O

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

I didn't know Tim Blake Nelson directed.

A modern Orthello with a prep school basketball team. Julia Stiles again too.

This one is a lot more cranky than 10 Things I Hate About You or She's the Man. Peeps be gettin' capped yall.

It was... alright I guess. Didn't really interest me that much though.

But I do think that someone should stage O in traditional setting and costumes but just keep the modern dialogue.

Rango

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


Love that teaser trailer.

Well, it's just as fun the second time. I stand by what I said in my first review of the film so check that out. The only thing I'd like to add is that this time, there were a load of little children in the cinema and on the whole, they do not handle the film well. I think it's to slow at times, to abstract at others and they don't understand a lot of the character beats and western references.

Works for me, don't take the kids. Keep them out of the cinema. Enjoy this one yourself.

Visitor Q

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

What a trailer. It's probably hard to find enough footage in this film that is actually usable in a trailer though.

I really love this film. It makes me happy at how sick and twisted it is an yet for the characters everything ends up fine. It's the story of a very dysfunctional family and a mysterious strange that just comes into their lives and somehow together, intentionally or not, they manage to work through all their problems and become a functioning family unit. So basically it's Mary Poppins, but better because it has no songs and more incestuous pedophiliia, heroine, sadomasochism, necrophillia, murder, violence and a whole lot of lactating.

It's a little hard going at first but the final sequences are the stuff of genius. The way the characters fine solace and contentment in the most depraved and sick ways, and the fact that they are so happy about it leaves one with very conflicted feelings. I love that you can have a happy ending while at the same time feel so sick for thinking that.

This is one of Takashi Miike's best films. It's extremely low budget but the actors pull you though with their exuberant performances. If you're a fan of hardcore cinema check this one out. It's shocking and hilarious and most horrifying of all, has a big throbbing heart in the middle of it.

Towelhead

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

Alan Ball's first feature as a director, and it's great. Filled with his usual pitch black humour and intense awkward situations.

Great cast and some brilliant acting. The film switches from comedy to drama on a dime and the cast pull it off. There are a lot of uncomfortable and confronting situations but while there is always something funny to be found in these situations, the film never makes light of the them.

A good Thomas Newman score too, unlike The Adjustment Bureau.

When I was this a few years ago I wasn't sure how a film about the sexual coming of age of a Lebanese girl would be but in the hands of a masterful adaptation by Alan Ball I should never have doubted. Seek this out.

Rango

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Alex, Kyla

This movie is a bit of a miracle. Gore Verbinski once again proves it doesn't matter what genre you throw at him, he can do it just as well as the best. I don't think you would ever pick that Mousehunt, The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Weather Man were made by the same person. Well now he can add Rango to the list.

So what happens when you get the best special effects company in the world to work for themselves? You get the most incredibly detailed and realistic looking film ever called a kids animation. It is gobsmackingly gorgeous. The legendary creature designer Crash McCreery now get's to outfit an entire cast, an entire world. God bless him, who else could come up with a french fox that wears her own tail around her neck? Genius. Every character is stunningly detailed and unique. I see Roger Deakins is once again on hand to advise in the cinematography. Gore Verbinski's past as a compositor and of course the expert team at ILM pull it all together to make all the lighting, lens distortions, focusing, everything look like a real film. If it weren't for the outlandish characters you could mistake it for one. Of course the special effects department are top notch too, there are some amazing dynamic sand and water effects, even a beautifully faked timelapse sequence. The character animation itself is just as detailed. I shudder to think of the amount of rigging involved in some of these guys.

ENOUGH TECH TALK! Only I care about that, how was the actual movie?????

Deliriously insane, hilarious and a real old-school western to boot. This is the kind of movie you can only make if you don't have a studio breathing down your back, half the film would never have made it through the first round of studio notes. Filming the actors all together to record the voices is a HUGE benefit in the way the humour works here. The lines are so bizarre but it's the timing and delivery that make them work. The actors are all great too and you can even see some of their mannerisms find there way into the animation.

