The Clinic

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

This film was probably never going to work for me. I hate babies. They are horrifying and gross and too little and I will never understand them, or peoples love for them. So I empathise more with the "evil" people that rip the babies out of the victims womb more that the mothers desperately fighting to get them back and escape with their lives.

I don't know if it's because of that issue or because of the film itself that I just couldn't connect with any of the characters long enough to be concerned about any of them when the trouble starts. I didn't find the scares that effective.

As much as I want to see more new Australian films tackling horror, I have to admit this one does nothing for me.

Strange Days

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

Awesome movie. How come no-one I know has ever heard of it? Fix that now.

It has been a very very long time since I've seen this. In fact I think I've only seen it once before, purely because I saw James Cameron's name all over it. Besides his obvious influences on the film the thing that stands out most watching it now? Actually it was the realisation that this was where Fatboy Slim got his "Right Here, Right Now" sample. Even if you've only heard that song once, that phrase is repeated about 100 times, so when it pops up in the film it jumps out. That is neat, I love it when I find samples.

Kathryn Bigelow recently won an oscar, but before she was making 'important' movies that bored me she made fun movies that entertained me. Who doesn't love Near Dark or Point Break? (Confession time, I don't love Point Break because I have never seen the whole film. OMG I am a horrible person, I know. But Everyone I know that's seen it loves it. I'll have to rectify this heinous situation immediately.) Here's hoping her Osama bin Laden film will be somewhere firmly in between the entertaining and oscar worthy.

The action here is heavy on the "90's gun shoot out" side with some other good stuff thrown in too. It features a great Tom Sizemore death too, I love the ingenuity of that scene.

More impressive, doubly so considering when this was made, are all the first person sequences. When memories are played back they are done in long first person point of view shots. Now that's very common nowdays, but back before they had digital cameras that would allow for this, it meant having to light entire blocks of streets at night, being able to hide all the lights to allow for camera mobility. It also meant having a small enough camera though could still shoot relatively smoothly. Keeping all that in mind these sequences are even more impressive. Apparently they had to build custom made cameras and had a year worth of preparation for them. The opening shot is kinda staggering. Well worth a look, just for that.

The crowd scenes at the end are rather impressive too. Unfortunately It comes after a first climax. They don't intercut them so we get one climax and then have to wait for another as well and at 145 minutes it starts to run out of steam a little. Still you wanna wait around to see what happens to Vincent D'Onofrio and William Fichtner. What a pair.

And lets not forget Ralph Fiennes being all action man. Whoda thunkit? Always knew Angela Bassett was badass but it was great seeing Fiennes rip the place up, he should do it more often.

As might be expected in a Kathryn Bigelow film from the 90's it's a dark, grungy world of drug addicts, criminals and perverts. It's set in the futuristic world of 1999 at the dawn of the new millennium. Not exactly future proof considering it was only made in 1995. Did they really think it was only going to take 4 years for the technology to record and relive someone else's memories? But god bless them for their mid 90's future fashion.

This is a really neat 90's action cop movie, dark and sleazy with a sci-fi bent. Well worth a look, highly enjoyable.

X-Men: First Class

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan, Amberly, Tyler

A step in the right direction, that's for sure. After Matthew Vaughn jumped ship and left Brett Ratner to clean up the mess and then the abortion that was the Wolverine spin-off he finally came back and reminded us that the franchise is still worth looking at. Even with the obligatory Hugh Jackmen cameo.

While it has the problems all prequels suffer from, namely we know who's expendable and where all the other characters will end up, it's quite creative in how it pieces it all together. And the period superhero action is fun too, makes me look forward to Captain America.

Let's stat with what I didn't like. First and Foremost is the issue of the dialogue. Now I know Jennifer Lawrence can be a good actress, I saw Winter's Bone, but here she is the most incompetent one of them all and a big part of that is the dialogue she has to sprout. It feels like placeholder "movie talk" that they never had time to replace with anything resembling human speech. She certainly isn't the only culprit but the most obvious.

The other cringe inducing moments were the all the bad forced foreshadowing humour. Yes. We know Professor X ends up being bald. At this rate, if they do a sequel I think it might be the main plot, like how he became a paraplegic was the main plot of this one. (I kid.. Kinda.)

And as cool as Michael Fassbender is, I wish his accent were more consistent.

