Saturday, December 29, 2012
Never Let Me Go
IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler, Michael
Write Up.
What a sweet little film.
My Dinner with Andre
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself
In the tradition of We Bought a Zoo and Snakes on a Plane, a film with everything you need to know, right there in the title. It really is just Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory meeting up and having a dinner conversation. I thought there might be some trick to it, but that's really all it is. Sometimes I found it engaging, there were some interesting ideas and stories and sometimes my interest waned. But I get the reference in that episode of Community now.
Death Ship
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself
Hah, shlocky stuff. Doesn't quite hold up. Some very basic spooky goings on, killing off the cast one by one. Evil Nazi ship needs blood to operate. To what ends is not discussed. They do there best to create atmosphere with edits and music but it doesn't really work. Still, it's pretty fun.
Texas Killing Fields
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself
Just trying to squeeze in a few film that slipped by from the start of the year before I compile my list. It's such a huge list though. And I think there's a reason why I skipped a lot of them. This one has an eclectic cast but really was pretty run of the mill. And considering the title it would have been nice if some of the lead characters had or could maintain a Texan accent.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Take Shelter
IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler, Naomi
Write Up.
A nice apocalyptic psycho-therapy drama double with Melancholia. Cool soundtrack after all the Wagner too. Great film.
Melancholia
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Mum, Naomi, Tyler, Paul, Jess, Jim, Marcus, Aaron
Hard to talk about the film through all the noise made about the high frame rate. Even within our own group it was very divisive. I'm still deciding what I thought about it. I'll have to go see it again first. Some parts I liked though, Some part I didn't as much. I think everyone has the wrong Idea about it though, I would worry less about there being more frames and more that Jackson had to shoot that frame rate with such a large shutter angle so the cut down to 24 looks normal. I think if he was able to shoot at 48 without all that motion blur that makes it look like it's in fast forward at the beginning, it could still look a bit more filmic. Anyway I got used to it after a while, and I thought the 3d blended all the CG creatures in with live action magnificently.
A film of many beginnings. After everything I heard and knowing Jackson's penchant for embellishment I had expected the dwarfs arrival at bad end to go one twice as long as it actually did. And once they were on the road, I was back in middle earth and loving it, could have happily stayed there for another 3 hours. But that's just me, everyone else had a problem with the length.
Yeah, Radagast feels superfluous but I guess they had to introduce their added necromancer plot that pads out the other films somehow. And that's the annoying thing about his film, you get tiny glimpses of everything that's to come but the only closure in film one is a rather forced point of wether or not Thorin believes in Bilbo. Perhaps Fellowship being our introduction to the whole world made it more satisfying but even so I think it had a stronger ending.
The real problem is the stakes in the Hobbit are not nearly as consequential or immediate as Lord of the Rings. Maybe that will change with the Necromancer plot in later films but for now it's just some fun action and some more fantastic world to explore.
Lee Pace! Only in a few shots, but man, that guy's getting around now, jumping from franchise to franchise. And we got more of Flight of the Concords' Bret McKenzie as an elf. Barry Humphries as the goblin king was quite fun too. It's cool the got Christopher Lee in there. Was he shot with the others or on greenscreen and inserted in? I'll have to find out. Same goes for Ian Holm.
They outdid the fellowship shot of Gandalf and Bilbo in the hobbit hole, selling the scale differences. That was always my favourite fx shot where the pass each other the hat and cane. The intro shot in this film is much longer and far more complicated what with all the dwarfs running around. And in 3D. But it really sells the scale differences. Amazing. I'll watch the film again just to see that shot.
Les Misérables
The Cabin in the Woods
IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Mum
Non-Spoiler write up here.
Slightly more in-depth write up here.
My perfect christmas day movie of course. Unfortunately we had to stop halfway through when relatives dropped over so we only finished it today. No ideal at all, really kills it. But nice to finally show the folks what I was talking about this whole year...
Bullhead
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself
A slow build drama, some intense moments of suggested violence and a very intriguing main character. And a live cow gets a c-section, wasn't expecting to see that.
I had a problem with pacing at the beginning, but it all servers a purpose I guess. They do the ol' bait and switch. The film begins as a meat mafia deal gone bad but slowly through the course of the film as we get to know the past of our lead character and things become more personal it becomes a character study against this thematic backdrop of animal abuse.
It's visually quite stunning. Beautifully photographed. The leads all give great performances. I thought it might have been a struggle to get through but it won me over in the end with this great tragic story arc.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Quartet
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself
Well, it his all the story structure beats as something like, say, Pitch Perfect, but it feels much classier, for a few reasons. Here, our subject is opera singing. Instead of a cast of American teens we get cream of the crop of the British octogenarian thespians. The film also manages to be much more subtle about how it hits all those story beats, so it flows quite naturally.
I thought some of it might have actually been too subtle, there was plenty more drama to be milked out of these situations. But Dustin Hoffman, directing his first feature, and screenwriter Ronald Harwood, who's adapting his own play, seem to be content to leave things on the level instead of going over the top, which makes for an easily palatable experience but not a particularly memorable one.
Still, it's sometimes great to just watch these guys chew the scenery.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Butter
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself
I've been reading about this one for a while now, the script was high up on the 2008 black list. Still don't know what's going on with its release but it's a damn fine film with a great cast. Very enjoyable. Perhaps not as darkly funny as, say Drop Dead Gorgeous, but along a similar vein and with some delightfully robust characters.
Keep an eye out for this one.
Being Flynn
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself
So this is what Paul Weitz has been up too. Another one that seems to have been lost in the shuffle of release dates in Australia.
It's a solid little character drama and Paul Dano and Robert De Niro are dependable as ever. The end dragged a little.
Premium Rush
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself
David Koepp is directing again. And he's crafted a really fun little action thriller. And with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Shannon going head to head too. Great stuff.
The pace keeps moving and despite all the time jumping, the use of some funky info-graphics keeps everyone updated on time and geography.
Short and sweet, just the way I like it. I dunno why but this really hit the spot today. Hopefully it will get a proper release soon after being shifted from the 2012 slate.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Sleepwalk with Me
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself
Mike Birbiglia lets himself be known. Noted.
It's an interesting way for a comedian to do a kind of stand up routine of stories, as extrapolated out into a narrative feature, talking directly to the audience. I enjoyed it muchly. It's sweet and heartfelt and very funny.
Silent Night
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself
I do like my Christmas horror films. But there aren't many good ones. The original Silent Night, Deadly Night and its sequel are not exactly classics. From what I remember they were pretty terrible actually, being fun despite themselves.
This remake is a step up, still nothing amazing but pretty fun nonetheless. Just a bit of christmas cheer.
The Wicker Tree
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself
Robin Hardy's trying to recapture something here and it just doesn't quite work out. It feels like a fan fiction version of The Wicker Man. All the same beats are here but without the performances or intrigue of a mystery to pull you through.
Christopher Lee pops up for a line or two on greenscreen, just to link it back in some way to the original. A little vague but it's nice to see him.
Soooooooo much singing. I get the first one had a lot of songs, it's practically a musical. But they really overdo it here.
Trying to capture lightning twice rarely works. This is just too similar to the original to be interesting and where it differs is boring.
96 Minutes
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself
Well it's not terrible. The kids do a good job actually, playing kinda stupid young teens. Believable though unfortunately. But the non-linear story structure was a little over the top sometimes.
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