor as he disappears, we fall with him, a long tracking shot of a house through the ages from birth of daughter to 5th birthday, it's these wonderful flourishes that help raise this film above a generic studio romance for the gals, instead it feels like, although a bit bad in the acting of everyone sans Bana, a solid little film that's rather lovely.

7/10

Funny People:

Judd Apatow has enjoyed overwhelming success since Anchorman hit the scene, his films have grossed insane amounts for comedies, especially with relatively low budgets on all of them, that is, of course, until this year, Year One was expensive, rubbish and fell flat on it's face, Funny People, his latest directorial film, and another step closer to the mature drama tone that was introduced in Knocked Up, cost $70 million somehow, and dropped in the cinema at number one, but the next weekend was all but gone, and there's a damn reason for this.

Funny People is a 2 hour 20 minute drama about a complete *** played by Adam Sandler who is famous for bad comedy films and his sole joke throughout the film is about looking at Seth Rogen's penis.

Seth Rogen is a boring nerd who is thinner than ever, living with a successful TV show star, Jason Schwartzmen, and an annoying, competitive ***, Jonah Hill. He wants to make money from his comedy, Sandler wants him to write for him, ipso facto, they work together, then Sandler finds his cancer isn't too bad, then he finds an old flame in Leslie Mann and her hubby Eric Bana, the one thing this film has, and then he returns to his normal life, not learning anything, not being sympathetic, interesting or anything important for an audience to connect and take interest in.

With an extended run time the pacing is way off, I nearly fell asleep about 5 times, and wouldn't have missed a damn thing, it's all filler with no plot, like deleted scenes or a line-o-rama without any of the jokes.

Now, I love Rogen, Sandler, Schwartzmen, Bana, Apatow, and Hill, who was hysterical when he introduced the film live, but this film is a shambles, it's not dramatic enough to be interesting, the comedy ruins the dramatic moments, and the comedy is rubbish, it's scatalogical humour as always, but it's very much ignorant, awful, stupid comedy, not clever one liners or solid punch lines.

The film is a blow to the Apatow brand like no other, an awful waste of space, and I hope Apatow returns to a solid mix of drama in genuinely funny and WELL PACED!!!!!! films one day.

3/10

Adventureland:

So day 2 of the Con, Downey's glorious face appeared once more for Iron Man 2 footage, what could be more exciting? Sure the prospect of Avatar footage later on, which turned out to be ***, but I digress, a non-secret screening of Adventureland, that's still not out in the UK yet, occurred, a film that was a critical success but commercial failure, about 1 hour and 50 minutes too long considering it's near 2 hour run time.

The trailers made it a light comedy coming of age film from Greg Mottolla, most notably the helmer of Superbad, a film that is already tired and dull, in reality it's a dark drama with people being punched in the balls as it's jokes, about a young man who has to work at a bad theme park to earn money, as you do, and ends up hanging out with Martin Starr's gloomy oddity, sultry *** Kristen Stewart and a group of 80's and teen cliches that are relatively 'wafer thin'.

He's a virgin, by choice, he's got unsupportive parents, he's got a friend who just hits him in the balls, one dimensional like them all, and he's got limited direction. For a summer he has some partying and stuff, so he goes to a party, supplies the drugs, then it all becomes a relationship film about two boring people surrounded by people who are dull as hell.

Jesse Eisenberg was the lead in two of my favourite films, Roger Dodger and The Squid And The Whale, both with him as the neurotic teen virgin character trying to lose it, again he does that schtick, but the script is awful, it's got no jokes, plot, direction or interest in the characters, things happen, but there's no effect on the audiences, it's just one of the kinds of films I can't stand, it's boring, depressing, and with a solid cast it's shockingly uninteresting.

1/10

Inglourious Basterds:

I did my Tarantino run in the lead up to his latest, and you know what I realised? I don't really like any of them.

No.
Reservoir dogs loses pace by minute 35, Pulp Fiction is a bloated self-absorbed attempt at something it couldn't reach, Jackie Brown is arduous and unnecessarily long, Kill Bill, well, it has it's moments, but they are mismanaged and in between excessively long moments of pointlessness, Death Proof, nuff said.

Tarantino's best work was True Romance, and he didn't direct it.