I actually think Nicholas Hoult was my favourite as Hank/Beast and I like the idea of his relationship with Mystic and it's conciquences, even if the execution wasn't that successful.

The whole Cuba climax worked really well for me, lots of nice character payoffs as well as action. And that's the thing about this movie and the series as a whole, the character, the outsiders, they can make fascinating subjects and the main character dynamics are still as interesting to watch as ever.

Training Montage!!!

There was no Stan Lee Cameo. I didn't miss it, it's not there. Was he ever in this series?

Kevin Bacon as the villain? Yeah it was pretty good. But he was there more as a means to an end, a reson to get the characters on their path. And an interesting thematic device. The Atomic age indeed.

It's a fine and sorely needed addition to the franchise. If it makes you want more, or go back and watch the first 2 films again then it's done it's job well.

Whisper of the Heart

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

This film and it's semi-sequel The Cat Returns are the Studio Ghibli films I've seen the least. Probably because I don't like cat's that much. Well this one doesn't have that much to do with them so I don't know what prompted this viewing but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

This isn't a fantasy story like Miyazaki's films although it has some elements in it (Cary Elwes returns as the english dub for the Barron), but they are within a story the main character is writing. It's a sweet little coming of age/first love story. I like Only Yesterday slightly more but there's a lot to enjoy here too.

I would never in a million years have guessed a Japanese animation that depicts realistic modern day japanese school kids would have a Dolly Parton song as it's theme. But it totally works in an odd and charming way. Kind of like the rest of the film. The very end of the love story is hilarious and cute and probably works much better in the original voice cast but I've yet to check it out. I'm kind of curious too now though, just to hear the japanese rendition of the Country Road song.

Forrest Gump

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

I haven't seen this since I was a kid. I had always liked it just fine but man, I got so much more out of it now, I'm so glad I decided to get the bluray and watch it through. Jeez it's a good film. Even with a commentary track on it still got me.

It's such an incredible achievement, pretty much everything about the film should not work. At least that's what you are always taught. To have a passive main character, with a series of episodic events happening around him are two big strikes against. What it does have is a huge nostalgia kick, apparently even for people who weren't alive then and have nothing to get nostalgic about. That and a love story that really manages to pull everything together.

It's really like a modern day fable or tall tale. Eric Roth also wrote the screenplay for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and it's a similar kind of feeling, both largely set in the south, an entire life story, episodic and period spanning with a central love story. But I think Gump is the more successful of the two, there's something more innocent and brighter about it.

Of course, being a Robert Zemeckis film it's filled with a heap of new technological advancements for the effects, but nothing hugely showy, all at the service of story. The removal of Gary Sinise's legs was a big deal. I just saw the same effect in a film with the main character's arm removed. It's probably much easier now. But the biggest fuss was made over the manipulation of real historical events. It was the first time I can recall it was done in a feature and it was a little controversial too, but I guess no one cares now.

Hearing Zemeckis talk about his storyboarding was interesting. He only storyboards complicated effects or action that's too hard to explain to crew and easier to just show them. He thinks storyboarding drama scenes makes you feel more stressed on set thinking you have to get all the set ups or leaving disappointed if you can't get them and that he prefers the post production and editing. It makes so much sense now that he love motion capture, no worrying about set ups, you get whatever coverage you want in post.

I also like his reasoning for lobbying for the film to be shot in widescreen. I agree, not all films need to be shot in the format but it does make composing images in the frame more interesting.

Really enjoyed watching this again. I wonder what other films from my youth I would get more out of now. I can't believe how old the film is already!

The Green Hornet

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

Apparently I was one of the few people that enjoyed this film when it came out earlier in the year, you can read my thoughts on the film there. But now the bluray is out I wanted to have a listen to the commentary. Most of the tiome though Michel Gondry doesn't say much because Seth Rogan barely shuts up. Still a few interesting point of trivia on the making of and the writing.

There is an extra about Jai Chou that was fascinating, I had no idea what a huge star he is overseas. There wasn't a good making of though which was disappointing.

Let Me In

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

Matt Reeves adaptation/remake of Let The Right One In manages to stay true to the spirit of the original while is Americanises the story. They are very similar but the subtle and not so subtle differences make this extremely worth while even if you are a huge fan of the original like I am.

The actors all do a fantastic job. Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Moretz have a hard task to pull off and they do so effortlessly. And the casting of Richard Jenkins is a stroke of genius.

