Review: Get your gag reflexes in gear cause Jackass is back!

Click here to see my review of Jackass 3D

Review: Ballet is far from boring in the psychological thriller “Black Swan”

Check out my review of Black Swan here!

Did you see that? Paranormal Activity 2 Spooks Fans

Image by Laughing Squid via Flickr

Scary films are best watched at the movies, where you can relish watching other people squirm just as much as you are, and laugh together after you’ve just thrown your popcorn sky high. My best cinematic experience was Final Destination (the original) when the audience laughed together, screamed together and even shouted at the screen together, ‘No, don’t do that!’. It was collective enjoyment of a spectacle at its best, and Paranormal Activity 2 had a similar (but not as strong effect). It doesn’t so much carry on from the original but tie in, the stories run parallel to each other which gives an interesting twist on things. Christie is Katie’s (the mental girl from the original) sister. She’s just given birth to a baby boy and they’ve returned home to start a new chapter in their lives, along with daughter, Ali. A year passes, and strange things begin to happen in the house, especially to Christie and Hunter.

Overall the movie didn’t provide me with the real, terror the original did, however it did give some good demon. My feelings were mixed as there were things I liked about it and things I didn’t. It certainly wasn’t a smooth ride on the cursed train.

The acting in places seemed a little contrived. That’s not to say it was worse than the original (comparisons will always be made) as some of the acting in that was relatively weak too. To me, the dog and the little boy who played Hunter (both the newborn baby and the year old tot) were the best actors in the whole flick. Followed closely by Ali.

When you really dig down beneath the surface, the story was really just exactly the same as the original, it was almost a rehash, with a few more camera angles added in, a couple of children, and the dog. (As you can probably tell by the way I keep mentioning it, the dog really did do it for me. I actually lent over to my neighbour and whispered ‘I hope the dog doesn’t die’. I had no worries for the baby or people, the hound was the main concern for me. That goes some way into explaining my general blah-ness surrounding the movie.

Finally for the bad, there were too many days and nights. The original had something special going on for it, the suspense could be built up over many 24 hours because we didn’t know what the bejesus was coming. The demon was a surprise, but this time around that suspense is gone and in the end this was a movie that was purely about making the audience jump.

Enough of the  bad – onto the good reason to spend your money going to see this sequel.

Tying in the stories of the original and the new was pretty well done. They extended the mythology that first film left unanwserd, which gave us more to go on, and more to freak out about. Also they cleared up a few random things that happened in the original where were left wondering, WTF?

There was humour. This is what I found best about this movie it garnered a response from the audience, quite similarly to that of the audience in Drag Me To Hell. At one point the father is closing in on the demon with a crucifix and a guy near me said ‘what’s he going to do? back hand her with it’, this provoked a few chuckles from those nearby. The other response it provoked was jumping. Lots of jumping,plus a bit of screaming (from both boys and . In the beginning the scares were given a comic edge, a sure sign that the film was not taking itself too seriously. Which I saw as a good thing.  The kid was pretty funny as was the dog (there I go again) and there was some quite witty dialogue in there, particularly coming from the father. But as the movie went on the subject matter got way more serious with a successful shocker of an ending. I’ve run out of the good…

Urm…

Did I mention the dog?

Go and see on a busy night for a more entertaining experience.

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One Ugly Duckling Hoping To See A Black Swan

I know, this is one trailer that’s been doing the circuit for a long time. Way too long. It’s almost as bad as when I was in America and I went to see Transformers. They showed the teaser trailer for Cloverfield at the beginning, and after getting all hyped up and excited about it, like a giddy school-girl does when she hears a boy fancies her, I was dumb-struck when I found out I had a year-long wait. They seem to be doing this more and more. I understand you need to get people interested in advance, but surely, a whole year is way, way too long. Way.

Anyway Black Swan is my new lust-after movie. I’m desperate to see it. I stumbled onto Dan Aronofsky a couple of years back. Skimming through my Sky channels, I noticed Requiem For A Dream had been on for just a couple of minutes. There and then I decided to tune in. About 2 hours later I sat, staring silently at the T.V. I had cried so much I was clutching an empty toilet paper roll. The film actually blew my mind apart. I spent the rest of the night trying to digest what I’d seen, and then I decided I would never watch it again. After that I developed a curiosity with the director and I proceeded to watch The Fountain. Another film that, whilst it didn’t have quite the same still-shock effect, was so interesting and beautiful I was mesmerized. Then of course The Wrestler, which I would say is probably his most mainstream film to date (anyone else noticed he’s going to be directed Wolverine 2?), but it was fantastic. What a great performance by Mickey Rourke eh? I’ve still got to watch Pi, but don’t you worry yourself over it, it’s on the list. Chillax.