So, I was worried, and the first time I didn't like the Basterds. It was after a day that featured District 9, Mcovin', a Python and an appearance from Pearly King Guy Ritchie and his new wife Robert Downey Jr. That' a lot to live up to, and when a ideo intro by Tarantino proclaimed we were some of the first to see this film I called bullshit like everyone else, it had nationwide previews that weekend.

But as the screenings have progressed I got used to it, the opening sequence gets shorter each time as Christopher Waltz chews the French farm as he hunts down the Jews under the floorboards, Brad Pitt's silly Italian accent, Eli Roth's batting skills, The brilliant use of David Bowie, the film as a whole is brilliant. It's not perfect, however.

The dialogue tends to drag with Shoshanna as she ends up being sucked in to hosting the premiere of Goebbell's new film, starring a soldier who killed almost 300 Allies over a 3 day period, who takes a liking to her instantly. From that everything zips off, the plan to blow up the cinema and eliminate the entire Nazi headliners for what they did to her family, the Basterds preparing their own brand of justice, even in a long scene in a bar with Michael Fassbender's ridiculously English officer under the guise of a German captain, leading to the inevitable explosion of violence, flows far faster than the heavy handed way that Chapter 3 is done, which is painfully boring at times when it could have lots more intrigue, tension and emotion.

As is the case, the film gets better as it picks itself up to the end, with a big sequence between Brad Pitt, B.J. Novak and Chris Waltz negotiating an end to the war, and in truly original style, the ending isn't exactly what we were taught happened.

The soundtrack is exquisite, the use of Bowie is brilliant, Ennio Morricone's stuff works wonders, the memorable opening and closing songs hummable all the time, the tense tunes, the superfluous ones too are well chosen as always, solid work here.

The film looks great, all natural, nothing CGI feeling, just the right style, the acting is universally great, from Mike Myers' scene stealing stiff upper lip to Mr. Waltz's Oscar winning work, and I assure you if he doesn't get the supporting Actor gong there'll be some serious furor, no pun intended, here. Brad Pitt is notably very funny, sometimes hard to comprehend, but he does his job, and the gals, well, they do the kicking ass stuff, and do enough to maintain the dignity needed.

Overall it's a great if not perfect film that isn't quite WW2 as much as Oh Man I Want Him To Explode For No Reason!

10/10

District 9:

Ok, so, picture the scene, in the middle of London after being there for 3 hours, early on we have Terry Gilliam standing up and presenting mini clips of his latest film, then a full on Q&A where he gets really involved, then some very very f****ng exciting clips of Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass in which a 7 year old girl calls a groups of people with weapons cunts and then proceeds to slice and dice, and without warning Jason Felmying and Christopher Mintz-Plasse appear for a light Q&A where it proves McLovin' is just as funny in real life.

How does one react when a secret screening begins with all that fun beforehand?

Well, sitting in our seats the Tristar logo appears, some whispers, then the QED logo, more whispers, we've seen them before, but where? Finally Peter Jackson Presents"
MASSIVE
FREAKING
APPLAUSE!
I whooped and I hollered like I was at the Drafthouse, and I was not ashamed nor alone, District Freaking 9, yes it was out in America already, but we'd have to wait until September 4th otherwise,

So we settled in, chuckles, claps, gasps, 'ew's, but mainly the audience just got stuck in.

The film begins with some interviews, documentary footage looking at the history of the Alien ship appearing, what happened, why the aliens were forced onto Earth, stuck in a refugee camp and treated like animals, and some nice stuff about 'what happened' that hasn't happened yet for us watching as the story plays out. Opening and staying almost completely in a documentary style for the first 30 minutes is what kills the film a bit.

We have our lead in Merwe, a normal guy with a sense of humour who is promoted because he's married to the boss' daughter, he is part of a government agency in Johannesburg who's sole purpose is working with the aliens, and the day we join him he is making them sign letters of eviction so they can be moved from the shanty town in District 9 to a smaller place, some of them seem more unwilling than others, and in it we see tempers rise and the attitudes of the MNU agents.

The use of CGI aliens and not making them monsters but sentient beings who act like you'd expect in their situation not only makes it a far superior film, but also makes it a breakthrough in sci-fi, a proper R rated CGI sci-fi that's not all about the explosions and tits, transformers, but more about social commentary and relationships between different beings, get it, it's about how we react to those different to us.

