I watched Nothing again. It's a nice little film, not long, doesn't require much thought, great for throwing on at the end of the night.
Here's my previous thoughts on the film. I'll just add, I love the ridiculous bouncing sounds their feet make every time they are walking on Nothing. The music is nice too.
IMDB First time viewed: No Current Release: No Watched With: Amberly
Probably Dario Argento's most popular film. I do really love it, although it's not something I find scary in the slightest, but I do love it's operatic melodrama. It's such a heightened stylistic film. And has some of the most memorable imagery. He makes horror beautiful.
A lot of that probably has to do with the craaaaazy colour scheme they use. I believe this was the last film shot in Technicolor. They got one of the last working cameras out of retirement and then washed the frame out with bright primary colour lighting. That and the wall papers and paint is all kinds of crazy too. It's very striking visually.
And then there's the infamous score by Gobiln. I recently heard it in the new Jane Eyre trailer, which I think must have subconsciously prompted this viewing. But I also heard it in Black Swan promos, apt. Another Ballet/horror film of sorts. The soundtrack, like the visuals and the acting, can be very grating and horrific and also very beautiful.
I never get used to the Italian practice of never recording sound and post-syncing everything. They seem to have a disregard for lip-synch to, which always throws me a little. The action of the characters doesn't make much sense most of the time but Argento seems to be more concerned with the feeling and the look rather than having it all be logical.
First time I've watched the blurry version. the colour certainly pops, I think some of the highlights were blown out though, but that could have just been the TV we watched it on. I'll have to look into that.
Such a fun cult classic. And Udo Keir with an american voice dubbing! It all builds up to a crazy climax and ends rather abruptly but It's a pretty fun ride.
IMDB First time viewed: Yes Current Release: No Watched With: Myself That trailer was the best I could find.
Another Peter Falk film, this one is a sort of follow up to Murder by Death. A few of the same cast members show up but playing different roles, another Neil Simon script and Robert Moore returns to direct. There's also a couple of great additions to the cast, in particular I was excited to see another Madeline Kahn performance.
This time we are riffing on films such as Chinatown, the Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. I didn't find this as funny as Murder by Death but there were a few laugh out loud ridiculous moments sprinkled thoughout.
These film almost feel like a precursor to the Zucker brothers parody films like airplane. Neil Simon and Mel Brooks used to write together and it's that kind of silly humour you can expect to find here.
Peter Falk is very funny though. He had great comic timing and probably enjoyed lampooning his Columbo character.
IMDB First time viewed: No Current Release: No Watched With: Myself
The last one before the big finale. This one is a bit of a linking film, nothing much interesting happens but it sets up the finale. I don't know why it's so damn long.
The main conflict of this film is not from the plot, it arises from the need to add bad romantic comedy styled teen love and yet make it darker, a contradictory notion if ever I heard one. The film jumps from dark evil to bubbly teen antics at the drop of a hat. It wasn't so offensive when I last saw it in theatres but now I find it really grating. I think I'm noticing the music more and I really don't like it. None of the comedic music works at all.
I think they took the notion of making the films darker a little too literally. I seriously can't stand the grading of this film. I've never been so offended or outraged by a colour palette before. Why does every scene need to be sooooo dark? Even the comedic ones. Why does the whole film need a slight black vignette around the edges? Why does every shot need to look like it was shot through gauze. Some serious glow filters on this one. I don't like it. No sir.
The best scene is probably in the cave at the end. Some creepy dudes swimming down there. But they really bungled the ending after that. The big death at the end kind of falls flat (no pun intended), it just never resonated emotionally for me like I hoped it would. And then to have Snape blurt out the reason for the title of this film at the end just reminds you that you never cared about any of that plot anyway and neither, it appears, did the filmmakers. It's a minor subplot at best.
Like the book, I find this one to be a bit all over the place. It's still probably easier to take than the banalities of the first two and does have some great bits sprinkled throughout but for me it's just something that you have to get through as a set up for the good stuff.
IMDB First time viewed: No Current Release: No Watched With: Myself
I got my ultimate editions in the mail today for number 5 and 6. I watched through all the extras yesterday and now all that is left is the picture in picture commentaries. It's also probably a good idea to get some thoughts down now before the impending madness of the marathon coming up, where I probably won't have time to do proper entires.
So here's where David Yates enters the series. And he's done every one since, right up to the end. When this one came out it was a lot of peoples favourites. I still like the 3rd one the most but his work on part one of the last instalment may have changed that.
