Inception

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

Had an urge to watch Inception again last night. How good is this film?! Awesome.

The Deep Blue Sea

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

No giant sharks here. Melodrama folks. Genuine melodrama that feels like it was ripped right out of the early 50's when it's set. I didn't know the story or the play going in, I didn't even know the tone.

The austere Britishness of it all was a bit of a shock that took some kneading to get through but it really ends up being rather essential to the themes and tone. And it's such a specific tone, a very outdated one at that, it certainly isn't going to be to everyones tastes. It can be hard to take this level of melodrama and I found myself swaying back and forth several times but in the end there was much more about this film I enjoyed than I didn't.

Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale are all great. Pitch perfect. The film somewhat needlessly jumps around in time a bit but it does allows for great use of some beautiful Schubert, almost as if they wrote around this music the way it fits so perfectly. 

Where I have trouble is look. I'm gonna be picky here to a degree but on the big screen, those focus pulling issues are rather unacceptable. It also makes a terrible case for the continued use of 35mm film as opposed to digital. Most of the film is shot in very very low light, which most digital cameras today wouldn't have any trouble dealing with but show up very muddy here for the majority of the duration. Added to that enough light glow and excessive diffuse to make even Janusz Kaminski jealous, a pet peeve of mine, and you end up with an image that does nothing for me.

Now it becomes a little trickier, because I have trouble with the pacing, however that is entirely intentional and necessary for the style of film this is. It's one of those things I can appreciate more than actually enjoying completely. It just so happens to be the case that I appreciate the style immensely, it was a breath of fresh air from all the summer blockbusters coming out. 

It's a simple little drama and everything about it is so British it's almost funny. I was prepping for a full on tragic ending but it leaves of in a much more interesting place than that, which I loved too. I doubt I'll see a film like this for a very long to so I'll enjoy this one while I can. 

Fire in the Sky

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

Wanted to check this one out too after watching Communion for the first time the other day. This one looks a little slicker and has a pretty cool cast but I find it just doesn't quite all come together completely.

A big part of that is there's not real resolution that can be had from this kind of story. There's been plenty of films that have managed to make satisfying films from stories, true or not, that had not concrete resolution. Here they try to build a story around the friendships of these workers and the relationship with the bosses daughter. For me that's not enough to hang these extraordinary events on and fall flat.

I mean really, I'm just here to see the abduction stuff. The scene comes towards the end via flashback and it was pretty great but was over so soon and then never touched on again. Again, a little disappointing. But this film is more about what happens to the folk left behind with this tale that no one believes. That's fine, but not nearly as interesting to me as that one sequence of abduction.

Still nice to see another one. And with much better looking aliens than in Communion. You can tell where all their budget went.

The Dictator

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

Sacha Baron Cohen ditches his documentary style and using real peoples reactions in his films and makes a more traditional comedy with a new and equally outrageous character. It manages to go through all the beats of a traditional comedy you'd expect but manages to subvert a lot of them at the same time.

But unlike the Aptow school of comedy Cohen and director Larry Charles keep it brief and moving along. There's probably just as much great material left on the cutting room floor here that will no doubt be on some dvd somewhere at a later date, but the film itself manages to never outstay its welcome. 

And for fans, they'll find much to love here. I find his humor hit and miss but did find quite a bit to enjoy here. It's always the unexpected that excites or shocks and there's certainly a lot of that here. Some fun cameos and a bitingly satirical final inspirational speech which somehow manages to feels satisfying as the end of a journey whilst signifying that this character has not learnt anything or really changed at all. That's pretty impressive. 

It's also very silly, but really that's the only way you can handle this kind of tragic subject matter. 

Hi, Mom!

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

The pay off to watching Greetings is seeing this little number. De Niro reprises his role as the film maker trying to get his idea made but probably more importantly decides to take part in some avant-garde theatre trying to create "the black experience" for white folk.

Oh man... that is just glorious. Absolutely hilarious and certain to cross the line for some. It becomes pretty dangerous but it's completely captivating.

Again there isn't really much of a story, it's just a series of events but I think it's worth watching for those Be Black Baby scenes alone. Astounding.

And an even better ending than the last one.

Greetings

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

Well apparently there is no trailer for this film, at least not one I can find. Very early Brian De Palma film, and I believe Robert De Niro's first feature. It's a series of vignettes following three friends  and their various antics being counter coulter hipsters in 1968 New York, dodging the draft, going on dates, unravelling the JFK assassination and other random things.

It's so very late 60's. And you can see the french new wave influence in this very free style of filmmaking. They do yap on about Blow Up. I'd say comedy is not De Palma's strong suit but there were one or two moments where I couldn't help but chuckle. I think they were actually both to do with De Niro and his filmmaking "art project" which was superbly acted out and has a great call back at the tail of the film.

There's no real plot per se, but it is certainly a curiosity that some may find of interest. I happen to despise the french new wave movement but at least this was fun.

Communion

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

Oh man I love alien abduction stories. Always found those greys creepy. I had seen the for years on the video library shelf but always passed it by, I think the "true story" on the cover always turned me off, had me thinking it was just a documentary or something. But I finally got around to seeing it, I can't believe it took me so long. Especially once I found out it starred Christopher Walken at his most crazy.

This film has some pretty far out there stuff. Is this really the film where aliens anal probing people comes from? You always see that being made fun of but never see it done seriously, I can only presume this is where it all started. Well seeing Walken probed in the butt by an alien puppet is uhh, yeah, interesting.

