Conviction

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Apart from the presence of Clea DuVall in a small but noteworthy role, there is nothing in this film that wasn't in the trailer. No surprises, no drama, no character turns, nothing. It's all there in two and a half minutes, so there is really no need to see the feature version unless you liked the trailer and an extended cut appeals to you.

The only thing that was in the trailer that wasn't in the film was some cool music from The Island.

It was an alright film, you know how the true story ends, even if you don't it's obvious because there's only one reason anyone would want to make it a film out of it. Perhaps if you haven't seen the trailer you can get some enjoyment out of it. The performances are all fine, it just all end up feeling rather average.

Yogi Bear

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

The only reason I would have wanted to see this was the 3D, they shot it in 3D with the fusion cameras. I got a free pass (thanks Amberly) but the film isn't showing in 3D anymore, so I can't comment on that. Damn. But even though it's about to finish showing here and school has gone back the cinema was PACKED with filthy kids. Unbelievable.

So how is the movie? Well I guess it could have been worse. But not much. There were a few lines here and there, mainly at the start that were funny, but then the film descends into a big slapstick action finale that I couldn't stand but the kids loved.

Tom Cavanagh is shit. He is just sooooo shit. Sure his character is the straight man, but UHHHHHHhhh he is bad. He really looks like he doesn't want to be there. And he does some of the worst acting with 3d characters ever, his eyelines never match up. Most of the time they keep the bears in a separate frame to the human characters. They should have done that more.

I love T.J. Miller in pretty much everything I've seen him in. He plays the Ranger's assistant here and his stuff along with Nathan Corddry and Andrew Daly as the evil guys are the best bits in the film. Why are the bad guys in kids films always so much more entertaining than the heros?

Dan Aykroyd does a serviceable job but Justin Timberlake's Boo Boo impersonation is spot on. Who knew?

The film still has a very digitally look to it. The lighting is very flat. Could be a limitation of the 3D and matching the characters and stuff like that. Anyway It's not a film I'm going to see again anytime soon, unless I can traumatise some kids with the alternate ending.

The Way Back

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Wow, another epic. More amazing locations. Unlike The English Patient, this time I had to opposite problem of freezing my ass off in the cinema air conditioning watching people freeze to death in Siberia. I'm never happy am I.

Peter Weir takes his time between movies, but who cares when they are all this good. Another great cast, some I knew and some I didn't. Some I was surprised to see pop up in the film, but that's the joy of not having seen much advertising or reading any reviews of a film before you see it, the pleasant surprises.

So while it is 2 hours of people walking, it's not Gus Van Sant minimalist. we slowly learn about the characters and their backstories, there are a variety of problems to overcome and they traverse a ridiculous distance through a huge variety of locations.

It is surprisingly involving, especially since we know from the introduction that 3 men survive but when we see them start off there are 6. There is hardly any score, the sound has nothing to hide behind. There are quite a few uncomfortable sections of silence. The make up and the great acting sells the characters exhaustion terrifically, it's hard to watch sometimes.

Overall I really enjoyed this but didn't really appreciate the very end. Having different actors play the older versions of the same character we've just been watching and getting involved with for over 2 hours is a little distancing for what should have been a more emotional reunion. That's probably just me being picky though, Im sure most people won't care. I hope Peter Weir makes more films soon.

Burke and Hare

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

John Landis you need to make more films. This one is populated with the most awesome BBC and comedic actors in every part and has his usual cartoonish comedic direction. Just look at that cast list! There was another similar themed film that I saw a year or so ago called I Sell the Dead but I like this one more.

The film revels in playing up the Scottishness of everything. It looks and sounds great, so much unnecessary bagpipes. Apparently this is a rather liberally adapted true story, there are real life characters you might recognise in it and it's a story that seems legitimate only probably not as comedic in real life. Funny stuff.

It's rather idiosyncratic to see a period piece done in that slightly cartoonish style John Landis does so well. I really like it though, seek this one out.

