50/50

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

I seem to have been seeing a hell of a lot of cancer films of late. Perhaps the universe is telling me something... Well this was far more enjoyable than that horrible Kate Hudson romance. The romance in this film is far more believable. As is the Bromance. The drama with the mother is about the same.

This one has a great cast and occasionally jumps into the r-rated comedy waters but keeps things very level headed. Except with this film, I had the forewarning that the screenwriter wrote the film based on his experiences so the 50/50 chances of the title are more like 100/0. That's fine, people do beat cancer and this film isn't really set up for a downer ending but it does diminish the suspense a little.

It's a sweet little film that goes through all the motions you'd expect but a funny script and good performances add a bit of life back into the proceedings.

Long Weekend

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

This is an old Aussie horror flick I'd read about and been meaning to see for a while. Man it's creepy. Apparently it was remade in 2008 but I'm glad to have watched this one first.

It reminded me a lot of my favourite Hitchcock film, The Birds. It's a relationship drama that very slowly turns into some kind of metaphysical horror with no explanation. The fact that this couple are so damaged in the first place was enough of a drama but the last half really takes things up a notch.

It's a very slow burn from a simple set up but I found it quite effective. It's very dated soundtrack doesn't do it any favours but I do love that 70's anamorphic cinematography.

Great to finally check this one out, if you can find a copy it's well worth your time.

The Shadow

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

Write Up.

Such great pulp fun. I want more period superhero or adventure films. Highly entertaining stuff.

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

Igby Goes Down

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

Wow, this one is already 10 years old. It's a great little teen crisis/coming of age set against a privileged New York socialite backdrop. Very stylish, awesome soundtrack and a fantastic cast to flesh out some really great characters.

Really, enough can't be said about the cast. I find them all a joy to watch playing characters that are all ever so slightly exaggerated but well rounded. A lot of funny dialogue also helps make this one gloss over some of the more depressing realities facing our young protagonist.

Great to catch up with this one again.

John Carter

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

I never read Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series but they have been adapted countless times since 1918. Since around that time there has also been some form of John Carter adaptation in the works that have always failed or fell through. It was even going to beat Disney's first feature animation by a few years to be the first animated feature but again it was abandoned and deemed to complicated and ambitious. It's certainly a much harder concept to get on film than a guy in the jungle and some monkeys.

But this adaptation, although a long time coming, is every bit a 30's pulpy fun adventure. I hope there's more as it certainly has left room for more adventure and now all that annoying exposition has been dealt with (a little clunky in the middle but, there's a lot to get across) we can just get in to the fun times.

And this one works best for me during the action. There's some pretty spectacular sequences and visuals throughout. I saw it in 2D first, (I'll go to see it in IMAx on Sunday) it was shot on film and it has that classic look about it. You can tell Laurence of Arabia was a big influence, Michael Giacchino pretty much just quotes the theme in his score (as for the rest of it, it was pretty unmemorable the first time though).

The Tharks are great. Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton, Thomas Haden Church all deliver great characters with the aid of motion capture mumbo jumbo and computer voodoo magic. All the creatures (and those flying machines) are done really well.

More questionable however are these two untested new stars, Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins. I think they do a pretty good job but they have a very hard task to sell the reality of this fantastic world to us and there's more than a little bit of forced emotion in that script. Collins certainly looks like she stepped right out of a Frank Frazetta painting.

While this looks like a pretty derivative sci-fi/fantasy adventure it's important to note that all the star wars and avatars and half a dozen others owe a great deal of their inspiration to the original source material for this. It's great to see this is finally in cinemas after about 100 years of trying and it's a very enjoyable and action packed spectacle which I hope to see more of. Can't wait to check it out again on the big screen and see what the 3d is like.

Certified Copy

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

I missed this one at the cinema last year. It had some awards buzz and I do like Juliette Binoche, plus being a lesser known foreign film I hadn't seen any trailers and had no idea what it was about, which I love.

Turns out this film is like a very bitter Before Sunrise, coming in at a point in the relationship where both parties seem to be giving up. We follow them walking around Tuscany, talking all intellectual like about art and life and it's left open ended.

What's really odd is that the film doesn't start out with the characters the way it ends. It's all done very open to interpretation but there is a definite shift at the halfway point of the film. I don't know if they change characters, or if they start pretending or if they were always different people but the shift is gradual enough to be a little confusing. Intentionally so I think, and given all the talk of copies and reproductions being as good as the real thing I think they are making the same point about this relationship. Wether it is real or not it's still engaging.

