Saturday, May 31, 2014
The Normal Heart
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
This was on instead of Game of Thrones?!? The outrage. Last time this happened we got Behind the Candelabra. This year they attempt to out-gay Liberace.
I don't know the play this is based on. But the movie is pretty straight forward. There are parts where it feel like they've tried to include character monologues as voice overs between scenes though, that was a little strange. But apart from that it flowed as a movie pretty well.
Some impassioned performances. A lot of outrage. Much like Dallas Buyers Club I feel like the film coasts largely on the issues it's about. There are a lot of relationships set up but i was never fully invested in any of them. Still, it;s a pretty good cast Ryan Murphy's assembled.
It's pretty good I suppose. I learnt something about the start of the AIDS crisis, so there's that.
Lovely Molly
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Sebastian
Well it's not very scary. It's more of a character study of a very psychologically unstable woman. There's one or two places where they hint at the supernatural but I think you can still take it either way. Didn't offer me much more than that but the performance from Gretchen Lodge was good.
Friday, May 30, 2014
Sleeping Beauty
IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jess, Jim, Michael, Beaumont, Andrew
Been a while since I brushed this one off. The clean up on the bluray is really great. I was never much into this one. The film is pretty much about the 3 fairy godmothers. The prince is a bit of a dope that they have to help. There is a random song between the two kings right in the middle of the film. The villian doesn't do much except start the curse and turn into a dragon at the end. And all the music is just adding lyrics to Tchaikovsky's ballet, which seems like a cheap work around.
The Fairys get some great character animation. And I love the 14th century stylings of the background paintings, with square edges and flat perspectives. Also I love that they were bold enough to try out the cinemascope ratio. It looks great.
Anyway nice to give it another look.
Maleficent
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Beaumont, Andrew, Jess, Jim, Bri, Michael
Disney goes back to the vault looking for something to generate cash and comes out with a big expensive reworking of Sleeping Beauty that tries to take the Wicked route with its villain.
Designer Robert Stromberg gets promoted to the director chair and as to be expected delivers a beautiful looking film. The design of the creatures, the world, the lighting and imagery are all top notch. Unfortunately we've come to expect this level or wonder as standard. What makes a film really stand out is its story.
And we know the story of Sleeping Beauty. The way they rework it is not as clever as I was hoping for. At least in Wicked, The Wizard of Oz story is in tact and and merely coloured in a different light from the reading of the story set around it. Here though they need to actually alter the story of Sleeping Beauty to make their new version work, which doesn't seem as cool. It means when I go back home to watch Sleeping Beauty, I have to think "that version is wrong."
Angelina Jolie looks to be having fun. The characters around her really don't have anything much to play though. I feel like there were a lot of missed opportunities, especially with the relationship between her and the king. But despite Maleficent's flip flopping of good and evil everything else is pretty black and white.
Those 3 fairy godmothers are kind of freaky. And a little horrifying in their ineptitude.
No one else in the kingdom got put to sleep. I always hated that Disney's Sleeping Beauty felt the need to have a meet cute with the prince before Aurora falls asleep, at the expense of the kingdom falling asleep for 100 years. She's really more of a napping beauty. That problem is compounded even further here.
There are some fun sequences, a lot of really pretty creatures. There was a dragon. It was not Maleficent, but it was still there. Eh it's forgettable but not entirely offensive.
Sleepaway Camp
IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Kate, Michael
What can one say about the insanity that is Sleepaway Camp. Yes it's another Friday the 13th camp slasher knock-off. Emphasis on the camp. But it knows that in order to stand out from the crowd it has to offer something... special.
There is some wonderful so bad it's good acting here. So good in fact that I'm really not sure if some of it is the intentional work of insane genius or not. Either way it's fascinating to behold. The children actually seem more natural than all the adults. And the performance of that mother at the beginning is something that will never leave me. A real stand out. Impossible to describe, you simply have to see it.
And then there's the kills. There's something about the amateurish way the editing revels in the build up and the horror that cracks me up. And that score is so over the top and melodramatic too. Hilarious and amazing.
And then there's the climax. Perhaps you know it from reputation alone. If not though, it's a lot of fun to discover.
A cult classic to be sure. Could have been another forgettable slasher cash in but for better or worse, it manages to make an impact. give it a try and see what you think.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
A Million Ways to Die in the West
White Dog
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
That's a fan made trailer (and hence it gives away too much of the film, so don't watch it if you can help it) because apparently Paramount got scared and never released the film theatrically. Or at all in America. But Critorian to the rescue, 25 years later.