The English Patient

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

I've seen the very start of this film a few times but have never made it through the whole thing. It's pretty long too, probably due to having not just one but two romance stories going on in parallel timelines. All set in the epic background of a desert AND the war. How could it not win Oscars? Because I never made it past the first few minutes before I had no idea Sayid from Lost, Collin Firth and Willem Dafoe were in this. Awesome.

Probably not the best film to watch on such a hot day. You can almost feel the sand in your hair. Beautiful photography of a lot of sand. This film is very yellow.

The framing story with Juliette Binoche didn't interest me as much as the main flashbacks of the dying man on a bed. Every time we return to the "present" I'm always just waiting to get back to the flashbacks again. Except for maybe the scene with the bomb diffusing. Added some tension, even though the scene felt completely superfluous. Nothing wrong with them though, and everyone throughout the film is great.

What the framing does allow for is a hopeful ending in an other was traditional tragic love story. It has it's sad ending for the main characters but end with the chance of good things to come for Juliette Binoche.

I can see why people love this film. It's very sad Anthony Minghella passed away, I think he had some much more to offer us.

Please Give

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Another melancholy New York indie film.

I enjoyed this quite a bit though mainly because of the great cast and the avoidance of over sentimentality, especially when dealing with issues like grandma passing away, suicide, cancer, affairs etc. It has enough humour to get you through and doens't dwell on these issues (or even bother to resolve some of them) and there's not big "acting" moments of breakdowns or anything.

This makes it a very easy watch. It's drama lite, but pleasant nonetheless.

Wasted on the Young

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Ichina

First time I get to write up a film I have worked on. The Premiere was just held in Perth. Seeing yourself, your work, your name on the big screen is friggin awesome. And recognising all the locations and most of the people in the film is awesome too. For some people that is a regular occurrence, for people that live in the most isolated city in the world, I assure you it is not.

So obviously I don't have an objective opinion about this film. I tried to distance myself from it as much as possible, Even during filming I never read the script, never heard much dialogue spoken in the hopes that I could just watch the film and discover it for the first time in the cinema. It was actually a lot different stylistically to what I had expected but the very general outline was the same as in my head.

So another teen drama, but this is a heightened reality everything feels bigger, the drama, the characters, the actions. It's a world without adults where high school is more like being in the mafia, kid doing lines of coke and waving around hand guns. I love the look of the film, the editing is pretty slick and the images have a grungy blue palette.

The sound design it awesome too, give the sub woolfers a work out. Most of the music was great too, some of it, mainly just the very last piece before the credits I didn't like, but then I found the whole ending a little odd. I think people will interpret it in different ways, which may or may not be the intention.

The acting is the main element of the film that most people will focus on. I'm not a great judge of acting skill but everyone seemed great to me, although I still find the australian accent bizarre in film.

Overall a great and very dark morality tale. Feel free to disregard everything I wrote as I have my name in the credits 4 times, but do go and see it for yourself!

Stuck on You

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Well, It's certainly not the Farrelly Brother's worst film.

Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear make a great pairing. The entire set up is just so ridiculous you can't help but laugh. The usual comic bromance storylines, some fun cameos by Cher and Meryl Streep. An alright diversion to the day, but not much more.

Flipped

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Awww, first love romance movie. Rob Reiner keeps things JUST this side of sickly sweet. The 50's setting and nostalgic feeling helps greatly too.

We follow the story of two young kinds in their will they won't they ups and downs of courtship. It's a duel narrative, and we repeat the same events from both points of view. There's some good drama though. I can't imagine anyone allowing guys to be auctioned of to girls in primary school though, that is just cruel.

It was a nice little film, a lot to like if you don't find it too sappy, which I didn't.

An American in Paris

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Nope, no good.

It's kinda ridiculous I paid under $10 to buy this film and watch it on bluray for the first time in higher quality than it probably has ever been seen even in it's original theatrical run. Looks great, the Technicolor, especially at the beginning with the use of flat colours backgrounds in the imagined introduction of Lise Bouvier.

