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.
🙂
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