Despite that trailer this is first and foremost a drama and a coming of age story, albeit a very dark one. But it's so beautiful and bittersweet interspersed with moments of real horror. Superbly shot and edited, completely the opposite style of Cloverfield.

I listened to the commentary this time and it had a few interesting tidbits, mainly about working with the young actors and trying to capture the nostalgic tone of the period.

Despite my love of the original film I really liked this version too, even if it were just for the car scene and Richard Jenkins. Although it does scale back the scope a little bit it never dumbs it down.

Get Low

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

This was a quaint little drama set in the ol' west. Well 1930's Tennessee.

The synopsis, an old man wants to buy his own funeral so he can invite everyone and confess his past misdeeds, sounds like a real downer. Especially with a title like that. But it is surprisingly humorous throughout, the cast of Bill Murray should have been a give-away.

The soundtrack had some awesome 30's tunes in it. The production design and lighting was really great too. And the actors were all fantastic.

Even though the story was a little slow the characters were always engaging and the drama works. This is really Robert Duvall's show, he's a closed up character and one that everyone has heard stories about. You get to know his reputation before you get to know him, and even then he still seems to have a few tricks up his sleeve. It's fascinating to watch and when he does finally open up at the end it makes a nice climax.

It's a simple little film, slow and steady with enough humour to see you through the drama and some great characters.

The Ward

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

I'd been reading about John Carpenter's directorial return to the big screen for some time now, just today I read an article about it's impending release in American. So Imagine my surpise when I went to JB Hi-Fi after watching Soul Surfer to find this sitting on the dvd shelf, not even in the new release section. I must have missed this release.

Anyway that has been rectified. I've watched it now.

Carpenter's last films weren't well received. It's been a long time since he's done a feature. The straight to dvd release doesn't film me with much confidence either.

And like Wes Craven's recent outputs it's not really that successful. My biggest problem with a ghost like antagonist is there is no rhyme or reason established as to what the rules are. How can you hide from something omni-present? How can you kill something that is intangible one minute and thrusting surgical implements into your skull the next? Perhaps if I cared at all about the so-called "final girl" I might be more invested in these problems. The mystery surrounding her appearance wasn't that interesting either.

There are a few Halloween-ish moments, including a small tweek to hiding in the wardrobe that I liked but ultimately none of the scares worked. There is a jump at the end, along the lines of I Know What You Did Last Summer (I can't remember if it was 1 or 2... or both) that, while it will certainly make you jump, is kind of cheap.

I probably shouldn't say this but *SPOILER ALERT* there is a little twist ending that is basically Identity, just not done as well. *END SPOILER*

So while it looks nice and had some cool moments in the score there wasn't much I found interesting here. I like most of the actresses too but was never invested in anything.

Monsters

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

This film made it on my top 10 list for last year. I think it's a beautiful, simple and effective film. It's like an art house mumblecore version of Godzilla or something like that. The Monsters don't have that much to do with the story, it's really about following these two characters and the road trip they have together.

More than that, this film is the first I know of that completely embodies every ideology I have about making a film. This is exactly how I want to make films, no budget, just a few good actors who can improvise on location with me and a camera and sound guy and I can create anything else I need in post. That's how I've been doing it all along and it suddenly felt justified and legitimate when this came out. Like perhaps what I'm doing isn't a waste of my life.

I watched the bluray today with the commentary from the actors and the director. The first thing they do is confirm my suspicion that the pre-title sequence is indeed the end of the film, which is a bittersweet thought.

It's a slow paced character drama, something I usually don't enjoy much but of course this has the added bonus of a few monsters. I can't separate the knowledge I have about the making of the film from my opinion of the film itself so I think it's probably getting a lot of leeway in my head when it comes to the plot. But I still really enjoy watch this and hope you check it out.

Soul Surfer

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

I've always enjoyed AnnaSophia Robb's performances and here she pretty much holds this film together. Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt are fine as the parents but no one else really stands out, in truth they aren't given much to do.

A true story that follows the typical inspirational sports movie structure, I'll be honest I was in it for the shark attack. It's one shot, very quick, pretty tasteful (lolz). As for the rest of the film it's pretty uninspired direction, it does it's job. I'm hoping those other surfers were hired because they are surfers, because they sure ain't good actors.

