Cowboys and Aliens (2011)
Craig is a good lead and Ford has his most memorable film in years but the emotionless aliens with as little back story or meaning as possible, let the movie down. It’s an original take on both the western & invasion film and will keep your interest for a couple of hours but you won’t be thinking about it much after you’ve left the theatre.
***
Sid and Nancy (1986)
Despite starring the most unlikeable and screechy characters I’ve endured in recent memory (the sex pistols were essentially anti-social dickheads), Gary Oldman’s performance, the decent soundtrack and wanting to see how it ends, stopped me from turning this off early.
***
Recent Movie Verdicts
Obvious to those paying attention to my blog or Twitter activity, I’m into movies again at the moment. As well as loving all things Nolan, I’ve watched more movies than usual lately, and since I still havent decided on one prominent site to posts my reviews onto, I’ll give a quick sum up of some of my latest viewings here (for my own records as much as anyone elses).
I first watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose a few months ago. It was a decent horror with the lead playing her role just as creepy as Linda Blair in her infamous similar movie. “Based on a true story” films are always to be taken with a pinch of salt, but this was an enjoyable couple of hours. *** Three stars
I’d thought the trailer to The Grudge looked had always looked creepy, so despite what some negative reviews said, I was looking forward to this one. I did like it quite a lot. I know it’s a bit slow in places (a lot of people’s criticisms) but I think this works well sometimes. For once I chose to watch the American remake over the original Japanese version as I heard it was just as good, and I actually prefered it to The Ring. Some good idea’s, not to be taken too seriously. **** Four stars
[REC.] was another highly rated foreign language horror film that I had been meaning to watch for a while. I liked the way in which it was filmed, and it did its job of entertaining me for over an hour, but left no lasting impression. *** Three stars
The Number 23 was a weird one. It was not at all what I was expecting from any advertisements that I saw, and though I often like a good mystery thriller, something just didn’t grip me about this film. I was actually looking forward to it ending. Not terrible, but didn’t do it for me. ** Two stars
The Descent was another one that was eating up all the praise on Rotten Tomato horror pages so I gave it a go. I liked the unique, claustrophobic cave setting of the film. Didn’t so much like how the “evolved and adapted” monsters behaved once they started running around (hint: not to cleverly). I won’t be watching the sequel, but I would recommend this one to a fan of the genre. *** Three stars
Bedazzled was one of those short films you put on just to wind down at the end of an evening, which doesn’t take too much concentration to follow. I do actually like Brendan Frasier (see Gods and Monsters) and Liz Hurley was rather attractive in it. ** Two stars
The Social Network was an interesting film that I was initially surprised picked up so much praise due to it’s potentially niche subject matter. Having seen it, I still am surprised the story of Zuckerberg did appeal to academy judges and critics alike. I like to see how these social networking mega sites of today came about, and I know Facebook is global, but was pretty surprised others were interested as well. A decent watch anyway, even if you just know some events are grossly exaggerated. Would see it again. **** Four stars
Public Enemies – another quality crime drama from Michael Mann. You know you’re in good hands with Mann directing this kind of film. His gun shootouts seem more real than most other films (see Heat to really see how realistic a proper shootout can be. Get Andy McNabb to weapons train your cast for best effect) and don’t make such dismal unrealistic errors that a lot of Hollywood movies do in these situations. Worth watching. *** Four stars
I finally saw Good Will Hunting recently. Great performances from Robin and Matt. Good, believable story that, yes, it is hard to believe came from first-time-writers Afleck & Damon. Nice to see the lead characters transformation and a satisfying ending. **** Four stars
Bad Taste was a film I watched online to test out YouTube’s new free on demand service. They’re only hosting low-budget old movie’s not many people have much interest in at the moment, so don’t expect too much. This comic-like violent alien movie is fun if you are interested in seeing where – nowadays huge name director – Peter Jackson came from years ago. I also watched the whole thing without recognising he was playing the lead role :O ** Two stars
