Film 2009

[Easy 10]

Spiderman 3

Seen it before but watched it again last night mainly to put the blu-ray through its paces. Great effects and some good action sequences, but its far too long for a "superhero" film (2 hours 20) so the plot does become overly bloated with superflous bad guys. Picture and sound though - whoa !

5.8

 

[Nibble]

The Boat That Rocked.

Pleasently surprised. Too many characters and sub-plots but strums along nicely and entertains throughout. No masterpiece but worth a couple of hours of anyone's time I reckon.

A not unbeatable, but quite respectable ..........6

Hangover delight.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

The Story of Anvil

The story of a heavy metal band who after 30 years and a fleeting moment of glory in the early 80's have plugged on to no avail. Whilst Slash went onto millions and mansions , these men live in a poor area / house and work at a local shop.

It does not stop them and even now in their early 50's are striving for that Worldwide success that has aluded them and we see the tours and events during the making of their 13th album.

I think you need to have aof love of heavy metal and understand the genre to a certain extent to fully appreciate it and it does not know whether it is a serious documentary of Spinal Tap 2 sometimes but as a record of human spirit, endeavour and a never give up attitude I would recommend it.

6.7

 

[Easy 10]

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Slow-burning western about...well, just read the film title. It runs for 260 minutes and I must admit to being rather BORED after about 45, but I stuck with it and in the end was glad I did. Brad Pitt (as James) is superb, but its Casey Affleck playing Ford who does the outstanding turn as the softly spoken, creepy and obsessive Ford. The tension builds throughout and there are some memorable stand-out scenes along the way. Not an action-packed thrillride by any means, but stick with it and it pays off. Beautifully shot as well in a bleak, post civil war Missouri.

7.5

 

[herecomesaregular]

The Firm (2009) - low expectations of this one but i thought it was brilliant. In fact it was hilarious, it made me laugh all the way through (if you thought Bruno was funny you'll love this). not sure if it's intention is to be a comedy but it's a bloody brilliant one. loved the use of slang, the pop references, the clothes (i must get an all-yellow ellesse tracksuit) and the soundtrack is immense. great attention to detail. some of the acting is a bit wooden and the main characters are too skinny to seem hard but they have a certain charisma and if you were born late 60s/early 70s like me then it's a hoot. 8.5/10

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

The Firm (2009) - low expectations of this one but i thought it was brilliant. In fact it was hilarious, it made me laugh all the way through (if you thought Bruno was funny you'll love this). not sure if it's intention is to be a comedy but it's a bloody brilliant one. loved the use of slang, the pop references, the clothes (i must get an all-yellow ellesse tracksuit) and the soundtrack is immense. great attention to detail. some of the acting is a bit wooden and the main characters are too skinny to seem hard but they have a certain charisma and if you were born late 60s/early 70s like me then it's a hoot. 8.5/10

Saw this yesterday. Nick Love's reworking of the 80's TV film told from the point of view of a minor character in the original (Dom).

As previous post says it relies heavily on the ludicrous tennis wear that went along with the casual scene ("ee looks like fackin john McEnroe" "oo's the ice cream" etc. etc. I must agree that there are some great comedic moments and sayings that will be re-appearing in ladspeak very soon.."Oi, Drylunch" etc. as well as familiar Nick Loveisms from Football Factory, Outlaw, The Business.

The inclusion of references to Joey deacon and the familiar tongue-pushed behind lower lip and hand flapping "eeeuurrr" gesture remembered fondly by all 80's kids raise a smile too.

The main storyline follows a young West Ham supporter, bored and geeky from breakdancing on a bit of lino with his ginger mate to the ICF via a poorly judged fracas with the Firms top boy "Bex" to its inevitable tragic conclusion (no spoiler) via various "offs" with Millwall (yes them again) Pompey and others, all of which is intended to decide who will lead Englands firm in the forthcoming world cup.

The acting is patchy with some interesting performances and some wooden ones and the violence (shot on a shoulder cam for immediacy) looks about right (mostly handbags) until a tooled up Millwall firm takes things to the next level.

There is a strong homo erotic element to the story between Bex and Dom as well as between Bex and his luietenant "Trig" which was absent from Football Factory which adds a different slant to the hackneyed stuff on offer here.

It is a little unfortunate that the money spent on this could have been better invested on the recent release "Awaydays" which barely registered but is actually a far better take on the subject, but this is definitely worth a punt, especially if you like your trainers and your Tacchini and a bit of electro pop and if you can avoid being PC about the subject matter...after all, this stuff did and does go on so why pretend that its a non subject?

There are a fair few of these films around and this is far better observed and authentic than the ridiculous "Green Street" and the clunking "ID" but comes a fair way behind the low budget "Awaydays"

6.5/10

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Gamer

Started off well and a good idea (real people controlling other real people for the benefit of entertainment) but about 2/3 of the way thru got a bit weird for about 20 mins before ending on a high.