It's a simple little film with an intriguing idea at the centre of it. And a lot of talking about it. Also I've decided the Italian country side, while photographed beautifully, doesn't appeal to me.

Another Earth

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

Strange that around the same time, two films that are predominantly dramas but that also feature the sudden appearance of a planet visible in earths atmosphere came out in close succession. Unlike Melancholia the other earth in this film poses no immediate threat. But they are both just giant looming metaphors.

So apart from the intriguing notion of a mirror earth appearing in the sky this one is a very straight forward relationship drama that goes through all the usual character and story beats.

It was nice to see William Mapother get a larger role in a feature. Brit Marling is ok too. It's obviously an extremely low budget feature but it's pretty well put together.

The ending left a lot to be desired though.

Salvation Boulevard

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

This one is kinda all over the place. I really love the cast and the set up is good but if this one had some grand message it got lost in the shuffle.

There's plenty to like here though it just never goes anywhere worthwhile.

Carrie

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

This made for tv version really does just drive home how good the original version is. Having just watched Angela Bettis in the absolutely brilliant May, and the original and then finding out she played the same part the same year May was released, well curiosity got the better of me and I just had to track it down.

In truth pretty much all the actors, who I recognise from bit parts in other teen movies and tv shows, do a pretty good job, it's just the adaptation isn't as solid in terms of character stuff. (except for Katharine Isabelle who just comes off like she's in a cartoon the entire time and doesn't match tonally what anyone else is doing.)

The modernisation is subtly done however in order to be different from the film they've added in some new sections, presumably from the book, that don't add that much to the central story, and they've taken away some of the great character scenes. Patricia Clarkson as Carrie's mum gets shafted the most. They've also made Carrie slightly more inherently evil instead of innocent which just seems to be completely wrong.

But they do have the meteors. Or at least they do their best with a small tv budget.

I really didn't like the way this was shot. And much of the dialogue was terrible. I don't know the purpose of the detective and those framing scenes were. Presumable this is all in sticking closer to the original novel. And there is an open ending that would allow for what I can only imagine to be a hilarious tv series following Carrie travelling across the U.S. using her evil powers to fight crime or something like that. One can only imagine because obviously that never came to pass.

Well, it's a nice try but I think it fails more often than succeeds.

Avatar

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

Well I just found out that the special edition was playing for one week only at Imax and managed to squeeze in a viewing on the last day. It's been long enough since my last visit to Pandora that I figured I could manage another go around. And besides this film is best viewed in 3D on the biggest screen possible.

The special edition adds in very little significant material. Besides Tsu'tey's death scene it's just some extra fun stuff. It's also my introduction to The Lorax.

Still it was wonderful to go back and revisit as I haven't seen it since the original bluray release. This is the biggest blockbuster ever and it plays in very broad strokes however the visuals and entertainment cannot be denied. I still cannot believe what they pulled off creating this world.

I do not like James Horner's score. Mainly because of the glaring overuse of his "doom signifier" theme that is apparently in every score he ever writes and will always grate on my nerves.

A lot of the big emotional punches are too broad and feel very movie moment-ish. Not really a problem but it does cause snickers. I just love that the "big movie acting" moments that are so silly and easily recognisable are so well captured by weta it still feels realistically bad.

Man you forget just how big this movie is. It's rare you get to see sci-fi or fantasy world building on this scale so I soak it up while I can. I do hope there is more, the world is there now so all that remains is to get more interesting with their storytelling.

Straw Dogs

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

Sam Peckinpah's original film is one of the great classics in my opinion. I don't know why it would need a remake but one just came out anyway.

Rod Lurie is obviously a big fan of the original and there are plenty of nods to it along the way but it seems to be missing a few of the fundamental things that made the whole endeavour work.

It is a very well made film technically. The cast all do great jobs too, but as much as I love James Marsden, I don't think he suits this role. Despite going against Alexander Skarsgård who towers over him, or an almost unrecognisable James Woods who is just brilliant, I find it had to think of Marsden as a weak bookish dweeb. The original film works so well because of how much you fear for Dustin Hoffman's safety going up against these guys but Marsden seems like he can handle himself, that fear isn't there.