This series introduces my all time favourite Harry Potter character Dolores Umbridge, played to absolute perfection by Imelda Staunton. She's a certain kind of evil that manages to get under everyone's skin, a nightmare of pink fluffy bureaucracy. She's a joy to watch and really sinks her teeth into the role.
Luna is also introduced and she's neat, just delightful. And the returning cast are great as always and the kids get better in each film. This one gets more political and a bit darker. But the most tense scene comes at the end in the hall of prophecies. We finally have the kids facing death eaters. It's superbly directed, they cut out all the sound and music and there's barely any light. It's even more impressive having discovered the entire thing was on green screen and the set never existed. Now that I look at it it seems obvious, how else were they going to do it? But by that stage in the film your generally invested in the story that you don't notice.
It's also where we get Helena Bonham Carter's Bellatrix Lestrange introduced. And she seems happy playing bug-nuts insane.
But then at the end we finally get a full on wizard battle, first with the Order against Death Eaters and then the big finale of Voldemort and Dumbledore. There's some cool stuff there, they manage to make good action scenes from people pointing sticks at each other. It should be ridiculous but it's pretty awesome.
This is also where you start to notice the colour grading, they seem to push it further in each film. It's manageable here but I really don't like where it went in the next film. I don't like the music much either, except Umbridge's theme, that's cool.
But overall this is definitely one of the better films of the series for me.
IMDB First time viewed: No Current Release: No Watched With: Myself
Peter Falk's recent passing prompted me to view this one again. I know him best from the Princess Bride but to most people, he's Columbo. This is Neil Simon's send-up of all those detective novels, where characters from various franchises are thrown together to solve a ridiculous murder and they got him to parody himself.
I'm a Clue loyalist, I think that's a far more successful comedy and murder mystery but this one has its charms. It certainly has an impressive cast. The humour is much more idiotic and simple though. Much more of a farce.
I've just read there is a sequel with Peter Falk as the lead called The Cheap Detective. I'll have to check that out. But this is a fine little comedy, especially if you're a fan of all those murder mystery novels.
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Mum
I've only seen the last 2 Terrence Malick films but I know him more by reputation. This was his big Cannes film this year and the trailer seemed ambitions and ambiguous. I thought I'd take mum and we checked out the first session today.
It's very sincere. A bit too much so for my tastes. It plays out like some kind of visual tone poem. It was far more religious than I was ready for as well. I'll be honest, I was in it for the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are awesome. And there's about 7 or 8 shots towards the beginning. But I can't connect as to the reason why they were in the film. It's one of those ones you'll have to make your own mind up about.
All the 1950's stuff I liked, which is about 80% of the film. It captured the period really well and the feeling of growing up then, the family life, all that kind of stuff. Brad Pitt is very convincing as a 50's dad. That kind of head of the family disciplinarian bread winner. The kids are all great too. There's no real story I can discern but the protagonist, who presumably grows up to be Sean Penn, does have a journey.
The photography is beautiful. Even when I'm not that engaged in what's going on I can enjoy the photography. Honestly though, the music was a bit over the top for my tastes. It pushed the more challenging sections from poignant to pretentious. Grand intentions I'm sure but just too much for my tastes.
A tough one to recommend. You've really got to be ready and open for this one I think. I'm probably still too cynical.
IMDB First time viewed: Yes Current Release: Yes Watched With: Myself
This is a pretty straight forward little film, the trailer sums it up nicely. Some great actors, and quite a few good quiet dramatic moments. Never overly sentimental or showy and manages to resist the temptation to sensationalise the events of this true story. Instead it feels grounded and real as we follow Emily Watson's portrayal of Margaret Humphreys and her personal journey through these events.
From the trailer I was expecting more of a passionate uplifting ending that would leave all the old ladies in the audience weeping with joy as children are reunited with their long lost parents. The film never goes that far. In fact it denies us that in all but one instance at the very beginning. It's actually a very smart move, always the story is focused on Humphreys' personal story. It finishes not with a triumphant government recognition or reward for her work but with her own acceptance of the enormity of the task, the toll it will take and most difficult of all, her need to accept that she can't fix what has happened.
Hugo Weaving, David Wenham, Emily Watson and the rest of the cast are all great. It was also a bit of a kick to see Perth on the big screen, a rarity indeed. Technically all the parts did their job, nothing stood out as being particularly amazing but I guess it's not really needed in a story like this. I don't know the events of the true story or from the book on which it was based but the film makes no hesitations in laying the blame.
