It has been almost 2 months since I swore that I would make sure this blog was continually updated with all of my reviews on the latest movies. As it turns out trying to find time to see 3 films a week, write reviews on them all and work 2 jobs isn’t quite as easy as I had first imagined it to be. Thus, as ever, I seem to have neglected my little corner of the internet. Have no fear though good folk of the world wide interweb for I have found time, on this arduously cold and long train journey back to London to fill you in what has been truly brilliant (HP 7a), truly horrific (Skyline, Skyline, dear lord Skyline) and sort of a bit, meh (Red) in your loca multiplex. I won’t bang on about each of the films as I normally would as I do have a lot to get through. Instead I will focus my attention on some of the big hitters from the last few months and will just drop a quick note about the other films. In fact, think of this blog as sort of like a Michael Bay movie: we’ll go from set piece to set piece with no time for stopping and in the end it may all turn out to be a huge terrible stinking mess.
Only I hope it won’t.
So, with that in mind, bring on the Pearl and Dean music, break out your silent movie going snacks, turn off your phones and settle in for A Year Of Free Film #2 – #17
Despicable me 3D
Steve Carrell (or at least his voice) stars in the cute but ultimately not spectacular tale of super villain Gru who adopts a trio of orphans to aid his dastardly plan to capture the moon. No points for guessing where this is going… Carrell as ever is good fun and there are moments of occasional laughter but the whole thing feels like it has been done before about a million times better. Some of the voice casting also feels spectacularly misjudged (um…Russell Brand as the old crazy scientist…I mean, I love Russell Brand but he is literally just doing Russell Brand! There is no fit whatsoever with the character he’s playing!) That said, I did enjoy parts of it and I’m sure kids will enjoy it although Pixar needn’t worry about losing their mantel anytime soon.
Easy A
As a huge fan of John Hughes and films which make me smile, Easy A has found itself creeping into my top 10 films of the year. It’s one of only two films in this blog I actually went to see twice as well. Emma Stone’s teenage girl is neither pathetic nor needy as so many of these kinds of movies normally portray their female leads. Based loosely on The Scarlet Letter (which it knowingly references throughout) Easy A is one of those rare films aimed at teenagers which doesn’t treat the audience as idiots and which doesn’t treat it’s adults as pathetic side characters. With numerous references to John Hughes classics (bonus points for spotting them all) including the pointless (but brilliant) musical number and an ending which will have you grinning for about 2 days afterwards, Easy A is one of my films of the year. See it when it comes out on DVD, you’ll regret it if you don’t, trust me.
Red
The ultimate “meh” film on this list. For a film featuring this many big names I’m surprised no one turned round and said “yes, we’re having fun, but are the audience going to?” It feels like it wants to be the Oceans 11 of action movies with it’s cool casting and smart interchanges but it ultimately turns into Oceans 12. There was potential here but it appears to have gotten lost somewhere. See it for some mindless mid range entertainment but don’t expect anything more.
The Social Network
The first of the so called “big hitters” on this blog. I remember first hearing about this film earlier in the year reading that a film was being made about Facebook starring Justin Timberlake. My first reaction was ‘Oh my God, this is going to be the dullest and most useless piece of cinema ever isn’t it? What next, Myspace: The Video Game?’ Then I saw the trailer with its reworking and choral version of Radiohead’s Creep and its intense looking courtroom battles and I immediately took back everything I had said previously. This was going to be epic.
Since its release in October it has gone on to garner a lot of Oscar buzz with some tipping it to take this year’s Best Picture award (although the fact that Inception won’t get a look in is the first Oscar crime of the next decade). Zombie/Adventureland’s Jesse Eisenberg plays Marc Zuckerberg, the man behind Facebook and the apparent reshaping of the world in what is essentially a court room drama featuring flashbacks which tell the story the social networking site from its creation in a Harvard dorm room, to internet domination. We pass through the mind blowing speed of Facebook’s success, a few huge break ups, a friendship falling apart in epic style and the most exciting scenes of internet coding you’ll see this year. Written by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, Studio 60) and directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en) this, on paper, has the makings of fantastic drama and it doesn’t let us down at all. The cast are mesmerising and engaging despite the fact that the characters they portray are stuck up, vile and manipulative human beings. Moreover the film is long but never dull and it is filmed with such an intensity that you’ll swear there was a car chase or an explosion in there when in fact there is merely a lot of people sitting around discussing who owes who billions of dollars. This may be because Aaron Sorkin has packed the script so full of Sorkin-eske dialogue that we don’t have a chance to catch our breath. It was reported that Fincher liked the script so much despite its length that he told the cast to ‘just say it faster’ and this is seemingly exactly what they did. From the moment the film opens a whirlwind of intelligent and witty dialogue (but not in a channel Dave sort of way) is hurled in our direction and it never lets up. Without a doubt one of the films of the year and deserving of all the praise it has received, truly brilliant.