Now I'm aware that a lot of musicals have wafer thin plots, but this was ridiculous. The majority of the film was extended tangental song and dance numbers, a pet hate of mine, culminating in a huge expensive 20 minute dance re-cap of the whole film at the end. They didn't have enough plot, so they told it twice. Lazy.

And what is the point of using Gershwin numbers if you only sing the boring ones and only half sing or orchestrate as BACKGROUND MUSIC all the really good ones?! Infuriating.

The only good thing to come out of this was Gene Kelly was allowed to do Singin' in the Rain. This one is not for me.

10

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Another Blake Edwards film I've never seen before. Not as straight up funny as his other films I've seen, things get a bit more introspective towards the end. It's a fine film but I didn't enjoy it as much as his others, Julie Andrews doesn't have that much to do, there's some music and a song or two by Henry Mancini but nothing too memorable.

Bo Derek running on the beach, it's kind of infamous. And it feels like a rather large part of the film too, but I'm sure most guys won't begrudge that. The bolero sex scene is a delight.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Dee Wallace pop up in a small role. She was so sad and very endearing in what little screen time she had.

Overall it was enjoyable, not a slapstick farce or uproarious comedy like I've usually found his work to be (although it certainly has a few moments and elements of these spread throughout) but slightly more dramatic look at a guys mid-life crisis.

Happy Accidents

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Yes, Time Travel romance can be done well. I have very specific rules about Time Travel and although this one doesn't follow them it's far more believable than the paradoxes form other time travel films.

Honestly though the time travel is not the focus of this film, the romance and the characters are the main part of the film and that works fine. It has such a 90's indie film vibe, I love that. It also seems a like such a feminine viewpoint which was a surprise, knowing that Brad Anderson of The Machinist, Session 9 and Fringe fame wrote and directed.

I think it's impossible to have a time travel romance with a happy ending unless you cheat, but this one gets away with a lot of the rules breakages I generally judge other films by simply because it was so charming.

Last Ride

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Another Australian film I missed in theatrical release. This time though, I was pleasantly surprised, it works for me. Really well actually.

A lot of this is due to Hugo Weaving, his character is horrifying and fascinating to watch. The kid steps up and matches him perfectly. Strange because he was absolutely terrible in Matching Jack. But that whole film was terrible.

I hate the australian outback, I don't find it beautiful at all. But there were numerous occasions in the film where it just looked like a stunning wondrous place, especially on the lake. Great cinematography.

The bit that got me was the characters redemption at the end. I didn't think I was that emotionally invested, it's a very still and distancing film but it must have just crept up and suckerpunched me.

This is one of the good ones.

War Games

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release:No
Watched With: Myself

I'll be honest, and I'm a bit ashamed to admit this, but i saw this referenced in a scene from a recent episode of American Dad and realised I have never seen it. Mistake fixed.

You know what I thought it was pretty neat too. A little far fetched but all in good fun. So really bad dialogue and acting moments but for the most part there was some good ol' nuclear war tension. And some great old school movie hacking.

Black Swan

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Amberly, Claire

4th time. Still love it. This or Social Network for best picture please. If it goes to The King's Speech I'll be upset.

Amberly says "really liked the film, it was very pretty and scary and pretty, i am glad i saw it in english not german"

Magnolia

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Amberly, Jordan

Long movie, so much going on. Everybody is so upset. It's operatic.

Massively awesome cast doing great stuff. P.T. Anderson just lets loose on the screen and throws in everything and the kitchen sink. It's too much for some people but it works for me. A lot of that has to do with a few characters that I just find hilarious, mainly John C. Reilly as the cop.

Jon Brians music is beautiful and of course the film is peppered with Aimee Mann's songs many of which served as inspiration in the writing. The film keeps its rhythm well, juggling so many plot lines and characters. There are times the camera moves so fast between different scenes and set ups it's hard to keep up. Might also explain away a few focus issues, it can't be easy following that.