As we progress and get away from the documentary we see two radical 'prawns', an informal name for the aliens, making a weapon to attack the humans with, one that poor Mewes finds and accidentally triggers, leading him to have some side effects, and become the hunted like the Prawns, eventually hiding in District 9 with them, and making an alliance with the weapon's creator, Christopher Johnson.

And here's the best part of the film, a fully CGI character, in a film where the CGI is sadly a little lackluster, really makes you believe in his existence, and hope he survives, finally it's not about oh you can't care for him because he's different, and he has a kid to boot. When the action kicks off it goes with the expected bang, but it's almost as big a step in the right direction for adult Sci-Fi as Children of Men was.

A funny, shocking, icky film with a lead character who can't help but turn to a slightly Irish hint when he begins swearing a lot, and in his situation it makes sense to throw the F-word out as agents, Nigerian gangs and aliens all hunt for your body.

It's not perfect,t he sudden change from documentary to filmic styles is jarring, and disappointing, but it knows what it's doing, and for the most part avoids the cliches head on.

8/10

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Last three films seen on the big screen:
Law Abiding Citizen - 5/10
2012 - 5/10
A Serious Man - 6/10

And here I come to be the spoilsport about The Final Destination

The Final Destination:3/10

The Final Destination is hardly known for its subtlety. Like the Saw series the movies storyline eventually became slightly irrelevant, OK by Final Destination 2 the story was pointless, as least the Saw series tries to keep its storyline sort of cohesive. Final Destination just kept the same formula every movie, huge death scene, turns out to be prediction, they survive, get picked off one by one, ending that tries to be a twist yet not really. While its not original, and the acting was often awful, the movies kind of worked. They were fun, and the death were generally quite well done. It also helped the movies were very tongue in cheek. So the latest should be a success, I mean keeping the same formula and adding 3d sound an ingenious idea, right? After the impressive, if way too CGI filled opening, the movie proves that just adding 3d (and not very 3d I must add) does not make it a movie. Nor a scary one, actually not even really a funny one (well I laughed at it, not with it). Instead the movie is actually verging on quite lame, sure the deaths are smirksom (a incident with a truck and fire was pretty funny), but the dialogue, acting and storyline more than drag the movie down. In fact come the ending, which I think the writers thought was going to clever, I was just rolling my eyes.

I would talk about the acting at this part of my review, but I actually won't go in-depth. Its terrible, nobody is at all. A scene where one victim talks about how he accidentally killed his wife and child aimed to be moving, it failed dramatically, it felt forced, lame and just random. The main guy, don't know his name, don't really care, was by far the worst. He just made me laugh every time he saw a prediction, his version of acting appeared to be open eyes wide and look slightly constipated. Anyway the actors do not matter, what does matter are their deaths. I mean that's what everybody goes to see a Final Destination movie for. I won't lie the deaths can be fun in this movie. The big opening, while nowhere near as as the one in the second movie, is very fun. The following deaths are very gory, but they looked very fake. One man appears to be made of butter in one death, and a pool death just left me confused what had happened at first. But the priceless moment of the movie, the car wash scene, I am pretty sure that would do nothing, so why the girl screams as her face could potentially get whipped a little bit is just beyond me.

As I mentioned earlier the 3D effects of the movie are actually quite shoddy. A shame as the opening 3D is actually kind of decent, also the 3D credits worked quite well. Matters didn't help that the film followed the 3D avatar trailer, which actually does look impressive in 3D. However by the time flying plasters and embers come out at the audience, and a champagne cork flies into audience you just feel you're watching the cheap, tacky 3D that dominated the cinemas in the days of Jaws 3D. I thought it had moved on from that, 3D being used to give depth, not lame jumpy moments. Oh speaking of jumpy moments, I must point out this movie is not scary at all. So why it's listed as horror is just confusing.

The Final Destination really is hopefully the final of the series. It stinks of desperation, and the 3D does really nothing for the movie. Come the terrible finale that lacks any originality you will want the extra money you forked to watch this in 3D back.

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As summer nears it's inevitable end a film pops out which can't not be mentioned with the ending of a season, (500) Days Of Summer, about 2 young people meeting, becoming friends, lovers, break up and the aftermath finally hits the UK on, ad I'm quoting a mother pushing a push chair as I walked to the cinema, "The last day of summer holidays"

Bliss to come as kids don't annoy me when I go around town, but the film, unfortunately, was full of 12 year olds with nothing else to do. And did they get most of the jokes and references? Not one bit. A quote from Belle And Sebastian, a joke about the misinterpretation of the ending of The Graduate being about true love and contentment, a parody of The Seventh Seal with a chess match against Cupid, it's witty, intelligent, it doesn't pander to philistines and they didn't get any of the brilliant points this film has.