The Seven Samurai regularly crops up in “best movie” lists all across the internet and film critic literature. At 3 hours 18 minutes, it’s not a short film, but the strange thing is how well-developed, interesting characters and a clear defined end goal that they are trying to reach, makes this runtime fly by. The intermission in the middle did put a smile on my face though. *** Four stars
Hanna was only released a few weeks ago to favorable reviews. I quite liked the story and (mostly) realistic feel but thought it ended on a bit of a downer and decided there’s something about Cate Blanchette just don’t like. She was alright in The Aviator, but otherwise, no thanks. Apart from that though, a solid release from this year. *** Three stars
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides on the other hand, make two hours seem like seven. If this film had any plot, it wasn’t apparent to me. I’ll admit, a film about pirates, cowboys or medieval knights is at a disadvantage to my interests straight away, but this didn’t even try. Mark Kermode explained it best when he said it was just “nothingness”. The Jack Sparrow gag wore off long ago, and I’m not usually bothered about these kind of films being made (I’m sure their target audience liked it?) but it’s only when I think that it had the same sort of budget as Inception, it angers me. Finance more creative, original blockbusters Hollywood!! Nobody really wants these forgetful sequels anymore.
Date Night was one of those movies on movie channel in the morning so I watched as an alternative to daytime TV. Still, when the film ended I thought “was that it?”. Not much seemed to happen except a few silly jokes and usual slapstick encounters. Not a badly made movie, but totally forgettable. ** Two stars
I watched The Graduate last week and most admired the cinematography of certain scenes, soundtrack and use of it to enhance the scenes. The music was such an integral part to the movie in fact that at one point it seemed like an extended music video for Simon and Garfunkel. Some of the events and ultimate result of the third act was a little hard to consider as believable for me, but I think Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft excelled in the lead roles. **** Four stars
The Hurt Locker was last years best picture winner at the Oscars of course. The film was more entertaining and less realistic than I expected. Not that the action didn’t look real, more some of the actions from the main characters were hard to stomach as things trained soldiers would do. Still, worthy of the awards it received even if they might be for the wrong reasons. **** Four stars
eXistenZ was a strange one. But I guess when a David Cronenberg movie isn’t strange, that’s when you start to worry. When in was released in ’99 I suppose this could have been seen as a realistic future if video games got hyper realistic. Now, it’s a bit harder to believe. I didn’t much like the lead actress here (probably why I havent seen her anywhere else) or the arguably subtly hints of an anti-computer gaming message. Some good ideas, poorly executed, that I probably wouldn’t watch again. ** Two stars
And Let the Right One In was the most recent film I saw. I remember seeing the american remake trailer and thinking it had nothing to offer me, so even though it attracted good reviews, I’m glad I saw this one first. A breath of fresh air to the vampire genre which shows the real struggles that this life potentially comes with. Much more believable than anything from the Twilight world. Even if you’re not interested in vamps though, this is only an element of the story as its main focus is the relationship between two school age loners. Deserving of the praise it gets. **** Four stars
Do you share or disagree with any of these reviews? Am I stingy with my star ratings? I’d love to hear your comments, after all everything is subjective.
🙂
Everything is subjective
I just watched the 2009 psychological horror movie “The Box“. A movie which I had seen many very negative reviews about when it was released but also some positive ones praising it for the same sort of reasons it was getting stick for. I decided to watch the film to see where I stood in this scale, and while trying to work my rating out I had a thought.
Who exactly is to say whether a film, song or anything else is “good” or not? Movie’s that divide critics like this come along every once in a while, generally for their strange take on movie making. Some don’t like the idea of shaking up everything that traditional film-making is about or plots that don’t seem to make any sense, and some love anything out of the ordinary or mysterious. Film’s are often slated by critics and take a disappointing profit at the box office on release, then are accepted as cult classics years later. So who is right? Who or what decides if something is a masterpiece or trash?
