Series 7: The Contenders

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

This movie is 10 years old and yet it is more timely than ever. The reality tv crazy has showed no signs of slowing. This was a favourite of mine in my high school years. A wonderfully dark satire of of the genre that plays scarily authentic.

Daniel Minahan went on from this to direct some of my favourite episodes of HBO television. I always get excited when his name comes up. The reason I remembered his name was because of this film and the great commentary track that came on the dvd.

The recreation of reality tv conventions is apt and allows for some great characters and delightfully forced drama. I think it works as both an authentic homage and a parody, it really just depends on the viewers interpretation.

I love the use of dramatic reenactments and that the entire climax of the film takes place without the real actors. Throughout the film you can imagine the producers of the show twisting the events to make them more entertaining so that by the time it gets to the end you doubt completely the reality of what you are seeing. Especially when Will Arnett shows up. That's the 2nd film tonight he cameos in!

Great to watch this again after so many years.

Hot Rod

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

There have been many Saturday Night Live movies in the past and many of them don't stick. This one kind of fell through the cracks but I actually think it's one of the better ones out there.

I find any scene with Andy Samberg and Ian McShane are hilarious, what a pairing. I like the cast a lot. There are some very funny bits and the rest of the film is inoffensive enough not to be a bother. It's a very silly kind of humor, one that I'm rather partial too.

The Wizard of Speed and Time

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

I do love my old school fx and this one is all about them. A film that celebrates the insanity and hard work and hoop jumping to get animation to screen. Despite the slightly fantastic reality created in the film it still manages to portray a section of the film industry from a time gone by, as it will never exist again. There's not really anyone left that does effects the old fashioned way but the hand made quality of them really does have a nostalgic flare.

The story is simple enough, self referential and semi-autobiographical, based on Mike Jittlov's experiences trying to get a job at Disney with a 3 minute demo reel. It moves at quite a pace and is filled with little fx flourishes all over the place. For better or worse, it's also a musical.

While the story is nothing amazing the film is quite charming. You get a whole lot of great old school effects and a look at the real problems of trying to break into the industry. Good stuff.

Willow

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

Here's my write up from earlier in the year. I do love my 80's fantasy. And I do love Willow. Awesome.

I Don't Know How She Does It

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

A more apt question would be I Don't Know WHY She Does It. Sarah Jessica Parker has a knack for being in extraordinarily mundane middle of the road nothing films lately. This is another. This film is so light it's amazing they managed to catch it to exhibit in cinemas before it floated out of the earths atmosphere. It's really kind of offensive too. Hardly a role model for females in the work place OR mothers. And it makes terrible cases for both.

The film did afford me other opportunities. The sound in my cinema was playing up, the low frequencies were causing cracking from the front speakers. When I informed the staff they were quick to recify this, discovering a faulty cable as the culprit. Unfortunately all the happened only 2 minutes into the film. Then they restarted it with proper sound.

The neat thing about digital projections is that there is no chance if them burning film in from of the projector bulb, so when they stop the film the image remains on screen. It was a rather flattering shot of Christina Hendricks and you could really see the spherical lens distortions in the bokeh.

A surprising amount of the film was shot in very low light. A lot of late night scenes and candle lit restaurant meetings. There was some unusual grain that was particularly noticeable on the darker sides of skin tones. I was thinking that perhaps that could be from some possible digital smoothing of actors skin, but I think it's more than likely just a fast speed film stock. Digital projection of 35mm film elements really allow you to see the grain without wondering if it's just a bad film print.

Stock footage. Sure all these romantic comedy films use stock establishing shots and many don't match up very well in tone. But there were some real travesties here. If you're going to buy some Getty Images for film, please make sure the footage is not interlaced. REALLY! It happened. And that's not even the worst bit. Aspect ratios. How hard is it to see that your footage is squished? I cannot abide this. Sloppy.

That sums up the film. Sloppy. As you can see I did everything to avoid having to actually notice what was going on in the film. Don't bother with this one.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

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

Well, I've only seen each of these films once each and since the first one, it's become a tradition to plant myself in the enthusiastic crowd at the midnight screening and giggle quietly. If I am going to see it, it's the best way. I love watching the way the sea of teen girls react to everything. That's entertaining enough itself.

But then you have the films. Now, I bare the Twilight series no grudge, if only for the fact that it's made Summit Entertainment enough money to help fund some genuinely cool films over the last 4 years. Pardon the pun, but I find it a very lifeless series of vampire movies. I haven't read the books, don't plan to, I'm just talking about the film series.

