Jaws

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

Write Up.

Such a gorgeous bluray. And really fun to watch with someone who has never seen it before. Those jumps still work.

Oz the Great and Powerful

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

Write Up.

Checking out the film and some extras on bluray. No denying the feats of fanciful production design.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

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

Time for a rewatch before the sequel. It's be a very long time since I watched this on first release. I was never obsessed enough to be able to quote the whole thing like some of my friends, in fact I think I only watched it once.

Watching the bluray now, the biggest tell tale sign that the film is 10 years old is that it is a comedy that was still shot using film. You can see the grain and a few specks on the print. With the amount of footage they generate in these improv comedies, the film stock must get very expensive (as evidenced by the copious amounts of extra features of deleted alternate and extended sequences that we waded through after). I can only imagine how much they create now they don't have to worry as much about that.

I enjoy those steps outside reality the film takes, the characters are heightened enough as is but there are moments that just push it over the top into absurdist territory. Ferrell and the gang all have their great moments. For me the unsung hero is Christina Applegate who has to be the straight person but still go toe to toe with this insanity and fit into the world.

I forgot about all those cameos too. They just roll them out.

Good to catch up with, still not an all time favourite but most enjoyable nonetheless.

Ass Backwards

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

June Diane Raphael and Casey Wilson have been playing the best friend / co-worker roles in comedies for a while now but they've taken it upon themselves to write a film where they'll get to finally be lead roles. It's an admirable effort with plenty of good laughs, if only mildly memorable.

Frozen

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

Not to be confused with Adam Green's great film of the same name, although I can imagine the hilarity. Also sadly no seen in 3D yet, but hopefully that will be rectified very soon. Especially to see the Micky Mouse short Get A Horse that's attached. That NEEDS to be in 3D.

I've been anticipating this one for a while, listening to the soundtrack and checking out all the amazing technical stuff in vfx news. The fx animation in this is really spectacular. As is the character animation. Olaf must have been tricky to rig.

But enough tech talk. What makes this film great is that it is both a wonderful throwback to the Disney animated musical, with some really great songs that actually further the plot, and at the same time the story manages to twist the more conventional fairy tale cliches into something more modern but never really loses that classical feeling.

You could argue that this is a more feminist piece but at its heart it still about woman being unable to control their emotions. But the idea of a Prince Charming and true love breaking the spell certainly look different here. And the lack of a true villain is very interesting, the sister relationship is what's centre stage here.

Kristoff could replace Flynn Rider as my prince of choice. Flynn has more personality, but shucks, I just can't lay off the blondes. 

The songs in the first half are very enjoyable. But besides a quick reprise, they sort of forget about singing halfway through and only go back to it for a pretty naff comedy number in the 2nd act. But there's some memorable stuff by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who also gave us Avenue Q, Book of Mormon and the little seen but delightful new Winnie the Pooh movie. 

It also has its fair share of comedy. Kristen Bell's Anna is probably the scruffiest and most proactive princess I can remember. Idina Menzel's Elsa can high belt. And just like in Wreck-it-Ralph, stealth Alan Tudyk does marvellous work.

The film really has nothing to do with Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen but it stands on its own as hopefully a representation of what Disney can do with story and character from here on in.  Here's hoping for a second golden age. And stay through the credits for some humorous messages and a nice little moment at the end.

The World's End

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes

Write Up.

Commentary 3, cast, good fun.

The World's End

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes

Write Up.

Commentary 2, the technical commentary with Edgar Wright and DP Bill Pope.

Pacific Rim

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes

Write Up

Commentary time! You can't doubt Del Toro's passion. He sure loves his monsters. Some interesting things to learn too, mainly about the use of colour and design. A bit of a history lesson too.

Marry Poppins

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No

Write Up.

Saving Mr. Banks is coming out soon, so Disney released a tie-in Bluray of this classic. I checked out the extra features, there's a lot about the creation of the Broadway musical and some good interviews and the commentary, which I listened to again as I watched. It's much easier in HD to see the seams in the fx work but the animation and especially the amazing matte paintings have such detail to them that you can really appreciate. Good to see again as a refresher before Disney's oscar hopeful for this year.

Gravity

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

Write Up.

They had cheap tickets to a Vmax session. This time I sat a little closer. Makes a big difference even though there's some slight ghosting that's more prominent. Sound is much better in the bigger cinemas too.

The World's End

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes

Write Up.

Commentary time! There are 3 on the bluray but I had to start with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Always entertaining and insightful and so much to pick up on. They love to pack their films with hidden sight gags and double meanings and there's so much here I missed in the fist two viewings. Such a fun film.

The Fall

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

Write up.

I recently looked over all my lists of all the films I've seen since 2008 to find out which ones I rewatched the most. This was pretty high up on the list but I still have friends who hadn't seen it yet, so this fixed that problem and bumped it up a place too.

American Hustle

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

A fun period conman movie with a great cast. Jennifer Lawrence is absolutely hilarious. Loved Louis C.K. too. With a conman movie you usually expect some sort of narrative long con, not so here, this is a very straight forward tale and they clearly set up the final play so what this film amounts to is pretty much a bit of fun with great actors playing interesting characters but not much of an inventive plot. I expected something more from David O. Russell but this isn't a heavy hitter, just a slightly overly long piece of well put together entertainment.

Did anyone think that was a Sandra Bullock cameo? I wouldn't be surprised, the didn't even credit Robert De Niro hah.

Battle of the Year

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Another year, another 3D dance movie. Oh man this one's a doozy. Hilariously inept dialogue and scenes with probably the most blatant product placement I've ever seen in any film since Mac and Me. Apart from just being a big ad for a multitude of Sony products and Braun shaving the film blatantly uses chunks of the documentary Planet B-Boy (now streaming from Sony's online store to PS Vita...) to get the coach played by Josh Holloway, and the audience up to speed on what exactly B-Boy-ing is. And in truth the dancing style did nothing for me, I don't really get it. The 3D was, umm, a thing.

In all honesty the dialogue and forced drama was so hilariously bad that I really enjoyed myself enough to reccomend this one to those of you that like that sort of torture. Josh Peck was the only actor who got one or two genuine laughs from me and he did the best at selling the material but really, there's nothing much here but another forgettable trashy dance movie.

Gravity

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Dominic, AJ

Write Up.

It's still out! Woo.