The film starts in the middle and jumps around, kindly we get some voice over at different points to keep us on track about the feelings, the point we're at and it also makes it a sort of story-book kind of romance. We see the meeting before the credits too, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel sharing a look, a smile, nothing more, and it builds nicely, from a look at who Summer is, who Tom is, and a credit sequence shot like Super8 home videos of the two at different stages of life, it's rather brilliant and inventive, like a Romantic Comedy in the style of Crank. In that we have a dance sequence out of the blue that is random, funny and brilliant, side by side reality and expectation sequences, walking down a road from real life to a sketch, subtleties that really work wonders to keep the film fresh, consistent, interesting, but most important of all, heartfelt.

As we jump from happy times to the depressing there is an ecclectic mix of songs to enjoy, from The Smiths to The Doves, a magnificent script, which starts with a note that it's all fictional, then proceeds to call a woman a ***, direction that is inspired, a time lapse sequence of sun going down as Tom sketches is just a thing of beauty, and lots of great gags, sweet moments, shocks, really upsetting parts, and all in all a full film that you'll want to enjoy and endure again and again.

The two writers and the director being male makes it interesting from a rom-com standpoint, more often than not at least one of the creative aspects is more feminine, this instead takes it on itself to be a cynical callous film that is a true romantic at heart, but can't fathom the downers that go along with the ideas of love.

Acting throughout is top notch, it's well edited to keep a solid pace throughout even if we're just re-watching scenes as we think, was it really that a relationship, but ultimately it feels like it's too short, you want to spend more time with the characters, even if one really does seem to be a *** by the end of it, it's an immense undertaking to change the rom com structure to fit the sadness, and the film handles it remarkably well.

You owe it to yourself to see it and watch what a true, non-Hollywood manufatured romance, is about.
(10)/10

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Last three films seen on the big screen:
Law Abiding Citizen - 5/10
2012 - 5/10
A Serious Man - 6/10

Caught a free screening of the new Sam Mendes flick Away We Go:
Is it already 8 months since January? Bloody hell, how's it rushed by so far? Well at the top of the year during Oscar season we were given a reunited couple in Leo and Kate Winslet for Hubby Sam Mendes' film Revolutionary Road, where for 2 hours they screamed at each other into a perpetual hell in suburbia.

The film is about a loving couple, Burt and Verona, played to perfection by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, who are expecting a child, and after finding Burt's parents, Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara, are planning a move to Belgium for a few years the month before the birth, decide to hunt for a place to live, now the only reason they were living there is null and void with the parents moving away.

Phoenix Arizona is the first place, with the pair finding themselves in an odd place with Allison Janney as the ex-boss of Verona, who is obscene and loud, but her kids have managed to ignore her perfectly, and her husband is just a constant depression. Whilst I love Janney, her character, because she was a loud drunken mother, was annoying, and when the humour occurred it felt a little too broad, still, that part is over quickly, onto learning more about Verona's family, including a wonderful heartfelt moment in a bath in a bath showroom. Onto the next set of parents, Maggie Gyllenhaal's hippie parent, breast-feeding other kids, and sleeping in one big bed. A dinner table scene where he ideals are pushed to the point of recoil becomes a comic version of the dinner table scene in Revolutionary Road in which Michael Shannon enters the house and shouts at the couple for not realising what they have, and how stupid they are about what they are doing with their lives, this is loud but the sense of fun for the couple to let loose, and break all of the hippie's rules, makes it so endearing.

As we progress through a series of characters ruining different parts of the world, and a really hard hitting pole dancing scene that's just beautifully done, it's nice that the interplay of the leads is so interesting, funny and heartfelt, the chemistry is true and it's lovely to be able to see a couple not go through hell and have a break up segment in a film, and by the end, with the simple interstitial "HOME" it's a moving experience of pure love, something so sweet to watch it really pushed this film higher than it should be, given it's a mere 1 hour 35 minutes and yet it feels longer, thought that could be more that the film started, then was rewound and began again, probably that.

Music is great, normal indie film alt-mellow rock stuff, but it's nice, visuals are sublime, really wonderful to look at, acting is all top, writing is cracking, except one overly expositional line about a job interview.

