Lincoln

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

All the actors. All of them. It's like when you see some awesome character actory guy who's face you recognise but don't know where from and you go on IMDB to see what else he was in and it turns out he had one line as a solider in an episode of Band of Brothers with every other actor ever. Actually I've never seen Band of Brothers, mainly because it looks like it would interest me about as much as a film about an old American president telling stories to people with funny facial hair. Admittedly Lincoln is less of a commitment, but it's still quite long and really not my kind of movie. American politics and history doesn't get much of a rise out of me.

I do like Janusz Kaminski's cinematography here, not always a fan of his diffused look, but it really suits this setting. I just wish he didn't have to lens every Spielberg film. The rest of the players are all well cast. There's a good chance this will get many an oscar nod for the immaculate tech and creative credits across the board.

Actors are all pretty good. They get to deliver some meaty stuff, less so the atypical speeches that bookend the film and more the delicious period insults thrown back and forth on the house floor. They do hang a lampshade on Lincoln's penchant for allegorical yarn spinning but even then, it gets a little tiresome.

As film a film as you could hope for about the 13th amendment. I've never personally hoped for such a film (much rather my robot apocalypse, but it looks like that project is dead now too) but now I've seen it I enjoyed it well enough.

Moon

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

Write Up.

For a Good Time, Call...

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

This was a fun little indie comedy. I guess it's a girls version of a bromance? Sistermance doesn't have the same ring to it. More of a ho-mance. They have far too much fun pushing this relationship into flirting with lesbian territory. Enjoyed this one very much.

Upside Down

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

It's a high concept fantasy world that allows for some spectacular visuals. The legwork required to justify the logic of the world is a little cumbersome but once you stop asking questions there's a nice little class divide romance here.

Jim Sturgess is just so gosh-darn sincere isn't he? The relationship between him and Kirsten Dunst is like an old disney cartoon, all surface. They meet and are pretty much just instantly soul mates. But the whole film is very much a fairy tale. Thankfully it's all the playing around with gravity and the visuals that keep you entertained. Without that, this would be a very average film.

John Dies at the End

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

I wanted to watch this for my birthday after having waited for so long. Don Coscarelli's latest, a strange and trippy sci-fi horror comedy based on an apparently even stranger book, with a misleading spoiler alert title. So, my kind of film.

Odd doesn't even begin to cover it. It's a little problematic but in all honesty there was far more I liked about it than I didn't. Some delightful concepts. most of which feel haphazardly thrown in and unexplained or truncated. It leaves the viewing in the dark for the majority and doesn't really bother wrapping everything up, it's just strange thing after strange thing.

However it's pretty entertaining. And I did like the leads. Worth a look.

Django Unchained

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

This film has the juiciest squibs I've seen in a very long time. Gloriously over the top with its bursts of gun violence. It has some lovely banter and funny moments and a plot that feels like a trilogy of films condensed into one, but still maintains a leisurely pace.

Gotta say I didn't enjoy this one as much as Inglourious Basterds, the climax just wasn't as satisfying and I was a bit fatigued by the end. Each act feels like an individual film with its own climax and after 2 already starting another leg of the journey is a little daunting.

Thankfully the characters are engaging and the film is beautifully photographed and the eclectic music from the soundtrack always keeps you second guessing.

This film is a lot of fun, some great moments, it's not my favourite Quentin Tarantino film but it's still a great one.

The FP

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

Hehehehehe. Sure it's low budget but it's also rather hilarious. And hey, I loves me some dance dance revolution. They've managed to follow all the story beats you'd expect and have created a horrifying dialect for the fantasy world they have created. The acting varies greatly, but I guess it all adds to the is this great or terrible factor. I enjoyed it.

West of Memphis

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

I don't generally see documentaries unless they are put in front of me. This one was. It's a compelling story, one I had read about a bit beforehand, due in no small part to Peter Jackson's involvement and reading about the Paradise Lost documentaries HBO made.

The recount of the crime is pretty horrific and surprisingly graphic. And much like in the read life case, the rap up takes a very long time. I really felt the running time towards the end. But the film presents a fascinating case of failed justice and the reasons surrounding.

Four Lions

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

Write Up.

The Dark Knight Rises

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

Write Up.

Spent the whole time doing hilarious Bane impressions. I wonder what Tom Hardy is going to do with Mad Max...

Oldboy

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

Write Up.

I see the remake is coming out this year, time for a refresher. Man, I hope Spike Lee doesn't screw it up. Thankfully we also get a new Chan-wook Park film this year, his first english language film too. Looks interesting.

The Impossible

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

I was concerned going in but relieved to find that it wasn't too sappy. There are those big moments but the majority of it felt either downplayed or earned. The cast are all great (except maybe one of the nurses, who was admittedly saddled with very repetitive dialogue) and young Tom Holland, fresh from playing Billy Elliot on the west end, makes an impression.

And the tsunami sequence is spectacular and intense. Naomi Watt's gets battered and bruised and they don't shy away from glimpsing the graphic results. I noticed two elder ladies had to leave the theatre. But the gore is not dwelt on, this is a survival story and much like the team, Juan Antonio Bayona and Sergio G. Sánchez's last film, the excellent horror The Orphanage, the focus is always on the characters and emotion.

It's interesting, they do structure the film like a horror, and I half expected the wave to come back for one final scare at the end. Still, very enjoyable.

An American Werewolf in London

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

Write Up.

See you next Wednesday is the funniest porn movie ever.

The Tall Man

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

I was hesitant towards this one, but then I saw it was the writer and director of the amazing and horrifying French masterpiece Martyrs.

Now this film isn't nearly as rough as that but it does have a few things in common. It has the same continual shifts in perspective and tone, keeps you guessing. It also shares the same indignant outrage over its subject matter. It certainly makes its point. It's also very morally ambiguous. This subject is a little easier to get your head around though, that of raising children and who we let do it.

Jessica Biel  makes a compelling protagonist. Especially after the rather typical first half is played out that the movie starts to reveal its true purpose.

Jodelle Ferland is again stating her claim as the go-to creepy horror girl. 

It's not exactly scary and is probably too much of a drama for casual horror flick fans, especially given the way it seems to be advertised. But there's definitely a point of view here which is great to see. 

Dead Silence

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

Write Up.