There is a bit of a lull in the end of the 2nd act but it is so interesting to look at the visuals I didn't care. Perhaps it feels slow because it is bookended by two awesome action sequences. Gore Verbinski may be my hero for crafting action set pieces. It's not quite the dizziying heights of the mindboggilignly awesome climactic 40 minutes of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest but I don't think anything in the history of cinema has ever been as good as that. Still it has some of that manic flavour and still manages to juggle action between multiple characters like a well choreographed dance.

The opening sections of the film are my favourite parts though, especially the little self referential opening monologue and a wonderful nod to Hunter S. Thomson.

The film is PG, there are some rather violent and scary characters. There's not a joke every 5 seconds, they actually take time with character and story, which is unusual for a kids film, but needed in a western, which is what this resembles most in structure and story.

I can't wait to watch this again immediately and I hope people throw money at ILM to make more animated features. Well, just as long as they have a great script and director like Verbinski.

Frankenstein

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

I figure this is the closest thing Kenneth Branagh has done to a genre film like Thor. Saw it on my shelf and thought I'd dust it off and give it a watch.

It's alright I guess. The production design is very pretty. It's tells the story well enough, I did't have much of a problem with the acting, it was shot well, the music is great. There just seems to be something a little lacking. Something of an artifice, like the same way I find Shakespeare impenetrable. I get it, it's fine, but not really for me.

I'm more perplexed by Thor now than ever. That and the Green Lantern are two big unknown quantities to me. I'm just hoping it's not as distancing as this.

Dragonslayer

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

A little watched disney fantasy from the 80s. So little known it is almost impossible to get in Australia unless you Import like I did. There's not even a trailer on the web I could find, this fan-made one is the best I could do.

There's a reason it's not very well known too. It has a lot of problems. It's a very clunky film. Matthew Robbins has written some great stuff before and since and directed one of my all time favourites *batteries not included. He still seems to be working things out here though.

It's also Peter MacNicol's first film, and it's fun to see the guy from Ally McBeal (or X the Eliminator for all you Harvey Birdman fans) learning magic and fighting a dragon.

A lot of the effects are very rough, some really bad composites but all the animation on the dragon is stunning and it's the reason to watch the film. Most people agree it's the best non-cg dragon put to film. The way it uses its wings to crawl through the caves is creepy and looks great.

The rest of the film is not so good. Alex North's score is utterly bizarre, completely atonal and nashing, not at all a fantasy film score. The tone is very dark, but the scenes and dialogue is all very disconnected. If you ever find a copy of it, watch it for the dragon in the last half, the rest is a little dreary.

The Adjustment Bureau

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Naomi, Alex, Amberly, Jordan, Josh, Tyler, Ashley, Geoff, Andrew, Bree

A classic romance designed as a sci-fi thriller. This time the this keeping our lovers apart is fate itself, and the men who control it.

Some cool stuff, I love all the door gags, acting is fine, romance angle is nice. But there are a few things that irked me. Casting Terence Stamp was one of them, he brings so much baggage as an actor now it is a little hard for me to see past that.

The other thing was the score, which sounded like a really bad Thomas Newman rip-off so it was even more disappointing to find out that Thomas Newman was the actual composer.

The other thing might be the pacing. There are some very long time gaps in the film and on the whole there never feels like there is any urgency. By the time the end comes around you don't really care what happens to the characters, as long as it ends soon.

Going in I thought getting over the main conceit of the film would be the problem, but apart from a few things it wasn't that much of an issue. At least not while watching it, I have more questions now that I think about it. But I guess the romance was enough to keep the mind occupied for the running time of the film.

It's not the best Phillip K. Dick film but it is far from the worst. I guess it was just a little light for me.

The Rite

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

Well I got to see that new Warner Bros./New Line logo again.

Hmm, so another Exorcism film. Despite what the posters and trailers might say, the star of the film is Colin O'Donoghue, who is far to good looking to become a priest. Like so many times before, we are dealing with a struggle between scepticism and faith. He has to overcome his doubts and believe in order to perform the final exorcism on Anthony Hopkins, his unorthadox teacher who himself becomes possesed.

Really there's not much on offer here that hasn't been done before. It's stylishly produced and well acted, there are a few nice jump scare moments and the drama at the start that sets up the whole story is fine. The actual big exorcism at the end was uninvolving. That's really not good.