Burke and Hare
I like Simon Pegg. I like Andy Serkis. I, upsettingly, didn’t like Burke and Hare. It’s never quite sure if it wants to be a roaring comedy or a history lesson and as such it fails as both. There’s a few decent laughs but I found myself getting confused as to what I was watching. There’s really very little chemistry between the two leads despite their brilliance elsewhere, and as such Burke and Hare ultimately felt at points as flat and lifeless as the corpses our leads had been amassing.
The Kids Are Alright
Another film gaining momentum in this year’s Oscar race for it’s two leads, The Kids are Alright is a thoroughly enjoyable tale of an unconventional family undergoing familiar problems. Julianne Moore and Annette Benning play the married lesbian couple whose children decide it is time for them to discover who their real father is. Mark Ruffalo is the cool new age-y Dad who decided that “donating sperm was more fun than giving blood”. The premise may not sound spectacular but The Kids are Alright features excellent performances from it’s leads and is packed full of more emotion than the premise may suggest. The family is completely believable and I really did care what happened to each of the characters. A very enjoyable comedy/drama and again, deserving of the praise it has been receiving.
Another Year
Mike Leigh is back with a film about life, loneliness and growing old. The performances, as you’d expect in a Mike Leigh film are truly breathtaking (Lesley Manville deserves every award she can get her hands on this awards season) and each of the characters are brought to life with such depth it’s hard to believe this isn’t a documentary. The Mike Leigh technique is always mentioned in regards to his films and if it produces films like this it is no surprise. I would have liked to have seen more of Imelda Staunton who appears briefly at the start as her character seems to have been forgotten after the first few minutes of filming however this is just one small problem with an otherwise fantastic film. See at soon as you can, you need to.
Let me In
A good but ultimately completely pointless remake of last year’s fantastic Swedish film Let The Right One In. It’s a bit more violent than the original with some interesting flourishs, namely the car crash which takes place with us placed firmly in the back seat but there is nothing here which furthers or betters the original. It’s also not as open ended as the original was, especially concerning Abi (Chloe Mortez, a true rising star) and her ‘carer’. The kids performances are solid and I look forward to seeing more from Kodi Smit McPhee and Chloe Mortez who have together starred in some of my favourite films of the past 2 years (The Road, Kick Ass and 500 Days of Summer).The story is gripping but then again, the ORINGINAL STORY IS gripping! See it if you’re allergic to subtitles or go and get the superior Swedish original on DVD for £5 somewhere.
Chico y Rita
A charmingly animated tale of Cuban Jazz pianist and his muse. Set in the 1940s it feels like it was made in the same period of time. This is meant as compliment I might add as it tells it’s story with no forced set pieces and no fireworks. It is both heart wrenching and truly beautiful, filled with excellent music and animated characters more believable than most real characters we have seen this year. One of the films of the year.
Oh, and if the ending doesn’t have you beaming and on the verge of tears you’re dead inside. Fact.
Skyline
Awful beyond all belief! I was looking forward to this as well; I love a good alien’s attacking, monster movie and am a sucker for a B-movie but my goodness this was bad. The acting is atrocious, the script had me actually laughing out loud at several points and the ending….REALLY? REALLY??!! It wants to be War of the World and ends up being a massive stinking turd of a movie. The CGI is solid and it was made on a very small budget but that is no excuse at all, just see the review for Monsters below for proof of that. 2 hours of my life I won’t be getting back.
Don’t see Skyline. Just stick your head in a tree covered in excrement, it won’t be as wooden and will stink a whole lot less than this. One of the worst films of the year by a country mile.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
The best of the series so far, this time Harry, Ron and Hermione are on the run from Voldemort, camping out in the woods trying to survive the horrors gripping the country. Which sort of begs the question…why not just go abroad? The lead actors can now all actually act even if the script throws up the odd awkward line for them to stumble through. However, once again one of the main joys of the Harry Potter franchise is spotting the best of the best of British acting talent strutting their stuff, from Ralph Fiennes enjoying every minute of being the most evil wizard of all time, via Jason Isscas’ (Hello) now a snivelling and weakened Lucious Malfoy, through to Helen Bonham Carter in the role she was born to play as the deranged Bellatrix LeStrange.
There are also some stunningly shot sequenences throughout, namely the animated portion of the film which tells the tale of The Deathly Hallows themselves. I was lucky enough to see this one in IMAX and can confirm that this is the future of cinema. HP7 was of course supposed to be released in 3D but wasn’t as the directors felt that they couldn’t do it justice and for this I am eternally grateful. In IMAX the film is still all encompassing and you do feel like you’re sitting the middle of the picture, all without having to wear silly glasses.
