Underworld: Awakening

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

Oh yeah the Underworld series. That was a thing.

It's been amicable enough so far. Nothing spectacular. This time we get our original lead actors back, we go 3D and we get those Swedish dudes that made Shelter directing. I've still yet to see their big breakout film but it's on my list.

This entry in the series is problematic. It suffers from what so many film series or potential series seem to think is passable as a story arc, in that it only bothers to tells a small part. It's something that is increasingly pissing me off. I'm thinking specifically of films that like to break up novel adaptations in to parts in order to have more time (and make more money) so they never complete the journey and often don't get the funding to actually finish the story, leaving any potential fans with an unresolved cliffhanger or at the very least, a lot of questions. Underworld is not based on any previous stories, despite it being derivative of so many, however in the past they have managed to tell complete stories.

Awakenings sets up a new world, it introduces new ideas, some new characters. It does not play them out into any kind of story though and feels so very incomplete. They've taken a 20 minute introduction and padded it out with an hour of action. The action isn't terrible, but there are no stakes yet. Nothing is determined or explained for either side and consequently nobody cares how anything plays out yet. This could work better if all these film were watched back to back but I haven't seen any of them since the last release and this film jumps into the action so quick and never bothers to take any time to reintroduce any of the characters in a meaningful way. Nor does it ease into the action. So the entire endeavour is a whole lot of sound and fury signifying not much at all. It's the sort of thing that could retroactively become better if they do in fact make any sequels that build on the ideas presented here but it does not work as a stand alone.

The characters are as dull and cold as the cinematography. Actually I sometimes quite like this very stylised blue world but if you are going to make the next instalment of your film franchise in 3D don't choose a world where everything is pitch black and only lit in reflected hi-lights. It's nice they went to the effort to shoot in 3D but the the inter-occular reflective discrepancy is a major issue. Especially when your lead character is waring shiny black leather that has slightly different hot spots in each eye.

When there is more light in the scenes the 3D works well and also sells the CG creatures really well. The majority of the time is unfortunately spent at night in sets with shiny metal or glass and wet roads. Not good for 3D.

Some of the action beats are cool. There's definitely some nice stuff in here and I do like the reset to the world they've done but now I want to actually see some stories told in it. The chess pieces are all set up in place, so it just remains to be seen if the film makes enough money to warrant paying off the work they've done so far.

Martha Marcy May Marlene

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

I've always been fascinated by cults. Here we see a young girl desperately trying to adjust to normal life after escaping and writer/director Sean Durkin really manages to get the audience in her mindset by the end of the film.

An amazing performance from Elizabeth Olsen who is indeed the younger sister of the Olsen twins from Full House. I believe she will also be staring in the remake of Silent House which now has me slightly more intrigued to see it.

John Hawkes is great as ever, and really creepy to boot, as the charismatic leader of the cult. Also Hugh Dancy is as gorgeous and British as ever. My god that man is handsome.

The film manages to make you really fear for this poor girl. You do get a sense that the she may eventually get the help she desperately needs but the ending of the film is probably it's greatest jolt and really lets the paranoia set in within the mind of the audience.

It's a slow and quiet film that builds tension almost without you being aware. I really enjoyed watching this one and it managed to work the crowd in the cinema rather well too. Very intriguing.

Misery

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

Oh man such a great film and It's been so long since I've seen it. It seems like such an odd choice for Rob Reiner at the time but he brings everything he's got and makes yet another all time classic with another great script from William Goldman and story by Stephen King.

Kathy Bates guys. Kathy Bates. So good.

SO GOOD!

District 9

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

My number one film from 2009. Love it.

Look I get the documentary/found footage style pisses people off and theres a lot of crap done with it but I love it, especially when it's high concept genre stuff where it's used to sell the reality of the fantastic. Also I can appreciate all the hard work to track and composite visual effects onto footage shot like that.

Well this one is a very overt metaphor. But what's sneaky about this is that although the hand held cameras are kept throughout the film,. the actual documentary style slowly bleeds out until it's pretty much a sci-fi action film. The action set pieces in the last third of the film are a lot of fun and Neill Blomkamp must have been like a kid in a toy store making this.

The aliens are done so well here, extraordinarily impressive. Better still are their weapons that are all kinds of cool. But best of all is Sharlto Copley and his character arc over the course of the film. It's a melancholic story and one that leaves you begging to find out what happens next.

I can't believe we have to wait another year before we get something else out of Blomkamp, I'm really intrigued by what he's done here and eagerly await his next project.

Freeway

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

I've been waiting for an excuse to watch this again. Gloriously trashy and dark retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and As much as I loveTracy Flick from Election, I think this is my all time favourite Reese Witherspoon role.

I originally found out about this film listening to one of those early Danny Elfman compilation albums. The music intrigued me. Then when I finally saw the film I was blown away, it's just the kind of thing I love and everyone in it looks to be having a great time. Kiefer Sutherland is especially great.

Seeing how the story plays out and how close they manage to stick to the riding hood story is a lot fun. Transplanting it to the white trash world is great. Even the heroine has a very dark side of her own that comes to the fore towards the end.

Good times.

Twister

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

Write Up.

All time favourite. So great!

Speed

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

Gonna have a Jan de Bont double feature. Awesome.

Speed is one of the greatest high concept action thrillers of all time in my book. Although fatigue sets in during the subway train end segment the pacing and tension and character work of everything before it is gold.

The opening elevator sequences has more action and tension that the entirety of most action films. And only then do you get to the Bus, where they manage to keep things interesting and exciting. You can hear Joss Whedon's voice in some of the dialogue too.