I find this to be a far more interesting take on telling a tragic true story such as this. There's no easy answers and there's no flash forwards to present day to recognise any kind of government resolution that was made. It keeps it tougher than that and avoids the melodrama the trailer might suggest. Pretty good.
IMDB First time viewed: Yes Current Release: Yes Watched With: Myself
This is a pretty cold film. It doesn't give you much to go on, which may delight or frustrate you. Emily Browning's character is very insular so it's anyones guess what her motives are. One thing's for sure, do not mistake this one for a children's fairy tale or you'll have a lot of explaining to do to your kids. This really has nothing to do with the fairytale of the same name, it's more a concept that old men will pay to spend time with an unconscious girl to do with as they please. Lots of nudity.
It's a very empty filmgoing experience. The characters are so isolated, the camera so objective, it's almost like a nature documentary without any narration or context. It's hard to connect in any meaningful way and yet it's constructed so carefully that it seems to be entirely the point.
Nevertheless I feel it's ultimately the films undoing. It's a bit of a curiosity but it will leave you hollow.
IMDB First time viewed: Yes Current Release: Yes Watched With: Amberly, Sam, Jennifer, Dominic, Zoe, A.J.
Well, it's definitely the best of the series. That may be faint praise to some and yeah it still has annoying bits, but at least everyone seems to have learnt from the mistakes they made before. More action, less bad comedic relief. The parents are still in the film, but you only have to endure them for two brief scenes in the first half. There are small gremlin-like bots but they don't hump anyones leg and get killed off rather heroically. Those Twins were nowhere to be seen.
They not only upped the action but also the violence. If those robots were performing the same fights as humans, this film would be rated R. Brutal deaths (especially that last villain), good and bad guys alike. They've even gone so far as to add red coloured liquid in the Decepticons so when they get all smashed up it looks like blood. And it's not just the robots, a heap of human characters get wasted in this one, quite a few on screen too which was a surprise.
Some of them I'm not so sad to see go though. The human cast has once again been filled with the most ridiculous characters. Someone has got to tell them that giving everyone a bizarre quirk does not make them unique and fully realised characters. I kind of expect it from Ken Jeong, but John Malkovich and even Frances McDormand! At least Alan Tudyk, who is probably the most batshit crazy of them all, is adorable, but that could just be because I love him so much. His antics were the only ones I actually laughed at. As much as Shia LaBeouf spends most of the action running away from explosions, like the other films, they've made him far more proactive and heroic which is good. Patrick Dempsey is some bad guy and probably the most contrived character in terms of believability. It's all very convenient...
The other thing that's better in this film is the plotting. It's ridiculous and full of contrivances, but it's actually comprehensible this time, far more streamlined. You can't expect Shakespeare but you can expect to at least follow the action and understand everyone's motivation.
The do the ol' Forrest Gump stock footage manipulation trick at the beginning and take it a step further too, helping set up the whole space race dark of the moon story, though actually getting the real Buzz Aldrin talking to Optimus is a bit of a geek out. But if Leonard Nimoy is going to be a voice in your film, don't reference Spock on TV, especially in an episode where they blatantly state what the character he voices will end up doing too. That's not foreshadowing, that's a spoiler.
But after sitting through an hour and a bit of that stuff you are treated to the most spectacular display of Bayhem ever conceived. Others have already said it and it's true, the destruction of Chicago truly boggles the mind. The epic scale is breathtaking. The whole sequence in the toppling building is impossibly awesome. The base jumping is neat too. The practical and the FX work blend so seamlessly together it's completely believable even though it's utterly ridiculous. I.L.M. and Digital Domain could totally do Akira.
I saw this in 3D. Some of it was really great, and some of it had some very post-converted artefacting, most notably when things were extremely out of focus still had hard edges cutting it out of the background. There were a lot of ghosting issues and the cinema we were in seemed to have a very dull projector, or did not compensate at all for the glasses. I'd be interested to see this at the fake IMAX, not just for the 3d and (hopefully) better image but also the sound, which as usual is top-notch.
I love that in this one they have transformations while humans are riding inside the vehicles. With that many moving parts, I don't think anyone would survive, let alone come through unscathed like that, but it does make a cool sequence.
A thoroughly entertaining midnight screening and a great high note to finish this trilogy on. Our drinking game was successful, although, probably due to having shot a lot of the film 3D there were a great deal less anamorphic flares. But there were still at least 3 helicopters at sunset shots.
