Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

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

Guy Ritchie's bombastic version of the classic detective gets a sequel. I never felt the need to revisit the first installation, although as I'm not a diehard fan of the work I wasn't as outraged as some over the choice of tone.

As much as I love Mark Strong, Moriarty is a far more intriguing villain and the stakes are higher here. Noomi Rapace doesn't have much to do and the Watson/Holmes relationship storyline was a bit of a bore.

What stands out to me most is the production design. Stunning. Absolutely gorgeous.

The action has some funky extreme speed ramping, and they have some fun with the premeditative fighting style of Holmes, using it in various ways here. It's probably more engaging than the first but really I hardly remember any of it right now, just white noise.

If you liked the first one you'll probably love this. Once again, I'm completely indifferent.

Grave of the Fireflies

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

Oh man, why do I torture myself like this? Probably because the is one of the greatest animated films ever made and it's just too good not to share. But really, I think watching the film after having seen it once (or in my case dozens of times) is even harder. Ultimately though, I think it's extremely rewarding.

I can't imagine it playing as it originally did in a double feature with Totoro. The two films couldn't be more opposing but to think they were in production at the same time from the same studio is a testament to Ghibli and their storytelling ability.

Like in Totoro, I am fascinated at the realism and recognisable traits in the behaviours of the young protagonists. The animation is amazing.

This is one of the cases where I absolutely insist on watching with the Japanese audio and subtitles instead of the english dub. Listening to a some lady do a severely grating impression of a 5 year old is far less preferable to hearing a real 5 year old.

The film shows another side to war that's not often explored in stories caught up in heros and action. It has a lingering impact. While it is heartbreaking, it is also extremely beautiful and a definite must see.

There Will Be Blood

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

This is as perfect as cinema gets for me. Staggering. My favourite film of 2008 by miles. And while I'm a huge Paul Thomas Anderson fanboy already I think he's outdone himself with this. I find it completely mesmerising, epic, filled with grand performances and great characters. Daniel Day-Lewis' performance, together with the direction, manage to convey a world of character and plot without saying anything. You can see the thoughts just rolling across his mind.

And Paul Dano, man I love him in this, you just can't wait to see him get it. The whole film is over 2 hours of build up followed by probably the most satisfying climax to a film I've seen. When I saw this in a cinema for the first time I literally had to restrain myself from jumping up and down screaming with joy as the credits rolled I was so happy.

So many great scenes, just so much love for this film, the cinematography, the music, editing and amazing and generous writing. Heartbreaking, hilarious, suspenseful, outrageous and all around Brilliant!

Ben-Her

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Mum, Dad

A classic epic, 11 time oscar winner, and I've never seen it before? Well what better way to start off the new year than with a beautifully digitally remastered bluray of a towering classic that was sorely lacking from my film knowledge. Even if it is just a remake.

I do love it when discs keep Overtures and Intermission or Entr'acte music. Back in the days where cinema was treated much more like theatre. And if I'm being honest, one of the things I dislike about this film and many from the age is how much most of the scenes just feel like filmed plays, with everything playing out in wide masters and very stagey blocking. They say the power of cinema is in the close up. Esther is the only one that gets a close up but that's understandable as the rest of the cast all have pretty ugly mugs.

The first thing that jumps out at me watching this film is the WIDESCREEEN. 2.76:1 is one hell of a ratio. Filmed in 65mm and the bluray looks spectacular. The second thing that stands out is another classic Miklós Rózsa score filled with melodrama. Love it. Especially the HUGE horror sting at the revelation of lepers. Such horror!

It's so funny to me, scenes like in the first disc, (yeah it's on 2 discs, it's 222 minutes long...) the big sea battle that to my eyes are so obviously little models but to my folks they are real. Mum even had to ask if it was real or not. Perhaps it's because they saw it when they were younger and remember it as real or perhaps they still genuinely can't tell. Makes the years I've spent learning compositing seem kinda useless.

In the second disc we have the infamous Chariot Race. Yeah, it's pretty badass. I like on the IMDB trivia it says that sequence has a cutting ratio of 263:1. That's a lot of fill rolled to get that sequence.

I'm not that much of a Charlton Heston fan. He was in some cool movies though. The ship battle, the chariot race and the horror of lepers were the only things that stood out to me and the rest of the film was just people standing around talking (and that's a VERY long running time). I did't care that much for story or characters and I think I naturally get wary anytime a film becomes overtly religious or preachy. Although It's pretty funny that as this was before the 70's you still weren't allowed to show Jesus' face so he appears like the dentist on a television commercial.