I think I will have to reserve judgment on this one until I've seen the concluding part. This is not a whole film, it feels like 2 hours of padding. Especially the first half of the film that just drags on and on. It's "two characters being happy: THE MOVIE." A lot of exposition, set up for what I hope to god is a more interesting finale. My central problem with the films is the writing. Melissa Rosenberg's scripts make me want to pull my hair out. And while the you can make fun of the bad acting all you want, the fact is, I've seen every one of the premiers in this series give much better performances elsewhere, but even a great veteran would find it hard to sell this drivel.

I will acknowledge that it's extremely difficult to make such unashamedly melodramatically romantic material realistic and believable. I just have no connection to the central relationships of the series because it's all so surface. No doubt the books have chapters of internal monologue that flesh out characters and scenarios and you can see director Bill Condon desperately trying to convey some of this in the film but it never gets there.

He heavily uses dreamlike flashback/flashforward montages and dissolves to show connections between characters, visions, dreams, telepathic conversations and such. It works well to get out exposition but never helps add any weight to the drama. Still some of the events in this film are so hilariously bizarre that you kind of forget any of that. They drop stuff in at the end of this film that just seem inane. Perhaps I don't remember the other films enough, so I could be wrong, but there are certain key concepts that really needed to be set up earlier for the non-twilight initiated, the biggest one being werewolf imprinting.

I was even fine with the whole vampire/human birth scene and whilst they don't show anything interested due to the rating, it's implied pretty well and made the young girls squirm in there seats. Unfortunately the rating also kills the sex scenes but since the films haven't given me any reason to invest in these characters and their relationship I didn't really care either way.

I just find this whole series flaccid. There are a few bright spots here and there. Pretty much any time Anna Kendrick and her school pals are on screen it becomes enjoyable. But this film in particular has so many ridiculous situations there is probably nothing that could have been done to keep up any kind of suspension of disbelief. All that leaves you with is the opportunity to laugh at the overt sincerity. I get the feeling most of the cast are in on the joke too, so I feel like it's ok. Thankfully there's only one more.

Real Steel

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

Here's my first review. It's been a while since I've seen anything, I've been extremely busy, so better get right back into it!

The Debt

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

I haven't seen the original film but when I saw Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman's names as part of the team of screenwriters I had some hope. I did like the James Bond spy spin they put on the X-Men franchise earlier in the year. But this one was never that engaging for me.

It has a cool cast. The younger versions of the characters really don't look much like the older versions. Like at all. And never give Sam Worthington a role where he needs to do any kind of accent other than Australian. Really.

It's serviceable.

Moneyball

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Paul, Kim

I can see why Aaron Sorkin would be drawn to this story, he loves writing about the behind the scene running of institutions we are all familiar with but never give a second thought to how they work. Here, that institution is Baseball and thankfully for me, you don't need to understand how the game works or even sit through much of it to enjoy the film.

So don't go in expecting an underdog sporting team motivational movie. Whilst it does have those elements they aren't the focus, this is a dialogue driven drama. And it's a pretty good one too. I enjoyed it muchly.

Spike Jonze totally shows up, I called it. I thought it was him but wasn't sure and his name isn't on the credit list, but it is him. I don't know why the jump to acting but he was quite funny.

The film does have one pet peeve of mine and that it captions at the end of the film that explain the aftermath. This one had SUCH a great ending point and I really felt it it was the perfect place to leave the film. But that's probably just me.

While it's a subject that doesn't get me excited the drama was still engaging and the characters were interesting enough to invest in.

Shark Night

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

Whooooooooo boy. It's not good. But not everything can be as glorious as Piranha. Firstly, it's not r-rated, which means there no awesome gore or nudity. There is also a lot of the worst scripted horrendous teen melodrama I've seen in any "horror" film in a long time. And is it just me, or is this film a little bit raciest? That Black guy, gee whiz...

The only good things this film had going for it was a premise for having sharks in a lake that is so absurd it's hilarious and one or two big fish out of water deaths that are pretty funny. And the films stars Sara Paxton and Chris Carmack in conflict, so I liked to think of it as Aquamarine vs Lovewrecked.

The 3D is very amateurish. Convergence points are all over the place. The underwater shots must have been shot with two cameras side by side because they are extremely hard to reconstitute in your brain. So much depth. And then half of the shots on land are so close together there is no depth at all, it's just 2D. Most annoyingly, simple 2 headed conversations have widely different amounts of depth despite being the same framing cutting back and fourth.