Jan de Bont's jump from cinematographer to director is impressive. But looking at his filmography it's no wonder, he'd already worked on some of the best action films ever made before making one himself. Thankfully here he has a great (if not a little cheesy or unbelievable) script to work from and as usual casts all the roles, especially the side characters surrounding the leads, with interesting actors.

No one does sweeping melodic action scores like Mark Mancina. Freaking Awesome.

So great to see this again, it's been far too long. The bluray also has an interesting and revealing new commentary from the writer as well as the director's commentary that's on the dvd. well worth a listen.

Tucker & Dale vs Evil

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

Write up. I got the bluray for my birthday, and sure enough, my home projection from the bluray was not only better quality but a bigger screen than when I saw it at a cinema. That is very disconcerting. But I'm glad I got to see it on a big screen again, it's a load of fun.

Timecode

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

After watching The Silent House go for the real time single take approach to filmmaking I was reminded of this little gem that I haven't seen in many years. I remember going to see it twice at the cinema just to see if I could take in some more of the four screens that play simultaneously.

When I watch it now the first thing that jumps out at me is the incredible cast that is assembled to improvise there way through the day. When I originally saw it I was only familiar with a handful of them but now I've seen a loved performances from pretty much every single person on screen. And they are asked to do some difficult and interesting things not all of which work.

The film presents a snapshot of various intersecting characters in a film company in L.A. and is filled with all the various types you would expect to be associated with such a place. While I'd argue that there is a main story the point seems to be that you can follow whatever characters take your fancy.

An experimental film if ever I saw one and like all experimental films some of it works and some of it doesn't. Once again the realtime filming means there are often long stretches of not much happening, but the advantage is you always have somewhere else to look if you are bored. The sound works to direct your gaze however one of the cool features on the dvd is that you can interactively choose which picture you want to hear at any given moment. One of the few situations where the home video release adds an important element to a film.

On the whole I really enjoy this film. I was always annoyed that Russian Arc claimed to be the first one take film when this was out two years previous, but in truth it's technically 4 takes at once. Still it's been overlooked and is still extraordinarily hard to find in Australia but well worth seeking out.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

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

A slow burn cold war espionage thriller. While there is no action to speak of I will admit to being riveted for the entire running time only to find the pay off far more straight forward than I was hoping for. For a 70's spy movies there is decidedly less double crossing and paranoia going on for my tastes.

England looks dreary as ever. The recreation of the 70's is stunning. The actors are all great even if some of my favourites don't really have much to do. A stand out was Benedict Cumberbatch who was actually given some sort of action and a small and heartbreaking character beat that probably made him the most well rounded character of the bunch.

Tomas Alfredson keeps everything so detached you can barley make out what half the characters look like until their third of fourth scene when they might finally get a mid shot or god forbid, a close up. The audience is well removed from the proceedings and that can make it a bit of work but I've always enjoyed films that let an audience put two and two together.

Really really loved the score and soundtrack. I guess the more I think about it the only thing that lets it down is the deceptively simple mystery and complete lack of stakes. Sure there is tension in a few scenes but you never really have any doubt about what the outcome will be. If all feels very safe.

The Silent House

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

Well, still relatively new release anyway.

People always ask me if technical knowledge of knowing how films are made ruins the magic of watching them. For the most part, no it hasn't but unfortunately for a film like this my knowledge of the camera it was shot on only being able to film 12 minutes at a time kind of ruined the whole "shot in one take" gimmick and I spent most of the film watching for the cuts rather than paying attention to the story.

Of course the problem with filming in real time is it does tend to leave a lot of stretches of not much happening. I guess this works to build tension in a horror film but until that first big scare the stakes aren't set and you don't know what you should be gearing up for, so the start is pretty boring.

And the payoff of this one feels like a bit of a cheat compared to what happened preceding it. If works fine I guess and I thought the film was ok overall but not one of the best I've seen of late.

Still glad to have seen this first before the American remake comes out. I've had the dvd for a while but never got around to watching it. If you do watch it stay through the brief end credit sequence and there's another good 6 minutes of film after that.

Being John Malkovich

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

Wow I haven't seen this film in many years. My first encounter with Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman. And this time watching it through I recognised David Fincher in there.

I remember the great elation experienced watching this the first time when I realised that people can write stories about anything they want, logic be damned. Obviously I'd seen hundreds of illogical stories before but none of the hit as hard as this. I love the way Kaufman is so overt with theme but plays with them in interesting ways. And it's very funny.

So great to see again on bluray.

Speed Racer

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

Write Up.

Watching Redline got me hankering for a bit of Speed Racer action. It greatly saddens me that this film currently sits at 34% on Rotten Tomatos, it seems to just be too much for many people. It's an absolute winner in my book. An all time favourite I love dearly.

Young Adult

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

Well, this is like the opposite of Juno. Charlize Theron digs her teeth into a delightfully horrid character that has one of the more hilarious character arcs I've ever seen for a lead in a drama/comedy. Patrick Wilson and Patton Oswalt are also great.

Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody's second film together is just as funny but far more sour. I enjoyed it muchly. 6th and final birthday film and a great way to end a great day!

House

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

This is a film I have been waiting to show friends for a while. A film I only heard about thanks to Criterion's release. A 70's Japanese horror that's almost like a live action anime. Like someone tried to do Scott Pilgrim editing on 70's equipment. It is completely out of this world and utterly amazing.

If you can ever find a copy I highly recommend giving it a watch, it'll do your head in. It's so ridiculous and cartoonish that the horror elements come of camp as hell. This little known gem is just the sort of thing I love to inflict on others at my birthday!