So 7.5 out of 10.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Knocked up - Seth Rogan being quite funny but not funny enough. Film is just nice really, nothing more. 6.0

 

[Oscar]

Finally saw Quantum of Solace last night. A confusing 7.9. God I miss the one-liners.

 

[Acker79]

Fame
I enjoyed this. Not as much as I was expecting (it wasn't jam-packed with music numbers like a typical musical). It was a lot like the original in that it followed a range of main characters over the course of the 4 year course. It was shorter than the original which meant that there was even less time to do justice to each story, so it was perhaps a little simplistic and skimmed over things. The years also passed really quickly
It wasn't as glitzy and overly produced in a step up/CW tv teen drama way. The fame remix was used over the end credits and I think lost a little something by not relating to some sort of dramatic moment in the the film (I think rather bland or generic songs can take on a bit of flavour if they are the soundtrack to an important scene)
Generally though there was a lot of fun, and a lot of energy and talent.


Creation
A low key story of the physical, emotional and spiritual turmoil Darwin suffered as he wrote his book, it doesn't actually follow a lot of his research missing the opportunity for some scenic images of exotic islands etc. it was a good film, I think. I enjoyed it, but I always enjoy Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly.

 

[Easy 10]

Sorry, but Fame must be woeful.
I wouldn't normally pre-judge, but SURELY a Fame remake must fail on so many levels. I just cannot even comprehend bothering watching it.

 

[Acker79]

Sorry, but Fame must be woeful.
I wouldn't normally pre-judge, but SURELY a Fame remake must fail on so many levels. I just cannot even comprehend bothering watching it.

Erm, not sure what levels you mean beyond it being a remake.

It doesn't live up to the original, of course. So, yeah, fails on that level.
It is shorter, so there is less time to spend developing individual stories and characters so it fails on that level.
The shorter running time also leads to pacing issues (it speeds through onto the next of the four years at school before you get a feel for the previous one. So fails on that level.
I don't imagine it will have a lot of cross over appeal to the typical football audience, so most people on here won't want to see it, so a fail on that level.
The film barely features the blonde girl who was the focus of the trailers, so fail on that level.

I should probably add in here that there are two categories of movies I will almost always enjoy, even if the film is otherwise god-awful: superhero movies (yes, I thoroughly enjoyed batman and robin, daredevil and elektra) and musicals.

 

[Acker79]

Surrogates
Fair. Has some high points, some low points. Some thought provoking depth and some shallow silliness. Hard to take Ving Rhames seriously with that hair. Not particularly bad, not particularly good. Just ok.


The Firm
Films glorifying football violence are not my thing, and a friend saw this on wednesday and didn't rate it, so I went in with low low expectations. It was ok. Early on the 80's style and cockney was funny, but it tired quickly. I liked that it showed that Footie violence is pointless and isn't great etc

Overall I thought it was ok. Not as bad as I was expecting, but not good enough to make me want to check out any other film in the genre I've avoided.

 

[London Calling]

Bolt.

Great visuals, seemed to be too complicated for a child audience. And too long for children.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Milk - Sean Penn is f***ing good in this. Maybe not quite as hard hitting as it could be but the end kinda vindicates that. 7.2

 

[Acker79]

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
This was a pretty decent cartoon, but had some hilarious throwaway lines, that seemed to go over a lot of people's heads.

The Soloist
I think I was in the wrong mood to truly enjoy this film, so I just saw it as decent. Good performance from Robert Downey Jr. Jamie Foxx annoys me, and it felt like he was trying to make this his 'Rain Man' performance.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

The Passion of the Christ

I watch this again with a friend who had not seen it.

5 years after its release I now believe Gibson has produced a superb work of art. Sure the violence is brutal and unrelenting which is the point as JC is from this ordeal seen to be super human as no mere mortal would have survived.

You have to come into the film knowing the history of JC and what he did in his life before the last 24 hours as the film generally concentrates on the last day.

The cinematograhy and score are superb.

Certainly one to make you question your beliefs.

8.2

 

[Barry Izbak]

Went and saw The Invention of Lying last night

I'm a huge fan of Ricky Gervais, so I was masively disappointed with this crock of shite.

A clever idea, poorly filmed, poorly acted and a waste of time.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

4 stars out of 5 in most papers I have read.

8.1 out of 10 on midb now.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Observe & Report

A film about a bi polat mall sceurity guard who has dillusions of grandeur. He wants to be a cop battering the flith on the streets and applies but crashes out.

Without his pills, he's not very well really.

At the start I thought it was poor but as it went on it grew on me and I quite enjoyed it by the end. Its a dark humour but has its moments and I wuld watch it again.

6.4