I know Piranha opted for post conversion due to the unrecognisable light reflections the sun creates on the surface of water. It's really only an issue in a couple of shots in this film though, of course being called Shark Night, you'd expect a great deal of it to actually take place at night, where this isn't as much of an issue.

The bad guys in this a horrifically cartoonish. But worse are all the main characters who are so annoying you just want them to die immediately.

The film has few redeeming qualities and is probably best used as an example of how 3D can be done wrong. A great learning tool. Added bonus was we were the only people in the cinema so we could commentate as loudly as we pleased. They also screwed up the 3D projection, almost giving us an epileptic fit from the strobing, but they were kind enough to start the film again once they sorted the problem out.

Our Idiot Brother

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

I'm a big Paul Rudd fan and this film just every bit as charming and easy going as his character. Very enjoyable.

And it has such an awesome cast. Even all the bit parts and supporting players are great. The story it's telling is very simple. Rudd plays Ned, a very trusting and loving guy who keeps getting put into troublesome situations because of other peoples problems and being blamed for it.

There's really that much more to say about it, it's charming, feel good, very enjoyable.

Drive

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

Here's my first write up. The structuring becomings abundantly clear the second time through. You also realise how much time it takes to set up the events and characters. I suppose walking out of the film the first time you are too busy to think about all the events in the last half of the film to remember how much is done in the first half.

I also want to mention fonts quickly. I really liked the font they used for the titles in this film. It's just screams L.A. and has a very 80's vibe too it. Also having just watched Anonymous and seeing the unimaginative and rather cheap looking standard Herculean font used in abundance it really did make me appreciate it more. Anonymous looks like it was made in iMovie and Drive looks like it was optically composited on film. Fonts make a difference.

A friend had posted this on facebook JUST as I got back from the screening. Strangely enough it was something I was thinking about a lot during the film, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

Anonymous

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

Well it's certainly a welcome change up for Roland Emmerich, who after destroying the planet in every conceivable way has set his sights on destroying a mere reputation. Was Shakespeare a fraud? Truth be told, I don't really care and the film is gracious enough not to present its story as fact. What I do care about was if the story being told was worth it.

It's entertaining, very slickly produced and has a brilliant cast. Yes, I'd say it was worth it.

The theory the film presents is wedged in a framework of a play being presented in present day. This works thematically and allows some wriggle room with possibly historical inaccuracy, especially when juxtaposed with Shakespeare's own writings of historical drama. In fact some of the revelations towards the end of the film are incredible enough to make them feel more akin to the bard's tragic works rather than a historical fact.

The period has been recreated beautifully and thanks to those wonderful effects artists working on scaled pay after the success of their collaboration with Emmerich on 2012, we get to see beautiful vistas of old england recreated before our eyes. The costumes and sets are all wonderfully detailed.

I barely recognised Rhys Ifans as the Earl of Oxford. Rafe Spall is delightfully annoying as this version of William Shakespeare and real life mother and daughter Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson breath new life into Queen Elizabeth I over numerous time periods.

Did I mention the time periods? Not only does the film have a present day bookend, but the the story has it's own bookends plus it jumps freely back and fourth in time throughout. It takes its time to settle into place and is a little annoying at first. I'm not sure what it adds to the proceedings either.

I loved the score for this films one sex scene, it was intriguing and a little unusual. The rest of the music was rather mundane. Minor complaints though, technically the film is very proficient. It certainly has more glorious 3D matte paintings and wide views than any stuffy period drama I've ever seen. While I'm sure Emmerich is itching to get back to destroying the world this diversion proved to be very fruitful. Regardless of what you think of the theory it presents, it's sure to hold your attention.

In Time

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

Here's my first viewing. The logic of the world probably doesn't hold up as well second time through, but still fun. Similarities to the musical Urinetown were pointed out to me. I like to think that although the film ends kind of on a happy note, you have to assume the events directly after this is a total economic collapse and a complete disaster. That would be interesting to see...

Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark

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

Well I thought I should watch the original since I liked the remake so much.

As I said in that post, it was Guillermo del Toro's misremembered version. This film is tiny in scale, very simple and very dated but it's easy to see how a young kid could remember this from childhood and build it up in his head in such an enthusiastic way as to turn it into the film that is currently playing in theatres.

Now this one plays kind of camp. It isn't very effective but interesting to see where the new film started out. Such wonderful hairstyles.