The whole creepiness of the start was my favourite parts. And some of the hypnosis scenes. Lindsay Crouse had one and although it was so over the top it was actually kinda effective like that too. Once they showed the horrible alien puppets it kinda lost any credibility but they they just hang a lampshade on it, they make it obvious that they are meant to be puppets and not real and it kinda works again, but still you have to watch puppets menace a tripped out Walken. Tripped out Walken is hilarious.

So glad I finally saw this, someone should have forced this on me long ago. I'm gonna need to check out Fire in the Sky now too.

Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy

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

To quote the end of that trailer "Death doesn't kill you, boredom and indifference kills you." Well then this film killed me.

Wish You Were Here

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

This serious film was made unintentionally hilarious by the private commentary I got from the group of old people sitting behind me in the theatre. The poor dears just couldn't comprehend the concept of non-linear storytelling and the best they could do to figure out what was going on was to read out loud every single bit of text or information that came up on screen, be it a sign post or a letter or even the production company logos at the start. Equal parts infuriating and adorable.

Despite the narrative jumps back and forth I found the story to be pretty simple and the mystery to be not so mysterious. And apart from that mystery all the film has to offer is a bit of martial drama, so I didn't find much to engage me, which is probably why I spent a good deal of time listening to old people or notice that one of the number plates in the film had my initials.

Looks nice though. I guess it was alright.

Act of Valour

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

No. Just... No.

In the end it doesn't matter that this film has some of the best inventive shooting and editing of military operations, a fascinating visual look from a variety of sources and extremely realistic visceral action. It doesn't have story, characters or acting. Casting real navy seals lends authenticity at the expense of everything else.

There's really no point in wasting your time on this propaganda when you'd get the same experience watching someone play Call of Duty for 3 hours. Love the shooting style and action, just give me something to hang it from please.

Dark Shadows

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

Before seeing this film the only thing I knew about Dark Shadows was a passing reference in the Fright Night remake. I cant attest to the accuracy of the adaptation but I can see that this is clearly a Tim Burton film, his visual style is clamped all over it. And not the cool old school plaster and painted backdrops look, the new smooth and glowy digital one, which I don't like as much.

The trailer makes the film out to be a comedy and while it does have some funny moments it probably shares more in common with its melodramatic roots. You can see them pushing the family friendly horror too and some moments are kind of effective, in particular the bloodshed that occurs when Barnabas rises from the grave.

My biggest problem with the film is that it feels like they tried to cram in 5 seasons worth of plot into the film and many of the characters get short changed. It leads to a big climax of revelations that is ridiculous and funny and very hard to tell wether intentional or not. Perhaps that means it's working. Or perhaps it is just terrible.

There is some fun to be had here. As you would expect, it looks and sounds amazing and the great cast do what they can with their characters. It looks very expensive for the kind of light entertainment it ends up offering. It's you're bored and there's nothing else on, you could do worse but it doesn't leave much of an impression.

Red State

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

Write Up.

Listening to the commentaries, which are actually 6 smodcasts. Most don't run the entire length of the film so I'm only writing it up once, but I've actually sat through it now quite a few times to get through listening to them all.

I gottas say they are some of the most informative and interesting commentaries you'll likely ever hear. A must for any film students. And what's really cool is they get people in you don't always hear from. Like the casting director and the first AD or the DP. They each have in-depth discussions and Q and A's with a live audience. And Kevin Smith keeps things funny too. even if you didn't like the film, definitely check them out. You can probably listen to them online too.

The Lady

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

I always take note when Luc Besson makes a new film. Even this film, which doesn't completely work dramatically and seems like a very unlikely match of material and director, has some great moments.

First and foremost the true story is rather incredible, although perhaps not the easiest to dramatise. They play up the separated lovers romance angle but it never had the groundwork to really resonate. They cram a lot of stuff in and it is quite a long film but there's usually something interesting happening to keep things moving. They managed to cram a lot in.

Michelle Yeoh and David Thewlis are just fantastic. It helps I'm a big fan of both but even then they can never quite sell the blatant sentimentality they heap on at the end. It's a terrible thing to say, considering it's all a true story but it's one of those stories that if you saw as just a film you probably wouldn't believe it. 

There are a lot of great scenes that really do work though. Mainly all the stuff towards the first half in Burma and the campaign for democracy. The way they portray the evil regime is like something out of a 90's action film. I guess that's Besson coming through. But perhaps the language barrier or difficult shooting conditions stop him from really connecting this one with the audience. 

I was very intrigued by the end titles alluded to the difficulty of getting footage from inside Burma. Sounds fascinating. And it works as a political and historical educational piece but the rest is a little dry. 

The Caller

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

Ooooooooooo problematic. It's cool to come up with a cool high concept plot device and I really loved the idea behind this one but paying it off and filling in the plot holes that pop up once questions start being asked, you know, actually making it work. That's another skill altogether.

I think even in the trailer you can see the problems with this one. I'm not one for alternate timeline theory but to be fair, the film sets up rules and sticks to them so I guess that's fine. But it's really tenuous. It doesn't bother to explain it's conceit either, it just is and expects you to go along with it.

Conceit aside, this film played up the horror right from the get go and doesn't ease you into it at all. This film really doesn't care much about suspension of disbelief. The suspicion and fear is cranked up to 11 from the opening and there's just no way to get in as an audience. You kinda get used to it as you go along but it makes those opening moments very hard to take seriously and consequently you're never quite onboard for the rest of the film.

Vampire Bill is in this. As is Luis Guzman whom I just cannot take seriously which makes his role problematic here too.

Yep. The whole film is just problematic. Points for trying. Some nice ideas that just don't develop too well and lack the execution needed to make it work.

Flight of the Navigator

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

Write up.

80's kids sci-fi adventure awesomeness.