The Deathly Hallows Part 1 then is far and away the best of the Potter films in almost every way. If you’re in the 1% of the country who still haven’t seen it then leave right now and see it. I await the finale with baited breath as it promises all the action set pieces and explosions in this 2 part finale.
The Girl who kicked the Hornets’ nest
The final part of the Swedish trilogy, this is another solid effort. There is some stuff missing from the book but at almost 2hr 30mins it is already overlong. The beginning is slow to kick off but the film quickly picks up the pace and turns into an intense courtroom drama which finally sees one of the most interesting heroes of recent years, Lisbeth Salander (the excellent Naomi Rapace) beating the system which has so abused her.
This again is about to undergo a pointless American remake which I can’t understand for the life of me. Fincher has a lot to live up to if he is to make his films as gripping as this trilogy has been and if he is to make his leads as charismatic and as close to their written counterparts as the two stars of this Swedish series have been.
Due Date
The Hangover this ain’t. I think in total I laughed 4 times (all of which were at jokes which had been in the trailer) and even then I felt I was forcing the laughs. To say the funniest moment in the film is when Robert Downey Jr punches a child is saying something. What it’s saying I don’t know, make up your own mind on that one.
Don’t waste your time or your money. Go and buy Anchorman on DVD, it’s much funnier.
Monsters
Along with Scott Pilgrim and Inception this was without a doubt one of the most inspiring movies I have seen this year, being a budding film director myself. It proved that what makes a film brilliant isn’t the budget but is instead the story which is being told. Gareth Edwards (the film’s director) has stated many times how he went out with a few friends a camera and a tiny crew to make the film he wanted to make. And bloody hell has he succeeded.
From it’s naturalistic performances (many of the secondary characters aren’t actually played by actors at all, just people who happened to be there at the time of filming), through the improvised script which doesn’t feel improvised to the blockbuster special effects made for less than the cost of a camera on some mainstream Hollywood blockbusters.
Some people may go in expecting a whizz bang destruction filled piece of B-Movie heaven and will indeed leave disappointed which I feel is missing the point. Monsters is instead more akin to a Garden state/ Cloverfield hybrid; where the actual monsters play second fiddle to the relationships between our main characters. The two leads by the way are simply brilliant and have an effortless chemistry (helped along by the fact that they are a couple in real life) which make Monsters feel like so much more than a small budget B-Movie compiled in someone’s bedroom. Truly brilliant and a must see for any movie fan.
The Tourist
Stupid to the nth degree but good fun none the less. Essentially beautiful people in a beautiful place having some fun. Leave your brain at home as you’ll guess the ending for 10 minutes in but see it this Christmas if you’re bored of talking animals and computer based action sequences.
Tron Legacy
Tron Legacy is the much anticipated sequel to 1982s Tron, which whilst considered a cult classic, is also one of the biggest flops of all time. Legacy updates the computer based setting using the latest in CGI spectacular and 3D technology in attempt to again wow audiences by showing us a world we never could have imagined. And yet, through all the hype, through all the brilliance of the art direction and visual effects, Tron Legacy feels slightly, well, mechanical.
The story sees Flynn, (Jeff Bridges being as watchable as ever before) trapped inside the computer world he has created. The world is now run by Clu, (a digitally de-aged Jeff Bridges) and it is up to Flynn’s son to enter the computer world and free his long lost father. Along the way there’s a plot involving some kind of special isotope algorithm and other plot threads designed presumably to confuse and distract audiences away from the fact that the film is already overlong and that Clu simply doesn’t work as a character. That is to say, the CGI doesn’t work on him. That’s right, through all of the brilliance of the computer effects, the spectacular light cycle fights and disc wars, Clu looks completely out of place. There is just something about the CGI on the character which doesn’t feel right and I must say it detracted from every scene he was in.
Furthermore, during the middle of the film there is about a 30 minute period which is boring. Utterly utterly dull. Sadly it appears the writers were as confused as us at points and as such kept having to stop the film and explain large chunks of plot in order to make sure we were still with them. We weren’t. We never were. We just came for light cycles and Jeff Bridges.
Having said all of this, Tron Legacy isn’t a bad film. The first and last acts feature some of the best action sequences of the year, the 3D, at least in IMAX, is well realised if still not yet completely perfect and Jeff Bridge as ever is great fun. Daft Punk’s soundtrack as well is one of the greatest soundtracks of the year and fits feel of the film perfectly. Maybe I went in expecting too much but Tron Legacy felt a bit too much like the world it was trying to create; very pretty and full of good ideas yet ever so slightly lifeless.
And with that ladies and gentlefolk, the credits roll on this Lord Of The Rings style epic blog post. See you all very soon when I’ll be discussing the best films of 2010!
Thanks for sticking around,
Reece
xxx
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