Overall this is Sam Mendes' best film to date, but personally his films always fail to live up to expectation.
8/10

On top of this, last night I saw The Room at the Prince Charles Cinema, sell out packed crowd, and what a terrible film, not worst ever, but so many awful amateur problems, and the audience loved it, genius work to make such a mundane film the height of comedy.

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Last three films seen on the big screen:
Law Abiding Citizen - 5/10
2012 - 5/10
A Serious Man - 6/10

After watching The Watchmen I must say I'm not exactly blown away by that movie, for the most part it feels from a todays viewpoint like a running commentary on the Superhero-comic crisis(-is) from the early ninties, which was spearheaded by graphic novles like The Watchmen. At least the movie, apart from boring me a lot of the time, reminded my vividly of why I never read that comic.

Just like the comic generation following in it's wake it's all about depicting violence craving adrenalin junkies in the middle of a existence-crisis.

Overall personally I can't see it being more than a 4/10

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"Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude.
It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them."

Saw Inglorious Basterds for the 2nd time yesterday, and what a great film it is. Classic Tarantino, right amount of voilence and humor, perfect script, perfect acting. I love Brad Pitt's accent, and Christoph Waltz should at the very least be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, he should win it, really. Chilling performance. Best film of the year (so far) and certainly the most entertaining, even though the runtime is a bit long.

10/10

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^ Check what Beck's up to now.

TMUnderground

After many months of bad reviews from the US release, a subdued UK opening is given to Whitest Kids U Know movie Miss March, about a high school graduate who goes into a coma for 4 years just before he loses his virginity, then he and sex obsessed misogynist pal travel cross country to find the one girl he loved, now a Playboy Bunny.

The film delves into some really low brow moments, poop gags, *** and fart jokes, that stuff, but it also knows what it's doing, carefully crafting the most horrible man in Tucker, a man brought up on Playboy and obsessed with just sex, no relationships, a complete and utter pig, and idiot, and hysterical for these facts. The reviews against it don't find the film's humour funny at all, it's a very silly brand, but there's lots of wit in between too, and added to that, it's got a lot of irony, charm, even some sarcasm over the notions shown.

But the film has a nice heart, it's leads might not always be likeable, but they are compelling, and unlike The Hangover, the crazy situations that just get crazier are well done, insane, never really explained, and just funny, which is nice.

A necessary cameo from Hugh Hefner is genius when a photo of a disabled girl is brought into question, Craig Robinson is as funny as usual, the man playing Tucker is just hysterical in his facial movements, and the stupidity he brings, overal it's a truly crazy film that, whilst not perfect, is very very funny and enjoyable from start to finish.

9/10

Ben Barnes, formally of "Oh, look at him, baby faced and legal" fame, plays Dorian Gray, a 20-something rich playboy lothario in Victorian London, a Russell Brand without the prank calls. He goes around innocent, until Colin Firth finds him and creates an , nasty, bitter human who sells his soul for infinite youth, eventually costing the man his mind.

Only we don't get much in the way of plot when we watch, instead are often just elongated set pieces involving sex, drama, which is pretty much reduced to, he loves a woman, is a ***, they kill themselves, he cries, fucks another girl... and then lots of Victorian detail like Sweeney Todd, only on a smaller budget.

The music is appalling, mostly out of place, ruining moments, too modern at other points, it makes no sense why it was deemed anything but temp, add the acting is sub-par, heck, the one reason I went to see it, Rebecca Hall, is a waste of time, since she only appears in the dying 25 minutes of the film, I say dying because by that point you've completely lost any interest, and are now waiting for the flatline.

Lets just say this and save me getting rather annoyed, nothing works in this film, whose tone is inconsistent and length and pacing is diabolical, it's a tragedy films from England can still be this ***.

2/10

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Last three films seen on the big screen:
Law Abiding Citizen - 5/10
2012 - 5/10
A Serious Man - 6/10

I saw 9 yesterday.  It was a lot of fun and the style is fantastic.  Downsides are only that it's pretty short and the personalities are a bit cliche.  On the upside, it certainly keeps you entertained for the hour fifteen!  I give it a 7/10, but I advise the casual movie watcher to wait till it goes to a cheaper theater.

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Just finished to watch Case 39 with Renee Zelweger i like this film!

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Have seen all myspace backgrounds,wanna bet?