Film List 2011

The year is at an end. A whole year of blogging every film I see. Exhausting really, but fun. If you think I should continue next year let me know.

Stat time. This year I saw 782 films, that is a record folks and one I will not likely top for a long while, possibly ever. I went to the cinema 188 times. I saw 242 new films (newly released in Australia, which also includes any title I missed from previous years that was still on the new release shelf at a video library, so you know, some of them may be 2008 titles), let's list them!

MOVIES I LOVED:
1. Rango
2. Black Swan
3. Hanna
4. Rabbit Hole
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
6. Attack the Block
7. Tangled
8. True Grit
9. Never Let Me Go
10. Drive
11. Melancholia
12. Take Shelter
13. Incendies
14. Super
15. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
16. Sucker Punch
17. Super 8
18. TrollHunter
19. 13 Assassins
20. Insidious
21. Snowtown
22. Dogtooth
23. Fright Night
24. Four Lions
25. Julia’s Eyes
26. Bridesmaids
27. The Guard
28. Brighton Rock
29. Tucker and Dale Vs Evil
30. Source Code
31. The Way Back
32. Midnight in Paris

MOVIES I LIKED A LOT:
33. Rubber
34. The Adventures of Tintin
35. Red State
36. X-Men: First Class
37. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
38. Catfish
39. Moneyball
40. Life During Wartime
41. Thor
42. The Illusionist
43. Footloose
44. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
45. Barney’s Version
46. Sarah’s Key
47. Another Year
48. Enter the Void
49. Hesher
50. Jane Eyre
51. Deadgirl
52. Last Ride
53. Paul
54. The Help
55. The Mechanic
56. Banraku
57. Burke and Hare
58. In Time
59. Submarine
60. We Need to Talk about Kevin
61. Hatchet 2
62. Captain America: The First Avenger
63. The Eagle
64. Kung Fu Panda 2
65. Fast and Furious 5
66. Final Destination 5
67. Win Win
68. Battle: Los Angeles
69. The Beaver
70. Our Idiot Brother
71. 127 Hours
72. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
73. The Green Hornet
74. How Do You Know
75. Real Steel
76. Blue Valentine
77. Waking Sleeping Beauty
78. Limitless
79. Red Dog
80. Crazy Stupid Love
81. The Skin I Live In
82. Immortals
83. Oranges and Sunshine
84. I Saw the Devil
85. Unstoppable
86. Monte Carlo
87. Arthur Christmas

MOVIES THAT WERE PRETTY GOOD:
88. Paranormal Activity 3
89. The Adjustment Bureau
90. Cowboys and Aliens
91. Colombiana
92. Summer Wars
93. Tokyo Sonata
94. War Horse
95. The Ides of March
96. Tamara Drewe
97. The Virginity Hit
98. The Inbetweeners Movie
99. Flypaper
100. Howl
101. Anonymous
102. Drive Angry
103. Winnie the Pooh
104. Ironclad
105. Middle Men
106. The Debt
107. Puss in Boots
108. The Fighter
109. Flipped
110. Chalet Girl
111. Yatterman
112. The Last Circus
113. Happy Feet 2
114. Please Give
115. The Messenger
116. The Winning Season
117. The Next Three Days
118. We Bought a Zoo
119. The Fututre
120. Contagion
121. Wake Wood
122. Terri
123. Faster
124. Cargo
125. The Thing
126. Get Low
127. Griff The Invisible
128. Cedar Rapids
129. Barry Munday
130. The Iron Lady
131. The Whistleblower
132. Mother’s Day

MOVIES THAT WERE OK:
133. Unknown
134. Dylan Dog: Dead of Night
135. Cherry Tree Lane
136. The Company Men
137. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec
138. Love Ranch
139. The Three Musketeers
140. The Woman
141. Season of the Witch
142. Biutiful
143. The Lincoln Lawer
144. Wagner and Me
145. The Tempest
146. Warrior
147. The Green Lantern
148. The Tree of Life
149. Mars Needs Mums
150. Shelter
151. Priest
152. Conviction
153. The Hole
154. Batman: Year One
155. The Reef
156. Space Battleship Yamato
157. Friends with Benefits
158. All Good Things
159. It’s Kind of a Funny Story
160. Scream 4
161. Stone
162. The Switch
163. The Extra Man
164. Take Me Home Tonight
165. Hobo With a Shotgun
166. The Conspirator
167. Cars 2
168. Tower Heist
169. Restless
170. 5 Days of War
171. Beginners
172. Horrible Bosses
173. Arthur
174. Gnomeo and Juliet
175. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
176. The Experiment
177. Sleeping Beauty
178. Burning Man
179. The Hangover 2
180. Everything Must Go
181. Trespass
182. Conan the Barbarian
183. Twelve
184. Johnny English Reborn
185. The Resident
186. Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee
187. I Spit On Your Grave
188. Soul Surfer
189. Takers
190. Timer
191. Dolphin Tale
192. Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World