Everything is dumbed down, spelled out, explicit references to subtext are made. Some of the subtly remains but when so much of the original film lives in that moral grey area, which is what made it so controversial in the first place, and you take that away, you're left with a pretty standard revenge flick.

I really like all the people in this, I just wish they were working on something with a little bit more bite. Still the climax is quite enjoyable.

A Little Bit of Heaven

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

*Spoiler* It turns out Peter Dinklage is the little bit of heaven. *Spoiler*

I'm talking literally within the film narrative and also critically. His unexpected cameo made me smile for all of 5 minutes and then the rest of the film happened. It kept on happening. There was nothing I could do.

Gael García Bernal is a sexy man. I'll give them that. Whoopi Goldberg shows Morgan Freeman that any black person can play God as well as the next. And Kathy Bates was there too I think. I got out of the cinema not 10 minutes ago and already I'm forgetting this film. It's probably for the best.

City of God

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

Wow it's been a long time since I last saw this it was almost like watching it for the first time again. Except everything kept coming back right before it would happen.

This film is just stunning. It feels so epic and moves at such a pace through all these chronicles of memorable characters. The editing really stands out as a feature here. Fernando Meirelles makes a big impression with this one, getting great performances out of non-actors as well as a sort of controlled chaos in his visual style.

I'm not really a big fan of gangsters or true crime stories usually, but when they are told as exuberantly as this one it's hard not to be swept up.

And I totally recognised Alice Braga this time.

So great to watch this again, I always remember loving it and it's still, in my opinion, one of the best films from the last decade.

Kill List

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

Write Up.

I loved this one so much just had to show it off. Can't wait to hear the commentary next time.

To Kill a Mockingbird

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

I watched this once or twice before, when I was much younger (including watching it in english class when we studied the book in high school). I know it more from my love of the beautiful score by Elmer Bernstein which I still listen to regularly. I saw it had been released on bluray as part of Universal's awesome 100 year anniversary restoration and rereleasing scheme. I'm really excited about some of the titles that are going to finally be released but this was one that I only have vague memories of so was really interested to check out again.

It's easy to see why it's such a classic. There's an elegance to everything about it, that seems so simple and yet accomplishes so much. All the pieces are right where they need to be and do exactly what they are designed to do to tell this story. It's a brilliant adaptation, emotive and full of nostalgia.

Atticus Finch is a character that's almsot christ-like. He's put up on such a pedestal I find it hard to believe anyone like him actually exists in the world, however as in the novel, the point of view is always a recollection from the children which also explains the bed-time story feeling of the whole film.

And I totally recognised Robert Duvall this time.

The clean up and restoration is pretty good but you can see a lot of grain smoothing going on which doesn't look that nice. Unfortunately the film features a lot of post push ins which makes this all the more noticeable. I'd personally prefer to just see the grain.

Wonderful to watch this again and if Universal's other restored releases are this loaded with extra features as well, we're in for a hell of a year.

Children of the Corn: Genesis

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

Ten years after the last entry, they go for the reboot angle. Except it's not really it's just the same as always.

First thing that jumps out is the 2.35:1 ratio. Children of the Corn just went widescreen. It instantly looks classier. Unfortunately the script is still dreadful. Although it's a huge step up from the last entry which was probably the worst of all of them. Nicer cinematography, a much more modern colour grading scheme and a better score this time too.

Barbara Nedeljakova from Hostel is in this one. Billy Drago is creepy as ever. My problem is not the acting in this one. It's the fact that absolutely nothing happens.

Sure there's some car flips at the end and it's the most impressive, albeit brief amount of actin in the entire franchise but then again, the franchise was never about action, or even gore, despite what part 3 might think.

Well except for a tv movie from the syfy channel in 2009 which has no relation to the Dimension films, that's all the children of the corn films. Not a great horror series despite my love for that first film and the insanity of part 3.

Children of the Corn VII: Revelation

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

Uhhhhhhhh no.

Don't be excited like I was for Michael Ironside when I saw his name in the opening credits. He delivers 3 lines then leaves.

This time it's just ghost children killing people in an old apartment that's about to be knocked down. And there's a little corn patch growing out the front. A lady comes looking for her grandmother, who just moved there and went missing, and finds out she is the only surviving member of the original cult. Eh.

Absolutely horrible score filled with 90's samplers.

No wonder they killed the franchise after this one. Oh wait, there's one more.