But Black Swan is currently plaguing my mind; its feathers are tentatively tickling my film fancies. I’m hoping against hope to get last-minute tickets for the London Film Festival Gala Screening, but I don’t think many people will change their minds about going. It’s going to be huge. Nevertheless, I shall continue to click refresh on the BFI LFF homepage just in case. Yes you may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one… *thanks goes to John Lennon*

Here’s the trailer if you’ve been in space circling the planet for the last 4-6 months and haven’t managed to catch it yet. It’s going to be hella good.

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New Iñárritu Film Looks Set To Be “Biutiful”

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Whilst it’s not out in cinemas until the 28th of January here in Old Blighty (they like to tease and keep us waiting don’t they?), the fact that it is showcasing at the London Film Festival next week means it’s my news of the day. The domestic trailer for Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s (director of Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and Babel) new film Biutiful has been released, and boy does it live up to expectations, or so the trailer suggests…

Amores Perros and 21 Grams (Babel wasn’t a favourite of mine) are those types of movies that are capable of giving you ‘the haunt’. You know, that feeling you get after watching a film where you just can’t shake it out of your head, like it could have really struck a chord somewhere inside (deep, eh?). Iñárritu genius way of directing allows you to really feel the beauty of the movie, not just see and hear it, and his newest project looks set to continue that successful pattern.

Javier Bardem seems to have lost the bowl cut of No Country For Old Men, and the suave hippy vibe of Eat, Love, Pray and instead has donned his ‘I’m a broken down man’ look for this role, and it certainly has paid off. He managed to scoop the coveted Best Actor Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. In Biutiful he plays a broken man struggling to be a father, lover and a criminal, and the plot is centred around, plainly and simply, his life. It’s sure to be a moving, possibly tear jerking (if you’re a crier like me) flick of seismic proportions.

Watch the trailer now!

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Hey, Hobbit man of Hobbiton! Get a starting date already. Jeez

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Finally it was reported this week, Peter Jackson has relented and has said a massive ‘Yay!’* to directing The Hobbit. Woopah! Warner Brothers/New Line have given the greenlight for production to start. Unfortunately no-one seems to want to give a when… This is just my shout out to say, ‘Get A Move On People!’ I know there are things going on beyond my control, New Zealand union representation of actors and all that jizzle. But come on, the people want another LOTR themed movie. Don’t leave it so long that we’ll be buying concession tickets to see the movie. Please?

*Word and enthusiasm may not have exactly been ‘Yay!’. Nor would it necessarily have been massive.

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Scream 4 trailer is looking pretty fly, for a black and white masked guy…

Cover of Scream Trilogy - Boxed Set

Note: This post is going to contain a lot of Screams

Sccccrrreeeeeeeaaaaaaammmmmmm!

This week the Scream Awards took place, and who better to be attending than Wes Craven and the cast of, yep you guessed it, Scream. The long anticipated 4th movie in the franchise has just recently wrapped filming, and as such the makers wanted to treat Scream Award goers with the chance to see the world premiere trailer.

I’m a big fan of Scream and as sequels go, two and three weren’t that bad. Especially with a couple of beers and a few bowls of popcorn on a lonely Friday night (yes I do have them, sigh). This sneak peek looks to me like it could be a fun, blood-bath of a romp. As long as they’re sticking to the original premise then fair dos, it can’t be worse than the others. One thing I am surprised about though is that Neve Campbell‘s is returning. Surely her vocal chords should have exploded by now from the amount of bellowing she’s had to do during her film career.

One of the most talked about celebrities right now, Hayden Panettiere, has joined the cast this time around. Thrusting off the cheerleader outfit and donning a more geeky one (although I don’t see her as being very convincing as a nerd – she’s too hawt… Not that nerds can’t be hawt. Okay I’m digging a hole now) she squares up against the old timers (in Scream terms) David Arquette and Courtney Cox. Let’s hope they can all hold onto that parodic cheesy horror flick typeset for another year.

Here’s the trailer, filmed by a women with a friend who likes to give her the shakes.

Thoughts?

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More rings the better in Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: DVD Release of the Week

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It should come as no big surprise that Hollywood are currently remaking another Swedish movie (they must be doing something right!), The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Adapted from the book (wow this is just getting plain boring, seriously the film world needs to come up with some new ideas) by Stieg Larsson, the original film version was a success, especially as far as foreign language flicks go.

I’m one of those people who feel the need to read the book before seeing the film. I don’t know whether in fact that’s necessary as rarely do films follow their source material very closely. It was a long book (500 pages) and to be honest, I wasn’t really getting it until 200/250 pages in. It took me months to read because the first half was so slow for me. I just couldn’t understand where it was going. Nothing seemed to be coming together, all the characters seemed so far apart and then BAM! 250 pages in it got real good and I finish the last half in a tenth of the time it took me to read the first.