MOVIES THAT WERE NOT SO GREAT:
193. The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence)
194. The Killing Room
195. No Strings Attached
196. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
197. Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
198. Water For Elephants
199. The Vanishing on 7th Street
200. I Am Number Four
201. Beastly
202. Bad Teacher
203. Burlesque
204. Rio
205. Morning Glory
206. Larry Crowne
207. The Rite
208. Hall Pass
209. Dream House
210. One Day
211. My Soul To Take
212. Shark Night
213. The Ward
214. What’s Your Number?
215. Hop
216. Blame
217. New Year’s Eve
218. The Smurfs
219. A Horrible Way to Die

MOVIES TO AVOID:
220. The Clinic
221. Yogi Bear
222. The Dilemma
223. Sanctum
224. Hereafter
225. You Again
226. Your Highness
227. Arena
228. The Tunnel
229. The Collector
230. Red Riding Hood
231. Something Borrowed
232. Abduction
233. I Don’t Know How She Does It
234. Matching Jack
235. Mr. Popper’s Penguins
236. The Change-Up
237. Somewhere
238. Just Go With It
239. Needle
240. Jack and Jill
241. Gulliver’s Travels
242. The Zookeeper

Well there you go. An Eventful year to be sure. And I still only saw about half of the films I wanted too. Hopefully some of the unreleased ones will be more readily available in 2012. The list ordering gets more arbitrary towards the middle where everything starts to blend together.

This year I'd like to focus more on making my own than just watching so I expect I'll ease of a bit. (Just a bit.) How'd you shape up?

Film List 2010
Film List 2009
Film List 2008
Film List 2007
Film List 2006

Incendies

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

WOW. Knocked me off my feet, wasn't expecting that at all.

A story that feels epic and intimate. I can see why this has made so many top 10 lists and I'm glad I got to slip it in before the end of the year after missing it at the cinema.

Definitely a must see.

Tokyo Sonata

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

I've already said a few times this year how much I like Kiyoshi Kurosawa's work. This is his latest and it's just beautiful. Like his other films it's quite and subtle, but this time there are no horror or dark genre elements, it's a straight forward drama about a japanese family and what happens when the father loses his job.

It's a little unpredictable and, again, I probably don't know enough about the social climate of Japan to understand all the statements it makes subtextually but I still enjoyed this sweet and melancholy little drama.

The Last Circus

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

Ooo crazy stuff. I won't pretend to understand the socio-political undertones prevalent throughout this film but I can say that it was a great deal more entertaining than Water for Elephants...

Sad clowns with machine guns. That's really all you need to know.

Blame

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

So what can we blame? My natural aversion to Australian accents? My knowledge of locations that ruin suspension of disbelief? Or just the boring characters, writing, action and direction.

I don't believe for one second that these characters would group together to kill someone. I do believe that they would screw it up as bad as they did but even then, the drama, the stakes, the tension wasn't there.

It just feels like no choice was made in directing or editing to make any stylistic effort to manipulate the audience into caring about anything. It's perfectly watchable and the footage is exposed correctly but other than that there's not much going for this. It finishes as arbitrarily as it began. Eh.

Babe: Pig in the City

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

Just needing to prove a point I made in Happy Feet 2. It's unfair to say that the movie advertised int hat trailer is not what you get. But it's certainly not HOW you get it.

George Miller has made a fascinating film and the darkest, most traumatising g-rated film I've ever come across.

Mickey Rooney dressed as a clown. Horrifying enough I know but then Babe kills him via a series of accidents, in front of an audience of cancer kids, in slow motion to the soundtrack of Édith Piaf's Non, je ne regrette rien. That's just really messed up. There are other ways you could have directed that sequence. And again, it's these unusual directorial choices from Miller that makes watching Happy Feet so fascinating to me as well.