I really liked this though. It is definitely a little confronting and raises many questions. Fascinating. If you can get a hold of a copy it really worth checking out.
Moms' Night Out
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler
This film just came out of nowhere. Released in cinemas today with no fanfare at all. Doesn't bode well. But went to see what exactly it was anyway, only having seen a poster and brief synopsis on the cinema website.
Surprise faith film!
Yeesh.
It provided many opportunities for amusing hypotheses of where the plot could go. All of which were inevitably more interesting that the film itself. The characters and comedy are very bland, so more often than not we were forced to entertain ourselves.
Blazing Saddles
IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Kate, Andrew
Well if you want a classic Western Comedy you can't go past this. It's been an age since I've seen it. Typical Mel Brooks style and it's very very silly. Also far less politically correct than what you'd find today....
But I loves me some Madeline Kahn. I don't hold this in as high esteem as some, but I do enjoy it.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
A Million Ways to Die in the West
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Sebastian
Seth MacFarlane's latest comedy and he finally gets to appear on screen instead of just voicing a character. An old school western underdog story as told through the veneer of modern eyes. MacFarlane's Albert is pretty much a man out of time. No one in the old west had teeth that white.
The whole setting is mainly an excuse for a series of jokes about the ridiculous harsh realities of the old west. There are some very funny gags along with some very juvenile sex talk (bless you Sarah Silverman) and plenty of silly potty humour. A few through away cameos as well...
The whole film really is rather silly, which can make the moments of sincerity a little jarring but MacFarlane and Charlize Theron make it work rather well. The main thrust of the plot and their romance is pretty typical stuff but it's fine as a base to build the gags around.
For all the talk of how terrible living on the frontier is, the film presents its golden vistas and moonlit nights in beautiful clean colours. As is the convention for comedies, bright, happy and colourful is the look here. I'm of two minds about this. One the one hand, covering the characters in dirt and grime and roughing up look a bit would fit far better with story and the location. But no-one is coming to see this for authenticity and the cinematography is really very beautiful.
I didn't enjoy this as much as Ted, ironically this film feels more puerile than a film about a talking teddy bear that takes drugs and has sex. But there's still plenty of fun to be had here.
Incidentally there are a few things in that trailer that aren't in the film, I wonder what happened to that hot air balloon sequence?
Monday, May 26, 2014
Oculus
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Kate
Did y'all see that? She eats a light globe guys! A light globe! Oooo.
Demon mirror makes shiny eye people. Makes you hallucinate and see things. It's a handsome looking film and has some scary moments at the start as you're trying to figure out this mystery. Some nice music too. And two actors who I wouldn't in a million years believe were brother and sister.
Once the crazy starts to really kick up a notch it becomes a little problematic. The twists and turns and flashes between past and present, reality and hallucination, start happening faster and more frequently. You can understand the thinking behind this, surly that makes it scary and keeps you on edge. I found it had the opposite effect.
This is a problem found commonly in time travel stories or comic book series where they have the ability to chance the past or resurrect previously through dead characters. The same problem exists with dreams and hallucinations. Actions need to have permanent consequences for them to hold any weight. When a device has been set up that can undo any immediate threat, those threats are null and void. The investment in the action dissipates and your investment drops. Why should I feel scared that this girl has eaten an aforementioned light globe when I've now been conditioned to expect that a second later it'll be an apple again and she's fine?
Perhaps you'll get more caught up in the madness, but I find this to be a real problem. There were some good sequences here. But as it spirals more out of control it also became less interesting.
The Fault in Our Stars
IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Andrew
Kids with cancer. It's not exactly a laugh riot. However the film claims it's not going to sugar coat the harsh realities of the story but really, the audience gets off pretty lightly here. This is primarily a teen romance after all. It's all about the feels. But they should set us up for a hard time and then only deliver sunshine and rainbows.
I enjoyed the two leads. They are fine. Shailene Woodley is already a master of the awkward meet cute. I just wished the pacing was a little quicker. I get it takes time to build the relationship for an audience to invest in these kids but it really started to drag in the middle. Once the disease really kicks in they talk about how tragic it is to have so little time, but instead it felt like they were overstaying their welcome.
And the catharsis and wrap up is very slow too. It felt like a 3 hour movie.
Laura Dern does not wear shorts.
The success of the film really depends entirely on how much you engage with these two leads. I've been pretty cynical so far but I thought it worked very well actually. They don't milk the tragedy tooooo much but you'll get your weepies here if that's what you're looking for.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
In The Loop
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