A Serious Man

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

More Coens! More! Another film I find completely hilarious, but certainly not to everyone's taste. In fact I remember getting rather cold treatment after watching it for the first time in the cinema, where I spent the entire time pissing myself with laughter while my friends stared blankly at the screen for 106 minutes and left baffled and more than slightly annoyed. They were seriously pissed off at what a waste of time this movie was for them.

We there's nothing I can do for them. And admittedly, I can understand some of their pain. There are a lot of baffling elements in this film, even more than usual for the Coen Brothers. But I also am of the opinion that that's entirely the point. It's all conjecture, who knows what the real purpose of this film is? But most importantly I find it a lot of fun trying to find out, and that makes all the difference.

The cast are all brilliant. The period created is very convincing. Photography is immaculate as usual. Love the music too. Script is hilarious and thought provoking (in my opinion).

I wanted to have a "MAN" double with this and A Single Man but once again time got the better of me. Next time.

Paul

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

Here's the previous review. I watched the commentary on the bluray. Those guys are usually pretty funny. Not disappointed. Although they didn't have much to say about the filmmaking but that's ok. I think none of them are still over the fact they are in a comedy with a CG character and how much work that entailed.

Everything Must Go

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

I can handle Will Ferrell in certain things but sometimes his characters rub me the wrong way. I always wonder if I will get annoying Will Ferrell or good Will Ferrell. This was not annoying Will Ferrell, he's not doing some whacky outlandish idiot character thank God.

The film, although quite funny, is more plaintive. It's you probably won't laugh out loud but you might smirk a little. The problem on the drama side of this was I just couldn't get invested in the character. It's a simple film, small ambitions, small character arcs, it can feel like nothing much is happening most of the time. Although things did brighten up when Laura Dern came on screen. I wish she was in it more.

The Change-Up

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

I didn't expect this to be good but I wasn't expecting this level of ineptitude either. This seems completely phoned in on all fronts. It's a paycheque and nothing more. It doesn't matter how many swear words and "raunchy" sex comedy they add in to the old body swap story, it's not making it any better.

Leslie Mann has a few funny bits. Don't know how I feel about all the digital boobage in this film. So much fake breasts.

The funniest thing about this film was their hilarious attempt at subtle exposition at the start. "Dave, I've been your best friend since we were three but I feel like we haven't seen each other in ages. Oh no my dad's at the door, I hate that guy..." I couldn't stop laughing. No, wait I could. After that. At anything else in the film.

Not for me.

Hellbound: Hellraiser II

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

Not quite as coherent as the first one, is it? Doesn't have a great story, or really much of any story at all.

What it does have is some great hell fantasy sequences and a heap of awesome make up effects. And I do like that they got pretty much the entire cast of the first film back. Love it when they can do that.

Apparently there are 7 other Hellraiser films after this. I think I've seen 2 others but really, at least from these two films, I don't find this franchise scary in any way. Perhaps it's horrifying to some, or I could understand being grossed out by the gore but not scary. There's a good chance the tone changes over those other 7 films, I don't know if I'll ever have the opportunity to find out.

At least the first one is an interesting addition to the 80's horror genre, it's certainly a great leap away from what everyone else was doing at the time. This one is more fantastic but ultimately less comprehensible.

Ran

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

Watching the new 13 Assassins the other day got me in the mood for some Samurai films. I've owned the bluray of Ran for a while now, having never seen it before and only have have finally gotten around to viewing it. It's one of many of Kurosawa's films I have somewhere in the house that I've never gotten around to actually watching.

Tonally this is completely removed from anything in 13 Assassins. I'm glad I got to see it on bluray the first time I watched it. The images in this film are stunning, the majority shot with long lenses and wide framing. There are segments that really take your breath away. This is also the first Kurosawa film I've seen that's shot in colour (I'm not counting Akira Kurosawa's Dreams as it's not really one of his, but I do have fond memories of that film) and they really use the colour well. Bright primary colours for each brother and their army, makes it very easy to tell which side is which.

The castle siege in the middle of the film is amazing. Back in the days before CG they literally built a castle on the side of Mt Fuji and burnt it to the ground whilst performing the scenes with hundreds of soldiers on horseback. That kind of film making is so impressive to me and it looks spectacular.