IMDB First time viewed: No Current Release: No Watched With: Amberly, Morgan, Louisa
Love that trailer! This film's a tough sell, due to the amount of twists and turns it takes but it does everything you need to give you an idea of what's in the film without giving away too much, and stylishly too.
This movie is fantastic, it really does suck you in. Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page just going head to head and they are both fascinating to watch. Your opinions and sympathy can change many times throughout the runtime. The film keeps you on edge right from the start and it's pretty much just two people talking in a house.
The entire film seems to be shot with very long lenses and tight focus. The shifting colouring is also very stylised. It's the first time I know of a colourist has been credited up front with the other key positions, it does indeed play a huge role in the feel of this film.
The music is like the rest of the design, sparse, minimalistic, only there when needed, nothing to distract from what is most important in these films, the two characters, the acting and the dialogue. I recognise one of the tracks from Enter the Void but the original music is great too.
David Slade made quite an impression with his first film. It's one that his subsequent films haven't quite lived up too although they are very very different kinds of stories. And they do all look great. But for the moment this is still his best. It's engaging, very unsettling, a little outrageous and filled with grey areas to think about when you're done. Love it.
IMDB First time viewed: No Current Release: Yes Watched With: Amberly, Morgan, Louisa
Here's my original thoughts. Still really enjoyed this. It's good fun! Like last time, screening was not without incident but nowhere near the insanity of last time.
IMDB First time viewed: Yes Current Release: No Watched With: Myself
The last on my teen zombie film list to see. It's a very student film kind of low budget affair, biggest things that give it away are acting and sound.
As for the story, the zombie girl almost had nothing to do with it, while she did exists it was more functional as a metaphor for being unable to get over someone after they've gone and young kids dealing with death.
IMDB First time viewed: No Current Release: No Watched With: Amberly
This is a pretty special film, for a number of reasons. The one that always gets me though its the character licensing. Not only are Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse in the same film but they share the screen and have conversations with one another. It boggles the mind. Only someone as crazy as Robert Zemeckis and some with the clout of Steven Spielberg could pull that off.
The interaction between the toons and the real world is the other thing I love watching in this film. There's some wonderful gags here.
I like that they're trying to tell a 40's noir detective story but in a world that's completely the opposite that kind of story should be in. I think they nail those toon characters, their behaviour, they way they are almost equal parts annoying and hilarious.
And then there's Christopher Lloyd, who is the stuff of nightmares in this film. Permanent scarring.
Great to catch up with this one again. There's been talks of a sequel for some time now, but it doesn't seem close to happening. I like that this film stands on its own though.
IMDB First time viewed: No Current Release: No Watched With: Amberly
Smell is one sense film can't create. The best thing about this film is how Tom Tykwer never resorts to CG smoke to represent smell, he manages to do it with camera, editing, acting, music, lighting, everything that film has to offer. And it completely works for me.
I believe this was also the first time I saw Ben Whishaw and I've made sure to watched everything he's been in since, I love him. He's perfectly creepy and I may be alone in this but I also find him completely sympathetic too. Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman also do a great job with their respective parts at opposite ends of the film.
I also love the story, haven't read the novel, so again, just going by the film. It's a grand journey, the kind where you feel like you get your monies worth. A whole life covered from birth to death, traversing across many locations and a whole bunch of emotions. I love how I'm invested in the main character but when he's stalking a victim he still can be scary. And what a beautiful climax. A huge risk, it should be utterly ridiculous, but all the hard work setting it up pays off in that scene. It's handled beautifully.
The music works wonders here, a lot of the time it's the equivalent of smell in many areas of the film. It's a magnificent score.
IMDB First time viewed: No Current Release: No Watched With: Amberly
I love my creepy kids films. Henry Selick's beautifully animated version of Neil Gaiman's story is one of my recent favourites. I've always been partial to Gaiman's work and Selick's animation style is a nice match. The animators make those models come to life in such fluid movement.
I remember seeing this a few times at the cinema for the 3D. It was very well done. Those stop frame animated films always seemed like you could reach out and touch them, they have a real hand-made tangible quality to them and the 3D only enhanced that. But the Bluray looks gorgeous as well, the details of the textures all come through and the colours (or lack of) come through nicely.
I really love the music too, it was one of my top soundtracks for that year. It's beautiful, intimate, quirky and creepy and really makes those horrifying moments that much more scary. And there are one or two very effective moments at the end of the film that really make it pop for me.
The voice cast are all great too. Overall a really neat film and something adults should enjoy as well.
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