The arm missing effects are pretty well done, some of the face replacements in the surfing shots give themselves away a bit though. But there are some great surfing shots, my favourite being a slow motion underwater angle of a crucial moment for the plot when she is duck diving under and can't hold the board down and gets pulled back by the wave and dumped. It's pretty brief but was awesome. There's a few other shot like that too.

The "Soul" in the title should have been a dead give away but I was unprepared for the whole religious crisis of faith half of the film. It's not really a crisis of faith, she never looses hope enough for that. The whole film is pretty upbeat. And they never get too schmaltzy thankfully.

In fact they rarely get too anything. It's a very bland paint by numbers script. It goes through the motions but rarely connects. When it does it's because of Robb's performance.

This is one of the rare cases where I'd recommend not staying for the credits to see the extra footage because it almost ruined the move for me. When you show the real life counterparts of the characters in the film at the end, as cool as it is to see the same events played back for real it cheapens everything that came before it. And to cap it off with the worst amateur iMovie style end titles didn't help at all either.

So forgetting that, you're left with a very bland but easily digestible true story inspirational movie. I can't help but think someone like Catherine Hardwicke would have done wonders with this story. It just needed a push, in ANY direction.

Solaris

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

Perhaps that should say "First time viewed all the way through in one sitting" Something I and many others before me have struggled to do. The last time I made a conscious effort to get through this film I made it about half an hour into the film watching cars driving around for ten minutes and gave up. I never even made it into space.

I did some research on that driving sequence. It seem even big fans of the film hate that segment, which was filmed in Tokyo a very futuristic looking city to the people of Soviet Russia at the time, but not so much now. Apparently the permission to leave the country to shoot there was procured with a great deal of difficulty so presumably they wanted something to show for their efforts.

Tarkovsfky said it weeded out the dumb people in the audience, which I guess that makes me. It appears he also has a few disparaging remarks about this film, what he considers his least successful film, and about the original book which he thought was n't that great either. He comes across as a bit of an intellectual snob. You can see it in his arbitrary quotes of famous authors and paintings throughout the film. But who cares about that? I would call Peter Greenaway and Michael Hanake intellectual snobs but I like their films. I love Hanake's actually. So how is the actual film?

It is tediously slow. I was in the unfortunate position of having seen the Soderbergh version with George Clooney many times, having enjoyed it immensely, so I knew what to events expect and mainly spent my time waiting for it to hurry up and happen. They are very different beasts though.

The most successful parts for me where the dialogues between Kris and the uhhh, "apparition" of his deceased wife. This relationship was the anchor of the film and all its ideas, I didn't really care about much else. I think it says a lot about humanity that the most humane character was just a manifestations of a memory. Or perhaps it says more about the filmmaker.

I hear people compare this to 2001: A Space Odyssey and I can see why, but they aren't really alike at all except in some arbitrary matters of pace and setting. Whoever told me this film was a visual masterpiece was lying too, they describe amazing images and we as an audience can picture them in our head but they have no means of visualising these fantastic creations on screen. It's really just some dudes talking in a few rooms. And the switching from colour to black and white, sometimes I can tell it's motivation and other times just seems arbitrary. Once again, perhaps I'm just too dumb or wasn't trying hard enough to comprehend.

Yeah, I can appreciate this film more than I actually liked any of it. I find that a lot when I view "classics" that I seem to be universally loved but I never have a great desire to see. The same thing has happened with The Godfather, Gone With the Wind, An American In Paris, Apocalypse Now, Citizen Kane and a heap of others. It makes me feel bad for not liking them but I generally find the impression I have formed about them is rarely challenged by my viewing. I don't know if that's because they are so ingrained in popular culture that I get a fairly comprehensive idea before viewing or because my preconceptions altar my viewing habits.

It's probably more the latter but in any case my idea of this film turned out to be exactly what I though it would be. A 70's Russian sci-fi that's more concerned with some very interesting themes about humanity and character than it is with science or fantasy. And It's very very challenging to sit though (oh screw it, it's boring, there I said it. It's my blog, I'm allowed to.) Perhaps I should find the edited version that's only 130 minutes. There are other Tarkovsfky films I have always wanted to see. Stalker being first and foremost, but I feel like it's going to require a greater effort on my part. You have to plan ahead with these films, set aside a good half a day with no distractions. And you have to be in the right mood too.

Chances are if I want to see this story again, I'll just throw on the Soderbergh film. At least that one has Jeremy Davies in it.