I am as guilty as the next man for bad-mouthing popular movies I consider to be inferior to what I like. I’m sure if 100 people were asked if they considered the universally admired Goodfellas a better film than, say, the likes of Epic Movie, the results would be pretty one-sided. Or would they? If a target audience can get as much enjoyment out of either film, how can we judge which one is best overall? Perhaps renowned cinema critics like Mark Kermode or Barry Norman are better qualified to decide what we should watch than the rest of us. But does studying a lot of movies really make them any better than a friend for recommending a DVD to you?
When you think about things in this way it kind of makes any award show or movie rating redundant. I think the only real way to rate or decide whether to recommend a movie or not depends on the person you are recommending to and how well you know their tastes. It is just not practical to universally rate a movie to everyone at once, knowing the differences of interests and opinions people will have about the same piece of film. Doesn’t mean I will stop doing it though.
As for The Box? I liked that it was filmed like a 1970’s horror (think Wicker man or Kubrick-esk), had some creepy bits in the middle but for me, a slightly disappointing end. Like a previous Richard Kelly film Donnie Darko (one of my favourites) I think it will continue to divide people down the middle. A real love or hate one. Ultimately – I would watch again.
*** – 3 stars
Image: Filmcritic.com
Drag me to the dustbin
I have been into good horror films lately so last week I scoured the IMDB & Rotten Tomatoes shortlists of best horror movies according to their ratings. Most of the classics I have already seen (still got Rosemary’s Baby and Carrie to look forward to) but there are a lot of titles released in recent years that were making consistent places in this as well. Drag me to hell was one of them so I decided to rent not knowing to expect psychological or graphic horror scares.
Not really much to say after viewing it really. I didn’t find it particularly scary. Unless you have a phobia of something in particular (in this case, nasty old ladies) I often find those “Terrifying, you’ll wet yourself” quotes you see on posters grossly over-exaggerated. All the scares were pretty predictable and cliché (at least to me). It all just seemed like any other horror film with perhaps a bit more emphasis than usual on silly/unlikely occurrences that only the Final Destination films are allowed to get away with.
Not terrible in any way but I think entirely unforgettable and not really deserving to be on any “best horror” lists. If this is the calibre of horror movie is some of this generations finest, then we really have a long way to get back to the golden days of The Shining and Alien.
** – 2 stars
Shutter Island & the failure of movie marketing
I really thought this film was marketed as a horror. I thought it was strange as it was Scorsese and DiCaprio but all trailers and TV spots that I had seen showed dark, eerie, isolated scenes so I naturally thought Marty was having a stab at a Psychological horror type like The Ring so was a bit surprised when it soon became clear it was more of a mystery thriller theme with slight elements of spooky supernatural goings on.
This is the fault of the trailers/film promoters again of course, editing a finished feature to appear like another genre for advertisement purposes. I hate trailers. When they’re not misinforming, they’re giving too much away. In general they should be banned now and people should decide if they want to watch a movie by reading up about it or by word of mouth (neither of which should give any plot away though – spoiling a film ending that I was looking forward to watching is a crime that should be punishable by jail time in my eyes).
I enjoyed the film anyway. It involved a complex, carefully woven story like the kind I’ve loved in films like The Usual Suspects, The Prestige or The Machinist. With this great storytelling and one of the greatest actor/director partnerships of this generation, It’s hard to see where the film could go wrong. All I can say is that although I appreciated the movie, I wouldn’t watch it again. Only because, with the setting and subject matter of this film – a criminally insane prison and the terrible things the “patients” have done to get sent there – I was left feeling a bit disgusted during and depressed when the credits rolled. I don’t know if I am alone on this one, but I have seen some excellent but depressing films in my time (often true stories) but find myself enjoying them the first time round then not feeling any urge to watch them again. Maybe a bit of a strange view, but I guess I prefer a film to make me feel nice at least by the time it’s over.
Definitely worth watching (at least once) anyway. Just don’t judge the movie’s tone by any trailers or adverts you see.
*** – 3 stars
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