This film has a lot of not-so-hidden messages and clues as to subtext and theme, the majority of which revolve around exodus 8:2 which goes a long way to explain and justify the otherwise out-of-the-blue deus ex machina (quite literally) that the end of the film is famous for. Coincidence and chance, fathers and sons, sin and forgiveness, there's a lot to take in if you look for it, or if not you can just admire the grandiose performances. Pure cinema.

You Again

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Cool cast, very paint by numbers film. Very. Not even the Rock cameo can help this one. UH.

Gnomeo and Juliet

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Anything you need to know about this film is in the trailer. If you like that then you'll probably love the film, if like me you thought it was a shining pinnacle of mediocrity, well it is. Romeo and Juliet told with garden gnomes, a happy ending for the kiddies and a whole bunch of Elton John songs awkwardly shoehorned into the soundtrack. James Newton Howard, being the genius that he is, manages to use those themes to create a variety of moods, from sad tragedy to action epic, but the fact remains that they are still Elton John songs and when the singing starts it never quite matches what action in the film. More original songs would probably have been better suited.

There were one or two jokes that Shakespeare fans will appreciate. Tybalt does get smashed. But he is glued back together before the end credits. Speaking of which, what's the deal with ending films with a big song and dance number? It rarely works for me. Grating, annoying and lazy.

For an animated film that was produced independent of one of the big 4 animation houses it looks great and has a great cast (that do average work) but it didn't click for me. The old people in the cinema loved it though, so go and enjoy it in 3D if you must.

Naked Lunch

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Amberly, Jordan

I can think of two things wrong with that title.

Every time I watch this film I think I get more out of it. This time the end just seemed so much more tragic. It's a very strange movie that's a mixture of biography and adaptation. I must confess I have not yet read the book, which ay or may not help but I do have a much greater understanding of the author and the context in which it was written.

I think this is Peter Weller's finest work. He's playing a man that on some conscious level knows he's getting addicted to drugs and wants to stop but the guilt of killing his wife, his ambivalent feelings about sexuality and his need to write while intoxicated keep him falling deeper and deeper into delusion.

And the delusions are great fun to watch. Another David Cronenberg film that I just love.

How to Train Your Dragon

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Amberly, Jordan

This is definitely Dreamworks' best animated picture so far. Like in Wall•E the producers got Roger Deakins in to advise on lighting and cinematography. It looks stunning. Unfortunately on Blu-ray you don't get the 3D they had in the cinemas. I want to see this again on the big screen purely for that.

So Dreamworks wisely snapped up the guys that made the wonderful Lilo and Stich for Disney. You can see a lot of similarities in the design of Toothless and Stich. They also bring all the heart that film had. None of those Shrek post-modern gags here thank god.

Apparently even though all Vikings are Scottish, their kids have American accents. That's ok, I can deal. This film makes me want a pet dragon so much. The flying scenes in this film will take your breath away. And the best thing is they don't let the main characters get out of trouble unharmed like most kids movies. People loose limbs. Neat.

And John Powell's score is magnificent. Love this film. The first to really rival Pixar's output.

First Men in the Moon

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

I do love these old adventure movies. I always grew up with Journey to the Centre of the Earth but this one was seen a few times too. I love the explorations of strange new worlds built on the Shepperton Studios. Jules Verne and H.G. Welles are the greats. Verne was always concerned more with the science but Wells just wanted to tell a good story. War of the Worlds is my all time favourite sci-fi story.

FILMED IN DYNAMATION! Which means the great Ray Harryhausen has done all the effects and stop-motion creatures. Awesome stuff. We get some cool moon ant-people and giant angry caterpillar things.

What's not so great is the start. Lionel Jeffries plays the mad scientist and it's played for laughs and scored like a Warner Bros cartoon. I don't appreciate that at all, especially when compared to what happens after when they get to the moon and discover the ancient civilisation of moon people and start talking philosophy.

It doesn't have as much action as most of these old adventure films but it does have cool old-school effects and great sets and some interesting ideas that have been copied a thousand times since. It's also fun to see space travel as depicted before Apollo 11.