And while maybe not as traumatising as watching a dog strung up upside-down by a chain slowly lowered into a canal and drown while other animals slowly turn away and ignore his desperate plight to the soundtrack of Puccini's Humming Chorus, (already traumatising in itself thanks to Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures) I find there is a far more particular psychological cruelty to watching a cute little cripple dog get killed trying to save his friend's firstly, secondly showing him finally at peace and happily running around in heaven and finally having Babe rip him out of his one state of bliss back into the grimy depressing real world where his is a cripple again. It's hard to describe exactly how well this sequence works at tearing your insides up but it leaves me shellshocked every time.

Yes, Babe 2 is a very dark little number, especially compared to the bright sunshine of the first film. I really do love the way the portray the city. They've made it THE city, with bits of every famous city landmarks all rolled into one giant idea of what a city is, filtered through a children's storybook world. Production design is amazing. And FX work by Rhythm and Hues is great as well.

Look, don't get me wrong, I think the film is utterly amazing and I like how dark it goes but it still does leave me in shock at some of the stuff they got away with depicting without getting the bump up to PG.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

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

Chan-wook Park's last in his thematic trilogy of revenge films. Just arrived on bluray from the U.K. and the first thing that struck me about it watching again was the ending. I don't remember ever seeing this version where in the films final act everything slowly fades to black and white. I distinctly remember all those scenes in colour. A quick jump on IMDB revealed that two edits exist and the fade was an idea he was toying with. It's an interesting effect, I do so miss the colour from all the blood in the last half but it does serve to emphasises character over actions and a few other things as well.

Chan-wook Park's created another uniquely stylised world (a friend remarked how much it reminded her of Amelie, except this is a littler darker...) and this time he plays around with time a much more and manages to get a great deal of exposition done with snappy flashbacks and fast pace so it never feels too clawing for the audience. I love the way he cuts right to the reactions and aftermath of events for just a few seconds before moving on, and lets the audience fill in the details of what happened.

While there is not big twist revelation like in Oldboy there is a realisations that changes the course of the last act of the film to something that is easily the most emotional part of the film and a rather unusual situation to think about.

In all 3 films we are never told explicitly what to think about the revenge taking place. It's very much left up to the audience to debate after. This film also come with a heavy dose of atonement that cripples our main character, making it very different from the other films in the series. And in the end, as expected, there is not real happy resolution but there is a cathartic release.

It's certainly less extreme than Oldboy but keeps it's pace and style. It's been a very long time since I've watched Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the first of these films and I think I'll have to dig it up and give it another look now. Check this one out if you have the chance. I believe the Australian DVD that I own has the full colour ending, I don't know which I prefer, I'm still getting over the confusion of thinking there was something wrong with the television.

Arena

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

Well that happened.

It's pretty much exactly what you would expect from DTV low budget filmmaking. Cheap thrills, a story we've seen before, some fighting, Samuel L. Jackson? VFX are ok, directed by a VFX guy so you'd hope so. The movie is not that bad compared to most DTV stuff, but then again, I don't watch most DTV films, so yeah, it's pretty bad.

The Skin I Live In

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

Pedro Almodóvar's films are a huge gaping hole in my film knowledge. I think I've seen maybe one or two before and it was only with a very vague idea of what this was about that I went into the cinema. Always a refreshing treat.

Maybe it's because I've been watching so many lately but there was something very 90's thriller about this, well, at least the start, which also reminded me a great deal of Eyes Without A Face that I also watched for the first time this year. Of course this then delves into places you couldn't have dreamed of in the 1960.

After the comparatively straight forward set up there is an extended flashback that take us through the rest of the film where not only character backstory is established but there are some slow revelations that become apparent.

Hard to talk about without spoiling but it does seem to be a subject that he's dealt with in the past. Probably not like this. Makes for a fun ride though, very enjoyable.

P2

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

Festive horror! Alexandre Aja's horror films are always enjoyable and this Christmas number, while quite different from his others, is a nice little treat.

I love it mainly for Wes Bentley, who I find just adorable, even as a psycho stalker murderer man. He's just a guy that wants a date for christmas, I can relate.

While the film is basically 2 people in a car park for 80 minutes it keeps the tension and action going with some inventive sequences.

A great addition to my list of Christmas horror films and definitely one of the better ones, easily the best in the last few years.

The Cottage

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

Write Up. Do like this one.