Anyway, I knew I was probably going to like the movie, because they’d cut out all the stuff I found a bit boring in the novel. The financial journalism and the pages of (I felt) slightly unnecessary overtly descriptive text about the shape of a kettle, or the exact contents of Lisbeth Salander‘s sandwich.

I was right, almost. The film was pretty darn good. Because it cut out a lot of the storyline it had to simplify the plot, cutting out huge sections so that it fit neatly, but at least they kept to the general original premise, and most of the major scenes were included, including a brutal rape scene (although they did tame it just slightly). There were a couple of scenes added in, one especially about Lisbeth’s past, which doesn’t get mentioned in  the first novel, but likely does in the sequels (I haven’t read them, and I’m not sure I will).

The two leads, Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist, and Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander, were amazing. The acting was fantastic and completely believable. Also, throughout the movie I looked at their faces and realised. These are real people, real actors. Not like the over-processed, plastic surgery inflicted actors of Hollywood, which is part of the reason they look so believable. I like that. I like that a lot.

Only slight complaint would be that at times the soundtrack would go from barely there, to loud and overbearing, which was a slight distraction. Also the editing at the end was a little mushed together, probably due to their being so much original content to try to fit in. Without reading the book I would guess that the ending is a little confusing for viewers.

Overall though a definite thumbs up from me. But for anyone who is subtitle-phobic: this is a Swedish movie, and I wouldn’t recommend the dubbed version to anyone. So if you blanch at the site of lines of writing at the bottom of the screen, I would reluctantly suggest you wait for the Hollywood version. You never know, it may be as good… It is being directed by David Fincher after all… Interesting that Rooney Mara (the young woman who plays Mark Zuckerberg’s girlfriend at the start of The Social Network – another Fincher movie) is playing Lisbeth. I wonder if she can pull off the feminist bisexual with mental problems look? Hmmmm

Out to rent on DVD now.

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Villains are the new Superheroes in Despicable Me

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Sometimes we all like a good old family flick, but with the multitude of child-friendly movies out there, is there a new twist to be taken? A road less travelled? Well how about making the villain the protagonist of the story? Despicable Me does just that, in entertaining style. Okay, so Disney’s Emperor’s New Groove may sort of already done it, but this is animated man, give them a break.

Steve Carell voices Gru, the bestest, greatest supervillain there is or ever was (not sure why I haven’t heard of him before really…). But with a new kid on the block trying to steal all the dastardly plots to ruin the world, Gru needs a new plan to maintain his status. So what does he decide to do? Only steal the moon of course. Part of his diabolical scheme is to adopt three little kiddie-winks too, cute and annoying in equal measure. Okay maybe annoying tips the scale a little, but that’s just my child-fearing opinion. These little brats, urr I mean, cuties, manage to show Gru the meaning of life, seemingly knowing more about it than he does.

The minions are probably the funniest part of the movie, go and see it in 3D and hang on for the end credits, a nice little way of using the latest technology and have a bit fun. If you’ve got kids who love 3D and fancy a bit of mindless entertainment then this is a worthy choice.

Thumbs midway for me.

 

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“Who Took The Jam Outta Your Doughnut?” Snatch script makes the movie

 

Image via Wikipedia

 

Whilst this was only released back in 2001, I still think it qualifies as a Golden Oldie, or maybe that’s just because it’s the only category I can think to put it in. I need to work on my categorising…

About a year ago I started working on the IMDB’s top 250 movies. I wrote down all the movies I hadn’t watched that were only the list and decided I would work my way through them. At the time I hadn’t quite factored in that the movies on the top 250 change constantly according to new reviews, new releases and so on. It’s been a bit of a learning curve.Regardless of additions (like Inception and Toy Story 3) there are a fair few that remain the same. The constants. The ones that are timelessly top 250. Snatch is one of them. Whilst it’s placing may change slightly, it’s still there.

I have a slight aversion, I think it’s psychological, to Guy Ritchie. I’ve got nothing against the guy but when his name appears next to a movie, I can only think, Madonna. Also I think, ‘oooh excessive glorifying of violence, and unnecessary and exaggerated expletives. I can’t be bothered with that.’ Yet, having never seen a Guy Ritchie movie, I really didn’t have a clue what the film would entail. So finally, after 9 years I decided to watch it, and I was pleasantly surprised. Whilst I can’t get over the almost ridiculously overdone Cockney accents (I know, they do exist), the storyline was so much better than I was expecting. It was hilarious! Not only that, but the dialogue was witty, the acting fantastic, and the violence wasn’t excessive, although I still believe it was glorified.

Now that I’ve watched this, the next top 250 Guy Ritchie movie is Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. I’ve sort of watch these bad boys the wrong way round, and I hear they’re quite similar, but regardless now I’ve allowed myself to experience this fast-paced, high-action, controlled-chaos way of film-making, I think I’ll be hungry for more. No one’s taking the jam outta my doughnut!

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