The film just feels a bit preachy. I've forgotten most of it already.

Hall Pass

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

A step up for the Farrelly Brothers, but that doesn't mean much. The most interesting part was seeing the new combined logo animation for New Line and Warner Bros. Also probably didn't help seeing it 10 minutes after Rabbit Hole.

Anyway most of the set up is in the trailer. In usual Farrelly Brothers style there is some very dirty gross out jokes throughout. Owen Wilson is set up as such a good guy at the start it is obvious what is going to happen.

Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate are fine I guess, they just look really really orange. Richard Jenkins is in this? heh.

The film build to a climax effectively though and keeps the shmaltzy wrap up to a minimum. That's the best you can hope for. Points for awesome use of the Law and Order sting and the unusual and unexpected nod to Cape Fear.

My favourite was probably the end credits. Not just because the film was ending just as it was overstaying its welcome, but because they finally give Stephen Merchant something to do and it's fantastic. So if you do go see it, make sure you don't leave right away.

Rabbit Hole

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

I went in expecting much more of a grief filled melodrama so I was pleasantly surprised to find a very restrained and understated drama. Brilliantly acted.

Sometimes I like Nicole Kidman and sometimes I don't, but she always seems best playing characters with a colder exterior. I really loved her in this, she is fantastic. She holds all her emotion in and you are just waiting for the dam to break. When it finally does you can almost feel the whole audience breathe a sigh of relief.

I thought the film might end there but it does one better. The ending is what really made me love this film. It is such a beautiful final scene and makes this a must see for me.

Despite the sombre tone there are also some parts I found really funny, like the first scene in the trailer. There are a few awkward laughs throughout.

This is a bit of a change of tone for director John Cameron Mitchell. Well I must sadly admit I have never actually seen Hedwig and the Angry Inch . Shame on me, I'll rectify that immediately, but I saw Shortbus and like it well enough. Also seems to be a change of pace for writer David Lindsay-Abaire, at least from his film work, which appears to be mostly children's films.

Anyway, I really loved this so make an effort and seek it out.

Pandorum

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

Again, Ben Foster is just awesome in everything he does.

I quite liked this film. It seems to have been a while since the last good space horror flick. Some very cool design stuff, the ship and the creatures. The lighting is great, blacks are actually black for a change, they aren't afraid to fill a frame with it.

I was listening to the commentary on the bluray, the usual stuff. This was one of the films Stan Winston was working on when he died. Such a great loss to film.

Well it's not as evil as Event Horizon (same producers involved I believe) but it has its fare share of spooky moments and some nice psychological horroryness. Some good acting from the leads.

Overall an enjoyable but somewhat forgettable addition to the alien-esque sci-fi horror. With an unexpected ending.

Wasted on the Young

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Alex, Caitlin, Jess, Naomi

Never been to the Luna in Fremantle before. Cool little cinema, but for this movie I think the sound was let down a little. I think this film works best with the sound blazingly loud, lots of bass.

Cool to watch this with a group of friends. And I got to pick up on some neat transitions and little directorial flourishes I hadn't seen before. Some very cool stuff.

Still the ending is the sticky part for most people. It's mainly a clarity issue but the general gist is usually understood. Go check it out!

Leon a.k.a. The Professional

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

Natalie Portman just thanked Luc Besson in her oscar speech. It reminded me I never saw the full cut of this film. The bluray just arrived so, time to give it a spin.

Besson knows how to make these crime dramas work. He always fills them with great characters. Apparently he wrote and and filmed this while waiting for Bruce Willis's schedule to clear up for The Fifth Element. You could never tell though.

Natalie Portman kicks serious as in this, it's such a great role. And Jean Reno is very funny and sweet. And also kicks some ass. It's the characters and their relationship that give this film such heart. Gary Oldman is at his manic creepiest.

Despite all the shoot outs and violence there is a lot of very funny scenes and also a lot of relationship drama that should be creepy but managed to come of as sweet but awkward. These are the main bits that weren't in original edit but they add so much to the characters and the story, so I'm glad to have finally seen them.