I'd heard that this followed some Shakespeare play storyline but I didn't know which when I started it. I've never seen King Lear before but the whole film certainly feels an awful lot like a Shakespeare tragedy, only on a bigger scale. The film is filled with misery and big performances, It's great! (And being done with giant sized samurai battles is cooler than any Shakespeare play I know...)

So glad I finally got the kick in the but I needed to take the time to sit down and watch this epic. It really deserves its classic status. I need to go watch some more!

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

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

Couldn't resist show this one again. Here's my original write up.

Fargo

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

Ahh, so good to watch some classic Coen Brothers again. And on bluray too. I think I've watched more of their films this year than I ever have before, but hey there's nothing wrong with that.

There's something about a gritty crime film done with those pleasant Minnesota accents that's just charming and hilarious. The cast are all great. The script is impeccable. I just can't comprehend how they mix their great characters with tense drama and humour so well. That scene with Steve Park and Frances McDormand meeting for lunch still makes me cry with laughter. Love it.

13 Assassins

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

I'm always excited for a Takashi Miike film. The man is prolific, he does anything and everything and consequently he can be a bit hit and miss but he is ALWAYS fascinating. The last time he did a samurai film was back in 2004 with Izo, but that was a completely different beast. Miike's cut back on his penchant for post-modernism in favour of creating a far more traditional (and easily digestible) samurai few-against-many film. He's even cut back on the extreme violence. There's still a great deal of blood letting but he's far more restrained, not just with the violence but with his editing and use of CG. It's old-school and it's great.

There's a great cast of characters and familiar faces lead by Kôji Yakusho who I recently watched again in the brilliant Cure. They manage to set up the band of samurai and give them each a unique little backstory. The story is very simple and you've probably seen it told before in Samurai films or Westerns or Sci-fi, what have you. An evil lord is about to come to power so a bunch of guys team up to take him out for the good of the country. But it's the characters and the action that make this film what it is.

The final battle, against the obligatory impossible odds, is just awesome. It really does feel like a classic film. I have to admit, I've only seen a handful of Akira Kurosawa films, something I hope to rectify soon, nor have I seen the original 13 Assasins, but I can understand the comparisons. It just feels like good cinema.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

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

Here's my write up. Give it a read.

This is a very underrated film in my opinion. It's is utterly joyous. I find it to be the funniest animated film I've seen in a very long time and it's just so much damn fun! Really love this film! Never fails to perk me up and leave me with a smile.

April Fool's Day

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

Well this was much better than I was expecting on all fronts. Actually I think I was expecting a different film that goes by the same name but seems to be more commonly known as Slaughter High, which does look much worse, so a pleasant surprise all round.

I recognise some of the cast too which is always fun. This whole film generally seems to be more fun than horror. There are some good suspense moments before then end though and it did keep me guessing as to who the murderer was.

And the ending! My god. It's such a cheat but I think I love it more because of that. Ridiculous and amazing. If you've seen it you'll know what I'm talking about.

Really liked this one.

Win Win

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

Less of a comedy than the trailer makes out. I was kinda expecting that though after Thomas McCarthy's The Visitor and having finally seen The Station Agent earlier this year. Once again, it's a great cast of character actors. I didn't know Melanie Lynskey was in this, always a nice surprise to see her pop up, although I may have been overly sympathetic to her character just because I like her so much.

It's a funny mix of indie character study with a bit of motivational sports film thrown in. You can pretty much see where everything is leading once they introduce the kid. Pleasant enough but nothing overly memorable.

The Deadly Spawn

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

Wowza, what a delightfully bad movie. Actually there were some parts that were pretty darn fun. The creatures are just ridiculous but they have some neat gore make up.

Pretty funny.

I Saw the Devil

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

Another violent crime revenge thriller from Korea? It's a good thing they do them so well. This is a cool little cat and mouse game, a slow corruption of evil.

The story was enjoyable enough, it's pretty straight forward. I just had a little trouble believing the motivation of the detective not to kill the serial killer when he has so many opportunities. Granted there would be no revenge in simply killing him (also no story) but as the running time dragged on towards the end I thought it could have used with some tightening.

Still there are some great sequences of suspense, the cinematography is immaculate and it's not as overly stylised as some other recent Korean revenge films. Pretty cool.

Beastly

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

nyeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh